6.16.2007

Well there's a relief

CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush warned Congress on Saturday that he will use his veto power to stop runaway government spending.
Hate to run out of money for bombs.

Oh wait, we're putting the bombs on a credit card or something, aren't we. Well, hey then. What's the big deal? Let's throw the canary another seed.

Link: FOXNews.com - Bush: I Will Veto Spending Bills - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

Glass under glass (under glass)

Sounds like a February thing to me

So I'm walking down the street this morning sporting my excellent new T - “Blogito, ergo sum,” it says (yo! Lynn!) - when I see some other guy with this one:

Roses are FF0000
Violets are 0000FF
All my base
Are belong to you
Geeks, Dude, rule!

If you have to ask...


If you have to ask..., originally uploaded by tedcompton.

6.15.2007

Rosebush


Rosebush, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Are functioning brain cells really too much to ask?

Officials with the contractor that runs Los Alamos National Laboratory sent top-secret data regarding nuclear weapons through open e-mail networks, the latest potentially dangerous security breach to come to light at the birthplace of the atomic bomb, two congressmen said...

Lawmakers were assured no damage was caused, according to the aide.
Although now one Harold Smith, a Los Alamos National Security LLC board consultant, is getting a lot of spam about how he can make his bomb bigger.

Link: Danger Room - Wired Blogs

One story from Iraq

The shocking and severely disturbing finale to Ausama’s videos in Hometown Baghdad.
Link: Hometown Baghdad

Spare us the purple prose, please

“You squeezed her like a lemon and later cast her aside like an old shoe,” Sri Ram said after overturning the high court's decision.
Link: The Raw Story | Malaysian judge says mistresses have rights too

Probably they're just checking voter registrations or something

A backup computer storage device with the names and Social Security numbers of every state
worker was stolen out of a state intern's car Sunday night, Gov. Ted Strickland announced this
morning....

“We have no reason to believe there's any breach of security at this time, and we think it is unlikely that a breach will occur,” he said at a press conference.
So, not to worry:

Strickland said it would require a significant level of expertise and multiple computer programs to access the personal information of the 64,467 state workers....
whatever that means.

Link: The Columbus Dispatch : Stolen computer tape holds all state employees' IDs

Oh oh - Blue Screen of Death in space?

Russian space agency officials tell ABC News that the damaged computers aboard the International Space Station could have a “fatal flaw.”
Or possibly they have performed an illegal operation.

Or maybe, just maybe, the computers are in some kind of snit about compressors making too much noise.

Or the power supplies burned out.

Apparently the only thing NASA's sure about is that they neglected to get on-site service with their contract.

They've really been spending too much time in space.

Link: 'Fatal Flaw' Puts Space Station in Jeopardy

A guy and some fish


A guy and some fish, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Light

I have 14 lights - red, green, blue and amber - that glow, blink, and flicker in my computer room: at night it looks like a far-away Times Square. And then at 4:00 my screensaver comes on as my computer wakes up to do back-up chores. An hour later, I do. Wake up, I mean. This time of year, when the sun starts coming up at 5:00.

I think my mother told me, when I was a very, very little kid, that I had to stay in bed and keep quiet until the sun came up, and I must have taken her seriously because that's exactly what I do. Still. But once that sun comes up I'm up too. I find it nearly impossible to sleep past first light in the morning. Which is why I think we need two hours of daylight savings time in June and July. There's another whole day's worth of light we're losing here.

Of course what we really need is some dark saving time. You know, save an hour of dark out of every night and use it right after lunch for a nap.

Not exactly something you can do from a pay phone

Even if you can find one.

Anti-crime tipsters can tell Boston cops what they know - without saying a word - by zipping off an anonymous text message on their cell phones, under a first-in-the-nation effort to battle a street subculture that punishes “snitches.”
Never mind whether anonymous tip lines are a good idea or bad - how do you anonymously txt someone even if you want to, I'm wondering. You have to give up at least your phone number, don't you? Granted, we're talking here about the cops that blow up cartoons so maybe they know something I don't, but still. I have no idea.

Link: Police tap tipsters’ texting: Tip line lets users report crime via anonymous text message - Local & Regional - BostonHerald.com

6.14.2007

“Befehl ist Befehl”

MATTHEWS: Gentleman, I agree with Joe diGenova. The president is going to pardon his friend. Anyway—maybe he should.—I think he was operating under the instructions of his government throughout this thing. Anyway—I‘m not sure you will agree with me on that, Joe, but I think he was doing the president‘s business.
Link: Crooks and Liars - Matthews on Libby and da pardon
Link: Nuremberg Defense - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beside the Debbie Lee


Beside the Debbie Lee, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Eventualities over Taiwan

China's secretive transformation of its military power leaves the United States preparing for the worst eventualities, including over Taiwan, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.
Sounds pretty scary. Let's not tell Lieberman. It'll get him all confused.

Link: The Raw Story | US military prepared for 'worst' with China: official

Focus isn't everything


Focus isn't everything, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

6.13.2007

Is this a trick question?

Is GOP Senator Kit Bond A Liar Or Just Plain Stupid?
Link: BobGeiger.com: Is GOP Senator Kit Bond A Liar Or Just Plain Stupid?

Scooter wants to sell sheets

“I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby wants what Martha Stewart got,” according to the Associated Press. “The former White House aide, who faces 2 1/2 years in prison for perjury and obstruction, cited the domestic celebrity in court documents Wednesday as part of his bid to put his sentence on hold.”
Link: The Raw Story | Libby 'wants what Martha Stewart got'

Rooflines


Rooflines, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Don't ask, don't look

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A top Army investigator has apologized to New Mexico National Guard soldiers who were ordered to strip to their gym shorts and were searched for gang tattoos while they were on duty in Kuwait.
Link: Guard unit gets apology for strip search - Yahoo! News

Crossing


Crossing, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

LOL

Link: Day Late Buck Short: N3rd Pwn.

At Homer's wharf


At Homer's wharf, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

So tell me again why Paris Hilton is such big news

“The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.”
WMDs sunk off both coasts and Hawaii.

Link: Deep Sea News : Munitions Dumping at Sea

6.12.2007

Heros


Heros, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Can't imagine why not

I just really don't believe a word that comes out of any of these guy's mouths.
Oh wait. Come to think of it, maybe I can.

Link: excuse the mess... that was just my head: And yet I don't believe a word

Open your eyes. And ears.

Thanks to Wylie for pointing this one out.

Day Late Buck Short: Hiding in Plain Sight:

A ticket for a seat in the back of the house at one of Mr. Bell's concerts goes for no less than a hundred dollars. Booking him can run to the tune of $1,000... a minute. And that morning, those people, people like you and me, walked within a few feet of Mr. Bell playing the music of the greatest composers... and kept going. No one noticed.
Click the link (above) to read the story. Don't you miss it too.

I'm turning in to a New Englander

Yeah. This is bad.

I come driving into town on my way home from work like I always do, down Main Street to the corner where I turn left. There's usually something of a wait there because there's always traffic coming the other way - what passes for traffic here - but this morning I look down the line and I see after the next three or four cars pass there is an empty spot about half an hour long.

It's about time, I think, for a little piece of luck because Windows beat up on me something fierce this morning so I'm just sitting there grinning when the last car in the line before the huge, enormous, just about forever gap stops. Before the intersection. I look left, and there are people in the crosswalk so I couldn't turn right then even if I wanted to but there, with a mile-long gap in the traffic just behind him, the guy sits.

And I think, this has got to be some kind of trick.

There. See what I mean? I think this can't be true, there is something terrible about to happen and I just can't see it, if I turn left I will get hammered by the fist of God. Or a truck. Or something. This guy's setting me up.

I'm turning into a New Englander: it's got to be.

(I did turn, eventually, and nothing terrible happened. Go figure.)

Duck docked


Duck docked, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Dockside


Dockside, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

6.11.2007

The obligatory stare

So I'm sitting outside one of those Interstate restaurant stop places this morning slurping a cup of hot coffee and trying to get a little sun under my hat when an SUV in the parking lot erupts in terrible screeching and the kids (that would be people under 30), five or six of them, inside it pile out, open the hood, and stare. This is something that must be done.

I do it myself when weird sounds come from the engine, not that I have any idea - or even expect to have any idea, by this time - what I'm looking at. I stare. I just do because I do. Don't you?

Neither did these kids, apparently - have any idea, I mean - because by the time I'd finished my coffee the staring had ended and the cell phones were out. Hopefully, one of them called someone who could help.

Kite guys


Kite guys, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Harbor's edge


Harbor's edge, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Duck ahoy


Duck ahoy, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

New Bedford, MA

6.10.2007

I won't

“Condi” on comparing a solution for Iraq with the situation in Korea:

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think that the -- I think of it maybe as a metaphor rather than as an analogy, and there are a couple of things that are important about it. The first is that it was a very violent beginning for what became in the long run a rather more stable situation, and it became more stable both through the commitment of the United States to stability so that parties could begin to plan for their future against a promise of - a kind of external promise of stability, if you will.
The scary thing is, what if she thinks that makes sense?

Link: Interview With the Associated Press Editorial Board

Planning a picnic?

SPRINGDALE, Ark. — A California meat supplier once again expanded a beef recall Saturday to include a total of 5.7 million pounds of both fresh and frozen products because they may be contaminated with E. coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced.
Link: FOXNews.com - Beef Recall Expands to 5.7 Million Pounds on E. Coli - Business And Money | Business News | Financial News

From another place

In the New York Times this morning a commentary and a series of photos from photographer Jehad Nga, the pictures taken on a recent trip over the ancient Silk Road in central Asia. Treat yourself to a look. (The link is to a video presentation.)