No wonder I've been feeling so bored

Cheddervision, the essential cheese-watching site, is, well, cheeseless until after the first of the year sometime. So all this time I've been watching a blank screen (you don't have to pay close attention to watch cheese age). 

Come on, cheese guys, let's get some more cheese in the box there so live can get back to normal here.

Enough of these cute end-of-year lists

Here's one that is appropriately depressing:

And so I humbly offer this new year's roundup: The Bush Administration's Top 10 Stupidest Legal Arguments of 2007.

(Dahlia Lithwick in Slate)

Coincidence?

MONTPELIER, Vermont (AP) -- President Bush may soon have a new reason to avoid left-leaning Vermont: In one town, activists want him subject to arrest for war crimes.


Kurt Daims of Brattleboro, Vermont, speaks Friday about his movement against Bush and Cheney.

A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put an item on a town meeting agenda in March that would make Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they visit the southeastern Vermont community.

"This petition is as radical as the Declaration of Independence, and it draws on that tradition in claiming a universal jurisdiction when governments fail to do what they're supposed to do," said Kurt Daims, 54, a retired machinist leading the drive.

As president, Bush has visited every state except Vermont.

(CNN)

Metroblogs in Pakisatan

Lahore

Islamabad

Karachi

I don't really need to tell you this, do I?

In an attack that showcases what cyber criminals have in store for Web 2.0 next year, the individual or group behind the Storm worm is distributing new versions of the malware with the help of hijacked and newly-created Google Blogspot blogs.

The Storm worm, one of 2007's most prolific e-mail-borne Trojan horse programs, has always come wrapped in holiday-themed messages or disguised as videos from some recent high-profile news event. The latest Storm versions -- predictably spammed out as Christmas and New Year's greeting cards - don't break with that tradition. It urging recipients to click on a link that then tries to install the Trojan through hook (unpatched Web browser vulnerabilities) or by crook (tricking the user into believing he or she needs to install some "video codec" to view the holiday message).

The twist with the new attacks is that someone has apparently planted the malicious Storm download links on hundreds of Google Blogspot pages (hat tip here to Steven Adair of the Shadowserver.org crew). A Google search for Blogspot blogs that contain links to the malicious Web sites -- "uhavepostcard.com" and "happycards2008.com" (do NOT visit these sites)-- shows plenty of Blogspot blogs that appear to be hosting links to the Storm download sites.

(Washington Post)

Don't go downloading stuff just because it pops up in you face,

Of course

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says the assassination of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto underscores the need to secure the America's borders to prevent potential terror attacks here.

(Radio Iowa)

Feed him another ear of corn but don't let him kiss your baby, would be my advice.

Broken window trumps the firewall

Thieves broke in to the Davidson County Election Commission offices over the Christmas holiday and made off with computers containing the names and identifying information of every voter in Nashville.

(Tennessean)

I have to think this looks pretty funny from inside

A German bar owner has got round a smoking ban by cutting holes in the wall so customers can stick their heads out to have a cigarette.

(Ananova)

Pretty funny from outside too, come to think of it.

Because you can't be outdoors if you don't shoot something

OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) - Presidential contender Mike Huckabee bagged a pheasant Wednesday, offering Iowa voters the image of an experienced outdoorsman on the hunt, shotgun blasting and dogs braying.

Just a campaign gambit? ``Maybe it will show that I certainly understand the culture of being outdoors,'' Huckabee said.

(Guardian)

And for that extra-jolly outdoors atmosphere, a Trickshot Dick joke.

Solstice

You just can't make this stuff up

Aging German playboy Rolf Eden has rarely taken no for an answer. And he's not about to start. He has filed charges against a 19-year-old for refusing to sleep with him. The complaint? Ageism....

According to Bild Zeitung on Thursday, the 77-year-old Eden has filed suit against a 19-year-old Berlin woman for the following reason: Despite a night on the town with Eden, which ended back at his place, she refused to have sex with him, saying the he was too old for her.

"That was shattering. No woman has ever said that to me before," Eden told the tabloid. "I was crushed." He has filed charges with the prosecutors' office, he said. "After all, there are laws against discrimination."

(Speigel Online)

How it's done

Oscar Peterson Trio, 1985: "Caravan"

Snowman down

Snowman down, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Some guy from the Times goes bonkers at Radio City Music Hall

The Rockettes dance the American dream in wondrous synchrony — row upon row of long legs and glittering teeth. As an anti-depressant they could put Zoloft out of business. I like them especially with their antlers on. They can pull my sled any day.

(NYTimes)

Ain't it amazing what you learn

The CIA told a federal judge in 2003 that no such recordings existed but has now retracted that testimony.

(Times Online)

Retracted! Who knew you could do that? I'm making a list right now of all the stuff I'm going to retract and it's gonna be a long one, Bunky, you can count on that.

Geezers rule

LONDON - Britain's 81-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, considered an icon of traditionalism, launched her own special Royal Channel on YouTube Sunday.

(AP via Yahoo! News)

At least it's free

Nothing says lovin' like something from the oven. And nothing says "New Year's Eve" like a light show and fireworks at Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. That being the case, Chicago invites you to Buckingham Fountain to ring in 2008 with a 20-minute light show starting at 11:40 p.m., followed by a fireworks display set to music over the deathly cold, pitch-black waters of Lake Michigan.

(From the Chicago Sun-Times list of "best bashes" for New Year's Eve)

It's official: I've lost it

The New York Times has a piece today about the buzzwords of the year just ending, only five of which I've ever heard and none of which I've ever used, that I recall - in this century, at least.

It's nice to know, though, this kind of blog now has a name - tumblelog - since the original word for it - blog - has gone off to mean other things.

Willard not doing all that well in NH

CONCORD, N.H. -- Delivering the journalistic equivalent of a giant lump of coal three days before Christmas, the Concord Monitor editorial board has leveled an extraordinary broadside against Mitt Romney, declaring in an editorial to be published in Sunday's paper that the former Massachusetts governor "must be stopped" in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination....

The Monitor editorial board leans left, and the paper is often viewed as a liberal counterweight to the conservative Union Leader of Manchester. But with its anti-Romney assault, the paper finds itself on the same page with the Union Leader, which has endorsed John McCain for the Republican nomination and followed that up with harsh editorial critiques of Romney.

(Washington Post)