…over the real Chinese food they have in China, thank you very much.
Fighting The Heat In Japan
It’s hot this week in Tokyo too, and apparently there aren’t enough pools. Here’s a clip from Tokyo Summerland’s Wave Pool, which is packed to the gills with "swimmers" (although they really are just floaters). Caution: For those of you who experience motion sickness, I advise not to watch:
The Surge Report Card
President Bush — July 12, 2007: This September, as Congress has required, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will return to Washington to provide a more comprehensive assessment. By that time, we hope to see further improvement in the positive areas, the beginning of improvement in the negative areas. We’ll also have a clearer picture of how the new strategy is … Read More
Just Call Them Terrorists…
This can’t be good: Iranian Unit to Be Labeled ‘Terrorist’ U.S. Moving Against Revolutionary Guard By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 15, 2007; A01 The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to … Read More
Political Humor
What a surprise. Fox New’s The Half Hour Comedy Hour, which was intended to be the rightwing answer to The Daily Show, has been "shelved": In a memo to senior producers this afternoon, FNC’s SVP of programming, Bill Shine announced the network "will not continue the Half Hour News Hour beyond its current 15 episode run." Shine did leave the … Read More
I Need A Catch Phrase…
…so that when I die, it can be in the obit headline, as in Holy Cow: Phil Rizzuto dead at 89. Really, that’s kind of tacky. What happens when Downtown Julie Brown dies? Is the headline going to read "Wubba-wubba-wubba: Julie Brown dead at 89"? Will we someday see the headline "AAAAaaaaaay!: Henry Winkler dead at 89"? Still, I better … Read More
The Great Northeast Blackout of 2003
It happened four years ago today: the largest blackout in North American history. To be honest, I don’t remember it, probably because it didn’t effect this region. But it effected 80 million people in eight states of the Northeast (including all of New York City), as well as 10 million in Ontario. Wikipedia has a great entry on the event, … Read More
Something Else To Keep Me Awake At Night
New York Times science section: In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation. This simulation would be similar to the one in “The Matrix,” in which most humans don’t realize that their lives and their world are just illusions created in … Read More
Women In Film
Oddly compelling…
Religious People Are The Best People
Another day in the culture wars yields this ugliness: Church Cancels Memorial for Gay Navy Vet ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay. Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to … Read More
Quote Of The Day
The John Edwards campaign has issued a statement on the departure of Karl Rove from the White House. Here it is, in full: “Goodbye, good riddance.”
Guess Who Is Liberal? WE Are!
The Pew Research people have been tracking social trends for a couple of decades, and the latest installment suggests that social conservatism ("family values", prayer in schools, and all that stuff) is on the decline, while liberal attitudes (helping poor, etc.) are making a resurgence. Not surprisingly, more and more people nationwide consider themselves Democrat, or Dem-leaning: You should click … Read More
Math And Sex
Setting aside gay relationships, who has sex more? Men or woman? Most polls and studies show what you probably already believe: men have more sex partners than woman. One survey, recently reported by the federal government, concluded that men had a median of seven female sex partners. Women had a median of four male sex partners. Another study, by British … Read More
Method Acting
In a community theater production of "The Miracle Worker", Helen Keller falls off the stage…