A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
On June 19, Knoxville will be hit with a 34 second earth quake registering 7.7 magnitude on the Richter scale. How do I know?
Btw, that first link has juicy information including a map of recent earthquake activity and a link to previous references regarding the New Madrid.
Last night Jon Stewart brought it home. He nailed it for me last night. I laughed until I cried. It was so subtle. Did you catch it?
Paul Rudd, "I have a feeling that in the entire history of Comedy Central I’m the first person that’s ever said ‘pump out a Rene Auberjonois‘"
Jon Stewart, "There’s actually uh Carlos Mencia does it as a recurring bit."
Paul Rudd, "I knew I’d heard it before!"
So why’s it so funny? Read this exceptional article, Take the Funny and Run in full to really understand the joke. For those that don’t want to click over, here’s the brief:
Rogan, who refers to Mencia as "Carlos Menstealia," claims it’s common knowledge among his fellow funny men that Mencia takes bits from other comics and performs them as his own. [Source]
Anyone who has ever performed stand-up is familiar with the red light, the universal signal that warns dawdlers it’s time to wrap things up. In the ’80s, comics at the Hollywood Improv came up with a novel use for the light. When shining steadily, it had the conventional meaning. But if the bulb began sputtering, it was the comedic equivalent of an air-raid siren, warning performers to lock up their original material immediately unless they wanted to lose it to a master thief.
Robin Williams, comedy’s most notorious joke rustler, was in the house.
…the famed Comedy Store in Los Angeles has even instituted a Mencia early-detection signal similar to the Improv’s for Williams, though considerably less high-tech. "Every time he walks in, the guys in the cover booth just start yelling ‘Mencia’s here!’"
[Source]
As a reminder, this Saturday, the 9th, Rich has organized another Blogfest!
WHEN: Saturday, June 9[edit]
WHERE: Bailey’s in West Knoxville.
TIME: 6PM
[Source]
Looks like attendees thus far will be Rich (of course, Lissa Kay, myself (but I’m leaving Cathy at home with the k i d s and I’m sure I’ll pay for that later), Mushy (might be there on Friday), Tish, Mark, Barry (mightwill be at the Eagles Club), and Michael Silence. Glenn and Helen and Say Uncle haven’t missed one yet. Will they be attending? And what of Mr. Neil?
Lissa has put out encouragement to attend for AtomicTumor, Daco, Netmom, Bos and Eaves as well as Preston, Serr8D and Number 9.
I’ll be packing pool cue. Who wants to break?
I woke to find my machine had turned itself off so my day begins with half an hour plus of troubleshooting. Not a good sign.
This left my heart pounding! There was a time in my life I think I would have loved to have tried this but not now.
Update: And a quick tour of Paris courtesy of Willful.
West Virginia Rep Nick Rahall wants to outlaw future construction of wind turbines for generating clean electricity and phase out existing turbines in the name of saving birds and bats.
We are certain that the fact that West Virginia is a major coal producing state has nothing to do with this, wind turbines would be effective clean producers of power even on West Virginia’s mountaintops, if there were any left. ::Yahoo [Source]
Watch THOMAS at the Library of Congress to see if this tries to become a bill. Remember, it is easy to contact your representative!
Ah! The wonderfully foreshadowing sound of the power about to go out. I love a good thunderstorm! I’ve promised my wife a screened in porch for years. This month she gets one!
So Tommy is a World of Warcraft addict. As a programmer, I think my children should know a little bit about coding. I have decided to install Visual Studio Express on their computers and letting them earn computer time by learning about programming. Write Hello World
, earn some Youtube time. Write your own game and then play WoW. Actually, I don’t want to set this up as a drudgery so a carrot/reward system won’t work. I am hoping they just find it cool.
Steve Gilliard rest in peace. Newscoma has more.
Evan, pointing to my coffee: "Is that hot?"
His vocabulary and sentence structures have exploded in the past couple of weeks!
Ray Bradbury wants it understood that when he wrote [Fahrenheit 451] he was far more concerned with the dulling effects of TV on people than he was on the silencing effect of a heavy-handed government. While television has in fact superseded reading for some, at least we can be grateful that firemen still put out fires instead of start them.
[Source]
Yup. The United States created Al Qaeda. Note: A commenter, Mark, points out This is from a documentary by Adam Curtis called “The Power of Nightmares” which you can download from www.archive.org
to see it in full.
Everyone, even the dog, seems out of sorts today.
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[Update 25-Jan-2017]: And so it is happening.
I joke about conspiracy theories a lot. They are fun to make up. But, getting serious for a minute, first the dog food and now the toothpaste! (direct link to toothpaste story) In January of 2005, I noted that The CIA reports that China and India will be world super powers by the year 2020 and the United States will take a backseat
as well as China has forecasted the demise of the United States in reports from the early 1980s and again in 1991 citing the same timeframe that the CIA is now releasing.
The year 2020 is just around the corner! N.B. That also means The Singularity is almost here!
THE latest Central Intelligence Agency report mentioning that India will be a super power by 2020 is more amusing than true. Nevertheless, it should prompt introspection. The CIA’s aim is to prepare the US for future economic challenges from China and India. [emphasis added] The spurt in growth in the two countries is credited to the IMF-World Bank’s reform agenda, which aims to push privatisation, deregulate trade and open up markets. [Source]
Aren’t we currently trying to get the right person in charge of the World Bank? So (here comes some opinionated conspiracy theory) Wolfowitz didn’t want to cooperate with Bush’s agenda of destabilizing the Indian and Chinese economies and got replaced!.
India’s richest man builds 60-storey home [for his 6 person family and their 600 full-time staff]…The Indian economy is soaring: yesterday it posted annual growth of 9.4%. Friends of the Ambanis told the Guardian that the billionaire’s new home was "comparable to those owned by friends such as Lakshmi Mittal". [Source]
Want to read some incredible stuff with quotes like According to some Chinese military authors, the United States already knows China can defeat it in 2020
and the idea that U.S. strength is weakening and that its policies will no longer be effective throughout the world is not new in the 1990s. Using internal Chinese documents, Professor Robert S. Ross has shown it was alleged in the early 1980s
. This document, packed with citations and references to support its data, is sobering in it explanation of what was to come and is happening now.
Another analyst at that time argued that U.S. "position of strength is declining" and U.S. policy will "lead to failure everywhere." [emphasis added] [Source]
What’s this got to do with dog food and toothpaste? Our dog is being wagged! This is the beginning of a play to grow dissension toward the Chinese and sway public opinion to place economic sanctions on China. Decisions by the president of the World Bank will further help to corrupt and destabilize the Chinese economy. China is ahead of the United States in preparing for a digital war as predicted in the National Defense University Press’ January 2000 publication China Debates the Future Security Environment.
China’s military is preparing for electronic warfare by setting up information warfare units that are developing viruses to attack enemy computers and networks, according to the Department of Defense’s annual report to Congress. …the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) has also established tactics to protect its own computer systems and networks and those of friendly states. Since 2005, the PLA has been including offensive network attacks into its exercises… [Source]
General Pan Junfeng states that the United States will not have formed a full information warfare force until the middle of the 21st century. He explains three ways that in future wars American computers can be very vulnerable. "We can make the enemy’s command centers not work by changing their data system. We can cause the enemy’s headquarters to make incorrect judgments by sending disinformation. We can dominate the enemy’s banking system and even its entire social order." [Source]
The moves our government is making match the predictions in the article which references some scary realities.
- The United States barely won the Gulf War.
- Saddam could have won with a better strategy.
- The United States today cannot “contain” Chinese power.
- The United States is unable to execute its military strategy of two major regional contingencies.
- U.S. munitions cannot damage deep underground bunkers (like those in China).
[Source]
Maybe there was really nothing wrong with the dog food and toothpaste. Perhaps dog food and toothpaste was the United States’ first, preemptive, strike in the Chinese war. Blind faith in your leaders, or anything, will get you killed. (Brice Springsteen) [Author: Jack Bungart Date: August 22, 2005 Publication: Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA) Article ID: 2963260 ] How’s your Kanji?
