Since my post "How to Save the Postal Service" was such a huge hit earlier this week, I thought it was time I came back and solved another thorny issue.
Gun Control. It's been a hot topic for years, but no one with the power to do anything has wanted to do anything.
Tired of sitting on the fence not feeling represented by either party, I decided it was time to put forth a proposal that maybe, just maybe, is one reasonable people can get behind.
CROSSCUT -- The making of a religious 'None' -- Some might wonder why I'm posting this, or even be upset that *I* would post this. Go read it again.
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DISCOVER DIGITAL LIFE -- TNS Digital Life -- In depth look at what's most important online and how they access it (a dashboard of stats) to promote larger package of stats available for sale (still, quite a bit, and covering a lot of countries in the free website - worth taking a look)
ANTHROPOLOGIE -- Street Scene - Not a site I regularly visit, but one of the blogs I read mentioned the interesting way they're showcasing some clothes and I agree. Kinda neat.
SARCASM SOCIETY -- Top 10 Most Sarcastic Simpsons Quotes. Yeah, if you only spend 3 minutes on research and put them all in the wrong order. Though, seriously, a quick and fun read.
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SVIRGES RADIO -- Let us sing that for you - better than Let Me Google That For You. (Except what's up with not having words like "rude" and "dude" and "served"? How can I write my next masterpiece with it?
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FLICKR -- Rock 'n Roll Metro Map - If you want to get from The Beatles to Deathcab for Cutie you'll need to transfer at The Who, Billy Idol, Greenday or Blink 182.
Cat chooses a weird place to relax. Guy plays well, though. Despite the impending backache.
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I'm on a horse. 80 seconds praising Old Spice for making such a great ad. (I don't watch ads and I know which ad he's talking about. It was Today's Best Thing a week or two ago.)
My family was the victim of a rather unpleasant, though petty, crime today. I can't say much about it, but I am grateful to the fast work, not to mention gentle and compassionate handling of the situation by the Federal Way Police Department. I am also amazed by the fast work that brought the efforts of an anonymous samaritan, the management of WinCo and the Federal Way Police all into alignment over a crime that happened elsewhere. Also props to the managers of the Gateway Cinemas theaters and the staff of the King County Regional Library.
Sadly, thanks to the work of some underaged criminals who roam our streets, we'll be sleeping a little less soundly and it's going to take quite a bit of work and some money we don't have to get things back to almost normal. Some of the feeling of security -- the innocence -- is stripped away, never to return.
MEDIAPOST.COM -- I thought we could have some fun this week by taking a look at the practice of Scambaiting. Scambaiters are a group of individuals who take pride in messing with the heads of the so-called Nigerian Email Scammers. You know the guys: the rich princes who will send you millions for helping them get money out of the country. More...
Surveillance footage of a guy who stuffs a video projector down his pants. They managed to walk out of the store without being stopped. They were later seen stealing drugs and syringes, but again, they got away. One wonders why they never stole a backpack, or didn't go after a smaller projector.
Yeah, I like I don't have enough blogs. Ever since I closed down my L.A. Traffic blog (which seems to now be the home for someone who takes photos of their drive, though the photos weren't working for me tonight), I've wanted to do another civic blog up here. I didn't think I drove enough in King County to do a King County Traffic blog justice, so I finally hit on it. I would create a blog where people could submit photos (or the locations) of graffiti they saw in and around Federal Way, Washington. And so Federal Way Graffiti was born.
I think it has potential. You can e-mail me at federal.way.graffiti@gmail.com when you see graffiti and I'll go take a photo of it. Or you can save me the trouble and take the photo yourself and send it to me. I'll post it on the blog and on the map.
What's the point? Well, depending on how serious the City of Federal Way is about clamping down on graffiti, it will either help them to quickly find new graffiti or it will prod them to get it done quicker.
Excerpts from James Randi's new book, Uncomfortable Questions: An Analysis of the Death Star Attack, which presents compelling evidence that we all may be the victims of a fraud of immense proportions.
We’ve all heard the “official conspiracy theory” of the Death Star attack. We all know about Luke Skywalker and his ragtag bunch of rebels, how they mounted a foolhardy attack on the most powerful, well-defended battle station ever constructed. And we’ve all seen the video over, and over, and over, of the one-in-a-million shot that resulted in a massive chain reaction that not just damaged, but completely obliterated that massive technological wonder. Like many Americans, I was fed this story when I was growing up. But as I watched the video, I began to realize that all was not as it seemed. And the more I questioned the official story, the deeper into the rabbit hole I went.
Presented here are some of the results of my soul-searching regarding this painful event. Like many citizens, I have many questions that I would like answered: was the mighty Imperial government really too incompetent to prevent a handful of untrained nerf-herders from destroying one of their most prized assets? Or are they hiding something from us? Who was really behind the attack? Why did they want the Death Star destroyed? No matter what the answers, we have a problem. Uncomfortable Questions about the Death Star Attack
1) Why were a handful of rebel fighters able to penetrate the defenses of a battle station that had the capability of destroying an entire planet and the defenses to ward off several fleets of battle ships? 2) Why did Grand Moff Tarkin refuse to deploy the station’s large fleet of TIE Fighters until it was too late? Was he acting on orders from somebody to not shoot down the rebel attack force? If so, who, and why? 3) Why was the rebel pilot who supposedly destroyed the Death Star reported to be on the Death Star days, maybe hours, prior to its destruction? Why was he allowed to escape, and why were several individuals dressed in Stormtrooper uniforms seen helping him? 4) Why has there not been an investigation into allegations that Darth Vader, the second-ranking member of the Imperial Government, is in fact the father of the pilot who allegedly destroyed the Death Star? 5) Why did Lord Vader decide to break all protocols and personally pilot a lightly armored TIE Fighter? Conveniently, this placed Lord Vader outside of the Death Star when it was destroyed, where he was also conveniently able to escape from a large-sized rebel fleet that had just routed the Imperial forces. Why would Lord Vader, one of the highest ranking members of the Imperial Government, suddenly decide to fly away from the Death Star in the middle of a battle? Did he know something that the rest of the Imperial Navy didn’t?
6) How could any pilot shoot a missile into a 2 meter-wide exhaust port, let alone a pilot with no formal training, whose only claim to fame was his ability to “bullseye womprats” on Tatooine? This shot, according to one pilot, would be “impossible, even for a computer.” Yet, according to additional evidence, the pilot who allegedly fired the missile turned off his targeting computer when he was supposedly firing the shot that destroyed the Death Star. Why have these discrepancies never been investigated, let alone explained?
7) Why has their been no investigation into evidence that the droids who provided the rebels with the Death Star plans were once owned by none other than Lord Vader himself, and were found, conveniently, by the pilot who destroyed the Death Star, and who is also believed to be Lord Vader’s son? Evidence also shows that the droids were brought to one Ben Kenobi, who, records indicate, was Darth Vader’s teacher many years earlier! Are all these personal connections between the conspirators and a key figure in the Imperial government supposed to be coincidences? 8) How could a single missile destroy a battle station the size of a moon? No records, anywhere, show that any battle station or capital ship has ever been destroyed by a single missile. Furthermore, analysis of the tape of the last moments of the Death Star show numerous small explosions along its surface, prior to it exploding completely! Why does all evidence indicate that strategically placed explosives, not a single missile, is what destroyed the Death Star?
MSNBC.COM -- A group of seniors on vacation in Costa Rica are held-up while riding on a tour bus by three guys, one of them armed. A 70-year-old retired GI puts the armed guy in a headlock and others seniors fend off the other two assailants who ultimately flee. The guy in the headlock dies. The seniors are questioned and then released by the Costa Rican police who applaud the seniors for defending themselves and say that the assailant had a prior record of violent crime. They were returned to their cruise ship to complete the cruise. More...
While I suppose it sucks that a life was lost, doesn't this feel like justice was served? A bonehead tries to take advantage of people from another country, miscalculates and they fight back and the authorities investigating the situation make the right call. No lawsuits for the ultimate victim (as of yet), no automatic bias against the foriegners (Americans, no less!), no needlessly putting old people into jails in a foriegn country. No long, drawn-out legal proceeding. Low-life with a history of crime makes another poor choice and pays dearly for it. And if he was the only one in the group armed, it would suggest the others weren't as deep into the crime-thing as he was and hopefully this might just scare them straight. And as for the original victims, they're sent along their merry way, maybe asked never to return to Costa Rica, maybe not.
According to CNET, there's a new software package. Costs about $1,000, but it's really slick. You tell it which site's visitors you want to steal from and hit go. It creates a page that looks just like theirs. If they sign-in, they are passed to the legitimate site without even knowing they've just had their identity stolen. If they mistype their address, it displays the correct error message so you can try again. Really sophisticated, so stop clicking on e-mails supposedly sent by your bank.
In other news, we were snowed in today. Didn't really go anywhere. It's amazingly deep.