It's Heeeere

Geeks like me probably remember when Billy Boy was playing with this at CES a few years ago, but i'm so glad that, like so many CES toys, it didn't fall to the wayside.

[Table Top Touch Screens]

Airports are about to kick a lot more ass.

Getting American's Where It Hurts

When Ethanol was pushed for the first time in the last decade as TheSolution to theproblem of insane oil consumption, I was against it.

Corn is not, as the Bush administration, Republicans and even Democrats would have you to believe, a renewable resource. True, it's more renewable than fossil fuels, which you're probably going to be a bit hard pressed to find after we suck up what remains, but the problem with corn is that it isn't truly renewable.

Anyone who ever studied the Amazon River Basin in Jr. High Geography probably learned something about crop rotation. And, if you live in Small-Town America, you probably experienced it first hand.

You see, the thing about all organic life is that it's cyclical. It takes and it gives. Take the bee for instance. It takes pollen from plants and converts it to honey which, in turn, fuels the bees until they die, at which point their bodies decompose and redeposit any vitamins, minerals and calories they borrowed from the pollen to begin with. Then, a flower grows there. Crops don't differ so drastically. In order for a vegetable to be high in any particular thing, it has to derive it from the soil around it. With corn, much of the nutritional value is lost in the stalks, which are generally chopped down and dropped off to suppliment a hay bale maze somewhere in the midwest. Nevertheless, corn is notoriously hard on the soil in which it grows, meaning that the cost of growing it is a lot higher than we think.

Of course, when we're talking about human edible consumption, the cost isn't that high in a nation of excesses like ours. We don't eat that much of it and humans have an innate ability to return our wastes to the cycle. True, it's costly to grow as crops require a lot of attention but it's generally ok.

That is, until the conversation became about gasoline.

But anyway, all of that to get you to the thing that's going to hurt American's in a way that only it can and finally get us on the road to hydrogen fuel cells: BEER.

Crazy Ass Asians

I know that, speaking in geopolitical terms, it's always the Middle East tauted for their crazy, unstable, violent political beliefs, tendancies and wide-termed etcetera but, I have news for you ladies and gentlemen, Middle Eastern militants may be fucking crazy, but they have nothing on the bat-shit insane antics of the Asians.

I could reference my favorite buffont wearing mother fucker, but to keep things simple, lets cite a current example - a quote from the Chinese diplomat sent to Darfur earlier this year.

"I didn't see a desperate scenario of people dying of hunger." - Liu Guijin

I grabbed that curtosy of a rather extensive article that made the front page of the paper version of the Trib today, including a rather large, full color photograph on page 20 with the articles extension. Of course, it was second on the page only to the giant ass ad, but I'm happy to see the violence in Darfur getting any press. Never the less, a great big WTF goes out to my good friend

Someone has been drinking John McCain's Kool-Aid.

You're Out, Tom.

I try really hard not to blog about the news unless it's something that really strikes a chord, either comical or otherwise. Today I have to blog, even though it's something I doubt many of you will understand.

[MSNBC: Bush's Monica Problem] "John F. Kennedy, after all, appointed his brother and consigliere Robert to be attorney general."

Robert Kennedy - Bobby, to those of you who know nothing about historical politics that wasn't in a Sean Connery movie - is famously touted for being an active opponent of the teamsters and, most specifically Jimmy Hoffa, which makes it ironic that he be referred to as the consigliere, the italian word for "counselor" as it has been long used in context to the mafia.

The best part, really though - oh my god he was totally the consigliere....

Anyway, yeah, that's that for my geeky Kennedy reference of the day.

I love apple sauce.

Happy News

Mike found a site for me the other night - happynews.com... Actually, in truth, he found it for himself, but he shared it with me because he knew I'd like to have a place that reports only the kinder-news my phsyical well being demands i read.

And then there was happiness. That is, of course, until a few minutes ago when, grumpy from having a crappy morning at work, I realized that happynews.com has added like four new stories since I logged on the last time - four days ago.

How un-freaking-nerving is that? That's all they could come up with - that some kid won a geography bee?

happynews, yes, that's right, happynews depresses me by its lack of new news.

MySpace, How I Loathe Thee

....agrrrrrrrr

But then yay!.

I know, I know. A lot of this wanders beyond that which can be called "polite" and the part of me that thinks that everyone deserves some right to privacy with regard to what they do on the internet and that the Federal government forcing sites like MySpace to hand over your details to them is a little dirty does pretty harsh battle with the part of me that thinks that when you start fucking with kids, you're asking to have your life turned inside out and inspected for the rest of forever because there is obviously something seriously wrong with you.

Oh well.

So tonight marks the series finale of a show I have been a fan of for a long time. Well, okay, it's not actually the series finale. In truth, the series finale is next week, but I knew tonight at 7:58 that this show was, as I know it, over and I didn't really want a part in it after that.

It ends, for me, on the note that Rory, a character who for a while I identified with and later I broke from, watching the series in a really pathetic, retrospective, 'what could have been if I'd done any of the things anyone thought I was going to do' kind of way, cutting ties with her long time boyfriend. Or, at least, that's what the spoilers said it was going to be. As it turned out, they were right insofar as to say that he would propose and she would say no. I guess, knowing what the series has always intended to imply – a sense of undying, independent, stubborn girl power – I can completely understand why they opted to write the characters down different paths. For Rory to say that she would marry Logan, move to Silicon Valley and grow her avocado tree would be…well, it would be unfair to all of the little girls this series was trying to reach and the part of me that has commitment induced panic attacks appreciates that there is something out here telling people that you don't have to get married and raise kids and call that your life. Still, for Rory and Logan to end on that note seems unfair in deference to the rest of their relationship. Rory is a stubborn, girl power kind of girl and hasn't this show done enough to show us that you don't always have to end up with the one you thought you were going to love forever? Lorelai and Chris, which I'll admit to supporting the demise of since it was suggested in the first ten episodes and Lorelai and Max who were adorable to the core – Max cared for her so much and was willing to forgive many of her commitmentphobic tendancies… - Lorelai and Jason, quirky though Jason was, and much though we all wanted him to get out of the fucking way to make room for the Luke/Lorelai love fest we were all so desperately waiting for, when it came, there was still an element of "Okay, we get the point. You don't have to be with someone to be happy and you can choose things that are important to you over men. It's OK to love things more than you love a guy."

On the other hand, for Rory to roll over and lie down when he said "You jump, I jump, Jack." (for the second time) seems wholey contradictory to that point. If she loves him – if she wants him, why let it be what it is that quickly. And if she doesn't, what have they been telling us for the last three years?

In the end, I suppose my attachment to the play out of the relationship, moreso than a simple affection for the characters themselves and my adorably naïve love of happy endings comes from some kind of a desire to see the cards fall nicely. Lets be honest, Rory and Logan gave me hope that it could be OK. That the panicked, intimacyphobic could be in relationships and not kill eachother. She was Annette Benning. She did land the whale.

Ah well, what you're reading are the inane musings of a person feeling a bit to much pressure from her insurmountable number of married/engaged pregnant/child raising co-workers and the strange sources from which this pressure comes outside of the workplace…like my neighbor's husband. (Seriously – how fucking weird is it for a middle-aged man with no vested interest in myself or Mike to ask me when we're getting married. Seriously?!)

Coffee. Gin.

I wonder what coffee and gin would taste like together…