555 - Five five five

Five five five - Where will it lead us? Out of a stock market that the business bastards have screwed up? I doubt it. So is 5 lucky or unlucky? Depends on who you are or more specificly your belief system.

From wikipedia -
In Cantonese, "five" sounds like the word "not" (symbol: 唔). When five appears in front of a lucky number, e.g. "58", the result is considered unlucky.
In Discordianism, 5 is seen as a very important number as demonstrated in the Law of Fives and The Pentabarf, which contains five rules.

You can also go to Virtue Science to pick up a few more ideas about five. I like the fact that 5 is a square pyramidal number.

And from the Virtue Science site I got lead to looking into Breatharianism. This cute little gem of a religion goes buy the philosophy that all you need to live is sunlight. That's right folks. You don't need no stinkin' food or water! The sun will sustain you. Trust me. Send me 700 billion dollars. All will be well.

And the Breatharianism link got me to Skeptics.com. (I think I'm remembering all these paths I took but I'm not sure) This site is offering the bent spoon award. It's sort of like the Darwin awards without people dying. It's a site that debunks psychics. And then every year the winner has the offer to levitate the award out of the building. So far no one has claimed it.

(OK, typo fixed. I swear somebody comes in after I'm done and inserts typos. No really!)

554 - The meeting

I was looking forward to meeting fellow blogger John. He sent his older brother instead. Just kidding John. No really.

I was going to take a picture of the infamous spot where we met - Ted Drews Frozen Custard stand. Maybe next time. But just to show you how famous it really is, while my wife and I were sitting there in the parking lot waiting, a boat load of people started walking by. I said to my wife, "I think the bus just got in and is unloading". I turned around to look and there was - A BUS! Unloading. People were getting out their cameras and taking pictures of Ted Drews. If you go to the link the picture you see is the typical picture that people take.

I guess I should have had my wife take a picture of John and me. Maybe next time. After we got done identifying the worlds problems, we assigned Bilbo to take care of them. Since Bilbo knows what they are already, that saved us the trouble of writing anything down. So that took care of politics. My wife and John then talked religion. So in our first meeting we talked about everything your not suppposed to talk about. And the world did not end. The end is coming up soon though. Unless everyone gives me $700 billion dollars and then everything will be OK. I promise.

I leave you all with this reminder. I'm 15 minutes from Ted Drews and John is 3 1/2 hours away. And come to think of it Bilbo is 12 hours away. As is Andrea. Amanda and Rima are way to far away even for dry ice to get a Ted Drews there in one piece. OK I'm done rambling now.

553 - Wall street

I was reading the editorials yesterday and thought these are all good. I could blog about one of them. Then I thought why just one. Do them all!

Link - Editorials

Link - Post-Dispatch

552 - Unplanned

I was looking for something to change the subject for a bit and found this on Mike Peter's website. I don't think I've ever seen this subject presented like this before. I just look at this and started laughing. As a matter of fact I think everything from the HQ on the right is unplanned. The sign could also read, "Oops, I didn't think THAT was going to happen! HQ."


Link - Mike Peters

551 - Still talking

As I write this post the boys are still haggling over the $700B bailout. Now think about this. 700 billion will buy them all out if I'm hearing it correctly. Why should they get ALL the money they lost right now. If we decide to bail them out why wouldn't they get the equivilent of a 30 year loan. 1/360th every month for 30 years. That's all they would have gotten had they managed the loans correctly to begin with.

So here's a plan. Usually when you're bailing somebody out you give them cents on the dollar. So let's say 10 cents on the dollar. That cuts the loan down to 70B right there. And applying the 1/360 rule that's about .2 billion a month. I'll go for that. And it's a better deal than they would give somebody who couldn't make their mortgage payments.

550 - Another political cartoon (that's not funny)

Link - Gary Markstein


So I checked my retirement funds. I'm the guy in the front row on the right.

And don’t we all wish that social security had been privatized by now?

Here's a link to indexed on the same topic. She has gotten some good comments. (and mine too)

And here's Uncle Jay explaining what happened.

549 - Deregulation

We probably don't understand. Now is probably different than in 1980. They need 700 billion FAST. We don't understand the hazards of waiting, even a few more weeks. Bad things will happen if they don't get their 700 billion.
Well guess what. Bad things have been happening for the past 7 1/2 years. We can wait a few more months.

Link - Matson

548 - Thermostatic thingy

Stop laughing, it's not funny! I thought I would get that out of the way up front.

So I'm in the shower. A shower that has 'thermostatic shower mixer valve'. That's a valve that keeps the temperature of the water constant no matter how many toilets get flushed around the house. You may lose a little pressure but the temperature doesn't change. Most of the time.

I knew this valve was going bad because I was having trouble getting a good setting. A good setting to me is a little on the warm side while the water is beating on my back and I pretend that I'm back in bed and I really didn't have to get up.

So I'm standing there pretending the water is warmer than it really is when it happens. The valve 'goes out' all the way. And when it did it shifted all the way to the hot side. No warning. Bam! Hot!

Now remember I'm facing away from the shower head so the on/off lever is behind me. And I'm in a 32" square shower stall. The only good thing is that I have a shower curtain rather than a glass door. Because you would not believe how fast I got out of that shower stall. Bam! Out! Now!

My advice from this. If you have a 'thermostatic shower mixer valve', and it starts acting up, REPLACE IT IMMEDIATELY! Which I finally did today. Now go back and reread the first line of this post.

547 - Recovering

I'm still recovering from my so called upgrade that I did on blogger that wiped out a years worth of changes and widgets. I haven't taken the time to sit down and rebuild everything. What I need is for someone to magically make it come back. .... JOHN! Do your stuff dude! YEAH! abracadabra. presto magico. ally baba. willy wonka. SOMETHING!

Well here's a cartoon that expresses my sentiments to a T.



Link - Cornered
.

546 - W...ther

The weather was nice when it became a wether, whether the wether cared about the weather or his becoming a wether or not.

I love the english language. Where a wether can weather the weather whether he wants to or not. And to top it off, when I was looking up whether and typoed wether, I got these ads. So you can get wethered for $42. And get accessories afterwards.


Sponsored Links Wether St Louis
Bargain Prices. Smart Deals. Save on Wether St Louis!
Shopzilla.com

Wether $42
Save on Sunglasses & Jewelry Wether from $42
winbuyer.com

545 - Saturday

Nice title ehh?

-----------------------------------------

God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired, 'Where have you been?'

God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, 'Look, Michael. Look what I've made.' Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, 'What is it?'

'It's a planet,' replied God, 'and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place to test Balance.' 'Balance?' inquired Michael, 'I'm still confused.'

God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. 'For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor.' God continued pointing to different countries. 'This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice.' The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and said, 'What's that one?'

'That's Washington State , the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and plains. The people from Washington State are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of peace, and producers of software'

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then asked, 'But what about balance, God? You said there would be balance.'

God smiled, 'There's another Washington. Wait till you see who I put there.'

544 - The funnies

Too bad politicians can't be this honest.


And this happens every once in a while in the comic section. The same obscure theme. Makes you wonder if all these guys are living together in somebodies mothers basement somewhere.



And again Tinsley proves he can come to the middle sometimes. It doesn't happen very often.


Links - Duplex, NS, ITB, MF
.

And just to top things off I tried to update my template and lost all my widgets and template updates from the past year!!!!!!! F........!

543 - Palin again

Fake Palin picture.


This a fake picture but I think it gets a point across. Especially when I heard a rumor about Palin. This is a true rumor. Really. I heard that Palin was trying to get McCain fired from the Republican presidential ticket.

And maybe here's the reason.

.

542 - Candidates

Just when I wondering what to blog about my son-in-law comes to the rescue. He did a remake of an old movie poster.



For those that want to refresh their memory about the movie, here's a link.

Manchurian Candidate
.

541 - Almost 95,000

That's indexed profile hit count. 95 freakin' thousand! So what do I have to do to get more hits?! I think I've discovered a secret. Check out my stat counter below.



Take a look at Saturday. 60 hits! Compared to an average of around 15 a day. Now just what could I have blogged about to get 60 hits? I won't make you go back to Saturday to look. I'll just tell you it was OPRAH!!!!!!! Yessirree. Oprah and Charice. I think I've found a new theme for my blog. What did Oprah do today! And since I don't watch her during the daytime and it's not late enough for the 1:30am repeat, could somebody tell me what went on yesterday so I can get these 60 hits again?

540 - Would you work for Edison?

Thomas Avla that is. I ran across an article in New Scientist that talked about the Edison employment test. It was the forerunner of the SAT, "Edison style". Edison style was to write down a bunch of random stuff that he knew and then see if you knew it. If you didn't know what he knew he wouldn't hire you. This is another one of those lots of reading posts. And you get to take the test. I got a 66% on it. No hiring on with Edison for me. And I not sure I would want to work for him.

Here's the New Scientist article. Most of the time you can't read the whole article unless you're a subscriber so here it is also.

And here is the Edison test on the National Parks service website. And I was dumbfounded that Wikipedia doesn't talk about the test under Edison. I thought Wikipedia knew everything.
.

539 - Here they are!

I've got a feeling not everyone went to look at the Mike Peters editorial cartoons on Palin. So just in case - HERE THEY ARE!










Link - Mike Peters
.

538 - Charice

I'm sure everyone knows about this kid but me. I was watching Oprah the other night (they rerun her here at 1:30am) and ran across Charice. She's a 16 year old Filipino with a singing voice that will blow you away. The funny part is if you listen to her talk and then hear her sing you would swear they were dubbing the sound track. She talks like a 16 year old Filipino and singing like a 35 year old American.

She was on Ellen DeGeneres first and then Oprah. The video of the Oprah show is longer and more info on her life. The link takes you to the video page of this soon to be millionaire singer.

HEY OPRAH! I'm really good at ...... let me get back to you on that.

Link - Charice
.

537 - What's messing with your mind?

What might mess with your mind? How about the urge to pee. Here's a reason to tell the eight glass of water drinkers to take their theory and shove it from an article in New Scientist magazine.

----------------------------------------------------------

The urge to pee too frequently might literally mess with your mind. Experiments in rats show that an overactive bladder changes brain activity. If the same is true in humans, it could in part explain the disrupted sleep, reduced ability to concentrate and confusion that often accompany ageing.

"If you have an overactive bladder, you don't just have a bladder problem. It has neurobehavioural consequences," says Rita Valentino, a neuroscientist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.

As much as 17 per cent of the US population is affected by the disorder, which is characterised by uncontrolled bladder contractions, leading to frequent urination. It is often caused by a partial obstruction of the urethra, such as in men with enlarged prostates. Valentino and her colleagues mimicked this in rats by surgically constricting the outlet from the bladder.

When the team scanned the rats' brains they found increased activation of a region of the brainstem called the locus coeruleus, which helps control alertness. In normal mammals, this region is activated only when the bladder is full, and helps the animal to disengage from other activities. In rats with overactive bladders, however, activation seems to occur continually. An overactive locus coeruleus triggered increased and disordered activity in the forebrain, which controls higher brain function. In people, this is likely to lead to anxiety, disrupted sleep and other behavioural problems.

The study is the first to show that a bladder disorder can have a direct effect on brain function. "This helps complete the puzzle of why overactive bladder symptoms are so disruptive to quality of life," says Craig Comiter, a urologist at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

Bowel disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome may also overactivate the locus coeruleus, which would help explain the psychiatric disorders that often accompany IBS, Valentino says.

Link - NewScientist
.

536 - Quotes

Here's some quotes from one guy (probably). Ahhhh it feels good to get back into the idea theft business. Thanks indexed. The last quote is especially relevant today (9-11).


A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.

I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

Education is learning to grow, learning what to grow toward, learning what is good and bad, learning what is desirable and undesirable, learning what to choose and what not to choose.


The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

Victory depends on whether or not a duelist has the courage to fight until the bitter end.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

The way to recover the meaning of life and the worthwhileness of life is to recover the power of experience, to have impulse voices from within, and to be able to hear these impulse voices from within-and make the point: This can be done.

The good society is one in which virtue pays.

What shall we think of a well-adjusted slave?

Laugh at what you hold sacred, and still hold it sacred.

You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.


Link - The quoter

.

Post update - I can't wait until tomorrow. Go visit Mike Peters editorials for the last week.

535 - What is it?

Just what exactly is this hypergraphia stuff?
.

534 - Two thoughts

Well I might as well stretch out the Jessica connection for one more post. I was looking at some of her first months posts and found this one. Made me think of Bilbo right off the bat. It's a little shorter than some of his posts but makes a similar point.

Link - Why


Oh, and as a bonus, think about this. It's 090908 today. In 01 years and 01 days it will be 090909. I know I can hardly wait! Where's Numeric Life when you need her? And if people are thinking about having kids next year, think what's going to be going on the night of 010909.

533 - Another blogger

Sometimes you think you know whats going on and then reality jumps up and wacks you upside the head. Bilbo had mentioned another blog called indexed. I had that blog marked but didn't visit it very often. So I went by there, saw some good posts, made a few comments, went to her profile and saw 93,000+ profile views. Who is this person?

So I googled Jessica Hagy to see if there was more info out there on her. Holy Moly! She's number 6 on Time magazines top 25 bloggers of 2008! Not an ordinary blog. She's listed on Wikipedia. She has a book!

So is she a young person? Old? What? I found the following picture of her. When you pull the link up make a quick first impression a tell me who you think she look a little bit like (except the hair). I'll throw my impression in the comments tomorrow.

Picture Link - Picture

532 - Change of pace

Well I know everyone's disgusted about being disgusted so let's do a little change of pace. Let's talk about politics and the election. HA! Fooled ya'.
If you haven't visited Uncle Jay recently you've missed a couple of good ones. Here's the link to them so you can correct that situation.

I think Bilbo needs to start competing with Uncle Jay. He can call it .... Villdeobo. Video Bilbo! But he's going to have to keep it under 3 minutes if he wants to keep our American attention.

Link - Uncle Jay 8-25
Link - Uncle Jay 9-1
.

531 - Had your breakfast yet?

After yesterdays post I thought I would tone things down a bit. Then I said naaaaa. Keep going, I'm on a roll. Here's a test on the BBC's website on ... well it's a survey. Just click the link and take the survey. Trust me, it's fun!
Link - survey
Then you can go look here for more interesting facts and a few cute pictures.
Link - emotions

OK OK here's a nicer one.
Link - thinker quiz
Here are all the thinker types. I'm a spatial thinker.
.

530 - Diversion

Here's a little something to divert your attention from the election process. This is from New Scientist magazine. It's a sidebar from an article on extreme childbirth. It's a short little sidebar but every sentence has you going - what?! Then WHAT?! Then WHAAAT!!!! Here you go .....


HOW TO RECYCLE A PLACENTA

Women who are interested in more natural forms of childbirth are sometimes reluctant to treat the placenta, the spongy, blood-vessel-rich organ that sustained their baby for so long, as mere medical waste. Many choose to bury it in their garden and plant a tree over the top.

Those with the courage can eat it. The placenta has been claimed to prevent post-natal depression, although research evidence is lacking. If raw placenta lacks appeal, a quick internet search will turn up several recipes. For some reason placenta lasagna is a recurring theme.

The traditional Chinese approach is to dehydrate the placenta under a low heat and grind it up to make a powder. This can be sprinkled over food or taken neat.

You can even make placenta skin cream, by adding a few tablespoons of the powder to clarified butter. Animal placenta is an ingredient of several expensive anti-ageing creams, and some firms say they use human placenta.

Those of an artistic bent can make their very own placenta print using the excess blood to transfer the intricate tree-like pattern of vessels onto paper or fabric. Be warned: blood fades in strong light, so the print should be kept under UV-proof glass.

529 - Just where is Wasilla?

I was looking Wasilla up to see where Palin is from and found these links and a quote/slam.

First the quote. This was to funny not to pass along.
"The White House would need someone who is proficient at changing diapers if McCain was elected. They're just covering the bases."

Here's a couple of pic's of Palin here and here. She has an inny.

Here's an article from the Daily KOS.

Here's the Wikipedia aricle on Wasilla.

And finally if you have Google Earth, put Wasilla in the search box and it will fly you there. Most of the town is fuzzed out. But if you want to look at something more interesting than Wasilla, turn on 'earthquake' info under "gallery".

OK I just found this Youtube Palin spoof video.
.

528 - The night lights are humming

I ran across an article about the marfa lights. I thought, hey, there's something to blog about. But then I thought, naaa, everybody already knows about the marfa lights. But the at the bottom of the marfa lights article I saw something I've never heard before, the Taos Hum. Hey here's something interesting. People hearing things that nobody can explain. That's right up my alley. Unexplainable s... stuff. So it seems that The Hum happens in a lot of different places. But Taos New Mexico seems to have a special hum. I wonder what it could be .... hummmmm.

Link - Taos Hum
Link - More Taos Hum

Link - Marfa Lights
.

527 - Get John 2

Refer to post 525. 21 levels. Got to 17, skipped to and got 21. 3 more to go.

526 - Oh PLEEEEASE

Ah the ol' political balance scale. A - good looking female running mate. B - with 17 year old unmarried pregnant daughter. Oh look! The scale is tipping a liiittle to the A side. Thank God! For a minute there they probably thought they were going to have to worry about family values. WEW That was a close one!

And then they have the gall to say -
"We knew that Gov. Palin's daughter was pregnant," Schmidt said, "and there were frankly a lot of disturbing, nasty smears moving around on the Internet." So the family decided to issue a statement today.

As if the Carl Rove groupies aren't the kings and queens of smear campaigns.

Link - Pregnant

525 - Get John

Thanks John! Short post today because I've been wasting my time at Fantastic Contraption.com. Sites like this can keep me busy for hours. I'm sending one of these guys to visit John as a payback.

On second thought maybe I should just set up RSS since John reads his posts that way. I think I hit the post button 3 times on this post just fixing typos. I could fill Johns RSS box with a long post.
.