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April 30, 2006

Local man attacks wrong girl

Some genius in Westminster, Colorado tried to abuct a 14 year old girl. Unfortunately for him, only one of them knew karate. That would be the 14 year old gilr who dropped him like a sack of potatoes.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 30, 2006 at 8:46 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 29, 2006

Cool Aerial Photography

Cool Aerial Photography. (I didn't take these photos, I just think they're cool.)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 29, 2006 at 6:20 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 27, 2006

Lafayette Brain Dump

Drunken Chicken
World's Longest Yard Sale
Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse
Artmosphere
Blue Moon youth hostel
PhotoPinups.com
LakeMartinLA.com
BirdsAsArt.com
Jungle Gardens
The Air Conditioned Nightmare
Maringouin
Shadows on the Teche
Live Oaks Plantation
A People's History of the United States
Uriel's Machine

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 27, 2006 at 10:09 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The Mystery of the Cypress Island Preserve Lake Martin Rookery

The Lake Martin Rookery(Yahoo Maps Beta or Google Earth), outside of Lafayette, Louisiana, is the largest rookery for wading birds in North America. The rookery provides spectacular viewing of nesting herons, spoonbills, ibises, and countless other birds. Normally, in April and May, the birds jockey for position in the trees, as they gorge themselves and their chicks on crawfish and minnows.

This year, however, something very strange happened. On or around April 18th, all the birds unexpectedly fled the sanctuary. 20,000 pairs of nesting birds got up en masse and fled the rookery, leaving their nests behind, and, in some cases, leaving eggs behind as well. No one knows why they left, or where they went.

According to The Independent Weekly:

“The birds were all there, people were out taking pictures, everything was looking great,� Martin says. “I was expecting this to be a record year, and then all of a sudden the birds disappeared overnight.�

The Advocate reports:

“They started building nests, and for some reason, they all abandoned their nests,� Ouchley said. “… Some of the nests had eggs.�

The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana has posted a sign on Cypress Island in Lake Martin as follows:

LAKE MARTIN VISITORS

The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana, along with federal and state agencies and local landowners, are concerned about the abandonment of this portion of the Cypress Island Rookery. The cause of the abandonment is under investigation.

If you have any information that might help with our investigation, including landscape scale photographs of nesting birds before Monday, March 20th, please call TNC at (225) 338-1040.

I have some information that may be valuable. I think I know where some of them went. I think some of the egrets went down to Bird City in Jungle Gardens on Avery Island. I heard from some of the other people there that the Avery Island rookery has more birds this year than they've seen in a long time. I'd say there were a few hundred nesting egrets in Bird City. Plus, I did see a couple of spoonbills and ibises when I was there on April 22nd, 2006.

As for why they left, I doubt that they left for lack of food. The swamp is teeming with crawfish and minnows. I watched the wading birds and owls feeding. They had no problem catching meals in the duck grass of the swamp. The herons and owls were catching crawfish like mad. (You'd be amazed how much those birds can eat.)

Also, although the water is down this year, it isn't down very much. I'd say it's about a foot or two lower than it was in May of 2004, when I was last there.

The area appears to be completely unaffected by the hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina hit way to East, and Hurricane Rita hit far to the west.

So, my best guess is that they didn't leave because of a hurricane damage, a drought, or lack of food. That leaves Chupacabra, Scuzzlebutt or ManBearPig. (Just kidding.)

The Independent Weekly claims there's lots of speculation at the LABIRD forum on virtualbirder.com, but I'm not sure if this is the right link or not.

Seriously, though, if you have any ideas why the birds left or where they went, or if you have old photos of the rookery, The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana wants to hear from you. Call them at (225)338-1040, or email them at lafo@tnc.org.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 27, 2006 at 8:00 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 26, 2006

Cypress Island Preserve

This slideshow is composed of images I shot over five days in April 2006 in the Atchafalaya Basin (pronounced CHAFF-uh-LIE-uh). The images were capured at mutliple locations near Lafayette, Louisiana, including Lake Martin, Swamp Gardens on Avery Island, New Iberia, Abbeville, Sherburne Wildlife Management Area, Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, and Maringouin.

The photos were taken with a Canon EOS 20D, Canon EF 100-400mm lens f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens, and a Bogen tripod with a pistol grip. The presentation is mainly composed of wildlife and landscape photographs.

This slideshow (4:36) is a 24 Meg self-playing executable named lafayette.exe created using Imagematics StillMotion PE. Soundtrack is Great High Mountain by Jack White, off of the Cold Mountain soundtrack.

Click here to download the presentation. If you have an Apple, or you're running Unix, or if you're nervous about running a .exe file from my site, then click here to download the Macromedia Flash version. The resolution is not quite as good on the Macromedia Flash version, and you can't pause and go backward and forward, but it loads faster, and it's a fairly decent presention. Click here if you need help.

Lyrics in the extended entry.

Continue reading "Cypress Island Preserve"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 26, 2006 at 1:23 AM : Comments (4) | Permalink

April 21, 2006

Lake Martin Rookery

Well, I made it to Lafayette, Louisiana. Traffic was bad on I-10 at Beaumont, Texas. Some road construction over the Neches River. Robert was a big help in researching potential alternate routes on the fly. (Thanks). It was 221 miles from Houston Intercontinental(IAH) to exit 103A at Lafayette. I drove like a bat out of h3ll. I ran about 90 the whole way. I was never passed once. Somehow, though, it still took me from 7:15 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. to get here. I dunno. People seem to like to drive in the left lane and they refuse to dim their lights. Yeehaw.

In any event, I plan to get up in the morning bright and squirrely and go see the Lake Martin Rookery at the Cypress Island Preserve. But, now that I'm here, of course, I learn that 20,000 birds have supposedly fled Lake Martin during nesting season, and no one seems to know why. Maybe the hurricane has them stressed out. Maybe a new predator. No one is sure. So, this is bad news. Well, I'll deal with it in the a.m., I guess.

Bird Loss at Rookery Worries Observers

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 21, 2006 at 11:05 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The Atchafalaya Swamp

I told my neighbor I was going on vacation and he was like "A vacation from what? You don't even have a job. How could you need a vacation?" But I do need a vacation. Trust me on this one.

Today, I got my new Canon lens, the Canon 100-400mm IS USM L-series. It's basically a wildlife photography lens. The 17-85mm lens that came with my camera is a great lens, but I wanted a lens that would get me in a little closer to the action. This one ought to do it. It's absurdly large. It's roughly the size of a shoulder-fired RPG. I'm not sure what the official weight is, but I'd say it weighs approximately the same as a Spanish galleon's brass cannon.

The lens is so heavy, that it actually has a tripod mount on the lens. This is a good thing, as the center of balance of the lens and camera is clearly at the base of the lens. But, this means I have to remove the tripod mount from the camera and put it on the lens when I change lenses. A major pain. Or else, get another tripod mount. Then, I could have one on the camera and one on the lens.

So, if you can get past the fact that the lens is so large that it should come mounted on a dual axle trailer with brakes, once you get it set up on a tripod with a remote shutter release, it is an impressive lens. The autofocus is blindingly fast. And it does bring you up close and personal to whatever you point it at. I'm not sure about the sliding ring zoom though. Will have to play with it some more.

I tried using the new lens walking around Morrison today. It's really not a practical lens for anything except wildlife photography though. In town, anything you want to shoot, you inevitably find that you're too close to, and you spend a lot of time walking backwards. I remember when I saw some idiot walking around the Renaissance Fair last year in Castle Rock. He had a 300 mm lens on his Canon. At the time, I was impressed. Now, though, I'm wondering WTF he was carrying that monstrosity around for.

Plus, the lens draws a lot of attention. It's white, which is ostensibly to keep the lens cool. But it also draws a lot of attention. This is not always a good thing. I mean, when you're walking around with this thing, you're going to draw the attention of every securocrat on earth. No one is going to buy that you're just a casual photographer shooting images as a hobby.

I'm hoping that, in the swamps, this lens will allow me to get close enough to get some decent shots. The last time I was in the Atchafalaya (pronounced Chaff-uh-LIE-uh) Basin was in May of 2004. Spring is the best time of year to be there because this is when all of the baby alligators, Ibis, herons, egret, and nutria are emerging to explore the world for the first time. Also, it's crawfish season so, if I don't come back with any good images, at least I'll get to eat some good crawfish, new potatoes, bread pudding, and Dixie beer.

Some of the places I hope to shoot are:
Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge
Sherburne Wildlife Management Area
Indian Bayou
Jungle Gardens on Avery Island


http://www.nigeldennis.com/
http://www.moosepeterson.com/phototips/index.html

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 21, 2006 at 4:37 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 20, 2006

UPS Sucks

UPS sucks. It's not their fault. I mean...well...it's not the driver's fault. It's the CEO's fault. The CEO's fault that they're not capable of providing a service that works for humans. Let's consider the following. I paid $61.66 to have a package that weighs 4 pounds shipped overnight from Ohio to Colorado. UPS gives me a tracking number, but no clue what time the package is due to arrive. So, I'm kind of in a bind because, they won't leave the package without a signature, but I have no idea when they'll be here. So, basically, I'm a prisoner of UPS for the day. I can't even take a shower or go to the bathroom without fear that this mindless drone will roll up to my house in his ugly brown panel van, knock once on the door, afix a little yellow post-it and flee before I can get to the door.

If I call UPS, they say they have no idea what time he'll drop off the package. Then, they lie...outright lie...and say "we have no way to contact our drivers." Like...right. This is 2006, and you have no way to communicate with your trucks. Whatever.

As I'm not one to just cast stones without offering suggestions for improvement - here's how a real company would be run.

1) Throw away the little yellow post-it notes. This is 2006. Get with the program. When you accept shipment orders, make an a attempt to get a phone number or two and an email address. You'd be surprised how willing people are to give this information out when they're expecting a package.

2) Have the drivers estimate their delivery day. Presumably, this is something that they are capable of doing, otherwise, how would you know how many packages they should attempt to deliver. This would then give a rough estimate for the delivery of each package. The time doesn't have to be exact, but if you know that a package will be the last one he delivers, you may have a good idea that there's no way in h3ll that he'll be able to drop it off befor 4:00 p.m. No point in this poor soul killing their whole day waiting for him when he can't possibly be there for another six hours.

3) Track the trucks. The world now has GPS. I know the UPS drivers have little digital computer-smartpads they're using. Why not use these to update their schedule on the internet in realtime? This way, as a driver gets closer to delivering the package, the estimated time of delivery becomes more and more accurate.

If you have to leave a little yellow postit on the door, consider this a failure. And a major one. Call the person. Email them. Ask them what time they would like the package delivered, or if there is an alternate delivery address. Do you see where I'm coming from here? Do I need to take the company over, or are you capable of figuring this out? I hate those little brown bastiches at UPS. I would use FedEx, but the seller didn't offer it as an option. Arrrhg!

Update: Paul came out, and he's the nicest guy you'd ever meet. And, as it turns out, he didn't need a signature. This is frustrating because, had I known they were shipping the package without requiring a signature, I wouldn't have felt so pinned down.

After he left, I did some research on this problem and I discovered the following: If you look at the UPS tracking number, it's generally of this format: it goes "1Z", followed by six numbers, followed by a 2 digit number. My 2 digit number was "13". "13" means no signature required. There are many other codes that mean no signature required, such as "01","03", and "02". The 2 digit codes that require a signature are "4Z', "38", and "A8".

Why they don't put this information on the web site is anyone's guess. (Note: This is not my real tracking number. It has been photoshopped to fool stalkers.)

Continue reading "UPS Sucks"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 20, 2006 at 12:22 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 18, 2006

Colorado Rockies Spring Slideshow

This slideshow is composed entirely of images I shot in March/April 2006 with the Canon EOS 20D, Canon 17-85mm lens, a 67mm Hoya circular polarizing filter, and a Bogen tripod with a pistol grip. The presentation is mainly composed of outdoor landscape photographic experiments, and shots of my little ankle-biter and her friends.

This slideshow is an 23 Meg self-playing executable named desert_rose.exe created using Imagematics StillMotion PE. Soundtrack is Desert Rose by Sting, the former front-man for The Police.

Click here to download the presentation. If you have an Apple, or you're running Unix, or if you're nervous about running a .exe file from my site, then click here to download the Macromedia Flash version. The resolution is not quite as good on the Macromedia Flash version, and you can't pause and go backward and forward, but it loads faster, and it's a fairly decent presention. Click here if you need help.

Lyrics in the extended entry.

Continue reading "Colorado Rockies Spring Slideshow"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 18, 2006 at 11:37 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Send-A-Brick

Send-A-Brick to congress is a program to get congress to do something about the illegal immigrant problem.

Please Send A Brick to your Congressmen today and let them know that you want a comprehensive border security plan that includes:

- A security wall along the entire southern border
- Better technology for customs and border operations
- More funding and personnel for our Border Patrol
- An overall increased security presence on our southern border.

When our border is secure, only then can we talk about other aspects of illegal immigration

We are tired of open borders, uncontrolled immigration, terrorist infiltration, the spread of pandemic diseases, criminal alien gangs and all the other horrors that can arise due to our defenseless borders and unenforced immigration laws.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 18, 2006 at 4:49 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The Order of the Serpentine

The Order of the Serpentine is "A sacred brotherhood helping young men overcome shame caused by questionable hook-ups". I actually saw an ad for this on tv tonight. Pretty funny.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 18, 2006 at 3:56 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 17, 2006

Mountain Lion Attacks Boy in Boulder

This past weekend, a 7 year old was attacked by a mountain lion on Mount Flagstaff. (Google Earth marker). He was last in a line of about 7 people that were all hiking together. He was attacked within 150 feet of the parking lot. The 80 pound mountain lion started dragging the boy away, when the family noticed and fought off the mountain lion. All of the hikers were unarmed, and therefore unable to kill the mountain lion.

The common factor that all victims of fatal mountain lion attacks share is that they were all unarmed.

Mountain Lion attacks on humans are rare, but not unheard of. In 1991, a high school senior was attacked while jogging in Idaho Springs, Colorado. In 1995, a photographer was jogging in Rocky Mountain National Park when he was attacked. In 1997 a 10 year old boy was killed by a mountain lion in Rocky Mountain National Park. Later the same year, a mountain biker was attacked near Mount Flagstaff. In 1998, a full grown man was attacked while hiking in Roxborough State Park. On August 8th of 2005, a full grown woman in Florida Mesa, Colorado was attacked in her rocking chair on her front porch.

Continue reading "Mountain Lion Attacks Boy in Boulder"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 17, 2006 at 10:17 PM : Comments (4) | Permalink

April 16, 2006

Dandelion Farmers

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 16, 2006 at 12:19 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 15, 2006

Spiders and the Robots.txt File

I recently made several changes to my robots.txt file. I was tired of the stuipd search engine spiders linking to my main web page, or to some esoteric category-specific page. The spiders need to be linking to the individual archives only. Bad spiders! So, I updated my robots.txt file to steer them into the individual archives. Hopefully, it's working. Here's a website that lets you simulate how a generic spider sees your website.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 15, 2006 at 1:04 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

3D Rendering Software

So, Digg had this article about some share-ware 3D rendering software from CyberExtruder. (Download demo version here.) However, there website is currently hammered. Try downloading from this mirror site or this mirror. Install the software. To get it to run, is simple, although there's pretty much zero documentation:
1) Load image
2) Create 3D
3) Play
4) Make Movie. Note: Ignore that fact that it says "Open" here. It means "Save". (What do you want for free?) Must specify a file extension or it won't work.

If you want to get tricky, click LoadRPEG and select the various animations. Each time you select a different RPEG, you can click on Create 3D again to generate a new video.

When you get tired of playing with this, there are some other similar products. FaceGen is better, but slower, costs cash, and the demo version won't allow you to export video. There's another similar product called 3DMeNow which you can download here.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 15, 2006 at 11:33 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Internet Network Traffic Monitor

I installed this Network Traffic Monitor today, so that I can track the bandwidth used by my computer more easily. This utility shows "current", "peak", "average", and "total" network traffic to and from the internet (Up and Down). It's pretty slick. Would be nice if it had little graphs, like an equalizer, but what do you want for free?

Update: Uzi suggested I install TCPView by Sysinternals, as it provides details of each individual connection. I tried it, and it's pretty slick. So, now I'm running both of them. :)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 15, 2006 at 6:58 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 13, 2006

Mexifornia Driver's License

The recent massive protests by illegal immigrants in the United States have probably have the opposite effect that the criminals had intended. American citizens don't look at this sea of brown people waving Mexican flags and think "Hmmm. Why don't we invite them to the ice cream social on Sunday." They think "I had no idea there were so many, let's build a wall and pay the pied piper to lead them away."

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 13, 2006 at 9:00 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Headlines from the year 2029

Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the 7th largest country in the world, Mexifornia formally known as California. White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia's third language.

Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.

Baby conceived naturally. Scientists stumped.

Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.

Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies! in theAmerican Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon).

Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica.

Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.

Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.

Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.

Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed, they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut.

Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.

Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.

Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036.

Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.

Capitol Hill intern indicted for refusing to have sex with congressman.

IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.

Florida voters still having trouble with voting machines.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 13, 2006 at 9:42 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Comedy Central censors South Park Mohammed episode

Comedy Central has knuckled under yet again. In tonight's episode(1004), in response to the staged Muslim riots over Danish cartoons, Matt Parker and Trey Stone attempted to air an animated cartoon of Mohammed. To show their sensitivity toward Muslims, all of the citizens of the United States bury their heads in sand.

But Cowardly Central takes a dive every time things get the least bit controversial, and, predictably, they knuckled under and censored the image of Mohammed. In place of Mohammed, the screen said "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network."

Some people are claim that the show is getting too polical and not as funny as it used to be. Well...it was funny to me. Politically correct dolts burying their heads in the sand. Manatees writing for the Family Guy. President Bush at the press conference was probably the funniest part, where the press asks what the 1st amendment is. I thought it was hilarious. But, what do I know?

They've now pulled episodes that make fun of Scientology, Christianity, Muslims, and Blacks. It's getting where the only place you can watch South Park is to download the censored shows from Morpheus. Comedy Central clearly does not have the moxy necessary to carry the South Park show. Matt and Trey should bypass the mediots and the FCC and start broadcasting their show directly from the internet.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 13, 2006 at 12:45 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

April 12, 2006

Microsoft Strider URL Tracer with Typo-Patrol

Microsoft has a new research prototype tool available for download called Strider URL Tracer with Typo-Patrol.

When a user visits a Web site, her browser may be instructed to visit other third-party domains without her knowledge. Some of these third-party domains raise security, privacy, and safety concerns. The Strider URL Tracer, available for download, is a tool that reveals these third-party domains, and it includes a Typo-Patrol feature that generates and scans sites that capitalize on inadvertent URL misspellings, a process known as typo-squatting. The tool also enables parents to block typo-squatting domains that serve adult ads on typos of children's Web sites.

This application, apparently formerly known as HoneyMonkey, is available for download from Microsoft's Web Site.

So, I downloaded an installed it. In theory, it's supposed to identify sites that are redirecting your requests to a third party site for tracking, advertising, phishing, 419 scams...God only knows what. So, I launch the URL Tracer, and immediately point it Microsoft's web site and...guess what. ;)


Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 12, 2006 at 10:26 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Kentucky Legislature Outlaws Internet Hunting

Kentucky legislature votes to outlaw internet hunting? Who knew this was going on? Apparently, someone set up a location in Texas that allowed people to use their computers to remotely shoot at real live animals with rifles from the comfort of their own home. I'm guessing that they aimed with the mouse, and then dropped an animal in another timezone. I'm not real clear what the point of this is. I'm a big hunter, and this strikes me as something less than sportsman like. Now, granted, I'm not saying I'm above shooting birds on the ground, shooting pen-raised game birds, or even shooting elk in my yard with a small canon. But, at least I'm in the same timezone with them when I pull the trigger. ;)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 12, 2006 at 9:30 AM : Comments (2) | Permalink

eEye Screws the Moose

So last night, Microsoft released about a zillion different patches to bubble-gum and shoestring their miserable browser through for another month. Among the multiple patches was one designed to address the "Zero Day" vulnerability, also apparnelty known as the "Create TextRange() issue".

Because of Microsoft's didactic, canonic, 2nd Tuesday release schedule, many people opted to install a 3rd part patch by eEye. (See my previous post on this issue: Microsoft hangs people out to dry with Zero Day exploit)

Last night, I applied all of the patches, and my machine rebooted itself sometime during the night because, apparently, Microsoft has more control over my computer than I do, at this point. So, this morning, I checked to see if the eEye patch had removed itself, as eEye promised it would:

"eEye’s patch is not meant to replace the forthcoming Microsoft patch, but to provide immediate protection in lieu of an available fix. In fact, eEye has engineered the patch to automatically remove itself when Microsoft’s official patch comes through.�

Only, don't look now, but...it's still there. Start - Settings - Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs - eEye Digital Security Jscript Patch". There it sits. Hmmm.

Now, possibly it did autoremove itself from some computers, but it didn't remove itself from mine. I'm running XP Pro SP 2 - 32 bit edition, with every single patch applied. So, if it didn't remove itself from mine, I'm guessing it didn't remove itself from a lot of other computers. Don't you think they might want to mention this on their website? As in, "Just FYI - our little bit of automagic removal engineering appears to have failed, be sure to remove the patch yourself." Anyone? Anyone?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 12, 2006 at 8:49 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 11, 2006

MS Outlook 2003 Autocomplete

I despise Outlook for a variety of reasons. The thing that's bothered me lately about it is the "autocomplete" functionality. When you're typing in a name in the "To:" field, it offers a few names. This has always concerned me. Like, it doesn't show you all the names, just some of them. This is because autocomplete doesn't really use the Outlook contacts per se. What it does is suggest email addresses that you've emailed before.

Why does it matter? Let's say you add someone to your Contacts. Their name is "John Doe". Email address is "Homie@aol.com". But, in Outlook contacts, underneath the email address, it says "Display as: Homie@aol.com". Then, you send them an email. Sending him an email adds him to your Autocomplete file. The wrinkle is this. It adds them to the autocomplete file using whatever is in the "Display as:" field. So, he's added as "Homie@aol.com", and if you type in "John Doe", his name will never come up in the autocomplete list.

It's kind of confusing because, if you click on the little 'Check Names" button on the toolbar, he shows up surrounded by all the other John's that showed up in the autocomplete list before. The solution is to delete the name in the "Display as:" field, and tab out of the field. The field should then repopulate with "John Doe(Homie@aol.com)". Click on "Save and Close" to save the updated contact information. This deleted the old autocomplete entry ("Homie@aol.com"). Once you send him another email, he will then be added into the autocomplete file as "John Doe(Homie@aol.com)", and then the next time you type in "John Doe", it will suggest him in the autocomplete list. :)

If you want to delete invididual entries from the autocomplete list, reset your autocomplete cache, or disable autocomplete altogether, this site has you covered.

(The autocomplete file ends in .nk2. Mine is named "Microsoft Outlook Internet Settings.NK2").

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 11, 2006 at 3:14 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Denver's Toy Brokers

One of the nice things about retirement, is it gives you time to go see what the rich people are doing. For instance, you wouldn't believe the parking lot at TallGrass on a weekday in the middle of the day. But, when their wives are down at TallGrass, the men are out doing the only kind of shopping they enjoy. Looking for toys.

Here's some of the local Toy Brokers you may want to check out:

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 11, 2006 at 12:02 PM : Comments (3) | Permalink

Air Force One Revealed

The mediots are all up in arms because some back-woods Air Force base had a layout of Air Force One on their website. Mediots, apparently, are all about censorship, which is odd, considering they exist due to the freedom of the press.

http://cryptome.org/af1-rescue.htm
http://www.dsd.es.northropgrumman.com/DSD-Brochures/commercial_aircraft/MANPAD_Commercial_Aircraft.pdf
http://eyeball-series.org/af1-eyeball.htm
http://eyeball-series.org/af1big-eyeball.htm
http://eyeball-series.org/af1-birdseye.htm

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 11, 2006 at 10:21 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 9, 2006

Textorizer

Max Froumentin wrote a cool application called SVG Textorizer. It searches for the edges of elements in a photograph and rendors them as text. Paul Downey wrote a PHP extension with a web interface that allows you to run SVG Textorizer, without having to download and comile the source code yourself.

There's a second variation called Textorizer II. Textorizer renders a photograph using text, but only renders the edges of elements in the picture. Textorizer II basically renders the entire image, not just the edges.

For Textorizer, you have to compile the source code and Max's directions appear to use GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) to create a linux executable, if I'm not mistaken.

Download: textorizer.c . Compiling requires the libpng 1 library. To compile, type:

gcc -o textorize textorizer.c -lm -lpng

Instructions: type textorizer -h and follow the instructions.

New: a makefile and linux executables are available:

* dynamically linked (20K, MD5 sum )
* statically linked (614K, MD5 sum )

So, I'm not really sure how to get this to run under windows.

Continue reading "Textorizer"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 9, 2006 at 4:31 PM | Permalink

Betsy Markum and the 5 digit spammers

I got this post from Betsy Markum on one of my web pages recently:

I can't believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $70815. Isn't that crazy!

The comment had nothing to do with the post. Racansky got me on the right track with a google search. It's spam, but it's curious because there are no links in the spam. So, I assume their goal is to gather email addresses. In any event, it's spam. This post by Peter Kaminski suggests that there are other email spams out there that are similar. The thing they have in common is a random five digit number. So, I'm adding the following to my spamlookup keyword filter to moderate comments:

# five-digit spammers
/\b\d{5}\b/

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 9, 2006 at 11:17 AM | Permalink

April 8, 2006

Emergent Behavior and the internet

I swear the internet is out of control. As proof, consider the following. Tonight, I was browsing through the hits to my website, and checking how they found me. Mostly, I just see the normal google searches for airplane crash videos, how to make TATP in a bathtub, Al Queda training manuals, how to shoot down a plane with a .22 rifle. Just the normal searches. Then, I saw a link into my website today that seemed odd.

http://www.google.com/local?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=hostel&near=Key+West,+FL&sll=37.062500,-95.677068&sspn=23.875000,57.630

Someone searching for a youth hostel in Key West. OK. I've been there. Never stayed there, but I checked the place out, just for good measure. So, I click on the URL, and there's a freaking Google Map entry pinpointing the place with a big red thumbtack and a link back to my article on Key West on Peenie Wallie. So, I'm like...huh. And I'm hinking, how on earth did this item end up on a Google Map with my website tied to it. So, I go to my post on Key West and it says the following:

If the homeless runaways come up with any cash, they move into the Youth Hostel at 718 South Street (305)296-5719. They sleep 6 to a room, but it only costs $18.95 per night.

So, the only thing I can figure is that the googlebot spiders crawled my website, somehow deduced that this Youth Hostel was in Key West, Florida, put it on their Google Maps, and gave me credit for finding it. It seems to me that the internet is dangerously close to exhibiting signs of emergent behavior and self-organization, if it's not doing so already.

I, for one, welcome our new googlebot overlords.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 8, 2006 at 10:51 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Integrating Movable Type with Del.icio.us, Technorati, Digg, Furl, and Reddit

I seriously believe that the rate of change on the internet is increasing exponentially. I spend as more time on a computer than most people that I know. And then, I start getting emails to this new website "Digg", and I have no clue what that is. I host my own blog with Movable Type, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and ActivePerl. And yet, somehow, the applications that are being developed on the "internet platform", if you will, are getting away from me. I see other sites have "blog rolls", and I'm hard coding mine into my MT templates. The pace of change is so fast, that it's all I can do to learn the names of the new applications, much less what they do and whether I need to be using them or not.

Having said that, I want to take advantage of some of these new applications to increase the mindshare of my blog. Right now, I'm occassionally hardcoding Technorati tags into my posts on an individual basis. But, I want to get a plugin working that will identify Keywords for the post, and create tags for some of these new-fangled post-tagging application thingamajiggies like Del.icio.us and Digg.

So, part of the goal of this exercise will be to identify and define some of these silly applications so that I'm no quite so intimidated when I receive them in emails. After all, guns don't work in cyberspace. I can lock my doors and intimidate the neighbors, but there's only so much you can do to your inbox. Your inbox doesn't care that you stockpile guns and military vehicles and feed your dog gunpowder at night. It just doesn't get it.

Continue reading "Integrating Movable Type with Del.icio.us, Technorati, Digg, Furl, and Reddit"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 8, 2006 at 10:33 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Israel prepares to deploy top-secret technology

This video showing Israel's new "force field" technology is awesome. The technology, called "Trophy Active Defense System" is a top-secret countermeasure that neutralizes the explosive capability of an RPG.

Developed by Israeli company Rafael, it creates a sort of protective bubble defending ground vehicles against RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades). Although it's described as a "force field" technology, it appears to me to be a kinetic energy shield. The system tracks incoming targets, and intercepts them. Trophy is designed to form a "beam" of fragments, which will intercept the incoming threat at a range of 10 – 30 meters from the protected platform.

In March General Dynamics conducted a test with the Trophy system mounted on a Stryker LAV. Trophy detected, tracked and defeated an inert incoming RPG fired at a moving Stryker combat vehicle.

The technology is scheduled to be deployed shortly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 8, 2006 at 9:59 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

AT&T rolls over for the NSA - Again

The NSA suckered AT&T into rolling over on their customers. AT&T willingly allowed the NSA moles to eavesdrop on millions of innocent US citizens. We know because a whistleblower spoke up and spilled the beans on secret rooms the NSA installed at AT&T communication centers across the country.

And, are you ready for this? It isn't the first time. Read The Puzzle Palace by James Bamford.

Technorati tags: ,

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 8, 2006 at 8:56 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Autonomous X-37 Space Plane Lands (sort of)

The military's X-37 Space Plane landed itself at Edwards Air Force Base, but then ran off the end of the runway, sustaining minor damage. So, it was a "qualified" success. I, for one, welcome our new autonomous X-37 Space Plane overlords.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 8, 2006 at 12:16 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Welcom to Detroit

Welcome to Detroit - We hope you survive.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 8, 2006 at 12:01 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 7, 2006

San Francisco graffiti tour - Part 2

These photos were all shot from September through November of 2004 when I was commuting to South San Francisco. These images were captured with a Konica Minolta DiMage Z1 or a Canon EOS 20D. (You can tell the difference becase the Canon has a wider aspect ratio(3:2), compared to the Z1(4:3).

This 4 minute 25 second slideshow is a 28 Meg self-playing executable named babylon.exe created using Imagematics StillMotion PE. Soundtrack is Babylon off of the White Ladder album by David Gray.

Click here to download the presentation. If you have an Apple, or you're running Unix, or if you're nervous about running a .exe file from my site, then click here to download the Macromedia Flash version. The resolution is not quite as good on the Macromedia Flash version, and you can't pause and go backward and forward, but it loads faster, and it's a fairly decent presention. Click here if you need help.

More on San Francisco graffiti scene: Quality of Life, Piece by Piece, Graffiti Archaeology, Startmobile.net, Obey Giant, Street Art: The Spray Files

Technorati tags:

Lyrics in the extended entry.

Continue reading "San Francisco graffiti tour - Part 2"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 7, 2006 at 2:38 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

San Francisco graffiti tour - Part 1

I found a little present in my snail-mail box yesterday - an article from Tina from San Francisco magazine about the graffiti scene out in San Francisco. It got me to pining about all of the cool videos I had created, but then lost when my hard drive crashed a couple of years ago. So, I decided to try to pull some stills together and share some my thousands of images of San Francisco graffiti.

These photos were all shot in a photographic orgy from March 18-23 of 2003. The same week we went to war with Iraq. The same week that a massive blizzard hit the foothills of Colorado. The same week that I cut and ran to SF like a battered housewife fleeing in the night. I got out just a few hours before the hammer fell.

I shot these photos on a 4.1 megapixel Sony DSC-S85 digital camera, which I don't recommend and I sold on eBay shortly after I got it. However, the resolution is much better than the previous photos I had taken of San Francisco, which were just 640x480 stills from my Sony DCR-TRV330 HandyCam. So, these were the best images I'd ever taken in the city, at that point in time. Mostly, I was mostly just re-shooting graffiti I'd discovered between March and August of 2002, when I was commuting to Redwood City.

This 6 minute 24 second slideshow is a 42 Meg self-playing executable named baker_street.exe created using Imagematics StillMotion PE. Soundtrack is Baker Street off of the City to City album by Gerry Rafferty.

Click here to download the presentation. If you have an Apple, or you're running Unix, or if you're nervous about running a .exe file from my site, then click here to download the Macromedia Flash version. The resolution is not quite as good on the Macromedia Flash version, and you can't pause and go backward and forward, but it loads faster, and it's a fairly decent presention. Click here if you need help.


More on San Francisco graffiti scene: Quality of Life, Piece by Piece, Graffiti Archaeology, Startmobile.net, Obey Giant, Street Art: The Spray Files

Technorati tags:

Lyrics in the extended entry.

Continue reading "San Francisco graffiti tour - Part 1"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 7, 2006 at 11:49 AM | Permalink

April 6, 2006

iPAQ Pocket PC sync to XP with ActiveSync

I decided to sync my iPAQ Pocket PC to my XP desktop. Something I haven't done in ages. So, I went here and reinstalled ActiveSync 4.1.

I kept getting this message "connection disabled" when I ran ActiveSync on XP. This site set me straight.

In the PC, open ActiveSync, then click File/Connection Settings. Make sure that your method of connection is checked.

I went to File/Connection Settings and checked "Allow USB". Immediately, my PC beeped and launched some New Partnership wizard, which seems kind of ghey. I selected "standard partnership", "sync with desktop", device name "Pocket_PC_2006", then I selected to sycn calendar, contacts, tasks and hit finsih. It started whirring and said "Synchronizing". Now, it says they're all done!

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 6, 2006 at 5:14 PM | Permalink

Missing BCC field for new messages in Outlook

Whenever I created a new email in Outlook, the Blind Carbon(BCC) address line would never appear. It finally bothered me enough that I found this site:

Missing Bcc field for new messages in Outlook
Bcc - Blind Carbon Copy

Blind Carbon Copy is abbrieviated to"Bcc". If you add an email address to this box in an e-mail message, a copy of the message is sent to email address, but the recipient's details are not visible to other recipients of the message. Sometimes the Bcc box isn't visible when you select to create a new message.

But you can add it...
To view the Bcc address box

In Outlook, on the Actions menu, click New Mail Message.

* If you use Word as your e-mail editor: on the toolbar, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Options button, and click Bcc.

* If you do not using Word as your e-mail editor: on the View menu, click Bcc Field.

All new e-mail messages now display the Bcc address box.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 6, 2006 at 4:32 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Octopus vs. Shark Video

This is a cool video about what happened when they put a defenseless octopus in the Seattle aquarium with a tank full of sharks.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 6, 2006 at 4:23 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Getting in to wedding photography

I think I want to get into wedding photography. (I need to do something to generate some income, right?)
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27455
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Dzwj&tag=
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00F1tx&tag=
http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=2021

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 6, 2006 at 11:10 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

From my cold dead fingers

From Of Arms and the Law:

The Arizona legislature is on the verge of passing a a bill taking away power to seize guns in an emergency.

This is in response to the gun confiscations in New Orleans last year, where the military and the police conspired and disarmed law abiding citizens in their homes.

Hat tip to Robert Racansky.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 6, 2006 at 10:24 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Missing Link discovered in Canada

Looks like they've found the fossilized remains of an animal the was transitioning from a fish to a monkey in Canada.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 6, 2006 at 12:21 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 5, 2006

Setting default image editor in XP

I wanted to be able to right-click on a .jpg file and the select "Edit" and have it launch Photoshop Elements 4.0, instead of that miserable little Microsoft Paint program. This web site put me on the right track, though my situation was a little more complicated.

The directions say to go into Windows Explorer - select Tools - Folder Options - File Types. Select the .jpg file association and click on the "Advanced" button. Only, I didn't have an "Advanced" button. So, I clicked on the Restore Defaults button, then I saw my "Advanced" button. I had to add a new action of "Edit" and set Edit to point to Photoshop. So, it's working now. I can view the .jpg files in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, and edit them in Photoshop Elements.

Then, I wanted to change my Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 icon back to the sunflower, like it used to be in version 2.0. So, I got my old CD and inserted it. Copied off a file named PSELcd.ico and unter the Advanced button for the .jpg file time, I selected "Change Icon", and then pointed to the PSELcd.ico and restored my little yellow sunflower. Now, I'm happy. Their new icon was atrocious. Trust me on this one.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 5, 2006 at 11:42 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

More photos from today


Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 5, 2006 at 10:41 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Help Jim Win His Bet

I have no idea if Help Win My Bet is legitimate or not. Looks pretty convincing, but then, so did Save Toby. I figure that, if you're a guy, you should check out the Help Win My Bet link just on the off-chance that it might be legitimate.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 5, 2006 at 8:35 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Lasik At Home

LASIK@Home? Someone please tell me this is a joke.

LASIK@Home is the same patented surgical procedure performed at eye clinics around the world, but without the unnecessary equipment and staff. LASIK@Home takes the mystery (and expense!) out of complicated LASIK procedures. Thanks to the Scal-Palâ„¢ laser, you can go from blurry to clear vision in just four easy steps.

The Scal-Palâ„¢ is actually two lasers in one! First the Scal-Palâ„¢ femtosecond laser cuts a small flap in the cornea of your eye. Then the excimer laser vaporizes a tiny section of the lens without damaging the surrounding tissue. The whole procedure takes only a few minutes and is virtually painless.*

The Complete LASIK@Home Kit (patent pending) includes everything you need to complete the procedure.

* Scal-Palâ„¢ Hand-Operated Combination Femtosecond/Excimer Laser
* Mild sedative (diazepam 4mg)
* No-Blinkâ„¢ brand Eye Drops
* Detailed Instructions and QuickStart Guide
* Protective Post-Op Sleep Mask

I am so sure. Includes a "mild sedative (diazepam 4mg) ". Diazepam is Valium. Valium is the brand name for the drug Diazepam. I'm sure they're going to mail you valium to your house. And a hand-held excimer laser to vaporize "a tiny section of the lens". This has to be a joke.

Update: This is a hoax.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 5, 2006 at 8:09 PM | Permalink

Shadow Mountain Cabins

If you're wondering where this photo was taken, here's a Google Earth .kmz marker. If you don't have Google Earth installed, go here and download and install it immediately.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 5, 2006 at 7:15 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 4, 2006

Honda perfects self-parking car - Women rejoice

http://www.local6.com/technology/8458908/detail.html

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 4, 2006 at 11:38 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

WOW mourners pwned

So, if you're not playing World of Warcraft(WOW) more than 40 hours a week, and you're a white male in North America, then you're in the minority it seems. As am I. I've never played WOW. Not because I don't like it, but because I stopped playing virtual reality video games across the internet when my hands stopped working properly. About a year ago.

Anyhoo, apparently, about a month ago, this WOW player died in real life. So, she was really, actually, quite dead. As a tribute to her, her friends signed into her account, and resurrected her character inside the game. Then, her friends lined up in inside the game WOW to pay their respects to her in virtual reality. Kind of weird, but hey, think of the money you save on airfare.

So, a lot of her friends from the horde klan show up on the shores of some lake inside the WOW game, and they form this long solemn line to pay their respects. Only, while they're waiting in line, members of their rival Alliance klan(Serenity NOW and Gnomeland Security) appear unexpectedly and massacre everyone. Including the recently deceased character. They kill her first, and then annihilate everyone there to mourn her passing. And, of course, they capture a video of the entire escapade and set it to a soundtrack, and upload it for all the world to see. (High res version here.)

I'm not making this up. (Who could?) However, the nerd consensus is that they were holding the wake in Winterspring, a "contested zone on a PvP server", so, apparently that was not such a bright move, in nerd-space.

Here's another video from WOW where some guys are planning a skirmish, but apparently Leroy bolts prematurely and gets them all killed.

Continue reading "WOW mourners pwned"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 4, 2006 at 8:10 PM : Comments (3) | Permalink

Bear Creek near Idledale

If you're wondering where this photo was taken, here's a Google Earth .kmz marker. If you don't have Google Earth installed, go here and download and install it immediately.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 4, 2006 at 7:04 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Changing ISO Settings on the Canon EOS 20D

I have to admit that, although I routinely set the aperture and shutter speed on my 20D, particularly when shooting landscape photography, I've pretty much ignored my ISO speed. I've just set the ISO to 100, and pretty much ignored it. Now, I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't be changing it, particularly when shooting in low light, such as indoors and/or in low light conditions outdoors (dawn/dusk). Apparently, the theory is that, as you shoot at higher ISO speeds, there's more noise in the sensor. Although, the 8.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor is widely reported to have a very low amount of noise in the sensor in any case. Also, people are apparenly using NoiseNinja or NeatImage to clean up the noise.

Here's a fairly in-depth discussion on the pro's and con's of using various ISO settings on the EOS 20D.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 4, 2006 at 3:00 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

External Flash Photography with the Canon EOS 20D

Every article I read about the EOS 20D talks about how great the flash is. I'm not much of a photographer, but I can tell you this much. Don't believe it. The flash on the EOS 20D sucks. It's harsh. It's too low, so you get red eyes. And, it isn't bright enough. So, aside from the fact that it sucks, I guess they're right. So, I'm trying to figure out what type of external flash to get. I found this article very enlightening. (Pun intended).

Apparently, I want a flash that supports E-TTL II(Evaluative Through The Lens - Type II) flash metering.

They seem to recommend the Canon Speedlite 580EX($360), However, they also mention that Sigma makes a good flash for about half the price of Canon's flashes: Sigma EF 500 DG Super($150) and the Sigma EF 500 DG ST($200).

This website compares the Sigma EF 500 DG Super to the Canon Speedlite 580EX. Basically, they say that the Canon is better.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 4, 2006 at 1:59 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

This Is Not Me

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 4, 2006 at 10:34 AM : Comments (2) | Permalink

April 3, 2006

Zfone encryption of VOIP phone calls stymies NSA

Tired of good ole' Uncle Sam clandestinely eavesdropping on your phone calls? Do you think freedom is supposed to mean more than "free to choose your breakfast cereal"? Regardless of which surveillance state you live in, the apparachniks want to tap into your phone calls. Regardless of whether you're being spied on by the Ministry of Publik Security, the KGB, or the NSA, Zfone may be what you're looking for. Wired News reports:

How easy is it for the average internet user to make a phone call secure enough to frustrate the NSA's extrajudicial surveillance program?

Wired News took Phil Zimmermann's newest encryption software, Zfone, for a test drive and found it's actually quite easy, even if the program is still in beta.

Zimmermann, the man who released the PGP e-mail encryption program to the world in 1991 -- only to face an abortive criminal prosecution from the government -- has been trying for 10 years to give the world easy-to-use software to cloak internet phone calls.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 3, 2006 at 10:43 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

C-5 Cargo Plane Crashes at Dover Air Force Base

Looks like a C-5 crashed at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware. Immediately after takeoff, the pilots radioed they were having trouble and went around for a landing, but crashed short of the runway on their approach for emergency landing. 17 people on plane. No fatalities. Airdisaster.com has the scoop.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 3, 2006 at 10:19 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The Roomba Rumba

Just when you thought things couldn't get any weirder, they did. People are hacking their Roombas, the little robotic vacuum cleaners, and staging robotic cock-fights with them.

Roombas manufactured after October 2005 contain an electronic and software interface that allows you to control or modify Roomba's behavior and remotely monitor its sensors. This interface is called the Roomba Serial Command Interface or Roomba SCI. If you are a Roomba owner, your Roomba can be upgraded by following the below instructions. This update is not a necessary enhancement for Roomba owners, rather it is intended for software programmers and roboticists to create their own enhancements to Roomba.

Annalee Newitz breaks the story wide open:

Goddamn, who doesn't love a robotic vacuum cleaner cockfight? I know they're illegal in most states, but luckily California isn't one of them. Sure, there are liberals who say it's abuse to whip a Roomba into a frenzy, tape a pair of sharp scissors on its back and set it loose in the ring. But screw those bleeding hearts. Roombas, the saucer-shaped, floor-sweeping robots from iRobot, love to fight. It's in their nature.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 3, 2006 at 4:21 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Brits Spend 33 Million encouraging women and minorities to fish

From the you-cant-make-this-sh1t-up department, the brits are actually spending $33 million to encourage women and minorities to fish more. I kid you not.

About 4 million people enjoy a quiet afternoon on the river bank each year, but the government has determined that today's fishermen are too white, too male and too middle-aged, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The Environment Agency will use money raised each year by the sale of fishing licenses to pay for a new leaflet entitled "10 things you should know about angling."

"Angling does not discriminate against gender, race, age or athletic ability" and the "Government is interested in angling in the context of social inclusion in deprived urban areas," the leaflet says.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 3, 2006 at 1:31 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

10 Best Internet Hoaxes

10 Best Internet Hoaxes of all times, including the "Captured G.I. Joe Action Figure" story that the MSM fell for hook, line, and sinker.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 3, 2006 at 1:28 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 2, 2006

The Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time

The Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time including "The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest", "The Taco Liberty Bell", and "Alabama Changes the Value of Pi".

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 2, 2006 at 11:06 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Robot Fighting

Here's a pretty cool video of some robots fighting. One of them looks pretty spry.

I recently commented that robot fighting was going to be really cool in a couple of years. I was SO WRONG!!!! Robot fighting is cool NOW!!!!!!! The new champion of the world is called OmniZero.2. He's the little red guy who floats like a butterfly. Check out the moves he has: the body slam, the reverse body slam, the crouching jab, the double windmill. About half way in there's an AWESOME grapple and throw. Then he takes on a robot that's about twice his size. Here is the direct link to the video at Google Video.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 2, 2006 at 9:16 AM : Comments (2) | Permalink

April 1, 2006

Woman in anger management class threatens to kill classmate

Apparently, anger management classes aren't for everyone:

The specialist in the meeting room told police a 26-year-old man walked in and asked Prenderville if the seat next to her was taken. The specialist told police Prenderville immediately started yelling to the man, "I'm going to put a cap in you and send you to heaven."

Prenderville is accused of repeating the threat several times -- causing the man to become visibly shaken and start crying. She is also accused of threatening another client before storming out of the room.

A staff member told police Prenderville grabbed a plastic display from the lobby counter and threw it, breaking it. The staff member stated Prenderville then punched the display case at the front door, bending the door frame and damaging the glass.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 1, 2006 at 10:45 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

Ice Cream on Bear Creek

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 1, 2006 at 3:20 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Sunset in Golden

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 1, 2006 at 10:03 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Flag Waving Banned at Colorado School

Unfortunately, this is not an April Fool's joke:

Skyline High School Principal Tom Stumpf said American flags were brazenly waved in the faces of Hispanic students and in one case a Mexican flag was thrown into the face of another student.

"When it involves the American flag and its abuse in vilifying other people, we simply will not tolerate it," Stumpf said. "They were using the symbol derisively as misguided patriotism."

Misguided patriotism? Like, apparently, there are times when it isn't appropriate to be patriotic...in Colorado, no less. I mean, I can see that it might be in bad form to be waving an American flag in...say...England. But in Colorado? If you can't wave a flag here, then where can you?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 1, 2006 at 8:27 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink