Maggie's Farm

(originally posted last Friday)

When Perro del Pájaro said it was going to be a 'long' weekend this morning, he wasn't kidding.  With the 1st falling on a Friday, you can bet this'll be a 3½, if not 4-day holiday for many.  Here's to ya. <clink!>

If you're looking for something to do, I have a few ideas to toss into the mix.

Speak Up!

Do I really have to tell you how important this next election is?  Are you honestly just going to sit there on your duff the whole time, or are you going to be a part of it?  If Obama is reelected, who ya gonna blame?  Everybody else for not being more proactive?

I'll be debuting this site next week sometime, but it's rarin' to go now:

If you're one of those 'blogger' type o' guys, please grab the link and spread it far and wide.

Unless you'd rather go through four more years of this, of course.

Home Repair

Finally!  At last you don't have some cheap, paltry excuse to hand the wife on why you can't get to all those fix-it jobs that have been piling up!

Lucky you!

Rather than this being a "how-to" site, it's more like a "Can I do it?" site, and should give you a pretty good idea as to whether you can handle it yourself or not.

A water heater is a pretty good example.  Because they're large, they look kind of 'serious', and most people's first thought would be to call the plumber if it started to leak.  But when you actually look at what exactly needs to be unhooked, it's really quite simple, and bendable supply lines mean you don't have to get an exact replacement so the inlet and outlet pipes match up.  And, just between you and me, a pipe wrench is probably cheaper than a 4-hour visit from the union plumber.

Now in Deutsch, Français y Español!

Guaranteed Original*

*discounting coincidence, of course

I rarely write unless I have something new to add to the narrative, or a fresh slant on something.  The OJ jury got it right.  Magellan was a lie.  Maggie's Farm is politically centrist.  You know, the usual kind of wild hyperbole you expect in the blogosphere.  A nice little intro to my unique style is here.  The main site is here:

And for your visual delight:

Fly The Friendly Skies

Have you heard of Google Earth?  It basically lets you fly around the globe in your own personal space ship, then zoom way in to look at your topless neighbor sunbathing historical monuments.  It's a series of constantly-updated images from every spot on the globe, and there are big sites out there dedicated to posting the latest crazy/odd/beautiful spots people find.  You click on the link and your own program takes you there.  Very cool.

There are gigantic compass roses out there that you'd never have a clue what they were from the ground, as well as a whole shitload of wild mazes, cities and terrain in 3-D (you can fly between buildings and down the Grand Canyon), real-time airline tracking, real-time weather, strange geoglyphic inscriptions spanning the length of a football field — and that's not to mention some very convincing alien crop circles.

I've put together a number of video tours to show off this remarkable program.  The 'Google Goofs' tour is hysterical.

Have a fun weekend, y'all.

And happy birthday, America.

This isn't a particularly exciting post, just a follow-up.

A few years ago I wrote The Sound of Many Faucets Running, a look at the new dollar coins.  Coins last much longer than bills, y'see, therefore using much less energy to replace, thereby saving the planet from catastrophic meltdown.

While my post was fairly routine, I have to admit that if we had to switch from dollar bills to coins, I thought my idea bordered on the brilliant.

And here we are today:

Inside the Fed’s Vault: $1 Billion Worth of Unused Coins

In the basement of a Baltimore vault the size of a soccer field, 1 billion dollar coins are just sitting there. Thanks, Congress.

And the planet thanks you!

Actually, there appears to be a bit of gray area as to why they tried to foist these on us in the first place.  From the original article:

The U.S. Mint is spending about $12 million on a pilot project to promote the presidential dollar coin by appealing to Americans' duty to protect the environment while saving the government money.

But now it's:

NPR’s Planet Money reporters recently investigated the $1 presidential coin program, which was a Congressional effort to get more $1 coins into circulation while also trying to be educational.

That's right, folks.  They're educational.  We're doing it for the children!

And, of course, it would be downright criminal not to include the Shoshone woman who help guide Lewis & Clark on their expedition:

At the same time, the legislation mandated that a certain number of Sacagawea coins be made in conjunction with the presidential coins, which has now amounted to one Sacagawea for every four presidents.

Spokespersons for the Mohave, Navaho, Pima, Yuma, Washo, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Cree, Crow, Dakota, Osage, Seminole, Comanche, Wichita and Apache tribes could not be reached for comment.

At the moment, the program is still moving forward, and NPR projects that by the time it’s finished, 2 billion coins could be sitting in the Fed’s vaults. Next up for minting is our 19th president, Rutherford B. Hayes.

Rutherford B. Hayes?  Be still, my beating heart!

I remember it well.

It felt like it had been the longest week of my life.  I was filling in at some big apartment complex while the building's handyman was on vacation, and I ran my tail off all week long fixing things.  I came home that Friday and did something I'd never done before, and have never done since:

I flopped into my easy chair.

Normally, I plunk myself down in front of the computer and get caught up.  But I was so beat that I just wanted to hit the La-Z-Boy and relax.

Out of boredom, I turned on the TV.

It was kind of a bizarre sight.  On a completely empty highway, a white SUV was cruising down the fast lane going about 45 miles per hour, trailed by a zillion police cars.  It eventually turned off and as it drove through the neighborhoods, people stood on the side of the street with signs reading "Go, OJ!", "We Believe In You!", "Run, OJ, Run!"

As I said, it was pretty bizarre.

And thus started a nine-month journey as I watched every word of testimony and every cable talk show that evening, VCR at the ready for overlapping shows.  And yes, I was there, a few weeks after the trial ended, watching the final talk show on the trial's aftermath, and when they signed off, that was the last of the 'OJ Special' shows.

So I obviously consider myself something of an expert on the subject.

The other day there was an article on Hot Air claiming that OJ was going to 'fess up and admit to Oprah that he did, indeed, kill Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.  It's probably a hoax, but we'll see.

You might agree with some of the comments:

The verdict had NOTHING to do with the murders. It was a racial vindication that a black man could kill two white people and get away with it if the jury was black. It’s called jury nullification and it’s happened many times throughout history. It doesn’t make it any less disgusting but it is a fact.

They didn’t believe he was innocent, they just refused to process the facts of the case. They went into this jury duty with a pre-determined outcome.

Stupid judge.  Stupid, stupid, stupid jurors.

Wasn’t the composition of the jury all black females?  Not that it would make any difference in their decision-making of course.

The jury was not all black. It was, however, all dumb. In fact, it was what they call a “downtown jury” meaning they are stupid and prosecutors are less likely to get convictions.

Actually, these people are as wrong as wrong can be.

And here's why.

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From an old buddy of mine in Oregon:

Hi, Doc -

Well, piss.  I'm extremely upset about two things:

-- I was wrong

-- You were right

And that's enough to piss off ANYBODY!

I'll say.  I cringe at the mere thought.

Like a lot of people, my friend always assumed that because his last name is somewhat unusual, he'd always be able to pick up his "name.com" domain whenever he wanted.

He also thought he'd never actually have a use for it, in the sense that he doesn't have any kids, so it's doubtful he'll be posting pics of his cute grandkids a few years down the road, plus he doesn't have any interest in blogging.

Then he went to some kind of 'crafts school' for a month and is now gearing up to sell online some of the nifty things he's turning out, like lamps and chandeliers.  But he doesn't want to commit himself to any one genre in a business sense, like using "JimsCustomLighting.com" for the domain, so what he really wants to do is — you guessed it — use his real name.

And — you guessed it — the domain is gone, gobbled up by the domain harvesters.  It just goes to some "This domain is for sale" page.  And, in many cases, you don't actually get to buy it from them for a mere $4,999.99, you lease it from them on a yearly basis extending from now until the end of eternity.

And then there's this (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

I just don't get it.  Did they pre-register it because of all the James Bellywhumpers out there, knowing one of us would be along any minute?  I typed a few variations into the browser about a year ago and they were all available (it went to Bing).  Did I tip my hand?

Ya got me.  You wouldn't think that Bing (Microsoft) would actually sell its list of searches with the word ".com" in them to some domain harvester, but, on the other hand, it's not illegal to harvest domains, so it probably wouldn't be surprising to find out the domain harvester in this case is owned by Microsoft.

As it is, my friend isn't sure what the hell he's going to do.  Probably end up using "JimsCustomDoodads.com".

So if you ever think you might want your own domain name, now's the time.  Nor do you have to actually do anything with it, like build a temporary web site to 'hold' it.  And most web hosting companies will automatically re-bill you each year so you don't lose it.

I've been designing web pages since the web was one month old, have used a lot of web hosting companies over the years, and my pick of the litter these days is BlueHost.  Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage space, unlimited email boxes, a whole shitload of helper programs, and all for a lousy $6.95 a month.

The direct link is here.  If you want to read a bit more about BlueHost and get some ideas on conjuring up an available domain name (like using hyphens), read this, then use the link on the page to get to BlueHost.  If the domain's available, GET IT.  You're not signing up for a 1-year contract or anything.  If you later decide you don't want it, they'll pro-rate it back and refund you the difference with no 'disconnect fee'.

If you're interested in firing up a blog site (elections are coming up!) or web site, please...

Like everyone else in the audience, if I had been watching 'Britain's Got Talent' when Susan Boyle walked onto the stage, I would have figured this was going to be a total disaster.  A more frumpy, frowzy, middle-aged Scottish woman would be hard to imagine.  Then she starts cackling away and going through some goofy gyrations and you're starting to think that maybe it's going to be some kind of musical comedy skit.  Either way, you know it's going to be just awful.

But then.

 

Hopefully, we all learned a little lesson about stereotypes and preconceived notions that day.

If we didn't, here's lesson two:

 

 

The Good News:

Out on DVD are the first two seasons of one of the most intriguing TV shows you will ever see, Lie To Me.

The Extra Good News:

It was cancelled halfway through season three.

Here's a scene from the beginning of the pilot which perfectly encapsulates the essence of the show, blending into a later scene when they recruit a new prospect for the team.  The younger dude provides the show's comic relief as he practices his philosophy of 'radical honesty'.

Okay, so the young dude doesn't provide all of the show's comic relief.

"Have you ever had any specialized deception training?"

"I've dated a lot of men."

As you saw, there's a great interplay between the boss and his chief partner (he's studied the science for 20 years, she's a master psychologist) and the writers do an excellent job with the 'bright newcomer' to the team over the first two seasons as she goes from 'intuitive rookie jumping to wrong conclusions' to the 'seasoned veteran exercising restraint and impartiality'.

As I said, the first two seasons are highly recommended.

As for the third season, and why it was cancelled halfway through, it's a story too lurid for the front page of any family-friendly blog, so below the fold we must dip.  There, I shall tell the sordid tale of how some liberal scumdog of a producer got his rightful and very deserved comeuppance.

I must confess before God and a jury of my peers:

I'm an airline disaster buff.

They're the ultimate Sherlock Holmes mysteries.  You're given mere scraps of information, the wreckage is usually twisted beyond recognition, and you're faced with the knowledge that nine times out of ten you're looking for a chain of failures, not just a single part that suddenly went kaflooey.

And unless it's an actual bomb, which is fairly easy to detect afterward because of the micro-pitting that takes place during an explosion, the one thing that modern airliners almost never, ever, do is suddenly just go poof and drop off the radar screen without a peep from the crew.

As Air France Flight 447 did two years ago, taking 228 people to a watery grave.

Below the fold I'll present a 1-hour video on the mystery and an update on the recent findings.  Unlike normally, where the black boxes provide the vital clues that solve the enigma, this time around the complete opposite occurred.

They've been saying "The 60's are over" for years.  And now, for Mr. Bob Dylan, they finally are.

Ol' Bob turns 70 today.

Pic: Not a recent photograph

There's a decent little article on him here, and lots of birthday links here.

Bob Dylan can agitate people — much like the way he used to when he was in his 20s and being branded as “Judas” for daring to play loud rock music to folk-loving audiences.

I'll say.  Most people I knew would have been happy to put a knife through his eye for dragging an electric guitar onto the stage.  In the world of folk music, there can be no greater blasphemy.

On the flip side, if it hadn't been for electrics, we never would have been blessed with 'Blood On The Tracks', my personal fave Dylan LP*.

*For those of you under 50, 'LP' stands for 'Long Playing', as in "record album", as in "vinyl", as in "precursor to the frisbee", as in "the worst form of storage media ever used in the history of the universe after aluminum foil canisters."  However, simply because they were so fragile, we treated them like gold, thus imparting a certain feeling of 'personal protection' over our music stars; a feeling you certainly don't get in the throwaway world of CDs and memory sticks.

The way I see it, the reason Dylan successfully pulled off the switch to electrics is twofold.  The main thing was that, even with electric guitars and drum sets banging away in the background, they still sounded like Dylan songs.  Credit his squeaky voice and simplistic chord structure if you will, but it was actually a little deeper than that.  Maybe it would be more appropriate to say that, despite the guitars and drums, his songs were still Dylanesque.  That 'intangible something' was still there.  And that, in the final analysis, was all that mattered.

But another reason is, while he used electric instruments, he never 'went electric' like the way so many bands did, bringing in moog synthesizers and fuzz guitar and electronic sitars and all the rest.  He was still, in that final analysis, the quintessential Dylan we had known and loved for years.

Squeaky voice, simplistic chord structure, and all.

Happy birthday, Bob.  And many more.

This has been making the rounds today and I thought it deserved a spot here.

I thought one of the most interesting articles to drift through recently was California Prison Academy: Better Than a Harvard Degree.  Give it a spin.

What made it particularly intriguing is that you know the author wanted to put a negative slant on it, i.e., the lavish benefits and pensions the guards receive are further proof of this once great state's demise — but she just couldn't.  The numbers were simply overwhelming.  The only logical summation one can arrive at upon finishing it is that only a moron would go to an Ivy League school, or even college in general.

Why bother going through all that, when you can expend a tenth the effort and end up in a cushier position when you retire at an earlier age?

But wait.

Before you send your boss that angry "I QUIT, ASSBITE!" email and head for the nearest California Prison Guard Academy, let me toss out another golden opportunity (they don't call it the 'Golden State' for nuthin') that you might find even more attractive.  We'll use a photographic display to help you decide.

The scenario:

You're at your job, tending to people's needs, when suddenly you're confronted with one of your young charges in distress.

Of the following two choices, please pick the person in distress that you'd most like to see before you:

If you chose 'B', be sure to check out this amazing job opportunity!

Oh, to be young again!

Now that I'm actually using Windows 7, I'll have to take back all of those cruel, nasty, horrid things I said about it in my initial review.

I hereby take them all back.

So, to sum up:

— If you're an average user who just grabs the ol' email and surfs the 'ol web, then Win7 is a great step up from XP or Vista.  It's quicker than older versions in almost every way you can name.

— On the other hand, if you're a geek like me who wants a tough, robust operating system that you can tweak and reconfigure and generally thrash about, then you want Windows 7.  You don't get any of the tweaking and reconfiguring and thrashing stuff — but the increased speed makes up for everything.

Specific notes and fixes are below the fold.

Like you, I always find it particularly irksome when I do acrobatic stunts in my airplane and one of the wings suddenly snaps off.  You look out the window and think, "Crap!  I lost another wing!  This is really getting irksome!"

Well, there isn't much to do at that point except get the dang thing back on the ground and glue on another wing.

No big deal.

Well, that was disappointing.

Traditionally, when Microsoft releases a new version of Internet Exploder, a chill runs through the geek community as we cower and tremble, wondering what have they done to the poor thing this time?  Some favorite button is now gone?  That one tricky thing it did is now history?  That one feature that you found quite useful, but nobody else did, has been removed because nobody else did?

There's always something we can count on to gripe, moan, carp, whine and bitch about.

But, showing that Microsoft can be even crueler than cruel, this time they played the dirtiest trick on all on us:

They didn't change anything.

And if that isn't spitting in the face on tradition, I don't know what is.

Pic: The lovely Melanie proudly displays two of Doc's favorite logos.

Oh, I might also mention that it's now faster than goose shit when accessing blog sites.  Review & setup tips are below the fold.

One of the best things about writing program reviews is that sometimes someone springs out of the woodwork with a better suggestion.  A while back I wrote a review on 'Start Menu 7', a replacement Start Menu for Windows 7.  But while it works perfectly, it still costs twenty clams.

Enter 'Classic Start Menu' (where do they dream up these wild and crazy names?), a free replacement that mimics the old style menu perfectly.  It's also quite configurable so you can get rid on any unwanted Start Menu entries, like "Help & Support", the ultra-worthless 'Search' box, and arrange the columns and icons to just the right size.

But the main thing is that the menus auto-expand — like in the old days — so there's no unnecessary clicking.  If I want to access 'Process Explorer' inside of my 'Tools' Start Menu folder, that's 5 mouse clicks with the stock Start Menu, 2 with Classic.

Additional info (and some other program suggestions for Win7) is below the fold.

I find it intriguing that what should be one of the most easily-answerable questions in history:

Who first sailed around the world?

has an incorrect answer.


Ferdinand Magellan, right?

Not even close.  All he did was go the equivalent distance.  He sailed from Europe to the Philippines, then back again, then, later, out to the New World, around the southern tip and across to the Philippines... where he promptly hired himself and his band of cutthroats out as mercenaries to fight for a local warlord and got an arrow through his noggin as a reward.

So, while he went the equivalent of, he never actually sailed around the world.

So, who did?

The fact that almost nobody knows is what makes this such a great PR victory for Spain, who Magellan sailed for.  When you cheat history, you're in the big time.

As all deniers, skeptics and heretics know, NASA has been the leading pusher of the global warming hoax here in America.  While such august agencies as NOAA and the USGS have been firmly on board, NASA has been the real pioneer.

So it should come as no surprise that NASA has just spent another bazillion dollars of taxpayer money in a vain effort to bolster its feeble, warped and biased conclusions.

Or at least it tried to:

So that's not only good news, but, thanks to the hard efforts of the Washington Examiner, quadruply so!  Thanks, Washington Examiner!

Update: When we last left the riveting tale about minimizing full-screen programs that won't minimize while they're working, we were still using the stale, antiquated manual method, where you actually had to physically move the mouse and everything.

Well, I'm currently using one of those pesky programs a bunch, and I obviously tired of the painstaking, laborious process of opening Task Manager and minimizing the window every dang time, so I solved the problem using a DOS batch file.

It's now just a click away.

Details at the bottom of the post.

 

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Pic: Artist's conception of our Editor when we ask for a raise.

Every now and then you might run into some stubborn program that won't minimize while doing its thing.  For programs like video editors that might take an hour or two to render a file, it can be a tad aggravating when you want to get to the Desktop for something.

There are actually two ways to force a program to minimize, each with a plus and a minus.

To minimize everything that's open, hit Windows-D.  The Windows key is usually on both sides of the space bar, the one with the little logo on it.  You can also hit the tiny blue icon on the far right of the Task Bar.

This will allow you access to the Desktop.  The hitch is that you then have to open back up the programs you were using.  In that regard, it's quicker to do the following.

The second way takes an extra step, but it's permanent.  Either hit Ctrl-Alt-Del or click on the Task Bar with the right mouse button and open the Task Manager.

Click on the 'Applications' tab, highlight the program's name with the right mouse button and select "Minimize" from the drop-down menu.  That'll keep it minimized until it's finished.

The Windows key actually has a number of functions, but I've never found any of them to be of much use.  If you have kids in the room and want to dash to the kitchen for a few minutes, hitting Win-L will lock the keyboard and keep things safe while you're away.  For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, try this site.

Info on the 'one-click' closing method is below the fold.

 

An old friend of mine is seriously PO'd.

Worse, he has no one to blame but himself.  Double-worse, he knows he deserves extry blame because he's friends with the wise and fabled Dr. Mercury who's been harping about this friggin' subject for years.

As his friend, and knowing he deserves extry blame, I've naturally been doing my part by sending him little cheer-up notes, like "Are you still blaming yourself?  I would," and "Have you forgiven yourself yet?  Why should you?"  I'm particularly fond of "Don't worry, everyone makes incredibly stupid mistakes in their lives.  I'm sure there's plenty more where this one came from."

His name is something akin to "Stephen Gerald McKinley".  Not uncommon names, but not particularly common, either.  But uncommon enough that, put together, you'd figure there couldn't be all that many of them in the world, and what are the odds that they'd all want personal sites of one type or another?

Pretty good, as it turns out.

When he finally — finally! — got around to checking, there wasn't one single variation on his name available.  That includes abbreviated spelling and using hyphens, and at one point he actually tried "stephengeraldmckinley2.com" — and even that was taken.

That's when he knew he had really screwed the pooch big time.  Because domain names never return to the public trough.  The domain harvesters figure — correctly — that if one person wanted it, then someone else will want it, so they're snatched up electronically the micro-instant they become available.

And, just as a small side note, with many of the domain harvesters, you don't buy the domain from them for the tidy sum of $4,999, you lease it from them for time eternal.  It's not pretty.

So if you EVER think you might want a site, even years and years down the road so you can post pictures of yourself looking mournful and bedraggled so your children will take pity on you and treat you to a dinner consisting of something other than dog food, now's the time to grab it.

Conversely, it's a great way to help the grandparents do their Christmas shopping. First, post pictures of 2-year-old Timmy on your personal site.  If possible, catch him when he's off-guard and not trying to set the cat on fire.  Send the link to Grandma.

When the swooning Grandma asks on the phone what little Timmy wants for Christmas, tell her "Timmy said a large gift card from Best Buy would 'best' suit his tastes -- ha-ha.  Quite the precocious child, isn't he?  I think he gets it from you."

Of course, you could make tons of money from your domain, but who wants to discuss such a crass subject?  Besides, those thousands of dollars a day don't just roll in by themselves.  Sometimes the site owner has to spend a good ten or fifteen minutes doing site chores, which can really cut into one's golf and bowling time.

Personally, I suggest you start with actually getting the domain name — then we'll make you a millionaire.

It should be noted that you don't actually have to put up some kind of web or blog site to hold the domain.  All we're talking about is reserving it.  Cost is a whopping $6.95/mo.

The jump-off point is here.  That'll give you some background on the hosting company I use, some tips on picking a domain name and a link to get started.

And best of luck!

I'm afraid you're going to need it.

This is actually somewhat rare.  It's one thing if individual bloggers face off, like some squabble between Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds, but the big league blogging sites, like Pajamas Media, Townhall, Politico and RealClearPolitics, usually refrain from any specific finger-pointing or name-calling.

Still, I agree that this Politico piece of AGW sputum is an exception.  As I was reading it, I was thinking in the back of my mind, "Wow, what is this, 2003?"  Then I get down to the comments and some guy's exclaiming, "Wow, this looks like a piece from 2003!"  It just reeks of nostalgia.  The only thing missing was any mention of the polar bears and their sad, plaintive plight.

The problem, as with any AGW article these days, is that the question that immediately arises is, do they know what they're claiming is complete bullshit — and thus they're just flat-out lying to us?  Is it money, power, sex?  Ego, pride, reputation?  Or are they honestly so naive as to believe everything they read in the MSM and disregard the rest?  As the renown TigerHawk would ask, can you think of a third alternative?

First, if you dare:

Galileo Moment for GOP

I have no comment as I read it yesterday and my mind has mercifully deleted the entire contents — and I refuse to go through such an ugly ordeal again.  My guess is that he was entirely correct about the warming part, right up until he used the word "man".

The response from RealClearPolitics is not only a superb piece in itself as he totally dismantles the guy, but it also has some interesting background on Galileo, which is actually why I'm posting it.  I don't do straight AGW anymore.  The whole topic is just so 2010.

Galileo and the Scientific Pose of the Left

I would only add that despite my having a plethora of questions for the author of the first article, the very first question — as it relates to the title of his post — would be, "What does global warming have to do with the GOP and politics?"  From the title of his post, alone, he exposes the fact that this is an ideological rant bent along established party lines, not an independent review of a scientific question.  It's just amazing lefty writers don't understand how clearly we see through the ideological patina they cover themselves with.

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As a small footnote, Bird Dog did one of his semi-annual "Tell your friends about Maggie's Farm" posts the other day.  When you describe it to them, you can now add, "It's the kind of site where you'll see the words plethora and patina in the same paragraph!"

I mean, is dis a classy joint, or what!

Popular Science visited some toy fair the other day and ran an article on some of the snappier products.  I thought I'd highlight a few here.

Let's start off with an easy one.  This is one of those puzzles that's actually much easier to do than it sounds.

The object is to roll the ball through the obstacle course.  Easy enough?  The hitch is, you have to sit four feet away and you can't touch anything.

The answer?

Well, mind control, of course.

How else would you do it?

Mindflex was a great step forward in games, tracking your EEG waves through a headband to help you move a ball across the board. But who wants to play a game alone, right? Mattel's new MindFlex Duel is an upgraded two-player version in which you and a friend race to move the ball across the game board or through an obstacle course. It's a true battle of wits.

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Sure, you'd like to hide a video camera in the girls' locker room.  Who wouldn't?  The problem is, the darn steam always fogs up the lens!  Obviously, the answer is to secretly dash in, grab the vid, then dash back out before the lens gets fogged up.

As we say in the locker room biz, no sweat!

Get the car's-eye-view from a camera embedded in the hood of these three-inch racecars. Each 1:64 scale car can hold up to 12 minutes of VGA-quality video and has a one-inch LCD on its lower chassis for instant playback -- or you can load videos onto a computer to share online.

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Most people like pets.  I've raised tropical fish and exotic goldfish, dogs and cats, rats and rabbits.  And many people would like to keep a small 'desk pet' at work, like a cute little hamster or guinea pig running around the desktop, keeping one company in the wee hours.  Unfortunately, the cruel, merciless corporate plutocrats in their effort to keep us crushed beneath the imperialistic jackboot of authority have deemed this inappropriate.

Still, there's a simple answer.  I present this more as a harbinger of things to come:

Set this palm-sized 'bot on its way on your desk without worrying that it will knock over the coffee cup in its path. When it's not being controlled by its accompanying iPhone app, the TankBot's autonomous mode relies on infrared sensors to see and avoid obstacles, so it won't make a mess of your workspace.

As for the future,

The mind reels!

Maggie's doesn't have a 'Contact' page for a couple of reasons.  For starters, most of the gang are working professionals and simply don't have the time to respond to individual inquiries.  Then there's the hours needed to sweep out the stalls and slop the hogs that has to be accounted for.  And, to be honest, we're kind of a laid-back bunch and aren't very concerned about typos and broken links and whatnot, which is really what a contact page is for.  If all you want to do is mouth off about the article, that's why there's a comments section.

By the same token, we always appreciate suggestions for posts and links to interesting things, so we don't consider it 'off-topic' or 'threadjacking' to leave them in the comments.

Whose thread you leave it in would depend on the topic.  If it's a newsy item, then the daily links would probably be the best spot.  If it's a more worldly item, especially if it relates to the military, then Bruce is your guy.  For cultural matters, such as education and the economy, I'd turn it over to Barrie.  Dr. Bliss, our resident shrink, doesn't have the time to spend with comments, so don't bother there.  Geek stuff and videos and such should be directed to me, Dr. Mercury.

As a small caveat, many times a blogger will glance over the comments ten or twenty minutes later, but then get busy and not check again.  So if you leave a suggestion and it goes unanswered, it might just be the person never saw it.  If it's actually important, leave it in one of my threads because I answer everybody.  (I work at home so I have more time than they do)

In summation, none of the bloggers are going to complain if you jump into one of their posts with an off-topic link.  Proper protocol merely dictates that you acknowledge your off-topicness with a quick "Pardon my being off-topic, but have you seen this amazing video?" or words to that effect, just to let people know.

Ah, those wacky third-world countries!

Romanian Witches May Face Prison If Predictions Don't Come True
"There's more bad news in the cards for Romania's beleaguered witches."

Family Set For Exorcism
"A South African family who are plagued by mysterious fires will be celebrating this Friday with an exorcism."

Malaysia To Ban Heavy Metal Music In Order To Quell Rise In Satanism 
"Malaysia is considering banning heavy metal music to crack down on an allegedly satanic youth organisation."

Yep, if it weren't for the goofy stuff coming out of those third-world countries, we wouldn't have anything to laugh about at all.

And look, here we go again!

Headless Ghost Forces Theme Park to Move Ride

Pretty amazing, eh?  A huge theme park has to relocate a ride because of a... ghost?

Bosses at a theme park were forced to move a new ride after workers reported seeing what appeared to be a headless monk.

A paranormal detection agency called in by park bosses to carry out tests found that an ancient burial ground or settlement could have been disturbed.

Paranormal expert Jim Arnold, who carried out tests at the site, said that "results were picked up immediately, with orbs, ghostly images in photography and Ouija reaction results being strongest around the site where they were proposing to build Storm Surge. The results were so strong we felt the only explanation could be that an ancient burial ground or settlement was being disturbed, prompting the extra paranormal activity."

Wouldn't you just love to know what an Ouija reaction result is?  The person holding the board hiccuped and the pointer moved?

And I like the term "extra" paranormal activity — as referred to the normal amount of paranormal activity found at construction sites.

Oh, and the name of this backwater third-world country caving to medieval superstition?

Well, just click on the link and find out for yourself.

I'd hate to spoil the fun.