Interesting poll results on AOL regarding the flap about the networks cutting short the President's news conference in favor of Sweeps Month network TV programming. Even more telling that Fox Network was one of them and that the local Sinclair Broadcasting Company station didn't air the conference at all while all the other local stations including PBS did so.

Considering the poll results and the selective broadcasting choices, it leaves me bewildered about how this guy got re-elected. Are people just not interested in what a president has to say, not interested in receiving their news from broadcast journalism and/or prefer to have their favorite pundit tell them what to think about what the president said rather then listen to him themselves?

Should the networks have aired Thursday's press conference?
No, they shouldn't have aired it 41%
Yes, and I watched 34%
Yes, but I didn't watch 26%
Total Votes: 117,339

How familiar are you with what Bush said at his press conference?
Very 44%
Somewhat 32%
Not at all 24%

Were you satisfied with what you heard?
No 68%
Yes 32%
Total Votes: 71,659


Bush vs. Paris Hilton

Similarity: Their last names were famous before them
Difference: Where do you start?

Who's more popular?
Paris Hilton 59%
George Bush 41%
Total Votes: 24,119


Bush vs. 'Survivor'

Similarity: Voters decide their future
Difference: Wardrobe on election day

Who would you vote to remove?
Bush out of office 60%
'Survivor' off the air 40%
Total Votes: 19,261


Bush vs. Donald Trump

Similarity: If they say "you're fired," it makes news
Difference: The hair

Who would you fire?
George Bush 60%
Donald Trump 40%
Total Votes: 21,139


Bush vs. 'The OC'

Similarity: 'OC' homes are as big as the White House
Difference: Bush got airtime on Thursday

How would you rather spend a day?
With show's cast on 'The OC' 60%
With Bush in D.C. 40%
Total Votes: 19,921

Stuart and Linda are getting settled into their new house in Florida. They currently have nine people in the house with the addition of the newest grandchild. Jason, Samantha and son Angelo moved in with them and a few days later, Samantha gave birth to a second grandchild.



Nana Linda and baby Andreas
on their first date.

I've added more pictures in the Family Photo Gallery.

Grrrr! I am so tired of Sinclair Broadcasting Company's censoring of the public airwaves! Every time a show comes on that they don't agree with they run either their own bastardized joke of a "Newsroom" drama or repeatedly air the same Billy Graham revival hour. It happens about 3 times a month.

Usually it is the Joan of Arcadia show in which they censor, but tonight the local Sinclair station is blocking the 60 Minutes show about the Italian woman who was shot in Iraq by US troops.

When will this blight on the public's airwaves be reigned in by the FCC?

Surely, if they'd held an art contest and had someone etch the likeness of the Virgin Mary upon the zircon, it wouldn't of taken nearly 20 years to obtain the funding from EBay for that million dollar lab equipment. Come on folks. You need a microscope to see the thing! And they never do say where it came from. This thing smacks of a grilled cheese sandwich or cornflake on steroids. Hope they cancelled the janitorial service so it doesn't get swept out with the rest of junk in the dust pan.

For one day only, Earth's oldest known object will be on display

MADISON - A tiny speck of zircon crystal that is barely visible to the eye is believed to be the oldest known piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old.

For the first time ever, the public will have a chance to see the particle today at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where researchers in 2001 made the breakthrough discovery that the early Earth was much cooler than previously believed based on analysis of the crystal.

To create buzz about an otherwise arcane subject, the university is planning a daylong celebration of the ancient stone - capped with "The Rock Concert" by jazz musicians who composed music to try to answer the question: What does 4.4 billion years old sound like?

With the aid of a microscope, anyone will be able to check out the tiny grain, which measures less than two human hairs in diameter.

As part of Saturday's event, Valley will display a brand new, $3 million ion microprobe that he and other researchers will use to analyze tiny samples such as the zircon crystal. The hand-built instrument weighs 11 tons and takes up an entire laboratory.

Valley, who has tried to obtain the equipment for 22 years, had to travel to Scotland and Australia while he analyzed the zircon to use equipment there. A federal grant is paying for most of the new instrument.

After the festivities the object will return to its native Australia with Simon Wilde, professor at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, who made its discovery in 1984. The sample will eventually be put on display at a natural history museum in that country.

Loudoun Judge Gives Spammer 9-Year Prison Term

A Loudoun County judge yesterday sentenced the first person convicted of felony spam charges in the nation to nine years in prison but allowed him to remain free on bond during his appeal.

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Jaynes as the head of a lucrative spam business that he operated from his home with help from his sister and codefendant, Jessica DeGroot, and a third defendant, Richard Rutkowski. They said the defendants used phony Internet addresses to send more than 10,000 spam e-mails to America Online subscribers on three days in July 2003 -- a volume that makes the crime a felony.

Horne said the jury's recommended sentence reflected community sentiment about spamming and what he called its "tremendous societal costs."

About damned time. Now, if only they'd do the same to the companies who cram our postal mail boxes with thousands of spam and junk mail. Surely the trees, energy, delivery and disposal costs are just as much a drain on society. Why isn't that considered a felony? What's the difference?

Severe weather in the Valley yesterday and today. Numerous tornado and funnel cloud reports. We must of had a funnel cloud or huge thunder storm cell pass over the Citrus Heights area around 3 pm today. The sky got eerily dark, trees were wildly swaying and blowing in several directions at once and we had pea-sized hail for a good 3 minutes. People always say it sounds like a freight train and I can say that yes, it sure does!

Good thing the Valley is a lot narrower then the Midwestern Plains! Not much room in the Valley for the tornados to ramp up into something life threatening.

Possible Tornadoes Sighted in Sacramento County

Tornado Reported Near Truxel Road And I-80


Funnel Cloud Spotted Near Lathrop

Anyone else having problems with Blogger in the last 48 hours or so? It has something to do with the new "recover post" feature they just installed. The "feature" creates a real-time copy of your post in a cookie it places on your PC. I have yet to get it to work without first clicking my heels together 3 times and chanting "there's no place like Google." If that doesn't work, I've been able to get a post to publish by first clearing all cookies, temp files and history and then loading up BlogThis! and using that utility to upload files or publish a post. The only trouble is if you need to edit your post, you get redirected to the blogger.com website again and get the browser errors when you try to publish what you edited. The work around for this is to clear cookies again, reload BlogThis! and copy and paste another version of your post, then go to blogger.com to delete the old version. Yes, the website does let you delete a post, just not create or edit one.

It would be a lot easier if they'd just let me continue clicking my heels together while chanting. At the very least, give me a way to disable the "recover post that never posts" feature.

Well...looks as if one of the bozos finally admitted to/got caught what we all knew all along.

Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo

Excerpts:

The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.

The unsigned memo -- which initially misspells Schiavo's first name and gives the wrong number for the pending bill -- includes eight talking points in support of the legislation and calls the controversy "a great political issue."

"This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy," the memo concludes.

It asserts that the case would appeal to the party's core supporters, saying: "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."

The most mind-boggling quote in the article:

Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."

How "stupid" does a person have to be to not know that campaigning for an intervening Bill in Congress is politicizing the issue? And, how "stupid" does a person have to be hand over documents to a collegue without at least glancing at them first? Who elected this guy? Oh yeah, he's from Florida, land of the hanging chad.

In light of the above, I offer my edited version of a joke going around message boards. Only, I am not joking...

I, being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it. This goes especially for those who cut off life support for vegetative-state relatives but characterize other people's private and well-reasoned decisions to do the same as murderous and evil.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a cold glass of water, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheaded clowns mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Americans who aren't in a permanent coma. (I realize it is sometimes difficult to determine which are the ones in a permanent coma.)

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case. I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge for their run for the presidency in 2008, it is my wish that they play politics with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own business, too.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his or her existence a living hell.

Sincerely,

Excellent article in the Rolling Stone this month. The Long Emergency

Yes, it is a very long article but worth the time invested to read through to the end.

Interesting concept described in this article.

Sony Invention Beams Sights, Sounds Into Brain

The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images.

The technique could one day be used to create videogames in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf.

"The pulsed ultrasonic signal alters the neural timing in the cortex," the patent states. "No invasive surgery is needed to assist a person, such as a blind person, to view live and/or recorded images or hear sounds."

This whole thing has so many aspects to consider, not the least of which is brainwashing. We went through this once before with the entertainment industry's attempt to use of subliminal advertising to sell products.

Sony says they have not done any experimental testing of the technique, they just want to have a patent in place should they get inspired to make use of it. Yeah...right.

I'll admit it has some interesting possibilities for the blind, and for finally creating the long-awaited "Smellavision." But the ease in which such a thing can be abused frightens me.


It will be interesting to watch the debate over this and compare it to the debate over stem cell research. My prediction is that those opposed to stem cell research and cloning will be gung ho for this brainwashing technique.

What better advertisement for the concept then a replay of Ronald Reagan's final tribute to the Challenger astronauts as he says "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God." Who wouldn't want to feel the touch of God upon their own face?

I have just one thing to say....

Job hunting sucks!


Oh, and another thing...to all prospective employers who don't acknowledge or respond when a resume is sent to them after they requested it, Monty Python said it best:

I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!