Brilliant strategy

There's a woman who's being prosecuted for running a prostitution ring in DC. In her defense, she wants to have the court call some prominent men to testify that they only used the service for massages not sex.

She's already named the guy who previously held a top job in the Bush administration overseeing AIDS relief, in which he promoted abstinence and a policy requiring grant recipients to swear they oppose prostitution.

See, these guys don't want to be named at all, but if they are, I'm sure they'll be more than willing to say that they only received massages...

Smart broad.

Poodles != Sheep

Apparently, a bunch of folks in Japan bought poodles for a really cheap price ($1,600!!!) and then were upset when the darn dogs wouldn't bark or eat dog food. They were dismayed to find out they purchased sheep.

Eh? Strange but true.

Updated at 4:30pm:

Strange and not true. Darn. It so amused me.

Top 10 George Bush Moments

David Letterman's contribution to the White House Correspondent's dinner. Heh. (thanks Volker!)

Don't even get me started on this...

Women make only 80 percent of the salaries their male peers do one year after college; after 10 years in the work force, the gap between their pay widens further, according to a study released Monday.

Basically, the article says that young women aren't promoted because companies assume they will have children and that they will then leave the workforce.

I have mixed feelings about the whole women/children/working thingy cause I know several friends who have stayed in the workforce after having kids and many of them definitely don't have the same focus or priority towards their job after having children. I think this is natural and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Then again, I have a really close friend from high school who is quite the muckety muck (Sr. VP at a global firm) who has a 6 year old son. And her husband is quite successful too. But of course, they live in NYC and have all sorts of dough and help. And, her field is one that tends to be largely populated with women, which probably doesn't hurt.

The part that bugs me is the company's assumption that women will make the choice to leave the workforce when/if they have children. This of course doesn't take into account women that don't or can't make the choice to stop working or women who have the financial means or a supportive partner to give them the opportunity to continue to focus on their career or women who can't or don't have children at all, who are penalized because the company assumes they will have kids and leave.

And of course, this is all subtle and not documented and may not even be conscious (although I might be bending too far in giving them the benefit of the doubt there...).

Not sure how we can resolve this one, but really would love to.

Internet radio

I don't know about you guys, but I listen to radio over the internet a lot when I'm working. I generally listen to http://www.kcrwmusic.com, personally, but there's zillions of radio stations out there. (KCRW is a great place to learn about new music and bands - I highly recommend it.)

In its infinite wisdom,the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC has more than tripled the royalty rates for webcasters. The Copyright Royalty Board has rejected all the appeals presented by internet music webcasters, including public radio. These exorbitant rates go into effect on May 15, less than a month from now (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006). Without Congressional action, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Please take a moment to send a letter to your member of Congress to keep Net radio from being silenced.

For more information, please visit:

- SaveTheStreams.org (created by Radio and Internet Newsletter)

- Taxing Internet Radio to Death, ABC News, April 3, 2007

- Web Radio Gets the Squeeze, Chicago Sun-Times, April 1, 2007

- Why Radio Should Worry and Worry Hard About Higher Streaming Rates,
Hear 2.0, March 20, 2007

- The Fate of Indie Music As We Know It, Salon.com, March 20, 2007

- Online Broadcasters Challenge Price Hike, The Washington Post, March 20, 2007

- Anxious Times for Net Radio, The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2007

- Webcasters Find Congressional Allies Over CRB Ruling at Hearing, Radio and Internet Newsletter, March 8, 2007

- Ruling Could Hit Internet Radio's Stop Button (audio), Marketplace, March 7, 2007

- Fee Ruling May Imperil Internet Radio, The Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2007

- Webcast Royalty Rate Decision Announced, Radio and Internet Newsletter, March 2, 2007

I love Blue Men

Blue Man Group + an environmental message...perfect!

The state of the union

I promise to get back to amusing stuff shortly (but remember, I did recently post a doggy sex toy, so that's something).

The White House asked the Republican National Committee if it can "review" the emails that White House employees sent using RNC email accounts before Congress looks at these emails. The RNC agreed cause it's a reasonable request. Ummm....they're not supposed to use any other email accounts for White House business. They did. They tried to delete the emails (I'm sorry. They "accidentally" deleted the emails. Ummmmm....5 million of them.) Now they want to take a look at what these folks might have forgotten to delete before Congress (who has oversight over these matters) can look at them? That's reasonable?

In America today, that's reasonable.

Oh yeah. And today, the Supreme Court upheld a decision that says that if you are a pregnant women and if late in your pregnancy there's a problem with the fetus that may kill you, you cannot abort the fetus. Die.

Wanna know what the folks running for President have to say about this?

The NYT has the '08 presidential candidates' reactions to today's Supreme Court decision. A few excerpts:

Clinton:

Today’s decision blatantly defies the Court’s recent decision in 2000 striking down a state partial-birth abortion law because of its failure to provide an exception for the health of the mother. As the Supreme Court recognized in Roe v. Wade in 1973, this issue is complex and highly personal; the rights and lives of women must be taken into account.

Edwards:

The ban upheld by the Court is an ill-considered and sweeping prohibition that does not even take account for serious threats to the health of individual women. This hard right turn is a stark reminder of why Democrats cannot afford to lose the 2008 election. Too much is at stake - starting with, as the Court made all too clear today, a woman’s right to choose.

Obama:

I am extremely concerned that this ruling will embolden state legislatures to enact further measures to restrict a woman’s right to choose, and that the conservative Supreme Court justices will look for other opportunities to erode Roe v. Wade, which is established federal law and a matter of equal rights for women.

And from the Republicans:

McCain:

Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for those who cherish the sanctity of life and integrity of the judiciary. The ruling ensures that an unacceptable and unjustifiable practice will not be carried out on our innocent children. It also clearly speaks to the importance of nominating and confirming strict constructionist judges who interpret the law as it is written.

Giuliani:

The Supreme Court reached the correct conclusion in upholding the congressional ban on partial birth abortion. I agree with it.

Romney:

Today, our nation’s highest court reaffirmed the value of life in America by upholding a ban on a practice that offends basic human decency. This decision represents a step forward in protecting the weakest and most innocent among us.

I'm so not getting this for Gus

Click on the picture for the details...

Sometimes, a grey rainy day just feels right

Yesterday, I was listening to NPR where they were interviewing friends and families of some of the folks who were shot at Virginia Tech earlier this week. One of the topics that came up was online communities and people expressing their sorrow on the kids' MySpace pages and other sites. She said that the outpouring of support and grief on the internet was greatly appreciated and helped the families. The interviewee said that she felt that their generation was different from the older generations because they have virtual communities that are a large part of their lives.

It made me think about my virtual relationships and communities. I think that for my generation, some of us are truly connected electronically and are able to participate in and appreciate relationships with people that we rarely if ever see in person. Several very good friends of mine and I primarily depend on the net to communicate. And I've seen the power of electronic communities and they are real and they are strong.

But what about the kids who grow up in a world of virtual life? I would venture that my friends and I are the elderly pioneers (sigh). We have been the pilgrims, the adventurers in this world. But kids are growing up with cell phones, texting, IM, MySpace, etc. as a given. I was happy to have a remote control for my tv! I think it will be very interesting to see how virtual communities change and grow as these kids become the innovators of the next wave of technology.

Tragedies affect all of us. Technology allows us to realize that we're not isolated in our feelings - it connects us and reminds us of our humanity, in a way. Who'da thunk?

Despicable, horrible, loathsome people

You may or may not be aware of a group that pickets at the funerals of servicemen/women who were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. They believe everything bad that's going on in the US is punishment from God. That picture to the right is this group at a soldier's funeral. Welcome to Fred Phelps and his gang of haters at Westboro Baptist Church. Oh, and did I mention the URL for this "church"? It's godhatesfags.com.

They've now announced that they'll be picketing at the funerals of the kids killed yesterday at Virginia Tech. According to a message on their website (which I haven't linked on purpose cause I don't want to give them any more traffic and make them think they're "popular"):

"WBC will preach at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students killed on campus during a shooting rampage April 16, 2007. You describe this as monumental horror, but you know nothing of horror -- yet. Your bloody tyrant Bush says he is 'horrified' by it all. You know nothing of horror -- yet. Your true horror is coming. 'They shall also gird themselves with sackloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads' (Eze. 7:18).

Why did this happen, you ask? It's simple. Your military chose to shoot at the servants of God today, and all they got for their effort was terror. Then, the LORD your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children. Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants."

Couple of handy cell phone thingys

Google recently announced Voice Local Search which allows you to make FREE 411 calls from your cell phone. Yes, you pay $.75 or so each time you dial 411 from your cell phone + it uses up minutes. Yes, there's 800-FREE-411 as well, but Google's 411 service will dial the number for you, where Free-411 makes you remember the number and then dial it yourself (which is a little tricky if you're driving....or braindead.) For more info go to http://labs.google.com/goog411/

And now there's Tellme to find information, businesses maps & directions from your cell phone.
Just dial 800-555-TELL and then follow the voice prompts. Unlike GOOG-411, which offers only directory assistance, Tellme can serve up actual information: news, weather, stock quotes, movie showtimes and the like. Tellme can also text info to your phone. You can also access it directly via SMS. For more info go to http://www.tellme.com/.

If you want to get a text response from tellme, text your question to TELLM.

(Edited 4/17 to include the texting info cause otherwise it's confusing.)

Tulip festival

So, a friend and I drove out to this Tulip Festival on Saturday to check it out. Apparently, Washington State is one of the world's biggest tulip producers. So, we drive up (a little over an hour drive, no big deal) and there are these massive fields of tulips. It's gorgeous (I'll post pictures shortly after I clean them up). I mean, there are just massive undulating fields of color.

Okay, so we walk around, we take pictures and then we go look at some of the art around the area (in places with names like the "Pickle Barn". Cause you know, they list all kinds of art things as a part of the "festival". I can only characterize what we experienced as "elder art". I'm not talking art for the elderly...I'm talking art by the recently passed elderly... One place after the next. And the last place we went to had an elder band performing...with the obligatory oboe, of course. (I have to admit it - they were my first oboe band.)

And I got hungry. And there was no place to get food. Seriously. There's no town. There's no stands set up. There's just tulips and they'd probably shoot me if I started to eat them. And if I get too hungry, I tend to get cranky. We're just driving randomly assuming there must be food or a town somewhere...but no. Just tulips.

Luckily I have a talking car, so I asked it to find a nearby restaurant and it sent us to a "family restaurant" that was open until 2pm - and it was only 1:50! And it was fine. And that was good.

It turned out to be fun, but not at all what I expected. I anticipated that a festival incorporated you know, something beyond the fields of flowers. They have a million + people coming - I can't be the only one who gets cranky when hungry. Could be dangerous.

Edited at 9:20pm - click on the picture above to see the rest of the pix of the tulips.

Will Ferrell's got a tough landlord

This is hysterical.

I'm balanced! (whoda thunk?)

Interesting. They start the test of by saying:

What Your Brain Says About How You Think and Learn

Your brain is divided into two hemispheres, the right and the left. Just as you favor your left or right hand, you also favor the right or left hemisphere of your brain. The left hemisphere interprets details and reasoning, while the right hemisphere interprets information through visual or creative cues.

Find out which side of your brain you favor, and how to train your weaker brain hemisphere to process information better and faster. Take the test!

Then they indicate that I'm balanced-brained so I guess I don't need to process information better and faster? I think there's plenty of room for improvement, quite frankly....I would like to be able to remember the word "umbrella". Seriously, I lose words all the time and I have to wait until a picture floats into my mind and then I (generally) can remember the word. I think it's penance for my destructive past...

And here are my results:

Amy, you are Balanced-brained

That means you are able to draw on the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of your brain, depending upon a given situation.

When you need to explain a complicated process to someone, or plan a detailed vacation, the left hemisphere of your brain, which is responsible for your ability to solve problems logically, might kick in. But if you were critiquing an art opening or coming up with an original way to file papers, the right side of your brain, which is responsible for noticing subtle details in things, might take over.

While many people have clearly dominant left- or right-brained tendencies, you are able to draw on skills from both hemispheres of your brain. This rare combination makes you a very creative and flexible thinker.

The down side to being balanced-brained is that you may sometimes feel paralyzed by indecision when the two hemispheres of your brain are competing to solve a problem in their own unique ways.

Thanks to Jenna for pointing out the site. If you do it, be forewarned that they make you go through a whole bunch of thingys where they want to subscribe you to stuff - you need to skip and deselect several times before they give you the result...

Go here to play.

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Thriller - the Indian version

I'm a little speechless, to tell you the truth. This is a remake of Michael Jackson's famous Thriller video - it appears to be the same choreography and (theoretically) it's the same song....but they've Indian'd it up...

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HDTVs

Supposedly, in 2009, all US television channels will start sending out their signals in high def. If you don't have a high def tv, you'll need to purchase an adapter so that your old fashioned tv will be able to display the signals. Now, the US government has pushed this date back before, so it's possible that they'll change it again, but eventually, they'll actually let it happen.



Being the geek I am, I am often the person my friends call for information about things like high def tvs. I do have a Sony high def tv and I am extremely happy with it and am breathlessly awaiting more channels to be available in high def (National Geographic has been running a series called "Planet Earth" that's incredible to watch in high def. The images are breathtaking.)



Anyways, here's a good article to get you up to speed if you're considering purchasing a high def tv.

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oopsy.

Washington was abuzz last week with the revelation that White House officials and aides have been using a network of private laptops and communications devices to communicate.

The idea was to avoid using taxpayer-financed systems to discuss political projects, but some of the president's critics have charged that it was a way to avoid keeping records of possibly damaging communications.

Now it turns out that an undetermined number of those e-mails have been lost, the Associated Press reported. (from cnet.com)

I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Terrorist

Professor Walter F. Murphy, a Korean war hero and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence (emeritus) at Princeton, was delayed while flying because he's on a "terrorist watch list." The check-in clerk told him that he was probably added because he gave a speech that was critical of the president (who dodged his military service).

"I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: "Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said. "

"After carefully examining my credentials, the clerk asked if he could take them to TSA officials. I agreed. He returned about ten minutes later and said I could have a boarding pass, but added: "I must warn you, they=re going to ransack your luggage." On my return flight, I had no problem with obtaining a boarding pass, but my luggage was "lost." Airlines do lose a lot of luggage and this "loss" could have been a mere coincidence. In light of previous events, however, I'm a tad skeptical."

"I confess to having been furious that any American citizen would be singled out for governmental harassment because he or she criticized any elected official, Democrat or Republican. That harassment is, in and of itself, a flagrant violation not only of the First Amendment but also of our entire scheme of constitutional government. This effort to punish a critic states my lecture's argument far more eloquently and forcefully than I ever could. Further, that an administration headed by two men who had "had other priorities" than to risk their own lives when their turn to fight for their country came up, should brand as a threat to the United States a person who did not run away but stood up and fought for his country and was wounded in battle, goes beyond the outrageous.

For the full story, go here. Thanks to boingboing.

Springy

Yes, it is springtime here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest (at least for today). I am working at home because there's no windows in my office and I have lots of windows at my house and it's in the 70's and sunny and gorgeous today.

The picture to the left is a lucky shot (basically shoved my camera below the flower and pressed the magic button) of a flower in my backyard. Things are all starting to bloom, which is so pretty. When I lived in LA, I used to love the smell of night blooming jasmine - that was the smell of spring in LA to me. I haven't really identified a smell here, but after the dark winter, you really do enjoy sunlight and pretty flowers.

I posted some more pictures on my pic site, including lots of friends who came to visit a few weeks ago, some more backyard shots, a lovely new picture of Gus and this...which looks confusing, but actually is underneath my dining room. Apparently my dog has become fond of pulling the insulation off. (And inhaling fiberglass?) Sigh...at least he had the sense to look remorseful when I took his picture this afternoon....

Fair and Balanced? You decide...

Colonel Ann Wright: "I want to make sure the United States treats people properly.."

Bill O'Reilly: "Sure you do. Sure you do."

WRIGHT: "I surely do. That's what I spent 29 years of my life trying to do."

O'REILLY: "Sorry. No you didn't. You know what happened to you…somewhere along the line you started to dislike your own country…."

WRIGHT: "I served 29 years. How many did you serve? Where did you teach the Geneva Conventions?"

O'REILLY: "Cut her mic."

Oy. Another cute video. What's happening to me?

Otters holding hands...watch the whole thing cause it really is super-cute.

Happy Passover

And, in case you were wondering how to break a piece of Matzoh into two equal pieces, apparently the Japanese have that all worked out.

You write the caption

Kitlers

aka "cats that look like hitler" (from www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com).

HDTVs

Supposedly, in 2009, all US television channels will start sending out their signals in high def. If you don't have a high def tv, you'll need to purchase an adapter so that your old fashioned tv will be able to display the signals. Now, the US government has pushed this date back before, so it's possible that they'll change it again, but eventually, they'll actually let it happen.



Being the geek I am, I am often the person my friends call for information about things like high def tvs. I do have a Sony high def tv and I am extremely happy with it and am breathlessly awaiting more channels to be available in high def (National Geographic has been running a series called "Planet Earth" that's incredible to watch in high def. The images are breathtaking.)



Anyways, here's a good article to get you up to speed if you're considering purchasing a high def tv.

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The straight talk express

Remember when John McCain was considered a maverick? The "straight talker"? Well, the guy who announced recently that there are parts of Baghdad that "you and I can walk through those neighborhoods today" recently took a stroll through Baghdad to make his point.



Reasonable.



Except, he was wearing a bullet proof vest and accompanied by 100 soldiers, 3 Blackhawks and 2 Apache gunships.



I'm thinking that's not the straightest talk I've ever heard. Call me crazy.

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Checking in....

Yeah, I know. It's been a while since I posted anything personal about what I'm up to. The problem is I'm not feeling particularly fun & sarcastic and ya know, I don't want to force sarcasm cause that's lame. And, what's the value of a blog if it's not snotty 'n sarcastic? Sigh...

So, several of my friends were in the area visiting from all over (Germany, England, Los Angeles!?!, etc.) last week. They were sitting in a week-long seminar at my employer (unnamed large corporate entity). Two of them were crashing with me, which was pretty entertaining (okay, it was uneventful for me, but my dog was rotating beds each night the gigolo). I on the other hand, stayed in my own bed, which really was in everyone's best interest...

Took folks sightseeing - all the usual Seattle places. Forced a few of them to buy the greatest slippers ever! at Pike Market. (Seriously. A friend who bought slippers there a while ago said they were the only thing she'd save if her apartment building was on fire.) And of course I dragged them to the Elliott Bay Bookstore - the greatest bookstore ever. It's one of those places I want to live. Actually, the only other place that ever made me want to camp out in the middle is the Guggenheim Museum. Those are two totally different joints, but I'm totally in love with both of them.

Speaking of which, I'm still enamored with Knut (see links below). Turns out there's a little baby tiger at the zoo here in Seattle that also was abandoned by its mommy.

Went to see Sarah Vowell read/talk tonight. If you're not already familiar with her, she's this really smart geek who's all into American History and you should totally read her books. Oh yeah, and she's super-sarcastic and funny. And liberal. Cause she's way funnier than me, here's a few excerpts:

...Of course talking about the murders of previous presidents is going to open the door to discussing the current president. That's what I like to call him, "the current president." I find it difficult to say or type his name, George W. Bush. I like to call him "the current president" because it's a hopeful phrase, implying that his administration is only temporary.

Heh. (she didn't write that. That's me being amused.)

...Because I had to stay overnight and this being New England, the only place to stay was a bed-and-breakfast. It was a lovely old country mansion operated by amiable people. That said, I am not a bed-and-breakfast person.

I understand why other people would want to stay in B&Bs. They're pretty. They're personal. They're "quaint," a polite way of saying "no TV." They are "romantic,"i.e., every object large enough for a flower to be printed on it is going to have a flower printed on it. They're "cozy," meaning that a guest has to keep her belongings on the floor because every conceivable flat surface is covered in knickknacks, except for the one knickknack she longs for, a remote control.