Gone fishin'

Sorry, from this point on we are on hiatus until we are not.

Immortal words

"It was a dark and stormy night."

Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, "Paul Clifford" (1830)

Moss gathering

Mick Jagger is 66.

Departures this week

Heinz Edelmann, a graphic designer. Art director of the Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine, 75 (Tuesday July 21, in Stuttgart, Germany, of an undisclosed illness.)
Frank McCourt, the author of Angela's Ashes (which won the Pulitzer Prize,) former NYC public school teacher, 78 (Sunday July 19, in New York City, of cancer.)
Gordon Waller, half of the British duo Peter & Gordon famous for their 1964 hit A World Without Love, 64 (Friday July 17 - reported this wek, in Norwich, CT, after a cardiac arrest)

Bye bye Northwest...

Used to be Northwest Orient then just Northwest then Northwest Airlines shortened to NWA and now simply Delta...

At times called "northworst" because their service was uneven at best and downward lousy at worst: I vividly remember a spring sticking up from the seat cushion of the first class cabin and firmly wedged against my ass on a flight from Chicago to Seattle 10 or so years ago... Oh well, NWA has improved since then, its fleet is very modern and, even though some flight attendants are grouchy as usual, it's been a joy to fly recently. And then there is (was..?) their wonderful partnership with KLM (and with Air Farce, pardon me, Air France...) allowing pretty much seamless jetting all over the world.

Well, the red NWA livery will soon be exchanged for the Delta (pretty indistinct and rather drab) colors and the flying public will be charged $50 to carry a laptop and a purse on board...

I'll miss ya, NWA!

Photo credit: Copyright © 2009 Michael Liczbanski

Orwell turns up in 2009.

Yep, friggin' Big Brother rears his ugly head...
Amazon Dot Com remotely nuked two George Orwell novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, from its Kindle eBook readers last week when their publisher decided that they no longer wanted to distribute the books electronically.

Hey, all you contemporary Adolf Hitler types, once I pay for it, the book is mine and you can’t just burn it at the stake even if it’s only a virtual stake on the electronic wilderness. And no post-mortem apology does any good, by the way…

Pull a Nancy Reagan and just say no to Kindle!
Pull a Nancy Reagan and just say no!
Pull a Nancy Reagan!

Hmm...à propos space...

The toilet on the International Space Station craps out...
For the 13 astronauts from Russia, Canada, Belgium, Japan and the US currently on the International Space Station, the things could have not gone much worse in terms of personal hygene after the shit hit the proverbial fan when one of the two Russion-built multi-million dollar space toilets on the space station went out of commission. (Yes, you don't always get what you pay for...)

I can almost hear that urgent Ну, давай, давай, товарищ..!

Space plumbers pulled some serious OT on Tuesday and both toilets, in the US lab Destiny and the Russian Zvezda, are now operational and suck well (yeah, that's what they are supposed to do...)

One big step...

Moon landing - 40th aniversary. Regardless of what the "we-never-landed-there" idiots say.

Landing: 4:17 PM EDT (20:17:40 UTC. Forty years ago this minute...)
First moonwalk: 10:56 PM EDT.

I was glued to a b&w TV in the middle of the night July 21...(it was night in Poland) and loved every minute of it and every murky picture transmitted from the surface of the Moon. And knowing that the Americans had just kicked the Soviets where it hurts the most felt simply delicious!

As an aside, thanks to the decision made personally by the First Secretary of the Communist Party Władysław Gomułka, Poland was the only Eastern/Soviet Bloc country with the live TV coverage of the event.

Recent departures

Henry Allingham, World War I veteran (RAF) and the world's oldest man, born June 6, 1896, 113 (Saturday July 18, in England, presumably of old age.)
Walter Cronkite, former CBS news anchor, the most trusted man in America, 92 (Friday July 17, in New York, of cerebrovascular disease.)
Leszek Kołakowski, Polish philosopher and historian of ideas, 81 (Friday July 17, in Oxford, England, of undisclosed illness.)
Julius Shulman, famous architectural photographer, 98 (Wedensday July 16, in Los Angeles, of natural casues.)
168 passengers and crew of the Caspian Airlines flight 7908, operated with the Soviet-era Tupolew Tu-154 plane (Wednesday July 15, near the Iranian city of Qazvin.)
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Polish film and stage actor, 75 (Tuesday July 14, in Warsaw, Poland of cancer.)
Sir Edward Downes, conductor of the first-ever performance at Sydney's Opera House, 85 (Friday July 10 - reported this week, in Zurich, Switzerland at an assisted suicide with his wife Joan, 74.)

Bankrupts of the world

After Iceland went bust and Ireland lost most of its luster, Latvia is on the way to the poorhouse. Reason? Jolly life on credit! You know, vacations in Thailand, deluge of flat-screen TVs and iPods, backyard swans fed with Astrakhan caviar… All paid for with a piece of plastic (@ 25% APR, of course...) In other words, the good ole' syndrome of living way (waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!) beyond their means.

Things to avoid...

• Extended car warranties for used cars (you know, “if your car is less than a century old and has less than a million miles on the clock…”) especially those peddled on TV: can you imagine how profitable this scam is if a very much unknown company can saturate TV channels with these ads 24/7!!! Just read the fine print and talk to repair shops to gauge how good these “warranties” are, people!
• Penile enlargement scams peddled on TV, you know the ones that proclaim in a very faint print at the bottom of the screen that this shit is not FDA approved? It is not approved because it doesn’t work!!! Just get a Playboy or go see a real doctor!
• Outfits (they spend big buck on TV ads) that want to buy your “broken or unwanted gold jewelry.” You’ll got scammed out of 50-75% of the real value, so just go to a jeweler if you have “broken or unwanted gold jewelry” for sale for godsakes!!! (Really, is “broken or unwanted gold jewelry” such a common problem..?)
• Psychics for $1 a minute. Enough said!
• Homeowner’s loan modification deals seen so often on TV lately (where were all these people two years ago..?) some even disguised as news items shot in front of the White House with a cut-in speech from president Obama: you’ll end up in a long-term high-interest debt up to your wazoo AND will pay big bucks up front for that privilege!
• Identity protection scams: all offers, even those offered by your bank, are expensive and either totally worthless or just mildly effective! Buy a paper shredder and use anti-virus software on your computer.
• Free credit reports advertised on TV (hint: they ain't free...) And you can get a 100% free report by contacting the credit bureau.
• Things peddled on TV by various screamers and hollers: if this shit is so good why the fuck is it not available in any store..?
• Faux News. Just say no to pseudo news on TV, read a paper instead (and learn a foreign language or two so you can read even more real news from various sources and compare…)

Don’t be a fool who easily parts with his money!

Bank Of America and a pack of smokes...

Where: Manchester, NH
Who: A chap named Josh Muszynski
When: Yesterday
Why: The chap wanted a smoke...
What: Used his Bank of America debit card to buy a pack of cigarettes. Got charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 (plus $15.00 in overdraft fees.) Spent two hours on the phone with BoA trying to attract their attention to the obvious (the charge of 23 quadrillion dollars...)
Quote from Josh: "I thought my card had been compromised . I thought somebody had bought Europe with my credit card."


Read more on the WMUR TV site.

Ye sons of France, awake to glory

The opening verse of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, in English versification (Allons enfants de la Patrie, literally Come, children of the Fatherland.)
Written in 1792 by an army engineer Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (ironically a royalist who's head almost got chopped off during the revolution.) Become the official anthem of France in 1795. Was banned a few times by various Napoleons in the XIX century and finally reinstated as the national anthem in 1830.

Today is the 220th aniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789.

Recent departures

Oscar G. Mayer, retired chairman of the Wisconsin meat processing company that bears his, and his dad and grandpa, name, 95 (Wednesday July 8, in Fitchburg, WI, of old age.)
Robert S. McNamara, architect of the Vietnam War, secretary of defense under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, 93 (Monday July 6, in Washington, D.C., of natural causes.)
At least 184 people (and counting) who were killed (and over one thousand injured) last weekend in violent clashes between police and Muslim Uighur protesters in China's far western Xinjiang region.
George Fullerton, a musician, artist and technician, a close associate of Leo Fender, one of the creators of the Fender guitar, 86 (Saturday July 4 - reported this week, in Fullerton, CA, of congestive heart failure.)
Mollie Sugden, a British actress best known to many as Mrs. Slocombe in the television comedy series "Are You Being Served?", 86 (Wednesday July 1 - reported this week, in London, after a long illness.)
Tom Wilkes, a Grammy Award-winning art director and epitomic rock album cover designer (The Who's "Tommy, " Janis Joplin's "Pearl, "Stones' "Beggars Banquet," Neil Young's "Harvest," Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs & Englishmen," George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh", "All things Must Pass"), 69 (June 28 - reported this week, in Pioneertown, CA, of a heart attack.)

Rental cars

2007 and 2008 Toyota Corolla 1.6. Both cars rented from Alamo/National in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Two rentals because one agency didn't have the car available to extend my rental and could not borrow a car from another Alamo agency (don't ask...)
Car like car: good, because it doesn't stand out and therefore is less likely to be stolen or broken into. The engine is too underpowered for any serious driving (fortunately El Salvador is a smallish country with mostly good roads, but with 4 people + luggage that thing huffs and puffs uphill.) On the other hand, really, all you need is a running car with A/C over there. And yes, the Corolla runs well and has a very good A/C! Yes, I’ll rent it again: car rental choices are not that numerous in many a country.

OK, now a note about renting cars in “less urbane” foreign lands (an example from El Salvador in Central America):

• There always will be drama while renting/returning the vehicle: take it in stride...
• Speak the language: even at the Alamo/National Car Rental place at the San Salvador International airport not a soul spoke English or any language other than Spanish! But do be careful with your Latin: some people will only pretend that they don’t speak English…
• Make sure that you arrive and depart while the car rental counter is actually open: yeah, it is not certain that the car rental counter will be open during the airport’s business hours, so no late night/early morning arrivals and departures.
• Allow ample time for both rental and return (remember, there will be drama…)
• Book your vehicle with a big, international car rental outfit. Print out the confirmation email including the confirmation number, booked car type, rate/price and rental conditions (extra mileage rate, etc.) Guarantee it with a major credit card.
• Know how to drive stick: chances are that they won't have the car you have booked so be flexible but always trade up: they might/shall offer a smaller car first so insist on the vehicle you've booked or a bigger/better equipped car for the same price. Don't hesitate to call the corporate office in the States/Europe if the car rental people give you static.
• Take a good, long look at the vehicle with a magnifying glass before leaving the lot: make sure that every, even the smallest, scratch, ding, stain, insect splash - both exterior and interior - are noted on the rental agreement (they'll meticulously do the same when you turn the vehicle in.) Inspect the spare tire, all tools and equipment included with the car or you'll be responsible if that 13 mm wrench is missing.
• Make sure that your insurance covers the rental in foreign lands, buy insurance if necessary, but don't let the rental people talk you into buying more insurance than you need or want. (Only the Almighty knows the "buy the insurance" trials I've gone through at the San Salvador/Colonia San Benito Alamo counter!)
• Drive off the lot carefully and be judicious with the use of your middle finger...
  

Photo credit: Copyright © 2009 Michael Liczbanski

Greenback love?

Hollywood Variety writes that the Michael Moore's next movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story", in which he plans to indict capitalism, is slated for release October 2. One can only hope that the subject of his indictment will be the same capitalism which has so handsomely rewarded Mr. Moore.

It’s good to be a professional Prolet…

The rift: science and non-science

In the old struggle between knowledge and idiocy, the idiots are winning...

87% of scientists say that humans and other living things have evolved over time and that evolution is the result of natural processes such as natural selection. Just 32% of the [US] public accepts this as true.

84% of scientists say the earth is getting warmer because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, just 49% of the [US] public agrees

Read more results from a survey of more than 2,500 scientists on The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press web site.

Geek bang bang

In the last few days many US and South Korean government web sites were brought down by a massive distributed denial of service cyber attack. Prime suspects: North Korean government and the idiot computer users all over the world who frequent shoddy porn sites and don't use up to date security software.

Ryanair and common sense

The Daily Telegraph reports that Ryanair, my least favorite airline in the world, has been considering a new class of service, bar stool class, and charge less the passenger who’d seat on said "bar stools" with seat belts around their waists for the duration of a flight. Michael O'Leary, their illustrious chief executive, apparently has already held talks with Boeing about designing an aircraft with standing room/bar stools and Ryanair is now seeking approval from the Irish Aviation Authority. The “bar stool class” (apparently a few notches below steerage) could accommodate up to 50% more passengers cut costs by 20%.

I’ll drink to that…

Rolleiflex dies

Franke & Heidecke, the legendary maker of Rolleiflex cameras, will close completely by September 2009. It’s been insolvent since March of this year and although some transfer of assets to other entities is possible, that seems to be the end of the line for Franke & Heidecke that introduced the original TLR (twin-lens-reflex) Rolleiflex camera in 1929.

More in the British Journal Of Photography (this link may be not permanent.)

Sarah Palin quits on Alaska

Last Friday (July 3) Sarah Palin abruptly resigned her post as the Governor of Alaska. The entire transcript of her resignation speech is available here.

In her Republican Convention speech (full transcript can be seen here) she said "I accept the challenge of a tough fight in this election against confident opponents at a crucial hour for our country." Apparently there has been a time change... Fascinating read!

Sad, sad...

Departures this week:
Allen Klein, a music executive, managed Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, 77 (Saturday July 4 in New York City, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.)
Steve McNair, the former NFL quarterback (Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens), 2003 NFL MVP, 36 (Saturday July 4 in Nashville, TN, of multiple gunshot wounds)
Karl Malden, Oscar-winning actor,former president of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, 97 (Wednesday July 1 in Los Angeles, CA, of natural causes)
152 passengers and crew of the Yemenia Airbus A310 crash in the Indian Ocean near the archipelago of Comoros: there was one known survivor (Tuesday June 30)
Billy Mays, television pitchman of "OxiClean" and such, 50 (Sunday June 28 in Tampa, FL, of apparent heart attack)

ASCAP and common sense

ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) would like to get more royalties from cellular companies (more, 'cos they are already getting paid by cell companies...) for "melodies used as ringtones" when said ringtone is audible in public (i.e. if your phone rings in a public place with "Who The Fuck Let The Piranhas Out," or a similar ditty, which in their rotten brains equals public performance.)

Free advice to ASCAP: I'm positive that at least one of your wonderful composers, authors or publishers has a legal interest in melodies generated by tuneful wind passing (AKA farting and belching) so you can open up a new and exciting revenue stream especially in those parts of the US with diets rich in legumes and/or teeming with six-pack aficionados. Really, why stop at ringtones, tax the bodily functions! And don’t forget the whoopee cushion…

Read more on the Electronic Frontier Foundation site.

? (Yes, a question mark...)

What's going on with the Washington Post..? After this, today's Politico reports that the paper will now offer access to their sources and subjects of their reporting for a fee!

Here's what the paper's ad flier promises:

"Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate." (...) "Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth ... Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders."

Cost? $25,000.00 a pop or $250,000.00 for a set of 11...

Will Bob Woodward please step in and follow the money...

Edit July 2, 1:30 PM EDT: Event cancelled. (But what a stupid idea it was!!!)

Hell froze over...

The European Union bureaucrats have nuked some of their own rules and regulations describing the shape and size of fruits and vegetables sold in the EU countries.

Until today, a cucumber sold in EU had to be "well developed, correctly shaped and practically straight with the maximum height of the arch of 10 mm per each 10 cm of the [cucumber's] length." (No, I'm not making this up...) A maximum allowable bend in the banana was also strictly defined and so was the "roundness" of a radish

The "standards" (note the quotes...) will still apply to 10 fruits and veggies: table grapes, strawberries, kiwi fruit, tomatoes, et cetera. I can only imagine the effort and money spent on the definition of a "EU strawberry."

Rental cars

2009 Chrysler Sebring Convertible "touring", soft top, rented from Alamo/National in Phoenix, AZ.

Convertible top) Push-button operation but requires a manual fastening of the "roof shelf" in the trunk. The car is quiet with the top up (not as quiet as a sedan but fine nonetheless) and very quiet with the top down. (Really. I was able to talk to myself in normal voice even at 80 mph...) Doesn't leak water in a moderate rain encountered near Prescott, AZ.

+) Nice looks! Interior OK for 2 adults (rear seat for vertically challenged folks only); OK A/C; OK storage and cup holders (note to Chrysler: a convertible needs lids/flaps on exposed storage shelves/compartments...), OK center console storage. OK engine. Satellite radio.

-) The trunk is a disaster - no trunk for all practical purposes with the top down, not even for a golf bag... Not very economical (20-22 mpg); horrible, mushy transmission which jerks and hesitates a lot; fiddly controls; a bit drab interior (improvement over the previous models nonetheless.)

Fun quotient) 8/10, get your top down and go (but minus 2 for that horrible transmission..!)
Would rent again?) Yes. Even though that car has a "retired grade school teacher" image...


Photo credit: Copyright © 2009 Michael Liczbanski

It is Al Franken...

...so says the Minnesota Supreme Court. (But the end of this debacle is not near yet...)


Edit - 4 PM EDT:
Coleman concedes - Franken in US senate!
Geez, what a strange, long trip it's been..! (Since November 2008!)

The Washington Post and common sense...

The Washington Post has reached a new low by apparently faking the front page with the news of Michael Jackson death in hopes of making a few sheckles selling this figment of their imagination as a reprint of the real front page from that day. Considering that this is my hometown newspaper, I'm pretty pissed off! Oh, where is Katherine Graham when we need her!

Read more at Photo Business News & Forum and see the bogus front page offer ($249.00, framed) from The Post here (they call it "a commemorative issue"), and see the real front page here.

Banana Republic(s)

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was arrested by the Honduran military this morning (apparently still in his pajamas) and transported to forced exile in Costa Rica. Tanks, shots, protest on the streets of Tegucigalpa. (Overt military coups and military juntas have been absent from Central America since 1993...)

Is the old coming back..?

Sad, sad...

Those who have checked out this week:
Michael Jackson, entertainer, tabloid fodder, 50 (June 25, nobody's telling of what)
Farrah Fawcett, actress, sex symbol of the 1970s, star of Charlie's Angels, 62 (June 25, of cancer)
Edward Leo Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr., TV personality, a long-time sidekick of Johnny Carson, 86 (June 23, of multiple illnesses)

Girls, get your degree!

The alleged Argentinean mistress of the South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (GOP) Maria Belen Chapur apparently graduated from Universidad Católica Argentina with a degree in International Relations... So, dear Argentinean girls, study, study, study...One day your education may net you an American hypocrite, such as Mark "Don't Cry For Me South Carolina" Sanford (GOP.)

ExtremeTech no more

Today Ziff-Davis Media has pulled the plug on ExtremeTech, a very popular web publication full of in-depth articles, reviews and info about all things computer. Oh well, so much for only the paper media going away...
Well, Extreme Tech might "evolve" into something more than a plug for PC Mag (its stablemate at Ziff-Davis) but don't bet on it...

Semper Infidelis

What is going on? Summer? Something in the drinking water supply? Or just plain old hypocrisy..? South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (GOP, wife, four children, Chair of GOP Governors Association, "holier than thou" Republican who called on President Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky scandal) essentially abandoned his post and went to Argentina for a week to be with his lover. SC voters: outraged. Sanford: "I don't know how this thing got blown out of proportion."

Here's a little chronicle of recent transgressors; just the facts, Ma'am:

• Nevada Sen. John Ensign (GOP) had an extramarital affair with a former campaign staffer. Mrs. Ensign: "With the help of our family and close friends our marriage has become stronger."


• Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (GOP) and her pregnant/nursing/mommying teenage daughter Bristol ("do as I say not as I do" people)


• US Representative Vito J. Fossella (GOP, Staten Island, NY. Ran on a (very) conservative "family values" platform. Wife, three children + a "love" child with a woman in Alexandria, VA.) Mr. Fosella: “My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love, and I am truly sorry.”
  
  
• Sen. John Edwards (Dem, cancer-battling wife, presidential/VP contender) had a lover and a "love" child.
  

Oasis (the band) and common sense...

Short story:

• June Oasis concert in Manchester, England (their hometown, BTW)
• The equipment acts up (twice) forcing longish breaks
• All is fixed and Noel Gallagher declares it a free concert from now on telling the audience to ask for their money back if they stll have their ticket stubs
• 20,000 fans does exactly that (at 45 british pounds a pop...)
• Noel Gallagher calls them fuckups

The last time I checked, mere listening to Oasis was a punishment in itself so WTF... Coughing up nearly a million pounds hurts, eh, Gallagher?

Read more

They did take my Kodachrome away (not that I ever used it...)

Kodak has announced today that they'll stop making Kodachrome. The demand has been dwindling steadily for years and only Kodachrome 64 was still in production since they had quit making the 25 and 200 varieties (in 2001 in 2007 respectively.)

So, get some serious refrigeration you Kodachrome using boys and girls and stock up, stock up (and make sure that the only lab in the world that still processes it, is still in Kansas...)

Rental cars

2009 Volvo C70 T5 convertible hard top, rented from Alamo.

I've driven it almost 900 miles in 7 days in Colorado in all kinds of weather from tornado (passing just a few miles away near Greeley!) with a torrential downpour (good windshield wipers!) to snow in the mountains (Loveland Pass) to 80F in Boulder to being pelted with hail in Denver.

Convertible top) Push-button operation with ballet-like up/down animation, awesome to watch from outside. The car is very quiet with the top up and there are no undue noises with the top down. Doesn't leak at all even in a truly biblical deluge I've encountered near Greeley, CO.

+) Big trunk for a convertible: holds a 26" roller, 2 smaller backpacks, camera bag, laptop bag, with room to spare! Comfy interior for 2 (rear seat for kids only) in elegant white leather with bazillions of air bags and curtains; good dual A/C; great in-door storage (some with lids/flaps!) good center console storage and plenty of cup holders; Bluetooth with phone control; USB port in the center console; starts with an electronic key; lots of info displayed about the vehicle; seat/settings memory for 3 drivers. Peppy engine with lots of great passing power even at altitude (12 000 ft.) All these features are "very Volvo..."

-) Not very economical (21 mpg); no satellite radio (HD radio built-in); transmission typically "Volvo", a bit on the old-man-driving side (but you can always floor it...); fiddly A/C control dial; unimaginative, drab display screens.

Fun quotient) 10/10, perfect vehicle for you and your SO!
Would rent again?) Yes! It’s a naked Volvo, damn it, I'd buy it!!!

Photo credit: Copyright © 2009 Michael Liczbanski

Hasta la victoria, siempre!

Lydia Guevara, 24, the granddaughter of Ernesto "Che" Guevara (the legendary Argentinean revolutionary killed in 1967 in Bolivia) has agreed to pose in a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) pro-vegetarianism campaign clad in camouflage pants, a red beret, and a shoulder belt filled with baby carrots in lieu of cartridges, standing with one fist on her hip and the other outstretched and clenched. Look for the posters and magazine ads this fall in Argentina and then all over (at least some parts of) the world. Join the vegetarian revolution or die, you capitalist scum!

Free advice to PETA: consider spending your donors' money to help the good people of Burundi (GDP $112 per capita per year), Ethiopia ($120) or Congo ($125) instead of financing worthless ego-pumping drivel. El Comandante would blast your balls off with a Kalashnikov if he knew...

(Photo credit: AP/PETA)

From the land of the truly stupid...

Very seldom one stumbles upon a news item poignant and succinct enough to be quoted in extenso. Here is one of such items: I absolutely adore the black pepper/catfish bit...

------------------------------------------------------------------
Texas Lawyer Arrested for DWI on His Way to Court
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 19, 2009
Filed at 8:21 p.m. ET

NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP) -- A judge has declared a mistrial in a murder case after one of the defense attorneys was arrested on his way to court on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

District Judge John Miller declared a mistrial Thursday, halfway through jury selection and ordered attorney Bryan Simmons to pay the county $318 for potential jury members.

Simmons was taken into custody Tuesday after a car wreck near New Boston. The results of his blood test won't be known for several weeks.

He denies being under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs, saying he lost control of his car during a sneezing fit brought on by allergies and black pepper sprinkled on catfish he had just eaten.

Simmons apologized to the court, his law partner, his client and the murder victim's family.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Birthday boys

The Kaczynski twins (Jarosław and Lech Kaczyńscy in Polish) are 60… One is the President of Poland and the other used to be the Polish Prime Minister. One picture is contemporary, the other dates back to 1962 when they starred (as child actors) in the Polish movie “O dwóch takich co ukradli Księżyc” („The Two Who Stole the Moon”) which nowadays is often fractured in Poland as “O dwóch takich co okradli Polskę” („The Two Who Robbed Poland”)

Another birthday boy today – Sir Paul McCartney of The Beatles - is 67 (yes, frigging sixty-seven!!!)


(Photos by unknown authors.)

June 4 1989

First sort-of free elections in Poland: end of communism in Poland and soon almost everywhere else with a few notable exceptions of North Korea, China and Cuba, where oppression reigns until this day.
China: Massacre on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Thousands dead.
Iran: Ayatollah Khomeini dies. Billions rejoice.
Russia (then the USSR): gigantic train wreck triggered by a ruptured gas pipeline. 190 dead, mostly children.




Historic Polish election poster High Noon, June 4 1989

Ryanair may need psychiatric help...

When I wrote this I thought it was a joke, but today's NYT blog The Lede contains a bit about Ryanair (for those who don't know, a really crummy European cheap - pardon me, "discount" - airline led by a male CEO who seems to have a bad case of PMS 24/7) being serious about asking its passengers to pay around $1.50 for the use of toilets in addition to toying with several equally loony money-saving (..?) ideas, such as fee for self on-line check-in (and apparently no other options: you either check-in on-line and pay for it extra, or no go even if you have a ticket...), passenger-loaded luggage, et cetera. I'm really surprised that they are not providing a menu of sexual services on board (90:10 split of the fee, with the ten percent going to the sex worker and the rest to Ryanair of course...)

The end of black boxes...

According to some news reports, the wreckage of the crashed Airbus A330 Air France flight 447 (apparently with no survivors, 228 people dead) may be strewn on the ocean floor for several miles as deep as 14 000 feet beneath the surface. Barring a miracle, the black box (flight data recorder) and the cockpit voice recorder are lost forever, so the investigators may never be able to solve the mysterious crash.
We need a drastic change in the method of handling the flight data and we need it now! So grab your trusty pencils (err…word processing software…) and fire up a letter to the FAA or your country’s aviation regulators and ask them to establish and mandate a data transmission process from all commercial flights immediately.
A copy of all data, including cockpit chatter, should be transmitted in real time, or in frequent bursts, to the airline and – hopefully – to some highly regulated and closely supervised independent data storage/escrow agency. Some data is already being sent automatically (even from flight 447) but that’s not nearly enough: the content of the black box and cockpit voice recorder must be saved in a different physical location; entrusting vital data exclusively to some archaic device that can be lost or damaged quite easily is oh so twentieth-century! C’mon, good crash data equals better safety for everybody and even in these difficult economic times safety is cheaper than even a single air disaster!

Photo rights grabs

The photographer's rights grab is again in full swing (see the Oprah's debacle). Now photo contest run by boston.com, Fodor's, Nature Conservancy and Costco require that you perpetually and irrevocably transfer ALL rights to the submitted photos to those jackals!!! Think hard before entering any of those photo contests: they are merely a very inexpensive way for the sponsor to amass oodles of pictures for free...

More on the Photo Attorney blog.

Rental cars

2009 Nissan Altima, rented from Alamo.
I've driven it almost 1300 miles in 5 days in Florida in all kinds of weather from very hot and muggy to a torrential downpour (good windshield wipers!)

+) Big trunk, comfy interior, ample for 2+2 long(er) distance driving, good A/C, adequate center console storage and cup holders, starts with a button (keep the remote in your pocket...)

-) Not very economical, a bit noisy ride (tire/road noise), no satellite radio, no built-in entertainment for the back seat dwellers

Fun quotient) 7/10, a bit on the conformist, plain Jane side
Would rent again) Sure, why not!

2009 Atlantic hurricane season

The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season (that puppy starts June 1) could have between 9 and 14 named storms of which four to seven will become hurricanes with three reaching Category 3 level or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. All that according to the meteorologists who are also known as "habitual liars", by the way...

So, here we go again.

Ryanair and common sense

A €7.98 round trip flight advertised by Ryanair from Shannon (Ireland, SNN) to Paris-Beauvais (France, BVA) will cost you a whopping €139.89 on that scumbag airline, not inculding transportation to/from the airports (quite considerable amount I must say, esp. from BVA to the City of Light.)

Well, fly Ryanair if you must, but better don't...
More on Flying With Fish.

WolframAlpha

If you prefer actual information, often with supporting data, rather than the all fluff all the time approach practiced by Google and other WEB search engines, try WolframAlpha Computational Knowledge Engine. You will spend some time learning its input syntax and semantics but the results are outstanding even though they just went live yesterday.

Bravo! Frankly, I didn't expect anything less from the brains behind Mathematica.

Photojournalist Hugh Van Es dies

Hugh Van Es, a Dutch photojournalist who shot one of the most iconic images of the Vietnam war, a group of people scaling a ladder to a CIA helicopter on a rooftop of the US embassy in Saigon in 1975 just before the city was captured by the North Vietnamese, died today in Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong. He was 67 years old. Hugh Van Es apparently suffered a brain hemorrhage last week and never regained consciousness.

Suncoast Energy and common sense

So, last week I rented a car in Orlando, FL and when I needed to top it off before returning it, I just stopped at a first big gas station, Suncoast Energy, on the way to the airport, on Butler National, and started pumping until I saw the price (no, these thieves don't have a sign with posted prices...) WTF? $3.99 for a gallon of regular in May of 2009..? That would be expensive even in the summer of 2008 when gas prices were at their peak! So, apparently these miserable bastards just squeeze you like a lemon because they feel like it...Because they believe that their proximity to the off-airport rental car return places justifies price gauging!

Stay away from these motherfuckers as far as possible when you need gas in the vicinity of the Orlando Airport: there are other gas stations, with way better prices, less than a mile away...

Dom DeLuise

The voice of Pizza the Hutt in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs died today. He was 75.

TV personality (Dean Martin's show) and a great, funny, movie actor who apperead in Smokey and the Bandit II, The Cannonball Run, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, in many Mel Brooks' movies (The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World: Part I, Robin Hood: Men in Tights) and in many, many others.

A very, very funny man!

Horsey set...

Mine That Bird, the 50-1 long shot winner of the 2009 135th running of the Kentucky Derby was purchased for $9500 US. Desert Party, owned by the ruler of Dubai Sheik Mohammed, cost $2,100,000 US and came in 14th...

May Day

Photo: Copyright © 2009 Michael Liczbanski

Ryanair and common sense

According to The Telegraph (April 30) Michael O'Leary, the CEO of Ryanair (a cheap European airline) said that the swine flu is only a threat to "Asian and Mexican slumdewllers" and added that "any Britons who contract it could cure themselves by taking cough sweets." Yes siree Bob!

First 100 days of Mr. Obama

Media feeding frenzy: pundits, experts, nitwits, halfwits, nowits come out of the woodwork and talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, without actually saying anything intelligible, especially on various faux news networks. And speaking of networks, Fox TV opted not to carry the President's "100 days" news conference...

Finanzmarktstabilisierungsergänzungsgesetz

New German legislation... Something about financial markets stabilization program (Das Gesetz zur weiteren Stabilisierung des Finanzmarktes, apparently Financial Market Stabilization Supplementary Act in English.)


Finanzmarktstabilisierungsergänzungsgesetz how sweet the sound...

A really big thing!

Place: N 39 deg 4.7125 min - W 75 deg 52.58075 min
Time: April 25 2009, 12:55:26 PM EDT
Who: Steve Eves and Maryland Delaware Rocketry
Association (MDRA.)
What: Launch of the 36 feet tall 1:10 scale model of the Saturn V rocket.

Went up without a hitch. Very, very impressive. This is exactly my kind of lunacy! Congratulations to all involved!



Photo Copyright © 2009 Michael Liczbanski

Oprah, Oprah, Oprah, Oprah...

From The Oprah Winfrey web site: Send us your beautiful nature images! Are you a great photographer? We want to see! Share your beautiful and inspiring images of nature to help create the Breathing Space Gallery on Oprah.com.

Now, before participate, be aware that Oprah (whatever legel entiry she is hiding behind) shall exclusively own all known or later existing rights to the Submissions worldwide and shall be entitled to the unrestricted use of the Submissions for any purpose in all media now known or hereafter discovered without compensation to the provider of such Submissions. End quote.

So, in a word, if you submit your pictures Oprah can do whatever she wants with your submissions without paying you a penny or even acknowledging you as an author. And she can do it in perpetuity even after converting your work to fartography (a medium not known yet, but...) I consider this a roadside robbery in the worst way. You know, Woody Guthrie sung once

"Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen"

Never, ever relinquish any rights to your pictures, or any intellectual property, even if you are a rank amateur, without just compensation. Better yet, stick to the specific use and one-time or time-limited licensing.

My hypothetical submission? A picture of a nicely extended middle finger...

Earth Day

Take a moment to calculate your carbon footprint and sin no more!

Can you hear me now?

April 3, 1973: Martin Cooper of Motorola Communications Systems Division placed the very first call on a portable cellular phone while walking on the streets of New York City. He called his rivals at Bell Labs. No idea what he said but I guess it might have been “Hey guys, you won’t believe where I’m calling from.” And so it goes…

April 1

April 1 marks the beginning of National Grilled Cheese Month. (No 't ain't no "April first" joke...) Avoid this stuff like a plague: nothing short of chugging saturated fat straight from the bottle adds inches to your ass and clogs your arteries faster than a good ole' grilled cheese sandwich!

Some of the hot air is gone...

Markets
S.&P. 500 closed at 815.94 (16.92, 2.03% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,776.18 (148.38, 1.87% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,545.20 (41.80, 2.63% down)

Zoooooooooooom!

Look what a few trillion dollars of good money thrown after bad can do to Wall Street...
Markets at close today:
S.&P. 500 closed at 832.86 (18.98, 2.33% up)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,924.56 (174.75, 2.25% up)
Nasdaq closed at 1,587.00 (58.05, 3.80% up)

Sliding down a bit...

S.&P. 500 closed at 676.53 (6.85, 1.00% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 6,547.05 (79.89, 1.21% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,268.64, (25.21, 1.95% down)

Oil - up.

Markets...

S.&P. 500 closed at 683.38 (0.83, 0.12% up)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 6,626.94 (32.50, 0.49% up)
Nasdaq closed at 1,293.85 (5.74, 0.44% down)

Pheeeeeeeeeew! What a week!!!

Up...

S.&P. 500 closed at 712.87 (16.54, 2.38% up)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 6,875.84 (149.82, 2.23% up)
Nasdaq 1,353.74 (32.73, 2.48% up)

Ryanair and common sense part II (of many...)

Another "revenue stream" the flying dingdongs from Ryanair didn't propose yet: get a load of the pay-for-oxygen-mask tongue-in-cheek leaflet found on the b3ta board. Hillarious!

Down...way down...

Markets at close today:
S.&P. 500 closed at 700.82 (34.27, 4.66% down)
DOW (DJIA) closed at 6,763.29 (299.64, 4.24% down.) Lowest close since 1997...
NASDAQ closed at 1,322.85 (54.99, 3.99% down)

Oh well, shit happens...

Ryanair and common sense...

According to new reports the CEO of Ryanair (a bunch of really fuckin’ cheap flying dingdongs who call themselves an airline…) one Michael O’Leary announced that his flying dingdongs might start charging US $1.40 to use the lavatories on their planes. (They already charge extra for everything else...)

To that I’ll say – bad, half-baked idea. Dispose of the lavatories altogether and squeeze about 20 paying hot bodies in that space then make more money on inflatable chamber pots rental: say, $2 for number 1 and $5 for number 2. Inflatable chamber pots take up hardly any space while deflated and can double as floating devices (cost: US $100.00 billed to your credit card whether you survive the water landing or not.)

Down...

Markets at close:
S.&P. 500 closed at 735.09 (17.74, 2.36% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,062.93 (119.15, 1.66% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,377.84 (13.63, 0.98% down)

36 percent of Citigroup will be soon owned by the federal government (up from the current 8 percent.) 

Down...

Markets  at close:
S.&P. 500 closed at 752.83 (12.07, 1.58% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,182.08 (88.81, 1.22% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,391.47 (33.96, 2.38% down)

Mr. Obama:  “there are times when you can afford to redecorate your house and there are times when you have to focus on rebuilding its foundation.”  

Down...

Markets at close :
S.&P. 500 closed at 764.90 (8.24, 1.07% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,270.89 (80.05, 1.09% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,425.43 (16.40, 1.14% down)

Apparently the government will not seek nationalization of major banks but could end up owning larger stakes instead. The chairman of Federal Reserve Ben S. Bernanke defined nationalization as “when the government seizes the bank, zeros out the shareholders and begins to manage and run the bank" then added that "we don’t plan anything like that.” Oh well...

Bipartisanship as practiced in Washington, D.C.

Photo © 2009 Michael Liczbanski

Up...

Markets at close:
S.&P. 500 closed at 773.14 (29.81, 4.01% up)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,350.94 (236.16, 3.32% up)
Nasdaq closed at 1,441.83 (54.11, 3.90% up)

Apparently the feds are not going to nationalize major banks so up we go. But Mr. Obama has a major speaking engagement tonight so we'll see...

Marrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkets...

S.&P. 500 closed at 743.33 (26.72, 3.47% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,114.78  (250.89, 3.41% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,387.72 (53.51, 3.71% down)

A 11 year low close for DOW today: a resounding vote of confidence to the "rescue package"...

Scam via spam

I’ve been receiving many emails like the one below (some – or most – mercifully filtered out by my ISP) collectively known as “Nigerian scams” and always wanted to post one but would shrugg it off and hit the Delete key instead. What prompted me to post it now is a recent arrest in LA of a Nigerian chap named Paul Gabriel Amos, (37 years old, according to the story in the today’s New York Times "Novel Twist in Old Swindle Ends in Arrest ") who almost managed to swindle Citibank out of 27 million dollars by posing as an Ethiopian banking official. Wow!

Internet spammers and scammers not only steal valuable bandwidth (and drastically affect the cost everyone pays for the use if the ‘net) but also erode trust in the entire medium. And this is precisely why there should be death penalty for wholesale spammers and scammers. You know, using the Wild West analogy: very few horses to steal - lots of folks to hang…

Enjoy the Nigerian (?) prose!


From: Federal Bureau Of Investigation ekezieb@yahoo.com
Subj: GET BACK TO US IMMEDIATELY
Reply-To: fb1.securitywatch002@gmail.com
To: (unknown)
Date: 2/16/2009 2:08:03 PM

Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division Fbi Headquarters In Washington, D.C. Federal Bureau Of Investigation J. Edgar Hoover Building 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Date: 16/2/2009

ATTENTION FUND BENEFICIARY, This is an official advice from the fbi foreign Remittance / telegraphic dept.,it has come to our notice that the C.B.N Bank Nigeria district has released 3,500,000.00 US dollars into bank of America in your name as the beneficiary, by inheritance means. The C.B.N Bank Nigeria knowing fully well that they do not have Enough facilities to effect this payment from the united kingdom to your account, used what we know as a secret diplomatic transit payment (s.t.d.p) to pay this fund through wire transfer, they used this means to complete the payment. They are still, waiting for confirmation from you on the already Transferred funds which were made in direct transfer so that they can do final crediting to your account. Secret diplomatic payments are not made unless the funds are related to terrorist activities why must your payment be made in secret transfer, if your transaction is legitimate, if you are not a terrorist, then why did you not receive the money directly into your account; this is a pure coded, means of payment? Records which we have had with this method of payment in the past Has always been related to terrorist acts, we do not want you to get into trouble as soon as these funds reflect in your account in the U.S.A, so it is our duty as a world wide commission to correct this little problem before this fund will be credited into your personal account. Due to the increased difficulty and unnecessary security by the American authorities when funds come from outside of Europe, and the Middle East, the f.b.i bank commission for Europe has stopped the transfer on its way to deliver payment of $3,500,000.00 to debit your reserve account and pay you through a secured diplomatic transit account (s.d.t.a). We govern and oversee funds transfer for the World Bank and the rest of the world. We advice you contact us immediately, as the funds have been Stopped and are being held in our custody, until you can be able to provide us with a diplomatic immunity seal of transfer (dist) within 3 days from the world local bank that authorize the transfer from where the funds was transferred from to certify that the funds that you are about to receive from Nigeria are antiterrorist/drug free or we shall have cause to cross and impound the Payment, we shall release the funds immediately we receive this legal documents.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We have decided to contact you directly to acquire the proper Verifications and proof from you to show that you are the rightful person to receive this fund,because of the amount involve, we want to make sure is a clean and legal money you are about to receive. Be informed that the fund are now in United State in your name, but right now we have ask the bank not to release the fund to anybody that comes to them, unless we ask them to do so, because we have to carry out our investigations first before releasing the fund to you. Note that the fund is in the BANK OF AMERICA right now, but we have ask them not to credit the fund to you yet, because we need a solid proof and Verifications from you before releasing the funds. So to this regards you are to re-assure and proof to us that what you are about to receive is a clean money by sending to us FBI Identification Record and also Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST) to satisfy to us that the money your about to receive is legitimate and real money. You are to forward the documents to us immediately if you have it in your possession, if you don't have it let us know so that we will direct and inform you where to obtain the document and send to us so that we will ask the bank holding the funds, the Bank Of America to go ahead Crediting your account immediately. These Documents are to be issued to you from the World Local Bank that Authorized the transfer, so get back to us immediately if you don't have the document so that we will inform you the particular place to obtain the document in United Kingdom (U.K), because we have come to realize that the fund was Authorized by (H.S.B.C) Bank in London. An FBI Identification Record and Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer (DIST) often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. These Condition Is Valid until 15th of March. 2009 after we shall take actions on Canceling the payment and then charge you for illegally moving funds out of Nigeria. Guarantee: funds will be released on confirmation of the document.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final Instruction;
1. Credit payment instruction: irrevocable credit guarantee.
2. Beneficiary has full power when validation is cleared.
3. Beneficiaries bank in U.S.A., can only release funds.
4. Upon confirmation from the world bank / united nations.
5. Bearers must clear bank protocol and validation request.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FBI Director Robert Mueller, III

Market, markets...

Europe
Britain FTSE 100 closed at 3,889.06 (3.22% down)
Germany DAX closed at 4,014.66 (4.76% down)
France CAC 40 closed at 2,750.55 (4.25% down)

US Markets
S.&P. 500 closed at 770.05 (8.89, 1.14% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,365.67 (100.28, 1.34% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,441.23 (1.59, 0.11% down)

Lower and lower we go...

Markets at close:
S.&P. 500 closed at 778.94 (9.48, 1.20% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,465.95 (89.68, 1.19% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,442.82 (25.15, 1.71% down.)

The Dow is at its lowest since October 2002.

Markets today

S.&P. 500 closed at 789.17 (37.67, 4.56% down)
Dow (DJIA) closed at 7,552.60 (297.81, 3.79% down)
Nasdaq closed at 1,470.66 (63.70, 4.15% down)

Crude oil below $36/barrel yet the pump prices keep climbing...

U2 veni!

As seen recently on the streets of San Salvador, El Salvador. And no, they mean the band, not the spy plane (they've had enough of the latter...)

Earth to Bono and to the rest of U2: I guess that the good people of El Salvador would really (really...) like to see you play live! C'mon, Bono, you know the way to El Salvador: you've been there!




More about it here ( Or is it only a cheap marketing ploy..? )
Or you can sign the bring the U2 to El Salvador petition here

Photo © 2009 Michael Liczbanski