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!