The Verizon add is precious.

Hmmm . . .

7 Deadly Sins, now 14, to 4 Cardinal virtues, still 4.

How depressing does Catholicism get?

RyanH@#5: People upstream take their medications.

This may explain lots more than just the cluster of idiots on the road whom I assumed had a prescription.

Well, if she was going to get her hair done, she should have armed herself.

It explains lots but it also raises some questions:

Does that make John Battelle the Wizard of OZ?
(His office wouldn't be in Seattle would it?)
Which leaves Joel Johnson as Toto.
And who would be the Good Witch and the Bad Witch?

So it was Dixie Rawson of Bishopville and friends all along! Now some are reviving their youth via a resurrection.

I am old enough to remember, as a pee-shy kid, the pre-port-a-potty days.

In farm country, at the county fair and the AAA minor league ballpark, there was just a gutter-like galvanized sheet metal trough setup at a decline. It wasn't a foot wide, maybe 15 feet long. An open faucet at one end, a drain hole in the floor at the other.

Everybody lined up along the thing and made their best aim. It wasn't easy to hit. And the arching streams, the spray and the guy across the trough who might miss and hit you were all big distractions.

I would often wait to see if the crowd thinned but it never did. I would be surrounded by grim, weathered country elders silently arching their spent whiskey and beer into a small community target. I had no other choice and, as a kid, I couldn't wait.

Posey had hiccups in the womb? They must have taken some getting used to for her mother too!

Evidently this happens with many newborns. You have probably already researched a list of foods for mother to avoid if the hiccups seem problematic:

dairy milk and products
Caffeine
Soy products
Peanuts
Shellfish
Chocolate
Citrus
Wheat
Eggs

Yikes! Luckily that leaves alcohol, meat, goat's milk and real feta. :+

Sort of a brute force approach to special effects.

#29 posted by Chevan

You nearly have to go out and throw something at them to get them to leave.

Throwing stuff never worked for me. I once wounded a coon in the head and couldn't get a second shot to put him out of his misery until he came back a few minutes later.

My neighbor would just get out of bed and walk up to them with a baseball bat. They always stood their ground until she basically knocked their head off.

After I stopped keeping chickens I resigned to just coon-proofing the house. I also resigned to sharing my porch with one some evenings because he was so stubborn I actually slipped and hurt myself one night trying to run him off.

#27 posted by Pip_R_Lagenta

Eew, evidently you now have coon fleas.

The cat was quite friendly. There is actually a lot of negotiation and mutual understanding going on there.

The cat did not go for the coon's eyes and the coon knew it wouldn't. The coon did not run the cat off and take everything although that would be well withing the coon's abilities (the coon does not have the expectation of future provisions that the cat has). The coon just took one helping at a time and backed off.

They might know each other. Or the presence of a human may be mitigating the situation. But I see lots of such calculated encounters among wildlife.

It is hilarious when the cat looks at the camcorder operator and becomes resigned to Dad/Mom being entertained by the encounter rather than running the coon off.

BE FORWARNED!! Coons are big carriers of rabies and, although cute, seemingly friendly and human like in the manipulation of things, they are very strong, very fast and very unpredictable.

Many fine congratulations Cory. Poesy look very peaceful. Happy parenting!

What a strange coincidence.

I find this post at the top of boingboing imdediately after watching Super Size Me, the movie that McDonald's claims had nothing to do with their removal of super size fries and addition of salads.

I highly recommend this very informative, somewhat black comedy/docu-drama. There are many interesting aspects to this independent movie.

imdb.com reates it high:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/

I didn't even know there were male cheerleaders before before the mid 80's, much less when Eisenhower was in high school.

Phillips Academy, where it says Bush "cheered," was the women's academy when Bush attended Andover Academy, the men's, if memory serves. Looks like they merged into Phillips-Andover Academy since. Maybe somebody from Andover MA can clarify. It has been 30 years since I have been there.

Earth Man @ #3: It is Hollywood.

Santa's Knee @ #4: I agree, although didn't know Bush was a cheerleader, I had read that he was the social activities advocate among his class.

gobo @ #22

I review movies in advance routinely. Thereby I avoid wasting time and money. To tell you the truth, I can't remember ever being wrong although I am sure I must have been pleasantly surprised once or twice.

Reviewing any art is necessary. It is how one finds something they can appreciate.

Evidently it is also how teenagers release angst.

And if you think it is all relative, bear in mind that the vast majority of movies are a liability that Hollywood pays for with obscene profits from the few that make it. Also the vast majority of art galleries, restaurants and bands fail early.

I believe the pictured stone face in New Hampshire was a subject of a story by the unequaled Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter). He who wrote so powerfully about American culture that a public discussion of some of it, such as the haunting of the culture by Black slavery (House of the Seven Gables), only became possible in the 1960's, 100 years after his death.

I think it is also not snobbery if want to enjoy a good meal, performance or movie as Joe Shmoe. If there is a bad taste in the meal, it should not be only the chef who cares. What is the point of the effort to do something well? If no one cares and it is snobbery to expect anything, we mind as well save all the effort and eat gruel every day. As for entertainment, in "Idiocracy" they sit in a theter and watch someone's arse fart for two hours and they can't get enough of it. Can't argue with happiness. They should have their hour without reproach. So should those who want more.

imdb.com gives it "8.1/10 (21,222 votes)."

From what I could read, it sounds contriving and manipulating in place of artistry in plot, character development and cinematography. Couple that with cheesy special effects and obvious errors in the poster and most of the stills I viewed . . . I'm not sure one could pay me to got see it. And I didn't see anything about the score either, which is not good.

As has been noted, through numerous faux pas they seem to cut out a significant potential market of disenfranchised N.Y.C. are viewers, 18,000,000 plus.

Two hours can count for a lot if you're not in the wrong place.

Congrats! Hope to be reading you 8 years hence.

After all, where ever one goes in the world, one can remain in the same place on the net, or visa versa, or something like that.

Most people just need to believe in something outside the ordinary.

Those who don't have enough imagination to create their own beliefs or don't have faith in an established religion, seek the popular mythology of the day for explaining things at the limit of our comprehension.

Don't bother your lawyer about it yet.

Guaranteed to fend off Alzheimer's!

Here's another F-35 link.

Let's not forget about the new Joint Strike Fighter F-35. VTOL is one of the 5 options of which any delivery package gets 4.

The VTOL option includes a fan box behind the cockpit. Also, the single engine jet exhaust tilts down to assist the fan.

This is a somewhat different approach than the Harrier or the Osprey.

I am surprised at my own grief. I had no idea she was in her 50's when she was acting like a 30 year-old acting like a 20 year-old. I am glad she made a nitch for herself as she got older.

I scoffed at her in my 20's. I haven't seen her for decades, but I am sorry she is gone.

Yeah, I read up on the auction. Lots of seemingly contradictory statements. Lots about getting off the ground but at one point he admits it is seriously unstable.

A team member was from Boeing? Hmm . . ..

Ditch the fancy fins and give it four fans, not three, and get them up at least as high as the design's center of gravity . . ..

To avoid rolls at altitudes above "ground effect," each of those fans needs the ability to automatically double, at least, the rpm of the others at any level of operation and sustain it without issues.

The body mind as well be as wide as the rear fans. Then they could have designed in some aerodynamics to assist forward thrust rather then spending energy collecting air from the sides and rear.

The thruster intake should be near the center of the vehicle.

It will definitely state of the art materials and a good computer and redundant computer backups.

Then, with everything else I am not qualified to think of, it might have some sort of a future.

That thing has so many stability issues in its design, at least 3 major ones that I can see. No way they compensated for them with 20-year-old technology, much less in a package that small.

It is more of an example of why we didn't have flying cares in the 80's and 90's.

If it can get off the ground, the only sensible thing to do would be to get it back on the ground before attaining 10 feet and before applying any forward thrust.

Is Alex posing the question as a puzzle or is he unsure of one himself?

Giraffe: the shadow could also be associated with something off view. In plains county, on a dusty humid day, those brown mountains could be the cleared shoulder of the tarmac/taxiway/runway. Those green plains could be grass. That long, straight river could be a road. The hazy horizon could be the end of visibility on a dusty/foggy/high-particle count day.

Legs: I find this one less believable because, if his/her access equipment is really off view, it seems like s/he must have made something of a jump. Still, at a small airport in Texas . . .. That could also be foam on the tarmac, which could be closely associated with peering into an engine.

Is Alex posing the question as a puzzle or is he unsure of one himself?

Giraffe: the shadow could also be associated with something off view. In plains county, on a dusty humid day, those brown mountains could be the cleared shoulder of the tarmac/taxiway/runway. Those green plains could be grass. That long, straight river could be a road. The hazy horizon could be the end of visibility on a dusty/foggy/high-particle count day.

Legs: I find this one less believable because, if his/her access equipment is really off view, it seems like s/he must have made something of a jump. Still, at a small airport in Texas . . .. That could also be foam on the tarmac, which could associated with peering into an engine.

I've been a faithful boingboing reader for years. But this fiendish diabolicalness goes to far. Woolworths has been out of business in this country for decades!! How dare you expose their European operations!!!

I've been a faithful boingboing reader for years. But this fiendish diabolicalness goes to far. Woolworths has been out of business in this country for decades!! How dare you expose their European operations!!!

In the remote country towns around here, right up into the '80s, hats crafted of strips cut from beer and soda cans were all the rage at fairs and knickknack shops. To bad the ladies didn't have a couple for the photo shoot.

In the remote country towns around here, right up into the '80s, hats crafted of strips cut from beer and soda cans were all the rage at fairs and knickknack shops. To bad the ladies weren't so attired for the photo shoot.

. . . taste similar to a tender, juicy squab.

There's a relief, it tastes similar to something familiar, like a tender and juicy one pigeon!

What is the service charge?

You're not mad:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Timeline_of_web_browsers.svg

I arrived a bit behind the wave but Mosaic was still the default on the Win95 machine I bought. Took me about 3 days to figure out when I was actually browsing the Internet Web; that is, following 3 days of figuring out what a desktop was.

Moving up to Netsacpe 4 started my advanced Web use, precipitating my life as a netizen.

Maybe Firefox finally fixed all the old Mozilla memory problems they had on Windows. But it occasionally acts like they are still there, occasionally acts like the vestiges of Netscape.

I arrived a bit behind the wave but Mosaic was still the default on the Win95 machine I bought. Took me about 3 days to figure out when I was actually browsing the Internet Web; that is, following 3 days of figuring out what a desktop was.

Moving up to Netsacpe 4 started my advanced Web use, precipitating my life as a netizen.

Maybe Firefox finally fixed all the old Mozilla memory problems they had on Windows. But it occasionally acts like they are still there, occasionally acts like the vestiges of Netscape.

It is always the peace makers who are assassinated.

EULAs like that deserve a new twist on the old saying: "couldn't a', shouldn't a', wouldn't a', but . . . "

They are so silly it is not practical to take them seriously, but if everyone were to, Internet commerce collapse.

It is beautiful in a THX-1138 sort of way.

How long does it take to whiz through it on that moving sidewalk?

--
freeman

Thanks, Cory, for the interesting posts on Christmas day in Great Britain.

I may or may not speak for "woodsy types" hunkered down for the holiday in off-road cabins throughout the forests of North America. However, I find the fall=out of holiday season, the frenetic energy, the crowds and crazy driveres, the pseudo-giving and pseudo-caring, to be detrimental.

I noticed Christmas lights being strung on the day before Thanksgiving. On asking the mall employees, I was informed that they were two days behind schedule!

Let's face it, the original pagan holiday, the Winter Solstice, will remain in the past so long as multi-national corporations claim Christmas as the season in which they get into the black.

My holiday is January 3rd, "Return to Normalcy Day." Actually, "Normalcy Plus," I can buy things and take vacations from winter weather at huge discounts.

For whatever etherical reasons, my cell phone lacks the bandwidth to listen to Alice in Wonderland tonight, but I will look forward to finding it on my computer when I wake on Christmas morning.

Happy whatevere !

--
freeman

Ken Hansen@#23

Didn't we thoroughly flog this

Thoroughly.

However there seem new developments, albeit not mentioned in this story, being Homeland Security's acknowledgment of mishandling along with a statement about reviewing protocol.

cayton@#16

The neighbors had apparently been bickering over it for some time.

Ah, it's the ever-growing problem of the well-off moving to the countryside and complaining that the farmers stink.

Now we know where gated communities come from.

Antinous @ #48

. . . the multiple, lengthy diatribe comments from a couple of readers? It looks less like discourse and more like male dominance display.

It doesn't look like discourse at all.

Could engaging them do anything more than camouflage the picture they paint:

- anger in place of reason
- intolerance rather than policy
- blame in instead of solutions
- defensiveness rhetorical tactics
- a shrill tone like a call to arms.

In every direction: posters, journalists, bloggers, victims, liberals, other countries. Given the subject, how much more fitting a case against themselves could they make?

WassabiCracka @ #26

In fact my wife was detained for 7 hours and deported from England because her firm forgot to renew a blanket work visa - not back to America, but dumped ont he streets of France without her luggage, her passport or any money.

Now there is a story far less well documented than the original post.

Alajendro @ #14

They make travel bras for your wife, among others, specifically to avoid setting of the airport metal detector.

Father Brown: Correction to my post #9

That might be a good thing, even if mothers and fathers would never think of leaving baby alone in the tub.

Lauren O:

We already do. It's called grad school.

LOLOLOLOLOL

I am guessing here, but it looks like the design makes it hard for baby's head to become immersed. That might be a good thing, even if mothers would never think of leaving baby alone in the tub.

This is also an example of getting Scroogled in the worst way.

When she overstayed her visa it was commonly done.

The current climate alerts us that we possibly could be confronted in some stupid future by what we write here.

She had no way of making that determination.

Iran is a good example: We deposed their democratically elected leader Mohammed Mosadej (we admit this, by the way),

That was Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. who did that in a colorful bit of CIA espionage. He wrote a book about it decades later, "Countercoup." The operation caused dissent within the agency and Roosevelt replaced the top CIA operative in Iran who quit rather than run the operation.

The CIA term, "blowback," so heavily used now, was coined in that operation.

installed a terrible despot,

The Shah had lost power once and when deposed again in the late 70's, from K. Roosevelt's installation, his visit to the U.S. for medical treatment resulted in the infamous hostage crisis.

supported Sadam (who tried to invade Iran and killed 2 million of them),

When Husein got permission to invade Kuwait from our ambassador to Iraq, I wonder if, in some twisted way, Husein took that as payment for his losses in attempting to invade Iran on our behalf.

and now we occupy two countries that are adjacent to Iran.

Technically, we don't occupy Afghanistan. However, in keeping with the normal irony of this entire debacle, Afghanistan may be the only country we should occupy, or least should have for a while longer.

Iran, Iraq, Irony. Even the similarity in words is ironic.

what does it take to get some impartial views over here?

Whatever sort of wicked, oxymoronic violation of the laws of nature and the Universe an "impartial view" is, if such an unhuman thing were ever to occur, I think it should be destroyed on sight, not studied.

It would likely be some sort of aberrant, self-perpetuating phenomenon capable of destroying everything decent in humanity.

Bullies are always insecure, and they will try to pre-emptively and blindy strike out to protect themselves against their imagined enemies. Isn't it strange how enemies seem to be crawling out of the woodwork ?

That is not a rant, it is the truth. That is why you will be attacked for it.

I think it is just a measure of who we are.

All the time I was growing up, I was impressed by how readily the "jocks" or jerks in general would take the weak, disenfranchised kid out someplace and beat the bajeebas out of him for some lame excuse--really, just to take out their own fears and frustrations. Nobody in school saw that as a norm except those who had to deal with it.

I thought I would be glad to be an adult, when that crap was over with. But it didn't change. It just shifted a bit.

Maybe there is some "revenge of the nerds" in adult life. And there may be some transformation of thuggery into coercive manipulation and "middle management." And all to many who were victims in school seem to be out to be perpetrators in adult life.

The thugs haven't had any sort of epiphany. They remain among us.

To the extent we don't have a better answer, we let them have power and look away, unless it gets way out of hand, just like we and the faculty did in school.

Bear in mind that the horror stories associated with this anticrime program (and I have heard a couple besides this one) tend to involve a "samaritan" who finds a wallet, purse, bag etc, picks it up and LEAVES post haste.

Sure, there is judgment involved on behalf of the cop trying to catch real criminals.

Please also bear in mind that a judge vacated the example we are discussing. Judges in my experience generally side heavily on behalf of the officer's professional observations.

Also remember that the mindset of avoiding the possible consequences of helping others has been a big, ongoing issue, frequently highlighted in N.Y.C. for decades. Included have been instances of reluctant witnesses to murder and rape and problems with enforcing the law due to lack of citizen participation.

The issue has been directly highlighted in movies dating as far back as "The Out of Towners," with Jack Lemon, and in a number of popular songs, novels and essays.

Also, the recent face lift of N.Y.C. encouraged citizen participation in creating a friendlier, more crime-free environment.

How much protocol is it necessary to practice in defense of having to do something on behalf of decency? What do you do when confronted with a situation you haven't practiced for, be indecent to your fellow man?

Don't force them to decide whether you're really a "samaritan"

. . . you really must try to help out, STAY THERE and get out your cell phone and call whoever's wallet it is.

. . . you REALLY might want to just walk on, and leave bloggers to their outrage.

. . . just walk on, and leave bloggers to their outrage.

Yeah, how dare anyone confuse the authorities, not to mention reasonable people, with unselfconscious altruism!!! Bust the bastards!!

It's a nice little blurb for a daily--probing beliefs and fears with the juxtaposition of soullessness and disembodiment.

It has a Shakespearian way of speaking pertinently to the present issue from a dated viewpoint.

The journalist must have been a creative writer too.

Alas, new building materials get shabby with age while old building materials gain character and beauty.

And this new security will only be on a postcard if it gets captured in a postcard picture of this old security.

Headlines with a loose fit to the facts of the story can cause a shrill effect of unaccountability, countering the reporting therein.

I think Cory is on the right side. I think Western Digital needs to fire their legal department.

boingboing and Cory are foremost in my Net education and tutoring as a cyperite. I just would prefer that Cory tighten up headlines. Best to err on the side of sounding reasonable when point out someone else lack of reason.

Western Digital will probably remain my favorite hard drive although I will be asking lots of questions prior to future purchases.

I am open to suggestions if this discussion is still active.

That is one of the things I like about nature . . so Zen.

If I were that cockroach, I'd be having conniptions about how I was going to get out of there.

Wasn't it Shakespeare who used irony as portents?

Irony begins to flow from the reversed roll of the garden, the soil of Britain, wasting instead of yielding life.

Only when the villains are cast down, the weeds removed, does the garden become fruitful again.

My friend makes large pillow futons, chairs and couches.

He uses a 9' plastic bag and a 5 horsepower shopvac to reduce these things into 2'x2'x2' boxes for shipping.

His instructions tell his customers to allow the pillow to expand for 2 or 3 days before use.

It is a two person job so I have helped.

It sure sounds like a feature one must sign up for.

Does the generation of cyberites who spend so much time giving away information about themselves ever stop to think about the irreversible aspect of what they are doing?

Simply don't check the box! Complaining after the fact will constitute not much more than a peep in a storm if the wrong people gain the positions of power that they are working so hard for.

Of course one could spend their life consuming and playing at silly, trivial stuff that constitutes nothing. That would be sooooo much better than getting caught with the wrong book now by some dark transmutation of Homeland Security in the future.

For your viewing accompaniment.

"Also Sprach Zarathustra"*(XXX)

Oh, and you can't buy eggs anything like fresh laid.

Neep, one of my favorites, would peck at the back door at sunrise until I let her in. Then she'd run to the living room bookshelf, clucking indignantly, and lay one on the next-to-top shelf.

You'd be surprised how chicken husbandry will grow on you. They make outstanding outdoor pets . . . wo long as you don't mind the fertilizer.

My neighbors would perform tricks with my "girls" and Sunday drivers would stop to take pictures. We were a regular roadside attraction.

Motorists were forever asking for introductions to the more friendly of my chickens. A number of them started keeping their own chickens.

I think the false coloring can be misunderstood a little to mean something like "photo-shopping." It is more being used to bring out spectrum and matter that are not readily apparent to human vision but are part of the big picture.

It doesn't say whether they were on their way to the slaughterhouse when they stopped for those burgers.

A Texas rancher once lectured me adamantly on how neither she nor anyone else she knew of would traumatize a cow prior to slaughter. It is known to adversely effect the taste of the meat and even the slaughterhouse crew had ways of not upsetting the animal, she said.

Despite her insistence, the norm seems much different.

Hubble images, along with my follow up studies, have been an epiphany for me. I now view the Universe as a living thing--along the lines of "The Mind of God"--and I view my life and life around me much differently.

Disclaimer: I am not a nut!

I have quieted the revelry at drinking establishments with wonderment numerous times by opening my notebook at appropriate moments and slide showing some of my Hubble image collection.

I am sure to be adding images for sometime to come. But I will miss this revolutionary cornerstone in science long after it is gone.

Its successors are sure to render marvels. However they won't be producing quite the photographic picture show the Hubble has.

So, if Rowling is successful, this likely means less academic study of her regurgitations, uhm, I mean work.

Excuse me while I weep in sorrow.

I've gotta agree with Jack.

Well, OK then.

But I am a little suspicious, Jack/Zak . . . "hmmm."

"Won't someone please think of the children?"

Yes!

Give the children some hammers.

"I think people are missing the point here. Yes, you can hook up a drive to a machine and then let it run overnight. But that's a bad use of resources."

I'd rather just put the $150 toward a new notebook. It'd give more equipment and functionality per dollar by a factor of 100's and I'd have an extra machine to leave running overnight.

They want 50$ for an adopter to a notebook drive!?

The standard model is already an expensive stand-in for an adopter. Anyone should have free or cheap eraser software installed on their computer. So just use an adopter to make the old hard drive a USB drive.

Even if necessary, it must be selling at 10 times its production cost, that is before they start charging $50 for cheap notebook adopter.

That's comforting!

If I end up in "Gitmo," I don't have to worry about my government of, for and by the people revealing my private data that they misinterpreted.

Whew!!

Testing what, our patience!?

Dear Unusual Suspect,

How fetching of you.

What do you think of the image on the Rune Olsen's article?

Yours,
freeman

I love newness. Hope somebody tells these beautiful creatures about their newness!

"Well, that'll save the world. If the other 6 billion people just do the same to their 17,000 square foot garages, we'll have the environmental catastrophe licked in no time."

Wouldn't it be nice if Leno, of my own alma mater, would add some integrity to his genuineness and fund a venture on one of the more promising of his benevolent endeavors.

"Naive writers don't deserve to be ripped off, no matter what they write."

True.

And while those who purposefully wrote hurtful things with intent to do damage, dick around with those confederates who purposefully damaged them, there rest of us are all free to not care.

This was propaganda not art or history. Propaganda is still free speech, but we do well to remember that it is also war.

God and/or humanity and/or the Universe be with this poor girl.

Sounds as much like modern sexual practices as it does a drug deal gone bad.

Must I now go to my favorite felafel bar incognito?

So the guys who coined the current Washington jargon meaning a pejorative, misleading attack that is held in reverence by its propagators, "swiftboating," find themselves in bed with swindlers.

How apropos!

So that's it!

If all the hands-on play toys remaining in the stores are from China, electronic toys may finally take over completely.

That's how we love our children in the West. Get them cheap stuff made by those who don't understand our values and/or mesmerize them with electronics.

About the same as sending them out to pick coal of the tracks I guess.

It probably has happened before, even if it didn't happen this time.

Wasn't it This American Life, that did the story on "detainees" at "Gitmo" who were in large part fingered by associates who disliked them, or even by strangers who could care less, as settlement of old grudges or simply for reward money offered by coalition forces, regardless of innocence.