Huh?


I get a headache just trying to think about it!

Via Dean

Lore Sjoberg (guy behind Brunching Shuttlecocks) has some Fun Food for the Trivia-Minded. What I really don't care to know is how he knows what hummingbird vomit tastes like.

This is a few days old and I haven't posted much lately, but this is a bold step into the arms of Big Brother that I haven't seen reported much elsewhere.


So if I am not doing anything wrong, should I also welcome searches without a warrant? Peering into my medical records? Collecting data on my purchases?

This idea is nothing short of invasion of privacy and I would hope that this proposal doesn't see the light of day.

Dean Kamen, engineer and inventor of the Segway, has a solution for the estimated 1.1 billion people worldwide who don't have access to clean drinking water.


His other generator invention mentioned would also work well in poor countries run by burning cow dung.

Via Kurzweil AI

Yep feral chickens. This is an amusing animal story out of Florida, although probably not so amusing to the residents.

So how do you clean up a wild chicken problem?

• County Animal Control only does domestic animals and pets.
  
• Florida Wildlife Commission says chickens are farm animals.
  
• Live capture failed because wild chickens can fly pretty good.
  
• Traps? Nope, roosters learned to guard against the chickens entering.
  
• Even alcohol in their food to slow them down failed.

High Springs, FL running out of options did finally solve their feral chicken problem... or more accurately exchanged it for irate residents.


This definately could have been better co-ordinated with the residents and I don't blame them for being upset.

Put yourself in this situation, your siting at the breakfast table having your morning coffee. All of a sudden all hell breaks loose and it sounds like a war zone? Frankly, I think that it's a wonder there wasn't any rednecks or edgy war vets returning fire.

Well this one in Washington County, Wisconsin would be highly elgible for a Darwin Award except for the requirement that the act has to end in death.


Now if the burglar knew that the occupants were going to be gone for an extended period of time I suppose there would be no need for hurry.

But wait! Here is the dumber than a box of kleenex part.


Never logged out! Just left the computer on logged into his email account. This person has to be the biggest idiot of the year.

Amid UN struggles to negotiations a new Human Rights Council (abviously needed with representatives like Zimbabwe, Sudan, China, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Russia) the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference) calls for the insertion of language requiring the new council to "prevent instances of intolerance, discrimination, incitement of hatred and violence" arising from "any actions against religions, Prophets and beliefs."

But democracies, epsecially the US looks at freedom of speech in a more absolute way, and enforcing responsible speech is in effect censoring speech.


The OIC proposal includes a couple introductory paragraphs with no lawful force, but one operative paragraph that would be binding. Not that the UN has any enforcement teeth, but it would be something useful to beat freedom of speech over the head.

This is going to cause a big stir with many people especially in the blogesphere over the issue of privacy. At this point I find myself less than concerned.


A lot of you are going to disagree with me and say that I don't care about privacy, but you are wrong. Anything put on the internet whether in a webblog, newspaper or government records are already there for public consumption. The only questionable area might be email, but OTOH I think anyone who assumes that email ever has been secure is naive. It would be stupid to plan a crime via email just as it would be stupid to do so on the telephone.

It's pretty simple really when we buy/sell online or do a bank transaction we are using secure connections under agreements with those institutions. In all other areas if you want something private don't write or talk about it online. When you write something online assume you are always in a crowd of people and some are looking over your shoulder. Because that is quite likely what is happening.

Via Kurzweil AI

Hundreds of newspapers and media outlets in this country are choosing not to run any of the dozen Danish newspaper cartoons. I have no problems with that. They have to freedom to not print as well as the freedom to print.

The New York Times ran a story in their arts section "A Startling New Lesson in the Power of Imagery." Basically it's about what is behind the Danish cartoons and the reaction to them. They compare them with other examples of cartoons and art in US that was also intended to provoke.

They mention Max Ernst's painting of Mary spanking the infant Jesus, the Virgin Mary with cutouts from pornographic magazines and shellacked clumps of elephant dung and Rumsfeld in the guise of a doctor, saying to a heavily bandaged soldier who has lost his arms and legs, "I'm listing your condition as battle hardened."

It would be nice if there never were any sects, religons or social groups provoked in this fashion, but that isn't reality the free world. I grant that the Times has the freedom to print or not print what it chooses. Yet I find it somewhat disingenuous for them to write this story about imagery provocations, and peoples sensibilities, while excluding any of the danish cartoons, but include a picture of the pornographic Virgin Mary.

Like the Danish cartoons, it too is meant to provoke and does achieve that goal. Maybe the Times chioce was because unlike the danish cartoons no museums were been burned, nor was anyones death or limbs called for. At any rate they show that they are not swayed by sensibilities, so is it because they bow to Islamic threats, or that they tollerate Islam but not Christianity?

Back in November I reported on the Myth that earing too much cholesterol or saturated fat will cause your blood cholesterol to rise to dangerous levels. It looks like we have another myth touted as fact that for years has had backing of the medical community.

This is the largest study in history to find whether a low-fat diet reduces the risk of getting certain diseases. The findings by this National Institutes of Health study were that the diet has no effect at all.


Medical advice for a healthy life are too often the result of indirect evidence. As one doctor said, "it makes sense to eat well, control weight and get regular exercise." In other words sensable eating, not eating particular foods are the key to health.

Doctors have been telling us all our lives that what we eat will determine whether we will be at risk for certain diseases, but one after another these scientific sanctioned advisories are falling into the myth catagory. Dietary fiber has failed to protect against colon cancer, vitamins thought to protect against cancer have failed to have any effect. It has been shown that there is no connection whatsoever between the cholesterol in food and cholesterol in blood.

For those that believe that either a that low-fat diet, or a low-carbohydrate will help loose weight, niether is supported by this study. As for myself I will take my fathers advice. Enjoy life and do all things in moderation.

Think you can insult a faith but not its practitioners? Dean will straighten you out.

Jeff Goldstein looks at identity politics and Liberalism. Via Dean

Are anonymous sources more accurate, and what about leaks? Althouse ponders "impressionistic history".

On August 5th 20 Pigeons will be set free in San Jose, CA carrying a GPS receiver, air pollution sensors and cellphone circuitry in a backpack. The pollutant level data collected will be beamed back as text messages to a blog in real time.

The blog will be interactive with a map allowing local residents to see real-time air quality conditions.

What an imaginative mix of new and old technology!