Good Morning All;
I'm drinking tea this morning. I'm conducting an experiment. It's called "will-anyone-make-the-coffee
If you're in the New York-New Jersey area, be sure to stay away from Taco Bell. Huge outbreak of E. coli; 39 people infected after eating at Taco Bells in the area. I'm sure there's more than one person in New York or Jersey that I'd like to contract E. coli, but I wouldn't be so lucky. I say this in jest; virtually no one deserves to get E. coli poisoning.
It appears that we're going to have a self-sustaining moon base by 2020. No humans have been to the moon since 1972, although I'm sure a few aliens have stopped over for some R&R while on their way to Area 51, or Hanger 18 if they're coming to the Dayton area. Yay for humans.
In the spirit of cynicism, Gwyneth Paltrow is doing a bit of damage control after remarks she made a few days ago about Britons being so much more civilized and intelligent than Americans. Now, after that story broke, she's "proud to be an American." She's so angry that she was "completely misconstrued and [she] never, ever would have said that." In fairness, she supposedly did the original interview in Spanish. However, I'm not sure how the translation can be misunderstood when you say, QUOTE I like living here because I don't fit into the bad side of American psychology. The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans. END QUOTE. Seriously, how can you misunderstand that? My opinion: Pick a side Gwyneth. Show some freaking' loyalty. Either you're proud to be an American, or you want to be British. I don’t see a middle ground. It's like she's saying that she's proud to be stupid and uncivilized. Loyalty…For all I care, you can stay in Britain. I'm not sure what you add to American civilization; perhaps you can contribute in a meaningful way to British…probably not though. I think they've got plenty as well.
Some new, full body X-ray machine has people up in arms about privacy. The machine is to be used at airports, to screen people who need to undergo secondary screening. It's supposed to be an alternative to physical pat down procedures. Problem is, it shows a pretty high fidelity outline of the body. Now, I wouldn't say it's erotic; you can't see hair or make out much in the way of facial features. But it's remarkably good at detecting things otherwise hidden. Nevertheless, some idiots are complaining about it - too demeaning, etc. I guess they'd rather have some fat guy grope them, and, failing that, some terrorist dude sneak onto the plane some explosives. I've done security; searching people for weapons and contraband, hundreds of people, is not fun. And it's not that efficient. I'd much rather run them all through one of these machines. You have zero risk of missing something, and you don't have to constantly touch people in ways they'd rather not be touched. People think too much of themselves. These security people have to do this to hundreds of people, they're not going to be so enamored with your body and/or genitalia that they're going to stop their work. You're not that great, so move on. They're not saving these images to a hard drive, and the genitals will be blurred out. I think that you need to cede some rights for the sake of others' safety, and, a novel concept, your own, when traveling via airplane. I'd feel much safer knowing that everyone, me included, went through this machine before boarding. If you don't like it, you can drive yourself to Tokyo.
It's interesting how I can make so little seem like so much.
Word of the Day: Dissemble (transitive verb): 1. to hide under a false appearance; to hide the truth or true nature of; 2. to put on the appearance of; to feign. (intransitive verb): to conceal the fact, motives, intentions, or sentiments under some pretense; to assume a false appearance; to act the hypocrite.
On This Day in History: Excellent day today: Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations (63 BCE). Charlemagne becomes the sole king of the Franks (771 CE). Emir Edigu of the Golden Horde reaches Moscow (1408). Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis Desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes two men to root out witchcraft in Germany, leading to one of the most brutal witchhunts in European history (1484). Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on Hispaniola (1492). A German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa (1932). Told you.
"Here comes the water. All I knew and all I believed are crumbling images that no longer comfort me. I scramble to reach higher ground, some order and sanity, or something to comfort me."
Until tomorrow...
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