I just about fell out of my chair laughing when I saw the title of this note from Jeopardy!-winner Bob Harris about the US Air incident yesterday:
Get These Motherf***ing Geese Off This Motherf***ing Plane
My Slow Return to Respectability
Filing 2008’s royalty statements from my 2001 book Special Edition Using Macromedia Flash 5, I see that the Total Earnings (after the meagre advance) have gone from -$742.60 to -$705.47 over the past year. Only another 19 or 20 years at that rate and my most recent venture into computer book writing should start paying off!
Rummy!
Two years ago, after his letter of resignation was finally accepted by President Bush, former Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld opened an office near the Pentagon so that he could shuffle papers, write his memoirs, and presumably keep his monkey’s paw in the mix. According to the Washington Times via Think Progress on 25 January 2007:
On Jan. 4, Mr. Rumsfeld opened a government-provided transition office in Arlington and has seven Pentagon-paid staffers working for him, a Pentagon official said.
The Pentagon lists Mr. Rumsfeld as a nonpaid consultant, a status he needs in order to review secret and top-secret documents, the official said.
I wonder if he’ll still be there come January 21st? “Consulting.”
Comedy Central Represents, Old School
Perhaps to make slight amends for screwing Portland over by making 2003’s The Hunted here, Benicio del Toro showed up to talk to Stephen Colbert on Thursday wearing a vintage Portland Trailblazers t-shirt under his jacket.
Oddly enough, that was the second appearance by the Trailblazers on Comedy Central’s “news” shows this week. Tuesday, Jon Stewart — talking about the section of Illinois’ Senate designee Roland Burris’s mausoleum with a list of his many accomplishments headed “TRAIL BLAZER” — put up a picture of Burris as a member of the 1977 NBA champion team.
Interfacing With the Past
INTERFACE was one of the earliest computer hobbyist magazines, and this issue was the first computer publication I bought, in the summer between my freshman and sophmore years in high school. I was taking a chemistry course at Lane Community College, and after class I’d stop downtown at the transit mall to hang around at The Real Oregon Computer Company, one of the first personal computer shops to open up in the state.
ROCC sold the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080 (which was by far the cooler-looking of the two units). That’s not what’s on the cover of the magazine, though. Neither machine had a monitor, they had to be hooked up to some sort of terminal to get human-readable output. That’s an ADM video terminal behind the cheesy plastic model of the Enterprise. The 12″ terminal (the size of an original iMac) alone cost $1,000 or more — in 1975 dollars — and it displayed one color. Well, two, I guess, you could get green or white phosphor versions.
I just watched someone buy a 19″ flat-screen for a fraction of that price at Office Depot yesterday.
It Came From Netflix
I wish I could have just watched the movie:
After being sworn in, the new leader declares an unremitting war on terror, ushering in a decade-long reign marked by violence, corruption and controversy.
Oh, wait, that’s just the last sentence on the sleeve of the 2006 documentary The Fall of Fujimori, about the Peruvian president/international fugitive wanted for corruption, kidnapping, and murder.
Freak Horror Hand
Gawker, from a description of what many take to be the snubbing of outgoing Democratic National Committee chair Dr. Howard Dean by the Obama transition team, specifically Chief of Staff (and former Illinois Congressman) Rahm Emanuel:
Emanuel is famous for ritualistically cursing his enemies by slamming a steak knife into the dinner table. He does this constantly, with his freak horror hand, which is missing a digit he once broke off, in someone’s eye socket.
36%
Yeah, everyone’s year-end 401K statements should be rolling in about now, and I got mine yesterday. Down just about 36% from where it was at the beginning of 2008.
The good news is, because the past few years haven’t exactly left a lot to squirrel away, there wasn’t much there to begin with, at least not for someone closing in on 50. Wheeee!!!! as Atrios would say.
Iggy
Move Along
Down in Rancho Cucamonga, California today, a smart car tussles with a school bus full of kids (from KTLA):
School Bus Carrying Students Collides with Smart Car
The accident happened at the intersection of Banyan St. and Milliken Ave., just east of Chaffey Community College.
The white Smart Car was significantly damaged, but there did not appear to be major damage to the bus.
…
It appeared that no one was seriously hurt.
Look at the tiny little car!
