Breast Baring Popular in 1600s...
Women of the 1600s, from queens to prostitutes, commonly exposed one or both breasts in public and in the popular media of the day, according to a study of fashion, portraits, prints, and thousands of woodcuts from 17th-century ballads.
Since Fashion styles seem to go in cycles, when is this cycle going to come back into style? Maybe Janet Jackson was just trying to bring back 17th-century fashion when she exposed her breast at the Superbowl, then again maybe not. :)
Mexican Gov't Releases UFO Video
It seems the Mexican Air Force has released a video of what they describe as a UFO. The video was apparently shot well doing routine checks for drug traffickers.
Articles with Videos
Mexican Air Force Pilots Film 11 UFOs
Mexico Releases Video Of Objects Surrounding Military Plane
U.F.O. Close Encounter
Two Utilities No Windows User Should Be Without...
Mark Russinovich, over at Sysinternals, has written written a ton of useful utilities—two of which no real Windows user should be without: Process Explorer & TCPView.
Process Explorer is a replacement for the Windows Task Manager's "Processes" tab—actually it really could be a replacement for the entire Windows Task Manager. This program adds some functionality really missing from the Windows Task Manager. First, it can show you the entire command line path to the all the process running. Next, it will show you all the handles and threads opened by the each process—and it's even searchable. This is great for tracking down rogue process or finding out what problems are locking a file down. This is one of the first things I download when a friend is having PC problems. I'll use this to discover various process that shouldn't be running (such as Trojans and Spyware.) It's extremely helpful. Best of all, no fancy install, just download and extact it to your system.
TCPView was designed to show all the open TCP & UDP ports currently on your computer. Just like Process Explorer, all this information is updated in near realtime (for actual realtime spool of your traffic, check out their free tool TDIMon.) With TCPView, you can quickly located what programs may be listening for remote traffic or for what programs may be trying to connect to remote servers. This is especially useful for finding programs that should not be accessing the Internet—such as trojans and spyware.
Tyson The Skateboarding Bulldog...
I first saw Tyson the Skateboarding Bulldog a few months ago. While it was pretty amazing, he really couldn't do much w/a short stage. Fortunately his owner(s) have put up a web page with both some pictures and movies. You definitely need to check out the two movies—they're great. I'd also recommend reading the FAQ, seems the owner's have no clue how to teach your dog how to skateboard since Tyson taught himself.
Video of Tyson skating in October 2003
Video of Tyson skating in April 2004
Joke Of The Day...
I normally don't post jokes to the site and I'll probably see this one a million times in the next year, but my Grandpa sent me this to me and I thought it was pretty funny.
Marty wakes up at home with a huge hangover. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins and a glass of water on the side table. He sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. Marty looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotless clean. So is the rest of the house.
He takes the aspirins and notices a note on the table "Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping. Love you."
So he goes to the kitchen and sure enough there is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Marty asks,"Son, what happened last night?"
His son says, "Well, you came home after 3 A. M., drunk and delirious. Broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door."
Confused, Marty asks, "So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?" His son replies, "Oh that! Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you said, "Lady, leave me alone, I'm married!"
A self-induced hangover - $100.00
Broken furniture - $200.00
Hot Breakfast - $10.00
Saying the right thing - priceless.
- Joke, Anonymous
RSS Sidebar Reader for Mozilla/Firefox...
For those of you who don't know, I've pretty much found that I've switched to Mozilla's Firefox v0.8 as my full time browser. For me that's a huge change. I've always hated Netscape v4.x—its was buggy as heck, yet people loved it cause it wasn't from Microsoft. I'm not saying IE is anywhere near perfect, but it certainly gave Web Developers a lot more flexibility to build web app that functioned like a traditional desktop app. I started using Firefox when it was known as Firefox and really started to fall in love with it. It loads super fast, has lightning fast rendering and is an all around great browser. If all you're looking for is a browser, I recommend checking out Firefox from Mozilla.org, it doesn't include all the extra fluff that Netscape v6 & 7 have or that the full blown Mozilla has.
Anyway, the main point of this entry was to point out a nice little extension I found for Firefox/Mozilla called RSS Reader Panel. All you need to do to set things up is install it and create a bookmark folder pointing to all the RSS feeds you follow. Next, just hit [ALT][R] (or go to "View > Sidebar > RSS Reader") to bring up your new RSS Sidebar. I like the fact that it pulls up the full URL page when you click on a link. I normally end up wanting to see the entire page anyway. The other thing I love about this plugin is that I no longer have to load another app to check what's new on my RSS feeds.
The only thing I would change would be to provide an option for an additional panel underneath the RSS thread panel for descriptions. Right now mousing over the thread will show the description, but a panel would be nice for those of us who use the keyboard to navigate. This isn't huge anyway since I like to just pull them all up anyway.
Ghost Town... A Trip Through Chernobyl
I came across the "Ghost Town" from a blog entry on Jarle Bergersen's blog site.
Ghost Town is an interesting exploration of Chernobyl area from Elana, a young woman who rides her motocycle through the area. She claims her father is a nuclear physicist who has worked in the "dead zone" area around Chernobyl for the last 20 years, so she knows enough about the area to know where it's safe to go and where it's not safe.
Anyway, there are a lot of interesting pictures and information on the site. It's definitely worth viewing. This one example of how powerful a tool the Internet can be—provided the information is accurate. Anyway, go check out this "Ghost Town."
Image: Colin "Dio" Powell
Colin "Dio" Powell
I didn't know Colin Powell was a Ronnie James Dio fan. :)
Image: Hurricane Isabelle
Found this picture of the Hurricane Isabelle out at sea on another blog site. Thought it was a impressive image.
Telemarketers at it again...
The telemarketing industry is really fighting the "Do Not Call" list. I find there new allegations a bit preposterous.
The service, which will be enforced beginning Oct. 1, is expected to block about 80 percent of the calls. The telemarketing industry estimates the do-not-call list could cut its business in half, costing it up to $50 billion in sales each year. Similar lawsuits brought by other telemarketers are pending.
They're claiming they could lose up to half there business. I would agree that they'd have a point if this was a list to sign up to get telemarketer calls, but this is a list for people who are fed up w/telemarketing calls. I suspect almost all 28 million people who've signed up for this list are like me and tired of picking up the phone to have a telemarketer on the other end. There's no way I'm going to buy from a telemarketer. I normally try as politely as possible to cut them off and ask them not to call. After all, I can't blame the person on the other line, they're just trying to get paid like everyone else. This just seems like another frivolous lawsuit designed to delay things.
Article: Challenging the Qur'an
A friend of mine sent me this interesting article posted on MSNBC, titled Challenging the Qur'an, which talks about a new book getting ready to be published which questions the acuracy of the current translation of the Qur'an. The chief point of the book is that the author believes that original language of the Qur'an was probably closer to Aramaic than to Arabic.
[The] copy of the Qur'an used today is a mistranscription of the original text from Muhammad's time, which according to Islamic tradition was destroyed by the third caliph, Osman, in the seventh century. But Arabic did not turn up as a written language until 150 years after Muhammad's death, and most learned Arabs at that time spoke a version of Aramaic. Rereading the Paradise passage in Aramaic, the mysterious houris turn into raisins and fruit—much more common components of the Paradise myth.
Spooky... Loch Ness Monster Found?
Ok, where's Rod Serling when you need him? I wonder if this find is legit or just another hoax. Either way, it's just more fuel for the fire on the debate about whether ol' Nessy is real or simply legend. Pretty interesting find if it turns out to be a legitimate find. I need to look up to see just how old the legend of the Loch Ness Monster is...
A Scottish retiree has discovered a fossil of a 150-million-year-old reptile on the shores of Scotland's mythical Loch Ness, press reports said Wednesday.
Retired junkyard dealer Gerald McSorley, 67, said he "literally tripped over" the algae-covered fossil in shallow water near Loch Ness, Scotland's most famous inland body of water.
He took it to experts at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where the fossil was confirmed to be that of a plesiosaur, a long-necked sea reptile about 150 million years old.
"Do Not Call" Registery Now Online
While the "National Do Not Call Registry" went online today—at least according to their website. The site has been very unresponsive most of the day. I suspect their either having load problems with the site—or somebody's flooding the site w/packet requests trying to crash the server.
If you're not sure what the "Do Not Call" registry is, then go check out my previous blog entry. In a nutshell, this is the Gov't sponsered list that you sign up to in order to get telemarketers to stop cold calling you. I'm putting my number on there—you should too!
National Do Not Call Registry
President Rides Segway...
Nice to know we have a president who can stay on his feet. Ok, so he didn't look all that graceful in the process, but at least he kept his balance! :) I've got to admit, I'd really like to ride one of these things just to see what it's like.
Arriving at the family's oceanside estate, the younger Bush quickly shed the suit and tie for casual wear, grabbed a tennis racket and whacked an orange ball for dog Spot to fetch. The president was still clutching the racket when he boarded a Segway, a standup, motorized scooter that resembles a push lawnmower.
The Segway went down on Bush's first attempt, but he stayed on his feet with a flying leap over the machine. Undeterred, he got on again. His father climbed on a second Segway and they cruised around the driveway at the estate at Walker's Point.
- CNN.com
Thanks to Robi for the link. :)
National "Do Not Call" Registry
If you're not aware, the FTC is creating a National "Do Not Call" registry. Here's the quote from their website:
Calendar for Implementation of the National "Do Not Call" Registry
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is creating a national "do not call" registry. Soon, the following will occur:
Telephone registration for the National "Do Not Call" Registry will be available to consumers coast-to-coast during July 2003. Online registration will be available nationwide on or around July 1. Telephone registration will open for consumers in states west of the Mississippi River—including Minnesota and Louisiana—on the same date. Telephone registration will be available one week later to the entire country.
In September, telemarketers and other sellers will have access to the registry. They will be required to scrub their call lists against the national "do not call" registry at least once every 90 days.
In October, the FTC and the States will start to enforce the national "do not call" registry provisions of the Amended Telemarketing Sales Rule. Violators are subject to a fine of up to $11,000 per violation. At this point, consumers on the registry should start to get fewer telemarketing calls.
The FTC's implementation schedule for the national "do not call" registry will be updated at www.ftc.gov/donotcall.
I can't wait until I can pick up my phone without having to monitor calls. Unfortunately, I have a feeling Telemarketers are going to find away around this problem. I haven't read the bill, but if it doesn't state so, it should state that before a Telemarketer can operate off a new list, that the list must be purged. I can just see some company opening up a new "business" every 89 days to get around this law if the bill doesn't explicitly state that new lists have to be purged before calling. Either that, or they simply will risk the fine—assuming nobody's going to bother taking them to court (after all not many people have the extra time or money to do this.)