This truck on fire is about a mile down the road from where I'm sitting.

Great Americans

Oh how I love Shimmy Cat [and I'd tell him so in person, kindof, if I hadn't forgotten my Blogger password and could comment over there].

Go read his three part series on The President of the War on Terror's horrible water torture experience.

If global warming causes coastlines to come in a few dozen miles as ocean levels rise, the overall environment will improve. How? Well, since people won't have to drive as far to get to the beach, they'll use less gas and generate pollution! And, even better, people won't want to go to beaches anyway, since they will be filled with partially-submerged houses, rotting trees, streetlights, telephone wires and all the other crap with which we decorate the Earth.

Google Inc. occasionally features light-hearted doodles on its colorful home-page logo to commemorate special occasions. But now they are drawing criticism from conservatives for not being more patriotic.

The Mountain View, Calif., company bathes its logo in stars and stripes every Independence Day, but last week's decision to honor the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch -- the second "g" in Google was replaced with a drawing of the Soviet satellite -- is being blasted by some conservatives.

chicagotribune.com

Wingnut Voltron

The demographics of my ZIP code tell me that I live in an area now that's younger, more educated and more dense than the place where I grew up, with a median income more than twice that of the place I left, with higher employment and marriage rates. Fascinating.

Even more fascinating are the "top 100" lists. For example, the list of places in the US with the highest percentage of Graduate-level degrees includes South Harwich, MA, where 100% of the population has a degree. The thing is, there are only 6 people there: one man in his 70s and five women, two of which are in their 80s; their median income is $16K.

Another interesting one: the top 100 areas with the highest median income (blurred a bit by the fact that they lump all incomes above $200K together) includes Rex, NC. This spec of a town (.8 sq miles) has a population of just over 50. A few well-off people got together and formed a postal zone?

Highest unemployment? 100% of the 227 people in this section of Columbia, SC are out of work.

... isn't much better.

The iPod shakes its dice and rolls...

1. The Pixies - La La Love You
2. Hilkka - Chase Lock
3. The Boys Of The Lough - Da Lerwick Lasses; Da Scalloway Lasses; Da Underhill; Da Galley Watch
4. The Cars - Cool Fool
5. Yo La Tengo - House Fall Down
6. Doc Watson - Blue Ridge Mountain Blues
7. British Sea Power - The Lonely
8. Bloc Party - Plans
9. Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
10. Gillian Welsh -April The 14th

... that!

Total Fucking Idiocy