The Ruthless Gene

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Could a gene be partly responsible for the behaviour of some of the world's most savage dictators? Jump here, to Nature News, to find out. Has the ruthlessness gene been uncovered? The study suggests dictatorial behaviour is partly genetic.
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Barbara Bush (senior) on the beach...and speculations on Bikinis

click Mrs. George H.W. Bush to enlarge

I brought this up at a dinner party last night and everyone scoffed. Yes, there does indeed exist a picture of a comely Barbara Bush [Senior] in a swimsuit (I was wrong about the Bikini part...they hadn't even been invented yet[1]). There you are, Friendos.

[1] Well, they kind of had been invented, according to the wikipedia, but they didn't become popular until after 1943, when swimwear was under a restriction to use 10% less fabric. The wikipedia also has a great definition of a bikini: A bikini or two-piece is a type of women's swimsuit, characterized by two separate parts — one covering the breasts, the other the groin (and optionally the buttocks).

Here is a photo of one of the very first bikinis modeled by Micheline Bernardini.

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In our more modern, Idiocracy, world, the bikini was finally reduced to the microkini (really, a glorified Band-aid®:


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Locked out of your car? Have a tennis ball?

This even beats a Slim Jim. A low-tech solution for unlocking your car if you get locked out...




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GraphJam

Stephen Clarke-Willson recently wrote about GraphJam - pop culture for people in cubicles. It's definitely worth checking out. Here is my favorite one so far. This graph was created by Malachi Lohman. It's like a manual for office workers (and everyone else).

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Nano-Plasm by Stephen Clarke-Willson--a very good read

Speaking of Stephen Clarke-Willson, I finished his new book tonight. As much as I love it and live it, I suck as an actual reviewer of art. That said, I give Nano-plasm two thumbs up...it's a rollicking tale of nano-technology gone seriously awry, and the colliding interests of business, insurance companies, and the public welfare. With a touch of mad science and scientists, and a dose of lust, ambition, and madness. Nano-tech, the framework for the book, is explained in some detail, but mostly just enough to completely creep you out.

Did I mention the novel is set on an island? Islands often seem to harbor mad scientists and mad science in other works of fiction like Conan Doyle's The Lost World, and The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. Thinking of those books and the movies made from them, and their island locales, I have to conclude this book is made for the movies. The scenes at the facility on the island would be CGI sensations...

I have no idea whether what he writes about nano-machines is real or pure confection. I suppose I could look it up, but come on. . .it's a novel; a work of fiction. And in a work of fiction, all things are permitted--at least in my world.

I have been baffled by the people who demanded refunds from the publishers for the book by James Frey (remember the bogus autobiography Oprah annointed, which was exposed as fake?) or Margaret Seltzer's recent fake memoir Love and Consequences: A Memoir for Hope and Survival. How that last book even got published is beyond me--I remember Keelin Curran and I read excerpts in the New York Times before the scandal broke, and we both thought it sounded totally bogus. But what do you expect? Isn't a memoir just a work of fiction told with a patina of truth? So, I have now completely digressed.

Stephen Clarke-Willson's book is such a page turner that you don't really care about the verisimilitude of the nano machines. It's a good story! Read it free here, or buy it from Lulu.com. Your President wants you to spend more money!

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Photos: Claire and Hailey at the Victoria Wax Museum, and Claire solo

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Bill Clinton Blows Up Again

Just before a speech on Sunday, Bill Clinton had another of his famous meltdowns, blasting away at Bill Richardson for having endorsed Obama, the media and the entire nomination process.

"It was one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended," one superdelegate said.

He was the Good Old Bill at first, smiling, and charming and making small talk with the 15 or so delegates gathered in a room behind the stage. But then Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate now supporting Hillary Clinton, told Bill how "sorry" she was to have heard former Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a "Judas" for backing Obama.

"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

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Alien Lore No. 126 - The Kecksburg UFO Episode

On December 9, 1965, a large, fantastically bright fireball was seen by thousands in at least seven states and provinces. [ed's note: I saw a fireball once, about five years ago in Seattle, standing in my front yard. At first I thought, they're here. An eighth of a second later I thought it was a missile, and then I had no idea. It was a light dull green and after it was gone (almost instantly), I stood in my front yard bewildered. The next day, Seattle Post Intelligencer reported a lot of people had seen it and an astronomer posited that it was probably space junk, or a large meteorite burning up as it entered the atmosphere. I can't remember if it made a sound or not, but meteorite researchers say that any sound a meteor might make would occur long after the meteor had vanished--due to the relatively slow speed of sound... Whatever I saw looked a lot like the fireball pictured above, except it was colored a light pea-green, like a 1959 Rambler.]

The fireball (don't you love the word...and the concept?) rocketed over the Detroit, Michigan/Windsor, Ontario area and dropped reported metal debris over Michigan and northern Ohio. It caused sonic booms in western Pennsylvania and was generally reported by the press to be a meteor. However, some eyewitnesses in Kecksburg, a village 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, claimed something crashed in the woods.

One boy said he saw the object land; his mother saw a wisp of blue smoke in the woods and called the police. The local volunteer fire department members reported an object in the shape of an acorn and about as large as a Volkswagen Beetle. Writing resembling Egyptian hieroglyphics ran in a band around the base of the UFO (ed's note: a fairly common occurrence in many sightings). Witnesses said there was an intense army presence that secured the area, ordered the civilians out, and carted the UFO out on a flatbed truck.

The military searched the woods and found "absolutely nothing." Or, so they say.

The nearby Greensburg Tribune-Review's reporter at the scene wrote an article the next day with the headline "Unidentified Flying Object Falls near Kecksburg — Army Ropes off Area."

The government explanation of the fireball was that it was a mid-sized meteor, however, speculation as to what the Kecksburg object was range from it being an alien craft to the remains of an unmanned Soviet Venera 4 atmospheric probe (known as Kosmos-96, originally destined for Venus). Similarities have been drawn between Kecksburg and the Roswell UFO incident, and the Kecksburg event is often referred to as "Pennsylvania's Roswell".

Photograph of a fireball Jan 21 1999 from Czech station No. 16

of the European Fireball Network camera system

The February 1966 issue of Sky & Telescope reported that the fireball was seen over the Detroit-Windsor area at about 4:44 p.m. EST. The Federal Aviation Administration received 23 reports from aircraft pilots, first starting at 4:44 p.m. A seismograph 25 miles southwest of Detroit recorded shock waves created by the fireball as it passed through the atmosphe re.

The FAA concluded that the fireball was descending at a steep angle, from the southwest to the northeast, and probably fell to earth on the northwestern shore of Lake Erie.

A reporter and news director for the local radio station WHJB, John Murphy, arrived on the scene of the event before authorities had arrived, in response to several calls to the station from alarmed citizens, and took several photographs and conducted interviews with witnesses.

His former wife Bonnie Milslagle later reported that all but one roll of the film was confiscated by military personnel. In the following weeks, Murphy became enveloped with the incident and wrote a radio documentary called Object in the Woods, featuring his experiences and interviews he had conducted that night. Shortly before the documentary was to air, he received an unexpected visit at the station from two men in black suits identifying themselves as government officials. A week after the visit, an agitated Murphy aired a censored version of the documentary, which he claimed in its introduction had to be edited due to some interviewees requesting their statements be removed from the broadcast in fear of getting in trouble with the Army. Mazza remembers the aired documentary was entirely different from what Murphy had originally written. In 1969, John Murphy was struck and killed by an unidentified car in an apparent hit-and-run while crossing a road.

In 2003, the Sci Fi Channel sponsored a scientific study of the area and related records done by the Coalition for Freedom of Information. The most significant finding of the scientific team was tree damage dating to around 1965 at the site where some eyewitnesses said they saw the object. Air Force Project Blue Book documents indicate a three-man team was sent from an Air Force radar-installation near Pittsburgh to investigate the Kecksburg crash. They reported back to Blue Book that nothing was found.

In December 2005, just before the Kecksburg crash 40th anniversary, NASA released a statement to the effect that they had examined metallic fragments from the object and now claimed it was from a re-entering "Russian satellite." The spokesman further claimed that the related records had been misplaced. According to the Associated Press story:

The object appeared to be a Russian satellite that re-entered the atmosphere and broke up. NASA experts studied fragments from the object, but records of what they found were lost in the 1990s. This new explanation from NASA contradicts the official Air Force explanation in 1965 of the fireball being from a meteor.

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Man vs. animal: an unbelievable video

This video truly appears genuine...an African Lion embraces and kisses the woman who rescued him--six years ago! It's a misty-eyed moment. This makes we want a lion! Or maybe just another, less aloof, cat...



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Another Posies Video::::Definite Door:::::::with lyrics, and, of course, with Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer

An oddly dated, but good, music video of The Posies Definite Door...on their "breakout" record, Frosting On The Beater. This song is one of their tunes that sort of bridges the gap aurally and lyrically, instrumentally (is that a word!?) between the more acoustic first two albums and the power pop of Frosting and Amazing Disgrace.

The Posies played at my 50th birthday party and did a great version of Definite Door that night.



Definite Door
(By Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer)

Say goodbye to your friends and family
Pack your promises silently
Leave a note on your kitchen table
This is all you will ever be

So hope for a better place for a better time for a better speed
So hope for a better use for a better word for a better need
And if you listen close enough
You might hear too much
Hard as sharp and razor-rough
You've never seen the such...

It's the definite door
To another dimension
Nothing
No more
(not even a mention...)

Keeping track of the eyesight streaming
Isn't part of the regimen
Many hours of sleepless dreaming
Unaware of the mess you're in
And if you didn't have a clue
You probably never will
And all the things you didn't do
Will inundate you still...

It's the definite door
To another dimension
Nothing
No more
(not even a mention...)

Better cross your heart, make it people-proof try to fight the fright
And have a real good trip, see you when you fall don't forget to
Write yourself back...
And if you fail to see the point
Of doubting all you do
Don't forget to blame yourself
There's nothing else for you...

Say goodbye to your friends and family
Pack your promises silently
Funny how they forget to tell you
This is all you will ever be

This is all you will ever be now
This is all you will ever be
This is all you will ever be now
This is all you will ever be...
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A real alternative: Dwayne Alozando Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho for President

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Senator John McCain attempts to dodge the George W. Bush legacy

"Don't move back. I think I'm getting
a chubby." Click to enlarge.

John McCain today attempted to add distance between himself and President George W. Bush—clearly, but gingerly, attempting to dodge the toxic political legacy of Dubyah, as he seeks a way to weasel himself into the White House, through a hazard-littered course.

"The point is, I'm not running on the Bush presidency, I'm running on my own service to the country, my own record in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate and my vision for the future," McCain told ABC television.

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