A recent study suggests that, “physical activity may reduce the risk of obesity in people with a genetic mutation that predisposes them to high body mass index.” So let me paraphrase this from my perspective as a non-medical type; ‘Exercise can help people be less obese.’ Well, who would have thought that this was possible?

So is there a gene there at all? I suspect that Obese individuals who have no interest in actually being healthy and losing the weight can blame their genetic makeup. While folks who recognize they have some responsibility and control over their weight can exercise and lose the weight. Now everyone is happy.

Physical Activity Can Reverse Effects of Obesity Gene

For years now the Global Warming fearmongers have been hard at work blaming a natural and cyclical phenomenon on human activity. Many (in fact most) real scientists dispute the cause and effect relationship that Al Gore and his minions would have you believe exists with respect to Global warming.

To make this misguided deception more tragic and misleading, the social and fiscal costs of their proposed “solutions” to the supposed “problem” are astronomical and are never actually discussed or considered by Global warming wags.

If you would like to get a true account of the reasons for Global warming and other environmental issues go to a site that is popular with scientists and experts in the fields of climate and the environment.

www.cfact.org

Get off the bandwagon of lies and learn the truth.

CFACT - Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow

I am a Tivo owner and frequently convert video recorded by my Tivo so I can watch it on my iPhone on travel and when I have time during the week. According to NBC and Microsoft if I buy a Zune only content purchased off the Zune Marketplace is acceptable to watch on a Zune. So if I had a Zune (a likely as a snowball in hell) the device would prohibit me from watching this legally acquired content.

Like you, I or anyone for that matter wants proven criminal Microsoft and some NBC telling us how and what to watch on devices we paid for with our money! NBC and Microsoft may think they have the right to assume we are guilty until proven innocent but I am voting with my $s and say ‘NO’ to Zune and these ill conceived plans to control me.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/microsoft-may-build-a-copyright-cop-into-every-zune/?ref=technology

My wife and I have watched Boston Liberal (I mean Legal) since the show aired in late 2004. We always felt the show was decidedly liberal but the comedy aspects kept us reasonably interested. Last week’s episode (The Chicken and the Leg) went too far in our opinion and we have now deleted the season pass in Tivo and will watch no more. This particular episode is an example of bad judgement and taste.

Two cases in this episode drove us over the edge in terms of accepting BL as entertainment.

First there was the case in which Alan Shore sues a school on behalf of a 15 year old who contracted AIDs from unprotected sex. In the courtroom Alan attacks the school system for promoting abstinence rather than condoms while the girls parents sit quickly in the gallery. It sits as a prime example of the liberal perspective that we always must blame someone else of our actions (typical democratic crap). In this case the parents who apparently did not supervise nor educate their 15 year old child are viewed as innocent bystanders while the school system is vilified as somehow the cause of this young girls inappropriate behavior. Sex at 15? Did the kid or the parents have no communication and feel a total lack of responsibility?

The second case is incredibly even more liberal leaning. A suit is brought against a psychologist by the wife of a man who committed suicide. Apparently trying to help someone work through their personal issues related to his grief over his fathers death is grounds for malpractice. Mentally ill people need help but when they kill themselves without warning watch out for those liberal lawyers.

Boston Legal positions the responsibility solely on the Doctor this ill man sought out for counsel once a week while leaving his spouse who should have seen this coming if anyone could have blameless.

I bid a not so fond farewell to Boston Legal as I will not be seeing it again. I can say one thing for sure is aside from the liberal crap which I detest; I will not miss Denny Crane and Alan Shore’s bizarre man love scenes on the balcony either. These went well beyond sensitive and straight to weird.

Boston Legal: The Chicken and the Leg - TV.com

Among it’s many other problems, the X-Box is a fire hazard. An Illinois family whose house burned down killing their infant son is now suing Microsoft. Instead of sorrow for building a flawed and dangerous product Microsoft claims the family was at fault for not unplugging the device when they were not using it.

Microsoft shows disregard and malice toward this family even after proof that the fire was due one of the millions of proven faulty X-Box units killed their son. Microsoft is seeking the legal cases’ dismissal and that their legal fees be paid for by the family. This is a company that should be punished for it’s blatant disregard for it’s customers and human life.

How does Balmer even sleep at night? He makes me sick, trying to paint Apple as customer unfriendly for lowering the price of the iPhone while he freely spends for countless legal services to beat down a family that one of his products indisputably killed their infant boy.

Microsoft Says Xbox ‘Abuse’ Led To Fire That Killed Baby — Xbox Lawsuit — InformationWeek

A “Z-Loser” of course! Give that man a Zune Dock!

What kind of man gets three Zune tattoos? - Engadget

Forbes Magazine was once perceived as a reputable and trusted publication. Their position as a source of the truth was lost.

In the latest issue of Forbes they provide a soapbox for Alan McGlade, the CEO of MediaNet Digital. His company is a large supplier to the Zune Marketplace and other Microsoft media stores. Without disclosing this clearly biased perspective Fortune gave McGlade pages on which to spew unfounded and incorrect conclusions and bile.

Daniel Eran Dilger is the writer at one of my favorite tech sites “Roughly Drafted”. He has written a great piece pointing out the actual facts and analyzing and unwinding the article authored by McGlade in Forbes.

If you a reader of Roughly Drafted this a piece you can’t miss. If you are not yet a follower of Daniel’s work and have technical curiosity and want the unvarnished truth let this be your first encounter at Roughly Drafted.

Daniel’s articles are factual and interesting with a good balance of humor and depth. For example, Lately I have been seeing some trolls on Blogs and discussions where Apple is described as the new Microsoft. Alan McGlade uses his free ride from Forbes to spout this crap. As Daniel points out in his article:

“McGlade then describes Apple as the Orwellian “Big Brother of the digital music scene.” In case you didnt get the memo thats being passed around by every flack in the business of shilling, Apple is the New Microsoft, and so consumers should revile the company and flee to the safe harbor of Microsoft, which is now, logically, less of a Microsoft than Apple.”

Now that’s funny!

Well in summary enjoy the article at Roughly Drafted and don’t waste good money on Forbes.

Roughly Drafted Article

Yesterday, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, went into full denial mode with regard to any wrongdoing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport restroom. Why now deny anything happened at all when in June, he admitted something happened and he was in the wrong.

The Police report from Senator Craig’s restroom encounter with a plain clothes officer tells it all. Apparently the officer was in the restroom doing his business in a stall and was essentially harassed by Craig; who peered into the stall for a couple of minutes then moved to an adjacent stall for a little footsie.

“Larry, you are one strange dude!”

The TPM DOCUMENT COLLECTION - Statement of Ofc.Karsnia re: Arrest of Sen. Craig

To date the 80’s rock and roll band AC/DC has denied the existance of Digital Music as a market. Only now is the band got even a tenuous grip on reality. Apparently they are still in semi denial as to how the market works. They have taken a bizarre step in selling their catalog inline in the form of an 8 month exclusive contract with Verizon (Huh?). The arrangement they struck for the 8 month exclusive period with Verizon is going to be a dry spell for their online sales. Verizon is only selling the music at it’s online store (not over the air) and only in complete albums for $11.99. After using your computer to download the album conceivably you could move the music to your Verizon mobile phone. How much work does the band believe people will perform to buy a copy of music for which they probably already have license for in the form of a CD or Vinyl. (Consider this: “Amazon.com Inc. sells the band’s “Back in Black” CD for $9.97” why would you want to work s hard to get the music and pay 20% more to boot?) Any potential new AC/DC converts will be turned off not only by the amount of effort required and the onerous whole album limitation.

I surmise that after the dismal 8 month exclusive period with dismal if any sales; AC/DC members will awaken from their drug induced coma and put the catalog on iTunes by the song like it should be. I might buy a song or two when that happens but only if they ‘get a clue’ in a hurry.

If the band dwells in the fog too long thinking about whether to provide their musical IP in a form that is convenient for me and the some 100 million fellow iPod owners they may miss the boat. I have been thinking about that fact that my wife and I have some of their songs on vinyl and given the state of P to P today do they really need me as a repeat customer for songs I already have licensed? …”Hum?”

Digital-Music Holdout AC/DC Spurns iTunes, Signs WithVerizon - WSJ.com

According to some dimwitted analysis by TheStreet.com the true cost of buying an iPhone is $17,670. Is Brett Arends onto something the public is unaware of or is he just a clueless link monger? You be the judge.

According to Brett the true cost of the device is not only the price and that of the plan for two years ($2,039.00) but should include the income tax you had to pay to afford the phone in the first place. Who in the their right mind calculates cost this way? What is the real cost of a Double Cheeseburger at McDonalds? (Oh wait let me determine my tax bracket before I figure that out.)

Beyond that Brett suggests that if you were to invest that $2,720 (real cost over two years plus taxes on the original income) in your 401K over the next 35 years you could expect to yield $17,670. (Hey Brett who besides one of your cretinous readers hasn’t already maxed out their 401K?)

Is Brett really that short sighted that he would forgo a mobile phone for 35 years? As laid concisely out by Daniel Eran Dilger at RoughlyDrafted as he neatly flayed Brett’s weakminded arguments “How about telling us how much we’ll save by not driving a vehicle or not living indoors, too? I bet we’d be able to leave lots of money to our grandkids if we just worked hard and lived under a bridge for forty years with a maxed out 401(k).”

‘TheStreet.com ’ is not to be taken seriously. Apparently it is not any more a worthwhile financial website than Judge Judy is a respectable legal figure.

The True Cost of an iPhone? Try $17,670 - Almost News & Anal Staring - Belly Button pondering & Poor Advice - AAPL - AAPL

The Universal Music Group of Vivendi has decided to push back on Apple and is considering removing it’s music catalog from the iTunes music store.

Consumers should see this for exactly what it is, ‘a slap in the face’. Universal wants to charge more for it’s songs than the flat 99¢ that is the standard at the iTunes store today.

Universal is considering a risky step since iTunes is the third largest music reseller and by far the number one digital music sales channel. If Universal removes it’s songs from iTunes it will give many consumers cause to consider that perhaps they should just download the Universal songs they want using Bit Torrent or Limewire/GNUtella (exactly what most were doing prior to iTunes) and then import these into the iTunes client on their computers so they can listen to them on their 100 Million iPods.

Universal may learn the hard way that consumers don’t want the record companies telling them how to get their music and what devices on which to listen to them.

Universal in Dispute With Apple Over iTunes - New York Times

A DC Administrative Law Judge is suing a dry cleaners in DC for $65 Million dollars for a pair of pants they lost in 2002. Roy Pearson a lawyer and Judge in DC is acting as his own attorney is pissing away the Washington DC tax dollars bringing a case so lame that it would even embarrass John Edwards.

The mere fact a case like this can be brought to the DC courts provides an alarming example of how screwed up our Judicial system has become. Roy Pearson should be disbarred from the court and lose his job for being involved with something so unbalanced and wasteful.

Perhaps at some point the folks in congress will stop pandering to their respective Parties’ base with meaningless legislation and realize they need to work on some serious legal reform.

When a hardworking people in America have to put up with frivolous lawsuits from worthless lawyers with nothing but time on their hands it is a travesty! In fact it should be a criminal offense to waste taxpayers money on such clearly baseless legal efforts.

Marc Fisher - Lawyer’s Price For Missing Pants: $65 Million - washingtonpost.com

Update: June 13th

Roy Pearson’s case is being heard in the DC courts today and yesterday he broke down and sobbed like a baby in open court. He has dropped the amount of the legal suit to only $54 Million in damages (heartbreak and suffering) but the case is a foolish and wasteful as it was when I created the original post in April.

The tears were prompted by Pearson’s emotions welling up during the trial as he recalled the point at which the cleaners called him in to present him with his pants which had turned up. As noted in the Wall Street Journal Online:

“The cleaner’s lawyer, Christopher Manning, described Pearson as embittered, having emerged from recent divorce with financial problems and having held a grudge against the cleaners from a prior run-in. When did Pearson cry? Here, as described by the WaPo:

… but as he came to the part about when Soo Chung (Owner of the dry cleaner) finally told him she had found the missing pants, the tale of the $10.50 alteration that went awry proved to be too much.

“And she said, ‘These are your pants.’ ”

Pearson paused. He struggled to breathe deeply. He could not continue. Pearson blurted a request for a break, stood up, turned around and walked out of the courtroom, tears dripping from his full and reddened eyes.”

Final Update (June 25): The case was dismissed by Judge Judith Bartnoff overseeing it in the DC Courts and the Cleaners were awarded court costs. Additionally the National Labor Relations Board has called for Mr Pearson to be debarred so that he can no longer serve as a judge. This case has made a mockery of the US legal system and hopefully will prompt some actions on behalf of lawmakers to prevent such frivolous cases from being brought in the future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6238364.stm

There is a HUGE misconception that the Democrats are the voice of minorities in this country and that Republicans support policies that hurt minorities. That is an assertion that is driven by the liberal media in this country. The real truth is that democrats like to over hype the problem of racism to get votes and actually enable racism in this country so they can site a problem when appealing to minority voters. I am not trying to deny that racism still is a problem in the United States, but it is not as prevalent as the far left and specifically democrats will lead you to think. The truth is there are more racist democrats than republicans in the history of this country.

For example, President Clinton’s political hero, who till this day he speaks highly off, is a former senator by the name of J. William Fulbright. Senator Fulbright was a Southern Democrat and a staunch multilateralist who supported racial segregation. He also worked to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Senator Fulbright was as racist a person as they come, and he was a big voice of the democratic party. Anyone who considers this man a political hero cannot call himself “The First Black President” or a person who cares about minorities.

Another example is former Vice President Al Gore’s father, Al Gore, Sr. Al Gore, Sr also voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The truth is that Civil Rights in this country was initiated by Republicans. More republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than democrats, and if weren’t for Republicans, that act would have never passed.

The reason Republicans are deemed racist is because they support equality for all. Republicans are against programs that counter-act racism of one group by being racist to another group, or as I like to call it, Affirmative Action. What Republican leaders hope to achieve is a society that rewards ALL people who work hard and show ambition and not a welfare state society where people are dependant on the government for everything.

The reason the Democrats so badly want you to believe that there is racism out there is for votes. A classic example is with Democrat, Mike Nifong, the DA of Durham Country. As you all may know, 3 White Duke lacrosse players were accused of rape by an African American woman. Even though there was zero evidence against these 3 players, Mike Nifong hyped up the charges through the media and called these players racist, because he wanted to capture the African American vote in Durham country. It was later found out that he withheld exculpatory evidence, lied to the courts and the media, and ruined the lives of 3 students all to get re-elected. The Duke Lacrosse case is a classic example of what a democrat will do to create racism that is not there to get votes.

The number of airports with programs designed to pre-screen travelers for speedier processing in airport security is expanding. At this point the following airports have or are initiating such programs:

Albany
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
Huntsville, Ala.
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Little Rock
Newark Liberty Terminal B
New York John F. Kennedy (Terminal 7)
Orlando
Reno
San Jose, Calif.

Why are none of the airports in the DC Metro area involved in standing up such a program? I would certainly appreciate the folks at Dulles recognizing that this type of program is critical for the DC traveler.

Trusted traveler programs grow - USATODAY.com

Yet again Steve Ballmer is demonstrating how even a moron can run a monopoly. Steve is confused as so how Google is making money. He points out how over and over Microsoft has remade itself to move forward and how Google is still ad revenue driven. In point of fact Steve knows his time is short. Microsoft is rapidly becoming irrelevant and they took one giant step in this direction by releasing Vista.

As far as Ballmer’s babbling about remaking the company, someone should point out to Steve that being a desktop OS monopoly then becoming a monopoly in Office suites by leveraging that OS Monopoly is not two separate business directions. Nor is it a change in business to leverage your desktop monopoly to try to monopolize the server market. You really need to study the term business model before you make comments denigrating another company’s approach.

Perhaps Steve B. meant to point out how Google is making money hand over fist and hasn’t screwed outright any of it’s business partners that certainly is a different strategy than Microsoft’s approach. In all areas of Microsoft’s product and services capabilities not specifically leveraged by the desktop monopoly they are hemoraging cash. (Windows CE, X-Box, MSN, Zune and the list goes on …)

Being condecending is annoying in virtually every instance. Ballmer should note that trying to appear condescending when you don’t have a basic grasp of what the competition is doing doesn’t make them look bad. It does however point out clearly that you are not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Ballmer questions Google’s business strategy

As predicted there has been a flurry of response to Apple CEO (Steve Jobs) open letter suggesting that DRM schemes be dropped on Music and Video for the benefit of consumers. it has been an interesting two weeks with the interested parties all chiming in on the topic in a predictable and self serving manner:

Edgar Bronfman (Warner Music Group chief executive) - said in a conference call with analysts that Jobs’ stance is “completely without logic or merit.” “We advocate the continued … protection of our and our artists’ intellectual property,” Read as: we want to continue to hamper users from using the content they bought and paid for on multiple devices unless they buy it multiple times.

Michael Robertson, founder of music download site www.mp3.com - indicated that he is not convinced of Jobs’ good intentions until Apple embraces an open business model. Specifically he calls for Apple to “open the doors for iTunes software to work seamlessly with other stores. This would promote users to buy MP3.com content without any investment on the part of MP3.com in support of the iTunes software. (How altruistic)

Fred Amoroso (Macrovision CEO) - published a letter indicating that DRM is good for consumers and promotes content. I guess you could expect that from the CEO of a company whose entire business is to provide copy protection and DRM.

Let’s face it DRM is the Music and Video industries way to tell you flat out that they think the consumers in general are criminals. They believe that users will continue to put up with this untenable situation where you buy some content and have little flexibility in where and how to use it.

Perhaps if the various players in this space would spend some time understanding the issues they wouldn’t sound so self serving and silly. For a good explanation of Apple’s Fairplay DRM and the impacts of Apple broadly licensing the technology there is a recent article in RoughlyDrafted.com that is well worth the read. My opinion is that until the fat cat Music and Video execs wise up the P2P network technologies will continue to be quite a hot area of use and development.

The DRM Battle: Macrovision%u2019s Response To Steve Jobs - Tech News

Bill Gates in a recent Newsweek interview attacked Apple and the Mac with what only can be described as a full on lie fest. These patent untruths did not go unnoticed as virtually every news outlet in the world covered the story that Bill was angry about Apple’s success recently. In no small part this success is based on the fact that Macs are undeniably more secure and safe a platform than Windows. When it was pointed out to ‘Monopoly Bill’ in the interview that there were ads from Apple poking fun at PCs and Vista his head practically exploded. When he was asked: “Are you bugged by the Apple commercial where John Hodgman is the PC, and he has to undergo surgery to get Vista?”

Gates red faced and sweating launched into a tirade: “I’ve never seen it. I don’t think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.”

“If you just want to say, “Steve Jobs invented the world, and then the rest of us came along,” that’s fine. If you’re interested, [Vista development chief who indicated in an internal Microsoft e-mail to Gates he would like to buy a Mac] Jim Allchin will be glad to educate you feature by feature what the truth is.”

“Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine.”

(Maybe Bill just doesn’t get all the spam that the reset of us receive from the thousands of Zombie Windows Machines but this alone demonstrates how inane his claim that Windows can’t be hacked while the Mac is a sieve.)

In response to Bill’s lying rants many experts on security speculated on why he would flat out lie about such things.

Scott Granneman of Security Focus noted the following: “My reaction, like most knowledgeable people who read this, was open-mouthed astonishment. Now, either Bill is heavily drugged and delusional, which I don’t believe, or he’s just completely ignorant, which I also discount, or he knows exactly what he’s saying and has an ulterior motive. That’s my best guess.”

“ Bill Gates knows that he’s at best exaggerating and at worst completely lying through his teeth. So why’s he doing it? Because he also knows that Apple’s new ads are helping Macs to sell like hot cakes, and that security is a big reason why a lot of people are throwing up their hands in disgust at Windows and switching to Apple’s computers. Who reads Newsweek? Not computer pros, but Joe and Jane Computeruser, and Joe and Jane tend to believe what they read in the mainstream media… ”

When you are Bill Gates and when your fortune is threatened by a company with a better product and 6% of the market; I guess you can justify totally lying to consumers essentially deceiving them into continuing to piss away their hard earned money on yet another poor Microsoft product.

Now that Vista is out consumers need to give some thought to how to migrate. Based on recent testing by ZDnet the migration provided by Microsoft to move from XP to Vista is a total failure. By comparison migration from one mac to another using Apple’s tools is totally painless.

I suggest that XP users seriously consider migrating to a Mac now (why move to Vista? It offers little value and costs a lot in license and hardware upgrades required.)

� The Great Vista/Mac Showdown: Mac migration a breeze, Vista%u2019s migration is a headache | Rational rants | ZDNet.com

Now that the formal consumer launch of Microsoft Vista (formerly Longhorn) has occurred the feedback on the launch is building. The common opinion is that the Launch was a failure for three basic reasons:

1) The product is weak. According to Computerworld “Microsoft is losing consumer operating system market share to Apple for many reasons, but most of those reasons can be oversimplified thus: Mac OS is simple, and Windows is complicated.” Information Week says that “Mac OS X Shines In Comparison With Windows Vista” based on a head to head review.

2) The Market today is not like it was in 1995 when the release of Windows 95 seemed so important.

3) The Launch it self was confusing with a vast majority of users confused and rightly so with what version of the product might be right for them and whether it will even work on their existing PC.

Overall it has become abundantly clear that Vista is yet another warmed over NT version with Mac like eyecandy grafted on. Ballmer and crew must believe that customers are fairly stupid to believe that they will be fooled by this effort to put lipstick on a pig.

Particularly in light of the recent release of the iPhone from Apple the blogosphere and the media world is abuzz with speculation. Most of the press is solid and essentially predicts that the iPhone is a world changing device. The minority (but a vocal one at that) is naysayers that are nit picking the iPhones features, capabilities and selection of Cingular as a network provider to try to support the position that the product will fail.

I subscribe to the position that the iPhone is revolutionary and is an indicator that Apple will bring this forward as a platform with huge adoption by the masses as a result.

When I tire of reading the thin and cursory analysis presented by most of the Apple and Apple related technology ‘pundits’, I often rehome my browser to www.roughlydrafted.com a blog authored by Daniel Eran a consultant and technical writer in San Francisco CA. He is insightful and well written and most importantly his analysis is well thought out and referenced.

In the area of the iPhone faults, Daniel has written a piece called the Ten Myths of the iPhone. It is well worth reading. I refer you there and suspect that after you read this and a few of his other works roughlydrafted will be on your regular Internet stops for well constructed technical articles.

Macworld: Ten Myths of the Apple iPhone

Microsoft is shuttering the MSN Music Site based on it’s poorly named “Plays For Sure” technology. Apparently it’s forthcoming “lame and late” Zune music player will be unable to play any tracks that users bought from the MSN Music site or any other music site that is based on the Plays for Sure format.

How Microsoft could could adopt a music player that will be unable to play music that they sold to users through their existing Music Store is baffling. Seems that they incorrectly named their technology “Plays for Sure” when in fact it is more aptly described as “Unlikely to Play”.

The most interesting part of this announcement is going to be watching how this affects all the player vendors that implemented the “Plays For Sure” DRM in their players.

Go to Optoutprescreen.com and banish unsolcited Credit card offers for 5 years or forever! OptOutPrescreen.com is the only internet website authorized by Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion for consumers to Opt-Out of firm offers of credit or insurance. You may request to Opt-Out from firm offer lists for 5 years or permanently. Pam ran across a newspaper write up on opting out and 5 min later after completeing the process of registering we were done. Stopping the barrage of applications is complete online in minutes and sending in postal mail the document printed from the site and signed allows you to permanently opt out.

I for one am looking forward to less trash in my mailbox. You can join me by going to the link below.

OptOutPrescreen.com

With her premier as the solo news anchor for CBS Katie took the top spot for the nightly news shows yesterday evening. Unfortunately for Couric and CBS I believe that this popularity was more a demonstration of curiousity seekers than a shift in the viewing habits of the American public. More unfortunately for them the show itself was a lame ‘fluff-fest’. With Katie going on about how Vanity Fair had finally gotten pictures of “the most infamous recluse in the world” yes that right a major portion of the show was dedicated to the fact that there are now photos of Tom Cruise (infamous social misfit and couch jumping idiot) and Katie Holmes’ baby Suri. Who cares? For a moment I thought the kids had switched the channel to watch Access Hollywood.

Katie ended the show by waxing on about how real journalists of the past had ended their broadcasts running the audio of some illustrious news journalists of the past. Then, it offered the images of mythical buffoon newsmen Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) and Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell). That was nothing less than moronic. She ended by going on about how she had yet to decide on her personal signature tag line with which to end the CBS-Couric fluff-fest broadcast. She concluded by asking viewers to send her suggestions if they had any. (Is this a contest? Perhaps the prize is a specially configured Tivo that won’t allow viewing of CBS in the 6:30pm to 7:00pm timeslot!) My personal suggestion for Katie is “Goodnight this is Katie Couric signing off and thankfully early enough so viewers really interested in the news can get it on NBC immediately following this broadcast.”

Couric newscast takes top spot in overnight ratings - MarketWatch

So Mel Gibson has been to court and received his sentence. Basically he got off with a $1500 dollar fine and agreed to do some public service announcements about the dangers of drinking and driving. In my opinion this is nonsensical since how much credibility does he have? Here’s a guy who hates cops and is a bigot and he is now supposed to serve as a role model. Perhaps his additional task of attending AA meetings will be of more value. I would like to be there with a video camera when he stands up and says; “I’m Mel Gibson and I am a nasty drunk! - hic”

All in all it would have been more informative for future drunks to see that even Mel did some time when he acted like a moron. So much for our court system and justice for all.

Nearly everyone on the planet has know been made aware of the enormous threat posed to the flying public by harmless household liquids combined to become deadly explosive cocktails. The Register (an online publication) took an opportunity to research the subject and has concluded that all the furor is nonsense. They detail the ingredients and procedures necessary to actually produce the explosive end product. The Register concluded that it would be easier to bring on board the end product TATP (interestingly not a liquid at all but a non-descript white powder) than try to mix a batch while in the air.

They also conclude as do I that the current tempest in a teapot about necessary changes to the security procedures at airports is pointless and misdirected.

Read the article at the Register