Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by John Cole| 7 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Just got back from the vet with Tunch, and boy was that fun.
Tunch, it turns out, does not like rectal thermometers.
I just watched my normally docile cat turn into a snarling, hissing, growling beast straight out of Stephen King’s Pet Cemetary.
Bastard even bit me (and the doctor, and the attendant).
My response- take him home and give him tuna. Man do these animals have us wrapped around their damned fingers.
by John Cole| 25 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
How does Splenda work, and why does it taste good without having any calories?
How do cell phones work? I realized the other day I have no idea how my phone knows to ring, and I felt like a confused 8 year old. With a cordless home phone, the land line connects to a specific transmitter. You get the point.
Just curious.
by John Cole| 16 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I did not know this:
In essence, the presence of gigantic fish farms will supposedly relieve pressure to ensure the survival of wild salmon stocks, as a federal judge just ordered the administration to do. (No doubt he was merely an “activist” judge.)
So now Americans won’t have to worry about endangered salmon. Hey, they can get it right from the can!
Er, well, and pay no mind to what you’re getting in that can.
Most of you probably already know that when you buy farmed salmon, that nice “pink” color is faked. It would be naturally grey except for the dye they feed the fish:
Another difference in farmed salmon: their flesh would be light grey if they weren’t fed ad additive to give them their salmon colour. Farmers can pick the colour they want their fish to be from a ‘SalmoFan,’ something that resemble a collection of paint chips.
And, when it comes to eating them, farmed salmon have notably higher levels of toxins contained in their meat. Oh, and did we mention that they’re high in delicious and nutritious PCBs too? In addition, the live fish are constantly fed a chemical diet of antibiotics (more per pound, in fact, than any other kind of livestock).
And just like that, my appetite for salmon (one of my favorite fish dishes- filets baked or grilled with a brown sugar/soy sauce crust are my favorite), died.
by John Cole| 14 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Does anyone know what seasons of Buffy correspond to what seasons of Angel?
Does Season 1 of Angel start after Season 3 of Buffy?
Just curious.
And is Firefly as good as my geek friends say it is?
by John Cole| 22 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
If you thought the comments were getting crazed here, you should check out the donnybrook over at Sadly, No.
*** Update ***
Sheesh. The comments at Sadly, No are nothing compared to the House of Representatives:
The Republican chairman walked off with the gavel, leaving Democrats shouting into turned-off microphones at a raucous hearing Friday on the Patriot Act.
The House Judiciary Committee hearing, with the two sides accusing each other of being irresponsible and undemocratic, came as President Bush was urging Congress to renew those sections of the post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism law set to expire in September.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the panel, abruptly gaveled the meeting to an end and walked out, followed by other Republicans. Sensenbrenner declared that much of the testimony, which veered into debate over the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, was irrelevant.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., protested, raising his voice as his microphone went off, came back on, and went off again.
“We are not besmirching the honor of the United States, we are trying to uphold it,” he said.
Silliness abounds. Not that the topic was very important- it was just about the Patriot Act.
by John Cole| 3 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Just got my new monitor to replace the 19″ Optiquest that died a couple of days ago.
This time, I got a 22″ NEC-Mistubishi flat screen CRT, and it is purty. Damn thing weighed 70 lbs though, but it sure is nice putting away that piddly little 15″ spare monitor.
Now I need to get a printer to replace the one my cat killed.
*** Update ***
Speaking of the cat, cat + monitor box = endless feline fun.
by John Cole| 22 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Am I the only one who is continuously amazed at the way shipping takes place in the modern world? I ordered a 22″ monitor, and it is coming here through UPS, and I have the handy tracking code which tells me where my package is and when it will get here and how long it took, etc.
That in and of itself is pretty damned amazing. But the fact that they can ship that many packages, get them where they are supposed to be, and do so with relatively little incident simply boggles my mind. It really is amazing.