Random Thoughts From Marybeth

At Least They Don't Have a Guestbook

Does anyone outside of the media care that government sites have issued cookies or use traffic counters?

Maybe I'm too easygoing. I'm happy when a site doesn't have bits that blink or jiggle around. Legible fonts are good too.

Earlier this year I clicked on a referral link and without my having to do anything else, the site downloaded adware/spyware onto my computer. It took many hours over a couple of days to get rid of it. Now, that was a problem.

Weird Stories of 2005

An article has a collection of some of the odder news stories of the year.

Here's a country that takes education seriously - In Japan, police were so upset to hear that a student who was caught up in a traffic accident had to get to an important exam that they gave him a full escort with sirens, arriving with 10 minutes to spare.

This doesn't sound very eco-friendly - Tourism authorities in Switzerland decided to wrap an entire glacier in PVC foam to try and stop it melting during the summer months.

Inclusiveness gone too far - A pastor in Denmark's established church who had been suspended because he did not believe in God was allowed back into the fold. "We're giving him another chance," said the religious affairs minister, who oversees the Lutheran Protestant Church.

Caricature Maker

Digibody's Caricature Maker lets you select among face shapes, noses, eyes, eyebrows, ears, mouths, and hair styles to create a charicature/avatar. You can then save them as .png, .gif, or .jpg files.

I picked the parts that seemed most similar to my own but I don't think the whole picture looks anything like me.

Two Heads Are Better Than One?

In an interview at the white-pillared governor's mansion, built by Huey P. Long in the 1930's, Ms. Blanco dismissed some of the criticism against her as sexist. "I'm not a guy," she said. "I can't be Rudy, whatever that is."

For someone who has no influence over my day-to-day life, the governor of Louisiana really manages to annoy me. In what way does being a politician have anything to with whether or not one has a penis? (No Clinton jokes, please.)

Even though we are from different political parties, I would have liked to have seen Blanco do well. Not just because better management would have helped the people of her state but also because I like to see women do well in politics. She could have said, "yes, I made mistakes but I've learned from them and am better prepared to oversee the rebuilding." Instead she blames it on being a woman. This makes me think she's learned nothing.

I'm Going to Disney World

Trevor's marching band is going to WDW during the second week of February. I could have volunteered to be a chaperone and traveled down on the bus with the band and other band parents and families.

Because I still have a tenuous grasp on my sanity (and want to keep it) Conor, Emma, and I are going to fly to Orlando. I've booked the flights already but still haven't decided on where to stay. If anyone has a suggestion or recommendation for lodging, I would appreciate the input. I'm leaning towards one of the WDW properties but haven't ruled out anything yet. I am going to try to decide within the next couple of days. I prefer the anticipation of a trip more than the actual planning of it.

Jeff has to work so he'll be staying home with only the cats for company. It may not sound fair that I get Florida and (I hope) sunshine while he has to stay home. But he will get to play World of Warcraft without me nagging him about the amount of time he spends playing and I'll be traveling with two children who refuse to get along. I can guarantee which of us will feel more rested when I get back home.

Happy Birthday

Stan Lee is 83 today.

(All I Gotta Do Is) Act Naturally

Mohammed Daoud who planned the Black September murder of the Munich Olympic Israeli athletes is upset that he wasn't consulted for Steven Spielberg's film about the event.

After reading his comments about it, I think he's just mad that the movie isn't about him. Or he's insane. Quite possibly both.

Run Away! Run Away!

Trevor gave me the bunny I wanted. It's very soft and cuddly considering it is "the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on."

Cookie Baking Time

I got a late start on making Christmas cookies this year. All three kids came down with some stomach bug on Monday (what a great way to begin Christmas break!) and I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to be baking tasty treats that they couldn't eat. Fortunately everyone is feeling well again so today we made Fudge Ecstacies, Forgotten Cookies, and Peanut Blossoms.

Peanut Blossoms
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. peanut butter
2 Tbl. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
sugar
milk chocolate kisses (about 48)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine flour, 1/2 c. sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, shortening, peanut butter, milk, vanilla, and egg; blend at low speed until stiff dough forms. Shape into 1 inch balls; roll sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately top each cookie with a candy kiss, pressing down firmly so cookie cracks around edge; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely. Makes 4 dozen.

I won't be making as many types of cookies as I have for past Christmases because of the late start but I plan on making at least another two or three batches tomorrow.

Future Travel

Scott Ott of Scrappleface lets us in on the original draft of the president's speech:

“Laura and I look forward to taking the twins to Baghdad Disney in the summer of 2009,” the president had planned to tell Americans who waver in their commitment to a free, democratic state in the heart of the Arab world. “After we get done riding Mohammed Mountain at Disney, we’ll stop by the Green Zone — a massive shopping and entertainment complex arranged around a fantastic falafel food court.”

I'm not so optimistic to think it will be as early as 2009 nor so pessimistic to think they will have a Baghdad Disney, but I do think there is a kernel of truth in Scott's humor. For the past year or so I've been telling my kids that I wouldn't be surprised to see Iraq and other mideast countries that follow its lead into democracy becoming attractive tourist destinations.

I'm a Mutant

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin

The work raises a raft of new questions -- not least of which is why white skin caught on so thoroughly in northern climes once it arose. Some scientists suggest that lighter skin offered a strong survival advantage for people who migrated out of Africa by boosting their levels of bone-strengthening vitamin D; others have posited that its novelty and showiness simply made it more attractive to those seeking mates.

Yeah, it's always the ones that look freakishly different from everyone else who get voted "most popular" in high school.

If my ancient ancestors wanted to mutate in a really useful way they would have left the skin pigment business alone and grown an extra set of hands. That would have been most helpful when my kids were little and also quite convenient when it comes to wrapping Christmas presents.

But It's Haaaard!

Dear High School Seniors,

If the SAT is so long that it is a burden to take, maybe you need to rethink your plans for college.

It's true that 3 hours and 45 minutes is a long time for a test but it is about the same amount of time you would spend in one day at a part-time job. If you can't handle concentrating that long, how will you cope with college and the careers that a college degree will open up for you?

If you think that the addition of a 45-minute writing section makes the whole test time too stressful, then I both envy and pity you. I'm envious that so little has been demanded of you that spending just under four hours showing what you learned in school is considered so stressful. I feel sorry for you for the same reason.

It may be long, it may be tedious, but this test isn't a surprise. You have (or should have) been preparing for it all during high school. Compared to the things that can happen with no warning once you're out on your own, this is simply an inconvenience.

Amateur Comic's Joke Bombs

Southwest flight aborted near LA after bomb 'joke'

A man aged 25 to 30-years-old was taken into custody after joking about having a bomb in his luggage. Las Vegas, the destination of the flight, is probably sad to see this happen. Anyone stupid enough to joke like this man did would be dumb enough to lose all his money and take out loans for more to lose the first night there.

Bah! Humbug!

A complaint about McDonald's that has nothing to do with the menu - Woman Asks Restaurant To Remove Sign, 'Jesus Is The Reason For The Season'

"It offends me because it specifically talks about Jesus, Merry Christmas. It doesn't give credit to anyone else," Alpert said.

Santa? Macy or Gimble?

"I care because I'm Jewish, and the reason for the season is upsetting to me," Alpert said.

A holiday celebrating the birth of one of the most, possibly the most, influential Jews ever born...I can see how that might be upsetting.

Yes, I'm being intentionally obtuse about what her complaint really is. If you don't like something a business does, don't go there. Contact the manager/owner if you want but leave the media out of it.

For the Critters

This is an interesting idea, a USB pet ID tag.

Our cats are indoor-only but if we had to travel with them, then something like this would be nice to have attached to their crates just in case we're separated.

Carnival of the Recipes #69

This Carnival hosted by dubious wonder features gifts from the kitchen.

Recipe List:

Snickedoodles and Peanut Butter Balls
Viennese Crescent Cookies
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread and Marshmallows
Raisin Drop Scones
Buttery Icing
Baile Rochel's "super-simple and almost healthy sufganiyot"
Grandmother's Peanut Brittle
Jingle Balls
Chocolate Crinkles
Chocolate Bourbon Balls
Marsala Cream
Rum-Soaked Fruitcake
Hot and Spiced Wine
Instant Hot Cocoa Mix
Christmas Coffee
Candy Cane Tea
jerky recipes
Mizzou Barbecue Sauce and Bom Bom's Barbecued Brisket
Lentil Hummus With Pomegranate Molasses
Italian Sausage Soup
Make Ahead Casseroles
Roasted Salmon and Root Vegetables With Lemon Thyme Sauce
Tourtierre
Japanese-inspired recipe that may make even your kids eat their spinach
U.S. Military Academy Fajitas
Sweet and Sour Pork Stir Fry

Hold That Tiger

I want to play what they're playing.

It's supposed to be a banned Xbox 360 ad but the game it shows looks like more fun than any console game.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Each year, you really get into the spirit of Christmas. Which is much more important to you than nifty presents.

Not that I'll turn down any nifty presents....

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

You Were an Eagle

You are able to rise above the details of life and see the big picture. A spiritual being, you tend to go beyond material concerns.

This explains those weird cravings for mice....

Does This Digital Brownshirt Match My Pajamas?

From The New York Times Magazine: Conservative Blogs are More Effective

Shortly before the election, a conservative Web site claimed that politically damaging information about [Jon] Corzine was about to surface in the media. It didn't. But New Jersey talk-radio shock jocks quoted the online speculation, inflicting public-relations damage on Corzine anyway.

My reaction to this part was probably not what the author of the article hoped for. I was impressed that shock jocks not only read conservative blogs but also let it influence them on-air. Wow. Karl Rove couldn't ask for much more than that.

Liberal misinformation is what? Nonexistent? Just a mistake that should be quickly forgotten? I'm sure Dan Rather would like either of those choices.

Liberals use the Web to air ideas and vent grievances with one another, often ripping into Democratic leaders. (Hillary Clinton, for instance, is routinely vilified on liberal Web sites for supporting the Iraq war.) Conservatives, by contrast, skillfully use the Web to provide maximum benefit for their issues and candidates. They are generally less interested in examining every side of every issue and more focused on eliciting strong emotional responses from their supporters.

I've read complaints from conservatives about the Bush administration and other conservatives in, or running for, office. Perhaps those things don't count as long as conservatives continue to support the war. It's not whether conservatives disagree with the politicians, it's whether they disagree on the "correct" things.

As for focusing "on eliciting strong emotional responses", do they mean things like "No blood for oil"? Cindy Sheehan using the death of her son to get attention? Yep, pure use of logic without any emotions there.

But what really makes conservatives effective is their pre-existing media infrastructure, composed of local and national talk-radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, the Fox News Channel and sensationalist say-anything outlets like the Drudge Report - all of which are quick to pass on the latest tidbit from the blogosphere.

Ooooh. Rush, one cable news channel, and a Web site compared to liberal spokespeople on every major network (and as my son added, also on the government-funded public TV and radio stations). Would it be rubbing salt into their wounds to mention Air America?

Now we know. It's not that a large number of people support conservative ideals in politics, it's the wily conservative bloggers acting as puppetmasters.

Fly Me to the Asteroid Belt

I'm going into space. Sort of.

10 Weirdest USB Drives

The least weird of the 10 is a duck that lights up when you plug it in. It's really more cute than weird. The rest are truly odd though.

Go Read a Joke

Funny.

Marybeth Ponders Politicizing Psychiatry

Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness

The article begins with a few examples: a recovering alcoholic who won't attend 12-step meetings for fear of encountering a gay person, a waiter who is hostile to black people, a Vietnam veteran who is afraid of Asians, and a woman who thought Jews were diseased and would infect her so she wouldn't see a therapist for her OCD problem for fear that her therapist would be Jewish.

It's hard to tell from the summaries but I would suggest that it's likely that the prejudice is a symptom of a disorder rather than a separate disorder in and of itself. It also seems to be taking the focus away from the person suffering whatever delusions or paranoia that result in the prejudice and putting too much emphasis on the object of the bias. Dislike of a group of people may cause more problems in daily life than an extreme fear of spiders but should the treatment really be that different? If the problem is an unreasonable fear or irrational belief, that is what should be treated. The object of fear is irrelevant.

I wonder if psychiatrists will ever ponder whether it's a disorder to classify as an illness all behavior that doesn't agree with the latest politically correct thought.

Geek Humor

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study

We evaluated the performance of three different helmet designs, commonly referred to as the Classical, the Fez, and the Centurion. These designs are portrayed in Figure 1. The helmets were made of Reynolds aluminium foil. As per best practices, all three designs were constructed with the double layering technique described elsewhere.

A radio-frequency test signal sweeping the ranges from 10 Khz to 3 Ghz was generated using an omnidirectional antenna attached to the Agilent 8714ET's signal generator.

A network analyser (Agilent 8714ET) and a directional antenna measured and plotted the signals.

...The receiver antenna was placed at various places on the cranium of 4 different subjects: the frontal, occipital and parietal lobes. Once with the helmet off and once with the helmet on. The network analyzer plotted the attenuation betwen the signals in these two settings at different frequencies, from 10Khz to 3 Ghz.

Results
For all helmets, we noticed a 30 db amplification at 2.6 Ghz and a 20 db amplification at 1.2 Ghz, regardless of the position of the antenna on the cranium. In addition, all helmets exhibited a marked 20 db attenuation at around 1.5 Ghz, with no significant attenuation beyond 10 db anywhere else.

Conclusion
The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ''radio location'' (ie, GPS), and other communications with satellites (see, for example, [3]). The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.
It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.

Holiday Greetings

Americans demanding end to generic holiday

At what point does the recognition that there are several holidays at this time of year become a "war on Christmas"?

If neighbors complain about a house with a nativity scene in someone's yard, then I think that's going too far. (Although I don't think I would like this in my neighborhood.) But what if a stranger, an individual or business, fails to wish me Merry Christmas?

If I get a pleasant greeting from a stranger, I take it in the manner it was given and reply the same way. It's just nice to see someone who is still cheerfully greeting others. If a business sends out a flyer or catalog that wishes me Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, why should I care? I think that Christmas is too commercial anyway so the lack of a Christmas greeting isn't something I'm going to miss. These are businesses, I'm not going to get in a tizzy just because they aren't marketing only to the holiday that I celebrate.

When I shop in the stores my concern is whether or not I get good service. Is the item I want in stock? Are there enough sales people and cashiers? Are they cordial and helpful or do I get the feeling that I'm an inconvenience to them? I'm shopping for gifts, not new buddies, and I don't wish to pretend that our relationship is anything but a business transaction. If I've bought something that is obviously Christmas related or mentioned that I'm shopping for a Christmas present and the salesperson wishes me a Merry Christmas as I leave, that might earn them and the store a mental brownie point for paying attention but I'm not going to stop shopping there if they don't say it as long as the service was good.

Whatever the form a holiday wish takes, it is like a gift because it's the thought that counts. Being offended that it wasn't tailored especially to fit you is churlish and self-centered.

Snow Ice Day

We didn't get the several inches of snow that had been predicted but the roads are slick, the temperature is only 18 degrees, and the schools are closed.

The kids are thrilled. I'm less enthusiastic. I'm glad they're not on a school bus driving on those icy roads, but then again, they're home. This is seriously going to cut into all the housework I had planned my nap time.

Maybe If She Wore an Armband...

Yesterday I wrote about a student at a local university who has been wearing a neo-Nazi armband to classes. Several students and (it would seem) the university consider this free speech.

Today I read an article about Ann Coulter's speech at the University of Connecticut that was ended early because of heckling from the crowd.

Coulter's appearance prompted protests from several groups, including Students Against Hate and the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center. They criticized her for spreading a message of hate and intolerance.

Does this make sense to anyone?

One Reason I Like Shopping Online

Why is it that people in shopping malls behave just like my cats do at home? They either race around, practically knocking me over or rush to get in front me and then slowly stroll along aimlessly (with occasional abrupt stops for no apparent reason).

What Does This Teach?

Andrei Chira, a student at Bellarmine University, a private Roman Catholic school in Louisville, has been wearing a white-supremacist armband to classes. Bellarmine's response so far has been to organize a task force.

[University president] McGowan said in his statement yesterday that "most, if not all" members of the Bellarmine community are upset by the views that the armband represents. But McGowan said forcing Chira to remove it would be "denying free speech, which I believe is contrary to being a true university."

Chira says he doesn't support Nazi views or white supremacy, he just likes Blood and Honour's support for musicians who adhere to their views.*

About a dozen students conducted a "Sit in for Free Speech" saying that they disagree with the message but support his right to wear the armband. Erin Ott, 18, a freshman from Cincinnati: "I think a lot of people are missing the point," she said. "The real issue is First Amendment rights and freedom of speech."

My "real issue" is that the students don't understand the protection offered by the First Amendment. This is a private school, not the government, and I believe they should let Chira know that hate speech or paraphenalia that symbolizes or promotes such speech is not welcome on campus.

*Hail The New Dawn

Comrades, the voices of the dead battalions
Of those who fell, that Europe might be great
Join in our song, for they still march in spirit with us
And urge us on that we gain the national state

Hail the new dawn!
Hail the new dawn!
Hail the new dawn!
Hail the new dawn!
Hail!

"Six point master plan", not very subtle, is it?

I'll Never Be In the Clean Plate Club

Professor loses weight on no-diet diet

Intuitive eaters only eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full.

I'm not sure why this is newsworthy, I thought it was just common sense. I love food, especially desserts, but, to me, eating when I'm not hungry makes as much sense as putting on a sweater for a mid-day stroll in August. (Around here that usually means temperatures in the 90s and high humidity.)

That Time of Year

I've heard that every child is a miracle but when the mother of three shows up as the first search result for this, I have to wonder.

(Found in my referral stats)

Gifts for Cooks

I've begun posting some links to cooking tools and supplies on my Mom's Kitchen blog. This is because I want to help you find something for the cook in your life and has nothing to do with my wanting to help my family find gifts for me. Not at all.

Jeff, click HERE!

Experiment at Home

I feel that you're never too old to learn so I think I'll try this science experiment soon.

Perky Kitty

One of our cats sounds like a percolator when he purrs. If only he smelled like fresh-brewed coffee too....

Print Your Own Money!

Now it's easier to own it all!

Best Movies

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has a list of top 100 movies. I've italicized the ones I've seen (or, at least the ones I remember seeing. I may have seen others that I didn't find good or bad enough to be memorable or I saw them during the '70s which I have trouble remembering much of anyway.)

It is a good list of movies but I'm not sure about the order of them...Monty Python's Life of Brian ranks higher than The Holy Grail?

Are there any on this list that I haven't seen that you would recommend? Any not on the list that should be?

1-10
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. Amelie
3. Blade Runner
4. The Shawshank Redemption
5. Donnie Darko
6. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
7. Pulp Fiction
8. The Princess Bride
9. Gone With The Wind
10. Fight Club

11-20
11. The Sound of Music
12. To Kill A Mockingbird
13. 2001: A Space Odyssey
14. Casablanca
15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
16. American Beauty
17. Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
18. Monty Python's Life of Brian
19. Lawrence Of Arabia
20. Apocalypse Now

21-30
21. Cinema Paradiso
22. Doctor Zhivago
23. The Matrix
24. The Castle
25. Singin' in the Rain
26. A Clockwork Orange
27. The Blues Brothers
28. Withnail and I
29. Life is Beautiful
30. The Godfather

31-40
31. Moulin Rouge
32. Some Like it Hot
33. Lost in Translation
34. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
35. Local Hero
36. The Third Man
37. Brazil
38. Serenity
39. Breakfast at Tiffany's
40. A Room with a View

41-50
41. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
42. Dead Poets Society
43. Harold and Maude
44. The Big Lebowski
45. The Wizard of Oz
46. Out Of Africa
47. Picnic at Hanging Rock
48. The Usual Suspects
49. Cabaret
50. Forrest Gump

51-60
51. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
52. The Piano
53. Pirates of the Carribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl
54. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
55. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
56. The City of Lost Children
57. The African Queen
58. Love Actually
59. Strictly Ballroom
60. Wings of Desire

61-70
61. Raiders of the Lost Ark
62. Babette's Feast
63. The Fifth Element
64. Spirited Away
65. Aliens
66. It's a Wonderful Life
67. Napoleon Dynamite
68. Rear Window
69. Romeo And Juliet
70. Dirty Dancing

71-80
71. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
72. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
73. Trainspotting
74. Muriel's Wedding
75. When Harry Met Sally
76. The Great Escape
77. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
78. Gallipoli
79. Lantana
80. Garden State

81-90
81. Sin City
82. Chariots of Fire
83. The English Patient
84. This is Spinal Tap
85. Chocolat
86. Fargo
87. Look Both Ways
88. Goodfellas
89. Alien
90. Grease

91-100
91. All About Eve
92. Citizen Kane
93. Stand By Me
94. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
95. Mulholland Drive
96. Back to the Future
97. High Fidelity
98. The Thin Red Line
99. Being John Malkovich
100. Dead Man

Some of my favorites that weren't listed are Sunset Blvd., Yankee Doodle Dandy (but I can see where that might not be as popular in Australia), Men in Black, Remember the Titans, Brian's Song, Adam's Rib, Airplane!, Toy Story, A Shot in the Dark, How Green Was My Valley, Easy Rider, Rebecca and just about every other Hitchcock film. What have I left out?

What Temperment Are You?

You Have a Melancholic Temperament

Introspective and reflective, you think about everything and anything. You are a soft-hearted daydreamer. You long for your ideal life. You love silence and solitude. Everyday life is usually too chaotic for you. Given enough time alone, it's easy for you to find inner peace. You tend to be spiritual, having found your own meaning of life. Wise and patient, you can help people through difficult times. At your worst, you brood and sulk. Your negative thoughts can trap you. You are reserved and withdrawn. This makes it hard to connect to others. You tend to over think small things, making decisions difficult.

No Christmas for You

A rant against the "yuppie scum" who don't like Christmas. ("'Tis the season to STFU.")
Warning- strong language

Know your Narnia

The Guardian and an A-Z guide to The Chronicles of Narnia. It's a nice refresher if it's been a while since you've read the books. Since it is from The Guardian, don't be surprised that some of the sections veer off-topic a bit. Under "F is for Faun" (empahsis mine):

A faun has the top half of a man and the legs of a goat. Lucy is met by a faun, Mr Tumnus (James McAvoy, above), on her first visit to Narnia; he intends to kidnap her and deliver her to the White Witch, but his better nature wins out. F is also for Free Narnia. In the film, the White Witch asks the imprisoned Tumnus if he knows why he has been arrested. 'Because I believe in a Free Narnia!' he shouts defiantly, adding a parable of political revolt (see War). Although perhaps the allegory of a suffering people liberated from a totalitarian regime through the toppling of a monomaniacal dictator by a Christian lion is not one we want to applaud unambiguously at this time.

It also gets a bit snarky about good vs. evil. "[A]ll the bad guys are ugly and gnarly and...the good army is made up of noble horses and eagles and English people with excellent RP." RP is an abbreviation for "received pronunciation" and considered "proper English". It makes sense to me Lewis would have used style of speech as a literary device and that the movie would repeat this. Considering that RP is also sometimes known as "BBC English" I wouldn't think that The Guardian would have a problem with it either. Maybe it just depends upon which side you're on.

MediaWise Video and Computer Game Report Card

A couple of days ago I watched C-SPAN presents The Annual Video Game Report with guest star Joe Lieberman. The real name was "10th Annual MediaWise Video Game Report Card" but I like my title better.

The best part of the program was a question for Lieberman about his op-ed...probably because it's the only thing I remember hearing during the whole show that I agreed with.

Not that the rest of the show was a complete waste of time. The list of games for their "parent alert" section was interesting. I hadn't heard of most of them but after seeing the clips from them I put one on my rent-to-check-out list. Stubbs the Zombie looked fun. The clip showed a zombie going around popping people's heads off. Tell me that wouldn't be cathartic after a day at the mall.

DRM Spotter

Electronic Frontier Foundation has information on how to spot Sony's DRM CDs. There is also a list of CDs that are or may be infected with MediaMax.

I enjoy a variety of music genres and artists and so I was happy to see that I don't have any of the listed CDs. I did notice that country music seemed to be under represented in this list (I'm not a big fan so there may be names I don't recognize). So, my question is, does Sony think that country music fans are less technologically savvy or more honest than fans of other types of music?

Computer Play

USB powered air darts. (Available here.)

I work from home so I can't use them against co-workers but I bet they would make great cat toys.

What Does Your Birth Month Mean?

Your Birth Month is November

Tolerant and inspirational, you are wise beyond your years. You are universally sympathetic and a great humanitarian. Your soul reflects: Compassion, friendship, and secret love Your gemstone: Citrine Your flower: Chrysanthemum Your colors: Dark blue, red, and yellow

Wise beyond my years? Of course. Sympathetic? Only in a limited way. I have sympathy for those with real problems but if you expect me to join your "life is hard" pity party, I'll decline that invitation.

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

You Are Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies Ice Cream

Not *those* magic brownies!

Home Remedies

I haven't fact-checked any of it but "18 Tricks to Teach Your Body" has some interesting suggestions to cure or stop several common problems including: a tickle in your throat, ice cream headache, clearing a stuffed nose, pain from injections, nosebleeds, and the "pins and needles" feeling when a body part "falls asleep".

There's also one tip to impress your friends:

Next time you're at a party, try this trick: Have a person hold one arm straight out to the side, palm down, and instruct him to maintain this position. Then place two fingers on his wrist and push down. He'll resist. Now have him put one foot on a surface that's a half inch higher (a few magazines) and repeat. This time his arm will cave like the French. By misaligning his hips, you've offset his spine, says Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. Your brain senses that the spine is vulnerable, so it shuts down the body's ability to resist.

Everybody's Talking 'bout Me

Well, not everybody, but more than my lack of trackbacks would indicate. (That's a problem for another post, "Can't Hear a Word They Say".) It's 5:00 in the morning and at this time of the day I'm short on imagination but still long on vanity so I checked my blog's URL to see who had linked to it.

A site called Talk Digger lets you enter a URL and see which bloggers have linked to it. It checks a variety of sources (Bloglines, Feedster, Technorati, IceRocket, and others) and then shows the number of links and clips from the last three.