So this is scary news... certain ingredients in moisturizers may be linked to skin cancer.

Mineral oil and sodium laurel sulfate, specifically. Amusingly, SLS is what makes shampoos lather, and I specifically avoid any product with SLS in it already, because it's quite drying and bad for curly hair. What would SLS be doing in a moisturizer?

I almost always use lotions (face and body) from the Body Shop or Sephora, which don't contain either mineral oil or SLS. However, after I got badly sunburnt, I started using Banana Boat Aloe After Sun Lotion, whose third ingredient is mineral oil. That's what I get for buying a body product at a drug store.

See? It's *healthy* to be this high maintenance!

I used to admire Jeremy Clarkson (host of Top Gear, for those who don't watch BBC), but he just lost a few respect points. Trying to prove his point that identity theft was no big deal, he published his bank details in a newspaper article. That didn't work out so well for him. At least it was a conscientious hacker, as the money stolen was a direct debit to the British Diabetic Association.

It makes me so happy when TSA enacts new "what you can and can't pack/carry on" rules while I'm in the middle of a trip: New rules involving spare lithium batteries. The best part is that they offer up no reasoning for the hazard, though I'm guessing they're afraid a spare battery will explode in the luggage compartment, all on its own.

A new study shows that 83% of people earning $150,000 a year or more took music classes as part of their education. More evidence that music should not be cut from public education. Music education produces more well rounded and successful people (says the girl who was originally a music major.)

Curvy women are more likely to have a high IQ, and also their children are more likely to be intelligent. That article links to another article stating that women with hourglass figures are more fertile. Therefore, we can conclude that I will have many highly intelligent erudite children. Woo!

Hitler's music collection turned up in a dead Russian's attic. Some of it isn't news... his love of Wagner was quite well-known. However, I find it incredibly interesting that while Jewish performers were banned from concert halls, his private collection didn't seem to discriminate. I guess maybe he was in the closet about *several* things.

I've been following the U-Haul series in the LATimes... I found it interesting, so I thought I'd post the links. You may need a login, so grab one from BugMeNot.

Driving with Rented Risks
Upkeep Lags in U-Haul's Aging Fleet
Key Trial Evidence Disappears

Holy cow... the CUTENESS! (Click on the 4 photos to enlarge them)

Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice.

Sounds like such a conspiracy theory... drug companies aren't interested because it's an off patent drug, and as such, they don't stand to make a profit. But wow!

Major excerpts after the jump.

Air France, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, KLM and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections, which power and charge iPods during flight and allow the video content on the devices to be viewed on seat-back displays.

The service will begin in the middle of next year."

Now that is pretty handy. It would definitely give me incentive to use the video iPod for tv shows from the iTunes store, instead of dealing with my laptop while the guy next to me keeps jabbing me with his elbow. On the other hand, seat-back displays aren't worth much when the person in front of you reclines. But heck, at least it would charge my iPod... those 6 hour flights to Pittsburgh are a real drain on the batteries.

Via The Consumerist

My most favorite caffeinated soda (because Jones sugar free root beer is my favorite non-caffeinated) is being discontinued. The grocery store rarely stocked it to begin with, so I'd stock up when I could. It's apparently not been doing well with the consumers, and will be replaced with Cherry-Vanilla Coke (ew). I'm quite sad... and please don't suggest Pepsi Vanilla because I don't like Pepsi.

Interesting bit of useless news: Majdi sent this pic earlier of an old ship being uncovered during construction in San Francisco. Later, a news article followed. And another.

SAN FRANCISCO The remains of a massive Gold Rush-era sailing ship dating back to the early 1800s have been discovered at the site of a large construction project in downtown San Francisco.

In 1850s, as many as 600 ships were abandoned in San Francisco's harbor which was later turned into landfill for the Financial District.

The fact that there was a "Bombing Exercise" for the London Underground happening at the exact same time and places as the actual bombings is fairly creepy. As much as I love to conspiracy theorize, this is definitely beyond coincidence. A good cover, just like on 9/11.

I was going to post how sad I was that Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger died Friday, but then I read that John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet, also died on Saturday.

Winchell had a long career as a master ventriloquist, inventor and children's TV host, but he may be best known for his work as the friendly tiger in the animated versions of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books. Winchell, who gave Tigger the trademark lisp, voiced him from 1968 to 1999.

Winchell also held 30 patents, including one for an artificial heart, a disposable razor and a flameless cigarette lighter. He donated his early artificial heart to the University of Utah for research. Dr. Robert Jarvik and other researchers at the university went on to construct the first artificial heart implanted into humans.

"A prankster in Sunnyvale, California has been toying with traffic lights across the city for three months. Police say he or she has turned them to face the wrong way, altered the timing, and made them flash red in all directions... The culprit appears to favor Matilda Avenue, striking at least two intersections there, and also has hit the signals at Caribbean Drive at Twin Peaks not far from Highway 101, among other spots, Pilger said."

It's sad when one's alma mater doesn't make the news for it's accomplishments, but for things like a possibly intoxicated Alpha Sigma Phi falling off the roof of the frat house and someone stealing panties from the laundry room of a freshman girls dorm

oh my gosh... Christopher Reeve died :(

In the spirit of Halloween, this really creeped me out.

http://waxy.org/random/video/Daily_Show_-_John_Kerry_Interview.mov if you missed it. He showed a lot of personality in this interview...

Most Slashdot comments are worthless, but this one pretty much sums up our office conversation about the raid on file sharers' houses. There's no way this equipment was confiscated from peoples' homes. Wtf?

I can't believe someone stole "The Scream". That's one of my favorite paintings, and is currently the wallpaper for my cell phone (thanks to 3GUpload).

This makes me ill.

Gay and lesbians in the entire federal workforce have had their job protections officially removed by the office of Special Counsel. The new Special Counsel, Scott Bloch, says his interpretation of a 1978 law intended to protect employees and job applicants from adverse personnel actions is that gay and lesbian workers are not covered. Bloch said that the while a gay employee would have no recourse for being fired or demoted for being gay, that same worker could not be fired for attending a gay Pride event.

Yup. But then what doesn't cause cancer. It's a good thing I actually hate the smell of microwaved popcorn.

I'm reading soapbox writings on congress.org regarding Bush's proposed ban on homosexual unions and it makes me twitchy.

"Homosexual marriage and Civil Unions are a threat to traditional Marriage, because they alter the definition of family." Isn't everyones definition different? I've always extended my family beyond only blood relatvies to my close friends.

The only remotely good argument against this that I've heard lately is the possibility of people faking same-sex marriages for tax reasons. I don't know enough information to say whether or not I think this would occur any more often than with a regular marriage.

Flame/Discuss

Like we needed a groundhog to tell us that there would be 6 more weeks of winter. It's 5 degrees right now.

Aww... I just read that they got rid of the big bear in front of FAO Schwarz. I was partial to that bear... Glad to hear he went to a good home.

I know it's not real, but it's cuuuute.

I mentioned Mister Rogers' death, and then I find out Captain Kangaroo just died too! Bob Keeshan, who also was the first Clarabell on Howdy Doody, died at the age of 76. What is this world coming to... we're left with Barneys and Teletubbies.

Now they're having seminars and workshops on cookie selling techniques. It's all about consumerism these days, isn't it? Sure, the money we made from cookies sent us camping and such, but there wasn't that much pressure.

This was of particular interest to me because I'm an adult Girl Scout member. I got the Gold Award (GS equiv of the Eagle Scout), and worked with a troop in college, but it's only $100 for a lifetime membership, and why not? Cookie season starts Jan 17. Damn diet.

Across the states, hundreds of teenage boys are disappointed. Britney Spears married childhood friend Jason Alexander... no, not *that* Jason Alexander... in Las Vegas. For all her bragging about being a virgin, she didn't even wear white. Sources say she plans to have the marriage annulled ASAP. Oops.

[Update]: The annullment order

A story about how TSA wouldn't let a student bring her beloved betta fish aboard because it apparently was a threat to national security, her defiance, and a warm and fuzzy outcome.

Bloggers are talking about these possible terrorist threats in the US, but the media doesn't have much coverage. Government folks are meeting Monday to discuss the threat, and in the meantime, this is already impacting the value of the dollar. From what I've gathered, intelligence was apparently collected from increasing chatter in the past few days, and may be connected to the holidays.

A database containing the SSNs and other personal information of millions of people was open to anyone with internet access on Tuesday. The database is run by an investigation services company called LocatePlus, and is normally accessible to law enforcement, credit agencies and private investigators. The didn't discover the mistake until someone pasted the URL into IRC. They claim to have logged every IP address to have accessed the database, but there are loads of free proxys for people to use these days. *sighs* Gives me all sorts of warm fuzzies.

Women With Big Boobs Are Smarter. I say coincidence, and a waste of money on that study.

Also, Starjewel is getting a makeover thanks to Julie at BlogMoxie. I just have to put in the code later.

They've officially ruled Jonathan Brandis' death a suicide. So sad...

More reasons not to shop at Walmart, a 3 part series. Low prices come at a cost - anti-union, cheap labor, and bullying of suppliers. LATimes requires free registration, feel free to use starjewel/starjewel.

So Bush is a down home boy and his manners were atrocious at dinner with the Royal family. Winking during "God Save the Queen"? And the toasting incident? The trip was planned for months... you'd think his advisors would have made sure he knew proper manners. Trust me, I'm not an elitist, but I still believe in being a polite guest.

Speaking of Bush in London, Kat has some amusing captioned pictures.

Via a link followed from The Go Fish.

I read on several blogs that Jonathan Brandis was found dead on November 12, but haven't been able to find much in the news, not even on eonline.com. He was the cutie in "Seaquest DSV", as well as having appeared in "Stephen King's IT", "Neverending Story 2", and "Ladybugs" as a child. Speculation is it was suicide.

[Update]: EOnline finally reports on the situation.

...that it's a bunch of men signing the bill to take away a woman's right to make a choice about her own body?

I'm sure this may be old news to you, I'm just a little behind, having been out yesterday.

I'm so sick of being paranoid and scared, but I also can't imagine ignoring warning signs of terrorism. We have a big sign in the cafeteria of the current Homeland Security Warning color, and it's still yellow today.

That's what you get when you pick on Pittsburgh.

When she saw a picture of a gorilla on a 9-year old black girl's school folder, a teacher said, "You took a picture of your family and put it on the front of your folder." WTF. In Queens, no less.

"Come on Down!" (Up?) He was best known as the voice of the "Price is Right" game show for 17 years, and passed away yesterday from breast and colon cancer. We used to skip band sometimes and watch "Price is Right" in the AV room. Sad...

Some bloggers in California have been posting amazing photos and accounts of the fires and ash. Scary stuff. Keep these folks in your thoughts, and check out the photos.

It looks like they finally passed the partial-birth abortion ban. I might be pro-choice, but I thought this was a cruel way to go about making one particular choice. If you're going to carry the child for that long, you might as well let the child live and put him/her up for adoption. However, I think it is important for many reasons to keep abortion legal, and I'm very afraid this step may make it a little easier to ban all abortions. Some of those reasons are obvious, such as women who would then have an illegal procedure, and without certain guidelines protecting them, could seriously risk their health.

GWB says "This is very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America. I look forward to signing it into law." A culture of life according to whose standards?

</soapbox>

Another advertising trick: even if you didn't like the product, maybe you will remember differently.

She reported an experiment in which people were shown an advert suggesting that children who visited Disneyland had the opportunity to shake hands with Bugs Bunny. Later, many of those who had seen the advert "remembered" meeting Bugs on childhood visits to the theme park, a feat that would have been impossible, given that the cartoon is a Warner Brothers character. Loftus said: "This brings forth ethical considerations. Is it OK for marketers to knowingly manipulate consumers' pasts?"

The Sci-Fi channel may be suing NASA in order to gain the release to the public of documentation relating to a possible UFO event in Kecksburg, PA in 1965. (Kecksburg is about 45 min SE of Pittsburgh.) They may also sue the Department of Defense, the Army and Air Force in this Freedom of Information Act. I'm sure the government will end up squashing them, but I'm rooting for them nonetheless. Or, the government may pretend to play along and release faked documents stating that it was simply a meteorite... at least in my little conspiracy theory.

They've apparently been investigating this incident and will air a documentary hosted by Bryant Gumbel on Friday entitled "The New Roswell: Kecksburg Exposed." However, the network is claiming this series of lawsuits is not just to promote hype.

[Editors note]: I only just noticed this was already on Slashdot. That's what I get for not reading it before posting something to avoid redundancy. Oh well, it stays.

(and questionable men named Bill)... Patrick Stewart could be single again after filing for legal seperation from his second wife.

I understand that they do not believe in using them, but the Catholic Church has been claiming that condoms do not stop HIV. Gordon Wambi told the programme: "Some priests have even been saying that condoms are laced with HIV/Aids." Conspiracy to kill off entire populations in AIDS stricken countries or stupidity?

And via Michele, "the Pope is the frontrunner to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Because protesting the war negates all that nasty stuff about protecting child molesters and hating gays."

A Chambersburg, PA Brownie troop leader was arrested for embezzling cookie money.

Fred Phelps (of godhatesfags.com) is planning on erecting a homophobic monument in Casper, WY, and the city may be helpless to prevent it. Why? Because they made a decision to allow a statue of the 10 Commandments in the city park, which forces them to allow other monuments expressing political and religious views.

The inscription will read, "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."

Eddie Izzard just may be the new Doctor Who. Cool.

A week and a half until I get to see him live. And I finally found a date for the show :)

Magazine publisher Igor Maltsev said he did not realise what the posters were supposed to represent.

"I thought the currencies were dancing on our poster," he said.

Click on read the rest for the poster that made me giggle.

40% of 9 and 10-year olds think they are overweight. The worst part is that most girls who think they are overweight, aren't. But kids shouldn't be worrying about this regardless.

Robert Palmer died last night of a heart attack at age 54. Damn.

Kazaa is suing the record labels for copyright infringement because they used Kazaa lite, an unauthorized piece of software, to get on the network and catch file-traders. Yippee! I really hope they put the record labels in their place. How do we even know they're suing the right people?

The Recording Industry Association of America called Sharman's "newfound admiration for the importance of copyright law" ironic and "self-serving.".

Funny, the RIAA was a little self-serving in their use of the copyright law also. The people downloading aren't making money off of the shared file, cd sales really haven't decreased, and we all know the record labels rip off the artists anyway. I say more power to Kazaa if they can find any loophole to stop the RIAA.

Speaking of lawsuits, Godaddy is suing Verisign because of their self-serving abuse of authority in setting up Site-Finder on all unregistered domains. This just increases my respect for Godaddy, even if they did break my databases on one of my hosted domains. I like this bit from the email I received:

Have you ever needed to ask for directions while you were driving? Let's say you stopped to ask a trusted authority, like a police officer. You'd expect that officer to be honest, right? Wouldn't you expect him or her to provide you a safe, direct route to where you needed to go? I sure would. But what if that officer instead misdirected you to a shopping mall? A shopping mall, it turns out, that actually paid the officer for every sale that resulted? That would be an abuse of the police officer's authority. It would be capitalizing on your misfortune.

We believe that's what VeriSign is doing with its "Site Finder" marketing scheme. We believe that it is once again abusing the power to oversee all .com and .net domains it was granted by the U.S. government.

Things like this, this, and this make me feel like the world is a bad Tom Clancy movie. I am afraid.

A laboratory analysis of the pills revealed that they contain large amounts of toxins, including lead, yeasts and molds, pesticides, and E.coli. Yum.

Speaking of spam, the UK has set in place new legisislation that allow spam to business emails, but not private emails. These laws also allow the spammer to be fined for his actions, but not go to jail. So it's still OK to steal people's bandwidth and abuse open proxies but only if you're using them to waste corporate time and money on people deleting your spam.

Why am I not surprised that our paranoid "homeland security" is going to set us back in the name of research. By making it more difficult to research infectious diseases, we leave ourselves unprepared for bioterror.

I blogged this before, but according to the update, the librarian has pulled her website and no longer takes clients, but many residents are still refusing to bring their children or grandchildren to the library.

I can see where people are uncomfortable, and the librarian made a mistake by letting her private life be public enough to be found, but when was the last time you heard about someone who liked whipping submissive men in the privacy of their own dungeon also molesting children?

Coming soon to stores near you! The Dominatrix Librarian action figure!!! ;)

Geez. Both Johnny Cash and John Ritter died. :( These things always come in threes so maybe Warren Zevon was the first. Otherwise, who's next?

I heard about this a while back, but thought that with all the negative publicity and feedback received, it would never actually take off. Disney plans on finally releasing it's self-destructive DVDs. The suggested retail is $6.99, but some places will sell them for as low as $5. For a 48-hour time-frame to watch the movies? I can get new-releases at Hollywood Video for 5 days for $4.07 after tax. Worried about having to take the movies back? Use Netflix. And they still haven't quite worked out the recycling plan. (Consumers who are buying so they don't have to worry about returning the DVD aren't going to mail in a DVD for recycling when they could just throw it away!) This is one of the dumbest ideas I have seen in a long time.

Warren Zevon passed away yesterday, after battling lung cancer and living longer than the time the doctors had given him. He just released his final album, "The Wind". Of course, he will always be best known for "Werewolves of London", which was a song I loved as a kid.

Via Joey, Wired is running an article about this spammer, and it turns out it's not all a joke; he actually believes in time travel and really wants to acquire a vortex generator.

S&M Hypnosis Therapy. Literally whipping depressed individuals into shape ;)

One thing I don't understand... "The S&M treatment I provide is not the painful type, it's more an S&M that allows for the heart to become liberated. It doesn't hurt, so please feel at ease." What fun is it to be a sadist if you're not inflicting pain? :P

Yes, i'm usually a believer of left-wing merciful crap, but who can honestly say that John Geoghan didn't get what was coming to him. I've heard prisoners are tough on child molesters, and this prisoner was particularly homophobic.

Dominatrix librarian... I know a few people who might be excited about this.

The blackout didn't hit Pittsburgh (because it's on a different power grid), but my brother lost power in Cambria County. My work was also affected, but we supposedly have enough diesel to power our generators for five days. All I can say, is I'm glad my house wasn't affected, because with a well, you don't even have water without power.

I was on IRC when I commented that our generators had kicked on, when several other people *in other states* noted that their power went out as well and they would have to power down before the UPS ran out.

I love that the NYTimes headline changed from just reporting that it happened, to "Bush Says There Is No Sign of Terrorism". The terrorists have won when we are so afraid that we panic about it everytime anything happens.

Someone has created a moblog dedicated to the blackout. And even better, are a great writeup and pictures here.

NYTimes article, free reg required blahblahblah, on the continuing debate over the effectiveness of SSRIs.

bye bye bob :(

More proof that a low-stress environment ups productivity. Employers favor meditation over naps.

Someone went to a lot of trouble to calculate the answer.

Walter "Matt" Jefferies passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer at the age of 82. He was the designer of the original Enterprise NCC-1701 and also for whom the Jefferies Tube was named.

A good reason not to do drugs.

I'm sure you've already heard about the Pirates first baseman hitting the Italian Sausage with his bat. KDKA has the video online, and it doesn't look even remotely as bad as what the media made it out to be. Even the sausage girl isn't upset with him; She just wants the bat autographed.

Oh, and one of the powerball winners bought the ticket up the road from me in Cranberry, but has yet to come forward and claim the $60million in winnings. Meanwhile, the other winner in Missouri, is planning on getting himself a new tractor with brakes.

As much as I love thunderstorms, I guess it's a good thing I don't have a tongue ring.

This afternoon near my place of work, a tractor-trailer driver blew a stop sign and broadsided a car, resulting in explosions and the death of 4 people. The wreckage still wasn't cleared as I was driving home; had to detour. Yipes.

[Update]: The one survivor of the car died today, and the truck driver, who does not speak English (!?!), is being charged with homicide by vehicle, reckless driving and I guess and any other traffic violations they can think of.

I've read about this before, but this article provides more extensive details. Such pointless bowdlerization.

We might as well forget about all history...

"A contributor to a major textbook series prepared a story comparing the great floods in 1889 in Johnstown, Pa., with those in 1993 in the Midwest, but was unable to find an acceptable photograph. The publisher insisted that everyone in the rowboats must be wearing a lifevest to demonstrate safety procedures."

The feds are testing a new method of security scans for airports. Xray machines, called "backscatter", scatters x-rays to reveal plastic weapons or substances used in explosives, which regular x-rays do not reveal. The picture that the backscatter produces, is a little revealing, but "The agency hopes to modify the machines with... programming that fuzzes out sensitive body parts or distorts the body."

The machines are nothing new, as they are used to scan prisoners' families, and diamond miners as they leave the mines, but size could be a problem for use in airports.

Last time I flew, I wore a skirt and knee-high boots, and that was not a whole lot of fun, having to unlace the boots, and be patted down, to ensure I didn't have a knife strapped to my thigh or something. I'm not sure which is less intrusive.

And speaking of airport security, I hear baggage theft is up since the feds tell you to leave your baggage unlocked.

Strom Thurmond died. Not that I care that much about politics or Republicans, but the guy was damned old! He turned 100 in December.

From the local news... yup.

After the discovery and debate over whether or not Sen. Orrin Hatch was in fact, using unlicensed code on his website, it has been decided that he was guilty. He may have qualified as a non-profit, but he never even bothered to get a free license number or link to the company who wrote the code.

See also, his inadvertant link to a porn site, http://www.myutahsearch.com... Google cache.

He has since fixed the problems.

Nobody probably would have cared, had he not suggested that the computers of those who download copywritten materials should be destroyed.

Christina Aguilera as Sun's new spokesperson? Cuz ya know, a blonde skanky bimbo is going to make me want to buy hardware/software. I guess their theory is that computer geeks will drool over her, lessening the blood flow to their brain, hence requiring less thought for a decision to be made. I dunno, I got nothin.

Yup.

The courts rejected the last ditch effort of cell phone providers to beat this thing. The FCC is requiring phone number portability by November 24. Too bad I just switched providers and lost the phone number that spelled my name. I'm a big dork like that :P I wonder if this will force Voicestream/TMobile to not suck as much; losing my number was the only reason I stayed so long. I get a lot more with Sprint for less money, and since I dropped my phone in the pool, I got a way better deal on a new phone with them.

The Department of Justice has barred employees from holding their annual gay pride event at the DoJ headquarters. This is the first time they've blocked such an event, as other ethnic and racial groups have been allowed to celebrate at the headquarters. Bill Clinton did declare a Gay Pride Month in the mid-90's, but there has not been a formal presidential proclamation of the event.

Via Boingboing... Girls Teach Teen Cyber Gab to FBI Agents in order to help them catch pedophiles online. Read it for the quotes, if nothing else.

'And the younger female FBI agents assumed that teenage girls would think actor George Clooney is cute. "We're, like, no," said Mary, making a face. "He's, like, 50," Karen exclaimed.'

A Christian group is calling for a removal of the no-fly zone so that they can fly anti-gay banners at the Disney Gay Day. How sad that they can't find anything better to do. Why don't they all just go and wear say, blue tshirts, and show their anti-gay pride.

David Nelson is one of the names on "the list" at airports. There's a "no-fly" list and a "suspectees" list. Luckily it's just "suspectees", but it's guilty until proven innocent. Anyone with this name gets stopped and searched and interrogated multiple times. And once you're on the list, you can't be removed. Yay for government preventative terrorist procedures :P

And here I thought it was bad when I had to get pulled out of line both times I flew in March because I'm a girl and they needed a female security guard. I wore a skirt, because they're comfy, but they had to pat up and down my legs to make sure I didn't have a knife or something strapped to my thigh, and I had to take off my knee-high boots, which take forever to lace up. I'll admit, those weren't a wise choice. But flying first class and getting tipsy on the way home made up for everything :P

So the Henson family has reclaimed the Muppets.

Also, Disney may lose its case about A.A. Milne's family over the rights to Winnie the Pooh. The irony of that is that Disney fought to extend the copyright, and now may lose it's right to Pooh because of that.

It's nice to see things like this being returned to their rightful owners.

An 11-year old girl was driving an 18-wheeler when it crashed in TX today. The dad and her brother were asleep in the back. I've noticed truck drivers tend to leave the rig on when they go to nap; I'd bet the girl just wanted to play and started driving the thing. But then, I'm surprised the dad didn't wake up when he felt movement.

From the local news, car thieves have been using the VIN, which is legally required to be displayed on your windshield, to get a key made at a local dealership. Despite the policy of also requiring ID and a registration card, several dealerships still made keys for the local news channel investigative team. If you have a "smart" chipped key, the new key won't start the engine, but you can bet that any cd's in the car and probably the stereo system, will be stolen.

I wonder if you can hold the dealership responsible for not enforcing their policy and giving a thief a key. Probably not, since they also say they're not responsible for any damage done to your car while it's in their care for service.

This article alone stemmed most of our Sunday-night-moved-to-Tuesday-night-temporarily-dinner-party. This company is changing the world. There's a big building in Philly with a big machine that can change about anything but nuclear waste into oil. Actually, it uses anything carbon based. "If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water." Oil! We're recycling/producing oil. It's called thermal depolymerization.

My mom had him in school. Cool.

So this guy was charged with 18 flashes in the Pittsburgh area. You know how they caught him? He flashed and whacked off in front of the wife of one of Jay's friends. And their kids. I think she reported him using his license number, cuz it was in a parking lot. What a sicko.

If you live under a rock, she's the Utah teen that was taken from her bed at gunpoint by a handyman drifter the family had hired back in June. She was returned to her family safe and sound.

I'd been blogging updates in the post, but it's moved further down the page. Apparently the guard who signed the complaint by orders of his boss was fired. I think that's not right at all. I think we're still not getting the entire story (what was I just saying about the media?) *and* the mall is trying to cover its ass.

from this article stating how much US traffic Brittish and international new sites are getting. I prefer reading non US media for US news... much less biased or censored. Glad to know it's not just me with this opinion.

You may have already heard this, but I just found it... This lawyer bought a "Give Peace a Chance" tshirt in the mall, and then security guards at the same mall asked him to remove it. When he refused, they asked him to leave. When he wouldn't leave, police were called and he was arrested for tresspassing. He was arraigned and released after pleading not guilty in night court, but he has a hearing later this month. He could face a year in prison if he's convicted, but I hope he sues their pants off, for the security guards even starting this crap. Not only is it a violation of free speech, it wasn't even an offensive slogan! And if it was such a problem, why allow it to be sold in the mall?!

[Update!] Bah... fooled by the media again. It seems we weren't told the entire story. The Smoking Gun published the police reports which includes the fact that the gentlemen wearing the shirts in question were stopping shoppers and expressing their peace opinions to them, resulting in some heated discussion. I could see where that could cause a problem. Way to make a martyr out of a troublemaker.

[Update again] It seems the mall has dropped the charges.

I really don't have a whole lot to say about this, but I absolutely had to link it. [Via Flutterby]

Flutterby also alerted me to the latest reason why I really really need TiVo.

Funny how 3/4 of them are in PA. Teleropa, Phantasm, and Heads-N-Threads are among them.

Someone dying isn't funny, but I still see some humor in someone going nutso over getting scammed and shooting at the first person who might be related to it. Guess he hadn't seen this.

Speaking of scams, I got a pre-recorded telemarketter call today, which is very illegal. It said I won a trip and to press 1 and tell the operator my claim code. I pressed 1 and I asked the person to put my on their do not call list. She hung up on me. So I called the FTC to file a complaint, and to confirm I was indeed, on the PA do not call list. Fun fun.

I finally am getting a chance to see it. I was upset when I missed it the first time. I feel bad for the guy, but at the same time, he ought to realize some of his behavior is obviously viewed as bizarre, eccentric, and suspicious, i.e. inviting children to sleep in his bed. He keeps saying how shy he is, but he seems to love being in the spotlight. I still love the way he dances though. I used to think he was very handsome, back in his Thriller days. Why does he want to be Peter Pan and never grow up if he admits he had such a messed up childhood? I guess he just wishes he could live it over again. He seems to try so hard to be a good person, but he's still disturbed. It's sad, really. I also hate that I'm one of the public who is obsessed with curiousity about him, but I am. I have a thing with understanding what people are thinking, psychology etc, and I'd really like to know why he felt the need to change the way he looks so much, and his obsession with childhood. He looks like the Joker. The special that aired right before this, "The Many Faces of Michael Jackson" showed a computer generated image of what he would look like today... an average black man. I think people would leave him alone if he just came out with it all. There wouldn't be any more secrets to hound at.

The Dell guy was arrested Sunday on marijuana possession charges. That's not surprising or anything.

I quit IRC years ago for many reasons, including people like this. Granted, it was a drug channel, but the girl who actually had the sense to call 911 changed her mind and talked her way out of the call. A boy overdosed and died while members of the channel watched him on his webcam and egged him on. I read this in the news yesterday, but today I found the IRC logs and it made it all the more creepy. I'm not entirely sure why 911 couldn't get the boy's info from his cell phone company or something. They were given the number, but said they couldn't do anything with it. All the more reason for GPS locators on cell phones.

My boyfriend, Homer, Jay Leno, and our Harvard educated president all do it. The article poses the idea that our country tends to be distrustful of people who seem too educated. Funny, I tend to distrust people who are fake, such as President Bush, if he mispronounces that word purposely.

a self-explanatory essay. "And when, for no clear reason, the vessel crumbles, as it did in 1986 with Challenger and last week with Columbia, we falsely think the promise of America goes with it." What's the word for this? Vague? Assuming? No clear reason... last I heard, there were several possibilities being considered, including some foam that impacted the body of the rocket. 3 fatal losses within hundreds of launches... for such a risky mission, I guess those odds aren't so bad. However, the space program definitely does need to devote more funding to research an improved shuttle designed. While I may not agree with all of the essay, it gave me something to think about.

Jay's commentary: "Well... we got over Challenger" *flips from news to cartoons*. It's interesting to note this is the 88th post-Challenger mission. I'll still never forget the day in elementary school when they moved us all into the auditorium/cafeteria/gym and wheeled in a TV and we watched the news most of the day. I wonder what Peter Jennings is thinking... "Didn't I report on this 20-years ago? Too much bad news, I need a new job." Nick Denton points out that today's date in scientific notation is 030201. Foreshadowing of a disaster?

Because MST will have to renew the rights for a number of the movies they lampoon to re-air the episodes on TV, or release them on VHS and DVD. Apparently in a few cases, the owners of the rights are setting the prices very high, as to prohibit MST from ever showing the episodes including their material. Bah. I love MST3K. The film owners should be so lucky as to be on MST. :P

This morning, the Supreme Court upheld lengthier copyrights protecting the profits of songs, books and cartoon characters. Had this not been upheld, publishers could have made old books available online, and use likenesses such as Mickey Mouse without paying huge royalties. It would have cost corporations like Disney millions, but it would have permitted groups like small orchestras to not have to pay royalties to perform some pieces. Yup yup, always giving to the corporations and costing the little guy. The case is Eldred v. Ashcroft, 01-618. Majority opinion, Steven's dissent, Breyer's dissent

is why you should always destroy your data storage media before disposing of it in the garbage.

are full of bologna. Everyone's freaking out because SUVs suck gas, and therefore, fund terrorists. The "Talking Heads" ad ends in "I don't even know how many miles it gets to the gallon." Enough with the sensationalism. You know what? I don't like SUVs either, but only because they're big enough that if they get into an accident with a small car, the SUV will do a lot more damage to the car and the driver/passenger of the car. Jay bought a Ford Escape and it gets 28 miles city driving to the gallon. My Toyota Camry only gets 26 city! It's not exactly hard to figure out how much your car gets to the gallon. There should be an estimate in your owner's manual. And then you just write down your mileage and gas fill-ups a few times and work it out. Some SUVs are more efficient than others. Take responsibility. Some sports cars are just as inefficient as some SUVs. And what about full-sized pick-up trucks? You don't see people bashing them. "I Want My SUV" and "No Apologies" both have realistic views. I'd also like to point out that the electric Toyota Rav4 is the 3rd most green car in the US. Yes, it's electric, but it's still an SUV. Why do you need a V8 SUV anyway? The Escape is a manual and 4-cylinder, hence it's efficiency. Personally, I like Toyota's new hybrid car, the Prius. (More about hybrids.)

Besides, isn't bin Laden absolutely loaded? What does the al Qaeda need with oil money? Don't even get me started on the Bush "Drugs Promote Terrorism" bull.

- A 60-acre spider web

- The latest outrage over our friend Henry Kissinger. After you've checked that out, you might appreciate the latest installment of "Get Your War On" comic.

- McDonald's plans to accept plastic. Uhmm... if the people there can't even figure out how to give me the right change when the cash register even tells them the correct amount, how are they gonna be able to handle plastic? Maybe it's just the Kennywood McDonald's that sucks.

but it's still good for a laugh. Catch Michael Jackson's Kids.

He coulda dropped his kid! What's up with that surgical mask anyway? Could it be because his nose is friggin falling off? anomalies unlimited has updated their history of Michael Jackon's face. [ Update 11/21/02 ]: Jackson issued an apology for his behavior.

Disclaimer: Since both articles are on NYTimes, which while it offers free registration, asks for personal information, please feel free to login using starjewelpub/starjewel

Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans.

Editorial/Op-Ed piece on the Homeland Security Act and the Pentagon's database. - "You Are A Suspect".

Not to make light of the situation, but while I am on the subject, see the Onion's What Do You Think? on the Republicans Take the Senate.

Scary. Beware anything that requires you to give out your SSN online.

I read the article and started to blog it. As I was perusing my regular morning sites, I noticed Kuro5hin had an article on this story, and the author said everything I wanted to say and more, much more eloquently.

Long story short is that Barry Dennis says he loves spam. He loves getting lots of information through email, just link junk mail. What he doesn't understand is that spammers aren't just sending information. Often, they're doing it illegally, using other people's hardware, mail relays and bandwidth. He suggests we all hit delete. Maybe he doesn't get as much spam as I do daily, but sifting through spam on top of everything else and opting out of defaultedly-opted-in-emails is wasting my time, and downloading it is wasting my bandwidth. What about wireless users? It's costing them money.

The poor, uninformed, naive guy who wrote the article must have gotten so much spam in response to his article that he had to shut off his email account.