President Bush declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1, 2003, but casualties have continued to mount. As of Aug. 27, 2003, deaths since Bush declared the end of the war exceeded those during the invasion.

Via the WSJ Online, comes this depiction of U.S. Casualities in Iraq:

click for larger graphic

Source:
CASUALTIES CONTINUE
Wall Streeet Journal Interactive
http://online.wsj.com/documents/info-casualties03.html

Posted at 11:26 PM in War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The WSJ reported that voter turnout varied by town, and was strongest in Shiite and Kurdish areas.

U.S. officials recorded more than 175 attacks:

Baghdad:  A rocket killed a civilian and a sailor at the U.S. Embassy Saturday. On Sunday, mortars killed two people and eight suicide attacks killed at least a dozen near polling stations. An insurgent blew himself up near the home of Iraq's justice minister. Voter turnout was brisk in Shiite and Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods, but polls didn't open at all in some Sunni areas.

Hillah:  A bomber detonated his explosives on a minibus carrying voters to the polls in Hillah, killing himself and at least four other people.

Balad, Kirkuk and Mahawil:  Mortars hit several voting sites.

Basra, Mosul, Samarra and Baqouba:  Voting stations saw explosions early in the day, but no casualties were reported. By midday, hundreds of people were voting in Samarra and eastern Mosul, though the city's west saw guerrilla fighting that muted turnout.

Bayji, Fallujah and Ramadi:  Polling stations were all but deserted in these Sunni strongholds.

Northwest of Baghdad:  A British transport plane crashed. Up to 15 British troops are believed to have died.

Source:
City by City
WSJ, January 30, 2005
http://online.wsj.com/documents/info-iraqelectmap05-frame.html

Despite Violence,  Iraqis Head to Polls In Large Numbers
FARNAZ FASSIHI in Baghdad, YOCHI J. DREAZEN in Irbil, Iraq, and NEIL KING JR. in Washington
WALL STREET JOURNAL, January 30, 2005
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110706335615640226,00.html

Posted at 08:30 PM in Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Which ethnic groups will be voting in significant percentages -- or boycotting? :

>

Note:  There is a very good guide to the "Hows and Whys" of the Iraq election at the link below.

Source:
Iraqi election guide
Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0128/p10s02-woiqb.html

Posted at 12:35 PM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

AMERICANS' VIEWS on President Bush's handling of the Iraq war peaked in April 2003, not long after the U.S. invaded Iraq, but their opinion has turned decidely more negative since. Ahead of the Iraq war through early March 2003, a series of Harris Interactive surveys asked whether people were "confident Bush would make the right decision regarding an attack on Iraq."

Since late March 2003, people were asked, "Overall, how would you rate the job Bush has done in handling the issue of Iraq over the last several months?"

click for larger graphic

This chart tracks positive and negative responses to the questions since September 2002.

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Source:
Bush's Iraq Rating
WSJ / Harris Poll
http://online.wsj.com/documents/info-harris0105-frameset.html

Posted at 10:15 AM in Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Security in Baghdad, including the green zone (once the safest place for US operations), has become increasingly tenuous :

click for larger chart

>

Source:
Closer look at Baghad
New York Times
http://nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/01/19/international/20050119_iraq_ELECTIONS_GRAPHIC.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1107004444-CKad54FPCArVygywwRtK4A

Posted at 09:30 AM in War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

We can see over how the violence has shifted emphasis between Spetember 2004 and January 2005.

Each pictogram represents attack concentrations.

click for larger chart

>
click for larger chart

The insurgency continues to expand their reign of violence and death across Iraq.

>

Source:
Insurgency Attacks
New York Times
http://nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/01/19/international/20050119_iraq_ELECTIONS_GRAPHIC.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1107004444-CKad54FPCArVygywwRtK4A

Posted at 09:20 AM in War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Denis D. Gray of AP notes:   "However, at least six provinces – Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Salahuddin, Kirkuk and Nineveh – have been the scene of significant attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqi authorities in the past month. The only areas not plagued by bloodshed are the three northern provinces controlled by Kurds. The situation in many areas, however, is unknown since journalists' travel is restricted by security fears."

Juan Cole observes the situation is "even worse than Gray allows. As recently as August, the British expended 100,000 rounds of ammunition in Maysan province at Amara, saying they had the most intense fighting since the Korean War! Likewise there was heavy fighting in Wasit (Kut) and Najaf."

In the map below, we see security-challenged provinces are in red, and those that saw recent heavy fighting are purple. I ask you if this looks like the problems are in "three of 18 provinces," or whether it looks to you like elections held only in the white areas (as Donald Rumsfeld seems to envision) would produce a legitimate government:

>

>

Source:
Iraq Elections a Disaster in the Making
by Juan Cole
AntiWar.com, September 25, 2004
http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3647

Posted at 09:10 AM in Finance, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Security concerns remain paramount as insurgents mount continued attacks across the nation:

>

Source:
Elections in Iraq
New York Times
http://nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/01/19/international/20050119_iraq_ELECTIONS_GRAPHIC.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1107004444-CKad54FPCArVygywwRtK4A

Posted at 09:00 AM in War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Some interesting details about the structure of the newly elected government:

.

click for larger graphic

Source:
Iraq election guide
Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-iraqelect0105.html

Life in Post Saddam Iraq
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/post_saddam_iraq/html/7.stm

The Next Phase
NYT, Janaury 30, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/01/30/international/31PREXY-GRAPH.html

Posted at 08:30 AM in Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

There are no official figures on Iraqi civilian deaths, but unofficial estimates range from at least 15,000 to almost 100,000 since the March 2003 invasion. (More than 1,300 US troops have been killed in the same period).

The insurgency appears to be growing. In Sunni areas north and west of Baghdad, insurgents led by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are reported to have joined forces with Saddam loyalists and are increasingly targeting Shia civilians.

>

Source:
Security & Insurgency
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/post_saddam_iraq/html/3.stm

Posted at 07:30 AM in War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Iraq, with the 3rd largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, was supposed  to  pay for the cost of the war via Oil production.

It remains the least explored of the oil-rich Middle-Eastern countries. But its oil industry, according to a 2000 report, has serious technical and infrastructure problems.

Under optimal conditions, it is estimated Iraq could produce up to 6m barrels a day - almost double its peak of 3.5m, reached in 1979 before the war with Iran. Regular insurgent attacks on pipelines and pump stations have meant oil production rarely reaches its pre-invasion levels of about 2.5m barrels per day. In 2004, production is reported to have averaged 1.9m barrels. Sabotage on oil and power installations has cost Iraq more than $10bn.

Source:
Iraq's Oil Infrastructure
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/post_saddam_iraq/html/4.stm

Posted at 07:15 AM in Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

If you think the US is divided, try this map:

Note that Iraqis are hardly "Red or Blue" Staters; There are instead many combinations of Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis. A peaceful, Democratic state certainly will not look like the US; I suspect it will be more like Israel or Italy than the U.S.

Source:
Iraq election guide
Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-iraqelect0105.html

Posted at 07:10 AM in Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Iraq Population: 26 million people
(primarily concentrated in the eastern half of the country)

Most Iraqis are Muslim and are divided along religious lines (between Shias and Sunnis) and ethnic lines (between Arabs and Kurds).

The ethnicities and voting patterns appear to be more complex than the infamous US's Red State/ Blue State schism.

There are no precise figures, but the mainly-Arab Shias are thought to form a 60% majority and expect to dominate political life after the January election. Under Saddam Hussein, Sunni Arabs (about 20% of the population) dominated political and economic life. The Kurds, who are also Sunnis and represent about 17% of the population, mainly live in the north where they have enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy since 1991.

Source:
Religous and Ethnic Groups inIraq
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/post_saddam_iraq/html/1.stm

Posted at 07:05 AM in Politics, Religion, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

  Most of Iraq is relatively sparesly populated; Baghdad and Ninawa have nearly half the country's people:

Note the population concentrations by "State"

Source:
UNO Sat
via Friends of Democracy, January 14, 2005
http://friendsofdemocracy.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/iraqdistricts_copy_3.jpg

Posted at 07:00 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

We've talked about the cast change in Coupling, which is one of the funniest shows ever made.

When Richard Coyle, who played Jeff Murdock -- one of the main characters -- left after Season 3, the show lost a step or two.

An ensemble show like Coupling depends so much on the chemistry between the players -- major changes are usually fatal. I can only think of two shows that survived --even thrived -- after a major cast change.  A major casting actually workingis that rare:

The only 2 shows I can think of where it did were MASH --  Wayne Rogers as Capt. John Francis Xavier 'Trapper John' McIntyre (1972-1975) was replaced by Mike Farrell playing Capt. B.J. Hunnicut (1975-1983) -- and Cheers, with Shelley Long as Diane Chambers (1982-1987) swapped out for Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe (1987-1993). I think that worked but that was only cause most people couldn't stand the character of Diane.

While there must be others, nothing else pops into my head.

Any one have suggestions where the cast changes worked?

Posted at 07:14 AM in Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

So much for the Malpractice crisis . . . it appears what we have here is a Medical Ethics crisis: 

"Eighty percent of U.S. doctors and half of nurses surveyed said they had seen colleagues make mistakes, but only 10 percent ever spoke up, according to a study released on Wednesday.

These mistakes are undoubtedly contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands of people who die from medical errors in the United States each year, the researchers and experts on nursing said.

Nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers need to be less shy about speaking up about mistakes, incompetent colleagues and other problems that can hurt patients, the report said.

Healthcare workers who do speak up are not only able to nip the problem in the bud, but are also happier in their own work, said Joseph Grenny, president of consulting group VitalSmarts, which conducted the survey of 1,700 nurses, doctors, hospital administrators and other experts for the study."

Astounding -- another phony issue drummed up as payback for the White House's contributors.

>

Source:
Survey Finds 80 Pct of U.S. Doctors Witness Mistakes
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Reuters, Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:08 PM GMT   
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=7442256

>

Reuters stories have an annoying tendency of disappearing from the web . . . if that happens

>

>

Survey Finds 80 Pct of U.S. Doctors Witness Mistakes
Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:08 PM ET

>

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eighty percent of U.S. doctors and half of nurses surveyed said they had seen colleagues make mistakes, but only 10 percent ever spoke up, according to a study released on Wednesday.

These mistakes are undoubtedly contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands of people who die from medical errors in the United States each year, the researchers and experts on nursing said.

Nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers need to be less shy about speaking up about mistakes, incompetent colleagues and other problems that can hurt patients, the report said.

Healthcare workers who do speak up are not only able to nip the problem in the bud, but are also happier in their own work, said Joseph Grenny, president of consulting group VitalSmarts, which conducted the survey.

Grenny's team surveyed 1,700 nurses, doctors, hospital administrators and other experts for the study.

"Fifty percent of nurses said they have colleagues who appear incompetent," Grenny told a meeting of clinical care nurses.

"Eighty-four percent of physicians and 62 percent of nurses and other clinical care providers have seen co-workers taking shortcuts that could be dangerous to patients," he added.

The survey found that 88 percent of doctors and 48 percent of nurses and other workers felt they worked with colleagues who showed poor clinical judgment.

A 1999 study by the nonpartisan Institute of Medicine found that up to 98,000 Americans die each year from medical errors in hospitals. Last July, Lakewood, Colorado-based HealthGrades Inc. said the true number was closer to 195,000 people a year.

The errors include giving patients the wrong drug or the wrong dose, surgical errors and spreading germs through unhygienic practices.

"People frequently see these problems but too often they fail to talk about them," Grenny said.

Why not? Because people fear confrontation, lack time or feel it is not their job, Grenny said. Even doctors were afraid to question nurses they saw making errors, he said.

His survey found the 10 percent of workers who did speak up felt good about it.

"When they effectively confront a situation, it makes a difference," he said. "These people are also more satisfied with their workplace."

Connie Barden, who helped author standards for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, said nurses cannot be afraid to point out mistakes. "Nurses must be as proficient at handling personal communication as they are in clinical skills," she told the meeting.

Source:
Survey Finds 80 Pct of U.S. Doctors Witness Mistakes
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Reuters, Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:08 PM GMT   
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=7442256

Posted at 07:05 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How goddamned lazy to you have to be to clean a 50 yard stretch of sidewalk the width of a snow blower -- you can barely walk down this.

That's Glen Cove Road, a major heavily trafficed north/south thoroughfare. You would die if you tried walking in the street (others have).

The "shoveled" space is less than 12 inches wide.

Lazy get!

I don't know what idiot is responsible for this (they performed similarly last year) but here is the sign on the property.

Posted at 06:28 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Our amusing snow theme continues today:

File this one under "too much spare time"

Posted at 06:24 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

  I've always loved Calvin & Hobbes; I was that kid grwoing up.

This is one of my favorites:

But I am (apparently) only a passing fan. Check out this guy:

There's a full run of C&H re-enactments here.

You have to respect:

1) the evil genius of Bill Watterson in creating C&H

2) the brilliant absurdity of realizing Watterson's vision in the physical world.

Outstanding job blue team . .  .

Posted at 07:06 AM in Design, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

even though golf bores me to tears (its watching grass grow -- literally -- with an overlay of frustration), I still found this terribly amusing . . . 

>

Ever wonder why golf is growing in popularity, and why people who don't even play the game go to professional tournaments or watch it on TV? The following may shed some light:

(1) Golf is an honorable game, with the overwhelming majority of professional players being honorable people who don't need referees.

(2) Pro golfers don't have some of their players in jail every week.

(3) Pro golfers don't kick dirt on, or throw bottles at, other people.

(4) Pro golfers are paid in direct proportion to how well they play.

(5) Pro golfers don't get per diem and two seats on a charter flight when they travel between tournaments.

(6) Pro golfers don't hold out for more money, or demand new contracts, because of another player's deal.

(7) Pro golfers don't demand that the taxpayers pay for the courses on which they play.

(8) When pro golfers make a mistake, nobody is there to cover for them or back them.

(9) The PGA raises more money for charity in 1 year than the NFL does in 2.

(10) You can watch the best pro golfers in the world up close, at any tournament, including the majors, all day every day for $25 or $30.

(11) The cost for even a nosebleed seat at the Super Bowl costs around $300 or more unless you buy it from scalpers in which case it's $1,000+.

(12) You can bring a picnic lunch to the tournament golf course, watch the best in the world and not spend a small fortune on food and drink. Try that at one of the taxpayer funded baseball or football stadiums. If you bring a soft drink into a ballpark, they'll give you two options - get rid of it or leave.

(13) In pro golf you cannot fail 70% of the time and make $9 million a season, like the best baseball hitters (.300 batting average) do.

(14) Pro golf doesn't change its rules to attract fans.

(15) Pro golfers have to adapt to an entirely new playing area each week.

(16) Pro golfers keep their clothes on while they are being interviewed.

(17) Pro golf doesn't have free agency.

(18) In their prime, Palmer, Norman, and other stars, would shake your hand and say they were happy to meet you. In his prime Jose Canseco wore T-shirts that read "Leave Me Alone."

(19) You can hear birds chirping on the golf course during a tournament.

(20) At a golf tournament, (unlike at taxpayer-funded sports stadiums and arenas) you won't hear a steady stream of four letter words and nasty name calling while you're hoping that no one spills beer on you.

(21) Tiger hits a golf ball over twice as far as Barry Bonds hits a baseball.

(22) Golf courses don't ruin the neighborhood.

(23) Why do golf courses have 18 holes---not 20, or 10, or an even dozen? During a discussion among the club's membership board at St. Andrews in 1858, a senior member pointed out that it takes exactly 18 shots to polish off a fifth of Scotch. By limiting himself to only one shot of Scotch per hole, the Scot figured a round of golf was finished when the Scotch ran out.

Posted at 11:13 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Fascinating discussion as to what are the most over-rated albums of all time. You are guaranteed to find a dozen or so you will violently disagree with (I know I did). But its a provocative idea -- likely purposefully, so as to generate more comments and posts -- from Jaguaro: 

Here' s their dissection of the average music fan's collection:

"We have not selected easy targets for removal -- we know that you know that the Milli Vanilli album you've got stashed away in a shoebox isn't exactly kosher. Nope, we chose critical darlings and must-have releases from the past and present. Some will bristle at our audacity for questioning the worth of any Beatles release or blithely pissing on Jane's Addiction's "masterpiece." Some will maintain that we're not qualified or that we'll never make an album as great as Dark Side of the Moon and accordingly should shut our traps. The approval an artist seeks by releasing an album is not guaranteed, even if music moguls, "tastemakers," and critics agree that it is merited. As music listeners, we've taken on the very modest project of flipping through our collections, listening to them, and separating the good stuff from the bad. If the creators of the "greats," the "classics," and the "hits" want to ensure that their efforts get the praise they deserve forevermore, they should take care that they are only accessible to sympathetic critics and fans.

The entries on this list fall roughly into three categories:

   •      Critically bullet-proof artifacts whose weighty presence on the shelf is complimented perfectly by their perpetual absence from the CD player. Critic-mandated vanity archives should be bundled up and spirited off to the used record store under the cover of night.

    •     Albums by new artists that have only their newness and the marketing efforts of music conglomerates to recommend them. Almost invariably, these recordings pale in comparison to those of the artists they imitate. Alternately, new albums by established artists that are slavishly hailed as the big comeback get high points with us. Like nature hates a vacuum, Jaguaro despises the Next Big Thing.

    •     Nostalgic favorites that maintain their place by tradition and neglect more than actual merit. These are the CDs people never get rid of because they may want to play them some time in the indefinite future (certainly not now).

I'm posting this more to spark a discussion than because I agree with Jaguaro . . . I found plenty that they are just FN wrong about.

I disagreed with their takes on:

    1.      The Clash - Combat Rock
    5.      The Beatles - Let It Be       
    22.      The Who - Tommy
    25.      Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
    28.      Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
    34.      Dave Brubeck - Time Out
    37.      John Coltrane - Giant Steps
    58.      Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever, Amen
    62.      Green Day - Dookie
    64.      Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
    65.      Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Surfacing
    74.      The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band
    91.      Sublime - Self-titled
    97.      The Doors - The Best of the Doors

Most of their criticism falls into one of 4 categories:

1)   We're young and stupid and wear our ignorance of musical history on our sleeves;
2)   Jazz? We don't know shit about Jazz;
3)  If I like melodic female vocals, does that make me gay? ;

and lastly, the general catch all:

4)   Alex, I'll take pretentious Bullshit for $100

That about covers it . . .

Source:
One Hundred Albums You Should Remove from Your Collection Immediately
edited by Wesley A. Kose
jaguaro.org, January 27, 2004
http://www.jaguaro.org/feature/archives/000007.html

Posted at 12:00 PM in Music | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Here's another shuffle play --  pretty good mixes:

1. Control, Puddle Of Mudd  from  Hard Drive 
2. Burn To Shine, Ben Harper, from Burn To Shine
3 .The Six Million Dollar Man Theme, Oliver Nelson  from  The Tao Of Steve 
4. Spill the Wine, War  from  War - The Best of War... And More 
5. Caminando Por La Calle, Gipsy Kings  from  !Volare! - The Very Best Of The Gipsy Kings (Disc 2),
6. My favourite Name, Loo & Placido  from  Bastard Pop,
7. It's A Blue World, Ella Fitzgerald  from  Ella Swings Gently With Nelson 
8. Little Wing, Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra XL  from  Little Wing 
9. Embrace, Govi  from  Passion & Grace 
10. Pulse,  Epperley  from  Epperley 
11. Supersonic (acoustic), Oasis  from P2P MP3
12. Ventilator Blues, CLARENCE "GATEMOUTH" BROWN  from  Paint It Blue: Songs of the Rolling Stones
13. I can see clearly now, Jimmy Cliff  from We Are All One
14.  Fancy Man Blues, The Rolling Stones  from  Collectibles (Flashpoint disc 2) 
15. I Feel Home, Oar  from  Souls Aflame

Posted at 09:19 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Here in the NorthEast, we got buried with over a foot of Snow over the past 18 hours -- and its still coming down!

click for larger 'toon

Mutts Comics.com
http://muttscomics.com/index.asp

Posted at 08:26 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This guy builds amazing structures out of playing cards --   all without bending, gluing, folding, or taping the cards.

Astounding structures of incredible complexity and stability

Posted at 08:37 PM in Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Welcome to Lawn Gyland -- but please watch where you park.

At least, thats what recent data suggests, according to an article in Newsday this week.

The main culprit? Big parking lots in Malls and train stations -- especially those with easy access to highways.

Source: Newsday

.

Here's a short excerpt:

Dude, where's my car?

If you're fortunate enough to live in one of the Island's tonier North Shore villages, chances are excellent that it's right where you left it.

But if you parked your car in Hempstead, Port Washington or Freeport, or in parts of the Town of Islip, the chances aren't nearly as good, according to a Newsday analysis theft reports.

The good news is that, even in areas with the highest rates, auto thefts are falling, thanks to better antitheft devices. A total of 5,707 auto thefts were reported to Long Island's county, town and village police departments in 2003, the most recent year available, a decline of 4 percent from the previous year. What's more, theft rates here are low relative to most other U.S. metropolitan areas.

In the Village of Hempstead, police took 473 stolen vehicle reports in 2003. With a population of about 54,000, that is 8.75 thefts per 1,000 people -- the highest rate of any Long Island police jurisdiction in the Newsday analysis.

Port Washington had only 22 thefts in 2003, as reported by the state, but that averages out to a rate of 7.8 thefts for every 1,000 people. The Village of Freeport was another of the Island's hot spots in 2003, with 205 thefts, for a rate of 4.65 thefts for every 1,000 people.

In contrast, police in many of the Island's wealthier villages, located far from main highways and where residents are more apt to park in garages, recorded no thefts at all in 2003, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. They included Kensington, Kings Point and Sands Point in Nassau County. In Suffolk, no reports were taken by Asharoken, Head of the Harbor, Huntington Bay, Lloyd Harbor, Nissequogue and Ocean Beach.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When on Long Island -- better watch where you park . . .

.

Source:
LI auto theft rates falling
TOM INCANTALUPO
Newsday, January 18, 2005
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzsteal0118,0,843736.story

Posted at 08:28 AM in Current Affairs, Humor, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Who knew?

photo via NASA/Yale

Excerpt:    Hubble Space Telescope data, analyzed by a Yale astronomer using gravitational lensing techniques, has generated a spatial map demonstrating the clumped substructure of dark matter inside clusters of galaxies.   

Clusters of galaxies (about a million, million times the mass of our sun), are typically made up of hundreds of galaxies bound together by gravity. About 90 percent of their mass is dark matter. The rest is ordinary atoms in the form of hot gas and stars. 

Although little is known about it, cold dark matter is thought to have structure at all magnitudes. Theoretical models of the clumping properties were derived from detailed, high resolution simulations of the growth of structure in the Universe. Although previous evidence supported the “concordance model” of a Universe mostly composed of cold, dark matter, the predicted substructure had never been detected.

Source:
Substructure Maps Show that Dark Matter Clumps in Galaxies
Priyamvada Natarajan, Yale assistant professor of astronomy and physics
YALE University   , January 6, 2005
http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/05-01-06-01.all.html

Posted at 10:59 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

On the LIRR on my way into work each day, I pass Citiwide Self Storage.

They answer the question that's obviously on every consumer's mind:    Where Can I Put My Stuff?

Now you know . . .

(nice snap via the LG 6600 phone )

Posted at 10:04 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I've been playing witht he party mix on iTunes;  The shuffle play seems to come up with some pretty good mixes:

.

1. Ready For It, The Stills from Logic Will Break Your
2. Top Of The Pops, The Smithereens from Blown To Smithereens- Best Of The Smithereens
3. Get Ready, Rare Earth from Hitsville USA, The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971 (Disc 4)
4. Shine A Light, The Rolling Stones, from Stripped
5. Manchild, Eels, from Beautiful Freak
6. Rock You Like A Hurricane, Scorpions from Love At First Sting
7. Automatic Stop, The Strokes from Room On Fire
8. Shake Your Rump, The Beastie Boys from Paul's Boutique
9. 500 Miles, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes
10. Shiver (Accoustic), Coldplay from Without Parachutes
11. Dear Prudence, Sexy Sadie from Beatles Rarities
12. Video, Ben Folds Five from Ben Folds Five
13. They Say It's Wonderful, John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman from John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman
14. That's The Way (I Like It), K.C. & The Sunshine Band from 25th Anniversary Collection (Disc 1)
15. Alison, Everything But The Girl from Acoustic

.

A lot of covers in this shuffle -- and Brit Pop, too.

Posted at 11:24 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

If you ever get stuck on Gilligan's Island, you will have hopefully read  Mr. Sun. He has laid out all the details you want to know about how to bed Mary Ann:

My, my, my. In this time of war and great tragedy, I have naturally been preoccupied with the big questions. Namely, how would I have bedded Mary Ann if I were Gilligan. The answer? Strategy . I would have used my mind to create a rock solid Mary Ann Nailing Strategy that guaranteed I'd be rockin' the hut on a regular basis.

My Mary Ann Bedding Strategy rests on six central pillars:  Flattery, Deceit, Appeal, Collaboration, Sabotage, Time . . .

Go read the entire warped analysis.

Posted at 06:56 AM in Humor, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

There's a very amusing discussion of signatures on Credit Card reciepts at the Scream online. (See also Zug)
 

It reminds me of a funny little routine that used to happen all the time when Mrs. essays & effluvia and I were first married.

Despite being responsible for billions of dollars at work, I am totally irresponsible with my own cash, almost childlike in my own incompetence. I am cognizant of this, and that's why the missus has always been in charge of the household budget, bills, credit cards, etc.

Whenever we went out to dinner (or any restaurant), she would take the check, pull out the credit card, and give it to the waiter/waitress. And on 4 out of 5 occasions, after running it through, they would hand the reciept for signature -- back to me.

For obvious reasons, this used to annoy her endlessly. It became a longstanding joke between us. Whenever she expressed her ire over this obvious sexism, I always explained to her the simple reason why it was so:   "Its because I have the Penis."

I don't know what the power of the Penis is, that it magnetically attracts those seeking a credit card authorization -- but it was an inescapable fact of life. This would annoy the wife endlessly. But unknownst to her, each and every single time this happened, that harmless phrase was exactly how I  inscribed the credit card receipt: 

"I have the penis"

For a while, I didn't tell her about this signature game. After a particularly galling incident, when she was furious, I finally showed her the sig on the yellow carbon reciept, signed "I have the Penis".

She laughed at first, and then scowled, admonishing me that "they might notice."  

"Well they haven't noticed anytime over the past 12 years, why should they notice now?"

I told her what I had been doing all along, and she utterly, positively refused to believe me.

We went home, she pulled out her reciept folder (yes, she keeps all her reciepts in a folder in chronological order; I, on the other hand, prefer to leave them in my pockets and run them through the washing machine, in order to facilitate their journey to paper pulp heaven).

She pulls her folder, and -- Lo & behold -- in black and white and yellow: there it is, years and years of "penis sigs." They were in script, and a bit messy, but totally readable signatures declaring:  "I have the Penis."

.
So much for the important critical security and validity of credit card signatures . . .

Posted at 07:47 AM in Finance, Humor | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

M45, the Pleiades and their reflection nebulae
AAO image reference UKS 18

via the Anglo-Australian Observatory

Posted at 09:12 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

.

Scientists have discovered that shock waves from the giant  earthquake responsible for the devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean  ricocheted around the globe for hours -- and lifted the earth's  surface nearly an inch even half a world away.

clock for larger chart

The NYT reported:

The colossal jolt struck Dec.  26 off the west coast of northern Sumatra, and the shock waves radiated  out through the earth's rocky interior, traveling faster than waves do  in air or water.  Dr. Aster used data gathered by a global network  of seismometers run by the Incorporated Research Institutions for  Seismology, or IRIS, a consortium based in Washington that is financed  mainly by the National Science Foundation. IRIS has nearly 150 member  institutions at universities in the United States and abroad.

Waves from the quake weakened  as they bounced around the globe but were still discernible after  making a complete loop. The seismogram from Tristan da Cunha, a group  of British islands in the South Atlantic, shows the main wave arriving  after a little more than an hour, then two smaller ones that circled  the earth in two directions arriving after about 120 minutes and 230  minutes.

Wow.

Source:
Quake's Echo Raised Surface Around Globe
William J. Broad
NYT, January 13, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/international/worldspecial4/ 13quake.html

Graphic
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/01/12/international/13quake- graph.html

Posted at 06:21 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

You are probably familiar with the Family Circus comic -- a white bread suburban family which produces totally non threatening 1950s laffs --

Well it seems a few hipsters decided to have some fun with the Amazon reviews for Family Circus's book -- and the results are pretty hilarious.

Here's an example:   

"You'll laugh out loud as Billy continues his efforts to sodomize Barfy. PJ looks on with whimsical amusemnt as Dolly 'discovers' herself. Dolly may have pudgy little legs, but that doesn't stop the boy next door from noticing her. He really likes her 'developing, ripening buds'.

But Thel is the main attraction. No MILF in the world can compare to her. With her razor blade haircut, she goes on a sex spree that Nina Hartly, Samantha Strong, and Wendy WHoppers couldn't accomplish in a combined movie career. Poor daddy is bound and gagged and is forced to watch as Thel attempts a threesome to the third power. She is the hottest mommy in town and only Blondie Bumstead has a better body, but she's such a prude."

   Sometimes, the simplest approach is the funniest: 

Three simple words wrap up the reason to buy this book.

FULL. FRONTAL. NUDITY.

Go see them before Amazon figures out what going on. Too funny . . .

Posted at 12:05 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Way cool! 

Check it out:

Astronomers are highly confident that they've taken the first photograph of a planet outside our solar system.

Make that two photographs.

A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms with a high degree of confidence a picture made previously by astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and reported by SPACE.com in September.

The planet -- still just a candidate, actually -- is an odd duck in many respects. It does not orbit a normal star, and it is much more massive than the largest planets in our solar system.

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Source: 
Astronomers Confident: Planet Beyond Solar System Has Been Photographed
By Robert Roy Britt
Space.com   10 January 2005, 04:32 pm ET
http://space.com/scienceastronomy/aas_exoplanet_050110.html

Posted at 02:19 PM in Science | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Whenever I travel, or hear myself recorded, I become painfully aware of my own elocution issues -- my Nu Yawk accent.

How do you pronounce the following words:

Water
Coffee
Printer
Long Island
New Yorker

Unfortunately, when I am not paying attention or am tired, it sounds like this:

Wah-tah
Caw-fee
Print- ah
Lawn Guylin
Nu Yaw-ah

Blecch! I must learn how to speak English without the horrific accent.

Posted at 11:44 AM in Humor, Travel | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Another nice reveal from the Detroit show (and Detroit as well):  The Saturn Sky.
(Looks alot like the Pontiac Solstice)

Aggressive angles for a Saturn
click for larger photo

Nice tail
click for larger photo

If it ends up looking like this as a production model -- and was priced reasonably (as is typical with Saturn), I would seriously considering getting one  . . .

Photos via SaturnFans

Posted at 06:37 AM in Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

From the Detroit Auto show, we see the Viper based, Hemi power Chrysler Firepower:

Firepower:

click for larger photo

Wicked Profile
click for larger photo

Has an Aston Martin tail:
click for larger photo

Nice set of wheels!  Wonder what they cost?

Photos via Ultimate Car
Stats via AutoSite

Posted at 07:48 AM in Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Want a good laugh ?    

These are some of the funniest goddamned photos I have ever seen in my life . . . I laffed like a hyena over these mean-spirited snaps.   

The moral is, never get piss drunk and fall asleep if your friends and acquaintances are

1) clever; and
2) evil.   

Enjoy!   

Posted at 06:30 PM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack