Friday, November 30, 2007

Paul Dixon Show: The Chicken Wedding



And, while we're on the subject ...

And I know this will be particularly disturbing to the Malaysian Contingent ...

But what you see before you is actually THE most infamous piece of video from all of Cincinnati television history.

This very clip actually inspired David Letterman to start his career.

Kind of worries you, doesn't it?

Ruth Lyons Obit



Speaking of Ruth Lyons - here is a really great clip that captures TWO great epochs of Cincinnati television history - the Ruth Lyons era and the "Norma & Jerry" era.

Yes ... we miss both - we surely do ...

(BTW ... I've sat in that chair where Jerry Springer is sitting in this clip ...)

The Last Of Her Kind

I almost forgot to mention one that I saw in yesterday's Cincinnati Enquirer.

They had an article about Bonnie Lou, now 83, the last survivor of a group of performers from a legendary variety show started by Ruth Lyons.

For those of you who are not from the Cincinnati area and who were born after about 1970 or so, you have NO idea how popular this group was in the '60's and '70's.

Every year my grandmother and great-aunt would take me down to the Bob Braun Show, the successor to Ruth Lyon's 50/50 Club on the 31st of December when I was a little boy.

The second-to-last to pass was Marian Spellman, who departed the planet in January.

I met Marian Spellman twice. Once as a little boy in the audience of The Bob Braun Show and once as a young operations engineer working on "behind the scenes" elements of the first few episodes of The Jerry Springer Show.

As I was walking with Marian Spellman down the hallways of WLWT's Crosley Square studios, I couldn't help but think that I was playing Data to her Dr. McCoy from the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The first few episodes of Springer were recorded in the same studio that Bob Braun used.

Although, in this case, somehow I'm guessing Ruth Lyons and Bob Braun will be remembered quite a while after Springer is long forgotten ...

Thursday, November 29, 2007

3G iPhone Due Out In 2008

So I was all psyched up to put the bite on Mrs. Axinar to buy me a new cell phone for Christmas.

Seems like day after day less and less stuff works with my Nokia 6682. First Yahoo Go! stopped working clear back in August, and then I find out the new Google Mobile Maps "My Location" feature doesn't work either.

I had pretty much narrowed it down to two choices - an unlocked Nokia N75 or an Apple iPhone.

Now of course there are advantages and disadvantages to both. The Nokia N75 is closest to the Nokia 6682. It has a little more "conventional" design - user replaceable batteries, swappable memory cards, and it runs most of my favorite apps, like Opera Mini. It also makes use of AT&T's high speed 3G network.

The Apple iPhone, on the other hand, has a browser that is so killer that it makes Opera Mini pretty much obsolete. It also has "Visual Voice Mail" where your voice mails come up in a list like emails so I would be able to prioritize the Old Man's message down to the bottom most of the time.

However, there are definitely some "issues" with the iPhone. It can't use the 3G network. It doesn't have a user replaceable battery, and, as many times as I have messed with demo models up at tha AT&T store, I don't think I would EVER get used to that flat keyboard.

However, an announcement came out today that may put any cell phone purchases off until I "accidentally" run over the Nokia 6682 four time with the car.

Yep - AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson announced that a version of the iPhone that works on AT&T's 3G network will be available in 2008.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said back in September that the current iPhone doesn't support 3G because current 3G chip sets are wicked power hogs.

So, yes - it looks like the search for The Ultimate Mobile Blogging Appliance may very well be off until next year.

Although - say - while we're on the subject - have any of you actually been able to LOG IN to the main Blogger interface with an iPhone? Or any other cell phone for that matter?

Leave a comment here or drop me a note at axinar@gmail.com ...

Note: You can get the "AT&T version" of the Nokia N75 from ME pretty much for FREE if you sign up for a new contract through AT&T:



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Kim Kardashian JFK Theft Likely Hoax

Well, the hubbub going around for the last couple of days that Kim Kardashian had $50,000 worth of stuff, including diamonds, a Cartier watch, a digital camera, and a laptop snatched while she was being mobbed by fans at JFK airport may be first-class, grade-A BULL COOKIES.

Turns out none of the New York Port Authority, the NYPD or the Queens district attorney have any report of a theft.

Kim Kardashian's representatives are not returning calls either.

Yep ... apparently this woman will do anything for publicity ...

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Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Details Of Mars Mission Released

Details are being released about a planned trip to Mars in 2031.

Apparently most of the idea is that supplies and shelter will actually be sent via unmanned probes several years before the manned mission.

Actually the whole thing sounds a little dicey and very much like some of the goofy notions they came up with for trying to send a human to the moon in the 1960's - for instance the idea to just get someone up there and then keep sending supplies until you can find a way to get the astronaut back.

Now part of this Mars mission is going to be a self-recycling habitat on the way up and the way back. This is a notion that has certainly shown promise with novelty items such as the Ecosphere, but did NOT work out so well in the Biosphere 2 fiasco.

However, most of my research on a Mars trip seems to point out that the biggest difficulty faced is the radiation. Now, on these little jaunts to the moon, there simply isn't enough time for the radiation to cause lasting damage. But, out there away from a significant magnetic field to block the steady stream of high energy charged particles coming from the sun, there wouldn't be much left of a deep space crew.

On the other hand, people tend to be crafty. Al Bean, the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 12 once told me that when he first entered the Apollo program he had no idea how they were going to get to the moon. Despite the throngs of conspiracists out there, I think they worked out the problems to make that little trip, and no doubt we'll figure out some way to deal with the radiation on the way to Mars and back as well ...

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Malaysian Police Firing On Ethnic Indians With Tear Gas And Water Cannons

Tensions continue to escalate as a demonstration by the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) was fired upon by the Malaysian police with tear gas and water cannons loaded with chemical irritants.

No word that I can see on reports of injuries.

The Internal Security Minister is threatening to invoke the Internal Security Act as a last resort.

What is involved with this I have NO idea but hopefully Crankshaft and Ariel can fill us in.

AlJazeera is providing video coverage:



And the BBC has a great collection of pictures of the conflict.

No word yet on whether some sort of equivalent of the Montgomery Bus Boycott is in the works.

Obviously anything along the lines of a "March On Washington" isn't going to be terribly easy with the Malays insisting on initiating chemical warfare against the Indians ...

Crankshaft's Coverage:
Making All The Dumb Moves
Police Tear-Gas And Water Cannon Protestors
Washington Post On HINDRAF Rally

Ariel's Coverage:
Teary-eyed but Hopeful

Other Coverage:
Ethnic Indians go to the street in Malaysia, for the HINDRAF gathering - Colin Charles Agenda
Indian protest rocks Malaysia ahead of polls - ABC News
Hindu Protests in Malaysia - Friskodude


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Saturday, November 24, 2007

Star Trek's Gene Roddenberry on "To Tell The Truth!"



Hard to believe there was a time before he was recognizable ...

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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Autism Training For First Responders

I ran across a fascinating story today about a training session that went on Tuesday called "Autism and the First Responders" where a panel of parents of autistic children met with police, ambulance and fire crews, plus several private security firms to give them the straight skinny on how to handle it if they are faced with an autistic person in full-blown meltdown.

Seems that those unfamiliar with autism can perceive certain actions as threatening or violent when they are in fact a result of the disorder.

One of the panelists, James Mulvaney described it as, "Autism is a condition that sometimes looks like a crime - but a seizure is not an assault."

Participants were instructed to look for signs of autism such as flailing about, distant stares, rocking or speech with repetitive phrases.

They also were instructed that autistic children and adults might ignore verbal or visual commands. "You just want to step back and see what you have," explained Michael Capobianco, a Nassau police officer who has an 8-year-old son with autism. "Don't be the guy running over to save the world."

Of course there are certain people who obviously haven't been briefed on the fact that this is sound advise when dealing with ME.

An independent story about the panel seems to almost be saying that a wandering autistic child can be more stress-inducing than a terrorist attack.

If I understand him correctly, the author of this piece, James Mulvaney, has a 20-year-old autistic son named Dan who he's afraid might one day be mistaken for a criminal by mall security and that and attempt to detain him could turn bloody.

My Old Man, who I'm sure has a scorching case of Asperger's, I have held similar fears. One of these days they MAY have to go after him. The only problem is that, as it was described in one episode of The Incredible Hulk - you go charging in there like the first eight bars of "Tiger Rag" and he'll tear the place apart ...

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Malaysian Indian UK Lawsuit Ends Up on Yahoo "Odd" News

If you've been keeping up here at all, you know my two good, close, personal friends of Indian heritage in Malaysia are in the midst of a civil rights struggle with their majority Malay government not terribly dissimilar to the one between African-Americans and the majority Redneck governments of the American south in the 1950's and 1960's.

What I didn't know, however, was that this story constituted "Odd News", but, sure enough, I open up my overwhelming number of RSS feeds this morning and I find the Reuters story "Malaysian sues Britain over ethnic Indians' woes" filed under "Odd News".

The gist of the story is that there is a lawyer named Waytha Moorthy who is petitioning Queen Elizabeth II to appoint lawyers in the attempt to secure damages from England to the tune of $4 trillion for "colonial-era labour schemes" that brought the ancestors of the ethnic Indians to Malaysia in the first place.

Hmmmmm ... it will be interesting to see how far it goes, because it would of course leave open the possibility of the members of the African-American community suing England and Spain for dragging THEIR ancestors to North America and the Carribbean as outright chattel.

Of course the Malaysian Indians could also use an advocate parallel to Denmark Vesey who would not only advocate equal rights but also post huge screeds about the Illuminati and even being in AGREEMENT with DAVID DUKE ...

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

"Finding Amanda": Review

Well, the "Finding Amanda" segment on CNN last night was pretty fascinating.

If I understand it correctly, the producers originally wanted to do something along the lines of a one-hour show JUST about Amanada, but she was more comfortable being part of an ensemble of a group of others with autism-spectrum disorders.

That approach somewhat backfired I think because you really didn't get a chance to get a full picture of Amanda's lifestyle and motivation on some issues.

One area that really seemed to get battered due to editing was the scene where she was giving a presentation in Canada and got so frustrated with the audience for saying to her over and over again, "You're an exception," that she had to leave and go to the ladies' room and scream her head off for ten minutes. You never really got to see the exact circumstances that led to that particular overload/meltdown.

Speaking of sensory overload - they mentioned something about the conference that they didn't use microphones because the feedback from the speakers can drive autistics batty and, even more interesting, it was explained that at such conferences it's not considered rude if people get up and walk around because autistics sometimes have trouble staying seated for long periods.

Yep - I'd have to say The Old Man has this issue.

Mrs. Axinar says that *I* have this issue, and, yes, at times, I'd say she's correct.

Overall it was a quite fascinating segment.

I hope Amanda does sometime summon the strength to do the whole hour. There are many who don't have the wherewithal to do the deep internet research who might benefit from having a video record of the "full story".

Related
Transcript of Anderson Cooper 360 episode featuring "Finding Amanda"

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Monday, November 19, 2007

Amanda Baggs on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° Tonight At 10pm EST

Quite possibly one of the world's most vocal autism activists, Amanda Baggs (aka Ballastexistenz) is scheduled to be on CNN's
Anderson Cooper 360°
tonight at 10pm EST in a piece called Finding Amanda.

Amanda in many ways is hard to get a handle on conceptually.

She is non-verbal, but writes very well.

Very often when I'm trying to explain The Old Man to people I often find myself saying, "Well, it can certainly be MORE severe - have you ever seen In My Language?"

Every time of course I mention the name "Amanda Baggs", Mrs. Axinar starts humming the same tune from In My Language.

Amanda of course does have a detractor or two.

But, from everything I have read and many, many LENGTHY discussions I have had with her, she's autistic.

Big time.

And sometimes I swear I don't know whether or not to feel sorry for her or jealous of her.

Quite clearly she has severe, severe functional deficits in many, many areas, but, in exchange for that it sounds like she has people who come help her on a regular basis and she, mercifully, doesn't have to confine herself to a cubicle or any other structured work environment every day where she quite probably would have to put up with nearly endless foolishness that is generally quite difficult for anyone on the autism spectrum to understand.

It also sounds like she also has SO many tics that she wouldn't have some of the issues I've had lately with unwanted house guests because it's probably a pretty limited group of people that would want to hang out at her apartment anyway.

In any event, this promises to be quite a fascinating show on CNN tonight ...

Also:
Autism: Finding Amanda - Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN
"Finding Amanda" Review - Axinar
Transcript of Anderson Cooper 360 episode featuring "Finding Amanda"

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Sunday, November 18, 2007

At Last! IMPORT! (re: The Malaysian Racial Tension Situation)

After many, many years of übercyrptic pronoun-ridden dark poetry and occasional essays about some obscure potion called "Milo", Ariel Ravenstorm has, at long last, FINALLY posted about a subject of IMPORT.

Yes, despite, from what I understand, some very real and palpable risks to her person at the hands of her own government, she has posted about the demonstrations last weekend where protestors demanding fair elections were fired upon not only by fire hoses but fire hoses loaded with CHEMICALS.

Looks like the subject of this particular post is whether or not it would be a good idea for the Malaysian-Indian (btw - why is it "African-American" but "Malaysian-Indian"? Adjective after noun in Bahasa Melayu?) community to file a complaint with the British High Commission.

If I understand it correctly, Malaysia is a part of the British Commonwealth. Now, as my only personal experiences with the concept of a commonwealth involve the great nations of Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts (approximately in that order), I'm not entirely sure what sort of power the British might actually have in this matter. It's my understanding that Malaysia has its own king and a parliamentary form of government, thus theoretically leaving sovereignty of Malaysia in the hands of the Malaysian people, but, in practice, depositing it in the hands of a very small handful of - if I understand it correctly - a group ethnically identified as "Muslim Malays" that seem to have a distaste for ethnic Indians and Chinese living in Malaysia that makes the most rabid Klansman in the American south look like ME - and, well, The Dean.

However, as in some ways this conflict is starting to look quite like the American Civil Rights movement, I'm thinking there might be some comparison to be 1951 appeal by the Civil Rights Congress to the United Nations that the United States was practicing genocide against the African-American population. (It's going to be fun to see what Denmark Vesey has to say about THIS one.)

One particularly good paragraph reads:

We shall prove that the object of this genocide, as of all genocide, is the perpetuation of economic and political power by the few through the destruction of political protest by the many. Its method is to demoralize and divide and entire nation; its end is to increase the profits and unchallenged control by a reactionary clique. WE shall show that those responsible for this crime are not the humble but the so-called great, not the American people but their misleaders, not the convict but the robed judge, not the criminal but the police, not the spontaneous mob but organized terrorists licensed and approved by the state to incite a Roman holiday.

And, it would appear, according to the American Heritage Dictionary that a "Roman Holiday" is "A violent public spectacle or disturbance in which shame, degradation, or physical harm is intentionally inflicted on one person or group by another."

Yep ... and ... from what I've seen of it, I'd have to say that the events of last weekend in Malaysia qualified as a bonafide Roman holiday.

Ariel goes on, "My biggest grouse with the British has to be the mindset they created oday, that have given many factions the notion that the British are saviours. Today, I think the British themselves need saving but that's another discussion for another day."

Perhaps - but you do have to keep in mind that the proper goal of any decent civil rights movement is to declare one's right to be a person, to be a human being, to be given the rights of a human being on this earth, in this day, and to resolving oneself to bring this into existence by any means necessary ...

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Convergys Discriminating Against Conspiracist Linux Geeks?

Yesterday I picked up a piece from WKRC that Howard Ain had discovered several LEGITIMATE "work-at-home" companies.

Our favorite Conspiracy Nut took very little time to severly criticize, I presume, Convergys for requiring a Windows-based PC for their "Remote Agent" program.

ConspiracyNut goes on to inform us "i bet my nix box without any av and free iptables is more secure than the required crap they list in their FAQs."

What she is saying - I think - is that her Linux-based PC is more secure than a Windows-based box loaded to the brim with anti-virus and anti-malware software.

She may be right.

Although I'm guessing the discussion is somewhat academic.

There are many reasons that people use Linux, BSD, and OpenSolaris-based derivatives. They're cheap and you can make any modifications you want all the way down to the 'C' code. For those of you who have ever been brave enough to take on the Linux From Scratch project, open source operating systems are also really cool for - yes - building new operating systems - something that of course Microsoft would NEVER want you to do.

I'm pretty sure some of these reasons factor in to why Conspiracy Nut uses Linux, but, after MANY hours of intense instant message conversations with her (and can you imagine four-hour IM sessions with one window prattling on about the Federal Reserve and another with someone else prattling on about Milo and how they're going to kill themselves? - no wonder I'm going batty), I'm pretty sure one of the big reasons she uses it is because it doesn't "phone home" - or check in with it's originating servers like Windows does from time to time.

That being the case, even though it looks like Convergys does allow some of their employees to work from home, I'm guessing these employees are paid on a W2 basis. What this means is that, at some point or another, if Conspiracy Nut were hired by Convergys she would have to fork over her Social Security number and reports would be sent every two weeks from Convergys to THE GOVERNMENT about, specifically, how much Convergys paid her. As she certainly is freaked the f*ck out about Microsoft knowing, perhaps, that she watched Amanda Baggs' "In My Language" or something of the sort, I can't IMAGINE ConspiracyNut EVER consenting to work on a W2 basis.

For that matter, I can't imagine someone with her view of the world working on a 1099 or a "corp-to-corp" basis either. Those structures would require [[gasp]], the paying company to report her existence, the work she did, and the amount they paid her to THE GOVERNMENT so that the paying company can write her fees off on their taxes.

No ... to maintain intellectual honesty, I think ConspiracyNut is going to have to take up some sort of all-cash employment - running errands, selling drugs, etc. ... and I'm guessing she'll only take gold and silver coin in payment because I'm sure you DO know her feelings about the US Dollar ... :)

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Howard Ain Claims To Have Discovered LEGITIMATE Work-At-Home Opportunities

In a reasonably stunning development, Local 12's "troubleshooter", Howard Ain, claims to have discovered several LEGITIMATE "Work-From-Home" offers. (Video coverage here.)

Now, for any of you who have been in the market for work in the last 20 years or so, generally speaking, no matter what that work might be, if it is in a cubicle/computer/phone type of environment, there is basically one, and only one consistent requirement.

That you be there.

Every day.

At the same time.

Or they will accuse you of being unprofessional, disrespectful, and otherwise a complete loser.

Now, some of us are lucky enough to have a talent that allows an outside client base and flexible hours like Renegade Evolution, but, for others of us with a sprinkling of Asperger's who would just as soon not EVER have to deal with anyone in an office environment, Howard Ain actually seems to have discovered some alternatives.

One, a Jim Mullaney of Edoc Marketing, who claims to have 54 home-based employees working 10 to 20 hours / week booking business-to-business appointments.

Mr. Mullaney claims 70% growth over last year.

Three at-home employees of Edoc interviewed all have children at home. One has a neuro-muscular disorder.

No word on if anyone working for Edoc or other at-home employers simply can't handle being accosted in the cubicle every 90 seconds.

For those interested in legitimate at-home opportunties, Howard Ain suggests checking out the following sites:

Edoc Marketing

Working Solutions

LiveOps

Convergys Remote Agent

Alpine Access

If any of you have had any personal experiences with these or similar companies, please drop me a note at axinar@gmail.com.

One of The Old Man's fondest wishes was that he would have been able to make a living without "the damn fool commuting" and I'd love to know if any of you have actually managed to pull this off ...

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Kim Kardashian on MSNBC's "Entertainment Buzz"

Buzz: Centerfold revealedSeth Goldman from MSNBC's "Entertainment Buzz" caught up with Kim Kardashian to ask her questions about her Playboy centerfold and about Britney Spears' crush on her.

Kim Kardashian explained that she did the Playboy shoot to show that someone who's not "stick-skinny" can still do the magazine and that "you can have a healthy body image and still be a model".

You got that right.

I'd have to say, judging by some of the hubbub that some of the bloggers are talking about with the MASSIVE amounts of traffic being generated by the Kim Kardashian coverage, I'd have to say that America is tired of all these anorexia victims trying to sell clothes and cars and that we're ready to see some babes of "substance" - preferably wearing as little clothing as possible as often as possible. :)

Kim Kardashian claims to "not be a drinker".

Hmmm ... I wonder about that.

Kim Kardashian said she had heard that Britney Spears wants to have sex with her and Kim says, "I guess it's flattering. Britney is amazing. She's a very sweet girl and I have nothing but love for the girl - I'm flattered. I like the boys, but I'm flattered."

Uh huh.

Although ... I'm guessing a sex tape featuring Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian would outsell ever book, record, VHS tape and DVD ever released in the history of the human species ... :)

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Your Microwave CAN KILL YOU (According To Denmark Vesey)



Sometimes I really wonder where they come up with this stuff ...

Denmark Vesey is running this rant about how bad microwave cooked food is for you.

Some of it may be valid. Of course it makes sense that you probably wouldn't want to heat baby bottles in the microwave because, let's face it, the stuff that comes out of there tends to burn with a passion if you don't give it enough time to cool off.

But then he goes on with, "Microwave energy from the sun and other stars is direct current based. Artificially produced microwaves, including those in ovens, are produced from alternating current and force a billion or more polarity reversals per second in every food molecule they hit."

How in GOD'S name can there be such rampant scientific ignorance in the world?

Yes, microwaves DO alternate a couple of billion times a second WHETHER THEY COME FROM A MICROWAVE OVEN OR THE SUN. The microwaves used in a typical household oven are in the 2 gigahertz range. That's two billion cycles a second, folks.

The other type of heating is called "blackbody" radiation. Basically, either you heat up a metal element with straight 60 Hz A.C. or you set fire to natural gas or propane and you create blackbody radiation heavily spiking in the infrared range. It heats the air in the oven and then the air heats the food.

Microwaves are different - they're almost like lasers - you put almost all your energy into a very narrow band of frequencies that take advantage of an electrical peculiarity of the water molecule and - ZAP - your food heats up much faster.

The only problem is that immediately after you "nuke" something in the microwave, those little water molecules are nicely transmitting radiation at the same frequency they were hit with and that frequency is nowhere near as efficient at heating dry skin as it is moist mouth and throat linings so, yep - if you eat something too soon after you take it out of the microwave, it may feel much "cooler" to your hands than to the inside of your mouth and, yes, you can burn the f*ck out of yourself.

Do you have to take more caution with a microwave than a convention oven?

Yep.

Is the microwave somehow possessed by the devil because it's a "new" invention?

Somehow I doubt it ...

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Monday, November 12, 2007

MIT Releases Multics Source Code

For all you major Open Source geeks, it looks like MIT has released the source code of Multics.

For those of you who have never heard of Multics, it was the antecedent for the original UNIX and is also all other modern operating systems.

This is some pretty scary source code - all assembly language apparently.

There are copyright notices as late as 1987 in some of this code and apparently there were operating Multics systems clear up until 2000!

Far out ...

Cincinnati Blog Needs Guest Writers!

Brian Griffin has a post up that he is in need of guest bloggers.

In case you have been in a cave for the last several years, the Cincinnati Blog is one of the most deft executions of cybersquatting ever carried out in the history of mankind.

Now, it is a fairly professionally done site. It covers almost exclusively Cincinnati-related issues and was, at one time anyway, THE only blog allowed to be viewed at Cincinnati City Hall under the orders of then-Mayor Charlie Luken.

Ala the Dean's pleadings of many years ago, of course The Axinar would be a potential candidate for such an endeavor - however at this point I'm bored out of my mind with Cincinnati politics and there's probably no way on God's green Earth that Brian, if he has a lick of sense, would let someone as tasteless as ME take over such a well-established and reputable Cincinnati institution.

SOOOOOOOOO ... any of you all out there in the Cincinnati area want to take on this challenge?

Or shall y'all really get a new view of yourselves by turning it over to the Malaysian Contingent ... :)

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Dave Chappelle Performs In London



BTW ... Mrs. Axinar used to sell cigars to Dave Chappelle ...

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Kim Kardashian Spotted Without Makeup


The DEERTY Truth snagged a quite fascinating collection of snaps of Kim Kardashian being accosted at LAX by paparazzi sans makeup.

Apparently a fan asked her to sign a copy of the Playboy issue where she is on the cover and she signed it right over the part of the cover featuring her tuchas.

However, interestingly enough, a second picture reveals just how difficult it is to make any sort of judgement as to whether or not Kim has, in fact, had any surgical derriere re-engineering because, quite frankly, from this angle, it simply doesn't look like heiney we have all grown to know and love ...

Looking For?



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K-Meleon: The Übergeek Find Of The Day

The last few weeks I have been off on this tear trying to get up to speed on the current offerings in the Linux and BSD arenas to see if I can find a computer configuration that, quite honestly, my mother can't break.

So far I haven't been having much luck on the original quest, but what I did stumble across was the fact that the Firefox web browser is based upon a "rendering engine" called Gecko and that there are a handful of other browsers that also used this engine.

One that caught my attention from the description is called K-Meleon - talk about a name that doesn't trip off the tongue. What I read about it is that they wrote it to interface directly with the Windows API instead of going through a middle layer like Firefox does. This, theoretically, should make it noticeably faster than Firefox.

And, oh yes, K-Meleon, so far as I have observed, is WAY faster than Firefox.

Now, keep in mind, a different browser is not going to make your INTERNET connection any faster. What a different browser CAN do, however, is increase the speed at which a web page is RENDERED - tranlated from raw HTML, JavaScript, AJAX, etc., into a viewable web page. And, believe you me, with so many pages as hopelessly bloated as Axinar's out there, rendering speed can be quite important.

Now, what the pages LOOK like are pretty similar to Firefox, because Firefox and K-Meleon use the same rendering engine of course.

K-Meleon doesn't have "tabs" - it has "layers", and, near as I can tell, it defaults to open new links in a whole new process rather than a new "layer", which is cool so that you can Alt-Tab through your open browser window by default.

Ach ... they forgot to put in a button so you can close an open layer!

No - I take that back - it's up toward the upper right. Very strange.

This thing DEFINITELY has some potential though. I highly encourage you other übergeeks to check it out when you get the chance ...

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Jack-Booted Thuggery In Malaysia


I knew something was starting to get out of hand in Malaysia as maybe a year ago my one friend, who once lectured me for half an hour about how beautiful Malaysia was started to tell me that, for all intents and purposes, the current government was spitting on Malaysia's flag.

Things apparently have started to get COMPLETELY out of control as the Malaysian government one-upped the dogs and fire hoses of our own Civil Rights movement by firing CHEMICALS at a crowd of peaceful protestors.

After hearing about some of the stuff going on over there, I've often commented to my Malaysian friends that we invaded the wrong country when we went into Iraq and that Malaysia is in far more need of liberation and now I'm sure of it.

The group that was fired upon is called BERISH BERSIH and they wrote a letter ...

Crankshaft! You forgot to translate it for heaven's sake!!! :)

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Thursday, November 8, 2007

Harlan Ellison -- Pay the Writer


EXCELLENT!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

AT&T Whistle-Blower Hits D.C. To Stop Telecom Spying Immunity: The Conspiracist Report For Today

Today's contribution from our favorite Conspiracy Nut is a Wired Blog Network story about a former AT&T technician turned whistleblower who is asking lawmakers to hold up a lawsuit against his former employer for wiretapping the Internet without a warrant.

Yep, those lovely folks, who, interestingly enough, do run a wireless network where you CAN run such lovely software as Opera Mini 4, apparently ran HUGE diversion pipes from their backbone services in order to allow the government to get ALL up in your business (and, more importantly, the Conspiracy Nut's business) apparently without a warrant.

No doubt at this very moment someone at the NSA is taking great delight in reading Axinar's, not by surfing directly to it like anyone else would, but probably by torturing himself reading the raw 7-bit data streaming from Cincinnati to Google ...

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Government Wants You To Dispose Of Your Old Drugs In Feces

So what do you do if you have some yummy amphetamines or xannie bars that have expired?

Well, the most reasonable idea would ordinarily be to flush your leftover pharmaceuticals, but apparently environmentalists are concerned that old drugs in the sewage system might harm fish and amphibians.

So - get this - this outfit called the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is suggesting that you mix your leftover medications with pet excrement before disposing of it.

Yeah.

Right.

Have you EVER known a serious addict to be deterred by a little doggie do?

Besides, if you think fish and amphibians might be harmed by drugs in the sewer system, just what the hell do you think is going to happen to the BIRDS that hang out at Mt. Rumpke?

I mean - can you imagine a 20 oz. seagull hopped up on even ONE 10mg Adderall? The poor little S.O.B. would probably flap his way all the way to Tranquility Base before sending a VERY strongly worded letter to this Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration about the killer headache they caused him by telling the humans to put all that dope in the landfill in the first place.

SAMHSA said that ferret poop is particularly good for disposing of expired drugs. This news apparently delighted the American Ferret Association.

Yep ... think this "War On Drugs" is starting to make people dippy ... and not from the drugs ...

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Kim Kardashian @ Her Playboy Magazine Cover Party (via The Bastardly)


Man, he just knows how to sum these things up, doesn't he? :)

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Opera Mini 4 Released!

In the übergeek news of the day, Opera Mini 4 has been released.

Opera Mini is quite honestly one of the neatest mobile applications out there. If you have J2ME on your mobile phone, Opera Mini is a quick, FREE download just by going to http://mini.opera.com/ with your phone's built-in browser.

This new version attempts to emulate something that the iPhone does - instead of crunching up the web site you are trying to view immediately ala Skweezer or something of the sort, what Opera Mini 4 tries to do is first give you a "thumbnail" view of the entire web page first, then, when you click on something on the page it "zooms in" so you can read the text or take a closer look at the pictures.

In fact, to take a look at how Opera Mini might look on your mobile phone, you can check out the Opera Mini Demo.

It does seem to work on a great many older phones, up to and including my Nokia 6682. I've also been able to install it on Nokia N75 demo units at the AT&T stores. Where it seems to have some issues is on the Treos - there's some hideously long install process you have to go through just to get Java downloaded on those.

It does seem to have some issues with the more dynamic web sites, but for news sites and most blogs, Opera Mini does a really fantastic job ...

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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Kim Kardashian "Before" Pictures Discovered!

HubPages has unearthed an early picture of Kim Kardashian that seriously puts into doubt Kim's insistence that she hasn't had any plastic surgery.

The picture is pretty grainy, but most suspect are the nose and the chest.

Hope Alexander, author of the HubPages commentary, also mentions that there may have even been some recrafting of Kim Kardashian's eyes, but this is VERY difficult to tell as my guess the "before" picture was taken in bright sunlight and she's squinting.

Also somewhat difficult to tell from this particular picture is if there has been any re-engineering of Kim Kardashian's tuchas.

And, somewhat surprising - the lips do look like they could be natural.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else can dig up any snaps from - how shall we put this? - other angles to attempt to verify the extent of Kim Kardashian's body modifications ...

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Saturday, November 3, 2007

Some Evidence Tossed Out In Lisa Nowak Case

Looks like a good amount of the evidence in the Lisa Nowak case is being thrown out.

Because the police coerced her after she had not slept for at least 24 hours, comments she made while talking to police will not be admissable as evidence and neither will the contents of her BMW, including maps to Colleen Shipman's house, garbage bags, latex gloves, and soiled diapers.

Oh, drat ... and I was so looking forward to getting a rational explanation on what the dirty diapers were doing in the car.

However, the contents of the duffel bag Lisa Nowak was carrying - a ballpeen hammer, buck knife, BB gun resembling a real 9mm pistol, gloves and six feet of rubber tubing will remain in the case and will probably get her put away SOMEWHERE for a good, long while.

Lisa Nowak has been charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault. She currently has in a plea of not guilty, although her attorney has filed papers indicating an intent to change the plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

For those of you who missed this one for whatever reason, back in February then-space shuttle astronaut Lisa Nowak embarked upon a hazardous journey from Texas to Florida to confront Colleen Shipman, girlfriend of Bill Oefelein, with whom Lisa Nowak seemed to have develop a pretty nasty obsession, reminiscent in some ways of course to this whole Laketa Cole / Whitney Fields / Cornelius Scroggins flap going on here in Cincinnati.

Yep ... looks like serial dating is taking on a whole new dimension these days ...

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Friday, November 2, 2007

Britney Spears Lusts After Kim Kardashian


First Denmark Vesey posts a considerable rant about how bisexuality has become "chic" amongst teenaged girls and now the UK's Sun has learned that Britney Spears started running her mouth during a tell-all game that she has the hots for Kim Kardashian.

Oh dear.

Now that's a visual.

For one thing I'd certainly hope Kim Kardashian would have better taste.

On the other hand, somehow I'm thinking such a hook-up - tastefully captured on film - just MIGHT be quite popular ... :)

Also on this topic:
Britney Loves Kim Kardashian - House of Chatter




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Thursday, November 1, 2007

"Keeping Up With Kim Kardashian And Her Nudity"

There's a great piece running on iF Magazine called This is Not News: KEEPING UP WITH KIM KARDASHIAN AND HER NUDITY, HEATHER MILLS SPEAKS, LONGEST WRITERS STRIKE IN HISTORY.

Of course many of my loyal - albeit misguided - readers have been griping precipitously lately about the topics of this blog drifting rather seriously from matters of IMPORT, most notably the Malaysian contingent and particularly the Conspiracy Nut crowd.

But this iF Magazine article sums it up pretty well - "The amount of garbage being spewed out in the media that shouldn’t even be considered news is at a fever pitch. Unfortunately, the American public seems to eat it up with a spoon, forgetting where our journalistic priorities should be, instead, focusing on stories about Britney’s crotch, Hasselhoff’s hamburger or Lindsay’s rehab instead of things that actually might mean something in the world such as the housing and credit crunch or trouble in the Middle East."

And, of course locally to this we should add our labor strife issues.

But, nope ... people aren't interested in matters of IMPORT any more.

And just to cover my bases with you-know-who they're not so much interested in dark poetry any more either.

Nope -- they want skin and scandal.

>LOTS of it.

But, yes, with so many other lovely young ladies dropping trou I do find myself wondering why there has been such a feverish interest in THIS particular attention ho ...

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