The global test is no longer number one on Google! It’s been demoted to numero dos.

C’mon, blogosphere. Are you going to let some cheesy marketing firm get away with that? Open up your hearts, and links.

The Donner family didn’t resort to cannibalism:

No cooked human bones were found among the thousands of fragments of animal bones at that Alder Creek site, suggesting Donner family members did not resort to cannibalism, the archaeologists said at a conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology in Sacramento, Calif.

“The Donner family ended up getting the stigma basically because of the name,” said Julie Schablitsky, one of the lead authors. “But of all the people, they were probably the least deserving of it.”

Patricia has been trying to keep the guest bedroom cat-free, in deference to potential allergenic guests. But occasionally she forgets, and Jessica, for whatever perverse feline reason, has decided that it’s her favorite room (in fact, her very own room, which we unjustly keep her out of), and lives for the times that the door gets left open.

She’s not thrilled to be caught in the act, but on the other hand, she can’t be bothered to show much deference to our recognition of her insubordination. She’s too mellow and relaxed, and she is, after all, a cat.

Patricia has been trying to keep the guest bedroom cat-free, in deference to potential allergenic guests. But occasionally she forgets, and Jessica, for whatever perverse feline reason, has decided that it’s her favorite room (in fact, her very own room, which we unjustly keep her out of), and lives for the times that the door gets left open.

She’s not thrilled to be caught in the act, but on the other hand, she can’t be bothered to show much deference to our recognition of her insubordination. She’s too mellow and relaxed, and she is, after all, a cat.

Patricia has been trying to keep the guest bedroom cat-free, in deference to potential allergenic guests. But occasionally she forgets, and Jessica, for whatever perverse feline reason, has decided that it’s her favorite room (in fact, her very own room, which we unjustly keep her out of), and lives for the times that the door gets left open.

She’s not thrilled to be caught in the act, but on the other hand, she can’t be bothered to show much deference to our recognition of her insubordination. She’s too mellow and relaxed, and she is, after all, a cat.

…last night watching that weird bowl game. You know, they have the cliche about “no one deserved to lose,” but I think that in that game, both teams deserved to lose. They certainly both tried hard enough to do so. It was like watching Michigan play itself.

There remains a lot of bad blood between the Wolverines and Cornhuskers, after many felt that Michigan should have had a sole national title in 1997, after Nebraska’s “soccer play” in the end zone that should have cost them the game against Missouri, and a sense that the co-championship was a retirement gift to their coach.

Well, tonight, the issue as to who’s the best will definitely be resolved, at least this year, though of course it will tell us nothing about what would have happened in a matchup between the 1997 teams.

[Update after the game]

Geez…

Did they just beat the record for the number of laterals in a single play? As my (semi(?)-lapsed Catholic) sister-in-law said, “That wasn’t just a Hail Mary–it was the whole damn rosary.”

…all my Christian readers, that is. The rest of you can go suck eggs. Or enjoy the holiday anyway, as I will. And my very best wishes are reserved for those in “the sandbox,” trying to help make a better Middle East, at the potential cost of their lives and limbs, and at the definite cost of a holiday at home with their families.

And to all a good night.

[Note: this message will be on top for a while, so don’t let that stop you from scrolling down to look for any potential new content. On the other hand, there probably won’t be a lot under the circumstances…]

[Update a few minutes later]

All right, happy Channukah to my Jewish readers as well, though we all know that it’s a pretty minor holiday as Jewish holidays go, and none of us goyim would pay any attention at all if it hadn’t been set up as an alternative to Christmas so the Jewish kids wouldn’t feel left out.

And as for Kwanza…please. Well, OK. If I have any readers who actually celebrate it, have a good one.

And to heck with you Festivus people. Get a non-nihilistic religion.

Any HD geeks out there?

I’m looking at this television, which is on sale at Costco for less than a grand.

It looks good, but I found this one review that’s giving me a little heartburn, because we have DirecTV, and planned to upgrade to a triple LNB dish and new HD TIVO receiver.

It is an excellent set for HD OTA and regular definition satellite receiver. But I recently upgraded to an HD receiver for DirecTV and found out it doesn’t have the capability to keep up with the HD satellite receiver. There is a phenomena called macroblocking that occurs since the digital picture cannot be translated properly. Defined – it is an awful picture on the 480i channels, which means about 95 of my programs looked awful.

I searched all over the web, and couldn’t find any other reference to this problem. Is it a real one, or is this an isolated problem for this one reviewer, either because (s)he didn’t understand how to set it up, or there was something defective about that unit?

From Iran.