Not.
A mother has been charged with trying to poison her adult daughter and her daughter’s family after allegedly pouring bleach into their macaroni and cheese on Saturday night.
Brave People
Debunking Mao, in Berkeley:
The husband-and-wife team of Chang and Halliday supported their archival research with interviews with 150 former Mao lieutenants, concluding that Mao was not only bloodier than Hitler or Stalin but worse in his destruction of culture.
The unrepentent commies and Maoists who (sadly) still infest the place are, needless to say, upset.
A Fungus Amongus
Anybody know what this thing is? I saw it in the back yard while fertilizing the ixora.
It’s hollow, and those are holes in it, like a whiffle ball. I thought that it was some kind of toy at first.
[Update]
At Michael Mealing’s suggestion in comments, I did a search on “stinkhorn,” and it does indeed resemble this. There wasn’t any noticeable stink to it, though (I got right down on it to smell it). Then again, I don’t have the most sensitive schnoz in the world.
[Another update]
Yes, it does look exactly like a clathrus crispus. It makes geographical sense, too, since the climate on the Virgin Islands is not dissimilar to that of south Florida. And this site says that it’s common in the Caribbean and Florida.
Another Microsoft Problem
This is pretty funny:
Windows Cluster Server?
Aw, it’s not for you. It’s more of a Shelbyville idea.
Happy Eightieth Birthday
To the Grand Ol’ Opry.
Why Hollywood Continues To Lose Money
Mark Steyn explains that it’s political correctness:
…I stopped to buy the third boxed set in the ”Looney Tunes Golden Collection.” Loved the first two: Daffy, Bugs, Porky, beautifully restored, tons of special features. But, for some reason, this new set begins with a special announcement by Whoopi Goldberg explaining what it is we’re not meant to find funny: ”Unfortunately at that time racial and ethnic differences were caricatured in ways that may have embarrassed and even hurt people of color, women and ethnic groups,” she tells us sternly. ”These jokes were wrong then and they’re wrong today” — unlike, say, Whoopi Goldberg’s most memorable joke of recent years, the one at that 2004 all-star Democratic Party gala in New York where she compared President Bush to her, um, private parts. There’s a gag for the ages…
…”Stealth” was a high-tech action thriller about USAF pilots zapping about the skies in which the bad guy is the plane.
That’s right: An unmanned computer-flown plane goes rogue and starts attacking things. The money shot is — stop me if this rings a vague bell — a big downtown skyscraper with a jet heading toward it. Only there are no terrorists aboard the jet. The jet itself is the terrorist.
This is the pitiful state Hollywood’s been reduced to. Safer not to have any bad guys. Let’s make the plane the bad guy. No wonder it’s 20th century Britlit — ”Harry Potter,” ”Lord of the Rings,” ”Narnia” — keeping those Monday morning numbers up. It’s Hollywood’s yarn-spinning that’s really out of focus, and in the end even home entertainment revenue won’t save a storytelling business that no longer knows how to tell any.
Life Imitates…Advertising
Ronald McDonald was nabbed stealing from Wendy’s. No, really.
Well, now we know the identity of the Hamburgler. I guess.
[Update]
And of course, the inevitable related thread at Free Republic, in which he is righteously mocked:
Nothing like swift justice to deal with these clowns…
Good News On The Infection Front
Carl Zimmer writes about the discovery of powerful new antibiotics from frogs. The best thing about them is that they may be impervious to the development of resistance on the part of bacteria.
Science At Work
How hard is it to shoot off a lock? A lot harder than it looks in the movies.
[via Geek Press]
The Truth Is Out There
I haven’t written anything about the former Canadian defense minister’s recent descent into (literally) loonytunes madness, but Thomas James has a good roundup.