Son of a Pig Farmer

Woman crashes into power station, killed by bees:

David Pescovitz: A woman in Johannesburg, South Africa smashed her car into an electricity substation that was home to a massive bee hive. She was killed. Her husband was injured. From Reuters:

(The hive) was 10 years old and had in excess of a million bees and they just went wild,” said Paul Nel, spokesman for Netcare 911, a private paramedic and ambulance service…

“The people managed to stumble out of the car but they were just overcome by bees,” he said.

Link

Technorati Tags: bees, death

I’ve tried muddling through all of the Megan’s Law websites, and I think I can say with some authority that there are no good (free) sites that make finding your local perverts really easy. They are all pretty clunky and confusing. Thanks to pervwatch.org, you can simply type in an address or ZIP and watch Google paint you up a pretty picture chock full of links that provide details such as what they look like, where they live, and what they did (generally). Additionally, you can subscribe to an XML feed, so you are notified when new pervs are added to your area.

A couple of things of note on TV tonight…

• The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XVI: The end, Lenny pokes fun at the Simpsons by pointing out the fact that they use Koreans to help animate the show. (Ted will expand on this for me)
• The Family Guy: Opening scene was a Naked Gunesque intro with Osama Bin Laden totally hamming it up blooper-style during the taping of a propaganda video. Stewie kicks everyone’s ass (Indiana Jones-style), then rides off on a big wheel. It changes to first-person-top-of-the-car view with a bunch of crazy scene transitions (e.g. Streets, Gay Pride Parade, Wizard of Ozx, Greece, The Shininge, Doom, Empire Strikes Back, Sound of Music and the Simpsons).
• The Family Guy: Peter complains that he missed the emmies and therefore a piece of history. Stewie then interjects and says, now you know how George W Bush felt when he showed up for the Vietnam War. (Cut to Montage). Dubya walks in and says, “Alright, let’s go kick some ass!” The dude at the desk informs him that it’s 1981 and the war’s over but says he has some blow. Dubya said, “Well, why didn’t you say so??!!” Classic.
• The Family Guy: The FCC starts over-regulating. Peter says, “Why are they censoring all this stuff? They allow Sarah Jessica Parker to be seen on TV and she looks like a foot!”
• The Family Guy: They have a song montage that completely rips the FCC. The FCC then starts to censor real life.

Man. That’s classic. Thank FOX for bringing back the best show ever! Now if you can unfuck your News division, you might have something.

Alright, I thought that that would get your attention. The New York Times reported today that the Bush administration had a pretty good idea that the guy saying that there was an Iraq/al Qaeda connection was full of shit. In case you’ve lost track, that was one of the most cited justifications for the invasion. Today, the Armed Services Committed declassified intelligence that said:

It is possible he does not know any further details; it is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers

Go figure. A captured al Qaeda operative was telling you what you wanted to hear. Man these G-Men are a quite the rocket scientists. I wonder if Bush will ever apologize to the 2046 families that are missing loved ones. Ass.

Congrats! You made it another year! Please note that I remembered it on my own. Here are some good things to say about Rich.

PS: I found this image on Yahoo! Image Search. Stick that in your Google pipe and smoke it.

Flickr finally did it. Not only can you order mail order prints, but you can pick up your prints in an hour (give or take). Also, you can make affordable photobooks, archive DVDs, and postage stamps! Lots of different options! I tested the functionality when I was working on Yahoo! Photos a couple of months ago, and it turned out really nice! The only problem I saw with the Target printing was the limited number of stores that you could choose from. I hear that they will be rolling more and more stores out in the near future. Now, I just need to organize my photos better, so I can order a sleek photobook from qoop.

Bam!

In Gene’s latest post, Dope Indie Music Sites he posits that small editorial-driven sites have an edge against larger algorhythm-driven sites like YME. I think on its face, he makes a solid point, but then I began thinking about it a little differently. After some back and forth in the comment section, I posted this…

With aurgasm, it seems like the signal to noise ratio would be quite low. In other words, there is more crap that you have to sift and fish through before you find a few nuggets of goodness. The advantages to services like YME (and come to think of it satellite radio) is that they bubble up stuff that is (according to predefined criteria) “good”. The recommendation engines might not be perfect, but they’re good enough for broad strokes, I suppose. Additionally, I think that the old “hit” model of the mainstream music industry made sense in the days of spectrum scarcity. If we think of spectrum and CDs as physical artifacts from an antiquated age of scarcity, perhaps the unlimited delivery mechanisms of satellite radio, electronic music services and MP3 players can propel us into an age of abundance. In this age of abundance, users will have way too many choices; then and only then will the crap fall by the wayside and the cream rise to the top. The new scarcity is attention span. In this (I’ll admit idealistic) world, no one is going to even suggest to me that Britney Spears is good. In fact, no large draconian for-profit entity would have to push anything. In this world I speak of, I will discover The Eels, because Tom rated them highly, not because their record label promoted the hell out of. Quality, thoughtfulness, creativity, social context and goodness will drive listening trends, not promotion and profits. In fact, now that I think of it, these large “for-profit” services only really care if subscribe to the service, but couldn’t give a shit if you listen to 300 hours of Britney Spears or 2 hours of The Shins. You might consider subscription-based services a potential savior of music. The equalizer. I dunno, whackier things have happened. To get to your point, yes, I hope that they would pay smaller artists well.

In fact, now that I think about it, there are certainly faults with editorial-driven sites. Firstly, they can be influenced. Secondly, how certain can you be that their tastes match your own? That’s where leveraging larger social networks can prove to be a better way to predict tendencies and relevance. It’s analogous to My Web 2.0 fortifying the search experience by adding your friends’ sites to the algorhythmic results that you would normally get.

Do the California propositions make your head spin? I personally don’t have the time to go through every proposition, figure out who the major interests are, look through the spin and misdirection and determine what is best for me and my family.

Peter Stahl is a friend of mine; we both worked together at AOL. On his site, Pete Rates The Propositions, he goes through ballot initiatives and propositions and gives articulate descriptions and recommendations of each one. Furthermore, he actually enjoys it– he’s been doing it since 1980. He’s one smart cat.

Peter is very good at illustrating the issues, interested parties, motivations and expected consequences for the proposed legislation. Additionally, he doesn’t get paid to do this, so it appears that he truly has the People of California in his best interest.

Now, of course like anything else, I’m not saying vote exactly as Peter suggests, but just read his work and make up your own mind. He encourages discourse and would appreciate any feedback you have for him.

Anyway, I think it will make voting easier for me this year, and I thought you might appreciate it.

Technorati Tags: ballot, california, election, impartial, nonpartisan, peterates, politics, voting guide

Tom, you asked for it.

Tom’s thrown down the gauntlet and has called me out. While you’re on the subject…

People Who Should Start Blogging:

• Matt
• Ruth (Matt’s Mom in Uganda)

People Who Should Blog More:

• Braddles (also turn comments on)
• Bryce (also turn comments on)
• Mamazilla
• Linc