Nobody, I repeat nobody, has the right to be this good with an Etch-a-Sketch.

To everyone who needs to hear it, whether or not they knew they did:

I love you.

That is all.

The userpic on this entry is the Inferno Barge from Epcot's evening sky show, IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. For those of you familiar with the show, no explanation is necessary. For those who aren't, the Barge is several hundred tons of firework mortars and propane flame jets, with an engine and a couple of propellers to get it to and from its spot in the World Showcase Lagoon. In any case, it's one of the centerpieces of my all-time favorite sky show.

I recently learned that some cast members -- either pyro technicians or Imagineers -- once installed a movie camera inside the Barge to record the first segment of the show from a very unique perspective. And, of course, the video is on YouTube.

(For full effect, if you don't know the show, go find it on YouTube before watching this, or stimulate the economy and make a research trip to Epcot.)

( Behind a cut, to be nice )

For every product recall that makes the regional or national news, there are at least 3 or 4 that don't. Even when they do, some folks out there prefer the news-ticker approach to their media sources -- just summarize the headlines and leave the decision of which stories to read to the reader.

To get that news ticker for your recalls, the FDA and CPSC have RSS feeds available. Plug the following URLs into your favorite aggregator and go!

FDA: http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/rssRecalls.xml
CPSC: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.xml

CPSC also has separate feeds for specific product categories, a list of which can be found at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html.

And that's just for starters...the feds have done a decent job of embracing RSS as a medium for getting the word out. A more comprehensive library of available feeds can be found at http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/RSS_Library.shtml. This should be fairly up-to-date, as the feds are pretty good about managing public information. (The problems come in when information that shouldn't be public becomes so...)

For anyone who is on certain classes of medication -- birth control, thyroid, or hormone replacement -- and is either on generics or may be switched from name-brand to generic, please chase this link.

Courtesy of Aegisub, as seen on Slashdot...

( Go for it! )

The impressive thing about this list is that it's pretty darn even-handed all around. Some of the author's knowledge isn't likely to be more than IRAWP (I Read A Web Page) or ITTAF (I Talked To A Friend)...but would that all people presenting knowledge from such limited sources would care this much.

And bonus points to the guy for working in Pastafarianism.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Time to account for myself.

( The envelope, please... )

(Meme from brock_tn...)

1. Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.
2. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.
3. Include these instructions, and share the love.


more animals

(Hoping to start a meme along with juliaki...)

Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

Other thoughts on the subject...

The primary reason for any sort of controls on marriage, and indeed the whole "institution" itself, is about keeping track of who's making babies with whom. This has its benefits, particularly when it comes to insuring genetic diversity. However, this also means that when it comes down to it, it's a sanctioning of sex. Therefore, the subtext of the anti-gay marriage movement is that they don't want to sanction homosexual sex. But none of them are going to come out and say that, since it would require the use of that dirty S word.

The institution of marriage also hurts heterosexual couples in some ways. Just as homosexual couples cannot (in most states, and most nations) enjoy the rights granted to married heterosexuals, so heterosexuals have no way of enjoying these rights without getting married. For some individuals, particularly widow(er)s and divorcé(e)s in their later years, remarriage in order to gain the protections thereof can open a lot of other cans of worms, particularly in the area of inheritance law and the disposition of their estates once they die. My mother falls into this category -- she is single and in her mid-60's, and though she is quite attached to her current beau, marrying him would introduce some complications that I'm not sure she would want to deal with. Yet though he is closest to her both in geographic proximity and emotionally, he would have no right to carry out any sort of medical decisions on her behalf -- that would fall on me, or my brother, or one of her siblings, none of whom live closer than 750 miles away. And there's nothing she can do about it without marrying the guy.

Thank you, Mercury Retrograde.

I just put my cell phone through the wash.

Fortunately I still have the work-issued one, and there's a new one on order, but there's got to be a better way for the gods to tell me that I shouldn't be trying to get all the laundry done tonight...right?

(Disclaimer: I work for a federal executive branch agency, so I have to be a little careful about what I say during this campaign season and how I say it. But since the following snark is about a political appointee who'll be out of a job come January, it's probably pretty safe...)

Is it just me, or is watching Hank Paulson on TV trying to justify his economic bailout plan entirely too reminiscent of Ed Harris in Apollo 13 yelling, "You have to make this fit into that using these!"?

From the series-of-tubes department...

One of my job duties is monitoring the web/FTP site where atmospheric modeling data is made available for download for use by meteorologists all over the world. We don't run it, but if something funky happens to it, we need to help figure out what the problem is.

So today we got an email from a user in France complaining that starting last Friday, their download speed had slowed to a crawl, particularly for the 0600UTC datasets (which are made available at about 0700UTC, or 3 AM EDT). Since they saw no problem with their ISP, they laid the blame on the US saturating the trans-Atlantic Internet links -- specifically folks going to European websites which are streaming Olympic coverage live, in the absence of desired coverage by NBC. We looked at our end of the connection and came to the same conclusion.

ABC knew how to do the Olympics right, and I'm not just saying that as a Disney-phile...if their production values were in play here, we'd be less likely to be having these problems.

We hadn't intended on getting a kitten. When we decided late last week that it was time to start the process of looking for a new third cat, we were thinking more on the lines of 6-18 months old. Someone young enough to be around for a while, but past the stages of life that may cause consternation for the other two.

The best-laid plans, and all that...on the second day of searching, we walked past one cage that held a little guy that immediately perked up and started meowing when we approached. When he started protesting that we were walking past his cage to go pick up cat litter, we had one of the big signs that we'd been looking for. A few minutes of cuddling with him in the waiting room sealed the deal for us. He certainly settled in well within seconds of getting home with us.

The inheritor of the position of oldest cat, though, wasn't too sure about things. She doesn't like change much, and she had just gotten used to the idea of being in a two-cat household again when we brought home a little energetic furball. There was no hostility...just a little concern. Even a decent amount of reassurance and cuddling didn't seem to do much to help lift her mood.

But as we were getting ready for bed, we told her that while the new little guy was indeed a new member of the family, he was in no way a "replacement" for Shadow. He'd be making his own place in our home, not taking over the spot that Shadow had been in -- and indeed still keeps, just not in a body.

And with that, Ms. Gypsie perked up, started purring, and gave me a little headbutt to the chest.

Don't tell me that the four-feets don't understand abstract intellectual concepts. Not after that reaction.

There's Engrish, and then there's putting way too much trust in web apps.

And a new routine is settling in, as we brought home a new adoptee today. More on that later.

Thank you, Shadow...

For being a cat, except when you had to show that you had too much human smarts for your own good...

For showing me early on that not all cats are built alike, when I -- not knowing any better -- tried to feed you a whole 6-ounce can of gooshyfood at your tender age of 12 weeks, and you made yourself sick humoring me by trying to eat the whole thing...

For putting a whole new spin on the "feed an animal your blood to make it your familiar" thing by having your fleas bite me, repeatedly...

For demonstrating your psychic bonding early on by popping up into the window as I came home from work, long before you could have possibly heard the car coming...

For showing your appreciation for my cooking, time and time again, by sneaking a taste (or several) and promptly decorating the floor with it...

For proving that "if hooman tink it gud idea, it NOT gud idea" by refusing to eat the cat food that I cooked for you, in spite of the fresh turkey and fish and brown rice and all the other yummy goodness that I put into it...

For training my hearing such that I could yell at you to get off the stove, or the counter, or the fridge, without even seeing you up there...

For putting up with the multiple changes in households and life situations, and for helping me get through some of the more challenging ones...

For showing that being small didn't make you any less assertive or dominant, even if some of your rivals would get bored waiting for you to beat them up...

For doing your "Memento Mori" duty by protesting loudly whenever I would play Karaoke Revolution, and in time with the music to boot...

For convincing us to replace the carpet by strategically hiding hairballs in it, and for reminding us that the laminate was a good choice by continuing to blow hairballs everywhere such that we'd see how easy it was to clean them up...

For reminding me that I look better with glasses...

For your observance of the Beltane-tide and Hallows-tide every year, with pounding at the door and screaming that you wanted to go out and play with the spirits...

For being a tail-chaser and hunter of laser beams your whole life...

For being the perfect size to sit on a human's chest or hip, for your kneading massages, and even for your uncanny ability to hit pressure points with those tiny little paws...

For the "Shadow Flop", and for being Monorail Cat long before ICHC? invented the term...

For laying claim to the scratch pad, and trying to use it, even though you'd been declawed for years...

For inventing an entirely new category of "Most Pathetic Look Ever" by sitting facing the wall while you had an e-collar on, such that the edge of the collar butted up against the wall...

For the time that you conjured a sample of gourmet kibble in the mail, and your disgust with me when I locked down the altar shortly afterward so that you couldn't hex the other cats...

For having more expressiveness in your tail than some cats have in their entire bodies...

For having voice enough for three cats, since your housemates both are not meowers...

For adopting that little stuffed bear as your Kitten, even though you refused to admit it...

For the absolute joy you brought to all who met you, even those who were not cat people...

For living long enough to see me find true joy in my life, in so many ways...

For beating the odds in a big way by living about 12 years longer than anyone may have expected you to, being a runty little product of a kitten mill...

And lastly, for absolutely refusing to let me go home without you on that day 13 years ago, because you knew it would be good for both of us. Speaking only for myself, it certainly was, and I think you would agree.

Thank you for all of these things and so much more.

Rest gently. You will be missed, but never forgotten. (Not that you would ever let us forget.)

Yes, this journal has, for now, turned into a clearinghouse for the surreal stuff that is crossing my path at the moment...

From a recent ad from Amazon that landed in my inbox:

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Resident Evil: Code Veronica X or other games in the PlayStation 2 > Adventure category have also purchased Disney Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour.

Disney-phile though I am, since I am not the father of a tween girl, I reserve the right to be slightly horrified by Hannah Montana. (And if I were the father of a tween girl, I would reserve the right to be completely horrified by Hannah Montana.) However, I'm failing to find the connection with a shotgun-toting anime heroine.

( Minor rant, but behind the cut )

From the good folks at the Consumer Product Safety Commission comes the following recall:

Black Cat® Fireworks Recalls Fireworks Due to Injury Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Screech and Scream Fountain Fireworks

Units: About 20,000

Distributor: Black Cat Fireworks, of Prairie Village, Kan.

Importer: Shiu Fung Fireworks, of China

Hazard: The firework can produce a loud bang and unexpectedly scatter debris, posing an injury hazard to the user and bystanders.

Uhh...if the firework does not produce a loud bang and scatter debris, don't we call that a "dud"? (For fireworks that are meant to go boom in some way, that is.)

From SecurityFocus, a perfectly legitimate and serious forum about computer security issues, comes this little gem which shows that just because you can put household appliances on the Internet doesn't mean you should.

The gist is that this very expensive espresso machine (list price over $2000) can be outfitted with an Internet connection kit. Its intended use is for a service technician to look at it remotely and see what might be wrong with it. But the security vulnerability in it would allow an attacker to change the brewing settings (including outside of normal operating parameters, which would break the machine the next time it was used). Oh, and did we mention that in order for the Internet connection to work, it needs to be connected to a PC running XP with a user logged in...and the flaw also allows the attacker into the PC at the privilege level of the logged-in user?

Needless to say, the vendor is not yet offering a patch for this, and who knows if it can even be patched. The joys of embedded systems.

As the related Slashdot article says, an Internet-enabled, remote-controlled coffee machine and XP backdoor -- what more could a hacker ask for?

In the face of all of the various rumors surrounding various aspects of the candidate's personal and professional life, Barack Obama's campaign has put up this website in an attempt to spread "antibody" memes. A noble effort, certainly, and attempting to tap into the phenomenon of viral communication is as good a way as any to try to reach the population at large.

However, suppose that you never had ever considered that the fact that the Senator doesn't always wear a flag pin marks him as less than fully loyal to this country. If you suddenly got an email proclaiming loudly that Senator Obama can be seen on video leading the Pledge of Allegiance despite rumors to the contrary, would it not be human nature to start wondering where that rumor might have come from? Would it not be human nature to start wondering that there just might be something to it, if the campaign is working so hard to quash it?

Just as it's bad form for a Craft practitioner to start a compare-and-contrast discussion of religion with "we're not Satanists", a decent-sized part of me wants to say that this is not the best way for the Senator to handle the rumormongers.

(For the record, I'm a registered Democrat and have zero desire to see John McCain or any of the various fringe candidates win the election.)

(Edited to add a link to the model that we own. Not an endorsement or an ad for a particular retailer, but an example.)

With the weather being as insane as it is in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, time for a Public Service Announcement.

Disclaimer: I'm a government contractor who works for NOAA, the folks who run the National Weather Service among many other things. However, I get nothing for passing on information that's already on the NWS website, so there's nothing in this for me.

( Clicky clicky )