Album Cover Mix and Match

New design form or something you can try at home when you have insomnia and absolutely nothing left to do? You decide.

Album Cover Mix and Match

Sunday Evening Pleasures

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

First, Indulgence

This was a pretty good Sunday night as those things go. First we got taken out for a Mothers' Day/Fathers' Day/Anniversary dinner. Our son and his girlfriend (who I think of as my future daughter-in-law) took us to a lovely café where we had a fantastic meal. Everything was good, but the most sinful part was the dessert I shared with my son. A "chocolate bag". We had to see what that was and OMG that was good. Pure chocolate shaped like a bag and filled with white chocolate mousse, whipped cream and berries.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Then home and the season premier of True Blood. The living room was packed for it. It really hit the ground running and the second season is looking even better than the first. I'd watch anyway. It's worth watching just for the theme song and opening credits. I think the song for the closing credits is new this season.

On A More Serious Note - Iran

I'm in total awe of the reform movement in Iran. It was heartbreaking to see what had happened in the election, but those people are so amazingly courageous. And they've had it. I guess there's no way for them to win this battle, but down the road I hope there's some way that they can win their war.

Another Study, Similar Conclusion

Image via Wikipedia

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. - John Stuart Mill -

Yet another study shows linkage between dumbassness and conservatism.

Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated. The evidence is based on 1254 community college students and 1600 foreign students seeking entry to United States' universities. At the individual level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with SAT, Vocabulary, and Analogy test scores. At the national level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with measures of education (e.g., gross enrollment at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels) and performance on mathematics and reading assessments from the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) project. They also correlate with components of the Failed States Index and several other measures of economic and political development of nations. Conservatism scores have higher correlations with economic and political measures than estimated IQ scores.

This time it’s all about cognitive ability. The results seem to be strikingly similar in all the studies that come out. There’s more stupidity in the conservative camp. Surprised? Not so much.

Happy Birthday, Chanel

Just wanted to say Happy 21st to our local celebrity.

Happy Birthday, Chanel. Hope you’re enjoying all all the buzz. You definitely prove that it’s never too late to be a star.

The Ironic Thing Is…

This cat is named Happy.

Actually, the cat photo is to serve as a distraction from the fact that I haven’t posted at all this week. The excuses are as follows:

1. Been feeling a little under the weather. Not bad enough to stay home from work, but enough so that I fall asleep before any blogging can take place.
2. Lola, the new dog, is getting to be a bit more high maintenance. She’s al settled in and still well behaved, but wants attention and walks and things. She’s got a lot more energy than one would think just by looking at her.
3. And the top reason for not posting this week – TORTURE. As the situation regarding Bush era torture of detainees has taken on a life of its own it’s been a lot more absorbing to watch coverage of it and read about it than to write about it. Even though we already knew about it, those memos seemed newly shocking. There’s so much to say about it, but others are saying it much better than I could, so I watch and read.

As an addendum, I hope that Sean Hannity realizes that Keith Olbermann isn’t going to let him alone on his offer to be waterboarded for charity. Olbermann is taking him up on it and putting up a thousand dollars a second for the families of the troops, and I doubt Hannity is going to hear the last of it unless he agrees to do it.

Oh, and it’s kind of riveting to watch the GOP get nuttier and nuttier. It’s hard to look away from that for long enough to post this.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Dissenting voices on torture covered up? (bbc.co.uk)
• Obama, Bush And The Rule Of Law (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)

It’s Even a Bear Market for Dinosaurs

Image via Wikipedia

This is the perfect time to stock up on cut-rate dinosaur skeletons, as it turns out.  I’d go for it but we’re a little tapped out at the moment. So, apparently, are museums.

A rare full skeleton of a 150-million-year-old dinosaur languished on an auction block yesterday, failing to sell despite interest from two museums, the auctioneers said.
Neither museum could meet the minimum price - somewhat less than $300,000 - for the 9-foot-long fossil of a dryosaurus, said Josh Chait, operations director of I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers.
The stumbling block "was a lack of funding, more than the price," he said.

When anything that’s 150 million years old can’t bring 300k you know things are rough out there. This could be a great opportunity to corner the market if you’ve got the cash.

Oldest Living Dog

A local gal named Chanel Shaughnessy will be in the next Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest living dog on record. The daschund from Port Jeff Station has been in a number of newspapers already. I think I can safely speak for all of Long Island when I say we’re proud of her. It’s always a pleasure when something here is deemed newsworthy and doesn’t involve an indictment of any kind.

Don’t think that she’s just playing dress-up in that photo, either. As adorable as she looks, Chanel is not just another yuppy puppy. She needs the goggles for cataracts and she feels the cold and needs a sweater, just like the rest of us when we get old. She just pulls it all off with an innate sense of style is all. And in general, her vet says she’s doing just fine.

Snow Day

That’s not a minivan or station wagon. That’s at least 16 inches of snow on the ‘02 Galant. The driveway is under about the same amount of snow except where it’s drifted higher. I think we’re too freaking old for this. Last time we had some snow we got an offer to shovel from some guys who looked big enough to be equal to this. That time there wasn’t enough on the driveway to bother with. We subscribe to the “let it melt” school of snow removal whenever possible. Not going to work this time. I sure hope those guys show up this time. We’re prepared to pay through the nose. I mean, what good is grocery money if you can’t get to the store, right?

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March is Roaring In

With gusty winds and 10 to 14 inches of snow predicted before all is said and done tomorrow, it's looking like a classic case of March roaring in like a lion. Hope that the lamb arrives on time as well.

OK, the Super Bowl's over

We can all return to our regularly scheduled lives. No big upset, close score, excitingish game, Bruce Springsteen did not have a wardrobe malfunction, so the world remains safe from nipples for another year. Congratulations to Pittsburgh and my good friend, Sherry, who doesn't come from there but is a devoted fan. She's got to be a happy camper tonight.