After millions of deaths, it’s finally great to see some sense returning to the world. The world’s greatest and safest insecticide has finally been cleared to return to saving lives:

The U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) reversed 30 years of policy yesterday, giving DDT a “clean bill of health” for controlling malaria, and it asked environmental groups to support limited use of the insecticide to save the lives of African babies.

“DDT presents no health risk when used properly indoors,” said Dr. Arata Kochi, director of the WHO’s malaria program. “Well-managed indoor spraying programs using DDT pose no harm to wildlife or humans.”

Source: WHO backs DDT to rid malaria – World

 

stilldizzy4.jpgI decided I needed a little time out of the house.  It’s been quite a few years, but I decided to check out the State Fair of Oklahoma.  Now I’m at home with a nice belly ache.  Apparently gyros and funnel cake don’t mix.  In any case, I snapped a few pictures while wandering around and posted a new gallery.

 

I usually don’t post forwarded emails here, but this one was just a bit too accurate not to share:

When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies, and children’s art. We don’t have a life and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.

Don’t Write anything down. Ever. We can play back error messages from here.

When an IT person says he’s coming right over, go for coffee. That way you won’t be there when we need your password. It’s nothing for us to remember 300 screen saver passwords.

When you call the IT support, state what you want, not what’s keeping you from getting it. We don’t need to know that you can’t get into your mail because your computer won’t power on at all.

When IT support sends you an email with high importance, delete it at once. We’re just testing.

When an IT person is eating lunch at his desk, walk right in and spill your guts right out. We exist only to serve.

Send urgent email all in uppercase. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.

When something’s wrong with your home PC, dump it on an IT person’s chair with no name, no phone number, and no description of the problem. We love a puzzle.

When an IT person tells you that he’ll be there shortly, reply in a scathing tone of voice: “And just how many weeks do you mean by shortly?” That motivates us.

When the printer won’t print, re-send the job at least 20 times. Print jobs frequently get sucked into black holes.

When the printer still won’t print after 20 tries, send the job to all 68 printers in the company. One of them is bound to work.

Don’t learn the proper name for anything technical. We know exactly what you mean by “my thingy blew up.”

Don’t use on-line help. On-line help is for wimps.

If the mouse cable keeps knocking down the framed picture of your dog, lift the computer and stuff the cable under it. Mouse cables were designed to have 20kg of computer sitting on top of them.

If the space bar on your keyboard doesn’t work, blame it on the mail/NT/network upgrade. Keyboards are actually very happy with a half pound of muffin crumbs and nail clippings in them.

When you get a message saying “Are you sure?” click on that Yes button as fast as you can. Hell, if you weren’t sure, you wouldn’t be doing it, would you?

When you find an IT person on the phone, sit uninvited on the corner of his desk and stare at him until he hangs up.

Feel perfectly free to say things like “I don’t know nothing about that computer crap.” We don’t mind at all hearing our area of professional expertise referred to as crap.

When you need to change the toner cartridge in a printer, call IT support. Changing a toner cartridge is an extremely complex task, and Hewlett-Packard recommends that it be performed only by a professional engineer with a master’s degree in nuclear physics.

When you have a lock to pick on an old file cabinet, call IT support. We love to hack.

When you receive a 30mb movie file, send it to everyone as a mail attachment. We’ve got lots of disk space on that mail server.

When an IT person gets in the lift pushing $100,000 worth of computer equipment on a trolley, ask in a very loud voice: “Good grief, you take the lift to go DOWN one floor?!?” That’s another one that cracks us up to no end.

When you lose your car keys, send an email to the entire company. People out 200 miles away like to keep abreast of what’s going on.

When you bump into an IT person at the supermarket on a Saturday, ask a computer question. We do weekends.

 

Up till now, I’ve viewed the debate about the recent 9/11 docudrama (what ever the hell that means) “The Path to 9/11″ with great amusement. I found it funny that the right wing now stood in defense of the mini-series when not three years ago they were up in arms about the broadcast of another silly mini-series about Ronald Reagan. I thought it just another futile political infight about the portrayals of national leaders in entertainment television. Or in other words, a much ado about nothing.

However, I just came across a letter from Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Debbie Stabenow, Charles Schumer and Byron Dorgan to Disney about the broadcast. An excerpt from that letter truly set chills down my spine:

Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation.

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.

Source: Daily Kos: Senate Dems write letter

Am I to get this straight? Has the government gotten so powerful, that they have the audacity to publicly threaten a television network with the removal of their license not on terms of obscenity (not that I’m a big fan of that statute) but instead on the political content of their programming? Are we to the point where this type of letter is to be tolerated?

Now I don’t remember any threat like this during the Reagan “controversy”, however, I would also strongly oppose it. Any government official making such a suggestion is not only a constitutional disgrace but also a direct threat to liberty.

 

I’m an ocasional reader of the Korean Central News Agency of DPRK (KCNA) which is the external propaganda wing of North Korea. It’s a priceless resource for the study of the silliness of political propaganda. One of my favorites recently was an article in which a North Korean woman’s soccer victory was responsible for the increase in the country’s electrical output:

Ri Chol Su, a worker of the Pyongyang Thermal Power Complex, said:
“I was greatly excited to hear the news that our girls won the world championship. This encouraged us to achieve an unprecedented high boost in the electricity production today.

We believe this signal victory represents the spirit of Korea. We workers will step up the building of a great prosperous powerful nation in the same spirit displayed by them”.

Source: News From KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY of DPRK

Who knew that generators could spin faster if people are excited about a soccer victory? Of course, on a disapointing note, Reuters decided to report on this story as if it was legitimate news.

 

What’s going on Chicagoans? Have you lost as sense of manly honor? First you ban a food that no one eats, Foie Gras. But that one made a bit of sense. I’m sure that all waterfowl in the city of Chicago are registered Democrats and you have to look out for your constituents.

But then I find this quote in an article about the name change of Marshall Field’s to Macy’s:

I owe it to the memory of my grandmother,” James, who works at the nearby Art Institute, said of her vow never to shop at Macy’s.

Source: Store’s fans protest name change in Chicago – Yahoo! News

Are you kidding me? The city of the great fire, Al Capone, Dick Butkus and all things slightly seedy and mean has become a whimpering mass of whiners who are really worked up about the name change of a department store. Will someone go down to Macy’s and show them what happens to protestors show up in the Loop?

 

The Sheppard’s on a rampage. Now we’ve got Bruce Campbell playing Brutus:

Brutus: I got news for you, pal. You ain’t leading but two things right now: Jack and Shit. And, Jack left town.
–(Brutus stabs Cesar)
Cesar: “Et tu, Brute?”
Brutus: “Oooh, that’s gotta hurt! Hail to the king, baby”
Cesar: “Klaatu verrata nectu arrrgh”

 

Sam Raimi rewriting and directing his rendition of Hamlet with Bruce Campbell as Hamlet:

To be groovy or not to be groovy,
That is the question baby.
Whether ’tis groovier in the mind to suffer the boomsticks and arrows of outrageous fortune, baby
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
and by opposing end them? <extremely long pause> baby.
Oh yeah and remember shop smart. . . shop S-mart

Via the brilliant Andy Sheppard.

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