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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Friday, November 15, 2002

No anorak around Amtrak! 11:40:36 PM    comment []

Word to the FBI: Hi guys, nice organization, I think the world of it - really, I mean that! Here's the Roget on "spectacular": spectacular   ADJECTIVE: Suggesting drama or a stage performance, as in emotionality or suspense: dramatic, histrionic, histrionical, melodramatic, sensational, theatric, theatrical. See EXCITE, STYLE, SURPRISE. 10:49:09 PM    comment []

Great NYT article for foodies: The Big Flavors of Little Rhode Island. New York System weiners "up the arm", coffee milk, Awful Awfuls, Del's lemonade, stuffies, cabinets, johnnycakes, doughboys and clam cakes. After the article, you can waste many googlehours tracking down sources like Eclipse coffee syrup or Kenyon's Grist Mill. It's not another state, it's another planet. I want to go there. 10:15:39 PM    comment []

An update to the Buyer Remorse? section of the 'Ove' Glove blog entry. Joseph Enterprises is the same company that sells Chia Pets and The Clapper. 9:49:11 PM    comment []

Maybe a bubble. or a half-bubble, would be a more workable 3D display than a rectangular box. You could change perspective with the imaging software not having to compensate for your movement. Image projected on the inside of the sphere, normal parallax creates the 3D effect. 3:36:31 PM    comment []

A few years ago, I had a dream where I saw a hurricane in a glass zoo cage. It resembled NOAA time-lapses, but alive, moving, in 3D. The cage was square, 10 feet or so on the sides, and about 3 feet high so you could look down on it. It had been a major hurricane, which was tracked and captured by a Safari hunter; in khaki, David Niven mustache, and a pith helmet. He'd caught it after it had drifted into the North Atlantic and shriveled down to practically nothing over Denmark. He brought it to the museum where they put it in the cage and gave it just enough hurricane nutrients to survive without growing to a threatening size again. With a really good 3D display, we could now simulate that exhibit. 2:15:03 PM    comment []

Feel the love, not the 'Ove' I found this little gem over by the outdoor cooking section of Kroger's this morning. Speeds and Feeds The thermal properties of The 'Ove' Glove outer layer, which is made of NOMEX and KEVLAR dramatically extend the time you can handle a hot object in your hands. The tough exterior of this glove forms a thermal insulation barrier, slowing the temperature  increase in the interior layer of soft Doubleknit cotton. When exposed to an open flame, the outer layer of the glove does not catch fire and does not melt. Made by... Joseph Enterprises, Inc. 425 California Street, Suite 1300 San Francisco, CA 94104 E-mail: jei@jeiusa.com www.oveglove.com Cost: about 15 bucks Buyer remorse?: A little expensive. Haven't tested it yet. Is it washable?...yes, "see inside for instructions". One size fits all, but resilient. What if it gets damp? (says one who has accidentally made steamed hand)  Hey, look at that light bulb picture!   1:52:20 PM    comment []

Thanks to Fried Green al-Qaedas for relaxing his normally stringent standards and citing this blog in Your Salon Blog Tour of Quality for the NPR bin Laden tape summation (permalink). People like Mark, who selflessly find and praise the goodness of others, continue to amaze me. Mark - if you're ever in the RTP area, email me and you're welcome to drop by for whatever's cookin' (one caveat: do read this blog ahead, just in case it's the week I finally decide to make haggis). The man who became a verb, who also has interviewed bin Laden, reached the opposite conclusion from Mamoun Fandy. I'm still attracted to Fandy's logic, despite his Federal Express mistake (digital analysis can tell if the voice went through a bandpass filter for a phone line), because the word "pharoh" didn't ring true. I hope it's not a red herring. Remember Egypt from the infamous Laurent Murawiec Powerpoint presentation? The key points, after the lights went out, were: Iraq is the tactical pivot Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot Egypt the prize Iraq and Saudi Arabia were easy to understand in realpolitik terms, but why Egypt? The Saudi financial backing and all-Egypt 9/11 flight crews have been touched on in a couple of Salon blogs, and I can see the primitive logic of overkill revenge. The Biblical imagery versus Islamic imagery, Fandy's compelling point, is more frightening once you begin suspecting a bogus tape. Anyone could have created it. The point of the tape is to "prove" bin Laden is still alive, so the question remains: Who needs him? 1:00:43 PM    comment []

Pakistan. Harbors al Qaeda, possibly bin Ladan, already has nukes, and democracy with a militant majority held at bay by a "friendly" dictator. Right now, they are our ally - like the Taliban were when they were fighting Russians or Saddam against pre-Iran-Contra Iran. Pakistan helped North Korea develop their nuclear program, as recently as 3 months ago. With friends like these... 6:10:52 AM    comment []

Here's a list of the top 50 cities by population. The ranks of the cities with "unlucky" hospitals: Washington is #21 San Francisco is #13 Houston is #4 Chicago is #3 5:40:15 AM    comment []