More Science That Than You Need To Know

Yesterday, we brought the news that the primary cause of missing golf balls had been discovered: Fairway Pythons. Well, guys, it just got worse. Science has discovered a real menace: The Fashion Snake. And they're eating the models!

And we thought it was bad when they were going for the shoes.

The March Of The Emperors

You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll laugh until you cry. Then, you'll fall out of your chair.

Just one of the top time-wasters of 2007, as picked by Steve Bass at PC World. My personal favorites are the above video, Animator versus Animation II, and do not miss the advanced tin foil hat instructions.

(If you try any of the games, I disavow any marital problems they may cause.)

Soft Winds, Oscar

As you watch this video, pay attention to the sheer joy on the face of the master playing the piano, Oscar Peterson. I don't know when this was recorded, but the man playing guitar is Joe Pass, who died in 1994. The song is Soft Winds.

Oscar Peterson has passed away. He was 82. The world is a poorer place.

I’ll Be Hosed For Christmas

Somehow, this just seems to go with the earlier post about British office parties.

(Bad Bob will love this one.)

Night Music

Here's a bit of a rarity, via YouTube. Ind and Sylvia Tyson gave an aspiring songwriter a huge leg up in the music industry when they recorded two of his songs on an album they released in 1964. Ian and Sylvia divorced and went their separate ways in the mid 1970s but they got together again for a reunion concert in 1986. That aspiring songwriter from two decades in the past, now successful on his own, joined them on stage. Ian and Sylvia performing a Gordon Lightfoot song with the composer. A classic trifecta.

Early Morning Rain:

Nicky’s Got A Girlfriend!

Why does the press remind me of a gaggle of school kids standing around chanting some 'brilliant' witticism like, "Nicky's got a girlfriend," when I read something like this? Oh, that's right, because that is exactly how they are behaving. French President Nicolas Sarkozy apparently went to Disneyland Paris with a very beautiful woman and the press is doing a happy dance.

The respected news weekly L'Express posted a photo of the duo on its Internet site, and at least two other magazines said they would run the images.

The president's office would not comment on their status. But the daily Le Figaro, seen as close to the conservative, newly divorced president, ran a front-page image of the Italian-French Bruni on Monday with the headline: "Carla Bruni: The President's Girlfriend."

Christophe Barbier, the editor of L'Express, said he called Bruni, whom he described as a friend, before going public with the story.

"She confirmed the relationship," he said.

Sarkozy and Bruni visited Disneyland on Saturday when the park was thronged with visitors, L'Express reported. Several photographers reportedly were on hand and openly snapped photos of the pair, who seemed at ease with the attention.

Colombe Pringle, editor of Point de Vue magazine, said she believed Sarkozy and Bruni made themselves available to photographers deliberately.

"Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni wanted people to know," she told France-Info radio. "Otherwise, I don't know why they would have gone to Euro Disney to look at the Mickey (Mouse) parade."

Hey, he's newly single and over 21. She has a lot of talent, too. More power to them both.

Feeling Blue?

Dunno if it's the temperature that is approaching zero where I live, and rapidly, I might add, or what, but I'm feeling (probably looking, too) a bit blue. So what better to lift the spirit than a bit of music from the son of Russian Jewish immigrant parents who wrote one of the most quintessential pieces of American music. How about none other than George Gershwin himself playing the George Gershwin composition Rhapsody in Blue. Solo. (In two parts, darn the technology.) But the playing will blow you away if you have never heard it before.

The Day The Music Died

63 years ago on this date, a a single-engined Noorduyn Norseman UC-64 bearing the United States Army Air Force Tail Number 44-70285 took off from the runway at Royal Air Force Twinwood Farm on a flight to Paris. On board was Major Glenn Miller, on his way to entertain troops who had liberated the French capitol. The aircraft and Glenn Miller were never seen again. The world lost a great talent.

Emma The Eagle Soars

A rather amusing article in the Sunday Times provides a first person account of wingwalking by Emma Parker Bowles - who is afraid of heights. An aviator named Vic Norman has brought wing walking back in Britain with his company AeroSuperBatics.

I am strapped to a pole on top of the wing of an aircraft old enough to be my grandfather, which is in a nosedive towards the earth 1,000ft below. As I plunge towards the blurry green Gloucestershire field, my body battered by the 3G force, the 150mph wind feels as though it is trying to rip my head off.

My neck muscles are straining like a German shot putter’s and my jowls are flapping about by my ears. Spit and snot are smeared across my face, which is frozen in a terrified shriek – a bit like Edvard Munch’s The Scream with flying goggles on.

Except I can’t scream, because I can’t breathe, and I am convinced that the last thing to go through my mind before I die will be the 2,100rpm propeller inches from my feet.

For someone with a fear of heights, wing walking is not fun. In fact it is the most horrible sensation I have experienced. As we get closer and closer to the ground in this awful death plunge, I squeeze my eyes closed and pray.

Heh. My wife would do it in a heartbeat if given the chance. Just a funny, non-political kind of story for a slow news Saturday. Here's the AeroSuperBatics website. Here's a history of the - er - art, from an American outfit that also does wingwalking. That company is Silver Wings Wingwalking and here's their site.  And if you're wondering if they are all quite mad, I wonder that myself. But they make it look so easy.

Heh. My wife would do it in a heartbeat if given the chance. Just a funny, non-political kind of story for a slow news Saturday. Here's the AeroSuperBatics website. Here's a history of the - er - art, from an American outfit that also does wingwalking. That company is Silver Wings Wingwalking and here's their site. If you're wondering if they are all quite mad, I wonder that myself. But they make it look so easy. And graceful.

Let’s Hang Some Smokes On The Tree

Thanks to Maggie in the comments section, we now have evidence of the Canadian Beer Menace.

All in favor of organizing a relief expedition to Canada to alleviate the menace by taking all the beer, raise your hands. Remember, it's for the children. Bring coolers.

Ultimate Speedbump

Bruce Webster over at And Still I Persist found this gem over at American Digest. I'll cheerfully glom onto it to - this amused heck out of my youngest boy and myself. (Spiffy new theme over at Bruce's place, incidentally.)

Obamamentum?

Mort Kondracke writing at Roll Call (via Real Clear Politics), looks at some numbers - and the quirkiness of the Iowa Caucus - and thinks there is a real possibility of Hillary Clinton losing the state and the nomination.

Yet, defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire could burn through the firewalls and re-create the dynamic of 1984, where the establishment candidate, former Vice President Walter Mondale, almost lost the nomination to fresh-face challenger Sen. Gary Hart (Colo.).

Mondale pulled it out only because his staff succeeded in convincing the media that Georgia and Alabama were the key contests on Super Tuesday. Mondale won them, though Hart won bigger states like Florida, Massachusetts and Washington, and even bigger primaries later in Ohio and California.

To the extent that polling is reliable in a caucus state like Iowa, indications are that Clinton is in deep trouble. The topline ABC/Washington Post poll results showing Obama with 30 percent, Clinton with 26 percent and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) with 22 mean less than other factors.

Specifically, the polls indicate that second-tier candidates like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sens. Joe Biden (Del.) and Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) split up 25 percent of the vote among them.

The way the Iowa caucuses work, after a first round of balloting, candidates receiving less than 15 percent support get dropped on subsequent ballots, putting a premium on being the second choice of caucus-goers.

In early November, the CBS/New York Times poll indicated that Edwards was the second choice of 30 percent of supporters of second-tier candidates, while Obama was favored by 27 percent and Clinton by just 14 percent.

It is actually that second tier bear trap that makes the whole thing dicey for Clinton. Once the lower tier is cut off, who the votes go to makes a huge difference. And it does not look like the backers of the lower ranked candidates like Hillary Clinton all that much. If Obama goes into New Hampshire with momentum, the dynamics of the race change quite a bit.

New Mexico’s Illegal Alien Problem

These are not aliens coming across the borders, either. They are coming from outer space. Well, sort of. There is a flap in New Mexico over a new television ad campaign promoting tourism in New Mexico. Some tourism officials are very, very displeased with the ads.

Instead of highlighting New Mexico's picturesque desert landscapes, art galleries or centuries-old culture, the ads feature drooling, grotesque office workers from outer space chatting about their personal lives.

To some, the 30-second TV spots — which lead in roundabout fashion to the tag line that New Mexico may be "the best place in the Universe" — are provocative, funny and bold.

But to increasingly vocal critics, the ad campaign is a possible threat to the well-being of the state's $5.1 billion tourism industry. In other words, while the ads may yield a chuckle or two, the joke is on New Mexico.

Critics say the less-than-cuddly, reptilian spacemen may be more apt to baffle or frighten away a tourist than reel one in.

"New Mexico has a lot to offer — we don't need to bring our standards down," said Ken Mompellier, head of the convention and visitors bureau in Las Cruces, the state's fast-growing second-largest city, which has refused to use the alien ads to bolster local tourism pitches, as it normally would.

"My first question would be: What does this campaign show of the things that we are known for?" Mompellier asked. "I look at this campaign and I don't see the fit. And the things I'm hearing from people, some of it is very negative."

The concern is that the ads tend to not target the people with actual time and money to spend visiting New Mexico: Baby Boomers. The ads may be "provocative, funny and bold" to some people, but they would appear to be rather silly if the goal is to bring in people with actual dollars to spend. Judge for yourself, I frankly don't see these as particularly funny or effective.

Scary Poppins

When the east wind blows…….. 

Brilliant editing.

Apoultry 13: A Not Ron Howard Film

Houston, we have a turkey. (Via Terrierman). Long. Worth it.