The King of Pointland

Random Personal Picture Finder

This performs a Google search on jpeg file names of the form generated by digital cameras. I've been meaning to post that link for awhile. Hit reload a few times if you don't get something interesting at first.

Irony

If I were an insect who wandered into my office, I'd prefer not to be equipped with a stinger.

Let me explain.

When a fly, or a moth, or one of those random tiny bugs one sees from time to time flies near my desk, I say, "What have we here? Why, hello, little friend! Would you like to tell me about yourself? No? OK, carry on then. And be nice to the other insects, you rascal!"

But if it's a wasp, or a bee, I immediately go berserk, enter smash mode, and run around with a magazine hitting things, until the threat is gooey.

Unless I'm feeling beneficent. If so, I may trap the wasp in a mug, slide a magazine under it, and take it outside, before I smash it.

No comments, please

Actually, it appears that request is superfluous. Anyhoo . . .

The zipper for the fly of the Levi's 505 jeans that I'm wearing just broke. Now my fly is stuck open. I have untucked my t-shirt to cover my shame, but this is very annoying nonetheless.

Is this what I get for shopping at the Levi's Outlet Store? They didn't seem irregular when I bought them.

The Drone Wars

How many exaggerated and probably false claims make up one casus belli? Here's another one.

At Bay

I've been losing auctions on eBay.

I find this strangely liberating, and it gives me a sense of control. I'm helping out, too, I imagine, doing my part to find the true market clearing price for that 1959 Bulova mens watch with Swiss movement and slightly tarnished hands.

Once the auction ends, one can see a record of every bid made on the item, and who made them. I'm leaving my mark on history. Though the items are eventually taken from the site after the auction closes, I like to think that eBay has them archived somewhere, and that in 300 years electronic archaelogists will learn that dreisner was willing to pay $45 to fill the hole left by that lost timepiece, but not $45.50.

Oops

Breaking news indeed.

I took a few pictures. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version. Here's one from the front.

Everyone's a Critic

If your name is Complainsalot McGillicutty, you may log into the NYT website with user name kingofpointland and paasssssword the same as the name of the user.

Hmmm

A Weapons Cache We'll Never See

Dear 198.89.32.82

I hate you. I hate you for each of the thirty Sobig.F worms you have sent me today. I hate your Details, your Movies, and your Thank You's. I regret the day my email address somehow found its way onto your disease-ridden GATEWAY620.

P=IV

A friend heard on WTOP that yesterday's campus-wide power outage here at UMCP had no connection to the big blackout that struck much of the Northeast, Midwest, and parts of Canada at about the same time.

I don't remember the exact date, but the last time we had a blackout on campus was a few years ago, and I think it involved a squirrel. What are the odds that our next power outage would coincide with the afternoon of a nationwide blackout? Furthermore, the nationwide blackout began at 4:10 PM, according to the papers. Checking the logs of our UNIX machines, I see that one, on a bad UPS, went down at 4:11 PM. Our last hit on the web server (a crucial ethernet switch was not on a UPS) came at 4:12 PM.

That's some coincidence.

By the way, it's still not known for certain why the blackout occured. One of the causes reported -- a lightning strike at a power plant -- has been discounted, as have various others reported at one point or another. I'm reminded of all the misreporting in the early hours of 9/11. Remember the fire (or was it a bomb) at the State Department? Something to keep in mind.

Belgian Cowboy

A note on the weekend: if you get a chance, visit the Saloon, located in D.C. at 1205 U St NW. You will find the assortment of Belgian beer quite divine -- if a little dear -- and the atmosphere pleasant. And should your waiter be a distinguished looking older gentleman of slim build with salt-and-pepper hair and a bushy mustache, then, my friend, you are in for quite a treat. He is amiable, witty, astute, and kind.

What, you may wonder, would happen if one of your drinking companions, having had a few too many beers, accidentally dropped an expensive pilsner glass in an excruciatingly protracted process, the glass first breaking into several fragments upon hitting an empty chair, and then, after a pause during which time stopped and the entire restaurant silently waited with baited breath, those fragments shattered against the floor in a further explosion?

If that were to happen, this is what your waiter would do: he would give the young lady who broke the glass a fresh draught of hefeweizen, on the house.

Good Googly Moogly

There's an ad for a Wharton business school program on WAMU these mornings. The ad ends something like this: "To learn more, call 1-888-555-5555 or search for 'Wharton Executive' on Google.com". Is this the future?

Tikkun Olam

Today in the Post there were a number of stories about conditions in Liberia. One article included a disturbing photograph of starving children with distended bellies; the caption described peasants reduced to eating grass.

When I saw that picture, I couldn't help but think of a Georgetown bakery I passed yesterday afternoon. Looking through the storefront window I was confronted by shelf after shelf crammed with an amazing assortment of tasty delights, including biscuits and cookies.

I didn't enter, though, because this was a bakery not for humans, but for dogs. "Does your pet deserve anything less than the best?" the sign in the window asked.

It doesn't bother me that there are bakeries for dogs. OK, it does bother me that there are bakeries for dogs, but it's more a matter of style. If some well-to-do Washingtonian wants to treat their poodle to a $5 scone, and if there is a someone willing to satisfy that desire, then I suppose everyone benefits.

Is it the poodle owner's fault that Liberian children are starving? What about the rebels who fight in the civil war? What about the drought? Some countries are rich, and some are destitute, and we'd like see an end to poverty and hunger, but isn't that just a dream?

Perhaps, but I hope not.

And I keep coming back to this: whatever the reasons, there is something very, very wrong in a world where human beings in one part of the globe are eating grass to stay alive, while thousands of miles away there are Doggy Bakeries.

We can at least help.

Mea Culpa

I owe our president an apology. Maybe the Washington Post does, too. I criticized him for the following comment, which the Post presented this way:

BUSH: Look, I remember right after Iraq the first thing that happened out of some writers' pens was that, "Oh, no, they're getting ready to attack either Syria or Iran.'' You know, the march to war is just a campaign that's just going to march everywhere.

I watched the speech, and it was abundantly clear from his tone of voice and facial expression that the final sentence should be in quotes, too. In other words, he was saying that the writers were suggesting the campaign would march everywhere. Bush wasn't saying that himself. There's probably an important lesson here.

Why I Love My Fellow Countrymen

Check out the American Action Market.

Some of the contracts traded on AAM will be based on objective data and observable events, as on a horse track, e.g.

• the next White House lie to break into the news
• the next country the White House will threaten, and when
• the next foreign leader to move from the CIA payroll to White House "most wanted" list
• the lifespan of various DARPA projects, such as Total Information Awareness [site] and Babylon [site]
• the first White House staffer to resign in disgrace, and when