• Geek Out! - The Never-Ending Bloga

    New and Improved, or New and Unproved?

    April 5, 2008 - By 

    Because I had a positive experience playing around with WordPress 2.5 on Rileycat’s blog, I asked David to go ahead and upgrade me here. Some of the new features replace various plugins I was using before (Image Manager, and ST Visualize Advanced Features ). I’ll be using a new plugin – my husband David wrote a simple one for converting WP tags to Technorati tags, so I’m going to give that one a whirl. Whee! I will say that I like one feature; the edit window has a visual editor tab and an HTML editor tab, and previously, it would…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Drop a Dime: Countdown To Reality

    April 5, 2008 - By 

    Daily Kos: State of the Nation The United States got itself in to a strange situation with Musharraf, in which the structure of its aid to the Pakistan government essentially incented the government not to find Bin Laden because if they found him they had reason to fear that the US would end this flow of more than $10 billion that it was providing directly to the army. The democratic government came to power arguing to Washington that constitutional democracy was a better counterterrorism strategy than reliance on an authoritarian military leader. So, I think they understand, if they can…

  • Connections - Hot Off The Presses

    A Painting With a Nazi Past

    April 5, 2008 - By 

    Wow! A friend of mine has a connection with this story, which I had scanned briefly via RSS/newsfeed a few days ago. Thus when she mentioned it, I recognized the painting immediately. Just as an aside, I love the hat. Every naked lady should wear one. A Painting With a Nazi Past Britain’s National Gallery announced Thursday that new research has disclosed that a painting in its collection, “Cupid Complaining to Venus,” by the German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, was once part of Hitler’s private collection. “We’ve never had anything like this before,” said museum spokesman Thomas Almeroth-Williams.…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Geek Out! - Hot Off The Presses - Random Access Memories

    Evidence Supports Earlier Date for People in North America – New York Times

    April 5, 2008 - By 

    Evidence Supports Earlier Date for People in North America – New York Times Exploring Paisley Caves in the Cascade Range of Oregon, archaeologists have found a scattering of human coprolites, or fossil feces. The specimens preserved 14,000-year-old human protein and DNA, which the discoverers said was the strongest evidence yet of the earliest people living in North America. Other archaeologists agreed that the findings established more firmly than before the presence of people on the continent at least 1,000 years before the well-known Clovis people, previously thought to be the first Americans. Recent research at sites in Florida and Wisconsin…

  • Dear Mom - Flickr - Moblog

    Dude herez ur hibrid in my space

    April 4, 2008 - By 

    UPDATE: Posted via Flickr so that my husband David could find his car where I parked it, as his flight schedule was changed and we decided he’d taxi to where I work, pick up his car which I drove in, and he’d get me at the end of the day. This was so he’d have a ride to and from work, and so on. The logistics of married people are not fascinating, but they do take a lot of work. It all worked out satisfactorily at the end of the day: so very nice to see my hubby when he…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Health And Fitness

    Not soap, but chocolate

    April 3, 2008 - By 

    I went to a local health and beauty spa today, Spa Martinique. I had done something to my neck yesterday – I have a history of “throwing it out” going back to childhood and later in college. I’d been thinking of finding a good local “aaaah spa,” the kind of place where you walk in the door and the atmosphere of serene calm (and the scent of expensive emollients) is designed to make you say “aaaah.” I’d been to one in Salt Lake but didn’t know if I’d have to schlep all the way downtown or not. A few days…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Geek Out! - Religion

    The Questionable Authority : Summary Judgment in California Creationist Lawsuit: Bottom Line, and What’s Next (Part 1 of 3)

    April 3, 2008 - By 

    As a religious liberal who enthusiastically embraces reality (and whose favorite college class of all time was Evolution 101/102/103 long ago), I have to savor the following: The Questionable Authority : Summary Judgment in California Creationist Lawsuit: Bottom Line, and What’s Next (Part 1 of 3) This means two things: first, the question of whether or not the University of California can reject courses from the Christian schools under any circumstances has been settled in favor of UC. The judge ruled that UC has a compelling reason to pick and choose the “content” and “viewpoints” that they will accept as…

  • Health And Fitness

    Stress Relief: Booked!

    April 3, 2008 - By 

    I did something yesterday to my neck and now it’s all stiff and hard to turn – something that happens to me now and then due to stress. I haven’t had to get a neck manipulation in years, but it may get to that. To head it off, I just booked myself a little therapeutic indulgence after work. I’m getting a de-stress mineral soak beforehand, too.   I really do not care for my body – in many ways – and at 50 that’s just not a good idea. David gets home tomorrow, and it’s been a long, boring week dinking…