Shamrocketship

All the news that's fit to wear

Has anyone else noticed a very small change to the "Latest News" headline links on CNN.com's page lately?  It's been there the last two days, far as I can tell. 

Latest News

• Organized crime targets energy resources 54 min
• Bill to ban genetic discrimination backed
• Greenhouse gases gather at faster pace
• Source: Intel shows N. Korea-Syria nuclear link
• WLS: Multiple deaths in Chicago shooting
• FBI: Contractor offers Navy info to fake spy
• Ticker: I have a senior problem, Obama says
• WABC: Gun fired inside elementary school
• Shrimp plant likened to medieval fortress
• Dry river beds are open wounds for U.S.
• Teen-repelling noisemaker protested
• Rampaging elephant kills 3 at temple
• Copter crash caught by security camera
• Cringe-worthy 'Idol' as singer flubs
• Shelter dog nurses 9 orphaned kittens
• CNN Wire: Latest updates on top stories



You see the little t-shirts next to three of those headlines?  Here's what happens if you click on the last one shown.

So, um, it looks like you can buy a t-shirt with that headline on it?  In three different colors, four sizes, mens or womens style, no less.   Interesting way to make a buck off a headline, no?   

We are SO post-1984 . . .

Do you see the second comment to the post below?  Do you find that as creepy as I do? 

Still messing with photos from Sunday and I guess I'm Flickr-challenged.  I tried uploading them all there last night and sparks and smoke started coming out of the back of the PC so I let it rest for the night.  I just now managed to upload them all, and why-oh-why does it put them in correct order when I'm looking at them in the batch organizer, but completely backwards chronologically in the slideshow?  Help?

And it was a wasted effort anyway.  I didn't like the way Typepad (whoops, better not say that out loud) this site was displaying them and thought they'd be clearer on Flickr, but nope.

Here's the link, anyhow.  Fuzzy Pictures of Tartan Day that Really do Look Awesome in Windows Picture Viewer on My PC.   

Arizona Dream

I have written before about my very interesting dreams, no? 

Yes.

Here, here, here and here in case you want proof and a few laughs.  And now I realize I never did write down the one about taking a vacation at a dinosaur theme park just like Jurassic, where my son (15 in real life but about 3 years old in the dream) got hurt (not by a dinosaur, though) and I was carrying him and trying to call an ambulance on my cellphone but while I was dialing, my son turned into a puppy in my arms and I was upset because I didn't have the veterinarian's number stored in the phone.  That was a good one, although personally I think the aquatic donkey takes the cake.

Anyway, I got a travel brochure in the mail today from the state of Arizona.  In a nice big 8x12 white envelope addressed to me, with a cover letter from Margie A. Emmermann, Director of the Arizona Office of Tourism.  Only I didn't order it.  Or even do anything remotely related to the state of Arizona, anywhere, at all, lately or maybe ever.  Like, I mean I did nothing that would have resulted in this thing coming to my mailbox. I don't routinely get travel or vacation stuff in the mail.  And I've never been particularly interested in Arizona.  Looks nice and all, but there are about 42 other places on my life list that are higher in priority. 

So an hour ago I was trying to figure out how this thing landed in my mailbox when I remembered a tiny snippet of another really weird dream that I must have had recently but didn't remember any of it until I saw that brochure today.  There were cacti and very red dirt in the dream and some type of small animal (lizard? roadrunner?) but the memory is too fuzzy to describe. 

Then, I remembered a movie with the title "Arizona Dream," Googled it and  . . . . whoa.  It's been a long time since I saw it but now I remember.  Just click that link and you'll understand why I'm sitting here with my brains completely scrambled about the leap from that brochure to my dreams to that movie all in the space of an hour or so.

Ouch. 

Today's $6 question . . .

I don't know if it's a regional thing or not - I can't remember salad bars in distant states - but why in the world do salad bars around here almost always mix the little broccoli florets with cauliflower florets? 

They look alike, yes, I'll grant that.  They have a similar texture, although definitely not the same.  And the colors kind of look nice together but that's just not a good enough reason to go mixing vegetables.

I like broccoli, and I don't like cauliflower, and I'm sick and tired of always picking out the one and leaving the other. 

That's it for today, kids.

What someone wants for Christmas?

Today's funniest Google search landing here: 

"little toys that are like a cheese water fire and other things"

From Philadelphia, no less. 

Oooooookayyyyyy.

Thought Bubble

Thought for the day:  If you are not looking, it is very hard to tell if you are listening to one maraca, or to two maracas. 

There's Hurricane Dean, and then there's "Moose but no squirrel"

Our local paper's weatherman is doing drugs again . . . Here's today's forecast:

Today's Weather: Is moose but no squirrel

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/22/07

BY FRED SIMMONDS
WEATHER WRITER

Amidst all the talk about carbon dioxide emissions causing climate change comes news that Norway's national mascot may be contributing to global warming through burping and other precious bodily functions.

Yes, some researchers linked to Norway's technical university (NTNU) in Trondheim contend that the lovable moose are responsible for tons of gas emissions a year through their frequent burping and flatulence, the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reports.

A grown moose will burp and pass so much methane gas in the course of a year that it amounts to 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide emissions, the researchers say, seriously.

According to another Norwegian paper, Verdens Gang, or VG, a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit the same. (Odds are that the Norwegian motorist would be driving a Volkswagen rather than a Fjord.)

That distance to emit the same amount is roughly 8,000 miles here -- a figure which can be reduced significantly if it is filled with beer-guzzling, nacho-nibbling college students.

See, bacteria in a moose's stomach create the methane gas which breaks down plant fibers the moose has eaten. However, the methane gas that is expelled is considered more destructive than carbon gas, Aftenposten reported. Cows are also a source of such gas emissions, but pigs and chickens are more environmentally considerate, it said.

C'mon, Bullwinkle cannot be such a threat to the environment.

If the weather is not wet it will be muggy the next several days.

Today, a chance of rain and drizzle in the morning. Highs in the lower 70s but the UV Index forecast is 8, very high. Unwelcome NE winds 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight, mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers. Lows in the lower 60s. NE winds 10 to 15 mph.

Thursday and Thursday night, a chance of showers or thunderstorms with highs in the lower 80s and lows in the upper 60s. E winds 5 to 10 mph.

Friday, partly sunny with highs in the upper 80s. Friday night, mostly cloudy with lows around 70.

Saturday, partly sunny with highs around 90. Sunday, mostly cloudy with a chance of showers or thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Highs in the mid-80s and lows in the mid-60s.

Fred Simmonds: fsimmond@app.com

Even more "interesting" . . .

Today, in my car on the way to work, zipping along I-195 about 7:20 AM and talking to Sparky on the phone, I was stunned when I noticed a bit of movement in the trees just to my right, and looked in that direction just as a dead sparrow fell about 15 feet to the pavement and landed on its back.  Despite my not-great eyesight (see yesterday's post), I distinctly noticed its coloring (it was a sparrow), beak, and saw that its eyes were closed.  Very clearly dead. 

I've never seen such a thing happen before in my life.   

I'm not overly superstitious, but I've had a decent case of the heebie-jeebies ever since.

See yesterday's other post . . .

I'm hibernating for the rest of the weekend. 

Something equine this way comes . . .

I don't know why, but mark my words:  Something about horses is going to come up in the next few days.  Something probably not good.

Maybe local news, maybe bigger, maybe smaller.  No, it is not merely that this is a big race weekend around here.  Something else?

Something horsey, though. 

If you think that sounds silly, well, so do I but I'm too tired to 'splain.

We'll see . . .

Not what I expect when I go to Macaroni Grill . . .

Sometime around midnight last night, someone hit my website by Googling "tiramisu drug induced experience."

Tiramisu is my most favorite dessert.  But whenever I've ordered it somewhere or made it myself, that never happened to me. 

I feel cheated.