WW unveiled a new homeland security strategy today. The report “lists various domestic terrorist threats and ways to prevent, pre-empt or respond to them.” So basically we are not only giving potential terrorists lots of ideas they may not have even thought of, but we are also describing our responses to these threats or actions, allowing them to develop ways to circumvent them. This is almost as idiotic as the “secret” invasion plans of Iraq being released to the New York Times recently. Do the words “national security” mean nothing to this adminstration?

The 2002 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Results have been announced. The contest “challenge[s writers] to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels” and is named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, best known for his opening line, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Many of the entries are quite funny…

A Canadian production company has come up with Cobra: The Musical. Yes, that’s Cobra from the G.I. Joe cartoon/toy series. At least it’s meant as a “comedy / play / musical” and not something too serious, because the costumes are pretty bad

northern snakeheadThis is getting bad. As I mentioned recently, Maryland biologists had to deal with the find of a northern snakehead in an area pond. The carnivorous Chinese fish has a voracious appetite and can crawl from pond to pond on its fins in search of new prey. Now biologists are worried about the “Vietnamese nuclear worm” and what effect it could have on the Chesapeake Bay’s ecology. Apparently fishermen are using the worm for bait and dumping whatever they don’t use. Officials are worried that the worm could carry and spread bacteria into Maryland waters: you know it’s bad when a biologist says, “I’ve handled a lot of things, and I don’t get creeped out. But these are nasty. I use surgical gloves every time I touch them, and I scrub up afterward.” Great. For a state known for its crabs, rockfish, and marine industry, I had no idea that “Maryland has few restrictions on bait importation and relies on fish stocking regulations to control the release of non-native species.”

Cat-Scan.Com really is just as described, people actually scanning their cats. And I thought I’d seen everything…

Bruce Springsteen Live Billy and the Boingers

The Knockoff Project documents “album cover spoofs, goofs and send-ups.” I was surprised with how many bands outright stole album designs from other groups. Or perhaps they were homages? :-p

Along the same lines, The Covers Project has “[built] a database of cover songs (songs performed by an artist other than the original performer) with the intention of creating cover ‘chains.’” At the time of this post, they’ve listed almost 24,000 songs (!).

On the heels of its list of the best TV shows of all time, TV Guide has released its list of the 50 worst TV shows ever. Topping the list: “The Jerry Springer Show.” I think that’s a pretty good choice given the rest of the list, although I must protest the inclusion of “Hogan’s Heroes.” That show is nowhere near as bad as most of the list below it, and I don’t think it belonged on the list at all for that matter.