The Worst Jobs in Science

Popular Science rates science jobs “that, when you strip away the imposing titles and advanced degrees, sound at best distasteful and at worst unbearable.” The result is a list of the 18 Worst Jobs in Science, including The Worst-Job Hall Of Fame. The winner loser? “Flatus Odor Judge.” That’s right, a fart smeller. I’d argue that some of the others are worse, but judge for yourself…

Dennis Miller Is Funny

I posted before about my disappointment over Dennis Miller’s support of W, mostly because I always figured that someone of Miller’s intelligence would know better than to campaign for such a dolt. That aside, it comes as no surprise that in a recent visit to The Tonight Show most of his barbs were reserved for Democrats, the presidential candidates in particular. However, I have to say that most of his comments were right on the mark, and pretty damn funny to boot. I think my favorite line was about the Clintons: “If that marriage were any more about convenience, they’d have to install a Slim-Jim rack and a Slurpee machine at the base of the bed.” Hilarious…

The Peoples Encyclopedia

WikipediaWikipedia is a pretty neat website. The idea is to build an online encyclopedia that can be changed at any time by anyone. The amount of information that the site contains is mind boggling. You can spend hours cross-linking from entry to entry. By allowing users to view previous revisions of each entry, it seems that fake entries are quickly corrected back to a more accurate definition. I think the idea of an encylopedia that draws on the knowledge of the entire internet community is great concept. Although their servers tend to be a bit slow, it is well worth a visit.

John Ritter Dead At 54

John RitterCNN reports that actor John Ritter died Thursday night of heart failure at the age of 54 after collapsing on the set of his TV show 8 Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter. I’m really shocked and saddened by this news, as it seems that this was totally unexpected. Perhaps best known for playing Jack Tripper in the shows Three’s Company and Three’s A Crowd, John Ritter also had many other memorable TV and movie roles. I’m sure that his sudden loss will be mourned by many…

W Photomosaics

I debated whether or not to post this, but I think this webmaster has a message that wants to be promulgated. The site is basically two photomosaics of W (photomosaics are images composed of many smaller photographs). The overall effect is very well done, although if you look closely it probably becomes NSFW. I think it’s hilarious… 🙂

Conan O’Brien Rules

I wish I could stay up late to watch Conan more often. Thankfully, TiVo has allowed me to see more of him, as well as John Stewart and The Daily Show, which never fails to amuse. Conan O’Brien is about to celebrate his 10th anniverary on the air, and there’s going to be a primetime special on Sunday. I can’t wait, especially to see Andy Richter again. He got a bum rap, and I’m still pissed off that Fox cancelled his hilarious show, Andy Richter Saves The Universe. Dammit, I can’t even find a web site to link to for that show… 🙁

Update: Duh, the reason I couldn’t find a website is that I had the title wrong. It’s Andy Richter Controls The Universe. A big thanks to Andy for pointing out my stupidity… 😉

RIAA Sucks (Even More)

A couple of months ago I posted that the RIAA was gathering evidence in order to file suit against “music pirates” sharing music over P2P networks. As expected, last Monday 261 copyright lawsuits were in fact filed against file sharers, and the RIAA “warned it ultimately may file thousands of cases.” I think I’ve made my feelings on the RIAA’s actions very clear in the many posts I’ve made on the topic. However, this latest action has a couple of wrinkles that make it particularly egregious. One of the people sued happens to be a 12-year old girl and her mother, who was duped into buying a copy of Kazaa (which is free), thinking that it made file downloading legal. OK, ignorance is unfortunately not a legal excuse, but c’mon, now! If ever there was an example that the RIAA is overzealously pursuing its agenda, then this is it. The mother and daughter, who live in a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan, have settled with the RIAA for $2000. I was incensed to hear that they were browbeaten into submission by this corporate giant, but I take heart in the fact that it didn’t even take a day for people to start collecting money for their cause, already amassing almost enough pledges to cover the settlement.

The other thing that really pisses me off is the RIAA’s “Clean Slate” program, “an amnesty program for people who admit they illegally share music, promising not to sue them in exchange for their admission and pledge to delete the songs off their computers.” I really hope that no one is stupid enough to buy into this affidavit that basically admits guilt to something which has not been definitively established as illegal. Not only does this “amnesty” program sign away all of your rights, but it also does not prevent the person from being sued by other companies, something deceptively hidden in the fine print. The EFF and several other news agencies are thankfully trying to inform people of these facts and persuade them to not take up the RIAA on their extremely dubious offer. I hope that this information gets out to the mass media, allowing people to think before they sign their rights away…