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Today’s color is burned-out black & white. It’s the color of Saddam’s yacht al-Mansur (The Victor). According to the BBC, it was hit by at least 16 bombs and missiles, but it hasn’t sunk. This is probably a good thing, because it’s floating around in Basra’s inner harbor, and I imagine a boat of that size could really get in the way of other shipping if it was sitting on the bottom. The yacht had a secret passage from Saddam’s private cabin to a lower deck where he kept his escape submarine pod. It’s too bad they’ll never make a James Bond movie about the guy.

Last week I posted a geography quiz covering just the Middle and Near East. Today I came upon a much more comprehensive site with quizzes for each continent, including U.S. states and Canadian provinces. So far I did well with Europe (104/111) and Asia (81/84), only getting a couple of the former Yugoslavian republics and former Soviet republics confused, respectively. However, although I consider myself a geography and cartography buff, I’m wondering how much of the African republics I’ll remember correctly…

Last week I posted a geography quiz covering just the Middle and Near East. Today I came upon a much more comprehensive site with quizzes for each continent, including U.S. states and Canadian provinces. So far I did well with Europe (104/111) and Asia (81/84), only getting a couple of the former Yugoslavian republics and former Soviet republics confused, respectively. However, although I consider myself a geography and cartography buff, I’m wondering how much of the African republics I’ll remember correctly…

With airline revenues falling and maintenance costs of the Concorde rising, British Airways and Air France have announced that the last passenger flight of the Concorde will be at the end of October 2003. I believe that the Concorde never actually generated a profit for the airlines, although it was obviously a symbol of prestige and luxury. It’s quite a shame to see it go, although when one considers that the aircraft design is 27 years old they’ve done quite a good job keeping it in service for as long as they have, recent incidents notwithstanding. I think that there will definitely be a market for supersonic passenger transports in the future, but the design will have to be more efficient to make it profitable enough for airlines to operate it. I’m definitely going to miss the Concorde; here’s another page devoted to the Concorde, and here are some pictures of the beautiful aircraft.

With airline revenues falling and maintenance costs of the Concorde rising, British Airways and Air France have announced that the last passenger flight of the Concorde will be at the end of October 2003. I believe that the Concorde never actually generated a profit for the airlines, although it was obviously a symbol of prestige and luxury. It’s quite a shame to see it go, although when one considers that the aircraft design is 27 years old they’ve done quite a good job keeping it in service for as long as they have, recent incidents notwithstanding. I think that there will definitely be a market for supersonic passenger transports in the future, but the design will have to be more efficient to make it profitable enough for airlines to operate it. I’m definitely going to miss the Concorde; here’s another page devoted to the Concorde, and here are some pictures of the beautiful aircraft.

Today’s color is spearmint green. Today’s CotD is brought to you by Altoids, introducing the newest flavor in their lineup of curiously strong mints ™. I’m a big fan of the new spearmint flavor – delicately sweet, with a little less bite than their other flavors. Ask for them at your local supermarket today. And they’ve really done some great ads over the years, all available on their website.

Today’s color is spearmint green. Today’s CotD is brought to you by Altoids, introducing the newest flavor in their lineup of curiously strong mints ™. I’m a big fan of the new spearmint flavor – delicately sweet, with a little less bite than their other flavors. Ask for them at your local supermarket today. And they’ve really done some great ads over the years, all available on their website.

Anomalies Unlimited is chock full of unusual stories and images, ranging from interesting photos to paranoid conspiracy theories. Although a lot of the stories should probably be taken with a grain of salt, the sheer amount of things to look at will keep you occupied (and in many cases amused) for a while…

Anomalies Unlimited is chock full of unusual stories and images, ranging from interesting photos to paranoid conspiracy theories. Although a lot of the stories should probably be taken with a grain of salt, the sheer amount of things to look at will keep you occupied (and in many cases amused) for a while…

As much as I dislike Rush Limbaugh, I have to say that this is pretty funny. In a parody of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf’s (AKA Baghdad Bob) absurdly exaggerated denials of U.S. progress, Rush Limbaugh aired a story claiming that Baghdad Bob was reporting that Iraqi troops had taken Shea Stadium. Several extremely dimwitted viewers believed this report and telephoned news stations, asking why they hadn’t reported this as well. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised considering who these people are listening to, but c’mon!