Longest drive in history

Guy on the ISS will be going out side for a little driving practice. Just one quote from the story:

The ball is expected to travel up to 2.1 billion miles before it drops back into the atmosphere and burns up.

Please, more interesting things from space like this to keep people thinking about it. The ISS is pretty easy to forget when no one talks about it for months at a time and people forget why we need to be in space.

SPACE.com -- Next ISS Commander's Spacewalk Golf Shot Raises Concerns

This is very cool

BB&T Denies Loans to Businesses Benefiting from Eminent Domain

OMG, I am a libertarian

Not a big shocker. Click the image to take the test yourself.

Another quote that tickles me

This scheme could have an advantage over straightforward quantum computing. "A non-running computer produces fewer errors," says Hosten.

Quantum computer works best switched off

Or just MMOs teach the wrong things

I would say this article applies to most of the current MMOs pretty well, not just WoW. Good read.

Gamasutra - Soapbox - "World of Warcraft Teaches the Wrong Things"

Sicko Marriage Contract One For The Ages - February 17, 2006

So let me get this straight, this guy gave his at that point future wife this document and she did not agree to it but married him anyway?

Sicko Marriage Contract One For The Ages - February 17, 2006

This tickles me ...

WASHINGTON - The porn magazine arrives every month at your congressman's office. Tucked in a conservative-looking manila envelope, the latest edition of Hustler goes to all 535 members of Congress. Free of charge. Not that most members want it. It usually gets thrown in the circular file marked “trash.” But like clockwork, it keeps coming, despite efforts to have it stop. The spokesman for Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, recently tried to halt the mailing. Nope. Several members of Congress have sued to make it stop, only to lose. Something about the public being able to seek redress from Congress means they have to take it, apparently. But that doesn't mean they have to be happy about it.

Salt Lake Tribune - Search

Someone's tax pounds not working very hard

Dance code monkey!

We might just all be screwed ...

The premise is as follows in the audio clip linked below:

Soandso gets a +1 sword in random MMO X. He sells that sword to someone else for $100. That is income and the IRS will want its cut.

Worse yet, under the IRS barter rules, if I hire a plumber to fix my pipes and pay him by painting his house, we are both liable for taxes on the fare market value of the service provided. Since that +1 sword in the game has a fair market value, if I buy it for in game cash (which also has a fair market value) or trade it for another item, we may both be on the hook to the IRS for the value of that trade. You also have to worry about gambling taxes when you 'win' an item with that fair market value in the game.

Everyone got there 1099s from SoE already, correct?

Ultimately, this is had yet to be ruled on by the IRS, and we all know how reasonable they always are when they decide something so that leads me back to the title of this message.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5199966

How can you make peace with these people?

The Matador (2005)

So last night the spouse and I got to see The Matador (2005). Not a bad movie and I didn't predict how this one was going to end correctly which is always nice.

There was one line in the movie that I really thought was appropriate. It was "Smell ya, shouldn't have to tell ya." That was really appropriate to the people who sat down behind and a few seats to the left of us. It is amazing how many people who smoke do not know just how bad they reek even while they are not smoking. Or maybe they know and just don't care. Thankfully the theater was not very crowded and we were able to move quickly after their stench drifted to us. Had the theater been full, I think I would have had to go to the box office and get a refund or go see something else.

Mohammed Dance

Sure to piss off the Islamofacists, which I am happy to do.

Mohammed Dance

The weight plan

More and more I think I am not happy and I think a good deal of it stems from my weight. I have been able to make progress in the past using Adkins but after a year of that (and losing 50 pounds which was not bad) I got bored and started eating all the junk again. That put the weight back.

This time, I am going to try to beat my Lizard Brain as my friend Paul calls it and do the weight loss thing with portion control, processed sugar elimination (as much as feasable) and exersize. Yesterday morning I was 280 lbs. From here we go down.

Upcoming Movie Plans

Each week, we see a movie Sunday afternoon. I think I am going to be skipping more this year than in the past by raising the interest bar a bit. To that end, here are some upcoming movies that I am interested in watching.

Feb 12 - Firewall (2006)
Feb 19 - Date Movie (2006)
Feb 26 - Ultraviolet (2006)
Mar 19 - V for Vendetta (2005)
Apr 2 - Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)
Apr 30 - Flight 93 (2006/I) (I am kinda torn on this one, the trailer really got to me but I don't know if I want to go to a movie to be this depressed)
May 21 - The Da Vinci Code (2006)
May 28 - X-Men 3 (2006)
Jun 25 - Click (2006)
Jul 2 - Superman Returns (2006)

Well, that's all I got before IMDB went to lunch.