Curling

Apparently there are no irons, rollers or blow-dryer involved.

Willie & the Stones



Colbert's Olympic Dream

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Dave's Top Ten



"All the excitement of shuffleboard combined with housework."
-- David Letterman 2/18/10

Seal - Crazy (1991)

Eight Is Not Enough

An odd speed limit via Unique Daily.

Well plowed... Obviously nowhere near DC, where two is too much.

Brief Tiger Sighting

In his first public statement since the allegations of infidelities late last year, Tiger Woods made a public statement Friday... Well it was certainly a statement, kinda public in that media was all over it via closed circuit TV, but at the same time frustrated at his allowing access to only 1 camera & 3 pool reporters who couldn't ask questions.

At an event just outside Jacksonville, Florida, as tightly-controlled as his pre-crash image, he spoke about his private life, his therapy, and his future plans. Then having seen his shadow, or perhaps a copy of the NY Daily News, Woods retreated into his burrow... Er rehab.

Longtime golf writer, Garry Smits of the “Florida Times Union,” talks about what happened and what it all means for the man, the brand and the game.

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now. Host: Meghna Chakrabarti.

Falling For You

Tangerine Dream

To mark 20 years of being on the air, Echoes is running a series paying tribute to icons of the ambient music the show chronicles.

Audio: PRI's Echoes, an ambient music program on public radio. Tangerine Dream painting by Veronica Jackson via Fine Art America.

Killer Thriller

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in a Dubai hotel. The police know how, and they believe they have photos of who pulled off the hit.

Since the victim was a military commander of Hamas, the Palestinian group which controls the Gaza strip, there could be a long list of plausible suspects... With Israel right on top.



Israel's Mossad spy agency — the prime suspect in the death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh — has a long record employing similar methods of operation. They certainly have motive and opportunity.

But no specific element of assassin/spy "tradecraft" definitely singles out, or eliminates, Mossad, which has known both triumph and embarrassment in decades of warfare waged by covert killings.

CSI: Austin

One Man, One Plane, One Very Long List of Complaints About Taxes and the IRS



A murder/suicide which technically seems to meet the legal definition of domestic terrorism and with an odd conjuction of TEA Party politics & radical Islamic suicide bomber tactics.

After the fact, a wealth of online information was uncovered by both official investigators & citizen journalists Googling the suspect.

Googling

By nature monkeys are curious and playful. But take one with a reporter's background, who learned quickly that "Google" could be a verb, and you have someone who's good at finding things, finding things out, finding people... Or a combination of all three.

It started with being a catalyst in reuniting two guys who worked adjacent shifts on my favorite radio station as a teen. Good job.

More recently I found:

• a teenage "I Want You To Want Me" crush, now an addict,
• someone who lost both her job & her mother within weeks,
• and a fellow road warrior who passed without my notice.

It's all part of the big moving picture... You know, the one where life happens. But sometimes it feels awkward to know what you know... And often uncomfortable for the person you found it out about to learn that you know. Can of worms... Not so good.

Other times it works out pretty well. The inner detective located a character integral to the narrative of a forthcoming book and film.

So, next time I'm off to forage again, looking for more bananas, I'll do so compassionately... Hoping what I find out is good news and who I find is glad to be found.

Cartoon: Sock Monkey with can of worms by Paula Becker (2007).

He's My Favorite Honkey

It was no picnic to be ancient Egypt's boy king.

A new study reveals that ancient Egypt's best known pharaoh, Tutankhamen, was born with a clubfoot, a cleft palate and a severe bone disease. Researchers say he probably spent much of his life in pain before dying at 19 from the combined effects of malaria and a broken leg.

Audio: NPR's All Things Considered 2/16.10, Reporter: Jon Hamilton.

You Rock, Dog!

You Walk, Dog!

West Palm Beach, 11/24/06, not great quality, but makes a point:

It ain't Aerosmith without both Steven & Joe.

Good Times, Eh?

It's Canadian for "question mark." You know what I'm sayin'?

Head First, Honestly

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And women do it, too!

Eagles - James Dean

"Hotel California" tour, Reunion Arena, Houston TX 1977.

Too Fast To Live

Too Young To Die

On Friday 2/12/10, the Vancouver Olympics had a fatality... Not just the agony of defeat... And it happened even before the flame was lit.

In a training run on the Olympic luge track, 21-year-old Georgian slider Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled, fatally crashing into an exposed support beam at 90mph. As the Olympic Village reels, the world asks if the winter Olympics are too dangerous?

The New York Times Olympics editor Jason Stallman says that last week's tragedy was the unfortunate but inevitable result of a decade's long trend in Winter Olympic sports.

Audio: PRI & WNYC's program The Takeaway, 2/15/10, Hosts: Todd Zwillich & Celeste Headlee.

"Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death."
-- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1971)

The Wrong Call

This Colorado snowboarder is among the "Olympians" featured in the annual swimsuit issue. One problem... She didn't make the team.

Songs For A Shredder

Little Feat alums Paul Barrere, Fred Tackett and Craig Fuller
Fool For You & Easy To Slip
Wildwood Springs Lodge, MO 11/14/09

And once more for Lowell...



Bob Weir from a live show recorded in Switzerland in 1981... The band includes Bobby Cochrane on lead guitar, Alphonso Johnson on bass, Billy Cobham on drums and Dave Garland on keyboards.

Take This Job & Shove It

See also: Bayh vs filibuster from USA Today, and a call for the
Dems to use the so-called "Nuclear Option."

Fili-busted

Inmate Count

The law says you count where you live day to day at the time of the count as your residence, so unless something changes quick, prisoners will again be counted in this year's census as residents of the places where they're locked up, not their hometowns.

That means more political power and funding for mostly rural and white prison host communities, and less for mostly urban and minority neighborhoods that bred the criminals.

Audio: NPR's All Things Considered 2/16/10, Reporter: David Sommerstein.

No Way Out

Surrealistic Pillow

Only ¥ 5,600.00

You might be tempted to call it a "pillow book," but the Japanese use that term for arousing bed time reading, not catching a few ZZZZZZZZZ's.

The binder enclosed pillow is actually an accessory for the exhausted salary man or woman. It's sold online by Geek Stuff 4 You, who say:

Cleverly disguised in plain sight as a massive book, this "novel" way to catch a few winks on the job is within easy reach when counting rows of figures begins to have the same effect as counting sheep.

This fake book that is actually a pillow, if you are low on space too, fits right in your bookshelf!

Source: Oh Gizmo via Geekologie

Cold, Cold, Cold

Sometimes an area likes to be a list topper... Sometimes not.

Forbes Magazine ranked Boston as the most expensive place to heat a home in a 2007 study... Which said the average household spent more than $1,600 a year on heat.

Israeli-born and Boston-based architect Simon Hare of the design company Placetailor recently built an urban home that’s made to get through a New England winter without central heat.

Here & Now stopped by on one of the very coldest days of the year.

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 2/16/10, Host: Robin Young. Photostream/Reporter: Jill Ryan

Everyday Is Foo's Day

Buh, Bye, Bayh

In his home state, the Indianpolis Star's Matthew Tully wrote: "Even as he shakes political world, (Evan) Bayh remains a voice of reason."

At CQPolitics.com, Greg Giroux noted the retirement of a Democrat who was 20+% ahead in the polls gives the Republicans a leg up in a race that wasn't even on their radar a day before.

At the Huffington Post, Andy Borowitz cited Bayh's all-consuming addiction to imaginary farm-ville... Scandalous!!!

Preservation

A new song coming out from Louis Armstrong who's been dead for nearly 40 years?

The wizardy is the work of New Orleans' Preservation Hall and  engineer Earl Scioneaux III, who played a trick on time.

Despite having a certain expertise in recording in my past, I have to admit I wouldn't ever have known where to start.

Audio: NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, 2/14/10, Host: Gwen Thompkins.

Cost Benefit Analysis

The Fast Draw's Josh Landis and Mitch Butler contibute to CBS News.

Isn't It Ironic

There's a comprehensive article on FontFeed, but to summarize using bullet points laid out on KPAO! blog:

A French anti-piracy group unveiled a new logo.

The font used was licensed exclusively to France Telecom.

Thus, there is no way to obtain a license to use this font.

Bottom line: The French anti-piracy group pirated fonts for their logo, got caught pirating, and it was no accident.

Via KPAO! blog.

Fair or Foul?

Copyright law allows certain latitude... Not always clearly defined.

Audio: NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday 2/13/10, Host: Scott Simon, Reporter: Joel Rose. Photo of New Mexico's State Fair from Virtual Albuquerque.

Lay My Ghosts To Rest

Lots of people discovered the group by asking what's that song in the Mitsubishi ad?

The answer was "Days Gone By" from Dirty Vegas.

People who bought their 2002 self-titled CD found to get to that track, they had to pass through "Ghosts" first.



All I ever wanted is a place out by the sun
To watch the world go by and take each day as it comes
All I ever wanted was a chance to catch my breath
To see the world go by and lay my ghosts to rest

A great track in its original electronica form, but ripe for house remixes if you'd trade your sunny place for a throbbing dance floor.



Sunpot/Solar Weather photo by the STEREO-B UV telescope 11/09.



Image: "Scout" by Richard Phillips appeared as artwork for Dirty Vegas’ UK single release of “Ghosts” (Credence/Parlophone 2002)

The Man With Two Brains

Menage a trois: Steve Martin, Kathleen Turner and a belle du jar.

Cranberry Sauce

On Soul Food

Informed Insight

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained brain scientist whose life came to a grinding halt when at age 37 she suffered a massive, near-fatal stroke. The left side of her brain, which is responsible for logic, ego, and language went offline and she was left with a feeling of euphoria and enlightenment. She has fully recovered and she tells her story in “My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.”

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 2/12/10, Host: Robin Young, Original broadcast: 7/15/08.

Amboy Dukes

Lip-syching on "The Ray Anthony Show" (1968)

All In Your Head

More than half of adult Americans report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have to say about your temporal lobe, as the science of spirituality continues to evolve.

Audio: NPR's All Things Considered, 5/19/09, Reporter: Barbara Bradley Haggerty.

Brains & Butts

Jokes.com
Jake Johannsen - Dog Brains
comedians.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Yeah, I'm Single

What gave it away?

Make your own Dummies Book cover.

Charlie Brown Special

La Donna Redux

Whether you translate "mobile" as changeable, fickle or even unstable, there's no doubt "La donna è mobile" became the closest thing to an instant hit that 1851 Italy could offer. Within days of its debut the song from the opera "Rigoletto" was being sung in the streets... By men who puzzled over their women's changes of mood, mind or heart.

Go To FileFactory.com

Illustration: 'Puzzle' by Nikki Nash (2004)
Music: East Village Opera Company (2005)

Lonely Guy

Jokes.com
Russ Meneve - Valentine's Day
comedians.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Marty Party

From: College Humor

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