With the world's economy looking grim, its nice to know that all of us could still fulfill a common childhood dream and run off to be a pirate.  Apparently, piracy isn't just for the Carribean anymore, and in addition to all the booty you sieze raiding vessels off the coast of Somalia, you get even more cash by ransoming the scurvy landlubbing dogs you capture. 

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So I've already bought the mandatory parrot and a wooden leg.  Plus I'm already really good at saying "Arrggh".  With any luck,  next week I'll be somewhere in the Gulf of Aden looking to sign on with an interepid crew of pirates.   I'm sure once they see I was committed enough to provide my own parrot, plenty of crews will welcome me with open arms and not kill me at all.

Defenestration is the act of throwing someone out of a window.  Try it today!

British researches have developed a low-power, compact system capable of shielding a spacecraft from radiation and solar storms.

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I'm very happy that Obama won.  Its wonderful, historic and a great opportunity to finally confront some of the major issues facing this country.

However, I'm more than a little upset that as of right now it looks like as of tomorrow I will officially be a second-class citizen in my home state of California.  Proposition 8 has over 50% of the vote right now....more like almost 56% of the vote the last time I checked.  I'm going to stop paying attention now and find out which way if finally ends up tomorrow.

For the record, one of the founding principles of this nation was the protection of the rights of the minority against the tyranny of the majority.  We are guaranteed equal protection under the law.  The idea that my basic civil rights and that fundametal guarantee of equal protection  were subject to a general election vote flies in the face of everything this country is supposed to stand for.  And if the worst happens and this state does amend its constitution to enshrine inequality, I only hope the people who have pushed this through stop and think for a minute about what they've done.  What can be done to one group can be done to another, and when you start singling out who is and who is not worthy of equal rights, you could easily be next in line.

With luck tomorrow morning this post will be irrelevant...but its not looking good.

"To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. 'Can I interest you in the chicken?' she asks. 'Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?' To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.  I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?"

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Scientists have learned to selectively erase memories in mice.

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No word on exactly how long until a human version is ready and we can all erase horrible memories, like the Bush Administration for instance.

Peeling scotch tape produces x-ray bursts strong enough for x-ray photography.  The x-ray photo below was made by peeling tape off the roll.  How weird is that?  The article says the x-ray burst emitted are powerful enough to generate nuclear fusion under the right circumstances.

So the rumor is that McCain is basically giving up in several states (Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico).  With the electoral college math being what it is, that means he's going to have to somehow peel away one of the bigger states now trending toward Obama, and his target is apparently Pennsylvania.  Obama has a pretty serious lead there, but the rural parts of the state are pretty red, and the talk is he's rolling the dice.  The video below shows him unwittingly revealing the exact reason he thinks this strategy could work, and I think its both telling and hilarious.

 

Some of the UFO files released by the Brits contained info about an order to shoot down an unidentified object over the English countryside.

"'I had a lock-on that had the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier,' he [the American fighter pilot]  added. 'The larger the airplane, the easier the lock-on. This blip almost locked itself.'  At the last moment, the object disappeared from the radar screen and the high-speed chase was called off.  He returned to base and was debriefed the next day by an unnamed man who 'looked like a well-dressed IBM salesman'. 'He threatened me with a national security breach if I breathed a word about it to anyone,' he said."

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Did you see it?  If so, what did you think.

My two cents:  McCain just lost this the same way Al Gore lost it in 2000, despite giving a better performance than in any other debate.  The reaction shots of him were simply unbelievable.  He showed himself to be angry, cantankerous and all around unpleasant.  He looked like the nasty uncle you dread seeing at family gatherings.  It made Obama look all the more Presidential.  Plus, in general I think Obama gave better specifics about his policies and plans, but really anyone vaguely interested in the race already knew the gist of both candidates proposals.  Tonight was about image, and McCain went down in flames.

The snap polls and those moronic "undecided voter" focus groups seem to agree.  Even on Fox when they asked the panel if any of them had been persuaded, the only movement was toward Obama.  Barring some incredible last minute scandal or horrendous gaffe, Obama will be the next President.