|
 Beefcake
gets muscled out of the house...
Nathan got evicted from the house and true to form, the opposing
alliance won the HOH competition and nominated the two strongest
players in the 3 Stooges / Dream Team alliance. The back and
forth predictability is VERY tedious, and the Saturday night
show was downright BORING! Absolutely NO surprises, though
the producers HAVE promised a new twist revealed on next week's
Wednesday show.
I originally made a chart for my pal Irwin to track the shifting
alliances and strategies in the US Big Brother house. You
can see it HERE. Seems
that BB4BBQ.com
found it and put a link on their site. Besides getting a HUGE
boost in traffic to quartknee.com, I got the satisfaction
of knowing that the Internet's largest and most popular Big
Brother fan site appreciates my work. Because I'm so grateful
for the props, I've decided to return the favour and stop
my recaps and commentary in my blog and just send you all
to the BBQ
for that type of thing... not that they need more traffic,
just that they have all the Big Brother info one would ever
need.
Another Justin in Trouble
Okay, so who was the brainiac who thought Rolling Stones
fans would enjoy hearing "Cry Me A River" or "Rock
Your Body" from former 'N Sync-ER Justin Timberlake?
Whoever it was, they're definitely not the sharpest tool in
the shed.
At the recent Stones concert in Toronto to revive tourism
after the SARS outbreak, the pop singer did not receive the
warmest of welcomes from the crowd. In fact, he had to dodge
both water bottles and insults that were being flung from
the audience. While he tried to convince the rebellious rock
fans it would all "be over before you know it,"
the angry villagers just booed and jeered him throughout his
entire set.
Later he reappeared with back-up reinforcements (Mick Jagger
and Keith Richards) who tried to guilt the audience into give
him a chance. Richards even stared down the crowd and motioned
to them to show some respect. Talk about a hostile take-over!
Too darn hot
Euro heat wave kills over 100 in France... in the UK loads
of buildings still have no air conditioning even though these
heat waves have been getting more extreme and seem to last
longer with each passing summer. If they can't see the need
for air-con, I can't see the need for sympathy. My pal Wim
in Belgium wrote to tell me this year's weather is the hottest
on record and much worse than the 1976 heat wave that paralyzed
his country for weeks.
Keep them eyes on the skies
The Perseids meteor shower was predicted to peak overnight
on Aug. 12-13, when Earth travels through the middle of a
belt of debris laid down in space by the Swift-Tuttle comet.
A major obstacle, the moon, worked against my attempts to
spot the fiery space dust this year. The moon turned full
on Aug. 12, severely hampering observations at just the wrong
time. Bright moonlight flooded the sky all through that entire
night, of course the light pollution of city living didn't
help either. With the moon putting such a damper on things,
V-ness, the SLO Posse and I decided not to trek out to the
hinterlands to watch it this year.
The Perseids, named for the constellation Perseus from which
they appear to emanate, are typically fast and bright. They
occasionally leave persistent trains and some years they appear
as multiple shooting stars. Back in the 80s, my sister and
I saw three shooting stars dart across the sky simultaneously
and I've been hooked on the Perseids ever since.
Sky watch part two
If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll remember that
I mentioned a couple weeks ago
that Mars is closer now than at any other time since the Neanderthals
roamed the earth. I guess it's a cyclical thing coz they seem
to be roaming the White House these days, but why digress?
My pal Irwin dusted off his telescope and went up to the
outer reaches of Sonoma County to check out the whole Mars
thing. He said he couldn't take pictures, but if he gives
me a report, I'll pass it on.
Blackout
This week saw a huge swath of the North East of the US and
parts of Canada blacked out due to some type of accident or
lightening strike in either Canada, New York or Ohio.
The situation highlights how unprepared we are in the war
on terrorism. By all accounts, it WASN'T the act of terrorists,
had it been though and the US would be absolutely CRIPPLED.
If so much infrastructure can evaporate from one incident,
the US obviously hasn't been concentrating its anti-terror
efforts. Why do we still have no discernable energy policy?
Why has the VP still not revealed the members of his energy
policy conferences? Why, in the 21st Century are we still
operating on a 19th Century power system?
A bright spot in this whole blackout episode is that people
will realize that we have the technology to create a distributed
power system with millions of generators in hybrid cars, and
solar panels on homes. With people able to sell their excess
power to the network, we wouldn't be so dependant on vertical
heirarchies. The new system would be patterned on the Internet
with a multi-routing system that's less vulnerable to these
types of shut downs. I hope people made lemonade with this
lemon-type situation by at least checking out the Perseids
or Mars...
Election '03
Immigrant Contenders
Seems the three major front runner in the California Governor's
race are all immigrants. Republican and arch conservative
candidate Arnold Schwartzenegger (born in Austria) is in a
statistical dead heat with centrist Democrat and Mexican-born
Cruz Bustamante. Polls released this week show Independent,
Greek-born Arianna Huffington running a close third.
Arnie's Advisors May Make Him Unelectable
Schwartzenegger has already shot himself in the foot by trying
to play up his immigrant status with Southern California Latino
voters by including former Governor and avowed racist, Pete
Wilson to his team of advisors and potential cabinet. Latino
voters remember Pete Wilson's anti-immigrant legislation and
sponsorship of the controversial proposition 187. Arnie didn't
endear himself to centrist voters with the inclusion of Reganite
and Bush Daddy confidante George Schultz in his team of advisors...
the only bright spot out of Arnie's camp this week was lifelong
Democrat and Mrs Arnie pal, Rob Lowe pledging to whip up the
circus atmosphere by doing PR.
Election '04
Bush's Economic "interest"
Interest rates were unchanged this week. That means they are
still at 1958 levels. What a feather in the Shrub's cap! Everyone
knows the main goal of conservatives is to keep the country's
financal affairs and cultural mindset stagnating in the 1950s.
This should play well to his base of supporters especially
because he's hitting them over the head with that other base...
Al Qaeda, which means 'the base' in Arabic... interesting
that good economic news coincides with no new warnings of
"possible attacks" = I'm not complaining about that...
JUST NOTICING, THAT'S ALL.
 The
Age of Imperialism
Death Toll Higher Than Ever
Reports rolled in DAILY about fresh attacks on US forces.
This week, the media has been quick to make the Defense Department's
distinction and labeled the loss of life as "non-combat
fatalities". Just because the Shrub says it's over doesn't
make it over... PEOPLE ARE STILL DYING FOR BUSH'S FOLLY.
"Winds" whip up trouble in Iraq
Seems that an American helicopter was flying close to
a tower in one of the poorer and hyper religious sections
of Baghdad this week. It's propellers whipped up the wind
around it and blew down some sort of Islamic flag or religious
symbols from the tower and the locals went ape-sh*t. Perception
is more important to reality, though the Pentagon only seems
to apply that fact to development of it's domestic propaganda.
In Iraq, word on the street is the US hates Islam and only
wants their oil. Many people in the US think the same thing
so obviously the US war department will have to fight the
battle for perceptions on all sides now.
Liberia
Overstretched resources were the major factor in ending the
Roman Empire... conservatives keep skreetching that we have
no US interests in Liberia while the Shrub says we have no
interest in Iraqi oil, that our only interest in Iraq is some
altruistic endeavor... why can't we have an altruistic interest
in Liberia? Considering the historical ties between the US
and Liberia, I can only come to the conclusion that the conservatives
don't want to get involved because the people are black and
they have no major oil supply.
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Week
Ending 17 August
Workin'
It 
