A sure-fire way to tell if it's going to snow

As I mentioned yesterday morning, we had the first winter storm of the season yesterday. The snow was just starting to come down at a good clip by the time I arrived at the station at 6:40 a.m. The rest of the day I watched it keep falling, then turn to sleet and rain. It wasn't much of a storm at all but it did prompt most of the schools around here to close early, so that gave us something to do all day, what with posting cancellations and all.

Even if it was a pretty minor storm, it did still snow. Which once again validates something that I heard years ago and thought it sounded rather silly at the time, but I've watched this happen so many times since then that I'm starting to wonder if it's a law of nature.

One night in the winter of 1993, when I was 18 years old, we heard some thunder at our house. Dad, sitting in his recliner, said that thunder in wintertime means it's going to snow 10 days from now. I was like "yeah right" especially 'cuz in 1993, our part of the country hadn't seen a real snow in three years: some younger children had never even remembered what snow is supposed to be.

Well, lo and behold, exactly ten days after it thundered, "the Storm of the Century" hit. That it started precisely ten days after we heard the thunder was something I thought of a lot during the next few days as we were trapped inside the house.

And ever since then, whenever I have heard thunder during the winter months, it has snowed almost precisely ten days (a couple of times nine days) later. The same thing happened in December of 1996: I was driving around Elon College with a friend and we heard thunder. "Geoff", I told him, "it's going to snow ten days from now." Geoff had never heard of that before either. But it snowed ten days later exactly and he went around saying "hey Chris said it was going to snow and..." A few years ago during our first winter since getting married, Lisa and I heard thunder one night in early December. Yup, ten days later we got an early snow. I don't think we heard anymore thunder during that winter but it sure snowed plenty enough.

Well, Monday night of last week we heard thunder here in Reidsville. Sure enough, ten days later we get the first snow of the season.

So now you know how to know for certain if/when it is going to snow. If you hear thunder sometime during the winter, it will snow ten days later. You can practically wager money on it. It works here in north-central North Carolina anyway. There may be some regional variation... but give or take a few days and it's something that will probably work where you live, too.

Read More

Art Buchwald has passed away

Darn. He was definitely an original. The local paper used to carry his column several years ago and there's no telling how many mornings I'd be cracking up laughing reading his stuff during homeroom in high school.

Here's one of the many stories about the man that came out today. Among his final wishes, Buchwald wanted his funeral to be "there, on the island, where I'd have a Blue Angel navy plane fly over the site. I would be cremated and my ashes would be dropped all over every cocktail party on Martha's Vineyard."

Last but not least, here is his final column, to be published after his death.

Read More

I'll go ahead and say it: America is dead

A New Hampshire man has barricaded himself inside his house while being tried in absentia on federal tax evasion charges. Ed Brown says he wants the federal government to show him where it states in law that he must pay something outside of his state and local taxes.

This is something that a lot of "tax resistors" have asked over the years. Funny thing is, nobody in the federal government has ever come forward to show where paying taxes to the feds actually is required by law.

Call me a kook for stating that, but that's a fact. Whenever a petition of grievance has been presented to the IRS or some other department of the federal government, that petition has been rebuffed without fail. On this, the feds do not answer to the little people.

You know what's going to happen to Ed Brown? He's going to be found guilty, without the jury even being told what precise law it is he is breaking. The law enforcement officers surrounding his house will get an order to "go in and get him". If he's lucky, Ed Brown will be arrested and his wife won't become a widow. That's if he's lucky. Because the "law enforcement" surrounding his house is probably made up of the ninja-suited "rack 'em and stack 'em" thugs that have a carnal desire to unload some lead into some poor shlub. They will probably go in and kill Ed Brown. And just about everyone else in this country is going to look at Ed Brown and nod their heads and quietly acquiesce to the government and just won't give a damn that one of their own got murdered for nothing more than daring to question the power of this God-damned government.

Yes, I said "God-damned"... and if I ever use that particular phrase, you better know that I'm serious, because I literally mean that this government is God-damned.

Want more? How about this: two Border Patrol agents yesterday started serving prison terms that will last more than a decade. Their "crime": shooting at a Mexican drug lord who had crossed the border into the United States. They shot and wounded the drug kingpin. The Bush Administration then had the illegal Mexican drug lord testify in court against the two Border Patrol agents and they were found guilty. Thousands of pleas for pardons have poured into the White House. Legislators have called on Bush to do the right thing. But the most evil, conceited, inept man to ever occupy the Oval Office has Decided that the two agents will stay in prison.

The President of the United States, who has sworn an oath to defend this country, including its borders, sends two of his own citizens to prison for doing the job that he refuses to do. And defends a criminal who wasn't supposed to be in this country anyway. All the while letting millions of illegals cross the border.

Once again, I defy anyone to defend, in any way shape or form, this damaged little man in the White House.

Somebody tell me: could God honestly bless this country, given how far we've fallen?

Is it at all possible for us to turn off the American Idol and put down the Xbox controller and stop drinking the beer and finally give a damn enough to tell Those In Power that "to this point and no further"?

When a government's sole preoccupation becomes the perpetuation by force of more government, then that government has lost all authority and the people under it are no longer morally beholden to it at all.

What do we owe the American government?

I'm not asking "what do we owe America?". I'm asking "what do we owe the American government?"

Why the hell should we do what "they" tell us to do?

Oh yeah, because they have guns and they aren't afraid to kill you. They will kill you if you don't do what They tell you to do.

There comes a point where disobedience to man is utmost obedience to God.

We fall prostrate all too readily before a god of money and metal and mindless pageantry. And we give nothing to the God of Heaven.

I know some Christians who actually think it's their moral duty to vote straight-ticket Republican.

As their brother in Christ, I can only say: "What fools they are!"

This country has been sold out by a gang of total bastards. And damn us for letting them get away with it.

Yeah, I'm more than a little bitter about some things...

So how does knowing all this make you feel?

And what are we going to do about it?

Read More

Winter weather finally arrives

Fox 8 WGHP is showing live footage of snow starting to fall here. We're supposed to get snow, sleet and freezing rain starting this morning and into this afternoon. The schools will probably be closing early today.

Now that we have the weather for it, it's time to come inside, throw some wood on the fire, snuggle up next to the one you love, and watch a timeless winter classic on the DVD player...

(Yes, I'm eeeee-vil :-P )

Read More

Happy Birthday to the Greatest

Cassius Clay - better known to the world as Muhammad Ali, is 65 years old today.

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!"

Read More

AMERICAN IDOL Season 6 tonight

At this point I'm not even going to try to avoid it. For the past few years I've said that I wouldn't watch American Idol again, only to take a curious peek at the vocal train wrecks in the first round of auditions and then getting sucked in for the rest of the season's run. But at least last year we got some real class with winner Taylor Hicks.

So I'm already saying that I'll be watching the two-hour season premiere tonight at 8. Which I'll admit it is pretty fun to listen to the bad ones then call up my parents to hear them laugh about them too.

Read More

Do we REALLY need a Martin Luther King holiday?

EDIT 6:01 AM 1-18-2007: I've decided to take this video down. Have been watching it a few times and... well, the delivery could be a lot better. I still have a lot of beliefs about this, and why this holiday is really doing more harm than good.

There's one thing that came from making this video that I'm glad of, that I didn't realize until now: that some people in our society really are keeping the younger generations from finding its own leaders... and we direly need those.

But I'm going to withdraw this one for now. There's a better way to deliver this same message, I just know it. But until I know what that should be, this one is going to go back to my hard drive.

Read More

Ouch!

Saddam Hussein's half-brother was decapitated during his execution by hanging.

The guards in charge of the execution used rope that was too long, was the problem. There's actually a mathematical formula that executioners are supposed to follow that takes in the condemned person's weight, height etc. and from that it spits out how long the rope should be. Too short and the guy dangles there and slowly suffocates. Too much rope and it takes the poor sap's head clean off. Ideally, the drop is abrupt enough to violently break the condemned's neck so as to bring about unconsciousness as quickly as possible.

There are some things you learn in history class that you can't "unlearn", if you know what I mean...

Read More

"Mass hysteria!": Net going nuts over alleged GHOSTBUSTERS game

In the past few hours Ain't It Cool News and quite a lot of other web outlets have passed on word about this... thing, that may or may not be a new Ghostbusters video game. Below are several videos credited to a company called ZootFly, that show the alleged game in action. It could be a fake though: some are saying that the below videos look somewhat like Gears of War for the Xbox 360. If this is something fan-made, an awful lot of effort must have gone into making this. It could also be a conceptual thing to sell the idea of a Ghostbusters game. But based on early reaction I'm seeing in a lot of places, this is something that many people are wanting to see happen.

Here's a piece of concept art that's making the rounds on the 'net right now:

And here's one of the videos (you can watch some more at the Ain't It Cool News link):

If this Ghostbusters thing is a real honest-to-goodness game coming out for the Xbox 360, that and Halo 3 alone would be enough to make me want to go out and buy the system (but I'll still wait to see if the "upgraded" Xbox 360 with HDMI port and 60 gig hard-drive materializes). I'm especially digging that this game - if it's a real game - is updating Ghostbusters to be gritty and hard-edged for the 21st century like this artwork is indicating.

Well, let's keep our fingers crossed (but don't cross the proton streams!) and maybe we'll see this. In the meantime if you've got an older game system or emulator software, you can always try to track down the Ghostbusters video game by Activision that came out twenty years ago. Even on the Atari 2600, it was a classic.

Read More

Robert Heinlein, Dick Cheney and the concept of sacrifice

Ever since I read Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers six years ago, I've thought that there was a lot of sense about the concept of government in that book. The movie version touches on it a little bit, but you really have to read the novel to fully appreciate the beauty of it. Heinlein posited in Starship Troopers that the responsibilities that come with governing and even the simple matter of voting belong only to those who have demonstrated that they are willing to serve and sacrifice for the greater good. Thus, only those who have served a minimum of two years in the military are allowed to vote and hold public office. As a result, the decision to engage in war is decided upon solely by those who fully understand the full risks and consequences of sending young men and women into battle.

Which brings us to the matter of Vice President Dick Cheney, who said this today...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President
Dick Cheney said on Sunday the United States must show it has the "stomach" to win in
Iraq or it will confirm al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's view that Americans can be pressured to leave.

U.S. allies helping in fighting terrorism -- Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Egypt -- must have confidence that the United States will stay until a successful outcome, he said.

"If the United States doesn't have the stomach to finish the task in Iraq, we put at risk what we've done in all of those other locations," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

A man who received FIVE deferments from draft service during the Vietnam conflict, telling America that it's obliged to have "the stomach" to keep sending its sons and daughters into a war with no clearly defined goal.

Dick Cheney does not understand sacrifice. Those are not his children that he's sending to fight in his war. Had he actually served in the military, he would perhaps have some moral basis on which to stand... but he doesn't even have that.

How the hell does Dick Cheney get off telling Americans that they must possess "the stomach" when he's always lacked it to begin with?

This war is being perpetuated upon us by a bunch of old men who never had the will to fight for themselves, but also have no qualms about sending young men off to die for their own selfish purpose.

Well, somebody has to say it...

Read More

About 24: It. Is. A. TV. Show.

Here's what Drudge Report is flashing as breaking news tonight...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN JAN 14, 2007 18:17:05 ET XXXXX

IS FOX SET TO BLOW THE NUKES ON '24'?
Sun Jan 14 2007 18:14:34 ET

As Washington continues to raise concerns about terror threats on The Homeland -- a recent CIA report outlined a scenerio of possible "series of explosions using 'low charge' nuclear weapons" -- Hollywood and FOX-TV are set to up the ante with the new season of 24!

Few outside of the 24 set know the exact details of the new season unfolding, but studio sources claim producers are pushing hard to take it radioactive this time -- and keep it there.

"Time to wake the country up!" a top FOX source told the DRUDGE REPORT over the weekend. "I do not think there has ever been TV done like this, the viewer is going to be completely riveted."

The source claims executives are prepared for any fallout from local municipalities that may be on the receiving end of plot turns and twists. How many cities 24 puts on 'nuke alert' is unclear.

FOX has set a highly-controversial espisode of 24 to air Monday night, opposite NBC's GOLDEN GLOBES.

In 2002, White House officials questioned the timing and release of PARAMOUNT's action movie SUM OF ALL FEARS -- a movie which depicts a nuclear bomb unleashed on an American sporting event!

One senior Bush official, who spoke to the DRUDGE REPORT at the time, claimed the movie crossed over the line of civic responsibility and commerce.

Developing...

Good grief... it really has come to this point, hasn't it?

I mean, the line now between real-life and fictional entertainment has become so blurred, that the possible use of nuclear weapons on an hour-long TV drama rates as serious breaking news. Worse, the producers are said to be "prepared" for the outcry from the cities they plan to wipe out. On the show. Not in the real world. Just on teevee. Which is fake...

And to think that some people thought that the whole "Who Shot J.R.?" thing was too much.

I tried to get into 24. Honest. I missed the first season except for the finale where Kiefer Sutherland shot Dennis Hopper about 5,348 times in the space of six seconds with that gun and thought that maybe I should give it a try the next season. That came along and I watched for about three episodes before it lost my interest. That's not to say 24 is a bad show, just that it's formula never caught hold with me. I've always thought that Kiefer Sutherland is a great actor, too (my favorite performance of his is probably in Flatliners). Maybe I'm missing something by not "getting" 24 and this really is supposed to be a big deal. But for what might happen on the new season of 24 to rate as serious news over everything else that's going on in this world... well, that says something about where our sense of priorities are, in my humble opinion.

But if anyone is willing to write me and tell me personally that I should give 24 another go and that this is something I could definitely dig, I might be willing to check it out again.

Read More

Bush Administration is violating the Bill of Rights... again

This time the government is examining the bank records of Americans "suspected" of having terrorist links.

How are we supposed to have faith that the government is not also examining the records of people who have come out with open disagreement about what this administration is doing? How can we possibly believe them that they have only the best of intentions at heart when they do things like this?

Well, how can we?

Amendment IV of the Constitution of the United States:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

So where are the justly-issued warrants in these searches?

Or is it that in the name of fighting "the terrorists", that things like that don't have to be adhered to any longer?

Why do "they hate us for our freedoms" when we don't really have freedoms to begin with anymore anyway?

Why should anyone believe that the America that is going to result from what these people are doing is going to eventually be an America worth defending at all someday?

What's going to keep another presidential administration from really abusing these powers sometime in the future, and probably sooner than later?

How can anyone, with a clear conscience, defend what the people in this administration are doing to this country?

Read More

Lend me your ear: ROME Season 2 starts tonight on HBO

At the end of the finale of the first season of Rome, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) was holding the body of his wife and we saw Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) holding hands with his ex-slave... who seemed to have already forgiven Titus for bashing the brains out of her fiance. Meanwhile the corpse of Gaius Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds) was starting to attract flies on the Senate floor.

Presumably, tonight's opener for Rome's second season will have the funeral of Caesar and the beginnings of the seizing of the empire by Mark Antony (James Purefoy) and Gaius Octavian (Max Pirkis), who is going to wind up becoming Caesar Augustus.

The first season of Rome was like The Sopranos B.C., and some of the most brutal yet captivating storytelling I've seen on television in recent years. Season 2 will hopefully bring more of the same. Enjoy it while you can though: word is that HBO won't be funding any more Rome beyond this season because of the production's high cost. Meaning that Rome is probably going to be like Carnivale: another HBO show that was ended before it could live up to its potential. Sic transit gloria mundi...

The revels begin again tonight at 9 p.m.

Read More

This little droid does everything but holograms

Rolling out from Nikko Home Electronics is the R2-D2 DVD Projector.

It projects DVDs up to an 80 inch width onto walls or ceilings with apparently really good image quality. "Artoo" also boasts an iPod port so you can play music through him, as well as playing standard music CDs. He also moves around with motorized wheels in his legs, and you control it all with a remote control shaped like the Millennium Falcon. He may not be able to project real holograms and he probably doesn't have any stolen plans for the Death Star inside him (or maybe he does, who knows?) but this still seems like a pretty snazzy toy for any Star Wars fan willing to pay $2000 for it. Thanks to "Weird" Ed for this great find and sending it this way!

Read More

2160p HDTV gets unveiled at CES

Westinghouse this week at the Consumer Electronics Show revealed their new HDTV technology: a 52" screen showing pictures at 2160p!

I don't know if the last two Star Wars prequels were even shot at resolution that high. It might even be something that rivals an IMAX image. Westinghouse is saying this new HDTV technology is meant for "high-end" uses like industry and medicine... so it'll probably be a while, if ever, that we see something like this in our living rooms.

Incidentally, the new set we bought a month and a half ago is a 37" set with 1080i HD resolution. A lot of people have told me that unless you are watching on a set bigger than 50", no one is able to tell the difference between a 1080p image and one at 1080i. I've been watching ours for any tell-tale flicker and so far I haven't seen any. So I'm expecting this set to last us several more years to come before we buy either a 1080p set... or one at 2160p :-)

Read More

HD-DVD versus Blu-ray: Let the pornographers decide!

The format war for what kind of high-definition DVD player you might be buying may have been won already by HD-DVD. Blu-ray, the high-def disc being pushed by Sony, is shying away from being used by creators of pornographic movies... which is leading them to adopt HD-DVD as their standard.

This is almost beat-for-beat what happened in the early 1980s between VHS and Betamax. Back then the porn industry chose to go with VHS, partly because of Sony's policies (Sony also made the stupid decision to only let their consumer units record about an hour of stuff, thinking that "nobody would want to record anything longer than an hour"). The result was that a lot more VHS players were bought as opposed to those who bought Betamax. A quarter century later and Sony is doing almost the same thing. You wouldn't think that something like porno would encourage that widespread an adoption of technology... but I guess enough people wanted VHS instead of Betamax just because of that.

I'm sort of hoping that HD-DVD will bear out in the long run, but not because of this. It has to do with the name: "HD-DVD" just sounds like the natural progression of DVD, where a lot of people will be told about Blu-ray and wonder "what's that?"

Read More

Fish 'n Flush toilet and aquarium

This is the second post in a row that has to do with toilets somehow: weird trend, that. The Fish 'n Flush has a standard toilet tank core surrounded by a transparent aquarium. Among such uses for this novelty, "Some people think we're nuts but other just love it and parents are using it to help their children with potty training." For $300 you too can have a school of fish swimming around the family throne.

Read More