Cellphones adapted into microscopes (Is there an app for that?)

Using software he developed and about $10 of standard off-the-shelf parts, a solid-thinkin' dude named Aydogan Ozcan has converted camera-equipped cellphones into rather powerful microscopes.

When set up with the package, a cellphone like the Samsung model in the photo can image blood cells and bacteria. The phones can then send the data over a wireless network or be connected via USB to laptop computers. The potential for such devices are vast, considering that a doctor equipped with such a cellphone could diagnose malaria or other illnesses in very remote locations. What's particularly interesting from a technical perspective is that Ozcan's 'scope does NOT use lenses for magnification at all! It achieves microscopy by using the phone's camera to measure the scattering/interference pattern from light-emitting diodes shining on the sample. In other words, the package creates a magnified hologram of the sample being studied.

Very, very cool. Aydogan Ozcan has already started a company to further develop and market his work. No doubt it will be successful.

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Comic books found to increase childhood literacy

Comic books and graphic novels - once derided by "experts" as being the bane of adolescence and moral society in general - are now receiving praise for encouraging a love of reading while also greatly increasing the range of vocabulary in children.

According to a new study published in the journal School Library Monthly, comic books are just another form of literature that demands the same amount of reading comprehension as traditional novels or any other written material. Professor Carol Tilley of the University of Illinois notes that...

"Although they've long embraced picture books as appropriate children's literature, many adults – even teachers and librarians who willingly add comics to their collections – are too quick to dismiss the suitability of comics as texts for young readers. Any book can be good and any book can be bad, to some extent. It's up to the reader's personality and intellect. As a whole, comics are just another medium, another genre. If reading is to lead to any meaningful knowledge or comprehension, readers must approach a text with an understanding of the relevant social, linguistic and cultural conventions. And if you really consider how the pictures and words work together to tell a story, you can make the case that comics are just as complex as any other kind of literature."

I've written here before about how I grew up reading Marvel Comics' G.I. Joe. And there's no doubt that my own vocabulary was greatly enriched by reading that and other comic books (I should credit Larry Hama for being one of my favorite writers!) as well as starting off my interest in modern world history at an early age.

When you consider that much of written literature is description and exposition, adapting it into a visually-driven story that retains the depth of dialogue does make a lot of sense. And I've of the mind that it makes for much more compelling absorption than watching a movie version of the same material. Marvel's current adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, f'rinstance. While I'll always be fond of the 1994 television miniseries, the comic version is vastly superior in so many ways. If it had been around when I first read The Stand, I'd likely be that much more enticed to read the original novel afterward.

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Nancy Pelosi attempting to bring back debtors prisons!

Well, when the Speaker of the House is pushing "health care reform" that obligates people to purchase $15,000 of medical insurance or GO TO JAIL FOR FIVE YEARS, what the hell else are we supposed to call it?

Click here to read the report from Representative Dave Camp of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The House vote on this... thing... may come as early as today.

If this succeeds where everything else has not in honking off the citizenry into outraged action, I've got plenty of rope. And I can get a good deal on feathers too.

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If you haven't stopped by Sci-Fi Genre in Durham lately...

...then you really oughtta should check them out anew. I first wrote about this place a few months ago. Well, they're at the same location - 3215 Old Chapel Hill Road in Durham, North Carolina - but since then the store has expanded in size! There's now about twice the space as before, all of it devoted to more games, comic books, action figures and other collectibles. There's also a massive game room to meet and greet your fellow players in.

But don't take my word for how awesome a place Sci-Fi Genre is. Look who else thinks so too:

Yup, Robin Williams himself, who word on the street has it is not only an avid Warhammer 40,000 player but that he also collects and plays a wicked kewl Eldar army! Maybe someday he'll show up again and I can play him with my Orks (and I've heard Will Smith and Billy Crystal are also into Warhammer 40,000: maybe Sci-Fi Genre could host a celebrity tournament or something...)

Their website is at scifigenre.com. Tell 'em you heard about 'em on The Knight Shift!

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Alliterative observation

The prostitution of persona in the pursuit of power is the perishing of progress.

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A prayer from the heart

Dear Lord,

I know that it rains on the just and the unjust alike.

I'm trying hard not to doubt Your will, and Your timing.

Lord, all I'm asking is that You please let it fall not so hard for awhile on really good people who are going through a very hard time right now.

(And for all of you reading this blog, I'd really appreciate it if y'all would keep the McCollum and Webster families in your thoughts and prayers.)

The peace of Christ surpasses all understanding. Let it come now to they who need it most.

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Because there aren't enough movies based on board games getting made lately...

Sony Pictures has now bought up the rights to develop Parker Brothers' classic strategy game Risk into a feature film.

Read all about it here.

Unlike other properties like Monopoly (being adapted by Ridley Scott) and Candyland and Battleship, I can envision Risk being a kick-butt motion picture. It'll basically be World War III.

And every country on Earth fighting to control Australia, 'course...

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It's 5 o'clock in the morning

So what is your intrepid blogger doing at this wee hour?

Already working on a long-term project... while the TV is tuned to Encore.

And what's playing? Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.

This is gonna be one screwed-up day, I can tell already.

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Off-year post-election ponderance

Reflecting on something that I wrote the other day, in light of yesterday's elections in a number of places...

I can understand being happy that an individual candidate has won election.

I cannot understand being happy about a political party winning several elections.

Maybe it's just my cynical nature about such matters. Or that I've seen "control" flip back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans for many years now and there being no discernible difference between their respective collective performances.

What to call that? Enlightened? Disaffected? World-weary? Or just plain sick and tired of what must be called either mass ignorance or mass apathy?

If it weren't for knowing too much about history, I would probably be proud to be an apathetic voter. As it is, I'm bound to no party. Loyal to none but God and my own conscience. Granted, that doesn't tend to shift the polls appreciably much in an election...

...but as Martin Luther said at Worms: "Here I stand, I can do no other."

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Johnny Robertson: "God" by any other name...

Hasn't been much to report about local cult leader Johnny Robertson lately. In recent weeks he's been obsessed with attacking BTW, a competitor television station to WGSR in the Martinsville, Virginia market. Among other things Robertson has been blasting them for promoting shag dancing and "R-rated movies".

(I for one would like to know where in the Bible does Robertson find a proscription against R-rated movies. 'Tis a silly thing to fixate upon and it only demonstrates that Robertson is completely ignorant of the movie rating system to begin with, and why it was first implemented.)

Anyhoo, a few things about Robertson and his cult have crossed my virtual desk that I've been following up on. Nothing I can tip my hand to at the moment though. However, tonight I did receive the following observation in an e-mail. It's a very brilliant point, and one that I had not considered before.

Here's what another citizen of these parts has to say about the so-called "Church of Christ"...

"Johnny Robertson and his followers say that anyone not baptized into their Church Of Christ is damned to hell, and that means that Johnny Robertson has taken it upon himself to decide who gets into Heaven and who doesn't. If Johnny refuses to baptize someone because he hates that person then Johnny has made himself God."

Whoa whoa whoa now... That is absolutely true!

Let's break this down logically: Johnny Robertson declares that everyone not a part of his own twisted brand of "Church of Christ" is going to Hell. To be in the "Church of Christ" you must be water baptized. Water baptism is a requirement to get into Heaven, according to Johnny Robertson. And said water baptism is only performed by a "Church of Christ" minister.

That means that in the entire Reidsville/Martinsville/Danville area that there are only THREE OR FOUR individuals who are given the authority to baptize a person so that one can join the "Church of Christ" and get into Heaven! And everyone around here knows that Johnny Robertson controls the "Church of Christ" like a dictator.

So it only follows then that Robertson will control baptism like everything else in his cult.

So let's take lil' ol' me for sake of argument. Yours Truly has been called "devilish", "hellish", "the Antichrist", and many other things by Johnny Robertson. I also have it on strong authority that Robertson has prayed for my death and that he has said "I'm happy" about me "going to Hell" when I die.

I'll wager an RC Cola and a Moon Pie that I'm not on Johnny Robertson's list of "must baptize".

(Incidentally, my baptism was a little over ten years ago and was a very joyful and happy event. Robertson once told me that his own baptism was "miserable" and "wretched". What kind of person could possibly want to be baptized and have it remembered as a tragic event? I still can't figure that one out...)

Several witnesses have reported that Johnny Robertson has declared himself to be "God", even to his congregation in the Martinsville Church of Christ. If he actually believes that he has been empowered to decide who will be saved and who will not on the basis of his control of a temporal act, then I supposed in his dark and demented mind Robertson does believe he is God.

Sorta makes Johnny Robertson the Nazi-ish kommandant of a spiritual concentration camp, when you think about it...

(Would that make Charles Roark the equivalent to Joseph Goebbels? Probably.)

Thankfully however, not my salvation or anyone else's for that matter is in the hands of any other person on this earth. Thirteen years ago yesterday I found life abundant and free in Christ. A life that is not bound and shackled to legalism and "obeying the rules". I follow Christ because I want to, not because I have to.

And that is the life that awaits any one of us, at any time, and without having to first merit the approval of men who are just as fallen and in need of God's mercy as everyone else!

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ABC's revamp of V premiered tonight

Giant alien spacecraft arrive over dozens of major cities around the world and their leader - a sexy brunette in a revealing skirt and high heels - broadcasts a greeting in perfect English and all these other languages in 100,800,000 progressive high-def television, says her name is "Anna" and that humanity is the first sentient life they have ever encountered... and nobody on Earth is bothering to ask HOW the hell any of this is possible?!

Well, other than that...

(I'll interject that all of those previous plotholes were quickly forgotten just before the final commercial break, when Elizabeth Mitchell's character peeled back the skin and I screamed out "OH HELL YES!!")

I watched the premiere episode of V tonight on ABC and thought it was wildly and surprisingly good. I loved the original V miniseries from 1983, thought the following year's V: The Final Battle stank on ice and that the regular series that ran for one season was science fiction with an identity crisis: "Dallas in outer space" was nobody's idea of fun.

So what did we get tonight? A deftly produced update that sharply refocuses on Kenneth Johnson's original concept... which is what a lot of people wanted to see more of following the original miniseries to begin with.

Specifics? The first half was a tad bit slow, but everything ramped up like crazy in the folowing thirty minutes. In one hour we got just about all of the major elements of the classic V mythology: the Visitors, their real nature, their propaganda and how humans buy into it, the resistance, the "traitors"... all of it smartly overhauled and made meaner for a modern audience that after Lost and Battlestar Galactica is demanding more. I think V stands a good chance at delivering.

Other things: I thought Scott Wolf's character of Chad the journalist made for a far more convincing example of "situational ethics" than did the thing between the Visitors and Christine Walsh in the original. Looking back, Walsh caved way too early. Chad is a reporter who is all too aware of his career and his professional morals... and that cries out pending conflict. Elizabeth Mitchell, who has become one of my favorite players on Lost, is a treat here too: maybe a bit shallow in this initial act, but I thought the same of her Juliet character from Lost at first too, so I'm thinking she'll continue to impress as time goes on. My favorite character of the new V so far though has to be that Catholic priest played by Joel Gretsch: the sermon he gives about how trust has to be earned, not given away freely... that was a dimension that I never saw in V's original incarnation.

Overall, I thought that this promises to use extraordinarily inhuman catalysts to explore some very human conditions. So long as it remains true to character and doesn't spin out of control into a special-effects schlockfest (and keeping the rodent digestion to a minimum) I think ABC's V could develop into an exceptionally fine series.

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Anvil shooting: Firing anvils 200 feet into the air

Being into knifemaking I'd read about this before: how back in the old days blacksmiths would have "anvil shootings". There are conflicting stories about why the practice originated. Some say that it began when Union soldiers invading the South during the Civil War would try to destroy every anvil they found so as to break the Confederacy's ability to make weapons and other tools. Others hold, with some evidence backing them up, that there was a much more mundane purpose behind anvil shooting: that blacksmiths simply found it the quickest way to "clean up" an anvil after long periods of use.

However it started, there's no doubt that it was spectacular enough of a sight that for many years it became a favorite way to celebrate festive events throughout America, such as victory in war. But then with the increase of modern industry, anvil shooting began to decline.

And today, Gay Wilkinson and a number of others are bringing it back. Wilkinson is a world champion in the "sport" of anvil shooting. Points are added for each foot into the air the anvil is fired, and deducted for however many feet from the base it lands.

What does it look like? Here's Wilkinson preparing and firing his anvil...

HOLY COW!!!

That's about 200 feet straight up into the air that he shot that thing!

A good anvil costs anywhere between $150 and $300. I'd love to try this sometime, but the anvil we work with was made from scratch by Dad and is firmly welded to its supporting base (which has several feet of itself buried in the ground beneath the shop for extra stability).

That's probably a good thing :-P

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Birth of an ocean

It's long been speculated that the Great Rift Valley in Africa will someday split entirely and create a new ocean, but now we have hard scientific evidence that it's not just theoretical... it is happening now! In 2005 a massive, 35-mile long new rift opened up in Ethiopia (part of it pictured at top). According to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, it's been confirmed that the same process that happens on the ocean floors of the Atlantic and elsewhere (think Mid-Atlantic Ridge) is taking place in eastern Africa. Someday that rift that you see in the photo will split apart completely and become a whole new ocean!

So consider buying up beachfront property now. It'll be worth a lot of money... in a few million years or so.

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Come strolling with Ashley on McHale's Random Walks!

Ashley McHale, who is like the most smartest-est person that I have ever met, has just launched her blog! McHale's Random Walks promises to be "A collection of thoughts, usually math-themed, that are or are not my own". But folks seriously: I've known Ashley for a way long time and she is no doubt going to be sharing some tremendously deep wisdom and insight that God has blessed her with, in addition to all that mathematical stuff she does... which makes my head spin (no easy feat that).

Anyhoo: welcome to the blogosphere (again) Ashley! :-)

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And this is why I don't proclaim myself Republican

Awright, a disclaimer is in order: at the present time I am still registered as a Republican. That came about two years ago during my flirtation with running for House of Representatives in my district ('cuz some people were suggesting I take a stab at it, and we all know how much of a sucker I am for that sort of thing given how my Board of Education campaign began). So as of this writing I'm a Republican on paper and haven't bothered to change that.

What can I say folks? When it comes to things that don't really matter, I'm lazy.

And because I've only always voted for the candidate, never the party. Not once have I filled in the little bubble to vote a straight-party ticket. Hell, I'm of the mind that straight-ticket voting should be forbidden: a voter should be forced to THINK about the people he or she is casting a ballot for. That right came at a high price. Too high to be too convenient.

If you've read this blog for very long, y'all know where I stand on a lot of issues. I think this government taxes too high and spends too much. Our elected officials have forgotten that they serve us, and that we don't serve them. If a major corporation fails because of its own mismanagement, that's not my problem. Socialism only ever worked in the Book of Acts and among the Smurfs. Education belongs to the states and the communities, not the federal government. America doesn't need to stick its nose in places where it doesn't belong... and we can't afford to do that anymore either. I despise hypocrisy, I despise fraud, and I despise lusting for power and excusing it in the name of God. The last serious President of the United States was Ronald Reagan and everyone since 1989 has been inept, corrupt, unbalanced or all three. Abortion is the greatest failure of a shortsighted nation. An armed society is a polite society and one with statistically less crime. We shouldn't be afraid to tap into our own energy resources. I didn't vote for McCain or Obama in the 2008 election and my reward for that is getting to sleep soundly at night. And there is absolutely no faith to be had in the political parties... and I mean any political party.

I suppose that for the most part, conventional wisdom would land me in the Republican camp, being it that my values might be described as more "conservative".

But do I spend any of my precious time and energy shilling for the GOP?

Hell no.

And based on what I've been seeing from the special election tomorrow for New York's 23rd Congressional District, that sentiment ain't likely to change anytime soon.

Perhaps you've heard of it. It's been making quite the rounds on the news networks and the Intertubes. Until this past weekend it had been a three-way race between Republican Dierdre K. Scozzafava, Democrat William L. Owens... and Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Scozzafava, the "Republican" candidate, favors abortion "rights", supports "gay marriage" (it's not possible for such a thing to even exist... but that's an essay for another time), thought the "stimulus" was a great idea, and didn't even have to win a primary election to be on the ballot. The only reason Scozzafava is a candidate is because she was tapped to run by GOP party bosses in the proverbial "smoke-filled room".

Doug Hoffman, on the other hand, is more Republican than the Republican candidate. Except that Hoffman is not running as a Republican. He's running as a Conservative Party candidate.

And until this past weekend, that was more than enough to merit his good name getting smeared by the elites of the Republican Party.

For the past several weeks the National Republican Congressional Committee put out press release after press release supporting Scozzafava and blasting Hoffman. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele - a man that I have no respect for whatsoever - vowed unflinching backing of Scozzafava. Many other Republicans also followed suit by circling their wagons around Scozzafava and firing cheap shots at Hoffman.

And then there's Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker of the House not only endorsed Scozzafava, he insinuated that Hoffman has no real knowledge of his own district and declared that Hoffman's supporters were little more than an enraged fad. All that mattered to Gingrich was to get a Republican elected, ya see.

Then, stuff started happening. People all across the country began paying attention to the New York 23rd District race. They began contributing more to Hoffman - the alleged "spoiler" candidate - than to either of his two opponents. Sarah Palin endorsed Hoffman. A lot of long-time grassroots Republicans started getting honked-off angry at their party's leadership.

And then this past Saturday Dierdre Scozzafava withdrew from the race. It's now a two-way battle between Democrat William Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman.

So guess what happened next? All those Republican honchos who had vehemently stood up for Scozzafava had a conversion as profound as Paul's on the Damascus Road. The scales fell from their eyes, they recognized how blind they had been and declared they were now for Doug Hoffman!

Yah right.

Do they sincerely believe we're going to fall for that one?

Friends and neighbors, you and I know what really happened. Newt Gingrich, Michael Steele, and a lot of incumbent Republicans all over the place put their collective moistened finger in the air, felt which way the winds were blowing and decided that supporting Hoffman after all would be politically prudent.

Maybe so. But theirs are not actions of people of principle.

And that is why I do not count myself among the Republicans today. I can not be a Democrat because of that party's official stances on too many issues. But I can not be a Republican because of that party's lack of principle.

Now, you tell me which is the worse of the two.

As I see it from here, the Republican Party has a choice. It can give itself a good long enema and completely flush out the tired old blue-bloods and the elitists that have been running the show for more than twenty years, and allow some seriously fresh meat to take over. Or, it can keep with this foolish errand at preserving its brand name at the cost of ever-diminishing quality. It would mean an absolute repudiation of the neo-conservative and "bigger government" philosophies that have entered into the party during these many years, but doing so promises to yield a vibrant and robust party of principle for many years to come.

Or, it can hold steady to its present course, until the Republican Party goes the way of the Whigs and the Bull Moose.

As I noted earlier, any business that fails by its own lack of merit deserves to fail. Nobody should be asked to prop it up.

The same holds even more true for a political party.

The Republicans can re-define themselves, or fade away.

And as I see it on this end of things, the latter is the more probable. Perhaps even the more preferable.

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Think Switzerland is the world's most secretive place for banking?

According to the Tax Justice Network based out of Great Britain, the most secretive financial jurisdiction on Earth is actually... the state of Delaware.

Yeah, that Delaware: on the eastern seaboard of these United States! $2.6 trillion was deposited in this country by non-resident citizens and corporations in 2007, with Delaware leading the way...

The survey of laws, practices and size of inflows in 60 jurisdictions found Delaware coming in first, followed by Luxembourg and then Switzerland. The Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom round out the top five.

"While the U.S. has been jumping up and down and saying 'Aha, bad, wicked Swiss banks,' the U.S. is doing exactly the same things as far as non-resident bank account holders," said Sarah Lewis, executive director of the group, based in the U.K.

Switzerland has been the poster child for financial secrecy over the past year. The United State sued Swiss global banking giant UBS AG, which paid a $780 million fine to settle a lawsuit against it by the government. As part of the deal, UBS admitted it actively helped Americans evade U.S. taxes.

The ranking is based on a composite of total offshore activity and measures such as whether a jurisdiction obtains beneficial ownership information about companies and the degree of cooperation in turning over requested financial information.

Delaware is attractive because it does not tax profits realized outside the state and does not require companies to be physically present, according to the Tax Justice Network.

So if I ever win the lottery or write a best-selling novel, I'll know now that I don't need to fly to Europe or the Bahamas to stash my money: I can just drive a few hours north and put it in Delaware :-)

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Review of THE ESSENTIAL "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC

For more than thirty years (I'm counting his earliest submissions to The Dr. Demento Show too) "Weird Al" Yankovic has influenced culture just as much as he's parodied it. Sometime next year will come his thirteenth studio album. And while we're waiting for it, I have to recommend that you run out and buy (but don't illegally download, you hooligan!) The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic: a fantabulous two-disc set of 38 songs, all terrifically remastered, spanning Al's professional career.

It came out this past week and on Saturday night I bought my copy (on Halloween incidentally, so I was wearing my Jedi Knight costume when I went into the store... which was all the more appropriate since "Yoda" and "The Saga Begins" are both on the album :-). I spent most of yesterday listening to this two and a half hour treasury of Weird Al goodness. Like, three or four times, I think...

The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic is a musical odyssey not just of Al's career, but even of modern civilization... after humorous fashion. This is no mere compilation album, though each song is certainly a classic. But The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic must be appreciated as a monumental work in its own right. This set is absolutely a serious study in the beginning and development of a true musical artist. And not just Al either: his entire band - Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Steve Jay, Jim West and Rubén Valtierra - gets spotlighted for their talent in the liner notes. These guys have been wildly successful for three full decades and are now primed to enter their fourth with no end in sight. How does that happen? Listening to The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic, the lesson is clear for any who endeavor to succeed: do what makes you happy, but don't be afraid to grow and change.

Because that is a virtue that I doubt will go without respect upon listening to this album. Playing it all the way from "Another One Rides the Bus" (Al's 1980 debut on the charts) on through "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" (the parody of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet", from 2006's Straight Outta Lynwood) one can't help but hear the maturing of Al as both singer and songwriter. It's a quality that, I hate to say, isn't embraced as fully as it should be by too many in the arts and entertainment industry. I'm not going to "name any names" here, but I will comment that in my long-considered opinion it's much of the reason why "Weird Al" Yankovic's career has never waned, and indeed has only continued to find new fans even while maintaining the many faithful that he has already accumulated across thirty years and more.

As I said, there are 38 songs filling up two discs of The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic, including the extra gory version of "The Night Santa Went Crazy" and "Albuquerque" (Al's longest song to date, running more than 11 minutes). The set is about evenly split between Al's parodies and his originals, among which number some of his finest and funniest works, such as "Dare to be Stupid", "Don't Download this Song" and (one of my all-time favorites) "Trigger Happy".

Of course, the songs likely to be played most often are going to be the parodies. And I'm happy to report that most of the classics are here and sounding better than ever! "Eat It" and "Fat" are naturally part of the album. You'll also be glad to know that "Like a Surgeon", "Smells Like Nirvana", "Amish Paradise", "White & Nerdy" made the cut, as did "Jurassic Park" (only Weird Al could have taken Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park" and turned it into a song about rampaging dinosaurs). The one song that's not in this compilation that I wish had been included was "Couch Potato": Al's spoof of Eminem's "Lose Yourself". But then again, Disc 2 was already crowded enough with "Albuquerque" and "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", so that's likely just a quibble about technical issues.

I'll wrap this up by saying thusly: that The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic is a MUST-have album, whether you have just discovered Al's music or are a longtime fan. And, echoing the sentiments of the interior notes written by NPR Music's Stephen Thompson, this collection exemplifies why Weird Al more than deserves to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... along with finally getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

If you only buy one CD this year, make it The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic. And if you only buy six CDs this year, buy six copies of it!

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