Two sequels to INDEPENDENCE DAY being produced

"Welcome to Urf"... again.(Hah-hah-hah, did you see what I did there? Did you?!) Word breaking this afternoon is that TWO sequels to the 1996 sci-fi blockbuster Independence Day are in the works. Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich are trying to get everyone from the original back on board. Right now the follow-ups are titled ID Forever Part One and ID Forever Part Two. How...

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Why the hell do we even have embassies in Egypt and Libya?

Civility is a chosen virtue. It cannot be imposed or expected from those who refuse to accept it and its responsibilities.Time to get out of the Mid-East until "countries" like Egypt and Libya learn to behave. Pull EVERYTHING out, including all those billions of dollars of aid they get from us one way or another.If they want to return to barbarism that bad enough, who are we to stop th...

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Fire the striking Chicago teachers... and ban them from the classroom for life

More than 400,000 schoolchildren in Chicago are without educators today after the teachers union there went on strike. I say "educators" lightly because by some accounts nearly 80% of eighth graders in Chicago public schools don't have adequate reading skills.So these "teachers", who are already paid on average between $71,000 and $76,000 before benefits, and are only working nine months out of the year anyway, are going on strike because a 16%...

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Hound of the Baskervilles?

It is seriously foggy this morning. Like, the kind of fog that Arthur Conan Doyle used to vividly describe as covering the moors of Britain in his Sherlock Holmes stories.So after letting Tammy out to do her "doggie business", the notion struck that there might be a photo opportunity.And here she is, bounding out of the mists like a ferocious creature in murderous pursuit...

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"Asylum of the Daleks": Season premiere of DOCTOR WHO is certifiably insanely good!

Is it just me, or has Doctor Who suddenly become a bigger presence in American pop culture than ever before? Every Barnes & Noble I've been into lately has an entire table devoted to Doctor Who books and other merchandise. Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly earlier this summer. A friend in Roanoke spotted a comic book store this...

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Kristen's Korner: "My Bipolar Boyfriend"

Yesterday evening the lovely and effervescent Kristen told me that she had composed a lil' something for this blog. I had no idea she was working on this, but after reading it I couldn't help but think that she expressed some things about bipolar disorder better than I have and maybe ever could. And she wants to write more stuff for this site, too! So expect more out of...

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About the Republican National Convention...

Since three readers have asked me this afternoon what I think about the Republican National Convention going on right now in Tampa... and about the crazy rules changes that the Romney camp seems to be hellbent on implementing... maybe that means I'm supposed to post something.So here it is:It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Republican party were to split apart after this election, and maybe even before then.If so, I can't see how that would be...

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An open letter to the citizens of New Orleans

Dear people of New Orleans:Right now Isaac is still a tropical storm. But we all know how fickle these Atlantic cyclone systems can be. It could still draw enough strength from the warm waters of the Gulf to intensify into a major hurricane. And at the moment most of the computer models have it following the same track that Katrina did seven years ago.I blogged a lot about Katrina and its aftermath in 2005. Most of it had to do with the failures...

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"The Eagle has landed."

Neil Armstrong1930 - 201...

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Jerry Nelson has passed away

Late last night it hit me that I haven't posted any classic Sesame Street clips in quite some time. And I almost went for another Bert and Ernie skit. Even had one picked out. It just sorta popped into mind for no apparent reason. Dunno why I didn't use it at the time but it was like something was telling me, "wait". Maybe it was providential...The very sad news today is that Jerry Nelson, legendary puppeteer who brought Count von Count, Herry...

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Todd Akin is why the 17th Amendment was always a bad idea

As I intimated in my previous post, I arrived way late to witness the tempest surrounding Todd Akin at the apparent zenith of its wrath. But now that friends have caught me up to speed on it...Let's ignore for the moment that what Akin said is not an isolated incident. That in fact ridiculous, nonsensical and downright ignorant statements seem to be a chronic malady of those in high office (how Sheila Jackson Lee is still in Congress, I haven't...

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It's late, I'm tired and maybe a little cranky...

I'm just getting back home from a few days and this is what I find... Harry Harrison passed away last week, Tony Scott died yesterday and now tonight word is that Phyllis Diller has left us.Augusta National Golf Club has caved and is now admitting women as members.And some congressman named Akin is all over my news feed about "legitimate rape" or somesuch, whatever that is.Last night Kristen and I saw The Expendables 2. 'Twas the most dumbest fun/funnest...

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BEING BIPOLAR, Part 6: Back In The Saddle Again

This is the sixth installment of an ongoing and admittedly irregular series on The Knight Shift about what it is like to have the mental illness called bipolar disorder. I am attempting this endeavor with candor, with honesty, and at times with humor. If you're a new-ish reader of this blog you may wish to read the previous entries of Being Bipolar and check out the video...

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Russian Devolution

In 1917 Russia, the revolution to overthrow the government was started by the Bolsheviks. In 2012 Russia, the revolution to overthrow the government is being started by Pussy Riot. I'm telling y'all here and now: our grandchildren's high school history books are going to be something else...

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Photography at 1 trillion frames per second

My mind is reeling from thinking about the applications possible with this...A sharp-thinking dude named Ramesh Raskar and his team of techies have come up with a way to take photos... at 1,000,000,000,000 frames per second. That's fast enough to watch an individual packet of photons from a laser moving through a soda bottle and being able to observe how the light particles scatter throughout.And if you watch the video, you can also see how this...

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6 Inches of Freedom: City of Reidsville discriminating against disabled! Pro-Monument protestors given "ridiculous" amount of space! ADA violation could incur $$$ penalties!

The Police Department of the City of Reidsville has as of late last week implemented and begun enforcing a policy of limiting those protesting for the return of the Confederate Soldiers Monument to a six-inch wide raised enclosure surrounding the former site of the monument, The Knight Shift has learned. Those who do not limit themselves to this "area" will be arrested.This...

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A question about Paul Ryan

Longtime readers of this blog know that I'm for fiscal conservatism and letting the free market be responsible for itself, without government interference. Meaning that among other things that I've never thought anything favorable about government bailout programs.A few days ago Mitt Romney, the assumed Republican candidate for President, announced that Paul Ryan would be his running mate in this fall's election.Paul Ryan is being touted as a "Tea...

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