Building with LEGO® is one of my favorite passtimes. For a Christmas gift this year my family decided that I “needed” to have the LEGO Taj Mahal set. This is one of the newest and is currently the largest piece count (5922).
Lego Taj Mahal Box
The box is not quite as big as the original Lego Star Destroyer. Impressive, nonetheless, when opened. (The couch is included for reference. 😉 )
Taj Mahal Box Opened
The pieces in this set are small. And there are a lot of them! This project is going to be fun, but tedious. One of the things that I can already see as being an issue is that the bags are not associated with any particular assembly, step, or even with one of the three instructions books. This is fairly typical of Lego. It would be nice if every set produced by Lego had the pieces organized in some rational way It would even be nice on large sets like this if each bag contained only pieces of one type.
Yep, that’s right. My wife was at work at a credit union today when some assmunch decided that today would be a good day to rob the branch. They didn’t catch him right away. He’s still running around enjoying the fruits of his illegal labors.
Fortunately everyone stayed calm and no one got hurt.
A few days back I posted a, slightly, sarcastic entry about “Longview’s Annual Snow (2008).” Since then it has actually snowed. The depth is rather substantial for Longview. Pictures are taken out the front window and the back sliding glass door. They show the progression from virtually nothing to the 8 inches or so that we have right now. All the pictures were taken with the iPhone.
I’ve posted a number of times about comment spam (here, here, and here) and how much I don’t like it.
I’ve recently seen new batch of spamming involving the Cuil Search Engine. Cuil is an interesting search engine that claims to index more of the Internet than Google. I don’t know whether the claims have any validity or not. The presentation of search results is interesting and different.
In the comments for a variety posting have appeared a number of items like the ones shown below. The Cuil spam comments are often posted to entries regarding comment spam.
Cuil Comment Spam
Apparently I’m not the only one that has seen this (Google this). Cuil claims that they are not responsible for the spam. I sincerely hope that’s the case. I use the Cuil search engine from time-to-time when I want something a little different than Google. But, if it turns out that Cuil is responsible then I will stop using there services even if they do index more of the Internet.
And if the spam is the result of some other entity trying to increase their page rank then they should recall that I review all comments and won’t post any.
P.S. I wonder if this entry will attract anyCuil comment spam? I hope not.
Well, it’s finally “snowing” here in Longview, Washington. If you call a few small flakes swirling about in the wind “snow.” As I write this and watch the snow out the window it is actually starting to turn some surfaces white. To be fair though, the house is down in the valley and many of the hills around here have received several inches of snow.
I’ll be surprised if we get any sort of accumulation here as we usually don’t. Every couple of years we get a couple of inches of snow that stay for up to a couple of days.
Apparently there are scenarios where the Apple iPhone thinks that the headphones are plugged in. For example here.
The solution is, as mentioned in many places, to repeatedly plug in and remove the jack. This will convince the phone that the headphones are not plugged in. Be sure to have the iPod playing something so you can hear when the phone resets itself.
It would be nice if Apple would determine what the source of the problem is and issue a patch that resolves it.
The same day that the Fox News web site was leading with an incindeary story about the “Office of the President-Elect,” they also had a funny story about National Public Radio (NPR) coverage of a prayer booth installed on public property in New York City.
NPR and the "Pagan Priestess"
The reporter in question, Margo Adler, has worked for NPR for many years and covered many, many stories for the broadcast network and is presently assigned to New York City. Why should her religious beliefs suddenly matter? Would Fox News have titled this story, and written the story itself, in the way that they did if a Christian reporter had been sent to cover the story in New York? How about a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddist, a Baha’i, or any member of dozens of other religions? I suspect that some faiths would not have garnered such attention or spin from Fox News and that a few others would have been treated similarly.
You can listen to the Margo Adler story that has so upset Fox News here.
I’m not a fan of Fox News (particularly the television network), but but I do read their web site (www.foxnews.com) as part of my efforts to remain informed. As long as you stay away from the overtly political “news” the stories are generally okay. To be certain their news stories do have more of a conservative slant (liberal media any one?). And that slant does lead to some funny stories.
In that vein, I’ve found a few things recently that have struck me as being funny.
The Office of the President-Elect
The “funny” aspect of this is why does it matter? Why does it need to be pointed out like this?
Barack Obama is the President-Elect. He certainly has an office somewhere. The American people are asking him to speak with authority on the various crises facing the USA and the world. It would be presumptious and gross breach of protocol for President-Elect Obama to be speaking from a podium labeled with the Presidential Seal and “President of the United States of America.”
The article that was behind the picture on the front page paints a different picture. The article actually discusses what is provided by the American people to the incoming president to enable a smooth and efficient transition of administrations. Among the things that are provided: funding to support a physical office.
The lead in to the story is what is “funny.” It tries to excite the reader into believing that President-Elect Obama is somehow usurping the role of President.
Everyday brings comment spam and, occassionally, there are gems in the spam that just make you laugh. You want to send the spammers a message that says “nice try.”
Admin, if you read this, please do not delete, just move it to flood or offtopic.
thanks.
Well, I do read the comments and, this shouldn’t come as a surprise, I’m not going to move it to “flood” or “offtopic.” I am going to delete it. Why? I see no reason to help you sell your noxious wares.
I’m not personally oppossed to pornography. There is a place for that type of activity involving consenting adults. The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees that right. But I’m under no obligation to help porn spammers, or any other spammers, make money.
Behind the screen you hear the clatter of dice. The Dungeon Master begins to laugh. What do you do?
