CafeChatNoir

Researchers make remake Neanderthal DNA

Oh, the jokes about my ex’s that keep coming to mind…

So, the ruling came down today in the case of the lost pants where a local judge decided he needed to sue the dry cleaners for $54 million dollars.

Well, the dry cleaners (and common sense) won.  And they were saying on CNBC that the plantiff is on the hook for the court costs to boot.

First, can someone tell me what birds like to be singing at the top of their little lungs at 1:30 in the morning? If we had a false dawn going on, I’d understand it, but these buggers are going on in the dark every night.

Well, the Padres lost 2-1 in a pitcher’s duel with Boston this evening, but it was still a good game to watch. Also discovered a relatively large heretofore unknown Angels contingent up at GD’s this evening. (That game had gone into extra innings when I left, no clue who may have pulled a rabbit out of thier ballcap on that one.)

Been a long week. Not bad, just really freakin’ long. Way too much time spent wondering what’s going to be the next big thing that hits, good or bad, and how to somehow steel myself for it. Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m trying to prep myself for change or subconsciously itching for it.

Not helping are the antibiotics I am on for some fun & games at the dentist week after next. If the water & food isn’t *just right* when I take them, I get a lovely bout of seasickness for a couple hours. (And considering that I don’t get seasick, even on a headboat in 6-8 foot waves, that’s saying something.) So far I’ve learned that a half can of soup is not adequate, nor is screwing around and finally getting around to eating 30 minutes later. (And yes, I can still drink beer & take these. Gotta love scientific progress.)

Note to self: Keep Mox on the leash when near my car.

I’m not big on lawsuits, but frankly, if a plane piloted by the FBI ran into my Lamborghini, I’d be contacting my lawyer, too.

And it’s only taken me 35 years, but this week I finally made a decent omelet, that actually looked and tasted like an omelet, rather than the “scrambled eggs with cheese and stuff” that ususally results from my efforts. (Seriously, if you have trouble with omelets, get hold of Alton Brown’s Good Eats episode, “Zen and the art of Omelet Making” - between the awesome dorky science and the visuals, you will be able to do it. It may take a couple times of watching it, but it eventually will sink in.) I still attribute part of the success to the use of bacon grease in the process. Don’t get me wrong - a farmer’s scramble isn’t a bad thing by any means, but when you’re jonesing for an omelet, well, a scramble just doesn’t quite cut it as a substitute.

In your culinary/religious news (a bit late, but noteworthy regardless…) - Flying Spaghetti Monster on Toast. (To be perfectly honest, when I clicked I expected a misidentified softshell crab sandwich.)

And to finish off this long and occasionally surreal week, I just got an email from one of my former partners-in-crime at the software shop - the same person I was thinking today, “Damn, I need to poke him and see what he’s up to.” We always were on the same freaky wavelength. (Probably why there seemed to always be some dumbass affair rumor going around. Sorry, but if you paid attention, we were too busy debugging software together to do anything else.)

Aussies repelled gunboats in Persian Gulf.

Having had the privilege of working with the Australians back in my days of greasing the wheels of the military industrial complex, this does not surprise me one bit.

“Highly colourful language” indeed.

And now we know why the Vatican had to put out it’s driving commandments:

Priest, recently out of rehab, crashes car into restaurant and is charged with DWI.

But all I find is weird and annoying.

Why do I see Homeland Security somehow getting involved in this and confiscating the monitor and placing charges of illegal wiretapping? A baby monitor in Chicago is picking up NASA video.

For the “I’m so proud of our city” files - Judge suing dry cleaners for $54M. The case has been around for a while and should be finished up in the next week. What I would really like to see is this: Defendant pays for a replacement pair of pants. Plaintiff has to pay all court and legal costs of all parties for bringing forth such a freakin’ ridiculous lawsuit that should have never gone anywhere besides small claims court.

More toxic toothpaste!! This time it’s in the US, it’s counterfeit and branded as Colgate.

Kids, don’t drink, get naked and drive.

After discovering that I need to check my toothpaste to make sure it’s not made in China, that was the first question to pop into my head. Of course, I already know the answer - money & politics.

Completely setting aside the money/politics aspect of it, there really isn’t any other reason we can’t make just about anything in the US. I’ve tried in the past (and still do) to buy things that are made locally and/or in the US - and fail miserably most of the time.

Not that product contaminations and such can’t happen in the US, because they do, but I am getting a little tired of the crap coming out of China at the moment.

To Mr. Andrew Speaker, the 31 year old personal injury lawyer who exposed who knows how many people to a drug resistant strain of tuberculosis.

Dear Dumbass,

Yes, you heard me right. You’re doing a bang up job of furthering the stereotype that lawyers are a bunch of self-absorbed twits, which you most certainly are.

You knew you had tuberculosis before you left the country. What on earth would ever, EVER make you think that traveling was an acceptable course of action? It’s freakin’ tuberculosis, you moron. This is not like getting on a plane with touch of a head cold. Just because you “felt fine” doesn’t mean YOU’RE NOT SICK OR CONTAGIOUS.

Of course, I really love the fact that when you found out it was a drug resistant strain that you decided to take it mildly seriously - and yet again ignored orders NOT to travel and got on another long haul flight. Brilliant. Sure, you said it was because you were afraid you wouldn’t survive if you didn’t get home right away, but why is your health and well being more important than anyone else’s? A simple phone call to the embassy in Rome could have gotten the ball rolling on getting you back to the US without putting more people in harm’s way.

The folks on the news were pondering whether or not your father-in-law (who works with TB at the Centers for Disease Control) should somehow be brought into the inquiry - right now I’m sure he’s just beating his head into the wall over the fact that his daughter married such an idiot - punishment enough I think.

I caught a statement you made on the news earlier this evening that shows that you still don’t get it. You’re complaining about the fact that you are under quarantine with an armed guard. Frankly, the way you’ve acted so far, I think it’s probably the only thing that is keeping you from showing up at the Starbucks in downtown Denver.

I would think that as a personal injury lawyer you would really understand the concept of gross negligence, but apparently not. Frankly, if I was one of the folks you exposed to this, I’d be standing outside your hospital room so I could be the first to pop you in the mouth when they let you out.

I’d like to think that maybe you’ve learned something from this whole debacle, but I am guessing you’ll just find someone else to blame and sue them.

You may end up having to apologize to your entire customer base…

But, I’m glad to see LiveJournal/Six Apart are least reviewing things instead of simply sticking with “your account was reported, therefore it is automatically suspended” tack they were taking yesterday. Granted, it’s what they should have done in the first place, because it seems that many of these accounts could have been easily fixed to be within TOS parameters, but at least they’re doing it.

Honestly, I’m not surprised at how this has played out. I’m sure this has NOT been a fun week for the abuse team - having a group like Warriors for Innocence decide to target your site and customers has to be somewhat disconcerting to say the least. I can see why it went straight to suspensions. But at the same time, it’s not like these journals were ever completely wiped off the map and I’m hardly shocked that they’re now actually reviewing them.

Glad they’re fixing it. Shame that cooler heads weren’t around when it all hit the fan in the first place.

CDC warns about contact lens solution

Drunk man parks horse in German bank - An early-morning German bank customer had a bit of a shock when he found a horse already in line at the automatic teller machine in front of him.

As you’ve probably heard by now, there was a mass shooting down at Virginia Tech this morning.

Last report had 30 deaths, including the shooter, one in the dorms, and the rest in Norris Hall. The local news outlets are scrambling to get additional information on what actually happened and why, and of course, speculation is running rampant.

An incredibly sad day for that campus.

ETA: The Associated Press is now confirming 31 deaths.

Woman tries to sell it all on eBay.

I can completely see the appeal in doing this - there isn’t much better than having a clean slate to work with, and this would definitely do it.

New Zealand Scientists may microwave Colossal squid

No, no, no - if you put it in the microwave, it’s going to get all chewy…

So, you’ve probably heard by now that a US Appeals Court has struck down the DC gun ban. I live outside of DC, so this ban hasn’t directly affected me and the change really doesn’t affect me right now either, as I don’t own a firearm at the present time.

Now, the Mayor has indicated he is going to appeal the decision, AND “said the city will vigorously enforce its handgun law” as he said the ruling “only addressed handgun possession in the home, not whether the city can regulate handguns elsewhere” and frankly, I’m waiting for some form of legal injunction to effectively nullify the court’s decision for the time being.

So, obviously we’ve not seen the end of this just yet. What I find amusing & somewhat annoying is how CNN has been reporting it, with comments along these lines: “District residents are doing something this weekend that they haven’t been able to do in 30 years - have a gun.”

OK, let’s think about this. If you’re a law abiding DC resident, you don’t have a handgun. Given the gun ban, I’m pretty sure that no one has been able to set up shop in DC since Friday afternoon to sell firearms. So, unless every DC resident that wanted a gun came out to Virginia and bought one this weekend (and I’m not even sure that Virginia shops can sell to DC residents, regardless of this court ruling), then really - who is actually now walking around with a gun that wasn’t on Friday morning?

Sorry CNN, but I don’t think evey DC resident now has a gun.

Or Pancake Day, depending on from where you hail…

There will be pancakes here today, which could be interesting given that I can’t even remember the last time I made pancakes. If nothing else, there will be bacon - made up a bit of the paprika bacon I picked up from the butcher shop yesterday and it is GOOD. Properly thick sliced bacon is oh so, so good. Mmmm, bacon.

Nope, not Catholic - just appropriating the fun parts of Lenten season for myself.

Saw this come across the wires this morning: Twelve step program aims to cure email addiction. Put down the crackberry and back away slowly - you’re just not that important. I can only speak for myself but I’ve found over the years that when you’re having problems managing god knows how many emails, it’s usually because of carelessness on the part of the sender. How many emails have you gotten that have been sent to everyone and their brother and have absolutely nothing to do with you? Yet, you still have to take the time to read it and discover that it is meaningless. So, lets have some classes on how to properly send email so it gets to the necessary parties and doesn’t bother anyone else…

In other news, JetBlue is setting out a customer bill of rights. Now, I’m glad they’re addressing the problems on the tarmac from last week - this is a good thing. However, didn’t something like this happen just recently to another airline? (American, I think?) I’d say when something like that happens, even if it’s one of your competitors and not you, wouldn’t you want to have a little sit-down with folks and say, “Hey, what do we have in place to make sure something like that disaster doesn’t happen to our airline?”

I understand how they got out on the tarmacs in the first place - they got information (unfortunately incorrect) that the weather was going to change in short order and they’d be able to take off. OK, I can see going ahead and leaving the gate for that. However, I still can’t understand why it could take upwards of 8 to 11 hours to realize that the weather isn’t going to change after all… And I do understand that when you’ve got planes coming in, planes on the tarmac, a limited amount of gates you can get to, it becomes a logistical challenge to be sure. But dayum, have a hard go/no-go point and if it’s no-go, then get the wheels turning to get that plane back to the gate - don’t just sit there and keep hoping the weather will change.

Thanks to Unknown_Progrmr for the heads up on this.

If you’ve got Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter with a code starting with 2111 on the lid, you can toss it or return it to ConAgra for a refund - it’s been linked to a salmonella outbreak.

Before you blow it off thinking you haven’t bought peanut butter recently and this is “new” - check the pantry. Surprised the hell out of me when I discovered a jar with the 2111 code…

Yesterday on CNBC I watched a slew of folks getting their knickers in a twist over some news coming out from Bank of America. The news? They’re offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers, which in more than a few cases are undocumented aliens in the United States.

The responses to this ranged from “well, it gets them in the system in one way or another” to “they’re effectively going to finance the next terrorist attack!”

To begin with, what BoA is doing is not new, nor is it illegal. Personally, I don’t have a problem with providing tools of commerce to people, regardless of whether or not they are citizens of this country. Additionally, if the financial institutions doing this are willing to take on the associated risks of these programs, that is their perogative. I don’t honestly think that terrorists are going to be busting down the doors at BoA to get credit cards anytime soon.

I do question the whole thing for a couple different reasons. If I were an undocumented/illegal alien in the country, I don’t think I’d want to be doing anything that would be creating a paper trail if at all possible, and a credit card does exactly that. I will be very interested to see how this program works for BoA - I know they’re looking for some growth out of it, but I would expect that at least some of their anticipated customer base may be somewhat reluctant to come forward.

Second, from a financial institution perspective - at what point is the government going to come knocking on the door and saying, “OK, all those credit card customers you have with no SSN’s? We want names, addresses, phone numbers, everything.” Maybe it would never happen, but in the current political environment, I think it’s at least somewhat within the realm of possibility.

Yes, there are lots of legitimate and legal reasons to be in the country and not have a Social Security number, and I’m sure for those folks having access to a credit card off a US based bank could be a nice thing to have. (Though I had no problems with my US MasterCard while in London…)

For the folks out there that are flailing about over this, the answer is really not that complicated. First, don’t take your banking business to BoA. Second, lobby your representatives to change the law. Making ridiculous statements about terrorism helps nothing.

Got my laptop back this afternoon, in almost working order. They neglected to actually activate the new drive, so 30 seconds of cussing and clicking and now I have a fully functioning system. It’s funny how you get completely used to a particular computer and then when you get stuck with another one, you’re just stumbling around in the dark for a while.

And I’m celebrating having a working CD/DVD drive again by ripping mp3’s off a bunch of CD’s. :)

Steve - I’m totally with you on this one. Trash DRM. Consumers want true portability, and DRM doesn’t help that. And shouldn’t it be about who is listening to the music?

985,000 Easy Bake Ovens Recalled

When I was a little one, I oh so wanted an Easy Bake oven. Never did get one - my mother kept saying something about having access to a perfectly good full sized kitchen whenever I wanted.

But I was just entranced - tiny exquisite cakes! Perfectly decorated little sugar cookies! Sprinkles! Frostings! For whatever reason, I felt the Easy Bake would turn me into the next Julia Child.  (As any well marketed kitchen gadget should do.)

It wasn’t just that I coveted the Easy Bake due to it’s well cemented place in pop culture. In one of Louisa May Alcott’s books (either Good Wives or Little Men, I can’t remember now) there is a whole scene in which a little girl has a real miniature stove/oven setup. As in little cast-iron, coal fired, the real deal and she then goes about setting up a dinner party. I thought that was just the absolute coolest thing and thought it was a definite shame that I couldn’t get hold of that.

Overall, I think the biggest draw was the fact that the Easy Bake oven was MY size. Sure, I had a whole kitchen I could use just for the asking, but it was sized for a bunch of grownups and I definitely was not. I couldn’t reach a damn thing, I managed to whack my head on the oven door handle more times than I could count and generally, when your tools just don’t fit you, it’s not quite as much fun.

Should I ever find myself with little ones that have an interest in mucking around in the kitchen, I need to remember this and figure out some ways to make it work without having to resort to a crappy Easy Bake oven…

Well, I guess it goes to show that even if you work for NASA, you can still be a little bit of a nutjob when it comes to love & romance.

Astronaut charged with kidnap attempt

When it comes to stupid relationship stuff, at least I can say I’ve never done anything that stupid. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think this would have made anything but the local news in Orlando if she hadn’t been an astronaut.  People go a bit around the bend when it comes to love and such every day of the week.

Totally unrelated, the Puppy Bowl that Animal Planet did is the absolute cutest thing I’ve seen on TV in a long time.

Virginia is on the Texas bandwagon now, but there will be opt-out options.

Link via DCist.

This just came across the wires: Texas Governor Rick Perry Issues Order Requiring HPV Vaccine

However, parents can opt-out for “reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs”, which in my eyes takes it from an “order” to a “suggestion”. Even with that, I am sure there will folks on both sides of the debate completely up in arms over it.

Some interesting info from CNBC on this - apparently the Texas governor has close ties with Merck, who makes the vaccine, and their Texas lobbyist used to be on the governor’s staff. Talk about things that make you go Hmmmm. He’s also considered to be fairly right-wing/conservative, so that makes the order a little more surprising, at least to me. It will be interesting to see what political fallout (if any) there is over this with his constituency.

As far as the vaccine itself goes, if I had daughters, I’d most likely get them vaccinated for it, school requirements or not. (I say “most likely” because at the moment, I don’t have all the information needed to make a final decision. Or a daughter.) I’m just not big on government mandating what I see as a decision to be made by parents & health care providers.

I still don’t understand the argument that this will somehow encourage girls to be sexually active. It just really doesn’t make sense to me. If you genuinely think this is going to make your daughter turn into a trollop, then I’d say it’s time to sit down and have a very long talk with them.

I also don’t like hearing the words “cancer vaccine” get thrown around as it is NOT - it’s a vaccine against a virus, and you could get the vaccine and still get cervical cancer.

It’s $360 for the full series of doses, which not everyone has just sitting around. It will be included in the federal Vaccines for Children program, but there is still going to be a gap of families that don’t qualify for VfC or state programs and don’t have it covered by their insurance plans. The Texas order doesn’t go into effect until September of next year, so in theory most insurance plans that are going to cover it will have picked it up by then. Personally, I imagine it will be covered like other childhood vaccines are, given that $360 is cheap compared to cancer treatments.

Several other states are considering similar measures at this time. Maryland has already dropped a proposal to mandate the vaccine for school admission stating that there are “too many vaccine requirements” for schoolchildren already. Which I suppose sounds better than, “We really don’t want to get into this entire mess, thanks.”

I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster and drank pina coladas. At sunset we made love like sea otters. *That* was a pretty good day. Why couldn’t I get that day over and over and over… - Groundhog Day

Well, seems the groundhog didn’t see his shadow this morning, which is fine by my, cause I’m not much of a winter gal anyway. If we’re not getting snow, I’d rather it be over 75 degrees.

Kentucky Derby Winner Barbaro euthanized after additional complications from his injuries last year.