Musings of the Great Eric

Because… the lure of April Fool’s Day is too hard to resist.

Slashdot Design Changes for Wider Appeal
Google Romance
China Buys Google
Yahoo Buys Web 2.0
Aliens Spotted in Google Earth
Duke Nukem Forever

Okay so I didn’t run across as many as I thought I would today (probably because it’s Saturday and I had other things to do, so for […]

Pentagon to Test a Huge Conventional Bomb
The June test will detonate 700 tons of heavy ammonium nitrate-fuel oil emulsion — creating a blast equivalent to 593 tons of TNT — in a 36-foot-deep hole near a tunnel in the center of the Nevada Test Site, according to official reports. It aims to allow scientists to […]

Boob Job Ban In Space
Women with boob jobs may be banned from Virgin’s space flights.
Bosses fear the implants may expand and burst due to cabin pressure, according to The Sun.
Dammit. Suddenly the idea of bouncing around on the moon is a lot less interesting.
Technorati Tags: funny, boobs, space, space tourism, Virgin

From a column in the Washington Post titled Bush Wanted War:
Whatever Bush’s specific reason or reasons, the one thing that’s so far missing from the record is proof of him looking for a genuine way out of war instead of looking for a way to get it started. Bush wanted war. He just didn’t want […]

Snarkmarket has a collection of the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005, as compiled in the book of the same name. I’ve only read about half so far but it’s truly some excellent, thought provoking stuff.
Technorati Tags: science, nature, writing

Prayer Doesn’t Aid Recovery, Study Finds
Praying for other people to recover from an illness is ineffective, according to the largest, best-designed study to examine the power of prayer to heal strangers at a distance.
The study of more than 1,800 heart-bypass patients found that those who had people praying for them had as many complications as […]

I wish I could go back in time to pick my high school comp sci teacher’s brains some more (or, simply had the will to go visit my old high school). Because I’m starting to realize just how many of the predictions he made circa 1998 came true.
For example, he described the evolution of new […]

Jon Stewart points out Fox News making a fool of itself (again). Crooks and Liars has the clip. It’s funny, and then you realize that there are actually people that tune to that channel for real information…
Technorati Tags: Newsmedia, Fox News, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, Funny

Wicked cool.
Technorati Tags: NASA, photos, eclipse

Gallup: In Shift, More Americans Now Call Themselves Democrats
In a (perhaps) historic shift, more Americans now consider themselves Democrats than Republicans, the Gallup organization revealed today.
Republicans had gained the upper hand in recent years, but 33% of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, now call themselves Democrats, with those favoring the GOP one point […]

There’s an excellent post on the West 116th Street Blog I where the author describes what it was like to cancel cable and the benefits thereof, and encouraging others to follow suit. The author makes a good argument and it’s well worth the read; I agree with all of her points.
Now, I have a confession […]

US debt clock running out of time, space
So rapid is the rise of the US national debt, that the last four digits of a giant digital signboard counting the moving total near New York’s Times Square move in seemingly random increments as they struggle to keep pace.
The national debt clock, as it is known, is […]

Washington Post (via Daily Kos):
WASHINGTON — Eyeing House and Senate elections this fall, Democrats are stepping up their effort to cut into the public perception that Republicans are stronger on national security.
Congressional Democrats vow to provide U.S. agents with the resources to hunt down Osama bin Laden and ensure a “responsible redeployment of U.S. forces” […]

Steve Ballmer plans to fix all of Microsoft’s woes by overusing cliched phrases. Sorry Steve, at this point you need something more than an ill-defined “offensive” to move Microsoft forward. Like releasing actual products instead of vaporware, and fixing your management issues?
The most humorous part of the interview:
Do you have an iPod?
No, I do not. […]

Hillary too sexy to win back the White House, screen siren says
ACTOR Sharon Stone has warned Hillary Rodham Clinton to stay out of the 2008 US presidential race, saying the New York senator and former first lady is too sexy to win back the keys to the White House.
I’m, too sexy for my shirt, too […]

Conference to Cover Cultural War on Christians
The War On Christians And The Values Voter in 2006 Conference will be held March 27-28 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
This is the first conference to cover every aspect of the cultural war on Christians — including attacks by Hollywood, the news media, gay activist and […]

CNN:
Two teams of government investigators using fake documents were able to enter the United States with enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs, according to a federal report made available Monday.

“It’s just an indictment of the system that it’s easier to get radiological material than it is to get cold medicine,” said a senior […]

Rove said cooperating in CIA leak inquiry:
According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, Bush’s senior adviser tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to information that led to the recent “discovery” of 250 pages of missing email from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.
Ah yes, when the shit […]

Believe me, it’s hard not to be excited about the idea of Astronauts building a moon base and eventually using it to get to Mars. It makes me feel all giddy with space age wonder and excitement. But I still think NASA is barking up the wrong tree here - the first order of business, […]

Once again Bush pisses on the constitution and thinks he’s above the law. I’m truly flabbergasted by the amount of contempt that he (and his party) shows for the democractic process.
For anyone who took fifth-grade social studies or sang “I’m Just a Bill,” how legislation turns to law always seemed pretty simple: The House passes […]