J.K. Rowling has finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She apparently likes this book best of all seven.
Ms. Rowling has this to say on her website. I quote it in its entirety, because she doesn’t seem to have an archive for past comments and I don’t want you to miss it. (more…)
Did you know Miami is the southeastern U.S. port of entry for the majority of fresh produce? If you live Kentucky, most of your fridge is shipped (by truck!) from Miami. Think about that the next time you go to the grocery store.
Miami is also the nations largest port of entry for fresh flowers. Check out this mornings story on Morning Edition no, I’m not a latte-drinking, volvo-driving NPR-listening Hippie. That’s my wife. I just listen to NPR without the rest of that stuff
In an otherwise dry report, the Belleville News Democrat compares road de-icing to table seasoning.
In all, the Missouri Department of Transportation has used 240,000 tons – which is enough to cover the yearly table salt demand of Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Tennessee.
Arggh. This is like those comparisons the Discovery channel uses when they want you to think something is REALLY big. “Almost 100 million millimeters!”
A trucker on the I-495 beltway around Washington D.C. overturned and spilled 165,000 eggs. “Karbonski said it looked like a large omelet on the road.” At least this officer can attach a cogent metaphor.
In the dry-but-interesting category, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano issued an order prohibiting bi-fuel vehicles in HOV lanes. State legislators object to what they see as an executive authority overstep.
It keeps getting closer. As the computing power of the cellphone increases, and as data gathering techniques mature, the cellphone is becoming the leading choice for collecting real-time traffic data.
The Gwinnet Gladiators are having a traffic-themed game on the 24th of February, as reported by Hockey Rants. Check out the jersey!
A friend recently reported that a customer called the restaurant where he works. Here is the paraphrased conversation:
Friend: “Good evening. May I help you?”
Customer: “Are the clocks set correctly on your registers? I’ve a receipt here that says 7:45 by I know I was there at 8:30.”
Friend: “I’ll check, sir.”
…
Friend: “Yes, sir, the clocks are all correct.”
Customer: “Well, my wife wants to know where I was for that 45 minutes and I want you to tell her that I was at the restaurant!”
Ahhh, fidelity.
In that vein, there was a Monday article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about how Valentine’s Day is especially busy for private investigators (reg. req’d). A lot of cheating spouses can’t resist meeting their paramours on February 14th. In the spirit of euphemism and innuendo, here is a quote from the article.
[The private investigator] checked into the room next door, and through the thin walls, captured what she euphemistically described as ‘a lot of audio.’ “They’d go out to eat, come back, and we’d catch some more audio,” she said.
As mentioned in my post of April 7, 2006, Robert Jordan, the author of The Wheel of Time, was diagnosed with amyloidosis and has been undergoing treatment since May.
Silly me, I had figured that the Tor website where I first caught the news would occasionally have updates, at least to say, “He’s not dead yet.” I continue to be unimpressed by Tor’s web presence. They need to take some pages from the manual of Baen Books.
I apparently haven’t been shopping around the right web spaces. An article in Forbes brought me up to speed. It covers the difference between a fan and a FAN. The first type likes RJ’s books and the second is willing to donate bone marrow for his treatment.
Latest prediction is that the last book will be out in 2009, at some obscenely high page-count. RJ has stated in my presence that there will be only one more book, if we have to wheel it out of Barnes and Noble with a handcart.
Hopefully, RJ’s illness will go into complete remission and he will be able to get back to the writing that he loves. Personally, if it is a choice between the man’s life and the end of the Wheel of Time, I say that he should concentrate on recovery.
Robert Jordan’s struggle with amyloidosis and other things is chronicled in his blog.
I’m not one of those adults that does crazy things with LEGOS like make Serenity from scratch
If I were, this would make my year.
Traffic congestion information hotline may cause more congestion, according to an advocacy group.
In Dubai they paint cars. In the western european tradition, Americans break stuff.
Someone claims that certain signal hardware can be forced to change phase by activating the pedestrian pushbutton in a specific manner. I’ll have to try it out and see. Thanks to Kristin for sending this to me. Hi Kristin!
Apparently drivers won’t respect a bicyclist as much if they are wearing a helmet.
If you’re a public service employee who doesn’t want to work, just make up your own civil service rules.
I’m listening to this recorded call about a humongously amazingly moronic customer service nightmare. Apparently, up until last month, Verizon did not recognize the difference between $0.002 and 0.002¢.
You must listen to this and be amazed. These people are out there and doing your taxes. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Thanks to bmenyuk on Livejournal for showing this to me
That was tongue in cheek, by the way
I guess NASA’s Astronaut psych evaluations can miss things occasionally.
From CNN: Astronaut arrested on attempted kidnapping charges.
Read the story. This is pretty off-the-wall stuff. What really drives home the screwiness is this line.
Inside the car, police found a half-dozen latex gloves, MapQuest directions from Houston to Orlando International Airport, e-mails from Shipman to Oefelein, diapers that Nowak said she used to eliminate stops along the highway…
This little drive was from Houston to Orlando. That’s a long way with only a diaper for company.
I used to live in Lubbock Texas. You may have heard about it last night on Heroes wherein our chirpy protagonista Claire is supposedly skipping school to visit the aquarium there (Aquarium? Lubbock? Bobby Knight must have brought it with him).
Apparently, there’s been some excitement recently. Enough hit the AP wires at least. A man has been setting traps on the bike trails around town to deter bicyclists from riding in environmentally sensitive areas. As one of my friends might say, “Freaking Hippies!” Not that I don’t applaud this man’s goal, but his methods seem a bit…ummmm, felonius.
If you click on the previous link, you’ll notice that it is a google search page. As of 6 Feb 07, there were tons and tons of hits to this story, most from news organizations. But if you search within the local Lubbock Avalanche Journal’s website you get…nothing.
It’s good to see that the citizens of West Texas are being well served by their news companies. “If you don’t know about it, ask a neighbor,” while true in Lubbock, doesn’t help anyone who wants to research the archives.
…my TiVo were hooked up to my network. Then I could rip a shot of the car that George Takei’s character from Heroes was riding in.
License number = NCC 1701
There is no knowing the Evil Eyebrow
Twenty Twenty-Five
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