OK, I'm going off on a rant here (apologies to Dennis Miller)... I hear something on the radio this morning about Blender magazine's list of the 40 worst lyricists in rock. Number 1 is Sting, and I'm on the fence about that, but then they get to Number 2: Neil Peart, drummer/songwriter for Rush. OK, now you've pissed me off.

I take enough flack for liking Rush (my wife doesn't get it, but then I don't get her love of Bruce Springsteen, though she grew up near his house... but I digress...) from those who don't consider them a real band, determine them to be formulaic, and generally have contempt for their music. Like being a Red Sox fan, you learn to live with it. But this just shows how far some people have their head up their ass. While no one will confuse Neil with Shakespeare, the songs he's written over the year have heft and resonance, and he does come up with the occasional turn of phrase that leaves you scratching your head, but then have you listened to some of today's pop tunes or rap songs? It just goes to show that intellectual snobbery is alive and well in the universe, especially when it comes to criticism.

I also found number 10 interesting: Jim Morrison. Now, you can go two ways here: his lyrics can be out there, but the fact is, backed up by the music, he created a lot of powerful stuff. Again, too intellectual for "the critics."

George Takei is now an astronomical object. Well, his name is anyway. The International Astronomical Union's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature approved the re-naming of asteroid 1994 GT9 to 7307 Takei in honor of the Star Trek actor.

...of the impending apocalypse. That and the general ignorance of people.

Video- "The View" co-host doesn't know if the world is round or flat

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

- Ronald Reagan

It is bad enough that the Chinese government tries to control people in this life, now they are trying to do the same in the next life. According to a Newsweek article, the Chinese government is attempting to legislate reincarnation. Specifically, they have passed a law to regulate how Buddhists reincarnate themselves. This is seen as an indirect stab at the Dalai Lama, since theoretically he is reincarnated in Tibet, and the law would "prevent" Buddhists living outside Tibet from reincarnating in Tibet. This could lead to a scenario where Buddhists are faced with two Dalai Lamas: one the true reincarnation and the other a Chinese-picked version. No matter how you cut it, this has to be one of the more idiotic ideas ever posited.

From the "I told you so!" department, comes an article in the LA Times that should come as no surprise. Now that Hugo Chavez is firmly ensconced as leader of Venezuela, he is seeking to remove the term limit provision from the Venezuelan constitution. He proposed adding one year to the term of the President, making it 7 years, then eliminating the 2-term limit. Thus, he would be President of Venezuela until 2013, and then be able to run perpetually. To quote the article:

Not unlike Hitler and his friend Fidel Castro, he's seeking to do this through legal means, to give it the veneer of legality while behind the scenes he is setting up his dictatorship-for-life. Following the pattern of the centuries, he's throwing state money at social programs, causing the people to believe that he is their champion. Give it ten years, and he will be firmly entrenched, busy stamping out all opposition while continuing to profess his love of the Venezuelan people even as he gives them no choice in how their country is run.

History repeats itself.

Well, I guess this was inevitable, though I would have thought something like this would have happened in California. Apparently, a couple in China is try to name their child '@'. At first glance this seems ridiculous, but the explanation behind it is interesting:

Can you imagine this kid trying to fill out an online form? I'm thinking Prince would approve.

Ever since I lost my job last month, I find myself Slashdotting a lot less, even though I'm on the computer almost every hour looking for work. I'm beginning to think that Slashdot is a lot less attractive when you have all the time in the world to read it and respond, perhaps because there's no external pressure to type fast and make it look like you're doing actual work.

Take the case of this GEICO customer from Cybertron

I'm hoping to shift gears in my IT career, and it would seem Linux is a good direction to go. I'm currently going to try and turn an old PC I have into an Ubuntu server so I can get some hands-on experience, but I'd really like to find a good program to become a Linux sysadmin, especially if it were something I could do on-line. Anyone have any ideas?

Imagine my shock to see Roger Waters' name on a CNN by-line, but there was a link to it on the CNN home page: Pink Floyd founder: Can you spare a dollar? I've known Roger to be attracted to causes, always a little uneasy with the wealth and fame his career has brought him and looking for a way to give back. I wasn't surprised when he joined up with his old Pink Floyd mates for Live8.

And he makes valid points. Poverty is widespread and rampant, and not only affects places like Africa, but here in the US as well. From a security standpoint, those who live in poverty and despair are a ripe recruiting ground for the disaffected, people who would like nothing better than to strike back at those they see as responsible for their plight. From a health standpoint, poverty is the breeding ground for some of the bitterest plagues of the 20th and 21st century: Ebola, AIDS, malaria, etc. From a human standpoint, how can we sleep knowing that others are suffering so?

I am not a bleeding-heart by any stretch, but I've done my fair share of suffering and spent a lot of time being poor. This is the kind of thing that touches me personally, because but for the grace of God and country, I would be amongst them...

As usual, this xkcd comic is funny: Internet communities as D& D map.

Wellington Grey brings us this peek at the inner workings of the typical Slashdot user. When you analyze it, it's not a bad representation of how things work. Mind you, I think too much emphasis is put on the effect of work... but that's just me.

I think this speaks for itself: Nugent: Gun-free zones are recipe for disaster. On the one hand, you have to admire his stones. On the other hand, there is a tiny kernel of truth. Frankly I don't think the answer is as simple as he makes it out to be, or as obvious as everyone thinks it is.

My wife got one of those urban legend emails from a co-worker about typing your PIN in reverse at an ATM to summon police. Of course I had to tell her it was not a reality, though reading the Snopes article, I began to wonder just why it wasn't? They sighted the fact that banks don't want the expense, that people would have a hard time transposing their PIN backwards, and that by the time police were alerted the person and perpetrator would be long gone. But then again, what if you did have the presence of mind to type in your PIN backwards, and a call did go out to the police, and by doing so you triggered a special surveillance system in the area of the ATM which took video from various angles of the whole area surrounding the ATM? It sounds like you have the potential to save lives and more importantly generate evidence of a crime that might come in handy later. It makes no sense to have some kind of universal number, since crooks would know about it and be wary of you trying to punch it in.

As an aside, xkcd.com has a funny cartoon about Snopes.com.