….cause there’s no more benjamins. Monopoly and VISA team up overseas to replace the colored cash of our childhood with phony plastic. Wonder how much they raise your rates if you miss a payment?

First time the space shuttle has been launched on the 4th of July

photo credit: nasa

Court’s decision rejects many redistricting questions
and
Court Nixes Part of Texas Political Map

Ahhh, the unbiased media!

Downtown Dallas has seen it’s share of warehouse fires over the years and here’s another one:

A large fire near downtown Dallas damaged at least two businesses in a large warehouse Monday night.

…and while I appreciate the due diligence…

The cause of the fire, in the 100 block of Glass Street near the intersection of Oak Lawn Avenue and Industrial Boulevard, had not been determined.

…I’m not sure that it’s going to be all that much of a mystery:

The building houses Antique Drapery Rod Co. and its sister company, Anna Sova, which makes sheets and candles, said Jez Luckett, an accounts manager for Antique Drapery Rod.

Scientists employed trackers to plunge through dense jungle and collect the fresh feces of wild apes more than 1,300 samples in all.

And no, I didn’t find this listed on monster.com. Wired has an interesting article about the genetic trace of HIV back to chimpanzees in Cameroon. Turns out the common genetic base points towards the development of the SIV antibodies in geographically dinstinct communities of the chimps. The transmission from chimps to humans is still, and probably always will be, a little foggy.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health’s AIDS chief, postulates on the pickng-up of the poop:

When tracing a virus’ evolution, “it’s important to get as close to the source as you can,” he said. “It’s of historic interest.”

We can go ahead and lose the hysterics on this one guys.

“This is like Y2K except this one is really happening,” said university IT spokesman Steve Tally.

Indiana joining the rest of the country in observing daylight savings time is NOT going to plunge the state into darkness or cause the banking system to lose track of acoount balances.

You might miss a meeting. You might be hungry at the wrong times. You might be late for work. Of course, I might be late as well considering my weekend is shorted a full 3600 seconds. I know I regain that time in the fall, but it’s so much nicer to stay out late and know that you can actually sleep in for an extra hour. But observing daylight savings time and the reasons behind it are a whole other article.

My suggestion, just look at your watch….after you set it forward one hour.

I had two RSS feeds open up next to each other today in my browser and thought they were an interesting match. Briefly, one’s about the selection of blondes in the evolution process, the other is about the evolution of the news media and the selection of blondes. Turn that around. (p.s. sorry about the mid-career madonna-foolery in the title)

Didn’t think I was going to get interested in the winter games this year, but I caught a little last night and perked right up. Makes me miss Tahoe a little. Makes me wish I could luge even more. You get praised for laying still. How awesome is that!

Of course the NBC wants you to watch the entire 2 weeks, so one thing the network did not make easy to find is a simple, one-page schedule. Thankfully the internet in all it’s bounty has provided for us. Whether you want to catch the world class curling or shooting on skiis, now you’ll know when to turn on that tube.

I’m with the 57% of American who don’t wish for unlimited phone privileges on an airplane. Offices with cubes are bad enough, think about 135 people in a metal tube all with cell phones. All talking. The whole flight.

I know myself well enough to understand that I am not responsible enough to not annoy grandma in front of me or sleepy, red-eye traveler behind me. I would talk too loud for someone. And someone would probably be talking over me. Turn the phone off, put the phone down…and just enjoy the little spare time that we receive between cities.

After deliberately passing up fantastic deals from multiple companies, due to the fact that it required me to front capital and then remind the company via snail mail to send me back my cash minus any earnings during that “investment period”, good news seems to be right around the corner. Best Buy has announced that they are discontinuing notebook mail-in rebates. Hopefully this will spread across all product lines and allow the consumer to save rather than forget.