"The whole idea is to get people to work for me. I want to be the head honcho," said Quackenbush, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and pulls 10-hour shifts at the local Ford Ranger plant. "

Don't want a "real" job? Soon, you won't have to...

Will Gamers Buy What Game Sells?

"In what may be a first for the recording industry, Maverick Records and Vivendi Universal's online division are asking listeners to pay just under a dollar for an unprotected MP3 version of a new single."

Universal puts its toe in the water.

News: Record labels offer MP3 test for 99 cents

"Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of just five months. Some of them world leaders in developing weapons-grade biological plagues. Others the best in figuring out how to stop millions from dying because of biological weapons. Still others, experts in the theory of bioterrorism."

Well, here is a nice can of fuel for your conspiracy theories... This would make for one hell of a movie...

From The Globe and Mail; Microbiologists dropping like flies...

"all the news that nots fit to print"

This is a fairly good blog for strange news stories...

all the news thats not fit to print

* Read a good book (you already know how to do that)
* Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
* Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in an airliner seatback pocket, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records journal entries for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!"

BookCrossing.com - Home - READ and RELEASE!

SAN FRANCISCO, May 21 — Breaking with centuries of winemaking tradition, Bay Area vintners are starting to pull the plug on corks, hoping screw-on tops end cork-related spoilage.
A GROWING NUMBER of California wineries from Oakville to Santa Cruz are starting to seal even vintages selling at up to $100 a bottle with a screw cap, something long associated solely with cheap jug wines. Vintners are frustrated at the moldy smell and taste caused by “cork taint” — but they are also worried that tradition-minded customers may flip their lids.
Cork taint, as it is known in the industry, ruins a bottle of wine. It also means the winery may lose a customer, no small risk at a time when producers are trying to sell an abundance of California wines in a slow economy flooded by inexpensive imports.
“This is about making sure wine in the glass is as good as it can be,” said Terry Adams, winemaker for Sonoma-Cutrer Winery.

Winemakers pop corks; say screw it

"To get an idea of the explanatory power of Novelty Theory, take a look at The Time Wave and History, a large file which shows the full sweep of the Time Wave across several million years, right up to the Omega point."

The X-files ends by predicting the end of the world in 2012. The Mayan calendar ends on the Winter Solstice 2012, at a moment of alignment between the sun and the milky way which only occurs every 25,800 years.

I did more digging and found an even cooler theory.

Drug "researcher" Terrence McKenna (who saddly appears to have passed away two years ago) developed a complex mathmatical theory of a fractal "time wave" based on the I Ching in which "novelty" becomes increasingly common in waves until 2012 at which time the world ends. This site explains the whole thing (and also has an explaination of the Mayan calendar).

The "smiley bomber" tracked by many memestreamers predicted the end of the world in 2011... Must have been a typo.

A Roar of Approaching Cataracts

"Deathstick 24 oz. hammer with ax handle."

Doing some work around the house? Don't forget your deathstick.

Deathstick 24 oz. ax handle hammer

"A team of climatologists presented their work Tuesday, showing that temperatures in the United States fluctuated by 1.2 degrees Celsius more when airplanes were grounded than when normal flight patterns prevailed. That is, planes in the sky dampen the variability between day and nighttime temperatures. More air travel, the researchers suggest, brings less meteorological difference between noon and midnight. "

Hot on the Contrails of Weather

how do you tell a culture 10,000 years from now that we've created something dangerous?
This place is not a place of honor.
No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.
Nothing valued is here.
This place is a message and part of a system of messages.
Pay attention to it!
Sending this message was important to us.
We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

WIPP Exhibit: Message to 12,000 A.D.