Upstate Preschooler Tests Positive For Cocaine

"her teacher became suspicious when she saw the girl and her Head Start classmates playing with small balloons"
Yeah, that is odd for 4-year-olds

Troy Police Detective John Cooney said. "We don't routinely test our 4-year-old preschoolers for dangerous drugs."

Never too late to start

I worked my way though the AOL presidential candidate match Q&A form and I matched President Bush 100%.

Creepy.

I just noticed that I registered as an ebay user five years ago today.

I used ebay a bit before that, before it required registration, but five years ago I took the plunge.

Today I ran across a term that doesn't seem to appear (in the proper context) on google.

"Human Remains Case," which I took to be US Millitary speak for coffin, but actually it turned out to be another name for a "Transfer Case.".

Body bags are used for the battlefield and its rear areas. When the remains are ready for transport home, the body bag is placed in a transfer case, which is made of aluminum so it can be packed with ice to stay refrigerated. It is used to keep bodies intact at high altitudes, usually while en route to a mortuary.

The transfer case, which is reusable, is about 7 feet 4 inches long and costs the government about $1,100.

Jackson said the supply center had 301 transfer cases on hand as of late last year. It has ordered 156 in the past six months.

Jackson called human-remains containers possibly "the most difficult items you can try to plan for."

Joementum - More like Joe doesn't Jow when to Joe Jome.

Close, but no cigar. I guess all those New England states look alike to Kiwis. Saved in its entirety for prosperity

Kerry wins Vermont primary

FOX News and other networks now project Senator John Kerry as the winner of the Vermont primary race.

FOX gives the Massachusetts senator 39 per cent of the vote with former Vermont Governor Howard Dean trailing far behind at 25 per cent.

'Fifteen points can be seen as a blowout ... if it stays in double digits, I think the Dean camp is going to have a hard time making the case that Dean is the comeback kid,' said political analyst and Fox News contributor Susan Estrich on the interim results. 'I don't think the Dean people want to see a double-digit margin, not at all.'

The winner of the primary will receive the state's 22 national convention delegates, as well as incalculable political momentum in the contest to pick a Democratic challenger to President Bush, FOX reports.

Howard Dean had been the front runner in the race before losing in the Iowa causus race and, during a post-vote rally for his political workers, giving what has since been characterised as a bizarre speech culminating in a banshee-like screech.

Alarmed by the candidate's behaviour, many voters switched their allegiance to Senator Kerry.

Holy crap! Driver's ed teachers often state's best paid, some are earning 6-figure salaries.

Bradley Nelson, of Lyons Township High School District 204, was the highest paid driving instructor, taking home $151,830 during the 2002-2003 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education data. Nelson did not return phone calls.

Gee, I wonder why?

Cool story about the "Internet Pony Express": Rural Cambodia, Though Far Off the Grid, Is Finding Its Way Online

I just don't understand using CRT's on a solar-powered system. I cannot imagine that the costing makes sense to install the extra solar capacity to power real monitors is any cheaper than the price differential between LCD's and CRT's, historical differences aside.

[Via Gizmodo.]

"Reality TV" strikes a little too close to home.

Like many TV shows about doctors, lawyers and cops, "Crossing Jordan" relies on Hollywood prop houses for stacks of official-looking documents to lend its sets a feeling of realistic clutter.

Last week, however, the show's crew came across a box of prop papers that were a little too real for comfort.

The box held NBC hiring and personnel files on a number of the show's employees. Included were home addresses and phone numbers, copies of Social Security cards and detailed medical histories.

If Gov. Howard Dean really is the "Internet Candidate" then why don't his people have enough savvy to properly configure the web address DeanForAmerica.com? The only reason it works is due to some browser's abilities to detect a dead site and then add the www.- before the address in order to look for an actual functioning website.

This is a pretty amateurish error on the part of his web folks.

ASIDE: Prescriptions.org is cyber-squatting on wwwdeanforamerica.com. (Note the missing "." between the www and the rest of the address.)

UPDATE:As of 1/29/04 this was fixed.

 

Not much content for this post, I just wanted to share a couple of cool photos I spotted over on Yahoo this morning.

That's the AngryMean Dean action figure on the left, and a Coke Bottle shaped coffin over on the right.

 

Hey, any excuse to use my Leaky Leahy graphic:

Infiltration of files seen as extensive

A technician hired by the new judiciary chairman, Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, apparently made a mistake that allowed anyone to access newly created accounts on a Judiciary Committee server shared by both parties -- even though the accounts were supposed to restrict access only to those with the right password.

I'm pretty sure that this is a picture of a Lego minifig working the pole...

POW comes home after 50 years.

No mention of whether he gets back pay.

I noticed in a replay of Howard Dean's crazed speech last night that his cuffs were already undone when he took off his jacket. I'm not sure if it makes his actions more or less acceptable given the fact that it was apparently planned.

ASIDE: Imus this morning quipped, "When I see somebody roll up their sleeves, the next thing I expect them to be doing is carrying my bags out to the limousine."

Walking your dog can be really dangerous.
Sometimes you get lucky.
Sinkhole Swallows, Traps Woman Walking Dog
And sometimes you don't...
A woman walking her two dogs in the East Village was killed when she fell onto an electrified Con Ed cable cover
I guess if your number is up, they get you however they can.

Tonight on "The Handler" they used a prop FedEx box that had the following fake logo on it:

First time I've noticed a stage substitution of this logo. I've seen a lot of "Donut Donut" in place of "Dunkin Donut," but never something other than FedEx, and certainly not one so risque.

Be on the lookout for Osama Fin Laden.

[Courtesy Cryptogram.]

You know how people joke that if they become millionaires they'll buy out all their neigbors' lots to get some privacy. Well, Bill Gates is doing just that. Good for him, and boos to his crappy neigbors worried about it changing "the character and feel of the neighborhood." If they don't like it then let them buy up all the surrounding properties.

 

Assholes.

Firefighters from Niles watched a Weathersfield house burn for about 20 minutes Thursday afternoon without attempting to put it out because the fire occurred outside the city limits.
...
Instead, the Niles crew waited for the Weathersfield Fire Department to come and put out the blaze. Radcliff said Niles firefighters had three firetrucks at the scene and could have easily put out the fire.
...
Capt. Randy Ciminero of the Niles Fire Department confirmed his firefighters mistakenly were dispatched to the scene because the fire originally was thought to have been in Niles.

Since the fire was not in the city's jurisdiction, Ciminero said his firefighters just waited to make sure no one was injured.

Radcliff, whose house was no more than 200 yards from Niles city limits, was angry the Niles firefighters didn't help.

Ciminero said he didn't want his firefighters tied up with this fire when they could have been called out to a fire in Niles.

''I'm paid by the city of Niles. I'm paid to protect the property of the people of Niles,'' he said.
...
The Niles department was dispatched to the fire because the 911 call was made from a cell phone, and all cell phone calls go to the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Southington. The patrol dispatcher mistakenly notified the Niles department about the fire because Robbins Avenue also runs through Niles.

Firefighters from Weathersfield's Station No. 40, who were eventually called about 1:10 p.m., put out the fire. An official from the Weathersfield department said the fire was contained to a room and part of the attic.

I wonder if their deparment (used to) receive(s) any state taxpayer money?

I wonder if they ever (used to) receive mutual aid from neighboring cities?

I wonder if their locale has any sort of mass disaster plan? How effective might it be if shit like this happens around there?

I wonder if there is any local history to this story that would change my mind about these asshole firewatchers?

My guess, theory, opinion, based on nothing at all -- There is some Union bullshit behind all of this, like Niles having one ane the suburbs not having one. If not, they it's just pure ass-hattery.

Just damn.

So here's the real question:

If it turns out that the "Connecticut sized Gusev Crater" really did have a lake in it, did any martian contractors pay for upgrades to their Governor's lakeside cottage?

Unbelievable, and unbelievably clueless.

To Avoid Fuel Limits, Subaru Is Turning a Sedan Into a Truck

'This is a new low for the auto industry, and it would make George Orwell proud,' said Daniel Becker, a global warming expert at the Sierra Club.

I suppose that Mr. Daniel Becker has a hard time telling his ass from his elbow, much less a hole in the ground. Do you suppose he knows anything at all about Mr. Orwell's politics?

Rowland remains on Bush advisory panels amid scandal.

Rowland, who admitted last month that [sic] received gifts from friends, state employees and a state contractor, will continue to serve as state chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign in Connecticut, according to Madden.

Something seems to be missing from the highlighted portion above. Perhaps if the author had an editor he could spot the missing word.

State lawmakers are considering impeaching Rowland, and U.S. Reps. Rob Simmons and Christopher Shays, both Republicans, have called for his resignation.

I am firmly convinced that at least some of the Republicans calling for Governor Rowland to resign fear that if he sticks around they may well get caught up in the dragnet. Sure, they're worried that sharing a party affiliation with Rowland will sully their fine names come election time, but the intensity of their reactions makes me wonder just how many "gifts" of their own they've been accepting.

Hillary Clinton's Gandhi joke not a gas

"Clinton introduced a quote from Gandhi by saying: "He ran a gas station down in St Louis."

...Clinton said she never meant to fuel the stereotype that certain ethnic groups run America's petrol stations."

She didn't meant to fuel it? What did she mean?

Alleged lottery ticket loser has a shady past.

I just don't know what to make of this.

Unfortunate Quote Of The Day:

"He is actually a very sweet, spirited guy,"

I'll bet.

I'm sure this will be all over over the web soon, or maybe it already is, but there's an Aircraft carrier (decommissioned) for sale on ebay right now.