for you, Jean.

someone has invented a working tractor beam.
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an idea for a reality show i'd watch.

A high school substitute teacher was fired after taking off her shirt in class and teaching in her sports bra.

she should have known: if the shirt goes, the bra goes.

''It didn't seem like a big deal, but maybe something's totally wrong with me,'' Gibson said.

it's much more difficult to find photos of a bilby than you'd think.

here's the Australian Bilby Appreciation Society with a photo. even better, they have a cute little plush Easter Bilby.

jokes like this crack me up beyond belief.

i'm a simpleton, i know.

Dark Horizons has a report on a visit to the set of the live action Scooby Doo. no new photos, but there is a brief paragraph recapping a talk with Sarah Michelle Gellar that suggests that Buffne (hey, it's better that Daphy) might do a little butt kicking.

[Michael Elashoff] was assigned to review Relenza, the new flu drug developed by Glaxo Wellcome. He recommended against approval.

"The drug has no proven efficacy for the treatment of influenza in the U.S. population, no proven effect on reducing person-to-person transmissibility, and no proven impact on preventing influenza," Elashoff wrote, adding that many patients would be exposed to risks "while deriving no benefit."

An agency advisory committee agreed and on Feb. 24 voted 13 to 4 against approving Relenza.

After the vote, senior FDA officials upbraided Elashoff. They stripped him of his review of another flu drug. They told him he would no longer make presentations to the advisory committee. And they approved Relenza as a safe and effective flu drug.

the LA Times report on the FDA's changed role in protecting public health by working as a partnership with pharmaceutical companies. the author won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for this article (yes, yes, i'm just now getting around to reading it).

this is interesting: U.S. loses seat on U.N. Human Rights Commission.

i hate work. please, someone volunteer to be my sugardaddy.

have some interesting search referrals:

• Striped s_xy g_rls. i hadn't thought of stripes as being s_xy. i took a look to see what kind of sites come up before i decided that they must have been looking for stripped s_xy g_rls.
  
• Celine Dion Naked photo. why?
  
• ingredients for a meth lab.
  
• Jack Klugman fan club.
  
• vanessa williams tooth
  
• one that i won't name here (though i'll still provide the link!) because i don't want too many people coming here in search of anything related to !ñç꧆.
  
• and of course, i'm still getting lots of hits for S_xy S__di G_rls and S_xy S__di W_m_n. it's 17% of my site traffic. i need to figure out a way to make money off this.

speaking of searches, to the right, i have added a search thingie. it's main purpose is for me, since it only searches my blog, and allows me to indulge in my self-linking fascination (see ninja entry, below), and because i often forget that i've blogged something and end up blogging it again a couple of days months later. i'm absent minded like that.

oh boy! something ninja-ey to keep me occupied.

i never realized how often i seem to mention ninjas and their skills..

Fox will broadcast the unaired last four episodes of Freakylinks in June.

for anyone who missed them (if you're not watching Buffy, you should be), here are some recap/reviews of Buffy and Angel.

you say you want to see a UK mini-series spin-off of Buffy that features Giles back home? maybe you will.

this book was released two days ago and already the publisher has it listed as out-of-stock. i am displeased. i don't have a copy yet. i must have one. i think i know where to get one tonight.

however, i don't know if i should get one. funds are limited right now, so limited that it could be the difference between having food and not. the little Voice of Responsibility (hidden WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY back in the back of me brain) says in a stern voice "Do NOT buy the book." there's the Voice of Gotta-Have-New-Toys (which is right up in the front part of the brain) says "It's just one book, and twenty bucks really isn't that much, and it certainly can't buy much food anyway." then there's the Voice of Changeling-Product-Consumer-Panic that screams "BUT IT'S A LIMITED PRINT RUN AND AFTER THIS THEY WON'T PRINT ANYMORE AND THE ONLY WAY TO GET IT WILL BE ON EBAY FOR ABOUT A HUNDRED BUCKS, SO YOU'RE ACTUALLY SAVING EIGHTY DOLLARS THAT YOU CAN SPEND ON FOOD AND THAT'S A RESPONSIBLE THING TO DO SO GO BUY THE BOOK." i have to listen to and satisfy all three voices if i want to feel good about my decision, so i throw them all in a big kettle, turn up the heat and simmer for a while to get my answer, which is.... child trafficking, narcotics smuggling and prostituition are excellent ways to get cash for food AND books.

anyone wanna put me in touch with some infertile European couples, drug cartels/DEA/CIA (same thing) or pimps?

an archive on the American Eugenics Movement.
[Khan Noonien Singh created by Memepool]

eeg? Sandra Bullock as Wonder Woman? rumors of George Clooney as the lead in Batman: Year One disputed (thankfully. he's a little too old) and get ready for the funniest thing this side of Genosha: the Fantastic Four!

Bush said today's threats come from "a small number of missiles" in the hands of rogue states "for whom terror and blackmail are a way of life."

yup, rogue states like Nebraska and Delaware, surpassed only by Canada in criminaliness (heh, i like that word).

Bush wants to scrap a thirty year old ABM treaty with Russia.

Black Penn State students demand protection.

condom manufacturers pleased.

something to be proud of: we've just finished the fourth month of the year, and Oklahoma had it's 11th execution last night.

"I expected an apology" from Marilyn Plantz before she died, Cotton [sister of the victim and sister-in-law to the condemned] said. "We did not get it."

had Cotton been apologized to, would she have asked that Plantz be spared?

Buffy: they did it. they let Glory suck Tara's brain. not a happy moment. and poor Willow, running to get to Tara, catching glimpses of Gloria just as she starts the sucking, trying to cast a spell but stopped by all the visiters to the multicultural fair until it's too late. damn ethnicity! if everyone on television was white like they were back in the '50s, there wouldn't have been a multicultural fair slowing Willow down. she might have stopped Glory and saved Tara.

on the bright side though, it REALLY pissed Willow off. i've been waiting to see her cut loose on someone and do some magickal ass kicking. go go Willow! she was a little scary though, so i think i'll be nice to witches from now on.

what else happened? Giles gets tough on the hobbit leper (cool); Anya goes all patriotic (not cool), but mostly in a capitalistic way (sorta cool); Spike tells Dawn "stop it. you're not evil" (cool); Spike should look into getting something to cover those bruises (talk to Buffy. i'm sure she has some Maybelline he could use); Glory's a lush ("Mimosa. mmm. vitamins!" i don't think there's a vitamin -OH); got to see Glory doing some evil superpowerful breaking stuff (but i still don't think it was up to Hellgod snuff. i think she's got a lot more to dish out. she's holding back); Xander... was he even in this ep?

and, the episode ended with a major "oh shit!", one we knew was coming but still made me exclaim, as i said, 'oh shit!'. (see, there's a reason we lock insane people away, just so they don't accidently let the cat out to extra-dimensional beings).

Angel: this episode just made me feel sad for Cordelia. the visions, the after-effects of the visions, the goof balls she works with, and her pursuit of an acting career (i can't believe she just took that director's crap!). i felt sad for Wesley (damned fathers). i was a little sad for Gunn (because he let those half-wits give him a good dose of the Guilties. those guys he used to work with need to realize that he probably just doesn't want to work with a bunch of half-wits who, even though there are twenty-five of them, end up with a dead guy or two when they go up against a few vampires. seriously. how many vamps were in the theater at the end of "Disharmony"? around 100? and how many of the Angel Investigations crew died fighting them all? zero? Gunn's better off where he is.

anyway, lots of sadness in Angel last night, not quite off-set by the story with the Host (i love him! i just can't call him that name), and by the goofy-Angel antics (i kinda miss the brooding-Angel). and, at the end, we get a minor exclaimation, "oh crap," vocalized by me and Cordy at the same time.

Extra: here's a brief interview with Amber Benson, which reveals almost nothing about the final episodes of the season, but does talk about the movie she wrote, directed, produced, and even starred in with two other Buffyversers (a certain green-skinned lounge singer, and a currently-bruised blond British vampire).

i love you in that special Cordy-Angel way too.

"the Emmy nominee [Joss Whedon] maintains that this climax is as likely to leave the audience sobbing as it is to start them gasping."

oh boy! another Kleenex episode!

more Buffy links: Spike looks like he's auditioning to be Bruce Wayne's new sidekick; the Scoobies play ring-around-the-roseys with Dawn, Tara's looking a bit nervous, and Glory has a Calgon moment.

UPN pulls All Souls after the second episode aired. did the show suck that much?

today started well. i woke up often last night, like i used to do, but wasn't tired or groggy in the least this morning. i actually got out of bed wide awake the first time my first alarm went off (i have three alarms, staggered to sound in three minute intervals). i showered and dresssed at the same pace i always do, but was able to leave the house 10 minutes earlier than normal. traffic was light during the drive to work. i stopped by the supermarket, as usual, for bagels and milk. the bakery people had just taken the bagels from the oven, and they anticipated my arrival by having the rack within easy reach of the counter (usually, it's still in the back near the ovens, cooling), so there was no wait for the baker to retrieve the rack for me. at the check out counter, the cashier decided to have a buy-one-get-one-free on the bagels today, so i got a free bagel. at work, my boss was in a good mood and feeling insular today, so i've only had to see him once. all in all, today has been a good day, which only leads me to believe that something really, really, really bad is going to happen very soon.

writing the words "fall of Saigon" has left the song "Fall of Saigon" in my head, and so...

during my senior year of high school, i attended "Music On the Move," a showcase competition of some big-name (to those who know anything about it) DCI Drum and Bugle Corps. most of the performances were forgettable. in fact, other than the now-defunct host corp (whose name i cannot remember. sad, considering that they were based here), the only corp i remember being there was the Santa Clara Vanguard for their performance of selections from Miss Saigon. after hearing it on the field that day, i went out and bought the soundtrack that had inspired the SCV performance. it was my first Broadway soundtrack. turned out that one wasn't enough.

next came Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera, followed by Jelly's Last Jam, Falsettos, Guys and Dolls (not Guys As Dolls), and Into the Woods, and an assortment of others leading up to my current playlist of Passion, Aida, Rent and Man of La Mancha.

so, dad, you can stop blaming mom, my high school teachers, my high school friends, my college professors, my college friends, books, television, radio, movies, the Democrats, plush animals, Thanksgiving Day parades, PETA, my cat Patches, and the English with their hot tea. blame it on Santa Clara.

today marks the 26th anniversary of the fall (or liberation, depending on your point of view) of Saigon.

i was a day short of six months old at the time, so i, natch, don't remember it, and still know little about it. during my freshman year of college, i roomed with a guy who's family had fled Saigon in the days before the North Vietnamese Army entered the city. he was only a year old at the time and doesn't remember it either, but his parents do, and they've told him the story over and over. it was an extremely traumatic event for his parents, and they'd managed to implant in their son their intense reverence for the event that brought them to the United States, and their sorrow and regret at the same event that caused them to leave their home and family behind. my roommate didn't talk about it unless asked. even then, he said little, and his voice was tinged with sadness. it was astonishing to see the depth of emotion he felt for an event that he was too young to remember, that he knows only through the first-hand account of his parents. it was also astonishing to see the pride and patriotism he and his family felt towards this country, especially astonishing in contrast to my lack of patriotic tendencies.

The International Society of Cubists officially launched its Web site today, a brilliant rejection of natural form and perspective that metaphysically establishes the implication of movement, analytically redefines spatial relationships, and is an absolute bitch to navigate.

The site — digital graphics, text, and HTML on browser — has fared no better with art critics, who immediately accused the cubists of stealing the absurd navigation and layout from MSNBC.com.

heh. SatireWire

casting has begun for Mutant X, and it's set to debut this fall.

Jean told me about this last week, but now i can link to an article: Joss reveals his plans for the musical episode of Buffy next season, and mentions that there may be a fourth Buffyverse program in the works (you do know about the other three, right?).