i'm feeling microbial today. it may all that food that's been lying around for 8 hours now that people are still munching on. can't be healthful.

Microbe Warfare Hides the Enemy
[New York Times article. free registration required]

"Only by planning and preparing will we be able to diminish the likelihood that biological weapons will be used, and reduce the risks if they are." —Biological Warfare: A Nation at Risk--A Time to Act by the Honorable Richard Danzig.
ok, so this one is five years old. its points are still valid.

All the Virology on the WWW. that may be an exaggeration, but it's still got lots o' links.

Chemical & Biological Weapons Resource Page at the Center For Nonproliferation Studies. there's even a nifty little chart showing a list of nations who have, may have, or have had biological or chemical weapons. notice that the Canadians are said to be "former" possessors of weapons and programs. i'll bet they still have them and are developing even more in their bid for world conquest. Canadians are evil!

Constitutional Problems with Enforcing the Biological Weapons Convention, September 28, 2000, by Ronald D. Rotunda, visiting senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute.

i wanna be a Special Agent at the FBI. they make it sound so exciting. if only i had motivation and ambition, i too could kick in doors, tap people's phone calls, and hold people at gunpoint. legally, i mean.

the Dred Pirate Roberts joins the X-Files. aarrggh!

today is not a day for working. i didn't sleep well last night, we have very little work coming to us, and our new department is having a "Food Day" to welcome us to their group (we were consolidated during the recent Reorganization). there's so much food that they're begging us to eat and eat. the only thing that looks good is the green marshmallowey stuff. except for the salad and marshmallowey stuff, everything is fried or creamy. no fruit at all.

all i want is a couple of strawberries and a nap.

"In this day and age of stagnant comic book franchises, where origin revisions and shock value are rampant, the core Batman titles have taken a different approach to presenting the Dark Knight Detective in three different stories every month."

an article on why "Batman is quite possibly one of the most exciting comic book characters."

did anyone else think that the most interesting thing about el presidente's speech last night was the flies buzzing around his head? did anyone else watch it?

a Catwoman movie without Selena Kyle?

hey, this is good news: Group says 17 deaths may be from recalled asthma inhalers.

The inhalers were sold under the brand names Proventil and Warrick. Schering-Plough said on March 29, 2000, that it was recalling those brands of prescription albuterol inhalers made before Sept. 30, 1999, “as a precaution to address the remote possibility that an aerosol inhaler may not contain active drug.”

September 30, 1999 was about the time i started using my Warrick inhaler. i'm still alive though, so i guess mine wasn't one of the defective ones, but it would have been nice to have known about the recall before today.
[easier breathing courtesy of oliverwillis.com]

from The Simpsons: WhatBadgersEat.com

i know i've been ignoring news articles or reports containing the words "Congressional" and "Intern", but i'm still a bit suprised that i haven't heard about this:

A Death in the Congressman's Office

"FORT WALTON BEACH, FLa. - Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old office worker for Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fl), was found dead in the congressman's district office. Police said preliminary findings from the medical examiner's office showed no foul play or any outward indication of suicide."

a sample of articles:

July 21st -- Scarborough aide found dead in office. No indication of foul play, police say.
July 27th -- Aide's cause of death still not released. Six days after the 28-year-old aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough was found dead inside the congressman's Fort Walton Beach office, local police are still waiting to learn how and why Klausutis died.
July 28th -- Aide's death still a mystery. The autopsy also was not conclusive, though the medical examiner did say that there was no evidence of foul play.
August 7th -- Heart problem contributed to aide's death. Medical examiner says woman hit her head during fall, killing her.

something i hadn't thought of before: WWF Erotic Fanfic

Texas executes 11th inmate this year.

Oklahoma has already executed 14 people this year, has two more scheduled for the end of the month, and two pending (information about the condemned Gerardo Valdez, scheduled to be executed on August 30th, can be found here at the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty website).

One-fourth of all executions in Oklahoma since reinstatement occurred in less than 90 days during 2001. go Governor Keating! way to idolize Bush-era Texas!

Bush hammers home faith-based initiative.

the most irritating thing about this article isn't that El Presidente only made a 15 minute appearance at the Habitat For Humanity construction site, or that he spent part of that 15 minutes making a brief speech, nor even that it was basically just a photo op for his Forced Conversion Initiative... the most irritating thing is the lame-assed punned title. whoever came up with it should be fired.

early this morning, i had a dream that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference filed a lawsuit against a group of crickets that live just outside my bedroom window. the SCLC argued that the crickets has violated someone's First Amendment rights and should be stomped. Dan Rather was broadcasting from the foot of my bed, interviewing SCLC representatives when the announcement came that the Supreme Court would hear the arguments. the crickets had no spokesperson and were unavailable for comment. during the arguments before the Supreme Court, the crickets did nothing but chirp. the Justices ruled against them and they were visciously stomped right there. Justice O'Connor cried. the rumor going around was that her father was a cricket.

this dream told me two things:

1) i should drink less soy milk before bed.
2) i should find some way to drown out the chirping of the crickets outside my window. it was really irritating me.

if anyone into interpreting dreams wants to take a crack at it, let me know what you find out.

remember the tektites? the were one of the baddies in the original Legend of Zelda game for Nintendo (tektites may have appeared in the sequels, but i haven't played them to know). tektites are cool.

i overslept this morning, and in my rush to get to work, i didn't pay a lot of attention to styling my hair. a few quick strokes with the brush, an even quicker flip at the front, and i was out the door.

a visit to the restroom a few moments ago showed me that i, even when very late, should probably take a little more time on the hair (and less time admonishing Orange Cat not to vomit or attack his sister) before leaving the house. because of the way my hair curls slightly in the front and tends to stand straight up above the temples, i have these two medium-sized horns jutting from my head. i look like i'm about to face a guy dressed in tight gold trousers and waistcoast with a cape, or like i hang out with Belial after work (being unshaven probably doesn't help me there).

Swedish censors have given Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence its highest rating, barring anyone younger than 15 from seeing the film, Variety reported.

"We feel that sensitive kids could be really scared and as a result suffer damage," censor Jonas Wall.

heh. taken from this Sci Fi Wire report taken from Variety.

Trees. It's bite is worse than it's bark!

yep, i gotta see this. i can take comfort in knowing it can't possibly be worse than Coyote Ugly.

it's like the Ewoks vs. the Empire. Inuit community takes on NMD in Greenland.

missed this one yesterday: Man sentenced for stock market hoax

idiot.

clones can be sorta kinda cool (but not always).

cloning the undead is really cool.

on the clone thing, monozygous/identical twins aren't always "identical".

"We must advance the promise and cause of science but do so in a way that honors and respects life," Bush said.

what the hell does that mean? and would military weapon research be considered to honor and respect life?

i don't know what all the cloning hullabaloo is about. i haven't heard any arguments against cloning that have a basis in rational thought. it's always some sort of ethical or religious argument, more or less exhibiting a fear of the loss of individuality (or at least questioning what it means to be an individual) or railing that we're arrogantly placing ourselves on the same level as God. it's all poppycock. somehow, i doubt that the basis for divinity is the ability to clone, especially since some species have been doing it for a long time.

TV Japan in Canada has a show called Samurai Drama. why can't the US networks have cool sounding programs like that?

also last night, as i was going to bed, a guy who used to live in the same building i now live in called (he needs a name based on a distinguishing characteristic: Scoliosis Guy). he was in the area and wanted to drop buy for a few minutes. after letting him in and having him sit, i went to the kitchen for a glass of ginger ale and walked back to the living room where Scoliosis Guy was then lying naked on my couch. he's tried something like that twice (though never so bold) before. each time i've refused his offer and told him that i'm not interested in him.

i told him to get dressed and get out. on his way out the door, he says "I still wants to cook dinner for you sometime."

he still doesn't get it. how, without using a lead pipe or a firearm, do you convince someone who won't listen that you're not interested in him?

no no no. go away.

so, i finally finished Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn last night. this is quite an acomplishment for me, if you take into consideration how bored i was with the game. it's not bad game, but it's rigged to give Good-Aligned players all the advantages, while the Evil-Aligned ones suffer annoying consequences. the final battle at the end was a bit cheesey and the Tests of Character you have to go through to get to the Master Villain have rewards for the good characters and punishments for the evil characters. it really isn't all that fair, considering your character is the offspring of the God of Murder and Icky Things.

now that i've finished it, it's time to move on to the expansion and to get ready for the sequel.

i have a sudden craving for a Skor candy bar.

some funny (if dated) stuff here, especially pleasing to me because i live in the state that sent Largeant, Coburn and Watts to the Capitol.

heh.

ok, UPN has some new, post-Buffy's-death promos with the Scoobies, and you can find them online now: here's Dawn, Xander and Anya, and Spike.

just to let everyone know:

1) the Buffy premiere has been moved up a week to October 2nd. i have no idea why, but i'm very glad for it. too little Buffy makes Terrence very grumpy.

2) Ritalin Junkie is back up, and she's simplified. yay

although "always shoot to kill" policies are great for stopping an advancing threat (and for striking fear into the hearts of the not-so-wicked), wouldn't, say, shooting an attacker in the leg be the better option for officers just to cut down on the amount of paperwork and to reduce the likelihood of being prosecuted for manslaughter?