blog.vanillacokehead.com

Call this a way to adjust the signal/noise ratio on my Twitter account, along with a way to better share web clippings that catch my fancy – and a way to force myself to comment more on said web clippings rather than just put them “out there”:

Before this weekend, I handled interesting (to me anyway) links in one of two ways: If a link simply “catches my eye”, I’d click the “share” icon in Google Reader – and up to three of these links would be automatically ported each half hour to my Twitter account. If a link really got my attention, I’d manually share it, add a usually snarky remark, and post it to Twitter (and maybe Facebook too).

One of my pet peeves is seeing “blowhards” on Twitter: users who just spout off and show little if any sign of interacting with other users. More and more lately, I felt like I was slowly showing signs of becoming a blowhard; I decided some adjustments were in order.

In addition to the already established daily journal of my Twitter posts, I’ve added a new daily post: the “link dump” – an automated blog entry that will post early each morning showing the web articles during the last 24 hours that I’ve flagged as “shared” on Google Reader.

I may or may not pimp out the daily link dump post – if there’s nothing that looks interesting on second glance I won’t tout the daily post on Facebook and/or Twitter. If I want to immediately share things that I consider pressing, I’ll still manually share said web links via Twitter and/or Facebook – or even as a standalone blog post here.

It’s my hope that these changes will make my Tweets – and Facebook posts – more interesting – and that the feeds for those who follow me on these platforms are less cluttered.

• Kanye: “Susan Boyle is hotter than Cheryl Cole”.
  

  Kanye West and 50 Cent are the latest celebrities to voice their appreciation for Susan Boyle.

  The Scottish singer, who found fame through Britain’s Got Talent, was described as a unique talent by the hip-hop heavyweights.

  According to The Sun, West said: “There is no doubt Cheryl Cole is hot but there is one hotter – Susan Boyle.

  “There are loads of talented, good-looking girls who can sing and dance in the charts but there is only one Susan Boyle. I have never seen anything like her.”

  50 Cent added that he “probably would” collaborate with the 48-year-old. “We got really tough competition – now that the competition is Susan Boyle,” he said.

  Ealier this month, Prince William revealed that he has Boyle’s debut LP I Dreamed A Dream on his iPod. Other famous fans of the singer include Lady Gaga, Demi Moore, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama.

  source

• Killed Trooper’s Gay Partner Denied Benefits
  When Missouri Highway Patrol Cpl. Dennis Engelhard was killed in a Christmas Day traffic accident, he left behind a partner of 15 years. Because that partner is a man, he’s not entitled to lifetime survivor’s benefits from the state pension system of more than $28,000 a year. He also was ignored by Gov. Jay Nixon, who asked people to pray for the family who “lost a beloved son and brother,” and not formally recognized at his funeral. “The partner, plain and simple, is out of luck,” said state Rep. Mike Colona, D-St. Louis, one of a few openly gay Missouri state legislators.
• Is Bill Gates’ New Website Really Running On Linux?

  Sometimes tips come in that seem too good to be true. Take today, for example. I got a tip that Bill Gates’ new site, The Gates Notes, was running on a Linux-powered server. This would be ironic since Gates is of course the founder of Microsoft, which is Linux’s biggest competitor in the server market. It would be the equivalent of catching Gates or CEO Steve Ballmer being caught using (and not just signing) a MacBook at a conference. So is it true?

  A quick search on Netcraft shows that thegatesreport.com sure enough looks to be running on the Linux OS. But wait. The results also say that web server is Microsoft-IIS/7.0. That doesn’t sound right, so what gives? Well, it turns out that because Gates is using Akamai to mirror his sites’ content in the event of massive traffic (or more specifically, something like a DDoS attack), this data is being filtered through there. Akamai uses Linux for its servers, so that’s what OS is being passed back to Netcraft. But at the same time, to make things more confusing, the Akamai servers are still passing back the correct server header for Gates’ site: Microsoft-IIS/7.0.

  How do I know this? Because the same thing happened in 2003 when it was humorously, but erroneously reported that Microsoft was using Linux servers to run microsoft.com. In fact, the same thing was going on: Microsoft was routing its traffic through Akamai, which again, runs Linux boxes. Microsoft has since apparently changed to its own servers since then so that they now correctly return Windows Server 2003 as their OS. That is likely what The Gates Report is running on as well given the Microsoft-IIS/7.0 web servers.

  So sadly, no nice bit of irony here, it would seem. But if you haven’t yet done so, take the opportunity to check out Gates’ site, it’s really well done and full of good information.

  

  [photo: flickr/world economic forum]
  

  CrunchBase Information

  Bill Gates

  Microsoft

  Information provided by CrunchBase

  

  

• Lights out at last at Cleveland police station
  CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland has a bright idea for saving money: installing light switches in police headquarters to allow the building to go dark at night.
• Rip Torn, bank robber
  So much for aging gracefully.

  Emmy-winning actor Rip Torn was arrested Saturday for allegedly breaking into a bank in Salisbury, CT., where he’s a resident, confirms local newspaper, The Register Citizen.

  

  In what was reportedly a booze-inspired bank job, a police statement says that cops responded to an alarm at 9:40 last night where they found Torn “with a loaded revolver, and was highly intoxicated.”

  The many charges against the 78-year-old Men in Black star include carrying a firearm while intoxicated, carrying a pistol without a permit, first-degree criminal trespass, first-degree burglary, and third-degree criminal mischief.

  Torn has had several brushes with the law over the past few years, including a dismissed 2004 drunken driving charge, and a 2007 guilty plea of being “ability impaired” while operating a vehicle.

  He is currently being held on a $100,000 cash bond, and is set to appear in court Monday, Feb. 1.

  SOURCE
  local tl;dr source

• Police investigate fake horse head suspect
  Police in New Jersey say they are still investigating a man charged with delivering a toy horse head to a state senator. Robert Godman, 61, of Wenonah, N.J., was arrested at the home he shares with his parents Thursday and charged with harassment after a man hand-delivered a package to state Sen. Stephen Sweeney that was found to contain the head of a plush horse, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday. The incident appeared a likely allusion to the classic cinematic scene in “The Godfather,” in which a horse’s head was used as a death threat by the Mafia … ( Continue story )
• Nurse-patient relationship lends personal touch to hospital stay: A Nurse's Journal
  Relational-based care allows nurses to develop an intimate relationship with the patient to promote better care
• Michael Rowe: Why is CBS in Bed with the Religious Right on Super Bowl Sunday?

  Last week I wrote about CBS’s decision to air an anti-abortion commercial from the evangelical political organization Focus on the Family during this year’s Super Bowl broadcast on February 7th.

  The commercial will reportedly feature Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow’s mother, Pam, talking about how her “personal faith” convinced her to carry her son to term, against medical advice to terminate the pregnancy, while she and her husband were missionaries in the Philippines.

  By accepting it, CBS inexplicably reversed its long-held and inflexible policy banning “advocacy” commercials on the network, particularly during sporting events.

  In 2004, CBS famously rejected a commercial from the United Church of Christ, citing a solid policy against running any advertising that
  

  “touches on and/or takes a position on one side of a current controversial issue.”

  The UCC commercial’s message was “inclusiveness,” and featured a gay couple attempting to enter a house of worship but being turned away by a bouncer. The “controversial” tagline of the ad was “Jesus Didn’t Turn People Away. Neither Do We,” a sentiment supported by every Gospel of the New Testament.

  The tagline of the Focus on the Family ad is reportedly “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life,” a perky, wholesome slogan that neatly doubles as coded rallying cry for the rabid, occasionally violent anti-choice movement.

  The response from the United Church of Christ was swift and to the point. On their website, they addressed the situation by noting that
  

  “[w]hile CBS is reportedly saying that a bad economy now necessitates changes in its policy on so-called advocacy ads, this decision only underscores the arbitrary way the networks approach these decisions and the result is a woeful lack of religious diversity in our nation’s media,” says the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, the UCC’s director of communications. “Because of its own economic circumstances, CBS is affording time to one religious organization while having suppressed another. This sounds as if the broadcasters think they own the airwaves when, in theory at least, they do not

  The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)’s Senior Director of Media Programs, Rashad Robinson went even further, saying
  

  “CBS’s decision to run a Focus on the Family ad during this year’s Super Bowl can’t and shouldn’t be considered in a vacuum. CBS spent years denying a platform to an LGBT-inclusive church that wanted to share a message of inclusion with a national audience. Now, when it happens to be financially inconvenient for CBS to hold to the standard it had previously imposed, the network’s expediency benefits a virulently anti-gay organization whose advocacy on these issues is the antithesis of that of the United Church of Christ.”

  When first challenged on the obvious hypocrisy of accepting one religious organization’s commercial while rejecting another, CBS was cooly dismissive, replying that it would not comment on past decisions, an obvious reference to their ban on UCC’s inclusiveness commercial.

  On Monday, a coalition of women’s groups including NOW, the Feminist Majority, and the Women’s Media Center, sent a letter of protest to CBS. The letter proposed that
  

  “by offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers.”

  On Tuesday, CBS spokesman Dana McClintock tepidly offered a statement to the effect that the network had changed its policy towards advocacy advertising.
  

  “We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms on the issue.”

  Given the dire state of the economy, CBS’s record-low prices for ad time during the Superbowl, and the indisputable fact that abortion is the most polarizing and divisive hot-button topic in the American popular discourse, it’s jejune of CBS to expect anyone to believe that this was some forward-thinking move towards modernity on their part. It clearly comes down to which viewers CBS is prepared to offend and alienate when there’s a $2.7 million payoff at stake during a recession.

  This will be good news for well-heeled right-wing religious and political groups everywhere.

  On Friday, the network rejected a humor-driven commercial from the gay dating site ManCrunch.com, which features two apparently straight men who suddenly begin to make out in the heat of the moment as they celebrate a touchdown on television. The commercial is not pornographic, nor is there nudity. There will be more exposed flesh on the field than there would have been on the screen.

  James Hibberd at The Live Feed reports that CBS offered the following exlanation in a letter to the ManCrunch.com:

  [T]he creative is not within the Network’s Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday.

  CBS also released the following statement:
  

  “After reviewing the ad–which is entirely commercial in nature–our Standards and Practices department decided not to accept this particular spot.”

  According to spokeswoman Elissa Butcher, the commercial cost $100,000 to produce, and the company is
  

  “100% serious. We have the money to pay for it. If the ad showed a man and woman kissing it would have been accepted. You see ads for erectile dysfunction morning, noon and night. It’s discriminatory that they wont show this.”

  It reality, the problem is not with the quality (or not) of the ManCrunch ad. The network’s rejection of it merely highlights the obvious: that CBS had already decided where its ethical priorities lay when they accepted the commercial from Focus on the Family last week. Those priorities clearly don’t lie with women, or with progressives, or with any group that happens to find itself on Focus on the Family’s no-fly list.

  The tagline for the Tebow commercial–”Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life”–is particularly ironic, given that Focus on the Family has likely destroyed at least as many families as it’s “celebrated” in its relentless pursuit of what amounts to fundamentalist Christian social eugenics at the expense of maintaining existing families through education, acceptance, respect, tolerance, and love.

  Furthermore, in late-breaking news, Focus on the Family may have led CBS into even hotter water and courting even more controversy.

  Famed attorney Gloria Allred has questioned the veracity of Mrs. Tebow’s claim that doctors advised her to terminate her pregnancy, since abortion in the Philippines has been illegal since 1930 and is punishable by a six-year prison term for both the doctor and the mother. Given that, the attorney has grave doubts that doctors would have advised an abortion According to Radar Online, Allred has announced she will file a complaint with the FTC and the FCC if the ad airs “and fails to disclose that abortions were illegal at the time Ms. Tebow made her choice.”

  It might be time for CBS to stop proposing a specious platform of how up-to-date they’ve recently become regarding “advocacy ads” and just admit they have a financial stake in courting the Religious Right for advertising dollars. Last year Focus on the Family contributed $727, 250 to help pass Proposition 8 in California at a time when they were making preparations to lay off nearly 20% of their employees, which seems an odd decision for an organization that allegedly “celebrates families.”

  Either that or admit they’re simply afraid of them, afraid of applying the same standards to a powerful, multi-million dollar right-wing religious conglomerate as they’ve always applied to left-leaning liberal groups, and progressive churches whose message of tolerance and inclusiveness didn’t meet their “standards and practices” for primetime, even if it means running a Super Bowl commercial whose primary purpose is to shame and intimidate women who’ve made, or might make, the painful decision to terminate a pregnancy for whatever reason.

  In the end, money always talks, no matter how ugly what it says might be.

  In CBS’s mind, it’s clearly more lucrative for them to radically alter their own long-held and strictly-enforced policy, at whatever ethical cost, than to just do the right thing.

  

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• wishes employers would appreciate "old" people as much as pop culture has recently. http://bit.ly/a9kRZl (thanks Ron) #fb #
• sharing: Nurse-patient relationship lends personal touch to hospital stay: A Nurse's Journal http://bit.ly/9zzFzO #
• sharing: Police investigate fake horse head suspect http://bit.ly/aQy2Vc #
• sharing: Michael Rowe: Why is CBS in Bed with the Religious Right on Super Bowl Sunday? http://bit.ly/a1dvoQ #
• @glamajama I think whining kids are like kryptonite for many moms. :) #
• @bloggerkhan too bad Twitter Karma has dumped at @twitter 's request the mass unfollow function. #
• channel-surfed onto a local TV preacher who probably uses the phrase "amen praise God" at least twice a minute… #fb #
• just got the latest copy of the Kent State alumni rag – and has put it next to the commode where it will be put to good use. #fb #
• has sign #9503 he's an unmitigated dweeb – just set the "Geico Boss" ringtone as his default. Kid 1.0 likes it. http://bit.ly/aiZWHp #fb #
• tried @handmark 's #tweetcaster #android app for about an hour, uninstalled. breaker was force closing when trying to share a web page. #fb #
• finished a round of encountering the idiotic and clueless at Wal-Mart, is now making dinner: teriyaki chicken stir fry and rice… #fb #
• @glamajama I've seen firsthand how kids whining is "mommy kryptonite"…. in reply to glamajama #
• has good news & bad news. the good: Jacob had washable marker. the bad: he used it to draw on the walls in his room. viva family drama! #fb #
• thinks the new #missamerica should promote #tcot causes and do speeches like this: http://bit.ly/9LkvIa #fb #
• thinks TLC lost a golden revenue opportunity by not having a laxative brand sponsor elimination segments during the #missamerica pageant. #
• RT @Minervity: USB Powered Mini Microwave – http://bit.ly/SlQVv *don't think I'd be allowed to use this with the work PC* #fb #
• is bummed his wife doesn't appreciate his snarking away during #missamerica feel rather stifled right now. :( #fb #
• thinks he has a new way to start the TV show "Law & Order" http://www.vanillacokehead.com/blog/?p=775 #fb #
• is happy his wife underwent surgery a year ago to supposedly curb her snoring. FAIL. she sounds like a Husqvarna chain saw right now. #fb #
• @AllThingsGwen @cbahm luckily ear plugs handle it when I'm sleeping – but it's still ridiculous. She looked into CPAP before the surgery. #
• @JennyErikson yeah…that would be great! now get to work on those TPS reports. ;) #officespace in reply to JennyErikson #
• wonders if this reported bonus in a Weight Watchers meal was part of a new frog legs frozen dinner. (via @jenniascher) http://bit.ly/d6zzKi #
• @CiaoBella50 the only way to watch SNL anymore is on DVR or VCR – IMO they try to cram 60 mins of material into a 90 min show. lame… in reply to CiaoBella50 #
• wonders what pissed off this OH man so much about Wal-Mart's steaks. (via @heykim, @sparkie5150) http://bit.ly/b9Z6FI #fb #
• @CiaoBella50 I wish NBC would just make SNL 60 mins – but they don't want to give up ad time. Can usually DVR thru SNL in less than 30 mins. in reply to CiaoBella50 #
• sharing: Kanye: "Susan Boyle is hotter than Cheryl Cole". http://bit.ly/9j0Sdp #
• sharing: Is Bill Gates’ New Website Really Running On Linux? http://bit.ly/cGTyYi #
• sharing: Killed Trooper's Gay Partner Denied Benefits http://bit.ly/aSPbIB #
• has one more amusing story before he hits the sack: cops in MS arrest alleged serial hiney grabber. http://bit.ly/c8NQWo good night folks! #

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the intro to “Law & Order” should say this:

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups: the police who screw up the cases – and the district attorneys who pull things out of their asses. These are their stories.

• sharing: Melee among UC workers results in arrest http://bit.ly/bb3JZi #
• sharing: BlackBerry Pearl and Curve Trackballs Being Replaced For Free At T-Mobile [BlackBerry] http://bit.ly/bAEpOh #
• just uploaded a COLD drive to school for kid 1.0 http://qik.com/m/u/ranchjunkie66 #fb #
• has a sign one might not pass a test to be a utility meter reader: showing up with a pencil cup, white cane, and seeing eye dog. #fb #
• sharing: 'Princess and Frog' pendant recalled for cadmium http://bit.ly/cEPlUW #
• sharing: Nexus Ones Plagued By Strange, Nationwide Data Outage http://bit.ly/atU8w0 #
• sharing: AT&T not concerned by iPad traffic http://bit.ly/aRWCw6 #
• thinks this one of the more interesting Brangelina rumors – Angie having a fling with Lady Gaga? http://bit.ly/avVG3w #fb #
• sharing: Sony Gear Removes Surprises From Super Bowl Production http://bit.ly/cyyTOr #
• sharing: Study raises questions over driver cellphone safety http://bit.ly/a2VUSw #
• sharing: Argentina Prez: 'Pork Improves Your Sex Life' http://bit.ly/bjvdos #
• sharing: CBS Says No Gay Kissing During the Super Bowl [A Word From Our Sponsors] http://bit.ly/dhDQuh #
• sharing: 3-year-old walks away from Spokane Valley crash http://bit.ly/dncpCX #
• hopes Justice launches an investigation into the BS, er, BCS… http://bit.ly/dzuEBa #fb #
• has an awesome fivesome for #followfriday: @k9cuisine, @mdsuburbs, @amyramirez, @dlayphoto, and @hookbill – enjoy! :) #ff #
• is sad to hear about major cuts for the Crystal Cathedral's ministries, facing a more than 25% drop in revenue. http://bit.ly/dBJtKn #fb #

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• sharing: Educators accused of humiliating 6th-grade boy with long hair http://bit.ly/bYIFtP #
• sharing: The Problem with the Apple iPad http://bit.ly/aJVg39 #
• sharing: Bellevue couple tell police infant was getting 'fat' http://bit.ly/bFofJT #
• sharing: Teachers union tries to block publication of high school newspaper article http://bit.ly/cUnAVb #
• wishes a morning anchor he worked with in Rochester could have run prompter. Was always bitching about it. http://bit.ly/c1KG2k #fb #
• sharing: Cops: WWE wrestlers drunk in public http://bit.ly/9TxRBL #
• sharing: Fujitsu Readies Lawsuit Over "iPad" Name http://bit.ly/a8LaO2 #
• sharing: Ohio Lottery Winner Dies http://bit.ly/d8jQyP #
• sharing: Italy: Don't use 'f-word' to neighbors http://bit.ly/9tlBgD #
• just got home and is trying to hold his temper – the damned house once again looks like a bomb had gone off in it. #fb #
• sharing: MySpace argument between 2 13-year-old girls leads to AK-47 gunfire and attempted murder convictions in C… http://bit.ly/bGMndL #

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• sharing: NYC Police Accused of 'Anal Assault' Over Marijuana Use http://bit.ly/b7ncvB #
• sharing: Consumer groups warn those struggling with debt to be wary of settlement service promises: Plain Dealing … http://bit.ly/c7UNOI #
• thinks the admins at this OH high school aren't messing around: student faces criminal charges after food fight. http://bit.ly/bcwd3D #fb #
• has a prime example of a cyber-leech using Twitter as his own personal billboard. http://twitpic.com/zzonz #
• is watching "Curious George" and thinks the doctor at the end of the show is a hippy: goatee: check. long hair: check. "oregano": check. ;) #
• sharing: Preschool student proves he's not too young to care http://bit.ly/c2K3jR #
• RT @BillSledzik: TV dilemma tonight in NEOhio. Do we watch Barrack or LeBron? We know both can go to their left. Wah-wah! #fb #
• hopes his wife doesn't get an addiction to this size of Starbucks (via @MissAttitude) http://bit.ly/d7I4G8 #fb #
• sharing: United Way sets up first U.S. club for LGBT donors http://bit.ly/asKMqU #
• thinks what this NY jail inmate allegedly did gives a whole new meaning to the term "armed and dangerous". http://lin.cr/1ksh #fb #
• likes this new USB device that is a mashup of technology and taxidermy. http://bit.ly/9lvdVR #
• sharing: FCC Sends Carriers, And Google, ETF Inquisition http://bit.ly/csV64k #
• sharing: Regardless of Lockout, DirecTV Owes NFL $1 Billion in 2011 http://bit.ly/apgI2F #
• sees a sheriff's deputy in WA ended up literally "shooting the bull" – no word if the cops had steak afterward. http://bit.ly/aGhhc6 #
• wonders if his FB acct got pwned or if anyone else has tried to the FB web site, been told acct is unavailable due to "a site issue." #fb #
• does not encourage this type of multi-tasking: OH trucker was watching porn before accident that killed NY woman. http://bit.ly/9lKMpF #fb #
• sharing: Pizza Chain Comes Off the Sidelines for Super Bowl http://bit.ly/d5U30h #
• just channel-surfed upon the SOU address – debating whether to watch it or pull an ep of "Emergency!" off the DVR. Decisions decisions. #fb #
• sharing: Officials: Suicidal teen was cyberbullied http://bit.ly/dhGy4a #
• thinks this is a better speech than the #sotu – a classic gem from Moe of The Three Stooges. Enjoy! :) http://bit.ly/d9yAoi #fb #
• has this novel video before bed: man caught on tape wrestling and hugging a chicken on a NYC subway. http://bit.ly/cRFdPw good night! #fb #

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• sharing: Loudness-Monitoring Tools Driven by Technology, Market Forces http://bit.ly/7FzLzT #
• sharing: Public records wait time 'vexing' http://bit.ly/6ImWbn #
• files away what this MI dad did when he caught his girl in the back seat of a boy's car. http://bit.ly/6wy6tU (thx Stuart) #fb #
• is glad the OH Turnpike stopped nickling and diming drivers carrying storage pods or bike racks. http://bit.ly/5OvL11 #
• sharing: Prison Bans D&D For Mimicking Gang Structure http://bit.ly/6zBZi1 #
• RT @ClevelandLeader: 20 Year Old Who Hacked iPhone Says He Has Cracked the PS3 http://bit.ly/4rp2KR #
• is sad to hear about the death at age 81 of actor Pernell Roberts (Bonanza, Trapper John MD) http://bit.ly/9NV6SR #fb #
• sharing: Porn film costs gay officer his job http://bit.ly/deZZEN #
• sharing: Rest your weary, tear-stained face on the welcoming Android Pillow http://bit.ly/9CWrOy #
• sharing: New Hampshire Cop Refuses To Enforce Medical Marijuana Laws http://bit.ly/6qfk8v #
• sharing: Bills would let golf carts on Washington streets http://bit.ly/bxn3TR #
• sharing: WSJ editor: Don't look to j-schools for much wisdom about the future http://bit.ly/alnLLF #
• sharing: God Hates Gaga! http://bit.ly/bs732c #
• shudders: 300-lb OH woman gets 3 years probation for killing 120-lb boyfriend by sitting on him. http://lin.cr/1knz (via @fox8news) #fb #
• sharing: Avid, EVS To Re-create Beijing Partnership in Vancouver http://bit.ly/ae4xQb #
• reads: NC sportswriter disses upstate NY, says there's little more to do there than eat chicken wings. http://bit.ly/bxmIW7 #
• is watching a History Channel special about gang activity in Fresno CA – is shuddering at how infested the city is. #fb #

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• is gonna puke, regurgitate, vomit if he sees another Tweep post a lame, hackneyed quote or platitude in his or her timeline. that is all. #
• can't resist chuckling at this: 90-year-old Canadian history magazine forced to change name. http://bit.ly/8n0Grr #fb #
• thinks @mcdonalds should add a rabbit sandwich to its menu – the McBunny on a Bun. ;) #fb #
• sharing: The DEA Argues for Legalization http://bit.ly/6QME5Y #
• sharing: New Girl Scout Cookie Thank U Berry Much Reviewed http://bit.ly/6i6VXJ #
• sharing: It's TV news anchor vs. media critic in Chicago http://bit.ly/7UOIPk #
• likes how the vending machine company at his workplace refers to raising the price of soft drinks as "price adjustments". #fb #
• thinks sports TV veteran Don Ohlmeyer did a great job reviewing the objectivity of ESPN's Alamo Bowl telecast. http://bit.ly/6x3Y80 #fb #
• sharing: The Rules for Calling In Sick [Listicle] http://bit.ly/8wLhke #
• sharing: Scorpions to disband after next CD, tour http://bit.ly/7wRi9R #
• loves how one Akron cop severely overstepped his authority with a woman videotaping an arrest. http://lin.cr/1key #fb #
• sharing: Verizon now carries Palm Pre & Pixi http://bit.ly/5jA8WJ #
• sharing: Snohomish bullfrog forecasts weather http://bit.ly/4r13Cc #
• wonders if the bad economy might have helped OH liquor sales reach nearly $750M in '09. http://lin.cr/1kf1 #fb #
• ponders in his blog whether Punxsutawney Phil gets asked a loaded question every February. http://www.vanillacokehead.com/blog/?p=768 #

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A week from tomorrow, hordes of fans and media will converge on Punxsutawney, PA for Phil’s furry weather forecast: his shadow’s supposed to help predict the final weeks of the winter season.

Every year I see the video of Phil’s appearance in early February, one thing comes to mind: with all those bright TV lights and photo flashes in his face, isn’t seeing his shadow almost a foregone conclusion?

It’s kind of like a doctor blowing cigarette smoke in a patient’s face then saying he doesn’t like the sound of the patient’s cough.

I know: this and four bucks might get me a latte at Starbucks.