One line

There's a thin line between order and chaos...

h/t Denny

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Awesome: Geeks with too much time on their hands

The Battle of Pelennor Fields... in Candy:

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This gives a WHOLE NEW MEANING to "Hell Freezes Over"

Heh.



I needed LOLkitteh today. Badly.

h/t Mrs. Who

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A religion quiz for the heck of it

Seen at the LlamaButchers'.
Belief-O-Matic:

Your Results:

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

Interesting, as my religious upbringing is #3 and #5, being both Orthodox and Methodist.

1. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2. Orthodox Quaker (93%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (88%)
4. Seventh Day Adventist (79%)
5. Eastern Orthodox (75%)
6. Roman Catholic (75%)
7. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (64%)
8. Liberal Quakers (56%)
9. Unitarian Universalism (54%)
10. Orthodox Judaism (53%)
11. Reform Judaism (51%)
12. Sikhism (50%)
13. Islam (48%)
14. Jehovah's Witness (47%)
15. Bahá'í Faith (47%)
16. Hinduism (46%)
17. Mahayana Buddhism (42%)
18. Neo-Pagan (42%)
19. Theravada Buddhism (42%)
20. New Age (40%)
21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (33%)
22. Jainism (31%)
23. Nontheist (30%)
24. New Thought (28%)
25. Taoism (28%)
26. Scientology (26%)
27. Secular Humanism (25%)

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Kudos to Fred!

Fred was the VERY FIRST candidate to submit a position statement on Cuba to "Candidates on Cuba" a forum on Cuba sponsored by Babalu Blog.

But you expected as much from the man who made this video.....

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Meme to an end?

Ok, it was the only cool title I could think of. 

This one seems to be going around, and I thought it was interesting enough to do.  Evidently the idea is to explore "privilege" (whatever that is) and see what bloggers have in common....  For more background, see it comes in pints?, McGehee, or Dustbury.

Obligatory Legal Mumbojumbo:

Premise: bold each of the statements that applies.

Original source: The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.

Okey Dokey. Onward to the list:

Father went to college

Father finished college

Mother went to college

Mother finished college

Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor (I assume cousins of my own or subsequent generations don't count as they were not already practicing, and thus could not serve as role models)

Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers (my teachers had way more $$ than we did)

Had more than 50 books in your childhood home Hello, Mom's a Children's Librarian....

Had more than 500 books in your childhood home See Above.

Were read children's books by a parent This is getting redonkulous

Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 Violin lessons

Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 and Dance lessons, too, I realize.

The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively (Have you seen a scientist on TV lately? Yeah.)

Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18 (Credit Card? I was 21 before I had a credit card!)

Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs (Does the Caltech Scholarship Fund count? I didn't think so.)

Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs (HA!)

Went to a private high school (the private high schools in Fresno SUCK. I got a MUCH better education at the math/science magnet)

Went to summer camp (Church Camp)

Had a private tutor before you turned 18 (I WAS the F-ing tutor)

Family vacations involved staying at hotels (Hell no, we stayed with relatives or at friends' houses, except one large trip)

Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 (Mom sews. You should see some of my pretty dresses)

Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them (My Neon. Loved it. Dad's car was too unreliable to pass on, and Mom's was new then, too)

There was original art in your house when you were a child (I'm guessing my kindergarten scrawls don't count?)

Had a phone in your room before you turned 18 Hello, former teenage girl here.

You and your family lived in a single family house

Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home Still do, in fact. But for my generation, this really isn't as much of a sign of privilege as it might be now given housing prices then vs now.

You had your own room as a child Only child, duh.

Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course (No, but I TOOK the SAT when I was 12)

Had your own TV in your room in High School After my grandmother moved in with us, I got her TV AND cable!

Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College (you're shittin' me, right? I barely knew what a mutual fund WAS)

Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (Nope, I was 17 the first time. I flew to NY and back by myself)

Went on a cruise with your family (I'm guessing the Catalina Ferry doesn't count. I've never been on a cruise)

Went on more than one cruise with your family (see above. What's a cruise?)

Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up Museums, but not galleries.

You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family (Nope, I always knew. Mom used it as an illustration of why we conserve energy.)

Wow, I guess I was a poor little rascal. At least, according to this metric. Funny how we thought we were doing well....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Just who are you giving those donations to?

Fifteen Ineffective Charity Fundraising Ideas

• Dogfight for a Cure
• Jersey City Bachelor Auction To Raise Chlamydia Awareness
• Tats for Tots
• The March of Counterfeit Subway Tokens
• We Don't Have A Problem And We Sure As Hell Don't Need Your Damn Money Gala Ball & Silent Auction
• PeTA and Hamas Pita-and-Hummus Dinner
• Tree of Syringes
• Everybody Get K-Fed: A Tribute Album To Fight World Hunger
• PTSD Father-Son Fun Shoot
• The Genital Warts Memorial Quilt
• Rock Against Xenu
• Enemas for a Cause
• Pledge Drive For Ron McDonald's House, No, Not The Ronald McDonald House, Just This Guy Named Ron McDonald, Whose House Needs Some Work
• First Annual $500,000 By 4:00 PM Or We Start Killing Hostages Telethon
• Take-a-Penny, Leave-a-Penny

h/t Greta (who is recovering from surgery, so drop by and give her some love!)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Everything old is New again

In honor of New Year's, two stories of old investigations being re-opened:

First, the FBI has decided that they really DO want to know whatever became of DB Cooper, even though they think he's dead:

The FBI is making a new stab at identifying mysterious skyjacker Dan Cooper, who bailed out of an airliner in 1971 and vanished, releasing new details that it hopes will jog someone's memory. The man calling himself Dan Cooper, also known as D.B. Cooper, boarded a Northwest flight in Portland for a flight to Seattle on the night of Nov, 24, 1971, and commandeered the plane, claiming he had dynamite.

In Seattle, he demanded and got $200,000 and four parachutes and demanded to be flown to Mexico. Somewhere over southwestern Washington, he jumped out the plane's tail exit with two of the chutes.

On Monday, the FBI released drawings that it said probably are close to what Cooper looked like, along with a map of areas where Cooper might have landed.

"Who was Cooper? Did he survive the jump? We're providing new information and pictures and asking for your help in solving the case," the FBI said in a statement.

The FBI said that while Cooper was originally thought to have been an experienced jumper, it has since concluded that was wrong and that he almost certainly didn't survive the jump in the dark and rain. He hadn't specified a route for the plane to fly and had no way of knowing where he was when he went out the exit.

"Diving into the wilderness without a plan, without the right equipment, in such terrible conditions, he probably never even got his chute open," Seattle-based agent Larry Carr said.

He also didn't notice that his reserve chute was intended only for training and had been sewn shut.

Several people have claimed to be Cooper over the years but were dismissed on the basis of physical descriptions, parachuting experience and, later, by DNA evidence recovered in 2001 from the cheap tie the skyjacker left on the plane.

I prefer to think he died the way the skyjacker modeled after him did in the classic episode of Qunicy, M.E.: slowly, painfully, and alone. In a tree.

Second, a group of Criminal Justice students in Atlanta is taking up the case of the mysterious death of DC intern Chandra Levy:

Since 2005, students at Bauder College have sifted through old evidence and case files from unsolved crimes as part of the school's Cold Case Investigative Research Institute. This year, Levy's homicide and the disappearance three years ago of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba are on their agenda.

The 50 students will not be graded or get course credit for their work interviewing experts associated with the cases, preparing timelines and looking for clues in Levy's computer, but plan to turn their findings and recommendations over to Washington police and prosecutors at the end of the term.

Levy, 24, had just finished working as an intern for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in May 2001 when she disappeared from her apartment. Her body was found in a D.C. park a year later and her death ruled a homicide, but no one has been charged. The case attacted widespread attention because of allegations that Levy was romantically involved with Congressman Gary Condit when she went missing.

Personally, whoever did it, I hope they catch him and he fries.

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