100 Years Ago Today

Today is the 100th anniversary of the explosion that flattened some 500,000 acres of Siberian forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River on June 30, 1908

Commonly referred to as the “Tunguska Event” it is widely accepted that the explosion was the result of an air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 3″“6 miles above Earth’s surface.

I remain unconvinced.

1978 Czech song Jozin z Bazin

Apparently this song is all the rage in Poland right now and totally worth watching from beginning to end….

The Lyrics in English

I drive Skoda 100 to camp here on Orawa
So I hurry, take a risk – go through Morawa
The monster lives there, comes out of the bog
Eats mostly Prague citizen, its name is Jozin (Joseph)

Chorus: Jozin from the bog creeps through swamp
Jozin from the bog closes to the village
Jozin from the bog edges its teeth
Jozin from the bog bites, strangles
To defend Jozin from the bog, who could imagine, only works a plane with manure (white powder)

I was driving through the village on road to Vizowice
The village mayor greeted me, said to me during drinking Sliwowica
‘The one who will bring Jozin dead or alive
gets my daughter and a half of National Agrarian Farm

Chorus

I said: ‘give me a plane and powder, mayor,
I’ll bring you Jozin, I see no trouble about that’,
Mayor helped me, in the morning I went up in the sky
The powder from the plane prettily fell on Jozin.

Chorus

Joe Swamp is now all white
Joe Swamp escapes from the bogs
Joe Swamp has turned to stone
For Joe Swamp, this is the end
I caught Joe and now I have him, woohoo!
Cash is always good so now I’m selling him to the zoo

Do a Youtube search on Jozin z Bazin to see various new versions and adaptations of the song…

Big Brother Is Making Your Music Video

Spotted at The Telegraph

The Get Out Clause, Manchester stars of CCTV

Unable to afford a proper camera crew and equipment, The Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from the city, decided to make use of the cameras seen all over British streets. They set up their equipment, drum kit and all, in eighty locations around Manchester ““ including on a bus ““ and proceeded to play to the cameras. Afterwards they wrote to the companies or organisations involved and asked for the footage under the Freedom of Information Act.

I For One Welcome Our New Ant Overlords

With another blistering summer firing up and an in-place population of any number of unpleasant bugs and critters, life in Houston may be getting just a little more unpleasant as we find ourselves being invaded by a species of ant that seems to be impervious to pesticides and has an appetite for electronics.

Exotic Texas Ant, Paratrechina also known as the Crazy Ant or the “Raspberry Ant” (named for Tom Rasberry who discovered them) stands to make his mark our humble little town.

Mentioned at Engaget this horrifying little creature has captured the limelight and is making headlines all over the web.

They have been known to short out many different types of electrical apparatuses. In some cases the ants have caused several thousand dollars in damage and remedial costs. These ants often cause great annoyance to residents and businesses.

For now they seem to be mostly in the South and the East…near the chemical plants oddly enough.

(queue 50’s sci-fi music).


I’ve already had one support call where the user jokingly suggested the problem with our Blackberry Enterprise Server might be a result of Crazy Ant infestation…har har…Rasberry, Blackberry, get it? Ugh!

On the plus side, these “Crazy” Ants seem to eat Fire Ants so they could be a boon to our area.

Now playing – Cheepnis by Frank Zappa

Ladies and gentlemen,
The monster,
Which the peasants in this area call FRUNOBULAX
(Apparently a very large poodle dog)
Has just been seen approaching The Power Plant
Bullets can’t stop it
Rockets can’t stop it
We may have to use NUCLEAR FORCE !

Baby Loves Disco?

When I first read this I thought Baby Loves Disco must be a hoax or a prank but it looks like the real thing. Imagine your local disco filled up with parents and their toddler, preschoolers and pre-adolescents moving to the groove.

The fun spills out from all corners of the club: bubble machines, baskets of scarves and egg-shakers, a chill-out room (with tents, books and puzzles), diaper changing stations, a full spread of healthy snacks and dancing, LOTS of dancing.

Sounds like a rave for children!

As this video from buzz.mn points out, these folks manage to inculcate in our youth the finer points of bar culture…

I can only imagine that this is a precursor to a much more violent and subversive movement that will inevitably be called Baby Loves Mosh Pits.

I grew up with disco and it’s my cross to bear but I just can’t imagine inflicting it on someone too young to defend themselves.

Hello therapy!

Give Me Coffee

One good thing about these high end hotels where we hold our sales conference is the the hotel’s commitment to providing an abundance of coffee in the morning.

Speaking of coffee, I had the oddest dream the other night. In my dream there was an online service where you could upload your unused coffee to a web site to make it available to others to download free of charge.

It was for those times when you brew a pot of coffee, but don’t finish it. It wasn’t for uploading a half drunk cup of used coffee though I could see that as a potential abuse of the service.

Cynthia tells me it strikes her as a very “Jay-like” dream. I have to agree.

Hi Ho Expired Inspection Sticker!

On my side of town they’ve been beefing up the police presence up ever since the various home owner’s associations took the city and Mayor White to task over the rise in violent crime we been experiencing ever since that fateful day in 2005.

As a property owner and and old man, I am getting to where I can appreciate a more visible police presence and it doesn’t bother me a bit to see an extra squad car sitting in the median, keeping an eye on things.

As I was driving home today and sitting in the stop and go rush hour traffic I see that they’ve taken things up a notch…

Apparently the Houston Police are using their mounted patrols to monitor the traffic and look for things like expired inspection stickers and out of date registrations. Fortunately my car is completely up to date so I had nothing to worry about.


I sure hope photographing cops on horseback isn’t an arrestable offence!

There were anywhere from 4-5 of these guys up and down the street along with several squad cars in the local O’Reilly Auto Parts parking lot where busted offenders were being issued citations…and I presume being checked for warrants and so forth.

I know some people will find this behavior an affront to their civil sensibilities, but I say more power to ’em! You see the squad cars all the time watching for the same type of behavior. By utilizing the mounted police the city telegraphs a stronger police presence which will hopefully help as a crime deterrent.