| You Belong in the USA |
 Sweet! People either love you or hate you And you really don't care what anyone thinks Big and bold, you do things your way |
| You Are 90% "Average American" |
 You are average because you don't think people should be jailed for using marijuana. You are not average since you have (at least) a college degree. |
| You Passed the US Citizenship Test |
 Congratulations - you got 9 out of 10 correct! |
Melbourne, Australia - Ukraine team official Mihail Zubkov was suspended by world swimming authorities today for assaulting his daughter Kateryna, a swimmer, at the world championships.
FINA's temporary ban bars Zubkov from working as a coach or official under its jurisdiction until a final decision has been made, following an appeal by his lawyer.
In TV footage captured on Tuesday, Zubkov was shown scuffling with his 20-year-old daughter, Kateryna Zubkova, at Rod Laver Arena.
Zubkov, who is Kateryna's coach, was stripped of his accreditation at the event and banned by Australian officials from making any contact with his daughter. He is due to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday, where police will seek to extend an intervention order - forbidding Zubkov from going within 200 meters of his daughter - until he leaves Australia at the end of the week.
Just when I thought we'd never again hear from Danny Almonte, that Dominican kid that pitched a perfect game in the Little League World Series when he was too old, here's the latest -- he's finally signed a minor league deal.MARION, Ill. -- Pitcher Danny Almonte, who gained notoriety for playing in the 2001 Little League World Series at the age of 14, has signed a deal with the Southern Illinois Miners.He may yet find his way to the Bronx.
The 20-year-old Almonte is the ninth pitcher to join the Miners.
"There are not too many young lefties with his quality of stuff sitting out there," Miners manager Mike Pinto said in a statement Tuesday. "He has a 90s-plus fastball and an excellent slider. From our conversations, Danny is a quiet and shy young man who just wants a chance to showcase his talents."
The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was rocked by revelations Wednesday night that one of its contracted employees was the creator of a scathing YouTube video against his opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., despite Obama's insistance that he had nothing to do with it.It's great to have intelligent people trying to pitch in, isn't it? BTW, I'm not feeling Obama at all. More about that some other time.
Phil de Vellis, until Wednesday an employee of the company that handles Obama's Web site, boasted in a posting on the Huffington Post that he made the ad, though he claimed neither the Obama campaign nor his former employer, Blue State Digital — which does software development and hosting for Obama's campaign — was aware that he had.
"The specific point of the ad was that Obama represents a new kind of politics, and that Senator Clinton's 'conversation' is disingenuous," de Vellis wrote of the critical ad that uses an Apple computer TV ad to make Clinton appear like Big Brother. "And the underlying point was that the old political machine no longer holds all the power."
"This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last," de Vellis wrote ominously. "The game has changed."
The admission threatened to besmirch Obama's pledge to run a clean campaign that doesn't attack his opponents, not to mention statements Obama made earlier this week about the ad.
...Microsoft is offering its large enterprise customers free service and product credits if those customers push Live search inside their enterprises. Called "Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search," a Powerpoint overview of the program sent to me states:So sleazy! In other words, Microsoft can't create a better search product, so they're paying folks to use their inferior shit.
"Employees search the web daily with tools from Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo. OEMs and web sites are already earning credits based on searches that their users bring. Now, your organization can earn credits for Microsoft web searches and redeem them for Microsoft or preferred partner deployment and training services. More searches earns more credits towards the services you value."
The value is non-trivial - the presentation estimates companies can get from $2 to $10 per computer annually, plus a $25K "enrollment credit". For sites that have tens of thousands of computers, that can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in free stuff from Microsoft. Most large enterprises spend millions on Microsoft services and software each year. It's not hard to imagine a CFO getting slightly moist over savings like these.
Yo, I may regret saying this, but I'm getting a vibe about this upcoming new show called Drive that's going to drop on Fox on April 15-16. I think this could be the next Prison Break.This could be the shit. Or it could be Cannonball Run. Or that cartoon with Muttley in it.The next time you’re cut off by crazed drivers on your way to work, give them a little slack. They could be racing for their lives.
DRIVE is an action-fueled drama following a diverse group of Americans competing for their lives (or the lives of their loved ones) in an illegal, underground cross-country road race. Some of them have been coerced into joining “The Race”; others have sought out The Race themselves, hearing rumors of the $32-million prize. Each has a reason to compete. And each must win.
Texas Rangers' Sammy Sosa follows through on a single to center in the third inning off a pitch from Chicago White Sox' Gavin Floyd during a spring training baseball game in Surprise, Ariz., Tuesday, March 13, 2007. 
Nope, I'm not anywhere near close to doing my first podcast. I assembled all of my gear and I wasn't getting any response from the mic. That was so irritating. I didn't want to pack all this stuff up and send it back, so at 4 p.m. I dashed off to the nearest music store (Guitar Center) and had a chat with a salesman. He couldn't really diagnose the problem, but I ended up buying yet another piece of gear ( a mobile pre-amp), and when I got home, that worked.
Several times a week Mr. Sigler, 37, steps into a walk-in closet in his San Francisco home. He reads into a microphone that connects to his computer via a sound mixer. Hanging shirts envelop him, masking ambient sound.
After being snubbed by publishers for years, Mr. Sigler began recording his first book, “EarthCore,” in 2005. He offered it as a podcast in 22 episodes (roughly 45 minutes each) that he posted online and sent free to subscribers for downloading. Before long, Mr. Sigler had 5,000 listeners; by the time he finished releasing his second novel, “Ancestor,” last January, he had 30,000, as he does for “The Rookie,” which is playing now.
With initial printings of novelists’ first books running as low as 2,000 copies, Mr. Sigler has a substantial audience, enough finally to attract a small Canadian publisher, Dragon Moon Press, which published “EarthCore” in 2005 and will release “Ancestor” on April 1.
Mr. Sigler also recently signed with a New York agent, Byrd Leavell of the Waxman Agency, who expects to park his latest, “Infection,” with a major publisher.
Others have turned to the Internet to build their audience, including Cory Doctorow, who offered the text of “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” as a free download in 2003. But Mr. Sigler is among the vanguard of authors stapling their literary aspirations to the iPod.
“A lot of no-name authors like me are getting massive grass-roots exposure, and some of us are going to percolate to the top and get on the best-seller list,” Mr. Sigler said.
His site has links to his podcasts.
ORLANDO, Fla. (March 6, 2007) -- Astronaut Bill Oefelein was in orbit aboard the space shuttle in December when he was sent a steamy e-mail from a girlfriend awaiting his return: "First urge will be to rip your clothes off, throw you on the ground and love the hell out of you."
Fellow astronaut Lisa Nowak apparently discovered that e-mail -- and some other romantic messages to Oefelein -- before she set off on her bizarre, 900-mile road-trip to confront her rival for Oefelein's affections.
Click here to view the e-mails.
Read more...
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -Pitcher Javier Vazquez and the Chicago White Sox agreed Tuesday to a $34.5 million, three-year contract extension through 2010.Big waste of money, if you ask me. His record clearly shows he's a .500 pitcher, averaging 10 wins, 10 losses. He started the year well for the Yanks in that year I'd like to forget (2004), but he tanked in the second half.Vazquez will get $12.5 million this season, the final year of his current contract, and $11.5 million in each of the following three seasons.
The right-hander, who went 11-12 with a 4.84 ERA with the White Sox a year ago, is 100-105 overall in 10 major league seasons. He pitched three innings Tuesday against Colorado, giving up four runs and six hits.
KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani police are hunting a man who dug up his father's two-year old corpse and took it home in a hijacked ambulance to try to bring him back to life.We used to do this all the time in D&D. What's the big deal?
About a week ago I got an email from my good friends at Sony Online. It seems they want me back in the online game Star Wars Galaxies.
