Black Friday

Ah the traditions of the season are almost upon us. Soon perhaps we shall reunite with relatives that we are starting to forget exactly what they looked like. That cousin that was just potty-trained is now graduating high school; yes perhaps we should invite them over before we keel over dead. And Thanksgiving morning, yes that day when you have to get up super early to prepare a meal that takes 5 hours to cook, so long that by the time it's done you've smelled it for so long you don't want any.

But hey...teaching your squeemish kids how to clean out a turkey can be a fun experience in and of itself. "Yeah, use your fingernails to dig in there and pry out the blood pockets". If that doesn't work then you'll have to teach them about giblets and gravy. I'm surprised my kids aren't vegans already.

Ah but this post isn't about the feast of thanks and gluttony (and naps), it is about the day AFTER Thanksgiving. The day when many folks rise early and go stand in line for hours and hours in the cold in order to be there when the door opens, and then run and fight their way to a bargain. I've done this a couple of times, and I won't be doing it this year. Frankly the waiting in line was more fun than the actual in-store experience.

Anyways... I wanted to give you some links to some sites that are giving some data on the sales.

If you're going to participate in this years Race To The Bargains (or as some might describe it...The Running Of The Turkeys) good luck to you, I hope you get the golden ring you seek. There truly are some deals to be had.

Here are the links.

http://bfads.net/
http://www.blackfridayads.com/
http://www.blackfriday.info/

Have fun.

Dragonflys give clues about human obesity

Some research on dragonflies and their metabolic disorders have sparked interest in investigating whether a similar connection exists in humans. Dragonflies that were infested with a certain parasite suffered a type of problem with their metabolic rate that is similar to that observed in obese humans and those with type-2 Diabetes.

Researchers feel that closer examination of the micro-organisms that live in our intestines may give important clues as to whether there is a correlation between them (the microbes) and the weight problem of the human.

An interesting read.

Dragonfly's metabolic disease provides clues about human obesity

As I Look Out Over All Your Smiling Faces...

...trying to think of a different phrase other than "Stay The Course".

I was driving in my car and listening to what's left of NPR on the radio, when they started talking about President Bush's current visit to Vietnam.

Apparently in Hanoi he was asked if he felt he could make any comparisons between the United States situation in Iraq with that of the the Vietnam war. Apparently he answered with something like this:

'If we learned one thing in Vietnam, it's not to quit'.

My loud "Whaaaat?!!!" I believe caused other drivers near me to temporarily lose control of their steering.

I mean come on, that sort of gung-ho patriotic stuff may go over well dribbling down your chin when you're speaking at an American Legion Post in the midwest, but this was Vietnam! Did you mean to say 'Yeah if we'd have stayed longer we would've kicked your ass good and many of you here today may not have been born." but just thought you'd phrase it a bit differently for a good soundbite? I don't think anyone else on the planet feels that the lesson learned in Vietnam was 'not to quit', but that just may be my perception. Actually I figured that most folks in the US thought that the lesson you learned from Vietnam was more of a 'Duck and Cover' type of ploy.

Anyways I'd love to have seen the faces of the audience that accompanied what was probably dead silence after he made that statement. Let's hear it for wise diplomacy .

Is there no cure for Foot In Mouth disease?

Blogger and Google

Well I finally got around today to reading all the FAQs at Google and Blogger about the new Blogger Beta and how that will affect my website here.

I don't care for it at all.

I understand that all Blogger accounts will be forced to switch over to become Google Account Blogger blogs ultimately. I'm not sure I will like this transition or the new format.

Don't know how bad this will be but if I don't like it, I'll delete all my Blogger sites and go somwhere else. Too bad there's nothing out there even remotely close to Blogger for me to migrate to. Oh well. No biggie.

I think Google should have left Blogger alone.

Catfood vs Dogfood

Yes this guy actually did a taste comparison. His site looks worth exploring some more too. A bit on the crude side but amusing.

Thought I should post something about food what with Thanksgiving being just around the corner. BoneAp'teet!

jimmeruk.com - Catfood vs Dogfood

Search Links

Did a bit of updating on some links. I don't usually comment on this when I do, just normally put "new" up next to the link and let you figure it out. Today is different. I want to comment on a couple of them.

I've removed the link to Vivisimo search engine (okay yeah so it's a META-search engine and not a search engine and I don't care if this upsets you...I'm going to call them all search engines.)...removed it because they're in the process of changing the name of their web search to Clusty. Vivisimo is awesome, so if you haven't tried it...Clusty's the same thing. Clusty also has something they're calling "Clusty Clouds" which are little search snaps with tags you can click on that update dynamically when a page loads. Confused? It's some code you can put on your site with a search parameter and your visitors can click on the metatags the search yielded. Still confused? Oh go visit the site and read their explanation.

Now Vivisimo...that's a name that you want to say with a booming voice, poised like Captain Morgan. It's got an Old World ring to it. Bravisimo!
But Clusty? Okay, I know you want to emphasize that your searching design yields results in clusters, but Clusty?? Sounds like a drunk clown. Or no...sounds like something the doctor mentions at the clinic. "Sir, you've come down with a bad case of Clusty. Take this cream and pills and see me again in a month."

All joking aside. I have always chosen Vivisimo as my first stop when doing a search and I'm sure I'll eventually get used to the name Clusty.

Other links I added today are Kartoo and Ojiko. Kartoo is a visual search engine, that is the results are displayed visually in flash. Neat and pretty good results too. Ojiko is newer and is made by the same company, though the engine doesn't search through as many resources as Kartoo. But Ojiko is very interesting. It's got a graphic interface that evolves the more you use it so that you can customize your usage of it. Worth playing with for a while.(Yes it's almost like a game....getting your search engine up to level 10!) Mine now has very groovy colors.

Look in the sidebar on the left for the links if you want to go explore these links.

Enjoy.

Democrats Control Congress

From what I understand at the moment, it's pretty much determined that the Democratic party has won both the House and the Senate and now have the majority. They have much to do if they want to continue this trend in the next election as well. I surely hope that they are able to accomplish this and continue a progressive movement away from the far right because our nation desperately needs it.

(6 paragraphs of internal rantings supressed)

Congrats to the Democrats.