Happy New Year!

(Pictured is Times Square with confetti falling)

Its hard to believe that 2007 is basically over.

For me, it was filled with many welcome changes. The first and most rewarding was the birth of my daughter, the second was a better work schedule for the family which, aside from the lack of sleep--who doesn't--has been been a godsend. I truely hope that 2008 will be blessed with just as much warmth and fulfillment.

What about 2008. Is this really a special year?

2008 is divisible by 2, 2, 2 and 251.

2008 is a leap year which means that Christmas is on a Thursday which means a four day weekend.

Most high school seniors were born in 1990. Crap. That's scary.

2008 is season 7 of American Idol. Great. More wannabee crooners who quit their jobs at the local greasy spoon.

The 4th Indiana Jones Movie titled and Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Finally, maybe a female president.

Here are a few new search engines that are up and coming in 2008:

http://www.kartoo.com/
http://www.quintura.com/
http://www.goshme.com/login.jsp;jsessionid=B43C41AED84C67E50A5C4D95AD3CA7F9
http://www.zuula.com/
http://www.gigablast.com/

Santa is Here!

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Wishlist from 1982

We all have a wishlist for the holidays. Maybe an I-POD or some wi-fi device or maybe a plasma tv or clothes or something of that ilk.


Maybe the catalog from your favorite store just doesn't list what you want. If that's the case, then you might want to try this.


A friend of mine found this person's flickr site which shows pages from the 1982 Sears Catalog...





ALL 600+ OF THEM!


Check out the price of this piece of cutting edge technology above.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/sets/72157594229749541/




I don't know what's worse. The fact that someone actually spent the time scanning in 600 pages of a 25 year old Sears catalog or that I found it fascinating enough click through it to pick my favorites.

Evening With Sabs Two Year Anniversary Post

On Saturday, all of us at Evening With Sabs celebrated our second anniversary on World Wide Web.

Never did I expect this website to garner such a following. My ultimate goal is to make some money with the site. As of this writing, our gross income from is endeavor a paltry ZERO.

Wait. I think we got some free potato salad last summer. That counts....sort of.

At last check in our two years of existence, we referenced Barry Bonds, the late Victor French, Ernest Borgnine and John Stamos. Yet, our audit shows no mention of Wilfred Brimley. You can bet your brand-spanking new diabetes testing supply kit that this will soon change in year three.

Happy Birthday!

The Politics of Politics

"Air-fouling, oil-drilling, earth-raping conservative fossil fools."

Or...

"...apocalyptic global-warming-denying homophobes"

Or better yet...

"Hippie, granola, wacko, non-patriotic, anti-Jesus freaks"

Heard some of these classic blasts? I found these on various websites illustrating how our stereotypes, whether factual or not, have interwoven their way into the political arena. And frankly, its now starting to piss me off.

I know this kind of talk has been around since America was founded more than 200 years ago. All you have to do is read about the political divisions that existed in the late 1700s right after the Revolutionary War. The two main political parties back then--the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans----surely "slung some mud" to prove their point(s). However, in this
passage from Thomas Jefferson, the "smack" isn't quiet what we are used to.

"...to the states as a bulwark against that consolidation, the fear of which produced the whole of
the opposition to the constitution at its birth."

(I sight this passage not for its political message but for the use of the word "bulwark". Wow,
what a word! Any candidate that uses this in a speech gets my vote.)

Back to the task at hand.

In this day-in-age, with more information at our disposal than ever before, its hard not to steer
clear of political stereotypes. Conservatives stereotype liberals as radicals who are anti-establishment, anti-christian, anti--US, anti-war on terror non-conformists who want big business to suffer in any way possible. Liberals stereotype conservatives as old-fashioned, traditional, pro-upper class, super-religious, pro-money, anti-environment, racist, anti-change hardliners.

While some of these descriptors of each group might be true for some, they are not true of all. Its a shame that a year away from the 2008 Presidential Election that these monikers will permeate political talk ad nausium. For the first time, we have a woman running for the highest seat in the land and as of this writing, favored heavily and already, the mudslinging has already begun. The candidates are going right back to the well with the same old cliched rhetoric. Republicans preach that Democrats are not "for the war on terror" because they won't spend the money "to protect" us basically calling they unamerican. They say that the Dems are for more government, against free enterprise and an increase in taxes. The Democrats charge the GOP of being for an increased military, against taxing the rich and not caring about the poor. Blah, blah, blah...

You know what is scary, we've all heard this before and its the same old thing. It shouldn't
surprise any of us that there are people who believe alot of what they hear and are shaped by
these verbal blasts. To put it another way, the general public's opinion is shaped by stereotypes perpetrated by self-serving politicians who are constantly on a soapbox trying to garner ever point in the polls by using the same basic cliched attacks that each candidate used before them and we fall for it every time.

Here's some advice. Maybe the candidates should, ooh I don't know, focus on what they will do for America rather than what so-and-so did or didn't do or won't do. That way we don't have to weed through the endless B.S. to get to the real meat-and-potatoes of how they would handle a specific issue.

Then again, I really wonder how many presidential wannabees really have a plan of attack. These platitudes seem like a clever way to mask the fact that they probably have no plan. The plan is:

Gain popularity, get elected and worry about a plan later. I can guarantee you this: What the candidates say from here on out won't be anything new. The sad part is that most of us will believe it.

Old Article about the "Hockey Stick"

I've been meaning to show this article but never got around to it. Unfortunately, this finding never gets any pub whatsoever.



Keep in mind. I am not piling on the anti-democrat bandwagon. This, I repeat, is NOT a political statement in an way. I, like many of my colleagues, try to see the science through the garbage/politics.



The rebuttle to this finding is at the end of the article.



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WSJ Editorial July 14, 2006 (Original findings were published in early 2005)



It is routine these days to read in newspapers or hear — almost anywhere the subject of climate change comes up — that the 1990s were the “warmest decade in a millennium” and that 1998 was the warmest year in the last 1,000.


This assertion has become so accepted that it is often recited without qualification, and even without giving a source for the “fact.” But a report soon to be released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee by three independent statisticians underlines yet again just how shaky this “consensus” view is, and how recent its vintage.


The claim originates from a 1999 paper by paleoclimatologist Michael Mann. Prior to Mr. Mann’s work, the accepted view, as embodied in the U.N.’s 1990 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was that the world had undergone a warming period in the Middle Ages, followed by a mid-millennium cold spell and a subsequent warming period — the current one. That consensus, as shown in the first of the two IPCC-provided graphs nearby, held that the Medieval warm period was considerably warmer than the present day.


Mr. Mann’s 1999 paper eliminated the Medieval warm period from the history books, with the result being the bottom graph you see here. It’s a man-made global-warming evangelist’s dream, with a nice, steady temperature oscillation that persists for centuries followed by a dramatic climb over the past century. In 2001, the IPCC replaced the first graph with the second in its third report on climate change, and since then it has cropped up all over the place. Al Gore uses it in his movie.


The trouble is that there’s no reason to believe that Mr. Mann, or his “hockey stick” graph of global temperature changes, is right. Questions were raised about Mr. Mann’s paper almost as soon as it was published. In 2003, two Canadians, Ross McKitrick and Steven McIntyre, published an article in a peer-reviewed journal showing that Mr. Mann’s methodology could produce hockey sticks from even random, trendless data.


The report commissioned by the House Energy Committee, due to be released today, backs up and reinforces that conclusion. The three researchers — Edward J. Wegman of George Mason University, David W. Scott of Rice University and Yasmin H. Said of Johns Hopkins University — are not climatologists; they’re statisticians. Their task was to look at Mr. Mann’s methods from a statistical perspective and assess their validity. Their conclusion is that Mr. Mann’s papers are plagued by basic statistical errors that call his conclusions into doubt. Further, Professor Wegman’s report upholds the finding of Messrs. McIntyre and McKitrick that Mr. Mann’s methodology is biased toward producing “hockey stick” shaped graphs.


Mr. Wegman and his co-authors are careful to point out that doubts about temperatures in the early part of the millennium do not call into question more-recent temperature increases. But as you can see looking at these two charts, it’s all about context. In the first, the present falls easily within a range of natural historical variation. The bottom chart looks alarming and discontinuous with the past, which is why global-warming alarmists have adopted it so eagerly.


In addition to debunking the hockey stick, Mr. Wegman goes a step further in his report, attempting to answer why Mr. Mann’s mistakes were not exposed by his fellow climatologists. Instead, it fell to two outsiders, Messrs. McIntyre and McKitrick, to uncover the errors.
Mr. Wegman brings to bear a technique called social-network analysis to examine the community of climate researchers. His conclusion is that the coterie of most frequently published climatologists is so insular and close-knit that no effective independent review of the work of Mr. Mann is likely. “As analyzed in our social network,” Mr. Wegman writes, “there is a tightly knit group of individuals who passionately believe in their thesis.” He continues: “However, our perception is that this group has a self-reinforcing feedback mechanism and, moreover, the work has been sufficiently politicized that they can hardly reassess their public positions without losing credibility.”


In other words, climate research often more closely resembles a mutual-admiration society than a competitive and open-minded search for scientific knowledge. And Mr. Wegman’s social-network graphs suggest that Mr. Mann himself — and his hockey stick — is at the center of that network.


Mr. Wegman’s report was initially requested by the House Energy Committee because some lawmakers were concerned that major decisions about our economy could be made on the basis of the dubious research embodied in the hockey stick. Some of the more partisan scientists and journalists howled that this was an attempt at intimidation. But as Mr. Wegman’s paper shows, Congress was right to worry; his conclusions make “consensus” look more like group-think. And the dismissive reaction of the climate



------------------------------------


Since the original release of the statistical findings, Mann issued this rebuttle.

"...so-called 'correction' was nothing more than a botched application of the MBH98 procedure, where the authors (MM) removed 80% of the proxy data actually used by MBH98 during the 15th century period... Indeed, the bizarre resulting claim by MM of anomalous 15th century warmth (which falls within the heart of the "Little Ice Age") is at odds with not only the MBH98 reconstruction, but, in fact the roughly dozen other estimates now published that agree with MBH98 within estimated uncertainties..."

The Best Picture Ever

So a buddy of mine, on a suggestion made by his friend, decided back in early September to go to Dubai on a week's vacation.

Yes, Dubai.

Aside from the obvious cultural differences one needs to adapt to when traveling to the middle east, the trip was great according to him. But of all the pictures he took, this one of his taxi driver is by far the best one and quite frankly, the best picture I have seen in a long time.

This now resides as the background on my computer at work.

Global Warming: Article from Founder of the Weather Channel

Some of my colleagues might not find this article credible or correct but I feel the need to share this being that John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel is a respected meteorologist and has been for decades. Granted, he mentions the Democratic Party by name which adds unnecessary fuel, in my opinion, to an already fueled argument but his other points are valid.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM.

Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data back in the late 1990's to create an allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental wacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the "research" to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremist, notable politicians among them then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild "scientific" scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda.

Now their ridicules manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmental conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party.

However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you "believe in." It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a nonevent, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won't believe me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.

I suspect you might like to say to me, "John, look the research that supports the case for global warming was done by research scientists; people with PH D's in Meteorology. They are employed by major universities and important research institutions. Their work has been reviewed by other scientists with PH D's. They have to know a lot more about it than you do. Come on, John, get with it. The experts say our pollution has created an strong and increasing greenhouse effect and a rapid, out of control global warming is underway that will sky rocket temperatures, destroy agriculture, melt the ice caps, flood the coastlines and end life as we know it. How can you dissent from this crisis? You must be a bit nutty.

Allow me, please, to explain how I think this all came about. Our universities have become somewhat isolated from the rest of us. There is a culture and attitudes and values and pressures on campus that are very different. I know this group well. My father and my older brother were both PHD-University types. I was raised in the university culture. Any person who spends a decade at a university obtaining a PHD in Meteorology and become a research scientist, more likely than not, becomes a part of that single minded culture. They all look askance at the rest of us, certain of their superiority. They respect government and disrespect business, particularly big business. They are environmentalists above all else.

And, there is something else. These scientists know that if they do research and results are in no way alarming, their research will gather dust on the shelf and their research careers will languish. But if they do research that sounds alarms, they will become well known and respected and receive scholarly awards and, very importantly, more research dollars will come flooding their way.

So when these researchers did climate change studies in the late 90's they were eager to produce findings that would be important and be widely noticed and trigger more research funding. It was easy for them to manipulate the data to come up with the results they wanted to make headlines and at the same time drive their environmental agendas. Then their like minded PHD colleagues reviewed their work and hastened to endorse it without question.

There were a few who didn't fit the mold. They did ask questions and raised objections. They did research with contradictory results. The environmental elitists berated them brushed their studies aside.

I have learned since the Ice Age is coming scare in the 1970's to always be a skeptic about research. In the case of global warming, I didn't accept media accounts. Instead I read dozens of the scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct when I assure you there is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. It is all a scam, the result of bad science.

I am not alone in this assessment. There are hundreds of other meteorologists, many of them PH D's, who are as certain as I am that this global warming frenzy is based on bad science and is not valid. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious. As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped.

The sky is not falling. And, natural cycles and drifts in climate are as much if not more responsible for any climate changes underway.

I strongly believe that the next twenty years are equally as likely to see a cooling trend as they are to see a warming trend.

Elaina's Birth-Day Revisited

I finally have a few minutes to write after the wham-bang past two weeks since my daughter Elaina was born. Rather than just bore you with an endless run-on of "mommy-and-baby-are-doing-great" cliches, an embellished events chronology starting from when left the house to go to the hospital and ending with birth I feel is the best way to encapsulate the day. I had better do this now because, after all, Time is now flying by even faster now...not like it wasn't already. (See earlier posting)

As you read, don't forget to make a mental note of the memorable quotes from doctors and nurses as I assure you, some of these you will NEVER hear again.

8:30AM We get up, have breakfast and get in the car for the marathon 3.5 mile drive to the hospital. "Why does this seem weird?", I say to my wife. She laughs.

I continue. "We woke up this morning and by lunch, we'll have another child. This seems...we'll planned," I say.

She says, "That's why this is called a 'planned' C-Section."

I nod in agreement.

9:10AM Now at the hospital, a pile of paperwork was immediately thrust at us that would make filing your taxes seem like writing thank you cards for Christmas. My wife and I feverishly check boxes, initial and initial some more.


9:12AM The nurse hooks her up to an IV as she continues to dot I's and cross T's.

The nurse asks, "So what are we having today?"

Seems harmless enough but the fact that this was a planned "C" made the question seem on par with a inquiry like, "Would you like to have fries with that?" I mean that not to diminish the birth of my daughter, she just asked the question so "matter-of-factly" and I wasn't ready for it.
9:25AM I utter the word "SPHYGMOMANOMETER" for the third time since arriving.

10:20AM I get dressed in my operating room garb.

10:35AM My wife is wheeled into the OR.

10:40AM I wait patiently for the doctor to arrive. He shows up with a Jeff Gordon surgical hat on, scrubs up, tells a few off-color jokes and proceeds to the OR.

10:40:10AM I remove flask from my back pocket and promptly take 2 shots.

10:42AM I pop a few Tic-Tacs to cover up the smell of J.D.

10:52AM The C-Section begins. I hold my wife's hand as I watch the Nascar-loving doctor slice into her abdomen. There is something surreal watching your wife being opened up while medical technicians utter phrases like "more suction" or "clamp" or, and this is my favorite, "pass the metzenbaum". This is not to be confused with the aged former Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum who at last check, has never performed a C-Section.

10:54AM A nurse asks me how it is to work with local celebrities. Before I could answer the question, she continues on her lengthy diatribe on how she often runs into a few of these local celebrities at the grocery store on Saturdays. She doesn't take the hint that I could really care less given my wife is on the operating table numb from the chest down. So she continues to tell her story while I watch the water break.

10:56AM Our baby girl, ELAINA GABRIELLE was born, 8 lbs. 14 oz, 21 inches.

11:00AM I cut the cord.

11:30AM Back to the room.

Fast forward to 3PM.....

A nurse enters the room to check in on my wife. She then says the most strangest sentence I guarantee I'll EVER hear.

"YOU HAD THE MOST LUSCIOUS PLACENTA I'VE EVER SEEN!"

I quickly retorted, "What does that mean?"

Mistake number one was to ask a follow-up question. A mistake that I quickly regretted.

She answers, "Oh, it was just so red and full."

At this point, I had nothing. I mean, where do you go from that answer? I'll tell you where, you don't say a word and pretend like the dialogue never happened. So I took the path of least resistance and went to get a cup of coffee.

More Elaina Pictures...and a few Nathan Ones for Good Measure

Nothing to say here. Just admire her cuteness.

ELAINA GABRIELLE IS HERE!

Yes, on Monday at 10:56AM, our second child was born. 8 pounds, 14 ounces and 21 inches long. A more detailed diary of the day will be coming soon.

Down to the Wire on Both Fronts

Here I am typing this on Sunday morning as my 2 year old sleeps and I'm torn.

Last night, the Indians lost game 6 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) 12 to 2 and honestly, it was over after the first inning. Also, we (my wife and I) are inside 24 hours until her scheduled C-Section. Suffice it to say, I'm a little shaky right about now.

Back to the ALCS. I thought if the Tribe didn't win this thing at home in game 5, the series was over for a variety of reasons. The main one being 40+ year old Curt Schilling lives for pressure situations and the other is that in the pressure-cooker environment of Fenway Park, the Indians' lineup would be less patient. All of this has happened. Carmona, the Indians' starter walked a bunch of guys and surrendered a grand slam in the 1st inning. By the third, it was 8 to 1 and I went to bed. Now in game 7, each team pulls out all of the stops. Starting pitchers become relievers, the popcorn vendor might have to pinch-run if need be. The Indians will lose tonight and I'll be once again, looking at the World Series from the outside realizing that will have been almost 60 years since they won the Series. You can see why I'm a bit shakey--maybe uneasy is a better descriptor. So let the snow fall...for me, summer is over.

Now the main reason why I am skakey. Tomorrow morning at this time, my wife and I will be at the hospital prepping for her C-Section surgery. Its like the day or night before a final exam. The butterflies are relentless, you can't eat and nothing can ramp down your gitters. Except this time, I have a headache. This is nothing compared to my wife whose mid-section is stretched beyond capacity, her carpultunnel problems aren't getting better and she is more nervous than me. Its hard to fathom that in a few days, we will have ANOTHER child to take care of. Like with everything, you just do it and in retrospect years later, you'll ask yourself, "How did we do that?"

Unknown newborn pic I found on the web. No relation.

So you see that my nervousness is coming from multiple directions today. The ballgame pails in comparison to the birth of my second child but its still, as my dad would say, "a psychosocial stressor regardless.".

At least tonight, I will have some resolution on the baseball front. And 11 hours after that, my daughter will be born and all will be good in the world...until those late night feedings.

Where Have I Been?

...Good question. And I wish I had a better answer than "no where, really."

In fact, I could have written a bunch of stuff over the last several weeks but the spirit really didn't move me. Call it a combination of apathy and general laziness.

Let's catch up on a few items. First, my wife HAS NOT given birth yet. Her schedule C-Section is next Monday. While she is ready to pop--her words, not mine--she feels pretty good all things considered.

The Cleveland Indians are one game away from their 6th trip to the World Series which will start next Wednesday. This gives me a great excuse to show up to work at 3:30AM in a fog, incoherent and slow on the uptake. All of which has happened twice this week accompanied by that achy, sick feeling you get when you are sleep deprived. Basically, my body wanted me to throw up but I didn't have the energy to so I just stumbled around slowly as if I had 7 martinis.

A friend of mine decided to go to Dubai for vacation. Now that you're jaw is resting on the floor comfortably after the long fall from you face, an explanation is in order. He did it for "something to do". Fair enough. His blog that he updates daily chronicling his trip is definitely worth your time.

http://davestriptodubai.blogspot.com/

Also, have you seen the video of Miss Teen South Carolina answering a question during the pageant? Frankly, I could put this into heavy rotation on my mp3 player and it wouldn't get old.

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...and the follow up interview on The Today Show which verified what we all were thinking when we saw the first video.




Now some random pictures that I've been accumulated recently.

My brother-in-law and my nephew Evan

My sister, her husband and their son Evan

Highest Paid Television Celebrities

Financial magazine Forbes on Thursday published a list of the highest-paid TV celebrities.
The people on the list that really don't do anything the best I can figure are highlighted in boldface.

Hey, getting paid for little or no work is good thing. Feel free to add anyone to the "do nothing" list as you see appropriate.

1. Oprah $260
2. Jerry Seinfeld $60
3. Simon Cowell $45
4. David Letterman $35
5. Donald Trump $32
6. Jay Leno, $32 million
7. Dr. Phil McGraw, $30 million
8. "Judge" Judy Sheindlin, $30 million
9. George Lopez, $26 million
10. Kiefer Sutherland, $22 million
11. Regis Philbin, $21 million
12. Tyra Banks, $18 million
13. Rachael Ray, $16 million
14. Katie Couric, $15 million
15. Ellen DeGeneres, $15 million
16. Ryan Seacrest, $14 million
17. Matt Lauer, $13 million
18, Barbara Walters, $12 million
19. Diane Sawyer, $12 million
20. Meredith Vieira, $10 million

Top Earning Athletes in each sport. Numbers also include endorsements.

Basketball: Shaq O'Neill $35 million
Baseball: Derek Jeter $29 million
Football: Peyton Manning $29 million
Golf: Tiger Woods $111 million
Nascar: Dale Earnhardt, Jr $29 million

Antimatter Lasers...Hell Yes!

I've had this blog for almost 2 years and I have yet to incorporate the word "antimatter" in any posting. Rather than force the issue in some stream-of-consciousness rant, I feel better just cutting and pasting this article about not only antimatter but antimatter AND lasers!

I have no idea what the science means and frankly, nor do I care. All I know is if this appears at Radio Shack in the near future, I'm scoring one.

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Antimatter molecule could lead to ultra-powerful laser

18 September 2007
NewScientist.com news service

An exotic molecule built from electrons and antimatter is being touted as a route to powerful gamma-ray lasers.

An electron can hook up with its antiparticle, the positron, to form a hydrogen-like atom called positronium (Ps). It survives for less than 150 nanoseconds before it is annihilated in a puff of gamma radiation. It was known that two positronium atoms should be able to bind together to form a molecule, called Ps2, and now David Cassidy and Allen Mills from the University of California, Riverside, have made that happen. First, they trapped positrons in a thin film of porous silica. Those positrons captured electrons to form positronium atoms, and the pattern of decay rates signalled that some of these atoms had teamed up to form Ps2 (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature06094).

If positronium atoms could be forced to merge into a kind of "super-atom" condensate, it would decay in bursts of identical gamma rays, which could lead to gamma-ray lasers a million times more powerful than standard lasers. "It's like comparing a chemical explosion with a nuclear explosion," Cassidy says

Red Meat and Global Warming?

Remember back in 1997 when El Nino was the catch phrase and it was common to link EVERYTHING to El Nino? "Boy, my arthritis is acting up. Must be El Nino. Man, that chicken soup didn't turn out like I wanted it. yep, must be El Nino." And the list went on and on...

Global Warming is now getting the same treatment like the El Nino fad 10 years ago. Yes, red Meat consumption and Global Warming are linked according to the latest article in the medical journal The Lancet.

Here is an exerpt from the original Associated Press story:

"...Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday. In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming...If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," said Geni Brewster, nutritianist.

Are you freaking kidding me!

I am all for protecting the environment. While I don't subscribe to the notion that the earth will heat up and boil away in 200 years (the science for my conclusion is reserved for another time), I realize that economically, we must rely on other forms of fuel and curb others. Going green shouldn't be something that is pushed for by politicans, it is just plain common sense. I get that. I really do.

But now, we have to stop cows from farting to save the planet? The next

Sure, eatting less red meat is good for your diet. And yes, methane from cows is a source of methane emissions in the atmosphere. But I'll be damned if I'm quitting my weekly steak.

(Oh yes, just because I mentioned the economical aspect of environmental change, don't label me a super-conservative republican. Regardless of your political persuasion, I think we all want to save a buck so leave political stereotypes out of it.)

New Family Guy Episodes Coming

This might not be worthy of a first posting for the month but its information that I've been jonesing for. The Family Guy is back on the air September 23rd with episode 99 titled "Blue Harvest". The show synopsis:

With the Griffins stuck at home during a blackout, Peter begins to tell a story, which leads to a Star Wars flashback. Acting out scenes from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Peter plays Han Solo, Lois is Princess Leia, Stewie becomes Darth Vader, Brian plays Chewbacca, and Chris is Luke Skywalker. Cleveland and Quagmire will play the parts of R2-D2 and C-3PO, while Herbert is the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Personally, I await the episode titled "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" named from the super popular Judy Blume book or the episode titled "Believe it or not, Joe's walking on air". Will William Katt make a guest appearance?

Random Stuff

Before I forget any longer, my son just went number 2 on the potty for the first time last month. Of course, i got a picture of him showing all of us his excrement.


Forget steroids. Forget HGH. Forget greenies. Did you happen to hear about the ballgame last week between the Orioles and the Rangers? The final was.....30 to 3. This marked the first time in 110 years that a team scored 30 runs in a game. Amazingly, only 4 pitches were used.

Eric Estrada Gets Tasered

Can you beat this? I think not.

Eric Estrada, in his failed attempt at a "comeback" in this new show on CBS called Armed and Famous earlier this year which lasted all of five episodes (Estrada only in 2 of them), decided to get tasered in episode one. Listen to his description of what after effects he noticed.

What I want to know is where is Larry Wilcox?