Etcetera

I got stung by a bee. Twice!

I just put my hand on a railing while climbing a flight of exterior stairs, and there must of been a bee on the rail who took a dislike to me. It felt like I'd touched a thorn at first, beside the nail of my left, little finger. Then when I, reflexively, tried to brush it off with my right hand, he got me again in the palm.

It stung like crazy for a few minutes, then lessened. Now the tip of my left little finger is pretty swollen, and a little sore. Only a little reddening in my right palm.

I've never had any allergy to bee stings. When I was a kid I accidentally stood on a underground nest, and got about a dozen stings in my right calf. Other than some swelling and itching, no problem.

A similar sting, on a finger a couple of years ago, didn't even produce much swelling.

So I think I'll live.

Is McCain out of his mind?

Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor, writing on CNN.com:

For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.

...

For months, the McCainiacs have said they will run on his judgment and experience. In his first presidential decision, John McCain has shown that he is willing to endanger his country, potentially leaving it in the hands of someone who simply has no business being a heartbeat away from the most powerful, complicated, difficult job in human history.

Read the whole thing.

Baseball Instant Replay Starts Friday

This Friday major league baseball will begin using video instant replay to review certain close calls during games. This is such a sad development.

Initially it will only be used to review flyballs which may have been homeruns. So here's yet another example of how the home-run is diminishing the game of baseball.

The Giacometti Code

I linked to this guys a while ago. Here's another. I think he may be onto something here.

Guitar Guy

I saw this guy perform live at, of all places, Oshkosh.

Kevin Spacey, Beyond the Sea

I just recently watched this movie for the first time. Better than I expected, but pretty sad.

Hal spells it out.

Joey deVilla has collected a huge group of celebrity computer ads. I'm still wading through them all, but this one was always a favorite. I remember that we felt it was one of the first Apple ads that struck back at Microsoft, and said, we're better.

Is Chinese Gymnast Old Enough?

They're investigating whether this Chinese girl is old enough to qualify for the Olympics. Coincidentally she made the age qualification by ONE DAY.

I think we're going to find that the actual rule is not that you have to be any particular age to be in the Olympics, but that you have to have a passport that SAYS you're a certain age.

China's He Kexin... was registered as being born on January 1, 1992.

There have been persistent media allegations that He had competed in earlier tournaments under a later birthdate, and on Thursday an American computer expert said he had uncovered Chinese state documents that proved she was 14 and not 16.

The caption on a photograph published by Chinese state news agency Xinhua last year referred to "13-year-old He Kexin," while China Daily reported in May that she was 14.

An IOC official said the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) had been asked to look into "discrepancies" over He's age, but others stressed she had already been cleared to compete.

"Everything that has been received so far shows we have no problem of eligibility for these competitors," said the IOC's sports director Christophe Dubi, adding FIG had asked the Chinese national gymnastics federation to investigate.

Bus Rage

So I assume you've all heard of the crazy bus guy in Canada. Quiet hardworking immigrant is riding a bus in Canada, and all of a sudden he pulls out a knife and starts stabbing his seat-mate that he didn't know. Bus driver stops and everyone else runs screaming from the bus. Meanwhile, crazy guy beheads his victim and starts eating him. By the time the police get to him, he's put various pieces of his victim into plastic bags and has them in his pockets. Since then, all he will say to police or lawyers is "Kill me".

Crazy stuff, for sure - but now check this out. It was a Greyhound bus, and Greyhound now has to cancel their new ad campaign. Seems they were going to stress the fact that taking a bus is so nice because you don't have the hassles of being a driver. Their now canceled new ad motto: "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage.'"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/06/international/i101302D40.DTL&tsp=1