I'm nearing my own birthday in a few days (the dreaded dirty thirty), but today, February 12th, is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution through natural selection is easily one of the greatest discoveries in the history of human knowledge.

In celebration of Darwin Day 2009, my fellow Americans should watch the Nova special about the debate surrounding evolution in America called Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial on the PBS website. I especially recommend Chapter 6, which explains the difference between the common everyday use of the term "theory" (which implies unsupported "speculation") versus a scientific theory (which, according to the National Academy of Sciences, is "a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment"). Chapter 6 also presents one of the most compelling facts to support human evolution: the existence of vestigial centromeres and telomeres in Chromosome 2.

Sadly, 150 years after the first publication of Darwin's seminal book On the Origin of Species, many Americans still refuse to accept evolution as fact despite the (literally) mountains of evidence to support Darwin's theory. I spent last Thanksgiving arguing with a family friend who defiantly dismissed evolution as "just a theory" despite my futile attempts to educate her. She, like so many Americans, defies rationality and reason by subscribing to the so-called "Intelligent Design" theory, which is hardly a theory at all because it cannot be confirmed through observation and experiment nor can it make any predictions about the natural world. Evolution, however, has been confirmed over and over with each new piece of genetic and fossil evidence (e.g. Tiktaalik) and it can make accurate predictions about the natural world (i.e. Chromosome 2).

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!!!

Happy Buy Nothing Day (aka Black Friday aka Trample Store Employees to Death Just to Save a Few @#$%ing Bucks Day).

People did not stop to help the employee as he lay on the ground, and they pushed against other Wal-Mart workers who were trying to aid Mr. Damour. The crowd kept running into the store even after the police arrived, jostling and pushing officers who were trying to perform CPR, the police said.

...

The police said that three other shoppers were injured and a 28-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant was taken to the hospital for observation.

I've been having car trouble recently so my '92 Ford Taurus is spending tonight at an auto shop. Hopefully the news won't be too bad / expensive when they call me in the morning to tell me what's wrong with it. I also hope they'll be able to fix it before the holiday.

The car has already had major service several times during the 3 years that I've had it, which is to be expected for a car that is almost 17 years old. I'm reluctant to invest anymore money into fixing it up, but I really can't afford a new car right now, even another used car, and the engine doesn't really have that many miles for its age.

It's funny, when the guy at the auto shop was checking the odometer, he was confused by the fact that it seemed to missing a digit. He asked me, "does this thing have 13,000 miles on it or or does that say 130,000 miles?" I replied, "the odometer only goes up to 99,999.9 and it's already rolled over so it's actually 113,000 miles." The repair guy shrugged and said "that's weird" to which I added "that shows Ford's confidence in their product to not even last over 100,000 miles."

The forecast for tomorrow predicts it will still be raining so I'll probably get wet when I have to walk back over to the auto shop to pick up my car. I won't mind though because I really do like walking in the rain. Of course, if I can't afford to fix my car, I'll probably be walking a lot more rain or shine whether I like it or not...

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Mood:
Currently listening to:
the sound of raindrops on our skylight and 11:11 by Regina Spektor

Shahab and Emily have a new dog named Marzipan (after the homestarrunner character). She's a chihuahua / yorkshire terrier mix, aka a "chorkie" (or as Shahab and Emily like to call her, a "yo-huahua").

Here's Marzipan wearing her favorite "Obama girl" shirt:

And here's me wearing Marzipan (who got dog hair all over my new favorite shirt):

Mmm, hot dog...

Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone magazine wrote an incredibly in-depth profile of John McCain:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

Dickinson quotes people close to McCain, and many times McCain himself, and the story they tell is VERY different from the myth the McCain campaign is trying to sell to American voters. The remarkable thing is that very little of this article is news. Most of this stuff has been a matter of public record for years. Heck, the Republicans have been using it against him for decades (and McCain in turn tries to use these attacks from within his own party as proof of his "maverick" status) but Dickinson's cover story really puts McCain's life into perspective with the plain facts.

Throughout his entire life McCain has put his own selfish (and often childish) interests first over country (the exact opposite of his "Country First" campaign slogan) and he has only proven himself to be a "maverick" of the worst kind by disregarding the very things he pretends to defend: military authority and family values. John McCain is a lying hypocrite.

But it is not just a matter of whether or not McCain and his precious puppet Palin are qualified to lead this nation (and they are clearly UNQUALIFIED as Dickinson clearly illustrates in his article about McCain and in different piece about Palin). No, McCain and Palin should be DISQUALIFIED for their despicable campaign of lies that even Karl Rove admits goes "Beyond the 100% Truth Test"

I will reluctantly concede that Barack Obama is hardly a perfect candidate. He too has a checked past, but unlike McCain, Obama has learned from his mistakes and that makes Obama a respectable candidate. Barack owns his past while John McCain has tried desperately to rewrite his past by completely disowning the man he used to be. Thankfully, Tim Dickinson's Rolling Stone article reminds us of the man McCain has always been.

As so many pundits have noted, the John McCain of 2000 would NOT vote for the John McCain of 2008 and neither should America. I proud support Barack Obama. Heck I even donated more money to his campaign than I can afford because we as a nation cannot afford to have John McCain in the White House.

I love playing my Nintendo DS Lite in the bathroom (pre-wipe of course) and it’s something I look forward to each day, especially at work because it’s really the only private alone time I get at work.

Last night I was at work late at Starz Animation in Toronto (ya I know, I completely neglected to blog about coming to Toronto to continue working on 9 and instead I’m blogging about playing video games on the toilet, but that’s just the way I roll…). Anyway, I was at work late and I had to wait to use the bathroom until after the cleaning lady had finished in there. I didn't want to look like a slacker so I resisted the urge to play my DS at my desk, but as soon as the cleaning lady was done, I flicked on my DS and headed into a stall for a little Mario Kart DS action. The toilet seat was still wet from the cleaning lady’s wipedown, so I set down my DS, already open and powered up, on top of the big double-roll TP dispenser and reached down to grab some TP to wipe off the seat. When I pulled on the TP to tear off a piece, the whole side of the dispenser flipped open, dumping my DS and one of the rolls of TP straight into the toilet.

In dazed disbelief, I stood there, staring down through the tube of the TP roll, which was too big to actually fall into the toilet, and I watched my precious electronic device sink deeper into the clean clear toilet water, still displaying the race-track fly-over animation. As the DS hit bottom, I snapped out of my stupor and sprang into action. I tossed aside the TP roll but shock set in again when I saw the beautiful glowing Dual Screens, for which the DS is named, fizzle out and dim to a barely visible frozen image of Yoshi at the starting line, his opponents just starting to speed away.

My heart sank as I plunged my hand into the toilet and snatched up my DS. It was dripping wet, a small piece of TP clinging to the top screen still displaying the same dim frozen frame. I flicked off power switch, grabbed some TP from the fallen roll and started to wipe off the DS, but it just seemed too wet.

"It's ruined," I thought. "There's no point." So I set the DS on top of the sticky Canadian Maxim magazine on the tank behind the toilet (where I should've set down my DS in the first place), wiped off the toilet seat, which was even wetter from the splash, pulled down my pants, and sat down. But nothing happened. It was as if my bowels were telling, "sure we waited a long time for the cleaning lady to finish in the bathroom, and sure we just about crapped ourselves when the DS fell into the toilet, but I'm gonna hold the fort down here while you use that brain of ours up there to figure out how to fix this so stop wasting our time sitting here moping and dry the damn thing off!!!"

So I pulled up my pants and ran out to find some paper towels. I took everything out of the DS that I could (DS game card, GBA rumble pack card, stylus, battery), dried it all off with towels and left the parts out to air-dry. I wished I had the special Nintendo "tri-wing" proprietary screwdriver so that I could fully disassemble it because it was clearly soaked inside and out. I was too impatient to see if it was still working, so after an hour of letting it air-dry, I put the battery back in and turned it on. The top screen was dim and flickering and after a few seconds it faded to black.

I thought for sure that I had just shorted out the DS, but I wasn't ready to give up so I collected the parts and ran back to my hotel room, where I remembered seeing a hair dryer in the bathroom. I used the hair dryer to blow-dry it inside and out for a good 10 minutes and then I left the DS disassembled over night, resisting the temptation to test it again.

I didn't have much hope the next morning as I put my DS back together, but when I turned it on everything seemed back to normal. Both screens were fully illuminated and the flickering was gone. After 30 minutes of testing it out I was convinced that my DS had completely dried out and survived full submersion in water without any permanent damage.

I swear, Nintendo makes a damn fine product.

And I've learned my lesson. I still play my DS in the bathroom but I keep it in my pocket until I sit down and I put it back in my pocket before wiping. I bet no one will ever want to play with my DS after reading this...

Dennis Kucinich during Las Vegas Democratic Debate:

"YOU DON'T WAIT! IMPEACH THEM NOW!!!"

Kucinich Moves for Cheney Impeachment

I usually don't blog about hoax emails, but since I haven't blogged much about anything recently, and cuz I spent a decent amount of time researching and replying to the hoax email, I decided to post my response with a little bit of extra commentary.

Who knows, maybe it'll help inform other people who got sent the following bogus email:

New Driving Fines for 2007

1. Carpool lane - 1st time $1068.50 starting 7/1/07 (The $271 posted
on the highway is old). Don't do it again because 2nd time is going to be double. 3rd time triple, and 4th time license suspended.

2. Incorrect lane change - $380. Don't cross the lane on solid lines
or intersections.

3. Block intersection - $485

4. Driving on the shoulder - $450

5. Cell phone use in the construction zone. - Double fine as of
07/01/07. **Cell phone use must be "hands free" while driving.**

6. Passengers over 18 not in their seatbelts - both passengers and
drivers get tickets .

7. Speeders can only drive 3 miles above the limit.

8. DUI = JAIL (Stays on your driving record for 10 years!)

9. As of 07/01/07 cell phone use must be "hands free" while driving.
Ticket is $285. They will be looking for this like crazy - easy money
for police department.

My BS-alarm goes off automatically whenever I receive an email with "FWD" in the subject but this email wasn't explicitly a forward. Still, the claims in the email seemed suspect, especially the fine dollar amounts. Sure enough, after a little research, I discovered that the email was loaded with factual inaccuracies and half-truths.

First off, this email originally circulated in January 2007 and stated that the "new laws" went into effect 1/1/07, so clearly someone has revived the email by changing the "1" to a "7" and sending it out again for the mid-year date of July 1st. Also, the original email was specific to California, and though the email I received didn't specify, I had already assumed as much so the remainder of my fact-checking was focused on the CA DMV.

Secondly, fines for traffic citations are jurisdictional based off of CA state guidelines so there are no fixed dollar amounts and the fines quoted in this email are ridiculously high, like 3 times the actual amounts.

Also, "hands-free" devices will indeed be required with cellphones for drivers, but NOT UNTIL JULY 2008.

So here's a little specific fact-checking:

#1 thru 4 all have inflated fines. Most of these violations have fines around $150, but again, those fines change county to county and the fines could increase if they are compounded with other multiple violations. As far as I can tell, carpool lane violations still have a MINIMUM $271 fine as stated on the signs. If the law changes, the signs will change.

#5: ALL traffic citation fines can be doubled in construction zones, but using a cellphone without "hands-free" while driving isn't illegal until July 2008.

#6: Everyone over the age of 16, not 18 like the email misstates, is required by law to wear a seat belt when they are in a vehicle. Citing a passenger for noncompliance has always been an option. If the passenger is under 16, the driver, or the parent or guardian if they are present, even if they are not driving, can be cited for the child.

#7: The speed limit is just that, the LIMIT. It is illegal to drive faster than the posted limit, so whether you are going 1 mile, 3 miles, or 100 miles over the limit, you could get a ticket. However, the amount of the ticket does increase at certain intervals of speed over the limit. For example, the statewide schedule for 1-15 mph over the limit is $146. And your chances of getting pulled over for speeding is usually relative to the posted limit. Going 3 miles an hour over a 5 mile per hour limit is probably much more likely to draw attention from authorities than going 3 miles over a 65 mph limit. Also, I didn't find anything in my research to suggest that 3 miles over has any special significance to speeding laws.

#8: "DUI = JAIL" has be the law for decades, so at least that part is true. Drivers under the influence are thrown in jail to sober up for at least a few hours, possibly longer if they are repeat offenders or if they meet other criteria warranting "enhanced penalties" like an extremely high blood-alcohol concentration or a child passenger. I'm not sure if DUI's stay on your record for 10 years as the email states, but based on the factual inaccuracy of the previous "facts" I'm guessing this number is wrong too. And even if the current length of time a DUI stays on your record is indeed 10 years, unless this law went into effect July 1st 2007 like the email states, this "fact" is not entirely true. UPDATE: After a little more research, I discovered the length of time that DUI's are reported on your driving record has indeed increased from 7 to 10 years as of January 1st 2007 but this email falsely implies that prior to 2007, DUI's did NOT get you jail time so I'm not willing yet to declare this one the only truthful fact in the email.

#9: Again, the cellphone ban doesn't go into effect until JULY 1st 2008 so you have a full YEAR before you are required to use your hands-free devices. Still, just because it's legal for one more year does NOT make it any less dangerous. They're making it the law for a reason, duh! But even if someone continues to drive while talking on a cell after the law actually goes into effect, they are only going to pay $20 fine of the first offense, and $50 for repeat violations according to the actual statute. Yet again, the hoax email grossly exaggerates the facts.

But I can't help but wonder, why in the heck would someone go through all the trouble to falsify facts and deliberately spread misinformation? And why don't people fact-check more before they unwittingly perpetuate the hoax?

Clearly this is a case where the facts seem legit. I knew there was a cellphone ban that was passed recenty in CA, but I didn't know exactly when it went into effect until I starting researching it today. In fact, if the carpool lane fine amounts weren't so outrageous, I might've just assumed these "facts" were indeed factual and yelled at drivers on their cellphones, thinking that they were breaking the law.

Maybe the original author of this bogus email was trying scare people into being better drivers.

For more information about this email hoax, please go to:
- urbanlegends.about.com
- TomVoli.com

And for the REAL new driving laws on the books in California in 2007, check out:
- California Department of Motor Vehicles
- California Department of Motor Vehicles (press release)
- Automobile Club of Southern California

Drive safely...