Fun bank ad.

HSBC -- the Hong Kong bank -- has some great ads. This one I really like.

Cool ideas for old cameras

One of the neat things about the Internet is finding things you weren't looking for. (You know, like someone who only watches Fox News ending up at The Daily Kos and learning something.)

Came across a great article in PC Magazine about what to do with old digital cameras. I was already working on one of these ideas. The others sound pretty cool as well.

Gotta have some fun

Bush endorses Palin/McCain

Love for David Gergen

let's have some fun in the middle of political analysis.

Let's get all Gergen-y.

No Mudslinging

A debate from 40 years ago...

Home from 31 million miles away

Once again NASA has a great video.

Here is good old planet Earth from 30+ million miles away. And that is the moon crossing our path.

Mars' moon move across the night sky

Really cool thing came in the other day from one of the Mars rovers.

The rover Spirit used some of the extra power it saved up during the day to take some night-time observations of the Martian sky.

Here is a shot of two of Mars' moons moving across the sky.

Is that cool or what?

Click here for a description of what you are seeing.

Making that move from analog to digital

Start your own Religious War (Or not)

There is a set of photos making the rounds that purport to show a Catholic and Presbyterian church fighting it out over the issue of do dogs go to heaven.

It is a put up.

See All dogs go to heaven at Snopes.com.

Two points:

1. Anytime something on the Internet seems too funny or too dangerous (or silly) to be true, check out it out on Snopes.
2. If you want to start your own religious war, go to Church Sign Generator and make your own set of signs.

FYI, the #1 and #2 hottest urban legends checked on involve Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. So before you go sending friends those e-mails talking about how Obama is some radical Muslim or sharing that erotic picture of Palin in a U.S. flag bikini while holding a rifle, check with Snopes first.

Joe Biden is #5 and John McCain is #9.

Breast Cancer Awareness in Brazil

Picture of Lisa and Barbara Sobel, wife of the ambassador, taken at a breast cancer awareness event held at the U.S. embassy in Brasilia October 10, 2008.

The Neiman Marcus catalog is out

Once again you can see what the people with WAY too much money can do with their extra cash.

Here is the story about the 2008 catalog.

To give you a sense of what is available this year:

• Life-size Lego replica of you for $60,000
• Backyard golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus for $1 million.
• A 35-year collection of every 45 RPM record listed on the Billboard Top 100 Rock and Pop charts

Maybe people can drool over the catalog as they watch their houses sold at auction.

Think the Thomas Crown Affair but without the cut

Bank Robber Uses Craigslist To Hire Unsuspecting Accomplices

Posted: 01 Oct 2008 08:20 PM CDT

A man robbed an armored car outside a Monroe, Washington bank and used a dozen unwitting accomplices to act as decoys during his getaway. He hired the accomplices on Craigslist and instructed them to wear very specific clothing. From King5.com:

"I came across the ad that was for a prevailing wage job for $28.50 an hour," said Mike, who saw a Craigslist ad last week looking for workers for a road maintenance project in Monroe.

He said he inquired and was e-mailed back with instructions to meet near the Bank of America in Monroe at 11 a.m. Tuesday. He also was told to wear certain work clothing.

"Yellow vest, safety goggles, a respirator mask… and, if possible, a blue shirt," he said.

Mike showed up along with about a dozen other men dressed like him, but there was no contractor and no road work to be done. He thought they had been stood up until he heard about the bank robbery and the suspect who wore the same attire.

Armored truck robber uses Craigslist to make getaway (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)

50 Years of NASA

Say what you will about the expense, there is something to be said about the granduer of exploring new places.

Just about every science fiction writer has touched on the importance of continuing to push the limits of knowledge and to explore.

NASA has been doing that for 50 years.

For those of us old enough to remember, where were you when Neil Armstrong stepped on the lunar surface?

Think about all those glorious pictures of the universe from the Hubble Telescope. (Thanks in part to the Hubble Space Telescope, we know the universe is 13.7 billion years old. Not 4-6,000 years.)

Look at the data we are getting about Mars today with actual robots roaming around the planet. And to think that it wasn't until the 1970s that we actually saw what the Martian surface really looked like.

So despite the disasters, the bureaucratic foul-ups and the petty bickering, NASA has given us what humans have always dreamed of: A way to touch the stars.

And something has to be said about reaching for dreams beyond our current grasp.