If I Can Dream-Elvis and Celine Dion

Great use of technology to create an "impossible" duet. I heard recently that to see Celine's show in Las Vegas costs $200 per ticket. That is outrageous. Things have changed since the old days when big name shows were cheap in Vegas in order to draw people to the Casinos.

Money video

This is a weird music video but I like it. The lead singer does a great job of deadpaning the funny lyrics.

The Locomtion- Kylie Minogue

I really wanted the video of Debbie Gibson doing this song. But is nowhere to be found on the web. However this one is similar and pretty good.

ABBA "Dancing Queen"

One of their best songs. ABBA hit it big after winning a TV music talent show (Eurovision?) Saw an interview with a music guru who praised their music as being as intricate and sophisticated as any band out there. After about 10 years they retired and went back back to Sweden.

ABBA "The Winner Takes It All"

ABBA was number one in the world for 10 years despite doing "clean" pop music. This at a time when other top bands were featuring the grunge look along with "sex,drugs and rock-n-roll".

Conspiracy!!

The conspiracy theories about what really brought the twin towers down on 9/11 are absurd. The idea of an elaborate hoax with our government collaborating with Saudi religious fanatics is ridiculous on it’s face. There are reasons we nevertheless find ourselves debating this issue. First, there are always people (the conspiracy advocates) who want to be the center of attention and sensational claims are a way of getting that attention. Non-scientists find it hard to tell the difference between research and advocacy - if it's got numbers and charts, does that make it science? Secondly we have the journalists need for attention grabbing headlines (the ‘tabloid syndrome’). Third, there is the practice of “he said…she said” reporting. Paul Krugman of the NY Times said if someone claimed the earth was flat the headlines would read “Opinions Differ on Shape of Earth”. The fourth reason we are giving a forum to nonsense is more disturbing. There is constant drumbeat of attacks on our government’s credibility and intentions regarding Iraq and almost everything under the sun. In this poisonous atmosphere any charge, no matter how ridiculous, is treated as a real possibility.

Ltr to H-T sent 26Sep07

Why we need free enterprise

"Before wealth can be distributed it must be created."

Slogan used by conservative candidate in recent presidential election in France against his socialist opponent.

Five Mexican generals

To stop illegals coming across our border and save a lot of money at the same time:

Divide the border into 5 districts. Create 5 escrow bank accounts of $2mil each. Offer each of these to a Mexican general with one condition. For each illegal we catch on our side we subtract $10k from the relevant district account. The Generals can get the balance in the accounts after 2 years, Then we do it again.
(Heard some Texas radio personality say this.)

Weird Eye-Brain Action

Don't delete the following paragraph just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it.

I cduolnt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uendsatnrd waht I was rgdnieg. The
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the
olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh,c

Bush as Hitler?

In the January 29 H-T we were subjected to yet another hysterical rant against our president and, by extension, our country. Kevin Haggerty’s column is so venomous and so beyond reason it is absurd. He tells us President Bush is in the same league as Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. Where does the H-T find these screeching and preaching left wingers? Why give him a column to spew such hate filled rhetoric? In Iraq we are trying to create a free and democratic society. Do we get credit for these intentions? No…we are told our president is a Hitler. Mr. Haggerty is the type of writer the H-T seems to attract that can find nothing good about our country. Now is a time when anti-American propaganda is common in the world, put out by our enemies and even some of our so-called friends. Too many people are ready and anxious to believe anything bad about the USA. The Iranian parliament ends its sessions by chanting “death to America”. Chavez, the Castro-wannabe in Venezuela, says America is a terrorist state and the most evil country in the world. Is this where Mr. Haggerty gets his ideas?

Reality sounds like sci-fi movie

This appeared on Boing-Boing recently:

Deep in the Cameroonian rain forests of west-central Africa there lives a floor-dwelling ant known as Megaloponera foetens, or more commonly, the stink ant. This large ant -— indeed, one of the very few capable of emitting a cry audible to the human ear -— survives by foraging for food among the fallen leaves and undergrowth of the extraordinarily rich rain-forest floor.
On occasion, while thus foraging, one of these ants will become infected by inhaling the microscopic spore of a fungus from the genus Tomentella, millions of which rain down upon the forest floor from somewhere in the canopy above. Upon being inhaled, the spore lodges itself inside the ant’s tiny brain and immediately begins to grow, quickly fomenting bizarre behavioral changes in its ant host. The creature appears troubled and confused, and presently, for the first time in its life, it leaves the forest floor and begins an arduous climb up the stalks of vines and ferns.
Driven on and on by the still-growing fungus, the ant finally achieves a seemingly prescribed height whereupon, utterly spent, it impales the plant with its mandibles and, thus affixed, waits to die. Ants that have met their doom in this fashion are quite a common sight in certain sections of the rain forest.
The fungus, for its part, lives on. It continues to consume the brain, moving on through the rest of the nervous system and, eventually, through all the soft tissue that remains of the ant. After approximately two weeks, a spikelike protrusion erupts from out of what had once been the ant’s head. Growing to a length of about an inch and a half, the spike features a bright orange tip, heavy-laden with spores, which now begin to rain down onto the forest floor for other unsuspecting ants to inhale.