Jose Canseco About to Receive Epic Beating? [someone]
— Open Blog

This has nothing to do with anything (except for the fact that Ace and the gang seem to be on a weekend-long Val-U-Rite bender somewhere), so consider it an over-long-weekend open thread of sorts.

Former steroid-cheating slugger, steroid-accuser (largely correct, it turns out) and crossdresser Jose Canseco has entered the bizarre "Super Hulk" MMA tournament in Japan this week. His first opponent? A 7'2" Korean kickboxer. Admittedly the giant hasn't been himself since brain surgery last year, but, well, he's still a professional fighter. Canseco couldn't even beat up Danny Bonaduce.

So, if you ever wanted to see a Shaq-sized martial artist beat the hell out of a washed-up juiced baseball player, tune in to HDNet on 5AM Tuesday morning.

Posted by: Open Blog at 02:58 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 134 words, total size 1 kb.

Movie Choices this Weekend (or Tomorrow)?
— Dave in Texas

Can't make up my mind really. I go see a movie about 2, maybe 3 times a year.

You?

List from the top whatever money so far weekend/gross blah blah blah.

I hope this works. This is all new to me. I don't do this for a living.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 02:35 PM | Comments (1)
Post contains 115 words, total size 5 kb.

There Are a Lot of Ways to Say Thank You
— Dave in Texas

Supporting Soldier's Angels is a very good way to do that.

Thanks for the reminder xBradtc. And thank you for your service.

Also, a big thank you to the terrific folks at Landstuhl Army Medical Center.

There's a link to Soldier's Angels in Brad's post.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)
Post contains 65 words, total size 1 kb.

Overnight open thread – You can Haz Summer, Sort of (genghis)
— Open Blog

Item #1: CNN would like to bring you an important public health message: DonÂ’t relieve yourself in the pool.

“In a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted in April and May, 17 percent admitted relieving themselves in a swimming pool. Even the Olympics' most decorated swimmer, Michael Phelps, confessed to urinating in the water to TV host Jimmy Kimmel.”

I think we can cut Phelps a little slack though since, for him at least, it’s not a matter of relief but rather just an auxilary means of propulsion. Also, whatever happened to the chemical additive public pools were using for a while ? It interacted chemically with your, uh, “contribution” to the pool water by surrounding you with a purple cloud (and shaming your disgusting ass out of the pool).

Item #2: More of a watersports spectator than participant (double-entendre intended)? Maybe you just want to take a quick dive in. Or even better, since thereÂ’s a 125-foot cherry-picker crane sitting right there, why not go after the world record highest high-dive?

Sometimes things just donÂ’t work out though and you lose form in mid-dive. All is not lost thoughÂ…at least you set the new worlds record for highest belly flop. And bonus! Your belly glows a bright shade of red for several nights afterward, cutting down on lighting costs. WeÂ’re all in this together yaÂ’ know. Next up! Worlds highest cannonball. (Thanks to Phil the News Junkie).

Item #3: So your summerÂ’s not getting off to the best start due to your previous swimming and diving mishaps. Maybe itÂ’s time to see a movie instead? At least in this regard, technology is here to save the day with a new site called RunPee.com. According to the ABC (Australia) newsblurb about the site:

”An enterprising freelance software developer in the US has come up with an ingenious solution to that wee problem of when to dash to the loo when you're at the movies. RunPee.com, created by Dan Florio (aka polyGeek) tells you the best time to go.”

“RunPee.com "reviews" are posted by users. A recent example, Star Trek: "RunPee approximately 50 minutes into the movie when ... Capt Pike leaves the bridge on his way to Nero's ship and says, 'Chekov, you have the con'."

Will wonders never cease? The actual site is here though it looks like theyÂ’re in beta-ish mode, trying to work out some bugs.

Anyway, happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone and remember to remember what the weekendÂ’s all about. (As Dave has covered very nicely with the Frank Buckles post below). More will get posted along those lines over the weekend, but in the meantime feel free to nominate your all-time favorite summer songs in the thread along with links to them. Time to put Pixy's new server to the test. IÂ’ll kick it off with one below the fold. (more to come) more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 05:40 PM | Comments (6)
Post contains 525 words, total size 4 kb.

Saturday Honors
— Dave in Texas

This is a good weekend. It's a time to gather with those we care about, put the work woes behind, and enjoy one another. I do love this weekend so.

This story caught my attention, perhaps it caught yours.

Our last veteran of the first World War.

more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 09:50 AM | Comments (3)
Post contains 312 words, total size 2 kb.

Breaking: Obama Says US Out Of Money
— DrewM

Gee, I wonder what his first clue was?

But that doesn't mean the government shouldn't take over the rest of the health care system.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we've seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we've got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it's putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don't reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can't get control of the deficit.

Medicare is going to be broke in 2018, so naturally the only sane thing to do is put the government on the hook for even more liabilities. This whole idea that we can't get cost under control unless the government controls every thing presupposes that this is an area where the government has any competency at all. Where exactly is the proof of that?

The only way the government will be able to even pretend to control costs will be by rationing health care. Now if you are about spreading the wealth around, that's a feature, not a bug.

On the upside, Obama says he isn't on board with bailing out California and other states. On the downside, we all know that everything he says comes with an expiration date.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:13 AM | Comments (10)
Post contains 356 words, total size 2 kb.

If You Can Read This
— Pixy Misa

You are much too close The server move worked.

Except for New Comments Thingy, which will be online shortly.

Update 7:53AM GMT: New Comments Thingy is online!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:16 PM | Comments (3)
Post contains 37 words, total size 1 kb.

Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun Commits Suicide
— Dave in Texas

His aide says he jumped.

"Former President Roh left his house at 5:45 a.m. (2045 GMT on Friday) and while hiking on the Ponghwa Mountain, appears to have jumped off a rock at around 6:40 a.m." Moon Jae-in, who was Roh's presidential chief of staff, said in a nationally televised statement.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:17 PM | Comments (91)
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.

New Server Time
— Pixy Misa

Hi everyone.

We're moving to the new server today, at 6AM GMT (about three hours from when I post this).

There will be a little downtime involved, but it should be less than an hour total.

Update: Just so you know, the new server is a dual-processor quad-core hyperthreaded Xeon E5520 with 24GB of RAM, a 4TB RAID-5 array (using an Adaptec 5805 controller), a 32GB Intel X25-E SSD, redundant power supplies, and a gigabit internet connection, running CentOS 5.3 and OpenVZ.

The old server is three hamsters and a pocket calculator, with an abacus and a gerbil for backup.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:54 PM | Comments (50)
Post contains 106 words, total size 1 kb.

Overnight open thread – (genghis)
— Open Blog

Maybe some links laterÂ…

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to xgenghisx@gmail.com. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:34 PM | Comments (362)
Post contains 34 words, total size 1 kb.