Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Sadly, Haloscan, the commenting application Farkleberries has used for over eight years, will be shutting down operations in a few weeks. I received this notification in my inbox this morning:Haloscan is being shut down on: Feb 11, 2010For now, I'm exporting all comments for possible future use rather than switching to the replacement service, Echo, but I wanted readers to know that their past comments will likely disappear (at least for a time) from Farkleberries and my other Haloscan-supported sites as of 2/11/10. If you're a fellow Haloscan user, now's the time to export and backup.
The Haloscan hardware and software is physically failing and we have no choice but to discontinue the service. Two Options: Switch to Echo or Export your comments FREE.
Although we can't rescue Haloscan, we are trying our best to limit the negative impact on users. To do this, we have worked hard to provide 2 options for Haloscan sites.
Haloscan helpfully provides a link to the EchoWiki FAQ.
Labels: computers, news, soapbox
Monday, December 28, 2009
A rather unfortunate (but appropriate) dynamic ad appears on the right side of this CNN story on the Northwest 253 attempted bombing, where suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab unsuccessfully tried to detonate an explosive device secreted in his trousers, badly burning himself in the process. 
Labels: humor, news, security, transit
Monday, July 21, 2008
An update on the Canadian severed foot saga (not to be confused with the Canadian rock band, Saga) from friend James - in his apropos words, "a footnote" - "One of five feet that have mysteriously washed up on the shores of British Columbia over the past year has been linked to a depressed man who disappeared a year ago, police said Saturday." [MSNBC]
Monday, June 23, 2008
I narrowly ducked into the foyer before hail the size of chickpeas (some larger) started battering down on the street Sunday afternoon. About halfway through the video, note the unfortunate, umbrella-less pedestrian running down the street.
Labels: chicago, news, science, video
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Fron CNN: classy, very classy.
Friday, March 28, 2008
For us X-Philes, it's been a long dry spell of cable reruns and Hollywood red herrings about the release of the second X-Files feature film. Well, apparently, it's happening. For reals, man. Click above to watch Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, and Mitch Pileggi ("FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner") spill some beans on the new movie at Paleyfest, set to release July 25th, 2008.
BONUS: Ain't It Cool News reveals the putative teaser poster for XF2. [Via BD Horror News]
Monday, December 24, 2007
A minivan crashed into the glass-windowed ABC-7 news studio in downtown Chicago last night, just in time for the opening of the 10pm nightly news:
Police are investigating what caused the van to jump the curb and slam into the studio’s bullet-resistant glass, but a witness said the crash appeared deliberate. There were no known injuries, police said.[Photo above taken by yours truly, this morning]
Steven Parnell, 37, a sergeant with STAR detective agency, said he was patrolling the CTA Red Line subway when his boss called him about a suspicious vehicle parked in the middle of State. Parnell came up, spotted the minivan and approached it. "He waved me off and rolled up his window," Parnell said of the driver, who then briefly began driving up and down State making U-turns. The man then drove into the studio’s southeast corner -- about 15 to 20 feet from the anchor desk. The driver stayed in the car until police arrived and took him into custody. [read full article on Sun-Times Online]
Monday, October 15, 2007
Farkleberries offers our heartiest congratulations to the University of Chicago's Prof. Roger Myerson on winning this year's Nobel Prize in Economics, jointly with Prof. Eric Maskin and Prof. Leonid Hurwicz. 
My apologies for the slightly blurry photo taken at this morning's press conference at Mandel Hall, but it was the best I could do without flash. From left: Prof. James Heckman (won the Nobel Prize in Economics 2000), Prof. Roger Myerson, Prof. Gary Becker (1992), and Prof. Robert Lucas (1995). Missing is Prof. Robert Fogel, who won the prize in 1993.
Strange to come to work with news crews waiting outside the Prof's door, awaiting the newly announced laureate's arrival. Even stranger is the fact the University's Department of Economics now has five - count them, five - current Nobel prize winners (not counting professors passed on, or emeriti). Five laureates out of 38 active faculty members means...13.2 percent of our department has won the Nobel Prize. That's just kind of...extraordinary.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Perhaps you have been wondering about the scarcity of new posts here on Farkleberries for the past little while, and maybe your RSS feed hasn't been delivering very many fresh nuggets from this little corner of the Internet. There have been many major changes and business afoot (regarding work, school, and family) at Chez Farkleberries this summer that have occupied my attention - not the least of which is that I've just started law school, while continuing to work full time and commute back and forth across Chicago on a daily basis. As a newly-minted 1L, life is freshly busy, crazy, exhausting and exhilarating. Many people have told me it takes a few months to "hit your groove," and I tend to believe them - at other times in my life when I've been faced with big changes, I've always been surprised at the human organism's capacity to adapt. Also in the equation is the fact I am significantly skewing the age distribution of my class upward, as a non-traditional age student.
During our introductory days, an administrator provided us with the Part Time Evening Division law class demographics, which indicated that for the 20th year in a row, more than half of the student body at my school was female - and the median age of incoming 1L's this year was 26. Considering the fact that the youngest students are likely at least 22, even if fresh from undergraduate work, I am a definite outlier lying a few standard deviations above the mean. But few worries about that...just a little grise, no so much eminence yet.
With all the brain work we'll be doing, I'm sure I'll have a lot to say along the way...
Monday, August 13, 2007
Lice? Check. Boils? Check. Locusts? Check. Van Halen reunion tour? Check!
By the by, the New York Post explains DLR's famous "incentive bonus system" for steering nubility backstage: in short, not a gigolo. At all. Let's face it, dude - '80s sex god' or not, you paid for it. ;)[AP] LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Rock band Van Halen has reunited with the group's original singer David Lee Roth for their first tour together in more than 20 years, they announced on Monday at a news conference. Roth, 52, spoke virtually nonstop at the press event, promising that the band's upcoming 25-date North American trek was merely the precursor to a world tour and to a new album.
"This is not like the Police," Roth said, referring to another band that recently papered over personality differences to launch a one-off reunion tour. "The idea is that this will continue on and on and on. [W]e think we got it right this time," Roth added. "You come and judge the performance harshly, please. I beg you, come on down and see."
Monday, July 30, 2007
Don't you wonder what really happened that night? I'd say keep a sharp eye out for any strange Hand-of-Glory (or Head-of-Elvis) candles on eBay.[AP, via CBC.com] Charles deGaulle naked? Now that's a frightening image.DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Franklin D. Roosevelt are missing their clothes and Fred Flintstone and the Teletubbies are just plain missing after a raid on wax figures owned by Ireland's National Wax Museum. Police say they suspect a door was left unlocked and the warehouse was used for an all-night rave party but museum officials discount that theory. Also stripped of their clothes were Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and rebel icons from Ireland's war of independence with Britain, including Michael Collins and Padraig Pearse.
...
Most figures stolen came from the Children's World of Fairy Tale and Fantasy section; others were taken from the Chamber of Horrors. Gone are Bob the Builder, Frankenstein's monster, Fred Flintstone, Gollum from "Lord of the Rings," a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, "Silence of the Lambs" killer Hannibal Lecter, and all four Teletubbies. Guitars adorning the figures of U2's The Edge and Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott also disappeared. Others, including Elvis and Madonna, suffered lost hair, limbs or jewelry.
Links: Dublin Wax Museum, and a very odd Lenin's-head candle (from Czechoslovakia, natch) seen on the Project Good Luck blog.
Friday, June 08, 2007
From the "Not From The Onion But Shoulda Been" Files:One word: Vermont, which the venerable Onion so sharply skewered recently for that state's renewed call to secede from the Union.(AP) CHELSEA, V.T. A prosecutor has dropped charges against a woman who was arrested for staring at and making faces at a police dog. "Prosecuting a woman for `staring' at a police dog is absurd," said her lawyer. "People are allowed to make faces at police dogs and officers to express their disapproval. It's constitutional expression," said public defender Kelly Green, who represented Jayna Hutchinson.
...
After a heated exchange, [Hutchinson] approached [Vermont State Police Sgt. Todd] Protzman's cruiser, where his dog Max was waiting, putting her face within inches of the window and "staring at him in a taunting/harassing manner," Protzman wrote in an affidavit. "While the defendant taunted my canine, Max was focused on the defendant and the perceived threat she presented to him," the affidavit said. "He was no longer focused on me and the other officers at the scene."
...
"I think it was going to be difficult to prove her conduct changed the dog's behavior," [Orange County State's Attorney Will] Porter said. "Most of the time (in harassment cases) people would come tell the court what it felt like. Dogs can't do that." [read full article at CBS2 Chicago.com]
Friday, April 20, 2007
We received this comment regarding the Monday morning '4chan' posting from a user who states they are from the Planet Blacksburg website, and while I can not vouch for its authenticity, it does have the ring of truth to it:"We removed the post due to a sick phone call and a host of sicking posts from 4chan users.By the way, if you have a moment please visit CNN's section paying tribute to those who were killed Monday at Virginia Tech. People who knew them share some of their fond memories, giving us a glimpse into the stories and promise of thirty-two lives senselessly cut short. These are the people who should be remembered and celebrated; not the individual who caused their deaths.
I understand that the vast majority of 4chan users are perfectly normal people exchanging information. However, it seemed that our reporter stumbled upon a sick little corner of cyberspace. With everything else we had to do in reporting on and dealing with the massacre, we decided to turn the issue over to the FBI, to remove the post and to push on to cover the story that really mattered.
Planet Blacksburg"
Thursday, April 19, 2007
With all the coverage given to Monday's shootings in Virginia and the resulting aftermath, including widespread airing of the killer's "manifesto" of videotapes and writings - this line from an old song comes unbidden to mind: "It's funny how one insect can damage so much grain..."
Labels: news
Friday, April 13, 2007
Time to break out the Freakonomics: does being a New Jersey governor predispose one to broken legs?Not to make light of what is obviously a horrible accident, but I detect a "buckle up New Jersey" public service announcement on the way. Let's see...seatbeltless car crash leading to a broken leg (and worse)? Makes sense. Skiing in the Swiss Alps leading to a broken leg? Makes sense as well.CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- Gov. Jon S. Corzine was apparently not wearing his seat belt as required by law when his official SUV crashed into a guard rail, leaving the governor hospitalized in critical condition, a spokesman said Friday. A state trooper was driving Corzine to a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team Thursday night when another vehicle, swerving to avoid a pickup truck, hit the governor's SUV and sent it into the guard rail on the Garden State Parkway. The crash broke the governor's leg, six ribs, his sternum and a vertebrae. Authorities were searching for the pickup truck driver blamed for causing it...Corzine was the third straight* New Jersey governor to break a leg while in office. James E. McGreevey broke his left leg in 2002 during a nighttime walk on the beach, and Christie Whitman broke her right leg while skiing in the Swiss Alps in 1999.
But - walking (or jogging, according to NJ.com) on the beach at night leading to broken leg? That's a headscratcher. Apparently the circumstances surrounding McGreevey's fracture were a little mysterious. Dang, The NJ Blog beat me to it: The Curse of the Gubernatorial Broken Leg.
* Given what we know now about former governor McGreevey, I think "consecutive" would be the more appropriate word.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The U.S. Postal Service wants you to vote for your favorite design from the forthcoming Star Wars® postage stamps! Most of the designs have a certain appeal, but I'm torn between three favorites:1) Leia sends the "Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi!" hologram using R2D2
2) Yoda ponders graciously in three-quarters view
3) Luke gazes into the Tatooine twin sunsets
Some I really don't think are a great idea: do we really want freaky Darth Maul, a poxy Evil Emperor Palpatine, or for that matter, Stormtroopers - representing the U.S. of A. on our postage?
If I have to choose one, I'll probably pick the Leia-R2D2 stamp (shown), mostly because of its messenger meta-symbolism. After all, wasn't R2D2 essentially a little galactic postman? Depressingly, note that all the choices have the new 41-cent first class rate...old Artoo didn't charge a penny, and didn't let Stormtroopers, meteors, warp drives or the dark of space keep him from delivering the mail.
When Star Wars was packing the theaters in 1977, first class postage was...13 cents. Feh. Maybe the Evil Emperor stamp isn't such a bad idea after all. :)
Sunday, January 21, 2007
If you think all the hazardous radioactive material being transported across the country is safeguarded - or at least properly packaged and prepared for shipment on public thorofares - think again. The circumstances of last Tuesday's truck crash near the Mojave National Preserve are truly frightening if they're any indication of how carelessly lethal materials like plutonium might be traveling, perhaps in a vehicle rolling alongside you. From the San Bernadino Sun:Baking soda, bunk beds, fire extinguishers - and a drum with plutonium-238. The truck that crashed Tuesday near Needles [CA] with a load of radioactive waste was a plain old commercial truck carrying plain old products.
When emergency workers checked the truck's manifest they were surprised that radioactive material was being shipped with ordinary goods. "This, in and of itself, is very alarming," said San Bernardino County Fire Marshal Peter Brierty, who also directs his agency's hazardous materials unit. Government and industry officials say shipping radioactive materials by commercial carriers is a perfectly safe, perfectly routine practice. The containers, the routes and the shipping companies are all heavily regulated, and there has never been an accident that resulted in a release of radiation, they said.
The radiation emitted by the truck's amount of plutonium-238 is trillions of times more than is allowed in drinking water, Brierty said. The four grams of plutonium involved in the crash would be roughly the volume of a pencil eraser. But that amount kicks out more than 60 curies, a measure of radioactivity. In contrast, the drinking water standard is 15 picocuries per liter, or 15 trillionths of one curie.
...
The truck, pulling two trailers, crashed into a guardrail on eastbound Interstate 40, rupturing the tractor's fuel tank and causing the rear trailer to overturn and split open. The driver was unhurt. Part of the freeway was shut down for 18 hours. The heavily shielded, 500-pound, 55-gallon drum with the plutonium was in the front of the damaged trailer, California Highway Patrol Officer Michael Callahan said. The entire cargo had to be unloaded to get at the drum.
The drum was undamaged, and there was no leakage of radiation. [But,] "What the hell is that doing in that truck?" said Robert Halstead, an expert in the transportation of nuclear waste. [read full article]
Friday, January 19, 2007
Not only is sock knitting (especially the genteel, lady-of-the-house Christian variety) seen as a diametric opposite to worldly speculative thought on the level of Ray Bradbury, but in a strange real-world twist, monetarily successful sock knitters trigger their bank's fraud alarm:Perhaps the bank thought Blue Moon was selling crack-infused sock yarn, or something equally ridiculous; more on the story at the Yarn Harlot. [Image comes with apologies to Vincent van Gogh and Warrant...well, maybe not Warrant.]The knitting community is large and rich (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s blog, yarnharlot.ca, raised over $120,000 for Tricoteuses Sans Frontiers in less than three days, this Christmas), so it’s surprising that we are still so socially invisible. Maybe $120K isn’t so much, on the scale of the entertainment industry. But here’s the interesting part:
This morning, one of the most popular producers of hand-dyed sock yarn, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, announced that they were making so much money on their sock yarn that their bank managers decided it must be a front for something illegal, and shut down Blue Moon’s credit card system, and refunded all of the money for the 2007 Sock Club! [Katrina Triezenberg, Ph.D., in a communiqué to Freakonomics Blog]
Thursday, January 04, 2007
So it's official - it's not my imagination - Chicago (like many other U.S. cities) is having one heck of a mild winter so far. From CNN:I, for one, am enjoying this thermal twist immensely - but I'll be the first one to complain when we finally get our 12 inches of snow this April. [Photo courtesy Physorg.com; © 2007 AP/Charles Rex Arbogast]CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Crocuses are pushing out of the ground in New Jersey. Ice fishing tournaments in Minnesota are being canceled for lack of ice. And golfers are hitting the links in Chicago in January. Much of the Midwest and the East Coast are experiencing remarkably warm winter, with temperatures running 10 and 20 degrees higher than normal in many places.
...
New York City saw a November and December without snow for the first time since 1877. And New Jersey had its warmest December since records started being kept 111 years ago. Maria Freitas said that not only are crocus bulbs blooming in her Rahway, N.J., backyard, but the asparagus is three inches high. "They think it's spring. They're so confused," she said.
...
Meteorologists say the warm spell is due to a combination of factors. El Nino, a cyclical warming trend now under way in the Pacific Ocean, can lead to milder weather, particularly in the Northeast. The jet stream, the high-altitude air current that works like a barricade to hold back warm Southern air, is running much farther north than usual over the East Coast.
The weather is prone to short-term fluctuations, and forecasters said the mild winter does not necessarily mean global warming is upon us. In fact, the Plains have been hit by back-to-back blizzards in the past two weeks. "No cause for alarm. Enjoy it while you have it," said Mike Halpert, head of forecast operations at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center.
Whatever the explanation, Amanda Dickens was enjoying the weather Wednesday at Baltimore's Inner Harbor as she ate lunch outside with her husband and 3-year-old son. Temperatures there were expected to reach 60 degrees. At the Marovitz Golf Course in Chicago near Lake Michigan, 30 people teed off between 9 a.m. and noon, when there are usually no golfers at all this time of year.
Leonard Berg, the course's superintendent for maintenance, gestured to the fairways with pride: "Normally this time of year there would be a brown singe to it. Look at that nice emerald green."
Labels: chicago, news, science
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Here's a strange little Chicago news story that may both warm your heart and make you shake your head in puzzlement.From CBS2 Chicago:Dozens of people looking for Jesus can find him at a church on Chicago's South Side.
Thirty-two plastic baby Jesus dolls were stolen last week from nativity scenes in people's front yards. Then on Saturday morning a woman found all the missing Jesuses lined up along the fence on her lawn and she gave them to St. Symphorosa Church. The Rev. Marcel Pasciak said the woman was one of his parishioners at St. Symphorosa and "panicked" when she saw the dolls.
Fourteen of the dolls' rightful owners had claimed them by Tuesday morning. Pasciak said he thinks teenagers took the baby Jesuses as a joke and not as a religious statement. "Don't they look funny?" Pasciak said as residents came to claim their decorations. "We're putting Christ back into Christmas literally and metaphorically." [read full article on Chicago Tribune]
Father Marc Pasciak at St. Symphorosa is standing guard now over dozens of statues of Christ as a baby.[Image copyright CBS2 Chicago]
"'We've got 32 Jesuses," Pasciak said. The statues were unceremoniously dumped on a lawn, then delivered to the church to make their pilgrimage back to their own mangers. "If they had went to the police, they would have been put into evidence and wouldn't have been home for Christmas," said church employee Nancy Groszek.
Remarkably alike, how do you know which Jesus is yours? "I hope it's mine. It should be, but you know, you get nervous about these things and I don't want to take anybody else's baby Jesus," Dawn Chladek said. Chladek found hers and soon baby Jesus was back to take his rightful place.
Coincidentally, St. Symphorosa's Jesus was nearly stolen a couple of years ago. A guard had to chase the thief down. Now, when the manger goes up this week, it will be protected by Plexiglas and a lock. [read full article/see video on CBS2]
Labels: chicago, news, religion
Haloscan Going Dark on February 11th
