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.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Maryn, originally uploaded by caycedilla.. Nice!...

Brooks at the NY Times has an interesting article about Russia today. Definitely worth the read I think.Most of us are grateful for the fall of communism, but the phrase "epidemic of collapse" is not a bad description of what Russian society is suffering through right now. You can measure that collapse most broadly in the country's phenomenal population decline. According to U.N. projections, Russia's population will plummet from about 146 million in 2000 to about 104 million in 2050. Russia will go from being the 6th-most-populous country in the...

Just a heads up that today around 5pm, there will be a procession of fire trucks moving from FBC to Resthaven. An Amarillo FireFighter died last week in a freak accident where he fell out of a moving truck. There's going to be at least 50 Trucks from Amarillo, and countless more from around the area taking part in the funeral procession. It really should be a sight to see. The funeral is at 4pm, and the procession will head out shortly after that's over. I'm going to try...

These are few, and far between, but today I agreed (well, mainly only on nuclear) with something George Bush announced. He wants to simplify nuclear regulations that have, in effect, completely shut-down any nuclear energy discoveries in the past 30 years. If you'd have asked me a few months ago, I wouldn't have been in favor of nuclear energy. But I read an article in Wired about how nuclear energy is the only form of energy that can scale to what the world needs. Wind, solar, and others are...

There's an ever-increasing number of us who can tell you without hesitating that Apple computers are a better value and a better bang for your buck than ANYTHING out on the market. We don't say this because we're Apple Zealots (which we are), but because it's true. Apple computers are expensive because they're top-of-the-line and this article points out that it's the same amount of money you'd end up spending on an Intel machine that doesn't work. It's beauty AND value, people. You know, this mythical friend of mine always...

Time is reporting that George W Bush, is in fact, an asshole. It's only YOUR government when you agree with them. The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meets three times a year in various cities across the Americas to discuss such dry but important issues as telecommunications standards and spectrum regulations. But for this week's meeting in Guatemala City, politics has barged onto the agenda. At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they...

Take a long, hard look at this picture and see if you can tell me what doesn't fit. The answer is buried in the comments....

The NY Times has a good article detailing the development of Acela and it's problematic history. This may be something that only Hoover and I enjoy, but check it out. It was called the American Flyer, and its goals were ambitious: to speed train travel between Northeastern cities, steal customers from air shuttles, provide the model for a nationwide fast rail system and help its deficit-prone parent, Amtrak, earn a profit. "These trains will enable Amtrak to carry its customers into the 21st century aboard 21st-century trains," said Thomas M....

Over to the right under the photoblog, you'll see a link to My Audioscrobbler page. It's basically a free service that keeps track of what you're listening to and aggregates the data for you into handy charts and lists. Most of this functionality is already built into iTunes, but it's nice to have the data available on the net. You guys can check out what I'm listening to, although, I gotta ask that you not make fun of me when I listen to the same song 100 times straight....

In the past, I was guilty of describing Dashboard Confessionals as "emo ass-clowns". Now I like their music. It's a weird, weird world....

It's really hard to describe Dean. It's hard to tell you that a 77 year-old woman could be so happy and full of life. Quite simply, she never grew old and weary. She was a constant smile; it was said that she never met a stranger. Personally, I never understood that cliche'd phrase until I got to thinking of Dean. She was everything to everyone and it didn't matter who you were. How many of us fall into that category? I'd bet it's very few of us. We put...

A good friend of mine for the last 4 years will be missed greatly. Celebration of Life services for Dean Maddoux, 77, of Lubbock will be at 10 a.m. Friday, April 15, 2005, at Resthaven's Abbey Chapel with the Rev. Jerry Wilson officiating. Graveside services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at the Eden Cemetery in Eden. Ms. Maddoux passed away Wednesday, April 13, 2005. Ms. Maddoux was born June 7, 1927, in Paint Rock, to John D. and Edith Gifford. Dean worked as a greeter at the...

Tiger arrivves on April 29th. Go look at the pictures of it and tell me that Steve Jobs isn't god....

Maddox brings us Unintentionally Sexual Comic Book Covers. My favorite is: 4. The Rifleman You could arrange a boy holding a pile of wood, and a cowboy staring knowingly into his eyes all day long and not get a more suggestive pose than this. It's every man's dream to have a penis so large that he must hire a small boy to carry it....

The Money Counter is a sobering reminder of how backwards we are. We throw money at the dumbest things, but don't support with that same vigor, the things that need supporting. Investigating Bill Clinton vs. Investigating 9/11 The most depressing is (because Italy, though smaller, spends 3 billion): Which is a perfect segue into mentioning that the Lubbock Arts Festival is this weekend. It's only a dollar to get in and I can guarantee it's a better value than that beer you were going to buy anyway. Lubbock Arts Festival...

If you're not reading McSweeney's, daily, you're missing out. Your average 12-year-old boy is about 5 feet tall, weighs in the area of a buck-fifteen, and has developed little muscle mass. I am 21, approximately 6 feet tall, tip the scales at an even 180, and have a moderately athletic and muscular build. Judging on these statistics and what I assume would be a natural ferocity that would spring forth in a moment of physical danger, I estimate that I could beat up seven 12-year-olds before they overtook me. Of...

Lewis Black on NPR Best quote: "For a time, I was a square, squared. My mother dressed me in irregular clothing, and my pants were always way, way too baggy. When I asked why they were so big, my mother replied "because you have a big crotch." The top button of my shirt was always buttoned, and I wore big tortoise shell glasses so I looked like a dump truck in heat."...

Tom Delay is busted (how many times till y'all get rid of him?) for like the 10th time for being an un-ethical jackass. and The Republicans got burned on the Terri Schiavo talking points memo they created. Remember how rude and nasty they were? They accused the media, the DNC, and everyone else they could think of, but in the end, they got caught holding the pen. The best is his explanation: In a statement, Martinez said the memo had inadvertently been printed and a copy wound up in his...

The passing of John Paul II has led to some very moving, historical photographs. I've enjoyed looking through them to see a modern event played out in historical traditions and areas. One thing I notice is that we don't do buildings the way we used to. Imagine when they were building Notre Dame or St. Peter's. Were they worried about budgets and contractors? Or did they build to build? It seems that there are hardly, if any, new buildings that will measure up to what we view as historical...