Fallout Shelter

Sign something dumb, get valuable prizes

Don't people have anything better to do? 

http://www.petitiononline.com/savesdur/petition.html

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/MoveThePicture2

I bet most of these signers are either hyper-uptight or think they're doing something right for their kids.  I know of no way to turn someone into a non-thinking prole than make them think that they need to protect their kids. 

1 out of 12.5 million of you needs to DIE DIE DIE

Spammers are turning a profit despite only getting one response for every 12.5m e-mails they send, finds a study.

Argh.

The $900.00 laptop I bought 15 months ago turned into a brick last night. I took it to Best Buy where I'd bought it, and they basically told me to buy a new one. It's now at Intrex, where if I'm lucky, they'll get to it by the end of the week. They may then tell me it's a brick too. In any case, my electronic emissions are going to be limited over the next several days.

FAILBlog FAIL

Did anyone but me notice the online dating site that catered to eHarmony, um, rejects?   Here's my un-approved submission to FAILBlog:

Well, I thought it was funny.  :)

Still holding my breath, but it's tough

I understand Quantum of Solace, which opens today, has this new Watchmen trailer showing with it:

Or you can, in better resolution, both watch it here and download it.

[Via vee_eckx, who keeps up with this stuff much better than I do.]

It's Stupid!!!

Wow, how did I get this far through life without knowing about stupid.com?

Google Flu Trends

"Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems."

Armistice day

The Douaumont Ossuary, near the site of the WWI Battle of Verdun:

The ossuary contains the bones of about half of the one-quarter million (I assume mostly) French and German soldiers who died during the fighting at Verdun.  Graves also surround the ossuary. 

There are apparently still 2 living veterans of WWI from the US. 

[Images are linked to their sources.]

From another life

[source]

220 DNS.Lamb.net SMTP ready, Who are you gonna pretend to be today?
>>> EHLO rhubarb.emsi.priv.at
500 Bloody Amateur! Proper forging of mail requires recognizable SMTP 
commands!
>>> HELO rhubarb.emsi.priv.at
250 DNS.Lamb.net Is thrilled beyond bladder control to meet 
rhubarb.emsi.priv.at
>>> MAIL From:<mjl@rhubarb.emsi.priv.at>
250 sender is <mjl@rhubarb.emsi.priv.at>, (yeah sure, it's probably 
forged)
>>> RCPT To:<ulf@Gatekeeper.Alameda.net>
250 recipient <ulf@Gatekeeper.Alameda.net>, I know them! they'll just 
*LOVE* to hear from you!
>>> DATA
354 OK, fire away. End with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
 [Edit: here's where the message goes. ;) ]
>>> .
250 Whew! Done! Was it as good for you as it was for me?
ulf@Gatekeeper.Alameda.net... Sent (Whew! Done! Was it as good for 
you as it was for me?)
Closing connection to mail.alameda.net.
>>> QUIT
221 It's been real. Take off Eh!

Hope

I know we've been here before and left disappointed, but:

Crucell Vaccine successful in monkeys

The stories I've read slide around that SIV was the virus defended against, and the studies apparently ran for less than 1½ years.  Viruses potentially stay in the body forever, and killer white cells, AFAIK, aren't going to go into cells, rooting out HIV copies.  Nevertheless, this sounds really good.