Rested and refreshed now.

A very long bout of sleep seems to have helped to clear off the exhaustion, as well as the elevated temperature that was with it. Now I just have a sore throat and a spectre of the sinus pressure that I had. Hopefully I can get rid of that, too. But I feel a lot better than I did last night. Oh, and while refereeing last night, I got in the way of someone trying to put a batter out from center field - couldn't jump high enough, and so I got hit with a softball a little above the left ankle. Another thing to put on my almost-famous list, as that throw came from one of the star wide receivers of the football team. Yeah, Intramural refereeing is fun - you get to see all sorts of athletes if you're in the right games.

Now, though, I'll get to the things I was going to do before I decided to pack it in and just go to sleep.

The newest Batwoman will love women. Which is probably fine - just that we need to see whether this is going to be treated with some sort of accuracy, seriousness, or whether it's just going to be an excuse to draw lots of women together in bed.

Hrm. Although they can't necessarily prove in a court of law, someone has put together the dots that have been actually leaked to the media and produces the conclusion that not only will there be more spying, it'll be in a grander scope as well. Your mileage may vary, I don't know how true this is, et cetera. But with the way things have been going, I won't be surprised if it's true.

The justice system gets them wrong occasionally. More often than not it's too harsh a penalty imposed. In this particular case, though, it might be too light of a penalty. Man who assaults his infant daughter and posts pics has sentence reduced. According to the rationale, no violence was done to the child, where violence is defined as gagging, hitting or threatening or such. This decision also hopefully took into account that the assault had been going on for two years, and the approximately 5,000 pictures and 5,000 videos that the man had of child pr0n. We hope, anywway, because it would have been seriously wrong to ignore such things.

On a more positive note about our Canadian friends, though, Canadians are healthier than Americans, according to a recent study. While Americans may be more satisfied with their health care (those that can afford it, that is), Canadians spend half of what Americans do on their health care and get better service. Of course, there are spots where Americans do better in terms of health, but the Canadians don't have to deal with a large percentage of uninsured population dragging the statistics and the quality of life down. Another reason to implement a universal health care coverage.

Wal-Mart is considering the biofuels market - it's thinking about putting in E-85 at its gas stations. Maybe this will be the kickstart toward getting renewable resources off the ground. At the very least, it's likely to give Wal-Mart lots of profits if there's a new requirement that all vehicles be capable of running some sort of biofuels.

Another thing I think I've referenced before - The Power of Stupidity. (Part Two, here), and Part Three, on the Stupidity of Power, here.) I have a sneaking suspicion that theory is true, and that I'm much more stupid than I or anyone else thinks.

Anyway, time to get the day going.

One more... something, to go.

First things first, in the housekeeping area: would ozmavul please stand up and introduce yourself and how you came across this corner of cyberspace? Also, I haven't heard anything yet from sarah_bongo on her secret origin story, so if you both could say hello to the crowd, that would be appreciated.

Scottish Catholics warned that rooting against England in the World Cup could be a sin. If you're spiting the motherland, then it's un-Christian behavior, but if you happen to genuinely like another team, that's okay. I'd expect something like this to come out of Pat Robertson's mouth, but he's been remarkably quiet. Maybe he's gearing up to predict disaster because there will possibly be homosexuals in attendance?

Before there was pinpoint radar, or for those areas where the troops couldn't have radar to help them spot the enemy, the soliders made use of listening tubas to ferret out where the enemy was. Shows that the human senses can do all sorts of things, given the right stimuli.

The prudes are getting more dangerous, and more willing to do dangerous things to have their way. Witness this example: Caustic gas released into adult bookstore, hazmat team dispatched. It's being called an act of local terrorism, and the device is officially designated a weapon of mass destruction. Insensitive joke to follow: If they hurry, maybe the soldiers in Iraq can make and find a few of these? Would certainly help the administration's case.

Here's a good pairing put together (thanks, przxqgl that should tell you just how effective warrantles wiretapping really is. First, reasoning why data mining for terrorists is more hassle than its worth - too many false positives, being generous on saying how many true results there are. Second, most of the people fingered by the datamining are cleared - some of the numbers there look familiar. It looks like the data system is playing according to odds. So now, not only is it against the law, it's ineffective, too. If you're going to trade liberty for security, make sure that the security actually works. Otherwise you're out the liberty, which is very hard to get back.

Speaking of screwing over terror protections, New York has nothing worth defending, according to Homeland Security. Well, we just hope that they find that Washington D.C. has nothing worth protecting, too. The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that there isn't anything worth protecting there.

Also, another article that asks was the 2004 election stolen? Makes a good case for the answer being yes, especially in Ohio. The exit polls were way off, which is way strange because the exit polls are supposed to be supremely accurate. More vote tampering, disenfranchisement, and acts by a governor determined to ensure a Bush victory? Quite possibly. The evidence continues to mount, gentlemen. The impeachment articles should have already been written. How long are you going to wait?