By the Numbers QUESTIONS

1. OK, this is a rhetorical question, but if the Interstates are part of our National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, how is it that the bridge in the Twin Cities, part of I-35, was able to fall into such disrepair? I mean, forget silly things like human lives and massive inconvenience; we’re talking Homeland Security here. It seems to me that some of this massive amounts of $$$ for our supposed safety could, SHOULD be put in the less sexy area of infrastructure repair.

I suppose people around here, when they see the Minnesota tragedy, may recall the I-90 bridge collapse back in April 1987 west of Albany, near Amsterdam, in which 10 people were killed, or more recently, the I-88 culvert washout in which two truck drivers died. I travel over both areas regularly and say a little prayer each time I cross any bridge.

2. If you want to give yourself a headache, read a few dozen messages commenting on controversial videos on YouTube such as this one:

Al Jazeera English – Thank you for your feedback

“Still want to hear more from you so keep watching and keep sending in your videos”

This, and the original post asking for videos, got lots of feedback, from “Al Jazeera should be provided on all US cable companies as a regular NEWS channel” to “Al Jazeera represents a culture that stands in direct opposition to EVERYTHING America was founded on” to mentions of the attractiveness of the news reporter. But one reply just baffled me. It just gave four dates:

May 7, 1915
February 27, 1933
December 7, 1941
September 11, 2001

Now, I know what 9/11 was, and Pearl Harbor Day (12/7/1941). 2/27/1933 was the Reichstag fire in Germany, and 5/7/1915 was the sinking of the Lusitania. But what do the dates have in common, other than destruction? And what do they have to do with Al-Jazerra English? Am I missing something?
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On a lighter note, Chris Black gets funky. Who woulda thought?
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I want to plug FairVote’s Upgrade Democracy video contest.

Tell us what do you think ought to be done to improve elections by making a short video answering the question:

“If you could change anything you wanted about elections, what would our democracy look like?”

You could win $2000 and have your video seen by celebrity judges like filmmaker Richard Linklater (School of Rock, A Scanner Darkly), political guru Donna Brazile, and The Daily Show’s Dan Bakkedahl!

For full details, visit: www.UpgradeDemocracy.com

ROG

Maintenance


This is one of those things that Mike Sterling started, and Lefty and Gordon (and undoubtedly others) followed. The scariest one I’ve seen so far is Eddie’s “Cheney in ’08”. Talk about hellish.

And you can try it yourself with Microsoft Paint or other such products:

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August will be maintenance of the blog month. I’ve been moving my links to new categories, a tedious task made necessary when I changed to New Blogger months ago and it put all my links in one big mess of a list. So, I’m making categories up and throwing blogs in them, then deleting it from the motley list. What I’ve discovered, though, is that many of the blogs I’d come across as comic book-related really aren’t. Many of them are, or will be, in the awkwardly titled Other Interesting Bloggers, or whatever I end up calling it. Oh, and if you’d like to be linked, let me know; heck, if you asked me before and you don’t see it, send it again. I did add a couple already, notably ADD’s Writeblog and Johnny B.’s paean to Elton John.

This all HAS to happen in August, because if it doesn’t, it never will. This is a function of the fact that for four days in the middle of the month, neither my wife or my daughter will be home, and I will be. I mean, I have to go to work and all, but my evenings will be free, my early mornings, when I’m most productive doing that sort of thing, will be free.

It’ll also be a chance to try to do a couple longer posts. Certainly, I need to do a piece for August 28, which is not only FantaCo’s birthday, but Jack Kirby’s as well; there is a correlation. It’s written in my head, but not in any electronic form. Even the shorter posts can be tricky when you’re away every weekend – a wedding last weekend in Providence that I probably won’t write about for a couple weeks.

Also, I’ll be doing my own maintenance. I need a cortisone shot for my left shoulder, which has tendinitis. A visit to another dermatologist for a second opinion on my vitiligo is also on tap.

Meanwhile, I’ll do what I can to help facilitate Goat Trauma Awareness.
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I’m not as good at math as Chris:

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?
ROG

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