I watched the evening news for the first time in a long while last night. One of the top stories was the winter weather affecting the south. The reporter droned on about all the calamity taking place due to the ice and snow.

He said the storm left “three hundred thousand people without power.” Wow, you say. Three hundred thousand sounds like a large amount of people, right? It does, that is, until you realize it’s the total from the entire south, home to multiple millions of people. Heck, you could probably find 300,000 people living without power right now in the south, and not because of any storm.

Another thing that ticked me off was the sensationalist images they showed on TV. Now, this storm hit over a weekend, meaning most people were already safe at home. And the truth is, most people stayed at home! We’ve had such misfortune of lousy winter weather lately that only an idiot wouldn’t take it seriously by now.

So, who gets shown on the TV news? The idiots, of course!! See, Martha? There they are, skidding their cars down some iced-over hill, a gift for the snickering, waiting cameramen. The handful of poor bastards with no sense to stay off the roads make the many thousands of wiser people look bad. The rest of the country sees us and thinks “oh those poor country bumpkins…”

Now I know that the TV news wants eye-catching images to keep people glued to their sets. But these clips are almost always an aberration. Is it REALLY too much to ask for one shot of a family playing inside at home, gathered around a fireplace, or sledding in the street? Sure, it’s not as exciting as a car wreck, but it’s far closer to the truth.

The whole topic touches on a topic that I’ve had brewing for at least a month now. I’ve been putting off writing about it because I want to give it the attention it truly deserves. Last month, it dawned on me how much American society is driven by fear.

I’ll save the full-blown post for another night, but chew on that for a while. In the meantime, I’ll think I’ll continue to leave my TV set off.

Former Tonight Show legend Jack Parr died Tuesday in Greenwich, Conn. after a long illness. He was 85.

The man blazed a trail for Carson, Letterman, and Leno, putting a mark on television that is still felt today.

His death got me thinking that the job of late night talk-show host has got to be one of the best jobs around. Maybe I can take Letterman’s place when he retires. Or maybe not, as the Peanut Gallery will probably tell me. 🙂

I managed to brave the slick roads to drag myself into work. The worst parts were Timber Drive in Garner, most of which is shaded by trees, and the parking lot here at the office. I-40 and I-440 were both moving at 70 MPH.

Looks like most of the office is here, too. Don’t know what to make of that…

I’ve been seeing lots of virus messages in my inbox the past few days. The MyDoom virus is making the rounds. CNET is calling it the fastest-spreading virus.

I suspect it was responsible for crashing the WebEx session I was using this afternoon. I was entering in an appointment when suddenly their server dropped off the Internet.

This virus just another infuriating example of the danger of a Microsoft-centric tech industry. Anyone using Microsoft email products deserves the headaches this will cause. Good thing our fearless leaders have chosen Microsoft to protect our borders. I’m sure that’s got Osama quaking in his sandals.

On the other hand, the virus is set to DOS SCO‘s website, so it ain’t all bad…

For the past couple of cold days, my breaker panel has whined audibly when the heat pump has kicked on. Two nights it happened when the “auxillary heat” kicked on, which I might understand since the electric coils eat electrons like you wouldn’t believe. However, I heard the whine again today when the coils weren’t on – and the load was a fraction of what it was.

I’m hoping its just low voltage, caused by the incredible load put on the neighborhood lines due to the weather. On the other hand, it was low voltage that killed our old heat pump. It had worked furiously to heat our 50 degree house once the power returned after last year’s ice storm. Unfortunately, it was competing with the rest of the neighborhood for voltage. The compressor burned out and that was all she wrote.

So you can believe I’ll be keeping my eye on this new heat pump, crossing my fingers that it won’t meet the fate of the last one. It sucks being cold.

Eleven days ago, a traffic engineer working in Melbourne, Australia snapped a digital photograph of a railroad crossing, only to find a UFO appeared in the photograph. The link goes to the website of the local government, which has no official opinion on the object.

It’s an amazing photograph. The object doesn’t look like any aircraft I’ve ever seen. Yet there it is, plain as day.

I’ve been posting reality-bending stories like these on my other weblog, Mindblogging.com. Please don’t make fun of me for not sprucing it up yet. 🙂
Continue reading →