Now all I need is a Slingbox.

From Dave Zatz's site:

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2007-03/slingplayer-mobile-for-palm-os-available-now/

SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS Available Now
By Dave Zatz | Filed under Portable, Slingbox @ 9:22 am

I may have mentioned I’m down in Florida for CTIA… but I may have failed to disclose I am stationed in Palm’s booth. Showing off the new SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS! (In addition to our existing Windows Mobile client and a Slingbox or two.) Just a few hours ago we unleashed the Palm OS public beta in the US and Canada, with initial support for the 700p.

This would be nice since I already have TiVos and a Treo 700p. No Slingbox though. Sigh. Too many gadgets, too little time (and money).

48% of Americans Reject Evolution

Assuming of course this isn't someone's idea of an April Fools Joke....

http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/03/31/1919214.shtml

MSNBC has up an article discussing the results of a Newsweek poll on faith and religion among members of the US populace. Given the straightforward question, 'Is evolution well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community?', some 48% of Americans said 'No'. Furthermore, 34% of college graduates said they accept the Biblical story of creation as fact. An alarmingly high number of individuals responded that they believe the earth is only 10,000 years old, and that a deity created our species in its present form at the start of that period.

I wonder how many people actually listen to the actual question before thinking about their answer. "Do you believe evolution is true" is not the same question as "do most scientists accept evolution". The pollster probably confused the issue by mixing in two different issues into the poll question: evidence, and acceptance within the scientific community. The two things are not necessarily the same thing in some people's minds. This plays right into the creationists favorite tactic, which is sowing confusion.

Most people don't understand the science or know anything about what the consensus is on any particular topic within the scientific community, so constant media publicity for the creationist point of view creates the false impression that there is a 'controversy' within the scientific community over this topic, when in point of fact there is no such controversy. It's an entirely manufactured media circus that has no relationship to anything going on within the scientific community.

Unfortunately media coverage of science in the USA is pretty bad. Our public education system doesn't help either.

Ten of the best April Fool's Day hoaxes: US museum

Via Slashdot:

http://slashdot.org/articles/07/03/31/2328233.shtml

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070329054603.f2i8t0mu&show_article=1&catnum=9

Hoorah for soccer webcasts.

I caught the end of the Charleston Battery vs. Toronto FC game at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston 0-3 Toronto. This is part of the Carolina Challenge Cup. Pre-season games. Up next: Red Bull New York vs. Houston Dynamo.

Caught it via BigSoccer thread here:

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509376

Webcast is here:

http://www.charlestonbattery.com/webcast.asp

Looking forward to new season.

Edit: Start of 2nd half RBNY 1-0 HD, Clint Mathis subbed into the game.

Edit: Bring Ching equalizes for Houston!

Edit: Moreno scores, Houston now up 2-1.

Edit: final, Houston 2-1. Houston Dynamo wins Carolina Challenge Cup.

The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes Of All Time

Good Stuff.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P1/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P10/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P20/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P30/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P40/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P50/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P60/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P70/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P80/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P90/

Web users read more of a story, study finds

This story does not surprise me; what would be more significant IMO is studying how much time online readers spent following up on a story as compared to print readers. That's where the new media is so very different from the old media. You aren't a prisoner to the agenda of those who own the printing presses. I grew up reading newspapers. Newspapers are still important. But I haven't subscribed to a newspaper since I got broadband back in 1999. It simply isn't the most efficient way to stay informed anymore.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=RW2YIOLPZAIX1QFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/03/30/nweb30.xml

People looking at news websites spend longer reading stories than those reading print newspapers, according to research.

A laboratory study of 600 people found that online readers on average got through three quarters of each story they chose to read.

When presented with identical stories in a broadsheet newspaper, readers managed just 62 per cent of the text, while readers of print tabloids gave up after reading 57 per cent, according to the Poynter Institute in America.

Uh-oh, Treo.

Well, it figures. A few months after I get a Treo 700p, this thing comes out. Actually the only real advantage this has over my 700p is there is no antenna sticking out, and I don't care about that. Still, nice to see another Palm OS Treo. When I got my 700p I thought maybe I was getting the last Palm OS device ever. Hang in there, Palm.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/30/treo-755p-for-sprint-in-the-wild/#comments

We know you're starting to get a little tired of the aerial on that 700p of yours; no, seriously, we feel your pain. You're looking longly at that 680 over there, but the leap over to Cingular -- and to GSM, for that matter -- can be a treacherous one indeed for some users. Happily, the 755p is coming just in time to save the day before you all go out of your gourds, and for a Garnet-based EV-DO piece, she's looking mighty purty. A reader wrote in to describe his recent brush with the 755p to us, and came away with the impression that it's slimmer, lighter, and easier to hold thanks to concave surfaces on the phone's sides. A couple launch keys on the front side have disappeared (leaving only two), the stylus is a little lighter, and although the camera is still a mere 1.3 megapixels, pictures are apparently of a much higher quality. Music to a weary 700p user's (or, better yet, a 650 user's) ears, eh? See you in the next couple months!

Beatles? Dr. Who? Who knew?

Wow. I had no idea.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/30/doctor_who_meets_the.html

The Beatles had a guest appearance on Doctor Who in 1965 -- singing "Ticket to Ride." Afterwards, a traveller from the future remarks that she's heard of the Beatles, having visited their memorial in Liverpool, but that she didn't realize that the Beatles also performed "classical music." This is black-and-white Doctor Who comedy gold. Link (via Making Light)

Update: David sez, "The original recording of that particular Beatles performance has been lost along with a lot of the BBC library which was tragically thrown out in a great video tape purge in the 1970s. That Doctor Who footage is now the only visual record of that performance."

This one is defintely nuts.

Peanut butter disproves evolution!

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/30/peanut_butter_dispro.html

MJ Kelly says: "A (serious) Creationist clip showing how peanut butter disproves the theory of evolution. (Query whether it makes a difference if its creamy or with nuts...)"

The video explains that evolutionists claim that energy plus matter sometimes results in the creation of life. But since no one has ever found spontaneously-generated life in a jar of peanut butter, that means that matter plus energy from the sun couldn't have caused life on Earth. That's a grand piece of thinking!

http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2007/03/creationist_sez_peanut_butter.php

This sounds like something from The Onion.

Let's see: peanut butter does not spontaneously spring to life, ergo: no evolution. Spontaneous creation of life: isn't that actually what the creationists believe in, not the evolutionists? Besides, everyone knows that the flying spaghetti monster did it, anyways.

New England Revolution

Reports from Revs vs. New Orleans pre-season friendly:

http://bladesofblue.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-england-revolution-vs-new-orleans.html

http://www.revolutionsoccer.net/news/index.cfm?ac=latestnewsdetail&pid=24643&pcid=115

Analysis of the Revs upcoming season:

http://www.soccernewengland.com/articles/view_article.php?id=2512

Note to self: need to sign up for MLS Direct Kick asap.

Portland (Timbers?) in MLS?

Hmmmm:

http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/1175225143168950.xml&coll=7

This story has been all over, but I'm getting it right now via Du Nord, courtesy link:

http://www.dunord.blogspot.com/

Of course the Portland Timbers currently exist in USL. If this investor group pans out, I really do hope they keep the Timbers name (presumably buying out or partnering with the existing Timbers owners). It would be a shame to waste the Timbers legacy.

The Timbers were the team my beloved Tampa Bay Rowdies beat in their very first Soccer Bowl in 1975. The Timbers never had quite the success the Rowdies had in winning trophies, but their support has always been excellent.

Alas, still no sign that anyone is going to bring back the Rowdies. Sulk.

Wanted: 2008 Presidential candidate who isn't a lunatic.

Anyone who still thinks McCain is a real 'alternative' presidential candidate should read this:

http://www.juancole.com/2007/03/mccain-checks-into-cloud-cuckooland-116.html#comments

[Blitzer Clip]: Everything we hear if you leave the so-called Green Zone, the international zone, and you go outside of that secure area, relatively speaking, you’re in trouble if you’re an American.

[McCAIN CLIP]: That’s where you ought to catch up on things, Wolf. General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media. But I know for a fact that much of the success we’re experiencing, including the ability of Americans in many parts. Not all, we have a long, long way to go. We’ve only got two of the five brigades here to go into some neighborhoods in Baghdad in a secure fashion.

So apart from Ron Paul, who will never be given real media exposure, and a few similiar no-hopers on the Democratic side, we have nothing but lunatic war-mongering Zionists for presidential candidates to 'chose' from.

McCain has drunk the koolaid, though, to an extent that none of the other candidates have. This is beyond bizarre. This blogger has a good running day-by-day account of incidents that McCain should read:

http://newsaboutiraq.blogspot.com/

What a mess.

The Daily Show did a pretty good lampoon of McCain's comments, as well. Actually, lampoon isn't a good description; McCain's comments lampoon themselves; the Daily Show didn't have to do anything.

This is depressing. No more political blogs for a while.

An 'Exit Strategy' Bush doesn't want to think about.

Another excellent piece by William Lind:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind124.html

One of history's most successful retreats, and certainly its most famous, is the "Retreat of the 10,000." In 401 B.C., 10,000 Greek hoplites hired themselves out as mercenaries to a Persian prince, Cyrus the Younger, who was making a grab for the Peacock Throne. Inconveniently, after the Greeks were deep in Persia, Cyrus was killed. The hoplites' leader, Xenophon, the first gentleman of war, led his men on an epic retreat through Kurdish country to the coast and home. Surprisingly, most of them made it. Safely back in Athens, Xenophon wrote up his army's story, cleverly titling it the Anabasis, which means the advance. It was not the last retreat so labelled.

Lind applies this history lesson to our situation today in Iraq. Solid stuff.

Rocketboom goes all-a-twitter.

Rocketboom lets Twitter get a bit out of control:

http://www.rocketboom.com/stories/rb_07_mar_29

Things not to do when in London.

This is rather amusing, although I have to wonder how they escaped all those police cameras they have in Britain now:

http://microbano.com/?p=77

test

Testing.

What the heck, I give in to this blogging thing at long last.