I don’t know how long this link will be good (it looks like the link will be for the entire trip … ANZAC Day is Day 5 of the trip), but we have Colorado representation Down Under for ANZAC Day.
Here’s a song that was written about it – Eric Bogle’s The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda.
Mexican embassy official steals Blackberries during meeting with President Bush.
Have we at least declared the spy persona non grata? Do we know that we got them all back, and that we got the right ones back? If I were going to do something like this, I’d make sure I had purchased some off of Ebay in advance. Give those back if I were stopped, and try to make it out with the others.
Then again, how long does it take to unload a Blackberry? Do they have easily-removable memory cards? I don’t know – my cellphone was neither newly-introduced nor top-of-the-line when I got it about 3 years ago.
Well, taxes, anyway. No death in this post, just some things that may make you want to threaten someone with it.
We’ll start with a little humor, though, just to provide better contrast with the rest of the post.
Rachel Lucas has a fine rant on the occasion of paying her taxes. My federal taxes are higher than hers, but I’m fairly certain I make more money than she. Unlike her, I also get to pay state income tax here in Colorado, which pushed my income taxes up to about 25% of my taxable income. Democrats in the Colorado state government are also planning another assault on TABOR, so I expect state taxes to increase more quickly in the near future.
Then I had the additional dubious pleasure of having to submit a 1040X for 2006, because I got sent an erroneous 1099 last year, and a corrected one after I’d submitted my taxes. It meant that I had to send in more money, which was so nice.
Willisms talks about Tax Freedom Day, and also about the taxes we can expect to see in the near future.
That last link is the one most likely to cause what Kim du Toit refers to as an RCOB moment, and it relates to the idea that there really are two Americas. I’m pretty sure I know which one I live in.
Finally, Francis Porretto, the Curmudgeon Emeritus, talks on a related subject in item 3 of this post. More can be found on this topic here.
Then again, maybe the last link should be this.
UPDATE: Physics Geek has a good post, too. And we certainly can’t forget this:
… is a single person, a few thousand years ago. I knew they were recessive, but I didn’t realize they were that recent. I wonder how recently green eyes developed?
Via Obi’s Sister.
Take the test – it’s pretty short.
Via Bits & Pieces
Update: I didn’t make it clear at all, but this is a quiz about how well you know current events. I guess I should have titled it something like, “I read the news today, oh, boy.”
Arthur C. Clarke is dead. It’s all over the internet, but I first found out about it via email. Like Billy Beck, I prefer his short stories to his novels. But then, I like short stories, particularly older ones from the field.
He made other contributions besides his fiction. I think I’ll note the occasion by digging out my button with the paraphrase of his Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.”
A male-female set of fraternal twins who were adopted into separate families ended up marrying each other.
I have to think that lack of access to family medical history is a bigger problem for adoptees, though.
I was disappointed in the ruling some years back in the Microsoft antitrust suit, and I haven’t been that impressed with what’s happened in the PC marketplace since the ruling. It looks as though I’m not the only one who thinks that way.
Batteries are causing problems. Once again, laptop batteries are catching fire.
And, in other news, cellphone batteries may be lethal.
Laptops are more powerful than pen and paper and abacus, and I certainly wouldn’t want to give up my cellphone in the hopes that I could expect to find convenient phonebooths, but modern technology can come with an unexpected price.