And this is how the non-athlete plays ping-pong in Japan (just look at the pictures).

This is how they play ping pong in Japan. (site courtesy of Jie)

Check out Margaret Cho's Website for a feature video where she tours someplace cold. If it's been changed, here's the directly link to the feed

For your interest...

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Jan04/MarsTemps.bpf.html

Wesley Clark. I've decided to join the ranks of Madonna and Michael Moore in supporting this candidate. Despite Dean's popularity, I think he's just a regular politician and I haven't had a good impression of him. Apparently Dean has ties with the NRA, and yet he blasts Clark for being a Republican. Good ol' fashioned politicking, how transparent.

Anyway, the only way to overthrow a wartime president is to have someone with better credentials than our AWOL, crack-smoking minority-elected president. Dean I believe didn't serve either (Kerry did, but he probably doesn't have as clean of a background as Clark).

Who knows, I'm so annoyed at Bush that I might even participate in some Clark propoganda.

Any reasons I shouldn't endorse Clark? (Okay, so he believes we can travel faster than light...but hey, warping the fabric of space to simulate faster-than-light travel is still plausible)

Oh, finally, since Bush says that his tax cuts are aimed at the average Joe, you have to wonder why the IRS would go through the trouble of creating Form 8302: Electronic Deposit of Tax Refund of $1 Million or More if there wasn't such a demand?

An article about the struggles of a old woman on the margins of poverty.

Yeah, I know, doesn't sound very sexy. But I found it very well-written and worth a read.

Bush made himself look like an ass again today, although I had to restrain my hecking in respect of my co-workers. So Bush plans to reallocate 11 billion of the 15 billion dollar budget for his "vision" plus another 1 billion dollars spread over the next five years in additionally funding. So basically, he's just full of hot fuckin' air. I don't know if he's ever heard of the adage "put your money where your mouth is." He's going to cut existing programs in NASA to try and implement some crock of shit plan he has, and in the end, it'll amount to nothing. Hell, the two rovers going to mars costs almost a billion dollars ($800M actually), and he expects the same amount of money to be able to put people on the moon, much less Mars? Yeah, right.

During his speech today, I couldn't help but remember in Austin Powers where Dr. Evil dramatically reveals the amount he wants for ransom.

Bush: "One BILLION dollars...[zoom in to his face as he's inhaling with his pinky over his puckered lips]"

So while NASA revels in the increase in its budget from 15 to 15.2 billion next, the military is still getting ~400 billion. Maybe he could spare a few billion from the yearly military budget for a good cause. You know, something that doesn't involve killing innocent people simply because of where they live.

Oh, V.P. Cheney visited JPL today for some facetime in hopes of re-election. I mostly stayed in my office though as security was really tight and there were doing random checks of people (i.e. wand and stuff). I wasn't going to have my privacy rights violated for a Dick.

From yesterday's Slashdot, an article on how the tech industry defends its need to move jobs overseas. [Original Article]. The article finishes with this asinine quote:

"The problem is not a lack of highly educated workers," said Scott Kirwin, founder of the Information Technology Professionals Association of America. "The problem is a lack of highly educated workers willing to work for the minimum wage or lower in the U.S. Costs are driving outsourcing, not the quality of American schools."

Minimum wage: Anything less would be ILLEGAL. Dumbass.

A funny article.