Painting: The 28 Men Who Run The World

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The basis of this painting is a drawing I did last week, of 28 faces. I digitized the drawing, touched it up in Paintshop Pro 9.01, and used Harry's Photoshop Filter 3.0 to color it. I corrected the gamma, resized it, and added one of my favorite digital frames--a Mission style frame with inlays. /jack
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Boohoo! The New York Yankees: Overpaid, Underperforming Primadonnas Get Aired Out By George "Pardon Me" Steinbrenner

Now that A-Rod has consulted several therapists and taken enough jitter meds and electroshock, he is playing ball again, after a long draught. However, it's too little, too late:::::::::: Mt. Steinbrenner has erupted.

It's fun to watch when this happens (it was especially fun in the Billy Martin years). Joe Torre is wetting his pants and Brian Cashman walks around in a Xanax haze, mumbling to himself. They've thrown millions at the problem and they're getting drubbed by teams with minuscule payrolls. There is nothing more satisfying than watching The Bronx Bombers collapse--watching Steinbrenner go medieval is the icing on the cake! /jack

By JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports Writer Sat Jun 4, 4:11 PM ET

MINNEAPOLIS - George Steinbrenner feels his Yankees are letting down New York and hinted changes could be coming unless the team starts winning.

The Yankees owner confirmed his discussion with manager Joe Torre and general manager Brian Cashman and said Saturday it was up to the two of them to solve the problem, ominously adding a "right now" to the end of his remarks.
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Painting: Chancellor Hitler

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North Korea: President Bush Said The Magic Word ("Mister"). Could Peace Be At Hand? If We Really Start Shoveling It On Thick, Will They Disarm?

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea gave rare praise to President Bush on Friday, welcoming his use of the honorific ``Mr.'' when referring to leader Kim Jong Il and saying the softened tone could lead to its return to nuclear arms talks.

Read the article by clicking on the title of this blog entry. The marionette rendition of Mister Kim Jong Il is from the recent film Team America by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
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A Fractal

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I created this fractal with Fractint 18.2, an integer-based fractal generation program created, like much great freeware is, by a loose collective of people.

In the early 1990s, it would take many many hours to create a fractal.

I worked at hDC in 1991, where we created a fractal generator that was included with our software, as a toy, more or less. Fractals are fascinating...if you want to create your own, click on the title of this article, which will take you a site where you can download Fractint 20.0.
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The Safe Palette For The World Wide Web

click image to enlarge the 216 color safe palette

There was a time when you could only use these colors on a web site--to ensure colors wouldn't dither (where a color is created by mixing dots, crosshatches, etc., of more than one color to create the illusion of another color). In 1996, most computers had 8-bit video cards (e.g, capable of displaying 256 colors).

The Browser-Safe Palette actually uses 216 colors (see swatches above) of the possible 256. The other 40 colors vary on Macs and PCs; not using those colors allows this palette to work cross-platform.

The woman who first identified the safe palette said:

"The browser-safe palette was developed by programmers with no design sense, I assure you. That's because a designer would have never picked these colors. Mostly, the palette contains far less light and dark colors than I wish it did, and is heavy on highly saturated colors and low on muted, tinted or toned colors. "

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Gee Whiz! 2

Click image to enlarge. A road crew in Washington
state collected these jugs of urine. In one year, a
single, small county in the state collected 2,666
jugs.


MSNBC SEATTLE — Roadside litter comes in all shapes and sizes — from dirty diapers to syringes — but there's one category that out-grosses the rest: trucker bombs. Most drivers whiz along the nation's highways largely oblivious to their roadside surroundings. But next time you are out there, take a closer look.

"As soon as you look for it you’ll see it," says Megan Warfield, litter programs coordinator at Washington state's Department of Ecology. "You just see them glistening in the sun. It’s just gross."

They are trucker bombs, plastic jugs full of urine tossed by truckers. . .

Click the title to link to the story on MSNBC.
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Has The Prophet Yahweh Fallen On Hard Times? And Was It My Brother-In-Law's Posting Here That Caused It?

I saw the impressive video from a television station (it looked more or less plausible..it may have been a reakl TV station, or it could have been cooked up). A reporter, camera man, and The Prophet see freaky objects in the sky. I don't know if The Prophet Yahweh Seer of Yahweh was able to successfully summon the UFOs in Las Vegas tonight. He will be calling the spaceships until July 15. It looks like his pay video site didn't work. He mailed his press list and subscribers:

Dear Lists,

It's late now (9 PM) and starting tomorrow I will be contacting you about issuing you your refunds.

There were not a lot of people who signed up.

And the little $7.95 did not pay for the debt I incurred from people throughout the earth running up my streaming bill in my name and other bills related to the operation.

I have not spent one penny of the small amount of money I received from you.

I have let it sit up in my Pay Pal account.

I will start contacting you about your refund tommorrow.

No one who paid the $7.95 has to worry about if they will get their money back.

Because, I represent YAHWEH, and my honor and my words are all I have. And, I will not let it fail over a few $7.95 payments.

Sincerely,
Prophet YahwehSeer of Yahweh
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Mark Felt, American Hero

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The Washington Post (And Woodward And Bernstein) Confirm That Felt Is Indeed Deep Throat

Check out the Washington Post story.

Deep Throat Comes Out Of The Closet

A former FBI official claims he was “Deep Throat,” the long-anonymous source who leaked secrets about President Nixon’s Watergate cover-up to The Washington Post, Vanity Fair reported Tuesday. We've been waiting thirty years for this one.

W. Mark Felt, now 91, second-banana at the FBI in the early 1970s, kept the secret from his family until 2002, when he admitted to a friend that he had been Post reporter Bob Woodward’s source, the magazine said.

Woodward and Bernstein are sticking to their guns--they will not disclose Deep Throat's identity while he is still alive. "We've said all along that when the source known as Deep Throat dies, we will reveal his identity and explain at great length all of our dealings with that individual and context of that relationship," Mr. Bernstein said.

It looks like this is the real deal. I always thought it was probably Alexander Haig (Chief of Staff) or Patrick Buchanan (speechwriter). Click on the title to link to an article on the Deep Throat revelation.
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Bob Dylan - New Morning Lyrics

I recently reacquainted myself with Bob Dylan's New Morning album. It has been totally underrated. Although the subject matter is deeply personal, he sings and plays with a subtle looseness that it is refreshing. Clearly this is predecessor to one of his greatest albums of all time: Blood On The Tracks. In this album, the wheels were coming off his marriage. In Blood, it was all over; only the taste of ashes remains. Blood on the tracks was an amazingly realized album of rage and anguish. New Morning still has moments of sunshine and optimism. The looseness of his voice, the music, and the lyrics were a breather-- the calm before the storm:

New Morning

Can't you hear that rooster crowin'?
Rabbit runnin' down across the road
Underneath the bridge where the water flowed through
So happy just to see you smile
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you.

Can't you hear that motor turnin'?
Automobile comin' into style
Comin' down the road for a country mile or two
So happy just to see you smile
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you.

The night passed away so quickly
It always does when you're with me.
Can't you feel that sun a-shinin'?
Ground hog runnin' by the country stream
This must be the day that all of my dreams come true
So happy just to be alive
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you.

So happy just to be alive
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you.
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