No Shortage Of Weird, Or Stupid.

Dell Computers' Fatal Weakness: SMS

when you “put your mobile phone close to the cd-rom unit of the Dell Optiplex GX520 and then recieve a sms/txt” it “goes into some sort of suspension mode from which you can’t bring it back without breaking power or holding down the power button for four seconds.

Yeah, that's right: you can shut down a Dell by getting a text message. Whoa, Dude, you're getting an irreversible standby mode.


Irony struck violently on Saturday, after a small plane carrying skydivers crashed outside Sullivan, Missouri. Everyone inside died, which is tragic. THEY WERE SKYDIVERS, which lends credibility to my theory that people ought not to try to jump out of perfectly good aircraft - UNLESS THEY'RE CRASHING.

You'd think that would be a GOOD time to try out this whole "skydiving" thing, hmmm?



A Penn State student was arrested on Friday after coming out of his house to see what was causing the huge commotion in the street. Seeing that the street was filled with police, Neftaly Cruz, 21, of Philadelphia, pulled out his camera phone to take a picture, and was immediately snagged by a police officer and dragged off in handcuffs. The explanation? Apparently it is illegal to photograph the police. Nobody mentioned in the article what seemed obvious to me - that this law was instated to prevent any further Rodney King videos - but I will say it's utter bullshit, and they ought not to get away with it. If you're out in public, you're fair game, there, chum. That's how that whole "public" thing works.



Scientists at Columbia University Medical Center in New York have announced they've discovered a protein switch in human nerve cells that, when activated, turns on chronic pain symptoms, such as those found in arthritis sufferers. They're now working on a pill to turn that protein off. They will no doubt make billions, until in 10 years the drug is found to also cause liver damage, kidney failure, nerve damage, and bad breath.



Just so you know, there is, but there isn't, a disease called Morgellons, which does, or doesn't, cause skin lesions, pain, "fibers" growing from the skin, and a sensation of crawling upon the skin, except that there is, but isn't any physical evidence that it actually exists.
Confused yet?
You should be; although the medical establishment so far denies the existence of the syndrome, calling it a "delusional parasitosis," which apparently means "they're crazy, so they think they have bugs on them."
What's funny about that is that there are over 1100 cases of it so far, and the numbers are climbing steadily; and yet, so far not a single doctor has been willing to take the simple step of dragging the patient into the lab, and simply testing to see if the damn stuff really exists or not. I know, that's kind of a left-field, out there kinda idea, but MAYBE YOU OUGHTA RUN SOME TESTS TO BE SURE. Just thinking out loud here.



Just so you know, we may be in the last years of Earth's existence!!! SCAAARY!!!
Actually, it really is, but we're not in any rush to colonize outer space anyway.
But, just in case anyone feels like writing letters about extraterrestrial colonization, in 2029 an asteroid called "Apophis" after the Egyptian god of nihilism (really, dissolution and the void, but close enough) will pass closer to Earth than our own communications satellites.
This first orbit will determine, thanks to Earth's own gravitational effects upon Apophis, whether or not it will hit us head-on during its second orbit in 2036. For this reason alone, 99942 Apophis, as it is dubbed by NASA, retains a 1 on the Torino Hazard Scale; however, it should be mentioned that thus far this particular asteroid is the only object in recorded history to reach a 4 on the Torino scale; the 1 rating currently only applies to the approach due April 13th, 2036. It will certainly be raised or lowered after the 2029 approach.
To give you an idea what we're talking about here, this is a rock approximately 390 meters in diameter - about four and a quarter football fields - and weighing 174,165,187,130 pounds. Estimates place the energy released should it hit as 880 megatons - about 65,000 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. To give another example, it's about 44 times more powerful than the imapct that created Barringer Crater - better known as "Meteor Crater" in Arizona. Now, according to the eggheads, they're gonna try to go all Hollywood style on it and "nudge" it a bit to keep it from hitting any of the orbital sweet spots, called "gravitational keyholes" that would put it on track to hit us.
Good luck with that; it still weighs 174 billion pounds. At least there's one consolation; if it hits us, there's some speculation that we could in fact lose California for good.



Nothing like a little scare-mongering, eh?



Ok, now I know I've said before that if you're 85, you probably shouldn't be driving; but now there's a stack of injured Starbucks patrons who agree with me. That's thanks to Ted Kawashima, of El Monte, California, who drove his Toyota into a crowded patio at Starbucks on Friday night. Apparently, he just can't tell the gas from the brake anymore. However, the cops apparently aren't going to charge him with anything, despite two of his victims needing hospital stays, so he'll be free to do it again next week. Woohoo, go LAPD!



And finally, did you know that food manufacturers are actually intentionally dosing your food with a chemical that causes you to crave more of their product?
You didn't?
They are. Look at the ingredients for - well - any soda you drink. What do you find: High Fructose Corn Syrup. Why that, and not sugar? Two reasons: HFCS is cheaper, and it doesn't process in your body the way cane sugar does. Cane sugar causes your body to produce a hormone that gives you a feeling of fullness, while HFCS not only does not produce that hormone, but actually blocks it, causing you to remain hungry despite eating or drinking way too much. Isn't that nice?
So, if you drink Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Coke, Dr. Pepper, or your local store brand generic cola, you're drinking not one, but TWO addictive chemicals - HFCS and caffeine. Gotta love it.