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Now Charles is accusing Britons of ‘torturing’ him over the Camilla affair. Yup, the Brit soap opera continues...I can hear the violins now...
By replacing the metal coil spring of a conventional pogo stick with a fiberglass bow, Carnegie Mellon University researchers have turned the pogo-stick toy into a jumping machine. It is called a BowGo. So far it has been able to clear obstacles as high as 42 inches.
The key component is a fiber-reinforced epoxy composite strip that bows out and snaps back to hurl a user up to 3 feet off the ground. “Compared with coiled steel springs, the bowed composite stores as much as five times more energy per unit mass.”
A large, rubber-padded foot allows the BowGo to be used on relatively soft surfaces such as grass, sand and gravel. More of the story here.
I expected to see guy in the picture wearing a propeller beanie, but he is wearing a crash helmet instead.
aThere is an article in the Rocky Mountain News dealing with the death, at age 67, of controversial writer Hunter Thompson. It says: “Hunter Thompson...was also known for his love of fine whiskey, and to put it far too mildly, for experimenting with most every intoxicant known to man.”
The article is titled: “Loving farewell to writer” and describes a small circle of family and friends “gathered around with stories, as he wished, with glasses full of his favored elixir -- Chivas Regal on ice.”
"It was very loving. It was not a panic, or ugly, or freaky," Thompson's 32 year-old wife, Anita Thompson, said Thursday night in her first words since his death Sunday. "It was just like Hunter wanted. He was in control here." The strange part is, Hunter Thompson was sitting there at the table dead all the time this went on!!
The article also projects the feeling of the family after Thompson ended his life by shooting himself in the mouth. They seemed to think his suicide was an act of courage. His wife, Anita Thompson, said: "This is a triumph of his, not a desperate, tragic failure...he lived a beautiful life and he lived it on his own terms, all the way from the very beginning to the very end."
They referred to the Hunter suicide as a noble thing. A triumph. With all due respect for the deceased writer and his family, suicide is not an act of courage. A previous article mentioned Hunter’s dread of facing old age. Staying alive would have taken courage. Ending his life at age 67 with a 45 caliber pistol was the easy way out. If he did have courage, it was false courage that came from a bottle.
For the most part he slept during the day and wrote and drank at night. Thompson spent a lot of time at the Woody Creek Tavern near his home in the village of Woody Creek near Aspen, Colorado. He was somewhat of a counter cultural hero. In 1970 Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado where he lived. He nearly won the election. His main campaign promise was to decriminalize drugs.
A recent Denver Post article talked about: “Thompson's startlingly candid first-person accounts that described legally errant escapades fueled by drugs, alcohol and nicotine.” He once told a USA today reporter: “Obviously, my drug use is exaggerated or I would be long since dead.”
The Washington Post had this comment about Hunters work: “He was the author of books on politics and American society that were regarded as groundbreaking among journalists and other students of current affairs in their irreverence and angry insights.” Thompson’s work was called, "gonzo journalism", a factual style in which the writer was an essential part of the story.
He is well known for: “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a book that tells the story of Thompson's drug-hazed road trip across the western US in search of the American Dream. He was also the author of, “Generation of Swine” and other “new journalism” books and articles.
Online auction giant eBay is being sued by a Pennsylvania man who claims the auction site illegally forces up prices when certain high bidders raise their maximum bid to guard against last-minute offers.
“In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Feb. 17 in Santa Clara County Superior Court, lead plaintiff Glenn Block claims that eBay raised his bid from $111 to $112.50 after he responded to an e-mail from the auction site that said he was the highest bidder for an item.”
“The email warned that he could be outbid if he did not increase his maximum bid. Block alleged that he could have won the auction at $111, and accused eBay of forcing him to overpay by $1.50.” Actually the email is to alert the bidder that his maximum bid may not be enough to win the auction. The plaintiff in this suit as well as his attorney do not understand the eBay proxy bidding system
As a bidder, you can set a maximum bid amount and let eBay's proxy bidding system automatically bid for you. The eBay proxy bidding system will only raise your bid enough to keep you one minimum increment above the next highest bid until another bidder exceeds the maximum amount you set.
After you have made your maximum bid and then decide to raise your maximum, the eBay proxy bidding system will not raise the last bid made by another bidder. When another bidder reaches or exceeds your maximum bid, eBay will send you an email alerting you that you could loose the auction if you do not increase your maximum.
I can understand a bidders lack of knowledge and think they were cheated. However, for an attorney to accept this case thinking his client has a legitimate claim is unbelievable. It’s situations like this that spawn “dumb lawyer” jokes.
Am I an eBay expert? Well, I think so. I have sold on eBay since November 1997. Even though I am a “part-time” seller, I have an eBay feedback rating of 8,900.
I think this case will be laughed out of court and the attorney for the plaintiff will be a laughingstock.
But, wait a minute. This is a proposed class action suit, with a plaintiff pool of possibly hundreds or even thousands before it goes to court. The attorney will not win the case but he will be the one laughing. He will be laughing all the way to the bank! Click here for story.
A 55 year-old Minneapolis woman is taking on her town - step by step. Francine Corcoran, wearing black or sedate colored clothes, is in the third year of her plan to walk all the streets of Minneapolis. She selects walking shoes based on the season and strides out in her brisk 120-pace-a-minute clip wearing sun glasses and carrying her water bottle.
“Corcoran has a Minneapolis map taped to the wall in her basement and uses Magic Marker to highlight the streets she's walked. It's roughly two-thirds filled in.” Story here.
I am Perry Peterson, a retired auditor and tax accountant. My wife Valeta and I live along the front range of the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Welcome to my blog featuring a potpourri of conservative politics, behind the scenes news, humor and just plain fun, so pull up a chair and stay a while.
A photo of my cave
Please note: some of the links in older posts may have expired by the time you get there. I like to back up what I blog about with links to more detail on the internet.
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