SkeptiLog, evil twin of

Cutting to the heart of matters... I'm back from the hunt, with much to report. Journal entries are linked below. Also, there will be a major [but mostly transparent] change to the structure of all this SkeptiStuff, with more appropriate naming. These log entries will move to SkeptiLog.Pitas.Com; the links will all live on the connexions page, SkpetiCon.Pitas.Com; archiving listings will get complexified, but the common archive page [currently at Xoom] will allow for easy retrieval. Relax. Give me a day to get it all worked out. And I should resume producing bulletins by tomorrow [Tuesday].

March 2000 Trip Journal:

• 18 Mar: HOT EMF BEAMED INTO OUR HEADS!
• 19 Mar: CRASHED UFO! COYOTE CORPSES!
• 20 Mar: YOLLA BOLLY YETI! NO UFOs!
• 21 Mar: NARROW ESCAPES! TROUBLE!
• 22 Mar: UFO! BIGFOOT! ET TRACKS!
• 23 Mar: HYDROIDS! CHEMTRAILS WITCH!
• 24 Mar: PETROGLYPHS! ALIEN FACE!
• 25 Mar: FEY MINE! GUNNERS! SASQUATCH!
• 26 Mar: BIRDS ATTACK! ALIENS ABDUCT!

I hope you had a happy St. Paddy's. 'Bye for now. C'ya'll in 10 days. Wish me luck on the Sasquatch hunt.

OK, I think I've got the SkeptiNews page display pretty stable now -- I may tweak the hotlink colors slightly, but it's pretty much as I want it. And this log page is almost right -- except I'm still dissatisified with the column of links. [And it doens't look right on [sucky] Netscape. Argh.] I'll probably extend the OTRS entrance page as a fast-loading node to my subsites, and re-do my old SkeptiCon homepage as a link portal -- get rid of the non-functional, never-updated pages that're cluttering-up the place. Yup. Well, that's what vacations are for -- major site redesigns. It's worked before. Heh.

• Exorcism - it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. Start today.
• Marshall McLuhan: truth is whatever is disturbing. Me: reality is whatever bites your ass. [opens new window]
• Is the twentieth century a roadshow, or only its history? Will this century be a virtual comedy?
• Is alien sex better than no sex at all? Are you sure? [Easier to read]
• Sanitation engineering was the biotech whiz-bang of a century ago, except that the stock market reacted differently. But we live longer now because of it.
• The Seven Scrolls are probably no worse than any other 'holy' writing. [yawn] I'd rather read McLuhan.
• The Blue Hen Hash House Harriers get drunk and then run a distance. I suppose there are worse ways to spend a day. Or two.
• Nicola Tesla's autobiography fills a black hole in information space, or so he says. [opens new window] [Another edition]
• TELETUBBIES ARE FLESH-EATING ALIENS!!! It sez so right here.

* LOST EMAIL. Somewhen between midnite and 8AM [Pacific Std Time] today [15 March 2000] my ISP suffered a serious system failure that resulted in the permanent loss of an unknown quantity of email. This affected SkeptiChat, MindControl and numerous other elists hosted there. Anything you posted then has probably gone off to Email Purgatory. Yow.

* HIATUS. Friday or Saturday I'll be (leaving town) / (going offline) / (abducted) for about 1.5 weeks. All the SkeptiWhatever stuff will just have to wait. Bother. Due to sharply-rising petrol costs [caused by international conspiracies targeting political / economic / religious adversaries, undoubtedly] the run to Death Valley and Area51 country is off -- the quest will instead be redirected towards Sasquatch country, the Yolla Bollys, maybe as far as the Trinity Alps, maybe not.

OK, that's the trivial stuff. What's important is, I'm right now dubbing Raymond Scott and Carl Stallings music from CD to minidisc, 145 minutes of cartoon soundtracks guaranteed to short-out any alien implants. I hope. [bzzzzzt] Damn implants...

• MASS MURDER IN LegoLand - disgruntled ex-employee lashes out - film at 11.
• When you don't have time to read a book, go for the ultra-condensed version, or even an entire oevre.
• Watch myths metamorphose right before your very eyes! Woops! There goes another one!!

REALLY, You MUST try this. The Customer Service number for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation is 1-800-578-7453. Dial the number and listen to their greeting message, until the point when you are requested to choose an extension. Then you can hang up. The greeting message is priceless--worth the toll-free call. really!

FoneFinder is very good at locating area and country codes for cities and nations in North America and around the world. But it seems to have discovered some new nations using country-codes 211 and 217 and 999. Coincidence, or fate? [Thanks, Unit4!] I'd like to point out that the image to the left is only a representation of a bishop flipping the bird. Had this been an actual bishop, someone's soul would be blasted by now. There are no coincidences. Or are there?

My sister sent the following inquiry:

THE FINGER
Isn't history more fun when you know something about it?

[ASCII graphic deleted]

Giving the Finger

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future.

This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew! "PLUCK YEW!" Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter.

It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird".

And yew thought yew knew everything.

Galileo's Finger: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/finger.html
Ooze, Finger, & Jesus T-Shirts: http://ooze.com/finger/html/t-shirts.html
Friendly Little Finger: http://www.friendlylittlefinger.com/
Finger Massager: http://fingermassager.ezsearch-ishophere.com/
Finger Plier Methods: http://www.linplaza.com/love/fgplier.htm
Finger Up Nose: http://www.poetry4kids.com/finger.html
Saroyan Finger Cymbals: http://www.saroyanzils.com/
TheFinger.Com: http://www.thefinger.com/
Finger Eleven: http://www.fingereleven.com/
Pull My Finger: http://www.fartcd.com/

Sorry, I could find no origin for "the finger".  Regrets.

Yesterday's and today's bulletins, and the previous log file.