Month: September 2004

Ballot Fraud Waiting To Happen

Due to Oregon’s mail-only elections, I can understand ballot counters needing a bit of extra time to count them, but a whole week? That’s how long clerks in Oregon get, prior to election day, to start opening up and taking care of those votes:

When Oregonians mail their ballots to their county clerks this fall, many might mistakenly believe that those inner, “secrecy envelopes” can?t be opened until Election Day. Actually, clerk?s offices around the state can begin to open and examine those ballots a full week before Nov. 2 — two days earlier than back in 2000.

The 2001 Legislature approved the two-day extension, requested by county clerks, giving them more time to process and sort the ballots, checking for any problems, said John Lindback, director of the Oregon Elections Division.

“Due to the heavy turnout in 2000, the clerks asked for the extra two days,” Lindback said. “All the processing is done by inspection boards and is open to the public, and the counties are, of course, required to keep the ballots secure. Everything can be done (ahead of time) except counting the votes.”

The state law, amended in 2001, also says, “The county clerk may take any other actions that are necessary to allow the counting of ballots delivered by mail to begin on Election Day.”

So they can’t officially begin counting them until Nov. 2, but they can open them and get them all ready for counting.

Is it me, or is this just asking for trouble?

Full Story at Bend.com.

September 20, 2004

Search Your Library Using Amazon

This is one of the coolest little hacks I’ve seen in a long time. When you’re search for books in Amazon, you can click on a bookmarklet (basically a little button) in your browser to have it search your local library’s system for that book. It works wonderfully!

If you’re looking for a bookmark for the Deschutes County Library, just drag the following link to your toolbar/bookmarks, and when you see a book on Amazon you like, click on it and watch it work:

Deschutes County Library

Amazon’s much faster for me than the county’s site, so this work’s great.

September 20, 2004

Good Thing He Didn’t Ask For A Burger

If you got a bad milkshake at McDonald’s, would you bomb the place? I mean, come on: McDonalds has far worse food to get upset about.

September 20, 2004

Surfer Rides Hurricane Ivan Waves

This guy has to be one of the craziest people I’ve ever seen. Talented, but crazy.

September 20, 2004

Weirdest Guinness Records

They actually keep track of this crap? Like the longest maggot bath? Or the heaviest train pulled with a beard? Or did you know there’s actually a listing for hairiest family? Or most watches eaten? Or the longest time with a nail stuck in the head?

Records like these are why I never watched that Guinness Records show when it was on TV.

September 20, 2004

What’s on your Digital Camera?

If you ever lost the memory card/stick/whatever for your camera, would you miss it? I probably wouldn’t, as I offload my pictures onto my main system on a nightly basis. But what if you had a years worth of pictures on the camera, chronicling a great deal of your life, and you lost the card? What if a tech-savvy somebody found that camera card, and started a blog with it? From the site’s intro:

In my possession is one (1) memory card from a digital camera. This memory card was found in a taxi in New York City. I have no idea who the owner of the camera is.

The pictures on the memory card were taken over the course of exactly one (1) year in this person’s life, starting July Twenty-Fifth, Two Thousand and Three (07-25-03) and ending July Twenty-Fourth, Two Thousand and Four (07-24-04).

I am going to post one (1) picture here each day. As there are two hundred and twenty-seven (227) pictures, there will be two hundred and twenty-seven (227) posts. The pictures will appear in chronological order according to the timestamp accompanying each image.

As the images add up, I will attempt to assemble an identity for this unknown person. Each day’s new picture will be a fresh addition to this photographic life-documentation. Only with the unveiling of the final picture (the two hundred and twenty-seventh (227th)) will we finally have a full understanding of this person’s life over the past year – at least as far as these pictures will allow us to infer.

Further, in an attempt to present this pictorial information in a more personal manner, and also to better allow for some artistic license, I am going to pretend that I am the owner of the camera. I’ll call me Jordan, because that’s the name on my birthday cake (you’ll see).

A fascinating look into another person’s life. Link via TheDren.

September 20, 2004

This Game Will Piss You Off

Just to show that Jesse’s not the only one that can link to games (though the game he links to is pretty dang fun), here’s one that will (eventually on higher levels) drive you nuts. It sounds quite simple — navigating a little shape through a maze — until you realize your mouse is reversed. Link via b3ta.

September 19, 2004

Sick and Politically Incorrect Jokes

Some of these are really sick, but I’m sorry, but I did laugh at some of them (and yes, I’m going straight to hell for it, I’m sure). Some examples from the aforementioned site:

What’s black and has 27 breasts??

The rubbish bag outside the cancer clinic.

What’s yellow and lives off dead beetles?

Yoko Ono.

What did the blind, deaf, mute boy get for Christmas?

Cancer.

Whats the hardest part of a vegetable to eat?

The wheelchair.

What can turn a fruit into a vegetable?

AIDS.

Why did Princess Diana cross the road?

She wasn’t wearing her seatbelt.

September 19, 2004

This Has to Be a Twilight Zone Episode

Imagine driving along on the road, minding your own business, when you notice something a bit weird about the road your driving on. Looking down, you see several hundred Ronald McDonald dolls lined up in perfect formation on the road. I know that’d probably wig me out:

“It was eerie, frightening,” says Dau, who is corrections officer for the Clinton County sheriff’s office. Why all those 14-inch stuffed dolls, with ceramic faces, had been so carefully placed in the middle of a half-dozen roads in Cedar Heights, is a mystery from “Twilight Zone.”

[…]

He estimates there were 500 of those Ronald McDonald dolls, in perfect formations, spaced about two or three feet apart in the center of six roads in the court that houses about 150 mobile homes.

[…]

“It was so scary, all those Ronald McDonalds staring at us in our headlights. It gave us a very, very funny feeling. If you hadn’t seen them with your own eyes, you wouldn’t believe it,” Dau says.

The article goes on to say that McDonalds hasn’t sold the dolls for years, so somebody was seriously hording the things.

September 19, 2004

I Miss Clinton

(Joke via Yoleen)

Just watched a show on Canadian TV. There was a black comedian who said he misses Bill Clinton. “Yep, that’s right – I miss Bill Clinton! He was the closest thing we ever got to having a black man as President.

Number 1- He played the sax.

Number 2- He smoked weed.

Number 3- He had his way with ugly white women.

Even now? Look at him… his wife works, and he don’t! And, he gets a check from the government every month.

Manufacturers announced today that they will be stocking America’s shelves this week with “Clinton Soup,” in honor of one of the nations’ most distinguished men. It consists primarily of a weenie in hot water.

Chrysler Corporation is adding a new car to its line to honor Bill Clinton. The Dodge Drafter will be in production in Canada this year.

When asked what he thought about foreign affairs, Clinton replied, “I don’t know, I never had one.”

American Indians nicknamed Bill Clinton “Walking Eagle” because he is so full of shit, he can’t fly.

Clinton lacked only three things to become one of America’s finest leaders: integrity, vision, wisdom.

Clinton was doing the work of three men: Larry, Curly and Moe.

The Clinton revised judicial oath: “I solemnly swear to tell the truth as I know it, the whole truth as I believe it to be, and nothing but what I think you need to know.”

Clinton will be recorded in history as the only President to do Hanky Panky between Bushes

September 17, 2004