Month: January 2005

Why Copy Editing Is Important

A new young monk arrives at the monastery and as with all new monks he is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript.

So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up.

In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.” So, he goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscript is held as archives in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for hundreds of years.

Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes downstairs to look for him.

He sees him banging his head against the wall, and wailing, “We forgot the “R”!

“We forgot the “R”!

“We forgot the “R”!

“We forgot the “R”!

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, “What’s wrong, father?” With a choking voice, the old abbot replies,

“The word is celebRate!”

“The word is celebRate!”

“The word is celebRate!”

“The word is celebRate!”

Thanks Barney for that.

Why Cats Hate People

URGENT: Patch Your MovableType Install

Even if you’re still running 2.6x, you need to get this patch installed. It fixes an ugly vulnerability that allows your MT installation to be used by spammers to send out mail (similar to a formmail script hole).

I actually noticed this about nine months ago but nobody seemed to notice or care. Glad to hear SixApart is finally listening to folks and has the right kinds of folks there to make sure this kind of crap doesn’t ever happen again.

Richard Simmons on Whose Line

I rarely miss an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and I’m really disappointed that I missed the one with Richard Simmons. But thanks to this wonderful thing called the Interweb, I can view it at my leisure. I can’t say that I’ve laughed that hard in a very long time.

Lego Creations

This is far more impressive than the converted Powerbook I mentioned before. This guy created a whole computer from scratch and the case is entirely Lego.

And then there’s this guy that made a 10-foot speed boat entirely out of Lego.

Some people have far too much time on their hands.

“Oregon Legislature to Experience Mental Illness”

That was the exact headline of a press release sent around by NAMI. The actual press release (with a better headline) is here.

I don’t know about you, but that original headline reads as a tasteless joke, but maybe it’s just me.

Beer Fights Cancer

There’s apparently some mystery ingredient in beer that, taken in moderation, can help fight cancer.

Professional Basketball Coming To Central Oregon?

This could be interesting.

A minor-league professional basketball organization with a reputation for sending players to the NBA hopes to place a new franchise in Central Oregon.

The Continental Basketball Association is currently in communication with local officials and a potential ownership group about forming a CBA team that would be based in Redmond starting with the 2005-2006 season.

What’s more interesting is that while they don’t hold open tryouts for the team, they do have their eye on Chris Baert, who I went to high-school with and now currently plays with an ABA team.

Religious “Healing” Kills Heart Patient

According to police, the wheelchair-bound man, a heart patient, had come to a Benny Hinn event to get healed along with scores of people. The victim suffered an attack and died even as the evangelist commenced the faith-based healing service, a police officer said. Full Story. Thanks Barney for the link.

It’s All Uphill From Here