President Bush plans to sign legislation Monday that will give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to administer the national "do-not-call" registry -- a move that will be largely symbolic because of a court challenge to the list. - full article

I just noticed today that my photo journal of the 2002 MS 150 from Houston to Austin has been viewed more than 1,100 times. I remember noticing a huge spike in site traffic for that page during the few weeks prior to the 2003 MS 150.

Clear Channel has done it again. After DJs in Houston and Cleveland made comments and jokes on air about running cyclists off the road while driving your car, they had another situation crop up in Raleigh, North Carolina. So far, the past incidents have been followed up with big, lavish public apologies, and even pledges to give some money to a few small groups, but come on, who really buys that song and dance? Of course you're gonna go out and apologize after you get flamed to hell for publicly demonstrating that you're a bunch of bastards. A lavish apology is exactly what's expected from a gigantic megacorp who needs to kiss the public's ass as much as possible (they do, after all, own many different radio stations across the country).

Anyway, I decided that I'm sick of this nonsense, so I just wrote the following email to the Clear Channel Public Relations group (pr@clearchannel.com), and then CC'ed Lowry Mays (LLowrymays@clearchannel.com), Mark Mays (markpmays@clearchannel.com), and Randall Mays (randalltmays@clearchannel.com)

Subject: a few suggestions for you guys

Clear Channel PR folks,

After hearing about the most recent incident of Clear Channel radio DJs chatting humorously about running cyclists off the road (aired September 22 and 23 on G105 in Raleigh, North Carolina), I'd like to offer a suggestion for other funny topics that DJs could discuss.

Thursdays' ruling by a federal judge in Colorado places the fate of the popular list in limbo. The decision was slammed Friday by the FTC chairman, who vowed to take "every recourse to give American consumers a choice to stop unwanted telemarketing calls." - full article

After both houses of congress voted overwhelmingly to reinstate the do-not-call list yesterday, a second federal judge (this time in Colorad) has ruled against the list. Distrcit judge Edward Nottingham blocked the list on the grounds of protecting telemarketers' free speech rights. Another interesting point to consider is that, regardless of whether the list actually becomes law, it will only apply to telemarketers but not to nonprofit organizations, politicians and pollsters. Meanwhile, President Bush says he will sign the do-not-call list into law next week.

Southern Methodist University shut down a bake sale Wednesday in which cookies were offered for sale at different prices, depending on the buyer's race or gender. - full article

Wow. I can't decide if this is good or bad, but I definitely find it amusing.

<rant>I'm still waiting for a reasonable response to why affirmative action should be considered fair when it doesn't exist until we reach college; to elaborate, the evaluation criteria that we grow accustomed to throughout grade school and high school are changed drastically when race and social background enter into the picture at the college level. If we're going to have affirmative action, shouldn't we start it in kindergarten?).</rant>

Article highlights:

• students selling cookies on campus
  
• they had a sign that said white males had to pay $1 for a cookie, white women paid $0.75, Hispanics paid $0.50 per cookie, and blacks paid $0.25
  
• similar sales have occurred on college campuses in at least five other states since February 2003
  
• a black student filed a complaint with SMU saying that the sale was offensive
  
• SMU officials halted this sale after 45 minutes because it created "a potentially unsafe situation"
  
• the sale drew a crowd outside the student center and several students jumped into a shouting match
  

Man's best friend, in this case a male poodle, is genetically more similar to humans than is the mouse, a more commonly used laboratory animal, according to researchers who have completed the first rough draft sequence of the genes of a dog. - full article

Sweet. For years we've thought that humans were so similar to mice, it turns out that we're even more similar (genetically, anyway) to a male poodle. Also interesting in that humans and mice are closer together in evoluation than humans and dogs.

A day after a federal judge ruled the Federal Trade Commission lacked authority to create the national "do not call" registry, the House granted the agency specific power to maintain the list. - full article

The national do-not-call list has attracted 50 million people - 730,000 on the first day alone - and was all set for use by the fcc until a gederal district court ruled that it was invalid. Today, the House voted to override the judge's decision, and the senate is expected to do the same later today. Will this mean the end of tele-marketing calls within this country? Probably not. My vote: go with a cell phone instead of a land line.

I had some pleasant success today with a project at work. Fed up with the freeware and even commercial applications, I wrote my own application that will let you apply stress to a web server. It's primitive at this point, but still very useful and (imho) well-designed such that future changes and enhancements will be much easier. So today's success came in the form of finding a sneaky bug in the threading that doesn't allow you to restart a thread once it has been join()'ed. I wasn't seeing any errors, just strange behavior. After fixing and testing, things appear to be working very well.

In an effort to streamline federal financial holdings and spur growth, Treasury Secretary John Snow announced Monday that the federal government will discontinue its long-term, low-yield investment in the nation's youth. - full article

A Swedish man has allegedly tried to smuggle eight dangerous snakes into Australia by strapping them to his legs, according to customs officials. - full article

So this guy had eight cobras stapped to his legs, and four of them were king cobras. It sounds like the intro to a really bad joke ("so a guy walks into a bar with eight cobras strapped to his legs, and the bartender says..."). We may never know why a 28 year old man would do something so idiotic...

Would it be possible to read this story without thinking of the obvious (and dumb) joke, "Do you have eight cobras in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?"

Yet another day reminding me to be thankful for what I've got. I'm reminded in part because of positive things that I'm thankful for, and in part because of negative things that make me appreciate those positive things even more. Sometimes it's funny how circumstance toys with our perception of unchanging aspects of life.

The Fort Davis Cycle Fest weekend comes to an end. We all had a great ride through the mountains of western Texas, and a nice dinner that night with our riding buddies.

After more than four decades of testing in tandem with other drugs, placebo gained approval for prescription use from the Food and Drug Administration Monday.

full article

This documentary is one of the strangest, most thought-provoking films I've ever seen. It gives you a raw, unbiased look into the world of the wannabe, a person who believes he cannot become whole until one of his limbs is removed. Some of the people in the film fantasize candidly about removing a specific limb, how they might go about it, and what the removal would accomplish. Other people in the film already are amputees, either through surgery or a self-inflicted wound. What kind of thing would a wannabe do to his own body? One man removed his lower leg by blowing it off with a shotgun, all the while making it look like an accident. Another man, after repeatedly being denied surgery in England (since he had no health problems or other medical condition that would require an amputation), carefully constructed a way to place part of his leg in dry ice until it was completely frozen, then he went to the emergency room and sought the removal of his leg.

While the topic is shocking and the stories are nearly unbelievable, the movie portrays these people in a way that almost leaves you rooting for them. I certainly can't relate to their desires or impulses, but this film left me feeling like I understand them. It's clear that they're plagued by the need of becoming an amputee, and I walked out of the theater hoping that these people would someday find peace by becoming amputees.

Relevant links:

• a group of Columbia University clinicians set up a site about Body Integrity Identity Disorder, which is what these folks live with
  
• fighting-it, a mailing list started by one of the people featured in the movie. The list description says, "For people who want or need to be an amputee, to be disabled, or who are attracted to amputees or people with disabilities. This group is for discussion and support for living with or reducing this need and understanding its origins."
  
• this article is well written and provides a good overview
  
• I found this review of the movie, it's both well written and fair
  
• brief summary from the Alamo Drafthouse (the theater where I watched the movie)
  
• try a Google search yourself and see what you find about this movie