17 Feb 2006
Illegal weed moves into state's produce top 10

The market has spoken! But I doubt if any of the free market loving conservative Republicans now in control in Washington will ever listen to this kind of market talk.

On the other hand, this could be an result of the tax system, as cherries are taxed as agricultural produce, while Washington has no marijuana tax stamp. Go figure.

Law enforcement officers harvested a dubious record last year -- enough marijuana plants to rank the illegal weed as Washington state's No. 8 agricultural commodity, edging out sweet cherries in value.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Feelin' lucky? Powerball jackpot a record $365 million

Kris and I have come to think of Powerball as our retirement plan! After all of the failed 401k's, IRA's and other corporate schemes we've been involved in (and cashed out of due to layoffs/offshoring/etc.) it seems about as reasonable a plan as any!

And if anybody else reading this actually wins the jackpot, remember my little, barely used and very lonely 'Donation' button over in the side bar, right above the blogroll...

The Powerball jackpot has reached a high of $365 million -- making it the largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history.

(link) [CNN.com]

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Wild and Windy Night

We seem to have survived last nights windstorm pretty much unscathed - I've not been out back yet, but nothing obvious is downed or trashed. We shut down the computer systems about 8:30pm, fearful of lightening strikes, as the sky was pretty lit up all around the horizon. The temperature was 61°F. I fell asleep in the big chair about 9, when I woke up and crawled into bed at 1:30 the temperature was 40°F. This morning it's 25°F.

Mercifully, we didn't get the inch plus of rain that was forecast - it mostly just a wind and electrical storm. And the wind does seem to have dried things a bit, at least on the surface.

I'd actually prefer the colder weather, but I really wish Mother Nature would make up her mind on this one and settle down into some sort of seasonal pattern. The ups and downs are invitations to the common cold, that the germs have accepted with vigor. One of our state's tourist slogans is "There's more than corn in Indiana!", to which I'd have to agree right now: there's snot, too. And lot's of it.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Malicious worm aims to bite Apple

Apparently it's not much of a worm: and it's less for OS X proper than for specific applications (iChat and Spotlight). It is troubling that iChat won't warn you it's executable, and also that no admin password is required to install it. But if this is the best the virus mongers can do for the Mac, I don't think M$ has to lose sleep over the possibility of losing their crown as "Most Insecure Operating System" anytime soon.

More info from Wired can be found here.

A malicious program that targets Apple's operating system has been discovered online.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link