Dods and dens

Long time readers may recall that I have several times advocated they not use Internet Explorer, but instead to download and use either Firefox or Opera. Last week I learned that even IBM has switched to Firefox as their default browser. Even though competition is obviously at least part of the reason, this is a good thing.

Though we hear far too often about poor judgement, and worse, by police officers (most often in pursuit of the obviously failed War on Drugs), I still hold that most of our police do good work, or at least try. Every once in a while though, you run across a story that simply defies belief. I have to think there's a problem with the system when police officers say they had to use tasers on a bed-ridden, 86 year old woman tethered to an oxygen tank.

Some of you probably heard about the arrest over the holiday of the used-to-be champion of hot dog eating, a certain Mr. Kobayashi. While many of us certainly have laughed about the very concept of such a contest, I was surprised to learn there is an International Federation of Competitive Eating. Funnier still is that the primary advertiser on their site, at least when I went there, is Pepto Bismal.

Scientific advances no longer thrill as they once did, but once in a while my attention is drawn to new findings. Go here to see underwater animals - fish, mammals, whatever - recently found. Pretty amazing.

Having owned two first names my entire life, I rarely comment on the names of others, even though some parents obviously go to great lengths to embarass their children. There is apparently a new trend, at least new to me, of using apostrophes and other symbols in given names, in place of actual, you know, letters. Speaking them out loud, as opposed to just seeing them in print, has produced the funniest weird name post ever.

Finally, if you're not interested in reading about funny names, perhaps you have some interest in laughing at some of the worst haircuts ever.

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