One More Reason That Cities Rock

You won't see this happen in the suburbs.

Passengers were left open-mouthed when a group of commuters - including a suited man - got up from their seats and performed the dance featured in Michael Jackson's music video for hit Thriller.

Nice!  The Sun is on the case.

I remember participating in a flashmob several years ago with several hundred other people.  Ah, good times.

By the way, here's the YouTube video of the original Michael Jackson dance.  I can't embed it, because embedding is disabled... mostly because the poster of this video on YouTube is the REAL MICHAEL JACKSON.  Enjoy!

An Entire African Nation, Covered In Post-Its

A growing number of hospitals are giving up Big Pharma schwag for good. Here's one that went the extra mile.

MINNEAPOLIS - When a Duluth-based operator of hospitals and clinics purged the pens, notepads, coffee mugs and other promotional trinkets drug companies had given its doctors over the years, it took 20 shopping carts to haul the loot away.

The operator, SMDC Health System, intends to ship the 18,718 items to the west African nation of Cameroon.

Thanks, Yahoo.

19718 items? Holy bought and sold, Batman! The medical profession is under constant assault.

Here, watch a movie (courtesy of You Tube).

Want To Radically Improve Your Blog? Here's How

I'm always looking for ways to improve my blog, so you can imagine that I was pretty excited to hear that the guy from Zen Habits quit his day job to become a full-time blogger . How will this affect you?

Well, it got me thinking. In his post he lists 10 things that he calls the stepping stones to his liberation. Quite the list... and in that list were a few things that I haven't thought about in quite a while. I want to focus more on content, because content is king. I want to give you more value, and I want to interact. In fact, everything that he says in Zen Habits in this post is something that you should be doing, and something that I intend to do, or continue, or improve on.

I appreciate people continuing to come around, and don't hesitate to drop me a line sometime. I started writing this for myself, but now, I do it for a lot of people. Thanks!

The Consolidation Of Ultimate Power Has Begun

In what can only be bad news for the average consumer, Bank of America is about to grow, one subprime lender at a time.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Bank of America said Friday it will buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion in stock, a deal that rescues the country's biggest mortgage lender and expands the financial services empire of the nation's largest consumer bank.

The acquisition will make Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. the nation's biggest mortgage lender and loan servicer.

Via Yahoo News.  Egads.

Want more good news?  I suppose that if you have WaMu stock, you should keep it.

Washington Mutual, the U.S. savings and loan slammed by slumping mortgage markets, has held "very preliminary" merger talks with JPMorgan Chase, CNBC has learned.

No deal is imminent but the talks were held fairly recently.

Also on Yahoo.

There was a time, not too long ago, it seems, that a merger could be said to bring economies of scale to the larger company, and that those savings would inevitably come back to the consumer. 

I'm thinking that time is long since past, since the advent of the MegabankTM.  Both WaMu and Countrywide have huge shares of the mortgage market, so both purchases can be interpreted as "market saviour" type purchases.  You can also be certain that in the present regulatory environment, it would be a miracle for either of these mergers to be stopped.  So some might think that in the end, these mergers are good things.

No.
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.

Sci-Fi Top 25 Moments...?

I noticed that EW.com (Entertainment Weekly) has posted a list of Sci-Fi's Top 25 Movies and TVs moments of all time. 
Unfortunately, in order to read the whole list, I'd have to click through 25 consecutive individual web pages to find out what number 1 is, and I have reading and writing to do and don't have that kind of time to burn.

Frankly, you shouldn't have that kind of time to kill either.

Think I'll ignore that article. 
I hate it when websites do that.

Protect Your Name And Your Reputation

Something that you need to definitely have to do when you divorce is watch yourself, and watch your name. Google it if you have to. I have personal experience with this phenomenon.

My present girlfriend had the wonderful experience of being stalked by her ex. He started a website solely for the purposes of trying to make my girlfriend look bad, put her down, and talk about personal information. He would put pictures on his site and allude negatively towards her work habits, personal experiences, and et cetera. Absolutely a prince, you might say. Eventually, it took a threat from the FBI, local law enforcement, and various websites being pulled from free sites for violations of terms of service to make him cease and desist.

My ex is similar, but does a different kind of stalking. On her MySpace page, (a page that which I read regularly) she describes how miserable she is and attempts to slam me as having a drinking problem and being an irresponsible and deadbeat dad... despite my regular OVER payments for child support - never missing a payment, regular visits, and general overall support. The reason that I am not with her is that we don't get along. I DO want to be with my child 24/7. It's a huge difference, and an emotionally and legally expensive one. Update! After talking to the offending person, she agreed to remove the offending content, which is great. She didn't, and just made her pages private, but hey, that's better than a poke in the eye. We'll see.

Solutions? I'm not sure that I have one, and if anyone has any great ideas, then I'm all ears. I'm already considering legal action. However, if your breakup with your ex was acrimonious, then learn to use Google. Be your best private detective. Keep a journal It can be a little annoying and perhaps may cause you fume a bit, but make sure that you have all the possible information. At least that way, if you decide to follow through, then you'll have all the information. Over at WiredSafety.org, they have a lot of great information about cyberstalking and a number of other Internet crimes.

Here's one that you can write down; despite any odd thing that I might see in her behavior, actions, or choices, you will never see me slam her in print. That's no better than gossip, and despite the fact that our relationship didn't work out, she does have good qualities for someone else. That won't stop me from being the dad of a three year old.

Remember as well; self improvement is the best form of revenge.

Xiao Xiao 7

It's a time waster, people.

If you don't know what Xiao Xiao is, then you can check it out here. Suffice it to say that it's been around a long time and many people were waiting patiently for a new one. So, without further ado, sequel to one of the first, and best, time wasters of all time.

...and here's the original page in it's native language. You should be able to figure it out.

Obama Wins In Iowa. In Other News, Hell Still Pretty Hot

Obama won the Iowa caucuses.

I don't know about you, but I think that change is pretty good.  But I refuse to handicap this in his favor yet.
But what a result.