Richard's Blog

I guess some clever geek is trying to outwit the photocop systems.

According to a story in today's Atlanta Journal Constitution , two navy pilots (both Georgia Tech graduates) have been grounded for their low flyover of a Georgia Tech football game. Navy rules state that flyovers have to be done at least 1000 feet. Rear Admiral R.J. O'Hanlon said, "Despite his spotless record, his complacent, passive response to a major altitude transgression is unforgivable in my view. Continued aviation service involving flying is not in the best interest of Lt. Cmdr. Fryman or the United States Navy." I think it could have been said better this way: "... and broke a major rule of engagement. Then you broke another one with that circus stunt fly-by. Top Gun rules of engagement exist for your safety and for that of your team. They're not flexible, nor am I. Obey them or you're history. Is that clear?" The AJC story has links to the actual flyover, but here's a reenactment: Both pilots have been reassigned to non-flying jobs.

Just saw this commercial. At first I thought it was a joke, but after I saw the 1-800 number I realized it was for real (which makes it even funnier). Who knew that they made panties with built-in junk in the trunk?

Attention all you schadenfreude fans out there. The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Bernard Madeoff was beaten up in prison by another inmate back in December. The article sites current and former inmates as sources. The current inmate said Mr. Madoff's assailant was a beefy man serving time for a drug conviction. The alleged assailant's mother said in an interview her son had not mentioned any scuffle with Mr. Madoff but that he had been a body builder and held a black belt in Judo until he was injured in a shooting in 2002. While behind bars he has regained strength and gotten back into shape, she said. So if you were one of the thousands of people who's investments took a beating a the hands of Mr. Madeoff, you can take some comfort in the knowledge that he feels your pain (literally). I've got to think that this won't be the last time Bernie gets into a brawl. After all, he's still got 149 years left on his sentence.

I recently joined Aardvark . It a site that uses crowd sourcing to find answers to people's questions. It's like a combination of social networking and google search. In fact, Google just acquired Aardvark last month. It's a pretty cool service. I've asked several questions and gotten some good answers. I like browsing to see what open questions I can provide an answer to. Anyway, I try to be a good citizen of the internet and give honest/accurate answers to questions. But every now and then I see a question like this one: How would you answer?

Not exactly sure why this is news. Besides the people still working for Blockbuster, who didn't see this coming? This is one prediction that I think even Miss Cleo could've made. An article in today's Atlanta Business Chronicle says that Blockbuster may seek bankruptcy protection if they can't generate enough cash flow to meet or restructure their debt obligations. In the same way that " Video Killed the Radio Star ", new technologies like redbox , Wal-Mart & Vudu , Netflix , and Video-On-Demand are killing the traditional brick and mortar video rental store. Looking at Blockbuster's stock price (symbol BBI ) it looks like the company has been in a long, slow decline since 2005. The stock is trading around $0.30 a share. This is definitely a stark contract to 8 years ago when it was trading at an all time high of $30.00. Blockbuster, it's time to lay down and die or find a way to reinvent yourself. I think the people over at The Onion may

Time's relentless march forward has claimed another Hollywood icon. Actor Peter Graves passed away yesterday at his Los Angeles home at the age of 83. According to his publicist he suffered an apparent heart attack. He would have been 84 this week. As a child, I watched old reruns of Mission Impossible on WGN or WTBS. After all these years all I remember about the show was Peter Graves' character's name was Mr. Phelps, the leader of the IMF, and of course the opening credits for the show. But I think I'll always remember Peter Graves for his role as Captain Clarence Oveur in the 1980 movie Airplane! which has since become a cult classic and ranked as one of the funniest movies of all time . Here's some of my favorite clips from the movie. Thanks for the great performances. After all these years, you've earned your clearance Clarence. I hope your final approach and landing were smooth and peaceful.

I love their music, but I probably wouldn't have found out about them if not for their cool videos (and the internet).

I knew that the camera added 10 pounds, but I didn't know that it was 10 pounds of pure crazy. Natural disasters are a great example why news should be scripted and read from a teleprompter. Whenever there's "live" breaking coverage of an event like Chilean earthquake, we get to see how the "real" journalist work under pressure. As always, Jon Stewart does a great job of pointing out how silly the business of news has become. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c The Uninformant www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform