The Deets

It’s hard to imagine what could possibly be cooler than a toilet paper dispenser with an integrated Ipod dock and speakers. End your day with some tunes while brushing your teeth, then wake up with a fully-charged iPod for some morning tunes in the shower:

Taxi vs. Star Tribune, originally uploaded by edkohler.

I don’t know if the coverage of the airport taxi issues at MSP by the Star Tribune is to blame, but something aparently inspired this taxi driver to aim his cab at the Star Tribune’s HQ along 4th St in downtown Minneapolis this evening.

The Deets was immediately on the scene after taking down some bangers & mash at Keiran’s.

Freakonomics has an interesting post about how some NBA players - minor players, not NBA starts - have signed onto a letter saying China needs to get their act together in Darfur before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Boycott the Beijing Olympics?

On the other hand, a lot of people around the world harbor feelings of discomfort toward the newly muscular China. An interesting article by Howard Beck in today’s New York Times tells of Cleveland Cavaliers’ reserve Ira Newble, who read an article in USA Today about the violence and death in Darfur and decided to take action:

As I’ve learned more about the situation in Darfur, I’ve tried to figure out why the Bush Administration has been so reluctant to get involved in stopping the genocide they’ve admitted is going on for something like 18 months now. Colin Powell was the first to call it a genocide and he’s been gone for a quite a while now. The genocide has been going on for a LOT longer than that, but even the Bush administration has been willing to admit such atrocities are taking place for that long . . . without doing anything to stop them.

Watching the movie, The Devil Came on Horseback, really helped explain the politics effecting that region of the world and made clear to me why the US is being so passive in the face of well-documented genocidal acts. The motivation behind our pathetic by-standing can be summed up in one simple word that you’re all too familiar with: oil.

Oil is the reason we’re NOT invading Darfur to stop the genocide. Huh? Yes. That’s correct. But doesn’t the US invade countries who have oil (Iraq) or countries who have access to countries with oil so we can build pipelines across them (Afghanistan)? Yes. But this time it’s different.

We, as in, the US government, have decided that Sudan’s oil is China’s oil. China is the largest exporter of oil from Sudan and China supplies the genocidal maniacs in Sudan with their weapons. It’s an ugly ugly situation, but the US seems to have adopted a policy of allowing China to get away with whatever they want in Sudan in exchange for China leaving the US alone in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nothing beats a little quid pro quo between world superpowers at the expense of hundreds of thousands of civilians lives in oil rich but otherwise devastatingly poor countries.

Andrew Scott raises some interesting points in his take on Metro Transit’s current number of bus stop locations. Basically, he’s saying that citizens would be better served by walking a bit further to stops in exchange for a much faster ride once boarded:

Fewer bus stops would be better all over Cities

The problem of unneeded stops is readily apparent to any rider of the No. 21 bus linking Uptown, LRT and St. Paul. It stops at the Hiawatha Avenue LRT, at Minnehaha Avenue one block away, at 27th Avenue and at a brand-new stop at 28th Avenue. Four stops in four short blocks. This does not work.

As the FTA report shows, we should see significant time savings — while preserving short walking distances — with stops spaced every half mile. Not every tenth of a mile as is common now, yielding travel times roughly twice as great as those for half-mile spacing.

I think he may be onto something as I look at the 21 near the East end of Lake Street. There are stops every other block along Lake. Surely removing every other stop wouldn’t be the end of the world for commuters commute to and from the stops while making a big difference in bus transit time.

We have a neighbor who is VERY territorial about street parking. Basically, if you park in front of their house on the public street, expect a nasty-gram on your car explaining how inconsiderate it was of you to park in front of their house even though you’re visiting us.

Rather than inform all of our friends that they should avoid parking in front of this particular neighbor’s house, we passive aggressively fuel the fire by passively allowing our friends to park wherever they darn well please (darn well please is an awesome passive aggressive way to swear) on the public street.

Nasty-grams left for our friends have ended up behind a magnet on our refrigerator from time to time. However, now there is another outlet where we can share in the irrational irritation of our neighbors: Passive Aggressive Notes.

Here’s a good one.

What surprises me is now many notes are posted about cleanliness issues with women’s bathrooms, including one about the MAD BOMBER who’s asked to please stay seated during the entire performance.

Hat tip, rex.

Minnesota Pickle Martini, originally uploaded by edkohler.

By far the most pickle-riffic martini I’ve ever sipped. Carly’s not a fan.

I found this interesting nugget on the Croatian War of Independence at Wikipedia:

Croatian War of Independence

The USA was among the more conservative forces in the west, like the United Kingdom (with John Major as Prime Minister) in insisting for non-intervention at first. The administration was led by George Bush as President until end-1992. Matters changed with Bill Clinton, who took a more aggressive stance on the issue and played a more forceful intervention role. In 1995 the US, using the latest Predator and other tracking devices, thoroughly observed the movements or the Croat Army and Gotovina’s forces in preparation for Operation Storm.

On the Slovenia scene, we read in Rick Steves’ Croatia & Slovenia 2007 that told of a HUGE turn-out for Bill Clinton when he visited Ljubljana, Slovenia, yet hardly anyone showed up for King George II’s visit.

Somewhat related, check out the following cartoon from Cartoonstock on the differences between Yugoslavia and Iraq in their post-dictatorship histories:

Is a united Iraq the right approach? Can it exist without a ruthless dictator like Saddam Hussein holding together the various factions making up that part of the world?

I have to agree with the Pizza Man on this one: morbid obesity may outweigh obscenity at times.

Pizza Man - It’s Springtime… and the crazies start calling

The old man who answered the door wearing nothing but a t-shirt that was two sizes too small.

This morbidly obese dude opened the door to reveal his Jabba-like bod clad in a tiny t-shirt that only covered his man-boobs. He smiled at me with his yellow, severely fucked-up teeth and started breathing heavily. Although I was totally grossed out, I smiled back and asked for the payment. He turned around to grab the cash off his kitchen counter, revealing his massive cottage-cheese ass in the process. Seriously people, this guy’s ass was gigantic.
I took the money, thanked him (he tipped rather well) and split.

I thanked God above that this guy was fat, for his gut was so big and hung down so low that it covered his junk.

Praise Jesus.

Being pooh-style, I have to wonder if honey was one of the toppings on the pizza lover’s pizza.

Biking Bis’ analysis says you have to go down to at least 5th place to find a clean rider in 1996 Tour de France:

Who gets 1996 Tour de France title?

So who would be worthy to receive it? We might have to go pretty far down the list of finishers to find someone.

No. 2 that year was Jan Ullrich. No way. With 7 Telekom teammates already admitting to taking banned performance boosters, and doctors saying they readily dispensed them, is anyone serious about giving Ullrich the title?

That’s pathetic.

Doggy Staircase, originally uploaded by edkohler.

Gotta love the, “No more jumping! Nor more straining!” shout outs.

And throw in some urine b gone spray while you’re at it.

What’s that spell?

R-O-M-A-N-T-I-C bedroom.