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It’s happening…The first sign of the Apocalypse…Google has failed me!!!

On July 24th, 2004, at 2:18am, 23 years after I entered the Templeton Elementary Rubik’s Cube Contest, I finally solved a Rubik’s Cube. No I didn’t do it on my own. I used hints and algorithms from two websites. The first was “Beginner Solution to the Rubik’s Cube“. The second was “Dan’s Cube Station“. I’m going to build a trophy for myself.

— Update — I’m getting better. First it took me 23 years to solve one. Next, it took me 4 hours. Then 2. Then 1/2 hour. Now if I can get down to less then 5 minutes I’ll be happy. I’ll be even happier if I can commit the algorithms to memory.

Dateline: Canada—A routine test of airport security turned into a Marx Brothers routine after security officers mistakenly sent a passenger home with a suitcase full of TNT. The TNT was supposed to be planted in the bags of a Montreal security agent. Instead, it somehow ended up stuffed into the luggage of an unsuspecting overseas passenger who arrived at Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport last Friday. The unnamed passenger went to a friend’s house where he found the explosives concealed in a jam jar and placed inside his suitcase. The man immediately called Quebec provincial police. The TNT, which officials say had no detonator attached, was meant as part of a weekly test for bomb-sniffing dogs at the airport. Ironically, the dogs failed to detect the explosives. The passenger and his baggage were able to pass though airport security unchecked. “Our investigation is going to reveal exactly what happened,” airport security spokesman Pierre Goupil told TV network TVA.

Okay, I can understand charging these guys with bringing alcohol into a prison, but did they really escape? Doesn’t escape imply permanent freedom? These guys left the prison, went to the store, picked up some beer, and then came back. Not the brightest, but I wouldn’t call it escaping prison.

Okay, so apparently you can sell sex toys as jokes, but you can’t sell them as, well, toys to be played with. Does that any sense at all? Well, at least the charges filed against a woman for this insidious crime were dropped. This is the problem with allowing sexual morals dictate legislation to control behaviors between consenting adults.

When I was a kid, it was my job to get rid of the pumpkin after Halloween. Being lazy, that job usually didn’t get done until my pop got tired of the blackened corpse and did it himself. So I’m thinking the myth of the vampire watermelon probably appeared to scare kids into cleaning up the front porch.

The belief in vampire watermelons is found in the Balkan peninsula of south-eastern Europe, apparently associated with the Roma people of the region. According to tradition, virtually any kind of melon or pumpkin kept more than ten days or after Christmas will become a vampire, rolling around on the ground and growling to pester the living. People have little fear of the vampire melons because of the creatures’ lack of teeth. One of the main indications that a melon is about to undergo a vampiric transformation (or has just completed one) is said to be the appearance of a drop of blood on its skin. Sources * Matthew Bunson, The Vampire Encyclopedia (New York: Gramercy, 2000)

Courtesy of wikipedia.

According the to Bush, even though Weapons of Mass Destruction have not been found, we needed to attack Iraq before they could transfer the unfound weapons to terrorists. For those not fluent in PoliSpeak, he’s saying: The possibility that WMDs might have existed justified our War on Iraq. Sure, they might not exist, but that’s not important. The important thing is that we eliminated a threat that didn’t exist. Essentially, he is trying to justify the War on Iraq.

Wow, if the idea of delaying Election Day 2004 doesn’t twang my conspiracy bone, I don’t know what will. It would be interesting to see if it happens. Ultimately it falls down to what the Bush administration said shortly after 9/11. If the terroists cause us to be so afraid that it changes our culture, , then they’ve already won.

On a side note, it seems interesting that CNN, ABCNews, and MSNBC lead with this story, but FOXNews doesn’t even mention it on their site. Left-Wing Propaganda or Right-Wing Conspiracy?

Apparently, other people think John Kerry is really close to his VP candidates. I wonder how long before the Bush team starts hyping this.

Is it just me or does Kerry seem really close with his VP candidates?

I like the Kerry/Edwards ticket. Kerry is always so, well, Lurch like. Edwards has life and optomism in him. They make a good pair of personality opposites.