For anyone who has ever worked on a requirements document, you will know that version control is invaluable. For those of you who haven't here is a quick summary:

If you were making a list of things you want for some large or complex project, over time you will find somethings are unfeasible/too expensive/not important enough. But if it takes a long time to compile that list, someone new to the project might try to re-add those things or waste time talking about them. That is why system engineering is heavily reliant on version control. For example:

Things I want for the party:

1 - Food
2 - Beer
3 - Clown too expensive
4 3 - Music

So basically, in a review mode, you list EVERY item that was ever included even if it was removed AND you list a reason why it was removed. Pretty simple, right? Wouldn't it be great if the laws of the land were subject to the same type of review standards?

HR 1933

1 - Universal Healthcare opposed by health insurance companies
2 - Regulate oil as if it were a utility like electricity or water vehemently opposed by oil industry
3 1 - Bridge to no where
4 2 - Pay Raise for Congress

Write your congressman.

Give it at least 30 second.

Update: It looks like Youtube took it down because of a false copyright claim filed by Lazytown. Apparently they missed that whole "parody" section on fair use. I replaced it with the above metacafe.com link.

They have inherited her good looks and moles. Wait, she only has one daughter?

Kristina, can you translate? He's not my boss yet...

While working as a substitute teacher (called a supply teacher in England), Alex Dolan was outraged at how shitty her schools were (she covered at several schools in Leeds and London). She was even MORE outraged when the "inspection team" would come and, coincedentally, more teachers than normal were at school and the problem children were absent from school (on day-trips). So she decided to sneak a camera into her classroom and video tape her disrespectful kids and the overall shittiness that is the inner city school system. She made a documentary of it called Undercover Teacher.

And now she is fighting for her teaching career.

Starring Putty as the Mariner.

The Carleton University Students' Association has voted to drop a cystic fibrosis charity as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearama fundraiser, supporting a motion that argued the disease is not "inclusive" enough. You can't make this shit up.

Sierra took me to see Twilight and I was one of 4 or 5 other guys in the movie theater. That said, it was OK but it was clearly geared towards awkward, boy-crazy, adolescent girls. Here's an interesting review from a guy who seems to have been tricked into seeing it. Excerpt:

"It’s impossible to know for sure what’s going on inside Edward’s head because Pattinson is a horrible, horrible actor, delivering his lines with a Keanu Reeves-esque look of panicked confusion, like a moose that’s just woken up in a space shuttle."

This is another article Sierra isn't gonna like.

Did you know that when Ford, GM or Chrysler has employees not building cars, they are still paying 85-95% of their salaries and benefits? That includes temporary shutdowns as well as factory closures. How long do they pay these people not to work? No longer than FOREVER. It's called Jobs Bank.

Look it up. Can't find a link other than news articles about it? That's probably because the UAW doesn't want people to know about it (outside the union).

Natasha Demkina is a girl from Western Russia that has the innate ability to see the condition of people's organs...right through their skin. This is not an article from the Weekly World News. It looks like the X-gene is spreading.

The unnamed Newark Police Officer was quoted as saying, "I can do whatEVER I want!"

William S. James Elementary School is going to have a hard time finding parent chaperones for the third grade in the near future. Apparently, if you tap the shoulder of the son of a state trooper and tell him to "shush", you will be charged with assault.

For anyone in Roanoke Rapids, NC who wants to donate money to the Union Mission on Roanoke Avenue: don't bother donating in person if you are a Sikh, Muslim, an Orthodox Jew, or any other religion that requires you to wear something on your head. Why? Because "this is the United States."(3rd paragraph)

Rev. Ron Weeks, executive director of the mission said, "This was nothing to do with the turban, nothing to do with his faith." Sihks are among a number of religions that require the wearing of a Dastar (turban) at all times.

The understanding Reverend said that Sikhs' donations would gladly be accepted if they showed some class and mailed the donations instead of trying to donate in person.

She is rumored to have mastered the Jedi mind trick with her soothing voice.

As featured here back in March, there is a website called hotchickswithdouchebags.com. More likely than not, you can figure out the purpose of the website from its name. Well because of its instant success, the website's owner published a book detailing the different types of douchebags and the hot chicks that hang out with them.

Surprisingly, some people had a problem with their pics being included in the book. Included is Michael Minelli, an alleged douchbag who is suing the website owner, Jay Louis. Also sueing Jay are Yvette Gorzelany, Joanna Obiedzinski, and Paulina Pakos. They are three hot chicks who feel they were unfairly tarred as "females who date dubious men."

Bishop O'Donoghue, who has recently published a report on how to renew Catholicism in Britain, is claiming that education of the people is causing us to not fall for the Church's tricks a crisis of faith.

"...these intellectual trends have resulted in a fragmented society that marginalizes God, with many people mistakenly thinking they can live happy and productive lives without Him."

Replace "God" and "Him" with "the Church" and I think we are closer to the truth of it. Ban books!!!

Who says charts have to be unreadable?

See some more alternative names for games.

First indicator - it is looking at you. Read the other nine.

This really grinds my gears. The video pretty much speaks for itself. Phillip Hunt, the dirty defensive end, issued an apology in which he claimed he didn't hear the whistle and felt he was still being blocked on his way to break Joe Kemps shoulder in two different places. I am no football expert but if you watch the video at the 30 second mark, you can clearly see that the tackle doesn't even touch him.

But it looks like the NCAA gods agree with Hunt and felt that the hit wasn't dirty enough to warrant a suspension or any further action. Paul and Gianmarc: what's your take? Should the first play after halftime involved a tight end holding Hunt up high while the right tackle pulled into his knees?

Awesome!

The Onion couldn't have made up a better headline. Apparently, Mormons have this practice where they will posthumously baptize your ancestors in order to let you be a Mormon. Even more crazy is that this arbitrary practice really pisses of Jews whose ancestors were killed by the Nazis because they were Jewish.

If you are Jewish, you don't believe Jesus was who Christians say he was. So, from the Jewish perspective, Mormons are just making shit up when they go to church and marry a bunch of 12 year old wives. That should also mean that if they "baptize" your Jewish grandmother in name only (they're not digging up mass graves at Auschwitz), they might as well be casting a Harry Potter spell on them from 3000 miles away - i.e. it is meaningless.

Who'd have thought that Tuba players are famous for being dicks?

It's been a long time but here is the latest addition to the photo gallery - Lindsey and Andy's Wedding.

Hasta la ByeBye!

Previously: God I hope my kids never have a teacher like Diantha Harris

UPDATE: Fixed the dead link. Better watch it while you can, it seems to be disappearing from the internet.

While the Big 3 Automakers are begging for the Federal Government to save them from their own shitty business decisions, they are also doing their best to hide innovations by any other US Automaker. Take for example, the AFS Trinity XH-150 Extreme Hybrid. It is a concept Hybrid SUV that gets 150 MPG. But because none of the big 3 invented it, they are using their influence to prevent people from finding out. How?

At the LA Auto Show (heavily sponsored by the big 3), AFS Trinity was told that they could get a space to show off their car...but only if they wouldn't advertise that the car gets 150 MPG (as per an email from Scott Webb, LA Auto Show Assistant General Manager).

Yeah...lets give these brilliant car companies another $25,000,000,000 to supress technology that consumers want. I hope some Japanese company or VW just buys the technology and blows Detriot out of the water. Preston Tucker was unavailable for comment.

People voted for McCain for a lot of different reasons: experience, conservative views, foreign diplomacy. But I am betting the people in the McCain belt, the areas where more people voted for McCain in 2008 than Bush in 2004, probably voted for McCain because they thought an Obama presidency would look something like this:

That phrase was clearly invented when this pic was taken. If you think this little version is weird, just click on the link.

This is a foreign documentary on the US Election and a Ashville N.C. teacher named Diantha Harris. It takes about 15 second to get started.
- Pay attention to the teacher's attitude towards John McCain in the first minute.
- Then, beginning around 1:35 watch her browbeat a kid because she supports John McCain.
- Then watch her commentary at around 2:15.

Wonder no more. And get the eye-wash out.

Pumbaa was in charge.

It's about time. Here's an article that points out that Representative Rahm Emanuel, Obama's potential Chief of Staff wants to institute "three months of basic civil defense training and community service" for kids between 18 and 25. It ALSO links to the fact that Obama and Biden want to mandate 50 hours of community service for high school graduates. He may end up being a new Jimmy Carter (Habitat for Humanity) but I am definately in favor of these policies.

Of course the leeches in the comment section disagree with these proposals. Most of them are probably under 25 years old.

And if any googlers who find this article want to call me an old hypocrite, I have performed hundreds of hours of community service after the DUI getting my Eagle Scout. Yes, hundreds.

Now that we have elected a black president, a lot of race baiters are finding themselves out of the loop. Excerpt:

Absent from the senator's advisory circle, for instance, are the civil-rights leaders and ministers who figured prominently in the candidacies of an older generation of black politicians such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Of course calling Jesse Jackson a poltician is a stretch; he's never actually been elected anything.

Better keep your keys in your pockets. Those crafty Computer Scientists have done it again by developing software that can make working copies of regular house keys from pics as crappy as cell phone pics.

Perhaps my new boss (and my re-elected Congressman) should read this before they continue to try to "fix" the economy. Paul, this kinda re-enforces my belief that the $800,000,000,000 bailout was a bad thing.

Apparently the release of a 67-page report exposing the massive amounts of fraud in Milwaukee didn't sit well with the big wigs of of the city. They recently informed Mike Sandvick, head of the Milwaukee Police Department's five-man Special Investigative Unit, not to send any police to the polling location, essentially ending the function of the group. Sandvick is retiring in protest.

Voter Fraud is treason.

So here's the summary:

- Calvary Bridal House took LOTS of money to make dresses
- Calvary Bridal House declared bankruptcy
- Calvary Bridal House doesn't have to actually make the dresses
- Calvary Bridal House can "EVENTUALLY" pay the brides back (you know...after their weddings and stuff)
- Calvary Bridal House is picketed by the scorned brides, their families and their fiances
- Calvary Bridal House is still doing fittings

My question is: What bride on earth would be shopping at a gown store with people protesting the store for NOT delivering their dresses?

Here's some Spires fodder for you...