MSNBC article today on the fact that Heelys (those shoes with wheels in them) are causing increased injury rates in kids, with doctors recommending that kids wear “safety gear” with them (yeah, right!). I wonder how many of these injuries are caused by “accidental” trips or clotheslines by aggravated adults. Sheesh, kids these days!

Who is the U.S. Electorate willing to vote for? A black person? A woman? A Catholic? This set of reports tracks voter views over the past decades against key single traits of candidates. All kinds of other interesting and timely stuff at Data360.org

Technorati Tags: data, reports

Interesting tidbit at Freakonomics about the going financial cost of getting married these days. But comment five on that page shows the worth

Updated the blog design using a new template based off of Redoable. I’m still in the process of breaking things, so bear with me

My Mom dropped by for a visit over the past weekend. J and I only could spend a day with her really, and we took her to see the Smithsonian and the mall.
Click on the thumb for some photos

NBC announced its Fall lineup, and Studio 60 has been canned. This makes Sorkin 1 for 3 in his recent endeavors (well, 1.5 for three since critics liked Sportsnight). I will miss the witty banter. Time to go watch my stash of West Wing I guess…. boo

J and I managed to get out to see the cherry blossoms before the winter chill and the heavy rain and winds wiped out the blossoms. The gallery has pictures from our walk down the mall (you might be able to make out some of the kites around the Monument from the Kite Festival. Other stops are the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial.

The Cherry Blossoms actually have their own festivals, replete with street festival, parade, and best of all, the Grand Sushi and Sake Tasting. Two hours of all you can eat sushi and all you can drink sake and beer. Three master sushi chefs in attendance, with participation from the best sushi restaurants in DC. Yummy. Unfortunately, the only good picture I took was the first one. Like I said, all you can eat, all you can drink….

Spent last week in Texas, on the Rio Grande Border near Harlingen, Browsville and South Padre Island. Interesting trip.

- The reason for the trip was to look at how CBP and ICE handle illegals they catch. I had a lot of respect for these guys before, and even more now. And a better understanding of the systems used and the shortcoming and frustrations they have.

- Had a preconception that that area was going to be flat, with just scrub and cattle as far as the eye could see. Only the flat part was right. The area felt more like Florida than anything else. Didn’t see any cattle at all (though King Ranch was about ten miles to north)

- Funniest part of the trip - when leaving Harlingen via Valley International Airport, there’s a sign at the airport exit that says “Next time fly to Brownsville”. I suppose it means that next time rather than driving to Browsville, you could fly, but it’s funnier if you read it the other way.