Project Insomnia

Justice O'Connor was a pivotal vote in protecting our rights. Her retirement from the Supreme Court has created, in and of itself, an extraordinary circumstance -- one that places an equally extraordinary obligation on all of us to ensure that her successor honors her independence by continuing it.

Leave a cookie in a room with a dog and it will be floor crumbs upon your return -- but with a cat, the treat will be safe.

Scientists say they have now unearthed the reason for the feline's utter indifference toward sweet-tasting goodies: The gene for its sweet taste receptor is riddled with errors and does not work.

In some sense, the lack of television coverage for these two games might be termed the un-luck of the draw. Pries said another consideration is to prevent any lengthy gaps in the TV schedule; the longest TV drought is three games. So, at some point, an attractive game or two slips through the TV cracks.

One week from tonight, KICU will have another 'Inside TV' telecast for the Tigers-A's game. The audience will see some of the proceedings in the truck and, using the SAP channel, can hear director Mark Wolfson's instructions mixed with the call of Glen Kuiper and Ray Fosse.

Yesterday, Boing Boing posted about some over the top police blotter write-ups from the SFPD, with painstakingly crafted prose by an officer who seems to be an aspiring writer. The post's author quoted a report from Monday, May 16, 8:55 am:

He had not run for very long before he realized the two cops were only pacing him. They could see something he could not. With each frantic step a sense of dread nagged at him. The more calm and calculating they were, the further behind he left his common sense, and his panic ratcheted up. As he ran, the black and white radio car glided silently along behind like a predatory whale.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin signed the legislation making it law, hours after it was approved by the Senate late Tuesday night despite strong opposition from Conservatives and religious leaders.

The bill gives homosexual couples the same rights as those in traditional unions between a man and a woman, something already legal in eight of Canada's 10 provinces and in two of its three territories.

Imagine 14 punk rock classics ripping through your speakers at warped speed, complete with 1-2-3-4 count offs, chants and shout outs in pure punk, fist raising abandon, all performed on the steelpans (or steel drums) strait from the islands!

Beating out speedy Ramones' anthems like “Blitzkrieg Bop”, “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” and “Rockaway Beach”, to the tender love song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” and one dropping “Pinhead” in true reggae fashion on the island style steelpan, “Pan For Punks” takes you on a punk rock journey like never before.

The A's acquired a right-handed power threat, but they lost one of their most popular players.

Eric Byrnes, who spent much of the season's first half wondering if he'd be traded, finally received notice on Wednesday. He was sent to the Colorado Rockies in a deal consummated hours after the A's picked up outfielder Jay Payton from the Boston Red Sox.

As Fox came back from a commercial break in the bottom half of the third inning, many viewers caught sight of a very long, flashy banner draped over an equally ostentatious advertisement picturing a yellow Corvette. The banner read HHRYA.com with the letters done in pseudo Asian design - clearly the work of professionals. However, the Fox Sports broadcasters Joe Buck and Tim McCarver played off the ad like it was the work of a goofy sports fan, dangling his banner in the hopes of securing a moment of TV glory.

Here's the chatter as Fox panned across the outfield and then held on the supposed fan's sign for between 10 and 20 seconds.

"Welcome back to Detroit," Buck said. "A lot of banners and signs around the ballpark. No surprise there. Somebody just unfurled a big banner behind left field."

You'll love the next bit, as Buck devolves into a second grader.

It wasn't until I bit into the first rubbery
chunk of Larry Wilcox that I realized I
had purchased CHiPs Ahoy cookies by mistake.

On the north lawn of the White House Monday afternoon, gardeners were taking a chain saw and wood chipper to some tree branches. Inside the briefing room, reporters were taking press secretary Scott McClellan to the woodshed.

It was journalists' first chance to grill McClellan on camera since he told them 18 months ago that President Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, had nothing to do with the unmasking of a CIA operative. The recipients of McClellan's apparent bum steer were furious -- hectoring him more than questioning him.

Giants to honor Nen on Saturday for five glorious years

Crank up "Smoke on the Water" one more time. Robb Nen is returning to China Basin, not to save a game, but to savor the gratitude of fans who watched him almost literally give his right arm to try to win a World Series.

The Giants will honor their all-time save leader before Saturday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals, a tribute for a shooting star who pitched only five seasons in San Francisco before he disappeared from the constellation, unable to will himself back to the mound with a badly torn rotator cuff.

Century, a 64-year-old San Rafael company that shows movies on more than 1,000 screens in 12 states, is being investigated for alleged anti-competitive activities by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

The inquiry comes when Century, the nation's sixth-largest movie chain, is reportedly up for sale and when box-office receipts at movie houses across the country are diving due to video on demand, Internet downloading, sales of cheap DVDs and other competition.

The investigation was sparked by smaller exhibitors that sued Century, saying it blocked them from obtaining hit movies. The state might broaden its investigation to include other companies, but for now, "Century is the focal point,'' said Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar.

Pretend Great America was going to be sold to one of the following companies. Which would you most want to see running the park?

ABC	NBC	CBS	America Online
Sony	Electronic Arts	MTV	Panasonic
The WB	Yahoo	Coca-Cola	Marvel Comics
Cartoon Network	Federal Government	Carnival Cruise Lines	Google
Time Warner	FOX	News Corp	TBS

Upon opening a BitTorrent file from within Opera, users are presented with a dialog box that informs them that they are about to start a BitTorrent download and that the content downloaded will be shared with peers on the torrent. After telling Opera that you're cool with that, you're prompted for a download location and the torrent begins. At this stage, Opera's BitTorrent functionality lacks the granularity of a dedicated torrent client—think of how browsers handle simple FTP downloads and you'd be right on the money.

While domestic cats are a common feature of many computing environments, IT review sites have proven oddly unwilling to investigate this popular computer room accessory.

An immature member of the species felis catus (also known as felis domesticus, and hereafter referred to as "a kitten"; the commonly heard expression "cat larva" is technically incorrect) has many advantages compared with equipment and organisms more frequently purchased, or otherwise acquired, by computing enthusiasts.

Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court and a swing vote on abortion as well as other contentious issues, announced her retirement Friday. A bruising Senate confirmation struggle loomed as President Bush selects a successor.