/dev/null/kevin

I seem to be turning into a Friday-only blogger.  Times, they are a-busy.

Perhaps you read, in many places, the story about Japanese people getting scammed by people sending them sheep when they ordered poodles?  Well, it's fake.  Some news sites have pulled the story, but their links remain.

This is what happens when one lazy reporter posts an urban legend as news and all of the other news agencies pick it up.  No one does any verification.

Oh, and 3rd Happy Birthday, Blogs.Sun.Com.  You don't look a day over two.

Tags: news | reporting | errors | sheep | poodles

Is it me or are 80s fashions coming back?  It's about the right time for it as retro 80s stuff is just starting to be cool now.

Retro usually only goes back about 25 years, mainly because retro stuff is only cool to those who weren't alive the first time around.  In the early 1980s, retro was the 50s (cf. Preppy).  We rejected the slovenly and sloppy 70s styles and music.  Disco was declared dead, clothes were neat and colorful, and music was techno and precise (no ad libbing allowed!).  Women's pants covered their belly buttons.

In the early 1990s the 60s retro came calling.  Bell bottoms and tie-dye were back, and grunge music took off.  Hair bands and over-produced music were banished to second billing behind "Puppet Show."    We even tried to recreate the magic with Woodstock '94 (aka Mudstock).

The late 1990s and early 2000s begot 70s retro.  Disco was back!  The song Y.M.C.A. became a staple at every wedding and karaoke bar in the nation.  Wayne's World made head banging to Queen cool.  Low, hip-hugger pants were required by law for everyone under the age of 25.

Fast forward to 2007.  Gone are the syncopated and funky rhythms in pop music.  They have been replaced with boring 80s repetitive 8th note bass lines (same same note).  Avril Lavigne's latest song sounds like the return of The Go Gos.  The kids in High School Musical dress like when I was in high school (class of '84).  Today I saw, not one, but two pictures of young, trend-setting, celebrities wearing pants that, I swear, are identical to ones my girlfriends wore while dancing to Duran Duran.  Goodbye low-rise jeans.  Goodbye belly buttons.  Hello suck-in-your-gut-high-waisted pants!

The 80s, for better or worse, are back.  Be prepared.  I'm pulling out all my thin ties now.

Tags: 80s | fashion | retro | music

It was a sad day here at our house.  The little silkworms we were raising were attacked and eaten by ants!

Last spring my daughter's teacher gave out little silkworms to anyone who could take care of them (you need access to mulberry leaves).  For most of the summer she had fun watching her own "very hungry caterpillars" eat leaves and get bigger.  It was exciting to watch them make cocoons and even more exciting when the white silk moths emerged (they don't fly away).  Within a week the moths had all laid hundreds of eggs and then lay down to die next to their offspring.  The eggs either hatch quickly, or they remain dormant until spring if it's late in the cycle.

Fast forward to last week.  The eggs lay dormant all winter so I put the box outside so the eggs could detect whatever natural triggers there are for "spring."  It worked because just as the new mulberry leaves started growing, the little eggs hatched.  Hundreds of tiny, tiny silkworms everywhere.  I tossed in some new leaves and within minutes the leaves were covered with worms.  Again, it was incredibly exciting for my daughter to see the eggs hatch.

A few days later I went to transfer the eggs to a new box and noticed that there wasn't a single worm in the box!  In their place were a bunch of ants.  I can only assume that the ants considered the worms food, or a threat, and killed them.  So sad.  My daughter doesn't know yet.

Tags: ants | death | silkworms

Perhaps you're already read this story from Boing Boing where a maintenance worker was sprayed with blood from the sewer.  Yes, how charming.  He complained how awful is was that he got blood in his mouth  The story went on to say how workers will now be required to wear masks, but just by that particular medical laboratory, which can apparently legally dump human and animal blood into the sewer (how nice).

The focus of the story was how awful it was to have blood in your mouth (and I'm sure it is), but I just couldn't help wondering why these worker don't mind all of the that other stuff in the sewer spraying into their mouths.  I can just picture this guy cleaning the sewer, dead rats and human feces flying all around, and none of that bothering him.  But when the blood gets in his mouth he's spitting it out all day because he can't get the taste out.  I guess everything else tastes okay?

You couldn't get me into a sewer without a deep sea diving suit sprayed with Teflon and these guys are down there without masks.  Sheesh.

Tags: sewer | blood | yuck

April Fools is back.

One of the best financial indicators for Sun is its April Fool's Day prank.  In the good years the pranks are good, and in the bad, they're weak (usually prank web pages).  This year we're back with an actual physical prank.

This year they moved CTO Greg Papadopoulos' office into a Sun Blackbox.   It's got satellite TV, a bed, wine fridge and two EasyBake Ovens.  I'm lame and don't have pictures yet, but I'll add them as soon as I can.

Update 1: I guess they are calling it "Project EcoBox" and it also includes Jonathan's office (thus the two EasyBake Ovens).

Update 2: The EcoBox website is up, with pictures spoofing the old blackbox pictures.

Update 3: Here is the video tour of OpenWork 3.0 (jeez, pick a name, guys).

Tags: april fools | blackbox | sun | ecobox | openwork