Interesting infrared photos here.

Jim Emerson has a list of the 102 movies you need to see to be movie literate. He writes:

This isn’t like Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” series. It’s not my idea of The Best Movies Ever Made (that would be a different list, though there’s some overlap here), or that they were my favorites or the most important or influential films, but that they were the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They’re the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat “movie-literate.”

Apparently I’m only about 40% movie literate.

Here’s a good article by Ronald Bailey about our oil situation.

From the WSJ:

Few things are less becoming in a political party than desperation, as Republicans are now demonstrating as they panic over rising oil and gas prices. If blaming private industry for Congress’s own energy mistakes is the best the GOP can do, no wonder its voters may sit out the November election.

Oil prices hit $75 a barrel last week, while gas has reached a national average of about $2.85 a gallon. The Republican response has been to put on Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi fright wigs and shout about corporate greed and market manipulation. House Speaker Denny Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist fired off a letter to President Bush yesterday demanding the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department investigate “price fixing” and “gouging.” Senator Arlen Specter wants to go further and impose stricter “antitrust” laws for oil companies, as well as a “windfall profits” tax. Mr. Hastert also delighted the class warriors in the press corps by lambasting recently retired Exxon CEO Lee Raymond’s pay “unconscionable.”

There’s been unconscionable behavior all right, most of it on Capitol Hill. A decent portion of the latest run-up in gas prices — and the entire cause of recent spot shortages — is the direct result of the energy bill Congress passed last summer. That self-serving legislation handed Congress’s friends in the ethanol lobby a mandate that forces drivers to use 7.5 billion gallons annually of that oxygenate by 2012.

At the same time, Congress refused to provide liability protection to the makers of MTBE, a rival oxygenate getting hit with lawsuits. So MTBE makers are leaving the market in a rush, while overstretched ethanol producers (despite their promises) are in no way equipped to compensate for the loss of MTBE in the fuel supply. Ethanol is also difficult to ship and store outside of the Midwest, which is causing supply headaches and spot gas shortages along the East Coast and Texas.

These columns warned Republicans this would happen. As recently as last year, ethanol was selling for $1.45 a gallon. By December it had reached $2 and is now going for $2.77. So refiners are now having to buy both oil and ethanol at sky-high prices. In short, the only market manipulation has been by politicians.
…
The last time the U.S. had a gasoline panic, in the wake of Katrina, some quick Bush Administration action and private ingenuity eased the problem in record time. Gasoline prices that had climbed above $3 a gallon quickly settled back closer to $2. Markets will make the same adjustments today if they are allowed to send price signals without Congress getting in the way. Republicans can blame business all they want for high prices, but sounding like liberal Democrats won’t save them in November.

Celestial wallpapers from the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii.

This is an amusing story from Boing Boing. My favorite part is this quote from a UFO “expert.”

Even UFO experts are baffled by what happened in San Diego [loud booms]. Asked whether a flying saucer might have caused such an event, Peter Davenport of the Seattle-based National UFO Reporting Center said,

A while ago I went to Rice to Riches in New York City. Rice to Riches sellings premium rice pudding. What an interesting concept. The pudding is really, really good. After eating at Rice to Rices I’ve played around some with rice pudding recipes and this one is my favorite.

Enjoy!

A couple days ago I noted that Comedy Central refused to show Mohammed on a recent episode of South Park. Never mind that the same episode of South Park had Jesus and President Bush crapping on an American flag (I’m not joking). Comedy Central’s lame excuse for not showing Mohammed at all is because they are afraid of the terrorists. I wrote a letter to Comedy Central complaining and this is part of their response:

Comedy Central’s belief in the First Amendment has not wavered, despite our decision not to air an image of Muhammad. Our decision was made not to mute the voices of Trey and Matt or because we value one religion over any other. This decision was based solely on concern for public safety in light of recent world events.

Comedy Central is not obligated by the First Amendment to do anything they don’t want to. It is perfectly within their rights to not show Mohammed. What ticks me off is that this is exactly why we have the First Amendment. This is why it matters to speak our minds. When the terrorists chill speech, they have won. Fighting terrorists militarily isn’t enough. More importantly, we need to fight them by speaking out.

I have pasted Comedy Central

Budweiser and Hunting?

Originally uploaded by dr5.

This sign made me laugh. I saw it somewhere in North Carolina a couple weekends ago. Carry on the tradition of getting drunk and going hunting? It has always seem a bit dangerous to me. At least I have never hunted with the Vice President.

Home of the Hateful Hamburger

Originally uploaded by dr5.

While Laura and I were in Montana and Yellowstone last weekend we thought we’d get a burger in Gardiner, MT. We saw this sign and had to stop. Helen’s Corral Drive-Inn–Home of the Hateful Hamburger. The hamburger was pretty good, but we wish we would have gotten a cheeseburger.

While we were there we talked to the only other customer. He was retired and now living the life rangering in Yellowstone. He absolutely loved his job last summer when he worked as a ranger in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone. He talked to the public about wolf reintroduction and about the other wildlife in the Lamar Valley. He happily told us about the packs of wolves in the park and what the parks were doing. He also told us that as we drove through the Lamar Valley watch out of people with spotting scopes. If people had their spotting scopes out, we should quietly get out of the car and ask them what they were watching. The people would happily explain what they were seeing. He was right.

We drove from Gardiner, MT through the Lamar Valley to Cooke City, MT. It was a great drive. On the way back we saw some people stopped at a pullout looking at something through their spotting scopes. We stopped and walked up to them to see if we could see what they were seeing. It turns out they weren’t seeing anything, the wolves had run up Slough Creek earlier in the day, but they were happy to tell us the recent history of the Slough Creek wolf pack including the surprise arrival of a “mystery pack” a couple days earlier. The guy we talked to was very nice. He let us look through his scope at the wolf dens the Slough Creek pack as used in the past. Even though we didn’t see any wolves, it was still nice to hear about the wolves.

So if you are in Yellowstone, especially in the Lamar Valley, and you see people looking through spotting scopes at something, stop and talk to them. Wolf people are people people and most likely they will gladly tell you and what they are seeing and what is going on with the wolves and other wildlife.