RandomFailure

See the Reuters story. Anybody else out there think that he’ll try to appeal?

Now, I’m not an Angolan tourism official (check the official Angola Web site or the CIA fact book page), but due to recent events, I believe it would be wise to stay away for a bit. The reason? Just the Marburg virus. There’s seems to be a little outbreak of it in Angola at the moment. According to the CDC info page (link above), it’s only about 23-25% fatal. Meaning that it’s much better than it’s cousin, Ebola.

Be safe. Get your shots.

Thanks to the sporadic blasts of snow, and the random, Colorado-like 40+ degree temperature drop from Monday to Tuesday of this week, there are some rather large potholes forming on some heavily traveled streets here in Philadelphia. None that are yet large enough to sink a Buick into, but large enough to cause damage (see the one at the NW corner of Juniper and Walnut). I would’ve done serious harm to my ride if it wasn’t a Jeep; any average car would’ve bottomed out on some of these (I forget where that one was; probably somewhere on Walnut). Then today on the way home from work, I had to take an extra step back at one of the intersections while waiting for the light, since there was a large depression forming in the middle of the street that the cars were swerving close to the sidewalk to avoid (middle of 17th and Chestnut).

If I feel inspired enough to take out the camera, I’ll take some pictures of these potholes. Though they have fixed one of the small holes that was marked by an orange traffic cone; some enterprising individual took it upon themselves to fill in the hole by inverting the cone and jamming it into the hole. Undaunted, the hole continued to grow and proceeded to swallow the cone. That has since been more permanently repaired (southern E-W crosswalk at Juniper and Walnut).

The TSA has banned all types lighters from planes, with enforcement effective April 14, 2005. (Read the story on their Web site.) We’re edging closer to the point where we’re all going to have to fly naked to prove that we’re not bringing any “unauthorized” items on board. The complete list of permitted and banned items (in multiple languages, no less). And they still are considering allowing cell phone use on planes?!? (See the FCC‘s press release on this (in PDF).)

Snapped this picture with my cell phone camera the other day. It’s a view of the various kinds of Philly pigeons, as seen from my 16th floor office. You have dark grey, light grey, medium grey, and white. Now there are probably more sophisticated names for them, but they’re still rats with wings.