Brad on Twitter- bradthomas: getting ready for ben's soccer practice.October 3, 2008 bradthomas
- bradthomas: looks like otah and gross will be out this week against the chiefsOctober 3, 2008 bradthomas
- bradthomas: unexpected thunderstorm, thank goodness its nearly wednesdaySeptember 30, 2008 bradthomas
- bradthomas: back pain and the dentist are not a good combinationSeptember 24, 2008 bradthomas
- bradthomas: Panthers signed LB Donte Curry today. Curry was cut about a week ago, but will replace Dan Connor, who is on the IR with an ACL injury.September 23, 2008 bradthomas
May
31
Yahoo! News Photo
This undated photo provided by the International Bird Rescue Research Center, shows an X-ray taken Sunday, May 21, 2006, of an injured duck with a broken wing.
The International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia. Calif., plans to raise funds with an unusual duck X-ray, which they say shows the clear image of what appears to be the face, or head, of an extraterrestrial alien in the bird's stomach.
Unfortunately, the duck died quickly and quietly of its injuries. (AP Photo/International Bird Rescue Research Center, Marie Travers)
May
30
Newsvine - Review: ‘Over the Hedge’
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Newsvine - Review: 'Over the Hedge'
"Over the Hedge," the latest star-studded, computer-animated, talking-animal extravaganza, is an indictment of the same sort of suburban overconsumption that the film encourages through its marketing.
Glad to see someone else felt the same way about this film as we did. Funny how, without any prodding or prevous discussion, my 4 year old told me that he didn't enjoy the movie. "It was boring", he said. I felt the same, and I understood all the context and social commentary in the movie. We already know all this stuff… why should we be brow-beaten while we paid to be entertained?
The cheeky family comedy, from the people behind "Antz" and "Chicken Run," wags its finger at all of us humans for buying more food then we need — fast food, junk food, food we have delivered because we're too lazy to leave the comfort of our cookie-cutter houses and drive to the grocery store in our gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, which, like the ever-growing encroachment of suburbia, are contributing to the destruction of the environment the cuddly "Over the Hedge" creatures call home.
We have too much stuff, the film is trying to say, and we continue to acquire more stuff.
And yet, off-screen, "Over the Hedge" simultaneously embraces a number of companies that provide such stuff and are helping promote the film through advertising. Wal-Mart has made the movie the centerpiece of its summer marketing campaign. There's special "Over the Hedge" packaging on Crunch 'n Munch snacks (that is good stuff, though). And of course, there are "Over the Hedge"-themed kids' meals at Wendy's.
The irony!
I didn't find Antz or Chicken Run particularly entertaining, and had I researched this movie beforehand, I would have selected not to go see it. Talk about hypocritical, that is exactly how I felt when this movie was unfolding. They're preaching against all this crap meanwhile being a part of the "problem" that they preach against.
So where is the originality? And more to the point, what's the point? If "Over the Hedge" aims solely to entertain, it does so in a way that's mildly amusing but mostly hackneyed. If it aims to instruct, it weakens its own argument with the plethora of product tie-ins.
Exactly. The point was to tell us all that we're stupid, yet they market their crap to our kids, contradicting the movie itself. Don't go see it. Don't rent it. Don't buy it. Wait till it comes on TNT or something and watch it then, maybe when it's rainy and you have the flu, or it's 3 AM and you can't sleep.
May
30
The US Citizenship Test
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| You Passed the US Citizenship Test |
 Congratulations - you got 8 out of 10 correct! |
Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?
I passed, getting 8 out 0f 10 right. How well did you do?
May
30
China’s longest river
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China's longest river "cancerous" with pollution - Yahoo! News
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's longest river is "cancerous" with pollution and rapidly dying, threatening drinking water supplies in 186 cities along its banks, state media said on Tuesday.Chinese environmental experts fear worsening pollution could kill the Yangtze river within five years, Xinhua news agency said, calling for an urgent clean-up.
"Many officials think the pollution is nothing for the Yangtze," Xinhua quoted Yuan Aiguo, a professor with the China University of Geosciences, as saying.
"But the pollution is actually very serious," it added, warning that experts considered it "cancerous.""
Industrial waste and sewage, agricultural pollution and shipping discharges were to blame for the river's declining health, experts said.
Very interesting that such pollution is coming from such an open and honest country. When will the USA step in and force China to clean up its act?
May
30
Last Comic Standing - Program Details - Yahoo! TV
Talent scouts travel the country looking for aspiring comics to send to the semifinals –
Heck yeah, two hours of commedians and folks that think they are commedians that we laugh at because they suck. Gotta love it.
May
30
CNN.com - Sources: Lawmakers told to brace for Haditha fallout - May 30, 2006
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CNN.com - Sources: Lawmakers told to brace for Haditha fallout - May 30, 2006
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Some members of Congress have been told to brace for the fallout from potential charges of murder and cover-up stemming from an inquiry into an alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines, sources say.
Something tells me we are going toe hear a LOT about this for the forseable future. I could see how this could happen with all the stuff happening over there.
May
26
Robocop vs. Neo Video
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Someone made a movie of Robocop vs. Neo — it's really well done!
Click HERE to check it out.
May
26
An Inconvenient Truth > The Science
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An Inconvenient Truth > The Science
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.
The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.
We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.
The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.
If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences.
Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years — to 300,000 people a year.
Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and
Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.
Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense.
Droughts and wildfires will occur more often.
The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.
There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now – TAKE ACTION
May
26
Adobe’s Spry
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The Spry framework for Ajax is a JavaScript library for web designers that provides functionality that allows designers to build pages that provide a richer experience for their users. It is designed to bring Ajax to the web design community who can benefit from Ajax, but are not well served by other frameworks.
But what IS Spry, exactly?
What is the Spry framework? The Spry framework for Ajax is a JavaScript library for web designers that provides functionality that allows designers to build pages that provide a richer experience for their users. It is designed to bring Ajax to the web design community who can benefit from Ajax, but are not well served by other frameworks. The first release of the Spry framework is a preview of the data capabilities that enable designers to incorporate XML data into their HTML documents using HTML, CSS, and a minimal amount of JavaScript, without the need for refreshing the entire page. The Spry framework is HTML-centric, and easy to implement for users with basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The framework was designed such that the markup is simple and the JavaScript is minimal.
This could be really useful on many different fronts. We'll have to define a new way of delivering advertisements too. Right now, you have page impressions, or times an ad has been delivered to the viewer. Most companies use a script that delivers the ads on page load and that ad lives on the page until it's delivered again. With this new framework, info will be updated without loading a new page, which means the old way of delivering an ad would be obsolete. We'd have to devise a system where you'd consider the ad to be "viewed enough" and load the next ad, simulating another "page view". How long would that be? 2 minutes?
May
25
SOUL PATROL! SOUL PATROL! SOUL PATROL!
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I will admit, I watched most of American Idol. I lose interest when things start getting "serious" on the show, meaning I like to watch people make fools of themselves, and I generally don't watch most of the show.
But this season I watched more than I usually do, mainly because of Taylor Hicks. A white dude from the south that plays the harmonica and sings the blues, he was instantly my favorite, even more so than the 3 contestants that were from my home state of NC.
Taylor Hicks, to me, was the most likeable and interesting person in the whole lot. He was the guy that Simon Cowell initially said had no place in the competition and would never be the American Idol.
It's nice to prove the British wrong.
So Taylor Hicks is the new American Idol. Hell yeah. It's about time they had someone worth listening to win that show.