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The Paco
User: [info]the_paco
Name: The Paco
Linky Goodness
Years Of Insanity
Back July 2009
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What's This All About, Anyway?
These are my words, this is what bugs me, amuses me, entices me.

Take it with a grain of salt.... or not.
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There's No Stopping Them, Either
Not That You Would Want To.
lurkerwithout
[info]lurkerwithout
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What Cheesy Canned Mood Fits?: pleased
Current Music: Rise Against, Anyway you want it

lolotehe
[info]lolotehe
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[info]bbcnewsamerica
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Mexico sends 5,500 police and military personnel to Michoacan state, which has seen a surge in drug-related violence.
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya is to return home "in the coming hours".
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A spurt in the number of new houses under construction in June sparks optimism the US property market is improving.
[info]bbcnewsamerica
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Citigroup and Bank of America report quarterly profits but warn that losses on consumer loans will likely continue.
[info]bbcnewsamerica
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The popular social networking website Facebook is breaking Canada's privacy laws, a report in the country finds.
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US President Barack Obama tells the NAACP civil rights group there are no excuses for children from minorities not to succeed.
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in India shortly at the start of a high-profile visit designed to bolster political and economic ties.
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Plans to reduce rising emissions from global shipping have faltered at a key international meeting.
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Brazilian police investigate after 64 containers of hazardous UK waste are found in three of the country's ports.
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Scuba divers off the Californian city of San Diego report unnerving encounters with large numbers of Humboldt squid.
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The Sears Tower in Chicago - visited by tourists from around the world - is being renamed the Willis Tower.
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An indifferent opening round at the Open leaves Tiger Woods on one-over par and with some distance to make up on the leaders.
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The hospital where octuplets were born in January has been fined for a second time for failing to protect their medical privacy.
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Troubled US bank CIT says it is in talks to secure financing, as its shares plunge amid fears it may file for bankruptcy.
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Nasa marks the 40th anniversary of the moon landing with the release of restored archive footage of the event.
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An American teenager becomes the youngest person to sail around the world alone, after a 13-month voyage.
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US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor completes the last session of questioning at her Senate confirmation hearing.
[info]bbcnewsamerica
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A Chinese-born engineer is found guilty of passing secret information about the US space shuttle programme to China.
the_paco
[info]the_paco
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Classic Journey still rocks. Just FYI. I like it. I don't care who knows.

Also watching vid after vid of motorcycle crashes and idiots stunting on the streets with/without gear. "Yeah he has no insurance on it. He only made one payment on this bike. This thing's fucking ruined."

Moe-Ron.
willnobilis
[info]willnobilis
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. . .so I decided that after the jellyfish post to look up Water Bears.

What did I find? I found that they are both kind of adorable AND awesome. Who knew?

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Current Location: Work
What Cheesy Canned Mood Fits?: impressed
Current Music: Yoshino Aoki - Endings and Beginnings

arkadelos
[info]conservatism
[info]arkadelos
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txtriffidranch
[info]txtriffidranch
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Oh, and before I forget, if you're in a magazine store this week, look for the premiere issue of the new Realms of Fantasy. Buy it, take it home, and then go to page 39. It's [info]taphophile's biggest exposure yet for her artwork.
txtriffidranch
[info]txtriffidranch
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As with the last really bad financial and real estate crash in Dallas, back in the late Eighties/early Nineties, wandering through the area and reading about crashing real estate prices brings on emotions of schadenfreude and wonder. Naturally, there's a nasty thrill at listening to SMU brats crying about how they bought gigantic McMansions at the height of the boom and now they'll never be able to flip the turkey in their lifetimes. (Which, if they treat their coke dealers with the same contempt they give to the other bill collectors, might not be all that long.) Then, as now, though, you see half-built projects that look and feel like archaeological sites. Back then, these were mostly gigantic retail sites that catered to the recipients of the oil boom spoils, and looking upon their works, ye mighty, made one ask "And who gave loan money to a business dependent upon a never-ending flow of millionaires coming through the doors?" Today, it's the abandoned spaces intended for retail/residential apartment buildings, on the assumption that an eternal spring of young professionals were going to pay twice a good house payment in rent just so they could live over a bad sushi bar and a worse Swedish furniture store.

(Literally down the highway from us is a great example, involving the auto dealership from where I bought my first car of the decade. This venue had been making noises about selling out for decades, including a completely crackheaded idea of building a giant shopping mall right next to the Dallas Galleria, but nothing actually happened until the height of the real estate boom. Now, the whole thing has a fence around it to keep the taggers at bay, and I learned last week that the planned "European living" apartment/condo/retail Xanadu won't happen due to the whole project being buried in about $18 million in debt. I'm actually quite relieved, because once yuppies and hipsters start moving into a neighborhood, the property values go straight to hell, and they breed like rats.)

These days, even Dallas is overrun with urban archaeology treasures, and all of them make you want to research the area to discover exactly what happened to this once-mighty civilization. Yesterday, while heading out for a quick lunch with a co-worker, I discovered such an abandoned treasure. It was a garden and landscaping nursery, up for sale, and in such good condition that I had to wonder what caused it to shut down. In fact, when I mentioned it to the Czarina, she was so intrigued that she said "Let's go take a look" instead of "You really need to stop freebasing Preparation H," and we drove out to take a look.

One quick inspection of the place after dark taught me a lot. The place had apparently been abandoned in a hurry, and the owners probably figured that the garden supplies and equipment that didn't sell wasn't worth hauling off. Big bags of corn gluten meal, stacks of front-porch pots, and racks of trellises were visible through the big windows. Even though everything was out in the open, and the place was on the edge of an iffy neighborhood, nobody's figured that there was anything inside worth stealing, so it was all in great shape. The back of the property still had a shadehouse in good condition, a lot of dead plants abandoned in the shutdown (and a few that demonstrated exactly how tough some Texas natives can be), piles of tree growing containers, and all sorts of enigmatic clues as to why the place was vacated in such haste. After viewing the back, I suspected that the nursery emphasized landscaping services over general lawn and garden gear toward the end: a quick Google search on the property confirmed that the son of the original owners had decided to take advantage of the demand for high-end landscaping during the real estate boom, and didn't have enough bread-and-butter business during the downturn to keep things going. Considering that the garden center went to banker's hours, Monday through Friday, instead of being open on the weekends, that bread-and-butter business in roses and lawn fertilizer was pretty much gone by the time it shut down earlier this year.

The price? Well, that's kinda problematic. The current asking price is almost reasonable for the space and for the general area, but it's still way out of our current range. Right now, the option is either to find someone with an extra winning lottery ticket they aren't using, or to sell body parts. (As always, I emphasize that they don't necessarily need to be my body parts. Maybe Burke and Hare were onto something.) However, I suspect that the price will drop quite a bit in the next year, and then I'll check back. All things considered, it's almost perfect for what I have in mind, the Czarina would have a great space on the property for her own business, and all I need to do to make it happen is to sell a lot of T-shirts.
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Police say suicide bombers behind attacks on Jakarta Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels.
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Senior Iranian cleric calls for release of opposition protesters during Friday prayers.
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Leader of last August's coup among favourites in Saturday's election.
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Ex-Pakistani PM acquitted by highest court of charges of hijacking Musharraf's jet.
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Sudan president will not attend conference due to Darfur arrest warrant, Kampala says.
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Hurman rights group accuses Palestinian Authority of curbing free speech.
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Chechnya's president denies responsibility for killing of human rights activist.
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At least four people killed in suspected US drone attack in northwest Pakistan.
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US president tells African-Americans to find new role models beyond sport and music.
disgruntledgrrl
[info]disgruntledgrrl
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Today, my five-year-old came home from summer camp crying because her friends and counselors had all laughed at her when she couldn't identify colors correctly during a game. My husband then confessed that he had taught her colors wrong because he thought it would be funny. FML

Sadly I've watched a few friends try this exact same prank on their kids. I kept telling them it's not as funny as they think it is.
One couple back in 1990 was trying to teach their child something very strange (almost babble words) to say when he needed to go to the bathroom "So it'll freak his teacher out."
No. No it won't. His teacher will tell him to stop fooling around, make his sit down or sit in a corner and guess who's probably going to wet his pants in school?

Yeah. It's hilarious to intentionally mess with another person like telling a friend "Thank You" in Spanish is "Mas Frijoles" and then taking them to Panchos. (true story, I can't claim credit)
Incorrectly teaching a child on purpose because "it would be funny" - not so much.
bluewolfcv
[info]bluewolfcv
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Fuck this, I quit.
kierthos
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[info]cnn_top_rss
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President Obama walked across the grounds of a slave outpost in Ghana. "You almost feel as if the walls can speak," he said. The visit followed a Senate apology on slavery, sparking a debate over whether it's necessary. A descendant of Northern slave traders told CNN: "What most Americans don't know is the extensive complicity of the North in slavery."


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Three U.S. soldiers were killed when their base in Basra was attacked by indirect fire, the U.S. military said Friday.


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One of Iran's most powerful clerics, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has called on the Iranian government to release those people arrested following last month's disputed presidential election. "There is no need to have these numbers of people in prison," the former Iranian president said during his sermon today. "Let them come back to their families."


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Blasts hit two luxury hotels this morning in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least nine people in what the country's president called a terrorist attack. Officials said more than 50 people were injured at the Ritz-Carlton and J. W. Marriott hotels, which are based in the U.S. The U.S. State Department says several American citizens were hurt.


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Pope Benedict XVI was briefly hospitalized after suffering a minor fracture to his wrist, the Vatican said Friday.


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Sonia Sotomayor had been a federal appeals court judge for about four months when Ellen Chapnick got a phone call in 1998.


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What the country could easily see this week was a major success story for the Obama White House: A confirmation drama featuring Judge Sonia Sotomayor that left even Republican critics predicting an easy path to confirmation.


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In the past decade, it's become a given that Supreme Court nominees are expected to tell you -- not to mention the senators actually voting on confirmation -- absolutely nothing about how they will rule on the Supreme Court.


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A second person has died during construction for Madonna's upcoming concerts in Marseilles, France, authorities said Friday.


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A funeral will be held Friday for a Florida couple killed in what police say was a carefully planned home-invasion robbery.


willnobilis
[info]willnobilis
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How about that bubonic plague?

"The City of Albuquerque's health department has confirmed the first case of human plague in Bernalillo County in 2009. The department says a 16-month-old girl is currently hospitalized and recovering. Her great-grandfather is also undergoing treatment for plague after displaying symptoms consistent with the disease. There have now been five confirmed cases of plague in the state this year - six if the great-grandfather's case is confirmed."

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Current Location: Work
What Cheesy Canned Mood Fits?: blah
Current Music: Yasuhiro Kawasaki - Magic Rocks