In "Testing, testing, etc."

♪♫ Here we are In a room full of strangers Discussing politics And the issues of the day Well I want to talk to you Though you may not want me to I’m still gonna talk to you I don’t care what you say Talkin’ it up On the Barry Gibb Talk Show Talkin’ ‘bout issues Talkin’ ‘bout real important issues Talkin’ it up On the Barry Gibb Talk Show Checkin’ out politics In this crazy, crazy town oh yeah!

In "Curious George: has anyone experienced sleep paralysis?"

It's rather common when people sleep when they are overtired. It's happened to me a few times, sometimes accompanied by false awakenings (where I thought I was getting up but was in a dream). I can't recall it happening in the past 10 years, so I wouldn't worry much about it.

In "web-less spider webs"

Back for my annual New Years update. Happy 2010! What's up with this economy? Not sure if we're going up or going down. The Summer Of Celebrity Deaths sure was something. And that Balloon Boy thing too (the dad got jail time I hear). Is Iraq and Afghanistan a US colony yet? I bet nothing will change there when I update this in 2011.

In "A Field Guide to Highway Interchanges: Part 1"

Wouldn't be complete without the Museum of Dumb Highway Design.

In "ChickenFilter"

Remember when Kentucky Fried was the best chicken, hands down, and came with REAL mashed potatoes and gravy to die for? I thought I was the only one who thought this. I remember how they tasted in the early 1970s and then going there in the early 1990s and being extremely disappointed. It boggles my mind that KFC continues to do brisk business... WTF?

In "Paraplegic Man Suffers Spider Bite, Walks Again."

correction: "correlation implying causation".

With causation implying correlation, anything is a candidate for a wonder treatment.

In "So anyway, "

In the satellite image, what's the deal with the scheme they had for placing the crowds? After the Capitol, the crowds kind of get larger as you go further away, especially near the Washington Monument. Crowd #3 is unusually small. Was there some sort of non-democratic access to the event?

In "World's First Garbage Truck Powered by Garbage"

Awesome... now maybe they'll finally take my used motor oil.

In "93 year old man freezes to death inside his own home."

This is why these city officials work in Bay City, Michigan. Not exactly resume material.

In "MetaFilter's been hacked."

Now's the time! On the Register page, put "Membership is again closed. While MonkeyFilter goes through another bout of growing pains, it's time to regroup and reprogram to better handle the crowds." Then if MeFi is down Sunday we can start charging $5.

In "Exclusive Exclusivity -- Non-American non-Royals need not apply."

The other ridiculous thing about the Centurion Card is why anyone really wants to impress a service-industry drone. About the only REAL use for having one is flashing it around while paying, and if you have to stoop that low, man, you're too far gone trying to brown-nose your way around.

In "NASA Detects Mystery Booming Sound In Deep Space, Origin Unknown."

Boo, Gizmodo, you all need to hire some tech types. "Sound is vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas; particularly, sound means those vibrations composed of frequencies capable of being detected by ears." -- (Wikipedia)

In "Russia has agreed to cut gas supplies via Ukraine,"

Great timing with the cold wave that just hit central and eastern Europe.

In "Curious, George: Paypal Customer Service?"

:D

Good luck, I hope it works out. Hopefully your friend does complete the dispute process, as it's pretty common for shady sellers to string the customer along until enough days elapse where the Paypal protections cease. At that point, there is no recourse.

Also in regard to he has sent an e-mail to Paypal, Paypal really doesn't read e-mails. He needs to go through the website and do the actual menu-driven dispute process.

He should immediately cease trying to resolve this with the seller, as it's pissing his protection away. He needs to IMMEDIATELY report this as "Not As Described" and do a dispute. I do think Paypal is a bunch of asshats, but they do tend to side with the buyer and if your friend has all his ducks in a row and proceeds within the set deadline, he should be fine. I believe that he MAY also need to send via a courier service when returning the unit (such as DHL or FedEx) to get a foreign address signature.

In "Child elopers' Africa plan foiled "

Awesome. I hope the parents weren't too hard on them.

In "web-less spider webs"

It's January 1, 2009 and I realized it's time for my annual update. The Earth is still here. Monkeyfilter is still here. We're watching little earthquakes in Yellowstone but maybe all is fine. Obama is gonna be US President in a few weeks. I sure hope this presidency doesn't go down the well-travelled road of mediocrity. And I learned how to toss pizza. See you in 2010!

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