Network Issues We Wish We Didn't Have

Network Neutrality (in case you've been vacationing under a rock...) is mucho caliente.

I'm staring at a half-empty cup on this one. I believe that the triumvirate of corporations, politicians, and miscellaneous special interest groups (the mainstream media, so-called experts and bureaucrats, etc.) have all but obliterated any chance the "common wo(man)" has in benefiting from low-cost/high quality or no-strings-attached airwaves, networks, utilities, and/or public services.

Big $$$ walks and little people talk, right? Thank our friendly Republicrat$ and Demican$ (as it so happens, the Christian Colaition is pro net neutrality).

Lots of people in the Bay Area bitch about the big bully cable provider and the lack of competition in this market. But how many of us know who really let it happen? Where's the paper trail (and this includes dollar bills)? I suspect the when net neutrality is defeated (yes, I'm a dispositional pessimist), the whole thing will become a nebulous cobweb of ambiguous perpetrators.

There are only two choices left in the U.S. today. Coke & Pepsi.

According to Project Censored, the Main$tream media has put a lid on stories about net neutrality (does this give us any inkling of where their $ympathie$ lie?). Most people in the U.S. know more about Brittney and Lindsay's underwear choices than about net neutrality.

Well, I guess I'm a pessimist when it comes to believing that David will win Goliath in the net neutrality game and any other anti-trust, anti-monopoly, censorship, and corruption scenario.

I'd love to be proven wrong, though.

Movment and Migration

Historical human migration, out of Africa across Eurasia, began about a million years ago. European colonialism led to accelerate migration, beginning at about the 16th century and reaching new heights in the 19th century.

Army ants migrate to locate food. They sometimes raid other ant colonies and capture "slaves." Army ants are nomadic and they really do march at night and are said to have collective intelligence.

In 2005, the Ministry of Reshelving aimed to convince as many people as possible in the US to raid bookstores and move George Orwell's 1984 out of the fiction section to more appropriate sections, such as non-fiction.

Jocelyn Wildenstein paid millions of dollars to have her face transformed into one that resembles a cat (although, seriously, I've never seen a cat that looked that bad).

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunt game in which participants use a GPS device to locate hidden caches (small containers that typically contain trinkets of insignificant monetary value). Geocaching has its roots in letterboxing. Numerous websites list the coordinates of geocaches around the world.

Wikipedia defines balloon as a flexible bag filled with a type of gas. In 2007, a "Blogged" balloon was burst by reader clicks(how's that for interactive blogging?).

And speaking of round, buoyant, globular objects...according to Awful Plastic surgery, fake breasts (think nearly every "actress" inHollywood and British tarts with crossover-American appeal) are easily discernable from real ones by their "bolted on" look and the large gap (like you can drive a truck through it) in between in breasts.

What's Luck Got To Do With It?

I did everything right (or so I thought). I followed the rules. I paid on time. I met the damn deadline. I chose good solid upstanding numbers (these numbers were good. damn good). I didn't lie. I didn't cheat. I didn't steal. I helped little old ladies across the street. I followed the rules to a T. Oh lord did I try.

But I lost the damn lotto. Again.

The lottery is still the best game, though, in my opinion:

• It's accessible to all--rich and poor alike
• It transcends race, class, gender, religion, and sexual orientation (how many institutions can claim that?)
• It's cheap (damn cheap)
• The benefits disproportionately outweigh the risks
  
• The tickets are all cute and orange
• The reception from the other parties involved (e.g. store clerks) is overwhelmingly friendly and positive ("Good Luck!")

Ah, so what if the odds of winning the big win of Super Lotto Plus are one in 41,416,353. Nothing good comes easy. Even good ketchup...you have to wait for the damn thing to pour out of the bottle.

My California State Lottery record, to date, is a whopping $11.00. But I do have faith that I WILL WIN BIG SOMEDAY ! Something about the proletariat nature of the game and aspirations of spending copious amounts of time on the beaches of Mallorca just keep me going back for seconds (and thirds...).



Little known facts about the lottery* :

• Keno slips were discovered in China c. between 205 and 187 B.C
• The Dutch were the first to implement an exclusively money based lottery system with prizes based on odds
• Princeton University was initially financed on lottery proceeds
• The lottery lost favor in the US in the late nineteenth century; in 1890, US President Benjamin Harrison demanded legislation against the lottery and Congress (and the Supreme Court !) complied
• The US lottery only came back into vogue in 1964!
• The California State Lottery (as we know it) began in 1984
• The world's largest jackpot, $390 million, was one by one ticket holder from Georgia and one ticket holder from New Jersey in a March 2007 US Mega Millions drawing
  
• Some modern lotteries outside the US include: Nationale Loterij, Lotería Nacional, Lotto 6 aus 45, Zahlenlotto, TOTO 2 6/49, Lotería Electrónica Internacional, Lotaria Popular, Loto 6/49

Super Lotto. Mega Millions. Fantasy 5. A girl can dream, right? And if you're going to dream, you might as well dream BIG. As in:

• Trip around the world (first class) BIG
• New car(s) BIG
• Chauffeur BIG
  
• New house (or 2 or 3) BIG
• New wardrobe BIG
• Pure breed dog with matching dog walker BIG
• Bodyguard BIG
• Five-star restaurant BIG
• Never cook your own food or do your own laundry or run your own errands again BIG
  
• Bye-bye day job BIG
• Bling BIG (diamonds, rubies, pearls, Rolexes...)
• Big toys BIG (jet ski, powerboat sailboat, scuba gear, home theater complete with multiple video game systems, pool table, trampoline, personal tanning bed, nightvision goggles, mini arsenal, golf clubs, grandfather clock, subzero refrigerator...)
  
• And the list goes on. And on. And on...
  

*Source: Wikipedia (Lottery)