The only problem is Geek Dad is just way off base. So as a public service, I present to you the Geek Dad questions re-answered BubbleMixx style. Text in quotes is lifted from Geek Dad.

1. Leadership Style – “Kirk is brash; Picard is contemplative. Advantage: Picard.” Or so says Geek Dad. But consider this. Kirk was boldly going where no one had gone before, where as Picard was following dumbly along in his footsteps. Kirk had to deal with entire Klingon Empire, the Romulans, and more, while Picard had to deal with some cyborgs. Hell Picard got turned into a cyborg. Nobody ever turned Kirk into a Klingon, (except in disguise). Finally Kirk had military chain of command on the bridge, and listened only to his first officer. Picard had a kid on the bridge, the irritating Wesley Crusher, and if that’s not bad enough had a freakin’ ships counselor on the bridge too! Kirk would have blasted them both out the nearest airlock. Real Advantage: Kirk

2. Difficulty of Success – “I mean this from a character point of view: Captain Kirk only had to deal with being compared with Dr. Robinson from Lost in Space and captains from old sci-fi movies; Captain Picard had to handle being compared with Kirk. Advantage: Kirk” You’re damn right. Real Advantage: Kirk

3. Acting – “William Shatner is a lot of fun as an actor, but nobody can deny he’s a ham. Advantage: Picard.” Ok, while it is true that Patrick Stewart is a Shakespearean trained actor, couldn’t he at least do a freakin’ French accent? He’s supposed to be a French guy! I mean Peter Sellers and/or Steve Martin could do a French accent for crying out loud. Real Advantage: Kirk

4. Number of Lives Saved – “Since they each saved whole worlds on a fairly regular basis, though, I’m going to go by the amount of time they’ve spent on screen: Kirk was in 79 TV episodes and six-plus movies; Picard was in 176 TV episodes” ok, Geek Dad, that would be a valid point. But wait, almost half of Picards 176 episodes took place in the Holodeck, and of the remaining 88 episodes fully 1/3 were about not hurting someones feelings, a la Counselor Troi’s role. That makes it 79 for Kirk, 62 for Picard. Real Advantage: Kirk

5. Story Quality – “This may not seem like a fair comparison, because it’s a cinch that the number of talented writers wanting to work on TNG was much higher than the number who wanted to work on TOS. Advantage: Picard” Geek Dad goes on to list some less than stellar episodes of the orignial series, but does admit that there are some bad TNG episodes too. So taking that premise, if less than 1/2 of the TNG episodes are bad, say 45% (see my mathematical proof above), then that means Picard made 79 stinkers, compared to the 4 episodes that Geek Dad names. Assuming that Geek Dad only named 45% of the bad episodes, that means Kirk made 6 stinkers to Picard’s 79. Wow. You can’t argue with math folks. Real Advantage: Kirk

So there you have it, Kirk, is the clear winner. Hell the man doesn’t even believe in a no-win situation! He’s not going to get pushed around by some lanky bald Anglo-French guy.

That’s just not logical.

The Associated Press reported that Capt. Phillips’ crew, “who said they had escaped after he offered himself as a hostage, erupted in cheers aboard their ship docked in Mombasa, Kenya. Some waved an American flag and fired flares in celebration.”(Source)

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has become epidemic, and even now the Pirates hold over 200 ships from varoius nations including China, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Taiwan and numerouis others.

Unfortunately the boneyard has been compromised by person or persons unknown stealing skulls and other body parts. (Source) Authorities think the thefts occurred around 20th, but weren’t discovered for several days.

The Body Farm, and it’s founder, professor emeritus William Bass, have been the subject of many books, TV shows, and were the subject of Patricia Cornwell’s betselling novel “The Body Farm”.

I love the old guy in the shorts in this pic!

Ok, that should get you started. Now we need your help. We need pictures of Blocos, the neighborhood parties of Carnival in Rio. If you have pics of Blocos, please email them and we’ll feature them here!

Additionally President Obama intends to ask for a further $1 Billion a year for high speed rail in his budget request to congress, starting with the 2010 budget.

High speed rail was one of Obama’s campaign pledges, speaking in Indiana during the campaign he said:

“The time is right now for us to start thinking about high-speed rail as an alternative to air transportation connecting all these cities. And think about what a great project that would be in terms of rebuilding America.”(Source)

Despite this campaign pledge apparently Congressional Republicans apparently overlooked the importance of High Speed Rail to the president as they tried to stymie all the major projects that the President was looking for such as building new schools, or modernizing the energy grid.

Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine and Specter of Pennsylvania, Republican moderates who had criticized Obama’s school construction program were more accepting of the rail funds, since the Northeast corridor is a major beneficiary of rail improvements.

Rahm Emanuel said of the rail provision, “the president wanted to have a signature issue in the bill, his commitment for the future.” (Source)

Happy Valentines Day

Photo from the Telegraph.co.uk

You remember PCA right? They’re the guys that recently came under fire for shipping from PCA’s processing plant in Blakely, Georgia, peanut butter that was tainted with salmonella resulting in 501 people infected in 43 states. Addtionally one person was reported ill in Canada from the salmonella. PCA’s own tests showed that the peanut butter in question was tainted but they shipped it anyway. (Source)

The FDA website says PCA distributed potentially contaminated product to more than 70 consignee firms, for use as an ingredient in hundreds of different products, such as cookies, crackers, cereal, candy and ice cream. The FDA also emphasizes that major national brands of jarred peanut butter found in grocery stores are not affected by the PCA recall.

I just wonder who’s behind PCA and how they can do business like this? Shouldn’t the FDA do a complete examination of all PCA facilities immediately? Also shouldn’t there be criminal penalties for those who knowingly shipped tainted food? The US Justice Department needs to launch a criminal investigation.

Kerlikowske has been chief of police in Seattle since 2000, and has reportedly notified senior staff that he’ll be taking the position of director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy upon confirmation. The drug czar is a cabinet level position, and requires Senate confirmation.

Kerlikowske was the former deputy director for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. As such he was involved in doling out funds for community policing to local agencies. Prior to that he served as the police commissioner for Buffalo, New York. He has apprently been successful as a Chief for some time winning the Attorney General’s Crime Prevention Award when he served as the chief of police of Port St. Lucie, FL and again at Fort Pierce, FL.

Drug reform groups are watching Kerlikowske’s nomination with some hope for improved dialog.

“A less confrontational and reefer madness-driven drug czar is really the best case scenario from a drug policy reform perspective.”-StopTheDrugWar.org

Time will tell if Kerlikowske does in fact get the nod, and win Senate approval, but for people seeking a more sane drug policy there appears to be hope. “My gut instinct is that after several drug czars from hell, a guy from Seattle doesn’t sound so bad.” (Source) says one drug reform blogger at least.

Given the bizarre mandate that Congress saddled the drug czar with any efforts at rapprochement will be difficult. The drug czar is is mandated to oppose any efforts at legalization of anything even if it makes sense medically, (e.g., medical marijuana). [Additional Info]

Hopefully Kerlikowske can find some way to bring sanity to an otherwise insane job.

Days Bush was President: 2922
Days Bush was on Vacation: 964

Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98

Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0

Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden: 20

Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50

Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069

Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677

Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002: 2,500

Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8

Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006: 200
Percent of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 75

Number of Republican officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department since 2001: 196
Number of Democratic officials who have been: 890

Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60

Percent of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 80

Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000

Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1