Note: Louise was our photographer today. Unfortunately her camera turned out to not be all that good.

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Last night, we took home two sisters: their temporary names are Sky and Diamond.
They are between six months and a year old; apparently closer to the six months mark and they have a lot of growing left to do.
They are snow Bengals, also known as Leopard Cats.

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Click on the thumbnails for more interesting pictures:

Sky is obviously the least shy of the two. Here is a short movie of her playing. She is nowhere near as fast as her sister but she can be totally silent:
[See post to watch Flash video]

It comes with an impressive features list:
Low reach floor tool
Mini turbine head
Carpet care kit
5 year warranty
Quick-draw telescope reach
Lifetime HEPA filtration for cleaner expelled air
Motorized brushbar
Lifetime washable filter
Approved for allergy sufferers
Hygienic and quick to empty
Brush control
Auto-adjusting height
Ergonomic carry handle
Instant stair cleaning
On-board tool storage

The famous purple cylinders are part of the ‘Level 3 Root Cyclone’ suction system.

Of course, the first room we tried it in was our master bedroom, which has carpeting and, frankly, too many darn cats.
Outcome: I did not remember that our floor was this color!
And, as an added benefit, the cats got scared away when the turbine engaged.

The Kansas Board of Education voted today to eliminate mandatory teaching of the theory of evaporation from schools across the state. Most scientists believe that water and other liquids are spontaneously converted by so-called evaporation into the form of a gas, and carried off into the atmosphere. This, they say, is the explanation behind sudden disappearances of water all across the state.

Many non-scientists, however, stand by the widely accepted theory that a lovable invisible two-headed thirsty blue giraffe named Clarence is responsible for the disappearances. The two theories, evaporation and Giraffism, will now be taught on a more equal footing to school-children across Kansas. Parents are pleased, saying that Giraffism is easier to understand and far more comforting to small children. “There’s nothing happy about evaporation,” says Frank Nubbins, father of Jason, 6, and Sue Ellen, 4. “Clarence the giraffe is blue, and he’s lovable. You can’t say that about evaporation, that’s for sure. I love my children.”

“Nobody has ever adequately explained evaporation,” says Dr. Harold Thumper, of the Kansas Board of Education. “With evaporation, we’re expected to imagine that water just disappears, all by itself, with no rhyme or reason. That’s ridiculous.”

Clarence the lovable invisible two-headed blue giraffe, on the other hand, is always thirsty, an explanation which is simple and obvious. He has a well-established presence in children’s literature. “Every culture on the planet,” says Dr. Thumper “has a story about giraffes, or thirstiness, or lovable blue things. Most of these have happy, happy endings. My children just love these stories. But I challenge you to find a single good story about evaporation.”

The theory of evaporation is getting a dry reception in academia these days. At leading universities including Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, it’s impossible to find a single professor of Evaporation on the faculty. “What’s the point?” says Gwen O’Malley, dean of the Harvard Medical School. “It’s not exactly a good career move to spend your life trying to explain evaporation to people.”

Well, my turn! I, like most of my co-workers in the computers field, can have moments of awkwardness that a “well-adjusted” person would allegedly never experience. Today, for instance, Tom and I were both anguished by the fact that we couldn’t tell whether a woman we saw at a restaurant was Georgia, who we happen to have known for years!

Ironically, I seem to be doing better at reading people than actually identifying them.

Let’s play: the BBC web site offers an online test that will help you get a better idea of how perceptive you *really* are.
It is at www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/

Feel free to post or email me your score!

My friend Tom Chappell and I had a short yet interesting conversation on the topic of imitation cheese food.
Tom’s point being that this is a baffling notion. Cheese food is not cheese, at least not to someone who knows about cheese, therefore what constitutes the imitation of an imitation?

I took a look here but unfortunately ended up being even more confused.

My current analysis is that this product’s level of quality must be on par with French singers doing covers of bad American songs.

It now seems that, with their usual level of concern with security, Diebold saved a few pennies by using standard one-key-fits-hundreds-of-minibars-and-file-cabinets keys. Take a look.

I got a letter a month ago from my Worker’s Comp company warning me that one laptop had been stolen and to contact the credit bureaus right away to get a “lock” placed on all future transactions.

What are we supposed to do when we learn that the Census Bureau lost our information, only x 600? Panic?