Dude! Joe's Jottings, Mostly Junk

The theater world was eagerly awaiting Tuesday's premiere in London of "Love Never Dies," the sequel to Lloyd Webber's global hit "Phantom of the Opera."

"Phantom" is a tale of gothic romance set in the Paris Opera that has been seen by 100 million people around the world since its 1986 premiere. It is still playing in London and New York, where it is the longest running show in Broadway history.

"Love Never Dies" picks up the story 10 years on, with disfigured genius the Phantom relocated to the bright lights of New York's Coney Island and still besotted with beautiful soprano Christine Daae.

Many "Phantom" fans have trashed the show in Internet reviews based on preview performances.

Some say the score has nothing to rival the earlier show's catchy, romantic ballads such as "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You," and the set design has come in for criticism.

Widely read theater bloggers the West End Whingers dubbed the show "Paint Never Dries."

• The Annotated Wizard of Oz
• The Annotated Brothers Grimm
• The Annotated Christmas Carol
• Alice in Wonderland Coloring Book
• Lolita

20. I am never ever ever going back to school, and I decided this 14 years ago. Up until about 3 years ago, I was still having regular nightmares of walking into a class I'd been skipping out on (since I kinda knew the subject already) and then having the mid-term plopped in front of me, 2 days after it was too late to drop the course. The dreams have finally stopped, but I'm never going to put myself through that crap again. Ever.

1. most television sucks, and will continue to suck even if you were to tape or tivo it and watch it later
2. the tv that doesn't suck is on DVD almost before the season is over, or for cable shows, is repeated so often you manage to catch it anyways.
3. HULU - on-demand watching already provided by the networks for at least some shows
   
4. TV Episode sales/rentals on iTunes approved by the networks for at least some shows
5. you can't take it with you.  Your TiVo-taped programs, unlike a videotape, dvd, or something on the ipod, is stuck in the TiVo, and in fact the media producers ("Hollywood") went overboard on keeping the TiVo "crippled" in that way even more than the RIAA attacked the iPod (which is why it is such a pile of suck for your iPod when you get a new computer).
   

Equations can hurt, although not as much as wiping out on the downhill or faceplanting in the halfpipe. On Dot Physics, Rhett Alain explains the amazing angles at which Apolo Ohno leans around the short track, writing "a skater wouldn't have to lean at all if the skater was stopped. As the angle gets smaller (approaching zero), the skater would have to be going faster and faster." On Built On Facts, Matt Springer investigates the somewhat more subdued sport of curling, where men with brooms lead forty pound stones to their targets. Crunching numbers, Matt concludes that "granite on vigorously swept ice" produces less friction than "teflon on teflon." And back on Dot Physics, Rhett draws up some colorful diagrams of ski jumps, explaining that although you wouldn't want to jump off an eleven-meter building, "you can make it survivable if you increase the time over which the change in velocity takes place." In other words, those athletes can be thankful they're landing on a sloped surface.

• Apolo Ohno Physics on Dot Physics
• The Physics of Curling on Built on Facts
• Ski jump landing and acceleration on Dot Physics

Mike Pitts, a representative in the South Carolina legislature, has proposed a law that would replace dollars with gold and silver in his state. What do you think?

"Sing ho, for the glories of bimetallism! With South Caroline on the side of Free Silver, there's no stopping us from repealing the Coinage Act and putting William Jennings Bryan in the White House in 1896! Huzzah!"

This Worldnutdaily headline may be the perfect Freudian slip:



Brilliant!

DAYTONA BEACH, FL—Construction crews working to patch the rippled and broken asphalt of Daytona International Speedway reduced traffic to a single lane during last Sunday's Daytona 500, resulting in average speeds of 35 miles per hour. "It's bad enough that they can't get this fixed during the week," said race winner Jamie McMurray, who finished in just over 15 hours. "And NASCAR doubles the fines for speeding in work zones, so there was nothing we could do." Disagreeing with McMurray was Emilio Ramirez, operator of the No. 0563 Rolaids/Chick-fil-A Caterpillar road grader, who earned time-and-a-half for the race and called the event a "rousing success."

But when Plushenko suggests judges can “arrange” a high placement, Barton begs to differ. He said the system cannot change a judge’s intent, but it can certainly minimize the impact one judge has on any program. Nine judges place marks in the system, two scores are randomly eliminated, then the highest and lowest of the remaining seven marks are eliminated. Technical specialists are also involved in assessing the levels of program elements and contribute to the final mark.

"You can't be considered a true men's champion without a quad," the 27-year-old told Russian state television RTR.

Lysacek did not attempt a quadruple jump, considered the most difficult in figure skating, in either Tuesday's short or Thursday's free programs, instead wowing the judges with artistry and exquisite footwork.

"For someone to stand on top of the podium with the gold medal around his neck with just doing triple jumps, to me it's not progress, it's a regress because we've done triples 10 or even 20 years ago," Plushenko said.

• open my computer
• open my documents
• open at least 2 other explorer windows such that they all end up as a single item in your task manager bar
• now go to that item and right-click
• see "tile horizontally" and click it

According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

A Maryland delegate says it's time for his state to ban marriages between first cousins, unless both people are over 65 or if one party is unable to reproduce.

Delegate Henry Heller, D-Montgomery County, says he wants to bring Maryland "into the enlightened world of other states such as West Virginia and Arkansas" that already prohibit unions of first cousins.

Heller, a retired special education administrator, says when first cousins marry they are "playing genetic roulette" because of the increased odds of having a child with birth defects.

He says he has "no problem," however, with seniors or infertile people marrying a first cousin.

Heller says if they want companionship, he's not against that.

There are 24 states that prohibit marriage between first-cousins.

• Eileen Ivers @ GMU on March 14
• Battlefield Band at Wolf Trap March 17
• Celtic Woman at the Patriot Center March 17
  
• Solas in Germantown on March 18

Many people in the U.S.—perhaps 20 million to 40 million—believe there will be a Second Coming in their lifetimes, followed by the Rapture . In this event, they say, the righteous will be spirited away to a better place while the godless remain on Earth. But what will become of all the pets?

Bart Centre, 61, a retired retail executive in New Hampshire, says many people are troubled by this question, and he wants to help. He started a service called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets that promises to rescue and care for animals left behind by the saved.

Promoted on the Web as "the next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World," the service has attracted more than 100 clients, who pay $110 for a 10-year contract ($15 for each additional pet.) If the Rapture happens in that time, the pets left behind will have homes—with atheists. Centre has set up a national network of godless humans to carry out the mission. "If you love your pets, I can't understand how you could not consider this," he says.

"What does it say about your directorial career that your tweets are far more compelling, suspenseful, and emotionally honest than your recent movies?"