Renga Arts was featured in a “Small Business Success” segment on CNN this weekend as “trash to treasures” recyclers. Disappointingly, one of the first items shown was…typewriter key jewelry. This is the letter I wrote them in response. Click the letter for a larger version if it’s too hard to read.

Incidentally, this was typed on a 1941 Olivetti Studio 42 .

Soon to be filmed as a sequel to Snakes on a Plane and starring Samuel S. Jackson. “I want these mother****ing worms off this mother****ing train!”

Japanese man releases hundreds of worms in train

Tue Nov 25, 10:01 am ET
TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese man was arrested for releasing hundreds of beetle larvae inside a moving express train to try to scare female passengers, police said Tuesday.

“I wanted to see women get scared and shake their legs,” police quoted 35-year-old Manabu Mizuta as saying.

He was arrested on the spot by a patrolling police officer after releasing the creatures on the Keihan line in Osaka prefecture.

“He would go close to women on the train, any woman, and pour out the worms from containers,” said a police spokesman.

Local police had been on alert after 18 similar cases of released worms had been reported this month by the same train operator.

“When the arrest was made, the man had nearly emptied a container, which is believed to have held 200 worms,” he said. “You cannot count them because there are so many.”

Mizuta had 10 containers in his backpack estimated to contain a total of 3,600 worms, police said.

“We have the worms sitting inside the police station right now,” the spokesman said. “You see them wriggling inside their clear cases. It’s really disgusting.”

I mean, McCain Wins Debate!

Last month, I predicted that McCain would select MN Governor Tim Pawlenty as his running mate, and explained why.

Breaking news as of 45 minutes ago:

Aug 28, 5:43 PM EDT
McCain makes decision on VP running mate
By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain decided on a running mate early Thursday, and one top prospect, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, abruptly canceled numerous public appearances.

The Arizona senator will appear with his No. 2 at an Ohio rally on Friday, aides said, though they provided no details on who McCain had picked.

Without explanation, Pawlenty called off an Associated Press interview at the last minute, as well as other media interviews in Denver, site of the Democratic National Convention.

Rest of the story here.

I could be wrong yet. Stay tuned…

Update
Yep, I was wrong. You can officially ignore anything that comes out of my keyboard. It’s going to be Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Nope, I’d never heard of her either. Seems she was Mayor of a town of fewer than 8,000 people before surprisingly winning the Governorship two years ago. Since I’m sure most folk are as unfamiliar with her as I am, here is how she stands on the issues. (BTW, I recommend OnTheIssues.org as an excellent resource for checking the voting record of every politician.)

I’m not sure whether or how this selection hurts or helps McCain. I have my speculations, but I’ll have to reserve them until I learn more about this woman.

Warning: politics and bad language ahead.

According to today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune, in the five months since Iraq elected its prime minister, the parliament has formed over 400 committees; only one has produced findings.

So we have succeeded in introducing American-style democracy to Iraq!

Perhaps inspired by a certain other company that has become known for
its case design, Intel is offering a $1 million prize for the
“sexiest” PC case design.

May I suggest that they just hire casemod master Katsuya Matsumura?

.

What’s that saying about those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it?

And Dennis Hastert, too, for skipping the emergency relief funding vote so he could attend a fundraiser. They should be forced to live alongside the bodies piled in the freezer, including those of the 5-year-old girl who was gang-raped and the 7-year-old whose throat was slashed.

Reminds me of the mantra from Stephen King’s Cujo: “Nope, nothing wrong here.”

From CNN:

The House majority leader late Tuesday tried to deflect criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina by saying “the emergency response system was set up to work from the bottom up,” then announced a short time later that House hearings examining that response had been canceled.

Every key on this proof-of-concept keyboard is an individual display that shows it’s current fuction. Keys can be programmed for different applications and languages. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be vaporware.