gynmlqf

More Alive than a Doornail

2007-10-06T01:35:00.000-06:00

I saw this ad online:

I used to be a doctor, and I can tell you that Botox is a neurotoxin. It really has no capacity for intelligence. Congratulations, iQ SkinTensive. You are probably Healthier Than CANCER^® as well.

I Knew It!

2007-09-30T21:00:00.001-06:00

No wonder I've been feeling a little better lately:
Men Are Now Happier Than Women - CBS News

Oh no?

2007-09-08T19:28:00.000-06:00

CBS says that more than two-thirds of the world's polar bears will have died by 2050. Polar Bears International says that the life expectancy of the average polar bear is fifteen to eighteen, with some living into their thirties, and none have lived past 41. Math says that 2050 is 43 years from now. I say that it must have been a pretty slow day at CBS.

Television

2007-04-17T19:44:00.000-06:00

Sometimes my roommate watches NCIS. This show is pretty ridiculous. Today I heard two lines of dialogue. One of them went like this:

"What if I were to tell you that six weeks ago she was walking along the beach in the Fujian Province of China? You see, Chinese dentistry is very distinctive."

What‽ No! I used to be a doctor, and I can tell you that no Navy dentist is good enough to determine in which province in China a root canal was done.

Then there was the guy who was seen leaving a hotel room, "a room where an underage girl was killed!"

I wasn't aware that in the military, we have an age of consent for homicide.

Quote of the Time Being

2006-09-23T14:23:00.000-06:00

"I think it's telling that every time you disagree with something you call the people a liar (sic)."

-James Meigs

"I am not calling anybody a liar, sir. I'm calling you a liar because you are a liar."

-Jason Bermas

Taken from the fourth segment of the Democracy Now! interview/debate between the creators of Loose Change (writer/director Dylan Avery and researcher Jason Bermas) and editorial staff of Popular Mechanics (Editor in Chief James Meigs and Executive Editor David Dunbar).

Coming in a close second are the myriad scoffs and self-conscious fake-chuckles from Bermas when presented with facts and analysis from the experts.

If you don't know what this is about, Avery and Bermas created the exploitative, insulting, disingenuous documentary Loose Change which is full of 9/11/01 conspiracies. This movie, which has been downloaded millions of times and has thousands of believers, is very effective in proving one point that everyone should take away from it, namely that people are morons.

A much more honest and convincing resource is this point-by-point refutation of said documentary.

Also see the Popular Mechanics article "9/11: Debunking the Myths" and the book by the PM editors entitled Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts.

2006-08-13T18:08:00.000-06:00

Traffic pole vs Truck

Amazing. I wish I'd been there.

Commercials

2006-07-09T13:07:00.000-06:00

Watch the bottom of the screen for fine-print disclaimers. For example, the VW commercial that shows a big bald guy confronting a driver after being honked at says "Closed course. Road rage is uncool." The best one I've seen is on the Snoop Dogg/Orbit gum commercial. The school children, the British aviator chick, and the unicorn goat are all funny, but what really sells it is the "Dramatization. Orbit gum will not get you into heaven." near the end.

International Cooperation

2006-05-25T02:04:00.000-06:00

I was reading about the UN Security Council where I learned of the G4 nations, which consists of India, Germany, Brazil, and Japan. These four nations all believe they should have permanent seats on the UNSC, and each supports the bids of the other three countries. My question, which I posed to my roommate Daniel McLaughlin, is "What makes Brazil think it is on par with any of the Security Council nations, or even the other members of G4?" At least India has nukes.

Then Daniel pointed out something much more astute, and much more troubling. We're pretty sure that the last time Japan and Germany cooperated on something regarding the international balance of power, things didn't end well.

Quote of the Time Being

2006-05-22T13:33:00.000-06:00

"All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching."

-Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) while
accepting $100,000 of FBI money,
speaking to FBI informant who was
wearing FBI recording mic during
FBI bribery sting.

Summertime

2006-04-30T13:19:00.000-06:00

3-24 June — Leave

24 June - 15 July — Edwards AFB, CA (outside of LA)

15-26 July — Soaring

26 July - 5 Aug — Global Engagement (running around in the woods with M16s and blanks attacking my classmantes)

'09 (Our Time)

2006-03-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

By the way, 2009 is now the first class to be recognized in three years. No big deal.

Yeah, it was a ~~biatch~~ pap-smear, but it was worth it. We may now wear civilian clothes, listen to music, watch movies, close our doors (and sleep) during the day, take passes and leave during the week, wear shoes that do not require polishing, and we get to be friends with (other) upperclassmen.

Plus, check these out:

Overheard from Squadron 20's Superintendant in Formation

2006-03-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

What do Somali pirates do?

Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?

(See comments for answers)

By the Numbers

2006-03-15T18:18:00.000-07:00

Recognition:

Hours that Recognition will last, from Thursday to Saturday evening:
~51

Dozens of fourth-class cadets that will be hospitalized during Recognition:
~80

Hundred of acres of rainforest that I would be willing to burn to be in San Diego this weekend watching the basketball team trounce Illinois, as several upperclassmen are:
~114

Who can I blame for this?

2006-03-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

Public Education? Partisan congressmen? Poor parenting? The liberal media? Violent video games? Rush Limbaugh? The banning of prayer in schools? Michael Moore? Psychiatric drugs? Rampant obesity? Al Qaeda? El Niño? Who?!?

Overheard in Military Strategic Studies 100:
"Did the Battle of Britain last one day?"

Mawwiage

2006-03-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

These two are getting married tomorrow morning. They are going to be LukasAndJess Fischer. And I will be there. No Saturday School, no training, just plenty of wedding and joy. As far as marriage goes, put me down in the 'Big Fan of It' category. But not this kind of marriage. I'm not so crazy about that one.

UPDATED: Wow.

2006-03-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

Wow.

South Dakota moved closer to imposing some of the strictest limits on abortion in the nation as the state Senate approved legislation that would ban the procedure except when the woman's life is in danger.

[…]

Under the measure, doctors in South Dakota would face up to five years in prison for performing an abortion. The only exception would be for women who need abortions to save their lives.

The bill is going back to the House, which has passed a similar bill. It will then go to the governor, who will most likely sign it. Then it will be illegal in South Dakota to perform an abortion, unless the woman is dying.

Wow.

UPDATE:

Gov. Michael Rounds has now signed the bill into law. Next stop: vicious, protracted legal battle! Woo! Expect virulent name-calling, hysterical screaming, and polemic posturing on both sides.

Speaking of politicking, this quote, from Cecile Richards (president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America), has got to be the most disingenuous I have read in a while:

"We had really hoped that the governor would weigh women's health as more important than politics"

As far as 'women's health' goes, the law allows abortions for women who will otherwise die. In any case less drastic than that, Gov. Rounds does indeed consider ~~politics~~ life more important than women's health:

"In the history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society," the governor said. "The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe that abortion is wrong because unborn children are the most vulnerable and most helpless persons in our society. I agree with them."

Contracting Mediocrity

2006-03-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here at the Academy, deals are regularly struck with authors or publishers to incorporate a text into a course curriculum, and then force cadets to buy the book by taking money out of their pay. What's the problem with these agreements? The students are blessed with gems such as the following, taken from Clayton K.S. Chun's War, Military Theory, and Strategy:

"In [19th century Admiral] Mahan's view, sea transportation provided the most efficient and effective means to move goods and materials across the globe" (Chun, 2002, p. 59).

No kidding. What were those other theorists proposing? Teleportation?

Then we have "In his 1946 book The Absolute Weapon: Atomic Power and World Order Brodie made several observations about nuclear warfare that would help shape and define the debate about nuclear war in the United States about nuclear war and warfare in general" (Chun, 2002, p. 64) (emphasis added).

I wonder what they were talking about back then?

Finally, my favorite is the prophetic axiom that "Wars between sea powers that were separated by oceans or that were island powers were most likely to be fought" (Chun, 2002, p. 62).

He is spot on! If two nations go to war, they will almost definitely fight. The war. That they're fighting.

Envy

2006-02-27T00:02:00.000-07:00

Davis-Monthan is hosting F-22s for a few days, along with a bunch of other planes.

This is the Air Force's newest plane. It is nearly invisible to radar (stealthier even than the F-117 Nighthawk), much more agile than previous fighters (it utilizes thrust vectoring, which allows it to direct its thrust ±20° in the pitch axis), it can supercruise (fly faster than the speed of sound without the use of afterburners), it looks sexy as hell, and it is named 'Raptor.'

And it is named 'Raptor.'

People are complaining that it might be too noisy. If you are in Tucson, and F-22s are coming over, and you are worried about noise, you are wrong.

Quote of the Week

2006-02-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

"…ninjas cant hold their liquor worth a damn."

From Kyle Wade's weblog.

Laughter

2006-02-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

What we've all been waiting for:

Cheney vs. Rumsfeld

Advantage: My Boss

Michelle

2006-02-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

She seals her correspondence with wax:

She has exquisite penwomanship:

She paints Kansas (and other things) well:

She is gorgeous:

Need I say more? Honestly.

UPDATED: American Politics as they Ought to Be

2006-02-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

When my roommate told me that Dick Cheney had shot a man, my initial reaction was something along the lines of:

Alright! Somebody was giving him lip about torture or surveillance or some other boring 'offense,' so instead of standing there and taking it like some Western European politician, Cheney capped him right there!

Needless to say, I was more than a little disappointed when I learned that it was nothing more than a run-of-the-mill shooting accident.

UPDATE: Three best reactions to this news, gathered from comments at Scott Adams' blog:

"We need to look more closely at this....Were drugs or alcohol involved? Was Cheney carrying a valid hunter safety card....What did George Bush know and when did he know it...How long did it take FEMA to arrive on location..Where was Scooter Libbey [sic]?"

"Hunting with Dick Cheney is still safer than driving with Ted Kennedy."

And number 1:

"If shooting lawyers is wrong, I don't want to be right."

By the Numbers

2006-02-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

Why Management 200 is the greatest class at USAFA:

•Number of credits earned in a normal class:
3

•Number of credits earned in Mgt 200:
2

•Number of lessons taught in a normal class:
42

•Number of lessons taught in Mgt 200:
32

•Number of days I get to skip fifth period:
10

•Number of GRs (Graded Reviews) (exams that occur at 6:30 am) in a normal class:
At least 2

•Number of GRs (Graded Reviews) (exams that occur at 6:30 am) in Mgt 200:
1

•Amount of writing for recent case study analysis in Mgt 200:
2.5 pages of pure, unadulterated BS

•Amount of reading of case study done in preparation for recent case study analysis in Mgt 200:
0

•First sentence of recent case study analysis in Mgt 200:
"Considering I forgot to print out and read the case study regarding TD Waterhouse, my analysis of its current situation is rather limited."

•Estimated grade for recent case study analysis in Mgt 200:
16/50

•Actual grade for recent case study analysis in Mgt 200:
41/50

•Disbelief and joy upon receiving actual grade for recent case study analysis in Mgt 200:
72

Wartime Presidential Power

2006-02-07T00:38:00.000-07:00

Can The President Order A Killing On U.S. Soil?

According to Steven Bradbury, acting head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, he can. This came out in a closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee meeting about the controversial NSA wiretaps.

Bradbury's remarks were made during an "academic discussion" of theoretical contingencies. In real life, the official said, the highest priority of those hunting a terrorist on U.S. soil would be to capture that person alive and interrogate him.

These remarks were prompted by a question from California senator Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Intelligence Committee.

At first, this seems completely beyond the pale, but "one former official noted that before Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, top administration officials weighed shooting down the aircraft if it got too close to Washington, D.C." I think this would have been a justified course of action. This situation presents an image of many advisors involved in "weighing" the decision, rather than some individual knee-jerk offing, conceived by the president alone.

The fact that there is no precedent or established process (we assume) to an executive killing confounds the issue. On one hand, a lack of formal process means that such a strike would be difficult to carry out. Who would complete it, and how would they get the order? Would a few FBI agents deal the blow, via the Department of Justice? Would it be Delta Force, through the DoD? Some type of Homeland Defense team? Maybe the president would pass the order directly through the secret service, and avoid his cabinet altogether. Getting this together would take time, which I assume would be precious in any situation in which some terrorist had to be killed rather than captured, and it would probably be rather hard to conceal from watchdogs as it was being cobbled together.

On the other side, this lack of procedure gives this kind of operation the potential for abuse. If the killing was pulled off secretly, but erroneously, where would be the oversight and accountability? Members of the military know not to follow illegal orders, and, with few exceptions, don't. However, they also know to follow legal orders efficiently and, when such orders are classified, to keep them secret.

Tasia Scolinos, a Justice Department spokeswoman, told NEWSWEEK: "Mr. Bradbury's meeting was an informal, off-the-record briefing about the legal analysis behind the president's terrorist-surveillance program. He was not presenting the legal views of the Justice Department on hypothetical scenarios outside of the terrorist-surveillance program."

In the case that Bradbury's legal views are correct, some form of formal process would need to be established to facilitate and document that action. If the USA PATRIOT Act does indeed give the president the power to kill terrorists when the nation's security depends on it, then it also gives him the power to conceal that action. In such an extreme instance of homeland defense, though, who has the power to make sure it is done correctly, honorably, and only when necessary?

If You See Only One Movie This Year:

2006-02-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

"Brokeback to the Future"

Past and Present (Updated)

2005-08-10T22:36:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty sure Michelle ~~asked~~ told me to send her pictures of my newly conformed hair status. As was to be expected, sentimental Mom was on hand to take pictures of her little boy during this momentous occasion:

Before:

After:

If anyone is interested, I think there will be pictures of Basic Training at the Association of Graduates website. I don't know where they will be hosted, but I'll have the Michelle post the URL here when she finds out.

UPDATE

Later:

LOOK, There i am!

2005-07-22T19:00:00.000-06:00

While I am away

2005-06-30T18:16:00.000-06:00

Dear readers of Patrick Sauncy's blog,

While Patrick is away at boot camp there are frequently posted pictures of the class of 2009 cadets at the following link:

Air Force pics!

I haven't found any pictures of Patrick yet, but they're worth looking at anyways.

Love,
Michelle Condon

It is a Period of Civil War.

2005-06-15T13:41:00.000-06:00

I was in Carson City last week visiting my family and having a great time. My cousin Mandy, having turned eighteen on 29 May, went to the Bank of America to set up a checking account (I think). Being bored and in the capital of Nevada (population of 58 thousand, compared to Scottsdale's 221k, Phoenix's 1.4 million and the Valley's 3.8 mil), Michelle and I decided to go with her. This was supposed to take about ten minutes, but it fortunately took much longer. This was fortunate for me because, while sitting in the waiting area, I was able to read a fascinating article in Fortune called GATES VS. GOOGLE: Search and Destroy.

The article details Google's transformation from a search company to a software company and a significant Microsoft competitor, and why this has Bill Gates so riled up. At the heart of the battle, and the aspect that sets it apart from Microsoft's previous trouncing of Netscape, Lotus, WordPerfect, etc. is that Google offers its services and products without charge or hassle, making them free and easily available on the internet. Gates' historical MO, when faced with formidable competitors, has been to create a similar, possibly slightly inferior product. The market share victory has come not as a result of quality, but because Microsoft, as the maker of Windows, has been able to control what products are best integrated with the system. By preloading software or making it free (in the case of IE), Microsoft could control what programs users interacted with first. It is this control over access that has allowed Microsoft to come out ahead of its past enemies, argues the article. "Microsoft's genius was integrating them seamlessly to make them easier for customers to default to, and then using its marketing, distribution, and pricing clout. It won by attacking competitors' business models, not their technology." This approach is impossible with Google, though, because everyone, by using the internet, is already a member. Thanks to its brilliant AdSense and AdWords programs, there is no charge for Google's indisputably superior products. This means that Microsoft, for essentially the first time, is being forced to innovate and to write better software.

Google, a much smaller company and therefore necessarily inferior by Fortune's standards, comes off as the exciting, unorthodox rebel that Microsoft is powerless to control because it has been resting so long on its laurels. The co-founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, "enjoy their roles as tech's new rock stars" while Gates is increasingly seen as an old Scrooge in need of a visit from the Ghost of Google Future. It's fun to hear Gates, who I previously assumed was an intelligent, reserved, middle-aged man, come off as a pouting pre-adolescent that can't deal with the fact that he's just not as special as mommy and preschool led him to believe:

"[Brin's and Page's] popularity gets under his skin. 'There's companies that are just so cool that you just can't even deal with it,' he says sarcastically, suggesting that Google is nothing more than the latest fad, adding, 'At least they know to wear black.'" [emphasis added]

I can almost hear the has-been nerd's undoubtedly pimply voice challenging Serge and the Larster to a fake lightsaber duel.

Speaking of lightsabers, a related article I read today allows me to force this battle into an even more intriguing perspective.

Microsoft is partaking in a new greedy effort to appease the cash cow of the PRC by banning words such as 'democracy,' 'freedom,' and 'demonstration' from Microsoft's Chinese version of MSN Spaces, its new, free weblog service (as reported in a Financial Times article through MSN Money, that I learned about from Roger L. Simon via Glenn Reynolds). Ironically, MSN Spaces is, according to a smaller, subscription-only article, the only Microsoft product that is equivalent to, or possibly better than, its Google counterpart (Blogger, which this site supports). So the one thing that Microsoft might be doing better than Google has already been compromised by them, because no blogger with a conscience and knowledge of Microsoft's despicable cooperation in the suppression of liberty in China would suport MSN Spaces.

So beyond being an issue of cheering for the underdog, Google vs. Microsoft now looks like a battle of Good vs. Evil. It is our own real-life CyberStar Wars, pitting the young Larry Skywalker and Princess Sergey, with their courageous band of rebels, against the overarching International/Galactic Empire and the Evil Forces of Darth Bill Gater.

UPDATE:
I am very fond of Google. I highly reccomend the following products:
• Gmail, the best email service ever. Period. As of 12:55:00 am MST on Thursday, 16 June 2005, it offers 2300.127325 MB of free storage to all of its users. It has all sorts of brilliantly innovative goodies, but is only available to a limited number of beta-testers. If you'd like an account, leave me a comment and I will email you an invitation, which will allow you to become a permanent, full-fledged user without obligation.
• Once you have a Gmail account, you can create a personalized Google homepage with summaries of Gmail, news, weather, and other features. Google News is also customizable.
• Google Maps is one of the neatest things ever. It is much better than Mapquest, with more detail and easier readability. Scrolling is also much more intuitive and quicker. The local search and driving directions are also great, but the real clincher is the high-resolution satellite imaging of much of the United States.
• Picasa 2, a magnificently full-featured photo album program.
• Google SMS gives you a host of useful information from your cellular phone, including driving directions, business listings, movie showtimes and theaters, definitions, prices, weather conditions, and more.
• Google Desktop Search is much better than the native Windows Search.
• I have not yet, but I will probably begin using Hello soon, both to post images to my weblog as well as to share them with friends.

Desert Mountain Prom 2005

2005-05-10T20:46:00.000-06:00

Well, prom was a blast. My date was darned attractive in a pink dress with black polka-dots. ::Attracted to her growling sound:: It was held at the Arizona Science Center, and Michelle and I came to learn. All of the exhibits were totally open. You know she's a keeper when she goes to prom and prefers to spend time in the gyroscopic motion room than the gyrating dance room. It was a great time. Thanks, everyone, for coming. Here are some pictures. Maybe I'll comment on them sometimes. Click the thumbnails for fullscreen images. I had to resize them to get them on Photobucket, but if you want full-size, contact me.

I really like this of Kyle and Nova:

Our chef at Sapporo was excellent. And Asian. And hilarious. I also like Shannon's expression in these:

We were ticked:

Taylor Howard and Foley won Prom Queen and King:

It was my mom's birthday, so we visited her and her friends and the Biltmore.

Kyle is frightening in this picture:

Kyle and Nova, the Morning After®:

Kyle is frightening in this picture:

These two were taken at the SAME TIME from DIFFERENT ANGLES!!!

That was prom. It was happy. I expect Teri to have some pictures up soon, because she is good at that sort of thing. Good evening.

P.S. These pictures were very easily resized with the Microsoft Image Resizer PowerToy. It allows you to select multiple images and resize them all to small, medium, large, or PocketPC size, or to make your own custom size. PowerToys are excellent little add-ons that Microsoft has created to augment Windows XP. I use Alt-Tab Replacement, Tweak UI, and Virtual Desktop Manager, and Open Command Window Here along with Image Resizer. I'll probably use the HTML Slideshow Wizard and CD Slideshow Generator sometime, too.

Firefox: Better than You

2005-03-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings, everyone. I have come to the conclusion that it is my solemn duty
to patiently explain to everyone why they are not my friend if they do
not use Mozilla's Firefox web browser. Please pay attention.

::Ahem::

1) Firefox, in both name and logo, is vastly superior to any other web browser.

Anyone who, after looking at that logo, does not agree that Firefox is the
correct answer for everyone in the world is no longer fit to own a
computer. You may deliver it to my home any weekday between 9:00
am and 5:00 pm.

Seriously. What else are you going to use now?

Internet Explorer? Is there a more boring name out there? Explorers
went out of fashion when Columbus killed Pocahontas.

Or perhaps you prefer (God forbid) ? Pansyist. Name. Ever.

There is clearly no better browser, based solely on name and logo
alone. What could be more powerful than the potent combination of
fire and fox? Despite this indisputable argument, there are a number of other reasons Firefox ought to be the only browser you use.

Here is a screenshot of Firefox in action (click to enlarge):

This may look simple, but it has a number of amazing aspects.
One which will be unfamiliar to Internet Explorer users is the Tab Bar
(Click for full size).

This allows the user to, rather than opening links in new windows,
open them in new tabs within the Firefox window. This helps
reduce clutter, while keeping open pages easily accessible.

Another innovative feature is the Search Bar:

This is located in the upper-right of the window. By typing
into it and pressing <Enter>, you perform a Google search (by
default), which displays the results in a new tab. The Search Bar
is not limited to Google searches, though. Clicking the Google
icon reveals a drop-down menu that allows you to use many other engines:

Firefox also makes Bookmark management very simple (Click it).

The button is a normal bookmark that takes me to the Mozilla website. The button
is a Live Bookmark to an RSS feed. As you can see, clicking the RSS
feed bookmark displays the latest RSS information from
mozilla.org. This can be done with any website that supports RSS
or XML, including many weblogs, news sites, and message boards.

My favorite bookmarks feature, though, is the use of keywords,
especially with Quicksearches. One of my bookmarks is to the
Scottsdale Public Library System's website.
I've set the keyword for this bookmark as 'library.' In order to
get to this site, I can simply type the keyword into the Location Bar
("address bar" in IE parlance), and I will be taken to http://library.scottsdaleaz.gov/. This is a useful feature, but pales in comparison with the true extent of the utility of the keyword.

Another of my bookmarks is to http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=%s,
with the keyword set as 'xanga.' Because of the '%s' where the
username would normally go, attempting to access that address will
return a 404 page. Some might be tempted to say that the bookmark
is useless. Those people would be very wrong because of magical
feature known as the Quicksearch.

When I type the keyword into my Location Bar followed by another
string of characters, Firefox accesses the URL to which the keyword
refers, and replaces the '%s' with the subsequent string. This
means that if I type 'xanga notpinkelephant' into my Location Bar, I
will find myself at http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=notpinkelephant,
or Sam Asaki's Xanga. Wow. Firefox comes preset with
Quicksearches for Google, Google's stock search, Urban dictionary,
Dictionary.com, and Wikipedia. In addition to these, you can add
one for any site that uses characters in the URL to search. If
you weren't convinced to switch before, this is all you should need.

Amazingly, there is yet one more feature of Firefox that I feel I
need to mention to clinch the deal. This is the amazing
adaptability of the browser through 'Extensions.' Extensions are
third-party non-commercial add-ons that increase the functionality of
Firefox. I have installed extensions that let me access the bugmenot.com database through a context menu command, reconfigure the Firefox hotkeys, change the way the tabs work, sort my downloads better, even cook an egg to perfection. Some of the most notable (and noticable) appear in the Status Bar (lower-right corner of Firefox window):

The icon on the far left is my Gmail notifier, which lets me know
when I have new mail, and takes me to my inbox (in a new tab) when I
click it.

Near it you can see the Terrorism Threat Level from the Department
of Homeland Security. This is absolutely necessary in these days
of 1337 h4xorz and malicious computer viruses.

To the right of that is Adblock, which allows me to disable most forms of advertisement on any website.

On the far right is ForecastFox, which tells me the current weather
conditions, as well as forecasts for however many days I specify.
Of course double-clicking it brings me to weather.com.

This concludes our journey through the magical world that is Firefox. In addition to these mind-blowing features, this beautiful work of human ingenuity has many others that I have not touched upon. Of course it has superior pop-up and download controls, and is extremely spyware and adware resistant. Thanks to these tools and its open-source nature, Firefox is one of the most secure browsers available. Thank you for joining me, and I hope that you will click the button at the top of this post and try Firefox for yourself. You won't regret it.

UPDATE:
Viewing this page on Internet Explorer, I've found yet another reason Firefox slaps it sideways: IE can't even display Portable Network Graphic s, which supports an 8-bit alpha channel, correctly. The Firefox, IE, and Opera logos above should have transparent backgrounds. If you're using a browser that supports the PNG image format, then these logos appear correctly, and you can see the background of my Xanga behind and around them. If you're still using a 20th century browser like Internet Explorer, though, they appear to have a white background. Bof.

UPDATE:
Now that I have switched from Xanga to Blogger, I see that PNGs are no longer displayed correctly. I assure you that this is the fault of Blogger, not Firefox. You still need to switch.