If you’ve been watchin’ t’ countdowns at Green Scissors, you would know that today be Talk Like a Pirate Day. Say somethin’ Pirate-y, keelhaul someone, or just brandish a cutlass.

Be sure to spy the official website.  Find some handy tips and learn how to have your way with the wenches. 

There was one good station.  One solid FM station.  Locally owned.  PLayed what they thought was good.  Weren’t formulaic.  DJs weren’t over the top.  No stupid April Fool’s jokes, no crappy contests.  Just free concert tickets and trips and good music.

There WAS one good station.  Today there is this. 

Unfortunately we write to you today with much sadness. As of 6:00 p.m. this evening, 97.3 The Planet is no longer on the Kansas City radio dial. The management and ownership of Union Broadcasting have made the difficult decision to change the music format on 97.3 FM.

….

In many ways it is a sad and disappointing day at Union Broadcasting, but we are looking to the future with excitement about bringing a new kind of music format to Kansas City.

97.3 Max FM now plays Everything That Rocks! Many artists you enjoyed on The Planet will also be heard on Max FM, including U2, Tom Petty, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, Black Crowes, Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, Bruce Springsteen, and Smashing Pumpkins.
Additionally, Max will rock with Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Metallica, ZZ Top, Van Halen, Foreigner, Motley Crue, Poison, Boston, Guns ‘N’ Roses, and many more! Max will play rockin’ music from five decades…if it rocks, you will find it on Max FM!

We hope you will sample the new station and continue to enjoy Planet music on the web using the Planet’s live stream!

+10 points for putting the old format online.  But it still hurts.  The new station (for me anyway) sucks.  It is brutal.  It sounds like the soundtrack for VH1′s "When Metal Ruled the World" special.  Just awful.

This has happened about three times to me in my life.  The really cool station gets buried by big corporations, questionable ratings or plain ole bad taste.  Each time it happens I spend a few days in a funk and vow never to listen to FM again. Such is my mood right now.

Death to Rock-n-Roll.  Long Live Good Music. 

This fits firmly into the "pretty damn cool" category. All I’ve used Google Earth for is to enter random locations and watch it spin around and zoom in, pretending on some bizarre level that I’m in a Neal Stephenson novel. It’s good to see that someone’s using it for a slightly more productive purpose.

Google Earth Used to Find Ancient Roman Villa – cavehobbit writes "Google Earth leads to an archeology find, according to a Nature article. From the article: ‘Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500 metres long. It was the meander of an ancient river …’ What’s buried in your back yard?"

(Via Slashdot)

This article from FactCheck.org (a remarkably balanced site that crossed my radar screen last year during the Presidential election) gives the most detailed timeline of the Katrina debacle and its effect on New Orleans. With attribution, no less.

There is no doubt in my mind that the response and preparatory efforts failed on every level, and it is certain as well that this article doesn’t have all the answers. However, it’s instructive to see what we do know laid out in a coherent way, and this is the first real effort I’ve seen made in that area that doesn’t take a partisan slant one way or the other.

I strongly urge you to take a look at the whole article, obviously. One thing of many that jumped out at me, though…

July 23, 2004 – 13 Months Before Katrina

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) conducts "Hurricane Pam" exercise to assess results of a theoretical Category 3 hurricane. It assumes that a storm with 120-mph winds would force Lake Pontchartrain’s waters over the tops of the New Orleans’ 17.5-foot levees and through a gap in the levee system would flood major portions of the city and would damage up to 87 percent of the city’s homes. The Times-Picayune reports that officials expect up to half the city’s residents won’t evacuate and that many will be trapped in attics, on rooftops, and in makeshift shelters for days.

—"In Case of Emergency," New Orleans Times-Picayune, as posted  on the website of the Louisiana Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, 20 Jul 2004.

Which, of course, makes this bit even more interesting:

Thursday September 1, 2005 – 3 Days After

7 a.m. – Bush says "I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." His remark comes in a live interview on ABC’s Good Morning America :

Bush: I want people to know there’s a lot of help coming. I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. These levees got breached and as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded and now we’re having to deal with it and will.

—“Good Morning America,” Transcript, ABC News, 1 September 2005.

 BRILLIANT!!!!!

That is all. 

TerraTec USB TV Tuner –

Stuck in an airport with CNN yammering on and on in the background? Well, pop in the TerraTech USB TV Tuner and pick up reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond. The TerraTec is a self-contained tuner with software for watching TV on your PC. Interestingly enough, you can also record live video through the tuner and it also pics up digital signals, which I suspect are a bit more prevalent overseas than here.

Overall, looks like a great way to add live TV to a laptop sans breakout boxes and other heavy junk. Pricing is set at about $200.

TerraTec launch USB key TV tuner [Pocket-Link]

(Via Gizmodo)

 Cricket and Bridge are two games I don’t believe I will ever understand.  And everytime I read or hear anything about cricket, this notion is reinforced.  I am convinced in fact that cricket match reports are really coded mesages being sent between militant groups of philatelist and that cricket itself was created to provide a reason for these messages to appear in public. 

This article only serves to reinforce my growing suspicions about philatelist. 

Gallian laughs at being run out for 199 – twice (Reuters) – Reuters – Nottinghamshire opening batsman Jason Gallian said he was able to laugh at his misfortune after being run out on 199 for the second time this season.

(Via Yahoo! Oddly Enough)

 I do not own a game console of any kind.  But this lengthy review of the new Nitendo Revolution controller might end that next year.  If you are a console fan, then this is a must read.  But my favorite quote is this:

"We want a system that takes advantage of new technology for something that anyone, regardless of age or gender, can pick up and play. [Something with a] gameplay style that people who have never played games can pick up and not be intimidated by. We wanted a controller that somebody’s mother will look at and not be afraid of."

At last!  Someone intentionally building a game system with a low learning curve!   

Nintendo "Revolution" Controller Finally Revealed – The entire industry has been clamoring for a taste of Nintendo’s so-called next-generation ‘revolution.’ So have we. We’ve seen the Revolution, touched and played with its radically different take on the game controller, and we’re back with our lengthy, hands-on impressions.

(Via Extreme Tech)

 Looks like a 21st Century version of the Autoharp.  I am a little intrigued by the idea, butcan’t imagine shelling out almost a grand for one.

Maybe I’ll find one in a store I can noodle on. 

The Keytar Attack –

The keytar revolution is among us. Soon every band in the world will have a dedicated keytar player. The guys behind this amazing musical device just got the Keytar Inc website going and they also purchased a factory in Arkansas to manufacturer these keytars. Oh, I forgot to mention what the hell a keytar is in the first place.

It’s a huge triangular 12-string semi-acoustic guitar with no neck or fingerboard – instead, there’s a one-octave piano keyboard which somehow mutes the strings.

The keytar guys plan on selling these for $999 each.

Look on my Keytar, ye mighty, and despair! [Music Thing]

(Via Gizmodo)

 Please have a few beers before watching this.  And if you didn;t grow up watching He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, then skip it altogether.  But if you did, then this video could change your life forever.

But that may not be a good thing. 

What’s Going On? – He-Man sings 4 Non Blondes. (quicktime)

(Via Metafilter)

 The arguing over semantics begins.  And this one is a bit thick even for me.  I suppose that who was named as the official in charge and when is significant, but the complete failure of the system to work has to be blamed on the President.  Everything after that is semantics.  The administrations priorities are what caused the disaster to be magnified.

Conflicting accounts from top on Katrina response (Reuters) –

Reuters – Under fire over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, the White House and Homeland Security Department have offered conflicting accounts of who was in charge and when the administration first triggered what it promised would be a massive, organized federal response.

(Via Yahoo! Top Stories)