Just like I took every reasonable precaution, I expect the government to take every possible  precaution as well. The same people who are complaining about the government spending too much time & money to prepare are the same ones who would be complaining if they weren’t made to evacuate and something bad happened.

The moral of this story? There will always be whiners. Thankfully, the people they whine about will always be there to save their butts.

If you live in the Philadelphia area, you’ve no doubt heard about the short-lived renaming of Philadelphia’s annual Christmas Village. Just in case you aren’t familiar, Philadelphia has, for the past few years, has put on a Chriskindlmarkt in Center City outside city hall. They don’t call it a Chriskindlmarkt. They instead call it a Christmas Village. Earlier this week, the city decided to remove the word Christmas from it to avoid offending people. This ridiculous move was met with a proper level of outrage from the public and Mayor Michael Nutter had the name restored.

While I think he made the right move, it’s insane that they ever changed the name to begin with. I don’t think he’s a hero for putting out a fire that the city started to begin with. I also don’t think this is the last time we’ll hear about this. So, I feel like I should get on my virtual soapbox and shout into the wind.

I’m not a member of any religion, Christian or otherwise,  and I don’t care about what religion anyone belongs to any more than I care what race someone is. Whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Pastafarian has nothing to do with the situation. I think the separation of church and state is extremely important and I think religion has no place in government. However, my argument is, and always has been, that there are really two Christmases. First, there’s the “baby Jesus Christmas.” I’m referring to the religious holiday that the Christians only celebrate. Then there’s the Christmas that’s for everyone, the “Santa Claus Christmas.” Yes, Christmas started as a religious holiday, but it has evolved into the secular version that most of us celebrate today. Christmas is about decorating, giving gifts & cards, being with family and friends and spreading goodwill. Those parts of Christmas are unrelated to religion. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and it sickens me when I hear of schools, businesses or anyone else referring to Christmas as “The Holiday” or “The Winter Holiday.” It just seems ridiculous. I’ve never read the Bible but I’m pretty sure that there’s no mention of Santa Claus, eggnog, candy canes or flying reindeer in there.

So, I’m very glad that the for once, the whiney minority was shut down by the sane majority. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s a sweet victory when it does.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s article regarding the Christmas Village debacle is here.

Some photos from previous visits to the Christmas Village can be found in the Photos section of this site.

The medals being presented at the Vancouver Winter Games have the distinction of being “first” in several ways. It’s the first time they aren’t flat. These medals are of an undulating design. Basically, that means they look wrinkled. Personally, I’m still not sure if i like that feature or not.

They also are the first medals that aren’t all the same. Each medal is etched with a randomly cropped portion of a piece of Canadian First Nation artwork representing orca whales.

However, the part that most caught my attention is the fact that the Vancouver medals have technology in them, but not in the way that you think. They don’t have chips in them. They actually have old technology items in them! Some of the metal used to mint the medals came from recycled e-waste. E-waste is a huge problem. I deal with it at work and at home. Old computer equipment and electronics build up at an astounding rate. I know that recycling a small amount of gold, silver and copper and reusing it in Olympic medals isn’t exactly going to solve the problem, but it’s nice to see an opportunity to better publicize the issue. I’m just sorry that I haven’t seen more about this in the media coverage or even on the VANOC website.

You can read more about this on Bloomberg. You can also take a look at all of the past Olympic medals at the IOC site.

After watching these athletes work through injuries and wondering how they persevere, I then read about this German luger who broke a tooth biting his silver medal. I guess it takes a special kind of guy to hurtle down an ice track at 90 mph on a tiny sled. The type of special guy that would chomp into a hunk of medal.

So, get ready to see more blog entries over the next few weeks, and for the first time some tweets as well.

More photos and info here.

Check it out at Gizmodo.

I won’t tell you who I’m voting for in about 6 hours when the polls open, but if you look closely at this post, I think you’ll figure it out.

This logo was used in the 70′s and I think the early 80′s. It was always my favorite.

Congrats to the Phillies!

Oh well, at least it’s nice to see McCain finally getting a laugh after his running mate, Palin, has given us all so much to laugh at over the past few weeks.

Then take a look at the real thing coutesy of Yahoo! News.

I’ve also been checking in on the official Olympic site at www.beijing2008.cn. It might not be accessible from some places because one of the side effects of the Olympics being in China is that the official site is in the .cn domain. The Chinese domain is blocked on some networks because a lot of hacking and attacks tend to come out of China.

The ceremony was very impressive. I thought parts were a little boring, but the technology involved was very impressive. The 2008 drummers all drumming was really striking. Though, I thought the funniest thing about it all was that the drummers were told to smile so they seemed less intimidating. (I didn’t actaully see many smiling, and frankly they were quite intimidating!)

As you can see in the picture, smog and pollution cloud the skies. There have already been complaints of the press not getting the unfettered internet access that they were promised. I’m sure there will be plenty of protests throughout the games.

I’m not sure what prompted the IOC to decide giving the 2008 Summer Games to China was good idea, but hopefully it will end well. I’m not getting my hope up though.

Check out the whole story on CNN. And by the way, if you want to make an offer on my soul, let me know. I’ll give you a good deal!

Clicking the photo will take you to Flickr, but you can see even more of this great photographer’s stuff at Daily Dose of Imagery.

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However, even I have a limit. After reading this interesting article about Yakutsk, a city in Siberia, I’m pretty sure it’s WAY past my limit!

Read the piece in The Independent.

On this special day every year, the men and women of NORAD that serve 2400 feet under the ground add a very special mission to their other critical tasks.

As they have for the 52 years, NORAD will follow Santa Claus on his flight around the world. This year it’s greatly enhanced by teaming up with Google Earth to make it fun and educational. (But mainly fun!)

Track Santa at noradsanta.org.