This article (soul-sucking registration required) in today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram mentions a survey in which 11% of drivers who participated said they’d been distracted by a dog jumping around in the car.  My “uh oh, here comes another law” sense was twitching as I read the article, because these kinds of articles are usually spawned by a press release issued by some do-gooder organization that wants to ban something or other.  In this case, the survey was commissioned by “Response Insurance,” who I’ll bet will be pushing a new law in the next year or so.

The full results of the survey were included, which I have captured here:

I was particularly appalled at item #7 in the list.  Disgusting habit aside, just how much concentration does it take for nose picking?  What does it say about these drivers that they’d be distracted from the road by it?  Are they performing some kind of detailed analysis on the haul from their rhinological expeditions?

Texas has a plethora of specialized license plates available now.  But I hadn’t seen the one for the Knights of Columbus until yesterday.  Here’s the sample plate:

Given the wording at the bottom it got me to wondering why no one had sued the state over it yet.

I don’t usually care much for sports, especially baseball, which I find slow and boring.  Anyhow, this story was on one of the TV news shows this morning (there’s a good picture of incident at that link).  There was also an article about it in this morning’s Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.

Nicholas O’Brien’s first Texas Rangers game became an encounter to remember when another fan shoved the 4-year-old out of the way and into the spotlight.

Edie and Jeff O’Brien had just wanted to take their son for a nice afternoon at the ballpark. Then, Rangers center fielder Gary Matthews came to bat in the third inning with the Rangers trailing 12-0.

Matthews sent a high foul ball toward Section 22, between home plate and the St. Louis Cardinals’ third-base dugout.

“It was coming straight at us,” Edie O’Brien said. “I felt this person jumping, and I felt my husband trying to grab Nick. The guy was on my legs and feet, and I was trying to push the guy off.

“The next thing we knew, the guy had the ball.”

The man, described as being in his 30s, was sitting a row behind the O’Briens. When he dove for the ball, he knocked Nicholas into the seats and ended up sprawled at the O’Briens’ feet. The man came up with the foul ball and—despite jeers and boos from the crowd, who wanted him to give the ball to Nicholas—put it in his pocket.

This cretin eventually left (along with the woman who was with him) after being heckled by the crowd for the next inning.  The crowd had taken to shouting “Give him the ball” at the unidentified jerk, although he just sat there smirking.

Fortunately, the boy was unhurt and one of the St. Louis players gave the boy a bat and ball.  He was also given a bat from one of the Rangers and ended up with three more balls before the game was over.  But it makes you wonder what other activities the unidentified jerk might enjoy.  Knocking down little old ladies?  Stealing candy from babies?  Kicking puppies?  They all sound like they’d be just to his liking…

It seems fortuitous that Kim du Toit wrote about his trip to Cabela’s today.  I had mentioned earlier that Cabela’s was planning to build a store near my house.  It now appears to be definite.

The popular outdoor retailer Cabela’s is expected to announce Friday that it will build megastores in Fort Worth and south of Austin, backed by local tax incentives and cash from the state, sources close to the deal said Wednesday.

In addition to the tax incentives that Cabela’s will receive from Fort Worth and is expected to get from the small town of Buda, the company will be awarded $600,000 from the Texas Enterprise Fund, the sources said.

…

Gov. Rick Perry and city and company officials are expected to hold a news conference Friday in Fort Worth to announce the Cabela’s store here. The store is planned for the northeast corner of Texas 170 and Interstate 35W. Hillwood Development Corp., the Perot family’s real estate company, owns the site and would sell it to Cabela’s.

Construction could begin as early as next month on the 200,000-square-foot store, expected to employ about 500 people and generate first-year sales of $67.5 million. It’s not clear how much the company will spend on the land and construction.

Kim mentioned that the store in Mitchell is about half the size of the Bass Pro in Grapevine.  The new Cabela’s will be on-par with Bass Pro, since according to the Tarrant Appraisal District Bass Pro is approximately 213,686 sq. ft.

The federal government is at it again (obnoxious registration required for that link).

A nationwide mandate to make street signs larger for the aging U.S. population will mean thousands of new signs in North Texas cities and more than $1 million in costs for Fort Worth.

Tens of thousands of street signs—from 1st Avenue to Zwolle Street—will be replaced in coming years with signs that bear 6-inch letters to comply with new rules from the Federal Highway Administration.

Most North Texas cities will make the changes as they routinely replace aging street signs. But in Fort Worth, officials are being forced to revive a routine replacement program that had been scrapped to save money.

Over the next eight years, Fort Worth will spend $1.2 million to replace 15,000 street signs that have 4-inch letters, officials said.

I don’t doubt that replacing the signs is a good idea (even I have trouble with some of the tiny street signs around here).  However, I do question how this is any business of the federal government.  While the article isn’t completely clear on this point, it would appear that this was done through federal rule-making, rather than via any action by Congress.  It would seem to me that any action by the federal government that results in any kind of cost should have to go through a vote in Congress, rather than simply being introduced by a bunch of unelected bureaucrats.  This, of course, ignores the question of just which part of the constitution gives the federal government jurisdiction over street signs in the first place.

A town in Scotland may soon have a topless barbershop.

The shop, to be called “A Bit Off the Top,” will charge customers £25—about $40—for either a haircut or a private-booth massage. Both will be provided by former exotic dancers retrained to clip locks

Of course, the usual chorus of whiners and wet blankets are up-in-arms about it.

“We are quite shocked about this,” a spokeswoman for Glasgow Women’s Aid told the newspaper. “It’s really degrading for women. It caters for a certain type of immature behavior among men who can’t see women as equal to men.”

I hate to break it to this “spokeswoman”, but most guys like getting attention from topless women.  It’s just a fact of life.  But then I wouldn’t expect a representative of a woman’s group to get it.  If it was really that degrading to women, why would women participate?  It’s not like the women were dragged in at gunpoint, stripped, and made to cut hair.

How much would you like in that cup?

(I came across the link to this poll in the comments to a Slashdot article this morning.  I wasn’t like I was searching for it.  Honestly!)

I see that several people have been doing this.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

This particular book has a big table on page 23, so there’s little text on the page.  However, there is a fifth sentence that starts on page 23 and concludes on the next page:

The Problem Statement (or Mission Element Need Statement in the military) gets the process rolling and identifies a problem for which a solution in the form of a system (new or improved) is needed.

This is from The Engineering Design Of Systems: Models And Methods by Dennis M. Buede.  It’s definitely not leisure reading…

On Sunday afternoon after I’d finished up in the exhibit hall I decided to go check out Point State Park, which is across the street from where I’d been staying.

I accidentally stumbled into a trade fair and military demonstration for the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War.

They featured demonstrations of the weaponry and tactics of the period.  However, as always, safety must come first:

The French reenactors marched out under a white flag.  There were some comments from the crowd when they did this. 

I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m going to bring back an extra 40 pounds or so of junk I picked up at the NRA meeting in the exhibit hall.  I think I got one of every pamphlet, catalog, and flyer that was offered.  I also picked up some hats and other assorted junk.  I picked up an extra bag that I can carry on, but my worry is that the other stuff that I had to pack in my suitcase will put it over 50 pounds (American charges an extra $25.00 for bags weighing 51 to 75 pounds).

I also took about 200 pictures of the exhibits, the meeting, the protesters, and Point State Park.  When I get home I’m going to reduce their size and write up a few posts.  I’ve got some really outrageous pictures of the protesters that definitely need to be shown.