u Pludgu ulluguuncu tu thu flug uf thu Unutud Stutus uf umurucu
und tu thu Rupubluc fur whuch ut stunds,
unu Nutuun undur Gud,
unduvusublu, wuth luburty und justucu fur ull.

Go to freetranslation.com, translate some English into another language, and then convert it back to english.

ENGLISH:
I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

JAPANESE:
(japanese characters won't display in my browser)

BACK TO ENGLISH:
United States of America of flag to and that I swears the loyalty to the republic of condition without being able to divide God below 1 country with the justice for all with freedom.

Now doing it just in Dutch is so funny, you don't even have to convert it back to English for a laugh:
Ik Beloof Getrouwheid naar de vlag van de Verenigde Staten van Amerika
en naar de Republiek waarvoor het
staat, een Natie onder God,
onverdeelbaar, met vrijheid en gerechtigheid voor iedereen.

ik beloof! It's like the Swedish chef on the Muppets! Heeda Hooda Herda!

(By the way, I covered this back in 2003, but I didn't have a cool name for it, like I do now, "freetranslation cycle")
Read the comments for more translations.

What do you want?

There should be some sort of program where you can enter a word, say "cat" and then it would generate a palindrome using the word "cat." e.g. "Was it a cat I saw?" (fyi, palindromes are phrases where it reads the same forwards and backwards).

Yesterday's new word noonionon was a close palindrome, and now I want to see a palindrome using the word onion.

In the 29 years since 1978, USA has won Air Hockey World Championships 27 times. Talk about dominance. Air Hockey is America's sport! Tim Weissman won eight times in a row. He should be in the top 100 American athletes of all time.

The McDonalds by me closes at night, but the drive-thru is open 24 hours. They don't let you walk up to the drive-thru, but they let you come via bicycle. But how about a kick scooter? Or maybe roller blades?

Papergirl asked a great question, "You can have a year to do whatever it is that you want to do. Don't worry about money. What'll it be?"

Off the top of my head, I'd travel across the world and find the coolest tree in every country. I'm sure there's other better things to do, but that's the first thing that came to mind. Off the top of your head, what would you do?

Today (Monday, November 19) is 733,000th day since January 1, 0001. Seven hundred thirty-three thousand days. That’s a lot. 733,000 pennies would weigh 2.29 tons. But then check this out: http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/six.asp That’s a million pennies. Doesn’t look like much, eh?

noonionon

demand
1) The fast way of saying "No onion on" or "No onions please."

GWIK = get with it, kid.

developed via IM with coworker friend, L:

L: hey! you're not at the staff meeting anymore!
spudart: (Autoreply) 1:30pm staff meeting
L: get with it, kid!
spudart: GWIK

New name for Marshmellows: bonemellows or skinmellows
Marshmellows are made from bone, skin, and sugar? GROSS! They should be called bonemellows or skinmellows, so people are aware of this. I will NOW start calling marshmellows that. Oh what a party spoiler i am. Maybe I shouldn’t do that when people are actually eating the marsh—err skinmellows.

We have hot chocolate at work. And sometimes we run out of the regular kind and I have to use the type with marshmell—CRAP! I GOTTA REMEMBER TO CALL THEM BY THE NEW NAME—bonemellows. And so i’ll put the powder in my cup, but then shake it, so the mars—NAR! bonemellows—come up to the top, and then i scoop them out.

BUT it is fun to have the skinmellows in cereal every now and then. I’m just not a fan of the HUGE sugar intake (well, now and the bone and skin too). But a ninja bonemellow. Man.

Purple horseshoe: 1984 TV event of the year
Oh speaking of marshmell—err, bonemellows. I just made a comment today on my twin’s blog about when they added the purple horseshoe to Lucky Charms in 1984. I hail it as the tv event of the year for a nine-year-old. Check it out at: http://www.unlikelymoose.com/blog/comments/877_0_1_0_C/.

Btw, i was looking for an image of a Lucky Charm Purple Horseshoe to put on this post, but didn’t find any in a quick google image search. It makes me want to buy some and scan them in hi-res. (but if I buy a box, do I want to eat skin and bone?) I wonder what they would look like up close. ACTUALLY, what would it look like under a microscope? Oh man.

(this post originated from a comment I made about Michael's new cereal with sugar swords and choco ninjas!)

Have you ever heard someone pronounce "Beverly Hills 90210" to be nine-oh-two-TEN? Or how about ninety-twenty-one-ZERO. This show was quite popular when I was in high school, and I'm surprised I don't recall anyone saying the 90210 part as a different number interpretation.

With the millions of dollars that baseball players get paid, you'd think there would be a good sizable list of players who contribute to their presidential candidate of choice. There's not. In fact, there are only two current major league players who contributed to a presidential candidate this year. Derek Lee and John Smoltz. Here's the full list of current and former players that gave money this year.

Barack Obama:

• Derek Lee (Chicago Cubs first baseman): $4,600
• Charles Steiner (Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster): $2,300

Mitt Romney:

• Dale Murphy (former Atlanta Brave outfielder, future Hall of Famer): $2,100
• John Smoltz (Atlanta Brave pitcher, future Hall of Famer): $2,300

Chris Dodd:

• Bud Selig (MLB commissioner): $2,000

Source: I searched every major league team in the "employer" section of campaignmoney.com.

Drinking caffeine will make the joints in my fingers to make cracking sounds. The caffeine will also make my hands hurt overall. I don't drink soda or coffee very often (maybe once a week) and EVERY time the next morning, my hands will crack and hurt a bit.

My dad drinks coffee every day and his hands also hurt. I've been trying to get him to try stop drinking coffee for one week and see what happens. I'm absolutely convinced that it happens to me. Any one else experience the same thing with caffeine?

There are some days that I'll shoot a photo that just really pleases me a lot and makes me surprised that I'm able to create something so neat. This is one of those images. (Shot yesterday during lunch).

The reflections of the Trump Tower and IBM Building here give me such joy. The Trump Tower has such amazing reflections with its curved surface. And then the IBM Building with a normally dull gray exterior comes alive in this photo with the oranges and blues.

This is going to be one of my favorite photos for not only the reflections, but the collection of buildings. In addition to the primary subject matter of the Trump and IBM, there's the John Hancock nicely nestled in between the two. Then there's the AMA Building just poking out of the left of the IBM. The Wrigley Building and the Hotel Intercontinental are also featured on the right. (I took a shot that includes more of the Wrigley and the Tribune Tower, but that version didn't have as much power as this photo).

The clouds create an interesting set of rows.

Plus, it will be interesting to see this photo once the Trump Tower is completed.

Higher resolution print available at: www.deviantart.com/print/2053987

You want a president that will keep communication lines open. Of all the 2008 Presidential candidates, Dennis Kucinich and John McCain both sent out the most emails in October 2007. They sent out 16 emails each.

The most secretive candidates were Rudy Giuliani and Barack Obama with five. Even though Mike Gravel only sent out three, that's more chalked up to him giving up.

It's interesting contrast the closed Giuliani and Obama with the open McCain and Kucinich.

Here's the chart of all the candidates and their frequency of emails for their campaign.

Ut oh. Apple's stock is eventually gonna drop (not right now, but in the coming years). You watch. iTunes is gonna stop being the one main source for music and tv content downloads. The entertainment industry is catching on that iTunes isn't the only way to sell their music and tv shows. Variety.com reports:

NBC Universal topper Jeff Zucker warned Monday that new digital business models are turning media revenues "from dollars into pennies" and revealed that NBC U booked just $15 million in revenue during the last year of its deal with Apple's iTunes.

Interviewed by the New Yorker's Ken Auletta at a benefit for Syracuse U.'s Newhouse School, Zucker described the impasse that led to NBC U's decision not to renew its current iTunes deal, which expires in December.

NBC U wanted to explore higher pricing for hit shows such as "Heroes" by raising the price from Apple's standard $1.99 to $2.99 on an experimental basis.

"We wanted to take one show, it didn't matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99," he said. "We made that offer for months and they said no."

In lieu of more flexibility on pricing, NBC U sought a cut of Apple's hardware sales.

"Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content, and made a lot of money," Zucker said. "They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing."

NBC Universal programming accounted for 40% of iTunes' video sales. Zucker used iTunes as an example of the kind of digital business model that, he asserted, is corrosive to the media business.

"We don't want to replace the dollars we were making in the analog world with pennies on the digital side," he said.

To read the rest of the article, go to: Zucker says Apple deal rotten. They don't mention anything about Apple's stock going down, but I have a feeling that iTunes isn't going to be the only main source for video and music content. Apple innovated, and someone will eventually provide another platform for competition.

Jay Hoffman--a democrat and chairman of the Illinois House transportation committee--did not vote to support Metra, CTA and Pace in the initial vote for SB572. What's wrong here?
A) He's a democrat and only the very very southern Democrats have not supported this bill. Jay, I hope you're not a Southern Illinois idiot.
B) He's the CHAIRMAN of the TRANSPORTATION committee. That's just seriously wrong that he doesn't support mass transit in Chicago.

Here's the inside scoop why he doesn't support SB572. Right now the bill is slated to increase the sales tax for the six-county region of Chicagoland. The Republicans want a huge state-wide casino system instead.

According to followthemoney.org, Gambling and casinos were sixth on the list of top industries that contributed to his campaign in 2006.

Here’s how the numbers break down for Jay’s 2006 campaign:
Lawyers & Lobbyists $55,198
General Trade Unions $53,169
Construction Services $44,200
Beer, Wine & Liquor $42,394
Public Sector Unions $36,250
Gambling & Casinos $31,516

Gee, I’m guessing Jay wants gambling to be part of the bill and not sales tax.

Springfield Office: (217) 782-8018
District Office: (618) 345-2176
Email: hoffman@legis.state.il.us

(Thanks to Margaret Lyons of Chicagoist for pointing out to me that Jay is the head of transportation and that he didn't vote yes for the initial bill. And also thanks to Margaret for writing about the Metra pdf flyer on Chicagoist.)