Have you heard about this idiot who tried to extort $500 from a Pizza Hut? What the hell was he thinking? The idiot sent cell phone photos of his car's to the store manager of the Pizza Hut. Apparently the local cops were able to pull some CSI TV magic voodoo on the pictures and zoom in on the license plates to find out who this idiot was. I wonder if the computer tech who did all this magic to the pictures got paid well. It had to have been magic because I have yet to see a decent cell phone photo that would be clear enough to read a license plate. The bad part is, the cops spent all this time trying to zoom in on the license plates when all they really needed to do was call back the number of the pictures came from and arrange a pickup. Seriously, how else did this man plan to make the exchange if not in person. By the light of this idiot was a former employee of the restaurant he called. Wouldn't it have been obvious who had the signs based on the information that he'd left with signs and didn't bring them back before he left employment there. I'll know who the bigger idiot is, the dumbass who tried to extort Pizza Hut, the cops going the long way around to find this guy, or the store manager for not realizing who in the hell it was in the first place. You can read the full story here.

Python Fatally shot

According to an AP story a Michigan State trooper fatally shot a Burmese python. What the hell? Last time I looked Burmese pythons were not indigenous to Michigan! Authorities seem to think that it was a pet that either escaped its owner or was deliberately released because of its size. Well duh!!! My bet would be on the fact that it was deliberately released, because it seems to be becoming more and more common that people are buying reptiles as pets, and not realizing how large some of them become. Seriously, a quick look over at the Wikipedia entry for Burmese pythons, which can be found here, states that they can grow up to 7 m or 23 feet long! Are you dumb enough to buy an exotic animal with out doing even a small amount of research. You can read the entire AP story by clicking here.

CSI is dead!!!

It's official that the CBS crime drama CSI is over. Sometime in early 2009 William Petersen will appear in his last regularly occurring episode of the hit crime drama CSI. The producers of CSI have decided to bring in Laurence Fishburne as a new regularly occurring character, who is currently only codenamed "The Professor". I honestly do not think that the show can survive without William Petersen. If I remember correctly, the episodes where the character Grissom was on hiatus were the lowest rated episodes of the hit show ever. Laurence Fishburne's character will be a college lecturer and former pathologist who tries to find out why people commit the acts of violence that they do. You can read more on this story by clicking here.

A sad weekend for entertainment

This weekend was a sad one for black Americans, with the passing of two great actors. Saturday August the 9th comedian and actor Bernie Mac died. Many people know "the Mac man" as a comedian and actor but he also did public service announcements for the American Library Association's Save America's Libraries campaign. These PSA mostly aired only in on talk radio stations. You can read more about Bernie Mac over at his Wikipedia page here.

Also this weekend Isaac Hayes passed on August 10. Isaac of course is most famous for his role as Chef on the Comedy Central animated show South Park. One thing a lot of people might not know is that he is the first black Academy award winner for a non-acting category. You can find out more about Isaac Hayes by reading his Wikipedia entry here.

Ethanol - Savior of our future or killer of older cars?

Over at Boating Life I found this interesting article entitled "Deathanol" which points out some interesting facts about ethanol. Did you know that ethanol can absorb water from the air? This water, then lowers the performance of your gasoline powered engine. When used in older vehicles ethanol's, solvent capabilities will loosen rust, sludge and other contaminants in your tank hopefully just plugging your fuel filter, but possibly causing major carburetor or fuel injector problems. The expert interviewed for the article recommends that in vehicles that are seldom used, such as RVs, boats or ATVs you should use a non-alcohol-based fuel stabilizer. I don't know about you, but now I think I should check the fuel filter on my older truck, because I have noticed slightly lower performance since my local gas station started using 10% ethanol. Just a little heads up from your friendly neighborhood Ranter.

Apologies

Howdy, I really should apologize for my recent absence but work and other real-life responsibilities have gotten in the way temporarily. I plan to start keeping a regular schedule of a least Monday, Wednesday and Friday updates.