Calling all fans of Spam, dead parrots, upper-class twits and lumberjacks! MONTY PYTHON'S PERSONAL BEST, six one-hour specials airing on PBS February 22-March 8, 2006, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET., showcases the all-time favorites of the groundbreaking masters of sketch comedy: Monty Python.

Each episode will include members of the original Monty Python troupe performing in favorite clips from their unorthodox television series, "Monty Python's Flying Circus," repurposed with exclusive new material. Each of the five living Pythons - John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin - produced and wrote his own episode, and collaborated to create the sixth special in honor of deceased member Graham Chapman. The episodes will air over a three week period in two-hour blocks on PBS on February 22, March 1 and March 8.

"As the network that originally introduced the fresh and unconventional comedy of Monty Python to America, PBS is proud to present these new specials," said John F. Wilson, PBS senior vice president and co-chief programming executive. "These specials will allow Monty Python fans to learn more about the men who have made them laugh for decades, while introducing a whole new generation to these world-renowned comedians."

Viewers familiar with the Pythons or new to their zany brand of chaos will be treated to the troupe's favorites, including:

* "Michael Palin's Personal Best"--Michael Palin takes a look at one of Britain's most popular leisure pursuits: fish slapping. In possibly the first in-depth documentary on this piscine subject, he examines method, technique and equipment. In between are some of his favorite sketches from "Monty Python's Flying Circus," including the Cheese Shop, Blackmail and, appropriately, the Piranha Brothers.

* "Eric Idle's Personal Best"--Eric Idle returns to the Hollywood Bowl to introduce his favorite skits from "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Idle has been described by some as the third-tallest member of the Monty Python team and this is reflected in his selections, which include the Silly Olympics, Bruces, Lumberjacks and the Hairdressers' Expedition to Mount Everest.

* "Terry Jones' Personal Best"--Terry Jones reveals for the first time that he was the true creative genius behind Monty Python and in fact wrote all the shows himself. This makes the job of selecting his favorites all the harder, but he manages to produce an hour that features The Bishop, News for Parrots, Bicycle Repair Man and the Spanish Inquisition.

* "John Cleese's Personal Best"--John Cleese chooses instructive selections as his favorite sketches from "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Viewers learn how to defend themselves against fresh fruit, perform brain surgery Gumby-style and fly. For music lovers, there's the exploding version of the Blue Danube.

* "Terry Gilliam's Personal Best"--Terry Gilliam is animated about animation as he presents his cartoon favorites f... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Monty Python's Personal Best

Commentator David Brown offers this appreciation of the campy television show Batman, which premiered on ABC on this day 40 years ago. Brown says for people his age, who were little kids at the time, the Dynamic Duo were larger-than-life superheroes. And, 40 years later, he still appreciates the show's absurdist brillianc

The Campy, Absurdist Brilliance of TV's 'Batman'

High-integrity software systems are often so large that conventional development processes cannot get anywhere near achieving tolerable defect rates. This article presents an approach that has delivered software with very low defect rates cost-effectively. We describe the technical details of the approach and the results achieved, and discuss how to overcome barriers to adopting such best practice approaches. We conclude by observing that where such approaches are compatible and can be deployed in combination, we have the opportunity to realize the extremely low defect rates needed for high integrity software composed of many million lines of code.

Good read... poor software costs about $60B a year Sheesh..!!!!

Correctness by Construction: A Manifesto for High-Integrity Software

"When a Marquette University Dental School student blogger made some nasty comments about an (unnamed) professor and (unnamed) classmates on his personal blog, the Dental School administration imposed a draconian punishment on him. He was to be suspended from school for a year, lose a prestigious scholarship, and seek counseling for supposed "behavioral problems." The case received wide attention, starting with local talk radio, the local daily paper and reverberated through the blogsphere. Dental School Dean William Lobb, considering the case on appeal, has now reduced the student's punishment. The student now faces probation rather than suspension, will be allowed to keep his scholarship, and will not have to seek counseling. He will have to do 100 hours of community service, and apologize for the blog posts. While this is certainly good news for the student, it leaves open the question of how much freedom Marquette Dental School students have in posting on their personal, non-university connected blogs."

Dental School Blogger Punishment Reduced

Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today’s neo-puritanical culture. Confronted by health zealots and an opportunistic senator, Nick goes on a PR offensive, spinning away the dangers of cigarettes, but he begins to think about how his work makes him look in the eyes of his young son Joey.

Looks like a good movie...

Thank You For Smoking...

Maybe it was jumping on Oprah's couch.
Or perhaps it was his testy interview with Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today" show, or his constant expressions of love for his fiancee, Katie Holmes.
Maybe it was all of those things combined that prompted British movie fans to name Tom Cruise the most irritating actor in Hollywood.
Cruise was found to be more annoying than Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey.
Britain's Empire magazine surveyed 10,000 movie fans.
But while Cruise may annoy them off camera, they still like his movies. They named him the greatest movie star of all time.

WSMV - Nashville Channel 4 News Tom Cruise Voted Most Irritating Star Of All Time

What day does the first of the year fall on? It wasn't always January 1st.
The ancient Babylonians, for example, celebrated the beginning of a new year on what is now March 23, although they didn't have a written calendar - no mean feat considering that this was long before the ubiquitous datebooks and wall calendars we can't live without.
Time passed, and with it came the development of the ancient Roman calendar, which was based on a lunar system. Better, but still not very accurate.
Then, in 46 B.C., Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar-based calendar (the Julian calendar). This was a vast improvement on the Roman calendar, which had become wildly inaccurate over the years. The Julian calendar decreed that the new year would occur on January 1st, and within the Roman world, this became the consistently observed start of the new year.

What day does the first of the year fall on?

StumbleUpon is an intelligent browsing tool for sharing and discovering great websites. As you click Stumble!, you'll get high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended (rated I like it) by friends and other SU members with similar interests. Rating these sites shares them with your friends and peers – you will automatically 'stumble upon' each others favorites sites.

StumbleUpon uses / ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages which friends and like-minded stumblers () have liked. Unlike search engines or static directories, this allows for a true "democracy of the web" – all SU members have a say ( or ) as to whether a page should be passed on.

In effect, StumbleUpon's members collectively share the best sites on the web. You can share any site by simply clicking I like it. This passes the page on to friends and like-minded people – letting them "stumble upon" all the great sites you discover.

Elonka ... Here is where that traffic is from... I use it for killing idle time....

:)

About StumbleUpon

MAKE is thrilled to offer this free 35 minute film for download! - "Glimpses of How it's made" - a tour of how many things in our world are made, each segment is 6 minutes (hence the full name "Six-Minute Manufacturing Glimpses of How it's made"). Learn about, get inspired, and see how it's made: LectroSonics (wireless microphones), Rose's Southwest Papers (paper converting), Accurate Custom (Injection Molding), Mega Corp. (water haulage equipment), Earthstone International (recycled glass abrasives), Butterman Tool (tool and die), Eclipse Aviation (small jet aircraft), Optical Insights (optical equipment).

Glimpses of How it's made...

In what could hopefully (fingers crossed) become the next incident involving stolen footage of beautiful celebs baring all, Marc Antony (Mr. J-lo, not Mr. Cleopatra) has been the victim of a techjacking, with the New York Post reporting that the NYPD’s Computer Investigation and Technology Unit was recently dispatched to Antony’s pad to investigate the theft of his laptop. The reason that this story is more interesting than say, the recent theft of Kevin Costner’s laptop by a wedding employee, is because this thief is demanding a cool million bucks for the safe return of Antony’s lappie, leading people to hope and pray speculate that the notebook contains anything from “boudoir” shots of Ms. Lopez to full-on Pam/Fred/Paris-style shennanigans. As with all of the most important stories in consumer electronics, we’re gonna stay right on top of this one the whole way.

Marc Antony's laptop being held for $1 million ransom