Dissentular squawkage

Recent comments of interest...

JUST DO THE MATH

Given the assumptions that each vampire would attack one human per month and that the first vampire struck in 1600, vampires would have exterminated the human race by 1602, [Professor of Physics Costas] Efthimiou calculated.

…[Efthimiou] said his work has provoked angry messages from people, including some with “.edu” in their e-mail addresses, who cling to their conceptions that vampires exist….

One person, Efthimiou said, criticized his failure to account for Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s role in keeping the vampire population in check.

—It’s Halloween Weekend on Campus


JESUS DON'T CUT GRASS

"Too many people are waiting for Jesus to come along and cut your grass. And Jesus isn't going to come along and cut your grass."

—More straight talk from [Bill] Cosby


OO, I FEEL A CALL

[T]here is not a chance that the reported low sperm counts among heavy cell phone users, reported at the ASRMC in New Orleans on Sunday, had anything to do with cell phone radiation. The wavelength is far too long…It's too small to affect sperm, even if you put the phone in your underpants.

Ashok Agarwal of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, studied 364 men at a fertility clinic in Mumbai, India. The real question is what they talk about for four hours a day.

—What’s New? – 10/27


RUSH, YOU’RE KILLING US

Last week the list of ills attributable to obesity grew: fat people cause global warming.

This latest contribution to the obesity debate comes in an article by Sheldon H. Jacobson of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and his doctoral student, Laura McLay. Their paper...calculates how much extra gasoline is used to transport Americans now that they have grown fatter. The answer, they said, is a billion gallons a year.

—Blame Cookie Monsters

Al Tello's wife?

As you know, the director of the Irvine Valley College Foundation is Al Tello, a nice guy, despite being very connected to Trustee Tom Fuentes and his local GOP cronies. (See Tello.)

Al’s wife’s name is Emilee, and she can usually be found working for GOP candidates.

It turns out that one “Emilee Tello” is the, or at least a, worker who resigned on the 24th from Tan Nguyen’s Congressional campaign--seemingly in connection with the now-infamous mailer. (Nguyen)

That's what I learned in this morning’s OC Register, in an article concerning the recent raid of the home of a Nguyen friend (Nguyen probe expands to LAPD officer):

...Nguyen's campaign treasurer, Emillee Tello, submitted documents to the Federal Election Commission advising them of her resignation from the campaign, effective Oct. 24.

Tello could not be reached for comment.

Tan Nguyen remained steadfast in an interview with the Register that "no crime has been committed."

Although he denies having directed the flier, he has admitted that volunteers with his campaign were responsible for sending it.

He blamed the confusion on several translation errors.

I happen to know that Trustee Tom knows Emilee Tello.

You'll recall that Trustee Tom served as a (the) "senior advisor" to Nguyen's campaign, at least during the primary. Nguyen paid him $15,000.

And, of course, back 1988, Fuentes was involved in a notorious effort to intimidate Latino voters by placing guards at polling places.

To read Trustee Tom's hearty endorsement of Tan Nguyen's candidacy, go to Tom's endorsement. (It's a small pdf file.)