According to the TSA, you only have these options.

• The Pornoscanner


• A Very Intimate Pat Down (including feeling your genitals and fingering any scars you have).


• Up to an 11,000 dollar fine and you will not be allowed to fly if you refuse both (Possibly, we might fine you, or we might not fine you, we decide).

Edit to include Rep. Sharon Cissna's account of the events of 20 February 2011.

Ah, Dallas! The only city that I'm aware of that gets ice on a yearly basis, and yet the drivers have no idea what to do!

Have I got a unicorn chaser for you.

I discovered a new musician this morning.  Harrison Cosmo Krikoryan Jarvis, who performs under the name Cosmo Jarvis.  Born in New Jersey, he moved to Devon in the UK as a child, and as a result, the residents of the US lost a really interesting performer.

Well, this evidently straight but not narrow artist wrote and performed a song about a young gay pirate and the man that he loves.

Here is a snippet of the lyrics

Yo-ho, Sebastian
Let's go far away
Somewhere where the captain won't be mad.
Yo-ho, Sebastian
I want to love you good
We deserve much better than we've had.

They say they're gonna kill me
If i look at you once more.
Pissed in my hammock yesterday,
So I'll sleep on the floor

I'd be under the sea,
but you hold me above.

They put glass on my sandals,
So my feet would bleed all day,
And they forced me to wear them,
Or they said they'd make you pay

I'd be under the sea,
but you hold me above.
'Cos you're the man i love

So not only did he write and record this song, but then he comes up with an idea for a music video for it, he then films, directs, and stars in the video himself.

And in an interview on After Elton he said the following things which I found really telling.

AfterElton: How did you come up with the idea of writing a song about gay pirates?
Cosmo Jarvis: You know the stereotype of pirates — these gruff dudes who can take anything, they live on maggot-infested biscuits in the middle of the sea, they whip each other, they’re really tough guys.

So if one in ten guys today is gay, then one in ten guys back then must have been gay, so I was just thinking there must have been gay pirates, although pirates were very tolerant toward homosexuals for the most part. But if you did end up on a boat in the middle of the ocean and you can’t run anywhere and everybody is totally against the idea of you having a partner on the boat, I felt that it was the worst thing that could happen to somebody who was gay.

. . .

AE: You play one of the two gay pirates in the video, and while that shouldn't be a big deal in 2010, I can see a lot of other musicians at the point you are in your career not doing it, or their management saying maybe you shouldn't do that. You're kissing the guy up on the stage. Did you ever think twice about it?
CJ: No. No way. Why would you? Nobody would think twice about kissing a girl. I'd be a shit actor if I was going to get up there and think twice about it. I have to tell their love story some way or another.

It doesn't bother me. I've never been shy about that kind of stuff. I'm not gay, but growing up we had this game called Gay Man Chicken, where two guys face each other, and go to kiss, to make out seriously, and whoever wimps out first is the one with the problem about being a homosexual. The guy who does it doesn't have a problem with his sexuality, because it's just kissing a guy. So it was just not a big deal.

. . .

"After all that, after all that hate and all that bullshit, but it's still going to carry on. If they can get in front of us and just kiss, then maybe we should let this go."

So what we have here is a guy who is so cool, I would be proud to shake his hand.  He deserves every bit of success in his life.  Go show this guy some love and promote the hell out of him.

But really, it is too damn cool.

Microsoft has a new program, Dreamspark.  Dreamspark gives students free access to Microsoft Operating Systems and Development Tools, along with electronic documentation and video training to encourage up and coming students to try writing that next big application or website.

You do need to be a student registered at a university or an educator for a school, but really, this is a very cool thing.  I hope to see more of this in the future, we really need to promote education more than we do now.

This week has been running a little high on the frustration and stress levels, so getting the following thing linked to me really went a long way to improving my week.

The lab team for doctor Hui Zheng from Baylor College of Medicine who are working on a study for Alzheimer's disease. This was their submission for the Molecular and Human Genetics Retreat 2011 about a dissertation project that just is not cutting the proverbial mustard. Oh and the Gaga costumes made out of biohazard bags just really, really, *really* make me happy.