����I have risen from my sickbed to say a few words about The Weather Channel:

����LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE.

����There, I feel much, much better.

����See, twice this week The Weather Channel has predicted a light dusting of snow, today being one of those days. Dusting, my derri�re. They've been wrong both times, and as I speak we're getting a second buttload of snow.

����(In case one of my two readers might be American I would like to say here that buttload is a metric term. While our neighbours south of the border have clung to the old Imperial system and measure their snow in inches, feet, and yards, we Canadians have gone metric.)

����Thus--and don't you join me in feeling that the word "thus" is sadly underused today?--thus we measure our snow in millimeters, centimeters, buttloads, freakin' buttloads and meters. A buttload is anything between four inches and a foot, a freakin' buttload is anything between a foot and a meter.

����No need to thank me, really, for the preceding information. You KNOW I live to increase the understanding of Canada and all things Canuckian, eh.

����Now where was I? Oh yes, The Weather Channel.

����Normally there is no way to get revenge on this sinkhole of mendacity, BUT once again the incredibly cute yet deeply feared Team Newkirk of SETI@HOME fame has risen to the challenge.

����Not only have we been a-steadily crushing Dutch, but during this week's startling climb from 102 to 84th place in the world in our SETI category WE SPREAD A CAN OF WHUP ON THE WEATHER CHANNEL'S BUTT!

����Oh bliss, oh thrills, and a couple of raptures! Nothing like giving the folks you don't like a good smiting, I always say, eh.

����In other exciting SETI news (I know, I know do the thrills ever end in the hunt for extra-terrestrials?) we're just past the midway point of the SETI contest. Team Newkirk (yay, yay) thanks to a massive infusion of Diaryland goodness (and even a few kind souls from outside The Mothership), has pulled ahead of The Dutch Menace aka Team Betronic (boo, hiss).

����It looks as if Mortimer and Dutchie could be living happily ever after on this side of the Atlantic.

����HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however, The Dutch Menace are crunching more units daily than we are and eroding our lead, so we cannot relax our vigilance. Mortimer is so lovesick he doesn't seem to care where he is, as long as it's with His One True Love. Heck, I think for her he'd even wear wooden shoes!

����It's up to us to keep the little Mountie in The Great White North.

����Remember, do it for the moose.

--Marn

SETI@home

There has been an outpouring of sympathy for the plight of one small moose. The incredibly cute and deeply talented Paul of Rilting fame has even made a button for the Do It For The Moose Campaign.