How many of you knew about the band Ladytron?

Because I didn’t even know they existed just about a month ago, and now I’m saying, “I just discovered this cool group that uses synthesizers live in concert and sounds like rock candy melting on a computer,” and everyone says, “oh, yeah, Ladytron.”

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Savannah, Georgia, established, 1733. Abraham Lincoln born, 1836.

– HAPPY BIRTHDAY –
Charles Darwin and Julie!

– NEWS OF THE WEEK –
New York Times: Obama Formally Enters Presidential Race.

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
Are you beautiful?

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Good health is above wealth. 6.5 earthquake near Los Angeles, California, 1971.

– HAPPY BIRTHDAY –
Tomorrow – Gemma!

– COUNTRY OF THE WEEK –
Puerto Rico.

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
Here.

NOTE – Thank you all for making the last several days so interesting. There are a number of comments now on Global Warming, progressive activism, and perhaps most importantly American Idol. I can’t afford to spend the whole weekend in front of the computer, so I’ll get to these next week.

… that a new Smashing Pumpkins album is coming out this July?

I am, right now, at this moment, sitting in a quiet room at Facts on File. The “room” is actually half of the floor, but it has been partitioned into not cubicals, but sub-rooms by cubical walls.

1988… The Smashing Pumpkins form.

Gish… 1991

Siamese Dream… 1993

Pisces Iscariot… 1994

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness… 1995

Adore… 1998

Machina / The Machines of God… 2000

Machina II: The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music… 2000

2000… The Smashing Pumpkins disband.

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Last quarter moon at apposition. Conjunction of Venus and Uranus. Mercury at the greatest Eastern elongation (18 degrees).

– PICTURE OF THE WEEK –
It’s a discoteque!

– QUESTION OF THE DAY –
When was the last time you stayed up all night (ie.

I just got a form email from Senator Clinton reiterating her support for Net Neutrality, a subject I had written her about many months ago. I appreciate the response, partly because it’s kind of unheard of. I never received a response from Debbie Stabenow regarding her support of the Military Commisions Act, and I often don’t even hear back from people I contact at the Flint Journal.

– ALMANAC SAYS –
Massachusetts became the 6th U.S. state, 1788.

– QUOTE OF THE WEEK –
“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.”

I should explain, every now and then, the method of producing these “months”… half of the time the years is determined by a straight randomization of the years I’ve lived minus one. The month is always synchronous with the month at the time the post is written.