Gambling is bad for poor people, except all the people who work in casinos, who would otherwise be poor. The latest bright idea of Vladimir Putin, monster: He's shutting the casinos down in Russia. All of them. Closed. Hundreds of thousands of people will be put out of work. They won't be put into work, in more useful industries; they'll just be locked out, to wander the streets, dealing blackjack for nickels. Casinos will be allowed to relocate, if they choose, to the very very worst regions of the Russian empire, like the North Korean border and the Siberian tundra.

Fun!

But not as fun as harvesting your own precious rainwater, for survival. Which is now legal in Colorado! No more fighting off the revernooers who come round trying to tell you you can't collect rainwater on your roof, cause it belongs to some big fancy businessman down in Denver. Times have changed! You're now free to collect as much rainwater as you like, hobos!

Rainwater, mmm!

It's the least the government can do for us. In all other ways, we are quashed like so many erroneous subpoenas under the oppressive thumb of the fuzzy MAN. Our subway fares are going up along with service cuts. We're mad about it! Our soldiers risk their lives in needless wars for a pittance only to come home to homelessness. We're saddened and shocked! But we don't do much about it, do we? No, we're too busy luxuriating in our new multimillon-dollar Minnesota Hindu temple.

Minnesota Hindus: the new scapegoats? Only you can decide.

June is supposed to be nice in New York. On average, 64% of the daylight hours in June are supposed to get sunshine. So far this month, nine out of twelve days have seen clouds, fog, and capricious rain. On average, according to historical weather data, we should have gotten about one-and-a-half total inches of rain so far this month. In grim reality, we've gotten four inches. On nine of the first 11 days of June, New Yorkers have seen below average temperatures, including four days with highs only in the 60s. This is not normal.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Steven DiMartino, a meteorologist for the Examiner, describes our doldrums thusly:

Through this weekend, the cold front will stall right over the forecast area, which will mean that moisture will converge and focus over the region, guaranteeing a good amount of cloudy conditions over the forecast area. As weak waves of low pressure, like the one over the Hudson Valley and West Virginia this morning move along the stationary front, scattered showers will develop and move through the region. Which will produce another hit or miss type of weekend for many.... This is not a case where wide spread rain develops, but just a dreary; foggy; cool; almost fall-like weekend can be expected. Personally, this type of weather makes me feel like playing football rather than baseball.

So when will it end? And why is it happening to us? El Niño!

[L]ooking at the water vapor this morning back through the Pacific Ocean, I see no mechanism to change this pattern. In fact, with the growing strength of El Nino, this type of pattern will only be reinforced through the next several weeks.

Indeed, forecasters are predicting an "El Niño event" all summer, which will mean more storms in the west, more Atlantic hurricanes, and supposedly warmer temperatures in the Northeast. But for now it means weak, limp cold fronts stalled in out backyards, raining on our grills, driving us batty, and making us buy new umbrellas everyday because we keep losing them.

[Top pic by John Fraissinet via Flickr]

boomp3.com

In addition to the regular team of assistants, Jake Gyllenhaal has employed a personal umbrella holder on the set of Nailed. Using his iPhone, the Brokeback Mountain star discovered that there was a slight chance of rain in the forecast for Columbia, South Carolina and did not want to take the risk of getting wet in the short distance between his trailer and set.

[Photo Credit: Flynet]

So last year Rain won — because the community members on my site all voted. Now we're voting for him again. He is the biggest guy in Asia, like Michael Jackson and JT rolled up into one. Mega mega star in Asia. But people here don't know him because he doesn't sing in English.

Stephen Colbert got all pissed that he came in #2 last year, and he did this really funny skit with a Korean music video. He was literally singing in Korean. And this year, when the voting started again, he did a show last week saying "Go vote for me, so I can beat my arch rival Rain." So his ColbertNation.com fans got on it.

Then Digg.com starting voting for Miyamoto — the creator of Mario, Donkey Kong etc. at Nintendo — and put him on #1.

You win by ranking, not number of votes. So you see how Rain has the most votes. It's because the Colbert folks are organizing in their forums to vote him down.

I'd guess there are a good dozen other communities with several million members that could push a star into the top ten. Of course our own weak attempt to get votes for Gawker publisher Nick Denton didn't do much, because Gawker isn't a cult of personality. But a community like 4chan or a dedicated group of top YouTube users could pick a candidate. And it sounds so dorky to say this, but that kind of shows who's really influential: you. And by "you" I mean losers in Internet forums with no larger life goal.