David Ernst Chats with the World

Ha! I was right! For years I’ve been voicing my hypothesis that fruit flies don’t really like fruit, they like microorganisms that eat fruit. My hypothesis for this was the fact that very fresh, unbruised fruit doesn’t seem to attract fruit flies, but rotten fruit, wine, and even vinegar does. Well, WFIU’s *A Moment of Science* agrees, and presumably the scientists who deduced this know more about this stuff than I do. :)

So, today I was looking for some video capture software stuff for Linux, and I ended up searching
[Dag’s site](http://dag.wieers.com/) for the thing I was looking for. Didn’t find it, but the point is that when I ran
this Google search from Dag’s site I was greeted by a link called “Linux” paid for by Microsoft. “Independent Windows vs Linux data. Download free white papers.” Setting aside the question of whether or not it’s in any sense valid to use the word “independent” in such a case, I just thought it was interesting that MS was paying Google for *anything*, particularly the word “Linux”, especially in the light of [Steve Balmer’s recent statement to CNN that his kids aren’t allowed to use Google (or iPods)](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/04/03/8373041/index.htm). (That they aren’t allowed to use Linux, I’m sure, goes without saying). Of course, it’s obviously trying to contrast its server products to those of Linux, I don’t see this as at all scandalous. Just interesting.

By the way, [a much simpler search](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=linux&btnG=Google+Search) shows the same thing.

Who knows how true it is, but I certainly enjoyed [this episode of the K-Chronicles](http://www.buzzle.com/showImage.asp?image=11041). And it sure seems believable. You’d think that anyone against, say, increased government spending would not appreciate the current administration.