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Comedian-actor George Carlin, known for his raunchy but insightful humor, died of heart failure Sunday in Los Angeles, his publicist said. He was 71.

Jeff Abraham said Carlin went into St. John’s Health Center on Sunday afternoon, complaining of chest pain. Carlin died at 5:55 p.m. PT.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

“He was a genius and I will miss him dearly,” Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

Carlin was best known for his routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television,” which appeared on 1972’s “Class Clown” album.

When Carlin uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested for disturbing the peace, the AP reported. The comedy sketch prompted a landmark indecency case after WBAI-FM radio aired it in 1973.

The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court where the justices ruled 5-4 that the sketch was “indecent but not obscene,” giving the FCC broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency on the airwaves.

“So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I’m perversely kind of proud of,” Carlin said. “In the context of that era, it was daring.”

“It just sounds like a very self-serving kind of word. I don’t want to go around describing myself as a ‘groundbreaker’ or a ‘difference-maker’ because I’m not and I wasn’t,” he said. “But I contributed to people who were saying things that weren’t supposed to be said.”

Carlin, who was also an author, was slated to receive in November the 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, given by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

“In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”

In a typically wry response, Carlin said, “Thank you, Mr. Twain. Have your people call my people.”

Carlin hosted the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” in October 1975.

He played the character of Mr. Conductor on the PBS series “Shining Time Station” and starred in more than a dozen HBO specials. Carlin was also a regular on The Tonight Show.

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” in 1989, the AP reported.

He also starred in three of comedic director Kevin Smith’s movie — 1999’s “Dogma,” 2001’s “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and 2004’s “Jersey Girl.” And his voice was so familiar and tuned to the craft of comedy that he was often asked to appear in cartoons, including Toon City’s “Tarzan II,” Disney’s “Cars” and two episodes of “The Simpsons.”

He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards, according to AP.

How horribly sad to wake up to.  Rest in peace, George!

No wait, sorry… that’s the wrong photo.  That’s a cute picture of a Sloth hanging from a tree… here’s the one I was thinking of (you can see how I almost mistook one for the other):

That’s right, this girl caused a traffic jam of people because she decided to climb on things in the middle of a path.  Were her parents around?  Not that we could tell.  Did she even see the signs saying to not climb on things?  Doubt it.  It really took me taking a picture for her to run off down the way.  It just drives me nuts.  I wish places like the Zoo had an “Adult Swim” type day.  You know, the second Tuesday of every month, no one under 21 allowed, or something similar.  I know I can’t be the only one that feels this way.  I’ll admit, it’s not just the child’s fault, but if the parent thinks that this is their vacation time, it is the only solution I have.  So annoying.

Mets 8th Inning Sing-a-long Vote

Please do the following:

1. Go to contest page.
2. Write-in “Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley”.
3. Fill out your Name, Phone Number, and Zipcode
4. Submit the form!

If all goes as planned this will not only be the best Rick Roll in history, but it may not be toppable, so that we can officially end the whole Rick Roll thing.  I think it’s a marvelous idea… you only have a limited time:

Fan voting is now open and concludes at Noon on Monday, April 7.

That’s only two days left, so please get voting!!!

And let’s be honest… what would be better than telling the Mets that you are never gonna give them up? 

Every post I made on April 1st was fake, and will be tagged “April Fools” this morning to halt further confusion. Everything was an April Fools joke of some sort. There is, sadly, no Zelda movie, nor Google on Mars. There was no Election Deathmatch, Caffeinated Cereal, nor was Wii Sports being released for anything other than the Wii. Also, every link in my “Daily del.icio.us Bookmarks” for yesterday led to a fake article of some sort. Sorry!!

The biggest news, I should say, is the trick I made… there is no Windows Code-Name Livephase. Sorry. I wish it existed as much as you, but it was all Photoshop and nothing more. Here’s a big logo, for those who liked it:

Here’s a close-up of the e-mail (no need to worry about NDA, it’s a fake, too):

Here’s to another sucessful April 1st… did I fool anyone out there?

Anyway you slice it, Pi rocks!

Now, when I was a young kid in High School, I had the joy of living in North Dakota. One day we went to school and the wind chill was negative 80. That’s right… negative 80 degrees. We didn’t get the day off. In fact I recall waiting at the bus stop that morning thinking it was a bit cold out. I used to tell people this and they’d look at me as if I told them I also had a pet Jackalope. Well, the joke’s on them now! After doing some checking, look what I found (pdf):

DAMAGE: North Dakota remained under a wind chill advisory January 16 after an
Arctic storm that started the previous day brought winds of up to 50 miles per hour
and wind chills of 60 to 80 below. The N.D. Highway Patrol reported blowing snow
resulted in the closure of the following roadways: 1-29, from South Dakota to
Canada; I-94, from Montana to Minnesota; U.S. Highway 83, the northbound lane,
from Bismarck to Minot; and U.S. Highway 2, from Grand Forks to Lakota. The
Highway Patrol has since reopened U.S. Highway 83, I-94, I-29 and U.S. Highway 2.

County offices closed early, and classes were suspended January 15 in many North
Dakota schools as a result of the ninth snow storm of the season. Many school
superintendents have expressed concern about the number of school days missed
and are asking the Governor to forgive those missed days.

There… notice how it said “classes were suspended January 15 in many North
Dakota schools” and not “all North Dakota schools”? So just sayin’… negative 30 is nothing to shut down school for, especially if there’s no snow with it (did I mention it was also snowing that day back in 1997?). Sheesh… kids today!

Anyway, that’s my update for now… I need to finish up and get out of here (if only today was Friday). Until we meet again….

As someone in the IT field, I’m sick of consumers who don’t understand what they buy. If you go into a store and purchase a new laptop with Windows Vista on it, I don’t want to hear you keep asking “Where is my XP? Why did I get this Vista thing?” Seriously. I don’t know why it’s still acceptable for people to not know anything about technology. I’m not asking that everyone be a technophile, but really, have a little basic knowlege.

Above is a quick example… this is a scan of an actual note I got with a laptop yesterday (the color was added by me, it was a black & white scan). Sure, I’ll look into “Delete Vista” for you. *sigh*