Michael Savage is a moron.

This is no surprise coming from someone like me, who has always held the neocon radio host in only the utmost of contempt anyway; his on-air rantings and ravings about how homosexuals should just "get AIDS and die" (a direct quote, one that cost him an MSNBC TV show when he made it over their airwaves), among other pleasantries, pretty much gaurantees I won't be sending him Christmas cards any time soon.

This time, however, he seems to have really put his foot in it. Apparently, on his radio show, Savage turned his attention to autism, calling autistic kids "brats" that "[i]n 99% of the cases... hasn't been told to cut the act out," and accusing the disease itself of being little more than a "fraud" and a "racket."

When called on his rantings, he issued a public statement in which he officially tried to recast his comments as a wake-up call of sorts: "My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as 'autistic'.... Just as some drug companies have overdiagnosed 'ADD' and 'ADHD' to peddle dangerous speed-like drugs to children as young as four years of age, this cartel of doctors and drug companies is now creating a national panic by overdiagnosing 'autism,' for which there is no definitive medical diagnosis!"

As much as I hate Savage's guts, and I do (well, inasmuch as I can bring myself to hate anyone), the sad truth is this response actually raises a valid point. There is a problem with health-care providers overdiagnosing certain illnesses and other disorders, and perhaps a lot of it can be tied in to shady dealings with Big Medicine. Plus, a lot of the drugs perscribed to treat ADD/ADHD in children (ritalin, dexedrine) are pretty hardcore stuff. Unfortunately, the point is delivered by someone who is little better than a venom-spitting demagogue who just so happens to have a national forum through which to vent his frustrations with anyone and anything that upsets his notion of what America ought to be, absolutely no better and no worse than the worst soapbox-climbers in the blogosphere. And as a result, that valid point is going to be forgotten, or even worse, ascribed as just more paranoid/delusional ranting by a right-wing nutjob and consequently discounted.

Besides, it's not like Savage didn't know the way he chose to express those comments on his airwaves would be taken precisely the way it was, nor that it would paint him as anything other than a closed-minded peddler of hate speech.

I don't care that I'm giving this jackass free publicity - which is all he's really after - by ranting about him here. That's how much he pisses me the hell off. Plus, autism and ADD/ADHD (which he also openly denies is real) is a subject that hits very close to home for me, as I not only suffer ADD myself, I've known children and adults my whole life that deal with these disorders every day of their lives, so do not tell me they aren't real and that most anyone claiming to have them is just an attention whore.

Then again, maybe you would in fact know an attention whore when you see one, Mr. Savage. After all, I assume you have mirrors in your home.

So the retail giant we all either love to hate or hate to love, Walmart, has gone and and changed not only its logo, but its name as well (removing the hyphenation, whether represented by a - or a *).

Strangely enough, I approve of the new look; it's amazing what a difference just using lowercase letters to declare your name can make. It wins, of course, zero points for creativity (it's really just a word in a nondescript typeface), but then again, the previous "WAL*MART" logo wasn't winning any awards in that department either.

You all know my feelings about Walmart in general, however. I will shop there if I have to, but don't expect me to feel good about it. I'm much more amenable to Target and Meijer, both of which just moved into town in fact. ("Closer to" town, in the case of Meijer.)

On another note, the cover boy for Madden 09 (which I just noticed on Walmart's website) is... Brett Favre? Huh? Either that's still just preliminary artwork or somebody at EA hasn't been paying much attention... it's highly doubtful we'll see Favre play this season, and certainly not in Cheesehead colors!

This is an unashamed attempt to try and stay positive. Rather than rail on and on about why I hate this state (or at least the portion of it I'm sentenced to live out my life in), which frankly even I'm getting tired of by this point, this is going to be a list of ten reasons why I, perhaps, don't hate this burg as much as I've led myself to believe I do over the years.

To wit:

1. The local sports teams - with one HUGE exception - aren't that bad. Yes, Ohio State needs to be at ground zero of a hypothetical Deep Impact asteroid incident. That's not what I'm talking about, though. I'm thinking the Columbus Crew, the Columbus Blue Jackets, and even the Columbus Clippers (AAA baseball now aligned with the Washington Nationals). I have no issues cheering for any of these teams, especially the Crew (as the pics I posted here a few weeks back should attest). The Clippers' home field, Cooper Stadium (at least until next year when they get a new playpen in downtown), is also one of the all-time great minor-league ballparks. Granted I'm not about to resign my membership in the Mets Fan Club (us New York sports fans never lose our allegiance to the team we swore loyalty to in our youth), but I have no issue claiming the Crew or BJs as "my" teams of choice in their respective sports.

2. Donatos Pizza. I am a true conniseur of pizza. Born on Long Island and raised in Hartford (not more than 2-3 hours removed from Brooklyn), I grew up with what I consider the "perfect" form of the pie - wide slices, thin crust that's crisp but not crackery, kissed with olive oil, sausage sliced lengthwise, pepperoni liberally applied. Ahh, heaven. And for whatever reason, all but impossible to locate outside the Northeast; if you want to come as close as I've found, the Sbarro that's probably in your local mall's food court is that (unsurprisingly, their home base is in Commack, which is my dad's adopted hometown on LI). Yet, on occasion, there are pizzas that do their own thing and are superb for it. Donatos, a chain native and unique to Central Ohio, is one such. Edge-to-edge toppings, sauce that's got some mild peppery kick to it, a crust containing cornmeal in addition to the usual flour, and some of the best pepperoni on record all combine for a taste treat I'll be sorry to give up when I finally do blow this popsicle stand of a town.

3. Q-FM 96.3. Although I've all but given up on local radio in this town, my main preset here is still this heritage rocker. I've discussed before in this space how this station's gone out of its way to preserve as much of its album-rock character as possible in the wake of modern corporate FM radio (it's now owned by CBS); you still have DJs that don't start talking until the song finishes fading out, you still have little quirky traditions (for instance, every day 3:00 PM is heralded by the playing of a Three Stooges bit proclaming it to be "Three o'clock, Baloneya watch time!"), and you have a largely eclectic mix of modern rock with favorites from the '70s through '90s, including some deep cuts not often played these days. As terrestrial radio continues its downward spiral into harmless mediocrity, Q-FM is one of the rare stations that's trying to keep its identity. More power to them, I say; unfortunately, they're among the last of a dying breed of "true" rock stations.

4. As they say in real estate ads, "great central location." Columbus is in a weird place on the map; there are no fewer than eight major or at least semi-major cities (Charleston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Detroit, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Toledo) that are within day-trip distance or closer. That's a nice little bit of variety, and the fact that there's really a whole lot of not much between Columbus and those destinations as the Interstate flies is really of secondary concern in this manner. I just wish I had more time and mobility to do more exploring of these other cities.

5. The Short North. I don't get up that way very often, but the Short North (the area of North High St. linking downtown Columbus with Ohio State) remains one of my favorite areas of the city. Rife with art galleries, clubs, eclectic stores of all stripes, and a very "open," accepting atmosphere, it stands in stark (and welcome) contrast to the more staid and conservative environs that comprise the bulk of Columbus proper. For want of a better description, it is to Columbus what Greenwich Village is to New York.

6. Bob Evans. Unashamed city boy though I am, I have a major weakness for the "country kitchen" atmosphere of Bob Evans. Not only is the food outstanding (including the best sausage gravy and country-fried steak I've ever had in a chain restaurant), but the prices are reasonable (for a sit-down restaurant, at least) and the aforementioned atmosphere isn't as overwhelming as it is at, say, a Cracker Barrel (which I also enjoy, don't get me wrong). It's officially replaced Denny's as my default chain restaurant-of-choice when I'm on the road, and it took a lot of doing to edge Denny's out of that picture - but Denny's somehow managed to do it all on their own. ^^;

7. Indy game stores. Let's face it, GameStop rules the frigging world when it comes to the used game market. They are Starbucks, Wal*Mart, and McDonald's all rolled into one, with all the negativity such a comparison usually entails. That's why I'm gratified to see so many local independent game stores making a strong go of it in the wake of such an opressive challenger. There's one within walking distance of where I live, in fact, and their shelves are generously stocked with second-hand games for a wide variety of systems from the NES on up through the PS3 - and even the occasional 2600 and Intellivision game, console, or controller for good measure. Even better, they've been known to run deals on new and used DVD boxsets, out-of-print strategy guides, and even tabletop games (with and without a video game tie-in) from time to time. It's truly a gem of a store, one of several like it in the Columbus area, and I support it whenever possible with my patronage. If there's a similar store in your neighborhood, you should really do the same.

8. The Grove City Town Center. This is a remarkably well-preserved small-town "main drag" from the early part of the 20th century - but it's not just a historical artifact. It's actually a working, fully-functional downtown area with all the amenities, including a sit-down pizzeria, community theater (the Little Theater Off Broadway), a couple of neighborhood bar-and-grills, and a small supermarket stuck in a '60s time warp (it's still, in fact, flying the colors of Cardinal Foods, a long-defunct grocer collective in the vein of IGA). It's actually a very nice, well-kept part of Grove City, one I find myself drawn to again and again for walking purposes. Next time I'm there I'll probably snap some pics to share with you.

9. B.C. Roosters. Yet another local restaurant chain, Roosters is best known around here for its Buffalo wings, which are among the best I've ever sampled. Not just in terms of the sauce used (which is excellent), but the size of the wings involved; many are of the "double-jointed" variety in addition to the usual mini-drumsticks you usually get with wings. And the heat factor is not to be believed; even the standard "hot" wings are enough to curl your nostril hairs (yet still have more than enough unique flavor of their own, not just heat), and the top-of-the-grade wings are to be consumed only by the most daring of souls! Besides wings, Roosters has great sandwiches, pizzas, clam chowder (!), and atmosphere. And the prices are very good, too; a full meal here costs only slightly more than a trip to Subway!

10. Surprising discoveries in the local media. Recently, I had occasion to sample some late-night offerings on Columbus's broadcast television; specifically, on something dubbed "MyTV Columbus," a digital subchannel of the local ABC affiliate (WSYX-TV) that carries MyNetworkTV programming in Central Ohio. Apparently, during the wee hours, rather than infomercials they actually tap into satellite's Funimation Channel for some anime goodness. I, of course, did not know this in advance; I was totally shocked to flip the channel and suddenly discover, of all series, Revolutionary Girl Utena playing on my over-the-air TV! Yes, Utena, that series of more sexual-identity issues than every Jerry Springer clone that ever existed. (At least it was just the TV series; if it were the movie, I think MyTV Columbus would have died of cerebral hemmorhage just carrying that allegorical nightmare that too often drowns in its own symbolism...) They also run the original Dragonball (pre-Z/GT), Case Closed, and Kiddy Grade in this overnight block. This is rather a promising sign for a local media that is too easily dismissed as being one of the most generic and uninteresting this side of Topeka...

A few days ago, I posted a YouTube link to a piece on the Z-Morning Zoo. Now, here's a link to another piece of New York radio history - after a fashion.

If you're a student of "free-form" progressive rock, chances are you're familiar with the legendary WNEW-FM, 102.7 on your dial. And even if you're not, you should know that most of the trademarks of "deep" album rock radio - the long sets, no talking over the music, the DJs being able to put together their own playlists rather than a rigidly-defined format - were all, for the most part, pioneered at WNEW-FM. Under the guidance of the late great Scott Muni (rhymes with "puny"), WNEW-FM was a true pioneer of rock & roll, one that in this day of Clear Channel, corporate butt-kissing, and Nipplegate we will almost certainly never see again in our lifetimes.

While rock & roll is long gone from the 102.7 frequency in New York (it's been a revolving door of formats for most of the last decade), it evidently is seeing a bit of a comeback. There's an online/HD Radio "tribute" to the legendary rocker that you can tune in at www.wnew.com, or if you live in the NY area and have one of those HD radios, you can pick it up "the old fashioned way" at 102.7 HD2. It features deep album cuts from classic artists, as well as some new stuff from the new blood of rock.

This definitely qualifies as "cool," if you ask me...

Mets tied for first after their tenth win in a row.

Happy dance, happy dance.

I'm still pissed at the Wilpons for the classless and borderline cowardly way they chose to fire Willie Randolph, but I can't argue results; this team is definitely starting to come together and wake up.

This keeps up, there will be postseason baseball in New York - but it won't be in the Bronx.

(On a totally unrelated note.. who names WNBA teams these days? I remember when the WNBA shared cities with the established NBA teams, and their names were offshoots of the mens' squads; the Phoenix Mercury complemented the Suns, for instance, and in Charlotte you had the Sting while the Hornets still played there. But some of the teams lately... the Sun? The Sky? The Dream? Since when did the My Little Pony people get into team nicknames?)

Word has reached these ears that John McCain has come out in favor of allowing same-sex couples to adopt children, something that is currently prohibited under de facto federal law.

This is rather an interesting move for him, considering his political affiliation and the Republicans' traditional stance on the umbrella issue of "gay rights." The neocons, Bible-thumpers, and other assorted right-wingnuts that comprise the bulk of the GOP's base these days are probably going crazy right now bemoaning this "shift to the left" on McCain's part. Some are probably now gonna try writing in Pat Buchanan or Michael Savage or something stupid like that, just so they can say they voted for someone with the same opinion they themselves have - that allowing even this much opens the door to legalizing, or at the very least condoning, homosexual marriage, which for some reason I've never been able to fathom they vehemently oppose.

I'm still not voting for McCain (even if I wasn't a registered Democrat, which I am, his position that we pretty much need to stay in Iraq permanently won't fly with me), but I can, and will, applaud him for taking this stand. It's always nice to be reminded that just because a man wears a red tie in the Congressional chambers, he doesn't have to subscribe to every position the Republican party takes.

Maybe it's even a sign that this particular election will not be relegated to a black-and-white shouting match between diametrically-opposed philosophies the way the last several, especially the most recent one, turned into. You remember, the whole "Get us out of Iraq" versus "Bush or Terrorism, it's not hard," the Swift Boaters vs. Memogate, that whole deal. I got so tired of having my loyalty questioned just because I was a Kerry-Edwards supporter (more due to party affiliation than anything else; I felt then, and still do today, that the Dems nominated the wrong guy). Maybe, hopefully, moves like this are a sign that, as the Reagan/Bush/Clinton era of American politics crawls to its finish line after 28 years, we can finally see some candidates unafraid to oppose party lines, thus bringing the country's political compass back to the center where it belongs, and hopefully the polarizing rhetoric can be consigned back to talk-radio shouting matches and the blogosphere, where that belongs.

...Yeah, you're right, probably not. But a man can hope, can't he?

Click here for a "highlight reel" (including a few outtakes) of Drew Carey's freshman year as the host of The Price is Right, the 36th overall season for the longest continuously-running game show in television history.

I must admit, even though I was skeptical at first when I heard he was the guy picked to take over from Bob Barker, he's worked out surprisingly well - and made the show seem fresher and more exciting than it really has in at least ten years, arguably fifteen (around the time when all the model-related controversies began swirling around Bob, in fact). It's never easy replacing a legend, and Drew has done the smart thing by not trying to be "the next Bob Barker," focusing instead on becoming "the first Drew Carey," and I think it's paying off. This collection of clips demonstrates, I think, how quickly he's taken the show and made it his own.

Ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of a WNEW-TV PM Magazine piece from circa 1984, I present to you... the original, often imitated but never ever fully duplicated, Z100 New York Morning Zoo! The gang's all here - Michael Scott Shannon, Ross Brittain, Claire Stevens, Professor Johnathan B. Bell, Baby DJ Captain Kevin, and even Mr. Leonard gets his weasely little foot in the door.

This, my friends, is what I remember about Top 40 radio in the '80s - not just the music (which I liked, don't get me wrong) but the personalities that brought that music to you. And unlike most of today's radio guys, it's all in the name of fun, not shock value and/or setting up straw men to knock down. The Z-Morning Zoo was about as close to "perfect" as drive-time radio ever got.

Enjoy!

G4, the network formerly known as TechTV, has a new game show they'd like you to watch. It's called Hurl!, and it premieres Tuesday night at 9 Eastern.

What, pray tell, is Hurl!? Picture this: Contestants are required to devour copious amounts of decidedly unhealthy foods - a buffet-size tray of mac and cheese, for instance, or a stack of pumpkin pies. Following this exercise in gluttony, they are then strapped into giant spheres spun around with enough centrifugal force to... well, figure it out from the show's title. The winner is he who can hold on to his disgusting repast the longest.

I'm not making this up, friends. It's right there on the schedule.

I have no words.

I detest headaches. Ahem.

If you didn't check out the previous entry, in which I posted some pics from my trip to Columbus Crew Stadium to take in a match against the Chicago Fire, feel free to do so. I'll just add here that the atmosphere at that stadium was nothing short of electric, with 17,000 people really into the game and caring about its outcome. There were dueling fan nations - the Crew's "Local 614" and the Hudson Street Hooligans taking on the traveling Fire fans who followed their team down to Cowtown - with chants and songs that, if they weren't as ferverent as their spiritual equivalents in the EPL, were not so for lack of effort. And the crowd was loud, too - louder than any baseball game I've ever been to, including being part of a packed house at Shea Stadium during the Mets' mid-'80s glory years. 17,000 fans sounded more like 35,000 - and keep in mind, Crew Stadium is totally open-air, so it's not like sound was being trapped and amplified like it would be at, say, a Blue Jackets game in Nationwide Arena.

In short, Jim Rome can bite me and bite me hard. People do care about soccer in this country, and evidently a great many of them live right here in Columbus. Who knew? It certainly didn't hurt that the game was also a thriller, despite ending in a 2-2 tie (Columbus scoring the equalizer with less than two minutes left in regulation); it really should have been 3-2 in the Crew's favor, but a goal was called back due to a foul (evidently, the player made contact with the Chicago keeper rather than the ball, and the ball rolled loose into the net after the ref's whistle). Best of all, it wasn't even that unreasonably price; just $20 a ticket for reasonably good seats (not midfield, but in a home-goal corner), plus $7 parking, makes it a better bargain than BJ tickets (where at last check it's about $45 just to get into the Uecker Section!).

All in all, definitely a fun experience, and one I'll almost certainly be doing again in the future.

I wake up this morning to find a dead net connection. That was around 10:30 AM or so.

As of now, 7:12 PM Eastern, I just finally get an e-mail notice for the first time today.

Typical. I finally figure out the webcam puzzle, then everything else falls apart! What can you do, eh?

In other news, I took in a soccer match last night; only the second MLS game I've ever been to. I took some pictures, which you can find in my Photobucket account over yonder, complete with annotations. Pretty fun night, though it might've been more fun if the Crew actually, y'know, won, but I guess you can't have everything...

That's all for now. More later, once I shower and/or this headache of mine goes away...

It took a lot of effort and not a few trips to Micro Center, but I finally pulled off the impossible...

( Click here to see the ugly truth. )

A webcam that actually works, out of the box and without tweaking, in Ubuntu! For those who are reading this and wondering which one did the trick, it was a Creative Live! Cam Video IM Pro.

(Yeah, I know the picture quality kinda sucks here, but I'm still fine-tuning the camera settings. For the moment, however, it's the talking dog - it's not so much how well the dog talks, just the fact it does talk is the noteworthy part!)

See for yourself...

Australian NES commercial from 1985.

If you ever needed proof that damned dog from Duck Hunt was the embodiment of evil, you will get it at 0:09...

I load up LogJam (an awesome LJ editor for the Linux world) and am told I haven't logged on in 82 days. O_O Amazing.

Just to let everyone know that I am still alive and kicking, but have been more or less dealing with personal issues in the most literal sense of the word. Put simply, I've felt on the verge of a nervous breakdown the past few weeks, on not just a single occassion either. I'm doing better now, but it was touch-and-go for a while. This also accounts for my increasingly sporadic IRCing.

I'll get through this, don't worry about me. But that's why it's been so quiet here, if anyone was wondering. I'll try not to neglect this place too much in the future. ^^;

I actually have a comic, of all things, that I want to submit as a guest strip to "Inner Geek," the resident gag-a-day (or gag-a-whenever-a-new-strip-goes-up) webcomic of Way of the Geek, the blog I write for.

It's reproduced below, by special arrangement with the fine folks at Photobucket:

( Cut to avoid killing Freinds lists. )

My dreams have been getting downright weird lately.

Take last night, for instance; I kept dreaming that some ghostly, dark-haired, pale-skinned girl - looking, as it happens, rather like a triple cross of Beatrice (the ultimate antagonist of Wild ARMs 3), Death (the Neil Gaiman version thereof), and maybe a dash or two of Lydia (see avatar with this post) - kept popping up in whatever dreamscape my subconscious took perverse delight in creating. Whenever she'd show up, it would be in the context of her trying to get me to help her, but I never could find out what it was she needed "help" with. She seemed pretty insistent, though, to the point where she even came back after I woke up in the middle of the night and went back to sleep. For those who didn't know, it is virtually impossible for me to resume a dream that was interrupted in progress.

Like I said, a really weird situation. Just thought you'd like to hear about it.

I... hate... sinus... infections.

I'd love to be able to breathe normally for more than five minutes at a time without hacking out the complete contents of my lungs.

I'd love to be able to feel my chest muscles again, as they've currently gone numb from the aforementioned coughing.

I'd love for my nose to stop running the Boston Marathon.

I'd love for my head not to suffer explosive decompression whenever I sneeze, which is often.

I'd love for the tickle in the back of my throat to stop tickling.

I'd love to be able to actually sleep, even hopped up on antihistamines and whatnot, without having to keep my head elevated (and thus causing severe neck pain).

So, like I said... sinus infections. Don't think much of 'em.

The good news is, I think I'm over the hump as far as it's concerned... another couple of days and I should be back to normal. The bad news is, until then I feel about as useless as Ralph Nader For President, Take 942 - and almost as appealing.

While I was out and about this afternoon, my travels took me to killing time in a Waldenbooks, that increasingly-irrelevant mall presence of Borders Books that one is left wondering why they don't just change the name over the door already.

But that's not what this is about. It's about what I discovered inside this particular Walden, and why I left the place looking a tad bit skeptical.

It was a line of journal-style notebooks, of which you've undoubtedly seen before in bookstores and gift shops. Hardbound, boasting "acid-free paper" and the like, these blank books (with or without lined pages) have been common impluse buys for years at every Walden I've had occasion to visit, from Allentown to Zanesville and everywhere in between.

This particular brand boasted an elastic band that wrapped transversally around the cover, and nothing else of distinction. Except, however, that the brain surgeons in this company's Marketing department apparently decided to position this trumped-up memo book (with weak analog security device) as the sort of thing Da Vinci, Newton, Einstein, and other historical geeks-of-note might have used to jot down their ideas and inspirations. The concept being, evidently, that if you buy their notebook you, too, could be visited with just this sort of world-changing inspiration.

The fact I could barely type that last sentence without stifling a nasty giggling fit should tell you what I think of that idea. Ah, capitalism... I do love thee, but you are one weird mamma-jamma sometimes, you know that?

For those interested, however, - and quite on the subject of books - the list of introductory tomes I chose for myself as a new member of the Sci-Fi book club are as follows: An omnibus copy of Lord of the Rings (which replaces a paperback boxset that spent a little too much time in a little too damp place) and a guide to the people and places of Tolkien's world; At All Costs; The Hitchhiker's Trilogy (all five books in one volume, missing only the "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe" short story); The Pricness Bride (my education is sorely lacking, having never read this before nor even as much as seen the movie - André nonwithstanding); The Dragonriders of Pern (mostly out of long-held curiosity about the franchise); and The Marvel Encyclopedia (once a comic geek, always a comic geek, I suppose). Keep in mind, many of these were chosen from a somewhat limited selection of options for first-time signups, and only one of the seven was purchased at full price, so even with a committment to buy four more books in two years I think I came out ahead on the deal still... even if many of the people reading these words might take issue with some of my literary choices. Eh, to each their own, I guess.

This is something that has always bugged my sensibilities, and I just thought I'd rant about it for a second. Bear with me...

I've never been a huge fan of the overcommercialization of our culture, that's for sure. But one of my largest objections has always been the "billboard truck," the vehicle you've undoubtedly seen on TV or in a major downtown area. Just in case you haven't seen one, this is a truck that tows a double-sided billboard around - nothing more and nothing less. (That stupid "LifeLock" TV commercial that seems to be all over the place lately features one such truck prominently; in fact, it was a playing of that commercial that prompted this entry.)

So, yeah. This rather sizeable truck not only takes up unnecessary road space in heavily-trafficked corridors and adds pointless emissions to city air that's already heavy on such CO₂ emissions... and for what? More advertising, as if there wasn't already too much of that in the world?

If these trucks could also serve some sort of useful purpose, such as hauling freight (as much as they could given their size), it might not offend my sensibilities as much. But it doesn't. It's just a mobile billboard, and has no other function.

Am I the only one who gets bugged about these things, I wonder?