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Day April 10, 2006

Entries 10 Total

How Superman Took on the KKK

Apr 10, ’06 8:44 PM

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Penn Jillette was talking about this on his radio show last week.

THE MOST noteworthy Superman radio episodes are described in Weyn Craig Wade’s indispensable history of the Ku Klux Klan, The Fiery Cross. According to Wade, Stetson Kennedy, a reporter for the short-lived lefty newspaper PM, went undercover into the Klan, learning the secret passwords and countersigns used by the Grand Dragon “Doc” Green’s vicious Klavern No. 1 of Atlanta. For sport, Kennedy passed on the info to writers of the Superman radio show about that comic-book character whom Wade calls “the ultimate antifacist.”

As Wade relates the incident:

The writers jumped on the idea and Superman … began trouncing the Klan over the airways, a battle replete with obviously authentic detail. During the first broadcast, “Doc” Green received a phone call from the Atlanta AP bureau chief:

“Superman’s really on your trail … sounds to me like Superman’s got a pipeline into your klaverns somehow. You’d better watch your step.”

“I smell a rat,” the Dragon said bitterly. “Just wait till I get my hands on him!”

“You’d better make it snappy–Superman just flew over your Imperial Palace to case the joint.”

“Nuts,” the Doctor said, and hung up.

Green had to change his passwords because of the show. The Klan chief tried to retaliate by pressuring Pep Cereal–sponsors of the Adventures of Superman–off of grocery shelves in Atlanta. Despite Green’s actions, the sponsors continued to green-light the anti-Klan shows.

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How To Fold Napkins

Apr 10, ’06 8:37 PM

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With detailed instructions and pictures.

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How To Make a Plastic Bag Bra

Apr 10, ’06 8:24 PM

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Insert your own milk jugs in paper or plastic joke here.

If you are the thrifty, crafty, type why not follow these simple instructions and create your own bra from a plastic bag? This bra can be used for men as part of a party costume for instance. You will need scissors, sticky tape and some stuffing. The plastic bag, ideally, will be similar in size to one found at any supermarket. Make sure it is reasonably flexible and comes fitted with handles. If you can find one featuring interesting colours or patterns, so much the better.
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Methods of Execution Used in Capital Punishment

Apr 10, ’06 7:53 PM

Listed by state. You can get the firing squad in Oklahoma, Idaho and Utah still. Good to know.

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Game 6 Re-Enacted in RBI Baseball

Apr 10, ’06 7:36 PM

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A few things about this game. First of all, if you are a Red Sox fan, this is still 8 minutes of pure torture. Even winning it all in 2004 doesn’t take away any of the pain from Game 6. Secondly, the person who did this re-enactment points out quite correctly that Buckner takes way too much of the blame. Schiraldi, Stanley and even Gedman (for letting that pitch get away which led to the tying run) were just as guilty if not more than Billy Buck. I don’t think the Sox come back to win that game after losing the lead in the tenth. And lastly, Game 6 is all the evidence you need to prove that there is no god. Mets fans might feel differently about this but does anybody really care what a Mets fan cares about? Didn’t think so. (Yep, still bitter after twenty years)

so I decided to re-enact Game Six of the 1986 World Series in RBI Baseball, my favorite video game of all time. Game Six is one of the most surreal, unbelievable displays of sports in history, and hopefully now that the Sox have emerged victorious in the World Series, it can be seen more as an utterly stupifying comeback, and less of a devastating choke job.

(via Backwards City)

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Daily Dose of Ingersoll

Apr 10, ’06 3:18 PM
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Christianity has such a contemptible opinion of human nature that it does not believe a man can tell the truth unless frightened by a belief in God. No lower opinion of the human race has ever been expressed.


– Robert Green Ingersoll, discussing the practice of not allowing atheists to give testimony in court: “In most of the States of this Union I could not give testimony. Should a man be murdered before my eyes I could not tell a jury who did it.” — quoted from the book Ingersoll the Magnificent, edited by Joseph Lewis, which does not cite references

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Gethuman Database

Apr 10, ’06 11:07 AM

A database of phone numbers for companies and shortcuts to speak directly to a person instead of a machine. This could be the most useful link I have ever posted.

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Scientology Training Routines

Apr 10, ’06 10:50 AM
The Scientology Training Routines, or TRs, are done on what Scientologists call “the gradient”. The claim is that information should not be presented until the student is ready to understand the information. In this way, knowledge is presented in bite-sized pieces that won’t cause the student (or “Mark” as The Rev. Dennis Erlich is prone to say) to “blow”, or leave the training session.

In reality, the “gradient” is designed to place increasing levels of thought conditioning into the student. At the earliest level, OT TR0, nothing is asked of the student and the gradient position is zero. New concepts, controls, and conditioning are applied in increasing levels as the student gains higher levels within the Scientology system. The end-effect of these exercises (or processes, as Scientology refers to them) is to neutralize the student’s critical faculties and render them prone to suggestion as they engage in further training or auditing.

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Anaconda Regurgitating a Hippo

Apr 10, ’06 10:25 AM

Just in time for lunch comes this video clip (embedded vid)

One of the longest and heaviest snakes in existence regurgitates an entire hippopotamus.

(via Screenhead)

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Precise Modeling

Apr 10, ’06 10:17 AM

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Fully scratch built, this model took just over 15 years (8000-10,000 hours) to complete. Begun in Kiev (Ukraine), in 1986 this masterpiece was profoundly difficult to construct due to the extreme scarcity of information on it. In 1986 the Mil-24 was still a top secret piece of military equipment. A set of blueprints was ultimately obtained from the manufacturer and over 1000 photographs were used to ensure complete accuracy in the reproduction….

Over 100,000 parts were used in this model, many of them fabricated under a microscope to ensure accuracy. Most of the tools used in construction were custom made specifically for this one modeling project.

(via Digg)

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