Get Cynical

Like something out of science fiction the fruiting body of Cordycepts erupts from the ant’s head. It can take three weeks to grow and when finished the deadly spores will burst from its tip. Then any ant in the vicinity will be in serious risk of death. The fungus is so virulent it can wipe out whole colonies of ants. It’s not just ants that fall victim to this killer. There are literally thousands of different types of cordiceps fungi and remarkably each specializes on just one species.

Wiki’s list of sexual fetishes:

Agalmatophilia: sexual attraction to statues or mannequins or immobility

Dacryphilia: sexual pleasure in eliciting tears from others or oneself

Homeovestism: sexual arousal by wearing the clothing of one’s own gender

Xenophily: sexual attraction to foreigners (in science fiction, it can also mean sexual attraction to aliens)

From the Carpetbaggerreport.com:

Some far-right sites that subscribe to the Associated Press feed, for example, will use auto-correct to change “Democratic Party” to “Democrat Party.” This, of course, is because they have the temperament of children.

But the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow website takes the phenomenon one step further with its AP articles. The far-right fundamentalist group replaces the word “gay” in the articles with the word “homosexual.” I’m not entirely sure why, but it seems to make the AFA happy. The group is, after all, pretty far out there.

The problem, of course, is that “gay” does not always mean what the AFA wants it to mean. My friend Kyle reported this morning that sprinter Tyson Gay won the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials over the weekend. The AFA ran the story, but only after the auto-correct had “fixed” the article.

That means — you guessed it — the track star was renamed “Tyson Homosexual.” The headline on the piece read, “Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials.”

From The Daily Mail:

The beloved pooch was born with only two legs and has small wriggling nubs where her front legs should be.

At first Hope moved around by hopping but experts said her her natural mode of moving eventually would damage her bones and spine.

The wheeled device was created by orthotist David Turnbill free of charge with makeshift shoulder joints connected to model airplane wheels.

Each of the device’s ‘arms’ can move up or down independently of the other, allowing Hope to pivot and turn.

The spring-loaded prosthetic arms hook to a custom-fitted chest plate to allow Hope to lay down or sit up without removing the prosthetic.

(via Classic TV Showbiz)

What was the last book you bought? (Question stolen shamelessly from SF Signal)

I just placed an Amazon order for Wasp, which was on that list of top 10 obscure sci-fi classics and that I just found a relatively cheap copy online.

And since I can’t just buy one book once I go to Amazon, I saw that Phillip Roth’s The Plot Against America was only selling for a few cents (damn you shipping & handling!) so I thought I’d finally give that a try. (If I don’t like it I’m blaming the Critic.)

From BestWeekEver.tv.

Fla. vandals tag 60 cars with anti-Obama messages

From the AP:

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Vandals have spray-painted 60 city vehicles in Orlando, Fla., some with messages against Sen. Barack Obama.

The cars were parked across from city hall late Saturday night. Investigators say the culprits tagged notes such as “Obama smokes crack” and a racial epithet. They even left business cards on each vehicle.

(more…)

“It’s not like you’re REALLY black”.
(via PoeTV)