Gravey and Jobriath

Transcript of "The Diamond Empire"

A Frontline show from ten years ago about one of the biggest scams of all time.

EDWARD EPSTEIN, Author, "The Rise and Fall of Diamonds": Well, what I learned was that the diamond business wasn't a business of extracting, as I originally expected, something of enormous value and then simply seeing how much of this object you could get out of the ground and selling it. That was what the business appeared to be when I started my venture. But their real business was restricting what came out of the ground, restricting what was discovered, restricting what got cut, restricting what actually found its way into the retail market and, at the same time, through movies, through advertising, through Hollywood, through the manipulation of perceptions, creating the idea that there was this enormous demand for these shiny little objects that they seemed to have in abundant supply. So I wound up on this voyage of discovery starting off with the idea that there was this object of great value, and it was just a question of how many could you get out, and I wound up discovering it was just the opposite.

NARRATOR: This is the story of how that grand illusion was created, and the story of how one family gained control of the world's diamond trade and for nearly a century has maintained its hold on an empire that defines the very idea of what diamonds really are.

(via Monkeyfilter)

Related:
The Atlantic had a great article about DeBeers and diamonds several years back.

The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope took the image of a millenium, an image that shows our place in the universe. Anyone who understands what this image represents, is forever changed by it.

(via Geeks are Sexy)

Feral Children

Hacking Video Poker Machines

An excerpt from Kevin Mitnick's "The Art of Intrusion" about some hackers who reversed engineered video poker machines and figured out a flaw in the random number generators which enabled them to beat the house:

We open it up, we take out the ROM, we figure out what processor it is. I had made a decision to get this Japanese machine that looked like a knockoff of one of the big brands. I just figured the engineers might have been working under more pressure, they might have been a little lazy or a little sloppy.

It turned out I was right. They had used a 6809 [chip], similar to a 6502 that you saw in an Apple II or an Atari. It was an 8-bit chip with a 64K memory space. I was an assembly language programmer, so this was familiar.

The machine Alex had chosen was one that had been around for some 10 years. Whenever a casino wants to buy a machine of a new design, the Las Vegas Gaming Commission has to study the programming and make sure it’s designed so the payouts will be fair to the players. Getting a new design approved can be a lengthy process, so casinos tend to hold on to the older machines longer than you would expect. For the team, an older machine seemed likely to have outdated technology, which they hoped might be less sophisticated and easier to attack.

The computer code they downloaded from the chip was in binary form, the string of 1’s and 0’s that is the most basic level of computer instructions. To translate that into a form they could work with, they would first have to do some reverse engineering — a process an engineer or programmer uses to figure out how an existing product is designed; in this case it meant converting from machine language to a form that the guys could understand and work with.

List of Confidence Tricks

From Wikipedia:

The Fiddle Game is a variation on the pigeon drop. A pair of con men work together, one going into an expensive restaurant in shabby clothes, eating, and claiming to have left his wallet at home, which is nearby. As collateral, the con man leaves his only worldly possession, the violin that provides his livelihood. After he leaves, the second con man swoops in, offers an outrageously large amount (for example, $50,000) for such a rare instrument, then looks at his watch and runs off to an appointment, leaving his card for the mark to call him when the fiddle-owner returns. The mark's greed comes into play when the "poor man" comes back, having gotten the money to pay for his meal and redeem his violin. The mark, thinking he has an offer on the table, then buys the violin from the fiddle player (who "reluctantly" sells it eventually for, say, $5,000). The result is the two con men are $5,000 richer (less the cost of the violin), and the mark is left with a cheap instrument. (This trick is also detailed in the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods and is the basis for The Streets' song Can't Con an Honest John.)

The glasses drop is a scam in which the scammer will intentionally bump into the mark and drop a pair of glasses that have already been broken. He will claim that the glasses were broken by the clumsiness of the mark, and demand money to replace them.

Psychic surgery is a con game in which the trickster uses sleight of hand to pretend to remove bits of malignant growths from the mark's body. A common form of medical fraud in underdeveloped countries, it imperils the victims, who may fail to seek competent medical attention. (The movie Man on the Moon depicts comedian Andy Kaufman undergoing psychic surgery.)

The Spanish Prisoner scam, and its modern variant, the Nigerian money transfer fraud, take advantage of the victim's greed. The basic premise involves enlisting the mark to aid in retrieving some stolen money from its hiding place. The victim sometimes goes in figuring he can cheat the con artists out of their money, but anyone trying this has already fallen for the essential con by believing that the money is there to steal.

(Thanks PVC)

On This Day

On this day in 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater Company broadcasted an updated version of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" causing panic amongst listeners who confused the show with real news bulletins:

Many people missed or ignored the opening credits of the programme, and in the atmosphere of growing tension and anxiety in the days leading up to the Second World War, took it to be a news broadcast. Contemporary newspapers reported that panic ensued, with people fleeing the area, and others thinking they could smell the poison gas or could see the flashes of the fighting in the distance.

The author Richard J. Hand cites studies by unnamed historians who "calculate[d] that some six million heard the Columbia Broadcasting System broadcast; 1.7 million believed it to be true, and 1.2 million were 'genuinely frightened'". (Hand, 7) While Welles and company were heard by a comparatively small audience (Bergen's audience was an estimated 30 million), the uproar that followed was anything but minute: within a month, there were about 12,500 newspaper articles about the broadcast or its impact (Hand, 7), while Adolf Hitler cited the panic, as Hand writes, as "evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy." (Hand, 7)

Later studies suggested this "panic" was far less widespread than newspaper accounts suggested. However, it remains clear that many people were caught up — to one degree or another — in the confusion that followed.

You can listen to the broadcast here (direct link to mp3) or read the script here.

Star Wars Screen Tests

SF Signal found a YouTube user who has been posting Star Wars screen tests:

I stumbled upon this Panopticist post of Robby Benson's Star Wars audition (he reads for the part of Luke along with a mostly off-camera Harrison Ford). This led me to the YouTube profile of its source, Ghyslain. (Not the Star-Wars-Kid Ghyslain, although that would somehow be poetic, wouldn't it?) Gyslain has collected a series of Star Wars audition videos.

His notes say there is 90 minutes of footage that features folks like Kurt Russell, William Katt, Fredric Forrest, Andrew Stevens, Charles Martin Smith, Amy Irving, and several others. So far you can see: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Lisa Eilbacher (from Beverly Hills Cop reading for Princess Leia). Here's another one with someone reading for Leia I don't recognize and does not identify herself in the video.

You can find the Youtube user's page here where he will be posting other ones in the future (I can't wait to see Kurt Russell's audition tape). Here are some of the clips he has up at the moment.

Mark Hamill with Harrison Ford


Actress/Singer Terri Nunn auditioning for the role of Princess Leia


Lisa Eilbacher (who can't seem to memorize the lines. Although the writing is so bad that I can't really blame her) auditioning for the Princess Leia role.


Robby Benson auditioning for the role of Luke


Carrie Fisher

Whack-O-Lanterns

Carving Jack-O-Lanterns out of produce and canned meat.

Bush Moves Toward Martial Law

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - just so long I'm the dictator." December 18, 2000, George W. Bush

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order" means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.

The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.

R.I.P. Stay the Course

How Do Lightsticks Work?

From About.com:

There are three components of a lightstick. There need to be two chemicals that interact to release energy and also a fluorescent dye to accept this energy and convert it into light. Although there is more than one recipe for a lightstick, a common commercial lightstick uses a solution of hydrogen peroxide that is kept separate from a solution of a phenyl oxalate ester together with a fluorescent dye. The color of the fluorescent dye is what determines the resulting color of the lightstick when the chemical solutions are mixed. The basic premise of the reaction is that the reaction between the two chemicals releases enough energy to excite the electrons in the fluorescent dye. This causes the electrons to jump to a higher energy level and then fall back down and release light.

Friday Cat Blogging

The Dixie Chicks Ad NBC Doesn’t Want You To See

From Think Progress:

NBC is refusing to air an ad for the new Dixie Chicks documentary, "Shut Up & Sing." Variety reports, "NBC's commercial clearance department said in writing that it 'cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.'"

The full 2 minute trailer is on YouTube:

Doctor Slang and Medical Acronyms

I'll select some random ones:

45C - patient is one chromosome short of a full set (thick)
Beached whale - obese patient unable to do much for him/herself except lie there with flailing arms and legs
Bungee jumper - a patient who pulls on his catheter tube
Code Brown - faecal incontinence emergency (e.g. of bedlinen)
LMC - Low marble count (low IQ)
Negative Wallet Biopsy - (US) patient transferred to cheaper hospital because s/he has no insurance/funds
Ralphie McYakkers - young drunks vomiting

(via Bifurcated Rivets)

John Frum and Cargo Cults

I came across John Frum and Cargo Cults from Dawkins' "The God Delusion".

In the morning heat on a tropical island halfway across the world from the United States, several dark-skinned men—clad in what look to be U.S. Army uniforms—appear on a mound overlooking a bamboo-hut village. One reverently carries Old Glory, precisely folded to reveal only the stars. On the command of a bearded "drill sergeant," the flag is raised on a pole hacked from a tall tree trunk. As the huge banner billows in the wind, hundreds of watching villagers clap and cheer. Chief Isaac Wan, a slight, bearded man in a blue suit and ceremonial sash, leads the uniformed men down to open ground in the middle of the village. Some 40 barefoot "G.I.'s" suddenly emerge from behind the huts to more cheering, marching in perfect step and ranks of two past Chief Isaac. They tote bamboo "rifles" on their shoulders, the scarlet tips sharpened to represent bloody bayonets, and sport the letters "USA," painted in red on their bare chests and backs. This is February 15, John Frum Day, on the remote island of Tanna in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. On this holiest of days, devotees have descended on the village of Lamakara from all over the island to honor a ghostly American messiah, John Frum. "John promised he'll bring planeloads and shiploads of cargo to us from America if we pray to him," a village elder tells me as he salutes the Stars and Stripes. "Radios, TVs, trucks, boats, watches, iceboxes, medicine, Coca-Cola and many other wonderful things." The island's John Frum movement is a classic example of what anthropologists have called a "cargo cult"—many of which sprang up in villages in the South Pacific during World War II, when hundreds of thousands of American troops poured into the islands from the skies and seas. As anthropologist Kirk Huffman, who spent 17 years in Vanuatu, explains: "You get cargo cults when the outside world, with all its material wealth, suddenly descends on remote, indigenous tribes." The locals don’t know where the foreigners’ endless supplies come from and so suspect they were summoned by magic, sent from the spirit world. To entice the Americans back after the war, islanders throughout the region constructed piers and carved airstrips from their fields. They prayed for ships and planes to once again come out of nowhere, bearing all kinds of treasures: jeeps and washing machines, radios and motorcycles, canned meat and candy.

Related:
Wikipedia's entry on John Frum

Life of Brian (The Stoning)

Add Eyes That Follow the Cursor To Any Picture

Nice.
(Thanks Jabberwocky)

Today's Religious News

Australian Muslim Cleric says uncovered women like "abandoned meat"

SYDNEY - Women who do not cover up are similar to abandoned "meat" making them responsible for sexual attacks, a senior Islamic cleric has said.

The Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, has outraged female Muslim leaders with comments he made during a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?" the sheik asked.

"The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hajib [Islamic headdress], no problem would have occurred."

Jewish Symbolic Wall Raises Environmental Concerns:

A group of Orthodox Jews in Los Angeles is trying to erect an eruv near a synagogue on Venice Beach’s boardwalk. An eruv is essentially a magic enclosure that allows Orthodox Jews to circumvent certain oppressive traditions within its confines. For instance, Jews are not allowed to perform some basic activities like pushing a stroller outside on the Shabbat, but slap together an eruv and you’re good to go. You can read more about eruvs here.

The proposal calls for several miles worth of 200-pound test fishing line to be strewn about the Venice Beach Boardwalk area. Typically in cities, eruvs are tied to existing structures like telephone poles, but a beach is quite different. The Jews suggest that the line be tied to existing lamp poles and signs. To fill the void in certain parts of the beach, 20-foot poles would be planted to provide the necessary connection.

Needless to say, many people are not too keen on the idea. Some are concerned about the poles being an eyesore, while others are concerned about the impact on local birds and their nests. Others find the use of public property for religious reasons troublesome.

Tax Loophole for Hummer H2s

Hmmmm

"How is this possible?" Thorpe asks. "Thanks to the Bush administration's recent economic stimulus package, small businesses and the self-employed are eligible to deduct the entire purchase cost of new equipment up to $100,000 the year of the purchase." But these provisions are supposed to help farmers and small-business owners buy equipment to transport merchandise and haul stuff. No matter. "The Hummer H2 qualifies for this IRS Sec. 179 deduction by its gross vehicle weight of over 6,000 lbs. Cars and medium sized SUV's don't qualify for this deduction," Thorpe writes. "If you are seriously considering acquisition of a new vehicle, step up to the vehicle that can take you where you want to be, financially and otherwise..."

Hotlinking

Hotlinking is when a website embeds an image from your site into theirs. Everytime somebody loads their page, the image is actually being loaded from your host making it bandwidth theft. The only positive thing about having your images hotlinked by other sites is that once you find out about it, you can change the name of the image and put up whatever you desire to be shown on their site.

For example, when a christian site decides to steal bandwidth from me by hotlinking, I can do something like this:


Any questions?

R.I.P. Philip Kevin Paulson

From SignOnSanDiego.com:

Philip Kevin Paulson, who fought a 17-year legal battle to remove the Mount Soledad cross from public property, died Wednesday of liver cancer. He was 59.

Paulson, a 6-foot-5 Vietnam veteran who lived in City Heights, became so passionate about the separation of church and state that he filed a civil lawsuit against the city of San Diego in 1989 without an attorney. He won the case, and as the appeals dragged on he became one of the county's most reviled and respected characters.

During interviews with The San Diego Union-Tribune in September and October, a few months after doctors told him he did not have long to live, Paulson said he was unconcerned about death and proud of the stand that defined his life.

"The real message is equal treatment under the law, and religious neutrality. That's the purpose of why I did it," said Paulson, who turned away from religion early in life. "It has nothing to do with me being an atheist or whether I was a Bible-thumping fundamentalist Baptist preacher."

Paulson, the grandson of a Lutheran preacher who shunned media attention to protect the case, agreed to exclusive interviews on the condition that his comments remain confidential until his death or the end of the case.

He said he wanted people to understand why he pursued the removal of the cross, and that he was never motivated by a hatred of Christians. "I don't harbor those kind of feelings," Paulson said. "My mother's a Christian. I was raised a devout Christian. I'm not anti-Christian. The reason I did it is because it's not fair to the other religions. America is not just the Christian religion."

Flower Urinals

A collection of images of urinals made to look like flowers. Definitely some cool sculptures.

Steve Carell on The Daily Show

An oldie but really funny.

Make a Viagra Pill Costume

It's more like a Viagra helmet but whatever.

Think you’re human Viagra? Or maybe you just want to express your devotion to the magic blue pill. Dress up as your favorite pharmaceutical this Halloween. We’ll show you how to make a costume that will really raise the dead and, needless to say, keep you up all night long.

(via Bifurcated Rivets)

Olberman on Limbaugh's Attack of Michael J. Fox

With video of Rush doing his Parkinson's impression. Or is he just high again?

Beware of Flying Jews

Nazi-era film warning citizens about tiny flying Jews squeezing into their books, plus some gigantic plaster heads.

Rules for Handling the Qur'an

From Dwindling in Unbelief:

This is indeed a noble Qur'an ... Which none toucheth save the purified. -- Quran 56:77-79

From this passage, Muslims have developed a set of rules about how to handle the Quran. Here are some of them.

1. Make formal acts of cleaning yourself (ablutions) before touching the Quran.

2. Don't touch the Quran when you are unclean (like after having sex or while menstruating).

3. Don't touch the Quran (in Arabic) unless you are already a Muslim. (It's okay for non-believers to listen to tapes or touch a translation.)

4. If you do have to touch it for some reason (and you're unclean or a non-Muslim), then wear gloves or use a cloth to keep your filthy fingers off the sacred text.

5. Never let the Quran touch the floor.

6. Don't take it into a bathroom.

7. Don't place anything else on top of it.

These rules are based on the idea that the Quran is the literal word of God, revealed to the angel Gabriel and delivered to the prophet Muhammad (mayonaise and mustard be upon him) -- none of which, of course, is true (except for maybe the mayonaise and mustard part).

Luckily for me, I'm not a muslim so I can keep my arabic copy in it's resting place on the bathroom floor underneath the cat litter at the ready for bathroom reading. I don't mean it as a symbol of disrespect, I just keep all of my religious books there.

Best Film Speeches and Monologues (Part 2)

Filmsite.org has some of the best film speeches and monologues listed chronologically.

(Thanks Sam Io)

Gameboy Around the World

A Flickr set of a boy playing gameboy in various locations.

(Thanks Marianna)

Inside a Megachurch

From BuffaloBeast.com:

Before the festivities began, I took a seat next to an old woman who already had her checkbook splayed and pen in hand ; a bribe for Saint Peter no doubt. After a few torturous Christian power ballads, complete with Jefferson Airplane-era psychedelic imagery projected onto screens stretched above the stage, it was time for the sermon. Pastor Jerry Gillis, dressed in khakis and a green plaid shirt, took to the stage for an informal rap session. From the view of him on the big screens, I would have to say his head is nearly 15 feet wide: a truly great man. Armed with both a clip-on shirt microphone and redundant headset mic, Gillis delivered his hip-thirty-something-you-can-relate-to-me-because-I’m-sitting-cross-legged-on-a-stool anecdotes to the mixed crowd of gray-hairs and younger couples. He invoked the names of Jesus and Corey Hart with a relaxed vigor.

(Thanks Americano)

List of Homer Simpson's Jobs

Quite the resume.
(via Digg)

Twilight Zone Episode Finder

Helpful if you are looking for an episode of The Twilight Zone but only can remember a few details.

5 Great Movie Monologues

Very nice list. My favorite is ranked at #3

3. "I'll never put on a lifejacket again."

For my money, Jaws remains Steven Spielberg's greatest film. It's essentially divided into two parts: the initial attacks and town reaction, and then what truly makes the film great -- three men on a rickety boat. The trio's search for the killer shark alternates between suspense and laughs, but for one scene it stops. Quint (Robert Shaw) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) are sharing tales of how they got various wounds when Hooper asks about one of Quint's. The captain reveals it's a tattoo he had removed that once bore the name of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, the WWII ship he served on that was delivering the Hiroshima bomb but ended up sinking in shark-infested waters. Shaw is mesmerizing -- how he didn't get an Oscar nomination for this scene alone is beyond me.

(via Kottke)

How Many of Me?

HowManyofMe.com tells you how many other people in the U.S. share your name. There are 1,245 of me in the US but only 2 of my wife.

(Thanks PVC)

Every Sperm is Sacred

From Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

Africam

Nkorho Pan is brought to you by Africam.com, ranked as one of the top African wildlife sites on the web. We pioneered the live web cam industry in Africa back in 1998 when we broadcast live images from some of the wildest places on the continent. This was a world first and fast gained popularity world wide. Technology has moved on and we are proud to bring you the first of our live streaming cameras on the Africam Wildlife Channel.

Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans.

Worst Halloween Costumes of All Time

From Retrocrush:

When I was growing up, most of the kids in my neighborhood were fairly uncreative. Instead of thinking long and hard about what you wanted to be for Halloween, you'd run with your parent to the store at the last minute, and grab a prepackaged costume made by Ben Cooper or Collegeville of some famous character. Superheroes, Monsters, and Star Wars characters were usually the favorites, but every now and then you came across a few gems that really made you scratch your head.

A Painful Doom for Disbelievers

From Dwindling in Unbelief(My favorite new blog by the editor of the Skeptics Annotated Bible/Quran/Book of Mormon:

For those of you who've never read the Quran, let me summarize it for you: Allah has prepared a painful doom for those who disbelieve what he revealed in the Quran to his prophet Muhammad (peanut butter and jelly be upon him).

This idea is so important that Allah (or his prophet) repeats more than 200 times in the Quran. Here are just a few variants.

The variants include this gem of a verse:

Those who believe not in the Hereafter, for them We have prepared a painful doom. 17:10

Enron Explorer

Now this is interesting:

In October 2003 the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission placed 200,000 of Enron's internal emails from 1999-2002 into the public domain as part of its ongoing investigations. The archive offers an extraordinary window into the lives and preoccupations of Enron's top executives during a turbulent period. Read more about Enron's demise on Wikipedia.

Trampoline engineers used this data as testbed during development of the company's SONAR technology. The result was so fascinating we decided to open it up and allow anyone to dig in. The Enron Explorer lets you investigate the actions and reactions of Enron's senior management team as the noose began to tighten.

People in the 'comment' section have picked out the more interesting emails such as this one from CEO Jeff Skilling:

From:
jeffreyskilling@yahoo.com
To:
Andy Zipper
Sent:
21/11/2001 at 20:13

Fuck you, you piece of shit. I can't wait to see you go down with the ship like all the other vermin.

Smug, paranoid, unhappy mother fucker.

Eat shit.

Or this one from Enron Japan:

Dear top management, We know how serious is the situation but please don't fire us now. Our families are waiting for a happy chrismas and new year!!

Sato
Enron Japan

(via Boing Boing)

Update:
The email above was from a fake Skilling. Boing Boing has more on that.

Carl Sagan: 4 Billion Years of Evolution

The late Dr Carl Sagan speaks about 4 billion years of evolution. Footage taken from the COSMOS series.

Why Does Orange Juice Taste So Bad After Brushing Your Teeth?

It's a question you may never have asked, but if you've ever brushed your teeth before you've had a glass of juice, you'll know why we had to seek professional advice.

David Cannell is the scientific spokesperson for Questacon, "It's because of a certain ingredient in toothpaste called sodium laurel sulfate. It actually blocks sweet sensors. All the other taste bud cells in your mouth are firing away nicely, but the receptors which pick up the sweet sensors are not working anymore. Not only does it block the sweet sensors, it enhances the sour and bitter, so you get this massive influx of sour and bitter taste coming through the mouth."

Olberman's Special Comment on Republican Fear Mongering

Crooks and Liars has the video and transcript:

The dictionary definition of the word 'terrorize' is simple and not open to misinterpretation: "To fill or overpower with terror; terrify; coerce by intimidation or fear." Note please that the words 'violence' and 'death' are missing from that definition. For the key to terrorism is not the act-but the fear of the act. That is why bin Laden and his deputies and his imitators are forever putting together videotape statements and releasing virtual infomercials with dire threats and heart-stopping warnings. But why is the Republican Party imitating them? Bin Laden puts out what amounts to a commercial of fear; the Republicans put out what is unmistakable as a commercial of fear. The Republicans are paying to have the messages of bin Laden and the others broadcast into your home! Only the Republicans have a bigger bankroll.

Update:

YouTube has the clip also.

Shuttle Launch Seen From ISS

From WarrenEllis.com:

These images came to me via a string of friends-of-friends-of-friends: shots of a Space Shuttle launch as seen from the International Space Station.

Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God

From Yahoo News! Opinion:

My scientific colleagues have additional reasons to declare emergency. Ignorant and absolutist attacks on stem cell research are just the tip of an iceberg. What we have here is nothing less than a global assault on rationality, and the Enlightenment values that inspired the founding of this first and greatest of secular republics. Science education - and hence the whole future of science in this country - is under threat. Temporarily beaten back in a Pennsylvania court, the 'breathtaking inanity' (Judge John Jones's immortal phrase) of 'intelligent design' continually flares up in local bush-fires. Dowsing them is a time-consuming but important responsibility, and scientists are finally being jolted out of their complacency. For years they quietly got on with their science, lamentably underestimating the creationists who, being neither competent nor interested in science, attended to the serious political business of subverting local school boards. Scientists, and intellectuals generally, are now waking up to the threat from the American Taliban.

Bush Uses 'the Google'

Click here to see the video of Bush describing how he uses "the Google" on the internets.

HOST: I'm curious, have you ever googled anybody? Do you use Google?

BUSH: Occasionally. One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It's very interesting to see — I've forgot the name of the program — but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes.

Neighboroo

What is a Neighboroo?
A Neighboroo is someone who knows a lot about a neighborhood or a local area. They are the people you consult to find a new place to live, to figure out what are the "bad parts of town" or to find the "happening places".

America May Penalise Iraq If It Fails To Stop the Violence

From the Telegraph:

President George W Bush met his top generals to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq as it was reported that America is considering punishing Baghdad if it fails to meet deadlines to stop the violence.

The new policy would mark a dramatic shift from the previous position that progress could only be determined by the "situation on the ground".

Instead benchmarks would be set covering progress in the Iraqi military, police and economy that if missed would result in the imposition of "penalties" by Washington.

These would include "changes in military strategy", which could mean troop cuts or redeployment within Iraq, or the removal of ministers deemed incompetent or corrupt.

(via What Really Happened)

Bush Caught in a Lie.....Again

(via YesbutNobutYes)

Winning a Marathon on Your Ass

Robert Cheruiyot held off fellow Kenyan Daniel Njenga to win the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, taken from the course in a wheelchair after slipping and banging his head near the finish line.

Cheruiyot, winner of this year's Boston Marathon, stayed down for several minutes after hitting his head. He was placed in a golf cart and headed to a hospital for a precautionary exam. Race officials said he was not seriously injured.

(Thanks Marlea)

Pi in Color

Each of the 10 possible decimals of the number pi is displayed by a distinct colored pixel.

Nigerian Dwarfs

(via YesbutNobutYes)

The First 4 Minutes of Borat

Smart marketing move.

20 Worst Video Games of All Time

E.T. for the 2600 grabs the coveted #1 spot:

This game was so bad it actually destroyed the life of the Atari 2600. The Atari 2600 had a game where General Custer raped Indians tied to cactuses, and THAT couldn't kill the system. Here's how E.T. did it: most of the gameplay was E.T. trying to escape from scientists and jumping into pits to find parts of his telephone. Once you were in a pit, that's when the fun began. If there was no chunk of telephone in the pit, which was only the case in 97% of them, you could leave by stretching out ET's neck until he slowly, SLOWLY floated up. This was the most satisfying part of the game since it looked like an invisible monster was trying to tear his head off.

Cat's Tongue

A close-up shot of a cat's tongue won first place in Digital Camera's Photographer of the Year.

Steve Ballmer Sells Windows 1.0

(via Google Blogoscoped)

Republican to put More Books in Classrooms

Unfortunately it's for self-defense purposes only. Be sure to watch the video of him shooting books with various firearms. (Usually republicans try to ban science books but this is the first time I've seen them put a cap in a Calc book with an AK-47)

Bill Crozier, a Union City Republican going against incumbent Democrat Sandy Garrett, said he believes old textbooks could be used to stop bullets shot from weapons wielded by school intruders.

If elected, he said he would put thick used textbooks under every desk for students to use in self-defense.

He gave Eyewitness News 5 a videotape showing he and others shooting weapons, such as an AK-47 and a 9 mm pistol, at books in a field near Minco. They conducted the experiment to see how far bullets would penetrate the books.

Make a Cylon Jack-O-Lantern

For halloween this year, we made Cylon Jack-o-lanterns in both large and small versions. The design consists of two parts, a pumpkin-carving part and an electronics part. The big idea, of course, is to make the Cylon's red eye scan back and forth.

Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Held annually, the competition aims to find the best wildlife pictures taken by photographers worldwide of all ages. Browse all the winning, runner up and highly commended images from the 2006 competition.

(via Monkeyfilter)

Lego Flamethrower

LEGO builder Mark Puustinen created this nifty flamethrower that "works by winding a little round knob which pulls the string which pulls the lever which pushes the bottle of butane against a holder with a hole from which butane shoots out from."

(via Linkfilter)

Seven Ways to Light a Fire Without a Match

From Field and Stream. I think I've seen them try just about all these methods on Survivor without starting a fire.

Coin Dominoes

Life and Death of a Pumpkin

Bill Clinton for Veep?

From the Washington Post:

A subsequent sampling of opinion from professors of constitutional law, former White House lawyers and even a couple of federal judges reveals a simmering disagreement on whether a president who has already served two terms can be vice president. Some agree with the conclusion that the presidential term limit embedded in the Constitution bars someone such as Clinton from returning to the White House even in the No. 2 slot. Others, though, call that a misreading of the literal language of the law.

As the former president might say, it all depends on the meaning of the word "elected." Under Article II of the Constitution, a person is "eligible to the Office of President" as long as he or she is a natural-born U.S. citizen, at least 35 years old and a resident of the United States for 14 years. The 12th Amendment says "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President."

Okay, so that means if you're not eligible to be president, you're not eligible to be vice president. Makes sense. What would be the point of electing a vice president who can't succeed the president in case of death, incapacity or vacancy?

But then Congress and the states added the 22nd Amendment in 1951 to prevent anyone from following the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won four terms. That's where things get dicey. "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice," the 22nd Amendment says.

On its face, that seems to suggest that Clinton could be vice president because he is only barred from being elected president a third time, not from serving as president.

Top US general says Rumsfeld is inspired by God

From Yahoo! News:

MIAMI (AFP) - The top US general defended the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying it is inspired by God.

"He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country," said Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

(via NoGodBlog)

War of the Words

A five part mockumentary using the look and feel of Ken Burns' "The Civil War" about the 101 Fighting Keyboarders (bloggers who were on the front line calling for war putting themselves in grave risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. They pass out purple hearts for that right?)

This might be the most spectacular piece of mockery ever done. Superb!
(via Metafilter)

Part one is on YouTube:

Monkey Portraits

A gallery of monkey portraits. And it's not even Monkey Tuesday.
(via WFMU's Beware of the Blog)

Olberman's Special Comment: Death of Habeas Corpus: “Your words are lies, Sir.”

Crooks and Liars has the video and transcript.

Therefore, tonight, have we truly become, the inheritors of our American legacy. For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

And lastly, as promised, a Special Comment tonight on the signing of the Military Commissions Act and the loss of Habeas Corpus.

We have lived as if in a trance.

We have lived… as people in fear.

And now — our rights and our freedoms in peril — we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid… of the wrong thing.

Therefore, tonight, have we truly become, the inheritors of our American legacy.

For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.

Update:

The video is up on YouTube for those who don't feel like downloading it from CnL.

Stingray leaps into boat, stabs man in chest

It's war now!!

MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- A leaping stingray stabbed an 81-year-old Florida boater in the chest, authorities said Wednesday, leaving its poisonous stinger lodged close to his heart in an incident recalling the one that killed Australian TV naturalist Steve Irwin last month.

Fire Department officials in Lighthouse Point, about 30 miles north of Miami, said James Bertakis was in a small recreational boat with two grandchildren Tuesday when the spotted eagle ray leaped aboard and struck him.

"It's just a real freak thing," Lt. Mike Sullivan told Reuters, saying the incident occurred on Florida's Intracoastal Waterway, where stingrays are rarely seen leaping in the air.

52 Year Old Soldier Killed in Iraq

From KATU.com:

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - A Vancouver soldier is one of ten killed this week by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Ron Paulson spent 14 years in the Army and then another 13 years as an inactive reservist. At 52 years old, he was called up for active duty.

When Paulson finished his service in 1992, soldiers were given a choice - take a lump sum of $30,000 and be done, or take an annual payment of $7,000 with a catch.

He said he went for the annual, but that meant he had to stay in the inactive reserve to get it, which is why he ended up getting called back in to service.

(via Whiskey Bar)

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?

From the NY Times:

A few weeks ago, I took the F.B.I.’s temperature again. At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau’s new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. “Yes, sure, it’s right to know the difference,” he said. “It’s important to know who your targets are.”

That was a big advance over 2005. So next I asked him if he could tell me the difference. He was flummoxed. “The basics goes back to their beliefs and who they were following,” he said. “And the conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shia and the difference between who they were following.”

O.K., I asked, trying to help, what about today? Which one is Iran — Sunni or Shiite? He thought for a second. “Iran and Hezbollah,” I prompted. “Which are they?”

He took a stab: “Sunni.”

Wrong.

Al Qaeda? “Sunni.”

Right.

AND to his credit, Mr. Hulon, a distinguished agent who is up nights worrying about Al Qaeda while we safely sleep, did at least know that the vicious struggle between Islam’s Abel and Cain was driving Iraq into civil war. But then we pay him to know things like that, the same as some members of Congress.

Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence.

“Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a few weeks ago.

Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.”

Senate Voting Record for the Military Commissions Act of 2006

In case you are curious as to how the vote went.

Summary: Sidesteps the Supreme Court's 2006 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld opinion that found the Administration's plans to hold military tribunals were unconstitutional. Gives Congress's OK to deny U.S. noncitizen detainees the writ of habeas corpus and to use coerced testimony and hearsay evidence against the defendant. Gives the President the power to name U.S. citizens and legal U.S. residents "unlawful enemy combatants."

An Essay on Oedipus

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is fake. Funny, but fake.
(via reddit)

The 10 Most Polluted Places

Ranked alphabetically. Here are the top three.

Linfen, China, where residents say they literally choke on coal dust in the evenings, exemplifies many Chinese cities;

Haina, Dominican Republic, has severe lead contamination because of lead battery recycling, a problem common throughout poorer countries [image];

Ranipet, India, where leather tanning wastes contaminate groundwater with hexavalent chromium, made famous by Erin Brockovich, resulting in water that apparently stings like an insect bite

Rick Santorum Compares Iraq to LOTR

I no longer can tell the difference between an Onion article and the real thing.

LEVITTOWN - Embattled U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the "Eye of Mordor" has instead been drawn to Iraq.

Santorum used the analogy from one of his favorite books, J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy classic, "Lord of the Rings," to put an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq into terms any school kid could easily understand.

"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else," Santorum said, describing the tool the evil Lord Sauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth.

"It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S.," he continued. "You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States."

Muslim Phamacist Denies Morning-After Pill

From the Telegraph:

A Muslim chemist repeatedly refused a mother the "morning after" pill because of his religious beliefs.

Jo-Ann Thomas, a school crossing patrolwoman with two children, was told that even though the item was in stock she should go to her doctor for her supplies.

When she was denied the pill at a Lloyds Pharmacy near her home in Thurcroft, Rotherham, she asked why and says she was told the pharmacist was a "deeply religious Muslim". advertisement

She said: "I am a 37-year-old woman, not a daft girl who doesn't know what she's doing, and the chemist has no right to tell me whether I can or can't take the pill.

"It's my choice, not his. It's his religion, not mine. He's a dispensing chemist and his job is to dispense drugs."

(via Religious Freaks)

Related:
Christian Science Pharmacist Refuses to Fill Any Prescription.

Richard Dawkins on The Colbert Report

One Good Move has the video.

Bush's Approval Rating By State

Four states have his approval rating at or above 50%.
(via Oliver Willis)

1970s McDonalds Training Film

Impersonating a College Student

From HoustonPress.com

Last October a group of new Rice University students went to Six Flags AstroWorld. Among them was David Jovani Vanegas, a sophomore transfer student from UT. No one knew him too well since he lived off campus, but he was friendly. When the group got lost between the Light Rail and the park entrance, Vanegas hung around. He was a political science major, he told his new friends. He mentioned he was really glad he got into Rice.

At least, that's what he said. Now, roughly a year later, the group knows that none of that information is true. On September 13, Rice police arrested Vanegas for criminal trespass. Turns out he wasn't an actual Rice student but a 20-year-old impersonator. Starting last September, Vanegas began eating in Rice's dining halls, hanging out with students and attending classes. Some nights, he crashed in friends' dorm rooms when he was too tired to go home.

Most of the campus learned about Vanegas's arrest in the undergraduate newspaper, The Rice Thresher. Vanegas's friend, senior Daniel Rasheed, turned him in to the police, the paper reported. Rasheed himself had transferred to Rice the previous winter. For the past six months, he'd doubted Vanegas's student status.

"I just wanted to know the truth," Rasheed told the Thresher. "I just thought they'd be like, 'Okay, he's not a student.'"

The university is doing more than that, though. On the day of Vanegas's arrest, criminal trespass charges were filed against him (but later dismissed). Within the next few weeks, campus administrators alleged that Vanegas had taken close to $3,700 worth of food from Rice cafeterias. On September 28, the district attorney's office filed felony charges for aggregate theft. Bail was set at $2,000.

(via The Museum of Hoaxes)

Odd Watches

A gallery of strange watches. I actually like the one pictured above:

This highly complex instrument indicates the position of the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky at any given hour as seen from our Earth. It also indicates the sunrise and sunset, dawn and dusk, moonphases, moonrise and moonset, eclipses of the sun and moon, the month , the day and the date.

I’m Not a Look-a-like

Interesting project by photographer Francois Brunelle. A collection of photographic portraits of North American and European look-alikes. Each photo features two look-alikes, who are not related, side by side.

America's Dumbest Congressmen

Radar ranks the 10 biggest fools on the Hill. Guess who is #1?

1.Representative Katherine Harris (R-FL)

If dumb Congress members were the X-Men, Harris would be their Wolverine—a mutant possessing fearsome skills, the product of a demented government experiment gone horribly wrong. Back in 2000, the then-Florida secretary of state thrust herself into the national spotlight by peremptorily calling the state for George W. Bush. Of course, the longtime crony of Bush's brother Jeb was also Florida's GOP campaign chair. Two years later, after she won her seat in the House, Harris wasted no time becoming a by-the-numbers culture warrior. But she really hit her stride on the campaign trail. Running for re-election in 2004, she told voters in Venice, Florida, that a "Middle Eastern" man had been arrested for trying to blow up the power grid of Carmel, Indiana. Neither the mayor of Carmel nor the governor of Indiana—nor anyone else acquainted with reality—had any idea what Harris was talking about.

Florida Republicans responded with sound skepticism when Harris put herself forward to face off against Democratic Senate incumbent Bill Nelson in 2006. But Harris was undaunted, allegedly telling campaign consultant Ed Rollins that God had asked her to run for Senate.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Being seems to have other plans for Florida Republicans—and especially for Harris's campaign team. Team Harris has hemorrhaged more than 25 senior staff and consultants, Rollins among them, over the past year. They rush for the exits every time there's a fresh report on Harris's shady dealing: her $2,800 dinner with MZM defense contractor (and Duke Cunningham's lubricator in chief) Mitchell Wade, who reportedly vowed to kick in $200,000 for a Harris fundraiser; her withdrawal of $100,000 from her campaign coffers to pay for repairs to her house; news that the FBI is collecting her campaign e-mails for review; and her decision to conceal from her lead staffer a federal subpoena concerning the abuses.

Why We Still Fight

By William S. Lind:

At least 32 American troops have been killed in Iraq this month. Approximately 300 have been wounded. The “battle for Baghdad” is going nowhere. A Marine friend just back from Ramadi said to me, “It didn’t get any better while I was there, and it’s not going to get better.” Virtually everyone in Washington, except the people in the White House, knows that is true for all of Iraq.

Actually, I think the White House knows it too. Why then does it insist on “staying the course” at a casualty rate of more than one thousand Americans per month? The answer is breathtaking in its cynicism: so the retreat from Iraq happens on the next President’s watch. That is why we still fight.

Yep, it’s now all about George. Anyone who thinks that is too low, too mean, too despicable even for this bunch does not understand the meaning of the adjective “Rovian.” Would they let thousands more young Americans get killed or wounded just so George W. does not have to face the consequences of his own folly? In a heartbeat.

Not that it’s going to help. When history finally lifts it leg on the Bush administration, it will wash all such tricks away, leaving only the hubris and the incompetence. Jeffrey Hart, who with Russell Kirk gone is probably the top intellectual in the conservative movement, has already written that George W. Bush is the worst President America ever had. I think the honor still belongs to the sainted Woodrow, but if Bush attacks Iran, he may yet earn the prize. That third and final act in the Bush tragicomedy is waiting in the wings.

(Thanks PVC)

The Children's Crusade

Also from Wikipedia:

The long-standing view of the Children's Crusade is some version of events with similar themes. A boy began preaching in either France or Germany claiming that he had been visited by Jesus and told to lead the next Crusade. Through a series of supposed portents and miracles he gained a considerable following, including possibly as many as 20,000 children. He led his followers southwards towards the Mediterranean Sea, where it is said he believed that the sea would part when he arrived, so that he and his followers could march to Jerusalem, but this did not happen. Two merchants gave passage on seven boats to as many of the children as would fit. The children were either taken to Tunisia and sold into slavery, or died in a shipwreck on the island of San Pietro (off Sardinia) during a gale. In some accounts they never reached the sea before dying or giving up from starvation and exhaustion. Scholarship has shown this long-standing view to be more legend than fact.

The Russell Tribunal

From Wikipedia:

The Russell Tribunal was a public international body organized by British philosopher and pacifist Bertrand Russell, along with Ken Coates and several others. It was designed to investigate and publicize war crimes and conduct of the American forces and its allies during the Vietnam War. The tribunal was constituted in November, 1966 and conducted over two sessions in 1967 in Stockholm, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark. It gained significant international attention, but was largely ignored in the US, where many considered it an ineffectual, biased show trial.

Representatives of 18 countries participated in the two sessions of this tribunal, formally calling itself the International War Crimes Tribunal. The tribunal committee consisted of 25 notable personages, predominantly from leftist peace organizations. Many of these individuals were winners of the Nobel Prize, Medals of Valor and awards of recognition in humanitarian and social fields. There was no direct representation of Vietnam or the United States on this 25 member panel, although a couple of members were American citizens.

More than 30 individuals testified or provided information to this tribunal. Among them were military personnel from the United States, as well as from each of the warring factions in Vietnam. Financing for the Tribunal came from many sources, including a large contribution from the North Vietnamese government after a request made by Russell to Ho Chi Minh.

Church of All Worlds

A religion based on Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

In 1962 CAW evolved from a group of friends and lovers who were in part inspired by the science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. This book suggested a spiritual and social way of life and was a metaphor expressing the awakening social consciousness of the times. Inspired by this awakening of consciousness and Heinlein's book, this group grew, evolved, became "water-kin" and created a religious organization that was recognized as a church by the federal government of the United States on June 18, 1970. They named this religious organization the Church of All Worlds after the church founded by the protagonist Valintine Smith in the book.

Oops

Steve Wynn accidentally put his elbow through a painting (Picasso's "Le Rêve") he had just sold for $139 million dollars.

The guests came at five-thirty, and Wynn ushered them in. On the wall to his left and right were several paintings, including a Matisse, a Renoir, and “Le Rêve.” The other three walls were glass, looking out onto an enclosed garden. He began to tell the story of the Picasso’s provenance. As he talked, he had his back to the picture. He was wearing jeans and a golf shirt. Wynn suffers from an eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which affects his peripheral vision and therefore, occasionally, his interaction with proximate objects, and, without realizing it, he backed up a step or two as he talked. “So then I made a gesture with my right hand,” Wynn said, “and my right elbow hit the picture. It punctured the picture.” There was a distinct ripping sound. Wynn turned around and saw, on Marie-Thérèse Walter’s left forearm, in the lower-right quadrant of the painting, “a slight puncture, a two-inch tear. We all just stopped. I said, ‘I can’t believe I just did that. Oh, shit. Oh, man.’ ”

Wynn turned around again. He put his pinkie in the hole and observed that a flap of canvas had been pushed back. He told his guests, “Well, I’m glad I did it and not you.”

(via Kottke)

The Rapture

Like the christians, I also can't wait until this happens.
(via J-Walk)

Earth's 'Second Moon'

Earth has a "second moon." Asteroid 2003 YN107 is looping around our planet once a year.

This news, believe it or not, is seven years old.

"2003 YN107 arrived in 1999," says Paul Chodas of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at JPL, "and it's been corkscrewing around Earth ever since." Because the asteroid is so small and poses no threat, it has attracted little public attention. But Chodas and other experts have been monitoring it. "It's a very curious object," he says.

Most near-Earth asteroids, when they approach Earth, simply fly by. They come and they go, occasionally making news around the date of closest approach. 2003 YN107 is different: It came and it stayed.

"We believe 2003 YN107 is one of a whole population of near-Earth asteroids that don't just fly by Earth. They pause and corkscrew in our vicinity for years before moving along."

You can go here to check out a simulation of the orbit.

Worst Halloween Costume Ever

Child Toilet costume is a very funny kids Halloween costume. A Child toilet costume is also perfect for every potty mouth kid. Use as a modern day Dunce cap. Young boys love this silly Toilet bowl Halloween costume.

(via del.icio.us/wcitymike)

Roomba With Animatronic Chimp Head

Otherwise known as the best vacuum cleaner ever.
(via del.icio.us/revgeorge)

Christian Right Propaganda Posters

A great satirical gallery of christian right beliefs as propaganda posters.

For that reason I have created propaganda posters which promote some of the beliefs of the Christian Right. The intention is satirical, not sympathetic, but even so I believe that both the images and the words accurately reflect what some on the Christian Right belief and advocate. The original posters were produced as government propaganda, mostly during the first and second world wars.

Deep Fried Computer

I had recently read a few articles on submersion cooling, where you take your computer and dump it into a tub of non-electrically-conductive oil. It seemed to work really well, and was cheap. So I saw it as a type of poor man's water-cooling...

...But I soon became hungry for a fried snack - and since I had used all the oil in the house I couldn't fry myself anything. Then I had a brilliant idea. Why not use the oil that the computer's in?

(via Geekpress)

Scuba Diving Cat

(via Ursi's Blog)

Dubai in the Fog

From Flickr:

These photos where taken from 33rd level Emirates Towers.

Album Cover War

(Thanks Natalie)

Name Origions of Rock Bands

Interesting.

BEASTIE BOYS - According to Michael Diamond, BEASTIE stands for Boys Entering Anarchistic Stages Towards Internal Excellence.

BLACK SABBATH - from a 1960's cheap horror movie starring Boris Karloff , suggesting a holy day of witchcraft.

GUNS 'N' ROSES - originally two bands L.A. GUNNS and HOLLYWOOD ROSES. Hollywood Roses was headed by Axl Rose, Tracii Guns headed the other band which also featured Slash. The two frequented clubs and played there and were friends.

PINK FLOYD - taken from the names of two Georgia bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council - from the early days when the band saw itself as a blues band.

(Thanks Marianna)

Become an Ordained Minister Immediately For Free

Anybody interested in becoming a ULC ordained minister?

You are about to become an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. For information regarding the legal aspects of this in your state or province, view the FAQ page on the site.

Some famous ULC ministers:

The Beatles (all four musicians)
Johnny Carson (TV personality)
Tony Danza (TV host/actor)
Courtney Love (musician)
Jeff Probst (TV host)
Sharon Stone (actress)
Hunter S. Thompson (gonzo journalist)

South Park's Make Love Not Warcraft

Republican Candidate Accuses Dem Candidate of Atheism

From Law.com:

Religion has entered the political fray in a race for an appellate court bench in east Texas.

The Austin-based Republican Party of Texas played the religion card in a Sept. 21 online newsletter. As alleged in the newsletter, Texarkana solo E. Ben Franks, Democratic nominee for a seat on the 6th Court of Appeals, "is reported to be a professed atheist" and apparently believes the Bible is a "collection of myths.'"

But Franks says he has never professed to be an atheist and is not a member of any atheist organization. Franks says no one with the Republican Party ever asked him whether he professes to be an atheist. However, he says he's not surprised by the allegation.

"I'm not surprised at anything anybody says in politics anymore," Franks says.

And my favorite part:

However, the state Republican Party questions whether Franks will uphold the law, stating in the newsletter: "Should Franks be elected in November, one would have to conclude that he will hold true to his out of touch 'atheist' belief system and ignore the laws and Constitution of Texas."

Chad Vader Episode 4

I must have missed episode 3.

Outsourcing Patients

From the NY Times: Union Disrupts Plan to Send Ailing Workers to India for Cheaper Medical Care

BANGALORE, India, Oct. 10 — A few weeks ago, Carl Garrett, a 60-year-old North Carolina resident, was packing his bags to fly to New Delhi and check into the plush Indraprastha Apollo Hospital to have his gall bladder removed and the painful muscles in his left shoulder repaired. Mr. Garrett was to be a test case, the first company-sponsored worker in the United States to receive medical treatment in low-cost India.

But instead of making the 20-hour flight, Mr. Garrett was grounded by a stormy debate between his employer, which saw the benefits of using the less expensive hospitals in India, and his union, which raised questions about the quality of overseas health care and the issue of medical liability should anything go wrong.

“I was looking forward to the adventure of being treated in India,” Mr. Garrett said the other day. “But my company dropped the ball.”

The union, the United Steelworkers, stepped in after it heard about Mr. Garrett’s plans, saying it deplored a “shocking new approach” of sending workers to low-cost countries as a way to cut health care costs. Its officials insisted that Mr. Garrett be offered a health care option within the United States.

Keiko's Homepage

Radmila takes all the fun out of Keiko's homepage by pointing out that this is most likely some sort of scam where you end up walletless or organless.

Hello my name is Keiko and I live in Tokyo in Japan. I have a nice apartment in Ochanomizu and you are welcome to stay with me if you are UNDER 35 and YOU ARE NICE LOOKING and YOU ARE WHITE. You can save your hotel cost (a lot in Tokyo!) and we can have fun! – but ONLY if you are a white guy. I do not want asian men, sorry.

What do I get??
I can have some fun sex with Europen, and American guys… what I love – they are very sexy and yummy! - Japanese men are pigs. Also, I want to practise my English with you, please.

Saturn

Go here and check out the high resolution photo. Stunning.

This marvelous panoramic view was created by combining a total of 165 images taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera over nearly three hours on Sept. 15, 2006. The full mosaic consists of three rows of nine wide-angle camera footprints; only a portion of the full mosaic is shown here. Color in the view was created by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared and clear filter images and was then adjusted to resemble natural color.

The mosaic images were acquired as the spacecraft drifted in the darkness of Saturn’s shadow for about 12 hours, allowing a multitude of unique observations of the microscopic particles that comprise Saturn’s faint rings.

(via Bad Astronomy)

Terry Jones' Letter of Congratulations to George W. Bush

It isn't everyday that your leader is invited to join the World League of Despots.

Dear President Bush,

I write to you in my capacity as secretary of the World League of Despots.

It is with great pleasure that I am finally able to extend an official invitation to you to join our ranks. For many years, we have watched your efforts to fulfil the requirements necessary to join our number. From the start, we were greatly impressed by your disdain for democratic principles - the way you wrested power from the democratically elected candidate in the 2000 election, and again in 2005 when you managed to swing what was clearly going to be a victory for your opponent.

Contempt for human life has always been a priority requirement for membership of the league, and I and my fellow adjudicators were well aware of your record as governor of Texas when you quadrupled the number of state executions. But your record since seizing power has surpassed even our expectations. The thousands of innocent people in Iraq, who have died so that you could fulfil your declared political objective of establishing "an American force presence in the Middle East", attest to your eligibility to join our ranks.

I cannot, however, disguise the fact that we adjudicators were extremely anxious when you announced your intention to remove from office one of our most stalwart members, Mr Saddam Hussein. However, we need not have worried. According to a recent UN report, you have ensured that there are now even more human rights abuses in Iraq than there were under Saddam. No less than 10% of those in custody are being physically or psychologically abused. Well done!

Where Were You When You Realized the Star Wars Prequels Sucked

The George Lucas Directs LOTR post today had a few people talking about their first impressions when they saw the there'snotevenanadjectivetodescribehowbaditwas Star Wars prequels. McGee says:

I still remember my excitement and anticipation for Episode I. I was in….9th grade? I can’t even remember. I was in high school, I know that. My friends and I went to the first local showing at midnight (we were probably the only geeks there NOT dressed up as characters), and it began dawning on me about a third of the way through….this movie was terrible. The writing was bad. The story was bad. The dialogue was laughable. The acting was wooden. The special effects were great….in number, but not necessarily quality.

I was furious by the end, absolutely furious. Of course my one friend thought it was awesome, but he was (and likely still is) an imbecile with no taste in film. I, on the other hand, have very particular tastes, and I could see immediately that George Lucas had lost whatever magic he’d once had.

TDavis says:

I recall going to the midnight premiere of Episode One with several of my pals and leaving the theater, not furious, but greatly confused and sad. The thing that really put me over the top into anger is when someone asked Lucas about a particularly odd scene (The rising and falling energy walls during the final duel.)
Interviewer: “What the heck were those things going up and down during the fight scene?”
Lucas: “Oh, we’ll explain them when we do the extended version.”
Excuse me?
I just laid out good money to see Episode One.
Can I use my ticket stub to see Episode 1.2?
I’ve detested Lucas ever since.

I remember going to see Episode One the day before it was released. My friend was a projectionist and we watched it after the theater had closed so there was no crowd to gauge. I remember the music to the 20th Century Fox sign beginning which to me always brings back memories to the original movie. (Seriously, there's no bigger disappointment when a movie from Fox uses that music for a movie that isn't Star Wars). The opening crawl with it's bit about trade embargos seemed a bit too much like intergalactic cspan for me but we're in the beginning of a new trilogy. It's forgiveable. Then, Jar Jar made his first appearance....

I went home that night in a state of denial. I think deep down I knew what I had just seen was crap but it didn't make sense. I mean, Lucas had twenty years to hone the material. Didn't he say that he had written the entire backstory back while developing episode iv? Twenty years of thinking about the prequels and the best he could do for the climax of Act 2 was the Tatoonian equivalent of Nascar??? No, no, it couldn't be. I must have had some bad butter in the popcorn or something. It must be my fault. I must not have understood the complex trade relations between the people of Naboo and the, the, whatever the other people were. You know, the ones that they gave the asian accents to.

I didn't sleep well that night. I tossed and turned and mulled over the steamping pile of bantha shit I just watched and it suddenly came to me. That movie sucked!

And you?

Inside the Googleplex

Another post about working at Google.

Rumor has it, a dude who had just joined Google had not been able to find a flat, so he lived at Google HQ for a month. He lived a lot better than Tom Hanks in The Terminal. Meals are provided, couches everywhere, there are showers in the bathrooms, a gym and a swimming machine. There are even pianos in music rooms you could use. Better than the facilities at home! The dude didn't leave Google HQ for a month straight.

Art on a Wall

A time-lapse video of people painting a wall over the course of one week. I think...

Art Teacher Loses Job After Kids See Nude Sculpture

I checked, it isn't the John Ashcroft Memorial Elementary School.

FRISCO, Texas -- An award-winning Texas art teacher who was reprimanded after one of her fifth-grade students saw a nude sculpture during a trip to a museum has lost her job.

The school board in Frisco has voted not to renew Sydney McGee's contract after 28 years. She has been on administrative leave.

The teacher took her students on an approved field trip to a Dallas museum, and now some parents are upset.

The Fisher Elementary School art teacher came under fire last April when she took 89 fifth-graders on a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. Parents raised concerns over the field trip after their children reported seeing a nude sculpture at the art museum.

The parents had signed permission slips allowing their children to take part in the field trip.

McGee's lawyer said the principal at Fisher Elementary School admonished her after a parent complained that a student had seen nude art.

Iraqi Death Toll Exceeds 600,000

Bush in 2002:

Some worry that a change of leadership in Iraq could create instability and make the situation worse. The situation could hardly get worse, for world security and for the people of Iraq. The lives of Iraqi citizens would improve dramatically if Saddam Hussein were no longer in power, just as the lives of Afghanistan's citizens improved after the Taliban. The dictator of Iraq is a student of Stalin, using murder as a tool of terror and control, within his own cabinet, within his own army, and even within his own family.

The Wall Street Journal today:

WASHINGTON -- A new study asserts that roughly 600,000 Iraqis have died from violence since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, a figure many times higher than any previous estimate.

The study, to be published Saturday in the British medical journal the Lancet, was conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health by sending teams of Iraqi doctors across Iraq from May through July. The findings are sure to draw fire from skeptics and could color the debate over the war ahead of congressional elections next month.

Rushdie Declares 'Veils Suck'

Somebody is jonesing for another fatwah against him:

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, held to mark the opening of a new joint exhibition with sculptor Amish Kapoor, he backed Mr Straw to the hilt.

"Speaking as somebody with three sisters and a very largely female Muslim family, there's not a single woman I know in my family or in their friends who would have accepted wearing the veil.

"I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on [Straw's] side.

"He was expressing an important opinion, which is that veils suck, which they do. I think the veil is a way of taking power away from women."

Mr Straw triggered anger last week when he revealed he asked Muslim women visiting his constituency surgery to remove their veils.

He said that seeing someone's face made it easier to communicate and felt the garment was a barrier to integration and good community relations.

The publication of the Satanic Verses in 1989 triggered not just the fatwah from Iran but also riots in Pakistan, India and Turkey among Muslims who felt he had insulted the prophet.

YouTubers

A short film about the YouTube community.
(via Waxy)

The Eclipse That Saved Columbus

From Science News:

The astronomical tables that Columbus consulted during his voyage proved useful for determining latitude and, to some degree, longitude. A prediction contained in the tables probably saved his life at a crucial moment during his fourth voyage to the lands he had discovered.

Nearly 2 years after sailing from Cadiz in 1502, Columbus and his restless, disgruntled crew were stranded on the north coast of Jamaica, confined to worm-eaten, leaking ships. The native inhabitants were no longer awed by the newcomers. Annoyed by their voracious appetites and angry at the depredations of crew members, who had plundered several villages, the population was hostile and would no longer supply food.

Weary and ill, Columbus had withdrawn to his ship. There, he pondered his precarious situation. Returning to the stained pages of the Ephemerides, he noted Regiomontanus's prediction of a total eclipse of the moon on Feb. 29, 1504....

...Columbus had observed a lunar eclipse on an earlier voyage and had noticed discrepancies between the predictions made by Zacuto and those contained in the Ephemerides. Moreover, he had no reliable way of determining the correct local time of this particular projected eclipse. The times provided by Regiomontanus for its start and end were for Nuremberg, Germany.

Despite these uncertainties, Columbus was desperate enough to take a chance. On the day before the predicted eclipse, he summoned the leaders of the native inhabitants and warned them through an interpreter that if they did not cooperate with him, the moon would disappear from the sky on the following night.

The natives for the most part were unimpressed; some even laughed. Columbus nervously awaited the outcome of his gamble. Could he rely on tables that had been compiled several decades earlier and that predicted the positions of celestial bodies only for the years between 1475 and 1506? How large were the errors?

Benny Hinn Meets Benny Hill

(via a comment on J-Walk)

George Lucas Directs LOTR

HA!
(via Monitor Duty)

Dawkins BBC Interview

Dawkins was interviewed by Huw Edwards on BBC News.

The Acquisition Price Guide

Tristan Lous and Google Blogoscope put together a list of some recent tech acquisitions.

The Algonquin Round Table

It all began with an afternoon roast of the NEW YORK TIMES drama critic, Alexander Wollcott. A number of writers met up at the Algonquin Hotel on 44th street and had such a good time that the event was repeated the next day, and the day after that, until the lunch table at the Algonquin was established as a ritual. The core group of friends was sometimes joined by others who attended for short periods or drifted about the periphery of the group, including such notables as actress Tallulah Bankhead and playwright Noel Coward. The Round Table was made up of people with a shared admiration for each other's work. Outspoken and outrageous, they would often quote each other freely in their daily columns.

Round Tabler Edna Ferber, who called them "The Poison Squad," wrote, "They were actually merciless if they disapproved. I have never encountered a more hard-bitten crew. But if they liked what you had done, they did say so publicly and whole-heartedly." Their standards were high, their vocabulary fluent, fresh, astringent, and very, very tough. Both casual and incisive, they had a certain terrible integrity about their work and boundless ambition. Some of the most notable members of the Round Table came together to work on significant collaborative projects. George Kaufman teamed up with Edna Ferber and Marc Connelly on some of his best stage comedies, including DULCY and THE ROYAL FAMILY. Harold Ross of THE NEW YORKER hired both Dorothy Parker as a book reviewer and Robert Benchley as a drama critic.

Kevin Smith Talks about his Superman Script

Long but pretty amusing.

Flickr Photoset of the Las Vegas Neon Boneyard

I've gotta go here next time I'm in town.

Bush's Signing Statements

An index of Bush's Signing Statements.

Worst Resume Ever

Some background about the video resume of one Aleksey Vayner:

Normally, a college student whose resume makes it to dozens of Wall Street firms would see their interest as great news.

Not so for Aleksey Vayner, a student at Yale University whose resume and motivational video have been forwarded by email to firms all over Wall Street, accompanied by messages like "What NOT to do when looking for a banking job... (Yalies, go figure)."

Vayner, a self-described "CEO and professional athlete," submitted a cover letter and resume to UBS AG (UBS), describing his "insatiable appetite for peak performance." By Friday afternoon, both the cover letter and resume - which includes a link to the video, titled "Impossible is Nothing" - had circulated among employees at Lehman Brothers (LEH), Goldman Sachs (GS), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Credit Suisse Group (CS) and Wachovia Corp. (WB), to name a few. Toward the bottom of his resume - after more than a page of experience, including founding his own non-profit and working at an eponymous investment-management firm - a category called "leadership" includes a reference to a 1,650-pound leg press, along with the video link.

Now posted on YouTube, the video showcases Vayner lifting weights, ballroom dancing, playing tennis, skiing and ultimately, breaking a tower of bricks with his hand. All the while, he discusses his philosophy of success: "If you're going to work, work. If you're going to train, train. If you're going to dance, then DANCE, but do it with PASSION."

Ivygateblog.com did some research and it seems that just about everything was made up.

(via Metafilter)

Lawmaker fires back at governor‘s comments on age of Earth

From the Great Falls Tribune:

BOZEMAN — A Republican state lawmaker is criticizing Gov. Brian Schweitzer for comments he made to a newspaper here about the lawmaker‘s belief that the planet is not millions of years old.

Rep. Roger Koopman, R-Bozeman, called Schweitzer‘s statement ”incredibly bigoted.”

Speaking to a crowd of school children, parents and teachers in Bozeman on Friday about global warming, Schweitzer asked how many in the crowd thought the Earth was hundreds of millions of years old. Most of the children in the audience raised their hands.

He then asked how many believed the planet was less than a million years old. At least two people, including Koopman, who was in the crowd, raised their hands.

During an interview later with the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Schweitzer noted Koopman‘s response. He said some people believe the planet is only 4,000 to 6,000 years old, despite geological evidence to the contrary.

Schweitzer said he needs support from a state Legislature that will help move Montana‘s agenda forward, ”not people who think the Earth is 4,000 years old.”

Koopman called the comments insulting.

”He insulted many Christian people and other people of faith that arrived at that position other than the way I arrived at it,” he said.

Schweitzer did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Sunday or Monday.

Koopman said his belief in the Earth‘s age is not based on his faith, but on his scientific investigations.

Turkish Star Trek

(via Digg)

The YouTube Founders on the Buyout

(via Waxy)

Google Acquires YouTube for $1.65 Billion

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.

The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment communities with Google's expertise in organizing information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet. The combined companies will focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in uploading, watching and sharing videos, and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to reach a vast new audience.

(via Kottke)

Whatever Happened to the Rainbow Wig/John 3:16 Guy?

He's serving a life sentence:

This brings us to the late 80s. By now Rollen had gotten his 15 minutes of fame and was the target of increasing harassment by TV and stadium officials. His wife left him, saying he had choked her because she held up a sign in the wrong location. His car was totaled by a drunk driver, his money ran out, and he wound up homeless in LA. Increasingly convinced that the end was near, Rollen decided to create a radically different media character. He set off a string of bombs in a church, a Christian bookstore, a newspaper office, and several other locations. Meanwhile he sent out apocalyptic letters that included a hit list of preachers, signing the letters "the Antichrist." Rollen says he wanted to call attention to the Christian message, and while this may seem like a sick way to go about it, it wasn't much weirder than waving signs in the end zone at football games. In any case, no one was hurt in the bombings, which mostly involved stink bombs.

On September 22, 1992, believing the Rapture was only six days away and having prepared himself by watching TV for 18 hours a day, Stewart began his last "presentation." Posing as a contractor, he picked up two day laborers in downtown LA, then drove to an airport hotel. Taking the men up to a room, he unexpectedly walked in on a chambermaid. In the confusion that followed he drew a gun, the two men escaped, and the maid locked herself in the bathroom. The police surrounded the joint, and Rollen demanded a three-hour press conference, hoping to make his last national splash. He didn't get it. After a nine-hour siege the cops threw in a concussion grenade, kicked down the door, and dragged him away.

(Thanks Paul)

A Marine's Letter Home From Iraq

From Time:

Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.

Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied "Yes, you."

Worst City in al-Anbar Province — Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7 million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar province is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in 2003.

Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province — Any Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD Tech). How'd you like a job that required you to defuse bombs in a hole in the middle of the road that very likely are booby-trapped or connected by wire to a bad guy who's just waiting for you to get close to the bomb before he clicks the detonator? Every day. Sanitation workers in New York City get paid more than these guys. Talk about courage and commitment.

Ants Swarming Like a Tornado

On my holiday I filmed these ants on the road in the Panthanal, Brasil, on a road. The sound is from the truck and few other tourists. We ware amased by this huge amount of ants walking like a tornado pattern.

(via Digg)

Getting Arrested for Criticizing a Dick

From The Progressive:

Howards says he was taking two of his kids to their Suzuki piano camp in Beaver Creek, Colorado. They were walking across the outdoor public mall area when all of a sudden he saw Cheney there.

“I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away.”

Howards says he knew the Administration has a “history of making problems” for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that.

But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment.“About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’ ”

Here’s how Howards says he responded: “No, but I did tell Mr. Cheney the way I felt about the war in Iraq, and if Mr. Cheney wants to be shielded from public criticism, he should avoid public places. If exercising my constitutional rights to free speech is against the law, then you should arrest me.”

Which is just what the agent, Virgil D. “Gus” Reichle Jr, proceeded to do.

The ABC's of Sex education for trainables

Nsfw.

A 70's training film for people who need to teach sex ed. classess to the mentally disabled.

Accessory Turn Signals of the 20s and 30s

For a few years now, I have been fascinated by a very odd automotive accessory,..... the add on turn signal / Stop light...... Mainly because of the seemingly endless variety of styles and companies that made these things from the teens through the 40's. I seem to come across a different one at least every month, and they just keep getting stranger and stranger.

You see, ... as strange as it may seem to anyone under the age of 65, most cars didn't come stock with turn signals..... Not until the late 40's early 50's. And as necessity is the mother of all invention, you can only imagine how many model T's and A's smashed into each other due to the lack of information form one driver to another as to which direction you were about to suddenly go.

(via Bifurcated Rivets)

Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact

From Wikipedia:

Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact is interactions between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and peoples of other continents – Europe, Africa, Asia, or Oceania – before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Many such events have been proposed at various times, based on historical reports, archaeological finds, and cultural comparisons. Some of those claims are listed in this article. However, evidence for those claims is generally scant and circumstantial, and only a few of them are taken seriously by researchers; only Native American migration from Siberia and the presence of the Norse in North America have been proven for certain.

(Thanks PVC)

Happy Columbus Day

Links for Columbus Day. First, who was the first to spot land after a long arduous voyage?

Between the evening of October 11 and the morning of October 12, a sailor on the Pinta named Juan Rodriguez Bermejo called out, "Land, land!" Isabella had offered a reward to the first person to sight land. However, Columbus said that he had seen a flickering light hours earlier, and he claimed the reward.

An excerpt from Columbus' log after meeting the indigenous people of the West Indies (Arawaks):

"They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned . . . they do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance . . .. Their spears are made of cane . . . they would make fine servants . . .. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

And of course, Howard Zinn's essay, "Columbus and Western Civilization"

Yes, this was how Columbus saw the Indians--not as hospitable hosts, but “servants,” to “do whatever we want.”

And what did Columbus want? This is not hard to determine. In the first two weeks of journal entries, there is one word that recurs seventy-five times: GOLD.

In the standard accounts of Columbus what is emphasized again and again is his religious feeling, his desire to convert the natives to Christianity, his reverence for the Bible. Yes, he was concerned about God. But more about Gold. Just one additional letter. His was a limited alphabet. Yes, all over the islands of Hispaniola, where he, his brothers, his men, spent most of their time, he erected crosses. But also, all over the island, they built gallows--340 of them by the year 1500. Crosses and gallows--that deadly historic juxtaposition.

In his quest for gold, Columbus, seeing bits of gold among the Indians, concluded there were huge amounts of it. He ordered the natives to find a certain amount of gold within a certain period of time. And if they did not meet their quota, their arms were hacked off. The others were to learn from this and deliver the gold.

Samuel Eliot Morison, the Harvard historian who was Columbus’ admiring biographer, acknowledged this. He wrote: “Whoever thought up this ghastly system, Columbus was responsible for it, as the only means of producing gold for export.... Those who fled to the mountains were hunted with hounds, and those who escaped, starvation and disease took toll, while thousands of poor creatures in desperation took cassava poison to end their miseries.”

Morison continues: “So the policy and acts of Columbus for which he alone was responsible began the depopulation of the terrestrial paradise that was Hispaniola in 1492. Of the original natives, estimated by modern ethnologist at 300,000 in number, one-third were killed off between 1494 and 1496. By 1508, an enumeration showed only 60,000 alive...in 1548 Oviedo (Morison is referring to Fernandex de Oviedo, the official Spanish historian of conquest) doubted whether 500 Indians remained.

But Columbus could not obtain enough gold to send home to impress the King and Queen and his Spanish financiers, so he decided to send back to Spain another kind of loot: slaves. They rounded up about 1200 natives, selected 500, and these were sent, jammed together, on the voyage across the Atlantic. Two hundred died on the way, of cold, of sickness.

In Columbus’ journal, an entry of September 1498 reads: “From here one might send, in the name of Holy Trinity, as many slaves as could be sold...”

Sunday Jazz

Ella!

Battle Royale

Just finished reading Battle Royale. For those of you who are not familiar with the book, it's a Japanese novel about a state sponsored reality game show where a class of 42 ninth grade students are placed on an island with a collar around them that monitors their location, vital signs, etc., and a weapon of some sort. Then they have to kill each other. If nobody dies within 24 hours, their collars explode killing all of them. The last person alive is the winner.

The only question I really have is how has the author not been given a Nobel prize for literature yet? (And yes, I know it's been made into a movie which is now at the top of my netflix queue.)

The Daily Show on Bush's "Job"

This would be hysterical if it wasn't so scary that this man is ruining running the country.

Mister Rogers Grabs The Wrong Tape

Not sure where this is from but it's pretty funny.

Soldier Head Twist

Really cool trick (I'm assuming that it is a trick and that he's not really turning his head 180 degrees)
(via Museum of Hoaxes)

Tattooed Teacher

From CityRag:

Bruce Potts is a teacher of Public Speaking at the University of New Mexico and has a full tribal face tattoo. He has a straight forward attitude and imparts a cool vibe of acceptance. We'll bet his students get an extra edge on using demeanor and attitude in public speaking. And a life long lesson on not judging books by their covers. Either that or they study really hard because they're afraid he'll eat them.

(via Boing Boing)

Daily Show as Substantive as Network News?

Does anybody really find the results of this study surprising? I haven't relied on network news for anything since finding the internets.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Which would you think has more substantive news coverage -- traditional broadcast network newscasts or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart?

Would you believe the answer is neither?

Julia R. Fox, assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University isn't joking when she says the popular "fake news" program, which last week featured Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a guest, is just as substantive as network coverage.

While much has been written in the media about The Daily Show's impact, Fox's study is the first scholarly effort to systematically examine how the comedy program compares to traditional television news as sources of political information.

The study, "No Joke: A Comparison of Substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Network Television Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign," will be published next summer by the Journal of Broadcast and Electronic Media, published by the Broadcast Education Association.

"It is clearly a humor show, first and foremost," Fox said of Stewart's program. "But there is some substance on there, and in some cases, like John Edwards announcing his candidacy, the news is made on the show. You have real newsmakers coming on, and yes, sometimes the banter and questions get a little silly, but there is also substantive dialogue going on … It's a legitimate source of news."

The Casino Experience

From Signal vs. Noise:

From a design/experience perspective, casinos are fascinating places:

1) There are no windows. Gamblers have no idea whether it’s light or dark or sunny or rainy outside.

2) There are no clocks. Dealers are forbidden from wearing watches. Time becomes meaningless.

3) There’s intentionally poor navigation. They are built like mazes meaning it’s usually tough to find a way out.

4) There’s a constant barrage of noises. Slot machines spin, games ding and dong, coins hit metal, there’s the pitter patter of the people running the games, etc. Many of these sounds, like the ringing of the slots, is there to give you a false sense of hope (“If all of those bells are ringing, somebody must be winning!”).

MIT Sketching

(via Digg)

Elevator Floor Illusion

Going into this elevator would certainly makes one nervous. A sign at the entrance cautions the people that goes in about work in progress. A more detailed look shows that the floor has been painted with an illusion that there is no floor.

Puerto Rican Cooking

Puerto Rican food, is among the most Flavorful in the world, its has roots in Spain, African, and Taino cooking. The diverse combination of cooking styles yield unique flavors. The base of most Puerto Rican dishes is the "Sofrito", a thick sauce produced by sautéing a variety of vegetables, herbs, spices, then adding tomato sauce. "Sofrito" is used to create soup dishes to rice dishes.

Imprisoned on a Deserted Island

Hmmm.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, September 29, 2006 - A young Trinidadian who was sentenced to one year on a deserted island by the Maldives government has been released and now back home.

The intriguing tale told by the Trinidad Guardian newspaper this morning is of the intervention of Minister of Foreign Affairs Knowlson Gift, who resigned this week, to get the Trinidadian released...

...The young man having confessed to having sex was sentenced to one year on a deserted island. He was dropped off there and periodically would be taken food and water but it was up to him to survive as best as he could.

(via gallimaufry.ws)

Taking Passwords to the Grave

From Wired:

William Talcott, a prominent San Francisco poet with dual Irish citizenship, had fans all over the world. But when he died in June of bone marrow cancer, his daughter couldn't notify most of his contacts because his e-mail account--and the online address book he used--was locked up.

Talcott, 69, a friend of beatnik Neal Cassady, apparently took his password to the grave.

It's a vexing, and increasingly common problem for families mourning the loss of loved ones. As more and more people move their lives, address books, calendars, financial information, online, they are taking a risk that some information formerly filed away in folders and desks might never be recovered. That is, unless they share their passwords, which poses security threats.

"He did not keep a hard copy address book. I think everything was online," said Talcott's daughter, Julie Talcott-Fuller. "There were people he knew that I haven't been able to contact. It's been very hard."

Biff's Question Song

October Surprise

Wikipedia's entry on October Surprises

Faux News

You knew they'd find some way to blame this on the Democrats.

Freemasons: A Secret Society, Spilling a Few Secrets

From ReligionNewsBlog:

For more than two centuries, the Freemasons and their grandiose rituals have played a secretive, mysterious role in American life. One of the Masons’ symbols looks a lot like the all-seeing eye on the back of every $1 bill. And look whose picture is on the other side.

George Washington was not the first Mason, and not the only famous one. Mozart worked thinly disguised touches of Masonry into operas. Fourteen presidents and everyone from the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale to the comedian Red Skelton belonged. Masons presided when the cornerstone was laid at the Statue of Liberty.

But the Masons’ numbers have been steadily dwindling — whatever their secrets are, they apparently do not have one for avoiding death — and their ranks have been graying. So the New York State Masons have followed other state Masonic societies in doing something that they would have once considered heretical: they are actively reaching out for new members. And, in the process, a famously reticent fraternal organization that now puts a premium on its community service has lifted its veil of secrecy just a bit.

Star Wars Costumes For Your Pets

This is ubergeeky. I wonder if the Yoda one would fit Cynikitty.
(via SF Signal)

Jolly Rancher Soda

From Slashfood:

They're not totally brand new, but I have yet to see them in stores in my area (LA). Jolly Rancher Sodas look as bright and colorful as the original candies, and while they probably aren't any better for your teeth because of sugar, at least they won't crack any fillings! The 20 oz. bottles of soda come in the same flavors as the candies: Blue Raspberry, Grape, Green Apple, Orange, and Watermelon.

U.S. Treaty with Tripoli (1796)

Famous for Article 11:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Related:
Wikipedia's entry on the Treaty with Tripoli

I Give Up (or The Sound of Silence)

This is what the last 45 minutes have been like for me:

1:45pm: Received a call from my wife who is laying over in Paris. She is sick as a dog and isn't even sure if she'll be able to make her flight home tomorrow. She gives me the number for her hotel and her extension.

1:50pm: I go to the atm to get money to buy an international calling card. My balance is short by a couple hundred dollars... Huh?

1:52pm: I make my way through Harvard Square trying to figure out why my bank account is short and pass by a street musician with a huge amplifier singing The Sound of Silence. You want to know what the sound of silence sounds like through a Marshall amplifier? Not all that fucking silent.

2:05pm: Back in my office and I can still hear the street musician singing The Sound of Silence. Is this the extended version or is that the only song in his repertoire?

2:08pm: Bank charged me twice for my monthly T pass (my T pass is $181). Gotta call them.

2:09pm: Dialed their number and reached their automated menu system.

2:10pm: Still in their automated menu system.

2:12pm: Still in their automated menu system.

2:15pm: Still in their automated menu system. The Sound of Silence still going on outside.

2:18pm: I hit the wrong button in the automated menu system. Now I have to start from the beginning. The street musician finishes The Sound of Silence. I may let him live.

2:22pm: Finally reach someone who sounds at least half human if not in the least bit interested. The bank screwed up and charged transactions for September 1st again on October 2nd. She says that they won't charge people who have negative balances because of this error. I ask for her secret of keeping a straight face when she says that.

2:24pm: I try calling the wife at her Paris hotel. Ok, I need 011 to get out of the US, the French country code, Paris' city code... shit, Paris has three city codes. I guess I can use brute force since there are only three permutations.

2:25pm: I try all three and get a voice mail, a dead line and a very nice person who doesn't sound like a hotel at all and seems perplexed when I panic and keep saying the word "fromage".

2:26pm: I realize that the phonebook is written by liars and is nothing more than a big yellow book of propaganda and stop trying to dial a city code for Paris and just dial 1 instead. I think I get a hotel and panic again when I realize I don't know the french word for "extension". I dig way back to my high school french class and say "un, huit, quartre, deux". The lady then says "You mean one eight four two?" Si!

2:28pm: I talk to my wife who says she managed to eat a little and will try to deadhead home tomorrow.

2:30pm: Feeling somewhat better, I go to bloglines to relax a bit and find something to blog about.

2:30pm: "Bloglines is down for maintenance......" The Sound of Silence starts up again outside...

The Daily Show on Foley

Putting on 155 T-Shirts

Matt McAllister of 99.9 KTYD in Santa Barbara, CA, setting the guiness world record for the most t-shirts worn at once.

(via Kottke)

Islam vs. Christianity

The Women of Star Trek

This page was born because of my righteous anger at Trek "fans" who repeatedly talk about "Playboy Kirk" or the Star Trek "Babes" in an appallingly sexist way. Here's proof that Kirk was NOT a playboy and Star Trek was NOT a sexist show. It was an anti-sexist show: one of the first, and one of the all-time best.

From now on, when anyone rolls into the Trek fan forum, spits their gum out onto the floor, and oafishly declares that Kirk was a heterosexual horndog who porked all of the chicks, I want you all to boldly and confidently SCOFF at them. Scoff also if they say that all the TOS women were bimbos in miniskirts who were nothing but eye-candy. The only proper reaction to such ill-informed opinions is round, sound scoffery... as I herein demonstrate.

(via SF Signal)

Destined for Destiny

The unauthorized autobiography of George W. Bush. Be sure to watch the promotional movie.
(via Metafilter)

Are You A Republican?

From No Quarter:

If you enjoy soliciting teenagers and children for sex over the internet, you might be a Republican

If you enjoy sending other people’s children to war while your kids go to college and hang out in bars, you might be a Republican

If you failed to complete your own National Guard service and your Vice President received five deferments to avoid service in Vietnam, but accuse political opponents who challenge your failed foreign policy in Iraq of being cowards, you might be a Republican.

If you believe the President should be entitled to jail, without recourse to Habeus Corpus, anyone he decides is a threat, you might be a Republican.

Separated at Birth?

From Daily Kos:

Fifty years from now, when historians write about the social problem of sexual predators in early 21st Century America, they will put a photo of Cardinal Bernard Law next to a photo of Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

These are men who had the chance to protect our children, but chose to protect a predator instead.

They did more than just fail as leaders--they endangered our families.

In Case I Disappear

An essay about the horrific Detainee Bill that just passed last week.

Underneath all this is the definition of "enemy combatant" that has been established by this legislation. An "enemy combatant" is now no longer just someone captured "during an armed conflict" against our forces. Thanks to this legislation, George W. Bush is now able to designate as an "enemy combatant" anyone who has "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States."

Consider that language a moment. "Purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" is in the eye of the beholder, and this administration has proven itself to be astonishingly impatient with criticism of any kind. The broad powers given to Bush by this legislation allow him to capture, indefinitely detain, and refuse a hearing to any American citizen who speaks out against Iraq or any other part of the so-called "War on Terror."

If you write a letter to the editor attacking Bush, you could be deemed as purposefully and materially supporting hostilities against the United States. If you organize or join a public demonstration against Iraq, or against the administration, the same designation could befall you. One dark-comedy aspect of the legislation is that senators or House members who publicly disagree with Bush, criticize him, or organize investigations into his dealings could be placed under the same designation. In effect, Congress just gave Bush the power to lock them up.

By writing this essay, I could be deemed an "enemy combatant." It's that simple, and very soon, it will be the law. I always laughed when people told me to be careful. I'm not laughing anymore.

The US Constitution v2.0

Looks about right.

We the Republicans of the United States, in Order to prevent any challenge to our continued Supremacy, free ourselves from the Confines of Justice, placate the Tranquil masses, degrade the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of War Profiteering for ourselves and our Friends, do ordain and establish Constitution 2.0 for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I
Section 1
All legislative Powers are hereby ceded to the Executive branch, though the Congress will still make a Grand Noise and wave their arms as if they give a Damn.

Section 2
The House of Representatives will consist of those best able to Lick the Boots of the Lobbyists and Corporations lining their pockets.

No one can be a Representative unless Fox News says that he is a Patriotic American,

Papua New Guinea

A Flickr photoset.

PNG...the mount Hagen festival is an event to see once in a lifetime...Thousands of tribesmen coming from all over the country, dancing, singing,pride of themselves, and they can be!

U.S. Bill Bans Online Gambling

From Yahoo News:

LONDON (AFP) - Shares in online gambling companies listed in London lost more than half their value after a dramatic move by US authorities to ban gambling on the Internet.

The market was taken by surprise when the US Congress unexpectedly rushed through the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act on Saturday, dealers said Monday.

US President George W. Bush was expected to sign the bill into law within two weeks, thereby making it illegal for finance companies to collect credit-card payments from customers using Internet gaming sites.

The bill follows the arrests in the United States this year of the bosses of two foreign online companies over alleged illegal internet gambling.

"This has come as a major shock to the industry, where most observers expected the legislation to fail," said Stephen Ford, an analyst for broker firm Collins Stewart.

"It also comes as a major shock to the stock market and unsurprisingly stock prices have fallen significantly across all online gaming stocks exposed to the US."

The Mark Foley Scandal

Wikipedia has an entry on the Mark Foley Scandal if you're like me and weren't paying attention during the weekend.

The Mark Foley scandal began in late September of 2006 when it became public knowledge that Republican congressman Mark Foley had been sending sexually explicit instant messages and suggestive emails to congressional pages, behavior that had been going on for several years. Foley resigned from Congress on September 29, 2006. He was chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, which handled sexual predator laws, and a deputy Republican whip.

What Happens When You Microwave a Furby

Google Buys Garage Where Empire Began

From Newsvine:

SAN FRANCISCO — Internet search leader Google Inc. has added a landmark to its rapidly expanding empire — the Silicon Valley home where co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented a garage eight years ago as they set out to change the world.

The Mountain View-based company bought the 1,900-square-foot home in nearby Menlo Park from one of its own employees, Susan Wojcicki, who had agreed to lease her garage for $1,700 per month because she wanted some help paying the mortgage.

Wojcicki, now Google's vice president of product management, didn't work for the company at the time and only knew the Stanford University graduate students because one of her friends had dated Brin.

During Google's five-month history there, the garage became like a second home for Page and Brin.

Two German SS Officers Talk: "Are we the baddies?"

I hadn't heard of Mitchell and Webb before.

Turtle Rape

(via Linkbunnies)

Close-up Lightning Picture

From the Daily Mail:

When the sky darkened and lightning began to flash, Kane Quinnell grabbed his new digital camera, hoping to snap some pictures of the approaching storm.

Not having a tripod, he balanced the camera on his car, parked under the carport of his then Old Toongabbie home, and aimed the lens southward.

It never occurred to Mr Quinnell that his new hobby - photographing storms - could be dangerous.

"In the north you could see a few stars and it wasn't raining," he recalled.

"The storm looked like it was five to 10 kilometres to the south. I thought it was perfectly safe to be outdoors, taking photos."

After setting the camera for a four-second exposure he began shooting pictures, suspecting there was little chance of lightning flashing while the shutter was open.

"I hit the button … and there was nothing. I hit the button again … and nothing. On about the fourth attempt I hit the button again and I saw this lightning and heard the thunder.

(via A Welsh View)

Artwork of MC Escher

On Flickr.
(via Plep)

The Thought Process of a Wingnut

People love the tv show 24. Jack Bauer tortures people on 24 all the time. Therefore, people agree with torture. Mmmm 'kay?

Indian Thriller

Flying With a Tan

From the Independent:

Seth Stein is used to jetting around the world to create stylish holiday homes for wealthy clients. This means the hip architect is familiar with the irritations of heightened airline security post-9/11. But not even he could have imagined being mistaken for an Islamist terrorist and physically pinned to his seat while aboard an American Airlines flight - especially as he has Jewish origins.

Yet this is what happened when he travelled back from a business trip to the Turks and Caicos islands via New York on 22 May. Still traumatised by his ordeal, the 47-year-old is furious that the airline failed to protect him from the gung-ho actions of an over-zealous passenger who claimed to be a police officer. He has now instructed a team of top US lawyers to act for him.

The London-based interiors guru, whose clients have included Peter Mandelson and the husband-and-wife design team Suzanne Clements and Ignacio Ribeiro, said he felt compelled to speak out to protect other innocent travellers from a similar experience.

"This man could have garrotted me and what was awful was that one or two of the passengers went up afterwards to thank him," said Mr Stein. He has since been told by airline staff he was targeted because he was using an iPod, had used the toilet when he got on the plane and that his tan made him appear "Arab".

Ancient Rome's 9/11?

From the NY Times:

IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.

The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.

The Daily Show: You Jackin' It?

Related:
Carl Monday's typo-drenched blog entry on the segment.

The World's 100 Largest Economic Entities

51 are now corporations and 49 are countries.

Top 10 Animal Senses We Don't Have

From LiveScience:

You might think you're smart, but none of your senses rival the keenest abilities in the animal world. Animals see in the dark, sniff prey miles away, and detect electrical output from muscle twitches in hidden meals. Read on, so you don't become one of those meals.

(Thanks PVC)

One Unlucky Guy

This guy reminds me of Frank Grimes from the Simpsons.

Thomas L. Cook, who died at 54 when he was fatally hit by a car Sept. 11, spent much of his life recovering from the misadventures that plagued him even in the womb.

"He was kinda accident-prone, I swear to God, even before he was born," said his sister, Mady Eitani.

"He was nearly miscarried. He had serious accidents as a child. Crazy things. Broke his collarbone. He was hit in the head one time by a teeter-totter and had to have blood drained out of his skull. Wrong place, wrong time. Story of his life."

After the first few visits to the emergency room, Cook's family joked that he must have nine lives, an opinion shared by a neighbor, Dr. Arnold Silverman, a pediatric physician who became Cook's de facto on-call doctor.

"Nine lives, and he certainly used them up," Silverman said.

(Thanks Markus)