Duke Ellington - Caravan

The Importance of Zinc Oxide

From Kentucky Fried Movie.

Sedated Kitty

A cat just back from the vet after being sedated for a procedure.

The 10 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of All Time

And these are only the tip of the iceberg:

If you can’t sue the system, sue yourself. 1995, Robert Lee Brock sued himself for $5 million. He claimed that he had violated his own civil rights and religious beliefs by allowing himself to get drunk and commit crimes which landed him in the Indian Creek Correctional Center in Virginia, serving a 23 year sentence for grand larceny and breaking and entering. What could he possibly have to gain by suing himself? Since being in prison prevented him from having an income, he expected the state to pay. This case was thrown out.

MacGyver Theme Song Unplugged

Replica Time Bandits Map

I have always wanted a copy of the map from Time Bandits. I recently decided to create my own replica of this exquisite prop.

I have studied the film and every printed reference source I could find to create this replica and it is very accurate to the screen-used map. It has been drawn completely in Photoshop with the goal to create a replica that looks hand-drawn. The file is enormous containing 188 layers with a file size of 1.72 GB. This level of fine detail is replicated using the highest quality printer available.

(via SF Signal)

Single Guy Outsources to Find Dates

Not from The Onion:

He started with a job description for a personal assistant to manage his dating life. He posted it on Elance, a Web site that connects freelancers with jobs.

It was all about eyeballs hunting for Ms. More-or-Less Right. And fingers e-mailing sweet nothings. A numbers game, he figured.

"With online dating, every reasonably attractive, smart girl gets a million e-mails," he says. Terrible odds. "If male programmers were my ideal match, I'd be set."

Ferriss lined up a half dozen teams in India, the Philippines, Jamaica and the United States.

He gave the contractors his profile and an idea of what sort of woman he was interested in (early-to-mid 20s, college grad, slender or athletic, non-smoker, no kids).

He told the teams he was looking for quick "coffee dates" at joints along Lincoln Avenue. And he told them to handle all the pre-date correspondence (introduction, follow-up questions, requests for pictures).

He suggested the contractors say they were working on his behalf. And he urged them to be creative.

There were some problems.

An Indian team dropped out explaining they didn't really get the whole Western-style dating thing.

"In some culture groups in India," Ferriss says, "it's just not really done."

Two O'Clock Trailers - The Graduate

List of Fictional Democrats and Republicans

Wikipedia has a list of fictional Democrats and Republicans. (I had forgotten that Sideshow Bob ran as a Republican.)

How To Make a Mouse Mouse

From Instructables :

Hacked travel-size (hardware) mouse + taxidermied (wetware) mouse = Mouse Mouse! Fully functional, and furry!

What 1999 Will Be Like (A Film from 1967)

In 1967 the Philco-Ford Corporation released a short film titled 1999 A.D. In it the inevitable advances of the future are demonstrated. This clip of the kitchen of the future showcases a world of automation, maximized health, and a push-button culture; themes we see throughout the film.

(via Boing Boing)

Paris Hilton Autopsy

The latest from the artist who brought you Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug:

NEW YORK, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Paris Hilton's naked "corpse" could provide an invaluable service to students preparing for prom this season. An interactive Public Service Announcement featuring the graphic display of a tiara-wearing, autopsied Paris Hilton with removable innards is designed to warn teenagers of the hazards of underage drinking. The display also features Tinkerbell, Hilton's forlorn pet Chihuahua with matching tiara, and debuts in the trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn neighborhood where prom-goers frequently dine, courtesy of Capla Kesting Fine Art.

Mike Gravel's Internet Boost

From NeoMeme:

If you haven’t heard of long shot Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel, you will soon. Immediately following his participation in the first Democratic debate, Gravel’s popularity shot up tremendously, thanks in large part to exposure online. If debate performance can be measured by the number of supporters won over post-debate, then Mike Gravel won the debate hands down. As I write this, the number one story on reddit is “Meet the Next President of the United States of America”, which links to a video compilation of Gravel’s best(and most provocative) statements in the debate. The same story is #1 on Digg, climbing to the top in record time. You only need to look as far as the thousands of votes Gravel received on reddit and Digg to see that he is popular, at least online.

The interesting thing is that Mike Gravel was dismissed by the mainstream media as a nobody with no support, and denied participation in the next debate. Ironically, it is this very rejection by the mainstream media as not popular enough/too controversial/too outspoken that has made Gravel so popular online.

Here are some of the clips from the debate:

Highway Engineer Pranks

I think I've been on a few of these. .
(via GeekPress)

True Mom Confessions

A Post Secret type site for moms.

I'm really hoping that life will be a lot less boring once my baby learns to walk and talk so we can actually do something all day.

My MIL is fat and lazy and I really wish she would stop bringing my kids junk food. I don't want them to look like her. Really it's not that hard, stop eating cake and get off you lazy fat ass! (It's not like you have anything else to do)!

This is one of those mornings when I like the dog better than my toddler...

(via Found on the Web)

Inside the Green Zone

From Time.com:

Saturday night in Baghdad, and Heidi, the barmaid at the Baghdad Country Club, is worried about the beer. On a busy night, she might serve 800 cold ones to the diplomats, security guards and construction workers who frequent the Country Club, a white cinder-block house with blue trim on a residential street in the Green Zone. The BCC, as it's known, gets its alcohol from suppliers outside the walls, but insurgents are targeting the crossings on either side of the Tigris River. On this Saturday, a truck bomb on a bridge has locked up traffic on the west bank of the Tigris, delaying the delivery of the night's beer supply. Heidi, a recent college graduate from Florida, wonders whether the war will eventually collapse on the Green Zone, the way it did on the U.S. embassy in Saigon. But she doesn't let that occupy her for long. Looking down at the empty glass in her hand, she smiles and says, "Let's do a shot."

For those viewing the war in Iraq from afar, reports from inside the Green Zone can make this ravaged city look almost serene. Protected on two sides by the wide, caramel-colored waters of the Tigris and surrounded by high cement walls, the 4-sq.-mi. Green Zone (officially called the International Zone) sits in the middle of Baghdad and is home to thousands of people, including many members of the Iraqi government. Since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the Green Zone has been the seat of U.S. power in Iraq, first in the form of the ill-fated Coalition Provisional Authority and now the 1,500-person U.S. embassy, the biggest in the world. To most visiting American dignitaries, the placid, palm-lined streets of the Green Zone are the only glimpse of Iraq they see; to Iraqis, it might as well be another continent. "Living here is like living in Europe," says Haider Hassan, a store clerk at the $280-a-night al-Rasheed Hotel inside the Green Zone. "You miss nothing, starting with electricity, power, water and security. Outside the gates is hell."

How Does an Expert View Heaven

Here's a YouTube clip (embedding disabled) from a short film by preacher Estus Pirkle called The Believer's Heaven. In this clip, Pirkle gives details about what heaven will be like with heavenly dramatizations complete with a godlike echo-drenched voiceover.
(Thanks Grant)

Airbus A380 evacuation - 873 people in 77 seconds!

Hamburg, Germany, 26. March 2006. With only 8 of the 16 exits opened, the task for this evacuation certification was to evacuate 853 passengers and 20 crew in 90 seconds. This all happened in darkness, the footage is from infrared cameras.

(via Monkeyfilter)

Christians Against Aliens

Whethere they're the illegal kinds:

Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan’s minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.

In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants "hate American people" and "are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won't do."

Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to "destroy Christian America" and replace it with "a godless new world order — and that is not extremism, that is fact," Larsen said. […]

Or the interstellar kind:

1). Aliens teach that they are our creators. Aliens profess that they are gods and they are our creators. They teach that man is also an evolving god and that mankind can become their own god. New Age writer Brad Steiger speaks about the relationship between UFO's and religion: "

(via Clusterflock for both)

Charlie Chaplin - Table Ballet

For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail

From the NY Times:

SANTA ANA, Calif., April 25 — Anyone convicted of a crime knows a debt to society often must be paid in jail. But a slice of Californians willing to supplement that debt with cash (no personal checks, please) are finding that the time can be almost bearable.

For offenders whose crimes are usually relatively minor (carjackers should not bother) and whose bank accounts remain lofty, a dozen or so city jails across the state offer pay-to-stay upgrades. Theirs are a clean, quiet, if not exactly recherché alternative to the standard county jails, where the walls are bars, the fellow inmates are hardened and privileges are few.

Many of the self-pay jails operate like secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the corrections world. You have to be in the know to even apply for entry, and even if the court approves your sentence there, jail administrators can operate like bouncers, rejecting anyone they wish.

Ever Have One of Those Fridays

Thank You Bedazzled

Thanks to Spike from Bedazzled for sending me an invitation to try blogads.

I'm off to Long Island for the weekend to attend a wedding so there won't be many updates until Sunday.

Two O'Clock Trailers - The Birds

Explosive found at Austin women's clinic

From the Houston Chronicle:

AUSTIN — A package left at a women's clinic that performs abortions contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death, investigators said today.

"It was in fact an explosive device," said David Carter, assistant chief of the Austin Police Department. "It was configured in such a way to cause serious bodily injury or death."

The package was found Wednesday in a parking lot outside the Austin Women's Health Center, south of downtown Austin.

Nearby Interstate 35 was briefly closed, and a nearby apartment complex was evacuated while a bomb squad detonated the device.

Friday Guest Cat Blogging

Thanks to Bill for sending in pictures of Loretta:

Here are a couple of pictures of Loretta. She just showed up one evening, and has taken over the place.

The Alcoholic Monkeys of St. Kitts

(via Majikthise)

Student Arrested for Writing Violent Essay

Outrageous but predictable:

Told to express emotion for a creative-writing class, high school senior Allen Lee penned an essay so disturbing to his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct, officials said Wednesday.

Lee, 18, a straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested Tuesday near his home and charged with the misdemeanor for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location.

Neither police nor the school would release a copy of the essay written Monday. School officials declined to say whether Lee had any previous disciplinary problems, but said he was an excellent student. Authorities said Lee had never been in trouble with the police.

The charge against Lee comes as schools in the Chicago area and across the country wrestle with how to react in the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech.

Signs spark biblical debate about homosexuality

From the IndyStar:

The billboard claims "Jesus affirmed a gay couple."

A vandal's own statement -- the words "Lie, lie, lie" spray-painted in red -- delivered an opposing view above them.

In some ways, the argument in giant letters above an Eastside street reflects society's ongoing argument over homosexuality -- on issues ranging from same-sex marriage to gay clergy.

The discussion just got more intense in Indianapolis where 22 billboards and 1,000 yard signs went up recently as part of a campaign based on the premise that the Bible approves of gays and lesbians.

The signs are part of a joint effort between Faith in America, a national gay advocacy group, and Jesus Metropolitan Community Church, an Indianapolis congregation rooted in the belief that homosexuality is acceptable to God.

Featuring portraits of Jesus and other biblical figures, the billboards and 1,000 yard signs in Indianapolis proclaim things like "Jesus said some are born gay" while citing Bible passages. Some billboards suggest that key Bible figures, such as David and Ruth, were involved in gay relationships.

And here's my favorite part of the story:

The Rev. Andy Hunt decried both the message of the billboard and the vandalism it provoked. "It ignites passions whenever someone brings a lie against the god you worship. But we can't go down to their level," said Hunt, pastor of Body of Christ Community Church on the Northside. "We have to be able to fight a lie with the truth."

He said he nearly drove into a power pole the first time he passed a yard sign with the message: "Jesus affirmed a gay couple." Then he cried.

(Thanks Marlea)

Anatoli Bugorski, The Man Who Survived a Beam from a Particle Accelerator

From Wikipedia:

As a researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Bugorski used to work with the largest Soviet particle accelerator, the Synchrotron U-70.[2] On July 13, 1978, Bugorski was checking a malfunctioning piece of equipment when an accident occurred due to failed safety mechanisms. Bugorski was leaning over the piece of equipment when he stuck his head in the part through which the proton beam was running. Reportedly, he saw a flash "brighter than a thousand suns", but did not feel any pain. The beam measured about 200,000 rads when it entered Bugorski's skull, and about 300,000 rads when it exited after colliding with the inside of his head.

The left half of Bugorski's face swelled up beyond recognition, and over the next several days started peeling off, showing the path that the proton beam (moving near the speed of light) had burned through parts of his face, his bone, and the brain tissue underneath. As it was believed that about 500 to 600 rads is enough to kill a person, Bugorski was taken to a clinic in Moscow where the doctors could observe his expected demise. However, Bugorski survived and even completed his Ph.D..[3] There was virtually no damage to his intellectual capacity, but the fatigue of mental work increased markedly.[2] Bugroski completely lost hearing in the left ear and only a constant, unpleasant internal noise remained. The left half of his face was frozen, due to the destruction of nerves, and does not age.[1] He is able to function perfectly well, save the fact that he has occasional petit mal seizures and very occasional grand mal seizures.

More pictures here (the article is in Russian)
(via Digg)

Freshly Killed but Still Squirming Octopus Tentacles for Dinner

(via Boing Boing)

Teller Talks About His Experiencing Zero G

Teller (from Penn & Teller) took a trip on the Zero Gravity flight which is now operating out of Las Vegas that offers a similar experience to NASA's Vomit Comet. That's if you can afford the $3,500 bucks for the flight. The Movable Buffet is covering Teller's report about the trip:

You hop on a bus and they take you out there and they have an aircraft that looks like the aircraft you could dream of. The plane is like a tubular gymnasium. It is padded all around. There are a couple of windows, but those are very small. There are airplane seats at one end. The entire time I was thinking this is such a wonderful good time, how did they ever get this by the FAA? Of course, they have been working on this for 10 years. But what they got from the FAA is a 100 mile long and ten mile wide corridor to run the plane. I am in awe of their ability to navigate government bureaucracy. But you still go through a TSA screening on your way on. It killed me to see TSA people wanding down heads of casinos and newspaper owners like somehow a terrorist could slip onto such a flight. This is really for people with the money and the enthusiasm, who want to float around like they dreamed of when they were kids.

When you take off they have given you instructions ahead of time. So, you know what is about to happen and that the plane is going to be moving in this parabolic pattern. When you are at the bottom the of the parabola you are going to be about 1 1/2 times your usual weight and when you are at the top you are going to be 1/6 gravity or completely weightless.

Related:
Zero G's homepage

Domino PCs

The best thing to come from the Dot Com crash... Domino PCs! 86 PCs lined up like dominos. Filmed on a saturday afternnon in Belmont, California, by an Irish bloke and a Spanish guy. The final attempt.... Everything goes well but the heavy machines near the end almost put a halt to the whole thing... thankfully there was enough weight behind the toppled machines to slowly topple the heavy ones!

Frustrating but Typical Customer Service Call

From The Consumerist:

Peter, who is the CEO of a company called Vocal Laboratories Inc. (they conducts call center customer service surveys for companies like Apple, Dell, and HP), felt compelled to add video commentary to a call to HP that was recently logged by one of their participants.



As Peter says, there's nothing really horrible about the call except that it's exactly like every customer service call you've ever had to make. It's oddly infuriating. Listen for yourself.

Make an Erupting Volcano Cake

This guy took the idea of a molten lava cake to the extreme:

For my son's 5th birthday, I decided to go a little nuts. 4 months and about $200.00 later I think I created something one of a kind. I wanted a volcano that would do several things...
smoke
erupt with lava
vibrate
and finally, make volcano noises.

And there's a video clip of it doing all of that.

(via Make:Blog)

The 6 Foot Long Worm Incident

My first 500 gal reef system was started in February of 2001 with about 800 pounds of Fiji live rock. All went along swimmingly for about two years. In early 2003, I began to notice the severe recession of soft corals like ricordea, xenia, and zoos. While this occasional recession was always present in the past, it was now getting to the point of being ridiculous. I suspected that something was feeding on these corals as they would be fine by day and gone by morning.

I staked out the tank one evening with a red lens flashlight in an attempt to catch the suspected villainous shrimp or crab. What I saw caused many sleepless nights. Through an opening in the live rock, I spied what looked like a worm with a diameter of about ¾”. This worm was passing through this live rock opening...and passing...and passing...and then passing some more...just how long was this thing? Suddenly, the worm stopped...and way over on the other side of the tank,

(via Reddit)

Two O'Clock Trailers - Young Frankenstein

India Court Orders the Arrest of Richard Gere

From Scotsman.com:

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - An Indian court ordered the arrest of Hollywood star Richard Gere on Thursday for kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS campaign event this month saying it was an obscene act committed in public.

Gere's repeated kisses on Shetty's cheeks at an event to promote AIDS awareness in New Delhi sparked protests in some parts of India, mostly by Hindu vigilante groups, who saw it as an outrage against her modesty and an affront to Indian culture.

The order by a court in the northern city of Jaipur came in response to a complaint by a local lawyer.

The judge watched a video recording of Gere kissing Shetty and found him guilty of violating Indian laws against public obscenity, the lawyer, Poonam Chand Bhandari, said.

The court also summoned Shilpa Shetty to appear on May 5, Bhandari said, adding that Gere was also ordered to be arrested.

Gere can be sent to jail for up to three months or fined or both for the crime if he is arrested. He is not in India now but can be held if he visits the country again.

Here's the video:

When a Poodle is a Lamb

Huh?

Thousands of people have been 'fleeced' into buying neatly coiffured lambs they thought were poodles.

Entire flocks of lambs were shipped over from the UK and Australia to Japan by an internet company and marketed as the latest 'must have' accessory.

But the scam was only spotted after a leading Japanese actress said her 'poodle' didn't bark and refused to eat dog food.

Maiko Kawakami, who starred in the Japanese thriller Violent Cop, showed photographs of her pet on a television talk show only to be told it wasn't a dog - but was in fact a lamb.

The discovery prompted hundreds of women to contact the police with similar problems and the authorities believe as many as 2,000 people have been conned.

(via Metafilter)

Update:
Sigh, Snopes has this as being false. Thanks Outeast.

The Chrono-Shredder

The Chrono_Shredder is a device that makes past time tangible. It is a hybrid between calendar, clock and waste producing automaton. It has no on/off-button, thus it is unstoppable, just like time. It features the 365 days of the year represented on a paper-roll. The paper-roll is led through a hacked paper-shredder, which is programmed to use exactly 24 hours to shred one "day".

(via Make:Blog)

Jack Chick Inspired Anti-Tiki Spoof

These are terrrific.

From HumuHumu:

I ran into Humu Kon Tiki reader Tongodeon this weekend at Forbidden Island’s anniversary party (WHICH WAS FABULOUS), and he was handing out these great little Jack Chick-style tracts, warning of the assault on Christian values by the scourge of Tiki. The booklet has a reprint date of 2002, but I don’t know when it was originally created; it says it’s published by Thaniel Dickson Ministries, Inc., but a Google on that name only matches to a site that keeps track of Jack Chick parodies.

Bunnies

I'm a bit busy today so here are some bunnies.

The Blame Game

In case you were wondering who's to blame for the Virginia Tech massacre, I've created a list this morning to keep track. Feel free to send in any that I've missed.

Update:
The list keeps on growing and has 45 46 47 49 51 55 56 57 58 different items at the moment. Thanks to everyone who is sending me more links to add to the list.

Update 2:
The list now stands at 60 and I'm going to stop keeping track. Not for lack of finding more blame but because I don't think it will ever end. Thanks to everyone who sent in links and everybody who commented and linked to the list.

Update 3:
People keep sending me more articles with different scapegoats so I might as well append them to the bottom of the list. The list now has 67 73 items pointing fingers in every direction.

It's the fault of violent video games.

It's the fault of movies.

It's that no other students were armed.

It's the cowardly students who didn't rush the shooter.

It's the first victim's fault. It's secularism's fault.

It's the Muslims' and/or foreigners' fault.

It's the Atheists' fault.

It's the fault of the colleges and how they coddle their students.

It's society's fault.

It's the Second Amendment's fault.

It's the bureaucracy's fault.

It's the fault of Roanoke Firearms, where he bought the gun.

It's the authorities' fault.

It's the Liberals' fault.

It's pedophilia, homosexual couplings and adulterous behavior's fault. (Not sure if he means all at the same time or separately.

It's capitalism's fault.

It's the fault of psychiatric drugs.

It's the Devil's fault.

It's South Korea's fault.

It's the hippies' fault. (Nobody's blaming the Yippies yet)

It's the media and culture's fault.

It's the murderer's fault.

It's the legal system's fault.

It's the fault of the Virginia Tech officials.

It's the fault of the Chinese.

It's the fault of this blogger who happens to be asian, likes guns and who recently broke up with his girlfriend.

It's Simon Cowell's fault.

It's Bill Gates' fault.

It's the fault of trauma induced mind control by a military industrial complex.

It's the killer's parents' and/or gun makers' fault.

It's the fault that colleges have co-ed dorms and/or students who major in English.

It's a lack of funding for mental health services' fault.

It's the GOP's fault.

It's the Democrats' fault.

It's NBC's fault.

It's Autism's fault.

It's al Jazeera or Palestinian TV's fault.

It's the fault of pro-choice doctors.

It's Collective Soul's fault.

It's the fault of professors who survived the Holocaust and are not armed to the teeth.

It's Markos from the Daily Kos' fault.

It's the bullies' fault.

It's the Nanjing Anti-African riots' fault and/or the fault of those in interracial relationships.

It's the fault of our culture’s all-consuming desire for celebrity.

It's fault of the Europeanization or nannyization of American behavior.

It's Charlton Heston's fault.

It's the fault of immigration and/or asians.

It's evil's fault.

It's W's fault.

It's the fault of vaccines.

It's the fault that schools teach that the theory of evolution is fact.

It's the fault of the CIA for training the killer as a mind-controlled assassin.

It's the fault of stage weapons used in school plays.

It's the fault of the classes where Cho was taught to hate.

It's the school's architecture's fault.

It's the fault of those who voted for Ralph Nader.

It's the fault of Bill Clinton, internet pornography, free speech, condoms, abortions, and lack of prayer and bibles in schools.

It's that Cho didn't hook up enough.

It's the fault of the Jews.

It's the ACLU's fault.

It's the fault of media glorification.

It's the fault of Americans.

It's the fault of America's youth mentality.

It's the fault of big business.

It's the fault of college admissions.

It's the fault of his roomates for being too politically correct.

It's the fault of the psychiatrist who let Cho get away.

It's the fault of progressive education.

It's the fault of white women.

It's the ideology of diversity's fault.

It's Cho's High School's fault.

It's Dateline's fault.

Chuck Norris Blames Secularism for VA Tech Massacre

Not surprising. This is the same guy who can't figure out that the Chuck Norris facts meme is actually making fun of him.

Though one can point to Cho's own psychotic behavior and our graphic slasher media as potential contributors to his deplorable murder spree, we must also hesitate to consider how we as a society are possibly contributing to the growth of these academic killing fields. I believe those who wield the baton of the secular progressive agenda bear significant responsibility for the escalation of school shootings. Even conservatives who refuse to speak when evil flourishes must acknowledge some culpability.

We teach our children they are nothing more than glorified apes, yet we don't expect them to act like monkeys. We place our value in things, yet expect our children to value people. We disrespect one another, but expect our children to respect others. We terminate children in the womb, but are surprised when children outside the womb terminate other children. We push God to the side, but expect our children to be godly. We've abandoned moral absolutes, yet expect our children to obey the universal commandment, ''Thou shalt not murder.''

Though I respect the Buddhist, Muslim and Jew who shared at the VTU convocation, our country needs to return and call out to the God of our founders, Jesus Christ.

Baby Panda's First Step

(via PoeTV)

Borders, Walls, and Fences

A fascinating read that focuses on the Baghdad wall being erected and also talks about other walls being put up as "security measures" around the world.

So, you’ve no doubt heard by now about the controversial plan American military strategists hatched to build a massive concrete wall around the neighborhood of Adhamiyah in Baghdad. This, the Americans said, was part of a larger effort to secure the area and prevent terrorist movements within the neighborhood. It was of course billed as a protective measure for the Sunnis, even referring to it as a “center piece” for a larger objective of turning different neighborhoods through out Baghdad into “gated communities” that would by some stroke of miracle stem the uncontrollable sectarian violence.

Only thing is: neither the local Sunnis or Shiites are down with it. Even less surprising, the American government didn’t really consult with anyone prior, not even the Iraqi PM who announced his own total disapproval of the wall and ordered its construction to be halted. Did the American government really think that anyone in the Arab community would embrace the idea of extending a wall through out their ancient city – I mean, given the tantamount associations most Arabs have with the Israeli wall that has literally carved the Palestinian people out of Jerusalem and into peri-urban prison-like reservations?

Needless to say, Jerusalem and Baghdad are looking more and more similar despite these massive 12 foot high concrete walls segregating the different religious sects. So far, 3,000 separate slabs of concrete blast wall have been placed around the Sunni city since the plan was put into action 2 months ago, each weighing roughly 14,000 pounds. “These barriers included both Jersey barriers — short concrete dividers commonly seen on roadways in the United States — and larger 20-foot blast walls that commonly surround bases and living areas.”

Limbo

I was a bit busy this weekend when the Vatican announced they were doing away with limbo so let's take a looksie at what that actually means:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In its recent document on unbaptized children, the Vatican's International Theological Commission demonstrated how church teaching can be responsive to changes in theological thought, Christian beliefs and the "signs of the times."

The document, published April 20, critiqued the traditional understanding of limbo, arguing instead that there was good reason to hope unbaptized babies who die go to heaven.

Some people saw that as a reversal of a centuries-old Catholic principle. But rather than announcing a radical break with the past, the commission said it was assessing an issue in theological evolution.

It's interesting the way they phrased it. They hope that unbaptized babies will go to heaven? That mean's there's a chance that they could end up burning in eternity.

I've always considered the idea of baptizing babies to be one of the more idiotic religious rituals. The idea that a baby would be punished for eternity because it died before a priest could douse it's head with water to purify them from some sin committed by somebody else thousands of years ago is so idiotic that somebody from child welfare should assume custody from the parents before the priest is done asking the godparents if they reject satan. I have nothing against somebody who chooses to be baptized as an adult. It's certainly not for me but at least they are making a decision. Babies don't get a choice so it's just a forced catholic recruitment process. In the past Catholics have even used baptism as a reason to kidnap non-christian children who were secretly baptized by non-relatives. The case of Edgardo Mortara is a famous instance where this has happened:

On the evening of 23 June 1858, in the northern Italian city of Bologna, police of the Papal States, of which Bologna was then part, arrived at the home of a Jewish couple, Salomone ("Momolo") and Marianna Padovani Mortara, to seize one of their eight children, six-year-old Edgardo, and transport him to Rome to be raised by the Catholic Church.

The police had orders from the authorities in Rome, authorised by Pope Pius IX. Church officials had been told that a Catholic servant girl of the Mortaras, Anna Morisi, had baptized Edgardo while he was ill because she feared that he would otherwise die and go to Hell. Under the law of the Papal States, Edgardo's baptism, even if illegal, was valid, and made him a Christian.

Laura Bush: 'Nobody Suffers More than the President'

It's difficult sending other parents' children off to die. Somebody should give him a purple heart for his mental anguish.

(Thanks Eel Feather)

Two O'Clock Trailers - Night of the Living Dead

Mike Daisey Raptures the Evangelicals

At least he makes about 90 of them disappear from his audience. Although not before one follower of Christ pours water all over his notes.

Last night's performance of INVINCIBLE SUMMER was disrupted when eighty seven members of a Christian group walked out of the show en masse, and chose to physically attack my work by pouring water on and destroying the original of the show outline.

I'm still dealing with all the ramifications, but here's what it felt like from my end: I am performing the show to a packed house, when suddenly the lights start coming up in the house as a flood of people start walking down the aisles--they looked like a flock of birds who'd been startled, the way they all moved so quickly, and at the same moment...it was shocking, to see them surging down the aisles. The show halted as they fled, and at this moment a member of their group strode up to the table, stood looking down on me and poured water all over the outline, drenching everything in a kind of anti-baptism.

Playbill.com also has a rundown on what happened:

It was during a portion of the show in which he was speaking about Paris Hilton that the audience walk-out occurred. Daisey said that based on comments group members made to the front-of-house staff, it was the profanity used in his monologue that caused the uprising. "A number of them," Daisey said, "expressed that they were disgusted by 'this filth.' . . . I'm very good at sensing houses — it's my job. The audience was unified and warm up to that moment. My suspicion is because they were there together as a group, they were compelled to leave as a group. When a group is together, it doesn't take that many people to make [everyone] act unreasonably." Daisey does say that a few members of the group apologized for their behavior as they were leaving the theatre.

Update:

Mike Daisey tracks down and talks to the man who poured water onto his work:

His name is David. At the beginning of the conversation there was a lot of silence--long, long silences that neither of us were willing to puncture. First I made him understand what he had done--that these were the only set of notes for the show, how I work with them, what he had cost me in terms of my physical work and in terms of what it had been like that next night to go out in front of them. I needed him to understand what he had taken from me.

He quietly said that he had heard me, and that he understood.

I gradually opened him up by listening, and responding, the one-on-one version of what I do with an audience. We talked about many things, for almost an hour, and step by step, his story emerged.

He has three kids--one is 21, and two are 17--and he's terrified of the world. Terrified by violence, and sex, and he sees it all linked together--a horrifying world filled with darkness, pornography and filth that threatens his children, has threatened them all his life. They're older now, but he says he still sees things the same way--and that the only way to protect his children and himself is to lock it all out of his life.

He also said he's had anger-control issues for years, and sometimes acts of rage come over him--he explodes, and then has to apologize, and doesn't know why it happens. He tries to lock it down, but it happens, and he's ashamed of it. I told him that regardless of where we both stand, I felt very strongly that the repression of walling off everything in the world and viewing it all as filth is connecting with these outbursts, and that it isn't going to work--until you deal with the root causes, and deal with the world, his anger and rage would keep using him.

And he forgives him:

And then I forgive him. He is very quiet--he is obviously shocked. And I tell him, "I want you to remember that a liberal atheist has forgiven you today. I don't want you to ever forget that, as long as you live, do not forget what happened here. I don't have God behind me, but I speak for myself, and I forgive you for myself, and for you. Never forget this."

Shakespeare Apocrypha

From Wikipedia:

In his own lifetime, Shakespeare saw only about half of his plays enter print. Some individual plays were published in quarto, a small, cheap format. In 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, his fellow actors John Heminges and Henry Condell put together a collection of his complete plays. Heminges and Condell were in a position to compile Shakespeare's complete plays, because they, like Shakespeare, worked for the King's Men, the London theatre company that produced all of Shakespeare's plays (in Elizabethan England, plays belonged to the company that performed them, not the dramatist who had written them).

It ought to be simple, therefore, to say what Shakespeare wrote, and what he did not: the plays that were included in the First Folio must be by Shakespeare, and those that were excluded must be by someone else. After all, Heminges and Condell were in a better position to know what Shakespeare wrote than subsequent scholars or secondhand sources.

However, there are a number of complications that have created the concept of the Shakespeare Apocrypha. The Apocrypha can be categorized under the following headings.

Related:
The Shakespeare Apocrypha.
(via del.icio.us/ashthomas)

The 1976 Chowchilla Schoolbus Kidnapping

From the Crime Library comes the case of the Chowchilla Kidnapping where 26 students and their bus driver were kidnapped and buried alive in a moving van.

Ed Ray had stopped the school bus to see if the apparently broken-down white van needed help, and although it was a typically sultry Central California afternoon in the small town of Chowchilla, the peculiar man at the bus door was not an optical illusion caused by heat.

Two things about the stranger caught Ed's attention: the guns he was holding and the nylon stocking stretched over his head.

Being solely responsible for the 26 children still on board, Ed opened the door, hoping to avoid the use of the firearms on either himself or one of his charges.

The strange man quickly mounted the steps inside the bus and ordered Ed to get up and move to the back of the bus. The children, ranging in age from 5 to 14, had various reactions to the appearance of the newcomer. Some thought it was a prank and giggled, while others became frightened immediately. Before they could react, and before Ed had moved down the aisle and reached the back seat, two more masked men appeared from around the back of the "stalled" van and jumped into the bus.

Georgia School Enters 20th Century

Too bad the rest of us are living in the 21st century but this is a start.

Big Difference in Chinese vs English Math Tests

From BBC News:

Maths enthusiasts are being challenged to answer a sample question from Chinese university entrance tests.

The tests are set for prospective science undergraduates.

The UK's Royal Society of Chemistry is offering a £500 prize to one lucky but bright person who answers the question below correctly.

It has also published a test used in a "well known and respected" English university - the society is not naming it - to assess the strength of incoming science undergraduates' maths skills.

A glance at the two questions reveals how much more advanced is the maths teaching in China, where children learn the subject up to the age of 18, the society says.

Science undergraduates in England are likely not to have studied maths beyond GCSE level at the age of 16, it says.

(via Reddit)

Down Syndrome Rapper

Abortion

Much too often, pro-lifers like to cast people who are pro-choice as heartless murderers who use abortion as a prophylactic while ignoring that sometimes an abortion can save the life of the mother. This blogger's poignant account of an abortive measure taken when his wife's life was at risk due to her pregnancy is really the best example of why we should all be pro-choice.

Finally, the ER OB comes in and starts talking to us about the possibility of losing the baby some more. Fortunately, we have already discussed this and thought about it, having already thought we lost the baby two or three times over the past few weeks. Still, it isn't pleasant to think about it.

Nothing is stopping the bleeding. There seems to be nothing they can do. They talk about trying some drugs, but then they decide things are going too fast to give time to let them work. So that leaves only surgery as a possibility. Surgery means hosing her out. It means killing the baby. So obviously, we look into other options. Only now, my wife is so out of it, from blood loss, from the painkillers, that the doctor said she is no longer able to legally consent. Now I'm handed a clipboard. On it is consent to basically give my wife an abortion and kill our future child. And it is all on me, my decision, mine alone. Something I never thought I'd ever face, ever have to deal with. Made worse by being a decision of either kill the baby or potentially watch both my wife and the baby die.

(via Pharyngula)

Car Forum Readers Help Cops Nab Hit and Run Perp

Amazing thread on a car forum. A person posts about a friend who was involved in a hit and run accident and another member of the forum had happened to have taken pictures of the event. From The Calgary Herald:

A quick-thinking motorist with a digital camera snapped several pictures of a hit-and-run collision, helping police nab a suspect after the driver fled the scene.

Saturday's crash didn't cause any injuries, but the photos created a flurry of activity when they appeared on local Internet forums Sunday.

"That's the bigger story -- it's spiralled out of control," said Dave Watling, who took the shots.

Beyond.ca, a forum for car enthusiasts where Watling first posted the photos, received about 100,000 hits Monday, forcing the website to add another server to deal with all the curious Internet users, according to the amateur photographer.

The incident occurred at the intersection of Bonaventure Drive and Southland Drive S.E.

Watling was travelling northbound on Bonaventure and had just stopped for a red light in the right-hand lane when he saw a silver Acura come flying by him on his left and smash into the back of a stopped Mercedes.

The force of the collision pushed the Mercedes into a minivan and a taxi in front of it.

The Acura's driver began to back up his car, and that's when Watling asked his wife, Heather, to pass him his new Canon camera.

And here's the link to the thread in the forum.

Too bad they took down most of the photos.

List of company name etymologies

From Wikipedia:

3Com — Network technology producer; the three coms are computer, communication, and compatibility.

A&W Root Beer — named after founders Roy Allen and Frank Wright

Coca-Cola — derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' to make the name look better.

Pepsi — named from the digestive enzyme pepsin.

Tired Kitten

(via PoeTV)

Israel's 'modesty buses' draw fire

From BBC News:

The other day I was waiting for a bus in downtown Jerusalem. I was in the bustling orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Sharim and the bus stop was extremely crowded.

When the Number 40 bus arrived, the most curious thing happened. Husbands left heavily pregnant wives or spouses struggling with prams and pushchairs to fend for themselves as they and all other male passengers got on at the front of the bus.

Women moved towards the rear door to get on at the back.

When on the bus, I tried to buck the system, moving my way towards the driver but was pushed back towards the other women.

These are what orthodox Jews call "modesty buses".

The separation system operates on 30 public bus routes across Israel.

(via Reddit)

Two O'Clock Trailers - Poltergeist

Duck vs. Dog (set to Yakety Sax)

(via Brohan's)

Roger Ebert on His Illness and Why He Won't Avoid the Paparazzi

From The Chicago Sun Times:

I have received a lot of advice that I should not attend the festival. I’m told that paparazzi will take unflattering pictures, people will be unkind, etc.

Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. As a journalist I can take it as well as dish it out.

So let’s talk turkey. What will I look like? To paraphrase a line from “Raging Bull,” I ain’t a pretty boy no more. (Not that I ever was. The original appeal of “Siskel & Ebert” was that we didn’t look like we belonged on TV.)

What happened was, cancer of the salivary gland spread to my right lower jaw. A segment of the mandible was removed. Two operations to replace the missing segment were unsuccessful, both leading to unanticipated bleeding...

...I was told photos of me in this condition would attract the gossip papers. So what?

I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it looks. I still have my brain and my typing fingers.

Although months in bed after the bleeding episodes caused a lack of strength and coordination, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago restored my ability to walk on my own, climb stairs, etc.

I no longer use a walker much and the wheelchair is more for occasional speed and comfort than need. Just today we went for a long stroll in Lincoln Park.

We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I’m not going to miss my festival.

(via Reddit)

Did Atari Bury Millions of "ET" Cartridges in a NM Landfill?

True says Snopes.

David Halberstam RIP

A figure from an earlier (and apparently dead) time - when journalists spoke truth to power. From Wikipedia:

In the mid 1960s, Halberstam covered the Vietnam War for The New York Times. While there, he gathered material for his book The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era. In 1963, he received a George Polk Award for his reporting at the New York Times. At the age of 30, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the war. He is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film on the Vietnam War entitled In the Year of the Pig. Halberstam put an enormous effort into his book about Kennedy's foreign policy decisions about the Vietnam War, The Best and the Brightest. Synthesizing material from dozens of books and many dozens of interviews, Halberstam focused on the odd paradox that those who crafted the U.S. war effort in Vietnam were some of the most intelligent, well-connected and self-confident men in America—"the best and the brightest"—and yet those same men were unable to imagine and promote any but a bloody and disastrous course in the Vietnam War. Thousands of readers began The Best and the Brightest feeling that the U.S. must pursue the war in Vietnam until "victory" was achieved, but became convinced by Halberstam's book that the U.S. could not win and therefore should withdraw from Vietnam.

Glenn Greenwald has so many rememberences of Mr. Halberstam.

Celebrity Mugshots

From Worth1000:

It happens to the best of them. James Brown, Michael Jackson, Nick Nolte, Pee Wee Herman...one little slip up, and WHAMMO! it's "Book 'em, Dano". Your task now is to create a mugshot for a celebrity, as in our themepost.

The rules of the game are thus...Take any celebrity and put them in a mugshot.

(via J-Walk)

How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran

From Wired:

He was stuck. For about a week, no one in Washington or Ottawa could invent a reason for anyone to be in Tehran. Then Mendez hit upon an unusual but strangely credible plan: He'd become Kevin Costa Harkins, an Irish film producer leading his preproduction crew through Iran to do some location scouting for a big-budget Hollywood epic. Mendez had contacts in Hollywood from past collaborations. (After all, they were in the same business of creating false realities.) And it wouldn't be surprising, Mendez thought, that a handful of eccentrics from Tinseltown might be oblivious to the political situation in revolutionary Iran. The Iranian government, incredibly, was trying to encourage international business in the country. They needed the hard currency, and a film production could mean millions of US dollars.

Mendez gave his superiors an operations plan, with an analysis of the target, mission, and logistics. The task was so difficult that his bosses had signaled that they'd be reluctant to sign off on anything but an airtight exfiltration mission. But this proposal was detailed enough to be approved by them and the White House. Plausibility, as they say in the espionage business, was good.

(via GeekPress)

Link Wray - Rumble

From Wikipedia:

For the TV show, they also backed many performers, from Fats Domino to Ricky Nelson. At a live gig in Fredericksburg, VA, attempting to work up a backing for The Diamonds' "The Stroll", they came up with the stately, powerful 12-bar blues instrumental "Rumble", which they originally called "Oddball". The song was an instant hit with the live audience, which demanded four repeats that night. Eventually the song came to the attention of record producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records, who hated it, particularly after Wray poked holes in his amplifier's speakers to make the recording sound more like the live version (see "Rocket 88" for Ike Turner's similar story). However, Bleyer's step-daughter loved it and it was released despite his protest. She was the one who suggested renaming the song "Rumble", because it reminded her of West Side Story. Rumble is slang for a "gang fight".

Two More From The Ventures

Hawaii 5-0


Surf Rider (I can't hear this song without thinking about the end of Pulp Fiction)

Walk Don't Run

Which Cirque du Soleil Show Should You See in Vegas

From the Moveable Buffet:

More often than I am asked what show to see in Vegas, I am asked what Cirque show to see. People who want to see Phantom or Penn & Teller don't need me to tell them. Those shows are known quantities. People just need to read the show names from time-to-time in Vegas to be reminded they are here. Same with Celine and Elton. But while Cirque has gone to great lengths to market all of their shows as different, the truth remains Cirque has certain qualities that assert themselves in all of their productions. Surrealism, acrobats, and an unmistakable overall sensibility. People ask, if they can only see one Cirque show which one should it be? So, here are my choices and reasons for which Cirque show to see.

Ham Operators Save Apollo Dish

From AviationWeek.com:

A chance reading of a "for sale" advertisement in a weekly newspaper has launched a group of 30 space history buffs on a mission to save the 30-meter Jamesburg AT&T/Comsat satellite dish about an hour from Monterey, Calif. Built in 1968

The dish was built in 1968 to support the Apollo 11 moon landing a year later. Besides its commercial duties, it also played a role in capturing and distributing images of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, says Pat Barthelow, an avionics technician from Sacramento who first noticed the ad in the Carmel (Calif.) Pine Cone and quickly put out the word.

More on the dish here.

(via Make:Blog)

Apache

Two O'Clock Trailers - The Call of Cthulu

Russian Rail Missile System photos

From Moments of Life in JPG Format:

Battle railway missile system looks like an ordinary set of coaches. Three of this wagons are eight wheelsets. It is manned by missiles.

(via Digg)

15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has Or Will

From the AVClub.

8. "Since Alice had never received any religious instruction, and since she had led a blameless life, she never thought of her awful luck as being anything but accidents in a very busy place. Good for her."

Vonnegut's excellent-but-underrated Slapstick (he himself graded it a "D") was inspired by his sister Alice, who died of cancer just days after her husband was killed in an accident. Vonnegut's assessment of Alice's character—both in this introduction and in her fictional stand-in, Eliza Mellon Swain—is glowing and remarkable, and in this quote from the book's introduction, he manages to swipe at a favorite enemy (organized religion) and quietly, humbly embrace someone he clearly still missed a lot.

(via Reddit)

Performing the Play by the VA Tech Shooter

A performance of the play written by the Virginia Tech Shooter, Cho Seung Hui

(Thanks Gaby)

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Some background on "Strange Fruit":

"Strange Fruit" began as a poem about the lynching of a black man written by a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx Abel Meeropol, who used the pen name Lewis Allan (the names of his two children, who died in infancy). Meeropol and his wife were also the adoptive parents of the children of the executed spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in the 1950s. "Strange Fruit" was written as a poem expressing his horror at the lynchings,and was first published in 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine. Though Meeropol/Allan often asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music he set Strange Fruit to music himself and the song gained a certain success as a protest song in and around New York. Before Holiday was introduced to the song, it had been performed by Meeropol, by his wife, and by a black vocalist called Laura Duncan, who performed it at Madison Square Garden.

Meeropol said later that he had been inspired by seeing Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. "Strange Fruit" was eventually heard by Barney Josefson the founder of Cafe Society, New York's first integrated nightclub, who introduced it to Billie Holiday. Holiday performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939, a move that by her own admission left her fearful of retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death, and that this played a role in her persistence to perform it. The song became a regular part of Holiday's live performances.

Whiskey Bottle PC Mod

I already had a powerful computer setup so I wanted something more quiet, small and low power consumptioning to function as a basic home server. I love to tinker with hardware etc. so I wanted to make something quite unique for a case. I have seen many nice and creative cases before but none of them were made out of a bottle. In November I bought an industrial 3.5" SBC board (with Socket370). For the project I selected a 1.5 litre Ballantine's bottle for case. That was the proper size and shape for the task at hand.

Donut Machine

I love how it flings the donuts when they're done cooking.

(via PoeTV)

Two O'Clock Trailers - Raiders of the Lost Ark

Friday Guest Cat Blogging

Tim writes:

Chris,
This is Harley, my beast. By the look in the eyes of her and Cyni-kitty, I'm thinking that there's something up.....and we should be very, very afraid.

Friday Guest Cat Blogging

Thanks to Carolyn who sent in pictures of her two cats and writes:

Hi Chris,

Just wanted to send you some pictures of the infamous Chi-chi and Woody in hopes of being considered for some cat blogging. (He got that name from a broken tail that now sticks straight up). They are two very entertaining house cats. Chi-chi is overly loving and affectionate (and loves to play with my moccasin - flipping it up in the air and pouncing on it), while Wood is extremely paranoid and slightly obese. (He will swat and hiss at strangers) but we still love him to death.

The Bath School Disaster

From Wikipedia:

The Bath School disaster is the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack.

(Thanks to Girard31 from the comments for this)

Related:
The Bath School Disaster page.

MyDeathSpace.com Has Links to the MySpace Accounts of the VA Tech Victims

MyDeathSpace.com links to people from MySpace who have passed away. They have a special page up for the victims of the Virginia Tech Shootings. This is by far the most heartbreaking link I think I've ever seen. It's one thing to read an obituary but going through the blogs of the dead and comments left by friends paints a personal picture of each victim that we never usually get to see.

Washington Post's Narrative of the Virginia Tech Shootings

Horrifying.

In Jamie Bishop's German class, they could hear the popping sounds. What was that? Some kind of joke? Construction noises? More pops. Someone suggested that Bishop should place something in front of the classroom door, just in case. The words were no sooner uttered than the door opened and a shooter stepped in. He was holding guns in both hands. Bishop was hit first, a bullet slicing into the side of his head. All the students saw it, an unbelievable horror. The gunman had a serious but calm look on his face. Almost no expression. He stood in the front and kept firing, barely moving. People scrambled out of the line of fire. Trey Perkins knocked over a couple of desks and tried to take cover. No way I can survive this, he thought. His mind raced to his mother and what she would go through when she heard he was dead. Shouts, cries, sobs, more shots, maybe 30 in all. Someone threw up. There was blood everywhere. It took about a minute and a half, and then the gunman left the room.

Harry Whittier Frees

The photographer whose specialty was anthropomorphism.

In the preface to Animal Land on the Air, Harry Whittier Frees describes working with his subjects. "Rabbits are the easiest to photograph in costume, but incapable ot taking many "human" parts. Puppies are tractable when rightly understood, but the kitten is the most versatile animal actor, and possesses the greatest variety of appeal. The pig is the most difficult to deal with, but effective on occasion. The best period of young animal models is a short one, being when they are from six to ten weeks of age. An interesting fact is that a kitten's attention is best held through the sense of sight, while that of a puppy is most influenced by sound, and equally readily distracted by it. The native reasoning powers of young animals are, moreover, quite as pronounced as those of the human species, and relatively far surer."

The March 1, 1937, edition of Life magazine reatured an article on Mr. Frees titled, "Speaking of Pictures...These are Harry Frees's Lifework". The article explains that Frees's career as a photographer of dressed animals began at a birthday party in 1906, when a paper party hat was passed around the dinner table and landed on the pet cat's head. Harry took a picture and a career was begun! He took others and sold them to a postcard printer, who clamored for more.

(via Metafilter)

Vagina Power's Halloween Show (Not Work Safe)

Another clip of everybody's favorite public access host, Alexyss Tylor, with her Ed Mcmahonesque sidekick, mom. This may be the first public access show in history where I've actually wanted to buy season one on dvd.
If you liked the last clip, you'll like this one.

Update:

Somebody's been busy posting more Alexyss Tylor shows.

Vagina Power - Penis Addiction

Vagina Power - Penis Power

Vagina Power - Vagina Respect

Vagina Power - Sperm Agenda

The Victims

The NY Times has a profile on each of the victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy.

Two O'Clock Trailers - Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all.

(via J-Walk)

Russian Cake Art

These are incredible. From English Russia.

Mount Pony, The Federal Reserve Bunker

The Federal Reserve Board operated a 140,000 square foot radiation hardened facility in Culpeper, Virginia. Dedicated on 10 December 1969, the 400 foot long bunker is built of steel-reinforced concrete a foot thick. Lead-lined shutters can be dropped to cover the windows of the semi-recessed facility, which is covered by 2 to 4 feet of dirt and surrounded by barbed-wire fences and guard posts. The seven computers at the facility, operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, are the central node for all American electronic funds transfer activities. Until July 1992 the bunker also served as a Continuity of Government facility. With a peacetime staff of 100, the facility was designed to support an emergency staff of 540 for 30 days. But only 200 beds were provided in the men's and women's dormintories, which would be shared on a "hot-bunk" basis by the staff, working around the clock. Until 1988 the facility stored a $1 billion stock of currency to be used to reactivate the American economy following a nuclear attack.

(via Danger Room)

Aeclectic Tarot

Since there is so much interest among visitors here...

Aeclectic Tarot. Dedicated to the diversity & beauty of Tarot. See images of Tarot cards from hundreds of decks, read deck reviews and book reviews, learn more about Tarot and its card meanings, order the Tarot eBook, get a free Tarot reading, or join our active community.

The above card is from the Hello Kitty Tarot deck.

The Hello, Tarot is a very cute deck that uses the traditional Rider-Waite tarot scenes but the creator has used Hello Kitty as the main character. The card are black line drawings on white. By Joe Rosales

Hashima, the Japanese Ghost Island

Hashima is a small island near Nagasaki. It was first populated in 1887, when a coal mining facility started its business there. Mitsubishi, which bought the island in 1890 tried to retrieve coal from the bottom of the sea. In 1916 Japan’s first large concrete building was built for those coal-miners. During World War II Koreans had to mine coal here and many died. In 1959 Hashima was the most densely populated place on earth. The mine was closed in 1974 and Hashima is a Ghost Island now. Its Japanese name Gunkan-jima means "Battleship Island", because that’s just how the island looks like. Visiting Gunkanjima is prohibited right now, but this may change in April.

Two O'Clock Trailers - 1941

The World of Walmart

A world map redrawn to show where Walmart gets their products.
(via Consumerist)

What Will Happen In the Next 100 Years?

Predictions from an issue of Ladies Home Journal from 1900.

No Mosquitoes nor Flies. Insect screens will be unnecessary. Mosquitoes, house-flies and roaches will have been practically exterminated. Boards of health will have destroyed all mosquito haunts and breeding-grounds, drained all stagnant pools, filled in all swamp-lands, and chemically treated all still-water streams. The extermination of the horse and its stable will reduce the house-fly.

(via Bifurcated Rivets)

America's Next Top Pundit

An article from the Wall Street Journal on B-List pundits (aka Ann Coulter Wannabees)

They are the minor-league pundits -- political consultants, professors, activists, actors, journalists, bloggers and opinionated civilians -- and they're using 21st-century stunts to troll for airtime. Some try to break out of the blogs by repeating particular phrases in their written rants, designed to pop their sites up when TV bookers search for keywords online. Others are buying air time on AM and Internet radio stations to practice their punditry. And many are turning to media advisers or partisan training programs, where they learn new rules of engagement, such as how to use food to bribe producers. The ploys can work, as networks like CNN regularly survey the field, looking for new contributors.

Debbie Schlussel, 37 years old, supports her pundit habit by practicing commercial law in suburban Detroit. She is among the most proactive B-list pundits. Almost daily, she emails her appearance schedule, availability or sharp-elbowed conservative commentaries to 5,000 people in media and politics.

In the wake of North Korea's recent nuclear test, a hawkish Ms. Schlussel hit the radio circuit, saying U.S. officials responded too mildly in calling the test "a provocative act." "A Paris Hilton video is a provocative act," she said. "What North Korea did was an act of war." To get noticed, Ms. Schlussel says, "I've become the master of the confrontational sound bite."

(via Atrios)

The 27 Club

From Wikipedia:

The "27 Club" is a popular culture reference to a group of several rock, and blues musicians, who experienced a successful career that was cut short by a drug-related death at age 27.

More interesting may be the Less prominent section and near misses.

Sympathy for the Devil (1968)

Seems appropriate somehow.

Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Theories

The tin foil hat brigade has been around since before there were tin foil hats.

Approximately 7 hours before shooting the President, Booth dropped by the Washington hotel which was Vice-President Andrew Johnson's residence. Upon learning from the desk clerk that neither Johnson nor his private secretary, William A. Browning, was in the hotel, Booth wrote the following note: "Don't wish to disturb you Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth." Browning testified before the military court that he found the note in his box later that afternoon. Did Johnson and Booth know each other?

Mary Todd Lincoln felt Johnson was involved. On March 15, 1866, she wrote to her friend, Sally Orne:
"...that, that miserable inebriate Johnson, had cognizance of my husband's death - Why, was that card of Booth's, found in his box, some acquaintance certainly existed - I have been deeply impressed, with the harrowing thought, that he, had an understanding with the conspirators & they knew their man... As sure, as you & I live, Johnson, had some hand, in all this..."

Some members of Congress also thought Johnson was involved and a special Assassination Committee was established to investigate any evidence linking Johnson to Lincoln's death. Nothing suspicious was ever found by the committee; yet a belief by some Americans that Johnson was somehow involved with Booth continued for many years.

Virginia Tech's Killer's Wikipedia Page

Wikipedia has a page up already about the killer.

Dickens World

Like Disneyworld but with Miss Haversham instead of Mickey Mouse:

A New Themed Entertainment Visitor Attraction Based Upon the Life, Times, Books and Characters of Charles Dickens, Our Most Famous and Enduring Author.

Situated at Chatham Maritime, Kent, near London, UK. Construction started in February 2005 and the attraction will open to the public on May 25th 2007.

The in-house attraction will reproduce the architecture of the period with picturesque archways, cobbled stoned streets and decorative features, together with specialised lighting and appropriate euphonics as well as a host of costumed characters, shop keepers and street entertainers.

Original concept and design by G.A.O'Sullivan-Beare. Rides and animatronics by RMA, one of the leading UK tectonic specialists in the country.

Script Pages from Ms. Cleo Telephone Call

From CourtTV.com:

When Courttv.com called Miss Cleo's Mind and Spirit Psychic Network, our "psychic" reader offered us predictions on everything from property to pregnancy. But as this package shows, the reader's advice was actually pulled verbatim from a prewritten script containing a selection of stock tarot readings.

Global Incident Map

This free public service website was created to give the public, law enforcement, military, and government individuals a new way to visualize, and become instantly aware of terrorism and security incidents across the world.

While this website employs much automation, the news gathering itself is not automated - news items are located, reviewed, and manually entered into the database. We do not have adequate staffing so there are periods of each day when events are delayed in getting onto the map.

Two O'Clock Trailers - Jaws

Kiai Master Gets Owned

Some martial artists say they have focused their chi to the point that they can knock an opponent over without even touching them. This guy forgot to tell his opponent.

a Kiai Master offers a 5000 dollar challenge that he can beat any MMA fighter. Too bad for him because his techniques doesn't affect the MMA fighter

(via Pharyngula)

Vagina Power (Not Work Safe)

Shakesville, or the blogger formerly known as Shakespeare's Sister, has a great clip of a public access show from Atlanta. In it, the host sits down with her guest, who also happens to be her mother, and talks about sex using some, er, colorful language.

This man won’t even buy you some shrimp from Long John Silver’s—and what? that plate what $2.99?—but he can give you a mouth full of sperm, and a rectum full of sperm. … A man like that don’t respect you!

And now, she insane, her mind ain't good because the penis done ejaculated all in her brain.

He's screwing her into slavery using the penis as a weapon to break her ass down.

The Fab Faux - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Wikipedia's entry on the Fab Faux:

The Fab Faux is a musical tribute band performing the works of The Beatles. The group features Will Lee, bassist for Late Show with David Letterman, and Jimmy Vivino, guitarist for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Other members include Rich Pagano, Frank Agnello, and Jack Petruzzelli. The band is committed to performing live what they feel would be an accurate reproduction of The Beatles' repertoire, oftentimes performing material The Beatles never played live. Often, the band is accompanied by a horn section (known as the Hogshead Horns) and a string section (known as the Creme Tangerine Strings) to achieve the proper sound.

They have more performances scattered throughout YouTube.

Virginia Tech Shooting Updates

Wikipedia has a page on the shootings.

Wired's Threat Level blog has more info including eyewitness accounts and cellphone video and is being updated at a fast pace.

"Shooter is an asian male, showed up at his girlfriend’s dorm (it was co-ed) and shot her to death. He wound up shooting the RA as well when he or she attempted to investigate the gunshots. Two hours elapse where the campus is NOT locked down and authorities attempt to search for the gunman. Well gunman appears at an engineering building looking for his (now dead) girlfriend’s new lover, chains the doors shut, and proceeds to go classroom by classroom wearing a bulletproof vest and wielding 2 9-MM pistols opening fire on students and faculty alike. The current count is 32 dead, 29 wounded and the gunman dead to an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound."

The Collegiate Times Breaking News section is also being updated with the latest news and stories about the tragedy. They also have a map of the shootings.



Flickr has a photo pool up under Virginia Tech Shooting.


Update:

NowPublic has compiled the emails sent by University to students warning them of the danger:

9:50 AM entitled "PLease stay put" (sic) from university:

A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows

10:16 AM entitled "All Classes Canceled; Stay where you are" from university:

Virginia Tech has canceled all classes. Those on campus are asked to remain where there are, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Persons off campus are asked not to come to campus.

Planet Blacksburg, a student run online news site has plenty of info about the shootings with first hand accounts:

Ruiqi Zhang, a junior computer engineering major, experienced the incident first hand in his class on the second floor of Norris.

"A student rushed in and told everybody to get down," said Zhang. "We put a table against the door and when the gunman tried to shoulder his way in and when he saw that he couldn't, he put two shots through the door."

"It was the scariest moment of my life."

Two Chickens Break Up a Fight Between Two Rabbits

Two O'Clock Trailers - Duel

Astronauts Returning From Moon Had to go through US Customs

They had to declare their moon rocks. Seriously!

Documents which have just come to light via the internet show that even if you've just travelled to the Moon and back - especially if you've just travelled to the Moon and back - the US Customs wants to know what you've got. Anyone who has visited the US will be familiar with the huge list of items which travellers are required to declare, such as plants, drugs and other preparations.

Historians at Nasa, the US space administration, have confirmed that the document, signed by the three crew members, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, is authentic. It lists their departure point as "Moon" and arrival as "Honolulu" on 24 July 1969.

(via Reddit)

The Mojave Phone Booth

From Wikipedia:

The Mojave phone booth was a lone telephone booth placed circa 1960 in the Mojave National Preserve which attracted an online following in 1997 due to its unusual location. The booth was 15 miles from the nearest interstate highway, and miles from any buildings. Its phone number was originally +1-714-733-9969, before the area code changed to 619 and then to 760; 733 is the Baker, California rate center.

Fans called the booth attempting to get a reply, and a few took trips to the booth to answer, often camping out at the site. Several callers kept recordings of their conversations. Over time, the booth became covered in graffiti, as many travelers would leave a message on it.

One of the more humorous incidents involving the phone booth was documented by Los Angeles Times writer John Glionna, who met 51-year-old Rick Karr there. Karr claims he was instructed by the Holy Spirit to answer the phone. He spent 32 days there, answering more than 500 phone calls including repeated calls from someone who identified himself as "Sergeant Zeno from the Pentagon."

For more info you can go to the Mojave Phone Booth site.

Public art at Cardiff Bay barrage

There's a series of 9 pictures of the display. I won't ruin the final one for you so click to see.

Between 11 and 25 March, Swiss artist Felice Varini and his team created an unusual piece of public art that is set to baffle and fascinate visitors to Cardiff Bay barrage.

The Nazi Triangle

Chart of concentration camp badges worn in Dachau, c. 1936.

From Design Observer:

If the canard that Adolf Hitler was a superb art director is meant to glorify the art directorial profession, think again. Although historians say he was the "art dictator" of Germany because he spent an inordinate amount of time overseeing the art and design of the Third Reich, he nonetheless had thousands of willing "executioners," like Hugo Boss, designer and manufacturer of Wehrmacht and SS uniforms, doing the everyday work. Yet like art directors today, as Führer (leader) he received credit for everything under his domain, even those things he knew nothing about and had no hand in creating. One such was the identification system implemented throughout the concentration camp network. No documentation has surfaced that proves Hitler had any direct input in developing the inverted triangle (known as the "Winkel") made of variously colored fabrics to distinguish homosexuals from habitual criminals from political enemies from Jehovah’s Witnesses from Gypsies from, of course, Jews. But this color and symbol code (concentric circles distinguished failed escapees and were worn on prisoners' sleeves like boy scout merit badges) was initiated shortly after the Nazis opened the infamous Dachau in 1933, in a former munitions factory in Upper Bavaria. Although the camp was originally designed for the “protective custody” of political offenders, it soon swelled up with the regime's undesirables, most of who had to be segregated and then earmarked for "special treatment." It is probable that camp commandant Theodor Eicke was responsible for — or even the designer of — the classification scheme which, like the camp layout itself, became the model for all other camps in occupied Europe. (In fact, prospective camp commandants were required to complete a special "school of violence" at Dachau).

(via Bifurcated Rivets)

A Chink in the Armour

The Asian Canadian Centre says:

"A Chink in the Armour is a hilarious look into the notion of stereotypes while revealing what it means to be Chinese-Canadian in today's society. Gathering a large group of volunteers from Toronto, five of the major stereotypes will be tested to see if they are true. Do Chinese really know kung fu? Are they all good at math? The results are comical, always informative, and offer a unique glimpse into Chinese-Canadian culture."

They're right. The documentary is great! You should watch the whole documentary here.

Jackie Robinson's FBI File

From The Smoking Gun:

Fifty years after he broke baseball's color line, Jackie Robinson is rightfully lauded as an American hero. But it wasn't too long ago that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was monitoring the athlete's political activities, with an eye towards his contacts with supposed Communist organizations. Here's a 1963 memo summarizing bureau files on Robinson, then a member of the NAACP's Board of Directors.

SWAT Training Backfires

Somehow I don't think this is the optimal way to break into a donut bakery. For all the dissatisfied customers who think there are too many youtube videos here, this one's from break.com

Two O'Clock Trailers - The Arena

And to end Pam Grier week is The Big Bird Cage Trailer

Guest Friday Cat Blogging

Thanks to Steven for sending pictures of his cat _____________. (He didn't tell me the cat's name so feel free to fill in the blank)

Friday Cat Blogging

Sporadic Blogging for the Next Few Days

I'm a bit backed up on a few projects right now so don't expect too many updates until next week. If you're jonesing for more links you may want to visit Miss Cellania's blog. Or should I say blogs. She's like the blogosphere's version of that Jamaican family from In Living Color. She has more blogs than they had jobs. You can find some of her contributions at:

YesButNoButYes (I love that title)

Neatorama

Mental Floss

Freedom's Place

Grumpy Old Bitches

Miss C Recommends

And finally, Miss Cellania.

If she starts contributing to one more blog I'm going to stage an intervention.

Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force

I'm not sure if they are recruiting for a navy or an offbroadway play.

Man Falls Out of Ambulance

In Moscow....people drive by for a long time before anyone realizes that he's not just drunk. He tries to get up a couple of times, but can't manage it.

Two O'Clock Trailers - Jackie Brown

Damage Control For On-Air Racial Slurs

Once again, Stephen Colbert lands in hot water.

Wes Montgomery - Jingles

Eight Part Kurt Vonnegut Documentary on YouTube

Part two
Part three
Part four
Part five
Part six
Part seven
Part eight

The Books of Bokonon

Expect a lot of Vonnegut links today:

In Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., created a new religion, Bokononism. The holy scripture of Bokononism was the ever-growing "Books of Bokonon", written by Bokonon -- a British Episcopalian Negro from the island of Tobago whose real name was Lionel Boyd Johnson [ 48 ] -- as a way to distract the people of San Lorenzo from their pitiful lives. What is sacred to Bokononists? Not God; just one thing: man. [ 94 ]

And the first verse of the Book of Bokonon:

Verse 1: All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies.

RIP Kurt

This maybe the first time I've ever been choked up about a famous person's death. I have read just about every word the man has ever published. It's a very sad day.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.

Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

Menu Foods Exec Sold Half His Shares 3 Weeks Before Recall

Uh oh.

The CFO of Menu Foods, Mark Wiens, sold about half of his shares in the company three weeks before the poisoned pet food recall was announced, Canadian insider trading reports show.

In Canada's Globe and Mail, Wiens called it a "horrible coincidence."

Here's another horrible coincidence: Menu Foods also waited three weeks after discovering the kitty and doggy deaths before announcing the recall.

Atheists/Agnostics Have Lowest Divorce Rate

The chart comes from ReligiousTolerance.org but a better synopsis, and the excerpt below, comes from CreationTheory.org.

Divorce rate: Is marriage strengthened by mutual faith in God? Are marriages weak without religion? The Barna Research Group conducted a poll of Americans in 1999 in an attempt to show that religious faith reduces the likelihood of divorce. The results shocked them: Atheists had the lowest average divorce rates (defined as the percentage of people who had been divorced at least once in their lives), at 21%. Christian divorce rates averaged about 24% (higher for "born-again" Christians, ie- fundamentalists, at 27%), and even higher for Jews, at 30%. They also collected racial and geographical data, which showed that the white Southern Baptist fundamentalists have no reason to crow about their "family values". Not only did the Southern Bible Belt have the highest divorce rate in the country, but whites as a race are the most likely to split: 27%, as compared to 22% for blacks, 20% for Hispanics, and only 8% for Asians like me (and you thought I was just blowing hot air about that "till death do us part" stuff). UPDATE: interestingly enough, Barna Research later edited that article to lump all "non-born-again adults" into a single category, thus "accidentally" obscuring the embarrassing fact that atheists had the lowest divorce rates.

The Fine Art of Baloney Detection

By Carl Sagan:

But that doesn't mean I'd be willing to accept the pretensions of a "medium," who claims to channel the spirits of the dear departed, when I'm aware the practice is rife with fraud. I know how much I want to believe that my parents have just abandoned the husks of their bodies, like insects or snakes molting, and gone somewhere else. I understand that those very feelings might make me easy prey even for an unclever con, or for normal people unfamiliar with their unconscious minds, or for those suffering from a dissociative psychiatric disorder. Reluctantly, I rouse some reserves of skepticism.

How is it, I ask myself, that channelers never give us verifiable information otherwise unavailable? Why does Alexander the Great never tell us about the exact location of his tomb, Fermat about his Last Theorem, John Wilkes Booth about the Lincoln assassination conspiracy, Hermann Goring about the Reichstag fire? Why don't Sophocles, Democritus, and Aristarchus dictate their lost books? Don't they wish future generations to have access to their masterpieces?

If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote. As with the face on Mars and alien abductions, better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. And in the final tolling it often turns out that the facts are more comforting than the fantasy.

Lovecraft and the Occult

From the Fortean Times:

Given the power of his vision, many have speculated on just how much Lovecraft knew about the occult. Some occultists hail him as the prophet of a new Dark Age, claiming that his fiction bears genuine traces of ancient knowledge and re-emerging archetypes from the depths of our collective unconscious. Yet, all too often, their conclusions are based on guesswork, rather than the evidence of his own writing. Fortunately for us, he had perhaps one of the best-documented lives in literary history, writing approximately 100,000 letters over his 46 years. Through these letters, and other newly discovered sources, a glimpse into the reality of Lovecraft’s occult lore is finally possible.

LEGO Turing Machine

I chose to implement in Lego a slightly different version of the original Turing machine. Instead of having a bi directional tape, it uses a stack. When the symbol beneath the stack is read (and removed), the machine changes "states" and can add zero, one or two symbols on top of the stack.

This variation is maybe very different yet it is possible to show that this simple machine has the same capabilities than a Turing machine. Among other things, it can emulate a Turing machine placed on the stack.

Two O'Clock Trailers - Women in Cages

How To Rip a Phonebook in Half

I don't have a phonebook around me (I thought the internet made them obsolete) so I can't try it.

Mah Nà Mah Nà

I didn't know that the song Mah Nà Mah Nà from the Muppets was originally part of a soundtrack for an Italian porno. From Wikipedia:

"Mah Nà Mah Nà" is a well-known pop music song, written by Piero Umiliani. It was a hit in many countries, including the USA, in 1968–1969. The song's lyrics contain no actual words, only nonsense words resembling scat singing. The original version interpolates melodies from "Swedish Rhapsody" ("Midsommarvaka" ("Midsummer Vigil")) by Hugo Alfvén, "Santa Lucia", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", the jazz standard "Lullaby of Birdland", and others.

"Mah Nà Mah Nà" debuted as part of Umiliani's soundtrack for the Italian softcore pornography movie Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso (Sweden, Heaven and Hell) (1968), a pseudo-documentary film about wild sexual activity and other behavior in Sweden ("Mah Nà Mah Nà" accompanied a scene set in a sauna). A soundtrack album, "Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso" was released in 1968. The movie was also released under the English title Sweden Heaven and Hell.

In 1969, Henri Salvador recorded a variation titled "Mais Non, Mais Non" ("But No, But No"), with lyrics he had written in French to Umiliani's tune.

The song became familiar to many from its renditions by the Muppets on national television.

(via del.icio.us/revgeorge)

Google - The Ultimate Money Making Machine

From ReadWriteWeb.com:

Despite Amazon's success, the very nature of its business model limits its potential revenue - because it is a web site. A web site is an online geography. Granted, it is not hard to find Amazon, but that is different from saying Amazon follows you everywhere when you are online. Amazon does not, but Google does!

In addition to being one of the top three online destinations, Google - through its text ads strategy - has managed to weave itself into the very fabric of the Web. In doing this, the company freed itself from even Internet geography and became ubiquitous. By empowering companies and individuals to publish Google ads on their sites, Google solved the unlimited supply and demand problem in one fell swoop.

The Musical Notation of Bird Songs

From the Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society:

Many musical works have paid homage to bird songs, including The Goldfinch by Vivaldi, The Hen by Rameau , The Cuckoo and the Nightingale by Handel, and Cirrus Minor by Pink Floyd. It was, of course, Father Kircher who pioneered the musical transcription of bird vocalizations in his Musurgia Universalis. But nobody, to our knowledge, went to greater lengths to notate avian music than the early 20th-century naturalist F. Schuyler Mathews.

Phil in the Circle

With Bruce Lee!

Soviet "Let it Be"

(via English Russia)

Rate My Turban

Like Hot or Not but with turbans.

I noticed most Sikhs living outside India have a pretty boring turban life (they wear 1-2 colours and usually tie the same style turban as their fathers). I wanted to showcase turbans as an art form and try to revive the majestic roots of turbans. Furthermore, todays Sikhs are commonly confused for Muslims and I wanted to think of a creative way to showcase Sikhs and their royal turbans in a positive way to the general public, and also show Sikh youths that wearing a turban is cool and fashionable.

Related:

How to tie a turban.
(via Metafilter)

Two O'Clock Trailers - Foxy Brown

(It's Pam Grier week)

Bizarro Bento

More here from JustinSpace

Donkey Kong Climbs E2

Plenty of pictures of students creating Donkey Kong out of post it notes on the windows of their engineering building.

Donkey Kong (Miyamoto, et. al.,1981) was the first appearance of the Itallian plumber we now know as Mario. While this game's early '80s arcade popularity predates most of today's engineering students, it represents the amazing results that a small development team can produce. Today Donkey Kong is ranked as the 3rd most popular arcade game of all time, selling over 65,000 units.

Currently this work is visible at the E2 building at UCSC, it is scheduled to be removed on or before May 1.

Detailed Photo Map of the Human Eye

From DiscoverMagazine.com:

The inside of your eye is one thing you’re guaranteed never to get a good look at. Even if you could, the pupil is far too small an aperture to allow you to see the entire interior. University of Michigan ophthalmologic photographer Richard Hackel compares the problem to taking a picture of a room through a keyhole. To overcome this hurdle, Hackel uses a computer program to stitch together images taken from 20 different angles by a special digital camera. The result is an unusual, fully detailed map of the inside of a healthy 26-year-old’s eye.

Coach Hal Mcrae's Tirade

Wonderful!

Possibly the best post game rant by a coach ever. Coach Hal Mcrae of the Kansas City Royals goes nuts during a post game conference in 1993 after being asked a stupid question

Football Coach Tirades

Paul Anka has them all beat. Dennis Green tries his best though.

Paul Anka Tirade

(NSFW. Anka has a potty mouth)

Paul Anka's famous post-gig tirade as visualized by someone who still thinks he's "the most important one up on that stage." Paul Anka slices like a hammer! The guys get shirts!

(via J-Walk)

Vampire Hunting Kit Gallery

Spookyland was kind enough to send in a gallery on his site of other vampire hunting kits.

Some vampire experts claim that kits such as the present lot were very common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries among travelers to Eastern Europe, particularly the Carpathians, and could be requested from the concierge desk of their hotels. Others claim that the kits originated in twentieth century America and are nothing more than romantic curiosities.

(Thanks Spookyland)

Video of a Teen Telling his Mom He's an Atheist

Here's an uncomfortable video that looks like it was taken by someone's little brother. A teen is coming out to his catholic mom that he doesn't believe in god anymore. She is a little less than enthusiastic about her son's atheism.

(via Reddit)

Update:
Eel Feather's the hero on this one. For those who didn't get to see it before it was taken down:



BTW, I would be perfectly fine with my child if he or she came to me and said that they had found religion and didn't accept atheism. It should be up to the parent to give the children as best of an education as possible and then let them make their own decisions on a theology. Religion should be an individual choice, not something that is forced.

Dr. Zaius Dr Zaius

I love legitimate theater.

One Way to Row a Boat

Use an excavator.

(via Reddit)

The Travelling Cat

The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings - he then jumps off at the next stop 400m down the road, near a fish and chip shop.

Via: The Daily Mail

A Rare Newsreel from 1963 of The Beatles

Justin.TV

Justin wears the camera 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even in the bathroom. Even on a date.

This is really live. Honest. Right now.

Justin will wear the camera until the day he dies. By which we mean if he takes it off, we'll kill him.

A 19th Century Vampire Hunting Kit

An incredible Victorian novelty. Complete in mahogany box with revolver, silver bullets, garlic powder, silver dagger, ivory cross, mirror, Professor Blomberg`s New Vampire Serum, wooden stake, etc, etc.

The bullets was manufactured-by one Nicolas Plomdeur, gunsmith from Belgium. Plomdeur participated in the Great Exhibiton in 1851, London, Comes with instructions on use and original pamphlet on vampires by Prof Ernst Blomberg. Small 8:o, 19 pages.

Criminal Tattoos and What They Represent

A teardrop tattoo is said to indicate that the wearer has killed someone or a friend of his/hers was killed in prison. It is worn by the eye.

More here: Wiki - Criminal Tattoos

Real estate photos worth more than a thousand words

From Signal vs. Noise:

Making Every Pixel Count talks about the importance of photography at real estate sites. "It’s so important to have photos that are professionally presented," says Rosalind Clarke, a senior sales associate with the Corcoran Group. "If things look shoddy or unprofessional, not only are buyers going to find the property unappealing, they’re going to associate you with being shoddy and unprofessional."...

...Below are some example photos (befores are first, afters are second) from the article and accompanying slideshow. They show the difference good equipment, a wide-angle lens, and a sharp eye for composition can make.

Two O'Clock Trailers - Coffy

Richard Dawkins - ... The Reason Juries Don't Work

Trial by jury must be one of the most conspicuously bad good ideas anyone ever had. Its devisers can hardly be blamed. They lived before the principles of statistical sampling and experimental design had been worked out. They weren’t scientists. Let me explain using an analogy. And if, at the end, somebody objects to my argument on the grounds that humans aren’t herring gulls, I’ll have failed to get my point across.

Read the rest here.

(via Reddit)

Graffiti

From Flickr:

Die Schlachthof is located in Weisbaden, Germany. It is an abandoned slaughterhouse that graffiti artists use to express themselves.

(via Rashomon)

Americans work 4 months to pay this year's taxes

From CNN.com:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- April 30 is the day that Americans can stop working to pay the taxman and start working for themselves, according to the Tax Foundation's annual estimate dubbed "Tax freedom day."

Tax freedom day is theoretical because it assumes we've been working 7 days a week since the start of the year, and that we don't spend anything we make. The 120 days from Jan. 1 through April 30 represents the time it will take the nation as a whole to earn enough to pay off all of the taxes that will be levied against us this year.

Based on an 8-hour workday, the research group estimates that Americans as a whole work:

* 1 hour 43 minutes to pay all federal taxes (income, sales, etc.)
* 1 hour 22 minutes to pay for housing and household operations
* 1 hour 8 minutes to pay for health and medical care
* 52 minutes to pay all state and local taxes (income, sales, etc.)
* 51 minutes to pay "other" taxes
* 40 minutes to pay for food
* 39 minutes to pay for transportation
* 28 minutes to pay for recreation
* 17 minutes to pay for clothing

Menu Foods Victims

This Blog contains the stories of the victims of the Menu Foods recall and information concerning the recall - I just collect them and post them for the world to see.

Luckily, we've never fed Cynikitty anything from Menu Foods.

What People Are Saying About Cynical-C

Peter writes:

This video was a complete waste of my time. I am going to stop visiting your blog unless you post things of interest and of value. Wasting 4 minutes of my time like this is not of value. Wise up and do not post every stupid video you come across.

and

This blog used to post cleverness, but now too often it merely posts a video and expects us to waste 10 minutes of our time getting to the point. People don't have that kind of time.

This place is really going downhill.

Dido writes:

To the author of this site:

Dude stop trying to disprove there is no god. All you readers have figured that out already. And if they haven’t then they’re plainly retarded. I think you should put in more stuff about philosophy. Philosophy deals with exactly this stuff but without senseless gods. Dont get me wrong! I LOVE THE SITE

Toni writes:

You seem to be an angry yet sad person. I'm sorry you have such an outlook on life. I hope God softens your heart. God Bless you.

Kiera says:

Hi Chris,

I've visited your site everyday now for a good year or so and I'm afraid I can't any longer. Regarding your comment the day your wife got her wisdom teeth out: I must say - I'm shocked and disappointed. I know you are entitled to your own religious or non-religious beliefs, but I was taken aback that you would say something so derogatory about the religious beliefs of so many others, especially with such a popular website.

Just voicing my disappointment.

Bill writes:

I really enjoyed reading your blog as to me for the most part it seemed to impartial pot shots at both sides of an issue, but lately the voice seems more partisan and angry. I think a real cynic doesn’t appear to take sides.

Tim says:

I'm deleting Cynical-C from my bookmarks after this post. I have been reading this blog since 03. What did mormons ever do to you?

Roger writes:

Cris, please stop posting cats on fridays. Its excrusiatingly boring. If you do anymore cat blogging, I will unsubscirbe to your blog.

Sincerely, a longtime reader.

Randy writes:

Thanks for wasting 7 minutes of my life with that stupid video post. Ricky Gervais sucks.

Inthelight writes:

Your sight sucks and you suck. What gives you the right to talk about our savor the way you do. GO TO HELL!

Dave writes:

After reading your site for over 2 years, I have come to the conclusion that it sucks.

Jan writes:

Yawn, another link to Wikipedia. Why don't you just call this blog Cynipedia?

Jim writes:

who is this????? come on CHRIS get a life..dont post useless articles....1 more things...u r blogs getting boring day by day..

Joey B writes:

awesome, now we have daily atheism. Why not just turn this into ihatechristianity.com?

Tina writes:

I'm sick of you posting bad things about Michael Jackson. I've been reading your blog forever and this is the thanks I get?

Shannon writes:

Hey to the author of this blog. Can you not post anymore YouTube links. I can't see them at work.

Reader says:

What are you, some kind of mental case?

Dominic writes:

No, you lying white devil. Cynicism isnt 'an unpleasant way of telling the truth'. Thats antiChrist white devil bullshit. Optimism is telling the truth. Everything gets better, nothing ever gets worse. Ever. You dont even know what the truth is. Jesus Christ IS the truth. Jesus Christ isnt cynical. The devil sure is. And so are his people.

Jason writes:

Isn’t this just a little juvenile? Are you really that offended at getting feedback from your readers that you don’t agree with? This website is called Cynical-C, not Juvenile-C.

Dude, you’re not 12 anymore. Learn to take a little constructive criticism. Grow up.

WaPo Experiment Which Disguised a Violin Virtuoso as a Busker

From the Washington Post (with video):

HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play...

...No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

(via Reddit)

Peeps Diorama Contest

Pictures of 22 entries from the Washington Post's 'Peeps Diorama Contest'.

Exploding Easter Bunny

Electrocuting a chocolate easter bunny.

If you are sqeamish, look away now. The Easter bunny meets 50,000 A might be a suitable title. Here the cap bank is charged to 5.8kV (3.5 kJ). A little steel wool on each end to sparkle up the display and away we go.

The flash and bang is huge but most of the energy is directed outwards and the damage is surprisingly small. Interestingly much of the paint is blown off the aluminum foil.

(via Danger Room)

Yesterday

This must be a fairly rare clip since I think Paul would usually sing it with an acoustic guitar without the band backing him.

Woman's House Ransacked After Craigslist Ad

(03/05/2007) An ad placed on Craig's List is being blamed for the ransacking of a Tacoma, Washington woman's home. Vandals ripped apart the house after an ad posted on the internet bulletin board invited people to take anything they wanted from inside. Now police and the home's owner are trying to find out who posted the ad, and why. "It hurts. I was attached to this home because it used to be my mom's," says Laurie Raye. A phone caller alerted raye to the destruction. She soon walked through her garbage strewn front yard to find her house dismantled. From the light fixtures to the hot water heater everything is gone...including the kitchen sink. Her neighbors later reported seeing strangers hauling stuff away from her home, seemingly looking for salvage material.

The World's Most Corrupt Countries

From Forbes:

While a year ago, some 72 out of 158 nations surveyed by the international watchdog group Transparency International were classified as "corrupt," now 74 of 163 countries fall into the same category. A few, most notably India, managed to bootstrap themselves (just barely) out of the truly corrupt group, while others, particularly Iran, dug themselves more firmly into that camp.

TI has developed an index from 0 to 10 comprised of surveys of specialists, opinion leaders, business officials and human rights monitors who live, work or travel extensively in each of the countries ranked. The higher the score, the less corrupt the country. Tied for No. 1 this year, with a CPI "score" of 9.6 are Finland, Iceland and New Zealand. At the bottom, with a score of 1.8 is Haiti.

Animated Soviet Propaganda

Part 1 of 4 of the Documentary "Animated Soviet Propaganda" From 1924 to perestroika the USSR produced more than 4 dozen animated propaganda films. They weren't for export. Their target was the new nation and their goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the Soviet people. Anti-American, Anti-British, Anti-German, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Fascist, some of these films are as artistically beautiful as the great political posters made after the 1917 revolution which inspired Soviet animation. A unique series. With a unique perspective. Includes interviews with the directors of the animated films which are still alive and commentary by a leading Soviet film scholar. Two hours of documentary and six hours of animated films.

Two O'Clock Trailers - Life of Brian

Documentary on Warren Jeffs

Before he was caught. It's about 45 minutes long, but a really interesting expose on The Church of the LDS, and polygamy. Is this ok with you, Valerie?

Condolences to Debbe

My condolences to Debbe whose cat, Princess, passed away yesterday.

I have some sad news to report… my Cynikitty clone, Princess, had to be put to sleep yesterday evening. She had a stroke (!) and couldn’t see or hear, poor baby. She’s not in pain now… but my heart aches for her.

Friday Cat Blogging

Life as a Phone-sex Worker

From the Hartford Advocate:

My phone sex career was (ahem) conceived the previous week, when I strolled into my boss’s office and said "Good morning, Alistair. I saw a help-wanted ad for a phone sex line. No experience necessary! And I’m told I have a nice phone voice. Can I try it?"

Editors always smile when their writers say such things. "If you feel comfortable with that, go right ahead."

"I don’t feel comfortable at all," I said cheerfully. "I expect I’ll be quite awful. But won’t it be fun to write about?"

With a fast Internet connection you can find a phone chat job in under a minute. I signed on with a company that runs psychic hotlines and straight and gay sex lines for men. After filling out the online application I got an e-mail telling me it was being processed, and meanwhile here’s the pay scale, job requirements and password to a restricted Web site where I could print out an employee handbook.

(via Backwards City)

Cheney is a Creep

An almost perfect pairing of soundtrack to video.

Missouri Bill Cracks Down on Sale of Baking Soda

From StLouisToday:

JEFFERSON CITY — First, the state said you must make a special trip to the pharmacy counter to buy certain cold medicines. That was to curb production of methamphetamine.

Now, a St. Louis legislator wants you to do the same thing to buy an even more common household item — baking soda — because it's used to make crack cocaine.

Sales of cold medications containing pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, are strictly regulated in Missouri. Customers must show a photo ID when they buy the medicine. Pharmacists must log the names and addresses of buyers, including how much they buy. People under 18 may not buy the medicines.

The sponsor of the baking soda bill, Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, D-St. Louis, said the same approach was needed for baking soda because crack cocaine is often produced by dissolving powdered cocaine in a mixture of water and baking soda.

Silly lawmakers. Everybody knows that to prevent the production of crack and meth we need to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide.

Gone Postal

I think this video has been going around for a week or so but I just saw it today. This is the mother of all hissy fits. The Consumerist has more on the story.

Ipod Saves Soldier's Life

Found on Flickr:

My wife’s uncle works in a military hospital and told me about this. Its pretty amazing. Kevin Garrad (3rd Infantry Division) was on a street patrol in Iraq (Tikrit I believe) and as he rounded the corner of a building an armed (AK-47) insurgent came from the other side.

The two of them were within just a few feet of each other when they opened fire. The insurgent was killed and Kevin was hit in the left chest where his IPod was in his jacket pocket. It slowed the bullet down enough that it did not completely penetrate his body armor. Fortunately, Kevin suffered no wound.

(via The Bog Brush)

Good Friday

Mobius Chess Puzzle

From TeamTen.com:

Puzzle: This chess board is on a Mobius strip. The length is infinite (and wraps) but the width is only four squares. There are no pieces on the hidden sides. Some of the pieces are hard to read: the White Queen is on top, the White King is on the left, and the Black King and Queen are on the right. Don’t worry about the direction of the Black Pawn.

White to move and mate in two.

(via Make:Blog)

Office Space Wars

Female Genital Mutilation in Africa

A chart which shows the country, percentage of women and girls who undergo genital mutilation, and the type of genital mutilation practiced.
(via Linkfilter)

Verizon's Limited "Unlimited Access Plan"

From The Consumerist:

If you've got a wireless PC card from Verizon and are on their "Unlimited Access" plan, you might be surprised to learn what isn't permitted. Gaming for example, is not permitted. Neither is YouTube. Or "redirecting television signals for viewing on laptops." In fact, your unlimited access is limited to 5GB a month, which you may only use for internet browsing email and "intranet access."

Dawkins vs. Haggard/Dead Parrot Mashup

Surprisingly funny.

(via Pharyngula)

Misirlou

And Dick Dale giving advice to musicians trying to break into the biz:

(via Boing Boing)

Batman Lecturing Robin

This page has a some really funny quotes from the Batman tv show of Batman lecturing Robin.

Robin: "Let's go!"
Batman: "Not you, Robin. They have strict licensing laws in this country. A boy of your age is not allowed in a drinking tavern."

Batman to Robin: "When you get a little older, you'll see how easy it is to become lured by the female of the species."

Bruce: "Most Americans don't realize what we owe to the ancient Incas. Very few appreciate they gave us the white potato and many varieties of Indian corn."
Dick: "Now whenever I eat mashed potatos, I for one will think of the Incas."

Batman to Robin: "Stop fiddling with that atomic pile and come down here!"

And proof that Batman is not a neocon:

Batman: "Nobody wants war."
Robin: "Gee, Batman. Belgravia's such a small country. We'd beat them in a few hours."
Batman: "Yes, and then we'd have to support them for years."

Saddest Science Fiction / Fantasy Story?

A thread on the Asimov's forum about readers' favorite saddest scifi story. Flowers for Algernon seems to get the most votes.

(via SF Signal)

Mario On Ice

Super Mario Bros. 1 was an Ice Capades?

(via del.icio.us/revgeorge)

Throwing Out the First Pitch

Yikes.
(via YesButNoButYes)

10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

From Yahoo! Finance:

1. "It's more about the sizzle than the steak."

Business is good for the restaurant industry. Americans now spend roughly half their food budget dining out, and restaurants expect revenue of more than $537 billion in 2007. That's a 67% increase since 1997. But it's not just our collective avoidance of the kitchen that's pumping profits: Restaurants work every angle these days, using marketing psychology to get you to spend more.

At legendary Aureole Las Vegas, spandex-clad "wine angels" retrieve bottles from a 42-foot-tall spirits tower. The thinking behind the spectacle: "Anything that gets patrons' attention will get them to spend," says restaurant designer Mark Stech-Novak. Fast-food outlets use a high-stim environment to maximize the source of their profit: "It encourages faster turnover," says Stephani Robson, senior lecturer at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. "Specifically, the use of bright light, bright colors, upbeat music and seating that does not encourage lolling."

Even menus are rigged. "We list the item that makes the most profit first so it catches your eye," says restaurant consultant Linda Lipsky, "and bury the highest-cost item in the middle."

Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies

Science Fiction movies have been a source for speculation about the future of technology and human computer interaction. This paper presents a survey of different kinds of interaction designs in movies during the past decades and relates the techniques of the films to existing technologies and prototypes where possible.

(via del.icio.us/negatendo)

God vs. Satan

It seems that Satan isn't quite as ambitious as God when it comes to murder. The graph comes from here but I'm not sure who made it.

(via Reddit)
Steve from Dwinding in Unbelief researched this last year and posted where the numbers come from in the bible in this post.

Two O'Clock Trailers - Hair Extensions (Ekusute)

A Japanese slasher movie about hair extensions gone bad.

My Email to Circuit City

Circuit City royally screws some of its employees. pvc gets mad. Background:

In January, Circuit City employee Bobby Young received a certificate of excellence for his twenty years of loyal service at the company's Roanoke, Virginia store. On March 28th, he received a pink slip. When the 47-year old father of two arrived at work that morning, he was handed a letter inexplicably addressed "to whom it may concern," explaining that the company had terminated his employment, effective immediately. That same day, 3,400 workers at Circuit City stores across the country were greeted with the news that they had been fired before management quickly escorted them out of the building. Company spokesman Bob Cimino bluntly announced that the mass firings targeted the most experienced and highest paid in-store workers as part of a "wage management initiative" to replace them with low-wage new hires. "It had nothing to do with their skills or whether they were a good worker or not," Cimino said. Those who were fired made up roughly 8.5 percent of the 40,000 workers at the 650 retail outlets of the nation's second-largest electronics retailer, which trails only Best Buy. But these workers, the company explained, were being paid "well above the market-based salary range for their roles." According to Bloomberg News, however, Circuit City pay averages $10 to $11 an hour-precisely the market average. After twenty years, Young was earning $18.90 an hour, with healthcare benefits. His replacement will earn less than half that amount, without benefits. The company will graciously allow its allegedly overpaid former workers to reapply for their old jobs at starting wages after they endure 10 weeks of grueling unemployment. Fired Los Angeles worker Richard O'Neal was told he could eventually reapply for his job if he is willing to work for $7.50 per hour, California's minimum wage.

Perhaps the fired workers would be less bitter if Circuit City's top executives showed the least inclination to share the burden of controlling costs. After all, management bears far more responsibility for the company's recent slippage than employees barely eking out a living. Yet (Circuit City President and CEO) Schoonover and Chairman W. Alan McCollough together raked in nearly $10 million in total compensation last year-including nearly $96,000 for Schoonover's use of a company jet. Schoonover undoubtedly expects another raise this year for his daring "cost containment" scheme.

My email to Circuit City in response:

I notice from recent press coverage that Circuit City corporate management plans, as a part of a "wage management initiative" to terminate 3,400 American workers recieving modest wages and benefits in order to replace them with workers who will recieve near poverty level wages and no benefits. This while Circuit City President Philip J. Schoonover and Chairman W. Alan McCollough are reported to have recieved over $10 million in total compensation in 2006. Please be informed that as a result of this action, neither I nor any other member of my family will ever set foot in a Circuit City store ever again. In Solidarity with American Labor [name omitted on blog]

Should anyone care to communicate via email with Circuit City, here's their webmail page.

BBC Documentary on the Westboro Baptist Church

There are 7 parts to the documentary which you can find here.

(via Eyeteeth)

Charles Bronson, Mandom Commercial

Isn't that what's called a marine shower?
(via PoeTV)

Ominous Hotel Picture From Google Maps

Google Maps has a picture of the room service from Sleep Inn & Suites in Maryland.

(via Google Blogoscoped)

Cheney in the Bushes, Spying on Shrub

Does that guy do anything but seethe?

Also, Bush complains about Congressional Vacation, before he leaves for vacation. No, not from the Onion.

ABC News' Jennifer Parker Reports: With both the House and Senate in recess, President George W. Bush slammed the Democratic-led body Tuesday, saying Congress should get back to work.

"They need to come back, pass a bill," said Bush during a press conference about Congress' efforts to attach conditions for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to a war spending bill.

The President said Congress' traditional spring recess over Passover and Easter holidays has delayed the passage of emergency Iraq war funding....

...Hammill also said it was ironic that Bush criticized the congressional Easter break only days before taking an Easter vacation of his own.

President Bush plans to spend Thursday through Sunday at his ranch for an extended Easter weekend.

Sopranos/Paulie Walnuts Hair Commercial

DIY Toys

This website has a list of toys that you can make yourself.
(via Make:Blog)

Riding the Real Estate Rollercoaster

US Home prices adjusted for inflation plotted as a roller coaster

(via Kottke)

Creating Night Vision From a CVS Camcorder

This is home-built night vision that was originally a CVS one-time-use video camera. I already have one that I hacked for repeated use and turned into an underwater camera, so this second one became night-vision.

(Thanks Greg)

Car Karma

An insurance expert crunches the numbers and discovers your star sign might account for your dismal driving record. It seems Leos are the best drivers and Libras are the worst.

Watch the insurance number crunchers looking for ways to charge more : Link I'm #3 down the list of best drivers. What number are you?

Funeral of Chuckles the Clown

Keith Richards: 'I Snorted My Father'

From SFGate.com:

Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all. In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.

"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.

Update:

Keith's manager says he was only joking:

In a buzz-killing mood, though, we decided to check with Richards' longtime manager, Jane Rose. We asked her about the dad-snorting quotes in the NME interview. She responded with an e-mail:

"Said in jest," she explained. "Can't believe anyone took [it] seriously."

Nah, I still believe he did it.

(Thanks Schmoo)

Two O'Clock Trailers - Barbarella

Spam Comments

Thank you Akismet. (Oh, I installed it about 5 months ago.)

Cat Weight Lifting

Bertrand Russell - 'Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?'

From PostiveAtheism:

Here there comes a practical question which has often troubled me. Whenever I go into a foreign country or a prison or any similar place they always ask me what is my religion.

I never know whether I should say "Agnostic" or whether I should say "Atheist". It is a very difficult question and I daresay that some of you have been troubled by it. As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one prove that there is not a God.

On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.

None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of homer really exist, and yet if you were to set to work to give a logical demonstration that Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and the rest of them did not exist you would find it an awful job. You could not get such proof.

Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line.

Related:
Bertrand Russell, 'Why I Am Not a Christian'

The College Prank as Viral Video

From the Chronicle.com:

Type "college prank" into YouTube and you will be greeted with hundreds of videos. Most will be really, really dumb. Many won't even be pranks at all. Some will make you furrow your brow, shake your head, and fear for the future of our country.

But a few of them push the art of the prank to new heights. Being able to share videos online has encouraged the best college pranksters to make their stunts more elaborate. It also allows us to share in their glorious inanity.

A Chronicle employee — OK, fine, it was me — spent hours sifting the semi-funny from the truly idiotic in order to bring you five of the best college prank videos. While none of these pranks involve duct tape or shaving cream, they are all pretty juvenile.

Here's one of them. Skip to about 2 minutes in.


Related:
The MIT Hack Gallery

Tom Jones Covers 'War'

Yikes.
(via PoeTV)

Personal Pies

This person's life viewed in pie charts. (via Kottke)

Human Pole Position

From the Game Over Project.

Early U.S. Daylight Savings a bust in power savings

From Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The early onset of Daylight Savings Time in the United States this year may have been for naught.

The move to turn the clocks forward by an hour on March 11 rather than the usual early April date was mandated by the U.S. government as an energy-saving effort.

But other than forcing millions of drowsy American workers and school children into the dark, wintry weather three weeks early, the move appears to have had little impact on power usage.

"We haven't seen any measurable impact," said Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co., one of the nation's largest power companies, echoing comments from several large utilities.

That may come as no surprise to the Energy Department, which last year predicted only modest energy savings because the benefits of the later daylight hour would be offset.

For example, households may draw less electricity for lights at night, but will use more power in the early in the day as they wake to darker and chillier mornings.

The Myth of Hitler's Antarctic Base

From Nature:

After the initial flurry of interest, International Polar Year (IPY, launched this March) seems to have gone a bit quiet. I propose pepping things up with a good conspiracy theory.

Handily, a recent paper in Polar Record1 describes one. The Nazis, some believe, established a secret base in Antarctica to which they spirited Hitler at the war's end, fought off British special forces and an American military taskforce, partly by shooting down US planes using flying saucers. The Americans eventually destroyed the base with nuclear weapons in the 1950s. Since then, various governments have striven to conceal this...

...Like all good conspiracy theories, this one is built on a skeleton of facts. There was a German expedition to Antarctica in 1938-39. There was classified British military activity in Antarctica during the war. In July 1945, two months after VE Day, the German submarine U-530 appeared at the Argentine naval base of Mar del Plata. The next month, U-977 did the same.

In 1946-47 the US military mounted Operation Highjump, the largest ever Antarctic expedition, consisting of 4,700 men and 13 ships. And in 1958, they carried out three nuclear explosions in the southern hemisphere that were meant to stay secret, but didn't.

Related:
The OMEGA File: Nazi bases in Antarctica (via Danger Room)

We are Not Alone

A creepy little doc. about the things that live on and off of our skin. The Narrator, and music make it extra creepy.

Banned in the USA

Why am I not suprised that of the two movies banned in the US, one of them is about Scientology.

The Profit is a feature film written and directed by Peter N. Alexander in 2001. Little seen, it is notable primarily because worldwide distribution of the film is prohibited by an American court order, the result of a lawsuit by the Church of Scientology.

The Profit is one of only two films currently banned in the United States. The other film is Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, for copyright infringement.

Notwithstanding the fictional elements of the film, the Church of Scientology took legal action against the film makers after a handful of test screenings in Florida. The Church claimed that the film was intended to influence the jury pool in the wrongful death case of a Scientologist, Lisa McPherson, who died while in the care of the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, Florida.

Prior to the legal actions taken by the Church of Scientology, spokesman Ben Shaw agreed with the film's director that "the movie is fiction and has nothing to do with Scientology."[1]

In response to the lawsuit, Pinellas County, Florida, Judge Robert Beach issued a court order in April 2002 banning The Profit from worldwide distribution for an indefinite period. As of 2006, the ban still stands; the film has yet to be released to the public.

(via Reddit)

Nude Suits

For bashful nudists.
(via YesButNoButYes)

Ultimate Body Shield

A perfect gift for those with loved ones in the military or those who just like throwing money away.

Ultimate Body Shield is a supernatural medallion and prayer that will put your loved ones away from harm and danger. It will protect them from virtually any life threatening or deadly weapons in Iraq or Afghanistan. It sounds too good to be true. But it’s the truth. These are actual prayers that Jesus Christ and our Virgin Mary used when they were here on earth. These prayers are being used by my family for three generations and work really great. My grandfather used it and my two uncles used it. I personally have been using them for over 30 years on a daily basis. Its so powerful that even after 34 years of using them, I am still amazed how it does great wonders. It will not protect you from natural illness like cough or cold, diabetes, hypertension or cancer. This will supplement your bullet proof vest or body armor. In fact, its better than either one of the above.

How much is the Ultimate Body Shield? It's either $50.00 or $365.24 depending on what paragraph you read:

How much is this Ultimate Body Shield ? In fact, I cannot sell it to anyone. But I am requesting a donation of $50.00 per medallion. Thats very cheap for 24 hours a day of protection, 365 days a year. This protection does not stop after your tour of duty of one year. Unlike computer electronics that become obsolete after one year, this remains usable and powerful in your lifetime. Unlike electronics battery that requires at least 16 hours to fully charge the battery, it only requires minutes of your time every night (Simple 2 to 3 minutes of supernatural prayers).

How to order? First, copy your military ID and include it with your check or money order of $365.24 payable to ULTIMATE BODY SHIELD. Due to the delicate nature of this subject, I need your military ID for proof of US military service. Certainly, we don’t want this elite protective shield falling into the wrong hands (our enemies).

(via J-Walk)

Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved

From The Guardian:

A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works.

The machine was lost among cargo in 65BC when the ship carrying it sank in 42m of water off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. By chance, in 1900, a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck and recovered statues and other artifacts from the site.

The machine first came to light when an archaeologist working on the recovered objects noticed that a lump of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. Closer inspection of material brought up from the stricken ship subsequently revealed 80 pieces of gear wheels, dials, clock-like hands and a wooden and bronze casing bearing ancient Greek inscriptions.

Two O'Clock Trailers - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Animals Attacking Reporters

10 Zen Monkeys has a post with five videos of animals attacking reporters. Above is Pinky, the loving cat.

Post Mortem Infant Photography

We were fortunate to have a photographer in our area who could capture these images for our family. I am grateful to Steve, for creating such beautiful, beautiful images of Chase. After all, these images are all we have of our son to hold on to, and to remember him by. In a way, it was Steve who brought my baby to life and marked his presence on this earth.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Ukranian Graffiti

Guys from Ukraine have their own view on the graffiti. They decided to illustrate Ukrainian fairy-tales on the walls of the city. Look what it looks like.

Artists instead of taggers. Click here for more. Via: English Russia

Mashup Reader

The Mashup Reader allows you to see what your blog would look like using another blogger's layout. Bibi from Bibi's Box tried using my layout on her blog and vice versa to see what Cynical Box or Cynical Bibi would look like. The results were catastrophic.