Bush sworn in as temporary President

HA! Ohhhh, who *doesn’t* like making fun of the president?

Higher Education Teaches Elementary Education

I’m a little surprised this didn’t already happen, but in any case I’m glad it is now. It seems like a no-brainer that the teachers themselves should continue learning even as they teach…

Crowd Energy Farm

This is one of the coolest ideas I’ve heard in a long time…

Gizoogle

I guess this is sort of a redundant and bizarre post, but then again, maybe it's just ironic...

Poetic Travesty

For those that appreciate a poetic bent, famous poems summarized by limerick...

I'll admit to being a little of two minds on this; on the one hand, hilarious. On the other, it's a bastardization of one of my favorite forms of expression. But in the long run, my sense of propriety is dwarfed by my desire to continuously shake things up....

Daddy's Baby Shirts

Ahhhh, inappropriate T-shirts...how I miss thee! Luckily for these little kids, their parents are enlightened enough to introduce mockery and derision at an early age. Welcome to life, kids.

I Have Just Changed My Mind

I now desire a tattoo. Specifically this tattoo.
Make ready my flowing robe and my application to Hogwarts.

(i made a potter joke...<sigh>...somebody shoot me)

Yet Another Bush Joke

Yeah, I just don't really get tired of these, honestly...

Common Car OS

It’s about time. Interesting, really, that this push hasn’t been initiated before now. I suppose some of it is based on the idea that you should leverage prior work on other OS’s, such as linux, windows, solaris, blah, blah, blah. Or for that matter, the German standard already used in parts of Europe. But then again, the Japanese have sometimes shown a real talent for simplification and miniaturization. Perhaps this is yet another time when their simple yet elegant views on engineering could work positively to create a superior standard?

 

Or more realistically, we’ll have a VHS/Betamax, MiniDisc/Compact Disc, or HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle of rough equivalents marketing it out against each other…

Great. Can’t wait to just sit around until one side out-advertises the other and we can finally have some sort of common standard.

Quibbling Space Interest Groups?

This is a really interesting question, as regards space travel/exploration/colonization/etc. The questions involved with what arena we should be focusing the meager dollars involved with the various space industries has always been under contention, but finding the commonalities and working together towards the portions that *are* mutual goals is a fundamentally idealistic strategy.

This same kind of thing has plagued people since time immemorial. Why has the most vicious fighting often been between sects of the same basic religion? Many times it comes down to who will inherit the legacy of the grander group; if you work with a similar group for common goals, at some point you’re going to want to pursue your own agenda in full, which will be at odds with the other group. However, they will have benefited from your mutual agreement up until that point, so they will be stronger than they were before. Whether you also have grown proportionally stronger to match them is at issue, of course, but the base perception is often that you don’t want to allow your future opponent to grow *any* stronger.

 

It’s definitely interesting to see these broad human trends of competition played out in smaller arenas. It is especially appropriate for space travel to see this competition, since Sci-Fi more than any other genre has been responsible for popularizing such microcosmic explorations of social problems…

TSA interview

Hmmm. I’m still not convinced. I don’t think it’s an easy solution either way, but whatever their other faults and issues, the Israeli airlines have never had a single terrorist action onboard, and I would submit that it’s because of their very effective screening procedures. Apparently their wait time to board airplanes is not that bad, either…

I’m just saying…I’ll have to wait for parts 2 through 5 to make my final decision on this guy, I guess.

German Air-Guitar Championship

Please tell me the winner rocked out with Journey…

Who let those guys on the mountain?

So as many of you know, I recently went climbing in the Cascades Range, outside of Seattle, WA with a couple college friends (Vaibhav and Mo flanking me in this ridiculous picture. To be fair, we were being taunted by the photographer). These pictures are a very small subset of the shots we took as a group, but it's taking awhile to get all the pictures collated...enjoy

What?

Yeah. I have no f-ing clue.

American History Lesson

<sigh>
This would be much funnier if it wasn't sort of depressing. Americans are dumb...

Rob Courdry's Airplane Flight

Amusing sort of stream of consciousness humor piece about a trans-continental plane flight by Rob Courdry...

Care for your Idols

It's a little bit long, but if you have the patience, you'll be rewarded with a bizarre collision of children's storybook styling and abject moral corruption and greed. Fascinating...

Gates vs Jobs: Showdown

The classic showdown between Mac and PC, inspired by those insipid Mac commercials. Pretty funny overall, with a couple great parts...

Jobs vs Gates

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Redneck Bible

So ok, a friend of mine forwarded me this, and I was initially unimpressed. The reason why is that I saw that it looked like a bible page and immediately sort of tuned out. Then later, I perused back again, and clicked on the picture to magnify. Then I started reading. First came confusion, then amusement, then outright hilarity. In any case, you should check it out....

Skippy's List

I'm not always that big a fan of the silly military humor, but this particular list is unbelievably hilarious. Probably the more so because I have seen probably at least half of these things occur in close approximation to how it's described on this site...

Religious Bull Slaughtered for Public Safety

I guess this has been a pretty big story over in the UK and amongst Hindu communities, but it does bring up some broader questions. Easily applied are the age-old arguments of the common good versus individual or at least more selective groups’ desires. Despite my sensitivity to religious rights (and rites), I think this had to have been the right outcome in the long run. Especially considering the lengthy history the UK livestock industry has had with animal disease. I don’t know a whole lot about the specific disease the cow had, but it’s entirely possible that it could have spread to humans, or at least used them as carriers to other animals, as has been seen with many other diseases. Besides, I have to believe that there are caveats within Hindu code that allow for merciful deaths of animals, as well as humans. Although I suppose religion, in general, is not particularly beholden to logic or reason (that being an entirely different system of beliefs requiring just as much faith)

Elevator Music

Another of the little amusements provided by the YouTube revolution...mini-episodes. They seem to be the next evolution of TV, following the transition from the hour-long radio show to 30-min sitcom, and now the 1-3 min video clip. Say what you will about the degradation of the fabric of society...lots of these clips are really pretty funny...

Items I trade for Red-Headed Stepsister

I am almost peeing in my pants right now. Best quote: "Items I loan you in exchange for Big-Boned Sister with hips like feedbag."
Oh former socialists... you make me laugh...

Will Ferrell a Neal Diamond... round 2

If you've never seen Will do the Neal Diamond thing, this is a great skit that never made it to SNL. Try to find the rest...

Good Cop, Baby Cop

Cancer Efficacy Algorithm

This is a really impressive move forward, I think. The difficulty of applying mathematical formulas to systems as complex as cancerous tissues within the body are mind-boggling, but they have apparently simplified the system with enough assumptions to accurately model this particular scenario. If we can continue this trend, we may face a huge reduction in R&D costs for pharmaceutical companies, which can only mean good things for further investment in new areas and *hopefully* for drugs prices, as well. The medical industry is awfully bloated from abuse on every end of the stick, and it worries me. I can only hope that this development will allow some of that nebulous marketing BS involved in the pharma sales to go away as drugs are literally prescribed based upon mathematical models rather than glitzy marketing or persistence of the sales reps.

Here’s to hoping, anyway…

Psychic Death Cat

I’m sure this story was intended as being a sort of heart-warming story of a cat that comes to comfort people right before they die or some such thing. But I didn’t quite get that out of the story; I perceived a far more sinister element, like maybe that cat is actually a messenger of death, or he’s killing these patients with mind-bullets…Tenacious D sings a song about it, for crissake, and entertainers don’t lie. That’s science.

I’ll tell you one thing, they better stop putting bowls of milk and meow mix out next to those terminally ill patients, otherwise their death rates are going to skyrocket…

The Tyranny of Meager Minds

Now look, I'm not trying to say that everybody else is dumb. Far from it; I'm just saying that there *are* an awful lot of stupid and/or closed-minded people who marginalize certain aspects of culture because of horrific bastardizations of quality work. This cartoon (shamelessly lifted from UserFriendly) is an example of this, and a situation that I have run into personally a number of times.

Fat Friends Make You Fat

Apparently? New Study from those smart guys at Harvard Medical School says having fat friends gain weight makes you gain weight, too. I guess it's time to start making friends with those gym-rats and anorexic sorority girls, huh? I can see it already...this is going to get really confusing, having to track BMI on my friends in order to assure my environment isn't filled with negative influences. Hah, or maybe people like me will have an even worse influence... I'm clinically obese by strict height/weight ratios (6'1" and 245 lbs) but well under the 30% body fat BMI level for actual obesity.

More chips, anybody?

Virtual Drinking Buddy

Does anybody else remember those commercials from when we were much younger? My Buddy! or Kid Sister!
This is just a slightly more applicable version for our post-toy-phase. And thank goodness...here I was without my drinking buddy!

Ahhh, sweet release

Just when I thought I was about to be overtaken by serious news stories…along comes theonion, allowing me to retain what is ostensibly a defining characteristic: pure, unadulterated sarcasm.

Down with Ethanol

Amen, brother.

Big Solar

Business 2.0 does an interesting survey of the solar power land grab plays that are heating up (pardon the pun) out in the southwest. I, for one, am very curious about these developments, especially since the more legitimacy these industrial projects gain, the more economical the local and piece-meal residential solutions will become. Even now, many homes save money with horribly inefficient photovoltaics…just imagine if the level of efficiency shown on some recent versions (supposedly up to 40%!) were fielded on houses? Awesome. Probably be able to save a solid $100 a month, if you play it right….

John Edwards is an Idiot

I didn’t really have a problem with him initially, until he started talking out his ass about nuclear power. Truly out of his mind. Obama really came off on top of this issue, I think. Hillary did ok, but she was just sort of wishy-washy. The more I listen to these guys, the more I think Obama might be the way to go. Although I still maintain that we haven’t really had much in the way of decent candidates from either party in decades…

Rugby World Cup...Coming Soon

That’s right, rolling in September: Rugby World Cup

Phillip, the Abortion Stork

I alternated between guffaws and incredulity during the course of this video...exactly the kind of thing I like to wake up to. Not for the easily offended. Of course, neither is most of what I say.

Check out this video: Phillip the Abortion Stork



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Punk-o-Matic

Look. I'm not proud of it, but damn if this wasn't the most intense work I've done all day. I am totally a punk rock all-star. Move over pennywise...

Gravity is Communist. Intelligent Design is Righteous.

Hilarious. Purely Hilarious. My favorite quote:

"The core idea of "to each according to his weight, from each according to his mass" is communist. There is no reason that gravity should apply to the just and the unjust equally, and the saved should have relief from such "universalism." If we have Universal Gravity now, then Universal health care will be sure to follow."

I think parody and sarcasm make me warm and fuzzy like fresh apple pie. Except that apple pie just wrote an essay in the vein of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal".

More RIAA crap

More bullshit lobbying by the RIAA and the various stooges employed by Hollywood money-mongers. Now, I’m all for capitalism in its basic forms, but I think most of the file-sharing uproar is complete crap. Not only that, but I really believe that the associated copyright laws are completely ridiculous, as well. As long as our economic balance is driven by the retention of Mickey Mouse rights, we as a country are pretty much f**ked.

My Milkshake Brings all the Boys to the Yard

Umm...yeah
Laugh. Me think funny.

Check out this video: dueling milkshake



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Israeli vs Arab Propaganda in their schools

This article brings up some fascinating issues, I think. It seems to me that in the long run, the Israeli position would be strengthened by presenting a more balanced history from the get-go. By telling the story immediately, they would undercut the far more extremist versions of that history that is told in retaliation, yielding more violent protest and insurgence. But it also brings up a much deeper issue of education, and its purposes. Admitting the fact that there is no such thing as an un-biased writing, how do we address history and education in general such that we take into account the differences in opinions and attitudes inherent within all literature? Food for thought…

Nutty Condoms

Well, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised…I seem to remember the fascination with the naughty corner of one of the local stores back home in high school, where you could find the “Stealth Bomber”, “Pink Panther”, and assorted other bizarre themed condoms. At least this push is ostensibly for a good reason. Now if only the recent AIDS vaccine work could be tried in South Africa, Nigeria, and India, there could be some real progress made against this disease…

Morse Code Beats Txt Msgs

Ahhh, classic. It’s not that I dislike txt msgs, because I don’t. I probably use 1000 msgs a month; which is somewhat pathetic and worrisome, actually. But I digress. I like this story because it shows that sometimes the old, proven technologies are just as applicable and capable as the new, glitzy ones. And besides, everyone loves an underdog…especially a 93-yr old underdog.

Spying Squirrels. I am speechless

Read it for yourself. I just can't even decide what to think about it. Perhaps because it's late, or perhaps because Iran is collectively hitting a huge crack pipe. You be the judge.

Back in Business, Folks...

Well, just got off the mountains here in Seattle, and am bracing myself for the long travel schedule home tomorrow morning...Should be a real treat, as usual. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the quick body-cavity search that I seem to always elicit from the powers that be in airports. I mean seriously? Do I look *that* threatening?

anyway, the mountaineering was awesome, the weather ranged from beautiful to acceptable to absolute crap. But I learned alot, got to hung out with some of my favorite indians, and made a bunch of new friends. Pictures will follow as I get them online...

cheers!

I'm off to the Mountains!

Well, the four people that read this blog regularly already know, but I figure I’d send it out anyway: I’m leaving tomorrow (Saturday) for Seattle, where I’ll be doing a six day mountaineering course.

 

I am extremely excited…

Junk in the Trunk

Hahah. <sigh>

Actually I just wanted to write “Junk in the Trunk” again, just like they have as their title. It’s really not a remarkable story.

Giant Squid...Sushi Anybody?

This would be one hell of a sushi source…

Good Luck With That

Yeah, trying to convince tourists to go hang out in the middle of a huge drug-cartel turf war in some log cabins. I’m sure they’ll be fine. Nobody ever kills Americans outside of America anyway, right?

Copyright Law; from Scratch

Good, quick read on the construction of the optimal copyright length. 14 years apparently.

Cats That Look Like Hitler

Who comes up with this shit? Although the most disturbing thing is that it only takes a second of looking at some of the cats to go "Hey! He *totally* looks like Hitler!"

I am Jack's complete acceptance of mob mentality.

He Kicked Her Ass. Fo Sho.

Urinal Fly

You know, I’ve always wanted my own pet plastic insect that would reside in my urinal…my dreams have come true!

The Master and Margarita

This review of the classic novel is lengthy but insightful; I originally read this book in high school, having found it sitting on one of my parents’ bookshelves (if you’ve seen my house you’ll understand that that is like saying you found a leaf in the forest). It ended up being an utterly fascinating book, even for a freshman in high school, and remains one of those rare gems to read again and again. It smacks decidedly of the twisting irreverence of Salman Rushdie, although this one came first. In any case, if you get the chance, it’s a wonderful book.

Jesus is Magic!

This is the kind of crap that really gives the good sides of religion a horrible name. Unfortunately, these things happen way too much. So in addition to the evil, dogmatic brainwashing, genocide, destruction of free thought, altar boy scandals, and general double-think, we now have to worry about literal magic tricks.

Which is a shame, because there are so many positive things that come of organized religion. C’est la vie…

 

Thank You, Mr. President. Seriously.

Seriously? I guess it should really be no surprise to anyone who’s been sort of vaguely sentient for the past 6 or 7 years that the Bush administration is not simply peopled by idiots, they are dangerous idiots who for whatever reason are completely unwilling to any portion of government un-tampered-with. It infuriates me to no end, although scenarios such as this, where Surgeons General (yes, plural) come forward to tell of political pressures overweighing science, sure do make me feel a little more justified.

Not that these things seem to do much good, of course. The democrats are hardly much better than the republicans; I would place them in the same self-interested cage for the most part. Bush just happened to epitomize most of the bad-dream scenarios of the presidency.

Seriously, though. When can we have somebody else? Anybody else. I’ll take Swarzenegger over W any day of the week. We can pass amendments mandating leg presses and bench press for the pledge of allegiance. It’s a sad day when our president’s speaking skills are dwarfed by a man who’s primary claim to fame is imitating robots…badly.

Navy Simulations...

Well, I don’t get into my naval experiences that much, but this is sort of an amusing list of tricks that started out as an email forward of some sort.

Amusing if you were in the Navy, not sure how you’ll take it if you weren’t.

I've Got Nothing To Hide: Privacy Act Thought Out

Truly fascinating paper detailing the arguments for and against the use of extensive intrusive technologies to monitor the populace. I don’t think we can afford not to think about this issue now, while it’s still fresh in the implementation and in the public eye. If we wait too long, it may just become accepted dogma….

iPhone: pureed

I have a special place in my heart for this particular commercial, mostly because I hate the iPhone.

Smash and Burn, baby!

Kim Jong Il Hates Karaoke. As do I.

Karaoke, a security concern? Actually, I’m totally onboard with that. How can you control a populace through fear when they are continuously imbibing songs and wicked capitalist ideals through the likes of Journey, Toto, The Bangles, and Madonna?

I mean, talk about a hot-bed of political activism…the only thing more worrisome than karaoke is eating food; can’t very well foster insurrection if you’re too weak to move, right? Luckily, the North Korean government has got that pretty well in hand, as well.

Bin Laden's Son Marries English Grandmother?

You can’t make this shit up.

She’s riding around the pyramids on a camel (well, it was actually a horse, but the story sounds better with a camel), and somehow picks up Bin Laden’s son. Who *does* that? Whatever.

The story actually gets more bizarre when you see she’s been married 5 times, including one sheik she was married to when she was SIXTEEN.

Good luck, you crazy wench…

More Mashups!

Google, in its infinite wisdom, is creating a sort of index for the various Google Maps mashups available out there in the interweb. I think it’s a great idea, honestly. The interactive maps are easy to use, and the graphical display of information often makes the big picture much easier to understand. Honestly, I’m pretty impressed. Yet another reason to waste time on the internet… although to be fair, this is one scenario where you might actually be enticed to leave your apt, since a bar or restaurant mashup might help you discover nearby hole-in-the-wall locations or secret hot spots.

One can only hope I guess…

Urban Camouflage...Sort of

Yeah, not sure what kind of idiocy prompts someone to duct-tape small branches to themselves to disguise as a tree…needless to say, it didn’t work very well.

Sex-Doll Addicts. You heard right.

I’ll be the first to admit that there is some crazy shit out there, but a dude that’s addicted to his sex dolls, and uses them instead of getting a girlfriend or wife, I mean that really weirds me out, honestly. Even more than these crazy stories usually do…

Smooth Dance Flavor

As much as I would love to be able to dance like this, I would probably more accurately resemble a seizure. Big ups to the man in black...


Pop N Lock - These bloopers are hilarious

Music Industry Bullying

Yup. More of the same, stupid music industry BS, trying to squeeze $ out of the small guys...

Ask A Ninja : Global Warming

Bio-fuels cause Food $ Rise

I’ve been pointing this out for the better part of a year. It blows my mind sometimes how people will latch onto a single idea and simply refuse to consider the greater impacts that choice will have on the rest of the system. I mean, this is not that difficult a concept; hard to know everything, but easy to understand that there are cascading effects from every choice.
Wake up, people!

Biotech Capital of the World...

Who knew? Right next to MIT, Harvard, and a bunch of unimportant schools (hah, yeah I said it).

Interesting little story about public outcry being a good thing for scientific development.

Silver-Wear

Amusing blog post about fashion attempt with a dress made of forks…

Clear Thinking on XBOX 360 propaganda

This is probably the exact opposite of what you think. This is not an article debunking some press releases from Microsoft and saying that they’re full of crap. Quite the contrary, with a recent post in Slashdot about some recent problems with 360 failures from design flaws, the ensuing discussion on the message boards shows some of the really impressive value-added of the internet; a number of people spoke up against the article, pointing out that MS’s admission of design flaws and placing an extended warranty in place will actually *earn* them customer goodwill rather than cost them.

I don’t particularly like Microsoft, but I hate bullshit propaganda, no matter what side it comes from. So I say we can claim a little bit of victory on the side of straight-talking. And I give MS a minor thumbs up, for this one. Now if only they could just nuke Vista and let me keep using XP, I might turn into a real fan…

Drunk Bike Roof-Ride?

Please. Who *hasn’t* ridden on a bike on somebody’s roof for free?

Swarm Theory, Revisited

Swarm Theory has got to be one of the most fascinating areas of biological study these days; although it’s really more applicable to organizational dynamics and a host of other subject areas than strictly biology. Gotta start somewhere, though…

This particular article is a really interesting report by National Geographic on the state of Swarm Theory studies and discoveries. Definitely worth a perusal…

Die Hard parody

These videos poking fun at the Die Hard movies have been popping up with more regularity, but a few have been standouts. I think this is one of the funnier ones.

Check out this video: Die Hard - I Love My Wife!



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Beatbox Chef

SO original, and pure amusement. I am a big fan.

Beatbox Fame Game
Uploaded by loranger

A Sci-Fi Short

Nothing ridiculous, but this very small sci-fi short is good reading; interesting stuff.

Human Diamonds

This crazy bitch turned her husband into a damn diamond. I am a little freaked out, right now…

 

Calling Mr. Condom

Yes. I believe we have found the perfect weekend job for all my Indian friends… Mr. Condom!

And I guess it should really be no surprise that Thailand started off the Mr. Condom trend…

 

That's not a knife...This is a knife

The newest detail in a long string of stories talking about violence in the political process in many countries. Thing is, it’s funny in a sick sort of way because the story exhibits such rabid capitalism and consumer-driven pricing. Very bizarre…

 

Duckies Ahoy!

Nothing crazy, but very interesting example of good information coming from unexpected events. This kind of recycling is the ingenuity that gives me hope for humanity’s ability to survive…

Truth in Broadcasting. Finally.

Well done, ma’am. Well done, indeed.