Thursday, June 29, 2006

Fun with real pictures



Let's play a little game. Which is the real caption?

a.) In Patrice Lumumba, on the outskirts of Maputo, a municipal worker sprays a house with insecticide.

b.) Cyber-minion TR-4 administers a neurotoxin of previously unimaginable potency to neutralize the captive resistance fighters threatening the Extarjk Regime.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Post-Roe Projected Map

I was just reading the current New Yorker, which has a detailed article (unfortunately not available online) exploring the South Dakota abortion ban referendum scheduled for this Novemeber. The author mentions a complex study done by a New York-based organization called the Center for Reproductive Rights that, taking into account current on-the-book laws, local party politics, so-called "trigger laws" and other factors, produced a map of which states would continue to allow abortion, which would not, and which fall somewhere in the middle. I was curious, so found the report and map. Here it is.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Baby Suit, Boob Suit, Gun Suit



The Cool Hunter, an excellent blog I just found featuring some of the neatest and weirdest products and product promotions, had a post recently about this amazing set of costumes by designer and photographer Philip Toleando.

I think Reid may have just found his Halloween costume for this year. . .

Philip K. Dick Android's Head Missing

A cautionary tale about putting your unique, cutting-edge robotic prototypes on airplanes.

Six Flags to sell Magic Mountain


Six Flags announced plans Thursday to sell or close six of its properties, including the chain's once-flagship park, Magic Mountain, in Valencia, Calif.

In a press release issued after the U.S. stock market closed Thursday, Six Flags announced that it would sell the properties, to either a single buyer or multiple buyers, or that it might sell or redeploy the properties' attractions, to clear the land for real estate sale.


(from The Theme Park Insider)

Friday, June 23, 2006

Cats That Look Like Hitler



Hitler cats!: A blog dedicated to cats that look like Hitler.

Henry Gummer's Band

from Stereogum, from Meryl Streep plugging them on Letterman. Apparently, Henry Gummer is the singer.

Here's their MySpace page.

This makes the roster of HW '98 affialited pop music makers, as I know it:
Kyle Beswick
Greg Borenstein
Cary Clarke
Will Hattman

Eric Hirsch
Henry Gummer
Isaac Laskin

Any others? Any girls, for that matter? Weird list. Jake should join Dogstar.

Another Dead Old Tortoise

Since, we're in the business of following death notices for really old tortoises, I thought you guys might be interested in hearing the sad news that Harriet, "the world's oldest animal in captivity has died on the Sunshine Coast at the ripe old age of 176." Apparently, Harriet was brought back by Charles Darwin to Australia from the Galapagos.

(story on news.com.au)

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

I For One Welcome Our New Zoggish Overlords

This is probably the ideal children's book.

(Via Bitch Ph.D.)

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Outrage

Last night I bought a stainless steel mixing bowl from Bed Bath & Beyond, intending to use it in a makeshift double-boiler so I could whisk up some lemon curd. The manufacturer had placed a sticker on the bottom—the inside bottom, that is, where the food goes—describing the item's various selling points. Now, I just assumed that this sticker, placed inside the bowl, where the food goes, with such alacrity, would naturally turn out to be one of those fancy static-cling stickers you see nowadays, which stand up to even the most vigorous jostling, but come off smoothly when picked at. A sticker placed inside the bowl would have to come off smoothly, because INSIDE THE BOWL IS WHERE THE FOOD GOES. Needless to say, I was wrong, and God is a monster. It was a severely old-fashioned sticker, made of paper and affixed with glue, which came off in about twenty jagged micro-strips and left a patch of sticky, impermeable scuzz, not unlike the kind you see on the case of a CD that has been sold and resold, on THE INSIDE BOTTOM OF MY NEW STAINLESS STEEL MIXING BOWL WHERE THE FOOD GOES. I don't know where these evil bowlsmiths acquired this miracle glue, but my guess would be the Army Corps of Engineers; it's not water-soluble, it's not alcohol-soluble, it has stood up to no less than a direct attack with a boiling solution of both followed immediately by crazed, frenzied scrubbing with the most abrasive scouring pads that I possess, emerging totally unscathed. I'm likely to damage the stainless steel parts of the bowl before the glue parts. You heard it here first: I've decided to dedicate my life to consumer advocacy. Or at least to returning this fucking bowl.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Ligeti Died

The world is a slightly more comfortable and slightly less interesting place today.
Read on.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Scott Card on GW

This comment from Orson Scott Card makes me glad that I borrowed these books, rather than paying for them:

"Believe me, I can infuriate a room full of Republicans and seize every opportunity to do so, since I have little patience with their worship for the free market or their opposition to civilized control of weaponry. I am disgusted by the short-sightedness of leaders of both parties. But the fact that I find George W. Bush to be the most moderate, thoughtful, rational and responsible president since Dwight D. Eisenhower makes me look conservative to those who think "conservative" is a dirty word and George W. Bush is the devil."

This is from a small interview.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Tulse Luperiana

The long-forgotten giant Peter Greenaway project, The Tulse Luper Suitcases: A Personal History of Uranium, which is said to consist of three movies, two books, a set of DVDs, and a "VJ tour", (and to which Tyson is the only living witness) was the subject of a comprehensive MetaFilter post today. The post includes links to: the recently launched online game, Tulse Luper Journey and a Greenaway lecture on the project amongst many many other things.

Heart Shaped Box

Video of a human heart beating in a clear box. A new machine that makes hearts viable outside the body. Meant to be used for transplants, but total world domination by hearts can't be far behind.

(via Digg)

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

And while we're on the subject of ferocious jungle cats...

IEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.

"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

The incident, Sunday evening when the zoo was packed with visitors, was the first of its kind at the attraction. Lions and tigers are kept in an "animal island" protected by thick concrete blocks.



I never thought agnosticism could be so dangerous.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Liger




"Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle. "We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a liger."

50mph runner... Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one another, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia. But incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II.


(link)

Real Ultimate Power + Strong Bad Email

Ninja answers all your questions, from George Clooney to Net Neutrality.

Friday, June 02, 2006

On the letter "d"

Cameron is, evidently, me.

Camedron, I believe, is planetoid near Caprica.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

News

(1) Cody's on Telegraph, like almost every other business on Telegraph, it seems, is preparing to close for good. Perhaps someone in the Berkeley management should think about, perhaps, trying to make Telegraph not backward, obsolete and disgusting.
(2) If you are going to hire an undergraduate code-monkey, you should consider hiring who is a) likes programming, b) is good at programming, c) listens to instructions, and d) reports progress in some way intelligible to humans.
(3) As is so often the case in theoretical computer science, expander graphs are not really all that complicated. They do, however, give rise to one of the most hideous pseudo-verbs I've heard: expanderize. Whence, to "expanderization."
(4) Probability theory is gross.

Fanta was invented by the Nazis

Apparently that's a common urban legend:


I've heard a number of times that Fanta (which I think is owned by Coke) was created by Coca Cola in order to enable the company to sell soft drinks to the Nazis during World War II without having to worry about anyone seeing Hitler or Goebbels "having a coke and a smile."


But, it's not true.