November 30, 2003
Don't mess with the Thai
Does dating a Thai person protect you from the curse?
Superstitious thief returns stolen Thai temple glass. 30/11/2003. ABC News Online
(via Fark)
0-Files
THE ZERO FILES / Shadowy realms of mind control and paranoia, all in the hands of the FBI
It turns out every one of the products on the market take part in this so called government training. The Folgers jar classic roast is capital F for Federal means gov't, FO LGE RE is broke into 3 sections FO is ENEMY RS is ours and and LGE backwards is EGL sounds out EAGLE says gov't our enemy. (9/14/01)
(via Fark)
I am literally on the run, sleeping under trees, and enduring unremittant surveillance. The authorities grow more desperate to discredit me with each passing day now that they know my intent of taking this story public. ... You see, the man I reported as a possible suspect in the Green River Serial Murders had the highest national security clearence possible. He had been in charge of nuclear weapon deployment in Germany in the late 1970s. As one person said, "It sounds like a delusional disorder.'' That is exactly what the FBI would like you to believe. ... Approximately one year ago they managed to implant a microscopic camera and brainwave-sensing device into a lens placed into my eye during routine cataract surgery. (7/10/1997)
I had a visit yesterday from two gentlemen who said they were from the SECRET SERVICE! They were looking for the HAMBURGLAR who said the PRESIDENT might choke on a CHEESEBURGER on AIR FORCE ONE! No wonder they can't balance a TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET in DC, they have to check out all the MCDONALDS in AMERICA for the DEADLY CHEESEBURGER that might KILL the PRESIDENT! This is not a JOKE! (8/15/1995)
November 26, 2003
Guess this photo
Question (1) who are these people, and for bonus points, (2) where are they from. Warning: don't click on the photo until you've made your guess.
(via Dave Barry)
November 25, 2003
Russian Prohibition Graphic Design
The Museum of Anti-Alcohol Posters
Look, they use pirates and Mr. Mini-Bar:
but I'm not sure they asked pqbon if it was okay to put him on a poster as well:
Wierd article on fox news: Zero Patience for Zero Tolerance
Fox News: Zero Patience For Zero Tolerance The article is written by Wendy Mc Elroy. The author info from the bottom of the page: Wendy McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com and a research fellow for The Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. She is the author and editor of many books and articles, including the new book, "Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st Century" (Ivan R. Dee/Independent Institute, 2002). She lives with her husband in Canada.I'm surprised to see a very left article on the Fox News Site. It doesn't seem to fit their previous views on what fair and balanced entails.
Rock Star from the album "Live Through This" by Hole
reach out and jack someone
Wired News | Feel Free to Jack Into My IPod
"It's kind of a stoner's ethic, really, the way you pass the joint at a Dead show," he said.
November 24, 2003
Japan does what it does best
Copy, improve, manufacture:
And the best Scotch is . . . Japanese, says Canada panel
Rolling Stone shows how much they love the Beatles and Dylan
RS gave four of the top ten spots to the Beatles and two to Dylan, and they also gave each one more in the top twenty. Both deserve to be high on the list, but that's a bit ridiculous. I'm sure their fans would disagree.
Looking through this list reminded me of a lot of albums that I want to buy. Must...resist...
RollingStone Top 500 Albums of all time
Think positive, you twit
BBC NEWS | Health | Low self-esteem 'shrinks brain'
November 21, 2003
A quiz to shame us all
Which member of the Bush Administration are you? - Quizilla
I got Colin Powell. Who here's gonna get Dubya?
November 20, 2003
Skinny Japs
Skinny Jap eating champion, as explained by Popular Science:
- Popular Science | Why do thin guys always seem to win eating contests?
It's better than watching Nascar
Rock Paper Scissor Championships 03 (via Kottke)
November 19, 2003
This is not as hot as it sounds at first.
Courses promise to turn shy virgins into red hot lovers.
Bush apears to be as choosy about whose parents he will meet with, as the choosy moms who choose Jiff
Mirror.co.uk - BUSH ARRIVES FOR HISTORIC VISIT
No 10 confirmed that details of Mr Bush's meeting with relatives of dead troops were still in the air.
Mr Bush wants to tell the families their loved ones died for a "noble cause".
Downing Street admitted the president would meet relatives, and soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, on Thursday.
But asked if that included relatives of troops killed in this year's Iraq conflict, Mr Blair's spokesman replied: "The precise composition is still being worked on."
It implied Mr Bush will not meet those bereaved families who believe the public was misled into conflict.
The Defence Ministry increased confusion by insisting all plans were finalised.
An official said: "There'll be a meeting between Mr Bush and some of the families who lost loved ones in Iraq. But we're not releasing information."
Standing by his decision to invite Mr Bush, Mr Blair told the CBI conference at Birmingham yesterday: "This is the right moment for us to stand firm with the US.
"I believe terrorism to be the threat of the 21st century. Now is not the time to waver, now is the time to see it through.
"I understand how deeply people feel if they have lost a loved one. That's why you do not take a decision to go to war lightly." But Reg Keys - father of Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, who died in Iraq - said: "Bush is saying our troops died for a noble cause.
"Soldiers in the First and Second World Wars died for a noble cause because they were trying to repel a country that wanted to invade us. But what threat was Iraq to us?
"We were led to believe Saddam was about to unleash weapons of mass destruction on us. So Thomas and his colleagues went to war. These weapons have never materialised. I feel deceived."
Charles Kennedy called on the public to join protests against Mr Bush. He said: "We should use this opportunity to leave him in no doubt as to the extent of public concern at the way events unfolded."
Let us not address our critics. Let us ignore them until they go away or STFU.
the aftermath of ethnic cleansing
Jasmina is one of the very few of these women who chose to keep the child she bore after being raped. For years she suffered taunts from those who knew, or suspected, what had happened to her during the war, and who would openly deride her daughter as "that bastard child". Sometimes, when she took Elma out for a walk, they would shout after her: "There goes that whore - and look, she's given birth to another whore."
myths are more dangerous than lies.
An antiseptic for the myths infecting silicon valley
Interesting, though I wish it were more in depth.
North Korean Sex
North Korean Cunnilingus -- Honeyfields, your people are wierd too!
Closer to the Diamond Age
Seiko Epson released the world's smallest flying machine several days back. I wasn't going to post anything about it until I noticed this beautiful comparison on KoKoRo comparing the flying machine to a da Vinci sketch:
- IOL : World's smallest helicopter takes flight
- KoKoRo: A small helicopter with two propellers
November 17, 2003
Ken your people are wierd
Experts sniff out why Uranus gas is silent but violent
Surprisingly, skatole, one of the compounds that create such a hideous reek when somebody stands on a duck, is also a vital component of nearly all perfumes, though admittedly only in microscopic amounts.
"Depending on the degree of whatever it is that creates their odor, smells can change drastically," the Odor Association's Ito says. "Highly concentrated skatole smells like, well, shit, but in minute quantities, it's a bit like jasmine."
I can't help but wonder if the bad puns are in the original article or if they were created by the translator.
SF civil rights abuses
Stories of Anguish / Jail has man disrobe to photograph his tattoos
George Lazaneo and his fiancee had spent the afternoon of March 16 at the movies. Three blocks from their San Francisco home, a driver ran a stop sign and bumped their car.
Fearing the driver would flee, Lazaneo, 38, asked his fiancee to call police. Minutes after their arrival, officers took Lazaneo -- to his astonishment -- into custody.
He later learned why: an old warrant. From 1995 to 1997, Lazaneo managed the Trocadero Transfer, a South of Market nightclub that received numerous noise ordinance citations. When the nightclub closed in 1998, Lazaneo said, he was assured the citations had been dismissed or resolved. Lazaneo was unaware that a no-bail warrant had been issued for him for a noise citation, he said.
The article goes on to talk about the terriable treatment of multiple people, only one of which was even charged with a crime.
Go GB!
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'Shoot-to-kill' demand by US
Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush's entourage this week.
Yay!
In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush's protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.
I still can't belive all the crap the White House is demanding for a visit to one of our closest allies.
November 14, 2003
Newest end-run around campaign finance reform
...and it's tax deductable too. Give to DeLay, it's for the children.
- G.O.P. Leader Solicits Money for Charity Tied to Convention
(via Metafilter | Community Weblog)
Eager for approval
This one made me laugh, as well as feel a little sad. Bill Frist's webmaster was unhappy with the results of a poll on his Senate site related to the recent blocking of judicial nominees, but rather than take the poll down, he/she went through the effort of changing the wording of the question multiple times, including reversing the meaning of the question so as to flip the results.
- Hit & Run: Doctoring the Numbers
(via Atrios)
CNN thinks we're stupid but clever
Student wants to ask relevant question about technology use by the candidates, CNN says, "awww, but we already have some clever news bites we've written", gives student different question to ask. The best part of this article IMHO is that CNN characterized their misdeed as "framing the student's question."
CNN.com - CNN says it went 'too far' in framing student's question - Nov. 11, 2003
November 12, 2003
now you too can have a gf for $41
easy money for college students? :)
November 11, 2003
Bush causing problems in England
Yard fury over Bush visit
American officials want a virtual three-day shutdown of central London in a bid to foil disruption of the visit by anti-war protestors. They are demanding that police ban all marches and seal off the city centre.
But senior Yard officers say the powers requested by US security chiefs would be unprecedented on British soil. While the Met wants to prevent violence, it is sensitive to accusations of trying to curtail legitimate protest.
It seems the bush regime isn't happy just taking away our civil rights. Now they want to take away rights of citizens of other countries while they are in their home country. The've already taken away the civil rights of anyone who was born on foreign soil who is in the US.
Children invent a folklore
Nighmares and Fairtails shared by homeless children
Folktales are usually an inheritance from family or homeland. But what if you are a child enduring a continual, grueling, dangerous journey? No adult can steel such a child against the outcast's fate: the endless slurs and snubs, the threats, the fear. What these determined children do is snatch dark and bright fragments of Halloween fables, TV news, and candy-colored Bible-story leaflets from street-corner preachers, and like birds building a nest from scraps, weave their own myths. The "secret stories" are carefully guarded knowledge, never shared with older siblings or parents for fear of being ridiculed -- or spanked for blasphemy. But their accounts of an exiled God who cannot or will not respond to human pleas as his angels wage war with Hell is, to shelter children, a plausible explanation for having no safe home, and one that engages them in an epic clash.
This is a really powerfull story. The children have created a hole mytholgy to explain their rotten deal in life. At the same time, it encourages them to be "good", while not promising them anything. Quite the contrary, the children seem to think good will lose but would rather be good and loose then bad and win.
November 10, 2003
do you like salmon?
i know that kwc isn't in any danger, but for the rest of us that like fish and other things from the ocean....
if you love salmon, this will scare you
how sad.... i love salmon sushi.
November 9, 2003
Can you hear me now?
Driver, talking on a cell phone crashes into a Cingular Wireless building.
- Driver on cell crashes, dies
(via Obscure Store and Reading Room)
Safer than crashing a crackhouse
Police in South Carolina raided a high school with guns at the ready and K-9s, forcing students to the ground and handcuffing uncooperative students. No criminals were found.
CBS News | Drug Raid At S.C. High School | November 7, 2003 20:52:02
A site to demonstrate what slothful wastes we have made of our lives
Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age
November 8, 2003
Hydration guide
Al sent me this one to the utimate list. I figured I'd post it to go along with the hyponatremia article I posted awhile back. It's a guide to staying hydrated for those of us who actually exercise.
Dehydration and Athletic Activity
by Dr. Terrence J. Murphy, A.A.S., B.S., D.C.
(text in the extended entry)
Water makes up approximately 50% of our body weight and most of that is in your blood stream. It is through this water that we sweat. Sweat consists almost primarily of water with a small amounts of sodium and other trace minerals. We sweat to cool our body and thereby cool our blood. If your blood temp rises too high it can lead to brain and other organ damage. This rise in blood temp affects the brain and causes such symptoms as confusion/disorientation, hot/dry/red skin (face), vomiting, and passing out. These are the primary symptoms of heat related brain injury due directly to lack of water in the blood stream. Even minor losses of fluid from the blood can severely effect an athletes
performance. An athlete can lose 10% in their performance by losing as little as 2% of their body weight during a tournament. It is imperative that athletes stay hydrated during competition. If you are feeling thirsty it is too late for hydration. You are already in a state of dehydration because the of brain response to the current blood water level. Which means your blood level of water has dropped below acceptable levels. You now need to play catch up in your water dehydration.
The average person needs to take in a minimum of 3 quarts or 96 oz. of water per day just to maintain their current level of hydration. That amount needs to be increased if the person is involved in any kind of athletic activity and even more if the activity is done in hot conditions. Starting out hydrated and not becoming dehydrated is the key good athletic performance. Here are a few tips to preventing dehydration during exercise:
- For every 15-20 min of exercise you must drink 8 oz of water. Even if you are not thirsty. Double that amount if it is in hot conditions.
The key to good athletic performance is keeping your body in proper working order. Adequate hydration is essential to any athletes success. So drink your water before you get thirsty to prevent decreased athletic performance.
November 7, 2003
Elephant
ELEPHANT / **** (R)
Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. "But what about 'Basketball Diaries'?" she asked. "Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?" The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.
The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."
This review really deserves two stories... One for this anecdote and one for the movie it is reviewing.
Based on this review this movie is definatly on my list of movies to watch.
Dr. Seuss
GROKLAW
The Grinch Who Stole Linux
-- by Scott Lazar
Every GNU
Down in GNU-ville
Liked Linux a lot...
But SCO,
who lived just North of GNU-ville,
Did NOT!
SCO hated Linux! The GNU Linux season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that their heads weren't screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that their shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that their bank account was two sizes too small.
November 6, 2003
What your friendster picture really means
The Buttafly Guide to Interpreting Friendster Photos
Photo Type:Dark, brooding What They Want You to Think:Doesn't care The Truth: Dangerous, possibly a pirate
OK, so this is the last thing on boingboing today, and I resisted clicking it. I really did. I gave in while waiting for the compile farm (goddamn operating systems, firmware compiles SO much faster).
Another cool Honda ad
The Honda "Cog" Rube-Goldberg machine was really cool, and they now have another add called "Purpose," while not as cool, is still pretty interesting for those of you who like legos.
Honda "Purpose" :30
November 5, 2003
NBC: we suck
Finally, a network exec blames his own crappy programming for reduced ratings: "Our programming is not that good and the Nielsen sample is bad. End of story."
CNN.com - NBC chief: Our shows 'sucked' - Nov. 5, 2003
November 4, 2003
I hate the 80s
If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can take this 100 question quiz to show how well you remember the songs of the 80s. If you're really old, like pqbon, and just watched MTV's I Love the 80's Strikes Back, then you should score a 100 on this one. If you're like honeyfields and were still learning to say "better" in the 80s, then you might not do as well. I got a measly 36.5, partly due to being too tired to go through all 100 questions, and mostly due to my hatred of the 80s.
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago
I still hate cats
Cats really do like women better. They turn women into attractive sex fiends and men into ugly loners But don't worry - it's just a fecal parasite. It may also make you hear voices.
FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Fox Features - Feeling Sexy? It Could Be Your Cat
Go Rams!
At least there's one Ram that knows how to score (sorry St. Louis, he's not draftable)
Yahoo! News - Amorous Ram Blamed for Mysterious Signals
Fish is good, right Ken?
Monterey Bay Aquarium: Seafood Watch Program - Regional Seafood Watch Cards
Seafood Watch regional cards contain the latest information on seafood in your area. View a card online or download a wallet-size version. We will be adding additional regions as they become available.
This page describes what seafood is responsable to eat. It tells you what fish are overfished, fishing for them damages the enviroment, or other things. It is interesting to see what fish are safe and enviromentally ok.
Right out of the horse's mouth
To follow up heerison's GHW Bush quote, here's another quote that comes straight from the dubya administration's mouth. I post this mainly b/c it puts the administration's current spin into context.
Wolfowitz: "there have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people. Actually I guess you could say there's a fourth overriding one which is the connection between the first two. ... The third one by itself, as I think I said earlier, is a reason to help the Iraqis but it's not a reason to put American kids' lives at risk, certainly not on the scale we did it."DOD Transcript
(via Different Strings)
...but I still won't order Showtime
Republicans and advertisers successfully protested the new "The Reagans" TV miniseries that was to air on CBS. More importantly, neither had even seen the show. Maybe Fox News Channel threatened to sue claiming it owns the Reagan brand.
CNN.com - CBS pulls Reagan miniseries - Nov. 4, 2003
November 3, 2003
Britney back on the web
Results of Britney Spears Nude Study
Gallop says there are 0 picture on the internet of Britney naked. That was an analysis of 5,329,755 search results for "Britney Spears Nude".
The big news is that searches for nude Britney are back having been unpopular before her recent push of media whoring.
Free for me but not for you...
Sun-Sentinel: Florida news
To Lanessa Riobe, who said she's never been in trouble at school before, wearing a T-shirt that advocates safe sex is no different from wearing one that says "I love Jesus" or "I love Satan."
School board chairman Tom Greer supported Paradiso's decision, noting that students have a right to free speech as long as it doesn't interfere with education. He said he considered Lanessa's costume excessive.
"I think she tried to make a statement to the school that I personally find offensive," Greer said.
So really, it ammounts to: free speach is OK as long as I don't disagree with what is being said.
Anouther story:
Story 2