fear this

If you have Allodoxaphobia, you may not want to keep reading this blog.

surveillance camera performers

These guys are out there. Or are they? They disagree with the proliferation of surveillance cameras in society, finding them intrusive and symbolic of creeping control by the authorities over our public lives. So what do they do? Put on plays.

to p2p or not to p2p

In honor of the MGM v. Grokster arguments which were held today, of which first-hand accounts may be found here and here, I present Reuben Bolling's appropriate commentary on the p2p controversy:

satan likes his music backwards, apparently

I thought this was rather funny. This guy played several rock songs backwards to see if he could find any satanic messages. There... might be some. I liked this message, plainly discernible when you play Pink Floyd's "Empty Spaces" in reverse:

"Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to old pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont."

Pink Floyd, The Wall

The new musical format: bullets

1. Things across which Daddy has flown:
   • the ocean
2. Things which Daddy has left behind for me:
   • a memory
   • snapshot in the family album
3. Things which we don't need:
   • no education
   • no thought control
   • no dark sarcasm in the classroom
4. Conditions in which teachers are requested to leave them/us kids:
   • alone
5. Things the having of which is dependent upon the eating of meat:
   • pudding
6. Things which I don't need:
   • no arms around me
   • no drugs to calm me
   • anything at all
7. Things which I have seen:
   • the writing on the wall
8. Things which, all in all, are or were just bricks in the wall:
   • it
   • you

thes guys are, in fact, crazy

Extreme skydiving slideshow. (Click on the photo inside.) This is one of the tame ones:

A&R men

The Problem With Music. Great essay on how musicians get hosed by recording companies on a regular basis, by Steve Albini, a record producer most widely known for having produced Nirvana's "In Utero."

Otz, Germany

Originally uploaded by Sherlock77.
I love Flickr. At any moment I can, and am likely to, stumble across some really interesting pictures. Take these, for instance, a group of shots taken from 1947 to 1961 when this fellow's mom lived in England and Canada.

naturally

While you're shopping for your basic computer accessories you may decide that you need some big cat hunting stilts.

Coin Manipulation

Interesting party tricks

nice axe

metalcarver

If you like these, you'll want to check out Doolin Guitars too.

trouble getting up in the morning?

If so, then Clocky is for you.
"When the alarm clock goes off and the snooze button is pressed, Clocky will roll off the bedside table and wheel away, bumping mindlessly into objects on the floor until it eventually finds a spot to rest. Minutes later, when the alarm sounds again, the sleeper must get up out of bed and search for Clocky. This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off."

eight legs are better than two

Once again, The New Scientist comes through with a fascinating article on octopuses (octopi?) that can 'walk' on two tentacles. A team at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered that the octopuses will bend their tentacles to look like seaweed or ball them up to resemble a coconut, and use the two remaining tentacles to saunter across the sea floor. Be sure and watch the two videos. Amazing.

thumpin

I love it--Wikipedia on beatboxing

fine reading

The complete Feynman Lectures on Physics, both in PDF and MP3 formats

dog noses

Enough said

mr. sandman

I just love going to the beach, don’t you?
(Thanks, Jim)

wanna coke?

(click to enlarge)

..

Hey, watch out for that coffee!

oh right

hero

Private Johnson Beharry has been awarded the Victoria Cross, the most prestigious award the British military has to offer. And he deserves it.

aw

I'd like to welcome the latest canine addition to the circle of friends. This here is Daisy, the new spotted charge of miss Heather Welch. If anyone has any good tips on raising a dalmation, send them her way.

I find your lack of faith disturbing

Rob Eccles knows what it would be like if Darth Vader spent a day in his shoes speaking only in memorable quotes from the original Star Wars.

work is the curse of the drinking class

At the risk of offending everyone, let me suggest the following guide to ease your St. Patrick's Day regimen. This was forwarded to me by Sally-Anne, who loves a pint and a laugh, both of which I'm sure she is enjoying as you read this post.

Bacchanalian (Bac·cha·na·lia)
n. pl. Bacchanalia

1. The ancient Roman festival in honor of Bacchus.
2. bacchanalia A riotous, boisterous, or drunken festivity; a revel.

adj : used of riotously drunken merrymaking; "a night of bacchanalian revelry"; "carousing bands of drunken soldiers"; "orgiastic festivity" [syn: bacchanal, bacchic, carousing, orgiastic]

Let's face it: most people are in no condition to handle the all-day drunken stupor of St. Patrick's Day. However, if you follow this simple blueprint, you can enjoy St. Patrick's Day with no fear that anyone will think you're not from the Auld Sod, even if your name is Amhed Al Jihad.

Leg 1: 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Rise and shine early. Take a long, hot shower, and liberally use aftershave, perfume, cologne, deodorant and powders afterwards, because by 3 p.m., you will be excreting raw alcohol and other poisons. Without proper preparations, you will smell like a three-day dead cat wrapped in a fraternity carpet.

The bars open at 9, so use this time to prepare. Collect the following supplies and put them in a place where you will easily be able to find it in an impaired condition. We recommend the bathroom floor, between the toilet and the baseboard heater, since that's where you'll probably end up:

* 1 quart spring water
* 1 bottle aspirin
* 5 pairs Depends undergarment
* 1 bottle Percocets
* 1 gram morphine sulphate
* 1 oz. human adrenaline extract
* 1 precharged electric defibrillator
* 4 cardiac needles
* 1 trauma surgeon


Brew a strong pot of coffee. Add 9 ounces of Jameson's Irish whiskey. Drink. Note that coffee should be drunk liberally throughout the day. There is a reason that the Irish invented Irish Coffee; unless you ingest a large volume of artificial stimulants throughout the course of St. Patrick's Day, you are going to die.

Arrange to be picked up to be taken to the bar by 8:45 a.m. We cannot stress enough that you should not drink and drive. There is no reason to chance losing your license or killing someone in a drunken state when you have plenty of idiot friends willing to take that risk on your behalf.

Leg 2: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Arrive at the bar right when it opens. Make sure this is an Irish bar -- if at all possible. An Irish bar in Boston is the best alternative, since Boston in Gaelic means West Kilarney. However, almost every city in America has bars called The Blarney Stone, McSomethings, or The Dirty Mick. Just try to ignore the fact that the bar is probably owned by Koreans.

Secure a barstool and do not leave it under any circumstances. The bar is liable to be packed by noon, and real Irish people do not wait in line for drinks, no matter what the consequences. While we do recommend the use of an adult undergarment to mask unpleasant smells, it really doesn't matter. By afternoon, you'll be sopping wet with spilled beer anyway, and your mild urine smell will be completely overpowered by the toxic stench of vomit.

We recommend starting out with a few more Irish Coffees to spike the stimulant level, however, you should not order an "Irish Coffee," as you will be given a fruity little glass mug topped with whipped cream and a cherry, and some guy named Seamus will call you a yuppie poseur while putting a cigarette out on your neck. Ask for coffee with Jameson's or Bushmill's and ask the bartender to leave the whipped cream can, as nothing will add spice to your day like the occasional whippet.

Leg 3: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
It's lunchtime! You may not be hungry, but it's important to eat something, because like the man said in Blazing Saddles: "Man drink like that, without eating, he is going to die." If you want to maintain your buzz and not get that hideous, bloated feeling that could slow down your drinking, there are only two options: popcorn or Pop Tarts. Both have the carbohydrates you'll need to give you energy, both will soak up excess bile in your stomach, and both have names that are hard to slur. If you start slurring your words too early, you'll hear the most frightening phrase in the English language besides "I'm pregnant": "You're shut off."

By now, you should switch off of coffee drinks to beer. You could order green beer, but remember: Beer doesn't always turn green because of food coloring.

Leg 3: 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
By now, the bar is definitely crowded as people take long lunches and bail out of work early to tie one on. If you're doing your job correctly, the bar should look twice or three times as crowded as it really is. By now, you may be in conversation with some real Irish people, since the person you came with has likely been taken away by ambulance. Some conversational points to remember when talking to the Irish are:

*Football really means Soccer, and you should be more passionate about it than your wife or husband. The English are all piss-arsed, pig-&^%$#@ bastards who should be lined up and kicked into the liffey.

*If you remember those two points, as well at least three derogatory names for Margaret Thatcher, you can talk to the Irish for hours.

*You should continue to drink Guinness throughout this leg, although you may want to have another Irish Coffee if your heartbeat has become irregular.

The Home Stretch: 7 p.m. to Closing
Your goal, of course, is to be the last person to leave the bar at closing time. This will be impossible, since a blood alcohol content of .50 equals death, and you should be pushing a .35 or .40 by now.

The only way for a true Irishman to leave a bar before closing time with honor is to be hauled away by the police. Throw a punch. It doesn't matter who you hit or why; no one's made any sense since 3 o'clock, anyway. You will be beaten mercilessly, since your fine motor control has been gone since the late morning, but it doesn't matter since you can't feel anything.

Depending on your community, the police should arrive within 15 minutes to scrape you off the floor and clap you in irons. The final impression you leave is the most important: As you are being dragged from the bar, begin screaming that you want to take your drink with you. You will be a legend, and by now the friend who took you to the bar should have had his or her stomach pumped, and will be able to bail you out.

By following these simple guidelines, your St. Patrick's Day experience would be one you would never forget if it weren't physically and biologically impossible for you to remember any of it. Tune in next month for our next self-help guide: "The Pros & Cons of Waking Up Naked in a Dumpster"

tubelight

Hybrid solar lighting is a new type of indoor lighting that uses optical fibers to transmit actual sunlight that is "collected" on the roof of the building. Very cool.

oh my god I'm fat

Do you keep getting pudding enzymes confused with the powdered sugar tryptophages? Feel a little rusty on the seven classifications of cinnamon? Try the Periodic Table of Dessert.

um

Odd quote of the day:

"A greyhound ought to be a dog in the state of Kansas."

Whence this nonsense? Apparently greyhounds ain't dogs in Kansas, since they're raised for racing, not as pets.

jam on it

The MusicPole may be interesting and novel, but I wouldn't recommend being seen on stage with it. Jim, that goes for you, too.

sacred morsels

There is no proper way to worship a god, goddess, or any deity of any faith or culture, if you cannot eat a cholcolate version of it.

giddyup

I though this was a joke, but apparently it's not. If your guide dog just isn't cutting the mustard, you should get a guide horse. I wonder if they make saddles for these critters?

(Thanks, Chris!)

coolie coolerton

sorry i haven't digested your rss feed

Call me flakerson. How true, Mat. how true.

indeed

As usual, Reuben Bolling weighs in with a funny take on Judge Scalia's "controversial" dissent in the recent juvenile death penalty case, Roper v. Simmons (Scalia disputed the majority's view that a "national consensus" exists against executing people under age 18).

It's...daytime

Now this is a cool watch.

vamp, revamp

Ok folks, the redesign is over. If you like it, thanks. If you don't, well... And just to put everyone's mind at rest: yes, I completely and totally ripped this idea off from other people. I got the idea from Mat Honan's cool site, and the actual CSS came from here. You may notice a resemblance. At any rate, enjoy.

Go sooty!

my new hobby

Yes, it's stupid, but tarping does look like fun.

weird

The Cargo Cults

Mount St. Helens burps

IMG_0072
Originally uploaded by ja_macd.

Nice set of images showing the cloud of ash and steam venting from the volcano this morning.

hole in one..

Maybe my mind is in the gutter, but this photo is hilarious.

arf

DSCN0125
Originally uploaded by leorojo.

Inonde

Photos of Paris flood, 1910

before sunset

McSweeney's: Who's on First?

histrionic

Great site of World War II Pictures In Color.

iMapping

"NASA's World Wind program lets you virtually zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there.
Virtually visit any place in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps, or along the African Sahara."

hmm

Designing Public Restrooms for the Muslim Culture.
Prayer uttered before entering the restroom with left foot: “O Allah, I seek Your protection from the male and female devils”

this is amazing stupid

Teens Leaping For Thrills In 'Garage Jumping' Trend.

AIDS fallout

Check out this shocking graph showing the decline in African life expectancy rates from 1960-2002.

great shot

Toronto, Canada
Originally uploaded by Squiggle.

"This is a composite of downtown Toronto, Centre Island and lake Ontario, put together from photos taken from the CN Tower skypod, 443 m above the ground. Three rows of 18 photos (54 photos total) were used in the composite."

wow

How Geologists Unraveled the Mystery of Japanese Vengenance Balloon Bombs of World War II

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's.. Mama's Boy!

All of your favorite In-action Heroes in one place.

ok..

Tell someone to eat fruit.

talk about divine inspiration..

first person shooter

Unhappy Birthday

Is Singing Happy Birthday in Public Really Copyright Infringement?

Yes.

According to United States copyright law in United States Code, Title 17 §106, authors of works such as musical compositions have the exclusive right 'to perform the copyrighted work publicly.' In United States Code, Title 17 §101, the law defines publicly performing a work as 'to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered.'

This means that if you sing Happy Birthday to your family at home, you're probably not committing copyright infringment. However, if you do it in an restaurant — and if the restaurant hasn't already worked out a deal with ASCAP — you may be engaging in copyright infringement."

pretty neat

If you're a photoshop user and want to create photos like this, go here and download the Flexify plugin.

the real deal

Check out these jelly flowers. Apparently they normally grow on frozen tundra, which might explain why they look plastic.

(Thanks Erin!)