poem

To be alive

To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but...

If we're not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?

- Gregory Orr

splash

Have you ever looked at a Jackson Pollock painting and said to yourself. "Heck, I could do that"? Well, now you can.

program of the day

I've recently found a very useful virtual desktop utility, Dexpot. It takes a little getting used to, but it allows you to work with multiple desktops at once, and easily manages all of them so you always have an uncluttered workspace. Here's a screenshot showing one of the modes:

Check it out.

Good will hunting, indeed

Snopes verifies the truth behind this incredible story:

A young college student was working hard in an upper-level math course, for fear that he would be unable to pass. On the night before the final, he studied so long that he overslept the morning of the test.

When he ran into the classroom several minutes late, he found three equations written on the blackboard. The first two went rather easily, but the third one seemed impossible. He worked frantically on it until — just ten minutes short of the deadline — he found a method that worked, and he finished the problems just as time was called.

The student turned in his test paper and left. That evening he received a phone call from his professor. "Do you realize what you did on the test today?" he shouted at the student.

"Oh, no," thought the student. "I must not have gotten the problems right after all."

"You were only supposed to do the first two problems," the professor explained. "That last one was an example of an equation that mathematicians since Einstein have been trying to solve without success. I discussed it with the class before starting the test. And you just solved it!"

oh dear

We've seen some of these before, but here is a fascinating list of the 50 Dumbest Things Bush Ever Said. The scariest, in my opinion:

"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves."
—Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003

quote of the day

"Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told--and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion."

- Michael Crichton, The Lost World

"why my favorite professor was a chronic liar"

Interesting story of a professor who would introduce one false statement into each of his lectures to see if the students would catch it. Of course, the students began actually paying attention to the lectures. Fantastic idea.

you know you need one

Get yours here.

i bought a new lens

cool, if true

St Paul's tomb (possibly) unearthed in Rome.

diamonds: the price of being forever

Amazing photo essay on the diamond market, from the toiling miners in Africa to the bedazzled brides in America.

why you should avoid being an English major

Stupid yet hilarious essays.

quote of the day

"Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority."

-- Thomas H. Huxley

hahaha

wayback, in color

Check out these early Kodachrome images of "America before Pearl Harbor."

I need a Rotary Reading Desk

From this odd site, I learned that in 1588, the Italian Engineer Agostino Ramelli described a novel invention to facilitate the reading of multiple books at once:

A beautiful and ingenious machine, which is very useful and convenient to every person who takes pleasure in study, especially those who are suffering from indisposition or are subject to gout: for with this sort of machine a man can see and read a great quantity of books, without moving his place: besides, it has this fine convenience, which is, of occupying a little space in the place where it is set, as any person of understanding can appreciate from the drawing.

nice

these are keepers.

nice

found here.

old school

Interesting list of the 50 greatest cartoons as voted on by the animation industry in 1994. Warning: cool youtube footage--this will waste your time if you happen to be at work.

best video all year

wonderful.

great idea

"These pay-as-you-can cafes have missions that are unapologetically altruistic—call it serving up fare Robin Hood style. "Our philosophy is that everyone, regardless of economic status, deserves the chance to eat healthy, organic food while being treated with dignity," explains Brad Birky, who opened SAME (So All Might Eat) Cafe in Denver.

go get 'em, sister

How to fight.

hahahahaha

buying a new house? BEWARE ENCROACHMENT

more McSweeney's hilarity

Bean and Nothingness, by John Fitch

"Hi, and welcome to Bean and Nothingness, New York's first truly holistic coffee bar. My name is Harmony and I'll be your beverage liaison this morning. Since this is your first time with us, why don't you sit in one of our Epiphany Chairs while I give you a quick orientation? Feel free to self-reflect, write poetry, or juggle if the mood strikes.

"Here at Bean and Nothingness, our aim is not just to provide you with the sheer tranquillity and utter transcendence that only the best coffee and coffee-related products can achieve but also to help you reach complete spiritual self-actualization during your time here. From our socially conscious beverages to our community-oriented pastries and our globally sensitive condiments, Bean and Nothingness is committed to making this a better world one customer at a time, just like it says on the door, and the counter, and the wall. It's not just a slogan, either. No, every staff member here at Bean and Nothingness truly believes that we're making a better world one customer at a time and has sworn it, in blood, under the influence of sodium pentothal. I should also tell you that our coffee pickers are the happiest in the world. While other companies exploit their Third World employees, we at Bean and Nothingness ensure that our field workers are given a constant intravenous drip of MDMA and opiates. Sure, it slows down production and, sure, they spend a lot of time hugging, but, in the end, it's worth it. You can practically taste the love in the beans..."

oh really?

Reading Shakespeare has a dramatic effect on the human brain.

great music: Fujiya & Miyagi

Dig it.

possibly useless: whale’s pearl

"Ambergris has been a valued commodity for centuries, used in perfume because of its strangely alluring aroma as well as its ability to retain other fine-fragrance ingredients and “fix” a scent so it does not evaporate quickly. Its name is derived from the French “ambre gris,” or gray amber. During the Renaissance, ambergris was molded, dried, decorated and worn as jewelry. It has been an aphrodisiac, a restorative balm, and a spice for food and wine. Arabs used it as heart and brain medicine. The Chinese called it lung sien hiang, or “dragon’s spittle fragrance.” It has been the object of high-seas treachery and caused countries to enact maritime possession laws and laws banning whale hunting. Madame du Barry supposedly washed herself with it to make herself irresistible to Louis XV.

In "Paradise Regained," Milton describes Satan tempting Christ with meat pastries steamed in ambergris. In “Moby-Dick,” Melville called it the “essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale.” Old newspapers show clippings every few years describing some whaling crew coming upon a hunk, or some vacationing family finding it on the beach and either cashing in — or discovering it was just ocean detritus."

oh dear

This ball may unfortunately prove why the universe will expand forever, whatever that means. Apparently "evidence is accumulating that most of the energy density in the universe is in an unknown form dubbed dark energy."

fo all ma homies

In case you were wondering whether I was really in your corner, I am. With the exception of not being able to talk to Dobson this weekend or hitting Zack's party, I've tried to be there for you. Yes, my emails have dropped off of late, and my letters and postcards came to a tragic and screeching halt years ago, but I have thought about you many, many times. Sometimes I have even thought about you, as my life entered a new phase that lacked precedent, precisely at the moment it occurred. You all mean more to me than either you or I will really ever know. And so I present to you, my good friends, all of the Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour shows. Use them well.

sage advice

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."

~~ Austin Phelps

via the everlasting bibliovixen

oooh the irony of blogging about this shirt

pocket rocket

Your keychain jump drive can function as your personal PC with mojopac.

bad landing

Glad I wasn't on this plane.

what a ride indeed

Great article on the "Skyhook".

"The first live test was conducted with a pig as the target. Due to some stability issues, the pig spun in the 125 mph wind, and arrived on the plane dizzy and discombobulated. It recovered, however, and promptly attacked the crew."

oh dear

Ten Bible verses you probably won't hear in a sermon. My favorite:

"Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths." 2 Kings 2:23-24 NKJV

speed up your browser (firefox or IE)--this works

Lightning Fast Browsing Trick For Internet Explorer And Firefox - video powered by Metacafe

super hero rehab

from here.

the hippie and the suit

The new breed of voter: Liberaltarians.

"The libertarian vote is up for grabs in a way it may have never been before. A compelling case is being made for the economically conservative yet socially liberal libertarians to switch their political allegiances from Republican to Democrat, a trend that has already begun. . . . With libertarians generally disenchanted with a Republican Party of crony capitalists and theocrats, it is a propitious time for an entente between liberals and libertarians."

snap

Check out all the Flickr toys. My favorite so far is this one. Also, Eartha found photofiddle, which has a lot more options, but you have to register.

beautiful

quote of the day

"It is a frequently observed phenomenon that the less educated and intelligent people are, the more they tend to have decisive and strong opinions on the most complex political, philosophical, economic, and other pressing issues."

-- anonymous

whoa dude

If you're a fan of Pink Floyd, and if one afternoon in college you carefully synched the album Dark Side of the Moon up with the film The Wizard of OZ (most likely accompanied by some manner of illegal behavior) you'll appreciate this:

"This is the synchronization theory between Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey" and Pink Floyd's song "Echoes" off the album "Meddle". Out of all Pink Floyd synchronization theories, we believe that this may have been purposely done, the most. Because Kubrick had asked to use Atom Heart Mother (Pink Floyd, 1970) in which Pink Floyd denied and later regretted.

As soon as the song "Echoes" is played and the "Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite" title card pops up, a ping will sound. This pinging sound will ring once every few seconds for the first 1:20 or so. The music will slowly start to fade in after ten seconds or so. It is very eerie-sounding - as synthesizers slowly build, and eventually a mellow, slow guitar riff comes into play. As all this psychedelic, mellow music builds up the images on the screen are of the monolith floating around in space while the outstanding special effects show the planets in the background. The sense of limitless space is evident, and the music only enhances that feeling.

Both the song and the movie then end AT THE EXACT SAME TIME."

Ahem, well. Judge for yourself. Here's the video (part I):

here's part II:

and here's Part III:

(It turns out there are a number of Floyd synch jobs all over the web, most of which are unlikely, like this one. But they're still kinda fun.)

and now for something completely different..

Having read a lot of information about WWII over the past year or two, I tend to hold accounts from 1936-1948 in somewhat reverential awe. And so would most, at least in this country. But it is refreshing to read a perspective that seems to see the forest for the trees, and remind us of the grim realities behind what Stephen Ambrose and Steven Spielberg tend to focus on. After all, many of the major ethnic and cultural problems the world faces today emerged from those years of turmoil; Iraq, Bosnia, Israel and Palestine, not to mention the USSR, East Germany and the entire former Communist bloc are testaments to the political morass from which the war came and to which it returned.

I don't agree with everything this guy says, but he makes some extremely good points, especially about the fascination with fascism that pretty much gripped pre-war Europe. Here's an excerpt from the article:

The biggest lie about WW II is that it was a war between good and evil. Bullshit, because there were no good European countries.

Fact No1: They Were ALL Fascists. At a military level, let's face a nasty fact: WW II was Stalin vs. Hitler. The rest was window dressing. Stalin won because--because what, he was a nicer guy? Nope, he won because his brand of fascism was actually way more ruthless and bloody and effective than Hitler's smalltime snobbery, and because Stalin had the whole US industrial machine backing him..

guess those lyrics

It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here
And I'm much obliged to you for making it clear
That I'm not here.
And I never knew we could be so thick
And I never knew we could be so blue
And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes
And brought me here instead dressed in red
And I'm wondering who could be writing this song.
I don't care if the sun don't shine
And I don't care if nothing is mine
And I don't care if I'm nervous with you
I'll do my loving in the winter.

And the sea isn't green
And I love the queen
And what exactly is a dream
And what exactly is a joke?

quote of the day/motto for entire life

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

--Carl Sagan

Books: they'll never let you down

I'll take two, please

image of the day

ever the dancer

Folks, in the spirit of the season, Mary Pat has decided to take a new job.

This sentence is false.

Wonderful list of paradoxes on wikipedia.

keep zooming

Extreme resolution imaging.

from a music site I frequent

"C. S. Lewis tells the story in his book 'The Great Divorce' of a man who, as a ghost, takes a bus ride through both hell and heaven. One of things he discovers on his trip is that if your final destination is hell you will find that this present world was only a part of hell. However, if your final destination was heaven, you will discover that this present world was a part of heaven the whole time. I know that my destination is heaven. How do I know this? Two words: Emmylou Harris."

109th Congress a success at ...naming buildings

Of the 383 pieces of legislation that were signed into law during the two-year 109th Congress, more than one-quarter dealt with naming or renaming federal buildings and structures.

photo of the day

don't do this

The Dumbest Deaths in Recorded History.

good question

Who can arrest the president?

that's gotta hurt

knockouts.

miniplanets

Very cool photos. I love this stuff.

If only life were like this

amazing shot

(keep scrolling to the right)

whitewashing jesus

Interesting article: Why has the portrayal of Jesus in art drifted far from the likelihood he was a brown-skinned Semitic Jew?

quote of the day

"You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth."

- Henry Louis Mencken

check the Santa cam

NORAD is tracking Santa this year.

the dawn of gadgetry

Scientists have discovered that a 2000-year-old Greek device rivalled the supercomputers of today.

The machine was a 365-day calendar, which ingeniously factored in the leap year every four years. And it not only provided the Metonic cycle, which was known to the Babylonians, it also gave the so-called Callippic cycle, which is four Metonic cycles minus one day and reconciles the solar year with the lunar calendar.

It could also predict lunar and solar eclipses under the Saros cycle, a 223-month repetitive interplay of the Sun, Earth and Moon. This function, presumably, would been useful for religious purposes, given that eclipses are traditionally taken as omens.

The Machine was also a star almanac, showing the times when the major stars and constellations of the Greek zodiac would rise or set and, speculatively, may also have shown the positions of the planets.

But even more impressive is a tiny pin-and-slot device that factors in a movement of the Moon that, for centuries, puzzled sky-watchers. In this so-called main lunar anomaly, the Moon appears to move across the heavens at different speeds at different times - the reason being its elliptical orbit around Earth.

yeah, what's up with those tetraneutrons anyway?

13 things that do not make sense.

In Canada it's only 12

A look at ages of consent around the world.

sounds like a good argument to me..

incredible

cool

Pageflakes has a new rival: Yourminis.

quote of the day

"The half-trillion dollars that we have spent in precious capital to prosecute the war [in Iraq] would have funded a massive alternative energy development program in this country or, failing that enlightened strategy, it would have at least paid for all of our oil imports for almost four years at current prices."

--Lou Dobbs

favorite artist of the week: Vladimir Kush

Link.

oh great

Once again, Alabama politicians show their stuff. One journalist has decided to test whether our folks in Washington know exactly who we're fighting:

Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence.

“Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a few weeks ago.

Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.”

joke of the day

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie (Corb), leans out the window and asks the shepherd, “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”

The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers, “Sure. Why not?” The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T cell phone, surfs to a NASA page on the internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the shepherd and says, “You have exactly 1586 sheep.”

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep.” says the shepherd. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. Then the shepherd says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”

“You’re a consultant.” says the shepherd.

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required.” answered the shepherd. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked; and you don’t know crap about my business . . . Now give me back my dog.”

history/technology

Hitler speaks.

When Adolf Hitler bought Eva Braun a movie camera, to film the people and parties which occurred at their Bavarian retreat, the technology ... all » to include synchronized sound had not yet been developed.

So when soldiers discovered Hitler's private home movies, in the Berlin bunker where the Nazi leader took his own life, the tantalizing clips they unearthed, featuring leading members of the SS in a more relaxed mode, remained silent for 60 years.

Now, leading edge lip reading software has enabled German experts to re-voice these films and provide us with a chilling insight into Hitler's private world.