Happy new year, everybody.

Battle at Kruger

song lyrics of the day

I am thinking it's a sign that the freckles
In our eyes are mirror images and when
We kiss they're perfectly aligned
And I have to speculate that God himself
Did make us into corresponding shapes like
Puzzle pieces from the clay
True, it may seem like a stretch, but
Its thoughts like this that catch my troubled
Head when you're away when I am missing you to death
When you are out there on the road for
Several weeks of shows and when you scan
The radio, I hope this song will guide you home

They will see us waving from such great
Heights, 'come down now,' they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away,
'come down now,' but we'll stay...

I tried my best to leave this all on your
Machine but the persistent beat it sounded
Thin upon listening
That frankly will not fly. you will hear
The shrillest highs and lowest lows with
The windows down when this is guiding you home

Such Great Heights, by Iron & Wine

the eyes have it

See them here.

quote of the day

"Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."

-- Philip Pullman

looks good

You can watch the new trailer for the new Batman movie here.

silent night

Around this time every year I hear about an event that happened on the battlefield in Flanders during World War I on Christmas day, 1914. The story goes that the English and German soldiers, who assumed the war would be over shortly, spent the day singing carols and playing soccer together in mutual friendship. Once Christmas was over, they returned to hostilities. I love this story, but have always doubted that it really happened. It turns out I was wrong.

poem of the day

Tuesday 9:00 AM

A man standing at the bus stop
reading the newspaper is on fire
Flames are peeking out
from beneath his collar and cuffs
His shoes have begun to melt

The woman next to him
wants to mention it to him
that he is burning
but she is drowning
Water is everywhere
in her mouth and ears
in her eyes
A stream of water runs
steadily from her blouse

Another woman stands at the bus stop
freezing to death
She tries to stand near the man
who is on fire
to try to melt the icicles
that have formed on her eyelashes
and on her nostrils
to stop her teeth long enough
from chattering to say something
to the woman who is drowning
but the woman who is freezing to death
has trouble moving
with blocks of ice on her feet

It takes the three some time
to board the bus
what with the flames
and water and ice
But when they finally climb the stairs
and take their seats
the driver doesn't even notice
that none of them has paid
because he is tortured
by visions and is wondering
if the man who got off at the last stop
was really being mauled to death
by wild dogs.

- Denver Butson

Kwout: a new way to cite sites

kwout | A brilliant way to quote via kwout

rest in peace, indeed

It was with sadness in my heart that I learned this morning that Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. I've been loosely following her story since she returned to Pakistan after a recent exile, and I was really hoping she'd get elected. She was a brave, visionary woman. I was coming home from work two weeks ago and heard an interview on NPR in which she addressed the almost certainty that another attempt on her life would take place. When Terri Gross asked her how she felt about it, her response struck me as beautiful: "There is always the possibility that someone will try to silence me, but what I stand for cannot be silenced." She stood for a new Pakistan, without sectarian violence or religious strife, and her attempts to counteract Musharraf brought a much-needed democratic voice to the table. Her death will undoubtedly complicate the already tragic political situation the country faces.

A bright candle has been snuffed out.

best extreme t-shirt

merry merry

Once again the Crook family has decided to head out for whereabouts unknown for Christmas. Except that this time, the whereabouts happen to be Jamaica. We will be in Montego Bay and the surrounding locale until the 25th, so if we miss you (or your cool party, Zack!) we will see you hopefully before the new year. If we don’t see you before the new year, hopefully we will see you on the new year’s eve at Crossroads Cafe in Huntsville, AL where Donna the Buffalo will be rocking the house. If we don’t see you there, I can’t make any promises when we’ll see you. But we will. Soon. Because we love you.

guess who this is

fit to print

The Newseum now offers a service that allows you to click on a map and read the front page of the local paper. Interesting way to see how news differs from region to region.

poem of the day

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

- Kaylin Haught

one day my neighborhood will look like this

smackdown of the day

an excerpt from a recent debate between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama:

"Senator Obama, you have Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, state department policy director and Navy secretary -- among others -- advising you. With relatively little foreign policy experience of your own, how will you rely on so many Clinton advisers and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you're promising voters?"

"I want to hear that," Hillary Clinton said, laughing.

"Well, Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me, as well," Barack Obama said.

watch the video here.

perhaps

The disappearing car door looks like the next big innovation.

the boys

Shorpy has a great collection of Civil War-era photographs.

best fortune ever

necessity, mother of invention

Another interesting alternative energy idea: underwater power-generating ocean turbines. These turbines would collect energy from ocean currents, much like windmills collect energy from moving air.

it's a small world, indeed

here we go again

It appears that our creationist and intelligent design friends have found a new forum: Texas. Ars Technica reports that last week the Texas Education Agency's Director of Science was forced out of her job for allegedly not "remaining neutral" over the teaching of evolution in schools. Christine Comer, a former science teacher, had her nine-year stint as Director of Science ended as a result of an e-mail she sent to colleagues, notifying them of an upcoming talk being given by Barbara Forrest. Forrest is the author of Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse, a book that details the movement to have intelligent design taught as science in America's schools.

This bothers me because it is of course absurb to permit the teaching of creationism in our schools, but it also bothers me because the creationists just won't shut up and go away. And Alabama is probably next. Alabama schools already allow disclaimers in biology textbooks that describe evolution as "a controversial theory" and recently the state became the first in the union to approve a textbook for a course about the Bible in its public schools. What's next, another monument in the Supreme Court?

water, water everywhere

Speaking of water (see post below), it turns out that scientists scanning the deep interior of Earth have found evidence of a vast water reservoir beneath eastern Asia that is at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean.

rain, man

For all the rain we've been getting in Alabama lately, it turns out that we're still in a drought of historical proportions. The state purports to have a plan for sharing the scant water resources with Georgia, but it looks like Atlanta will be getting most of the water. You can see pictures of how low Lake Martin is here. Apparently the only solution is the tried-and-true rain dance.

options

When 21 gears aren't enough, it's time to get yourself an infinitely geared bicycle.

bold, brilliant

Setting a shining example for all to follow, Britain is set to launch a massive expansion of offshore wind-power, with plans for thousands of turbines in the North Sea, Irish Sea and around the coast of Scotland. The turbines, which can reach heights of 850 feet, could end up meeting 50% of the country's electrical needs. That's a lot of power.

thanks, Amazon

"I often use pencils to write notes on paper, but have been thinking about changing to a pen. Is this pen a good starting point for a novice?"

the Feud

Well the Johnstons gave it their best shot this past weekend on the Family Feud, but Brice summed it up best: "You know, we're just not very good at this game." Sadly, no. We got beat in the first round--didn't even make it to Fast Money.

Although it is just a silly game show, it is very competitive and intense once you get on stage. The level of intensity is a lot higher that I realized. You're trying to pay close attention while clapping and cheering at everything that moves, all the while thinking about your answer and the other answers that someone already said and all of a sudden you just can't think of a word that rhymes with "butter." Aaagh! Wait, I had a better answer! But the game is already into the next round. It goes by so quickly. But no excuses--we bombed and had a great time doing it.

The upshot of the weekend was getting to see Hollywood and the Sunset Strip and hanging out with my goofy cousins. Despite (or because of) the stress level at the studio, we laughed all day long. It was a surreal, silly day and I'm glad I got to do it. The Price is Right, anyone?

fyi: the episode won't air until May of 2008. (Maybe everyone will have forgotten about it by then and won't watch my amazingly terrible answer to the first question.)

The pics:

quote of the day

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals Himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

—Albert Einstein

Many more of Einstein's thoughts on science and religion can be found here.

Here comes the sun

Nanosolar Powersheet is very cool stuff. Or very hot. It won Innovation of the Year of 2007 from Popular Science magazine, and is destined to change the world.

It's a paper-thin solar energy collector. The PowerSheet solar cells are created on printing-press-style machines that set down a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil, so the panels can be made for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute. It's inexpensive mainly because no silicon is used. Which means that it could be used to cover entire roofs or building exteriors, producing significant amounts of efficient energy.

Be sure and watch the slideshow and animation. This stuff is the real deal, folks.

this explains a lot

In a tragically beautiful twist of irony, a recent study found out what many already know: that a sense of moral superiority can actually encourage one to commit unethical acts such as cheating.

"The principle we uncovered is that when faced with a moral decision, those with a strong moral identity choose their fate (for good or for bad) and then the moral identity drives them to pursue that fate to the extreme," said researcher Scott Reynolds of the University of Washington Business School in Seattle. "So it makes sense that this principle would help explain what makes the greatest of saints and the foulest of hypocrites."

the clarifier

Introducing the Moringa oleifera, otherwise known as the miracle tree.

but it is

I have no idea why it is so interesting to look at abandoned cars and houses.

spellcheck

Definr is a superfast online dictionary.

of course

Best picture ever from the recently-opened Creation Museum in Kentucky.

And in other news, Intelligent Design tries rebranding.

metajokes of the day

How many members of a certain demographic group does it take to perform a specified task?
-- A finite number: one to perform the task and an additional number to act in a manner stereotypical of the group in question.

- - - - -

So, a person belonging to an ethnic group whose members are commonly considered to have certain stereotypical mannerisms met another person belonging to a different ethnic group with a different set of imputed stereotypical mannerisms. The first person acted in a manner consistent with the stereotypes associated with his ethnic group, and proceeded to make a remark which might be considered to establish conclusively his membership in that group, whereupon his companion proceeded to make a remark with a double meaning, the first meaning of which could be interpreted to indicate his agreement with his companion, but the other meaning of which serves to corroborate his membership in his particular ethnic group. The first person took offense at his remark, and reacted in a stereotypical way!

quote of the day

"I will probably never get to go by this particular spot again for the rest of my life. I will, therefore, observe all I can, and commit all I can to memory, about this spot and this unique experience. I will cherish the discomfort, fatigue, depression and monotony as well as the views, elation, and opportunities I have for harmony with myself and the environment. Keeping on will teach me something that I cannot anticipate at the moment, but which will be worthwhile nonetheless, as I look back on it from the future."

– Phil Heffington