North vs. South

It's that most wonderful time of year again folks..yes, the time of year I have to keep explaining to my kids that Penguins live in the South Pole, not the North Pole and as such, cannot cavort with Polar bears! It doesn't help that a major soft drink company perpetuates this myth with their Holiday Commercial.
You can buy any number of Penguin themed decorations for your yard:
This, This(Gah! Are there igloos in the South Pole?? No!) or This!.
Setting aside the undeniable tackiness of these things and the argument that Chirstamas is becoming too secular, I would be happy if there was at least a little accuracy when it come to habitat! Sure, maybe Snowmen live in the South pole with Penguins, fine...But not polar bears or Eskimos damnit.

That being said, have a Holly Jolly Christmas.
/Scrooge-like rant.

Spock, you green-blooded son of a....

I'm not a huge Trekkie(Yes, they're Trekkies, Trekkers are people who actually get outside and do things, like hike!), but I found these Inspirational Posters just awesome. But not, you know, inspirational.

I am at a loss though to explain This One.
Anybody?

What will happen when the gas runs out?

Years ago, before we were really talking about oil dependency and shrinking reserves(well, after we talked about it in the '70's), I remember reading about how one day oil reserves would dry up and we'd be left with no more petroleum. At the time I rode a motorcycle as my primary mode of transportation and the first thought I had was: "Good God! Will there be no more motorcycles?"

Well, it looks like others had he same fear, and much like the awesome Tesla that people are lining up to pay big bucks for, there appears to be a fair number of "alternative" motorcycles out there.

This Drag Bike is amazing, however a bit impractical around town.

Then there's the Enertia...Looks pretty dorky...and that price! But, hey, it's a step in the right direction.

Lastly there's the Fuel Cell motorcycle which sounds reeeealy cool until you see the top speed is 50 MPH. Damn!

Anyway...Which candidate out there running for President is committed to ensuring there will be fast, cool looking motorcycles when the gas runs out? 'Cause they got MY vote!

My New Favorite Site

There must be a million sites out there dedicated to posting offbeat and funny pics and videos, but somehow Oomsa has become my favorite.
It's not snarky or meanspirited and is mostly SFW, although you might make an argument with This. *Shudder*

For the most part, there are some really cool images, so I'll leave you with a few:

The Scandals of GW Bush and Friends

I was lamenting the other day, yes, actually lamenting, how I could never keep track of all the scandals the Bush Administrattion had been involved in. Unlike Clinton, (what were there...Lewinsky and White Water?), The current administrattion has been up to its neck in scandal.This from a guy who campigned about bringing honor back to the Presidency. Feh!

At any rate, Hugh's List is a great collection of the scandals, missteps and misdeeds all done in the name of America or fighting terror or whatever the excuse du jour happens to be

Pretty pathetic.

PS I don't think This One made the list yet

What's the frequency Kenneth?

The frequency of blog posts that is.
See, all this time you thought I was being lazy...or stupid..or lazy. While in fact, I have been on the cutting edge, nay, the BLEEDING EDGE.
(Did I just use "nay" and "bleeding edge" in the same sentence?? Wow, how naying-edge am I?)

Any way, once again I have been justified without my even knowing it.
According to Eric Kintz, it's bad form to post every day..so Web 1.0. *sigh*

#6 is great..yeah, you can tell the quality of my posts are awesome because of my infrequent posting.

#7...Uh, taking yourself a little too seriously much?

#8 and #9...I just think they are reaching......

And #10? Please..who are you trying to score points with??

Anyway, check it out..and if you blog, take it easy...don't post too often. See, you'll be helping to maintain the "Credibility of the Blogosphere".

All Hail Techno Viking

Righter of wrongs, Defender of the meek...and a bad-ass dancer!



Plus he has his own waterboy!

Today's Lesson in Democracy

Brought to you by The Texas Legislature

Awwww

That's all you can really say, although I might add "Holy crap! A POLAR BEAR!!" would work too.
Unless of course you're a goofy dog who just wants to play in the snow...with a 1200 pound polar bear.

This is the kind of thing that restores your faith in humani...er,...in animal kind.

More Help Understanding U.S. Foreign Policy

Yeah...makes me want to get Cable.

UPDATE: The video was yanked from YouTube...found it again on Metacafe.

Daily Show - America To The Rescue

Forbidden Lego. Forsigtighed!

Wow...Who wouldn't love this? Another great reason Engineers rule!
With Forbidden Lego you can design and build all the dangerous things the Lego folks could never offer for fear of lawsuits and bad press.

Be sure to check out the Video Sample of the Lego gun and the Step by Step plans for a paper airplane launcher.

Fornøjelse!

The You Tube Threat

An interesting television show was on the other night on ABC. I found it interesting because it was a great example of TV trying to survive in the face of streaming video...I guess they see things like YouTube and Metacafe as competition.
The show is called icaught and it basically rehashes everything you'cve already seen online.Maybe it's just another cheap attempt to grab ratings...it's easy to run a teaser of guys crashing bikes or animals going nuts to draw in viewers.
But they have an added advantage: A big budget.

For example, they took a now-famous video, which coincidentally is referenced on my friend Ned's blog and gathered together those involved for interviews. I was torn. I mean, the video itself is what YouTube is all about..the raw, real world thrown out there in ever increasing numbers of videos. However, the folks at ABC got the guy who took the video(turns out he barely knows how to work his camera) and another guy who DIDN'T film it,but posted a copy he received on YouTube for a friend to see. They can pay to get all those involved together and "explain" it all to you.

I'm still not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, i-caught is just shameless copycatting by a powerful network, masquerading as, yes, NEWS.

On the other hand, it is interesting to get some back-story on the stuff you see.

Ultimately, I have to give it a thumbs down. The cheesy voice-overs and unnecessary editing(gotta save time for commercials) and the whole bandwagon mentality turns me off of it.
They should stick with what they're good at when it comes to videos: People getting hit in the crotch.


PS I might watch if they get Gary Brolsma on.

Foreign Policy Primer

A little too close for comfort...
How to Explain Foreign Policy to your kids

Winnebago Warrior

Imagine that! A pro-war Republican with sons who are NOT enlisting.
No, really, driving around helping Dad get elected is really tough work...

Tiocfaidh Ár Lá

One step closer!

Let's hope this heralds the beginning of a new era!

Get Lost

When I was young and stupid(I'm old and stupid now), some friends and I discovered some abandoned buildings on a soon-to-be deactivated Air Force base we used to live on.
It was night and we wandered around one particular building, finding our way with flashlights, peering into the frozen-in-time eeriness of the rooms and offices.
The jackpot was what appeared to be a command center with a huge plexiglass map board a la Dr. Stranglove. You could just imagine scores of soldiers plotting the trajectories of bombers across this map, while the Brass stood above, looking approvingly out of the large, glassed in office.

This site brought back that feeling. A great collection of photos taken of abandonded towns,factories...and creepily enough, Abandoned Mental Institutions
Looking at some of these, you get a sort of a The Shining meets The Blair Witch Project kind of feel. What is it about exploring empty buildings that makes you start believing in ghosts?

Seek and You Shall Find

From PC World comes this excellent collection of some strange sights discovered via Google Earth.

If you really like them, you can download the Placemark

The Badlands Gaurdian is incredible...I think I like the naturally occuring weirdness versus the man-made weirdness.

OK, I'm off to find my own oddities out there. A while back I found some strange circles in the Saudi Arabian desert...I'll see if I can find them again. That or finding a little boat out in the middle of south Pacific would be cool.

Loaded With Fun

What do you get when you cross The Cramps with The IDF?

Israeli Girls with Machine Guns
Apologies to Lux Interior

Speaking of Spoilers...

WARNING: Bible Spoiler*


* Digg'd ad naseum

Free Elections

Interesting perspective on the mess in Israel/Palestine.
I still keep going back to the fact that these maniacs were freely elected and our President, whose self-proclaimed mission is to spread Democracy throught the world, and especially the Muslim world, is doing everything he can to undermine an elected government.(And not just Venezuela's).

Hamas acted on a very real fear of a US-sponsored coup | Israel and the Middle East | Guardian Unlimited

This land is your land...as long as you're Christian I guess

Ahhh..Who says we don't have our very own Taliban in this country?
Who was it said "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in an American flag, holding a cross"?
American Taliban

Maps! Maps! Maps!

Wow....
Paracelsus had an awesome post regarding some excellent map mashups out there.
Intrigued, and on a somewhat different tack(looking for payphone maps), I found Google Maps Mania which offers up the most amazing array of mashups imaginable.

Zum Beispiel: A map to help you figure out your Taxi Fare before you even hit the ground...No more long ways around the park!

Night on Earth

So much cool stuff..I think my next few evenings are going to be lost in looking at maps.
I wonder if there are any Here There Be Monsters mashups out there?

File Under: Why Didn't I think of that?

From LifeHacker comes this awesome idea for those of in need of a bathroom, like NOW.

Now, if only that guy who craps on the corner of Capp and 16th streets could get a cell phone...

Rheem Hot Water

OK, this is not something to play at work(unless you have headphones), but an Aussie co-worker played this for me quite a while back and I nearly keeled over from laughing.
Then we couldn't find it any more....disappeared into the ether somehow.
Well, he's back Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rheem Hot Water Guy

NOTE: In case it's not clear,or his accent is too much for you, he having a serious problem with his water heater and is trying to reach someone at Rheem for service.

Order In The Court

OK, I can't tell you how happy I am to hear this guy LOST his suit against the Dry Cleaners that lost his pants.

They even tried to give him $1000 to replace them, but he would have none of it...No, the only just compenation in his mind for losing his pants was $54 million!

Just too weird

OK, from the guy who brought you Wigstock...a nice little video to give you nightmares for weeks.

So STRANGE I won't embed the video.

What? No Outsourcing Jokes?

Still funny stuff:

Das Leben der Anderen

I hate to play up a movie too much, for fear will imbue someone with such high expectations that upon seeing the film they are disappointed. Well, I'm going to take a chance here and tell you to see The Lives of Others(Das Leben der Anderen).

I will warn you not to read too much of the description above. I find that the less I know of a movie before going in, the more enjoyable it is...maybe that's just me.

At any rate, it's a very well made film and manages to transport you back in to East Berlin circa 1984. My wife and I both jumped and glanced at each other knowingly when one of the characters entered a corner bar in East Berlin. It was uncanny how it captured the same look and feel of a bar we had accidentally stumbled upon while lost on the other side of the wall a year before it came crashing down.

So check out he film and let me know what you think. It still haunts me days after seeing it.

I once was lost, but now I'm 404

Talk about stumbling upon stuff! I was checking my Google ranking(Big fat zero by the way) and found the St. Frank site. Nice domain name....Lucky! Anyway, I was checking some of the links and found this awesome 404 page!Heh.

Got me to thinking...there must be a jillion other 404's out there.
And I was right.
Probably the oldest site dedicated to 404.

Area 404

404 Webring

Now, go find some of your own...or just don't find what you're looking for.

Stumbling Toward Web Enlightenment

Wish you could be up to date on the COOL sites on the web? Do you have a boss who actually expects you to work all day, rather than scour the Internet for its bounty of awesomeness?
Well, fear not...StumbleUpon will help you in your quest to know what's hip...or at least what a few zillion people think is worth checking out.

For example, I found This Nugget there...Whew! Let me read that again.

Happy stumbling.

Good News!

The Johnny Crossbones site is back!
Nuff said.

Bimonthly

Someone at worked recently asked if "bimonthly" meant every two months...I told him I thought it meant twice a month.
Thanks to the good people at AskOxford we now know we were both right.Or both wrong.

More fun to be had at their FAQ Page

Sadly, "deliverables" is a real word...No word yet on "Going forward" being used as a substitute for "in the future". (Guess it would be "In Future" for those Oxford chaps..sorry Guv'nah)

Run Like Hell

It's not just running...think running plus gymnastics plus Jackie Chan and you'll get a little of what Parkour or Free Running is about.
Whatever you call it, it's difficult to turn away...difficult to not be in awe of what these guys can do.Plus, also, I imagine you could clear subway turnstiles like nobody's business!
On the other hand, it makes me feel like a schlub! My god, I can barely clear three stairs at a time!

This a particularly good example...starts out a bit slow, but stick with it.


This one's quality is bit off, but the roof jumping is phenomenal.

And here's David Belle, the one who started it all.

More to come...

More Cowbell

"I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell!"

What started it all
You can even view the transcripts in case you want to work on your Christopher Walken impersonation.

And the Cowbell Project. I particularly like the "Songs that should have a cowbell" section. I mean, what song couldn't benefit from cowbell?

Cars

Looking for really cool pics of cars for your desktop background?
Well, Look No Further!

Comics

I was never really a comicbook fan, unless you count MAD magazine...in which case, I was a maniac.
However, no Spiderman, Silver Surfer, none of that...Don't know why, just didn't dig it.
Anyway, there's this guy, Les McClaine who has a really nice blog and a very cool comic strip(hope that's not somehow deragatory) called Johnny Crossbones. He actually has more, but I like that one cuz it's the one I've been trying to catch up on. And it's well drawn and well written and all around great.
It's kind of Tin Tin-esque...although the Little Johnny Crossbones is a kind of ghoulish looking Calvin and Hobbes.
Anyway, lots of fun to be had and incredible drawing!



UPDATE: 5/3/07 Seems the jonnycrossbones site has been hijacked or something...the bottom line is, NO Jonny Crossbones! I emailed Les McClaine to see what's up.

Feast of Saint Patrick

Enjoy the day and have a look at this article for some background.

St. Patrick

So we're at that time of year again...St. Patrick's Day. The annual bacchanal...the orgy of drinking and the general lame behavior that goes along with it. I will(shamefully) admit that I will most probably be eating Corned Beef and Cabbage this weekend...but only so as not to insult my mom!
At any rate, I found an excellent site that might act as a decent antidote to all of this "Kiss Me I'm Irish" stuff that rears its ugly head this time of year.
Irish KC is written by a talented, artistic REAL Irishman, who somehow wound up in Kansas City!It's a great source of information on Ireland and America-from-an-Irish-perspective.
He has a Irish Glossary, sadly with no pronunciation guide, but cool nonetheless.
There's also an FAIQ, a Frequently Asked Irish Questions area, which I would encourage everyone to read, thus saving yourself the embarrassment and the poor Irish person you meet the indignity of having do deal with such questions.

Lots more to see there too...so enjoy, and Happy Saint Patrick's Day(Which, I was told by an Irish Friend, they don't actually say in Ireland....)

Watcho, Watcho Man!

Hell yes!
How did I live without this site?
Watchismo!
Sure, they could have called it "Watchmodo", like all the other gadget blog types, but nooooo. And why didn't they? They are just too WATCHO for words, that's why!
Here's the Vintage watch page...Excellent.
The funny thing is, I don't even OWN a wristwatch.

Eat My Shorts

In the beginning, Matt Groening did his own animation!

The Shorts

Stair na Eirann

Here's a decent site with plenty of Irish History links.
Irsih History

Update: The Pogues drive a Cadillac SUV?

Finally found the commercial on YouTube...and just in time foir Irish History Month!
Listen to the lyrics after the've all piled into the Family Wagon...as the old man sips his coffee. Classic!

Irish History Month

Well, why not? It beats one day of Green Beer, garish green plastic bowlers and general lunacy.

Here's a nice collection of Irish Short Stories to kick things off.

Damn Cool Pics

More to see at
DamnCoolPics

The First Step

Turns out the first step is not admitting you have a problem, but building a Beer Catapult!!

Where to Begin...

OK, I haven't been able to find it on YouTube yet, but I just saw a commercial with the Pogues' "Sunny Side of the Street" as the background. I was trying to figure out who they sold out to and who got the money...and how much when I realized they used the first verse of the song!! For a Cadillac SUV commercial!If you're not familiar with it, here goes:
"So I saw that train
And I got on it
With a heart full of hate
And a lust for vomit
Now I'm walking on the sunnyside of the street"


Now, I think that's poetry, but I have NO idea how or why some Madison Avenue hack would think it was appropriate for the kind of commercial they showed..The Caddy SUV, whatever it is.
God, talk about a lust for vomit.

The Haka

If you are a fan of the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Team then you are probably familair with their Pre-Game Haka.

Here's the All Black's version which is as close to the traditional as you can get on a Rugby field.

Em, and here's the "Aussie Version".

"You come-a, you come-a Waltzing Matilda with me!"

Sad Realization

Meh, I still like Vista...But this is great.

Cluster

Remember my plaintive post about how nobody reads my blog? Yeah, I know, what a freakin' whiner.

Well, I found a tool that will show me the geographical location of my visitors(if any).
It's from ClustrMaps and it's on the right sidebar..a little ways down.
On my site it's pretty pathetic...not too many visitors right now, but what I find intriguing is trying to guess who I know in that part of the world that might be visiting.

I know the dot in the SF Bay Area is large because I access this site to add posts, etc. But, what re those dots in the Mid-West? I already know the East Coast(Thanks Paracelsus) and Florida( Hi elf)....but not the others. At any rate, as ridiculous as it sounds, it's pretty fun. Kind of like throwing a message in a bottle out to sea. Good, clean, lonlely fun.

Car of the Future

At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney or Jerry Seinfeld: What is the deal with these Gull Wing doors?
As long as I can remember, every auto show has a prototype "car of the Future" which invariably is equipped with the futuristic Gull Wing Door. But have you ever seen a production car with these doors?? Outside of the DeLorean and a Mclaren SLR, they don't really exist.
And why is that? Why is it that almost every other cool car gadget has come to fruition, like GPS on your dash, integrated phones, heated seats, etc., but the Gull Wing Door? Nope.
Is it a safety issue? I mean, if you flip the car, you're pretty much screwed and it's not like these things are going on station wagons(Well,the Ford Airstream pictured here is breaking the mold, but trust me...).
Is it a convenience issue? Maybe they are impractical in cramped parking garages? And what if your battery dies?
They always seem to open with a whooshing Star Trek door kind of efficiency.Hardly worthy of someone manhandling the thing to get it open.

I think the real answer is this: Designers use the Gull Wing Door as an easy out. It's got to be tough coming up with daring new designs every year..what's a designer to do? I bet they just get to a point where they tell the intern,"Put some damn gull wing doors on that design" and then they go out for beers while the hapless intern slaves away.

Fair and Balanced

Wait, that's Fox News...
If you live in the Bay Area, you may be familiar with KSFO Talk Radio. It's the home of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Dr. Laura. You get the idea. A real bastion of Progressive thinking.
Anyway, Spocko has apparently run afoul of these guys...See, he had this great idea of sending sound clips of some of the shows aired to the advertisers. Now, KSFO is owned by Disney, so they have a lot of clout....They can attract big name advertisers(and hence big bucks) based on that affiliation, and they can also unleash their lawyers on whomever they do not like. Guess what? Goliath is trying to smash David again. Only this time, David might get stomped. Disney issued a cease and desist order to Spocko, who does NOT have their clout, and promptly was effectivley shut up.(He removed the sound clips from his site).

Luckily, you can listen to them HERE

Free Speech is an integral part of our society and KSFO has every right to spew its venoumous, hate-filled, slanted idiocy all it wants. But I think it's also OK to inform the advertisers just what they are being associated with..It's not Mickey and the Mouseketeers guys, it's more like Adolf and Brown Shirts.

Other Links:
CrooksandLiars

MediaMatters

DailyKos. Eh, way better written than mine!

Happy New Year

Here's a good resolution: This year, I'm going to BUY a country. I mean, if Madonna and Angelina Jolie can buy kids and some warped sense of...something, then I can buy a country.
It just so happens one is available!
Yeah, I'm pretty good at CIV III, so I figure I could run this place. After all, it's just an old anti-aircraft gun platform. Of course, I have big plans...BIG plans for that place my friends.

Oh, I know Slashdot and Boing Boing beat me to it, but who cares...We'll see what they say to me when I'm KING.