Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

So I found this site while checking out makeuseof.com today. It claims to track down those annoying copycats out there who are stealing all of your blog contetnt.

Now for me, it's not such a big deal, you know, because if I ever came up with some original content, the world just might end. For example, I did a search on my URL and found John MCManamon's site that had the same, *gasp*, joke as mine! Eh, well, he posted his 473 days ago...and he referenced William Wallace, not Bonnie Prince Charlie. So he might want to have a word with me.

On the other hand, this would be useful for guys like The Photoshop Disasters dude I wrote about below, who obvioulsy has someone leeching his stuff. Looks like now he's aware of it and is watermarking all his work.

So, how do you measure up? Check and see how much of your Intellectual Property is being mined for god knows what reason.

Plastic Surgery Photoshop Disasters

OK..UPDATE:
This guy's blog appears to be the original ...the one below I guess is glomming off of it...not sure.

UPDATE: I am removing the original. DIGG'd link and keeping the Photoshopdisasters page above.

It's great to see someone calling an "Emperor has no clothes" (or "The Emperor's butt was badly photoshopped")on all the retouched and refinished images we are subjected to every day.
Honestly, I wonder how many celebrities I've passed on the street, totally unaware of their presence, because they look like every other schlub walking around.

I'm not sure which fakes I like better: The obvious 'airbrushing' of stars to make then look flawless or the bonehead mistakes of the artists who apparently need to take an anatomy class

Happy St. Pat's

Amused to Death

OK, what a week.....And yes, I'm an awful person for not updating in weeks. WEEKS!

What are you gonna do?

Las Vegas. A week in this town can be rough, especially on someone who has never been. Yes, it's true...I'm a Vegas virgin.

The thing is, it's the money and what it buys you...A whole city built on entertainment...whatever makes you happy.

Want to gamble? Knock yourself out? Drink anywhere and everywhere? Sure. Get a prostitute sent to your room in less than 20 minutes? You got it pal. Well, I did one of those, but I wasn't that much happier. You can probably guess which.
Among other things, it got me to Thinking...capital "T" thinking, about what happiness is, and since Vegas ain't a place you're going to find the Dalai Lama, I did the next best thing and went online.(OK, I was working a conference there and had some downtime too...)

I managed to run across a guy who was selling his Isolation Tank. Yeah, so it's Joe Rogan...but the idea is that this guy, and plenty of others, used this device in an attempt to attain a higher level of happiness. I know it would have been a better article had it been written by Timothy Leary, but Joe does make a few good points about clearing your mind to find inner peace and happiness. And no, I didn't bother with the video...let me know if it sucked.

On the other hand, I found a guy writing about a trip he took on his Ural motorcycle. Not just any trip, but a trip from Halifax to Seattle...on a Ural. Those of you who are unfamiliar with Urals just think of them as a motorcycle version of an East German Trabant...but not as smoky and prone to failure. OK, they do fail...just read Lutz' story.But still, not as smoky.

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a zillion years ago and at the time i really missed the point. I don't know, I always liked motorcycles and maybe I was thinking there'd be some cool racing or something going on in the book. Lutz' story took me back to that book, it brought the point home. I mean, this guy was daring and brave(and a little nuts) to take this trip, but it's so beautiful. He couldn't have been happier, even though at some point he was riding with only ONE cylinder firing...it didn't matter. This kind of odyssey...is it Quixotic?....Who knows...What I do know is, after reading it I wanted to do it. I wanted to pile my stuff in a Ural and see where the road took me;to greet the occasional mechanical failure as an opportunity to learn, to meet new people, to take in stride the crap life throws you on your journey. I mean, admit it folks, some of our lives are more Ural-like than BMW-like if you know what I mean, and rather than fight it, you should accept the fact that your spark plug wires sometimes get fried and you have to figure out a work-around. It just sounded like such a great trip and when you think about it, a motorcycle is a kind of Isolation Tank.

I think of the two paths to happiness I read about, Lutz' struck me as the more enjoyable. I'd much rather take my chances on the road than float in a salt bath in pitch darkness...I don't know, call me crazy.

As for Vegas, meh, it's not for me. Maybe if I were younger and/or single-er, I'd have enjoyed it, but as it was, I chose to dream of rattling down a backroad on a Cossack bike, hoping the axle wouldn't fail before I got to the next town.

Here's the Ural "accessories" page. Notice the repair manual is the first item listed. I'm just saying.

Here are more stories of people and their Urals

Writer's Bloc

So this bitter strike by the WGA may at this very moment be over. Whew! What a relief...I mean, how long can we be expected to go without? Without...without what?
It's not like a garbage strike in the middle of summer....or a transit strike that leaves you stranded at a bus stop or train station...What are we actually giving up because of this strike? We're giving up crappy TV.

Now I know these people have a job to do and we should respect Labor. Believe me, I do: I won't cross a picket line. But how do you NOT cross a picket line here? Most people have not turned off their TV's, they're simply fed slightly crappier fare than usual...All these half-baked shows that I guess the networks keep in reserve in just such a situation. Scab TV! OK, so what is it? It's "Reality TV"...we've had that for a while, but this stuff is the junk that would never normally see the light of day. Not like, you know, "CSI"...or "Two and a Half Men"..or, gack, "According to Jim". There..the emperor has no damn clothes.
Come on...There's probably somone on that picket who is responsible for "Moesha"!
Yeah, there are your random "Lost" or "Simpsons" writers, but let's face it, most of these guys are looking for yet another specialty version of "Law and Order" or "CSI".

I hope they get what they need to make a living, but is too much to ask to get some good product?

Stand in the place where you live

Just saw this Improv Everywhere mission today and thought it was just incredible. I've seen another of this type of thing in a Best Buy or Circuit City (think it was aFlash Mob event), and though it was amusing , it somehow wasn't as powerful as this one.
I think it's the sheer size...bigger is better! And the sheer number of participants. The reactions are classic and the Agents' ability to remain stock still is awesome. To pull this off in New York is no mean feat...although you could argue there is a large percentage of non -New Yorkers in this case. But the main thing that struck me was how much fun this must be. The good news is, they're not just in New York...They're global.

Another great Mission was the Abercrombie & Fitch shirtless-in. "What? But you hired a shirtless guy to stand in your store...why can't I shop shirtless?". Um....two words: Man boobs.

More missions here

Apple Air

Steve Jobs called...Here's the new Laptop Bag for your Apple Air





After all, after spending $3200 for a laptop, you'll have nothing left to buy a real bag...

*UPDATE: OK, I didn't know they wre actually using these things in their commercials...Come on, this is a joke! Honestly, I can't wait to see someone bring their busted up Air into the "Genius Bar" and ask for a warranty repair because the laptop case/envelope didn't keep the LCD from cracking.

A Scotsman(boy) has enough

Got this from my friend Freakshow...He's not Scottish, but can appreciate a good joke when he sees one.


Teacher: "Good morning children, each Thursday we're
going to have a general knowledge quiz. The pupil who
gets the answer right can have Friday and Monday off
and not come back to school until Tuesday." Wee Jock
thinks, "Ya bassa. Ah'm
pure brilliant at ma general knowledge stuff. This is
gonnae be a dawdle, come ahead ya radge, a lang
weekend fir me.'

Teacher: "Right class , who can tell me who said
'Don't ask what your country can do for you, but what
you can do for your country?' Wee Jock shoots up his
hand, waving furiously in the air. Teacher looking
round picks Jeremy at the front. Teacher: Yes,
Jeremy." Jeremy (in a very English accent): "Yes miss,
the answer is J F Kennedy - inauguration speech 1960."
Teacher: "Very good Jeremy. You may stay off Friday
and Monday and we will see you back in class on
Tuesday."

The next Thursday comes around, and Wee Jock is even
more determined. Teacher: "Who said. 'We will fight
them on the beaches, we will fight them in the air, we
will fight them at sea. But we will never surrender?'"
Wee Jock's hand shoots up, arm stiff as a board,
shouting "I know. I know. Me Miss, me Miss." Teacher
looking round and picks Timothy, sitting at the front:
"Yes Timothy."

Timothy (In a very, very posh, English accent): "Yes
miss, the answer is Winston Churchill, 1941 Battle of
Britain speech."
Teacher: " Very good Timothy, you may stay off Friday
and Monday and come back to class on Tuesday." The
following Thursday comes around and Wee Jock is hyper,
he's been studying encyclopedias all week and he's
ready for anything that comes.

He's coiled in his wee chair, slavers dripping in
anticipation. Teacher: "Who said 'One small step for
man, one giant leap for mankind'?" Wee Jock's arm
shoots straight in the air, he's standing on his seat,
jumping up and down screaming "Miss, me miss, meeeeee!
" Teacher looking round the class picks Rupert,
sitting at the front: "Yes Rupert." Rupert (In a
frightfully, frightfully, ever so plummy English
accent: "Yes miss, that was Neil Armstrong. 1969, The
first moon landing." Teacher: Very good Rupert. You
may stay off Friday and Monday and come back into
class on Tuesday."


Wee Jock loses the plot altogether, tips his desk and
throws his wee chair at the wall. He starts screaming:
"Where the f**K did all these English b*st*rds come
from?" Teacher looking round the class: "Who the hell
said that?" Wee Jock, grabs his coat and bag and heads
for the door, "Bonnie Prince Charlie, Culloden, 1746.
See you on Tuesday."

Who was Bonnie Prince Charlie?

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.

God Bless us, everyone

Happy Happy Joy Joy Christmas!!

There's a Spectre...

The narrartor's voice is not the best, but this is CLASSIC!

Wild Tangent

Try to follow this... Why am I posting a link to the Great Lakes Real Time Vessel Location site?You can track ships up and down the St. Lawrence river and the Great Lakes(Kinda like Paracelsus' link to Real time flight tracking)

I went to Tower Records over the weekend and bought Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions CD, cuz it was half off! (In your face Amazon!!!) Anyhow, listened to it with my kids and my daughter was singing along with Erie Canal, which was funny, because I remember learning that song as a kid.

So that whole Erie Canal thing was in my mind, when I saw This!

Yow! So I had to find out what that was all about, which led me to the Boatnerd site's account of it, and from there I just went nuts.

There are a lot of cool things on the boatnerd site(including its great name).How about a charity auction to win a "cruise"on a freighter?? Good times. No, seriously..I was Google-Earthing the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes...What a crazy place...Being from out West, we don't get to enjoy all of that industro-maritime coolness. Unless you live in Long Beach maybe. Feh!

And there you have it...Why I'm posting a vessel tracking link here.
Maybe it's a Synchronicity. Or not.

Literally

I was literally rolling on the floor laughing when I saw this. Well,...no. But If I had, then that would have been the correct use of the term 'literally'.

A site devoted to the abuse of the word "literally".

And just because, Someone spent a lot of time researching "Further" versus "Farther".

How do you get your kicks?

I know I should be camping outside a Wal-Mart for a PSIII and enduring the unbelivable insanity, not to mention the cold, but I don't find that at all amusing.
What's got me all excited now is Windows Vista. There I said it. I know, pathetic....maybe pathetic is too mild a word, but it'll have to do.
Anyway, who cares, did you know there are some real cool feaure in MS Vista? And I don't mean "features", you know, like feeeeatures? No, some are actually PRACTICAL.

Like, Copying and Pasting from a remote computer

Or how about ReadyBoost which allows you to use a Flash Drive for virtual memory? Ok, maybe not that practical, but cool nonetheless.

Or my favorite,Dynamic Disk Resizing...I'm guessing the guys at Partition Magic are gonna be pissed.

Swords into Plowshares...or Giant Fire Extinguishers

Saw this on Gizmodo today (Check the link for more information.) Hungarian engineers cobbled together bits of old Soviet-Era weaponry to produce what can only be described as the Mother of all fire extinguishers.

Feh...The user disabled embedding the video, so you'll have to go to YouTube to see it.

Be Careful Out There

Tips on navigating the Internet.

Live to Ride

The yearly pilgrimage to the International Motorcycle Show is nearly upon us.(By us, I mean those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area, some of you have already had the pleasure).
This year I may try attending sans enfants mainly becasue I will actually be able to focus on the bikes rather than my 3 year old falling off a Suzuki RM85. On the other hand, my girls really like going to the show and climbing on the bikes....and what better way to get a majority opinion on motorcycle ownership around the house than that? Hmmmm...something to consider.
In the meantime, here's a sampling of what I'll be ogling:

Better Get Me A Bucket

Happy Halloween!
What better way to start the festivities than with a little Buckethead?


In case you don't know who he is, check out the Wikipedia entry

More

See ya in the Gulag

"Stay the course"
"Freedom's on the march"

Oh, and this one:

"The Bush Administration is replacing toilet paper with the Constitution"

I (Ride) The Line

First a warning: You may become addicted...painfully so.

OK, that's out of the way. Now, go to Line Rider and have fun. Just be careful you don't kill the little guy.

I manged a loop-the-loop and a 360 and some pretty killer near-wipeouts...and that was only after trying it for 136 hours!

NOTE:If you find it too difficult, try this slightly hacked version...less gnarly crashes. A bad thing, if that's what you're looking for.

Popularity Contest

So, all this time I've been thinking that this blog has just been a cyber version of me screaming into the void...I always wondered if anyone actually read it.
Well, my suspicions have been confirmed: No one reads this!
Oh, it's not so bad, it's not like I really expected anyone to(sniff)...
How do I know this? Why, I just went to The Blog Juice Calculator where I scored an impressive 0.0!! Woo Hoo! We're number 4,456,237,891!!!!Or something like that
Anyway, you too can go check your stats according to the number of RSS subscribers.

You can also confirm your own hipness buy checking the top ten blogs and note how many you subscribe to or have saved as Bookmarks. I always check out Gizmodo, and I'm not just saying that because they are number one either!

Yet another excellent feature is one where you can compare rankings between two blogs, for example, Me and Paracelsus Rambles.
Only problem is, it doesn't display the results in a tidy little table, no...you have to scroll down to see Paracelsus with an impressive 3.0 then keep scrolling....scroll some more...to see me...0.0! Just like High School!!

Engineers have all the fun dang it!

The guys at MIT spending some quality time with a wicked awesome whiteboard....

Greg Palast

I was reccomended a book called "Armed Madhouse" by Greg Palast.
I checked it out on Amazon but they unfortunately had no "Search Inside" enabled on it. It looks like a great read thogh, so after work I'm off to the bookstore.
I had never heard of this guy, but I'm glad I know about him now. he's an investigative journalist who does a great job of exposing greed and incompetence, especially in the Bush Administrattion(Yeah, he has his hands full, but hey, job security!)
Check out his site for more of his writing.
Good stuff.

Yer Man

A voice like no other! Here's a young Shane MacGowan singing with the Dubliners.

Vat iz zis man do-ink here?

If there's ANYTHING I've learned from watching Hogan's Heroes, it's you never mess with the Geneva Convention

How old are you?

Well, I'm old, that's for damn sure. So old in fact, that these videos bring back great memories. Fuzzy and disconnected memories to be sure, but memories nonetheless. And what are we without our memories? Huh? I wish I could forget my past haircuts, that's one memory I could live without.

Ha ha ha

Ah, so, say you're bored one weekend or are just really into SCIENCE...well, have no fear! You can mkae your own nitrous oxide for fun and profit(?)

Oooey Gooey

Ugh...just got finished moving. More on that soon. In the meantime, Enjoy this Collection of OS GUI's>....

Get Smart

Why do we not get the COOL cars here in the U.S.? No, we only get the Chevy Cobalt! Or the Dodge-freaking-Neon.
I'm talking about a cool, little car that gets killer milage...Right? Want to end our dependency on Foreign Oil? Well, Get Smart. I especially like the very customizable Roadster!
Now get this: This company is owned by Daimler-Chrysler...So come on already, start shipping these here..we need something to compete with the Scion xA and Honda Fit. Unfortunately, U.S. car makers are a litle slow on the uptake...I mean, how long did it take them to see the success of the Mazda Miata and come out with something to compete with it.

Beer Me

I enjoy a nice, cold beer while watching the World Cup, but after reviewing my picks in the pool I'm in, I think I may need to do more than just drink the beer. I might have to bathe in it!

Yes, the good people at Bierschwimmbad think bathing in beer is a great way to nourish your skin and feel better. I suppose so, but will it make me feel any better for NOT having picked Argentina to advance?
I'm sure an hour spent soaking in beer would cure nearly anything!

Lies, Damned Lies!

Not to be a wet blanket during all this World Cup fun, but I caught the last bit of a PBS Frontline program last night and, not having recorded it, was a little disappointed that I wouldn't be able to watch it in its entirety. Have no fear...PBS is Showing it online this Thursday.

I would recommend watching it if you have even the slightest doubts of this Administration's motivations.
Believe me, after having read "Weapons of Mass Deception", having seen Fahrenheit 9/11 and having lived through GWB's mind-numbing press conferences, this program essentially seals the deal. If you still believe we went to Iraq for the (ever changing) reasons Bush and Co. say we did, you must be in the dark or on the darkside....

World Cup Quote

Quote from a not-too-happy Australian fan, and former co-worker of mine, after Australia's loss to Brazil:
"Fucking assholes. Bet if the ball was a beer we would have feckin won"

Watch the World Cup on your PC

OK, I'll admit I failed. I was actually thrilled to find streaming audio of World Cup games, thinking after a very half-hearted search three was no way to actually WATCH it on your PC.
My friend at work found it today and rather than do all the heavy lifting, I'm going to point you to another blog(also a blogger.com site) that has the ol' How-To. Enjoy!

Get it at Ramblefish

One caveat: This software works great but creates a LOT of network traffic which may cause the network Security group to stop by your desk with lots of "ahem-ing"...Just pull up a seat for them and let them watch too...That should stop them from killing any neccesary ports.

Wieder Nomi

OK, embedding video is just so easy now that it may just turn this blog into a YouTube/GoogleVideo Fest.

I should have added this in the earlier post about the Nomi Song(The Biographical Documentary about Klaus Nomi). Mind you, the quality is pretty bad(by comparison there is a link on YouTube to an appearance by Klaus Nomi and David Bowie on SNL that is much better quality), but the video itself is quintessential Nomi. Of course, "music videos" were nearly unheard of when this was made, back when MTV actually played videos, so it shows its age a bit.

World Cup

So you're at work and you're dying to at least HEAR a World Cup match. Well, now you can. The Sun online has streaming, live commentary on current matches! I'd suggest headphones at work.

Mentos: The Mess Maker

Heh..Most of you have seen this already, but I just found it hilarious so I thought I'd post it...

Update: I didn't use YouTube on this for a couple of reasons:
1. The source site, revver.com, asked that the video not be linked to places like YouTube or Google Video and
2.I wanted to play around with the {embed} tag...

Feck

Been too busy/lazy to post lately.
But how's this? I've just finished reading Chalmers Johnson's The Sorrows of Empire and if you haven't read it yet, go get and start reading.
A lot of people will dimiss him as a loony Liberal, but he does a fair job of providing arguments for nhis analysis. This book is a bit of a continuation of his previous book Blowback, which centers more on U.S. Foreign plicy ion Asia.
It's a good wake up call at any rate.

Trouble and Strife

I've always been interested in slang.Who hasn't? The first thing you want to figure out is how to swear and use slang convincingly when learning a foreign language. Why? Probably so you can look like you've been speaking it all your life...Or to look cool..Or to NOT look like a tourist. Also, it's good for laughs if you're obviously too old to be speaking that way.

Now, Cockney Rhyming Slang has always confused the crap out of me. On its surface, it seems like something you'd be able to figure out since it's all rhymed, unlike other slang which just seems to be made up, with no clue as to its etymology. However, if someone were to ask you to "have a butcher's", would you know it meant "Have a look"? See, the trick is the whole rhymed phrase is not spoken. The complete phrase would be A butcher's hook".

Even so, how many other words rhyme with "hook" and "look"? I suppose you have to take context into account, but I've always wondered how even two people conversing in CRS could understand the meaning of the words. It's not like there's a definitive source, like a dictionary...Or is there?

And if anyone out there actually speaks like this in their daily life, please let me know. Is this "dictionary" accurate? Or is it a load of turkish delight?

Triste

Melancholy is a luxury.

Ten Hut!!

BootCamp...Drop and give me twenty!

Yeah, I finally got around to playing with a Mac that now thinks it's a PC. Unfortunately(or maybe fortunately), it was not a Mac I own.
To their credit, Apple has made it very easy to set up. As long as you have an XP SP2 disc, you're ready to go. After a quick firmware upgrade and a cursory look at the instructions(this makes sense later), I was off.

I was amazed once the XP installation completed and the MacBook Pro booted into the familiar "teletubbies" XP desktop...and even the XP sound. Weird. Of course, having not RTFM, I spent a while trying to figure out why the hell I had no network connectivity...then I realized you have to RUN the disk, not just point to it. That's why they provide instructions! Holding down the "alt" key on boot offers you the option of which "disk" to boot to...It's funny that the icons are these big ol' desktop hard drives...
The next hilarious move was realizing there was no "ctrl"+"alt"+"delete" combination on a Mac! Yeah, OK, it works with an external Windows keyboard, but this is a laptop. Did a little digging around and found the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, which has the 'remapkey' utility that allows you to do just that. I decided to christen the F12 key the Delete key for the purposes of logging in.

Voila, Windows on a Mac. There are still a few little annoyances,(trying to get LEAP authentication to work automatically), but it works and I think it could be a great move for business taht have developers using Unix/Windows and even Mac OSX!
I'm not convinced a bunch everyday people are going to rush out and do this though...especially the Maccolytes.

IP Freely

So, Paracelsus was out to visit recently, and when he found I was no slave to the Cable Company, he accused me of being a Luddite. It didn't help that I have no TiVo either.
Look, I'm no Luddite, I enjoy technology as much as the next guy. My problem is the money it takes to keep up with it all, which is why I'm intrigued by the advent of IPTV.I like that someone is stepping up to do battle with the Cable Companies. Not like the Telcos are real heroes either...
See Brian Clark's article on the first shots fired in the New Jersey Cable vs. Telco war. Of course, the Cable Companies are fighting tooth and nail to maintain their monopoly and hopefully, we'll all benefit from this Free Market slugfest. Wonder if the Invisible Hand will land a Sucker Punch....

No Future

If you long for the days (daze?) of early Eighties Punk, go to Strange Reaction.
What a find this was...I was looking for a version of "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" by The Damned,because I was trying to convince a co-worker that this song was the basis of "Ca Plane Pour Moi" by Plastic Bertrand. I found way more than that, in fact I had no idea there were that many independent Punk bands, from so many countries back then.Not only are there short Bios of the bands, but included are at least 2 songs of the album in question. And with bands like The Hugh Beaumont Experience, how can you go wrong?

Go Fly a Kite

With all the talk of Boot Camp out there, it's little wonder that someone doesn't try to get OSX to run on a PC.Well, someone has...Sort Of.

I like it. What I really want to do, is load it on a machine at work and see how many people I can convince that I've done the impossible.

Do you LUV your SUV?

From Ars Technica:
OK, so it looks like GM, in spite of all of their other problems, is partnering with Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" and allowing everday jokers to create their own Chevy Tahoe commercials. To their credit, they allow something like THIS to get in and posted on their site...complete with a Chevy logo...Nice.

And of course, here's mine

The Vinyl Solution

Granted, if I really wanted to, I could rip all my vinyl through a PC then transfer all those files to my Powerbook...then onto the iPod. OR, I could just get an iKey and be done with it.
This cool litle gadget will allow lazy slobs like me to avoid actual work and get those great Sparks' songs onto my iPod, so i can embarras myself further, by singining along to "Angst in my pants" while taking Asher.Mental for a walk.

Why Study Math? Here's Why.

I could have used this when I was in school. Unfortunately, I was in a family that "was never good at math" As a result(OK, I'm not going not blame it all on them), I never really excelled at math.
In college, I roomed with a Grad Student who switched from Physics to Mathematics.
At that level, math is closer to religion than anything else...A really goofy, freaky religion.
At any rate, a Norwegian Professor has compiled a list of 12 Reasons to Study Math.
I like the opening paragraph in which he notes that in the "developed" world, students see math as too difficult and boring, and as a result, study it less. What does this mean for the West?I am printing these 12 steps and hanging in the dining room where my daughters do their homework. They may come from a family that "was never good at math" either, but that doesn't mean they won't be!

Evolving

I Saw this on Gizmodo today and it reminded me of the Old, Sad Things site I sent to Paracelsus rambles a while back.
Why I should be sad, I don't know. Capitalism is about competition; winners and losers. In most cases, the losers get slapped by the Invisible Hand if they can't keep up, not that Faber-Castell
didn't try to keep up, but you know what I mean. It's just that in retrospect, you see how pitiful and/or misguided their attempts were.
It also got me thinking about typewriters. Yes, I am old enough to rememeber those...In college, I had a typewriter,a Brother. They
too tried to bridge the gap, with goofy little LCD screens and on-board dictionaries. Amazingly, they still make typewriters and, yes, they still have on-board dictionaries and the silly little LCD's. Their Australian site explains why someone would choose a typewriter, citing the need to produce professional documents, without "the cost and complexity of a PC". Meh, they may have a point. Just wondering when they too will go the way of the rotary phone.
Hey, imagine the "bridge" version of a rotary phone!

AWOL

Yes, well, I have been remiss in my posting recently. One noteworthy thing is that my Brother-in-law, who has an extensive construction background, was visiting and offered to help on the horrible home lighting project...The result? He was as unsuccessful as I! And he knows what he's doing!
What needs to be done now is to kick down some quid for a proper electrician to fix it...I'm washing my hands of the damn thing.

Pandora's (Boom)Box

The Music Genome Project. Begun about 5 years ago, Tim Westergren and like minded musicians and technical types began the Music Genome Project, the reult of which can be enjoyed at Pandora.
It attempts to "map" similar musical "genes", so that when you enter a song or artist, it will stream music by the artist, but will also find similar songs. They stress that this project and the technology behind it transcends mere "genres". Although, I recently entered "Devo" and was treated to "whip it" followed by "Planet Earth" from Duran Duran. You can tell Pandora if you like its choices, to play more like it or reject it. It will adjust what you hear accordingly.

It's fun to see what it provides based on what you enter and even see if you can stump it. Unfortunately, entering "Klaus Nomi" returned nothing. It's a fun way to mix up the music you can play while at work, or wherever. They allow you to have up to 100 "stations", lists that you create based on songs or artists. Go ahead, open the box.