ectoblog.com

I’m particular impressed with his aim. And while George’s ninja-like duck reflex was impressive too, better still would have been had he actually caught the shoes. Wouldn’t that have been great?

Cereal Box Archive

I remember eating a scary number of these cereals. And I remember seeing an even scarier number while plodding along behind my mother in the only grocery store aisle that made the trek even minimally worth it to my 5 year old self.

I mean, come on: Booberries!

From divisibleby0.com: How to Turn Your Car Into an Unstoppable Murder Machine

Step 3:

Earliest American Scat Found

The earliest-known fossilized feces was found recently in Oregon, placing humans on the American continents 1000 years earlier than previously believed. What do you think?

Sarah Fripp,
Systems Analyst
“I like to think that in thousands of years somebody is going to be looking at my poop.”

Sarah, we’d all like to think that. Or maybe just me.

Farthest South

Farthest South (sometimes stated as Furthest South), describes the most southerly latitude achieved by man before the conquest of the South Pole rendered the term obsolete.

I love stuff like this.

My own personal Farthest South is probably Lima. Farthest North is probably Andoya, Norway. I could confirm, but that would make this post harder than I care to make it.

My letter-writing campaign to the various cartooning syndicates and independents urging more cartoons about visits to breweries has started to pay off:

The World Question Center 2008

A collection of essays from people who know things about things they thought they knew but later figured out they didn’t. For instance, I like Martin Seligman’s essay about the probability of ET because he basically independently came to the same conclusion I came to, but with the added distraction of being Carl Sagan’s friend.

Earthrace - The Boat

In March 2008, Earthrace will attempt to set a new speed record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe running 100% biodiesel, and with a net zero carbon-footprint, in order to increase awareness of the environment and the sustainable use of resources.

“Net zero carbon footprint.” While I don’t want to detract from something cool–I like it when cool things happen– this phrase is beginning to really grate. This boat has a 3,000 gallon fuel tank. A non-trivial amount of energy went in to making it in the first place. It’s only “net zero” because the company buys carbon offsets. I could make a Hummer or a Boeing 727 “net zero” doing that.

You know, if *everybody* bought carbon offsets to reduce their carbon footprint to “net zero,” we’d still have a problem. I don’t care how many trees you plant, a 727 still does what it does.

Before someone says that I don’t understand the concept behind carbon offsets, let me just say this: I understand it. It’s a wonderful way to roll around in your cake and then eat it. It’s a wonderful way to keep doing what you’re doing with a clean conscience. I *understand* that. You gave at the office. You adopted the skinny televised black kid in Ethiopia. What you didn’t do was leave your Hummer at home and walk to the grocery store.

“Net zero carbon footprint.” Jesus Christ. The phrase is about to become absolutely meaningless as every damn company piles on with its own product. It’ll be like what happened to the word ‘retarded’ when it leaked out into the mainstream; psychiatrists had to come up with some other word. A perfectly descriptive term, ruined by squatters.

When a can of coke is advertised as having a “net zero carbon footprint,” the retardeding of the phrase will be complete.

Places I’ve been:

Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela will turn red sometime soon. And I kind of assume I’ll make it to India and China and Australia somewhen, I don’t know why. Antarctica, though, even though it doesn’t show up on this map (a gross oversight on the part of the World66 people), will be a tough nut to crack.

The 6 Most Terrifying Foods in the World | Cracked.com

#5. Casu Marzu

From: Sardinia, Italy.

What the hell is it?
This, dear reader, is a medium-sized lump of Sweet Fucking Christ.

There are whole nations made up of the weird Anderson kid down the street who’ll put any damn thing in his mouth.

AlterNet: Neocons on a Cruise: What Conservatives Say When They Think We Aren’t Listening

From time to time, National Review - the bible of American conservatism - organises a cruise for its readers. I paid $1,200 to join them. The rules I imposed on myself were simple: If any of the conservative cruisers asked who I was, I answered honestly, telling them I was a journalist. Mostly, I just tried to blend in - and find out what American conservatives say when they think the rest of us aren’t listening.

These are the winners, the smooth talkers, the sundogs; certain the losers deserve to lose, and they themselves deserve to win. They believe in the wall, in the way things have always been, in examples and lessons. But a time is coming, and they are afraid of it, when the wall will be used for reasons other than those they built it for. When that time comes, it will come heavily.

Simply the oddest thing I’ve ever seen on the internets.

Found on this photo blog.

Shorpy | The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog

I’d never seen this photoblog before recently, but now I see references for it everywhere. By “everywhere,” I mean in 3 different places.

Sign in the window says “Register here… Hop pickers… Picking starts Aug 29… Lakeside Hop Yards… Free tents, stoves, tables, wood, lights, camp.”

Here it is, in case your references aren’t my references.

Funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Apparently it’s also/really a game, but the video is wonderful by itself.

Jury nullification - Wikipedia

Jury nullification is a de facto power of the jury, and is not normally disclosed to jurors by the system when they are instructed as to rights and duties.

This totally changes how I’ll behave if I’m ever on a jury. Not that I’d tell the judge that.

A remote cam 70 feet in the air in Maine watches birdies sit and tweet and occasionally fly off. Baby birdies are in there, too; at least one was borneded this week.

Imagine, if you will, surfing through Youtube from music video to music video and finally ending up here; Paint Box, by Pink Floyd. As the video loads, I read several of the comments: “Syd’s great! David’s great! Syd’s lip-synching! He’s not; you suck!” Standard stuff. Now, when the video finally loads, and I’m prepared to see an old Pink Floyd video that I may or may not have ever seen, instead I see….Christopher Walken! Sitting in a chair in a deserted hotel! It all looks kind of familiar. I figure this will be one of those videos in which the scene cuts back and forth from the band to the actor. Fine.

Now the music begins in earnest, and Christopher Walken is dancin’ around like all get-out. I have the volume set really low because the hour is wee. It’s pretty amusing, really, and still kind of familiar, like I saw this video a single time long ago. But the music… the music is completely unlike any Pink Floyd song I’ve ever heard. “That can’t possibly be Syd Barrett,” I say to myself; “It must be Gilmour. It must be after Roger Waters left, and they’re doing some weird one-off job to help out their dear friend Christopher Walken.”

I watch the entire video, and it’s pretty funny. But the song simply can’t be from Syd days, or even Waters days, like some of the posters are saying. I know that much. And David Gilmour sounds really odd, like he’s intentionally disguising his voice, and the music sounds completely unlike any Floyd music I’ve ever heard. And how on earth did the posters’ conversation about lip-synching get started? All I saw was Christopher Walken shimmyin’ and flyin’ around. Did I look away from the computer at some point? I don’t remember that.

Really: what’s the story behind this video? It’s got to be from some album from the ’90’s, when I didn’t care anymore. And what’s Floyd’s connection with Walken? Who’s reviving whose career here?

So after the video ends, I wander through Google, just to connect some unconnected dots. I google through to another “Paint Box” video on Youtube. It loads up, and…it’s black and white! With jangly sixties noises! There’s Syd! WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SEE?

This is what I saw, somehow in place of the actual Pink Floyd video. And for seven or eight minutes, I’d convinced myself that I was watching some odd David Gilmour-produced thing that somehow escaped my attention when it came out. I haven’t been that disconnected with reality in a long time, and the return to earth was bone jarring.

In conclusion, it takes a special kind of idiot to confuse Fatboy Slim with Pink Floyd.