Friday, November 21, 2003
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
What I particularly like about this review of the Icelandic band Mum is the section on beard-scratchers:
"You know the beard-scratchers. It's a sub-category of music fan that bleeds into all genres, but seems to gather at electronic music shows featuring skinny, articulated men on stage, keeled over sampling units and PowerBooks. And as the man on stage continues to build his bed of white noise, stopping occasionally to scream nonsense into a microphone, or bring someone from Norway or Germany onstage to blow incomprehensible noise into a series of horns, the beard-scratchers will nod their heads and chat to their friends about their latest "project." While the beard-scratchers have certainly extended the careers of many the experimental music artist out there, their counterfeit appreciation of music – which is essentially grandstanding to determine who's the hippest, most "down" cat in the room – can tarnish the work of an electronic-based band that's actually worth the money. Luckily, it was too hot for beards Thursday night."
Here's another great usage of the term in context:
"I hate Radiohead, I hate them as people, I hate that fuckin' beard scratcher and his crew of intellectual stuff-stuffy-cuntfuckin-twats, but the new album sounds like it could be the best they've ever done. "
"You know the beard-scratchers. It's a sub-category of music fan that bleeds into all genres, but seems to gather at electronic music shows featuring skinny, articulated men on stage, keeled over sampling units and PowerBooks. And as the man on stage continues to build his bed of white noise, stopping occasionally to scream nonsense into a microphone, or bring someone from Norway or Germany onstage to blow incomprehensible noise into a series of horns, the beard-scratchers will nod their heads and chat to their friends about their latest "project." While the beard-scratchers have certainly extended the careers of many the experimental music artist out there, their counterfeit appreciation of music – which is essentially grandstanding to determine who's the hippest, most "down" cat in the room – can tarnish the work of an electronic-based band that's actually worth the money. Luckily, it was too hot for beards Thursday night."
Here's another great usage of the term in context:
"I hate Radiohead, I hate them as people, I hate that fuckin' beard scratcher and his crew of intellectual stuff-stuffy-cuntfuckin-twats, but the new album sounds like it could be the best they've ever done. "
Monday, November 17, 2003
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Apologies all around for not having posted in a long time. The wife and I are moving, so there was the purchase of a house and the sale of a house, and we are actively planning for the arrival of the first of our progeny.
But, having read the following article, I could not pass up the opportunity to share.
You may remember this article that was posted a while back. Well, turns out, whales are not the only aquatic animals that can get a case of the vapors. While I prefer them in wine sauce, it seems as though these guys are busy fouling up the waters. Similar to some co-workers of mine, it seems like they are just talking out of their asses.
But, having read the following article, I could not pass up the opportunity to share.
You may remember this article that was posted a while back. Well, turns out, whales are not the only aquatic animals that can get a case of the vapors. While I prefer them in wine sauce, it seems as though these guys are busy fouling up the waters. Similar to some co-workers of mine, it seems like they are just talking out of their asses.
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
And you thought we were just all crazed doughnut-eating hockey fans. Well...true, we are. But we're also world champions!
Monday, October 27, 2003
Can someone loan me a few bucks? I saw this mobile hydrogen generator on ebay that I want to pick up for the new house. You never know when some H2 will come in handy. I just hope they include information on cracking "H2 O" from water. That sure sounds complicated!
Speaking of my new house, anyone who will be in the DC area Nov 8th is welcome to come to my housewarming party. E-mail me for directions, etc if you can make it. Even those who don't lend me a couple dollars for the H2 generator are welcome - no hard feelings.
Speaking of my new house, anyone who will be in the DC area Nov 8th is welcome to come to my housewarming party. E-mail me for directions, etc if you can make it. Even those who don't lend me a couple dollars for the H2 generator are welcome - no hard feelings.
You've all seen the entertaining offshoots of those annoying motivational posters. Well, here's a new take on 'em.
Friday, October 24, 2003
A bolt from the blue. You'd think that the assistant director would take the hint after the second time.
Monday, October 20, 2003
Here's a touch of what you might call, irony. Pamela Anderson, in her role of PETA spokesperson, is speaking up on behalf of chicken welfare across North America. She wants chicken growers to stop using growth hormones, which results in (among other things), artificially larger breasts.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Of course, if they're dead, their identity is that much easier to steal. It's not a problem though, as apparently only 0.03% of passports issued are fraudulent. But, hang on a minute, that's 1,500 a year!
Monday, October 13, 2003
You do'nt need to put the lterets in a wrod in the creocrt order for tehm to be elasiy uendsrotod so long as the first and last ltteres are ceorrct, or so it is cmliaed. Th'eres also a naet riuftatoen of tihs cilam dinog the rudnos on the 'net. And hee'rs a tool you can use to try it for yulosref.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
It happened with VHS, it happened with the 'net, and it happened with cell phones.
OK, I'm running a sweepstakes on how long it'll be before some enterprising individual starts releasing porn in this format.
OK, I'm running a sweepstakes on how long it'll be before some enterprising individual starts releasing porn in this format.
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Two states are bickering over a land grant enacted by King Charles I to Lord Baltimore in 1632. Does anyone else find just a hint of irony in this, given that whole War-of-Independence thing? American citizens forced to live by the laws of a defeated former oppressor, a foreign sovereign nation, and a known nuclear power to boot! Quick, I'd better alert the President. Needless to say, the Governator would not stand for this kind of foolishness. He'd send a cyborg back in time to kill the infant King Charles I.
Monday, October 06, 2003
Many Western celebrities would never make crass, stupid commercials, right? Well, not if they thought their main fanbase would see them. Now, thanks to the Internet you can.
Thursday, October 02, 2003
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Need to communicate. Don't bother with Esperanto or any of those other useless languages. Learn Trouser Semaphore.
Monday, September 29, 2003
Is anybody available to help me with an engine swap? The 5.8L V8 in my Bronco is a bit underpowered compared to one of these things.
Friday, September 26, 2003
Bloggity bloggity blog. You can tell I'm busy this afternoon, but what I can't tell is why the guy on the right in the picture hasn't either shot the other guy in the nuts or the head. I wonder if you get a lifetime guarantee with one of these...?
OK how lazy can you get? Too lazy to cook? Too lazy to dress? Well, now you can even be too lazy to wank.
Thursday, September 25, 2003
Shaun's bum post reminded me of an old Reprobates standby - our good friends at Grupo Industrial ARSE in Mexico, but (butt!) who are not to be confused with the company whose web site can be found at http://www.arse.com.mx which is a clothing manufacturer called Grupo TRUENO (pronounced "true ano") ...
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Monday, September 22, 2003
I'm not sure if I'd prefer the Bum Song ("My bum song's gone a bit squeaky" "He likes his bum song low and laid back"), or the Bum Jolly ("Have you seen my bum jolly?" "I'd like a stiff bum jolly please" "Why don't you have a go on my bum jolly?"). I think Jolly. Clicky http://www.bum.it/, enter and select products.
Friday, September 19, 2003
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
This list is cute, I suppose, but they missed a few:
10. You're a missionary? No way! That's my favorite position!
9. What's this bracelet mean? It stands for "Who Would Jesus Do?"
8. Give me ten minutes and I can have you screaming "Oh, Jesus, I'm coming!"
7. Woman, get on your knees and pray. Oh, and while you're down there ...
6. Second coming of Christ? That's nothing. You should see my third ...
5. You can call it "the holy trinity", I still prefer to think of it as a three-way.
4. Which is your favorite? Old Testicle, or New Testicle?
3. I am the Shepherd. Lay thyself down and my rod will comfort thee.
2. Christ died for your sins. Let's make it worth his while!
and the number one "Christian" pickup line they missed ...
1. Hey good lookin'. Wanna play priests and altarboys?
10. You're a missionary? No way! That's my favorite position!
9. What's this bracelet mean? It stands for "Who Would Jesus Do?"
8. Give me ten minutes and I can have you screaming "Oh, Jesus, I'm coming!"
7. Woman, get on your knees and pray. Oh, and while you're down there ...
6. Second coming of Christ? That's nothing. You should see my third ...
5. You can call it "the holy trinity", I still prefer to think of it as a three-way.
4. Which is your favorite? Old Testicle, or New Testicle?
3. I am the Shepherd. Lay thyself down and my rod will comfort thee.
2. Christ died for your sins. Let's make it worth his while!
and the number one "Christian" pickup line they missed ...
1. Hey good lookin'. Wanna play priests and altarboys?
Monday, September 15, 2003
Saturday, September 13, 2003
The Man in Black has cashed in his chips. If you need me, I'll be in the bottom of a whiskey bottle.
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Last week's Onion? It blew. This week's? Pretty good ...
I think we all know people like this, for example.
I think we all know people like this, for example.
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Those of us old enough to remember the glory days of Acorn & Sinclair (Timex in the US, oddly enough) have oft lamented that it's phenomenally hard for beginners to learn how computers REALLY work at a low level these days. Back in the day, we had widespread access to cheap'n'cheerful hardware with 8-bit CPUs and 64K of RAM - and an assembler, and hobbyist books, magazines and user groups to support us. Consequently, many of us grew up writing Z80 and 6502 assembler code, or, if we were lucky, PEEKing and POKEing our way through "low memory" with BASIC to see what we could make the machine do.
These days, I don't even know who produces an assembler for whatever x86 or PowerX chip is in our sleek, desktop machines (Metrowerks, maybe?) - and I wouldn't know where to begin if I wanted to actually do some simple graphics ... WinOpenHandle() this and WinRefreshBuffer() that ... eek. You could make these machines do SOMETHING visible by saying:
10 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD"
20 GOTO 10
RUN
(and if you wanted extra points for style, you could throw in a CLear Screen instruction at the beginning)
So, in the light of all this nostalgic wistfulness, I found the following statement very interesting: "Our goal here is to teach electrical engineering and low-level, highly optimized programming". All this, and hardware too, for a projected $99.
It's almost enough to make me want to commandeer the small TV from my mum's bedroom and get coding again ... almost.
These days, I don't even know who produces an assembler for whatever x86 or PowerX chip is in our sleek, desktop machines (Metrowerks, maybe?) - and I wouldn't know where to begin if I wanted to actually do some simple graphics ... WinOpenHandle() this and WinRefreshBuffer() that ... eek. You could make these machines do SOMETHING visible by saying:
10 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD"
20 GOTO 10
RUN
(and if you wanted extra points for style, you could throw in a CLear Screen instruction at the beginning)
So, in the light of all this nostalgic wistfulness, I found the following statement very interesting: "Our goal here is to teach electrical engineering and low-level, highly optimized programming". All this, and hardware too, for a projected $99.
It's almost enough to make me want to commandeer the small TV from my mum's bedroom and get coding again ... almost.
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Don't worry, there is nothing to fear. We still have a decade before we are all dead. Its probably a good time to start a mean drug habit.
Got stuff you always wanted to know but couldn't find anyone bored enough to ask? Your prayers have been answered. Can I get an amen?
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Monday, August 25, 2003
My first reaction to this site was "hey, guys, what about suspension of disbelief?", but then it hit me - the state of physics education (I was about to say "state of science education" but then I remembered that all science is either physics or stamp collecting) is so woeful that most movie goers experience no disbelief in the first place - people really do believe that bullets explode in a flash of light and a shower of sparks when they hit a solid object, that cars always burst into flames following any kind of impact, and so on, because they've seen it in th'movies.
Besides, you can prove to yourself how bad the state of physics education really is - right here.
Besides, you can prove to yourself how bad the state of physics education really is - right here.
Friday, August 22, 2003
OK Arnie was weird, but actors have become politicians before. A 26 year-old girlie software engineer from Veritas, though? Still, the campaign merchandise is different...
Saturday, August 16, 2003
Something for your PC that's not too PC, if you catch my drift. A study in the dynamics of fluids in bags.
Friday, August 15, 2003
We do it. Dogs do it. Cows do it so much it pollutes the environment. And it seems that whales do it too...
What really makes this is the picture. You couldn't stage this any better if you tried.
What really makes this is the picture. You couldn't stage this any better if you tried.
Sure, the idea of using Google to find obscure trivia such as "average mass of one cubic meter of planet Earth" is familiar. But using Google to calculate the average mass of one cubic meter of planet Earth is new.
Check it out - it's very cool. Although the documentation is sparse, a little experimentation shows, for example, that it also handles complex numbers, for example.
I haven't had this much fun with a calculator since ... well, I'd rather not go into that.
Check it out - it's very cool. Although the documentation is sparse, a little experimentation shows, for example, that it also handles complex numbers, for example.
I haven't had this much fun with a calculator since ... well, I'd rather not go into that.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Are these guys a satire in the spririt of the Landover Baptist Church or are they for real? If you figure it out let me know. Scary stuff either way.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Monday, August 04, 2003
After much (gut-churning) speculation and internal debate, I have come to the following conclusions about Shaun's Nullo posting.
After the initial shock of revulsion at the sheer physical violation, I realized that the thing that bothered me more was the relationship angle.
I've also not discounted the possibility that it's a piece of creative fiction - call me a skeptic, but although I can buy the castration scene, the penectomy I just don't think could have gone down like that. I don't see how one person, working under non-sterile conditions, without the capability to administer general anaesthesia or a blood tranfusion, could have done that ... operation ... and for there still be a patient alive to tell the tale. I don't buy it.
And if you have incontrovertible proof that it did happen as stated, kindly keep it to yourself.
After the initial shock of revulsion at the sheer physical violation, I realized that the thing that bothered me more was the relationship angle.
I've also not discounted the possibility that it's a piece of creative fiction - call me a skeptic, but although I can buy the castration scene, the penectomy I just don't think could have gone down like that. I don't see how one person, working under non-sterile conditions, without the capability to administer general anaesthesia or a blood tranfusion, could have done that ... operation ... and for there still be a patient alive to tell the tale. I don't buy it.
And if you have incontrovertible proof that it did happen as stated, kindly keep it to yourself.
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
You think your DR site is safe? Well, these guys think your data is as secure as an ech-a-sketch and have a better place for your off-site backups. Way off-site.
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Friday, July 25, 2003
You have to wonder about a researcher who's trying to figure out who downloads illegal porn, and who says:
To which I say: Huhwha? What planet does this person live on? Ah - now it's clear.
"People don't tend to suspect young people of doing this.
You get a young, attractive, virile 25-year-old man.
Nobody's going to look at them and suspect them."
To which I say: Huhwha? What planet does this person live on? Ah - now it's clear.
So if you were inviting Prince Charles to your city for a cultural festival, what statue would you put up. Perhaps one of a giant man ejaculating into his own mouth? Surely you'd reserve that for Prince Philip...
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Thanks to Ian for this one by the way: A hat for W. Which brings me to my next point: The ongoing grudge match between Saddam Hussein and George Bush Sr. has resulted in the death of the former's sons. Here's the kicker: do you think we could get Saddam to do the same for us?
Seems "keepin' it real" and projecting an image of living the "thug life" is great - until someone mistakes you for a thug ...
Microsoft's ingenuity at engineering enormous security holes into the most innocuous-seeming operations never ceases to amaze me. What particularly impresses me, though is not the cleverness or subtlety of the flaw - it's a simple buffer overrun, guys, nothing elaborate - but the fact they were able to allow this flaw to be exploited by playing a MIDI file. Wow.
Microsoft: What do you want to blow today?
Microsoft: What do you want to blow today?
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
To pour oil on troubled waters, or not to pour oil on troubled waters - what does the BBC think Mr Blair was trying to do? (listen carefully at about 59 seconds into the video clip)
Monday, July 21, 2003
Sunday, July 20, 2003
It's not very funny, it's not very well done, it's certainly not erotic (at least, not to me, your mileage may vary), but once you see the URL, you'll probably visit it any way out of curiosity just like I did:
FatChicksInPartyHats.com
FatChicksInPartyHats.com
Saturday, July 19, 2003
Friends help you move, and real friends help you move a body, but Zimbabwean friends will rent you a body.
Friday, July 18, 2003
We have a great story breaking in the UK right now. On the 29th of May Andrew Gilligan, a political journalist, reported that No. 10 Downing Street staff had "sexed up" the intelligence presented in the now infamous "dodgy dossier" in BBC Radio 4's renowned Today programme. In a followup report in the Mail on Sunday, he stated that his source, a senior British official, blamed Alaistair Campbell, the PM's director of communications for inserting the claim that Iraq's WMD could be brought to bear in 45 minutes. On the 8th of July, after much bitter wrangling between the Government and the Beeb, the MoD announces that one of their officials - Dr. David Kelly - has stepped forward as having spoken to Andrew Gilligan. Gilligan later denies that Dr. Kelly was his main source, and does so in front of a commons select committee investigating the dossier. Yesterday, Dr. Kelly is reported missing. This morning, he turns up dead in the woods. Nobody thinks this is a conspiracy. Least of all anybody with a copy of Photoshop (that's Alaistair Campbell, btw).
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Ever want to live out your Tron fantasy? You may soon be able to...if you have $250,000 to spare. And you can do it at nearly 400 mph.
Monday, July 14, 2003
Friday, July 11, 2003
Thursday, July 10, 2003
David St. Hubbins once said: "I know what the Stonehenge monument looks like. We don't have that piece of scenery anymore." I'm not sure this is what he was talking about. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I see the resemblance ...
Not mentioned in this article were some other unneeded things the Danes sent to Iraq:
- NBC suits
- chemical-weapons disposal systems
- lead-lined radiological containment vessels
The Onion, as regular readers will know, is one of my favourite sites - pretty consistently funny, waaaaaaay politically incorrect, and just an all-around good site. Rarely, however, do you see an item like this, one that comes so far out of left field, I can only say - what were they smoking? And further more - where did they get it? (PS: this infographic is pretty good, too)
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Take three random words, say: "dead", "pig" and "boat".
Now, put them together, and what have you got? A dead pig boat!
Now, put them together, and what have you got? A dead pig boat!
Monday, July 07, 2003
Friday, July 04, 2003
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
"Life imitates art", they say. Well, ConsumerFreedom.org (basically an advocacy group for the "bad for you" industries - fast food, alcohol, tobacco, etc,) certainly imitates The Onion.
Obscene Interiors: Hardcore Amateur Decor (Surprisingly, safe for work. More or less. Depends where you work I guess)
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