Bolero

Rest in Peace Steve Irwin

2006-09-04T23:26:00.000-05:00

The world has lost a truely amazing man. RIP Steve

Progress?

2006-06-08T07:35:00.000-05:00

The al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a joint attack by U.S. helicopters and Iraqi forces, ABC news reported on Thursday.

Not to dull the joy over this accomplishment (as though there can be any joy resulting from the death of any human being, however despicable), but how long before a new leader pops up? I give it a week, tops.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed in Iraq

The rats are not the problem...

2006-06-03T18:39:00.000-05:00

It seems that a town in Kentucky is having a bit of a rat problem

The rat colony was next to Ann Collier's house. She said she feeds the rats so they won't bite her.

"I don't know why they congregate here," Collier said.

Those damn rats, I just don't understand why they keep comming back here *throws out more food*.

...yeah

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment

2006-06-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints? It's amazing and completely insane.

These guys deserve a medal.

read more | digg story

Not completely Human

2006-06-02T20:58:00.000-05:00

A recent study at TGIR in Maryland reveals that our bodies are not completely human

They are not just freeloading. They help humans to digest much of what we eat, including some vitamins, sugars, and fiber. They also synthesize vitamins that people cannot.

"Humans have evolved for million of years with these bacteria. And they provide essential functions,"

I have actually suspected this for the past three years, but now it seems to have been verified. It's really cool if you think about it; you exist through the cooperation and interactions between thousands of different species of microbes.

The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-21T20:23:00.000-05:00

So I went to go see The Da Vinci Code with a few of my friends the other day. We didn't really talk about it much afterward, but I got the distinct impression that no one was very impressed. Sure, there were some funny lines ("The more penises you have the higher your rank" or something like that) and every-time crazy-albino dude would jump out someone would yell at the top of their lungs, but otherwise the movie was rather mediocre.

It failed as a mystery.

It failed as a thriller.

It failed as an action flick.

Now I read the book. I loved the book, I couldn't put it down for the two days it took me to read it.

But to put it frankly, the movie sucked.

Big Brother is watching (in your bedroom)

2006-04-22T21:11:00.000-05:00

This might just be me, but I find it unsettling that it is now legal to buy assault weapons in this country, but that it is becoming increasingly difficult for an adult to buy a fucking vibrator (no pun intended).

Might want to buy some stock in a company that manufactures electric toothbrushes, I predict a sizable rise in sales in the next few years.

Peep-show

2006-04-11T15:39:00.000-05:00

Featuring everybody's favorite easter food, Peeps!

Turns out that if you cut a Peep in half the cut side sticks really well to just about anything, including people.

No real nudity, all the fiddly-bits are covered...in Peeps.

The Peepshow

Thanks Boing Boing

Fun with date and time

2006-04-04T20:18:00.000-05:00

Tonight, two minutes and three seconds after one in the morning, the date and time will read:

01:02:03 04,05,06

Kingdom Hearts II

2006-04-03T17:30:00.000-05:00

I think Gabe from Penny Arcade sums it up pretty nicely:

I’m absolutely hooked on Kingdom Hearts II. In fact it is the first game I can think of in months that managed to pull me away from WOW. The crazy long intro period was a little hard to stomach but it had a fantastic pay off in my opinion and now I’m into the Disney shit. So far I’ve burned through about 5 of the worlds and I’m loving each one of them. I’m a huge fan of all these films so when a character like the Beast joins my party I get pretty excited. Then when I discover his super special link move with Soara where they stand back to back and the beast puts is huge paw on Sora's shoulder and gives him this reassuring look as if to say “it’s alright, we’ve got this.” Well...*Sniff*...I get a little emotional. I know it’s cheesy but I even bought the collectors edition strategy guide. The hints are nice but the game just isn’t that hard. The real reason I got it was for the sticker book it comes with. Yes that’s right, a sticker book with 400 stickers! Every time you meet a character or get an item you take the corresponding sticker off and place it next to the picture in the journal. Try to imagine a 28 year old man squealing in a high pitched voice to his wife in the other room. “Ooh honey I just met Mulan, I get to put her sticker in the journal, I GET TO PUT HER STICKER IN THE JOURNAL!”

Things You Must Believe to be a Republican Today

2006-04-02T21:30:00.000-05:00

A friend sent me this in an email today. I Googled it but was unable to find a source, it just seems to be one of those viral memes that propagates on forums and in email.

1. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

3. Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.

4. "Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.

5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

6. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

7. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches and to allow them to abuse prisoners of war while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

8. Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.

9. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

10. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

11. HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

12. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

13. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

14. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion. What he did to prisoners was wrong and was justification for launching a war against his country but when we do it, an apology will suffice.

15. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

16. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

17. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

18. You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.

19. What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

20. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

Gotta work on this

2006-03-30T22:16:00.000-05:00

I need to be at least 50% evil to accomplish my plans for world domination

You Are 36% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

The Good and the Crazy

2006-03-29T23:08:00.000-05:00

In a refreshingly positive development, Abdul Rahman (the Afghan man who was detained and threatened with execution for converting to Christianity) has arrived in Italy and was granted asylum.

Applications for political asylum in Italy normally take months to process, but Mr Berlusconi and several colleagues had said previously they favoured a quick decision in Mr Rahman's favour, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

However, it seems as though some officials in Afghanistan are not exactly pleased that Rahman has escaped their grasp:

The issue was discussed in the Afghan parliament on Wednesday, with almost all MPs in agreement that "his leaving Afghanistan must be prohibited", the AFP news agency reported...

...Afghan legislators said the decision to release him from trial for apostasy was "contrary to the laws in place in Afghanistan".

Yes, I am sure that you would like him back so that you could execute him. Unfortunately, that isn't quite how amnesty works.

Article 1 [Islamic Republic]
Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic, independent, unitary and indivisible state.

Article 2 [Religions]
(1) The religion of the state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of IslamState_Religion.
(2) Followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law.

Article 3 [Law and Religion]
In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.

This is from the Afghanistan Constitution, drafted in 2004. Afghanistan, a Democracy / Republic? How absurd. They are a Theocracy, it says so right in their constitution.

And for those wondering what "no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam." means, it means that Shia Law trumps all others.

Holy Zorbians Batman!

2006-03-29T22:26:00.000-05:00

I've added yet another activity to my "list of things to do before I die, turn 30, or get married (whichever comes first)". Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you Zorbing!

Some people like to jump out of aeroplanes, some like to strap themselves to bungees, and some (the really weird ones from New Zealand) like to strap themselves into the human equivalent of a giant hamster-ball.

Thats right, you climb into a 3m tall inflatable pvc bubble and roll down a hill.

I have only two questions:
1) What was this guy smoking when he thought of this?
and
2) What is the shipping rate from NZ to my doorstep?

What the hell are we fighting for?

2006-03-21T23:22:00.000-05:00

Right now there are American soldiers in Afghanistan. You remember Afghanistan, right? We (the United States) invaded them before moving on to Iraq. The reason, we were told, for ~~invading~~ liberating Afghanistan was to overthrow the Taliban and bring peace to the region. American soldiers remain in the country still, fighting and dying, to "bring peace and stability and prevent the Taliban from rising to power again". Hip hip horrah! Mission accomplished, right?

Well, the Taliban definately aren't back. However, the government that has replaced them is no less horrific. American troops are currently protecting a theocracy that openly advocates the execution of 'infidels'

An Afghan man is being tried in a court in the capital, Kabul, for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam and could face the death sentence under Sharia law unless he recants.

Want to know what the definition of "tolerance" is under Sharia law?

Trial judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah told the BBC that Mr Rahman, 41, would be asked to reconsider his conversion, which he made while working for a Christian aid group in Pakistan.

"We will invite him again because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance. We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so we will forgive him," the judge told the BBC on Monday.

From another article on the story

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam."

and

The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said he had offered to drop the charges if Mr Rahman converted back to Islam, but he refused. "He would have been forgiven if he changed back. But he said he was a Christian and would always remain one," Mr Wasi said. "We are Muslims and becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty."

Yes, Islam is a tolerant religion; you have the choice to convert or die. How merciful they must be! Praise be to Allah!

We liberated Afghanistan from a group of backwards, intolerant, ignorant, hateful, religious fanatics. Now it appears that they have simply been replaced by more of the same. Granted not all Muslims hold these views, but even if most don't strictly adhere to them they at least condone them. Despite what the Bush administration and company would like to believe, Afghanistan is far, far from anywhere near becoming a peaceful, secular, tolerant model of Democracy.

Douglas Adams is God

2006-03-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

According to the Pi Search Page, the string '424242' appears at position 242422 in the number Pi.

If you count the decimal point and the 3 (I think you should, they are characters), that becomes position 242424.

It must be the will of the Noodly Master!

rAmen.

Knew there was something wrong with those people...

2006-03-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

I mean, even when I was considering Davidson as a possibility for college, there was always that little nagging doubt in the back on my mind. I know Davidson has a reputation for having the most anal-retentive students, and I know that they hardly get any holidays worth mentioning, but c'mon, it's a good school.

And then I found out that they don't celebrate Pi-day.

"Dude, we haven't had Pi-day since, like, 9th grade. It's so lame."

Alright, I feel as though I need to clarify something here. A DAY WHERE YOU EAT FUCKING PIE IS NOT LAME. IT'S GOD DAMNED FUCKING PIE.

So long and thanks for all the fish

2006-03-12T01:43:00.000-05:00

Google knows what the answer to life, the universe, and everything is...

Do you?

Freakishly accurate

2006-03-05T22:44:00.000-05:00

Want to know what kind of person someone is? Look at how they sleep.

Professor Chris Idzikowski, director of the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service, has analyzed six common sleeping positions - and found that each is linked to a particular personality type.

I myself am a cross between the 'soldier' and the 'starfish', both in how I sleep in personality.

Ugh...

2006-02-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

Evidently Taco Bell does not agree with my stomach; I think I have food poisoning. I feel sorry for Tyler though, he had ten tacos (taci, plural?).

My new AP Chemistry substitute acts as if he has a mainmast permanently inserted into his rectum.

I feel so accomplished

2006-02-27T20:36:00.000-05:00

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Ironically I did this to put off working on my Pre-Calculus homework.

Politics are insane

2006-02-26T21:56:00.000-05:00

I read this quote on digg and I thought it was very funny. It also raises some interesting questions regarding the American public's attitude toward our current president in light of how they viewed the actions of a certain past president.

someone give that asshole (Bush) a blowjob so we can impeach him

Disgusting

2006-02-25T21:28:00.000-05:00

And no, for once I'm not talking about our president.

You know about when you first go off to college and you worry about getting stuck with the most disgusting slob on campus as your roommate? Well I have to say that I have not been worrying about that for a while now, even with my senior year in high school drawing speedily to a close. "Why don't you worry?" you may ask. Well, part of the reason is that I am simply a laid-back sort of guy.

It also helps that it is highly improbable that I will ever meet as disgusting a person as my brother dearest, at least when it comes to bathroom hygiene.

As evidence I submit the following photograph:

The toilet paper roll on the left is unused. The roll on the right was brand new this morning when I put it on the dispenser. The only person to use the bathroom in question today was my brother and he only used it a single time.

You don't even want to see what was left inside the toilet bowl, suffice to say that it would obliterate all other competition on RateMyPoo.com

As observed by Dave Barry, “European toilet paper is made from the same material that Americans use for roofing, which is why Europeans tend to remain standing throughout soccer matches.”.

I wish our toilet paper was like that, maybe then my brother wouldn't use so damn much.

Closed Captioning Craziness

2006-02-19T00:17:00.000-05:00

So I was watching the Winter Olympics earlier tonight when for some reason I started paying attention to the closed captioning (my father has taken to keeping it on recently, I believe he is becoming slightly deaf). What struck me is that, especially given the importance and prestige of an event such as the Olympic Games, the closed captioning, well, sucked.

I am not talking about a few foreign names misspelled; I'm talking about massive errors on every single line that was transcribed. Some sentences I could not even make out at all. Seriously, it looked as though they had some half-baked voice recognition program writing the output. I did a better job transcribing conversations from a static-filled police scanner transmission streamed over the Internet during Hurricane Katrina.

It bugs me just a little. A deaf individual would not be able to make heads or tails of any of the commentary on the Games from what was provided by the CC. I wish I could remember the network I was watching it on.

Test

2006-02-18T23:47:00.000-05:00

Testing Bleezer

Thought of the Day

2006-02-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

Why do people love to talk about babies while they are so uncomfortable about discussing the process by which they are made? Why is discussion about one of life's most beautiful, powerful, natural, and quite frankly enjoyable processes so taboo?

People are so weird.

And yes, the hormone levels were a tad on the high side today.

Test post from Firefox

2006-02-05T22:07:00.000-05:00

I have recently switched my primary web browser from Opera, which has served me wonderfully for the past several years, to the up-and-comming Firefox. Part of my attraction to Firefox was it ease and breadth of custimizability through extensions and plugins, something Opera lacks. And so I found an extension, "Performancing" to be exact, that allows me to post to Blogger directly from the browser without having to go to my dashboard first.

"Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browse and lets you post to your blog easiy. You can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.

Performancing for Firefox was developed by Performancing.com, the worlds largest organization of professional bloggers.

The file itself was written by Jed Brown, and coordinated by Nick Wilson, both of Performancing LLC."

As if there were any doubt

2006-02-05T20:59:00.000-05:00

Why yes, Islam is a religion of peace. Why do you ask?

As a side note, where do people get all these flags to burn? I mean, is there some business that exclusively makes highly combustible replicas of national flags? It reminds me of that scene in Life of Brian when a street vendor is selling rocks for a stoning.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a...well, never mind.

2006-01-31T20:52:00.000-05:00

I could think of several things to say about this, none of which I particularly feel comfortable posting here. I think it speaks for itself...

Morality and Religion

2006-01-30T20:01:00.000-05:00

Something that inevitably comes up during any sort of "religion vs atheism" or "Evolution vs ID / Creationism" debate, is the rhetorical question "If you don't believe in god how do you have morals?". No matter how many times I have heard that phrase and all the many variants of it uttered, it never cease to make me stop and think "are people really so shallow that they need some external force to define right and wrong for them, the give their life meaning?

I have never understood the reasoning that god or religion is somehow a prerequisite for morality. I imagine that it stems from the fact that most religions have a moral codes supposedly handed down to their followers by a deity or higher being and that this moral code is held as the "truth" or "law". All other ideologies are seen as false. However, as we all know being religious does not necessarily make one what would be considered a moral person. In recent years many Catholic priests have been exposed as child molesters, in Rwanda priests murder innocent refugees by hacking them to death with machetes, and in the Middle East Islamic militants routinely blow themselves up along with dozens of innocent bystanders. Granted, every religion comes with its own brand of morality and actions that may be considered normal in some societies are abhorred in others. This brings up the issue of objective morality, which I do not feel inclined to go into at this time.

But while the world’s religions all point their fingers at each other and their supposed fallacies, at the same time they all collectively point to atheists as being particularly deficient in morals. I think this is a defensive move on the part of the institutions of revealed religion. They put themselves on thrones by claiming that they alone have the answers to life’s question, that they alone can tell the rest of humanity how to lead successful lives. The idea that people can live and, more importantly, get along with one another based on morals and values not based on the traditional doctrines of revealed religion is viewed as a threat to those institutions.

But can those without religion have a sense of morality? Of course they can. Just as a religious person can either be moral or immoral, and non-religious individual can fall in either category. I myself, sitting on the fence between atheism and deism, feel that I have a greater sense of morality than most of my peers who claim to be Christian. While I work hard at school, volunteer in the community, and strive to gather more knowledge so that in the future I may help my fellow humans live better lives, many of my peers are more concerned with drinking, cheating, smoking pot, and having pre-marital sex; all acts which our society holds as immoral. Note that I do not necessarily hold any of those acts as moral or immoral, I am merely making the point that it is hypocritical of religious individuals to decry atheists or other of different religious beliefs for their perceived lack of morality when they are themselves considered morally bankrupt by their own standards.

Year of the Dog

2006-01-29T22:05:00.000-05:00

Today marks the beginning of the 4703th Chinese Year. For those of you who didn't know, the Chinese name their years after certian animals, or signs, in a twelve-year cycle. The names of the years are, in order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar. This happens to be the year of the Dog.

Similar to how westerners have developed horoscopes that follow the monthy cycle of the different moon signs (Pisces, Aries, etc), the Chinese horoscope signs are based on the animal sign that a person was born under. For instance, a person who was born during the year of the Dog is said to be loyal and honest, but also selfish and stubborn. However, like their western counterparts the Chinese do not take much stock in horoscopes in these modern times.

Although I don't believe in horoscopes, it is interesting to note that my own signs (Virgo under the Western system, and Rabbit under the Chinese) and their attributes come respectably close to matching my own.

"People born in the Year of the Rabbit are articulate, talented, and ambitious. They are virtuous, reserved, and have excellent taste. Rabbit people are admired, trusted, and are often financially lucky. They are fond of gossip but are tactful and generally kind. Rabbit people seldom lose their temper. They are clever at business and being conscientious, never back out of a contract. They would make good gamblers for they have the uncanny gift of choosing the right thing. However, they seldom gamble, as they are conservative and wise. They are most compatible with those born in the years of the Sheep, Pig, and Dog."

More information about the Chinese Zodiac can be found at The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

First Post

2006-01-29T21:31:00.000-05:00

First Post Test...