2.28.2008

The Fall

I didn't much like The Cell, except that it was pretty. And I do love pretty movies. This new movie by the same director looks very, very pretty. Plus, Charles Darwin is in it.

2.26.2008

Sirius Radio Classics

Dragnet: 6 am, 3 pm
Suspense: 4 am, 10 pm
Superman/Sherlock Holmes: 5 pm
Twilight Zone: 11 pm

All times Central, full schedule here.

This is the channel I listen to as I go to bed.

2.24.2008

Did Jesus Go There And Die Too?


A new study suggests that there are far more potentially habitable planets in our galaxy than previously estimated.

Ricky Gervais Explains How He Became An Atheist

Hilarious article from a hilarious guy.

Another One? Really?

Long-time Republican House-member Robert McKee resigns after police search his home for child pornography.

Guess what his favorite cause was. Go ahead. The first two won't count. Ok, it was protecting children from exploitation. Did you guess right?

Guess what he was the executive director for in his county. This one's harder: Big Brothers Big Sisters. I can't believe I'm laughing so hard at this sickness!

With all these perverted degenerates in their party, Republicans really should get off their moral high horse. But if they do, someone watch out for that horse. Jesus knows what one of them might do to it...

Bob Shrinks Several Inches

Not surprisingly, Enzyte is crap. Now it's legally crap.

If you bought it, it's the gray matter rattling between your ears that should be bigger, not the flap of flesh dangling between your legs. But maybe that's not really dangling at all, more like...Bobbing?...which might have contribute to your being suckered by cleverly veiled, savvily marketed placebo.

I Will Not Vote For Any Candidate For A Gay Marriage Ammendment

Besides it's being no business of the federal government to tell states who they can and can't recognize as married, not having gay marriage just leads to sick tragedy. Like this case, where an 18-year couple with children was victimized when one of them fell fatally ill in Florida:
Langbehn says she was informed that she was in an antigay city and state, and she could expect to receive no information or acknowledgment as family.
The rest is rock-bottom disgusting. Fuck these people. Seriously. Why is it that the very people who want the feds "out of their life" are so willing to use it to mangle the personal legal affairs of other individuals?

2.23.2008

I Hated Science Fairs


In my mid-pubescence, science fairs were inflicted on us to test some parents' willingness to get involved in a science fair. For the life of me, that seemed to be the only point of the damn things. It was a beauty pageant for ugly kids ' parents, and whatever I did was uninspired since their outcome (other than for participating) didn't affect me at all. Plus, I was WAY more interested in the REAL science done by REAL scientists (at that age, that was Spock and Carl Sagan, but who the fuck cares). Space was cool, and you can't do proper anti-gravity vacuum experiments on a middle-school gym floor. So I blew the things off.

Anyway, this link shows how science fair projects can go horribly, horribly awry. But really, don't they all? Except for that kid in Real Genius: he got Val Kilmer, space lasers, and lots of popcorn out of his.

Ed. Ad.: It could have been worse: I could have been home schooled.

2.20.2008

Even Tarquin is impressed


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was the biggest, baddest, meanest froggy ever to have hopped on Earth.

Scientists on Monday announced the discovery in northwestern Madagascar of a bulky amphibian dubbed the "devil frog" that lived 65 million to 70 million years ago and was so nasty it may have eaten newborn dinosaurs.

This brute was larger than any frog living today and may be the biggest frog ever to have existed, according to paleontologist David Krause of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, one of the scientists who found the remains.

Its name, Beelzebufo ampinga, came from Beelzebub, the Greek for devil, and bufo -- Latin for toad. Ampinga means "shield," named for an armor-like part of its anatomy.

Beelzebufo (pronounced bee-el-zeh-BOOF-oh) was 16 inches long and weighed an estimated 10 pounds (4.5 kg).

...

Even though it lived far away, Beelzebufo appears to be closely related to a group of frogs that live today in South America, the scientists said. They are nicknamed "Pac-Man" frogs due to their huge mouths. Some have little horns on their heads, and the scientists think Beelzebufo also may have had horns -- a fitting touch for the "devil frog."



Artist rendering shows a Beelzebufo ampinga facing off against the largest known living Malagasy frog, Mantydactylus ampinga.



Our Lucius Tarquinius Superbus

2.19.2008

More of what the Dark Ages cost us


Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved: A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unraveled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works from the Guardian.

Just what Europe needs....

Thousands of Kosovars chant "KLA! KLA!"

From "Kosovo Declares Independence From Serbia: Braces for a Bitter Showdown," by Nabi Qena and William J. Kole for the Associated Press:

In the capital, Pristina, the mood was jubilant. Thousands of ethnic Albanians braved subfreezing temperatures to ride on the roofs of their cars, singing patriotic songs and chanting: "KLA! KLA!" the acronym for the now-disbanded rebel Kosovo Liberation Army.

From "KLA rebels train in terrorist camps," by Jerry Seper for the Washington Times in 1999:

Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden...

Is this independence venture really something the U.S. should encourage?

Another reason to like Target

Target Purchases a Fleet of Segway(R) PTs for Security Patrols at More Than 150 Stores

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Segway Inc. today announced that Target has purchased a fleet of Segway® Personal Transporters (PTs) making Target one of Segway's largest customers. The units will be used for security patrols at more than 150 Target and SuperTarget stores throughout the U.S. Minneapolis-based B2B Segway, a Segway Authorized Dealer specializing in commercial applications, secured the Target contract and executed the deployment of the units to the Target stores.

2.18.2008

I'd Vote For Him

Charles Barkley recently made Alabama proud. I do hope he runs in 2014; I'd vote for that.

Were all Republicans that cogent and enlightened. How bad is it, really, when a questionably intelligent NBA player makes better arguments than the Republican Party he once supported? And would be more competent to run this state than any of our last few governors? Fuck me...

Perfect Timing...........


Why do this now? Not even the Spanish want to go along with this. How many more new regimes are we going to support?

2.14.2008

A list that calls our names

Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time
- I think it may be time that we collectively (ick) create top movie lists or perhaps top category lists and watch them & also hunt down highly touted films we've not seen.

2.12.2008

A true sign of the end times... Kia Motors is using a Whig president to hawk their President's Day sale

But Kia ad execs either don't know or don't care about Mr. Fillmore's party affiliation:

Millard Fillmore was the last U. S. President who was neither a Democrat nor a Republican.

Sorry, little brother, Whigs looz agin.

Back Again...

CampBlood is now here. Let's hope the crazy homo keeps us updated on queer horror more regularly than he did before. He updates sad pop culture here.

I did win a contest at his original site, after all.

Great Sci-Fi Movie


Cross-posted.

2.10.2008

This Could Be Good

Historically, movies based on HP Lovecraft stories fall short. A new one called Cthulhu (based on Shadow Over Innsmouth) looks like it might break the mold. It's very artsy looking, and the trailer is kinda creepy. Plus, the main character is a gay.

Several Posts

Over at my blog, a sort of Week in Review.

2.05.2008

What the @#&!?

Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban in order to get them to switch sides

Witless Realpolitik Alert: the British once again demonstrate their utter incomprehension of and disregard of the jihad ideology. Sure, the Taliban will accept their training -- and continue to pursue jihad.

"Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan," by Jerome Starkey in the Independent (thanks to Blue):


Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December.

2.04.2008

What I'm reading right now


"The product of a lifetime of learning, this spirited book will captivate general readers and spark controversy among historians. Challenging standard accounts, Howe argues that many of those maligned as elitists championed the rights of women, African Americans, and Indians and that the animating principle of Andrew Jackson's mythic Democratic party was the extension of white-male supremacy across the continent. Both a panoramic overview and a vivid, nuanced account of particular individuals and incidents in domains stretching from religious practices and political shenanigans to social reform and technological innovation, What Hath God Wrought reflects Howe's mastery of the sources and his deep engagement with rival interpretations of these pivotal years."--James T. Kloppenberg, Harvard University


This is great! The guy just spent a third of a chapter refuting the so-called "corrupt bargain" charge. This book pees on the face Sean Wilentz and his "Rise of American Democracy."