"You're Terribly Late, You Know. Naughty!"

The trailer for Tim Burton's glorious Alice in Wonderland is available here.

Carl Sagan was right ...

... we are "star stuff".

Building block of life found on comet

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that raw ingredients of life arrived on Earth from outer space, scientists said on Monday.

Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004.

Samples of gas and dust collected on a small dish lined with a super-fluffy material called aerogel were returned to Earth two years later in a canister that detached from the spacecraft and landed by parachute in the Utah desert.

Movie Review: District 9

We're here to help you.

The BEST science fiction film of the decade, and easily one of the best ever made. Buzz at Camp Blood sums it up brilliantly.

For My Cultists

The 35 Best iPhone Apps Of The Year
(So Far) - after a weekend of iPhone overload, I saw this as the coup de grace.

"You Are Gay" Is Not Horrible

A great ruling in a civil suit: being accused of homosexuality is not a bad thing.

To all of my straight friends: when someone calls you gay as an insult, shrug it off. For the love of the risen Osiris, don't get mad about it. And don't get all worked up for my sake if someone uses "gay" to describe something that is lame and fruity. I think we can all agree that "gay" has many meanings, and that someone who says that "Dancing with the Stars" is "gay" doesn't imply that being a homosexual is evil.

That horrible show is gay. Times a billion. And I never watch it. Because it's gay.

All that aside, using "gay" as an insult implying that LGBT people are somehow horrible people should be discouraged and confronted. That's when you say "Hell, I wish I were gay. That way, I could just blow you through the glory holes you visit and not have to see your ugly face, like now."

To summarize: don't be gay about being called gay because that makes you gay in a gay way.

Grand Duchy Does The Cure

A Strange Day



By the way: Just Like Heaven is a great tribute album worth buying.

Booze Custard Challenge Accepted

Today, on the Frank DeCaro show, the fat fuck described a frozen custard he got at an upscale Manhattan milkshake shop. Prepare yourself:

A Dark-and-Stormy custard, with pieces of roasted cinnamon peaches mixed in.

OH...MY...AHURA MAZDA!!!

I will make this. I will. With an appropriate change. I don't copy: I improve with panache, bitches.

A Dark and Stormy is one of my favorite cocktails. You start with good, flavorful dark rum (remember: lackluster rum leads to lackluster Dark and Stormies). You add ginger beer (ginger ale? Oh, heavens no, you can't use ginger ale). The result will make you write your congressman, slap your momma, and inappropriately expose yourself.

So I will make a ginger-dark rum custard. And I will add roasted peaches. As far as the cinnamon...I love cinnamon. I do. I have several different kinds in my pantry, as sticks and/or powder, each with a distinctive flavor and purpose. But here, I just don't think cinnamon is appropriate.

I'll have cardamom roasted peaches. And it will be fucking fag-tastic. And you'll wish you were my friend and lived near me and said I was pretty and never criticized my obsession with food and cake pans and the true art of brewing coffee and agreed with me on how vegetarians are the minions of Rosemary's baby and how tragically pretty and funny I am and how I'm right that the zombie apocalypse has come in the form of Sarah Palin and her retard baby who would never get no health care even when the abomination's mother gets government health care that sets up "death panels" that would make socialist Nazi zombies eat all of the population of Alaska that can see Russia...

Say it! Or by the resurrected Baal I'll eat the pint-and-a-half myself.

Book Review: The Incredible Shrinking Son Of Man

The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition? by Robert M. Price

What happens when one puts forth a rational, objective method of researching historicity and applies it to the canonical gospels of the bible? Dr. Robert M. Price, aka The Bible Geek, comes to a very unpopular conclusion: there is no evidence to support that a historical Jesus ever existed.

TISSOM begins by outlining the rationale for Dr. Price's methodology, and then goes event by event through the gospels, comparing the accounts given by the four gospel writers. To each event, he details the contradictions and similarities, outlines the history of the event's likely origin(s), and proposes the probable motive(s) and rationale(s) of each gospel writer when formulating his particular account.

While seemingly an average-length book, TISSOM took me quite a while to get through. It's enthralling and enlightening, which also makes it a book to slowly digest and contemplate rather than quickly consume. And though the subject matter can be ponderous, Dr. Price's style is rather light-hearted. His genuine interest in and voluminous knowledge of the New Testament, combined with his biting humor, keeps the reader both challenged and entertained. I highly recommend it, especially to those interested in ancient religions or the origins of modern Christian superstitions. Or zombies...

I've already purchased his answer to the bombastic-yet-delicate whiny Christian apologists: Jesus Is Dead. I'll let you know how it goes. But I think I've found my new favorite hobby de jour of the day: critical biblical study.

Two side notes:

1. Dr. Price has a podcast, TheBibleGeek.org, available free at iTunes. It is easily my favorite and most anticipated podcast.
2. Dr. Price is also a Lovecraft scholar. And while I can go along with his whole "Jesus never existed" thing, his insistence that Cthulhu is fiction is simply absurd...
   

Almost too much.

Where the Wild Things Are

The Navy's Next-Generation Advanced Attack Fighter

For about a year now, the Navy has been testing a pimped up Super Tacono to provide close air support for SEALs. The Air Force may follow.

On The Stonewall Riot's 40th Anniversary No Less

So that raid on a Forth Worth gay bar on the anniversary of Stonewall, the one that left one patron with severe brain trauma...

Texas alcohol board reports violations in gay bar raid

Breaking news: the moon orbits the earth; the latter, the sun.

Our Beacon Of Democracy In The Middle East

Religion is just fucking awful:

Almost half the Israeli population considers homosexuals to be deviants, according to an opinion poll published on Thursday, five days after an attack at a Tel Aviv gay centre killed two people.

This, from a people who should know what "deviant" implies.

Movie Review: Julie and Julia

Meryl Streep As Julia Child: Patron Goddess Of The Foodie

I saw Julie and Julia today, and--all chick-flick moments aside--it is fucking hilarious. As anyone could tell by the trailers, Meryl Streep does a dead-on Julia Child: her portrayal is worth twice the price of admission. And while the cheap jokes are funny, it's the numerous sly ones that make the film truly priceless. And they do bring up the spy business...

If you love Julia, as all should, go see it. If not, fuck you. Even the sturdiest of manly men can appreciate the Julia half of the film. And only half of the other half is a proper time to go pee; a goodly portion of the Julie part is actually slightly endearing, bordering on interesting.

"She taught me how to cook." So say we all.

Note: to any who might go to an afternoon matinée of this movie, expect to hear the movie over several respirators. When I returned from my pre-trailer pee, I noted to my mother: "This place smells like prunes and osteoporosis." Seriously, I was worried that many women in the audience might crack a rib laughing.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

linkification

Welcome to the Squid Shop - home of the COMPLETE Early Cuyler Collection!

I Done Been Vindificated Again!

This month, Cook's Illustrated joined Alton Brown in recommending my preferred method for brewing coffee: cone filter over a thermos, apply off-boiling water. They also endorsed French presses, but those things are difficult to clean and manage. Not to mention they're Franchified.