How Millennial Are You?

You can quickly take the 14 question Pew Research Center quiz here to find out. The typical Millennial who takes the quiz scores a 73 out of 100 while a typical Gen-Xer (my own cohort group) only scores a 33; typical Boomers and their parents barely register with 11 and 4, respectively. I surprisingly scored an 86. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret these results other than to posit that my enthusiasm for politics and new technology are most likely major factors. How Millennial are you?

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All The World's A Greenscreen

This is what I dreamed might someday be possible in television and movie making when I was a kid. Location shoots will soon be a thing of the past, my friends:


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CSI: SeaWorld

Miami is definitely my least favorite CSI but I must admit that this is my absolute favorite Internet meme at the moment. You can already hear "Won't Get Fooled Again" in your head, can't you? And please spare me your tears for this woman. She spent every day jumping into a tank with a huge animal that has the word "killer" right in it's name. The odds say that it was only a matter of time. At least she died doing what she loved; how many of us will be that lucky?

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[Update:
Epic Beard Man is a close second. I can't believe it's only been a week since this went down.

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Thursday! Thursday! Thursday!

Today's bipartisan health care summit is C-SPAN's time to shine:


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Americans Hate Health Care Bills, Love Reform

In other words, they have no clue about what's in the legislation:

Washington (CNN) – Although the overall health care reform bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate are unpopular, many of the provisions in the existing bills are extremely popular, even among Republicans, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday also indicates that only a quarter of the public want Congress to stop all work on health care, with nearly three quarters saying lawmakers should pass some kind of reform.

Full results [PDF]

Twenty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, with 48 percent saying lawmakers should work on an entirely new bill and a quarter saying Congress should stop all work on health care reform.

"Many provisions of those bills are popular, particularly restrictions on health insurance companies," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Roughly 6 in 10 would like a bill that prevents insurers from dropping people who become seriously ill or denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Seven in 10 favor requiring large and mid-sized companies to provide health insurance to their employees. Those proposals are popular among Republicans as well as Independents and Democrats. A cap on medical malpractice awards – something on the GOP's wish list that is not in the current legislation – is also popular."

Which inexorably leads us to the painfully obvious question: are Americans really this stupid? Bill O'Reilly made a similar query on his talk show last night citing that several on the "hard left" (you know, radical leftists like Time magazine columnist Joe Klein and Libertarian comedian Bill Maher) have lately intimated as much in light of popular disapproval concerning the current health care reform debate, which his guest answered by making the same point as the above poll: while Americans say that they are opposed to the health care legislation currently wending it's way through congress, they simultaneously and overwhelmingly support the majority of the provisions contained therein.

Now of course O'Reilly dismissed this answer (his guest, Dr. Mark Lamont Hill, had either quoted this poll or one very similar) by saying that polls can be twisted to say anything (meaning refuting O'Reilly's preconceived notions about the world, which is one of the reasons I find the man so entertaining) but he's also a populist blowhard who needs to pander to his aged right-wing audience (that's another reason) so his behaviour in this respect is understandable. Since I don't have to worry about my own opinions affecting my ratings share I'll answer the question of American stupidity thusly: yeah, Americans are kind of stupid, but not really. This line of thought immediately brings to my mind a quote from the movie Men in Black, when Will Smith's character asks Tommy Lee Jones' character why the government doesn't just tell the people about the existence of extraterrestrial life on Earth:

Edwards: Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.
Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.

In that same vein, I don't think that individual Americans are particularly stupid but the American people certainly seem to behave that way much of the time. This is the same phenomenon Thomas Frank explored in his 2004 book What's the Matter with Kansas? wherein he lamented that everyday middle-class Americans were of late consistently voting against their own self-interests, mainly due to the fact that the right-wing in this country has the ability to largely shape and control the overarching political narrative (while I obviously begrudge them this fact I also somewhat admire it, although not always on an ethical level). Having written his book at the height of the second Bush administration, Frank focused predominantly on the right's promotion of incendiary social issues such as abortion and gay marriage to drum up support amongst their base but that core message has changed somewhat since then; now the focus of their divisiveness has mainly become the struggling economy.

The reasons for this are two-fold: 1) The American economy is in pretty bad shape right now and history has shown that whenever this is the case the party out of power at the time usually does well at the ballot box, hence the Republicans' current concerted campaign of obstructionism and rooting for President Obama's economic (and pretty much all other) plans to fail. It's simple: the worse shape America's in, the better their chances of regaining power. A cynical strategy to be sure, but unfortunately also a fairly effective one. And 2) A Republican is no longer in the White House. When George W. Bush became president the fiscal conservatism of the Republican party dried up faster than roadkill on a hot Texas freeway and it coincidentally took them just over eight years of reckless deregulation and profligate spending to see the error of their ways and suddenly rediscover what they constantly tout as one of their core ideological beliefs. So now Republicans cast every dollar the president spends in his efforts to clean up the economic morass left to him by his predecessor in the damning light of irresponsible waste. In other words, government spending is wildly out of control only when they're the ones not doing the spending. Convenient that.

When you couple this current electoral strategy with their previously mentioned ability to largely control the narrative coming out of Washington (usually by lying more and screaming louder than the spineless and frustratingly ineffective Democrats), it's no wonder that the majority of Americans say they are opposed to legislation that would ensure their access to affordable health care. And ironically the increased transparency of the federal government, facilitated by Obama administration policies coupled with increases in the availability and affordability of personal technology, has contributed to this atmosphere of electoral ignorance. The process of D.C. sausage-making is difficult to watch and even more difficult to understand, so it's a relatively simple affair for the out of power party to demonize legislation with which they disagree by predominantly focusing instead on the ugliness of the process and making sure that this becomes a part of the news cycle, hence the current dissatisfaction with Washington by the American people.

Now I don't particularly fault Americans for their general lack of political awareness. These are tough economic times they find themselves in and most people are busy enough worrying about their jobs and their families and everything else going on in their lives that they can't or won't find the time to educate themselves about the intricacies of the legislative process, especially as they pertain to an issue as unexciting and complicated as health care reform but I do think that Americans could try harder to make the time to do so. If an issue is important enough to be angry about it's important enough to learn about, and if enough Americans made the time in their lives to properly do so I have no doubt that Obama's efforts to reform our broken and largely unsustainable health care system would enjoy a sudden surge in popularity. Again, Americans aren't stupid; they sometimes just need to be reminded of what's in their own best interests, and affordable health care for themselves and their loved ones definitely falls within that category for everyone.

Pre-Quake San Francisco, Circa 1905

I've spent a lot of time in The City, so this was kind of surreal to watch:

The first track from Airs' Moon Safari album, accompanied by scenes from a video shot from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in San Francisco in 1905. Before the earthquake/fire of 1906 destroyed the area. Remarkable footage of the turn of the century lifestyles in California.

The leaps that technology has taken since then amaze me: we're now sharing film shot more than a century ago instantaneously on our world wide web. Yet we've also taken a step backwards in some respects: from the looks of this video, I would imagine that the hat industry has taken some big hits in the last 105 years:


(hat tip: Intrepid Californio)

MK Channel ID/Branding

This slow/stop motion film is a rebranding advertisement for the alternative music channel MK. There's some really beautiful stuff here:


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Something Inconsistent Someone Else Said

"If the President intends to present any kind of legislative proposal at this discussion, will he make it available to members of Congress and the American people at least 72 hours beforehand? Our ability to move forward in a bipartisan way through this discussion rests on openness and transparency." -Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner and Republican Whip Eric Cantor, in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel two weeks ago.

"You know, apparently we're going to be there most of the day and have an opportunity to have a lot of discussion but if they're going to lay out the plan they want to pass four days in advance, then why are -- what are we discussing on Thursday?" -Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday yesterday, criticizing the White House's plan to post a health care reform proposal online, just days before the upcoming televised health care summit.

Now I realize that these are different individuals so the level of hypocrisy is not particularly egregious but let's face it, if there's one group of people who know how to tow the party line and stay on message it's the Republican party. Unfortunately for America, that message is only two letters long, was crafted shortly after President Obama's inauguration last year and has been the GOP's answer to pretty much everything he's said and done since. As much as I usually despise the Democrats, I still give them credit for at least trying to fix things but it seems pretty clear by now that the Republicans will say almost anything to ensure that Obama fails, even at the expense of their own country.

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Maher's New Rules: Teabaggers Are A Cult

Bill Maher's Real Time returned to HBO this past weekend and he made quite a convincing case for the title of this post in his New Rules segment. The statistics pertaining to teabagger knowledge about taxation are particularly damning:

American Power And One Man's Tubby Petulance

So it seems that my conservative counterpart Donald Douglas of American Power didn't much appreciate my making fun of his recent diatribe against his newly formed list of "unprincipled bullies" (read=liberal bloggers Don doesn't like) and says as much in his newest typo-ridden salvo (it's called "Spell Check" Don and it's right there in your Blogger tool bar. Seriously, at least make the attempt to proofread your own stuff; I'm not trying to harp but you supposedly teach at a school and you're making the rest of us with college educations look bad by association) against yours truly, "James B. Webb: Intolerant Sexist Pig":

I discussed earlier "The Narrative" in American politics. The Narrative is the ideological construct the claims an ineluctable progress towards full equality in the U.S., and to challenge that project is to be subjected up to the most vile attacks of "racism," "sexism," and "homophobia." Of course, leftists refuse to hold themselve up to the same standards they hold conservatives, which is a reminder that it's not equality these folks are about, but totalitarianism.

Anwyay, I mention this after noticing that James B. Webb, one of the great purveyors of The Narrative, has once again exempted himself from it. In a post from a few weeks ago ("Ayla Brown Is Available, And I'm Interested"), JBW describes my beautiful friend Suzanna as "Sweetits." Pleading about how ready he is for Scott Brown's daugther, we treated to this fairly significant burst of sexist objectification and anti-femine infantilization:

Yes, I was spurned by Sweetits but I have a good feeling about this one. Ayla, I'm a relatively poor man, I have no real power or influence over anyone, I drink way more wine than any healthy human being should and I prefer not to cook or clean. Come and get it, girl! She'll be in good hands, Senator-elect Brown. Good, busy hands.

Contrary to JBW's claims, I've never insinuated he's gay. But no one needs to insinuate anything about his blatant sexism and progressive hypocrisy. It's just right out there for everyone to see.

So typical of the left, I might add.

First off, "The Narrative" (which I've never heard of before despite being one of it's great purveyors) is apparently responsible for the equal civil and human rights that black folks like Don and women like Suzanna and Ayla now enjoy in this country and around the world but since Don doesn't like some of the PC overkill that has proceeded from it of late (neither do I, for that matter) he's going to go all baby and bathwater on the concept in some kind of chubby attempt to vilify me because I likes the ladies so much.

Speaking of which, almost every sexist statement I make on this site is satire, Don. What are you, retarded? I realize that you're somewhat unfamiliar with the concept because your own version of humor consists mainly of calling people Nazis and attempting to speak in some type of slangy street patois that you obviously have no regular experience using but try to pull the stick out of your ass and at least feign some semblance of a sense of humor. Suzanna did so long ago and even embraced the sobriquet I imparted upon her:

JBW, can't we all just be friends? This linking orgy we all seem to be having is wearing me out. True, I don't normally make friends with the "liberal idiot guy," but in your case - because you like Southern food - I'll make an exception.

Forever yours,
Sweetits

See, that's a girl with a healthy sense of humor (and a few other healthy things, if you know what I mean...). Oops, did I just say that? And as for calling me gay, Don is technically correct: he's never actually written the words "James B. Webb is gay". He's just insinuated as much. Constantly. Over and over and over again. "I'm not saying that you're gay, I'm just saying that you like cock and have sex with other men. NTTAWWT!!" And there isn't, actually. Don can use the implication that another man might be gay as some kind of supposed insult as much as he likes but he'll eventually have to square that with people rightly thinking that he's somewhat of a homophobe as a result. Oh, and to prove how anti-feminine (that's how you spell that, Don) I am here's what I wrote in response to a reader mentioning how boring Sweetits' blog has gotten lately in the comment section of the post Don found so atrocious:

And yes, Sweetits is most definitely living on the boring side. To her credit though she's now volunteering at an inner city organization for kids so I wish her all good things but the constant Jesus schtick is getting a bit old, and I'm a big fan of the man.

Like so many hot chicks I know, she needs a little wine-drinking, blogging Anthropologist in her. Booyah.

I'm such a woman hater. Yes, the last sentence is kind of sexist but again, it's satire done for comedic effect. I don't actually think that every hot chick I know needs to sleep with me. Just most of them, and the fact that Don needs this explained to him would be kind of sad if his resultant indignation wasn't so entertaining to read. Remember what I said about Republican humor fail? So, am I intolerant? Yes, in the sense that I don't tolerate serial dumbassery from portly homophobes. Am I sexist? Yes, in the sense that most men are probably somewhat sexist to a certain extent but I don't think my mother, sisters or any girl I've ever dated would say that I particularly stand out from my male brethren in that regard. Am I a pig? Well, I do eat a lot of bacon, ham, pork chops, etc. and they say that you are what you eat but I don't know how literally one should interpret that particular phrase. Hell, I've even eaten pigs feet, hog maws and chitlins but don't tell Don because that would be RAAACIST!!

[Update: I wrote above "And as for calling me gay, Don is technically correct: he's never actually written the words "James B. Webb is gay". He's just insinuated as much." I mistakenly thought that he had denied calling me gay instead of denying insinuating such. I was therefore incorrect in saying that Don is right. He isn't; he's just a liar instead. My apologies for the oversight.]

[Update II: After whining about what a loser I am because I speak English well in the comment section of this post Don has apparently gone back through his original post and fixed all of his spelling errors (the grammatical errors still remain, of course) without making any acknowledgement of the changes. See Don, that wasn't so hard but when I said to start using Spell Check I didn't mean me. So typical of the intellectually lazy, I might add.]

Michael Jackson Fingering

No, no, no, it's not what you think (if you're thinking of the late King of Pop digitally diddling some trusting young fans tipsy on Jesus Juice) but if you're thinking of a chick on a Brazilian talent show ambidextrously continuing with today's apparent eighties dance theme then yes, it's exactly what you think:


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Rarely Seen Predator 2 Shuffle

Yes, it's going to be a video kind of day so just strap in and enjoy, ya'll. As I first started watching this one I thought, "My God, that really looks like the set from Predator 2!" until I saw the outfits, and then I realized that there's no way that anyone went to the trouble of recreating them just for this little dance video. A two decades old blast from the past with a Glover cherry on top. Slightly surreal, to say the least:


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Something Hilarious Someone Else Said

"Pure toxic evil, mark my words.

Indeed, all of these people are unprincipled bullies, the lot of them, a rogue demonology detachment of the first order: Captain Fogg, Comrade Repsac3, David Hillman, Green Eagle, James B. Webb, TNLib, RockyNC, and TRUTH 101." -My conservative counterpart Donald Douglas of American Power, writing in his trademark hyperbolic style whilst also in his ever-perpetual Sarah Palin victim mode about some innocuous yet apparently also heinous slight he claims to have incurred recently.

Personally, I think that's some fine company I find myself in. And poor little Don, completely surrounded by hordes of nihilistic enemies with only himself and a few other brave and noble neocon bloggers to stave off the American Armageddon being carried out by the Dark Overlord Obama, with the explicit approval and collaboration of the liberal mainstream media and blogosphere of course. I've never felt like much of a persecuted victim myself but I would imagine that constantly living one's life like this must be quite the mental and emotional burden, as it's clearly taken a toll on my good buddy Don here's faculties. At least he remembered my middle initial this time, although I was kind of disappointed that I wasn't at the top of his newest enemies list. I wonder if Nixon organized his list alphabetically as well? Regardless, keep up that good crazy, Don; as always, at least you're still good for a laugh.

[Update: It appears that Don also once again insinuated that I'm gay for no good reason a few days ago and I just flat out missed it at the time. As always, well played sir! How does one possibly defend oneself from such devastating word play? Perhaps I should take down my picture at the top of the sidebar above; I think my "come hither partyboy look" is making Don feel all warm and funny in his pants again.]

Picture Of The Day

Do you see it? Cower before the might of the anti-atheist toast!

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Metallica's "Enter Sandman" A Capella

The Nymphs performing their 1940’s Andrews Sisters inspired version of "Enter Sandman". That feedback you're picking up in the background is Cliff Burton's dead ass spinning in his grave:


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Rubio Reads Obama Slam From TelePrompter

Would this be considered blatant hypocrisy or merely hypocrisy?

The Tea Party's choice in the Florida Republican primary, Marco Rubio, began his address to a crowd of conservative conventioneers by taking a shot at President Obama for reading from a teleprompter. He did it while standing in front of two easily visible teleprompters.

It was unclear whether the devices were placed there for him or for other speakers at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference, or CPAC, at which he was a keynote speaker. A HuffPost reporter, however, watched his speech from the front row and Rubio could clearly be seen looking intently and repeatedly at the teleprompters. He also had a stack of papers with him at the lectern and flipped through them as the speech progressed, perhaps unwilling to take any chance he would flub the swipe at Obama.

This whole right-wing "the well-educated former editor of the Harvard Law Review who got himself elected president of the United States actually can't string three words together without reading them" talking point is becoming as tiresome as it is ridiculous, and Marco Rubio is obviously a man without shame.

Picture Of The Day

President Obama greets a young visitor to the Oval Office last week. "I shall call him: Mini-Me."

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Picture Of The Day II

This is just gorgeous:

This stunning solar eclipse is a composite of nine images (taken with a Canon 200mm lens) and 38 eclipse images layered over one another. The eclipse occurred in July...

The image shows how magnetic waves emanate from the sun in brilliant nano-flares. Look closely at the image and you can see the impact craters on the moon. The eclipse lasted just over 5 minutes.

I've seen a few eclipses before but my sunglasses didn't provide nearly this level of detail. The hi-res photo is also definitely worth checking out as well.

Remote Controlled Flying Millennium Falcon

I want, I want, I want:

Han Solo once bragged that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs…and now fans can give it their best shot with the all-new Star Wars R/C MILLENNIUM FALCON! For the first time ever, the MILLENNIUM FALCON — the most beloved and iconic Star Wars ship of all-time — is available as an indoor flying remote control vehicle. Measuring an impressive 11 inches long and 8 inches wide, the largest flying Star Wars R/C to date is highly detailed, easy to fly and includes a charging controller and vehicle battery for up to five minutes of flying time.

It retails for $49.99, is coming out this fall and will make .5 past lightspeed. I plan on breaking a lot of shit around my house around six months from now.

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[Update: Just ran across my most favoritest flash mob to date:


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Picture Of The Day

Sarah Palin, Photoshopped without her coiffure, makeup and trademark glasses. You can check out several others and roll over them with your mouse cursor to compare the before and after shots here. This is what Todd Palin wakes up to every morning. Suddenly she's not quite so intriguing, is she?

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Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop

I found this to be very cool:

The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it.

I imagine this having very good odds of becoming reality someday, perhaps through the use of a heads-up display across my bionic contacts lenses integrated through an implanted hard drive similar to this cell phone concept. I really could do without the constant and intrusive Minority Report-style ads though:

Busy, Busy, Busy

Renewed apologies for the continued lack of posting as of late. Between work and unpacking my house I've hardly had any time for the Internets at all this week. It's actually been pretty nice having the TV and computer off with just music playing instead. Of course I can only do that for so long before I go through information and cable news withdrawal so this shouldn't last too much longer. Regular blogging will proceed shortly.

Evil Prank Of The Day

Forget all about this amateurish bullshit prank from a few days ago. This is how you prank, bitches:


Dude, harsh.

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Chart Of The Day

Every terrorist John McClane and his black sidekicks took out in and around Nakatomi Tower in Die Hard. Welcome to the party pal, now I have a machine gun ho ho ho, yippee-ki-yay motherfucker, etc. Classic.

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TDS: Unusually Large Snowstorm

The Daily Show backs up Republican claims that the study of climatology is no more difficult than looking out one's window:

Picture Of The Day

Looking at pictures like this never gets any easier:

Newly released photographs show what a damaged World Trade Center tower and its collapse looked like from a New York Police Department helicopter as it flew nearby on September 11, 2001, in New York.

The aerial photos were obtained by ABC News after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which had collected the images for its investigation into the towers' collapse.

A couple of the images show one of the twin towers burning after a hijacked airplane had flown into it. Others show it collapsing, and the rest show the clouds of debris and dust spreading below after the towers crumbled.

Each of the 12 images offers a rare look at what the devastation looked like from above.

That day is still so fresh in my memory, it's hard to realize that it's been over eight years already. If you're interested, you can read about how I spent 9/11 here as well as my bitching about the excruciatingly slow and bureaucratic process of building the Freedom Tower here.

The American Right And The Denial Of Science

I had FOX News on in the background while I was putting my house in order earlier today when I heard an anchor trying to make the point that global warming doesn't exist because of the record snow falls we're having in the American Northeast right now, and to make his point he had set a copy of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth outside in Baltimore and was following the progress of the storm by how buried the book became over an hour long broadcast. You can imagine how surprised I was to learn that a scientific theory can be so easily refuted by simply showing that a literal interpretation of its name isn't what's happening on any one spot on the planet at any one time. This got me thinking: what other scientific theories could I refute with such methods?

Well, it turns out that pretty much anything can be disproved in this manner. It seems that atoms don't actually exist because I looked at some ancient Greek scrolls and all I could see was some old crinkly paper; Democritus was obviously a lying shill tucked securely in the back pocket of Big Indivisibility. Next I proved that gravity doesn't exist by tying a bunch of helium balloons to a copy of Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica and watched as it slowly floated away; indisputable, in that there was nobody else there to dispute my conclusions. And to prove that the theory of evolution never happened I meticulously thumbed through all of my family photo albums. Not only did I not come across any monkeys but I didn't even see any "transitional" relatives, and just to make sure that the theory had been thoroughly debunked I had a monkey take a crap on a copy of Darwin's On the Origin of Species; checkmate, all of you well-educated scientific experts and elitists!

This is the mindset that is inevitably produced when a society, and especially one major political party, treats education and knowledge as if they were some kind of con or scam whilst simultaneously holding up ignorance and superstition as badges of pride. I know that it's antithetical to the philosophy of a democracy in a republic and that I probably gain few friends by saying this but I still think that everyone should have to pass a test of minimal knowledge and intelligence to be able to vote in this country's elections. Our future advancements in science and education should not be subjected to the whims of philistinism and incuriousness. If believing this makes me an elitist, then it's a label that I'll wear proudly.

[Update: The Democratic Strategist apparently agrees with me:

The problem is that more severe winter weather tends to confirm rather than contradict climate change theory. Warmer overall temperatures produce moisture, which in winter tends to produce snow. Climate scientists have long predicted more turbulent winter weather as a result of climate change. And by the way, last month was the world's warmest January on record.

This won't keep conservatives from taking cheap shots at anyone who wants to deal with climate change, but it's worth knowing that this particular attack line is particularly cynical and wrong-minded.

The show that followed the anchor I mentioned previously was Glenn Beck's. It featured him making incredulous faces and loudly scoffing as he watched a video of an MSNBC anchor reading the first of the two paragraphs quoted above. Then rather than dispute these statements he instead proceeded to draw a thermometer circling back on itself on his chalkboard as if it were a mercury-filled Ouroboros. This is how one of the Right's leading voices claims to debate and understand basic science. Again, all I ask is for minimal knowledge and intelligence from our voting base; I don't think that's such a high bar to set for ourselves as a society.

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Seth MacFarlane's Recipe For TV Success

Sadly, this is all too true. And they get less funny going from left to right. I love Family Guy but how many more of these things do you think they're going to let him make?

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Tracy Porter's Tecmo Bowl XLIV Interception

A highlight from last Sunday's Super Bowl reimagined as a video game blast from the past:

Jim Carrey's Website Is Hella Trippy

It's a bit creepy and surreal coming from the guy who used to speak out of his ass but also quite interesting. And I couldn't locate the "childhood vaccinations cause autism" section but maybe I'm just not crazy enough. You can check it out here.

Evil Prank Of The Day

Ingenious in its simplicity and hilarious in its execution:


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Picture Of The Day II

Someone finally has President Obama's back:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican member of the Cabinet, feigns being a blocking back for President Barack Obama as he arrives backstage to meet with GOP House leaders before speaking to their issues conference at the Renaissance Baltimore Harbor Place Hotel in Baltimore, Md., Jan. 29, 2010.

I'd rather have Rahmbo blocking for me; he's small but he's scrappy.

SNL: An Apology From Rahm Emanuel

This was nice of him:


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Picture Of The Day

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's left hand, during her recent keynote speech at the first Tea Bagger convention in Nashville, TN, in which she referred to President Obama as a “guy with a teleprompter”. It says:

"Energy"

"Budget [crossed out] (Cuts)"

"Tax"

"Lift American spirits"

Apparently the notes weren't for her speech for which she used prepared remarks but rather the question and answer session that followed, when she was glancing at them. These are supposedly her core ideological principles, and she had to write them on her damn hand. If you support this woman for national office I automatically dismiss your political arguments out of hand (pun intended) at this point.

[Update: I didn't notice it at first but she's wearing a POW/MIA bracelet with her son Track's name on it, although he's neither a prisoner of war nor is he missing in action. Do you suppose she just doesn't know what those bracelets are for or is this a strategy of switching out the youngest son for the oldest son as a political prop? I wouldn't put either possibility past her.]

If Famous Filmmakers "Directed" The Super Bowl

Apparently I don't watch enough pretentious art films because a few of these didn't really impress me (and I'm pretty sure that I could make a pretty decent Wes Anderson parody at this point) but do I liked the combination of the footage in the Tarantino trailer:

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I'm 36 Today...

...but I don't feel a day over 35 ½ . I'd recommend having your birthday on Super Bowl Sunday if you have the means; any day you're drinking beers and watching football is a good day, regardless of which milestone you're passing on the inexorable march towards death. My only complaint is that everyone tries to give you those combination birthday/Super Bowl presents. Cheap bastards.

Picture Of The Day

17 museum admission buttons from around the world. Posted merely because I like these things.

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Spray-On Glass To Revolutionize The World

The future is here and it has super-thin glass sprayed all over it:

(PhysOrg.com) -- Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products

The liquid glass spray (technically termed “SiO₂ ultra-thin layering”) consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the manufacturers, liquid glass has a long-lasting antibacterial effect because microbes landing on the surface cannot divide or replicate easily...

The liquid glass spray produces a water-resistant coating only around 100 nanometers (15-30 molecules) thick. On this nanoscale the glass is highly flexible and breathable. The coating is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids. UK project manager with Nanopool, Neil McClelland, said soon almost every product you purchase will be coated with liquid glass.

Finally. The cell phones have been getting pretty cool lately and I love that space tourism still seems like a viable industry but truth be told I was starting to doubt whether I'd get to see some of these super-science technologies I've been reading about in science-fiction for decades. Now bring on the flying cars and robotic mistresses.

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Something Someone Else Said

"At the Republican caucus, they held up -- they said, we've got a plan; it's going to provide everybody coverage at no cost. And I said, well, if that were true, why wouldn't I take it? My wife Michelle thinks I'm stubborn sometimes, but I'm not that stubborn. Okay, let me think. I could have everybody get health care coverage that's high quality, and it's free, which I'll bet is really popular. But I'm not going to do that. I'm going to go through the pain of really working through this hard process in Congress, getting yelled at and called a socialist, because I just -- that's how I roll. I'm a glutton for punishment. (Laughter.)

No, look, if this were easy and simple, first of all, somebody would have done it before. Seven Presidents have failed at this; seven Congresses have failed at this. If this was simple, it would have already been done. It's not." -Barack Obama, yesterday.

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Over The Top Indian Movie Action Sequence

From the 1995 Indian movie Alluda Majaka comes five minutes of hilariously coordinated stunts and indestructible horses:

Unpacking Life

Apologies for the lack of posting lately, I'm unpacking everything I own in the world at my new place. I really have too much shit. Most of it's nice though...

Something Someone Else Said

"I know this reality is all terribly inconvenient for Republicans. Facts just keep getting in the way of a perfectly misleading narrative.

But at this point, the GOP and its allies have a choice. Either they can explain why they were entirely silent when Bush handled the Reid case the same way Obama has handled the Abdulmutallab incident, or they can shut up and accept the fact that they've been acting like shameless, transparent, dishonest hacks.

I'm especially interested in hearing Liz Cheney trash her own father's administration for the way it handled the case of an attempted terrorist attack. Go ahead, Liz, we're all ears." -Steve Benen, Washington Monthly, reacting to the recent revelation that the shoe bomber was Mirandized more extensively than the Christmas underwear bomber.

Since they're obviously not going to shut up or explain themselves I'll answer Benen's question for them with one word: hypocrisy. It's the only way to explain the ever-increasing list of rules and constraints coming from Republicans that are now supposed to apply to the Obama administration yet never did during Bush's, and it's the only way that their narrative of Obama's apparent wrongdoing and dangerous incompetence can remain consistent. Of course I don't much trust the Democrats either but the Grand Old Party is truly lost.

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Obama's Budget Would Cut NASA's Moon Plan

I know that we're in the middle of a serious economic recession but I still have to say that I hate to see this happen:

The Obama administration is killing Constellation, NASA's ambitious back-to-the moon program. The decision represents a thunderous demolition of the Bush-era strategy at the space agency, which had already poured $9 billion into a new rocket, the Ares 1, and a new crew capsule, Orion.

Both were years from completion. And now both have been spiked by the administration's 2011 budget, released Monday. The budget includes $2.5 billion over the next two years to shut down Constellation.

Instead of continuing to develop the Ares 1 and Orion, the administration wants to invest $6 billion over five years in a commercial space taxi to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit. The budget would also funnel billions of dollars into developing new space technologies, such as the ability to refuel spacecraft in orbit. What isn't in the budget is a specific target for exploration.

Expanding our space exploration program was one of the few issues on which I agreed with both Bush administrations, so hearing that Obama now wants to discontinue our program to return to the moon is truly a disappointment. We're only now in the infancy of our potential to eventually become a space-faring race but we may never reach that level of exploration if we don't seriously invest in its future. The Constellation Program is estimated to cost ninety-seven billion dollars through the year 2020. That's how much we've spent every year we've been in Iraq.

Think about that: one year of paying for that war would develop a replacement fleet for our aging space shuttles along with new vehicles to carry us to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Obama's budget tries to do this through commercial means but without an overarching goal of extra-planetary exploration NASA will lack the inspirational vision to focus those newly developed capabilities. My only consolation in all of this is that these commercial taxis might help to hasten the opportunities for civilians like myself to one day travel into space ourselves.

Jesus 2000

The son of God parties like it's 33:


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Something Someone Else Said

"What if I told you insane was working fifty hours a week in some office for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to piss off; ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time? Wouldn't you consider that to be insane?" -notorious fictional serial killer Garland Greene, Con Air.

Yes, I rewatched it on cable last night and yes, it was both extremely entertaining and incredibly horrible at the same time. Question: Is there a hairstyle that doesn't look bad on Nick Cage? I'm just asking for the rest of the world...