31st March, 2005
This Place Sucks
It’s finally over. Well, at least for Terri Schiavo; I’m sure the media circus will continue for another week or so until something else captures our attention. We will then quickly forget the egregious abuses of power by our government regarding this situation. We’ll be too damn worried who will win on American Idol to question things, to demand that justice be served to our corrupt politicians. The current state of this country disgusts me. I’m embarrased and ashamed to call myself an American.
Aaron, over at Razorblade Runner, is pissed off, too.
[Update] Benny points out that Terri Schiavo’s parents will be selling their list of supporters
to a direct-mailing firm. All I can say is <nelson>HAHA</nelson>. What fine human beings the Schindlers are.
Posted at 5:38 pm | Comment (0)
30th March, 2005
SciAm Gives Up - No
It’s occasional things like this that remind me that there are still quite a few free-thinking individuals left in this country; the editors at Scientific American have put together one of the most delicious editorials that I have ever read. You can find the full version here if you are not a SciAm subscriber. [via BoingBoing]
Posted at 5:36 pm | Comment (0)
24th March, 2005
Cut the Cake
Today, GogBlog turns 1. Who’da thunk it? That’s gotta equate to 10 people years or something. Screw the self-aggrandizement, though; My pal Schpyder (who used to maintain a blog which lasted like 3 days) celebrated his birthday yesterday. One year closer to death, buddy. ^^
Posted at 5:34 pm | Comment (0)
21st March, 2005
Fresh
You might find the meaning of life in the barrel of a rifle
If it’s pointed at a bird or if it’s pointed at your head
But me I’d rather plant a tree that grows up tall for all to see
Until I need a pencil then I’ll chop it to the ground
So begins your wonderous journey into the music of The Ditty Bops, an eclectic duo based out in sunny California. I picked up their self-titled CD this weekend while browsing through my local hypermart and I have to say I’m rather infatuated with what I’ve found. An interesting mixture of old-school (think, 1920’s), folk, even some bluesy elements, and acoustic bliss, unlike anything I’ve heard before. After the second
listen, I was hooked. Oh, and be sure to check their website - it features more of the super-cool art that is found on their album.
[edit] I have no idea why I was thinking blues when I wrote this. Blame it on the craptacular weather.
Posted at 5:08 pm | Comment (0)
16th March, 2005
Pump Prices
And you thought gas prices in the US were high. The New York Times is reporting
that our pals at Halliburton (you know, the company that Vice President Cheney used to run) have overcharged the US government by about $108 million dollars in fuel charges alone. The Bush Administration has known about this since October of last year, but has managed to keep it covered up until now when the audit was unearthed through “unofficial channels”. When queried about a particularly odious charge of $27,000,000 for $82,000 worth of fuel, a Halliburton spokesperson replied that the additional costs we due to “insurgent attacks on convoys, a local shortage of trucks and delays by military escorts”. Right.
Posted at 5:06 pm | Comment (0)
10th March, 2005
Media
Since I was talking about music in my last post, I thought I’d also mention that the new album by Green Day, American Idiot, is worth picking up. I’m not a huge Green Day fan, but after about a week of listening to this album, it has really grown on me. Oh, and be sure to pay attention to the lyrics.
Not really all that related, I recently watched Tokyo Godfathers, the latest film by Satoshi Kon. The movie seems to have a much lighter air than his previous works, but it still showcases his considerable story telling skills. Definitely check it out if you haven’t already.
Posted at 5:04 pm | Comment (0)
10th March, 2005
SXSW
The good people in charge of the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas have put together an OMGhuge (2.6 GB) archive of tracks from over 750 bands who will be playing at this year’s festival and made it available, for free, via a BitTorrent download. I’m hearing some good stuff so far, makes me want to take a week off in March next year and make the trip down. Check it out here.
[edit] Oh, and I see they’ve now added another 80 songs in an update. Cool beans.
Posted at 5:02 pm | Comment (0)
3rd March, 2005
Stocking Stuffer Idea
A co-worker of mine pointed out that the Anatomical Chart Company is selling plushies of all your favorite disease-causing microbes. Yes, you heard that correctly. Allow me to intoduce you to the Calamities Collection: Black Death, Ebola, Flesh-Eating Disease and Sleeping Sickness (note the knife and fork that appears with Flesh-Eating Disease) and the Maladies Collection: Bad Breath, Kissing Disease, Athlete’s Foot, and Ulcer. I wonder if I can convince the Children’s Department to purchase some of these…
Posted at 5:01 pm | Comment (0)
3rd March, 2005
Oops
There have been a couple instances recently where someone has submitted a comment twice, presumably because the original comment didn’t appear after it was submitted. My fault. I was messing around with my anti-spam settings and I seem to have made it so that all comments have to be approved (and I haven’t figured out how to undo this yet..). I’m also tossing around the idea of implementing captchas but I’m rather lazy and unmotivated at the moment, so you’ll have to live with things as they are for now. =P
Posted at 5:00 pm | Comment (0)
3rd March, 2005
Return of the Instantoflush
Informative article at Wired covering new advances in toilet manufacturing. It’s also hilarious in a boy’s locker room sorta way. As there’s a good chance I’ll be visiting Japan later this year, I may run into one of these beasts sooner than later. I’m scared .
Posted at 4:58 pm | Comment (0)
2nd March, 2005
Terrists
I work in a library and one of my responsibilities is making sure that the software installed on the public PCs is up to date so that our patrons can play web-games and download the latest Paris Hilton videos to their hearts content. I recently updated Acrobat Reader and while testing it out, I ran across this gem of a form at the IRS: Form FinCEN102 Suspicious Activity Report - Casinos and Card Clubs. Nestled inside this form is a (presumably new) checkbox to report suspected terrorist financing activity. Now pardon my French, but how in the fuck do you determine that someone is financing terrorists from the results of a blackjack hand? Oh, that’s right. If the person has brown skin or a beard and they’re winning at craps, they’re most likely a terrorist financer or even worse, a terrorist themselves. Alert
Homeland Security! This country disgusts me more and more every day.
Posted at 4:57 pm | Comment (0)
