December 20, 2004
like Cube turned inside out
yum ice cream
Ice cream flavors are not what they used to be. A few years ago, in Nice France, I experienced tasting lavender, and violet flavored ice cream, the wonderful flavors just blew me away. Later on in San Francisco, I found a wonderful Indian ice cream parlor, and fell in love with the cardamom, and rose flavors. When my travels take me back to Japan, I think I will try to avoid some of these incredibly strange ice cream flavors.
The Pagan Christ
"The Pagan Christ" by Tom Harpur would make a great stocking stuffer! Just in time for Christmas! Anyone up for some Apollonius vs. Jesus Christ? Which tradition was the original, and which was the copy-cat? Apollonius' tale is eerily familiar, as are the tales of many other pagan figures. Was the historical Jesus [mefi] padded with stolen pagan ideas? Some go as far as to suggest a historical Jesus never existed. Gasp.
The Hum
What is The Hum? Some residents of Taos, New Mexico suffer from it, and it seems to happen elsewhere, too. Listen to it here and here (.wav files, and not actually very dramatic). No one knows quite what the hum is, and even refutations don't really work. There are some "scientific" explanations, but The Hum Remains mysterious and sinister.
Manybooks.net
"This site contains more than 10,000 eBooks formatted for reading on your Palm, PocketPC, Zaurus, Rocketbook, eBookWise-1150, or Symbian cellphone." So if you have a PDA and especially if you're into the classics, you no longer have to settle for lame video games on your cell phone or inconvenient newspapers for your downtime entertainment.
Share the love
With organ donation lists far outstripping availible donars, is it fair that people who don't donate get equal footing when waiting for an organ? LifeSharers pledge to donate organs preferentially to other registered organ donors upon death, essentially forming a private organ donation network. Excess organs are donated to the public.
a little off the top, please.
Known in part for their semi-corny jokes and vaudeville style while performing, The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America is a not-for-profit fraternal and charitable organization that has one primary goal: to get people singing.
Aren't familiar with Barbershop Quartet singing? Have a listen.
There is also a Sister affiliate, Sweet Adelines Int'l., for women who want to sing four-part harmony as well.
I grew up listening to this stuff, and only really started to appreciate it recently.
I grew up listening to this stuff, and only really started to appreciate it recently.
It's All About Words.
In 2004, we had Jon Stewart on Crossfire. In 1986? There was Frank Zappa...
As Zappa once said, "There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another." (I don't know of any song that could ever inspire me to love John Lofton, though... compared to him, Tucker Carlson is simply delightful!)
In 1986, I was a 19 year old art student. One Saturday afternoon I found myself volunteering at an event at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood where Frank Zappa was scheduled to speak about censorship. I was not that familiar with him or his music at the time, but he was so funny, eloquent, and intelligent as a speaker that his many "words" made a major impression on me that day. In this interview conducted on March 16, 1986, Frank Zappa talked further about his appearance before the US Congress and his involvement in the fight against censorship.
BTW, this is my first post. I hope it passes muster! ;)
As Zappa once said, "There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another." (I don't know of any song that could ever inspire me to love John Lofton, though... compared to him, Tucker Carlson is simply delightful!)
In 1986, I was a 19 year old art student. One Saturday afternoon I found myself volunteering at an event at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood where Frank Zappa was scheduled to speak about censorship. I was not that familiar with him or his music at the time, but he was so funny, eloquent, and intelligent as a speaker that his many "words" made a major impression on me that day. In this interview conducted on March 16, 1986, Frank Zappa talked further about his appearance before the US Congress and his involvement in the fight against censorship.
BTW, this is my first post. I hope it passes muster! ;)
balance
Balance (8 min) is an Oscar award winning short animation piece by the Lauenstein brothers. "Balance turns a black comedy into a meditation on human interdependence" [flash, click on last link at bottom of page]
bone art
An Executive Order Along Torture's Path
Request for guidance regarding the OGC's EC regarding detainee abuse, referring to “interrogation techniques made lawful” by the “President's Executive Order.” comes from Records Released in Response to Torture FOIA Request.
Smoking Gun ? asks the ACLU--or just another stepping stone from Torture's Path ? As Ex-Military Lawyers Object to Bush Cabinet Nominee, and in Torture begins at the top, Joe Conason suggests that a recently disclosed FBI memo indicates that "marching orders" to abandon traditional interrogation methods came from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld himself and all the while Guantánamo torture and humiliation still going on, says shackled Briton. (more inside)
Smoking Gun ? asks the ACLU--or just another stepping stone from Torture's Path ? As Ex-Military Lawyers Object to Bush Cabinet Nominee, and in Torture begins at the top, Joe Conason suggests that a recently disclosed FBI memo indicates that "marching orders" to abandon traditional interrogation methods came from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld himself and all the while Guantánamo torture and humiliation still going on, says shackled Briton. (more inside)
Belly dance music
Mohammed El-Bakkar. [flash with sound] The Man... The Myth... The Legend? Some great music, and the cover art isn't bad either.
There must have been some magic in that old silk they found...
Merry Christmas, Interweb! Though it's become part of a larger media conglomerate, the Chicago T.V. station famous for Bozo the Clown has dusted off some old footage from its archives. Among the goodies converted to Flash format are a Frosty the Snowman cartoon which inspired a bit of online detective work, as well as a more recent holiday favorite, The Yule Log.
The Repo Man Ate My Homework
Local Town Mortgages Students' Textbooks. "[The South Plainfield school board] plans to sell nearly all student textbooks to a bank or financial institution, which then would lease them back to the district over a period of five years. The more than 2,500 books would remain in students' hands, and the move would bring a quick boost of about $965,000."
(via Patridiot Watch)
(via Patridiot Watch)
Long Live Freedom....
CEO of eBay's Indian company arrested for an item offered up for sale on his site. Avnish Bajaj, the CEO of baazee.com, an Indian auction site purchased by eBay in June 2004, was arrested on Friday while assisting in the investigation into the attempted sale of pornography by a user on the auction site, and charged with violating the 2000 India IT Act. Bajaj was arrested even though he was not involved in the sale, had it cancelled as soon as it was found, and the people involved had already been arrested.
Hippo Cannibals Ruin It For the
BE THE MEDIA
My Visa Card's Secret Identity is A Victoria's Secret Gift Card
Frontline's: Secret History of the Credit Card
Includes alot of useful and less than well known information like "universal default" clauses that allow your credit card company to raise your interest rate when you're late on a payment to another creditor and there's no limit to the late charges a credit company can lay on you as well as no limit on the interest rate they hit you with. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Of particular interest: credit scores explained and an examination of credit responsibility. There are also interviews with lawmakers (including the infamous Bill Janklow). Not sure how well versed you are on credit card info? Take the quiz and find out. (I did badly).
Includes alot of useful and less than well known information like "universal default" clauses that allow your credit card company to raise your interest rate when you're late on a payment to another creditor and there's no limit to the late charges a credit company can lay on you as well as no limit on the interest rate they hit you with. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Of particular interest: credit scores explained and an examination of credit responsibility. There are also interviews with lawmakers (including the infamous Bill Janklow). Not sure how well versed you are on credit card info? Take the quiz and find out. (I did badly).
thumbs up
What do you keep on your USB thumbdrive? Maybe you want to turn yours into a dual boot drive. Or maybe you want to keep a special portable Firefox implementation, including extensions, on there.
New Utrecht High School
New Utrecht High School, school rules gone wild:
#9. Carrying Magic Markers is prohibited.
#13. NO WEAPONS ALLOWED (Laser Beams are considered weapons). Possession will result in automatic Superintendent's Suspension and/or expulsion from school.
Lasers going the way of the drug-dealing magic-marker peddling beeper?
#9. Carrying Magic Markers is prohibited.
#13. NO WEAPONS ALLOWED (Laser Beams are considered weapons). Possession will result in automatic Superintendent's Suspension and/or expulsion from school.
Lasers going the way of the drug-dealing magic-marker peddling beeper?
Gay Abe?
Lincoln Outed. It's a subject that has been discussed before (hopefully not here), but in "The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln," to be published next month by Free Press, C.A. Tripp, a psychologist, influential gay writer and former sex researcher for Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, tries to resolve the issue of Lincoln's sexuality once and for all. The author, who died in 2003, two weeks after finishing the book, subjected almost every word ever written by and about Lincoln to minute analysis. His conclusion is that America's greatest president, the beacon of the Republican Party, was a gay man.
*sob* we miss you, hockey
Senior Cranky Hates You
Twelve STIs of Christmas
Twelve STIs of Christmas I can't decide if the lyrics are better than the animated men or not, but the twelve STIs of christmas is possibly the best public health propoganda I've ever seen. [Flash][SFW. Probably][And technically double post, but it's a great one. And it's christmas.]
Sharia? Shuria thing
Sharia recommended to Ontario government. A review of Mumtaz Ali's recommendation to permit legal arbitration by Islamic law has concluded in his cause's favour, recommending that sharia be allowed for family disputes and inheritance cases. Sharia may be joining Roman Catholic and Orthodox Jewish laws as religious law arbitration options, which is good. But women's groups are worried about the inherent discriminatory nature of sharia, which is bad.
Walmart
"With 1.4 million employees worldwide, Wal-Mart's workforce is now larger than that of GM, Ford, GE, and IBM combined. At $258 billion in 2003, Wal-Mart's annual revenues are 2 percent of US GDP, and eight times the size of Microsoft's. In fact, when ranked by its revenues, Wal-Mart is the world's largest corporation." The real cost belongs to the taxpayer, as this report (PDF or HTML through Google), by the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, makes clear. A "total annual welfare bill of $2.5 billion for Wal-Mart's 1.2 million US employees."
Surf's Up
Surf's Up! While many of us in North America are battling freezing rain, sleet, snow, and other sub-zero madness, the folks on the north shore of Oahu are enjoying their own December weather phenomenon.
Something fishy?
Singaporean scientists genetically modify zebra fish to detect water pollutants by turning fluorescent. An American company realizes there's a consumer market for novelty glow-in-the-dark fish, and starts selling the US's first genetically modified pet. While the FDA, which oversees GM animals, 'finds no reason to regulate', California's Fish and Game Commission bans sales in the state over ethical concenrns, and a coalition of watchdog groups files suit to support a national ban.
A year later, GloFish are still on sale, and California's reconsidering its sales block. With the first GM pet quietly swimming into homes, and others (like hypo-allergenic cats) close behind, are we ready for a designer pet invasion?
A year later, GloFish are still on sale, and California's reconsidering its sales block. With the first GM pet quietly swimming into homes, and others (like hypo-allergenic cats) close behind, are we ready for a designer pet invasion?
A thorn in the side of Big Brother.
White Rose "is a protest blog collective focusing on civil liberties in the UK and the rest of [the] world. It was set up to point a finger at the erosion of personal freedom in the UK. Government's active measures introduce new means of control such as identity cards and surveillance cameras, the passive measures such as weakening of double jeopardy and presumption of innocence." Nice quote from this entry:
My audience were all gluttons for freedom, if by that you meant the freedom to hunt, or the freedom to eat roast beef without the fat trimmed off. But they were perfectly happy to see their own liberties curtailed, if that gave the authorities a chance to crack down on scroungers and bogus asylum-seekers.
It was Christmas. It was merry.
If Hemingway wrote A Visit from St. Nick. By Thurber, published all the way back in 1927.
A glimpse through the Wardrobe
A glimpse through the Wardrobe (25meg Quicktime file) at WETA Digital's amazing work on The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Seems another one of my childhood favorites is being brought to life by those Kiwi wizards. The minotaurs look simply amazing!
Phantom Pregnancy and Postpartum Depression?
Why some women kill for a baby.
"Most often women do this to fool the husband, and they don't want to break the spell, and there comes a time when they need to go get a baby."
"Most often women do this to fool the husband, and they don't want to break the spell, and there comes a time when they need to go get a baby."
Overheard in NYC
Subways, crime, high rents, and general frustration are not the only benefits of living in NYC; we also get to overhear the most interesting little conversations.
My favorite:
Street Vendor: Hey, hey, hey man, jewelry blow out special. Everything a dollar. Buy something nice for your wife for the holidays. One dollar!
Businessman: A dollar? I'm not gonna buy my wife jewelry for a dollar.
Street Vendor: It's the thought that counts.
--57th and 8th
My favorite:
Street Vendor: Hey, hey, hey man, jewelry blow out special. Everything a dollar. Buy something nice for your wife for the holidays. One dollar!
Businessman: A dollar? I'm not gonna buy my wife jewelry for a dollar.
Street Vendor: It's the thought that counts.
--57th and 8th
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