Looking for Mr Duffman

I was poking around in the Simpson archive. There are the usual episode and character guides. I looked around something on Duffman, there is the Nelson Muntz File. Instead I find this essay on Advertising and the Duff Corporation, here are some more serious papers on the Simpsons.

The Goldilock Planet

An Astronomer from the Vatican has a program about looking for livable planets. The Progam looks at current science of xenoplantology.
The Goldilocks Planet
BB4 Science

Dialect Convertor

A dialect converter called The Dialectizer will change and alter text and pages into some comic dialect. There seemed to be most radical change when neutral text is used. I tried to convert some Shakespeare very little change.

Simpson's Song about New Orleans

In the episode A Streetcar Named Marge, there is not overly complimentry song about New Orleans. The medley from the musical Oh, Streetcar! can be found in the cd Songs in the Key of Springfield which can be downloaded from Miniova in bittorrent, or even bought. The episode description was lifted from The Simpson Archive.

. Long before the Superdome,
. Where the Saints of football play,
. There's a city where the damned call home,
. Hear their hellish rondelet:
.
. New Orleans!
. Home of pirates, drunks, and whores...
. New Orleans!
. Tacky, overpriced souvenir stores...
.
. If you want to go to hell, you should take a trip
. To the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Mississip':
.
. New Orleans!
. Stinking, rotten, vomiting, vile...
. New Orleans!
. Putrid, brackish, maggotty, foul...
.
. New Orleans!
. Crummy, lousy, rancid and rank...
. New Orleans!
. ...

Nuclear Art

I followed a link from Boingboing to some paintings made at an early A Bomb Test.

DBWI: Habbitable Earth

Extended rift on SHWI as bunch of Martians wonder what it take to make Earth Habibitable.
HA HA.
Defination of DBWI or Double Blind What If is in the FAQ for soc.history.what-if.

The Great Wave

Watched a TVO program The Private Life of a Masterpiece about Hokusai's The Great Wave. I have seen this image before but I never knew the name of the print or the artist. It is my new background on my computer.

The Coming Emergency

Read a scary except from a new book from James Kunstler called The Long Emergency. When the oil runs out we are all going to freeze and strave in the dark. Here is another review of the book from a site called The Fourth World War.

Years ago I came across a sci-fi story from the fifties about a suburban family after their subdivision died, can't remember the name of the story. There was lots of great grim sci-fi in that time. As a reaction to the postwar cornecopia zeitgeist. Who can forget Harry Harrison's, Make room, Make Room, later made into the movie Solyant Green.

The Anti-Malthusians believe that nothing can ever run out, things will always be great. They feel reassured Malthus and Erlich most dire predictions have not been fulfilled. The difference between optimists and pessimists is that if they recognize reality, not automatic, optimists are disappointed and pessimists are pleasantly surprised.

Merc story in NY Times

Interesting story about mercenaries in today's sunday NY Times. Their new name, private security companies, isn't very descriptive. It describes an group then can guard film shoots rather than shoot looters. The problem with modern public-private army is that it depends on governments to train there mercs in the first place. There was a story earlier this year, I can't find it now, about guys retiring from the army and returning the next week to do the same job for a lot more cash.

Merc books and movies
The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese (historical Background) from a pro terrorist site.
The Dogs of War the book, the movie is sucky.

MADD and dangerous

Recently some parents were charged with serving alcohol to their teenager and friends, see here for report and here from the washington post. The local MADD chapter welcomed the charges even though the parents prevented the teens from driving.

My prospals for reducing drunk driving without descending into some sort of neo-prohibitionist dreamland.

• Drop drinking age to 18. (Teenagers binge drink when they can't legally buy booze.)
• Raise driving age to 21. (Teenagers can't drink and drive if they can't drive.)
• Double the price of gas. (Reduces driving)
  
• Double transit funding. (Reduces need to drive.)

The reason why we ended up with prohibition and other crazy moral laws is because women got the vote. Yes it was important and good that half of humanity got the vote. It was bad to encourage the growth of crime empires.

In a related way it is good when fascists, islamic or otherwise, engage in normal politics rather than using their "armed wings". But they are still nut jobs who would vote in policies they would impose violently. Of course can you trust any political party with an armed wing.

Chicoms on the March

Read a scary story in the weekend Globe about the success of the local ChiCom representive in lobbying. The Chicom rep has been able to convince many local representives to vote for tranny and murder so as not to upset the murderers in Peking.

Recently there was anti-Japanese riots in China. The Chinese has recently protested against Japanese atrocities in China 70 years ago. Of course the Chinese would object to oppressive tranny. Because oppressive tranny is by defination is what the Chinese government does. So any occuping force that also practices oppressive tranny makes a claim to be the legimate government.

Neocon Poster

Editorial cartoon done in the style of communist agitprop posters.

Graph That Explains Alot

I found this graph in an Economist survey about the US, see the graph in original context here. This graph certainly explains alot about the aristrocratization of American society.

P.S. The New York Times did a long series on Class in America.

Bought a new toy

Bought this Hot Wheels at a local McPuke's. It lights up with a cool green light after you flip a switch. Unfortunately you have to put on the stickers yourself. Not having tweezers with me in the restaurant to put on the decals neatly. I couldn't play with my new toy. Boohoo.

The picture is from a fan site, South Texas Diecast, for people who collect, but never play with their toys.

Comic Evolution series on BBC4

The Ape That Got Lucky, tonight on BBC4 is going to be an idiot guide to evolution. Of course lots of people have had a problem with evolution. Bush has been reported to be favour of teaching "intelligent design" as alternative science. Here is a debate between Dr. Zaius and Cornelius about evolution. As long as I Mention Dr. Zaius here is his song, and other great ape stuff from a fan site called the Forbidden Zone.

Cartoon News

A friend sent me a link about How To Ruin TV Animation In Seven Easy Lessons, he also sent me the toon blog Cartoon Brew.

Maimed Soldier pictures

I found these pictures in alt.binaries.pictures. military. Because of the advances in medical technology in WWI, soldiers survived to be maimed from injuries that would kill them in earlier wars. They were that lucky.

Gang Leader Dies

Fahd, leader of the Saudi crime family died yesterday after suffering from a long illness. A stroke is claimed, tertiary syphillis is suspected.

The Saudi crime family was established by his father, Abdul Aziz, a noted thief and rapist. Subsequently, leaders of the family kept up their founder's high moral standards.

In recent years an associated gang has caused legal problems for the Saudis. Luckily, the global policeman remains on the take and will arrest the "usual suspects" to take the heat.

He will succeeded by his brother Abdullah, who has been running the family rackets.

Indian Railway radio Documentry

Listened to a documentry that was made a couple years ago, 2003, on the occasion of 150th anniversary of the Indian Railroad. There are also links on the site for the radio documentry for steam preservation societies and official organizations.