A Talking Cat Might Not Be So Great

A cat might talk but well we listen.

Also, remember the story Tobermory by Saki. In the short story about a man teaches the cat Tobermory to speak the cat then tells everyone secret and is found dead the next day.

To read the spoiler after "In the short story about a", highlight.

Psychotic Hobos

I'm Dreaming of a Nerd Christmas

slashdot has a story on the engineering of Santa Claus, The Science of Santa. It is a discussion based on a New Scientist article, The Science of Santa. And based on the book, The Truth about Santa. The article and nook are both written by Gregory Mone.

There are some amusing comments on slashdot.

yanyan provides a link to a previous calculations of Santa, Santa Claus: an Engineering Analysis.

girlintraining gives this acidic cimment on nerds:

Amazing. They believe in advanced quantum physics AND Santa. Most ordinary people would just say "he doesn't exist" around the age of 9 and move on. But not geeks!

The Twelve Pains of Christmas

The Twelve Pains of Christmas.

1. Finding a Christmas trees
2. Rigging up the lights
3. Hangovers
4. Sending Christmas cards
5. Five months of Bills
6. Relatives
7. Charities
8. Children
9. Parking
10. "batteries not included"
11. Christmas TV Specials
12. Christmas Carols
    

Some People Take Games a Little Too Seriously

Some people can't play a game without declaring war. Here is Snow Fight from Newgrounds.

Jesus the Celebrity

I like the program TMZ. For unlike other gossip media there is no automatic assumption that celebrities deserve any respect at all. They, TMZ, merely follows passing parade with amusement.

Best line, the paparazzo sees Jesus carrying the cross.

pap:

Hey Jesus is that cross heavy, bro.

Jesus :

Now is not a good time.

Real Actors versus CGI Actors

With some many movie makers turning to CGI to have more control than could over real actors. This of course means war.

What's Wrong with the "New" Star Wars

The Craptracular Phantom Menace shocked and disappointed many fan boys. Here is the definite 70 minute review of why the first Star Wars prequel sucked sobadly.

Discovered on a slashdot thread, The Definitive Evisceration of The Phantom Menace *NSFW*.


Above is part one of seven. Below are links to the other 6 parts in the series.

part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6
part 7

Cat Vader

Darth Vader as a Cat, or Cat Vader.

Ninja Cat

Brains are Important

But
But
But Bender need brain for smart making.

Philip J Fry on the need for brains in
Futurama S02E014

New Ed Wood Film

Plan 9 Teaser Trailer from Darkstone Entertainment on Vimeo.

A remake of Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space is in production. Above is the trailer, here is the movie's site. I got the link from an AH.com thread, Ed Wood Returns.

Update
As Timbo points out a competent Ed Wood producing acceptable work is not Ed Wood. Ed Wood really cared about film and wanted to be a director. His desire and lack of skill made him an anti-hack. There are many people who can do good work but don't, they are hacks. The tragedy of Ed Wood is that he wanted to do good work but couldn't and didn't recognize when he didn't.

How to Describe a Baby

A Baby, a motherfucking rolypoly chubby cheeked shit machine.

Debra Morgan describing the generic baby, Dexter S03E03

The Honest Criminal

I just got out of jail. 6 years for aggravated assault and home invasion.

two bit criminal John Henry

He kills murderers. You didn't kill anyone, did you?

Debra Morgan

I, I gave this old guy a heart attack. Its not I was doing it on purpose. I, I used to hit retirement homes, communities. Snowbirds are easy targets. And I don't, I don't do that anymore, I did my time.

two bit criminal John Henry

Your mother must be so proud.

Special Agent Frank Lundy

Worries About Port Security

No cameras, no patrols, no dogs, with billions spent on homeland security it can't be as easy as a couple of snips.

Dexter breaking into the Port of Miami,
Dexter S01E12

Is a Murderous Agenda "Radical"

Just because a robot wants to kill humans that makes him a "radical".

Bender soft pedaling human killing in
Futurama S01E05

Endlessly Annoying David Caruso

If the definition of adventure is people having a really horrible time far, far away then this is why I hate CSI:Miami. Beyond the forensics procedural CSI:Maimi is filled with pretty people, cool people, witty people, people having too good a time, pretty annoying people. The intro of David Caruso's character giving a droll little one liner only inspires feeling of violence. Watch this video of bon mots from the crime scenes of CSI:Miami and feel the annoyance.

Secret Indiana Jones Warehouse found in Area 51

We have top people looking into it, top people.

One of the last lines in
Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Above image from Doctor Who Dreamland.

The Warriors of Feldspar

The "Warriors of Feldspar" are some sort of troll miniatures made for a game, Heroscope, produced by Wizards of the Coast. Wizards of the Coast is owned by Hasbro which also owns Avalon Hill. Avalon Hill is mainly reduced to producing Axis & Allies derivatives.

If I, Feldspar, had my Warriors I would save Avalon Hill from the evil clutches of Hasbro.

Hunting At the Prison Gate

Florida prisons kick free 25,000 inmates a year. They don't do that for me but it sure feels like it. I search for the ones who feel they beat the system. They're not hard to find.

Dexter hunting, Dexter S01E03

Follow The Great Leader Chairman Meow

I have a very low opinion of the Chicoms and other murderous purveyors of commie revolution. Their way leads to death. However if Nazis have good tailors commies have good advertising, see here for previous blog entry on chicom propaganda. The above is from "Obey the Kitty", a group with a store front at Cafe Press and a blog.

This was posted on AH.com thread, alternate world propaganda. Hendryk, who would know, commented that:

As it turns out, Mao in Chinese is actually a homophone for the word "cat".

Happy Violent Weather Forecast

Another beautiful Miami day, mutilated corpses with a chance for afternoon showers.


Dexter, S01E02

The Murderer as Artist

Blood splatter, when framed and displayed, looks a lot like abstract expressionism.

(still from Dexter S01E01)

Murder Porn on TV

There is something strange and disarming about looking at a homicide scene in the daylight of Miami. It makes the most grotesque killings look staged, like you are in a new and daring section of Disney world.

Dahmerland.

Dexter in Dexter S01E01

Another Japanese House Designed for House Cats

Here is some more felinocentric Japanese architecture. The designers believe in the future houses will be made built for cats as much as for humans.

Cat Architecture

In Monty Python's far off days there was an episode where the team were cat entertainers. The Japanese have designed buildings around our feline friends. Here are some images of Japanese cat habitats.

Canadian War Photography

Here is a site of Canadian War Photography. The Image above almost seems like an image from Froissart or some other medieval chronicle.

Be Your Own Gunman

The man to protect you is you. Not the state, not the agent of the state, and not your hired hand—YOU!

Jeff Copper in a short article, Cooper VS. Terrorism, reprinted from Guns & Ammo annual 1975, advocating everyone become their own bodyguard. That one should be armed and trained for close combat, and not depend on anyone else. It is mildly alarming prospect. In the bio of the author, Jeff Cooper, we learn that he was innovator of Modern Technique of the Pistol, practices and principals to maximize combat effectiveness.

For some more alarming thoughts here is poem that Jeff Cooper posted in his armory about shotguns. He also worked better ways of killing with shotguns along with rifle and pistol.

"The Colonel loves his twelve gauge
It hits so very hard
"That when he shoots his enemies
It tears them all apart

It blows off chunks of tissue
And leaves their clothing red
It leaves them ripped and shattered
And almost always dead

It vaporizes muscle
It pulverizes bone
Yet shotguns are the weapons
The even yuppies own

They claim they only use them
For shooting ducks and skeet
But when you're stuck, a load of buck
Turns predators to meat

Bill O'Connor

Cool Art Project and the Heartless Corporation That Ripped it Off

This short film gives you context and scale to imagine yourself on a trip to space. I first saw the copy of this film. Toshiba has a new ad out that replicates this with a higher budget and better electronics. Here is more detail on Escape Vehicle No. 6 from Simon Faithfull, the artist who created the project.

Toshiba and its ad agency is trying very hard to be like marketing department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. In Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe they were described in current and far future editions as; "a bunch of mindless jerks [who'll be / who were] the first against the wall when the revolution comes."

American Political Disengagement

Josh Fruhlinger the Comics Curmudgeon has an explanation for political disengagement and apathy by the average American on one his past columns of editorial cartoons, History’s Most Important Election In An Odd-Numbered Year, In Cartoon Form.

Generally speaking, most Americans can barely be bothered to vote during important elections — you know, the ones with years divisible by four! It’s even harder getting them off of their Dorito-stained couches to cast their ballots when it’s a year that’s an even number that isn’t divisible by four, and when we’re talking odd-numbered years, well, you can just totally forget about that. I realize that all this math is way, way beyond what most Americans can handle, and yet through some instinct, they can distinguish; my theory is that they can tell how important an election is by the volume of the shouting from the glowing picture-box in the living room.

Batman is All Alignments

Characters with many different writers and incantations can be radically different. Batman is just such a flexible character since he is a masked vigilante like the Lone Ranger or the KKK.

Double click on image to enlarge.

Wiki explainer on the D&D Alignment System.

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

Life Without a Computer

Recently my computer was down and powerless. I felt powerless too, I had to regress technologically and do many in unusually and ancient ways.

I was forced to:

• get time from a clock
• read the newspaper on newsprint
• listen to radio on a radio
• watch TV on a TV
• play solitaire with cards

It was terrible.

North American Rules Football as Life

Anti Polar Bear Ad

I have always thought that Stephen Colbert's hatred and fear of BEARS was some sort of humorous quirk. He was clever to to have a case of Ursaphobia which fits with his persona of a right-wing nut bar pundit. Who knew that bears were such a "bugbear" for the American right.

This ad is mildly funny but is serious in its intent to discredit "global warming" This video is from a ant-science political group with the bland name of National Center for Public Policy Research. In reality it is akin to alchemists, flat earthers and creationists. There is a difference with those "science belief systems" and the anti-global warming crowd. Nobody is spending time and money to promote alchemy or maps of the flat earth. This group and other cold earthers are in some ways the opposite of the creationists. The Creationist spend money to push their "science belief system", ie religion. The National Center for Public Policy Research is pushing their "science belief system", junk science, to save money.

Has Apple made a Pact with the Devil

The latest Apple ad has the "PC" flashing back and being hopeful and positive of earlier and earlier windows versions. The "PC" becomes younger and casualer as the years roll back. However "MAC" remains exactly the same. Is there some portrait in closet in Cupertino of "MAC" looking old and decrepit? Maybe "MAC" is a vampire living on the coolness of his fans? Whatever he is he is a evil thing that must be destroyed.

Afghan War as shot by David Guttenfelder

Afghan anti-Taliban fighters advance tanks to the front line along the White Mountains of Tora Bora in northeastern Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 10, 2001. With U.S. fighter jets streaking overhead, anti-Taliban forces firing tanks and anti-aircraft guns Monday seized a key ridge near one of Osama bin Laden's hideouts in the majestic mountains near Pakistan. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Afghanistan as shot by AP photographer David Guttenfelder, from the Denver Post. David Guttenfelder's personal site.

Nina Simone - Sinnerman

This song has been sampled numerous times. A cellular ad uses a "composition" that consists of a riff of this song with drum machine added.

Sunday in the Park with Godzilla

Found at Black & WTF from Hasting Graham's photostream.

The best comment is from Paxsimius:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Godzilla Fan Society, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

The Creepiest Christmas Themed Ad Ever

I am glad I am not the only one who finds this ad a little too strange. The "father" takes his estranged "daughter" to Swiss Chalet. He makes reference to some childhood incident, daughter laughs nervously.

parnac123 asks

Why is this child molester bothering his victim again - and to take her back to Swiss Chalet, scene of the crime? I am not sure I can go back there with my kids...

lrlpalmer screams (types in all caps)

I DON'T GET THE NEW SWISS CHALET COMMERCIAL! Did the dad just escape from jail or something????

Armed Baby and the Police

Ancient Computer Graphics in Star Wars

slashdot has a link to an an old film explaining the computer graphics in the Star Wars briefing scene, 1977 Star Wars Computer Graphics. The Topless Robot found this gem and has this wonderful comment from Nonish on the terrible and declining taste of one George Lucas.

"Stick around. I'm sure Lucas is close to unveiling plans to refilm the classic trilogy.

Now with poop jokes and Jar Jar Binks™"

No. NO! Don't even go there. I've been scared pretty much shitless over this ever since this let's-refilm-and-gangrape-classics fad caught on at Hollywood.

Stupidity in Real Life and Online

In a slashdot article complaining about tech support, Easing the Job of Family Tech Support? Chapter80 gives this analogy for how easily people forget basic streetwise survival skills when online.

My usual approach is in the form of an analogy.

"You're driving down the road, and you stop at a traffic light. A man, dressed like a mechanic, approaches your car and says 'I think your car has a problem. Please pop the hood, and let me do a free analysis." Do you let him?"

"You get a package in the mail. You don't recognize the return address. You open it, and inside is a device with a note that says 'want a good laugh? press this button'. Do you press it?"

"A stranger walks up to you on the bus, and says 'My name is Rev. Kwame. I want a reliable person who could assist us to transfer the sum of Twenty Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ( $20,500,000 ) into his / her account.This fund resulted by way of gratification from a contract awarded by us under the budget allocation to my Ministry and this bill has been approved for payment by the concerned Ministries.' Do you give them your bank account number?"

Etc.

Plug for Plugs

slashdot has a good discussion of electrical plugs and why there are so many varying plug standards. There is also a link to gizmodo article about plug standards, where the above map is from, Giz Explains: Why Every Country Has a Different F#$%ing Plug.

Karzai Wins by Default

To which Homer Simpson has said in [1F13] Deep Space Homer.

Default? Woo hoo! The two sweetest words in the English language: de-fault! De-fault! De-fault!

I blame the electoral mess in Afghanistan on a blotched constitution that the Americans Foisted on the Afghanis. The biggest problem is the presidential system. Americans, because of their own history consider the president to be a "democratic" office. They forget that constitutional stability of their republic, and the Swiss, is actually quite rare. Often republics descend into mere tyrannies. Mugabe promotion of himself from prime minster to president is typica.l

There was a small window for constitutional change in Afghanistan after the Northern Alliance won. Mohammed Zahir Shah, the former King of Afghanistan was still alive when then, 2002, see wiki on his non-restoratrion. Unfortunately the Americans wanted their man (creature) as El Presindente. They seem to think that "president" is a title of democrats.

Fly Sky Writers

(from Adfeak)

From the comments adfreak Jonathan pointed out.

...is there any better way to play into the whole "advertising as irritating intrusion"

Latchkey Orphans & Zombies

(from Ads of the World)

On Ads of the World where I found this gem. A "guest" gave this description, "jaded suburban kids totally over the whole zombie thing". Ads for movie festivals like ads for zoos are some of the few types of "local" ads that have to have high production values. Car ads can be cool but ads for car dealers are strictly banal and formulaic. Movie festivals also have the burden of selling the "movie experience".

Update 37/10/09
Unfortunately "this video has been removed by user."

Supposedly Authentic Nixon Campaign Poster

(from a post by Emperor Norton on AH.com thread
Things that look like alternate history, but aren't)

Halo Ad as Short Film

I have tried some of the earlier versions Halo a couple of times. It never really appealed to me for a number of reasons. When I play a game I want to kill humans, not robots or aliens. It doesn't meaningful without dead humans. I used to play a FPS that was created by the US army. In that game whatever side you were on, red or blue, looked to you as US Army the other side was the always the other. The other problem I had with my small taste of Halo in the past was the "console controls". On of the problems of playing a FPS is that you never see yourself, console games shift the camera around so that sometimes your viewpoint, "camera", was over the shoulder of game character you are controlling and sometimes the camera was looking at your character. This ad makes me rethink my opinion of Halo and related games.

The only other version of this ad I have seen is a scant 30 seconds cut down from the full length of this ad which is 2 ½". When I watch TV on TV, especially late night, one has to suffer through ad blocks that are exactly the same. The ad blocks are usually made up of 5 30 second ads. Advertisers need not endlessly repeat ads. It leads to people, me, hating, despising and ultimately avoiding any product whose identical ad I see 10 or more times in any 3 hour period.

30th Anniversary of the Movie Alien

Ultraviolent Music Theatre

Accountants Need Complicated Tax Policies

The name's Smith, Ian Smith

He led the last competent Rhodesian government. As Barry Goldwater said: "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"

Demotivational Posters

I have always found motivation posters to be something more than a little creepy. It is a sign that relentless Stakhanovite drive to be better, more productive employees of the great collective aren't merely found in repressive tyrannies but also in the "free world". Eventually many people are often overexposed to such propaganda and develop a resistence to it. The Demotivational Poster was born from the same impulse that makes uses deface the images of the rich and powerful.

At AH.com there is a thread devoted to Demotivational Posters with 1,750 posts and hundreds of posters. Here is a Demotivational Poster poster creator that at despair.com, not the happiest place online.

Nazi Propaganda

Two years ago I came across a online archive of Chicom propaganda posters. Now I have come across an archive of Nazi and German Commie propaganda. Besides the usual posters there are also some rare items like propaganda leaflets, non-political art by war artists, cartoons about Churchill and other interesting stuff.

Blood Sucking Monsters and Vampires

(by John Cole of the Scranton Times Tribune)

My Computer Is Alive, Again

My Baby Just Cares for Me - Nina Simone

Angry Graphic Designers

Graphic designers have a job/profession/calling that looks easy from the outside. Computer technology has made what was once time consuming, difficult and complicated easy. Earlier graphic techniques and technology was as difficult to use as to use well.

Here are some more angry videos on the tortured relationship between graphic designers and clients. The following all have extremely rude and offensive language. But that is the charm.

Graphic Designer vs Client

Graphic Designer vs Client The sequel

Web Design Project Manager vs Client

Graphic Designer vs Account Manager (Sales Rep)

Musical Interlude from the Andes

Chicom Cybercrime and Western Stupidity

"the capitalists will sell us the rope to hang them."

VI Lenin on the often moral flexibility of businessmen.

They (Capitalist) will furnish which will serve to support of the Communist Party in their countries and, by supplying us materials and technical equipment which we lack, will restore our military industry, necessary for our future attack against our suppliers. To put it in other words, they will work for the preparation of their own suicide.

VI Lenin, fully footnoted quote in

Respectfully quoted: a dictionary of quotations.

We have already been suffered through one Cold War. Now because some short sighted stupidity of bottom feeders another Cold War, at least, is due. In today's Globe & Mail there are two competing stories about pleasures and pains of doing business in the territory currently controlled by the Chinese Communist Regime. In the hard news section is a scary story, Foreign journalists in China target of computer attack. In the aptly named business section of the Globe & Mail, ROB, is a more upbeat story of the China trade, Interac ABMs to accept Chinese debit cards.

Screens scrapes of both articles after the jump. The G&M only allows access to the old articles for a limited time.

Jon Stewart Fails a Nerd Test

On tonight's episode, 9/27/09, Jon Stewart had on Bruce Bueno de Mesquita to discuss his book The Predictioneer's Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future. He is political scientist who developed methods to predict near term events with amazing accuracy. When Jon asks Bruce if he can predict anything Bruce denies he "is any Hari Seldon". The reference flies over the head Jon.

Hari Seldon is the Asimov character who creates The Foundation in The Foundation series.

Bad nerd. Bad nerd.

Comic Book Guy would be disappointed.

Map of the Inbred

(from consang.net a consanguinity/endogamy resource site.)

One of stereotypes about Appalachia is that it is filled violent retarded rednecks. In reality Appalachia is not a hotbed for cousin marriage despite folklore. On the other hand in the Arab/Muslim world, isn't it sad when cousins marry, has in reality all the negative stereotypes associated with Appalachia. The region, the Arab/Muslim world, filled with inbred, retarded, angry, violent racists, see Rage Boy.

"Pay No Attention" to the Crazy Guy

Oh, I'm sorry.
Is suicide taboo.
Gosh, if broken a rule on my first day I'll kill myself

House MD, (damaged goods),
dealing with the damaged goods of group.
House S06E01,E02

More about House the drugie on this review of his cases on Television Without Pity.

House is so smart he can see through the mundane and jump to the most ludicrous conclusion possible, which, of course, is usually the correct one. And that's why he gets to be high at work and you don't.

Too Handicapped to have a Handicap

He was a great account man.
A prodigy.
Could talk a Scotsman out of a penny.
Now that's all over.
English Suit #1

I don't know if that's true.
Don

The man is missing a foot.
How is he going to work.
The can't walk.
English Suit #2

The doctors say
he'll
never


golf again.
English Suit #1

Discussing Guy Mackendick maimed in
freak lawnmower accident, Mad Men S03E06

Bellum Stellae

(link from MaskedPickle on
AH.com thread Photos from Alternate Worlds.)

Soviet / American Anthem Mashup

While following up a story on slashdot about Russian attempts to enforce their IP for the AK47 design I ended up on a page of Russian/Soviet anthems. Here is a version of the American anthem the Star Spangled Banner sung to the tune of the Soviet Anthem — by Iron Curtain. To me this song like everything associated with Stalin is tainted. It is an anthem not of dying for your country, or living for it, by the anthem to be sung while being murdered by your country for some grand and meaningless purpose.

Update
Repaired the broken link.
09/21/08

Battle of The Atlantic Resources

(U-boat bunker at La Pallice / La Rochelle

© Pascal Blijkers - 2007 )

I found a great site devoted to Uboats and to the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII, uboats.net. The above is part of series of images of an abandoned UBoat pen in France. Also listed is the naval resources and losses on both sides. As the site is named it has more informational on Uboats than on any other navy or ship type. Some of the detailed listed is convoy battles, events of the day, biographies, ship histories.

This makes me want to fire up my favorite uboat game and play all night.

Latest Plague Game on Newgrounds - American Swine

Pandemic: American Swine is a plague game focusing on swine flu in the US. It is based current characteristics of a variant of H1N1 emerging in Mexico and spreading to nearby by border states.

Have fun. The first time I played this game I wiped out the Americans. The earth will come later.

Advice for Teens

Rachel, did you just throw up?

...

I tried, but just don't have the gag reflex.

One day when you're older that will turn out to be a gift.

Student and Counselor in Glee S01E02

"Used" Houses

It's great but there are nine foreclosures on our street. Why can't we buy one of those? They're half the price.

Will Schuester

I'm not raising our baby in a used house. They're not clean.

Terri Schuester

The Schuesters in Glee S01E02

Sawdust Furniture

Stools and coffee tables made with sawdust and resin. See Core77, This Just Inbox: Furniture made from wood shavings and resin, for full story.

True Stories about LA Organized Crime

LA is the birthplace of the hard boiled detective story. I never really understood the evolution of this genre and why it first appeared in LA rather than New York or Berlin or Paris or Cleveland. In this discussion on KRCW program, Politics of Culture, two true crime historians delve into the organized crime history of Los Angles. Instead of having working class gangs based in ethnic loyalties and/or working class work sites like the docks, trucking or waste management. The mob in LA was based in the mayor's office, the police department and the chamber of commerce. A ruling class mob.

As an aside in the movie Pleasantville the town isn't run by an elected civic government but by a self-selected Chamber of Commerce.

Ancient Language Maps

In a Google quest to understand a new security protocol I came across a scholarly group that studies Indo-European. The above, distribution of IE languages in 500 AD, is a part of a series ethno-linguistic maps of Indo-European. There is also an Indo-European Etymological Dictionary. And many books available with free PDFsL like this one, A Grammar of Modern Indo-European, which includes this description of the "widely accepted deities".

• Djḗus Patḗr is believed to have been the original name of God of the Daylight Sky and the chief god of the Indo-European pantheon. He survives in Greek Zeus (genitive case Diòs), Latin Jupiter, Sanskrit Dyaus/Dyaus Pita, Baltic Dievas, Germanic Tiwaz (ON Tyr, OHG Ziu), Armenian Astwatz,and the Gaulish Dispater (c.f. also deus pater in the Vulgate, e. g. Jude 1:1).
  

• Pltaw Mātḗr (Dhghōm) is believed to have been the name of an Earth Mother goddess, Skr. Prthivi. Another name of the Indo-European Mother-Earth would be Dhghōm Mātḗr, as in Albanian Dhe Motë, Avestan Zamyat, Slavic Mati Zemlja, Lithuanian Ţemyna, Latvian Zemes Mate, maybe Greek Dēmēter.
  

• A Thunder God, possibly associated with the oak, and in some traditions syncretized with Djḗus. A name Pérqunos root per-q- or per-g- is suggested by Balto-Slavic *Perkúnos, Norse Fjörgyn, Albanian Perëndi and Vedic Parjanya. An onomatopoeic root tar is continued in Gaulish Taranis and Hittite Tarhunt. A word for ―thunder‖ itself was (s)tene-, continued in Germanic *Þunraz (thunder personified), and became Thor.
  

• Áusōs is believed to have been the goddess of dawn, continued in Greek mythology as Eos, in Rome as Auror-a, in Vedic as Ushas, in Lithuanian mythology as Aušra or Auštaras, in Armenian as Astghik and possibly also in Germanic mythology as Eastre.
  

Hitler as Emo

"The cover to early Emo artist Adolf Hitler's self titled album, he is credited with being the first Emo, giving it's name, and starting the new genre."

From Rattslinger in AH.com's
"Photos from Alternative Worlds".

The Appeal of The Panzer

“…I asked myself why German armour has long held its fascination for those of us predisposed to such things in the first place. I believe it is because they looked the part: capable, efficient and above all, lethal. One can imagine the Panther, with it’s sloping armour and vaulting drive sprockets, ranging over the battlefield, stiff-arming it’s opponents with it’s ‘75’ until the odds against them simply became overwhelming…” Bill Auerbach - introduction to ‘Last of the Panzers’, Arms & Armour Press 1984

Quoted on the homepage of Schwerpunkt, a military modeling site.

Auschwitz with Dolls and Action Figures

While looking on flickr this image pops out. It looks like someone staged a scene from Auschwitz with dolls and action figures. The photo is from guido z's photo stream.

Action figures are dolls for boys.

Don't Make Your Salt Shaker Cry

Canadian Army Mines and Boobytraps Manual

I am reading Canadian military Mines and Boobtraps, 1999 on Wikileaks right now. In a section about detecting minefields lists among other indicators these these signs :

f. empty containers of mines and components or explosive
packaging, wrapping and seals which may have been left
deliberately and booby trapped;
g. human and livestock corpses;

In a later section about dogs to detect mines it lists among other "unavoidable limitations".

(3) inexplicable off day in a dog.

The correct procedure for search individual mines in a minefield is laid out as.

"Ferro-magnetic objects should not be used to prod for mines, except in an operational emergency where it is deemed that the risk of personal injury due to accidental detonation is less than the operational risk."

The manual lists how to arm , disarm and place the mine various mines Canada had in its inventory at the time. The claymore helpfully has “FRONT TOWARD ENEMY” written on the side that faces the enemy so that it always sited with “FRONT TOWARD ENEMY”.

New Paper Based Image Editing Program

The people at Worth1000 has created their own web based suite of image editing tools called Aviary. They have just a new module called Crane which what previously could only be done on a computer. This announcement has more than a passing resemblance to a Swedish Photoshop ad that recreated the layout in real life, see Reality as Photoshop.

Malaysian Employers Complain About "Expensive" Employees

In many developed countries the average industrial wage tracks pretty closely to GNP per capita, as example here is a report with the Irish Republic's industrial wage. However in Malaysia employers have so hated the idea of paying people enough to live on that want to import workers form Bangladesh and other poverty stricken areas, Foreign Employees Limited, Malaysia Is Suffering Through a Labor Shortage, see Money for Nothing. For the record they don't a labor shortage but a shortage of people willing to accept crap wages. This also the reason that "business" Republicans in the US want there to a floating population of illegal aliens willing to accept crap wages.

There must be a rule of acquisition that everything is negotiable up or down, except wages for employees.

Malaysia
GNP per capita
$14,071
Industrial wage
650 to 700 ringgit ($183 to $197) per month
or $2196 to $2364 per year

as comparison
Ireland
GNP per capita
$49,095
Industrial Wage
$46604

Somebody Really Likes Their Pens

Matt Williams has written an review of the Bic pen for Amazon.uk. Funny.

(from a link from RG)

Bruce Haley's Tao of War Photography

Bruce Haley is a war photographer. On his site a few years ago he distilled all his experience at the sharp end into the Tao of War Photography. 64 "Observations, Thoughts, Vented Spleen, Profanity and Diverse bits of good advice peeking above the sarcasm..."

50. Equation: the number of journalists covering any given conflict is directly proportional to the proximity of comfortable lodging and booze......

Failure Thy Name is Detroit

Everything's falling apart. And it all starts right here in Detroit. The headwaters of a river of failure.

Ray Drecker in Hung S01E01

Uranium By Mail Order

It is good to see that the Amazon is now competitive with Acme in the mad genius/starving coyote market segment. Amazon is selling uranium ore, not yellow cake or refined uranium. The people who bought this radioactive specimen also bought also bought Forbidden LEGO which has instructions on making weapons out of LEGO.

(link from An Engineer's Options & Futures)

Less Money for Space can Mean More Money for Space Science

An article in cnet suggests some bad news at NASA and its manned space missions, Reduced budget threatens manned space options. However I see the story in a slightly difference light. Without all the constraints on spacecraft design on the care and feeding of monkeys, sorry the life support for astronauts, a lot more science can be done. Space probes and mars lander and rover have provided so much more in real science than all the monkey make work projects.

A Supervillian's Datacenter

In a slashdot story, Will Silicon Valley Run Out of Data Center Space? Anonymous Coward linked to this article of a data center in Stockholm in a surplus nuclear bunker, The World's most super-designed data center - Fit for a James Bond Villain. This what CEO that paid for this site, sounding in no way a little nerdy, wanted.

“I’m personally a big fan of old science fiction movies. Especially ones from the 70s like Logan’s Run, Silent Running, Star Wars (especially The Empire Strikes Back) so these were an influence,“ said Karlung. “James Bond movies have also had an impact on the design. I was actually looking for the same outfit as the villain ‘Blofeld’ in Bond and even considered getting a white cat, but that might have been going a bit far!”

The Mona Lisa Must be Protected or We Will ALL DIE

A madwomen threw a mug at the Mona Lisa today. This news was re-reported on AH.com which prompted Pkmatrix to repeat a Nostradamus prediction.

The people in Paris weep,
Death claims La Joconde.
The dead rise again,
And the Seine runs with blood.

- Nostradamus, VII Century, 30th Quatrain

I responded with

Do Super Villains know about this prediction? I can this imagine a thrill in which a Super Villain how the world by threatening to nuke the

How ever black angel remembered this has already happened in a movie.

any one ever seen the Movie "Equilibrium"? for those who haven't one of the opening parts is where they find The Mona Lisa under the floor and burn it with flamethrowers must of seen the movie 100 times, but every time i scream "NOOOOOO"

Classic Florida Post Cards

If I was someone like Lileks I would grab all these scans of classic Florida postcards and then make funny/snide /sad comments about each one. Anyways here are are a collection of 50 some classic Florida postcards. Suffering through a heat wave however gives me yet another reason not to visit Florida besides its swampy ambience.

Why Does G-D Want David over Silas/Saul

I don't know why?
Because you're good. I've been good.
Because you're young. I was young too. Oh I gave him that, everything he ever asked for. Now he turns away. Loves you.

Silas in Kings S01E013