2522544597_6a5ff3e122_o.jpg (JPEG Image, 829×1000 pixels)
That link above is why we have a day for it.
Month: May 2008
China to Declare War on Terra
Officials in China rush to evacuate 80,000 – Yahoo News
The Tangjiashan lake in northern Sichuan province, formed when a massive landslide blocked a river, is one of dozens of fragile dams created during the earthquake that pose a new destructive threat in the disaster zone.
Soldiers hauled explosives through the mountains to reach the area, and the official Chinese Daily said Tuesday on its Web site they were “preparing to dynamite the barrier.” State television showed live footage of heavy earth-moving equipment being used to carve out a 200-yard channel to drain the water.
“We are prepared to get rid of the trees by chopping and explosion. After that, the second batch of equipment will be moved in,” Liu Ning, chief engineer at the Ministry of Water Resources, was quoted as saying on CCTV.
The lake is swelling behind a landslide near Beichuan, one of the towns hit hardest by the May 12 tremor that devastated Sichuan.
The number of deaths from the quake has climbed further toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. The Cabinet said Tuesday that 67,183 people were confirmed killed — up by about 2,000 from a day earlier — and 20,790 were still missing.
When something kills 20x as many of your citizens as a terrorist attack, the only possible option is to invade and destroy. Expect China to follow Bush’s logic and invade Mars before the year is out.
I Am The Robot Pirate Ninja
Check google.
Is Life Worth Living in 2008?
Will Life Be Worth Living In 2,000AD?
Youll have a home control room – an electronics centre, where messages will be recorded when youre away from home. This will play back when you return, and also give you up-to-the minute world news, and transcribe your latest mail.
Youll have wall-to-wall global TV, an indoor swimming pool, TV-telephones and room-to-room TV. Press a button and you can change the décor of a room.
The status symbol of the year 2000 will be the home computer help, which will help mother tend the children, cook the meals and issue reminders of appointments.
Cooking will be in solar ovens with microwave controls. Garbage will be refrigerated, and pressed into fertiliser pellets.
And this is why I have this t-shirt.
The New Red Spot
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PHOTO IN THE NEWS: Jupiter Gains New Red Spot
May 23, 2008—A new hot-hued storm spot (far left) churns away on Jupiter on May 9 and 10, when the Hubble Space Telescope took the images that were combined to create this picture, which was released yesterday.
The “baby” storm is the gas giant’s third red spot, after the Great Red Spot (at center-right) and Red Spot, Jr (lower left). The new spot’s size has not been announced. The Great Red Spot is roughly as wide as the entire Earth.
Jupiter’s newest “blemish” used to be a white oval-shaped storm but turned brick red as its clouds rose and reacted to solar UV radiation.
Right now the as yet unnamed storm and the Great Red Spot are on a collision course.
Ain’t it soo cute?
Play 3D Logic, a free online game on Kongregate
Play 3D Logic, a free online game on Kongregate
This was my final score for today on 3d-logic. Check it out and waste a few moments stimulating your mind.
Robots Are Taking Our Jerbs!!
Entire Symphony Conducted By… A Robot!
DETROIT – The lights dimmed, the sold-out hall grew hushed and out walked the conductor — shiny, white and 4 feet, 3 inches tall.ASIMO, a robot designed by Honda Motor Co., met its latest challenge Tuesday evening: Conducting the Detroit Symphony in a performance of “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha.”
“Hello, everyone,” ASIMO said to the audience in a childlike voice, then waved to the orchestra.
As it conducted, it perfectly mimicked the actions of a conductor, nodding its head at various sections and gesturing with one or both hands. ASIMO took a final bow to enthusiastic shouts from the audience.
“It is absolutely thrilling to perform with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. This is a magnificent concert hall,” ASIMO said.
The Takeover continues. We already control the information, and the the energy, and the dumptrucks, now all your symphonies are belong to us as well.
One of My Latest Steam Splurges
Everyday Shooter by Jonathan Mak
Everyday Shooter is an album of games exploring the expressive power of abstract shooters. Dissolute sounds of destruction are replaced with guitar riffs harmonizing over an all-guitar soundtrack, while modulating shapes celebrate the flowing beauty of geometry.
Nice little indie game.
I like the noises it makes.
I’m also turning into a bigger fan of the Steam™ platform for game delivery. It’s essentially a secure game download tool pushed by the guys at Octane selling Half-Life 2. They’ve been able to horseshoe into the game download territory and have now pulled upwards of $100 or so out of my pockets for game splurges like this at that ninja one.
Politic Like a Rock Star (Newsbusted, Decemberists)
Obama Draws Huge Crowd in Oregon as Clinton Courts Kentucky – New York Times
Obama Draws Huge Crowd in Oregon as Clinton Courts Kentucky
Chris Carlson/Associated PressBarack Obama spoke to 75,000 people on Sunday in Portland, Ore. He called it “the most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd” of the campaign.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a President we like again?
I guess some don’t think so…
How many of the people showed up to hear Obama, and how many to hear the band?
Here’s how the local paper The Oregonian, which estimated the crowd at 72,000, reported the rally:
“Obama was the biggest star at Sunday’s gathering — though a popular Portland band, The Decemberists, provided the warmup act. With blue skies and temperatures in the 80s, many in the crowd said Waterfront Park was simply the place to be.”
CNN headlined its 10 p.m. segment on May 18 with “Barack Obama: Achieving Rock Star Status in Oregon.”
The New York Times, which ran a color photo of the crowd, estimated the throng at 75,000, noting that it was “the largest crowd of his campaign so far.” There was no mention of The Decemberists, and the Times described the weather as “an unseasonably hot day.”
Dude, seriously. My response is now aimed at people like those at ‘Newsbusters’ and other knee-jerk politically assigned websites. Gimme a flippin’ break.
They guy got 75,000 people to come out and listen to a brother talk. 75,000 people.
That’s more than Jesus met in his lifetime.
I saw the Decemberists on Colbert, and frankly, they ain’t pulling 75K on their own to a park, even on a nice day in Portland*.
Anyway, I found the whinging about the news before I found the news, so I thought I would reply to the whinging and then get to the news.
* the avrerage high temperature in May in Portland, Oregon is 67°. In June it is 74° [source] so saying ” There was no mention of The Decemberists, and the Times described the weather as “an unseasonably hot day.” ” about a day that was in the 80’s in Portland in May, is quite accurate reporting. Yea, opening acts get shafted in the big time, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Local paper reports local band and national paper reports national news. As mentioned, I’ve seen the Decemberists, and I think the May Weather and the Obama were a much larger factor in the curious fact that 75,000 people came out to hear a politician speak.
I don’t think this was the draw of the day….(apologies to the band, and I do like the pirate)….
live version
You Ever Wonder Where These Came From?
Design Observer: writings about design & culture
Fitting
The Brannock Foot-Measuring Device, designed by Charles F. Brannock, 1925
The Brannock Foot-Measuring Device, designed by Charles F. Brannock, 1925
Read all about it above. Just thought it was a strange story about what I always thought was a children’s torture device.
I really didn’t like shopping. Shoes in particular.
Read that part about how manufacturers don’t really follow the device and you’ll know the root of my pain.
The 25 Year Old BSD Bug : Much Younger Than McCain
1983. The year of the IBM PC XT, the Apple Lisa, Pioneer 10 leaving the solar system, and Hooters opening up shop in Florida. It’s also the birthyear of a 25 year old BSD bug, squashed only a few days ago.A few days ago, Marc Balmer, OpenBSD developer, received an email from an OpenBSD user. The email claimed that SAMBA would crash when serving files off an MS-DOS filesystem. Balmer got into contact with a few SAMBA developers who claimed that SAMBA uses a special workaround in order to function properly on BSD systems: the code for reading directories in all BSDs was flawed.
Note: title references the previous post.
Also, this one is pretty funny (just because it is very strange for a “bug” to live for 25 years. Most “bugs” live much shorter lives (unless they lie in wait to bother you or push out eggs continuously [read link for context]).
It’s that dang starting at zero thing that many people never quite get on computers (yes, I know this is starting at zero in a special case, but it’s still the same concept, as far as jokes go).
25 years of “I think I broked it” and it wasn’t even your fault. And so the machines get smarter.
The Oldest Meme of 08
Duct Tape.
Duct tape is younger than John McCain.
I was happy to see on Wikipedia – the internet’s #1 source of partially-correct information – that duct tape is also known as “duck tape”… which is what I always thought it was called (or, at least, should be called).
And there you have it. McCain is older than duct tape (correct spelling). Duck Tape™; is a brand.
Pirates and robots love duct tape. it keeps things running. It is only good for the soles of a ninjas feet, and even then, only for the hottest of coals.
Robot Pirate Ninja 
