Be from Okinawa, Ovodda, or Loma Linda. The commonalities, none. The possible reasons, caloric restriction, inbreeding and religion.

Okay, so they have no idea.

Your DVD collection? You’re going to have to buy it again in HD, Blu-ray won the war. Now we just need the price of players to drop below $200.

Hitchens has a good article on the craven media of the West.

Go ahead, try to make it through this video.

When anyone rick-rolls you, this can be your payback.

Don’t tell me Sony is actually going to win a format war?!

The new Indiana Jones trailer is out. I am now cautiously optimistic about it.

They better not have just packed all the good parts into the trailer.

A very special valentine’s message.

Right Wing News has some valentines for you if you’re way too obsessed with politics.

Signs point to yes.

Two words: Hello Kitty MMORPG.

A study on love, twue love in America.

Yeah, that’s all encouraging.

Duke Nukem Forever is delayed.

Chaucer redone for Rowan.

Penn knows who the next president is (NSFW language).

Lileks has a quick paragraph on The Patriot Corporation Act. You know who else like patriotic corporations?

Not the greatest of pictures, because I don’t have a nice digital camera and there’s no way I’m going near it. Also, she blends in well with the suburban habitat. There’s a few more pics on flickr, none look much better though.

I’m sitting there minding my own business in my living room, I look up and there’s a freaking moose standing in the back of my yard. No one expects a moose to be in their backyard. She’s just standing there, minding her own business. The cops said to leave her alone and she’ll wander off. Well, now she’s laying there chewing her cud. It figures that I lost my cellphone Wednesday and didn’t bother getting it replaced yet because I seldom make or receive calls and was kind of hoping it would appear out of whatever berm it got plowed into. Now this comes up and I can’t call anyone. Further bulletins as events warrant.

4:15pm – The neighbor is now making loops through the alley. If the moose rampages and smashes something because of this, I’m going to be upset.

It strikes me that I ended up with a dog from a similar situation.

7:45pm – Having finished her cud, it sounds like (it’s dark now) she’s EATING MY PEAR TREES!

8:30pm – Having finished her light snack, she appears to have settled down for at least a nap if not the night.

11:00pm – She’s having a light midnight snack of something back there.

8:00am – The moose moved on sometime in the night, leaving behind several large piles of poop and ravaged branches on my pear tree. Good luck moose.

It used to be that if you knew what you wanted you could go to Best Buy and pick it up for a reasonable price. Today I went to get an HDMI cable, a USB cable and an ethernet cable. They wanted 25 bucks for an ETHERNET CABLE. I want a 2 dollar cable, for pete’s sake. I don’t need gold-plated braiding to get from my router to my computer. I was thinking it would be outrageous to have to pay $7.99 but I was willing to do it for the convenience of having it now. We’re talking about 6′ here. The signal loss from the cheaper cables will be undetectable. The HDMI ranged from $100 to $50.Outraged, I gave up and left.

I went online, Newegg in this case, and got all three cables plus shipping for less than they wanted for the blasted ethernet cable. I can wait three days to avoid being ripped off like that.

Real guitar Guitar Hero.

They’re frickin’, frickin’ laser beams. Seems plausible. With awesome pic.

OH, now they think of the potential for destroying humanity.

Wonder no longer.

Substitute the hotdog with a sausage perhaps and it would be full of win.

I’d just like to point out that I”m more awesome and stylish than 99% of the people.

That took this test.

What?

Your Score: All Your Base

You scored 45 Awesomeness and 51 Style!

You are the mothership of all memes. You have all the advantages of a really great meme, you have a catchy song, and you appeal to a large number of people who can distribue you easily. Unfortunately, however, you tend to be the mainstay of people who arent funny trying to be funny, and as many times as you’ve been played, you should probably be taken out into a lonely field, and shot. Repeatedly. By nukes.

Not surprisingly, you can be found at: http://www.allyourbasearebelongtous.com/

When scientists say, “You know, our cancer research would be easier if we had a transparent fish so we could see inside” and then go and create it, it’s a great time to be alive.

This is a bit disturbing:

Zebrafish were chosen for their strong genetic similarities to human beings

There’s a space shuttle launch at 11:45pst today. You can watch it here.

Lileks goes on a bit of a tear. As it to rip, not as in to cry. I hate the read/read thing too. I always end up reading it wrong the first time, jarring me to a halt.

So, one of my headlights is out. It took a hit from a rock it looks like. Passenger side. Naturally that side is $40 more expensive than the driver’s side assembly. Why?

UPDATE: I don’t know that I need to replace the entire assembly, I’m just preparing for the worst. Hopefully it just needs a bulb.

Further UPDATE: So, a bulb did indeed get the light shining again. Well worth the $8 and 15 minutes of my time. It’s a good thing I have small hands though. What to do about the gouge and hole in the lens, well, that needs further thought.

It would only cost $.75 billion to build a basic mecha?!

It’s the Taser-Mossburg-Lego shotgun. Still somewhat lethal then?

5 Iranian internet cables have been cut now. Very, very odd. But I just don’t see who benefits from it.

A look at the middle class in America.

I like the part where he says that if we lived like people in the 70s, we’d be able to make ends meet. The horror.

But then how can we exercise our moral outrage if the most convenient argument to the most convenient targets are unavailable?

I like this pledge. I also have no doubt that anyone actually elected would ignore it, regardless of whether they signed it or their party.

I don’t really see this as political correctness run amok. Political correctness tries to modify thoughts by banning behavior, this is just trying to modify inappropriate behavior in public.

Yesterday’s weather: sunny, above freezing, things melting and most importantly, no snow. School closed, snow day.

Today’s weather: Windy, cloudy, and most importantly, snowing. School’s open.

Huh?

What Bill Clinton actually said that if we slowed down our economy to stop global warming it wouldn’t do any good because China, India and Africa aren’t about to do the same thing. Which is a valid point. The interesting part is that even he admits that that is the result of trying to stop global warming.

Watch out for that link, it bogged my Firefox down.

How to drive.

This is why some people think the global warming hysteria is a bad idea.

Disposable batteries, no matter how efficient, should be considered a controlled substance and, as such, should be sold under the same restrictions as, say, prescription drugs or guns.

This will cause the price of every electronic consumer good to shoot through the roof. It makes something simple, like smoke detectors and creates headaches, expense and bureaucracy to use it.

No one is against cleaner air, more green space, or more efficient cars—well, very few are—but when you talk like this, people will react violently in the opposite direction. People are against higher costs and more hassles.

I spelled bureaucracy right the first time. Yes!

20 things you didn’t know about science fiction.

I knew a couple of them. The last one came as a surprise.

John McCain?

That’s a bit of a quandary for me come November.

The best of Digg pics.

Not watching the local news I had no idea it wasn’t just snowing every other day, we were having A WEATHER EVENT. Everyone stay home, there’s snow on the ground! Not even dangerous stuff like a whiteout or ice, just wet snow. Gosh, how will we get through it.

Yeah, there’s a lot of snow, but for pete’s sake, it’s Idaho. We’re a couple hours from Canada, which is practically the Arctic Circle.

Also, while I’m on local events, the manager at the new FedExKinkos in Post Falls is a pleasure to deal with. If you want to enjoy the whole shipping experience go there. Of course, you’ll pay for it, it is FedEx after all.

Interesting essay on the new atheism.

In Britian, it’s no longer Islamic terrorism, it’s anti-Islamic activity.

But I don’t recall even Neville Chamberlain explaining, as if to a five-year old, that there is nothing German about the wish to terrorize and invade, and that this is entirely at odds with the core German values of sitting around eating huge sausages in beer gardens while wearing lederhosen.

Not my life, other, more interesting lifes. A couple of life lessons. Also, surprising news about the airport in Singapore.

The democrats have knocked my cool prebate from $800 to $300. Jerks.

I grant you I was just going to stick it in savings for when I had to give it back in taxes next year, but still. Jerks.

UPDATE: Oh, $600. Well, that’s not quite so bad.

Shout! Factory has purchased the rights to release MST3K digitally and on DVD and says they will actually do so.

The best ad for a scientifical gadget ever.

It’s hard to imagine that this was just 18 years ago. Cool technology though.

Fred Thomson is out. He was the only one I could have really gotten behind. It’s going to be a very meh election.

Cheese-filled, bacon-wrapped, beer-battered, deep-fried hot dogs.

Quality line:

I am the world’s worst Jew.

Addictive, bad for your insulin levels, and a leading cause of cartels.

Mmmm, sugar.

It’s taken 4 year for people to realize that Hydrox are no longer being produced. Which says something about their shelf-life.

Also, Nabisco is short for National Biscuit Company. There was something worth learning for today.

Properly tagged as snark. I liked it.

Lileks nails the whole economy, tax rebate thingy.

Not that I mind if I get to keep $800 of my money rather than letting the government spend it on, well, whatever they’re spending it on these days. Defense mostly, apparently.

There’s a boom and then there’s a bust. Having lived through a few, it’s annoying to hear the same fargin’ end-of-the-world hairshirt orations, especially from those who have spent their entire lives walking around with a bucket of black paint and a brush looking for good news to deface.

Spokane is mentioned.

Instead of letting lenders and borrowers on a mortgage that probably shouldn’t have ever been made in the first place pay for their mistakes, presidential candidates want to make the problem worse. To be fair, Bush doesn’t have a better plan.

But then again, why should the government have a plan. No one forced the lenders to lend and no one forced borrowers to borrow.

Stop writing what you think unless I say you can!

Contact lenses with cool stuff in them.

Engineers at the UW have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

The electron is to the right.

California should soon have the power to control thermostats in energy emergencies.

New head of SciFi.

“This brand has so much more untapped potential,” Howe said. “My role is to really figure out how we take Sci Fi as a cable network and build it into more of an affinity lifestyle brand.

The potential to show science fiction, mayhap? Perhaps create affinity with nerds who want to watch science fiction? I’m just throwing these ideas out there.

“As things stand, we’re primarily a cable TV brand,” he added. “In five years’ time, I’d love to be able to say that Sci Fi is no longer just a cable network but a category killer in videogames, mobile and the youth market.”

Apparently not.

A top internet agent for Al Qaeda found in London.

Undocumented firearms.

Lileks accurately captures how all computer work goes, at least until you get the process smoothed out and then it only lasts until something disrupts the process.

Happy Trogday!

Original, if you want to remember.

Well, if the original was good enough to eat, I don’t see why its genetic twin wouldn’t be.

Hitchens asks the question.

What would it take to break this cheap little spell and make us wake up and inquire what on earth we are doing when we make the Clinton family drama—yet again—a central part of our own politics?

You should probably go watch these videos.

We all know that Mike has RiffTraks.

Joel has Cinematic Titanic! Truly it is a great time to be alive.

Though I don’t agree with her stance in general, she has a point about Obama’s whole platform.

Once again, the problem is Congress.

“If you jerk taxpayers around like that enough, it just shows how irrational the system is, and it makes them feel like the system doesn’t care about them. That is a terrible thing for tax compliance,” Olson said in an interview.

Not that I have cable, but the SciFi channel doesn’t really deserve the name. The comments are mostly just as good as the letter, which is a refreshing change of pace.

Diamond Age on SciFi. It is the Stephenson book I liked the best and they’re going to ruin it. Cause it’s about a girl that learns computer programing. Yeah, that’s riveting to watch.

Bill Gates last day at work.

Did you know that the guy that invented the super-soaker was a nuclear engineer? Also he has some new energy efficient technology or something.

Hillary and McCain got nothing on this guy.

New OLED televisions.

Long boring article.

Alternating current could kill an elephant. And did so this day in 1903, thanks to Thomas Edison.

100 countdown.

It displays an impressive array of movies.

Bill Whittle has another fascinating essay up.

Not since 1960 have we not had a president or vice-president in the running for an election.

$100 per barrel of oil? Just because this guy wanted to brag about it.

Not content with suing people for sharing music, the RIAA is suing a guy for ripping CDs into the wrong folder.

I feel the love.

Dave Barry’s year in review.

As we stagger to the end of 2007, we have to face the fact that 2008, being a leap year, will have a whole extra day of alarming events. So as bad as this year was, we should not be in such a hurry to move on. Instead, we should pause for a moment to raise a glass and offer a toast to our friends and loved ones, wishing them health and happiness.

And then we should put the glass down, because it was probably made in China.

The easily offended were offended.

Of course Duke Nukem is in there.

While somewhat excessive in my mind, I like this law. They don’t say, “don’t use your cellphone and drive,” they say “use your cellphone and drive and cause a wreck and it’s 2 years in prison for you”.

Those that are competent to use cellphones and drive can, those that aren’t either know it and don’t try or they don’t know it, try and get tossed in jail.

The Duke Nukem Forever trailer.

Absolutely no gameplay is shown.

If you were planning on looking at Mars, tonight’s your best chance.

Not here though. Here it’s cloudy. All. The. Time.

It could still turn out okay.

Jackson will executive-produce, not direct or write (which he did with his partner, Fran Walsh). And there’s no director or script yet, though Jackson & Walsh will retain director and script approval.

Putin named Time’s Person of the Year.

Of course, I was the person of the year last year, so it’s not as great an honor as one might think. I think they jumped the gun with Putin, the next year or two will see a lot more from him.

Duke Nukem Forever trailer comes out tomorrow.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Go to page 12 of this PDF and it should be cleared up. (warning: direct link to PDF)

Ships discover sailing.

Let’s have a Patrick Swazye Christmas.

/Joel > Mike

Hobbitesses.

101 dumbest business moments of the year.

The 10 worst gadgets of the year.

I lol’d.

Because it’s wrong. So very wrong.

Fix up your cubicle. I like the bamboo one.

Reuters Pictures of the Year.

The Top 25 Sci-Fi shows in the last 25 years.

Lost higher than Firefly? Shenanigans.

I want my cats to glow in normal light, thank you very much.

This years wacky warning label winners have been announced.

If you were looking for a space flight simulator to download, it’s here.

It starts slow, but gets rolling a few paragraphs in:

A HEADLINE in Monday’s Daily News, “He regrets his role in ‘postal’ vid,” implied that Richard Marino, the subject of a YouTube video, was sorry for an incident in December at a Brooklyn post office. Marino, in fact, is not sorry. The News regrets the error

Turks offended by Italian soccer team uniform ask a judge for three points. It’s like the worst of American legal excess meets delicate Islamic sensibilities.

Wanna know a great feeling? Clicking the button that pays off your last of your credit card debt. Though I appreciated them letting me borrow money for a plane ticket and my tv and some clothing, and various other things, it’s nice not to have to send them any more money.

Until next month because I put Christmas spending on it. But for two weeks, I owe them nothing! nothing!

Vista in exchange for Microsoft snooping on me for three months. Hmm. I’m conflicted.

Not really, of course I’ll do it.

I couldn’t do this with a calculator, slide rule and scratchpad.

I think where I go wrong is I don’t see things in my mind. Not even you. You’re just an abstract construct of all my associations with you. Yes, that’s what’s holding me back from the glories of the math world.

It seems fair to me that China should be allowed to pull itself up to our standards of lavish life before they are forced to curtail their carbon emissions. India too.

Su Wei, a top climate expert for China’s government attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference, said the job belongs to the wealthy. He said it was unfair to ask developing nations to accept binding emissions cuts and other restrictions being pushed for already industrialized states.

He said the United States and its fellow industrial nations have long spewed greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while newly emerging economies have done so for only a few decades.

I like this:

The United States was ranked No. 55 because it opposes mandatory cuts in emissions and argues that technology, private investment and economic growth will save the planet from global warming.

Because if the government doesn’t put overly burdensome and therefore unenforceable regulations in place, you just aren’t trying. Waving your collective hands about is what’s really important.

12. Full. Turns.

The worst that could happen is that the engines run dry and explode.

You must go look at the picture.

So, since I don’t lock down my wifi router (yes, I know how, I just doubt anyone in my neighborhood would bother and with the trouble Ubuntu [back in the Dapper days] was having with my wifi card it was easier to leave it open.), I’ll have to be on the look out for illegal usage and face massive fines if I don’t report them. Awesome. Thank you so much Congress. Way to punish the innocent.

On the whole it’s a good list, but I have some issues with this list of the top 50 Ultimate Weapons. How the light saber came in so far down is beyond me.

Ewww.

This.

Except I discovered Amazon years before I heard of Instapundit.