Where Is Xu Zhiyong?

At around 5 A.M. on Wednesday, Chinese authorities visited the home of Xu Zhiyong, a prominent legal scholar and elected legislator in Beijing, and led him away. He has not been heard from again.

[ Read More ]

hee hee hee

The Rickker from SWITCH™ on Vimeo.

Uh, Houston?

Seems as if there's an iPhone Hack going on out there and it can be activated simply by receiving a text (SMS), so there's not really much you can do to stop it, other than getting lucky and turning off your phone right away if you get the malicious text, which is just one character, a little box.

[ More info here ]

[ More info which strongly implies that this isnt a big deal at all here ]

Vroom and Doom

From The Wall Street Journal:
The Obama administration’s plan to increase the powers of the Federal Reserve, says one critic, is like giving a teenager “a bigger, faster car right after he crashed the family station wagon.”

[ Read The Article Here ]

Je dare you to ask yourself...

How many lives do you think you get?

Pense on that.

biggest. iphone. evah.

The rumours of an Apple Tablet are gaining traction:



[ read the article from Cashmore @ Mashable ]

Going to sleep to this...

I think my sisters will like this one...

Whip It, starring Juno and the cool teacher from Donnie Darko:


[ click to view trailer ]

Ant Strength : Myth vs Reality

In our ongoing series about the true nature of ants, specifically, their ability to carry multiples of their own weight, we have run into many, many obstacles.

Notably, there is the rumour I heard when I was about 10 years old: that ants can carry 8x their body weight. But just now, on Franny's Feet, they said that an ant can carry 20x their own weight!

WTF?!? Was I misinformed?

What if they are getting stronger? And stronger? And STRONGER?!?

We're doomed.

Linklater's Spiritual Sequel

Dont get too excited... the "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused wont contain any of the original characters.



But then again, I am excited! Because the next movie is about the first week in college, and even if it's only half as good as Dazed and Confused, I'll probably watch it 20x.

Popcuts

Vitex and Honey are on the front page of Popcuts.

Drea.m

I slept horribly last night, kept having dreams that literally were narrated and typed out loud like this:

if (iCanFallASleepRightNow && totalInteruptions < 1) {

NSLog(@"I might be able to function tomorrow.");
workProductivity++;

} else {

iAmZombie == TRUE;
grumpyIndex += 29;

}

I have been told that playing chess before bed was bad for your sleep, and I think this is true for programming too, which sucks bc/ my new work schedule is 3pm to midnight. Oi.

If there's one thing I miss...

... since I lost my sense of smell, it's the wonderful, refreshing, crisp, clear smell of water. Sigh.

Twilight II . I Gotta See It!

(submitted by ARS_ on Reddit)

Le Deuxieme

I think it's rare for a band's second album to be better than their first, but for me this is definitely the case with Reckoning. Favorite REM album overall.



Now imagine the shear fekkin screaming joy I felt when Fables of the Reconstruction came out, and Feeling Gravity's Pull is the first song I hear. For a brief time, REM took over the #1 spot ahead of U2, The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, and all the rest.



(this post was inspired by Xmastime's recent REM reference)

Columbus Was Bronze At Best

Check out this very cool Norse map, with North America over there on the left, dated about 50 years before the Native Americans said hello to Columbus (click to biggify and see more, including the Mediterranean, Saudi Arabia and Africa):

I got a new car!

Check it out, designed by Jason Battersby:



Naw, cant get that one yet, so I got this one instead. So far, so good!

You know you're a genius when...

... you have Mrs. Joe say this:

"People are put in the Hulks because they murder, and because they rob, and forge, and do all sorts of bad; and they always begin by asking questions. Now, you get along to bed!"

... and then you have young Pip, who has been intimidated into stealing from Mrs Joe, say this:

"I was clearly on my way there. I had begun by asking questions, and I was going to rob Mrs. Joe".

Happy Birthday Xmastime!

If I stare at this picture long enough I start to hallucinate. Try it!



Happy 21st Birthday Xmastime! Enjoy your first beer evah!

Birthday Beer Count

MamaLizza held off at lunch so she could do some training (less than one month until the WPTri).

And now we begin:

2 Coronas at the pool...

EDIT:
Just kidding... obviously she didnt drink a lot at all... taking care of a 1 year old really cuts into your party mindset.

Har Har!

I dont know how people have the time to do stuff like this, but I am really glad they do:

maintenant, elle a trente quatre ans...

...mais demain (après une minute!), elle va avoir trente cinq ans.

Bonne anniversaire ma petite soeur! Je t'aime!

If I had a button...

If I had a button that I could push that would instantly make me fall asleep, well I'd push that button right now.

There's A Train Coming

A big, fast, silver train. And I'm getting on it.

The Hunt For Gollum

If you need a LOTR fix and you cant even imagine waiting for The Hobbit to come out, then here's what you need:

Just Did It

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

[ The Declaration of Independence ]

Death By Torture

The interrogation and detention regime implemented by the U.S. resulted in the deaths of over 100 detainees in U.S. custody -- at least. [ Read More ]