November 19, 2009
tlhIngan maH!
Local dad spoke only Klingon to child for three yearsIs this taking the whole Star Trek thing a teensie weensie bit too far? d'Armond Speers spoke only Klingon to his child for the first three years of its life. [...]
"I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language," Speers told the Minnesota Daily. "He was definitely starting to learn it."
And get this, Speers says he isn't really a huge Star Trek fan.
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An interactive wall
This is a curiosity. A German company called Festo makes an interactive all they call FinRay.
Tip o' the hat to Danilo in Brazil.
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He don't need no steenking GPS
Lost man drives nine hours to get newspaperCANBERRA (Reuters) - An elderly man who went out to fetch a morning newspaper ended up driving nearly 400 miles after getting lost and taking a wrong turn onto a major Australian highway, police said on Wednesday. The man, 81-year-old Eric Steward, eventually stopped and asked for directions after driving for nine hours, from the New South Wales country town of Yass to Geelong in the southern Victoria state. [...]
"This little old man came up to me saying he was lost. He handed me his mobile and asked if I could speak to his wife," said Victorian Police Senior Constable Clayton Smith.
Steward, who was reunited with his family on Wednesday, said he took the wrong turn and just kept on going.
"I just went out on the road to have a drive, a nice peaceful drive," he told reporters, adding he did not need a satellite navigation device as he'd only been lost once.
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Where Viagra ships from
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Bottoms up (2)
Alcohol 'protects men's hearts'Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.
The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.
Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.
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I Am
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November 18, 2009
Gives them new meaning
Rob sends this collection of neologisms from the Washington Post. The object was to provide new definitions for common words.
Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
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Bringing it to life
An interesting ad for Guinness -- lots of great scenery.
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Another urban Ninja
Would-be Seattle ninja found impaled on metal fenceSEATTLE -- An aspiring ninja learned the hard way that he isn't able to jump a 5-foot fence.
Seattle police said an officer checking out a report of an assault in the 600 block of 7th Avenue late Monday came across a man impaled on top of a metal fence, screaming for help. [...]
"Clearly he was overconfident in his abilities, no doubt bolstered by alcohol," police wrote in a news release.
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Holiday decorating tip
It's that time of year: here's a way to save yourself some time and effort.
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News of the News of the Weird
Florida Named Strangest State; NYC & Lincoln, NE Named Strangest CitiesTableseed.com, a new service that helps restaurants get more customers using birthday email clubs, has analyzed nearly 2,000 Associated Press (AP) "strange news" stories that were released in the past year. After segmenting all of the news stories by location, the state of Florida was the runaway winner of Tableseed.com's strangest state award.
Further analysis led to the conclusion that the three strangest cities in the US over the past year were New York City, New York; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Madison, Wisconsin respectively.
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The Matrix in 5 seconds
One of many 5-second movies.
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November 17, 2009
Scotch on the rocks
Drink Makers Drill Ice For Scotch Whiskey
Company Drills For 2 Lost Crates Of Mckinlay & Co. WhiskeyWELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.
The drillers will be trying to reach two crates of McKinlay and Co. whiskey that were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition.
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No 'ifs' or 'ands', just...
A refreshingly direct ad for Reebok's EasyTone shoe:
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Back to nature
Back-to-nature sex, with vegan condoms and hand-cranked personal vibratorsFor some consumers, good environmental citizenship is important even when choosing among sex accessories. No longer will they tolerate plastic personal vibrators made with the softeners called phthalates; or body lubricants that contain toxic chemicals typically found in, say, antifreeze; or leather restraints from slaughtered cattle. In an October issue, Time magazine described a market of organic lubricants, biodegradable whips and handcuffs, vegan condoms, and glass or mahogany vibrators (even hand-crankable models, eliminating the need for batteries).
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Unseen Sahara
National Geographic has a nice slideshow of the work of George Steinmetz in the Sahara.
But what really piqued my interest was how Mr. Steinmetz gets his aerial photos. He flies the most minimal powered 'chute rig I've ever read about. Here's a description from his site. (My emphasis.)
Most of the aerial photos you see on this website were taken from the seat of the lightest powered aircraft in the world, a motorized paraglider. The aircraft consists of three components: the “wing” of a paraglider (similar to an aerobatic parachute), a back-pack mounted motor, and a single-seat harness that ties the three pieces together. It is launched by laying the paraglider out on the ground behind me like a kite, and with the motor idling I run forward, inflating the cells of the glider as it rises overhead.Check out the photos at his site. Here he's pictured taking off. You can all of his craft in this photo (aside from the ends of the chute).
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What smells worse than cigars?
Customs officers seize rabbit poo cigsMore than £1 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes filled with rabbit droppings instead of tobacco have been confiscated by customs officials in Spain.
The fake cigarettes - due to be sold on the black market as famous brands - were discovered after British holidaymakers in the Canary Islands smelled a rat whenever they lit up.
"They stunk. They smell just as you'd imagine burning poo to smell," said one customs official in Tenerife.
Police and customs staff arrested 12 smugglers in an undercover operation to intercept the cigarettes as they landed on a boat from China.
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Come out with your paws up
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November 16, 2009
It was a very cold day
Safe-for-work photo at the link.
Caught on camera: naked love rival flees furious husbandSun Meng has been given the cold shoulder by his community after the extraordinary picture of him cowering naked outside the flat were posted on the internet.
The terrified 25-year-old fled from the balcony window when he was caught in bed with the man's wife at the married couple's flat in Chengdu, central China.
Photographs of the angry showdown, taken by a startled neighbour, were uploaded to a local community website.
They show Sun perched on the first floor [second-floor in the US. - JdJ] ledge while his lover is confronted by her unnamed husband inside.
"My family is ashamed and none of my own neighbours will talk to me any more," said Sun. [...]
"People are even laughing at how I look naked – but I have to point out it was a very cold day," he added.
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Pigeon: Impossible
Amazingly well done CGI short clip.
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Send this guy to D.C.
Mr. Mahon, the sculptor, that is.
NZ lawmaker sculpted in cow manureWELLINGTON, New Zealand — A sculpture of a New Zealand government minister crafted from cow manure sold for New Zealand dollars 3,080 ($2,220) on an auction Web site. The bust of New Zealand Environment Minister Nick Smith, sculpted as a protest by artist Sam Mahon, attracted 112 bids before being picked up by an anonymous buyer on Friday.
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At the frontier of scientific imaging
What is this? Find out at Gizmodo.
Thanks to Rob
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Choose the blue pill
Colombian chefs unveil Viagra-laced passion fruit dessertA group of young Colombian student chefs have unveiled a new dessert made from passion fruit and Viagra, claiming it had aphrodisiac effects on everybody who has tried it.
"We got the idea four months ago when we were dealing with a nutrition project for older people," Juan Sebastian Gomez said at an international gastronomy fair on Thursday.
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E-I-E-I-yOga
Res ipsa loquitur.
YogaDork did a little research (for the curious).
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November 15, 2009
Interactive unemployment demographics
This is a very well done Flash presentation from the New York Times: The Jobless Rate for People Like You.
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Shadow people
An interesting result from a simple operation.
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November 14, 2009
The Huge Mistake
A couple of EPA lawyers describe why Cap & Trade legislation is a really bad way to reduce carbon emissions. Remember the Law of Unintended Consequences.
They're right that a "carbon fee" is a better approach to reducing carbon emissions (though they should just bite the bullet and call it a carbon tax).
And for AGW skeptics like me, the tax approach has another advantage -- you can always repeal a tax when you figure out it was a mistake. Getting rid of a cap & trade program will be much more difficult.
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Hang up and drive
"A low-flying pelican." Yeah, right.
Bird Sends Million-Dollar Bugatti Into Marsh
Low-Flying Pelican, Dropped Cell Phone To Blame, Man SaysLA MARQUE, Texas -- A man blamed a low-flying pelican and a dropped cell phone for his veering his million-dollar sports car off a road and into a salt marsh near Galveston, Texas.
The accident happened about 3 p.m. Wednesday on the frontage road of Interstate 45 northbound in La Marque, about 35 miles southeast of Houston.
The Lufkin, Texas, man told of driving his luxury, French-built Bugatti Veyron when the bird distracted him, said La Marque police Lt. Greg Gilchrist. The motorist dropped his cell phone, reached to pick it up and veered off the road and into the salt marsh. The car was half-submerged in the brine about 20 feet from the road when police arrived.
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Get a dog
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Perfect for those double eagles
Bra unrolls into putting matTOKYO, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A Japanese lingerie maker said its latest bra caters to women seeking to golf on the go with the capability to unroll into a 5-foot-long putting mat.
Triumph said the Nice Cup in a Bra can be removed and unrolled into a putting mat that says "Nice shot" through a speaker when a ball sinks into the cup, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday [...]
Triumph releases novelty bras in Japan twice a year to highlight social trends. Previous releases include a chopstick bra and a mail carrier bra with pockets for letters..
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The journey starts
A clever ad for Nokia's N900, a Linux-based device that Nokia's touting as an open platform they call Maemo.
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At least they weren't in his pants
Brit arrested with 1000 live spiders in his luggageA British man has been arrested at Rio de Janeiro airport with 1000 live spiders in his luggage.
The man was nabbed late on Wednesday after security X-rays allegedly showed he was trying to smuggle the spiders out in two suitcases.
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