22 Ṭeveth 5768: Gregorian New Year’s Eve

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Happy Birthday Dry Bones”
  
• “N. Korea set to miss deadline to declare all its nuclear programs” (Is anyone surprised?)
  
• “i-Snake 'will transform surgery'”

Today’s weird thing is The 13-string Guitar "Chiavi-Miolin", a rather freakish-looking musical instrument.. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

21 Ṭeveth 5768: Oh My! Day/Global Family Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Tied Up in Knots”
  
• “Introducing the Solar Tree”
  
• “Psychedelic Healing?”
  
• “After DNA Diagnosis: ‘Hello, 16p11.2. Are You Just Like Me?’”
  
• “The War in Iraq Costs”
  
• “Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep”
  
• “Professor Cites Bible in Faulting Tax Policies”

Today’s weird things are the 80’s Brick Cell Phone and the Mini MOB retro brick-style mobile phone. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

19 Ṭeveth 5768: Kwanzaa/Card Playing Day/No Interruptions Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Pakistan's Bombers”
  
• “Furs found after 30 years in storage”
  
• “Polarization technique focuses limelight”
  
• “Public access to NIH research made law” (Woohoo!)
  
• “Saudi Libel Terrorism Must be Stopped”

Today’s weird thing is “This Page Intentionally Left Blank”. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

18 Ṭeveth 5768: Kwanzaa/National Fruitcake Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Happy New Year ! (1977)”
  
• “Researcher: Info Overload Costs Economy”
  
• “Russian says: Go ahead, egg my Hummer”

Today’s weird thing is the Batcave Home Theater. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

17 Ṭeveth 5768: Kwanzaa/Boxing Day/St. Stephen’s Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Mubarak's Choice”
  
• “Pallywood Xmas Special”
  
• “Parents Face Tough Questions When Santa's Magic Fades” (What I do not understand is why parents lie to their children in the first place about the existence of Santa Claus. Essentially parents are setting their children up to learn that they are not trustworthy.)
  
• “Robots Taking Over The Job On Offshore Oil Drilling Platforms”
  
• “Egypt to copyright pyramids” (The Pharaohs will probably sue the Egyptian government when they hear about this.)
  
• “Bully pulpit? More like bullying pulpit”
  
• “Truth in Sparks: Titanium or Plain Ol' Steel?”
  
• “Drugs to build up that mental muscle”
  
• “Cards from heaven have dead man talking”

Today’s weird thing, which Barry may be blamed for, is Bent Objects. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

16 Ṭeveth 5768: Christmas/National Pumpkin Pie Day/Grav-mass/Decemberween

Greetings.

Divine misconception of the day: “Bible put on a pinhead-size chip”. 300,000 letters is not the length of the Hebrew or Christian Bible. It is the length of the Torah. For example, Who Wrote the Bible? (Friedman 1987) deals with the authorship of just the Torah, not the entire Hebrew or Christian Bible. Michael Drosnin in The Bible Code (Drosnin 1997, p. 25) claims that the “Bible” is “304,805 letters long”—the length of the Torah alone. Likewise, Walking the Bible (Feiler 2002) only retraces the footsteps people took in the Torah. Why people keep making this mistake, I do not know.

Drosnin, Michael. 1997. The Bible Code. 1st Touchstone Edition ed. New York: Touchstone.

Feiler, Bruce S. 2002. Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses. New York: Perrenial/HarperCollinsPublishers. Original edition, New York: William Morrow, 2001.

Friedman, Richard Elliott. 1987. Who Wrote the Bible? New York: Summit Books.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible:

• “Bethlehem at Christmas (1996)”
  
• “Sex is for adults” (Good point in there: it takes two to tango.)
  
• “Chinese police dog may teach pandas to fight”
  
• “What Was Ailing Tiny Tim?”
  
• “Scotland to put anti-drunk driving ads in computer games”
  
• “Kyrgyzstan touted as ideal delivery hub for Santa”
  
• “Gaza's Christians keep low Xmas profile”
  
• “Daily Mail Columnist Is Not a Wise Man”
  
• “US aid 'diverted' in Pakistan”
  
• “Not one but 'six giraffe species'”

Today’s weird thing, which Barry is responsible for, is “THE ORIGINAL Scary 'Mary Poppins' Recut Trailer”.


Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

15 Ṭeveth 5768: Christmas Eve/National Eggnog Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Year's End”
  
• “CIA withheld al Qaeda tapes: paper”
  
• “Caught on Tape - Rocket Landing in School Yard”
  
  
• “Rabbit-Ear Users Don’t Know The End (of Analog TV) Is Near”
  
• “LET THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORD SHOW...”
  
• “FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics”
  
• “Exiled Stars: Milky Way Boots Members ”
  
• “Destination: Durban II”
  
• “Researchers get embryonic stem cells from skin”
  

In lieu of the usual weird thing, today I would like to deal with the problem of political advertising over the phone. This is a problem we have been dealing with lately, due to the 2008 presidential election, and I expect it to only get worse as Election Day grows near. Rather than get mad, I have found a way to deal.

THE SCENARIO: A human calls you on the phone and says he/she is calling on behalf of a candidate for some office, for demonstration purposes here Jarvis Funnypants for mayor.

THE SOLUTION: Do not let the Funnypants promoter tell you anything about why you should vote for Funnypants. Instead, firmly but politely get a word in edgewise and say something like “I will be very happy to hear why Jarvis Funnypants would make a great mayor. However, as a matter of policy I require payment of a $10,000 fee in advance.  How will the Funnypants campaign be paying?”  The Funnypants promoter will probably think this is a joke, but stay strong, firm, and polite; under no circumstances are you to allow any Funnypants promotion to occur without payment in advance.  You may note that your time is valuable and cannot afford to listen every political advertisement unless compensation is given.  The promoter, seeing you are uncooperative, will most likely give up quickly.  If he/she does not, then apologize for not being able to listen to Funnypants promotion and hang up.

WHY WE SHOULD DO THIS:  Telephone advertising is annoying.  If we refuse to listen to it, politicians may actually get the message and stop calling us.  Not to mention, it makes the experience of dealing with political telephone advertising a lot more fun.

I strongly encourage everyone to spread this idea around.  Remember:  you have the power to fight political telephone advertising.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

14 Ṭeveth 5768: 4th Advent/Festivus

Greetings.

Relevant to today’s quasi-holiday for the rest of us: the “Festivus” article on Wikipedia.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Santa on cross protests commercialism” (Charlie Brown would be proud.)
  
• “Epistemological Indulgences”
  
• “Tent city in suburbs is cost of home crisis” (The cause of this housing crisis, bad lending practices, makes me wonder if it is time for America to implement a traditional Jewish lending practice: cancelation of all debts once every seven years. Faced with the prospect of losing huge amounts of money, maybe lenders would think twice about trying to get people into severe chronic debt.)
  
• “First Dec. 25 Xmas tied to pagan shrine”
  
• “Traffic jam mystery solved by mathematicians”
  
• “Asteroid May Soon Slam into Mars”
  
• “Seven great "medical myths" revealed”
  
• “Nanosolar 'prints' first flexible solar cells”
  
• “Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Created That Avoid Immune Rejection in Large Segments of the Population”
  
• “Want to Slim Down? Tax Soda” (Better would be to cancel all subsidies for foods that are bad for us, such as corn syrup, as said subsidies are responsible for making such awful things as soda absurdly cheap.)

Today’s weird thing is “holiday festivities”. WARNING: You may well end up rolling on the floor laughing. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

12 Ṭeveth 5768: “Good excuse”

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Christmas 2007”
  
• “Cosmic explosion detonates in empty space”
  
• “Thieves grab over 500 meters in Atlanta”
  
• “Snaky smells help squirrels stay safe”
  
• “Fire and Brimstone Helped Form Mars Oceans ”

Today’s weird thing is something silly from Emily’s collection. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

---

Good excuse

A guy bought a new Mercedes and was out on an interstate road for a nice evening drive. As the needle jumped up to 80 MPH he suddenly saw a flashing red and blue light behind him. Confident he could outrun the police car, he began to drive faster. The needle hit 90, 100, 110 and finally 120 with the lights still behind him.

“What am I doing?” he thought and pulled over.

The cop came up to him, took his license without a word and examined it and the car. “I’ve had a tough shift and this is my last pull over. I don’t feel like more paperwork so if you can give me an excuse for your driving that I haven’t heard before you can go.”

“Last week my wife ran off with a cop,” the man said, “and I was afraid you were trying to give her back.”

“Have a nice night,” said the officer.

11 Ṭeveth 5768: Games Day/International Human Solidarity Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary, of which there will be more than usual due to their being no weird thing yesterday:

• “Peace on Earth (1977)”
  
• “Israeli Policy”
  
• “Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor”
  
• “MIT students power supercomputer with bicycles”
  
• “A Budget Too Small”
  
• “Suit seeks to restore millions of acres to 13 species' habitat”
  
• Geek the Vote (More of a potentially useful resource than anything else.)
  
• “Who Can Afford to Eat Right?”
  
• “Primary Health for All”
  
• “Dishonest Reporter Award 2007”
  
• “Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste”
  
• “Got fleas? Get the vacuum”
  
• “Voting Machines For Major Counties Decertified”
  
• “Shred your bad memories of 2007”
  
• “Trading Cosmic Places: Neptune and Uranus Swapped Spots”
  
• “N.D. bank giving workers money to donate”
  
• “Jingle-bang! Santa's chopper shot up over Rio slum”
  
• “Even CEOs think CEOs are overpaid”
  
• “Closest Whale Cousin—A Fox-Size Deer?”

Today’s weird thing is “How to really bury a mainframe”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Worthy cause of the day: “Congress: Stop Media Consolidation”

Greetings.

Today’s worthy cause is the petition “Congress: Stop Media Consolidation”. Please sign immediately and tell your Congresspeople to listen to the voice of the people and not allow the FCC to permit consolidation of big media. Remember: you are entitled to demand that your Congresspeople do what you want; that’s their job. Thank you.

Aaron

Worthy cause of the day: Take Action: Stop Big Media

Greetings.

Today’s worthy cause is “Take Action: Stop Big Media”. Please sign and tell Congress not to let just a few people control the media. This is America, a land where we are supposed to have a variety of views. It ought to stay this way. Thank you.

Aaron

9 Ṭeveth 5768: Bake Cookies Day/International Migrants Day

Greetings.

Note: Tomorrow is a fast day, and as such there will be no weird thing then.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Visiting Egypt (1977)”
  
• “Israel sends US videos of Egypt helping Hamas” (What I want to know is why Congress talking about penalizing Egypt are only talking about withholding $100 million out of $1.3 billion they are planning to give to Egypt. That means Egypt still gets $1.2 billion, so it is a mere slap on the wrist. Considering that Egypt’s government is undemocratic, non-Muslims are persecuted, and they have long been failing to honor their commitments in their treaty with Israel—aiding and abetting terrorism in Gaza—why is Congress giving Egypt any money at all? Isn’t that the opposite of fighting the war on terrorism?)
  
• “Wis. man graduates college at age 87” (Mazzal ṭov!)
  
• “Miniature Horse Serves as Guide for Blind Florida Woman” (Brought to my attention by Mom.)
  
• “Saudi king pardons rape victim” (Took him long enough. And it should not be a pardon; since the victim is innocent, she should be acquitted. It is a severe dishonor that Saudi Arabia let this disgusting travesty of justice go on so long.)
  
• “Crown Heights' receding hemlines”
  
• “Property bust? Lunar land prices are rocketing” (The amazing thing is that these lunar land grabs have no legal recognition whatsoever, not to mention they are currently unenforceable. I rather doubt that futures lunar settlers will honor such claims.)
  
• “No Qassams, No Terror, No Responsibility?”
  
• “New giant rat and possum found in Indonesia's Papua”
  
• “Come to Jerusalem, see the messiah”
  
• “Galaxy Blasts Neighbor with Deadly Jet ”

Today’s weird thing is ASCII Projektor, a Mac OS X program that lets you view movies and iSight input as ASCII characters. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

8 Ṭeveth 5768: “Homemade Flame Thrower”

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary, much of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Rejecting Negativity”
  
• “Christmas card arrives 93 years late”
  
• “Qassam wounds infant in kibbutz Zikim” (Real warriors do not attack children! Surely the Muslim terrorists behind this are a bunch of complete losers who are insufficiently brave to take on real targets, such as the entire Israeli Army, and they are obviously afraid to die since they sent a mindless machine to fight for them rather than risk their own death. Clearly they have no honor whatsoever.)
  
• “Priest attacked, hurt in Turkey” (The Muslim terrorist behind this also clearly has no honor. Unless this priest was also a black-belt in karate, he was a target unworthy of a real warrior. Real warriors take down armed soldiers or armed vehicles. With Muslims attacking targets that could be taken down by a stupid kid with a BB-gun, it is no wonder that they are losing so much respect these days.)
  
• “How Much Data Is That?”
  
• “Meeting KITT” (NO! SOMEBODY STOP THE TRAGEDY!)
  
• “Marrying for Love ... of Money” (Scary.)

Today’s weird thing is “Homemade Flame Thrower”. WARNING: Do not build this thing unless you know what you are doing and are sufficiently mature and moral not to misuse it. If you blow yourself up or burn down the house, it’s your own fault for doing something stupid. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

7 Ṭeveth 5768: National Chocolate Covered Anything Day/3rd Advent

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “CBC's Terror Double Standard”
  
• “Hear Voices? It May Be an Ad”

Today’s weird thing is The Most Beautiful Supercomputer in the World. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

5 Ṭeveth 5768: Monkey Day

Greetings.

Relevant to today’s quasi-holiday: the “Monkey Day” article on Wikipedia.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”
  
• “Saturn's Rings Older Than First Thought?”
  
• “Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007”
  
• “Great beasts peppered from space”
  
• “Would you fall all the way through a theoretical hole in the earth?”

Today’s weird thing is “The Cardboard House ”. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

4 Ṭeveth 5768: Shakespeare in Limerick

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Israeli Journalists in Egypt (1977)”
  
• “Sderot Unspun”
  
• “Children on Hamas TV Call to "Liberate" Al-Aqsa Mosque by Force and to "Wipe Out" Zionists to the Last One”
  
• “Committee Report: White House Engaged in Systematic Effort to Manipulate Climate Change Science”
  
• “Huge Newfound Part of Milky Way Rotates Backward ”
  
• “'Avoid Death' is named wackiest label”

There once was a poet so sick,
His head, they said, really too thick.
They made him read plays.
Thus begot he today's
Weird thing: Shakespeare in Limerick.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

3 Ṭeveth 5768: Ḥanukkah

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: Sciencedebate 2008. It is important for people who make decisions to understand the bases on which they make their decisions, especially when the decisions will affect human lives. Consider the damage done by George W. Bush, who displays no understanding of science, and his policies made on bases which have little or no resemblance to reality: ignoring global warming, poor energy policy, sex education which does not work, hampering of stem cell research, aiding and abetting terrorism, voting systems which are unfair and less secure than ever, hampering the FDA and EPA, crushing national debt, a war without a realistic endgame strategy, etc. We cannot afford to have another president who lives in a fantasy world. We need someone who pays attention to evidence and reason and tries to deal with reality as it is, not as he or she wants it to be. A debate between the candidates on science would give us some idea how much they are actually living in the real world, so please sign the petition. Thanks in advance.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Like White on Rice”
  
• “The Grinch That Destroys Christmas”
  
• “'Mathlete' smashes human calculation record: museum”
  
• “Will the Supreme Court Decide the 2008 Election?”
  
• “Spreading the load”
  
• “UN passes resolution proposed by Israel”
  
• “Texas biology professors voice support for evolution education ”
  
• “Questions of intelligence”
  
• “Why different rules for Israel?”
  
• “George Bush loses close run for "Foot in Mouth"”
  
• “Blogger: Weird thing of the day - Create Post”
  
• “Amateur Time Hackers Play With Atomic Clocks at Home” (With the great quote “It was the best extra 22 nanoseconds I've ever spent with the kids”.)
  

Today’s weird thing is “Flying Humans, Hoping to Land With No Chute”, demonstrated in this video:



Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy Ḥanukkah.

Aaron

2 Ṭeveth 5768: Ḥanukkah

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “WakeUpWalMart.com - Join the fight to change Wal-Mart and change America”.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Bethlehem (2000)”
  
• “Sabbath for everyone”
  
• “State says its not obligated to fortify Sderot homes against Kassams” (’Olmerṭ, you do realize that not fortifying Sedheroth against rockets and doing nothing to stop the people shooting the rockets is a gross failure to do your job? Considering your inability and/or unwillingness to do what you were elected to do, not to mention that no one likes you anymore, please resign and let someone less incompetent take over.)
  
• “The Teddy Problem in Britain”
  
• “How board game helped free POWs”
  
• “New Medicare Rules Bar Cancer Drugs for Patients” (What bureaucratic idiot came up with this idea?)
  
• “A Camera to Help Dementia Patients”
  
• “China market may be breeding ground for deadly viruses”
  
• “An Old Child's Letter to Santa” (WARNING: Strong language.)

Today’s weird thing is “STAR WARS ASCIIMATION”. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy Ḥanukkah.

Aaron

1 Ṭeveth 5768: Ḥanukkah/Ro’sh Ḥodhesh/Human Rights Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Santa's Visit 2007”
  
• Rhymes with Orange 2007-12-10
  
• “Picture-sorting dogs show human-like thought”
  
• “Warning sounded over 'flirting robots'”
  
• “Ehud Goldwasser's mother attacks state on lack of effort to free her son” (’Olmert, what are you doing on that front? Anything at all? Or just trying to forget what you fought that last war over and failed to achieve?)
  
• “UK govt to unveil plans to expand offshore wind energy”
  
• “Car Prototype Generates Electricity, And Cash”
  
• “Former 'No Nukes' Protester: Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Power”

Today’s weird thing is “Blu-Ray Laser Phaser!” Enjoy, share the weirdness, happy Hanukkah, happy new month, and live long and prosper.

Aaron

29 Kislew 5768: Ḥanukkah/The International Day Against Corruption/2nd Advent

Greetings.

Divine misconception of the day: “Hindu gods get summons from court”. How exactly is anyone going to compel Ram and Hanuman to come to court?

Relevant to today’s genuine holiday: “Religion Today”. The menorah parade is an interesting approach.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• The Miniature Earth Project (This is a very sad commentary on the state of the planet.)
  
• “Human skull find in Turkey sheds light on TB”
  
• “To The Moon! (In a Minivan)”
  
• “DARWIN’S SURPRISE”
  
• “State Dept.'s chief watchdog resigns”

Today’s weird thing is “Commodore 64 still loved after all these years”. Now, while many computer systems have stalwart fans, (so far as I know) only the Commodore 64 has own orchestra. If I may give a few examples:





Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy Hanukkah.

Aaron

27 Kislew 5768: Ḥanukkah/International Civil Aviation Day/Pearl Harbour Remembrance Day

Happy Hanukkah.

Worthy cause of the day: “Tell Congress to Stop Big Media”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• Israeli politics news: “Political Prozac”, “The Post-Annapolis Blame Game”, and “Israel to pardon five Fatah gunmen involved in Bethlehem church standoff” (What the gezornenblat is ’Olmert thinking? Who agreed to something so stupid?)
  
• “Most unusual data disaster horror stories for 2007”
  
• Congressional news: “Congress' copyright reform: seize computers, boost penalties, spend money” and “House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites” (Whoever wrote the bill has no clue that the most people who would share Wi-Fi with their neighbors probably have no clue how to comply with all the bookkeeping the House is trying to foist upon them.)
  
• “Police Use Decoy Wallets, Purses To Make Arrests” (This is such a bad idea it’s not funny.)
  
• “Survey: World's poorest are hardest hit by corruption”
  
• “Arrow of Time FAQ”
  
• Robot news: “Flexible-jointed robot is no pushover” and “Toyota shows violin-playing robot”
  
• “U.S. Rejects Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Cuts” (Boo!)
  
• “Study: Number of 'Misleading' Anti-Vaccination Videos on YouTube Growing”
  
• “Find your candidate’s plan” (Not news or commentary, but a potentially useful resource for US voters.)
  
• “Study reveals that most americans have false sense of online security”
  
• “Aliens Apart ”
  
• “Second Temple palace uncovered”
  
• “ES&S e-voting system used in California cracked wide open”
  

Today’s weird thing is John Cage’s 4′33″, arguably one of the strangest pieces of music ever written. Arguably what makes 4′33″ strange, that it consists of four minutes 33 seconds of silence, is appropriate for the anniversary of a tragedy. Enjoy (or be moved), share the weirdness, happy Hanukkah, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

26 Kislew 5768: Ḥanukkah/National Gazpacho Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Join Al Gore in Bali” and “Polar Bear SOS”.

Note: I have even less idea what gazpacho has to do with Hanukkah than ninjas do.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “How to beat the ban of humans on Mars” (Would someone please tell me why people in Congress are trying to keep humans from exploring Mars? Don’t they have something better to do with their time, such as try to keep Bush from completely ruining Earth?)
  
• “Turn Back. Exit Village. Truck Shortcut Hitting Barrier.”
  
• “Fundraising Scandal Produces "Zionist Conspiracies"”

Today’s weird thing is “the World-Famous Mini-Mizer, a Flash-based toy where you can Picture Yourself In Plastic!” Apparently this is what I would look like as a Lego person:


Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy Hanukkah.

Aaron

25 Kislew 5768: Ḥanukkah/International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development/The Day of the Ninja

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “The Senate must do its part”. Yes, expecting the US government to do anything of substance to stop the genocide in the Sudan may be a bit optimistic, but if we do not, as voters, insist they do something, the chances they will do nothing are greater.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Our Lights”
  
• “Mayors promote fluorescents as 'state bulb'”
  
• “PM doesn't need Knesset approval to give PA armored cars, state tells court” (What the gezornenblat is ’Olmert thinking? That’s aiding and abetting the enemy! That’s treason!)
  
• “Being Poor”
  
• “The virtue of imperfection”
  
• “The Future of Reading (A Play in Six Acts)”
  
• “Hack: Young Professor Makes Lab-on-a-Chip with Shrinky Dink and Toaster Oven”
  
• “Electricity revives Bali coral reefs”

Because today is (besides the first day of Hanukkah) the Day Of the Ninja, today’s weird thing is Ask A Ninja. I am not clear what connection there is between Hanukkah and the Day of the Ninja. Perhaps it is because Hanukkah celebrates the military victory of the Hashmona’im (Hasmoneans) over the Syrian-Greeks during the Second Temple Period. Like ninjas, Hashmona’im were warriors. However, unlike ninjas, the Hashmona’im were not assassins, but were fighting for the independence and religious freedom of Israel. Also, religio-ethnic pride requires me to say that in a fight between the Hashmona’im and ninjas, the Hashmona’im would win. (One of them killed an elephant. How many ninjas can claim that? The Hashmona’im could also take down pirates, too.) Still, enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

24 Kislew 5768: Wear Brown Shoes Day

Greetings.

Note: Hanukkah starts tonight!

Worthy cause of the day (submitted by Barry): “Stop a Bush War with Iran”. War with Iran may yet be necessary, but if so, I’d rather it be done by rational leaders who know what they are doing rather than Bush, who considers war something one does even without a good reason to do so. See “Report contradicts Bush on Iran nuclear program” for information—or rather confusion—on what is happening in Iran.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Happy Hanukkah (1991)”
  
• “Secret Army Of Gnomes Under Scotland's Seas”
  
• “Computer Storage (1956)”
  
• “"Naughty" nations in a coal lot of trouble in Bali”
  
• “FDA science dearth puts public health at risk”
  
• “TASER Seeks to Zap Safety Concerns”
  
• “Official Leaves Post as Texas Prepares to Debate Science Education Standards” (Would Jesus approve of what these Christian creationists are doing?)
  
• “Scientists say mummified dinosaur reveals surprises”
  
• “Divorce Squanders Earth's Resources”

Today’s weird thing is the creation of a musical computer networking specialist, “The Day that Routers Died”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

23 Kislew 5768: International Day of Disabled Persons

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Russian Strongman”
  
• “Cricket Thermometer”
  
• “Helium isotopes point to the best sources of geothermal energy”

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is “Mahna Mahna”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

22 Kislew 5768: International Day for the Abolition of Slavery/1st Advent

Greetings.

Note: Hanukkah starts Tuesday night!

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “British store tries "faux gras" challenge to French delicacy”
  
• “Russian vote seen as referendum on Putin”
  
• “Robots slug it out to be world champ”
  
• “YouTube suspends Egyptian blog activist's account”
  
• “Web site seeks to reunite gloves, owners”
  
• “Survey Finds Lack of Awareness About AIDS”
  
• “Stem Cells—This Time without the Cancer”
  
• “Extend the life of electronic gadgets”
  
• “Spin the Dreidel” (OK, so it’s not news or commentary. It’s my blog and I’ll do what I want.)
  
• “Israeli says elusive biblical wall found”
  
• “Many gene tests a waste of money: experts”
  
• “Ancient trees to be cloned for 'living library'”
  
• “Reporter gets circumcised to fight AIDS”
  
• “Power struggle to control ancient bones”
  
• “The Complex Story of Pareve Orange Juice”

Today’s weird thing is something amusing from Emily’s collection, included below. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

---

If I Died

A wife asks her husband,

—Honey, if I died, would you remarry?

—After a considerable period of grieving, I guess I would. We all need companionship.

—If I died and you remarried, would she live in this house?

—We’ve spent a lot of money getting this house just the way we want it. I’m not going to get rid of my house. I guess she would.

—If I died and you remarried, and she lived in this house, would she sleep in our bed?

—Well, the bed is brand new, and it cost us $2,000. It’s going to last a long time, so I guess she would.

—If I died and you remarried, and she lived in this house and slept in our bed, would she use my golf clubs?

—Oh, no,—the husband replies—She’s left-handed.

20 Kislew 5768: Stay at Home Because You're Well Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Stop Endless War in Iraq”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Post Annapolis Background Sound”
  
• “How to make a zombie cockroach”
  
• “JPL Scientists Stand Up To Government For Right To Privacy”
  
• “Beam Me Up To Vulcan”
  
• “There's oil in that slime”

Today’s weird thing is the Prairie Tumbleweed Farm. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

19 Kislew 5768: International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People/Square Dance Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Tell Congress To Pass A Clean Energy Bill”.

Relevant to one of today’s quasi-holidays: “Who’s Really Trembling?”. It is an outrage that Muslims and Arabs are forced to tow the line, even in America, including on the fiction that there is a “Palestinian People”. Let us stand with the dissenters and not with the oppressors.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The 1947 Partition Plan (1975)”
  
• “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”
  
• “Why explore space?”
  
• “TV, film and game violence seen as a threat”
  
• “President Bush Reduces Pay Raise For Federal Employees” (Not surprising. Bush, despite insane cost overruns, underfunds almost everything.)
  
• “Maine Tobacco-Shipping Law
  Faces Tough Time in Court”
  
• “Rats wipe out seabirds on Alaska island”
  
• “Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal”
  
• “Briton charged in Muhammad bear case” (I cannot make up anything this hypersensitive.)

In honor of the other of today’s quasi-holidays, today’s weird thing is “Tractor Square Dancing”, which you can view below. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

18 Kislew 5768: Make Your Own Head Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day (submitted by Barry): “Facebook must respect privacy”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “George W.'s Clever Move”
  
• “Annapolis And The Core Issues”
  
• “The Sliding Rocks of Racetrack Playa”
  
• “Not even Santa's elves can count on job security”
  
• “Feds Cancel Amazon Customer ID Request”
  
• “INFRINGEMENT NATION: COPYRIGHT REFORM AND THE LAW/NORM GAP”
  
• “How one man's invention is part of a growing worldwide scam that snares the desperately ill”
  
• “Boy walks 280 miles for homeless kids”
  
• “Collegiate Quidditch takes off — figuratively, at least”
  
• “FEMA not the only agency to misrepresent”

By now, everyone has heard of Google Earth and its browser-based variant Google Maps. Today’s weird things are its extraterrestrial variants: Google Moon and Google Mars. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

17 Kislew 5768: Pins And Needles Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Cooking Our Goose (1978)”
  
• “Football field-sized kite powers latest heavy freight ship”
  
• “Fake Photos Alter Real Memories”
  
• “Undercover restorers fix Paris landmark's clock”
  
• “Texas math books fraught with errors”

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is “Ninja Tortoise Vs Cats " Close combat action ! "”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

16 Kislew 5768: Shopping Reminder Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Zionist Nightmare”
  
• “Giant Israeli flag breaks world record”
  
• “DI [Discovery Institute] Fellows-- EXPELLED for plagiarism”

Today’s weird thing are the original, undefiled “Inner Lie of a Cell” videos mentioned in the last news story, both included below, because they are amazingly cool. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

---

15 Kislew 5768: National Parfait Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Methane-eating bacteria could halt warming”
  
• “Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request” (Bad idea.)
  
• “Sci-fi rant: When did Star Wars jump the shark?” (Interesting answer.)
  
• “The frightening prospect of flu”
  
• “Make your own ID”
  
• “Tasers a form of torture, says UN” (Not clear whether this is really fair. All in all, I’d rather be tasered than shot with a bullet.)
  
• “Babe loses head, Bunyan not a suspect”
  

Today’s weird thing is a guest commentary, included below. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

---

Movie Review: Enchanted versus Shrek

WARNING: We got spoilers here. This could get ugly.

Over a decade ago we were treated to Scream, a horror movie about people obsessed with the rules of horror movies. Though the film itself was something of a fluke as far as the writing was concerned (compare it with anything else Kevin Williamson has written; I suggest The Faculty), it spawned umpteen different variations, genre-conscious movies with characters aware of the rules. Many of these descendants have been awful, but a few have been gems, such as GalaxyQuest and Hot Fuzz. They also include a very popular children's movie, Shrek.

Shrek not only takes on children's movies and fairy tales in general, but makes a number of very specific digs at Disney. (Then-current Dreamworks bigwig, Jeffery Katzenberg, was a former Disney bigwig who left after the bad blood between him and supervillian Michael Eisner. In fact, bad guy Lord Farquaad is modeled after Eisner.) In an antiseptic, good-goody world where the bad guys are supposed to be marked like Cain with ugliness, the story plunks in the middle of it all a creature who is angry, antisocial, and disgusting, makes him the hero, and then validates him in classic Disney style by marrying him off to a princess. As with any popular movie, variants and rip-offs have followed: Hoodwinked, Happily N'ever After, and so forth.

Disney, ever following the money, has now coughed out its own take in Enchanted. In this movie, they plunk Disney characters in the middle of New York City, where they encounter harsh realities they have never experienced. Can true love survive in the real world?

It's actually not that much of the real world. Princess Giselle (Amy Adams), who is sent to New York City (played by itself) by her evil stepmother over a potential threat to the latter's throne (I'm not sure the logic holds), crawls out of a manhole in Times Square and for maybe five minutes is in a version of New York that is nasty and dirty before Rudy Giuliani started cleaning it up. Given where she was going, she was lucky just to have her tiara stolen; the unrealistic part was that she never mugged, became the object of socially inappropriate affections, or asked who her pusher is based on how she's acting high as a kite. From that point on New York is totally out of character, capable of totally flicking into acting like the Disney universe with skyscrapers whenever the plot demands it, which it does most of the time. And as additional cartoons make the crossing, it just gets farther and farther from anything like reality.

It's not long before divorced divorce lawyer Rob Philip (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey) find Giselle trying to gain admittance to a billboard (you don't want to know). Rather than calling the guys with white coats and butterfly nets, they instead take her home. And then the plot gets really silly. I don't want to spoil the whole thing, but once you are see Prince Edward (James Marsden) and Rob's main squeeze Nancy (Idina Menzel), if you don't know who eventually pairs up with whom and what fate the evil stepmother (Susan Sarandon) has in the end, you probably got rocks in your head.

I'm not going to argue about some things you know can't happen, like characters knowing things they shouldn't or being able to get goods and services in New York without any money. That I can suspend, but the problems with the characters, especially Giselle, I cannot. Yeah, there are a few concessions to changing times. Giselle thinks she's in love forever and ever at first sight but it turns out she's wrong. (If she wasn't, the plot would fall apart, so instead she falls in love with someone else by the end of the first date.) She does do a little climbing and throws a sword to save her (second) true love, though in the end he has to help save both of them from sliding off a roof. And at one point she finds herself angry for the first time ever, a difficult emotion for Disney "heroines" and still for her so difficult that she never does it again.

But for the most part the moviemakers are unwilling to stretch the character any further from her roots. While they have Rob learn how to open himself to true love after a bitter divorce has scarred him, nothing seems to have any permanent effect on her. In fact, despite being set in the present, the movie seems to be rather backwards in how it treats women. Successful women like Marie Curie (the chemist who was the first person to win two Nobel prizes) and Rosa Parks (civil-rights advocate) are innuendoed to be personally deficient, as if success outside of "womanly" pursuits had to come at a personal cost. (Actually both of them were married, and one of Curie's daughters ended up winning a Nobel prize of her own.) Nancy ends up giving up her job and life to run away with some guy she just met in a far-away land. And then Giselle, who faced a dragon, turns her back on the productive examples of Parks and Curie (pursuing knowledge and making the world a better place) to go do something "womanly" (make clothing, with the help of her slave armies of vermin). And to top it off they had to have to make her totally immodest. I kid you not, they show Rob walking in on Giselle in the shower, and it is only two birds carrying a towel that keeps him and the audience from seeing her A-cups full on. As it is, this shot alone will get the movie listed by Mr. Skin. And what is it with Disney and small breasts anyway? Don't believe me? Check out the various women in Beauty and the Beast (Belle is smaller than the women Gaston is not pursuing), or the flat-as-a-pancake Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Then again, Disney isn't too culturally sensitive either and still doesn't get it. Minorities are ghettofied in supporting roles and pretty lame and often stereotyped ones at that, like the only time you see Mexicans is in a mariachi band. One character goes around wearing lame ethnic disguises that were lame back in the early twentieth century when they
were old and lame then. Since when did you see an Italian-American with a handlebar mustache and an accent that sounds like "Mama mia, that's a spicy meatball!"? This is the twenty-first century people!

Shrek at least grappled the Disney rules, and even when it fell back into them sideways (as when Shrek paired up with Fiona as an ogre, apparently because an interspecies human-ogre pairing is too controversial), it came out of trying to challenge them. That and the animus towards Eisner lead to contradictions, such as Shrek griping about people hating him for how he looks and then making fun of Farquaad for being a little pipsqueak. Can he help that any more than Shrek can help being an ogre? Enchanted, however, dings against the rules but ultimately seeks to reaffirm them. And that is sad because they could have done so much more with Giselle. Why couldn't she have found she's good for something nontraditional? Would it have killed them to have her grow as a person? For that matter, what if she ended up both single and happy? It's not that Disney is totally incapable of such directions (look at Herbie: Fully Loaded, even with Lindsay Lohan's digitally reduced breasts), but they shouldn't need an animatronic car around to make the "heroine" dream a little bigger than bagging a husband who she's known for a day.

--Malcom NC-17

13 Kislew 5768: Cashews Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Israeli "Shield" ?”
  
• “$40K paid for butterfly naming rights”
  
• “Big Content asks presidential candidates for more restrictive copyright laws”

Today’s weird thing is Flying Pig Paper Animation Kits. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

12 Kislew 5768: Start Your Own Country Day/Thanksgiving

Greetings.

In honor of one of today’s quasi-holidays, I hereby found the Martian Empire with myself as Emperor. Please contact me to purchase a visa to visit my planet.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry has contributed:

• “Thanksgiving (1997)”
  
• “Israel, the hope of the Muslim world” (Interesting perspective on Islam.)
  
• “Sustaining exploration: communications, relevance, and value”
  
• “In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession”
  
• “ZAKA, Sderot's Municipality sue Mashaal”
  
• “A Hazy Future for a ‘Jewel’ of Space Instruments” (Fire whoever cut the Arecibo budget!)
  
• “Babies a Good Judge of Character”

Today’s weird thing is “Introducing Demotivators®”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

11 Kislew 5768: World Hello Day/False Confessions Day

Greetings.

Divine misconception of the day: “Are Scientists Playing God? It Depends on Your Religion”. The misconception is that “playing God” is inherently wrong. Frankly, “playing God” is not even something new. Ever since the dawn of civilization, humans have been genetically modifying plants and animals. The methods traditionally used have been artificial selection and hybridization—humans breed organisms for characteristics they want—but the results were no less dramatic. Humanity have probably even undergone modification via sexual selection—selection of mates on a rational or aesthetic basis. Yet no one is worried about traditionally modified corn or cows, and few (if any) people mate purely at random to avoid having children with more desirable characteristics. Genetic engineering is merely a new way of doing what has done before, and as such being paranoid about it is unwarranted. Let us leave scenarios where genetically engineered organisms go haywire and kill us all in B-movies where they belong.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “The Madness Continues . . .”
  
• “New York Times 6 Month Study”
  
• “Debunking Al-Dura”
  
• “Scientists find fossil of enormous bug”
  
• “Whale found deep in Brazil rain forest”
  
• “Black spots threaten cave drawings”
  
• “Evidence Of Injustice”
  
• “Brian May Named University Chancellor ”
  
• “Cannabis Compound May Stop Metastatic Breast Cancer” (If this does turn out to be a good treatment option, I wonder how the federal government, in its extreme paranoia about marijuana, will react. Maybe throw a hissy fit...)
  
• “U.N.: Million displaced in Somalia”
  
• “Dog owners go barking mad for fancy dress” (This seems wrong somehow.)
  

Today’s weird thing is a 404 (“page not found”) page inspired by Douglas Adams. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

10 Kislew 5768: Absurdity Day

Greetings.

Divine misconception of the day: “Intelligent design”, which is documented in the Nova episode “Intelligent Design on Trial”. This episode documents gross dishonesty in the “intelligent design” movement, starting with the fact that “intelligent design” is creationism claiming falsely to be scientific when it is anything but. Please watch the episode for details. Religion traditionally is about truth. While creationists are frequently honest about what they believe and why, “intelligent design” proponents violate the cause of truth by use of every dirty trick they can to subvert it.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Winter (1986)”
  
• “The Last Windup”
  
• “Faiths, funds and finances: a global investment story” (Interesting idea.)
  
• “Seawater Treatment Plants Could Combat Climate Change” (Bizarre.)
  
• “War on terrorism leads to rights abuses: watchdog”
  
• “Spiritual stag night”

Today’s weird thing is “The Ultimate Reset Button”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

9 Kislew 5768: Have a Bad Day Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day (submitted by Barry): Heifer International.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Sweeping the Clouds Away”
  
• “Dura Discredited: Where's the MSM”

Today’s weird thing is the “Real-life superhero” article on Wikipedia. Apparently superheroes, after a fashion, do exist, including in Indianapolis, which is in the area I hope to relocate. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

8 Kislew 5768: Occult Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Tell the U.S. Navy to Protect Right Whales from Deadly Sonar!”

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Oy Veh, it's OJ!”
  
• “Forgetting long-time bonds, Alzheimer's patients fall in love”
  
• “Parents ordered to court for kids' shots” (This is serious business. Vaccination is the best defense we have against many diseases. Keep in mind that the ultimate goal of vaccination is the extinction of harmful viruses, which has already been accomplished with smallpox and is nearing with polio. The anti-vaccination paranoia at the end is completely unjustified due to a complete lack of evidence of danger.)
  
• “'Cannonball' driver burned across US in 31 hours”
  
• “BBC added fake crying to quintuplets report”
  
• “Japan Hunts Humpback Whales For First Time In Decades” (Bad idea.)
  
• “Menstruation May Yield Adult Stem Cells”
  
• “Al Dura Affair: France 2 Cooks the Raw Footage”
  
• “Israel continues its assistance to Gaza” (Whose stupid idea was this?)
  
• “In West L.A., A Homeless Man Inspires New Brand”
  
• “Expelled Jews hold deeds on Arab lands”
  
• “Dinosaur could vacuum up food”
  
• “CARMA - Carbon Monitoring for Action” (Pointed out to me by Mom. Not news or commentary, but a potentially useful resource.)
  
• “Paralysed man's mind is 'read'”
  
• “Battling Ghost Calls, That Telemarketing Annoyance”
  
• “Saudi court orders lashes, prison for rape victim” (I cannot make up a judicial outrage like this.)
  
• “ACLU, Muslim Groups Resist Anti-terror Measures Again”
  
• “Genetic-Engineering Competitors Create Modular DNA Dev Kit”
  
• “Don't Forget to Back Up Your Brain” (Title is something of a misnomer.)
  
• “Watch your mouth!”
  
• “U.S. City Ponders Winter Holiday Decoration Plans” (Why exactly is any city government putting up religious decorations? There’s a violation of the separation of church and state involved, not to mention that governments have more critical things to spend their money on than Christmas trees.)
  
• “How the Inca Leapt Canyons”

Today’s weird thing is foldschool - cardboard furniture. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

5 Kislew 5768: National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day/Great American Smokeout

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Call on your senator to support S. 1668: Help Katrina survivors come back home”

Relevant to one of today’s quasi-holidays: the “Great American Smokeout” article on Wikipedia.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Hooked On OJ (1995)”
  
• “Darfur mission may fail, warns UN” (Why the gezornenblat is the Sudanese government being given a say in anything, given that they are a party to the genocide?)
  
• “Dura Discredited” and “Al-Dura Trial: Exclusive Reaction From the Paris Courtroom”:
  
  
• “Most at NYU say their vote has a price”
  
• “Colossus cracks codes once more”
  
• “Canada wine region adds electricity to its crops”
  
• “Cloning: a giant step”
  
• “Japan's melody roads play music as you drive”
  
• “Washington's conflicting signals”
  
• “Sensitive Guantánamo Bay Manual Leaked Through Wiki Site”
  
• “Bill: PA tax funds would be used to pay for Kassam damage” (More than fair.)

Today’s weird thing is “Exploded iPod (still works)”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

4 Kislew 5768: Operation Room Nurse Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “40 Years Later”
  
• “First "robot" electric guitar tunes itself”
  
• “Most Israelis want Olmert ousted as PM” (Why is this man still in office?)
  
• “Shin Bet: Dozens of Fatah fugitives pardoned” (Whose stupid idea was this?)
  
• “U.S. sets record in sexual disease cases”
  
• “White House ordered to keep backup copies of e-mail”
  
• “Microbes Churn Out Hydrogen at Record Rate”
  
• “Scientists create ‘fearless’ mouse”
  
• StupidFilter (Not news or commentary, but an intriguing idea.)
  
• “Motorhead Messiah”
  
• “Fifty states face voting machine lawsuits; “Uncounted” documents DRE issues”
  
• “Egypt ID cards sentence minorities to non-life: report” (And Egypt is supposed to be a “moderate” Arab nation and a US ally. Why are we giving money to the Egyptian government again?)

Erin gave me a Dalek for my birthday, and for a little experiment, I am going to let him give today’s weird thing below.

Aaron

---

MY NAME IS DALEK THAY. WE, THE DALEKS, ARE THE SUPREME BEINGS. TODAY I WOULD LIKE TO TALK ABOUT CYBERMEN, WHO ARE A BUNCH STUPID BUREAUCRATIC TWITS. YESTERDAY, I WAS AT A FRIEND'S HOUSE WHEN HE TRIED TO RENEW HIS HOME INSURANCE. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED:


AS YOU CAN SEE, CYBERMEN ARE HOPELESSLY EVIL. TODAY'S WEIRD THING SHOWS WHAT A WORTHLESS BUNCH OF PLAGIARISTS THEY ARE, COMPLETELY UNABLE TO EVEN RIP OFF SOMEONE ELSE'S SONG WELL; I PRESENT FOR YOU "CYBERSPAMALOT".


DO NOT ENJOY THIS FILM. EXTERMINATE THE CYBERMEN WHO MADE IT!

DALEK THAY

3 Kislew 5768: National Indian Pudding Day

Greetings.

Relevant to today’s quasi-holiday: the “Hasty pudding (Indian pudding)” article on Wikipedia.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Anwar and Menachem (1977)”
  
• “Al Dura Karsenty HonestReporting Video”
  
• “Today's Britain: dipso, fatso, bingo, asbo, Tesco”
  
• “Thinking Makes It So: Science Extends Reach Of Prosthetic Arms”
  
• “New Measurements: The Universe Weighs Less”

Today’s weird thing, probably inspired by David Letterman, is “Top ten off switches”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

2 Kislew 5768: Take a Model Train to Work Day

Greetings.

Divine misconception of the day: “Snakebite victim's family sues: BLAMES HOSPITAL, NURSE AND DOCTOR”. (Hat tip to henderob at the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.) Summary: A woman handles a rattlesnake at a church service, gets bitten, gets taken to a hospital, and dies; the woman's family is screaming malpractice and claims the hospital staff “snickered and made derogatory comments” about the patient’s religion and how she managed to be injured. I do not know enough about snakebites to even guess whether the hospital staff was negligent. And I really hope the snickering and derogation never happened, because making fun of a patient, no matter why that person is a patient, is unprofessional behavior for health personnel. That said, the core complaint, other that the alleged malpractice, seems to be that the hospital staff did not respect the patient’s religion, and it is here that we hit the religious fallacy. Freedom of religion only applies to one’s own beliefs and practice; it does not mean forcing anything on anyone else, for that would mean curtailing the freedom of religion of others. In particular, there is no right, whether natural or legal, to respect or validity. For when we have the right to make our own determination what is correct, we also have the right to determine what is incorrect. This includes determination why beliefs and practices are right or wrong. As such, the hospital staff (and anyone else) are perfectly within their rights to think that people who take up snakes are acting stupidly and in a manner deserving ridicule.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Battle for Jerusalem”
  
• “Fill the evangelical vacuum”
  
• “Definition Changing for People's Privacy”

Today’s weird thing is “CD-Sextant - Build your own sextant”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

1 Kislew 5768: Ro’sh Ḥodhesh/Air Day/Veterans Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Arafat mausoleum unveiled in Ramallah” (We hear so much about the so-called “Palestinians” being dirt poor, and they spend $1,750,000 on a mausoleum for a man who helped ruin their lives? Where are their priorities?)
  
• “Traditional epitaphs rest in peace”
  
• “Mmmmmmmm: Fizzy, bottled ham” (This is so wrong it’s scary.)
  
• “Congress aims to extinguish cigarettes” (Die, Big Tobacco! Die!)
  
• “Cleveland offers $100 gas cards for guns” (Interesting approach to gun control.)

Today’s weird thing is the completely useless USB Glowing Aquarium. Enjoy and share the weirdness with your favorite veteran.

Aaron

28 Marḥeshwan 5768: Chaos Never Dies Day

Greetings.

Divine misconception of the day: Scientology: Inside the Cult. (Hat tip to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.) Scientology, as noted in this short film, is built on a foundation of lies; L. Ron Hubbard created a fictional life story for himself, and the alleged history of the Earth which he claimed is untenable. (You would think that having a civilization of 185 billion people on Earth 75 million years ago would leave some sort of trace behind. Did the evil Lord Xenu remove the upper half of the crust to remove every trace of habitation?) While there are questions about the basis for believing in many religions, trusting someone who claimed the best way to get rich is to start a religion is a truly bad idea. Other signs of pathologic religion abound: wringing money out of followers to the point of causing severe debt, mind control, blackmail, intolerance of criticism. It is no wonder some countries do not recognize Scientology as a religion at all.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Olmert's Solution”
  
• “Buried evidence revealed in Guantanamo trial”
  
• “Don’t Throw Out Your Broken iPod; Fix It via the Web”
  
• “Making Plastic Out of Pollution”
  
• “Senate overrides Bush's water bill veto” (Kudos to the Senate. It is sheer hypocrisy for Bush to complain about spending too much when he is responsible for getting the country into severe debt, amazingly while underfunding almost the entire government.)
  
• “Newfound Planets are Scorching Hot”
  
• “Gov. sues U.S. over clean-air standards”
  
• “FBI's Latest Outreach Outrage”

Today’s weird thing is something that would make Rube Goldberg envious. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

27 Marḥeshwan 5768: Dunce Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day (thank you, Barry): “Fund peace”, “The mother of all tax loopholes”, and FreeRice.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Negotiations With Non-Democracies (1987)”
  
• “Danger Ahead”
  
• “Guardian's Lax Student Research”
  
• “'Why has Israel failed with Pollard?'”
  
• “NASA satellites to predict and prevent infectious disease outbreaks”
  
• “Saddam's damn dam”
  
• “Abstinence-only programs — they still don’t work”
  
• “World’s First Image Taking of the Moon by HDTV”
  
• “Olmert voted most corrupt politician” (I wonder what would happen if this survey were extended planetwide...)

Today’s weird thing is “Starship Size Comparison Chart”, which shows comparative spaceship and space station sizes from science-fiction. Of everything listed on this chart, the Galactic Empire has the biggest ship. Notable omissions of the fictional universes these vessels come from are Doctor Who (at 1 pixel = 10 meters, the TARDIS is too small to show up, though externally larger vessels do appear on the show) and Firefly/Serenity. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

26 Marḥeshwan 5768: Notary Public Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “On the Record” and “If he can’t say no to torture – we say no to Michael Mukasey”.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:

• “Professor Avery is Wrong about the American Media”
  
• “Record Fifth Planet Discovered Around Distant Star”
  
• “Ramon slams Gaza power cuts decision” (You have to wonder what sort of strange mental world ’Olmert lives in where absolute pacifism is the only possible way to deal with a murderous enemy.)
  
• “Giggling robot becomes one of the kids”
  
• “US lawmakers criticize Yahoo officials”
  
• “Military may ease standards for recruits”

Today’s weird thing is “Medieval helpdesk”. Enjoy and share the weirdness with the notary public you love.

Aaron

25 Marḥeshwan 5768: National Nachos Day/Saxophone Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “School Strike (1978)”
  
• “The Jewish gift to Humanity”
  
• “3,000 Sderot residents have left town” (’Olmert, why aren’t you doing anything to defend Sedheroth?)
  
• “Cool Cassini animations”
  
• “White Castle latkes win recipe contest” (This is so obviously wrong.)
  
• “Our once-respected news sources are so dishonest”
  
• “Who on Earth is Responsible for Israel’s Hasbara?”
  
• “Arab delegates meet on Israel boycott” (Isn’t the whole boycott supposed to be illegal?)
  
• “Wis. boy, 3, finds woolly mammoth tooth”
  
• “WHO Chief Wants Access To Medicines For Poor Countries”

Today’s weird thing is SpeedCubing.com. Yes, Rubik’s Cube is alive and well (so to speak), and people obsess about it in weird ways, such as solving a 20×20×20 cube or creating Frankensteinian puzzles. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron