Wednesday, December 26, 2007

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

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary, some of which Barry is responsible for:Today’s weird thing, which Barry may be blamed for, is Bent Objects. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

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


Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Monday, December 24, 2007

15 Ṭeveth 5768: Christmas Eve/National Eggnog Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary: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

Sunday, December 23, 2007

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

Aaron

Friday, December 21, 2007

12 Ṭeveth 5768: “Good excuse”

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary: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.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

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

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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: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

Monday, December 17, 2007

8 Ṭeveth 5768: “Homemade Flame Thrower”

Greetings.

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

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

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: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

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

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

Aaron

Sunday, December 9, 2007

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: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

Friday, December 7, 2007

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: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

Thursday, December 6, 2007

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: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

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

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: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

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

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

Aaron

Sunday, December 2, 2007

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: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.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

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: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

Monday, November 26, 2007

16 Kislew 5768: Shopping Reminder Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary: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




Sunday, November 25, 2007

15 Kislew 5768: National Parfait Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary: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

Thursday, November 22, 2007

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

Aaron

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

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

Aaron

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

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

Aaron

Monday, November 19, 2007

Sunday, November 18, 2007

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

Aaron

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

4 Kislew 5768: Operation Room Nurse Day

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary: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

Monday, November 12, 2007

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

Aaron

Sunday, November 11, 2007

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

Greetings.

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

Aaron

Friday, November 9, 2007

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

Aaron

Thursday, November 8, 2007

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: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

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

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

Aaron