Beware of bizarre coffins

Image suggested by Zemanta for no apparent reason via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  6 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Ki-Theṣe’).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Watermelon Day, Bratwurst Festival, International Dadaism Month.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Take Action: Tell President Obama: Make Our Food Safe NOW!”, “GOP: Stop Punishing the Unemployed - The Petition Site”, and “Save the Internet: Take Action!:  Dear Chairman Genachowski: Don't Let Google Be Evil”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Video quality less important when you’re enjoying what you’re watching”
• “Drug-resistant staph infections on the decline in U.S. hospitals”

Today’s weird thing is “Screw It, You're Dead Anyway”, which deals with unusual ideas for how to dispose of dead bodies.  The title refers specifically to a space-saving coffin which is screwed into the ground.  Enjoy (or be shocked or something) and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of overstuffed sentences

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Shofeṭim).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Vinyl Record Day, International Youth Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “ColorOfChange.org:  FCC: Say NO to Google and Verizon / Demand the FCC do its job and protect the open Internet”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “How Star Trek artists imagined the iPad... 23 years ago”
• “Congress About To Pass 'The ______Act of____' (These Are The People We Elect?)”:  I really hope this is a hoax.
• “God's Number is 20”:  (Submitted by Barry.)  Someone has proved that it takes no more than 20 turns to solve Rubik’s Cube.
• “Vending Machines Of The Future” and “Smart vending machines in Tokyo train station recognize age, sex”
• “Ancient Cut Marks Reveal Far Earlier Origin of Butchery”
• “Touchscreens open to smudge attacks”:  I cannot make this sort of thing up, though there is some sense to the idea.
• “A Man, A Plan And A Sharpie: 'The Great Typo Hunt'”

Today’s weird thing, suggested by Barry, is “Do You Suffer From One of These Writing Viruses?”, which should give people an idea of ways not to write.  And if you do not like it, see “Jaws Theme Goes Here” and check under “How sharks DON’T attack”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

All tautologies are tautologies

Greetings.

Jewish date:  30 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Shofeṭim).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  National Duran Duran Appreciation Day.  (Don’t ask me.  I don’t come up with (most of) these quasi-holidays.  I just report them.)

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell the Obama administration we need more protection from for-profit education rip-offs!”, “Tell the FCC: It's up to you, not Google and Verizon, to regulate the Internet”, and “MoveOn.org Political Action: Stop Social Security Cuts”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Where Did the Carter White House's Solar Panels Go?”:  Thank you, Ronald Reagan, for your retrograde energy policy.
• “Inside Google Books: Books of the world, stand up and be counted! All 129,864,880 of you.”
• “Genetically Modified Crop on the Loose and Evolving in U.S. Midwest”:  This is not as scary as it might sound.
• “Tiny fish evolved to tolerate colder temperature in three years, study finds”
• “Stephen Hawking's Warning: Abandon Earth—Or Face Extinction”
• “Huge ice island calves off Greenland glacier”

Today’s weird thing is “tautology cat iz tautological”:

Not quite tautological, but close to it.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Ahmadinejad proves he needs to take a remedial geography class

Greetings.

Jewish date:  28 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Shofeṭim).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Ban New Offshore Drilling - Take Action Today @ The Rainforest Site”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Tell Google: "Don't be evil" / And to stop dealing away the Internet”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: Google: Don't Be Evil”, and “Alliance for Justice:  Congress: Repair the Damage Caused by the Corporate Court”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Crocodile relative might have chewed like a mammal”:  Who knew?
• “Gaming the System: Video Gamers Help Researchers Untangle Protein Folding Problem”:  I cannot make up something like this.
• Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum:  Not news or commentary.  Project Gutenberg put out a new edition with all the original pictures.

Today’s weird thing is “'England Is A Small Island West Of Africa,' Says Ahmadinejad”, courtesy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s most infamous lunatic, who is apparently too busy being insane to check a map.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

“Modded Nintendo Lets You Play Mario With Your Eyes (video)”

Image the relevant game via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  25 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Re’eh).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  National Mustard Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Tell Sarah Palin to Go Back to Alaska - The Petition Site”.

Today’s weird thing, the title of which pretty much speaks for itself, is “Modded Nintendo Lets You Play Mario With Your Eyes (video)”.  Behold the referenced video:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of ninjas fighting in public

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Re’eh).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Coast Guard Day, Emancipation Day/August Festival (British Virgin Islands).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Tell Mott's: get the scabs out of your applesauce!”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Four Deformations of the Apocalypse”:  I knew Republicans were bad for the economy.  Here is why.  In the meantime, I am working to get out of the country.
• “Industry-sponsored drug trials more likely to report positive results”:  This is completely unsurprising to me.
• “Prankster jailbreaks Apple Store display iPhone”:  If one is going to do something wrong, one might as well do something daring.

There may be a ninja in this image from Wikipedia, but you would never know it

Today’s weird thing is “34 Things I Learned From Video Games”.  This list gives valuable information for anyone trying to survive on the mean streets such as:

• “You never run out of ammunition, just grenades.”
• “Ninjas are common, and fight in public frequently.”
• “Repulsive, ugly, cannabalistic, evil beings have just as much right to be loved as heroic fighters.”

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and beware of ninjas.

Aaron

Beware of puzzle-shaped food

Greetings.

Jewish date:  23 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Re’eh).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Emancipation Day/August Festival (British Virgin Islands), National Watermelon Day, National Night Out.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Save BioGems: Take Action: Stop Shell Oil:  Send a message urging President Obama to impose a 7-year moratorium on Shell's offshore drilling in the Arctic that will give scientists enough time to best determine how to protect the polar bear's home.”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Extreme Function: Why Our Brains Respond So Intensely to Exaggerated Characteristics”
• “Fact or Fiction: Can a Squid Fly Out of the Water?”:  I had no idea that there was such a thing as flying squid.
• “A Quarter Century after Chernobyl: Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany”

Image of the inedible variety via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is the Rubik’s Cubewich, a meat and cheese sandwich in the shape of a Rubik’s Cube.  I do not know what possessed anyone to create this, though I myself did once dream of a Rubik’s Cube-shaped kugel.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of drugs that give you visions of ancient video games

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  22 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Re’eh).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Emancipation Day/August Festival (British Virgin Islands), Emancipation Day/August Monday (Anguilla, the Bahamas), International Dadaism Month, Anniversary of Official Signing of the Declaration of Independence (USA).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Ask Your Reps to Support the National Alzheimer's Project Act - The Petition Site”, “Support Clean Energy Jobs - Take Action Today @ The Rainforest Site”, and “Tell the FDA to Come Clean About Gulf Seafood - The Petition Site”.  Also along the lines of something worthy to do:  Save the oak trees.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “A Solar Salamander”
• “Exclusive: I Used BlindType, Virtual Keyboard of the Future”
• “Genes from Ebola Virus Family Found in Human Genome”:  I really could not make something like this up.
• “$20 Wikipedia Reader Uses 8-Bit Computing Power”
• “NASA identifies Top Ten space junk missions”
• “Car Thieves Picky About Color”:  Also titled “Love Pink? Car Thieves Don’t”.
• “They Are Making Battleship Into a Movie. No Seriously, They Are Making Battleship Into a Movie.”:  Submitted by Barry.

Today’s weird thing is “8-Bit Trip: 1500 Hours of Lego Stop-Motion in Four Awesome Minutes”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron