Beware of period picnic tables

Image of the cracked media via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Tishri 5771.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Don't Build the Belo Monte Dam! - The Petition Site” and “Protect the Paradise Forests and the Orangutan - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• Relevant to today’s quasi-holiday:  “Pirates Need Science, Too”
• “Password advice from the father of the firewall”
• “HDCP Master Key Confirmed; Blu-ray Content Vulnerable”:  It was only a matter of time.  Any content that can be read can be cracked.

Today’s weird thing is “Periodic table”, which describes a picnic table in the shape of a period table.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of the Flying Alarm Clock

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 Tishri 5771.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Constitution Day.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Pi record smashed as team finds two-quadrillionth digit”:  Intuition suggests finding later and later digits in π is something in the way of a mathematical game which, since π is an irrational number, will never end.

Image of the wrong sort of alarm clock, which is likely to be sent flying through the air, via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is the Flying Alarm Clock, which is a novel approach to getting its owner up by forcing the person being woken up to do a nontrivial task in order make it stop making a racket.  See this somewhat lame video which demonstrates it:

Enjoy (or loathe this thing; your choice) and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Firefox

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Tishri 5771.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Collect Rocks Day, National Play-doh Day, Wife Appreciation Day, International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, Mayflower Day, Women’s Friendship Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Got Science?”.

Today’s weird thing is “Firefox rejects your”:

I hope your browser does not act like this in real life.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Sam-I-Am

Greetings.

Jewish date:  7 Tishri 5771.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Felt Hat Day, Independence Day (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua).

Worthy causes of the day:  “DemocracyForAmerica.com » Stand with Patrick Leahy”, “Save Darfur Coalition:  Give just 60 seconds for Sudan”, and “Tell Congress: Don't extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Ancient brewers tapped antibiotic secrets”:  I do not make stuff like this up.  Nor could I.
• “New Poll Gauges Americans' General Knowledge Levels”:  We need to work on this.
• “Online appeal sets classical music free”:  Interesting idea.
• “Crested dinosaur pushes back dawn of feathers”

Cover via Amazon

Today’s weird thing, inspired from discussing the ownership of a number of Dr. Seuss books yesterday, is “Green Eggs and Ham Sam i am Jesse Jackson”.  (I apologize for not including the video directly on this blog, but embedding was disabled.)  As a special bonus, there is also a recipe for Green Eggs and Ham Recipe, in which the green color is due to scallions and spinach.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of asteroids

Image of something sort of jetpack-like via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Ha’azinu).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Literacy Day, World Rabies Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Protect us from toxic coal ash”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Jetpacks For Sale - Buy a Jet Pack”:  Took them long enough.

Today’s weird thing is “Asteroid Discovery From 1980 − 2010”:

This should give some idea how much in the way of rocks there are flying around the inner Solar system.  If you feel worried about the prospects of collision, do note that the size of objects are not shown to scale.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of secret agents¡

Greetings.

Jewish date:  28 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Ha’azinu).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  “Neither Snow Nor Rain” Day, National Thylacine Day, International Dadaism Month.

Today’s weird thing is “Eagle”:

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and please, don’t do this.

Aaron

May the Force be with Chew

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Ha’azinu).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Be Late For Something Day.

Today’s (two-week backlog of) news and commentary:

• “Yellowstone Hot Spot Shreds Ancient Pacific Ocean”
• “Take a deep breath - why the world is running out of helium”
• “Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Tries to Build an Eco-Friendly House (or:  How I (Almost) Saved the Earth)”
• “Got E. coli ? Raw Milk's Appeal Grows Despite Health Risks”
• “A pox on your bank account: failure to vaccinate and its legal consequences”
• “Heaps of Fossils From Evolutionary ‘Big Bang’ Discovered”
• “Large, double-clawed raptor stalked Europe's Cretaceous creatures”
• “10 Ways Your Taxes Pay For Environmental Devastation”
• “The power of anecdotes”
• “How the Washington Shakespeare Company came to offer Shakespeare in Klingon”:  And you will see Klingon Shakespeare, or you will die with no honor!
• “Water Before Meal Means Fewer Calories Consumed”
• “Deadly Whooping Cough, Once Wiped Out, Is Back”
• “Alien Solar System Looks Strikingly Like Ours”
• “Black Fawn”
• “Tropical Glaciers in Indonesia May Disappear by the End of the Decade”
• “Survey Probes Americans' Incorrect Opinions on Energy Efficiency”
• “Patenting The Geophysical Center Of Europe?”
• “Video quality less important when you’re enjoying what you’re watching”
• “Drug-resistant staph infections on the decline in U.S. hospitals”

Image via Wikipedia of the original stuffed animals which inspired one of the things which inspired Wookiee the Chew

Today’s weird thing (if Klingon Shakespeare was not enough for you) is “Chewbacca Illustrated as Winnie-the-Pooh”, describing the book Wookiee The Chew - The House at Chew Corner, with further illustrations at James Hance - Relentlessly Cheerful Art.  No description your humble blogger can give will truly do justice to this, so just click on the links and see this for yourself.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and may the Force be with you.  Oh, and someone send me a copy of the book, please.

Aaron

Beware of alien cat

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Niṣṣavim-Wayyelekh).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Skyscraper Day.

Today’s weird thing (after a break due to me visiting Israel) is “alien cat”:


Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

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

Beware of alternate histories of Fox News

Greetings.

Jewish date:  17 ’Av 5770 (Parashath ‘Eqev).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Singing Telegram Day, National Drive-Thru Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “CARE : Defending Dignity - Fighting Poverty :  Let Congress know you want the Haiti assistance bill passed”, “Working Families » Take Action!:  Sign our letter to NY's State Senators”, and “We want the DISCLOSE Act”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Spread of Deadly Cryptococcal Disease in U.S. Northwest Linked to Global Warming”
• “Asteroid Could Threaten the Earth in 2182”
• “Plastiki finishes Pacific voyage”
• “Trekkers offered cave tours in Klingon”:  Worf will be pleased.  No word on whether gagh will be served.

Logo of the guys being made fun of via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Nancy and Barry, is “If Fox News had existed throughout history…”.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

A trademarked sarcasm symbol: what a great idea¡

Greetings.

Jewish date:  16 ’Av 5770 (Parashath ‘Eqev).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Save BioGems: Take Action: Protect the Redrock Wilderness” and “Shine Sunlight on Election Spending”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Urban Air Pollutants Can Damage IQs Before Baby's First Breath”
• “The assault on large families”
• “Our Neandertal Brethren”:  Long story made short:  modern humans have some Neanderthal ancestors.  All those of you who make jokes about “cave men” might want to rethink whether this is a good idea.
• “Should you worry about the tags on Wal-Mart underwear?”
• “Saturn's Moon Spawning Moonlets”
• “Californians give a whoop – or I hope they do.”:  If you ever wondered why it is necessary to vaccinate your children…

Public domain image of the dreaded SarcMark via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is a controversy brewing in the field of punctuation.  There is a company pushing a trademarked punctuation mark, the SarcMark, as a marker of sarcasm.  While a sarcasm mark is a great idea, seeing that printed text does not capture all the tones present in the spoken word, including sarcasm, the idea of a punctuation mark one has to pay to use has raised a few hackles, not to mention some sarcasm.  Thus a site has been created in protest of the SarcMark, Open Sarcasm Manifesto.  Open Sarcasm Manifesto promotes the use of the Ethiopic sarcasm mark, also known as Temherte Slaqî, which looks like this:  ¡  The Ethiopic sarcasm mark has the great advantage that it is looks identical to a standard Unicode character (U+00A1 INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK) and thus can be used freely on almost any computer with no additional software whatsoever; you just type option-1 on your Macintosh.  So for the Open Sarcasm people, I applaud their idea of all of us taking after the Ethiopians and making use of the inverted exclamation mark for sarcasm.  As for the SarcMark people, I really feel the urge to shell out money just so I can make sarcastic comments on the Internet¡  Great job, and let me know when you want to charge me for a “raise eyebrow” character, too¡  As for the rest of you, enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of really big fishes

Greetings.

Jewish date:  14 ’Av 5770 (Parashath ‘Eqev).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Parent’s Day, Merry-Go-Round Day, Sysadmin Day, Metric Mitochondria Day (established by yours truly 2010-01-24; be thankful for decimal measurements and obligate symbionts today).

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Hot weather shrinks size of German fries”
• “"Darth Vader" strikes NY bank”:  He may trying to raise capital for his next Death Star.
• “How Does a Heat Wave Affect the Human Body?”

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is “Really Big, Odd Roadside Attractions”  Number 7 is particularly awesome.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of typos

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Wa’ethḥannan).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Hot Enough For Ya Day, National Vanilla Ice Cream Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Help Save Africa's Lions from Extinction - Take Action Today @ The Animal Rescue Site”, “Stand Up for the 4.9 Million Displaced Sudanese - Take Action Today @ The Hunger Site”, “Urge Congress to Help End Violence Against Women - Take Action Today @ The Hunger Site”, “ONE | Ask the Senate to deliver their promise to Haiti”, and “Why is the Obama administration listening to right-wing smear merchants?”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Caterpillar's Innards Move Before It Does”
• “The Moon Hoax”

Today’s weird thing is this list of handy safety tips I found in a hotel room recently.  Note item 6.

I am chalking that one up to a typo.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

A new invention meant to make telephone calls more inconvenient

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 ’Av 5770 (Parasthath Wa’ethḥannan).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Pied Piper Day, Pi Approximation Day.

NOTE:  Now that the Nine Days break is over, today you are getting most of what accumulated during that time.

Worthy causes of the day:  “JCRC-NY Write to Rickys”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Put up or shut up:  It's time for prominent Tea Party leaders to step forward and deal with racism within the Tea Party”, “Protect the Future of Fish and Fishing in America - The Petition Site”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: We need Elizabeth Warren at the CFPB!”, and “Forget what Timothy Geithner thinks. We want Elizabeth Warren to police Wall Street.”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Concern for Those Who Screen the Web for Barbarity”:  Something new to worry about.
• “Sex in Bits and Bytes: What's the Problem?”:  No, it’s not harmless.
• “Comparative photos of Mount Everest 'confirm ice loss'”:  No, global warming is not a hoax or conspiracy.
• “Couple stunned as whale jumps into yacht”
• “Saturn's Moon Triggers Giant Snowballs in Planet's Ring”
• “How does Lutetia compare to the other asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft?”:  This article has a really nice composite picture of all the asteroids photographed by human spacecraft.
• “Are Everyday Consumer Products Making People Sick? A Q&A with Paul D. Blanc”
• “Passwords that are Simple--and Safe”
• “Heftiest Star Discovery Shatters Cosmic Record”

Image of something like what they would have to have inside this thing via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing, courtesy of Nancy, is the Port-O-Rotary Phone.  This is an old-fashioned rotary telephone modified to work as a cell phone.  This should be useful for all of your who thought conventional cell phones were too easy to dial and were not bulky enough.  Enjoy (or be puzzled) and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of houses made of meat

Image which Zemanta thought was relevant for no good reason via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Devarim).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Day of the Five Billion/UN World Population Day, National Slurpee Day.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Creativity Crisis”:  This might explain the decline in quality of humor we have in this country.
• “Robins can literally see magnetic fields, but only if their vision is sharp”
• “'Hollywood Accounting' Losing In The Courts”
• “Alternative evolution: Why change your own genes when you can borrow someone else's?”

Today’s weird thing is “In Vitro Meat Habitat is a Shelter That You Grow”, which is something which comes from bad science-fiction where it is clear that the writer has not thought the idea through to figure out whether it makes sense.  Hint to anyone seriously interested in pursuing this line of invention:  live tissue needs nourishment to stay alive, and animal tissue for the most part does not make its own food.  Yes, a house made of flesh is almost certainly doable, but having to feed the house is not an idea I particularly relish.  And knowing my luck, I would get a house with allergies which would cause its respiratory system to make a lot of noise and keep everyone in the neighborhood up all night.  And such a house had better be plugged directly into the sewer system, because there is no way I am going to clean up after it.  Enjoy (or be weirded out) and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of crazy praying mantises

Greetings.

Jewish date:  27 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Maṭṭoth-Mas‘e).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell Mott's Management: Don't Take Money out of Workers' Pockets!” and “Stop Risky Offshore Drilling Without Environmental Review - Take Action Today @ The Rainforest Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Willow Garage Robot Fetches Beer, Engineers Rejoice (Video)”
• “Invisible computer mouse cost only $20 to build”
• “Solar plane completes historic 24-hour flight”
• “Mongoose mentors teach traditions through imitation”

Today’s weird thing is this praying mantis:

Yesterday I discovered that not only is a praying mantis able to cling to the side mirror of a car traveling at 45 miles per hour, but this one was actually crazy enough to do so when I went to mail packages at the post office.  It even remained on its new perch while being photographed.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of robot owls

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Maṭṭoth-Mas‘e).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Video Games Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “End Childhood Hunger in America! - The Petition Site”, “ONE | Path to 2015”, “Protect Against New Drilling - The Petition Site”, and “BPMakesMeSick.com”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Tourists get ready for simulated kidnapping”:  I cannot make something like this up.
• “The proton shrinks in size”
• “Wut? There were Lolcats in teh 1800s?!”
• “Science, mathematics: Physics major has a name for a really big number”:  He thinks the official SI prefix for 10²⁷ should be “hella-”.  It is definitely no more silly than “googol” for 10¹⁰⁰ and “googolplex” for 10¹⁰¹⁰⁰.  Personally I would like to see “zilo-” (from “zillion”) for an arbitrarily large amount and “zicro-” for an arbitrarily small amount.
• “Square Pixel Inventor Tries to Smooth Things Out”

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is the USB Robot Owl, which is something in the way of a robotic pet which can perch on top of your laptop.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of opinionated cats

Greetings.

Jewish date:  25 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Maṭṭoth-Mas‘e).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Father and Daughter Take a Walk Day.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Survey Says To UK — Repeal Laws of Thermodynamics”

Today’s weird thing is “this is my opinion”.

I am under the impression that many cats have opinions like this.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of hungry bookshelves

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Maṭṭoth-Mas‘e).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Fried Chicken Day, Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Tell the FCC to Protect the Open Internet - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Special Report: Europe finds politics and biofuels don't mix”

Today’s weird thing, finishing off my Pac-Man material, is “Books Eat TV!”:

This may be the coolest bookshelf ever created.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of subliminal Pac-Men

Greetings.

Jewish date:  23 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Maṭṭoth-Mas‘e).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Independence Day (celebrated) (USA).

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Homeopathy”
• “Quitting smoking during pregnancy may not be enough to prevent harm to baby”

Today’s weird thing, still on the Pac-Man theme and definitely a form of trick-photography, is “More Subliminal Pac-Man”:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Pac-Man vs. Cobra Commander?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  22 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Maṭṭoth-Mas‘e).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Independence Day (USA), National Country Music Day.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Ostriches Offer Clues to Dinosaur Motion”

Image of a former ghost from Pac-Man (maybe) via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing, still on the Pac-Man theme, is “LOL: Cobra Commander in Pac-Man”, which may be the only Pac-Man crossover with G.I. Joe ever.  Whether this suggests anything about the motivations of Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde is left unresolved.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of crocheted Pac-Man and ghosts

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Pineḥas).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  I Forgot Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Stop Antibiotic Abuse on Factory Farms”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Buy your own Tron Lightcycle: US$35,000”
• “Newfound Fossils Suggest Multicellular Life Took Hold 2 Billion Years Ago”
• “Distressed Ravens Show That Empathy Is For The Birds, Too”
• “A whale of a fossil is named in honor of Herman Melville”
• “The coming shortage of helium”
• “First Direct Photo of Alien Planet Finally Confirmed”
• “Invasive Asian carp on verge of entering Great Lakes”

Today’s weird thing, still on the Pac-Man theme, is “pacman and his ghost softies - Now with free pattern! - CROCHET”.  Now you too can spend a lot of time crocheting your own Pac-Man and ghosts.  Note:  If you want to be really original, consider crocheting dots, power pellets, fruit, and a maze, too.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron