“Turbo Encabulator”

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath BeMidhbar).

Today’s events:  Buy a Musical Instrument Day, International Day for Biological Diversity, Emancipation Day (Puerto Rico).

Today’s weird thing is “Turbo Encabulator”, which is an impressive-sounding piece of pure nonsense.  
Enjoy and share the weirdness.

’Aharon/Aaron

Beware of automated musical instruments

Greetings.

Jewish date:  16 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath Beḥuqqothay).

Today’s events:  Be a Millionaire Day, National Bike to Work Day, Pick Strawberries Day, Weights and Measures Day, Emancipation Day (Florida), Malcolm X Day.

Also:  Tomorrow is Metric Mitochondria Day.  Celebrate our obligate symbiotes and the International System of Units!

Today’s weird thing is “100 year old violin playing machine”, which is a just plain freaky-looking musical instrument.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom..

’Aharon/Aaron

Bad ponies, beware!

Greetings.

Jewish date:  13 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath Beḥuqqothay).

Today’s events:  Pack Rat Day, World Telecommunication Day (UN), Mary McLeod Bethune Week.

NOTE:  On 7 May 2005 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology there was a time traveler convention.  Time travelers allegedly showed up.  If you ever get a time machine, be then and there or be square!

Today’s weird things are two pictures I took on Sunday.

This seems to be what happens to bad ponies.

Even if the pony really deserved it, these colorful tribbles are nevertheless shocked.

(Yes, I know these are just toys at the local mall, but I felt the urge to perform some creative interpretation.)

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

’Aharon/Aaron

Beware of LEGOs

Image of LEGOs via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 ’Iyyar 5771 (Parashath ’Emor).

Today’s events:  National Nurses Day, Space Day and International Space Day, Beverage Day, International Tuba Day, International No Diet Day, Military Spouses Day, National Tourist Appreciation Day.

Today’s weird thing is Smallworks Brickcase, a LEGO-compatible case for the iPhone.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Beware of retrocomputing

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  4 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Meṣora‘).

Today’s events:  Draw a Picture of a Bird Day, All is Ours Day, International Feng Shui Awareness Day.

Today’s weird thing is the Commodore 64.  You may well ask why an ancient computer merits being the weird thing of the day.  And the answer is:  it is not.  According to “Commodore 64 Goes on Sale. Amiga, VIC-20 Coming Soon”, somebody actually has the audacity to resurrect ancient computers after a fashion. e.g., with 1-terabyte hard drives and 4 gigabytes of RAM, though with practically identical outsides, and sell them.  Enjoy, share the weirdness and nostalgia, Shabbath shalom, and let me know when this character puts out a modernized NeXT Cube running Mac OS X 10.7.

’Aharon/Aaron

Beware of censors

Greetings.

Jewish date:   1 Nisan 5771 (evening) (Parashath Meṣora‘).

Today’s events:  Hug a Newsman Day, School Librarian Day, Walk Around Things Day, Tell a Lie Day, National Repot your Plant Day, National Reading a Roadmap Day, International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action (UN).

Today’s weird thing is “Prime Time TV Censorship”:



The graph correctly notes the inconsistencies in TV censorship in the United States.  I am not clear how harmful seeing any of the things in the graph on TV really are, but the fairly lenient treatment violence gets is pretty odd.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

’Aharon/Aaron

Coca-Cola for Godzilla

Greetings.

Jewish date:  19 ’Adhar Sheni 5771 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s events:  International Waffle Day, Pecan Day, International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (UN), Independence Day (Greece, Cyprus).

I think I am going to be going through the collection of pictures I have taken here in Israel but have not shown to anyone.

These are photographs of the Coca-Cola plant in Bene Beraq.  Notice that the architect got somewhat silly and made several buildings look like soda cans.

Caption:  The last thing the White King expected was to be assaulted by black pawns on Lassale Street in Tel ’Aviv.

This actually is Lassale Street in Tel ’Aviv, but these are not chess pieces.  Rather, they are part of a barrier system to keep vehicles and pedestrians separate.  They have these all over Israel, but few look as much like chess pieces as these ones.

This last one is more puzzling that strictly weird.  This is a mouse or other rodent which showed up right outside of synagogue recently.  (And I apologize for the picture quality, but I do not take my high-quality camera everywhere with me, and I had the choice of using my cell phone under suboptimal conditions or not photographing the rodent at all.)  What I do not understand is why the rodent let me photograph it rather than running for its life.  (Humans are huge compared with most rodents and thus very dangerous to them.)

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Theodore Herzl, superhero of Israel

Greetings.

Jewish date:  5 ’Adhar Sheni 5771 (Parashath Wayyiqra’).

Today’s events:  Worship of Tools Day, Johnny Appleseed Day, Nametag Day, World Plumbing Day.  (I got a complaint last time I posted for labeling Black History Month a “quasi-holiday” because it is not religious.  It is hard to claim that any of today’s quasi-holidays or whatever you want to call them are not events.)

I started work recently, and I am trying to fit things, including blogging, into my new schedule.  One of the things that I do manage to do is photography, which works out nicely since there are a lot of unusual things here in Israel all over the place.  (Actually you could probably say the same for most places, but I happen to be here to do the photography.)  I found myself starting to post unusual pictures on Facebook recently, and since blog is “Weird thing of the day”, it occurs to me that this might be a better place to be posting such things.  So on with today’s weird things:

Caption:  Beware, evildoers!  Theodore Herzl is watching from above, waiting for the right moment to strike!

Actually this picture was taken from a bus on Tuesday while passing through Herṣeliyyah. My caption is probably not what the people who created this water-tower art intended and should not be construed as historically accurate.

Caption:  Little did I know when I moved to Giv‘ath Shemu’el that there are Smurfs living here.

Yeah, that’s not really not Smurf houses you’re looking at.  Israeli architects have a lot of fun creating art for cities and towns, and the theme of Giv‘ath Shemu’el includes giant mushroom sculptures.  I took this picture yesterday on the way back home from the post office.  There are a bunch of other giant mushroom sculptures on Jabotinsky Street.  (Somebody please remind me to try photoshopping them together into a whole Smurf village at some point.)

And finally, one that some might find somewhat uncomfortable.  Those who feel squeamish should skip to the end.

These are two earthworms which infiltrated my apartment and were caught today.  The lower one got caught under the door and was somewhat mangled.  The upper one somehow made it all the way to under my coffee table, where it got covered in dust bunnies.  This picture was taken after I apprehended the invaders and put them outside, where I hope they will live happy and healthy lives.

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

“Möbius Story: Wind and Mr. Ug”

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 ’Adhar Ri’shon 5771 (Parashath Wayyaqhel).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Black History Month, National Tortilla Chip Day

Please forgive me for taking forever to post again.  I do not begin working until next Wednesday, and being unemployed while trying to adapt to a new country (including ’ulpan, which is Hebrew language classes) does not make for the most regular schedule.  I expect to be very busy starting Wednesday, trying to adapt to the new job on top of twice-weekly ’ulpan, but at least I should have a better idea where I can fit things into my schedule.

Today’s weird thing is “Möbius Story: Wind and Mr. Ug”.



This is a mathematical story, but one designed to be accessible to everyone.  Enjoy and share the weirdness, especially with anyone you know who loves beet peel.

Aaron

Ra‘ananah, Ra‘ananah, hey hey hey, goodbye

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 ’Adhar Ri’shon (evening) (Parashath Teṣawweh).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Black History Month, Chinese New Year, Lame Duck Day, National Frozen Yogurt Day, International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (UN).

This is my first post on this blog in about two months.  During this time I have moved out of the absorption center in Ra‘ananah to an apartment in Giv‘ath Shemu’el.  (Hence the silly title of this post.)  This took a lot of time and effort, as I had to not only find the apartment, but also get everything properly set up.  Also taking up time is that Tron Legacy came out, and besides seeing it twice in theaters, I spent a lot of time working on a review which is somewhat different from any I've done before.

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is the latest astrological “scandal”.  The badly-named article “Sign of the times: Astrology story soars like a comet” details the shock and denial many people who believe in astrology have felt when an astronomer correctly noted that the signs of the zodiac are not where astrologers claim they are, nor have they been there for centuries.  The astrologers have also been forgetting to mention that the zodiac passes through 13 constellations, not 12.  (See a diagram of the when the Sun is really in the zodiac and when here.)  What the article completely fails to note, to the point of being funny, is that astrology does not work at all; rather than try to make the argument myself, I point you to “Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions: Astrology” and let an astronomer do it for me.

As an added bonus, I also present “Horoscoped”, which analyzes the vague and useless verbiage of horoscope columns.  Note the visualized version and the meta-prediction.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of the second coming of System 7

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 Ṭeveth 5771 (Parashath Vayyiggash).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  International Anti-Corruption Day.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “How to stop a hurricane (good luck, by the way)”
• “Zoo Illogical: Ugly Animals Need Protection from Extinction, Too”
• “Breaking our link to the "March of Progress"”
• “The gorgeous molecular biology movie that's taken the world by storm”
• “Japan’s Robot Picks Only the Ripest Strawberries”

Image of a Macintosh SE via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is this simulation of a Macintosh SE running System 7.0.  I have no idea why anyone did this, but it may be fun for the nostalgic, especially since the simulation includes some games and a screen saver.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy Ḥanukkah.

Aaron

Can flash drives explode?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 Kislew 5771 (Parashath MiqQeṣ).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  International Day of Persons with Disabilities (UN).

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Arsenic-Eating Bacteria Opens New Possibilities for Alien Life”
• “Recommended Daily Vitamin D Intake Gets a Boost” and “Vitamin D”
• “The antidepressant reboxetine: A headdesk moment in science”
• “Bat resembling Star Wars Yoda discovered in Papua New Guinea rainforest”
• “What’s with the new cough and cold products?”
• “Computer identifies the most boring day in history”

Today’s weird thing is the USB Grenade Flash Drive.  This is something you absolutely should not take through Israeli security.  You should have no trouble taking it through American security, as the TSA is reportedly more interesting in finding out what you look like naked rather than if you are carrying anything dangerous.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, happy Ḥanukkah, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

The mother (or monster) of all weird crossovers

Greetings.

Jewish date:  19 Kislew 5771 (Parashath Wayyeshev).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Black Friday (USA), Buy Nothing Day.

Note:  Currently I am working with an unreliable Internet connection, so I plan on keeping my posts short for the moment to increase the chances that they actually get through.

Today’s weird thing is something bizarre working its way virally across the Internet, what may be the mother (or monster) of all weird crossovers, “Cookie Monster Auditions for Saturday Night Live”:



Considering the normally low quality of Saturday Night Live, even if Cookie Monster is not at his best, it would obviously be their best show ever.  Since Cookie Monster was clearly trying to limit himself to a short time in making this video, there is an obvious skit which was left out:  a Saturday Night Live parody of Sesame Street, which might well involve humans dressing up as Muppet characters and discussion of some aspect of life on Sesame Street not normally discussed.  The alternative might be a Muppet-only version of Saturday Night Live, which might well have Muppets pretending to be humans parodying something else.

Oh, if you are on Facebook, please join the (as of this typing) 87,941 other people who like it to encourage NBC to make a Cookie Monster-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live a reality.

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

PS:  This post was brought to you by the letters L, E, and the number 5.

Where do superheroes buy their magic spandex costumes?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 Kislew 5771 (evening) (Parashath Wayyeshev).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Opt-Out Day, Use Even If Seal Is Broken Day, Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day.

I am alive and well, currently in Ra‘ananah, Israel.  I have been here for a week and am living under a name which transliterates as ’Aharon Shelomoh ’Edhelman.  And I have been very busy and very tired.  Making ‘aliyyah (moving to Israel) is a frightfully complicated processes.  Much of what I have done is doing things which need to get done as soon as possible:  getting an identity document, signing up with a health organization, getting a bank account, and telling the Ministry of Absorption so they deposit money in said account for the next few months.  There has also been a lot of looking for and buying various things necessary that were not taken in my suitcases, such as hangers, food, and kitchen utensils.  (Yet I still do not have a hotplate.  Or a cell phone.)  I have also started studying in ’ulpan (Hebrew classes); I tested as fairly advanced and have been bored by the grammar review and find exercises requiring impromptu acting much more interesting.

Image via Wikipedia

Given how tired I am, I will proceed straight to today’s tonight's weird thing, courtesy of Barry:  The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company, which bills itself as “Online purveyors of high quality crimefighting merchandise”.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and, please, someone send me something that lets me fly.

’Aharon/Aaron

Sherlock Holmes is crazy

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 Kislew 5771 (Parashath Wayyeṣe’).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  World Freedom Day, National Young Readers Day.

Yes, I am not posting much these days.  My plans to move to Israel have advanced considerably.  I will be making the move on November 15-16, and getting everything ready takes a lot of time and effort.  Expect posts to be few and far between for a while.

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is Sherlock.  This is a reimagining of Sherlock Holmes and company set in 2010.  What is truly unusual about it is that while every other reimagining or other work which tries to change the setting of a story which your humble blogger is aware of misunderstands the characters or story and screws it up, this one makes extraordinary efforts to do it right—and it pays off.  The new Sherlock really does act and think like the original, only doing it in a modern setting.  E.g., he examines John Watson’s cell phone and deduces from it a lot about John.  There are also attempts at exploring aspects of Sherlock and John which are often ignored.  Sherlock, it is noted—in language more sophisticated than I am about to use—is crazy.  John, who in this version served in the military in Afghanistan rather than India, suffers psychologically from his war experiences; this also feeds into why he teams up with Sherlock.  I could go on, but there are other things I need to do.  But before I post, due note that you can watch all three episodes (“A Study in Pink”, “The Blind Banker”, and “The Great Game”) on-line through December 7.  I understand that further episodes are planned.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of car-eating rabbits

Greetings.

Jewish date:  23 Marḥeshwan 5771 (Parashath Toledhoth).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Halloween.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Call on ABC News to drop Andrew Breitbart”, “Tell ABC News: Don't give Andrew Breitbart a platform to spread his lies.”, “Jewish Rights on the Temple Mount - Petition Spot”, “Unite Deserving Dads and Their Children! - The Petition Site”, “Stop Iceland's Cruel Whale Slaughter - Take Action Today @ The Rainforest Site”, “Stop the Yellowstone Bison Slaughter - Take Action Today @ The Animal Rescue Site”, and “Take Action: The Senate Must Act!”.

I would like to apologize for having not posted anything for about three weeks.  This is has been due to two factors:  1) I have had a respiratory infection, which is not conducive to getting much of anything done.  2) I have been working on a review of Robert Graves’s The White Goddess, which is a decidedly nontrivial book.  Having reached a stage where the review is more or less presentable, I present it without further adieu on Divine Misconceptions and resume posting here, too.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “It’s alive! New computer learns language like a human, almost.”
• “Is killing yourself adaptive? That depends: An evolutionary theory about suicide”
• “Lay Rescuers: Try CPR without Mouth-to-Mouth Resuscitation”
• “Love Lessens Pain”
• “The True Size of Africa”
• “No high-tech high five, this robot uses a beanbag for a hand”
• “Shark Bytes:  How and Where Sharks Attack”
• “Vans drive themselves across the world - Rome to China without a prang”
• “WHEN BAD TASTES GOOD: DISCOVERY OF TASTE RECEPTORS IN THE LUNGS COULD HELP PEOPLE WITH ASTHMA BREATHE EASIER”:  I cannot make up something like this either.
• “What does HIV sound like? [Audio]”
• “Have a Heart: Donate Your Pacemaker”

Image which Zemanta thought was relevant via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is “Car-Eating Rabbits Invade Denver Airport”.  I cannot make up something like this.  Really.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of The Gong Show

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 Marḥeshwan 5771 (Parashath Lekh-Lekha).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Columbus Day (USA), Thanksgiving (Canada), Native American Day, Indigenous Peoples Day.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Alternative Biomedical Treatments for Autism: How Good Is the Evidence?”:  Long story made short:  pretty bad for the most part.

Today’s weird thing is the Country Western Song Generator, which spouts out lyrics like:

I met her on probation all hunched over; I can still recall that little hat she wore;  She was chewin' on a hangnail in the twilight,      and I knew I'd have to scrape her off the floor; Her rabbi said I'd hate her dog forever; She said to me she loved my one blue eye; But who'd have thought she'd run off on 'The Gong Show'; I now can kiss my credit cards goodbye.

This utility should be useful for song writers who completely lack creativity.  Or perhaps for musicians looking to see if anyone is paying any attention to lyrics.  Enjoy (or feel horribly depressed or something) and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of the ground moving beneath your feet

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 Marḥeshwan 5771 (Parashath Lekh-Lekha).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Cake Decorating Day, World Mental Health Day (UN), National Angel Food Cake Day, 42 Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Tell the DOJ: Investigate the Chamber of Commerce's campaign spending”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Biggest Genome Ever”
• “An Asteroid Smashup”
• “Old tracks show protodinosaurs emerged millions of years earlier than previously thought”
• “Regulators consider more rigorous examination of consumer genetic tests for serious diseases”
• “Smarter Than You Think - Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic”
• “Longreach life-saving bazooka wins James Dyson Award for Australian inventor”
• “So, How Long Would It Take to Travel to That Exciting New Exoplanet?”
• “The 100-year leap”
• “Linguists Discover New Language in Remote India”

Today’s weird thing is “650 Million Years in 1 Min. and 20 Sec.”, which animates continental drift.  And the continents have moved around quite a bit.


650 Million Years in 1 Min. and 20 Sec.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of horrific iPad hacks

Greetings.

Jewish date:  27 Tishri 5771 (Parashath Noaḥ).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Long Walk Day, World Teachers’ Day.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Brooklyn Father, Son Launch 'Homemade Spacecraft'”:  I cannot make something like this up.  And what they did seems so ridiculously easy that I am amazed that more people are not doing something like this.
• “Planet Hunters Discover a World That Could Harbor Life”
• “Giant extinct penguin skipped tuxedo for more colorful feathers”
• “Horizontal Gene Transfer: Bacteria Transmit Genetic Code without Sex”
• “Can You Hear Me Now? The Truth about Cell Phones and Cancer”:  No, cell phones do not cause cancer.  And they cannot.

Today’s weird thing is “iPad runs Windows 95, universe stays intact”, a bizarre hacking stunt.  Included is this horrifying video:



Enjoy (or be afraid) and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Asteroid spaceships

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 Tishri 5771 (Parashath Noaḥ).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Ten-Four Day, National Golf Day, World Animal Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Stop 'Corn Sugar' Now!”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Wasted Food Equals Wasted Energy”
• “Empathy’s failures”:  This is a scary look into the human conscience.
• “Reflective "death ray" torments Vegas sunbathers”:  Thank Barry for pointing this one out.
• “Ten Worst Passwords on the Web”:  If you use a password like any of these, please consider changing it.  All of these are pretty lame.
• “Every single Republican Senate hopeful is against climate change action”:  I am trying to stay out of American politics right now, preparing as I am to move to Israel, but this just scares me.
• “No U.N. 'Alien Ambassador' as the Bets Roll In”
• “The Pink Panther of Swindon: White cat is abandoned after guerilla grooming session leaving her so bright she 'glows in the dark'”:  Think Eureka the Pink Kitten from L. Frank Baum’s Oz books.
• “FBI drive for encryption backdoors is déjà vu for security experts”
• “This is a news website article about a scientific finding”
• “A Look At The Technologies and Industries Senators Leahy and Hatch Would Have Banned In The Past”
• “Insect Dinners - Waiter, There’s Soup in My Bug”
• “Dying to Eat: A Graphical View of U.S. Obesity”
• “WTF, kids swearing earlier now, researcher says”

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is “Hello, want to kill some time?”, which lets you install a JavaScript bookmarket in your browser which lets you shoot items in the current Web-page with an Asteroids-style spaceship..  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and please don’t shoot my blog.

Aaron