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

Beware of Pac-Man amigurumi (or just wonder what it is)

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Pineḥas).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Leap Second Adjustment Time.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Save dairy farms from big agribusiness”, “Alliance for Justice:  Tell Congress: Repair the Damage Caused by the Corporate Court”, and “Make Sale of Crush Videos Illegal Again!”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “What happens when coal is gone?”:  This is a very serious question which needs to be dealt with.  There is only a finite amount of coal on this planet, and unless it is being created a lot faster than anyone seems to be suggesting these days, we will run out of it sooner or later.  This is regardless of such issues as global warming and pollution.
• “Climate Change May Exacerbate Hot Cities”:  Also a big problem.  Last I heard, more than half of all humans on the planet live in cities.
• “Strength in naughty or nice”
• “Too Much Salt Eaten by Almost Everyone”
• “What McChrystal’s Firing Says about American Values”
• “Shifty Science: Programmable Matter Takes Shape with Self-Folding Origami Sheets”

Image of something like today’s weird thing, only with a different subject matter, via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is “Pac Man Amigurumi!”, which is knitted or crocheted stuffed Pac-Man and ghosts.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Pac-Man’s father’s ghost

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  16 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Pineḥas).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Paul Bunyan Day, Please Take My Children to Work Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “BP is burning endangered sea turtles alive.”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Raytheon turns swords into plowshares”

Today’s weird thing is what may be the only Pac-Man-Shakespeare crossover ever, “Pac Man Hamlet”.

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and do not come back as a ghost.

Aaron

Beware of ghosts (again!)

Greetings.

Jewish date:  13 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Balaq).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Take Your Dog to Work Day, Log Cabin Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Obama: Keep Your Promises to End Hunger! - The Petition Site”, “JCRC-NY Write to Gilad Shalit”, “Join financial titans in telling Congress: Crack down on Wall Street abuses. | Progressive Change Campaign Committee”, “Save the Internet: Take Action!:  Stop the Secret Meetings at the FCC”, “Tell Hillary Clinton: Stand up to Blackwater”, “Health Care for America NOW! | Stand Up for Your New Rights”, “Repower America | Tell Our Leaders: Clean Energy Now!”, “Take Action: Call on BP to pay for all cleanup costs and fines”, “action.firedoglake.com | Tell BP to Protect Gulf Cleanup Workers”, “"Drill, Baby, Drill" comes to Discovery?”, and “Less than 10 Days before a Yeshiva Will Be Destroyed”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “A wizard's words finally set free”
• “Make-A-Wish turns one child's backyard into the Millennium Falcon”
• “Experto Crede: Climate Expertise Lacking among Global Warming Contrarians: Scientific American”
• “Little Man, What Now?: Peanuts and the Existential Crisis”
• “Finding the "Weapons" of Persuasion to Save Energy”
• “7th-Graders Discover Mysterious Cave on Mars”

Today’s weird thing is “PAC-MAN The Movie trailer”:

(I’ve got a whole bunch of Pac-Man things, and you're going to have to suffer through all of them.)  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of Pac-Man cornering the cherry market

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Balaq).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Father’s Day, World Refugee Day (UN), Ice Cream Soda Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “End Violence Against Women - The Petition Site”, “Friends of the Earth U.S.”, “Action at Oil Change”, “Obama, Say No To Commercial Whaling! - The Petition Site”, “ONE | 3.5 Million Healthworkers Needed”, “Support Women's Health with the Global MOMS Act - The Petition Site”, “Please Include the Temple Mount in the Heritage Plan - אנא הוסף את הר הבית לרשימת אתרי המורשת Petition”, “Working Families » Take Action!”, and “What President Obama should have said.”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Living Matrix: A Movie Promoting Energy Medicine Beliefs”
• “How We Fool Ourselves Over and Over”
• “White rice raises risk of type 2 diabetes”
• “Real names of 23 fictional characters”
• “10 Things the Internet has Ruined and Five Things it Hasn't”
• “WickedLasers Unveils "Lightsaber" Powerful Enough to Set People on Fire”
• “The Real Science Gap”, which is described as “It’s not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It’s a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.”
• “Fact or Fiction: The Days (and Nights) Are Getting Longer”
• “Solar Powered Shrub Car is Not Your "Garden Variety" EV”
• “Climate already helping disease spread north: study”
• “The brain thinks hands are wider and stubbier than they actually are”
• “Were some gigantic Jurassic sea creatures warm-blooded?”

Today’s weird thing is “Pac Man Movie”, which deals with the lives of ghosts and their war on Pac-Man.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Pac-Dog

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Ḥuqqath).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Juggling Day, International Puzzle Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell Boehner: No BP Bailout”, “Take Action: Support ECEA - Hold Big Oil Accountable!”, “A victory for the Clean Air Act... for now.”, “JCRC-NY State Dept Petition:  Urge State Dept to Investigate Flotilla Passengers”, “Make Alzheimer's a National Priority! - The Petition Site”, and “Take Action: Urge your Senators to support the Appalachia Restoration Act | Rainforest Action Network”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Eyeborg Bionic Eye Camera Shows Winks and All”
• “Astronomers see exoplanet orbiting its parent star!”:  We live in an age of wonders.  Never forget that.
• “Back in style: An ancient shoe from 3500 B.C. looks like moccasins worn in the 1950s”
• “Farmer fires home-made cannon to defend land”

Today’s weird thing, still on the Pac-Man theme, is “Pac-Dog”.

Pac-Man is extremely difficult to recast in terms of our universe or ones like it, but this is an interesting attempt.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy new month.

Aaron

Beware of robotic vacuum cleaners

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Qoraḥ).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Taco Day, World Ocean Day, World Brain Tumour Day, Upsy Daisy Day.

Image of Roomba via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is Roomba Pac-Man, in which Pac-Man is implemented using robotic vacuum cleaners.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Pac-Man the Superhero

Greetings.

Jewish date:  25 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Qoraḥ).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Clothesline Week, Daniel Boone Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Save BioGems: Take Action: Stop the Pebble Mine”, “74 Democrats sold you out to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast”, “Stop Shell Oil's Offshore Drilling Plans in the Arctic - Take Action Today @ The Rainforest Site”, “Congress: close the hedge fund loophole”, “DCCC | Oil Spill is 'not an environmental disaster'? Sign our petition to set GOP Rep Young straight”, and “Save the International Affairs Budget - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Obese Sydney bird sent to birdy bootcamp”
• “Restaurant tells diners to eat up or else”
• “Peak Wood: Nature Does Impose Limits”
• “Jedi Mind Tricks: Scientists Probe the Psychology of Darth Vader”׃  I find your lack of faith that this is a real article disturbing.
• “How The U.S. Government Killed The Safest Car Ever Built”
• “Quick tips to foil Mac break-in attempts”
• “Windows, Mac, or Linux: It's Not the OS, It's the User”
• “Go veggie, cut fossil fuels to aid planet: study”

Image of the wrong Pac-Man via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is “Pac Man: The Movie” (actually a trailer for a non-existent movie):

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Pac-Man

Greetings.

Jewish date:  22 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Shelaḥ).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Emancipation Day (Tonga), International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression (UN), Clean Air Day, Mary Church Terrell Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Support Israel In Gaza Flotilla Incident Petition”, “Take Action: Letter to Vice President Biden | Save Darfur”, “End Corporate Control of Our Food Supply - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Best astronomy-related college prank ever”
• “Chicken death foul reflection of crime wave”:  I do not make stuff up like this up.  I just report it.

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing, again in the theme of Pac-Man, is “Pac-Man: The Movie”, the tale of ghosts caught in a maze and hunted by a yellow, spherical, psychopathic killer.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of ghosts near Washington Square Park

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Shelaḥ).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Tell Your U.S. Senators: Senate Leadership Must Act!”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Is Organic Food More Healthful?”:  The answer is:  not really.  Note that the author explicitly does not consider the ecological benefits, which are another matter entirely.
• “Construction: Don't Hold the Rice”:  I cannot make up something like this.

It looks a lot better than this image from Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is Pac Manhattan, a game in which Pac-Man is played on city streets.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and feel free to confuse people by implementing this where you live.

Aaron

You, too, can eat a ghost (sort of)

Greetings.

Jewish date:  19 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Shelaḥ).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Go Barefoot Day, International Children’s Day, Doughnut Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Too extreme even for FOX.”, “Take Action: Take action for human rights!”, “Demand transparency in Wall Street reform negotiations.”, “Working Families » Take Action!”, “PETITION TO CONGRESS: Save Net Neutrality! | Progressive Change Campaign Committee”, “Repower America | Tell BP: Spill the Truth!”, and “Tell EPA: Take away BP's billions in federal contracts”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The hidden health power of spices and herbs is revealed in recent studies”
• “Herbal Supplement Sellers Dispense Dangerous Advice, False Claims”
• “Archaeo-alcohology”
• “Toyota’s Robot Violinist Wows Crowd At Shanghai Expo 2010 (Video)”
• “Red Meat: Is It Hazardous to Health?”
• “Sacking Plastic: Are Restrictions on Plastic Bags an Effective Way to Slow Landfill Growth and Save Petroleum?”
• “Nearby planetary system is seriously screwed up”

Today’s weird thing, still on the Pac-Man theme, is “Pac-Man Candy”, which makes some sense since one of the goals of the game is to eat stuff.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Blinky

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Shelaḥ).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Memorial Day (USA), What You Think Upon Grows Day, World No Tobacco Day, Speak in Complete Sentences Day.

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing, continuing the Pac-Man theme, is “Pacman at UNC”, which explores the idea of live-action Pac-Man.  Sorry, no embedding.  I blame Blinky.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde

Image of the infamous 256th level bug in the original Pac-Man via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Siwan 5770 (Parashath BeHa‘alothekha).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Towel Day, Nerd Pride Day, Star Wars Day, African Liberation Day, National Tap Dance Day, International Missing Children’s Day.

Today’s weird thing is Google Pac-Man, Google’s tribute to the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man in the form of a fully-playable version of the game with the maze shaped like the Google logo.  Google Pac-Man reportedly wasted 4,820,000 person-hours when it was launched on Friday.  That is how addictive this game/logo is.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron