Best Toy Ever

I guess I just have comic books on the mind lately, what with the Spiderman movie coming out Friday, but this has to be the coolest toy ever...well, if you're an old comic-book nerd, at least. Back when I was a kid, I used to read The Green Lantern comic books and always thought it would be really cool if they'd make replicas of his power ring and battery for kids to play with.

Well, they finally have and it's the sharpest toy I've seen in a long while, it even lights up just like the one in the comics when you touch your accompanying power ring to it's face (which, as comic fans will recall, was an intregal part of the Lantern's shtick).

Ah, if only they'd had this when I was ten, I can see myself with this thing in the inner sanctum of my bedroom, reciting the Lantern Corps oath:

In brightest day, in blackest night;
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil's might;
Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!

Only bummer...the damn thing costs $250...if not I'd buy one, kid or not.

Scientists Turn Rat Into Radio-controlled Automaton

Three electrodes implanted in it's brain and from five-hundred meters away they can make the thing jump through hoops, practically. PETA's going to have a field day with this one.

Summer Job of the Century

How's this for a gig? Nintendo is looking for fifty people to play videogames all summer, not only that, but you get to demonstrate the games at concerts, conventions, etc. Sounds like a lot of fun...I can only imagine the number of applications they're going to recieve, more than likely their server will explode. Good luck, game junkies.

The Ultimate Nerd Collector's Item

Polyhedral D&D dice carved from the Edmond meteor. Guaranteed to make all your roleplaying geek buddies drool with envy.

Meteor Dice

Brainnnsss! Brainnnsss!

If you're like me, you're constantly bothered by the nagging suspicion that zombies could be plotting to enter your home at any given time. Thankfully, with the new Zombie Alert, there's finally protection against zombie attacks. They even offer a million dollar guarantee if any zombies do somehow manage to slip past their security alarm and eat your brains.

Where's My Webby?

Well, the Webby Award nominees for 2002 were announced. Same old same old, pretty much. I was kind of dissapointed that they didn't nominate FARK for anything, seems like a grievous oversight. Shockingly, this site was nowhere to be found either. Looks like the fix is in, people.

The Webby Awards: 2002 Nominees

Top Arab Psychiatrist's Insane Rantings on Bush, the Joy of Suicide Bombing and Allah

This is why there will never be peace in the middle east. Even their psychiatrists are complete loons. Find me one rational psychiatrist anywhere else in the world who'd extoll the virtues of suicide bombings thusly:

"When the martyr dies a martyr's death, he attains the height of bliss. … As a professional psychiatrist, I say that the height of bliss comes with the end of the countdown: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And then, you press the button to blow yourself up. When the martyr reaches 'one,' and then 'boom,' he explodes, and senses himself flying, because he knows for certain that he is not dead. … It is a transition to another, more beautiful world, because he knows very well that within seconds he will see the light of the Creator.

Think its' time for your pills, doctor.

WorldNetDaily: Top Arab psychiatrist: 'Bush is stupid'

Wal-Mart Sucks

Lots and lots of reasons explaining why the giant retailer is a bad, bad bogey monster that must be stopped. Some are obvious, some are not. There are lots, though...and the article didn't even mention the fact that until recently (when congress spanked them for it), they'd been taking out life insurance policies on their workers without their knowledge .

AlterNet -- How Wal-Mart is Remaking our World

Insaniquarium

Insaniquarium is a neat little game where you buy guppies, feed them to earn money and fight off predators, while upgrading your weapons and buying new, helpful pets to keep your aquarium safe for your fishy friends. All in all, a cool, addictive little game.

Countdown To Spiderman: The Movie

Well, later this week the Spiderman movie will be hitting theaters and I gotta tellya - I'm jazzed, folks. So far, so good, the couple trailers I've seen looked pretty good, Harry at aintitcoolnews all but peed himself he was so happy, after seeing a screening of it...things look like they're going to be okay, which is rare for a movie adapted from a comic book. I'm sure I'll have some minor nitpicking issues with it...I read the comic as a kid and had a huge stack of Spidey's various titles, moreso than any of the other comic heroes' books I collected. This is the big one. So, in honor of everyone's favorite wallcrawler, I'm going to post several links to spiderman-related things I've found.

First up, here's some pics of a cool old Spiderman pinball machine produced by Gottleib I'd really like to have.

King Features produces a daily Spiderman comic strip for newspapers across the country, as well as the web. Written by Stan Lee, Spidey's creator.

As far as the movie goes, you can get more info than you probably need at the official movie site, a prettied-up flash extravaganza that features interviews with the cast, wallpaper and even articles on the "spider-wrangler" who worked with the real arachnids used in the flick.

You can read the newly rehashed spiderman origin in Marvel's "webisodes" form, a sort of Flash comic book, at Marvel.com.

Someone has even been working on a total conversion mod for Quake 3 with a Spidey theme.

There are lots of vintage Spiderman toys for the collector-types, a list of essential reading from About.com, and anything else you might want can probably be found here.

PIctures of Tiny, Tiny Things

Galleries of microphotography.

Yahoo! News - Video Game Channel Launches with 'Pong' Marathon

Hockey Fights

What's the best thing about hockey? Is it the grace, the athleticism? The lightning speed of the puck as it blasts it's way past the goalie's desperate clutches? The sound of the siren, the flashing lights as the scoreboard lights up and signals victory for your favorite team?

Nope...it's the fights, of course - all documented, discussed and picked apart for your reading pleasure at Hockey Fights.

The Museum of Musical Instruments

Vast galleries and recordings of various musical instruments, including celeb-owned pieces like guitars that belonged to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and the Martin above, owned by Mark Twain - whom I didn't even realize was a singer and songwriter during the 19th century's romantic era. Cool...

Socio-political Smurfs

A page that asserts the notion that those cuddly blue cartoon characters, The Smurfs, are, in fact, thinly veiled communist propoganda and tells us that Papa Smurf was actually a representation of Carl Marx and that Brainy Smurf could only be Trotsky. Food for thought.

Loop

Warning: if you are eplieptic, if epilepsy even runs in your family, do NOT click this link. I repeat, do NOT click this link. You have been warned. An insane, useless psychedelic flash animation.

ninja4hire

Yet another "ninja-themed" site, a pretty funny one, too. Hate your boss? Need protection? Whatever your security needs, "Phil", master of the lethal arts of the ninja assassin, will be glad to help you, for a price. Ask advice, hire him or just check out the news section, regarding his exploits and his many famous buddies, including girlfriend Britney Spears and drinking buddy Charlie Sheen.

Error!

A gallery of stupid, confusing error messages.

Fun With Lasers

Reflections is a shockwave game that challenges you to redirect a laser to it's target using laser beams, while avoiding things like bombs. It starts off easy and gets harder as you progress, with mazes and various mirror types.

Full Day Today

I may not be able to do any updates today, it's my friend Jeff's birthday and I have a lot of stuff to do...so I'll just leave you with this point to ponder:

Nasa Says They're Within Arm's Reach of Calculating the Absolute Age of the Universe (link fixed, thanks Sarah!)

We're Number One!

Seems that my home state of Alabama is number one in something, at least - we have more plant and animal species than any other state...unfortunately, we're also the leaders in rate of extinction. It seems that our penchant for building dams and re-routing rivers and streams is having some pretty adverse effects on the wildlife.

Hey, I'm not worried, though - I know Bush and Co. will shortly come to the rescue with new reforms that...sigh...oh well, seeya on the other side, gopher tortoise - it was nice knowing you.

al.com: News

The Flashlight Museum

This is one of those things I'd never given much thought to, the humble flashlight. It was kind of interesting to see all the neat-looking variations on this handy little product over the years, some of them were really freaky looking, like the one above. It's on GeoSh**ties, though, so my apologies if their bandwidth is exceeded when you go there (grrrr...).

Bad Fortune Cookie

Electric Chicken presents the Apple iToilet

Two Legendary Internet Phenomena in one - All Your Tourist Guy are Belong to Us

When I Grow Up, I Want To Be Bill Gates

When you first check out Ajay Puri of India's website, it doesn't really impress you that much. His sense of design could use a little work (though perhaps the same could be said for yours truly) and it's a little...well...loud.

There's nothing terribly original or stylin' about it.

Of course, I think we can overlook a few flaws in this case...Bill Gates sure didn't have a problem with it, for one thing Ajay used a gratis copy of Frontpage 2000 to make it with (hey, no accounting for taste). For another, though, the kid's three years old. A friend of mine commented earlier that she doubted the kid made it himself, but I've heard child prodigy stories along these lines before and there are a lot of scans of newspaper articles about him on his site. I do suspect, though, that he may have padded his resume a bit - his "mastery" of Flash 5.0 for example - but let's not nitpick ;)

How Come There's No ¢ Symbol On Your Keyboard?

Typewriters had it, so how come it was left off the computer keyboards we use? The lowdown on the ¢'s extinction at The Demise of the $.01 Sign.

Van Gogh & Gauguin - An Interactive Flash Site Chronicling Their Friendship and Letters

The Digital Sundial

And no...it's not a joke, just a nifty, useless geek toy. Works on nothing but sunlight there are models for both hemispheres. What will those wacky germans think of next?

Digital Sundials International

If a Dinosaur Roars in the Woods and There's No One There to Hear it Until 75 Million Years Later, Does it Make a Sound? Maybe...

Some scientists think they may have emulated the way a certain "duck-billed" dino could have sounded like.

Scientific American: Explorations: Dino-Roar: December 15, 1997

Led Zeppelin's Allusions to J.R.R. Tolkien

Idiot Judge Proclaims So-Called "Artist's" Extreme Torture of Cat, "not the worst offence".

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know I'm no PETA vigilante. However, I do love animals. Let me elaborate...for instance, I don't think it's very cool to hang a cat by it's throat from a phone cord for fifteen minutes, slit it's throat, stab it, kick it, skin it, tear it's eyeball out with a dental instrument and then rip it's ears off with a pair of pliers. That's just me.

Incredibly, though, Ontario Court Judge Ted Ormston doesn't seem to see a helluva lot wrong with it. He shocked a courtroom full of people who'd been moved to tears after witnessing the video the perpetrators had made to preserve the horrific act for posterity, telling them he was passing on his option of giving the men the maximum time allowed because he felt their crime was "not the worst offence possible" and that "There are worse ways that this cat could have died.".

Ummm...worse ways? Maybe I'm just not not that imaginative, but it'd be hard for me to come up with anything to top the gruesome spectacle described above. Apparently, though, Ormston can, mentioning that the men could have spent a longer amount of time torturing the cat. Point taken, Judge Freddy Krueger.

The sleazy lawyer of Jesse Power, 22, the apparent ringleader of the group's (there were three men involved, one has yet to be found by police) cat-slaying party says that it was all part of an art project, intended to make a statement against meat-eaters.

Such high idealism...he's a visionary artist, of course! What a fine, insightful and brilliant bit of artistic achievement. Beats Monet's Water Lilies any day, hands down. I bet Picasso, were he still alive, would wish he'd thought of it first, obviously this is something on a par with Da Vinci's Last Supper in terms of artistic merit - someone give this guy a big, fat grant and pronto!

I've seen some awful garbage passed off as Art in the last decade or two and some of it, though offensive to many, I can muster some defense for. Sometimes art should shock. It's good to rattle the cage a little now and then and shake things up. There's a huge difference, though, in something that - while shocking or even disturbing - has some real artistic value, as opposed to projects such as Power's previous work, for instance - in which he slaughtered and consumed a chicken for art class (he got an A for that, by the way). That's the kind of stunt hacks resort to because they have neither the talent nor discipline to learn to paint, draw, sculpt or create anything of beauty or power. That's not art, that's an episode of Jackass.

Sounds to me like Power just plain gets a kick out of killing things. Maybe one day, when he really loses it and cleaves off a human's head, the clueless judge who sentenced him will rethink his decision.

Look, this rant went on a little long, sometimes I'm compelled to write my opinions things, though and and this is the kind of stuff that really ticks me off.

The Yahoo! Yodeler is Suing - Yahooooooooo!

Mini Putt

A cool little mini-golf game.

India and the Hole-in-the-Wall Experiment

Successful New Delhi physicist and businessman Sugata Mitra is passionate about the education of his nation's youth and has some very unorthodox ideas about how to bring them into the wired future. Upon noticing that anytime his friends bought a computer, within weeks they were bragging that their small children were "computer geniuses", Mitra asked himself if this trait wouldn't be found in all children.

To put this to the test, he came up with "the hole in the wall experiment". Mitra took a high-powered Pentium computer with broadband access and simply placed it in a wall in an indian slum, with no explanation whatsoever, allowing anyone to come along and play with it as they wished, while he monitored it, using a remote computer and a nearby camera. He found that children ages 6-12, with only the most rudimentary education and little knowledge of english, were the biggest users of the machine and within days had taught themselves to surf and draw on it. In fact, at times, he was completely taken aback by their savvy:

Q: Of all the things the children did and learned, what did you find the most surprising?

A: One day there was a document file on the desktop of the computer. It was called "untitled.doc" and it said in big colorful letters, "I Love India." I couldn't believe it for the simple reason that there was no keyboard on the computer [only a touch screen]. I asked my main assistant -- a young boy, eight years old, the son of a local betel-nut seller -- and I asked him, "How on earth did you do this?" He showed me the character map inside [Microsoft] Word. So he had gotten into the character map inside Word, and dragged and dropped the letters onto the screen, then increased the point size and painted the letters. I was stunned because I didn't know that the character map existed -- and I have a PhD.

Incidentally, the adults in the community had little interest in the computer and instead relied on the children to find them things, such as horoscopes - as one woman claimed, "I don't have the brains to understand all this.". Also noteworthy, when Mitra added a Hindi interface to the computer, which he expected to be a huge hit, the children just went back to Internet Explorer.

MP3s, of course, were eventually a favorite with the children, that much is universal.

It's a very interesting article that challenges you to rethink the ways children might be educated in the the future.

Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character

This is really cool, you have to try this....basically you play a game of twenty questions with the computer and it tries to guess which dictator or sit-com character you're thinking about. Pretty nifty.

Where Can I Go, Where The Cold Winds Don't Blow Now?

Of course it would have been easy to go with the obvious headline, "Don't Do the Crime If You Can't Do the Time", but I thought I'd go the extra mile and lift another line from the ultra-cool Baretta theme song, which you can listen to here(note: apparently the cheapskate S.O.B. who runs that site, which none of the links worked to unless you sent him some money via paypal, but did, at least, play the show's theme, looked at his logs and came back here and decided his precious, crappy Baretta theme-music wasn't something he could give away for free and took it down. In hopes that he stops back by, since I just went there: I'd just like to say you're a jackass and good luck getting anyone to pay you for your crappyass tv show fan site, pal, you jerk). Amazingly, given the huge amount of fanatical fan sites for tv shows, it was the only real Baretta site I could find (and it's owner sucks). I'm sure that will change in the weeks ahead as people begin obsessing over each episode of the seventies cop drama, picking them apart for clues as to the underlying mania that (allegedly) turned the former Little Rascal's star into a murderer.

Blake has finally been arrested in connection with his wife's murder, his driver as well, as I'm sure most of the free world has heard by the time you read this. I'd like to dedicate this particular article to my friend Bill. Bill and I are both pretty big fans of celebrity crime stories and we were beginning to think we were the only ones on earth who were scratching their heads wondering what ever happened to this story, as it seemed to have been swept under the rug completely after awhile.

Bill, buddy, you hung in there, you kept the faith and now it's paid off and you can tell the world "I told you so!" with righteous indignance and, if you'd like, I'd be more than happy to let you have your say on the matter here in this humble forum whenever you wish. This being such a juicy story and one that we've held dear to our hearts for so long, I hardly know where to begin, myself.

How's this for starters? A little trivia nugget for you: In the very first episode of Baretta, Baretta and his fiance` were entering a resturaunt when she was gunned down by vengeful mobsters. A little foreshadowing? Blake's attorney apparently saw that episode, that's how he says it probably went down. Marcia Clark, O.J. trial star, begs to differ, however, saying, “I really believe if Robert Blake were just John Q. Smith he would be in custody right now.” way back in May, 2001. I'd have to agree with her on that one.

Your average vengeful dude doesn't carry a collector's quality Walther pistol. Guess who's an avid gun collector, though? Also, supposedly, the same brand of ammo, which IS a popular Remington brand, in all fairness, was found in Blake's house. In fact, a whole box...minus three bullets. How many bullets were fired to kill Bakley? Two...with one more left in the chamber of the gun (which was found in a nearby trash bin).

You know, I missed the CNN coverage, I'm sure I can see it online, but from what I hear it was a bit of a letdown in comparison to the theatrics of the O.J. arrest. The least Baretta could have done was hop in his car and take the cops on a road chase or something. Still, though...this has all the makings of classic Court TV and in addition, if Blake does get nailed for the murder, which is very possible, he could very well be the first Hollywood celeb to face the death penalty for murder.

Of course, the question on everyone's mind is, what's O.J. have to say about all this? Here's his take on things, from the tv tabloid Extra:

"I've got to admit, I was pretty fascinated when I first heard it," Simpson told the syndicated show Extra . "And my first reaction was an immediate feeling of compassion for him because I knew what he was about to go through."

The former football star also said he had advised Blake not to take a lie detector test or watch TV, and advised him against besmirching his late wife's character.

"Don't take a lie-detector test", spoken like a true wife-murderer who's been there, done that. Maybe you might want to stay out of it, Juice, I don't think Blake really needs you as his media cheerleader right now, somehow I don't think it'll help.

Things You Find When You're Bored and Do a Google Search On Bewitched

This one had nothing to do with the television show at all but there were a couple pretty things on it, I particularly liked "the constellation"

This next one is my favorite so far:


The Bewitched Project

. . .Darrin the Bold, slew Rufus the Red in the 14th Century, and that henceforth all his descendants have been accursed. Samantha tells Endora. . .and returns Samantha to 14th Century Killkarney. Samantha stops the fatal duel between. . .the other is invincible. . .She twitches her nose and gets the desired effect. . .

Next up is a really stylin' flashed page from Sony's Screen Gems Network with some games, episode rundowns and stuff, really spiffy animation. The intro catches the spirit of the original cartoon intro of the show, as does the rest of the site's design. Probably you're wondering why I'm posting all this stuff.

Hey, I'm 33, I liked Bewitched, sue me. In fact, I liked I Dream of Jeannie, too, so here's her site.

Do You Have the Funk?

L -Larry Dallas; went through the ladies faster than Bruce Lee dropped ninjas. Fellas take note: Lar spends most of his time lounging in them fly kimono-style robes and comes as close to a 'fro as a honkey can get.
"Nobody tinkers with my tweeter."
The Periodic Table of Funk

Virtual Nose-Hair Plucking

Stupid, useless - but funny :)

Superman in 3D Multipath Adventures

Because it's Required By Law for All Bloggers to Post Something Like This:

I am Mr Do. I am sedentary by nature, enjoying passive entertainment, eating when the mood takes me, and playing with my food. I try to avoid conflict, but when I'm angered, I can be a devil - if you force me to fight, I will crush you. With apples. What Pre-1985 Video Game Character Are You?

Fantasy Gaming Institute Invents 24-Sided Die; Social Retards Rejoice

How to Ruin a Good Thing

Well, what with the Osbournes being such a huge success, it was inevitable that MTV would look for other celebs whose personal lives they could chronicle. What sucks is their choices for possible future shows: P. Diddy (formerly Puff Idiot) and Brandy. Yeah, that sounds thrilling. Who wants to watch Puff Dummy obsess over his clothes or Brandy pick out lip gloss? My suggestion: Snoop Dogg, an obvious choice.

Miracle Pill of the Day: Provigil

Well, last week scientists announced they think they'd possibly found a way around that pesky "exercise" thing and may be able to formulate a concoction that will allow you to sit on your lazy butt in front of a tv eating chips all night and get buff like a Baywatch lifeguard while doing it.

Then a couple days later they announced a new pill that betters Viagra.

Now they've gone mad-scientist on us again and are offering up a possible alternative to sleep ...in pill form.

Provigil, early reports show, allows people to remain awake for days at a time, without the awful side-effects and loss of cognitive performance you get with the likes of amphetamines and caffiene.

I have a bad feeling about this one. For obvious reasons this is going to be the most popular drug of all time and more than likely it'll be ten years or so of people running around day, getting things done, being happy, productive super-people - then finding out it's given them all brain cancer.

Arcane

Arcane is a nice little flash game, played out in an episodic fashion. You control the characters and their decisions, a wrong move could mean your character to die or cause them to be committed to an asylum in this semi-spooky bit of cartoon role-playing.

Play the regular game at your own pace - with save enabled - or go for the gold, get the best time and be a hero - with no save option.

Nice animation, good atmosphere, great sound effects and music. The folks at Warner Bros. don't mess around and do things half-assed when it comes to their Flash projects, you've gotta give 'em their props.

The Poppin' Panther

Well, it looks like it's turning into one of those "theme nights" here, with comic/cartoon characters. This one doesn't need a whole lot of explanation. The Pink Panther, breakdancing to such hits as Baby's Got Back. It's an idea that's time has finally come.

This Site Will Not Make Any Sense To You If You're Not a Seventies Comic Fan. You Have Been Warned

I'm posting it anyway, though. While I was searching for something completely unrelated I stumbled across this site, The Hembeck Files!

Back in the late seventies, Fred Hembeck used to have a little comic strip that they ran in the editorial page of all of DC's comic books. It wasn't exactly Bloom County or Peanuts and the comedy material was strictly in-jokes geared towards the readership of DC's various comics, but I enjoyed it - comic nut that I was - and it was a kick seeing all of the strips online, out of nowhere - especially since i hadn't given it any thought in twenty years or so.

In other words, I'm a nostalgic sap and I can post whatever I want. Besides, a few of them (like the one above) feature my blogging nom de plume, Jimmy Olsen - so deal :)

Sports Villians

Long gone are the days when our sports heroes are beyond reproach. Hofstetter's Sports Jerk of the Week and Badjocks vilify rather than idolize.

Hofstetter's no. 1 jerk pick for this week is Mike Tyson. Probably he's ruled this list for awhile, though shotgun-toting b-baller Jason Williams is right behind him.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love the internet.

And They Danced...

Another twisted, totally insane Flash "thing" that defies description.

A Frightened Boy, presented by Joel Veitch

Fish Heads, Fish Heads, Roly-Poly Fish Heads

Fish Heads

Yahoo! News - Drug Tunnel Found Under U.S. Customs Lot

How To Block Ads & Web Bugs Without Extra Software

Lunar Lander

Orthopaedists With a Sense of Humor

awortho.net

Possibly the Strangest Flash Animation Ever

There's no point in my even trying to describe this. It's just insane, completely, utterly crazy and I have no idea what it's about, have a feeling it's going to be a huge hit, though, it's just weird enough to be popular.

Ja Da

The Ultimate Putter

Hammacher Schlemmer - Schmeckenbecker Putter

Now, Not Only Can You Drink and Drive, You Don't Have To Leave Your Seat To Do It.

A turbine barstool that does 40 miles-per-hour. Yup, really.

Barstool

Roth and Hagar Team Up For Van Halen-less Van Halen Reunion Tour

This absolutely makes sense in a weird way, sheer marketing genius.

Yahoo! News - Former Van Halen Singers Bury Hatchet for Tour

A Tender, Sensitive Ballad - By Aquaman

This is a hilarious bit of Flash 'tooning. Probably helps if you know who Aquaman is, but this is the funniest thing I've seen all week :)

Aquaman

Money, Money, Money, Must Be Funny - In a Rich Man's World

Swedish supergroup ABBA turned down a BILLION dollars to reunite and do 100 shows. I don't know what to make of that, they must have really invested their money well. I can't help but think that maybe they could have thought it over awhile and thought of something they could use the billion bucks for - like, oh, I dunno...curing cancer or something? Those guys must really hate each other with a passion if they won't get together for that kind of dough.

The Haxor Translator

Fin411y, 4ny0n3 c4n s0und 7ru1y 31337, wi7h 7h3 h4x0r 7r4ns1470r, jus7 3n70r 7h3 73x7 y0u w4n7 7r4ns1473d 4nd i7's h4x0r3d

Could This Be the Latest Net-Fad?

A month or so ago I posted a picture of a cat with it's face right up against the camera lense for no particular reason, other than I thought it was funny. It seems that the act of taking pictures of animals in that manner has caught on, earning it's own name - Orking.

MONKEON : THE ART OF ORKING

If You Build It, They Will Come

This is a pretty interesting site that deals with buildings of all kinds, from traditional skyscrapers, bridges and castles to more unusual constructions, such as the Canadian Ice Hotel (pictured above), sand castles and a 100 foot tall Tupperware tower in Florida.

Architecture of the World from Glass Steel and Stone

Food of the Gods

Ahhh...chocolate. I love the stuff and it never dawned on me that I'd never seen what a cacao tree (shown above, with ripening pods) even looked like. This site has all the lowdown on the greatest of all confections.

Chocolate - All About Chocolate

Retro-Culture Entertainment

Secret Fun Spot is a really great nostalgia/retro site, presented in a flash format with cartoons and memories of days gone by, though it probably doesn't hurt if you're over thirty. I saw several really obscure items from my childhood while browsing their galleries and there are a lot of "hey, I remember those..." type pop-culture items scattered throughout the two toons. Fun stuff.

The Bottom Five Complete Idiot's Guides

Wayne Gretzky Returns To Alberta--To Rule

Shark Researcher Who Claimed Sharks Wouldn't Bite Him Loses Leg

The Standardized "Should I Stalk William Shatner?" Test

Cat Racing?

Yep, that's right. Cat racing.

Gary Burghoff, Renaissance Man

What ever became of television's "Radar" O'Reilly, you ask?

According to this site, the "legendary" actor is now an "intense wildlife artist" and is, in fact, the QUIET GIANT of wildlife art, whatever that means.

Kenny Rogers Mania Conquering the WWW

What is it lately with Kenny Rogers? First there's a site celebrating men who look like him.

Now The Onion is poking fun at him.

A german singer/designer is so desperate live out his life's dream of singing a duet with him that he bought the domain kenny-rogers.com and is using it for a soapbox on which he can pitch his idea to Kenny and his fans.

Oh yeah...and I may have posted this site before, but oddcast has a couple of Kenny's songs in it's lineup of karaoke e-cards you can record and send to friends, as well as a lot of other popular songs by new and old artists.

The Only Known Photograph of President Lincoln at Gettysburg - The Gettysburg Address (Library of Congress Exhibition)

Where Was PETA When This Was Going On?

You really have to wonder about people who dress up their dogs like this. I would think that most self-respecting pups would rather be tied to a tree, starved and beaten endlessly than paraded around in one of these get-ups. Does Bat Dog there look happy? Actually, in the full-sized picture, he looks like someone just told him he was going to be neutered.

Pet Costumes

Couch Potatoes Rejoice, the Exercise Pill is On the Way...Thank God

Looks like those wonderful, beautiful eggheads out there are closing in on a way to get into shape without having to leave your couch or computer chair to endure that horrific thing known as "exercise".

As for the nuts and bolts of it, it has something to do with mitochondrial proteins or something...whatever.

All I know is it sure would be nice to enjoy my sedentary, sloth-like blogger lifestyle and still have a rippling six pack. All hail science!

Yahoo! News - Scientists ID New Form of Exercise

A Funky Javascript Clock

No-one Home

Anatomy Lessons for the Squeamish

A really interesting site that allows you to "virtually" dissect a frog. Very well-executed and educational, it's a lot more fun than dissecting a real one back in high school - all the learning without the yucky mess. In fact, I learned a helluva lot more about frog innards and their workings in five minutes here than I did by carving up a real frog in my ninth-grade biology class.

FROGUTS.COM- We Made It!

Richard M. Nixon is on the ballot in Alabama; it's no joke

How To Uninstall Kazaa's Computer-Hijacking Scumware

Brilliant Digital Entertainment quietly installs their p2p software along with every Kazaa install. They plan to "turn on" the software soon. When this happens Brilliant will be able to use your bandwidth, idle computing power, etc., as part of a p2p network.

This article will tell you how to easily rid yourself of this pesky program and it's related files.

News: How to: Uninstall Brilliant software

Mike, The Headless Chicken

The story of a chicken who lived eighteen months without the benefit of his head. Not only did he live, but was, in fact, a "robust chicken - a fine specimen of a chicken except for not having a head."

Love the theme song :)

Official Mike The Headless Chicken Coop

The Simpsons Offend Brazil

A recent episode of The Simpsons didn't go over very well in Brazil, in fact, they're taking FOX to court. Granted, they were pretty rough on Rio...but aren't they tough on everyone? Oh well, good luck collecting on that lawsuit.

Yahoo! News - Brazil Has a Cow Over "Simpsons"

Ozzy to Dine at the Whitehouse - Forty Dead Presidents Spin Like Tops in Their Graves

Wow...looks like the Ozzman's been invited to the White House. This is too funny. I just can't believe this story. The fact that he'd even be let in the door amazes me, especially since Ozzy was once banned from Texas, President Bush's home state - for peeing on the Alamo.

Yahoo! News - Ozzy Accepts Invite To White House Dinner

Awwww....Rottweiler Befriends Duck

Happy the Duck is convinced he's a rottweiler and luckily for him, his rottweiler buddy seems to be good with that.

The Sun Newspaper Online - UK's biggest selling tabloid

The Phoenix 1000 Luxury Submarine

Eating His Share of the One Billion Sold

This guy's eaten at 11,000 of the 13,500+ McDonald's resturaunts in the United States.

This man says his happiest meals are at McDonald's

Wacky Packages

Anyone remember Wacky Packages stickers? I had several of these when I was a kid. This site has a clickable image map of EVERY one of the five hundred-plus sticker collection. Via Boingboing

Wacky Packages

Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!



Announcer: And now, another "Super Bowl Gambling Memory".

Narrator: "Super Bowl X. Miami. With the Pittsburgh Steelers leading the Dallas Cowboys, 21 to 10, Dallas Quarterback Roger Staubach fires a 34-yard touchdown pass to Percy Howard in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, making the final score: Pittsburgh 21, Dallas 17. The Cowboys, 6-point underdogs, have beaten the spread."

Announcer: This has been a "Super Bowl Gambling Memory"!

Saturday Night Live Transcripts has tons of transcripts from the late-night perennial available for perusal, with more added frequently.

Saturday Night Live Transcripts

Oops, We're Still Here...Can I Have a Do-over?

Historic apocalyptic predictions for this week in history that didn't come true.

Apocalypse A-No-Go - Part 2

Celeb Babysitters

Apparently if you're a celeb and are willing to pay for it, a new breed of service industry workers called "minders" will watch over you and keep you away from Tinseltown's many and varied vices.

I pity the guy who has to watch over Robert Downey Jr. May the force be with him.

FOXNews.com

I'm Back!

Sorry for the lack of updates (again) apparently the tornado had done a lot of damage to the phone lines so Ma Bell's boys were working on them for a couple days, leaving me phoneless and without internet access. Then when I finally got back online yesterday, Blogger was acting up. Barring unforseen circumstances, though, I think things are back to normal - so let's blog.

Here's a funny story from BBspot:

BBspot - Web Designer Builds Home out of Flash

Boom

A hi-res gallery of A-bomb test photos. This is some really awe-inspiring stuff.

I never understood why they had to keep testing them over and over, though. I think it's pretty obvious they work, don't really see the point in further irradiating the earth just because scientists get off on seeing huge explosions - which I think is probably a big part of it.

DOE/NV Photo Library - Atmospheric

MEG - Free Energy Dream Within Grasp

Imagine being off the power grid, no longer relying on commercial electricity. Apparently it's just on the horizon, all the free juice you could want.

Off the Beaten Path News

Art on the Net

The Whitney Museum's Artport is a jumping-off point to various artistic ventures on the internet, some interesting links here.

Darren, if you happen to be reading this, notice the link to Futurefarmers, that site you sent me the link to way back last year, I believe it was.

Whitney ARTPORT: The Whitney Museum Portal to Net Art

Still More Homer Simpson Stuff

'Cause he's the man - The Homer Simpson Soundboard

Homer Simpson Soundboard

Nice...Lady Tries to Trade Seven-Month Old Baby for Dog

There goes the "mother of the year" honors. At least it was apparently a pedigreed dog, not just a mutt or anything.

The Morning Sun U.S./World NewsWoman accused of trying to trade baby girl for Chihuahua puppy 03/31/02

The Hockey Name Generator:

Kung Fu Chess

The Random Homer Simpson Quote

"This donut has purple in the middle, purple is a fruit."

Random Homer Simpson Quote

Funniest Concept Ever

Leotard Skynryno is a Japanese Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band. Yes, you read it right: a Japanese Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band.

Leotard Skynyrno Top page