Saturday, December 31, 2005
Woah. Spooky Brain Fart.
Though the show aired six months before the attack, its final scene featured a commercial airliner aiming at the [World Trade] center, veering away at the last minute, TV Guide Online reported.
But for some reason, the show's images escaped notice in the months following the real-life attacks—something that mystifies one of the show's writers, longtime X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz. It wasn't until the industry newsletter The Myers Report ran a story about the show this week that it caught the notice of TV Guide.
"I know! That's what I've been wondering," Spotnitz told TV Guide. He, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban wrote the episode. "I thought, 'Nobody noticed!' I guess so few people saw the show. But it's strange, too, because that was the pilot, and the ratings were actually quite good for [that episode], and yet we didn't hear anything."
Myers Report columnist Ed Martin wrote that "this seems to be collective amnesia of the highest order. The final act of the Gunmen pilot, which seemingly made no impact last year, now contains some of the most deeply disturbing images ever created for an entertainment program," according to TV Guide.
"I woke up on Sept. 11 and saw it on TV, and the first thing I thought of was The Lone Gunmen," Spotnitz told TV Guide. "But then in the weeks and months that followed, almost no one noticed the connection. What's disturbing about it to me is, you think as a fiction writer that if you can imagine this scenario, then the people in power in the government who are there to imagine disaster scenarios can imagine it, too." -Sci Fi Wire (6/21/01)
VISIT THIS WEBSITE ABOUT, "THE LONE GUNMEN"
Friday, December 30, 2005
Quantum CyberTeaser Archive
Ducky numbers. For many years now Baron Münchhausen has gone to a lake every day to hunt ducks. Starting on August 1, 2000, he says to his cook: "Today I shot more ducks than two days ago, but fewer than a week ago." For how many days can the baron say this? (Remember, the baron never lies.)
Quote:
Returnable bottles. A government program allows people to collect empty milk bottles and exchange them for bottles full of milk. Four empty bottles may be exchanged for one full bottle. How many bottles of milk can a family drink if it has collected 24 empty bottles?
Quote:
Rolling coins. Two identical coins touch the side of a rectangle at the same point—one from the inside, the other from the outside. The coins are rolled in the plane along the perimeter of the rectangle until they come back to their initial positions. The height of the rectangle is twice the circumference of the coins and its width is twice its height. How many revolutions will each coin make?
Answers are on the website.
Movie Cliches and Film Funnies
From THE MOVIE CLICHE LIST:
A character turns on the radio just in time to hear a special announcement or some important news item. Then turns the radio off.
When you throw a knife, the blade will always be the first thing to hit the target.
When an intruder is in the house, the occupant will sneak along a wall with his back pressed to it tightly and his arms out a bit from his body, palms flat against the wall.
From The Great List Of Movie Cliches:
A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.
A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off.
All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French Bread.
Guns are like disposable razors. If you run out of bullets, just throw the gun away. You can always find a new one laying around the next time you need one.
From movie-mistakes.com:
King Kong (2005): When Ann meets Kong on NYC street, the camera flashes back and forth between them. When it shows Kong, he is surrounded by snow, but when it shows Ann, the street doesn't have so much as a snowflake.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005): The movie is supposed to take place in and around New York City, however during the car chase where Angelina and Brad are fighting off the three BMW's, a wide shot clearly shows a street sign announcing Los Angeles.
Elektra (2005): When Elektra closes her cell phone on McCabe, a dial tone can be heard. Cell phones don't have dial tones. Even if they did, Elektra hung up, so nothing would be heard.
From Cinematic Slip-ups:
Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995): There's a flashback to the crucifixion of Christ. The film shows him as having been crucified by the hands. But, as Liam Gibbs points out, the bible clearly states Christ was crucified by the wrists. (Gee, I bet at least Mel Gibson strove for accuracy since he proclaimed his Jesus movie was biblically correct. Mmmm... what did The Passion do re: nails through the hands vs. nails through the wrists? I mention it because a psychotic woman has been stalking me on the internet ever since I first asked that question. Some people get really nutty over their religion movies.)
Braveheart (1995): When William Wallace (Mel Gibson) is running across the field towards the enemy with an axe, there's a cutaway shot; when they go back to Wallace, he has no weapon. They cut away and back again, and now he has a sword. (Oh my goodness! Nooo! This can't be! You mean Mel Gibson CAN ACTUALLY MAKE A MISTAKE??? Whatever will the psycho stalker say???)
From Film Goofs from the IMDb:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005): While riding on Aslan, Susan and Lucy switch spots.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966): When Montag gets in the boat to hide from the flying cops, you can see the rope still tying the boat to the bank. Montag subsequently rows away with out untying it. Montag's hair in the final scene is different than it is in the rest of the film. This is because Oskar Werner, to show his dislike of director François Truffaut, purposely did this to create a continuity error.
Political Internet Bumper Stickers
Almost all of these nifty little things came from The Internet Bumper Sticker Website.
California's "Megan's Law" Goes Online
You can search by name, zip code, county, city, school, park, etc. There's just one sex offender in the next town over from where I live. I looked up my sister's neighborhood and was not pleased to find there were two sex offenders (both pedophiles) around the corner from her house. Her 12 year old grandson (MY great-nephew) lives there with his mom, my niece.
You can click on individual offenders to get more information about them, including their specific crimes. ALL sex offenders are listed and that includes child molesters as well as rapists and other sexual offenders.
I was totally shocked to find someone I used to know and think of as a friend listed as a registered sex offender. His crime was sexual battery (which, in California is different from rape) and did not involve children. I wasn't even looking this guy up but his photo came up when I input one community's name and his face is unmistakeable due to having some facial deformities caused by a medical condition. The guy I used to know was very shy and sweet and very nice to talk to and nothing like you'd imagine a "sexual batterer" would be. I..am..shocked.
Leaving Las Vegas - The Hard Way
Know Anyone from Wisconsin?
You click on the "Acceptance of Terms of Use" button and you are taken to the search page where you can input a last name, a last name with a first name, and other search criteria. All court records that bear that name will appear on the results page.
This page became quite handy in the days of Project Greenlight when the trolls were actually threatening webmaster fgonnello and/or hacking the Project Greenlight website to steal members' personal data. It seems the trolls backed off when they discovered their own legal history could be published and emailed throughout cyberspace. Nobody picks on fgonnello and gets away with it.
This website also provided a most interesting result for Project Greenlight members who had been approached by more than one of the trolls and asked to give credit card numbers and other personal info -- it seems a trio of trolls who had been doing this very thing at Project Greenlight actually lived either in the same housing project or within walking distance of each other but they denied (or tried to pretend) that they didn't even know each other! Gee. Why would they need to do that?
And the three of them were the most disruptive and most destructive participants on the Project Greenlight messageboards. Some of their marks (dupes) still believe they're "good people." Pity.
So, Ma, I decided to take this little vacation...
Fla. Boy Who Went to Iraq on His Way Home
Updated 10:12 AM ET December 30, 2005
By JASON STRAZIUSO
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A 16-year-old from Florida who traveled to Iraq on his own without telling his parents was put on a flight home Friday, the U.S. Embassy said, while warning Americans of the dangers of undertaking similar journeys.
Farris Hassan, of Fort Lauderdale, had been under the care of the U.S. Embassy after being on his own in Iraq for several days.
Hassan, a junior at Pine Crest School, a prep academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, recently studied immersion journalism _ a writer who lives the life of his subject in order to better understand it.
The teenager, whose parents were born in Iraq but have lived in the United States for about 35 years, says he wanted to travel to Baghdad to better understand what Iraqis are living through.
After his second night in Baghdad, he contacted the AP and said he had come to do research and humanitarian work. The AP called the U.S. Embassy, which sent U.S. soldiers to pick him up.
Hassan does not speak Arabic and has no experience in war zones, but he wanted to find out what life was like there.
COMPLETE ARTICLE (this particular link will eventually expire but this story should have "legs" for a long time and should be easily researched beyond the life of this link)
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
SETI@Home Project Ends
SETI@Home Project Ends
For years, volunteers shared idle CPU cycles to analyze interstellar data.
Phil Hochmuth, Network World
Friday, December 16, 2005
Along with the Howard Stern Show, another radio endeavor involving alien life forms is going off the air this week; SETI@Home, a grid supercomputer project for detecting signs of extra terrestrial life from deep space, officially ended December 15.
"We'll be shutting down the "SETI@home Classic" project on December 15," read an e-mail sent by SETI@Home administrators at the University of California at Berkeley, where the project started in 1999. "The workunit totals of users and teams will be frozen at that point, and the final totals will be available on the Web."
The project is being moved to the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC), an open-source grid project using the same principles as the original project.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Some Intelligent Thoughts (if I do say so myself) On the Teaching of Intelligent Design
When it comes to public school curriculum, the State and local Boards of Education have to determine a standard curriculum that all the schools under their purview must adhere to in order to continue as accredited institutions of learning.
Part of that would involve making the determination of what belongs in specific science classes. The boards of education must determine exactly what IS science. It must be defined and then a curriculum based on that definition is approved.
It seems that religion, religious theory, even a very teeny tiny dose of it by way of referencing a divine intelligence that got the universe rolling does not meet the standard to qualify itself as a science and therefore, does not belong in a science classroom.
I don't see that as completely discrediting such a theory, only as an attempt to place such teaching in its proper setting which would be a religion or philosophy class.
And having said all of the above, some science classes DO study religions but they study them AS RELIGIONS and not as scientific theories. When I took two years of cultural anthropology that was in fulfillment, in part, for my general ed "life science" requirement. And we did study the impact of religion on societies and how it ruled some cultures. And that was all science.
What's really going on with the proponents of ID is that they are feeling neglected and squeezed out of society and they want to shift the balance of power more in their direction. They insist that their religious beliefs (as in a divine power or intelligence being the source of creation) be taken out of Comparative Religion and forced into the curriculum of secular science classes. It is not enough for them to attend their own churches and privately instruct their own children in religion. Now they want to teach everybody else's children, too.
Like a smoker who believes they have every right to smoke cigarettes whenever and wherever they want even if they are smoking up the atmosphere in a restaurant where other non-smoking diners are eating, the pro-ID folks want to "smoke up" secular science curriculum for all children attending public schools even if the parents of those children may be even MORE religious than the pro-ID proponents and be horrified that their children may get a watered-down version of faith at public school. Maybe the parents are athiests and don't want their children to be taught ANY religious theories at all but they still believe they have a right to send their children to school. What choices are the pro-ID folks taking away from them?
The school boards must agree on a definition of "Science" and "Religion" and then decide how best to implement the curriculum. Parents should not have to worry that sending their children for an academic education in a public school will subject their children to what's best left to religious instructors as opposed to secular teachers.
If the ID folks are the same folks who believe that pharmacists have a legally sound right to inflict their personal religious beliefs on the public by way of refusing to dispense certain prescriptions, then the ID folks would also have no problem with individual teachers refusing to teach a religion or any religion in their secular science classes because that might offend their personal belief system. This follows the same logic, right?
And then the teachers who harbor racist beliefs can refuse to teach any United States history dealing with the civil rights movement.
And English teachers can refuse to introduce a writer like Mark Twain to their students because of his irreverant humor or refuse to allow poetry students to learn about Walt Whitman because he was gay.
There would have to be separate curriculums, of course. One to accomodate teaching religion in a science class and the other to accomodate outraged parents with expectations that only science will be taught in a science class. The ID folks certainly aren't suggesting that choice be taken away from everyone who does not share their belief system, right? Plus, the ID folks would vigorously defend the rights of individual teachers who refused to teach ID or any other belief system that personally offended their own beliefs.
The poor students. They may end up being required to take 1,000 different versions of the same class so as to accomodate the demands of religious and political pressure groups.
Why not just let the subjects be what they are without pretending they are something else? Anything that references anything divine such as a divine intelligence is religious in nature. Let religion be taught as religion and let science be taught as science.
Amen.
Important "Stuff" to Know
"Forty" is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order. "One" is the only number with its letters in reverse alphabetical order. |
A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death. |
10% of human dry weight comes from bacteria |
111, 111, 111 X 111, 111, 111 = 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321 |
Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. |
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying. |
WARNING: Not for sensitive viewers
Miniature Golf Course on Terror Target List
SAN JOSE (AP) -- San Jose officials are still wondering how a miniature golf course landed on a federal list of the most attractive terrorist targets.
Local officials said Thursday they were shocked to learn that Emerald Hills Golfland, a three-acre theme park with two miniature golf courses, had been placed on a Homeland Security watch list.
COMPLETE ARTICLE
Ha! Ha! Serves you right, ya FREAK!
Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus
2005-12-20
A 20-year-old German man turned himself and his child-porn collection into authorities after believing a message propagated by the recent Sober virus that law enforcement officers were investigating his activities, Germany's Federal Criminal Investigation Office said on Monday.
The Sober.X, also known as Sober.Y, virus attempts to fool computer users into running the malicious program by attaching itself to an e-mail that seems to come from the FBI or its German counterpart, known as the Federal Criminal Investigation Office or Bundeskriminalamt (BKA). The message implies that the law enforcement agency is investigating the recipient and asks the user to open up an attachment and answer questions.
COMPLETE ARTICLE
Saturday, December 24, 2005
You Wouldn't Want This Guy to be Your Mystery Prom Date
Pssst... he's the real life guy upon which the characters of Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill were based.
Chad Everett's Private Photo Album
Okay, true confession. Chad Everett was a not so distant neighbor of mine in Granada Hills, Ca. (a neighborhood in the northwest San Fernando Valley which is just north of L.A. proper). I never met him but I did meet his Dad, the senior Mr. Everett, who was a sweet funny very smart man. There was a horrid brush fire one year that burned Chad Everett's house. I don't think he was able to salvage much and I remember being haunted by the thought of a neighbor losing their home. I worried that it could happen to us, too, but we were too far into the middle-class section of tract houses whereas Mr. Everett lived in the hills above us where the rich folks had homes built to order. When I met Chad Everett's Dad some years after that fire, I mentioned to him how it had just haunted me and he said his son never spoke of it anymore. Weird, huh?
So this little photo came from the Institute of Official Cheer which also includes The Gallery of Regrettable Food.
The Gobbler - Another Motel Classic!
"This site is an appreciation of a lost slice of American architecture and design - a period when just about everything had run off the rails, and good taste, restraint and classic traditions were utterly abandoned. There was an informal architectural style called Googie, named for a coffee-shop chain in LA; the diners had heaps of rough stone, cantilevered roofs, odd modern touches side-by-side with kitschy anachronisms. Well, this is Post-Googie. The jet-age futurism of the 60s had turned into the cheap, Logan's-Run modernism of plastic chairs; the experimentation with different materials had ended up in a smothering expanse of mass-produced carpet. This is a style that can go absolutely nowhere. It's the look of the future for at least a week." ~J. Lileks |
Woman Swallows Cell Phone After Argument
Updated 4:24 AM ET December 24, 2005
BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) - A lovers' dispute over a cell phone ended suddenly when the woman swallowed the phone whole, police said.
Police said they received a call at 4:52 a.m. Friday from a Blue Springs man who said his girlfriend was having trouble breathing. When they arrived at the house they found the 24-year-old woman had a cell phone lodged in her throat.
"He wanted the phone and she wouldn't give it to him, so she attempted to swallow it," Detective Sgt. Steve Decker of the Blue Springs Police Department. "She just put the entire phone in her mouth so he couldn't get it."
COMPLETE ARTICLE
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Another Nutty Letterman Fan
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 Posted at 9:34 PM EST
Associated Press
Sante Fe, N.M. — Lawyers for David Letterman want a judge to quash a restraining order granted to a Santa Fe woman who contends the CBS late-night host used code words to show he wanted to marry her and train her as his co-host.
(Colleen) Nestler requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay about three metres away and not “think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering.”
Letterman's longtime Los Angeles lawyer, Jim Jackoway, said Nestler's claims were “obviously absurd and frivolous.”
Nestler's application for a restraining order was accompanied by a six-page typed letter in which she said Letterman used code words, gestures and “eye expressions” to convey his desires for her.
She wrote that she began sending Letterman “thoughts of love” after his Late Show began in 1993, and that he responded in code words and gestures, asking her to come East.
She said he asked her to be his wife during a televised “teaser” for his show by saying, “Marry me, Oprah.” Her letter said Oprah was the first of many code names for her and that the coded vocabulary increased and changed with time.
COMPLETE ARTICLE
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Spying on his fellow Americans
Kansas City Star: “The Struggle With Foreign Enemies Does Not Simply Give Him A Blank Check”…
Denver Post: Adm. Has Lost “Balance Between Essential Anti-Terrorism Tools And Encroachment On Liberties”…
LA Times: “Stunning,” “One Of The More Egregious Cases Of Governmental Overreach”…
Wash. Post: "The Tools Of Foreign Intelligence Are Not Consistent With A Democratic Society"…
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Unacceptable Actions Of A Police State”…
St. Petersburg Times: “So Dangerously Ill-Conceived And Contrary To This Nation's Guiding Principles”…
NY Times: Bush "Secretly And Recklessly Expanded The Govt.'s Powers In Dangerous And Unnecessary Ways"…
See also: "Spying on Americans: The Latest Developments"
Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Inn
& Breakfast Inn
UPDATE: August 4, 1892. A wealthy businessman and his wife found brutally murdered in their Victorian home in Fall River, Massachusetts. The Accused: the youngest daughter, Lizzie. The Verdict: Not Guilty!
So goes the lore of the most famous crime in the annals of American history. The mystery remains: If Lizzie Borden did not wield the murder weapon, who did?
Our beautifully restored Greek-revival home is now a first-class bed & breakfast. You are invited to choose one of 7 beautifully appointed bedrooms and roam the house to learn the true facts. What were the thoughts of the first police officers on the scene? Who were the suspects? What was the public’s reaction? Will you join the legions who think Lizzie guilty, or will you choose to be a stalwart defender?
In the morning we invite you to enjoy a hot breakfast reminiscent of the food the Borden’s ate on that fateful Thursday in 1892.
For a unique experience, be our guest for an evening …Lizzie awaits you.
D'oh.
AP - Wed Sep 8, 7:48 AM ET
Monroe County Coroner David Toumey was hospitalized with a leg wound after accidentally shooting himself while trying to demonstrate gun safety.
LINK
Monday, December 19, 2005
Check out this motel
on my old Ezboard:
Queen Uhuru | Check out this motel ...lordy! Click on the "Sleep" link and check out some of the rooms. This place has to be the ultimate in tacky. Ya gotta love it! www.madonnainn.com/ |
Sombida | OMG LOL! I couldn't stop clicking...its got to be the tackiest place I've ever see...wait a minute, so you think they're all the same three rooms, but their software changes the wall paper and color of the vinal chairs and bed spreads? How'd you like to sleep in the cave room...kinda like a dungeon!It looks like they got a special on primary colored sinal sofas and chairs, as well as floral bedspreads and wallpaper.Try clicking on the ones at the bottom, they go so far over the top it actually starts to look surreal. Funny Uhuru. |
Queen Uhuru | There's a lot of vinyl in those rooms. Ugh. And the cave rooms? Because of all the stonework, those rooms can't have air conditioning. Talk about feeling suffocated! |
specteach | And I thought Motel 6 was a dive joint! lmao!Gosh, gives me a headache looking at those colors...then again, I guess if you were smoking a 'peace pipe' would it matter? lol |
Geminalaya | this motel rocks! i'm seroously thinking of booking a room... which one, thats tuff..lmao! |
Queen Uhuru | I think this motel looks like fun even if it is tacky. I wonder what they sell in their gift shop. I bet they even have pink flamingos in their driveway. |
Your Gross and Cool Body
Poop, gas, dandruff, zits, ear wax, digestion, circulation and more!
CLICK FOR THE SNOT PAGE
Whatever Happened To...
The Online Compendium of 'What Ever Happened To?' and 'Where Are They Now?'
Ever wonder what happened to... Eddie The Eagle? The chick who shot Andy Warhol? That 'Mikey' kid from the Life Cereal commercial? Well you've come to the right place, this is where we track the has-beens, the flash-in-the-pans and those pseudo-celebrities who were all too annoying during their 15 measly minutes.
VISIT THE WEBSITE
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Saddam Hussein Sign Maker
CLICK TO MAKE YOUR OWN SIGN!
This webpage has an assortment
of characters to choose from.)
Parody of a "current event"
Crank Phone Calls
Visit "The Weekly Giggle" for more funny shit.
ZOO BREATH (.wav)
2x4's (.wav)
RED ROVER (.wav)
GIRLY MAGS (.wav)
HIP-HOP JOHNNY (.wav)
DJ's CRANK PHONE CALL TO COWORKER'S
HOME GOES TERRIBLY WRONG
(633K - MP3 file)
Yo Mama Jokes
Yo mama so fat
Yo mama so fat when her beeper goes off, people thought she was backing up
Yo mama so fat she eats Wheat Thicks.
Yo mama so fat she went to the movies and sat next to everyone.
Yo mama so fat she got to iron her pants on the driveway
Yo mama so fat when she sits around the house, she SITS AROUND THE HOUSE!
Yo mama so fat when she steps on a scale, it read "one at a time, please"
Yo mama so fat when she sits on my face I can't hear the stereo.
Yo mama so fat when she plays hopscotch, she goes New York, L.A., Chicago...
Yo mama so fat she wakes up in sections!
Yo mama so fat she sat on a quarter and a booger shot out of george washington's nose.
Yo mama so fat when she jumps up in the air she gets stuck!!!
Yo mama so fat she's on both sides of the family!
Yo mama so fat she got hit by a parked car!
Yo mama is so stupid
Yo mama so stupid it took her 2 hours to watch 60 minutes
Yo mama so stupid that she puts lipstick on her head just to make-up her mind
Yo mama so stupid that she tried to put M&M's in alphabetical order!
Yo mama so stupid she thinks a quarterback is a refund!
Yo mama so stupid she asked you "What is the number for 911"
Yo mama so stupid she got stabbed in a shoot out
Yo mama so stupid she took the Pepsi challenge and chose Jif
More Yo Mama jokes in the "Comments Section"
Brilliant Brain Fart
Millions of Games
Community tagging (Mogging) Community tagging or Mogging has become increasingly popular over the last 12 months. We were inspired by a number of tagging sites such as del.icio.us and flickr.com to create a tagging site for casual games. We're big fans of casual games and it just felt that games and tagging should go together. We've been working on MOG since the end of 2004 and after a lot of hard work and some pretty smart coding, we're now ready to unleash it onto the the casual gaming world... |
Friday, December 16, 2005
All You Need Is Love
The surviving Beatles and relatives of the band's late members have begun legal action against record company EMI to get royalties allegedly worth £30m.
Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and relations of George Harrison and John Lennon claim EMI owes record royalties to their company Apple Corps.
The band have issued legal proceedings in the High Court in London and the Supreme Court in New York.
EMI said it welcomed "full financial transparency" with its artists.
Settlement
The band allege EMI owes more than £30m in record royalties to Apple, which was allegedly uncovered during an audit of Apple accounts.
Legal proceedings were issued on Thursday in the High Court in London and the Supreme Court in New York.
Apple Corp chief Neil Aspinall said: "We have tried to reach a settlement through good faith negotiations and regret that our efforts have been in vain.
"Despite very clear provisions in our contracts, EMI persist in ignoring their obligations and duty to account fairly and with transparency.
"Apple and the Beatles are, once again, left with no choice but to sue EMI."
COMPLETE ARTICLE
Mystery Solved
Mona Lisa 'happy', computer finds
A computer has been used to decipher the enigmatic smile of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, concluding that she was mainly happy.
The painting was analysed by a University of Amsterdam computer using "emotion recognition" software.
It concluded that the subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry, New Scientist magazine was told.
The computer rated features such as the curvature of the lips and crinkles around the eyes.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Build Your Own Rollercoaster
ALSO: Atari's software, "Rollercoaster Tycoon" (various incarnations/versions)
Various websites:
Welcome to Ultimate Rollercoaster.com, the definitive online destination for Roller Coasters, Theme Parks and Thrill Rides.
Funderstanding Roller Coaster - Java applet designed to teach about the physics of roller coaster design. Users alter several variables to achieve maximum excitement and safety.
Roller Coaster DataBase - The rcdb is a comprehensive, searchable database with information and statistics on over 1800 roller coasters throughout the world.
Software: Thrill-Filled Roller Coaster Simulator - NoLimits is the ultimate roller coasters simulation game that let´s you experience authentic roller coaster thrills. Focusing on realism and speed, NoLimits lets you ride real existing coasters, or build rollercoasters to your own specifications - with 18 different track styles, including inverted, hyper-coasters, wooden and shuttle coasters.
Play Online: Fantasy Rollercoaster - Miniclip.com
Grandma George's Marijuana Cookbook
Grandma George's Green Hello and welcome to my cooking with marijuana website. I am Grandma George, 70 years young as of the year 2005, mother of three boys, and grandmother of six. I have lived all my life on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. All three of my children use cannabis. I am very open minded on the 420 subject. One day in the year 1975 I noticed one of my sons sprinkling something on his morning toast... |
By the way, pure homegrown marijuana with no chemical additives and not cut with anything else, just in its plain pure state is 100% kosher (vegetation).
This is interesting...
WWF says catlike carnivore may be endangered by rainforest development
GENEVA - Environmental researchers are preparing to capture what they call a new, mysterious species of carnivore on Borneo, the first such discovery on the wildlife-rich Indonesian island in more than a century.
The Swiss-based environmental group WWF said on Monday that its researchers photographed the strange animal, which looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, in the dense, central mountainous rainforests of Borneo.
COMPLETE ARTICLE (with picture!!!)
Saturday, December 10, 2005
I'm Feeling Lucky!
The way Google decides which page gets "lucky" is to pick the most linked-to page for that search term.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Bestiality at the Box Office?
King Kong: Bestiality Is Booming At the Box Office
Our Pastor says, Enough is enough! Movie Review!
(Above is from the Landover Baptist Church Website, a parody website)
Computer Brain Farts
I am now getting a "spyware warning" every time Windows starts up and it's for a program or .exe file that's required for my internet telephone service. It really is on my computer for a valid reason and I guess I have to teach the Norton to automatically authorize it to have access to the internet.
But still, it's creepy to see those warning things pop up onscreen and they don't explain anything about the program. So I need to dig a little further and I found one website where they have a bunch of programs listed: STARTUP INSPECTOR.
More websites with handy information on computer stuff:
What is Malware? (Definition from Webopedia)
Malware FAQ from Microsoft
Free Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool scans your hard disk for and tries to remove certain variants of known worms and viruses
Adware, Spyware and other unwanted "malware" - and how to remove them
Online malware scan
Ad-Aware by Lavasoft
PCHell - How to Remove Spyware (and they have instructions for specific programs)
Spyware Center from CNet Download.com
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Hello... we're at even GREATER risk for a terrorist attack?
AP - 2 hours, 4 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The U.S. is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures, members of the former Sept. 11 commission said Sunday.
Earthfart
44 Acres of Coastline Collapse in Hawaii
Dec 02 7:02 PM US/Eastern
HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii - About 44 acres of coastline collapsed into the ocean this week, setting loose a glowing stream of lava that shot out from the newly exposed cliffside 45 feet above the water. The plume, 6 feet in diameter, sent up a tower of steam as it hit the water and began forming a ramp of new land.
The collapse of solidified lava shelf and sea cliff Monday was the largest since Kilauea Volcano began its current eruption in 1983.
Rumblings tipped scientists to Monday's collapse, which took about 4 1/2 hours. Even at that relatively slow pace, the effect was spectacular.
"The cliff just caved away like a glacier," said park spokesman Jim Gale. "It just sheared off that old wall. There's this gigantic steam plume and you see the red just falling down _ an incredible fire hose display."
The collapse sent out globs of lava and head-size boulders. Sheets of volcanic glass called limu o Pele, after the Hawaiian goddess of fire, and thin strands of volcanic glass known as Pele's hair were found 1,800 feet inland.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
An Actual Nice Thought -- Who'da Thunk?
CHAIN OF LOVE I rise each day to rain or shine And start my busy day. So much to do, so much to be, So much to think and say. I'm grateful Lord, for all I have; Family, friends, and health. Faith and hope together Lord Convince me of my wealth. And should I stop and help someone I meet along the way, That chain of love will start anew And make that person's day. We all must do the things we can For people on this earth; Being there for all who need, Reminders of their worth. So share a smile, a hug, or poem With someone on your way. You never know when you may have A stranger make your day! -- by Lisa Moulden-Pankow |