Simpsons
Some freak made a Simpsons 40k army. LOL

Counting the days.

ABC7Chicago.com: Prison may save 650 pound woman's life

"Prosecutors say they don't know where the money went but think it may have gone to food."

Link thanks to JettJag

For all you geeks who fear Anthrax: Build your own Gas Mask from computer parts.

LiveJournal, a company which provides blogger-like services, has been having some outage problems lately. But we shouldn't worry, as this handy graph or livejournal's business plan shows us.

McMaster.com, because you never know when you're going to need 30 feet of heat-shrink plastic tubing, a 5/16" telescoping hole guage and an ingot of low melting point ceramite.

Man Dies After Long And Painful Battle With Life

"I just hope that when my turn comes, I go peacefully in my sleep like Dad," Daniel continued. "Come to think of it, the sooner the better."

I, Cringely | The Pulpit

"So the shocking questions for this week are 1) Is Bill Gates really the father of the Open Source software movement? and; 2) If Bill isn't the father of Open Source, did he violate a crucial IBM nondisclosure agreement and ought to pay billions in damages to Big Blue as a result?"

I'll spoil it for you. No he didn't, but he's pretty darn slippery none the less.

washingtonpost.com: Ex-FBI Officials Criticize Tactics On Terrorism

"The aggressive FBI dragnet -- championed by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft -- has provoked much commentary and criticism for its impact on civil liberties. Now, in a series of on-the-record interviews, eight former high-ranking FBI officials have offered the first substantive critique of the Ashcroft program, questioning whether the new approach will have the desired effect."

The Independent Weekly: The Poster Police

This is sort of a strange story - a teenager with activist tendencies has a poster protesting George Bush's death sentence record in Texas. She also seems not to get along with her neighbors. Next thing you know, the Secret Service are at the door wanting to search the place for "Anti-American stuff or something like that". It seems this wasn't a serious incident (I'll bet the Secret Service guys felt pretty stupid). Nevertheless, there's a warning here. When anonymous tips can lead to criminal action, we put ourselves in a precarious situation in regards to civil liberties.

Harried by Harry hype? Here's how to survive it

"If someone uses the term "Dark Arts," fall into a lengthy discussion of Picasso's Blue Period, giving your keen insight into how the sentimentality of these works seems to arise from the artist's feelings of isolation, as he was only in his late teens and was dirt poor."

Somebody (who I'm sure must have worked in the marketing department of a dot-com until very recently) came up with Marketwrap Unwrapped, an online show where stock market news is read by nude models. Tony.dowler.com does not imply any endorsement of this product, nor did we even have the guts to check it out.

Thanks to JettJag for the link. ;)

Cloning Update

Salon.com Life | Vatican condemns cloning of embryo

"Reacting to the news that the scientists had cloned a six-cell embryo, the Vatican said that the event 'moves us to restate with force that the beginning of human life cannot be fixed by convention at a certain stage of embryonic development; it takes place, in reality, already at the first instant of the embryo itself.'"

The lines are being drawn.

Presenting a new standard. When you compete in an online test, and post your results to the blog, you are OFFICIALLY DONE surfing the web for the day.

At ~ f a e r i e g r o v e . c o m ~ you can buy a set of custom wings. Fly away, little bird.

First Tim Kingman topped the tony.dowler.com search referrers. Then, Ossama Bin Laden made the long slow climb to first place, pulling an uncertain Bert into third place with him. But now, in less than a month, I have received over 60 search referrals for Annika Irmler, the girl with the world's longest tongue. I'm very disturbed by this. Are there really that many people out there willing to wade through a bunch of completely randomized site (like mine) looking for pictures of a German schoolgirl sticking her tongue out?

I don't take credit for any of these pictures.

Soylent Green is made of people!

"Our intention is not to create cloned human beings but rather to make lifesaving therapies for a wide range of human disease conditions, including diabetes, strokes, cancer, Aids, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease."

The researchers claim that they 'don't intend' to create human clones. As far as I can tell, this is exactly what they've done. They've figured out how to make a human, though they do intend to destroy the embryo before it begins to resemble an adult human. The technology being discussed here is far more morally ambiguous than the researchers are willing to admit, and this article doesn't challenge them on it at all. We are now technologically one step closer to creating humans as part of an industrial process.

More information: BBC News Stem Cell Q&A

Vatican funding research into ethical alternatives

President Bush's comments on stem cell research

Update: The Salon story has more details

Top Stories - The News International, Pakistan

"The sources said 35 bodies have arrived at Jacobabad Airbase, where heavy activity is being witnessed as the US helicopters are busy bringing in bodies and injured from Afghanistan."

Is it just me, or are the Islamic news agencies consistently scooping the west? Link thanks to Metafilter. Please note that this report has so far been denied by the coalition news agency.

Scott Blake - Bar Code Art

This is neat.

BBC News | AFRICA | US shuts down Somalia internet

"Somalia's only internet company and a key telecoms business have been forced to close because the United States suspects them of terrorist links."

I wonder if this is contributing to the lousy connectivity today. This also reminds me of a related fact: a huge percentage of all world phone and internet traffic runs through the United States, even traffice between foreign nations. This gives the United States the ability to tap those links for intelligence puposes or, in theory at least, shut them down.

Today is Buy Nothing Day!!! (and the site has some great spoof ads too)

Grudge Match: Harry Potter vs. Anakin Skywalker

I saw Halo today. I just happened to be at the video game store in Pacific Place Mall after my dental appointment, and they had an Xbox on display. A couple of space marines were going at it with aliens. As I watched, they were strafed by alien fighters. As they leapt into their SUV and opened up with the cannon, the fighters dipped below the hills to circle around and attack from another angle. The game is smooth and beautiful. While I was there, three people came in and two more phoned to either buy or reserve Xboxs. The store had five when I arrive and only three when I left fifteen minutes later.

The Tourist Guy Original Email

Yes, the tourist guy has been found.

I know, I know, I just posted a fulai test, but after John hosed me by 2%, I figured that I had to find a category where he can't beat me! BTW John, I opened four terminal windows and re-took the test, so now I'm tied with you.

I am 51% ADDICTED TO THE INTERNET.



I am pretty addicted, but there is hope. I think I'm just well connected to the internet and technology, but it's really a start of a drug-like addiction. I must act now! Unplug this computer!


Take the INTERNET-ADDICT Test at Fuali.com!

Castle links, because castles are way cool.

European-Castle.com: castles, restaurants, tourism,schloss

180 Castle Links

What do you want for Christmas?

The Decline of Spengler (Real Audio)

Link courtesy of KCRW.

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | "Harry Potter" rolls up boffo box office

"Wizards vanquished lizards as ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' grossed $93.5 million in its first weekend, shattering the box-office debut record held by the dinosaur sequel ''The Lost World: Jurassic Park.'

Just in case you didn't know yet, Harry Potter rules. Now let's just wait for LOTR.

Nobody Here

This site is a blast. You can also click on the typist's thought balloons to discover more neat stuff. Thanks to Sacco for the link!

We've got tickets for the 11:30 pm showing of Harry Potter!

Check out the Goth Girl Barbie!

I AM 43% GEEK.

I probably work in computers, or a history
deptartment at a college. I never really
fit in with the "normal" crowd. But I have
friends, and this is a good thing.

Take the GEEK Test at Fuali.com!

The Register

"Broadband customers and US military systems are the most common victims of an online phenomenon researchers have dubbed "dark address space," which leaves some 100 million hosts completely unreachable from portions of the Internet."

Link thanks to Philos.

 

wayofthestick

THIS RULES

Wacky String Explosion at JPL Damages Car

What you don't know about crazy string could kill you!

Hey y'all, comments appear to be working again, and the pop-up ads have disappeared... for now.

Taliban Withdrawal Was Strategy, Not Rout

"In less than a week, Taliban fighters have been swept from most of northern Afghanistan, including the key cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kunduz, Taloqan, Bamiyan, Jalalabad and the capital Kabul. How did a force that only two months ago controlled most of Afghanistan get swept from the battlefield so quickly, and is the battle over? Evidence suggests it has only just begun."

I've linked Stratfor before. It's one of the few places you can get actual strategic analysis instead of soundbites and photo ops.

I've got the world's longest tongue

"German schoolgirl Annika Irmler has licked her way into the Guinness Book of Records with her whopping seven centimetre tongue."

I'm Sorry!

It seems some people are getting popup ads when they hit my site. If this happens to you, I'm sorry. I'm going to see what I can do. Hopefuly I won't have to move to a new provider.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Rumors of War (It's Not Easy Being Green)

A week ago I blogged a story about how Green Party member Nancy Ogden was denied passage on a flight to the Green Party convention in Chicago. Well, Snopes.com here explains that this may not have been a case of political persecution, and merely a run-in with annoying security guards.

It's about time I said something about Shattered Galaxy. I was on the beta test for this game, and I was very impressed. Nexon has managed to lick the problem of mixing the RTS and the massive multiplayer genres. SG is an RTS game kind of like starcraft. Each player is a member of a faction vying for control of a planet. When you log on, you see the territories on the planet and you find one where you're faction is fighting. When you arrive, you switch to a real-time strategy interface. You and your units gain experience over time, and the units are what make this game really cool. Units start out pretty basic, but as you progress, you can customize the weapons and extras. Most units work best in a certain role, but you can build really strange combos to surprise your opponent.

Wild and crazy guy? Martin's appeal isn't that simple

"He published a novel last year that was touching and true, and he is an expert on modern art, and he is capable of hosting the Academy Awards and starring in a David Mamet movie and writing for the New Yorker and, no doubt, brooding a lot."

Steve Martin is one of my heros. He's the lesser deity of artistic multi-tasking. I had a dream about him in Rome. And it was a very, very good first novel. I recommend it.

Salon.com People | Novelist Ken Kesey dies at 66

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a really great novel.

BBC News | AMERICAS | Author and hippie icon Kesey dies

"American author Ken Kesey, who wrote the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and whose exploits spawned the hippie movement has died."

U.S. Will Monitor Calls to Lawyers (washingtonpost.com)

"The attorney-client eavesdropping authority is an addition to the "special administrative measures" the government has imposed on certain inmates since the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. They include solitary confinement, interception of mail and restrictions on visitors and telephone calls. But until Ashcroft signed the new regulation, they were limited to 120-day periods. Now, all such steps can be ordered for a year at a time and renewed indefinitely at one-year intervals."

Author Kesey in critical condition - The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA

"Novelist Ken Kesey was in critical condition Thursday in the intensive care unit at Sacred Heart Medical Center after surgery two weeks ago to remove a tumor from his liver."

So you want to be a martial arts superhero, eh? Then check out the Random Martial Arts Move Generator. My favorite so far is 'thirty toes style'.

Bishop banishes evil from 'cursed' stadium

A Brit soccer team apparently needed a Bishop to life the Gypsy's curse that has been plaguing their record.

"Since the bishop's intervention last Friday, the team's fortunes have started to improve, with a 2-2 draw at home against York City."

The Seattle Times: Editorials & Opinion: When did the Taliban become our focus?

"But I've been looking at hundreds of newspaper articles going back before the August 1998 bombing of the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and I find virtually no mention of any suspicion of the Taliban as an exporter of terrorism."

Who Framed Mary Magdalene?

Who indeed? From Pope Gregory the Great's homily about how Luke's sinner and MM were one and the same, to Nikos Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ, the belief that MM was a (penitent) prostitute has persisted in legend. However, there is no Biblical evidence that MM was engaged in the "oldest profession."

dack.com > web > flash is evil

"Incorporating Flash into an HTML page or splash screen is bad, but entire sites built with Flash are positively evil..."

About time someone told it like it is. Down with flash!

World History : HyperHistory

This is an online variation on the "world history wall chart" that was selling in the back of science mags about a decade ago. Pretty neat.

Tippmann Hellhound

The Tippmann Hellhound is an ATV designed specifically for paintball. It includes a multi-barrelled gatling paintball gun as its main weaponry, and two side mounted automatics. A little much, IMHO.

GP USA Coordinator Detained

"Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party USA coordinating committee member, Thursday at Bangor International Airport in Bangor Maine, as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight to Chicago."

We're back!