If you see only one biopic this year, see this one. If you see only 27 biopics this year, see Weird: The Al Yankovic Story 27 times!"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" from Aaron P...
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
What is "Chutzpah"?
Because I'm feeling extra cranky tonight (and have for the past 24 hours or so)..."Chutzpah" is a Yiddish word meaning "shameless audacity". It's an olden Hebrew term that in his book The Joys of Yiddish author Leo Rosten describes as "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts,' presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to."So what fits in the category of "chutzpah"?One example of chutzpah is the...
Snack bar in Pompeii reopens for first time since 79 A.D.
The last time that the thermopolium in Pompeii, Italy enjoyed patronage was August 24th, 79 A.D. And then nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted and completely buried the city. The stylish snack bar was evacuated in such a hurry that the tip jar was even left behind.As of this week and under new management (previous owner Vetutius Placidus having long since retired or worse), the...
For everyone who's watching LOST (about tonight's episode)...
"Ab Aeterno", this week's episode of Lost, will presumably - at long last - give us the story of Richard Alpert: the man who doesn't age.And this installment is apparently so important that it will broadcast six minutes longer than most regular episodes.Bear that in mind and set your DVRs according...
Monday, March 22, 2010
Why Republicans WON'T try to repeal health care overhaul
Michael D. Tanner of the Cato Institute has written an essay about the costs of Obamacare, which passed the House last night (and which I nearly reacted to on this blog with a blunt "We are sooo f-cked", before better angels of my nature prevailed).In his article Tanner makes the following prediction, and I thought it was well worth making note of...Republicans won't really try to repeal it. Republicans will run this fall on a promise to repeal this...
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Volcano erupts at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland
From The Reykjavík Grapevine ...Volcano Erupts Under Eyjafjallajökull21.3.2010Words by Haukur S. MagnússonA volcanic eruption has just begun under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. This has been verified by local authorities in neighbouring Hvolsvöllur. Vísir reports that farms in the Fljótshlíð area and by Markarhlíð are already being evacuated. Locals in the area have confirmed...
Obamacare "health care reform" may be voted on today in the House
Obamacare should be sufficient proof that our federal government is "deem 'n pass"-essed.I demand that Nancy Pelosi give me a lifetime supply of short-sleeve shirts. After all, the Constitution guarantees a "right to bare arms".Obamacare is going to be a violation of the separation of church and state, because it violates my religious freedom on grounds that I believe that having insurance is a form of gambling.Okay, seriously...This will be the...
Saturday, March 20, 2010
More random wit and wisdom of Chris Knight...
Religion is how people run from God. Politics is how people run from sanity.(With grateful acknowledgment to Charlotte Butler Wright, who came up with the first part and has it on her Facebook page. And I've witnessed the second part more times than I care to coun...
Friday, March 19, 2010
A textbook education in ignorance
A few days ago my friend and fellow blogger Matthew Federico addressed the situation with history education in the state of Texas. In case you missed that bit of news, last week the Texas State Board of Education voted 10 to 5 to make drastic changes to the history, social studies and economics curricula being taught in that state's schools.The vote occurred along split partisan lines. The ten Republicans on the board voted for the curriculum changes...
Want a new house? This new gadget will PRINT you out one
3-D printing is starting to become quite a commercially viable technology. And now a smart-thinkin' dude named Enrico Dini has raised the game bigtime with the D-Shape printer: a large-scale printer that consumes sand and along with magnesium-based glue, can churn out furniture, sculpture... and even entire buildings!Dini suggests that in the future, his technique could be...
Mapping Christianity in North America
Click the image below to drastically embiggen this map of Christian denominational distribution across the United States, Canada and Mexico courtesy of the cartographical geniuses at Floatingsheep...That big green chunk of geography represents overwhelmingly Baptist populations. The "thin red line" stretching roughly from northern Virginia across to the Midwest is primarily...
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Google accuses Viacom of secretly uploading its own videos to YouTube (WOW!!!)
This is gonna be a helluva fun thing to watch. I'm getting the popcorn ready even now...Media conglomermonster Viacom - which has tied up the video hosting service in litigation for the past three years over "copyright infringement" - is now said to have been secretly uploading its own videos to the Google-owned website!From the statement on the official YouTube blog, pertaining to court documents made public earlier today...Because content owners...
NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE returns and brings back tales of ribaldry most foul!
Way, waaay back in 1845 began publication of National Police Gazette. In many aspects it was the forerunner of such uniquely American journalistic institutions as The National Enquirer, Howard Stern and... maybe blogs like this one! National Police Gazette had a long and illustrious run (and quite an illustrated one as you can see from the image on the left) up until 1977.And...
Ten unbelievably awesome low-pass flybys
This clip begins with that scene from Top Gun where Tom Cruise buzzes the control tower. And it then proceeds to assault your senses (and possibly good sense) with ten low-altitude flybys that Hollywood probably wouldn't dare do without 'spensive computer graphics. But these are real. And #3 on this list had me literally grabbing at my own head, it's so scary! That dude on the ground has some brass ones...Okay, #3 is maybe all the more amazing...
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Consolation for the UNC Chapel Hill fans
For what it's worth, I had this thought today:The Tarheels now finally have the opportunity to achieve something they've never earned before...A National Invitational Tournament championship banner hanging from the rafters of the Dean Dome! ...
