BattleMech in the Russian Revolution wrecks havoc with Australian students!

From the land Down Under, The Age has the following very strange story of historical revisionism and giant robots. From the article...VCE scores changed over Battle Tech Marauder confusionFebruary 8, 2013Jewel TopsfieldOne hundred and thirty confused VCE history students had their scores adjusted after an artwork featuring a mysterious robot who appeared to be assisting socialist...

Read More

The world in 1415

I was already up in the wee hours of the morning when the news came out of the Vatican that Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, announced that he will be resigning the papacy at the end of this month.My first thought was "is this a joke?", but that notion lasted the better part of 8 seconds. When it finally sank in that His Holiness would, indeed, be exiting the post he has held since succeeding John Paul II in 2005, my mind...

Read More

Saw WARM BODIES yesterday...

I can't decide if Warm Bodies is a zombie movie with romance and comedy or if it's a romantic comedy with zombies. Either way, I enjoyed it.(Yeah I'm making two posts in a row about zombies. I'll refrain from overkill by stating here that we also saw the trailer for World War Z and it looked much better than that ad that ran during the Super Bowl"big game".)Warm Bodies...

Read More

THE WALKING DEAD returns with "The Suicide King"

It's currently taking me about 20 hours to watch a new episode of AMC's The Walking Dead after it premieres on cable. That's out of voluntary choice however, because I'm a good boyfriend. See, m'lady Kristen is a huge fan of this show too... but since we're over an hour away from each other and she doesn't get regular cable (note to self: get Roku as soon as possible) we...

Read More

"Winter is coming"... and this iOS app will help guide your way!

Last spring I added a new vice to my list of stuff worth spending valuable time on. I haven't spoken about it on this blog yet but those who know me best will tell you that I have become a huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire (AKA Game of Thrones), the fantasy novel series by George R.R. Martin. Kristen gave me a Barnes & Noble gift card for my birthday last year and I...

Read More

Wars have consequences. Don't we know that?

My great-uncle Rob was a G.I. who served in the Pacific during World War II. But unless you were family you likely would have never known that. It was something that, like many others who served during that conflict, he never liked to talk about.Mom told me when I was a child that Uncle Rob had to kill an enemy soldier. I didn't know until years later that it was during...

Read More

Fred Astaire, dancing, in full makeup as Alfred E. Neuman...

The temptation yesterday was to post this then. But it's something so offbeat and unique that I felt the original article at Ain't It Cool News deserved 24 hours to stand on its own. But I really could not possibly be more giddy about sharing this...In 1959, dancing legend Fred Astaire had a televised special called... well, Another Evening With Fred Astaire. And during...

Read More

Restaurant gives parents $4 discount for "WELL BEHAVED KIDS"

You can't have any doubt: those three kids are going to turn out great! They're gonna be really thankful someday that they have two awesome parents like the Kings.Laura King and her husband took their three children - ages two, three and eight - out for dinner at a swanky Italian restaurant in Poulsbo, Washington. And when they got the ticket at the end of the meal... it...

Read More

Missing no more: King Richard III found at last!

They paved Plantagenet and put up a parking lot. Richard III of England, in better days I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majestyTo strut before a wanton ambling nymph;I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my timeInto this breathing world, scarce half made up,And that so lamely...

Read More

February 3rd, 1943: The Four Chaplains

It was cold as it gets, that early February morning on the North Atlantic. The USAT Dorchester was en route to Greenland, carrying nearly nine hundred U.S. soldiers on their way to the European theater. The Dorchester was part of a convoy of Navy and Coast Guard vessels: necessity for the grim threat of the German U-boats.The Dorchester was struck by torpedo just before...

Read More

Damnable 100th Anniversary to the federal income tax!

Today officially marks one century of extortion at the point of a gun by the Internal Revenue Service!It was on this day, February 3rd 1913, that the 16th Amendment was allegedly ratified (there exists substantial evidence that the amendment was not passed per due process by enough states, that and then-Secretary of State Philander Knox's declaration that the amendment was "in effect").The 16th reads...The Congress shall have power to lay and collect...

Read More

Obama gets DOOMed

I couldn't help myself. You might say the "id" within me was irresistible.You know that photo the White House released of President Obama "skeet-shooting" at Camp David? Yeah: the one the White House also warned us peons against "manipulating" a'la Photoshop.It was begging to be done though. Here is Barack Obama fighting off the legions of Hell... "Gun-free zones" are...

Read More

Very late-night ponderance about the Bible

The Word of God is perhaps a sword, but never should be a weap...

Read More

In memory of the crew of STS-107

The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, who perished in re-entry from Mission STS-107 ten years ago today February 1, 20...

Read More

U.S. soldier gets double-arm transplant (WOW!)

Whatever faults there might be with American healthcare, you have to admit: it still kicks ass like nobody else!Retired U.S. Army Sergeant Brendan Marrocco (right) lost all four limbs to a roadside bomb attack while serving in Iraq in 2009. It's nothing short of miraculous that Marrocco is the most severely-injured American service member to have survived such an ordeal.It's...

Read More

Dung beetles use Milky Way to move poop

That's odd. I've eaten lots of Milky Way bars at my girlfriend's house......and I didn't know the stuff was a laxative.*rimshot* "Yes ladies and gentlemen I'll be here all week!!" Actually I speak of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is most visible in the Southern Hemisphere and which the humble dung beetle of sub-Saharan Africa uses for stellar navigation, scientist have recently...

Read More

Homeland Security sez: Fight mass shooters with scissors!

Shear-ly they can't be serious.Just when you'd think that the Department of Homeland Security could not possibly prove it's the most useless U.S. government agency in the history of anything... they release this:So if a carbine-wielding madman bursts into your office or school and starts shooting up the place, fend him off with a pair of scissors! Unless he also has a rock...

Read More