"No longer like a toad in these foul cellars will I secret the venom of hatred -- for you shall bring me love!" - Erik
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« November 2006 | Main | January 2007 » December 22, 2006Insignificant worm, don't you know it's the holidays?  We're off from work for a week, so we won't be posting anything on the blog (not that we, ummm, post on our blog while we're at work!). I've left MODOK in charge of things around here, so don't screw around. By fnord12 | December 22, 2006, 3:00 PM | Comics & My stupid life | Comments (3) | Link Racism Abounds, Bring Back the Nazis So, it's bad enough we got this joker in the Senate: Republican Rep. Virgil Goode's letter to constituents also warns that without immigration overhaul "we will have many more Muslims in the United States." Spokesman Linwood Duncan said Goode's letter was written in response to complaints his office received about Minnesota Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's request to be sworn in using the Quran. I noticed there's not a huge uproar denouncing Goode's remarks or a push from the Republicans to either get Goode to retract and apologize or to distance themselves from him. That's not a good sign for the non-racist populace. Not only that, they are letting crackpots on MSNBC talk about how "strange" it is that the focus should be on Goode's remarks as opposed to Ellison "creating" controversy. Cause he's the one "making a big stink", not the racists. Nice spin. Democrats and liberals, take notes. But now, people are actually taking plays from the Nazi handbook. When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly. The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us." I'm surprised this guy was able to do this on his radio show without Clear Channel types deciding they needed to fire his "anti-American" ass. He goes on to discuss how disturbed and disgusted he was with people's reactions. "I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL, which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland. It's just shocking and disturbing that we've gotten to this point. All the times the neo-cons and Evangelists used the term "nazi" to describe someone who was a feminist or who was opposed to invading Iraq or the NYT for blowing the whistle on the illegal NSA wiretapping, we were disgusted by their casual and unwarranted use of the term. Now we have 39% of the people polled actually embracing the very same idea the Nazis had in WWII. Tattoo them. Put them in camps. They are the other. They are a threat to us. We are superior. We are good. Where can we run? Where can we hide from the madmen? By min | December 22, 2006, 3:00 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link Remind me to read this later This post isn't really for you, but you can also read Dave from Dave's Long Box talk about Thor if you want. By fnord12 | December 22, 2006, 2:52 PM | Comics| Link D&D Humor These are old stories but they're still pretty funny*. The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo (link) Eric was playing a Neutral Paladin in Ed's game. He was on some lord's lands when the following exchange occurred: ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo. At this point, the increasingly amused fellow party members restored a modicum of order by explaining to Eric what a gazebo is. Thus ends the tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo. It could have been worse; at least the gazebo wasn't on a grassy gnoll. The Head of Vecna (link) Many years ago (back when we all were still playing D&D), I ran a game where I pitted two groups against each other. *If you're a big geek. By fnord12 | December 22, 2006, 9:41 AM | D&D| Link
Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking Oh ... sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking And now I know how Joan of Arc felt Bigmouth, la ... bigmouth, la ... Oh, bigmouth, ha ha ... bigmouth, la And now I know how Joan of Arc felt Oh, bigmouth, la ... bigmouth, la ... Bigmouth, oh ... bigmouth, la ... And now I know how Joan of Arc felt Oh, bigmouth, oh ... bigmouth, la ... Bigmouth, oh ... bigmouth, la ... Bigmouth By min | December 21, 2006, 1:46 PM | Music| Link
What the hell do we need him and his conditions for? Bush says he'll support a minimum wage increase, if Democrats will also include a tax cut. Screw him - no one needs to make deals with him at this point. Let him veto a bill raising the minimum wage. We'll see if those approval ratings can go any lower. By fnord12 | December 20, 2006, 4:38 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link Finally, A Use for Shakespeare Because Shakespeare had poor grammar, reading his works stimulates your brain. Your brain has to work harder to figure out what the hell he's talking about, so in essence, reading his stuff is good for you. Who knew? By min | December 20, 2006, 1:12 PM | Science | Comments (2) | Link The Nose Knows I don't know what they're so excited about. fnord12 and adam did this experiment years ago when they located the Hostess factory using nothing but adam's nose to navigate. adam could have out-tracked all of these suckers. By min | December 20, 2006, 1:07 PM | Science | Comments (6) | Link Mush Found this over at Cute Overload.  By min | December 20, 2006, 10:53 AM | Ummm... Other?| Link
Alcohol Good For Brain Or something. The Canadians did a study that shows those who are mildly intoxicated have a greater chance of recovering from brain injuries than those who are highly intoxicated or not intoxicated at all. They don't exactly say why. Perhaps it's a trick. They put out this "study" and then people in other countries start drinking up thinking it's good for their brain. Instead, it just makes them more likely to kill themselves and others in drunk driving ("drink driving" if you're British) accidents. Then the Canadians finally get revenge on all the people who made fun of them for being Canadian! It's brilliant! "Let me be clear: Drinking and driving will not protect your head," he said. If anyone would like to test out this theory, i'd be willing to supply the blunt head trauma. I'll need you to sign a waiver first, though. By min | December 19, 2006, 11:52 AM | Science | Comments (1) | Link Tuesday Death Report: Barbera Joe Barbera of Hanna-Barbera died yesterday at the age of 95. By min | December 19, 2006, 11:48 AM | TeeVee | Comments (1) | Link
Make us happy: raise our taxes Link: Yet the right says we can't even do even 39 percent. For Democrats, this ought to be the real Social Security crisis: Why aren't we at 70 percent? The OECD economists think that's what our debate should be. We have the money. We're the richest per capita - even if, "per capita," most of us get no capital. Why aren't we at least talking about 60 percent? We propose to rob Peter, in the top 1 percent, without ever getting any fun out of paying Paul. I say: Let's give it to Paul, just to give him joy. Here's how we have to sell a tax increase: Not to be fiscally responsible, but to be a little happier. Be like the Europeans. Have a little fun. By fnord12 | December 18, 2006, 11:21 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1) | Link
Michael Crichton: Crybaby Got this from fnord12 who got it from TPMmuckracker: So, Michael Crowley wrote an article in The New Republic criticizing Michael Crichton about his denial of global warming. In retaliation, Crichton writes a book with a character named Mick Crowley who not only is a child rapist, but has a small dick, too. The character is described as a graduate of Yale and a Washington-based political journalist - two things that describe Michael Crowley. That's real mature, Crichton. Nice touch using the "small penis" technique there. By min | December 15, 2006, 3:25 PM | Boooooks | Comments (3) | Link Guess they'll have to actually pay their workers. Link: Consumers and the industry itself may be feeling the repercussions in a shortage of meatpackers, higher wage costs and, ultimately, higher prices for the beef that lands on America's tables at home and in restaurants. Every labor-intensive industry -- the hotel industry, the construction industry, agriculture -- will be similarly impacted, he said. Yep, it's a real shame. Letting supply and demand determine wage levels and the cost of products. I'm sure there's a name for that economic system but i just can't think of it. By fnord12 | December 15, 2006, 11:45 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link
Bunny Love From Julia:  By min | December 14, 2006, 2:42 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (2) | Link
comatose and barely breathing just stay right there on top of me someone stop me please, now i'm insane come on darling think of me so make me come then make me go someone stop me please, now i'm insane comatose and barely breathing just stay right there on top of me stop! you're killing me please, now i'm insane By min | December 14, 2006, 1:41 PM | Music| Link Those Mongolians Are Monsters Who would have thought that the world's tallest man would be Chinese? Well, he is. He's huge. He's 7foot, 9inches tall. And he saves dolphins on the side. (Thanks to typer195 for the link.) It's the Mongolians. They're all huge. I don't know what they eat. I've seen Close to Eden. There ain't much of anything to eat. By min | December 14, 2006, 1:27 PM | Ummm... Other?| Link Protecting the children Digby: "Maintaining information about what every American is reading and writing on the internet is necessary to keep children safe. " Jello Biafra: "What they're trying to do with radio, with this, uh, McCarron-WalterAct and a lot of other ways, is start by saying that they're protecting the public from wicked rock bands, or girlie magazines, or whatever. But, if you follow the chain of dominoes that falls down,what they're really trying to do is shut off our access to information itself." Digby: "No word on whether McCain and his fellow lawmakers are going to pass legislation making it illegal for politicians to pander to people's fears with stupid, useless legislation while their own brethren are hitting on 16 year old pages. " By fnord12 | December 14, 2006, 9:16 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1) | Link Oh, Sony. How Low You've Sunk Sony made a fake blog and filmed fake YouTube videos where the people authoring the blog and appearing in the videos pretended to be consumers and fans of the PSP. Then they got caught. Now people aren't so happy with Sony. Here's the link to SomethingAwful.com's forum and the discussion on how bizarre and obviously fake the blog is. Now that the cat's out of the bag, Sony has removed the comments and the YouTube video from the blog. They also posted this "apology": Sony Computer Entertainment America As Tycho said, do they expect a gold star? The apology comes off as fake. "Funky fresh"? Give me a break. This was prolly prompted by 2 factors. 1) People are pissed and 2) the FTC issued this statement on Tuesday saying they'll be looking more closely into "word-of-mouth marketing" and issuing fines. I think that people who were fully intending to get a PSP will still do so. But i think anyone on the fence due to price or games available or whatever is going to look elsewhere. People get pretty touchy about being lied to. As long as you can keep them from realizing it or distract them with enough stuff so they don't want to believe it (e.g., Iraq, the last 2 presidential elections, U.S. foreign policy, etc.), you're golden. But once they do know, they get righteous. You really can't defeat the holy fires of righteous anger. At least, not for a few months, until the next wave of shiny things comes out. Oooooh......shiny....... By min | December 14, 2006, 8:22 AM | Video Games| Link
Younger Siblings Give You Brain Tumors A study done in Sweden shows that people with four or more siblings were twice as likely to develop a brain tumor as people with no siblings. The correlation was only found with the number of younger siblings, not with the number of older siblings. According to Altieri, the finding that brain tumor rates were higher among people with younger siblings, and not older siblings, suggests infections or re-infections in late childhood may play an important role in causing the disease, while exposure to infections in infancy, birth to five months old, may be beneficial. Tank goff my mom decided against having 8 kids. By min | December 13, 2006, 3:39 PM | Science | Comments (1) | Link
Let them use credit cards Actually, i think i agree with the Bush administration on this (a first?). I don't want our money to turn even more into Monopoly money than it already has, and i don't think i'd like it if all my bills were different sizes. But i did think this line was funny: "The government said the blind can also use credit cards instead of currency." Seriously! Screw blind people. It's not like they can read my website anyway. And if any blind people are reading this website, i have one thing to say to them: Window. Foreground window. By fnord12 | December 12, 2006, 6:21 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (4) | Link Doing my work for me Just so you guys know, i'm not the only sick @#$*&#^ out there trying to put my comics in chronological order. By fnord12 | December 12, 2006, 5:10 PM | Comics| Link
Monty Hauls & Munchkins Some FAQs from the D&D newsgroup: G8: Who's this "Monty Haul" character I keep hearing about? Monty Hall was the host of the 60's & 70's, and 90's American game show Let's Make a Deal. People would dress up in silly costumes, then get chosen out of the crowd to play the game. Monty would give the lucky contestant a handful of money, then talk them into trading the money for whatever was behind door number one, door number two, door number three, or what was in the box, or they could just keep the money. Each time they traded, he would give them another choice. After they decided to stick with a choice, Monty revealed what had been won. Prizes could be anything, good or bad, such as money, cars, jewelry, a years supply of auto wax, goats, inner tubes, exotic vacations, a pound of confetti, etc. Gary Gygax named the style of play where game masters hid treasures behind some doors, monsters behind others and then let the players choose their fate "Monty Haul" gaming, making a pun on the game show host's name. Munchkinism is often confused with Monty Haul gaming in that both involve incredibly high power levels with a minimum of risk involved. However, where Monty Haul is usually the fault of the GM, munchkinism is usually the demesne of players, although one can encourage the other. Munchkin players often view the game as a contest which can be won, and done with a minimum of struggle and uncertainty. The player is winning when he defeats everything the DM throws at the character, and does it without breaking a sweat. Thus, having a character who can deal out large amounts of damage every round is more pleasurable, as it gives the player a better chance of "winning." Some DM's foster this "them vs. me" type of atmosphere (especially Monty Haul DM's), but it is usually not the DM's fault. Well, it somewhat is, as the DM has to allow the character in the first place, but it is the player who has the real problem here. This is not to say that all "power gaming" is munchkin and bad, as it is possible and common for a group to decide to run a campaign with incredibly high amounts of power, yet have it contain just as much challenge and roleplaying as any other campaign. The enemies are usually as well equipped as the players, and are played extremely intelligently, to boot. With this kind of game, there is actually some question as to whether or not any or all of the characters could survive a given encounter, but the point is not basic survival, but a balance of power and role-playing. Characters also tend to have character flaws of some sort which balance out the power level in some meaningful role-playing-based way. In addition, most of the characters in a "power game" environment actually have to work (and role-play) for each and every powerful item they gain, instead of turning into a walking magic shop when "my two rich uncles just willed all of their magic items to me," or some such. A stress is put on role-playing, so that the game isn't just all "power" and no "game." However, it is easy to fall into the trap of treating such a game like an arcade game--blast all the baddies into oblivion and you win! It is at that point, when the power, and not role-playing, is all that matters that a power game becomes munchikinish. Munchkin characters usually come to light when a player wishes to bring in a favorite character who was "allowed" in a previous GM's campaign, one with the maximum ability scores, proficiencies, abilities, and enough magic and special items to take out both Death Stars simultaneously from across the galaxy. No one seems to know exactly how such characters have come to be identified with the tiny folk from L. Frank Baum's books, but it probably has something to do with the sheer annoyance factor such characters exude. Another theory is that, since it seems that most munchkin players are the younger set of players, say pre-teens and down, that someone's term for people younger than themselves morphed into a term for the type of players described above, and has since changed meaning to also include the characters created by such players. By fnord12 | December 11, 2006, 5:08 PM | D&D | Comments (3) | Link Hitesh Preservation Society I've created a Tribute to Hitesh page in the comics section. Hitesh was a racmu poster who, like most geniuses, was never recognized for his unique contributions to Marvel Universe scholarship. It seems the vast majority of his postings are lost to the world, but i have preserved what i have been able to find. A sampling: > Now, the Morlock, Leech, probably has several points more than Rogue, By fnord12 | December 11, 2006, 3:20 PM | Comics| Link Backwards Planet Last week when Bolton resigned, his spokesperson listed one of his accomplishments as "promot[ing] the cause of peace in Darfur". In fact he did everything in his power to ensure that the UN was as ineffective as possible. And now the crises in Sudan has expanded, dragging in neighboring countries Chad and the Central African Republic. This has been going on for so long now, and the fact that, not only are we not able to stop it, but we can't even prevent it from getting worse, is a testament to how backwards we are as a planet. We don't have an effective organization that can jump in and stop genocides or other humanitarian tragedies? In 2006? Why not? There's no acceptable excuse. It's really sad. By fnord12 | December 11, 2006, 12:29 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link
They're trying to build a prison Alright! We're #1! We have the more people in prison than any other country in the world. That's true whether you're looking at an absolute number (We have more people in prison than China, who has more than 4 times our population), or as a percentage of our population. The biggest single reason is the mandatory drug sentencing, but that only accounts for 2 million of the 7 million people currently in prison or on parole (7 million! China has 1.5!). While getting rid of those laws and giving people with drug problems treatment would be a huge improvement, these statistics really show a complete failure of our social programs (education, welfare, etc) and our economic system. Unless you're Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, who says that these statistics are actually a good thing, because the U.S. has "cultural differences" when compared to Japan and Western Europe. Hmmm, i wonder what "cultural differences" means. It's a good thing we're keeping all those people with "cultural differences" locked up. It's time for some non-random, non-Thursday lyrics: Theyre trying to build a prison By fnord12 | December 10, 2006, 9:26 AM | Liberal Outrage & Music | Comments (2) | Link
 Glenn found this X-Men race car set. The description says you race "X-Men characters Vanquish and Magneto Viper through the winding track as they chase each other". Who the hell is Vanquish? And what's this Magneto Viper thing about? By min | December 8, 2006, 3:20 PM | Comics & Ummm... Other? | Comments (6) | Link Earthship Earthship!!! It's been a while since i've linked to my favorite peak-oil prophet, so i'm gonna indulge and steal this entire post. The big difference between me and him is that he thinks that it's actually possible that there's some sort of systematic political solution to the coming mess, where i think we need to head for the hills. Anyway, i know this is too long for anyone to actually read, so i'll bold some of the more interesting bits. When politicians flog the term around -- "energy independence" -- they invariably mean that we will continue enjoying the happy motoring utopia by other means than imported oil (which makes up 70 percent of all the oil we burn). Get this: the day is not far off when, for one reason or another, the flow of imported oil to the US will cease. But when that day comes, we will not be running our shit the way we have been running it. That day will be the end of the interstate highways, Walt Disney World, and WalMart -- in short, the way of life we are fond of calling "non-negotiable." We are not going to run that shit on coal liquids or tar sand byproducts or oil shale distillates or ethanol or biodiesel, or second-hand french-fry oil. Nor on solar, wind, nuclear, or hydrogen. You can run things on that stuff, but not the biggies we run at their current scale. If the Democrats really want to get serious and act responsibly, they'd better not squander whatever is left of our credit and collective confidence in a futile campaign to keep this racket going. They'd better prepare the public to start living differently. Where to begin? They can start by recognizing that massive long-haul trucking of goods has to end and be replaced by improved, electrified rail plus water transport - with trucks used only for the final, local leg of the journey. To reach this point of recognition, the Democrats will have to overcome the entrenched interests of the trucking industry -- but, by now, most of the truck drivers in this country have been successfully converted into right-wing Republican zombies, so it might not be so difficult to overcome them. They will also have to overcome WalMart and its "warehouse on wheels" composed of thousands of 18-wheelers full of discount goodies incessantly in motion for "just-in-time" delivery to the big box outlets. And, of course, by "WalMart" I mean not only the company itself but the millions of Americans who think they can't live without it. Do the Democrats have the guts to go against this tide? My guess is probably not. But, get this, too: sooner rather than later, whether we like it or not, we're going to have to replace WalMart with an entirely different system for retail trade -- probably resembling the system of multi-layered local trade networks that were destroyed by WalMart. And the further off we put this task, the more difficult it's going to be. So, real political leadership will have to inform the public that the time has come to start making other arrangements. Instead of supporting the fiction that happy motoring can continue forever, the Democrats should create an "Apollo Project" to restore the US passenger rail system, too. (We hear a lot about an "Apollo Project" to develop a miracle fuel for our cars, but that ain't gonna happen and we'd be much better off devoting that investment to public transit.) This will baffle and piss off a lot of the public, but it is necessary if we are going to survive as an advanced civilization. Please notice, by the way, that I am not suggesting we deprive anyone of the right to drive a car, only give them the option of getting somewhere by train instead. And don't worry, the politicians will not have to do a thing to restrict automobile use -- circumstances will do it for them as the world plunges into a permanent oil crisis that does not go away. Another thing the Democrats can do with their new power is reorient the activities of the US Department of Agriculture -- and especially legislated cash subsidies -- away from the "agribusiness" Big Boys to small-scale, local farmers. We are silently and stealthily approaching a crisis situation with the American food supply. Most localities now only have a two or three-day food supply, and any number of crisis events in the offing could disrupt the three-thousand mile chains of frozen pizzas and Cheez Doodles that the public depends on for basic sustenance. We desperately need to reactivate what's left of the productive land around our towns and cities, and to repopulate it with people who can grow real food. The Democrats will have to contend with the imminent cratering of suburbia whether they like it or not. The "housing bubble" is the first leg down for a development pattern that has no future. What's out there now is a vast over-supply of exactly the kind of houses in the kinds of places that will not have value in an energy-scarcer world. The overbuilding of tract houses is a tragedy caused by reckless and irresponsible behavior in the lending industry and in the government officials who regulate interest rates and the credit supply. The investments are already lost, and the individual carnage is going to be extreme, but the depth of the problem will reveal itself slowly for two reasons: 1.) both homeowners and realtors will desperately try to maintain the fiction that these properties still have high value, and 2.) individuals who are in trouble with their mortgage payments will never reveal their dire situation to their friends and neighbors because it is too humiliating. The news about default and re-po will only arrive with the moving vans (if the individuals can afford to hire them). The collapse of suburbia will be the Democrats chief inheritance from the "free-market" economically neo-liberal Republicans who were too busy money grubbing at all levels to notice that there was such a thing as the future. The tragedy of suburbia will finish off whatever is left of Reagan-Bush1-Bush2 Republicanism -- although the truth is that Bill Clinton did as much to promote this way of life, indeed, to turn suburban development into a new basis for the US economy when manufacturing crapped out. The nation as a whole -- however it reconfigures itself politically in the aftermath of this fiasco -- is going to have to come to grips with a lot of hard truths. One will be that "energy independence" means a whole different scale and system for daily life, not just "new and innovative" fuels for cars. As long as we are stuck in a foolish national wish-fest aimed at keeping all the cars running and propping up all the trappings of car-dependency, we will remain lost in a wilderness of our own making. And whoever the next president of the US turns out to be, whether a Democrat or the leader of a party that has not yet coalesced, will have all that he-or-she can do to keep this nation from completely falling to pieces. By fnord12 | December 8, 2006, 1:53 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1) | Link Oh my goodness Well, super-hero costumes often do get described as looking "painted-on". By fnord12 | December 8, 2006, 11:56 AM | Comics | Comments (2) | Link He's a fighter Link: "Absolutely not," Dean said in a taped Political Connections interview scheduled to air Sunday on Bay News 9. "You cannot seat someone if you don't have an election that's valid. "This election is not valid. There are 18,000 people who may have voted, and we don't know what happened to their votes," Dean said. "You can bet that if the Republicans were 500 votes short they'd be calling for a new election, and they'd be right." Not like these losers: Her decision could set the stage for a volatile political showdown at the start of the new Democrat-led Congress. Though Democratic leaders, include incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, say all options are on the table, others privately say they hope to avoid the partisan warfare. By fnord12 | December 8, 2006, 11:35 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1) | Link
What is wrong with this country? Link: By fnord12 | December 7, 2006, 3:48 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link Diplomacy? That Stuff Actually Works? There's a definite shift of something going on at the White House because they rolled out this offer to North Korea: But the offer, made last week during two days of intense talks in Beijing, would hinge on North Korea's agreeing to begin dismantling some of the equipment it is using to expand its nuclear arsenal, even before returning to negotiations. The offer is significant because...[h]awks in the administration, particularly in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, have long opposed what they call "rewarding" North Korea for its nuclear test. So, after six years of idiocy, pretending they could just dictate what they wanted and everyone else would fall over themselves catering to their whims, the Bush administration is bringing back the policy we originally had in place. The policy they criticized and abandoned, calling the former agreement a "pay off" to the North Koreans. The only problem is the North Koreans have been busy these six years. While Bush and his lot have been waving their fists impotently, the North Koreans have been making nuclear weapons. Weapons they didn't have six years ago. Weapons they would have been less likely to produce had we stuck with the policy that was already in place. Way to go, fuck-ups. By min | December 7, 2006, 11:32 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link
There will come a time when everybody Who cares if hair is long or short (there will come a time when you won't even be ashamed if you are fat!) WAH WAH-WAH WAH La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la Diddle-diddle-dee La la la la la la la la la la la la There will come a time when everybody There will come a time when every evil Who cares if you're so poor you can't afford By min | December 7, 2006, 10:56 AM | Music | Comments (1) | Link
Comics Crossover Categories "The need to compile lists is a personality disorder, as is the need to assert the superiority of some things I don't know who this guy is (I saw the quote in someone's sig) but he can go to hell. Agree/disagree? Help me define them better, or tell me it's impossible to categorize them. How does Civil War fit into the categories as i've defined them (it's either a type 2 or a type 4, or we need to be able to define Events sort of like compound-complex sentences, with features of both types 2 and 4)? How about Fall of the Mutants, which was essentially three unrelated stories (i think it's a type 0, except that some of the unrelated stories had crossovers with other titles). Aaand, what's your favorite type of cross-over? I'm a classic Type 1-er, myself. By fnord12 | December 6, 2006, 3:59 PM | Comics | Comments (5) | Link Darth Mimo Remember Mimobots? Now they have limited edition Star Wars mimobots.  Darth Mimo They have other characters, as well. By min | December 6, 2006, 2:14 PM | Star Wars & Ummm... Other?| Link Krampus I think i saw this on the Venture Bros. In folklore, Krampus was a devil-like figure who drove away evil spirits during the Christian holiday season. I love the Venture Bros. By min | December 6, 2006, 1:57 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link
Milk Campaign Drags Along The Unsuspecting Cookie The technology that creates the scent is very similar to that used in magazine ads. Scented adhesives are placed throughout the interior of the bus shelters, including under the benches. "As long as they are not harmful chemicals, it's OK," one somewhat confused elderly woman said as she pondered the cookie smell in one of the shelters. "They are trying to sell milk? Is that it?" I understand that we tend to think of milk and cookies going together as a snack for kids. But if i smell cookies, i'm pretty sure it's not going to start a sudden yearning in my heart for milk. I'm even more sure that it's going to make me crave cookies instead. Which adults and teens alike prolly pair most with coffee considering our caffeine addicted society. Or Mt. Dew, depending on what company you keep.
The fragrant billboards, posted at five bus shelters on Monday in an effort by dairy producers to make passengers thirsty for milk, had to come down because the shelters' maintenance contractor had not informed San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency officials, said an agency spokeswoman. By min | December 5, 2006, 1:57 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (3) | Link
Anti-UN Psychopath No Longer UN Ambassador Next step is to get some anti-Federal government Republicans out of the Federal government but this is a good start. Republicans are still good at spinning things, though. Spinning the complacent media, anyway... Second paragraph of the article: Sounds at least kind of bi-partisan, right? Same article, nine paragraphs later. No challenge to that comment in the article, either by juxtaposing it against facts that contradicted it or by providing a single quote by anyone, Dem or Repub, contradicting that statement or justifying the fact that they weren't going to confirm Bolton. There's a quote from Perino touting Bolton's 'accomplishments' at the UN, and nothing in the article that validates those 'accomplishments' or quotes any critics of Bolton's policies. By fnord12 | December 4, 2006, 10:22 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2) | Link
I Don't Care How "Nice" You Think It Is 70 degree weather in December in New Jersey is freakishly weird and totally unnatural. And it's not just us experiencing the global warming trend. Moscow is snowless this winter. The average temperature for December in Moscow is around minus 4 degrees Celcius. The spokeswoman said cylcones in the north Atlantic have created unusually warm weather in central Russia. You might be enjoying the warm temperatures because the idea of freezing your ass off in 30 degree weather is unpleasant. But weather should be cyclical and there should be seasons in our region. Warm weather allows diseases to travel faster. Plants and animals that should be taking their cues from the weather are prolly completely confused about what they should be doing. Today it's 70 degrees. Mebbe next time it will be a week long freak blizzard. Or a hurricane the likes of Katrina to wash away our shores. In the big picture, this "great" weather we're having is a very bad sign. By min | December 1, 2006, 3:51 PM | Science | Comments (5) | Link The War Against the Mole Man I'm not normally interested when the bloggers i read start complaining about right wing bloggers, but any post that involves Orson Scott Card and the Fantastic Four is worth linking to. By fnord12 | December 1, 2006, 3:45 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link |