"High Quality Daily Amusement"
Monday, August 30, 2004
A talking toilet
Yep, a talking toilet that criticizes or compliments you, depending on how it feels (I wonder if it usually feels 'shitty'). Ooh ooh, I have a great idea for a follow-up invention: a trash-talking trash can! When you throw something to the can but miss, it will berate you. "You call that a throw? C'mon, you wuss!" Or when it's time to be emptied, "Hey, doesn't anyone take the trash out over here?" How about a fould-mouthed oven? "Hey you, c'mere a minute. Whaddaya thinking, leaving that apple pie in here for too long? What are ya, stupid?" [insert smack upside the head] It suddenly occurs to me that our kitchens are far too tame... or maybe my housemates just aren't vociferous enough.
Saturday, August 28, 2004
Bea Arthur lives in Boston?
Either she lives here, or visits here... regardless, don't mess with a Golden Girl with a knife, she may use weapons of mass hysteria against you.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Jaw breaker? Back breaking? Biting back?
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Who Wants GMail?
I just realized that Google has graced me with a total of 6 Gmail accounts to give away. First six Ridiculent readers to respond get them, all I ask is that you will actually use them... Email me at jeff at chausse dot org for the invite!
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
APOD, 2004 August 25 - Zodiacal Light and the False Dawn
This Astronomy Picture of the Day is pretty cool - it shows the Zodiacal Light and False Dawn, two things I had never heard about before. I'm also surprised at how dark the Milky Way is... when I'm able to see it in a dark Berkshire sky, it's lighter than the rest of the sky, as if there's a long, thin cloud above.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Blast destroys camera; memory card survives
Here are some amazing photos and an article about a camera, poised to photograph the demolition of a Mississippi bridge, that was blown to bits. The ScanDisk memory card of the camera survived, as the company is happy to report, and was still readable by a PC. Neighboring cameras captured the final moments of the doomed equipment.
WhatsBetter.com
Here's a fantastic time-waster. You're shown two things, you choose what's better. After a gazillion people do the same, you end up with the definitive continuum of awesomeness/suckitude. And, meanwhile, the bizarre juxtapositions are mind-blowing. Here's the Top 25. A lot of the things on there are fairly obvious... Sex, Love, "Chillin' With Your Lady". But coming in at a surprise #8 is something I've never seen before, but which is clearly better than Free Money (#9).
Monday, August 23, 2004
It's all in the head
UCLA researchers have found that liberals tend to have more active amygdalas than conservatives, as reported in this Slashdot article. The amygdala is a part of the brain that deals with emotional behavior. If we had voting machines that simply tallied the amygdala activity of all eligible voters, we wouldn't have fiascos like the 2000 election.
Friday, August 20, 2004
Spamusement.com
Cartoon drawings inspired by actual spam headlines. Thanks, Kieran
Lovechess
So, umm, remember Battle Chess, where the chess pieces would come alive and attack each other to capture a square? Well, now there's Lovechess. The pieces make love, not war - quite literally. The concept seems a little bizarre to me, but the graphics look superb.
It's been a while since...
... a Transformer fanboy posting! What we have here is Soundwave breakdancing against a techno beat that is derived from the Transformers theme. This is some darn impressive animation!
Thursday, August 19, 2004
A movie-ad on the T
I saw the new motion billboard ad on the Red Line, inbound between Harvard and Central, on my ride to work this morning. It was purty neat. For best viewing results, sit on the left side of the train and look out the right-side windows.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
But do they serve shizzle cake?
Hey C~Diddy and TZOM, this Vietnamese restaurant sign is for you!
AtomFilms - Star Wars Gangsta Rap Special Edition
Star Wars Gangsta Rap Special Edition. I haven't actually watched this yet - I don't have a sound card on my "temporary" (i.e., permanent) work computer - so LMK if it's any good!
A day in the life...
Found this while searching for something entirely different in Google Answers. It's an account of what a person's day was like 40,000, 20,000, 10,000, 5000, 2500, 1000, 500, 250, 100, 80, 50, and 15 years ago. Someone paid $200 to get this question answered.
Your daily dose of non-Newtonian fluids
"To get to Mandela, take 695, then hop on the T and transfer at Washington"
Hey Bostonians, ever hear of the city of Mandela, Massachusetts? Apparently, that went the way of Boston's I-695, a proposed inner loop highway. Seems there were a number of roads originally planned that got cancelled... including Route 3 past Route 128, and I-95 directly into Boston. If you're really stretching for something to occupy your time, try this 296-page file documenting all of the changes to the MBTA's service since 1964.
"Eyes more stronger than Darth Vapor"
Watch Zladko perform his [corny] techno-ballad, Elektronik-Supersonik, a retro hit from Molvania.
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
The Bulge
Need a little "enhancement"? You need The Bulge™. Unlike a cucumber wrapped in aluminum foil, The Bulge™ is airport-safe.
Jabberwocky in ActionScript
Bring 'em on!
See what happens when you throw rocks at a 500-pound bee nest? All 120,000 come out to get ya. Perhaps there should be a new cliche. I can imagine it now: "You know what they say, 'Don't throw stones at big-ass nests.'"
Monday, August 16, 2004
Best car chase ever
This is video footage of an amazing car chase in either Oakland or Oklahoma City... wherever it took place, you've got to take a look at this!
Warning: Windows XP Service Pack 2 may ruin your life
Microsoft has released a list of programs potentially screwed up by XP Service Pack 2. Fortunately, the 229 programs listed are fairly obscure. So unless you're some kind of weirdo who runs stuff like: AOL, Nero, ICQ, Kazaa, Quicken, McAfee VirusScan, Microsoft Office XP (?!), Norton AntiVirus, Yahoo Messenger, or ZoneAlarm, you're fine. The rest of you might want to hold out for Service Pack 2a.
Is activity on airline cause for concern?
Annie Jacobsen, a writer for WomensWallStreet, had an unnerving experience while during a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles. Here's her account, " Terror in the Skies, Again?" (Update: While this article isn't "ridiculent", I thought it should be shared... now it seems there's some counterbalance to the account - thanks, kap & djaj)
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
"Some call you the elite, I call you my base"
The following is not a flub, a gaffe, nor an error. Bush said high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway." Says Kos (at DailyKos), why not "[a]bolish the speed limit because people speed anyway," and so on.
A famous scream...
(Nope, despite my recent spat of political postings, not the Dean Scream)... Khaaan!
Monday, August 09, 2004
Bush flubs again...
Question: What does tribal sovereignty mean in the 21st century? Answer: uhhh.... [approximately 20 seconds of nonsense, in mp3 format] The best part of this clip is the audience laughing at, not with, Dubya. At that point, he should have taken the hint and stopped talking, but he kept going.
The United States has 53 states
Don't believe that? How about that Congress is made up of the Senate which is for Democrats, and the House, which for Republicans? I'm not making this up. No go back to class, and update your flags with stars for the newest states, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico!
Friday, August 06, 2004
White House West
A promotional tool from "America Coming Together", this is an absolutely hilarious video starring Will Ferrel as George W. Bush, filming a commercial in Crawford, Texas. Wait until the part where he's hitting the fence with a pickaxe. The line that follows is absolutely priceless.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Say What, George?
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
Great Computer Values!
Sure it's an easy and overdone topic for humor, but Overclockers Australia has a great " time warp" article with scans of computer hardware ads from days past. Yeah, you've seen this kind of stuff before, but ads for $3398 10 Megabyte hard drives are still good for a giggle.
So a guy walks up to an ATM...
Wouldn't it be great if They Might Be Giants created a music video with Homestarrunner and friends (especially Strong Sad)? If this has been a lifetime wish of yours, consider your wish fulfilled.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party
For no real reason, here's a link to one of the best SNL skits ever...
James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party (16 MB MPEG). This file is kindly hosted by someone named Steve Jenkins, who can monitor his hot tub temperature via the web.
A unique roadside attraction
Monday, August 02, 2004
The War on Terror, Puppet-Style
It's Michael Moore meets the Thunderbirds, via the creators of South Park, in " Team America". Coming to theaters near you this October.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Doom 3 Trailer
Oh shizzle! Doom 3 releases this Tuesday, and from watching the trailer, this one looks like a winner! We've only been waiting for how many years? Drat, I guess my relatively recent copy of Unreal 2004 will just wither away...
|
|
