Capybaras and squirrel monkeys living together (the photo's pretty cute)
Capybaras and squirrel monkeys, unlikely neighbors in the wild, are living in the same enclosure at a zoo outside Tokyo and so far, they're loving it. They're generally not compatible.
What would Dr. Peter Venkman say?
Term of the day: "interfacial marriage"
"This is not necessarily quit-your-day-job money, but it might be new-telescope-lens money. It can help fund your passion."
"The majority of kids coming out of college are essentially generic,"
"They need key brand attributes and to be able to talk about them to
employers."
Interesting article in Time about the growing field of personal-brand consultants.
employers."
Interesting article in Time about the growing field of personal-brand consultants.
MP3: Soundgarden, Marilyn Manson and others perform "Come Together"
Over a dozen different mp3s at My Old Kentucky Blog.
The "52" Cover Gallery
Comic Book Resources has posted a gallery of the covers from DC Comics year-long event "52." My favorites featured Steel:
American with 10 alibi witnesses convicted of murder in Nicaragua
The Washington Post calls it a "Kafkaesque Encounter With Nicaragua's Justice System"
Ducks have absurdly long tentacle-like penises
Carl Zimmer writes in the NY Times about a scientist studying ducks:
*See also: Funny ad with a sex toy.
When she first visited in January, the phalluses were the size of rice grains. Now many of them are growing rapidly. The champion phallus from this Meller's duck is a long, spiraling tentacle. Some ducks grow phalluses as long as their entire body. In the fall, the genitalia will disappear, only to reappear next spring.
*See also: Funny ad with a sex toy.
Showgirl Elizabeth Berkely wants to help teens through the "maelstrom" of adolescence
Visit her new website if you need advice.
300 pound drunk falls on woman at baseball game and breaks her back
"People shouldn't have to deal with drunks flying through the air at a ballgame," said her lawyer, Stephen Kaufman. Via The Wall Street Journal.
The veteran explosives technician looming over Bogosh was visibly upset. He insisted he did not want a new robot. He wanted Scooby-Doo back.
Joel Garreau writes in the Washington Post about soldiers and their robots:
Via Reason
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have become an unprecedented field study in human relationships with intelligent machines. These conflicts are the first in history to see widespread deployment of thousands of battle bots. Flying bots range in size from Learjets to eagles. Some ground bots are like small tanks. Others are the size of two-pound dumbbells, designed to be thrown through a window to scope out the inside of a room. Bots search caves for bad guys, clear roads of improvised explosive devices, scoot under cars to look for bombs, spy on the enemy and, sometimes, kill humans.
It's common for a soldier to cut out a magazine picture of a woman, tape it to the antenna and name the bot something like "Cheryl," says Paul Varian, a former Army chief warrant officer who has served three tours in Iraq with the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office. "There's an awful lot of picture-taking," he says. One guy who married just before deployment wanted his wife to see the gal who was his constant companion. It was a PackBot. "One Guard unit got so attached to a development model that we gave it to them. It was pretty beat up. They put it in a place of honor in their museum."
Via Reason
Cemetery vandal crushed by 1,000 pound headstone
The letter V (in the family name) left an imprint on the vandal's thigh. Via The Obscure Store.
A prison in the US state of Iowa has changed its locks after a set of keys was sold online for $12
It cost the prison $6,000 to change the locks, so maybe the state should have bid on the keys.
Via Marginal Revolution, which also passes on this disturbing factoid: 48% of Caribbean adolescent girls surveyed described their own "sexual initiation" as forced.
Via Marginal Revolution, which also passes on this disturbing factoid: 48% of Caribbean adolescent girls surveyed described their own "sexual initiation" as forced.
Seconds later, an anonymous caller told me someone had been murdered -- "That woman with the dead husbands."
Strange story about reporter Larry Altman investigating woman with two dead husbands. Via LA Observed.
Thought-provoking sentence of the day: Pneumonia, once regarded as the "Old Man's Friend," offered the very frail a dignified death.
Peter Schuck asks "Why do we keep spending on bad bets and bad apples? Healthcare is the most wasteful area for bad bets."
Read more.
Now we spend millions of dollars per year offering Alzheimer's patients an abysmal existence by keeping them alive on dialysis. Opinion leaders and litigation exacerbate the problem: A leading medical journal recently attacked one of our poorest states for proposing to give extra coverage to its Medicaid patients who join weight-loss or antismoking programs - a cost-effective way to improve health and extend life.
Read more.
A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China
Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers were full of lurid accounts today of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said that as many as 80 percent of the pigs in the area had died, that panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating in a river.
Read the rest. Via Instapundit.
"I make love to pressure"
Interesting turn of phrase by Golden State Warrior Stephen Jackson. Via True Hoop.
And here's a bit more about Jackson:
Of course, the crowd had a good reason to worry:
And here's a bit more about Jackson:
The coolest moment of the game for me came in the second half when Davis was fouled pretty hard by Austin Croshere on a drive to the basket. Davis got up and stepped to Croshere and players from both teams crowded around. At that very moment, the entire crowd looked to Jackson, who was on the court but behind the action, and let out a collective: "Nooooooooo." Obviously they are aware of what a hot head Jackson can be and didn't want him getting tossed and maybe getting suspended for the start of the next series for doing something stupid. When Jackson turned and walked to the other side of the court, the place went crazy. Smart hoop fans.
Of course, the crowd had a good reason to worry:
Wishful thinking: ABC claims Lost will end during the 2010 season
This paragraph sums it up pretty well:
Read the rest
The series, which saw its ratings drop this season amid complaints about scheduling, an increasingly meandering plot and unpopular new characters, still must prove itself to disenchanted viewers to survive.
Read the rest
Reason #42 The Nintendo Wii Will Eventually Be Outsold By Its Rivals
My eyes glazed over when I tried reading Shigeru Miyamoto's interview in Entertainment Weekly:
What are some real-world issues that would you consider putting into a game?
I have some ideas. One is that in Japan, there are a lot of trains that have sections reserved for the elderly or pregnant women. Young people in Japan sometimes sit in them, but if people come up and need them, you are supposed to get up. But most of the kids don't! It really upsets me. If I could build a game that somehow made the young people respect their elders... And there is another issue bugging me. In Japan there are a lot of people who freelance or work under the table — people who don't pay any taxes. I look at places in the world where people understand that paying taxes to the government helps society. In Japan there's not that understanding. So [social responsibility] is yet another issue I might address in a game. But I probably sound like an old man when I bring these things up.
Halo Cupcake
Master Chief's never looked more tasty
Via Kotaku, which also posted today about EA sending a limo with mini-skirted women to take the reporters to a software display.
Via Kotaku, which also posted today about EA sending a limo with mini-skirted women to take the reporters to a software display.
Labels:
cupcakes,
Halo,
video games
Fun Comic Book Panels: The first "D.N. Alien" and Firestorm takes action
Labels:
comic books,
dc comics
He said, she said - - Julie Taymor's "Across The Universe"
Here's the start of Nikki Finke's story on the possibly troubled project:
Here's part of the response from Francoise Bonn:
Here's the plot summary from the Across the Universe official site:
A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" (Bono) and "Mr. Kite" (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other.
And here's the lackluster trailer. Was anyone clamoring for another Vietnam movie?
What a mess surrounding Revolution Studios' Across the Universe thanks to the idiocy of hiring director Julie Taymor, who may be lauded as a visual iconoclast in the pages of The New York Times but also derided as a cinematic loon based on what Hollywood sources tell me. So now this musical romance pic has dissipated into two warring versions, and its scheduled September playdate hangs in limbo.
Here's part of the response from Francoise Bonn:
Across the Universe is undoubtedly the most extraordinary film I have had the chance to edit in my 20-plus years as a film editor. The film is entertaining, full of invention and spectacle, and, I believe, appealing to people of all ages. For that reason, and because of numerous inaccuracies written within, I disagree with Nikki Finke’s column about the film [“Across an Alternate Universe,” April 13–19].
Here's the plot summary from the Across the Universe official site:
A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" (Bono) and "Mr. Kite" (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other.
And here's the lackluster trailer. Was anyone clamoring for another Vietnam movie?
Get a personalized Daemon at the Golden Compass movie site
Here's the website.
Here's my personalized Daemon, based on my answers to 20 questions.
Here's the movie poster
And here's a link to the books. Like Harry Potter, but better
His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
Here's my personalized Daemon, based on my answers to 20 questions.
Here's the movie poster
And here's a link to the books. Like Harry Potter, but better
His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
Worthy Threadless designs, vote now
The other side
Sheep in class
Philosophize This
Imaginaria Matre
vegetable noah's ark
Unicorn
And this one isn't that great, but the model made me laugh. Someone should do a study on the effect of scantily clad models on Threadless scores.