Long (and ongoing as of this post) story short: Sidekick lost. Sidekick found. Sidekick not returned. Power of the Interweb unites peoples. Pressure applied. And so far, all legal, non-violent, and beautiful.
http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/
So very worth reading.
Five years later, I’m awakened by news that gets its start in the Middle East, with Al Queda. Al-Zarqawi is dead, and people across America are celebrating.What? Really?
Look, I’m all for the man having been taken out of play. He’s responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths. Oh, wait; that would be our President. Um, let’s see… Well, he did it for religious reasons… Shit. Still there, hunh?
Bush-bashing aside, the man was a bad person and needed to be pulled from the game board. I’m all for the death penalty, too, if it is known without any shadow of doubt that the person being put to death is the killer (and that’s the person holding the degree in criminal psychology talking). I’m not standing on a soap box preaching that we should have captured him, or some alternative to blowing him up. Although I will note that Michael Berg, father of Nicholas Berg (who was beheaded in 2004 in Iraq, likely by Al-Zarqawi), noted in an interview with Soledad O’Brien, “Well, my reaction is I’m sorry whenever any human being dies. Zarqawi is a human being. He has a family who are reacting just as my family reacted when Nick was killed, and I feel bad for that.”
Good man, Michael Berg. You have to respect that sentiment.
But Berg makes another good point, one that is being casually drowned out by all the celebratory pomp and circumstance: Al-Zarqawi is now a martyr. One the one hand, this could be a turning point in the war; on the other, it could be a stage of reinforcing the status quo, perhaps even pulling some Muslims extremists into action. I certainly hope not, but I can’t say I’ll be surprised if it only gets worse from here.
Is there anyone out there willing to shut Ann Coulter up? Whatever means you want to use, fine by me.
I’ve decided that her outrageous commentary is an act, crafted to sell books and public speaking engagements. Hey, controversy sells — and for all the time that right-wing extremists have helped boost the profits of some of my favorite entertainment, well… Frances Farmer is having her revenge.
I don’t feel so bad for her; not even irritated, so much, as she’s either a brilliant saleswoman and performer or teetering on the edge of sad and pathetic delusion. It’s the people that buy her books, that allow her to command extraordinary fees for lectures, and worst, take her mixture of fact and fiction and cheap heat as fact.
The more attention that she gets, the worse it is. And yes, I know that I’m just as guilty as Hillary Clinton in pointing all this out, but damn — can’t we all just ignore her? I think that’s my new plan.
Either that, or blatant condescending pity. In fact, I have a request for the Al Frankens and Alan Colmes and anyone else that gets an interview with her: shower her with sadness and gentility. Treat her like the retarded cousin that she is. Humor her. But let your patronization run rampant.
But if you want to debark her and take her typing fingers away while you’re there, I can’t really say I’d argue with you too much.
| Your brain: 60% interpersonal, 120% visual, 80% verbal, and 140% mathematical! |
| The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers. |
| You scored higher than 29% on interpersonal |
| You scored higher than 53% on visual |
| You scored higher than 49% on verbal |
| You scored higher than 54% on mathematical |
(Originally appeared in Mental_floss magazine, vol.5, issue 3, cover dated May-June 2006; also available online at http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/10324)
In 1869, French craftsman Rousseau of Marseilles built the first in history’s line of unsuccessful monocycles. Sitting inside the monowheel, a rider steered the contraption by shifting his or her weight in the desired direction. As if that wasn’t difficult enough, the massive outer wheel remained directly in the rider’s line of sight at all times. Braking was also potentially hazardous, as stopping too abruptly would cause the rider to be propelled forward along with the outer wheel. But perhaps the biggest strike against the monowheel was the immediate comparison of any rider to a gerbil—something even the French wouldn’t tolerate.
It’s a car! It’s a bed! It looks suspiciously like a child’s toy! For the outdoorsman who has everything except a really expensive Big Wheel, there was the Daihatsu Trek. A single-passenger off-road vehicle, the Trek not only allowed drivers to travel to remote areas, it also gave them a place to bed down for the evening. With its collapsible seat, steering wheel, and roll bar, the boxy monstrosity from 1990 offered all the comforts of a really cheap motel room. And while we can’t be sure why the car never made it past the concept stage at Daihatsu, we can only guess members of the off-road focus groups felt silly driving a Transformer.
Much more after the jump.
A quasi hot potato of international engineering, the Avrocar was initially funded by the Canadian government, designed by a British engineer, and eventually assumed by the U.S. Defense Department as part of the Cold War weapons race. The UFO-like contraption was 18 feet in diameter, but only 3 feet thick. It featured vertical takeoff and landing and was designed to reach speeds up to 300 mph while remaining elusive to radar. Unfortunately, the two-person craft was never able to stabilize at heights above 8 feet, nor travel faster than 35 mph. After eight years and more than $10 million, the project was abandoned in 1960.
Buckminster Fuller was many things—inventor, philosopher, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and bearer of a name that makes Frank Zappa’s kids feel average. Among his many architectural and engineering creations, Bucky tried his hand at automobiles. In 1933, using a V-8 engine loaned to him by Henry Ford, Fuller built the Dymaxion car. Truly a wonder to behold, the Dymaxion was nearly 20 feet long, got 30-plus miles to the gallon, held up to 12 people, had a maximum speed of 120 mph, and could do a U-turn in 20 feet, thanks to a single rear wheel that controlled the steering. Unfortunately, the car’s steering appears to be at fault for a fatal accident at the 1933 World’s Fair, when the Dymaxion was rubbernecked by another car. Although later evidence placed fault on the driver of the other car, negative publicity surrounding the wreck caused investors to pull away from the project, and Fuller was freed up to build geodesic domes and work on his friendship with John Denver. The fortunate outcome of the Dymaxion’s failure? Denver’s hit tune, “What One Man Can Do,” which was written for Fuller.
Leonardo da Vinci is renowned for his forward-thinking sketches and intricate designs, which included blueprints for a bicycle, a submarine, and a helicopter. But you can’t win ’em all. Da Vinci also designed a three-wheeled wagon-like device—often referred to as the clockwork car—that never really lived up to the hype. Its spring-operated design makes it the first-known concept for a self-propelled vehicle. And because it was designed without a driver’s seat (though a secondary steering column was present) and was meant to be programmed along a specific course, the clockwork car is also thought to be one of the world’s first robots. Some speculate that faulty interpretations of da Vinci’s notes prevented the success of his ideas, but there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. When engineers finally constructed a working model of the car in the late 1990s, it only traveled 40 feet.
Originally designed in 2001 to push the limits of electric automotive technology, the KAZ (Keio Advanced Zero-emission) vehicle is part science-fiction, part sports car, part limousine, and entirely unattractive. But the beauty of the KAZ lies in its eight wheels, each powered by its own battery, which allow the luxury concept car to reach speeds in excess of 190 mph without emitting any pollution. The car’s design also makes for a safe ride because what would normally be the engine compartment is a crushable zone, reducing risk to the driver. Sadly, the KAZ came off as less luxury automobile and more cartoon, sending the designers back to their drawing boards.
Everyone who grew up watching “The Jetsons” and playing with the Steve Austin action figure dreamed of a day when people travelled to and from work via jet pack. The tease: a rocket belt developed under military contract by Bell Aerosystems in 1959. The hydrogen peroxide-powered Small Rocket Lift Device (SRLD), also known as the Bell Rocket Belt, was flown successfully throughout the 1960s. Unfortunately, the contract was later dropped, due largely to its limited flight duration (it held only 21.5 seconds worth of fuel). Although the belts are still used occasionally for entertainment (the opening of the 1984 Olympics and, most memorably, in the film “Thunderball”), our adolescent dreams of rocket-powered backpack flight will be confined to the silver screen and the funny pages for a while longer.
If you’ve been looking to practice your spy skills, this is your toy. The Amfibidiver is a car that’s also a boat that’s also a submarine. All you have to do is find a way to fit your tuxedo underneath your scuba suit. Of designing the 007-mobile, Belgian inventor René Baldewijns says it was easy. “Just take one dream, the fuel tank of an airplane, two bicycles, the motors from five electric wheelchairs, the hull of a sailing boat, seven drink containers (a real justification for that empty bottle collection), several kilos of resin, a few garden seats, and several miles of electrical cables.” Voilà! You’ve got an Amfibidiver! Baldewijns built a prototype for the machine, but his health problems caused the project to be shelved before it found commercial realization.
In 1988, Czech-born architect Jan Kaplicky attempted a feat that flew in the face of all odds: bringing change to Britain. The Superbus was a sleek, aluminum-bodied craft that charged itself at bus terminals and had the ability to lower its frame at stops to make it easier for passengers to enter and exit. The design was rejected in favor of the traditional red, double-decker Routemaster buses long associated with London’s public transportation system. Was the Superbus truly hideous, or was it just one step closer to the 20th century and a decent dental plan? We may never know.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bcV-TL9mho]
A thirty minute nap in my world is equitable with unicorns, leprechauns, and happy endings.
The truest joy of being a rock star is not playing the music you love for money, or punishing your liver with a zealous vengeance (and being encouraged to do so), or even wearing a cheap cowboy hat onstage while you cover Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica and make jokes about Michael Hutchence’s affinity for leather belts.
No, the absolute peak of your life as a performing musician comes when you take a live instrument (amp cranked to a painful volume that is further enhanced with a serious distortion pedal) pound out the final notes of whatever song you happen to be playing (note: must be bombastic and drawn out; the more retarded and METAL the better — in this case, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”by Metallica, done up all hellbilly style), remove said instrument from your body, and procede to use your instrument to put a divot in the concrete floor of the club you’re playing.
Hendrix and Townsend had it right. Smashing your guitar, while somewhat hazardous to anyone standing in front of you, is brilliant fun.
If only I had been allowed to set things on fire, the night would have been complete.
Shadows of angels and Machines of Hate and Rage will be unleashed from the Bowels of the Earth, and the gutters will be awash with the Blood of innocents! The screams of the children as they are sacrificed to the Dark Powers will echo across the lands as the sun and the moon are swallowed by eternal Night! Your souls will writhe in agony as they fester and rot in the Hopeless Cold that is the breath of the Ancient Ones! All while Long Island Teas and cold draught Newcastle wash over your parched and bleeding lips! The Winged Beast of the North will peck at your eyes!
The Exhibit(s) are at Bailey’s Pub on Southside tonight, Tuesday, 6/6/6. Rumors of mystical incantations and sacrifices to dark powers may or may not be true. Rumors of encouraged liver damage are definitely true. And the odds that you’ll hear us play a lot of songs with “Devil” in the title? Pretty damn good. No cover charge, good drinks, and a possible surprise appearance by Satan. What more could you ask for?
Take the Dante’s Divine Comedy Inferno Test
Team Satan merchandise? Why have I never heard of this before?
Hell on Earth. I’ll be going here on the same trip that I eventually make to the real world Silent Hill, Centralia, PA.
Expecting? Check the scalp carefully for birthmarks…
(Speaking of expecting — while not Satan-related, this is certainly implying evil, or at least poor choice in logo design)
Today is June 6, 2006, also known as 6/6/6.
Today is election day — gubernatorial primaries and more.
Anyone else see the connection?
I laugh about this even more when I think about Roy Moore using it as an excuse when he loses.
[cue ominous music] … or will he?