Happy Birthday to Echanos, who has reached the ripe old age of 72 today. Actually, flip that around… and I hope it’s a good one, bro.

Reefer Inanity: Never Trust the Media on Pot. This article address the bullshit claims that circulated a few weeks ago asserting that marijuana can lead to schizophrenia and mental illness.

VMware, makers of an awesome Windows emulator for Mac, went public today and saw their stock rise 76%! Dammit… if I had only known they were going public…. I actually use VMware on this here machine and it’s fantastic. You can even run in ‘unity’ mode, which brings Mac and Windows together on the same desktop. (Normally you’d run all Windows applications in a separate window with its own desktop.) Oh well… I certainly don’t know shit about the stock market.

One thing all of us should know is not to leave body parts in your fridge when you move out. It’s just not good practice.

Also, never eat these. Whatever the fuck they are.

I haven’t checked this out yet, but it sounds interesting… interview with They Might Be Giants regarding their use of technology.

Dick Cheney said in 1994 that invading Iraq would create a quagmire. From 1994 until the beginning of the Iraq war, the situation there hardly changed a bit… especially the different regions he imagined it would split into. So Richard, you want to explain why the hell we’re over there NOW?

Karl Rove quits. Alright, sorry.. he resigned… but not before he and Bush shared a long, passionate, open-mouthed kiss on national TV. God… wouldn’t that be fantastic?

Some background information of a handful of hits, such as Loser, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and Walk This Way. Veerrry interesting.

Could the poisonous weed jatropha become the best source of biofuel? Maybe!

Anyone else notice that milk is way too expensive all of a sudden? I sure as hell did. The article says that demand in countries that never really drank much milk, such as Asian countries, as well as a higher cost to feed the cows is causing the price increase.

States across the country are now allowed to upgrade their road signs from Highway Gothic to Clearview. Although readability and clarity should have been a factor way back when highway signs were first going up, they say it wasn’t nearly as thought-out as it should have been. After some testing, they’ve found that signs printed in Clearview can be read 1-2 seconds earlier, especially at night when Highway Gothic tends to give off a blurred halo effect. A pretty extensive article, but nonetheless interesting.

Bulletproof backpacks just in time for kids returning to school. Yeesh.

Someone entombed a strip of bacon and an egg in plastic containers one year ago, and here are the results. The bacon is quite amazing.

Viral marketing or actual UFO footage? Probably viral marketing.

Here are two very odd pages where eyes follow your mouse cursor:
Woman
Dog
The dog definitely wins in terms of creepiness, but they’re both weird.

Team Discovery’s cycling team disbands. This was pretty surprising, especially considering they’ve had a winner in 8 of the last 9 Tour de France races.

Another great Japanese TV clip: How much can a stray cat lift? It’s judged by how big of a fish they can haul away. My favorite cat is the big white one. He looks hilarious when he carries the big ones away.

Cockeyed.com’s Photographic Height/Weight Chart.

Transbay Barad-dur and Mount Doomalpais. One of the design proposals for the new Transbay Terminal looks an awful lot like Barad-dur, the castle with Sauron’s eye at the top, from Lord of the Rings. Of course, you need Mount Doom in the background, so they’ve somehow made Mount Tamalpais spew forth lava indefinitely. Great job.

Speaking of “great job”… if any of you haven’t seen Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! then you are missing out. It runs during Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network, but you can usually see at least one episode on the Adult Swim Fix. The show is very bizarre and surreal sketch comedy, and features Bob Odenkirk as a creative consultant, as well as some big comedy names like Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Tom Kenny, Fred Willard and more. I think I’ve seen the whole first season, and it is fantastic.

Some guy in Detroit, known as the Radioactive Boy Scout for attempting to build a nuclear reactor as a teenager, just got busted for stealing smoke detectors. I guess there’s some sort of material in there he wanted, but the real story is all of the crazy radiation scars he has all over his face! What the fuck?!

Gentlemen, the dream is a reality… piss-controlled video games have arrived. Sadly, this driving game is actually designed to show you that you are too drunk to drive, after seeing your own horrendous car wreck in the digital world. It says you can play a simulated version online, but I can’t get it to come up.

What happened to all the stars of The Wonder Years? Well, why don’t you find out for yourself! Kevin’s mom looks the exact same… and Wayne is nothing short of terrifying. What about that guy makes him so weird to look at? I think he has small eyes.

Alright, jet packs really ARE for sale now… but it’ll cost you a quarter mil for a model that can only stay airborne for 30 seconds. God dammit. Clearly the scientific community should halt all other studies and devote their efforts solely to making cheap, fuel-efficient jetpacks for everyone. If I’m not flying one of these to work by the time I’m of retirement age, I’ll be furious.

I’m not one to give props to big corporations much, but ABC is now offering shows online, for free, in HD. Makes not having a TV even easier, especially when you’re hooked on LOST. (Although when does it come back? Six Octobers from now?)

Down in Venezuela they’ve got Book Mules, and they’re planning on having Cyber Mules and Cine Mules as well! Totally awesome.

Another Japanese TV clip… this time it’s Buggy Rolling versus Honda CB600. What the hell is “buggy rolling”? I was wondering the same thing. It’s a sort of armored suit with rollerblade style wheels all over it, enabling a person to haul some serious ass in all sorts of positions. I just want to know, where are the brakes? There are some other videos on YouTube if you search, but I’m not sure where it originated.

It just got even easier for our government to spy on your phone calls and internet activity. Is it just that so few people hear about legislation like this, or do people really not mind giving up their individual rights? Do they even understand what that means?

No, it’s not just a figment of your imagination: the rich really ARE getting richer, and the poor really are getting poorer. News that I’m sure all of us are keenly aware of. And what do you know… the wealthiest two percent of Americans had their net wealth DOUBLE over the last 20 years. Greedy jerkoffs.

In other news, I just spilled a whole bunch of salt on my desk while trying to get the last cashew out of its bag. Never buy Nature Kist cashews either.. these are fucking terrible.

Kobayashi vs. Kodiak Bear. ‘Nuff said, as Stan Lee would say.

Some guy in Ohio decided people were driving too fast on his street, and put up carboard cutouts of his kids outside to make them slow down. It works! I’ll be astounded if the cutout of the cop with a radar gun he put out lasts another 24 hours, though. If I knew where that was, I’d have already stolen it.

Since BWIII made a comment about my new bike not being a fixed gear, I feel the need to give an update on my bicycle fetish. Although I still think track bikes are slick as hell, I’ve gotten much more into road racing, and especially time trials. At the moment, I think the sexiest bike available by law is the Time RXR. The frame itself (referred to on their site as a “module”) will run you $7,499. It weighs less than 5 lbs. even with a stem and crankset on there, but I’m not sure how much it’d weigh with wheels, bars, etc. The folks that ride in time trials tend to set a pace of over 30 mph, and frankly I think that’s cooler than just riding around trying to look stylish. (On my short ride to work, I have to push pretty hard to keep an average pace of 20 mph… which makes it all the more impressive to me.)

Here is a big chart showing the positions of presidential candidates on major issues. Is it really true that only Kucinich and Gravel (amongst the Dems) are against the Patriot Act? Obama… please say it ain’t so!

Apparently there are some very bizarre myths going around Iraq about American troops, such as:

• they eat children
• they use poison-tipped bullets
• they can see through clothes with x-ray sunglasses (and are totally checking you out, ladies)
• they have a “cold pill” to keep them from getting too hot in all that gear

I for one would love a pair of them shades… but come on… eating children?

The pharmacy chain Publix is going to offer free prescription antibiotics! They’re trying to start a trend, given the high cost of health care. I wonder if you could go to a free clinic and get a prescription for them…

The new TransBay Terminal will be the tallest building on the west coast. Right now they’re in the design stages, and the link will take you to some design ideas. I like how the one design incorporates a wind turbine, but it’s pretty ugly. The other one’s a bit bland, but I think it would look better amongst the existing skyscrapers.

How long can you keep foods in the fridge? Dammit… not nearly as long as I thought! I bet I’ve taken in nearly a gallon of moldy spaghetti sauce, as a matter of fact.

Floorplanner.com lets you create floor plans just like the pros… I guess? Truth is I haven’t tried it yet.

Russian portraits. Some really great photos.

Very few fishermen in this world have ever caught a deer, but these guys did! Hilarious.

Social wallpapering may be a dumb name and a dumb concept, but they do have some pretty nice, high resolution wallpaper.

Here in Oakland, police raided Your Black Muslim Bakery, and now have a suspect in the slaying of newly-appointed Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. Apparently, the bakery has had quite a history of violence and crime.

If you’re now worried about crossing bridges (like that dr green machine who left a comment) then here’s a guide to what bridges are potentially dangerous. Here in Alameda county, it looks like damn near every bridge is about to give out.

The fart, even amongst royalty, can be funny.

Japanese head bowling. Once again, quality TV from Japan.

Now THIS is fascinating. Video footage of a pride of lions on the savannah who take down a water buffalo calf… but that’s not all. I’ve been watching nature shows all my life and this is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. Video is long.. but worth it.

I have to hand it to this guy… he has actually pulled off a comb-over that’s not noticeable!

For those of you who still think of Kazaa or Gnutella (or even Napster) when you think of file sharing… it’s time to get with the program. BitTorrent already IS the new king of the block, and has been for some time. The thing is, I have met a lot of people who don’t know how to use it. Well, here’s a guide to help you figure it out. The guide doesn’t mention my favorite torrent search: ScrapeTorrent. It searches multiple torrent sites so you don’t have to.

If you haven’t Simpsonized yourself yet, it is kinda fun. It took me two tries to get something that resembled myself, but this is about the best I could do:

After the bridge collapse into the Mississippi River yesterday, experts are saying that many US bridges are unsafe. Either this is just good ol’ fashioned American panic, or these guys have been waiting until they had our full attention. According to their figures, about 1/4 of American bridges are “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete”. Neither term sounds good to me.

The newly-promoted editor of the Oakland Post, Chauncey Bailey, was gunned down yesterday in broad daylight. At around 7:30 in the morning a masked gunman took him out, right near Lake Merritt and the County Courthouse. The gunman must have had some vendetta going on, because it doesn’t get much more public than that within the borders of Oakland.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health has ordered marijuana dispensaries to fatten up their bags. Actually, the request stems from the conversion between grams and ounces, but still!

In the great state of Oklahoma, you can now get license plates that say ‘global war on terrorism’, and feature a bald eagle and the twin towers. If the colors on the sample are correct, it also boasts a desert storm style background… which may actually help your Ford F-150 blend into your crappy state’s scenery.

How about some old Russian buses and trolleys? I thought you’d like that.

Drinkingmap.com proves that Americans (plus Egypt, and.. what is that, Dubai?) are jerks when it comes to the drinking age. For a while there, I thought at least a few other nations set their drinking age at 21. At least somewhere in Europe, right? It had to be. But no. Why does every one of our laws have to be the trend-setter for most-restrictive in the world?

The United Countries of Baseball. God dammit, are there THAT many Reds fans? Buncha jerkasses.

Ron Mueck art installation. I know I’ve seen his work before somewhere…

Despite the tube puncture I had last night, my new bike is finally in order. I think I’ve put about 150 miles on it so far, give or take. A couple of things had to be replaced: bar tape, brake hood covers, seat, and of course, the $0.00 card. New tires are coming soon, but here’s what it looks like now:

An Al Qaeda web advertisement threatens a big surprise. I’m curious what it means when terrorists begin advertising for themselves. Will there be legitimate terrorist corporations soon? I wonder what kind of letterhead they’ll go with.

Elton John calls for shutting down the Internet. Apparently, the damage to the music industry is significant enough for him to shut down an entire medium of communication.

Finally bottled water producers will have to admit the sources of their water, right on the label. Aquafina is first up, and they’ll be adding “Public Water Source” to the sides of their product. Good to know.

Here’s a post on MetaFilter about bitters, that old-timey liqueur… if you’re curious about the stuff.

This Beatles in another era photoshopping contest is pretty great. I think the ManOWar one is the best.

You can get arrested for that? On this site, two guys put to test some of the most pointless laws in America by breaking them.

Music videos of misheard lyrics. I haven’t watched all of these yet, but if you click on the word “pure”, you’ll get a Christina Aguilera song interpretation that’s pretty damn funny.

The 25 worst rapper names of all time. I can’t believe there’s a dude who goes by ‘Noreaga’. Just deplorable.

10 reasons why guys shouldn’t drink and invent. The headbutt game for kids is incredible!

Can you tell the difference between real and fake boobs? I scored 20 out of 20, but admittedly I may have a little more “eye training” than most.