Max: A+

I passed.

Max: Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot"

Carl Sagan's essay, "Pale Blue Dot" is one of the most important collections of English language words ever written. It is deepest philosophy that borders on pure poetry. And now someone has put together a neato keen video to go with it.

Max: OpenCongress.Org

OpenCongress

Keep tabs on Congress, including RSS feeds that keep you up on the votes and other activities of your Rep and Senators.

Max: How Shrub Is Insuring We Are Well And Truly Fucked

We are funding al Queda.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

One contradictory aspect of the new strategy is that, in Iraq, most of the insurgent violence directed at the American military has come from Sunni forces, and not from Shiites. But, from the Administration’s perspective, the most profound—and unintended—strategic consequence of the Iraq war is the empowerment of Iran. Its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has made defiant pronouncements about the destruction of Israel and his country’s right to pursue its nuclear program, and last week its supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on state television that “realities in the region show that the arrogant front, headed by the U.S. and its allies, will be the principal loser in the region.”

Instead of going after bin Laden and al Queda, Shrub tricked the less distrustful of us into thinking that Saddam had a part in 9/11. So we let bin Laden go so we could get into a quagmire in Iraq. Now, thanks to the mess we made, we are now funding the people who thought 9/11 was a pretty neato thing.

Why this fucker has not been frog-marched out of the White House and into his own cell at Gitmo, I do not know.

Max: In Case They Flip Out While In Orbit

NASA's plan for unstable astronauts: Duct tape, tranquilizers

• NASA has a plan for dealing with a mentally unstable astronaut in space
• Instructions: Bind the astronaut's wrists and ankles and tie them down
• Inject the out-of-control astronaut with tranquilizers if necessary
• A gun would not be used; a bullet could pierce a spaceship and kill everyone

Max: Tech Geeks Rule

$10 wok keeps TV station on air

Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective?

This is exactly how North Otago's newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down.

45 South volunteer Ken Jones designed the wok transmitter in his spare time last year when he wanted to provide wireless broadband to his Ardgowan home.

This is what happens when you let smart people play with shiny toys.

Max: Return of the Mainframe?

Google Apps

Only this time it runs on the Internets.

Whether you're a family, a club with chapters nationwide, or an international association, Google Apps will let your members communicate and work together online, all for free. Google Apps lets you offer email, instant messaging, and calendar accounts on your own domain name (for example, jsmith@your-group.com), to keep your group close and build its online identity. You can also design and publish web pages to show others what you're all about.

Max: Group Says Pot Policy Based on Fraud

Group challenges feds on medical pot

Armed with a new study showing the drug can ease pain in some HIV patients, medical-marijuana advocates sued the federal government Wednesday over its claim that pot has no accepted medical uses.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court by Americans for Safe Access, accuses the government of arbitrarily preventing 'sick and dying persons from seeking to obtain medicine that could provide them needed and often lifesaving relief.'

The Food and Drug Administration's position on medical marijuana 'is incorrect, dishonest and a flagrant violation of laws requiring the government to base policy on sound science,' Joe Elford, said chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access.

Max: Ron Paul Bitch Slaps the Federal Reserve

Max: A PSA from George Takei

Max: NFCTD

Someone please explain this to me.

Max: The Greatest 404 Message Ever

404

Max: Dungeon Siege

Was that Burt Reynolds playing the king?

Max: Postal

Max: Jay Leno's Wet Dream

Man buys farm, finds vintage cars

Max: Trippy

Doodle by squidsoup

Max: Swiss Pico Gun

SwissMiniGun Arme Miniature Miniature Arms

Max: I Think That My Brain Just Melted

Max: Honorary Irate Weirdo

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Vanuatu cargo cult marks 50 years

One of the world's last surviving cargo cults is celebrating its official 50th anniversary on Tanna island in Vanuatu.

The John Frum Movement worships a mysterious spirit that urged them to reject the teachings of the Church and maintain their traditional customs.

The cult was reinforced during WWII, when US forces landed with huge amounts of cargo - weapons, food and medicine.

Villagers believe the spirit of John Frum sent the US military to their South Pacific home to help them.

Devotees say that an apparition of John Frum first appeared before tribal elders in the 1930s.

He urged them to rebel against the aggressive teachings of Christian missionaries and instead said they should put their faith in their own customs.

Nutbar, cult-leader and enemy of Christian missionaries; this guy is Irate Weirdo material.

Max: Whackjobs

The Earth Is Not Moving

An electromagnet and computerized sensor hidden in its display stand cause the Earth to levitate motionlessly in the air. Could God have engineered something like that for the real Earth? The Bible and all real evidence confirms that this is precisely what He did, and indeed: The Earth is not rotating...nor is it going around the sun.

Please join me in laughing at these inbred retards.

Max: Ghosts of George

Teenage drinkers face alcohol test - health - 14 February 2007 - New Scientist

Big Brother has arrived at a high school in New Jersey. Determined to stop their students consuming alcohol at weekends, staff at Pequannock Township High School in Morris county are to start using a controversial test that can detect if students have been drinking up to a week earlier.

The Museum of Lost Interactions

The Museum of Lost Interactions

Early 20th Century inventions you never heard about (because they weren't invented until recently).

Max: Quotes

The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right...The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

And

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

Both by John Stuart Mill

Max: Building the Cortex in Silicon

Technology Review: Building the Cortex in Silicon

An ambitious project to model the cerebral cortex in silicon is under way at Stanford. The man-made brain could help scientists understand how the most recently evolved part of our brain performs its complex computational feats, allowing us to understand language, recognize faces, and schedule the day. It could also lead to new neural prosthetics.

Max: Massively Multitouch Operating System

Jericho: Beep Borp Blurp!

I remember thinking somewhere in my teens that R2-D2 was ridiculous! I didn't have a problem with the idea that a wheeled trash can could be super smart, not to mention brave. I had a problem with all of those silly beeps and whirs and other noises. Why not just give every robot the ability to talk. C3-P0 could talk, why not R2? Besides, who would be able to understand all of those noises? R2 needed Three-Pio around just to interperet!

Today I chucked my backpack in the hatch and got into the car. Steph drove us to work. As we were driving, this pitiful sound came from the hatch. My cell phone needed to be charged and it makes a pitiful blur-bib sound when it does. You can almost hear it saying "Feed me!" or "I'm dying!" I felt compelled to get to work faster to plug in my pet...ur, um, cell phone.

Not only do machines "talk" in beeps and boops here, in this future, but I can understand them without being told what the sounds mean and I'm conditioned to fulfill the machine's needs. Soon I'll be saying "As you wish, Master Moto!"

Jericho: Time Friends

This was made here.

Max: Yay! War!

Target Iran: US able to strike in the spring | Iran | Guardian Unlimited

US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington.

The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office.

Neo-conservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, are urging Mr Bush to open a new front against Iran. So too is the vice-president, Dick Cheney. The state department and the Pentagon are opposed, as are Democratic congressmen and the overwhelming majority of Republicans. The sources said Mr Bush had not yet made a decision. The Bush administration insists the military build-up is not offensive but aimed at containing Iran and forcing it to make diplomatic concessions. The aim is to persuade Tehran to curb its suspect nuclear weapons programme and abandon ambitions for regional expansion.

Max: 'Doomsday' vault design unveiled

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Doomsday' vault design unveiled

The final design for a 'doomsday' vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government.

The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole.

Max: This Make Brain Hurt

New universes will be born from ours

What gruesome fate awaits our universe? Some physicists have argued that it is doomed to be ripped apart by runaway dark energy, while others think it is bouncing through an endless series of big bangs and big crunches. Now these two ideas are being combined to create another option, in which our universe ultimately shatters into billions of pieces, with each shard growing into a whole new universe. The model could solve the mystery of why our early universe was surprisingly well ordered.

Max: Exte -Hair Extensions- Trailer 1

Max: Atoms function as light-trappers and transporters

Atoms function as light-trappers and transporters - tech - 07 February 2007 - New Scientist Tech

A pulse of light can be stopped, transported, and restarted again using a cloud of super-cold atoms, US researchers have shown. The technique could ultimately be used for advanced computing devices or gravity detectors.

The experiments demonstrate physicists' increasing ability to manipulate light. Being able to control it in this way could be useful for optical or quantum computers, the team suggests.

'The first time I read this paper, I didn't believe it,' says Michael Fleischhauer, a theoretical physicist at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. 'Even though theory tells us it should be possible, actually doing it is something else.'

Naomi Ginsberg, Sean Garner and Lene Hau of Harvard University, US, used a method first developed in 2001 to imprint a pulse of laser light onto a collection of sodium atoms cooled to just above absolute zero.

Max: US Interstates

Map of US Interstates, redrawn as a transit map.

Max: Trash 2 Electricity

Scientists develop portable generator that turns trash into electricity

A group of scientists have created a portable refinery that efficiently converts food, paper and plastic trash into electricity. The machine, designed for the U.S. military, would allow soldiers in the field to convert waste into power and could have widespread civilian applications in the future.

Jericho: Attacking with Absurdity

The Honoray Irate Weirdo award goes to The Defense of Marriage Alliance. They are trying to pass a most interesting Initiative here in WA. The Initiative process in WA is always an interesting thing and this is one of the toppers!

A part of me wants this Initiative to pass. Sure, it will mean Steph and I will have to get married every three years, but, at least it will make sense - unlike the current babble about marriage in this country.

Max: Basslab

If there was any justice I would own six of these.

Max: A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science

A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science

In recent years, scientists who work for and advise the federal government have seen their work manipulated, suppressed, distorted, while agencies have systematically limited public and policy maker access to critical scientific information. To document this abuse, the Union of Concerned Scientists has created the A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science.

Max: Gaaaaayyy

Haggard Now "Completely Heterosexual", Disgraced Pastor Convinced He's Now "Completely Heterosexual" - CBS News: "One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced that he is 'completely heterosexual.'

Haggard also said his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations, the Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur told The Denver Post for a story in Tuesday's edition.

'He is completely heterosexual,' Ralph said. 'That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing.'"

Max: ScienceForCelebrities (PDF File)

ScienceForCelebrities.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Max: Gaaaaayyy

Max: Miracle Fruit

Eat Foo: Post-Rapture Miracle Fruit Recap

Miracle fruit is not mind-blowing, but it's very, very cool. If you have the choice, go for the magic mushrooms, but otherwise miracle fruit is one of the weirdest food-induced experiences one can have. It's like some weird new experiment from Willy Wonka's factory, only Willy Wonka is some shady horticulturist from Fort Lauderdale known to the world only through his cryptic messages on obscure gardening blogs. But he came through.

The miracle fruit experience itself was awesome. I've tried it three times now. The fruits definitely vary in potency, although I don't know whether the potency is altered by what one has eaten before the miracle fruit. Some people seemed to have a more mild experience, and others' tastes were drastically altered. No one got a dud. Even the three times I tried it, it was different each time. The first time was more mild, the second (at the party) was quite dramatic, and the third was more mild again.

Max: Intriguing Claustrophobia

micro compact home | welcome

Jericho: Cardiac Cowboy

On Monday I had my cardiac follow up visit. If you don't know what I'm talking about, have a looky here. The doc told me that I'll be fibrillating, nothing I can do, it's just gonna happen. He told me that I need to lose weight because the extra strain on my heart will just make this worse. He told me to get checked out for sleep apnea, since apnea will set off the fib - and in my case he is SO right. He said the beta blocker is the way to go and I should stay on it.

Being that I needed to go back to the cardiologist and that Steph was going to have Lasik surgery later in the day and needed me to drive, I took the full day off and then scheduled a chat with our regular doctor after talking with the cardio medico. Of course she wants me to get the weight off. She took a whole set of blood tests. She wants me to get back to the gym. She, too, is concerned about the apnea. She wasn't as hot on the beta blockers, she hadn't heard about the issues being raised in the UK. She thinks we might be able to get similar results with Calcium Channel blockers. She wants to see me again in six weeks.

Tuesday morning about 4 AM I woke up with palpatations. I waited around for a while and they were gone by 5 AM. I decided to stay home from work, anyway. Steph was staying home to let her eyes heal up so it seemed like a good time to blow the left overs on my Sick Leave. All day I kept feeling a shudder - it's hard to describe. In my arms and back I could feel a ticking, like sitting in an idling car. I didn't feel it around my heart. It just came and went.

I got a call from our doctor, she said my BP and heart looked good, my cholesterol was fine - but my blood sugar was up over 200, it should be under 100. She put me on two diabetes medicines, Metformin and Glyburide - the two come in one pill called Glucovance. So, yes, I'm Type II Diabetic. Most likely if I get the weight off, the Diabetes will go with it. Getting the weight off is the clincher.

The rest of the week passed and I kept feeling the ticking, car idling business. I started to freak myself out with it - what if I was fibrillating and didn't know it? What if it suddenly stopped, I got a blood clot and stroked out? What if my mind was just going south and it was nothing?

Friday afternoon, about 4, I was studying and I could feel the ticking. I started to freak out about it and sure enough my heart rate went up. I decided that was enough and I had Steph take me to the ER. Being that it was Friday night they were busy. But, eventually, they got me on a table and had a look.

Nothing.

I could feel the ticking. But they detected nothing. My bloodwork was fine, my heart x-rays looked fine, heck, my blood sugar was at 98 (had been dieting and on the meds since late Tuesday.) They don't know what the ticking is, but it's not immediately life threatening. By 8 PM, I had been in the ER for nearly three hours, we were starving and they had found nothing. We went home, relieved.

Today, we went looking for a treadmill for the home. We just are not going to the gym. We both need to do it. But, it's a huge investment of time. It's two hours out of our increasingly busy days - four hours total. Two hours may not sound like much to some, but when I am getting home sometime between 6 and 7 PM and going to bed around 11, two hours is a huge chunk of the time I have. Steph is back in school, so her time is even more crunched than mine. Getting off the couch to spend that kind of time to do something not terribly fun or exciting - well, it's not inspiring.

The home treadmill isn't a magic bullet, but it reduces some of the effort. We're looking at this PaceMaster, we'll grab it in a few weeks when it's on sale - much lower than its MSRP.

Max: Cthulu. It's What's For Dinner

Max - MC Lars-Download this song

Max: The US Has Officially Gone Batshit Crazy

2 Men Held on Bond in Boston Hoax Case | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

A judge ordered two men held on bond Thursday for allegedly placing electronic advertising devices around the city in a publicity stunt that went awry and stirred fears of terrorism, shutting down parts of Boston.

Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, were held on $2,500 cash bond each after they pleaded not guilty to placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct for a device found Wednesday at a subway station.

Officials found 38 blinking electronic signs promoting the Cartoon Network TV show ``Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' on bridges and other high-profile spots across the city Wednesday, prompting the closing of a highway and the deployment of bomb squads. The surreal series is about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball. The network is a division of Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc.

When we are freaking out over Lightbrite displays and arresting people for terrorism because public officials freaked out over nothing, we are well and truly fucked.