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How American Airlines turned a profit this quarter. Management stopped acting like a bunch of magnanimous pricks, the unions shut the hell up, and everyone figured out how they could save money. Gosh, what a novel approach. I will continue my nightly prayers for the complete ruination of United and all that they represent.

From jm, (who looks at paintings and reads books) -ed.: Greatest Painting of Modern Era (if you take away Magritte, Kadinsky, Mondrian, Picasso, Dali, etc.) Saw this at MoMA this weekend. Thought I'd pass it along.

Rafael Palmeiro, hall of fame bound, violated the drug policy. You may remember him from such congressional hearings as the one on steroids. I can't wait for the fallout. Will sent the previous bit, and JT added "I AM taking performance enhancing drugs....for the ladies..."

Hay Bales hazzard to your health. From JT, who adds I've heard rumours of tent-carrying injuries on the rise as well.

All from Shoof: For those of you who haven't seen the site (OOF) - check out JumpTheShark.com It lists essentially every TV show, and its pivotial moments that sent the show on the road to cancellation or "jumped the shark." (as taken from Happy Days - cause once Fonzie jumped over a shark while water skiing, the show was never the same - props to Hendrix for the explanation) Its a great source of debate, flashbacks to your childhood, and a time sucker.

I also heard about a brand new term this morning: "Jump the couch". It's when celebrities (or regular people) do something totally out of character before their complete downward spiral in life: i.e. Tom Cruise jumping on the couch on Oprah in a scientologic seizure professing his love to Katie Holmes.

Dear Dave,

Now that you're married you can use this site to find coupons and discounts to use when you go out to dinner with your wife.

Always thinking of you,

yfboot

-------------------------

Seriously, this site offers $25 restaurant credit certificates for $10. Valid restaurants are located all over the country (i only found 2 that I would use in Austin)...The discounts are valid Sunday - Thursday and you need to spend $35 w/o booze for the $25 off to apply.

Source code for the Trailer RSS creator

I make no guarantees about anything in this code, including quality, portability, scalability, or paradigm-shifting ability. But here it is.

How to Fake Fall Asleep

The debut album by helicopters

Our own Jason Caldeira is part of helicopters, which released their album a little bit ago. The whole thing is now available at the iTunes Music Store. I've been enjoying it all day, and if you know my curmudgeonly tastes, that's saying something (or not). I've particularly dug 'Mile Markers', 'Burt Gunplay', and 'While on the West Coast'. The entire purchase is well worth it.

If you're not sure, head over to I Love Helicopters.com where you can get a couple samples.

Transcending the guitar-based rock of their past, helicopters have driven into the land of electronic pop and come out the other side quite interesting to categorize: too rock to be The Postal Service, too pop to be Beck, too modern to be 80’s, too happy to be Radiohead.

I would throw a dash of Ben Folds into that mix as well. The good part.

IGN's top 100 games of all time This one's from will, who says The only glaring omission I see is Wall Street Kid. I'm filing it under 'books' cus I refuse to play by bhendrix's rules.

The flying spaghetti monster did it.

This comes from derek on the heels of Bush saying intelligent design should be taught in schools. Perhaps he was just responding to the on the poll that shows a bunch of people in Kansas are stupid.

Is The Aristocrats a big joke? The joke's supposedly been around since 'Vaudeville days', but did Jillette really just make it up?

From miolla: Looks like he went West Coast on us and started stealing cars or something. Here's the link with photos. Jokes aside, can anyone explain what this site is really about? -ed.

apple's new mighty mouse. From Jay Park.

How they made Corpse Bride. It's all stop motion, not CGI. Final Cut Pro, 24 Cannon EOS-1D Mark IIs, and 52 weeks yielding 2 minutes per week. Really cool insight into how stop motion is moving into the digital world.

The Keg Bot. Dispenses beers and keeps track of who drank what using badges called iButtons. Team drinking moves into the digital age. What a world we live in.

How to get rid of the last pop-ups with Firefox. I get about 1/week and I guess they're triggered by a flash ad loaded in the page and then set on load or unload or something. Anyway, they suck. So edit your about:config and get rid of them.

Rick says the pursuit of happiness harms America. This isn't one of those sensationalist headlines. That's what he says. I really, truly, cannot imagine how he thinks. There are liberals and conservatives who shirk their responsiblity for all kinds of things, and there are people on both sides hell bent on making them live up to their responsibilities.

I don't see anything wrong with "If I'm not hurting anyone else, stay out of my life." This is the United States. We are free to do what we want in the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don't care where people put, or what they do, with their genitals. If they do it in public, that's not good. I don't care how many drugs you do, and I think that the fact that they're illegal contributes to many more problems than the fact that people do them. I don't care what parasites you remove from your body. I don't care who you associate with, what you talk about, what you write, and where you travel. And these views are a lot more in line with what our founders intended.

The concept that by getting an abortion or doing drugs you're hurting America or your neighbors is the most messed up bit of twisted logic I've come across in some time. And make no mistake about it, Santorum is speaking in absolute literal terms, as he is when he says that gay marriage will affect his own marriage directly. He's not saying, oh, when people do drugs, that leads to the drug trade and that leads to violence. He's saying that by smoking dope you're hurting america.

I've been torn as to how much coverage to give Rick as of late, because I feel it just feeds his fire. But this is so far out there I had to say something. The only thing I can offer Sen. Santorum is the phrase 'Mind your own business.'

The national savings rate is at 0. And it may be over-estimated. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one scared by this, but yoi. 0? On average?

www.JudgeMikeMorgan.com I'm guessing will was making a play off of this guy, but there's a significant chance that I'm wrong. Update Make sure you have your sound turned on. And Warning: Sound on page.

Shaq gives up some huge $$ to help team. Is it too much help? From will: I'm on the record, Shaq is the most likeable guy in sports. Seriously, who decides to take 25 million less over five years just to help out with cap space? He seems to be the rare athlete who realizes he has more money than he'll ever need. And on the side he's becoming a deputy. And check out that picture. I heart Shaq.

The newest version of Quicktime Alternative allows you to view HD trailers ala quicktime 7, which was previously impossible for people with real computers. All from derek.

From T Hendrix: Laughatrice.com The title of the website provides all the instruction you need to enjoy. Particularly notable are the high number of "for sale" cars and the ones that have had the wings ripped off the back. Galleries are a pain in the butt to browse. Proving once again that great minds think alike, bhendrix.com offered this previous rice coverage.

Charley Murphy says that Chapelle's show is done. Boot has brought us this unfortunate news.

How to Post appropriately in a forum A Flash video brought to us by T Hendrix.

Having...trouble...fighting urges to post "OMFG!! Steam R0X0Rs Teh BIG ONE111!!"

I need a hand.

I would like to rip a bunch of DVDs onto a 60GB hard drive that I have. I've got DVD Decrypter to do the de-CSS and the copying off the disk, which isn't too bad at ~ 21min/disc. I would also like to compress them, because 60GB will only hold about 10 movies, give or take. I tried a couple of programs that compress to xVid and the like, but they all took 1hr+ for a small (30min) snowboard video. Is there any quick way to compress DVD files and preferably extract them at the same time? Or do I just have to suck it up and wait for them to 'render' circa MP3s in 1996?

And has anyone tried out 'Shrink'?

Glad to see the message is getting out there. Found on my travels across our great country. (those are napkins in the foreground.)

L.A. with Oof, Shoof, and Arjen

I figured he'd been living there long enough and realized that Nebraska is closer to L.A. than to NYC. So time for a trip out to the coast. Eating, drinking, surfing, sting ray bites, no smog, some hog. Thanks to Oof and Shoof for putting me up and Arjen for braving the L.A. night life.

Also from JT: This has RBI Baseball drinking game potential... Mario Baseball

Might be my first 'Cube purchase since Metroid Prime.

JT poses the following: Does bhendrix.com have any venture capital money? I think an investment in this machine would pay off big time, if only in pictures.

Thankfully, the first round has not yet come through. -ed.

Cost of War.com Allegheny County has kicked in 681 million and change. A few years ago, an $803 million package funded PNC Park, Heniz Field, retired the debt on Three Rivers Stadium and also razed the stadium, expanded the Convention Center, and constructed a new Pittsburgh Development Center.

From jm77x-z311: Robots can catch speedy balls. So, it's fairly nifty. The timing the thing has to do must be pretty sick. By speedy, they're talking about up to 300km/s (186mph). -bth20671.

jm has sent this bit of comedy (and filed it under 'Sports'): Californian beach boasts world’s pickiest females The article is about crabs. However, it's quite full of unintentional comedy, if you read it right. Also, it makes a certain old californian designer's favorite line make more sense, if you assume of course that he's used to mating with crabs.

However, some female crabs are pickier than others, deRivera found, and larger females could not afford to be so picky.

Sports Guy does Anchorman The Sports Guy discovers what everyone involved in this picture already knew: Anchorman rules. And then he relates each great exchange to an NBA situation.

The biggest argument with "Anchorman": What's the single-funniest scene? Some of my friends swear by the erection scene, capped off by Burgundy screaming, "Don't act like you're not impressed!" I'm partial to Brian Fantana's breaking out Sex Panther, then getting hosed down outside the network building like he's Meryl Streep in "Silkwood." Others enjoy the Jack Black cameo. Others swear by the phone booth scene. There's a really a plethora of choices. It's a cornucopia. A bevy. A potpourri.

The 'Look, it's the most glorious rainbow ever!' - 'Do me on it!' exchange always kills me.

Guy tells his wife he killed a hitchhiker to get her to leave. Wow. Mmmm... the joys of being legally bound to another person. This one's from 'single and proud'.

Need a puffy shirt? From will, who adds Faux gem buttons? sign me up. And I'm glad they have the coordinating items section. It takes all the guesswork out of stylish buccanneering.

I would also like to point out the rest of the site, which may be where every CDB on the planet shops.

Real estate markets with highest likelihood of decline. PGH is the least likely, although I think it's the least likely to increase as well. Take the good. Take the bad. Take 'em both and there you have... pittsburgh. This one's from Rollins, who adds Not what I wanted to read while in the midst of house-shopping.

From oof: As Jim fondly remembers Iowa is chock full of corn, and not much else - except for ridiculous tree houses.

Snoop Dogg is doing a new ad with Lee Iacocca, or however you spell old man river's name. From will. I feel as though this will either be tremendous, or one of the most uncomfortable TV moments ever. And will, I'm on to your little category game.

Running porn sites in the military as a side-business....Just be smarter than this guy From boot.

Mike Tyson has been approached to do a porn with Jenna Jameson. This one's from boot.

Taken from Harold and Kumar -- "just because you're hung like a horse doesn't mean you have to do porn."

"Banksy" decorates the Israeli West Bank barrier. From Jay Park, adding The artwork is incredible. Reminds me a little of the amazing sidewalk chalk guy. CMU probably wouldn't have busted him and told him to give sensitivity training.

A good laugh. From bw.

Video of a Cosworth engine going to 11. In this case, 11 means 20,002 rpm. I guess they could have faked it, but listening to the wail, I don't really care. And yes, this is semi-formula 1 related. But really it's engine-related, so that trumps. I like how when they need to 'relax' it they put it back down to 9,000 rpm.

Daily Show clip of reaction to Novak walking out. The dark prince of high treason, Bob Novak, walked out of a CNN talking heads show after saying it was bullshit. He apparently didn't like what Carville had to say. Stewart rules. There. I said it again.

Cal dept. of transportation wants to tear down home-grown skate park. August is eXtreme month here at bhendrix.com, and this just popped up on boingboing, so here it is. CalTrans's excuse for tearing the place down is the whole 'liability' thing, which is bs, as there are several other parks like this and not one of them to my knowledge has ever been the subject of a liability suit. The article is also a little sketchy as CalTrans says they just found out about the thing while looking for homeless people, but then says they want to store equipment there. Which may or may not be valid. Anyway, I can't imagine a bunch of cops and bureaucrats being a bunch of dicks for no reason. If nothing else, the park keep skaters off the streets so the cops don't have to kick them out.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater has sent this: This story had potential to be extremely funny had it not ended this way

Thinking about something like this. Which may be the greatest site in the world. Totally work safe, but may cause permanent retinal damage.

Not that I care when someone changes their mind when new information has come to light, or even when they just come to their senses, but I do enjoy holding someone's feet to the fire when they would do the same. On that note, Rick says Intelligent Design should not be taught in science classrooms. The problem? Yea. You probably guessed it. He previously said it should. Oh, Rick, you're now a flip-flopper. The shame.

This is all bean: Women eats 35 bratwursts to win competition. After having watched Clerks again very recently, and then hearing about a women eating alot of weiners, I must ask: "In a row?"

All from JT: IGN looks at Madden 2006.

That said, it was only a matter of time before the streak had to end. Madden NFL 06 could very well be remembered as the game that didn't improve enough over its counterpart -- and for the first time in years, became a little less fun to play.

Not a big surprise that this happens in correlation with the elimination of competitive products (like the NFL2k series).

Amusing billboard target of people with too much time. This one's from Brick. I'd ask those people to get over it. Oh yea - Vagina. Vagina. Vagina... Vagina.

Krugman on why the housing bubble may have burst. In short, it doesn't fall as quickly as the stock market, there most certainly is a bubble, and signs of the bubble bursting are starting to show.

Metroid in an isometric view. A cool concept, if nothing else. Fully playable.

Guy has his nuts padlocked. For two weeks. This one's from Goldsmith, who added Just heard this one on the radio and figured I'd pass it along. A hacksaw???

Cheerleaders foil a hit and run with a cheer. This one's from will, who adds I've heard they also solve internal disputes with naked kiss/tickle fights

Penny Arcade explores the crude dick joke. Not unlike some of the brilliant insults found in these parts.

Custom car emblems Because saying "I don't trust the Mainstream Media" on a bumper sticker just isn't cool enough.

Sausauge for the alternative lifestyle (pic) From Shasta

eHarmony is apparently a Christian dating service. Not big on matching atheists and they won't deal with the homer-sexuals. Apparently it's not just Slashdot conjecture, although I'm still serving this with a grain of salt.

From boot: Remember Polega's craigslist post about the bus to the sausagefest -- well they went out and got their own website.

That kid on the picture is going to hate himself once he starts middle school.

Video of our articulate president, prominently featuring Andy Dick. I think Andy Dick is about as funny as an ingrown toe nail, but this is actually pretty clever.

Getting medieval in Michigan? The Smoking Gun is there. From derek, adding the taser is mightier than the sword, chainmail, giant wooden hammer, and all the goofballs you can eat

From jm: Guy who sings 'Walking in Memphis' shot in head. Furthermore, he lives showing that either there is no God or that he/she has little to no taste in music.

Virtual Scuba Instructor This one's from bw. It doesn't work in Firefox and unless I'm missing something, it may be the worst page on the internet.

Volkswagen Golf R32 250HP with 4Motion and DSG. 0-60 in 6.2. Nice. I particularly like the four door.

The Solstice is here. I've been a big fan of this since its intro a while ago. And the first editions were just delivered. Whole bunch of pics, including the interior, which doesn't suck.

Reese Witherspoon has had it with dumb blondes. I'm fairly certain she's referring to the new Daisy Duke. Just a hunch. Update Stiner has informed me that the quote was taken way out of context and refers to raising her daughter (who I assume is blonde). That takes all the fun out of it. Unless she's throwing daggers at her kid Gangs of New York style, which would be cool to see. Damn you internets and your selective quoting!! When will I learn?

The perils of stealing a neighbor's Wi-Fi. In short, 99.999999% of the time, there are none. If you're worried, pull up RegEdit and hit the TCP/IP section for some anonymous 'theft'.

Anyway, I wanted to post this and thank all the neighbors I've 'borrowed' from over the years. And to tell belkin54g and linksys to change their admin passwords. If I were an ass, I would pwn your asses by now.

Runaway Bride pulled lawn duty. Arjen sent this my way, adding Awesome! I love how it turned into a photo op.

Vital Statistics - factoids all over the place. From Rollins, who says Play the game. Then buy the book and give it a place of honor on your toilet tank.

Men have a difficult time hearing women. This one's from Matty B. Compared to other men, anyway. Now if I could just come up with a reason not to talk on the phone...

From Bob: www.75orless.com

Providence based album review site run by an old friend of mine which insists all its reviews are 75 words or less. All reviews by "Tom" are my brother, for those who know him...

National Air Guitar champioships.

Why tipping should be included in the price. It's an opinion piece from a guy that wrote a book about restaurants. I can see his point if a restaurant does tip pooling, but I don't really care either way. However, I've never seen an argument fall apart so quickly as it does in the last paragraph:

In this, the world's most generous nation of tippers, most restaurants don't even offer service as good as at the average McDonald's. While it lacks style, service at McDonald's is far more reliable than the service at the average upper-middle-market restaurant. This is not because the employees of McDonald's are brilliant at their jobs - it's because they are well-trained and subject to rigorous supervision.

And come to think of it, at McDonald's there is no tipping.

Apparently the author needs to take a trip to the golden arches sometime and witness the slack-jawed morons populating the area behind the counter. My plans and patents for automating the entire place should be done shortly. Or maybe 'uppder middle-class' restaurants in New York just freakin' suck. I wouldn't want to overlook that.

The Unforgiven Million Dollar Horse Whisperer The only appropriate role for J.Lo in a movie is the person that dies 3 minutes in. Even Kevin Smith knows that.

Shek has passed along Everything is illuminated (QT Video) and recommends the book.

Come on honey...the people are getting their money back. I'm sorry...can you ever forgive me.

Love,

F1 (aka bw)

Apparently F1 doesn't know my near-infinite capacity for grudge holding. And they're only getting their ticket money back, not hotel, plane, concession, etc. And this is Michelin providing all the money. The FIA still thinks nothing bad happened. F F1. I'm done. Csere's column in the newest Car and Driver has a goood 1-page breakdown of the whole mess.

Previous bhendrix mini-rant here.

Is your kid gay? Part of the uber-tolerant Focus on the Family hate network, Focus on the Child brings us this informative and scientific breakdown of spotting your queer-bait offspring. I'm still laughing. At least 3 of these could apply to kids that are just freakin' nerds.

Smooth Jimmy Apollo is marking this Lock of the Day for getting a laugh. Ooo... that's a big lock.

This is from ryan: Radio talk show host gets canned for slur. So yeah, this guy got fired. Maybe a bit more than he deserved, but still pretty stupid. I just wonder what the difference was between what he said (by the way, the Giants are playing some awful baseball and were when the statement was made) and what Will's favorite manager once said.

More on this over at Salon, although you'll have to watch an ad. -ed.

I'm enjoying Krueger's karma and Magowan's latest headache partly because I'm a Dusty Baker fan, but mostly because I think Krueger represents one of the ickiest elements in sports fandom and sports journalism -- angry loudmouths who don't love their sports gods but instead love to hate them. It's the brotherhood of resentful folks who pay outrageous prices for game tickets and authentic jerseys and all the trappings of fandom, blaming greedy stars for the excess and never looking at team management, allied with the brotherhood of certain ink-stained, microphone-hoarse wretches who have to grovel to sports stars to get stories and who exact payment for the humiliation with what they write and broadcast.

From miolla: Just have a look at what Milwaukee's Best produced for their website. A quality flash game that brings a tear to my eye.

PA cops do have ticket quotas. And they have to say they don't exist to avoid a PA law passed in 1981. So how long before the first class action suit is brought by a group of people that couldn't get state police response in a reasonable amount of time because they were writing tickets for 74 in a 65?

The PA State PD must explain the existence of documents that indicate officers receive pay incentives for writing additional traffic tickets, while whistle blowers are castigated from within the department.

This guy who died of a heart attack caused by exhaustion becuase he would not get up from his game of starcraft in an internet cafe. This one's all from boot, who adds on a side note, i'm impressed that anyone can play for over 2 days straight.

I'm impressed with how well the herd thins itself. -ed.

Band names album Sean Hannity (631) 673-8003 Sean Hannity is not amused. This is stolen from the Fark. Be sure to read down to the end for the new title of the album.

I'd like to point out that this picture is currently the headline image on CNN.com. Why? Because they're continuing their story about dumb and dumber, the fugitives. This would be hour 67,000. For once I wish an attractive white woman would go missing.

Bean has sent this. Iraq War Casualties. Pretty comprehensive page. Also has links to Afghan War Casualties and casualties of other US wars throughout history.

Woodward says he sees a Hillary-Cheney contest in '08 I can't say I'm a big Hillary fan, but a contest between her and the anti-christ would tear this country apart. I mean literally. Around August of 08 scientists would discover several new fault lines and around late September they would just open up and swallow the entire nation. Which might not be a bad thing. And a Cheney-anybody ticket would prompt me to look further into how to secede from the union. Sweet jesus.

The role of common sense in science. Interesting opion piece postulating that Einstein's theories that refuted common sense caused many scientists to look for the least rational explanation for things. Worth a read.

Just a neat little article about the interesting McClaren building. From Philippe. Sub-basement 17 is actually pretty similar to this. Er, I mean, uh... crap. -ed.

Profile of armed forces recruiting in the burgh. It's an interesting article, and the main gist is that it's become significantly more difficult due to parental apprehension. The real killer is the lead-in:

Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, 26, a Marine recruiter in Pittsburgh, went to the home of a high school student who had expressed interest in joining the Marine Reserve to talk to his parents.

It was a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom greeted him wearing an American flag T-shirt.

"I want you to know we support you," she gushed.

Rivera soon reached the limits of her support.

"Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him.

Fat people losing weight by eating McDonalds only diets This one's from boot, who says My favorite note from the article is "she dropped from 227 to 190 lbs"

Bean sent this in (really): Masturbation determined to be Most Difficult Sport in World. I googled "ranking sports most difficult" because I wanted to see the categories used to determine overall athleticism in that article from a while back, and this was the first link. I figured this is a great addition to the Lance/Vick eternal argument.

From miolla: Crazy ad from Australia. Makes you want to drink beer. Requires you to okay a Java applet. Then hit space. Again. -ed.

Wikipedia entry on the Donkey Punch Makes for some excellent reading, and the links at the bottom for the Cleveland Steamer and Dirty Sanchez are worth a laugh. The entry for 'Blumpkin' is not safe for work. So heads up. Polega sent the link.

From Blum: I got this off the sports guys site. It's a site that has archived the transcripts for just about every saturday night live sketch written.

I'm also including a link of the tom hanks Mr. Belvedere fan club sketch. Jim kept talking about how funny it was at Bharaths wedding. I had to stiffle myself at the office when I got to this exchange.

I should want to cook him a simple meal, but I shouldn't want to cut into him, to tear the flesh, to wear the flesh, to be born unto new worlds where his flesh becomes my key.

Now, in electric From Derek. I'd like to thank whoever did this for their dedication to a prank. -ed.

Bush continues to snub the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. In case you haven't been following this, Cindy Sheehan has been camped out in Crawford, Texas for the past week or so. Her son was killed in Iraq and she wants to talk to the president. Bush's response? "And I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say."

"But," he added, "I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."

From Mp: specialized bikes... go crazy. This is some wacky ass design, definitely a departure. I thought this was appropriate since this has turned into a bike-nerd site.

From bw: Movie may have sucked but this power slide in the General Lee (MPEG Video) is pretty sweet. Oh yeah...it's RWD too, bitches. I have to agree. That is some serious car control. I wouldn't count out a properly driven rally car from making that line, though. -ed.

Dave sent this (including tag): This is supposedly the best tv video search engine on the web: www.blinkx.tv and I believe it was recently purchased by Rupert Murdoch. It searches in the video, much like the files in Zoolander were in the computer. They theoretically use some speech recognition stuff to figure out the actual content of the clip reather than relying on metadata or other clues. -ed.

This is for Jay. From JT

Riot breaks out to get cheap iBooks. Well, not really a riot, more of a stampede. Pics. Bill and Anagha both sent this in, with Mrs. Boot adding

the best part is the guy who is beating people back with his chair...

"Jesse Sandler (any relation to Adam? -ed.) said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him."

Unfortunately, its not real. But it would solve all of our problems.

Christopher Walken for President in 2008

Geek decks out his pad with shipping boxes from Rollins.

Lungfish updated their hoax claim of the Aristicrats joke. Turns out the joke appeared in a joke book published in 1972. From miolla.

This is all from Boot: P-diddy has dropped the P off his name. The man formerly know as Puff Daddy will now be simply be called Diddy.

In related news, Prashanth will go in kind with the new moniker of "Rashanth"

Lebron James image to be on a NASCAR stock car. This after a Coca Cola officials say that recent data shows that 74 percent of all NBA fans are also NASCAR watchers.

Boot sent this in adding I honestly don't know if I have ever seen the NBA and NASCAR fan bases united through anything but McDonalds

I say it just proves that people will watch anything.

This one's from Shoof, who's had her own recent run-in with the wild kingdom. Take it away shoof...

So people want to relocate dwindling African Animal species, such as lions, elephants, cheetahs, etc to the Great American Plains in attmepts to revitalize the animal population. Yeah, let me see them survive a single winter in the northern plains..

Now, in the comfort of your own home! From Rollins, with love.

From Derek:

Danger Doom

K&K MIMES. Best website on the interweb. This one's from miolla. And it appears to be legit. And they're from the burgh.

Carrot Top update I looked around a bit and this appears to be real. The allegations of steroid use are fast and furious, but WTF? Seriously. WTF? JT sent the link.

From Sri: Somebody hooked up Hot or Not with Google Maps.... Happy hottie hunting...

Boot sent this along, and I thought it was interesting, so here it is.

mapsexoffenders.com enables you to search for registered sex offenders using gmaps. This one's from dean. Their javascript implementation of the embed doesn't seem to work in firefox.

Two words, Dick and Bush. It's even safe for work. This one's from miolla. Update I screwed up on this one. It's a total dupe. If you read the site frequently, you've seen it at least once.

An interview with a guy that went sky diving at 102,800 feet. And lived. He was testing the limits of human endurance with a pressure suit as part of the space program. He was in freefall for almost 4 1/2 minutes and managed to break the sound barrier. There's some pics over here.

At 40,000 feet, the glove on my right hand hadn't inflated. I knew that if I radioed my doctor, he would abort the flight. If that happened, I knew I might never get another chance because there were lots of people who didn't want this test to happen. I took a calculated risk, that I might lose use of my right hand. It quickly swelled up, and I did lose use for the duration of the flight.

Nice picture of Scott Podsednik jumping into the stands at Yankees stadium.

From jm: Old Creationist Science Fair is a Hoax. I think we all had our suspicions. Don't know if it's been made made official, but I just threw my chair, just in case.

Police officers fight off looters after a beer train crashes This one's from Jay Park. If you ever want to hear some funny stories, talk to a beer delivery guy that's worked the not-so-nice part of town. It's amazing what people will do for beer. Or maybe not...

Sweep
Tetris style game with a twist...like lime Coke, but good. Derek has sent all of this.

Pat Robertson encourages popping cap in Venezuelan leader's ass. Which is a bad idea on several levels. Arjen sent this along with a bit of insight - I thought Pat Robertson was a Christian with family values...

New Intelligent Falling theory explanation. This one's from Blum.

According to the ECFR paper published simultaneously this week in the International Journal Of Science and the adolescent magazine God's Word For Teens!, there are many phenomena that cannot be explained by secular gravity alone, including such mysteries as how angels fly, how Jesus ascended into Heaven, and how Satan fell when cast out of Paradise.

For all you Spaghetti Monster devotees out there, you can check out the wikipdedia entry and of course, the DIY bumper sticker.

From JT: I don't know if everyone has seen this one... but everyone needs to see this one. This isn't the same as the one posted previously. -ed

Portis and LaVar for Eastern Motors (WMV Video)

Interview with Mr. Stewart and his creative partner. From Wired. Well worth the read.

Your contract goes through 2008. How do you think people will be watching the show then?
Stewart: Through their nipples. I believe the show will come in through one nipple and will be broadcast out the other through some sort of projection device.
Karlin: And if you have three nipples, you're basically walking high definition.
Stewart: No, listen. We make the doughnuts; we don't drive the truck. I have no idea. I assume there are people in white lab coats working on that very thing. And I'm sure at some point it will be in liquid form.

Reno 911 clip making fun of D&D players. (AVI) From JT. I would like to take a moment to point out this bit of T-Shirt comedy from our pals at Penny Arcade. It's funny because if you get the joke you're far too dorky to complain about the joke.

More accusations by the French that Armstrong was doping. Will sent this my way. Don't they have someone they should be surrendering to or something?

The things college freshman have always lived with. Being born in 1987, they missed out on a lot of cool stuff. This one's from Shoof.

Lizzie Starr, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, said one listing really hit home for her: that Boston has been working on the "Big Dig" road construction project her entire life. The 18-year-old said she used to take the bus to the airport to avoid driving through the city.

From JT: I am currently TALKING to Will via

Google's new IM thing... and not IM-talking, i'm talking-talking. It's crazy.

I will not make any jokes about this saving money. -ed

A blog about 'The Game' From JT. Sort of a giant scavenger hunt mixed with Real World/Road rules challenge.

The Game is difficult to describe, but here goes. Imagine yourself and five friends barreling around a major metropolitan city in a rented van for 32 straight hours while solving insanely difficult puzzles and engaging in an assortment of tasks designed to test your mental and physical stamina, an event combining elements of road rallies, scavenger hunts, and “Mind Olympics” competitions. That doesn’t exactly describe the Game, but it’s as good a description as any.

Toys lost in translation.... and f-n hilarious! All from Brick.

Men shown to be smarter than ladies. From sri, who adds You can't argue with science... Now someone go in the kitchen and make me some pie...

Can you raed tihs? Olny srmat poelpe can.

cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! This one's from mllioa. He didn't send a link, though.

retrojunk.com

Old trailers, commercials, etc from crappy tv shows of yore.

Like this one.

"Now here is a concept I can't get enough of, a man and his monkey!"

All from jm: Skyscraper twists 90 degrees. However, I think you could claim that Jim's Pile of Dirt rotating in 360 degrees in every orientation. The first part of the site is in some sort of scandinavian, which means if you haven't slept with Philippe, all 3 of you, you won't be able to understand it. (Actually, there's an English version, but that's not very fun, now is it.)

65 out of 490 female students in this high school are pregnant. And it's gone down. From Jay Park.

Venezuela says it will pursue legal action against Pat Robertson. Apparently they don't take too kindly to people saying they should assassinate the president on TV. Follows up on this.

"I announce that my government is going to take legal action in the United States ... to call for the assassination of a head of state is an act of terrorism." Chavez said in a televised speech.

He said Venezuela could seek Robertson's extradition under international treaties and take its claim to the United Nations if the Bush administration did not act.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!! Please note all the exclamation points there.

The most insane tattoo you will ever see. If you are at work, DO NOT look at this. If you are squeamish, DO NOT look at this. If a picture of a wang offends you, DO NOT look at this. Anyway, I made mention of this to somebody a while ago, and I just got a new account with 3.5 GB of space to burn and 100GB of transfer. naj sent this to me a while ago. It still haunts me.

New Orleans Flyover Coverage It's a streaming video, so you've been warned. Also from JT.

New Orlean's susceptibility to hurricane devastation Written this past July. From JT. On a bit of a lighter note, check out a CNN Weatherman losing his cool.

The Rap/Hip-Hop dictionary. Minutes upon minutes of time wasting.

Glass Nickel Pizza running delivery cars on their used vegetable oil. They converted a couple rides to use biodiesel, not to be confused with Vin or Shaq. So the best (regular delivery) pizza in Madison just got better.

The Vatican has drawn up a plan to ban gays from becoming priests. It's under review by the pope at the moment. Classic. No word yet on how they'll be screening out the pedophiles.

'It will be written in a very pastoral mode,' Haldane said. 'It will not be an attack on the gay lifestyle. It will not say "homosexuality is immoral". But it will suggest that admitting gay men into the priesthood places a burden both on those who are homosexual and those they are working alongside who are not.'

More on tipping. This time it's service charges extending to hotels and resorts. The concept of tipping someone for doing their freaking job, which is essentially a commodity, is beyond me. It shouldn't cost extra to have a maid clean the room properly.

From ryan: If anyone is interested in some Pens tickets, I can get 2 for any game at season ticket prices (around half of what it costs at the gate). So if anyone is interested in this, let me know.

Get an ad-free version of Opera In honor of their 10 year anniversary. One day only. From "I wish this was a car instead of a free browser"

All from derek: list of people with a star on the hollywood walk of fame

Including Big Bird, Ryan Seacrest, and Tony Danza. No sign of Christopher Walken, Jean-Claude Van-Dam, or Mr T. At least Chuck Norris made it. How can you put in Tom Cruise and not the Cheerios' honeybee or the Kool-aid man?

There's a little more info on the walk over at wikipedia. The big barrier, as far as I can tell, is putting up the $15k. I've heard of fan clubs doing it for some stars. In related news, Chris Farley was just awarded one posthumously. -ed.

Wastewater diving in Mexico City. Profile of a guy that dives in the sewers to keep them running. It's about a year old, but it's an interesting read. From Anagha.

Just under 2/3 of poll respondents say they're "open to teaching creationism next to evolution". 38% said creationism should replace evolution. 38 percent! What the fuck is going on in this country? Seriously. What? The? Fuck? There is no science behind creationism, and there should be absolutely no 'debate' as our fearless leader put it. As for the 'pragmatism' and 'respecting all views' bullshit, I'd like to round those people up and send 'em to Gitmo enemy-combatant style. I'll flush their Whole Earth Catalog down the toilet while I break their bongs and cover them in delousing powder Shawshank-style.

Science isn't about 'views'. It's not about 'perspective'. It's science. It's about what you know for fact and what you can prove through observation and testing. The forces behind that plane you're on not crashing? Guess what. It's physics. It's not the flying spaghetti monster, not Kermit the frog, and certainly not some other figment of your imagination. Keep your 'views' out of the schools so you don't poison the damn well and ruin yet another generation. The last thing we need is more people who can't use reason and logic and can only fall back on their 'beliefs'.

Bush keeps strummin' during a crisis. The comparison to Nero seems apt. And before you put on your Bush apologist hat, here's what I think he should be doing: Send every military unit that has air, sea, or amphibious capabilities to the gulf coast. Monitor the situation on site (remember he was running the country 'on-site' from Crawford) and ride people's asses like rented mules until all the hospitals and other sites in danger are empty. Then re-task everyone who has any skills in construction and who can help to fix the levees. At the very least, cancel the freakin' photo ops and concentrate on shit that actually matters. Read: People dying. I'm sure everyone in that picture would have understood.

Donate to the Red Cross

All from will: Kill Reality about as real as it gets.

In another booze-fueled bacchanal, we hear Tonya Cooley, the lusty blonde of Real World: Chicago fame, begged co-stars to do lines off her genitals “because it turns her on.”

I've watched a few episodes, and although I don't understand what's going on, I'm a fan.

A few SFW pics and a ton of information about Ms. Cooley over at Wikipedia at which point you may go, oooohhhh.... Tonya. Or not. -ed.

I was looking through my spam folder to see if anything had gotten flagged incorrectly, and this came to me from the 'Hottie Research Panel'. Thought it was worth a laugh. And if anyone knows what the point of this is, please share.

Because the old one has been here too long. (See below)