Thirst is to vampire movies what Deep Throat was to porno. Since I have a modicum of expertise in the latter area, I have a degree of historical perspective I am happy to share.
In a world before the Internet, the only way a young gentleman might see a cinematic couple coupling was at a frat house pledge party, in the back room of a small store with blacked out windows or in a theater where the fashion de rigueur was rain coats.Thirst is to vampire movies what Deep Throat was to porno. Since I have a modicum of... more
Instead of replacing the St. Louis Zoo's deceased polar bears with live ones, zoo officials put robots up in their place. This slightly-better-than-average yard display will surely be remembered as the humble beginning of the robot bear uprising.
The robot polar bears are part of the zoo's holiday exhibit, and it's unclear if they'll be around after the season is over. Let's face it, though. These would have to be some damn good robot bears to convince me to see them over live polar bears.
PETA is encouraging the zoo to keep developing the animatronic animals, but listen PETA, hear me out. Sure, you're trying to keep animals out of captivity. You're also promoting the creation of an advanced, highly mobile robot bear army.
The pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to
express praise for answered prayers.
A lady stood and walked to the podium.
She said, "I have a Praise. Two months ago, my husband, Tom,
had a terrible golf cart wreck and his scrotum was completely
crushed. The pain was excruciating and the doctors didn't know if they
could help him."
You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the congregation
as they imagined the pain that poor Tom must have experienced.
"Tom was unable to hold me or the children," she went on, "and
every move caused him terrible pain.
We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it
turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants
of Tom's scrotum, and wrap wire around it to hold it in place."
Again, the men in the congregation were unnerved and squirmed
uncomfortably as they imagined the horrible surgery performed on
Tom.
"Now," she announced in a quavering voice, thank the Lord, Tom
is out of the hospital and the doctors say that with time, his scrotum
should recover completely."
All the men sighed with relief. The pastor rose and tentatively
asked if anyone else had something to say.
A man stood up and walked slowly to the podium.
He said, "I'm Tom."
The entire congregation held its breath.
"I just want to tell my wife that the word is sternum."The pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to
express praise for... more
Once again, Electronic Arts has exploited Christians to help promote its upcoming video game adaptation of Dante's Inferno.
The official website for Mass: We Pray now unsurprisingly reveals the Church-centric mini-game compilation to be a hoax.
"He who betrays the beliefs of the Church blackens his soul with the sin of Heresy. A Mass not celebrated by ordained priest or on consecrated soil is naught but false ritual condemned by clergy," declares the message that pops up when users click to either pre-order the game or send a "digital blessing" to a friend. From there, users are presented with the ability to watch "an Exclusive Dante's Inferno Trailer" and the option to "Damn thy Fellow Sinners to Hell" through a "Go To Hell" Facebook application.
"After all, a family shouldn't have to wait until Sunday to worship the Lord," read the original press release for Mass: We Pray, which described the title as "proof that videogames can be used to spread the Good Word" and "a revolutionary videogame that allows families to go to church every day from the comfort of their own home."
Electronic Arts drew outrage from Christians earlier this year, after staging a fake protest against Dante's Inferno at video game industry trade show Electronic Entertainment Expo. Actors held signs containing such phrases as "Trade in your PlayStation for a PrayStation," "Hell is not a game," and "My high score is in Heaven."
Another controversial campaign for Dante's Inferno, held during Comic-Con, asked participants to commit "acts of lust" for a chance at "a sinful night with two hot girls."
Electronic Arts later apologized for the Sin to Win contest, explaining that it was "part of our marketing efforts around the circle of Lust (one of the nine sins/circles of Hell)" and "each month we will be focusing on a new Circle of Hell."
Pretty much everyone is psyched to see 'New Moon.' But not Ben Hoffman.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at http://current.com/infomania/ or on Current TV. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.Pretty much everyone is psyched to see 'New Moon.' But not Ben Hoffman.
infoMania... more
Is this taking the whole Star Trek thing a teensie weensie bit too far? d'Armond Speers spoke only Klingon to his child for the first three years of its life.
Klingon? Not Spanish, French, Mandarin? Not some gutteral genuflecting concoction from the deepest recesses of Borneo? Klingon? You heard it right. (And if you don't know about the Klingon Empire, look it up.)
"I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language," Speers told the Minnesota Daily. "He was definitely starting to learn it."
And get this, Speers says he isn't really a huge Star Trek fan.
We'll take his word for it.
More...http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/11/dinkytown_dad_s.php
Is this taking the... more
These outtakes (via Megan-Fox.net) didn't make the Megan Fox profile in last weekend's NYT Magazine, maybe because they depict the manufactured Megan rather than the real one.
"When I sit down to talk to men's magazines, there's a certain character that I play," she told the NYT Magazine. "She's not fully fleshed out -- she doesn't have her own name -- but she shows up to do men's-magazine interviews."
Megan says girls call her slutty because she is beautiful and smart, but her crotchy posing might also have something to do with it.
A family shouldn’t have to wait until Sunday to worship the Lord. Now you can go to church every day without leaving your home. Participate in more than 24 unique and exhilarating Ceremonies. Be sure to try them all. The more you play, the more Grace points you collect. Then trade in your Grace points to unlock the Holy Mysteries.
Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri vetoed legislation last week that would give same-sex couples the rights to claim the bodies of and make funeral arrangements for their deceased partners. He said such legislation was a "disturbing trend" signifying the erosion of traditional marriage.
Stephen Colbert took both Carcieri and the Catholic Church to task last night, the latter for threatening to close its homeless shelters in DC if gay marriage becomes legal there. "I mean, they have no choice. After all, as Jesus said, 'If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, unless a couple of dudes register at Pottery Barn, in which case, f**k the poor,'" Colbert quipped.
He went on to "applaud" Carcieri for his stand against giving gay couples the right to post obits for and bury their partners saying, "This is an assault on marriage from beyond the grave. They're like gay zombies."
Experts have found the average adult will waste almost six hours a week feeling completely and utterly bored with life - adding up to nearly 2 years of their entire lives.
People said the main reason for the boredom was 'having no money'.
47 per cent said waiting in queues for people to serve them made them bored and 45 per cent said listening to people whine about feeling ill bored them.
3pm in the afternoon has also been revealed as the time we are most likely to feel bored.
Top 5 things which make us bored:
1. Having no money
2. Waiting in queues
3. Hearing people whining about feeling ill
4. Waiting for internet pages to load
5. Being ill
Do you agree with the findings? What makes you bored?Experts have found the average adult will waste almost six hours a week feeling... more
"The past of human evolution is more and more coming to light as scientists uncover a trove of fossils and genetic knowledge. But where might the future of human evolution go?
An old cliché has the highly evolved humans of the future sporting large heads to hold their advanced enlarged brains, "but that's nonsense, whole nonsense," said paleontologist Peter Ward at the University of Washington at Seattle, author of "Future Evolution."
"If you've ever gone through a childbirth or witnessed one," Ward says, "we're already anatomically right on the edge of how big our heads can go — our big brains have already caused extreme problems in childbirth, and if we had bigger and bigger brains, that'd cause more mothers to die in childbirth, so evolution would select against that."
Another idea, suggested by evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics, seems like a retread of ideas from science fiction writer H.G. Well's classic "The Time Machine," with the human species split in two over time — an underclass of dim-witted, short goblins, and a genetic upper class of tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent and creative superhumans that eventually are spoiled by technology that will do everything for them, resembling domesticated animals.
"That's crap," Ward said. "Why would that happen? Are we like blind cavefish? After we get Google, do we get stupider? Intelligence is coded on too many genes to just lose a trait like intelligence. That's not going to happen."
Ward suggests that, if left untouched, humans might converge in appearance as populations mix. "I kind of view us all as eventually having chocolate-covered hair and medium stature, getting rid of all extremes," he speculated. "Of course, the big elephant in the room, the change from the past that you cannot ignore when talking about the future of human evolution, is genetic engineering."
Humanity now has an unparalleled means by which to direct our evolution — genetic engineering. By using viruses and other techniques, we can in theory modify our genomes, and over time, scientists may uncover genes underlying intelligence, health, athletic prowess, longevity and other desirable traits, engineering what might seem like superhuman progeny. Genetic engineering is how Ward speculated new species of humans might emerge.
"I think taboos would arise which would prevent mating between populations — 'I don't want them anymore' or 'We want natural people,'" he said. "Of course this is all pure speculation, but this is the only way I can see new human species emerging — unless we get off the planet."
So much to think about...where do you think evolution will go? What does the future hold for humans?"The past of human evolution is more and more coming to light as scientists uncover a... more
Honestly, we're surprised that this doesn't already exist: Tribudesign, a young Lebanese firm, has secured a distributor for White, which is basically a bong that looks like an iPod.
Maybe bong is too cavalier a word. It's supposed to be a hookah, and it's going to be distributed by Airdiem, a Parisian company that appears to specialize in high-end Persian smokers.
White is made of a palette that includes stainless steel, acrylic, and leather, and that's more healthful because those materials are easier to clean and would thus produce less marijuana resin carcinogenic tobacco soot. Its slim design also makes it easily stashable. And if that isn't enough, you can just throw it next to your computer in a pinch, and pray that the cops mistake it for a USB drive.
At last, here's the droid we were all looking for. In this frame you can clearly see R2-D2's cameo in JJ Abrams' Star Trek. This time there's absolutely no doubt about it: It's been confirmed by ILM.
Click on the image at the link to see the high resolution version
Can you see him floating there, on the left, right below the huge arrow that I also missed when I saw the movie? That's obviously him, a fact that has been confirmed to me by one of the movie's sequence supervisors at Industrial Light & Magic—the same guy who said this previous sighting was just the shuttle.
I don't know about you but, right now, I feel like what I imagine my dog Jones feels whenever I take his collar off and scratch him on the neck. Oh yesyeyeyeyes. YES. Harf. Woof.
Some people seem to think illegal immigration isn't a problem, not to sound like a bitch but you wouldn't if you or your parents were illegals and if they weren't your grandparents. And what's with everyone saying that this country was built on the backs of immigrates, i didn't know slaves migrated to this country it was built on slavery and free labor that's the truth. Wanting a better life is great but it's hard to say i want better life and can't get to where i come from and then claim you deserve to be a citizen because all you want to do is work and have a life for your family and kids. What about the guy who's family knows nothing else besides America and also wants a better life but can't achieve that because someone says i'll do the work cheaper and longer with no health coverage and no benefits, cash only.
In no other country can illegal immigrates demand anything, only in the great USA, so i say give them their citizenship, you want to claim to be true American citizen then pay taxes, you believe you have a right to the same health care and rights then you should pay for it. If we registered every illegal immigrate and then taxed them out the ass, set in place laws that had harsher penalties like actual jail time instead of a free trip home, i bet you people would think twice about running across the border or coming to America for vacation and staying. I'm just wondering why people feel if you say "you don't deserve shit and the fact you get taken advantage of is your own fault", their a racist and that America and should be open for any and everyone.
But it is your fault you get paid low wages and have no health care and get taken advantage of, since when is anything in this world for free..? why do you think that what you go through in your country gives you a right to come to another and make it hard on another man. Mexico's president even stated to the world "that illegals take the jobs that not even blacks want"
and he's damn right we've worked them since 1506 for FREE and the little bit of minimum wage blacks fought and died for won't go up cause someone with no papers will work for anything. Rules are set in place for a reason, they might suck but you can't make a change if your willing to be happy eating shit all you do is make it stink for the rest of us.
Not only would it help us out with our hugh debt, create jobs and force us to over haul the entire system cause you know someones gonna get mad and swear a great injustice but wheres the justice for us actual tax paying, social security card carrying citizens...?
i love George Lopez but he's an idiot to think that illegal immigration only upsets white people as if AMERICANS don't need a job. He represents his country to the fullest yet we as Americans don't have the same right?. If we flooded his country and under cut his fellow men,push them out of jobs then tell them you really don't want to work this job let me do it as well as stressed the medical system and basically did what we wanted in Mexico they claim the capitalist Americanos were destroying his homeland and we'd just continue to be the big mean super power.
i think any time people think it's OK for any group of people to break the law to better your self, at the expense of others.....your the true capitalist, liar, cheat and thiefSome people seem to think illegal immigration isn't a problem, not to sound like a... more
"If Friday the 13th is unlucky, then 2009 has been an unusually unlucky year. But your luck is about to change. Today is the last of three Friday the 13ths to endure this year.
The other two were on in February and March. Such a rare triple-threat occurs only once every 11 years.
The origin of the link between bad luck and Friday the 13th is murky. The whole thing might date to Biblical times (the 13th guest at the Last Supper betrayed Jesus). By the Middle Ages, both Friday and 13 were considered bearers of bad fortune. In modern times, the superstition permeates society.
Here are five of our favorite Friday-the-13th facts:
1. Fear of Friday the 13th — one of the most popular myths in science — is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.
2. Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor and some airline terminals omit Gate 13.
3. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.
4. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.
5. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.
Pythagorean legacy
Meanwhile the belief that numbers are connected to life and physical things — called numerology — has a long history.
"You can trace it all the way from the followers of Pythagoras, whose maxim to describe the universe was 'all is number,'" says Mario Livio, an astrophysicist and author of "The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved" (Simon & Schuster, 2005). Thinkers who studied under the famous Greek mathematician combined numbers in different ways to explain everything around them, Livio said.
In modern times, numerology has become a type of para-science, much like the meaningless predictions of astrology, scientists say.
"People are subconsciously drawn towards specific numbers because they know that they need the experiences, attributes or lessons associated with them, that are contained within their potential," says professional numerologist Sonia Ducie. "Numerology can 'make sense' of an individual's life (health, career, relationships, situations and issues) by recognizing which number cycle they are in, and by giving them clarity."
However, mathematicians dismiss numerology, saying it lacks any scientific merit.
"I don't endorse this at all," Livio said, when asked to comment on the popularity of commercial numerology. Seemingly coincidental connections between numbers will always appear if you look hard enough, he said."
Here is a fantastic little chart we came across today which gives us a run down of the history of films that time travel is used in. This chart points out where and when the characters in each film traveled to and from. The movies are arranged clockwise in chronological order of release date.
Here’s a visualisation of time travel plots in various films and TV programs. I had a lot of fun doing this!
It was particularly cool to highlight potential plotlines for “meta movies” where time travellers from different plots could meet and paradox it out. Charlie Kauffman are you reading this??
(By the way, I allowed myself a +1 / -1 year fuzz around the paradoxes. So knives away nerds!)
This is a straight data visualisation, rather than information design. That is, it’s not particularly useful, nor useable, nor meaningful. The inspiration was the coolness of the idea, really. I was excited to see what shape all the plots would make, and whether it could be shaped into something beautiful.
What I really love about this image, though, is the idea that this information has never been seen before. Despite the fact that it exists, in some way,somewhere, wrapped in various plots, it’s never been given form. I have to say, it was a joy to untangle it all :)
Big thanks to talented designers Alice Cho and Dominic Busby for their invaulable contributions. And Jeremy MacLynn for essential art direction.
Joanna Krupa goes nude in December 2009 issue of Playboy Magazine! This time she takes it all down, and reveals her beautiful body out to the whole world. Well, it was about time she did it too! We’ve definitely been cheering for this to happen… Boys, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this. NSFW.
![Tom's Wife [Humor]](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/current/placeholders/text/text_60x45.gif)
