Quorum-Sensing Bacteria

I love TED!

A Poem from Ethan Coen

'The Drunken Driver Has the Right Of Way'

by Ethan Coen

The loudest have the final say,
The wanton win, the rash hold sway,
The realist's rules of order say
The drunken driver has the right of way.

The Kubla Khan can butt in line;
The biggest brute can take what's mine;
When heavyweights break wind, that's fine;
No matter what a judge might say,
The drunken driver has the right of way.

The guiltiest feel free of guilt;
Who care not, bloom; who worry, wilt;
Plans better laid are rarely built
For forethought seldom wins the day;
The drunken driver has the right of way.

The most attentive and unfailing
Carefulness is unavailing
Wheresoever fools are flailing;
Wisdom there is held at bay;,
The drunken driver has the right of way.

De jure is de facto's slave;
The most foolhardy beat the brave;
Brass routs restraint; low lies high's grave;
When conscience leads you, it's astray;
The drunken driver has the right of way.

It's only the naivest who'll
Deny this, that the reckless rule;
When facing an oncoming fool
The practiced and sagacious say
Watch out — one side — look sharp — gang way.

However much you plan and pray,
Alas, alack, tant pis, oy vey,
Now — heretofore — til Judgment Day,
The drunken driver has the right of way.

From his book of the same title.

Jesux: A Linux distribution for Christian hackers

Jesux: The distribution that will not lead you into temptation:

Jesux (pronounced Hay-sooks) is a new Linux distribution for Christian hackers, schools, families, and churches. There is already a core distribution being prepared, based on RedHat's distribution.

Jesux will aim to be an environment that is pleasant for Christians to work in, with all the amenities a Christian might expect, and when possible, free from worldly influences.

Some considered features:

... function calls and features suggesting evil and otherwise pagan ideas would be changed.

• abort(3)
• kill(1)
• references to "daemon"

The only problem I see is that if it ever crashes it takes three days to reboot and afterward the OS only appears to believers.

Too good to be true, you ask?

Science Is Awesome!

Improving fuel cells through farting!

It works like this: giving small jolts of electricity to single-celled microorganisms known as archea prompts them to remove C02 from the air and turn it into methane, released as tiny "farts." The methane, in turn, can be used to power fuel cells or to store the electrical energy chemically until its needed.

Maker Faire!

Where all (or most) of my interests collide in one big pile of awesomeness.

Maker Faire Bay Area is at the San Mateo County Expo Center on May 30th and 31st. We will be going on the Saturday, I don't care what I have to do to get there. Tickets are already on sale, and will be at the discounted price until 5/20.

I can't wait! I may have to rent a wheelchair just to haul my butt around without collapsing, but I am SO excited!

0118 999 881 999 119 7253

I just had to give public props to Elex for delivering the IT Crowd's emergency number on the fly, the other day. If you don't know what I'm talking about go here and be enlightened.

Battlestar 9

Far too perfect.

Giddy, Yes, Giddy

I will be buying a Wii or PS3 by September.

Why?

Well, go here and that'll tell you why.

I am giddy.

It'll have a Höfner Bass in the bundle pack.

I am so very giddy.

EDIT: The funny in today's Penny Arcade! has been expanded with this knowledge. (It's possibly very offensive for some people out there. Oh, well.)

Who Was Which Star Wars Character?

Former President Jar Jar, from scanners, attempts to give some answers.

This is NOT a Fail!

This is just spider FTW!

Yay World!

An Advance Review of the Final Three Episodes of "Pushing Daisies"

This review gives me hope for a satisfying conclusion to Pushing Daisies (Mildly spoilerish).

alternate alternate universe.

It always bothers me a little when someone claims that a fiction is set "in an alternate universe," because every fiction is. That's a common way to describe Watchmen though. I guess an "alternate universe" has to have some sort of physical or historical pivot point. Like: If you put on a costume and work out a bunch, you can be a bad-ass; let's explore this. Or: Nixon is awesome, lets make him President for life; what would that be like? Or how about: Sam Hamm writes a screenplay for Watchmen in 1989; what would that movie have been like? (not good)

How To Make a Baby

Cole, my darling son, this is exactly how.

Be sure to convince your sister of it when she comes along, too.

Schadenfreude Pie

My friend Hannah just instructed me to look up Schadenfreude Pie. MOST excellent.

It’s the world’s first Schadenfreude Pie, the pie to enjoy while you are reveling in the horrible misfortunes of others. Why is there a Schadenfreude Pie? Because after I wrote the headline for this entry, I wondered to myself, “what would Schadenfreude Pie taste like?”

My guess: Dark. Rich. And oh so bittersweet.

And you know what? That’s exactly what it tastes like. Also — and this is really just a perfect but unintentional extension of the whole schadenfreude metaphor — you really only want a small slice; too much of this pie and it’ll sit in the pit of your stomach like a rock of judgment, pulling you down. Small slice? Excellent. Big slice? You’ll regret it. Just like schadenfreude itself.

Click on the link for an honest-to-goodness... uh... evilness... um... real recipe.

Thanks, Hannah!

Google SketchUp 3009?

MORE PUSHING DAISES

It'll be a comic published at DC, or at Wildstorm, which is owned by DC.

Fuller says, "[I]t starts a new story. It’s basically Chuck, Ned, Emerson and Olive versus 1,000 corpses, so it becomes a zombie movie, but the zombies are articulate and smart and can do things that no other zombies can do."

Sure, it's only 12 issues, but if people go out an buy it, who knows!

Last week he talked about how he wants to run the comic:

I am going to pull together the Pushing Daisies writing staff. It will be run like a writer’s room, where I will write the first story, and we will arc out the other issues, which will comprise what we were going to do in the back nine. We’ll also make it accessible for those who are not familiar with the TV series, as well as introducing villains we couldn’t do on ABC.

As the Televisionary reminded me in his post about the last episodes, the first of the final three episodes airs on May 30th.

Fruitful Yuki!

Chat Noir

It's a cool smart flash game. My web host's newsletter pointed me to it, I played it a couple times, and it's really neato.

Circus in Davis

I want to go. April 21st, 22nd, 23rd. UC Davis Mondavi Center

The World of 100

The World of 100:

This is a self-initiated project based on the scenario – If the world were a village of 100 people. There are a few different versions of this text in circulation about the world’s statistics. I found the data very striking and neatly summarises the world that we live in. So I used information graphics to re-tell the story in another creative way.

Teabagging Conservatives

If You're Planning Tea Bagging Across The Country, 'You're Going To Need A Dick Armey'

Automatic Chicken Door

Pimp your chicken coop with an automatic door! See this for instructions.

Miniature Knitting for Coraline

The Succession of Texas

Governor Perry of Texas:

"Texas is a unique place," he said. "When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that."

Jim Riddlesperger, Political Scientist:

But the Civil War pretty much settled whether a state – even Texas – could secede from the union, said Jim Riddlesperger, a political science professor at Texas Christian University.

That underscores how Perry's statements are basically just political posturing, Riddlesperger said.

The article.

Randy Milholland, creator of Something Positive, Texan:

And we also joined the union because we were completely incapable of running a nation on our own. We were swamped in idiotic amounts of debt that our politicians had no idea how to manage. It's like threatening that the South will rise again.

Science for Everyone

Not Exactly Rocket Science- a fun and well-written science blog. Check it out!

R.I.P. Judith Krug

Judith Krug, the woman credited with founding Banned Books Week, died on Saturday at the age of 69. Sadly, she was a woman I was unaware of until hearing of her death today, but would have been a person on my "Must Meet" list had I only known.

I will try to honor her memory by reading everything I can get my hands on and fighting to uphold Constitutional Freedom of Expression whenever and where ever I can. Will you join me?

For the Win

From here. I assume she took the picture herself.

PEEPS!

Peeps Show III from the Washington Post has a slide show with their favorite forty Peeps dioramas.

This picture is

Nightmare at 20,000 Peeps by Allie Berg and Jonathan Herr, Washington. A re-creation of the famous episode of the classic "Twilight Zone" episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," starring William Shatner, the diorama was composed in various shades of gray, black and white (no Photoshopping) to match the look of the 1963 episode.

Books and Covers and All That

It looks as if Britain's Got Talent was recently schooled in the old adage. Heartwarming, if a bit heavy on the vibrato.

Mean Kitty Song

The Mean Kitty Song

Still, It's Upsetting

The Amazon thing I posted about was an error:

Amazon managers found that an employee who happened to work in France had filled out a field incorrectly and more than 50,000 items got flipped over to be flagged as "adult," the source said. (Technically, the flag for adult content was flipped from 'false' to 'true.')

"It's no big policy change, just some field that's been around forever filled out incorrectly," the source said.

Some questions were answered here:

Q: Was the problem with a French programmer? Can you illuminate what you think happened?

Daisey: Someone was editing the category systems inside of Amazon.fr, made an error, and that system is global, so it propagated everywhere. I have no insight as to anyone's nationality, or whether it was a language gap, or anything of that nature.

As one who helped to blow it more out of proportion, sorry. Still, to know that one employee making a mistake (or a "mistake") can effect thousands of titles is disturbing.

Buffy Summers V River Tam

Who would win in a fight? Joss Whedon implies that he may be on Team River.

(Okay- and there's some Dollhouse discussion and stuff, too. Whatever- BUFFY AND RIVER.)

Scott Pilgrim

The Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World movie website is live.

It's based on a spectacular comic about a guy who falls in love and has to defeat his girlfriend's evil ex-boyfriends as well as deal with his roommate, try to get his band famous, and carefully deal with his last girlfriend, who's in high school. (For more info, read this blog post.) And the movie's directed by Edgar Wright, he who directed the TV series Spaced and the movies Shaun of the The Dead and Hot Fuzz.

As long as they keep turning the defeated boyfriends into coins, I'll be enjoying this movie.

Another Good-bye

The Order of the Stick has a nice tribute comic for Dave Arneson, a co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons.

To Amazon or Not to Amazon

Looks like Amazon is discriminating against GLBT material when it comes to their ranking lists.

Authors such as Jaci Burton, Maya Banks, Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler have reported that since being stripped of their sales rankings, their titles are no longer found in searches on Amazon.com. MetaWriter is also compiling a list of titles that have been stripped of their sales rank.

When pressed for a reason, Amazon.com’s customer service department told YA author Mark Probst:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

There's an ever growing list of books at Meta Writer of books not listed.

BeaukoupKevin wrote a letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, on his blog.

Me, I'm seriously disappointed in Amazon, but I'm sure the paltry amount of money I spend there wouldn't even be missed. Still, I won't be ordering from them for a while.

Envoriment

I was just forwarded an employment ad by someone who thought it might look interesting to me. Part of one sentence reads "interested in a dynamic work envoriment."Do you think I would earn any points in an interview by pointing out that just about all programs have spell-check these days? Even InDesign. Yes, really.

Yo Comments Are Whack!

sistersalad with some things to say to all the haterz in their comments.



(I love nerds.)

Sometimes Zombies Aren't Overrated

And Joss's Streak Continues...

Looks like Joss Wheadon's Dollhouse is being canceled.

Felicia Day tweeted:

Man, day getting worse and worse. Found out my Dollhouse ep, #13 isn't gonna air. Only on DVD. Such a great part too. Thx Fox. :(

--and--

Thx all, to clarify seems like they'll air #12 as the finale and not air my ep #13 at all? So weird :( Ask @foxbroadcasting I guess?

(The first is found here and the second here.)

My feelings about this are mixed. I like the show the best when it deals with the FBI agent and the twistedness that goes on in the Dollhouse I really don't care about how the Dolls are used by people outside because that's not where the mystery is found. It's been getting better because the focus has be more inside than outside.

Guess we'll have to get the DVDs if we want to be sure who Alpha is and what his motives are.

2:51 EDIT: Tim Minear give an explanation of why only 12 episodes will be aired.

4:56 EDIT: E Online says:

A last, and very important, note: According to sources on the network side, the net's not picking up and airing "Epitaph One" has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not they pick up the series for a second season, a situation which, I'm told, is "100 percent in the decision phase." You can obviously believe them or not as you choose, but I take them at their word.

I take their word with a spoonful of Castor oil.

Passion of the Bloody Jesi

Jesi is plural for Jesus (sounds better than Jesuses) as in "hey, check out the fake beards on those bloody Jesi over there!"

Yes, it's time again for us to provide entertainment for people just before they embark on a "passion play" journey, which some people choose to bring their small children to. Remember, when it comes to Christ it's never too early to scar your child for life!

Back to the Jesi, my secret favorite part of the whole thing is watching all the Jesi gather before the thing starts to talk about the script...I find it hilarious!! Especially the ones who are covered in fake blood, there's 3 or 4 of those. And every year, I think...wouldn't this qualify as blasphemy?

Also every year I kind of think that we might be hypocrites for juggling at this, but then they cut us a check and I stop thinking that.

Emmy/Death

Emmy Rossum, she who played a pretty flat Christine in The Phantom of the Opera movie, wants to play Death in a movie.

For those curious, Death is Dream's older sister and becomes human for one day every hundred years.

Shameless self promotion

I made this, so you should watch it. ;-)

More Wild Things

I have no idea what the movie will be like, although I trust Spike Jonze very much, I sure do like the way it looks.

Ain't It Cool News also has a still from the movie and a bigger poster.

Art Trek

You can see it much larger over here. And read some stuff here.

In case you were hungry...

a site on urban trapping. Mmmmm, chihuahua!

Remember though, use caution when you set traps in areas where children may be present...you kill it, you eat it!!

Stimulus Package

I love the lol-whatever builder. It makes me feel a lot funnier than I actually am.


moar funny pictures

And I'm okay with that.

Joe Cocker With Subtitles, For the Clear-Headed

Finally, learn what Joe Cocker was actually singing about.

DAMNIT!

According to a press release [March 31st] from Tor/Forge Publicity Manager Dot Lin, the details are set for the final, posthumous book in Robert Jordan’s bestselling Wheel Of Time fantasy series. One of the big revelations: that last "book" [A Memory of Light] is being split into three volumes.

The rest is at AV Club.

EDIT: From Brandon Sanderson's (the guy who took over after Jordan's death) blog:

April 2008. I had to make a decision. I realized that the book would be impossible to do in 200k. I'd begun to say on my blog that it would be at least 400k, but even that seemed a stretch. I looked over the outlines, both mine and Mr. Jordan's. I stared at them for a long time, thinking about the book. And this is where the first decision came in. Did I try to cram it into 400k? Or did I let it burgeon larger?

To get this into one book, I'd need to railroad the story from climax to climax. I'd have to ignore a lot of the smaller characters--and even some aspects of the larger characters. I just couldn't justify that. It wouldn't do the story justice. I cringed to consider what I would have to cut or ignore.

"And I thought they smelled bad on the outside."

Unfortunately, this is an April Fools' Day prank done by those people at ThinkGeek. (My favorite part is the guts like pattern on the inside. If only it was red, though.)

Although, they have said that they're going to try to actually make it and sell it.

ATTN Tauntaun Fanatics! Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for. But if you are interested in ever owning one of these, click the link below and we'll try!

It's in the side bar, if you want to sign up.

Asleep in His Cozy Bed

Who needs blankies when you have such a good snuggle-buddy? Cole has never slept better than since his new friend arrived.



(Patricia Piccinini, Nature's Little Helpers- Undivided, 2005)