Wall Street failure, rainbow pantsuits, Nintendo
I don’t really have a coherent theme for the dump of random content below, except it all amuses me. I’ll start by saying there’s really no better media venue to consume the latest political “news” than through The Daily Show, and the opening skits of Saturday Night Live. They’ve both been especially good lately. This […]
Invisibility cloak, 400 freestyle relay, Homestar Ruiner
Invisibility cloaks are becoming reality, or at least progress is still being made. Scientists have created new metamaterials that can bend light the wrong way. CNN reports: “Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects.” Here are two articles: […]
Giving in to Doritos: The Quest
Well, the Frito-Lay marketing ploy worked for a second straight summer. Today was grocery-shopping day. I hadn’t bought a bag of Doritos in over a year, not since the X-13D Flavor Experiment . . . which of course turned out to be the oddly compelling but ultimately quite gross Cheeseburger flavor. Now, today, I couldn’t […]
Friday the 13th: Radiohead remix and cool games
Hey, I was actually able to hold out for nine days before posting again. Below are some highlights I’ve been compiling for a couple of weeks. Music The remix of Radiohead’s “Nude” by James Houston using a bunch of old computer hardware is awesome. Don’t get discouraged by the extended intro. A Sinclair ZX Spectrum […]
Flavor tripping with miracle fruit (and Snuff)
Interested in flavor tripping? Try the miracle fruit. It’s a cranberry-sized West African berry (Synsepalum dulcificum) that numbs your sour and bitter tastebuds for a couple of hours after eating it, making certain foods taste weirdly sweet. Flavor-tripping parties are being held in New York City and San Francisco. The New York Times reports on […]
Tower defense games, Oregon tennis tournaments
This is a quick two-part post. If you are one to become addicted to games, I’d suggest not reading the first part. The second part is for summer Willamette Valley tennis tournament enthusiasts only. Tower defense games Last year a couple of my friends lost weeks of their lives trying to complete Xeno Tactic, a […]
Happy Holidays: UNICEF, pecans, Google, magicJack
Happy Holidays, everyone! Yesterday we had some snowy driving when returning from Washington on I-84 (in between The Dalles and Hood River), but that was nothing compared to the beating the Midwest has been getting this December. Reminds me of why I moved to the Mid-Willamette Valley and out of the freezing snowlands. You need […]
Happy Halloween: Vampire electronics and sports
Early this morning amidst the dense fog, I saw a woman dressed as a ladybug, with curved orange wings and all, riding a bicycle on her way to work/school. It was a surreal moment. Here’s a Halloween concept for you: “vampire electronics.” This refers to all of your plugged-in appliances and entertainment devices consuming little […]
MLB playoffs/payrolls, Prawn To Be Wild, Gottfried, Letterman
I have four topics to ramble about today (if you don’t want to read about baseball, skip to the three more entertaining topics below): MLB playoffs/payrolls Every year around October I like to look at the payrolls of Major League Baseball teams that make the playoffs. Since there is no salary cap in MLB, the […]
Paging Dr. Mario with an electrolarynx
I had to miss a couple of days of work this week because I’ve been sick since last Sunday morning. I suppose I deem this worth mentioning because I don’t get sick very often, and I certainly haven’t been this ill in a long time (maybe 15 years). This fair-weather plague started out with a […]