Seahorses, I Love 'Em (& other Links of Interest)

[Aurora Rossa]

Maybe. Though I'm kind of intrigued by Zompist's idea of bagging the states entirely and am thinking of starting a thread on it. And yeah, let's ditch Texas as well.

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

Or we could just give Texas to Mexico and return to the 48-star flag.

No no. Take Alberta.

PLEASE.

(And ils, move elsewhere!)

[vampireshark]

Don't ditch Texas! Texas is one of the best states in the Union. And this comes from somebody who isn't from Texas.

And if you want to ditch Texas, give them independence. Don't you even think about giving them to México.

Honestly, I think the composition of the U.S.A. is fine as-is. Even California. Both the states you want to eliminate have resources galore (one has oil, the other has amazing land perfect for growing crops), and at our present energy state, not keeping them is a bad, bad idea.

(And, to Yiuel: What's the problem with Alberta?)

[Delthayre]

Ils, please tell me that Canada has better rappers than this.

As for me, I want to get rid of pretty well everything besides the old Northwest Territory and Middle Atlantic states, but you knew that.

[-]

Ils, please tell me that Canada has better rappers than this.

It does. I'll post some links to wash that out of our collective brains later. Who the hell is that guy, anyway?

What's the problem with Alberta?

Texas of the North. A place where Chambers of Commerce wine and dine the likes of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney without a scintilla of shame or apology. Wealthiest single province in Canada, with some of the country's worst urban homeless problems due to decades of sclerotic, corrupt right-wing government entrenched by a collaboration between corporate interests and gerrymandered rural votes. An example of the Dutch Disease in action. Hosts the whiniest, most pass-aggressive and least credible "separatist" movement in the Western Hemisphere if not the world. Apathetic political culture generated by all of the above and the fact that most jobs are tethered at some remove to oil money. Its largest oil company is currently engaged in massive rape of the northern woodlands in pursuit of the oil sands project, and has pushed locals to the point where they're bombing pipelines. The best-paying job I've ever had was essentially funded by this company, albeit indirectly.

It's got its good points, though. I am considering moving but would want to be sure it's to a place that will enable to weather all this "recession" shit as well as or better than here.

[Delthayre]

Who the hell is that guy, anyway?

Chuggo! He's a former member of Toronto's most wanted list who it turns out wasn't sexually assaulting women at subway platforms because he was in prison already at the time. He was probably serving time for violating awesomeness regulations.

[Aurora Rossa]

Oh come now, it just so happens that I have stumbled on the worst song, rapped or otherwise, in human history. Imagine if you will, a work so bad it actually makes the likes of "Batman and Robin" and "Eragon" look good (well ok, maybe just acceptable). Just be careful and don't laugh yourself to death at the epic failure that is the Young Con Anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkeZ2P4SiY8

[Raphael]

Since it seems to be Strange Music Weekend: The Eighties gave us the Terminator franchise and the various subgenres of Eighties rock. What they didn't get around to back then was to combine the two.

[Delthayre]

To complete the circle of dreadful rap, I remind you all of the MDA Senior Management Rap.

Oh come now, it just so happens that I have stumbled on the worst song, rapped or otherwise, in human history. Imagine if you will, a work so bad it actually makes the likes of "Batman and Robin" and "Eragon" look good (well ok, maybe just acceptable). Just be careful and don't laugh yourself to death at the epic failure that is the Young Con Anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkeZ2P4SiY8

Oh.... that's painful and laughable. I had read about that pair yesterday, but ignored it. I don't feel especiallty enriched by having listened to it. Where they even trying with some of those ostensible rhymes? It's the hip-hop equivalent of Mallard Fillmore.

I think that the perfect comment on the Young Cons was supplied through Andrew Sullivan's weblog:

I laughed out loud here in France when I saw the title of your posting, 'Young Cons', because here in French "con" means an idiot or an asshole. I quickly realized that was not what you intended, then I watched the video and saw these white guys trying to rap about their (mostly white) issues...and I realized the title was perfectly apt.

[Io]

Bruno lands his buttocks on Eminem's face

lolarious

"Is the real Slim Shady about to stand up?" Ha ha ha!

And Zac Efron was like "WHAT?"

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

(And, to Yiuel: What's the problem with Alberta?)

All ils said. In economical terms, it's "Watch out for the Big Fall", and I'd rather have it fall alone (or elsewhere) than to fall with it.

(Not that we're any better here : Quebec politicians are like most Quebeckers, village-lover assholes that will pay a fortune to make village survive just because it's cute and all to save a village from death from emigration and loss of job.)

To ils : There is no place in Canada. Vancouver thrives on the Chinese Bubble. Ontario's economy is flawed, having invested too much in big corporations that can leave at any time if they feel to. And Montreal is in the worst province economically (read what I said about Qc politics). So, basically, we're screwed.

[Io]

I don't know if AB is a bad place to live but it's a wonderful place to visit!

*drum roll*

And this year's Biggest Optimist in the World goes too.....

...

...

YIUEL!!!

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

And this year's Biggest Optimist in the World goes too.....

...

...

YIUEL!!!

There are a lot of countries and regions that are a nice place to visit, that does not make them economically healthy.

Only in my own little region, you have Gaspésie, a very wonderful place to visit, but economically empty. That is the place I was refering to for the "Save the village" stupid politics. It was the village of Murdochville.

I'm optimistic, but not blind.

[Io]

There are a lot of countries and regions that are a nice place to visit, that does not make them economically healthy.

True! I didn't say the opposite did I?

I mentioned its beaute aux naturel as one of the good points AB has. Dat's all.

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

There are a lot of countries and regions that are a nice place to visit, that does not make them economically healthy.

True! I didn't say the opposite did I?

I mentioned its beaute aux naturel as one of the good points AB has. Dat's all.

Indeed, the Rockies are a marvel.

But I have my own preferences in the western mountain ranges, for the Lillooet region north of Vancouver. It's mountain and canyon together.

[Delthayre]

Yoga workout, Dixie style

HAIL SATAN!

Unrelatedly, this comic amused me greatly, but suprisingly few people whom I have shown it to have understood the joke, which implies that few have read Cat's Cradle.

[Radius Solis]

For the most part, our laymen's notions of what goes on deep inside volcanoes boils down to: there's red hot stuff underground and it moves around down there and comes up, right? Well, our imaginations and educational artwork supply most of that image, because it's hard to actually go look and see. Even for scientists.

So videos like this are rarer than you might expect. The throat of Kilauea volcano, in Hawaii, goes down some half a kilometer deep before you get to the magma, and there's so much fumes and steam you usually can't see through to the bottom. Until two days ago.

Scale: the lava area is roughly the size of a football field. It is not sped up, that's a real time video.

[Aurora Rossa]

So videos like this are rarer than you might expect. The throat of Kilauea volcano, in Hawaii, goes down some half a kilometer deep before you get to the magma, and there's so much fumes and steam you usually can't see through to the bottom. Until two days ago.

Cool, that's actually kind of hypnotizing, what with all the lava spinning around like that.

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

It looks like a red ocean. Cool!

[Raphael]

The Sex with Ducks Song (NSFW). Not great or outstanding, IMO, but the title line is pretty catchy, and it's less preachy than it could have been.

[schwhatever]

We can brake California and Oregon up into California, Jefferson, and Oregon. We can make two entire states happy!

Oh god, those "State of Jefferson" Freaks. Yes, with a capital F. Because they are. Are what? Psychos. With guns. Don't give them independence.

(Not to mention, every damn plan of "secession" of theirs involves a larger portion of their state's population being people who don't want to secede. It's quite literally the stupidest thing, ever).

[Aurora Rossa]

Oh god, those "State of Jefferson" Freaks. Yes, with a capital F. Because they are. Are what? Psychos. With guns. Don't give them independence.

So you mean crazy right wing militia types. Sounds scary.

[schwhatever]

Oh god, those "State of Jefferson" Freaks. Yes, with a capital F. Because they are. Are what? Psychos. With guns. Don't give them independence.

So you mean crazy right wing militia types. Sounds scary.

They more or less branched out from that. They're their own little movement now. Not quite as violent, but yeah, they're nutty and disturbed and have waaaay too many guns for people in their state of mental health.

[Aurora Rossa]

Do they have the whole white supremacy thing, and the conspiracy theories about Bill Clinton/the UN/the Jews taking over the world? Or mostly just the gun fetish?

[schwhatever]

Do they have the whole white supremacy thing,

No. Although, they do come across as extremely xenophobic and prejudiced a lot.

and the conspiracy theories about Bill Clinton/the UN/the Jews taking over the world?

Not all of the time, but in higher frequencies than the rest of the population.

Or mostly just the gun fetish?

Oh my yes.

EDIT: And to make this post legal, did you guys hear about what happened at the National Holocaust Museum today?