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

[Radagast]

This is why I dont understand Jehovah's Witnesses

They’re as bad as Scientologists, in my opinion.

It seems to be part of a series. I actually saw this episode.

What really gets me is this:

This should allow his growths to be removed without risk of heavy bleeding – satisfying his religious prohibition on blood transfusions that has so far hampered his search for treatment.

At that point, the hospitals are still worrying about the patient's religious prohibition of blood transfutions? Don't they have priorities!? I don't remember any "unless it offends their religion" clause in the Hippocratic Oath. If I were a surgeon with any sort of conscience whatsoever, the conversation would go a bit like this:

<Doctor_Me> We have to remove his growth as soon as possible. It will require a blood transfusion.
<Stupid_Jehovahs_Witness> But our religion prohibits bl--
<Doctor_Me> Fuck off.
* Doctor_Me does the goddamn surgery

Which set of priorities would place the hippocratic oath above a persons free coice to undergo or not undergo medical procedures?

[Raphael]

I'm not sure wether I should find this cool or creepy:

A touchscreen that gets implanted under your skin, where it looks like a moving tatoo and is powered by your blood.

[vohpenonomae]

At that point, the hospitals are still worrying about the patient's religious prohibition of blood transfutions? Don't they have priorities!? I don't remember any "unless it offends their religion" clause in the Hippocratic Oath. If I were a surgeon with any sort of conscience whatsoever, the conversation would go a bit like this:

<Doctor_Me> We have to remove his growth as soon as possible. It will require a blood transfusion.
<Stupid_Jehovahs_Witness> But our religion prohibits bl--
<Doctor_Me> Fuck off.
* Doctor_Me does the goddamn surgery

Why would you do this? Health-care in this country is a precious commodity; and if there are people stupid enough to willingly forego a life-saving medical procedure because of religious objections, why not let them do so? Save the effort for others who want it and need it.

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I'm not sure wether I should find this cool or creepy:

A touchscreen that gets implanted under your skin, where it looks like a moving tatoo and is powered by your blood.

As implants go, it's a way cooler idea than stuff like this or this.

The evolution of graphica: Star Wars from Marvel to manga.

Sapporo's amazing snow sculpture festival.

Rape of a Nation, the story of the great war in the Congo, the bloodiest conflict since the Second World War (and one that overlaps with other conflicts in Central Africa).

[Yaali Annar]

As implants go, it's a way cooler idea than stuff like this or this.

Dude ... that page have a link to another page with the title such as "Anal Starfish Tattoo".

Awesome.

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Any ape can put together an "overheard on the [X]" site, but it takes brilliant choice of material to really make it work. For instance, Overheard on the Tube. (From the same site, Sad Jokes, the unaccountably fascinating Invisibilia, and if you really must, Random Facts from Porn Stars.)

Internet meme paintings. Even covering some subjects I didn't know were Internet memes, like the legitimately awesome Technoviking.

If celebs moved to Oklahoma. Some of these PhotoShops are eerily effective, esp. Tom Cruise and Sharon Stone.

The Friendly Alien inspires mixed feelings.

The Rambo death chart.

Banned XBox 360 ad, riffing on Unreal Tournament, I think? It's funny. The casting call is even better.

[Pie Man]

The Rambo Death chart is amazing. Informative too.

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The Rambo Death chart is amazing. Informative too.

I have to admit I was a little surprised to learn that only one person dies in First Blood (which I haven't seen).

Since the financial crisis thread has drifted on to other things, I'll post here an interesting and appropriately scary Asia Times article that highlights the impact on elite financial organizations like Carlyle Capital Corp Ltd. (which has close ties to the Bush family) and the Blackstone Group. Money quote, if you'll pardon the pun: "In reality, centered in the US economic and financial sector, what is now underway is a crisis not even comparable to the 1930s Great Depression." (Meaning the 1930s financial crisis was peanuts by comparison.)

Hmmm, I wonder if the Iraq War might have something to do with all this. Could it be that a harebrained attempt to fund three trillion dollars' worth of warfare entirely through borrowing led directly to the housing bubble? What do you think, Joseph Stiglitz?

On a lighter note, because Christ knows we need it:

Another wonder of the world: the Large Hadron Collider is "the most complicated thing humans have ever built."

Animal Farm like you've never seen it before! (Also, that blog is great.)

Git-R-Dun! Perhaps the white trashiest tattoo work of all time.

[NakedCelt]

Expelled from Expelled.

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Expelled from Expelled.

A very funny episode. Dawkins is obviously relishing it, and deservedly so in this case.

The Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness. Some classic stuff, including a couple of bizarre instruction sheets for obliterating animal carcasses with explosives.

Usul has called a big one! Again, it is the prophecy. Done in Legos.

Those Lil' Rabbits famously spoof David Blaine and get up to other hijinks. I'm quite fond of the "What Am I? What Am I?" sketch.

A more detailed summary of Stiglitz' argument about the Iraq War's connection to the current financial crisis.

[Lleu]

Improv Everywhere

[TomHChappell]

..

[Delthayre]

Behold Alt Text episode one and Alt Text episode two! Mister Sjöberg intends to produce episodes weekly; new episodes will probably be announced at Slumbering Lungfish.

A forty four piece presidential knife set! I can at long last dual wield William Henry Harrison and James Garfield.

Expelled from Expelled.

Very funny.

I thought that, even as much of an ass as Mathis was, it was too long and almost unbearably smug, which is a very good general description for Dawkins, Hitchens and others like them. I swear, those assholes will drive me back into the arms of Jesus.

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Showdown: Rationalist vs. Tantric.

I swear, those assholes will drive me back into the arms of Jesus.

Dawkins is a dick, no doubt about it. (And Hitchens is something else entirely.) But if there's anyone who deserves to be on the receiving end of his scorn this time out, Mathis is it.

[LinguistCat]

Cans joo speak lolspeak?

[NakedCelt]

The language of God

[Shm Jay]

Voice recording from 1860 recovered

http://www.firstsounds.org/press/032708 ... 8-0327.pdf

The recording itself:

http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/

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The language of God

Awesome. Now this one belongs under "Linguistic Quackery of the Day."

Cross-posted from that thread: an Adriano Celentano song done in fake "English".

[Tarasoriku]

Behold Alt Text episode one and Alt Text episode two! Mister Sjöberg intends to produce episodes weekly; new episodes will probably be announced at Slumbering Lungfish.

Teh funni. Episode 3's out now btw.

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Teh funni. Episode 3's out now btw.

For perhaps the second time in human history, a YouTube commenter makes a good point: while Lore's old capsule reviews thrived on a "drier-than-the-Sahara" minimalist principle, the videoblogging seems to be competing for Zero Punctuation's niche. [& Watch that review to the end. SRSLY.] Lore's cartoon work is still brilliant -- the "Oprah" monster holding the GURPS handbook is a stroke of genius -- but the gestalt isn't quite working yet.

[Raphael]

I don't really think that the Ratings work well on Youtube. I'm not sure how to put this delicately enough, given that we're on the board of a friend of Lore, but frankly, watching this felt a bit like watching middle-aged people trying to use teenage slang to me, or, if you want, like looking at some of this stuff. One of the cool things about Brunching was that it was pretty cutting-edge in its day, and this, well, isn't.

(To be fair, I've never been that much into the Ratings- sure, they're amusing, but I think neither they nor the cartoons were ever as funny a Lore's "freestyle" writing.)

[Shm Jay]

About the 10 plagues, for Passover

[gsandi]

Why I don't care for militant, pedantic atheists: Richard Dawkins illustrates. I'd love to hear the results if someone asked him "what's your sign?" at a nightclub.

I'd react the same way, probably. That is if I went to nightclubs (which I don't normally), and even if I did if I could hear peoples' silly small talk over the ambient noise level.

And my marriage proved how important it is to start off by not being silly. When I met my wife, we didn't ask each other what our signs said, but what books we read.

On my short passage through Canada right now, I found today a companion to Dawkins in the Burnaby Chapters:

Michel Onfray: In defense of atheism - The case against Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Let's see how this one is different from the Dawkins book.

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I'd react the same way, probably. That is if I went to nightclubs (which I don't normally), and even if I did if I could hear peoples' silly small talk over the ambient noise level.

Funny, I was just digging through earlier posts in this thread myself. Didn't you say this exact same thing way earlier on?

Meh. "Signs" are innocuous small talk, not professions of deep belief. (Necessarily.) I wouldn't mark down a woman who asked me what my sign was. If she asked my whether I'd accepted Jesus into my life as my Lord and Saviour, different story.

I do find books making the "case against" this or that religion pretty dreary, I have to admit. Sam Harris has managed to sour me somewhat on that whole genre.

[gsandi]

I'd react the same way, probably. That is if I went to nightclubs (which I don't normally), and even if I did if I could hear peoples' silly small talk over the ambient noise level.

Funny, I was just digging through earlier posts in this thread myself. Didn't you say this exact same thing way earlier on?

Did I? When a thread is 30 pages long, it is possible to forget about one's earlier contributions.

And my reaction to astrology is always the same.

Meh. "Signs" are innocuous small talk, not professions of deep belief.

There is no such thing as innocuous small talk, aside from the utterly trivial and obvious ("It sure rains hard outside, doesn't it?"), IMHO.

What one says to a complete stranger on a social occasion, especially when in "partner-seeking mode", is of utmost importance, not even necessarily on the conscious level. There is a strong mental filter in action, and normally a memory of a lot of wasted effort pursuing the incompatible.

So yes, astrology, weird food habits, a marked interest in drugs, showy religiosity, showy social activism, all these things are, and have always been, immediate warning signs for me. I don't mark the person down, just move on. Life is short, and I have lots of other ways to entertain myself.

I am sure I had a lot less success as a Don Juan in my single days than I would have liked to have because of this attitude, but on the positive side I have managed to make a number of lasting friendships with intelligent women.