RifleGear.com

Looking for that over the top Hello Kitty item for your daughter? Well, Crave found this beauty on RifleGear.com.

Hey, maybe if Charlton Heston has a grand-daughter, he can pick one up for her.

Check out this post on Craigslist - a Toshiba 600MHz laptop with 64MB of memory and a 6GB harddrive for only $240 !!!!

Oh... and it's "INTERNET READY" with a 56K modem.

Better jump on this deal!  

Many more here.

By ~dashofdaniel on deviantART

Artist's Comments:

A paraphrased quote on Microsoft's position on freedom. Microsoft hates the GNU GPL, and considers it to be a virus that infects everything it touches. The GNU GPL, and licences like it, preserve freedom. So logically, Microsoft hates freedom. This can be seen with the release of Windows Vista and all the delicious fun that OS has become to many who are now either switching back to XP, or getting off the Windows platform altogether. Microsoft also likes to use FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to stop people using Linux, the only reason being that they would lose money. Before anyone goes and says I am dealing with Microsoft too harshly, or anyone else things that getting a Mac is the solution, I will tell you now that Apple is as rotten to the core as Microsoft is (pun intended).

Check out Vladstudio for sweet wallpapers like this one.

Found this little gem while cruising the interent today.

Hmm, a canned cheeseburger! Although, you have to wonder if the picture doesn't quite show what the morsel would actually look like coming out of the can. I doubt the lettuce would be quite that green!

I've got to get a few for my bunker as I wait for the apocalypse.  

Either I lied blatantly or I'm not taking enough notes in those lectures with Dr. Evil. Maybe I should see if Dr. Lecter is offering anything in this coming quarter.

How evil are you?

Looking for something to do? Here are Steve Bass' Favorite Time-Wasters of 2007. "Ring in the New Year with loads of artistic videos, addictive games, and DIY projects - like how to avoid alien abductions."

This just in from PNC, the Christmas Price Index, aka 12 Day$ of Chri$tma$, is up 3.1% this year compared to 2006.

Watch the report here.

http://www.jellotime.com/  

The Secret Diary of Steve Ballmer

101 frightening ice cream flavors from around the world

A brilliant post on " 10 things i hate about star trek". It's a good laugh, hell, I'm still chuckling.

While your there, check out the replies, the bashing is pretty humorous in of itself.

Tired of those scooter gangs on their slug rockets reeking havic in your hood, just wait until the lowrider Cruzin Coolers come to your stomping ground!

This is one of 10 Ways to Have a Chilling Summer on PCMag.com.

The Strangest Sights in Google Earth - PC World

Ever since Google first let people scour the planet from the comfort of their computers through the Google Earth software program, fans have been on a virtual scavenger hunt from the North Pole to the South Pole looking for anything interesting, unusual, or unexplained. From shipwrecks to crop circles, from ads big enough to be read from space to a giant pink bunny nearly the size of a football field, we've collected just a few of the odd and spectacular sights. You can see the same images in Google Maps by clicking the links we provide--but you'll get a better view by copying the coordinates in parentheses after each link and pasting them into Google Earth's 'Fly To' box. We've also created a file of Placemarks that includes all of these sights and more; you can download it and open it with Google Earth. Enjoy the trip!

View on ...

Did you know? It's fair use day - ars technica

July 11, 2007, will mark the third-annual global "Fair Use Day," but chances are this is the first you've heard of it. Started back in 2005, "Fair Use Day" (project website) was created by Eric Clifford to raise awareness of the shifting balance in copyright laws around the world. Clifford acknowledges that Fair Use Day hasn't become the biggest advocacy day in existence, but perhaps the third time is the charm, as the Pirate Party of the United States has announced its support of the effort to raise awareness about copyright issues. As Clifford says, "Garbage had a day, taxes have a day, why not fair use?"

As we have chronicled here on Ars for years, copyright laws are increasingly being rewritten, modified, or tossed out in favor of new laws which grant copyright holders extremely broad powers over how you use content you pay for. Both Clifford and the Pirate Party hope that July 11 will serve as a day to remind users across the globe that fair copyright laws are essential to culture.

Read on ...

Tom and the smoothy button take on the iPhone.

http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=iphone 

2007 is the centenial of Robert A. Heinleins birth.

On Wikipedia:

• Robert A. Heinlein
• Bibliography
• His Characters

Quotes:

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.

The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship.

It's all about the balance

http://skatemoss.blogspot.com/2007/06/balance.html

via Fake Steve Jobs

A few iPhone units are having some battery problems

A nice play on the Dell battery fires. 

What really happened after the Death Star blew up.

http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=0fd921112e08096673a1100050fb4df1

The normal lolcats this is not.

To announce the winner of her campaign song contest, Hillary Clinton takes Tony's seat in the diner. She orders for the table. With a special appearance by Bill Clinton. Where's Chelsea? Parallel parking.

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/1902.html

From Wired.com - Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk

Minimoto Madness

Scroll about halfway down the page to check out the Toilet of Modern Art.

http://www.phototravels.net/vienna/vienna-hundertwasser-photos.html

Pete Jordan (aka Dishwasher Pete - myspace | wikipedia) has a new book out and there is a review on MotherJones with a short interview.

From MotherJones - How the poor get dinged at every turn:

Bush's tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those earning $1 million are saved $42,700.

In 2002, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) compared those who point out statistics such as the one above to Adolf Hitler.

Wondering where this info is true, read Paul Krugmans NYT editorial available on Truthout.

Which brings me to the last line of Krugman's editorial - "You see, some folks must be under the impression that as long as something is repeated often enough, it will become true. That was how George W. Bush got to the top." - guess that is why Bush thinks Iraq was a good idea, in his mind "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Gmail Paper and Google Tisp

Cnet News

Register - Research reveals mislaid microprocessor megahertz

The Independent - Grow-your-own Viagra craze hits Britain's garden centres

BBC

ITWire - Ballmer joins Linux Foundation board

Sites with more info:

Wikipedia

urgo.org

This is sweet, check out what you get when you go to www.ie7.com.

Guess MS never got around to registering that domain.

Yet another side of Mr. Zimmerman as envisioned by NYC's Post Show ensemble. Bob Dylan, the omnipresent Top-40 songwriting god, has never seemed more lucid.

~ update ~

I tried embeding the video, but those with IE7 couldn't see it or anything else on this page. So, instead, here is a link the the video. Just another day of MS not playing fair again.

Check out this stop motion film on YouTube. It's pretty cool.

This is just pointless

Man, haven't posted in a coons age.

Here are a couple of new links I have found recently pertaining to the installation of XP and Ubuntu:

Installing Ubuntu: A comparison of Ubuntu 6.06 and Windows XP
http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2006/06/installing-ubuntu-comparison-of-ubuntu.html

This weekend, I reinstalled XP and Ubuntu.
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=221756

~~

I have been running Ubuntu for a good month and a half and have enjoyed the experience. I have had a couple of problems along the way, but overall, everything has gone incredibly smooth.

Picasa started acting funny a few weeks ago. It requires me to change the permissions on 2 nvidia files after every shutdown. It also imports photos in reverse order of time stamp and photo number. Very bizarre.

Thingamablog still requires to be started from a terminal window.

I am still playing around with music files and my iPods. I have started copying my music onto my laptop with the intention of trying out Banshee's ability to sync with my Nano. Right now I am burning all my purchased iTunes music onto cd's so that I don't have to rely on a Windows machine to update my iPods.

I have liked using Tomboy for making notes and gFTP has worked fairly well for me as a replacement for WS_FTP.

I do miss not having Roboform anymore. I am using KeePass for my passwords, but it doesn't intigrate into a web browser. I guess I could memorize my passwords, but just think of all the brain cells that would require.

Here is a collection of links I have found useful for my beginning Linux experience. They range from help sites to news sites and are in no particular order

http://www.control-escape.com
http://www.linuxlinks.com
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/
http://lxer.com/
http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/
http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/penguin.html - Lego Penguin
http://www.xpenguin.com/penguinlinks.php
http://www.linuxjournal.com/
http://www.linux-mag.com/

Check out this cool website for choosing which Linux distro to install

Linux Distibution Chooser

U.S. News and World Report has an article on 50 Ways to Impove Life in 2007.

Colors and you - Your choice of fave colors for different objects reveal your personality. - http://vn247.net/flash/Color-and-Me.swf

Your astrological sign shows insurance companies what kind of driver you are. - http://www.insurancehotline.com/a10.html

Christophers Walken's 12 Days of Christmas (Imagine him speaking it) - http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=1392

Will it blend?
http://www.willitblend.com/

What would happen if all the zip codes were connected numerically?
http://eagereyes.org/Applications/ZIPScribbleMap.html

Check out this "poster" of quotes, actions and info on the Bush administration on Jim Hightowers HightowerLowdown.

The New York Times reported this June that Bush was running another spy program. This one was snooping through international banking records, including millions of bank transactions done by innocent Americans. George reacted angrily to the exposure, branding the Times report “disgraceful” and declaring that revelation of his spy program “does great harm to theUnited States.” The White House and its right-wing acolytes promptly launched a “Hate-the-Times” political campaign.

Name the guy who was the first to reveal that such a bank-spying program was in the works: George W. Bush! At a September 2001 press conference, he announced that he’d just signed an executive order to monitor all international bank transactions.

I Know I'm Not Alone - Michael Franti travels to Iraq, Palestine and Israel to explore the human cost of war with a group of friends, some video cameras and his guitar.

Check out Guy Junkers web site, Junker Toons, featuring his cartooning. I thought the mountain bike ones where pretty funny.

Peacefire has added https:// support back to the www.StupidCensorship.com site. They found due to a common configuration error where networks are set up so that blocking software only applies to http:// sites and https:// sites past through unfiltered. https://www.StupidCensorship.com

They have also added http://www.TowerOfDonuts.com to their list of circumventor sites. Here are other circumventor sites that as of today still work.

Looking for that Halloween get away? Shall I suggest visiting Bran Castle in Romania?

Yes, the castle that Bram Stoker allegedly used for Dracula's Castle.

via Wikipedia:

In addition to its unique architecture, the castle is famous because of persistent myths that it had been the home of Vlad the Impaler; however, there is no physical evidence that Vlad ever lived there. According to most accounts, the Impaler spent two days in the Bran dungeon, as the area was occupied by Ottoman Empire at the time.

Bran Castle was subsequently featured in multiple film adaptations of Dracula, and has informally become known as Dracula's Castle. The local economy has made use of the connection to boost tourism, and postcards and t-shirts are available depicting the castle with the Dracula name.

More Info:
Bran Castle Museum
Bran Castle Pictures
Bran Castle Postcards
Legends and History

Life is hard for Chad Vader, the younger, less charismatic brother of Darth Vader, who is the day shift manager of Empire Market.

http://splu.net/chadvader.htm

Bush is a Speechalist? A video on Veoh Networks by tommyuki

http://www.veoh.com/videoDetails.html?v=e105745ssDkBTjj

Thanks Mark

http://www.107.peugeot.co.uk/peugeot.swf

As Linky and Dinky say "This Hooters chick will be world famous by this time next week.".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmqD1oRzzzc

Go check out this eye / brain trick. Strange stuff. http://youtube.com/watch?v=H-88wVw-1cU

The latest attempt by SaveTheInternet.com to bring people into the net neutrality debate is a downloadable mp3 tune by songwriters Jill Sobule, Kay Hanley, and Michelle Lewis called "God Save The Internet". It is set to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man".

Google Copernicus Center is hiring.

Google is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering.

If you happen to be going with the vpotus I'd be sure to take one of these. And watch out for that 18 hour time delay.

Stubled upon this while checking referrers to my web site. I couldn't figure out who to credit it to, but whomever you are, thanks.

Brrr!
http://www.markdaviesmedia.com/cold

Waiter, there are people all over my food!
http://legnangel.livejournal.com/564026.html

CellFlix Festival for cellular short films

The CellFlix Festival is an annual competition dedicated to the development of creative content for mobile delivery. It’s all about imagination, fantasy, and story – created through and presented on the small screen.

Mr. Greens Mistress has sent these along to share with all:

Mushroom Space - http://www.velutipes.com/

End of the World - http://www.endofworld.net/

Butterflies, lots and lots of butterflies - http://www.butterflyalphabet.com/NatureImage/categories/butterflies.htm

Halfbakery, may contain nuts - http://www.halfbakery.com/index-recent-by-date.html

Enjoy!

Daryl Cagle has put together a collection of Abramoff cartoons by all the top cartoonists. It is worth checking out.

© Paul Zanetti - 04.23.2005

Paul Zanetti's year in review is available on Daryl Cagle's Pro Cartoonist Index.

A Christmas Quiz

So the figures are in and the 12 days of Christmas cost has gone up 6.08% to $18,348.87 for this year. Did you save enough money this year to get your true love everything on the list?

Found this through Instapundit and it left me LOL.

Get your position here

Now there is one frightening thought.
Can you say "Scary"?

Not your normal Friday Night Mass. From the Critical Mass documentary site.

Be like Baldwin! Disastrous SAG/AFTRA Strike 2000 Pin
Celebrate the Screen Actors Guild supernova of 2000

DKNY Men's Leather Pants I Unfortunately Own
Stylish. Expensive. Very much a bad purchase for me.

Thanks to Mr. Greens Mistress.

Talk about funny, you have to watch this. It is a redo of The Shining's trailer done by Robert Ryang at P.S. 260, a commertial post-production house in NYC. This is what the site had to say "A post-production house organized a competition where assistant editors ‘re-cut’ trailers for famous movies to try and make them seem like different movies . . . . this is the one that won."

For more into check out these links:
The Tattered Coat
Making Light

ISS photos of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina.

NASA's Looking At Earth photos

Here are two links for bingo cards while watching OLN's coverage of the tour:

This one is for Phil, Paul and Bobke

This one is just for Phil and Paul

A competition for the blogs defending freedom of expression

Freedom Blog Awards

What time is it you ask? Well these are a few of the cool clocks I have found on the web:

http://www.designegg.com/insertmonkey/clock.html

http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/%7Eyugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/03/index.html

http://patchrapa.com/images/anaclock.swf

Flash interactive movies based on a paper by Edward H. Adelson.

http://web.mit.edu/persci/gaz/gaz-teaching/index.html

Well, it is a very nice April snowstorm here in Colorado today. It be dumping outside and I am inside cruising the internet. Here are some things I have found:

Check out the films on this site: sheepfilms.

This is just a funny joke today... but tomorrow?
Big Brother may be late, but he's coming...
I just wanted a pizza pie.

Not a damn one of these is true, but ignorant people will be fascinated by your knowledge! Amazing Facts!

Discover What the World Thinks About U.S.: Watching America

"Doodles, Drafts and Designs" is a travelling exhibition that was created by The Smithsonian Institute's National Museum Of American History. Doodles

How fast are your reactions? Try a reaction test called Sheep Dash.

Stupid Computer Tricks & Computer Stupidities

Westwords Best of Denver 2005

Here is a site that is a must visit. It is a collaborative art project:
http://www.eviltree.de/zoomquilt/zoom.htm

Enjoy!

Here's a list that's going to come in handy one day. You'll find out how to bypass and defeat voice-mail hell with ways to, well, find a human.

https://www.quickbase.com/db/85vqhz4a?a=q&qid=5

I was just cruising around the internet today and while at Ask Jeeves I happend upon their top 10 searches. Number 10 was "Federal Budget" and I thought, "what the heck" and followed the link. I found some interesting links and here they are:

• The Public Debt Online - The debt to the penny!
• National Debt Awareness Center - Advocates for reduction of the national debt.
• Budget Explorer
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• National Budget Simulation
• Congressional Budget Office

What is our current nation debt:

• As of 02/10/2005 the current nation debt is: $7,629,245,507,947.33
• of this $4,440,557,723,908.29 is Debt Held by the Public
• and $3,188,687,784,039.04 is Intragovernmental Holdings

So, out of curiosity I checked out the 20 questions against a computer site, 20q.net, to see how smart it really was. Shockingly, it figured out my first three items; a water bottle, a coin and a watch. Now, I figured quite a few people have thought of these before, so for my fourth one I thought long and hard and was finally able to beat it, a 35mm film cannister. Go give it a try.

Check out this site. Quite a few interesting essays to read.

The Mathematics of Responsibility
by Ran Prieur
February 7, 2002

It's frustrating to be stuck in a world where I actually have to point this out, but what we call "responsibility" is not distributed by breaking up "full responsibility" and dividing it into parts. If you add up everyone's responsibility for something, it doesn't equal 100% -- it equals a billion percent if it has to, because any number of entities can be fully responsible for the same thing. Another way to say it is that our responsibilities can and do overlap. Another way to say it is that nobody's responsibility for anything excuses anybody else.

For example, Hitler is fully responsible for every particular murder in the Holocaust. But so is the actual person who did the murder, and every person in the chain of command, and the fanatically repressive Prussian culture, and maybe the victim, if there was a chance to see the murder coming and fight or flee.

I just pushed a hot button, but it's hot only because of our idea of "blame," which is a lie. I don't "blame" anyone for anything, because I understand that blame is stuck responsibility -- falsely packing it all in one place to block it from being traced where you don't want it traced.

For example, if a woman gets drunk and passes out at a frat party, and she gets raped, and I excuse the rapist by saying the woman should have known better, then I am stupidly blaming the victim. But if I hold the rapist fully responsible, and also hold the society that trained the rapist fully responsible, and also notice that the victim took a huge risk and had the power to choose otherwise, then I'm not blaming anyone -- I'm being honest and paying attention.

This gets even trickier when someone is punished for doing something good. The Raise The Fist website was recently shut down in a violent police raid. Some people (who are being ripped off if they're not on the authorities' payroll) made slippery suggestions that the author of the site should have known the police would come after him, and therefore that he was somehow at fault.

"He should have known! Jesus should have known he'd be crucified! Gandhi should have known he'd get people beaten and killed. Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel should have known their activities would get them locked up. Idiots! When people threaten violence you should do whatever they say, or you deserve what you get!"

Read the rest of this essay.

The Richie Bush comic book cartoon, that you see above, is kind of like a movie poster for the video by Peter Kuper. The video is via Slate's Daryl Cagle.

Hope you enjoy it

iPods Dirty Secret

I have an iPod and really enjoy it. I use it daily on my bike commutes to work and home.

The unlucky think is, I did not do my homework and didn't realize that the battery is not replaceable. You should get about a 18 to 24 month life time from the battery. I nice little scam that Apple is running to get users to buy new iPod's.

Check out this parody of Light My Fire for Linspire.

http://media.linspire.com/RunLinspireSong/RunLinspire.swf

What if the entire world could vote in our presidential election?

Who would win the Kerry vs. Bush election?

You probably already guessed the outcome...

http://www.betavote.com/

The Trunk Monkey by Suburban Auto Group

Check out this page which shows the average IQ for a state and how it voted in the 2004 election.

http://americanassembler.com/features/iq_state_averages.htm

I came across this interesting project today.

Image a camera placed in one spot and taking pictures every hour. Add some sound and make it into a Flash movie. Then enable the viewer to view these scenes as slow or as fast as they wish. You can see the day in its quick robustness or in slow, detail catching snapshots. You also get the sounds that go with the changing pictures to put you more in the particular scene.

It's a cool place to go an visit another world. It might even make you appreciate yours just a little bit more.

http://www.theircircularlife.it/

Found this interesting site today while listening to Live Monsters and wanting to know the words to Bittersweet.

Kind of cool if you like poetry and stuff.

It's your call.

Found this informative site, FactCheck.org, while cruising around today. Their mission is:

"We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding."

Sounds pretty good to me! I think I'll be spending some time digging into this site.

I was checking out the P.O.V. Borders Environment site and found these interesting facts.

Bottled Water

• Americans spend 3 times as much for water as gasoline
• Americans spend $11,000 per minute on bottled water
• of the 100 brands tested by the NRDC, 1/3 failed to meet the clean water standards for tap water

Air

• The top 10 greenest vehicles of 2003 where all Japanese
• There are approximately 600 million cars around the world
• to accommodate its 214 million cars, the U.S. has paved 3.9 million miles of road, enough to circle the earth 157 times

Kind of interesting, if you ask me.

One final thought: The U.S. would save 4 million barrels of oil a day if everyone drove a hybrid car. Just think what that would do to OPEC and it's strangle hold on oil production.