Space is the place

The largest asteroid ever found was spotted in the Kuiper belt beyond Pluto almost exactly 200 years since the discovery of the first asteroid. Although whether it's an asteroid or comet is still up in the air. That second article goes on to suggest that more objects may be found, maybe even some the size of Mercury.

How skating became hardcore

Long LA Weekly article on the beginning of skating as we know it

What do you expect from a bunch of underprivileged, delinquent teenagers? Certainly not genius, but that's what was happening.

Every time the boys skated together -- especially in the pools they were so fond of crashing -- it seemed like there was a new breakthrough. During these sessions, they started laying down the basic language of modern skateboarding. Pushed by Peralta, Biniak finally nailed a frontside kick turn at vert. Not long after, Peralta started stringing them together from tile to tile and a frontside forever was invented. Today, kids take this stuff for granted. It's part of the lexicon. Back then, it was almost unimaginable.

A one stop super shop for all your spiritual needs

The Internet Sacred Texts Archive (via The Daily Grail) has a huge number of all kinds of works of a spiritual nature in text or html form. They even have the Eddas and one of my favorite Icelandic sagas, Njal's saga.

Life and Debt

Last night PBS showed an excellent documentary about the effects of IMF structural adjustment programs on the people of Jamaica. The documentary was based loosly on Jamaica Kincaid's well written short book A Small Place which, despite her name, is actually about Antigua not Jamaica. Her book is also more about the damage done by colonialism and corrupt local politicans but her sarcastic prose applies just as much to the neo-colonialism depicted in the movie.

It's unfortunate that Jamaica can't exploit its natural competitive advantage as the Washington Consensus would suggest and export Ganja. A panel there recommends it be legalized partly because of its importance as a religious sacrament but suits in Washington will likely not want loans to go to misguided drug smoking lunatic types.

No soup for you

The actual Soup Nazi, Al Yeganeh, who was the basis for of one of the most popular Seinfeld episodes ever has had his recipes reverse engineered by Todd Wilbur at topsecretrecipes.com. There is even a brief interview where he lives up to his portrayal:

TW: How do you feel about all the publicity that followed the Seinfeld episode?
AY: I didn't need it. I was known well enough before that. I don't need it.
TW: But it must have been good for business, right?
AY: He [Seinfeld] used me. He used me. I didn't use him, he used me.
TW: How many people do you serve in a day?
AY: I cannot talk to you. If I talk I cannot work.
TW: How many different soups do you serve?
AY: (getting very upset) I cannot talk. (Pointing to sign) Move to the left. Next.

Four recipes are revealed: Cream of Potato, Chicken Chili, Mulligatawny, and Crab Bisque. It's a shame that I'm too lazy to make them. Let me know how they come out.

Where do they put all those Iridum satellites anyway?

See earth orbiting satellites from space in this 3D Java applet (via Hour 25) and get outside and find out how to spot them here.

Crazy Japanese guy puts food on his bunny's head

Gotta love those Japanese rabbit lovers (via Gammatron):

"This is not a comedy site, especially must not a making fool of rabbit or being cruel to animal. Oolong is so calm -- won't get angry, stays still for a minute when I put little things on his head, that I can take pictures of his headperformance. It is a result of intimate relationship of me and Oolong, and alone headperformance is not a main theme of my site."

Yahoo! or $10 billion?

Yahoo!'s troubles are chronicled in a new article:

"The fact is, the only worthwhile business Yahoo now has going for it is collecting the interest it has been earning on its $1.75 billion of cash and marketable debt securities. As such, Yahoo Inc. isn’t really a business at all; it’s just an enormous money-market fund that employs 3,000 people engaged in wasting the shareholders’ money."

The media falls asleep on the job

The world's favorite lender of last resort, the IMF has all but called George Bush a liar in its newest report on the United States. An article in the Economist summarizes:

"Add back in a couple of other questionable assumptions (see chart), and the IMF arrives at a total cost for Mr Bush’s tax cuts over the ten-year period to more than $2.5 trillion—nearly double what the act signed by Mr Bush delivers... The IMF doubts are expressed in a low-key way; and others have made many of these points before. But coming from such a widely-respected source—and one outside the political fray in the US—such an assessment should be difficult to ignore, although the IMF analysis has so far received remarkably little attention in the American media. If the IMF had called into question the most important economic policy initiative of Japan, Germany or Russia, there is little doubt that its criticisms would have received much wider coverage"

You can cure your chronic insomnia by reading the full report here.

Get of your ass and jam

Fans of the trance fusion band Sound Tribe Sector 9 have made about a quarter of their live shows available online. This is one of the few bands with a number in their name that does not suck. The bad part is they use Real Player although the quality is good even on a dial up. I would bet that within 5 years the live shows for most established bands will be available online in some form or another. At some point every show ever recorded will be available for your listening pleasure. Dont expect the Slowly Dying Music Industry establishment to make it happen.

Beyond bukkake

Japanese Engrish brings some of the funniest examples of mistranslations since "all your base belongs to us". On a more bizarre level is the video game Boong Ga Boong Ga (via Haddock). I hope this isnt just the tip of the iceberg of games centered on bodily orifices.

Run through hell

How long would it take you to run 150 miles? In more than 120 degree weather? Up 15,000 feet in elevation from the lowest altitude in the US to the highest altitude in the US? Every year some very determined people run the Badwater Ultramarathon from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney. The winning time this year was under 30 hours. It kinda makes the Everest marathon look like a walk around the block.

Launch

This just a place for me to record some of my thoughts, point out interesting pages and learn a bit about html (as you can tell). I intend to post udpates semidaily.