This or That

A huge table of Windows software and free equivalents for Linux and Windows.

Tale of a Bush Pilot

When you fly to many places, you're bound to meet some very interesting people. (via Metafilter)

Unabomb Video

DJ Format's We Know Something You Don't Know.
My favorite part is when the turtle throw off his shell to get down. Is Chali 2na wearing a shark costume? (via Metafilter)

Popeye vs Anime

Anime Popeye, good.
Floating babies, bad. (via Metafilter)

Lurkers and spoofers

Jipi and the paranoid chip, a short story by Neal Stephenson.

Karate Chimp

Watch this. (mpg) (via Metafilter)

Space Is the Place

I had the good fortune of seeing Burt Rutan speak at UCLA yesterday. It's very rare that you get to see someone who is not only single-handedly jumpstarting an entire industry, but is changing the course of history.

He began the the talk with a look back at the history of transportation and aerospace technology. Uptake of a new technology always starts out slow, with lots of experimentation, and risk, but with very few people participating. Then it follows a sigmoidal curve which levels off in about 40 years. He showed that these curves representing technological uptake overlap each other and that we missed the transition to the latest one about 25 years ago around the time the shuttle was produced. This led into his summary of the history of manned space flight vehicles. And the surprising thing was that with each new vehicle, cost when up and reliability and safety went down. And after 50 years or so of space flight less than 1000 people have been up to space. Mr. Rutan was clearly not enthusiastic about government space programs. He pronounced NASA as nay-say.

His prediction was that we're entering a new era of manned space flight and in 15 years it will be commonplace and affordable to take sub-orbital trips. But around that time people will start taking trips to orbit and eventually to a space hotel. And as trips to earth orbit become routine, people will desire to go to the moon and beyond. And that is basically his long term goal, to make trips to space as boring as a trip across country in a jet.

Fern

This video of outtakes from some sort of Winnebego promotional video are laughtastic and NSFW from the swearing.

Erototoxins

The word of the day is erototoxins and this is ridiculous.

Pornography triggers myriad kinds of internal, natural drugs that mimic the “high” from a street drug. Addiction to pornography is addiction to what I dub erototoxins -- mind-altering drugs produced by the viewer’s own brain.

It would be amusing if this was some bedraggled street preacher babbling this nonsense. But no, this fruitcake testified before the United States Senate. This is what we have to look forward to for the next four years. The lunatics are running the asylum. (via Atrios)

Textwar

Eat hot ASCII death (via Metafilter).

Words of Wisdom

From Chapter 6 of Proverbs:
16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Bitter and Funny

Caustic wisdom from DailyHaiku.com.

Art of Deception

The sculptures of Shigeo Fukuda show that shadows and reflections (mpegs) may not be what they appear to be. When you turn M.C. Escher's drawings into sculptures, you can get some impossible objects (mpeg). And Dick Termes paintings on globes are stunning examples (Quicktime) of six point perspective. All of these works of illusionary art are featured in the book Masters of Deception: Escher, Dalí & the Artists of Optical Illusion and must be seen to be believed.

A Liberal Vision for America

Those conservatives better be pretty happy that they won the election for the presidency on November 2nd. Because, if Kerry had won, a coalition of liberal groups were standing by to implement the left-homo agenda. But since the armies of the righteous once again have defeated the sinful leftists, the plan will have to be shelved for another 4 years at least. Here is what the country has missed out on, and what we will enact if we get the chance.

The cornerstone of the liberal plan begins with promoting abortions across the country as a lifestyle choice. We liberals believe abortions should be available to all, from the youngest to the oldest Americans. To do this we will construct 1,000 drive-through abortions clinics in cities and towns across America. That’s right, you won’t even need to leave your car to have an abortion. But because we believe abortions should be available to all, including men, liberal scientists are hard at work IN FRANCE, developing a method to impregnate men. And if you aren’t pregnant that won’t stop us. We will have strike teams standing by to knock you up and then give you an abortion. If you, or someone you know needs an abortion you will be able to call 1-866-ABORT-NOW. The aborted fetuses will be collected and made into a giant quilt that will travel across country and be displayed in churches, and synagogues.

Some really crazy people believe that if liberals took over then we would disband the military. This is incorrect. Instead, the army would be retrained to go on door-to-door missions to replace Bibles with copies of Heather has Two Mommies, the Koran, and, and gay pornography. They will be accompanied by another army of vat-grown atheists, which will subject all good Christians to A Clockwork Orange-style forced conversion program to become secular humanists.

You better believe we have big plans for schools. Fisting lessons will become a mandatory part of sex ed courses taught in 3rd grade. Instead of teaching English, kids will spend their time learning FRENCH and Ebonics. Instead of US history, students will learn African and Native American History, and woman’s studies. The only films that will be shown in schools will be The Rocky Horror Picture show, selected John Waters movies, and PBS documentaries. Every classroom will be required to have a picture of Charles Darwin and a chimpanzee, and American flags will be replaced with FRENCH ones. And finally, high school proms will crown a king and a king.

We really hate white people (there I said it), so our best liberal scientists, working IN FRANCE will develop pills which will turn your skin dark. Every man above the age of 25 will be issued a year’s supply of St. Ides, a copy of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, and some bling-bling.

See, we believe in the freedom to have abortions, to be gay, and to not believe in God. If you don’t share these values, just give us time. We’ll make sure you will.

Now you see it

Seeing this neat dragon hollow-face illusion on linked to on Metafilter reminded me of the sculptures of Shigeo Fukuda which play with perspective and shadow in amazing ways.

Lawlessness Run Rampant

So it looks like Alberto Gonzales is going to be our new Attorney General. And what did he do to qualify himself for this position? Well, for one thing, in 2003 he dropped his pants and took a giant steaming dump on our Constitution. Then he prceeded to wipe his ass with the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And that's not all. Would you believe that a lawyer of his caliber formerly worked with Enron and Haliburton?

Branding

Doug Rushkoff comes back with a new Frontline doc, The Persuaders. It's basically a two hour version of Media Television.

Here are a few

Simple Pleasures.

• watching a dog in another person's car with his head toward the window--they always seem so freaking ecstatic to just enjoy the ride.
• an unnaturally quiet night in the moonlight
• an interesting cloudscape
• Exchanging funny faces with a toddler while waiting on line at the store.
• Everyone finding a joke you made to be hilarious.
• Watching (and smelling) the sea.
• The mental click that happens when I go from not understanding something to understanding something.
• The thrashed feeling after intense exercise whether it's weights, swimming, biking or hiking.

Thou shalt

Since we've got another four more years of this theocracy to go, I figured I'd settle in and familiarize myself with the rules aka the Ten Commandments, but I got really confused in the process.

Commandment VI is "Thou shalt not kill". Well that's strange. It seems pretty direct. I don't see any footnotes. But what if they've got "weapuhns of mass deestruction"? Is it ok to kill then? According to this, the commandment is more like, "Thou shalt try not to kill".

This Commandment is not absolute. Not all murders are forbidden. Hebrew Scriptures specify many grounds for which this commandment is to be ignored, and a guilty party executed. Persons found guilty of temple prostitution, engaged women who are seduced by a man other than her future husband, women who practice black magic, some women who are raped in urban areas, children who cursed their parents, some non-virgin brides, Jews who collect firewood on Saturday to keep their families from freezing, persons proselytizing in favor of another religion, persons worshiping a deity other than Yahweh, strangers who entered the temple, etc; all were to be executed.

So a Jew who collects firewood on a Saturday to keep his family from freezing is ok to kill. Got it.

The 8th one puzzled me as well, "Thou shalt not steal". Do elections count?

I could use some more elaboration on this one, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour". What if I suspect my neighbor is working on weapons of mass destruction-related program activities. Is it ok to lie about it then? What if you get your flunkies to do it for you? Does that count? Ahh. I see it only applies to courtroom testimony. That would explain this.

This last one is much more explicit, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's". Don't go getting all envious of your neighbor's stuff. Even if he has 113 billion barrels of oil sitting under his house, that does not make it ok.

Don't get mad....get tolerant?

So says Sam Smith who puts out the Progressive Review.

Once you decide it isn't your business to save, control, or correct a born-again Christian or, conversely, two gays headed for the altar, life not only becomes simpler but considerably more pleasant. Which is why I tell conservatives complaining about gay marriage, "Then don't marry a gay;" and liberals who complain about born-agains, "Look we've always had Christian fundamentalists in this country; we just used to call them things like 'New Deal Democrats.'"