Chicago alley

Off-topic: An alley in Chicago.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

The oldie but goodie that answers the question: "Is there a Santa Claus?"

November Sunset

Late November sunset.

Fake News: Scissors, Screwdriver Users Rejoice At Loosened Travel Restrictions

The TSA says they plan to soon allow other crucial items on flights, such as lighter fluid, switchblades, and C4.

(from Fake News Network).

Cloudy Burbank

Burbank with cloud cover.

Forbes Fictional Fifteen

A list of the 15 richest fictional people/characters.

Water Wall

Water wall behind the Arclight Cinerama on Sunset Blvd.

Vineyard

Vineyard in the Hollywood Hills.

Kitty-Cat Dance (windows media video)

Oddly catchy song and "video" (rated PG-13).

Cat Allergens Are Long Lasting

Cat allergens, in fact, can hamper the lung function of those who have asthma and are allergic to cats for up to 22 hours after exposure, said Jared W. Allen, a postdoctoral researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles

(from HealthDay, via Yahoo Health).

Wicked Christmas Lights (windows media video)

Wildly inventive holiday light display on a house (rated R, mainly because of the ads on the site it is on).

Asian Trix (flash)

Trix rabbit takes revenge; very un-politically correct (rated PG-13).

Aquarium of the Pacific

Aquarium of the Pacific sign.

Parkers' Restaurant

Parkers' Lighthouse in Long Beach, CA.

Boats

Boats in Long Beach, CA.

Long Beach Lighthouse

Lighthouse in Long Beach, CA.

Beach from Ferris Wheel

Beach looking south from ferris wheel.

Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier from ferris wheel.

Santa Monica Beach

Beach north of the Santa Monica Pier.

Pink Dot/Green Dot Optical Illusion (animated gif)

Neat illusion (rated PG).

Santa's Sleigh

Santa's sleigh near the fountain at The Grove.

Pig and Whistle tile

Pig and Whistle tile at Hollywood and Highland.

Mick Chick

Mick Chick (Chicken Little dressed up as Mickey Mouse) at the El Capitan theatre.

Subway Platform

Subway platform at Hollywood and Highland.

Frog TV

Frog TV in HANNspree.

Hollywood Sign

The Hollywood sign.

Art Description Error

Art description in Hollywood and Highland subway station: Nature has become that which exists between manmade things: columns, buildings, roads and cities. 'Coming and Going' emphasizes this relationship to nature by asking viewers to recognize the disjunctions in the image, and resemble [sic] them as they see it.

Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree at Hollywood and Highland.

Harry Potter line

Line for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at the AMC 16 in Burbank, CA.

Woman Drawn (flash)

From the inside out (Rated NC-17).

Fly Guy (flash)

You are man who can fly, in full black and white splendor (rated PG).

PSP ad - moving sculptures (quicktime)

Red "multimedia" sculptures dance, fight, and do stuff (rated PG).

Giant Christmas Tree Ornaments

Giant Christmas tree ornaments in downtown Burbank, CA.

French Hangman (flash)

Fun... if you know French (rated PG).

Quote About Government

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.

- Lord Acton

Strong Bad Email #138 (flash)

The Strongbadia space program: Sbasaf (rated PG).

Pavlov's Dog (flash)

Try to train the dog to drool on command (rated PG).

Microbotnik, space death adventures (flash)

Animated Space Robots dying (rated PG-13).

Own Your Hood (flash)

A stickman fighting game (rated PG-13).

The Daily Planet

The Daily Planet at Tamarind and Franklin in Los Angeles, CA.

Skyfighting (flash)

What the name suggests (rated PG-13, largely due to the ads on the site).

Quote About Liberty

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

Blue Ball Machine (javascript and audio)

Interesting graphic with music (rated PG).

Half Built Christmas Tree

Half built Christmas tree at Burbank Town Center in Burbank, CA.

Burbank City Hall

Burbank City Hall.

Quote About Obstacles

Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.

-Ken Hakuta

Strongbad Halloween Costumes (flash)

An amusing round-up (rated PG).

Fake News: France Desperately Tries to Surrender to Itself

President Chirac is reportedly frantically seeking the leader of the rioting "youths" who have wrought destruction in Paris and other parts of France. He hope hopes to tender an unconditional surrender to such a leader. If he succeeds, it will mark the first time France has surrendered to itself in this century.

Critics say his efforts have so far proved fruitless because the disaffected rioters lack organization and therefore have no leader. Supporters dispute such claims, and continue to cry for self-capitulation. Thierry Breton, the French Minister of Finance, has found a silver lining to the crisis, noting in this morning's press conference that the thousands of cars burned in the riots will have to be replaced. Breton says this could lead to economic growth fueled by increased auto sales.

Dancing George Bush (flash)

Fun times making the president dance (rated PG).

Earthquakes in the last week

Earthquakes in the last week plotted on a google map.

What is Science (flash)

Oddly amusing little ditty about science, and what it is (rated PG).

Adcandy: Public Service Slogan Contest-May 2005

A slogan competition that mentioned my work:

The Are they Kidding? Awards:

In my opinion, fun is what makes advertising successful. - Ad Legend Leo Bogart.

These slogans are not presented critically. I actually am not sure if the they are intended to be jokes or not. (I have my inklings....)

"All Scripture, All the Time"
American Bible Association (David Lawrence)

I actually think this slogan would be good for one of the Christian broadcast networks. David Lawrence is a great example of what Leo Bogart was talking about when he spoke about having fun when creating advertising. Sure, you don't know whether Lawrence is kidding or not, but it doesn't matter, it still works. There is an irreverent eye-wink in many of Mr. Lawrence's entries, making him both a pain in the butt and an advertising natural. Here's a wink back to you, Mr. Lawrence.

Another slogan of mine it mentions:

"Waging Green."
Greenpeace (David Lawrence)

Poplockin' (flash)

Allows you to make your own poplock combination, add your face to the on screen character, battle and send it to a friend (rated PG).

Quote About the Mind

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

-H. P. Lovecraft

Quote About Pleasure

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

- Soren Kierkegaard

Japanese Parking Lot (windows media video)

Like a ferris wheel... for cars (rated PG).

Quotes About Power

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

-Lord Acton, 1887

It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.

-David Brin

Water Skiing with a Loved One (flash)

The Nokia N90 ad (rated PG).

Mountains from the Air

Mountains East of Burbank, CA.

Make-a-Flake (flash)

A Snowflake Maker (rated PG).

Tiny Toons do Particle Man (windows media video)

Tiny Toons cartoon does the They Might Be Gaints' song Particle Man.

Powerhouse Theatre

Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

NASA - 21 Named Storms From the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Includes links to an MPEG Video of recent Hurricanes shot from space and enhanced.

Real News: Bush Can't Run Again, Fake News: CNN Asks Who the US People Would Vote for

If a presidential election were held this year, George Bush would either lose to an anonymous Democrat or win and be jailed for violating the term-limit provision found in the 22nd amendment to the Constitution, according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup/Nabisco/Toys R Us Poll released Tuesday

Spanish Style Roof

Spanish style roof near AFI.

Golem Accepts MTV Award (flash)

Hilarious (rated PG-13).

Quote on the Nature of a Hypothesis

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.

-Edward Teller

Scary Clown Ballerina

Scary clown ballerina at Main and Rose near Santa Monica, CA.

Top 100 books since 1923 (published in English)

According to Time Magazine.

Pantone Announces the Top 10 Most Directional Women’s Ready-to-Wear Colors for Spring 2006

Pantone Name	hex (RGB)	Pantone Code	CMYK
Sand Dollar	#efeae0	13-1106	C=6 M=8 Y=12 K=0
Deep Ultramarine	#0033c6	19-3950	C=93 M=58 Y=0 K=22
French Vanilla	#f9f9ad	12-0722	C=0 M=0 Y=30 K=2
Lily Green	#cef49e	13-0317	C=15 M=0 Y=34 K=4
Skyway	#b5e0f4	14-4112	C=25 M=8 Y=0 K=4
Blue Tint	#aaffea	13-4910	C=33 M=0 Y=8 K=0
Cameo Pink	#f4b2f4	14-2307	C=0 M=26 Y=0 K=4
Melon	#ff8c66	16-1442	C=0 M=45 Y=60 K=0
Clove	#4c3319	18-1320	C=50 M=60 Y=70 K=20
Viola	#a5aaff	16-3815	C=35 M=33 Y=0 K=0

(table by David Lawrence, based on data by Pantone).

Portal of the Folded Wings

Portal of the Folded Wings, shrine to aviation in Burbank, CA.

Quote About Crime

Crime does not pay ... as well as politics.

-Alfred E. Newman

Strongbad Bedtime Story (flash)

The latest Strongbad email (rated PG).

World is more peaceful now than at any time in 12 years

Despite the daily horrors in Iraq and seemingly regular spasms of terrorist-sponsored violence, the world is a much more peaceful place than it was a little more than a decade ago, a new study says.

Since the end of the Cold War, the number of armed conflicts has declined by more than 40 per cent, while the number of the deadliest conflicts - those involving more than 1,000 battle-related deaths - has dropped by 80 per cent, said the Human Security Report, which was released here [in New York] yesterday.

Over the past dozen years, the global security climate has changed in dramatic, positive and largely unheralded ways, the report states.

Civil wars, genocides and international crises have all declined sharply. International wars, now only a small minority of all conflicts, have been in steady decline for a much longer period, as have military coups and the average number of people killed per conflict per year.

(from Globe and Mail).

Quote About Life

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

- Soren Kierkegaard

Air Jaws (windows media video)

Discovery Channel show about sharks hunting seals, and how both animals catch air above the water during the hunt (PG-13).

Google Map Plot of Wilma

Google Maps hurricane track overlay.

Ninja For Hire (flash)

Amazing jump/flip/wow skills (rated PG).

Griffith Observatory Construction

Griffith Observatory under construction.

Fatburger Receipt

West Hollywood Fatburger receipt.

Strongbad is a Badguy (flash)

Sort of a music video (rated PG).

Invisible Skateboards (flash)

Skateboarding, with invisible skateboards - fun digital effects (rated PG).

What is Love? (flash)

A woman dances to the song (rated PG).

Road to LAX

Driveway to LAX.

Muppets Mahnamahna (flash)

Oldie and Goodie (rated PG).

I/O Brush (flash)

I/O Brush is a new drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by "picking up" and drawing with them. I/O Brush looks like a regular physical paintbrush but has a small video camera with lights and touch sensors embedded inside. Outside of the drawing canvas, the brush can pick up color, texture, and movement of a brushed surface. On the canvas, artists can draw with the special "ink" they just picked up from their immediate environment. More info at http://web.media.mit.edu/~kimiko/iobrush/

Family Guy presents Stewie Live (flash)

Subservient chicken meets the family guy (rated PG-13).

Laser Blasted Jeep

A jeep that has been blasted by a laser at Fry's Elctronics in Burbank, CA.

Cool Digital People Pictures

Mihai Anghelescu's digital figures: http://www.xmg.ro/mihai/index.html

Pity Hippo (flash)

A hippo and dog sign In the Jungle... (rated PG).

Robot Chicken

Adult-friendly, very funny action-figure stop-action (rated R). [offline http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2660802447916665129&q=robot%20chicken ]

The War of the Worlds in 30 seconds... with bunnies.

Family-Friendly flash: the 1953 War of the Worlds as performed by bunnies in 30 Seconds (rated PG).

Fun Flash: Teen Girl Squad #10

Family-friendly animation made by Strongbad (rated PG).

Fun Flash: Movement

Family-friendly moving clay (rated PG).

Donald Duck's Footprints

Donald Duck's footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Burbank Sunset

Sunset in Burbank, CA.

Why Chicago Burned - And How It Rebuilt

How another American city was unprepared for Nature's fury, and how it responded... over 100 years ago (from AmericanHeritage.com).

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

by Richard Brodie. This book is really an introduction to memetics (the study of memes) with a more contagious title (the book explains what I mean by 'contagious'). I highly recommend it, even if it is some years old at this point.

Meme:

an information pattern, held in an individual's memory, which is capable of being copied to another individual's memory.

Memetics:

the theoretical and empirical science that studies the replication, spread and evolution of memes

(definitions from Principia Cybernetica Web).

Funny Image: 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' Ended World War II

(from b3ta.com).

www.iiiiiiii.com

Family-friendly site that does exactly what the URL implies (rated G, requires Flash and your sound on).

Quote About Belief

It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative.

- John Burroughs

Flora Bush - The Child Left Behind

Funny Satire: Music Video and more of "The Third Bush Twin" (rated PG-13)

Louisiana's Department of Social Services' Press Secretary Thinks Losing Kids is Easy

When my kids were little I used to lose them in Target, so it's not hard for me to believe, said Nanette White, press secretary for Louisiana's Department of Social Services. Sometimes little kids just wander off. They're there one second and you blink and they're gone.

(from Los Angeles Times). I believe that is the department in charge of the foster system.

Solar Eclipse of Oct 3, 2005

...dynamic map shows the path of the solar eclipse across Earth's surface. The northern and southern limits of the annular eclipse path are plotted...

(from NASA and Google Maps).
tags: NASA, Google Maps, Mashup, Eclipse

Here Comes Sickness!

Family-friendly flash: Strong Bad has a sick day (rated PG).

Teen-Friendly Flash: Smoke Kills

Funny flash movie from Russia about how one thing leads to another. Lots of fun with tons of cultural allusions (it's not-so-factually-accurate, but it's fun, so who cares); rated PG-13.

New Orleans Atrocities May Not Have Occured

Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said authorities had confirmed only four murders in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina - making it a typical week in a city that anticipated more than 200 homicides this year. Jordan expressed outrage at reports from many national media outlets that suffering flood victims had turned into mobs of unchecked savages.

Four weeks after the storm, few of the widely reported atrocities have been backed with evidence. The piles of bodies never materialized, and soldiers, police officers and rescue personnel on the front lines say that although anarchy reigned at times and people suffered unimaginable indignities, most of the worst crimes reported at the time never happened

(from The Times-Picayune).

The Register Google Maps Contest - spot the black helicopter, win t-shirt

Our recent spate of Google Earth and Google Maps probes - highlighting how the firm's tasty satellite imagery is threatening all decent Christian, democratic values with its hi-res imagery of military hardware - has provoked a mini-airburst of reader activity.

In fact, so great have been the number of recommendations for Israeli nuclear installations, Russian trailer-launched nukes and US stealth aircraft that we have decided to run a small competition to find the best that Google has to offer

(from The Register).

tags: google maps, contest, military

Video: FedEx Castaway

Funny in a I'm-Happy-That-Didn't-Happen-to-Me kind of way; rated R (because of the ads next to the video and the site it's on, the video itself is PG). [offline http://www.danerd.com/Show.php?vid=747]

Video: Target ad - Darth Vadar and Heidi Klum

Juxtaposition is your friend; rated R (because of the ads next to the video and the site it's on, the video itself is PG). [offline http://www.danerd.com/Show.php?vid=193 ]

"Pay" what?

Seth Godin brings up interesting points about what businesses pay, but I'd say this is even more true of individuals who, since they are singular, have less attention to spend. As the books The Attention Economy and The Experience Economy suggest with their theses, economics may be moving more toward what the consumer experiences and pays attention to in any situation. This may not be a utopia of consumer-centic life, but it makes things less about stuff and money, and more about action.

Google Map Plot of Rita (2005) Google Maps Hurricane Track Overlay

Excellent use of technolgoy to track the storm.

Teen-Friendly Video: Who Touched My Butt?

Amusing commercial; rated PG-13.

Family-Friendly Video: Man vs. Bear

A funny ad for salmon, yummy fish; rated PG.

Nagin Taunts Nature, Nature Makes Tropical Storm RITA

Despite pleading of President Bush, Mayor Nagin rushes civilians into New Orleans and possibly into the path of another storm (and levy break). Fool me once, your fault; fool me twice, my fault.

Current score: Nature 1, New Orleans 0. Nagin is playing again.

Video: French Rap Video

Wait for the words to come in... it's a little funny; rated R (because of the ads next to the video and the site it's on, the video itself is PG-13). [offline http://www.danerd.com/Show.php?vid=291 ]

Family-Friendly Video: Skydiving Fun

Several different clips of skydiving and parachuting edited together; rated PG.

Fake News: God Smites News Anchors for Blaming Katrina on Mortals

September 15, 2005 (by David Lawrence - staff writer):
And there's more smote where that came from bellowed the deity while standing in the smoldering remains of the CNN Domestic Desk in Atlanta, GA. Staffers described the event as unexpected and expressed regret that no one was able to capture it on film. As the deity stomped away, He was heard muttering The next one will be worse.

Teen-Friendly Flash: Commandos in the Classroom

Fun little parody-ish educational film-stripy thing. Rated PG-13.

New Orleans Blame Game: Read this Site

Excerpt:

[New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco] let 569 buses that could have carried 33,350 people out of New Orleans–in one trip–get ruined in the floods.

In case you aren’t familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work:
The chain of responsiblity for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:

1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President

What did each do?

1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)
3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.
4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them
5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it

(from dcthornton.com).

Rebuilding of New Orleans - raise it up

The Chicago River was reversed many years ago. Part of Chicago exists on fill that was built to extend out the shoreline along lake Michigan. Part of the city was raised one story (with jacks and such) to compensate for the swampy land. Perhaps New Orleans can be raised up. The technology exists to vastly change a city's layout and depth.

Existing buildings can be raised up above sea level and the void beneath can be filled in. The rest of the area can be filled and the boundaries (where the levies now are) can be reinforced. This could have several benefits over restoring the pre-storm set-up:

1. cataclysmic flooding would be next to impossible
2. the reinforced periphery would only need maintenance every 100 years or so (like Chicago's shoreline).
3. if the city of New Orleans in the future were to fail to maintain it, there would be no catastrophic failure; the edges of the city would slowly erode away. This would give time for residents of affected ares to slowly react.

Rebuilding a city in a soup bowl is a foolish recreation of the city-in-jeopardy we had a week ago. Fill the soup bowl and rebuild the city on top.

Thank you

tags: New Orleans, Katrina, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane, civil engineering, Politics

To Become... Clay

Family-friendly .wmv stop-motion video of some wire and clay becoming more.

Donate to the Red Cross:

Apologies for being off topic: after Hurricane Katrina thousands need your help. Please visit redcross.org or call 1-800-HELP-NOW, and donate now.

Dust Devils Roam the Suface of Mars

Family-friendly fun from another world (from NASA).

Nice Gas Station Bathroom?!

When a friend's car broke down, and was pushed to a Mobil brand gas station in Calabasas,
I used their restroom; it was unnaturally well decorated... and clean:



(photos taken by David Lawrence).

Flash: Cake - Comfort Eagle

A music video for the Cake song. The audio is the highlight of this video. It's family-friendly (from Albino Blacksheep).

Meme Fight:

I think it's possible that violent Islamic fundamentalism is a set of memes that are not evolutionarily stable strategies. It's possible that people who subscribe to that set of memes not only can experience Western (e.g., US and EU) culture as a threat, but may resort to violence because they can't beat the Western memes with their own memes.

Amazon Shorts

Amazon is now selling downloadable short stories.

Fake News: Grieving Bush Protester Has No Exit Strategy

Cindy Sheehan, the protester whose son died fighting for freedom in Iraq, today acknowledged that she has no exit strategy for getting out of what some have called the quagmire in Crawford outside of the Texas ranch of President George Bush

(from ScrappleFace).

Summer Moon Illusion

Step outside any evening at sunset and look around. You'll see a giant moon rising in the east. It looks like Earth's moon, round and cratered; the Man in the Moon is in his usual place. But something's wrong. This full moon is strangely inflated. It's huge! You've just experienced the Moon Illusion

(from NASA).

Cool Video: Balancing Point

Danny Brown employs reverse destruction of rock sculptures and dazzles the eye in this magical short film

Family Friendly (from ifilm.com).

Discovery Has Landed

Safely back on Earth, STS-114 Commander Eileen Collins called the flight a fantastic mission, noting we brought Discovery back in great shape.

(from NASA.gov).

Dog Cloned

Scientists for the first time have cloned a dog.

Researchers nicknamed their cloned pal Snuppy, which is shorthand for Seoul National University puppy. One of the dog's co-creators, Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, describes their creation, now 14 weeks old, as a frisky, healthy, normal, rambunctious puppy

(from Associated Press, via CNN.com).

Deliberate Imperfection

As a boy I learned that the creators of Navajo blankets purposely weave a flaw into each of their creations

(from metacool). This reminds me of a Persian Flaw. The legend goes that back in the day (though I'm not sure what day it was), Persian rug makers were deeply religious and believed that only God could make something perfect. Therefore, in their humility before God, they would deliberately incorporate a small error, a flaw, into each rug. Thus a Persian Flaw revealed the rug maker's devotion to God. I imagine the rug buyer could/might share this sentiment. It also works as a hat tip to how we are all human and imperfect.

Fun Flash: Colour Perception

Family Friendly color perception flash thingy. A little mind blowing.

Fake News: Annan Says Egypt Blasts Violate Kyoto Protocols

Although the United Nations lacks a consensus definition of 'terrorism' and has no substantive anti-terror program, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said that yesterday's bombings in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, that killed more than 85 people, may violate the Kyoto protocols on climate change

(from ScrappleFace).

Recent Events

May God bless London, the entire UK, and our nations' enduring kinship

(from IowaHawk).

The Flash Mind Reader

A family-friendly interactive mind reader/number guesser; it's kind of fun (and offline).

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

-Friedrich Engels
(I disagree with much of the rest of what he said.)

Tom Cruise kills Oprah

Family Friendly with fun special effects (Quick-Time file).

PETA Kills Animals

Authorities in Ahoskie, North Carolina dropped a disturbing bombshell yesterday with the news that they had charged two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty. PETA's Andrew Cook and Adria Hinkle were arrested late Wednesday night after police saw them dump bags containing seven dead puppies and 11 other dead animals in a grocery store's dumpster. Their PETA-owned van, seized by police, contained another 13 animal bodies

(from consumerfreedom.com).

Fake News: Tony Blair Ashamed After Winning 3rd Term

British politics and the humour they create. [offline: http://www.scrappleface.com/MT/archives/002185.html ]

Ligers Are Real

Cross breading gone wild, ligers (Lions and Tigers cross bread) and Zebra/Donkeys.
http://www.sierrasafarizoo.com/animals/liger.htm

A Quote About Self-Expression:

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.

-Niels Bohr

Fun Flash: Notepad Invaders

A family friendly Space Invaders-like game set on a sheet of notebook paper.

How People Look at Search Results

A good image of where their eyes look (from Seth Godin's blog).

Interesting Perspective on History

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

-H.G. Wells

Plane vs. Parliament (The Jefferson Parliament Bomber footage)

A PG-13 Quicktime Video promoting an atari video game.

Loving, or Lovish, Things Overheard

No, you don't know me, but we met last night and I'm in love with you.'' (Man on cell phone in Max's Opera Cafe, overheard by Jim Spade.)

(from SF Gate).

What Does the US Postal Service Still Exist?

So what would happen if this 180-year-old trust disappeared tomorrow? Would the US seize up like an engine without oil? Hardly. Better alternatives to the USPS are already here, and plenty of others would emerge

(from Wired.com).

Seems AP May Mean 'All Phoney' (ToyGate?)

The Associated Press may have fallen for a hoax, mistaking an action figure for a hostage.

Fun Flash: Numanuma

Entertaining PG-13 man in headphones lip-sync sings Dragostea Din Tei from the Disco-Zone CD by O-Zone (with other still images interspersed).

Be Grateful - some Warren Buffett advice/observations

Warren [Buffett] spent about an hour talking about how grateful we should all be for the circumstances we were born into and for the generous ticket we've been offered in life. He said that we should not take it for granted or think that it is the product of something we did - we just drew a lucky ticket. (He also pointed out that his skill of "allocating capital" would be useless if he would have been born in poverty in Bangladesh.)

(from Darren Johnson, via Seth Godin).

Rules for failure

Seth Godin points out some of the best ways to fail (which in some way likely apply to any field). Among them the conviction that someone is about to steal your idea and loss of humility and focus on fame (from Science Hobbyist, via Seth's Blog).

How to Sell Anything To Anyone: Make something people want to buy.

Sometimes, salesmanship is overrated. What matters more is real marketing, marketing that involves making the right product, not hyping it

(from Seth Godin).

Fun Flash: Clean Your Screen for Free Now

Nice family-friendly cute flash way to "clean your screen."

Genetic HIV Resistance Deciphered

Throughout the history of the AIDS epidemic, a few lucky people have avoided infection despite being exposed again and again. Now, researchers are traveling back in evolutionary time to understand why some people are resistant - and in some cases virtually immune - to the AIDS virus.

Studies released this week and last year suggest that the roots of AIDS immunity extend back for centuries, long before the disease even existed. Our ethnic backgrounds and the illnesses suffered by our distant ancestors appear to play a crucial role in determining whether our genes will allow HIV to take hold in our bodies

(from Wired.com).