Watch Me Change

I have absolutely no idea what purpose this could possibly serve other than to amuse me for a good 30 hour or so.

Pick the body style, hair, clothes, and then get changed into clothes of your choice, comes with little dance too. Now this is what the internet is for.

http://www.watchmechange.com/

Oh and hardly surprisingly it's by Gap.

Pets - Stoopid Pets

Don't you just love it when pets do really stoopid things? I know I do...

http://www.plsthx.com/Funny_videos/346_Cat_Jump.html

Little Kid Prank

If I had a six year old kid I would probably do something like this, even though it quite obviously scares the shit out of the little fella...

http://www.nothingtodo.co.uk/view.php?id=1337

Breakdancing

This is one of the best break-dancing videos I have seen. And I've seen a few.

http://www.weakgame.com/?show=1894

Drivers

Ah, drivers of the non-male variety are celebrated here.

http://www.gophergas.com/funstuff/womendrivers.htm

Cool College Prank

This is a cool prank, where a guy decides to randomly break out in song in the middle of an ivy-league school lecture.

http://www.kwinkies.com/index.php?mode=blog&id=3490

Ugly Celebrity Babies

Ok, ok, so it's only a bit of fun, but this site gives you a glimpse of what the resulting babies might look like if celebrities mated. I really do think that the mock-up of Kevin Costner/Tori Spelling's potential love child looks an awful lot like Eddie Izzard.


Eddie Izzard


Kevin Costner/Tori Spelling

http://www.iol.ie/~bugscave/mated.htm

Penis Head

No, but really...

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1512361.html

Movie Time

Ruminations

My dog is my best friend, so I didn't mind too much killing all those people when he told me to. What *did* get me upset was the furry little bastard turning me in for the reward.

It would be nice if the Grim Reaper gave 24 hours notice before taking us, allowing enough time to say goodbye and arrange our affairs so we could depart this world in a dignified manner. I'd then be able to rest in peace knowing that my obituary would read, "Local man found barricaded in basement, suffocated inside world's largest recorded bean burrito."

Everyone at work was very surprised when they found out that I smoke. They'll be even more surprised when they find out I only smoke when I drink.

If I were a conquering alien, I'd skip right past New York and Washington, DC, and head straight for Mount Rushmore so I could laser-beam some pimples, earrings and Groucho glasses on the presidents. Nothing like a little humor to win over a hostile crowd.

If I were a talking dog, I'd never speak to anyone -- unless I met someone having a bad acid trip, in which case I'd try to help talk them through it. Then, when they really started to freak out because of the talking dog thing, I'd just laugh and laugh.

Ruminations

Memorable Quotes

"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous, everyone hasn't met me yet."

"The greatest possession you have is the 24 hours directly in front of you."

"Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them."

"If you need a friend, get a dog."

"The 1961 Ferrari, two-fifty GT California. Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion...It is his fault he didn't lock the garage."

"The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing. Only a person who risks is free."

"You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is."

"Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac."

"Every man dies. Not every man really lives."

"Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they're eating sandwiches."

"Did you ever walk in a room and forget why you walked in? I think that's how dogs spend their lives."

"Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?"

"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy."

"To alcohol, the nights that you’ll never remember, with the friends you’ll never forget!"

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

"There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past."

"A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking."

"I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything."

"There's very little advice in men's magazines, because men don't think there's a lot they don't know. Women do. Women want to learn. Men think, "I know what I'm doing, just show me somebody naked."

Google Globe Trotting

What a brilliant idea.

http://googleglobetrotting.com/

Condoms

This is what you're going to get...

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=wnBC7qV4u1g

Tequila

Here's a great website I found giving lots of useful and interesting information about tequila. He even has a little pocket guide that will help you decode the complexities of buying good tequila.

http://www.ianchadwick.com/tequila/

And whilst wondering where on earth I could buy good tequila in the uk I found this site, from where you can purchase a whole host of premium brands (at premium prices though)

http://www.thedrinkshop.com

They sell Casa Noble, Corralejo, El Jimador, Gran Centanario, Patron, Gran Patron (at £188 a bottle), Herencia, Herradura, Jose Cuervo, La Penca, Sauze, and Tarantula. Buy me one of each and I'll be very happy.

Dulwich, London, UK

I was in the East Dulwich Tavern, in Dulwich last night with my friends John and Amy. I went into the toilet, for a slash, and overheard a man on the phone talking to his friend. He asked, "I am in Dulwich, where the fuck are you?"

Surely, more accurately, he should have asked, "I am in Dulwich, where the fuck am I?"

Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Friday August 19, 2005

ephemeral \ih-FEM-er-ul\, adjective:

1. Beginning and ending in a day; existing only, or no longer than, a day; as, an ephemeral flower.
2. Short-lived; existing or continuing for a short time only.

In the 1980s, Lt. Col. Oliver North unwittingly proved that e-mail, so apparently ephemeral, is harder to expunge than paper documents comfortingly run through a shredder.
--Amy Harmon, "E-Mail Is Treacherous. So Why Do We Keep Trusting It?" New York Times, March 26, 2000

In "Mississippi Mermaid," the planter character played by Belmondo, a fellow who has sought a safe, permanent love, is liberated when he chooses to follow the ephemeral.
--Vincent Canby, "Truffaut's Clear-Eyed Quest." New York Times, September 14, 1975

Rather, we must separate what is ephemeral... from the things that are of lasting importance.
--Patrick Smith, Japan: A Reinterpretation

Ephemeral derives from Greek ephemeros, from epi, upon + hemera, day.

Synonyms: passing, short-lived, transient, transitory, fugacious

The House

This is genuinely scary. I didn't make it right to the end. Please let me know if you do.

The House

Walken 2008

Unfortunately Walken2008 was a hoax, damn shame that, but at least we can get the satisfaction of seeing him interview Bush.

Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Thursday August 18, 2005

parley \PAR-lee\, noun:

• A conference or discussion, especially with an enemy, as with
  regard to a truce or other matters.

The government recognized his knack for parleying with tribes, and it sent him all over the West.
--Geoffrey O'Gara, What You See in Clear Water

Whether the Indians came out to parley or, seeing that the fort was about to fall, came out to surrender is unclear.
--Willard Sterne Randall, George Washington: A Life

In case of Servia's non-compliance with the ultimatum the army will invade the kingdom without further parley.
--"Austria Ready to Invade Servia, Sends Ultimatum," New York Times, July 24, 1914

Parley comes from Old French parlée, from parler, "to speak," from Medieval Latin parabolare, from Late Latin parabola, "a proverb, a parable, a similitude," from Greek parabole, "a comparison, a placing beside," from paraballein, "to throw beside, hence to compare," from para-, "beside" + ballein, "to throw."

Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Wednesday August 17, 2005

dilatory \DIL-uh-tor-ee\, adjective:

1. Tending to put off what ought to be done at once; given to
   procrastination.
2. Marked by procrastination or delay; intended to cause
   delay; -- said of actions or measures.

I am inclined to be dilatory, and if I had not enjoyed extraordinary luck in life and love I might have been living with my mother at that very moment, doing nothing.
--Carroll O'Connor, I Think I'm Outta Here

And what is a slumlord? He is not a man who own expensive property in fashionable neighborhoods, but one who owns only rundown property in the slums, where the rents are lowest and the where the payment is most dilatory, erratic and undependable.
--Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

Dilatory is from Latin dilatorius, from dilator, "a dilatory person, a loiterer," from dilatus, past participle of differre, "to delay, to put off," from dis-, "apart, in different directions" + ferre, "to carry."

Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Tuesday August 16, 2005

numinous \NOO-min-uhs; NYOO-\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to a numen; supernatural.
2. Indicating or suggesting the presence of a god; divine; holy.
3. Inspiring awe and reverence; spiritual.

Smoking is a ritual, and it has all the numinous force of a ritual.
--Thomas W. Laqueur, The New Republic, September 18, 1995

All Quests are concerned with some numinous Object, the Waters of Life, the Grail, buried treasure, etc.
--W. H. Auden, "Secular Hobbitism" review of The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien, New York Times

Our culture is not much concerned with the numinous, but in language we preserve many of the marks of a culture that is.
--Richard Mitchell, Less Than Words Can Say

My sense of the numinous is generally keenest upstate, in the fields and forest that surround my old schoolhouse.
--Winifred Gallagher, Working on God

Numinous is from Latin numen, literally a "nod of the head" (as in giving a command), hence "divine power."

Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Monday August 15, 2005

enmity \EN-mih-tee\, noun:

• Hatred; ill will; hostile or unfriendly disposition.

I learned, of course,... that the flames of infatuation can quickly become ashes of enmity and contempt.
--Kathleen Norris, The Virgin of Bennington

In the course of our conversation he reverted to yesterday's aphorism about it being our joint task to guide our two peoples out of their old enmity into new amity.
--Charles Kessler (editor and translator), Berlin in Lights

There were also always those I rubbed the wrong way (sometimes to the point of outright enmity) by being too brash or too arrogant or too ambitious or too precociously successful -- or by not being inhibited or tactful enough to refrain from writing about my career.
--Norman Podhoretz, Ex-Friends

Enmity derives from Old French enemistié, ultimately from Latin inimicus, "an enemy," from in-, "not" + amicus, "friend," from amare, "to love."

Synonyms: animosity, antipathy, hostility, rancor.

Who says baseball isn't dangerous?

Mike Cameron and Carlos Beltran are outfielders for the NY Mets. Last night, they really "met" each other.

Update:

Cameron broke his nose, had multiple fractures of both cheekbones and a slight concussion.

Oral Histories From Sept. 11

Oral Histories From Sept. 11 Compiled by the New York Fire Department - The New York Times

A rich vein of city records from Sept. 11, including more than 12,000 pages of oral histories rendered in the voices of 503 firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians, were made public on Aug. 12. The New York Times has published all of them.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html

Transporter 2

I know someone who's going to like this.

Ayds

This is for all those people I have been telling, and who didn't believe me, about a 1970s weightloss/slimming product called Ayds.

See, I wasn't just dreaming it.

http://www.luckykazoo.com/media/2005/08/lose-weight-with-aids.html

Egg Babies

"The Egg Babies are individually hand sculpted in polymer clay. The babies range in size from 2 to 5 inches.

The eggshell underscores the fragility of the life of a baby in the womb."

Oh god and I just ate breakfast, bleuch!

http://www3.telus.net/camilleallen/camilleallen/id9.htm

Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Sunday August 14, 2005

pari passu \PAIR-ih-PASS-oo\, adverb:

• At an equal pace or rate.

Expand the state and [its] destructive capacity necessarily expands too, pari passu.
--Paul Johnson, Modern Times: The World From the Twenties to the Eighties

Independent hedge funds can sell their holdings in a stock all at once, but if a hedge fund is part of a mutual fund company, it generally must sell pari passu... with the company's mutual funds that hold the same stock, constraining flexibility.
--Geraldine Fabrikant, "Should You Bristle at These Hedges?" New York Times, November 8, 1998

Pari passu literally means "with equal step," from Latin pari, ablative of par, "equal" + passu, ablative of passus, "step."

Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Saturday August 13, 2005

tryst \TRIST; TRYST\, noun:

• An appointment (as between lovers) to meet; also, an appointed
  place or time of meeting.
• intransitive verb: To mutually agree to meet at a certain place; to keep a tryst.

And it bothers me that I begin to worry if she's planning a tryst with my handsome neighbour.
--Anita Nair, The Better Man

Having left a "Dear John" letter for her husband on the kitchen table, she set off to the airport, where she waited, and waited. Of course, Henry had entirely forgotten
about the tryst, and she had to return home crestfallen.
--"The serial seducer who took Amis's wife," Times (London), May 17, 2000

Once Nick goes into the kitchen to tryst with Martha, it is Ms. Kurtz's turn to let loose with some fireworks.
--Frank Rich, Hot Seat

Scientists are hoping the cosmos will bear witness to a romantic rendezvous today as a spacecraft attempts a Valentine's Day "tryst" with an asteroid called Eros.
--Nigel Hawkes, "Eros beckons spacecraft for cosmic tryst," Times (London), February 14, 2000

Tryst is from Middle English triste, tryste, "a station to which game was driven (in hunting)," from Old French triste, "a station to which game was driven, a watch post," probably of Scandinavian origin.

Word Of The Day Catch-Up

Word of the Day for Thursday August 11, 2005

nugatory \NOO-guh-tor-ee; NYOO-\, adjective:

1. Trifling; insignificant; inconsequential.
2. Having no force; inoperative; ineffectual.

Tygiel's forte as a historian is his eye for what may appear nugatory or marginal but, when focused upon, illuminates the temper of a given moment.
--Roberto Gonzlez Echevarria, "From Ruth to Rotisserie," New York Times, July 2, 2000

Jacoby's offense was no offense -- or an error so nugatory
as to demand no more than a one-sentence explanation.
--Lance Morrow, "In Boston, a Foolish Consistency of Little Minds," Time, July 19, 2000

Socialism no longer restrains; trade unions do so much less than they did; moral inhibitions over the acquisition and display of wealth are nugatory.
--John Lloyd, "If not socialism, what will persuade the rich willingly to pay more taxes to help the poor and preserve a decent society?" New Statesman, August 2, 1996

Nugatory comes from Latin nugatorius, from nugari, "to trifle," from nugae, "jests, trifles."



Word of the Day for Wednesday August 10, 2005

sojourn \SOH-juhrn; so-JURN\,

intransitive verb:

• To stay as a temporary resident; to dwell for a time.

noun:

• A temporary stay.

Though he has sojourned in Southwold, wandered in Walberswick, dabbled in Dunwich, ambled through Aldeburgh and blundered through Blythburgh, Smallweed has never set foot in Orford.
--Smallweed, "The trouble with hope," The Guardian, April 14, 2001

Yet he is now an accomplished student and speaker of English, a literary editor and television producer, someone who has sojourned in Paris and attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
--William H. Gass, "Family and Fable in Galilee," New York Times, April 17, 1988

As chance would have it, Degas's five-month sojourn in New Orleans coincided with an extraordinarily contentious period in the stormy political history of the city.
--Christopher Benfey, Degas in New Orleans

During that long sojourn in Sligo, from 1870 to 1874, he had lessons from a much loved nursemaid, Ellie Connolly; later he received coaching in spelling and dictation from Esther Merrick, a neighbour who lived in the Sexton's house by St John's, and who read him quantities of verse.
--R. F. Foster, W.B. Yeats: A Life

Sojourn comes from Old French sojorner, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin subdiurnare, from Latin sub-, "under, a little over" + Late Latin diurnus, "lasting for a day," from Latin dies, "day."



Word of the Day for Tuesday August 9, 2005

captious \KAP-shuhs\, adjective:

1. Marked by a disposition to find fault or raise objections.
2. Calculated to entrap or confuse, as in an argument.

The most common among those are captious individuals who can find nothing wrong with their own actions but everything wrong with the actions of everybody else.
--"In-Closet Hypocrites," Atlanta Inquirer, August 15, 1998

Mr Bowman had, I think, been keeping Christmas Eve, and was a little inclined to be captious: at least, he was not on foot very early, and to judge from what I could hear, neither men nor maids could do anything to please him.
--M. R. James, The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Stories

Most authors would prefer readers such as Roiphe over captious academic critics.
--Steven Moore, "Old Flames," Washington Post, November 26, 2000

With the imperturbablest bland clearness, he, for five hours long, keeps answering the incessant volley of fiery captious questions.
--Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution

Captious is derived from Latin captiosus, "sophistical, captious, insidious," from captio, "a taking, a fallacy, sophism," from capere, "to take, to seize."

Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Friday August 12, 2005

ubiquitous \yoo-BIK-wih-tuhs\, adjective:

• Existing or being everywhere, or in all places, at the same time.

In spite of the ubiquitous beggars, gypsies and 'naked urchins', Skopje was an attractive town in the early part of the century.
--Anne Sebba, Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image

Airborne gambling, shopping and videoconferencing may all be ubiquitous in the future.
--Peter H. Lewis, "The Cybercompanion," New York Times, February 7, 1999

Adding to my perplexity, this lack of clarity even appeared evident among the best and brightest sociologists, historians, literary scholars, art historians, those
working in cultural studies, American Studies, and journalism; the problem looked to be ubiquitous.
--Michael Kammen, American Culture, American Tastes

Before Tarzan, nobody understood just how big, how ubiquitous, how marketable a star could be.
--John Taliaferro, Tarzan Forever

Ubiquitous derives, via French, from Latin ubique, "everywhere," from ubi, "where." The noun form is ubiquity.

Bush

The U.S. Postal Service created a stamp earlier this year with a picture of President Bush to honor his achievements while in office. However, it was found that the stamp was not sticking to envelopes. A commission to determine the reason for the defect was formed.

After thorough testing, the commission published the following findings:

1. The stamp was found to be in perfect order.
2. There was nothing wrong with the adhesive.
3. People were just spitting on the wrong side.

U.N. agency urges Iran to stop nuclear activities

VIENNA, Austria (CNN) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors passed a resolution Thursday asking Iran to suspend its nuclear activities, according to a Western diplomat at the meeting in Austria.

The resolution was "somewhat amended from its original form, which expressed "serious concern" about the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. CNN is awaiting a copy of the new resolution to compare it to the old.

The resolution -- written by France, Britain and Germany -- urges Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities, including uranium conversion activities at its Isfahan plant.

Those activities were restarted Wednesday after Iran removed IAEA seals on its nuclear equipment there.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/08/11/iran.iaea/index.html

Iran in nuclear sanctions warning

Iran has warned it would be a "grave miscalculation" for the US and EU to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme.

The warning came after Iran broke UN seals at its nuclear plant at Isfahan, making it fully operational.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on European Union countries to continue dialogue with Iran.

EU countries have proposed a resolution to the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna calling for Iran to halt work.

But Iran's chief negotiator at the talks there said Tehran had an absolute right to produce nuclear fuel.

The Isfahan plant is Iran's main uranium conversion facility.

Conversion is an early stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, turning raw uranium - known as yellowcake - into the feedstock for enriched uranium.

Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel, while further enrichment makes it suitable for use in atomic weapons.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4140258.stm

Pakistan and India, Rattling Sabres Again

Actually it seems that Pakistan is doing the rattling this time.

"Pakistan says it has fired its first cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads.

The Babur missile has a range of 500km (310miles), a military spokesman said.

The launch comes days after Pakistan and neighbouring rival India agreed to give each other advance notice of future nuclear missile tests.

India had not been informed about Thursday's test because the agreement did not cover the type of missile fired on Thursday, the spokesman said.

The agreement "does not cover pre-notification of cruise missile tests," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Naeem Khan told Associated Press.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4140692.stm

Whoopee Cushion Bomb

AUSTRALIA: A bus driver sparked a major alert after finding a 'suspicious parcel' but it turned out to be a whoopee cushion

He became concerned after spotting the package on the rear seat of his bus as he came to the end of his route in Sydney

He noticed it made a popping sound when touched and, fearing it could be an explosive device, called police.

"It was an unattended item, emitting a popping sound. Just as a precaution we investigated. It's a whoopee cushion," police said.

Source: London Metro