Dinosaurs & Guns: JP4


After all this searching, it turns out there is a God. I just found out today that there’ll be a “Jurassic Park IV”:http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/9638, only in this JP the dinosaurs will be outfitted with guns! I couldn’t even make that up. The basic plot is that the US government has trained these cold-blooded killers to carry artillery. Who thought the “writer’s strike”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike would have any immediate consequences?

A new tactic to avoid DUI charges

http://local.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Stettler,+Canada&ie=UTF8&z=14&iwloc=addr&om=0, just northeast of Calgary and due east of Red Deer, the home of the Advocate newspaper. There hasn't been any independent verification of the underwear-eating technique being effective but unlike bomb-making or knitting on an airplane, you are welcome to try this yourself.

Monkey controls robot with its brain

“Duke University”:http://duke.edu, in conjunction with Japan Science and Technology Agency (“JST”:http://www.jst.go.jp/EN/) have developed a way to translate complex brain signals into slightly less complex computer outputs in order to control a robot. The science is a bit beyond me but it seems pretty simple at a basic level: Monkeys walking on a treadmill produce certain brain waves associated with walking which are measured and then transmitted to a pair of robotic legs that mimic the monkey’s motion. The truly spectacular part of this experiment happened when the experimenters turned off the monkeys treadmill but found a way to keep the monkey thinking about walking. The robot kept going!
What does this mean? Well, for now it might not mean much, but eventually it could mean that people who become paralysed might one day be able to bypass the spine and control prosthetic limbs straight from the brain. This same sort of remote control might also be used for remote control of robots in hazardous work environments or even robotic soldiers, the sky’s the limit.
To learn more, see Duke’s “medical news site”:http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=10218 or watch their video below:

Scientology according to Tom Cruise

I’ve been reading a lot about Scientology lately and I have to say, if you haven’t heard the epic story of the “Space Opera”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_opera_in_Scientology_doctrine, you’re missing out. It turns out that 75 million years ago the cruel dictator “Xenu”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu of the Galactic Confederacy brought billions of Thetans (that’s what we are) to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. That’s how we humans (temporary hosts of Thetans) came to be here. At least, that’s how it is according to L Ron Hubbard and those who’ve chosen to subscribe to his particular version of reality. If you’ve got a spare half hour or so and looking for something to drop your jaw, go and read about “Scientology”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology, its “founder”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard and the “doctrine”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditing_%28Scientology%29 so fiercely defended by people like Tom Cruise.
Speaking of Cruise, there has been a lot of internet tongue wagging going on surrounding his most recent “public defence”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0 of his religion. Before you go all hot and heavy to watch Tom Cruise crack up on camera, I have to warn you that it is VERY boring and aside from using a lot of acronyms (“KSW”:http://www.xenu-directory.net/glossary/glossary_jkl.htm#KSW, “SP”:http://www.xenu-directory.net/glossary/glossary_s.htm#SP, “LRH”:http://www.xenu-directory.net/glossary/glossary_jkl.htm#LRH, etc…) and insisting that Scientologists are THE authorities on the mind, he doesn’t say much. Still, if you insist as I did to see that entire thing, “here it is”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0.
Not wild about watching Tom Cruise ramble on rather crazily about his being the only one to be able to save people? Over at “Perez Hilton”:http://perezhilton.com they have a “dance remix version”:http://perezhilton.com/2008-01-18-the-tom-cruise-scientology-video-the-dance-version that might be more appealing.

Showing some [laptop] skin

It would seem society says all the cool kids are innovators with radical ideas that stand apart from the rest. About a year ago I bought a custom built laptop – not to stand out – but because it was an intelligent decision (a great deal and I could do whatever I wanted with the machine). So far it’s turned out amazing – I’ve upgraded it a couple of times and regularly use it for anything from teaching to gaming to even recording. I’ve had only one little issue with it all this time – the back cover has a little indent where a logo is supposed to go.
Well the time has come for me to the join the rest of you people who ‘want to be different.’ No I’m not listening to indie-emo-punk music. No I’m not subscribing to what the industry says is the unique and cool in laptops and buying a mac.
I’m getting a laptop skin! Turns out it’s rather hard to find them for a reasonable price and with any good designs. After about an hour of putzing around searching for one here’s what I’ve got for all of you:
Get Your Skins.com and DecalGirl.com seem to have the best pre-made selection, as far as I can tell.

Unique Skins.com, however, has a sweet editor that you can use to customize your skin however you want – doing multiple pictures, laying them out however you want, and for laptops of all sizes. Oh and they decorate phones, mp3 players, and gaming consoles too.
If you’re in the market of cool hunting, I’d suggest you go check them out!

Whale hunting… err… researching game

“Whale numbers seem to be decreasing in this area. We need to kill more whales to determine the cause of this decrease.”
That’s the kind of ironic humor that laces “Harpooned”:http://harpooned.org/, the Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator. Playing off of the Japanese insistence that they are only doing innocent research on whales despite continued whale hunting, this game puts you in the captain’s seat of a Japanese “research vessel” collecting whale meat and avoiding protesters. This game is hilarious, and though most of it is covered in the “preview video”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR4KN6EfX6M embedded below, it’s well worth playing yourself.

Previously featured on Duenos:
* “Who the Hell is Pro-whaling?”:http://duenos.net/article/48/who-the-hell-is-pro-whaling

evite.com

Although I’ve only received and never yet sent an “evite”:http://www.evite.com/, I wanted to promote this modern form of getting a party planned and subsequently started. An “evite”:http://www.evite.com/ contains electronic directions, an add-to-calendar or send-to-phone option, easy RSVPing, and other paper saving amenities that our internet savvy generation can appreciate. In short, don’t be a dinosaur, send “evites”:http://www.evite.com/!

Heroes

If you’re not currently a “Heroes”:http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/ fan, then get to it. Since I never have time for regular TV watching, I schedule in large blocks of time where I view a season at once. Instead of waiting to download them all through “bit torrent”:http://www.bittorrent.com/ (Don’t know what bit torrent is? “Start reading”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_%28protocol%29.), you can click this “link”:http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/video/episodes.shtml to see every episode that “GE”:http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GE owned NBC have kindly made available for your viewing.