I have to say, looking at these CT images of professional eaters’ stomachs, I don’t believe it. It just doesn’t seem physiologically possible.
I mean, all those other organs have to go somewhere, you know?
It’s not a tumor!
Mario in 3-D
I started (and finished) Super Paper Mario over the weekend.
Review: not as engrossing or interesting as Zelda: Twilight Princess, but still fun. No real head-scratcher-type puzzles; everything was fairly plainly laid-out. I had a feeling there was a lot of non-plot stuff I could do, but unlike with Zelda, I didn’t really have any desire to do it. There’s also lots of pointless blathering among characters.
Still good, though. Took me about 17 hours, so a good way to kill a heavy weekend or light week.
This obit is rated PG
So… Jack Valenti’s dead.
I thought it would be fun to run a “Jack Valenti Is Dead” promotion here at the Video Vault— a select list of NC-17 and would-be-NC-17-if-they-weren’t-unrated movies are a dollar off.
We also discounted a bunch of movies that were rated NC-17 upon first submission, but forced to be resubmitted for an R rating.
(Update: Errr… not anymore. PSA’s GM nixed the idea, even after I edited the flyer. I pointed out the irony and then let it drop.)
Of course This Film Is Not Yet Rated (which I highly recommend) is discounted; click below for the rest of the list.
Infrequently engraved
Here’s a surprise— not only is the VA allowing the Wiccan pentacle to be put on official headstones, but the UU chalice and symbols for humanism and atheism are on the list too.
Though one has to wonder how frequently those are used— probably only slightly more UU soldiers than Quaker soldiers.
“But I am here.”
An atheist VT professor responds to some especially vapid comments made by a random paid bloggers.
I know that brutal death can come unannounced into any life, but that we should aspire to look at our approaching death with equanimity, with a sense that it completes a well-walked trail, that it is a privilege to have our stories run through to their proper end. I don’t need to live forever to live once and to live completely. It is precisely because I don’t believe there is an afterlife that I am so horrified by the stabbing and slashing and tattering of so many lives around me this week, the despoliation and ruination of the only thing each of us will ever have.
Wait, what? The clown (the one he’s responding to) is a research fellow at Stanford? Oh, that’s no good.
“Chicken” = “Acid”
It was begging to be done: The 15 Most Outrageous Claims in Pop Music History. (I’m of the opinion that it’s worth trudging through the crap in the article to get to the few gems.)
It’s happened to everyone. You’re driving along listening to the radio when you hear a lyric so mind-bogglingly false that you instinctively swerve directly into a telephone pole, blinded by sheer amazement at the idiotic idea you’ve been asked to accept. Well, we’re not going to take these artists’ claims at face value anymore.
It’s pretty rap-heavy, so the more sensitive should beware, naturally. I’ll have to be on the lookout for notable omissions— can anyone think of any?
Update:
And on that note, A Retort to Carly Simon Regarding Her Charges of Vanity (and other pop song correspondences).
With love from your vain muse,
Mick Jagger or Warren Beatty or Kris Kristofferson or whoever the hell I am
Days turn to Weeks
Huh— I hadn’t heard about this sequel to 28 Days Later.
Has potential, I guess, but it also has potential to blow.
Cashews of mass deliciousness
Just what I needed: a ridiculously funny Onion article regarding Bush’s Refusal To Set Timetable For Withdrawal Of Head From White House Banister.
In recent days, the Bush administration has been attempting to sell a new plan based on a strong forward surge.
“The only way for the president to successfully remove himself from this situation is not to pull his head out of the banister, but to push his whole body through,” White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten said. “We’re asking Congress and the American people to give the commander-in-chief a chance to try this new plan, which involves forcing his shoulders, torso, arms, and legs through that banister.”
Tragedy at Tech
By now, you’ve probably heard about what happened at Virginia Tech.
I don’t think it’s necessary to add a public declaration of grief and shock of my own, but I do feel compelled to point out one comment quoted by the AP that seemed especially inappropriate. Not surprising, I feel, considering the source:
“The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed,” [White House] spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
I wonder if the order of that sentence represents a careless choice of syntax or severely misguided priorities.
Mmm… high ceilings
I just watched the Top Design finale, and now I want a 1700 s.f. loft with big windows. I’m no designer, but I think I’d keep it more open. Who needs silly walls?
(And I’d use some Moser and an Eames lounge chair. And lots of cherry and faux exposed brick and big speakers. But that’s why I’m a nerd and not a designer.)
I watched roughly two episodes of the whole season— the first one and the last one. I got bored, but when I saw what the finale challenge was, I figured I could spare an hour.
