September 2008


Inflationary Universe

Offered without comment…

A ten billion dinar note from the last days of Yugoslavia. Tesla appears to be saying “You have no idea what’s really going on” to himself.

tesla10billion.jpg

A quadrillion Zimbabwe dollar check. Apparently the bank prepared for million percent inflation by putting two lines for the sum section.

zimbabwe_quadrillion.jpg

But if there’s one picture that’s representative of 2008: The Year In Money, it’s this:

joker_burningmoney.jpg

links for 2008-09-30

  • "K2, the world's second-highest summit, is the true climber's mountain, more challenging and dangerous than Everest — as the world learned this August, when 11 climbers perished within a span of 30 hours. The inside story of what went wrong"
    (tags: climbing)

links for 2008-09-29

ExDetectives show tonight

We’re playing a free show tonight.

Stroboscopic and The 5th Wall presents a night of music and mayhem at The Unknown Theater from 10pm on Thursday 25th September:

Playing on the main stage will be ExDetectives and Brookline, and in the lounge STANLEYLUCASREVOLUTION will be playing tracks from the new cd ‘Evolutionary Sunset Call’…

The Unknown Theater, 1110 Seward St, Los Angeles, CA 90038

ExDetectives - Unknown Theater

links for 2008-09-23

  • Podcast from the Jodrell Bank Observatory radio telescope. This episode features "The Sounds Of Space" including whistler waves, proton echos, and sounds from Jupiter, pulsars, supernova remnants, and the cosmic microwave background

I should stop listening to this record

XKCD gets all the indie-nerd love, but there is only one internet comic worthy of my RSS reader and that’s Exploding Dog. Case evidence #1, the Aug. 29 comic for “I should stop listening to this record.”

explodingdog_shouldstoplisteningtothis.jpg

links for 2008-09-20

Weishaupt, we have a problem

It’s kinda sad to degenerate from being the world’s largest and most successful conspiracy to needing to hire an inexperienced kid in Knoxville. It’s just so difficult to get good help these days.

When Knoxville Police found 25-year-old Richard Anthony Smith, they say he was trapped in an air duct about 45 feet below the roof of the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Unusual enough.

But it’s what he said next–”Mission failed”–that would launch a tale of intrigue.

With help from the Knoxville Fire Department, officers pulled Smith from the air duct without injury. Then they asked him what he was doing.

A police report indicates Smith said he was a “special agent with the United States Illuminati, badge number 0931.”

His mission?

One from “Director Womack,” to “defuse and confiscate a Soviet-made MERV6SS-22AN warhead, with 14.5 kg of enriched uranium and a plutonium trigger, capable of delivering a 40-kiloton yield.”

Police say Smith believed the device was concealed in a blue, plastic cow sculpture in the basement of the museum.

Smith was the first to tell police he was off-course however–the police report indicates he got a phone call from his “agency” while in the air duct, saying they had made a mistake, as the bomb is supposed to be hidden in a museum in Memphis.

“Thank goodness he had a cell phone and was able to call 911 and got out without getting injured, because it could have turned out much worse,” said KMA Executive Director David Butler.

“You know everyone is laughing about it, and obviously concerned about this guy and his well being, and it was a serious situation, and we had to handle it as such,” said KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk.

The police report indicates Smith said he rappeled onto the roof from a CH2 Huey, but police believe he stood on an ash tray to get onto the stepped-design portion of the roof.

Smith called 911 himself, just before 4:30 Wednesday morning. He faces a charge of aggravated burglary.

Spore again

After a couple more lunch hours of gameplay I’ve hit the tribal stage and things turn into a entirely different game. Nearest I can figure is that you need to throw away any strategy you might have from years of playing Civilization. It won’t work - just kill your neighbors.

Meanwhile, my Godzilla knockoff now has big arms.

Spore

Spore 2008-09-17

Yes I’ve been playing Spore during lunch. These guys are the end result of a half-hour or so of swimming and eating.

My Spore online account is “quartzcity” unsurprisingly.

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