Pixels

Really, really cool.

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Kvick Tänkare

Nice video about the war on drugs (h/t daily dish)

The reliability/credibility ratings most intelligence personnel use in the U.S. is bunk and information to that effect has been known since 1975.

I want one….now!  And please don’t burst my bubble by telling me how impractical it is.

I have no idea what this game will be but the promo video has a 1984 feel to it and I’m a sucker for distopian entertainment….

Yesterday the Swedes officially ended conscription and are now converting to an all volunteer force.

Machine teaches men what it feels like to menstruate.  And why would I want to know that?  I also don’t know what it feels like to have hemorrhagic fever, is some knucklehead going to make a simulator for that too?

Kvick Tänkare

Michael Roberto thinks about the BP oil spill and talks about the characteristics of catastrophic failure in organizations.

If soccer (uh..football) was actually like this you couldn’t rip me away from the TV screen

Ah…nothing like a little xenophobia to demonstrate to the world that we’re the bestest, greatest, most perfect nation god ever gave the earth…(h/t Balko)

At one point, a portion of the crowd menacingly surrounded two Egyptian men who were speaking Arabic and were thought to be Muslims.

“Go home,” several shouted from the crowd.

“Get out,” others shouted.

In fact, the two men – Joseph Nassralla and Karam El Masry — were not Muslims at all. They turned out to be Egyptian Coptic Christians who work for a California-based Christian satellite TV station called “The Way.” Both said they had come to protest the mosque.

“I’m a Christian,” Nassralla shouted to the crowd, his eyes bulging and beads of sweat rolling down his face.

(uh…for normal people – well, as much as normal people would be part of an angry mob – this would be a big OOOPS moment with shamed faces to spare.  Not this group of winners, though…twshiloh)

But it was no use. The protesters had become so angry at what they thought were Muslims that New York City police officers had to rush in and pull Nassralla and El Masry to safety.

“I flew nine hours in an airplane to come here,” a frustrated Nassralla said afterward.

(Because it’s not really about religion, is it?  It’s about THEM.  They’re coming to get you Barbara.  What a bunch of douches.  Of course, you could say that since the Egyptians were there to protest the very same thing they were just getting their karmic rewards…)

This past weekend I just about got my ass kicked by a beholder.  If that sentence makes any sense to you at you, you can read the session report here.

Here’s a poster for that IT geek in your life…

Military / Swedish time waster of the day

Hey, it’s Friday.  What not waste a bit of time seeing if you’ve got what it takes upstairs to be a Swedish officer.

Here’s a test (based on the Swedish recruitment tests) in English.  The program kept freezing up at the end for me but it was pretty fun.  I enjoyed the background noise to give you the feeling that you’re in a classroom…And great proctor…

Am I the only person to have missed this?

Too bad it came too late for the War of the Worlds live blogging on Halloween.

Not a bad deal…the guy made this movie for $300 and parleyed it into a $30 million deal.  That’s Uruguayan ingenuity for you…

Holy crap!  Who knew the Uruguayans could rock?!  I’d actually put this song in my rotation.

(Can you call it a music video when it’s just about the same length as the movie?)

A little comedy

If you aren’t familiar with Monty Python and their ‘Dead Parrot Sketch‘ I’m not sure we can be considered to be of the same species but…

Important news was announced recently when the ancestor of that sketch was found among jokes written in 4th Century Greece.  I’m a total sucker for this sort of stuff and so was thrilled to see this link for a ‘virtual book’ which not only discusses the context of the find but also has modern translations of the jokes and video of a British comedian performing some of them in front of an audience.

As another note, check out the technology that underlies this site:  Yudu.

Those Swedes are brilliant

Just when you think you got those Swedes figured out they dazzle you again.

Case in point…Typealyzer.com developed by a Swedish venture which purports to tell you the personality type of the person who wrote a particular blog.  It certainly has some potential for sparking some interesting conversations when comparing various points of view within the blogosphere.

I put this blog in there and came up with:

INTP: The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about.

Now, I find this interesting because earlier in the year I took the Keirsey Personality test and came up with the same assessment:  INTP.

People like me apparently make up only 3-5% of the U.S. population so this blog is really giving you a peek at the inner workings of that small subset of fellow citizens who are interested in not only the significant events of our day but also divining the future from bits of twine and seeking that pith helmet wearing duck that is prophesied to bring the world together in peace and unlimited supplies of skittles candy.  Ok, just kidding about that bit, I’m not that interested in significant events of our day.