Link Hodgepodge

SUPER CUTE story about two male penguins who were given a real egg to raise after zookeepers noticed they were trying to hatch a rock. They subsequently broke up, though.

British humor is amazing.

A lovely German article about our mess

An economics professor from Harvard on why we shouldn't bailout the motherfuckers.

Hoover's 1931 Bank Bailout Failed...

Cold Reboot of the System? Yes, please.

Dorky Metaphors? Hell yeah.

Truths of War

Warning: Very disturbing image

It's Snowing! (On Mars)

For some reason, the idea of it snowing on Mars makes me, and others, very happy. I picture the Phoenix twittering along, on a romantic stroll amide the freshly fallen snow. However, the water-snow hasn't actually reached the ground yet, and carbon dioxide snow will supposedly be the death of the poor rover, whose solar panels weren't built to withstand the weight.

The gif above depicts water-clouds moving across the sky. Below is a picture the rover took of itself! And also, the rover moved that rock there into that trench there! So cute! (I don't know why it is cute, but it is)




You can also check out some pictures of soil on the Phoenix website, which are pretty cool. It has discovered that there maybe be calcium carbonate in the soil, as well as clay. Both of these things suggest that the soil had interacted with water in the past!

According to that latest news release, Phoenix will also try turning on its microphone soon and take a listen to Mars! (It will probably sound lonely)

Birdie & Science Images

Birdie captured by a webcam!

Here are also National Geographic's Best Science images for 2008

Brain-exert

Some thought-provoking articles:

Nietzsche on Christianity I mean to read some Nietzsche. I understand there is some connotation about him among people, but I don't know what it is. Just that its there. On the subject of religion in general, I am sort of confused about the whole thing right now. I am having troubles distinguishing between what I would like to be true and what I actually believe. I mean, who doesn't like the idea of heaven? I don't want to be annihilated when I die. Does that mean I believe in heaven? Probably not. It's sort of a silly idea, unfortunately. Nice, but silly. Like unicorns and pegasuses, and dragons. I think a general difficulty with people and religion is this distinction between what we would like to believe and what we actually believe. There is a difference. I think it's a right brain/ left brain thing. People generally act on right brain impulses, so maybe that's what really matters?

Jonathan Haidt on why people vote Republican This is a long article, but I suggest reading through it. It has suggestions to liberals for appealing to more conservative-minded people through certain values that we don't often talk about. I don't like the article in that it seems obviously calculating, like we should only do this to get votes, instead of just suggesting that we talk about issues differently so that people of a different mind understand us better. Communication over calculation.

My synopsis of what we are missing:
ingroup/loyalty value: We pursue social justice because everyone has a right to be an American, to pursue the American dream (instead of it only being the right thing to do). We want to include everyone! Coherence to maintaining the American dream.
purity/sanctity value: We must overcome our base materialistic desires and promote reverence of Nature
authority/respect: We will maintain order by promoting personal responsibility and respect for the rules. Be hard on those who misuse the system for personal benefit.

The author also has a website where you can test which parts of the "moral spectra" are important to you. I am apparently more liberal than the average liberal on situations concerning harm and fairness. And slightly more conservative than the average liberal on issues of loyalty and authority. Run of the mill liberal on the purity scale. Perhaps it is best for all of you if you take the test before you weave your way through the article, just the hypotheses don't affect your answers.

Feel free to discuss any of this in the comments!

Amazing

Methane release from permafrost BAD.... Also, viruses.

I know I've said it before.... But we are SO SCREWED.

Now we have methane being released from beneath melting permafrost in the arctic regions. Fuck. Positive feedback loop is right. Apparently methane is 20x more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, and even though it only lasts in our atmosphere for 12 years (short), its release will just increase our temp more rapidly, leading to more methane release, etc. From the article: "Scientists believe that similar releases of methane in the past, so called "methane burps", have caused rapid and severe increases in global temperatures, dramatic climate change and mass extinctions." SHIT.

Sigh. Did I mention that we are going to have to relocate all the coastal cities. The entire state of Florida is only a few dozen feet above sea level. Just imagine the SHIT SHOW that would result from New York flooding. They already have pumps going on there around the clock to keep the subways clear. Does everyone realize the problem here?



My friend Amy reminds me that there will probably be some sort of plague-like disease spreading in the near-ish future anyway, what with all the increasing population density and whatnot. Bird flu ain't gone, people, and viruses are bitches. Undead. That's what I call them. You remember that next time you have a cold. There are viruses MUTATING inside you. And they're not even alive.

In fact... I might even say the existence of viruses is a strong argument against intellectual design and creationism. How do you like that?

Best Shit Ever

Spoof on the New Yorker cover. Colbert is looking very cheeky here. If you don't know what this refers to, ask anyone off the street.

We're going to be 40% over-budget this year.

I just learned there was Earth Overshoot Day on Sept 23. This unfortunate day marks the day in the year where we have used up one year's worth of resources and are now barreling forward unsustainably. We are over-budget.

This is a good concept and should be better publicized. I think it is calculated simply, averaging energy use over the 365 days of the year. It would be interesting if they weighted it towards seasonal energy costs, and see how much it changes.

I don't understand why people aren't more aware that we really are going to crash this century. There are limits to growth.

The Birthplace of the Progressive Movement

Apparently, Wisconsin lays claim that it was the birthplace of the Progressive Movement. If true, it would be another source of pride of mine for my birth state. Obama mentioned it at a rally in Green Bay on Monday, and I thought I would check out if it was true!

The big guy in the Wisconsin progressive movement was Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette, who was a governor and senator in the early 20th century. He and the chancellor of UW forged the Wisconsin Idea, which means that the University would be instrumental in forging policies and improving the lives of everyone around the state. Professors at UW were involved in much of the legislature that the Progressive movement is based on. (Even though the University still upholds the Wisconsin Idea, they do so only in the sense that "the boundaries of the University are the boundaries of the state." I think the profs should be involved in the legislature again!) Unfortunately, it seems as though we are fighting for the same things now as they were a century ago. Not much in the way of progress. In any case, La Follette was tied for first in a 1982 historian's survey for the Greatest Senators in American History. I'm sure he's still up there somewhere, 16 years later.

SO. Is Wisconsin the birthplace of the Progressive Movement? Might as well be. Perhaps if people realized this, they wouldn't lump us all as backwards hicks. When people say something like that to me along those lines, I say, "Have you ever BEEN to Madison?!" Srsly.

Some excellent quotes by Robert La Follette, which can still be applied today:

* "The will of the people shall be the law of the land."

* "In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparation for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war."

* "The purpose of this ridiculous campaign is to throw the country into a state of sheer terror, to change public opinion, to stifle criticism, and suppress discussion. People are being unlawfully arrested, thrown into jail, held incommunicado for days, only to be eventually discharged without ever having been taken into court, because they have committed no crime. But more than this, if every preparation for war can be made the excuse for destroying free speech and a free press and the right of the people to assemble together for peaceful discussion, then we may well despair of ever again finding ourselves for a long period in a state of peace. The destruction of rights now occurring will be pointed to then as precedents for a still further invasion of the rights of the citizen."

* "America is not made, it is in the making. Mere passive citizenship is not enough. Men must be aggressive for what is right if government is to be saved from those who are aggressive for what is wrong."

ON WISCONSIN!

I'm a PC.

Finally, a good PC commercial. I actually recently read someone mention something like this, I thought he said they SHOULD make a commercial like this, but maybe he meant that they already had. They should really air it.

I'll go so far as to say that Apple is Big Brother. Take that!

YEAH!!!

Yay! Made some bottlecap earrings this weekend!!!



You can also see the bottlecap earring makeing workplace! I really need a table, guys. A rough and tumble table that I can bolt a vise-grip to. Ha! Not to mention eat at, maybe...

YAY! So, I don't remember when I got the idea... Today maybe? Yesterday? Last week? ANYWAY! Shiny Obama logo on a sweatshirt! Fuck yeah! Made it tonight!

The Chronophage: Eatin' Time Away

This is Some Clock. It is the Corpus Clock and was revealed on the 19th.



The Chronophage is especially awesome. I'm going to apply my newly favorite word "steampunk" to it.

Aw! They are friends!

THIS is so cute!

DOOM N GLOOM: Updated

Images are world population density and energy use & sources. Notice the population density and energy use are not very well correlated. My blog has been updated with dreary colors. I was going to make a doom n gloom themed banner, but we will see.

I'm sorry, folks. Life as we know it is unsustainable. We are all screwed. There will be a crash and there is nothing we can do about it.

Fortunately, we can somewhat soften the blow. We in America will probably not be as affected as those in poorer countries. Why? Because we are an affluent bunch of sons-o'-bitches. WE have 5% of the world's population. WE consume 25% of the world's energy. If India and China decide to adopt our reckless "standard" of living, we will supposedly need the natural resources of 6 earths. So there.

As I said, there will be a crash. Exponential growth of ANYTHING cannot be maintained. There is a crash and a stabilization. Millions (read billions) of people will die of thirst or starve. People are estimating that the holding capacity of the Earth is roughly 4 billion people. We will probably crash to below that level initially before stabling out.

There are some trends that lead us up to this that have compounded our problems. As the population grew, technology grew, our energy needs grew, carbon emissions grew, the earth's temperature grew. The current great extinction event began and will accelerate. The seas will rise. The coastal cities will need to be TRANSPLANTED. There will be a mass exodus north as all of our arable lands will dry up. We are basically releasing millions of years of accumulated solar energy into our atmosphere by burning oil, of course it's going to heat up around here.

I learned all this from a seminar speaker, Jonathan Trent, who works at Ames at NASA right now and is being funded by a couple Google grants. He said it was up to the young people, who are just forming their lives and deciding what to do with them, to ultimately fix this problem. He says we need to be inspired, motivated, to enter science and engineering to fix this problem. A Second Apollo, as they (the old people) like to call it. I say, good luck, because young people these days are SOOOOO self-absorbed. Look at me, for instance. I think I'm special enough where someone would actually want to listen to what I have to say. Nothing more self-glorifying than a blog. You're never going to be able to convince young people to take up a challenge when they can take the easy way out and do what the generations have done before them. Apparently challenges were alluring in the 60s. I say, the sheer magnitude of this problem is a deterrent in itself.

There is more I will talk about later, so check back for updates. It's not all so gloomy, there's some cool science.

OK, COOL SCIENCE:
Let me start out by saying that this was a very knowledgeable man, Jonathan Trent. He was trying to inspire us. And the science was inspiring. The impending doom that makes it necessary was too much for my nihilistic worldview that day. He talked about a 17-year-old student of his who had very interesting things to say and I will make a small effort to discover her.

Transportation: Personal rapid transit. This would be used in addition to the current road/car system for people doing regular travel, like commuting. It involves ultralight personal "pods" that would seat 1-4 people, and they would run on a magnetic track elevated above the road. You would go to a station, get in one, tell it where to go, and it would take you there without slowing down the other pods. This is better than trains or buses because you don't have to stop when other people want to get off. It would use longish on and off ramps to achieve this. A swedish version has the pods descend from the magnetic track to become electric cars. That seems like a more expensive alternative for the consumer. There are apparently lots of people interested in developing it, but no one wants to be the first one, so Ames is going to be building a test track so they can "kick the tires." Apparently this idea has been floating around for a while, but there are a lot of companies now, here and internationally, that are developing the technology. Seems like a good idea to me. Like a rollercoaster!

Biofuels: Nanotech & Algae approach for aviation fuels (No more organic fuels for cars, sorry)
Nanotech! He's talking about using cellulose, cuz theres tons of waste cellulose from our current industries. The problem is breaking down the cellulose into something useful. He suggest that we start viewing biomolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, as building materials, much like engineers view trees. Engineers don't care about studying trees, they just want to build shit out of them. He is currently, in his lab, developing a sort of protein swiss army knife approach where a bunch of different enzymes from a cellulose-chewing anaerobic bacteria are combined onto a larger protein scaffold. The efficiency of the process greatly improves in this sort of configuration rather than all of the enzymes freely diffusing in solution. And then we would grow up tons of this shit and use it to make ethanol? I think.

Algae: Algae makes 10,000 gal of oil/ acre. Most of the oil reserves we are drilling for are really giant seas of dead ancient algae. Water treatment plants alone make lots of algae. He is trying to grow freshwater algae in giant bags in the ocean, tethered to windmills in wind fields (If the bags break, the algae die and no cleanup problem!). The windmills power lights, whatever, for the algae. He's trying to set up a deal with people in Denmark right now where they have these massive offshore windfarms. Apparently Denmark has made windmills feasible by selling a share of the windmill to people who are willing to let them be on their land. So instead of being ugly and annoying, the people hear "cha-ching!" everytime the windmill goes around. I think this sounds like a really cool project. Go Algae!

And then he talked about how we need to see going green not as a chore, but as a mindset, a way of life. That we need to tackle this because it's hard. How decentralized energy is the way to go, and people from all sides of the political spectrum (except the energy companies) have come to this conclusion for different reasons. He talked about how some people think we should have been going nuclear this whole time, because nuclear waste is a better problem than a major city being without electricity for any length of time. Stone age, man. People don't want to invest in this sort of thing now because they think it's too expensive, but how expensive is it going to be to have to physically relocate a major coastal city?

Anyway, the point of all this isn't to save the world. It's to soften the blow, and to assure that whatever population survives, they can have a sort of enjoyable lifestyle instead of returning to the stone age. Anyone who knows my penchant for the post-apocalyptic movies knows that I don't really think that would be so bad.

Cats Don't Care!

:D

Also,

ATTN: B12 Info for Vegs

SO. There are rumors on the internet about vegetarian/veganism causing brain shrinkage as a result of vitamin B12 deficiency. I thought I would do my own research and address these issues.

First off, the people in the study were OLD. Second, people have known about these sorts of neurological problems from B12 deficiency for a while. Old Hat. I suppose this is news now because they proved people who have less vit B12 levels actually sustain more brain shrinkage with age. More importantly, this is causing concern for the current recommended daily intake, since all the people in the study were within the "normal levels."

So, what is Vitamin B12? It happens to be the most complex of all the vitamins, and it is only produced by bacteria. Meat-eaters get their intake of V B12 from meat, obviously. We're not going to talk about those sources, though. It turns out people have 2000-5000 ug of B12 stored up in their livers already, and only through years of reduced intake, can develop a B12 deficiency. Most "B12 deficiencies" are actually folic acid deficiencies, which is produced from B12 by the body. Both are B vitamins, in any case. So, anyway, if you are worried you are not eating enough B12, you are probably fine because you probably still have some of your stores intact. A B12-only deficiency only affects a few enzymes indirectly, one of which is responsible for production of neurotransmitters. For this reason, depression can result from B12 deficiency.

Adults need 3 ug/day of vitamin B12 (or so they have said). Many ovo-lacto vegetarians get this from their intake of dairy, eggs, and fortified sources. Milk has a significant amount of B12, but eggs are controversial because they contain a factor that disrupts uptake (or so I hear). Cheeses are sadly not very B12 rich. Pescatarians can gets LOADs of B12 from various mollusks and fishes (I suggest looking at Seafood Watch to choose the most environmentally friendly ones). Vegans need to get their B12 from fortified sources, such as various breakfast cereals (usually the healthy fiber-y ones, but some yummy ones are also ok). Fortified soy products are also available, such as soy milk. The B12-substitute in fortified sources is cyanocobalamin, which is actually just B12 collected from commercial bacteria producing places with a -CN group attached. The body can use this beautifully. Sadly, there are plant sources of B12, but it is not bioavailable for people. Some vegans have tried to prove this otherwise with questionable results. I say, eating spirulina, seaweed, or other algae is not going to cut it.

What IIII Suggest (and am going to do) is get B12 from mussels and fortified cereals, and milk (organic, happy cow). Mussels contain like 28 ug of B12. So all you need for a week is a couple servings of mussels and youre covered, because of the whole storage thing. Mussels are better than oysters and clams in their farming methods (even though they have less B12). Oysters and clams still are sustainably farmed, just not so wonderfully so as mussels. Clams and clam juice have a ridiculous amount of B12. Clam chowder is happily also an excellent source. The most fortified cereals, like All-Bran and Total type cereals, have >10 ug B12. Yummy cereals have <10 usually. Which is still fine. You need one serving of fortified milk to get the proper amount of B12. I have ALSO decided that marmite and vegemite are good sources of B12. There is a kiwi in my lab here, and she brought in marmite once, and it was actually quite lovely on toast with melted cheese. I plan on making an effort to find some. Full list of B12-high foods.

NINJA CAT

Best cat ever. I laughed my ass off. It makes me want to try this with Simon.

Aliens?!

Mystery Object!

I say aliens. But only because I really want there to be aliens. And I don't want to think about the actual science involved. Why aren't WE sending light shooting across the galaxy? I guess we're sending radio waves, but how amateur is that? We're not even trying!

SPORE creature!

Just a warning, this will be an exceedingly dorky post.

First off, I'm sure you noticed the lovely new banner. It has been altered to add some dorky elements, inspired in part by hipster-ish show posters. Neon, repetitive elements, also 80s or nerdcore symbols. I like the jellyfish a lot. He's an Apocalyptic jellyfish.

ALRIGHT. I started playing SPORE on Saturday morning. I have been enjoying myself. The cell stage is a nice mindless sort of 2d arcade like adventure. I chose to be an herbivore, so my entire existence consists of eating and running away from animals with big point teeth. I actually had some sweet poison ducts as a cell, so I had a purple haze behind me at all times. Very useful when something is chasing you. I thought the cell stage was very pretty :)

Onto the creature stage! Here is my SPORE page. Unfortunately, it only has pictures of the evolutions during the creature stage, but if you look at the first one, you can imagine what my cell looked like, minus the legs, right? Evolving legs was a sudden process, all of sudden, I got to stick some legs on. It would have been nicer if it was a smoother transition. I have determined that you have the same basic body SHAPE you had as a cell. But that you can contort the spine's length and curvature. You can also remove any elements, so essentially you don't really have to keep traits from your original cell. I chose to, though. My creature's eyes are from the cell stage, and it still has some lovely cilia tails from being a cell that you can't get as a creature. So that's something to think about. ALSO, these pictures are just of my final creature. The site has all of the color changes and different parts I had along the way.

The creature stage was hard. The mean carnivores killed me multiple times. I was mainly a social creature, so I got very good at singing, dancing, charming, and posing my way into allying other nice creatures. Some the animals you can't friend and they just beat up on you. ONE TIME, I had a really dulce ally in my pack in the form of a rouge beastie, and he was tough and he actually killed three attackers, BEFORE he was tragically killed by a bastard epic creature. There are these annoying epic creatures wandering around that are giant and plain mean. ANYWAY. That was sad. I got away though because I also was a decent sprinter. Ha. I finally made my leap into a fully evolved brain by consecutively allying three similarly purple species. So now I have this idea that maybe animals that are the same color as you like you better? Then I made my jump to tribe, and the three of them that I had in my pack became my pets, strangely enough.

Tribe is funny! Look at all the silly things you can dress your creature in! Tribal is better because the regular animals don't attack you anymore and your fellow animals become tribes slowly. Right now, there is only one other tribe besides myself and I figured out how to impress them but haven't quite figured out how to give them presents. Alternatively, I could just attack and kill them, but you should realize by now that I am a pacifist. ANYWAY, its all about collecting food and making babies, I guess. Mating is pretty cute, BTW. In tribal, you don't get to see it anymore, they just pop an egg out of the hut.

OVERALL, I am quite pleased with my creature. I think he's freakin' cute. He sort of reminds me of a trilobite/koala/koopa. And to clarify, he does have two sets of hands off the one elbow. The pincher things and some nice grippers. Not that I ever fought, but I COULD have, pathetically. AND besides LOOKING cute, he also SOUNDS cute. Super Cute. Trills and whistles and birdie like noises, I think because of his bird beak. SO cute.

Ah, Jonny Stewart. On McCain

HILARIOUS


This whole video is funny... But if youre in a crunch, just skip to minute 3. SO FUNNY


There is also a really funny section at the end about small town values and none of the people they show at the RNC could really say what that meant. Whole show here. Especially funny is the blatantly flaming Repub who is against gay marriage. Poor guy's never gonna be happy.

Stick it to the Man!

Hells yeah, Monticello! I'm routing for you

I also enjoy this picture.

Palin: Obama's Foil

This is an excellent piece in both writing and thought by Deepak Chopra about Obama and why Palin has made such ripples lately.

An Excerpt:
"She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and turning negativity into a cause for pride. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.”"

In a lighter note, I will relate this to the sage of ceiling cat vs basement cat, as is told amusingly on this site.

Is Our Planet Doomed?

David Letterman has given in to fatalism. It's whats happening to a lot of us in the face of the blatant ignorance of some of the Republicans. Sigh. It probably is too late, but at least we can try?

Letterman was talking about this because Thomas Friedman was on his show. I had coincidentally listened to a npr with him on it. I think I want to read his book, actually.

Also, I would like to take this moment to remind everyone to stop eating fish, basically. I listened to this npr about bluefin tunas. All the fish are basically screwed. And besides, if we all turned vegetarian/vegan, we would all lose weight and our cholesterol would go down, so seriously, what's to lose?!

A Grim Reality

I just read this article about the Panamanian Frog going extinct, and the author describes why he feels sad about watching a video of a species he knows no longer exists. That each species is a unique expression of life on this planet, that has been shaped by evolution and environment for millions of years. I think this a sort of validation of the intrinsic value of biodiversity that we conservationalists like to talk about because there isn't any fiscal or economic reason for keeping all these species around (Since it's all about money in the world these days).

This makes me wonder why more Bible thumpers aren't environmentalists. If God supposedly created everything AND intelligently designed everything, shouldn't they be upset when a creation of God is lost forever? Shouldn't there be this intrinsic value to every animal because it is an expression of God that He put there? I would like to take this moment to remind everyone that Jesus was a bleeding heart. Why aren't more religious people more concerned about people and things other than themselves and their families? The Religious Right seems like a contradiction to me.

Anyway, all of this is adding to my increasing fatalistic view towards that world that has been developing this week especially. It seems as though there is nothing we can do to stop adding species to the list of the extinct. It's like, we're all going to be Totally Fucked by global warming anyway, it seems like any little thing any one of us tries to do is just dust in the wind.... On the other hand, I suppose the dust in the wind used to be part of something greater, an animal or plant, or Einstein. And so that's positive. Apparently I have to bring it back to chemistry to make myself feel better. There are dinosaurs in my bones! And trilobites!

Holy Shit, Nuclear Apocalypse

So. I was discussing the sad state of the world with someone, and he said he thought the sad state of the world would elevate to just below a catastrophic level, we would save ourselves, repeat. UNLESS... People start bombing each other. The first thing you wonder is if your area is relatively safe from being bombed. Colorado is sort of ok, but we do have military bases here. Madison would get radiation if Chicago is bombed. I say, to the North Woods!

ANYWAY. So I wondered how far away you have to be and found this website. There is a lot of very useful, but also scary information here. Just to summarize, I think you won't die of heat or burns if you are 10 mi out of a 1 MT bomb. HOWEVER, you will get significant radiation exposure. There is a chart of symptoms varying on the level of radiation you receive. The most IMPORTANT thing learned here is that the radiation travels downwind. If you are 50 mi out of ground zero, you can leave immediately, traveling perpendicular to the wind, to sustain the smallest amount of radiation. If you're 200 mi out, the radiation reaches you at about 14 hr. This is all with a 15 mph wind. I assume that if there is no wind, the people around ground zero are even more screwed and the rest of us will be better off. Also, if its raining on you, you are basically screwed and should hide. For a bigger bomb, you would have to run away quicker. Apparently when they dropped a 15 MT bomb, it traveled 320 mi but was only 40 mi wide because of the wind. A knowledge of the wind patterns in the US is useful. ANYWAY. A pleasant thought: Most of the US is contaminated already because of the tests from back in the day. Sigh.

He also says that if a bomb drops in the Middle East, we can expect our food and plants to all be contaminated over here. All I have to say is I am definitely bringing home a dust mask tonight. Also, it occurs to me that having a relatively full tank of gas at all times may be a good idea. Shit. Another thing that occurs to me is that my grandpa was a paranoid schizophrenic and maybe I should be concerned about going down the same road. Personally, I think these are just dangerous times in a sad state of the world and we need to be prepared! I'll probably be over it tomorrow, but for today, I am FREAKED OUT.

Elephants :)

Most Famous Elephants! Interesting.

Also some disturbing parts. People are so cruel.

SPORE

SPORE is out!

I have been waiting like 3 years now. And it sneaked by me while I was on vacation!

Here is a review to whet your appetite. Mostly, I don't care what the reviews say. I will probably try to find a torrent of it tonight and THEN I can forget about my quarter life crisis momentarily.

Quarter Life Crisis & STUFF

Good.

I have resumed my suspended quarter-life crisis. Now that grad school has settled down slightly, I can go back to figuring out if I even want to be here. Or what I would want to do if I weren't here. It's all very depressing and I don't really feel like talking about it. Mostly, I want to sit around all day and sigh. Strangely enough, a great trip to Wisco and Chi-town seems to have prompted this. Life is so bi-polar.

BTW, my cousin Katie and Wyatt's wedding was the best wedding EVER. I suppose I will post my door-knocker present process that I made for them. Except I am supposed to go to work, and not be sitting around in a bathrobe blogging (& sighing).

Bunch of Good Things

Awesome


Pretty damn cool


This will only make sense if you know the Disturbed song. Just know this is awesome.

Obama's answers to sciencey questions