Father October

could take my confession.

Is that not just a little bit, well, I don’t know…suggestive? It kind of gives me the heeby-jeebies. I mean, it’s a priest. And if I’m not mistaken, they’ve taken a photo of him, trying to make him look almost seductive. Do I need a new pair of contact lenses or is this a fairly accurate assessment?Another point to make note of: there’s not one ugly priest in the bunch. It’s not like they got a shot of some 90-year old priest giving confession, or tried to represent the entire spectrum. These priests are in their prime and they are all fairly or very good-looking.

It's interesting to watch market forces collide with the Catholic Church. What's next Nun's at the Beach? A prime time soap opera? It should be a very interesting decade ahead for the faithful...

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While you're over ther, Andrew seems to be talking himself in to accepting Romney's 1994 pro-gay outreach as a position, while distancing Romney's 2004 miscegenation-based anti-gay works. Seems similar to the benefit-of-the-doubting that lead to his Iraq endorsement. He does have enough intellectual integrity to call mea culpa on that though, so this could correct itself. If only the dems would get over Hillary already and show they are not actual GOP co-dependent enablers, otherwise sane middle-ground folks would stop rationalizing the best of extremely poor choices.

Saving Baby Miriam

This was sent over by a friend. When I read it, I thought of an arguement I had with my son a few years ago about the primary purpose of a soldier.

Playboy, May, 1963

Wow, a scanned in issue of Playboy from the bygone era.. Let's just chalk this up to "changing standards" and "different time, different place". There is actually more nudity on FOX these days.



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And then there are times when I tihnk...

... maybe legalizing drugs isn't such a hot idea afterall. The matter-of-fact tone of this article is pretty amazing. At no point is it mentioned if the police hold the victim on drug charges. Or maybe I missed the point and that's assumed.

He was naked, on crack and in alligator's mouth

...
Mayid's call shortly after 4 a.m. sent four Polk County, Fla., deputies racing to the 2,150-acre lake just outside Lakeland, Fla., where they jumped into the water and wrenched Apgar's arm from the gator's mouth. The 45-year-old victim, who told authorities he'd passed out nude on the shore after smoking crack cocaine, was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.
Later Wednesday, state wildlife authorities trapped and killed a nearly 12-foot-long alligator thought to be the one that attacked Apgar.
...

Full article here

Foot Shoot for Programmers

From a former intern at CertCo (now a successful real-estate tycoon).

--------------------------------------------
> Shoot Yourself in the
> Foot in Any Programming Language
>
> The proliferation of modern programming languages
> (all of which seem to have
> stolen countless features from one another)
> sometimes makes it difficult to
> remember what language you're currently using. This
> guide is offered as a
> public service to help programmers who find
> themselves in such dilemmas.
>
> C
> You shoot yourself in the foot.
>
> C++
> You accidentally create a dozen clones of yourself
> and shoot them all in the
> foot. Providing emergency medical assistance is
> impossible since you can't
> tell which are bitwise copies and which are just
> pointing at others and
> saying, "That's me, over there."
>
> JAVA
> After importing java.awt.right.foot.* and
> java.awt.gun.right.hand.*, and
> writing the classes and methods of those classes
> needed, you've forgotten
> what the hell you're doing.
>
> Ruby
> Your foot is ready to be shot in roughly five
> minutes, but you just can't
> find anywhere to shoot it.
>
> PHP
> You shoot yourself in the foot with a gun made with
> pieces from 300 other
> guns.
>
> ASP.NET
> Find a gun, it falls apart. Put it back together, it
> falls apart again. You
> try using the .GUN Framework, it falls apart. You
> stab yourself in the foot
> instead.
>
> SQL
> SELECT @ammo:=bullet FROM gun WHERE trigger =
> 'PULLED';
> INSERT INTO leg (foot) VALUES (@ammo);
>
> Perl
> You start shooting yourself in the foot, but you
> lose the gun.
>
> Javascript
> YOu've perfected a robust, rich user experience for
> shooting yourself in the
> foot. You then find that bullets are disabled on
> your gun.
>
> CSS
> You shoot your right foot with one hand, then switch
> hands to shoot your
> left foot but you realize that the gun has turned
> into a banana.
>
> FORTRAN
> You shoot yourself in each toe, iteratively, until
> you run out of toes, then
> you read in the next foot and repeat. If you run out
> of bullets, you
> continue anyway because you have no
> exception-handling ability.
>
> Modula2
> After realizing that you can't actually accomplish
> anything in this
> language, you shoot yourself in the head.
>
> COBOL
> Using a COLT 45 HANDGUN, AIM gun at LEG.FOOT, THEN
> place ARM.HAND.FINGER. on
> HANDGUN.TRIGGER and SQUEEZE. THEN return HANDGUN to
> HOLSTER. CHECK whether
> shoelace needs to be retied.
>
> LISP
> You shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the
> gun with which
> you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the
> gun with which
> you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the
> gun with which
> you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the
> gun with which
> you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds ..
>
> BASIC
> Shoot yourself in the foot with a water pistol. On
> big systems, continue
> until entire lower body is waterlogged.
>
> FORTH
> Foot in yourself shoot.
>
> APL
> You shoot yourself in the foot, then spend all day
> figuring out how to do it
> in fewer characters.
>
> Pascal
> The compiler won't let you shoot yourself in the
> foot.
>
> SNOBOL
> If you succeed, shoot yourself in the left foot.
> If you fail, shoot yourself in the right foot.
>
> Concurrent Euclid
> You shoot yourself in somebody else's foot.
>
> HyperTalk
> Put the first bullet of the gun into the foot of the
> left leg of you.
> Answer the result.
>
> Motif
> You spend days writing a UIL description of your
> foot, the trajectory, the
> bullet, and the intricate scrollwork on the ivory
> handles of the gun. When
> you finally get around to pulling the trigger, the
> gun jams.
>
> Unix
> % ls
> foot.c foot.h foot.o toe.c toe.o
> % rm * .o
> rm: .o: No such file or directory
> % ls
> %
>
> Paradox
> Not only can you shoot yourself in the foot, your
> users can too.
>
> Revelation
> You'll be able to shoot yourself in the foot just as
> soon as you figure out
> what all these bullets are for.
>
> Visual Basic
> You'll shoot yourself in the foot, but you'll have
> so much fun doing it that
> you won't care.
>
> Prolog
> You tell your program you want to be shot in the
> foot. The program figures
> out how to do it, but the syntax doesn't allow it to
> explain.
>
> Ada
> After correctly packaging your foot, you attempt to
> concurrently load the
> gun, pull the trigger, scream and shoot yourself in
> the foot. When you try,
> however, you discover that your foot is of the wrong
> type.
>
> Assembly
> You try to shoot yourself in the foot only to
> discover you must first
> reinvent the gun, the bullet, and your foot. After
> that's done, you pull the
> trigger, the gun beeps several times, then crashes.
>
> 370 JCL
> You send your foot down to MIS with a 4000-page
> document explaining how you
> want it to be shot. Three years later, your foot
> comes back deep-fried.
>

From the Kitchens of Hell

Totally and completely edible.

This is for all you serious bakers out there. BE SURE to follow the instructions NOT TO PEEK AHEAD!!! If you do it will spoil the fun. And it IS fun!
- Judith
READ FIRST.....LOOK LATER....IT'S A LOT MORE FUN. Want to be forever eliminated from the guest list? Just take this to your next "pot luck" dinner!!!

Kitty Litter Cake" * ~
This is *no joke*
READ THE INGREDIENTS AND STUFF FIRST AND THEN LOOK AT THE PHOTO...
TRUST ME...

DON'T LOOK AT THE PHOTO FIRST, BUT LAST...?
This is for all you cooks out there looking for something a little different.........?WANT TO HAVE FUN AT A PARTY? PREPARE THIS RECIPE! COMPLETELY EDIBLE,?
BUT YOUR FRIENDS MAY NOT THINK SO!On a recent visit to our veterinarian to get shots for our cat I found this recipe on the waiting room bulletin board. After recovering from hysterical laughter, I obtained a copy from the office staff so my wife could make it, which she refused to do. I took it to work and gave the recipe to a lady at work who loves cats. The pictures below show the results of her work. It doesn't look very nice, but it's actually quite tasty, so I decided to pass it along.
CAKE INGREDIENTS:
1 box spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 box of white cake mix
1 package white sandwich cookies
1 large package vanilla instant pudding mix
A few drops green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls or equivalent
SERVING "DISHES AND UTENSILS"

1 NEW cat-litter box
1 NEW cat-litter box liner
1 NEW pooper scooper
1) Prepare and bake cake mixes, according to directions, in any size pan. Prepare pudding and chill. Crumble cookies in small batches in blender or food processor. Add a few drops of green food coloring to 1 cup of cookie crumbs. Mix with a fork or shake in a jar. Set aside.
2) When cakes are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with half of the remaining cookie crumbs and enough pudding to make the mixture moist but not soggy. Place liner in litter box and pour in mixture.
3) Unwrap 3 Tootsie Rolls and heat in a microwave until soft and pliable. Shape the blunt ends into slightly curved points. Repeat with three more rolls. Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture. Sprinkle remaining white cookie crumbs over the mixture, then scatter green crumbs lightly over top.
4) Heat 5 more Tootsie Rolls until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with crumbs from the litter box. Heat the remaining Tootsie Roll until pliable and hang it over the edge of the box. Place box on a sheet of newspaper and serve with scooper. Enjoy!?
"Kitty Litter Cake"
ANY OF YOU WHO HAVE A HALLOWEEN PARTY TO GO TO NEXT YEAR, THINK ABOUT THIS CAKE.
I KNOW OF SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY MADE IT AND TOOK IT TO WORK. (THEY HAD A GREAT TIME!!)
BE BRAVE!!

Reader Quiz

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Literate Good Citizen
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Fad Reader
Book Snob
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

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Not A Good Week for Glenn Reynolds

2 in one week. First, Andrew Sullivan takes down Glenn for, well basically lying, about Sullivan's definition and use of the work "Christianist".

Now Gregory Djerejian takes him apart point for point on his selective use of quotes and his cherry picking, CYA on Iraq.

Not a good week at Instapundit.

heh, Indeed.

Why do I pick on Glenn? He's an exemplar of a particular type of rationalizing rightwinger that can find a justification for almost anything as long as it protects his aximoatic beliefs. While we all do this to one degree or other, most of us take time to consider, among other things, that we might just be wrong and act accordingly. Glenn seems to be of that breed who thinks that thought is cowerdice and honest re-evaluation is a kind of treason, so seing him backed into a corner is amply entertaining.

non-Calculated Risks

Gravity is a theory just like Relativity and Evolution. I once had a jaw dropping debate with an otherwise smart fellow who somehow thought that Stellar Evolution was related to biological evolution and that both were subject to Darwinian critique.

My Signature Weapon

This seems about right :) (via)

Air Strike You preferred a weapon with 74% power over speed and 85% range over melee.

You use Air Strikes. Fighting? Fighting is for idiots! All you have to do is make a quick walkie-talkie call and have the ground ahead of you carpeted with explosive charges. Your enemies will be searching frantically for refuge as you chuckle from afar.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on power You scored higher than 99% on range

Link: The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Excellent Cartoons

here. Too twisted to comment on.

What if Stan "the Man" Lee worked for Jack Chick?

Wow, I wish I had thought of this!

Wisdom Teeth et al.

I had my deeply embedded lower Wisdom teeth and some others removed Wednesday morning, a fairly major procedure. I assumed that, like most surgeries, it would be worst right after and get better as time went on. I seem to be wrong though and each day seems worse than the last. Wednesday was unpleasant, but not too bad. I slept most of it and even made a video in the evening. I was thinking of going to work on Thursday.

Thursday I realized they punctured my sinus cavity when they were working on my upper jaw, called the dentist and got a prescription for antibiotics. I was out for an hour or so in the morning, but was tired by the afternoon and in increasing discomfort. I started using the Codeine prescription I got (which I noted has a refill), which I hadn't needed before and was hoping to "save for later"

Last night I got up every two hours and was supplementing the codeine with 3 Advil. It was like having 4 pending root canals. Only two of the teeth, the bottom 2, were wisdom teeth, buried quite deeply with one "fused to the bone", the uppers were broken beyond repair.

They suggested to me on Wednesday that the swelling would peak "after 3 days", which better be today because I look like the Godfather at the moment. I am hopped up on Codeine and Tylenol atm, and will probably try to get some sleep.

A New Video

I've been working on an in-game instructional video for a server wide event I occasionally run in City of Heroes. It's a complicated 2-hour event called a Hami Raid, and generally involves coordinating approximately 140 volunteers for two hours toward jointly defeating a monster no one could defeat alone. The event is broken into phases and, frankly, even minor screw ups in any of the phases can spell disaster for all. I tend to run 2 or 3 of these a month, and a few other "Raid Leaders" on the server do the same. You need to be at the top of the game, level 50, to really participate, and folks that make it that far tend to have "strong personalities". Also, some of the 140 people are absolutely dedicated to seeing it fail for their own juvenile reasons. It's an interesting challenge. The reward for a successful raid is a very rare type of permanent bonus for your character and these can be traded. My whole purpose in running these is to make a market in these bonuses, called Hami-Os.

Since there is a continuous flow of players in and out of the raids, instructing new people and keeping the event popular is a little difficult. My solution is make an amusing instructional video showing folks what goes on and what to do. The video will be ready in December, but I was up late last night and threw together a 3 minute "trailer" to keep interest alive.



High Rez Version

If it looks a little like a confusing mass of people enveloped in lots of glowing stuff with no clue of up or down.... that's about right. You've got the experience of what it's like to be there.

I am, btw, the guy in blue with glasses who waves at the beginning and is standing near the lecture, aka BluShield.

Kiwi!

This is brilliant! Worth the 3 minute investment



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Oobleck

At some point, every physics student makes up a batch of Oobleck, a non-newtonian fluid. What's a non-newtonian fluid? Basically it's a compound that acts like water when under little or no sheer stress, but a solid when subjected to lots of stress. The most common demo shows someone stirring a beaker of the stuff with a spoon, then hitting the fluid with a hammer and watching it shatter. You can mix up a batch at home, it's basically cornstarch and water (WARNING: DO NOT DISPOSE OF OOBLECK IN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL).

This demo however, is a vastly superior demonstration:



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Lt. Horvath at a Training Exercise

Department of Self-Absorption

Wow. Grover derivies the wrong lesson entirely:

Although some glitz has come off Mr Rove, Republicans have been more eager to blame botched campaigns and individual ethics scandals. “Bob Sherwood’s seat [in Pennsylvania] would have been overwhelmingly ours, if his mistress hadn’t whined about being throttled,” said Mr Norquist.

Obviously the real lesson is, "make sure the ball-gag is securely fastioned before choking your mistress.

The Last Temptation of Donald Rumsfeld

The Atmosphere

Excellently done. The universe is not your friend.

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