Back seat to the Hummer
The International Truck and Engine Corporation and the US Army are showing off the oxymoronically-named Smart Truck 3, the replacement for the Humvee. The beast weighs 3,000 pounds more than the H2 and is three inches taller and four feet longer. Amazingly though, it apparently guzzles less gas. From the Independent:
“The army also wants the vehicles to be marketed to other customers such as government agencies or regular Joes who only feel right using a stepladder to get behind thewheel.
The commercial version would not have the electronics designed to detect anthrax, the Kevlar armouring on the underside, the night-vision cameras and the 25-inch LCD touch-screen computer monitors.”
For nerds, here’s more info.
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Band singing a Bob Dylan song visited by Secret Service
Snip from ABC News story:
Parents and students say they are outraged and offended by a proposed band name and song scheduled for a high school talent show in Boulder this evening, but members of the band, named Coalition of the Willing, said the whole thing is being blown out of proportion. The students told ABC News affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver they are performing Bob Dylan’s song “Masters of War” during the Boulder High School Talent Expose because they are Dylan fans. They said they want to express their views and show off their musical abilities.
But some students and adults who heard the band rehearse called a radio talk show Thursday morning, saying the song the band sang ended with a call for President Bush to die. Threatening the president is a federal crime, so the Secret Service was called to the school to investigate. Students in the band said they’re just singing the lyrics and not inciting anyone to do anything.
The 1963 song ends with the lyrics: “You might say that I’m young. You might say I’m unlearned, but there’s one thing I know, though I’m younger than you, even Jesus would never forgive what you do . And I hope that you die and your death’ll come soon. I will follow your casket in the pale afternoon. And I’ll watch while you’re lowered down to your deathbed. And I’ll stand o’er your grave ’til I’m sure that you’re dead.”
Yeah.. I think some people are a little too eager to call in the secret service at the slightest hint of anything even mildly out of their realm of understanding. Shit, I hope Slayer plays that town someday, Hah, that would rock.
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Just Like Mom Used To Make
Jones Soda announces today its limited edition holiday pack of five new seasonal flavors which includes: Green Bean Casserole Soda, Mashed Potato & Butter Soda, Fruitcake Soda, Cranberry Soda and Turkey & Gravy Soda.
Yummy! I think they did this last year too.. and if they did, it’s still as shocking and gross, and I still want some.
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NASA and the Rain Man
CNN reports that researchers at NASA are taking CT and MRI scans of Kim Peek, the inspiration for Rain Man, to study how his brain is changing.
Not only are Peek’s brain and his abilities unique, noted Richard D. Boyle, director of the California center performing the scans, but he seems to be getting smarter in his specialty areas as he ages.
The 53-year-old Peek is called a “mega-savant” because he is a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates.
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Special-purpose clubbing phone
I like this new phone design, especially for the camera feature, its like a bond/spy camera setup. Not enough to justify buying it, but enough to oggle it.
The 7280 is a tiny phone intended for use as a “club phone” — when you get home from work, you take the SIM out of your bulky camera/calendar/smartphone and stick it in this tiny little keypad-less (voice-activated) twig of a phone with a small built-in camera and go out on the town. It’s just the right size for a night out on the town, and has just the right features for a lightweight communications context like being out barhopping.
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Unionized Clergy?!
Some members of the clergy with the United Church of Canada are looking to unionize over four thousand pastors across the country. Their compliant, bad working conditions and sweatshop wages. Haha… yeah.
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Fun!
Woman controls blender by making noises at it. I think I like this a little too much..
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Secret doors disguised as bookcases
Hidden Doors manufactures and installs custom secret doors disguised as swinging and revolving bookcases.
When we build our house in a few years, I’ve already got plans to make one of the bookcases in my study into a secret passage to my den/server room, this just makes it ever so much easier to do.
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Xmas Shopping
To get ready for christmas, I’ve already started looking for Jenns perfect christmas present, and I think thats it, but then again no gift says “Peace On Earth” like this.
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Voice-operated airplane
MIT researchers have developed a voice-controlled aircraft guidance system that enables a pilot in one plane to control a nearby unmanned air vehicle (UAV, sorta like the ones in stargate, yes I’m a nerd) by talking to it. Here’s a quote from the official press release:
“The system allows the pilot to interface with the UAV at a high level–not just ‘turn right, turn left’ but ‘fly to this region and perform this task,'” said Mario Valenti, a flight controls engineer for Boeing who is on leave to pursue a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. “The pilot essentially treats the UAV as a wingman,” said Valenti, comparing the UAV to a companion pilot in a fighter-plane squadron.
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Marry a Canadian?
Plotting your escape? Marry a Canadian.
Legions of Canadians have already pledged to sacrifice their singlehood to save our southern neighbours from four more years of cowboy conservatism
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I want a Superman version..
This quilt was made out of 1.5″ squares laid atop a pattern generated by laying a game screencap over a grid Paint Shop Pro 8.
This shit blows my mind, I actually want Jenn to make me a Metriod version, but yeah, a Superman quilt would rock.
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Hidden Pictures
Lots of cool Hidden pictures. I found 3 before I had to start looking at the answer key, they rock.
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Anybody know this guy?
Twenty Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Post Your Picture On The Internet.
Makes me rethink my gallery..
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Repairs
The back screen door has has a bad hinge since the day we moved in, it accidentally got opened too far and messed it up as well as ripped a few screws out of the door frame and made it very hard to get the door to open (being that the door wasnt hanging right). Being the handy guy I am, I knew I could fix it, I just needed some time to get around to it.. I wonder if the Jennifer will notice that I fixed it.
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crap
Kerry Concedes President Bush won a second term from a divided and anxious nation, his promise of steady, strong wartime leadership trumping John Kerry’s fresh-start approach to Iraq and joblessness. After a long, tense night of vote counting, the Democrat called Bush to concede Ohio and the presidency.
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spammers.. fuck off
due to massive (unsucessful) attempts by spammers to spam my comments over the past 2 days, I’m going to turn comments off for a week in hopes that they eat a dick and fuck off.
Sorry for the profanity, but getting 500 emails a day about new comments being added that are spam is silly. Unfortunately spammers are spamming moveable type installs a lot more, so I’m turning off comments until i figure out a way to proactively delete them, vs my current approach of manually approving/deleting all comments before theyre posted.
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Everyone’s had more sex than me.
Everyone’s had more sex than me.
Warning: directly links to very loud flash movie.
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Just Letters
Someone Keeps Stealing my Letters. I keep trying to spell ‘you suck’ but people keep stealing my vowels!
RobDurdle.com 
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