Maverick

The term "Maverick" is coined after Samuel Maverick, an early Texas politician. Maverick was a POW of the Mexican army for a period. He is most well-known for steadfastly refusing to brand his cattle. As a result, the word maverick entered the English lexicon, meaning both an unbranded range animal as well as a slang term for someone who exhibits a streak of stubborn independence. Maverick's stated reason for not branding his cattle was that he didn't want to inflict pain on them. Other ranchers, however, suspected his true motivation was that it allowed him to collect any unbranded cattle and claim them as his own.

So Maverick was an old southwestern politician, former POW, who acted erratically and used his unpredictability to take credit for that which was not his? John McCain may be a true Maverick after all.

The Best McCain Analysis EVER

Things are sure gonna be different.... Jon Stewart makes clear the similarities and differences between the candidates and President Bush. Maverick? I think not. In perhaps the best Daily Show ever, a real analysis of what the McCain presidency would look like... From McCain's own mouth.

Dick Cheney Knew All Along

Dick Cheney appears to have known exactly what a disaster the Iraq war would be... and then decided to go ahead anyway. This is him in 1994 describing why further military action in Iraq would be a "quagmire".

Revenge on the Direct Junkmail Companies

A lot of people complain about getting SPAM in their email inbox. Yes, it's a hassle, it wastes CPU cycles and as a result, electricity... but there's not a whole lot that can be done other than blacklisting and lawsuits. A few major ISP companies are promoting a system of micropayments: How this would work is for every email over 10,000 that you send in a week-- you have to pay 1/100 of a cent to your ISP, email provider, etc. For most of us-- we'd never have to pay a cent. For major spammers that send out tens of millions of emails daily... this adds up fast.
Sounds like a brilliant and novel idea: Make SPAM not financially worthwhile to the SPAMmer. But how would this system translate to traditional paper-junkmail? Paper junkmail is in many ways worse because of the physical environmental costs of producing the paper, printing, running the machines to design and distribute, etc. So how do you combat direct-junkmail? Mail them a brick... at their expense.

When the President Talks to God

This is a song called "When the President Talks to God" by Bright Eyes. I'm also including the lyrics here for the Deaf peeps that visit this blog.

Awareness Test

This is pretty great. And makes a point.

Be Careful

We're all guilty of this little game...
but it's all fun & games until someone's head is actually crushed.

A Study in Reeces PB: Chocolate Ratio

These guys did a rough study investigating the proportion of peanut butter to chocolate in various sizes of Reeces Peanut Butter Cups. I couldn't disagree with their opinion more (that smaller cups taste the best). I personally think the Reeces Big Cup has the superior ratio. But prefer the small cups to the regular size. My version of this graph would look more like an inverted parabola. Anyway, it's funny that they took the time to set up this pseudo-scientific study. I'm currently fasting from chocolate... so this was on my mind.

Ballot Problem in Maryland

I went to vote in the Primary election in Maryland today. I just changed registration from another state, so I had to fill out a provisional ballot. All went well, until it was time to sign the provisional voter form... above the signature line was a statement stating:

"I swear or attest that I will not vote in the current or General election in Maryland or in another state"

I imagine this is supposed to state that i will not vote again in the current election. But that's not what it says. This is a problem.

Medication Side Effects

I always find the concept of medication "side effects" as interesting. Why? Because neurobiology doesn't recognize the difference between target and "side" effects. We just market the effects that are potentially helpful. Many useful medications were discovered when "side effects" of other meds were realized to be helpful. Welbutrin and Viagra are just a couple of these. One of the following clips are about real (albeit bizzare) side effects and one is fake. Guess which is which.

Virtual Magnetic Bush Speech Poetry

Make your own George W Bush speech with virtual W. It's like Magnetic Poetry, but a cognitively-impaired chimp of a President reads it aloud.

Mine reads:

"America stands committed to conflict. We squandered lives on a massive scale, destroyed Iraq. We created persistant poverty and suffering, defended violent ambitions, including my own... So that above all, one day the ladies and gentlemen in the United States will fear government."

See what Bush speech you can make!

Fishermen Find Deer Swimming 1.5 Miles Offshore

According to this story, some fishermen were out on the seas about 1.5 miles offshore and spotted what they thought was a seal. As they got closer, they realized it was a deer lost at sea. Naturally, they pulled the animal aboard and brought it back to dry land. Of course, my evil Bulgarian friend in Canada supposes that they had actually taken a deer from the woods, took it out to sea, threw it in the ocean, and posted the photos in reverse order to make themselves look like heroes. What do you think?

Beware the Double Dipper

What we've always known... is now confirmed by science. Double-dipping is pretty nasty. A Clemson University study confirms this. But the best part of all about this article is the caption under the photo. It reads "This photo illustration shows tortilla chips and salsa in New York". Thanks for the clarification from the AP. :)

Bob's House: Deaf Pepsi Commercial for 2008 Super Bowl

The commercial "Bob's House" is a Pepsi Ad for the 2008 Super Bowl that was leaked online before it's official air-date. This story has roots deep in Deaf culture as a joke that's been around for decades.

Amazon Says I'm Having a Baby

Today I got the following email:







Dear ____ and ______,
A Baby Registry gift will be arriving soon! We thought you might like to know that an item was recently purchased from your Amazon.com Baby Registry. If you can't wait to know what it is and who it's from, and want to send a thank-you note, visit your Thank-You List. All necessary details are available, including the gift-giver's address.

Congratulations and Best Wishes,
Your friends at Amazon.com's Baby Registry

Why is this odd? Because as far as I know... we're not having a baby within the next year. After calling Amazon, I learned that everyone who ever had an Amazon wedding registry received this email. Ha Ha! Could've been traumatizing. What if this is how I learned that we were pregnant?

Yo Yo Yo

If you're at all into the changing linguistic patterns of America, this may be of interest. English has both masculine (he) and feminine (she) singular pronouns.. but no gender-neutral one. Until Now... and Yo's the word.
I always found it odd that our singular pronouns (he, she) were gender-specific but our plural pronoun (they) is gender non-specific. Perhaps someday there'll be a new group of kids using gender-specific plural pronouns (hims, hers ??).

Browser Wars Get Dirty

This is an all-time low, as far as anticompetitive policy decisions go. Microsoft has officially labeled Firefox as a security threat. It just so happens that Microsoft offers an alternative browser... which is conveniently already installed on your machine. In all fairness, this image appears to be from an early version of Microsoft's Anti Spyware product (now Windows Defender).

Casa Vlad is on the market

It appears that the sub-prime mortgage crisis knows no limits. Dracula's castle is officially on the market. The asking price? $78 million. If you're thinking about this, I did some of the math for you. With a 30 year fixed interest mortgage at 6% you'd have a monthly mortgage payment of $565,229.41

Of course that doesn't include your property taxes (perhaps 1.7 mil a year) and taxes (which if in the US would be approx $97,500). Roll those pennies!

If You Think You're Cold

And I thought it was cold here! Not compared to a beach in Newfoundland where apparently it gets so cold that the waves freeze as they crash on the shore.

SUV or Minivan? A Question of Psychology

Interesting article shows that drivers of SUVs are more paranoid about crime and others' perception of them than minivan drivers are. Interesting for me because i have driven both. Just sold my Ford Explorer Sport and got a Honda Odyssey EX-L. According to the article, I traded in my interest in others' perception of me for practicality. The article also mentions the switch is a sign of my comfort with being married. What would Freud say?

Overheard

Sometimes you overhear something that's just too funny not to share. I stumbled upon this site that literally made me laugh til i cried. Okay... not all of them are funny, but many are.
Overheard

Supermarket Puts Ideals Over Profits

I just read about this on Graham's blog...

My favorite grocery store, Wegman's, has done the unthinkable. And I couldn't possibly respect them more for it. They decided to stop carrying tobacco products. Remember, this is an extremely profitable product for retailers. Then why are they doing it? According to Wegman's CEO Danny Wegman, it's "the destructive role smoking plays in health".

It's inspiring when a company does the right thing... even if it puts them at a competitive disadvantage. But Wegman's is not new to this. I guess that's why they've been named one of the '100 Best Companies to Work For' by FORTUNE magazine for ten consecutive years. (ranking #1 in 2005 and #3 in 2007). And that's why I drive past 15 other supermarkets on my way to Wegman's.

Project: iPod Integration

The little Car Audio shop down the street offer the best in digital music integration, LCD displays everywhere from the passenger seat to the gas-tank cap... They do a hell of a sales job explaining everything they can do. But, should you ever wish to get something actually installed, they're too disorganized to find the parts. My neighbor SL says this confirms his belief that the shop is really just a drug front. I have been trying for 3 months to pay these guys to install an ipod jack to my 2003 Honda Odyssey factory stereo system. Anyway, with a quick trip to eBay and a little help from SL, I completed this entire project in about 30 minutes for less than $50. I really could've used this back in December when i traveled the entirety of i-95.

Project: Backup Camera

SL has a problem. He can't go to Costco without buying electronics every time. Call it a compusion, an addiction, or a skill. But this time he came back with something I objectively consider relatively unnecessary: a backup camera. Yes, a camera mounted to the rear license plate of a vehicle to aid in parking and backing-up. But, never to shun from an electronics project, I prepared to assist with the automotive surgical enhancement. Opening the package, I realize the device is completely wireless and transmits to the front-seat LCD wirelessly. Still cool, but this endeavor was far from surgical. All we had to do was stick the camera on the license plate with included mount, splice it to power source (license plate light), and plug the LCD into a power source up front. Believe it or not, this installation was as easy as my License Plate LED Frame. I may even considering getting one for the van.