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Monthly Archives: October 2005

Giant Calamari Caught On Film

Everyone knows about the fabled Giant Squid from Jules Verne’s classic “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Well, be it fabled no more. Japanese scientists actually caught one by fishing for it with a baited line.

Using small squids and a bag of mashed shrimps, the team was able to lure a 26-foot long giant squid onto their hook. They were able to take pictures of it every 30 seconds for over 4 hours. Afterwards, the squid finally tore free by leaving behind an 18-foot tentacle.

These are the first photos ever of a giant squid in the wild.

Giant Squid 1

Giant Squid 2

Gundam Geek Wants To Wear Costume In Space

Char AznableIf you had twenty million dollars, what would you do? Save a rainforest? Help end world hunger?

Well, Japanese millionaire, Daisuke Enomoto, knows what he’s going to do. He’s going to orbit the earth in the International Space Station dressed like Gundam hero Char Aznable. As if robot dogs and indoor surfing were not enough, now Japan gives us millionaires role playing in space.

White House Lies About Teleconference

You might have seen or heard about President Bush’s teleconference with 10 U.S. troops and an Iraqi soldier that aired this morning. What you probably do not know is that it was completely scripted.

Why is that surprising? Because afterwards they said it wasn’t scripted.

See, lying doesn’t work very well when there’s a camera filming the truth. Here is CNN’s video coverage of the event (thanks to ThinkProgress):

Allison Barber Training Troops

Afterwards, Allison Barber, the troops’ trainer, insisted that the questions were not rehearsed. With Rove under the magnifying glass, it is like they are not even trying anymore.

Let’s say the resulting press conference did not go well for Scott. Not only did he get grilled for this lie, he tried to connect Iraq to 9/11. When Helen Thomas called him out on that zinger, he attacked Helen. The other reporters were none to fond of that. C&L has the edited video. You can see the full press conference at C-Span.

Update (10-14-2005 12:52am): OneGoodMove is hosting MSNBC’s take of today’s debacle. They did a good job of showing the teleconference, its rehearsal, and the press gaggle aftwerards.

Only Two Percent of African Americans Support Bush

George Bush With FlagThat’s right. From the guy who said that he was the right person to close the racial divide in America. Only 2% of African Americans approve of his leadership.

Black people don’t care about George Bush.

The Nexus of Politics and Terror

This is incredible. You need to watch this.

Olbermann and Nexus of Politics and Terror

Last Wednesday, Keith Olbermann cataloged a series of thirteen terror alerts that coincided with bad political news surrounding the White House on his show Countdown. He questions whether the timing of the alerts was really coincidental.

President Bush’s Speechalist

Mr. Jack Sheehan sent me this hilarious Andy Dick viral yesterday. Congratulations to Jack on joining the ranks of wire-free laptop users today, also known as the wire-less. Oh, and also on that whole engagement thing.

President Bush's Speechalist

Letters from a Crony

Miers and BushIt is no hidden secret that George Bush and Harriet Miers are more than just acquaintances. A multitude of news sources have ran stories about the two’s relationship. A few posts down, I discussed that most of this information is found in correspondence between the president and his crony. Just now, The Smoking Gun has released scans of all of the letters they gave to each other. At least those stored by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Now, John, you can see the president’s reference to scatology in his own handwriting.

DoubleSpace Kitchenette

Does this seem like a bad idea to anyone else?

This chair:

Double Space Chair

Turns into this stove:

Double Space Stove

Please remove the girl first.
No, no. I’m not joking. It works like this:

Double Space Strip

The DoubleSpace Kitchenette is a dual-burner electric stove that doubles as an easy chair. Created for those in university dorms or studio apartments, it easily flips between your TV throne and ramen maker.

This is either one of the best or one of the most dangerous dorm room ideas that I have ever seen. Maybe both. (via Engadget)

Democracy in… Action?

This was pretty big news and I meant to post on it earlier. I hope you saw it elsewhere.

Last Friday, October 7th, the House of Representatives agreed to a five-minute vote on the Gasoline for America’s Security Act of 2005. Not only is it a horrible, horrible bill that will destroy our environment for the profit of big business, the House leadership held the five-minute vote open for almost 50 minutes until they could convince three representatives, Wayne Gilcrest (R-MD), C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) and Jim Gerlach (R-PA), to change their minds.

This is a blatant disregard and corruption of democracy.

At the close of the vote, those against the unconcealed abuse of power started chanting “Shame, shame, shame.” It’s pretty chilling to watch.

Nancy Pelosi in Congress

More info at ThinkProgress.

In da Bginnin God cre8d da Celfon

Black BibleTired of lugging that big ol’ bible with ya every Sunday to service? Tired of lookin’ for page 2,138 to show heathen teenagers on your block that they’re gonna burn in hell? Well, struggle no more!

The Australian Bible Society has created the SMSBible: all 31,173 verses of scripture translated to SMS speak and ready to download to your mobile phone!

Michael Rodriguez, son of Australia’s Bible Society Director George Rodriguez, spent six weeks translating the entire bible into text messages and designing the software for mobile phones. Ya have to appreciate the geekiness.

No more Bible for me. Now, I just need to find a cell phone…