While I appreciate our politicians speaking out against gas prices, I hate it when they immediately follow it by a supreme act of hypocrisy:

Speaker caught ditching hydrogen car for SUV immediately after leaving photo-op

Friday April 28, 2006: The Associated Press has photographed Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) ditching his brightly colored hydrogen automobile in favor of a gas-guzzling black SUV after exiting a news conference and photo opportunity at a Washington, DC gas station.

After the conference, which addressed high gas prices, Hastert and other Congressmen had been carted away in fuel saving and alternatively powered automobiles. Just blocks away from the scene, Hastert is reported to have ditched his in favor of his usual official car.

The conference reportedly took place just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol to which Hastert was returning, making the motivations behind the car switch-off all the more puzzling.

Hastert is not the only Congressman to have made "the switch" in the middle of the very short trip, according to the Associated Press, which has thus far named no other perpetrators.

BAGHDAD, April 27 -- A full 10 seconds of silence passed after a reporter asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld what the intense secrecy and security surrounding their visit to Iraq signified about the stability of the country three years after the U.S.-led invasion. Rice turned to Rumsfeld to provide the answer. Rumsfeld glared at the reporter.

'I guess I don't think it says anything about it,' he snapped...

from Douglas Adams: The Private Life of Genghis Khan.

This guy takes rather nice aerial photos.

This is an excellent article that traces various key figures' roles in getting America into the war with Iraq, and where they are now. Funny, most of them seem to have moved on to bigger and better things. The Architects of War: Where Are They Now?

Oh and on that note, you may find this interesting: 20 amazing facts about voting in the United States.

"On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris. The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.

The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.

Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground until a DVD release a few years ago."

Interesting article on the fact that writing systems may look different, but they all use the same basic building blocks of familiar natural shapes.

Nice rainbow photos.

Dear White People:

How are you? I am fine. Long time no see!

...

This new invention acts like a force-field around military vehicles, deterring most rocket attacks.

Video: How Indian people drive.

UPDATE: speaking of driving, I'd rather be driving one of these.

This is a rather amazing article on the history of the diamond market, and pretty much explains why we value, in a way not unlike raccoons, these extremely small stones that are bright in the sunlight. Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?:

"The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance. To achieve this goal, De Beers had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men had to be made to perceive diamonds not as marketable precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and married life. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them. The illusion had to be created that diamonds were forever -- 'forever' in the sense that they should never be resold."

Nice wall and sidewalk murals:

A while back I found out the allegedly best way to shave, but now it turns out I was mistaken--the problem is with the shaving cream.

This is a very interesting article from Damn Interesting on the use of dogs as bombs during world war II.

"The trainers would starve the dogs, then train them to find food under a tank. The dogs quickly learned that being released from their pens meant to run out to where the training tank was parked and find some vittles. Once trained, the dogs would be fitted with a bomb attached to the back, and loosed into a field of oncoming German Panzers. When the dog climbed underneath the tank–where there was no armor–the bomb would detonate and gut the enemy vehicle."

While I take issue with some of Blender's choices (especially #50), they do have a point here:

#21:

NEARLY EVERY HIPHOP VIDEO

We get it.

Your ride is pimped, your crib is a castle and at the drop of an ice-encrusted hat, you can have tons of scantily clad ho's pouring bottles of Cristal down your gullet while you kick it in the hot tub. Congratulations to a generation of hip-hop video directors for making decadence seem so … boring.

According to this New York Times article, Lee Raymond, the chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., earned $144,573 for each day of the 13 years he served at the top of the oil company.

UPDATE: Here's reason #2,398.

Oh I do love new stuff. I recently sold my old mp3 player on eBay and bought the new mobiBLU cube, dubbed as the "world's smallest mp3 player." I'm inclined to agree. It's a fun little player, but the problem is that the charger is odd--it's a USB cord rather than a normal AC charger. It charges by plugging it in to your computer. Now this is good idea normally, because I use the computer to actually put the songs on the player, but recently I was traveling with the player and didn't have my computer with me. Oh darn, I need more stuff. It was apparent that I'd have to break down and buy the "optional" AC charger for $50.00 or something, which I was not willing to do. So after a little search on the internet(s), I found a cool little device I thought I'd share with ya--the 9-volt USB charger. With this little fella, you can charge most any device using a simple 9 volt battey. All you need is the right cord. Here's where I bought the device, and here's what it looks like (note the cool retrofitted Altoids container):

Apparently the idea has caught on. Here's a site that shows you how to build one of these yourself.

your new DVD disc.

"Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps."

--Emo Phillips

Excellent article on the historical context of the law that governs -- at least literally -- our actions.

"...The Founding Fathers were not religious men, and they fought hard to erect, in Thomas Jefferson's words, 'a wall of separation between church and state.' John Adams opined that if they were not restrained by legal measures, Puritans--the fundamentalists of their day--would 'whip and crop, and pillory and roast.' The historical epoch had afforded these men ample opportunity to observe the corruption to which established priesthoods were liable, as well as 'the impious presumption of legislators and rulers,' as Jefferson wrote, 'civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time...'"

The Bibliochaise is an armchair library for those who like to be immersed in deep reading. It contains 5 linear metres of books and thanks to a special fitting structure is easily disassembled.

Just when I thought the spork had reached the height of its engineering development, I found out I was wrong.

The irony continues: Christians sue for right not to be intolerant.

So why are we looking for Bon Jovi? Why is he wanted, wanted dead or alive? A spree of face rocking.

While I may not be shaving at the moment, it's good to know how to shave correctly.

Dark Miracle

"I am become Death," thought Robert Oppenheimer, remembering an ancient Hindu text. "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

You may have noticed there are 39 days until law school ends. In case you are having trouble appreciating the context behind that observation, I submit the following:

if you like dance music, then here you go.

Don't ask me how I got there, but when I was drifting through the official Lynyrd Skynyrd website, I found this note in the band's history, which just gave me a long silent laugh:

By this time all the members have dropped out of Robert E. Lee High School.

Ever since I emerged from the wilderness a few years ago, my lust for lightweight camping gear has been steadily diminishing. (Not only do I rarely go camping anymore, but it's amazing how much stuff my car can carry.) However, I must say that the Pak-Lite is quite cool, and that I will probably buy one. It's a simple plastic piece that contains two LED lights that connects stright to the top of a 9-volt battery--that's it. To say that it would be great for camping would be an understatement. They even make a headband holder, so you can free up your hands to eat more gorp.

if you pass your night
and merge it with dawn
for the sake of heart
what do you think will happen

if the entire world
is covered with the blossoms
you have labored to plant
what do you think will happen

if the elixir of life
that has been hidden in the dark
fills the desert and towns
what do you think will happen

if because of
your generosity and love
a few humans find their lives
what do you think will happen

if you pour an entire jar
filled with joyous wine
on the head of those already drunk
what do you think will happen

go my friend
bestow your love
even on your enemies
if you touch their hearts
what do you think will happen

This is a very cool tilt-shift photo taken by Mat Honan. No, it's not from his model train set. It's the real thing--here's how to do it in photoshop. Here's a flickr pool of shift pics. Here's how to make your own camera lens.

This is good. Well, not really.

Are you tired of actually having to drink cofee in order to get your caffeine fix? Well now you can just inhale it.

Amazing story about a man in Australia bitten by a deadly funnel-web spider. The guy managed to receive an antidote in time--one which had just been approved for manufacture and clinical trial a month prior.