Capybara

I'd like to preface this post with something that I think I'm going to be saying more in the next few years and will probably result in the continual shaping of this blog. Matt and I started Blast Shields Down during our freshman year of college. Our original intent was to have a place to work as a team and put the things we made and wanted to say down together. But more than that too we wanted a way to stay connected and close to one another. Its been a few years. And, if the summers of little substance here are any indication than I think we have at least some anecdotal evidence that BSD has been serving its purpose. Also, its helped to keep us in touch with other friends of ours and other bloggers who we might rarely see. It hasn't always been a strong dialogue but its been a dialogue none the less. I say this because it hit me a few weeks ago that in a rather short time the distance between Matt and myself is going to be even greater. Unlike him I'm not graduating this year. Unlike me, he is probably going to be out of state for the next couple of years for Grad School. Almost in anticipation of this seperation Matt and I have started emailing one another much more; keeping up an almost constant correspondence through the weeks. But, because of my realizattion that soon it'll be bon voyage to Matt, I decided to post here on BSD something I easily could have emailed to him. This way he can see, you can see it, and BSD might learn again to serve its purpose...

"During the Christian observation of Lent, capybara meat is especially popular as it is claimed that the Catholic church, in a special dispensation, classified the animal as a fish in the 16th century. (cf. Barnacle goose) There are differing accounts of how the dispensation arose. The most cited refers to a group of 16th Century missionaries who made a request which implied that the semi-aquatic capybara might be a "fish" and also hinted that there would be an issue with starvation if the animal weren't classified as suitable for Lent."

...and if thats not weird enough, just listen to this....

Tales from the Internets, volume 5

This is way late, but what's new? I guess we should just get on with it...

A trio of BBC news articles that I found quite interesting over the past couple of months:

A Van Gogh painting was found underneath another one using x-rays... I can't begin to explain how cool that is.

Yeti!

And the insane inflation of a post-Imperialism African country. This would be funny if it wasn't so depressing.

Data stealing... using telescopes. Progress through regress.

I think I may have posted this clip before, but I couldn't find it on the blog, so here it is again. It cracks me up every time.

This is a cool video about dimensions. I think it does a good job of explaining, but can still be pretty hard to wrap your mind around.

Charlie Brown with the cast of Scrubs doing the voices. This is a lot longer than most of the videos I like to post on here, but it's really good. If you like Scrubs, it's a must see.

The Book of Mozilla... weird.

A college hockey network? Really...? I mean... come on. I like college hockey, but... a whole network?

There is no doubt in my mind that George W. Bush will go down in the annals of history as the worst President ever. Warren G. Harding never stood a chance. 100 mistakes from a Prez... four years ago. The list now would just be frightening.

Am I the only one that finds this a little hot? I'm kidding... I swear.

Do not click here. More disturbing than tentacle rape, this is...

Thanks for tuning in.

Tales from the Internets, volume 4

I'm back everyone, and here to bring you no actual substance on my part. This stuff has piled up for months, and is long overdue. In fact, I have so many links, this is going to be a two-part Tales, the next part coming next week unless I forget (which is highly likely). So here it goes.

A couple of Star Trek related news items that are way old, but you probably haven't seen them anyway, at least the second one. The first is the trailer for the new movie. Kennedy? The beginning of the intro dialogue? Shipyard? This made me excited, even though I have a lot of reservations about this movie.

A Star Trek cartoon? Apparently... It looks pretty interesting, actually, though I have no idea of any new info on the show. I should probably do some digging.

I'm not even sure what to say about this trailer, but the song as the end? Wow...

The next two links are about area codes... yeah, I've gone off the deep end. All I can say is that you gotta love political machines.

And of course... this is just great.

A nice explanation on how the Etch-A-Sketch works.

When most of us think of Japan, we think of televisions, radioactive monsters, tentacle rape, panties in vending machines, but this is shocking even for Japan. I want a copy.

The final two links for today are video game related. The first is a free game that reminds me of those insane Lego ships in Kingdom Hearts mated with the old side-scrolling jet shooters of the 16-bit era. It's fun.

Lastly, is a history of Duke Nukem Forever, which is probably forgotten by most gamers, but still funny. If this game ever comes out...

Well, that's all for today. Thanks for clicking and I hope you enjoyed it.

Tales From the Internets, volume 3

Well, classes are almost over for the summer and Caleb asked me to do another one of these crazy things. I don't really have a whole lot of interesting stuff to post, mostly because I forgot I was supposed to be collecting links and the like... so, if you could just pretend I have a lot more to post, I'd really appreciate it. More to come from BSD in the coming weeks.

Anyway, on with the links.

Download Firefox. Just do it... version 3 is coming out soon and you won't regret it, especially if you're still using Internet Explorer... and if you are, what's wrong with you?

I've never linked to a Livejournal before, but holy hell is this cool. BSD has a new project for the summer.

FreeRice is a website where you play a vocabulary game for charity. For every word you get right, twenty grains of rice are donated to the UN. It may not sound like a lot, but in three days, I've donated over 4,000 grains, not because I'm philanthropic, but because 1. I'm a nerd, 2. it's addicting, 3. I feel better procrastinating while helping others, or at least that's what I tell myself. I'm pretty sure Caleb and I are going to come to blows because of our scores soon.

I've been on a Sci-Fi kick lately, which, arguably happens a lot, but whatever... It started when Caleb showed me the movie Sunshine. It's a British movie that was released in 2007 and no one in the US saw it. It's excellent, reminds me sort of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but faster paced. But anyhow, go rent this movie... especially if you like science fiction, but just do it. It's good.

This made me sad, but it is a very good article. Focusing on the Star Wars element for a moment, this author brings up three great points... about the realism of CGI, the difficulty acting in front of a green screen and Lucas forgetting how to make great movies. I'm convinced. I never really thought about the lack of scorch marks, dings and the like on ships, but it does make them seem too ethereal. They just don't have the same presence. I still don't consider the Prequels horrible movies, but they can't hold a candle to the Original Trilogy, and I doubt I'll ever get over that fact. I suppose I could blather on about Star Wars for a while longer, but it's been done, and if I want to waste time I might as well dedicate a post to it. Anyway, the rest of the article is great, too.

Speaking of ships that look like they've been through hell, go watch Battlestar Galactica. Please... it's great, even if you don't know what the fuck is going on. Just rent the Mini-Series, you won't be disappointed. The last season is being split in two, there are eight more episodes in the first part which is airing right now and then there will be ten more in about a year. Just watch it, it's one of the greatest television shows I've ever seen.

Finally... if you've ever seen The Office... no, just... go look at this picture. Some nudity, but it's tasteful. I can now die happy.

Tales from the Internets, volume 2

Well, it's that time again... a time to post crazy links, that is. Once again, I got a lot of these from various sources, and I'll try to give credit where credit is due, but I forget a lot of the time where this stuff came from.

One side comment... I understand that it's some sort of marketing ploy to repeat the name of the company/product ad nauseam during a commercial, but it's annoying as fuck. Do I need to hear the word [company name removed to prevent advertising] ten times in three sentences? No, no I don't. I think I need to up my dose or television or something. I'm actually starting to get un-brainwashed by commercialism.

Anyway, on to the links. From the people at Progressive Boink, a hilarious database of Hanna-Barbara cartoon characters. Definitely worth it if you ever watched any of them as a kid (or an adult, I guess). Speaking of which, why the hell did I watch all my parents' cartoons as a kid? Was I the only one?

While still on the subject of cartoons, here's a nice picture of a "realistic" Mario World. It's quite disturbing, really. I have no clue where Caleb found this, either.

This is pretty cool. It gives a new meaning to the idea of bit actors... Ha ha, get it... I really need to stop using these awful puns.

A nice article on Little Leaguers from The Onion. Hey, can you really blame the kid?

For those of you who live around the Detroit area and watch baseball at all, I'm sure you know about Mario Impemba and Rod Allen. While, I definitely don't think they're great broadcasters by any stretch of the imagination, and they certainly aren't fit to shine Ernie Harwell's shoes, at least they have some personality. Proof in point is this little Youtube clip. Someone needs to teach the Japanese about the joys of a baseball brawl. I got this link from Bill Simmons' column, which I highly recommend to any sports fans out there.

Keeping with the sports pattern, here's a list of some of the worst injuries ever. Some of this stuff is just nasty, but it's like a train wreck.

Cylon. I'd be nervous, too... and I'm not sure what the woman is so pissed off about. Battlestar Galactica is awesome.

The Good Book... as told by Denmark. If they had this when I was a kid, I might actually be a Christian right now. I think they should start doing full length movies in Lego. That'd be awesome.

Lastly, a couple of Will Ferrell videos that are must sees: The Landlord, A Hotdog and Space: The Infinite Frontier. "Hey!"

Tales from the Internets, volume 1

The first in what I hope to be a long running series of articles about... well, crap, I guess you could say. Just hide the kids, shield your eyes, or just don't click on the links. I find the following amusing... and occasionally just sad or weird, but I make no guarantees that you will.

This site really quacks me up (yes I realize that it was a horrible pun, but just think of it as dripping with sarcasm, or you know... just read the "testimonials" on the site and see how painful it all is). Honestly, I'm not sure whether I find these funny, or just sad. This site actually makes money selling these things? There's a market for rubber duckies that look like Jason Kidd or Moses? Could I make money selling figurines of Charlie Chaplin with bunny ears? So many unanswered questions... All that I know is that I definitely want a cow with a duck bill. I'm still trying to figure out whether or not putting duck bills on random animals is stranger than putting them on humans, though.

Moving along now... Google now has the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. Try putting it in the calculator yourself. Just great.

Those Talz can get mighty rowdy when they've had a few too many. Gotta love the Cantina scene.

The truth is out there... maybe. This begs the question of whether Mr. Hellyer is senile, insane, or just missing the lime light. Though, I'm probably more sympathetic to him then I should be thanks to the copious amounts of X-Files that I watch. Where the hell is Mulder when we need him, anyway?

Is that your horn, or are you just happy to see me? Um... I'm at a loss for words. Sick? Wrong? Disturbing? Probably... Fucking hilarious? Yes! I'd put this in the same category as the CelebriDucks except this guy knows it's a joke, whereas those people I'm not so sure about. In any case, I'll never look at a My Little Pony the same again.

And, the most disturbing thing I've seen in a long while... Darth Kitty. No, I don't have anything to say about it.

Thanks to all the people who've sent me these links, though I've probably forgotten who sent me what. I hope you got a laugh... or at least were deeply disturbed from what you saw.