The difference between you and someone who got into MIT? You were satisfied with just pushing your shopping trolley around:
That thing can clock 45 miles per hour, or 72km/h! Dude, you frigging kidding me?! (more info here) (via)
Calvin & Hobbes strikes again
An email doing the rounds at the moment – absolutely brilliant, especially in today’s context.
It’s like Bill Watterson saw into the future. Here’s another brilliant one that’s all too prescient :
(with apologies for the lack of posting – things have been… interesting.)
Movie Trailer Interval
All of the following are linked to Japan in one way or another, and look damn good – can’t wait.
The most obvious one is Okuribito, or Departures – this is the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film this year, and looks gorgeous. It will probably be as slow as any Japanese drama is, but I guess that’s the genre conventions.
The next is Shinjuku Incident, Jackie Chan’s new film about a clash of triads and yakuza in Tokyo. This looks like your more standard action fare, and obviously it’s Jackie. How could that not be awesome?
The third is Blood – The Last Vampire, another one of the current trend to remake anime in Hollywood (Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Dragonball, and Astroboy are all scheduled or coming out this year). Blood is probably the most visceral of the lot so far, and is probably the one I would’ve picked for a movie conversion first.
Finally, we have a tenuous connection of a Japanese actor (Rinko Kikuchi, of Babel fame) in The Brothers Bloom, which looks hilarious and awesome. Directed by the same guy who did Brick, starring Adrian Brody and Rachel Wiesz, this looks like possibly a sleeper hit or unexpected blockbuster, depending on how much it’s pushed by the studio.
In Memoriam: Bluey
Bluey was given a fine send-off today, as signs of a terminal affliction finally caused those working to cure him to give up hope of a recovery. The best Bluey could manage today was an asthmatic wheeze, and with nary a pulse in evidence, the decision was made to bring to an end any further life support efforts.
As a 2 Stroke, 160cc Victa, little was asked of Bluey but to do his job, month in, month out, and he served well for 15 years, having come to his current role after being retrenched from his last for a younger model. For many years, though hot weekends and sodden ones both, Bluey strove to fulfill his purpose faithfully, although it sometimes took more than a curse or two before he got going.
In recent times, Bluey had become more and more crantankerous, occasionally stopping for no apparent reason what so ever. Things came to a head over the summer, as even in fine mowing conditions Bluey would not co-operate, drinking in a rich fuel mix but barely turning over. And thus it was that Bluey met his demise, although whether it was timely or not is left unanswered.
Bluey will be most sorely missed by Jerry and Jerry Jnr., petrol cans that served alongside him for years. Their future remains unknown, as a replacement is yet to be determined, and they face obsolecense in the form of the new-fangled electrics.
Obama’s Halo
(via)
Bargain!
Ah, Telstra. (via Kelson)
Unsporting should be un-Australian
Not for the Australian cricket team, not yet.
The incident: A. B. de Villiers, third ball of the second over, Australia v South Africa, 20-20 match, gets a Tait special in his gut, edging off his bat. In pain, he keels over and inadvertantly hits the stumps, out hit-wicket.
The man is doubled over in pain on the grass, and the Australian team? Celebrating away, meters from the man.
This is an image that will linger in my mind for a while yet – that the disgusting sporting behaviour continues, that not a man on the Australian team took a second to ask that de Villiers was ok.
Disgusting.
My Favourite Bushisms
As we approach January 20, we know that the people who will miss GWB the most is clearly the comedians, particularly when he’s the source of endless quality quotes – here’s a choice list of a few as collected by the AP:
- “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.” – September 2000
- “Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?” – January 2000
- “There’s no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail.” – Oct. 4, 2001
- “There’s an old saying in Tennessee – I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee – that says, fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again.” – Sept. 17, 2002
- “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” – Aug. 5, 2004
- “We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job.” – Sept. 20, 2005
- “It was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship. After all, 60 years we were at war 60 years ago we were at war.” – June 29, 2006, speaking with Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi
- “Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die.” – Dec. 7, 2006
- “Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech.” – April 16, 2008, to the Pope
- “I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office.” – June 26, 2008
- “This thaw… took a while to thaw, it’s going to take a while to unthaw.” – Oct. 20, 2008, talking about the frozen credit market.
Here’s hoping some other character appears to make up for the lack of Bush or Palin on the world stage.
Laptops aren’t safe at USA Customs
Turns out, US Customs can search and seize laptops at will:
Laptops and other electronic devices can be seized [by Customs officials] without reason, their contents copied, and the hardware returned hours or even weeks later.
Holee fuck me. Between this and the TSA, I’m never going to the US again.
Getting a Wii
Any owners or frequent players of the Nintendo Wii: What do I need to know about it that I might not know already? What games do I need to get? (Note: bias towards party games) Can I hack it to do stuff that it wasn’t designed for?