VH-1 Celebreality: Get a life. Theirs.

Wanna-stab-40-random-bystanders-nownownow? Join the club - mine!

2-Dish Link Salad.

RUNNING ON EMPTY - The REAL Reason Gas Prices Went Down - chaos and butterflies and obfuscation, oh my!

We are so collectively screwed. (via Ran Prieur)

Sixth Sense? I'll Have The Magnetic Kind If You Please - Yowza. I want one of these. Does that make me a U-Man? You be the judge, you adorable geek you :)

This is Bullshit.

"Ugly" Betty? I Think Not.

Normally, I don't notice this sort of thing. My threshold/definition range for beauty is exceedingly wide; for instance, I think Paris Hilton is in fact pretty and sexy. Sue me. I also think Sandra Bernhard is attractive - in the right pose, the right light, when genuinely smiling - sometimes, at any rate.

Point being: this show is being praised for acknowledging inner beauty, sticking it to the hollow, skin-deep aesthetic of the fashion world blah blah blah. Bullshit. This show is a horror. I am truly frightened for the mass psyche of America if:



is what is considered ugly these days. You fools, you dicks, you complete and utter cocks. Ever seen Not Another Teen Movie? Fine, you haven't. There's a scene where the so-called ugly nerd takes off her glasses, shakes loose her hair and is magically a hottie. The joke was that she was just as hot beforehand.

Braces or not, that girl is fine as hell. You all know it. Why, then, are the reviewers tacitly complicit with the creators of this hunter-destroyer psychological attack? Please advise, preferably before I skin my knuckles in pointless inchoate rage.

And Now, For Something Completely Different.

Get your Pr0n pn with Yo' Clothes On, Yo.



I want to say something insightful and intelligent here, with references to sociobiology and the inculcating effects of common media on the mass psyche etcetera etc ... but really, all I can do is stare - and stare. And Stare.

Note to Self on Emergency Survival.

The bleach was for a trick I picked up in China. In remote areas there you can’t get bottled water. Even the locals stick to tea, which they boil for 15 minutes. After a while, I got tired of brushing my teeth with tea, and I learned that two drops of bleach in a liter of water makes it potable. If you put a slice of lemon or lime in it, it doesn’t taste like a city pool. Now when I travel in developing countries, I always pack a vial of bleach. (This also works for bathing—one teaspoon in a gallon of water.) - from a 2005 article by Richard Rhodes, on how he coped in New Orleans during Katrina.

Good to know.

Future Hi going on hiatus.

Paul Hughes has been posting on issues of transhumanism, technology, spirituality and plain old humanism for the past five years and doing a damn good job of it too. Paul Hughes has news for you -- he is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore.
Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you people? Starvation, war, overcrowding, obesity, blinding idiocy, zero-sum capitalism, zero-sum everything -- just die already and make room for some other non-asshole species.

Okay, I'm being facetious. On a more serious note, it's been a delight to absorb his optimism and his concisely intelligent writings on ... well, on just about everything I give a crap about online. Now, he seems to be undergoing a metamorphosis of opinion, tragic for the likes of me*, but the right decision for him. To quote Hannibal Tabu, "Seek solutions." I wish him all the best on his new journey.



*now I'm stuck with Ran Prieur :D

Peter Watts has, for some reason, been fictionalizing his bloggage* of his ongoing US tour. As dark as you'd expect.



*gag

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Even better, however, is that ...

Nissan will be trying out inter-vehicle messaging system come October 1st.

Japanese carmaker Nissan has announced plans to test an "intelligent transportation system" that sends wireless messages to passing cars. The company said on Friday that it plans to include 10,000 drivers in a 30-month experiment.

Messages will be beamed optically from roadside beacons to passing cars in the trial. Information received by an onboard computer will then be used to alert a driver to potential danger from an approaching vehicle or inform them of traffic congestion ahead, Nissan said in a statement.

...

The system also includes "dynamic route finder" which informs drivers of the quickest route to their destination using data collected from other vehicles. Drivers will be able to synchronise their cellphone with a car's navigation system in order to relay information about their journey to a central command system.


No, No, NO. And you were doing so well too; stop with the central command systems already!

Late to the Party (or Funeral as the Case may Be)

9/11 - Five Years Later

SEPTEMBER 11 is a date forever etched in our minds. The terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 inaugurated a new era of uncertainty, fear, and hatred. For some influential sections in the West, these attacks have reaffirmed a belief in an inevitable "clash of civilisations'. Such a binary view of the world coupled with an opportunism has led to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and more recently Israel's brazen assault on Lebanon. After decades of unprecedented peace, the mindless bombings in Madrid and London have introduced a new and gruesome dimension to European life. Given the political and economic preponderance of the West, the impact of these events is felt worldwide. Thus, at home, the terrible bombings of Mumbai's trains are now viewed as a part of this global menace.

Despite the disbelief of its citizens and feigned innocence of its leaders, America's international record has been far from simon-pure. It is in response to such duplicity that alert minds have reminded us of another 9/11. On the same date, in 1973, the democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, was overthrown in a coup that was aided and abetted by the American Government. With Allende dead, Chile rapidly descended into a long era of darkness under the right-wing Augusto Pinochet.

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It's all been said. And better too. Go.

The Restaurant at the End of the Future - or the End of Chicago at any rate.



Perhaps Cantu's greatest innovation at Moto is a modified Canon i560 inkjet printer (which he calls the "food replicator" in homage to Star Trek) that prints flavoured images onto edible paper. The print cartridges are filled with food-based "inks", including juiced carrots, tomatoes and purple potatoes, and the paper tray contains sheets of soybean and potato starch. The printouts are flavoured by dipping them in a powder of dehydrated soy sauce, squash, sugar, vegetables or sour cream, and then they are frozen, baked or fried.

The most common printed dish at Moto is the menu ...

Found via Schlocktroops

Let's hope nobody gets food-poisoning/cancer and spoils it for the rest of us.