After realizing that McCain meant to say, “I’m older than dirt and have more wrinkles than Frankenstein” I still don’t get the joke nor why that line was prepared ahead of time for the MTV Audience. Is there a sudden Frankenstein/MTV cult thing I don’t know about?
David Zucker, the director of Airplane, Naked Gun, and producer Scary Movie 4 spoofs Madeleine Albright’s meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jong Il. Drudge Report got the exclusive on the video:
I can see this going viral, I hope there are more of these videos are coming. Not for a political standpoint, but for the pure entertainment it provided.
One of my own latest online obsessions is to create Google Alerts about almost every topic I can think of. When you set up a Google Alert (Or Yahoo Alert, CNN Alert, depending on your favorite service) Google polls the internet for the term you enter and returns the latest and most relevant news articles. Sometimes you will receive the same article more than once, just with a different title. This can be a pain especially if the news story becomes top news. Other times you will find an article that has some outlandish theory and then a few minutes later another article will post with it’s own theory on the same topic that is COMPLETELY different from the first. Which brings me to my semi-rant.
Sometimes I wish the scientific community would create their own version of Homeland Security. They could call it, “Geekland Security” or outright steal the name Central Intelligence Agency. Every time another scientist makes a discovery or has a new revelation they would have to share the information with Geekland Security, and in turn, the rest of the scientific community. This way there would be no possible way conflicting reports get out and they can better share the information.
Lately, there’s been a battle defining what Global Climate change is, what causes it, how long it’s going to last, and what to call it. Today alone Google Alerts sent me an article discussing that Global Warming will come by 2050 because of the ‘compost effect.” Another article claims that we won’t have full force Global Warming until 2100 if we keep “greenhouse gas emissions [...] at current levels“
(Yahoo News) Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is being made to watch his appearance in cult cartoon South Park while he is behind bars.
The deposed leader on trial in Iraq was featured in the movie spin-off as the lover of the devil. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut featured Hussein and Satan attempting to take over the world together.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said US Marines guarding the former dictator during his trial for genocide were making him watch the movie “repeatedly”.
“I have it on pretty good information from the Marines on detail in Iraq that they showed him the movie last year. That’s really adding insult to injury. I bet that made him really happy,” Stone said.
Did Saddam get a royalty check for appearing in the film?
Just browsing the net and I came across four completely unrelated stories that fall under the realm of the Global Warming/Climate Change debate.
The first is the top story on Drudge about the always evolving glaciers.
(BBC News) Global warming could be causing some glaciers to grow, a new study claims.
Researchers at Newcastle University looked at temperature trends in the western Himalaya over the past century.
They found warmer winters and cooler summers, combined with more snow and rainfall, could be causing some mountain glaciers to increasein size.
Let’s review. Global Warming, the weather pattern that everyone should fear, is supposedly going to cause the glaciers to melt and cause world wide terror. Waterfront property is to become the new Atlantis and Ohio is to become the new waterfront property. While the rest of the world is dying from sweat burning our skin, Pakistan will become a winter wonderland?
If only there was a way to stop Global Warming or Cooling or Change or whatever….
(USATODAY) When more than two dozen countries undertook in 1989 to fix the ozone hole over Antarctica, they began replacing chloroflourocarbons in refrigerators, air conditioners and hair spray.
But they had little idea that using other gases that contain chlorine or fluorine instead also would contribute greatly to global warming.
CFCs destroy ozone, the atmospheric layer that helps protect against the sun’s most harmful rays, and trap the earth’s heat, contributing to a rise in average surface temperatures.
In theory, the ban should have helped both problems.But the countries that first signed the Montreal Protocol 17 years ago failed to recognize that CFC users would seek out the cheapest available alternative.
The chemicals that replaced CFCs are better for the ozone layer, but do little to help global warming. These chemicals, too, act as a reflective layer in the atmosphere that traps heat like a greenhouse.
That effect is at odds with the intent of a second treaty, drawn up in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 by the same countries behind the Montreal pact. In fact, the volume of greenhouse gases created as a result of the Montreal agreement’s phaseout of CFCs is two times to three times the amount of global-warming carbon dioxide the Kyoto agreement is supposed to eliminate.
This unintended consequence now haunts the nations that signed both U.N. treaties.
Big Oops! Same article:
Some of the replacement chemicals whose use has grown because of the Montreal treaty — hydrochloroflourocarbons, or HCFCs, and their byproducts, hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs — decompose faster than CFCs because they contain hydrogen.
But, like CFCs, they are considered potent greenhouse gases that harm the climate — up to 10,000 times worse than carbon dioxide emissions.
That’s like having Los Angeles’ rush hour traffic on every interstate in the country 24/7. <HONK HONK>
The Russians give us hope because they predict Global Cooling…
(Mosnews)Global cooling could develop on Earth in 50 years and have serious consequences before it is replaced by a period of warming in the early 22nd century, a Russian Academy of Sciences’ astronomical observatory’s report says, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Friday.
Environmentalists and scientists warn not about the dangers of global warming provoked by man’s detrimental effect on the planet’s climate, but global cooling. Though never widely supported, it is a theory postulating an overwhelming cooling of the Earth which could involve glaciation.
“On the basis of our [solar emission] research, we developed a scenario of a global cooling of the Earth’s climate by the middle of this century and the beginning of a regular 200-year-long cycle of the climate’s global warming at the start of the 22nd century,†said the head of the space research sector.
And finally a tragic story between nature and industrial pollutants…
(MSNBC) The icecap may not be the only thing shrinking in the Arctic. The genitals of polar bears in east Greenland are apparently dwindling in size due to industrial pollutants.
Scientists report this shrinkage could, in the worst case scenario, endanger polar bears there and elsewhere by spoiling their love lives and causing their numbers to diminish.
(Times Online UK) BODIES of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday.
Research has indicated that mammalian sperm can survive being frozen for much longer than was previously thought, suggesting that it could potentially be recovered from species that have died out.
What type of sick freak would reintroduce an extinct species back into the general population. Aren’t these the same guys who panic when [name of species] is brought to [name of region] and destroys the [name of lesser species]?
And what type of burden would you be putting on this new creature? How would you like to be the only living Mammoth? All of your friends would be say, “Dude, what’s up with the fur? Did you mom marry a monkey?” And you’d respond by coughing up a hairball and spitting it through your tusk. Though it would be cool to be able to say 25,000 years ago your father was roaming the earth chasing cavemen.
(HILLSBOROUGH) - Thousands of bendable toys made their way into the hands and mouths of small children across North Carolina this summer through public library reading programs. Now those toys have been recalled for high levels of lead.
The State Library of North Carolina requested that local libraries recall 12,000 of the toys distributed across the state through the “Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales” summer reading program. The program is geared mainly to children 2 to 8 years old.
The lead is found in the accent paint, said Matt Mulder, director of Highsmith Publications, a school and library supply and publishing company in Wisconsin that sold the toys across the country.
“[For example] the dots on the Dalmatians, the white breast plates on the black cats,” Mulder said.
Tests this summer found the toys contain at least four times the lead that federal regulations allow.
( LOS ANGELES) Paris Hilton got no love this week from her pet kinkajou Baby Luv - in fact, the racoon-like animal bit her. The heiress was not badly hurt but did visit a hospital emergency room to receive a tetanus shot, her publicist, Elliot Mintz, told The Associated Press on Friday.
Hilton was frolicking with her exotic pet early Tuesday morning “the way some people play with their cats and dogs” when the animal became excited, Mintz said.
“Baby Luv bit her. It’s a superficial bite on her left arm,” he said.
Hilton, concerned that she was bleeding, called Mintz at 3 a.m., and he took her to the hospital.
“She was seen by a doctor, who treated the wound, gave her a tetanus shot, cleaned the wound and applied something to it,” Mintz said.
Every entertainer, broadcaster, blogger, or person needs a gimmick.
A gimmick is a unique or quirky special feature that makes something "stand out" from its contemporaries. Product gimmicks are sometimes considered mere novelties, and not really that relevant to the product’s functioning, even earning negative connotations. However, some seemingly trivial gimmicks of the past have evolved into useful, permanent features. Finding a successful gimmick for an otherwise mundane product is often an important part of the marketing process. (Wikipedia Article on Gimmicks)
I’m searching for a characteristic or mannerism that I do that I can incorporate into my blogging style for my own gimmick. It needs to be interesting, unique, and light-hearted. For instance, I could create a catchphrase or an ongoing gag-phrase that I use in every single post. Running gags are among the most successful and entertaining comedic styling that would fit perfectly in Half the Politics. I could start on a hard-hitting topic and then Half way through shift the post about another unrelated topic. Would that be a good gimmick to have or would it get distracting?
Who knows? I might have this huge post going about how social security reform is the crucial to the survival of our society and the post might end with me describing my day at work. Speaking of which one of my co-workers, who shall be renamed Marlena loves going to Missouri every weekend. She told me that its her "hillbilly" activity, meaning that she and her boyfriend camp out and fish and do hillbilly things. Sidebar: Even though I’m from Iowa that doesn’t mean I live in the country. When she said fish I needed her to explain what fishing was. I can just imagine Marlena jumping into a phone booth alone the Iowa-Missouri border and come out with overalls and pig tails.
Some State Legislative bodies debate issues that are what I consider to be A-List topics. For instance, South Dakota recently passed the Anti-Abortion bill which I’m sure you’ve all heard about. But, did you know that Iowa has an upcoming A-List topic that is currently being discussed on Capitol Hill?
Replacing Iowa’s blue and white license plates would carry a high price tag.
State transportation officials estimated Thursday it would cost $19.4 million to reissue plates. They did not provide a breakdown of the expenses.
A bill being considered by state lawmakers would require the Iowa Department of Transportation to issue new license plates "of a distinctively different design and color" every five years, beginning in January 2007.
Supporters of Senate File 2105, including the Iowa Motor Truck Association, counter that replacing license plates would raise more money for the state’s road fund, partly from increased compliance with vehicle registration requirements.
Supporters argue that requiring new license plates in a different color would force scofflaws to come forward and register their vehicles, because violators would be easy to spot.
Which side of the License Plate issue, or Senate File 2105 as I affectionately refer it as, do you stand on? I’ve always felt that the current design was way better than the old white/blue plates that the state used to have. I’m not sure how the plates themselves will bring in more people to Iowa.
Let’s say you are in Illinois and you are driving around minding your own business. Then suddenly you drive your car into a designated parking spot. Hours later an Illinois couple walks by and they notice something is wrong. This car with the Iowa plates does not belong! Does this trigger electrical charges in the "vacation" synapses about vacationing to Iowa? Probably not. Now, if the Iowa plate had naked women on it…
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