Cyborg Jon

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 10:05 PM
I came across a website that takes your name (no more than 10 letters) and turns it into an anacronym for a cyborg version of you.

So I made one for Jon:

Cyborg Jon Stewart

If your interested in your own cyborg:
http://cyborg.namedecoder.com/

Cerveza de la ahora

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 7:02 PM

Cerveza de la ahora, originally uploaded by james94103.

Con hielo, cal, y sal

Me gusta

Taco the chihuahua

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 6:41 PM

Taco the chihuahua, originally uploaded by james94103.

She is showin' off her bits
Rate 0-10

a dried rose in the parkinglot

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 9:09 PM
I found this really pretty dried out rose sitting in the middle of a Target parking lot. It was very nicely intact! I'm very sorry to say that by the time I'd gotten home many hours later most of the petals had fallen off (I realize now I should have left it in the car), but I had them all so I put them all together and tacked the whole thing to my wall. :)

Luckily I took a picture before I put it in my messenger bag. Which I still regret greatly.

This picture is actually taken once I picked it up, and I was inside. I didn't take one in the parking lot for various reasons.



bigger image )

On Location

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 7:13 PM

On Location
Originally uploaded by amboy00.

Jul. 12th, 2009

  • 5:54 PM
hooking up the tv and the vcr and the sound system = buh?

What I Live By-

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 8:53 PM
I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon. I seek to develop whatever talents have been given to me—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly.

When East meets West

  • Jul. 13th, 2009 at 12:59 AM

There is a widespread consensus among most climate researchers and scientific organizations that the planet is warming due to greenhouse gas emissions mostly produced by human activity. But when it comes to what we should do about it, there is nothing like a consensus. The methods that do exist can be divided into two broad categories: reducing emissions by making it them 1) expensive or 2) obsolete. Past experience suggests that in the end, obsolete will be the most effective solution, and the synthesis of government, science, and good old fashioned capitalism is the best bet to make it possible.

It wasn't that long ago when the same political party now convinced government spending is reckless or evil -- unless it involves tax cuts for billionaires or killing people -- presided over one of the greatest counterexamples to their thesis:

At 12:47 Louie Jacobs, who was Central Pacific telegrapher at the end of track ticked out this message. "Almost ready. Hats off: prayer is being offered." ... and all over the country groups of people gathered in telegraph offices to hear the bulletins ... At Washington, D. C. a ball was suspended outside the capitol building which was detached and dropped at the first tap of the hammer at Promontory. Wires were extended to the bell in the capitol dome and each tap of the hammer more than 2000 miles away was repeated on the great bell.

And with those ceremonial hammer blows on May 10, 1869 in the rugged high desert of Promontory Point, Utah, America was connected from sea to shining sea via the first transcontinental railroad. It was the culmination of decades of cooperation between government agencies and railroad companies, the present day equivalent of trillions of dollars invested, and the subject of bitter controversy every hard won step of the way.

Some worried the financial burden alone would wreck the US economy, or threaten the delicate pre Civil War balance between the agrarian South and industrial North. A number of naysayers said the railroad would never work; snow and ice would leave goods and passengers stranded in the wilderness. Indians would raid the freight and scalp the riders. Others opined it would work too well and put thousands of stage coach operators and merchant ships out of business. The railroads were corrupt and that graft was being spread to the government, it invited unwelcome immigrants, conscript labor in most cases. The whole thing was all a giant rip off of the American taxpayer ... and on and on. The skeptics were mostly sincere, some of their arguments sound, a few tragic predictions even came to pass, but in general they could not have been more wrong.

Far from ruining the nation, transcontinental railroads were a major factor in forging the country we know today. The demand for steel and timber alone alone fueled an enormous economic boom in mills and coal mines. Goods and people soon moved back and forth in days instead of weeks, the cost to ship materials subsequently dropped, and the average standard of living skyrocketed. Energy and steel tycoons rose to great wealth and funded schools, hospitals, and observatories. Universities created and then expanded engineering and science departments to meet the demand, newly minted professionals trained in those fields rolled off the academic assembly line like steam engines and rail ties to usher in an era of innovation. The telephone, phonograph, electric lights, anesthetics, and Kodak film; the fruits of labs and research facilities, from Menlo Park to Mount Wilson, soon escorted the growing United States out of the Wild West and onto the world stage as a global, technological super-power.  

We the People partnering up with the best the academic and private sectors have to offer to meet great challenges, it’s the tried and true American way from Kitty Hawk to Mare Tranquillitatis and back to Silicon Valley. It's a big part of what made us a great nation. While we have used that home-grown ingenuity for war and peace, looking back over the last 150 years, it’s hard to argue with the results. And as fate would have it, today we have an opportunity to continue that legacy, in peace, whether it's building a future in space or rebuilding another on earth with alternative energy and green technology. Just as so many times in the past there are a lot of good, mutually inclusive reasons to do it. And sadly, just as then, there is no scarcity of no-can-do skeptics who say we cannot, or should not, do great things again.


Sunday cooking class continues

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 5:10 PM

Sunday cooking class continues, originally uploaded by james94103.

Ground pork, bacon, tomato, balsalmic reduction

Swearing mitigates pain

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Some experimental evidence to suggest that swearing makes pain less traumatic, though the mechanism by which is does this shit is unclear:
The study, published today in the journal NeuroReport, measured how long college students could keep their hands immersed in cold water. During the chilly exercise, they could repeat an expletive of their choice or chant a neutral word. When swearing, the 67 student volunteers reported less pain and on average endured about 40 seconds longer.

Although cursing is notoriously decried in the public debate, researchers are now beginning to question the idea that the phenomenon is all bad. "Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it," says psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in England, who led the study. And indeed, the findings point to one possible benefit: "I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear," he adds.

Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief (via /.)

Mario recreation on India's Got Talent

  • Jul. 12th, 2009 at 2:58 PM

Here's a superior group of young Indian gamers recreating Super Mario onstage for an installment of the reality TV show "India's Got Talent."

India's got talent- Mario game (Thanks, Kvaid!)

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