I think one can get to the ground from a cliff without a personal flying machine.

I thought the art of flying (or rather, the knack to flying) lay in learning how to throw oneself at the ground and missing.

Is it?

Never read The Caves of Steel, did you?

Shame on you; go to the library. Now.


OT: Did I do this one yet?

http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/

All I know is, I WANT A TRAINBOAT.

(And isn't anyone gonna say "The future, Conan?")

@Hejira: I hope you know a good surgeon that can get this barb out of my side...

@idjaf: Kudos for you.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...03272262158881

First time I watched it, didn't realize there was audio. But basically, it's just a lame voiceover. Easily ignorable.

I dunno if this has been brought to the attention here or not, but I found this both incredibly stupid and incredibly funny.

Ha! If you're familiar with lolcats, check that out. It's a hoot.

In other news, here's a fantastic article about different perspectives on digital rights by Matt Skala, a fellow Waterloovian. It's a bit condescending in spots, but brilliantly presented. I for one feel smarter.

A lot of those almost seem snurched from When the Sleeper Wakes, but there's so little time difference in between them that it's probably more likely to be coincidence.

They actually have an "official pH 7.0" bottle someplace? It's water? Putting aside the fact that purified water should be relatively easy to come by, how would you keep an official water sample pure at 7.0 for very long?

Uhura: That be super cute. I take one.
Jones: It be ending up more than one. Ha ha.
Uhura/Chekov: Whut?
Jones: Never mind. I is foreshadowing.

I think that Jim Wright would enjoy this thing.

Okay, this is just plain awesome.

watch

Keep it sealed under nitrogen or argon and never, ever, ever open it.

Which may not be very helpful if you want to use it to calibrate something.

While reading something unrelated, I ran into the term "waldoes" and wondered what it meant. Turns out that waldoes are handheld devices for manipulating objects at a distance, like those claw things old people sometimes use. The term comes from a Heinlein story, oddly enough. But that's not the point.

The point is that during my search, I checked out Google Images. I expected a bunch of incorrect results involving "Where's Waldo." Was that what I got? No no, that would have made too much sense.

Here's the first page of results, which is full of -- naturally -- Spider-Man.

(It turns out this is because of the "Iron Spider" costume Spidey was wearing for the first half of Civil War, which had three retractable arm things. This of course explains why those images mostly show him in costumes other than the Iron Spider suit.)

If by full, you mean three, then yes. :p

I still call it the Iron Spidey suit. I'm also still wondering what the heck Tony Stark was drinking when he put THREE waldoes onto the suit. He's SPIDER-Man, right? As in EIGHT limbs, not seven. I could grok two waldoes, I could grok four, but three? That's just freaky.

Wow -- according to the hitcounter referrals, <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=What%20are%20the%20jedi%27s%20weakn esses&btnG=Search&meta=">Darth Vader just visited 5M.net</a>.

Uh, was that link and the conclusion thereof suppose to conform to an actual application of logic?

Yes, and I'm not interested in hearing whatever objection you're going to make -- "Vader already knows the Jedi's weaknesses" or whatever. I was making a joke, not proving a theorem.

In other news, Vern at AICN is seriously pissed about the PG-13 rating of Live Free Or Die Hard. Hard to argue with him, but man, this guy takes his action movies seriously.

Okay, you claim that "Darth Vader just visited 5Min.net." I follow the link and find a Google Search for "what are the Jedi's weaknesses?" The ninth entry on the list is the Episode Three fiver. I'm not seeing an explanation of why anyone would enter that question into Google, nor why you find it so interesting. Perhaps further elucidation would help.

Chillax dude. It was an idle joke. Overexplaning jokes never works. Especially idle ones.

We need to incorporate that into a fiver. "That's no idle joke..."

This is very late and it's on a weird site, but it's the best commentary on Michael Richards' self-destruction I've read so far. Like I did, this guy found it more baffling than offensive, and his comments make a little sense out of it.

Well, I'm glad someone sees the big picture. Destroying humanity is kid stuff; destroying the actual planet Earth is hard. Ankin Rotor would be proud.

My first smile was that he immediately nominated the Western Hemisphere (probably specifically because of the good ol' USA) to be transformed into antimatter.

On waiting for probability to spontaneously destroy the Earth:
"Note: the odds against this actually ever occuring are considerably greater than a googolplex (1010100) to one. Failing this, some kind of arcane (read: scientifically laughable) probability-manipulation device may be employed."
Hey, my name used to be Infinite Improbability, I had to enjoy this one. Don't they know all you need is a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain, an atomic vector plotter, and a nice hot cup of tea?

Desktop Tower Defence - a worryingly addictive flash game.

The MSTing Mine:

http://www.keithpalmer.ca/msting-mine/index.html

Think MST in written form. I just found it. Good stuff.

DBZ fans will wince at this one. We all know FUNimation got pretty ridiculous in censoring the anime, but seeing it all in one place will still leave you reeling. (For more, this page on my favourite DBZ site covers the really big differences in detail -- including the infamous HFI L, which you must read about if you haven't already, DBZ fan or not.)

...you have a favorite DBZ site?

Gatac

Well, I have an only DBZ site. I have no idea whether the others I used to visit are still around, I just know this one's good. My favourite back in the day, of course, was the one where you could read all the manga for free. I was one of that site's last customers before it got the inevitable cease-and-desist.

DBZ was a part of my youth, and I have affection for it, despite all the goofiness. Till the day I die I'll be able to tell you all the Z Fighters' signature moves. It's like many people my age and Power Rangers, or (educated guess here, let me know if I'm wrong) you and Transformers. I'll never get into those series now -- I wasn't on the ground floor. Only a kid can get past the silly stuff.

Transformers in-DEED.

Gatac

I was a big fan of both Power Rangers (and ALL of those Saban knockoffs) and Transformers. Ah, good times. The days when the mental circuits responsible for artistic taste aren't fully formed yet.

For that matter, I'm old enough to have been a He-Man fan! Looking back, I wonder why. "Microscopic childish brain" comes to mind.

Mornington Crescent, the most fascinating tube station known to man...

Brian Clevinger has endorsed PC Gamer's Galactic Civilizations II blogger for president. And really, could Rudy or Hillary run a space empire with quite the same charming ineptness... let alone get away with naming anything You Are All So Boned?

Here's a little snapshot of this guy's GCII experience:

"I attacked. The planet turned into a ship. The ship destroyed my ship. The ship turned back into a planet."

I almost bought that last week, but went with Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds instead. Needless to say RSI is bothering me once more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIlYRJbojM0

Hilarious flash movie of the Frasier cast portraying the Voyager cast. Probably a SNL skit or the like.

Things like that make me wish I had broadband NOW and not in 20 FRIGGING DAYS. Well I'll get back to you in an hour or so when that has actually loaded.

Ha! That was great, especially the whole Niles/Daphne joke.

And look, it DID take an hour to download.

And I'll actually add a link: The Book of Biff (I've linked to the first comic for convenience. Anyone who looks and the ads on Bob and George has probably already seen this.)

It's a little-known fact that elephant-proof does not imply cow-proof.

From the same author: hey there, blimpy boy, flying through the sky so fancy-free...

I miss the days when Straight Dope's boards weren't subscription-only.

"Elephant-proof"... ROFL