Wonder what her parents wanted her to be?


From here.

"Our Kansas"?!?!?!


The name "Arkansas" reflects both our French and Indian heritage. The French explorers referred to the native Americans who lived in northern Arkansas as "Arkansaes" (meaning South Wind).

The spelling comes from early French usage and the precedent set by the Arkansas Gazette. The pronunciation was determined by the General Assembly of 1881 after much investigation. The name is pronounced "Ark-an-saw", not "Ark-an-sas". At one time it was against the law to mispronounce the name, so be careful out there!

Little Rock was actually named for a little rock. Early travelers used a stone outcropping on the bank of the Arkansas River as a landmark. "La Petite Roche" marked the transition from the flat Mississippi Delta region to the Ouachita Mountain foothills. Travelers would refer to the area as "the little rock" and the name stuck.

The lead animator from " Matrix - Reloaded" has his own project... "Killer Bean Forever".

The Site, with trailer on the front page.

Byroglyphics

More Here.

Mountain bike + motor = fun.

Complete Article.

Probably the best EVER SNL skit....

So, I'm perusing a random blog about Speed Week, the Bonneville Salt flats event, and I remember I found a site last year with some great pics, Jonesblog.

I check it out. He delivers. These are from him this year....

Again, haven't we learned ANYTHING from the "Terminator" movies?!?!?

From Dailycostume.

"We see the Solar Bug as a transitional vehicle, a way to begin getting away from the gas pump," says Steve Titus. "You can't use it for vacations, and you can't take it on the highway. But just think of being able to fuel up your car on sunlight and about a dollar a day of electricity. That's pretty sweet."

It sports a roof full of solar cells, one seat forward and back, incredible visibility, and the look of dune buggy crossed with an Ipod.

• Top Speed: 35mph
• Range: 60 miles + from fully charged batteries
• Solar: 200 watts roof mounted (10-20 miles per day)
• Regenerative Braking
• Capacity: 2 person
• Drive Batteries: 6-12 volt AGM
• Battery Charger: Single Bank
• 4-6 hours recharge: Charge cost: 30-60¢
• Acceleration Control: Hand Throttle
• Lighting Controls: Finger tip control
• Drive: Belt
• Safety: Roll Bar Protection with Seat Belts
• Body: Fiberglass
• Vehicle Weight: 900 pounds

SolarBug

New and Improved Stereotypes

To teach your kids

The answers you seek are Here.

Niagara Falls - From Space!!!

Things that should not be combined.....

Beer ads...

So, over at ebaumsworld.com, this is the most popular video of all time. I thought, " No way can a simple bootyshaking webcamgirl be # 1, I have more faith in humanity than that.!"

I was right...( 0:31)

P.S., video is SFW, the audio is not.















Two words... Chris Hansen

Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, began his career as a little known editorial cartoonist in the 1920s. His intriguing perspective and fresh concepts ignited his career, and his work evolved quickly to deft illustrations, modeled sculpture and sophisticated oil paintings of elaborate imagination.

Seuss's unique artistic vision emerged as the golden thread which linked every facet of his varied career, and his artwork became the platform from which he delivered 44 children’s books, over 400 World War II political cartoons, hundreds of advertisements, and countless editorials filled with wonderfully inventive animals, characters and clever humor.

For years Geisel’s father, a zoo superintendent, sent Ted beaks, horns and antlers from deceased animals at the Springfield Massachusetts Forest Park Zoo. In the 1930s, Ted created sculptures based on what he thought these animals would want to be reincarnated as. He called this his “Collection of Unorthodox Taxidermy.”

More Here.

Dog, chasing thunder, almost catches it....

Cocorosie - Hairnet Paradise

Ever hear one of those songs and you just can't decide if you like it or not? Like that... (4:08)

Aussie yacht design to challenge world speed record

A new sailing theory has produced a craft that can sail faster than the wind – US and Aus patents

“My aim is to challenge the world sailing speed record,” says Adelaide-based Fresh Innovator Stephen Bourn of his revolutionary patented sail craft design. “The design is suitable for both racing and exciting recreational sailing.”

Stephen’s new sail craft design can sail upwind and downwind faster than the wind. It has the potential to shatter the performance expectations set by conventional yachts, skiffs, catamarans, sailboards and kites.

“I decided to take a fresh look at the principles of sailing and the absolute limits to performance. What I came up with was a design that results in a much higher maximum speed,” says Stephen.

His theoretical breakthrough was written up as a prize-winning paper and international patents have been granted for the sail craft design.

Stephen’s work won him a place at Fresh Innovators – a national initiative that brings the work of 16 early career innovators to public attention. Following training in Sydney, the sixteen are now talking to the media, schools and business about their ideas. One of the 16 will win a study tour to the UK courtesy of the British Council Australia.

"We have proved the design concept on a number of radio-controlled models. We’ve also undertaken thorough analysis and computer simulation and are now seeking sponsorship to construct a full size craft”

The craft looks like a cross between an airplane and a sailing boat. Picture a catamaran where there is no trampoline, just a beam, and the second hull is much reduced in size. Underneath this smaller second hull is a scythe-like hydrofoil – the only part of the craft that doesn’t lift out of the water.

A single wing-like sail is attached to the central beam or mast that is not central to the boat, but rather sticks out at an angle on the opposite side to the hydrofoil.

The single hull is where the pilot, oops, sailor sits controlling the height, speed and direction of the craft by two joysticks.

“The positioning of the wing, hull and hydrofoil is inherently stable meaning, unlike conventional craft, there is no risk of capsize as the sail force increases,” says Stephen. “It can be launched from the beach and the cloth wing collapses quickly and easily for transport by trailer.”

As well as creating the next thrill-seeking toy for sailors and kite-surfers, Stephen plans to challenge for the World Speed Record. The record is currently held by an extreme purpose built craft that only sails in one direction on a unique flat-water course.

The design won second place in the Amateur Yacht Research Society (AYRS)-Hogg Memorial Prize at the London Boat Show in January 2002. It has been patented in Australia and overseas and a technical paper was published in the AYRS Catalyst Journal in January 2002.

About The Inventor

Stephen Bourn has a degree with honours in mathematics from the University of Adelaide. He has completed studies in computer science and leadership and is currently completing a PhD in pure and applied maths. He has thirty years of experience in sailing and has some experience in speed sailing as a member of the current record holding Macquarie Speed Sailing Team. His invention has been developed in his spare time – his working hours are spent with Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation on computer based war-gaming and simulation of logistics.

The Site.

Dog: I am starving.
Me: Actually, no. You aren't starving. You get two very good meals a day. And treats. And Best Beloved fed you extra food while I was gone.
Dog: STARVING.
Me: I saw you get fed not four hours ago! You are not starving.
Dog: Pity me, a sad and tragic creature, for I can barely walk, I am so starving. WOE.
Me: I am now ignoring you.
Dog: STARVING.
Dog: Did you hear me? I am starving.
Dog: Are you seriously ignoring me? Fine.

[There is a pause, during which the dog exits the room in a pointed manner.]

[From the kitchen, there comes a noise like someone is eating a baseball bat.]

Me, yelling: What the hell are you doing?
Me: *makes haste for the kitchen and finds dog there*
Dog: *picks up entire raw sweet potato, which is what was causing the baseball bat noise, and flees for the bedroom*
Me: *chases dog, retrieves most of sweet potato, less the portion which has disappeared into dog's gullet*
Dog: See? STARVING.
Me: ...That can't be good for you. It's a RAW SWEET POTATO.
Dog: I had to do it. I haven't been fed. Ever.
Me: You realize you aren't normal. Normal dogs don't steal raw sweet potatoes.
Dog, sadly: I was badly brought up.
Me: Yes. Yes, you were.
Dog: By people who starved me.
Me: Oh, no. I am not doing this again.
Me: *exits the room, bearing sweet potato*

[There is a pause.]

[There is a noise like someone is trying to eat a baseball bat very very quietly.]

Me: Oh, for the love of GOD.
Me: *heads off to the kitchen*
Dog: I am not eating a raw sweet potato.
Me: You have sweet potato parts all over your snout.
Dog: But you don't actually SEE a raw sweet potato, do you? So maybe that's just - um. A birthmark.
Me: Did you seriously eat a whole sweet potato?
Dog: You don't listen. I told you, I wasn't eating a sweet potato.
Me, searching around fruitlessly: Look. NO MORE SWEET POTATOES.
Me: Oh, what am I saying? This is you we're talking about, here. *goes to hide all the sweet potatoes that are left - which isn't many - in the fridge, because some people cannot be trusted*
Dog: *attempts to look thwarted*
Dog: *does not succeed, because her tail is wagging so hard small cyclones are forming in the kitchen*
Me: *has a very bad feeling about this*

[There is a pause, during which I do not even bother trying to return to what I was doing. I just stand in the computer room, waiting.]

[There is, as I wholly expected, a baseball-bat-eating noise.]

Me, stomping back to the kitchen: OKAY. GIVE ME THE DAMNED SWEET POTATO.
Dog, looking up guiltily: What sweet potato?
Me: THE ONE IN YOUR MOUTH.
Dog: Oh, did you want this? I just, um. Found it. Lying here.
Me: *confiscates the sweet potato and deposits it in the locking trashcan*
Me: Let us say no more about this.
Dog: ...Nooooo! They be stealin' my sweet potato!

[I attempt to remember what I was doing before the sweet potato episode.]

[Some ten minutes later, I succeed, and return to it.]

[NOT ONE MINUTE LATER, I hear a noise with which I have become all too familiar.]

Me, bonking head on desk: Arg.
Me, arriving in kitchen: How did you even get another sweet potato?
Dog, smugly: I have my ways.
Me: Are you punishing me for being away for several days? I was at a FUNERAL, you know. It wasn't FUN.
Dog: How would I know? You didn't take me. You left me here with only one human to look after my needs. One human is NOT ENOUGH.
Me: *shuts dog in bedroom, conducts a sweep of the kitchen to track down all remaining sweet potatoes, wipes up random sweet potato particles from floor, eradicates all traces of sweet potato from house*
Me: *lets dog out*
Dog, sulkily: Oh, so you think you've won.

[I watch her go about her business with the same sense of overwhelming doom that heroines of Victorian novels get when they meet Count Sinistrus Grimblack for the first time.]

[Half an hour later, there is a wetter, juicier eating noise, as though someone was eating a very moist baseball bat.]

Me, wearily: What NOW?
Dog, hunched over the remains of a butternut squash: *says something garbled because her mouth is full*
Me: Okay. Fine.
Me: *stomps over, empties entire vegetable bowl into trash*
Me: WE JUST WON'T HAVE ANY ROOT VEGETABLES ANYMORE. THERE. ARE YOU HAPPY?
Dog: I'm not even remotely sorry. I told you I was hungry. And you went to a funeral without me.
Me: ARRRRRRRRG.

[A half-hour later, there is another baseball-bat-eating noise from the kitchen. The dog, who apparently does not know how to win gracefully, has found another sweet potato, or possibly caused one to materialize from the Rift.]

Me, hauling chewed sweet potato parts from the mouth of a dog very reluctant to part with them: Oh my god how is this my life?
Dog: Don't you think it would just be easier to feed me?
Me: EVERYONE GO TO THE BEDROOM AND STAY THERE. EAT NOTHING.
Dog: Actually, I feel...um...not so good.
Dog: *throws up* *vomit is very bright orange*

[Unfortunate details ensue.]

Some time later:
Me, attempting to rescue something from the wreckage: So. What have we learned from this?
Dog: Sweet potatoes are yummy!
Other Dog, looking thoughtful: I should pay more attention to crunching noises. Sweet potatoes are probably yummy.
Me: I need a lobotomy.


From Here.

Tunes...

Going back a while. Think mid-late 90's.

I first heard this as the soundtrack to a homemade video of a mountainbiker flowing down a great fast trail - stuck ever since...

Moby - Honey

Geeky, odd Canadian band...

Moxy Fruvous - Green Eggs And Ham



Moxy Fruvous - The Drinking Song

It's back. I'll be there this weekend with camera in hand. Stay tuned.....