This is Democracy in Action, thanks to the lovely people of the state of Washington.

Well, politics doesn't get any more unusual than I-831, a state-wide initiative to officially proclaim that Tim Eyman is a Horse's Ass!

No, I-831 doesn't stop Tim from profiteering off his irresponsible initiatives. No, it doesn't force the Legislature to actually legislate. And no, it doesn't even attempt to reform the initiative process.
But neither does it cripple the state's ability to maintain its roads and schools, nor does it threaten the health, safety and education of its people... so as far as initiatives go, it's harmless. (And in a bid to win Tim's supporters: it doesn't raise taxes!)

So, if you agree that the initiative process has become a joke, join us in getting the last laugh. With your help, we'll show Tim that he's not the only horse's ass who can get a spectacularly stupid initiative on the ballot.

Cats in SPACE.. well not quite

In a project known as “Acoustic Kitty” the Directorate of Science and Technology sought to train a surgically altered cat, wired with transmitting and control devices, to become a mobile, eavesdropping platform. In its first test, the cat was run over by a taxi. According to Victor Marchetti:
they slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that. Finally, they’re ready. They took it out to a park bench and said “Listen to those two guys. Don’t listen to anything else – not the birds, no cat or dog – just those two guys!” ... They put him out of the van, and a taxi comes and runs him over. There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead!3
This heavily redacted memo appears to express the view that cats can be altered and trained to perform certain tasks. At the same time, it notes that “the environment and security factors in using this technique in a real foreign situation force us to conclude that, for our [intelligence] purposes, it would not be practical.”

I promise, I am NOT making this up.

"techno anarchist" and "uber-capatlism"

Something about these two phrases has kept me giggling for the last 20 minutes. Someone explain to me why I find these so damned funny?

ISLAMORADA, Florida (AP) -- A rescued pygmy sperm whale was recovering Friday in a resort hotel's heated saltwater pool, being treated for dehydration and wounds possibly inflicted by a harpoon.

This is offically one of the strangest pictures I've ever seen. I love it.

This reminds me of the pygmy sperm whale corpse I found once along an isolated strech of beach. Had been dragged in a fishing net, and thrown out to rot at sea, then washed ashore. Was a very sad sight.

Glamorus Beast

Waiting, outside in the snow
Breath steaming in the cold
Closed eyes, shielding from outside
that quiet, stealthy creature.

Pawprints lost in flurries
forgotten traces of the path you walk
Stalking monster,
wreathed in cigarette smoke
Halo

A glint of smile, of fang and claw
frett and fear you, from behind the glass
snow and silver, night born - pass
in the darkness

Gone again, back into the night.

Jesus did it for the chickens.

Hooters Air Takes Off

If it werent so close to home, I'd be laughing.

For those of you who dont know... my father works for the Hooters ProCup series. As if Pro Cup werent a pun enough.

...and in the event of a water landing, your flight attendant may be used as a flotation device.

This is what i get for searching spherical chickens on google.


There is this farmer who is having problems with his chickens. All of the sudden, they are all getting very sick and he doesn't know what is wrong with them. After trying all conventional means, he calls a biologist, a chemist, and a physicist to see if they can figure out what is wrong. So the biologist looks at the chickens, examines them a bit, and says he has no clue what could be wrong with them. Then the chemist takes some tests and makes some measurements, but he can't come to any conclusions either. So the physicist tries. He stands there and looks at the chickens for a long time without touching them or anything. Then all of the sudden he starts scribbling away in a notebook. Finally, after several gruesome calculations, he exclaims, "I've got it! But it only works for spherical chickens in a vacuum."

On a simmilar note...

To: Internation Slaughter House of Pancakes
We, the undersigned, wish to raise the awareness of, and end the horrid cruelty that is perpetrated twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week throughout the United States and portions of Canada. Every day, millions upon millions of these gentle creatures are brought into this world, only to be drowned in thick viscous liquids and savagely torn asunder and eaten by heartless citizens. I am talking, of course, about IHOP and the daily holocaust of pancakes.

Pondering Birthdays

Ok so this is trite and cliche, but I have to do it.
I turn 22 on Monday, 3 years short of the 1/4 century mark. I've lived through four presedents, two of them Bushes, one major war and several "peace keeping" missions, the strangeness of the 80's, the boom of the 90's, and the dawn of a new millenium. I've seen my homeland attacked by terrorists, and recover from it more united and vocal than ever. I've been to the home of my Greatgrandmother, who left Ireland when she was 16 to make a new life for herself in America, and seen the very same places she grew up in, and the places here where she reached almost 100 years old.
What is my life so far been worth?
I've been a student of the world, learning from it as I travel and as I live my everyday life. But have i really contributed anything back to it yet? I would like to think there are those out there who think I have made their lives better in some small way, even if they don't know me. But nothing I have done yet has really been something I will be remembered for past my lifetime.
Will the things I dream of really come to be?
Will I be one of the first on Mars, following the dream of the Athena and her crew? Will I be one of the powerful, the influential, who will have some power, some force, in the world I live in now? Will I be remembered as a great philosopher, or a great writer, or even a great teacher?
Or will I simply be remembered by my grand children as I remember my Great Grandmother - a strong willed woman who lived a good life, loved a good man, and raised her children right?
Even if that last is the case, I will be happy with it. What you acomplish for history means very little if you do nothing for your own flesh and blood.

Though... I still would like to go to Mars.

Jotting down Ideas - Ideas running through my head too fast to solidify.. but they are getting there.

Heero after the end of Devil in the Dark, trying to rip off his wings, only to find them always growing back. Image: Face covered in tears and blood, hands holding bloody clumps of feathers, wings drooping, hanging tattered and bloody but whole.

Kenshin with golden eyes, drawing faces and flowers in a pool of blood, laughing.

Laura Johnas, laughing about her falling out with God over dinner with the professor.

The professor's tower lab / home, with the round bed covered in books, the prof asleep in the middle of them.

A Shinto temple in full festival decor, but with all the stremers black instead of white, and the shrine maiden a demon.

Spider crawling across wooden floor boards, unfinished and weather warn.

Dawn with a flight of dragons flying in sillouette.

I should do this more often.

So yes, trippy poetry is induced by watching Cowboy Bebop, listening to Akira sound track, and downloading (redownloading) Gundam Wing Yaoi manga. I guess i need to limit my trippy intake to ONE source a night. Nah, that would take all the fun out of life.

Dream Space

So dream, dream the polyphony
Voices seen but never heard
Eyes closed, such an easy tune
Be fluid, move soft - those are the words
Oh yes, we know the path
The way forward and the way back
Are you the Chamelion?

Dream in Plaid, black and blue
Something different, something nue
Cork pop, champaign froth
New Years bells in this tiny hell
Watch the bullet dance across my hand
Go ahead and run,
youll never make it very far, you know

One eye looking forward, into the Past
One eye behind, looking for the Future
Are you the Chamelion?

So I have been sporatic in posting. Arent I always? Least no one reads this regularly enough to notice the lack of posts.

Second week of classes: So far so good.
Anthro: already had one argument with the prof, but things going well.
Astronomy: Looking forward to mars lecture tomrrow, had fun questioning prof on mars geology.
Marketing: Eh. About as interesting as it could be, I guess.
Sys Design: Great if they dont uninrole me (ducks)
Bcom: so far, only one class, but prof is good.


Other updates: Rampway moving Tomorrow or Wens. Still dont have new site stuff from Bucky.
CS dept move rescheduled to Feb (read: april).

Miss my friends from the Phil dept this semester since i'm not taking any classes over there. Hoping to not look like too much of an idiot in my Anthro class with all the grad students in there. Sort of worried some will resent me as a non major.

Think I may be catching something, too, sinuses hurt. Hope not.

Going to put some work into revamping Nightmare and other parts of my site. Any advice?

Why do I ask, no one reads this.

Secret Diaries of the Fellowship

Perigrin Took:DAY FOURTEEN

Gandalf dead. Everyone morose. In attempt to cheer up Fellowship, Legolas took off all his clothes and performed scenes from Silmarillion: The Musical. Everyone still morose. Legolas ponced off to have 3,000-year-old elf prince sulk.

William Gibson on Why PDA e books will never Replace Books

You could have sex relatively comfortably on a platform of books, but not on a platform of PDA’s. Hardcover books. Paperbacks might start sliding around. Though I’d still prefer paperbacks to a pile of PDA’s.

THAT the best explination of it I can think of. End of Story.

William Gibson's Blog

First day of classes

Oy. Ok im not going to talk about all the shit that happend today, because im not that bitchy on here usuaully, and I'm grateful everything worked out.

But today was the first day of classes, and so far so good. Classes seem ok other than extrainious shit happening around them.

So... viva la anthropology.

Something is very zen about an oragami Platypus.

Happiness is:

A bowl of rainbow sherbert and a glass of cold seltzer before bedtime.

Happy New Year.

Fun coder fact for the day:

In the HTTP spec, "referer" is misspelled, but due to being adopted as a standard, is correct for use in talking about that particular HTTP header. "Referrer" is the proper spelling otherwise.