The Internet is for Porn
This is a hilarious video. The images are SFW, the lyrics are borderline NSFW. The music is from a Broadway show called Avenue Q, which I might see in Vegas in a few weeks.
Seen, Heard, Said
Things I’ve seen, heard, or was told by someone. Item in this category usually originate from the Internet.
Beer Me
This is awesome…and potentially a fun summer project I might need to try out.
Have you ever gotten up off the couch to get a beer for the umpteenth time and thought, “What if instead of ME going to get the BEER, the BEER came to ME???”
I know I have…
Well, that was how I first conceived of the beer launching fridge. About 3 months and several hundred dollars later I have a fully automated, remote controlled, catapulting, man-pit approved, beer launching mini-fridge.
The really good part starts at the 76 second mark.
via BoingBoing
One. Word. Questionare.
Because it’s Friday and I’m waiting for my turn at Guitar Hero.
1 word survey
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.
Not as easy as you might think.
1. Where is your cell phone?: pocket
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend?: none
3. Your hair?: haircut
4. your mother?: seattle
5. Your father?: seattle
6. Your favorite thing?: happy
7. Your dream last night?: none
8. Your favorite drink?: water
9. Your dream car?: hybrid
10. The room you’re in?: chris’s
12. Your fears?: failure
13. What do you want to be in 10 years: solver
14. Who did you hang out with last night?: mike
16. Muffins?: yum
17. One of your wish list items?: graduate
18. Where you grew up?: Seattle
19. The last thing you did?: this
20. What are you wearing?: usual
21. Your TV?: off
22. Your pet(s)?: Dunstan
23. Your computer?: tablet
24. Your life?: interesting
25. Your mood?: tired
26. Missing?: sleep
27. What are you thinking about right now?: food
28. Your car?: outside
29. Your work?: always
30. Your summers?: short
31. Your ex?: Sarah
32. Your favorite color(s)?: orange
33. When is the last time you laughed?: today
34. Last time you cried?: dunno
35. School?: hard
via Jessica Fusher
Brian’s Tolot Balls
In the last few months, Brian has been to more school dances than I have in my entire school life (I think, I’m pretty sure that’s right). And because I like posting funny pictures of the little bro…
Suspenders? Common!
ok lets see so this all happened like 2 saturdays ago
so i get this random call from some one i don’t know and they are like uhh is this brian? and i am like yeah they are like are going to be home today
im like yeah and then they hang up
so now im reall confused but i forget about it and then a few hours later i get a call from trisha who is one of merediths friends and she is like brian stop dancing to gold digger and come out side
mom and dad wern’t home so i was playing x box with the music really loud
so there this box on with my name on it and red ballon attached that says press play and has an arrow pointing down. theres also a tape recorder sitting on top of the box. when i press play it is meredith but she is talking like borat
don’t worry its not that weird we have a little history around borat so it was an inside joke kinna thing
are you going to put the pictures up on your web page
you could call it brians tolot balls
Cure for Cancer?
Could it really be true. Apparently:
It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.
Wikipedia has more information:
Cancer cells also use glycolysis rather than oxidation, and have defective mitochondria. The body often kills damaged cells by apoptosis, a mechanism of self-destruction that involves mitochondria, but this mechanism fails in cancer cells. Michelakis at the University of Alberta[5] hypothesized that dichloroacetate, by restoring mitochondrial function, may restore apoptosis and kill cancer cells.
There are a couple twists though. First, dichloroacetate is no longer patented. This is good because the cost to produce it would be extremely cheap. But this also comes with a downside, since pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t be making a killing off selling the drug, getting financing for clinical trials might be hard.
Hat tip to Quinn McGinnis for pointing out this report.
If You Have Nothing to Hide
Inboxen™ cleaning time:
Quick, witty, and good responses to: If you have nothing to hide, then what are you worried about?
- So you won’t mind the new law requiring all letters to be written on postcards?
- If I’m not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me.
- Because the government gets to define what’s wrong, and they keep changing the definition.
- Because you might do something wrong with my information.
- If you’ve got nothing to hide, why don’t you post your credit card statements on the Internet?
- Mind if I make a video of you fucking your wife then?
via BoingBoing via Ask MetaFilter.
Visa/Mastercard Minimum Price Rules
It’s happened to me a few times, I walk up to a counter to buy something, a bagel and some milk for example (true story!). The lady at the register points to the sign, “Minimum $3 purchase for credit cards, please!”
So far, I’ve been lucky. I usually don’t carry cash, but everytime this has happened, I’ve always had cash with me.
However, having a minimum charge (or a maximum for that matter) is against terms Visa and Mastercard have.
Here’s the actual wording from Visa, page 14 of the Rules for Visa Merchants for those playing the home game:
Always honor valid Visa cards, in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts is a violation.
mental_floss makes a good point:
Now, your local merchants might argue that paying credit card fees on miniscule purchases eliminates their profit margins. And that sounds pretty reasonable.
Even with PayPal, I think it’s something like 30 cents plus 3.2% of the transaction. On a $3 transaction, PayPal would get 40 cents, just over 13% of the total transaction. That’s a pretty hefty amount for a small business, especially if lots of people charge small amounts.
Personally, I think it would be in the best interests of businesses to create a consortium for a new Open Source debit platform (I don’t think it would work for credit). No per-a-transaction fees or percentage cuts, just a yearly subscription fee based on net income to pay for the infrastructure for such a system.
via mental_floss and The Consumerist.
The Knack
Mom sent this to me:
Update 1/9/2009: Updated to a video that works
I Won’t Grow Up
The rise of the boy-genius: psychological-neoteny, science and modern life.
The mid-twentieth century saw the rise of the boy-genius, probably because a personality type characterized by prolonged youthfulness is advantageous both in science and modern life generally. This is the evolution of ‘psychological-neoteny’, in which ever-more people retain for ever-longer the characteristic behaviours and attitudes of earlier developmental stages.
Psychological neoteny.
See also: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/08/why_teenagers_are_mo.html
If growing up means
It would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree,
I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up
Not me!