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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A good samaritan.

In the blog the other day we mentioned our car breaking down, and how a good Samaritan helped us out by going out of his way to drive the family home. In an E-mail from our friend Brushy Clump, he mentioned researching good Samaritans, and although we already knew of the reference in the bible (In which Christ tells the parable of the good Samaritan.) we did not know that Samaritans were a religious sect that coexisted with the early Jewish religion, and that they were reviled by the Jews (and early Christians as well.) It seems when Christ mentioned the Samaritan in the parable he way implying that even a hated Samaritan can get to heaven if they follow the tenets that he was teaching. The meaning of the parable, either that people other than Jewish people can commit good deeds, or that anyone can get into heaven. That being said, we could like to again thank our good Samaritan, who told us his name was Dick, he lived in Marquette and was on his way home, but he drove 14 miles out of his way to insure we got home. A very bright spot in an otherwise horrible evening. Ciao for now.

Monday, December 28, 2009

We would rather be bored.

In yesterdays blog entry we pointed out that boredom (due to anhedonia no doubt) was a becoming a problem, not an insurmountable problem, but a problem just the same. Since yesterday boredom has become the least of our worries. At 6:20 pm last night as we were in Marquette for meetings etc, our car died. (Transmission seized.) Connal and me walked down to the gas station (about 4 blocks) after checking the fluid levels, the transmission fluid looked low so we added a quart, but to no avail. A very kind gentlemen named Dick offered us a ride home as we waited for Lisa at the church. So at least we are home. But all in all when it comes to boredom or bad luck, we'll take the boredom thank you. Ciao for now

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Some mornings there's not enough coffee in the world.

Why is it that you can do pretty much the same thing for two days in a row, get up at the same time, do chores and get outside for some excersize, go to bed at the same time. And yet, one morning you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to change the world, and the next day you are walking around with your eyes half closed, bumping into the furniture. It's as if your head is filled with cotton balls and your eyes are raisins with glue in the cracks. (The preceding was written about 7:20 AM, now however it is after noon.) Eventually the gluey eyeballs pass, the cotton balls are replaced with synaptic egg noodles (which are much better for thinking with than cotton balls) and the day is filled with gottadoo which is not some strange form of animal feces but the list of things you gotta do, before your day is done. So in a few brief minutes we shall be heading out the door to our next task/appointment/thingamabob and this moment of introspection will be gone forever.
Except of course for reading later on if we so desire. Gotta go, ciao for now.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Strangeness abounds, or at least dances.

We at the crazy enjoy mysteries, especially mysteries of a strange nature. For example we have all heard of one dance craze or another (The Macarena, the twist, the alligator, the displaced hip, Ok we made that last one up.) But in Strasbourg France, in July of 1518 a different sort of dance craze broke out. A woman named Frau Troffea stepped outside of her home and began to dance in the streets. She continued dancing for the rest of the day until she collapsed in exhaustion. When she awakened she stood and began dancing again. She simply could not stop. By the end of August over 400 people were caught up in the dance, most expressing fear and horror when it struck them. How many people died due to exhaustion is unknown. The dancer would dance for a period of four days for up to a week and them simply stop. City officials unsure of what to do to help the afflicted came up with the wonderful idea of opening two guildhalls and a grain market, and setting up musicians to accompany the dancers (which goes to show you that a politician is a politician even in 14th century Europe.) The dance "craze" sprang up seven more times in the villages surrounding Strasbourg over the next hundred years or so. And a major outbreak occurred in Madagascar in the 1840's. At that time medical reports described, "people dancing wildly, in a state of trance, convinced they were possessed by spirits." So what caused the people of Strasbourg and then Madagascar to dance uncontrollably until they dropped, the only explanation that seems to fit is "Mass psychogenic illness," which psychologists believe were a result of pressure due to social or cultural upheavals of the time. This is also the label they put on the 1962 laughter epidemic in Tanganyika which started as a joke told at a boarding school, which resulted in the school being closed down as the laughter spread to the surrounding village. The epidemic lasted for months but eventually died out. That's about all for now, pardon us as we have a strong desire to boogaloo.
Ciao for now.
Must have been one heck of a joke.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Awake at 5:00 AM with dandelions on the brain.

We are fast approaching the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice when the sun shines least on our hemisphere. So we at the Crazy thought it might be a good time to remind you of the dandelion, that nemesis of meticulous lawn lovers everywhere. They sneak onto even the best manicured lawns. Every golf course has at least a few. They grow between the cracks of the sidewalk (we once viewed one on the roof of a house, growing in a corner where rain and time had built a small mud spot for it to take root.) Dandelions are not native to North America, they were brought on the Mayflower in 1620 as a medicinal root, by 1671 Native Americans were making coffee out of the roots on the great plains. The greens of a dandelion have vitamins A, B Complex, C and D, as well as the minerals Iron, Potassium and Zinc. They have in recent studies been shown to help improve liver function and be useful as a diuretic with the added benefit that they have potassium which most diuretics leach out of our systems. They have been around at least 250 million years. (Probably longer, but the earliest fossils found so far are from that era.) Who as a child (or a childlike adult) has not taken the seed stalk and puffed on it to watch the seeds float away in the wind. (Ahh yes, we remember as a child, quietly blowing dandelion seeds across the plains as dinosaurs thundered by.) But still, there are a few things you might not know about the Dandelion (unless of course you have botanist leanings or know any closet botanists.) Every part of the dandelion is edible and useful, some cultures made a brown dye from it's roots. The Chinese people have been using it to treat breast cancer for almost a thousand years. Dandelions are high in antioxidants.
Tasty in salads, (if picked while the leaves are still young.) Good for the liver. And can brighten up an otherwise barren place in a yard where nothing else will grow. (Like our lawn.) So come spring we know we will be happy to see the cheerful dandelion. As will our iguana Saura (She loves the flowers too.) But we think the most interesting thing about the dandelion is what it does for the bees, and why. The dandelion is asexual, it requires no honeybees to pollinate it. It has been a self pollinating plant for millions of years, nature could have easily dispensed with the bright flower head by now. (It reflects yellow light which is a spectrum bees find irresistible.) So why does the dandelion grow a bright yellow head and plenty of nectar. For the bees of course. The Noble Dandelion.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

You are not forgotten.

The family is whole again, (those of you in the know will understand.) And we have been extremely busy keeping our days full and our nights restful. We at the crazy will soon be updating the blog again, we have a few ideas for future rants. But at least for a short while family comes first so bear with us as we reboot and settle in to what is becoming an energetic and fulfilling lifestyle.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Soon to be seen in more than 3 homes.

Just a quick note to point out that up till now our crazy rantings have only been viewed by a select (and supremely intelligent) few. (A little ego stroking there.)
However our blog will be seen by a wider audience soon as Google has agreed to place it in some of it's search paradigms. We don't know what effect it will have, perhaps 5 people will see the blog now. We can only hope. Can't wait to get that first hate mail.
See you soon. Ciao for now.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Another one of THOSE nights.

While sleeping peacefully through our first winter storm at about 4:30 this morning we were visited by the bladder fairy. (You know the one, he flies from house to house like a fat drunken bumble bee and fills peoples bladders.) Unfortunately the Sandman and the Bladder fairy are at war which not only can make a heck of a mess but also makes for somewhat early wakefulness. So in a vain attempt to find sleep inducing reading materiel an internet search resulted. And somehow, (and we really don't know how.) We stumbled across the Scary Santa recording. This recording was made by Thomas Edison to cheer up the kiddies for Christmas, We think it would have the opposite effect, children would be fleeing the house in fear of Santa. Check it out at the address here some of the other recordings here are eerie too but we think Evil Santa takes the cake.
On another note we recently came across two separate news stories that were a bit odd. It seems a calf was born with a cross on it's forehead, and an egg was lain with a cross on it, all in the same week, what does it mean, Steak and eggs of course. By the way the Psychological phenomena in which people see shapes and hear sounds which they think are significant but are not is called pareidolia, and when you put different sized objects in a bowl and shake it, the larger ones stay on top the smaller ones go to the bottom, the scientific name for this is the brazil nut effect. Pareidolia and the Brazil nut effect are not related but we feel they somehow should be. Ciao for now.

Monday, December 7, 2009

A few things you might not know about solar panels.

Brushy Clump Large Weasel had emailed us about recent events with the recent global warming email fiasco (which I won't get into right now.). But it got us thinking about some things we learned recently involving solar energy. Firstly that only about 1% of our national electric usage is currently (that was not a pun) being made by solar panels. Here are some things about solar energy you may not know. Firstly that the solar panels in use on our very successful mars probes Spirit and Opportunity are not the typical type you see on rooftops all over the country (you see many more in Germany but we'll get to that later.). The solar panels on the Mars probes actually are much more efficient, they catch more than the current solar panels in use on earth.
Current solar panels here use only a limited part of the solar spectrum to create electricity. The mars probes are designed to catch a wider range of the spectrum and are much more efficient (also much more expensive, about a million dollars a square foot.) But recent discoveries in the field are yielding promising results. For example there is actually a solar panel that can be painted on (although it is capable of using only about 10% of the solar energy available.) Remember that every square foot of sunshine contains in it about 1000 watts of power (enough to power your tv, computer, house lights, and step dad's experimental dog polisher.) We mentioned Germany. That government recently put a freeze on electric costs for the next 20 years, they also are paying people to build and use solar panels. One pig farmer cleared a few acres of field and got a loan for 5 million dollars to build a solar field which provides power to about 1500 homes. He makes 600 thousand American dollars a year of which he says about 60 thousand is profit. The idea is not perfect but by the time the 20 year freeze is lifted he will have paid off his loan and be producing free energy for himself and be able to charge his neighbors a much lower rate than current electric charges. A win win in my book. Germany currently produces about 20 percent of it's power through solar energy. As of this writing the United States has no plan or policy to do anything similar. Although about 150,000 people are currently employed in the solar energy field in America. There are many other examples of solar energy use being a profit making venture, which in this country is the way to make something take off and run. As you can see, at the crazy we are solar extremists, but unfortunately poor solar extremists. Acquiring the materials for solar energy is currently costly, but soon we may be able to use solar energy by simply painting our rooftop or house itself at a fraction of the cost of current solar panels. Are you a gloomy gus? Do you think that cloudy days are a death knell for solar power, nope, even on cloudy days there is a lot of wattage falling on us.
Clouds block out only visible light, most of the ultraviolet light still comes through. So what needs to be done to make solar energy viable for every American? We need to improve storage techniques (the EverReady bunny really doesn't keep going).
We also need to improve the efficiency of solar panels (recent tests have produced materials that convert about 30% of sunlight falling into energy. When we can convert about 50%, then Solar energy will be competitive to current gas and coal powered electricity. So cheer up, if someday we run out of fossil fuels (which we will) Solar energy is one of the possible replacements waiting in the wings. And we won't even mention recent experiments with algae.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Reflections on a quiet morning.

Climbing from our bed this morning and doing the things that the body requires each day.(And as we get older sometimes in the middle of the night.) Stumbling around in a not fully awake haze of dream memory, and coffee craving zombie like numbness. And suddenly seeing through the kitchen window the first shaft of sunlight creeping through the trees on the hill behind the house. It's cold outside with a dusting of snow on the ground, (which is not normal as usually the snow is knee deep by now.)
Closer to us is an apple tree which is stripped of leaves and just past that our summer garden, now a white space with a few stubs of corn stalk poking up from the frozen ground. Higher on the hill, tall pines block most of the sunshine. And the sun will not break over the top of the trees till almost noon. But to the right of the apple tree about halfway into the yard a bright slot of sunshine on the ground. Marking the day like an ancient calendar. Struck by the simple beauty of the bright yellow sun on a stark white dusting of snow a good day now begins.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Merry Hodgepodge and a happy new year!

We love Christmas here at the crazy, everything from the good will of men to the smell of pine in the house. The good food, family and friends. Giving gifts (when we can afford it.) Watching A Christmas Carol. (Some of us here try to watch it every year.)
In the last few years we have been surprised by a lot of noise from the right that Christmas is under attack. And we suppose there is some truth to that statement, some people believe that America is a secular nation and when we have a national holiday to celebrate a Christian celebration it violates our constitution. So being thinking individuals some of us agree that this may hold some truth to it, but, and this is a big but. (almost put two t's in the last but, which would have been true also but not relevant to the conversation.) Christmas is actually a hodgepodge of at least 4 different celebrations. The Roman celebration of Saturnalia, which was celebrated from the 17th through the 23rd of December, in the 4th century in an attempt to get more pagans to turn Christian, religious leaders promised the pagans they could continue to celebrate Saturnalia if they converted as December 25th was decreed to be the day Christ was born. It also closely coincides with the Winter Solstice which was celebrated by Druids for many centuries before that time, Celebrated by worshipping trees in the forest or bringing them into thier homes to decorate. As for Saint Nicholas who was a senior bishop at the council of Nicea in CE 325. (Which by the way decided that Jews were "the children of the devil.")
He was actually brought into the Christmas HodgePodge by Turkish sailors who brought his bones to Italy in 1087 there he replaced a female boon giving deity called The Grandmother who would fill childrens stocking with gifts. So what do we have for Christmas Celebration 1. Saturnalia. 2. Solstice. 3.Nicholas 4. The Grandmother. 5.Jesus Christ. All in all quite a happy little family, so next time someone wishes you a Merry Christmas, if you are Christian, wish them a Merry Christmas back. If you aren't Christian smile and say Happy HodgePodge to you. But we think the number one rule, quit being offended by other peoples belief systems. They do you no harm by wishing you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannuka, Happy Kwanza, or Merry Solstice.
They are spreading good will, and there certainly is nothing wrong with that.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A six degrees of seperation sort of thing.

While drinking our morning cup of decaf coffee, (seems kind of pointless doesn't it.)
we stumbled upon a little piece of music trivia that raised our eyebrows in a Spock like fashion. It seems that one of the worlds most famous mass murderers had a song on the music charts. The title of the song was "Cease to Exist." but was actually recorded under the title "Never learn not to love." It reached number 37 on the billboard album charts in 1973. Some of the lyrics were changed also as the line "cease to exist" was changed to "cease to resist." The band who released the music was The Beach boys on their album 20/20. The writing credit is listed as Dennis Wilson, he later admitted it is a song written by none other than Charles Manson. Making him the one and only mass murderer to have a song on the billboard charts. The song can be found on youtube but we recommend you pass, as our son would say every time we try to sing in this house, "Stop, my ears are bleeding." Ciao for now.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Would that it were that easy.

Did you know that in some areas of the world it is illegal to die. This is true, Originally it was illegal to die for religious reasons. In the 5th century B.C. on the Greek island of Delos it was forbidden for anyone to be born, or to die. Which we have to assume resulted in a lot of sick people and pregnant women being shuttled off the island in a hurried attempt to avoid punishment. (If you died on the island the punishment must have been severe.) But ancient Greece is not the only time and place that dying was forbidden. In the Spanish village of Lanjoran the Mayor has passed a law to forbid dying until land is bought for a larger cemetery. A sensible response to politicians who told him he is not working fast enough on buying more land for cemetery use. Why don't they simply cremate the remains to save space, religious reasons of course. In the Brazilian town of Biritiba-Mirim the mayor has forbidden the populace to die or their relatives will face serious fines or possibly jail. That'll teach those selfish people not to die on his watch. (The fines would of course be used to buy a larger cemetery plot. Although it will be difficult to find land that is viable as the area has many underground rivers.) There are 19 other towns in Brazil that have forbidden dying, also places in France. These are just another example of how INSANE politics can be. Ciao for now.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Things everyone believes that aren't true.

Here are a few things we think people should know about common myths in child raising.
1. Don't swim for an hour after eating.
This one really irritates us. There is no valid reason to not swim after eating, Sure some blood goes to your stomach to aide digestion, but not enough to effect any other organs or muscle processes. We say feed the kid a large meal and shove em in the pool.
2. The 5 Second rule for food on the floor. Some bored scientists who had nothing better to do tested this hypothesis by dropping food on various surfaces and leaving it for up to one hour. They then tested to food for bacteria and contaminants. They found firstly that food that was on the floor for 5 seconds was just as likely to pick up contaminants as food that was on the floor for one hour. They also discovered that even though some contaminants were picked up in none of the cases were the foods dangerous to consume, which the scientists proved by consuming the food.
3. You will catch a cold if you don't wear a coat in cold weather. Studies on this one were done for years and until recently were inconclusive, sometimes colds were gotten sometimes not. But recent studies have suggested that having a cold sinus cavity allows more oxygen into the local blood vessels which can allow viruses or bacteria to more easily enter the bloodstream, but having a cold nose is unaffected by wearing a coat or hat so again a false statement.
4. Sitting too close to the tv will ruin your eyes. Not true at all, if this were the case millions of people who have spent hours a day in front of computer screens for years (yours truly for example.) would have major eye damage by now. There was some truth to this myth before 1968 when televisions emitted x-rays but their is no truth to it now.
5. Stranger Danger. This one really burns our brioche and is the most harmful of all the myths. Stranger danger. Parents all across the country, (and the world) have been filling their children full of fear that they will be abducted or raped or worse by every stranger they meet. In reality a child has a better chance of being hit by lightning or killed by a bee sting. Of the 73.7 Million children in America last year there were 115 Stranger abductions which means 1 in about 610,000. Your child getting killed in an airplane crash 1 in 310,000. Hit by lightening 1 in 240,000. Your child is twice as likely to get hit by lightening as being abducted by a stranger. So please, PLEASE do not fill your child with fear. A child needs to feel that the world is a safe place as they grow up. Their are all sorts of psychological problems that can result from spending their days worrying about every stranger. If you want to scare your child do it honestly, rent Ju-on. But cut the stranger danger crap.

And we think we have problems!

Here in the Good Old U.S. of A. we have some problems to be sure, most of them political in nature, the left and the right sputter nonsense at each other in ever louder and more vulgar tones. But the people of Australia have serious problems of their own. Camel problems, It seems roving gangs of wild camels are terrorizing towns in the outback. People are actually afraid to leave their homes for fear of being trampled or bitten, or possibly stepping in what must be innumerable piles of camel dung. So this morning when you leave your house stop and take a deep breath and enjoy your camel free environment, and take a moment to reflect on those poor Australian citizens living in fear of the dreaded dromedary, (if only they were allowed to own guns.)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Going first person here for a minute.

Ever had one of THOSE nights. I had a very busy day yesterday and were what some might call bone tired. So at 10:30 or so I decided bedtime was in order, sleep came easily but not so rest. 2:30 and the sandman sneezed, and I lay wide awake and wondering what the heck do we do now. A little milk, get online try to find something a little boring to put myself back into sleep state. And what do I come across but a news story from Pascagoula Mississippi. In 1942 Pascagoula had expanded to about 15,000 population due to manufacturing, specifically warships. In early June of that year a strange terror struck the town. They called him The Phantom Barber. He first struck at The Convent of Our Lady of Victories entering in the middle of the night and cutting the hair of Evelyn Marie Briggs and Edna Marie Hydel, this on a friday night. On the following monday he entered the home of Carol Peatie and cut what the papers called her blonde locks, the babysitter (who was watching the house while Carol's mother was in the hospital)was stirred by a noise and entered to find a just awakening Carol sitting in bed asking "Why, Why, Where's my hair?" The sitter found a mans bare footprint on the empty bed by the window. The Barber Struck a total of ten times, he would enter on a monday or friday night,
cutting a screen in almost all cases to gain entry. He would cut some hair and depart. One victim described waking to a faint feeling of something passing over her face and then waking up later violently ill. Police guessed chloroform. One attack that seemed unrelated was that of the Heidlebergs who were attacked in the night with what they believed was a solid iron bar. Mrs Heidlberg lost two teeth and Mister Heidleberg was knocked unconscious. Neither saw the attacker.
Two months later an arrest was made in the Heidlberg attack. William Dolan a 57 year old german chemist. He had a grudge against the Heidlbergs father who was a magistrate and had refused to lower the bail in a case against Dolan for tresspassing. The general agreement was that the Heidlberg attack was out of character for the Barber but the Police Chief was convinced he did it. As to motive, the chief believed it was to impair the morale of war workers. Other rumours of motive, He was using the hair to make bomb sites for the axis, or he was placing a Hex on someone. Personally I think Dolan was a victim of wartime hysteria, neighbors signed statments mentioning his german sympathies. He was sentenced to 10 years for the attack on the Heidlbergs, he went to prison denying his involvement,
and six years later was given a limited suspension by Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright who then had a lie detector test administered which he passed. Three years after that he was freed. The only description of the Barber was by young Mary Evelyn Briggs "He was sort of short, sort of fat, and wearing a white sweatshirt." So who was this crazed hair fetishist wandering the midnight streets of Pascagoula. We will never know. On another note, Pascagoula is also the town where in 1972 two fisherman Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed they were abducted by aliens who they described as having no legs or having their legs fused together, they floated above the ground, they had no eyes or mouth. Where their nose and ears would have been were "carrot-like" growths instead. The local Sheriff left the two men alone in a room recording them without their knowledge and they continued to speak to each other in frightened confusion. Which convinced him that they at least believed thier story. Some advice then, If you ever go the Pascagoula Mississippi, don't drink the water. I think I'm going to try to get some sleep now.

Monday, November 23, 2009

It's about to get more confusing.

If your mind was bending slightly yesterday when we discussed Schrodinger Wavefunction wrap your brain around this. It's called the Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment.
The basic idea is you put a cat in a box with a randomly decaying material that may or may not decay and cause a poison to be released which would kill the cat. The experiment states that until you open the box to view the cat it is both Alive and Dead. We have a cat who we have named Bowser, he is hard to describe personality wise, he shows affection by grabbing on with his claws and biting your hand, he never draws blood (well almost never.). We feel that our cat Bowser would have another interpetation which we will call Bowser's Corollary of Schrodingers Cat thought experiment. In Bowser's Corollary the question would become will YOU survive opening the box to see if the cat is alive or dead.

If this is confusing, don't feel alone.


If you are about to read this blog entry, Beware!, we are about to discuss Physics, and it won't make much sense. The actual name of the theory we are going to discuss is 'QUANTUMN ENTANGLEMENT AND NONLOCALITY', which could mean anything and sounds a little dirty. The actual theory behind this has been proven scientifically by a number of men in white lab coats with pocket protectors and bald spot comb overs (the bald spot comb overs are a requirement when entering the field of physics.) The theory states, and we are quoting here "In quantum theory, certain physical systems can become "entangled," meaning that their states are directly related to the state of another object somewhere else. When one object is measured, and the Schroedinger wavefunction collapses into a single state, the other object collapses into its corresponding state ... no matter how far away the objects are (i.e. nonlocality)." Think intergalactic instantaneous phone calls, which could actually be a possible outcome of the use of this theory. But we think our old friend Einstein (see picture) said it better. He called it "Spooky action at a distance." and that's why we think he was a genius.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

I am an admitted hamster lover.

We came across a news story in our bleary eyed coffee chugging attempt to wake up our brain this morning. It seems the madison avenue money machine has already decided what the "OMG I gotta get one of those!" toy is going to be this year. A little artificial hamster called a Zhu Zhu pet. The commercial for the Zhu Zhu pet is available at http://www.zhuzhupets.com/. The last line of the commercial jingle is "You will love your Zhu Zhu pets cause they're so real without the mess." You can buy one of 5 different artificial hamsters and sold seperatley (of course), nine different hamster habitats.
Do we have a problem with buying artificial hamsters for your child? Well... Yes.
The hamsters make pooping noises, but no poop, you don't have to feed them water them or clean their habitat. We were taught that having a pet is a reponsibility. It was a way for a parent to teach a child that caring for another creature required you to pay attention. Because if you didn't it would die. An important life lesson that is slowly being taken away from our children. By owning and then eventually losing a beloved pet, we learned a little bit about how fleeting and important life is. So if you are planning on buying a Zhu Zhu pet for your children, please also buy a goldfish. And on another note, Our cats are gonna love Zhu Zhu pets for christmas. (The preceding rant was payed for by The American Goldfish Board, and donations from readers like you.)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

What is the opposite of writers block?

Back on September 21, 2009 Netflix awarded a 1Million dollar grand prize in a contest designed to improve the accuracy of predictions about how much someone is going to enjoy a movie based on their movie preferences. The prize went to an group of people who called themselves BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos. Yesterday while searching for an instantly streaming movie on Netflix we came across this little spontaneous laughter event. The movie title we were looking at was in documentaries, 'Mysteries of the Bible: Apocalypse'
and beneath it '3.9 Stars Our best guess for Kenton, Recommended based on your interest in 'Scooby Doo and the Goblin King'. Money well earned gentlemen.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Things we learned while dealing with writers block.

It's been a strange couple of days since we last posted, we have been very busy here at the crazy, and have had little time to work on the blog. Having said that, we should point out that even had we the time it seemed that we we didn't have anything interesting to write about. On the news side there was all the falderall over Sarah Palins new book which to us seemed as interesting as watching dust settle on our knick knacks. Our personal lives have taken an unusual turn, but were most definitely of a private nature. Someone has pointed out that our early television broadcasts have had the time to travel 80 Light years or 400 trillion miles or so from earth. So if they have the capabilities people (or spongoid microformal flexworms) in the alpha centauri system are watching 'Lost'. Near Zeta Reticuli whatever creatures may inhabit those planets are being subjected to 'The Brady Bunch' (We certainly hope they don't see it as an act of war.} The lucky creatures near Mu Arae if they have the equipment, (or possibly natural tv antenna eye stalks.) are viewing 'The Twilight Zone'. And finally near Pi Mensae they could be watching 'Howdy Doody', which gave us the strange idea that if the creatures that may exist near Pi Mensae were able to pick up TV signals but thought they were messages from God. Would we call that religion Howdyism, and would the members of that religion be doodyites? Forgive us, it's early in the morning and we haven't had our coffee yet.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A change of pace.

It has come to our attention that our first 4 entries into the blog are political in nature, which was entirely unintended, if you wanted to see blogs or news stories on general political discourse you could simply enter Left Leaning Loon, Or Right wing retard in any search engine and find thousands of them. So today we go in a different direction. Our researchers have stumbled upon an interesting news story from the 1990's. (this was done by randomly entering words into search engines while on a coffee and energy drink fueled attempt to avoid housework.) In 1997 U.S. navy "spy" sensors picked up a noise that was heard by sensors 3000 miles apart. It was described as the big bloop, you can hear it here, remember that it is sped up 16 times to make it clearer for the listener. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop. Scientists simply don't know what it was, some assume it was a large animal. (Which would have to be larger than any known animal to be heard that far away.) There have been many other sounds heard by both deep sea listeners and deep space listeners. (The WOW signal in 1977 picked up by S.E.T.I. (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.) Is another interesting one. As a great writer once said, "There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies."
(Was he calling Horatio an idiot, We don't know.) So listen to the Big Bloop, think about what it may mean. We, on the other hand, have housework to do.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

On the etiquette of bowing.

Our friend brushy clump large weasel recently emailed a news story showing President Barack Obama bowing to the Japanese emperor Akihito you can view it here http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/obama-emperor-akihito-japan.html
He believes the U.S. president should bow to no one. We disagree. We love America and do believe it is the greatest nation on earth. But that's the point, we are one nation on a planet that holds 195 nations. And if we are going to live peacefully with the friendly nations we need to do so by showing mutual respect. We understand that some feel that the President of the United States bowing to a foreign leader shows weakness.
And to some we're sure it does. But it also shows these world leaders that the United States comes to them on equal footing, because after all perhaps we are the greatest nation on earth. But we are not the ONLY nation on earth. The old saying of When in Rome, do as the Romans do holds true today. President Obama was a visitor in a foreign country where bowing to show respect is a tradition. We think the impression he leaves will be one of a powerful world leader who respects and understands that other cultures exist. So kudos to President Obama for showing he is a world leader and not just the American president. And remember if Japan gets out of hand we can just nuke em again. Ciao for now.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

A quick note.

We are finding working on this blog daily to be cathartic. But if you are wondering why we keep referring to ourselves as we, and not I, it's because this blog is currently being written by the two of us. We would certainly enjoy posting other peoples opinions or psychotic ramblings in this blog, so if you have anything you want to get off your chest email it to the address above and we will post it if it meets our obviously low standards. Ciao for now.

Friday, November 13, 2009

End of the world... again.

"The earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, everyman wants to write a book, and it is evident the end of the world is fast approaching." Lately we have been seeing a lot of end of the world predictions based on the erroneous belief that the Mayan Calendar ends in 2012.
Or that the sun is in the equinox of the milky way galaxy, or that planet X is going to hit the earth, or numerous other end of the earth prophecies, (Y2K, Revelations, etc.) People have been predicting the end times since the beginning times, in some cases resulting in millions of deaths, (In China one end of the world prophecy resulted in a war which killed 20.000.000 people.) Usually these end of the world prophecies are started due to celestial events or religious fervor. Christopher Columbus predicted the world ending during his lifetime. Its easy to understand people feeling as if chaos is ensuing when death and destruction are shown 24 hours a day on news feeds around the world. But keep in mind that there have always been mass murderers, rapists, psychotic leaders, drugged out killers and clean freaks. (Those clean freaks scare the heck out of me.) But just as there are a lot more bad people in the world, there are also a lot more good people. So when predictions like the one we started this little diatribe with are spouted, take them with a grain of salt.
After all the quote above was found on an assyrian clay tablet dated from 2800 BC.

If all terrorists looked like this.


We were reading a New York Times story about the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, (the 9/11 mastermind.) We were surprised to find he had been waterboarded 183 times by the CIA. Which, looking at the photo we have to think the CIA simply believed he needed a bath. (For those of you who are offended by the idea that we use waterboarding as a springboard for a joke please understand we find torture abhorrent, and we think waterboarding is torture. On the other hand this guy admitted at a hearing held in front of international officials to personally decapitating Daniel Pearl. So let's torture him a little more before we saw his head off with a dull hacksaw.) Ciao for now.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Something from the morning news.

Just finished reading the morning news, (Internet versions of course, why get the paper version which can only print yesterdays news?) It seems that the left is too far left, the right is too far right, and the middle is muddled. One headline that made us laugh, "Irish priest kidnapped in Philippines released by MILF." I think that one speaks for itself... Who is this aggressive cougar and what does she want with an Irish Priest? Ok so upon reading the story which was in the christian science monitor by the way, we find that MILF stands for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Which we have shortened for our purposes to the Moronic Liberation Front. (Shhh just pretend there is an N in Moro Islamic.) By the way, if we have offended any islamists by our lame joke, get a sense of humor. And Christians and athiests alike will get theirs in due time. Also Buddhists, Bocononists, Rastafarians, Scientologists, Secular humanists, and those of you who answered none when asked for religous preference on any given form. If we left out any major religions, or lack thereof, please feel free to post a comment so we can add it. That's all the time we have this morning, hopefully we can add more as the weirdness intensifies. Heads up fellow looney tooners, in case you missed it, the MILF is a group, not Lara Croft/Angelina Jolie.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

First day on the new blog.

This is our first attempt at a blog so bear with us. We are hoping to update this once weekly for now just to get a feel for what a blog is and how it would work for us. We plan on using this blog to voice our opinions (and perhaps a few other peoples opinions) about current events, interesting happenings, nature, gardening, laundry tips (Just kidding about the laundry tips but who knows?)
Generally we plan on taking things out of our brains and displaying them here for your amusement, or debasement, or whatever twisted use you may have for them. So here we are. Day one. Genesis.