Posted 6/23/2011 11:36:00 PM by Douglas

Great video on the subtle complexities of dialing a phone for yourself in the 1950s. I guess it was just too complicated to explain the subtle differences between the letter 'O' and the number 'zero.'

Also, how do I send video with that thing?

Posted 6/20/2011 10:33:00 PM by Douglas

The gate is about to swing wide on such great websites as clownpenis.fart is about to get the greenlit.

A group charged with overseeing the development of the Internet voted Monday to relax the rules on website naming conventions -- potentially triggering a virtual domain name gold rush to rival the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.

I'm sure the porn industry is getting real excited about this.

Posted 6/20/2011 10:24:00 PM by Douglas

It's a good thing we stopped teaching history when the children stopped testing well. They were getting it all wrong anyway.

Another problem is method. "History is often taught in categories—women's history, African American history, environmental history—so that many of the students have no sense of chronology. They have no idea what followed what."

Posted 6/20/2011 10:20:00 PM by Douglas

Airbus sucks.

Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd. (003490.SE) flew to Airbus's rescue Monday, lending one of its A380 superjumbos for displays at this years Paris Air Show after the European commercial aircraft maker's own plane collided with a building.

A spokesman for Airbus said the A380 would fly at Le Bourget Monday and Tuesday and that it was using one of Korean's aircraft that had been on static display at the show.

Airbus Sunday was forced to pull its own aircraft out of planned displays as a result of the mishap. Its own double-decker aircraft sat idle with its right wing-tip covered, hiding the damage. "During ground maneuvers with the Airbus A380 flight test aircraft MSN 004, the aircraft's right hand wing-tip touched a structure near the taxiway," Airbus said in a statement Sunday.

A nearby building with the name "Embraer" emblazoned on the side showed signs of the collision, with the corner ripped out one-third of the way down. Embraer is Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA (ERJ, EMVRA3). Airbus is a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV (EADSY).

That's one way to take out your competition.

Posted 6/20/2011 10:05:00 PM by Douglas

Japan works on making some horrible, horrible food.

Somehow this feels like a Vonnegut plotline: population boom equals food shortage. Solution? Synthesize food from human waste matter. Absurd yes, but Japanese scientists have actually discovered a way to create edible steaks from human feces.

Did you want a side of corn with that?

Posted 6/19/2011 08:15:00 PM by Douglas

I have a great idea how to make IndyCar racing more exciting. It's a brilliant idea and combines motor sports with math learning.

Every time the race is on ABC, someone gets to hit Scott Goodyear in the face with a rake on every prime-numbered lap. Maybe you could even sell chances to knock the crap OOUT of this no-talent cannok and send him back to the obscurity that spawned him.

It's got to be more entertaining than watching prime numbers come out of a bear's ass.

Posted 6/12/2011 02:19:00 PM by Douglas

There is much more to this story than they're letting on. Since when did they call out the friggin' swat team on the advice of a psychic?

Hunkered down in her trailer in the Texas Panhandle, a grandmother who had a vision that sparked a media circus and police search for alleged mass graves in Liberty County said she is being wronged and fears for children who may never be found.

"This is bad for people who call in a tip for something," she told the Houston Chronicle by phone Wednesday evening. "They think they have done a good deed, and it turns around on them."

You call the cops based on a "vision" and you're surprised that the media is being unkind to you? How did you not see that coming? You're obviously a horrible psychic

Posted 6/12/2011 02:08:00 PM by Douglas

Funny video of what Facebook and Twitter would look like in real life:



That's pretty good. I still think Chappelle did it best with this. And this perfectly sums up every internet comment thread I've ever seen. FIRST!

Posted 6/02/2011 10:28:00 PM by Douglas

Here's the homepage for Project Morpheus at JSC, and here's a video of its latest hover test from yesterday:



Pretty cool, eh? Here's the video of what happens next:



Here's the real irony: That building right NEXT to the burnt field is Houston Fire Department Station #72.

A new lunar lander that NASA workers were testing apparently sparked a grass fire this afternoon on the grounds at the Johnson Space Center, officials said.

The fire erupted about 2:40 p.m. in an empty field near Saturn and 2nd Street at the space center, officials said.

It was brought under control within about two hours. There were no reports of any injuries, officials said.

The testing believed to have ignited the grass fire was part of Project Morpheus — a NASA-designed lunar vehicle large enough to carry more than 1,000 pounds of cargo to the moon, officials said.

Who could have known that rocket engine would have set off a grass field that hasn't been rained on for four months?

Posted 6/02/2011 10:17:00 PM by Douglas

Hey, I think that's our kid, 3,233rd from the left.