Apparently Kenya has laws against Cannabis possession. How first world of them. The fact that most of the population still lives in huts would make me think drug possession would be a minor focus.

Bad news for Barack Obama’s brother. Also bad news for the Michael Phelps Kenyan Party Tour.

A “shoe monument” was made honoring the “journalist” who threw his shoes at surprisingly-nimble former president Bush. Really? The inscription on the statue reads:

“Muntazer: fasting until the sword breaks its fast with blood; silent until our mouths speak the truth.”

That sure sounds like a language of tolerance and peace to me!

One of my buddies made the comment that it was ironic… he wondered how many monuments they erected to honor people who threw shoes at Saddam. Oh, wait, if they had, they’d have been tortured and publicly murdered!

So go ahead and crown your champion – who stood up to the tyrant dog that made him… free enough to you could speak out against those who oppress him…

Source: Reuters

I’ve never been a You’re Welcome fan. It’s never made much sense to me. It’s all over here in AZ. People say You’re Welcome way more than they ever did in MN.

This article presents an interesting read on the You’re Welcome debacle. It seems No Problem is replacing You’re Welcome with the younger generation, and each phrase offends half the population equally. (I’m a No Problem person, BTW.)

The whole thing is superfluous anyway.

It turns out that the American Gratitude Formula is a 3-step process:

• Please
• Thank You
• You’re Welcome

But in many other cultures, there’s only a two step process:

• Please
• Thank You

Count our fellow English speakers in Britain as members of the 2 step club. The 3 step plan is used in Russia, Spain, and Italy, and wherever Andy Willoughby has been traveling.

You’re Welcome has only been around since about 1907. It had a hundred year run. Now lets let it die, like the Post Office.

I think I’ll write the President about issuing an executive order to change the Official American Gratitude Formula to a 2 Step process. Think of all the time we’d save! And then I’ll quietly wait for the Secret Service to show up and throw me in the van next to the Daylight Savings Time lady.

There was really nothing on any of the usual channels last night, which forced me into the second tier selections. I landed on Biography, which was playing a profile of Billy Idol. So, now I present to you: Billy Idol Trivia!

• Billy Idol’s first name is really William, but the Idol part is a stage name. It was an FU to a teacher that had referred to him as “an idle student.”
• Billy first made it big across the pond with a band called Generation X. He later felt restricted by the British Punk Rock scene and went to America to strike up a solo career. The Punk Rock scene was too asexual for Billy- he wanted to write more songs about sex.
• White Wedding is about his little sister, who got knocked up as a teenager and “bowed to social pressure” and married the dude who knocked her up.
• For most of his solo career, Billy partnered up with a guitar player named Steve Stevens. Later Steve and Billy had the requisite rock-n-roll falling out, and Steve went on to his own brief solo career. His biggest success (besides his rockin hair) was the Top Gun Anthem. Eventually Steve and Billy had the requisite rock-n-roll make up, and now they tour together again.
• During the shooting of the video for Eyes Without a Face, Billy spent 30 straight hours on the video shoot. The combination of hot lights and fog melted his contact lenses to his eyes. After the shoot he went outside and fell asleep on the lawn of the studio. A policeman woke him up, thinking he was a homeless guy. The cop noticed something wrong with Billy’s eyes and brought him to the hospital, just in time to save his vision.
• There’s a horrible “eyes/face/blind” pun somewhere in the that last bullet, but I won’t stoop that low.
• Rebel Yell, one of the most awesomely awesome songs ever, is named after a brand of whiskey.
• In 2006, Billy, like all stars looking to make a quick buck, released a Christmas album.

Source: Biography Channel

Apparently the Worst Newspaper Ever (MPLS Star-Tribune, for those of you keeping track) has been online since 1981.

You can see their name in the super awesome hilarious video below, as one of the earliest subscribers to some type of primitive online newspaper delivered via Compuserve.

Note that it took over 2 Hours to get the text over the phone.

I love technology. (Sometimes)

Source: Hot Air

Also inspired by an xkcd… Space Fountain?

It’s apparently a different design, with a similar goal, as the space elevator.

I don’t understand the details of its working, but it sounds like it doesn’t have a physical shell… it just throws things up in a constant loop.

The Space Fountain acts as a continuous mass driver with captive projectiles
travelling in a closed loop.

The wiki likened it to a giant fly wheel. It said it’s probably less likely then a space elevator, but more likely then a launch loop or orbital ring. It also goes on to list some pretty cool real-world applications like using them instead of building TV towers launching more satellites.

I don’t know if this is a monstrosity or a fantastic ideas. Like all great innovations, probably a little of both.

Behold… the The Greatest Snack Food Stadium Ever Built.

The end zones are salsa and queso. The field is guacamole. The yard-lines are sour cream. The goal posts are slim-jims. The players are Vienna sausages with cheese “helmets.” The stadium itself is made of Twinkies. There is also a nasty sounding bacon railing holding back the spectators (chips).

If I made one, I’d not use the bacon, and use something different for the players.

… that we know of.

I’m always surprised by how many of these things I’ve never heard of. (This one came from a comic, proving that new information can come from just about anywhere.)

In 1979, Jimmy Carter, the most feckless and feeble present in modern history (BO- I’m watching you), was fishing in Georgia, when a crazy swimming rabbit tried to jump in his boat. He beat it off with an oar (I’m picturing Buttercup here).

Fortunately, the whole thing was captured by a White House photographer, so there’s evidence of the killer rabbit.

You really can’t make this stuff up.

Source: wiki

Nerdular Nerdance had an interesting write-up on a strain of bacteria that feasts off of other bacteria.

The victim in this case was E. coli.

The “good” bacteria (called Myxococcus xanthus) literally ate up parts of the E. coli., rendering it harmless.

This discovery could lead to the production of good bacteria to seek out and destroy antibiotic resistant strains of harmful bacteria.

That is, until the good bacteria morphs into something harmful and destroys civilization as we know it.

“Hacking” is a little too strong of a word for it…

Turns out these road signs are often kept unlocked. Oh, and no one changes the default password. Oh, and even if they do, you can reset it quite easily.

So someone in Texas changed a sign to read “Zombies Ahead.”

I predict the publicity spawns a series of these incidents as the lumbering state DOT bureaucracies try to figure out how to secure the signs. Because buying a few padlocks and changing the password is just way to straightforward for a government fix.

Instructions on how to “hack” here. If you really want a laugh, view the instructions and scroll all the way to the bottom. There’s a link called “Proof Zombies Exist.” Click. Laugh.

Source: Fox News