Category: Random Ramblings

Anything that catches my fancy as a topic I want to cover. Truly random crap.

Linerider awesomeness

Did you play Linerider back when I told you to?  Did you diddle with it a bit, try to do something cool, and then find you didn’t have patience to really pull off anything spectacular?  I know I did.  It was cool, but I couldn’t do anything nearly as well as I could imagine it.
Someone, however, did a bit of work and came up with a really nice linerider ride. Trust me, the screen shot doesn’t do this one justice – you must watch this to see how pitiful your meager attempts were.

linerider-awesomeness.gif

[tags]Linerider, Amazing linerider drawing, The must see Linerider hit of the year[/tags]

Is Sony overextending itself?

…I think Sony, frankly, suffers a little bit from this problem, which is they’re spread really thin across all these areas. And trying to do PSP, competing with Nintendo, PSP to DS; competing with us, 360 to PS3, I think it does strain — it would naturally strain any organization.

This rather insightful comment was made by Microsoft’s Entertainment division president Robbie Bach. In a recent interview discussing the entertainment division’s projects, he suggests that Sony is overextending itself (obviously). Something historical about land wars in asia and fighting on two fronts comes to mind. So the question is, is this suggestion valid? Is Sony really overextending by trying to fight in the console space against Microsoft and Nintendo, the portable console space against Nintendo, and win the next-generation video disc standard? It certainly seems likely, and the recent struggles Sony has had are evidence of this.

[tags]Sony overextending?[/tags]

Nancy Grace sued for wrongful death

I know this is old news. I still want to post it.

I despise Nancy Grace nearly as much as I despise Bill O’Reilly. So I was not at all upset when I heard that she’s being sued for the wrongful death of Melinda Duckett. You might remember Ms. Duckett as the young lady from Florida whose 2-year-old son disappeared mysteriously. Nancy Grace suckered this young lady into giving an “interview” on the disappearance only to spend most of the time badgering her.

The parents of a woman who committed suicide shortly after a grilling by Nancy Grace today filed a lawsuit against the TV host, claiming that their daughter was driven to her death by the hard-charging former prosecutor. In a wrongful death lawsuit, the parents of Melinda Duckett charge that Grace duped their daughter into an interview about Duckett’s missing two-year-old son, Trenton. That interview, which aired on Grace’s CNN Headline News show after Duckett’s death, was more of a cross-examination, with Grace peppering the 21-year-old woman with questions about her whereabouts at the time of her son’s late-August disappearance. On September 8, a day after her interview with Grace, Duckett used a shotgun to kill herself.

Ms. Duckett may indeed be responsible for her child’s disappearance. I don’t know. There certainly are some legitimate questions raised in the whole situation based on what has gone on and what has been found during the investigation. But Nancy Grace is a damn (annoying) talking head now, not the investigator responsible for finding out what happened. She needs to quit acting like she actually matters and go back to just annoying viewers rather than viewers *and* guests. The Smoking Gun article has all nine pages of the legal complaint.

[tags]Nancy Grace named in wrongful death suit, Nancy Grace sued for annoying someone to suicide[/tags]

Turn your urine blue

blue_urine.jpgI don’t know why you would want to do this, but it seemed funny enough to me that I thought I’d point you towards a guide on how to turn your urine blue.

We’ve all dreamed of it – who wouldn’t want to have bright blue urine? Alright, I admit some people might be appalled at this strange activity, but many will find it interesting.

. . .

My interest in this subject began from hearing a rumor that there was a chemical you could add to food that would make someone’s urine turn blue, as a prank. The person I heard it from had no idea what chemical it was but insisted that it existed.

I, of course, being of the Google generation, searched immediately for turn urine blue and lo and behold, the second result was a Wikipedia entry for a chemical called Methylene Blue. I knew I had to have it.

Now you can make your toilet look like you’ve got Tidy Bowl at work after you use it rather than before. Why? I don’t know. But I’m sure someone wants this information. Also, in the comments to the article is this warning:

WARNING: TAKE METHYLENE BLUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. The prank is fairly harmless if small amounts of methylene blue are used, although allergies are possible and it is advisable to use pharmaceutical-grade stain which has been carefully protected from contamination. The presence of other medical problems may affect the use of methylene blue. Be aware if you have any other medical problems, especially:

Followed by the problems which should lead you to not trying this. (via boingboing)

[tags]Turn your urine blue[/tags]

Apparently, Newt Gingrich hates America

For years now, I’ve been told that it’s the liberals who hate America. But it’s the conservatives I’ve been seeing lately doing things that seem counter-American (illegal wiretaps, authorizing torture are two examples that matter to me). The latest of these seemingly America-hating conservatives is Newt Gingrich, who feels that freedom of speech must be done away with to fight terrorism.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

Continue reading “Apparently, Newt Gingrich hates America”

Pam on the market again

I’m sure someone, somewhere, will care and try to do something about the fact that Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock are getting a divorce after just 4 months. For that one lonely, hopeful stalkerperson, I felt I had to get this news out.

If these Hollywood types can’t make it, do any of us really stand a chance???

[tags]Kid Rock to have correct number of wives soon, Pamela Anderson to divorce Kid Rock, Who would guess Hollywood marriages aren’t forever?[/tags]

Media whoring, publicity grabs, after questionable New York shooting

A man is shot dead by police in New York hours before his wedding, and so far, not a lot is known about the shooting. That hasn’t stopped the narcissists from trying to get their faces on television so they can admire themselves a little more.

Early Sunday morning five undercover police officers fired a hail of 50 bullets at three men as they left a bachelor’s party at a night club in a neighborhood in Queens, N.Y. One of the men, Sean Bell, a 23-year-old delivery man and father of two, was killed just hours before his scheduled marriage ceremony.

. . .

The police have claimed that the undercover officers identified themselves and fired only after Bell’s car rammed two police minivans. But witnesses at the scene say the police failed to identify themselves and that the young men thought they were fleeing thugs from within the nightclub.

Continue reading “Media whoring, publicity grabs, after questionable New York shooting”

For when you kinda wanna show respect, but not really

In the ever-shrinking world in which we live, more things can be done online every day it seems. For things like quick messages between people or groups, or video conferencing to reduce travel expenses, this is great. For other things, you sometimes have to wonder just what we’ve become. For instance, thanks to a crematorium in England, “mourners” will be able to watch funerals via the internet.

To me, that sends the load and clear message that “We want to see your dead body, and maybe the burial, but we really just never cared enough for you to get our lazy asses out of the house and come to your funeral.” The exception to this being people who are unable to attend, such as those too sick to travel or too far away and unable to secure time off. Otherwise, this seems like a great way to pretend to pay respect to someone without missing that game that’s going to be on the television at the same time as the funeral.

A crematorium has installed a camera so mourners can watch funerals on the internet.

Families will pay £45 to allow friends and relatives to view services at the council-run crematorium in Peterborough, Cambs.

Crematorium bosses are offering a DVD or video for an extra £25.

On the plus side, if you can’t be bothered to go, AND you don’t want to miss a moment of the game, you can just purchase the DVD afterwards and pay your respects post-posthumously. Or am I just being a bit too cynical?

[tags]Funeral via web-cam, When you really don’t care but want to pretend you do, Am I being too cynical here?[/tags]