I need to spend more time doing Google searches like this:
Month: August 2008
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JREF $1M Challenge
Phil Plait announced today that he is ascending the ranks of the skeptic community by accepting the Presidency of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). But that’s not why I’m writing.
After reading JREF’s press release, I went to the website and found their forums that include the list of people who have applied for the $1M Challenge. If you’re not familiar with the challenge, JREF offers a million dollars to anyone who can demostrate under controlled, mutually acceptable conditions that they have a paranormal power. The forum details the correspondence with various applicants for the prize. It’s interesting reading.
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Running in Summertime Georgia
During the summer time, running around here is a real pain in the butt. Jenn and I ran this morning (marathon training) and we left the house by 7:30. Temps ~75 degrees F, humidity ~4000%. The results are as shown here in the picture of Jenn, ambushed coming in the door. No, she did not break my camera.During the wintertime, of course, I’m more than happy to taunt my northern friends with their situation. Comments such as “You’re shoveling snow? I’m sitting outside in shorts!” have been known to emerge from my lips. This time of year, I believe that karma comes home to roost.
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Conspicuous Consumption
Someone from Qatar flew a lamborghini to England for an oil change. I believe that qualifies as conspicuous consumption. Is it more conspicuous than, say, building a vast indoor ski slope? Probably not, but it sure makes for an interesting story. I for one wouldn’t have flown my lamborghini there, I would have driven it. That would have made a much more interesting story, in the chinese sense.Image by Christopher Chan
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Plutopia! Call for Papers!
I’m still looking for volunteers to expound about something related to Pluto! I’ve got three, who else is in?
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Remembering I-35W and Its Implications
I’ve posted about the one-year anniversary of the I-35W Bridge Collapse and the related national infrastructure issues over at Talking Traffic. Go. Read. Comment there.
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Super Mario Galaxies
Due to my wiinjury, I’ve played a lot of Super Mario Galaxy in the past week. But before I get into that, some background.
I haven’t owned a console game since the Atari 2600. I played various console games such as the Nintendo 64 when I was in high school, but since HS graduation it’s been PC games almost exclusively. That means I missed almost every incarnation of Zelda, Mario and Halo which were primarily intended for the console market.
Which means that I was entirely shocked by the psychedelic craziness or drug-trippiness of Super Mario Galaxy.
Some of the crazy shit that goes on during that game makes me think that either A) the developer was high or B) the developer thought I woudld be high or C) it was designed by the Japanese.
I think it’s a cool game, though, and the way that the second controller can be used by another person to assist the primary player is way awesome. Courtney has been a good star-catcher and I had fun freezing the big death-rocks for Jenn while she was playing.
However, I’ve been playing too much because, tetris-like, I’m seeing it everywhere. I may have to swear it off for the weekend. Besides, the back is getting better which means I have stuff to do.