What's inside your cellphone?

Ever wonder what demonic creature is unleashed when you stick your cellphone into a microwave oven?

Watch:

Weirdest f**king thing I've seen

And why I love the Japanese.

Comedian inside a giant blue balloon on stilts attempts to reach a glazed donut.

Skip the Prius, get a used car instead.

From this blog post on Wired, which suggests that you can really pump up your green enviro-cred not by buying a new Toyota Prius, but by buying a used fuel-efficient car instead.

Toyota Prius get great gas mileage but it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to make one. Since there are about 113,000 BTUs of energy in a gallon of gasoline, the Prius has consumed the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline before it reaches the showroom. Think of it as a carbon debt - one you won't pay off until the Prius has turned over 46,000 miles or so.

Maybe you'd be best off if you could find a used Prius, but I think from a dollars-to-mpg ratio, a used Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla might be a better option. You get almost as good fuel efficiency as a hybrid, for a fraction of the cost of owning one. Unless you buy a total lemon that needs to spend time in the shop every month. Also don't forget that a new car will almost certainly cost more to insure than an older jalopy.

Makes me feel justified for hanging on to my 96 VW Golf (28 mpg, 135,000 miles), that's for sure.

[Image from Wagonized]

Right wing talk show host shows his ignorance on Hardball

On Hardball with Chris Matthews, blowhard radio talk show host Kevin James sought to attach the "appeaser" label to Barack Obama. Trouble is, he doesn't know what the term meant.



This just confirms and puts to rest what a lot of people have known for a long time about these conservative attack-dog talk show hosts. By using tactics that include hysterics and excessive decibel levels, not permitting the other side any time to respond, they distract from their ignorance of the subject matter at hand. Even if the other side does somehow get a chance to defend themselves, their arguments are tossed aside and any attempt to bring it back to the table is drowned out with an even louder and abrasive repetition of their slogans. Eventually their opponent gives up out of disgust.

That's not an open debate. It's a deplorable practice, they shouldn't be able to get away with it for as long as they have been. It's good that once in a while someone calls their bluff and puts their idiocy to shame.

Freestyle Trial

What is it about the French that makes them do crazy (albeit in a spectacular kind of way) stuff like this? From the people that developed freerunning or Parkour, Freestyle Trial is what you get when you combine Parkour with a motorbike.

This guy Julien Dupont is freaking awesome.



Here is Jean-Yves Blondeau, another crazy Frenchman with his awesome body roller suit.

Via Fresh Creation

Audiosurfing the classics

This ad promoting the Zurich Chamber Orchestra transforms the lines of sheet music into the rails of a roller coaster:



This so reminds me of the awesome indie game Audiosurf, where you turn your MP3 songs into a playable, gem-collecting obstacle course. Well worth the $10 purchase price, in my opinion. Here's a clip of a guy playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor in Audiosurf:

7382 used chopsticks

That's how many chopsticks were used to make this canoe.



City hall worker Shuhei Ogawara spent two years collecting spent chopsticks from the cafeteria. Perfectly good wood that would otherwise have gone to waste, instead were glued into strips to form the canoe shell.

Kwytza Kraft has also found uses for recycled chopsticks.

Asahi via Pink Tentacle

IKEA Train

I want to ride this train.

To promote the opening of their new store, IKEA has decorated the seats and curtains of this Portliner Monorail in Kobe, Japan.

via Pink Tentacle

Very good documentary on ape intelligence

Ape Genius, a documentary from PBS Nova. 52 minutes.

Hey, that's my 'hood!

I just found out that my neighborhood of Westwood, near UCLA, is home to the Stupidest Bike Lane in America (all 275 feet of it), according to Slate:



I walk through there many times, and didn't even know we had any bike lanes (or bikers).

via LAist

Let the gays have their buttsecks

You were told that gay marriage is immoral:





So in 2000 and 2004, you voted for the party of "family values":





Which elected this guy not once, but twice:





Who then started a useless war, killing thousands of troops
and hundreds of thousands of civilians:





Pissing off the very people we were trying to help,
fueling even more extremism:





Not only that, the cost of the war
grossly exceeded its $50-60B estimate:





Pushing up our budget deficit and partly to blame for
collapsing the value of the US dollar:





Which makes buying oil a lot more expensive:





Thus higher energy costs also means
higher prices for everything else:

---

Q: So in the end, what are some lessons to be learned?

A: Don't let the fear of the gays having their buttsecks
cause you to bend over for your government and take it up your own ass.



Think about that when the anti-gay
hysteria starts up again in 2008.

(Very) Unlikely to get me to a Carl's Jr.

I don't know what the marketing people at Carl's Jr are thinking. These minds thought up arguably the most unappetizing fast food slogan (If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face.) Their ads typically feature some hot skinny girl stuffing her face with a giant burger that's dripping sauce and ketchup all over their clothes. Message to me: You should never eat a Carl's Jr without a clean change of clothes and a mop and bucket ready.

Here's how their new Super Bowl 2008 commercial opens. The scene opens to a shot of the bleachers of some college basketball court, where a good-looking guy and his hot blonde girlfriend are having takeout lunch from Carl's Jr. Someone off-screen is dribbling a basketball. Who is their target audience, I wonder? Hmmm.

They're talking about a party or something that they are going to later that night.

Guy: So I actually have to wear a black tie to this thing tonight?

Girl: It's just an expression.

The guy takes a huge chomp of his burger and mumbles with his mouth full of food.

Guy: So I (muffled) colored tie or what?

Here's my first objection to this ad. Just take a good look at the size of that burger he's cramming into his face. By itself it's just about as big as his own face. It could probably keep alive a starving family from Darfur for a week.

Girl: I think its--oh babe, you got something right here (points to her own chin)

Guy: Right here?

She slurps from a giant beverage cup, as the guy brushes his cheek with his fingers.



I know I have this peeve regarding the portion sizes here in the US. I mean, just how big is that drink? Extra large? I could never finish a drink of that size in one sitting, even if it were only filled with water. Even if it were Diet Coke, there's no way for that girl to gulp that down and still keep up her hotness. She'd balloon up to twice her size before too long.

The guy chomps on his burger some more, as the girl points to an area on her face.

Girl: No, it's sorta more.... over here.

Guy: What, over here?

Here's a closeup of what the girl has been stuffing into her own face.



How many calories does she have right there in the palms of her hand? That tub of fries is bigger than her entire hand. Size notwithstanding, just what is that clumpy, goopy mess anyway? It strongly reminds me of a photo from this blog posting of the worst food in America. Coincidentally Carl's Jr is also on this list for the worst burger in America.

Girl: No, it's sorta more... in this area.

Guy (swabs his chin): Did I get it? Am I good?

He's got chili smeared all over his face! Ha ha. What are we, 6 years old? Why don't you have the guy open his mouth and let us see the chewed-up burger inside, why don't you. (You want seafood? See food.) What was disgusting even back then, is still disgusting now.

Who was the advertising genius who thought that seeing yucky, sticky, mashed-up chili on this dude's face is ever going to get hungry hordes of people stampeding over to their local Carl's Jr? How about getting a bucket so he could barf his lunch out for us to see? In fact, why don't you give me the bucket. I'm feeling like I want to throw up just watching this ad.

Here's a thought: maybe that's the brilliance behind the ad. Imagine if you will, the collective retching of the masses after watching this ad. What better way to refill their purged stomachs than with a huge, oversized meal from Carl's Jr?

The ad closes with the annoying, lackadaisical announcer. I hate this guy's nasally slacker voice. Who is this guy? If you happen to know him, smack him around a few times for me.

Announcer: Chili Cheeseburgers. Back at Carl's Jr.

I'll let someone else from the lard-assed masses buy your disgusting burgers. I'll have none of it, thanks.


PS: I did a YouTube search of other Carl's Jr ads and found this clip. It's a great parody of their typical adverts (complete with slacker announcer), and pretty much sums up how I feel after I watch their ads:

From $25 to $5000

Saw this great story today on the Christian Science Monitor, where for an experiment this guy left his parents' home, to find out for himself how far he can make it with only $25 in his pocket.

A former college athlete with a bachelor's degree, Mr. Shepard had left a comfortable life with supportive parents in Raleigh, N.C. Now he was an outsider on the wrong side of the tracks in Charles­ton, S.C.

He stayed at a homeless shelter for the first couple of months, taking advantage of government food stamps, then started working as day laborer, eventually getting a job with a moving company.

Ten months into the experiment, he decided to quit after learning of an illness in his family. But by then he had moved into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had saved close to $5,000.

This kid didn't give himself any luxuries like eating out, nor did he have a cell phone. Probably didn't have a TV either. Cell phone bills and cable bills really eat into your income. Nothing but a strong back and the will to work, he was well on his way out of poverty.

Bank of America goes pink

Here's why basic color theory is important. I've been seeing some changes at some of my local Bank of America branches lately. The corporate banners have changed, from the old high-visibility blue text on white background:

to this godawful clashing, eye-searing blue text on a red background:

The letters are now very difficult to read, because of the dissonant combination of colors. Moreover you can't even see the American flag anymore, now that it's drowning in that sea of red.

The banner went from being that which is fitting for a respectable commercial institution to that of... I dunno... my first thought was along the lines of... "Where did my bank go? Did it get replaced by a gaudy gay sex shop?"

Who approved this design? Did they have even the faintest grasp of color theory? The color red, when you stand next to blue like that of the "Bank of America" text, will appear to be pink. PINK!

While pink is a fun color for little girls' birthday parties, it is not a color you want to be associated with an institution that's going to safeguard your life savings.

If you were to open a new savings account and you saw the two following banks next to each other, which one would you entrust with your hard-earned cash?

This Bank

That Bank

If you were most people, you'd probably avert your eyes from the one on the left , and once you finish your epileptic vomiting, head for the one on the right (sporting the color scheme of Washington Mutual btw).

Poor Bank of America. I wonder if BofA are now going to give out free hot pink dildos to new customers when they open a new savings account.