500 lb Potato Battery

The author writes about how he constructed a 500 potato "portable" battery:

It powered a small sound system. With the help of the Red 76 crew I installed the battery and sound system in the back of a U-Haul truck and drove it around town inviting people to enter the truck and take a listen.

(Via Improbable Research.)

Really expensive cat toy

(Via improbable.com.)

Cow

Not much else to say but "Moooooo!"

Not Wanted!

This creep has become the focus of a new website after he falsely claimed to several women that he was a US Marshal. His current girlfriend got an anonymous tip that everything wasn't exactly the way he claimed -- e.g., he is married, has a few kids, and is in actuality a maintenance worker in an animal disease lab -- so she created a website dedicated to scum like him and made him the poster boy in the hunt for more like him.

And who can blame her? Richard Kudlik was busted Tuesday after repeatedly posing as a US Marshal in order to get laid. Apparently he has been doing this for some time and the Feds has busted him for it before!

I don't know about you, but I thought impersonating a federal officer was something worth more than a slap on the wrist and a "don't do it again", but apparently that's the way it is. Compare this to a kid who photocopies a five dollar bill and ends up with a federal felony charge. That sucks!

As his kid put it when interviewed in the New York Daily News: Yeah, my dad most likely is a www.creep

A great a sigh of relief...

I guess the end of the world as we know it didn't come to fruition.

Strangely enough, the "impact" appears to have wiped out nothing but the website about it, except for a few comments by Craig Boswell left here:

UPDATE MAY 27, 2006: A clue to the timing of the anticipated event

Many people undoubtedly think that the announced event has fizzled and may be readjusting their outlook on life and returning their lives to normal. [Nah, I think I was already "readjusted" long before the 26'th -js]

I have trouble doing that when I think of all the dreams and other signs which I have witnessed that point to this event. What would otherwise be the purpose of all these warnings? I know the window cannot be extended indefinitely into the future. Two of the people whom I have seen moved out of harm’s way under the pretext of a social gathering are to return home Sunday night. So I would expect Sunday to be the last possible day.
[...]

(It goes on from there in a less coherent fashion.)

I suspect one of the real drawbacks of being a skeptic is that you miss out on all the rejoicing after these it-was-that-close events.

On the other hand, I don't have to go back and apologize to my boss with a "I'm so sorry about that conversation on the 25'th... can I have my job back... please?"

Darth Vader Calling the Emperor

This is seriously funny.

Towel Day: A tribute to Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

Yes, I will carry my towel today.

End Of The World As We Know It!

Film at eleven!

Update: As it is now after May 26'th, the danger appears to be somewhat overstated. The great impact caused no damage except loss of a bunch of links to Mr. Julien's articles. So sad. I have left the links unchanged below, but due to the impact, most do not work any more. Use the wayback machine or other means to recover the Truth as it was back before 2006-05-26.

So, this guy claims the big meteor will hit in the Middle of the Atlantic on May 26 2006. The resulting 200m waves will wipe out life along the Atlantic coastline. This could be bad.

To prove this, he has pages and pages and pages of "scientific" explanations and diagrams to show the basis for these predictions.


So, given this, should you follow his advice and "Move away from the coasts and to go up on the heights sufficiently early, and even the day before"? Well, if you live on the Atlantic coast, you might want to check out exactly where the comet fragments will hit.

Hm... what's that "Lost City" label in the middle of the map?

Lets read the text a bit more carefully shall we:

It is auspicious to note that the Tropic of Cancer (located at 23° Northern), where the comet fragment would likely strike the ocean, is not very far from a particular site: Lost City on the Atlantis fault. In addition to the particularity of this mythical name (Atlantis), and of this unusually auspicious location (Lost City), this point is only 700 meters in depth! A comet fragment striking at the mid-Atlantic dorsal with a sufficient energy could awaken the chain of the underwater volcanoes there. Hardly 600 kilometres separate Lost City from the tropic of Cancer. In other words, it's a very tender zone for an impact.

Aha... maybe we should check more of the so called evidence:

It was precisely on June 25 1995 that the crop circle called "Missing Earth" appeared at Longwood Warren in the County of Hampshire in England. This crop circle, a gigantic view of the interior solar system, to the belt of asteroids, was designed without the Earth.

OK, sorry folks, false alarm. Just a kook. Nothing to see. Move along.

For an alternative view, check James [The Amazing] Randi's take on this.

I just don't understand sports.

Headline on the radio was "Bonds about to pass Ruth".

Sounded interesting, but then I realized it was a sports story. I thought it was about cannibalism...

They're made out of Meat

All I can say is "Wow!"

The film is based on the short story They're made out of Meat by Terry Bisson. I read it years ago and instantly recognized it once the dialog started, but couldn't place the author until I looked it up. (The web is a nice thing.) (Via lobotomies for everyone!.)