Waveflux ala The Simpsons

Terrence at The Republic of T. is completely to blame for my having wasted the time it took to render a Simpsonized version of myself.

Eerily accurate, actually.

These interactive movie sites are often more entertaining than the films themselves. Does anyone know which film was the first to exploit the Web in this way?

Entertainment Weekly doesn’t know robots

Any purported top ten list of cinematic robots that overlooks Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still (while somehow making room for the “fembots” from Austin Powers) must be considered suspect.

Sheesh.

EW does earn points, however, for remembering Ash from Alien.

Snickers

Had a Snickers bar a few days ago. Happily munching along, then actually took a look at the thing and was surprised to see that the nougat inside was an odd green color.

“Well, this will make for a nice epitaph,” I thought. “‘Poisoned by candy bar.’” But I was still hungry, so I finished it.

I didn’t die.

Bought a Snickers bar today. Thought about the green nougat, so consulted the hive mind of the Internet and found this:

Snickers with Green Shrek Filling!

This limited edition version of Snickers boasted a green filling as a movie tie-in with Shrek the Third. Upon opening the wrapper, it looked just like a regular Snickers, as the outside was the usual milk chocolate color. So I bit in to find that they had taken the usual bottom layer of nougat and somehow turned it a dull shade of green that reminded me of wasabi.

I’d not bothered to actually look at the wrapper, so I did so and sure enough, there’s Shrek leering at me.

There’s a lesson in here somewhere, I suppose.

Immigration bill deader than fried chicken

Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame. You give immigration reform a bad name. Extravagant language like “crushing defeat’ and “fell dramatically short” in popular use. Elements of a Bush legacy reduced now to disastrous foreign wars, bumbling response to natural catastrophes, erosion of individual liberties, subversion of the Constitution, and diminution of the Republican Party. Does that about cover it?

Addendum: A stunned Bush is taking the news about as badly as you’d expect; after all, it was his own party - not a generic “Congress” - that did him in.

Not fit to be elected dogcatcher, apparently

Unanswered Question #1: After hosing the dog shit off the car - and, uh, the dog - did Mitt Romney strap the poor pooch back on top of the station wagon to finish the drive from from Boston to frigging Ontario?

Unanswered Question #2: Was Romney a dog-hating, control-minded sociopath, or just too cheap to buy or rent an RV? After all, he’d known “only privilege.”

Unanswered Question #3: Anybody think he’s changed much since 1983?

(Via Atrios.)

The very image of business blogging

I’ve got no real problems with most of what Anil Dash says in his explanation of why Six Apart is chasing after the business blogging market. It’s a valid and lucrative market and success there means (I trust) that 6A can afford to keep producing Movable Type for us non-business “individual hackers” (whatever that means). It’s similar to Apple and its iMacguffiny Media Thingie; as long the company keeps making sufficient iRevenue that it can afford to keep producing actual computers for me to use, I’m happy enough.

I do think, though, that Anil could have found a somewhat more congenial image to represent Joe Corporate, newly empowered biz blogger.

Really, now: Do you imagine that this fellow is thinking this…

Hooray! I’ve broken the bonds of that oppresive and inflexible Groupware Knowledge Management Content Solution Server!

…or this?

Game’s over, losers! I have all the money! Compare your lives to mine…and then kill yourselves!

I’m just sayin’.

Color it purple at the Post-Dispatch

I’ve said it once. I’ve said it twice. I’ll say it again: Harry Levins and the law and order beat at the P-D is a bad combination. As long as he treats the crime blotter as a noir writing project, we’ll be subjected to prose like this (link now defunct):

At least four bullets found their mark in a street shooting that killed a young man and wounded another early today in the city’s Dutchtown neighborhood.

Stop this man before he ledes again.

Waveflux saves the Cardinals’ season

The Worst Sports Fan in St. Louis feels for Cardinal Nation. It’s been a tough year, for a variety of reasons, and Redbirds fans are feeling the hurt. There’s always a chance, however, as the Cardinals do play in the NL Central. While it’s admittedly improbable that this team can play its way back into anything approaching contention, stranger things have happened.

As during last season, Waveflux is willing to do its part to help propel the St. Louis Cardinals toward success. To that end:

Arise, Cardinal Nation. Gloves shall be shaken, bats shall be splintered. A scoreboard-day, a Redbird-day, ere the sun rises. Or something like that.

See you in the postseason, then.

“Best Tasting City Water in America”

Before the turn of the century*, the city of St. Louis was known for its murky drinking water. “Cloudy” was a mild term indeed for the dark brownish stuff that citizens had to imbibe. The city’s thirty-fourth mayor, Rolla Wells, initiated a water clarification project - involving milk of lime and iron sulphate - that resulted in a somewhat clearer product just in time for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. After all, it wouldn’t do to have the fountains of the World’s Fair gurgling with murk.

This historical tidbit comes to mind now because St. Louis’ water has just been judged the best in the nation by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, based on taste, clarity and aroma.

*The nineteenth century, of course. I keep forgetting it’s 2007.

The wisdom of Starfleet

Matt Yglesias says:

The idea that you could help resolve an ongoing multifaceted conflict by introducing greater quantities of lethal weaponry and better-trained fighters is absurd on its face. At best, we’re in the position of arming several sides in a multi-pronged civil war in the vague hope that whoever prevails won’t notice we were also arming their adversaries and be loyal to us down the road, which seems like a really, really, really stupid bet.

This is why flouting the Prime Directive was such a serious offense on Star Trek.

Of course, Jean-Luc Picard violated the directive nine times (that we know of) with impunity, so go figure.

(Via Atrios.)

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