The Ziggurat of Doom

Via a comment on Slashdot, I bring you: German Police Seek Speeding British Muppet.

Check this story out, well worth a read.

I know that the Heiro in particular enjoyed the “All along the Watchtower” scene in BSG, and I stumbled across a link today on how they did it, so I thought I would share.

Notably the blog author indicates “I have to admit that my first thought was that Ron [Director Ron Moore] might be going crazy.” I think he was probably right.

So I bought a PS2 (which axed a fair bit of my productivity for the holiday =\ ). Now I’m trying to work together a long-term shopping list. I find it very pleasing to be able to buy top tier games for $15 or less.

I already own: Katamari Damacy, We Love Katamary, Xenosaga I, II, and III. Final Fantasy X, X2, and XII. God of War. The Bard’s Tale. I think that’s it.

What should I get? I want to build myself a nice all-star library while PS2 games are still easy to find and super-affordable.

Already on the list:
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All I want to know is who sold this shit to Corporate.

More under spoilers cuts.
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A while ago Warren Ellis (Internet Jesus) wrote a nice post on his website basically about how much he loves his daughter who is a teenager now. The scary internet took this and did what the scary internet does.

Here is Ellis’s response.
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Welcome to the new internet, featuring Barack Obama.

You’re Welcome.

Some of you may remember that I had a plan at one point to make a decentralized bittorrent client which would mesh features of Bittorrent with features of DC++.

Well, so did a bunch of researchers from Harvard and some European universities. They wrote tribler, which sounds like it has essentially the same goals and methods.

I might have to give this guy a try.

EDIT: Changed tribbler to tribler. This makes it much less likely they were making a reference to Tribbles, which is sad.

In lighter news, the U.S. DOD has put out a contract for “develop[ment of] a software/hardware suite that would enable a multi-robot team, together with a human operator, to search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject. The main research task will involve determining the movements of the robot team through the environment to maximize the opportunity to find the subject … Typical robots for this type of activity are expected to weigh less than 100 Kg and the team would have three to five robots.”

In other words, do you remember how back in the old south when a slave escaped, the Sheriff and his team of bloodhounds would comb the woods for them?

The ACLU has been sounding the alarm about a unique kind of constitutional erosion recently. It’s been the opinion of the US supreme court for a long time now (since the 17-somethings) that the 4th amendment does not apply at the US border, because the US has the right to know what’s coming into and going out of the country.

The interesting news is that the Border Patrol has begun redefining the US border to be a 100-mile strip of land from the border inland. Thus, the Border Patrol has taken it upon themselves to, for example, set up checkpoints on highways in California, where people who have been nowhere near the US border are being stopped and asked about their citizenship.

Technically, according to the ACLU, the Patrol is not allowed to use these as legal enforcement stops, for example to look for drugs in your car without a warrant. The actuality of whether they are doing this or not is much less clear.

There’s some pretty scary statistics involved here, such as the claim that “…fully TWO-THIRDS of the United States’ population lives within this Constitution-free or Constitution-lite Zone” and “Nine of the top 10 largest metropolitan areas as determined by the 2000 census, fall within the Constitution-free Zone. (The only exception is #9, Dallas-Fort Worth. )”

While i think that the ACLU may be a bit alarmist here, there’s no question that this is some funny business.

With apparently no fanfare as far as I can tell, the next Penny Arcade game is coming out (almost) the hell right now.

We may eventually have a drug to help us deal with the scary internet.

Let’s talk television.

I haven’t watched any Heroes since early season 2 was so terrible, but looking over the episode recaps for season three, it has gone completely, insanely bad. Last I checked, Mohinder (whose unique contribution to evolved humanity was Super-Bad Decision-Making) is Spider-Man now, right down to wrapping people in cocoons, and that’s the least incredibly stupid thing I’ve heard about. So, pass.

People keep telling me to watch Chuck. Someone want to back them up on this?

Terminator: SCC. I’m a week behind on the Tivo, but it is still some bloody fantastic television.

Supernatural. I’m still not 100% sure I’m on board with this season, but the first few seasons were so improbably good that they’ve earned a certain amount of patience from me. I think a lot of people missed out on this show because it was on WB or CW or whatever, and they can be forgiven — it is a routinely terrible station. But go back and give it a watch.

I gave Fringe two episodes and got exactly what I expected. JJ Abrams doesn’t know what a story bible is, but he knows he doesn’t want one. I gave Alias and Lost their chances - a season and a half each, same as anything else, and look where that got me. (Hint: Bored and slightly bitter.) So, not watching that.

Anything decent I’m missing out on, particularly in sf?

Oh, the Terry Goodkind TV series apparently starts in a few weeks. This can only end in alcohol and comedy.

I’m back to obsessively counting electoral votes.

My current prediction:

Obama: 271
McCain: 267

but with a lot of marginal McCain victories

Via Post, via metaquotes…

You know how sometimes people take Shakespeare and reimagine it in alternate settings?

Somebody(s) bizarro’d that up, rewriting a classic of, uh, Tarentino…in Elizabethen English.

Thus: A Slurry Tale

Though I recommend first, the metaquoted exerpts

Hilarious political satire that makes no sense:

Three Panel Soul: On Sober Analysis
XKCD: The Federal Reserve Skateboard

Genome Quilts by Beverly St. Clair

Do you guys remember the “installing linux on a dead badger” article?

Here’s one on a casemod to turn a dead beaver into a PC.

McCain: The Mavericking Maverick Mavericks More

He’s smarter than you, he’s got a science degree

Yes, that’s right, it’s a rap about Richard Dawkins. Why? Because it’s the internet.