Tut's Dreams

I saw this and had to share... Tut, you are an inspiration to us all.



Spider Car - video powered by Metacafe

Get what you asked for

Jesus can't compare
Trying to impress someone
I'll be the princess

Huh, looks like it's you.

Always remember
Eenie, meenie, minie, moe
To feed hungry gods

Random Haiku has infinite wisdom.

4REALZ

this be the realz neverending story... DiD will never die... well, at least not until next year when Rob already said he would cash in his chips. ok, so maybe it will end... but not until then.

*fingers crossed*

The End?

Feels like it.

Bird cams

We all miss Apprentice Steve after that psycho Paul killed him, I know.

One of Steve's greatest contributions to our web community here was pointing out the Eagle Cam. Turns out there's lots of crazy spring hatching going on, all over multiple bird cams. If you guys ain't reading metafilter, here's a link with a bunch of bird cam pages- mainly big predatory birds.

http://www.metafilter.com/60650/Happy-Birthday-Babychicks

T-Shirts and Mugs

You make a T-shirt or a mug out of that pic, and I'd buy one.

I know.

Isn't that the coolest thing you have ever seen?!

I think I am going to make a t-shirt. I found it on this guy's site.

Check out the Dungeon Crawl Classics. Those look pretty kewl.

HELL YES

That is fucking awesome. Where the hell did you find that? Look at that dude's huge fucking sword!

It's cool. really.

No Harm Intended

I didn't mean to sting with that last post... I just knew it had to be said.

You know I love you TK.

And damn if it wasn't a good idea, yo.

Fiction and Fact

This is hilarious. Pictures of fast food next to their advertised images.

Wal-mart

Where Wal-mart gets its products.

Grindhouse

Grindhouse is fucking great.

The trailers are brilliant. The first movie, Planet Terror, is good, better if you like zombie movies or Fallout.

But Tarantino's "Death Proof" is what it's all about.

Personally I think Tarantino himself is sort of a ponce. He comes off smarmy and insincere in interviews, and his acting makes me wince. Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, good movies. Kill Bill I, good. Everything else, eh. But Death Proof is, except for some gratuitous foreshadowing, about as good and tight as movies get. It's rough stuff; low on gore but psychologically rougher I think than anything he's done prior, and with less Tarantinoesque dialogue than usual. There's a ton of dialogue, but it's the best and most naturalistic in a film in a long time.

And holy shit Zoe Bell and the stunts. Or, 'stunt'. Un fucking believeable.

Thanks Brogg

Thanks for digging my story Brogg... it's just you and me and two other souls out in "Internetland"

Oh yeah...

Funny thing is that I just played it today,

Huh.

Desktop Tower Defense

Hunh. Mark, I kinda thought it was YOU who originally posted the link here to Desktop Tower Defense. But maybe not . . . .

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/

You build up a variety of shooting towers, and badguys come through to get shot, and . . . well, you'll see. A good hint for the starting is to look at some player mazes and see what people have done that works.

It's a HUGE time-sink for some of us, though (Chris and Paul and Sonya and me, for instance) so be careful!

DtD?

I had no idea it needed to be defended. Link us up.

Re: Defending Desktops

Link plz kthx

Threnody's busy life

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the dearth of postings - between the new girlfriend and the new term and applying for some full-time jobs, I'm a bit busy. I can't promise to post every day, but I'll try to get on here more often...

Oh - and Defending the Desktop has been taking quite a bit of my time, too. I almost broke 7000 points today. If you're down with the DtD, there's a group called 'Dave' that some of us fancy. Chris is 'travious', and I'm 'Dave F' - those other Daves are generally imposters. 'Smooches' is my g-friend Sonya - yup, she's fairly geeky.

pretty good msnbc

actually all MSNBC did was fucking cut and paste it from the AP wire feed so good job AP wire! Interesting either way. It's exactly the kind of thing I like to see. What am I talking about.....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18096220/

I love that he just uses a standard 1040 form. Dude got paid 200k for being Vice President, and made 1.4 million dollars ish elsewhere. V.O.I. rocks.

The ap wire on the internet can be fun to watch, as well as the reuters pages.

iTunes

Hi DiD.

I just wanted to say that whoever programmed iTunes 'Visualizer' is a fucking genius. It's perfect for the new electro shit that the kids love these days. I was listening that crazy Roman Flugel song and kind of spaced out watching the little lights and wavy lines. Then right in the middle during the break, when everything's all quiet, the screen went black and this little yellow circle came out from the edge and rolled into the middle of the screen. It rotated around, spawned off four larger yellow rings, they all spun around in a perfect 360, ending right as the beat kicked in, the crazy visuals started, and the little yellow circle rolled back off the edge of the screen.

I guess you had to be there, but it was fucking awesome. iTunes Visualizer Programmer, you are DiD Hero of the week.

On the fans getting hit with that shit that I jit

Actually, my rhymes are probably inspired more by Dr. Seuss than Chill Rob G.

KT:

http://www.mindlesscrap.com/stumpme/07-02.htm

and

http://ask.metafilter.com/47344/The-Question-Hit-the-Fan

but this is the best (and from the metafilter link):

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=shit

KT

Well, what I really want to do is Entagle Dag, and just let the sh*t hit the fan.

By the way, where did that saying come from? Did people, somewhere, actually throw sh*t into a fan? If so, were they intentionally trying to determine just how bad it would be?

Where we at

I plan to step down as DM in about a year and a half, if we go that long. I'll keep the campaign going until then, as long as there's interest; but when I start my next job, I won't DM anymore.

Interest seems to wax and wane. Please don't feel 'obligated' to play if you're not into it; obviously you're welcome to post whenever the mood strikes you. Of course, if everyone only posts on the main page once a week or less frequently, there's not much of a game there.

Also feel free to play as conservatively or not as you desire. We're much faster and looser than if I was running a table-top campaign... KT front to the back speaks to that. Flying robot buddy, metal druid spells etc. But it is a DM-run game, and so if you attack the dude with three pit ghoul guards, don't be too surprised when they attack back.

...

Honestly, I feel like what I say and do matters much more than a few years ago. Up until I was 27 or so, nothing I did really mattered that much... go to class or not, sleep in, whatever. Now it's different. I won't belabor the page here with examples, so believe it at your peril.

K.

Hey dude, I made fliers about the Project for a New American Century and passed them out at a anti-War rally before we invaded. -I also wrote both my Senators last week about my feelings on Net Neutrality. -Just two examples. I am not all armchair.

Truth.

heh.

I get my news from lots of sources. I find that PBS shows like frontline, foreign exchange, and others are very good. I especially like interviews with foreign people when trying to understand foreign issues. PBS has had some really good specials on all kinds of subjects. I don't really use the internet news sites like CNN, MSNBC or others for "news", I think I look at most of what I find on the internet as gossip. As to how important it is to stay informed, well I think it's very important. If you want to be involved I think it's a responsibility to also be informed. If you don't want to be involved, politically, etc, then you probably don't need to be informed. If there is a subject I want to know more about I do google it, then I read say 6 websites, and try to filter out what I can from the mess.

As to politics, religion, social shit etc. I think it's of paramount importance to be informed. I get a lot of shit from people about how I may or may not be helping the cause, their cause in most cases. I do believe that happens more in cities, than in the burbs. Frankly to be honest I'm not doing much. I write politicians and talk about what I believe to people. But, I think being informed properly takes up a lot of time and requires a lot of work. I mean think about the bills that are passed by our government, most go unread before being voted on. I think it's very sad, and I think it's what we do all that time in life in other areas of activity. I have taken a shine as of late to the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It's a great source text to use when pushing my agenda. International Law, Human Rights, Labor Rights, Privacy, it's really a nice piece of useless paper almost all countries of the world have signed on to.

I could write more, but it's not my medium, and hey what does it really matter if anyone says what they believe? We should all just sit back and watch 24 go to our parents church, or use another sanctioned spiritual product quietly while we buy shit we don't need, and use it quickly before it breaks or becomes obsolete, vote for who we are told.... Fuck that, if you too say fuck that to that, then I'm all for doing a little research first. Knowing about what we do and how it affects us is one of those things that I think makes us...... fuck more typing.

The Economist can be ok. I really liked a magazine I found a while back and read a some editions of called Covert Action Quarterly. It was awesome, maybe note "right" but awesome.

PS Cheney isn't Satan, he just has a time-share with him payed for by a life of corruption and yes graft. Can I prove it? No, but isn't his smile enough proof. PS2 tm. George definatly did cocaine. look it up. His non answers are blatent admissions. I for the record have not done cocaine, but I can't prove it.

KT

A) I'm not being facetious at all. Read up on all that stuff, read all the issues of The Economist you can find, and then notify me when you've made an impact on society due to reading it. I'm talking primarily about politics (I thought that's what the post was about?). Obviously with science or medicine or something, anyone could improve "the world" by inventing medicine, but more of a correlation between work/school and discovery and not reading journals/discovery. Though, if you read a Neuroscience journal and somehow instantly discovered something new and amazing, that was a well spent 3.95 (or 4.95 or w/e).

I think it's a different mindset out in the burbs...in the city, you just want to earn enough to get a decent place to live, leave work before 9, and not work on Saturday.

If reading journals and stuff makes you feel like you've got a handle on the situation and you're improving it, then go for it. If you want to read something that's actually accurate and good, get Roll Call. It costs $250 a year and gives you the inside scoop on the D.C. political happenings. If you read that for awhile you'll realize our whole government is pretty much hopelessly inefficient, completely driven by micro-scale concerns (DeLay didn't personally like housing bills, so he killed all housing bills) and graft, and is only "successful" because of our massive tax base.

B) Where is this campaign going? Is it supposed to end soon? I remember awhile ago Rob said "from here on out (I can only post once a day)." So does "from here on out" mean that the blog has a specific ending point? If it (this party) is supposed to go for awhile, I'll keep playing conservatively. If it's supposed to end in a month anyway, I won't.

C) If you live in a binary world where option 1 is to care about wanting to change the world by reading journals, or option 2 is to eat fast food and live a vacuous life, perhaps you should consider two further alternatives: 1- the existance of any sort of gray area at all, and/or 2--the practicality of being efficient with one's energy and time. As an example of the later: I like to volunteer at the animal shelter, and walk the dogs who haven't been getting much attention. Unfortunately, since I am not changing the world, I supposed I had best trade that hobby in for a Big Mac and some Liquid Silk? I've joined political groups and rallys in Chicago, I've been to the Obama rallys and talked with his supporters...have you guys done much beyond reading a journal here or there? Nevermind, I suppose I should just buy a couple magazines, sit at home, and feel empowered.

Today On TDG Is Jane Goodall Talking About Bigfoot

Steve (KT) may have been being facetious, but in any case, my stance is exactly the opposite- there's much to be done, and we're the people who must do something about it. I'm not religious, except in my own weird way about Science, but that doesn't excuse me from a moral obligation to Make Shit Better. In fact, I think the direct corollary of atheism is proactive humanitarianism.

I didn't used to care about news and politics. Gained a few years, maybe leveled once or twice- and now that I believe I can and must affect change Out There, now I care about news.

News is about reading between the lines. I have first hand experience with this in science news, where popular science reporting almost always gets shit- big shit- wrong. Mark is not so helpful when he tells you to read the Journal of Neuroscience, as there's no 'news' there. Just primary research articles, which aren't 'news'. New Scientist, The Scientist, and Scientific American are the best.

But I was interviewed by a local newspaper a few years ago, and my quotes were all distorted. Even worse, I wrote a goddamn article for a local magazine, and they even changed my title, making it sound impressive and arrogant, when I believe science is all about humility.

...

Anyway, I read cnn.com, but trust it more for accuracy where Paris Hilton is concerned than political events. I read the New York Times online, but mainly for the book reviews.

For politics and world news, I trust The Economist, and read it every week. It's politically moderate, pro-science, and pro-capitalism, and that's me. Also report news around the globe. Say what you will about capitalism- I think it's honest, and regardless of whatever politico-religio-social standpoint you might have, if you're in it for the money, you're gonna cut through the bullshit. That's why I like The Economist: the science writing is the best outside of New Scientist, etc, and they understand that science makes tech makes business makes money. In the grander scheme, the history of civilization thus far can be summed up in two words: Science Wins. From fire to chariots to Galileo to Hiroshima.

I read and generally trust wikipedia and metafilter, probably the best of the online-only catch-all sites. Can't stand boingboing, as it feels like a 20-30-something Bay Area/Sharper Image circle jerk.

I also read The Daily Grail. Which is more interesting than other sites. But that's news, in any flavor: it's one thing to read about an event and be able to discuss it. It's another, separate thing, to actually believe it occurred or understand why it may or may not matter in a larger sense.

This is why I only care about current events to a limited extent: history repeats, and the details don't matter. I used to buy into the Great Man theory of history, now I don't. Elian Gonzalez, Terry Schiavo, the Iraq war... each is simply a specific implementation of a particular narrative, tired and well-worn by the ages. Maybe I've DMed too much, but there aren't that many stories, and we live our lives and shape our civilizations by them.

So cool.

This MAP can help you out.

It's so weird, this was just posted on Kottke.org as a D&D map, but it's the original Zork map!

K.

Yeah, I don't mean to be non-constructively contrary. I guess I just don't have that feeling.

An existence or universe that isn't life- or human- or anything-centric without intrinsic meaning sits just fine with me. -Actually, better than fine. To be perfectly honest, I am comforted by the thought. I'd hate to have rules or judgment based on some 'other' mind-like thing.

I make happy for me and you. That's what I choose to do.

P.S. If you really need an ordered UNIVERSE.

No Offense Taken

My quest for sources is why I am a man of faith. Specifically, wanting a good source is the reason why I practice the way I do. For me, I suppose the search wasn't about God or no God.... Faith or no faith. I feel more like there is something else out there in the universe, and it is up to me to figure it out.

Yeah.

I guess your right. I'm gonna eat a Big Mac and then masturbate myself to sleep.

KT

There's nothing good out there, and none of it matters anyway. We can't do anything about anything, what's the point?

I listen to the voices.

Hey, don't get all Kaczynski on us just yet, Debe.

Personally, I don't think any one source is good for any specific kind of info. Some sources are great at some things, but suck at others. Fox sucks at almost all of them. CNN sucks at a lot. BBC is a bit better. For daily news, I bounce back and forth between CNN and BBC. If you want neuroscience news, I'd trust Nature Neuroscience, or the Journal of Neuroscience; or better, read at least 4 articles on any one topic from multiple journals. Those people have a vested interest in keeping things aboveboard. If people start to doubt their quality, they will fail. Sure, you could write a neuroscience article, but they wouldn't publish it. -The Journal of Neuroscience wouldn't even publish my last one.

I think if you read a neuroscience article on a blog and believe it, it's your fault, not the blog's author. -We need to be responsible consumers of information.

I don't worry too much about the deluge of 'news' and 'information'. The more sources I have to draw from, the better chance I have of picking out patterns of truth. What would really worry me, is if I just had CNN only. -Even if they seemed very responsible. Given enough sources, I believe the cream will rise to the top. That's what is great about Wikipedia, it's not Gospel, but neither is the Encyclopedia Britannica. Actually, Nature reported in a study, that when fact checked by 'experts' in the respective fields, Wikipedia was 70% accurate, and EB was 80% accurate. Wikipedia evolves faster too, so that might help close the quality gap.

Speaking of Gospel, (and I honestly don't mean to offend) how can you be worried about sources when you believe in a religion and the dogma that comes with it? Where is the source quality there? And that is one of the most far-reaching and consequential beliefs a person could have. I've never understood that about faith. I really don't. I know that's supposed to be a rude thing to ask too, but I don't know why. Why do people get a pass when it comes to religion?

Anyway, I don't have faith in any one source for all circumstances. I just look for patterns amongst a bunch of sources. Don't only read the New York Times if you want an objective view of a Republican. Don't only read the Washington Post if you want an objective view of a Democrat. And, WTF is up with Newspapers backing a candidate? WTF is up with that Nazi propaganda bullshit?!

Sorry. So, speaking practically, I read CNN and BBC for news. If something interests me, I'll Google the issue and peruse what comes up. I also read Nature and NewScientist and daily search PubMed for kewl science news. Kottke.org and bOINGbOING keep me up with pop culture. We also get the New Yorker in print, for the same. I use Wikipedia a lot when I want to learn a little about something new. I often follow the links from those articles. That's another great thing about Wikipedia. As for Dick and his war profiteering: I don't know of any specific war for cash connections. He got a sweet package from Haliburton when he retired, and CNN reported that he did sell some interests after that. -I haven't read anything to suggest he is directly lining his pockets. I think both the New York Times and Washington Post need to be taken lightly.

Here's a question: Has news ever been better?

Reliable Information?

Where do you guys go for reliable, accurate news information... or information of any kind? I was in a discussion/argument with a guy yesterday, and I got ahead of myself when I referred to Dick Cheney as a war profiteer... I knew I had read a few articles about the matter, but during our discussion I was unable to draw on any real, cite-able, sources. So today, I began a small quest to find out if I was accurate in my assertion...

of course there is ALMOST NO information on the web about Dick Cheney and the Iraq war...

I got sidetracked on my mission for information by the overabundance of opinions disguised as news. Disguised from both sides. The guy is either Jesus returned, or Satan incarnate. I had to step away from the computer. There is just TOO MUCH shit out there. It feels like the internet has leveled the journalistic and scientific playing ground. By that, I mean that I could write a news article or a "scientific" paper about neuroscience (which would be completely inaccurate) and as long as it is articulate enough, and designed slick enough for the web, it would probably be read more than a paper by Rob or Mark... and how is the average American going to know any better?

It begs the question: Who can you trust? Where does "news" come from?

Though I would like to hear your philosophical discussion, I would also like to hear your practical ones. Where do you get your news? Where do you go for authoritative data?

I kinda trust Wikipedia... but even that seems to have a slightly tech savvy, anti-authority leaning... So much power is derived from the control of information. Information used to be controlled by few, but now it is almost free to anyone. So how do we know when some crazy blogger has the truth about some story that the NY Times says never happened? Why do we trust corporate and politically controlled news sources over a person with a computer, and write them off as a conspiracy theorist?

I dunno... it may just be time to buy that ranch in Montana and just completely unplug.

Last FM

THIS is cool!

Macintosh stuff

I just finished a little online tutorial... I know you all aren't Mac guys, but if you know any geeks with some extra time, comcast cable, and a mac... send them over:

and give it a Digg if you would be so kind... It's my first digg story.... we'll see what happens.

Loop and Roop

In a random mix, I accidentally bumped into Loop by Fuse vs. LFO. Super good.

And yeah, the Kerry Roop rhyme was made of laughs.

So glad we came up for this:

This was a search phrase that brought one soul to DiD today:

“The two losing masters wanted a riposte, so the grand master showed them 5 hats, two white and three black. Then he said: 'I will turn off the light and put a hat on each of your heads and hide the other hats. When I turn on the light you will have equal chances to win. Each of you will see the hats of the two others, however not his own. The first one saying the colour of his hat will win.' Then before he could turn off the light, one of the masters (the same one again) guessed, what the colour of his hat will be.”

Awesome.

Hilarious You Tube clip

Very well done "Urban Ninja II"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nVENReGBY

Ragworm

Rob and Dave, do you remember that wormy-thing we saw in the tide pool near Seattle? i think it was a ragworm:















That thing made me want to throw up. -I've always wondered what it was.

That hurts.

I haven't had such a sweet plan for so long.

Someone toss Bekkers out.

I'm such a fool.

Yeah, 4-1. Sonufabitch.

Still, it isn't that unbelievable. -I think it would be kind of like watching the Never Ending Story and Vin Diesel take a dump at the same time.

House music.

Enigma?

That would be an odd thing indeed. Kinda makes the whole thing a bit transcendental. -"We build this house. We are the builders." (Deep Beats, ...Aahhahaaaaaa.)

Seen

Might be a 4-1 thing, ya?

...

Saw a weird thing the other day walking to work. A couple construction workers, building a house- while listening to Enigma.

OMG, Vin Diesel has no shame. None at all!

I can't believe THIS.

Apparently, Courtney Solomon, the dude who made that piece of movie poo Dungeons & Dragons, is making a Forgotten Realms movie.

But.........

The movie is split into two: One half the movie, one half a group of gamers playing the movie.

And........

Vin Diesel is to be the fucking DM.

Sure doesn't make it any easier to be a gamer.