wallpaper It's Full of Stars!

I tend to assume that many of the silly things that fly at me out of the innertubz are faked or photoshopped. Yesterday I posted an image of a "monolith action figure" about which I made that assumption... mistakenly. It's a real thing that's really for sale at ThinkGeek and Amazon.

• Properly proportioned to those in the movies 2001 and 2010 (1:4:9 - the squares of the first 3 integers)
• Made of semisynthetic, organic, amorphous, solid materials (AKA plastic)
• Zero (0) points of articulation
• May cause strange magnetic fields, action figure evolution, seeing things filled with stars, and/or more (or it might just sit on your desk doing nothing)

It's going for $12.99, which seems kind of spendy for what it is, but face it: it comes with that packaging, which is sort of priceless. (Hat tip to Rawley for letting me know this is an actual thing and where to find it.)

wallpaper Bring the Excitement Home!

Now you too can ignite consciousness! Trigger sentience in a primitive mind! Start a landslide of self-awareness! Fire the starting gun in the long, difficult race from the primordial ooze to intelligence!
wallpaper I'm sending a dozen to Glenn Beck. Oh, and Bill O'Reilly. Mustn't forget "Where'd that come from" O'Reilly. (picture from Skull Swap)

wallpaper News Item

35 dead, 74 injured in Italian hunting season. Tom Lehrer was prescient. From 1960:

wallpaper The Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything

is not 42. It's all a mistake. wallpaper Someecards

wallpaper I Have a Dream Within a Dream Within a Dream...

wallpaper

see more Comixed. For a serious piece of the profundity of King's words and deeds in a much-too-short life, you could do worse than Leonard Pitts' column. I appreciate learning more about the breadth of his concerns... it wasn't just about African Americans, but all the downtrodden.

wallpaper Stealing This Line

"I've been a Libra my entire life. Now all of the sudden I've been downgraded to a Virgo? Why didn't my previous horoscope warn me about this change?"

Indeed. (Bits and Pieces) Also, "I feel for those who tattooed their sign on their ass. (Not really)"

wallpaper They Left Out a Step

That part where Mulder, with practically no information, and in the first five to ten minutes, comes up with the most ridiculous, implausible and unlikely explanation possible. Which, of course, turns out to be the right one. (Blastr; 10 steps that defined every X-Files episode) wallpaper

wallpaper Titillating Trivia

The likeness of which Playboy playmate has been to the Lunar surface? Answer here, and if it's your kind of thing, it's up for auction, along with quite a bit of other spacey memorabilia.

Items can currently be previewed on the Company's main site. Bidding runs from January 13-20.

Followup: According to IO9, it didn't actually go to the lunar surface; it was stashed in the command module.

wallpaper Deck Us All With Boston Charlie

wallpaper Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!

Don't we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, 'lope with you!

Hunky Dory's pop is lolly gaggin' on the wagon,
Willy, folly go through!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!

Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!
Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly's jolly chilly view halloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof! wallpaper

wallpaper Santa Visited Newberb, Oregon!

I just checked NORAD's Santa Tracker a few minutes ago, and Santa visited Newberg! That's just between here and Portland! Wait, what? No, I guess that's Newberb. Never mind. wallpaper Well, even if NORAD and Google can't spell, have a great one, folks.

wallpaper Santibar

wallpaper When I checked in at NORAD's Santa Tracking page a few minutes ago, he was at Zanzibar, Tanzania. Happy Christmas Eve, all.

wallpaper The War On Christmas

wallpaper This topic is, for the most part, one that strikes me as inconsequential and frankly, annoyingly distracting. Celebrate Christmas- or whatever holiday(s)- in the manner that works for you and yours, and let others do the same. However, this post by "Dr. Science" at Obsidian Wings struck me as both amusing and interesting:

I recall being taught that one reason Washington attacked on Christmas was specifically because (English) American colonists didn't celebrate the holiday. The German Hessian mercenaries did, though, and so would be hung over and vulnerable when Washington and his army made their surprise attack. In other words, at the time of the Revolution Christmas was unAmerican.

There is also some discussion of how our so-called "religious" holidays at this time of year are for the most part usurpations of previously-existing pagan holidays around the solstice, with their symbologies and traditions left largely intact, but with a new narrative superposed.

So again, axial tilt is the reason for the season, but whatever it is you care to celebrate during these shortest days of the year, it's all good as far as I'm concerned. Enjoy the season and the longer days to come.

wallpaper Zappadan, The Final Day

With the anniversary of the bebe Zappa's birth, we close the door on yet another joyous Zappadan season with Florentine Pogen. May all the weird blessing of the Zappa remain with you now and throughout the year.

wallpaper Perfect!

For Zappadan Day thirteen, I was privileged to be in the target area for this commercial, shown by PGE to get consumers to find ways to cut their electricity use... I'm thinking 1986.

wallpaper Nature

News item: The Cancun Climate Conference has wound up, and some sources are trying to paint smiley faces on the fact that we've agreed to agree on ...something ...sometime.

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever..."

The quote is from The Terminator, of course, but it could apply just as well to the natural world. That doesn't mean it should necessarily be feared, but respected. It doesn't mean that its endless beauty shouldn't be appreciated, just that it doesn't care if we do or not, and that its just as "happy" with "ugly" as "beautiful." Our values don't apply.

And if we in our greed throw a wrench into its workings, it will have no more regrets than the T-800 about ripping our arms out of their sockets and beating us to death with them. Keep that in mind.

wallpaper Inca Roads

Okay... I'm losing track. Day eleven?

wallpaper Titties and Beer

A request/suggestion from commenter Wordfalling for Zappadan day ten.

wallpaper Don't Eat the Yellow Snow

Zappadan Day nine.

wallpaper Call Any Vegetable

Zappadan day seven.

wallpaper I Hope This Is Made Available Online

Douglas Adams fans, prepare and celebrate: BBC 4 is doing a television adaptation of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I will see it sooner or later. Oh, yes. I will. I'd rather sooner.