In researching a stupid diet idea I am about to post about, I discovered that google already has the answer to all our problems. Just eat dollar bills. 1 calorie per U.S. dollar = 4.18400 m² kg s^-2 U.S. Dollars^-1 This equation makes my brain hurt lots. So if i understand this (which i don't): You assume 1 calorie per US$. which equals 4.184 meters squared inverse kg squared inverse Dollar. kerpow!!!!! calories per dollar

I have a good fast machine. It's 2 years old about, but still fast as hell. Lotsa ram, big fast drives in RAID, etc etc etc. But alas, it runs windows, currently Vista, which is like punching myself in the nuts every time i use it. It's not that there is anything wrong with it, since after all it works for the most part, but, it really does nothing more than XP. I paid for it, so I use it. I have a hard time giving up on new tech that I pay for, but frankly this one is beating my stubborn streak. Even if I switched back to XP, i will still have to battle the issues of a windows install, which in my case tend to be numerous for some reason. Not really sure why, but I just seem to find every bug and hassle that windows has in its magic vault of torture. I get told all the time, switch to linux! Fuck Linux. I want LESS hassle, not more. Frankly, the few times I have tried installing linux on any machine, there is always something that never works. The drivers are the deal breaker for me. At least windows has that nailed. Everything has a windows driver, or at least will in a few weeks after being released. So I am considering going Mac. Yes, that's right, Mac. The actual reasons are both obvious and also not so much. The obvious is that OSx is sweet, the machines look great (but i really could care less about that), and the big one is that everything works like you expect. Basically, all the shit plays together like a symphony. This is easy for Apple though, because everything is made by Apple, closing the loop and preventing oddball stuff from getting in and making stuff not work. You can add peripherals that are not Apple approved, but then thats your own problem and just puts you back into the Windows world again. The reality is that Mac's don't 'just work' like many Mac owners would have you believe. Do you know how I know? I own a Mac. It's actually my wife's machine, and she is a graphic designer who pushes it a bit beyond it's limits sometimes. Shit doesn't 'just work' on a Mac, but it is better than windows for out-of-the-box workage. But I am willing to bet I have about 10 gadgets I use regularly, that will not work on the Mac, so that sucks. However, I can run a virtual Windows install... Since I have switched to PHP, and OSx is actually linux, it makes sense from a programmer point of view as well (yes of course I can install PHP on windows...). The main reason I am considering it is actually limitation. I am getting overloaded with the amount of shit I can and do install on my Windows Box. There is more and more software for the Mac, but, there is still nowhere near to the amount for the PC. This limitation actually would reduce some of my stress I think. Less thinking is better. I don't like thinking about my computer, I just want to use it and thats it. A PC can be like that, but by nature it is not. The real hesitation is money. Currently have working, good machines, so why upgrade? It's a tough sell. Especially when you talk a base price of $2700, plus then the necessary upgrades bringing it to probably $4000. Ouch. Not sure really though if I should when the money is back to being better, since I have this gut feeling that I will just fuck up the Mac as well, and be reinstalling just as often as I do my PC, which is about every 3 months.

I drive a Mazda Mazdaspeed Miata with about 4 inches of ground clearance. Your typical hummer has like 16 inches. So, please explain this to me... Why in good frozen hell can I outrun a hummer across speed bumps in a parking lot? This makes no sense. I hit speed bumps in a 4 inch road hugger at speeds I probably shouldn't, which for my car would be like anything over 1 mile an hour. But, a hummer, which is supposedly built for all terrain warfare, like grocery shopping and soccer practice it seems, should be able to drive over a standard speed bump at highway speeds. Not that I want to give hummer owners even more reason to prove how stupid and cluelessly obnoxious they are, but they really should not be slowing down to a creep-over speed. When I drive behind a sports car, it makes sense that they are afraid to hurt their baby, but seriously, hummers? I pick on hummers, but this goes for all big tank trucks, like suburbans, escalades, etc. Do the owners realize that by driving so slowly over the bump that they are effectively removing the shock absorbers from the equation, so as a result they are actually feeling the bump MORE? If they went over them at like 5 or 10 miles per hour, the probably wouldn't feel them at all. Of course you should not drive fast in a parking lot, but 5-10 miles per hour is what most parking lots can generally handle.

I am all for figuring out a way to just grow some meat in a vat, since after all, the resulting food items could get fantastic. Such as the filet mignon crazy-straw, or a turkey mug to hold my bacon fat milkshake, or chicken breast shaped like unborn human fetuses. But come on. $1 million? That isn't even going to cover the electric bill, unless of course the scientists can figure out how to harness lightning like in Frankenstein. $1 million is the offer a crazy person makes to someone to sleep with their wife, not what it takes to figure out how to grow meat in a jar. I know, why doesn't Greenpeace jump on the bandwagon of shitty rewards and offer $1 million to the scientist who can figure out how to make whales harpoon proof. Or, maybe the Sierra Club (i like the Sierra Club actually) could offer a $1 million reward to the scientist who figures out how to make a car that uses water for fuel, and can drive better on grass than asphalt. These hard-line topic-nazi organizations like Peta and Greenpeace need to learn that ignorance of reality, does not mean the reality does not exist. I am all for your personal belief that process which results in eating meat is cruel, and I even support you in trying to promote that opinion and get things changed. However, when you start being condescending and dumb, it makes you lose your vague supporters, like me, who feel that you have lost touch with reality. Without vague supporters, you only have your solid base, which is a bunch of zealots who freak out when they see milk being put into coffee and no one likes or takes seriously. But, to blatantly prove your disdain for the majority of humans with comments like saying that "consumers who can't get enough cholesterol and saturated fat in their diet could indulge their cravings without harming animals." makes you a dick. If you don't have an issue with people eating meat, just an issue with the process to acquire that meat, then you should focus on the task at hand which is to change the process. Petty digs at us meat eaters does nothing at all for your credibility. So here is my thought. Whoever figures out how to grow meat in a jar is going to become so retardedly rich that to accept the $1 million would actually be more hassle than its worth probably. I beg you, accept that money, then publicly gift it to the cattlemans association, or some leather group, you get the point. And publicize the fact that you are using PETA money to fund that association. I was going to suggest giving it to a cock fighting association, but that IS cruel, and pointless, so nevermind. Oh and as a side note, I don't harm animals for my food. Someone else does that for me. via gizmodo

Seriously, wtf is wrong with people? The impact we are having on this planet is obvious, yet there are millions in this country who honestly believe that global warming is some kind of magical fantasy. Not that I do a huge amount to reduce my impact, but I do reduce where I can such as, CFL's, running the AC to make the house 'just cool enough' and heat to 'just warm enough', efficient cars which are maintained well, etc, etc. I do not do the crazy stuff like 100 mile diets and running a housewide kill switch to stop vampire loads from our electronics (mostly because we are a home based business and always here, or i probably would). But since the major concerns for global warming and the warnings seem to be having little to no impact on changing the minds of Americans, there must be another avenue which could. I have said before that if you make the prospect of "going green" financially rewarding, you will have millions of people lined up to change. Look at CFLs. They now can actually save you money, quickly. when you can buy a 4 pack for 12 bucks, there is no reason to not change your bulbs as they burn out at least. 3 bucks a bulb will pay off within that first year of ownership, and in many cases even faster. There are even dimmable CFLs now, so there is virtually no excuse. Unfortunately, CFLs are such a small change, that any real benefit on a global scale would be quickly replaced by other increasing impacts, like bad gas mileage for example. I was actually hoping for 5 bucks a gallon as the price of oil increased. I figured at 5 bucks, people might start to freak out a bit, and rethink their transportation. Carpooling, bus, train, bike, or dumping that hummer for at least a honda CRV with decent gas mileage. What about pollution. Personally, i hate riding down the hill i live on in the Phoenix area, and seeing the thick brown cloud hanging over the valley. Its gross, and bad for your health. Don't people want clean air, regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with global warming? Nope, because pollution campaigns have been running for decades in America, with little to no effect. People just don't care about it because its long term. The pollution you breath today will kill you in 30 years, is a hard sell... Of course, if you walked outside and risked being instantly melted into a puddle of goo by the acid rain, people would change their ways quickly. Mostly the failings of these ways to reduce impacts, is the fault of politicians and the corporations who own them. Unfortunately, that seems to be the S.O.P. of America at the moment, which is, profit at all costs, but pretend to actually care about the greater good. Look at Bisphenol or Phthalate in plastics. So obvious is the danger to the EU, that the EU's version of the FDA has banned all plastics manufactured with Bisphenol or Phthalates which contact foods or mouths, such as children's toys. The US FDA of course, as usual, has this comment... "errr uh, what? Um... Eat more beef!" The RDA is a joke that if followed precisely will probably cause you rickets, scurvy and every single undernourishment disease that exists. The politicians have built a system that rewards them for failing to do anything. If they don't screw up, they get re-elected. If they don't do anything, they can't screw up. Personally, I like the idea of a political contract. The politician promises X-number of things they will do in office. If they don't do at least 50% of those things, they cannot run for re-election. Of course, other politicians will intentionally sandbag and torpedo certain plans, but eventually, they will all have to start making deals to get their promises done, or else we will have no "old guys" left in office, which could be a good thing. If politicians would actually encourage green technology, fund it, advance it, and reward its use, people would jump. We are almost there without the government, since some companies are starting to realize they can spend money today, to save a lot more money over the next 10 years. But a public company answers to it shareholders, and if its holders only care about the profit today, then they are just as much to blame as the politicians. I don't know what the answer is. I just know that it needs to come down to money. All the preaching, begging, proving, and arguing in the world will change no minds, until the mighty dollar is waved in the face of the masses. All these green campaigns should stop wasting their money on advertising, instead, put all the money in a big pot, and just start paying companies to make the change. That will reduce the price of the technology, which will in turn allow the individuals to get on board. oops, that was an answer....

Dreams make me laugh. Not because they are funny themselves, but because people are convinced that they ALWAYS mean something deep seeded. So, you mystics of dream analysis. Tell me what deep seeded emotional damage this dream is trying to tell me about... My wife and I bought a small little cottage on some moon somewhere in the universe. It had no vegetation, barely any sunlight hitting it, and was made out of numbered (like for position and location) slabs of gray, boring, flagstone. There were hills and valleys, but no real features, except for this 1 old cottage which was ours. Inside the cottage was normal, just like any modern house, frankly, like our actual house. We were the only people on the moon, which by the way, you could walk around in about an hour, so the horizon was like 100 yards away. No weather, night sky all the time. Then, Robert Downey Junior invited us to his restaurant somewhere, and when we were served our food, it came on our antique plates, which my wife inherited from her grandmother in real life. My wife of course freaked out, and started accusing RDJ (im being lazy not cool here...) of stealing them. He admitted he was, for weeks, stealing 1 at a time to prove to us that people could still steal from us even though we were on that moon. After a good laugh, and some drinks with RDJ, we went home, to our moon cottage, and hung out outside. We realized that we could make hand shadow puppets on the planet nearby since we were between the sun and the planet. As a result of doing that for a few minutes, the cops showed up and said there was "a lighting complaint phoned in by some angry retirees" and that we needed to "stop making giant bunny shadows on the planet because it was scaring the old folks." Analyze that!

Lifehacker.com had a post with the title "Avoid Ten Typos (Almost) Everybody Makes". Great, should be a quick read to see that I probably match all ten... But to my dismay, there are no typos, not even in the article they were referencing. That article was yammering about TYPOGRAPHIC mistakes, like using hyphens instead of en-dashes. I don't mean to be a dick but, come on. The use of a hyphen is not a typo. tihs iz a typoe. The original post is, a bit anal-retentive (hyphen...) for sure, but there is no discussion of typos. Bad grammar is not a typo, it's just bad grammar. Technically, typo could be short for typographic I suppose... But aside from that, who cares? Em-dash en-dash hyphen; its all the same shitto 99.99999999% of the world. Writing: Avoid Ten Typos (Almost) Everybody Makes

And the winner is: stereoshock Some Stats: about 20 entries total. A few people were disqualified for obvious spam,porn,no-link-found,etc etc etc. Two people had more than one link submitted. So in the end it ended up being about 10 qualified links to pick from, which meant stereoshock had a 20% chance of winning since they had submitted 2 links. So congrats to stereoshock on getting an old school zune. I'm gonna email you to make sure you are still at the same address. Win a Zune30