Flood? What Flood? New Orleans never flooded...

Google is being chided by the government for replacing satillite images of flooded New Orleans with older pre-Katrina pictures.

"Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," said subcommittee chairman Brad Miller, D-North Carolina.

Google says that the swtich to pre-Katrina photos was to "improve detail" of the maps of the city. But it doesn't seem like Google has changed the maps for New Orleans on its Google Earth product yet.

Sad fact that we probably rely on and trust Google too much.

Edith Holleman, staff counsel for the House subcommittee, said it would be useful to understand how Google acquires and manages its imagery because "people see Google and other Internet engines and it's almost like the official word."

Links:

CNN - House panel: Why did Google 'airbrush history?'

New Orleans on Google Maps as if Hurricane Katrina never happened

World's tallest man and dolphin saver gets married

Bao Xishun, the giant 7-foot-9-inch herdsman from Mongolia, is finally getting married.

You might remember the great Bao who saved a dolphin from choking a while back. Bao's arms were the only ones long enough on the planet to reach into Flipper's stomach to pull out a plastic object that was choking it.

Now he's making news by marrying a woman who is half his age and almost half his height. That honeymoon should definitely be paparazzi worthy.

Links:

CNN - World's tallest man ties knot

BBC - World's tallest man saves dolphin

Alabama hates dildos

Last Valentine's day everyone was so busy trying to get some, that we didn't notice that the state of Alabama outlawed the sale of dildos (dildoes? dildo's? Not sure how I can look up the proper grammar of sex toys..)

Alabama (who has one of the highest homicide rates in the nation) decided that is perfectly ok to purchase as many guns as you want, but they are drawing the line at vibrators.

Apparently its fine to own twelve shotguns, but not ok for to make women happy with Mr. Plastic Zucchini.

Fun Links:

Sex in Public Square blog - Q: When is a vibrator more dangerous than a gun?

YouTube - Mark Day's comments

PDF of Alabama's decision

Break through the Chinese Firewall

The Great Firewall of China site claims to be able to test to see if any website can make it through those tough content filters Beijing set up.

Not surprisingly, sites like gaychina.com, chinasucks.com and whitehouse.com don't make it through the big red firewall. But they did let this blog through for some reason.

My new goal in life: to get my site banned in China. Leave some anti-communist comments to help me get started.

Arizona Governor admits UFOs are real

Former Arizona Governor admits that he did see a football sized UFO in 1997, even though he denied it and ridiculed people who reported seeing it ten years ago.

His reason for the flip-flopper was that he wanted to cover up the sighting to "prevent a panic" amongst the population of Phoenix.

The Phoenix sighting on March 13, 1997 was the largest and most videotaped UFO siting with more than a thousand witnesses for over a period of several hours.

Links:

CNN Video - "Phoenix lights" (direct link with advertisement)

YouTube - Phoenix sighting

More Phoenix UFO videos

Blonds 'no good' in Mideast talks

"Japanese are trusted. If you have blue eyes and blond hair, it's probably no good."

Ah, Foreign Minister Taro Aso, how wise you are. The Japanese diplomat is famous for straight talking that sometimes ends up with his staff squirming to explain his comments.

What he meant was that Westerners are seen by many Middle Eastern as having exploited their lands for oil and can't be trusted. He asserts that since the Japanese don't have this political stigma attached to them, they are better suited to be Middle East peace the negotiators.

"Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces," he said. His words not mine!!!!

Link:

CNN - Japan diplomat: Blonds 'no good' in Mideast talks

How to stalk people on Digg

Digg is a useful site for keeping up to date on the web, but it can be overwhelming to have so much stuff to be constantly keeping up to date on. Enter Digg Labs to help us visualize the popular articles easier.

It also is fun to "spy" on what other users are currently reading in real time with the Digg Swarm tool. Shown above, the yellow dots are Digg users logged in with a line connecting them to the story they are currently viewing. Mouse over the dots to see the user's alias with the interactive Flash graph.

This tool can also be used to keep Digg itself honest. Today for instance the article about insurgents in Iraq blowing up two children was dug 241 times (a very high number) but was not listed on Digg's main page for popular content. The Swarm and Stack tools clearly showed how popular the article was, and some users cried fowl that Digg was censoring sensitive articles like these.

In fact, someone created a blog with a single post just to assert the idea that Digg is practicing censorship on itself.

Interesting how Digg's own tool might have uncovered something potentially scandalous about their own site...


Tools that watch Digg:

Why is Digg Being Censored?

Digg Swarm

Digg Stack

Digg Bigspy

Digg Spy

Trump for President... kill me now...

I was watching CNN the other day when Wolf Blitzer came on began interviewing Donald Trump. Thinking that Trumpy might say something asinine again I paid attention to the show.

But instead of Wolf asking the obvious quesitons ("How does it feel to be a completely self absorbed asshat?"), he interviewed Trump about what he thought of the 2008 Presidential candidates. WTF?

When did Trump become an authority on politics? Since when did Trump become the authority of anything besides how to act like a second grader?

Even stranger is the fact that there are rumors that Trump will run for President himself in 2008. I'm sure that will work out just great. We all remember how successful his 2000 campaign went.

Trump-rific Links:

Youtube - Trump vs Rosy

Trump for President 2008

Trump for President 2000

Ford and GM are still screwing us

I feel like blowing the conspiracy whistle again. But this time it involves cars instead of politics so its not boring.

The X Prize Foundation is challenging private citizens to build the world's fist 100mpg car, with a possible prize of $25 million. The part that pisses me off is the fact that people have to offer millions of dollars worth of prizes to do something the American automotive industry should have - and very well could have - done a decade ago.

The electric car is not anything new - Thomas Edison designed the one in 1890. And GM had a fleet of 500 fully-working production-grade all electric EV1's in 1996.

But GM screwed us over and shot itself in the foot by destroying every electric car it made under suspicious circumstances.

Another interesting fact: The Ford Model T in 1908 actually got better gas mileage than today's Fords. After reading a comparison of the Model T and Ford Explorer's fuel efficiencies, tell me something doesn't smell right in Detroit.

Legos + too much free time = Lego movies

Everyone likes movies. And who doesn't like legos? Combining the two is obvious. But making a lego stop motion movie requires too much patience for me, I'll prefer to let other people do the work.

Strange experience of the day: Did you ever think you would have a lego minifig explain what depression was to you?

Transgender War Veterans support Valerie Plame

As if the Valerie Plame/Scooter Libby/Iraq War/CIA orgy of a scandal could not get any weirder, CNN throws transsexual protesters into the frenzy.

This is the story of Midge Potts, who is a prominent member of the feminist anti-war group "Code Pink." She used to be a he, and a Navy veteran of the first Iraq war. Now she is a transgender woman who has run for congress in Missouri and has been making frequent and very pink appearances at Plame's hearings to Congress.

The story is CNN-worthy because reporter Jeanne Moos said that watching Potts' talented maneuvers to stay in the camera's view kept her from nodding off while reporting on the hearings. The video is interesting to watch, with very pink and blonde Potts sometimes mimicking the natural blonde (and natural woman) Plame's gestures.

Now if only I could think of a good blonde joke involving Midge Potts/Valerie Plame/Britney Spears right about now...

Links:

CNN Video - Protester Antics at Plame's hearing (opens in new window)

Direct link to CNN Video (opens in browser, advertisement plays first)

CIA looking to hire more blondes

Valerie Plame testified to a Congressional panel how much it sucks to be outed as a CIA spook by the White House. Typical woman thing to do. Complain, complain complain...

I mean, why can't she just suck it up like a man would and stop whining. It can't be that bad to have your life turned inside out for the world to see, have all your friends and business contacts cut you off, and to never be able to travel over seas again without fear of being captured and interrogated by other countries' spies. Wuss.

My opinion is that this whole controversy didn't go far enough. I think the White House should out all the blonde spies we have. And I should be the first one to debrief them. Because my debriefings involve candles, moonlight walks, Barry White music, and a feeling of mild regret the next morning.

Links:

CNN - Ex-CIA operative: Leak severely hurt U.S. intelligence

Gambia President dreams up HIV cure

President of Gambia Yahya Jammeh has announced that he has discovered a cure for HIV, based on a dream he had. And its made out of herbs, spices, and pancake syrup.

Now making up cure for serious diseases is good and all, but its not such a good idea to tell people to stop taking actual HIV medication in favor of this dream cure.

Its hard to say if the concoction has any merit, since Jammeh has refused interviews and won't let anyone analyze what is actually in his "medicine." It's hard to measure if people who are "cured" by it are not just encountering a placebo effect, because Jammeh has kicked doctors out of his country for asking too many questions.

On a similar note, I had a dream and discovered a magical potion that makes females take off their tops and find me more attractive. I'm calling the stuff "Captain Morgan." Maybe it will become popular and I can become president of a small third world country too.

Links:

CNN - In Gambia, AIDS cure or false hope?

Where the hell is Gambia anyway?

Lesbians take over Tiananmen Square

Unfortunately I just made up that headline up, there is nothing funny about being gay in China. Their flag is red and only red for a reason. You don't see too many communist rainbows around

I didn't feel like talking about any real news today. Plus fake news is always much more bloggable. (My spell checker is complaining that "bloggable" is not a word, but I am not giving in to its tyranny.)

Something blogworthy did get make the news today: Disney is creating their first black princess movie: "The Frog Princess". Although politically correct, she is neither from China or a lesbian, therefore I'll have a hard time tying her into this post.

Wait, the movie is called "The Frog Princess"? And the princess is named "Maddy"? Have the suits at Disney completely given up after realizing they are so rich they could dunk their balls in gold just like Craigslist guy?

Links:

Test the Great Chinese Firewall for yourself

Tiananmen Square? What Tiananmen Square? That never happened...

John Stewart interviews Craigslist founder Craig Newmark

Iran is pissed about 300

It turns out Iranian President Ahmadinejad is still pissed off about a 2,500 year old battle.

The Iranian propaganda machine, oops I mean the Iranian press is outraged at the movie "300". They are taking this film based on a comic book a little too seriously, stating that it is "psychological warfare" created by the US Government.

Could the movie be just a giant conspiracy carried out by the Jewish controlled Hollywood to punish Iran for its nuclear ambitions?

After giving the issue a little thought, I can start to understand why there is some controversy here. I mean the seven foot tall and sexually ambiguous King Xerxes did remind me alot of Ahmadinejad.

Links:

Yahoo News - Iran outraged by Hollywood war epic

Raw Story - Tehran condemns "anti-Iranian" movie 300

Photo Gallery of 300

300 kicked my ass

After seeing the movie 300 based on Frank Miller's book, I'm seriously feeling puny. I think I'm going to have to work out for the next 80 years every day before I look anything like those intimidating Spartans.

Awesome movie, its great to watch a film that blends an intense and straightforward plot with an excellent (not overdone) use of FX. Even though the whole movie was filmed with blue screens and wires, you will get immersed into the incredibly moody setting.

Thumbs up on the violence that was intense but not I-wish-I-didn't-see-that grotesque. My only complaint is that the number of male nipples appearing greatly outnumbered their female counterparts.

Links:

Wikipedia - Battle of 300 and King Leonidas

IMDB on 300 the movie

Trailer for 300

Offical 300 site

Lego Spartans!

FOX reports Obama and Osama are the same person

Can anyone really blame Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes for getting presidental hopeful Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden confused?

Their names do sound alike, and FOX does have the stance that if your name rhymes with a terrorist than you too must be a terrorist.

Just in case any FOX News reporters happen to be reading this (and I'm sure much of their "fact checking" comes from blogs like this), to clarify things this is Osama.

This is Barack.

And this is Osama's poster girl niece. (Poor girl had to change her last name to stop receiving death threats to her New York condo.)

Links:

CNN - Dems cancel debate over Fox chief's Obama joke

Wikipedia - Osama and Obama

Osama Bin Laden's hot (non terrorist) neice

Cow likes to eat chickens

In Calcutta, a farmer was wondering why his chickens kept disappearing. So he stayed up one night watching his chicken coop, and he witnessed one of his cows eating the chickens.

Thats not a tabloid headline, its actually real. A cow in India eats chickens.

Quote:
"Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case."

I'm sure I can come up with a way to blame this on global warming.

Links:

ABC News - India Farmer Has Cow That Eats Chickens

CNN - Indian cow eats more chicken

I can't read what I'm writing

I can't read what I'm typing now, because I went to the optician today.

Apparently it somehow makes sense for the eye doctor to put crap in your eyes that makes you temporarily blind. The doctor said she needed to put those disorienting yellow eye drops in to check for cataracts, but really they do this because they get their kicks off watching me walk into walls for the next few hours.

Hm, now that I think of it, taking that picture to the right of my eye probably wasn't a good idea. My eye is pretty well dialated, even with the flash from the camera fully on. You better enjoy that picture, because I probably burned out a bunch of my retina taking it.

Kanye West is one expensive glutton

The Story:

CNN is reporting that one meal for Kanye West and his friends are going all out to get one fancy meal delivered to them. Apparently they have placed an order with the British Raj restaurant in England and are having it delivered across the Atlantic Ocean.

Usually one meal costs around $18, but with the additional three hour plane trip for the delivery it comes to a modest $3,900 total.

The head chef at Raj is taking this very seriously, as he is so worried about the quality of the food being perfect that he is personally escorting the food across four time zones.

The Joke:

I seriously can see Kanye going into a Cookie Monster fit demanding "CURRY CURRY CURRY!!!"

(Thats funny because the British Raj serves curry. This is the best humor I could come up with on a Tuesday night.)

Links:

CNN - Kanye West orders $3,900 meal

CNN - Publicist: Kanye West denies ordering $3,900 meal

CTV.ca - Cookie Monster advocates healthy eating

A Jesus chain worthy of Kayne

Internet Riddle

This is a interesting internet based riddle for geeks who have time to kill:

Go to http://n.nfshost.com/

The object of the riddle is to try to figure out how to get to the next page in the sequence.

For example, you start on page 1. Clicking on the 1 brings you to page 2. But there is no links to page 3! So you need to manually go to http://n.nfshost.com/3.html. But now you are on page III, so guess what, you need to go to page http://n.nfshost.com/IV.html. And so on and so on until you run out of intelligence.

There is actually a last page you can get to, but as you increase through the pages the difficulty to getting to the next page increases.

No fair using a google hack to cheat on this.

Links:
The Internet Puzzle

Michael's can't make up its mind

Usually doors don't confuse me, but this one at a local Michael's arts and crafts store did.

The sticker on at the top of the door clearly states "Enter", inviting me to enjoy its automatic opening luxury.

But it is not to be! The door was only teasing me, revealing its true feelings with a red "Do Not Enter" sticker below.

I submitted this to This Is Broken, we will see if it ever shows up there.

Old woman crashes car into DMV before driving test, Superman ignores her

Ever have one of those "wtf?" moments when reading the news? Get ready:

An 80 year old woman, on her way to retake her driver's license test, crashes through the outside wall of the DMV and runs over eleven people inside.

No, thats not wtf-worthy. Here is the kicker, quoted directly from BBC news:

Test centre video The videotape also shows a man in a Superman costume walking around the car, but he did not stop to help the driver or any of the victims. His identity is unknown.

Did you read that? A man in a Superman costume at a DMV? And he doesn't help anyone?

doubleyou-tee-efff.


Links:

BBC - US woman crashes into test centre

BBC video of the crash

AP News Ban on Paris lifted

Associated Press announced that its week long ban on reporting about Paris Hilton has come to an end.

Thank god the week from hell is over. Without the constant celebrity gossip flying at me I almost read an article about the how the US's intimidation tactics against North Korea in 2002 backfired. Close one.

But don't worry, I'll still reporting the important facts dealing with Paris's fake Tinkerbell replacement even if the AP doesn't have the balls to do it.

Remember the journalist's code: rich girl + no panties = newsworthy.

Links!

CNN - Paris is back

Comments from CNN on AP's Paris black out

Gawker's take on this one

Paris and Lindsay rob bank laughing

According to my sources, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton have been identified as the two young women who robbed a supermarket bank yesterday.

Despite the clever disguises of trendy oversized sunglasses, they can easily be identified in this surveillance photo.

When asked about the incident, Lindsay used her AA class as an alibi. Paris on the other hand admitted to the robbery, gloating that they "robbed that bank like a couple of n****ers!"

Links:

Yahoo - Police: 2 young women rob Ga. bank

AOL - Sunglass Bandits Rob Georgia Bank

Defamer - Paris drops the N-word all the time