Let's see, she denounces capitalism and blames elitist cabals for most of the world's problems. But there's nothing elitist about giving polemic speeches to celebrities whose endorsements are prominently featured on your book.
Her husband got owned by Ayaan Hirsi Ali when he tried his anti-american schtick trying to correlate Ali's repression as a muslim child with American capitalism.
How about her fervent hatred for the free market while she herself uses capitalism and viral marketing to promote her own book?
How about the contradiction in her statements that capitalism is forced upon people but there's nothing wrong with enlightened individuals like her imposing their beliefs on suffering nations?

She's the Ann Coulter of the fundamentalist left. Silky Johnson needs to relinquish his Player Hater of the Year Award to Miss Klein, who having grown up and reaped the benefits of a capitalist society wants to save the rest of us from the deadening boredom of megamalls and suburbia.
Lady, I hate soccer moms, jocks, valley girls, hipsters just as much as you but I wouldn't wish poverty on someone just to save them from middle class ennui.
Even when she cites historical events, she ruins it be correlating and twisting history and facts to her rabid ideology, drawing comparisons between capitalism and fascism like Ben Stein does with Darwinism and Eugenics. She denounces corporations that benefit from public funds then goes on to denounce private citizens who benefit from their hard earned money as elitists who want nothing more than to divide America into a class based society because they have money and some people don't.
Life is bad for a lot of people, but using SHOCK LIBERALISM by showing us images of poverty, war and ethnic violence and trying to guilt trip us because we're living better lives isn't going to help anyone. You're just hating for the sake of hating because you can and it sounds so much better than being positive. Coulter doesn't get air time because her rotting husk feels good about something in the world.

Please, none of these videos hold a candle to the Steve Jobs Keynote on I-Rack.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xcjLEwZqcQI

You can find a couple of DIY examples on youtube where people have even used RC models fitted with gyroscopes to create an RC UAV homemade predator. If only it came with hellfire missiles. Some of the new flash memory based HD camcorders would probably work fine for amateur filmmakers.
I saw another company called Coptercam that does a lot of this type of work and they've even made a proprietary 16mm camera to work with their gyroscope stabilized RC copters.
Which is the big question, if you have a prosumer camera, it'd have to be a relatively large rig and cost as much as the camera to make it safe for DIY aerial shots. I suppose a helium balloon rig could work but you wouldn't be able to do flair-y THE SHINNIN' style shots.
I've seen numerous tutorials for taking stills with your RC plane but have yet to see one for people who might want to get cheap aerial footage with rented or owned big boy cameras.
Or you could say screw it and hire yourself a helicopter for an hour from the local airfield.

Can't believe it, the last I heard of him was 5 years ago with his camera stabilizer. Awesome to know he's a modding genius.

That's a common street show in Asian countries. I haven't seen any of the monkey-wallahs using a motorbike but in India a lot of them travel with a pair of monkeys and put on a show with the monkey dressed in jeans and the female monkey as the damsel imitating famous movies or stars. The handlers usually carry a small percussion drum to let everyone in the neighborhood know. Some also have parrots who will pick out your fortune from a card deck.

First of all, the administration had enough warning from people in the FBI.
The guy who tried to blow up LAX in 2000 confirmed that there were people like him in cells throughout America planning an airline hijacking.
AG Ashcroft thought the memos were serious enough that he stopped flying on commercial airliners in the summer of 2001.
So the system worked. The problem with the Bush Administration has always been that they tend to not give a shit when it matters.
First 9/11 and then Katrina.
I was in Florida during the 2004 election. Bush was on the ground in a matter of hours after the devastation from the hurricanes pledging money and support. He won Florida in the election.
2005 wasn't an election year. So who cares. Let 'em rot.
The system worked. Its like giving your computer to the local geek squad store to repair a broken ethernet port only to find its staffed by a bunch of Connecticut hicks with cowboy fetishes and texan affectations who have replaced your entire motherboard, wiped the hard drive and installed a new buggy O/S that nobody wants and wastes most of your system resources on graphics.

Dude, seriously...put down the monocle and top hat until you get inside. Then you can dandy around all you want.
You're not being treated unfairly by the law, you're being treated unfairly by the the power-tripping "agent" RLRPing as Judge Dredd.
Get over yourself and realize that not all of us get to go travel at high altitudes wearing goggles and a red cape holding a balloon.
Probably not cheap, but some avant-garde art group that's out there with lots of cash should try getting through airports with no luggage wearing the most outlandish clothing and see how many get through. Obviously nothing threatening (turbans/middle eastern garb).
It would be hilarious to see a man in a three piece tuxedo travelling economy. Better yet, Colonial garb if you really want to make a statement.
Maybe Idi Amin or similar bemedalled dictators with sashes and insane amounts of ribbons/medals.
English Court dress (without the sword).
Colonial Viper Pilot or BSG Dress blues, Tigh's eyepatch and a subservient aide to give it an officious air.

Yeah well, defense can easily be turned to offense. German 88s were flak cannons designed to destroy bombing airplanes. Some genius on the frontline realized it was just as lethal if turned horizontally to fire at ground forces. After firing, the shell was designed to burst after a certain number of rotations and on the ground would release a lethal cloud of shrapnel even on entrenched positions.
Rommel used it to great advantage in Africa when he was deprived of materiel by the high command.
Best chance for israeli towns would be to buy some CIWS units or patriot missiles. Or buy some MLRS systems of their own.
I guess they could use the laser to annoy Mahmoud Ahmeohnoyoudinnenjad from miles away afterwords.
"I can see the light! AND IT BURNS!"

These guys need to stop watching Attack of the Clones. "I didn't know epcot could do that!"

Obviously soliciting a prostitute, bullying wall street, telling CEOS that he would destroy them and using law enforcement against rival candidates had nothing to do with it. The man is a saint because Rupert Murdoch's flaming eye has turned to him.
Perfect end to his power-grabbing Ted Haggard-ish career.
You wanna talk conspiracy, look up Don Siegelman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Siegelman

I'm just stating what I believe in.
So we should interfere with Darfur because the gubmint helped Pol Pot with his genocide. Isn't that a little after the fact atonement?
Abs, I thought the very nature of individualism would be anti-cult, but I get what you're saying and I totally agree with the family analogy.

Yes, I would like to know which celebrity is drunk right now. Its why people work their butts off, so the only thing to really worry about is stupid celebrities and not which one of your children will live to adulthood. There is nothing wrong with being selfish and isolationist. What's so wrong with not wanting to be involved in someone else's problems?
Why do people immigrate to other countries? Is it so selfish of them to want a better life? Better to care about yourself than your religion/tribe/peoples/race etc.
Non intervention was our policy until that jackass Woodrow Wilson who left office after WW1 with a massive recession. Gee..sounds familiar..
Where was America when my homies in India were getting slaughtered by the British? Where was america when people were dying by the millions (YES millions) in Central India?
"When an El Niño drought destituted the farmers of the Deccan plateau in 1876 there was a net surplus of rice and wheat in India. But the viceroy, Lord Lytton, insisted that nothing should prevent its export to England. In 1877 and 1878, at the height of the famine, grain merchants exported a record 6.4m hundredweight of wheat. As the peasants began to starve, officials were ordered "to discourage relief works in every possible way". The Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877 prohibited "at the pain of imprisonment private relief donations that potentially interfered with the market fixing of grain prices". The only relief permitted in most districts was hard labour, from which anyone in an advanced state of starvation was turned away. In the labour camps, the workers were given less food than inmates of Buchenwald. In 1877, monthly mortality in the camps equated to an annual death rate of 94%.

As millions died, the imperial government launched "a militarised campaign to collect the tax arrears accumulated during the drought". The money, which ruined those who might otherwise have survived the famine, was used by Lytton to fund his war in Afghanistan. Even in places that had produced a crop surplus, the government's export policies, like Stalin's in Ukraine, manufactured hunger. In the north-western provinces, Oud and the Punjab, which had brought in record harvests in the preceeding three years, at least 1.25m died."
From the Gaurdian.
12-29 million people dead. Who weeps for them? Oh, that's right, there's no museum or teary eyed film to make everyone aware of this genocide.
We ain't superheroes, and we ain't the fucking police. So stop calling us and take care of your own troubles. As for the Pol Pots, there's a lot more of us than there's of them, so stop being an idiot by saying if we don't do anything those uncivilized bastards would immediately drop their pens and shovels and pick up AK-47s.

Christovir man, you don't get it. That's not the point at all. Mr. Zimbardo has been on the colburt report. And according to Mr. Colbert's philosophy, what Mr. Zimbardo says FEELS right and isn't that all that matters after all?

Just kiddin, love SciAM and their 25 min. podcasts, thanks for the linkage.

But, prisoners and guards as equals isn't a good idea either. What I mean is, it'd never happen in the real world because these guards would have some kind of training/encouragement/warning to keep separate. I haven't read the sciam article yet but I take the middle road on this one. I would say that issues of cruelty and empathy depend on a lot more than statistics and our "base nature" to be evil to people under us, though you wouldn't have to be a prison guard to learn that kind of behavior.
There's also the dehumanizing aspect i.e PUCs and NECs rather than "that man" or "that prisoner". Amon Goethe saying "the jews are animals" because that's how you get people to ignore someone else's humanity.
“Business is bad? You opened up a store in an Irish neighborhood. These are dirty dirty people. Don’t you know that? Sell potatoes I don’t know what you’re going to do.” - The Depahted

Setharian is anti-interventionist. That's his entire point. Too many bad things happen in the name of "we mean(t) to do good."
His second comment is also true in that 800,000 people don't just die because someone didn't do enough to stop it. 800,000 people died because someone killed them and its them who are directly responsible.
You don't wanna go down the road of blaming everyone who wasn't there for not being there.

Isn't it slightly racist to say if we don't do anything these savage wogs are never going to stop killing each other?

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. If a frog had side pockets he'd carry a handgun.

The AB spray is snake oil. I used it on a couple of cimmerians and now I have to sit on a donut pillow.

Its not that complicated, just gotta put 'em through a reeducation program in room 101 with eye opening clamps...oh wait that's the bad guys...

I do agree with his critique of superhero justice.
I AM THE LAW! The law is never wrong. Therefore, if I arrest you, YOU are the criminal. My logic is undeniable. For more, see places like China, Saudi Arabia and...Japan (I think...anyone care to back me up?)
"We don't torture". People that is. PUCs and NECs are a whole different thing. They're practically sub-people.

So you see nothing hypocritical about the fact that the push into iraq was justified as america preventing the genocide of the kurds and other ethnic minorities but its ok to do it in africa because it's somehow a good cause?
Charlie Wilson's War anyone?
Now its the kurds who are armed, among many other militia and its payback time..
If a soldier dies in iraq he died for oil (which is bad) but if he dies in sudan he died for a good cause...How 'bout just letting the soldier come home and not die at all?
This applies just as well to any other country where intervention is "the only way".
"In the case of Vietnam, we didn't know them well enough to empathize. And there was total misunderstanding as a result. They believed that we had simply replaced the French as a colonial power, and we were seeking to subject South and North Vietnam to our colonial interests, which was absolutely absurd. And we, we saw Vietnam as an element of the Cold War. Not what they saw it as: a civil war."
"Mr. McNamara, You must never have read a history book. If you'd had, you'd know we weren't pawns of the Chinese or the Russians. McNamara, didn't you know that? Don't you understand that we have been fighting the Chinese for 1000 years? We were fighting for our independence. And we would fight to the last man. And we were determined to do so. And no amount of bombing, no amount of U.S. pressure would ever have stopped us." - Thach, former Foreign Minister of Vietnam, 1995, as recalled by McNamara.

Let me try a better logical fallacy:
Loan sharks have been around since time immemorial and they will continue to be there so long as people keep using them. (Argument from antiquity) They're found in poor areas probably because poor people keep giving them their business. 'Cause they're completely stupid. Wanna try another stereotype on for size? In fact, when you're officially poor, a chemical activates itself in your brain turning you into a complete idiot. Still, I'll bet more people give their business to a loan shark than they do to amway or scientology, wonder why that is. These shops aren't in "good neighborhoods" because they wouldn't make a profit there. Good neighborhood=good credit.
Its that line from Lord of War: You call me evil, but unfortunately for you, I'm a necessary evil.
Its either that or prepare yourself for a clampin' cause Donbot won't be taking your TV away.
So wait, lets say I sold my house at the peak of the bubble a Philip J. Fry. A year goes by, turns out my house isn't worth shit. Philip J. Fry now owes a lot of money to his lenders. I'm living the good life seeing as how I sold my house at peak price. Obviously, I should be made to suffer along with the lenders too right? I'm that sheeple scumbag who put his house up for sale and like a little eichmann played my part in the dastardly plans of the predatory lender. Why not take some of my money away?
What about the "marks" who hire lawyers and lobby congressman and convince them that they're marks and con their way out of contracts?
Which is why this is not a nation of morals. Laws, yes. Contracts, yes.
How's this for immoral: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/world/europe/21britain.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
Government can't cover her expensive drugs so she decides to raise the money herself. Government denies her full coverage because she gave herself an unfair advantage by selling her house.
All people are created equal, and if they try to be more equal, we will MAKE them equal.
Surely this is immoral. How dare she try to save her life by being rich? She's conning the system...
Wouldn't it be immoral of these "marks" to not have saved their money or properly invest it for a rainy day?
My caddy-chauffeur tells me a bank is a place where people put money that isn't properly invested.

Who decides what's immoral? A group of people.

Another group of people decide they want to use this service. They decided with their wallets. If it was immoral, they would decide with their wallets.

People go to starbucks, they profit.
People go to mcdonalds, they profit .
People go to payday, people are being conned.
People buy a 1 lakh car, they're hurting the environment. Never mind the rest of us with our cars.

It isn't that easy. There's predators on every level. I defecate on yer morals.

Not sayin' that the story isn't fucked up but most people DO repay their loans on time and we don't hear about 'em cause there's no story there. Not denyin' the existence of predatory bastards out there, but sometimes people do need quick loans for family emergencies, prenatal care and so on. Most people, even if "they is ghetto" don't use these kinds of loans to buy rims or grills. To even get a payday loan you're required to have a job and a checking account.
Life doesn't wait for you to build up your savings before it punches you in the face.
Yes, the rates are a muhfuh, would you rather pay an 5000% interest rate on your bank overdraft? Lemme go borrow some chedda from Mr. Marlo Stanfield, I'm sure he'll provide better service.

-I'm sorry, we don't give loans to you people.
--You people?
-You know, people in your income bracket. People who generally default on loans. People who are considered high risk.
--You greedy capitalistic bastard. You evil, vile sadistic...
**As a politician, I find it it disgusting that you refuse to lend money to poor people in a time of their need.
-OK, fine I'll give you a loan. Can't break your legs, so here's a high interest rate.

---A few years later----

**As a politician, I find it disgusting that you give money to needy people and then charge them high interest rates because they have bad credit. These people aren't deadbeats, they're victims of a system that has failed them.
--FYI, we repaid our loans on time. We have good credit. Don't lump us in with the single deadbeat.
**This poor man couldn't repay his high-interest loan. Obviously the entire system is failing.
-Look, its a risky loan for a risky lender, WTF..
**I don't give a shit, all people are created equal, so give all of your customers the same deal.
-But that means if we raise the deadbeat's interest rate we have to raise everyone's interest rate. What about the people with good credit. Now they might have to default on their loans. WTF....

---A few years later----

- Sorry guys, I can't give you a loan.
--Why not? You gave loans to all our friends a while back...
-The law now requires you to demonstrate that you can pay our highest interest rate for the standard loan. We can't make a profit because we're forced to give low interest rates to everyone in your income bracket.
--So you're not going to give us a loan because we're poor?
- Um..YES.
--Worst. Congress. Ever.

Hi! I'm a predatory lender. I used to be a regular lender, but now I'm being lumped in with the bad ones. I know the feeling. I only care about profit. I love to give bad loans to people even though I know they won't repay them. When they default on the loan, I get to make mad money by confiscating their shitty cars and smelly trailers. I used to lend money on 3 or 4 percent interest to responsible people. I got so desperate, I even gave a loan to a black business owner. It got so bad that once they made good on their payment, I would immediately increase their credit rating just so I could give them a bigger loan. The loans got bigger, the interest rates got lower, and their credit rating kept rising. That's when the good senator found me. He showed me how bad I had been. I was worse than the real criminals, who got away with it. I spent time in jail and then I joined the good senator's cause to cast out all the lenders from our state and now I try to show other people the evils of the free market.

--Meanwhile, back in Nancy Pelosi's Office, the speaker meets with a California realtor----
The free market was cruel to treat you so my friend. The people were too cruel to reject your. Every tax break you desire, every monopoly you could imagine, every inflated price the cursed market denied I will grant. For I am kind. Embrace me as your king and god. Keep my reelection coffers full and your joys will be endless. You will find I am kind. Unlike the cruel market that demanded you stand up to its discipline, I require only that you kneel.

-You did not seriously think the free market could contend with the will of Pelosi? There are none who can. Against the power of federal intervention, there can be no victory. We must join with her. We must join with Pelosi. It would be wise, my friend.
-The government's bailout is not lightly cast aside. One ill turn deserves another. It is over. Embrace government intervention or embrace your own destruction.

The way I see it, all that's happening and will happen is that bad behavior will be rewarded over the people who paid their loans on time. The government doesn't care either way, they want to re inflate their bubble because its en election year. Sorry for the long post dudes, but this whole predatory lenders/high-interest rate thing has me riled.

It'll be built by 2010 because that's when Delhi will be hosting the Commonwealth Games, plus the work was done by private companies so its not your usual government transport service. I've been on one of the trains and they're far better than anything from DC Metrorail

Its the old joke about a group of priests being so offended by a nude painting that they decided each of them would closely examine the painting in private for hours before declaring it immoral or a work of art.

Meh. Its not the same without Clancy "Hadley" Brown. He'd be perfect for the godfather clip.

Goddamned right. And I thought Verizon sucked. Personal experience so far with their cellphone service and FIOS has been nothing but awesome. Wait for the 3g iphone to come out, it'll be worth it to get verizon's cdma service.

I do think Alan is a bit too much like Rorschach. I can just imagine Jackie Earle Healey in a raspy, grating voice yelling "Never Compromise"
I would say he should "sell out" just to keep his name in the stars and the rest of the time he can do what he wants and he would have the freedom and the money. I do like that he took money from the studios and gave it to the artists. Not sayin' he has to be Alan Smithee but he should just rake in the money and do more things with it.
Not sayin he should do something stupid either like Watchmen babies or some such shit like that.

I wish that were so. Apart from Season 1 and maybe 2 of Lost, nothing that abrams has done so far has enchanted me in any way. Hey, he got my 10 bucks, i got a fairly decent but not all that great horror film jambalaya out of it.
It's like David Cross said, "I don't cum all over myself if the guy at the starbucks gets my order right."
Everyone went apeshit over Blair Witch, and everyone went apeshit over Cloverfield's viral marketing and the mystery of the monster. Now we're all wondering how Simon Pegg's gonna pull off Montgomery Scott.
I like to be drawn in, I like being suckered. See my above love-note to transformers. Funny, cause abrams worked on Armageddon and I hated that film.
I also drew comparison to Kevin Smith because their body of work is similar in the sense that they both used to be hot but after a while everyone realized that Smith is a one trick pony. Sure, he was hot potatoes back when, but he really doesn't like to tread new ground and he's content to sit and chew the fat and make money off of fans of his work.

Me neither. I enjoyed transformers. I've watched it more than my lord of the rings that i paid too much for. Had no problem with the film. I believe it has set the bar for future crazy balls out action films for at least a decade.
Either way, I didn't buy the fake-ass DOD thing when it was in the trailers. I don't like Lost either, but Cloverfield is how lost should've been. Really hard to stretch mystery if you keep explaining it.
I think of the matrix as the product of a producer (the bad kind) watching blade runner and going, "If only it had kung fu in it" so I see Cloverfield as a producer (the really bad kind) watching Cameron's Aliens and going, "If only it didn't have realistic video interlacing, jerked like a modern home video camera that had its image stabilization turned off, and gave surprisingly non grainy results in a manhattan devoid of electricity, it would make for a really good film. Oh, and let's add some yuppies and a yuppie love story as well."
At least they didn't explain the monster's origins. I almost expected to see a post credits scene with the monster yelling, "ALL RIGHT! CLOSURE!" as he got nuked.
Like I said, no one remembers blair witch. Go transformers. I've never seen the original series btw.

If by East Germany you mean that in about 40 years people will still be trying to uncover classified data and probably 90% of what was done in the people's name will never be uncovered by the people...
Oh, and no one will ever be prosecuted. Well maybe they'll give the low level street hoppers some strict sentences.
You don't have to listen to whistleblowers to get an idea of what goes on, just watch the first season of The Wire to understand how a bureaucracy really works and how people who are supposed to be helping us care more about protecting themselves.
Barksdale went to jail for violating bail. He'll be out in 5 years. Weebay's in for life.

Bill is arguably one of the masters of worldbuilding and he's pointing something that sticks out in a bad way and is explicitly a part of the effort to suck the audience into that world.

Hmm...City 17, the area formerly known as Latveria, Central Europe.

Hey Gordon Freeman! In the flesh! Haven't seen you in a long while man. Even though we're in a hurry and we have no idea that you were in cryostasis we're going to give you a complete expository talk about the past 10 years.

To bring it back to 9/11, Gordon i.e. the player is confused because no one would bother giving an expository history lesson to a soldier fighting in Afghanistan. You'd assume he knows why he's there. You probably have more pressing concerns, like that whitefaced asshole knocking on your door. (Combine Overwatch, I'm not referring to the troops).

The tragedy of versimilitude. If the whole goddamn premise is a masturbatory 9/11 monsutâ daikaiju story filmed like a viral video, then maybe you should spend more time on the realism than on your viral marketing bullshit. Oh, and isn't the whole point of viral marketing to give the film a sense of mystery through realistic methods like fake blogs etc. and suck people in?
So why fuck up on a simple text bumper and datestamp? Really doubt the DOD took the time to select Myriad Pro for a classified semi-censored non-watermarked video.
Its about at stupid as the GUI shown in shitty hacker films. Philosophical hackery aside, even the Wachowskis took the time to use actual hacking software in Reloaded.
THAT's the way to do it, and it ain't all that hard. It's just that people like Abrams don't care.
He's about as groundbreaking as Kevin Smith. This is the same dude supposedly bringing Star Trek out of the shitpile. 'Cause there's always going to be people who can't let go (Kevin Smith, his fans, Trekkies, Lost-ies?..whatever) and Abrams knows how to work the pole.
I hope he makes decent money and then goes away. I'll be over here hugging my DVDs of Aliens and waiting for James Cameron's next billion dollar film.
'Cause no one remembers or gives a shit about the Blair Witch Project.

Probably better than you think. That's a lot of repetitive exhausting work and clever track mattes and background replacements. Its realistic elements put together, not CGI. Look at Legolas troll surfing on Hi Def or the cgi in ROTK. Already looks dated.

Is this where they're filming Soul Plane 2: The Blackjacking?

I think you mean Wesley Snipes.

You might think he'd already thought of that, but I couldn't possibly comment.

Wouldn't mind seeing Pratchett do some kind of Sergio Leone mashup with Death and Binky as a future novel.

Maybe google is afraid of your Guatemalan-ness, your natural heat.

I guess that's why all the 5th gen fighters have canards (Eurofighter, Gripen & the Typhoon)
The F-22 can only thrust vector for pitch.
This lil russian badass is capable of 3d thrust vectoring, and is in service with the Indian Air Force. Pretty sure the billions of dollars the IAF is pouring into Sukhoi and Mikoyan ensures the chinese will only get their hands on it if they produce a pirated copy, cause that's how they roll.
With a $200 million price tag, I doubt the F-22's going to see frontline service anytime soon. Its a prestige plane so some medal laden fart can boast about the number of wings under his command. Even when it flies, they'll be sure to restrict it to certain altitudes.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eeiqMn7xb_Y
Go to 1:45 for a closeup of the engines.

How about a goateed editor with a gun and a t-shirt that says "Where's my fucking article?" smoking three cigarettes at once.

They probably thought the huge bag full of $2 sheets sent by Woz was a fake.

Futurama ride. Thousands of nerds will pay top nixon dollars to ride the planet express ship.

If by "freshen up" they mean make it more hip then I'm against it. They should remake some of the more retro, technicolor rides as they were.

Just a clarification, the palace of Wax comes from the Mahabharat and Ram episode is from the Ramayan which mythologically precedes the Mahabharat.

The Palace of Wax was specially built of flammable material to kill the Pandavs who were cousins to the Kauravs and call it an accident.

Ram pursued a golden deer through a forest in the Ramayan (isn't that a recurring element in myths, magical animals and a chase? Joseph campbell etc.)
The golden deer is really a shapeshifting demon who is luring Ram away from his hut to allow Ravan (king of demons) to kidnap his wife.

I gravitate towards the Mahabharat precisely because it has no moral message aside from those tacked onto it by religious writers. At its core it is a story of family politics, greed, jealousy and revenge. In the end, even the "divine" characters break all the rules and behave like ordinary humans.

So what you're saying is...Youtube is the napster for web 2.0?

I'm sure I could find some clips from Hostel or Syriana on youtube. Its just like the real thing right?

Seriously though, you guys sold out to google for a billion dollars. You're telling me you can't hire 2 people to do a little community PR work? Like maybe contacting the person in question.
Maybe you would've found out the videos weren't uploaded by some sick freak (ala "shock sites") and there was a valid reason. Maybe he would've put up a disclaimer or classified his video so the age alert pops up.

1 billion dollars. Hire some PR interns you cheap bastards.

You know, I frequent reason.tv a lot. I'm libertarian and its a site that hosts libertarian videos. I like the daily show so I go to that site too.
Why don't some of the human rights organizations create a youtube clone exclusively for journalist bloggers like Wael Abbas? They could always use Youtube for promotional reasons, which is all its seems to be good at nowadays.

Don't fuck with unicorns son.

How come we don't see this on american tv. I for one would welcome a clip of Lance Armstrong being chased by vampire bikers (scare tactics ftw).

I'm not sick and tired of hearing about the video. Thanks to boingboing I knew about goatse and I was completely in the dark about "two girls one cup". I now know to avoid the video whenever possible. I will probably never look at a video of two women kissing unless I can be damned sure I'm not being rick roll'd.
I did google the term though and found a play by play description of the video, and my curiosity was gored to death by a unicorn chaser.

Sounds like a perfect christmas gift. Last time I heard about the Mary Celeste, I was watching a Jonny Quest cartoon. Anyone remember that ep?

Actually, a lot of people in Hollywood do try to get independent auditing. That whole tiff New Line had with Peter Jackson was because he simply wanted to get an independent audit of their books for the Fellowship of the Ring profits. He ended up being dropped from the Hobbit film.
That's why people with leverage try to get percentages on the entire box office and not the profits. The profits can be fuddled, but the box office reports are usually accurate.

The Immigration department rejected a plan that would reduce paperwork for all because it would mean they would lose millions of dollars from people who file their paperwork incorrectly and have to pay for a new application.
There has to be a word/tag for these kind of government decisions. Kafkaesque?
This one's up there with SWAT teams for small towns with less than 1000 people.

No. Nothing wrong about meditation. 'Scool if you do it, I'm not gonna mock you just because. But something about a meditation center does strike me wrong because it fosters belief in new-age hokum. Went to India this May. Big meditation movement sweeping the whole country. People I've known to be rational my entire lives caught up in it.
Its no different than organized religion. People giving money to them in droves, there's always that slight jingoistic "kill them n-words" tinge, and promises of curing cancer among other diseases.
L. Ron Hubbard probably got his tips from the OG Maharishis.

Ihre Papiere, bitte!
Why? You already know where I'm going.

Talk to me when you band together and form some kind of lobby...alliance..horde thing and influence public policy by plying me with hookers and money.
That's when you get your "real American" badge.
Then again, what the hell would WOW players do with govt. subsidies and appropriations bills?

Snitches get stitches. Brick yoself fool!

Oh totally, I didn't mean that Cameron should do Kirk, but that a Cameron from the 80s is sorely needed today, rather than JJ Abrams soapy action and Michael Bay's cool but now overused 360 degree action.

It's just gonna go on and on. The brothers in blue are stronger than yew. And Yes, the video camera is a weapon, because it may contain evidence against a police officer. That's threatening an officer of the law with a possible 2 day suspension. Silly citizen, unemployment due to gross misconduct is for the private sector. Ask your PBA rep if a paid vacation is right for you. (It always is, unless you were caught on tape. Maybe.)

What if there's a separate database for people who have requested their files from the government? How do you request for a file on you from THAT database? What about the database that records all the people who have publicly blogged/written about asking the government for their files?
Wait...does this mean I'm going into another database for mentioning the second database? Dayum...

It's still better than anything Abrams has ever done. This IS the guy who was going to be writing the superman movie where luthor turns out to be an alien. The only credibility he had was Lost and he shat on it as much as he could.
I can already see his version of Star Trek, filled with obscure tv actors & post-modernist references and sly nods and winks to other trek films and series.
The scriptwriters are the guys who wrote transformers, so maybe there's something there, but when fans say Star Trek needs new faces, they didn't have Abrams in mind. Well, maybe the suits at Paramount, but they're not fans. They're fans of product placement and BO returns.
What the franchise needs is an Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter), James Cameron (aliens) or a Guillermo Del Toro (Blade 2). Someone at the helm with singular vision and commercial appeal.
Look at where Ronald Moore took the series with Deep Space Nine and First Contact.
With Abrams, we're heading towards Armageddon, and that movie had wings only because Michael Bay was at the helm.
Abrams is all hype and no substance. Throw this motherfrakker out the airlock.

Ach NOOOO!
Set fanboy opinions to malky!

Probably don't want to pay for the man's room and board. 'Sides, they had already had a patsy for the eventual conclusion of the murder investigation. I'm sure the CEO of a national airlines would be that lucky that the guy criticizing him (assuming that's the official motive) would prefer to fly out of the country with his airline company.

Any plans for the simpsons to do a commentary track on the simpsons movie dvd?

I'm cool with the rest of the show though. Just wanted to stick my opinion where it wasn't needed and bum everyone out.

Awesome choice Joel. I'm a DVX preacher myself and similar minded DVX fanboys have praised the HV20 for its abilities. Its 24p to boot.
Yeah MiniDV has compression issues with HD, but you can always buy Adobe OnLocation and hook your camera through firewire to your computer and record straight to an avi file on your HD.

Sounds cool. Any tips on biometric door locks for residential homes? I've been looking for a good one for ages.

Unicorn chaser? You mean a POS aircraft with a horrendous safety record that's been a pet project for the president and many others because it comes from his state. The huge rotors act like giant sandblasters, so I guess they'll do just fine on iraqi airfields, so long as everyone on the ground is about a mile away.
Cheney wanted to scrap it. Congress had election plans.
Hmmm....plane with huge rotors, hellacious downwash, cost something like $15 beelyon dollars, contains less cabin space than existing troop transports, and has been declared unsafe by the FAA (which might have less stringent safety and wear & tear standards than military aircraft) and the radar signature of a 707.
Great asset for the USMC. The boys will love it when they see this slow, unpressurized hunkajunk landing in a combat zone under fire.

OK. I admit it. I want to shake his holiness' hand. Then I want to run my hand up his sleeve to make sure he's not hiding a spring-loaded lightsaber.
....
....
What? Just me then?

Then possibly try to tickle him and see if he laughs like I think he does.

Isn't it obvious. I'm surprised no one's figured it out yet. The man is obviously from a parallel universe where Ronald Reagan repealed the 22nd amendment to run for a third term. More than 20 years later, inflation is rampant and everyone is unemployed. Americans are prohibited from migrating to other countries and some this man found a way to get out.
It also confirms my theory that there is a black hole in Pittsburgh no matter which parallel universe you are in.
I'm sure other commenter's who, like me, have seen the truth will continue this thrilling tale below.

Wow, and I read that thinking that was a conspiracy theory site in the vein of alex jones.

Clif

I wish I was there to see that. That's one a them whaddoyoucallit...A Mrs. Weasley moment. (I still hate the last book though).

Uh..sorry, but the people in power to make the decisions don't see drum-circle solutions in the same way we do.
The only way to truly fight terrorism is to install double doors on plane cockpits so the pilots can decide who gets to enter and who doesn't. Armed security on the plane. You need people who keep their ears to the ground and gather solid intelligence to stop terrorism before someone even thinks about entering an airport strapped with a bomb. I'm sure he would immediately drop to his knees and put his hands on his shoulders once the fat, disinterested TSA official detects residue on his person. "OK! You got me! And I would've gotten to the nearly-empty plane too if it weren't for those pesky.."
Most important of all: STOP treating citizens like criminals, because that logic takes us to a place where everyone ever imprisoned, tortured or killed deserved it. We're omniscient, we don't make mistakes. (We already know how well that turned out). "Those cigarette burns on your face are proof of your guilt. My logic is undeniable. No need for a trial."
Stop pretending, and start looking.

"military surplus Soviet personnel carrier?"

Old people are so weird. Everyone knows the vehicle to get this Christmas is one of the badass cars from Transformers. I mean who hasn't wanted to body-check a slow moving bus on the highway?

Incidentally...http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF077AD-Disassemble.jpg#144

"There seems to be something missing here... like a link of some sort, maybe?"

YTMND made using the pictures and the whole "nagger stole my bike" meme?

Women with large posteriors and non-denial by all brothers?

Shotgun weddings?

Perfect for Pirates when they have to close that merger or go to court for lootin' and pillagin'.
Btw, how would a pirate sign off on a letter? Or an email?

Ah. But that's why I said Cantonese, not Mandarin, which is used in Mainland China.

Uh..no. The obvious question is, how will this light look like a mile under sea-level and will it allow me to distinguish between the red wire and the blue wire as I attempt to disarm a nuclear weapon while breathing liquid oxygen.

I was gonna make a funny comment about BoingBoing being co-opted by some crafty chinese enterpreneurs and dr. fu manchu replacing the jackhammer girl but I just realized I'm not funny.
What would be the Cantonese equivalent for BoingBoing anyway?
Anyone wanna help me out here?

I disagree with what you disagree as well, if you read my previous comments where I point out that I'm against no-bid contracts which are largely awarded because of the old boy network and golf. But mostly, golf.
You didn't, but those are some serious areas where the government obviously isn't doing its job and won't let people who make better products do theirs and the public could care less. When they do care, the government sinks money into outlandish projects and the companies simply funnel the money into their own pockets or into existing programs and after a while everyone says "Fuckit we can't do shit" and go home.
Really? I hope you grow your own food because what you're eating has been grown to make a profit as well. That's that same anti-corporate BS. There is nothing wrong with making a profit. "The oil companies have an engine that gives 100 miles to the gallon but won't release it because they want to make money." Spare me the BS. Trust me, if something like that existed, they would make more profit on it by releasing it. Why are these companies making hybrids? Because there's a market for it and because they can make a profit from it.
What you're implying is that NOT protecting you would result in them making more money, because people will gladly play for bad service (True only when those services are provided by the government).
Is Blackwater evil? Seems to be.
Have they done bad things? Sounds like it.
Go ahead, have at them. Regardless, they're doing what they were supposed to do by any means necessary. They have a 100% effectiveness record.
We're focusing on the trigger and not the finger that pulled it. Its the State Department that hired these guys, why aren't they having their asses handed to them in a public hearing? They are above the law because they are the law. Same goes for our troops. Like I said in my first post, the current focus on Blackwater is to take focus away from atrocities being committed by our own people and other pressing problems in Iraq. Erik Prince sat through it because he knows he's untouchable and he's playing his part in a game that makes it look like our senate is on the ball about some current event that will blow over in a few days.

Really? I'm not for an unregulated free market, oversight is always necessary, but really? Corruption forever? Is that why the FAA and the TSA are doing so well in airport security? It must be because of the free market that the US Postal Service is shit. Its obviously not their fault. We can already see how well no-bid contracts have served our armed forces, with soldiers being forced to pay for water and clothing and at times their own body armor. It must be the fault of the free market that the US Army still buys the outdated and jam-prone M-16 from Colt and then rejects modern guns from competitors in so called "competitions" because they don't meet Army standards. All of a sudden, Colt is selling its rifles at a discount.
Must've been the free market's fault that we're still flying 30 yr old technology up to a space station built just to keep the space shuttle floating. Its replacement vehicle contract was given to Lockheed Martin (they make the shuttle too) and canceled in just 2 years. After Columbia exploded, the damn thing still flies at an operational cost of $1 billion a flight.
But of course, corruption is so encompassing, that any company in the free market would have kept making profits hand over fist on an outdated dangerous and defective product that had a 40% failure rate. Failure being disintegration.
Free market also to blame for US educational system, where teachers can't be fired for bad performance, go home at 3 PM, work 8 months out of 12 at most, are forced to teach bullshit state exams, and still bitch about salaries.

Venti Soy Chai? A reference to the Battle of Seattle which witnessed the first ever recorded instance of patchouli as a nerve agent?

Also, isn't the House of Windsor a germanic household? Saxburg Gotha or something. Shit, even King Arthur is a french story.
Thanks sciencebzzt, I mentioned that in a previous comment here. The government is handing out no-bid contracts because the current administration is filled with people connected to the old boys network so the people at Blackwater and Halliburton probably golfed with these people at their country club.
Privatization is great, if you can get paid insane amounts of money good for you, you're in demand. But the government is us, its a representative of the people. It shouldn't be acting like a high roller at the Baghdad Palace casino. Bitch you're telling me you can't even comparison shop?
Blackwater is doing their job. Yes they're doing unscrupulous things and illegal things but they're out there in the field alone. Its not like a gunship will readily be available for them if they call in the heat so they're acting like insurgents. They shoot civilians, they intimidate they do every goddamn thing they can do to ensure that their mission providing security for high-value officials does not fail.
In all seriousness as a war nerd, if we are to win this war, we will have to do worse things than Blackwater. It ain't gonna be clean, and it ain't gonna be right. Sure as hell some roomba robot isn't gonna win the war for us.
Blackwater may be dirty as hell(arms smuggling, Katrina wthf), but you can't call bullshit on them on the parts where they're doing the right thing on the job. Sometimes that means shooting a civilian who probably just wanted to cross the street quickly.
For those of you who hate Walmart, guess who immediately rehired every displaced employee after Katrina? I'm sure the mom and pop store employees were able to stave off hunger on compassion and personality.
Shit, give some war/rebuilding/aid contracts to Walmart, you can bet your ass wherever they go people WILL greet us with open arms because they'll be fed, clothed and medicated while the gubmint is still debating over who should get the contract to supply concrete for the new hospital.

Wouldn't this look better on Boba Fett in his classic blaster holding pose?
Great name for a band too: Boba Fett and the Mandalorians. First album: The Man in the Mandalorian Armor.

It's cool and all that people are realizing that we're not exactly nation building in Iraq but what's with the overemphasis and obsession with Blackwater? Private security firms and armies have existed since before this country was in existence? Hessians wtf?
Blackwater provides sicurrity, they protect VIPs and shit. Yes they're not bound to any rules but this brouhaha over the company is drawing all attention away from unconscionable and illegal acts that are being committed by people in our own armed forces and diverting attention and blame to the private contractors. Oh..uhh..I didn't make that mess..it was that guy over there..yes..Don't you know he's not bound to any rules, he's crazy man, he's a wildcard, it was all him.
Those monkeys in the senate are just so happy and full of righteous anger ain't they? FUCK YEAH. We get to act righteous and assrape some schmuck in front of the press and since he's not US Army there won't be any PR blowback and no one will accuse us of unpatriotic sentiment and we get to look like we're actually doing something about something. HOW DARE YOU SIR! HOW DARE YOU...
Kinda funny the Iraqi government all of a sudden grew balls 3 times their previous size innit?

Ah...the old case of CWB: Cooking While Brown. Seriously...idiots, the whole lot.

Love his stories. Cannot bloody believe this great man is still alive. He's right about them space elevators too.

Actually, I'm hoping the mo-cap will be used to enhance the animation. Think "Monster House" rather than the dead eye Polar express or Beowulf. Mo-cap isn't bad, but I feel like zemeckis and his crew are using it in a singular way much like CGI is used nowadays in action sequences. Both should be used to enhance the scene, add some flair, not as a showpiece of technology. The days of Jurassic Park are long gone, people won't be simply astonished nowadays and we're all jaded moviegoers.
Aside from Monster House (where the human models had a specific artistic look) also look at the films of Guillermo Del Toro from Blade 2 onward or Alfonso Cuaron's films.
Since Peter "Braindead" Jackson will be producing, I'd like to think the movie will be fellowship good and not Return of the King (legolas on an elephant) good.

Why don't they bring in a psychic? I'm sure she'll be able to track this criminal before the SAS descends upon him and smotes him down. He must be stopped before he brings Werewolves down upon dumb bitches who do nothing but stir up trouble for everyone else.

WHAT. THE. FUCK...

No. Never. A "person" is Homo Sapiens. Period. We're unique because of evolution and we are the dominant and superior species. Not because of god. That still doesn't mean that apes get to have the same rights as us.
Humankind today, humankind tomorrow, humankind forever.
Y grnpc pt fcks sckn m. Y wnt t mk t crm pnshbl by dth f smn klls nd ts nmls. You're out of your farkin minds.

What about that high pressure machine that takes the crust off of the crustacean?

I completely understand why everyone feels deckard SHOULD be this or that, but the movie speaks for itself. Or what? Didn't anyone notice Leon punched his fist through a goddamn truck and then he beats the shit out of Deckard and all he has to show for it is a bloody jaw and not even a bruise? Come on..
As for the message, fuck that whole redemption of humanity, batty is christ so deckard has to be a human bullshit. It's a film noir, deckard being a replicant is an ultimate twist on so many levels.
The things that made sense when we thought deckard was human still make sense if he's a replicant. The whole killing zora scene is also cited because deckard starts to feel something for the replicants when he sees zora die, that's still relevant.
Anyway, fanboy ranting here, I prefer to watch it the way it was intended by ridley scott.

Muttaween ownage. A female classmate from Iran told me the religious police frequently do that a lot and its a running joke that the department is filled with people who just want to goggle at cleavage all day long in the name of protecting them from supposed immoral men lurking on every street corner. Guess who IS lurking on every street corner...

#40, Yes Daniel, I'm sure the police never use torture and coercion to pin murders on innocent people who take the guilty plea because they're told pleading innocence will get them a longer sentence.

Would people get access to this information, say to prove their innocence in murder cases? Or are they still going to have to go through Curb their Enthusiasm tapes?

For some reason I thought of my first fight with Saruman:
"I gave you the chance to disperse peacefully, but you have elected the way of PAIN!"

It had to happen eventually. Me, I'm waiting for the video where the homemade pain ray gets used on a high value target like ohh...a politician. Could be anyone in the crowd aiming that thing at him. Who you gonna call?

No idea what the words say but here's a generic cantonese curse word everyone could use whenever.
POK GAI = literally means "go die in the street" but usually used in the sense of "fuck off" or bastard.
Use it to impress your friends and get beaten up by the triads.

CHAIRMAN KAGA LIVES!
daikon radish ftw!

Having just read the boingboing post on 9/11 conspiracy theories, I just want to say that in other countries, a lot of these people would be in jail for 9/11 denial. You only have to look towards europe where holocaust deniers are put in jail and its a crime to speak of the nazis in any way that could be considered "positive" to understand how far liberals are willing to go in the name of political correctness and sensitivity.
Yes the right-wing stifles free speech, but their style is by throwing money at the problem, not by saying, "WHAT? HE SAID THAT? NO WAI!! THERE SHOULD BE A LAW AGAINST THAT!"
Freedom means the right to do and say stupid things, and there should never be a law against stupidity as long as it doesn't directly and physically hurt other people. Someone says something you don't like, you can shout them down, not shoot them down.
Moveon.org FTW. Stoopid senators...

Bolly-licious!

Remember that south park episode die hippie die. I was a sophomore in college about that time and that video is probably the best example of what goes on in most northeastern colleges. Kids in che shirts talking about communes and a whole lot of BS and a complete unwillingness to think on their own or accept an alternative point of view. My college had one conservative newsletter published by a single student. I knew the guy, very nice and courteous person and never raised his voice and the level of hate directed at him was astonishing.

OK, flame war wtf up there...

Ignoring that, my problem with people like Naomi Wolf, neo-libs and neo-cons like Malkin is that their hypocrisy. As chris rock says, "The hypocrisy of democracy." They will fight to the death against bush or clinton saying that we are going towards fascism/socialism etc. but when we do it it is completely necessary and all right. Yes, what Wolf says about the Bush administration is largely true, a lot of what he is doing is going back to Mccarthy era politics and ensuring that he is never held accountable for his actions. Plus, its not like his so called opposition ever tried to anything about it beyond cursory, "Hey..WTF dood?" because they know it gives them a better chance in the elections if they stay silent and become activists later on.
The only thing both sides are really saying it, "You doodz suck ass, but its totally cool when we do it, cause we're thinking about the good of the country." be it socialized health care, banning the n-word or warrant less wiretapping. I bet a thousand bucks that all of bush's measures will take at least 20+ years to get rid of because the dems will never want to seriously challenge tradition and "the law."

Most of what she states in her book is classic socialist liberal stuff updated with the deeds of the Bush presidency. Nothing new and nothing special.
I truly believe that there is nothing wrong with private enterprise, as long as it is free. It could be the saving grace of Africa and every troubled nation in the coming century.
Of course, most liberals point out firms such as Enron and Blackwater as blanket dismissals of free enterprise. Like i said, nothing wrong with enterprise as long as it is FREE. Most of the contractors in Iraq and many around the country are given no-bid contracts because they're buddy buddy with the same people who are supposed to regulate.
I know boingboing trumpets net neutrality a lot, but I'm pretty sure if people like Hillary get into office, they will squarely set their sights on restricting free speech in the name of neutrality and equal time and the like.
Naomi Wolf and her ilk want the right to not be offended, rather than our current laws which state that freedom is the right to be offended and then move on with your life.

Me, I'm waiting for at least ONE scientific research paper that's titled, "Concerning Hobbits."

"My leg!"

Some of you knowhatimtalkinbout.

Oh that's OK. They'll be back, they'll just call themselves something else. Stupid laws can't stop a company that rubs shoulders with numerous politicians.
Blackwater aside, why intervene anywhere else at all? Isn't that why we're in trouble in Iraq in the first place? I'm guessing if Barack or Hil-larry wanted to go to Darfur and get more americans killed it would be all right because its for a good cause. Misadventures aside, how about no adventures at all, bring our boys home and take care of our own before some janjaweed decides he's the next Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Here's a soundfile.
http://tinyurl.com/2gfppb

These people are private in name only, they're doing everything they were doing when they were in the government with their good ol' boys network, except the letterhead is different and the pay is more to screw the ordinary grunt.
I live in Loudoun county, VA which has become the wealthiest county in the nation because of all the gubmint-cheese coming in. Just drive around anywhere in Northern VA and you can see it.
I don't think there's anything wrong with privatization of the military, I DO have an issue with the way privatization is working in iraq currently. I'd like to see every soldier in iraq getting paid 200,000 dollars.
I'd also like to point out that I've been reading articles like this since the war started and yet every day more articles bring similar evils to light. So I'd like to ask: Where's our Watergate?
The "Woodward and Bernstein" of our time are still out there trying to bring us the truth, but the reality is that the people with real power, the Sam Ervins of our time have either been fired, bought out, under surveillance, pressured or resigned or merely showboating for their next re-election campaign. Look at all the whistle blowers who got in trouble. No one wants to be remembered as the person who voted against WWII, just in case. Of course, when shit does happen, they'll all claim they were on our side from the beginning.