“The Hard Drive Is The New Bling”

Uhm. Yeah. Hitachi has decided that adding a little Urban Funk to their products will help sales and have therefore declared the HD the new bling. They even made a flash Rap video to promote this new fashion trend amonst the world's peeps. You should watch it. Seriously, it's BAD — but it's kind of amusing, you know, in its badness. My suggestion to Hitachi: you might want to talk to at least one black person that is not -uh- Asian before you launch a marketing campaign targeting African-American Ubanites.

UPDATE: Apparently Hitachi had to use a flash "artist" when the slated singer/entertainer couldn't stop laughing after hearing the pitch.

Anti-Date-Rape Glass

Pick up lines not working so well?… try roofies… or maybe not. That's right your sure-fire way of getting the girl (ie Druging her) may be going the way of the dinosaur, well, at least if one inventor has his way. Tom Martin created a "hollow" glass — a glass inside of a glass missing the bottom. Something tossed into the center of the cup will simply fall through while the beverage can be sipped at the sides. Ingenious but probably too expensive for adoption at the dives -er- local establishments where the college kids hang out.

Affordable Helo

An inventor has created a new type of Helocopter. It has 2 distinct advantages. 1) It's cheap, relatively speaking, at only $50,000… not much more than a decked out SUV these days. 2) It's much easier to fly. Normal helocopters have only one blade to create lift. This creates the need for the rotor on the tail to counter-act the spin induced by -well- physics. The AirScooter uses a 2 blade system so the spin on the 'copter canceled out as the blades spin in opposite directions. This removes the need to have foot pedals that constantly adjust the power to the tail rotor. So you end up with a flying machine with motorcylce style handlebars and nothing else. One other perk: no pilots license required (again lowering the overall cost). Though my guess is part of the reason you don't have to have a license is that it is a single seater… so if you go off and get yourself killed — well that's really your fault now isn't it? There is a video at the main site.

Belated Guest Columnists

Yeah, yeah woulda, shoulda, coulda on getting these up while we were gone… but here are some great pieces from May: Why I'm Rooting for the Religious Right I am not a Christian, or even a religious believer, and my opinions on social issues are decidedly middle-of-the-road. So why do I find myself rooting for the "religious right"? I suppose it is because I am put off by self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and contempt for democracy and pluralism–all of which characterize the opposition to the religious right. One can disagree with religious conservatives on abortion, gay rights, school prayer, creationism and any number of other issues, and still recognize that they have good reason to feel disfranchised. This isn't the same as the oft-heard complaint of "anti-Christian bigotry," which is at best imprecise, since American Christians are all over the map politically. But those who hold traditionalist views have been shut out of the democratic process by a series of court decisions that, based on constitutional reasoning ranging from plausible to ludicrous, declared the preferred policies of the secular left the law of the land… Mike Adams' application for Women's Resource Center Director …The best way to assess the strength of my commitment to diversity is to perform a "Google" search using the terms "Mike Adams" and "diversity." If you perform a similar search for all candidates applying for this position a clear winner will emerge. That winner will be me. While I do not have "teaching experience in Women's Studies courses" I believe that I have "a proven track record in collaborating with community agencies that work on behalf of women…". For example, I organized the "Run Against Rape" in April of 1995. This event raised money for the Rape Crisis Center with a five kilometer run. A U.S. Congressman fired the starting gun for the event, which was covered by the local media. This fundraiser did not require teenage girls to march across a stage chanting "vagina." Nor were vagina lollipops sold to spectators or participants. In short, I raised money to promote the dignity of women without asking them to act like women of ill-repute… Why Islam is disrespected It was front-page news this week when Newsweek retracted a report claiming that a US interrogator in Guantanamo had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet. Everywhere it was noted that Newsweek's story had sparked widespread Muslim rioting, in which at least 17 people were killed. But there was no mention of deadly protests triggered in recent years by comparable acts of desecration against other religions. No one recalled, for example, that American Catholics lashed out in violent rampages in 1989, after photographer Andres Serrano's ''Piss Christ" — a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine — was included in an exhibition subsidized by the National Endowment for the Arts. Or that they rioted in 1992 when singer Sinead O'Connor, appearing on ''Saturday Night Live," ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II. There was no reminder that Jewish communities erupted in lethal violence in 2000, after Arabs demolished Joseph's Tomb, torching the ancient shrine and murdering a young rabbi who tried to save a Torah. And nobody noted that Buddhists went on a killing spree in 2001 in response to the destruction of two priceless, 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha by the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Of course, there was a good reason all these bloody protests went unremembered in the coverage of the Newsweek affair: They never occurred…

Exam Week

Ah, it's exam week… and that means it's time for excuses… oh I mean extra credit… Naw, seriously we need to procastinate… i mean study… i mean -uh- kill our roommate? I think I saw that in a movie and it had that guy from Saved by the Bell so I'm sure it would work… Here are a few excuse from a Prof that sees both the humor and profound meaning to it all (hmm. sounds like someone i know)… oh and he's sarcastic — perfect. now we just need to get him on staff here…

Thanks Jeff