this guy doesn't sound too confident

U.S. ‘Likely’ Could Intercept North Korean Missile
By Tony Capaccio



May 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. ground-based interceptor rockets would “likely” knock out a long-range North Korean missile before it could reach the American mainland, the Pentagon’s independent testing official said today.

“I believe we have a reasonable chance” of an intercept, Charles McQueary, director of operational test and evaluation, said in an interview as North Korea defied international condemnation of a nuclear test with another short-range missile launch.

“I’d put it ‘likely’ -- than ‘highly likely’ -- as opposed to putting it ‘unlikely,” he said on his last day in office after almost three years as the top weapons evaluator for the Defense Department.

full story here

the origins of band names

pretty cool website with explanations behind a lot of bands, some of the good ones below:



At the Drive-In
Their name is from a lyric of the song "Talk dirty to me" by Poison.

Beastie Boys
According to the band, 'beastie' is an acronym for "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence."

Butthole Surfers
They performed under a different name at every show. At their first paid gig the announcer forgot their name of the week and used a title from one of their songs. After positive reviews they decided they had to keep the name to keep the reputation.

The Doobie Brothers
The band known as 'Pud' were sitting around when a friend of the band said "Why don’t you call yourselves the doobie brothers?". He was kidding and they all laughed, but later someone said "hey, that’s not such a bad idea".

The Doors
Poet William Blake inspired Jim Morrison with the line,

"if the doors of perception are cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite.

See the full list here

Government experiments with LSD

The CIA's 5 Most Mind Blowing Experiments
By: Robert Brockway
May 30, 2009

LSD has long been a staple of overweight, furry men with ponytails who list their occupation as ‘Earth Shaman’ on tax forms. The CIA is more typically known for their starched suits than their mind exploring orgies. So if we told you that the CIA was trippin’ balls before Hunter S. Thompson even knew that balls existed, you’d probably call us liars. Well, prepare to have your mind, like, blown man. Here are the five strangest things you didn’t know about the CIA, and how LSD really came to be.

Full story here

that is a shitload of daddy longleg spidars

via

crazy smart car body kits

starts with a smart car



porsche



lambo

via

freaky animal

more states claiming sovereignty

Texas House to Feds: Back Off

Posted on 30 May 2009

After being nearly derailed on a technicality earlier this month, Texas House Concurrent Resolution 50 (HCR50) was brought back for a vote today, and passed by a wide margin.

The resolution affirms that “the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.”

The final vote was 99-36.

via

ozzy suing for black sabbath?

Ozzy Osbourne releases statement on Black Sabbath suit

5/29/09, 6:28 pm EST

This morning news broke that Ozzy Osbourne is suing his former Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi to reclaim a stake in the “Black Sabbath” trademark. Now the Blizzard of Ozz himself has issued a statement saying that after years of trying to “resolve the issue amicably,” the lawsuit was regretfully Ozzy’s last course of action.

via

stephen colbert and sarah palin in iraq

Sarah Palin Blows Stephen Colbert's "Secret" Trip

Did Republican Alaska Governor and GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin just completely blow Stephen Colbert's cover?

Earlier today, Palin took to her Twitter account to send supporters this quick tweet: "Getting ready to tape shout-out for our awesome US troops serving overseas! Will be on 'Colbert Report' next month, broadcasting from Iraq..."

The problem: Stephen Colbert has spent the last several months talking about his upcoming trip without any reference to when or where the trip was to take place.


full story here

can't wait for this movie to come out - bruno trailer

i've always wanted to go to maldives

Undersea Restaurant (Maldives):

the Ithaa Undersea Restaurant still interesting to talk about. Known as the first-ever transparent undersea restaurant in the world, the restaurant sitting five meters below the sea level of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by a vibrant coral reef and encased in clear acrylic offering diners 270-degrees of panoramic underwater views.

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cool new synthetic biology article

Scientists teach bacteria to count

May 29, 10:23 AM

A colony of E. coli

Every so often there is a story in science so bizarre that it is difficult to believe. Many of these stories are coming out of a field known as synthetic biology, a place where scientists are hard at work creating some of the most wickedly cool devices that will be used to combat disease. The most recent design is a duel batch of counting bacteria created in a lab at Boston University.

Counting bacteria? It is exactly as it sounds. These bacteria, E. coli as it happens, have been given synthetic gene networks to recognize discrete events, count them, and respond accordingly. In the most basic form, these synthetic gene networks can tell a bacteria to divide three times and then manufacture a fluorescent protein so it can be observed by the researchers. But this is an almost sentient activity, as though the bacteria is playing a game, counting one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi before lighting up with a vivid fluorescent “peek-a-boo!”

eiffel tower picture from 1902

via

a new rival to sham wow

Paper Towels - watch more funny videos

CNN is reaching for stories

Woody Harrelson claims he mistook photographer for zombie

By Alan Duke
CNN

(CNN) -- Woody Harrelson defended his clash with a photographer at a New York airport Wednesday night as a case of mistaken identity -- he says he mistook the cameraman for a zombie.

Woody Harrelson says he got into a clash with a photographer because he mistook him for a zombie.

full story here

this must be what heaven is like

sydney opera house lit up

if jerry garcia were still alive and an australian artist this would be him. from the article:

"Called 77 Million Paintings, the installation is the work of artist and music producer Brian Eno and features 300 of his drawings.

He told the BBC he wanted people to 'surrender to another kind of world,' as they watched the transformations."

via the daily mail online

photos by mike roberts

check out more of his photos here

cool new armor

The Predator Full Facial Armor System by Mtek

To help protect soldiers from shrapnel and other flying debris of war, Mtek Weapons Systems have developed a facial armor system that can be used in conjunction with currently fielded helmets.

The Kevlar Predator System recently took runner up prize, in PTC’s “Redefining Innovation Product Design Contest 2008.”

The Predator Facial Armor System (FAST) was designed by marine Ben Mahan, who after serving Iraq, decided that a full facial armor system which did not degrade or inhibit a soldier’s peripheral vision, could go a long way to saving lives of our troops on the front lines.

via

ninja gets caught

Man accused of robbing McKinney 7-Eleven with sword

12:40 PM CDT on Thursday, May 28, 2009

By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News

Phong Nguyen

A sword-wielding man dressed in black robbed a 7-Eleven in McKinney, demanding cash and cigarettes, authorities said.

The robbery took place about 2:45 a.m. Wednesday in the 7900 block of Eldorado Parkway, police said.

Minutes after the robbery was reported, police stopped a driver in a Nissan Altima near the store. Inside the vehicle, officers found a sword, money and merchandise. Police declined to specify what had been stolen.

The driver, Phong Nguyen, was taken to the Collin County sheriff's office and charged with aggravated robbery, police said.

No one was injured during the robbery.

obamania

Kicking & Screaming: Journo Dragged From Near AF1

By CHRISTINA HOAG

Updated 1:04 PM PDT, Thu, May 28, 2009

AP

A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday.

Secret Service personnel remove Brenda Lee from near Air Force One after Lee attempted to give President Obama a letter, Thursday May 28, 2009, at LAX.

Airport security officers carried the woman away by the feet and arms as she protested her removal.

She later identified herself as Brenda Lee, a writer for the Georgia Informer in Macon and said she has White House press credentials. The newspaper's Web site says it is a monthly publication, and a Brenda Lee column is posted on it.

Calls to the newspaper and the White House press office were not immediately returned.

Lee said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that she wanted to hand Obama a letter urging him "to take a stand for traditional marriage."

sad

Explosion in Iranian Mosque Kills 15, Injures 80

Thursday, May 28, 2009

• 
• 

TEHRAN, Iran — An explosion in a mosque killed 15 people and wounded 80 Thursday in southeast Iran near the volatile Pakistani border, the state news agency said.

Iranian officials were investigating the cause of the explosion in the city of Zahedan, some 1,000 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran, said the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor of Sistan-Baluchistan province where Zahedan is the capital, confirmed the death toll in an interview with IRNA and said the explosion happened at 7:45 p.m. He said a terrorist was involved in the explosion but did not provide any detail.

The state news agency report quoted an unnamed official as saying part of the mosque was destroyed and rescue teams were transferring the bodies of the dead and injured. It said no group had taken responsibility for the explosion.

Alaeddin Mazari, a local journalist in Zahedan, told The Associated Press that the explosion occurred in a the second biggest Shiite Muslim mosque in the city.

The majority of Iran's population is Shiite, but Sunnis also live in southeast Iran, a region near the Afghan and Pakistani borders that is plagued by lawlessness. It is a key crossing point for narcotics and often witnesses clashes between Iranian police and drug smugglers.

In 2007, the militant group Jundallah, which claims to fight for the rights of minority Sunnis oppressed by Iran's Shiite government, killed 11 members of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards in Zahedan. Jundallah, or God's Brigade, is said to have ties to Al Qaeda.

Iran hanged three men last month for their involvement in a bombing inside a packed Shiite mosque in April 2008 that killed 14 people in the southern city of Shiraz, about 550 miles south of Tehran.

The blast went off as the mosque's cleric was delivering a weekly speech denouncing the Bahai faith and Wahabiism — an austere brand of Sunni Islam practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia, according to local news reports. Such speeches are not unusual in Iranian mosques.

Iran's Revolutionary Court said the three were members of the Iran Royal Association, a little known monarchist group that wants to overthrow the country's ruling Islamic establishment. It said they had ties to the U.S.

Tehran has repeatedly accused the U.S. and Britain of backing militants and opposition groups. Both countries deny it.

one of the best youtube videos ever

this might be too easy if you're a zoolander fan

Who Said It: Kayne West or Derek Zoolander?

Voluminous windbag Kanye West is at it again. This time, he's not out to assault your ears with stupid quotes, outrageous comments and nonsensical rhyming. Nope, this time he's out to assault your eyes with the written word. Kayne, who says he doesn't read or respect literature, has dictated a book called Thank You and You're Welcome. Modest title, ain't it? This 52 page (though some pages are blank and others only include a few words) book is soon to be classic of the literary world so why not learn to your "Kanyeisms" (West's self-titled nuggest of "wisdom") now by playing a little game called "Kayneism or Zoolanderism?"

Simply guess who said the following quotes -- rapper Kanye West or male model Derek Zoolander:

1. "Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed."
2. "I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is."
3. "I'm not an ambi-turner."
4. "I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life."
5. "How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read if they can't even fit inside the building?"
6. "I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph."
7. "My mom taught me to believe in my flyness and conquer my shyness."
8. "Rufus, Brint, and Meekus were like brothers to me. And when I say brother, I don't mean, like, an actual brother, but I mean it like the way black people use it. Which is more meaningful I think."
9. "You think that you're too cool for school, but I have a newsflash for you Walter Cronkite... you aren't."
10. "I feel like to misuse, overuse or abuse someone is negative. To use is necessary and if you can't be used, then you are useless."

Ok now, no cheating. Post in the comments how many you actually got right. You can check them by selecting the hidden text below.

1-Kanyeism; 2-Zoolanderism; 3-Zoolanderism; 4-Kanyeism; 5-Zoolanderism; 6-Kanyeism; 7-Kanyeism; 8-Zoolanderism; 9-Zoolanderism; 10-Kanyeism

New study shows poor give greater percent of income to charity

Josh Smith
May 27th 2009 at 8:00AM

Text SizeAAA

Filed under: Wealth, Charity

The less you have the more likely you are to give; that's what new research from the McClatchy group shows, backing up this long-held belief with hard data. According to the group's research, the poorest Americans give above their capacity, donating more in comparison than the most well off upper fifth of society. Not only does this group of low-income Americans give more of their income to charity, but double the percentage of income that the richest individuals in the study do.

This report confirms the opinion I formed during years of collecting canned goods as a Boy Scout. While walking through neighborhoods on chilly fall mornings, it was quite obvious that families who themselves would be considered in need by many, donated bags of canned goods bursting at the seams. While there were also some full bags in the more "well to do" areas of town, the generosity that flowed from low and lower-middle class homes was hard not to notice, even for a 13-year-old.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that poor people give a greater percentage of their income because they know someone or have personally been in a situation of need in the past. These smaller donors play an important role in charitable giving by supporting others through formal and informal donations, supporting causes and individuals in need that might otherwise go un-noticed.

While you won't see these donor's names etched in stone like their fellow givers who can afford to donate millions, the memories of thank you's and touched lives will continue to reward our most generous donors.