Olivia said she wanted to be this character some time last November. We've been building to it ever since. And now she has to put that character away. Can you say, "Post Traumatic Stress"? I knew you could...

From coffee bean to carbon atom, we got it all. I had no idea the bits that make up our immune system were so tiny.

So, latest bit to come bubbling out of my underground is that Marchionne's going to shutter Chrysler outright, and bring Alfa forward as its replacement. No, I don't put much stock in it either, but hey, remember folks, you heard it here first!

It seems there's a reason why every country, or very nearly so, uses its own electric plug. Problem is, that reason doesn't make a lot of sense. Except that it was really expensive to set this all up, and we all did it when nobody crossed borders all that often, and by the time people started it was all in place, and it's a helluva lot easier to burn out your laptop than it is to rewire a whole f'ing country, so there.

Thing is, I could swear I remember really weird plugs in really old houses back when I was a kid, especially around phones? Anyway, a bit of electronics trivia to brighten your Friday night. 'Cos you're at home just like me, right?

Hello? Oh, I see, I forgot to plug it-#$@$#@%%6

NO CARRIER

NASA's Kepler probe, designed to find extrasolar planets, will not be able to start its primary mission until 2011 due to electronic noise. Now that's one helluva patch right there, I tell ya.

Does a new weapon system herald the end of the precision-guided era? On the one hand, I can think of no better sight than a rogue mortar shell being blasted out of the sky. On the other, I would find it really annoying if my fancy guided bomb got blown up just a few hundred feet before it hit the target.

Turns out bats are kinkier than we previously thought. Giggity!

Nothing quite like some drunken loon parking his car over the bed you're actually sleeping in to start the day. And that, children, is why people with multi-story houses put their bedrooms on the upper floors.

No, really, a box full of stars. I know, I know. But still, explain how something that emerges from simple rules becomes so heart-achingly beautiful.

Well, ok then, explain to me why.

Yeah, thought so.

My current cat I am cat-sitting. I've been watching him for 4 years now :) His sister...lives under the bed.

Now, all of us, we'll see that the cat was butt-wiggling and the guy was actually trying to keep an eye out for the pounce. Who wants to bet Ellen and Amber don't see it that way? If stunts like that actually hurt kitties, there'd be a lot more business in Ellen's clinic.

Wtf? these shake weight things are getting out of control. Then again, considering all the free publicity the inventor is getting, he's probably embarassed all the way to the bank. Free enterprise, FTW!

Nothing like a POV camera to show you that, yes, extreme mountain biking is every damned bit as scary as it looks. And how about that course? What, did they build this town on a wall or something?

Just when you think the Japanese just can't get any stranger, they go and invent florescent light bulb fighting. You'd think they'd at least make them wear safety goggles or something.

I've seen various F-22s do most of these things. Most of them.

Don't miss the article I found it on.

The US Military has a new method of detecting Hajji before he plants his road side bombs in Afghanistan, and you'll never guess what they've named it. All this time I thought NASA was the king of the tortured acronym.

Astronomers are reporting the discovery of the oldest celestial object found to-date. The massive interstellar explosion measures out at a record 13 billion light years away, when the universe was only about 5 percent of its current age. I think that means that, less than 600 million years after the big bang, the universe was already 13 billion light years across?

Lord bless Wikipedia, without which it would be much harder to access the straight dope on the Philadelphia Experiment. Ron likely wishes that could be, "what happens when you lift one corner of the city and dump it all into the river?" but alas, it's not.

Congratulations to NASA for their successful Ares I-X test flight. Here's to hoping the next test gets better weather. It's also fun to hear excitement coming out of NASA's manned program again. It's a big bottle rocket, yes, but it's a really NEAT big bottle rocket!

Well, they may have been a part of the only empire worse than, well, any other one in the world, but those Soviets sure knew how to paint a picture. Then again, suffering in war is universal, so maybe that's the reason these compositions are so effective.

No, really, when bridges attack! Missed them by THAT much. Well, actually, it didn't miss them at all. My luck, I'd be driving the (presumably) freshly-restored spider across that dratted thing when it decided to whack a motorist or two.

Could libertarians become the next significant group of swing voters? It would make my life a lot more interesting, that's for sure. "Fiscally conservative but socially liberal" describes a significant number of my friends. "Fiscally conservative and stay off my lawn" describes most of the rest, including yours truly.

To close up a rainy night, we have this nice summary of where marine reptile research is nowadays. The first dinosaur book I ever had talked as much about these beasts as it did about their land-based cousins. It seems kind of interesting that such an amazing variety of reptiles existed so long ago, while today the world is dominated by what was then a rare and insignificant sort of reptile primarily designed to live in buried warrens.

Now, if it were in the US, a "body painting festival" might make you run for the eye bleach. They'd probably run out of paint before the third contestant and then it'd get really bad. But since they're in New Zealand, hey, it's not so bad after all. Video is tasteful but not particularly safe for work.

All those folks who think I'm obsessive about my hobby are pleased to be sitting down and shutting up now. Me, I'd go for replicating the cockpit of a Pan-Am 747, but that's me and it's been done before. I can't quite think of anything like this ever being mentioned anywhere.

Geocities, the once mega-popular free web site host service, is being shut down. AMCG's very first incarnation was as a Geocities website. I'll bet a majority of blogs our age were.

A scientist has announced he has found conclusive proof modern humans and Neandertals had sex with each other. Just exactly what his evidence is remains to be seen. The guy says he's managed to sequence the whole Neandertal genome. We'll see...

So now, let us all pause to remember the Yugo, a car so basic it literally gave new meaning to the phrase, "basic transportation. When the best you can do is promote your car's wiring being wrapped in plastic, well son, you've got some problems we need to discuss.

It's not often two different manned launch vehicles are out on their pads at the same time. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure it's ever happened before. If everything goes well, it would seem if all goes well it'll take off right at 8 am tomorrow. Our Tivo's set!

It seems something as simple as a clean smell promotes moral behavior. I guess that explains why cats are such horrid little creaters, especially whenever they get close to a litter box.

Now reports are saying the MiTo and the new Milano are scheduled to reach our shores in 2012. Previous reports were holding these two models to be "too small" for the American market. Considering the number of those spam-can Smarts I see roller-skating around our area, I'm glad Fiat has reconsidered. For now, at least.

Personally, pouring gasoline on a camp and setting it on fire just to get rid of snakes seems a bit excessive. After all, with Ellen and Amber around, the snakes would do well to run and hide, lest they fall victim to ohmygodomygodomygodit'ssoooCYOOOTTT!!! attacks.

Mark gets a well-toned no-prize for bringing us the ultimate in women's workout accessories. Video is very SFW. Audio is mildly blue, but very, very funny.

UPDATE: Ellen looked over and said, "Dude, that's a real product. Do another Google search." You know what, she was right. The real video is actually funnier than the parody.

Now, to write down that 800 number...

The image that came in an unlikely form of a bird dropping appeared on Sunday.

Don't forget to watch your parrot for a stigmata!

And now, some photo-realistic pencil sketches. Best I ever managed was a few steps beyond stick figures. Ellen's actually quite good, but hasn't been able to sit still for the lengths of time required in years. ~ Art isn't easy ~

It's nice to see not everyone in the UK has swallowed the blue climate change pill.

It's not that I think global warming is fake or a sham, it's that all the currently proposed "solutions" either do too little and cost too much, or are thinly disguised retread attempts to drive the kulaks into the countryside.

In my opinion, a climate change solution that does not include China and India is DOA. Right now, economic growth in those two countries isn't making life better, it's SAVING THE LIVES OF BILLIONS OF PEOPLE.

The simple truth is these same people, when presented with the vague and controversial death by weather some time in the future, and the concrete reality of death by starvation next week, do not see this as a particularly hard decision.

Until this concrete reality is addressed, I will never sign on.

William Heirens, the "Lipstick Killer," is believed to be the longest-serving inmate in the United States. He turns 81 on November 15.

Good. Stay there. But, if it was up to me, you would have been euthanized a long time ago.

Now this is just a rough draft of what I am doing for her.. but the rough draft, not so bad!

Here... you go into the building first. *bOOt*

Pat gets a very sad no-prize for bringing us news that Shiloh Pepin, the "mermaid girl," has passed away. We saw her remarkable Discovery Channel documentary a year or two ago. Like all kids, her willingness to put up with what life had dealt her and enjoy it anyway was inspiring. Let's hope when she comes back, it's with all the pieces in their proper place.

"They used a bucket truck with a cherry picker but once they got him down he took off, just ran away," said Scribbles' owner, Mike Shin.

My hero!

Caterack, the kitty who kept owner Alisa Morris company the past 30 years, died on Thursday.

Goodnight Kitty.

Of course it would be Attenborough who'd end up catching humpback whales beating the crap outta each other over a chick. I first saw this sort of cinematography in The Blue Planet. As I recall, it's made possible by a new sort of camera and microphone. Whatever it is, it's spectacular.

I first saw something like this in 2003, 2004. I'm just about certain we linked it up here, but I can't quite figure out how to make it pop out of the archives. There's more than one sort of dirty fun, I guess. The artist is Kseniya Simonova, who apparently recently won "Ukraine's Got Talent."

Still, the look on this kid's face is pretty darned funny. I guess it's true... women have a soap for every damned thing.

Looks like we all missed the Ares I-X roll out. Launch is scheduled for next week. Let's light that candle!

All this time, I thought it was basketball players who, well, played up the drama in the hopes of drawing a foul. Turns out they got nothing on soccer players. Of course, soccer's always struck me as basketball writ-large, so maybe it's no coincidence?

All the high performance in the world won't get you past the basic physics of traffic. My luck, I'd be the last one on that ramp, in the Spider.

It's not everyday I get a nice amount of cash from a long term pet sitting job to do a bit of needed shopping. Needed shopping. As in, getting some seasonal clothing for the child, among other things.

Needless to say we were in Target today, checking out the jeans and shirts on sale when I picked out a cute shirt and showed it to O.

What I got was: "Pffsshhh!!!! Mom! That is SO two years ago!"

Pffsshhh??? Pffsshhh??? This is a Keropi shirt! Keropi never goes out of style! This is not the mall! This is Target! or rather "Tar-jay"

"Mom, we need to be at the mall, not HERE!"

"What's wrong with Target!? Where else can you get cat litter and girl's clothes?!? (Other than Wal Mart)

2 small eyeballs roll at me, "This is so not cool!" Then she walks away to pick out a winter jacket and accessories.

So what did I do? I put the shirt in the basket and bought it anyway.

God help me in 5 years.

Joshua and Bobby and Ron and Mark and Rick and... oh hell, you get it, I have found your costume. Except for Kevin. Because he doesn't need another excuse to wander into traffic...

Personally, I think the second picture of this brief gallery is the "win" shot. Then again, I obsess around and plot out airshow pictures 364 days a year, 365 on leap year. I guess you'd call it, "expected."

Old & busted: No spanking your children. New hotness: No yelling at your children. Coming soon: Why does mommy have a drinking problem?

Ok, the article's not that funny, but it's a rare headline indeed that makes me literally laugh out loud.

Us? Well, let's just say I'm glad that time-outs and "groundings" have so far been all we need. Did I mention how I'm so not looking forward to 13?

Engineers at IBM are attempting to simulate a for-real brain in silicon. Since it's not Microsoft, The Blue Screen of Death will likely be held at bay. This being IBM, the next version will have a different label stamped on the case and cost 3x as much.

What would Scott do?

Thanks to Mark for the funny!

A 32-carat flawless, colorless diamond just sold at auction for $7.7 million. Bonus: The billionaires who owned it were well-known philanthropists who donated almost all their fortune to charity after they died.

A next-door neighbor said the family was nice, but kept to themselves.

YIKES!

And I thought MY house was messy!

Most people would just have a bunch of blurry white blobs if they tried to take pictures without a lens on their camera. This guy is not most people. Likely this sort of esoteric stuff will be all that's left of film photography in a few more years.

Looks like Chixalub may have a competitor. Giant volcanoes, now it would seem multiple impacts, geeze... God must really have had it in for those critters.

Scientists are trying to figure out what makes memory tick by, wait for it, merging the brains of two different bird species into one embryo. None of the creatures has made it out of the egg just yet, but scientists think it's only a matter of time. Sometimes science is way cool. Sometimes it's way skeevy.

By using plagiarism-detection software, one scholar has found strong evidence that a previously unattributed play really is part of Shakespeare's works. I've often thought that it would be interesting to try similar techniques on, for example, the books of the New Testament, who's authorship is (in my opinion) a more interesting question.

Nowdoitagain!!!

Move over, penis pump, Jolie Lips is the new game in town. Article is completely SFW. The product, on the other hand, well...

It would appear we have seen the woman of the future, and she's shorter. And heavier. But not by all that much.

The cold truth is, if he's as rich as he looks to be, he won't have to wait too long for a hot chick to look him up. I didn't even know you could get that much gold in a house.

1983 wasn't a particularly good year for performance cars. That said, people in the know can find at least one that was available. Calloways were incredibly expensive when new, and as far as anyone knows only perhaps 100 are still around. Last time I saw one go by, it was the #5 prototype. As I recall, the owner was asking for something in the high 20s, and as far as I know it did not sell. But they are definitely fun rides.

It seems a vaguely scientific test has revealed most people can in fact tell the difference between awful sound and not-quite-as-awful sound. That is not, of course, how they're pitching it, but my "yes, actually, there is a reason hi fi sounds good" interpretation is just as valid.

Me? Oh I can't stand any of it. All the music download sites I've ever messed with have been unbearable, so bad I've never really bothered to try and hook them up to my main rig. If they ever mainstream a lossless system, I'll be there with bells on. Otherwise, I'll be sticking with my oh-so-20th-century CDs for the duration.

Making the rounds: Obama's communications chief counts Mao Tse Tung as one of her two favorite philosophers. Ya know, I always called Obama's bunch a bucket full of commies just to make a joke. I guess proves the axiom, "the best jokes start from truth."

Pat gets a tasty but puzzling no-prize for bringing us these very large pictures of an equally very large leopard trying to figure out wtf to do with a rat eating its lunch. Eventually either the rat will wise up or the leopard will figure out how to play with it. For a little while.

Today's goofing on a kid's name comes from Livingston Parish, LA.

I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine whether or not this really is the right answer.

Starting out Rhythm & Cues 2nd year celebration!

My good friend, Laura.

Scientists have developed yet another use for stem cells: creating new bone. It's hoped the technique will benefit accident victims, cancer patients, and anyone else who needs bone growth to heal an injury.

At first, this essay about Stanely Kubrick's The Shining seems straightforward enough. A standard, and even a little innovative, art-house look at one of Kubrick's more popular films. Then, around, say, the third or forth paragraph on the second page, it jumps off the tracks and dives into an unexpected and completely weird abyss.

I finished it anyway simply because he did such a good job of trapping me into reading the first part.

Twenty years ago today, a couple of hours from now, I was doing pizza cook duties at the Pizza Inn in Fayetteville. The calendar says it was a Tuesday. I just remember it still was still a little light outside, and the dining room was empty, with all the waitresses gathered around the ridiculously old projector TV. Because, you see, other peoples' Tuesday wasn't anywhere near as normal as mine.

Ok, so which would you want to try fried... a Snickers bar or an f'ing scorpion? Yeah, thought so. Advantage, rednecks!

Esquire is carrying this in-depth look at UCAV operations. We've been dreaming about doing this stuff for decades, now it looks like it's finally becoming a reality.

By using frikkin lasers, scientists are now able to modify a fruit fly's behavior. Just what it means, I'm not sure. They seem to think it'll give insights into human memory. Now where'd I put that laser pen?

Me, I don't think these "re-imaginings" of Disney princesses makes them look like superheroes. I think it sorta makes them look like zombies. Disturbingly hot zombies. I need to get out more...

Scientists have discovered new fossils which seems to fill an important gap in pterosaurs evolution. Not surprisingly, the fossils pose nearly as many questions as they answer. But hey, if it didn't work that way science wouldn't be any fun!

It would seem the Democrats have dropped all pretense and are simply handing money out to whomever they please, for no particular reason at all. Considering they're already spending trillions of dollars they already don't have, what's a few more billion between friends?

NASA probes recently captured some amazing footage of a sun storm. Goodness only knows just how big that actually was.

Ok, so 'fess up... have you seen this man in your dreams? Me, I usually can't remember the faces of strange guys in my dreams. Strange women, well, the faces not so much. Just how much they always seem to resemble my wife.

My story, sticking to it.