send in the celebs

Yesterday's Oprah was all about celebs who have gone down to the Gulf coast to help out. One of the segments included Julia Roberts visiting a shelter and talking to some of the refugees. I've never seen a more contrived and insincere performance (and she is supposed to be a top actor). It was pretty ridiculous she didn't seem to show any real empathy for the victims. The complete opposite can be said about Chris Rock (who was on the same show). You could tell that he was genuinely upset by the whole thing.

Sean Penn has been taking a lot of flak lately for his rescue efforts (which have been written off as a PR stunt), but I do have to give him credit for actually getting in that filthy water and actually helping people out. PR stunt or not its a whole lot more than most of the celebs seem to do.

tags: hurricane, katrina, celebrities,

Japanese watermelons

Japan really knows how to market things. Here are watermelons that look like Godzilla eggs and a bomb. How cool is that?





tags: Japan, food, marketing, godzilla

we didn't start the fire

Today I made a pot of chili using 3 different types of peppers. Jalapeno's, chili peppers and those light green ones. Anyway I was obviously handling the peppers when cutting them up and everything was fine at the time but about half an hour later my hands started to burn really bad. I washed my hands thoroughly and figured it wouldn't last long. MY HANDS HAVE BEEN BURNING FOR 6 HOURS. I did a little research and found out that once your hands start to burn its too late to wash it off and it has to be treated. Apparently I have to get rid of the capsaicin.

cap·sa·i·cin
n.
A colorless, pungent, crystalline compound, C18H27NO3, that is derived from capsicum and is a strong irritant to skin and mucous membranes.

To get rid of the capsaicin I need rubbing alcohol (none here) or bleach (none here) and then use milk (no dairy in the house) or aloe (none here) to soothe the skin. I think I'm gonna have to wait it out.

tags: food. burn, chili peppers

one star in the black sky

Despite all the death, destruction, looting, property damage, government inaptitude, murder, lost children, separation anxiety, post traumatic stress, starvation, dehydration, disease ridden water, snipers firing at hospital evacuations, stranded elderly and soaring gas prices one good thing has come in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Radio stations have decided to stop playing "New Orleans is sinking" by the Tragically Hip. A shitty song by a shitty band that would no doubt compound the shittiness of a shitty situation.

tags:Hurricane, Katrina, Hurricane Katrina, Music

Spirit photography at the NYC Metropolitan

Here are a couple of examples of pictures from "The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult," opening September 27.
"The Ghost of Bernadette Soubirous," circa 1890, by an unknown photographer.

"The Medium Eva C. With a Materialization on Her Head and a Luminous Apparition Between Her Hands," 1912, by Albert von Schrenck-Notzing (German, 1862-1929).

tags: photography, ghosts, occult, spirits,

Star Wars: Episode 4.5

What I would really like to see is a series of star wars spinoff movies that involve the character's in between the movies. Someone (not george lucas) should make them.

Question: After the first death star blows up and darth vader is flung off into space how long does it take him to get
where he's going? And what happens along the way?

Seeing as he was in a short range fighter that is not capable of light speed I like to assume that it would take him several days to a week to get to the nearest Empire ship or stronghold. Here we have the setting for the ultimate
road movie (but in space). Vader throws on some driving music and cruises for a while, he stops at various gas stations and coffee shops along the way, runs into some strange characters, gets in a bar fight or two and maybe a love interest at some point. There also has to be a scene where the emperor talks to vader over that hologram cell phone thing and is pretty pissed at vader for dickin around, this will probably happen when vader wakes up after a night of drinking tequila and realizes he is broke so he has to get the emperor to wire him some cash.


tags: star wars, movies, entertainment

q without u (or lies my teacher told me)

When I was in grade 3 my English teacher told us that there were NO words that had a q without a u directly after it and challenged us to think of an example. The best anyone could come up with was bbq and the teacher quickly quipped in that it was a abbreviation of barbeque and that it didn't count. For the past 20 years I went about my life believing this lie until recently when playing a game of Scrabble it was revealed (in the documentation provided with said scrabble game) that there are in fact 22 words that contain a q and no u.

# FAQIR - Variation of FAKIR, a Hindu ascetic.
# FAQIRS - Plural of FAQIR.
# QAID - A variation of CAID, a Muslim leader.
# QAIDS - Plural of QAID.
# QANAT - A system of underground tunnels and wells in the Middle East.
# QANATS - Plural of QANAT.
# QAT - Variation of KAT, an evergreen shrub.
# QATS - Plural of QAT.
# QINDAR - Variation of QINTAR, a monetary unit of Albania.
# QINDARS - Plural of QINDAR.
# QINDARKA - Albanian currency.
# QINDARKAS - The plural of QINDARKA.
# QINTAR - See above.
# QINTARS - Plural of QINTAR.
# QOPH - A letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
# QOPHS - Plural of QOPH.
# QWERTY - A standard typewriter keyboard.
# QWERTYS - The plural of QWERTY, see above.
# SHEQEL - An ancient unit of weight and money.
# SHEQALIM - The plural of SHEQEL, see above
# TRANQ - A variation of TRANK (i.e. tranquilizer).
# TRANQS - Plural of TRANQ

I now regard everything I was taught by my third grade teacher as false, especially that you need to learn cursive writing because you will use it later in life. Its a lot later in life for me now and I don't think I need it.

tags:scrabble, q, lies my teacher told me

Hurricane Grief Porn

It happened after 911 it happened after the Tsunami and its happening again. Everyone is glued to the media to see the latest on the devastation of the post hurricane Katrina world. Things seem to be getting worse and worse and its all anyone can talk about . What is it about human nature that makes us obsess over tragedy and almost get off on feeling bad for the victims. I don't think people really feel better about themselves by seeing people in worse scenarios, I know I certainly don't yet at the same time I cant stop watching CNN to find out what has happened.

tags:hurricane, katrina, news

The Downward Spiral of Drug Addiction

These pic's has been floating around for a while now but this is the first I've seen them. They show the downward spiral of a girl from New York over the course of 15 years. I find the pics so haunting becasue you can pretty much see her slowly lose here soul.

Tags:drugs, pictures

Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans gets boned

If you build a coastal city below sea level you're building a city on thin ice and you must know that it's only a matter of time before disaster strikes. That being said it certainly sucks for anyone that lives (lived) there. I really cant imagine what it would be like to all of a sudden be told that you have one day to evacuate the city where you live.

Watching the footage today I do find it funny (funny strange not funny ha ha) that all the people stranded on rooftops who are in dire need of rescue are the same people who ignored the evacuation in the first place. I imagine some of them were saying things like: "Fuck that I'm not going to the Superdome its not going to be that bad", but I'm sure that's not going through their minds when the water is up to the second floor of their house and they had to break a hole in the ceiling to make it to the roof.

New Orleans may never be rebuilt and it may become a bizarre abandoned nautical ghost town. Mardi Gras will become a legend and the only recorded history of the event will be girls gone wild videos, due to this it will be remembered as an even greater city than it was.


tags:News, Hurricane, Katrina, In The News,