The Voodoo Knife Rack brings a festive look to anyone's kitchen!



Bring one home to the mrs. or just don't ever think of actually buying one - your decision, pal.  I'd be more an asshole on this one, but the last thing I want is someone to actually purchase one of these god-awful things and then I wind up dead with unindentified knife wounds all over my body....

Astronomers have discovered an invisible galaxy that could be the first of many that will help unravel one of the universe's greatest mysteries.  Theorists have long said most of the universe is made of dark matter. Its presence is required to explain the extra gravitational force that is observed to hold regular galaxies together and that also binds large clusters of galaxies.

The theory suggests that pockets of pure dark matter ought to remain sprinkled across the cosmos.  In a cluster of galaxies known as Virgo, some 50 million light-years away, scientists looked for radio-wavelength radiation coming from hydrogen gas. They found a well of it that contains a hundred million times the mass of the Sun. It is now named VIRGOHI21. The well of material rotates too quickly to be explained by the observed amount of gas. Something else must serve as gravitational glue.

For those of you not in the know, "dark matter," is material of an unknown nature that can't be seen. 

Doctor Thalamo's Space Factoids:
- Radio telescopes detect the dark matter.
- Dark matter makes up about 23 percent of the universe's mass-energy budget
- Normal matter, the stuff of stars, planets and people, contributes just 4 percent
- The rest of the universe is driven by an even more mysterious thing called dark energy.

Someone cracked Paris Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick and now freaks and geeks everywhere have phone numbers and email addresses of all the top celebrities... Christina Aguilera, Lindsay Lohan, Vin Deisel, Seth Green, Dave Chappelle...
you name it!



Also hacked, since it was her PDA, Phone book, Camera, all in one, you can see celeb shots and text messages as well.  Most celebs have turned privy to this hack and have changed numbers already, but it's worth calling Christina and wishing her a congrats on getting engaged!

Supposedly Bijou Philips woke up to 300 missed calls - mostly people from Ireland and the Netherlands calling from another time zone... classic stuff.

Digital artist David Sullivan has created the Ego Machine, an art/tech exhibit that uses Google to project Sullivan's soul into the future, long after he is physically dead.

Sullivan said he wanted to create an urn that was visually interesting, allowed some user interactivity and referenced the physical body. He decided that his remains will be integrated into a computer processor. A virtual agent running on the computer that contains his ashes will scour the web for mentions of his name.As the mentions increase, an on-screen image of Sullivan will morph into an image of his younger self. But if the mentions decline, Sullivan's image will age, deteriorate and eventually fade away.

Click Here to visit the Ego Machine.
To make it more interesting for viewers, Sullivan decided to allow people to consciously feed or starve his ego.

This was a pleasant surprise to bump into on the internet - similar to what Shaun of the Dead did for my Netflix picks.  This is that unique, dry British comedy mixed in with dogs performing Judo on each other...

... and so much more.  Dog Judo follows Rex and Bob on their emotional and action-packed adventure through life revolving around the sacred art of Judo. There are 4 video clips to watch and more will be on the way as well.

Can I go to Hell for posting a blog like this?

Everyone, say hello to Squirrely, the Narcoleptic Squirrel!
Come in and view more photos and even some small videos featuring the one-and-only... we should be grateful that Squirrely has human friends like the ones he does...


One of his many insane compadres...

Squirrely is gonna be the next Spuds Mackenzie, mark my words.

The Soft Stove, by Dutch designers, Van Eijk and Van der Lubbe, is a working wood-burning stove made of nonflammable textile. The furniture is one of the UNDERDOGMA series of products in which the designers question 11 dogmas in design.

Bonus Photo From Their Web Site:

Yes, these are shoes molded from real moles... seriously - check out the rest of the web site.

Once again, the cool stuff in design and technology comes from Sweden.

A large black ball, originally designed by Swedish scientists for use on Mars, could be the latest weapon in the war against burglars.  The device, developed at the University of Uppsala, acts as a high-tech security guard capable of detecting an intruder thanks to either radar or infra-red sensors. Once alerted, it can summon help, sound an alarm or pursue the intruders, taking pictures.

It is capable of travelling at 20mph, somewhat faster than a human being. Even worse for intruders, the robot ball can still give chase over mud, snow and water. The ball relies on an internal pendulum to control its motion which, when shifted, changes the centre of gravity and starts it rolling.



Other devices, including microphones, cameras, heat sensors and smoke detectors are mounted on its central axis. The prototype, just under 2ft in diameter, weighs about 10lb.

This is fuckin' cool, yo.  They don't have a name for it yet, so I'm going to call it a Robosapien.

I don't know many people that do, so here's a site to help you take the fun out of Valentine's Day.  Send these along to people you hate...

For me, it'd be to Flip. 

Here's a couple samples:




Flip, I hate you.

Just in time for Christmas!  No wait- I'm sorry... just in time for another war!

Carnegie Mellon University will develop a new generation of armored reconnaissance robots for the U.S. Marine Corps, beating out defense giant Lockheed Martin for a $26 million government contract. Working with United Defense Industries of Arlington, Va., Carnegie Mellon is to deliver six Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicles, known as TUGVs, by July 2007, the university and the Department of Defense announced yesterday.

The U.S. military has increasingly been turning to unmanned vehicles as a way of surveying hostile terrain while keeping soldiers away from enemy fire. Unmanned Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles have been used extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq to swoop over battlefields, transmitting real-time images to controllers on the ground.



Military officials hope the Gladiator will do the same thing, moving into potentially hostile areas ahead of U.S. troops. The Gladiator will resemble a bulky, armored all-terrain vehicle, weighing about a ton, with six wheels. A Marine will control it with a remote.

Design Barcode has developed a unique and creative little business - making those black blocked bar codes an aesthetically pleasing little piece of art on products... not a huge deal, but spending time to make things look nice is somehting that Europe does extremely well - and on so many different levels.

And of course, this will unlikely ever make it to the United States...

Well, the late-breaking news regarding the White House Press Conference and the unqualified journalist by the name of Jeff Gannon able to not only ask President Bush a question over all of the notable press people, but he was able to slip in propaganda to millions of unsuspecting viewers...

Finally, after much research, the media circus has started talking about this.  The funny thing is, I saw this a week or so back on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart...

The New York Daily News and many other news outlets have information about the event and more specifically this laughable waste of human life.  Here is a breif synopsis for you all...

Unbelievable on so many levels:
- Jeff Gannon was not only invited to White House Press Conference, but President Bush bypassed dozens of eager reporters from nationally and internationally recognized news outlets and selected him to pose a question.
- Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."  Propaganda anyone?
- Gannon reportedly did not have what's known as a "hard pass" for the White House press room, which allows journalists to enter daily without getting prior approval each time.
- Gannon was given classified CIA memos without any prior qualifications to get them.
- He came under scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals (ie, the propaganda question).
- By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that Jeff Gannon's real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
- The kicker? Gannon who saw himself as a trailblazing conservative christian... nothing like to dabbling in online business of gay porn and prostitution.
- Jeff abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."  

An actual photo of Jeff from one of his many Gay Porn web sites:

Jeff now:

This brings new meaning to the term, "Bloody Hell".....

You guys hear about this one yet?  Yikes... All of sudden, spending countless hours coding a Star Wars remake in DOS doesn't sound like such a bad of gig...

A Welsh rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating England at rugby. Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win Saturday's match he told fellow drinkers at a social club, "If Wales win I'll cut my balls off."

Friends at the club in Caerphilly, south Wales, thought he was joking. But after the game Huish went home, severed his testicles with a knife, and walked 200 yards back to the bar with the testicles to show the shocked drinkers what he had done. Huish was taken to hospital where he remained in serious condition.



Wales's 11-9 victory over England at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was their first home win over England in 12 years, so I mean - c'mon - it was so worth it.

Well, supposedly it's true - Evil Dead IV is in pre-pre-production.  This article from FilmForce kind of explains Sam Rami's interest in doing a fourth film in this series, which on IMDb.com says it's in pre-production for 2006.

Sam also goes on to say that he hopes someone will remake the first two Evil Dead films, using a new director and entire cast to improve on the films where his vision/language/effects lacked, bringing it to the big screen that not many people were able to see it on - and of course, opening up these films to a whole new generation that may have missed out. And the biggest news yet?  Stifler (yep - American Pie Stifler) could be cast in Bruce Campbell's role!  I think he would do an awesome job... could be another classic!

Doctor Thalamo's Related Movie Rental Pick of the Day:
Bubba Ho-Tep
 
The King of Rock vs. The King of the Dead
Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and JFK (Ossie Davis), both alive and in nursing homes, fight for the souls of their fellow residents as they battle an ancient Egyptian Mummy.

The Brazilian sensation that sweeping across the world!

The idea is pretty sweet and it'd be a fun toy to have, but I'm sure it'll be expensive and you'd end up getting your ass kicked very quickly if you "surfed" into work on one of these...

The Wheel Surf will be on sale soon, but the web site does not offer any explanation of how it works - just a photo gallery and some other little things...



I love how they market this to the modern James Dean - leather jacket - wearing rebels of today! 
(But maybe Brazil is full of these dudes... I just don't know).

This year's winner comes from AmeriQuest...  It starts out with an innocent man who comes home and starts cooking dinner for his supposed wife/girlfriend.  A big, white cat following him around the apartment, implying some sort of bad omen...

The boyfriend starts cooking pasta and sauce while running around preparing his meal as quickly as he can.  Well, the cat jumps up onto stove and knocks the sauce all over the floor.  The boyfriend, chopping vegatables at the time, turns around frantically (knife in hand mind you) and picks the cat up out of the sauce.  Then, as luck would have it, his girlfriend comes home to this...

  Classic...

Watch the AmeriQuest ad here, along with a very good Fed-Ex commercial that gets my Runners-Up Prize:
The Top Ten Elements that make a good Superbowl Ad. 

After the horrific events caused by the tsunami, Heather MacDonald wrote in to Slate.com and voiced her opinions on why we should boycott God.

Basically her argument being that millions of people worship Him everyday and this is how He repays us?  By killing millions of innocent people...  So Heather thinks we should just stop paying attention to Him and hopefully He'll get the hint... that He can't just kill whenever He feels like it.

Because honestly, there's nothing to lose on our part...

A Moment In The Sick And Twisted World Of God:

Well, I'm officially addicted.

Invisibles, offered by Filmwise.com, are movie stills that have magically made the people in the shots disappear!&nbs p; This leaves you with a bizarre freeze-frame moment in movie history...

Your job?  To decipher what movie the shot is from.  Believe me - it's more addictive than crack.

Here's a sample to whet your appetite:



Don't Know?
 Karate Kid, bitch!

Those crazy terrorists will do anything!

A photograph posted on an Islamist Web site appears to be that of an action figure and not a U.S. soldier being held hostage.  A group calling itself the Al Mujahedeen Brigade, posted a photograph of a man it claimed was a captured U.S. soldier named John Adam, and it threatened to behead him if Iraqi prisoners are not released by U.S. forces.  It appears that "rifle" was part of the plastic weaponry that came with the action figure.



This is absolutely classic... look at the little, machine gun they use! 
Oh, and nice use of the generic name, "John Adam"... that's worse than my first prank call alias back in 5th grade...

Needless to say, a bunch of bloggers and photoshop-heads weren't bashful to make good use of their spare time:

I'm not sure why I'm on a monkey-bloggin' escapade at the moment, but I find these articles fascinating...

A discovery, made by neurobiologists at Duke University supports the theory that monkeys will make sacrifices to gain socially useful information, much as a human might spend money on a newspaper.

The researchers gave captive male rhesus macaques two options: a drink of cherry juice, or a different-sized shot of juice and the chance to look at one of a range of pictures of their troop members for just over half a second.

By varying the amounts of juice, the team worked out how much the monkeys valued each image. "Monkeys are basically juice experts," says team member Robert Deaner.  Monkeys would take a juice cut to look at powerful males' faces or the hindquarters of a female. But to persuade the monkeys to stare at subordinate males, the researchers had to bribe them with larger drinks. 

This is not monkey pornography, says Deaner. It's more to do with assessing sexual receptiveness, which in the wild also involves females' behaviour and smell.

 actual rhesus macaques "loving" each other

Doctor Thalamo's take on the whole thing? 
This study shows that monkeys will pay to view porn... that means it's genetics, man!  Humans evolved to love (and pay) for female porn.  I love it.

For the common, non-genius blogger who browse this site (van helsing)...

The true capuchin monkeys have a curling tail, but its use as a fifth hand is quite limited. They are indeed able to hang by it and pick up sticks or food with it, but they use it mostly as an anchor in traveling through their habitat. Quadruped running, climbing, and leaping as well as biped running and hopping can be observed. The animals are impressive as acrobats.

Capuchins live in all forest regions of South America; they are the most robust of the monkeys to be found there, and because of their liveliness, their intelligence, and agility, they best typify the popular conception of
a monkey.