Pete Wentz: Why We Named Our Son Mowgli

Pete Wentz: Why We Named Our Son Mowgli
I didn't read the article, and I barely know and certainly don't care who this person is. But I'm thinking the REAL reason why they named their son Mowgli is because they are a pair of total shit bags.

Think. Again.

Think. Again.
This is sort of interesting. It's a project which asks questions such as "What's the Cost of Being a Nerd" or "Is Google Making Us Stupid" of people on the street, and posts the videos of their responses. There're also blogs and other commentary. It's ironic, because it's supposed to make you "think", but in my case, and probably yours if you're reading my blog, just ended up being an amusing time-waster. As is usual, when using the interwebs!!

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple? | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple? | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine:

"Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple."

I have some questions about the dating of the site. According to the article, he cross-dated artifacts from the site with "similar" ones found at a nearby site with known dates. While this is a standard archaeological practice, it's not entirely conclusive. Artifacts of a known age do not immediately make the proximate stone structures the same age. I would like some more conclusive dating that shows when the megaliths themselves were erected before I accept that it "upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization."

Can you listen as well as you read?

BBC NEWS UK Magazine Can you listen as well as you read?:

"A top judge has warned that today's young, online generation may have trouble acting as jurors because they can't listen for long stretches. But is it easier to pick up information from a written passage or a spoken version? Try this unscientific test."

Well, it's certainly unscientific, but I enjoyed the experiment. I now also want to find out more about this Dr. Crippen murder case!

I made a video

So, I recently started playing with Windows Movie Maker. It hasn't turned me into Fellini.
Basically, it's just a new way for me to procrastinate and waste time.
Here's our trip to the Bronx Zoo.


Yeah, so update. My video got blocked because of the copyrighted audio. What a pile of bullshit. It's not like I'm making any money off of it. Maybe when people watched the video they would have said, "What's that cool song! I must purchase it and every other album by this amazing group!" Instead, YouTube blocks my video and no one wins. Yay.
It's still on facebook.

A Capella Tribute to John Williams

What the hell am I gonna blog about?

Jeez. I'm happy Obama won, of course, but I've been hurling Hairballs of Righteous Indignation at the Neocons for 8 years now. I feel a little bereft.
Although I'm sure there'll be plenty to rowl at, truthfuly.
For example, yesterday at school I learned the following Fun Facts about President-Elect Obama from my suburban redneck students :

-He's from IRAN
-He's going to change the American flag [To what? They didn't know. Something BAD- like black, you know?]
-The American flag is no longer going to be flown outside the White House [is he going to fly his new flag or just no flag at all?]
-The Supreme Court is going to overturn his presidency because he's not a citizen [presumably, he's an Iranian citizen?]
-He's going to paint the White House black or purple [Why not both?]
-Hide your money- he's going to take it all! [Perhaps with a ski mask and his nine?]
And of course the perennial favorite:
-What are we s'posda do now we have a TERRORIST for a president?
You never complained before.

Simon Schama turns me on

Simon Schama: a farewell to Dubya, all-time loser in presidential history | Comment is free | The Guardian:

"For there never has been and never will be a more doctrinally faithful instrument of the creed. Never mind the hanging chads of 2000, the Cheney-Bush administration seized the moment to bring on the Goldwater-Reagan Rapture in which government was once and for all got out of the way of business.
So it hasn't really been all George Bush's fault, the stupendous American fiasco. He came to power armed with an ideology that was about to crash and burn; that was, years before the present tumult, already fatally disconnected from historical reality. It was on his watch that American government needed reinventing. It was responsible government that was needed in Iraq and Afghanistan; government that was desperately needed in New Orleans after Katrina, while all George Bush could manage was a fly-by. It is government that this most anti-governmental of all American administrations is learning that is needed now to save the United States from a second Depression.
In his heart of hearts I actually think the shell-shocked Dubya, somewhere in the bowels of his presidency knows this. But he is nowhere to be found, and so on goes the mad rant that health care reform and progressive taxes are the Trojan horse for socialist revolution. To which those who have another view altogether might want to say, fear not, for yours, as a Republican president once said, is a government of the people, by the people. And really it will not perish from the earth"

Oooh, I just hear Schama drawling this out in his snooty accent. It turns me on. For real.