Doggedly searching for the crux of the biscuit.
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I'm leaving tomorrow night for a week and a half at Hilton Head Island, so there won't be anything new here for a while. Of course, at the rate new stuff has appeared, you might not notice any difference. What I am doing, however, is turning on TypeKey registration for comments, since my spam filter is busted and 10 days without me cleaning out the chaff would equal a metric crapload of it once I get back. However, best I can figure, all it does is keep everybody (including me) from commenting. Which is fine, too. The republic will survive a couple weeks without adding to the Obama Antichrist thread. I'll switch it back when I return on the 12th or 13th.
Later, kids.
It was probably better in theory than in execution.
The Saratoga Springs High School graduation ceremony was suddenly interrupted Thursday morning when a 19-year-old man dressed as a set of male genitals streaked across the stage of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Shooting canned string at diploma-bearing graduates, the intruder startled the crowd of nearly 5,000 gathered to see students receive their degrees.
After making his appearance among the senior class, the man leapt off the stage and ran toward the exit gates in an attempt to escape security officers, who were in close pursuit. He appeared to have some difficulty eluding officers, however, due to the cumbersome layers of his costume, which covered him from head to foot. He was eventually captured inside a service entrance next to The Hall of Springs nearby after he tripped over the lower extremities of the costume, and was promptly arrested by Saratoga Springs Police. [...] Police said the penis outfit was a commercially-purchased inflatable device that came with a battery pack.
Doesn't look like a very convincing costume, really.
"Jim Denevan made the world's largest freehand drawing a few weeks ago on a dry lake in Nevada. How big is it? Three miles across, which took 100 miles of walking to draw the pattern."
Besides his glowing complexion, Shigeo Tokuda looks like any other 74-year-old man in Japan. Despite suffering a heart attack three years ago, the lifelong salaryman now feels healthier, and lives happily with his wife and a daughter in downtown Tokyo. He is, of course, more physically active than most retirees, but that's because he's kept his part-time job — as a porn star. Shigeo Tokuda is, in fact, his screen name — he prefers not to disclose his real name because, he insists, his wife and daughter have no idea that he has appeared in about 350 films over the past 14 years.
Tokuda's exploits have proved to be a goldmine for Glory Quest, which first launched an "old-man" series, Maniac Training of Lolitas, in December 2004. Its popularity led the company to follow up with Tokuda starring in Forbidden Elderly Care in August 2006. Other series followed, and soon elder porn had revealed itself as a sustainable new revenue stream for the industry.
Ogged is retiring from blogging (again), and I wish him all the best. In the traditional Unfogged style.
The results of these studies [in dogs] led to conclude that polyester fabrics have a depressive effect on the spermatogenesis and that this effect was reversible on removal of the pants. It further appeared that this effect is related to the electrostatic charges generated by the polyester fabrics and creating an electrostatic field across the testicle and/or the epididymis. It was therefore surmised to use polyester-containing textiles as a contraceptive tool for men. The contraceptive effect of a polyester sling applied to the scrotum was studied in 14 men who wore a polyester suspensor for 12 months.
The suspensory sling consisted of polyester fabric and was fashioned for the scrotum to lie within it (Figure 1 [nsfw]). Variable sizes of the sling were made to suit the scrotum and slung to the waist of the subject by a belt attached to the suspensor. The belt was tied so that the suspensor elevated the testicles towards the abdomen. The suspensor was used day and night and was changed when soiled. Follow-up investigations comprised periodic check of semen character, testicular size, rectal-testicular temperature difference, serum reproductive hormones, and testicular biopsy. The electrostatic potentials generated by friction between the polyester suspensor and the scrotal skin were determined. Female partners used contraceptives until the men became azoospermic. After 12 months, the suspensor was abandoned and the aforementioned investigations were performed again.
The main mode of action is increasing the testicular temperature, but polyester seems to have an added effect.
Friction between the scrotal skin and the polyester sling creates a negative charge on the inner surface of the sling and a positive one on the scrotal skin facing the sling (Figure 2). An equal but opposite charge to the one on the inner sling aspect occurs on the outer sling surface. The result is that the outer surface of the scrotal sac facing the sling will have a number of positive charges. The latter produces induced charges with negative sign on the other surface of the scrotal sac. Eventually, equal but opposite charges are created on the two aspects of the scrotal sac: the one in contact with the sling and the other away from it (Figure 2). These opposite charges will produce an 'electrostatic field' extending from one aspect of the scrotum toward the other through the scrotal sac. The electrostatic field traversing the scrotal contents would disturb the testicles and/or epididymis leading to diminished spermatogenesis.
The results?
In the suspensor-wearing period, all men became azoospermic after (139.6±20.8) days, with decreases in both testicular volume (P<0.05) and rectal-testicular temperature difference (P<0.001). Serum reproductive hormones showed no significant change (P>0.05). Seminiferous tubules revealed degenerative changes. No pregnancy occurred during this period. The polyester suspensor generated electric potentials ([366.4±30.5] V/cm2 by day and [158.3±13.6] V/cm2 by night].
In the period after the suspensor was abandoned, the sperm concentration returned to the pre-test level in a mean period of (156.6±14.8) days. Likewise, the testicular volume and rectal-testicular temperature difference were normalized. In 5 couples the women conceived as they had planned.
Via Neatorama.
"Dr. Jacques Donnez at the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, was carrying out a partial hysterectomy on a 45-year-old woman when she ovulated." And they caught it on film.
I know depositions can be hostile, but this is really something. (via)
The more wild-eyed denizens of the Wingnut Fever Swamp have been insisting that Barack Obama release his birth certificate. Among the many other psycho reasons, they have been speculating that he wasn't actually born in Hawaii but in Kenya, that he changed his name from Barry to Barack to look more Muslim, and that his middle name was originally Muhammed and to look less Muslim, he changed it to... Hussein. Which all makes total sense, if you've suffered a traumatic head injury or grew up eating lead paint.
So, the campaign gave a copy to Daily Kos upon request, then posted it to Obama campaign's Fight the Smears website. You'd think that would settle the issue, but instead it has set off a flurry of hilariously retarded attempts to prove that the document is a fake.
Watch them at work, and remember: this clown brigade, along with a motley crew of creationists, racists, and homophobes, is what makes up the Republican base in 2008.
Update: In the comments, NCProsecutor notes that, as usual, Little Green Footballs is setting the gold standard for bonkers on this.
From this release about a prostate cancer drug trial: "Most men obviously prefer taking a drug than having their testicles removed."
It's funny because it's true.
The New Horizons probe on its way to Pluto went past the orbit of Saturn this week, the first craft to cross that boundary in nearly 27 years, and only the third ever.
The Phoenix Mars Lander finally managed to dump its soil sample into the over for analysis after several days of trying. "Just why the soil took such coaxing to get into TEGA is a mystery. The soil is unlike anything scientists expected to encounter, said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith, as it tends to clump together in little clods. Scientists aren't sure what in the soil is causing this clumpy behavior — it could be a particular mineral, or, some speculate, water ice."
NASA launched its newest space telescope this morning, the Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope. "GLAST includes two main telescopes designed to scan the sky in gamma-ray light - the most energetic region of the electromagnetic spectrum, far beyond the visible range of the human eye."
$23 billion dollars in Iraq is just missing, and the US government has a gag order to prevent even discussing allegations of fraud against contractors. Wonder why that would be?
Watts Towers. Lots more information and photos at the official site, though the site design makes it hard to read.
This is just a quick homefront update for those of you who care.
The end of May saw Cassidy reach her first birthday (unscarred!) and take her first steps. I'm not sure how she could get any prettier, but it keeps happening. Noah has finally left diapers behind (praise the lord - just one to go!) and now regularly demands that any soft music be replaced with music to which he can "rock out" (I don't think the two are related). He seems particularly fond of KISS, as the picture might indicate.
Meanwhile, Keegan turned eleven and, on Monday, graduated elementary school and was given the Principal's Award for the highest score in the school on the End of Grade math test. Woo-hoo! He's also taking private goaltending lessons over the summer and is being strongly encouraged by folks in the Triangle Youth Hockey Association to try out for the select travel team. He's a natural at it and I'm super-proud of him, but man oh man did he pick an expensive sport.
This has been a test of the Apostrophamily Broadcast System. We now return you to your regularly scheduled mutant farm animal and genital amputation blogging.
Via Gaijin Biker in the comments to the last post, this is the story this blog has been building up to for the past five and a half years: Baby Born With Second Penis On Back (PHOTO).
And they removed it! You idiots, that one was for slow dancing!
How much do I love fabchannel? THIIIIIIIIIIIIIS MUCH.
I linked to one of two Marcus Miller concerts they host back at the end of last year, but there's plenty more there that are more than worth your time. Like for starters:
Solomon Burke, who will make you wait for his entrance as long as he damn well pleases because he's Solomon Burke, bitches (and a second show!).
Bettye LaVette (who at 62 is still smokin' hot)
And that's not even moving out of the soul section. I'll be damned if I understand fabchannel's business model, but more power to 'em.
In research supported by WOTRO, carried out in Brazil, they studied a moth, the caterpillars of which feed on leaves of the native guava tree and on an exotic eucalyptus. Small caterpillars are attacked by an insect parasitoid wasp, which then quickly inserts up to 80 eggs into it.
Inside the caterpillar host, a cruel drama takes place: the eggs of the parasitoid hatch and the larvae feed on the body fluids of the host. The caterpillar continues feeding, moving and growing like its unparasitized brothers and sisters. When the parasitoid larvae are full-grown, they emerge together through the host's skin, and start pupating nearby. Unlike many other combinations of host and parasitoid, the host remains alive but displays spectacular changes in its behaviour: it stops feeding and remains close to the parasitoid pupae. Moreover, it defends the parasitoid pupae against approaching predators with violent head-swings.
The caterpillar dies soon after the adult parasitoids emerge from their pupae, so there can be no benefit whatsoever for the caterpillars. [...] Whereas it is still unclear how the parasitoid changes the behaviour of its host, it is tempting to speculate. The research team found that one or two parasitoid larvae remained behind in the host. Perhaps these larvae affect the behaviour of the caterpillar, and sacrifice themselves for the good of their brothers and sisters.
Tangentially, butterflies apparently remember things they learned as caterpillars.
NASA scientists have developed a simple and inexpensive method for turning lunar dust into a concrete-like material that can be used instead of glass to build large telescope mirrors on the moon. The scientists made the material by mixing carbon nanotubes and epoxies--glue-like materials--with a crushed rock compound that has the same composition as lunar dust. Then they spun the material on a pottery wheel to create a mirror blank with the parabolic shape of a telescope mirror
Building a telescope mirror in which 90 percent of it is made from moon dust means that the few remaining parts can be carried to the moon, and scientists are no longer limited with regard to the size of the telescope they can make, says Peter Chen, a scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center who's working on the new method.
The power of a telescope is proportional to the size of its mirror. The James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to succeed the Hubble telescope in 2013, will be the largest to fly to space with a mirror that is six meters in diameter. Chen says that, using the new method, scientists could build mirrors on the moon that are 50 meters in diameter--the ideal size to peer deep into the universe, find Earth-like planets in our solar system, and search for the presence of life.
Indeed, say experts, the moon is an ideal spot for astronomy. "The moon has no atmosphere, which means no blurring or absorption of starlight, and it provides a large, stable platform," says Chen.
The biggest hurdle, of course, is the decided lack of pottery wheels and, more importantly, pottery wheel operators on the moon. But maybe we could build that technology into our next generation of robot dragonflies.
Is going to suck. ~80% humidity. If that forecast proves accurate, it will be the earliest 100-degree weather has arrived here on record. Bleah.
He'll win in an upset, then claw his eyes out.
An already topsy-turvy political year grew even more so today when Francis M. Powers, the son of GOP designee Francis H. Powers, said he would seek the Libertarian Party line to run for the 13th Congressional District seat.
"This is not about my dad," said the younger Powers, 47, a master carpenter from Clifton who plays and sings with the Staten Island band Box of Crayons and runs an indie record label called Penny for the Guy Records. "I'm running against the Republican candidate."
Known as Fran, Powers is the eldest of five children from his father's first marriage, which ended in divorce 30 years ago. Fran Powers insisted his candidacy is not a "vendetta" against his father. "I'm not going to say that my dad treated me bad when I was a kid," Fran Powers said. "I know his policies. I'm running against someone I know."
When asked about the timing of his entry into the race, Powers said, "Me being his son gives me a different platform than normal," a platform that Powers said he wouldn't have against another candidate. "We can't have the Republicans take this seat again," he added. "A vote for my father is a vote for the straight Republican ticket."
"I've tried very hard for many years to help my son," the elder Powers said in a statement released by his campaign. "Unfortunately, he's rejected everyone's help to live a healthy lifestyle. Regardless of whether he wants to run for Congress, I still stand ready to help him move his life in a positive direction."
Man, the family reunion's gonna be uncomfortable.
Update: The article doesn't make it apparent, but this is the seat that Staten Island Republican Vito Fossella is giving up in the wake of fallout from "sexual and alcoholic escapades."
Now that we know the general election will be Obama against McCain, it is certain that our next president will be left-handed. This will make five of the last seven presidents (Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton) southpaws, a trait that only occurs in about 10% of the general population. That's odd.
This must have been an entertaining arrest report to write.
Three people were at the gas pumps when the suspect entered the store. The witnesses said they noticed the suspect because he was singing very loudly. A 40-year-old man was looking at the suspect when he came out of the store still being loud. This caught the attention of the suspect, who picked up a rock and hit the man in the neck.
Bledsoe said the man's 32-year-old friend then got out of the car and confronted the suspect about throwing the rock. The suspect grabbed a fish out of his car and hit the friend in the face with it. The suspect threw a beer bottle onto the vehicle at the gas pump, which belonged to the fish victim's girlfriend. Witnesses said he dropped his pants and flashed his private parts to all three.
Unfogged is down, and Ogged says it will remain so until some time this evening. This might be a good time to actually perform your job or talk to your kids or something.
This has been a public service announcement.
Update: The official explanation.
Update 2: Aaaaand it's back.
December 30, 1928 - June 2, 2008
Rolling Stone (2005): The Indestructible Beat of Bo Diddley (with a great photo gallery)
