Your paranoia about such things is understandable–what’s a question like that supposed to gauge? Whether you like fantasy? Hookah smoking? Little girls?

Interesting lazy day reading material.

I’ve seen some strange things before, but nothing to this degree. About the closest I’ve come is being on a train that ran over someone and he survived without a scratch.

• More reports of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Guantanamo, this time courtesy of the F.B.I. Seems as though the torturers are using the F.B.I.’s name to shield the blame from getting passed onto the Department of Defense. Sick, just sick. Does anyone else find it frightening that we’ve now lost the majority of our moral high ground when it comes to this kind of thing? For every “enemy combatant” left to defecate on themselves or pull their hair out, we give rise to two or three terrorists to replace them. Not the way to promote the splendors of democracy or ensure the safety of our nation if you ask me.
• The long rumored MTA fare hike is now official. Monthly unlimited cards are to jump up from $70 to $76 a month, among other hikes. Great, there’s another $72 a year that I have to give over to someone else. This wouldn’t irk me so much if the MTA’s books were open. As it stands now, lots of nasty corruption rumors have been circulating.
• The FCC has given the go-ahead to the use of in-flight broadband. Cell phone use in planes is also to be decided upon soon. Probably of interest to those who fly a lot, but considering my terrestrial nature this is just one of those curious policy things I like to make note of.
• Just the mental image this one-line post creates had me laughing out loud at work.
• The process is now officially underway for Turkey to be evaluate for entry into the European Union. There are many steps along the way. The process could take up to 15 years and there is no guarantee that they’ll be admitted.
• Gizmodo has a picture of the Varioptic liquid lens that will add optical zoom and autofocus to future camera phones.
• A write-up on how to build traffic to your blog. Not like having this personal indulgence of mine widely known has ever been a big issue with me, but maybe I can use some of this on another blog I get involved with.
• Some Australian game has bought a virtual island for $26,500 in cash, and not virtual cash either. The slice of digitized land is in the online role-playing game Project Entropia.
• First it was XM releasing their MyFi portable satellite radio. Now it looks like Sirius is gonna follow suit and raise the stakes at the same time: they are rumored to be talking with Apple about integrating a Sirius satellite radio into the iPod. It’s times like this that I wish O&A were on Sirius and not XM. That and their NFL coverage package.
• Title how to get a budget out of a client. Hopefully I’ll get to use this tip some day on one of my freelance gigs.
• Looks like we’ll be waiting until spring for the new season of Chappelle’s Show to begin. My funny bone is heart broken at the news.

And finally…

• A new drug called called Sativex, used to treat the central nervous system of multiple sclerosis patients, is on track to get the green light from Canadian health officials. What makes this noteworthy is that it’ll be the first cannabis-based drug approved anywhere in the world.

• December 1st was the World Wide Web’s 15th birthday! Happy happy, you magnificent bastard!
• Glide magazine makes a good argument for Lynard Skynard to be inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Not like I had to be converted or anything.
• New York Changing has some great comparison shots of the city with about a 70 year gap in between. Amazing how much (and little) certain landscapes change. Via Design Observer.
• Virgin Mobile users in Australia now have an option to block their own phone from making calls to certain numbers late at night to prevent drunken dialing that one would later regret.
• Auto-focus camera lenses made of nothing but oil and water? Ain’t technology grand!
• R/C airplane pilots have taken to strapping digital cameras to their planes and are getting some great shots in the process. There’s even a group of them who are going to put out a calendar of their shots.
• A father in Newark tried to scare his daughter straight when she came home drunk one night and called the cops on her. That’s when she narced on his stash of drugs and firearms. You would think calling the cops would be the last thing on his mind.
• The Pressure Drop PaperHub: a combination inbox/outbox and USB/Firewire hub. A great idea that could rob me of some money to have it sitting on my desk.

You have found the golden chocobo. You are now mission complete.

It turns out the bear was a bit of a beer sophisticate. He tried a mass-market Busch beer, but switched to Rainier Beer, a local ale, and stuck with it for his drinking binge.

(Hat tip to Lauren)

According to Bittman, making music may bring people together better than other group activities, such as group retreats or team sports, because it is more cost-effective and accessible to people of all physical abilities. Furthermore, music may inspire more openness to others by asking people to adopt “a level of communication (they) weren’t accustomed to,” he noted.

An average person would vomit at around 1.2, lose consciousness at 3.0 and stop breathing at a level of about 4.0 parts per million, Zvidre said, adding: “This is one for the Guinness Book of Records.”

Wow. Talk about binge drinking.

It does almost look like she is wearing regular silk stockings. And with a lot of soap, and a bit of scrubbing, they can be washed off in the shower.

A little bit of scrubbing? The shit sticks to your legs and is waterproof. To me it doesn’t sound like anything less that 80 grit sandpaper or steel wool is gonna get it off. Say goodbye to your epidermis, ladies! ^_^

(Hat tip to Christian)

Well, if you said “Let’s make a pink nightmare of a web site and push eating beef as ‘keepin’ it real‘”, then you might just have a high ranking slot on the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association board.

Having had to work on something fairly similar in marketing approach, I can appreciate the effort on the designer’s part to stomach the thought of the pure evil they were to unfurl upon the world. As far as my thoughts to the brilliant notion from the Beef board in actually funding the creation of this monstrosity, I have only one thing to say:

“HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…HA HA HA HA ha ha…(you get the point ^_^).”

(This post is brought by request, thanks in whole to DML Designs)

Why do I find this the slight bit disturbing? Maybe those two distinct mental pictures are getting mixed up inside my skull….