costly prank blurb

from earthtimes.org: "The decision by several New Zealand students to douse several area cars with eggs and flour has resulted in a nearly $3,500 repair bill. 'Have you ever tried to wash sun-baked egg stains off a car?" said Jun, 'It's difficult to clean and it also smells bad.' Nearly 25 female students took part in the prank to celebrate their dwindling days at school. Westlake Principal...told the Herald the girls and their parents should be financially responsible for all damages..." I had this happen to me this summer and it was a pain to clean up. Also if you leave the egg on too long it actually ruins your paint job. If it happens, use vinegar to wash it off. Pranks sure do often go bad.

christmas ham flavored pop burb

The Christmas pack will feature such flavors as Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham. The Hanukkah pack will have Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and Latkes sodas.

time saver blurb

These are kind of neat...the time saver blurb. The remind me to ask myself how much time am I spending in wastey activities - in the bathroom, on the internet, watching videos, etc. It all adds up.

body world blurb

Thomas Hibbs from The New Atlantis: "The exhibit includes an array of complete corpses, hundreds of organs and partial specimens, and a series of preserved embryos, kept intact through the plastination process von Hagens inventedr...enables bodies to be kept intact and upright and thus serves the end of displaying..."

I went to this on it's last day here in Portland. Many bodies were in all sorts of poses. I went with three other people. Two of our group were uncomfortable and uneasy and quit the display early. When I ask them they really can just say "It was gross." I never really wanted to go, not knowing why I felt uneasy about the whole thing. I think Thomas Hibbs is onto something here when he says:

"Body Worlds is in certain unhappy respects quite well suited to our culture, a culture currently awash in morbid fascination with vivisected bodies...The problem is one of desensitization to violence in general and to the violation of the human body in particular..."

Culture blurb... sad cubicles

You know how you are sure that you have the worst school or work space in the world. Well now Wired proves that you don't. Here is the winner and the finalists for their saddest cubicle contest. Makes us appreciate the little things.

On the other hand here is a list of 10 really cool work spaces. I love the Pixar office and the vintage trailer. No wonder Pixar comes up with "Finding Nemo" and one of my all time favorites "The Incredibles".

It does strike me that many of the cool work spaces could be mimicked with a just a little bit of money and some creativity.

This one might even double as an evangelism tool...

highlights blurb

from the Guiness Book of Worlds Records website, more than 200,000 participated in yesterdays 3rd annual Guiness World Record Day:...prolific record holder Ashrita Furman smashed his record for the Most Jumps On Stilts, beating his existing title of 109 with an incredible 129.

In the UK Iron man Manjit Singh attempted a new record for the Fastest Time To Pull A Double-Decker Bus With The Ears - pulling a 7.5 tonne route master bus over 10 metres but was unsuccessful...
Model Suzannah Sorrell rode 8 husky dogs to ...the title for the Fastest 100m Dog Sledding, racing through in 10.65 seconds. South Africa attempted the Highest Tandem Parasail and the Most Steel Cans Collected in One Month, Italy sang throughout the day to break the Longest Singing Marathon, Portugal set a new record for the Most Paper Aeroplanes Thrown Simultaneously and Spain held the Largest First Aid Lesson!

Culture blurb...is "squaw fish" insensitive

I was talking with a guy today who told me he fished for squawfish for fun and profit. Oregon places a bounty of four to eight dollars per fish because squaw fish eat young salmon. This reminded me of a conversation I had with a guy who said we could not call them squawfish because that was insensitive - not PC you know. Rather we should call them pikeminnows because that was the new name assigned to them to prevent offense. As fitting with our poll - another divisive name rooted out from our PC culture.

culture blurb...a cross in the skies of Bagdad.

From Michael Yon:
Thanks and Praise. I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John's Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome. A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from "Chosen" Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John's, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope.

Culture blurb...speaking of eating rats and Goodwill

One enjoyable thing I like to do is to go to Goodwill and look for older books about Christian missionaries. For some reason the rat eating blurb made me think about a book I recently found for a buck. "Cannibal Valley" by Russell Hitt. It is a great read about a couple of missionaries going to the mountains of New Guinea in the 1950s. And yes, there are some fairly gruesome tales of cannibalism.

Culture blurb...One mans caviar is another mans rat.

I really enjoy Thai food, second only to German, but I really hope the bandicoot rat delicacy craze doesn't catch on at my local Thai resturant.

From Reuters:

"Thailand is the world's biggest rice exporter and roasted bandicoot rat has become a popular delicacy at roadside stalls despite costing twice as much as pork or chicken.

"Many rat trappers have bought pickup trucks or motorcycles with rat money," said Sompong Namkaew, 46, who was once unemployed but now makes about 400 baht ($12) a day from catching 10 kg (22 lbs) of rats."

Read the whole thing here

culture blurb....bad day at the office

There are so many opportunities not to give in to our baser instincts.

Culture blurb...Is urban biking that safe?

Portland OR prides itself on being the most bike friendly city in the USA and is continuing to cultivate a culture of bike riding. The conventional wisdom is also that biking is very safe in urban Portland. There have however been two recent deaths of bikers in Portland. I can also say from personal experience I choose not to ride my bike on Portland streets for safety reasons. I think it is great to encourage economically and environmentally beneficial habits. I also think that we should be honest about what the risks are. via metafilter

Blurbat interview...Voluntary Human Extinction Movement...Les U. Knight response #3.

response #3 Les U. Knight: "VHEMT Volunteers and Supporters always bring it home to our own lives: personal commitment is about all there is to The Movement. Because the intentional creation of one more of us by anyone anywhere can't be justified today, we don't breed. We might also encourage others think before they breed, and to consider not doing so. "

Blurbat is confused, please clarify. Your response #2 stated: "Even those who recognize that there are too many of us rarely bring it home to their own lives. Those who do suggest that we limit ourselves to one or two are called anti-life and anti-child.
Our breeding is a mental blind spot. Couples don't really know why they do it, as their nonsensical reasons reveal. When people first hear about voluntary human extinction, they assume we want to increase deaths and don't think about decreasing births."

To summarize: in response #2 you state that "...those...of us rarely bring it home to their lives."
In response #3 you state that "Volunteers and Supporters always bring it home to our own lives..."

Blurbat interview...Voluntary Human Extinction Movement...Les U. Knight response #2.

Click here for Blurbat question #2. Les U. Knight response: "Even those who recognize that there are too many of us rarely bring it home to their own lives. Those who do suggest that we limit ourselves to one or two are called anti-life and anti-child.

Our breeding is a mental blind spot. Couples don't really know why they do it, as their nonsensical reasons reveal. When people first hear about voluntary human extinction, they assume we want to increase deaths and don't think about decreasing births."

Blurbat question #3: Why do you think VHEMT folks rarely bring it home to their own lives?

dialogue with Les U. Knight, Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

response #1 from our Q&A: "My route to VHEMT started with concern for ecosystems I was seeing eliminated to create more human habitat. People have to live somewhere, so as there are more of us, there'll be less wildlife habitat."

Our next question for Les U. Knight:
What does your muse lead you to in your personal life? We don't mean what policies and programs do you promote or sympathize with. We mean what does your muse lead you to try to change about yourself?

even Harvard finds media bias...well duh

"The most flagrant bias, however, was found in newspapers. In reviewing front-page coverage in 11 newspapers, the study found the tone positive in nearly six times as many stories about Democrats as it was negative." from IBD. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that your worldview animates how you look at the world. The worldview of the elite in our culture is distinctly different than that of the traditionalist Christian. For an excellent explanation of worldviews, see the book The Most Dangerous Monster. This is why I don't care much about the Emerging Church's concern about Christianities "image." The Christian image will always find detractors from the cultural secular elite.

"here's some free advice" blurb

I like the invention. It's simple. It's clean. Nice lines...But I'd say- also offer a Driinn with two or three shelves for larger phone-families. That way you don't have to have so many around the house. Of course you'd make less money cus we'd only have to buy one. From popgadget: "Every room of my house looks like an AC adapter battleground...The Driinn serves two purposes: it works as a cord manager to keep your cables untangled, and there's a built-in shelf for your phone or mp3 player to rest on. Nothing will make a charger into a work of art but the Driinn definitely can help it look like less of an eyesore. And it protects your precious devices from being stepped on or dropped.The Driinn mobile device charger holder is $10 and comes in black, lime green, and red orange.

Car blurb...update

Here's the followup from my first car blurb. The mechanic fixed my car for $125.00. Some sort of oil sensor thingamagig that was leaking. This little incident did make me stop and think that I actually have some feelings for the car, like an old dog that I don't want to put down. It is odd that we develop feelings for inanimate objects, kids for their teddy bears, men for their boats and guns, things that rust and rot with time. I guess it shows to some degree that our hearts can be moved irrationally. Also, that Jesus said to store up treasure in heaven because our hearts follow our treasure.

Voluntary Human Extinction Movement blurb...

THE VOLUNTARY HUMAN EXTINCTION MOVEMENT. We've had some dialogue in these pages with VHEMT Les U. Knight (get the name). But unfortunately, it ended too soon for our taste. We'd like to invite Mr. Knight to a series of Q&A about his worldview.

Culture blurb...win lottery, get poor

ONE THIRD OF LOTTERIES WINNERS are in financial trouble five years after winning."Roughly one-third of lottery winners find themselves in serious financial trouble or bankrupt within five years of turning in their lucky numbers, according to Chelmsford wealth counselor Szifra Birke.
“For many people who come into wealth suddenly — whether they win the lottery, receive an insurance settlement or an unexpected inheritance — if they have not acquired good money skills prior to this windfall, often they struggle and make poor choices,” Birke said." According to one winner, "it is very depressing"

Makes me think that money can't buy fulfillment.