Month: October 2005

Some dude built a replica of the Sears Tower out of 15,000 Jenga blocks. Just thought you’d like to know.

If you’re a regular reader of The Onion, then you’ve probably read and enjoyed Jim Anchower’s regular features. If not, what are you waiting for? In any case, prepare yourself, because Jim has finally created his own website, Jim Anchower’s Hard Rockin’ Homepage:

Hola, amigos. This here is my website. I got pretty sick of how people were telling me what I could and couldn’t write, so I decided to cut out the middleman. I’m gonna bring you all the Jim, with none of the hassle. So feast your eyes on this and prepare to get rocked. I mean hard.

Awesome… 🙂

“Dr. Thomas Schneider recently published the paper "Origin of the Novel Species Noodleous doubleous: Evidence for Intelligent Design”, in which he comes to a surprising conclusion:

Penne Rigate will spontaneously insert itself into Rigatoni (order pasta) under liquid to gas transition conditions of H2O to create the previously unobserved species Noodleous doubleous. The estimated probability of this spontaneous generation event is too low to be explained by thermodynamics and therefore apparently represents intelligent design.

Although the statistical results contained in his report seemingly present incontrovertible evidence in support of “Intelligent Design,” Dr. Schneider concludes his work with another startling theory:

A viable hypothesis is that a divine Noodly Appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was responsible for the effect. These results are therefore strong empirical in support of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.

Zounds! In light of the recent archaeological find below, it seems as if Pastafarianism is quickly gaining the scientific support that “Intelligent Design” so sorely lacks. Ramen.

The BBC and New Scientist report that archaeologists have unearthed the remains of the world’s oldest noodles in China:

The 50cm-long, yellow strands were found in a pot that had probably been buried during a catastrophic flood.

Radiocarbon dating of the material taken from the Lajia archaeological site on the Yellow River indicates the food was about 4,000 years old.

As many people noted in the MetaFilter thread, this discovery was celebrated by Pastafarians, some of which hail the relics “the only preserved noodly appendages of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.” Ramen.

W recently visited the New Orleans area and did some photo ops with Habitat For Humanity. David Letterman showed some video of W hammering some nails and commented that “W hammers like a little girl” (embedded QuickTime video). I can’t say that I disagree…

Beerwise is a cool blog all about beer. Mmmm… beer.

Guinness has an awesome commercial entitled The Evolution Of Man And Beer (embedded Windows Media Video) that ends with the slogan, “Good things come to those who wait.” Indeed.

General Zod has announced his presidential candidacy for 2008:

When I first came to your planet and demanded your homes, property and very lives, I didn’t know you were already doing so, willingly, with your own government. I can win no tribute from a bankrupted nation populated by feeble flag-waving plebians. In 2008 I shall restore your dignity and make you servants worthy of my rule. This new government shall become a tool of my oppression. Instead of hidden agendas and waffling policies, I offer you direct candor and brutal certainty. I only ask for your tribute, your lives, and your vote.
– General Zod
Your Future President and Eternal Ruler

At least he’s honest. :-p

The Alaska Airlines 737 above is somewhat special. Dubbed the “Salmon-Thirty-Salmon,” the jet received a custom paint job to promote Alaskan seafood:

A local nonprofit agency, the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, gave Alaska Airlines a $500,000 grant to paint the jet. The money came out of about $29 million in federal funding U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and his congressional colleagues have appropriated to the marketing board, created in 2003, to promote and enhance the value of Alaska seafood. The senator’s son, state Sen. Ben Stevens, is chairman of the agency’s board of directors.

I have to admit that it’s a really nice paint job, but there is definitely something “fishy” (sorry, I had to say it) about who paid for it : YOU. That’s right, your taxes were used to pay for this half-a-million dollar paint job. Talk about pork! Yeah, I’m really punny today… ;-p

Yahoo News reports on a new UNICEF campaign that uses a somewhat disturbing video starring The Smurfs:

Smurfette is left for dead. Baby Smurf is left crying and orphaned as the Smurf’s village is carpet bombed by warplanes — a horrific scene and imagery not normally associated with the lovable blue-skinned cartoon characters.

These are the scenes being shown as part of a new
UNICEF ad-campaign on Belgian television.

“It’s working. We are getting a lot of reactions and people are logging on to our Web site,” UNICEF Belgium spokesman Philippe Henon said Tuesday.

The Belgian office of the U.N. children’s fund said it has decided to use the creations of late Belgian artist Peyo to shock a complacent public into backing its fund-raising efforts for ex-child soldiers in Africa.

The 20-second video commercial clip now being shown on Belgian TV aims to show that war can happen in the most innocent of places, Henon said.

I get their point, and they certainly attained their goal of using shock value to get their message across, but geez…