Animations, Cartoons, etc.

Here's another fun site with animations and more. What's your favorite?

Newgrounds.com - The Problems Of The Future, Today!

3 Weeks in Jail for a Ringing Cell Phone

A Long Island judge sentenced a teenage to 21 days in jail after her cell phone rang in his courtroom. He had previously told everyone to shut off their pages and phones or risk contempt.

She risked it. And lost.

Kung Fu Chimp

This is the kind of stuff that the net is great for -- hilarious and bizarre video clips. This chimp has learned kung fu! Watch the demo here.

Fallujah in Pictures

After a series of fun blog postings, here's a kick in the head: Pictures from Fallujah. The site is mostly pictures, with some annotation and little commentary. The most poignant comment is "Now I see why he waited until after the election."

Some of the pictures are very graphic, so please don't look at it with children around, or if you are a child, go here instead.

If you want to see first-hand what the war is like, check out Fallujah in Pictures.

Another odd stocking stuffer item

For some reason most of the delis in New York City use these little blue paper coffee cups that say "We Are Happy To Serve You" written in a Greek motif.

Someone out in internet-land reproduces them in ceramic, and sells them for $12. It's a cool gift for an ex-NYer, and definitely a fun coffee cup for the home.

I think I'll buy one and use it to drink my Starbucks coffee in . . . . .

Yiddish with Dick and Jane

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I'm definitely going to buy their book now.

TCS: Tech Central Station - The Faith-Based Encyclopedia

This article blasts the Wikipedia as being filled with crap. In fact, at the end he compares using it to using a public restroom!

I have no doubt that his analysis is correct, especially since there is no fact-checking in the Wikipedia and anyone can edit an article.

BTW, the authos used to edit Encyclopædia Britannica, so this website must really piss him off.

TCS: Tech Central Station - The Faith-Based Encyclopedia: "Wikipedia"

Google Scholar

Search academic works on Google! Papers, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from many disciplines.

This is going to be a great resource for academics. Not too useful for balloon twisters, but it's fun to look up my dad on it :-)

Google Scholar

Green Backed Bicycle Cards

Here's a cool stocking stuffer -- green bicycle cards!

Bikes are kinda the "industry standard" for cards, and they are only available in red and blue. A small run of expensive black bikes were made, but I never picked one up.

But green ones are really cool. Anyone know where to buy them here in the states?

What's up with the voting machines?

Obviously, a lot of people are upset about the election. After all, not only did W receive the most votes in history FOR a president, there were also the most votes in history AGAINST him. But a fact like that shouldn't affect his mandate, right?

Naturally, there are grumblings and rumblings about tampering with the vote.

From one angle, Conservatives are arguing that media was biased. Dick Morris suggests that in an article in The Hill that the media's exit polls were wrong. He argued that exit polls should never be wrong, since they eliminate the uncertainty of questioning who actually will vote. But this year, instead of accurately predicting the election result, the exit polls showed Kerry in the lead in six states. That's proof for Dick Morris that the polling was faulty.

How easy is it to tamper with the votes? Watch the Quicktime video on www.votergate.tv, which shows that it's as easy as editing an Excel file.

My district used the old-fashioned 'switch' voting booths. I thought that was an entirely mechanical process. The voting is -- but not the counting and reporting.
I'm sure there as no fraud in my NYC district, since the vote reflected the polling. But I totally support the effort to audit the voting process. This election was so close, that someone has to do some checking. And someone is:

Black Box Voting - Bev Harris - one of the leading groups doing voting machine investigations. A nonpartisan, nonprofit, consumer protection group for elections.: "Black Box Voting (.ORG) is conducting the largest Freedom of Information action in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit."

Hmmm. Lots to think about. In the meantime, enjoy the mandate.

Cartoon Origami

Apparently there is a whole world of multi-papered origami that I've been missing. Here is a link to the first of 3 books about cartoon origami. That's right, the artist recreates popular cartoons out of paper -- kinda like what some people do out of balloons!

I'll try and get the books.

Cartoon 1

The bags I wish I had during my latest trip

I know I'll lose this link if I merely bookmark it. It's Seattle company that makes really cool courier bags, backpacks, laptop bags, etc. I wish I had one during my Balloon Manor travels.

Tom Bihn Bags

Any readers have one? Or another bag recommendation?