Month: April 2004

Someone that really likes MacGyver has compiled a complete list of “MacGyverisms,” all of the clever scientific kluges he came up with every week while foiling his enemies. Just remember:

Some of the information contained in this document has the potential to cause serious injury or damage. The writers, compilers, and distributors of this document are not responsible for any injuries or damage resulting from the attempted reproduction of any of the ideas or concepts contained herein. Such attempts at reproducing these “MacGyverisms” are irresponsible and potentially injurious, and are not recommended. The purpose of this document is to inform and entertain.

You’ve been warned.

I can’t remember whether I posted this already, but it’s worth it either way. Take a look at this hilarious photomosaic of John Ashcroft composed entirely of pornographic images (definitely NSFW). How ironic…

Whenever I get a chain e-mail or hear about something that sounds too good to be true, I check out snopes.com, a comprehensive resource that evaluates these claims and confirms whether or not they have any basis in fact. Snopes has been around for a long time, but they’ve introduced a feature that might be worth bookmarking: a “Scam Report” that “features a daily collection of links to articles about Internet scams (as well as some links to prominent scams of the non-cyber variety).” This is kind of nice, because sometimes it takes Snopes a little while to properly investigate new things; this page seems to allow them to put out some preliminary warnings, although they point out that they “make no claims about the reliability of information linked from this page.” For the full scoop on the latest urban legends and scams with Snopes’ evaluations, check out the “Recent Additions” page.

Most of you probably saw my rant last week about the Fox TV show Wonderfalls being cancelled. I’m still pissed off about that, but today I got to do something about it when I signed a petition (I’m #1206) berating Fox for its ineptitude and urging the studio to release the episodes on DVD. There is also another similar petition being circulated at TVShowsonDVD, but it requires registration that I won’t be able to complete yet. I’ll take a look at that one later and probably lend my support to it as well. I doubt the petition(s) will have enough of an impact to convince Fox to bring back the show, which is a real shame. Still, they allow you to voice your concern in a unified manner, and maybe it will at least persuade the studio to release the DVD rights so that we can see the remaining shows.

Update: It looks like TVShowsonDVD has disabled voting for a Wonderfalls DVD release: “This show has been temporarily removed because multiple accounts were created by individuals trying to increase the show’s rank.” Oh, well. I guess this indicates a lot of interest, but maybe people were slightly overzealous in their support…

Check out the new Spider-Man 2 trailer. It looks like this sequel could actually be good, but I should probably reserve my judgement until I’ve seen it. Although with the amount of plot that they give away in the trailer, maybe I already have… :-p

Somebody needs to get this kid a real set of drums and into the studio, because he is pretty damn talented… (links directly to 5.8MB .mpeg video)

What the hell is Bob Dylan doing in Victoria’s Secret commercials? I think I speak for men everywhere when I say that one of the last things we want to see alongside hot Victoria’s Secret supermodels is an even weirder-than-usual-looking Bob Dylan.

Update: Slate has an interesting article with some more details.

And here I thought I’d seen it all. Yahoo reports:

The latest fashion trend to hit the Netherlands is eyeball jewelry… Dutch eye surgeons have implanted tiny pieces of jewelry called “JewelEye” in the mucous membrane of the eyes of six women and one man in cosmetic surgery pioneered by an ophthalmic surgery research and development institute in Rotterdam.

…

The piece of jewelry is inserted in the conjunctiva – the mucous membrane lining the inner surface of the eyelids and front of the eyeball – in sterile conditions using an operating microscope in a procedure taking about 15 minutes.

Besides freaking the hell out of me, I just can’t see how this won’t make their eyes fall out. There are so many other ways to get attention…

John Stossel reports on “How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars.” Confused? Read the article and it becomes clearer. I knew that FEMA bailed out people who knowingly built (and rebuilt!) on the shores of rivers and oceans that were historically prone to flooding and erosion, but I had no idea how egregious this practice has become. I know that some of this isn’t anything new and that John Stossel is somewhat prone to sensationalism. Still, the audacity of some of the people reaping the illicit gains of these and other programs really bothers me…

CNN reports that “Ingvar Kamprad, the Swedish businessman who founded furniture retailer IKEA, has overtaken Microsoft’s Bill Gates as the world’s richest man,” amassing a personal fortune of “400 billion crowns ($53 billion).” Wow…

Update: Kamprad disputes this claim through IKEA spokeswoman Marianne Barner: “Estimating the value of the company, including all the stores, and saying it’s all Ingvar’s, that is totally wrong.” Either way, he’s still pretty damn rich…