Nick's right...

...about the Cavs. Even though they sucked it up tonight. And Z looks super scary with the totally shaved look. I couldn't find a pic to put up if you haven't seen him.

Band Names

Since we've, from time to time, debated worthiness of songs and individuals being on lists, here is a list of the most ridiculous band names ever. I hadn't heard of two of them, but wonder why Fromage d'Amour isn't on there (as I'm sure JB is also).

Ethanol Subsidies (like most government subsidies) Are Bad

Deroy Murdock reported last week that ethanol subsidies are increasing the price of fuel and food and, as a result, are causing food shortages in poorer parts of the world.

Mark Steyn's take:
"The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death. "

Roger Clemens: Got Chmura'd?

So he's a pedophile now, too?

Is this a nasty attack ad from John McClane?

From The ISB, of course

Awesome name

My only election commentary:

Some big-wig fundraiser named Gabriel Guerra-Mondragon is defecting from Hillary to Obama.

If my name was Guerra-Mondragon, I'd expect to be the Warlord-Ruler of some Pacific island-nation. His name right up there in terms of awesomeness with dragons with rocket-launchers on their backs.

Could've been worse...

Guillermo del Toro will direct the Hobbit, with Peter Jackson producing. I guess it sort of makes sense... I mean, the bad guys in Hellboy 2 look pretty much like elves, and del Toro hit a home run with Pan's Labyrinth.

But check this from the link above:

"Del Toro will helm the two films back to back, telling the story of "The Hobbit," and its sequel, which will deal with the 60-year period between "The Hobbit" and "The Fellowship of the Ring," the first of the "Rings" trilogy."

This is the first I've heard of this. I had assumed when I heard the Hobbit was going to be 2 movies that they were going to split it somewhere in the middle (when Bilbo finds the ring?) to make two 3 hr + movies and make twice as much money. But this sounds like they are going to cobble together an entirely new movie together from Tolkein's notes and appendices. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I suppose I'm inclined to trust the Jackson/Walsh/Boyens trio given their track record on the LoTR trilogy. On the whole, they made more good calls than bad ones, but they still did make bad ones (elves at Helm's Deep wtf?); and they came perilously close to making a few terrible ones (Aragorn sword-dueling with Sauron, Arwen at Helm's Deep, etc.). And without the spine of an actual novel to guide them this time, I think there are tremendous pitfalls to this 'second film' project. They will surely step into a few of them.

Anyway, John, the switch from Jackson to del Toro might mean less creepy spiders and bugs. The flip-side is that all the other creatures will be very very creepy, and possibly eyeless... with big pointy claws and cavernous yawning mouths.

Re: God this video rocks me

"singing it to...Bert"...cuz he's on MY lap. Sha-ZAM!

Re: God this video rocks me so hard

Me down on my knees, tears streaming from my face singing it to...Bert.

God this video rocks me so hard

Sorry to be off-topic. But damn... Heart really does keep the fires hot in the foundry of rock.

Hey you polysci ppl

Is Obama's losing Penn and Ohio in the primaries as significant as they make it seem? I know if this were the presidential election he might be boned, but I was just wondering if there were any significance to this.* Either way, I'm still voting for this guy.


*Beyond the "photo of Sen. Obama with his arm around the white woman who is a Democratic candidate for North Carolina governor" in which he is most definitely saying "Hey! Where all the white women at?"**


**That might actually get him my vote.

Axis of Evil

The target of Isreal's bombing raid into Syria last year seems to have been a plutonium reactor. The CIA says it was a North Korea-Syria joint venture.

This revelation makes the administration's poor handling of North Korea seem all the worse. John Bolton wrote about our NorK stance last week.

P.J. O'Rourke

...on an aircraft carrier.

Marvin

205 x 5 on decline bitches (last set of 3rd chest exercise). I've gained ten pounds, but I still look like a stick. The strength part is coming fairly fast, but not the size.

Marvin needs to go as far as I'm concerned. Chad is not a TO wannabe, but I am a little disappointed with him. In his defense, he wants to win. Marvin did say yesterday that he believes Chad when Chad says he'll sit out the year. So, I guess he is kind of staring him down. None of it is good for the Bengals though.

Old fashioned muscle building

Slaps hows that HGH production coming along? We gonna express that shit or what. I want big muscles to go with a big head and tiny(er) wiener.

Also, Bert: as much as I hate Herm Edwards (and it's alot), I'd still rather have him than Lewis. What a penis. Not that I'm saying Johnson's right (he's a T.O. wannabe imo), but you'd think at some point the Cincy brass would tire of Lewis's fifth grade, dodge ball court tactics of handling his players. Why doesn't he just go all out and dee-double-dog dare Johnson to sit out the season. I'll bet you my Snack Pack he doesn't.

Old fashion muscle building

He says it's slow going but Bert is outperforming me in all measurable lifting categories.

Beard thickness and density, though, I've still got him beat.

Hormone water

Pretty!? I think you meant the most ruggedly handsome. And it's well water for me. I live out in the sticks.

And do you know where I can score some HGH? This old fashioned muscle building is slow going.

John Adams would destroy metrosexual fish

I don't know Bert, you certainly are the prettiest of us all...maybe from all that tap water? Now you know why I distill my own water. All in all an interesting study that would benefit from more controlled laboratory work. Although, since the main active steroid in birth control is progesterone ( targets a totally different receptor) I wonder why they chose to look at estrogens instead. It might have to do with the body's ability to metabolize different steroids at different rates....Anyway, I'm always up for talking about REAL steroids, not fake ones like HGH.

Also, I second Nick's comment about the Adams series, I only caught 2 episodes in various hotels on my recent travels but what I saw was very good. Although they made Jefferson out to be a total ass in the ones I saw. But Ben Franklin was awesome. I didn't get to see Hamilton though. It comes out on DVD in June I think and I'm definitely going to check the whole thing out.

Moody Fish

I noticed the article didn't put forth any data as well. My post was meant mostly in jest, and I hope you're right that it's not a problem.

Mostly, I hope we are not drinking up the estrogen! I read something a while back about contraceptive estrogen in the water supply because of its widespread use. I don't want to grow eggs like the manfishes (or have other side effects for that matter).

Women and fish

While I agree that promiscuous women are, indeed, bad for the environment, my skepticism comes from the fact that it is not all that uncommon for fish to not only display tendencies of the opposite sex, but it is frequently observed that they change sex in populations where one sex is severely lacking (like frogs and dinosaurs on island theme parks). Slaps, the PNAS paper is here. It seems like they did the best they could to mimic the situation (they used a whole damn lake and the concentrations of estrogen don't seem that unreasonably inflated). I think it's a reasonable concern and as politically viable for regulation as pesticides or fertilizer drainage into waterways. Especially considering how many women are taking an estrogen mimic of some form (my boss's wife is taking one as part of her breast cancer treatment - she's on some new clinical study - so it's not just limited to whores, although I attribute the greater percentage of it to them). Anyways, one of the few forms of government regulation I can get behind is the kind that helps preserve fish populations. And if it smacks down some whores in the process, well, booster!

Bert:

I'm afraid I'm going to have to see the actual science on that one.

John!

Promiscuous women are harming the fish population.

Adams!?

Anyone else watching HBO's John Adams? I started midway and caught the last 5 or 6 episodes. I really enjoyed it. In an inspired bit of casting Rufus Sewell plays Alexander Hamilton. They make Hamilton look like a crazy imperial/monarchist next to Adams' gruff wisdom--I was wondering if Bert the Hamilton-fan had any comments on this?

B-Ball playoff picks

For as worthless as the NBA regular season is, I do enjoy the playoffs. Probably because they always coincide with the end of the school semester and the start of summer.

Here are my picks for the first round:

The East (or, the "special kids league")

Celtics v. Hawks -- Boston could win this by playing the Red Sox infield as their starting lineup. Boston in 4.

Pistons v. 76ers -- It's funny. Here in Philly, folks are saying (all wistfully) if the 76ers split the first two games, who knows what will happen? Um, I do. The Pistons will get serious around about game 4, Rasheed will stop whining long enough to hit his ridiculous big man 3 pointers, and they will win in 6. Sorry, Philly. No chance!

Magic v. Raptors -- I don't know anything about these two teams. But basketball should not be played in Canada, so I pick the Magic. Also, their mascot is a wizard, I think. A real one, not some fruity hack like the Washington Wizards mascot. Magic in 5.

Cavs v. Wizard -- Really, these two teams again? I don't really know the Cavs anymore since they exchanged their entire team with Chicago mid-season, but after an extremely boring 7 games I guess the Cavs will eke it out on account of Lebron, who is powered by sweet and delicious Sprite (also, has many illegitimate children!). Cavs in 7.

The West

Lakers v. Nuggets -- Apparently getting Spain's best bullfighter to play center for them has turned the Lakers into a superpower, and Kobe seems to be getting over his stripper-to-call-on-in-every-city phase. Allen Iverson still struggles to be a thug in Denver. I heard he shops at Whole Foods now. Lakers in 5.

Hornets v. Mavs -- Who the eff are the Hornets? Am I in middle school again? I say the Mavs will self-destruct because that's what they always do and Dirk is no Rasheed when it comes to whining. The Hornets, like me, will be consistently confused about Jason Kidd's race, but unlike me, they'll make peace with not knowing and overcome the Mavs in 6 games.

Spurs v. Suns -- Being married to all those Desperate Housewives has prematurely aged the Spurs. Getting Shaq to play center has freed Amare Stoudemare to play a special brand of angry-man-basketball that I know for a fact gets results. Also, Manu Ginobili is getting bald, and rooting for South American players is so 2006. Suns in 7.

Jazz v. Rockets -- The Rockets have turned choking in the first round into an art form. Only if Yao Ming gets fitted with a new bionic foot and reappears as his Chinese Superhero alter-ego can the Rockets overcome. Too bad for them he is saving himself to play for China's team in the Olympics. Jazz in 5.

Expelled

I don't know what to think about Ben Stein's new movie. On the one hand, I believe that academic freedom should be paramount in a university. I start to get a little concerned when professors are ostracized or just plain kicked out for saying something controversial [the corollary to that is that I think many professors should exercise more discretion before spouting off], but on the other hand I think that a great many of intelligent design's loudest proponents have been duplicitous about their intentions. It seems to me they want to sneak religion back into the science classroom, almost as a kind of revenge for the way that science has changed the way people talk about sacred texts and invaded other sacred spaces.

Anyway, the trailer:

Hamas in the Post

Maybe if I killed some Jews, the Post would publish my op-eds.

I counter Bert's seriousness with:

Obama propaganda

It seems Obama has adopted the aesthetics of Soviet propaganda for his campaign. This after the report that a Che Guevara poster was displayed in one of his campaign offices. You'd think someone whose opponents consider him a leftist would avoid the comparison, but.... Perhaps he is ashamed of the Democrats perennial obfuscation of their true colors.

OOPS: forgot the link

Gods of the Earth will kick your A$$

Rejoyce ye who worship at the altar of thyne Sword, for these sayme mytee wariors hath riturned! Injoy tayles of Thee Frost Gyant's Daughter and Thee Black River. Heer I gyve ye Fyre Lanses of thee Anshent Hyperzefyrians:

I <3 Mr. T

I managed to download some songs from his album off of the case download site thingy and they are more fantastic than you would expect (in one song he suggests that if you read the Bible you'll see that God sent Mr. T to beat you up if you disobey your parents). Anyways, I hadn't seen this before and it made my day (and it's only 10!)

Charleton Heston, RIP

An obituary

Cheer up Bert

Whoops...

I withdraw my support for the Cobra ticket to endorse A Real Candidate for Change. Seriously.

Election '08

Ah, finally a candidate to get behind:From the always reliable ISB

Rush

I've been listening to "Snakes and planes Arrows" as I finish up my proposal and I think I like it. To confirm my feelings, the Chinese guy in lab hates it, so it must be somewhat good (it's a scientific fact that there is an indirect correlation between the rockingness of a song and the amount of like a Chinese man has for it).

Also, I strongly recommend David Bowie's live album "Santa Monica '72." It's like he crossbred "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" and "The Man Who Sold the World" and then took it on stage. Fantastic!

Medical T

In a coma? No prob. Just call Mr. T. He will pitty your foolself right out of that coma.

Hitchens as Paul Harvey

Apparently there is more to the Clinton sniper fire lie than the dumb initial story.

Pii Pii...

...is dumb. I'll just come out and say it, and the Wii thong is disturbing.

And the version of Madman on Tumbleweed Connection (although the song doesn't really fit with the rest of the album) is way more rockin' than the one on the Madman album. It might be my favorite Elton song.

Bert

I don't know how I feel about that science, but I would offer the more simpler explanation that bandwagon supporting of a winning team doesn't require that much thinking (Yankees, Red Sox fans, I'm pointing at YOU!). LOLscience, however, I can get behind quite easily!

WTF

Don't know if you all saw this or not, but I can't decide if it's just weird or really, REALLY funny. I waver depending on the minute....

Slaps, as a result of my random playlist on the walk in this am, I want to know when the Mule is going to give me my Madmen Across the Water (based on the supercrazyhellrockin good original verison on Tumbleweed - I think) and a reggae cover of Tuesday's Gone.