The Crabster

Another Month, Another Post

2007-05-11T07:24:00.000-08:00

The Consumerist: Shoppers Bite Back

English Russia

Skeptic's Annotated Bible / Quran / Book of Mormon

the Degree Confluence Project

Federation of American Scientists

NoHomers.net | Your Daily Dose of The Simpsons

The Simpsons Folder

Maps of War

x0xb0x: Transistorize the World

Anomalies Unlimited

A Summary of Dr. Kevorkian's Artwork

One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence.

Equations of life

Wordie: Welcome

Write Your Name in Elvish in Ten Minutes

Quotatio : 50,000+ Quotes and Quotations

Welcome to The Computer Graphics Society

World War One Color Photos - Color Photos from World War I

Top 100 Most-Subscribed-To RSS Feeds

Welcome to The Internet Archive Wayback Machine

Lies My Teacher Told Me

RiverStyx.com :: Charon, Hades, Persephone, Elysian Fields, Furies, Thanatos, Acheron, Zombies, Limbo, Greek Gods & Goddesses, Myth & Legend of the Underworld

MacroHistory: Prehistory to the 21st Century

99ROOMS.COM

List of Muscles

blogmonks.gif

Links

2007-03-31T10:37:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know this is turning into a once-monthly blog. I'm sorry. Want more? Click an ad, make me some money! Nothing motivates like mad ducats.

And with a new monthly-update comes a new format. I will leave a (sometimes) cryptic link so you may open the door and discover the wondrous treasures within.

The Ultimate Zombie Book List

Zombie Squad

Perez Hilton

The Gentleman's Page

Global Security

Birthday Trivia

Temple of the Screaming Electron

T-Shirt Hell

Long Time

2007-02-20T20:24:00.000-09:00

Yes, I've been slacking. I've been busy, what with graduating, going on a trip to Hawaii, and general tomfoolery.

Also, I've been playing Urban Dead, a free web-based MMORPG based around zombies (my favorite!). Make sure you at least read the FAQ of the wiki before you start playing, or you will be very lost.

If you like Urban Dead, then you'll probably like Shartak, too.

Into cockfighting? Try BattleWang.

I guess I'm on a roll here, so I'll just finish up with a few more web-based games. Popomundo lets you become a pop music star. If you play and run into Benito Arasa De Miguel Abad, that's me -- say hi!

Travian is a city-building game based on the Romans, the Gauls, and the Teutons.

Finally, there is NationStates, a very tongue-in-cheek nation simulator created by Max Barry.

I hope you enjoy the games, and please click on an ad or two if you did -- it's the ad money that makes this worthwhile for me (and my neglected wife and child)!

Happy 60th Birthday, UNICEF!

2006-12-11T07:42:00.000-09:00

Yep, the United Nations Children's Fund was born on December 11th, 1946 (formerly known as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, hence, UNICEF). This is one of my favorite charities (and the first one I ever donated to) -- I used to 'trick-or-treat for UNICEF' with my church when I was a boy. Check 'em out. Save the kids.

Today I'm going to do things a little differently. All of the links (aside from those above) are going to be of the same theme -- The Simpsons! Here are a bunch of terrific Simpsons-related sites that I have found:

The Simpsons Archive -- this site has EVERYTHING Simpsons. Episode 'capsules' give you more information about each episode than you ever wanted (or needed, really) to know. Of special interest to information junkies like myself is the FAQs, Guides & Lists section of the site. Read every chalkboard gag EVER. Learn about every computer reference made on the show. Thrill to the lyrics of all the musical numbers performed by The Simpsons. Truly a site with an incredible amount of substance.

Simpsons Channel -- a frequently updated news site. Very well designed, and has all the latest news on your favorite Springfieldinites. Also has an RSS feed for your convenience.

The Simpsons Folder -- I love the pixel pictures of the Simpsons here. Lots of information related to production here, as well as trivia -- did you know that more people know about the Simpsons than the Constitution? God bless America!

Last Exit to Springfield -- wow. This site is amazing. Great design and tons of content. Check it.

Krustylu Studios -- videos, forums, and news.

NoHomers.net -- images, games, news, and more.

Happy Union Day, Romania!

2006-12-01T07:50:00.000-09:00

The first bloggers.

More anatomy. Here's a list of muscles in your body. Find out what people are really talking about when they compliment you on your mentalis.

99rooms.com is a neat Flash photo site. From the info page: 99 Rooms is a unique internet art project that interweaves wall painting, photography, animation and sound in a manner entirely unknown until now.

Yet another page on good shopping deals around the Internet. I think I'm going to stop posting these; there are just too many of them and they all offer pretty much the same thing.

MacroHistory is a great site covering lots of history (duh) from the prehistoric to the modern age. I especially like the historical maps.

Visit the River Styx. A Flash page holding lots of philosophy with a mythological backdrop.

Here are some highlights from the book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.

Happy Birthday, Jimi Hendrix! (This time, for real)

2006-11-27T10:47:00.000-09:00

Oops. I jumped the gun on wishing Jimi a happy birthday. Today is his REAL birthday. Color me sheepish.

Think Progress is a news site for left-wing liberal nazis like myself.

The Bush Whacker.

Android World is your one-stop site for everything androids.

See how fast your broadband connection is at Speedtest.net -- you can select from a variety of sites across the world that offer speed tests, and see how your transfer rate is to those locations.

Earth Album is a great example of what you can do with the Google Maps API. It combines Google Maps with Flickr, so you can see the top Flickr photos for a specific region of the world. I like all of the aurora pictures from the Northwest Territories in Canada.

Thinking Machine 4 is a cool Java chess game that makes art out of chess. Hard to explain, you just have to see it.

Learn how to play the ancient game of Go at The Interactive Way To Go.

Find out more about your IP at My IP.

Happy Birthday, Jimi Hendrix!

2006-11-26T18:16:00.000-09:00

That rock god, Jimi, would have been 56 years old today. If he would be a washed up burnout is debatable.

Online shoppers, check out deals of the day.

Also for you shoppers out there, check out ProductWiki to find out about the newest neat stuff out there.

Here's a humbling exercise, at least for an ignorant American like myself. See how many countries in the Middle East you can locate.

Want to know where all the time you wasted went? Find out here.

Special Topics In Calamity Physics is a book that I understand is quite popular. I have yet to see if it's worth all the fuss, but the website is pretty cool.

Learn more about your body at Human Anatomy Online.

If you're into anatomy, you'll be interested in these excerpts from historical anatomy textbooks, hosted by the National Library of Medicine.

And if you're into anatomy, you're probably into medicine too. Here's Clinical Notes, a blog filled with all sorts of stuff for students of medicine. See also Clinical Cases and Images.

Happy Birthday, Mike D!

2006-11-20T08:04:00.000-09:00

Yep, Mike D from the Beastie Boys is 41 today. I can only hope that when I'm his age I won't be prancing around on stage co-opting a black musical form and making music videos. Actually, it's a pretty safe bet that I won't.

Extreme Instability is the website of storm chaser Mike Hollingshead. There are some amazing pictures here of weather patterns we never see where I live (tornadoes, supercell thunderstorms, etc). He also sells DVDs and reprinted photos of his exploits.

TV Links has a lot of links to TV shows that you can watch online. Great for those backwards folks who don't have a TiVo yet.

This site, simply titled Things I Find Curious, has a diverse collection of pages about all sorts of stuff. You can click around forever in there.

Check out this video of a robot machine-gun sentry. The ultimate in home security. The beginning of the video is kind of funny, with the guys in camouflage running around in fast-forward. The rest is just scary. Talk about aimbots.

Here's a nifty picture from NASA of the recent transit of Mercury.

It's high time for this -- a battery you can recharge just by plugging it into a spare USB port.

And finally, this guy has way too much time on his hands, although he's obviously talented. Check out his masterpieces drawn on dusty windshields.

Happy Independence Day, Latvia!

2006-11-17T16:42:00.000-09:00

Clipmarks -- bite-size highlights of the web. In other words, yet another digg/shoutwire-type site.

Barrett-Jackson.com is the official website of the famous antique auto auctioneers. See upcoming events and preview the awesome cars that will be for sale.

Everyvideogame.com lets you play, well, every video game. Or at least around 1400 classic games for the NES, Sega Master System, even the Turbo-Grafx 16.

There are some great free web-based Photoshop tutorials here.

Hardtofind800numbers.com has, you guessed it, hard to find 800 numbers. Get screwed on eBay? Find their customer service line here without having to click through page after page.

Last for today, the International High IQ Society has an online trivia challenge, great for wasting some time, at least if you're a trivia geek like me.

It's a Condition

2006-11-09T10:42:00.000-09:00

I suffer from a genetic predisposition to procrastination and tardiness. That is only partly the reason for the lack of updates here. The rest of the blame goes to society for allowing me to get by for so long with such a blatant disregard for deadlines and punctuality.

The Farrago Website has a lot of e-text novels posted online, as well as an extensive section on online scams.

MajorGeeks.com is perhaps the best repository of freeware and shareware utilities on the whole net. It is updated daily with new software releases, and has links to hardware reviews and assorted silliness.

The people at Graffiti Research Lab have posted this cool video of the right way to use LED throwies.

More fun with LEDs.

Here's a fun little puzzle game to waste some time with.

The likebetter game -- choose which photo you like better, and the computer will soon be able to tell you things about yourself. Things you may not have known. Things that may be just plain false. But it's fun, anyway.

Billy Harvey is a musician who has set up a cool multimedia website. Very interesting use of the medium.

Happy Birthday to Evo Morales

2006-10-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's been a while, and I don't have a lot of time so I'll make this one quick, and I promise to make more updates more often. Really. I mean it this time.

Superhero Hype! has all the news on superhero-related entertainment in one place. Want to know more about the Iron Man movie? Got to Superhero Hype! Also see ComicBookMovie.com.

Find anagrams for your name, or anything else at the Internet Anagram Server. My favorite anagram for my name is 'cerebrate vents.' It almost makes sense. And, perhaps more appropriately, The Crabster becomes Brat Retches.

Also from wordsmith.org, A.Word.A.Day gives you a new word every day to increase your vocabulary and annoy your colleagues.

The Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus is cool, but you only get a short free trial before you have to pay to use it.

A sobering thought.

The Funny Name Server. Needs no explanation.

I Am Back! (again)

2006-10-12T11:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, I know. And I apologize. I've been real busy with school and my daughter. While I'm making excuses, I may as well tell the truth. I blame society.

On to the goods. I've started using a new media player for my mp3s. It's called MediaMonkey, and it beats Winamp (and certainly the Windows Media Player). It's great for managing my large and unwieldy mp3 collection (it handles many other audio formats, and does video too), because it can download metadata and album art for your music, and it lets you tag music by mood, occasion, and other such subjective categories.

If you've ever called customer service and had to stay on the line punching numbers or, even worse, trying to get the speech recognition to understand what you're saying, the folks at gethuman can help. Go to the database section for a listing of phone numbers for major companies/government offices, along with instructions for getting through the system and right to an actual human on the other end of the line.

Find out what the Church of Scientology is all about at Scientology Kills. The good people there have assembled tons of information on the Church, their front organizations, and their beliefs. Find out what Tom Cruise and John Travolta are into! Good stuff to know, especially if you or someone you know is interested in joining this cult -- find out what you're getting into before your life savings are gone.

Check out some crazy bicycle videos at Lucas Brunelle Productions. This guy straps video cameras on his bike helmet and goes on some wild urban rides. My favorites are "Drag Race NYC" and "Rumble Through the Bronx".

TESTdex is an index of free personality (Myers-Briggs et al.) and intelligence (IQ etc) tests. Impress and annoy your friends by showing off your genius IQ.

Find everything you've ever wanted to know about playing cards and more at The World of Playing Cards. History, artwork, manufacturing process, the origin of the joker, it's all there.

I found this super cool gallery of photographs of spirals. Check it out.

What A Collection.com is dedicated to collections of all kinds. Dolls, antiques, baseball cards, postcards, records, it's all there. Obsessive compulsive behavior has never been so much fun!

I Am Back!

2006-10-03T12:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been a while since I updated. Thanks for noticing. I've been to busy (or is it lazy?) to update for the past week, but now I'm back at it.

If you like blowing stuff up, this site is for you. Implosion World has information and a database of pictures (lots of pictures, and animations too!) of controlled demolition projects. And if you have a structure you need imploded, just go ask the friendly folks at Controlled Demolition, Inc. to help you out.

It's official -- the emperor isn't wearing any clothes. According to a recently released National Intelligence Estimate, the war in Iraq is succeeding. That is, if by success you mean creating more terrorists and making the Muslim world hate us. I, for one, am not surprised. I have maintained since before the war began that this would be the outcome. It doesn't take a genius to make the connection between dropping bombs on civilian's homes turning someone into a militant suicide bomber -- when you have nothing left to lose you will use any means available to exact revenge. Of course, that isn't the only bad news about the Iraq war to come out recently. The Senate found no link between al-Qaida and Saddam (big surprise). And where are the WMDs? I wish I could say that all of this makes me happy, because more Americans are realizing how our leaders defrauded us, but it actually makes me depressed, now that it's proven that our soldiers (many of whom are my age) are dying thousands of miles away from home for no good reason.

In happier news (unless you're French), Airbus is having trouble producing the A380. That can only mean good things for Boeing, and by extension, the U.S. economy. The A380 is a pretty awesome bird, though. Compare its size (it is the big one) to the Airbus A340 next to it -- the A340 is a fairly large plane, too! Up to 853 passengers could fit on the A380 if it is configured in full economy class (it has two decks through the whole length of the plane). More typical is the three-class configuration, which holds a mere 555 passengers.

It's nearly time for snow (at least it is here in Alaska), so here, just for the season, is Make-a-Flake, a snowflake maker. My wife and I spent a lot of time last winter making cool snowflake designs.

Finally, check out Virtual Dali for a very well made gallery of paintings and photos by Salvador Dali.

23 Years Since The End Of The World Didn't Happen

2006-09-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

Hooray! It has now been 23 years since the world didn't end in a flaming holocaust.

Puki: The Swarm is a fun little Flash shoot-em-up.

The Spacializer is a 'visual sound mixer'. Huh? Yeah, just check it out. From the website of Sebastien Chevrel. The experiments section of his page is pretty cool, and I like the Road Trip film in the art projects section.

MathWorld claims to be the web's most extensive mathematics resource. It certainly seems to live up to that claim. You can find all sorts of stuff there, from the quadratic equation to more esoteric subjects such as the Pell equation. Hosted by the makers of Mathematica.

Build your own Beowulf cluster.

Check out the website for the human beatbox, Yuri Lane. Listen in awe to his mad beatboxing skills. Maybe even bring out the mat and do some breakdancing.

Go here for a daily dose of imagery.

This site (also on Blogspot!) says they have the world's funniest TV commercials. They also have lots of funny pics.

Finally, check out these people having fun with long shutter exposures on their cameras. The site is in Japanese, but the pictures are easy to understand.

Happy Independence Day, Guinea-Bissau!

2006-09-24T07:42:00.000-08:00

I'll start off today with a bit of silly humor -- when cloning goes wrong.

Check out NerdyShirts.com for some of the nerdiest (and awesomest) t-shirts online.

FactMonster is an online almanac for school children, but it has plenty of good factoids for a trivia junkie like me.

Cosmotions is one of the coolest photography sites I've come across lately. What it lacks in flash and refinement, it makes up for with content. It's a collection of time-lapse photo animations of a variety of natural phenomena. Super Sweet. Now if only the webmasters could spring for more bandwidth (the animated GIF files average around 5Mb and take forever to download, but it's worth the wait).

Go to the Breathing Earth site for a visual representation of carbon dioxide emissions for every country in the world, as well as birth and death rates. Makes me want to hug a tree (nude backside, beware).

The Raw Story is an alternative news aggregator based out of Washington, D.C. From their mission statement: "At the core, our goal is to unearth and spotlight stories underplayed by the popular press, in particular those which highlight betterment and open peopleÂs eyes to injustice throughout the world." Now go read it and see what the mainstream news outlets have been hiding from you.

Happy Vernal Equinox, You Pagan Scum!

2006-09-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

Once again we have reached the point of the year where the days will be shorter than the nights. Sorry, all you S.A.D. people.

No surprise here, but our president is an idiot. Here are some of his greatest hits:

I found this list of unusual deaths while browsing through Wikipedia. Steve Irwin isn't even the latest entry on the list anymore. A Canadian woman passed away as a result of playing Chubby Bunny. A sad day for campfire games.

You know those cars that have those keypads for unlocking the door? They aren't very secure. In fact, if you punch this code in (see brute force attack), you are guaranteed to get in to the vehicle. What you do then is up to you.

The Modern Living/Neurotica series of flash animations is creepy and disturbing. Fun!

Finally, if you shop online, check currentcodes.com before you buy. They list current promotional codes (those strings of text you type in at check-out in that little box that asks if you have a code from an ad/referral) for hundreds of online retailers. It's always fun to cheat the system.

Professional Crastination

2006-09-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, I missed another update. I'm sorry. I'm scum. You deserve better. I deserve everything you said about me.

Let me make it up to you. Here are some funnies.

Go to bix.com to see people making fools of themselves in online dance contests, karaoke, and more! Okay, some of the karaoke is actually pretty good.

The Voices of Many will load any webpage through a variety of filters (fun stuff like Elmer Fudd, l33t-sp34k, pirate, and lots more). I liked looking at this page through the Swedish Chef filter.

Perplex City looks like a fun game. It's a collectable card game, a la Magic: The Gathering, but instead of building decks and battling opponents, each card has a puzzle on it. When you solve the puzzle, you go to the website and enter the code. Entering the code unlocks more clues, and eventually you could be the one who finds the (real-life) treasure! Yes, an actual prize of $200,000 awaits the first person who solves the game. Oh my, not another addiction!

Well, my daughter is awake now and doesn't want her dad sitting like a lump in front of the PC, so I'm going to end this update. I'll try to get on later and add some more. No promises though -- I'd only let you down, dear reader.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day, Me Hearties!

2006-09-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

It's time for my favorite holiday: Talk Like A Pirate Day! Yarrr there.

ClustrMaps is a counter for your website that'll also make a map of the world showing where all your visitors are from. Unfortunately, you need an invitation to make a free account for smaller sites (like this one). Anyone wanna help me out? :D

Godchecker -- your guide to the gods. They have a database of over 3400 gods, goddesses, saints, spirits, and demons from all around the world.

Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net has a lot of free lessons in music theory -- scales, tones, chords, etc. Also cool are the trainers which test your knowledge in a variety of subjects -- notes, keys, notes on a guitar, and more.

Another musical website, Vic Firth's 40 Essential Rudiments for the Snare Drum is a great resource for any percussionists out there. The guy in the videos can drum really fast.

Here's one for your kids. Coloringpage.org has lots of activities for the munchkins.

WallpaperStock.com has loads of free desktop wallpapers and stock photos.

A Quick One

2006-09-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

It's late and I'm tired, so I'm making this one quick.

Farecast helps predict the best day to buy a plane ticket for the cheapest fare. It's still in beta, and doesn't have all that many airports yet (including my local one), but it definitely shows promise.

Penguins you must read before you die lists a bunch of great books published by the Penguin Group.

What D&D character are you? I'm a lawful neutral dwarvish ranger-fighter. :D

You've seen those Motivators posters. You may also have seen the Demotivators. Now for nerds, we have the Linux Demotivators!

WHTour.org has 360-degree panoramas of U.N. World Heritage sites.

The International High IQ Society has free standardized IQ tests, and if you score high enough, you could even be invited to join the International High IQ Society (I just like to say that). You could run around telling everyone you know that you're now a member of the International High IQ Society. Wouldn't that be great?

In Memory Of Johnny Ramone

2006-09-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

It was two years ago today that Johnny Ramone passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer. I believe that a moment of ROCKING HARD is in order.

FlightAware tracks private and commercial flights across the U.S., and it does so for free. Especially fun to use in conjunction with LiveATC.net (yes, I know I've linked to that one before, but it's too great to ignore).

Futurama is one of my favorite shows, and it's coming back with all new episodes, complete with the entire original cast! Flippin' sweet, man. While you wait for 2008 to roll around, check out this Leela computer case, also reference the Bender case.

If you thought those cases were neat, check out these. I dig the PC built into an old Nintendo box. If you want to know more about case modding, mini-itx.com has news, tips, and a gallery of case mods. The Best Case Scenario is possibly the best case mod site -- if you ever have any unanswerable modding questions, ask at the forums. Someone will know. See the Doom 3 case. It's incredible (if you have trouble with delayed gratification, skip to the last page to see pics of the completed case).

Are you a fan of useless trivia? I sure am. Here's some for you -- the 100 oldest currently registered dot-com domains! See what companies have been on the Internet the longest.

The Google Zeitgeist is another place to find trivia that is somewhat more useful. It tracks what people are searching for on Google, and thus gives us a representation of what society as a whole is concerned with. Unfortunately, society is more concerned with Suri Cruise than the fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Sad, but I digress. Check out the year-end Zeitgeist, which breaks down the most popular searches of the year into a variety of categories (current events, celebrities, etc.). There are archives of the Zeitgeist going back to 2001.

Welcome To The Universe, Eris

2006-09-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

The planet formerly known as Planet X has been officially named. It has been named Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord. This makes me happy. Why does it make me happy? Read on.

Eris is also known by the Romans as Discordia. The joke disguised as a religion (or is it a religion disguised as a joke?), a.k.a. The Discordian Society, worships Eris and revels in chaos. For more info on The Discordian Society, and wondrous enlightenment, read the Principia Discordia. All hail Eris! All hail Discordia!

Take part in "the biggest climate experiment ever undertaken"! The BBC is doing a distributed computing project (a la SETI@home) to attempt to predict climate change. Great fun for a weather junkie like me.

I found this 20 questions game last night, and ended up playing it for way too long.

Carnage Blender 2 is a fun web-based role-playing game -- probably the best I've ever seen... I've been able to play it for several days now without getting bored (yet). That's better than I can say for pretty much any other similar game I've tried (except for the web-based game formerly known as Legend of the Red Dragon, now called Legend of the Green Dragon).

Time For Mario To Hit The Bars

2006-09-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

That's right, Mario is 21 years old today. September 13th, 1985 is the date that Super Mario Bros. was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. My life was never the same.

Did you know our miserable failure of a president called the Constitution "just a goddamned piece of paper"? That really exemplifies the contempt he has for the freedoms and rights that our country was founded on.

Read Print is (yet another) free online library, filled with thousands of classics.

Loic Peoc'h (whatever that means... is it a name? I don't know) is a photographer's portfolio. There are some great portraits here, but be aware if you are at work, some of the work in galleries two and three contain nudity.

Need to get that blood out of your overalls? Go to the Stain Removal Guide and follow their directions. No one will suspect A THING.

Here are some photos of a sand storm in Iraq. I experienced one of these when I was living in the low desert in Arizona -- scary stuff.

Check out these awesome paper cutouts.

Today I'll end the update with this comic for all of you tabletop role players out there. Much love.

Happy First Birthday, Hong Kong Disneyland!

2006-09-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's been a magical year at, well, the most magical place in Hong Kong. Or something.

Are people really retaliating against stingrays? Talk about totally missing the point (no pun intended).

I really can't stand wacko 9/11 conspiracy theorists. Seriously, people will believe anything. If you have watched the conspiracy video 'Loose Change' -- no link provided, you can find links to free downloads here at the Loose Change Viewer Guide. The guide dissects the video, point by point, so if you were inclined to believe anything in the video (which presents an assortment of 9/11 conspiracy theories) I can only hope that the viewer's guide will at least plant some seeds of doubt. Respect the people who died that day. Understand the facts -- 9/11 was caused by Islamic fundamentalist terrorists (not Iraqis), not our government. Our government simply used the events of that day to their advantage (illegal wars, stripping American's of their Constitutional rights, etc).

Kick Ass Classical lists classical's top 100 greatest hits (sound kind of funny, doesn't it?), based on their exposure in popular culture. It's hard to find a song that doesn't have any lyrics to search for, so try KAC -- they just might have that tune you've been trying to find. Love their tagline -- Rock out with your Bach out.

I just discovered Channel Chooser. As I write this, they have 169 free channels you can watch. I had to tear myself away from the Police Channel (in the Reality tab) just to post this update.

Skeptic Report is a good site if you're into critical reasoning, thinking for yourself, and plain old common sense.

Here's an interesting timeline of U.S. military interventions, coups, proxy armies, and other examples of American imperialism from 1801 to the present. Found at the website of the legendary culture jammers, Adbusters. See also the Culture Jammer's Encyclopedia.

Dusso.com is the website for Yanick Dusseault (aka Dusso), a visual artist who does matte artwork for Hollywood. His credits include matte painter for War of the Worlds, Star Wars Episode III, Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminator 3, the first two Lord of the Rings movies, and more. Check out Hangar 7, a 3-minute test scene shot by Dusso and some friends. His gallery includes many pieces of art from his various movie projects, as well as his personal gallery, which shows a lot of futuristic, H.R. Geiger inspired pieces.

Happy Birthday, Bill O'Reilly!

2006-09-10T08:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, today is Bill's 57th birthday. At least it is according to Wikipedia, so I make no claims about the veracity of that data. In honor of his alleged birthday, here are some (of the many) videos of Bill making an ass of himself.

Bill making up facts and sources:

Bill interviews Michael Moore and says he would tell the parents of dead soldiers that they were in Iraq because of a mistake:

Part two of the interview, where Bill implies that he wouldn't want his children to go to Iraq:

The best part of the Michael Moore interview, to me, is that Bill seems to have a lot of trouble coming up with any coherent arguments to Michael's points -- and then at the end he says he 'produced evidence' and gave it to Moore, who was so blinded by his ideology that he wouldn't acknowledge this 'evidence'. Laughable.

Body Language (not safe for work). Find the link that says 'click here for a bit of body language'.

ThoughtAudio has free mp3 audio books for download. The titles are all classic literature, philosophy, and history, so having them in audio form might be nice, since you won't have to plod through the texts! :D

And finally, cool camera tricks. This Flickr slideshow has lots of examples of the 'transparent screen' technique.

Also, allow me to apologize for the lack of an update yesterday. I failed you, dear reader. Please don't hold it against me. You know I love you.

Happy 40th Birthday, Star Trek!

2006-09-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, it was 40 years ago today that the first episode of Star Trek aired, and things have never been the same for nerds around the world.

Evil Dead: The Musical? Sounds like it could be fun, but where's Bruce Campbell? It's just not Evil Dead without the original Ash.

A chief Nuremberg prosecutor who was responsible for the conviction of many of Hitler's SS for war crimes has said that George Bush is a war criminal for starting the illegal war in Iraq, and that Bush should be tried alongside Saddam Hussein.

Jumptheshark.com is a site where users get to vote on when exactly a TV show 'jumped the shark', or began to go downhill.

Sorry for the short update -- I'll try to get another one in before the end of the day.

Happy Independence Day, Brazil!

2006-09-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

Check out the Reno Air Racing Association's image gallery for some photos of their events. There are lots of unusual planes featured.

Here's some neat subway artwork using perspective for some interesting results.

Jacques Resch has an online gallery of his oil paintings. Lots of religious/apocalyptic/abstract themes.

Want to see what the sun looks like when seen through the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope?

The MegaPenny Project aims to help you visualize large numbers (such as a quintillion), and besides that, it's full of useless trivia (my favorite kind of trivia).

The Webtender is a great resource for all you lushes out there. You can search for a drink by name, ingredient, or just make a list of all the ingredients you have in your liquor cabinet, and it will show you all the drinks you can make.

The Atlas of Plucked Instruments is an encyclopedia of pluckable stringed instruments (your guitars, banjos, dulcimers, etc.). Great pictures and histories of some rare instruments.

Hump Day

2006-09-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Oh dear. The executives at Hewlett-Packard (the company my employers work for) seem to have gotten themselves in some hot water over the use of illegal eavesdropping methods. Apparently they were just following our president's lead.

The MIT Gallery of Hacks is a database of the hacks (not computer hacks) that are famous on the MIT campus. My favorite is the campus patrol car on the Great Dome.

Did you read the Chuck Norris facts from an earlier posting? Here are 10 reasons why Johnny Cash owns Chuck Norris.

Here's something completely uncalled for.

Our president is a master of comedy. Check out his awesome jokes:

And here Keith Olbermann from Countdown on MSNBC takes Donald Rumsfeld to task -- he puts very eloquently what I have felt for a long time -- that the Bush administration is turning our country into a fascist state.

Well, now I'm going to be late for class. See you next time.

Crikey!

2006-09-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

You've probably heard by now. Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, has died. He was fatally wounded by a stingray in the Great Barrier Reef. My condolences to Irwin's wife and children.

Here's a video of what increasing entropy looks like. It was made using the game Trackmania Sunrise. The creators of the video raced the same course 1,000 times, and then made a video combining all 1,000 runs on one screen. Awesome video, too bad about the music.

Help end genital mutilation in the US. Find the facts at MGMbill.org.

Save the Internet! Right now, Congress is pushing a bill that would end network neutrality on the Internet. This means that the companies that run the backbones of the Internet, companies including AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast, would be able to give preferential treatment to the traffic of one company over another. This could easily be abused, and end the Internet as we know it. Microsoft could pay to have their search service load faster than Google. Blogs like mine wouldn't be able to afford the cost of a preferred connection, and would take forever to load, perhaps not loading at all. Please sign the petition and contact your local representative.

Happy Labor Day

2006-09-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. I blame society.

Hollywood Bitchslap has honest reviews of movies by real people. Don't believe the hype -- get your reviews here.

Another way to see if something is any good is to check the Metacritic. It compiles reviews from all over the Internet, and not just for movies too. Books, TV shows, video games, and music, and every item shows a number between 1 and 100 based on all the reviews it's gotten.

This page is from fordads.com, it's called Cool Stuff For Cool Dads, and has lots of activities you can do with your kids.

The kind folks at the Temple of the Screaming Electron believe that information should be free. Finally, a place where you can find out how to manufacture heroin, build silencers for firearms, and lots of other fun stuff that I probably shouldn't mention if I want to stay off of the no-fly list.

Legos are the best toys ever. They also have a pretty cool website. Download the Lego Digital Designer and make your own designs on your PC, and print out a list of the pieces you need! Super.

I found a pretty neat front-end for Wikipedia, it has an auto-complete feature. Also super.

Saturday Links

2006-09-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, I just got home from work and am pretty tired, so I'll keep this one short.

Best. Mineral. Ever. Who comes up with these names?

Need an overload of cuteness? Check out Cute Overload!

The guys over at wiseGEEK have lots of answers to all sorts of questions, check it out.

If you had a modem back in the 80s or early 90s, before the Internet caught on, you probably used it to log on to BBSes. Ever wonder what happened to your old buds? Maybe they've signed up on BBSmates, a resource to find your old chat buddies from that bygone era.

Survival Research Labs blows a bunch of stuff up, and calls it performance art. Way cool.

Finally, go read Panel One. It's quite entertaining, but make sure you start at the beginning.

TGIF

2006-09-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

Apechild has lots of funny stuff on it. Plus, the ApeMaster seems to have a fetish for women's tennis stars, and especially their underwear, so if you want panty pics of Anna Kournikova or Maria Sharapova, this is the place to go.

Readymech has some free plans for paper robot models that you can download, print, and assemble. All you need is a printer, some cardstock or similar thick paper, an X-Acto knife, and some two-sided tape. Good times!

Today, I turn 9,559 days old. And no, I didn't do the equation to figure that out. I'm not THAT sad. I just punched in my birth date at dayofbirth.co.uk.

If you're like me, then you're a lazy college student. Maybe you didn't quite finish (or start) the book you're supposed to be reading for your literature class. In that case, the guys at AntiStudy have what you need. There are links to summaries of over 500 novels, plays, and poems available for free. The only site they don't seem to link to is the original slacker helper, CliffsNotes, even though they too offer free summaries of good quality. I would also like to point out that you can find pre-written essays to slap your name onto them through AntiStudy. If you choose to take that route, then I happen to know for a fact that you are a twit and a cheat who doesn't even belong in an institute of higher learning -- you should probably just resign yourself to a life of waiting tables or working a cash register, because your professors will find out (they all know about the pre-made essay sites), and you will likely be expelled from your school for cheating and plagiarism. On behalf of all students who actually write their own papers (even if they fail to read the assignment), I would like to say GO TO HELL.

But I digress. This is supposed to be a links page, not an editorial. Back to the linkage.

The Darwin Awards are always good for a laugh, unless you have some objection to laughing about other's misfortune and deaths. If that is the case, then you are a weirdo. This is the official site of Wendy Northcutt, who has a series of books that compile all the best occurrences of natural selection. From the website: "We salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who remove themselves from it."

Google Earth is the coolest program ever. I find myself opening it up to look for something specific, and then I end up spending an hour just flying around looking at random things.

Lots of things have been said about our current president. Some are true, some are just opinion. Definitely true: he lacks public speaking skills, despite having been a public official for over a decade. Check out Slate's frequently updated list of Bushisms.

Prison Break has already begun its new season. House starts on Tuesday. Yes, it's that time of year again, when all the best network shows begin their new seasons. Find everything you want to know about your favorite TV shows at TV.com. They have schedules, cast information, episode guides, and lots more.

Finally, check out Spongeback Mountain. A little dated, I realize, but still funny.

Thursday Links

2006-08-31T18:29:00.000-08:00

Only five more days until the season premiere of House! I can hardly contain myself.

And if you're into medical dramas, that day may come when you need to refer to Gray's Anatomy, because well, maybe you want to know what a xiphoid process is. Or something.

Gray's Anatomy and many more titles are available at Bartleby.com, a great place to find free literature, reference, and verse.

The Cloud Appreciation Society has some pretty neat pictures of clouds in their photo gallery.

The Art. Lebedev Studio is a neat industrial design company in Russia. They sell some of their designs, as well as some posters and a book or two. Check out the Optimus keyboard, which may go on sale later this year. Too bad you'll have to be a millionaire to afford one -- the Optimus Mini Three has only three keys and costs $160.

DEFCON looks neat. Remember WarGames? The only winning move is not to play.

Morning Links

2006-08-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

The European Space Agency will be crashing a probe into the surface of the moon on Saturday (Sep. 2) morning, about 9:41 am AK time. The crash is the finale to a (successful) mission to survey the moon. I guess littering the surface of the moon is better than leaving the trash from the mission in orbit.

Check out these facts about Chuck Norris. Quite a guy.

What exactly is a booger?

Are you a fan of Katamari Damacy? Did you ever wonder what the game would have been like if it had come out in the 80s? No? Well, find out anyway.

Wednesday's Links

2006-08-30T22:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's kind of late here, but I wanted to post a few links before bed -- I'm going to try and update at least once daily, so we'll see how that works out.

Torrentspy -- this is the best site out there for all your illicit download needs. Plus, they have a partnership with Shoutwire, which is a much more advanced link aggregator than I am.

Bitcomet -- this is the bittorrent client that I use and recommend. If you don't know what bittorrent is, try the bittorrent home.

Movie Mistakes -- this site has a huge user-created database of all sorts of mistakes in movies, from continuity errors to visible film crews.

And finally, here you will find dozens of pictures of some very bizarre statues/sculptures from around the world. Be warned, the last 30 may not be safe for work.

My Bookmarks

2006-08-29T16:59:00.000-08:00

Wubba.

Here are a few pages that I visit frequently.

Penny Arcade -- an online comic that is probably only funny if you're into video games. Otherwise, you probably won't get it.

Recent Earthquakes in Alaska -- run by the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, this site offers (nearly) real-time information on seismic disturbances across the state. You can also find links to similar sites for other seismic regions, and other geology sites as well.

Airliners.net -- great photo site for aviation buffs. Gazillions of pictures of all sorts of aircraft, from all angles.

Jetphotos.net -- very similar to Airliners.net -- oodles of aircraft photos.

LiveATC.net -- ever want to hear the conversations between pilots and air traffic controllers? Now you can. Many US facilites (and a few international) are available for your listening pleasure.

All Music Guide -- huge database of musicians, albums, song, and groups. If you have a favorite band that you want to know more about, or find similar groups, just punch their name into the search bar. I could spend hours surfing here.

Unwubba.

A Page Is Born

2006-08-29T16:43:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the Crabster, and welcome to my page! This blog will contain links that I find interesting, and the reasons why you should find them interesting, too. I may or may not also include postings about myself, because hey, we all have egos.

I'll start things off by including this link to the front page of Wikipedia. Many of you will already be familiar with that site, but for those who aren't, consider yourself welcome. It is a free encyclopedia that is made up entirely of user submissions. It is generally a good source of information, but due to the fact that anybody can edit just about any article, you have to be wary of some of the pages you find there, especially those that deal with current events and controversial topics.

Crabster out.