Author: Krunk

Yep, that’s the time I left work tonight. So tired…

Don’t call me “mademoiselle” – “Bonjour mademoiselle!” — is that a sexist insult? A classic pick-up line? Or just a friendly greeting for millions of French women every day? … A group of French feminists wants to get rid of the word “mademoiselle”, or “miss,” saying the term turns a female into an inferior being defined by her marital status. … Her petition — which has gained much media attention in France and is supported by some feminist groups — calls on authorities to force firms to scrap the term in all administrative or contractual documents. Mathilde aims to hand it over to the government before the summer. … In English-speaking countries, the terms “Miss” or “Mrs” for unmarried and married women have given way to the neutral “Ms”. In Germany, calling a young woman “Fraeulein” is almost considered an insult and the term “Frau” has become the rule.

An article that has brought forth an interesting question. Why do women have 2 salutations and men only have 1? I understand Ms. can be used for both married and unmarried woman, but they do have 2 terms. Is it because back then in the old ages, a woman’s status is dependent on who her husband is, hile a man’s status is regardless if he’s married or not? *shrug* Just an interesting question that I don’t have the answer to.

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Random Crap:

What Grinds My Gears – Why is it when you right click on a picture in Firefox, ‘s’ = set as desktop background and ‘v’ = save image as? I mean why does the less common action of setting the picture as your wallpaper get the default ‘s’ and save image gets punted to use the ‘v’? I’m not a big fan of Internet Explorer, but even they got it right where ‘s’ = save picture as and ‘g’ = set as background. If I were to redo the hotlinks for Firefox when you right click an image, ‘s’ would definitely be save image as and probably ‘d’ or ‘b’ would be set as desktop background.

YouTube finally added volume controls to their flash video players. About time! I’ve always tried to find other links other than YouTube since I hated thir video player.

They say the etymology of heck is the euphemistic alteration of hell, but I was thinking where the heck does the ‘ck’ come from. Somehow, I was thinking and got to the point of WTF (what the f*ck) and WTH (what the heck/hell) and came to the conclusion that hell + f*ck = heck. They couldn’t do it the other way because f*ck + hell = fell, which was already taken. I also tried to figure out what other curse words end with ‘ck’, but couldn’t really come up with any.

Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 (direct download) (from Tera) – a video animation by Paul Robertson. NOT WORK SAFE! A lot of violence and very culturally wrong animations. The animation seemed like a regular side scrolling game (like Metal Slug, in fact very similar to Metal Slug) with tons of cool machine animations and special power ups and evil octopus. However, the characters used are so wrong. I would assume all the monsters they were fighting were zombies, but these were zombie babies where they blew off their heads. Then there was naked female zombies (but they weren’t as bad). Then there were pregnant women who’s stomach exploded and zombie babies came out. Then there was the canon that fired out naked woman at the boss. The list just goes on.

Hungary workers get shock at bottom of rum barrel – Hungarian builders who drank their way to the bottom of a huge barrel of rum while renovating a house got a nasty surprise when a pickled corpse tumbled out of the empty barrel, a police magazine website reported.

Star salaries coming down in Hollywood? – Poor Jim Carrey. His movies have raked in nearly $2 billion at box offices, but now a leading entertainment magazine says the comedian’s asking price of $25 million a film has become “a bit of a gamble.” … However, his recent big-budget movies like “Fun with Dick and Jane” barely topped $100 million in domestic ticket sales, leaving his star tarnished, the magazine said. Carrey’s not the only one. Kidman is considered a risky bet after the box office failure of “Bewitched” and “The Stepford Wives” among other recent films. … But Tom Hanks’ $25 million was thought to be “worth every penny” because he remains “one of the most bankable brand names in the world.” Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, at $5 million to $7 million a picture, and Rachel McAdams at $3 million to $4 million, were bargains. I’m just surprised that they were willing to hire such expensive actors on scripts that sucked. I’m still a big fan of Nicole Kidman (she’s so pretty), but sticking her in The Stepford Wives or Bewitched was trying to rescue a script that was dead in the first place. I bet sales would’ve been much lower if you they hadn’t hire a “big” star to play the main role. Acting wasn’t the problem here. All these actors can act (maybe with the exception of Will Farrell). Movie studios don’t hire hit stars on poor scripts for their acting abilities. They hire them so they can attract fans.

Moving puppy-bag sparks bomb alert in Italy – A moving bag apparently abandoned on a tram in Italy sparked panic among passengers who thought it was a bomb — but turned out to contain four puppies. What the heck? A bomb that moves? Sigh…

Family Kicked Out of Buffet Restaurant – Wendy Dershem may think twice before leaving that egg roll on her plate at her next Chinese buffet. The Des Moines woman, her boyfriend and her two children were kicked out of a restaurant last week after management accused her of leaving too much food on her plate. Haha. Reminds me of all the Asian buffets that have the extra line that says any piece of wasted food = $0.50 extra per piece on the bill.

When bugs fly / Auto geek hits highway for surreptitious runs in jet-powered VW (from /.) – Ron Patrick is approaching the age of 50, a time when many men begin thinking about minutiae like pensions and second homes and third cars. But Patrick is far more interested in telling you why it is that he has stuck a big jet engine in the back of a prosaic silver Volkswagen. Check out the video. Too bad it never shows the car at full speed.

Apparently CBS like ABC, decided to start streaming videos online: InnerTube. Only down side about CBS is that it requires RealPlayer. The scrollbar they implement is pretty awful too. I can’t seem to find any real content, just short clips and commercials. Maybe they’ll put up some real stuff soon.

Otaku From USA (from MS newsgroup) – Essentially, Otaku is Japanese for ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’, specifcally someone deeply versed/obsessed in the worlds of Anime (Japanese Animation) or Manga (Japanese Comic Books). Mostly, Otaku are seen as being so obsessed with their made-up worlds that they can’t live in the real one. Kind of like people I know stuck in World of Warcraft. The term even spawned an awesome TV show that I’ll blog about some point in the future called Densha Otoko. Here’s the direct link to the video.

Half-tonne man seeks life-saving surgery – – A Mexican man who at 550 kg is possibly the heaviest person in the world hopes to travel to Italy for a life-saving operation to shed weight. Do note that 550kg = 1212lbs. Do check out the photo.

Study: US mothers deserve $134,121 in salary (from Tekman) – A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released Wednesday. Well, the mom job is a 24hr job, right?

Highest Yielding Money Market / Savings Accounts – I’m still sticking with HSBC, but it seems there are newer higher paying savings account, such as Amboy Direct Premium Savings, which has no minimum and no fees.

The 50 Year History of Play-Doh (from /.) – In 1956 a new type of “modeling clay” for children was invented and began popping up in schools and stores everywhere. In 1965, U.S. Patent No. 3,167,440 was granted to Noah McVicker and Joseph McVicker for a “plastic modeling composition”, (which was originally intended to be a wallpaper cleaner) now called Play-Doh. Little did they know that they had created the substance of childhood memories as well as many a childhood meal, unfortunately. It’s interesting to see how play-doh came about. I didn’t really like the taste of play-doh that much. I was much more of a fan of paste.

Gone in 20 Minutes: using laptops to steal cars (from /.) – High-tech thieves are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to stealing automobiles equipped with keyless entry and ignition systems. While many computer-based security systems on automobiles require some type of key — mechanical or otherwise — to start the engine, so-called ‘keyless’ setups require only the presence of a key fob to start the engine. Wow… Makes me think twice before deciding to make my security all based on software.

The Best of the Worst (from /.) – The Internet spawned so many weird gizmos and bad business ideas that mocking dot-com duds became something of a sport in the post-bubble era. But some ideas still stand out for pure silliness. These are products and services that attracted lots of publicity — and, in some cases, millions of dollars in funding — before folding. Haha! Who could forget Flooz and CyberRebate and the CueCat (I think I still have a couple of those at home).

Thief disguised as guard robs Italy museum – A thief disguised as a security guard on Tuesday duped the unsuspecting staff of a top Italian art gallery into giving him more than 200,000 euros (137,000 pounds), local media reported.

India’s Gump: Boy, 4, Runs 40 Miles – “Cheered by thousands, a 4-year-old boy dubbed “India’s Forrest Gump” who was nearly sold by his impoverished mother ran 40 miles Tuesday to enter the country’s foremost record book. … Budhia Singh completed the distance in seven hours and two minutes which is an Indian record. This is perhaps a world record too. No other kid at his age has completed a distance of 65 kilometers (40 miles) at one go,” said his coach, Biranchi Das.

Couple, 33 and 104, Reportedly Marry – A 33-year-old man in northern Malaysia has married a 104-year-old woman, saying mutual respect and friendship had turned to love, a news report said Tuesday. It was Muhamad Noor Che Musa’s first marriage and his wife’s 21st, according to The Star newspaper which cited a report in the Malay-language Harian Metro tabloid. … The report did not say if any of Wook’s previous 20 husbands are still alive. Makes one wonder what happened to the 1st 20 marriages…

PM ‘eats babies’ sign flashed at commuters – A mocking announcement about Canada’s prime minister, “Stephen Harper Eats Babies,” was flashed on electronic advertising signs on Toronto area commuter trains for several days, and technicians were still scrambling on Tuesday to get the signs fixed. Why didn’t they just unplug the sign before attempting to fix it? Several days? Hahaha.

面白い [omoshiroi]
Translation: 【おもしろい】 (adj) interesting; amusing;

But 面 = face and 白 = white. I guess a white face is somewhat interesting and amusing. I wonder if it has to do with 歌舞伎 [kabuki] (Japanese theater) where they tend to powdered their faces really white.

I just finished watching 仙劍奇俠傳 and the ending was pretty crappy. Lots of people died. I guess FuzzyWuzzy would’ve like that – the only reason he watches 24 is because they kill off so many main characters, anyone that isn’t Jack Bauer has pretty much 100% chance of dying, either now or in later seasons. I mean the only 2 characters besides Jack that still exist from the 1st season is Mike Novik and Kim Bauer (although I’ve wanted her dead probably by the 2nd episode of Season 1). [I just realized Mike Novik wasn’t introduced till the 2nd Season when David Palmer was the president. In the 1st Season, he was CA governor running for presidency.] Tang Yu just found the other half of the pendant by rushing into the tidal wave just like that *snap*. What the heck was that? I won’t spoil anymore, but it was pretty cheesy all the way through. There’s only 4 characters worth liking: Tang Yu, his Godfather, Seven, and that Tao Master. Even the 2 main characters remained mostly annoying and immature throughout the series. However, there’s this phrase I would like to share with you:

善與惡, 必共存. 沒有惡, 就突顯不了美.
[literal translation: Good and Evil, must coexist. Without evil, then beauty won’t stand out.]

Reminds me of that joke:
Q: Why are there ugly people in this world?
A: So we can tell who’s pretty.

Maybe I just pulled that out of my butt, but there is some truth in that statement. Opposites are there to complement each other and to help differentiate. Without the ugliness of the world, we’d never appreciate the beauty that exists. Just like without all the raining days here in Washington, we won’t appreciate the nice sunny days we’ve been having. Without foul tasting food, we wouldn’t appreciate the delicious food.

I’m not saying a perfect world is bad. What I’m saying is people living in a perfect world would never appreciate it. To never have starved, one would not truly appreciate food. To never have been homeless, one would not truly appreciate his shelter.

Ohio man tells executioners “It’s not working” – A double murderer was put to death in Ohio on Tuesday but not until after one of his veins had collapsed, causing the condemned man to sit up and tell his executioners, “It’s not working,” officials said. … Spokeswoman Andrea Dean said the execution was delayed about 90 minutes because technicians had trouble initially finding a site in Clark’s arm for the intravenous line carrying the chemicals. Then shortly after the poisons were supposed to have been pumping into his body, she said, he sat up saying, “It’s not working. It’s not working.” Officials determined that a vein had collapsed. Curtains were closed to block witnesses’ view until technicians found a vein in his other arm. They were then parted to reveal him dying, witnesses said.

An interesting article: MACHINES OF DEATH – With more than 3000 prisoners currently awaiting execution, death row technology makes the taking of a life humane and painless. Or does it?

The current forms of execution includes:

• Hanging – The problem with hanging is that the drop length, hence the rope length, is critical. The desired result requires 1260 ft.-lb. of force to snap the neck. If the drop is too short, the victim strangles–a horrific episode that can last up to 15 minutes. Too long a drop risks decapitation–an equally unappetizing event. To calculate the correct drop length (in feet), the equation is 1260 divided by the victim’s weight.
• Electric Chair
• Firing Squad – Five shooters behind the partition are armed with standard Winchester Model 94 lever-action rifles. Four are loaded with a single Winchester Silver Tip 150-grain .30-.30 cartridge. This relatively light bullet expands well at short distances. The fifth rifle fires a blank. The shooters lean on a rest and fire through slits in the partition. None of the shooters knows who has the blank. What’s the point of the 5th person having a blank? I always thought it was that only 1 had a real bullet and 4 had blanks so they wouldn’t know who shot the guy. With 4 real bullets, chances of you actually hitting the guy is super high.
• Gas Chamber – The gas inhibits the blood’s hemoglobin from transferring oxygen to the body’s cells, causing cellular suffocation. Death occurs in 2 to 18 minutes, often with convulsions as the body writhes for oxygen.
• Lethal Injection – While the condemned may have a peaceful outward appearance because of the barbiturate and relaxant, internally his lungs are imploding and his organs are writhing. Death usually occurs in 6 to 13 minutes.

What isn’t too common for executions is what most people describe as a painless death, or used for suicide or euthanasia: Carbon Monoxide. Some describes it as falling asleep. It just strikes me as odd when there’s this much more peaceful way of killing people, but we still result to somewhat brutal ways like electric chair or gas chamber.

Woman, Son Convicted in Mouse-In-Soup Scam – Charges were filed after a necropsy showed the mouse died of a fractured skull. It had no soup in its lungs and had not been cooked, signs that the rodent was dropped into the soup after its death. Sigh… another Wendy’s incident.

Bit of Finger Mistakenly Served to Diner – A diner found a piece of human flesh on his hamburger shortly after a restaurant worker accidentally cut his finger, and a spokeswoman said the company was “very, very sorry.” At least this was a legit incident. Though it seems that they won’t be satisfied with just an apology. The diner called police, but an officer told him that it was not a criminal matter, Detective Sgt. David Drake said.

The best Super Soaker commercial ever: The Oozinator (from Deadlock) – pretty hilarious (or maybe gross) video. I couldn’t believe this was actually a real commercial. But apparently it was a real product: SUPER SOAKER OOZINATOR. Shoot out globs of gooey bio-ooze and then drench ‘em with water!

ABC.com: Full Episode Streaming (from /. and Ars Technica) – Welcome to the only place online where you can watch full episodes of your favorite ABC television shows! Current shows available for watching include Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias, and Commander in Chief. There’s still advertisements which you aren’t allowed to “skip”, but it’s free. Resolution is a bit weak (320×240 I believe).

How does Dyson make water go uphill? – James Dyson’s uphill water feature has been the striking image of this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. But how did he do it? An interesting piece of art work. I’d like to see a video of it.

Colbert’s smart bomb (from MS newsgroup) – I saw a lower quality version of it yesterday, but Steven Colbert (from Colbert’s Report – pronounced col-bear re-pore) did a hilarious stand up at the White House Correspondents’ Association. The site doesn’t require registration, but you have to click on that advertisement link (direct download). At the same dinner, Bush apparently pulled a trick of his own. ‘Double-You’ Bush delights media – Playing up to his public persona, Mr Bush sent himself up alongside impersonator, Steve Bridges. … Steve Bridges, who lampoons Mr Bush on television, was invited by the president to mimic him at the dinner.

Hyperactive (from MS newsgroup) – a video of Lasse Gjertsen doing a random sound track with noises he made. It was pretty funny. You can find more of his films at: LasseFilm, but they appear to be all animations besides another one where he gets run over by a car.

Next step in pirating: Faking a company – After two years and thousands of hours of investigation in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in China, Taiwan and Japan, the company said it had uncovered something far more ambitious than clandestine workshops turning out inferior copies of NEC products. The pirates were faking the entire company. Wowza! Impressive!

Study of ‘Pheromone’ Products – Modern Day ‘Liquid Panty Remover’ (from Deadlock) – Real pheromones can work very well. The problems is cutting through the hype to find out which ones are real and work, which ones are real and kinda work, and which ones are totally worthless. Here are the ratings. Haha. Someone’s gone and actually tried all these. I wonder how he managed to rate how well it worked. To see if he was able to pick up any ladies at the bar that night?

The Logitech Quickcam Orbit MP is pretty bad ass (from Deadlock) – Pretty interesting video showing the Logitech Quickcam software that has motion detectors that draws stuff on your face.

Firefox Flicks Video Contest Winners Announced (from /.) – These flicks are actually pretty good an funny.

Crazy Quarters Skills (from Esca) – I think I’ve posted this video before, but here it is again. Bouncing quarters off the table and into a cup. I wonder how many times they’ve tried for certain tricks before actually making it. Didn’t they have this as part of the game in Leisure Suit Larry?

Gadgets for the Lazy (from /.) – In today’s automated world, there’s a fine line between efficient time management and laziness. Here are a few gadgets we think cross the line most egregiously. Check out our other photo galleries on our photo blog. The ones that caught my eye include: Ice-cream turner, The bird 2.0, Bugle emulator, Shoe mops

Mexico to decriminalize pot – Possessing marijuana, cocaine and even heroin will no longer be a crime in Mexico if they are in small amounts for personal use under new reforms passed by Congress that quickly drew U.S. criticism. You no longer have to fly to Amsterdam to legally smoke pot. Mexico is just a south of U.S. borders.

Last ninja: ‘Be able to kill your students’ (from /.) – The teachings of Grand Master Masaaki Hatsumi echo through my head as he entreats me to attack a blackbelted disciple with a practice sword. “Always be able to kill your students,” he says. Chilling words from a shockingly fit 76-year-old man who bills himself as the world’s last ninja and stocks his training chamber with weapons such as throwing stars and nunchucks. Especially to a neophyte whose closest brush with martial arts was watching Bruce Lee matinees as a kid. An interesting quote:

I have studied under Hatsumi, years ago. Before a lot of the current ‘purpose built’ combatives were created for military and govt. use, he and his instructors would train select U.S. govt. and military personnel.

Someone mentioned that “ninjitsu is the art of assassination”. An inaccurate statement.

Ninpo Taijitsu (a very rough translation would be ninja combat), as taught under the Bujinkan, consists of several different schools. Stealth, sword combat, locking/holding/throwing, striking, etc. are some examples of the different schools, each with their own head instructor.

There is a famous story from the ’50s (?, maybe ’60s) where the Japanese National Judo Champion (at the time he was also the world champion) essentially ‘called out’ Hatsumi and ninpo taijitsu as a ‘fraud’. Said champion was invited to face off with Hatsumi. Hatsumi proved he was no fraud, and shortly thereafter the Judo champion became one of the senior instructors at the ‘judo’ school of the Bujinkan.

Hatsumi is the real deal. I’ve seen him run along the top of chain link fences. At one seminar, a 250+ lb. Marine spoke up and said “Ok I know you’re good, but really…in combat – what are you going to do to me?”. Hatsumi sqared off with the Marine, and had him on the ground and incapacitated very rapidly. No ego, no bravado – just a teacher who understands that you must be able to demonstrate that what you teach will work for real.

Hatsumis instructor, Takamatsu, was (for lack of a better term) a real life ‘ninja’. He was an agent/assassin/etc. for hire that worked for various warlords in the late 1800s.

Do some searches on Hatsumi and Takamatsu – I believe you guys will find some very interesting reading.

Sadly, when Hatsumi leaves us the Bujinkan will probably never be seen again in its current form, with one true Master overseeing all of the various schools that comprise Ninpo Taijitsu. It will truly be the end of an era.

Regards,

Former (novice) student of the Bujinkan

Da Vinci judge’s secret code revealed – A secret code embedded in the text of a court ruling in the case of Dan Brown’s bestseller “The Da Vinci Code” has been cracked, but far from revealing an ancient conspiracy it is simply an obscure reference to a Royal Navy admiral. … High Court Justice Peter Smith, who handed down a ruling that Brown had not plagiarised his book, had embedded his own secret message in his judgement by italicising letters scattered throughout the 71-page document. … But the lawyer, Dan Tench, cracked it after a day of puzzling. The judge’s code was based on the Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical progression discussed in the book.

Show asks porn stars to test acting skills – A new television reality show invites porn stars to test their serious acting abilities in London’s theatre district, raising the question: Debbie can do Dallas, but can she take on Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”?

Transsexual should get pension at 60 – EU – A British transsexual woman should have her pension paid from her 60th birthday instead of her 65th as a man would, Europe’s highest court ruled on Thursday. Maybe if you want to retire early, it’s time to change genders.

And the world’s sexiest woman is… – British actress Keira Knightley was voted the world’s sexiest woman in a magazine poll on Thursday, beating model Keeley Hazel and Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson into second and third place respectively. Keira is so　セクシー.