"I'm A Meat Eater. It's An Ethical Thing."

Turning the tables on vegetarians.



H/t Diana

Alannah Myles: Black Velvet

In accordance with the CRTC's soon-to-be-mandated quota for Canadian content on the internet, I've been ordered by the government to submit the following song for your delectation in order to balance out the Clapton video from Thursday.

Enjoy!

Moment of Zen For Dog-Lovers

(*) Got a busy night of family-related obligations and general relaxation ahead of me so posting will be a bit light.

Everybody enjoy their Friday!

Eric Clapton: I'm Tore Down

Here's a little insight into what's been spinning around my head this evening.



Does it get any better than that?

Mathematicians Discover Largest Number Possible: "Stimulus"

An international mathematics research team announced today that they had discovered a new integer that surpasses any previously known value "by a totally mindblowing shitload." Project director Yujin Xiao of Stanford University said the theoretical number, dubbed a "stimulus," could lead to breakthroughs in fields as diverse as astrophysics, quantum mechanics, and Chicago asphalt contracting.

"Unlike previous large numbers like the Googleplex or the Bazillionty, the Stimulus has no static numerical definition," said Xiao. "It keeps growing and growing, compounding factorially, eating up all zeros in its path. It moves freely across Cartesian dimensions and has the power to make any other number irrational."

Jean-Luc Brossard, a researcher with the European consortium CERN, said the number is so staggeringly large that it is difficult for even mathematicians to grasp, let alone lay people.

"The number itself is incomprehensible by human minds, and can only be theoretically understood in a fractional parallel universe which we refer to as the DC dimension," said Brossard. "The best way to understand a stimulus is to imagine a dollar sign followed by a packed string of hexidecimal nanodigits, wound into a triple helix, woven into a dodecahedron, and stacked on top of one another. Now imagine you were a black hole on the far edge of the universe, trying to escape the stimulus at 30 times the speed of light. The stimulus would still catch up to you and ram your black hole with such furious, repeated force that it would cause your entire reality itself to collapse."

President Obama must be proud to have contributed to such an historic discovery.

Via Iowahawk

Which Office Supply Are You?

You Are a Red Pen

You have an eagle eye for detail, and this often means you end up finding mistakes in people's work. You may seem quick to criticize or correct, but you think accuracy and truth is important. You like to be involved in every project. You feel like you put the polishing touch on things. You would make a good editor, detective, or accountant. When facts matter, you're the person to call on.

What Office Supply Are You?

Hm. I guess that sounds about right, especially that part about being quick to criticize or correct. As Leslie points out, I have been a little grumpy lately.

H/t Rational Jenn

This One's For My Albertan Readers, Whosoever You May Be

Alberta Bound:



Ontario Sucks:



H/t Liberty In Canada

The 1930s: When Men Were Men ...

... And women were friggin' ninjas.





H/t Kalim Kassam

Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am

Some of the best rock and roll ever recorded to get us through a slow Friday night.

Bowie: Suffragette City



Lennon & The Stones: Yer Blues



Doesn't get any better than that.

More of the good stuff at Darcey's.

"This Is A Song About Liberals That We Can't Stand"

Warning: The singer has a whinny voice and the song is in that "alternative-punk-pop" genre that the kids seem to like nowadays. Also, I definitely can stand a few of the liberals they name. I mean, come on, Bruce Springsteen is a really fantastic musician.

The song is by The Right Brothers (heh, so clever) and it's called "The List." Give 'er a watch if you're in the mood for a laugh:



H/t Ace

"John McCain '08: Like Hope, But Different"

Look what that bastard from the Black Eyed Pees hath wrought. Now there's a whole string of political music videos circulating. Check out the new one on John McCain:



Shamelessly stolen from Darryl Wolk.

Superbowl Tonight!

The Superbowl starts in about an hour.

Go Pats!

UPDATE: In case you didn't get a chance to watch it, there's a pretty accurate summary of the game here.










UPDATE II: I humbly offer you my favourite Superbowl ad in a shameless but well-intentioned display of consumerism. With the Pats losing it was probably the best moment of my night.

It's Science: Blue-Eyed People Are The Result Of Incest

Hmm.

According to Professor Hans Eiberg of the University of Copenhagen, all blue-eyed people can be traced back to a common ancestor in the Black Sea region about 10,000 years ago. Apparently, blue eye colour is the result of a genetic mutation and the mutation is identical in 99.5% of known cases making us all distantly related.

Brown is the "default" colour for human eyes which results from a build-up of the dark skin pigment, melanin.
However, in northern Europe a mutation arose in a gene known as OCA2 that disrupted melanin production in the iris and caused the eye colour to become blue.

Well, the more you know. Knowledge is power and all that.


Genetic mutation or not, us blue-eyed folk seem to do alright for ourselves.





I love science.

God, I Hope Our Next Prime Minister Is Named "Obsidian-Angel"

A fun article about baby names in Alberta last year. Apparently, Eva and Ethan were the most popular Albertan baby names of 2007.

Full article at the link:

EDMONTON - After King Ralph and Honest Ed, could there be a Premier Ethan in Alberta's future?

For the seventh year in a row, Ethan was the most popular name for baby boys born in the province in 2007, and was chosen by 373 families. Ava was the pick for girls for the second year running, but officials with Vital Statistics say a change is on its way.

After several years of relative stability in the Top 10, Nathan, Carter and William dropped out of the boys list, replaced by Alexander, Owen and Samuel.

Similarly, Hailey and Sophia made the 2007 top girls list, replacing Grace and Ella.

...

There were girls named Whisper, Sparrow, Treasure, Butterfly and Raynebow-Roze and boys named Echo, Ocean, Freedom, Midnite and Obsidian-Angel.

Geographic names continue to be popular - witness the boys named Cyprus, Milwaukee, Canaan and Brooklyn and the girls named Nevada, Tuscany, Venice and Kalifornia.

Patriotic parents named one little girl Alberta.

The statistics also show Alberta is in the midst of a baby boom, likely related to the province's rising prosperity.

More than 48,589 children - 24,748 boys and 23,841 girls - were born in the province in 2007, breaking the previous record of 45,465 births set in 1983.

The 2007 figure is nearly 20 per cent more than the 40,700 births recorded just four years ago and nearly 3,500 more than the 45,004 births registered last year.

H/t Hot Air