Posted on General

Unshow X

No audio for this week’s Unshow.

Happy Commenting!

This week’s Greasy Spoon Ernest Borgnines game will run in the next Deadpan episode.

And this week’s Greasy Jelly Bean winner is. . . .

Vanamonde! (he was the only one who sent in a guess). Congrats on the point, Van.

327 thoughts on “Unshow X”

  10. I realize I’m coming off as excessivly bitchy lately, but has anyone caught the Geologic Podcast 57 yet?

    This is just the perfect example of why I’ve changed my mind about fan shows. It isn’t that the subject person doesn’t deserve it. It’s the unpredictable fan reaction and how that can backlash on the subject person in such a disrespectful way.

    It just hurts. We put a lot of love into that show, and George and every podcaster puts an enormous amount of effort into their show. We pour our hearts out and then some idiot comes along and finds a way to twist what was meant to be a very cool show of respect and honor into a complete slap in the face.

    And I talked with George, and it’s not like he was upset about the thing. I guess he didn’t put it in the same context I did. But he’s still right, we pour or freakin hearts out sometimes to please these people and its not like theres some magical plugin that churns out great content every single week. This takes a lot of work, we can’t always be at the top of our game.

    But still, this is just exactly the reason why I’m hesitant to do any more fan shows. That kind of reaction is complete and utter bullshit.

    Sorry for my incessent rambling. I suppose I should just stick to Myspace.

  13. Hey Dubshack,
    What fan show are you talking about? I know I should be shot for saying that but I have been living under a rock for sometime.

    In other news…
    Hello Mr. Mangan 🙂

  14. hmmmmm…
    that could work out to be good advertising buzz for The GeoPodcast … based on your post, Dub … I might move 57 to the top of the pile just to see what the buzz is.

  15. I had to give up on Geologic some time back. George is a smart guy and can be very entertaining, but there’s just too much anger that comes through in his show. So, alas, I know not what’s up with #57.

    Still, I recognize that he’s got a right to produce his content the way he wants, as do everyone who podcasts. That’s kinda the point, isn’t it? If it doesn’t click with me, that’s fine. As we can see from the podcast lists that people have posted so far, we cover a lot of different podcasts and in many cases, we’ve each got unique ones.

    I don’t know how many have podfaded, but I seem to recall close to 20,000 podcasts being tracked by podcast alley. I can’t listen to them all, I can’t even listen to all the ones I’d like to. But, hopefully, with 6 billion people in the world, they can each find an audience.

    I certainly appreciate all the work that goes into the shows I listen to….and even the ones I don’t listen to.

  16. I have to 2nd the “meh” vote on the Geo Anger. It’s one of the reasons his podcast has found it’s way to the bottom of my “To be listened to” stack.
    I find his humor, skits and production to be brilliant and they take me to my “happy place” … then his anger/seething tends to kick me back out.

    Still … I plan to listen. Sometime.

  17. This might be of interest to the Deadpan
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++
    http://www.davestevens.com/

    http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_03_11.html

    Obit by Mark Evanier:
    Illustrator Dave Stevens, best known for his “good girl” art and The Rocketeer, died yesterday following a long, wrenching battle with Leukemia. Dave was born July 29, 1955 in Lynwood, California. He was raised in Portland, Oregon, then his family relocated to San Diego, where he attended San Diego City College and became involved in the early days of the San Diego Comic Book Convention, now known as the Comic-Con International. His skills as an artist were instantly evident to all, and he was encouraged by darn near every professional artist who attended the early cons, but especially by Jack Kirby and Russ Manning. In 1975, when Manning began editing a line of Tarzan comic books to be published in Europe, Dave got his first professional assignment, working on those comics and also assisting Russ with the Tarzan newspaper strip. Soon after, he worked on a few projects for Marvel (including the Star Wars comic book) and a number of underground comics. Later, he also worked with Russ
    on the Star Wars newspaper strip.
    In 1977, Dave went to work for Hanna-Barbera where he drew storyboards and layouts, many of them for the Super Friends and Godzilla cartoon shows and bonded with veteran artist Doug Wildey, who produced the latter. Wildey and Stevens became close friends and in 1982, when Dave created his popular character, The Rocketeer, he modelled the character’s sidekick, Peevy, on photos of Doug. Dave himself was Cliff Secord, who donned the mask of The Rocketeer, and other friends appeared in other guises.
    The Rocketeer made Dave’s reputation and also spawned a resurgence of interest in fifties’ figure model Bettie Page, whose likeness Dave used for the strip’s heroine. But the strip was not profitable for Dave, who was among the least prolific talents to ever attempt comic books. It wasn’t so much that he was slow, as his friends joked, but that he was almost obsessively meticulous, doing days of study and sketching to create one panel, and doing many of them over and over. Even then, he was usually dissatisfied with what he produced and fiercely critical of the reproduction. Friends occasionally pitched in to help with the coloring but some begged off because they knew it was humanly impossible for anyone, including Dave himself, to produce coloring that he’d like. Eventually, he sold most of the rights to Disney for a Rocketeer movie that was produced in 1991. Dave served as a co-producer of the film and did a brief cameo, but the endeavor was not as lucrative for him as he’d hoped,
    and it pretty much ended Dave’s interest in continuing the character.
    Most of what Dave did after that fell into the general category of “glamour art,” including portfolios and private commissions. Many of these were illustrations of Bettie Page who, though once thought deceased, turned out to be alive and living not all that far from Dave. They met and Dave became her friend and, though he was not wealthy, benefactor. Deciding that too many others had callously exploited her likeness, Dave voluntarily aided Ms. Page financially and even took to helping her in neighborly ways. One time, he told me – and without the slightest hint of resentment – “It’s amazing. After years of fantasizing about this woman, I’m now driving her to cash her Social Security checks.”
    Dave was truly one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life…and was certainly among the most gifted. Our first encounter was at Jack Kirby’s house around 1971 when he came to visit and show Jack some of his work. As I said, Kirby was very encouraging and he urged Dave not to try and draw like anyone else but to follow his own passions. This was advice Dave took to heart, which probably explains why he took so long with every drawing. They were rarely just jobs to Dave. Most of the time, what emerged from his drawing board or easel was a deeply personal effort. He was truly in love with every beautiful woman he drew, at least insofar as the paper versions were concerned. (Dave was married once…for six months to the prolific movie actress, Brinke Stevens, and she retained his last name after they divorced.)
    Dave’s illness these last few years was a poorly-kept secret among his friends, but he insisted that it be kept quiet, and struggled to make occasional public appearances. We tried to get together for dinner every month or so but it wound up being more like every six months. The last time, he joked that it was lucky he had such a reputation for slow production. Now that he was unable to work for weeks at a time, no one noticed that his output had declined. His main efforts went towards an “Art of Dave Stevens” book he was struggling to assemble. Mostly though that evening, we talked about comics and comic artists. Dave was a fan in the very best sense.
    I don’t really know how to end this and maybe I don’t want to…because it will mean another level of loss regarding one of my closest friends. As long as I can keep writing about him, I feel he’s still with me in some manner. And the thought of losing a great guy like Dave Stevens is just too, too sad. He was truly loved and admired by all who knew him. I’ll post information about a memorial service, if and when I hear about that kind of thing.

  18. I know most of us here have either privately or publicly discussed the issue with George and his atheism rants, I dunno if theres a point in reiterating that everyone was on the same page on that… It’s his opinion, his belief, his podcast… If you don’t like it, don’t listen. But I would add that in the last three or four shows he has really toned that down, and I suspect that it was because even he was starting to realize it was going in a direction he wasn’t looking for. Of course I’m guessing, George will be George.

    No what happened is apparently some guy emailed him and said he was slacking off and that the show wasn’t funny anymore, but the part that offended me was when he said George could learn a thing or two from the Geologic Fancast, which CarrieP put together and I was a part of. And part of George’s response was in the opening song he redid my “Things you didn’t know about George Hrab” and I swear it was like a million times funnier. But what pissed me off was, that was a labor of love and appreciation for George from everyone involved, and for someone to take that and turn it around like that… And George didn’t take it that way, he shared with me the personal response he gave the guy, but the reason why he mentioned it on the show was because clearly this idiot has no appreciation for what it takes to do a podcast. And he’s totally right, I mean we got Jack and me and the Draco Vista guys all on break this week and George has been doing weekly shows for over a year and has never missed a show, and only been late once. He doesn’t deserve that kind of BS for his effort. And yes I’m overreacting but I think its a slap in the face to all of us, not just podcasters but the people who genuinely appreciate them.

  19. *save verses wall of text for 100 points damage*

    Gulp!

    I think that George is incredibly talented, smart and funny, but his show really isn’t my cup of tea. I still give him a perodic listen, but as I posted earlier I tend to go for lighter fare and George can be a bit heavy at times. But he’s the artist and it’s his art. That said, I agree with you Dub that the enormous effort that goes into a podcast goes over most peoples heads. Of course dipshits aren’t blocked from downloading and commenting on shows and I think most content providers are aware of that.

  20. Yeah, I completely agree with you there. My stance on this is just on a tangent though, and granted its a theoretical tangent that isn’t entirely the case in this case. My point is that maybe doing fan shows are a mistake. Maybe we should just let podcasters do their thing and we go about doing our thing.

  21. As the old saying goes, if you keep sticking your head over the wall, one day somebody will throw a brick at you.

    Now there is no excuse for people acting like dicks, but if you release work on the internet you are going to attract negative attention sooner or later. It’s how you handle it that matters. If you start taking it personally than the dicks have won.

    Oh and the Obit reminds me of the Rocketeer movie, which I remember watching when it was released and really enjoying it…just a fun movie.

    Oh and it had Jennifer Connelly in it…..which I will not comment on further since I don’t want to be classed as a dirty old man.

  22. I guess I need to listen to #57 then. My take on the Fan show is if the original creator has given it their blessing, it’s all good. I think I’ve shared this thought before about how the internet can bring you into contact with some truely incredible peopleand on the other hand it may bring you to unknowning chat up serial killer. The serial killer isn’t indicative of the community as a whole, but he exists and when you shake hands with a million different people you are bound to meet him. Just don’t take his point of view for the point of view of the other 999,999.

  29. Who, time travelers?

    I think George does good work. I haven’t listened to him in awhile because I rarely listen to anyone. Any time you put your creative shit out there for public consumption, you have to be ready for jerky people to fling poo at it.

  35. As promised, here’s the complete list of podcasts that I’m subscribed to in iTunes, organized by category.

    Podcasts I stay current with:
    Jack Mangan’s Deadpan
    The Metamor City Podcast
    MOREVI: Remastered
    Otaku no Podcast
    Infected
    The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy

    Podcasts I listen to fairly regularly, but don’t necessarily stay current with:
    I Should Be Writing
    Japanese Pod 101
    UltraCreatives Interview series

    I’m working my way through the archives of:
    Beatnik Turtle’s Song of the Day
    The Rookie (via Podiobooks)

    I eventually plan to listen to the archives of:
    The NanoMonkeys (for 2007)

    Podiobooks I’ve completed, but are still on my iTunes:
    Heaven – Season Three: Earth
    Nina Kimberly The Merciless

  41. Hey guys! i’ve been hanging around.. lurking if you will… listening but not commenting… i have very little computer time these days.

    That cubo site is CREEPY.. i sent it to my mom.. ha

    Cant say i listen to Geo’s podcast much these days, for the same reasons you’ve all already discussed — I love George (i did squeeze his naked tush at Dragon Con two years ago…) but his podcast just isnt for me.

    Jeremy — I’ll buy it for you if you buy it for me…i wish i hadn’t already spent my tax money…

    Im mostly just going to school these days — Learning how to be an english teacher… Started swimming… Dating a great guy named Frank, he’s awesome… We started playing MTG, if you can believe it… working for my dad and myself making websites and a editing photos for video…uh… thats about it… as always tossing some ideas for projects around in my head, hoping to put them to web someday…

    hope all is going well for everyone else… miss you Deadpan…
    Anyway, good to .. um.. see… everyone…

  43. Ack!!!!
    Jeremy, that’s that’s … beyond words!

    What happen’s when “Melodyne” becomes self aware? What if it decides it no longer needs musicians?
    Wait … OMG! Could “Melodyne” be “Skynet”s little brother?

  55. Congratulations, Van. That Youtube is the BSG Recap video.

    When does Season 4 land over there, anyway? Sci-Fi says April 4th over here. It’s hard to believe it’s actually coming back.

  56. April for for Sky as well, but that could change.

    I probably get it via BT, since I can convert the AVI to watch on my mobile phone.

  57. Yeesh such negativity last night

    Deadpan needed a little Smarty Hottie love last night 🙂

    That BSG recap was hawesome

    Jeremy that audio program thingy freaked me out

    Hugh sez: audio program thingy? You mean Melodyne

    Yeah that thingy

  58. I can’t wait for BSG to start, well actually maybe we can.. still catching up to this last season of Atlantis.

    Hugh sez: we better make sure our Tivo has enough room to hold the entire BSG season

    word, and Dr Who is right around the corner

    Hugh sez: better start saving up for BT airline tickets to England

    🙂 heh

    time to take The Hugh to work
    everyone please have a nice day

  69. In other news:

    Brisbane Australia – An Australian woman who stabbed her common-law husband to death because she was tired of begin bossed around says an argument over Bruce Springsteen was the last straw.
    Karen Lee Cooper pleaded guilty to manslaughter yesterday and was sentenced to eight years in prison for killing partner Kevin Watson in a drunken argument at their home in northeastern Queensland state in July 2006.
    Cooper, 50, called an ambulance after suffering what her lawyer Greg Maguire called a brain snap and stabbing Watson, 49, once int the chest with a kitchen knife.
    On the night of the killing, Cooper said she tried to play a Springsteen CD and he took it off the stereo, triggering a bitter argument.
    “I mean, who the hell doesn’t like Bruce Springsteen, for God’s sake?” Cooper said, “I just picked up a knife and I went ‘boom’.”

    – Calgary Sun

    I thought music was supposed to sooth the beast in us…

  70. Copenhagen – Four guards at a prison in central Denmark enjoyed a cake baked for them by inmates, only to end up in hospital with suspected narcotic poisoning.
    Minutes after eating the cake in the wing of Nyborg prison, housing members of the motorcycle gang “Black Cobra,” a female guard complained of not being able to feel her hands and legs.
    “Normally the guards and the inmates are very close in the Danish system,” said Lars Enk Siegumfeldt, a spokesman with the Danish Prison and Probation Service. “Inmates bake cakes every day.”

    -Calgary Sun

    Every day? Wow, that’s a lot of narcotics and nail files 🙂

  71. Beijing – A Chinese bride burned her new husband to death when he got into bed after a drunken argument without washing his feet.
    The couple, who married Feb. 2, had a fight on the night of March 4, “and in frustration they together drank a bottle of liquor to ease their anger.”
    “Luo watched her husband get into bed without cleaning or washing his feet. In a fit of anger and intoxication, she set fire to the sheet he was sleeping in,” a local newspaper reported. “When he awoke, the tow began fighting before a very drunk Wang collapsed. As fire engulfed the bedroom. Luo escaped to the living room, leaving her other half to burn,” it added.

    -Calgary Sun

    Wow, what’s with the revenge of the wives today?

  72. ^I guess everyone has to have principles.

    And boy do I suck at bowling. I guess when you bowl twice in twenty years it doesn’t give you the chance to improve. LOL

  76. my favorite quotes from this morning’s TEB cast.

    “I just picked up a knife and I went ‘boom’.”
    and
    “…a very drunk Wang collapsed….”

    yes, they will do that.

  77. Combined – drunk wangs really collapse if you pick up knives and go boom.

    Groceries put away, now to clean the bathroom, them I’m going to bake brownies. Jumping in and out as I can.

  78. Look who’s back! It’s Long-Lost Sarah.

    OK, I’m waaay behind. My PC Power Supply cooked itself last night. Yay.
    Thanks to the lovely and talented Leann, I shouldn’t be completely dead in the water. I’ll keep you posted.

    But first, to get caught up on the comments.

  82. Sarah ???
    Formally from Charleston ????

    Wahooo!!!! Good to hear from you.

    Jack – Where DOES one find the adult size, Brownie pan? You Arizona people get ALL the fun stuff.

  83. Sorry Sarah,

    Didn’t see you up there. Good to hear from you, glad that things seem to be going well. 🙂 Don’t be a stranger.

  85. A friend of mine confesses to have had a reoccurring dream where-in he is in this GIANT pan of brownie batter, floating in space … and the bater is slowly folding over like waves on the shore … and all his senses are switched around so when he touches the batter he “tastes” it. I can’t recall how the other senses worked out.

    To this day he still refuses therapy.

  87. Do I need to reiterate that my burial wishes involve my body being locked in a giant bottle of mayonaise and fired from the deck of the USS Enterprise into the sea of Japan?

  94. I wonder if Hugh would mind having brownie batter slowly licked off him…

    should I ask him??

    LOL

    Long lost Sarah????? w00t!

    j0e I give you permission to drink cuz I just started 🙂

    We’ve got a big party with Hugh’s work peeps tonight, and Ive found when hanging out with stock brokers, its best to be properly lubricated

  98. Below would be the comment I was trying to make in my studio when my KVM switch blew. Now that I’m over the irony I’ve obviously since replaced it.

    We were watching Southpark last night and Cartman contracted aids from a botched tonselectomy, and Kyle started laughing at him so Cartman snuck into his room at night and injected some of his blood into his mouth so he’d contract it too. I was like “that can’t happen.” After which my wife schooled me.

  99. “and Ive found when hanging out with stock brokers, its best to be properly lubricated”

    you SLAY me!!!!

    I recommend the scotch. … or maybe martini’s.

    and at some point you must ask someone about the impact of creeping inflation and the decreasing dollar on the Deadpan . The cuasually sip your drink as they try to figure out what the frak you mean by the Deadpan.

    THEN with the boobage!!!

  105. Although these days it is of course necessary, one thing I hate about dentist visits is having latex gloves in the mouth…I have to try really hard not to puke.

  106. Trent is oh so dreamy

    meloves ghosts. its swoonerific

    well Trent also kinda needs to realize that not all artists have quite the financial stability he has. Not all artists will be able to offer so much for so long.

    I bought the mega fantastic version of ghosts and then was able to download the tunes in very high quality until they send me the box set in a few months which was very cool, and the download came complete with art and desktop pictures which was fantastical.

    Can everyone offer all of this? I can’t see a little indie band doing all of this, a label would have to fund it.

    I dunno, I don’t know all the ins and outs

    speaking of in and out.. I gotta go get dressed for tonight. Market closes soon and the drinking begins at the first closing bell toll.

  107. latex in the mouth isn’t always a bad thing.. and I’m just leaving that comment as that 🙂

    but I agree Van, it is gross.

    stupid AIDS and other diseases!

    Hasn’t Bil Gates cured AIDS using Windows Vista yet???? 😉

    all hail Bill Gates and his foundation

    night pan

  108. I think Vista can give a person AIDS. LOL

    Wasn’t it the dentist who infected his patients, and wasn’t he infecting them on purpose? That’s what I remember, for what it’s worth.

    Now for a coded message.

    Wine N Jug? Wine N Barrel? Jug N Barrell? Barrel of Wine? Juggs N Winos?

  111. Yea for the MArtini -ASH!

    I started of with a little burbon but since I have to go to a dinner party tonight (with a 30 minute drive on both ends – booooo) I decided to switch to coffee.
    Coffee with a little Bailey’s in it … and a little Kahlua … and just a dash of Grand Marnier.

    OH NO – someone has put a B-52 in my coffee!

  138. Well Pan;

    Just a quick hop in before company comes for gaming. Have lots to do on weekend so don’t know how much jumping in the forum I’ll be doing.

    – seven day’s till Vegas; WOOT! –

  140. Oh you didn’t know? They haven’t yet been able to design a virus that runs on a 64 bit machine. Which is why Vista needs no antivirus.

    Of course every copy that gets shipped out on every brand new 64 bit capable machine is actually the 32 bit version, probably to justify shoving Norton Antivirus products down everyones throats.

    But hey, what do I know. They said the Mac was virus proof too. And cell phones, blackberries…

  149. Good night, mother.
    Good night, John-Boy.
    Good night, Hardcastle.
    Good night, McCormick.
    Good night, Chief.
    Good night, McCloud.

    Good night, Deadpan.

  155. 🙂 Hi Vanamonde

    I think I was going for the “old man on a park bench with exposed legs” look.

    Possibly I could go for the “vagrant on a street corner giggling to himself with his hands in his pockets” look.

    Now I am just being weird 🙂

  156. Yay! It’s Sarah! Great to see you again!

    Jeremy: Melodyne sounds awesome. I could spend so much time playing with that.

    Van: I believe Sarah is referring to the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering.

    J0e: Woohoo! I love working on Habitat for Humanity Houses. 🙂

  157. There was a range on hamster cages you could buy called habitat. You could connect them together if you had the money and make one BIG hamster cage.

    Of course I maybe wrong about the name.

    Oh and the “old man on a park bench with exposed legs” used to be called Flashers DG.

  159. … but seriously folks …

    We were building the wall framing today.
    I am amazed at the level of planning and organization. They really have this thing down.

    You’d go pick up a pair of “plates” (the top and bottom boards of the wall”) and stapled to them would be a sheet with a picture of what the wall should look like and a list of the boards needed to make it. The plates also had the attachment points marked on them.
    So, you’d go over to “parts” shelf and get the pre-cut boards that you’d need, lay everything out on the floor so that it looked like the picture … then nail away.

    I paired up with one other guy and we just started knocking these things together.
    We figured that the biggest difference between us and ACTUAL framers is that we made more mistakes … and then actually corrected them!

    ouch, I think I have framers elbow.

  162. Yep.

    Interesting notes on H4H –

    In studying the aftermath of Hurrician Andrew in South FLA. they discovered that the H4H homes faired much better then many of the homes that surrounded them, in some cases they were the only homes left standing on a street. The initial conclusion was that the design must be superior but in the end, they concluded that it was because they WEREN’T built by professionals.
    Seems that the volunteers, in their ignorance, used MANY more nails per square foot then a REAL homebuilder would use, especially on the roof and that was key! If you could keep your roof intact then the whole structure could withstand MUCH higher winds.

    Another H4H note. Presiden Jimmy Carter has always been very involved in this effort. Not just as a cheerleader and fundraiser but actually providing construction labor himself. While “fundraising” for H4H might be a more effective use of his time, I have always admired him for spending his time doing manual labor, shoulder to shoulder with us little people – with no press around.
    He’s the only ex-President I know of who has routinely done this.

  163. Van: Thank you SOOO much for the link! Project Rho is going to be an invaluable resource for several of my planned novels, especially Vescaris, much of which takes place in space, on one-pilot spacecraft that take off from and land on their planet, every mission. 🙂

  169. Almost my bedtime. I’ve read quite a bit of that site, and have decided that the world of Vescaris shall have a space elevator that goes to a space station. This eliminates the need for the one scene with truly horrible science in my existing partial draft: the blastoff scene. That scene involves the use of ground-directed lasers as afterburners that get the ships out of the atmosphere. Really. -_-;

  172. Now I don’t wanted to be hunted down by pitchfork carrying fpm podcasters, but anybody else noticed the dreaded slowastreacle download speeds for some the fpm shows (like deadpan and sliceofscifi)?

  178. Wasn’t Flowers for Algernon about a mentally disabled guy and his friendship with a mouse?

    Could be wrong.

    I personally, and maybe this is because I am a man who is allergic to pretty much anything that grows out of the ground, do not understand the point besides flowers. Other than the fact that they make women feel special when you give them to them. But giving them to me… Other than making me sneeze, I don’t see the point. They have no function.

    Wait, I’m negative thinking. Hold on while I replace that with a positive.

    Might need a while on this one.

  179. Nothing says you love someone than giving them a plant that is dying cos you ripped it out of the ground.

    Everybody say Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

  181. So is there any difference between jackmangan and Jack Mangan?

    On second thoughts don’t answer that.

    Shades of grey all round.

  188. How about the pale or dark beers in green bottles?

    Wow, it just occured to me that I own no green clothing. I guess thats because I DON’T LIKE THE COLOR GREEN.

    Thankfully I work in a much more mature office than I used to, so there won’t be any pinching going on.

    Kinda sad too, some of those girls are cute…

  193. Guinness like coffee is something I so want to like the taste of, alas I find the stuff vile.

    So no St. Patrick’s day for me then.

  194. I agree Van, whenever my husband drinks Guinness I call it coffee beer. I’m more of an IPA person myself.

    Happy B-Day Rhett’s daughter 🙂

  198. I just wrote a letter to Trinity United Church in Chicago supporting the statements made by Reverend Jeremiah Wright and decrying the media for their coverage of him.

    Feel free to lynch me if you wish. I for one feel the guy was right on the money.

  200. Wasn’t “Flowers for Algernon” about that mentally disabled guy that had surgery on his brain that made him run around daring people to knock batteries off his shoulder?

  201. I didn’t hear Reverend Wright’s speech, but my wife and I had a talk a few day’s ago about how it’s the media’s job to create scandal where there is none. Scandals sell ad time. =P

  204. Actually – I post as jackmangan, when I’m logged in, Jack Mangan when I’m just browsing here.

    Happy Monday/St. Pats/Rhett’s daughter’s birthday.

    I also haven’t heard the speech. I’m really only interested if he used the word, “honky”.

  207. There are two sermons I am aware of on Youtube, one is where Wright damns the US for being responsible for the 2001 Sept 11th attacks because of our foreign policy (which is accurate to say, more specifically our foreign policy with Isreal), and another where he says that Hillary Clinton has never been called a n***r or treated like a non-human. I dunno if thats accurate or not, but I think the spirit of the point is accurate.

    Were they nice things to say? Absolutely not. Where they politically correct? Probably not. Were they true? Hell yeah they were.

    But the media has also been saying he compared Barack Obama to Jesus Christ, and I have yet to see that come up in any of these video clips. I believe that allegation to be made up as of yet.

    The only thing I will say though, and I could have heard it wrong because he is clearly one of those fire and brimstone reverends, but I think he actually called Jesus black… Which, you know… He wasn’t white, he was Jewish, but… wow. *lol*

  208. There’s just a lot of muck raking on both sides. I didn’t think McCain got a fair shake when they were trying to pin the alledged affair on him. Why don’t we just stick with the indivual’s stances on the issues and leave it at that? Probably wouldn’t sell as many papers as “McCain’s aid has affair with Obama’s minister’s ex wife.” Or something. =P

  211. Well at least it doesn’t use 8 legs, that would be really creepy.

    But looks like big giant robots destroying Tokyo will be a reality sooner than most people think.

  217. I’m a Jew and if I told people I wasn’t white they would think I was a complete idiot. While there certainly are hereditary Jews there are also converts to Judaism. Approximately half of all Jewish marriages are mixed marriages. Even among hereditary Jews their Jews from northern Africa including Morocco. As well as Jews that come from Spain, although most of them were killed in the Inquisition. There are even Jews from Asia. While the largest percentage of Jews are Eastern Europeans most of those would simply appear to be white. There is a large number of Middle Eastern Jews as well. Other than mitochondrial DNA tests there are no real distinct facial or hereditary traits. And that’s even among hereditary Jews. The dirty secret among the Jewish community is that there are a large percentage of converts. And among the converts they marry other converts and further dilute the concept of hereditary Judaism. As far as what Jesus look like…

    I prefer the Joe Rogan opinion that Jesus is really a metaphor for some kind of psychedelic mushroom.

    The other concept I enjoy is the idea that Moses consulting a burning bush was simply Moses on pot. Which seems to be supported by a current scientific theory that mushrooms on Mount Sinai would make you trip balls.

    While most people want to argue over whether or not man has created God or God has created man, they forget that God is still in the equation either way. If you turn science into your religion you are still worshiping at the feet of something. Just as religion changes to meet the needs of the people at the moment so does science.

  218. By the way, I need to say I was wrong. I made a prediction that Obama would sweep Ohio and Texas. I completely fucked up. I was dead wrong and I want to publicly acknowledge my wrongness. I’m a big man. I will own up to my mistakes.

    That said if Hillary Clinton uses the superdelegates I’m going to vote for Senator McCain. Simply put it Hillary doesn’t trust the will of the people I see no difference between her and George Bush. At least McCain was hated by George Bush. I get the really weird sneaking suspicion that we are going to go to war with Iran regardless of whoever gets in power. This would be a third war when we can’t even afford the two were in now. They might as well start converting our money over to euros because the dollar will be worthless if we continue to borrow from China to support wars that make no sense.

    Would someone please tell me why we couldn’t put a hydrogen fuel cell car in every garage and build a hydrogen delivery infrastructure for the cost of this five year war.

  221. I like boobs too.

    Sigh. Haven’t really gotten caught up much. Oh well.

    Jack: I hate monetize in the same way that I hate companies, espcially consulting companies, that refer to people as bodies. “We need more bodies on this project.”

  224. Hi pan 🙂

    Alvie and Addie were on!!! *swoon*

    Hugh sez: *swoon2*

    I love it when Mr ditto swooon sez boobs. He can talk about my boobs all he wants

    Hugh sez: she does have nice boobs

    🙂

    We will be off the radar for a couple weeks. Everyone take care of each other please, and whats most importantly (heh) don’t be hatin

    Hugh sez: yeah, don’t be hatin

    l8r

  227. All that is left is god of the gaps, the god that lights the blue touch paper that starts off the big bang.

    Stop imposing the human pattern of birth-growth-death on the mutltiverse and even the notion of god of the gaps can be discarded.

  228. Morning Pan!

    Only a few days until we leave for Vegas and my poor hubby has caught a cold. As long as he doesn’t give it to me, I guess we’ll be ok 🙂

  231. Unfortunately it’s one of the hazards of his job. Working with so many kids, you’re always susceptible to various germs.

  241. Wow, Trucker poured out some heavy topics that are worthly of a thoughtful response. Good show.

    1. I never realized that about Jewish unions being mixed in such a way. It makes sense though.

    2.”While most people want to argue over whether or not man has created God or God has created man, they forget that God is still in the equation either way. If you turn science into your religion you are still worshiping at the feet of something. Just as religion changes to meet the needs of the people at the moment so does science.”

    Good point. I have a couple of takes on science. Science is about learning about the observable world through testable results. As such it teaches us a tremendous amount about the world around us, but tells us squat about things we can’t observe and can’t test. Science is also in many cases an abstraction of reality. We use mathimatical models, labels and such that are abstractions of the very things being studied, so at least on some level, the information gleened is incomplete. On the opposite end of the spectrum there are people so wrapped up in superstition and fancy, the can’t function the very real world around them.

    3.”That said if Hillary Clinton uses the superdelegates I’m going to vote for Senator McCain. Simply put it Hillary doesn’t trust the will of the people I see no difference between her and George Bush. At least McCain was hated by George Bush.”

    Obama still has my vote. But the way I see it, whoever wins out of three remaining candidates will be a big improvement over George W. But GWB set the bar so low, maybe that’s not saying much.

    So heres my overview of the candidates.

    Obama: Pluses – Strong leadership and ideals that mimick my own.
    Minuses – Can his ideas be implimented successfully, or will they contribute to more wasteful government spending, without advancing the issues they were meant too?

    Clinton: Pluses – Polictically connected, so she has a better network to get her ideas passed. Also good overall experience.

  242. Looks like WP is going make me split this into two parts. LOL

    Clinton: Minuses – Tied to some unsavory aspects of the Bill Clinton legacy, maybe to political connected to special interest to bring real change.

    McCain: Pluses – He is his own person, operates independantly from his party base. Good ideas for heathcare reform, less chances for tax increases if he got elected.

    Minuses – Probably wouldn’t sweep out the lackies that came in with GWB, many of the Replublican special interests that need to be spanked, wouldn’t be, so the potential for further abuse by the GWB legacy could continue.

    So that’s how I see it at the moment.

  243. “I get the really weird sneaking suspicion that we are going to go to war with Iran regardless of whoever gets in power.”

    Doubtful, whatever policitical will the American people may have had to sweep the Islamists out of Iran was spent on the botched Iraq war. Short of evidence of Iran having a long range plan to suicide bomb the US with nukes, I don’t see it happening. However, if Obama gets in, there’s a slight chance for a confrontation with Pakistan, but probably not an invasion.

    “Would someone please tell me why we couldn’t put a hydrogen fuel cell car in every garage and build a hydrogen delivery infrastructure for the cost of this five year war.”

    Well the short answer is it would cost a lot more than that to achieve it. As much as the war effort costed, it still only represents something like 1 to 2 percent of the GDP. I’m guessing that it would take something like 10 oercent to do what you are asking. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. Realistically we need to phase in a renewable infrastructure and odds are the pace of the free market won’t make it happen fast enough. Considering that the cost of oil has increased five times it’s cost over an eight year period of time, it makes one wonder why terrorism is number one on the list as a threat to national security. What if the collapse of the oil economy was? We need a effort akin to World War 2 to make us energy independant. For a hydrogen economy to work we need to upgrade our power grid. For our investment in the power grid to be sustainable, we need to invest in technologies that will be viable for the life the power plants.

    Ethanol from corn is a dead end and a waste of tax money.

    Ethanol from about any other landbased crop has a large water use issue as not to be practical.

    Ethanol from genetically engineered algae floating out on the ocean is promising.

    Solar plants in the southwest are commercially competitive with atomic energy. Wind power on the plains, wave power on the coasts.

    The US and China have lots of coal reserves, so clean coal is desirable and could be a 300 year solution.

    In the short term though, in order to avoid economic collapse we are going to have to bring the cost of oil and gas down. That means higher effiecency standards for cars, replacement of all oil burning power plants with something else, renewables being perferred, but even coal burning ones lower foreign oil consumption. We need to exploit our shale oil reserves in Colorado and we need more gas refineries. If we phase in flex fuel / plug-in hybrid cars we make oil have to compete on thus drive costs down.

    Okay I’m done rambling.

    Boobies FTW!

  244. There was an article about coal reserves in the New Scientist earlier this year.

    Basically the 300 year figure for coal reserves is a myth. Using Hubbert linearisation on reserves data, indicates that it’s probably half that for the US, alone. Even then the coal won’t be easy to get, since all the easy to get coal has been used up.

  245. Thanks for the thoughts, Rhett and Trucker.

    I tend to disagree about McCain. I used to think that he stood on his own 2 feet, but. . . . then we watched him spend 8 years shuffling up to the party line. He’s spent the past ten months trying to prove to Hannity and Coulter that he’s a “True Conservative”, rather than just laughing at their ridiculous Conservative Criteria. Honestly, I’m disappointed in him. I’d truly wanted to support him as an independent thinker.
    And the final strike against him: if he’d just accepted the offer to run as Kerry’s VP in 2004, then they’d have won. He had an opportunity to help save this country from another 4 years of Dubya, and he blew it.

    Boganzas.

  246. Well, it’s hard to predict. The question I’ve been asking myself is, “What is the life span of the typical powerplant. My feeling is that the next thirty years will be a transition period for the western world, first from foreign oil, then from fossil fuels altogether to renewable sources. Given the size of the installed enegy infrastructure, there is no way to replace it overnight. Current energy demands and tight supply are driving costs up, so if we don’t do anything to meet this current demand we risk a long lasting global depression. So short term we need to exploit the fossil resources we have to control costs as well as increase efficiencies. Long term we need to phase in renewables.

  247. I can’t argue with you there Jack, that’s the reason he is number 3 on my list. Of course on the other hand, if McCain doesn’t reach out to the conservative base, he has no chance against the democrates, it’s unsavory, but understandable.

  248. “Science is about learning about the observable world through testable results. As such it teaches us a tremendous amount about the world around us, but tells us squat about things we can’t observe and can’t test. Science is also in many cases an abstraction of reality.”

    From my point of view, science tells us how things (the world, nature, the universe) works. It doesn’t really give us answers as to why there is a universe. That’s faith/god.

    The Greeks didn’t distinguish between science, math, philosophy, metaphysics, or religion. We’ve made these important divisions as time went by simply because each answers different questions. Science can’t answer moral questions anymore than Religion can solve the 3 body problem.

    Only a zealot will follow one path to the exclusion of all else.

  249. “We’ve made these important divisions as time went by simply because each answers different questions. Science can’t answer moral questions anymore than Religion can solve the 3 body problem. ”

    Yep. 🙂

  253. “There of course the arguement that asking why is irrelevant and it’s only the how that is important.”

    That’s a matter of opinion. Mankind has long asked “Why am I here?” There’s certainly no reason why you should care but there’s also no reason why I should not.

  254. Were here to play Q-bert of course. LOL

    Does the ameoba floating around in my blood realize that it lives in a larger organism? Will it ever be capable of knowing it? Will it’s life be drastically altered with that knowledge? That’s kind of how I feel peering out into the void.

  255. How about “we’re” here. Don’t trust the galactic musings of a man who doesn’t understand the difference between “we’re” and “were.” LOL

  259. They were digging a new foundation in Manhattan
    And they discovered a slave cemetery there
    May their souls rest easy now that lynching is frowned upon
    And we’ve moved on to the electric chair

    And I wonder who’s gonna be president Tweedledum or tweedledumber?
    And who’s gonna have the big Blockbuster box office this summer?
    How ’bout we put up a wall between the houses and the highway?
    Then you can go your way And I can go my way

    Except all the radios agree with all the TVs
    And the magazines agree with all the radios
    And I keep hearing that same damn song everywhere I go!

    Maybe I should put a bucket over my head and a marshmallow in each ear
    And stumble around for another dumb numb week
    For another hum drum hit song to appear

    People used to make records as in a record of an event
    The event of people playing music in a room
    Now everything is cross-marketing
    It’s about sunglasses and shoes
    Or guns or drugs
    You choose

    We got it rehashed
    We got it half-assed
    We’re digging up all the graves
    And we’re spitting on the past
    And we can choose between the colors
    Of the lipstick on the whores
    Cuz we know difference
    Between the font of twenty percent more
    And the font of teriyaki
    You tell me how does it make you feel
    You tell me what’s real

    And they say that alcoholics are always alcoholics
    Even when they’re as dry as my lips for years
    Even when they’re stranded on a small desert island
    With no place in two thousand miles to buy beer

    And I wonder is he different is he different
    Has he changed what he’s about?
    Or is he just a liar with nothing to lie about?

    Am I’m headed for the same brick wall?
    Is there anything I can do about anything at all?

    Except go back to that corner in Manhattan
    And dig deeper
    Dig deeper this time
    Down beneath the impossible pain of our history
    Beneath the unknown bones
    Beneath the bedrock of the mystery
    Beneath the sewage system and the path train
    Beneath the cobblestones and the water main
    Beneath the traffic of friendships and street deals
    Beneath the screeching of kamikaze cab wheels
    Beneath everything I can think of to think about
    Beneath it all
    Beneath all get out
    Beneath the good and the kind and the stupid and the cruel
    There’s a fire just waiting for fuel

    Ani DiFranco — Fuel

  260. My kingdom for a ‘

    Or what’s an ‘ between deadpanites!

    Not only is there no man behind the curtain there is no curtain.

    Well that’s my excuse for not replacing the shower curtain…

  261. Time to shoot the grammar demon with a quad photon laser phaser:

    Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapppppppppppppppp!

  272. Wow. Just watched (listened to) the speech.

    Barack may have just elevated himself from my “lessor of the evil’s” category.
    He may have actually just become someone I can vote for.
    What a weird feeling.

  275. Indeed. Though, I’m just going to have to pretend that 3001 never happened.

    Man, I’m going to have to put 2010 back in my video queue. I never caught this:

    “At the start of the movie 2010, Dr. Heywood Floyd is engaged in a conversation in front of the White House. Clarke is the man feeding the pigeons to the left of the shot. Later on in the movie, in the hospital scene where Mrs. Bowman dies, the cover of Time shows a photograph of Clarke as the American president, and one of Kubrick as the Russian Premier.”

  276. Morning Pan!

    It’s a beautiful day in the city. The sky is all pink and pretty.

    -and oh, yeah. 4 days to holidays!

  277. In today’s news…

    Sydney – A man in Australia is auctioning his life – his house, his job, his clothes and his friends – on eBay, after his marriage broke up, saying he wants to start a new life.
    “It’s time to move. A completely fresh start. I want to see where life takes me,” Ian Usher, 44, told Australian television yesterday from Perth
    Usher said he was auctioning his life as “a package” with his house in Perth valued at around $385,000.
    “Hi there, my name is Ian Usher, and i have had enough of my life! I don’t want it anymore! You can have it fi you like!” reads his website http://www.alife4sale.com, which has a link to eBay for bidders.”

    -Calgary Sun.

    Does his friends and boss know they’re being auctioned off? “Take my wife, please”

  278. Did you know…

    A cat lover is called an ailurophile and a cat hater is called an ailurophobe.

    Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to morn the death of their cats.

    Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

    Every human being spent about half an hour as a single cell.

    -Calgary Sun

    (some humans are still single cell organisms)

  282. Pretty cool, Ed. I had no idea.
    I’ll have to check out the song at home later.

    Obama’s speech was strong. Good for him for not kowtowing to pressure. Now he should pick Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate.

  283. Was never much of a fan of Clarke’s collaborations, personally his last great novel was Fountains of Paradise for me..full of great ideas.

  285. Rendezvous with Rama was the first Clarke book that I really really enjoyed.

    I’d read some of the others, everybody’s read 2001 or thats the way it seemed… but there was something extra about the ideas in Rama that just seemed to work. The sequel was ok…but after that the idea seemed to dilute itself. Maybe i was just more of an Asimovian guy.

  303. 2001 a Space Odyssey

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_%28novel%29

    I’ve lost count to how many times I’ve read this novel. Although I was interested in scifi shows like the Outer Limits, UFO and Space 1999 as a kid, didn’t start reading scifi till I was much older. Started off with novelizations of movies (like Alien and The Black Hole), then after reading 2001 started collecting other ACC novels and branched off into other other authors like Harry Harrison and Joe Haldeman.

  304. Vanamonde Arthur C. Clarke asplosion!

    Van, have you ever read Songs of Distant Earth? Or more specifically, have you ever heard the Mike Oldfield album, “Songs of Distant Earth”, based on the book? Excellent, if you dig Mike Oldfield-y type of stuff.

  310. From the wiki entry:

    On 26 May 2000 he was made a Knight Bachelor[18] “for services to literature” at a ceremony in Colombo.[19] The award of a knighthood had been announced in the 1998 New Year Honours,[20] but investiture of the award had been delayed, at Clarke’s request, because of an accusation, by the British tabloid The Sunday Mirror, of paedophilia, which was, however, found to be baseless by Sri Lankan police and retracted by the paper soon after.[21][22][23][24][25][26]

  317. Well, with all the talk of this Obama speech yesterday, I figure I should at least listen to it to be informed.

    I’ve dowloaded it from Youtube and converted and put it on my Ipod. I plan to watch/listen to it tonight while I workout at the gym tonight.

    Multitasking is the way.

  320. I bought the album the same year the Shoemaker-Levy comet collided with Jupiter. I also was fortunate enough to meet Levy at the Ottawa observatory at that time. The album brings back fond memories.

  321. It appears the speech wasn’t enough to get the talking heads to shut up, even though theres a lovely mortgage crisis with Government bailing out banks and weather destroying Atlanta that they can be covering. I feel an urge to fly to Atlanta and stab Amy Holmes with an ice pick. Unfortunately that would be a race crime.

    The new speculation is that while McCain won’t touch the subject with a ten foot pole, there will be plenty of independent parties throwing ads on television attacking him over it in the general election.

  327. Pingback: johnny cash leave your guns at home

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