Because You Demanded It...

Salvador Dali walking his anteater:

Have You Seen This Man?

Details of this fascinating internet hoax, er, phenomenon here.

Set Phasers To Stupid

Please forgive me, this is a little bit of a geek rant.

So I came across this story somehow, I dunno what happened, I just woke up and it was on my computer. Honest. Anyway, fascinating article.

But something about the cover, really, really pisses me off. Well, in a pretend kind of way. Take a look.


Did you catch it? Are you as outraged as I am? Ok, here's one more look.

You saw it, right? Ok, just in case you're blind, here it is:


This is Battlestar Galactica, not Star Trek, you halfwit genre ignorant savages at Maxim magazine! Get it right.

Winter Is Coming...

A coupla years ago I thought to myself, "hey, I'm a geek. How come I never read any fantasy novels?" So I started looking around to see which modern series/books were the most highly regarded, and I came across the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin. I picked up the first book, A Game of Thrones, and let's just say I was hooked.

I've actually been re-reading the series these past few weeks, and just as when I first flew through the novels, some of the characters' argot has started to creep into my internal dialogues. I jokingly "swear by the old gods and the new," from time to time, for example. As I said, I'm a geek.

I highly recommend picking up the novels for yourself, even though the fourth is a bit of a letdown in the series and the fifth, which was supposed to be released years ago, is still unfinished segun the author's website. It's quite a wild ride.

Too busy to read? Intimidated by the hundreds of character names? Illiterate? Well, then, fear not, because HBO is here to help. A new series based on the first novel is beginning production this week, and it could be the next big HBO-thing, a la Rome or the Sopranos. Images of the actors portraying the principal characters were also released, see below:

I Knew It All Along

I am the worst man in the history of the planet. So says Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister in his new book, according to Reuters.

Modern men are weaker, slower, and don't even think about trying to compare our spear throwing skillz to those of our forebears. Were we magically transported back a few thousand years we'd miss out on all the best mammoth meat and would have to settle for whatever our swifter cousins deigned to share with us.

It seems reasonable, logical, even, and I'm sure this d00d has all sorts of watertight evidence to back up his claims, I mean, let's just take a look at this first one mentioned in the article:

"An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men, dubbed T8, shows he reached speeds of 37 kph on a soft, muddy lake edge. Bolt, by comparison, reached a top speed of 42 kph during his then world 100 meters record of 9.69 seconds at last year's Beijing Olympics.

In an interview in the English university town of Cambridge where he was temporarily resident, McAllister said that, with modern training, spiked shoes and rubberized tracks, aboriginal hunters might have reached speeds of 45 kph."

Oh, ok, I see, every human alive today is definitely slower than every human (or human ancestor) from the past because of some sun-baked footprints in the Australian outback and the supposition that with training and shoes and rubber tracks and whatnot Aboriginal Hunter X might be faster than Mr. Bolt, the current world record holder. Wow, what a rock solid foundation upon which to build your thesis, Dr. McAllister.

And there's something I bet those fleet footed Aboriginals didn't have: sarcasm. I don't care how fast you are you can't outrun a cutting remark.

McAllister also backs up his claims with some decades old German photography and the delightfully droll image of a stout Neanderthal woman arm-wrestling Arnold Schwarzanegger (sp) from the Conan the Barbarian days - I shit you not, read the damn article. Suffice it to say, I'm not sold.

Just because a great number of men in developed countries have loosened their belts and let their javelin tossing skillz slide does not mean we are lacking in potential when compared to our less civilized ancestors. Besides, overall this kind of development is a good thing. Am I supposed to be ashamed that I know more about trigonometry than I do about killing a tiger?

Fuck you, McAllister, on behalf of men everywhere.