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POPSFrench Atomic Bomb Test Photos from 1968 Never-before-seen 40-year-old pictures of French atomic bomb tests have surfaced on the internet and they are simultaneously beautiful and terrifying. The epitome of historical human achievement and wanton destruction combined in one split-second. These are four scanned pictures of hardcopies I possess of the French nuclear test codenamed Canopus, which was fired on 24th August 1968 in the Fangataufa Atoll. The French army had those pictures taken on site. Full-size links: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 .
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POPSGIANT Crystals! Uh, yeah, I know, it's a stupid title and I normally have something more cerebral to say, but this is just plain cool. I wonder what could possibly explain my fascination with these crystals?
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POPSGiant Turkey Chases Boston Woman, Pecks Bottom Repeatedly When dispatched to the scene of a turkey, Verrier offers advice instead. He tells people not to feed them, not to be intimidated by them, and to keep their distance. Still, some people cannot help themselves. They need to be near the turkeys. Distance-shmistance, we want to be near the turkeys. I, for one, am against the city of Boston trying to regulate mutually consensual human-turkey behavior. A light ass-pecking never hurt anyone, am I right? Even though this incident happened right near my apartment, I have not been lucky enough to experience any super-sized turkeys on my errands, sadly. Look at the size of that sucker...he's gotta be like 12 feet tall! :)
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POPSJodie Comes Out Guess what conservative America? There are so many gays and lesbians in your own families. In fact, I doubt there's on American family today that doesn't count at least one gay or lesbian member somewhere in its ranks. Count them--and then love them. Isn't it totally un-Christ-like to turn against your own son or daughter, or brother or sister, just because he or she happens to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual? What difference does it make? He may be gay, but he's still your son. She may be a lesbian, but she's still your daughter. Sure, evangelical ministers and conservative politicians will continue to denounce homosexuality from the pulpit and urge parishioners to join them in denying equal rights to gays and lesbians. And some poor misguided souls will blindly agree. But their hate speech will eventually fail, as people realize those attacks are directed against the people they love the most, their family members.
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POPSPolitical Junkies: Why it Feels Good to Be an Extremist In The Political Brain , psychologist Drew Western summarizes fMRI experiments exploring the neuro-psychology of systematic bias and rationalization in the brains of political extremists. Finding ways to dismiss contradictory evidence triggers pleasant emotional releases in partisans' brains, eventually becoming a pleasurable, learned behavior. Once partisans had found a way to reason to false conclusions, not only did neural circuits involved in negative emotions turn off, but circuits involved in positive emotions turned on. The partisan brain didn't seem satisfied in just feeling better. It worked overtime to feel good, activating reward circuits that give partisans a jolt of positive reinforcement for their biased "reasoning." These reward circuits overlap substantially with those activated when drug addicts get their "fix," giving new meaning to the term political junkie.
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POPSRediculous Propaganda from FEMA FEMA is a disaster all its own. The next president will need to give them a serious overhaul! Of all the people who shouldn't be afraid to face an ugly situation, it's FEMA's job to face disasters, not create them! Scolding is not enough for this. They should all lose their jobs. Immediately. Once again this shows that the administration only cares about pats on the back and looking out for its own interests, not in actually getting things done. Which is probably why in the last 6 years, Bush has achieved nothing except for ardent self-congratulation. These people are totally insufferable politicians! On a side note, the state department is having trouble filling positions at the Iraqi embassy. I can't think of a better place for Bush and his cronies to serve their retirements. Maybe they might actually do something for their country!
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POPSMerry Clipsmas! Austin's favorite Eggnog Recipe! T'wil soon be Clipsmas, and t'is the season for reflective discussion, contemplative reading, somewhere between the smoky fire and icy window, preferably sinking into a soft worn-out arm chair. And what could be better for contemplative discussion than heart-stopping quantities of alcohol and heavy cream? Because I can't physically share a glass with you all, but love everyone none the less, in the esprit de Clipsmass, here's my favorite Eggnog Recipe, inaugurating my food blog! Please drink responsibly. Friends don't let friend drink and clip!
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POPSDiscovered: Artifacts from the First Temple of Solomon I think the time has come to open up these areas to tastefull, scholastic investigation, so that we can organize and preserve the relics that may be contained here in. Religion need not be at odds with the accumulation of humanistic knowledge, in fact religious significance is often a great complement to the field of archeology, as is archeology to important aspects of ancient religious history.
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POPSNothing Lasts Forever, Not Even Belgium Belgium: the country where other European countries go to fight their apocalyptic wars. Flemish: Somehow not quite Dutch, but only they can tell the difference. Waffles: Yum. Endives: Not as boring as lettuce. White asparagus: whiter than regular asparagus, I guess. Eels in garlic sauce: okay, now that's taking it a bit too far... Yes, for those who thought you could take things for granted, and who just assumed that such a stalwart pillar of modern nationhood as Belgium would be around forever: prepare for extreme-right xenophobic "Flemish" nationalist Filip (Philip to those filthy Wallonians) Dewinter to rock your world: "It's 'bye-bye Belgium' time!" Indeed, it is a sad day for humanity, and a bitter personal defeat for me, being as I had long argued that Chocolate and Beer were in fact enough to keep a nation of feuding and indistinguishable ethnic groups together. Guess I can't be right all the time!
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POPSJapanese Fashion: Paranoid + Crazy + Stupid This is just weird on weird with weird sauce! I've always been amused by the fact that people who live in safe countries are often the most afraid of crime, but this goes far beyond the mere synchronicity of bourgeois ennui and paranoia. While this will probably be a big hit at the Peter R. H. Sellers Memorial School for Espionage and Sleuthing, I can't imagine how impossibly stupid someone would have to be to ACTUALLY fall for it. LOOK! You can see her sneakers sticking out from the bottom of the "vending machine!" Can you imagine someone hiding in this? There is something really messed up with Japan these days, on a monumentally surreal level!
13
POPSBut the Chinese Don't Eat Fortune Cookies!!!! The funny thing is that there are no fortune cookies in China. I just spent the whole day trying to explain them to a class full of Chinese college students, and they just could not understand what the point was. A number of them thought it sounded kind of dumb! I for one have always wanted cynical fortune cookies that say things like: "Confucius say: Vinnie will be waiting for you out front, take the back door!" "This is bad week for operate heavy machinery for you" "Now is good time to buy life insurance, while you still can." or simply: "Duck!"
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POPSRubens was right? Overweight People Live Longer? Not dying today basically just means you'll die later. (Citation: The Onion, Our Dumb Century: US Mortality Rate Holding Steady at 100%) So I would be really interested in seeing how they crunch the numbers on "Death Rates." How they account for things like age and inevitability. For instance, aren't most really old people under-weight? As life goes on, most of the people I've seen either bloat up (Marlon Brando) or wither away (George Burns) so it would seem unlikely that the people who are at the time in their life where dying is a reality might be merely overweight. What we need is statistics tracking death rates based on a person's weight at a give age, such as 15, 25 or 45, that way we can see how life-long weight may affect a person's life expectancy. Seems like this is more skewing of the numbers to try to convince Americans they can have their cake and eat a lot of it too. On the other hand, it can't hurt to be jolly!
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POPSReality Shows Bring Out The Worst in All of Us While relaxing on my day off work I just wanted to tune in and turn off. I got stuck in "A shot of love with Tila Tequila" marathon. All the elements here big time, but a new twist. Bisexuality and a "social experiment". Who would Tila pick? More importantly, who would want Tila I asked myself. But that's another question. Would she pick a woman or a man? Would she break out of her heterosexual world? Or would she stick with the safe, the familiar? Was she using her coming out of the closet for a gimmick? (debby thinks so) So, I had to watch the season finale last night. *LOL* I fell asleep and my poor husband had to endure it! Of course, she picked the guy. DUH. I could see lesbians being upset, and heterosexuals being vindicated. And bisexuals? OMG, this has done NOTHING for their image. I need to stick to PBS.
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POPSLame Duck, or Just Lame? Okay, so there have been people like me on the left, saying that Bush is ruining the economy, and there have been people on the right saying the economy is great for the last 7 years. Very rarely has history been so swift to vindicate a particular side. What amazes me is that there are still people out there who are using the same rose-tinted glasses, taking the rose colored pills, and then drinking the rose-flavored kool-aide as the economy goes down in flames. And you know what bugs me? Even after all of this, unmitigated disaster, there are still going to be people who argue with me that Bush's economic policies have helped the country. If anyone checked, his vaunted "business experience" consisted mostly of driving profitable companies into Chapter 7. Guess what? He did the exact same thing with our country! Maybe next time we can pick a SUCCESSFUL businessman for president!
9
POPSOuyangwulong's Travel Plans Okay, so on my next bit of vacation, Marszal and I are going from Hotan, in Xinjiang, accross the Taklamakan Desert to Kashgar on the Pakistani border. We'll cross the Karakorum Pass, over the Pamir and Karakorum mountain ranges north of Nanga Parabat and K2, then chill out along the North West frontier by Afghanistan. That at least, was the plan, untill I checked the local news, and HOLY COW! I mean, I can deal with terrorism and anti-government riots, but dude, wolves eating children? That's just messed up! By the way, does anyone have any good restaurant recommendations in Northern Pakistan?
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POPSHow To Tell If You're Being Followed Are you being tailed? How do you know what to look out for? Use this handy guide to see if they're really watching you or if it's all in your head. If you want to identify a tail, look at their shoes: they are hard to change. Move frequently between crowded and empty places: this forces them to keep closing for fear of losing you, drawing back, then closing again. This makes them conspicuous. But don't jump on or off trains just before the doors close--that's for the movies; and anyway, a good surveillance team will already have someone on the train, as well as on the platform. (Via Jason Kottke.)
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POPSSad Sad Satire: Stephen Colbert & Fred Thompson Stephen Colbert is a master of pointed satire, but it's easy to lose track of the central point in all his showmanship. Lest we forget, there IS a TV personality seriously running for president, who announced his candidacy on a comedy talk show on the same network that carried his own program. By running his fiercely ignorant, populist, right-wing TV persona in the race Colbert satires the right wing preference for an unqualified everyman, and suspicion of education, experience and intelligence. Look at their criticisms of not just Gore or Kerry, but also Dukakis, Mondale, Carter, McGovern, all the way back to Adlai Stevenson! What makes this satire so sad is that there is just such a person actually running! Apparently, Democrats know running a TV personality is a joke, Republicans take it seriously.
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POPSTaiwan's Interesting Democracy A democracy, you say? One where the people are concerned about the appearance of impropriety, you say? Impossible, I say, impossible! But it's true! And it's in Taiwan. They actually raise valid concerns about conflicts of interest in high government officials - before the corruption scandal, not after! How come we never thought of that? This blows a giant hole in the "Asian Values" argument, that dictatorship and corruption are inherent elements of "The Asian Mind" that cannot be changed. (Go suck on that one, Lee Kuan Yew!) But seriously, given the track record of the current Taiwanese first-lady, I would say it's better that Chow keeps her job, because this way she won't have to embezzle from the government when she wants to buy new earrings!
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POPSRepublicans who like Spankings (a year of fond memories) Oh you sexy sexy conservative big boys, gay-bashing by day and lurking in mens bathrooms by night - so naughty! Good to know that deep down inside theres a little rainbow in all of you. Oh yeah and check out Haggards ripped boyfriend - would of figured him the top type but guess I called that wrong! This isn't mature content this is a serious trend in conservative politics. Seriously now, allegations and confessions are piling up I just picked out the four biggest profile cases, don't be surprised if there are more. Not all these guys are proved guilty but you read it and evaluate it. Look around - new republicans on the block? Do you feel safe as a homophobic straight man? By the way anyone wanna pitch in on making a Republican Hotties 2008 calender?
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POPSGay Tourism in Buenos Aries: Fabuous! Actually, now that they put it that way, I guess it does make sense. I mean, if your city is famous for dancing and swarthy, mustachioed, meat-eating men, well, honestly, gay tourism does sound like your best bet. I'm still cracking up over this picture. I can imagine the photographer saying "Okay, now I want you to all look really really gay! ... No! no! no! Not gay enough! You, in the back, unbutton your shirt, and the rest of you, elbows in, wrists out! There you go! Perfect!"
6
POPSTrue Political Waffling: Belgian Civil War Averted! Thank goodness Belgium has been rescued from political obscurity and irrelevance! Is anyone impressed by the fact that Belgium just didn't need it's government for 6 months? Imagine if that had happened in America? We'd be looting Wallmart on day 3. (Although I, personally, would be looting Wallmart on day 0, because that's what I do on my spare time.) At any rate, waffle lovers (and I suppose swift boat veterans for truth) can now rest easy. The feud between Flanders and Wallonia, ostensibly over why Dr. Seuss was allowed to name their territories, can finally be laid to rest! Except for that they hate each other, and there's a ridiculous wealth gap, and they are both presumably frustrated by their own irrelevance.
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POPSAnd Now, The Honeymoon "Either way, when it comes down to it, equal rights should always trump politics in my book. The "right of two adults who share a loving relationship to join together to establish an officially recognized family of their own—and, if the couple chooses, to raise children within that family—constitutes a vitally important attribute of the fundamental interest in liberty and personal autonomy that the California Constitution secures to all persons for the benefit of both the individual and society."
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POPSGlobal Warming opens up new trade route? This is probably going to mean some positive feedback cycles in the albido affect and possibly mess with some polar bears...but on the other hand any bets as to when its going to get opened up for ecotourism? Also I wonder how this will affect the whole debate over ANWAR, with increased year round sea access?
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POPSCase in point: Messed Up British People So, this guy is addicted to sex and drugs and doesn't know when to draw the line? And he's British? Hey, I bet he would love a nice vacation in Greece! But seriously, his perspective at the end, about comics helping the audience to empathize with something strange, is really insightful and good advice to all artists and writers.
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POPSCoffee Corrupts America's Youth We can all laugh at Starbucks' typically popmpus token gesture of contrition. (Yeah, blame the barristas! Not whatever idiot designed all those weird factory-made collage panels on the walls of every Starbucks from Timbuktu to Taipei!) But what really frightens me is that American 16 year olds are using words like "stigma" while lamenting the metaphysical condition of the chain-cafe that provides the fix to keep their caffeine addiction at bay. Shouldn't they be busy drag racing hot rods around Dead-Man's-Curve? Or Rebelling without a Cause? Is the "stigma of commercialism" now one of the many bewildering social concerns brought on by puberty?
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POPSApparently, India Rules, while the rest of us drool Check this out, you bunch of nomadic forest dwellers! You think you're all high and mighty just because you all invented toilet paper? Not only did India invent math, food and breathing, they also invented Snakes & Ladders! Take that, British Empire! And they never invaded a country in 10,000 years. It almost makes sense, if you can force yourself to think of India as a single nation with a single people.
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POPSFlight Of Fancy I was just thinking about putting my feeder out this weekend so I could watch them. :) Aren't they simply amazing?
4
POPSOfficial Shotgun Rules There are a lot more situation-related rules at the source. Never again will people not know why they lost the coveted front passenger seat. :)
4
POPSThe Problem With Communism: From Monty Python to Nepal
In my opinion, the global failure of Communism can be attributed more or less directly to the fact that Communists have a unique propensity for murdering each other. Almost all communist thinkers of any note were inevitably murdered, executed, or exiled to some frozen hinterland by their fellow communists. I am hard pressed to think of any other ideological movement that so consistently kills all it's most talented proponents. It is striking, the extent to which these dogmatic idealists are themselves fatally venal, intolerant, capricious, and transparently greedy. It is too bad to see this sort of thing still going on, and threatening the fragile new Nepali government. What is more, it is shocking that in the 21st Century there are still those who are naive enough to subscribe to such an ideology. I have to admit, while I think I can understand terrorists, I don't know if I'll ever figure out Communists. Therefore, I resort to the Life of Brian for further analysis.
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