Parking Orbit

Jean-Paul Beavers Images

2009-02-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Jean-Paul Beavers

2009-02-07T11:23:00.000-08:00

Drain back-up

2008-12-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

NYC subway vent art

2008-12-27T10:38:00.001-08:00

v838 Monocerotis Planetary Nebula Time Lapse

2008-12-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

Lunar Transit of Earth

2008-11-23T14:03:00.001-08:00

Gap Cyclone, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia -- Nov 18, 2008

2008-11-23T01:46:00.000-08:00

Fireball over Edmundton, Ont, Canada

2008-11-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

Spiders in Space!

2008-11-21T09:03:00.001-08:00

Another Solar System

2008-11-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

The moving dot in the images is a planet about three times the size of Jupiter orbiting Fomalhaut at about 12 AU.

How big is a whale?

2008-11-12T17:46:00.000-08:00

O'Leary, O'Reilly, O'Hare and O'Hara, There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama

2008-11-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

Star Wars: The Madrigal

2008-11-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

Man and Machine

2008-11-03T11:45:00.001-08:00

Watch CBS Videos Online

Diet 77 cat, now with more fur!

2008-11-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

DIY nuclear reactor

2008-11-01T19:24:00.001-07:00

The French Space Program

2008-10-24T10:45:00.001-07:00

REMI GAILLARD MARCHE SUR LA LUNE
by nqtv

Air Fish

2008-10-20T14:29:00.001-07:00

Air Art from flip on Vimeo.

Reidar Finstrud's Perpetual Motion Machine

2008-10-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what happens to a truck with a propane tank in its bed when it catches fire?

2008-10-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

Caught!

2008-10-11T18:39:00.001-07:00

Falcon I: World's First Private Rocket Reaches Orbit

2008-10-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

"My fellow prioners?!"

2008-10-08T15:08:00.001-07:00

A Tornado is Born

2008-10-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Landslide!

2008-10-04T11:57:00.001-07:00

Homer Votes for McCain

2008-10-03T09:41:00.001-07:00

Saw Cuts Anything But Fingers

2008-10-03T09:33:00.001-07:00

http://view.break.com/291378 - Watch more free videos

Neutrophil Phagocytosis: A White Blood Cell Pursues and Captures a Bacterium

2008-10-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

Yes We Can!

2008-10-02T17:01:00.001-07:00

Giant Mechanical Spider Invades Liverpool!

2008-10-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

Spotlight: Giant Mechanical Spider Attacks City - video powered by Metacafe

Solenoid Rhythm

2008-10-01T00:07:00.000-07:00

The Historic Flight of Falcon One

2008-09-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

The Rise and Fall of the TV Journalist

2008-09-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

You Broke It, You Bought It! The Bailout is...

2008-09-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

Two Trains Collide

2008-09-26T13:26:00.001-07:00

The Joker Talks Some Sense!

2008-09-26T00:02:00.000-07:00

This Is Just Wrong!

2008-09-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

Maglev Model Train

2008-09-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

Roll-Up Bridge

2008-09-22T22:57:00.001-07:00

Mysteries of the Finance Revealed!

2008-09-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

Total Perspective Vortex

2008-09-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

How - Watch more amazing videos here

The Musical Road

2008-09-21T22:06:00.001-07:00

Invention of the Internet in France in 1934

2008-09-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

Live from New York It's... John McCain

2008-09-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Now How Much Would You Pay?! Wait! Don't Answer Yet...

2008-09-21T12:35:00.001-07:00

It's All in How You Look at It

2008-09-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Bill O'Reilly: Arrogant, Ignorant Idiot

2008-09-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

Did That Cat Just Move?

2008-09-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

The Contrast: McCain and Obama

2008-09-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

From the Jedreport.com.

Oktapodi

2008-09-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

oktapodi from inkman on Vimeo.

Some Raw Pink Floyd -- Oakland (Calif.) Colliseum Arena, May 9, 1977

2008-09-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

John McCain Reveals the Real John McCain

2008-09-20T12:27:00.001-07:00

A Lovely, Crazy Man

2008-09-18T23:26:00.001-07:00

The Strange Tale of the Last Man to Leave the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001 as Told to Rosie O'Donnell Who Won't Shut Up and Let Him Talk Already!

2008-09-17T22:28:00.002-07:00

Why I'm Voting for Barack Obama

2008-09-17T22:28:00.001-07:00

Sure, maybe it's horsecrap but it sounds a hell of a lot better than anything I've heard in the last nine years or so.

John McCain's Ads Answered

2008-09-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything genuinely political here before, but this should be seen by everyone of voting age. While the video clearly has a pro-Obama bias, the gap between what McCain's ads say and what evidence shows to be true needs to be in every voter's awareness so they might make the best choice possible.

Buddy Rich Drum Solo from 1970

2008-09-11T00:34:00.000-07:00

More Cowbell!

2008-09-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

Drive up the cowbell content of any mp3 to maximum! Add as much Christopher Walken as you can stand!


	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

Star Wars: The Belly Dance

2008-09-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

Double Feature: How to Hack an Evoting Machine!

2008-09-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Don Pettit Experiments with Water in Microgravity

2008-09-07T22:51:00.000-07:00

SloMo Flies

2008-09-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

Memory Artist

2008-09-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/

What do you know? How do you know it?

2008-09-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Uncle Sam & 9/11

2008-09-04T23:15:00.001-07:00

Astrobiology Rap with DJ Oort Kuiper

2008-09-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

One Asteroid Strike Can Ruin Your Whole Day

2008-09-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

Star Wars Auditions

2008-08-31T19:45:00.000-07:00

Kurt Russel as Han Solo?!

It almost makes sense, but this...

Robby Benson as Luke Skywalker?!

Thank the Maker that didn't happen! And this! Yikes...

Cindy Williams as Princess Leia?!

She did much better in Milwaukee with Laverne. These next couple are more like it, especially with Harrison Ford reading the Solo part:

Carry Fisher's Princess Leia Audition

Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker Audition

You can see why George Lucas picked Fisher and Hamill.

World's fastest Mona Lisa

2008-08-29T11:52:00.001-07:00

Extreme Close-up!

2008-08-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Zoom into Concrete
Uploaded by Weird_Weird_Science

Los Lobos -- Kiko and the Lavender Moon

2008-08-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

Kiko and the Lavender Moon is one of my favorite songs. "Haunting" is the word that best describes this underappreciated, magical song from Los Lobos' 1992 album Kiko.

Richard Dawkins reads his email

2008-08-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

And Christians wonder why they have trouble being taken seriously. Can't you just hear the warmth of Christian forgiveness in these messages from the faithful?

What do you mean you don't know who Richard Dawkins is?!

Prunes of the Future!

2008-08-23T17:43:00.000-07:00

Ray Bradbury: "I never mentioned prunes in any of my stories!"

Cats on Treadmills

2008-08-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

Apparently, cats love treadmills. Who knew? Weirder still, their owners love filming their cats on treadmills.

Here's a sampler of some of my favorite cats on treadmills videos. Enjoy!

Front end only kitty (with show-off partner)

Nonviolent resister kitty

A matched set

Middle-aged kitty with techno beat

Poor Humphrey

The ol' switcheroo*

*I know, technically not a treadmill, but it's the spirit that matters.

Haven't had enough? My gift to you!

Group Mind 3D Photos

2008-08-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

These guys have whipped up software that combines images of popular places taken by otherwise unrelated photographers into simulated 3D landscapes. The really cool part is being able to use the landscapes to feature your own photos of famous landmarks. Watch the video and then check out this website.

Fast as lightning!

2008-08-07T13:48:00.001-07:00

This is just utterly cool...

The Time of No Microwave

2008-07-31T22:44:00.000-07:00

Dad! The microwave's on fire!

Those were the words that heralded a new era in our home: The Time of No Microwave.

How, you may be asking yourself--or not asking yourself, I really don't care, but this kind of writing works better if it seems like I've got an easy rapport with you--did we manage to survive without a microwave? Turns out it's pretty easy. In fact, we still don't have one, and we don't want one, either. Microwave ovens, along with HFCS, are part of the Axis of Fat that's turned America into the Home of the Lard-asses. They are an insidious evil and must be dealt with accordingly.

These, then, are my top reasons for not owning a microwave oven:

They're a safety hazard. Anything in the kitchen that can bust into flames is bad news. I have only my own experience here from which to draw, but I'm a quick study when comes to getting burned up.
They make coffee an all-day habit. Not only is this hard on the nerves, it costs money, too. Topping it all off, I'm an insufferable asshole when I've had too much caffeine.
Here's the most important reason for getting rid of your microwave: They only cook junk. OK, sure there are some things you can cook in a microwave that might even be considered gourmet fare, but most of the crap that comes out of them is either wrapped in a tortilla or covered in nacho cheese. One word: hot-dogs. And, again, not only is that stuff bad for your body and mind, it's hard on the wallet, as well.
Microwave ovens suck down a lot of juice. Besides the wattage they draw when they're in use, most microwaves have LED clocks and other internal electronics that never shut off. This one kind of pisses me off. Where do these manufacturers get off introducing features that cost me money without telling me about it? And, it's not just your microwave that's leading power and money, but that's another rant.
Your microwave is just another damn thing you have to clean.
You don't really need the thing. Water boils on the stove top as fast or faster than in a microwave. Fresh coffee tastes better. Pizza actually tastes as good as when it was delivered if you reheat it in a regular oven.
Microwave popcorn tastes like crap. Invest in a hot-air popper and melt the butter (not that poisonous margarine) on the stove top. And use as much salt as you like. Your sodium intake is way down since you stopped eating hot-dogs and microwave burritos.
They take up counter space. Unless you've got a built-in. In that case they take up potential cupboard space. And, there's no way to unplug the energy sucking beasts if they're built right into the wall.
They're noisy. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Bing!
Radiation! OK, I know it's not ionizing radiation and won't harm me in any way unless I actually get in the microwave, but I just had to throw that in there.

Photo, which has nothing to do with a burning appliance but does show a microwave out of its natural environment so it kind of fits, by Beige Alert.

If you'll look out the left side of the plane...

2008-07-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

L-4-eye view of Earth and Moon

2008-07-17T22:15:00.000-07:00

"A fresh cup of really hot tea"

2008-07-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

The Infinite Improbability Drive is a wonderful new method of crossing vast interstellar distances in a mere nothingth of a second, without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace.

It was discovered by a lucky chance, and then developed into a governable form of propulsion by the Galactic Government's research team on Damogran.

This, briefly, is the story of its discovery.

The principle of generating small amounts of finite improbability by simply hooking the logic circuits of a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a strong Brownian Motion producer (say a nice hot cup of tea) were of course well understood - and such generators were often used to break the ice at parties by making all the molecules in the hostess's undergarments leap simultaneously one foot to the left, in accordance with the Theory of Indeterminacy.

Many respectable physicists said that they weren't going to stand for this - partly because it was a debasement of science, but mostly because they didn't get invited to those sort of parties.

Another thing they couldn't stand was the perpetual failure they encountered in trying to construct a machine which could generate the infinite improbability field needed to flip a spaceship across the mind-paralysing distances between the furthest stars, and in the end they grumpily announced that such a machine was virtually impossible.

Then, one day, a student who had been left to sweep up the lab after a particularly unsuccessful party found himself reasoning this way:

If, he thought to himself, such a machine is a virtual impossibility, then it must logically be a finite improbability. So all I have to do in order to make one is to work out exactly how improbable it is, feed that figure into the finite improbability generator, give it a fresh cup of really hot tea ... and turn it on!

He did this, and was rather startled to discover that he had managed to create the long sought after golden Infinite Improbability generator out of thin air.

It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute's Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn't stand was a smartass.

Theremug from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.

From the horse's mouth

2008-07-13T12:18:00.001-07:00

Giant rubber snakes save the world!

2008-07-05T13:12:00.001-07:00

Walmart's Asshole

2008-06-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

I guess the marketing geniuses over in Bentonville, Ark., home of the world's most hated retailer, Walmart, don't read much Vonnegut. Right now, up in heaven, Kurt Vonnegut is laughing his ass off. Or maybe it's his asshole.

Seems Walmart needs a new look, so after having ruined the smiley face for us, they've decided to screw up the good ol' asterisk. What they didn't know was KV was years ahead of them and had abused the asterisk so well I still giggle a bit everytime I see one.

Here's a quote from KV's Breakfast of Champions followed by the appropriate illustration:

I am programmed at 50 to perform childishly--to insult 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' to scrawl pictures of a Nazi flag and an asshole and a lot of other things with a felt-tipped pen. To give an idea of the maturity of my illustrations for this book, here is my picture of an asshole:

Oops! Sorry, that's not Kurt's asshole, that's Walmart's asshole, er, new corporate logo. And, I hope they spent a fortune on it! This is the asshole Kurt drew:

Notice the resemblance? I sure did. Kurt, even up in heaven you're still making me laugh, and you've taken the edge off my Walmart hate. I still won't shop there, though.

You have to admire this kind of crazy

2008-06-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Barry Bonds

2008-06-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

Age of Wonders -- Robotic chairs

2008-06-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is too cool!

Dumb Design

2008-06-14T18:54:00.001-07:00

Porn commentary

2008-06-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

I've heard a lot of people have their say about pornography. Here's Penn Jillette of the magic due Penn and Teller giving probably the best explanation I've ever heard of why so many "normal" people do porn.

Meet a Black Guy

2008-06-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

I see a lot of fear these days in the United States. It seems to be on the decline as it slowly sinks into the heads of the citizens that we don't have much of anything to be afraid of, despite what our president might tell us.

Fear, it seems to me, comes from ignorance, and while familiarity might breed contempt, and I'm not sure about that, it also breeds comfort. Hence I think this guy has a great idea and a wonderful sense of humor.

Jeff Oliver, a 21-year-old black man living in Oregon, set up a booth at the local farmers market called "Meet a Black Guy" in order to relieve some of that existential terror of dark skin some lighter-hued individuals indulge in.

The guy looks like a natural born prankster, and his approach to race relations is a stroke of genius.

Do we want a C-in-C who can't use a computer?

2008-06-11T11:43:00.001-07:00

I don't know who Steve is...

2008-06-10T22:26:00.001-07:00

But I know most of the famous people who're punching him.

Dancing Hitler

2008-06-05T15:36:00.001-07:00

Don't ask. It's for a Photoshop contest.

Barack is the Real Deal

2008-06-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

How can you tell? Check this AP article out:

WASHINGTON - Acting swiftly as his party's presumed presidential nominee, Barack Obama is keeping Howard Dean at the helm of the Democratic National Committee, while bringing in one of his top strategists to oversee the party's operations.

The campaign also announced that the DNC will no longer accept donations from lobbyists and political action committees, to comply with Obama's campaign policy. Party officials say they expect the DNC's staff to quickly expand to run an aggressive general election campaign.

The DNC will no longer accept donations from lobbyists and PACs. Pure awesomeness. How are they going to raise the money to run the campaign? We the voters are going to chip in and pay for it, $5, $10, $20 at a time.

Here the entire article. As the article states, Obama's campaign is not entirely lobbyist influence free, but this is a huge step in the right direction.

Funniest description of John McCain so far

2008-06-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

Inspired by this image, a comic hero known only as Attaturk described the Republican nominee as "the cottage cheese in a lime Jell-O salad." How apt.

NASA has released a new map of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, and it turns out it only has two spiral arms instead of four, which is what we used to think the galaxy looked like. Old maps had Sol, our sun, in the Orion Spiral Arm, but now the sun is seated in the Orion Spur of the Perseus Spiral Arm, not that it makes much difference on planning your route to the grocery store, but it's always a good idea to know where you stand.

Ol' School Sesame Street

2008-05-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

I grew up on this stuff, back when PBS for kids was almost as much about entertaining as it was learning. What is this video supposed to teach us other than exploration is fun?

RIP Harvey Korman (1927 -- 2008)

2008-05-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

Harvey Korman, one of comedy's funniest straightmen is no more.

Sol just 1/1,000,000,000,000th of Milky Way's mass

2008-05-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

Astronomers, those clever bastards, have refined their techinques for measuring the mass of our galaxy. The results are in, and the Milky Way is just a hair under one trillion solar masses. That's a whole lot, or as Douglas Adams put it, "Space is really big."

Here's an article about the weigh-in at Space.com.

How the media helps make you stupid...

2008-05-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

Of course it's ultimately your fault if you're a moron, but if you're a dumbass you've probably had a lot of help acheiving that status. Here's a video about how you get dumbed down:

Typical media horsecrap

2008-05-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

April new single-family home sales rose 3.3 percent

Isn't that great! Home sales are up! Woo-hoo! Er, right? Nope. Read the actual article underneath this Reuters headline and you'll find this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of newly constructed single-family homes rose 3.3 percent in April to a 526,000 annual rate but they were down 42 percent from a year ago, which was the largest year-over-year drop in nearly 27 years, government data on Tuesday showed.

Down 42 percent from a year ago?! Largest drop in 27 years?! Who exactly do they think is dumb enough to fall for this? You and me, that's who.

Just to make sure there's credit where credit is due, the people responsible for this sterling example of modern journalism are reporter Joanne Morrison and editor Neil Stempleman. I tried to find email for these folks so anyone who wanted to could tell them how much we appreciate this kind of reporting, but of course the addresses aren't readily available. Wonder why.