The Morning Wood: Daniel Erthal

Daniel Erthal, born March 22, 1982, in Bom Jardim, Rio de Janeiro, is a Brazilian actor and model. Along with acting in several shows I can't pronounce, he also tried dancing when he joined in the 3rd season of Brazil's Dancing with the Stars where he, unfortunately, got eliminated first.

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As thrilling as watching paint dry, as riveting as watching the grass grow. It's the Cheese Cam! Yes, now you to can watch cheese cure online. There must be quite a few bored people out there, as if the hit counter is to be believed, the site gets a fair amount of traffic.

Despite urging from presidents both past and present and Microsoft wanting absolutely nothing to do with it, Russian prosecutors are still going after that teacher caught with pirated copies of Windows running on his schools computers. After reading through the article, I kind of have to wonder who in the justice department has a grudge against this guy.

The truth is out there, and apparently it's on the 'Net too. Responding to the challenge issued by former Canadian defence minister Paul Hellyer for governments come clean on the fabulous alien technology they must posses, France has posted it's whole UFO archive online. The load is a bit slow, but you can see it all here. Now that we are on the topic of aliens, Space.com debunks the top 10 alien myths.

Geek is the new Gay. Acting like a geek gets you noticed. And speaking of picking up, it turns out that it doesn't take much to convince people your hot.

Contrary to popular belief, folding the tip into cute animal shapes will not score you points with your waiter.

I was chatting with a friend of mine about those semi-identical twins that for some reason have been all the rage in the news lately. Technically they are Chimera, not Twins but I admit, that's splitting the gene awfully thin. The nightmarish ethics of Frankenstein sheep aside tho, doctors and scientists have been creating chimera for decades now, and apparently nature has been as well.

Of course, after the debate of the ethics and oddities of the concept, our conversation swung to the mythological context of our culture spanning fascination with splicing things together. Just to clear things up, Lamia was in fact Greek, but had the body of a serpent and the torso of a woman. The other Lamia, is middle eastern and does, in fact, have the body of a lion. The bear splice I was thinking about was actually the Lashu. Kudos to you Sam for knowing your Monsters! I'll be tracking you down the next time we play team trivia for sure, now onto the next category...

These people must have did something to really piss off their graphic artist.

It's Jesulicious...literally! Just in time for Easter its a chocolate Jesus. I'm not sure what has the Christians so upset, the fact that he's naked or edible.

Chalk one up for the little guy. The discovery of a few new species of tiny spider like cave dwellers have halted plans to build a new mine. While building the new mine would wipe them out, the company is appealing the EPA's ruling with a spokesman saying that it is all just part of the business. Apparently they've been driving species to the brink for years, so why stop now.

Extreme? Yes. Cool? Oh Yeah. Suicidal? Definitely. This guy is certainly a nomination for a Darwin award. I think you'd need to be a special kind of crazy to strap a wing and 2 jet engines to your back and jump off a plane.

Now I'm not normally one to poke fun at the little people, but this is one feisty midget!

I'm not sure if it is sad or touching, but either way love blossoms anew for the lovestruck swan who made news last year when she fell head over heals for a paddle boat. As Swans mate for life, she had to be taken in by a local zoo over the winter when she refused to leave her plastic beau to fly South. The happy couple are back in the water now and can be seen blissfully paddling up and down the river together.

Goats, porn magazines and spray paint...this one is just to freaky even for me.

They say a diamond is forever, and now you to can turn your beloved pet into a stunning accent piece.

There are times in life where one gets super upset, does something really stupid and in a few years can look back and laugh. Why do I think that this is not one of those stories...

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Celebrity reality check! I normally let the celebs do their own publicity, but I'll make an exception for Snoop. That's right, that hip hop/rapper/entertainment train wreck Snoop Dog was recently denied a Visa into the UK. Snoops rep is reportedly "mystified" by the news. Say wha? The man was arrested for violent disorder at Heathrow Airport and is facing several weapon and drug charges in the U.S. These people really are living in an alternate reality if they think that little things like that won't stop you dead in your tracks at the border. Newsflash, Snoop. Celebrity entitlement only gets one so far.

On the topic of celebrities, most of us are far to young to remember Frankie Howerd. We was an incredibly popular English comic that died back in '92. Dennis Heymer, his lover, partner and manager, took some time to talk to the BBC about their secret life together in an age when homosexuality was taboo. While neither were activist at all and Howerd even loathed himself for it, I must say that I am glad that we have come far enough so that our loves needn't be so bittersweet.

I have noticed this pattern of whenever the powers that be have something they would like to distract us from, such as say, the sudden mobilization of U.S. military resources in the Persian gulf, the news feeds are inundated with inane animal stories. Take for instance PETA's sudden outrage at Kansas State students for throwing Chickens onto the court when playing against Kansas U. Sure it's been going on for years, but it's very convenient that just now PETA is rising to the defence of what they describe as "very intelligent and inquisitive animals". Are they talking about the Basketball players or the chickens?

Of course, the nature and scale of the intelligence of animals has been a hotly debated subject for years. PBS's Nature put together a fascinating mini series on the topic that I highly recommend. Eager to test these theories, our friends at The Onion found that Dolphins may not be as smart as we give them credit for.

Things just get stranger from here. Talk about pocket lizards, this lady was positively infested with crocodiles when she was stopped at the border. And on the other side of the world, Panda sperm flies first class. What I want to know is how did they get this cryo-canister on the plane when I can't even fly with Gatorade?

Flee for your lives, it's Toadzilla!

Scientists sure do have some strange fetishes! Chinese researchers have come up with a creative solution for disposing of and abundance Panda poop, they want to make paper with it. Talk about recycling! On the other side of the world, another team of researchers is very excited about what mites in ancient Llama poo can tell them about pre-incan populations in South America.

Speaking of fetishes, what would you do with 1500 undergarments?

You thought your pet was talented? Not yet an Olympic sport, it's Goldfish synchronized swimming.

Citizens in Portugal have penned a letter the Pope asking that the Vatican slow down a priest speeding in his pimped Fiesta. That's right, a Ford Fiesta. Who the heck tricks out a Fiesta?

There are some very nifty pics in this homage to interesting trees from around the world. My favorite is the stump left when a scientist inadvertently cut down the oldest tree in the world.

Oh this is horrible. On the topic of undignified deaths, 3 people are confirmed dead after a sewage tsunami hit a neighborhood in Gaza. What a way to go.

Sci/Tech has had some interesting headlines over the past bit, Scientists have retrieved about 20 years worth of mission data from Pioneer 11 from the depths of JPLs Archives. They are hoping this will allow them to get a better grasp on the Pioneer Anomaly,(the spacecraft aren't nearly as far away as they should be), and perhaps explain it away for good.

Leave it to the Spaniards to come up with Jurassic porn.

Forget hydrogen! The future of fuel cells is looking sweet.

Not content with merely being Persons of the Year, Youtube has wrapped up its first annual YouAwards. Check out the winners and losers on...well Youtube of course.

The Morning Wood: Leandro Okabe

Leandro Okabe. Leandroooo...Oh LEANDRO! This 6 feet tall, 21-year-old Physical Education student from Sao Paulo, Brazil, is the new Terra's "The Boy" model. He began his modeling career in Asia, mostly in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong and then was discovered by an agency in Brazil. If you're wondering, that giant sexy tattoo on his ribcage means "happiness" in Chinese.

Attack of the Mac Ads.

So I was out Youtubing today, looking for funny commercials and found something so much better. These just go to show that the PC vs. Mac ads could have been so much better. Is it just me or is PC kinda cute in these ones?

Networking! Who ever thought file sharing could be so much fun.



And what better way to spice up a network then with Asian Accessories!



Upgrading! Definitely a reason to unplug from that Mac network before installing new hardware.



And gaming too!

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Is it just me or has it been a very slow week in the news? Today's offering is more diversions then news, but sometimes mindless entertainment isn't all that bad.

A few species of spiders surprised scientists by showing off their softer side. Who knew spiders like to cuddle to?

Have you ever read a news item and had that feeling that there was a lot more to the story then was actually written? Picture it, one of the IT guys down in the Alaskan Department of Revenue, 'accidentally' deletes a 38 billion dollar file and then, in a flustered fit, formats the drive that held the back up. Good thing they could fall back on the tape backup. No wait, the tapes were trash too!It took 220 grand and 6 weeks to rebuild the data. Former Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said no one was blamed for the incident and that "we all learned a valuable lesson". If I deleted 38 billion dollars I know my employer wouldn't be that forgiving.

People really do look funny while playing the Wii.

This is a fun waste of time. In Sprout you start off as a pod and learn to morph into different plants to negotiate your way through a tropical island maze.

By now you all know my penchant for lists and I've been on a movie run lately, so here are 40 things that only happen in movies and 9 laws of physics that just don't seem to apply in Hollywood.

The conspiracy revealed! The Deathstar was an inside job. I am so recommending this for the next title in my book club.

Why is it that marketers and advertisers have this idea that dressing people up as food will make their product more appetizing? It doesn't, it just humiliates actors. To illustrate my point, browse these 10 Ads with people dressed up as food looking like idiots and some much worse.

The folks over at Imagini have come up with a nifty twist on the tired, but always popular personality quiz, VisualDNA. Click on an array of pictures and it will tell you all about yourself. It's very well done, and great for one of those personal touches to add to your Facebook.

Ever wonder Why men don't get published by Dear Abby?

The row over evolution vs. intelligent design and how they should be addressed in school curriculum's has sparked a new debate over how to address religion in schools over in the U.S. I hadn't really given much thought about the unholy logistics of trying to teach religion in school until I stumbled across this stub.I'm just not sure I want my teenager taking Tantra Yoga 101.

There are some people that you just don't want to talk to, and finding a polite excuse hang up on them is never easy. What do you do when someone just doesn't get the hint? Some of these sound files might be just what you need.

The Web is vast and with our ability to access just about everything on anything almost everywhere it is getting harder and harder to figure out what is out there, let alone weather or not we are even interested in it. If you don't know what you like, but like it when you see it, then Stumbledupon.com might just be for you. The more you use it, the more it figures out what stories and pages you might like. It's a bit limited, but that is a relative term in the context of the 'Net.

The Morning Wood: Gary Lucy

Gary Edward Lucy (born 27 November 1981 in Chigwell, Essex), is an English television actor made famous for his role oas Luke Morgan in Hollyoaks and as the hot hot Kyle Pascoe in Footballers Wives.

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I found this science/biology story kinda nifty, just because I didn't think that any complex animal was able to pull off a regeneration on this scale, however the lowly yet biologically advanced sea squirt can regenerate itself from the smallest bit of blood vessel.

There have been a lot of animal stories floating around in the news lately actually. Have you ever wondered how Buddhists handle a fire ant infestation? Non violently of course, however that doesn't mean that some other less enlightened soul can't take care of the problem for them. From here, it just gets down right kinky. For instance, Did you know that there is a sperm bank for dogs? Or that Gorillas gave us crabs? How does one retrieve a hamster from a 4 inch hole? You suck it out. China is appealing to Biomechanists the world over to design a prosthetic leg for a Giant Panda so that she can finally get laid. And lastly, proving that perversion really is part of nature, spiders use butt plugs.


There has been no shortage of kink in the human news lately either. There was this gentleman that found out the hard way that there are some things that just don't belong in your bum, especially when flying. And Israel has had to let go of its 2nd ambassador to El Salvador for unbecoming conduct. The latest one was found drunken and bound, dressed only in the scantest of S&M gear.

On a related note, have you ever wondered why men pass out after sex? It seems that we're evolutionarily optimized for it.

Moving onto politics, does the American administration have an image problem? President bush recently kicked off a tour of Latin America to reach out to impoverished peoples who promptly ritually cleansed the ground he walked on shortly after his visit.

The Battle of Helmsdeep with Gummi Bears. Here is someone else that has way to much time on their hands. But they get points for creative interpretation.

Last year, Viacom paid 62 million dollars to its exiting CEO for doing a terrible job and posted a fair loss due to flagging revenues. Now it seems they are hoping to float their company (with what I'm sure is soon to become a cottage industry), by suing Youtube/Google.

It's hottttt in Topeeeekaaaaaa... and apparently inside Enceladus as well. On the topic of space, the ESA has released some funky new animations that are bound to pique the interest of extreme adventure tourists. Ever wanted to hang glide on Mars?

Freedom of expression is one of those rights that always seems to clash with some peoples delusion that we have the right to walk through life and never be offended. But it also sets up an interesting double standard. Pope Benedict recently reiterated the Catholic Church's stance of abortion, Gay marriage, divorcees and inappropriate music of all things, and this was greeted with barely a low rumble from activist groups. However, while side stepping the divorce and abortion issues, when U.S General Peter Pace expressed his personal view that homosexuality is immoral, it set off a flurry of condemnation and demands for apology. Now while I'm no fan of homophobia and I disagree with them both, it must be said that I would never apologize for expressing my twisted shameless views, so I can't see why either of them should. What makes a society free is the ability to express your thoughts and ultimately add your 2 cents to the great ideological debate that shapes a society.

On the topic of people that don't like gays, you may remember that a while back I gave some kudos to NBA'er Tim Hardaway for at least being upfront about his big Gay issues. Well I take it all back, the nansy-pansy apparently no longer hates gay people. Now he says he loves gay people and just wants them to give him a second chance. Tim, you're a looser. If you're going to let loose a spiteful rant on national TV, then at least have the courage to stand by your convictions.

Banana's fund terrorism! That's right, every time they went to the grocery store and bought those nutritious fruits, housewives and soccer moms all over the continent were clandestinely funding violent terrorist organizations in Columbia. The Chiquita company has been paying Leftist rebels and far-right paramilitary groups protection money for years and is now paying a hefty 25 million dollar fine for it. Whoever would have thought that the ubiquitous and innocent Chiquita banana was really a Blood banana!

The Morning Wood

Reynaldo Gianecchini is a Brazilian actor and was born in Birigui, near Sao Paulo, on November 12, 1972.

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Marco Dapper, born July 9, 1983, in Hayward, California, is an American actor.

Marco is also the hot hunk in Eating Out 2, the sequel of a campy movie that I really enjoyed about a guy that pretended to be gay to get a girl. Now I haven't seen this one, but I'm certainly going to try now. Here's the trailer.

Unfortunately it wasn't mine, but another pointless blog full of poorly written, incoherent commentary managed to make it to the front page of Digg. So what is the secret to obtaining such a vaunted position? You pay for it of course! This was an experiment by wired Magazine, possibly to generate bad press about Digg and this had the tech commentators salivating over the prospect of a lawsuit. This does make a point that I've suspected for quite some time, user-ranking systems are more often then not misleading. There is an easier and free way to do it though, just post a story and then share the vote button with everyone on your social networking site of choice and the votes come rolling in. After all, people will click anything for friend.

Is art imitating life again? The Iconic Captain America was felled by a snipers bullet in the latest edition of his self titled comic book. Now granted, a great majority of people don't stay dead for long in the Marvel universe, but after a 66 year career of defending the planet from Hitler to villains in alternate realities and everything in between, you'd think they'd have the decency to give Steve Rogers a slightly more heroic death. Is someone at Marvel making a point? Perhaps that after decades as an invulnerable superpower now with a constitution in tatters, the formidable U.S. economic and social machines have been deflated by the smallest of foes. Nah, that couldn't be it.

On a slightly more upbeat note, back in 1982 the iconic blond of the 80's generation broke onto the scene and immediately became the object of desire for boys, girls, nerds and Jocks alike. She was sweet and stylish, with bows in her hair and eyelashes that went on forever. Her ruby lips devoured everything in her path, she was Ms. Pacman! And she's celebrating her 25th Birthday this week by expanding her brand to Itunes.

Snakes on a plane! Well, they almost got on the plane.

First there were knife wielding femme fatalles and then came the homoerotic voyeurism and now gang domination by the pool, is it just me or has Dolce and Gabbana completely overshot risque with it's new ads? After labeling Spain (and anyone else that has found offence in their recent advertising), as behind the times and prudish, Dolce and Gabbana has bowed to pressure and pulled the latest of it controversial ads. While D&G defends it's ads as 'a stylized depiction of fantasy', did no one in their marketing department stop and seriously consider that there are some fantasies that are best left in our heads?

In an ironic turn of events, a troop of Boy scouts in Utah burnt down a forest. While Smokey the bear could not be reached for comment, in a court settlement the Utah chapter has agreed to pay 330 Grand to cover the cost of battling the blaze and plant 9000 trees. I don't think selling apples is going to cover that, but auctioning off a few scouts to foreign investors might cover the tab.

We Canadians have always been on the forefront of finding novel solutions to global problems. Recently Paul Hellyer, one of our former defence ministers from back in Pearson era (1963), has proposed using alien technology to solve the planets woes.

Some people just have way to much time on their hands.

The things people will do with X-ray machines! Some of the images are NSFW so be warned. I know what you're thinking, how can an X-ray be unsuitable for work? Look on dear readers and be be prepared for a few WTF moments. What I can't figure out is is it art, porn or diagnostic imaging?

On the topic of kinky, does it get weirder then this? In a little town in Bethlehem the principal is a perv. Police entered the principals office to arrest him for selling Crystal Meth only to find him naked and watching gay porn surrounded by an impressive array of sex toys.

Its time for another top ten list! This time its the top modern delusions that help us get through our empty meaningless lives.

It appears that Boston city officials haven't learned much from the Hunger Force debacle as police shut down a few blocks of the city to blow up one of their own monitoring boxes and just recently a suspicious looking pedestrian.

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With the Oscars behind us for another year, we can now move on to obsessing about things other then who got what and who was wearing whom. But before we put all that behind us one has to wonder what we got out of all the sweat, tears and explosions of last years crop of cinematic excellence. To help you along, here is a list of all time favorites that you probably didn't get right either.

It was OK when cats got a show on Broadway, but when they get their own reality TV show one has to wonder if they are really trying to take over the world.The Meow-mix house is beyond adorable tho.

The inevitable robot uprising aside, I understand building robots to do our work for us, but when we start building them to play for us, that's just plain lazy.

This was too good, A woman in Washington taught her children how to fake being retarded so that she could collect social assistance on them and then got busted when her son applied for a drivers license. Speaking of retarded, scientists researching Downs syndrome have been experimenting with making mice retarded to test a drug that makes retarded people smarter and promises to alleviate the learning disabilities and other intellectual impairment in those afflicted with the condition. They tinkered around with mice to make them 'special', (and I do mean that in the Olympic sense), and saw a dramatic improvement in the ability of mice to navigate around a maze when given the drug, whose effects can linger for several months. While they are hoping to start human trials soon, anyone who made it through their high school reading list already knows how this ends! Now granted, I doubt it would turn the 'otherly abled' into geniuses, but at the same time if ignorance is bliss why heighten their awareness of their limitations? All I have to says is just leave some flowers for Algernon.

Healthy self esteem or burgeoning megalomaniacs? According to a new study, today's kids think they are oh so special. Of course they do! Most of us grew up in in environments where we were browbeaten relentlessly with our specialness to ensure we grew up with a positive self image and we do the same with kids today. That was considered good parenting in the 80's and 90's. This really devalued specialness, now that everyone is special the truly special people kinda go unnoticed. The only winners seem to be the Olympic special, who are happy as clams to be 'special' without knowing precisely what that means. Until we give them the drugs that is, and they figure exactly how special they are.

This is kinda creepy, it's the Manchurian Pigeon! Scientists in China have developed a system that allows them to control pigeons by remote control. I'm not sure what the practical applications of remote control birds would be or what they did to the pigeon to get it to co-operate but it strikes me as a more sophisticated attempt at Operation Acoustic Kitty.

The U.S. military has been having more and more problems getting a handle on security in Iraq. Sure manpower is tight and properly equipping the troops has always been an issue, but heck now they aren't even training them. Military brass assures us that despite the lack of dessert training, they'll get along just fine. And we wonder why things are gong downhill over there.

This is a freaking' cool picture! Its of a tungsten needle taken with an Ion Microscope. It's kinda freaky that those round things are actual atoms.

You to can now prepare your family for annihilation my terrorists with this handy guide put together by our American friends in Homeland Security. The signs are a bit obscure, but our other friends at SafeNow have decoded them for us. My favorite is 'If your building collapses crawl under a table and do yoga'

Another amusement for work. Try to eat this pie in as few bites as possible. The best I did was 16.

The Morning Wood

Ale Marchi, real name Alexander Marchi de Siqueira, born August 10, 1979, in Sao Paulo, is a Brazilian model. Standing 6'-1" and 175 pounds, he was a freshman communications (journalism) student before starting modeling for almost 7 years ago.

Recently one of my avid readers observed that the morning wood hasn't been rising as much as it used to. So this ones for you Sam, I try to keep on top on it. ;-)

Oh yeah, and my abhorance of social networking sites aside, I'm on Facebook now too.

Last week my muffin bought me a Transformer to guard my keys, I would have taken a picture of my heroic little Windcharger to go with the whole video theme of this entry, but I don't have fresh batteries. For those of you that are from another planet, excluding Cybertron that is, you can find out about them here. Needless to say that Kicked off a Transformers themed night of drinking games and fun all round. Thanks for the links Sean.

Now I imagine the party looked something like this when the Decepticons took over Cybertron. Soundwave is a party robot after all.



Then again, this Citroen has got some groove too...



There are some that are more athletic outdoorsy types though.



The iconic heroes and vilians have been reimagined for a new live action movie due out this fall. Looks cool, but the trailers down give much away. Although I always did wonder if there was more to the Beagle story.



This ones a bit more dramatic, but still no good shots of the robots.



Ever wondered what a Transformers/Lord of the rings cross over would look like? Ponder no more.



This has nothing to with transformers, I just thought it was fun looking up what songs that were cool when I was growing up and wondering what the heck I was thinking.

Bits and Bites

Can you believe that I actually had to work while I was at work this week? Unheard of! Which makes this the perfect time to clear out my, 'Mixed Bag O' Links' that I just couldn't seem to weave into my normal ranting monologues.

Kansas just can seem to make up it's mind about what to teach kids about the origin of life and has reacted to international ridicule by once again rewriting the guidelines of it's science curriculum to strike out the recently added references to the theory of intelligent design. Of course, just up and outlawing the practice of evolution would solve the problem nicely. My views on the subject are complex to say the least, however considering how many genes much of life on earth share, if god did do it he was very very lazy.

Former NBA all star Tim Hardaway says he hates gay people. So he hates gays, there are people that don't like him for things he can't change too. Granted the majority of them aren't gay, most gay people loooooove black men, or at the very least are extremely curious. What I find interesting is that he didn't apologize for being homophobic but just regretted expressing it so publicly. Any bets on when this celeb is announcing a stint in Rehab?

Who'd a thunk it! It turns out girls really are gross.

Serial vs. Parallel Dating. Rewire your relationships today!

I just love comics that deal with 'issues'. It's like Reefer Madness only with pictures.

Experts have come out saying that the trend of sexualizing women in the media is harming young girls. Come on, we live in the age where they are giving Viagra to babies, what harm could a little makeup do?

Take one tour bus full of vacationing seniors, add 3 muggers and what do you get? Seniors gone wild!

Poverty, genocides and starvation aside there's been a lot of weird shit going down in Africa lately. For instance...

Throw away those nasty anti-virals. Green tea and Bananas are all it takes to slay HIV, at least according to Gambia's president.

WTF?! Whoever thought cargo cults would have turned out to be so popular? The gods must still be crazy.

Popo is in the news again! That wacky lascivious bat demon, Popo Bawa, just can't keep it in his pants. A creature with a supernatural sex drive and a monster member that sneaks into peoples rooms and sodomizes them for hours. In my neighborhood that's considered a tourist attraction not a curse. I wonder if he looks like any of these newly classified batty beasts.

Flooding in Mozambique, civil war in Darfur, islamist unrest in Mogadishu, drought in Ethiopia. Pick an African country (any one will do), and chances are good 15,000 brown people have died there recently.

On the international scene, the deadline set by the UN for Iran to stop enriching uranium has come and past and Iran shows no signs of slowing down. The US has responded to Iran's request for unconditional and most likely very frank talks, by moving a great deal of military might into the region and expressing a fond desire to bomb them. Of course they are still accusing the Iranians of destabilizing Iraq by quoting ambiguous intelligence from anonymous sources which may be ever so slightly exaggerated. Hmm...sound familiar? Take a look at what other people have to say on the topic at this BBC forum.

Once again life imitates art (or at least sarcasm), as someone must have read my previous suggestion on how the Palestinian Authority can stabilize its economy. Because now they really are opening call centres! Any bets on how long it takes the Israelis to bomb these too?

In a bizarre attempt to unify the Anglican communion, the house of bishops has decided to fracture it even further. It seems sort of odd until you check this handy Faith vs. Science flow chart and then you'd be surprised at how much sense it makes.

There are a few tricks that will come in handy if you want to survive the inevitable rise of the machines.

Extreme car security! Fun with Tesla coils or fun with Flame throwers. Pick your package because I'm sure that these won't be standard features any time soon.

Today's round up for the philosophical, 11 deep thoughts from people who thought way to much so we don't have to.

It turns out it's not just an optical illusion, beautiful skinny people really are making the rest of us fat.

From critiquing their nuclear program to accusing them of helping terrorists, the U.S. administration just can't stop talking about Iran. Are they trying to soften the world up for another round of trademark shock and awe or just blowing hot air? Taking at face value Ahmadinejad's denials of the latest allegations of meddling in Iraq, there is something so familiar about the timing and the provocative tone of the recent rhetoric coming from the U.S. that makes one wonder. Ahmadinejad has been doing some PR of his own tho. Even some U.S.Generals are weighing in with some conclusions contradicting those of the White House.

The issue Intelligence experts face is not so much one of a lack of evidence. Sure, it's easy to pull some wires and twisted metal out of the ground and say it came from Iran, even tho claiming it comes from the highest levels of the Iranian hierarchy is pushing it just a bit. The real issue is what people now consider acceptable evidence. After years of being force fed flashy crime drama's it's certainly not a PowerPoint slide show. The briefing would have gone over much better had it included shots of sexy inspectors with crime kits, traces of sand only found in Iran, bits of metal dripping with DNA and video of well dressed investigators forcefully yet respectfully interrogating hip Iranian anti-heroes until they cracked and confessed.

The U.S. Army has redoubled it's efforts to recruit more criminals! Granted, I'm sure with the number of wars going on at the moment is thinning out the number of 'victors' that are signing up. But is arming criminals and sending them to the most lawless corners of the globe going to rehabilitate them somehow or just result in more unfortunate war crimes?

Keeping with the Military theme, most of us have rented this movie, you know the one where young uncut Russian soldiers get all hot and bothered and go wild over each other in the truck, in the shower, in the barracks, in the woods, etc. Apparently this fantasy isn't that far from the truth as Russia is looking into allegations that it's military has been pimping out the boys for some time now in a case of good porn gone horribly wrong.

In a case that can only be described as odd, all the uncut boys at a Kenyan high school were sent home with letters saying to stay home until the foreskins were gone. Apparently the school administration was concerned that the boys would be bullied or mocked. I'm not sure what they are thinking, as all the feedback I've ever received about mine has been extremely complimentary.

Those wacky Nigerians are at it again. Bucking the trend of countries passing same sex legislation or at least decriminalizing gay relations, Nigeria wants to declare itself a rainbow free zone with harsh mandatory sentences for those that like that double fudge sorta love.

I don't know about anyone else, but I can think of about 2 things I use my toilet for. Then again, I've always gone for the base model, as opposed to a fully tricked out john. Honestly tho, if my toilet is going to talk to me all I want to hear is praise.

There has been an abundance of weird news floating about lately. In a move that I'm sure will outrage PETA, while tangling with a police dog a suspect actually bit the dog first. No word if he's had his shots, although sources close to the investigation say the gentleman will not be euthanized. Which brings up an interesting point, why is it that animals that bite people get death row, but people that bite people don't even go to jail?

Then there was this German gentleman that was so distraught by airport security that he took off his pants.

American researchers have concluded that marijuana is as effective at relieving pain as prescription opiates. The report goes on to say that many people living with chronic pain shy away from powerful opiate based pain killers because they, (and I love this), cause drowsiness and confusion. Like potheads are such a lucid bunch?

Despite heavy funding from celebrity psychic networks, Princeton's ESP lab, also known by the charming acronym 'PEAR', will be closing its doors. Officials from the lab say that the news didn't come as a surprise.

Chip and computer companies have been hard at work fulfilling the prophecy of Moore's law. Intel has recently created a chip with 80 cores that's capable of teraflop processing. It sounds silly, but a trillion calculations per second is a lot. The chip is so powerful no one knows what the hell to do with it, let alone how to program for it. IBM too has come up with a few novel changes to PC architecture that promise to deliver a huge performance boost to the machines.

So far the software companies have not done as good a job at keeping up with technology. Unless you were hibernating, it would have been difficult to miss the much lauded launch of Windows Vista, the self proclaimed 'securest' OS Microsoft has ever unleashed on its hapless users. This week they launched it's first security update, patching over 20 kinks in the Windows armor. Not a good sign, but did we really expect anything less?

Ending off this weeks technology rant, it might be my helpdesk background but this video of a monk that calls IT for help with a book just slayed me.

A thousand ways to say '404:Page Not Found'

Fit to be Clicked: The Valentines Day Edition

Love it or hate it, Valentines day is descending upon us in a flurry of kinky toys and heart shaped chocolates. I think the whole thing is a load of hooey myself, dreamed up by under appreciated housewives and marketing execs to have us show our love the best way how. Nothing says I love you better then spending wads of cash on flowers, restaurants, kidneys and lets not forget the aforementioned kinky toys. The list goes on and on, and if you don't happen to have a honey at the moment, you can always pick up something nice for that special cat or dog in your life.

Overwhelmed by the thought of showing affection? Lovingyou.com comes to the rescue with this handy guide to the Day-o-Love.

A pair of Neolithic skeletons were dug up in Rome recently, it seems that they were buried together in an embrace that's lasted over 5000 years. Officials have announced that their eternal embrace won't be interrupted when they are moved for further study. That's a love that's lasted forever, unlike the much publicized astronaut love triangle that's been floating around the news of late. Remember tho, in space no one can hear you moan.

If your looking to do something special with your sweetheart this year, try breaking this new world record.

From what I can tell from all the buzz, the modern Valentines Day is about two things; chocolate (dark is better) and prescription free chemically enhanced sex. Preferably both at the same time. So it's not surprising that kinky toys and aphrodisiacs are flying off the shelves. Nothing spices things up like toys toys toys. However, there are a few things you might want to know about so called aphrodisiacs. Before you all run off and set the vibrator on Stun, remember that safer sex is better sex. Leave it to the BBC to tell us how to wrap it up in every way imaginable.

Now set the mood with these Top 5 Cheesy Love songs and some of these foods made for lovin'.

Ah yes, and don't forget to pick up a suitably amorous card. Whatever you do just make sure its not any of these unfortunate valentines. Hysterical as they may be, these Ecards from The Onion might not go over any better.

There is no such thing as a guilt free snack for this guy. He's asking to go to jail over the sinful treat. We all know about blood diamonds, but isn't blood chocolate pushing it?

Are you worried that your heart might be two sizes too small? Find out at Livescience.

Researchers have shed a bit of light on why women like to sleep with hot guys but don't marry them. They think it's because hot guys might not make the best parents and thus doom themselves to life with average guys who hopefully can't do much better either. Other research shows that it's nature that decides who can and can't keep their genes in their pants.

All of the Valentines Day fun is not only for the blissfully joined however, if you've found yourself unhappily uncoupled this year there is a great deal you can do as a bitter unloved single as well.

Love, lust and Loyalty. Find out how you stack up with this steamy survey!

Kick of the lascivious fun now with these Valentines themed games.

Russian Officials claim that the source of Orange snow that's been falling in Western Siberia is still a mystery. That's right, strange colored snow is falling in heartland of Russia's petrochemical industry and no one can figure why. Now I'm not going to jump the gun and accuse pollution for the foul smelling precipitation, that would be unscientific. After all, it's rained some pretty strange things, possibly even extraterrestrials.

There's been a lot of action in the middle east this past week. Hamas and Fatah have reached yet another truce. After weeks of infighting, relieved Palestinians took the opportunity to reload and stir up trouble in Israel. I just love the way Israeli's 'negotiate'.

Iraq is a touchy subject for the U.S. President as the democrats get set to floor a resolution condemning sending more troops to Iraq. Of course, it's a non-binding resolution meaning that nothing needs to be done about it, and no one is responsible if they are wrong. The Whitehouse sees this latest drive by the democrats to discredit the war in Iraq as downright irresponsible, especially now that it has 'credible intelligence' that Iran is mucking about in Iraqi affairs. Not to be critical of U.S. Intelligence, but have we not seen this song and dance before? It's like Deja Vu all over again.

I have recently been accused of making light of the very serious situation in Iraq, and I am. With daily reports of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, and the count of murdered and maimed reaching into the hundreds of thousands, if I didn't laugh I'd weep for the species. For a much more visceral view of daily life in Iraq, I highly recommend Michael Yons Online Magazine. This last post in particular illustrating the difference between a martyr and a murderer.

On the topic of Terrorists, the Unabomber worries about his legacy.

Has there been an ad campaign more dissected and commented on then Apples 'PC and Mac' commercials? Loath or love 'em, some people have pretty strong views. I really like this one with the security guard tho.

John McCain, that wacky U.S. Senator is proposing a bill to create a database of Illegal images, presumably to make life difficult for the child porn industry. The bill it a bit fuzzy on precisely what would make an image illegal, and how Internet providers are supposed to track them. As some of you may remember, I recently ranted about the inanity of dateline busting Sickos. As a result of the latest instalment of 'To Catch a Predator', One of the creeps they caught actually posted an apology on his blog. Which, by the way, also features an impressive gallery of women's feet. Strange... Still no word from from NBC about about publicly humiliating people that do terrible things to their own kids.

Brokeback mutton anyone? Researchers don't see what the big deal is but PETA and Gay rights groups are outraged over new research into un-gaying animals. The ethical implications of it are fairly broad, after all would you want to live in a world full of bad hair and no fashion sense? I feel for the wooly little fellas, being stripped of thier gayness by having thier 'fabulous' gene switched off. Here are 10 other fabulous animals.

I have accounts practically everywhere, Myspace, Yahoo, Google, Flikr, Livespace, Hotmail, ad nauseum. It's a veritable cornucopia of user names and passwords to services that, at some point, I was convinced I couldn't live without but use just as much as the Juicer I bought from the Home Shopping Channel. Now I have another account that makes no secret of its complete uselessness.

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The Wednesday Wood

Chris Evans was born in 1981, Massachusetts, USA. This 6' 1/2" tall actor is known for Fantastic Four, Not Another Teen Movie, and The Perfect Score.
Channing Tatum was born in 1980, Alabama. 6'1" tall actor is best known for Havoc, Coach Carter, and She's the Man. His name is misspelled frequently Chaning Tatum.