WTF video!!

There is a 100% chance that watching this video will make you say WTF. I also laughed my ass off.

Ticket for nothing!

So last night when I got home, I noticed that my mom's van was not in the driveway. I figured it just ment my mom was out shopping or something. I would have parked behind the other car, but now my mother leaves for work before I do. Thus, I parked on the street.

I've done it a million times before, but this morning was different.

I was about to leave for work, and lo and behold, a frikken ticket on my windshield! It's for a snow parking ban of some sort! I looked at the fee list, and now I have to fork over 30-40$ for NOTHING. There was no snow! There was no forecast for snow either!

I've seen people park on the streets in the winter all the time, and never noticed a ticket or anything!

Must have been a bored cop just strolling around at 4 am (time I got this BS ticket) and decided to screw with me. Grrr.

I'm going to try and fight this, but knowing the city it won't do much good.

We'll see what happens.

Sick of not being able to use the QUESTION MARK in Windows filenames?¿

If you're like me, you often go through many pictures, audio and video that has unique filenames describing the content of the file, and I am usually pissed when I cannot put a "?" at the end of the file and need to leave it as something like "Haddaway - What is love.mp3"

I have just found a character that's simply an upside down "?" and windows doesn't care! Now I can properly name my files.

To use it, just simply copy and paste this:    ¿    Or you can just hold down ALT and type the numbers 0191 and let go of ALT to put it in.


PS: Yes, we loflblog guys are still here, lofl. 3000 hits for the win!

Colorful (and Crazy) Candidates for President in 2008

Just about everyone has heard of popular contenders for the Presidential nomination from the two major parties, and even some third parties. Hillary, Obama, Romney, Giuliani, and Ron Paul will continue to dominate news, and will almost undoubtedly go on to face off in the primaries and beyond. Yet, thanks to the wiles of the internet, we now have the great ease of seeing some of the more colorful (and insane) candidates vying for President next year.

Lee L. Mercer Junior: This fellow, running for the Democratic nomination, seems a little confused. One need only look at his campaign theme on the front page to see why, since he believes:

“The United States Government must regulate government sleepers and government regulations authorized thought, ideas, acts, actions, rights, wrongs, controversies, facts, issues and circumstantial evidence through intelligence research, law research, law enforcement research and criminal law research implementing ROTC communications research innovating education national and international.”

His desire for such regulations is particularly interesting; since he appears convinced in his “Reasons for Candidacy” that the government is involved in all sorts of unseemly activities corrupting his own life and those of the rest of us. Perhaps the best of these is number 49, which reads:

“To Prove the United States Government killed my sex life, my wife sex life, my daughter-in –laws sex life both may sons and other of my family members sex life with Espionage Experimentation and Espionage Exploitation sex killing.”

Jackson Kirk Grimes: Mr. Grimes, a self-styled head of the United Fascist Union (of which he appears to be the only member), previously ran in both 2000 and 2004. He’s back for more this time, with the same wacky platform involving a transformation of the US into a Mussolini-like regime with Imperial Roman features. His older website for the “U.F.U.” features a few fashionable (and hilarious) photos of himself and his girlfriend posing in homemade black uniforms and sitting in various restaurants. Grimes claimed to take 6^th place in the 2000 election, so he may find it once again difficult to top his own delusional performance.

Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey: Though his website currently seems to be down, the flamboyant vampire who tried running for Minnesota governor last year before dropping out appears to have aspirations for higher office this time around. A former Republican and Reform Party member, these days he operates using his own political vehicle, the “Vampires, Witches, and Pagan Party.” His platform is a bizarre mixture of hate for the Judeo-Christian God, brutal punishments (impaling) for terrorists and hardened criminals, but also self-described respect for the Constitution and New Deal economics. More on Sharkey’s sordid past and his earlier political campaigns can be found on his wikipedia entry here.

Quay Fortuna: Not nearly as kooky in platform as some of the other candidates examined above, Quay Fortuna’s Star Wars like name alone earns him a spot here. This blog owner established the tiny “Ward Republic Party” that acts as his political arm. In heart, Quay and his fledgling party are strong believers in the power of local institutions to triumph over big government. His site is worth a look, if only because of an attentive focus on events he believes are leading us to Armageddon, and clever tidbits like “Hillary isn’t the Antichrist, but She Takes His Advice.”

Jeff “Petro” Petkevicius: Petro, as his nickname indicates, is running on a campaign with most of his focus on one issue: CHEAP GAS. He believes this can be accomplished by setting price ceilings on both oil and the price-per-gallon at the pump, alongside use of existing US reserves (which he believes can be readily replaced with Iraqi/Kuwaiti oil). The rest of his one-liner campaign planks, and website decorations like Biblical quotes and an “I Support President Bush” banner probably won’t endear him to even the fringe crowd, but they do indicate he is running a mostly right-wing, populist campaign. The site itself is heavily cluttered, and holds a strange resemblance to a social networking or personal website circa 1999.

That’s all for now. As the campaign season shifts into higher gear, I’ll be posting more political oddities, and likely even another series or two of zesty candidates destined to garner a lot of laughs and a handful of votes.

-Namtlieu

They're Made of Meat

I stumbled upon this again today on youtube. I'd seen it about a year ago, and found it just too good to not pass along. It offers an unexpected and somewhat humorous perspective on human existence in the eyes of others:



-Namtlieu

Modern Flagellants: Processions of Pain

Religious flagellation has a long and disturbing history in the West. Most militant and brutish during the Black Death of the 14^th century, flagellants continue to exist in the dark corners of the Earth, despite official bans by the Catholic Church. And no, not just in the vibrant and bizarre BDSM community of the internet world. Secretive Christian cliques readily continue to practice immolation of the flesh. It is a mystical addiction of enduring appeal, probably due to the heavy release of endorphins that follows the intense pain, reportedly inducing mystical visions as well.

The practice appears most frequently today in the more passionate societies of the West: the Mediterranean and Hispanic ones and their offshoots. Italy’s town of Guardia Sanframondi is one of these, long shrouded in many trappings of medieval mystery, including a castle and archaic festivals. Every seven years, it holds one of the most open and rigorous events in modern times that feature torturous penitents. An enormous procession with a choir and a statue of the Madonna with her child, said to be hundreds of years old, heads through town. Among them are countless hooded men who beat themselves with metal scourges. Secrecy is standard in this practice, as the men do not tell their wives or other family members that they are participants. As the feverish pitch rises on Sunday, flagellants also utilize sponges soaked in white wine (probably to ward off infection from their wounds) and packed with sharp pins to strike each other.

In a more extreme form, Catholic sects have even adopted crucifixion re-enactments of varying painful quality across the world. Hispanic flagellants in New Mexico and Colorado, the “Brothers of Light,” were said to have used this practice up until the late 19^th century. In another of Spain’s former colonies, the Philippines, brutish (though still non-lethal) crucifixion that still includes the use of nails through appendages continues for devotional purposes up to this day.

The aforementioned Hispanic penitents of the American West are reported to still hold secretive, punishing rites on a regular basis. The original “Brothers of Light” seems to have dissolved, but less organized “Penitentes” continue to lurk in New Mexico, though in much reduced numbers since the late 1940s, when postwar depopulation of their traditional haunts occurred. While no longer nearly as punishing as their 19^th century practices, their continuing existence is still a testament to the longevity of flagellation.

This brief overview only touches on Western subscribers to flagellation in contemporary or recent times. Even in this age of mass communications, it’s reasonable to assume more secretive flagellant organizations continue to operate. And, certainly, other spiritual groups throughout the world are confirmed to practice flagellation and other painful related practices, sometimes in forms that greatly dwarf the lasting Western performances in size and intensity. In the end, one can arrive at their own judgment about modern flagellants, but know they’re sure to persist indefinitely as either freakish anachronisms or divine cults (whichever you prefer).

-Namtlieu

The World's Most Interesting and Most Photographed Ghost Towns

As crowded as the world appears to us at times, there are still entire settlements where men no longer tread. These ghost towns can appear for many reasons: disaster, economic failure, environmental change, or other causes. The haunting draw of these places has led many to document them for the rest of us, while the same spectral quality and enduring dangers continue to repel potential settlers.

East Balestrino, Italy, is a modest town in Italy’s northwest hilly region near the French border. While not fully uninhabited (the western side still looks to be populated), it is rife with crumbling buildings and lonely sites characteristic of any ghost town. The town seems to have been abandoned following tremors which struck the region a couple decades ago, the same responsible for much of the visible structural damage in the photos linked above.

Best known in Europe, and probably the rest of the world, are the deserted dwellings around Chernobyl, Ukraine. While population dropped off dramatically throughout the region following the 1986 nuclear disaster, the small town of Pripiat closest to the reactor experienced total abandonment. Fortunately, for the casual viewer, it is also the best documented ghost town. For instance, one woman has ridden her motorcycle through the area several times, taking photos of empty buildings and contemporary security.

Pripiat itself stands as one of the most unique places in the world. A slowly crumbling time capsule of Soviet life, it’s also a place where wildlife is thriving, despite the radiation, and consuming the manmade structures. Some of the buildings also feature bizarre black faces and figures, possibly painted by an especially adventurous French artist.

Asia is not without its depopulated locales. One of the most photographed is Japan’s Hashima Island , part of a chain of uninhabited smaller islands in Nagasaki Prefecture. Formerly a small coal producer, the island lost its meager population in the 1970s, following the closure of the mines. The town may not remain abandoned in the near future, however, since restoration has begun this year on restoring part of it, and public excursions will be allowed again next year.

Finally, the United States has always carried a rich history of forgotten hamlets. The early English colony at Roanoke Island, North Carolina, registers as the first known. Founded as an attempt at establishing a permanent English presence in the New World in the late 16^th century, the colony was without supplies and isolated from England for three years. When English officials returned, they found the settlement abandoned. The desertion was never adequately explained, though a number of theories exist, ranging from starvation to assimilation by neighboring American Indian tribes.

In the present day, the US boasts an impressive list of ghost towns. Multitudes abandoned in the 1920s dot the Great Plains, while others can be found nearly anywhere near former centers of mining or industrial operations. Wikipedia contains an extensive list of ghost towns well worth a look. Don’t be surprised to find a handful near your hometown.

One of the most interesting is Centralia, Pennsylvania, which saw abandonment in earnest after 1981. At this time, sinkholes, poisonous gases, and immense underground heat began plaguing the city, making it uninhabitable for most. These nasty features were produced by an underground fire burning since the 1960s, ignited when trash burning at a landfill touched an exposed coal vein. The inferno continues to burn unabated today, and the Federal Government has claimed and demolished many buildings, though a few residents continue to linger despite the carnage. It is by far one of the most fascinating and dangerous ghost towns on the continent, as the steady stream of tourists confirm, who’ve appeared since public knowledge of the town increased. Additionally, a video of a visit Centralia is available here.

Not surprisingly, abandoned places have fueled the creation of the “Urban Exploration” hobbyists and sub-culture. While most of these adventurers visit derelict buildings in their areas, some have ventured to ghost towns and documented their findings. A good overview of this community, as well as many links to urban exploration websites, can be found in its wiki-article.

Overall, depopulated hubs of human design will continue to persist, regardless of how overpopulated the planet becomes. However, it’s obvious these sites do not become useless. Abandoned places continue to feed human wonderment and anxiety, since their air of mystery places them firmly in the realm of the unknown.

-Namtlieu

Weird Iapetus

Most of us have heard the strange historical speculations and contemporary fringe theories about our own Moon and Mars. It seems as our knowledge of ever farther celestial bodies expand, so does our curiosity and wild imagination. Iapetus, one of Saturn’s larger moons, currently enjoys conjectures that can only be called bizarre. From a rich place in science fiction, most notably as the site of the monolith in Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the moon has taken on a life of its own in the communities of conspiracy theorists and pseudo-scientists.

Most of these odd ideas imply artificial structures on Iapetus exist, covered up by NASA. However, none is as exhaustive as Richard C. Hoagland’s article suggesting that the entire moon itself is an artificial construct left by some ancient, bygone intelligence. In Hoagland’s mind, Iapetus’ unusual shape, central ridge, and geographic features are just weird enough to serve as evidence for his theory. The above link is, if anything else, an interesting read if you have some time to kill. It is also rich in images of Iapetus and diagrams attempting to illustrate Hoagland’s hypothesis.

Whatever the case, the moons of the gas giants which we are just beginning to understand (and photograph in detail) will continue to generate weird musings and fanciful speculations for many decades.

-Namtlieu

Vintage UFOs

Elaborate hoaxes or something more? Either way, “The Best UFO Photos Ever Taken” website is not to be missed. I found the oldest photographs particularly interesting, especially the 1870 image of a cigar-shaped object hovering around New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington. Since the site also tracks the clearest pictures up to the present (including some this year), one can also observe the increasing ability to accurately photograph or concoct the phenomena, however you’d like.

Also of interest is the strange case of the “West Coast Air Raid” that occurred in late February, 1942, in Los Angeles. For an entire night, civil defense warriors hurled flak at mysterious objects allegedly in the sky over the city. The incident also constitutes one of the few air raid alerts resulting in general alarm and live fire on US soil during the war. Panicky defense against non-existent enemies, atmospheric phenomena, or close encounter with elements from beyond? Check it out and draw your own conclusions.

-Namtlieu