This year Daylight Saving Time begins on the second Sunday of March 2010 at 2 a.m.  At that time clocks should move ahead (Spring forward) one hour. Daylight Saving Time in the United States lasts for eight months and ends on the first Sunday in November of 2010.  At that time clocks should move [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

A recent article in the Vatican’s News Paper entitled “Aristotle's Virtues and Homer's Doughnut” acknowledges that Homer as an everyman has the same kinds of trials of faith that normal people face.
Every few years overly critical social critics share their feelings on why the Simpson’s are “OK”  I remember a very long while back reading [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

December 7, 1941 is as Franklin D Roosevelt a date which will live in Infamy.  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, stunned virtually everyone in the United States military. Japan’s carrier-launched bombers found Pearl Harbor totally unprepared. President Franklin Roosevelt quickly addressed Congress to ask for a declaration of war.
President [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

This is really just a neat exercise in image reconstruction.  This is the image on CEO Jen-Hsun Huang's Tablet.

Original photo from here.
Reconstructed image from the reflection. You can see he is playing Ratatouille

Not real exciting, but still.

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Growing up on a working dirt farm in Michigan, I know a thing or two about agricultural farming.  So I get a little up in arms when my friends tell me things like “The way corn is raised depletes the land in 7-10 years”.  Bull-SH**.
My family has raised Corn, Wheat, and Oats on the same [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Slate is running an article entitled “What Ever Happened to Acid Rain” which was clearly not fact checked.  The headline grabbed me, Acid Rain was a big problem in a Transformers episode I saw as a kid, and it had me scared of clouds for months.  I was scared rain was going to have me [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Do Midgets Have Night Vision? No.  Of course they don’t.  They are Midgets not Dwarves.  They don’t work in the mines of Mordor.  The Internet is making people stupid.  If you have to Google to find out the answers to obvious questions you are an idiot.
The problem with having the answer to any question at [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

There is a few websites to “simulate” the Helen Keller experience.  Hint they are just black pages.  The song “Do the Helen Keller” is stupid.  It says “talk with your hips” Helen Keller was famous for learning to talk, even though she was blind and deaf.  She even became a rather famous lecturer.  The Idea [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Larry Flynt is asking congress to help with a porn industry Bailout. While he may be asking more to make a point than because he really thinks he will get a bailout.  Every industry is lining up to get money, but only Larry and the porn industry can promise to put there mouths where the [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

It must be that Something's Gotta Give is on TV, because I don't get why people would be searching for Nudes of this 64 year old actress.  Not saying Diane Keaton wasn't hot, but really?  There are millions of pictures of Sexy Girls in the under 50 category if you are going to surf the [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

University of Maryland has a tool at Dustball.com which is supposed to check to see that research papers are original.  (http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/) only trouble is, it doesn't even detect papers which are published as free term papers on SchoolSucks.com.
A quick google for a few particularly insightful phrases works pretty well for checking to see if a [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Eclampsia is a very real condition effecting pregnant women.  Though Eclampsia usually follows extremely high activity, and wouldn’t generally be found in a overweight teen, unless she had suddenly taken up a strenuous exercise program.  Eclampsia also generally sets in 6 months in to a pregnancy, not 3 weeks after.
Human Parthenogenesis, or Virgin birth, doesn’t [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

The Mojave Experiment has to be the only ad campaign which annoys me more than the "Wow" campaign.  mojaveexperiment.com was less than easy to use.  I had to install Silverlight to view it, because my silverlight was too old. The video encoding of the people on the site is not youtube quality.  There is nothing [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

www.WhopperVirgins.com Asks "if you'd never had a hamburger which Hamburger would you like best?" Whopper Virgins Review the Burger King Whopper against the competition.
Obviously the Whopper from Burger King wins in this "scientific" study against the Big Mac from McDonald's.
Personally I'd never get a Wine Review from someone who didn't drink wine, nor a movie [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Site Reviews

Ever wonder why you can't always get Disney's Cinerella?  Why there is a limited release of Snow White?  Why McDonald's doesn't make the McRib sandwich available all of the time?
Well the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, so to keep the cows happy you have to rotate pastures from time [...]

Filed under : Industry News, Rants and Tangents

My good friend Rowby, is running for Receptionist of the United States of America.
 

Filed under : Call to Action, Rants and Tangents

Craigslist is down at the moment.  No big deal I was just searching for a few things, and thought it would help me to kill some time.  That said there is also the bigger what's broken with Craigslist.
Craigslist used to be much more community oriented than it is now.  You knew many of the regular [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

From a few years back…
"Girls who wax must be insane… In my attempt to be a little more metro, or atleast a little less hick I have been making a concerted effort to do things like make sure I keep my eyebrows groomed, and that the occasional random hair that decides that my adams apple [...]

Filed under : Life Hacks, Rants and Tangents

I saw an ad for the Optic 1050 Binoculars, and I have to say that 1000% is 10x.  This is not "ultra-high" magnification like they say in the ad.  Combine this with the weird coating they put on the lens which reduces the light levels, and the fact that there is no image stabilization, and [...]

Filed under : Hard on the Pocket Book, Money, Rants and Tangents

Scoble talks about being a noise junky. The short version is that he likes all of the "noise" on twitter, he receive 1 message a second. So why doesn't Techmeme, or New York Times have noise?
Juice.  If the New York Times says something is worth knowing it becomes worth knowing.  I don't want noise in [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Google is introducing a Web site tool called Friend Connect today that promises to extend the reach of social networks such as Facebook to any site that wants to use the tool.
That's right, now when I Google your name instead of getting your Linked in Page I'm going to see that your secretary bought you [...]

Filed under : Industry News, Rants and Tangents, Technical

In the law enforcement are stupid category.  8 teens were arrested for planning the beating of a 16 year old girl, for the purpose of posting it to YouTube.  After making the video the girl goes to the police, and rather than making sure it doesn't end up in the media, they release it.
I can [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

EarthHour.org is the type of site that embodies all that is wrong with people trying to save the planet.  You can't in one hour do any good by turning off the lights, in fact you will likely do more harm especially if you decide to use candles instead.
This is an exercise in making people feel [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

The New York Times chose to run a very strange Op-Ed claiming that Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" was not fiction, but rather based on an actual event in which his neighbor suffered entomological dysplasia the result of which was a transformation into a giant cock roach.
The point of the Op-Ed was not as clear to those [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at this week's annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego that Diet Soda is linked to Obesity. Well Duh!  People who are overweight drink Diet soda more than people who aren't.  Just [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Twice in the last week I have heard the Phrase "Shod Foot"  which is the act of kicking someone when they are down.  Specifically with a pair of Heavy Boots.  This is not the same Shod Hoof, which is when a horse has shoes on.  All in all I thought it was an odd phrase [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Dragon's Triangle is a region of the Pacific around Miyake Island, about 100 km south of Tokyo. One of the triangle's corners is said to be on the island of Guam. Although the name is used by Japanese fishermen, it does not appear on nautical maps.
In popular culture, especially in the United States, [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

110% of pirated content comes from North America, 44% from college students… well maybe 15% they forgot to carry a 1 or something…
In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry's domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

I was listening to the radio on the way home from work yesterday and this lady is talking about being a localvore. She claimed she only eats food grown with in 100 miles of her home. And that the fuel this saves, is good for the environment and that it is good for the economy. [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Walt Disney bought www.Club Penguin.com a while back, and while ClubPenguin.com is mildly cute and kids like it, I would let the kids I don't have play World of Warcraft before I'd let them play Club Penguin.  Club Penguin is safer than Myspace, but the profanity filter in WOW works much better than that of [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

 
The young, hip, tech saavy crowd isn't satisfied with just instant gratification anymore. Instant public embarrassment is the next hottest thing and a group on Facebook called "Thirty reasons girls should call it a night" is at the forefront. Far from a tutorial about why good girls stay at home on Saturday night, the webpage [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Spiritual Water claims its product helps you 'stay focused, believe in yourself and believe in God.  I'm a capitalist, but I won't even stoop this low.  Holy Drinking Water?  Maybe I would carry it if I lived in Sunnydale and was worried about Vampires.  But short of that I don't think any priest who gets [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Nick Athens wrote today that the US could increase the value of its oil fields by stockpiling domestic oil, while Scientic Blogging is talking about the move to a Methanol Economy.
I don't entirely disagree with Nick.  We should be investing in Oil.  I'd be in favor of auditing it in the ground and backing the [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Western Digital's 1 terabyte My Book World Edition External Hard Drive will let you back up your Media files but will prevent you from restoring them to a different computer.  Very Fun if you for instance work in a Video Production Studio and want to say Ship a bunch of AVI's or WMV's to your [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

MakeItRightNola.org or Make it Right 9 is a Project to "revitalize" and "rebuild" a section of New Orleans.  It is backed by Brad Pitt.  And it is really just a way to make developers rich.
MakeItRightNola.org is a project to rebuild New Orleans 9th ward, but unlike Habitat for humanity projects which don't differentiate [...]

Filed under : Random News, Rants and Tangents

Debra Lafave was arrested for violating her probation.  Lafave was talking with a 16 year old girl who worked with her at Danny Boy's restaurant.   As part of her probation she was not to have contact with minors.  This seems like a tough order to fill as a has been teacher with a criminal record [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Think Six Feet Under meets the Thunder from Down Under.  The 2008 Men Of The Mortuaries Calendar is not for everyone but if you like tall dark and handsome with a big fancy car… you might just go for one of the 14 funeral directors or morticians featured in this years 2008 Men Of The [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Emily Sander had a very rarely used Myspace Page which featured a Picture of her and her boyfriend of the time Mike.  Zoey Zane may have presented some issues with her meeting normal people on myspace, but still interesting that she had one, with Tom as her only friend.  A YouTube Video montage of her [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

An 18-year-old Kansas student who went missing over the weekend is now believed to have lead a secret double life as an online porn star. A woman that looks curiously similar to missing 18-year-old Emily Sander was found on a Zoey Zane website (zoey-zane.com / ZoeyZane.com ).
Emily Sander AKA Zoey Zane Myspace and YouTube Video
  [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

No call lists prevent commercial companies that don't have a relationship with you from calling you.  But they don't prevent Fund Raiser's and companies you do business with from calling you.  Adding your name to the Wisconsin No Call List ( nocall.wisconsin.gov  )means a Not For Profit can get your information and call you about [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Vista has never crashed on me.  And while I do occasionally do a reboot on my laptop, you have to give it a bit of a break, since with Hibernation and such I often go 2 weeks before it starts acting Sluggy, and most of that seems to be the fault of the power management, [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

An ugly duckling transforms into a beautiful prom queen. An overweight couch potato becomes a model. A sci-fi nerd morphs into a hardcore rapper. See, dreams really do come true — on MADE!
Why stand on the sidelines watching others live your dream? Are you too shy or think you're not "cool" enough to get in [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Nick.com/extras is chocked to the brim with videos of how to make your favorite Nick.com characters at home.  You can also get teen nick trivia, and bonus episodes of your favorite shows. 
The Bikini Bottom Sand Globe is really cool, though it would take more talent than I have to make one.  Head over to [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

If it were sleepbetter.com it would make sense that they were selling pillows, I thought .org domains were reserved for not for profit organizations.
"We invite you to get your own personal sleep profile by taking our Zzzz Score™ test. Your Zzzz Score will determine how you can sleep better by helping you choose the pillow [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

For those of you who don't have a one touch Myspace button on your Helio or Tmobile phone you can now get Mobile.myspace.com which formats your Myspace pages to better fit your iphone, Blackberry, or BlackJack phone.
Or it works great if you don't want to see all of those crazy stylesheets that the tween crowd [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Leaked Wal-mart Black Friday Ads have hit the web.  Probably the best deal in the bunch is the Xbox 360 with 5 games for $279.92.  The Black Friday Specials are actually not as good as the Friday after Haloween special which included a $98 HD-DVD player.
Some of Wal-Mart's other Black Friday promotions include an Apple [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Myxer™ is the easy way to share or sell your original music, artwork, photos, sounds, and video. Create ringtones, wallpapers, and videos for your fans!  Or at least that is the story from Myxertones.com which should last all of a month before someone shuts it down for the massive copyright violations associated with it. 
From [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

There is a growing trend to provide skin care products for people who are not white.  brownskin.net , rxforbrownskin.com , and www.parceline.com are all sites dedicated to products that are not designed specifically for the pasty white people who dominate the runway.
It shouldn't surprise people to learn that the chemistry of people's skin varies a [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Lee Haney (www.leehaney.com) has launched an ultimate body building site, in the same vein as GNC.  The Site has nothing on Ello.com .  LeeHaney.com is proving that you don't need a great looking site to sell however.  The site easily looks like it could have been built in a matter of hours with front page [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

NabiscoCrackers.com has Flash games including 3d billiards, Ping Pong, Mahjong and Golf.  It is also the place to be to enter the Rachael Ray Instant win game.
Grand prizes (300) stainless steel cookware set (worth $200) First prizes (300) cast iron dutch oven (worth $100) Second prizes (500) Rachael [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

That's right, Warren Ballentine, Michael Baisden and the Rev. Al Sharpton a contingent of black radio talk-show hosts are calling for a national economic boycott Friday (Blackout Friday) to protest what they consider racial and economic injustices across the country.   Not even a trip to the Walmart to get that Toshiba HD-DVD player you have [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Ghost Hunters Marathon on SciFi visits haunted homes around the globe in search of the paranormal.  I don't buy in to the whole haunting from the great beyond thing, but if you do then scifi.com is the place for you.  Ghost Hunters will be live Halloween night.
Plumbers by day — ghost hunters by night. [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist.
Francis and his cousin Edward share credit for the ideals laid down in the Original Pledge of Allegiance, which didn't mention God despite being written by a minister, nor did it mention "the Flag of [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Some people just shouldn't have a sex tape, but I guess everyone must. Perhaps they should have read Jake's article on preventing your Paris Hilton moments from ending up on e-bay?
In this article by David K. Li, I learned that Amy “Okay, I did shoot your wife Mr. Buttafuoco” Fisher is disgusted at the idea [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Bested buy her lack of opposable thumbs, and unable to press CTL+ALT+DEL Macey was forced to admit defeat at the hands of Windows Server 2008's Enhanced Security.

Clearly this demonstration proves your servers would be more secure running 2008 Server, based on the Windows Vista Core.

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

If Facebook is worth $15 billion, and Myspace is $65 billion XYHD.tv is worth $571k.  The math would seem simple.  If Facebook has 42 million users and you calculate the value of a user to be 15billion divided by 42million you see that each User has a value of $357.14.  My 1622 users results in [...]

Filed under : Hard on the Pocket Book, Industry News, Rants and Tangents, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It looks good for Hampshire, but it’s no sure thing, even after a 28-7 victory against Marengo halted a three-game losing streak and moved the Whips to 5-4 overall and 2-3 in Big Northern Conference East Division play. The Whips entered the regular-season final with the fewest playoff points among the Class 4A [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

When you live for the hottest music and the softest of porn you need Pants Off Dance Off.  While the TV Show is PG-13 at best the the online version gets a bit hotter.  Some of the dances are sexy girls, but many of them are people who have no business taking off their clothes.
The [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Today I went to MSN.com and saw this Headliner "TV's Most Disgusting Ad?"  which linked to Slate which while owned by the Washington Post, is part of the MSN Network.  In the Slate Article, embedded smack dab in the middle of the page is a YouTube Player.
This is a huge "No, No" when it comes [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

In the days before Google your brand was measured by your .Com. Today your page rank at Google says a lot, but if someone will buy your T-shirt you know you have hit the big time. CitiBank gives its T-shirts away on college campuses, Electronic Arts sells their Shirts for $30 a piece.
The Big Guys:
Steve [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Normally only Vulcans have green blood, a side effect of using copper instead of Iron to carry oxygen in the blood.  Iron gives Hemoglobin its Red Color, where as Copper when Oxidized is Green. 
Recently, Surgeons operating on a man were shocked to find he had green blood.
Tests showed he had taken too many of [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Us normal people register at Target, which is fun you get to wander around the store with a price gun picking out all of your favorite merchandise.  But if you are Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman, who may or may not be pregnant, you just go to Bel Bambini and leave it to your personal [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

The

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Jake, Christina and I were out at a neighborhood Indian place and we couldn't decide if I liked Chicken 65, but more importantly why in the fairying forest is it called Chicken 65?  Unlike many Asian place where you pick #23 because you can't pronounce the name of the dish, Indian food tends to be [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

I got asked if I was dead, apparently "B. Wirtz dies" went by on the TV and two people thought I was dead and were surprised it made national news… Well I'm not that famous and am not related to Bill Wirtz the Hockey Owner who died at age 77, I'm Brandon Wirtz Greatest Living [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

This is the collection of Halo 3 Launch Party codes that I have been able to find, there are a lot more out there, so if you know of some that are still working pass them along. I have several people I'd like to get in.
I think the Face Book Fiasco with people thinking they [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

It seems a bit late, but Jack is trying to get Florida to declare Halo 3 a nuisance. Sure standing in line for its release is a PITA, but come on Jack, it is no worse than trying to buy something from Home Depot on a Monday Morning.
You can read Jack's side of the story [...]

Filed under : Gaming, Rants and Tangents

Internet Fudge is a growing concern in media, and business, for those who don't know Internet Fudge is when wrong information found on the Internet is used in a legitimate document or product.  I know that Wikipedia gets cited quite often at my workplace and I have found many errors that needed correcting.
Because Google makes [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Miami attorney Jack Thompson, claims that he’s depicted in the up coming GTA4 and wants out. And he threatens to block the release of GTA IV if Rockstar doesn’t comply.
In a document filed yesterday with a federal court in Florida, Thompson includes a letter written to Take Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick which reads in part:
I [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

A photo that Vanessa took of herself for an unknown recipient ended up around the Internet.
"High School Musical" star Vanessa Hudgens has split with her boyfriend and co-star Zac Efron, and is considering posing for a men's magazine - according to reports.
Hudgens, who was involved in a nude photo scandal earlier this month, split [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Every now and then a term goes by on the list of ways people found your site and you say what the heck is that… Bugil is that word for me.  It is apparently a word for Indonesian Nudie Pics.  And while I am not above posting about people indiscretions, I couldn't find the word [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Earlier there were previews of the star of the new reality TV show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" but now Kim is out and the photos reveal all of Kim.  She had earlier claimed that she would only show a smidge of skin but that appears to be wrong.Kim Kardashain may not have the star [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Soccer says no hands, but allows for "heading" the ball 19-year-old striker Kerlon has taken to doing a header dribble, called a "seal dribble" named for the carnival side show where a seal balances a ball on its nose.
But should it be legal?  I would say it is not in the spirit of the rules, [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Amanda the peppy Vlogger for ABC/Disney has made quite a name for herself on the Internet, but her 1 year is up and ABC isn't renewing.  Maybe she can get a job at PodCast, or some other place that Video Blogs are popular.
While ABC did seem to find sponsors I have always been amazed that [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Every so often an infant is born with out enough definition to their genitalia to determine positively one sex or another.  A quick genetic test can tell an anxious family the Genetic gender of a child, but some activists don't think that is appropriate.
Constructing well defined genitalia is called gender assignment. Gender assignment occurs [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Last year it was about preventing models with eating disorders, but what about young models?  Scantily clad teens does not seem like something to celebrate, but a 12 year old was named the the face of Gold Coast Fashion Week.  What is worse is Mayor Ron Clarke is supporting her modeling with a running analogy. [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Former "Top Chef" contestant Josie Smith-Malave says police have been slow to follow up on her alleged robbery and attack Labor Day weekend by a mob screaming anti-gay slurs outside a Nassau County, N.Y., bar.
Smith-Malave, 32, a contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef" reality series last year, says the attackers spit on and punched [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents

Greg Sterling posted about Microsoft's response to CapGemini rallying behind Google Apps.
Microsoft responded to the announcement of CapGemini support for Google Apps yesterday with a statement and a list of questions about Google Apps for the Enterprise — or reasons potentially not to use them. Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet has both, and the list [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

It used to be you sat in front of the TV, staring blankly, drooling and eating snacks.  Now we gather round the TV with a controller in hand, because casual games are driving the growth of video games, Christina, Jake, and I gather around the TV and play Carcassone pretty much every night for 30 [...]

Filed under : Gaming, Rants and Tangents

Two Sand Castles are facing off for the honor of Guinness Book of World Records Largest Sand Castle.  One built in Maine followed the rules set for previous attempts, which do not allow for the use of machinery, and must be taller than they are wide; and a second build in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents