More Knut

My former co-worker Jennifer sent me news that some papers in Berlin are blaming Knut for the death of one of Berlin's pandas. This is slanderous. I will not stand for it.

Oh, and it's innacurate, but still.

Can you imagine this little guy hurting anything. I mean apart from my heart which aches when I look at his cute little self.

And yes, I realize that polar bears are fantastic killing machines and that they hunt humans. Blah, blah, blah. Whatever Jack London groupies. This Knut, he's adorable, and I'm sure cuddly.

Pi is all a"round" you.

Just up the street from my house.

Knut

Knut the polar bear cub at the Berlin zoo may be the cutest animal ever. Which is odd, because rarely do I associate cute with Germans. And this video vindicates that sentiment. Or at least further explains why German is not a language that can be made to comport with notions of playfulness and cuteness. This "music" video is adorable visually (it's a polar bear cub playing around it's gotta be cute) but annoying and largely disconcerting aurally. The childlike voice just makes it creepier. See if you agree.



Oh and then there's this, an Australian new broadcast about the cub, refers to him as cuddly Nut. Which is different, I'd argue than cute Knut. Apparently the Aussies don't have much experience with the name Knut, or you know the interest in asking anyone how to pronounce the name. Sweet. They're like Americans that way.

Know when to hold 'em.

How fucking thrilled is Ari Fleischer that he's not the White House spokesman right now? Seriously, do you figure he just wakes up, flips on CNN (well FoxNews) and thanks God that he is not having to answer for all this shit.

Ari Fleischer managed to govern his career by the logic of Kenny Rogers

Know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away.

Distract and Delay

Tom Delay was interviewed on Hardball and when asked about some harsh statements he made in his book about Dick Armey he flat denies writing them. Matthews reads aloud from the book. Still Delay refuses to admit writing it. Finally Matthews hands the book to Delay. He's going to have to admit it now, right. Nope, he simply explains that he doesn't have his reading glasses. Bravo. He's a virtuouso.

The Party, "remixed."

A silly endeavor -- I spent a few hours last night editing the photos from the birthday party into a little video. I would need more photos to really have it fleshed out but it's fun if nothing else.

Beatboxing

A minute and a half of the best beatboxing I've seen.

The iRack

A funny, if overly obvious, sketch from MadTv. I wasn't aware the show still existed or that it was ever capable of humor. But this is fairly good.

Hillary "Flips Out"

What does the logo look like to you? Yeah, me too. I saw this photo of Hillary and thought, wow she's really getting tough. She's like "Fuck you all." I was impressed by her tenacity and gumption. I mean she's in front of an array of hands flippin' off someone. Then I read the caption, apparently those are buildings. "Democratic Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., gestures during a speech before the National League of Cities meeting in Washington, Tuesday, March 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)" The National League of Cities needs to get a new graphic designer. And someone on Hillary's staff should suggest that standing in front of a bunch of hands flipping the bird might not be ideal.

Though honestly, it's the coolest photo of the campaign so far.

Zach brings up a great idea: HRC staffers should really have a Top 10 list of things never to have her stand in front of.

1) Monica Lewinsky
2) Anything that suggests a giant penis. (it's safe for work)
3) The homeless
4) Alex Rodriguez

What others should she avoid.

The Aftermath

This weekend was Asheley's birthday and mine as well. We held a party. Pictures were taken.

Pictures like these.

Aaron and Asheley Birthday Party 07

Rudy

So back in 1993 Rudy Giuliani ran this ad It's both horrifically creepy and really transparent. The scene where she says he seemed strong and at the same time gentle, has the feel of a douche ad. It's uncomfortably awkward.

Then a couple seconds later she talks about wanting to have children with him. Fine. Except there she is in a hospital bed with Rudy by her side. Since the quality of the footage doesn't change it's clear that this was shot after the event. Meaning Rudy's wife got back into a hospital bed and pretended to have just given birth for a political ad. That's creepy. Later on in the ad we see Rudy with his child. Rudy is sitting there in a catchers stance, but his child is hitting off of a tee. He slaps his glove like someone is going to pitch to him. But the ball is clearly in front of him on a tee. Also, what the fuck is wrong with Rudy's son that he requires a catcher for a ball sitting on a tee? I know that he was once married to his cousin, but I thought that the son in the ad was not inbred.

I can only hope that he continues to use whatever firm produced this incredible drivel.

Uncle Ted

Ted Stevens, or as Alaskans call him, "Uncle Ted" is a prodigous provider of pork (and apparently alliteration). He suggested the "Bridge To Nowhere" among other amazing uses of Federal Tax dollars. I love an Alaskan. And I love the idea of Alaska, but a state where residents are paid to live there and where the Federal Government basically backs up a dump truck of money every year is not a place where people should get to simultaneously pretend that they are rugged and wholly independent. If you have a local economy almost entirely because of the generosity of tax payers in Evanston and Tempe and wherever else, you should not be too quick to complain about Democratic spending. But that's neither here nor there. The point of my little rant is that this year Ted Stevens has topped his "Bridge to Nowhere" with a train to the North Pole. Seriously, there is a town in Alaska called North Pole and they are about to receive 4 million dollars to expand a railroad. Ignoring the preposterousness of a town named North Pole for a moment,the town has 1,700 residents, which makes is suburb worthy in Alaska. He's literally funding the Polar Express, a train that goes to the North Pole. The attack ads are too easy to create. It's like Fisher Price my first negative ad.

The amazing thing about Stevens is just how brazen he is. Stevens is the guy who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar and asks for the jar as well.

Stupid

Paul forwarded me this "Stupidity Tester."
According to this test, I'm 23% stupid. Which is apparently okay. Paul was only 12% stupid so either I'm twice as stupid as he is, or I'm one half as un-stupid as he is.





Now I wonder what I missed.

Another 5 minute music challenge

So a while back I posted a music challenge, name as many songs as you can in 5 minutes that contain references to color.

This challenge is similar. Take five minutes and post to the comments as many band names as you can that contain a living entity - a plant or animal (non-human).

I'll post my five minute list in the comments.

UPDATE
So exactly 5 minutes later I could think of 20 bands. It's far harder than I would have expected. Let's see what y'all can do.