Fun sites to waste time

Out of the thousands of junk emails and sites I hear about on a weekly basis, here are some of the ones that actually left an impression on me one way or another. (Not in any particular order)

xkcd
xkcd

xkcd.com

A site of short shorts. These comic strips are based on, as they put it,  “romance, sarcasm, math, and language”. My friend Anuja turned me onto this lil’ doozy.

DontEvenReply
DontEvenReply

dontevenreply.com

Isaac turned me onto this one.  At first I wasn’t too impressed by the site as I read a few to myself. For some reason I ended up readng a couple good ones out loud to my mom and I couldn’t finish reading a post without laughing. This site may be a bit of an acquired taste. I would describe it as a mix between Ali G and spam mail. The author chooses to describe the site more simply as “E-mails from an asshole.”

SomeEcards
SomeEcards

someecards.com

An introduction to this site was made by an ex-girlfriend so I find visiting it to be a bit bitter sweet at times, but it really is a great way to communicate some of the more blunt and edgy sentiments to people you know that you won’t find at Hallmark.

FailBlog
FailBlog

failblog.org

This blog is sort of an institution, lots of followers and plenty of updates and pics. The blog chronicles mankind’s stupidity from everyday pictures of signs that lack proof reading to videos that can only be described as “a fail”.

Awkard
Awkard

awkwardfamilyphotos.com

Peek into the word of the “others”. Somehow these families took some shots of themselves that in their mind were cute and fun but the rest of us can’t help but recoil as we browse through these awkward purposeful family moments.

PeopleofWalMart
PeopleofWalMart

http://peopleofwalmart.com/

The name says it all. Tagged by store location here is an assortment of local yokels visiting their adored Walmart. Dressed to the nine’s these moments caught on camera are priceless, and I mean devoid of all that could be deemed as valuable in anyway.

Just get up and travel the world already!

Chris Guillebeau, blogger for chrisguillebeau.com, confronts those asked why they don’t just quit their job and travel around the world. It’s blunt, frank and fun. Sure it may sound crazy, but maybe – just maybe – it isn’t. I sure hope one day I have the balls or tenacity to just get up and go!

Here are some rebutels he addresses:

“I don’t have money to travel.”
“The rest of the world is dangerous.”
“I like staying at home.”
I’ll do this kind of stuff when I retire (or at some other distant point in the future).

And some question you may have to ask yourself:

1) Am I satisfied with my work? Does it meet my needs and fulfill my desires?
2) Think back to the times you have left your home country. What did you learn on those trips? Do you think you have more to learn?
3) If you could go anywhere in the world, where would that be? (Don’t think about reasons why you can’t go there.)
4) What are your financial priorities?

You can read the full break down here:
http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/why-you-should-quit-your-job-and-travel-around-the-world/

Peace is the ultimate aligment of interests

The reason to promote peace, even in the face of threatening obstacles, is important to a democracy as it aligns interests of the people’s want for peace with the politicians interest for re-election, popularity, success and credibility.

If a powerful person does not promote peace and does not make it their primary platform with domestic and international policy the politician is put in a precarious position. Not to say any other platform chosen was not created with the intent to do their best to preserve the way of life of their populous, but all other platforms do not align interests over time if and when more obstacles present themselves.

If a person’s platform finds itself on the side of promoting a form of proactive defense or waging war then that person is put in a position in which their credibility is at stake if it is ever proven that peace could have been a better option. The need to prove that peace was not an option or is not a clear path  can easily become a new objective and from one compromise to another a person can invariably end up finding themselves trying  to prove that there is a need for force which may take either require more force or the framing of negative events to gain puplic cohesion. One decision is made after another and then the allowance of desctive act to prove the need for defese may be the only way to show the validity of ones position.

one thing leads to another and now in order to protct someone you need them to get hurt to allow you to protect them,…seems crazy  well look at glenn beck or rush limbagh who have already openly asked ofr destruction or failure to prive they are right. It is an example of misalignment..

Now if eeryone pushed diplomacy and peice the only way they go wrong is if something goes wrong, so in no way would they wantthat.to gain political postivity they must kee things safe. Safteyy and diplomacy align interst between community and leaders. it alwasy ends u p this way, is MLK or JFK remembered for violence who has been hitler, stalin, mcarthy. DOnt let hstory repreat itself and learn from past postivity, and diplomacy in teh face of negativity and violence has always been the corner stone of every philosphy, and histories ideal them all.  nothing wirth while is easy.

And then man created life

Synthetic Life

Scientest have combined the building blocks of life and have been able to over come some major hurdles in the effort to create life from scratch. By creating a container for the life to reside in, a way to reproduce, and a way to convert raw materials to energy man can indeed create life if only for a few hours at a time. Scientist have made a confident claim this week that they expect someone to create artificial life from scratch, albeit microscopic at best, within 3-10 years.

Willard Wiggen: The something in nothing

Have you heard of this guy? He creates sculptures that are microscopic to the naked eye. The end result looks so great it hard to put ut all together and realize he is using materials like eye lashes to create these works of art.

His work and physical capabilities to produc such work “has baffled medical science and has been the subject of many discussions among micro-surgeons, nano-technologists and at universities worldwide. His work is both inspirational and ground breaking in both artistic and scientific spheres.”

You can see him on Conan O’brian here »

The middle

im in the corner
sitting is easy
thinking of the things i wanted to be
math is upon us
and lisp is he speaking
the brightes of sky but the darkest of day

tight lips do catch us
and whispeirng is easy
fooling your slef as to what yo should be
tango and dancing
the steps are the thinking
but the music has challace and cheers on thier way

trash and the heaps of it
scattered inside me
the in-dig-a-nation to inspire the fame
confidnce is weekness
and what is the measure
and chasing perfection when its perfectly sain

seek with a caution
get carried away
beutiful what nots the most desprate of things
balanced in chaos
intimite mieetings
closing the night and then opening the day

Liu Bolin: Artist

My friend Ryan turned me on to this cool Chinese artist that has made a name for himself with intriguing sculptures that incorporate human figures within common settings or objects. More predominantly and most intriguing to me is his Camouflage art where he paints himself as the setting he stands in front of creating this transparent looking effect. The image on the left is an example of this all natural no Photoshop used camouflage transparency art.

Camoflague
Camoflague

dafasf
Outdoors

dafasf
Leader

dafasf
Handshake