Into the Void

reputation

“I read something recently . . . and this one phrase leapt out at me from the book DAMAGE by Josephine Hart. It says, ‘Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.’ And that kind of sums me up.”
– Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Does anyone remember Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, and his bizarre insistence that 29% of the registered voters constituted a mandate from the masses? Somehow The Lady of the Lake sketch in Monty Python and the Holy Grail came to mind. The 2000 and 2004 elections weren’t much better.

I am holding on to hope for the 2008 elections.

ARTHUR:

I am your king!

WOMAN:

Well, I didn’t vote for you.

ARTHUR:

You don’t vote for kings.

WOMAN:

Well, how did you become King, then?

ARTHUR:

The Lady of the Lake,…
[angels sing]
…her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur.
[singing stops]
That is why I am your king!

DENNIS:

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

ARTHUR:

Be quiet!

DENNIS:

Well, but you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

ARTHUR:

Shut up!

DENNIS:

I mean, if I went ’round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!

Technorati: Strange+women distributing+swords ronald+reagan the+lady+of+the+lake monty+python holy+grail farcical+aquatic+ceremony executive+power watery+tart

Ahmet Zappa - Mighty McFearless

Zappa says Fraggle film will rock.

The children of Frank “200 Motels” Zappa and Jim “The Muppets” Henson are collaborating. It is likely to frag the underpinnings of civilization, if not the very fabric of the universe.

Were you as confused as I was as a child by the [tag]TV show[/tag] Fraggle Rock? It wasn’t much better than the truly horrific Banana Bunch but was marginally less traumatizing.

[tag]Ahmet Zappa[/tag] is getting together with [tag]Lisa and Brian Henson[/tag] to resurrect [tag]Fraggle Rock[/tag]. Why, I don’t know. Preliminary information is that they will be attempting to recreate the entire 98-episode Fraggledom in one Epic Film.

“It’s a complete ecosystem,” Zappa said of Henson’s idea to show children how living creatures need each other.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

ThinkGeek :: Dear Timmy
Win a $50 gift certificate from ThinkGeek. Ask Timmy a question and if he answers, you’re in!

Help, Timmy!

My smooth-foreheaded mother-in-law is on an extended visit and I’d like to serve her a [tag]Klingon[/tag] delicacy that is so unappetizing to her Terran palate that she leaves in dishonor and *never* comes back. And she can take her [tag]pahtk[/tag] of a son with her - he’s not worth the effort of sharpening my [tag]ba’tleth[/tag].

Do you have a good recipe for [tag]qach[/tag]?

YouTube - Robot Ride

Part of my [tag]engineering[/tag] curriculum was a very fun hands-on robotics course. A [tag]robot[/tag] like this one can move so fast that you don’t have time to get out of its way. Factories that use [tag]robotics[/tag] will have black-and-yellow danger lines on the floor around around each workstation and flashing lights on top of the robots. The factory floor looks like a crazy Christmas show, expecially when the lights are low.

A workstation ideally is defined as the maximum reach of the robot, not the extents of its motion in a given job, so that if there is a mechanical failure or a glitch in the program nobody gets surprised.

For the clueless, there are also multiple emergency stop switches. I can’t tell whether the fellow twirling around on the robot-ride [tag]end effector[/tag] in this video has an emergency stop switch within reach. I kind of doubt it. Not that he’d have time to actually use it.

Breaking the rules is fun.

Googlism for: banth

Thought I’d look up my nick. Apparently I’m pretty damn scary.

EE Times: Star Trek’s ‘tricorder’ realized

The 20-pound, battery-powered unit combines a [tag]mass spectrometer[/tag] with a desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) source.

This device, which doesn’t have a cute name yet, is a general purpose sniffer that can take samples from the air and identify just about any substance known to man. The 300+ pound explosive detectors in use now require that samples be placed in the unit, and they are looking for just a few specific, common substances.

Considering that my PDA is much smaller than the electronic tablets in the first [tag]Star Trek[/tag] series, I suspect a pocket-sized version will be available soon.

Got bored at lunchtime and went surfing in Germany for Concept Cars.

Scarab (Mistkäfer) Mikrogeländewagen sollte in den Asia auf der Grundlage VW New Beetle (2008) gebaut werden.

The [tag]VW Mistkäfer[/tag] sport-utility vehicle should be built on the New Beetle undercarriage. I want the 4WD version.

All the faults of our mind – our selfishness, ignorance, anger, attachment, guilt, and other disturbing thoughts – are temporary, not permanent and everlasting. And since the cause of our suffering – our disturbing thoughts and obscurations – is temporary, our suffering is also temporary.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche, “Ultimate Healing”

From Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations,” edited by Josh Bartok.

The man says this new toy is for toddlers. The little buggers will have to fight me for it.

Laser Light Paint Bucket Go ahead and let the kids draw on the walls.