Disney is an entertainment powerhouse. ESPN, ABC, theme parks, movie studios, record companies, hotels, restaurants… you name it, Disney probably owns it. However, there’s one place where Disney’s omnipresent corporate claws haven’t fully sunk in, and that is in the young male demographic. Between preschool and the sports fan years, there is very little […]
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Is Karaoke Dying?
Posted 8/31/2009 9:08 am by Ron HoganAt one point, it was everywhere. Seriously, you could not escape karaoke. Literally every bar or restaurant you went by advertised that they, too, offered you the chance to get up on stage and screech out a tone-deaf version of your favorite song. Fortunately, if a survey by British trade magazine The Publican can be […]
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Google Earth Uncovers The Loch Ness Monster
Posted 8/28/2009 12:42 pm by Ron HoganI really wish that Google Maps had uncovered the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. Like most unreasonable people, I want to believe that there are creatures like Nessie and Bigfoot out there, just waiting for us to stumble across them somehow. The images that everyone says might be Nessie? Sadly, it’s just a boat […]
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Make Your Own Satellite
Posted 8/27/2009 12:41 pm by Ron HoganJohn Gordon did something that most modern nations labored for years to accomplish. Some countries still haven’t managed this feat. Using only an Arduino kit from Limor Fried’s company Adafruit, he launched his own satellite, Spaceduino, from Vulcan (Alberta, Canada, not Spock’s planet of origin). He took his Arduino programming kit, built an impact-resistant protective […]
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Papa John’s Long Lost Camaro
Posted 8/26/2009 12:51 pm by Ron HoganCall it the one that got away. Everyone has that first car that they love more than any other car. Maybe it’s a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. For others, it’s the car they bought when they were 16, restored to drivable condition, and then had to sell or lost for some reason or another. Papa […]
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Banking In Cockney: Withdraw Your Bangers & Mash, Guv’na?
Posted 8/26/2009 9:27 am by Ron HoganIn an effort to preserve the Cockney dialect, Bank Machine (the leading supplier of ATMs in Britain) has rolled out a machine with a Cockney language option. They also plan on launching language options for Brummie, Geordie, Scouse, and Scots language customers. Well, I guess not language, since they all speak English, but accent? Phrasing? […]
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Robofish Of The Thames
Posted 8/25/2009 10:54 am by Ron HoganIn an effort to ward off the dangerous Frankenfish, British scientists at the University of Essex at Colchester have gone into overdrive. While you can fight a monster with another monster, that still leave you with the problem of rivers and streams infested with ugly monster fish. So what’s the solution? Simple. Enter Robofish. Okay, […]
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Bob Dylan Satellite Navigation System To Provide No Direction Home
Posted 8/24/2009 10:09 pm by Ron HoganNow, I’ve played around with a couple of those satellite navigation systems, and I’ve always enjoyed them when they’re accurate. To me, a good sat nav is very useful, because I hate paper maps and I’m not the world’s best with following directions. That said, whoever signs Bob Dylan to provide satellite navigation voice overs […]
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The Best Space Aliens (No) Money Can Buy
Posted 8/21/2009 2:21 pm by Ron HoganThis has been a summer full of science fiction. A surprising number of the top movies at the box office this year, from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to Star Trek, Monsters Vs. Aliens, and even Terminator Salvation, are all essentially science fiction films. Of course, given that they all had massive budgets, you’d expect […]
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Mr. Or Ms. Caster Semenya, South African Sprinter
Posted 8/20/2009 11:56 am by Ron HoganAthletes will use any means to get ahead. Steroids, growth hormone, fertility drugs… any substance that can be snorted, injected, eaten, or smeared on is going to get used by someone who is looking to get an extra few feet on a home run shot, or a few seconds’ shaved off the time of a […]
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Scientists On Zombies: “We’re Screwed.”
Posted 8/19/2009 3:27 pm by Ron HoganWell, it took a team of scientists from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University (lead by Robert Smith?, question mark intentional) to codify and scientifically prove what any horror movie buff has known since 1968: a zombie outbreak would probably doom civilization as we known it. The study, actually chapter 4 of the book […]
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The Dodecamom Hoax
Posted 8/19/2009 11:21 am by Ron HoganWell, I figured this would happen. The nameless Dodecamom, the Tunisian woman claiming to have been pregnant with 12 children, has been revealed to be a hoax. She’s not pregnant with 12 offspring. As it turns out, she’s not even pregnant with one child! She’s just crazily grabbing for media attention. Kind of like the […]
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Don’t Evict The Man With The Drill
Posted 8/18/2009 1:41 pm by Ron HoganGenerally, I’m not a fan of renting apartments. I wouldn’t be a renter and I probably couldn’t be a landlord either. Not just because I’m not terribly handy or because I don’t like dealing with people, but because I’m terrified that one of my lodgers will attack me with a drill. British landlord Lee Westwood […]
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Your Wallet Is Full Of Drug Money
Posted 8/18/2009 12:42 pm by Ron HoganMoney is a pretty grubby thing. The average paper bill passes through hundreds of hands in the course of its lifespan, traveling from hand to hand, stuffed in socks or wallets, and generally just mistreated. After all, it remains in circulation for almost two years on average, so it’s only a matter of course that […]
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Dodecamom: African Woman Pregnant With 12 Children
Posted 8/18/2009 10:18 am by Ron HoganYou know, awhile back, I saw a lot of news reports on a woman who was pregnant with 8 children. I figured that the media frenzy would die down. Boy, did I drop the ball on the Octomom. She could’ve been like the pregnant man or the tree man of Java, except more pregnant and […]
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Giant Rat-Eating Plant Discovered
Posted 8/17/2009 8:57 am by Ron HoganIn a scene out of Little Shop of Horrors (pick your favorite version), a team of British botanists lead by Stewart McPherson and Alastair Robinson have discovered a rare new plant on the slopes of Mount Victoria in the Philippines. That plant, christened Nepenthes attenboroughii after Sir David Attenborough, is a new species of carnivorous […]
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Mermaids In Israel
Posted 8/14/2009 12:56 pm by Ron HoganThe internet is abuzz about the newest strange creature sighting. In the Israeli beach town of Kiryat Yam, local residents have been clamoring loudly about the discovery of one of the oldest legends of the sea, a mermaid! Not only is the town taking it seriously as a tourist attraction, they’re following the lead of […]
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Dirt Art: Finally, A Reason Not To Wash The Car!
Posted 8/13/2009 12:46 pm by Ron HoganWhen you have a work vehicle, or a vehicle you use for work like my dad did for many years, that vehicle tends to get dirty. I mean, “Mr. Clean would flip out,” dirty. As a result, there would always be some smarty-pants who believes the height of comedy is to write, “Wash me.” But […]
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Ultimate Star Wars Bedroom
Posted 8/12/2009 9:52 am by Ron HoganNow THIS is an incredible bedroom. In Visalia, California, you can find a nice 2500-square-foot house for $364,000. It’s being sold by its owner; there are 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, garage space for 3 cars (one attached 1 car garage, one freestanding 2 car garage), and a saltwater pool. Oh yeah, one of those bedrooms? […]
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Have A Bite Of The World’s Largest BLT
Posted 8/11/2009 9:16 am by Ron HoganIt is over 179 feet of delicious fried pork sandwich. Iron Barley owner Tom Coghill’s dream of building the world’s longest bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich is now a reality. It took 500 pounds of bacon, 500 heads of lettuce, 48 gallons of mayo, 80 pounds of butter, and a staggering 1280 pounds of tomatoes. […]
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Star Wars In Real Life
Posted 8/10/2009 9:54 am by Ron HoganOne of the longest-running conventions of science fiction, even before the genre was codified as the genre we know and love, is alternate reality. What if the South had won the Civil War? What if the Nazis had won World War II? The newest of these ideas, brought to life in vivid Photoshopped images, is […]
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Catch A Listener’s Ear
Posted 8/07/2009 4:29 pm by Ron HoganMy good friend Ryan had an interesting post up the other day regarding albums. Or CDs. Or records. Or 8-Track tapes. Regarding music in general. It’s about the opening track of a CD and just how important that is. He says, and after spending most of last night and today thinking and making lists, that […]
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The Mona Lisa Of Coffee Art
Posted 8/06/2009 9:11 am by Ron HoganIn the song “You’re So Vain,” Carly Simon references clouds in her coffee. No doubt the vain person in the song thought their face was in those coffee clouds. Well, unless you’re hanging out with the world’s best barrista at Café Yala, your face probably isn’t in your coffee. However, if you’re visiting The Rocks […]
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Super Mario Tattoos
Posted 8/05/2009 9:05 am by Ron HoganAs a member of the first generation to really embrace both tattoos, I’ve seen a lot of weird body art. However, my generation is also the first generation to really embrace video games, so it’s only natural that the two should meet eventually. Take, for example, these excellent tattoos of Mario and Luigi from Nintendo’s […]
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Flash Flooding In The River City
Posted 8/04/2009 6:23 pm by Ron HoganIt’s not every day that you find yourself in the middle of a natural disaster, but that’s where I was today. My place of employment was ground zero for the worst of the flash flooding that hit wide swaths of Louisville, Kentucky today. Up to six inches of rain fell in the city in a […]
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Weird Presidential Gifts
Posted 8/04/2009 1:04 pm by Ron HoganToday is President Barack Obama’s 48th birthday. Happy birthday, Barry! Every day, the President receives a crazy amount of gifts, and some of them are just downright weird. Will President Obama get some maggot cheese? Or maybe, given his lack of skill, he might want to spend some time at Harry Truman’s bowling alley! Check […]
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Suing Over A Broken Dream
Posted 8/03/2009 9:11 am by Ron HoganIt’s a tough economy out there. Everywhere you look, people are making cutbacks or people are not hiring. So you have to have some sympathy for new college graduates like Trina Thompson. She matriculated at Monroe College in the hopes of landing a job thanks to the school’s good reputation and placement program. However, after […]
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