So we were just watching a bit of "The Science Bowl" on one of the local education channels. Seeing the show always brings back some fond memories for me -- I was one of the alternates for our middle school team (wow, that was like 15 years ago!), which basically meant that I got to miss classes and accompany the team to games, where the other alternates and I got to watch via closed circuit TV and eat cookies backstage -- but that's not what motivated me to post about it. No, I'm posting because of the sheer ridiculousness of the answer I just heard.

See, Mr. Z (the host; good ol' Mr. Z is still at it!) paraphrased the Alvarez hypothesis -- leaving out the relevant bit of info, of course -- and asked the contestants to note which heavenly bodies the hypothesis proposed was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. And immediately one of the teams buzzed in and gave the following answer:

Angels.

They even repeated it.

ANGELS.

You should have seen the look on Mr. Z's face. Or on mine, for that matter, at least for all of the two nanoseconds it lasted before I collapsed into a maniacal fit of laughter.

Incidentally, we had to turn from it because the teams ring in via a bell, which caused poor Bacardi to bark and twirl like mad because he kept thinking someone was at the door.

Angels killed the dinosaurs.

I just did a rundown of the sites on my blogroll. Apparently many of them haven't been updated in quite a while -- some not since 2006! I'm fine with that (I keep them there mostly as a reminder to myself about the existence of these people, and even if they haven't updated their presence on the blogroll will prompt me to send out an e-mail to check in with them from time to time), but it's still kind of shocking in some cases. Frex, I'm pretty surprised that Omni stopped posting altogether in May. Considering how long Omni had been posting -- and how long her posts were on average! -- that was kind of like looking out the window and seeing Pegasus pigs soaring above the neighbors' rooftops. Ah well, what can you do?

Anyway, I found only one 404 error, so that's good (the offender was a reference to Tamara's old blog, which I've since updated to reflect its current URL). And I have added a link to my sister's blog, Hot Box, so now y'all can visit there if you like and marvel at how the same genes contributed to such markedly different viewpoints. I will admit to being a big fan of the header image, though!

The Dalek madness courtesy of the Lego Digital Designer continues! Most recently, I revised some of the inner workings to allow for a working waist swivel. It bumps the price up another 30 cents, but I'm totally keeping it.

I added a neck swivel to this one. This modification was mostly for fun, as I knew I wouldn't really like the look of the flat plates required for it (whereas the base pieces are mostly turned on their sides, the torso is upright and would otherwise have the connector pegs sticking up). I even did one with both the neck and the waist swivels, but in addition to the aforementioned flaw the dual swivel really highlights the blockiness of the design (think of how a Rubik's Cube looks when none of its three "levels" are in alignment).

And this was totally just for fun -- I'll probably stick dollar store spiders or tiny octopuses into the actual versions when they arrive. At any rate, this guy looks considerably happier about becoming a Dalek than the folks in "Revelation of the Daleks"! 🙂

And note that I wrote "when they arrive" above -- I actually ordered two Lego Daleks last night, so they should be here in a couple of weeks! Incidentally, you can't actually order Lego Daleks because of copyright infringement rules and whatnot (well, I think people have ordered minifig Daleks without any problems, but those approximations aren't quite as good as mine), so I had to mess up the models considerably and make them look like other stuff before placing the order. I didn't realize this until I tried to upload a couple of Lego Daleks to the gallery and had them rejected for the copyright reasons, so hopefully nobody at Lego will notice that the models have pretty much the exact same pieces and figure out my fiendish plan. Or maybe they will and they won't care. I can see why they wouldn't want to sell models of copyrighted or trademarked material -- especially given that the picture of said creation appears on the box -- but should they really care what I make out of the pieces once they're in my possession? Anyway, I hope all of that goes through without a problem and that my mangled Lego Daleks arrive safe and sound and ready to be reassembled into their original designs.

At any rate, assuming all goes well, the next Lego Daleks you see will be actual photographs! Finally -- finally! -- all of the hours I have devoted to the creation of Lego Daleks will yield tangible results.

The Doctor doesn't stand a chance.

I thought I'd seen it all when it came to the 419 scam e-mails, but this one just floored me:

Dear Friend,

Greetings.Andrew Anderson is my name,an American Soldier in the US Military serving in the 3rd Infantry Division,Patrols Tal Afar, in Iraq.I am seeking your assistance to evacuate the sum of $2,570,000 to the States or any safe country of your choice as far as I can be assured that it will be safe in your care until i complete my service here.

SOURCE OF MONEY:
When on Special Patrol duties on the 24Th of April earlier this year,we found $100m and 90m euros in 31 containers and this money had been hidden behind the false wall of a house searched by my unit based on prior information.You can go to this web link to read about events that took place here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm

I do not know for how long i will remain here as I have been lucky to have survived 2 suicide bomb attacks by Pure Divine intervention.If it might be of interest to you then endeavor to contact me.

Email: [email protected]
Respectfully,
Lt. Andrew Anderson

With all of the real soldiers actually dying over there as part of this moronic war, I can't believe the scammers would cross that line and actually expect to get some takers. But then again, maybe there's some ultra-patriotic idiot out there who would do anything -- even fall for such an obvious scam -- in his zeal to "support the troops."

And speaking of obvious scams, here's another message that I received tonight: (Read more...)

This morning I woke up to find this orange lightning bolt indicator on my laptop going nuts. My still half-asleep mind immediately began pondering its meaning:

Is my computer trying to summon the Flash? Does Freakazoid require my help battling Cybermen somewhere in the Internets? Did Windows download an automatic update that gives me advance thunderstorm warnings?!

Not really, of course -- it was pretty obvious that something was up with the battery -- which became even more apparent when the computer died as I went to check the connection to the adapter. So after I plugged it back in and lamented the loss of my Spider-Man and Transformers personality quiz results (I got Doc Ock and Trailbreaker, respectively), I turned the laptop back on -- whereupon Windows informed me that the battery was IRREVERSIBLY DECEASED (or something similarly distressing and in all capital letters). So yeah, my laptop battery is dead -- not that I ever used it all that much anyhow.

I'd still like to get a new one, though, if only so that I don't have this gaping hole in the bottom of the machine that oh-so-conveniently happens to include the area where one of the four rubber feet used to be and leaves the machine lightly balancing on three prongs. (Of course, I could rectify this problem by just leaving the dead battery in, but then I'd run the risk of the machine trying to eat my brAAAiNsssss. The constantly flashing thunderstorm warning was also pretty bloody annoying -- before I finally removed the blasted thing I took to covering it up with a package of chewing gum.) Unfortunately, in addition to costing $165.99, the only Dell battery available for my laptop has absolutely horrible reviews. Seriously, go look -- they're horrible. Shit, even the power adapter got horrible reviews. How do you even make a horrible power adapter? Seems like that should be a pretty straightforward product to me.

Ideally I'd buy a better third-party battery, except Dell doesn't recommend using any batteries other than Dell batteries. It doesn't necessarily mean that other batteries wouldn't work -- they probably would, and I wouldn't get one unless it mentioned my model anyway -- but it does mean that I couldn't bitch at Dell if it exploded in my face or something. Not that I'd necessarily be alive to bitch if it exploded in my face, but yeah. (Then again, if Nathan Petrelli can be at about ground zero when a WMD goes off and survive, who knows? 😛 ) There would also be the problem of the missing rubber foot, which I'm guessing only Dell batteries made for these laptop models have. There is absolutely no reason to have the goddamned rubber foot on the battery.

Dell is totally fucking with me.