The cover of next month’s Bad Parenting Monthly, with feature article “Ponyfear!”: (Actually, in this photo, the pony doesn’t look exactly chuffed either, does he?) Read more →
Author: Mr. McLaren
Baby Blog Week: The fastest year ever
Sarah Kathleen McLaren is one year old today. Damn. That was the fastest year ever. It’s definitely one of those “seems like it was just 10 minutes ago, but also seems like it was so long ago I don’t remember life before that” situations. For the record, at age 1, she is awesome. I bought her a couple of presents,… Read more →
How I Spent My Friday Night
So, we had another poker tournament at “the Drake” this Friday. I was quite excited since this would be the premiere of my custom Cthulhu chips, which had just arrived on Thursday. Here’s a shot of my new chips (which, like all the images in this post, is a link to a larger image): <Insert your own “gambling with your… Read more →
Silly Talk about Philosophy
In response to a thread where scientists discuss silly things that non-scientists have said to them, a similar thread has sprung up where philosophers have the same kind of discusstion. Reading through this really amused me, especially the places where the “public” (which might be best read as “non-academic” but also including “non-amateur philosophers”) perception of the field interacts with… Read more →
Bring it on Danielle
My favourite post in the blogosphere today. Here’s a little bit for you: You, dear mechanic, proceeded to tell me that the knock sensor was wearing out, and needed to be replaced, to the tune of $250. I immediately called BULLSHIT on that, and asked you to check my extended warranty. When you told me that my extended warranty didn’t… Read more →
If he’s right it will radically alter my marriage…
Everyone should be checking out the Long Bets web site, a portal designed to deal with predictions that stretch significantly into the future. You can vote on the predictions, discuss them, or challenge the predictor to actually bet on their prediction. There are some very interesting things being discussed here, and everyone with a science fiction bent will find something… Read more →
Speaking back to Power
You know, now that I’m a parent I think I’m supposed to be changing my attitudes about the appropriate response to Authority. Happily, that doesn’t seem to be happening, and I still seem to think that the more Authority is asserted, the more the correct response becomes mockery. (Here’s my intellectual pretension for the day: Thomas More once wrote, “The… Read more →
United States Homeland Security network monitors suspicious activity
Man, so many things to say about this item in today’s Wikinews. Instead of trying to write something clear and sensible (I’ve slept about 5 hours since Monday) I’m just going to pull quotes from the article and comment on them. “The secret network is a component of the HSIN, which is the primary conduit for DHS to share information… Read more →
Car Mix July 2005
The fact that my car is awesomely set up for listening to my (apparently discontinued) portable MP3 player (on which I may post more later) means that 99% of the time when I am driving I am not making use of my car stereo as anything other than a way to route sound to my speakers. Since I mostly drive… Read more →
Caving in for a meme
(This meme contracted from Kristine Smith, who’s books I quite enjoy desipte their mil-porn covers (well, the first three anyway), and who’s answer to the last question really made me smile.) Be warned, unless you are me, the odds are good you will not recognize all of these names, but Google will not let you down. Best fictional character to… Read more →
Too good to be in the miscellany
And one more link-y post, but one that is so awesome that it deserves its own post: Mr. T doesn’t like it when you bring people’s momma’s into the dozens. Because you should Treat Your Mother Right. (You are invited to avoid making any comments about the way I treat my mother. Thank you.) Read more →
A Miscellany
A fun blog to read: Pharyngula by U.Minn. biology professor Paul Z. Myers. At least it’s fun for me to read, since the content often involves smacking down various ridiculous “Intelligent Design” proponents and other pseudo scientific drivel. Plus, lots of scientific goodness. One fun thing to look into here is the ongoing intellectual beating Myers is giving George Gilder.… Read more →
The Roots of Desire
The Houston Chronicle has a review of a new book, The Roots of Desire, which book purports to be about “The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair”. The review starts out strong, making me think I need to buy this book: Redheads make up only 2 percent of the American population. I would have guessed more. But that… Read more →
Apparently I am a road-trip amateur…
I have always thought of myself as something of a road trip professional (“I’m a mission specialist: I specialize in missions”) but apparently I was wrong about this. How could anyone take themselves seriously as a road tripper without owning one of these? 12-Volt Portable Oven and Pizza Maker # Plugs Directly into Your Cigarette Lighter Socket # High/Low Settings… Read more →
Cool Things That Come In The Mail
Lots of cool things have shown up here in the mail over the last month. Here’s one: My DNA cube, from Bathsheba Grossman. It’s on a light pedastel that cycles through a series of colours, making it look even cooler. I have it on display in the rec room–that image in a photo of the cube in situ in the… Read more →
