THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: calenlass on 12 Feb 2008, 01:16
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1. An article from my English comp 1101 textbook.
June 5, 2005
There's nothing wrong with self-pity. As a spur to songwriting, it's right up there with lust, anger and reed, and probably better than the remaining deadly sins. There's nothing wrong, either, with striving for musical grandeur, using every bit of skill and studio illusion to create a sound large enough to get lost in. Male sensitivity, a quality that's under siege in a pop culture full of unrepentant bullying and machismo, shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, no matter how risible it can be in practice. And building a sound on the lessons of past bands is virtually unavoidable.
But put them all together and they add up to Coldplay, the most insufferable band of the decade.
This week Coldplay releases its painstakingly recorded third album, "X&Y" (Capitol), a virtually surefire blockbuster that has corporate fortunes riding on it. (The stock price plunged for EMI Group, Capitol's parent company, when Coldplay announced that the album's release date would be moved from February to June, as it continued to rework the songs.)
"X&Y" is the work of a band that's acutely conscious of the worldwide popularity it cemented with its 2002 album, "A Rush of Blood to the Head", which has sold three million copies in the United States alone. Along with its 2000 debut album, "Parachutes", Coldplay claims sales of 20 million albums worldwide. "X&Y" makes no secret of grand ambition.
Clearly, Coldplay is beloved: by moony high school girls and their solace-seeking parents, by hip-hop producers who sample its rich instrumental sounds and by emo rockers who admire Chris Martin's heart-on-sleeve lyrics. The band emanates good intentions, from Mr. Martin's political statements to lyrics insisting on its own benevolence. Coldplay is admired by everyone - everyone except me.
It's not for lack of skill. The band proffers melodies as imposing as Romanesque architecture, solid and symmetrical. Mr. Martin on keyboards, Jonny Buckland on guitar, Guy Berryman on bass and Will Champion on drums have all mastered the mechanics of pop songwriting, from the instrumental hook that announces nearly every song they've recorded to the reassurance of a chorus to the revitalizing contrast of a bridge. Their arrangements ascend and surge, measuring out the song's yearning and tension, cresting and easing back and then moving toward a chiming resolution. Coldplay is meticulously unified, and its songs have been rigorously cleared of anything that distracts from the musical drama.
Unfortunately, all that sonic splendor orchestrates Mr. Martin's voice and lyrics. He places his melodies near the top of his range to sound more fragile, so the tunes straddle the break between his radiant tenor voice and his falsetto. As he hops between them - in what may be Coldplay's most annoying tic - he makes a sound somewhere between a yodel and a hiccup. And the lyrics can make me wish I didn't understand English. Coldplay's countless fans seem to take comfort when Mr. Martin sings lines like, "Is there anybody out there who / Is lost and hurt and lonely too", while a strummed acoustic guitar telegraphs his aching sincerity. Me, I hear a passive-aggressive blowhard, immoderately proud as he flaunts humility. "I feel low", he announces in the chorus of "Low", belied by the peak of a crescendo that couldn't be more triumphant about it.
In its early days, Coldplay could easily be summed up as Radiohead minus Radiohead's beat, dissonance or arty subterfuge. Both bands looked to the overarching melodies of 1970s British rock and to the guitar dynamics of U2, and Mr. Martin had clearly heard both Bono's delivery and the way Radiohead's Thom Yorke stretched his voice to the creaking point.
Unlike Radiohead, though, Coldplay had no interest in being oblique or barbed. From the beginning, Coldplay's songs topped majesty with moping: "We're sinking like stones", Mr. Martin proclaimed. Hardly alone among British rock bands as the 1990s ended, Coldplay could have been singing not only about private sorrows but also about the final sunset on the British empire: the old opulence meeting newly shrunken horizons. Coldplay's songs wallowed happily in their unhappiness.
"Am I a part of the cure / Or am I part of the disease", Mr. Martin pondered in "Clocks" on "A Rush of Blood to the Head". Actually, he's contagious. Particularly in its native England, Coldplay has spawned a generation of one-word bands - Athlete, Embrace, Keane, Starsailor, Travis and Aqualung among them - that are more than eager to follow through on Coldplay's tremulous, ringing anthems of insecurity. The emulation is spreading overseas to bands like the Perishers from Sweden and the American band Blue Merle, which tries to be Coldplay unplugged.
A band shouldn't necessarily be blamed for its imitators - as the Cure or the Grateful Dead. But Coldplay follow-throughs are redundant; from the beginning, Coldplay has verged on self-parody. When he moans his verses, Mr. Martin can sound so sorry for himself that there's hardly room to sympathize for him, and when he's not mixing metaphors, he fearlessly sings clichés. "Are you lost or incomplete", Mr. Martin sings in "Talk", which won't be cited in any rhyming dictionaries. "Do you feel like a puzzle / you just can't find your missing piece".
Coldplay reached its musical zenith with the widely sampled piano arpeggios that open "Clocks": a passage that rings gladly and, as it descends the scale and switches from major to minor chords, turns incipiently mournful. Of course, it's followed by plaints: "Tides that I tried to swim against / Brought me down upon my knees".
On "X&Y", Coldplay strives to carry the beauty of "Clocks" across an entire album - not least in its first single, "Speed of Sound", which isn't the only song on the album to borrow the "Clocks" drumbeat. The album is faultless to a fault, with instrumental tracks purged of any glimmer of human frailty. There is not an unconsidered or misplaced note on "X&Y", and every song (except the obligatory acoustic "hidden track" at the end, which is still by no means casual) takes place on a monumental soundstage.
As Coldplay's recording budgets have grown, so have its reverberation times. On "X&Y", it plays as if it can already hear the songs echoing across the world. "Square One", which opens the album, actually begins with guitar notes hinting at the cosmic fanfare of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (and "2001: A Space Odyssey"). Then Mr. Martin, never someone to evade the obvious, sings about "the space in which we're traveling".
As a blockbuster band, Coldplay is now looking over its shoulder at titanic predecessors like U2, Pink Floyd and the Beatles, pilfering freely from all of them. It also looks to an older legacy; in many songs, organ chords resonate in the spaces around Mr. Martin's voice, insisting on churchly reverence.
As Coldplay's music has grown more colossal, its lyrics have quietly made a shift on "X&Y". On previous albums, Mr. Martin sang mostly in the first person, confessing to private vulnerabilities. This time, he sings a lot about "you": a lover, a brother, a random acquaintance. He has a lot of pronouncements and advice for all of them: "You just want somebody listening to what you say", and "Every step that you take could be your biggest mistake", and "Maybe you'll get what you wanted, maybe you'll stumble upon it" and "You don't have to be alone". It's supposed to be compassionate, empathetic, magnanimous, inspirational. But when the music swells up once more with tremolo guitars and chiming keyboards, and Mr. Martin's voice breaks of the umpteenth time, it sounds like hokum to me.
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2. So White an de Sebben Dorfs (http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1692829)
(Guys I think I want to be black and from the 1940s because then the sun will dance every morning when it comes up.)
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This piece forgets to mention how the grandiose, painstakingly-written hooks are the blandest thing since Wonderbread.
Other than that, well, we already know that good writing can put any band in a flattering light.
Also where does this asshole get off lumping Aqualung in with Coldplay and Keane?
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I actually quite like Keane and Athlete. To see them grouped in with Coldplay makes me sad.
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(Guys I think I want to be black and from the 1940s because then the sun will dance every morning when it comes up.)
And you speak in jazz.
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I still think that people need to stop comparing Coldplay to Radiohead. Thank god he didn't mention Muse.
While I can understand Keane being lumped in there (I find them more boring than Coldplay, sorry Keane fans), Aqualung, Athlete, and Travis shouldn't be, at least in my opinion.
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The fact that Coldplay sucks is now on a curriculum somewhere is fantastic.
One step closer to realizing my dream of majoring in Coldplay Sucks.
(My minor would be Ronnie James Dio.)
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You better mean that Ronnie James Dio is awesome, if not, I am going to have to change my sig so that it no longer quotes you.
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One step closer to realizing my dream of majoring in Coldplay Sucks.
tommy should be your thesis advisor.
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Tommy can advise me any day.
Guys you are not posting things you think everyone should know about. All of you fail.
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I expect at least a full page of Coldplay bashing before this thread gets back onto its intended topic. It's a popular topic.
Question!
What would you rather hear in an elevator?
a-Coldplay
b-Synthesized instrumental versions of Celine Dion songs
c-Some dude breathing too loudly with his mouth open
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To answer your question, I'd have to go with Coldplay, but only if its Clocks or Speed of Sound, the only two songs I like from them. Everything else sucks.
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Particularly in its native England, Coldplay has spawned a generation of one-word bands - Athlete, Embrace, Keane, Starsailor, Travis and Aqualung
Embrace released their first album two years before Coldplay, as did Travis.
Textbooks ought not to print things lies!
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I saw So White like forever ago. Shit is more played than Adventure Time.
This (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q16KpquGsIc) is something everyone should know about. And this (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ffDPTKn7HiY&feature=related).
Just a warning, the second one is probably NSFW, since it contains almost nudity.
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Particularly in its native England, Coldplay has spawned a generation of one-word bands - Athlete, Embrace, Keane, Starsailor, Travis and Aqualung
Embrace released their first album two years before Coldplay, as did Travis.
Textbooks ought not to print things lies!
It was an article taken from a college newspaper and reprinted in the textbook.
Also with the Ronald McDonald link, I was creeped out until the "Ooooo" with the GOAL arms when the other three ronalds appeared.
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c-Some dude breathing too loudly with his mouth open
Ah, I see you've met my brother.
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Question!
What would you rather hear in an elevator?
a-Coldplay
b-Synthesized instrumental versions of Celine Dion songs
c-Some dude breathing too loudly with his mouth open
A! Celine Dion is far worse and elevators can be creepy enough without C. But I pretty much hate elevators. I'd rather listen to Coldplay than even be in an elevator in the first place.
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I expect at least a full page of Coldplay bashing before this thread gets back onto its intended topic. It's a popular topic.
Question!
What would you rather hear in an elevator?
a-Coldplay
b-Synthesized instrumental versions of Celine Dion songs
c-Some dude breathing too loudly with his mouth open
B- Who doesn't love Céline Dion (You don't have to answer), and synthesized instrumental versions of her songs = Total Genius!
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d - Merzbow
(I am so being fired from whatever hotel management job I ever end up in)
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That would be intense, trapping people in an elevator and playing Merzbow for 10 minutes, then turning the lights off and making them go down to the basement (also with the lights out). That would be so scary.
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Damn it Dan. Now someone's going to do it.
I live in New York where someone is likely to fucking do it.
When I shit my pants I will blame you, internet.
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Just remember when it happens to say to yourself "I'm not going to hell, I'm not going to hell."
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Tall white guys are far more likely to die because their lungs randomly collapse than anyone else.
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Well, fuck.
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Tall white guys are far more likely to die because their lungs randomly collapse than anyone else.
That happened to a friend of mine, but fortunately he survived. The collapse was local and was only 15% of the lung. Sure enough, he's tall, skinny, and white.
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NSFW (http://warmandfuzzyfeeling.com/)
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Bollywood is my new favourite place.
Twue Wuv is clearly always accompanied by your own neon-clad chorus line. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XjaRx8jrEE&feature=related)
XXX Punjabi Porno XXX (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7JxooRjFvs&feature=related)
At 2:12 this gets really good. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM8wH1aspCQ&feature=related)
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Actually I really think this is the best one so far. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZikPmkWS5g&feature=related)
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Kimya Dawson = King Buzzo?
(http://www.universalbuzz.com/ArtistCatalogPics/DawsonKimya.jpg) (http://www.nndb.com/people/426/000059249/buzz.jpg)
The resemblance is uncanny.
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Am I the only person in the world who honestly reckons that Coldplay are an alright band? By no means the world's best, but I have no trouble with listening to their stuff in pretty much any context (Y'know, with the possible exception of a wedding or baby shower...) A lot of their so-called "gloomy" or "self-pitying" stuff to me comes across as uplifting.
Anyway, back on topic with a thing I think everyone should know about.
http://www.spore.com/screenshots.php?movieID=7&play=hi
apparently, "Spore" finally has a release date.
I just wish it wasn't being published by EA....
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BAWWWWWWW
EA has been taking risks, trying to move forward the medium even with its bigger-budget games and defending its developers (http://kotaku.com/348187/ea-calls-fox-out-on-insulting-mass-effect-inaccuracies).
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Just so long as Spore doesn't turn into another "Sims" series, I suppose.
also, go EA for that letter.
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Fuck, I can't wait for Spore to come out. If it's canceled, or if it's not as innovative as claimed, I'm going to be seriously fucking flaccid.
Just thought everyone should know about my ridiculously huge Sporegasms.
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EA is kind of like Microsoft these days. They realize they've been marked as a source of evil in their industry and that it doesn't help their sales or their images, so they're reaching out more within their industry to make amends and have started to end some of their more unethical practices. They're not even the largest video game publisher in the world anymore, and they've kind of started a new focus towards originality and exploration of ideas over rehashing the same games over and over.
Of course, Madden 20XX will never go away and they will always make sequels to their new games and just shuffle the production down the line to sweatshop coders, but they are actually trying to actually make new and interesting games. Their recent acquisition and nurturing of Bioware and Pandemic, I think, illustrates that.
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Sporegasms.
awesome.
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Tall white guys are far more likely to die because their lungs randomly collapse than anyone else.
Happened to a friend of mine!
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Spore!
Dennis: D:
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Great guys, now every few weeks I'm going to become intensely aware of the fact that my lungs might implode at any moment.
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I have a friend whose lung collapsed pretty much just for being a tall, skinny white guy. He's okay now though.
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Fuck I'm so glad that I'm not skinny and tall, i'm just right.
Oh shit, the first thing I thought when I said that was "Goldilocks would so put out for me"
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Embrace released their first album two years before Coldplay, as did Travis.
Textbooks ought not to print things lies!
The only Embrace I'll recognize is the late 80's emotional hardcore band.
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I'm not phased, the mucus and tar should keep hold my lungs in a good shape.
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I had the best idea and I thought I would share:
For those of you who don't celebrate Valentine's, next time you say "man I hate v-day" and someone goes "well that's just because you haven't got anyone to share it with", look at them and shout "right, because I broke up with my girlfriend last night just so I could be single today so you could say that to me" and burst into tears and run away sobbing hysterically.
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Katie told me I should post this delicious NSFW treasure (http://galleries.40ozbounce.com/beckshow/40oz_jennyhendrix/vid03.mpg).
It's pretty amazing.
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What's going on in that video.
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Something amazing.
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How do you freakin' think I came across it?
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The only really good song by Coldplay is Swallowed in the Sea off of X&Y
Though I don't mind Rush of Blood to the Head too much.
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Something amazing.
Fuckin shit. You gave me a goddamned heartattack. My sister was behind me, and then the video started.
KimJongDick
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Yeah bud, way to read the fucking "NSFW" warning. You are fired.
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It did say NSFW, he is right.
Homies wanna pour their foties on that booty for their homies that ain't here.
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How do you freakin' think I came across it?
From left to right, in spurts.
/
:-D
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I'm too scared to click, what is it?
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Homies wanna pour their foties on that booty for their homies that ain't here.
That's really all that needs to be said. At all. Ever.
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Terrible beer! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L11fQ6-QTIc&feature=related)
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hee hee! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRcj6CAhe7s)
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*facepalm*
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hee hee! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRcj6CAhe7s)
That's,
hmm, ah,
really excruciating on the brain.
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Man Dies in Cake Eating Contest (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7261888.stm)
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Holy shit. Man, what a way to go.
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That is AWESOME.
After 50 minutes of playing Led Zeppelin and Cake basslines, the forefinger and middle finger of my right hand feel like somebody stomped on them, lit them on fire, hit them with a belt sander, and then poured a margarita on them.
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Cake-eating contest death warning (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7262435.stm)
This just keeps getting better and better.
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Over the past 3 days I have been trying to find something worthy of this thread, but the only thing I stumbled across that came close (pardon the pun) involved - you guessed it - porn.
It's pretty great, it's a guy banging some girl with an older woman watching, and when he goes for the money shot, as soon as the first, erm, squirt, is fired off, the older woman's like "OOOHH!" all excited-like.
This should serve as an indicator of exactly how much I need to move out of my mother's house and get a life, but hey, it's funny while it lasts.
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EDIT: Snip.
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NSFW warning or no, can you ixnay on the porn posting? This is jeph's forum.
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Hm, yeah, he was pissed about just butts, he'd probably not be too happy over this. Thanks for the reminder.
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WANT! (http://www.squishable.com/s/)
And these are very safe for work, just probably not safe for young children because the squee's of excitement might make your head explode.
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Man the penguin, octopus, and the tortoise are sold out.
Not cool.
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I think everybody should know their own Myers-Briggs Type (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator).
Me, I'm an ENFJ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENFJ)
Finding an online test's not exactly hard, but here's a link anyway (http://www.kisa.ca/personality/)
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I am ENTJ! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENTJ)
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Man the penguin, octopus, and the tortoise are sold out.
Not cool.
So is the sheep. :cry:
Also, I am an ISFP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISFP)
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Myers-Briggs Type (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator).
I just read the criticisms on it and it seems like people should take the results with a salt shaker of grain, maybe? I've only taken the test once but it seemed to fit.
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Yeah, I know all the criticisms. I still like it, though. If nothing else, I read the ENFJ description and think it's pretty damned accurate for my self-image.
The big criticism with it is that there's no scientific grounding for it and that the two people it's named after had no psychiatric training. Given that psychoanalysis as a whole is a pretty intuitive field more founded in the ability to interpret people's behaviour than in the ability to interpret lab results, that isn't much of a criticism IMO.
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I am INTP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTP).
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We did this not too long ago. (http://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,17724.0.html) I was an ENTJ (http://typelogic.com/entj.html) then and I am again.
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My outcome changed slightly. Huh. I was ISFJ, but the J is now P. And reading the two summaries, the newer is more accurate, it seems.
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Something I think you should know about!
I think I will be transferring colleges (http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/02/26/texas-university-giving-freshmen-iphones-and-ipod-touches) for the fall semester. Holy wow.
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SQUIIISSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! WANT!!!!
the tiger! ZOMG!
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Something I think you should know about!
I think I will be transferring colleges (http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/02/26/texas-university-giving-freshmen-iphones-and-ipod-touches) for the fall semester. Holy wow.
Dang, a free iPhone in exchange for moving to Abilene sounds like a pretty raw deal to me
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I would go for a semester. Then I would disappear and head back to Fargo.
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if i moved to abilene i would want a toilet made of gold and a bidet that shot cocaine-infused fuji or evian, whichever is on hand
Dammit Sam, you need to stop hanging out with that Hilton girl
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To Storm Rider collapsed lungs aren't that bad. I've had about 9, and they are only lethal if both simultaneously collapse atleast 50% the surgery to keep them in place is terrible but that's normally for emergencies only.
And yes I know this is about 10 days late but I've been busy.
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Myers-Briggs is kind of cool, but it's also kind of like a scientific horoscope. Self-diagnosis is only part of the test, and there are plenty of quizzes out on the internet that aren't necessarily reliable.
If you're here, you're probably an I, though I'm not sure what to expect for the rest.
I was INTP a while ago. Everything but the I was tenuous.
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I've taken this test a lot and I almost always end up INTJ. Every great once in a while the I'll end up with ISTJ or INTP, but the I and the T are mortal locks, with an exceptionally high introverted score.
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Yeah, I have taken the Myers-Briggs in real-life 4 times and more than that online, and I have been a polarised ENTP every time save the last one, which I took under supervision of my shrink (and, you know, not several others of my friends, with whom I spent the majority of the pick-a-word sections going "soft or hard? is that even a real question? shit, who would pick soft? flaccid, hurr hurr"; in retrospect, this was probably not the best way to have gone about this) and said I was an INTP/INTJ split.
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I've always felt that the INTJ is pretty accurate in my case. I'm not what you'd call shy, per se, but I rarely seek people out, and I find a lot of interaction really draining. People often think I'm a push over because I'm rather quiet but convincing me about anything without a good reason is pretty much impossible, although I'm pretty quick to revise my thinking once presented with good information.
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I switch between INTP and INTJ every time I take Myers-Briggs. I could take it now just to see, but I don't really feel like it at the moment.
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I am ISFJ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISFJ)! Same as Linds'. J got the same score as P, so they are practically interchangeable.
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I'm INFP, go figure... When I'm annoyed or upset I tend to come across as INTP. It takes a lot of work to get me annoyed.
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Mine is the same as last time, I think. ENFJ but my j and p are both at 50% and both things seem equally as applicable. Also I got 100% on F over J. This is probably why I am a sociologist who thinks qualitative research > quantitative.
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I am an ISFP, apparently. I didn't like some of the questions, as in different situations I would have agreed with the different answers. If I was to do it properly, I would want to do it where I am explaining to people my answers. But that is probably not how the test works, anyway.
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hee hee! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRcj6CAhe7s)
katie, i am so glad you posted this.
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I don't like the way the test that was linked asks, "Do some people view you as..." in the questions. Man I haven't got a goddamn clue what people view me as, I just assume the worst most of the time, this is CLEARLY going to fuck with my results.
That said:
Your personality type is INFP.
Introverted (I) 54% Extraverted (E) 46%
Intuitive (N) 55% Sensing (S) 45%
Feeling (F) 55% Thinking (T) 45%
Perceiving (P) 68% Judging (J) 32%
Wow. What a surprise. Same as I've gotten all my life. And this (http://www.personalitypage.com/careers.html) gave me career paths for INFP (http://www.personalitypage.com/INFP_car.html).
Surprise surprise, it says I should be a musician. Maybe it's the bit where I don't really care about deadlines, I don't make/stick to solid plans, etcetera that put me there. Whatev.
I don't know what teletype does.
Oh, now I know what it does. Okay.
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According to this i am INTP
Introverted (I) 54% Extroverted (E) 46%
Intuitive (N) 64% Sensing (S) 36%
Thinking (T) 75% Feeling (F) 25%
Perceiving (P) 55% Judging (J) 45%
From the description and the job titles it gives I'd say this was pretty accurate.
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So I took it. Twice. First time it was ESTP (http://typelogic.com/estp.html), and a bit polarised, I guess:
Extraverted (E) 75% Introverted (I) 25%
Sensing (S) 73% Intuitive (N) 27%
Thinking (T) 75% Feeling (F) 25%
Perceiving (P) 64% Judging (J) 36%
Second time, different online test: ENTJ (http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes3.asp)
Extraverted (E) 51% Introverted (I) 49%
Sensing (S) 37% Intuitive (N) 63%
Thinking (T) 75% Feeling (F) 25%
Perceiving (P) 49% Judging (J) 51%
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Everybody needs to know that my hot water heater has exploded and I just had to answer the door to a plumber whilst stinky, mascara smudged, and wearing nothing but one of my boyfriend's pongy t-shirts.
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Something I REALLY think everyone should know about:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15916765
Quick poll: how many of you already knew that someone had set himself on fire as a protest to the war in Chicago in November 2006?
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Not I.
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I lived ~2.5 hours north of Chicago at the time, and this is the first I've heard of it. Wow.
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I took this test last year when i went to California for the first time. I got an INTJ, which seemed rather accurate at the time. Now i got INTP, which probably is truer.
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Pollution is shrinking polar bears' dongs. (http://www.dmu.dk/International/News/Pollution+in+polar+bears.htm)
Guys I think we need to be more careful, because polar bears don't fuck around, and I imagine smaller penises do not make them happy.
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Something I REALLY think everyone should know about:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15916765
Quick poll: how many of you already knew that someone had set himself on fire as a protest to the war in Chicago in November 2006?
Raises hand. I read about it in the Reader. The backstory is quite weird.
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I was talking about this in gabbly. I suspect this is where this shit comes from.
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Man it has been so long since I've been on Gabbly.
I was just exploring green-development blogs looking at cool stuff (like the city-inside-of-a-building they're trying to build in Russia, or the beer bottle that can be used as a brick to build shit once you're done drinking it) and it linked me.
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Something I REALLY think everyone should know about:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15916765
Quick poll: how many of you already knew that someone had set himself on fire as a protest to the war in Chicago in November 2006?
Talk about being out of the Loop...
hot dang.
...
oh.
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Something I REALLY think everyone should know about:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15916765
Quick poll: how many of you already knew that someone had set himself on fire as a protest to the war in Chicago in November 2006?
I did know this, pretty amazing story.
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How does it feel knowing that guy had more balls than all of us put together?
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Or that he was mentally ill?
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this here's pretty cool: http://www.physorg.com/news122819670.html
Now all we need is a version with a backlit colour display.
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People who should be fucked according the the stall next to the handicapped stall in the men's bathroom of the library I work at:
Jews
Blacks
Navajos
Bigots
Addendum:
Stinar lives
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AND THE DUTCH
(somebody had to)
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The blood powered under the skin video cell phone has caught my attention. Leads the way to programmable changing tattoos and other devices? I mean, its a touch activated video phone under the skin with wireless access to bluetooth devices?! Someone please tell me this is a joke, because its just too awesome to be real.
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Something I REALLY think everyone should know about:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15916765
Quick poll: how many of you already knew that someone had set himself on fire as a protest to the war in Chicago in November 2006?
Unless there's another person who did this, I think this made the news in Ireland. I seem to remember hearing about this.
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every time i take the myers-briggs type indicator test i end up as an INTP which is apparently the weirdest and rarest one in north america. i am not really surprised by this at all.
also i think you guys should know that any time firefox detects a misspelled word it tries to get me to change it to "star bucks" and it's getting kind of weird and creepy.
(http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/5599/onetm3.png)
(http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/2374/twoxc4.png)
???
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anyone else's Firefox spell-checker stuck on superliminal messaging?
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Since superbliminal isn't a word, no.
In fact, shouldn't Firefox's spell checker have told you that?
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Couldn't think of a good enough word so I used one that doesn't necessarily exist in any "real" dictionary you can find.
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if subliminal is a word, why can't the prefix super be applied to the liminal root word?
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in that case I misspelt and it's now fixed.
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it disappeared when i restarted my computer! right when i was starting to hope i might for some reason be important enough for starbucks to spy on.
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well, that's annoying :-D
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A bit late but I am...
Your personality type is ESFJ.
Extraverted (E) 61% Introverted (I) 39%
Sensing (S) 68% Intuitive (N) 32%
Feeling (F) 100% Thinking (T) 0%
Judging (J) 50% Perceiving (P) 50%
Interesting. I'm well rounded on some things and completely polarized on others.
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Hey Tania, we totally have the same personality type.
So maybe later I was thinking we could... y'know...
(oh fuck she's looking at me shit shit shit shit)
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(BAIL DUDE BAIL)
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(oh god it's like a train wreck in slow motion in my brain)
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Ooh.. you touch my Tra-La-La (http://youtube.com/watch?v=W4IKC9V67dE).
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Oh, that is so old. I will reply with something just as good though, and just as old.
Your momma (http://youtube.com/watch?v=npjQ_gt2u3g).
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every time i take the myers-briggs type indicator test i end up as an INTP which is apparently the weirdest and rarest one in north america.
Not according to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#Type_dynamics_and_development
Us INTJ's* are rarer, and the rarest is INFJ.
*I got INTP too one time, but mostly I come up INTJ.
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I seem to alternate between INTJ and INTP, but mostly INTP, although the whole thing is a bit pointless. I reckon it would be a lot more accurate if you got one of your closest friends to do it. That way you wouldn't subconsciously change things to what you would like them to be.
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Patrick Swayze's got 5 weeks left to spend not possessing Whoopi Goldberg's body. Shut up, that was the Fark headline (http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=39197&cat=2).
Also, this (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA030508.05B.MarionFire.30fcd97.html) is why we don't start trash fires.
Edit: It appears I've forgotten this little gem (http://newsfromrussia.com/society/sex/05-03-2008/104366-space_sex-0):
"In space men exercise on treadmills. In addition, they can theoretically masturbate too. But they should not forget about condoms or other containers, otherwise drop of sperm will be flying chaotically in the cabin and they will have to collect it."
I lol'd. And then this filthy lie right after it:
"As a matter of fact, humans are not eager to make love in space."
Are you fucking kidding me, that's how I want to lose the v-card.
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Humans are into some pretty crazy sports. (http://"http://www.cracked.com/article_15209_10-most-insane-sports-in-world.html") Includes highlights such as Cheese Rolling, in which one chases a wheel of cheese down a hill, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkeling, and Chess Boxing.
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I would chess box.
This fuckass (http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3279958) decided to hit balls at a protected species of hawk and got in deep shit when he actually hit it. Now he's all pissy because "Oh I wasn't actually trying to hit it, just scare it away!" gg n00b
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i have realised tonight that you can order pizza on the internet without actually having to talk to the annoying phone operaters ... i love you pizzahut.com
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Normz, you would love living near me. We have campusfood.com, you can order delivery online from basically any restaurant in the area, pay the driver tip online, and never have to deal with the horrid phone ordering again:)
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Cheese Rolling, in which one chases a wheel of cheese down a hill
I've seen this on TV before. And I want to do it. I used to love rolling down hills when I was little.
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i have realised tonight that you can order pizza on the internet without actually having to talk to the annoying phone operaters
hey! during my senior year of high school i was one of those annoying phone operators.
for the most part it was a pretty fun job actually. it got to a point where they somehow couldn't fire me because i was the only person who had been there longer than 3 months and knew how to handle difficult situations. i threatened to quit at least three times just so they'd give me a raise and convince me to stay. none of the supervisors really did their jobs properly and as a result about 90% of the time i spent on the phone with customers involved being brutally frank about the quality of the food we served and essentially telling them to spend their money elsewhere. good times!
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I would chess box.
This fuckass (http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3279958) decided to hit balls at a protected species of hawk and got in deep shit when he actually hit it. Now he's all pissy because "Oh I wasn't actually trying to hit it, just scare it away!" gg n00b
All that article tells me is that golfers are assholes.
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Hey, only 90% of them.
The rest of us suck at golf.
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i think everyone needs to know that guelph is expecting anywhere between 30-50 cm of snow by tomorrow morning. and it's march. i have concerns.
also, there's a possibility the maintenance workers at my university will be striking this monday, rendering the university closed as there will be no one around to get rid of all this fucking snow.
...yay?
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I feel for you Eph, I'm in Montreal where the storm wont be nearly as bad (20-30cm) and it's still a pain! I also have a part-time job which requires me to work outside, so this is no fun.
Enjoy the extra day (or two?) to do your work I guess.
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"As a matter of fact, humans are not eager to make love in space."
Are you fucking kidding me, that's how I want to lose the v-card.
Can you just imagine the filth that would be shooting through the air instead of soaking down into the sheets?
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Let it be known that I am the first to coin the term "zero-g sexual discharge"
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Heston of the Apes (http://www.mikeolenick.com/videos/hestonapes.html)
If there's one thing you do today, it should be watching this.
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wow, that man is the definition of "overacting."
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I'm curious as to what Keanu Reeves would be the definition of.
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That which floats in the bowl after one flushes.
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Sorry Trebek, you got that backwards.
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THIS (http://www.wefeelfine.org/)
At first I was unimpressed with the idea, but I spent a couple minutes watching the blizzard of opinions and emotions on my screen (ripped straight from blog entries across the globe) and it made me feel good.
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That is really cool. I like the Murmurs ticker that lists what people have been saying.
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http://www.addictinggames.com/pillagethevillage.html
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damn yo that game is awesome
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I think everyone should know it's Lunchbox's birthday today! (The 21st.)
Happy Birthday Ally!!! =^.^=
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Happy Birthday to Bawx. I penned a new song, sung to the tune of "Happy Birthday," and loads radder:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU'RE OLD
AND WRINKLY I'M TOLD
YOU NEED A GOOD SHOWER
'CAUSE YOU'RE COVERED IN MOLD
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Hoppy bong-frog.
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lunchy doesn't rate her own thread? awww
Happy Birthday!
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I think everyone should know that the true size and shape of the worlds continents is actually like this:
(http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/pub/xplanet/fuller_1280x640.jpg)
Greenland is not the size of Africa guys, nor is Scandinavia bigger than Australia.
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Europe is a bit of a piss take continent i've always thought.
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That image disturbs my preconceived perception of the world I live in.
and yeah, Europe is a piss-take. look at us, we're just a squiggly bit that looks about 50% flooded. that is not cool.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_projection
Ah, Fuller, you and your geodesic polyhedrons never do let us down...
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Happy fucking birthday Jon!
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Worldmapper (http://www.worldmapper.org/) makes maps bent out of shape by statistics, with interesting results.
Bit of a dry entry (ahem), so I'll point to this:
(http://www.worldmapper.org/images/largepng/205.png)
The world's nations blown up according to the most scientific papers published.
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Honestly, what surprised me the most about Khar's map is the sheer amount of desert in the world. Look at the giant chunk that sweeps through Africa, straight through Asia! I guess I didn't realize Asia was quite so desert-filled- even the regions I think of as relatively tropical, like Laos/Vietnam appear fairly dry.
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The amount of desert is surprising, especially just how much of Africa is so dry. Also, I didn't realise Australia was quite so green.
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Well I knew that the Sahara Desert is larger than the Continental United States, but to see it like that amazes me, plus the fact that on a normal wall map of the world Europe and Asia look a lot larger. On that map Africa is just about as big as both of them combined.
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The Dymaxion map is 100% accurate. You only have to start distorting things when you want everything laid out all neat.
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The world's nations blown up according to the most scientific papers published.
Goddamn, it's like Japan and England ate the moon or something.
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The Dymaxion map is 100% accurate. You only have to start distorting things when you want everything laid out all neat.
I'm curious as to how it can be 100% accurate because I believe you have to start distorting things when you project the surface of a sphere onto a flat plane. From what I can find the Dymaxion projection is more accurate but it still has some distortion.
From Wiki:
"Fuller claimed his map had several advantages over other projections for world maps.
It has less distortion of relative size of areas, most notably when compared to the Mercator projection; and less distortion of shapes of areas, notably when compared to the Gall-Peters projection. Other compromise projections attempt a similar trade-off."
From http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/shop/geni_products/products.shtml
"This map is the world's most accurate global projection. It has at most a 2% distortion at any one place."
From http://users.design.ucla.edu/~djvmc/24/bucky/map.html
"Like all flat maps, it evidences the distortions that result from the translation of the three-dimensional surface of a sphere to a flat plane. Its distortions, however, are distributed proportionately within each of its 14 segments and are nowhere extreme"
And here's a nifty site that will probably tell you more about map projections than you really want to know.
http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/TOC/cartTOC.html
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http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23440568-5012895,00.html
A man thinks he's God so he's like "Fuck this shit I'm not going to court."
Science McSciencerson says that Sirhan Sirhan might not have fired the fatal shot (http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Scientists_Multiple_shooters_in_RFK_assassination_0326.html) that killed Bobby Kennedy, and that there was more than one shooter. 13 shots fired and Sirhan Sirhan's gun only held 8 and other such stuff.
ITS A CONSPIRACY GUYZ OMG
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Guys just so you know, the Daily Telegraph in Sydney is a tabloid. The Sydney Morning Herald is quite possibly the only good NSW centric paper. It is also a broadsheet.
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Tabloids have funny stuff, do they not?
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I used to have the Weekly World News that broke the story about Saddam and Osama having adopted a baby orangutan. Why oh why did I throw that away?
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Tabloid refers to the format (paper size) rather than the content, although it does tend to follow that most tabloid-sized papers are more given to sensationalism than their broadsheet counterparts.
The Daily Telegraph isn't in the same vein as the Weekly World News or such in that it does report "real news" (albeit with much more celebrity-based stuff in the editorial pages than a more "respectable" paper) but the standards of journalism aren't exactly high so the "real news" still gets reported with an eye to rabble-rousing than balanced fact-based reportage.
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I can't find a link at this moment, but some guy got arrested for sexually abusing a very young minor. His response? To press charges of sexual assault on him...agaisnt Big Foot.
Yep. His excuse for destroying what should be the most wonderful experience for a human for all of their life is that he was raped by Big Foot.
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http://news.aol.com/story/_a/man-claims-he-was-molested-by-bigfoot/20080327154809990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
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RE Africa's deserts:
There is a reason why it starves so much folks (along with hella political instability). Only Antarctica and Australia are dryer.
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I can't find a link at this moment, but some guy got arrested for sexually abusing a very young minor. His response? To press charges of sexual assault on him...agaisnt Big Foot.
Yep. His excuse for destroying what should be the most wonderful experience for a human for all of their life is that he was raped by Big Foot.
You know what? If he can prove it, I think he's made a good case for himself.
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RE Africa's deserts:
There is a reason why it starves so much folks (along with hella political instability). Only Antarctica and Australia are dryer.
All beginning with A. I see a pattern here.
Fuck this shit, let's rename Australia to Zustralia. I'm sick of this damn drought.
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RE Africa's deserts:
Dave Barry once put forward a compelling theory about weather. He explained that most nations import their weather from weather producing nations, and Africa cannot afford any weather.
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I learned that you can chew Stride gum without unwrapping it. You just pop the wrapped stick in your mouth, and chew! The wrapper dissolves after about 30 seconds. This knowledge can save valuable seconds.
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While Stride gum is designed to be chewed for a ridiculously long time, our gum wrappers are not. All of our gum wrappers are made with materials that comply with FDA rjadskghbsdkvjadfshvjhadskjfhadskhdskjafhadskjegulations for food contact materials; however, none of our chewing gum wrappers are designed to be ingested. While there’s nothing toxic in them, gum wrappers aren’t intended for ingestion and gum wrappers should not be eaten. Should you have any questions or concerns about your children ingesting gum wrappers, please contact your doctor or other health care professional.
I'm not so much posting that so as to prove you wrong, but the simple fact that I love it whenever I managed to hit a Wiki page while it's vandalized on it.
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Stabbing rampage (http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/02/alaska.stabbings.ap/index.html) in Sitka, Alaska. That's where I went for work last summer, that's where I'm going this summer (and am possibly going to stay for a couple years), and that's where I served two of the victims at the counter of the McDonald's.
They were really nice people :(
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Stabbing Rampage is a good band name.
Maybe The Stabbing Rampage.
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Dude call it Sitka Stabbing Rampage. I'll call you SSR for short and I'll even put a banner link on my band myspace page. You should do twee and jangle pop.
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\While there’s nothing toxic in them, gum wrappers aren’t intended for ingestion and gum wrappers should not be eaten. Should you have any questions or concerns about your children ingesting gum wrappers, please contact your doctor or other health care professional.
I'm not so much posting that so as to prove you wrong, but the simple fact that I love it whenever I managed to hit a Wiki page while it's vandalized on it.
Okay, so ever since I heard that rumor I've been chewing stride with the wrappers on, and it honestly seems like the wrapper was made to dissolve, that's how fast it seems to disappear. I guess I will stop that now.
I might, however, start vandalizing Wikipedia pages. It's not mean if you do it in such a way that only a dumbass would take your edits for truth, right?
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Vandalizing Wikipedia cleverly is great fun. I am proud of this edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skateboard&diff=172436097&oldid=172398860#History) myself, so much that I like showing it to everyone, but that's the only one I've done so far.
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So, where's the vandalism? :-P
/obvious joke
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Somebody had edited the Gaza Strip article to say that Arafat was part of the so-called "PMGO," or "Pretty Much Gay Organization". At first I was kindof annoyed, and then I couldn't help but laugh when I checked back a month and a half later and it was still there. Fucking fantastic :B
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I don't know enough about skateboards to have any idea with the vandalism might possibly be on that page.
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I don't know enough about skateboards to have any idea with the vandalism might possibly be on that page.
I don't think you have to know a lot about skateboards to know they weren't invented by Michael J Fox in Back to the Future.
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Technically, shouldn't it have said Calvin Klein invented the skateboard?
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=bqg_ceFM30I
PAYNUS
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y)
The superb lyre bird, I just find this too cool.
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i've read about how lyre birds can imitate sounds they hear around them but never actually seen a video before. way too cool.
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I am now running Linux. I think everyone should know this. Also this means my laptop is fixed and I will be back on the forums a heck of a lot. Hurrah!
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Oh my god yes. The Superb Lyrebird is pretty much nature's sampler. I once had this idea to get a whole bunch of lyre birds together and play each one a small sample of a larger musical piece until they learned it, and then let them loose as a performance. Unfortunately, this turns out to be illegal in some way.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHp_9aJD17A
Very important.
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Vandalizing Wikipedia cleverly is great fun. I am proud of this edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skateboard&diff=172436097&oldid=172398860#History) myself, so much that I like showing it to everyone, but that's the only one I've done so far.
That's just brilliant. I'd take my hat off to you if I wore one.
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There's nothing wrong with self-pity. As a spur to songwriting, it's right up there with lust, anger and greed, and probably better than the remaining seven deadly sins
I wish to see a concept album devoted to the remaining seven deadly sins.
No! A four-album cycle. Envy: The Album, followed shortly thereafter by Pride, and then Gluttony.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y)
Thank you so much for this! I've been watching the David Attenborough clips almost nonstop now.
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There's nothing wrong with self-pity. As a spur to songwriting, it's right up there with lust, anger and greed, and probably better than the remaining seven deadly sins
I wish to see a concept album devoted to the remaining seven deadly sins.
No! A four-album cycle. Envy: The Album, followed shortly thereafter by Pride, and then Gluttony.
Is Pride covered by deciding "I will make a four-album concept cycle of the Seven Deadly Sins, and people will love it!" ?
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I found more great wikipedia vandalism, which I sadly cannot take credit for:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v368/thehollow/sboy.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v368/thehollow/sboy.jpg)
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=YjO_VXHxsRw
Freddy Mercury ain't got shit.
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As often, that clip is both enhanced and weakened by the fact that I can understand what they're saying.
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How about this one, then. I already showed it to you, but for the rest of you... yeah, you might want to go get some painkillers.
Edit for, well, you know, the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3GqJgiZtdEU
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Necro/multipost? Whatev, so fucking worth it. Gaz (DynamiteKid) pointed this song out to me when I downloaded a certain NWA album yesterday (efil4zaggiN) and so I looked for it on YouTube.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2LF7zRrt04g
Fucking amazing.