Best comment in the /. thread about JJ Abrams (creator of Lost) coming onboard to direct the next Star Trek movie:
I don’t get it: why is the latest Enterprise the NCC-4 8 15 16 23 42?
Greg Pattillo: Inspector Gadget + Axel F on Flute with Beatboxing
Wow.
See also: Peter and the Wolf, The Super Mario Brothers Theme (for the gamers), and for the kid in everyone, The Sesame Street Theme. This guy’s good.
It’s Academic, Really…
The sea squirt has a very simple brain which is used only to find a suitable spot to root itself for life. Once it’s settled into a spot, it no longer needs the brain, so it eats it. This has been compared by at least one Researcher to a professor receiving tenure at a university.
— from Weird Animals
(via 
eukarya)
The Clothesline Project
The Clothesline Project is a program started on Cape Cod, MA, in 1990 to address the issue of violence against women. It is a vehicle for women affected by violence to express their emotions by decorating a shirt. They then hang the shirt on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the problem of violence against women.
There’s been a CLP display on the NSCC campus for the past few days. I stopped by yesterday after class and took a few photos. Every time I see this, I’m struck by the heartbreaking and uplifting power of the stories represented by these shirts. Incredible things to see.
I’ve also created a Flickr CLP Project group, as a tag search led me to quite a few other photos of CLP displays around the country.
Entropy and Breakthrough
I’ve submitted two photos to JPG Magazine for possible inclusion in their next issue, one each for their themes of Entropy and Breakthrough. If you’re a JPG member, click through and toss a vote my way!
Okay…
Um…
Well, the fancy little Javascript boxes are fighting with the CSS in my WordPress theme. This post is just going to look goofy, at best.
That’s also why I’ve got a bunch of silly extra lines put in here to open space up.
Whee!
If you can’t even see the fancy little Javascript boxes (which might be the case on LiveJournal), try just clicking here and here…
Field Guide to Seattle Viaduct Debate
Can’t keep all the various options or points of view on Seattle’s ongoing “what do we do about the Viaduct” battle straight? Here’s a handy-dandy guide to the various species involved, thanks to SLOG reader ‘Golob’.
A Secret is Revealed
Finally! An answer to the question that’s been bugging people for years now: just where is Springfield, anyway?
Look at that, you can see the four states that border Springfield!
March 13: Vote No and Hell No!
On March 13, vote NO and NO. Seattle citizens have been offered two unacceptable options for replacing the Viaduct: a hideous elevated structure that will be taller than the existing one and 50% – 200% wider, or a late-breaking, financially questionable “tunnel lite” option. Seattle can do better, and telling leaders neither on this non-binding advisory ballot makes that point clear. Vote NO and NO.
This is an all-mail election. The last day to postmark your ballot is Tuesday, March 13. King County will be mailing ballots to voters starting on Wednesday, February 21. There are two separate questions on this advisory ballot. Vote NO and NO.
(via Metroblogging Seattle)
As You Wish
I’d be hard pressed to come up with a Top Five (or even Top Ten or Twenty) list of favorite movies, but if I did, The Princess Bride would definitely be on there.
Just move it to the streets
Nice rant on Metroblogging Seattle yesterday regarding the ongoing, neverending mess of a fight between Greg “Big Dig Seattle” Nickels, Christine “Viaduct? Vhy not a duck?” Gregoire, and the people of Seattle who just want this all over with…
But let me tell you anyway what I think, because damn it, I’m a Seattleite and I’m going to give you my opinion because I demand to be heard.
- Tear the goddamned viaduct down.
- Do all the multimodal work you should have done decades ago to hook the working port and industrial areas into rail and road.
- Make Alaskan Way into something like the Embarcadeo — with the Benson streetcar running down the middle of the boulevard, parking lots replaced with public parks, and a no-new-construction zone on the waterfront keeping Martin Selig and those other condo-building town destroyers from ripping down all that historic architecture.
- Lean on the state to fix traffic flow on southbound I-5 so I can get to the airport. You know, like MOVE THE DAMN 520 ONRAMP TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD SO WE CAN STOP THIS DAMN MERCER WEAVE CRAP. Or fixing it so there’s MORE THAN ONE TRAVEL LANE THROUGH DOWNTOWN. The state can do this, and it will be CHEAPER than the $15 billion the tunnel’s now going to cost because Tim “when I was a third-grader I never learned how to carry a one” Ceis didn’t know that CONCRETE ISN’T BROUGHT TO CONTRACTORS BY THE MAGIC BUILDING MATERIALS FAIRY WHEN THEY LEAVE A PIECE OF BRICK UNDER THEIR PILLOWS AT NIGHT.
Looks like Dan Savage agrees.
Given that I think the Viaduct is ugly and intrusive enough as it is, and don’t really want to see a bigger one (good summary here, and that it seems like Seattle getting its own version of the Big Dig (and, apparently, a more dangerous version) seems pretty stupid, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for just getting rid of the Viaduct and moving everything onto the street. Sure, not easy, and will take some serious rearranging. But from what I’ve been reading, it sure seems to be cheaper, safer, and a lot more visually attractive once all’s said and done. Besides, as many have pointed out, that’s the option we’re going to have no matter what during Viaduct removal, rebuilding, or tunnel digging — so why not just commit to it as a permanent measure and do it right?