User Interface War

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Expunged

This past weekend we went to see the new Pro-Intelligent Design (a re-dressing of Creation Science) film from pop culture icon Ben Stein called: Expelled.

The documentary attempts to uncover a conspiracy in the world of Science. Ben Steins says that if you are a proponent of Intelligent Design, the idea that all life in the Universe was designed by a Creator, and you work in the scientific field then you will be ostracized.

He says that this is an issue of free speech. That all ideas should be given equal weight in the eyes of the scientific method. But the scientific method is not democratic, and it shouldn't be. Certain ideas are given more weight because the evidence supports them, others are considered foolish because they LACK EVIDENCE.

But he doesn't stop at promoting ID, he also goes after old Darwin himself.

Ben Stein tries to denounce Evolution by showing that the theory itself doesn't have all the answers. He says that Evolution falls short because it fails to explain how life on Earth began... This drives us absolutely crazy.

Evolution is not a theory on the origin of life. Evolution is a theory that attempts to explain how life changes over time.

Nobody knows how life began. Because.. you know, that's like the GREATEST MYSTERY IN THE UNIVERSE. To say that evolution is flawed because it doesn't solve one of the biggest questions in existence, even though it was never intended to, is like saying that Robocop is flawed because he's not good at pottery. Robocop's job isn't to make a clay bowl, it's to shoot jacked-up bad guys, and survive gas station explosions. Besides, his giant robot hands lack the subtle movement needed to be a great potter.

The shoddy workmanship in this film doesn't end there. A couple of our favorite Scientists and a few prominent Atheists were duped into being interviewed for a movie called "Crossroads: Where Religion and Science meet." That movie was sold as a open minded discussion about the compatibility of Science and Religion. The movie we got in it's place seems a little one sided.

The website Expelled Exposed goes a long way to show that the film wasn't a documentary at all, but rather an attempt to create a controversy where there was only rational science-minded thought.

Here is the story of a Science Teacher who really was fired from a Texas school for failing to remain neutral on the subject of Creationism. Fired, by a school! For trying to teach science!

How to Speak Hip

Converted from the original Vinyl by Skeyelab Music, this album was created in part by Del Close, the original improv guru.

[via metafilter]

This was a triumph.

!-- I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS --!

Our beloved be-bearded Jonathan Coulton will be returning to Atlanta in March!

Jonathan Coulton @ Variety Playhouse Sat. March 22nd.

You might remember Jonathan Coutlon from that time he was an awesome recording artist who gives away and sells his music on the internet. Oh and he also wrote that popular Portal Song that everybody went nuts over on the internet.

see:

It's a trick... Get an Axe.

It's been a rough time to be a student of Television. A barren, dry time with vast spans of drought in between sips of refreshing water. We like to take our TV watching seriously, also... We spend too much time thinking about it. The Writer's Strike seems to us like that evil killer* at the end of some movie...

Is the nightmare really over?
OR
Will it's eyes spring open at the last minute and stab the dorky smart-ass in the chest before he can get the hot-girl?

I mean, it's a writers strike... so we keep expecting some silly twist ending to this story. However, the WGA seems to have finally reached an agreement with the studios. Looks like it'll stick this time, we can only hope.

So we're allowing ourselves to get a little excited about seeing our favorite shows go back into production. Hopefully in time to finish off their already truncated season. (We're looking at you Lost) If you're like us, check out TV Guide's hourly updated list of When your favorite shows will return.

* We don't actually think that Union Writers are in any way evil, although stale television certainly is.

Up on the Wire?

(via mathowie)

Watch The Wire Season 5 on HBO.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Speaking of awesome television. The New season of Lost begins this thursday Jan. 31st.

Mystery! Intrigue!

Tomorrow Apple holds it's annual Macworld Conference in San Francisco. Steve Jobs will take the stage to present another of his legendary Keynote Presentations.

This time last year Apple announced the iPhone. At the time the release date was still a few months away, but finally we got to see what it looked like. After years fo rumors and fake mock-ups, the actual phone was better than all of them. It certainly blew us away, we fell in love with the phone the moment we saw it. Even after the $200 price drop, and having to embrace the slimey grossness of AT&T, we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the phone is totally worth it. I still consider it my new best friend.

But the best part about Macworld is the mystery.

Apple is notorious for keeping their new products and upgrades a complete secret before they are announced on stage. Who knows what mysteries lie in wait behind the back of that turtleneck-ed man. It's like second Christmas, except all the presents are unwrapped and sitting behind expensive unbreakable glass.

Every year in the few weeks and days before Macworld the Apple nerds (like me) all speculate on what new discoveries we'll encounter at Macworld. This year is no different.

Speaking of mysteries. We're such big fans of Lost that we automatically considered ourselves fans of the show's creator J.J. Abrams. In anticipation of his new moster movie project, Cloverfield, we planned on being excited. But then we thought about some of his past projects that we've actually not been that impressed with. Like Alias. Which really seems to be more of his baby that Lost is. We've only ever seen one episode of Alias all the way through, and maybe we're missing something, but we didn't go crazy for it. Essentially we talked ourselves out of being Abrams fans.

Then we saw J.J Abrams' presentation for TED...

Now we're huge fans again!

Uh oh.

We're not a political weblog. But we love science.
The top two Republican Candidates do not accept Evolution to be true.

It gets better. Every hippie's favorite Democratic (Republican?) Candidate has now revealed that he too, does not believe in Evolution. I'd like to call it: "The crumbling of Ron Paul." But we both know that rejecting science is actually a sound political strategy.

(via The Information Paradox)

It is important to note that Evolution is not a theory on the creation of the Universe, as Ron Paul states. It's not even a theory on how life began. Evolution attempts to explain how life has changed, or evolved, through history. To boil this question of Evolution, and it's factuality, down to an argument about Science vs. Religion betrays Ron Paul's politics at work. And it doesn't look very promising.

Good luck America.

Don't be Izzy

The new mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been announced.

Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino. Quatchi is a young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada. Sumi is an animal spirit who lives in the mountains of British Columbia.

Wow, we think they look awesome times 2. They're cute, well designed, and actually represent aspects of Vancouver. While our personal favorite is currently Quatchi, we've found a reason to like all of them.

You can take a quiz to see which mascot you are most like. The mascots were designed by a couple of artists who call themselves Meomi. We live in Atlanta. That means we had to put up with this as our mascot for the 96 Summer Olympics:

Izzy. There are so many things wrong with this mascot, it's hard to know where to begin. So we'll start with the most obvious: His total lack of quality on any level, including but not limited to: Design, Intent, or Philosophy. It also looks like he was the very first idea the design committee had. Although, you can be sure this is not true. Originally named Whatizit, Izzy went through many changes after he was announced and before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. They took a marginal design and watered it down even more. The result was spectacularly unpopular.

Which is what makes the Vancouver mascots so great. They seem to be everything that Izzy wasn't. That's not a bad rule of thumb for all character and logo design:

Don't be Izzy.

Out of the Woodwork.

They come a crawlin' out like bugs. If I were Bear Grylls I'd eat them alive, then I would go "catch" a "wild" horse.

Fans of the Discovery Channel show Man VS. Wild have taken exception with our assessment of their beloved program. We think the show cheats... We think this because they've been discovered cheating... simple yes?

Well no.

About once a week we get a new comment on either of our two posts concerning the controversy telling us to "Shut up," or "Go to hell" because we don't realize how awesome Bear Grylls is. Here are a few choice comments:

TJ says:
"Blah, blah, blah, in case none of you have noticed, this show, Man vs. Wild, is about teaching people how to survive in the wild, not about who's wearing a life vest or who knows how to drink pee properly. Jeeze, get over it already."

If you try to read this comment too closely it's 4th dimensional logic will begin to fold in on itself creating a soul sucking vortex of stupidity. Keep your distance. Then there's this one:

Some Anonymous Guy says:
"I think that all you haters of bear grylls should shut up, because he as more Balls than any of you could even imagine!

I'm curious as to how many balls this guy can truthfully imagine on Bear. 20? A Million?

I've tried to say it before, but it's worth repeating. We think Bear Grylls is a total bad-ass, which is what makes the cheating so disappointing. Now it looks like there is a new season of Man VS. Wild with new adventures for everybody to go ga-ga over. And actually this time around it sounds like they've heard our complaints. The show is being more truthful about Grylls adventures. They seem to be stressing the educational over the entertainment value.

User Interface War

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Expunged

This past weekend we went to see the new Pro-Intelligent Design (a re-dressing of Creation Science) film from pop culture icon Ben Stein called: Expelled.

The documentary attempts to uncover a conspiracy in the world of Science. Ben Steins says that if you are a proponent of Intelligent Design, the idea that all life in the Universe was designed by a Creator, and you work in the scientific field then you will be ostracized.

He says that this is an issue of free speech. That all ideas should be given equal weight in the eyes of the scientific method. But the scientific method is not democratic, and it shouldn't be. Certain ideas are given more weight because the evidence supports them, others are considered foolish because they LACK EVIDENCE.

But he doesn't stop at promoting ID, he also goes after old Darwin himself.

Ben Stein tries to denounce Evolution by showing that the theory itself doesn't have all the answers. He says that Evolution falls short because it fails to explain how life on Earth began... This drives us absolutely crazy.

Evolution is not a theory on the origin of life. Evolution is a theory that attempts to explain how life changes over time.

Nobody knows how life began. Because.. you know, that's like the GREATEST MYSTERY IN THE UNIVERSE. To say that evolution is flawed because it doesn't solve one of the biggest questions in existence, even though it was never intended to, is like saying that Robocop is flawed because he's not good at pottery. Robocop's job isn't to make a clay bowl, it's to shoot jacked-up bad guys, and survive gas station explosions. Besides, his giant robot hands lack the subtle movement needed to be a great potter.

The shoddy workmanship in this film doesn't end there. A couple of our favorite Scientists and a few prominent Atheists were duped into being interviewed for a movie called "Crossroads: Where Religion and Science meet." That movie was sold as a open minded discussion about the compatibility of Science and Religion. The movie we got in it's place seems a little one sided.

The website Expelled Exposed goes a long way to show that the film wasn't a documentary at all, but rather an attempt to create a controversy where there was only rational science-minded thought.

Here is the story of a Science Teacher who really was fired from a Texas school for failing to remain neutral on the subject of Creationism. Fired, by a school! For trying to teach science!

How to Speak Hip

Converted from the original Vinyl by Skeyelab Music, this album was created in part by Del Close, the original improv guru.

[via metafilter]

This was a triumph.

!-- I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS --!

Our beloved be-bearded Jonathan Coulton will be returning to Atlanta in March!

Jonathan Coulton @ Variety Playhouse Sat. March 22nd.

You might remember Jonathan Coutlon from that time he was an awesome recording artist who gives away and sells his music on the internet. Oh and he also wrote that popular Portal Song that everybody went nuts over on the internet.

see:

It's a trick... Get an Axe.

It's been a rough time to be a student of Television. A barren, dry time with vast spans of drought in between sips of refreshing water. We like to take our TV watching seriously, also... We spend too much time thinking about it. The Writer's Strike seems to us like that evil killer* at the end of some movie...

Is the nightmare really over?
OR
Will it's eyes spring open at the last minute and stab the dorky smart-ass in the chest before he can get the hot-girl?

I mean, it's a writers strike... so we keep expecting some silly twist ending to this story. However, the WGA seems to have finally reached an agreement with the studios. Looks like it'll stick this time, we can only hope.

So we're allowing ourselves to get a little excited about seeing our favorite shows go back into production. Hopefully in time to finish off their already truncated season. (We're looking at you Lost) If you're like us, check out TV Guide's hourly updated list of When your favorite shows will return.

* We don't actually think that Union Writers are in any way evil, although stale television certainly is.

Up on the Wire?

(via mathowie)

Watch The Wire Season 5 on HBO.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Speaking of awesome television. The New season of Lost begins this thursday Jan. 31st.

Mystery! Intrigue!

Tomorrow Apple holds it's annual Macworld Conference in San Francisco. Steve Jobs will take the stage to present another of his legendary Keynote Presentations.

This time last year Apple announced the iPhone. At the time the release date was still a few months away, but finally we got to see what it looked like. After years fo rumors and fake mock-ups, the actual phone was better than all of them. It certainly blew us away, we fell in love with the phone the moment we saw it. Even after the $200 price drop, and having to embrace the slimey grossness of AT&T, we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the phone is totally worth it. I still consider it my new best friend.

But the best part about Macworld is the mystery.

Apple is notorious for keeping their new products and upgrades a complete secret before they are announced on stage. Who knows what mysteries lie in wait behind the back of that turtleneck-ed man. It's like second Christmas, except all the presents are unwrapped and sitting behind expensive unbreakable glass.

Every year in the few weeks and days before Macworld the Apple nerds (like me) all speculate on what new discoveries we'll encounter at Macworld. This year is no different.

Speaking of mysteries. We're such big fans of Lost that we automatically considered ourselves fans of the show's creator J.J. Abrams. In anticipation of his new moster movie project, Cloverfield, we planned on being excited. But then we thought about some of his past projects that we've actually not been that impressed with. Like Alias. Which really seems to be more of his baby that Lost is. We've only ever seen one episode of Alias all the way through, and maybe we're missing something, but we didn't go crazy for it. Essentially we talked ourselves out of being Abrams fans.

Then we saw J.J Abrams' presentation for TED...

Now we're huge fans again!

Uh oh.

We're not a political weblog. But we love science.
The top two Republican Candidates do not accept Evolution to be true.

It gets better. Every hippie's favorite Democratic (Republican?) Candidate has now revealed that he too, does not believe in Evolution. I'd like to call it: "The crumbling of Ron Paul." But we both know that rejecting science is actually a sound political strategy.

(via The Information Paradox)

It is important to note that Evolution is not a theory on the creation of the Universe, as Ron Paul states. It's not even a theory on how life began. Evolution attempts to explain how life has changed, or evolved, through history. To boil this question of Evolution, and it's factuality, down to an argument about Science vs. Religion betrays Ron Paul's politics at work. And it doesn't look very promising.

Good luck America.

Don't be Izzy

The new mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been announced.

Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino. Quatchi is a young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada. Sumi is an animal spirit who lives in the mountains of British Columbia.

Wow, we think they look awesome times 2. They're cute, well designed, and actually represent aspects of Vancouver. While our personal favorite is currently Quatchi, we've found a reason to like all of them.

You can take a quiz to see which mascot you are most like. The mascots were designed by a couple of artists who call themselves Meomi. We live in Atlanta. That means we had to put up with this as our mascot for the 96 Summer Olympics:

Izzy. There are so many things wrong with this mascot, it's hard to know where to begin. So we'll start with the most obvious: His total lack of quality on any level, including but not limited to: Design, Intent, or Philosophy. It also looks like he was the very first idea the design committee had. Although, you can be sure this is not true. Originally named Whatizit, Izzy went through many changes after he was announced and before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. They took a marginal design and watered it down even more. The result was spectacularly unpopular.

Which is what makes the Vancouver mascots so great. They seem to be everything that Izzy wasn't. That's not a bad rule of thumb for all character and logo design:

Don't be Izzy.

Out of the Woodwork.

They come a crawlin' out like bugs. If I were Bear Grylls I'd eat them alive, then I would go "catch" a "wild" horse.

Fans of the Discovery Channel show Man VS. Wild have taken exception with our assessment of their beloved program. We think the show cheats... We think this because they've been discovered cheating... simple yes?

Well no.

About once a week we get a new comment on either of our two posts concerning the controversy telling us to "Shut up," or "Go to hell" because we don't realize how awesome Bear Grylls is. Here are a few choice comments:

TJ says:
"Blah, blah, blah, in case none of you have noticed, this show, Man vs. Wild, is about teaching people how to survive in the wild, not about who's wearing a life vest or who knows how to drink pee properly. Jeeze, get over it already."

If you try to read this comment too closely it's 4th dimensional logic will begin to fold in on itself creating a soul sucking vortex of stupidity. Keep your distance. Then there's this one:

Some Anonymous Guy says:
"I think that all you haters of bear grylls should shut up, because he as more Balls than any of you could even imagine!

I'm curious as to how many balls this guy can truthfully imagine on Bear. 20? A Million?

I've tried to say it before, but it's worth repeating. We think Bear Grylls is a total bad-ass, which is what makes the cheating so disappointing. Now it looks like there is a new season of Man VS. Wild with new adventures for everybody to go ga-ga over. And actually this time around it sounds like they've heard our complaints. The show is being more truthful about Grylls adventures. They seem to be stressing the educational over the entertainment value.

User Interface War

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Expunged

This past weekend we went to see the new Pro-Intelligent Design (a re-dressing of Creation Science) film from pop culture icon Ben Stein called: Expelled.

The documentary attempts to uncover a conspiracy in the world of Science. Ben Steins says that if you are a proponent of Intelligent Design, the idea that all life in the Universe was designed by a Creator, and you work in the scientific field then you will be ostracized.

He says that this is an issue of free speech. That all ideas should be given equal weight in the eyes of the scientific method. But the scientific method is not democratic, and it shouldn't be. Certain ideas are given more weight because the evidence supports them, others are considered foolish because they LACK EVIDENCE.

But he doesn't stop at promoting ID, he also goes after old Darwin himself.

Ben Stein tries to denounce Evolution by showing that the theory itself doesn't have all the answers. He says that Evolution falls short because it fails to explain how life on Earth began... This drives us absolutely crazy.

Evolution is not a theory on the origin of life. Evolution is a theory that attempts to explain how life changes over time.

Nobody knows how life began. Because.. you know, that's like the GREATEST MYSTERY IN THE UNIVERSE. To say that evolution is flawed because it doesn't solve one of the biggest questions in existence, even though it was never intended to, is like saying that Robocop is flawed because he's not good at pottery. Robocop's job isn't to make a clay bowl, it's to shoot jacked-up bad guys, and survive gas station explosions. Besides, his giant robot hands lack the subtle movement needed to be a great potter.

The shoddy workmanship in this film doesn't end there. A couple of our favorite Scientists and a few prominent Atheists were duped into being interviewed for a movie called "Crossroads: Where Religion and Science meet." That movie was sold as a open minded discussion about the compatibility of Science and Religion. The movie we got in it's place seems a little one sided.

The website Expelled Exposed goes a long way to show that the film wasn't a documentary at all, but rather an attempt to create a controversy where there was only rational science-minded thought.

Here is the story of a Science Teacher who really was fired from a Texas school for failing to remain neutral on the subject of Creationism. Fired, by a school! For trying to teach science!

How to Speak Hip

Converted from the original Vinyl by Skeyelab Music, this album was created in part by Del Close, the original improv guru.

[via metafilter]

This was a triumph.

!-- I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS --!

Our beloved be-bearded Jonathan Coulton will be returning to Atlanta in March!

Jonathan Coulton @ Variety Playhouse Sat. March 22nd.

You might remember Jonathan Coutlon from that time he was an awesome recording artist who gives away and sells his music on the internet. Oh and he also wrote that popular Portal Song that everybody went nuts over on the internet.

see:

It's a trick... Get an Axe.

It's been a rough time to be a student of Television. A barren, dry time with vast spans of drought in between sips of refreshing water. We like to take our TV watching seriously, also... We spend too much time thinking about it. The Writer's Strike seems to us like that evil killer* at the end of some movie...

Is the nightmare really over?
OR
Will it's eyes spring open at the last minute and stab the dorky smart-ass in the chest before he can get the hot-girl?

I mean, it's a writers strike... so we keep expecting some silly twist ending to this story. However, the WGA seems to have finally reached an agreement with the studios. Looks like it'll stick this time, we can only hope.

So we're allowing ourselves to get a little excited about seeing our favorite shows go back into production. Hopefully in time to finish off their already truncated season. (We're looking at you Lost) If you're like us, check out TV Guide's hourly updated list of When your favorite shows will return.

* We don't actually think that Union Writers are in any way evil, although stale television certainly is.

Up on the Wire?

(via mathowie)

Watch The Wire Season 5 on HBO.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Speaking of awesome television. The New season of Lost begins this thursday Jan. 31st.

Mystery! Intrigue!

Tomorrow Apple holds it's annual Macworld Conference in San Francisco. Steve Jobs will take the stage to present another of his legendary Keynote Presentations.

This time last year Apple announced the iPhone. At the time the release date was still a few months away, but finally we got to see what it looked like. After years fo rumors and fake mock-ups, the actual phone was better than all of them. It certainly blew us away, we fell in love with the phone the moment we saw it. Even after the $200 price drop, and having to embrace the slimey grossness of AT&T, we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the phone is totally worth it. I still consider it my new best friend.

But the best part about Macworld is the mystery.

Apple is notorious for keeping their new products and upgrades a complete secret before they are announced on stage. Who knows what mysteries lie in wait behind the back of that turtleneck-ed man. It's like second Christmas, except all the presents are unwrapped and sitting behind expensive unbreakable glass.

Every year in the few weeks and days before Macworld the Apple nerds (like me) all speculate on what new discoveries we'll encounter at Macworld. This year is no different.

Speaking of mysteries. We're such big fans of Lost that we automatically considered ourselves fans of the show's creator J.J. Abrams. In anticipation of his new moster movie project, Cloverfield, we planned on being excited. But then we thought about some of his past projects that we've actually not been that impressed with. Like Alias. Which really seems to be more of his baby that Lost is. We've only ever seen one episode of Alias all the way through, and maybe we're missing something, but we didn't go crazy for it. Essentially we talked ourselves out of being Abrams fans.

Then we saw J.J Abrams' presentation for TED...

Now we're huge fans again!

Uh oh.

We're not a political weblog. But we love science.
The top two Republican Candidates do not accept Evolution to be true.

It gets better. Every hippie's favorite Democratic (Republican?) Candidate has now revealed that he too, does not believe in Evolution. I'd like to call it: "The crumbling of Ron Paul." But we both know that rejecting science is actually a sound political strategy.

(via The Information Paradox)

It is important to note that Evolution is not a theory on the creation of the Universe, as Ron Paul states. It's not even a theory on how life began. Evolution attempts to explain how life has changed, or evolved, through history. To boil this question of Evolution, and it's factuality, down to an argument about Science vs. Religion betrays Ron Paul's politics at work. And it doesn't look very promising.

Good luck America.

Don't be Izzy

The new mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been announced.

Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino. Quatchi is a young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada. Sumi is an animal spirit who lives in the mountains of British Columbia.

Wow, we think they look awesome times 2. They're cute, well designed, and actually represent aspects of Vancouver. While our personal favorite is currently Quatchi, we've found a reason to like all of them.

You can take a quiz to see which mascot you are most like. The mascots were designed by a couple of artists who call themselves Meomi. We live in Atlanta. That means we had to put up with this as our mascot for the 96 Summer Olympics:

Izzy. There are so many things wrong with this mascot, it's hard to know where to begin. So we'll start with the most obvious: His total lack of quality on any level, including but not limited to: Design, Intent, or Philosophy. It also looks like he was the very first idea the design committee had. Although, you can be sure this is not true. Originally named Whatizit, Izzy went through many changes after he was announced and before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. They took a marginal design and watered it down even more. The result was spectacularly unpopular.

Which is what makes the Vancouver mascots so great. They seem to be everything that Izzy wasn't. That's not a bad rule of thumb for all character and logo design:

Don't be Izzy.

Out of the Woodwork.

They come a crawlin' out like bugs. If I were Bear Grylls I'd eat them alive, then I would go "catch" a "wild" horse.

Fans of the Discovery Channel show Man VS. Wild have taken exception with our assessment of their beloved program. We think the show cheats... We think this because they've been discovered cheating... simple yes?

Well no.

About once a week we get a new comment on either of our two posts concerning the controversy telling us to "Shut up," or "Go to hell" because we don't realize how awesome Bear Grylls is. Here are a few choice comments:

TJ says:
"Blah, blah, blah, in case none of you have noticed, this show, Man vs. Wild, is about teaching people how to survive in the wild, not about who's wearing a life vest or who knows how to drink pee properly. Jeeze, get over it already."

If you try to read this comment too closely it's 4th dimensional logic will begin to fold in on itself creating a soul sucking vortex of stupidity. Keep your distance. Then there's this one:

Some Anonymous Guy says:
"I think that all you haters of bear grylls should shut up, because he as more Balls than any of you could even imagine!

I'm curious as to how many balls this guy can truthfully imagine on Bear. 20? A Million?

I've tried to say it before, but it's worth repeating. We think Bear Grylls is a total bad-ass, which is what makes the cheating so disappointing. Now it looks like there is a new season of Man VS. Wild with new adventures for everybody to go ga-ga over. And actually this time around it sounds like they've heard our complaints. The show is being more truthful about Grylls adventures. They seem to be stressing the educational over the entertainment value.

User Interface War

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Expunged

This past weekend we went to see the new Pro-Intelligent Design (a re-dressing of Creation Science) film from pop culture icon Ben Stein called: Expelled.

The documentary attempts to uncover a conspiracy in the world of Science. Ben Steins says that if you are a proponent of Intelligent Design, the idea that all life in the Universe was designed by a Creator, and you work in the scientific field then you will be ostracized.

He says that this is an issue of free speech. That all ideas should be given equal weight in the eyes of the scientific method. But the scientific method is not democratic, and it shouldn't be. Certain ideas are given more weight because the evidence supports them, others are considered foolish because they LACK EVIDENCE.

But he doesn't stop at promoting ID, he also goes after old Darwin himself.

Ben Stein tries to denounce Evolution by showing that the theory itself doesn't have all the answers. He says that Evolution falls short because it fails to explain how life on Earth began... This drives us absolutely crazy.

Evolution is not a theory on the origin of life. Evolution is a theory that attempts to explain how life changes over time.

Nobody knows how life began. Because.. you know, that's like the GREATEST MYSTERY IN THE UNIVERSE. To say that evolution is flawed because it doesn't solve one of the biggest questions in existence, even though it was never intended to, is like saying that Robocop is flawed because he's not good at pottery. Robocop's job isn't to make a clay bowl, it's to shoot jacked-up bad guys, and survive gas station explosions. Besides, his giant robot hands lack the subtle movement needed to be a great potter.

The shoddy workmanship in this film doesn't end there. A couple of our favorite Scientists and a few prominent Atheists were duped into being interviewed for a movie called "Crossroads: Where Religion and Science meet." That movie was sold as a open minded discussion about the compatibility of Science and Religion. The movie we got in it's place seems a little one sided.

The website Expelled Exposed goes a long way to show that the film wasn't a documentary at all, but rather an attempt to create a controversy where there was only rational science-minded thought.

Here is the story of a Science Teacher who really was fired from a Texas school for failing to remain neutral on the subject of Creationism. Fired, by a school! For trying to teach science!

How to Speak Hip

Converted from the original Vinyl by Skeyelab Music, this album was created in part by Del Close, the original improv guru.

[via metafilter]

This was a triumph.

!-- I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS --!

Our beloved be-bearded Jonathan Coulton will be returning to Atlanta in March!

Jonathan Coulton @ Variety Playhouse Sat. March 22nd.

You might remember Jonathan Coutlon from that time he was an awesome recording artist who gives away and sells his music on the internet. Oh and he also wrote that popular Portal Song that everybody went nuts over on the internet.

see:

It's a trick... Get an Axe.

It's been a rough time to be a student of Television. A barren, dry time with vast spans of drought in between sips of refreshing water. We like to take our TV watching seriously, also... We spend too much time thinking about it. The Writer's Strike seems to us like that evil killer* at the end of some movie...

Is the nightmare really over?
OR
Will it's eyes spring open at the last minute and stab the dorky smart-ass in the chest before he can get the hot-girl?

I mean, it's a writers strike... so we keep expecting some silly twist ending to this story. However, the WGA seems to have finally reached an agreement with the studios. Looks like it'll stick this time, we can only hope.

So we're allowing ourselves to get a little excited about seeing our favorite shows go back into production. Hopefully in time to finish off their already truncated season. (We're looking at you Lost) If you're like us, check out TV Guide's hourly updated list of When your favorite shows will return.

* We don't actually think that Union Writers are in any way evil, although stale television certainly is.

Up on the Wire?

(via mathowie)

Watch The Wire Season 5 on HBO.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Speaking of awesome television. The New season of Lost begins this thursday Jan. 31st.

Mystery! Intrigue!

Tomorrow Apple holds it's annual Macworld Conference in San Francisco. Steve Jobs will take the stage to present another of his legendary Keynote Presentations.

This time last year Apple announced the iPhone. At the time the release date was still a few months away, but finally we got to see what it looked like. After years fo rumors and fake mock-ups, the actual phone was better than all of them. It certainly blew us away, we fell in love with the phone the moment we saw it. Even after the $200 price drop, and having to embrace the slimey grossness of AT&T, we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the phone is totally worth it. I still consider it my new best friend.

But the best part about Macworld is the mystery.

Apple is notorious for keeping their new products and upgrades a complete secret before they are announced on stage. Who knows what mysteries lie in wait behind the back of that turtleneck-ed man. It's like second Christmas, except all the presents are unwrapped and sitting behind expensive unbreakable glass.

Every year in the few weeks and days before Macworld the Apple nerds (like me) all speculate on what new discoveries we'll encounter at Macworld. This year is no different.

Speaking of mysteries. We're such big fans of Lost that we automatically considered ourselves fans of the show's creator J.J. Abrams. In anticipation of his new moster movie project, Cloverfield, we planned on being excited. But then we thought about some of his past projects that we've actually not been that impressed with. Like Alias. Which really seems to be more of his baby that Lost is. We've only ever seen one episode of Alias all the way through, and maybe we're missing something, but we didn't go crazy for it. Essentially we talked ourselves out of being Abrams fans.

Then we saw J.J Abrams' presentation for TED...

Now we're huge fans again!

Uh oh.

We're not a political weblog. But we love science.
The top two Republican Candidates do not accept Evolution to be true.

It gets better. Every hippie's favorite Democratic (Republican?) Candidate has now revealed that he too, does not believe in Evolution. I'd like to call it: "The crumbling of Ron Paul." But we both know that rejecting science is actually a sound political strategy.

(via The Information Paradox)

It is important to note that Evolution is not a theory on the creation of the Universe, as Ron Paul states. It's not even a theory on how life began. Evolution attempts to explain how life has changed, or evolved, through history. To boil this question of Evolution, and it's factuality, down to an argument about Science vs. Religion betrays Ron Paul's politics at work. And it doesn't look very promising.

Good luck America.

Don't be Izzy

The new mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been announced.

Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino. Quatchi is a young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada. Sumi is an animal spirit who lives in the mountains of British Columbia.

Wow, we think they look awesome times 2. They're cute, well designed, and actually represent aspects of Vancouver. While our personal favorite is currently Quatchi, we've found a reason to like all of them.

You can take a quiz to see which mascot you are most like. The mascots were designed by a couple of artists who call themselves Meomi. We live in Atlanta. That means we had to put up with this as our mascot for the 96 Summer Olympics:

Izzy. There are so many things wrong with this mascot, it's hard to know where to begin. So we'll start with the most obvious: His total lack of quality on any level, including but not limited to: Design, Intent, or Philosophy. It also looks like he was the very first idea the design committee had. Although, you can be sure this is not true. Originally named Whatizit, Izzy went through many changes after he was announced and before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. They took a marginal design and watered it down even more. The result was spectacularly unpopular.

Which is what makes the Vancouver mascots so great. They seem to be everything that Izzy wasn't. That's not a bad rule of thumb for all character and logo design:

Don't be Izzy.

Out of the Woodwork.

They come a crawlin' out like bugs. If I were Bear Grylls I'd eat them alive, then I would go "catch" a "wild" horse.

Fans of the Discovery Channel show Man VS. Wild have taken exception with our assessment of their beloved program. We think the show cheats... We think this because they've been discovered cheating... simple yes?

Well no.

About once a week we get a new comment on either of our two posts concerning the controversy telling us to "Shut up," or "Go to hell" because we don't realize how awesome Bear Grylls is. Here are a few choice comments:

TJ says:
"Blah, blah, blah, in case none of you have noticed, this show, Man vs. Wild, is about teaching people how to survive in the wild, not about who's wearing a life vest or who knows how to drink pee properly. Jeeze, get over it already."

If you try to read this comment too closely it's 4th dimensional logic will begin to fold in on itself creating a soul sucking vortex of stupidity. Keep your distance. Then there's this one:

Some Anonymous Guy says:
"I think that all you haters of bear grylls should shut up, because he as more Balls than any of you could even imagine!

I'm curious as to how many balls this guy can truthfully imagine on Bear. 20? A Million?

I've tried to say it before, but it's worth repeating. We think Bear Grylls is a total bad-ass, which is what makes the cheating so disappointing. Now it looks like there is a new season of Man VS. Wild with new adventures for everybody to go ga-ga over. And actually this time around it sounds like they've heard our complaints. The show is being more truthful about Grylls adventures. They seem to be stressing the educational over the entertainment value.

User Interface War

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Expunged

This past weekend we went to see the new Pro-Intelligent Design (a re-dressing of Creation Science) film from pop culture icon Ben Stein called: Expelled.

The documentary attempts to uncover a conspiracy in the world of Science. Ben Steins says that if you are a proponent of Intelligent Design, the idea that all life in the Universe was designed by a Creator, and you work in the scientific field then you will be ostracized.

He says that this is an issue of free speech. That all ideas should be given equal weight in the eyes of the scientific method. But the scientific method is not democratic, and it shouldn't be. Certain ideas are given more weight because the evidence supports them, others are considered foolish because they LACK EVIDENCE.

But he doesn't stop at promoting ID, he also goes after old Darwin himself.

Ben Stein tries to denounce Evolution by showing that the theory itself doesn't have all the answers. He says that Evolution falls short because it fails to explain how life on Earth began... This drives us absolutely crazy.

Evolution is not a theory on the origin of life. Evolution is a theory that attempts to explain how life changes over time.

Nobody knows how life began. Because.. you know, that's like the GREATEST MYSTERY IN THE UNIVERSE. To say that evolution is flawed because it doesn't solve one of the biggest questions in existence, even though it was never intended to, is like saying that Robocop is flawed because he's not good at pottery. Robocop's job isn't to make a clay bowl, it's to shoot jacked-up bad guys, and survive gas station explosions. Besides, his giant robot hands lack the subtle movement needed to be a great potter.

The shoddy workmanship in this film doesn't end there. A couple of our favorite Scientists and a few prominent Atheists were duped into being interviewed for a movie called "Crossroads: Where Religion and Science meet." That movie was sold as a open minded discussion about the compatibility of Science and Religion. The movie we got in it's place seems a little one sided.

The website Expelled Exposed goes a long way to show that the film wasn't a documentary at all, but rather an attempt to create a controversy where there was only rational science-minded thought.

Here is the story of a Science Teacher who really was fired from a Texas school for failing to remain neutral on the subject of Creationism. Fired, by a school! For trying to teach science!

How to Speak Hip

Converted from the original Vinyl by Skeyelab Music, this album was created in part by Del Close, the original improv guru.

[via metafilter]

This was a triumph.

!-- I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS --!

Our beloved be-bearded Jonathan Coulton will be returning to Atlanta in March!

Jonathan Coulton @ Variety Playhouse Sat. March 22nd.

You might remember Jonathan Coutlon from that time he was an awesome recording artist who gives away and sells his music on the internet. Oh and he also wrote that popular Portal Song that everybody went nuts over on the internet.

see:

It's a trick... Get an Axe.

It's been a rough time to be a student of Television. A barren, dry time with vast spans of drought in between sips of refreshing water. We like to take our TV watching seriously, also... We spend too much time thinking about it. The Writer's Strike seems to us like that evil killer* at the end of some movie...

Is the nightmare really over?
OR
Will it's eyes spring open at the last minute and stab the dorky smart-ass in the chest before he can get the hot-girl?

I mean, it's a writers strike... so we keep expecting some silly twist ending to this story. However, the WGA seems to have finally reached an agreement with the studios. Looks like it'll stick this time, we can only hope.

So we're allowing ourselves to get a little excited about seeing our favorite shows go back into production. Hopefully in time to finish off their already truncated season. (We're looking at you Lost) If you're like us, check out TV Guide's hourly updated list of When your favorite shows will return.

* We don't actually think that Union Writers are in any way evil, although stale television certainly is.

Up on the Wire?

(via mathowie)

Watch The Wire Season 5 on HBO.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Speaking of awesome television. The New season of Lost begins this thursday Jan. 31st.

Mystery! Intrigue!

Tomorrow Apple holds it's annual Macworld Conference in San Francisco. Steve Jobs will take the stage to present another of his legendary Keynote Presentations.

This time last year Apple announced the iPhone. At the time the release date was still a few months away, but finally we got to see what it looked like. After years fo rumors and fake mock-ups, the actual phone was better than all of them. It certainly blew us away, we fell in love with the phone the moment we saw it. Even after the $200 price drop, and having to embrace the slimey grossness of AT&T, we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the phone is totally worth it. I still consider it my new best friend.

But the best part about Macworld is the mystery.

Apple is notorious for keeping their new products and upgrades a complete secret before they are announced on stage. Who knows what mysteries lie in wait behind the back of that turtleneck-ed man. It's like second Christmas, except all the presents are unwrapped and sitting behind expensive unbreakable glass.

Every year in the few weeks and days before Macworld the Apple nerds (like me) all speculate on what new discoveries we'll encounter at Macworld. This year is no different.

Speaking of mysteries. We're such big fans of Lost that we automatically considered ourselves fans of the show's creator J.J. Abrams. In anticipation of his new moster movie project, Cloverfield, we planned on being excited. But then we thought about some of his past projects that we've actually not been that impressed with. Like Alias. Which really seems to be more of his baby that Lost is. We've only ever seen one episode of Alias all the way through, and maybe we're missing something, but we didn't go crazy for it. Essentially we talked ourselves out of being Abrams fans.

Then we saw J.J Abrams' presentation for TED...

Now we're huge fans again!

Uh oh.

We're not a political weblog. But we love science.
The top two Republican Candidates do not accept Evolution to be true.

It gets better. Every hippie's favorite Democratic (Republican?) Candidate has now revealed that he too, does not believe in Evolution. I'd like to call it: "The crumbling of Ron Paul." But we both know that rejecting science is actually a sound political strategy.

(via The Information Paradox)

It is important to note that Evolution is not a theory on the creation of the Universe, as Ron Paul states. It's not even a theory on how life began. Evolution attempts to explain how life has changed, or evolved, through history. To boil this question of Evolution, and it's factuality, down to an argument about Science vs. Religion betrays Ron Paul's politics at work. And it doesn't look very promising.

Good luck America.

Don't be Izzy

The new mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been announced.

Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino. Quatchi is a young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada. Sumi is an animal spirit who lives in the mountains of British Columbia.

Wow, we think they look awesome times 2. They're cute, well designed, and actually represent aspects of Vancouver. While our personal favorite is currently Quatchi, we've found a reason to like all of them.

You can take a quiz to see which mascot you are most like. The mascots were designed by a couple of artists who call themselves Meomi. We live in Atlanta. That means we had to put up with this as our mascot for the 96 Summer Olympics:

Izzy. There are so many things wrong with this mascot, it's hard to know where to begin. So we'll start with the most obvious: His total lack of quality on any level, including but not limited to: Design, Intent, or Philosophy. It also looks like he was the very first idea the design committee had. Although, you can be sure this is not true. Originally named Whatizit, Izzy went through many changes after he was announced and before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. They took a marginal design and watered it down even more. The result was spectacularly unpopular.

Which is what makes the Vancouver mascots so great. They seem to be everything that Izzy wasn't. That's not a bad rule of thumb for all character and logo design:

Don't be Izzy.

Out of the Woodwork.

They come a crawlin' out like bugs. If I were Bear Grylls I'd eat them alive, then I would go "catch" a "wild" horse.

Fans of the Discovery Channel show Man VS. Wild have taken exception with our assessment of their beloved program. We think the show cheats... We think this because they've been discovered cheating... simple yes?

Well no.

About once a week we get a new comment on either of our two posts concerning the controversy telling us to "Shut up," or "Go to hell" because we don't realize how awesome Bear Grylls is. Here are a few choice comments:

TJ says:
"Blah, blah, blah, in case none of you have noticed, this show, Man vs. Wild, is about teaching people how to survive in the wild, not about who's wearing a life vest or who knows how to drink pee properly. Jeeze, get over it already."

If you try to read this comment too closely it's 4th dimensional logic will begin to fold in on itself creating a soul sucking vortex of stupidity. Keep your distance. Then there's this one:

Some Anonymous Guy says:
"I think that all you haters of bear grylls should shut up, because he as more Balls than any of you could even imagine!

I'm curious as to how many balls this guy can truthfully imagine on Bear. 20? A Million?

I've tried to say it before, but it's worth repeating. We think Bear Grylls is a total bad-ass, which is what makes the cheating so disappointing. Now it looks like there is a new season of Man VS. Wild with new adventures for everybody to go ga-ga over. And actually this time around it sounds like they've heard our complaints. The show is being more truthful about Grylls adventures. They seem to be stressing the educational over the entertainment value.

User Interface War

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Expunged

This past weekend we went to see the new Pro-Intelligent Design (a re-dressing of Creation Science) film from pop culture icon Ben Stein called: Expelled.

The documentary attempts to uncover a conspiracy in the world of Science. Ben Steins says that if you are a proponent of Intelligent Design, the idea that all life in the Universe was designed by a Creator, and you work in the scientific field then you will be ostracized.

He says that this is an issue of free speech. That all ideas should be given equal weight in the eyes of the scientific method. But the scientific method is not democratic, and it shouldn't be. Certain ideas are given more weight because the evidence supports them, others are considered foolish because they LACK EVIDENCE.

But he doesn't stop at promoting ID, he also goes after old Darwin himself.

Ben Stein tries to denounce Evolution by showing that the theory itself doesn't have all the answers. He says that Evolution falls short because it fails to explain how life on Earth began... This drives us absolutely crazy.

Evolution is not a theory on the origin of life. Evolution is a theory that attempts to explain how life changes over time.

Nobody knows how life began. Because.. you know, that's like the GREATEST MYSTERY IN THE UNIVERSE. To say that evolution is flawed because it doesn't solve one of the biggest questions in existence, even though it was never intended to, is like saying that Robocop is flawed because he's not good at pottery. Robocop's job isn't to make a clay bowl, it's to shoot jacked-up bad guys, and survive gas station explosions. Besides, his giant robot hands lack the subtle movement needed to be a great potter.

The shoddy workmanship in this film doesn't end there. A couple of our favorite Scientists and a few prominent Atheists were duped into being interviewed for a movie called "Crossroads: Where Religion and Science meet." That movie was sold as a open minded discussion about the compatibility of Science and Religion. The movie we got in it's place seems a little one sided.

The website Expelled Exposed goes a long way to show that the film wasn't a documentary at all, but rather an attempt to create a controversy where there was only rational science-minded thought.

Here is the story of a Science Teacher who really was fired from a Texas school for failing to remain neutral on the subject of Creationism. Fired, by a school! For trying to teach science!

How to Speak Hip

Converted from the original Vinyl by Skeyelab Music, this album was created in part by Del Close, the original improv guru.

[via metafilter]

This was a triumph.

!-- I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS --!

Our beloved be-bearded Jonathan Coulton will be returning to Atlanta in March!

Jonathan Coulton @ Variety Playhouse Sat. March 22nd.

You might remember Jonathan Coutlon from that time he was an awesome recording artist who gives away and sells his music on the internet. Oh and he also wrote that popular Portal Song that everybody went nuts over on the internet.

see:

It's a trick... Get an Axe.

It's been a rough time to be a student of Television. A barren, dry time with vast spans of drought in between sips of refreshing water. We like to take our TV watching seriously, also... We spend too much time thinking about it. The Writer's Strike seems to us like that evil killer* at the end of some movie...

Is the nightmare really over?
OR
Will it's eyes spring open at the last minute and stab the dorky smart-ass in the chest before he can get the hot-girl?

I mean, it's a writers strike... so we keep expecting some silly twist ending to this story. However, the WGA seems to have finally reached an agreement with the studios. Looks like it'll stick this time, we can only hope.

So we're allowing ourselves to get a little excited about seeing our favorite shows go back into production. Hopefully in time to finish off their already truncated season. (We're looking at you Lost) If you're like us, check out TV Guide's hourly updated list of When your favorite shows will return.

* We don't actually think that Union Writers are in any way evil, although stale television certainly is.

Up on the Wire?

(via mathowie)

Watch The Wire Season 5 on HBO.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Speaking of awesome television. The New season of Lost begins this thursday Jan. 31st.

Mystery! Intrigue!

Tomorrow Apple holds it's annual Macworld Conference in San Francisco. Steve Jobs will take the stage to present another of his legendary Keynote Presentations.

This time last year Apple announced the iPhone. At the time the release date was still a few months away, but finally we got to see what it looked like. After years fo rumors and fake mock-ups, the actual phone was better than all of them. It certainly blew us away, we fell in love with the phone the moment we saw it. Even after the $200 price drop, and having to embrace the slimey grossness of AT&T, we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the phone is totally worth it. I still consider it my new best friend.

But the best part about Macworld is the mystery.

Apple is notorious for keeping their new products and upgrades a complete secret before they are announced on stage. Who knows what mysteries lie in wait behind the back of that turtleneck-ed man. It's like second Christmas, except all the presents are unwrapped and sitting behind expensive unbreakable glass.

Every year in the few weeks and days before Macworld the Apple nerds (like me) all speculate on what new discoveries we'll encounter at Macworld. This year is no different.

Speaking of mysteries. We're such big fans of Lost that we automatically considered ourselves fans of the show's creator J.J. Abrams. In anticipation of his new moster movie project, Cloverfield, we planned on being excited. But then we thought about some of his past projects that we've actually not been that impressed with. Like Alias. Which really seems to be more of his baby that Lost is. We've only ever seen one episode of Alias all the way through, and maybe we're missing something, but we didn't go crazy for it. Essentially we talked ourselves out of being Abrams fans.

Then we saw J.J Abrams' presentation for TED...

Now we're huge fans again!

Uh oh.

We're not a political weblog. But we love science.
The top two Republican Candidates do not accept Evolution to be true.

It gets better. Every hippie's favorite Democratic (Republican?) Candidate has now revealed that he too, does not believe in Evolution. I'd like to call it: "The crumbling of Ron Paul." But we both know that rejecting science is actually a sound political strategy.

(via The Information Paradox)

It is important to note that Evolution is not a theory on the creation of the Universe, as Ron Paul states. It's not even a theory on how life began. Evolution attempts to explain how life has changed, or evolved, through history. To boil this question of Evolution, and it's factuality, down to an argument about Science vs. Religion betrays Ron Paul's politics at work. And it doesn't look very promising.

Good luck America.

Don't be Izzy

The new mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been announced.

Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino. Quatchi is a young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada. Sumi is an animal spirit who lives in the mountains of British Columbia.

Wow, we think they look awesome times 2. They're cute, well designed, and actually represent aspects of Vancouver. While our personal favorite is currently Quatchi, we've found a reason to like all of them.

You can take a quiz to see which mascot you are most like. The mascots were designed by a couple of artists who call themselves Meomi. We live in Atlanta. That means we had to put up with this as our mascot for the 96 Summer Olympics:

Izzy. There are so many things wrong with this mascot, it's hard to know where to begin. So we'll start with the most obvious: His total lack of quality on any level, including but not limited to: Design, Intent, or Philosophy. It also looks like he was the very first idea the design committee had. Although, you can be sure this is not true. Originally named Whatizit, Izzy went through many changes after he was announced and before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. They took a marginal design and watered it down even more. The result was spectacularly unpopular.

Which is what makes the Vancouver mascots so great. They seem to be everything that Izzy wasn't. That's not a bad rule of thumb for all character and logo design:

Don't be Izzy.

Out of the Woodwork.

They come a crawlin' out like bugs. If I were Bear Grylls I'd eat them alive, then I would go "catch" a "wild" horse.

Fans of the Discovery Channel show Man VS. Wild have taken exception with our assessment of their beloved program. We think the show cheats... We think this because they've been discovered cheating... simple yes?

Well no.

About once a week we get a new comment on either of our two posts concerning the controversy telling us to "Shut up," or "Go to hell" because we don't realize how awesome Bear Grylls is. Here are a few choice comments:

TJ says:
"Blah, blah, blah, in case none of you have noticed, this show, Man vs. Wild, is about teaching people how to survive in the wild, not about who's wearing a life vest or who knows how to drink pee properly. Jeeze, get over it already."

If you try to read this comment too closely it's 4th dimensional logic will begin to fold in on itself creating a soul sucking vortex of stupidity. Keep your distance. Then there's this one:

Some Anonymous Guy says:
"I think that all you haters of bear grylls should shut up, because he as more Balls than any of you could even imagine!

I'm curious as to how many balls this guy can truthfully imagine on Bear. 20? A Million?

I've tried to say it before, but it's worth repeating. We think Bear Grylls is a total bad-ass, which is what makes the cheating so disappointing. Now it looks like there is a new season of Man VS. Wild with new adventures for everybody to go ga-ga over. And actually this time around it sounds like they've heard our complaints. The show is being more truthful about Grylls adventures. They seem to be stressing the educational over the entertainment value.

User Interface War

[via