Friday, November 26, 2010

Friday Links: November 26

I'm starting with some huge news. The Vatican is trying to downplay it, but it is still huge. Pope Palpatine approved the use of condoms where the practice of sexuality is a danger to another. Specifically for male prostitutes. [link 1] [link 2]

It's still not allowed for birth control. But it is an admission that condoms do prevent disease. Earlier he'd stated that condoms fail to prevent pregnancy or the spread of disease in the majority of cases and actually encourage the spread of disease.
Pope John Paul and I disagreed on a lot of issues of faith, but overall I had some respect for the guy. Pope Palpatine was telling lies about condoms when he made those statement. There's lots of stuff that isn't true, but the Bible says it is. I don't count those as lies from religious folks. He knowingly was saying stuff that wasn't true to encourage people to behave as the Vatican wants them to instead of using the traditional "God says" method. If people are doing something from ignorance or lies instead of faith it doesn't make them good Catholics.
So I'm really glad that the Pope made this statement. It serves as an admission that condoms do prevent disease. The next step is permitting abortions when a woman's health is at risk or permitting condoms to prevent pregnancies that would put a woman's health at risk.

I missed the Desert Bus charity game this year. For those of you not familiar with it, they play a minigame created for an unreleased Penn and Teller game. In it you drive a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas in real time at a top speed of 45 mph and the bus drifts to the side. The game can't be paused. It takes 8 hours to complete the trip and get 1 point. Then you drive back.
Here's what the game looks like.

You pay them to play the game. Hour 1 costs $1.00. Each following hour costs 7% more than the hour before. This year they played for 5 days and 21 hours. They raised $195,130.
This money will go to Child's Play Charity who will spend it buying game systems and games for the children's wards of hospitals.
They have a live stream of the game and of the players. During the show they have an auction (whose profits don't contribute to the time) and "celebrity" callers. Most are related to video games in some way. [Desert Bus link] [Child's Play Charity link]

Will It Blend: Daleks.

TARDIS socks and how to make your own. [link]

FedEx destroyed 65 Million year old eggs. [link]

Trailer for "Cowboys & Aliens". [link]

Who's a fiscal conservative again? [link]

Money origami. [link]

Colorful satellite photos of Earth. [link]

Dogs don't understand moving. [link]

Christians in Brazil ban USB devices as mark of the devil. [link]

Weak article, but Marilyn Monroe's stuffing recipe might be good. [link]

Time to upgrade my Segway.



"Hate Mail" with Richard Dawkins.

A video that comes to my attention every few years. "The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello"

The story of a 1st grade girl bullied for her thermos. [link]

Alphabet pop-up book.


This squirrel bobs his head like Yummy's bird when he wants something. Flys about as well as her bird, too. [link]

Online movie: The Most Dangerous Man in America. It's the story of Daniel Ellsworth and the leaking of the Pentagon Papers. [link]

An article about mill boats. Water powered mills that were on boats so they could move to where the flow of water was best, not just what's near the shore. [link]

If this blog were a country it would have 156 citizens. 1 in every 11,111,111 users visit me. Find out more or test your own site. [link]

Harry Potter cast members trying their American accent. [link]

Sarah Palin's real record on Alaskan bears. [link]

5 now great scientists who were thought morons in their own time. [link]

The oldest known rock and roll song. [link]

What it's like to have sex with someone with Asperger's. [link]

Guy pays $15,000 to play his MMORPG on a massive screen. Mostly just to have a great gaming story to tell. [link]

There's gonna be a new "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie. Of course it's a bad idea. You read the article for the reactions from Joss Wheadon and David Boreanaz. [link]

Covers for Tintin in HP Lovecraft books. [link]

Tomasz Opasinski's take on some movie posters. [link]

Wouldn't it be hard to sleep with this thing in your bedroom? [link]

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