The new I7 extensions feed is now available here: http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/I7ExtensionsRSS.xml

Additionally, I've just created an LJ feed, i7_extensions for those who prefer delivery that way.

It's not quite exact, but it's close enough to amuse me.



(Found on unled.net via robin_d_laws)

Because I know everyone's been waiting for me to wade into the controversy and hear my opinion, the answer is that Splinter taught them how to be "ninja teens".

1/ They can't be taught to be "teams" because there is only one team.

2/ The rhyme is "machines".

3/ He didn't teach them how to be teens, he taught them how to be ninja teens. It's harder than it sounds. You can't just be a ninja and a teen and say you're done. You have to learn to be a teen ninja or you will just end up being a jerk with ninja weapons.

4/ I had a cupcake with coconut frosting for breakfast. It was yummy.

5/ Ryan North linked to the youtube copyright violation video of the opening song, so I'll link to it as well. It's clear that the sound is muddled (ha ha) enough that you can't tell based on the video whether it's teens or teams.

6/ That bastion of hyper-correctness, Wikipedia, has this line: The lyrics were also changed, such as changing "Splinter taught them to be ninja teens" to the "Splinter taught them to be ni-fighting teens." This happened due to an error in the lyric changing. That's from a discussion about the way it was exported to certain countries who didn't like the word Ninja. I hope this blog entry is not banned from those countries. I have it on good authority that coconut cupcakes are not banned in those very same countries^{[citation needed]}.

7/ The TMNT wiki itself which definitely didn't copy Wikipedia no siree bob, has a similar line: The lyrics were also changed, such as changing "Splinter taught them to be ninja teens" to "Splinter taught them to be fighting teens.".

8/ Ninja ninja ninja ninja.

9/ !!!

When you're stuck in an airport, it is a suckey situation. When you're stuck in a tiny airport with few amenities, a restaurant "closed for renovation", and a flight that's been delayed yet again, it's even worse.

But I'll give Long Beach Airport props: it's got free wi-fi. Woo!

Let's see if we can level the playing field.

When the government establishes a set of rules whereby those who believe in God have easy access to [government and social programs], but those who do not have to undergo huge expense to get the same quality of education and experiences for their children, atheist parents are forced to either abandon their obligations to their children or abandon their obligations to the truth.

Every so often I'd get some Canadian coinage as change. I used to be all "aw, man" but now I'm all "ha! suckers"

If so, ( You too could be Microsoft ).

Thulla has conquered Bolus, the moon which orbits Elekton.

Thulla has established a palace on Bolus, has subsequently directed that a weapon of such colossal destructive force extraordinary magnitude be built, and with it, he will destroy all life on Elekton. I guess Elekton would be easy to hit from its moon, so we'll see how well this weapon works (if Trigo even allows it to be fired [but that's a detail for another time]).

It looks like this - very similar to the dish built into the Death Star. To which I can only say: Silly Thulla. That's no space station; that's a moon.

( Some Kingdom of Loathing blather )
Anyway, yay me.

Happy Birthday, Otis B.Driftwood.

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

... Your Tax Dollars At Work

Bottom line: the government is spending $1.5 billion-with-a-b so people can continue to watch TV after the digital switchover. That's around 10% of the money that's allocated for NASA for fiscal 2008.

(As a side note, the DHS budget is about twice that of NASA's. Wouldn't it be cool if we could eliminate DHS and triple NASA's budget?)

An insider's look at why network news sucks.

This is interesting, but they're doing it backwards. They shouldn't be trying to interpret what the brain is trying to say. Instead, they should convert specific, but arbitrarily-chosen, patterns directly in to phonemes, and then let Mr Ramsay play with it until he figures out how to create the sequence he wants.

The brain is more malleable than they're giving it credit for. Hook him up with a pair of headphones and let him experiment with his own thoughts. It'll eventually "click" for him, and he'll be effectively fluent.

So, Wired's got an article on xkcd's Randall Munroe. It starts off by saying "A geek with a paper cut does not bleed CH3, and every nerd has a heart lodged in his chest instead of a TI-85." A weak reference, no doubt.

At any rate, the comments really make the experience complete.



(click to embiggen)

Apple Stores have spread across 34 states. I think that's more states than I've visited.

In other news, all the Apple Stores combined generate nearly a billion-with-a-B dollars in revenue yearly. Yowza.

The 13th annual (wow, 13?) Interactive Fiction competition has drawn to a close, and top place goes to an ogre orc searching for a pig. Congrats to Admiral Jota for a richly deserved win.

( some silly stats stuff for weenies like me )

Most of the time, I find Jon Swift's satire a bit too unsubtle. Every so often, however, he comes up with a real gem:

No matter what his personal feelings might have been, as a reporter he had to be objective when it came to the issue of whether killing Kennedy was a good thing or a bad thing.

People are now saying hey lookit all the progress being made in Iraq. Clearly we shouldn't pull out now. Stay the course. The surge is working.

Sure.

There are many compelling reasons to get the hell outta dodge. One of those reasons is graphically shown over at Cosmic Variance.

From the department of things that stopped being clever yonks ago: Writing a headline about Yahoo! with exclamation marks after each word.

Yeah, I'm looking at you, Mr The Register Editor.

Mmm... pizza