Sander Cohen's Muse

Two-headed baby

cyclosarin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:03:02 +0000

A two-headed baby born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Seriously.

Police have it under protection due to the stir it has caused.

Texas GOP bring out the rabbit punches

cyclosarin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:01:12 +0000

I know it’s a valid question, but it still doesn’t sit right. It seems a little below the belt to me.

This is the Texas GOP throwing the sink at Obama (hat tip to Little Green Footballs):

Wiff Waff Johnson

cyclosarin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:00:27 +0000

This is just too hilarious not to quote. Boris Johnson, London Mayor relating why he is proud to host the Olympic Games in 2012:

“Virtually every single one of our international sports were either invented or codified by the British, and I say this respectfully to our Chinese hosts who have excelled so magnificently at ping pong,” he said in a tongue-in-cheek speech.

“Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century and it was called wiff waff.

“There I think you have the essential difference between us and the rest of world.

“Other nations, the French, looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner. We looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to play wiff waff. That is why London is the sporting capital of the world.

“And I say to the Chinese, and I say to the world: ping pong is coming home.”

Just too funny.

Ready to drink?

cyclosarin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:35:46 +0000

The debate goes on about the ALP’s tax-grab disguised as nanny-state policy regarding alcohol consumption. Yesterday the distilling industry released data that says since the ALP increased tax on ready to drink alcoholic beverages by 70%, sales of RTD’s have indeed dropped, but sales of hard liquor increased by more, intimating that the tax has pushed up alcohol consumption, not kerbed it, and people now mix their own hard liquor, which is obviously less safe.

The distillers are also threatening to sue if the tax money received is not returned when the legislation is not passed, as it surely won’t be.

Today the ALP hit back by citing tax data that says it is the other way around, and any increase in hard liquor sales is seasonal variation (people really do drink whiskey to keep warm in winter!?).

Family First senator Steve Fielding has an op-ed in the Herald Sun today saying the new alcohol tax didn’t work, and he wants to ban advertising instead. I think it’s a silly idea, and it won’t work anyway. Alcohol advertising is already heavily regulated with laws governing the depiction of alcohol making you more attractive, cool, etc.

The fact is, people love their hooch. You can ban it outright, and people still buy it. You can can do any number of things and it won’t make a bit of difference, people enjoy drinking, and don’t see any consequences that outweigh the fun.

A Penny for your thoughts

cyclosarin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:01:10 +0000

A cruel, but funny-cos-its-true joke regarding Climate Change Minister Penny Wong in Canberra of late, according to Caroline Overington:

I’ll believe in climate change when a chunk of ice falls off Penny Wong.

It’s funny how politicians, press gallery journalists and bureaucrats can find one telling joke about a person, and it tends to stick. Kim Beazley and his lack of ticker, Peter Costello and his smirk. I think this one may also stick.

World Machine 2 Released

cyclosarin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:28:08 +0000

World Machine 2 has been released, it has a bunch of new features, including (somewhat) procedural texturing. You can plug the texturing macros into the erosion deposition maps and flow maps as well, so if you’re willing to spend the time, you can get some very complex (and nice) terrain textures.

Give it a whirl.

The 19-Day Mega-Map Challenge!

cyclosarin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:50:53 +0000

I have 19 days left of my 3-week break between univeristy semesters. I’m a little bored already, having spent the last three days playing Civilization IV, so I thought i’d set a challenge of completing a map for the Point of Existence BF2 mod from beginning to end in 19 days, but without spending inordinant amounts of time on it (I still have other things to do as well!)

It’ll be a challenge, my average development time when I actually had time to map was like 3 months, lol. I thought this might give people an idea of my map development cycle, I always found it interesting to see how other mappers do things, so I thought i’d post what I have at the end of every day of the 19 days over at the PoE Forums.