Some friendly hackers put this on top of a building at MIT…

All we get is a “V for Vendetta” symbol spray-painted somewhere… so much less cool :(

Hey,

I know some people who are readers managed to get their hands on a Wii.  (Or, I supposed, USED to be readers, at least ‘till they get bored enough to come back online)

Some people didn’t though.  For them, I’ve found a solution.  This guy is going to play the Wii from the 19th to the 26th - 7 days straight; here’re his rules:

Hi guys, welcome to my Blog. During the week of Nov 19 - Nov 26, I will be playing the Nintendo Wii for a straight week. Yes, I’m playing video games for a week.

Here’s the basic guide lines for my Week With Wii:

1. I will only be sleeping 4hrs. a day (usually 2:00am-6:00am)

2. I will be updating my blog every 4 hrs. (This should take me about 15 mins. to do)

3. I’ll only be leaving my room to (a) use the bathroom (if its a duece than it might take 15min). (b) if my dad needs something (parents and relatives might be over for Thanksgiving

Best part of this?  There’s a live video feed of it.

Don’t waste hours of your life playing the Wii!  Waste hours of you life watching SOMEONE ELSE play the Wii!

[youtube]Onu8XhRuF5A[/youtube]

Who walks their turtle?

Here’s a real life secret santa.

Interesting way of contributing to the less fortunate. Do you think there’s a place for independent benefactors selectively giving out money to those in need? Or should it all be given out by organizations, to ensure it’s distributed equally among the needy in society?

Found a video of a 45 year old DEA officer. He was brought in by some stupid parent’s group to teach kids about weapons safety.

Some would question the wisdom of bringing a loaded gun into an auditorium, let alone bringing in a Glock, probably one of the most lethal handguns around.

Well, it was unwise, and here’s why:

[youtube]mhIJOVD8hwY[/youtube]

Now, I find his ability and willingness to carry on admirable (though, he was also probably in shock and didn’t realize the extent of the damage). Of course, I think that if you LITERALLY SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT you deserve some ridicule.

Also, the guy should’ve been smart enough to know that those kids were likely terrified by now - when you’ve got a group of schoolchildren begging you to stop, you should take the hint immediately.

Interestingly, there’s no such thing as a “Glock 40” (the gun he claims to have been using at the time). Glocks 17 to 39 do exist. It’s likely that he was using slang terminology to refer to a Glock loaded with .40 MM Smith and Wesson ammunition. There are five separate models that can use that ammunition (not including minor variants). Perhaps a minor error, but a certain level of understanding and correct terminology should be used whenever you deal with kids - especially when you want to make them safer. You don’t expect the cop that comes in to educate you on drugs only referring to “smack and reefer” - these things have real names and you expect to learn them. Apparently this guy is now suing the DEA; saying that that video of him was recorded illegally. Of course, if there was a video of YOU out there being dumb enough to shoot yourself, AND terrifying children enough that they cry out in fear - you’d probably want to get that out of the public domain too.

Now I know why, no matter how much you begged and pleaded, when a police offer came to my school he or she would NEVER take their gun out of their holster. What’s that old saying about playing with fire?

Oh, I’m not trying to be morbid.

I just got to thinking recently.  There are a lot of people who probably die rather often.

I don’t mean a real, physical death… oh, let me explain:

One day, not terribly long ago, I started reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.  I devowered the first book, and two through 5 didn’t last long either.  After that, our library didn’t seem to have any other books by him.  I thought to myself, “This Douglas Adams chap, he’s really, really good.  When he decides to pull out his A-Game there’s no stopping him.  He has to have other works kicking around”  So, I wanted to hunt for those.  I also wanted to know when the next Hitchhiker’s book was going to come out.  I was so very, very excited about this writer that I had discovered (for, it felt like I was the only one who knew about him, it seemed like I was on the cutting edge of this sci-fi-humor book writer’s career).

I was psyched about this man.  Here was a man who took all that I found sort of funny in the back of my head, put it on the page, and made it genius.  The way he wrote, the comparisons he used, every single LINE of the first Hitchhikers book is funny - and if the line doesn’t seem funny when you first read it, he makes reference to it and MAKES it funny.

THIS is a man that I would go to a convention to meet, just so I could put my sweaty hand in his, pump it up and down a few times, and babble incoherently to him.

So, on to Google I hopped, for all the answers I could ever wish for, and I found his bibliography.   Complete with the date of his death.

Dead!  Gone!  Age of 49, in 2001, he died suddenly of a heart attack.  Now, this was probably a good two years before I ever even read the book, but so far as I cared he had just died THAT DAY.

And what was there for me?  There was no one else mourning him; there was no one to commiserate with; there were going to be no eulogies, no one was going to be talking about how great he was at the watercooler.

A man who I looked up to had died, and I was the only one who cared.

It’s a rather interesting situation, that.  I can’t be the only one who’s ever had that happen to them.  Someone else must’ve picked up a book, saw a movie, or heard an album that they thought was amazing, that really struck a chord with them, and then they found out that the person was dead.  As far as they’re concerned though, that person JUST DIED.

So, I wonder - how many times has Douglas Adams died?  How many times has any great person died?