Bargain Hunting

If you're in the market for cheap water, check out the gem of a convenience store on 139th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. You can get a 24 oz Poland Spring for just $1! And the shopkeeper only has one eye. What more could you ask for?

South Park does it again

A brilliant episode this past Wednesday. Called, "Cartoon Wars", this episode lampooned the Muhammed cartoon controversy as only South Park can. By totally mocking Family Guy! Trey and Matt have similar views as Dan and Rich on the subject and they made them known in a remarkable style. The two highlights of the episode: a mock scene from Family Guy full of typical cutaways with references to the 1970s and 1980s; Cartman being incredibly offended that anyone would possibly think that he likes Family Guy. Find this episode, and watch Wednesday for the stunning conclusion.

Smokers outside office buildings

I will not judge you for doing what you do. But answer me this: Why do you always look so nervous and depressed? That is not what cigarette companies like to see.

Finally!

Sorry Shea, as much as I love ye, it's time for a new stadium.

What's wrong with this e-mail?

Aside from the obvious. I find it interesting that on Fox News last night (my parents force me to watch it), when they read from the e-mail, they bleeped out "bitches" but left in "cut their skin off." Which exactly is more likely to warp the minds of our fragile children: the word "bitches" or the image of cutting someone's skin off? Call me crazy, but I'd have to say the skin thing.

Spot On

A great little blurb about Peter Gammons from The Onion.

The Beginning of the Future

Apples with Windows.

More Baseball Analysis

This is of the highly statistical and nerdy variety. But I like it.

Will this get Tom to vote?

I'm not sure, but it might get him to move to Arizona.

Most recent movie poster graffiti

"To leave the nest, some men just need a little push" becomes "To leave the nest, some men just need a little pussy." Oh, and Sarah Jessica Parker's teeth get blacked out from this poster for Failure to Launch.

Power Pad

I just played 30 minutes of World Class Track Meet and Super Team Games on my new Nintendo Power Pad and I am about as tired as I have ever been in my life. But I did set a new world record in the 100m dash, so that's good.

This might sound weird...

...but I just finished reading The Tipping Point, and in that book Malcolm Gladwell cites tons of studies discussing typical human reactions to certain situations.

For example:

When one person crosses the street in front of you, you are more likely to then cross the street yourself.

Or:

There is a whole page or two about how yawning is contagious. If someone else yawns, you are much more likely to yawn, and even just reading the word yawn on the page makes you yawn more often (did you just yawn?).

For whatever reason, I always want to be different. I always think to myself that I would never cross the street just because someone else did! Or I consciously thought about not yawning when I read those pages. This issue first really came to my attention during Intro to Psychology, when I read about a million psychological experiments. The Stanford Prison Experiment was one of the more extreme, but fascinating ones. I wouldn't have started beating prisoners, would I have?

Does anyone else feel the same way as I do? Or am I just bizarre?

Opening Day

Mets win, David Wright goes deep. Beautiful.

Oh, and Papi and Pujols also did some yardwork. Now as long as the Yankees lose...

Atheism

Guest-blogger Ilya Somin provides a look at some opinions about Atheism today at Volokh. Read the Wikipedia entry on Atheism also to get a more complete picture of what is being discussed. There is a distinction between Atheist and non-religious, so I think that a more accurate survey would include "non-religious" people as well. But either way, these results say something to me (a non-religious person...) about how religion is too important in the world because it can be so divisive.

A Look Back

After re-watching the first half of the Super Bowl at work today, I think that the Seahawks were better than the Steelers, but they made the mistake of getting rattled by bad calls and they made too many little mistakes. And Ben Roethlisberger DID NOT score on the quarterback sneak. Amazingly the official came over to spot the ball inside the 1-yard-line, then when Big Ben snuck the ball over after being down, the official called it a touchdown. An egregious error.