Archive for December 2011
the more I drink …
… the better you look.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
gymnastics FEAR FACTOR
For the first time I’m attending Dave Adlard’s New Years festivities in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
One of the long weekend events involves gross food — and acrobatic challenges. In this one you try to throw cheezies so they stick to the whipcreamed face of your partner.
During the obstacle course, your opponents can try to blast you off the beam with Exercise Balls.
… It’s difficult to describe this mayhem in words. See a few more photos.
Coaches, friends and family won’t soon forget this party. It’s a competition, too. Of those who finished every contest, I believe I finished LAST ALL-AROUND. 
we cheat death every day
Ben Breedlove was an Austin teenager who had a popular YouTube channel (“OurAdvice4You“) where he gave dating advice to viewers. He also had a life-threatening heart condition he fought every day growing up.
The brave 18-year-old lost his life on Christmas night from a heart attack. The week before, he recorded the below videos where he shared his feelings about death, after “cheating” it three times. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
To see part 2 and part 3, click over to HuffPo – Ben Breedlove, Teen Tells Heartbreaking Story Week Before Death
Are you setting any New Year’s Resolutions?
One stunning fact: in several studies published in peer-reviewed journals of 150+ people, about 40% of participants in each study who could be reached at 6 months said they were still being successful with their resolutions.
The Bottom line: You CAN make change your life and plenty of people succeed in setting New Year’s Resolutions
Jason Shen – HOW TO SET GREAT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS (BACKED BY SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH!)
(via Ali Arnold on Facebook)
Mexican Train dominoes
The favourite game of my family.
Mexican Train, also known as simply Trains, is a game played with dominoes. The object of the game is for a player to play all the dominoes from his or her hand onto one or more chains, or “trains”, emanating from a central hub or “station”. …
… Because of its simplicity and interaction, it can be played by nearly anyone, anywhere. Depending on the type of game you play, it can last from a single, 20-minute game to a 12 round game lasting hours. …
It’s the #1 Domino Game on the market today.
watching sports on TV guys?
Airport Security Theatre
I’ve four times crossed the Pacific this Fall. Air travel is horrible in 2011.
Departing Philippines, here are the line-ups I suffered.
1. Car entering the Airport was stopped. (1min)
2. Line-up and luggage x-ray entering building (15min)
3. Check-in and collecting boarding pass (20min)
4. Immigration (10min)
5. Security check-in (15min) … removing shoes
6. Boarding pass checked before entering the gangway (4min)
At each step it was clear to me that no real security inspection was underway. It was all theatre. Laughable.
The best article I’ve read yet on Security Theatre has been getting wide circulation online.
Charles C. Mann:
… To walk through an airport with Bruce Schneier is to see how much change a trillion dollars can wreak. So much inconvenience for so little benefit at such a staggering cost. …
Terrorists will try to hit the United States again, Schneier says. One has to assume this. Terrorists can so easily switch from target to target and weapon to weapon that focusing on preventing any one type of attack is foolish. Even if the T.S.A. were somehow to make airports impregnable, this would simply divert terrorists to other, less heavily defended targets—shopping malls, movie theaters, churches, stadiums, museums. The terrorist’s goal isn’t to attack an airplane specifically; it’s to sow terror generally. “You spend billions of dollars on the airports and force the terrorists to spend an extra $30 on gas to drive to a hotel or casino and attack it,” Schneier says.
… “We’re spending billions upon billions of dollars doing this—and it is almost entirely pointless. Not only is it not done right, but even if it was done right it would be the wrong thing to do.”
read more – Smoke Screening
What can airlines do?
Distract me with circus acts like this one from Cebu Pacific in the Philippines.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via Kottke)
____ Airport Security
In Narita, Tokyo I was twice questioned by serious, skilled security officers. Both times outside the normal procedures. That was impressive — and scary.
In Vancouver, Canada I was selected for extra inspection, along with suspicious Russians and Iranians. That screening was very skilled and professional, too.
… Yet instances like that are rare, rare, rare.
(via Boing Boing)
World Parrot Refuge, Coombs, B.C.
Boxing Day the McCharles clan headed for one of the highlights of Vancouver Island, the World Parrot Refuge.
The Refuge has over 800 parrots, a dedicated team of staff and volunteer carers, and 23,000 square feet of heated indoor free-flight aviaries with plans for 16,000 square feet of easily accessed outdoor flights for the warmer months. ..
It was a blast. Only $12 / person entrance fee.
Virtual Adoption is one way to sponsor a parrot. Another is to buy a parrot painting (VIDEO) … that’s a painting painted by a parrot, by the way.
The Year in Photos
Debris crushed a car outside the Christchurch Catholic Cathedral after an earthquake rocked Christchurch, New Zealand, on Tuesday, February 22, 2011. The 6.3-magnitude quake hit at the height of a busy workday, toppling tall buildings and churches, crushing buses and killing dozens of people in one of the country’s worst natural disasters. (AP Photo/NZPA, David Wethey)
See more on Atlantic – 2011: The Year in Photos, Part 1 of 3
Love Actually
Looking for a good Christmas movie?
Dave and Lisa Adlard recommended my favourite, Love Actually. (2003 R-rated)
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
related – Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) horrible Christmas variation of The Troggs’ classic hit “Love Is All Around”. (VIDEO)
25 biggest POP hits mashup
My prediction – this will be the worse Popular music decade in my lifetime.
DJ Earworm just dropped his latest annual edit:
… “World Go Boom,” combines 25 of the year’s most-successful pop songs from artists such as Adele, Britney Spears, Foster the People, Lady Gaga, LMFAO, Maroon 5, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
… pretty lame, I’d say.
What was the great Pop hit of 2011? … Adele?
(via Mashable)
