As if you needed more proof…

… That’s right, my armiger … I give you Don Felipe el Magnifico …

This is a test of your mind. This is a test of your endurance. This is a test of your visual acuteness. This is a test of your medula oblongata (the part that makes alligators ornery). Study each picture closely. This could very possibly “bottle your mind”.

I posted last year about the red-tailed hawks nesting on a building ledge at MIT. They’re at it again. Two chicks were born about a month ago and it looks like dad sticks around while mom goes off hunting. I recommend keeping the window open in the corner of your desktop all day so you don’t miss feeding time.

To quote Robert Goulet, “That’s why I come up here. Naaaaaatuure.”

Download RealPlayer (pain in the ass, but worth the effort), then click here.

[HawkCam :: 2007]

You pay now, bitch!

And soy milk is the devil, too. And it apparently turns kids into homosexuals.

[WorldNetDaily: A devil food is turning our kids into homosexuals]

I think this guy has a problem with his medula oblongata.

On January 8th 1950, the S.S. Franconia left Cobh, Ireland for New York City. On the 18th of January, after 10 days below deck in steerage, my mom, at 2 years and 11 months, arrived in America with her mother, brother and sister.

Until the end of November, Ancestry.com is offering free access to their passenger list archives, which is how I found this stuff. Here’s the whole page of the manifest from the S.S. Franconia, showing Mary, 25, Teresa, 6, John 5, and Mary B., 2. And alongside that is a photo of the Franconia itself.

That’s not all I found. There were even some Rhubergs on these ships. About 3 years before my grandfather was born, his parents and older sister arrived in NY from Norway on the Hellig Olav. My great-grandfather Charles Rhuberg, his wife Hildur, and their 9 month-old daughter Gunvor landed in America on Sept. 6th, 1904. How come no one names their daughters Hildur or Gunvor anymore?

These archives include 140 years of passenger manifests from ships leaving the British Isles and entering ports along the eastern seaboard dating all the way back to 1820. If your relatives came over on a boat, you can find them here.
[Ancestry.com]

A short story of crime and punishment, 21st century style:

Man named Amir deceitfully sells busted-ass laptop on eBay. Amir refuses to refund money or acknowledge the deception. Buyer scours hard drive of said computer, finds massive amounts of incredibly embarassing content regarding Amir’s sexual proclivities. Buyer creates a blog to document the salacious findings in order to shame him into refunding money. Billions of people know Amir has homosexual tendencies and a foot fetish. Billions of people point at Amir and laugh. Amir is shamed. Amir might kill himself over this.

[the broken laptop i sold on ebay]

Two baby red tailed hawks are nesting on a building ledge on MIT’s campus and are expected to take flight any day now. It’s all being captured on a live webcam perched only inches from their nest. This will probably ruin your productivity so you can thank me later. The live feed can be found here. You’re going to have to download RealPlayer in order to watch, but it’s worth the effort. Around 5pm today, both parents came back to the nest with take-out for the kids. Watching a baby hawk tear apart a mouse is slightly revolting yet completely riveting.

[AMPS :: HawkCam :: 2006]

It’s made with real bits of Iraq, so you know it’s good.
- Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

credit… [Malleable Truth]

A couple of years back, I stumbled on a hilarious web comic that skewered the War on Terror. Its quality waned quite a bit after a while though, so I forgot about it. But now that I’ve found it again, it’s almost as good as it was in the beginning. (If you’re unltra-conservative, you might want to stay away. I wouldn’t want you to get offended.) Here’s a little sample of Get Your War On…

[www.mnftiu.cc]