Vermyndax vermyndax

A German schoolgirl claims the title of “world’s longest tongue” with a slimer that measures 7 centimeters. As the article mentions with tantalizing allure, “The twelve-year-old from Tangstedt, near Hamburg, can lick the ice cream from the bottom of a cornet – while her friends have to use their fingers.”

Give it a few more years and this girl will be quite popular with the boys. Let’s all say prayers for the sanity of her father.

I have temporarily reverted the theme back to WordPress default while I try to figure out why Eruption won’t wrap lines in the sidebar. Sigh.

I’ve gotten through the long, arduous trip from LAX to my home town. This day has been pretty much a flash before my eyes – not entirely sure I remember much of it, but here’s what I do remember about the trip:

• I got to climb around inside a B52 bomber. What a sardine can!
• I got to see SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) – which is basically a 747 with the aft end cut out so it can open up at 45,000 feet and view the heavens with an infared telescope. Cool stuff. We not only got to see SOFIA fly in to Dryden with fighter escorts, we got to go on board and take a tour and meet the crew.
• I got to see F-18’s!
• I got to see chaser aircraft for the space shuttle!
• I got to land an F-18 in the simulator… oh yeah, and I flew it around a while too. Neat stuff.

Next list… of other activities:

I’m about to head out the door to fly off to Dryden Flight Research Center for the week. They will be migrating into our mail system and this week we get to go through the ceremonials. I’m pretty excited because I’ve never been to the L.A./SoCal area, but then again… DFRC is in that zone that constantly lists as “100’s” on the weather maps. Eek.

Oh, too much can be said for running Windows on your local weather access channel.

Yesterday, Kiddo and I got out to soak up Pirates 3. It was enjoyable, but it suffered from the same thing that plagued the second of the series. The writers allowed themselves to get bogged down by the apathetic nature of each individual player. By now, there are a lot of players – all of them with their own agenda. The midsection of the movie that was pure dialog as each person wheels and deals to get themselves into a golden situation for the final battle started to become a grueling exercise in keep-up.

Lost‘s season finale was absolutely a crowd pleaser. I was cheering from the couch – literally. Nothing made me happier than to see some ass kicking finally be delivered.

And I know the conspiracy theorists (including my wife) are really spinning about the flashb… er, flashes. Sorry, I don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t seen it.

Excellent, excellent show. This is filmmaking at its best. These people are to be applauded.

Neatorama » Blog Archive » The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century.

This morning’s read is a strange piece about a mysterious disaster in Cameroon in 1986 that killed an estimated 1,800 people or so. Despite the macabre, it’s a totally interesting piece that serves to remind us just who exactly is in charge of this planet.

We’re just guests.

Taipei Times – archives

National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall

President Chen Sui Bian continues his assault on Taiwan’s history as Chaing Kai Shek Memorial Hall is renamed to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.

Not only does it dishonor the history (those who forget history are doomed to repeat it) – I’d imagine the new name will further the flames with mainland China since it contains the word “Democracy.” Maybe not – I often find myself misunderstanding much of this issue, as many Americans do.

It’s fitting that Blizzard chose Seoul, Korea as the location to announce Starcraft II.

My my, I’m excited. I’m also very impressed with the cinematic offered on the site. Their rendering gets better and better with each game – let’s just hope the storytelling also improves.

In other gaming news – Thanks to BFG for having a lifetime warranty on video cards. My 6800 GT OC has apparently been the culprit of my game crashes. I contacted BFG and they sent me a BFG 7800 GS OC to replace it. It works very well and I was able to play Oblivion without a crash!