Is there time to make a small shit?

- Philip

Whassup?

Remember the "Whassup" Budweiser ads from the early 2000s? Well, here's an updated version for 2008, it seems things haven't really worked out for the guys...



Just 10 days to go,

Mr. Ed
(Currently blogging from a sofa in Chicago)

Et maintenant le voyage a la supermarche...

Missing the boat, the admiralty, the whole dang fleet, Chives has discovered Flight of the Conchords. See my compendium. If you haven't already many, many times over.


I'm the Muthaflippin'...




Like a steaming pile of last year, this has been Chives.
Um, Chives.

Meme-arama!!

Beigey and I stumbled on this little numbber on You Tube a while ago, and I've been looking for an excuse to post it- Mr. Ed's earlier post was just what I needed . There seems to be a whole meme relating to the "misheard lyrics/subtitled video" concept. What other wonders lie in wait for we P-sters, I wonder...
Anyway, here come the hotsteppa...



- Bluecupoard and Beigey

Pipe wrench fight!

A literal interpretation of Ah-Ha's classic "Take on me". Is this the beginning of a new internet meme? Let's hope so...



- Mr. Ed

Heady days

"Whoah there!"

We ponies know this expression all too well

but this week
it's been used much more frequently
as an exclamation
rather than a command

as in:

What the yellow rubbery fuck is going on!?!

The Dow had its worst week ever in terms of points as well as percent drops, losing 1874 points or down 18.15%.

-snip-

Dow Worst Week Ever:

-The second biggest weekly percentage drop was the week ending July 21, 1933 when the Dow closed down -15.55% for the week

-The third biggest weekly drop for the Dow on a percentage basis was the week ending Friday, 9/21/01 after 9/11 when the Dow fell 14.26% for the week

-There has never been a point drop in a week of greater than 1,600 points back to the Dow's inception in 1896

-The Dow is now down 40.67% off its market peak on October 9, 2007 of 14,164.53

This week the McCain campaign, despite grim economic news around the globe, has plowed ahead with the sleaziest campaign of living memory. Don't just take my word for it - here's a pretty telling clip reel from TPM:



Perhaps it's no surprise that the poll numbers haven't moved - the 1960s were a long time ago, and to be honest, the only number-letter combination anyone is worried about right now is 401(k). But it is rather gratifying to see that, not only did Obama predict that they would try this tactic:



But also that he's calling them on it:



And so is Joe Biden:



McCain seemed rattled when Charlie Gibson brought it up:



But maybe - just maybe - now, even he has realised the need to damp down his frenzied supporters:



Heady days indeed my horsey friends.

Or as some might say...

All in all
it's just a-
'nother Saab in the wall.

- Mr. Ed


Update:

John Cole has all you need to know about the Trooper-gate report that was released today.

Laugh? I nearly shat.

Sorry to buck the trend of quality posts but just had to say how much I laughed at the below. Fucking hilarious Ed!

Who knew?

That Robbie Fowler, Jimmy Tarbuck and Stephen Fry were in a Gospel trio together, way back when...

- Mr. Ed

Image from LP Cover Lover via Boingboing.

A BIG shout out...

to the post below. It's not often that we get self-referential around here, at the P club, but that last post had all of my geek nerve-endings firing on 'fuck yeah', so I felt obliged to give Blue Cupboard some props.

Go on, scroll down and feel the awe-inspiring massiveness of the numbers numb your mind...

- Mr. Ed

Now that's what I call quite big...

Philip kindly sent me this little link to Google's "2001 Index" part of their 10th Birthday doings. Why not visit and look up things that aren't on it? Anyhoo, all of this Google related such-n-suchery got me to thinking, and brought me round to the subject of this post, which, started out with the humble googol, and, well it ended up... well, I'm just going to have to cut and paste this in by way of the mighty Wiki...

How big is a googolplex?

One googol is presumed to be greater than the number of elementary particles in the observable universe, which has been variously estimated from 10⁷⁹ up to 10⁸¹. A googol is also greater than the number of Planck times elapsed since the Big Bang which is estimated at around 8 × 10⁶⁰.

Since a googolplex is one followed by a googol zeroes, it would not be possible to write down or store a googolplex in decimal notation, even if all the matter in the known universe were converted into 0's. Indeed, if you had an unlimited supply of ink and paper, you would need around 10²⁰ times the current age of universe to fully write down a googolplex.

Thinking of this another way, consider printing the digits of a googolplex in unreadable, one-point font. TeX one-point font is .3514598 mm per digit, which means it would take about 3.5 × 10⁹⁶ meters to write in one-point font. The known universe is estimated at 7.4 × 10²⁶ meters in diameter, which means the distance to write the digits would be about 4.7 × 10⁶⁹ times the diameter of the known universe. The time it would take to write such a number also renders the task implausible: if a person can write two digits per second, it would take around 1.1 × 10⁸² times the age of the universe to write down a googolplex.*

S'quite big, then...

Yours,

somehow a little afraid,

Bluecupboard

* I had literally no idea that when I cut and pasted this in from the Wiki, that all the links would stay live! Holy information fandango, Batman!! Thought I'd better mention that someone else did all of that in case you thought I'd lost my mind (and also learned a large amount about maths and physics very quickly)...

No Gas in Nashville!

There have been intermittent petrol shortages across the the Southeast US in the wake of Hurricane Ike, which pounded the refinery-rich Texas coast a few weeks ago. Apparently things got pretty bad in Nashville for a while, which inspired someone with a real knack for subtitle writing to re-cut this scene from Downfall. A lot of the humour relies on local knowledge, but regardless of how much (or little) you know about Nashville's suburbs, indie bands or sports teams, I think you'll agree it's a winner.

For some reason the video is refusing to embed properly, so you'll have to click here to watch it.


- Mr. Ed

Also from the BFI

Best use of post-it notes in an animation film goes to.....



- Scout

For real though

So, I'm as proud as the next South Carolinian of our 'skew-wuhls' and their outstanding performance in standardized testing, but I couldn't help but be amused when an incoherent Miss South Carolina was splashed all over the youtubes. If you need a reminder of the thirteen shades of jibberish she babbled, here's the video:



And now, compare and contrast this with Sarah Palin - who I'll remind our fair readers is the bloody vice presidential nominee of the Re-shitting-publican party for fuck's sake - when she's asked about the proposed fat cat cash grab communist revolution 700 billion dollar 'Wall Street bailout' currently being mulled over in DC:





I mean this is a joke, right? They're going to announce who the real VP nominee is soon ...right guys? ...Right?

Five. Long. Weeks.

- Mr. Ed

youtube fun from the BFI

Earlier this week I scouted out an excellent evening of entertainment. Myself and 'soon to have a P-Club name' went to the British Film Institute on the Southbank to an event called BUG presented by old favourite, cheeky funny man and hobbit Adam Buxton. The programme was a comprehensive showcase of new music videos, clever short films, interactive and youtube vids, all shown on the big screen with big sound. It covered some very interesting and controversial clips for generally very cool tunes. One aspect was interactivity and the exploration of youtube and I thought I would share the following with the p brethren.

Instructions

1. Best to do this at home when you can fully enjoy with sound etc and have time. It does take a bit of doing.

2. Open 3 separate browser windows with youtube open in all

3. Search 'semi babe 1' 'semi babe 2' and 'semi babe 3' in each window

4. Click on film with said names but pause all

5. Reduce size of windows to size of youtube screen

6. Line up windows next to each other with semi babe 1 in the middle, 2 on the right of it and 3 on the left of it

7. Play 1, follow countdown and play 2 on time

8. Enjoy song/clever vid and play 3 at any given moment

-Scout

Who is the man That would risk his neck for his brother man?

- Philip

Southern Living

The day after a tropical storm comes through is always fresh and cool, as if all the wind and rain has scrubbed the air clean. A day like this shouldn't be wasted - so I took the opportunity to go on a little road-trip up to Williamsburg county - home of Scott's BBQ. Scott's is a landmark amongst people who know their BBQ and after hearing about it several times, I thought I'd go and see what all the fuss was about.

It's about a two hour drive up Highway 41 to Hemingway, where you take a left, and drive about 2 miles out of town to get to Brunson Crossroads, which is just that - the junction of County Road 261 and Cowhead Street. Other than a dilapidated barn and an abandoned General Store - Scott's pretty much is Brunson Crossroads.

Scott's Pit Cooked BBQ

Signage is not their primary concern.

I parked in front of the old blue and white building, and as I got out of the car I was met by dubious stares from a couple of old men sitting under the awning.

"Excuse me," I asked awkwardly as I walked up to the closest man, "I was told there's some really good BBQ around here, could you tell where I could find it?"

A broad grin spread across his face as he nodded to the door and said, "It's right in there." It turns out, I had just addressed none other than Rodney Scott - the owner, and BBQ legend.

Mr. Scott on the left.

After devouring a heaping sandwich, and procuring a pound of 'que to take home with me, I got talking to the men outside again. Mr. Scott's right-hand man offered to let me see the pits where they cook the hogs.

He led me into an adjacent building - "the shed" - thick with smoke, where a row of large pits, filled with pig, were quietly smoking away. Then he showed me "out back", where they burn the wood in large metal drums, before bringing the coals into the shed and shoveling them into the pits under the meat. They cook each hog whole, which takes about 8 hours. I can honestly say I've never eaten better barbecue.

The Shed. The sign on the left above the door says "No drugs or loafers allowed!"

Inside the shed - note the holes under the pits where the coals go.

A whole hog cooking in one of the pits - this one is almost ready.

If you're still not convinced, here's a quote from the article I linked to above:

Scott's should be on the National Historic Register. It's that authentic. It's that good. If you want to see the essence of what barbecue is all about, this is it. They sell three basic commodities: pulled pork, fried skins, and King Thin white bread. Ten to 12 hogs a night are cooked and slathered with an absolutely atomic vinegar sauce, the spiciest we've ever eaten (of course, you can also forgo the sauce). If you go to Scott's, make sure to take a tour of the pits; timeworn and weathered, they hold three generations' toil within their grease-laden facades. These guys are so authentic that they chop their own wood — and to a barbecue fan, that should be convincing enough to plan a trip tomorrow.

Looking forward to more BBQ for dinner...

- Mr. Ed

Jerry & Bill or is it Bill & Jerry

- Philip

"It's a Cobweb"

Just a couple of comments on the previous storm posts.

Firstly, here is our Friday forecast. Not as dramatic or exciting but you have to admit really quite shit and rubbish. There is a deep depression hanging over this country in more ways than one.

And on the other storm - I love that interview. I'd love to see that idiot man grilled live on TV about the Kapp Putsch or Brown Terror.

I honestly thought he was going to say "Its a cobweb".

- Scout

Speaking of Storms

Well, Sarah Palin certainly seems to have put the cat amongst the pigeons, and in the kerfuffle following her selection as McCain's VP there have been some quality media moments - take the video of McCain Campaign Spokesman Tucker Bounds getting repeatedly called on Sarah Palin's experience. John Cole posted a clip of it back to back with a clip from Hardball in May, which might be Tweety's greatest moment EVAH (something even these folks admit).

If you like train wrecks, then you'll love these clips...

Tucker Bounds gets taken down:



Tweety unleashed:


You just got skooled by Chris Matthews Fool!

- Mr. Ed

Ehhhhhh

It's that time of year again! Although the "official" Hurricane season runs from June to November, but the last week of August and the first three weeks of September are the prime time, and right on cue the tropical Atlantic is getting fired up. Here's the state of things as of 8pm tonight:
From left to right, that's Gustav (now a tropical storm), hurricane Hanna and tropical storm Ike.

Currently, Hanna is projected to hit Charleston dead on:

Of course a lot could change over the next two or three days, but if things stay the way they are, it looks like Friday afternoon will be mighty stormy around here.

Crossing my fingers,

- Mr. Ed

Images from the National Hurricane Center.