The Rose Parade this year will be strong with the force. The parade will present a tribute to “Star Wars” and will feature director George Lucas as its grand marshal. There will be two floats depicting the moon of Endor and the garden planet Naboo; 200 stormtroopers; and even Darth Vader is expected to make a special appearance! Fans will brave overnight temperatures of 45°F degrees to line the parade route for tomorrow morning’s event. Use the heater Luke! |
A Colorado resident is selling snow on Ebay, yellow snow no less. However, the listing states, “this snow was yellowed in the non-traditional method and is completely hygenic!” Funny. |
As expected, here’s a link to a cell phone video of the entire execution. It’s poorly shot and has so much movement that it may get you dizzy, but it is the full event until Saddam’s actual hanging. It’s crazy to see the look on his face right before it happens. Everyone is cheering in Arabic throughout the video. Eerie to watch. |
 Although the nerdcore subgenre (hip-hop hardcore + nerds = nerdcore) is a few years old, it may gain critical mass now that a new documentary about the movement is seeking distribution. Nerdcore for Life is a new documentary that sheds light on the most popular nerdcore artists and their lives. The trailer for the film has garnered over 600,000 views on YouTube. MC Router, pictured here, has a famous beef with Wired Magazine for running a story about nerdcore (issue 14.09) and stating there’s “even a few ladies” on the scene without giving her any props. Click on her picture to hear “Unwired” on her Myspace page, it’s her rap rebuttal to the Wired story. Damn, even if you may not like her rap style you gotta admit that she has one of the sweetest tattoos ever! I am completely fascinated by nerdcore and would love to see the film be entered and shown at the next San Francisco International Film Festival. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing whether the film was even entered prior to the December 15th deadline for the festival. In any case, I sent the director and producer an email about the festival and can only hope that he follows up with the festival organizers. I wish him the best of luck in getting his film shown and distributed. For more on nerdcore go to nerdcorehiphop.org. |
In Berlin, a very thirsty man sold his daughter’s dog for 40 euros to buy some beer. |
Healthy Penis anti-syphilis cartoon ads that are posted in the Castro increase testing. |
Mike Tyson was arrested and released on felony cocaine possession charges and now admits that he is in the throws of a heavy cocaine addiction. Can this guy’s life get any sadder? |
Saddam Hussein was killed in a pre-dawn execution in in Baghdad. In a final act of defiance, the former dictator refused a hood to cover his eyes before being hung by the gallows. He was 69 years old. According to reports, the execution was both photographed and video taped and the video up to the placing of the noose over his head has aired on Iraqi television. I have to guess that the full video tape of the execution will likely be leaked onto the Internet for all to see sometime soon. |
Two separate geniuses killed themselves earlier this month near Modesto while performing the “ghost ride da whip” stunt popularized by “hyphy” hip-hop artists like E-40. One 18-year-old kid hit his head on a parked car while sticking his head out of the passenger side of his driverless car. Another 36-year-old, yes that’s not a typo, fell off the roof of his driverless car, hit his head, and earned a well-deserved “adios” for his stupidity. Natural selection. |
Post-holiday rush to use new iPods and iTunes gift cards crashes site. |
The top 100 images of the year taken by the SF Chronicle photography staff. |
I would like to wish all the Nug readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! And just in case you forgot to get something for that special woman in your life, here’s something that male readers can put together in pretty quick order. |
As if to welcome me home in earnest, there was a 3.7 magnitude quake last night that made our building’s wooden frame creak but didn’t make anything fly off our shelves. The cat was a little freaked out and fluffed her tail in fear wondering what the hell was going on, but she wasn’t any worse for wear. There was another 3.5 magnitude quake this morning in the same spot. On Wednesday night, there was a 3.7 magnitude quake in the exact same spot. That makes three quakes in the same spot of approximately the same magnitude over the span of four days. I certainly hope that these are considered one quake with two equal size after shocks and not pre-quakes leading up to a massive 6.7 to 7.0 quake that is expected by scientists on the Hayward fault. |
I returned from Oregon yesterday after a very nice, yet very cold, trip. The first morning there was in the twenties, that’s just way too cold. We went up to Mt. Ashland on Wednesday but didn’t stay long because the snow conditions were a little icy. Also, I thought that I would take pictures of Ashland while there, but it was a little too cold to be outside. The only two pictures I took were with my cameraphone on Thursday night when it was actually warm enough (38°F degrees) to walk into town. Not that it’s much warmer here, it’s 45°F degrees at 10:00AM. It was a fun trip, but I am glad to be back in San Francisco. |
I am off to Ashland, Oregon to visit my friend Mark until the end of the week. While there, we will be snowboarding on Mt. Ashland, which opened earlier this week. I am looking forward to the road trip in the new car. Wish me luck, Oregon doesn’t seem to be the safest state lately due to bad weather. |
Author of “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” book drops dead of a heart attack on plane. |
Not to be outdone by Taco Bell, an Olive Garden in Indiana sickened 300 people and sent 3 to the hospital with symptoms related to food poisoning, including vomiting, fever, and yes, explosive diarrhea. Damn, do you need any more reason not to eat at Olive Garden, apart from the fact that it is so ghetto? I think not. |
In Beta, now you can Google the entire U.S. Patent and Trademark Office archives. |
A new bill in the Texas legislature would allow blind people to hunt. And not just with any old rifle, but with a snazzy rifle with laser sights. “This opens up the fun of hunting to additional people, and I think that’s great,” said State Representative Edmund Kuempel who introduced the bill. While that may sound crazy, here’s a possible explanation. Blind people are not allowed to do a lot of things in life. They can’t drive, they can’t be airline pilots, surgeons, astronauts, major league pitchers, air traffic controllers, and a slew of other occupations that require good eyesight. Wouldn’t that make you mad? Mad enough to say, shoot somebody? Well, we all know that shooting people is illegal (unless you’re Dick Cheney), but shooting animals is fair game, right? This Texas lawmaker can foresee many angry blind people finding a buddy and a laser sighted rifle and having a blast shooting at things they can’t see! Big ups to Lauren for sending me the link to this very real story (not The Onion). |
 There’s really no other way to express how I feel about this fine piece of German engineering. The one pictured here is not my actual car, but it looks just like it except that mine has dealer plates and is an inch lower due to the sport suspension. It’s navigation system is incredible, even tracking my progress inside tunnels. I guess the navigation system is talking to the speedometer even while GPS satellites are out of range to determine your location. It calculates your progress inside the tunnel and the satellites pick you back up on the other side. Impressive (in Darth Vader voice). The Bluetooth integration with my phone is awesome and spooky at the same time. The car gets my phone directory from my phone, as well as my most recently dialed and received calls. It’s all displayed on the Audi Multi-Medial Interface (MMI) system which is way better than the BMW iDrive. I researched the ease of use and the quality of the multimedia displays extensively before making my decision on the Audi. |