Toadfish Monastery

That may belong in the Aaarghh department but we have no current oil-spill-related thread as far as I can see

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/30/ocean-life-thrives-on-crude-oil-meet-congressional-candidate-art-robinson/

My humble office


View from the tea kitchen window

Different views of the 'Atrium', i.e. the inner courtyard







The room called the Aquarium from the ouside



Exterior shots will follow in the next post

As promised I now start this thread on my new obsession: The Tartan Designer.
Maybe someone can program it based on the stuff I will mumble about.

First here are some of the possible 'elementary cells' for a pixel tartan.

A new study by German media institutes has found out that German youngsters watch more porn than the previous generation (due to easier availabilty by way of the web). No surprise there. But the survey also found that porn consumption decreases sexual activity in the real world and shifts the average date of the first real world sex towards a higher age. Porn also seems to transport a more conservative worldview influencing the youngsters at an impressionable age.

Hm, shouldn't conservatives then promote porn consumption and demand it to be included in the abstinence-only programs?

One thing that makes learning foreign languages difficult are the idioms because they often are not self-explanatory and not necessarily to be found in the dictionary.
I once possessed a booklet about the topic beginning with the sentences: This actor is a ham: The whole thing is a turkey. The show falls flat like a pancake. Literal translation would not be very enlightening .
It's also interesting to compare idioms in different languages. I for example get the impression that, in cases of parallel development, English idioms tend to be more graphic and/or close to home/down to Earth thatn the German equivalents.

Examples:
English: like a bull in a china store
German: wie ein Elefant im Porzellanladen
A bull is (at least in Europe and America) more common than elephants are

English: carrot and stick
German: Zuckerbrot und Peitsche (sugar-bread and whip)
How often do you encounter sugarbread and why should it be so desirable? (apart from me not really liking carrots)

'The moment when the shit hits the fan' is extremly graphic. I know no German equivalent

What strange idioms do you know, especially if English is not your first language?
We could make a quiz about meanings.

What for example do the following (originally German) idioms mean? Do you know a/the English equivalent (without looking it up!)
1) to hand over the spoon
2) to end like the Hornberg shooting match
3) a face not to muddy any water
4) broad as an owl
5) like the ox before the new gate

My April hoax with the Byzantine cipher machines led me to take once again a closer look at the topic of cryptolgy.
As far as I can tell we have no specialised thread on that yet.

Therefore I declare it opened herewith!

Feel free to dicuss cryptological problems or post cryptological puzzles and challenges.

Here's my first design for a Cthulhu themed (simple) board game.

Principle: A number of cultists and Deep Ones try to reach the center of the board in order to wake Cthulhu. A group of humans tries to prevent that by use of Elder Signs. Humans and cultists can capture/kill each other while Deep Ones can only be killed by moving an Elder Sign next to them and them not moving away (cf. king in chess). Cultists can prevent movement of Elder Signs by stepping next to them. Two cultists next to an Elder Sign removes the latter from the board. If two attackers reach the inner circle, they wake Cthulhu who kills horizontally and vertically every human in line of sight (unless there is something in the way).
Cthulhu can be defeated by taking his freedom of movement, i.e. blocking him with Elder Signs.
Pieces move one step horizontally or vertically (not diagonally) except Elder Signs. Those move like rooks in chess.
Humans may not enter inner circle (the 9 fields in the center).
While Cthulhu is still asleep, Elder Signs may not move into inner circle (only out of and through).
Game ends when at least one side cannot win anymore. Remis, if no side can force victory.

Rules may be modified, should they turn out to be too biased towards one side.

Does anybody here have an idea how to construct a purely mechanical XOR gate (preferably without springs involved).
It should function in the way of the sketch seen below. Alternatively the input pins could also rotate into position* instead of moving forward and back and the output pin could be at right angles to the input pins.
Magnets or anything electric is out. Pure lever/push actions would be preferred.

*pin wheel, cogwheel

OR, NOT, NOR are easy.
AND and NAND I am not sure about. Any ideas?

I found this interesting piece (at the Rude Pundit of all places).

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2009/06/moment-of-peace-before-wading-back-into.html
Also look for the link to a longer report on him.

Why is the Additional Smilies Thread locked?

Since this is the year of (among others) the moose, I propose the use of some of these smilies

http://wulle.se/wordpress/2008/02/05/noch-mehr-elch-smilies/





EDIT  - Topic Title amended to clarify this is not the main smilie thread ~Griffin

I found this lovely 'sign war'
http://idonotlikeyoueither.blogspot.com/2009/04/catholics-win-sign-war_08.html
I wonder what the pope would say about this 

I know that Byzantine studies are not everyone's favorite subject (including Turtledove fans  ), so this may have beent he reason for this not having made much of a splash. As far as I can tell it only became a (limited) topic in the papers due to the (typical) quarrel between Turkey and Greece. "Greeks and Turks quarrel about rights to antique shipwreck" is not page 1 material.
But I think it is interesting enough to open a thread here.

A Turkish team of archaeologists seeking for the wrecks of the Battle of Sinop (1853) found a few Byzantine dromons instead. There were some interesting artefacts recovered that should change our views about technical capabilities at the time a bit (cf. the Antikythera mechanism for an earlier era).

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/124126/george_w._bush_gets_his_statue_in_iraq/

At last a monument for Dubya in Iraq...in a way

It's a very large shoe with a poem honoring its thrower
(also look for GuitarBills comment below the article)

Hi!
I am just two songs short of finishing my fourth Choral Squid Songbook and plan to combine all of them (i.e. a full 100) in an omnibus. But as you all know, once you type so much stuff there are inevitavly to be errors in it, from simple typos to grammar and language errors. There are also some artistic judgements postponed on some lines/words. Additionally a general check on the accuracy of the origins of the originals would be helpful.

So I would appreciate it, if all the siblings would help me to iron out those.
Who is willing to help?

Warning: Some might consider the parodying (parrot dying?  ) of some songs to be inappropriate and I did some quite nasty things there.

Hi!
I have a little bit of a problem here.
For the Choral Squids I consider it necessary to accompany the songs with links to audio/video of the versions I based my parodies* on. Unfortunately some of those seem to be available only on CDs etc. on my shelves. I have a CD to mp3 tool but unlike videos (at youtube) I don't know a place to permanently store mp3 on the net.
What I would like is a tool (free of charge) that would allow me to take the mp3s, put a picture up front* and to post them as pseudo videos on youtube (under headers easy to find). Browsing for such tools under google is not without risk (Trojan horse sites etc.).
Could someone of the siblings more learned in the way of the webs and the software help me out there.

And btw, is there a free place on the web to store documents (pdfs)? I would like to have a permalink for the finished Choral Squid songbooks and those are too big to be attached to posts here.


*of course in the scientific meaning of "putting a new text on an old tune". Noone says that it has to be funny! 
**or make a slideshow

You are probably accustomed to the people commonly known as flatearthers. Those people fervently believe in specific things/theories that so-called "scientists" consider absurd. They usually deny to be conspiration theorists (or religious nuts) but claim that conventional science simply does not get it. They themselves on the other hand collect evidence for the truth of their pet theories and present it to the public.
We should help those martyrs of ignorance and participate in the collection of evidence.

Present flatearthy theories and the corroborating (or, in small doses, contrarian) evidence.
Attention: No temporal or alien intervention may be included (i.e. no time machines, no divine or little green man meddling)

Let me propose a few for starters.

1.The Neanderthals were a sophisticated society possessing wireless communication and sound recording equipment.
2.They were wiped out by the ancestors of homo gopensis.
3.The troglodytes (cavemen) used nuclear power leading to the loss of body hair due to insufficient radiation shielding (we inherited that).

[youtube=425,350]LlItG4raicA[/youtube]
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=LlItG4raicA
Can we call that child abuse? 

And I bet they used Asian children for the cute factor.

Another kind of abomination lifts its ugly head: Cakes from Hell (or some other place where taste is shunned)
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
Those on the front page are harmless (in relative terms). But check some of the older posts pages
This one is also harmless

http://bp0.blogger.com/_wGr8njEWjtI/SFQUD5dbtcI/AAAAAAAAAF8/o1gJKpY8aXg/s400/Crazy_Cake2.JPG
But what about this beauty?

http://bp2.blogger.com/_wGr8njEWjtI/SERbrk0quEI/AAAAAAAAAEE/KqAROP2CJec/s400/e-mail+cake.jpg
or this?

http://bp1.blogger.com/_wGr8njEWjtI/SDzupAAr2wI/AAAAAAAAADc/lbCvA35Is2Y/s400/teen-pregnancy-birthday-cake.jpg

The next US president will have a lot do do, having to deal with the legacy of 8 years of Bush jun. and even longer domination of congress by the GOP.
Now what should he do first? On his first day in office and in the proverbial first 100 hours/days?
What should his or her priorities be?

My proposals:
1. Get the list of presidential pardons and related issues
2. Call a small group of eminent consitutional scholars (non-partisan, if possible) to go through the current laws that have an influence on dealing with the constitutional crisis Chain-Eye and accomplices have provoked and make a report
3. Call Congress leadership (on how) to deal with those questions
4. Call the Hague and present them with the evidence collected above to show them the difficulties of prosecuting in the US the crimes committed (the Hague only works on the condition that the home country of alleged criminals can't/won't prosecute) and ask them for a list of desired defendants (not limited to one party!).
5. Grab those on the list in a night-and-fog operation and transfer/rendition them out of the country before the slime machine wakes up
6. Call certain other countries secretly about their interest in certain people that don't made the list in 4. (that would likely include Kissinger) and act on it ASAP (see 5.) but ask for written guarantees of fair trials.
7. Order the DoJ to immediately start a grand investigation of the previous administrations as far back as reasonable. Do not shy away to go after your own party, if necessary.
8. Go public once the process is irreversible and present the people with both the fait accompli and the facts behind. Be calm, avoid any snigger or gloat, do your best "I have grave news for you" doctor shtick but avoid excess pathos.
9. Get (non-partisan or bipartisan) teams working on situational reports on other important topics (the situation in Iraq/Afghanistan, finances, health etc.). Chose members for expertise, not face recognition, that are willing to tell truth and not carrying any favors.
10. Once the reports are in prepare a State of the Union speech in a similar style to 8. This will be your blood, toil, tears and sweat speech moment, so don't botch it. Again avoid partisan attacks but do not be shy to put responsibility where it belongs.

Not to forget: 0. make your will, your life expectancy is going to nosedive.

A British scientist warns us that the development of military robots is likely to become an uncontrollable danger, especially if terrorists get their hands on them. Faux News ilustrates that with a remote-controlled Dalek.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,333091,00.html
Here is the original British press release
http://www.shef.ac.uk/mediacentre/2008/970.html