Monday, July 28, 2008

A New Contender For Greatest Commercial EVAR

I give you, MR. T!



Snickers TV Commercial - Get Some Nuts - video powered by Metacafe


For Snickers, no less. Enjoy the win.

Cuil.com Is A Truckload Of Fail

If you didn't know, a new web search engine* debuted today, called cuil.com. It was supposed to be a "google killer". They've paid for (and gotten) a huge media blitz today, going so far as to be on CNN's mainpage. It has bee a tad oversold, methinks. Has a streamlined interfaced, and results are displayed as articles. Well, maybe I should say, WOULD be displayed as articles, IF it returned any results. On anything. Their search algorithm is SO bad, it won't even return "cuil.com". And it's horribly unhelpful when you don't get a result:



*By "engine", I mean in the same way that a hamster wheel is an engine. As in, not really.

Seriously, just stick with google.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Apprently, Obama REALLY IS The Messiah

This is just priceless. From the Times Online:

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow...

...As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for...

...And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares...


Definitely worth the time to read the whole thing. There's so much awesome win in this, I can't post it all. I LOL'd verily. A lot. Seriously, this may be the funniest thing I've read on the intertubes.

Hehe, "Gordon the Leper..."

Will The Mortgage Bail-Out Help You?

If you were smart and didn't buy more than you could afford, paid you bills on time, and did what you were supposed to do, probably not. But there are some very interesting stipulations on the bailout, assuming it passes as-is:

Via CNN-
Qualified borrowers must live in their homes and have loans that were issued between January 2005 and June 2007. Additionally, they must be spending at least 40% of their gross monthly income on all household debt to be eligible for the program.

They can be up to date on their existing mortgage or in default, but either way borrowers must prove that they will not be able to keep paying their existing mortgage - and attest that they are not deliberately defaulting just to obtain lower payments.

Before homeowners can get FHA-backed mortgages, they must first retire any other debt on the home, such as a home equity loan or line of credit. Borrowers are not permitted to take out another home equity loan for at least five years, unless it's to pay for necessary upkeep on the home.

To get a new home equity loan, borrowers will need approval from the FHA, and total debt cannot exceed 95% of the home's appraised value at the time.


It looks like it's going to by a bit harder than some people were hoping for to get the handout, and the "no new loans for 5-years" is very interesting. And the "borrowers must live in thier homes" seems to mean that all these house-flipping douchebags may not be getting any help at all. Outstanding. As bad of an idea as this was in the first place, it appears that Congress actually put a little thought into thier "solution". Color me surprised.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Lilley Responds To His Firing

Wow, this is turning ugly. Lilley has contacted the WacoTrib and posted a response to his canning.

“Two and a half years ago I was invited unanimously by the Board of Regents to come to Baylor. I did not come to Baylor to advance my career. Gerrie and I were reluctant but finally were persuaded to come because of the unanimous vote and the promised prayers of the regents. We felt that we could help to heal the wounded hearts left in the wake of the conflict that preceded us. Despite the board’s unanimous vote, it became clear immediately that the Baylor Board of Regents reflected some of the deepest divisions in the Baylor family.

“I am proud of the work my colleagues and I have done to bring the Baylor family together and to help the university achieve the ambitious goals set forth in our mission and vision 2012, documented in our annual report just presented to the regents. I deeply regret the action of the Board, and I do not believe that it reflects the best interests of Baylor University.”


Once again, he is blaming everybody else for his problems. He did the same thing with the tenure disaster. Every time he sent out a statement about something, it was mainly about how whatever had happened was not his fault. In the Lilley presidency, the buck stopped down the hall.

Oh, BTW, the comments on the Trib site are priceless!

Baylor President John Lilley Fired!

Well, looks like Baylor needs another new president. Lilley was fired effective immediately, and the Regents picked Harold Cunningham as the acting president while they search for an interim president. From an email obtained this morning:

The Baylor University Board of Regents voted today to begin the search for a new University President. Board Chairman Dr. Howard K. Batson said the decision was necessary in order to unite Baylor’s many constituencies and move the University forward in its next period of growth and renewal. Batson said the move represents the Regents’ acknowledgement of a need for unifying leadership as Baylor strives to achieve its goals under Baylor 2012.

The Board had hoped to transition to a new president gradually, officially beginning the presidential search in January 2009 and eventually replacing Baylor President John M. Lilley during the final portion of his five-year contract. Because plans for a gradual transition were rejected by Dr. Lilley, the Board will immediately seek a new president...

...Harold Cunningham, a member of the Board of Regents who was previously board chair, will assume the role of acting president until such time as an interim president is named...

...It is expected that Cunningham will serve a brief period until an interim president is appointed. After an interim is chosen, the Board, in consultation with other constituencies of the Baylor family, will begin a comprehensive search for a new president.


Well, ain't that somethin'.

Lilley had a track record of fail, include such boneheadedness as:

1. Change the school colors from Baylor green and gold to Lilley's favorite shade of green and YELLOW
2. Change Baylor's football helmets from the interlocking BU to "BAYLOR" (Soooo much fail)
3. Change from Dr. Pepper to COKE
4. Spent more time in China than at Baylor during his presidency
5. The whole tenure debacle

Ok, a couple of those were rumors, but sound about right.

Maybe they can get Underwood back.

Tim Burton Chooses His Alice

Seems as Mr. Burton has picked the girl he wants to play Alice in his upcoming movie of Alice In Wonderland. Her name is Mia Wasikowska, and she's from Australia.


An interesting choice, I think. Not quite what I expected, but word is she's pretty good. I've been looking forward to this movie for quite some time. It's one of my favorite "classic" tales, and hopefully Tim Burton will really bring out the dark and disturbing parts of the story.

What most people who know about this film are REALLY hoping for though (myself included), is a full telling of American McGee's Alice, where Alice is older, and she returns to Wonderland.

With a knife.

It gets CRAZY dark and creepy and generally farked up. We'll see.

Oh, forgot to mention, Johnny Depp (yay!) is in this as well, but we're not sure who he's playing. I can't decide if he'd be a better Cheshire Cat or Mad Hatter. I'm voting for Cheshire Cat, I think.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Greatest Movie Ever Made Turns 20 Today



That's right. Die Hard was released 20 years ago today, and changed action movies forever. Often imitated, but rarely (if ever) duplicated, it was simple, realistic (for the most part), and tons of fun. And became the GreatMoose's favorite Christmas movie.



Yippy-kai-yay, indeed.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Truly, The Chinese Are Our Betters

Those crafty, crafty Chinese have devised the ultimate anti-terror weapon for the Olympic games. Look upon it and despair! Behold, The People's Glorious Automtated Mobile Cavalry For Great Justice!*



I can see the headline now:

The terrorists had a cunning plan, but they never counted on the swift and merciless Chinese segway cavalry!

*Came up with that myself.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

And Hellboy With Chuck!

MissSpeech will like this one. Here's Hellboy and Chuck playing a video game.



Lunchboxes!

Hellboy Himself on Inside The Actors Studio

Not Ron Perlman. Hellboy. With James Lipton. This is soooo sweet...



How existential. Boo-yah.