Massive Roundup of Mishmash

Good Morning! or perhaps Good Afternoon!
It is FREEZING here in Denver and there “was” (I removed it with a shovel) more snow on our front steps than I have ever seen in my life (pretty much not an exaggeration).

So with my face like a block of perma-frost and without further ado, here are my thoughts and visited websites that have been crowding my biological brain and desktop add-on brain.

CYBERSQUATTING:

Cybersquatting is the lame-game of stealing someone else’s business or personal name in order to benefit from their fame or success – or otherwise hold them to ransom for that URL. As most of you know we had the pleasure of dealing with this exact issue (a while ago now – and ironically is being used to help determine other cases - like this one). Slate has now asked and answered the question – Is Cybersquatting Illegal or just gay?

Paper Wars:

Brenna, our assistant, found Paper Wars. These artists build anti-aircraft guns and AK-47’s out of paper. Thousands of sheets of paper and tons of glue go into creating these artistically beautiful and realistic artworks.
SUPERTOUCH:

Supertouch with the DL here, here, and here. (If you can get your hands on the Mark Ryden prints GO FOR IT! They are truly precious!)

ARCHIMEDES really was a Genius:

According to New Scientist, Archimedes did a great many wonderful things and even created a complicated computer to enable accurate moon, sun, and star movements. Was Archimedes just a really smart dude amongst dummies OR did he somehow have access to technology of alien origin?

But seriously, I find it fascinating that within the general human population we have people like Archimedes who are somehow able to rise to the challenge of solving massive human problems and with seemingly little technological or computing help. If Archimedes could do IT (whatever IT is) and with none of our modern day marvels, we should all be excited about the future prospects of humanity – and hopefully our continued survival as a species.

Movember Mo:

No, this is not a Kiwi dressed up as Archimedes, but rather Tom James – the man with the best mustache in the world (according to Movember Mo) We would also like to nominate him for best hair and glasses too.

Gary Baseman:

Interview target and internationally acclaimed artist, Gary Baseman has his characters on USB drives with Mimobot here.

Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law:

Scrawling through websites like a Google Spider is one of my favorite hobbies – like most of us these days. And I came across this forum. Apparently, my young adult activities, which resulted in the most unfair conviction in the history of humankind (no exaggeration) has now made it all the more difficult for kiwis to play with plastic BB guns that fire a soft pellet that cant even break the skin. However, breaking someone’s skull in a bar brawl is still ok.

In the late 90’s I was the proud owner of a plastic BB gun that was BATTERY OPERATED and fired a small plastic sphere. I have to add that this small plastic sphere could not break human skin (or porcupine skin for that matter – someone I know tested it out on both of us). The braindead judge (he really was braindead, or at least asleep throughout the trial) thought I should “be playing with cute blonds instead of guns” and fined me 800 kiwi bucks for the ordeal. Justice served up retardly. Luckily, when I came to the USA, everyone apparently finds this “conviction” to be a joke in light of the fact that the crime was “possession of a restricted weapon as defined by the Governor General”. The Governor General said that restricted weapons should include the following:

- machine guns
- acid throwers or dispensers
- grenades
- landmines
- rocket launchers

The prosecution felt (in their limited wisdom), that a BB gun, battery operated, and unable to hurt anyone seriously (unless you hit ‘em in the eye with a lucky shot) fell within the category of “machine guns” and therefore a “restricted weapon”.

Last time I checked there is a HUGE difference between a BB gun operated by batteries and a MACHINE GUN (as seen in the hands of a Congolese soldier for instance).

So, because of this travisty of justice, Kiwis are unable to import (from Japan) Airsoft rifles. (gets the tag DUMB and LAME).

And now for some pics.

The Rising Sun…