unreasonable.org

So at Playa Del Fuego this weekend, I saw some cool firespinning and nifty burning art. But the thing that made me stand stunned and awed was a short video that was playing at one camp as I happened by, as they were getting ready for a movie. Amazing juggling - I feel like "juggling" isn't even the right word, I've never seen anything like this. A little Google-fu turned up the video:

(Speaking of PDF, my new fire poi arrived here at the house while I was there, so I didn't have the chance to spin fire this time. But I will soon!)

"Stevie Washington. The Angry Youth. Born to Die. New York's New York. The turn of the century. All crime."

Anybody else remember these? Ah, MTV back in the 80s. Good stuff.

After a half-hour of Google-fu - it gets even better. Here's a downloadable bootleg QuickTime movie of several episodes, courtesy of AiT/Planet Lar.

I've also found a new set of Flash animation Stevie and Zoya episodes. They don't look all that interesting, sadly. But then, they're probably not from Joe Horne, but just from some undertalented fanboy.

From Naha, Okinawa, Japan, comes an AP story about a dog at a Zen Buddhist temple who "prays", imitating his Zen master master. Kawaii desu yo!

Ah, beautiful beautiful irony!

Casey Knowles is a high school senior in Washington state. Like a lot of people her age, she's a big Obama fan. She's even gotten involved as a precinct captain for the Democratic caucuses, and could be a convention delegate.

Unlike a lot of people her age, about a decade ago she did some film work, and appeared as a sleeping kid in some footage shot for a railroad company ad. Getty Images got the rights to that stock footage. The Hillary Clinton campaign bought it from Getty Images, and used it in the now famous "3 a.m. phone call" ad.

Yes, the girl in the Clinton ad supports Obama.

An interesting story at ABCNews.com: "The Thai government said Tuesday it was investigating claims that supposedly celibate Buddhist monks have been using a U.S.-based social networking Web site to flirt with women."

However, the headline of the article is "Zen Flirting?" Which prompted me to send the following note:

While I'm sure the author of the "Zen Flirting?" headline (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4385254&page=1) meant no disrespect, the form of Buddhism practiced in Thailand is not Zen. Indeed, in some Zen schools it is not uncommon for monks to marry.

Mentioning Zen in a connection with the Theravada Buddhism found in Thailand would be rather like headlining a story about some scandal in the Catholic Church with a pun about Billy Graham.

The Times (London) considers presidental poetry and notes that Barack Obama "may be the best amateur poet to run for president since Abraham Lincoln, which is saying quite a lot." Obama had two poems published in a college magazine back when he was 19.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this story of a remote-controlled robot armed with a water cannon that its creator, Rufus Terrill, claims has helped prevent break-ins and drug deals on his block and stopped vandals from trashing a local day care center. Others suggest he's a vigilante who's harassing the homeless.

A while back, I mentioned the town of Obama in Japan. The Ethiopian Review has a story on how "this ancient fishing town of 32,000 people" is rooting for the candidate with the same name to win, hoping he'll put them on the tourist map.

Supporters in Obama — which means "small shore" in Japanese — have held parties to watch election results, put up posters wishing the senator luck and plan a special batch of the town's "manju" sweets bearing his likeness.

...

Lest cynics find the city's efforts naive, it was Obama himself who first drew attention to the connection.

Obama, speaking to Japan's TBS network in December 2006, said that when he flew once to Tokyo, an officer stamping his passport told him of the town.

"He looked up and said, 'I'm from Obama,'" the senator said.

A true story, from my friend Heather:

I've never really thought much of greeting card holidays like Valentines day but when my son was little they made the kids bring Valentines and food/candy to school for a party each year. So, this one particular year, like the good Mom I was, I diligently sat and addressed all of the cards (again) for the kids in his class and baked chocolate cupcakes for the party. Very carefully my son and I frosted the cupcakes and put a little candy heart on top of each one...so pretty...the kind with little messages written on them like "be mine" and stuff like that. As an adult, Valentines day has been nothing but a disappointment to me but I thought kids should do it if that was what the school was doing...etc... And my son wanted to win the heart of a certain little red headed girl with his pretty card and expert baking skills.

Charles Darwin Has A Posse. Stickers (including images for DIY fun), t-shirts, and more available on the other side of the link. From Colin Purrington at Swathmore University's Department of Biology. Evolve!