CULTURE/SOCIETY and ENTERTAINMENT: My Celebrity Look-Alikes

Well, in case anyone was wondering what I look like, here are my celebrity lookalikes. Apparently, when I wear my glasses, I look like a big dork. And when I don't wear my glasses, I look like a girl!

MY CELEBRITY LOOKALIKES WHEN I'M WEARING GLASSES:


MY CELEBRITY LOOKALIKES WHEN I'M NOT WEARING GLASSES:

Link to making your own collage at MyHeritage.com

SPIRITUALITY/RELIGION: Questioning the God's Wisdom?

I'm really an agnostic who leans more to the idea that there is a god, but I had to put this up on my website.

ENTERTAINMENT and CULTURE/SOCIETY: A Conversation with My Daughter about Radio Stations

This is an incident that happened between my daughter and I, and I thought some of you might find it amusing.

We were in the car. My daughter and I have negotiated a deal on the music. She gets to listen to her station when we are going to somewhere, and I get to pick the music when are coming from somewhere. And if we are going to a number of places, we switch back and forth between places.

Well, we were on a way to McDonald's and actually turned down the radio.

"That song is boring," was her response when I looked at her surprised.

"I have to admit, Jen, I find most of the songs on this station boring." - Jen isn't her real name, just an alias I'm using to hide our identities on the web. :) -

To which Jen replied in a huffy manner, "That's because it's not one of your stations playing old people's music!"

"Old people's music?! My stations are ran by high schools and colleges! It's not old people's music!"

"It may not be popular young people's music," I continued, "but it is young people's music."

I, of course, ignored the fact that the people running the stations were high school and college staff members that were probably closer to my age than Jen's.

"And you know who runs your young people's station?" I asked.

Her station was originally an alternative rock station that failed and got bought out by the corporation, Clear Channel.

"No," Jen said. "Who?"

"People my age in business suits!"

And my daughter, taking after her father, showed great reserve and dignity, and yelled, "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

God, I love when irony is in my favor!

CULTURE/SOCIETY, SCIENCE and POLITICS: My Results on a Morality Quiz

This is my results on a morality quiz from an interesting site where a psychologist compares the moralities of liberals and conservatives. - OlderMusicGeek

The scale you completed was the "Moral Foundations Questionnaire," developed by Jesse Graham, Jonathan Haidt & Brian A. Nosek at the University of Virginia.

The scale is a measure of your reliance on and endorsement of five psychological foundations of morality that seem to be found across cultures. Each of the two parts of the scale contained four questions related to each foundation: 1) harm/care, 2) fairness/reciprocity (including issues of rights), 3) ingroup/loyalty, 4) authority/respect, and 5) purity/sanctity.

The idea behind the scale is that human morality is the result of biological and cultural evolutionary processes that made human beings very sensitive to many different (and often competing) issues. Some of these issues are about treating other individuals well (the first two foundations - harm and fairness). Other issues are about how to be a good member of a group or supporter of social order and tradition (the last three foundations). Haidt and Graham have found that political liberals generally place a higher value on the first two foundations; they are very concerned about issues of harm and fairness (including issues of inequality and exploitation). Political conservatives care about harm and fairness too, but they generally score slightly lower on those scale items. The big difference between liberals and conservatives seems to be that conservatives score slightly higher on the ingroup/loyalty foundation, and much higher on the authority/respect and purity/sanctity foundations.

This difference seems to explain many of the most contentious issues in the culture war. For example, liberals support legalizing gay marriage (to be fair and compassionate), whereas many conservatives are reluctant to change the nature of marriage and the family, basic building blocks of society. Conservatives are more likely to favor practices that increase order and respect (e.g., spanking, mandatory pledge of allegiance), whereas liberals often oppose these practices as being violent or coercive.

In the graphs below, your scores on each foundation are shown in green. The scores of all liberals who have taken it on our site are shown in blue, and the scores of all conservatives are shown in red. Scores run from 0 (the lowest possible score, you completely reject that foundation) to 5 (the highest possible score, you very strongly endorse that foundation and build much of your morality on top of it).

Link to YourMorals.org - the site with the test

SCIENCE: The Quest to Design the Perfect Yawn

I picked this up from NPR. I found it amusing and am passing it on. - OlderMusicGeek

Krulwich on Science

By Robert Krulwich

The Quest to Design the Perfect Yawn

All Things Considered, September 24, 2007 · Robert Provine had this deliciously dangerous idea.

The professor of psychology at the University of Maryland remembered the famous Monty Python sketch about a joke so funny it killed anyone who heard it; The British, naturally, wanted to use it against the Germans, the Germans visa versa, and both sides furiously pushed to develop the first "Doomsday Joke."

Professor Provine decided to do the same thing, but not with a joke. He proposed a Doomsday Yawn.

Provine, who has spent 20 years studying laughter and is the author of a well respected book why we laugh, is an expert on contagious behaviors. He decided, (since he has tenure and why not?) to try to design a yawn so powerful it would make everyone who saw it yawn back. That was his goal: the 100 percent contagious yawn.

The 55 Percent Barrier

A number of studies (including his own) found that a medley of ordinary yawns on video played to a classroom for five minutes would induce a responsive yawn in 55 percent of the audience. So that was his starting point: could he design a yawn powerful enough to move from a 55 percent response right up to Total Yawn-ness?

He tried.

link to the whole article

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Clowns KKKick KKK Butt!

A friend for SecondLife showed me this article. Thought you all would appreciate it. - OlderMusicGeek

Clowns KKKick KKK ass!

by Chris Irwin - Three Rivers Earth First!




Saturday May 26th the VNN Vanguard Nazi/KKK group attempted to host a hate rally to try to take advantage of the brutal murder of a white couple for media and recruitment purposes. http://www.volunteertv.com/special

Unfortunately for them the 100th ARA (Anti Racist Action) clown block came and handed them their asses by making them appear like the asses they were.

Alex Linder the founder of VNN and the lead organizer of the rally kicked off events by rushing the clowns in a fit of rage, and was promptly arrested by 4 Knoxville police officers who dropped him to the ground when he resisted and dragged him off past the red shiny shoes of the clowns. http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/7704982.html
“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted, “White Flour?” the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour”.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s angrily shouted once more, “White flowers?” the clowns cheers and threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s tried once again in a doomed and somewhat funny attempt to clarify their message, “ohhhhhh!” the clowns yelled “Tight Shower!” and held a solar shower in the air and all tried to crowd under to get clean as per the Klan’s directions.

At this point several of the Nazi’s and Klan members began clutching their hearts as if they were about to have a heart attack. Their beady eyes bulged, and the veins in their tiny narrow foreheads beat in rage. One last time they screamed “White Power!”

The clown women thought they finally understood what the Klan was trying to say. “Ohhhhh…” the women clowns said. “Now we understand…”, “WIFE POWER!” they lifted the letters up in the air, grabbed the nearest male clowns and lifted them in their arms and ran about merrily chanting “WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER!”

It was at this point that several observers reported seeing several Klan members heads exploding in rage and they stopped trying to explain to the clowns what they wanted.

Apparently the clowns fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the rally, they believed it was a clown rally and came in force to support their pointy hated brethren. To their dismay, despite their best jokes and stunts and pratfalls the Nazis and Klan refused to laugh, and indeed became enraged at the clowns misunderstanding and constant attempts to interpret the clowns instruction.

The clowns on the other hand had a great time and thought the Nazis were the funniest thing they had ever seen and the loud laughter of over 100 counter protesters greeted every attempt of the Nazis and Klan to get their message out, whatever that was.


link to complete article and comments

HUMOR and CULTURE/SOCIETY: Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy, maties. I just be wantin' t' wish ye and yers a happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Yargh!

If ye be needin` help, then sail yerself o'er here

'Tis here be an example o' the'r handiwork of th' link -
I pledge allegiance t' th' Jolly roger o' th' United States o' America, an' t' th' Republic fer which 't stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, wi' Liberty an' Justice fer all. Ya scallywag whut deserves the black spot!

Talk Like a Pirate Day website

Wikipedia's entry for International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Dave Barry's take on International Talk Like a Pirate Day

instruction video on how to talk like a pirate

ABC article on International Talk Like a Pirate Day

ENTERTAINMENT: My Embarrassing First Song on My Mp3 Player!

I was going to write about this before, but I had a lot on my plate at the time and kind of spaced it off. Then the song came up again on my mp3 player.

You see, with my tax returns, I got myself a treat. I've been working hard and putting in a lot of hours, working 50-hour weeks, and decided to get myself something fun with part of the money. I got a 30 gig mp3 player. It's great and I can hold over 5000 of my songs on it.

So I had a whole bunch of music downloaded onto it. About a half to a third of it being along the lines of alternative, punk or electronic, but also some big band and swing, oldies, soul, r&b, classic rock as well as a bunch of world music including a some stuff I had from South Africa and its neighbors - music I picked up while I lived 6 1/2 years next door to South Africa and stuff I picked up since - plus some Celtic music, bluegrass and Americana and stuff from and influenced by southwest Asia (India, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh).

So what song should come up first from the huge expanse of music? This collection of songs from various time periods and various places? This smörgåsbord of melodies, rhythms and harmonies?

Only, of course, the most guilty of all my musical guilty pleasures! It's not necessarily that this song is worse than some of my other musical guilty pleasures. It's just that when it came out, I was old enough to know better than to enjoy this song - but I still liked it and put it on my mp3 player!

And what song would it be? (big sigh) Mmmbop by Hansen! Yes, Mmmbop by Hansen was the first song to be played on The OlderMusicGeek's mp3 player!

Well, all I can say is at least it wasn't one of my John Denver songs! Not that I listen to a bunch of John Denver. I only have 4 songs of his I listen to!

I mean they're not nearly as numerous as the number of Neil Diamond songs I listen to!!!

Okay, I shutting up now before I mention the Glen Campbell song I have downloaded!

D'oh!

HUMOR and CULTURE/SOCIETY: Jokes on Getting Older

Some jokes The Sassy Witch sent me since neither of us are getting any younger. - OLDERmusicGeek.

When I went to lunch today, I noticed an old lady sitting on a park bench sobbing her eyes out. I stopped and asked her what was wrong.

She said, "I have a 22 year old husband at home. He makes love to me every morning and then gets up and makes me pancakes, sausage, fresh fruit and freshly ground coffee."

I said, "Well, then why are you crying?" She said, "He makes me homemade soup for lunch and my favorite brownies and then makes love to me for half the afternoon.”

I said, "Well, why are you crying?" She said, "For dinner he makes me a gourmet meal with wine and my favorite dessert and then makes love to me until 2:00 a.m."

I said, "Well, why in the world would you be crying?"

She said, "I can't remember where I live!"


Two elderly ladies had been friends for many decades. Over the years, they had shared all kinds of activities and adventures. Lately, their activities had been limited to meeting a few times a week to play cards.

One day they were laying cards when one looked at the other and said, "Now don't get mad at me....I know we've been friends for a long time.....but I just can't think of your name! I've thought and thought, but I can't remember it. Please tell me what your name is."

Her friend glared at her. For at least three minutes she just stared and glared at her.

Finally she said, "How soon do you need to know?"


Now, I think you're supposed to send this to 5 or 6, maybe 10. Oh heck, send it to a bunch of your friends if you can remember who they are. Then something is supposed to happen . . . . I think.

POLITICS: Letter to Politicians on a Judge Allowing Gay Marriage in Iowa

This is a letter my friend, The Computer/Music Nerd, wrote and sent me a copy. - OlderMusicGeek.

To: Governor Chet Culver

US Senator Tom Harkin

US Senator Chuck Grassley

US Representative Leonard Boswell

IA Senator Pat Ward

IA Representative Dan Clute

I just read about the ruling of Judge Robert B. Hanson and applaud it most rigorously. It is about time someone thought about the rights of human beings and not their own feelings or opinions.

The key here is "equal protection of the law". This is NOT a religious issue, to say so restricts my rights as a non-Christian. The idea of marriage being an issue governed by religion is based on the majority's belief in Christianity, and may also be found in Islam and Judaism. As a Buddhist I reject the notion that Judeo-Christian-Islamic beliefs govern my life. I live by the rule of law and believe that marriage in the United States is a matter of Law. The Law in the United States MUST be governed by the idea of "equal protection of the law" and as such, Gay and Lesbians should not be discriminated against.

To discriminate against a group because they have fewer voices goes against what it means to live in the United States , this is the country that protects the minority by law and seeks equal treatment by law.

"I can't believe this actually happened in Iowa," Rants said of Hanson's ruling. "What it means is that one person has decided they know better than the whole Legislature." (DM Register)

I am so glad this is happening in Iowa. One person has not decided they know better, one judge has determined that the majority is ignoring the Constitution, institutionalizing discrimination. Iowa, which took a heavy toll in the Civil War to protect the ideology of freedom of the oppressed, should take a lead in lifting the oppression of this minority.

Governor Culver I am personally deeply disappointed in you, as a Democrat and a representative of all Iowans you should stand by this ruling, not take the easy way out. You may personally feel a marriage should be a man and woman; however, you represent gay and lesbian Iowans as well as heterosexual Iowans. Your comment in the Des Moines Register is therefore inexcusable.

"While some Iowans may disagree on this issue, I personally believe marriage is between a man and a woman," Culver said. (DM Register)

In 1946 President Truman formed the President's Committee on Civil Rights. The Report began: (emphasis added)

THE NATIONAL Government of the United States must take the lead in safeguarding the civil rights of all Americans . We believe that this is one of the most important observations that can be made about the civil rights problem in our country today. We agree with words used by the President, in an address at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in June, 1947:

We must make the Federal Government a friendly, vigilant defender of the rights and equalities of all Americans . * * * Our National Government must show the way.

It is essential that our rights be preserved against the tyrannical actions of public officers. Our forefathers saw the need for such protection when they gave us the Bill of Rights as a safeguard against arbitrary government. But this is not enough today. We need more than protection of our rights against government; we need protection of our rights against private persons or groups, seeking to undermine them. In the words of the President:

We cannot be content with a civil liberties program which emphasizes only the need of protection against the possibility of tyranny by the Government. * * * We must keep moving forward, with new concepts of civil rights to safeguard our heritage. The extension of civil rights today means not protection of the people against the Government, but protection of the people by the Government.

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/civilrights/srights3.htm

Protection of the people by the Government. You are all the Representatives of the PEOPLE. The people are not simply the majority; the people are all of the people. Gay and Lesbian people must have equal protection under the law or none of us do. What is next? Will we discriminate against some other small group? Perhaps I as a Buddhist will have my freedoms restricted while Christians are granted those same freedoms? Or perhaps Muslims, or Libertarians, you name the group. We must protect all Americans or we protect none.

Judge Hanson is standing up for ALL Iowans, why don't you?

HUMOR and CULTURE/SOCIETY: Public Restroom Joke

An email I got from Ernest T Spoon. - OlderMusicGeek


This could happen to you.

I was barely sitting down when I heard a voice from the other stall saying:
"Hi, how are you?"

I'm not the type to start a conversation in the restroom but I don't know what got into me, so I answered, somewhat embarrassed,
"Doin' just fine!"

And the other person says:
"So what are you up to?"

What kind of question is that? At that point, I'm thinking this is too bizarre so I say:
"Uhhh, I'm like you, just traveling!"

At this point I am just trying to get out as fast as I can when I hear another question.
"Can I come over?"

Ok, this question is just too weird for me but I figured I could just be polite and end the conversation. I tell them
"No.......I'm a little busy right now!!!"

Then I hear the person say nervously...
"Listen, I'll have to call you back. There's an idiot in the other stall who keeps answering all my questions!

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Emergency Phone Numbers in Your Cell

This was sent by a friend from Second Life and seems like a good and sensible idea to me. But I listed the numbers "00 emergency numbers". I put the two zeros so it's the first number to show on my list - and then the words "emergency numbers. I think that it makes it clear what they are instead of writing "ice" or whatever. - OlderMusicGeek

ICE Campaign - "In Case of Emergency"

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call.

Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign. The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" ( In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE." For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference! Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our mobile phones today! Please forward this. It won't take too many "forwards" before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest. ICE will speak for you when you are not able to.

HUMOR and CULTURE/SOCIETY: Beer

An email sent to me from The Sassy Witch. - OlderMusicGeek

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
~ Benjamin Franklin

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like an idiot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Without question, the greatest invention in the
history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the
wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does
not go nearly as well with pizza."
~ Dave Barry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And saving the best for last, as explained by Cliff Clavin, of Cheers. One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. Here's how it went:

"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

After reading all of the above, I have a new personal rule, "I WILL NO LONGER WORK DURING DRINKING HOURS.