All right, here is a good hoax. I was fooled by it first because it looks so real, and we more or less want to believe that this is true.

But I had the nagging little voice inside telling me that something - something - is not quite right.

And then it came to me that warm gas would be lighter color - this one is black so it must be cold.

What am I talking about?

See here…

In some RSS readers the video will not show. In this case please go to the web site and watch it there.

Posted by Merlin - February 28th, 2007

I don’t really know if Citroën today is still such a innovative company, but it sure once was -

- as this image here certainly proves. OK, I know it’s not quite the factory model, but even the car as it came off the factory floor - was very unusual at its time. Where else would you find a car that could drive on three wheels only? I mean there were, during these early days of car design, cars that were designed to drive on three wheels and thus only had that number, but the Citroën, at least the big one, had four wheel and normally used them all. but if one failed - three was enough to get home.

I have to admit that during these early days I just thought these cars were weird. I needed a real fan to convince me that these cars were way ahead of their time.

Wonder why there are so few of them in the US, especially in California. I think I have only seen a DS once in all my 20 years here. In comparison you can still see a lot of old VW bugs from that era driving around.

Oh, yeah - French and American does not mix so well.

Posted by Merlin - February 27th, 2007

Many, many years ago my ex told me this story:

During her time in gold smith school (after hight school) a friend proudly announced after they came back from the summer break that she now got a car. Naturally everybody was wow and double-wow and unavoidably the question “what kind of car?”

Even prouder she claimed it to be a BMW. Obviousely that earned her a triple-wow - which turned into a “oh maaaan” when she finally showed it off.

Click on the image to view it in its full beauty.

Posted by Merlin - February 24th, 2007

Finally there is a book that I have been looking for to find for a long time.

From the intro of the book:

Despite the apparently endless stream of “how to” and “self-help” books, one segment of the population still has nowhere to turn for help and guidance: the would-be tyrants and oppressors of the world. The purpose of this book is to remedy that deficiency.

If you are one of those individuals who most of all crave the ability to dominate, subjugate, and control your fellow man, this book is for you.

The author, Larken Rose, describes the two classes of tyrants, the “old school” tyrant who rules simply by force, and the modern tyrant who rules by convincing his subjects that servitude is the only way to go. In very clear and concise examples Mr. Rose demonstrates that in today’s world only the second method should be used. It is incredibly more effective and much safer for you, the future tyrant.

After all a person who tears his heart out, throws it to your feet and even stomps on it is not very likely to shoot you, while a person in shackles will do all in his or her power to break free and take back what you stole from him or her - - and probably shoot you then.

It needs to be noted that the setup of the latter tyrant requires more planning and intelligence. But once established it maintains itself and runs mostly without the need to interfere and control. The Internal Revenue Service together with the income tax system is a most beautiful example of the truth of that fact.

This book finally brings easily digestible data into the hand of even the smallest dictator. It might be amiss of some practical drills, but if there is enough interest I would be willing to organize boot camps where in the midst of like minded tyrants we could practice the data presented in this book.

But first get and read the book, and then let me know if you think if we need to organize training camps.

Posted by Merlin Silk - February 22nd, 2007

I don’t know who collects all these stories of people receiving a Darwin Award, and I don’t even know if these stories are indeed factual - but they are good stories - and in my mind - credible.

So, here we go (thanks, Beverly, for forwarding)…

Yes, it’s again that magical time of the year when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.

Here is the glorious Winner:

1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.

And now, the Honorable Mentions:

2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine and submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef’s claim was approved.

3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn’t discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an incoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer: $15.
(If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?)

7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he’d just throw a cinderblock through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinderblock and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinderblock bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, “Yes, officer, that’s her. That’s the lady I stole the purse from.”

9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 a.m., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn’t open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren’t available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

******A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER*****

10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had.

Posted by Merlin Silk - February 21st, 2007

You know the toddlers property laws, right?

“All the toys are mine. If they are broken you can have them - but the pieces are mine!”

With a little monster like that in the house you are waiting for the time when he will be able to also see your viewpoint. The justification for that hope is that it would be good for the monster, he will understand people around him better, and have it much easier easier in life once he gets it in is head that “you get much further when you understand thy neighbor.”

But let’s be honest, it’s mostly because I want the monster to see my viewpoint, right? That’s why I am still trying to instill this ability to see a situation from somebody else’s point of view - even if that “somebody else” is I.

Recently I started to ponder the idea that this might actually not be a good ability to have. Blasphemy, I know.

I might have mentioned - did I ever! - that I am working on a gut understanding of the idea that “the world is as I see it.” But I am still falling - again and again - into the trap of seeing a situation from the viewpoint of another person. For example I know exactly what my significant other is doing wrong and what she should do different when there is a grinding noise in the relationship-gearbox: she should not blame me for something going south because she attracted that into her life, right or right?

….

Wrong - or maybe not wrong, but totally irrelevant. Relevant IS only that there is that grinding noise and that it is I who has created it simply because I saw it. Seen correctly it is I who put this person into my life who is critical instead of understanding that she created all this by herself.

Isn’t that interesting - by assuming her point of view I got rid of the responsibility for my own creations.

Can you believe that I still do this? If I really were so enlightened as I think I am - because I can see all the things somebody else does wrong - then this person, that I think I have to criticize, would not even be there - or would be a different person.

So, do I now change my raising paradigme for my monster to exclude seeing viewpoints other than his own?……

This time I caught the trap - no, I don’t have to change anything regarding the monster, I have to change how I see him - because I am the only thing I can change.

Posted by Merlin - February 21st, 2007

Robert Heinlein had his character Lazarus Long make the following remark:

“What a wonderful world it is that has girls in it! “

This comes to mind when I watch this video.

Video: Amazing girl dancing really well

 

 

Posted by Merlin - February 20th, 2007

Yes, you found him - the most intelligent guy on the internet! Now for me the question arises, why did you actually look for this elusive most intelligent guy on the internet - why not the most handsome guy on the internet.

Admitted, you probably would have come here too.

You might be wondering why there is a page for this oh so intelligent guy making waves on the internet. Let me tell you what’s behind this post here.

It is actually a research project in SEO (Search Engine Optimization for all of you who are not involved in internet marketing.) I thought about a search term like intelligent guy in the world or maybe the internet to optimize a page for to see what I will have to do to rank on the first page of Google.

I did not want to make it too difficult for me by selecting a search term like “coolest guy on the internet” - that is taken by a master of SEO, so I thought I might tackle that later.

There was no page that was actually titled The Most Intelligent Guy on the Internet, so I thought I go for this one.

Search engine optimization is really an interesting game to play. It requires the willingness to play games with the big players on the internet, you certainly need some intelligence to grasp all the rules, but you don’t really have to be a guy, a gal will do just as well.

Often people who do SEO think they are battling the search engines to subdue them to show their pages at the top of search results, but this is actually not true. The real target is the other website that competes for that position in the search engine. If there is no competitor you have it very easy to find you spot at the top of Google. But then again what would it be worth if nobody is interested?

With the internet and so many intelligent guys and gals on it - if nobody is searching what you have to offer there is probably no interest.

Anyway, if you want to help out making me indeed the most intelligent guy on the internet put a link to this article on your web site or blog with the link text that’s a bit varied from the standard title of this page.

Why don’t I give a few examples of what you could paste into your post.

A pretty smart guy

Make sure not to break a line where it should not be broken.

A rather intelligent guy on the internet

The most intelligent guy on the internet

This guy thinks he is so smart on the internet

OK - let this be enough - thanks!

Posted by Merlin - February 20th, 2007

Here is another piece that I had collected in my ‘nice stuff’-folder, which now has to come out of hiding on my hard drive and out into the blog-sphere:

A Baby’s Hug

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat baby Carl in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Carl squealed with glee and said, “Hi”. He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray.

His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment.

I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of worn out shoes.

His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map.

We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled.

His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. “Hi there, baby: Hi there, Big boy. I see ya buster,” the man said to Carl.

My husband and I exchanged looks, “What do we do?” Carl continued to laugh and answer back, “Hi”.

Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby.

Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, “Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek-a-boo!”

Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk. My husband and I were embarrassed.

We ate in silence: all except for Carl, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.

We finally got through the meal and headed for the door.

My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. “Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Carl,” I prayed. As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might be breathing.

As I did, Carl leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby’s “pick me up” position. Before I could stop him, Carl had propelled himself from my arms to the man’s.

Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love and kinship. Carl in an act of total trust, love, and submission laid his tiny head upon the man’s ragged shoulder.

The man’s eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor, cradled my baby’s bottom and stroked his back.

No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time.

I stood awestruck.

The old man rocked and cradled Carl in his arms and his eyes opened and set squarely in mine. He said in a firm commanding voice, “You take care of this baby.” Somehow I managed, “I will,” from a throat that contained a stone.

He pried Carl from his chest, lovingly and longingly, as though he were in pain.

I received my baby, and the man said, “God bless you, ma’am, you’ve given me my Christmas gift.”

“I said nothing more than a muttered, “Thanks.”

With Carl in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Carl so tightly, and why I was saying, “My God, my God, forgive me.”

I had just witnessed Christ’s love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking, “Are you willing to share your son for a moment?” when He shared His for all eternity.

The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me, “To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children.”

(Author unknown)

Posted by Merlin - February 19th, 2007

I got this little video in the email - thanks Beverly - and just had to share it. It is so incredibly typical that I can only believe the film maker must have had some encounter with that species.

This video might not show in your RSS feed on your aggregator (e.g. Thunderbird), so if you don’t see the video above please go to the blog’s website itself.

Posted by Merlin - February 16th, 2007

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