*sigh* what a long day

sorry for the lack of updates loyal followers but my life has been awfully hektik these few  weeks. between playing child carer for my nephew and neices and trying to cook food for them that they will actually eat i have zero alone time.

actually makes me wonder, if i ever have kids then i'm making it my job to look after them EVERYDAY. i mean sure it's hard but you should've thought of that before you had kids...anyway i'm not bitching i'm just saying...

sometimes i think parents should have to pass some sort of test before they're allowed to have kids. harsh but you would have less kids growing up screwed in the head.


but then again, who would the corporations prey on if not the slightly less intellectual and unfortunate. GG

last but not least. Japan's Divine Wind

Everyone loves a good case of "divine intervention" that can easily be explained away by basic meteorology.

Preferably on Channel Ocho.

For instance, Russia was invaded by Hitler and Napoleon, and they were stopped respectively by a snowstorm and a snowstorm. Wow, big surprise. They didn't finish their invasions during the 72 hours it's not snowing in Russia.
But then, you have the ones that make you wonder. For instance, the Brits burned Washington, D.C., in 1814, and out of nowhere came the first recorded tornado in D.C. history. It trashed the living shit out of the British army and conveniently put out all their fires on the federal buildings.

After ensuring a conveniently sweet remodeling for the White House.

But even that pales next to the most famous example of meteorological deus ex machina: a weather phenomenon that came to be known as the Kamikaze, long before that word symbolized suicidal fighter pilots.

Where it Gets Weird:
The first Mongol invasion of Japan took place in November 1274 and consisted of 23,000 men and 700 to 800 ships. They were at sea for two weeks, made fantastic time and even managed to establish a beachhead on Hakata Bay, Japan. When the Battle of Bun'ei broke out on Nov. 19, Japan was so weak it looked like they should have started scouting out other islands to move to.

This was before Tommy Lee Jones came to straighten them out.

And everything went swimmingly for the Mongols ... that is, until a typhoon came in and wrecked their fleet like a blast from Poseidon's own shotgun. The Mongols suffered horrendous losses and retreated after only one day of fighting, which is saying something when you consider that these are the same folks who conquered everything from Korea to Austria.
But no matter -- they weren't the type to give up. They simply came back with a second, larger invasion in 1281. This force consisted of 140,000 soldiers, 4,000 ships and a two-pronged invasion via China and Korea. It was pretty much the size of six or seven of the previous invasion force. It was the best the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty could muster, and you can bet the Mongol leader, Kublai Khan, expected to conquer Japan this second time around.

By mid-August, the enormous Mongol fleet met the Japanese at the very same Hakata Bay where they had squared off seven years earlier. And, once again, this fleet was destroyed ... by a typhoon.

Where it Gets Even Weirder:
If you're now picturing Japan as a powerful typhoon magnet where you have to carefully slip in during narrow windows between storms, stop. Storms almost never hit the Hakata Bay, and one of the invasions wasn't even in typhoon season (they tend to hit in the summer, and the first attack was in November).
So exactly how low were the odds of the Mongols getting trashed at Hakata Bay? According to Japanese sources, a typhoon like the one that hit the Mongols during the second invasion occurs "once a hundred years or once a few hundred years." Or, as was the case with Mongolians, every time they invaded Japan.

All their cunning was useless.

Two storms, in seven years, both right when the Mongols were attacking, and in the spot where their fleet was located.
The Mongols never tried to invade Japan again.

Sorry for the inconvenience...

hello friends and followers, the jill is back after.

due to unforseen circumstances and, well...IT...*mumbles* i was away for awhile but now i am happy to announce that i have returned~

so what do i have for you as a show of gratitude that nobody deleted me from their list, money? jewels? riches?

close, a nice article on how the feds are trying to silence an xbox hacker. enjoy.

Feds attempt to silence Xbox hacker

The US federal government is attempting to silence a talented hacker by preventing him from offering expert testimony at an upcoming Xbox 360 jailbreak trial.
According to Wired, the defendant, named as 28-year-old Matthew Crippen of Anaheim, allegedly ran a garage-style business modding Xbox 360s for $60-$80 per unit.
Unsurprisingly, the Feds want to lock Crippen away in the slammer for up to three years. 


But Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, the designer of the Chumby and author of the 2003 title Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering, wants the court to know that mod-chipping is not a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"Basically, what he did was insufficient on his own to violate anything," Huang told Wired.
"[Of course], the bottom line [is that] I would like to see the scope of the DMCA limited to an appropriate statute that respects fair use, one that respects traditional rights."
Unfortunately, Huang may not get the opportunity to defend Crippen in court, as federal prosecutors have asked the judge to preclude Huang from testifying.
The feds believe that Huang's opinion would be "legally irrelevant" as fair use is not a defense to a DMCA charge and therefore legally "inadmissible."
We beg to differ.
Democracy isn't about silencing your ideological opponents, stifling inconvenient testimony or painting Lady Justice green to protect corporate interests.
Huang should clearly be allowed to speak, whether or not the Feds want to hear what he has to say.
So, warez 4ever, dudez. Don't give up the fight!!!

#2. The Dick Family

Michael Dick of the UK had not seen his long-lost daughter Liza for 10 years. Why were they estranged? Your guess is as good as ours. All we know is that Michael went nuts looking for her.

Where it Gets Weird:
After fruitlessly combing the deserts of Sudbury for her, Michael turned to the Suffolk Free Press for help. The newspaper to write a story on the Dick family's predicament and even decided to include a picture of the family to make Liza feel homesick.
So, the family gathered out in the street, and the newspaper photographer snapped their picture. Sure enough, running the picture of the family farm did the trick! Michael Dick and his family were reunited with Liza just a few hours after the paper hit the streets.

Thanks to the tireless work of brave newsies.

Where it Gets Even Weirder:
After taking a good look at the newspaper photo, Liza realized something ...

"Hey, that's me!"

Liza, the long-lost girl whom the man in the above photo had not seen in 10 years, just happened to be walking past in the background when the photo was snapped.
She didn't know they were there, and she didn't know a photo was being taken. After a decade apart, at the moment her family posed for a photo for a newspaper story about how she was missing, she just happened to be standing within 100 feet of them.
She described the experience as "very strange" and said, "Perhaps it was fate." Yeah, call it what you want. We'll leave it at "weird as shit."

Wait -- why the hell is there an arrow sticking out of that one girl's throat?

The Synchronicity of Dennis the Menace

On March 12, 1951, Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace comic strip first hit American newspapers. It's still running to this day, in more than 1,000 newspapers, because comic strips never, ever die.

Where it Gets Weird:
Just a few hours before Ketcham's Dennis the Menace hit the nation, on the opposite side of the Atlantic, issue No. 452 of the British comic The Beano hit newsstands even though it was dated 17 March, 1951. This particular comic was notable for featuring the first appearance of what went on to become cartoonist David Law's most famous creation: Dennis the Menace.

Fair to fair, this kid looks like he could kick Dennis's ass.

That creepy muskrat at his feet is supposed to be Dennis' dog.
Where it Gets Even Weirder:
So, their comics strips had the same exact name, and for some bizarre reason were published on the same exact day. That means the guy in the UK just ripped off his American counterpart, right? Or vice versa?

Was this just belated revenge for Yorktown?

Nope. By all accounts, neither man knew, or had any way of knowing, that there was an equivalent comic being developed an ocean away. No lawsuits were filed. After all, if one of them had caught wind of the other ahead of time, he'd have changed the title--it's to neither creator's advantage to create confusion among readers (for all you know the other comic is the worst thing ever). It just appears to be a massive coincidence, or as Carl Jung would have called it, synchronicity.
Besides, aside from this freak occurrence, the two characters had nothing in common. Hank Ketcham's take on Dennis was based on his own son, and David Law's Dennis was more like a gritty reboot of Calvin.

Something tells us this kid actually does piss on stuff in his comics.

Hank Ketcham and David Law decided to amicably continue their separate works, and both characters ended up becoming immensely popular with their respective audiences.

Though they clearly bought their shirts from the same thrift shop.

However, it was Hank Ketcham's Dennis that got made into a movie in 1993 starring Walter Matthau, Marty's mom from Back to the Future, and that blond kid from Rushmore.

Also, a down-and-out Doc Brown had a cameo.

Coincidentally, a totally different Dennis the Menace movie came out in Britain the same year, albeit this film was called Dennis because it was, in fact, a blatant ripoff of Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace. Why they didn't just coincidentally make a film about the UK's Dennis is anyone's guess, but we're willing to bet that it was because such a film would not get a PG rating.

Seriously, this kid rocks.

Google Analytics on your Blogger Account

Spunchops has been kind enough to write a tutorial on how to add google analytics to your blog page. it lets you track various things about your site including page views, traffic information and referrals(google ads).

it's basically used to spy on who clicks your ads, how long they stay on your page(spammers?) and where in the world they're from.

while his tutorial did help me i won't paste the whole thing here but clicking THIS will take you directly to it.

i ran into some problems and managed to find more info about how to set it up properly here.

ENJOY~

coming up next part 3 in the strange coincidences series. =D

Two Brothers, One Bike, One Cab

I'm going to be honest with you: There is really no way to build up the following story. It's just one of those things that is mathematically possible in the vastness of universe, but when it happens, it's creepier than those twin little girls from The Shining.

Where it Gets Weird:
In July 1975, newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic went nuts over the death of 17-year-old Erskine Lawrence Ebbin, the poor kid having been knocked off his moped by a taxi in Hamilton, Bermuda.
You see, the previous year his brother was killed ... on the same street. Also by a taxi. Both kids were 17, and they were hit almost one year apart. Oh, and they happened to be driving the same moped.

Moped show-boating claims two more lives.

Well ... OK. Mopeds are inherently unsafe, right? And maybe they both drove recklessly. It could happen.
Where it Gets Even Weirder:
Before we go any further, please know that Cracked had to check with several overseas libraries and even the Library of Congress to verify this report.

WE STOP AT NOTHING.

The following clipping appeared on page nine, column three of The Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph on July 21, 1975:

That's right.
The two brothers were killed by the same taxi.
With the same driver.
Carrying the same passenger.
Almost exactly one year later.
The Final Destination movies exist, folks, and you are living in them right now.

It's worth noting that death can occasionally be bribed with coke.

sorry for the delay i was helping my friend out with some computer problems, yay i got paid!!!