You can't see me because I'm wearing camoflauge!

It's been a while since a post but I saw this on MSNBC's week in pictures today, and wondered if it was a joke:

 

In case you can't read the caption, it says:

 "Saudi special forces display some of their skills and equipment during a ceremony as they prepare for the influx of people in the annual Hajj, in Arafat, nine miles outside of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Nov. 10. Security is a major concern during the pilgrimage by Islam's devout to the holy sites of Saudi Arabia." 

Now I have never been to Saudi Arabia, but I think it looks something like this:

Note the conspicuous lack of green stuff.  Up close I imagine a lot of it looks like this:

But upon further research I guess areas around Arafat can look like this:

And Mt. Arafat itself has some vegetation too:

But still, the image of those three guys at the top trying to be stealthy while hiding in in a featureless brown desert made me chuckle.  From the last image it seems like wearing a full-length white robe (aka Islamic "Jubba") would provide more cover for special forces during the Hajj.

And now I've just learned my interesting fact for the day - the definition of 'Jubba,' which is also the name of the Somali restaurant Kate and I went to on my birthday last weekend!

YTVotD

Two in a row!  Heard about this in Newsweek, of all places.  Who would have thought obsolete printed news media would be informing be about viral videos on web 2.0 sites?  Anyways - I think it's Ben Folds but could be wrong.  Warning, when they say "may contain curse words" at the beginning, they mean "does contain (one or so) innocuous curse words."

Perhaps the dorkiest costume of all time

I really can't (or won't) claim that too much thought went into it, beyond finding my old graduation cap and gown in a trunk and thinking that was too boring to wear alone and pondering how I could spruce it up a bit for a few minutes.  I'll let those of you who don't already know what I was guess in the comments.  Keep in mind I'm married to a science teacher...

Kate went as an astronaut, and even Banjo got a last minute cape to transform him into Underdog!

Did anyone else have a good costume?

Big Brother vs. Carpal Tunnel

Today at work I noticed that some new software was automatically installed on my machine, but I didn't think much of it until this afternoon when I heard a "bloop" over my music and saw a window telling me it was time for an exercise break! The software was this ergonomic monitoring program that prompts you to take a break or do a short exercise if you've been computing too long...

Anyways, I thought the pictures and exercise names they have "tutorials" for were pretty funny. Some of the images really demanded a more accurate name based on the picture:

"Go Speed Racer, Go!"

"Smell my pits!" or "Check me out"

This one is just funny on its own.

Do the "Sock Adjust."

"Pretend you are a corpse"

"Shoot lasers out of your fingers"

"Aghghhh! Where did everyone go?" or "Ostrich hide"

Heh. This one is much funnier to watch the video for. No, there wasn't a "Love Handles" or "Spare Tire" exercise.

"Office Ninja!"

"The Bionic Elbow!"

Got any better name suggestions? Uh-oh, I'm overdue for a mousing break, better stop and do a Speed Racer or two...

New Math

Found this blog, entitled "New Math," and I got a kick out of it. Maybe you will too. Here are some of my favorites:

YTVotD

Not that anyone watches music videos anymore (or that MTV even shows them), but have you ever wished that the words to the song would describe what's going on in the video? This series of "Literal Videos" does just that, with pretty humorous results. They kind of even remind me of that Yatta video parody.

There are three song videos done in this "literal" style: Tears for Fears' "Head Over Heels," A-ha's "Take On Me," and my favorite, Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge."

YTVotD

Last post may have been a little too heavy. Here's a YTVotD for you to lighten things up again. British comedians come through again.

"I'd Like To Have Been In That Meeting: Harry Potter"



And on a totally unrelated note, Go Rays!

Mail Goggles

This is kind of funny - Google has launched "Mail Goggles," a play on the phrase "Beer Goggles" but in actuality a real tool they are offering as part of Gmail that makes you pass a self-imposed online sobriety test before sending potentially inappropriate or soon-to-be regretted late-night emails.

You set the days and times you want it to apply,

and then I guess you have to answer a little quiz before Gmail will send a message during those times. Here's what a test looks like:

I wonder how many fewer emails Kangas would have received had this been in place at Dartmouth, eh? Maybe someone out there should make "Blitz Goggles."

Kerri Walsh wins gold, fails math

I will admit that I have enjoyed watching Olympic Beach Volleyball over the past week, which here in the US means watching Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor most of the time. And I will admit that they both seem pretty likable. But I guess neither Walsh or the ad people behind this 24 Hour Fitness ad spent much time reviewing the script before putting it on the air.

You can watch the video of the commercial at the link, but the gist of it is a bunch of guys are shown embarrassing themselves on the court and then after a particularly harsh spike the ball rolls up to Kerri's feet and she says "Best seven out of twelve?"

I mean, doesn't she spend nearly every waking hour playing a sport that's fundamentally designed around the principle of winning "best X out of Y"? You may have seen this reported over at FJM already but I thought it was worth copying due to the surprising dumbness of it. But anyways, they sure are good at beach volleyball, eh?

Ominous advertising

I had this amusing feature of AT&T Park, where the SF Giants play baseball, involving a local advertiser pointed out to me today:

What do you think? Coincidence? Bad karma? Secretly curse planted by Google? Perhaps that's just up there for all the people that come to the park looking for Bonds in left field this year.

If you don't get it, you can click here for an explanation.

Geeky Humor

The following was casually posted in our office kitchen, by the water cooler today:

There were three medieval kingdoms on the shores of a lake. There was an island in the middle of the lake, over which the kingdoms had been fighting for years. Finally, the three kings decided that they would send their knights out to do battle, and the winner would take the island. The night before the battle, the knights and their squires pitched camp and readied themselves for the fight. The first kingdom had 12 knights, and each knight had five squires, all of whom were busily polishing armor, brushing horses, and cooking food. The second kingdom had twenty knights, and each knight had 10 squires. Everyone at that camp was also busy preparing for battle. At the camp of the third kingdom, there was only one knight, with his squire. This squire took a large pot and hung it from a looped rope in a tall tree. He busied himself preparing the meal, while the knight polished his own armor. When the hour of the battle came, the three kingdoms sent their squires out to fight (this was too trivial a matter for the knights to join in). The battle raged, and when the dust had cleared, the only person left was the lone squire from the third kingdom, having defeated the squires from the other two kingdoms, thus proving that the squire of the high pot and noose is equal to the sum of the squires of the other two sides.

Har har. There went 45 seconds of your life that you'll never get back. I guess this is one of the perks/occupational hazards of working at a place called the "Advanced Technology Center" that is chock full 'o engineers. (And scientists - I would be remiss to exclude the category into which reader Marc falls. Maybe he even posted it?)