For more on the show, here’s a weirdly ambivalent interview with Joss.

For a peek at the show, here is the first Dollhouse trailer to hit the Internet. From what I can see, Tom Lenk (Andrew from Buffy) and Tahmoh Penikett (Helo from BSG) are also taking part.

Speaking of Buffy, check out these insanely overpriced Buffy LEGO figures.

Here’s some fun stuff for you!

If I may flash back to Japan for a moment, I’ll share that one of the exercises we did with our high school students in the EFL classroom was part of a unit on inventions (the vocabulary of devices and technology, grammar skills for sequencing, giving instructions, and advanced description of objects). The major project in the unit was devising and presenting an invention. One approach was to make the invention a serious and useful one; some of my fellow teachers and I, however, liked to try to make it fun by requesting Rube Goldberg devices.

Now that I know they had Pythagoras Switch (thanks to a VC commenter) on TV, I know I should have asked them to build ‘em, too!

The slogan you hear in each segment of this (and the katakana writing on the signs) says “pitagorasu suiichi”–the pronunciation in Japanese morae of “Pythagoras Switch” with, I think, added musical and rhythmic emphasis to make “ichi” at the end sound like the Japanese for the number one, or “ichi.” That would be a pretty typical Japanese bilingual word play.

Enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day! Extra thanks to those abroad, those who have been abroad, those who may be sent abroad, and those at home. With gratitude to a God who has worked by them, and by others we remember–or commemorate unknowing–to make a space in history for His Word to be freely spoken, and in which we have flourished.

(YouTube I Will Derive!)

Now, if you’re looking for something serious to read while you play all these vids in another window/tab, here’s a fascinating article (HT: PowerLine) about Peter Seeger, “America’s Most Successful Communist.” It is long, but first-rate. Really worth the read.

But along with that, I really have to recommend that you indulge some subversion of a more modest sort–an end-of-semester, out-of-school special. Keep clicking the “related” links, and enjoy such marvels as “Can’t Graph This” the Calculus supersmash hit “My Humps.” (a funny G-rated version of an impossibly irritating song.)

And if you’re ever in Lancashire, you might just spot the lawnmower of Diana Princess of Wales and learn the origins of crucial lawncare phrases such as “Shank’s Pony” and “Crickets In the Slips.” The British Lawnmower Museum also features a 2″ lawnmower and video of some of the world’s fastest lawnmowers. And remember kids — “When the growing gets rough, the tough get mowing!”

Talking with my buddy Frank today, he pointed out that Carville even more closely resembles Voldemort — both in his looks and his approach to power struggles.

To check out the specs on the Veyron, pop over to the Bugatti homepage. Also, here’s the Veyron 16.4 configurator where you can pick out your post-Powerball paint job and interior for your Bugatti.

Here’s a Men’s Vogue review of the Veyron:

“So let’s look at some of the car’s signature numbers: zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds; zero to 253 mph in a mind-bending 53 seconds; and in a panic braking maneuver, 253 mph to zero in 10 seconds. Imagine a Japanese bullet train pulling into the station at top speed. “My philosophy is that you should be able to brake better than you can accelerate,” Schreiber says.

Beats the hell out of existentialism.”

Indeed. Last of all, check out this Top Gear test drive of the machine. To borrow a line from Jimmy Carter, it puts lust in my heart.

Gizmodo reviews a do-it-yourself kit for those nasty picket-fence sieges: Weapons: Home Trebuchet Kit, a Few Feet Short of Perfection

NOVA has a guide to siege engines and the Medieval Arms Race, complete with slideshow of efforts to build their own trebuchet at Loch Ness!

Got territory disputes down on the cubefarm? Fight like Dogbert and Catbert with trebuchet kits designed for Desktop Warfare (see video).

Or you could prove you’re a crunchy urban warrior by accepting the Do-It-Yourself office arms race challenge.

UPDATE: TLMA is right (in comments on the first Trebuchet post). This one has some extra awesome awesomeness–look at the HEIGHT of that hurling!

(more…)

But Americans won’t be left behind in the trebuchet arms race. Here’s an All-American flaming-piano-launching trebuchet.

Politics and Foreign Policy

TruePravda reports on the wacky world of Lukashenko’s Belarus.

Obama plans to declare victory on May 20th, because he’ll have a majority of pledged delegates absent those of MI and FL. Hillary will refuse to acknowledge his win. Is anyone else thinking of Monty Python’s Black Knight right now?

“Senate Republicans have introduced…The American Energy Production Act” which would “allow access (to) 24 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply America for 5 years with no foreign imports. It would also provide for authorization to explore for American oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).” Given current gas prices, if McCain has any sense he’ll bludgeon Democrats with their refusal to allow careful drilling in our national Strategic Caribou Reserve.

IMAO ponders Fox News and media bias.

An interesting thought from Chris Hitchens: “As far as I can calculate it, though, Mrs Clinton can carry all the next five states AND Puerto Rico and still not get an arithmetical majority. Nonetheless, she continues to act as if she knows something that the rest of us do not. And I can tell you that it spooks the Obama campaign.” HT: Conservative Grapevine

Yesterday, President Ahmadinejad of Iran wished the “stinking corpse” of Israel a happy 60th birthday and called for its annihilation. What a shmendrik.

Society and Culture

Some naval history (plus video!) from Walk Thru History.

The new Evangelical Manifesto spearheaded by Os Guinness is making some noise in the Christian blogosphere. Our pal Jared at Thinklings shares a few thoughts. Joe Carter, over at Evangelical Outpost, is a signatory of the document.

Big news from the world of literature — Dmitri Nabokov, son of the late Vladimir, has finally reached a decision on his father’s unpublished manuscript, Laura. Contrary to his father’s wishes, Dmitri has decided to publish the unfinished novel. No word yet on publishers or timetables, but the approximate length is 100 pages.