18 - The Plan Is Revealed

This was the banner ad at the top of a major news site that will remain nameless. I'm afraid to click on it, yet drawn to its terrible beauty.

The amount of symbolism crammed into this little block is simply amazing.

17 - Ink Saves

Let me tell you a story.

The man pictured above was a fat slob. You can see him in his fat-slob state, a grotesque mass of beer belly and body hair, on the left. For many years, he despaired of his flabby state. He yearned for the glistening, muscle-bound god of the beach within to be set free. Then, one day, when perusing through forgotten lore, he discovered a simple secret to getting ripped: A green dragon tattoo empowered with mystic script that would run up and down his arms.

Excited, he went straightaway to the nearest tattoo parlor and showed the ink artists the arcane pattern that he needed. They agreed, and a few painful hours later (for pain, dear reader, is weakness leaving the body) he sported his new tattoo. Sure enough, the sigil of the green dragon upon his flesh rewrote the truth about his soul written upon the World Page, changing its meaning from "overweight chump" to "svelte mountain of man-muscle". Within only four weeks, he was transformed: He beer belly shrank, he grew tight, enviable pecs and delts, and his body hair fell out as surely as if the most skilled of Brazilian wax artists had worked their magic upon him. He was a changed man, thanks to the simple secret of the magical dragon tattoo. You can see him on the right.

Or maybe the tattooed guy on the right and the flabby guy on the left are different people, and it's just another dishonest banner ad. I like my version better.

16 - Beams of Glory

Here's another gem of a banner ad. Maybe I'm a little behind the times, but I didn't know that lasers were the alternative to chemical teeth whitening. Expensive lasers, no less. Come to think of it, I don't know what the banner ad is selling. Maybe they're hawking cheap lasers, but I don't want to find out.

15 - A Case for Math Education

Here's an article that appeared in my university's student newspaper, and apparently others around the US. It's about how students need to pursue what they really love even if they see little profit from it at first. As admirable as that is, a little math review couldn't have hurt here.

On the other hand, if this is really falling under the aegis of prison reform, the author's program may have more problems than s/he thinks.

Digressions: Identity, Virtual Communities and Truth

Message redacted. Nothing to see here, folks.

14 - Its Six Mouths Sing Lament

This is an older one, but I still like it. Apparently the Internet can be anthropomorphic. But would I want to meet this avatar, this human embodiment of the Internet? What would it be like? Could it be that each of us are, on some way, its aspects? Inquiring minds don't want to know.

13 - Workin' In The Code Factory

Here's another rather interesting BBC article. It's about a teenager who exchanged his iPod for his father's original Walkman for a week and wrote observations about the differences. I was pleased at the quality of the writing; he obviously has some talent beyond his years.

Anyhow, I found this entertaining tidbit in the comments. Yes, the software for the iPod is made in a sweatshop. Underpaid, unedicated laborers in a nation we can't even pronounce (much less locate) toil fourteen hours a day to hammer together the software for your iPod. They stamp it in by hand in hot, dangerous working conditions under the lash of their corporate overlords. That has to be it. It couldn't possibly have been made by a team of professionals working in the jet-set offices of a major IT corporation or anything.