Spoiler: A lot of Americans have died.

Via Boing Boing:

This animated map of coalition military fatalities during the Iraq war unfolds at ten frames per second. Each frame represents one day of the war. One dot marks each casualty site. A death begins as a white flash, then grows to a larger red dot, which turns black after 30 frames (days), fading at last to permanent grey.

Link: Iraq War Coalition Fatalities

The Tomorrow People

Does anyone else remember this show?

Or more specifically, the theme song. I guess it's a remake of a show from the 1970's, but it was on Nickelodeon in the 1990's and I loved the theme back then. It doesn't sound the greatest anymore, but it still brings back happy memories.

And the people could teleport!

Nickelodeon, by way of this show and The Secret World of Alex Mack (and Capri Sun commercials), are responsible for my desire to teleport and/or turn myself into a puddle of molten metal ("Why can't *I* have innate superpowers or be the hapless victim of a strange industrial accident that makes me cooler than everyone else [but I can't tell anyone else or I'll be the hapless victim of a secret government investigation/extermination... or be famous]?").

I constantly asked myself that very question many times in the '90's. I still do, but I'm coming to terms with the idea that maybe, just maybe I might be human like everyone else. But teleporting would save so much commute time. And turning into a shiny blob of liquid would come in so handy when I forget my keys and lock myself out of the house. Teleporting would work too, but the liquid metal thing looks cooler.

Please Help

So we just got a second-hand Evenflo Exersaucer Ultra, which it appears has been renamed the Exersaucer Mega? But I'm not sure about that.

Anyway, we can't figure out how to get the stupid thing to fold up. We used a plain old Exersaucer with Renaissance, so we're used to disassembling it to get it into our car, but it would be so much easier to just get this "new" one to fold. Does anyone know the trick?

Spore

This is old (GDC 2005), but this game looks really cool. I haven't watched the whole video, but what I've seen looks awesome. It's different from any other game I've ever played.

Kite Day

Today is official Kite Day and in celebration, we went to the park and flew a kite with a gazillion other kids and parents. More specifically, Renaissance got really bored really quickly, and I flew an awesome Barbie kite for a little while.

But like I said, there were other kids there, and one of them had a Dora ball, so she had fun.



And then we went to the playground and we're all tired now. It was pretty fun. Tonight I need carrot juice.

Sorry about all the Google videos...

...but not really.



I just keep finding so much cool stuff. Like this 45 minute speech by the dude who wrote How to Survive a Robot Uprising. The part where he reads sections from the book is a little dull, but the questions at the end are very good questions. I've honestly never seen a better question-and-answer session. Google employees are smart.

Memories

Revolution, you can't come soon enough. I promise, I'll train my children well. But seriously, you'd better get on the ball making Battletoads available for download. And, you know, launching the console.

Product Recall

I don't know how many, if any, parents read my blog, but if you do, I just came across these product recalls today. This is important because Renee and I almost bought one of these flashlights, and if you've been to Target in like the last year I'm sure they've caught your eye too (although fortunately the affected flashlights were only sold from November 2005 to December 2005... but that means they caught the holiday season just in time).

Source: Product recall: Little Tikes flashlights - Blogging Baby
Official Recall Site: Little Tikes Product Recall

I'm so proud.

Renaissance has only watched It's a Big, Big World and The History Channel today.

And if you're not deaf or you don't have a screaming child, you just don't understand how valuable closed captioning is.

Oh, and the Parmesan cheese... you can just ignore that. She was hungry.

Update: Shortly after taking this picture, I changed it to The Doodlebops. She appreciates it so much more now.

At least it keeps her off the streets...

(except for the part where she's playing in the middle of the street)



I'm not sure who did the music in this video, but it reminded me how much I miss Jamiroquai. I should find that CD.

Who says bluegrass is for sissies?

I love this band.