I think I smell a rat...

Thanks to WTF_Nature, I just learned about the Hero Rat program in Africa. Since 1996, the APOPO has been training giant pouch rats to detect landmines; and in 2004 they started training them to detect diseases like TB.



Apparently, I'm the type of person who finds giant rodents adorable; and after clicking over to the Adopt a Rat page, found myself donating to TB-sniffer rat, Kim. Sure, Chosen One was tempting and Allan had the cutest pictures, but all of the other rats had pages of effusive comments. All Kim had was:

Dear Kim,

i wisch I could fondle you someday!

Truly
Britta

Um... I'm guessing that's some sort of translational quirk. But what if it's not? I can't sit idly by and watch while a rat with my same name is subjected to sleazy come-ons.

It's bad enough that her job involves interaction with "sputum".

That's oddly specific

"Violent Documentaries" and "Suspenseful Sci-Fi & Fantasy from the 1980's"?


The new taste preferences on Netflix are weird. The intro page only gave me about 8 "tastes" to rate (Violent, Suspenseful, Romantic, Goofy), but the actual "Taste Preferences"-setting page has 24 different ones to rate. These things seem too weird and objective to really produce useable results. The provided examples are a clear indication that Netflix and I have wildly different definities of these things.

Ugh, I just can't... Patch Adams? Fuck you, Netflix, for reminding me that this abomination exists.

Yep, nothing says romance like hillbillies, dead guys, nautical disaster, whores, the mentally retarded, and Tom Hanks.

I wasn't going to say anything about this one, but Van Helsing? Really? I saw that piece of shit, and I must've gouged my eyes out too early to see the deep emotional subplot.
Also, how the hell is Top Gun listed under "romance", but not Eternal Sunshine? Oh, right, because these listings are nonsensical and useless.

This is where I'm calling total bullshit on these categories. They had the decency to stop listing Crash on every goddamn category, but three Nicholas Cage movies? Now I know they're just fucking around.

It was bad enough when I had to contend with their inexplicable genre-based recommendations, now when I log in I'm met with stuff like this:

Edit to add: I just noticed that in addition to the "tastes" and genres, you can set preferences for an endless number of other things, like "qualities" (which, inexplicably includes Bollywood), storylines, release dates, and all of the Netflix subgenres. One of these days, I'll try and manipulate it so it appears that I'm only interested in Gritty Zombie Blacksploitation Bollywood Tearjerkers that were released in the 1910's or 1980's about Post Apocalyptic Kung-Fu Whistleblowers and are based on Children's Books.
In all honesty, if that was a movie I'd watch the hell out of it.

Experience Aromatherapy as I stitch?

Hell no.

1. "Secret Perfume" sounds like some sort of scented douche. And, if you take away the embroidered towel, the promo pic looks like it's selling some sort of "feminine deodorant".

2. It seems like the scents would intermingle, and you'd have to pick colours based on what fragrances would compliment each other rather than what would be aesthetically pleasing.

3. My cross-stitch projects should have scents that reflect their nature. I don't think I've ever made anything that would be properly represented by synthetic strawberry or honeysuckle. E-mail me again when you start making thread that smells like cigarettes and scotch, DMC.

What would be the right scent for this bookmark?

After watching this video I assumed it was an elaborate joke

If you eat a lot of golfballs you need this toilet!
(thanks David Wain)

from RobHubel

Boo-urns for not being able to embed.

It's seriously ridiculous that anyone might think this will sell toilets. If you're flushing solid waste that's equivalent to 4 complete chess sets or 3.5 pounds of dry dog food, you've got bigger issues than your toilet.

The parent site looks legit, but I'm not convinced that this isn't some sort of elaborate joke.

You bitches made me miss the Daily Show

Dear McDonald's,

For the love of all that is good and decent in this world, stop showing that goddamn commercial with the singing fish. You missed the idiotic singing rubber fish craze by about 10 years. Yesterday I tripped and skinned my elbow diving to change the channel. Today I muted the television and forgot to un-mute until halfway through the Colbert Report.

Please stop airing this ad. The thought of anyone eating a McDonald's sandwich makes me want to vomit, and the song makes me want to buy a gun and blow out my brains.

For reals, just stop.

Sincerely,
Kjhymn

Grandma may not know what the hell Bluetooth is...

...but that doesn't mean she can't still walk around looking like a total douchebag.

Thank you, Loud 'n Clear



I know what all my bingo-playing lady friends are getting for their birthdays.

I can't believe I'm actually making a Velociraptor tag

Come on, Velociraptor needs a new pair of shoes.

Velociraptor Roulette

via MetaFilter

It's roulette of velociraptors that appears to utilize public Flickr accounts and occasionally makes no sense.

Sometimes when you win, you actually sort of lose:

What kind of sorry excuse for a velociraptor is this?

And, sometimes a loss is awesome:

I don't eat the cows, but I would eat that sandwich.

Previously in Velociraptor-based games: The velociraptor game inexplicably linked to an actual bunk-bed store.