Tilt!

It's just like the Y2K bug, except really depressing!

The National Debt Clock in New York’s Times Square — first erected in 1989 when the debt was less than $3 trillion — cannot keep pace with the growing national debt, now at more than $10 trillion. NBC’s Brian Williams reported last night that “the debt has been piling up so fast lately they had to drop the dollar sign to make room for an extra digit.” A new clock with two extra digits will go up next year.

Securing the Stifler vote

The Internet has produced so many delightful little phenomenon in our popular culture.

Take URL's, for example.

Back when George Lucas was working on the first of the three prequels (and we were still under the impression that they might be worth a damn), some savvy online folks discovered that his company had registered a buttload of URL's that had new character names in them. It was their pre-emptive strike against cybersquatters, but it inadvertently revealed some details of the new film that people were clamoring for.

This practice still exists today. Not just for movies but for any sort of large enterprise. Like, say, presidential campaigns:

The GOP sure knows its base, you gotta hand it to them. A little digging by Govgap.com reveals that www.votefortheMILF.com links directly back to JohnMcCain.com, then on to Sarah Palin’s page and a video message.

The only investment port in a storm

Mrs. Mosley recently started working for a new company called Lender's Processing Services. As generic as that name sounds (and as confusing as her job can sound when she describes it to me), I can't help but be excited by it being name checked by Jim Cramer as the only safe investment during the current economic crisis:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=872296055

Sorry, it appears that Jim doesn't allow embedding. Despite his affection for constant movement (as evidenced by hiring a cameraman who can't stand still for three seconds), he's making sure his video stays in one spot, darnit.

Layin' pipe

In lieu of watching the debate, I'm tuning in to some of the live blogging. Here's the most interesting comment I've read so far (from Salon):

By the way, is anyone else watching CNN and absolutely fixated on their graph showing the real-time reaction of a group of uncommitted voters in Ohio? What I find really interesting is how high the numbers go whenever either candidate talks about energy independence. (Though, interestingly, it looked like women hated Palin's resurrection of the "Drill, baby drill" line, while men liked it.)

"Unhelpful, but f&cking funny."

This is why I tune into Zero Punctuation every week. Hi-larious:

Giancarlo Esposito Quote of the Month: October 2008

Not much time to work on this month's quote, so I'm going to the IMDb and grabbing it instead of seeing the actual movie.

Not that I was in a big hurry to see Nothing to Lose, a 1997 action-comedy starring Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence. From the evidence of the quotes, it would appear that Giancarlo's character, named Charlie Dunt, was pretty unlikable. If nothing else, it proves that his characters like to kick foreigners out of the driving seat of their own cars (see Night on Earth):

English Driver: Here, you blokes want a lift somewhere?

Charlie: Where you from?

English Driver: London.

Charlie: Me too!

English Driver: Really?

Charlie: Yeah!

English Driver: That's terrific! Hop in me car, let's go then. C'mon, jump in, let's go. Oh this is great.

Charlie: Hey would ya scoot over a smidgeon? [Shoves the English Driver out of the car and drives off]

Charlie: Sorry 'bout that! Cheers, mate! Ha ha ha ha!