Video: Humanoid Robot Petman Works Out



From Popular Science:

Everyone's favorite headless bipedal bot is back, just in time for Halloween. Petman won't be riding any horses around Sleepy Hollow, though - just showing off his moves on a treadmill. Boston Dynamics is developing Petman to test chemical protection clothing for the U.S. Army, and if he's joining the army, obviously he needs to get in shape.

Read more ....

Shiver My Timbers!

Last night at the Evening with OTH, there was talk about Austin not being handsome enough for the network, but handsome enough to make Joe Davola go gay for him. Of course in the season 9 highlights they show that handsome mug getting the beat down.

Later they asked what would you be if you weren't an actor. Austin's answer?
A pirate.

And on this day of make believe and hijinks you have to wonder what kind of pirate would he be?

Maybe he's talking the Hollywood pretty pirate?
Hey his long wig and Jake's hair accessories from PoP he's half way there.Yes, that is a hornpipe in my pocket and I am happy to see you.

Or it could be The 1979 Pittsburgh PiratesWe are Family!

Maybe he's a little nostalgic with childhood memories of the Princess Bride's Dread Pirate Roberts. Now who could his real life Buttercup be?

Or the Spongebob's Painty the Priate impressions that Jake does got to him. (Halloween M&M's to M&M)

Or the buck he keeps talking about being is a Buccaneer?Maybe he just loves the clothesWell blow me down.

Or like Black Bart the jewels and jewelry.
Or maybe he wants to be a literary pirate and little Treasure Island"They don’t call me Long John because my head is so big."

You know it's all about the Pirate booty and when you got it you got it.
This oneor this one?
And for a guy with a bourbon for a name, and a vodka for a "nic name" you have go for the trifecta of alcohol personae..... Captain Morgan.Avast, me proud beauty! Wanna know why my Roger is so Jolly?

But just could be that he loves
Jake and the Pirates

Here's to lots of sweets and not too many screams.
And if they ask, tell 'em Frank sent you.

photo credit: OTH-twitpic

Awkward Halloween Moments


Reposted from ReverendFun.com

Trick or Treat!


We put the baby we made into the pumpkin we grew.

When Pat Robertson Is the Moderate Among Conservatives

It would be no exaggeration to claim that the Republican Party is full of extremist ideologues. One clear example would be the fact that there have been times when people like former President-of-the-National-Rifle-Association-you'll-only-take-my-gun-from-my-cold-dead-hands-Charles-Heston have been the voice of reason among conservatives.

But just to prove how bat-shit insane the GOP is becoming, the person now urging them to tone down the crazy is none other than Pat "gays cause hurricanes" Robertson...



The 180 Club... love it :)

Monster Dash 1/2 Marathon

I almost didn't show up for the Monster Dash. My knees were injured earlier in the week during an ill-advised cram session of exercise, I knew for sure I couldn't run the whole distance, and I didn't fancy a 13-mile walk. But Jenna convinced me to go for it.

This was the biggest and best-organized race I've seen so far. The start was bananas. I completely failed to meet up with my coworkers due to the huge crowd of costumed runners. With over 4,000 participants it took me over 8 minutes just to reach the starting line after the gun went off! It was below freezing at the start, but I warmed up and stopped shivering after the first mile.

I started off jogging slow and easy. Hundreds of people passed me but I figured I was doing okay... until I saw a pacer with the sign reading, "3 hour goal." Time to commit! I picked up my pace and determined not to let that guy out of my sight. And I didn't, until around mile 7 when I passed him for good.

I chomped down on some Advil to help manage the pain in my knees. It was never unbearable. Whenever they started throbbing I would walk for a little bit, and by alternating running and walking I got through to the end. In fact, by around mile 10 I was feeling better than I had at that point in the Trail Loppet. I finished in well under three hours, a new personal record!

The race was a major production. There were several live bands along the route that helped me keep going. My favorite had to be the guys singing a cover of "the Doug Song" from The Hangover. And my pick for most interesting costume had to be the dude in the gold Speedo with the box on his head (don't watch this video, mom).



Even though I wasn't where I wanted to be physically and I could barely walk the next day, I accomplished my goals and had a great time. My parents even showed up to cheer me on. I would love to do it again next year!

Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is someone who has not been out for a long time, in fact they just came out this past week. A pro athlete and captain of his team, he made the courageous step at the age of justtwenty-two and early in his sports career. Today's Out Spotlight is Welsh rugby player Jed Hopper.

The 22-year-old back row rugby forward for Old Redcliffians Rugby club came out to family and friends earlier this year but hadn't come out publicly until last week.

Hooper played his first game for his hometown Bristol, England club at the age of six on a youth team, before he went on to Gloucester Academy. As young man he went on to play rugby for Hartpury, Cinderford and Newbury, returning to his hometown team two seasons ago.

He said he first became aware that he might be gay when he was 14. "Even then I had a bit of a hard man image because of my rugby, and that made me think 'no I'm not gay', but at the age of 15, in my heart of hearts, I was sure. At school, I didn't want to be with a girl and I couldn't be with a boy."

He, like many others have, grappled with his true identity. No one would ever know what the rough and tough rugby playing teen was going through, the anxiety from working through his sexuality identity and the turmoil of a leading a double life led him to drink into a stupor at different points over past 7 years. Hooper also admitted there short period when he cut himself, "because I thought I might be able to cut this out of me."

Known to speak as directly off the pitch as he does in his pre-match talks with his teammates, he had never spoken openly about his sexuality. Just a handful of people who knew after he told them at the beginning of 2011.

After meeting a guy who told him that he could not be with someone who was still in the closet he was spurred to come out.

"I met someone earlier this year who said he could not be with someone who was in the closet. That, basically, was the catalyst that I needed."

"Before that, I think I had already told about ten friends and their reaction was very positive so that gave me an inkling of what might happen. And I also thought if the crap really hits the fan then at least there are ten people on my side!"

Despite his decision to come out , it wasn't that easy to carry out. Even with the support of those who already knew he still agonized over it.

"I was never going to do it bit by bit, that would have been too drawn out, so I decided to text everyone and also put it on Facebook.

"I was horribly nervous. I wrote and rewrote the text four or five times, and I had my finger on the 'send' button for ages before I finally pushed it.

"The text basically said something along the lines that 'I've been hiding it and fighting it for too long, and I can't hide any more. If you can accept me this way then great ... and if you can't then I don't need you and you can get lost!'

"I then cried my eyes out as I was thinking to myself 'what have you done?, but very quickly I must have had 40 replies and all of them were positive."

He said as soon as he made the announcement it he felt relief. "A massive weight came off my shoulders. If I couldn't accept myself the way I am, how could I expect my friends to?"

A team captain, who knows the honor and importance of the position, the Old Red's chairman as one of the first people he went to talk to after his announcement.

"I said that if the club doesn't want a gay man as its figurehead I would understand and step down. But he was brilliant and said 'you're our captain and this doesn't change anything'. That support was massive to me."

The club included their captain's announcement on their website. And it wasn't just the front office who was supportive but his teammates as well on and off the pitch.

In the clubhouse the traditional locker room dissin' and talk didn't stop it just took a bit of turn.

"No punches were pulled with questions from the rugby lads, that's for sure. I can't repeat some of the things I was asked, but I've always been someone who has been at the centre of any banter flying around, and the only thing that's changed is the type of banter."

Reaction to his news has been overwhelmingly positive among the community, the fans, and other players. Hooper said there has been only one comment said on the pitch, that he had to step in and stopping his teammates "from kicking things off" to defend him.

But don't look for him to change on the field, saying he might be a little less aggressive now that his anxiety of being in the closet is gone, but he's still the rough tough aggressive competitor he's always been. He's just a much nicer guy in the bar after the match.

His hope is that his story will help other young rugby players and others come to terms with their sexuality."If anyone is reading this and they're in the same situation as me, all I want to say is don't bottle things up because, trust me, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The world's not against you. If my story can help one person then this has been worth it."

...Farm living is the life for me....

Jake was wheeling and dealing last Wednesday, and it wasn't Soul Cycle, but food and that for Jake it is where his soul is-food, along with friends, and family and.... farming

Jake dusted off the fanciest duds he has for his East Coast adventure and did his best Rumplejakeskin for an evening event to raise money for the Edible Schoolyard program in NYC.

The host was fashion designer Lela Rose and her husband Brandon Jones who opened their TriBeCa loft to chef Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune restaurant (a Jake fav) and guests who each contributed a $1000 to the schoolyard program.

Jake's childhood friend designer Sophie Buhai was there as well.With a table that wowed the crowd, it almost compete with the food for the main attraction.

Starting off with radishes dipped in butter, the dinner moved on to Spanish mackerel poached in kalamata olive oil and braised duck legs with lentils, black chickpeas and chanterelles.

Jake took a few minutes to speak to the gathering that raised $120,000 and spoke to a couple of columnist inthe fashion world. What about? Food, family, friends and farming.

He spoke about how family dinners around the table were especially important to him, how they grew food in their garden and shopped at the Farmers Market.

"I got involved because the dinner table was always a place, since I was a young child, where we got to get together, and I actually got to know my family there more than any other place in the world. I grew up growing my own food in our family garden."

And while it was a little upscale in menu selections Jake brought back down to earth with talks about pizza.
"I love going to these schools and making kale pizza with the kids."

Jake talked about how important home gardens and farmers market played in his life and how he was a part of the slow food movement growing up without even knowing it.

"I didn't realize that I grew up in the slow food movement. I see children who didn't know any of these things—that they can grow their own food and learn about vegetables when they are at a primary level. It was everything to me, so I wanted to be involved. Since knowing about this organization, I've done everything I can."Talking more about ESY, he said:

“To me, this is a fiercely political topic, even though it seems like an easy one to actually put into practice. Even though an event like tonight’s might seem elitist, it is about incorporating one of the least expensive things you can do. It just takes time, attention and love, which oddly is an incredibly difficult thing for people to do in this world.”

A fashion reporter got a little one on one time with Jake and got a few more insights of the "the sexiest farmer alive". (Like maybe why he makes kale pizza with kids)

"I got involved because the dinner table was always a place, since I was a young child, where we got to get together, and I actually got to know my family there more than any other place in the world. I grew up growing my own food in our family garden. One of my best friends is a farmer. It's been a primary focus of my life. "

And the kale?

Asked what his favorite veggie is, he picks an Italian kale that some may know as black leaf kale.

"I'd say right now, after an extensive search over the years and living the wonderful life that I've had so far, and after tasting many, many vegetables...cavolo nero. It's like a really soft kale. You can eat it any form: cooked, raw..."

And going Green Acres from there it's about farming and one of his best buds Chris.
"I was raised in Los Angeles, but I spent my summers, since I was born, in Martha's Vineyard. My best friend, since we were little kids, lives there, and he's a farmer. His whole family farms. I know it might seem odd, but it's what I love more than anything. Being in gardens have been some of the most wonderful times of my life. Washing lettuce and watching things grow...you feel connected to the world. You'd be hard-pressed to find anything that connects you to the universe in the same way that planting a seed does."

And their follow up for the friend of farmers:

That's so sweet! And now you've got a beard like a real farmer.

Seeds of growth!

A programming note:
See Jake go au natural in a whole different way tonight at 8pm EDT when Love and Other Drugs premieres on HBO.

Tricked out of Treats

Get the coffeeGet something healthy for breakfast.It has pandas on it... it has to be healthy.

Yesss.. you went shopping....ohhh yeah ...Halloween candy here I come.........wait a minute!?!?!?
Ohh come on... I got you coffee and ate the panda cereal, why can't I have a Snickers? Kale is not a snack.

Happy Austin Friday

To The Xinhai Revolution, 1796-1911

When Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) became the first Provisional President of China in December 1911, it marked a watershed moment in the history of Asia. After 257 years, the Qing Dynasty was nearing its end. By revisiting its history, it is possible to not only gain insight into the Chinese past but also to shed light on how and why elitist-run states fall.
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The Rise and Early Trials of The Qing Dynasty
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Following in the footsteps of his father, who had expanded his influence from his power-base in modern northeastern China, Hong Taiji (1592-1643) waged a successful insurgency against the Ming Dynasty and died one year before the collapse of its 276-year reign. Before his death, Taiji had bequeathed a new name for his Jurchen people - the 'Manchu.' In 1644, the Manchu took power, and the Qing Dynasty was born.
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After slowly but surely consolidating their power over the next century and a half, the Qing faced their first significant domestic challenge in the White Lotus Rebellion of 1796. Similar to the Whiskey Rebellion in the United States (Pennsylvania) two years earlier, the cause of the Chinese uprising was also over taxes. Due to being subject to oppressive taxation by Manchu rulers in Beijing (the capital), near-indigent people living in mountainous areas joined together first in protest and subsequently in open revolt. Through military measures and strategic offers of amnesty to members of the rebellion, the Qing managed to divide, conquer and defeat the insurrection.
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In the early nineteenth century, several European nations were in the process of building global empires, and China was becoming an increasingly important trading partner for both Britain and France. A typical exchange involved Chinese silk, ceramics and tea for silver European currency. Approaching mid-century, however, London was becoming concerned with the amount of silver leaving the country in the form of hard coin - as silver was a key component of the British monetary system. To allow the treasury to retain its silver reserves, the British decided to pay for Chinese goods with a new form of money - opium. After a few years of permitting the new means of exchange, the Qing attempted to prohibit opium and the opium trade altogether in order to curb its ruinous effects on society in 1838. Almost immediately, Britain accused Beijing of reneging on trade agreements and declared war. When the First Opium War ended in 1842, the Qing Dynasty was essentially forced to surrender part of its sovereignty and allow the opium trade. Despite its defeat at the hands of the superior British navy, however, the Qing Dynasty managed to remain in power.
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Less than a decade later, the Qing entered the most traumatic era of its rule. In 1850, Hong Xiuquan, a 36-year old failed scholar and Christian convert, launched a rebellion composed of disaffected peoples in southeastern China. Under minority Manchu rule, the majority Han Chinese quickly flocked to Xiuquan (a Han). In only one year, Xiuquan, who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus of Nazareth, controlled a significant portion of southern China and proclaimed his new political entity the 'Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.' From its capital of Nanjing, Taiping leaders waged total war against the Qing, and Beijing responded in kind. For six years, an all-out conflict raged. Each side sought to destroy opposing forces and lay waste to the resources needed to carry out the war (i.e. crops for foodstuffs).
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In 1856, the Qing was beset with yet another crisis - simultaneous to the Taiping Rebellion. On the pretext of a wrongful seizure of a British-registered vessel, London again declared war (The Second Opium War) on the Qing in order to gain unlimited trade access for its merchants. For four years, the Qing endured a series of British attacks before succumbing to an Anglo-French invasion in 1860. In their victory, the British and the French secured full rights for Christians, the legalization of opium and commercial hegemony. One more humiliation for the Manchu rulers ensued. Knowing the Qing were virtually powerless to resist, Russian diplomats forced Beijing into handing over northern Manchuria. Amazingly, neither the civil war nor foreign invasions were able to topple the Manchu rulers. In an unexpected turn of events, a woman, who had been a concubine at the imperial court, made a sudden and improbable rise to power.
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The Second Ascendancy of The Qing Dynasty, 1861-1894
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When Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) became co-regent upon the death of Xianfeng Emperor in 1861, the armies of the Qing had been soundly defeated by Britain and France, and Hong Xiuquan, the Taiping leader, still controlled the southeast. Shrewdly, Cixi reached out to the disaffected Han Chinese. By appointing them to meaningful positions in the military and in the bureaucracy, she eliminated one of the reasons for their disaffection (a lack of economic and social mobility) and thus gained additional allies to mount a final campaign in 1864 to crush the Taiping Rebellion. The Dowager, however, was a conservative at heart, and she continuously opposed attempts to modernize China for much of the remainder of her regency.
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In order to defend the country from potential future attacks by European imperial powers, several Beijing officials promoted a 'Self-Strengthening Movement' whereby China would modernize its military along Western lines. This effort during the 1860s, however, proved to be wholly insufficient. After Meiji Japan (1868-1912), which had embarked on an ambitious model of Western reform to obviate Western commercial and military hegemony, defeated China over control of the Korean Peninsula in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), another attempt at reform by progressive-thinking Chinese officials occurred in 1898. Due to strong conservative opposition (including Cixi), the agenda of the 'Hundred Days Reform' -as it came to be termed - went unrealized.
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The Decline and Fall of The Qing, 1895-1911
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At the turn of the century, European imperialism was at its zenith. Africa had been carved up by the European powers at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, London, Paris and Saint Petersburg had made inroads into the Middle East, and China remained powerless to European thrusts for influence over its people, territory and economy. After witnessing its homeland divided into 'spheres of influence,' a group of radicalized Chinese peasants, known as 'Boxers' (the Righteous Harmony Society), rose up in indignation and laid siege to Western emissaries in their diplomatic compounds over the summer of 1900. Day after day, people around the world awaited news on whether the trapped diplomats could survive being cut off from supplies and contact with the outside world. As Christians in China had been murdered by enraged peasants from time to time due to being culturally and economically threatened, a wholesale massacre was indeed possible. After nearly two months, the first multilateral military operation in history, consisting of eight nations - Japan, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and the United States - marched a combined expeditionary force to Beijing and rescued the diplomats. While the Qing were required to pay an indemnity rather than surrender territory for its role and inability to control the Boxers (the Dowager had secretly encouraged their revolt), the Manchu dynasty, which had recently been defeated by Japan for the first time in their history, was clearly losing its legitimacy in the eyes of the Chinese people.
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During the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), a number of revolutionaries founded the Revive China Society in Honolulu, Hawaii (USA). Its leader, Sun Yat-sen, was a 28 year-old medical doctor with a mission to end Qing rule. Other reform and revolutionary-minded organizations also blossomed - putting pressure on Beijing to enact meaningful reform. One year after the Boxer Rebellion in 1901, the Empress Dowager announced a relatively comprehensive reform plan which included the abolition of the imperial exams (the ones Taiping rebel-leader Hong Xiuquan failed - as ninety-five percent of all imperial exam-takers failed) and the creation of a national education system. In sending students overseas to study and experience living in more democratic and prosperous nations, the Qing unwittingly contributed to its downfall. Returning Chinese students from Europe and elsewhere had become more conscious of Qing corruption and repression. As a result, a new generation of middle-class intellectuals, along with large segment of discontented peasants, banded together under Sun Yat-sen's three principles - 'Nationalism, Democracy and Social Welfare' - to battle Qing forces for control of the nation.
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When the people of Wuchang (Hubei Province) discovered Qing plans to take over privately-held railways from Chinese investors in order to repay foreign debts - debts owed largely to the very European countries that had exacted reparations from Beijing after the Boxer Rebellion ten years earlier, a revolt ensued on 10 October 1911 in which the Qing were denounced for betraying the nation. The Xinhai Revolution had begun. Of all places, Sun Yat-sen, who was on a campaign to raise money for his cause, heard of the rebellion in Denver, Colorado (USA) - and quickly returned to China. Four short months later, the Qing Dynasty fell, and the imperial era of Chinese history, which had run from the founding of the Qin Dynasty in 221BC, came to a close after more than 2,000 years.
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The Xinhai Revolution and The Twenty-First Century
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The Qing Dynasty proved to be remarkably tenacious. It managed to survive numerous foreign invasions and domestic insurrections. Yet, the timelessly wise statement "Character is destiny," which was uttered by Heraclitus (535-475BC) in the days of Ancient Greece, sums up the fate of the Qing. Due to its character as an elite ruling class bent on maintaining power through repression, violence and intimidation, the Qing Dynasty had sown the seeds of its own destruction long before 1911. Although years, decades - or in the case of the Qing - centuries may be needed to overthrow tyrannical governments, courageous people, who stand united in pursuit of human rights, democracy and economic security for themselves and for future generations, ultimately receive justice and achieve victory in the end.
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(Photo: The flag of the Wuchang Uprising - 1911).
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J Roquen

Science - What's It Up To?

Science claims to be looking for cures for diseases, save the planet from the multiple dangers that threaten it, and to want to solve and understand the mysteries of the universe, but Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, sat down with a conservative conspiracy theorist bimbo to try to uncover what science is really up to... and discovers instead that you can't underestimate how bat-shit-insane and idiotic you can be when you let your retarded ideology determine the shit that comes out of your mouth...



Wow... and I thought Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann were idiots...

Back to the House

When Destiny pointed out how she had completely forgotten about House of Usher, it sounds like it's time to go home again.

Back in the Spring of 2005, Austin came east to Massachusetts to shoot House of Usher.

It's the retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.
Austin played Roderick "Rick" Usher contacts his former lover Jill Masters (Izabella Miko) after three years, when her best friend, Madeline "Maddy" Usher, and Rick's twin sister suddenly passes away. Maddy's last wish was for Jill to attend the funeral. Conflicted, Jill returns to the Usher family home to fulfill Maddy's wish and during her stay rekindles her affair with Rick.She learns Rick suffers from the same disease that robbed his twin sister, of her sharp mind and ultimately her life.

The illness is a rare nerve condition, which makes Rick hypersensitive. He is under the very careful watchful and controlling eye of the caretaker, Nurse Thatcher (Beth Grant). Staying on at the Usher's, Jill seems to be haunted by the ghost of her best friend and finds out that she is pregnancy with Rick's child.She also discovers the Usher family secret....On a limited budget it allowed for just 16 days of shoot and an unusual location stood in for the Usher home. It was the Sea View nursing home in Rowley, MA that served as the house and the cast and crew work in unused areas of the building, and on off hours when the residents were sleeping.
They also got the opportunity to shoot a more few scenes in the coast town of Newburyport as in Danvers, MA.

The Sea View was perfect for a horror movie because of its age, size, and grounds and the owner of the nursing home agreed to donate the location for the film. He welcomed the activity that the film brought to his residents.The nursing home's basement and attic were used. Storage spaces were turned into the bedrooms with peeling paint and aging wallpaper. The greenhouse, and secret passage discovered in the house nursing home was incorporated into the story.

Twisted and dark, it's Austin like you haven't seen before.

One more thing: Austin talked about the People's Choice Awards. You think he voted for someone else when he was writing in his name in the TV category?