Since he came up in a discussion recently, I thought I would share with you all the man known to some as Kingpin, to others as Bill Berry, but to the world mostly known as Billy The Fridge. Bill was a guy I met through wrestling and it turns out he’s kind of a big deal in the Seattle underground hip-hop community. He mixes serious rhymes with humor and the occasional wrestling reference. He’s not afraid to make light of himself in his songs either, and overall he’s a very amusing person to hang out with and listen to as well.

Here’s a link to his myspace page as well as his own website. And now here’s some visual amusement for you:

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On this date, May 31, 1945, The last of 18,188 B-24 Liberators and Liberator variants is delivered. This workhorse was produced in larger quantities than any other American aircraft-was employed in more operational fronts than any other Allied or enemy bomber in WWII.

My colleagues Mike and Su may be able to benefit greatly from this news article released Wednesday. According to a recent study, moderate-intensity exercisers who worked out for less than an hour per day will have “…little impact on 24-hour fat oxidation,” Edward Melanson, PhD says. What that means? Well, check out the article, you’ll be thrilled to know that it actually is much more challenging than it originally appeared to burn fat off. The reason is that the moment you replace those calories, you have to start aaalllll over again.

“To maintain their low body fat, endurance-trained exercisers may simply eat less fat than they burn habitually”, Melanson says.

In other words, people who are overweight AND live sedentary lifestyles can work out at a moderate pace, doing things such as walking or even riding a bicycle and get a great benefit from it, HOWEVER, they must take in less fat than they consume. It’s as simple as that!

On another, more personal note, I ran a mile in 7:57 today. This highlights an extraordinary effort on my part and the parts of the physical therapists I work with to recover from a torn ACL I suffered on January 12, 2009. It has been 4 months to the day since I had surgery on January 29th, 2009, and within 2 months or so I will be ready to challenge the world in peak physical form (knock on wood). This goes to show that anyone can fail, but it takes determination and perseverence to move forward and get back to doing what you do best. Don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re not good enough or that you should stop doing what you love, unless it’s eating babies and any other socially immoral activity. Eric I’m looking at you.

Quoting former MLB player Branch Rickey:

Problems are the price you pay for progress.

And with that, I bid you good health and ADIEU.

I thought this would be appropriate given Mike’s recent post on loanwords. This is on the cover of the most recent issue of the New Haven Advocate:

Here’s a link to the article explaining why they did it. Here’s a snippet:

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In my first post, I defined “Corporate-Ware (CorpWare)” as “a gaming product which seeks to extract as much profit as possible at the expense of effort or quality.” I illustrated this in my first post using sports games as an example: how you could churn out the same game every year and somehow still get money.

I ended the post with:

Guaranteed money? Milking a franchise? Cha-ching! Where else have we seen something like this….something sort of like updating the same game…

If you haven’t figured out from the title, I’m referring to expansion packs. In this post, I’ll use “The Sims” series as my target. Here’s a pretty funny picture showing all games related to the series (click for bigger version) which puts “Street Fighter 2″ to shame:

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I want to separate the concept of a “regular” expansion pack versus one released as CorpWare. Keeping in line with my previous post, I’ll use Pong as an example:

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The Science News Cycle, via Mark Liberman.  Followup here.

Better than southern fried chicken?  At the Atlantic’s food channel.  Recipe included, but I’ll only believe it if I ever get to try it in Bangkok.  Hat tip Craig Newmark.

Markets in Everything: Rent-a-punks.  Read the comment too.

I think it was Trent Reznor who said iTunes is like the Sam Goody of online music.  (snowcloned!)  If thats the case, then Mark Underground’s blog Down Underground is one of the best local independent record “stores” on the web.  Check him out.

A few months ago, or were it years, I was searching about the interwebs looking for information about the band that we all know and love, The Misfits. For those unacquainted “The Misfits” is a Horror Punk band that was started in 1977 by Glenn Danzig. The band went on to have moderate fame in the late seventies and early eighties before breaking up. They were reformed in the mid nineties (95/96) by Bassist Jerry Only and Guitarist Doyle after a long legal battle with Danzig. Now with a new drummer and singer, Dr. Chud and Michale Graves respectively, they went on to become more mainstream, but still failed to really ever be anything more than a cult hit. They eventually broke up again, with all the members going their own ways this time.  Jerry continued with The Misfits, with mixed reviews, Chud formed his own band (Dr. Chud’s X-Ward), Graves went solo and now does all acoustic stuff, including old misfits tunes, and Doyle created his own band as well, Gorgeous Frankenstein. All four members still write horror based music and have all had moderate success, but nothing beyond cult status.

So, to the point. I had heard some of Gorgeous Frankenstein, but I honestly wasn’t very impressed, until one day I stumbled upon a video on Youtube of Gorgeous Frankenstein playing “Dig up her Bones”,  a favorite from the Graves era of the Misfits.  At first I was skeptical, but was quickly turned as the vocals were surprisingly good! I had no idea who the vocalist was so I looked it up, and low and behold is was Argyle Goolsby. I had no idea who he was, but he seemed pretty talented, he sung well and played bass at the same time.

This led me to find an interview with Doyle and Goolsby on Youtube where Goolsby mentioned that he was the front man for a band called Blitzkid.  So, I looked up Blitzkid, and to my great surprise, they were completely awesome.

Now for some info on the band. Taken from the band’s myspace.

Blitzkid is one of the premiere horror rock bands of the new millennium. They began in Bluefield, WV in the winter of 1997. They have toured consistently all over the US and overseas. The band is headed up by TB Monstrosity(guitars/vokills) and Argyle Goolsby(bass/vokills). In the time they have been a band, they have garnered critical underground acclaim for their tireless work ethic, consistent, ever evolving album output and dedication to giving their audience the respect they deserve through providing great songs and energetic live shows. The band has a prodigious and Herculean following in the states as well as Europe, and have shared the stage, in some cases regularly, with such notable acts as Agent Orange, the Damned, Leftover Crack, the Misfits, the Rezurex, Bella Morte, Mad Sin, the Exploited, Ignite and the Casualties. Blitzkid have also been a part of many of the biggest festivals in Europe including Mera Luna, Rock My Ass, Endless Summer and even the predominantly metal/hardcore festival Summer Breeze, where they shared the stage with Dark Tranquility and Soulfy in the summer of 2007 in front of over 20,000 people. They are booked by Weird World Entertainment in Europe, and managed overseas by D-Tour booking. They are booked exclusively by Thunderdome Touring in North America. The band has a label home based out of Koln, Germany in Fiend Force Records and remain one of the top selling acts on the label since they began their tenure there in 2004. The band has released material consistently since 1999, and in that time, have released six full length albums, two split vinyl EPs, and a live DVD.

I have been listening to this band for a while now, and I really dig them. They remind me of the Graves era misfits. It’s a shame that bands like this go under the radar for so long. I hope that one day they get the success that they deserve.

You can listen to a bunch of their songs on their myspace. http://www.myspace.com/blitzkid

I am particularly fond of Mary and the Storm. This band has been a large influence on my band “The Theatre Zombies”, and we cover some of their songs.

Economists and pundits, even President Obama are warning us that government debt is getting out of control.  We’re “out of money” Obama said on C-SPAN, and John Taylor is worried that S&P will downgrade the government’s credit rating.

What they all have in common is that they fail to realize where money comes from.  There is no financial constraint on a government that issues a nonconvertible, floating currency like the US dollar.  Credit ratings are based on the ability of the borrower to pay the money back.  If you could print your own money, what do you think your credit rating should be?  Come on, paper money really does grow on trees!

The constraint is political.  The government can only choose to run out of money.  It can only choose default on its payments, like it did in 1995.

This talk about solvency and how much money the government has ignores the real economic factors that their actions influence.  Inflation, interest rates, capital and labor employment among them.

Apparently, it wasn’t illegal. Until now:

From “State Senate Passes Bill To Prohibit Open Containers Of Alcohol On The Road”:

Many state drivers wrongly assume that it’s illegal to have an open bottle of beer in a car.

But the state Senate took the first step Tuesday toward changing that and making Connecticut one of at least 40 states to ban “open alcoholic beverage containers” in motor vehicles.

Senators unanimously approved a bill making it an infraction for anyone to have an open container of an alcoholic beverage in the driver or passenger seats of a vehicle on Connecticut roads. But, in one of several compromise moves, police would not be permitted to pull someone over for an open container violation alone.

A fine of $90 for the first violation, $200 for a second and $500 for any subsequent violation would be levied against the driver of a car in which anyone has an open alcoholic beverage container. Exempted would be limousines, taxis, motor homes and tailgate parties in parked cars.

No problem guys, we can still drink in the parking lot of punk shows:

A key compromise is that vehicles parked on city or town streets would be excluded from the law. Some urban lawmakers said that in their districts, where there is less wealth and property, people might socialize and drink in cars parked in front of someone’s home.