James’s Blog

Do’s and don’ts:

These are from a book.

This seems a bit over the top to be a real recruitment clip, but contains a rare bilingual double entendre: Besides the obvious innuendo in English, maritime self-defense force in Mandarin sounds exactly the same as maritime masturbation force.

I was surprised to hear from the BBC article about the Finnish school shooting that Finland has the third highest rate of gun ownership in the world, with 56 guns for every 100 people. I also wondered what the U.S. stats are like. So I dug around the Small Arms Survey’s annual report, and found the following chart:

That’s almost one gun for everybody! The chart came from the Chapter 2 summary of the report, which contains more sobering statistics.

Well, thanks for clearing that up, Mr. A. Maybe it’s because they’re all killed when they are teens. I like how the crowd just laughed at his face.

(via AmericaBlog)

I came across a blog entry that linked to the following video that ranked the top ten Mario-themed games. Brings back nice memories.

Then I found this huge archive of Mario related ringtones. The updated Fever from Dr. Mario is quite fun.

A naughty phonetic transcription of a Dutch kids’ program.

The Times hid this in their Fashion & Style section, and I would never have clicked on it had there not been a picture of a smiling half-naked man, showering.

Anne Sherwood for The New York Times

It’s a slideshow of portable outdoor showers, with reviews. The lightest one, the Sea to Summit Pocket Shower, is only 4.25 ounces! I think that’s a purchase. And I should never have gone and looked for it because then I discovered that the all-too-useful Campsuds now comes in a Nalgene bottle!

Another slideshow about kayaks is also a good reference for the future.

There’s a change of policy when climbing Mt. Whitney: you must pack out your own poop. New York Times did an article about it, with a riveting video. There goes any chance of Carson climbing Mt. Whitney with me. I thought one only has to do this for glacier crossing and mountaineering, because of a lack of decomposition in that environment, but the trend is coming to backpacking. I only knew about these poop tubes, but apprarently the new Wag Bags work pretty well, and the rangers are handing them out to the hikers.

a Wag Bag in action

The videos prove that the butcher you appear, the queasier you feel about pooping in a bag and taking it with you:

Eww! No way!

No problem. Look.

Jim alerted me to this Tribune article about little-known spots in Chinatown. The summary:

• Alleged late night (after 10pm) cheap eats: Triple Crown, Mountain View and Happy Chef.
• The article goes into a deep discussion about Saint’s Alp, but everybody who knows me knows about that place already.
• Sunday Cafe, located at the basement of Three Happiness Restaurant, has karaoke. Private room is $25 an hour.
• Q-Spot is the place to play some pool. $6 for half an hour.

This reminds me that I hear there’s a vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown, but a quick search only turned up this place called Asian Cafe, which doesn’t have any other reviews anywhere. It’s time to do some legwork.

What’s with the theme of three? Someone ought to open a restaurant in Chinatown and name it Ménage à Trois. Three Happiness indeed.

Here is an example.

More here. (Via Andrew Sullivan.)