Geek vs. Nerd vs. Dork

We all look down on dorks

My new title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: His Exalted Highness Duke Andrew the Sardonic of New Scagglethorpe Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

40 Strangest Board Games Released in 2006

This article lists the 40 Strangest Board Games Released in 2006 with links to BoardGameGeek which has become the authoritative source of information for board games. Some of these may be jokes, like this Disco Inferno game.

Rocky

When Rocky III came out I went to see the first three Rocky movies in one marathon session. By all accounts the new Rocky is OK. Here, Slate decodes the best part of the Rocky films, the montages.

In the first two Rocky films, the training montage functioned as a plotless, mid-movie pick-me-up. By Rocky III, it's a cinematic Swiss Army knife—a plot accelerator, a moral scorecard, and an infomercial for the Sylvester Stallone full-body workout.

Most played tunes of 2006

Statistics don't lie, and here are my most played new tunes of 2006. Actually this is since February which is bad news for Girls Aloud as I played Chemistry a lot in January.

Rank	Title	Artist	Album
1	Knock 'Em Out	Lily Allen	Alright, Still
2	Catherine	Eddie Van Halen	Sacred Sin soundtrack
3	9 Milli Bros. [Feat. Wu-Tang Clan]	Ghostface Killah	Fishscale
4	LDN	Lily Allen	Alright, Still
5	Christian Dior	Morrissey	In the Future When All's Well - EP
6	You Have Killed Me	Morrissey	Ringleader Of The Tormentors
7	I Just Want to See The Boy Happy	Morrissey	Ringleader Of The Tormentors
8	Jams Run Free	Sonic Youth	Rather Ripped
9	Rats	Sonic Youth	Rather Ripped
10	Pink Steam	Sonic Youth	Rather Ripped
11	Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured	Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
12	Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But...	Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
13	From The Ritz To The Rubble	Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
14	A Certain Romance	Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
15	Reggae Turca Tone	Ayhan Sicimoglu	Beyond Istanbul: Underground Grooves of Turkey
16	Rise	Eddie Van Halen	Sacred Sin soundtrack
17	Shakey Dog	Ghostface Killah	Fishscale
18	The Champ	Ghostface Killah	Fishscale
19	Beauty Jackson	Ghostface Killah	Fishscale
20	Columbus Exchange [Skit] / Crack Spot	Ghostface Killah	Fishscale

Top oldies of the year

Statistics don't lie and the iTunes play counts reveal all sorts of interesting things. Here are the top twenty most played tunes that were not released this year.

Rank	Title	Artist	Album
1	Lewis Boogie	Jerry Lee Lewis	Live At The Star Club - Hamburg
2	Deep Six	Big Black	Racer-X
3	St. Stephen	Grateful Dead	Complete Fillmore West 1969
4	Money	Jerry Lee Lewis	Live At The Star Club - Hamburg
5	Starless	King Crimson	Live in Asbury Park, NJ Jun 28, 1974
6	Theme for Great Cities	Simple Minds	Sons and Fascination (Includes Sister Feelings Call)
7	Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)	Stevie Wonder	Looking Back
8	Tatas-Matoes	Art Ensemble Of Chicago	1967 - 68
9	E=MC^2	Big Audio Dynamite	Super hits
10	Sweet Leaf	Black Sabbath	Live At Last
11	Guess I'm Dumb	Glen Campbell	Pet Projects - The Brian Wilson Productions
12	The Eleven	Grateful Dead	Complete Fillmore West 1969
13	Isolation	Iggy Pop	Blah Blah Blah
14	High School Confidential	Jerry Lee Lewis	Live At The Star Club - Hamburg
15	Dagenham Dave	Morrissey	Southpaw Grammar
16	All the Way from Memphis	Mott the Hoople	The Ballad of Mott: A Retrospective
17	Roll Away the Stone	Mott the Hoople	The Ballad of Mott: A Retrospective
18	Riding To Vanity Fair	Paul McCartney	Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
19	Something that I said	The Ruts	The Peel Sessions
20	This Fear Of Gods	Simple Minds	Empires And Dance

What does it all mean? The Jerry Lee Lewis album is one of the best live albums ever. Simple Minds were good once. The Grateful Dead are great despite their fans. The rest are just great tunes. I have to say though that the King Crimson track is just perfect. It's 15 minutes long so it did very well to get so high in the chart.

MTV pwns Guitar Hero

I'm a bit disappointed to realise that MTV now owns Guitar Hero. They "have all kinds of ideas for expanding the experience into television shows" :-(

The Detroit Tigers got worried about the performance of their star reliever Joel Zumaya during the American League Championship Series when he was afflicted with wrist and forearm inflammation, until they learned it did not come from his pitching motion but from playing too many hours of Guitar Hero.

Guitar Hero 2 Rush YYZ on Expert

Guitar Hero is a game for the PS2 where you get to be a rock star.

Reality problems

Go to this BBC story about how many Russian leaders either have been or still are members of the security services. Scroll down to see the picture of Putin touring a new defence intelligence HQ in Moscow, and observe that there is a huge bat logo on the floor.

Update: added the logo of the GRU.

Christian Dior

You can tell when a band or person is in the zone because even their b-sides (OK, extra tracks) are great. Some of Oasis's best songs are b-sides. The new Morrissey single has only one new track, but what a corker! Christian Dior is just a fabulous song.

Christian Dior
You wasted your life
Sensually stroking the weaves of a sleeve.

You could have run wild
On the backstreets of Lyon or Marseille
Reckless and legless and stoned
Impregnating women
Or kissing mad street boys from Napoli
Who couldn't even spell their own name

I was over the Zune

Star Microsoft blogger Micha Kaplan writes about internationalization and localization. His blog has features like unicode character of the day. He is a bit disappointed when he tries to play his songs with non-English titles. Even Microsoft is not a monolithic organization.

I am Death

You are Death

Change, Transformation, Alteration.

People fear this card, but if you want to change your life, this is one of the best indicators for it. Whatever happens, life will be different. Yes, the Death card can signal a death in the right circumstances (a question about a very sick or old relative, for example), but unlike its dramatic presentation in the movies, the Death card is far more likely to signal transformation, passage, change. Scorpio, the sign of this card, has three forms: scorpion, serpent, eagle. The Death card indicates this transition from lower to higher to highest. This is a card of humility, and it may mean you have been brought low, but only so that you can then go higher than ever before. Death "humbles" all, but it also "exults." Always keep in mind that on this card of darkness there is featured a sunrise as well. You could be ready for a change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Scary 'Mary Poppins' Trailer

Mary Poppins recut as a horror movie.

Bollards!

This is in Manchester but they had similar bollards in Chester. They only open up for buses and other utility vehicles but people think they can just nip through. I think they had to take them down in Chester because people complained when their cars got wrecked.

Velvet Underground acetate on EBay

He bought it for 75 cents.