Two Great Metal Videos

I hate Lamb of God (more like Lame of God), but this video is hilarious! I bailed the second the vocals game in, though.




This second one is similar to others involving the muppets, but the idea is very much the same.


I found these on the Top 10 Heavy Metal Viral Clips of 2009 from Metal Injection. The Black Metal Cooking one is good, but it's not as good as the Metal Chef was.

Jon Schaffer is Batshit Insane...

...but damn can he write a great song!

He just launched his "Sons of Liberty" project. Basically he took all his crazy ultra right-wing/libertarian craziness and released an album. Low-res versions of the mp3s are available from his website (which I will not link here) for free. You can also buy hi-res mp3s from him for $8, which I did. The website also has a bunch of recommended reading and links and such and it's all craziness. I can sum up the reading list in one sentence: He recommends a Ron Paul book. Not crazy enough for you? Further down the page, he recommends Glenn Beck.

But guess what? The songs are pretty damn good! ...Until the little soliloquies at the end of every song. A lot of them are presidential quotes that I would imagine are taken out of context. The lyrics are very Schaffer-y as well (i.e. poorly written). Think The Glorious Burden squared plus Fox News-inspired messages in every song. And of course the lyrics are batshit insane. For example, "Our Dying Republic" complains about the 'fascists' trying to take over the USA. It sounds like he performed the vocals on every song. He does a damn good job, too. I believe the drums are sampled. They sound better than the RVG drums though. Anyway the whole thing sounds a lot like newer Megadeth. (The connections between insane frontmen and their fantastic bands will have to come another day.)

Please, Jon. PLEASE stick to Iced Earth! Stick to Demons & Wizards! Write about horror! Write about Set Abominae. Write about ANYTHING ELSE. It gives me such a headache to both love the music and hate the message simultaneously.

Oh yeah, and how did he officially announce his project? On Alex Jones's radio show. Who is he? A 9/11 truther. Excuse me while I vomit.

Heavener Stone

Now that we've established that the Kensington Runestone is authentic, let's most on to some other Runestones found in the USA:

The Heavener Runestone was found in Oklahoma. Other runestones were said to have existed there but were destroyed in the 1930s and 1940s. It's far less interesting than the Kensington stone. This stone reads: "GNOMEDAL" (Gnome Valley). Or "G. Nomedal." Or "GLOME DAL" (Glome Valley). Or it could be a cryptogram for "November 11, 1012." Yeah, no one's very sure.

Either way, it is a local tourist attraction and a state park was built around the area.

Baltimore Blizzards' AHL Season

Warning: extreme nerding over a video game lies ahead.

Since the Baltimore Blizzards (my created team in NHL 2010) were slaughtered by Belarus in the World Tournament, it was decided to go "back to basics" and compete in the AHL somehow. The Blizzards replaced the now-defunct Iowa Chops for the season. Needless to say, the Blizzards went undefeated in the regular season.

For some reason I threw all the stats into a spreadsheet: BBZ AHL Season.

T. Regan (#9) had the most goals, most assists, most points, 3d most PIMS, 2d best +/-, and 4th most hits in the AHL.

D. Miller (#13) had the 2d most assists, 3d most points, most PIMS, 3d best +/-, and most hits in the AHL and the most goals of all defensemen.

A. El-Zeftawy (#26) had the 3d most assists, 6th most points, 2d most PIMS, best +/-, 2d most hits in the AHL and the 2d most goals of all defensemen.

The Blizzards had players with the 1st through 13th and 15th best +/- in the AHL

The Blizzards as a team had the most goals for (next team had 244), most goals for per game (next team had 3.05), fewest goals against (next team had 194), fewest power plays, most times shorthanded (413 -- the next team has 170), best penalty kill (yet most power play goals against), and most shorthanded goals for (next team had 6 -- that's 80 less!).

Now hopefully we can be undefeated in the post season as well. Then it's on to the NHL.

Pennies

Pennies cost more than 1¢ each to produce since zinc prices have been rising. There are several groups out there trying to do away with the penny.

When the penny was introduced in 1793, it was worth what is now 22¢. From 1793-1857, there was also a half-cent piece. It was worth what is now 10¢ when it was discontinued. (Equivalency to today's money calculated on this site.)

So basically back in the late 1700s, the smallest coin you had was essentially a dime. Frankly I wouldn't mind not having pennies anymore, or at least seeing them much less. But then what would I throw at people when they snore through movies? Nickels would indeed hurt more.

From a retail standpoint, perhaps discontinuing the penny will also boost the usage of dollar coins, since most cash registers in the US are already designed for 4 types of coins. Then we can bring back to $2 bill with the space once populated by $1 bills! Then it will finally be the future!

...Oh yeah and nickels also cost more than their face value to make. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

The Maine Penny

The Maine Penny is a Norwegian Silver Penny dating from between 1065-1080 CE. It was found in 1957 in the remains of an old Indian settlement at Naskeag Point, Brooklin, Maine. As it was the only Norse artifact found at the site, it is unlikely Vikings brought it there themselves. More likely, it was worn as a pendant (some accounts state there was a perforation in the penny) or it was traded from a Viking settlement in Newfoundland and eventually made its way south. An Eskimo tool was also found at the site and could have also arrived via trade.