100th Post

Yep, I've just cracked the hundredth mark.

I wrote the first blog entry way back in October 7, 2009 and, as of this writing, I've achieved a grand total of zero comments and no followers. Hooray! Obviously, no one's reading this thing apart from myself. But, do I care?

Hell no!

To paraphrase a famous line from Field of Dreams (1989), "If you build it, they will come." So, as long as I keep stocking this thing up with the menagerie of topics I skim through, someone will eventually read it, dagnabbit!

Anyway, enough loser talk. Time to cover a few things in celebration of this momentous occasion.

The Yakub-Xenu Parallel 

I'm not sure if you're overly familiar with the Nation of Islam's teachings, but their doctrine on their Satan-figure, Yakub, has bizarre, racist sci-fi overtones:

According to the Nation of Islam (NOI), Yakub (also spelled Yacub or Yakob), was a scientist alive "6,600 years ago", responsible for creating the white race, a "race of devils". The doctrine of Yakub was first proclaimed by Wallace Fard Muhammad and was later developed by his successor Elijah Muhammad.

Yakub created white people by a process of grafting the "black " to a "white" from the original black population of the world. According to the Autobiography of Malcolm X, all the races except the black race were by-products of Yakub's work. However the "black race" included Asians. "Whites" were defined as Europeans and Jews.

It took 600 years for Yakub and his successors to fully whiten his creations. This was achieved under a despotic regime on the island of Patmos. The reasons for Yakub's actions are unclear.

It goes without saying that this is not mainstream Islamic belief. Anyway, now compare this to what is taught about Scientology's "devil", Xenu:

Xenu, also Xemu [...] was, according to the founder of Scientology and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology dogma holds that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm. Members of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story.

Ok, so they're not that similar, both both involve some form of genetically engineering humans. Not to mention sounding utterly looney.

Spider Saga 

When David Thorne, Adelaide, was informed by his utilities company that he owed $233.95, he tried to pay it using this picture:

You can read the e-mail exchange between Thorne and his utilities company here. The story doesn't end there. The spider picture was put up for sale on eBay and attracted an incredible bid.

Thorne was also interviewed by Marketing Magazine for his story behind the affair (part one and part two).

Party! Party! Party! 

And lastly, to get in the spirit of the festive occasion, check out Danny Gallagher's "The 10 Greatest Parties in Movie History" for Film School Rejects for a lil' inspiration.

If you're more interested in something true-to-life, then check out "The Most Extravagant Dinner Parties in History", "World's Best Parties!!" and "10 Biggest Parties Around the World". Olé!