• I'm beating TucsonVelo.com's Mike McKisson right now.

There are plenty of word/spelling games to pick from on the iPhone, Words With Friends likely the most popular, but for some reason, the novelty of online Scrabble (and Scrabbleish) games wore off on me awhile ago, mostly because I feel like I never ended up playing all that many competitive games. Either I was wiping the floor with one half of the people I played or getting annihilated by the other 50% (cheaters, the whole lot of them).

For some reason, Letterpress, a newish app from one of the creators of Twitter, seems to be a little more enjoyable than its innumerable competitors. The design is super clean, every game is generally competitive, and it's fun to play in quick bursts of available time. Like nearly every other iPhone game I've downloaded in the past, I'll likely get distracted and forget I ever started playing Letterpress, but for now, I've enjoyed it enough to cough up the 99 cent full version, something I rarely do.

If you'd enjoy the opportunity to tell your friends that you beat the future editor of the Tucson Weekly in a semi-obscure iPhone game, feel free: my nickname on there is dangibson520.

(Well, we can assume Mega Bloks were ignored in the study, solely because they're just a less interesting alternative to Legos. Sorry, Mega Bloks.)

According to tech site BoingBoing, the folks over at British radio show "More or Less" wrangled a scientist from Open University—which is actually a thing, despite the fact that the name sounds like they have lower enrollment standards than ASU—to calculate how tall one could build a tower composed of 2x2 Lego bricks.

To find this out, they used a hydraulic testing machine to see how much force a Lego brick could stand before breaking, applying more than 4,000 Newtons of force before the brick collapsed. From there, they calculated how much weight a single brick could hold before being overtaken by stress, then figured out how many bricks could stack atop one another using that result.

And from what they found, apparently one could stack 2x2 Lego bricks 'til they reached 2.17 miles into the sky—or as Open University's Ian Johnston put it, "if the Greek gods wanted to build a new temple on Mount Olympus, and Mount Olympus wasn't available, they could just - but no more - do it with Lego bricks. As long as they don't jump up and down too much."

As if the gods would be concerned with such decorum. Silly Brit.

Poor guy. He rides a motorcycle for his publication's YouTube page, snags a hard-case saddlebag on a pylon (forcing him and the bike to take a spill into a sailboat) then has to live through the indignity of having the the video posted on YouTube, for all the world to see.

On the bright side, at least the bike didn't go into the water!

Recently, Buzzfeed presented their list of the best Tumblr's of the year, including gems such as McKayla Is Not Impressed, Text From Dog, and the spectacular Texts From Hillary. But, for my money, the best non-Texts-From thing on their list is quite obviously Cats That Look Like Pin-Up Girls [NSFW, somewhat obviously] from Australia's Hurly Burly clothing store.

Since you may be at work, I don't recommend that you click on the Cats That Look Like Pin-Up Girls site. Therefore, here's a preview of the adorable things that are in store:

• catsthatlooklikepinupgirls.tumblr.com/

Nothing like juxtaposing adorable things with human sexuality, right?

If either kittens or pin-up girls are your cup of tea, give this a look. Just not from work (unless you've got a really cool boss, I guess).

[Cats That Look Like Pin-Up Girls]

Chef Ramiro and the guys at Pasco Kitchen and Lounge have pulled a few strings and have wrangled a visit from old St. Nick. On Saturday, December 1, Santa will be enjoying breakfast, and the whole family can join him! Bring your gift wishes and make sure you don’t do anything to be on the Naughty List. Breakfast at Pasco begins at 7:30 a.m. Friday through Sunday. The menu and reservation info is here.

Quora is a question and answer site that I have never heard of before, but find fascinating. Apparently, it's a discussion site, not unlike the often-maligned Yahoo! Answers, where users ask each other questions and are encouraged to answer one another in often entertaining ways.

That said, in the hypothetical battles section of Quora—which makes me happy simply by existing—someone asked which American state would win, were they all to declare war against the others. Note that in this hypothetical, there is no foreign intervention in any way.

Well, discharged Marine Jon Davis has the answer, which comes in the form of a sprawling, oral-history style account, not unlike the stellar novel World War Z. There are even graphics!

The first real occupation attempts happened when attempts were made to secure more assets.

The Republic of Texas sought to gain strategic advantages in the Central United States. To do this they sought to gain two strategic assets. The first was control of Whiteman AFB the home of the B-2 bomber program. The base was easily secured and the most coveted military bomber in the world was now in the hands of the Republic of Texas. The next was control of Colorado and her military installations of great value. Then finally was access to the Mississippi River. Two main offenses took place to do just that. The First Battle of New Orleans involved a massive force occupying the city to claim it as a port and artery for future engagements. In Colorado they met stiff resistance as many of the Texas military were unfamiliar with Mountain warfare. Colorado's major bases fell quickly since Colorado enjoys the smallest force to fight back the Texans, but they adapted an unconventional warfare stance that kept the Texans on edge for months. Still, at this point the mission behind taking Colorado had been achieved—control over its military bases and strategic assets. The insurgency does however slow down the growth of Texas.

New York pushed Northward. They pushed to claim all of New England and the food wealth they will need to supply their people now that resources from the Midwest are no longer available. The take over is mostly peaceful as many of the states have large, but mostly non-military populations. They encountered problems when large groups of refugees tried to flee to Canada and rioting ensued.

Illinois was calm. The Midwest Alliance grew steadily by seeking to secure the Great Lakes. They were able to take Ohio through a few fierce, but brief encounters. They also took on Minnesota and the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The West coast was now controlled by the two main powers—California with it's seat of power in San Francisco and The North East Union centered in Seattle. California gained support and taken control of all the states West of the Continental Divide and South of the Union. The North East Union pushed as far as Wyoming.

There is more—so, so much more—as the story tops out around 6,500 words, and it's worth a look solely to sate some morbid curiosity that one may or may not have developed amid the (empty) talks of secession that have been bandied about over the last few weeks.

For the record, Arizona has absolutely nothing of consequence to do in this potential war, being gobbled up by the "Californian Union of Democratic States." Take that as you will, rabid statists (which I assume is a more localized term for nationalists).

Video shot and edited by Rogelio Garcia

Harmony. Grace. Beauty.

Words to describe Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion and so much more.

The oftentimes jaw-dropping show features a melding of Chinese traditional dance and martial arts with Cirque’s trademark Avant-garde style of acrobatics.

“We took 3,000 years of Chinese acrobatic tradition,” Artistic director Sean McKeown said, “and did a very special blending of that tradition with a very unique Cirque du Soleil of doing things.”

I'm not a fan of marijuana or marijuana culture in general (I mean, have you ever noticed that heavy stoners all develop the same laugh? Once you hear it, you can never un-hear it. Sorry for ruining your friendships), but I do appreciate the legalization of marijuana I mean, when you've got something that can be used both to help people manage chronic, nagging pain AND you can tax the hell out of it, we call that a win-win, right?

Well, the Seattle Police Department's Police Blotter blog has done Washingtonians the service of outlining how they'll be handling the future of marijuana enforcement within Seattle...and they were clever about it, too. Aside from the above Lord of the Rings video, which was placed at the bottom of their blog post entitled "Marijwhatnow? A Guide to Legal Marijuana Use In Seattle", they've offered up a few handy tips for Seattle-ites who are looking to get their blaze on (that's a thing that's said, right?) legally. We've included a few of the funnier bits here:

Can I legally carry around an ounce of marijuana?
According to the recently passed initiative, beginning December 6th, adults over the age of 21 will be able to carry up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use. Please note that the initiative says it “is unlawful to open a package containing marijuana…in view of the general public,” so there’s that. Also, you probably shouldn’t bring pot with you to the federal courthouse (or any other federal property).

...

Can I smoke pot outside my home? Like at a park, magic show, or the Bite of Seattle?
Much like having an open container of alcohol in public, doing so could result in a civil infraction—like a ticket—but not arrest. You can certainly use marijuana in the privacy of your own home. Additionally, if smoking a cigarette isn’t allowed where you are (say, inside an apartment building or flammable chemical factory), smoking marijuana isn’t allowed there either.

...

What happens if I get pulled over and I’m sober, but an officer or his K9 buddy smells the ounce of Super Skunk I’ve got in my trunk?
Under state law, officers have to develop probable cause to search a closed or locked container. Each case stands on its own, but the smell of pot alone will not be reason to search a vehicle. If officers have information that you’re trafficking, producing or delivering marijuana in violation of state law, they can get a warrant to search your vehicle.

SPD seized a bunch of my marijuana before I-502 passed. Can I have it back?
No.

Of course, closing out the page with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey puffing away is the classic, and classiest way, to close things out. I truly appreciate the light-hearted tone that SPD brought to the post if nothing else, it shows that they're going to make an effort to be as laid-back as possible regarding this huge change to the status-quo.

Either that, or they've been busy with the supply seized in the last question.

• They're like twin brothers of completely disparate ages!

Seriously, the resemblance is uncanny Representative, and current CD2 candidate Ron Barber looks so similar to Richard Attenborough in these photos that it's silly.

If Barber ends up pulling through in this race, let's hope he doesn't attempt to pull funding toward a dinosaur-themed park full of actual dinosaurs unless, of course, we're that desperate for job creation that we're willing to risk the possibility of being hunted by escaped velociraptors (which, truth be told, look less frightening when covered in feathers).

[H/T to chowderneck at reddit.com/r/tucson]

Of course, yesterday was Veterans Day, as is every November 11.

But, considering that Veterans Day is currently being observed across the country today in federal (and banking) insitutions, who are we to deny our soldiers another day of remembrance and thanks? I can't think of a better way to do that than to watch happy dogs welcoming their soldiers back home.

We've got a few more videos under the jump, for those who like seeing videos that illustrate such heavy emotions as "happy" and "love."