October 2006 - Posts
I didn't get to see much TV today, so I don't know how big a deal John Kerry's comment about education and Iraq is beyond the blogosphere. But I do know that I haven't seen the right side of the punditsphere this lit in a long time. I eventually found video of the remark here. I wouldn't mind a fuller transcript to get a little context. (Wednesday morning add: Reading through some of the commentary out there, it seems the context is in Kerry himself. Some people are already convinced he hates the military so to their ears there is no other interpretation of what Kerry said. Someone else could probably say the same words and have it be understood that Bush was a lousy student so he got the U.S. stuck in Iraq. But Kerry carries too much baggage.)
For his part, Kerry calls it a botched joke:
"My statement yesterday -- and the White House knows this full well -- was a botched joke about the president and the president's people, not about the troops.
...
[T]his president and his administration didn't do their homework. They didn't study what would happen in Iraq. They didn't study and listen to the people who were the experts and would have told them.
And they know that's what I was talking about yesterday."
Meanwhile, can you guess what Kerry's consultants told him he should have done when he was Swiftboated in 2004? His press release is another hint.
UPDATE: OK, I see this goes way beyond the blogosphere, but since I already wrote the entry, up it goes.
I've published the audio of our chat with Christine Wicker about the practice of magic in America. The interview runs about 26 minutes, so the file is kind of large. She was a good guest though.
From Matthew in the mailbag: A bunch of Halloween games
"Of all the terrors lurking in the streets and alleys across the U.S. tomorrow night, the economics of Halloween may be the most horrific." (Mostly wrestles with the problem of distributing candy that trick-or-treaters don't like.)
Famous scary homes (Zillow is a real estate site, so these links add the weird dimension of providing value assessments.
Speaking of famous locations, "An attempt to recreate some outdoor shots from The Matrix at the locations where they were filmed."
For the life of me I can't figure out why malfunctioning voting machines isn't a bigger story. Although I've read some good guesses. Updates on this blog entry offer suggestions for trying to make it a bigger story.
Speaking of malfunctioning machines, Rick mailed this link on how to steal an election by hacking the vote.
How To Keep Good Posture When In Front Of A Computer - The first one about the back rest is the most important - or at least, the one I feel makes the biggest difference. The eye advice is also one I follow. I make a habit of doing focus exercises every time I pause for thought.
Time has a cool set of infographics, including a map of population density that is drawing a lot of links.
900 satellites plotted in interactive 3-D around the Earth. (Requires Java)
There's a new Diet Coke/Mentos video. Instead of choreographed fountains, it's set up like a domino rally. When one bottle erupts, it pulls the pin that's holding back the Mentos in the next bottle. Interesting that Coke appears to be a sponsor. Good idea.
Speaking of marketing with YouTube, "Think dove's "campaign for Real Beauty" generated a ton of buzz for relatively little expense? You haven't seen anything yet." The question I have is how necessary YouTube is to a video experiencing such a viral explosion. Would it have been the same phenomenon if people had simply e-mailed each other links to the source site and followed references from blogs?
I don't do a lot of online shopping, so it took me a minute to figure out what RetailMeNot is about. As you might guess, it comes from the BugMeNot folks, but instead of people sharing login information, they share coupon codes.
Meet The First Car Powered By Air - After reading the description of the compressed air tank I had a vision of a person in this car getting in a rear end collision and sputtering around the freeway like an untied balloon.
The Bill Maher "new rules" rant that I predicted would go viral had a big day on Digg yesterday. The rule is, "America must stop bragging that it's the greatest country on Earth and start acting like it." Video here.
Re: Feeds not working
Hi,
I have been trying to subscribe your feed for over a week http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/clicked.aspx
There is some bug in that. Tried in firefox.
"We are currently unable to serve your request
We apologize, but an error occurred and your request could not be completed.
This error has been logged. If you have additional information that you believe may have caused this error please report the problem here."
Please check.
PC
Will replies: Thanks PC and others who have written to point this out. I'm pretty sure this blog offers two feeds:
The buttons on the left should reflect the correct links shortly.
"Bloggers are being asked to show their support for freedom of expression by Amnesty International."
Of course, you have to actually be able to view blogs in order for them to convey any kind of message.
Speaking of stuff you can't view, I'm surprised to read that NBC is blocking the Dixie Chicks' movie ad because it's too disparaging of the president. Um, NBC guys (not to mention, colleagues)? Have you seen the Olbermann show? The Chicks were on Hardball the other day, but managed to talk about their story without much Bush bashing. Their pet issue seems to be media consolidation. You can view the ad here. The official site here.
Speaking of President Bush, check out this cool toy. You drag the words from the bank into the speech pane to play a speech in President Bush's voice. Notice that the bank has multiple tabs. It takes some work to find pieces that make a coherent sentence, but it's better than the more common soundboards we usually see.
Concept Art is a community of fantasy artists workshopping each others' work. It looks like they do theme contests like they do on Worth 1000 too. NOTE: In the course of clicking I did see a pair of bare breasts. Not uncommon in fantasy art, but probably uncommon in your workplace. Take heed.
Neighboroo puts demographic data on an interactive map. My New York City neighbors should avoid clicking the air quality index. Yeesh!
13 Greatest horror movies ever. This is a pretty good list, but one that I'd sneak on there is the original (Dutch I think) version of The Vanishing. That was a mind blower.
The Michael J. Fox ad technique only works if your opponent is actually against stem cell research. Duh. UPDATE: As folks are pointing out in the comments, Russerts played the ads back to back on Meet the Press yesterday and the two candidates went at it for a bit. The difference is over embryonic stem cell research. Russert then pushes the anti-embryonic candidate into the classic "fertility clinic left-overs" trap. Good segment.
Today's thing the world didn't need: deep fried pizza (reportedly tastes good).
Lamborghini Gallardo vs. Ducati 999 - I guessed this one right.
How a Massachusetts carpenter got the highest Scrabble score ever. This is what it would sound like if Scrabble matches were televised and announced by a color commentator.
This ad looks like it was made in response to our look last week at sexy-themed women's costumes. NOTE: Contains a couple loud curses. The joke is "sexy." There's no nudity and it's not too lurid, but y'know, use your judgment at work. Also, clicking around the host site might find some actual NSFW material. OK, now click.
(Bill Maher is making jokes about this on this week's Real Time as I write this. [Just before he goes on a scathing Olbermann-esque tear about America not being number 1 -- look for that one to go viral soon.])
Speaking of oversexed costumes, a British supermarket caused a bit of a scandal for including a stripper pole in the toy section of its Web site.
Speaking of pole dancing, a new Popular Science blog analyzes the physics of that video of the pole dancing girl who falls on her head. Interesting to note that a YouTube link on this entry had to be removed for copyright reasons.
Speaking of removing stuff from YouTube, apparently they've pulled all the Comedy Central content, including Daily Show and South Park clips. Hopefully Comedy Central is picking up the slack and improving their own video offerings.
"Let's put this in terms crude enough for all cyber-dwellers to grasp. The Internet sucks." The main point is that the Internet isn't living up to its early billing.
"While it takes a critical mass of users to make these sites work, having too many users alienates some, especially when they attract an ever-growing cacophony of advertising and in some cases, spam." I have often argued that community doesn't scale. The more people who join in, the noisier it gets, the faster the quality drops. As it happens, I received an e-mail on this very subject not long ago:
Dear Will,
Have you ever clicked anything offering advice on how to keep the MySpace floozies away? Recently I checked my e-mail and had over thirty friend requests and/or messages from women who are clearly just trying to get people to sign up for their porn sites or webcam shows. This is just ridiculous. Seems every time a new means of communication is invented some ass thinks up a way to harass people with advertising they don't want to see.
Thanks,
SwordBuddha
The only advice I can think of is to find a smaller community.
Speaking of MySpace floozies, Jessica Simpson reportedly keeps a profile under a different name and actively socializes with it. That makes MySpace socializing such a bizarre lottery, the skeptic in my wonders if the whole thing is a MySpace advertising gambit.
Speaking of odd lotteries, there's a penny worth $500 out there somewhere.
But speaking of looking at pop stars on MySpace, did you know that Video Code Zone is the third most popular video sharing site by MySpace members? After YoutTube and Myspace, more than Google.
Google had better watch out or its name may instead become synonymous with petty pedantry. Put another way, stick it in your Google.
I know it's necessary, but I hate when the TV folks have to speak in vague terms about sexual content in the news. The case today is the sex in some books by Senate candidate Jim Webb. Drudge has the excepts, though none of the context, but at least you can know what people are talking about.
NOTE: No illustrations or anything, so SFW, but the point here is that they're trying to make a scandal of the sexual content. If you can't handle sexual content, don't click it.
Better Beginnings: how to start a presentation, book, article... This seemed like the kind of business blogging link I usually pass over, but out of curiosity I checked my own answer to that question against the list and found the perspective interesting. The lessons I've learned about creative writing have recommended beginning before the beginning of the story you're telling. By the time you get to your story, your narrative is richer and your sense of the story and writing momentum are improved. I've also heard of actors being instructed to improvise a scene that would take place a few minutes before the scene they're scripted to act. This link advises beginning after the beginning, which is to say, chop off your beginning because it's probably boring. Similar advice, a little different angle. News people use the expression, "Don't bury the lead."
Speaking of burying, item number three was also a familiar lesson. In listening through past interviews I've done, I found that I would often review history with the guest in the beginning, which makes chronological sense, but buries the good part that would make anyone listen past the first minute or two. If the history is so relevant, circle back to it later.
Scott Adams the Dilbert guy lost his voice permanently to something called Spasmodic Dysphonia and then retrained his brain to enable speech with a simple nursery rhyme. It's an amazing story. It reminds me a little of the stories of people using biofeedback to overcome paralysis (a credible report of which I'm presently unable to find to link here, so maybe that's urban legend). I know I've heard of people correcting stuttering problems with rhymes, though obviously that's nothing to do with throat muscle spasms. Using the Google on combinations of "rhyme," "therapy" and "brain" turn up a lot of interesting results.
My friend Matt offers this fun time sucker. I managed a score of 21.209 seconds before I decided I'd wasted enough company time. I did it with my eyes closed, guided solely by The Force.
Showing up at two different links, the photo of the news anchor reporting on a rape suspect is hard not to laugh at. The source isn't mentioned, so it may be fictional. UPDATE: I've seen a few sources (including Tucker Carlson on today's show) say that the anchor is from the L.A. affiliate of ABC and it's real. See comments for a link to his bio.
The Dog Who Loved to Suck on Toads - A short story of a dog who becomes hooked on hallucinogenic toads. The fact that the dog's name is Lady makes me think there's a funny sequel to Lady and the Tramp to be written.
Fantasy art by Jacek Yerka. Mostly rooms and landscapes, no naked ladies that I saw, so SFW.
Handbags that look like movie monsters - I expected this to be stupid, but they really do look like the monsters, and I don't think it's on purpose.
How to build a hidden bookshelf door - If you click through the link in the P.S. at the bottom you see that the whole thing rolls on castors so the hinges don't hold any weight. I'd expect castors to make a mess of the floor, but the basic idea makes sense.
A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer - It doesn't actually explain "how," it just lists a lot of stats to demonstrate that the rich are richer. I recognize that for a lot of people, the whole point of America is for the chance to make as much money as possible, so these stats don't get me too upset. They're still pretty impressive though.
MediaFire - Free unlimited uploads and downloads and bandwidth. What else is interesting is that when you search for it in Technorati you also get links to files people have uploaded so it works like a blunt filesharing service. NOTE: Of course, it's a bad idea to download anything when you don't know the source, so be careful if you use this Technorati trick.
Speaking of file sharing with warnings, "Now, given that AllOfMP3 is of questionable legality in the first place, using MusicForMe is undoubtedly all kinds of illegal, not to mention of entirely unknown origin and infested with who knows what, so under no circumstances do I recommend that you download it from this link."
33 writers. 5 designers. 6-word science fiction. Of course, this is based on the famous Hemingway six word story, which really is a damn good story.
Robert Scoble meets with a representative from Zune to give us an extensive look at the new portable media player. (I'm doing research for a possible purchase as the upcoming winter commute season approaches.)
A mailbag rebuttal:
Re: Snopes take on vegemite ban
Not sure if this confirms or denies the vegemite report, but thought it interesting.
Michael
Will adds: I'd say "denies" or for the purposes of this post, "rebuts."
Speaking of down under, apparently in Australia, musicians get the Dixie Chicks treatment for supporting the war, not the other way around. Beccy Cole sings a rebuttal.
"Stay the course" rebuttal ad.
Michael J. Fox's rebuttal to Rush Limbaugh (not much really, just jokes that he's lucky his pills are working well today).
Speaking of Michael J. Fox rebuttals, this is the ad meant to counter his ad. More celebrities, but somehow less impact.
Rebuttal to celebrities who claim to support green values: "What about that jet?"
Penn and Teller rebut conspiracy theories ***NOTE: This is their Showtime show with the unprintable name and it's full of four letter exclamations. UPDATE: Oops, I think the lawyers got this one. Here is the 9/11 segment of it, and here is the moon landing segment of it.
The other day Ze Frank took a serious swipe at the RocketBoom folks and how their numbers are reported (he also mocks videoblogging). The RocketBoom rebuttal is a pretty straightforward yes, our numbers are correct and we can and have proved it. The RocketBoom rebuttal is worth paying attention to if you're frustrated with not enough people recognizing your genius in the form of traffic. It's one thing to build it and wait for people to come, but it's quite another to work at using the system's properties to spread your site around. P.S. The whole debate aside, Ze Frank is funny as heck and quality viewing.
With the clever headline of Web 2.0lier than thou, Nick Carr rebuts Lessig's "true sharing vs. fake sharing" argument. "He wants to redefine "Web 2.0" in order to promote a particular ideology, the ideology of digital communalism in which private property becomes common property and the individual interest is subsumed into the public interest - in which we become the web and the web becomes us." I don't agree that it's a redefinition, but it's hard to argue with the cold water realism he splashes on the whole thing.
Rebutting that autism story in the mailbag...
In relation to your story... "Today, Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3."
Actually the correlation that Cornell is using is a bit bogus. the current theory has to do with mercury levels in small children. See here ... or here... or here... I could keep going but you get the picture.
I never understood why Mercury was needed in childhood vaccines but that one fact coupled with the fact that studies are showing that mercury levels have been increasing are enough to show a correlation between an increase in the level of autistic children... The TV study seems seriously doubtful considering kids have had TV's as babysitters since the 60's and the autistic trend has been fairly recent... IMHO
JIM
And one a little less reserved from the always informative jbm...
Will:
As the parent of an autistic-spectrum child, and as a scientist (B.Sci Computer Sci., minor Physics), and as someone married to a scientist (Ph.D., chemistry), I can promise you that the Cornell study you cited is of no practical worth whatsoever. (We know science. That ain't science.)
1) "The Cornell study is by Waldman, a professor in the school's Johnson Graduate School of Management, Sean Nicholson, an associate professor in the school's department of policy analysis, and research assistant Nodir Adilov."
Note: none of them is a psychologist. None of them is really qualified to do the study.
2) Autism is a spectrum disorder, not a single malady. While the incidence of the disorder appeared to rise during the period of the study, it's important to note that the incidence of reporting also increased, as the disorder was better understood and more correctly diagnosed. Some ADD/HD diagnosed today is actually misdiagnosed autistic spectrum disorder.
3) Correlation is not causation! People don't seem to understand that anymore. If correlation is, in fact, causation, then standing in the garage may, one day, turn you into a car. Or a lawnmower. Your choice.
4) In fact, all they may have shown is that children with autistic tendencies like to watch TV on rainy days. No kidding. Wow. What a revelation!
5) There is a far higher correlation between the overall intelligence of the parents and occurrence of ASD than with this. And in that correlation, you can at least see that genetic predisposition may exist toward ASD, adding that missing causal factor; not only that, there was a report last week that parents who both possess the MET gene and pass it on to the offspring nearly double the chance of the child developing ASD.
My wife and I were both outraged at the simplistic nature of the study, and worse, the moronic nature of the attempts to explain the causal relationship. "Maybe it's dust!" "Maybe parents of autistic children like to move where it rains!" "Maybe parents of autistic children like cable!"
Hey, maybe it's pixies, fairies, and leprechauns! That's about as scientific a hypothesis as these guys put out.
jbm!
The Ethics of Web 2.0: YouTube vs. Flickr, Revver, Eyespot, blip.tv, and even Google - Lessig explains true sharing versus fake sharing. Basically, true sharing is allowing a (non-DRM) download. The bottom line is whether you actually have control of the content or whether you just feel like you do.
I followed the link at the end of that post to Joi Ito on the how it fits into the definition of Web 2.0.
If you're still interested, as I was, the discussion spreads to Tim O'Reilly and the "switchboard vs. repository issue."
A couple weeks ago everyone was abuzz with scandal over the news that Wal-Mart's PR firm, Edelman, widely respected for their lip service to social tools as marketing strategy, was publishing a fake blog on their behalf. I didn't mention it at the time because frankly, who cares about fake WalMart blogs? But in this context the significance is more clear. Web 2.0 as a philosophy requires faith that sharing and openness benefits everyone. This is the spirit behind the many sharing and networking tools and the fights over intellectual property rights. For the Web 2.0 faithful, exploiting Web 2.0 momentum with fake sharing or fake blogging is akin to blasphemy. Web 2.0 is a prescriptive philosophy, not a description of a trend.
Speaking of the spirit of Web 2.0, Barenaked Ladies successfully stick it to the recording industry
Free Pong - I wasn't going to post this because Pong is nothing new, but then I saw that I could find my name on the scoreboard with even a crappy score, so at the time of this writing I'm 76, 96, and 103.
Yahoo is soliciting entries for a global talent show. You have 20 days left to think of something worth filming.
Make A Cylon Jack-O-Lantern - Some electronics required.
Lego flame thrower - Wha? I'd like to see the bricks after it's fired. Surely there's a melted plastic stink.
"YoungFeds aims to be a place for young government professionals to 'meet, network and advance'." From the name alone I would have guessed "porn site."
Remember those riots in Paris? Apparently they didn't exactly end.
Shuttle launch viewed from really high.
Firefox asks that you not jump the gun on downloading the new Firefox 2.0. (It was big news last night that there were FTP links to be found to get the new version in advance of the official release. This is a pubic ::blush:: public service reminder that for downloads like this, you're better off getting the official version from the official source.)
Speaking of the new Firefox, here's a look at what's new.
Speaking of new browsers, I don't have IE7 yet or the new Firefox yet (I prefer to let others learn the early lessons), but I have tried the new PandoraBrowser. Pandora, as you know, is a free music player that tries to figure out your musical tastes while presenting you with songs in a category you select. One annoying thing about it, however, is that it sits in a browser window in your task bar. PandoraBrowse puts it in your systray. Simple, but makes a surprisingly big difference.
Sure to replace "the Internets" and "a series of tubes" is using "the Google."
You've no doubt seen video compilations of President Bush saying "stay the course," but Whisky Bar offers an annotated list.
Speaking of lists, a schedule of all the Halloween TV specials
Can the blogosphere help find the owner of a lost iPod?
Google-Bombing the Election - I'm not sure how I feel about this. In essence, they plan to use a combination of AdWords purchases and heavy blog linking to surface unflattering results when Republican candidates' names are called up in the Google. It's not spreading lies, but it does seem like gaming the system. Since I'm sure similar efforts are taking place to promote candidates (and if they're not, they could be), I suppose all's fair in love and elections.
I do not understand the Vegemite ban at all. Actually, I don't understand Vegemite in the first place -- blech! But regardless, what's the real story? If it was a health hazard, there wouldn't be an Australian left alive. Are they somehow infringing on the domestic yeast-based salty spread market?
"Fantasy Congress offers you the power to 'play politics.' As in other fantasy sports, you - the Citizen - draft a team of real-life legislators from the U.S. Congress and score points for your team's successes." It's a really cool idea, though the point scoring looks a little complicated.
Michael J. Fox has taped a campaign ad for a candidate in Missouri, advocating for expanded stem cell research. Discussion of the matter has led to a secondary debate over how to regard Fox himself. Is he being exploited? Is he exploiting his own condition? Are his critics cruel?
As the new week's links heat up, this is what I clicked over the weekend:
America's next top pundit - I thought the term for this was "media whore" but the WSJ gives them more dignity than that. The article is also sympathetic to TV producers, who I would have cast as enablers if I'd written this article. There is no overestimating the damage to journalism and the national discourse done by the advent of producers-as-bookers and force-fitting every story into "both sides" so two pundits can fight about it in split screen for three minutes.
Speaking of "both sides," more on the transhumanism theme:
Still speaking of "both sides:"
(While I understand the points in the latter, I agree more strongly with the "should go" list, not just for film school but for most other cases as well.)
Halloween photo tips
Good morning sweetheart pillow - I came upon this in some random searching this weekend. I really like the idea of a pillow that leaves impressions on the face (on purpose). I want one that says "grumpy" that wears off by the time my morning coffee soaks in.
"Evidence mounts that making, and perhaps recognising, expressions is inherited" Blind people had the same "facial expression signatures" as their sighted relatives. If they can't see expressions, it must be genes that tell them how to move their face (of course, facial musculature is part of one's inherited appearance).
Creative advertising that makes you look twice - The Jimi Hendrix autograph made me laugh out loud.
Seven Ways To Light a Fire Without a Match - Could almost be titled "Seven ways to rub pieces of wood together"
"Today, Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3." Scariest article I've read in a long time. The end of the Backyardigans for my boy? I'd be interested in finding studies that explain why certain songs or TV shows have hypnotic appeal to kids. Why does my boy drop everything when he hears that car commercial playing The Who's Magic Bus?
Coolest-idea-I-haven't-tried of the day: PC on a stick - The basic idea is that you put the contents of your PC on a memory stick and then you can plug that memory stick into any computer and, borrowing some of the host computer's capability, access the stick as you would your own computer. There are a few small print items, but a great idea for anyone who carries their work computer back and forth between work and home.
Directory of open access journals - Though it wasn't as easy to find good stuff as I'd expected, I did end up getting sucked into an article about Japanese "parasite singles," so yeah, it's that kind of site.
You may have read that Pat Tillman's brother is no fan of the war. If you're interested in more than excerpts, his essay is here.
The Halloween costumes (some) women wear has been a water cooler topic twice this week for me. Questions that came up in conversation:
- Does it mean anything that for many women, dressing up means dressing sexy?
- Do we need a Sexy Dress-up Day so Halloween can go back to being scary dress-up day?
- Is it fair to infer that women who dress provocatively on Halloween really wish they could dress that way all the time? (Or the reverse, shouldn't a woman be able to dress provocatively one day a year on a day when fantasy dress is allowed, without having to suffer insinuations of sluttiness?)
- Why don't men dress sexy on Halloween?
The Times article raises a few others, including questions about kids' costumes.
Leonardo DiCaprio's New Green Reality Show - Though the inclusion of a celebrity automatically detracts from its credibility, the idea of a green "Extreme Home Makeover" show is a great idea. I bet a lot more people would make green home improvements if the available options were better publicized.
Blackfive shares some interesting thoughts on the Army's new unit watching military blogs for security violations and how security risks weigh against the positive publicity that comes from milblogging.
In response to a recent Second Life link, someone commented that having a good time in Second Life requires too many purchases. Wired gives a look at some of them.
Did you know that Peter Gabriel has been holding a competition for people to remix his "Shock the Monkey" song? I missed it, but I'm still enjoying listening to some of the submissions.
Riehl World View looks back at the polling before the 2002 elections to point out the lesson we've learned a million times but never take to heart. Polls are often wrong.
To the extent that the actions of your government are in your name, what degree of responsibility do you feel for the situation in Iraq? Blogger Billmon feels quite a bit.
Lords of the Logistic
Ms. Dewey is not particularly helpful or responsive or insightful and she's kind of a jerk I think.
Am I misunderstanding something or should the headline on this be Cancer Cured?
I think Borat is actually funnier knowing how angry he's making the government of Kazakhstan. Also, Borat: the deleted puppy scene.
Movie trailer: The Good German - George Clooney in post-war Berlin, shot in black and white. Unlike some of Clooney's recent works, this one looks like a pretty straight thriller without the big political statements (of course, I've only seen the trailer).
Matching the cost of the war against other ways to spend 300 billion dollars.
Nerf probes the line between giving your kid toys and training him to be an assassin.
Lots of big company meetings today, as you might imagine, but hopefully I'll be able to sneak some links out in between...
They're calling this the most addicting game. I don't know about that, but I did waste a lot of time with it. It's easier with a mouse than a touch pad. I gave up once I felt like I got a reasonable sore. 9.219 seconds.
"Crazy innovations" - guaranteed to provoke one or two involuntary "that's a great idea"s. NOTE: One thong ad in the margin. Basically safe for work, but that ad does draw the eye.
Keith Olbermann's "Beginning of the End of America" special comment is seeing broad linkage Web-wide.
Why that BBC story about the human race splitting is utter nonsense.
Some mail (slightly edited):
Hello Will.
Have you been to the Simpsons website lately? There is a contest were you can be at the 400th episode party. There is also a cool zombie shooter game as well.
-Zeke
Hey Will-
Thought you might like this story about topless flipflops.
Best,
Keith
Hello,
Your blog links to an artist making art out of old shopping carts. Since I enjoyed his art, I did some digging. Apparently this dude's bread and butter is making animal sculptures out of discarded car parts like hubcaps. His hubcap art is even cooler than his shopping cart stuff, so you might want to incorporate this link too:
-Thomas
Leftover links from the day. I'm glad I posted earlier because my machine ended up crashing, so this is a not-wholly formed entry.
Hey, remember that video of the colored paint exploding on the side of a building? Turns out it was part of a commercial. Looks like they goosed the saturation a little in post production.
I suspect the thief was a Web geek.
Every now and then I click something that reveals the root reason for the cult-like devotion of Apple fans. This (short) story is such a time.
Art made from supermarket shopping carts.
"A collection of photographic portraits of North American and European look-alikes. Each photo features two look-alikes, who are not related, side by side." Wow, how's this for proof that God was working with a finite set of ingredients?
"Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said." This article is a fun mental exercise because I disagreed with almost every sentence of it. It reminds me a little of when it used to be common to hear about how our pinkies would eventually disappear.
US full of Internet addicts: study - This is a very short item, but from it we learn that Internet use is bad when you're sneaking it and when you're using it to make yourself feel better in the manner of self-medication. Cue soundtrack. Longer version and a vote on our site.
Speaking of Internet habits, Iran bans fast internet to cut west's influence. Of course this is outrageous, but to their credit, cutting my bandwidth would definitely curtail my Internet addiction.
UPDATE: I knew I had one more link for this theme. The View from the Top is a lengthy essay by an online gamer whose internet addiction (really a game addiction I guess) made a shambles of his life and health.
Google is getting attention for adding solar power to their campus. Though I the fact that this is a news story is mostly an indication of how well Google markets itself, I did click the site of the company that's installing the solar panels, EI Solutions. And I clicked this blogger trying to do the math to figure if Google is actually going to be saving money with this alternative. (Until panel prices drop, solar power is for the love, not the money.)
Lefty Blogger Outs Senator As Gay - I'm not sure it's "outing" if the subject continues to deny it. That's not outing, that's just namecalling. I attended a panel talk at Reuters the other day on the subject of private lives versus public information. The subject wandered from the Foley case to reporting on the personal lives of celebrities, but there were a few interesting points made about the propriety of outing gay legislators. It seemed to be generally agreed that "hypocrisy" is not a justification because it's not an objective evaluation. On the other hand, there also seemed to be a general consensus about demanding a certain openness and honesty from legislators. Ultimately it was Floyd Abrams who made the point that none of this will matter as society (inevitably) becomes more accepting of homosexuality. That's probably cold comfort to the "outed" senator.
I don't mention it here because I tend to assume that if you're on MSNBC.com you're already familiar with the cable product, but Keith Olbermann's shots at the president have been really gaining resonance online.
"So you've decided to take a trip to Second Life." Wired's virtual travel guide.
N. Korea Detonates 40 Years Of GDP UPDATE: Here's the not funny version.
It took me some staring at this chart from the New York Times to understand what it is showing. In short, it's the number of voters in each party by age (or generation). Longer analysis from Kevin Drum.
America's Dumbest Congressmen (It's a bipartisan list. No mention of Ted Stevens and "tubes" though.)
I'm not a big Oasis fan, but I do like the animation in their new video.
Blogs in the news...
Here's the blog entry with the first hand account of Steve Wynn accidentally putting his elbow through a $139 million painting mentioned in this story.
This video has been linked to in a variety of capacities for the past few days. Regular readers who know that beauty myths (Boing Boing calls them "transhuman tricks") are a pet theme of mine have been mailing it in. The source is this Dove campaign. They're calling it the Campaign for Real Beauty.
The Loose Change guys versus the Popular Mechanics guys. In case you're not familiar, Loose Change is a video that argues that 9/11 did not happen the way the story is told in popular media. Popular Mechanics published a debunking of many of the points of the 9/11 conspiracy theorists. It's really fascinating to see them debate in person. The reasoning style of the 9/11 guys is pretty fascinating in itself. They don't seem as interested in answering questions as they are about making sense of questions. They ask a lot of "If A is true, then why B?" questions. A and B don't necessarily answer each other, but when put together they imply an answer.
Speaking of arguing with 9/11 doubters here's South Park's take.
Speaking of online debates, "The attempts to rubbish the Lancet study on the massive Iraqi death toll are devious hack-work."
Related: How many Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the war?
Speaking of fighting about the war, The War of the Words - a multi-part mocumentary about the 101st Fighting Keyboarders.
This doesn't really have any connection to North Korean weapons testing, but since the news is talking about testing explosives, I clicked this video of an underwater detonation.
MADD's new DWI awareness posters are a smash
Speaking of broken cars, What to do when Your Vehicle Check Engine Light Turns On and the Warranty has Expired - Worth reading through the comments, lots of information there. I recently changed my own brakes and there are few things as satisfying as doing your own vehicle maintenance. At the same time there are few feelings as helpless as handing your vehicle to someone only to be charged a huge amount of money for something you don't understand.
Forget pumpkin carving, check out pumpkin sculpture.
Mobile clubbing - I really like the idea of a crowded dance floor that's silent except for the shuffle of dancing feet. The Improv Everywhere folks have done flashmob-ish stunts with synchronized iPods.
I love a game in a difference language. I can't tell if this one is finite or if I just can't get past the space level.
"Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap."
The amazing YouTube tools collection UPDATE: Warning from the mailbag...
Will,
I downloaded the “YouTube Downloader” from the “YouTube tools” link and my spyware and anti-virus scanners went berserk – 89 problems were detected and my hard drive slowed to an absolute crawl.
Just a heads up.
Thanks,
Dave
Apparently there's been a hitch in the Yahoo time capsule thing.
Catching up on some of the mails that didn't come up in the course of regular posting...
(I've done some editing to keep the text-to-link ratio as efficient as possible.)
- Hi,
I have a site which might be of interest to your readers. It was recently profiled on the Boston News Channel and is gaining some other Internet media attention.
The site is FWDitON.com (forward it on) and it's for all the funny e-mails you get in your inbox.
Thanks,
Leeane
-
This foto is pretty striking, and I think it might be of interest to your readers.
-Thomas
Will clarifies: It's a photo of the Korean peninsula at night from space. North Korea is in darkness.
Also from Thomas...
- This might be too silly for your blog, but it is a parody by the comedian Andy Dick of the Audrey Hepburn Gap Ads.
- Check out this link for a commentary on the current Gap advertisement.
-Denise
- re: "...jobs from home don't appear to be in great abundance. This list of "real jobs" you can do from home is not particularly inspiring."
That's because the writers weren't inspired. They were just picking out those most obvious to their web-familiar readers and themselves rather than researching the subject. The "real jobs" you can do from home are those jobs that you can do from the office, but where the people you interact with, whether near or far, you deal with primarily by means that would be used if they were all far.
My wife got a job with a medical products company in Bethesda, MD when I worked at NIH. Since she mostly reviewed, validated and troubleshot contracts between their many branch offices and their customers via phone and email, and dealt with (or could have dealt with) most of her co-workers the same way, they had no trouble buying her a laptop and paying for her long distance bill and high speed connection when we moved first to Yale, then to Dallas. She wasn't the first full time telecommuter in that company. At least one other telecommutes every day from Pennsylvania "to" Bethesda. I don't know how many others there are, and that's probably a sign that it works. Ah, but what about meetings?
Conference calls. If you could lock yourself in a room at work the whole time you were there, and continue to get your job done, you could telecommute. If you could lock the door some days but not others, you could be a part time telecommuter. Far more people could be part time telecommuters if they had the ability and permission to shift their work load around and do all those things they could do with that door locked, from home instead.
-Dennis
- Will,
If you’re every short on links to click, be sure to check out Citizen Bay. It’s a new site for user-generated content about local news. Users vote for stories and each day the top 10 stories in each primary city are rewarded with payments of up to $10 for the writer’s work.
Also, I just found a site today called LikeBetter. I don’t know if you’ve seen it yet. You pick which of the two pictures appeals to you most and after doing this for a while, it will infer things about you that you can confirm or reject. It’s a fun stop for anyone with a little time to kill.
Best,
Jess
Will replies: LikeBetter figured out that I'm male, but was pretty wildly off the mark in guessing I keep a clean desk.
- Not sure if you've ever stumbled across this. But a number of years ago I found it while surfing on a sleepless night. It still calms my brain and brings a giggle whenever I go back to it. I just wish he would add some new episodes...
-Lisa
Will replies: More sites should use navigation that involves dragging a monster on a bungee cord.
- Will,
Buddy, I’m not sure if you’ve seen this or not, or even if you’ve blogged about it. But I thought you’d find this… disturbing and interesting.
-Mike
Will again: It's huge and detailed chart of how federal funds are spent. I've seen a few of these kinds of charts out there. Recently I was poking through this list of maps and saw some similar infographics.
- Dunno if you think it's interesting enough but this is a great way to show a class exactly how a historical battle was fought. in fact, it allows the kids to recreate the battles quickly and easily. the best part though is the compilation of miniature soldiers, artillery and other stuff from all ages that can be printed onto cardstock, folded, glued and set into formation for battle.
There is a lot more info on how to set up battles, how to play them, where they happened and probably the most important, the history behind each one.
For someone who already has a computer set up with net connection and printer the only cost to play one of these games is the ink in the printer, and not much of that really. though some rules might require a die or two.
link
-Matt
- You are not really going to give Bansky free pub without noting the objection to the elephant are you??????
-jmc
Will replies: I agree that the elephant thing seems cruel, though I don't pretend to know anything about the health of elephants. Meanwhile, if you're feeling sour on Bansky, you'll really enjoy this criticism. In fact, for sheer British name-calling hilarity it's worth a quick read.
- Following your link to the Secret Letter from Iraq led to some awesome reading. But I noticed something in the last sentence of the introductory paragraph.
"The author wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed us to publish it here — with a few judicious omissions."
Wait wait ... Who omitted what according to whose standard of juidicious?
Well, searching google turned up this version of the story.
I'm guessing it was passed from someone who was on the original mailing list.
The differences?
"Best Piece of U.S. Gear -- new, bullet-proof flak jackets. O.K., they weigh 40 lbs and aren't exactly comfortable in 120 degree heat, but they've saved countless lives out here.
Best Piece of Bad Guy Gear -- Armor Piercing ammunition that goes right through the new flak jackets and the Marines inside them."
Note that Dragonskin armor, far superior to the Interceptor armor that our troops currently get, is still getting Pentagon run-around for adoption. (What our troops get is rated Level IIIA and Dragonskin is rated higher than IV. You can't find out how well it did on the tests though because it set so many new standards, the results are
classified.)
"Biggest Outrage -- Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted.
Biggest offender -- Bill O'Reilly -- what a buffoon."
The original doesn't have the line "What a buffoon". Hilarious bit of editing there. I wouldn't have thought Time would want to protect Americans from that one Marine's opinon of O'Reilly.
Also -
"Biggest Ass-Chewing -- 10 July immediately following a visit by the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Zobai. The Deputy Prime Minister brought along an American security contractor (read mercenary), who told my Commanding General that he was there to act as a mediator between us and the Bad Guys. I immediately told him what I thought of him and his asinine ideas in terms that made clear my disgustand which, unfortunatelyunrepeatableatable here. I thought my boss was going to have a heart attack. Fortunately, the translator couldn't figure out the best Arabic words to convey my meaning for the Deputy Prime Minister. Later, the boss had no difficulty inconvening his meaning to me in English regarding my Irish temper, even though he agreed with me. At least the guy from the State Department thought it was hilarious. We never saw the mercenary again."
I can't figure out if it was removed because of the typos or the word "ass".
Finally, I can't believe they removed this from the end of the email:
"Semper Fi."
I don't know Will, maybe I'm fishing ... but while the "Ass-chewing"
edit seems rather judicious, the other edits seem politically motivated. Maybe the media just doesn't want to tackle the whole 'the gear given to our men isn't the best, just the best made by Raytheon'
issue? NBC started something, but I guess the ratings were too low for the story to go anywhere. I somehow doubt that the Marine who wrote it said "Remove the stuff about body armor and Bill O'Reilly being a buffoon."
--
BoB
This is random spam, but I got a laugh from it. Was this ever a Seinfeld storyline?
- Hi!
I'm James Goodman and I run the Remote Hypnosis website offering various hypnosis downloads in MP3 format.
I'm currently looking for bodybuilders to take part in a trial of bodybuilding hypnosis over 21 days to measure the effectiveness of the hypnosis program.
I saw your email address on a bodybuilding related website. If you are interested in taking part please email me with the following information:
Your name:
Date of birth:
Gender:
How long you have been bodybuilding:
Current weight:
Current height:
Target weight:
Overall bodybuilding goal:
If you are successful the MP3 will be sent to you and you should listen every day for 21 days. The results will be published online and in various bodybuilding publications.
I very much look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely,
James Goodman
Will reiterates: It's random spam. Of course he didn't get my e-mail from a bodybuilding related Web site. The site itself has a sample of the hypnosis audio. I think it's ridiculous, but then again, since listening to the sample this morning, I've lost 10 pounds, met the love of my life, and learned to speak French.
Yahoo is asking for your contributions to a digital time capsule. After a month of submissions they'll seal it and give it to the Smithsonian and also beam it into space (to impress aliens?). It's not a terrible idea, but isn't the whole Web one big time capsule? I recall reading about historians struggling with what it means that everything in our lives is being recorded digitally. How can you log it all and contextualize it all for the sake of history?
European bloggers find their voice - The focus is on German, French, and Italian blogs.
Steve Rubel's entry, mentioned in the above article has more links and analysis.
Speaking of Italian blogs, I run into this Beppe Grillo blog all the time, but didn't realize it had an English version.
Speaking of being popular in different countries, the other day I noticed that Google Video lets you filter their most-popular list by country.
Speaking of online in Europe, I'm listening as I blog to Radio Nova (French) Some English language music. Lots of DJ talking. Right now I'm listening to a Beastie Boys feature. Click the headphones on the left next to "Ecouter Radio Nova" to launch the player.
Another aspect of companies not taking advantage of telecommuting (see yesterday's entry) is that jobs from home don't appear to be in great abundance. This list of "real jobs" you can do from home is not particularly inspiring.
Can the Superbus revolutionize public transport? It can certainly revolutionize the appearance of transport. Check this thing out. The idea that each seat has its own door strikes me as a potential problem. That's a lot of moving parts both mechanically and logistically.
Speaking of alternative transportation, Man buys tank and drives it around like a car. I'm trying to figure if this could be legal in the U.S. You need rear view mirrors and turn signals to be street legal, right? Maybe a bumper too.
The UN is asking LonelyGirl to make antipoverty videos. I assume the UN did the reaching out, but it makes me think that it's just a matter of time before Web stars get publicists who help present them like mainstream celebrities.
Dethroner is a new blog for me. So far more beer and fighting than pin-up girls. (Cool foosball trick video.)
Someone mentioned in the comments that they hope the new IE7 download isn't automatic. Here's a way to block the download if you think it's going to cause problems for you.
Muslims offended over the Apple store?
Juan Cole gives lengthy attention to the new report on how many have died in Iraq since 2003.
The powers that be may have blocked the viewing of Idiocracy, but you can read it for free.
The Draw Play game - very much like that line rider from last week. (Speaking of that Line Rider game, did you see the video link that was posted in the comments of the amazing line course?)
Pinball from the perspective of the ball.
"Helium is ... on a quest to build the best user-created reference resource there is." That makes it sound like Wikipedia, but it's more like essays than encyclopedia entries.
Compact four-rooms-in-one house. It's like having the rooms of your house on a lazy susan. A modern answer to the fold-away bed.
The shadow girl - One moves, the other, dressed in black, acts as the shadow on the floor. We've seen similar ones like this, usually from what appears to be Japanese TV.
"Will someone come out and say what a monumental twit Condi Rice is as Secretary of state?" Counterpoint: John McCain posts on Captain's Quarters about why talking with North Korea is a bad idea.
Blog Juice gives you blog a rating based on RSS subscriptions, traffic, Technorati ranking and inbound links. A fun vanity site for when you get sick of Googling your own name.
Tell me this isn't a viral McDonalds commercial. Too bad the drive-through order speaker is such a poor quality that the guy on the other end had no idea what they were doing.
The Grindhouse trailer from the Scream Awards the other night. Basically safe for work, but a little racy and a little gory. A Tarantino classic or a Tarantino self-parody? Kind of hard to tell, but good looking cast.
Why aren't more companies taking to telecommuting? I'm pleased to say that MSNBC.com allows me to do quite a bit of telecommuting. Actually, since my boss and most of the company is out in Redmond and I work from MSNBC's cable headquarters in New Jersey, even when I go to the office I'm sort of telecommuting. But even with a permissive policy I haven't taken advantage of working from some unusual place on one of these municipal Wi Fi networks that are always being announced. I've logged on from a Barnes & Noble while on vacation, but I've never worked from a park bench or a public library or a moving train. Maybe before the weather gets too cold I'll try blogging from Bryant Park.
Remember that video of the guy doing all the hugging? It became the basis for a Russian Flashmob the other day. An international sensation.
Web watchers are awaiting Microsoft's big IE7 push. Reports are that it's coming soon as part of one of those automatic security updates. The reason you should care, as explained here by Steve Rubel, is that Microsoft is building in an integrated feed reader. Of course, other browsers already have built in RSS features, but nothing has the reach of Internet Explorer, and the reasoning goes that once Microsoft embraces and spreads the technology, it'll become a mainstream tool.
HOWTO made a glowing dead rat LED throwie - The obviousness hit me square on the funny bone.
Who the heck is Aleksey Vayner? It looks like he's an Ivy League Star Wars Kid. He submitted an unintentionally ridiculous video with a job resume and now it's all over the Web.
That GAP ad is everywhere on every channel it seems and I haven't seen anyone mention it without grumbling about the exploitation of Hepburn's image. Apparently the product itself, skinny (?) black pants, it selling like crazy in spite of the fact that they're only suited to a very specific body type. (That's as close as I get to fashion blogging.)
Recapping Coverage Of Google's Acquisition Of YouTube - This is a handy round-up of commentary. A real stand-out link on this subject is the graph of YouTube traffic versus Google Video traffic as an explanation for the acquisition.
Shoot the stickman. Easy to play, but I can't manage to get very far. The trick seems to be in timing the reloads.
Christopher Guest's movies have a certain sameness (and how couldn't they since he uses the same cast), but it's hard to deny their humor. For Your Consideration trailer.
The real story of the superheroes - I thought this was one of those "where are they now" jokes until I read the explanation. The idea is that these hard working immigrants are real life heroes. I'm not sure putting them in humiliating costumes is the best way to honor them, but it's a noble point to make.
A reader's guide to State of Denial. Slate reads the Woodward book so you don't have to.
Tomorrow afternoon I'll be talking with Christine Wicker, the author of "
Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Shaping America." If you'd like to add a question to the list, leave a comment on this entry or send it to my e-mail address on the left, oooor... to the actual official question list, which is Question 2001@MSNBC.com.
Between the North Korea nuke test, Google's purchase of YouTube, and lingering developments in the Foley story, the blogosphere is nearly blown off its hinges.
The North Korean nuclear test is the story that feels most important to me. I love the idea of finding the site on Google Earth, as mentioned in Sunday's Times. The location is reportedly 41.279 N by 129.087 E, which is confirmed by the earthquake data. I also eventually found a direct link to it in the Google Earth community's Military section. NOTE: This is talking about Google Earth, not Google maps. In case you're not familiar, it's a free download of essentially a virtual globe. Clicking the link automatically opens the Google Earth app.
For all the searching, however, I'm not sure I see what they're trying to point out.
I admit I was impressed with the 4.2 number on the earthquake chart. I've never felt and earthquake, but that seems like a pretty big number. As it turns out, a lot of people who know better disagree, leaving a lot of speculation about just what North Korea blew up under that mountain. Among those who aren't freaking out, the word is that we're waiting for "radionuclide data" to find out more on the blast.
The skepticism is easier to understand when you see this video of the largest underground nuclear blast ever. I don't think that's 4.2.
Speaking of skepticism, Best Google/YouTube headline goes to Defamer for "Google Pays $1.65 Billion For Nonexclusive Online Rebroadcast Rights To 'Studio 60' Promo Clips." I like that one because like Mark Cuban I'm a little skeptical about what Google is getting and I can't avoid the too-much-of-a-good-thing feeling that I also associated with old Napster.
Even though the news is all over the place now, I'm including a link to TechCrunch since that's where the story broke and such breakings of news should be rewarded with links. He's also got notes on the official media phone call press conference.
Here's a Google YouTube angle you're not likely to see in the mainstream press. I've read that many on the political right feel that YouTube is an agent of the left, primarily (as far as I know) because they removed a Michelle Malkin video from their site. For the people holding this belief, the Google/YouTube marriage has political implications.
Since the press release makes it sound like YouTube is not going to change at all, one wonders if the point of the merge has something to with applying search to video.
That seems likely in the context of Microsoft's recent Blinkx news: "Microsoft will be using Blinkx technology to power video search within MSN and Live.com."
At the end of last week the Online News Association held its annual conference. Most of the scuttlebutt I heard from folks in attendance was about the closing panel, which reportedly strayed off topic and came down to bloggers on the panel bashing journalists. A quick look at the day's links show fingers pointing to Michael Arrington, who tells his version of events here.
Though some are viewing the whole matter in the context of the heavily beaten blogging vs journalism horse, Thomas Hawk's comments highlight the fact that the real difference is between the tech community and journalists. Even though blogging has been pretty universally embraced by journalism at this point, that doesn't satisfy the tech community whose interests and tastes are not only underserved by mainstream media, but whose ideas are largely ignored even as the technology they develop gains mainstream acceptance.
The official rules for calling shotgun.
This note from a Marine in Iraq is a little long but reads quickly. Since I found myself having read through the whole thing without realizing it, I figured it was worth recommending.
Lightning exits woman's bottom - I heard Olbermann read this one on Countdown tonight but even reading the story myself I don't believe it. I can't help but think this is the first thing she came up with when the doctor in the emergency room asked, "How did you get these burns on your anus??"
Speaking of things I have trouble believing, The Future of Tires.......Tweels - Would the driving public ever feel comfortable driving on a set of these?
New-to-me term: Ecological debt day. Apparently environmental activists have found a way to calculate a day each year when global consumption of resources exceeds the Earth's ability to generate new resources. Since the debt can't really be paid, the point is to look at how quickly we reach the date each year.
A week's worth of Japanese street artists drawing and redrawing a piece on the wall. Lapsed to 6 minutes.
Rumors of Battlestar Galactica moving to NBC. All I can say to that is DUH! For the life of me I can't understand why NBC would have so many great shows on its sister networks and not take any for itself as its ratings slide. Dead Zone on Sci Fi would also be a good pick. Monk? Psych? (USA Network) Even the 4400 is preferable to those bug eating shows. Project Runway? That new million dollar house show? (Bravo) I don't think I've ever met anyone from the NBC entertainment division, but if I did I'd have to mention that I watch more of their sister network shows than their primary network shows.
If a real estate developer sent you an e-mail (not really spam because you signed up for it) and included on the CC line the e-mail addresses of 1086 other people who had also signed up for it, for what price would you sell the list, if at all?
Super slow-mo face slap. Wow, look how his nose flaps.
Here's another with a guy with wate
