This is what I heard
Posted: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 3:03 PM by Will Femia
Music I rocked out to this morning...
Elmo with the Goo Goo Dolls (#3)
Also really liking Elephine, which I found by way of his video of a guy who painted 30 images of influences in his life on his belly.
And there are now three new Nine Inch Nails songs to be found online. I don't quite understand if the band is insisting on that "discovered on a computer drive left in a bathroom at a venue in Lisbon, Portugal" story or if that's been debunked. A reader named Carol offered this link a few days ago, describing the online marketing campaign NIN is putting together.
Speaking of music, iTunes fingers musical fraud - What's most interesting to me about this is how much effort goes into supplying metadata for music files when iTunes appears to have its own way of identifying music.
Speaking of downloading, I'm making a mental note of this one for the next time someone asks me what Bit Torrent is and how it works. Nice clean explanation with a visual model.
What Would You Do If Bush Declared Martial Law? The link is to a reaction to a NYTimes op-ed in which it's pointed out that a pair of martial law provisions were inserted into recent legislation. Most of the argument about Bush wanting a coup or to rule the nation like a dictator doesn't really ring plausible to me, but the question of "what would you do" is interesting to think about. I'm not especially enthused at the idea of a president, particularly this one, being able to put my neighborhood under military control on a whim, but I think I can play devil's advocate (no pun intended) on this one. The president was pushed to making it easier to declare Martial Law by the expectations placed on the federal government after Katrina. With state resources completely wiped out, didn't we demand that the military be sent to restore order? Weren't we outraged at the looting? Didn't we say we wanted the federal government to swoop in and take control of the situation as soon as possible? (This piece seems like it's on a similar theme so I'm taking it home as my Commuter Click.)
Speaking of what would you do, I have as hard a time believe that Bush will attack Iran as I do that he'll stage a coup and put the entire country under Martial Law, but in case you're curious how the case is being made that we are, in fact, about to attack Iran, here it is.
Speaking of flaming (we weren't, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get flamed for the items above, so I was thinking of it even if we weren't speaking of it), as we might have guessed, seeing a human face triggers a biological reaction in our brain when we socialize, so socializing online without a face in front of us can cause us to behave outside our own social standards. What the article doesn't address that I've always been curious about is whether it's healthy to be able to vent some anonymous spleen online or whether it's dehumanizing (or whether it's nothing and stop being so dramatic).
Speaking of psychology, the suggestion that Britney Spears shaved her head to avoid allowing her hair to be tested to show her history of drug use is my favorite theory so far, not only because it explains the whole thing so neatly but because it makes all those instant talking-head TV shrinks speculating wildly about "cries for help" and "hair as representative of a woman's femininity" and "getting her mother out of her hair" look like total tools. Of course, the plan is for naught if her ex comes into possession of the shorn hair.
I don't watch much ABC News, so maybe this is better known than I realize, but I was interested to see this slide show of Bob Woodruff's progress since he was blown up in Iraq.
I totally don't get the Dane Cook thing either.
"A small, powerful rope-climbing device can pull a person up 30 stories in 30 seconds." Battery powered, but still really cool.
Speaking of powering things, Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half - I'm pretty good about not falling head over heels for talk of hydrogen cars and other green solutions, but the news of mass produced solar cells sounds really promising every time I hear it.
Century's Dolphin waterproof MP3 player
A novel navigation game. Hard enough that I felt like I'd done enough just to make it past the first level. I love games with simple controls.
Speaking of games, Free Rider is like Line Rider but on a bicycle and with a few more features.
The JetBlue guy has taken his apology/promise to YouTube. This is a worthwhile gesture I think, but I'm not sure his appearance on Letterman last night worked to his benefit. Dave was pretty unforgiving and JetBlue guy (Neeleman) ended up doing more evasion than an honest person should. Turning contrition into celebrity is unbecoming.
The site hosting this giant hornet photo looks pretty serious so I don't think the photo is fake. I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted Web personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their floating pollen gardens.
Somewhere out there a teachers conference is viewing a PowerPoint slide show with this image and learning the importance of keeping up with how their students speak.
Homework link of the day: Secrets of Self Taught Web Developers: 115 Resources to Help You Develop on the Web
Speaking of teaching yourself Web stuff,
"For anyone who is interested in learning Photoshop, YouTube (and other video sites) can be a good source of free learning that you might not have thought of." I find most of these types of tutorials to be a little hard to follow. There's usually no sound and there are pulldown menus flying all over the place. That said, if you have some familiarity with Photoshop and you're good at learning things on your own, you'll recognize some of what's going on in the tutorial.
GlobalTop GPS & Bluetooth HUD speed meter for your windscreen - If I understand this correctly, this will project an image on your windscreen. Apparently some cars come standard with this, but I've never tried it. It seems like it would be really distracting.
The other side of the Fermi paradox is a review of a book called "If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens… Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life." (Reminder: "The Fermi paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence of contact with such civilizations.")
