Ninjas, this means war
Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 12:07 PM by Will Femia
Female 'Ninjas' Rob Richland Gas Station With Sword, Dagger - That's pretty much the whole story except that New York City has also been dealing with a ninja burglar. This can mean only one thing: it's time for a war on ninjas. Sorry al Qaeda, we're moving on. ADDING: Dear Ninja, what's the deal?
Speaking of fun with thievery, creative writing assignment seed line: "oh my god... bill this is the thief!! LOL" - Ready, go! Actually, this hardly needs any creative thinking to be a good story. Someone uploaded photos to a Flickr account on a stolen laptop and because the Flickr account was cookied, they posted the photos to the account of the rightful laptop owner. The suspicion is that the photo is of the thief. I suppose there's something Web 2.0 about the idea of making your own mug shot. BoingBoing has more links: Presumed idiot criminal uploads pix of self from stolen iMac
Speaking of creative writing, The World's Weirdest/Stupidest Conspiracy Theories - A list of most clever conspiracy theories would be fun too.
The Pollster.com Disclosure Project: "Starting today we will begin to formally request answers to a limited but fundamental set of methodological questions for every public poll asking about the primary election released in, for now, a limited set of states."
Speaking of defining the terms, how do you define sectarian violence?
Speaking of definitions, it is definitional to the Commuter Click that I'm initially discouraged by its length but find myself so absorbed that I have to print it out and take it with me. That's what happened with this piece when my curiosity about the "where is she now" of the angry segregationist in the famous Little Rock photo turned into a lot of lost time on a really compelling human story. (And by the way, this is the third Vanity Fair piece I've recommended in the past couple weeks. Did they re-do their Web site? I don't recall every clicking their articles before.)
For those who think too visually to bother with text blogging there's Sketchcast. It's like recording your white board sketch or like a coach drawing a play with circles and crosses.
“Simpsons” Scenes and their Reference Movies - Frames from the Simpsons matched with their corresponding movie frame. This took some serious (and important) work.
Speaking of serious work, who are this year's MacArthur fellows? I'm not sure why I was so interested in this list. I think because as a whole it reflects standards we don't usually see celebrated. As far as I know, none of these people have been photographed exiting a car in a miniskirt without underwear.
Speaking of geniuses, Tattoo regrets - Spell check, people!
I think this is related spam but I still thought it was funny: Tattoo lovers dating. Every time I see a dating site I thank the stars I met my wife before the Internet age. I can't imagine dating this way.
Bush's UN Speech Full of Fone-eh-tick Pronunciations for World Leaders - I know this'll give Bush bashers a tickle but I don't think it's a fair shot. Reading off a teleprompter is a whole different ball game from reading off a page. I've seen phonetics in teleprompter scripts. I've even see "take a breath here" marks. I'm not saying I think the president really knows how to pronounce the names of these countries but the use of phonetics in teleprompter scripts isn't a scandal.
"A photographic collection of faces found in everyday places." Or, "Everything is staring at me."
Speaking of seeing things, the case of that missing girl Madeleine McCann has the peculiar element of sightings all over the world. I read this item and followed the link to the supposed photo of her in Morocco. (Yes, that tiny one of a girl on a person's back.) A missing child is serious, so I don't want to make jokes about Elvis sightings, but that's what came to mind.
Bed-wetter Nation - Compares the visit by Nikita Khrushchev in 1959 to the visit by Ahmadinejad this week and accuses America of becoming "a pants-piddling mess." I've been thinking lately, in light of our look at the application of the taser last week, that the frantic reaction to Ahmadinejad is more a reflection of our relatively new "zero tolerance" culture. Whether we're arresting 8-year-olds for having two inch pocket knives or electrocuting unarmed obnoxious people, we seem to have lost our wiggle room. I understand why: Wiggle room on students and weapons yields horrifying killing sprees. Wiggle room on terrorism yields 9/11. But sometimes the phenomenon does seem to get the better of our reason. I'm open to refutation and changing my mind on this, it's just a thought I've been nursing lately.
Other Ahmadinejad items I clicked:
That's not Meg White in that sex tape. (This link is safe for work. Click beyond this at your own risk.)
Ravelry - A knitting social site launching soon. It's amazing how much power this hobby has online. I think the Today show needs a knitting reporter.
