Point break
Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:57 PM by Will Femia
The discovery of this site purporting to be that of a plastic surgeon offering "ear pointing" has the subject floating around the Web on this appropriate day. Not everyone believes the site is real but the the procedure definitely is. More images here and here but NOTE: they include the "healing" stage which is a cut ear with stitches, so kinda gross.
Speaking of Halloween items, here's a tutorial on carving an image from a photo into your jack-o-lantern.
Speaking of "speaking of," I don't have any in this entry as I just want to share the links before I have a back-log, rather than wait to see trends in the tea leaves. I'm sure that's your preference as well.
I was reading this piece from Steve Rubel about the Web 2.0 bubble and followed a link to the answer to a question I've been wondering for a long time. What is the definition of mainstream? According to my NBC colleague Beth Comstock, something is mainstream when it's in 40% of houses.
Zoom into Da Vinci's The Last Supper in great detail.
This is neat, though it's hard to think of its use. Edits to Wikipedia show up on a map in real time. Someone from the UK just edited the Baked Beans entry.
Top Places To Get Free and Legal Music - I've found that in most cases "free and legal" music is music I've never heard of. But that doesn't mean there aren't gems to be discovered.
"The future of Islamic reform lies with post-Islamism - a recognition that politics rather than religion provides for welfare in this life." This is the last in this guy's series on Islamic reform. I've only clicked a few but enjoy his insights and frankly, his analysis is the only of its kind that I'm aware of on what is arguably an important and extremely relevant (and prone to manipulative parody and generalization) subject.
Brijit reads, summarizes and recommends magazine articles so you don't have to. (And apparently you can get paid for participating.)
Mice standing on a vibrating floor lost fat and grew stronger bones. What are the implications for sitting on a vibrating motorcycle an hour a day?
Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine has decided to punish PR people who pitch him inappropriately by publishing their e-mail addresses on his blog. In case you're not aware, there are programs out there that search the web for X@Y.Z configurations and enter them into spam databases, so by publishing these addresses this way he's pretty much guaranteeing these people will suffer a new wave of spam. Then again, maybe they deserve it. Interesting discussion in the comments.
Latest Google release that's we're going to hear about forever: OpenSocial. "It is a set of common APIs that application developers can use to create applications that work on any social networks (called “hosts”) that choose to participate." "This is the exact same concept as the Facebook platform, with two huge differences:" Facebook stuff is exclusive to Facebook only, OpenSocial isn't. And Facebook stuff is written in special Facebook language, OpenSocial uses common language.
A bizarre, unsolicited e-mail - This is a long read with a lot of links so if you're not interested in pulling your hair out over pundit blog squabbles you may prefer to skip it. Still, it contains a lot of interesting elements and Glenn Greenwald's transparent blogging style reminds me of the old days when blogs were expected to change the face of journalism. In short, anti-war bloggers are complaining that the military denies information to all but the most sympathetic media, leaving critics in the dark and supporters armed with leaked facts and gotchas. Greenwald's essay on the subject appears to have drawn criticism from General Petraeus' spokesman but then he's denied information confirming the source of the mail, finding himself an example of half of his original complaint. The follow-up paints an even stranger portrait of the spokesman. E&P has a summary of the drama.
Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin - I've already said my piece on the return of analog music, but here's a fascinating development:
Because these music fans also listen using portable players and computers, Matador and other labels include coupons in record packaging that can be used to download MP3 versions of the songs. Amory called the coupon program "hugely popular."
In the vein of that "We didn't start the viral" video, the new Mahalo Daily trailer parodies the top video bloggers.
The art of Japanese pen spinning (with great Japanese metal soundtrack) - That's spinning as in twirling, not as in Spirograph. (hey neat)
Speaking of Japanese stuff, did you see the urban camouflage story? Don't miss the slide show.
Stainless Steel Spiders from Stolen Scissors - It's not really clear how to get a bulk shipment of TSA-confiscated scissors but this person makes cool spider sculptures with them. Hey, did you see a Swiss Army knife in that pile? It's the kind with the screwdriver instead of the corkscrew and it's missing the plastic sides.
"Player 1 draws a character with a power. Player 2 then draws a character whose power cancels the power of that previous character. Repeat."
20 Things You Didn't Know About Living In Space
"The Eye-Fi. It's an SD memory card that adds Wi-Fi to any camera. Plus the free Eye-Fi service supports automatic uploads to 20 different web photo sites (like Flickr) as well as a computer on your home network." We've seen anticipation of the Eye-Fi but this is the first review I've seen. Very exciting for those of us nervously watching that little door on the camera get increasingly loose with repeated plug-ins of the download wire.
The Pirate Bay folks are working on a protocol that would replace Bit Torrent. Initial release due early next year.
