Dear tortured sinner...
Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 1:36 AM by Will Femia
It's difficult for me to tell if "
You've Been Left Behind" is a joke but from what I understand about the Rapture and the folks who believe it in the site seems pretty accurate. The general idea is that you pay a subscription fee for them to host messages written to people you know who haven't accepted Christ. When the Rapture comes, your messages are delivered. At first glance I thought the messages were just for gloating but it turns out there's a hitch in the Rapture that last minute repentance can get you into Heaven if you act quickly, so these messages would encourage your left-behind loved ones to do so.
The detail I like the best is the way the system determines when the Rapture has taken place. There are six employees who log in every day. When three of them go too long (a few days) without logging in, the system assumes they've gone to Heaven and the Rapture is upon us.
Speaking of folks with passionate religious beliefs, I don't imagine they're very big fans of Bill Maher who makes no secret of his disdain for religion. His standing with them won't be helped once his new movie comes out in which he literally calls religious people crazy or, as is the title,
Religulous. Maher's also launched
DisbeliefNet.
Speaking of making religious people unhappy - or at least the evolution-denying religious people,
Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab. This article is not as thrilling as the sci fi novel the headline conjures to mind but it's still pretty fascinating. The scientist has been growing bacteria for twenty years to study its changes over time (aka evolution). That's over 44,000 generations he's observed.
Lest I seem to be treating scientists with too much reverence, silliest line of the day: "Some scientists think they'll learn more by
blasting missiles into it."
Scientists have located the
exact center of the Internet.
Google Good News is not real news but if you suffer from news-induced anxiety it maybe worthwhile to convince yourself that it is.
The varying impact of gas prices - It's a(nother) nice set of informative graphics from the Times. The contrast in gas prices from New York to New Jersey has always perplexed me. I guessed it had to do with proximity to shipping and the harbor or something like that but now it looks more like it has to do with taxes.
Massive protests daily in Korea and
it's the Web's fault. When you consider the number of powerful corporate and governmental interests that are undermined by the Internet, it's a wonder it's not the subject of an all out war to eradicate it or at least relegate it to nerd basements and CB clubs.
Most of the times I consult a dictionary it's for help with spelling but the interface for
Visuwords is so cool it makes me want to think of reasons to use it.
Also cool, the
Visual Dictionary, giving you a labeled diagram related to your search term.
Lego patches on old walls, cool or garbage? My first reaction was that it's cool, but I don't see how this is going to age well. Maybe the apparent age of the walls is exaggerating my sense of how lasting the art has to be.
Wii Spray turns your wiimote into a spray can so you can write graffiti on your TV. I'm not sure I really care to do that but the photos farther down the page show what a clever idea it is anyway.
The Democratic primary race in 8 minutes is WAY more fun than the actual Democratic primary race and it has the same plot and ending. I feel a little ripped off that I spent all this time watching the long version. (P.S. Charlie Todd is not NBC Political Director Chuck Todd.)
Sling announces proof-of-concept SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone - "Proof-of-concept" is a pretty long way away from reality but the implication is clear enough to be exciting. As you may know, Slingbox is a device that allows you to watch your TV on your computer from anywhere. Not "a" TV or Web versions of shows but your TV signal specifically. What this little video is about is using that same idea to send your TV's signal to your iPhone.
"Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don't seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets?
Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer?"
