http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspxToday's entry is mostly catching up on links that were hot last week that I didn't get a chance to review because of Virginia Tech coverage. Since many of the newsier items are already old, today's entry is a little on the fluffy side, but there areen-USCommunityServer 2.0 (Build: 60608.1)http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166793Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:31:55 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166793Emily, Toledo, OHThe Will Ferrell video has been removed from YouTube.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166804Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:36:42 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166804John Doe, Seattle, Wash.The Will Ferrell clip has been taken down, Will.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166824Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:46:21 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166824Randall K, St. Louis, MOComment from the page on the Supercooled Water: "I for one welcome our new supercooled overlords"http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166829Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:49:09 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166829Randall K, St. Louis, MOOh, and the contronyms blow my freakin' mind. How have I been speaking English for 30 years and NOT have picked up on that?http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166852Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:59:22 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166852Cheapy McCheapersonWSJ is a pay site. That's no fun! Now I can't read "The Art of Showing Pure Incompetence At an Unwanted Task" Boo. Hiss.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166867Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:05:12 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166867Joe SHi Will, there sure are rules for lowering the flag to half staff, as provided by the The Flag Code, section 7, paragraph m.(http://www.legion.org/documents/word/flagcode.doc). Being a scout leader, we teach a lot of this to the boys, but I don't think schools do anymore. After 9/11 everyone had a flag strapped to anything they could find, and 2 months later there were torn, dirty, forgotten flags all over. I was moved by the initial sense of patriotism, then dismayed by the lack of care and respect. When all the MLB teams sewed flags on their uniforms, I urged Selig to read the flag code himself.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166872Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:06:52 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166872John Doe, Seattle, Wash.There are food artists that create and sculpt the food solely for presentation in commericals and ads. There are rules concerning how much of the presentation must be actual food, but they paint it and glue it and make it look perfect. These people are paid to make the food look perfect.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166882Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:09:53 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166882John Doe, Seattle, Wash.Oops, forgot to include a link that describes how to make the food look like the ads. http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/advertisingtricks/foodadtricks.htmlhttp://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166910Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:23:16 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166910BarbaraWow, that one video of the kid crashing his father's new car brought back memories for me, albeit my incident was on a much smaller scale. I rode my brand new (to me) minibike for the first time, after my father built it for me, and ran the thing headlong, straight into my neighbor's brand spanking new white car. The minibike was bright, burnt orange. And it left a nice dent and long orange skidmark down the side of the car. I know that I was sure glad that I didn't speak Korean, because I really didn't want to know what the neighbor was saying at that point in time. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166917Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:25:30 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166917Will FemiaOK, The Will Farrell thing is here http://funnyordie.com/v1/landing.php And there's a Yahoo version of the Wall Street Journal link http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/102876/the-art-of-showing-pure-incompetence-at-an-unwanted-task I'll fix them in the body in a sec.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166918Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:25:33 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166918SeanWill, About the "172,150 tracks in this guy's iPod collection.", do you really think he actually purchased all of the tracks? $170,000 is a lot to spend on music...http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166958Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:42:09 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166958E, Alexandria, VAValidation at last! I KNEW I wasn't alone in my assertion that Diet Coke tastes best straight from a can...http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#166991Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:55:11 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:166991John Doe, Seattle, Wash.My absolutely favorite word for about 7 years now has been cleave, simply because it's a contronym, plus it also mixed science and religion.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167000Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:59:26 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167000AJ, OhioI'm all for living a greener life, and spreading conservation, but I do have a problem with one TP square per visit. Is Sheryl using some sort of super-nice, thick and plush TP that I don't know about? Because one square of my toilet paper wouldn't quite cut it, let alone the super-thin commercial TP used in public places and offices. Might as well wipe with my bare hand, for all the good 1 square would do... "I have no square to spare..."http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167242Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:06:09 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167242Vivgrin, my friends say I have "too Much" at 50k songs and 161 gigs in my iTunes - course I also have 3 500 gig drives for a total of 1700 gigs attached to my computer. Been hanging out way too much at the local Goodwill, Half Price books and such - LOTS of classical, jazz, celtic and dementia!http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167410Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:24:38 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167410Scott Stockton CaliforniaSpeaking of adding wood to new technology look at this site for making a retro keyboard. Why don't they sell stuff that looks like this. I would buy it. http://steampunkworkshop.com/keyboard.shtml click around the site for other cool stuffhttp://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167488Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:08:59 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167488Daniel YunghansRegarding the Daisy dust-up, I would amend your comment to say 'what THE GUY did to him...' If you go to a show and don't like it for whatever reason, it's your right to get up and leave as undisruptively (ruptively?) as possible and you shouldn't be called a coward for doing so. Perhaps ignorant or uninformed, but not a coward. If this was a choral or some other group of chaperoned HS kids then the responsibility is to see that these children aren't exposed to direct, explicit and repeated descriptions of intercourse. The sneaking out was fine but the destruction of the artist's work was not. Mr. Daisy both owes and is owed an apology.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167665Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:35:46 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167665Steve Ackerman, Voorhees, NJWill, I greatly respect you and your column. You provide me with a multitude of new ideas and interesting articles (not to mention funny, yet intelligent videos) that I genuinely look forward to. However, your link to the "blood pillows" is way too soon. Images of dead college-age students, whether pretend or not, is not something college students want to see, the parents and friends of the victims want to see, nor something I want to see. To mention that we may be able to "laugh" this week is great - if were speaking of humorous media, not a national tragedy. Respectfully, Steve Ackermanhttp://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167675Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:41:56 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167675Will FemiaAJ, maybe she uses some kind of advanced geometry for an especially efficient wiping pattern. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167688Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:49:51 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167688Will FemiaScott, they're starting to make more stuff like that. Recently I saw some thumb drives in fashion colors in one of my wife's magazines. Without trying to sound too sexist, I think the more women get involved in technology the more variety we'll see in its look. On a larger scale, we'll probably see better looking technology when people stop putting their computers in the home office or back room with all the wires and random CD and junk. When computers are more integrated into our lives, they'll be treated more like furniture (stylisticly) than scientific instruments. Of course, the cell phone would seem to prove me wrong. Women use them as much as men, and they're integrated into our lives. They do come with more styling options than computers, but they're still just plastic boxes. I guess my last idea is that we'll see cooler custom gadgets when the costs get lower. I assume there's nothing cheaper than the cases that are currently used. And there's probably nothing more expensive than the kind of precision wood craftsmanship necessary to make a wooden phone. I don't know. I've written this whole answer and I still don't agree with myself. I have no idea why we don't see basic technology in cooler packaging.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167689Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:50:56 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167689Will FemiaSteve, sorry about that. I guess it's a curse of my occupation that I move a little too easily from one story to the next. I'll try to be more careful.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#167712Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:07:33 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:167712Alex, Lawrence, KSYou can do the supercooled water trick with superheated water too. You superheat the water to above boiling, then when you pour it, it turns to steam and evaporates. It's the poor man's way to make fog!http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#168449Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:14:58 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:168449LVWhat I find interesting about "apology" is not that it's a contronym, it's that we (at least in the U.S.) tend to use it separately from both its meanings. We consider the apology to be "I'm sorry about X happening," and the admission or defense to be what comes next ("and I realize my mistakes/but I didn't do anything wrong"). "Apology" has come to mean "I feel badly" distinct from any admission/denial of guilt. So it's a contronym that isn't really used to mean _either_ of its denotations! Language evolution indeed.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#168617Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:18:31 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:168617Carol Anne SeattlePool of Blood pillows: I didn't need to see these now or ever.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#168831Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:52:27 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:168831Chris Browningpool of blood pillows. ooops. not cool. LOVE ME SOME CLICKED THOUGHhttp://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#168896Thu, 26 Apr 2007 04:28:25 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:168896Robert Epstein - Beaverton, ORHi, Typed "Giant Brass balls" into google to see the results. Saw Colbert, as you predicted, then saw a featured ad for Testicles for sale. Followed the link and it was an ebay search for testicles. First item, bumper sticker. Second item: t-shirt. Last item: "The right to cut my balls off" http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-RIGHT-TO-CUT-MY-TESTICLES-OFF_W0QQitemZ160110548157QQihZ006QQcategoryZ1469QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemhttp://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#168913Thu, 26 Apr 2007 04:53:04 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:168913Kirk PowellOne of the comments on here mentioned that "Images of dead college-age students, whether pretend or not, is not something college students want to see, the parents and friends of the victims want to see, nor something I want to see." And what bothered me? Not the hilarious blood pool pillows. No, it was the writers expectation of correctness. As though there is some clear standard that you have violated. But the myth of political correctness is shrouded in its own definitions. To even challange the notion of that correctness or its efficacy, one finds themselves banished for the thought. A standard that isn't defined and can't be discussed? While at work recently, a group of my associates and I were having a conversation. At some point, someone made a comment about a co-worker that was less than positive. Which then gave way to talk about some interesting topics. Before long, it became apparent that one of the people in the group was unhappy with our conversation. We had offended him. Why? Because he felt that we had mocked someone else. His feelings became the standard that we all had to instantly adjust to. The consequence being, that we are not allowed to say things that might be deamed inappropriate by anyone. And that definition is determined by the listener. This listening definition eliminates speech with peer pressure. This is known as Politically Correct speech. Am I less of a human being because I think blood pillows are funny? Or because I am too daft to connect them to the Va Tech slayings? (I didn't connect them to the school shooting until I read that response ...) Am I un-American for even asking the question? Americans have become increasingly obsessed with politically correct speech. A high-ranking government official was dismissed for using a word correctly. (He used the word "niggerly" [grab a dictionary if you need to...]). Does that get my posting banned? Bring on the blood pillows. Bring on the nasty foul mouthed rants of theatre. Bring on the "insert offensive material here." Bring on the pictures of Mohammed. Bring on the nigger word ... uh-oh ... now, if I'm black am I allowed to say that? uh-oh ... am I allowed to refer to myself as black? I think I'm supposed to be African-American. Grr. Trying to keep up with politically correct speech is exhausting. What I am is a human being. Deserving of respect and dignity. As all people are. I give no one power to control my emotions with their speech; especially when it is filled with hate. People have a right to not like each other. Mature people respect that right. Immature people try to change others with their superior correctness. PS: I'm not black or African-American. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#168927Thu, 26 Apr 2007 05:08:28 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:168927Randall K, St. Louis, MOWill, I disagree witht he others on the pillows. You made it clear what they were pre-click, so if someone thought it might be bothersome to them they could have easily avoided the click. With that sort of dark humor you either think its funny or your don't. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#168997Thu, 26 Apr 2007 11:35:27 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:168997T, Knoxville, TNWithout trying to upset anyone's delicate sensabilities, Sheryl Crow is an idiot! Maybe eating all that nature food and stuff makes her feces easily cleaned by 1 square, but that wouldn't touch the aftermath of a mexican lunch. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#169071Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:13:01 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:169071Tim, Knoxville, TennesseeAnd for the record, When I viewed the clip from Mike Daisy, I found it funny, but the way he chose to verbalize the joke seemed to rely more on sahock value of the language than the actual joke underneath. It was funny. Because that is probably exactly what Paris Hilton is thinking. But his choice of language is his choice as was the choice of the people who came to see him to leave bcause of it. That guy who poured water on his notes overstepped the line of acceptability, but in no way should Mike have tried to engage the audience in a debate over why they did not want to watch his show ("Maam, lets talk about it...use the english language like an adult instead of just walking out...etc"). I would have probably had to walk out to. The quote I heard was a little too vulgar for me as well. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#169215Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:59:10 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:169215Chad, MesaActually we don't lower the flag to half staff, we raise the flag to half staff, a subtle but important distinction that honors the dead and the flag at the same time.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/24/166700.aspx#169481Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:35:18 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:169481Emily, Arlington, VAKirk, without going into any of the other aspects of your posting...the word is "niggardly," meaning stingy or miserly.