May 16, 2007
Blog cost Apple $4B, for a little while
Engadget briefly cost Apple $4 billion today when they posted a fake email about the iPhone being delayed, causing Apple's stock to plunge. While competing gadget blog Gizmodo avoids gloating, there is evidence that some investors made a lot of money from the mistake. Are we seeing the early days of sophisticated stock hacking on the web, as has (incorrectly) been alleged before? Certainly the old pump-and-dump methods are no longer working like they did.
a new Flatland
Two feet wide , twenty eight feet long, forty feet high. The six people that lived there called it flatland. They lived in this clear vinyl space for 15 days. Says the designer: "I see (smell and hear) way more than I want about the habits of the others I am flat [sic] with. The design of the space constructs us in a way that departs from how we culturally understand ourselves (autonomous, private, and with options for movement). After six days in Flatland I feel more like a pet than a person."
Block time-wasting websites using the Invisibility Cloak
Gina Trapani's Invisibility Cloak is a GreaseMonkey script for Firefox that blocks time-wasting websites while you're working. Conveniently, MetaFilter is included by default. Previously: Temptation Blocker.
The Agony of Defeat
One man appeared more often than any other on the sports anthology ABC's Wide World of Sports: Yugoslavian ski jumper Vinko Bogataj, whose spectacular 1970 crash was shown in the show's opening montage to the words "and the agony of defeat." (Despite the brutality of the crash, he suffered only a concussion.) He still lives in his hometown of Lesce, Slovenia, and since retiring from his factory job in 2005 has devoted himself to critically acclaimed painting. Charmingly enough, he had no idea of his celebrity status until he was asked to appear during a special to mark the show's 20th anniversary in 1981.
Instructional videos
doFlick.com is a library of educational and instructional videos. It's short on content at the moment but it could turn out to be a useful resource. Who wouldn't benefit from knowing how to fold a plastic bag neatly?
Baer's Odyssey
Console Portraits: A 40-Year Pictorial History of Gaming. Inventor Ralph Baer designed the first videogame console for the home. In May 1967 he played the first-ever two-player game. "I lost!" Baer notes. At times offensive and controversial, console videogames have survived hard times to remain at the forefront of videogame history, and at times a reflection of ourselves.
Well, he was probably a closet homosexual who did a lot of cocaine. That whole Yale thing.
Second-tier colleges become first-tier colleges. First-tier colleges become fairy tales that New York Times contributors tell their kids about.
the iGod chatterbot
Talk to iGod, the God chatterbot. If you're in the right frame of mind, he's pretty hilarious. If you are feeling neglected by God in other contexts, he will seem very familiar.
He does not pass the Turing test. He speaks in riddles, appears to know very little about you, and he hangs up on you after a few minutes. When you log back on, he says he does not remember. A lot like Waiting for Godot, in fact. (He said he didn't know about that either.)
Dwarf Star Trek Pest Control
All the ads for Hulett Environmental Services have three things in common: bizarre themes, comically low production values, and an all-dwarf cast. For 17 years, diminutive brothers Greg & John Rice have written, produced & starred in a number of insane spots for their pest control company. My personal favorite is this Star Trek themed one, but really they're all pretty awesome.
Is it like having a "drug czar" for the war on drugs -- y'know, only it's for the war on war?
"War Czar" -- another term for "highly paid radio operator"? So the Decider in Chief wants to have a War Czar* in the White House. He appointed Douglas Lute after three other general officers turned him down. Note that Lute, a three-star general, is actually inferior in rank to David Petraeus, the four-star who's commanding the Multi-National Force in Iraq. Black Five had some thoughts on this, as did Jules Crittenden.
Ice hot planet
Scientists have discovered a planet composed of scorching hot ice. Originally thought to be a gas giant due to its mass, its actually only four times the size of Earth and most likely composed of exotic forms of ice, such as Ice VII and Ice X with s surface temperature of 300° C.
Only in Brooklyn.
No rest stop? Try latex. From consumerist.com, a tale of... what can i say? Just a funny story. With pictures.
Toilet seats are cleaner than keyboards
Let's play a smoking game and a drinking game.
Horses are not always good role models. Just in case you thought the craziness was limited to this one book, the authors proudly present a "true crime" glimpse into a shadowy world of... okay, I actually have no idea what they're talking about. Ah, the joys of vanity publishing.
One in 20 is too many.
Nearly 700 cyclists are killed on U.S. roads every year, and more than 540,000 are sent to the emergency room. The annual Ride of Silence was started in 2003 to honor and raise awareness for those tragically killed and injured on the road, and has grown into a worldwide event, with more than 270 confirmed rides planned to start tonight, at 7 p.m. Ride along on YouTube or grab a black armband and join a group near you. [Previously on MeFi]
Church Locking in England
Church Locking: shattering the myth that "all churches are locked". With the aim of visiting every church in England and recording whether it is kept locked or unlocked, this ten-year-old 'side project' now has statistics by county and diocese, county maps, and a map of the country showing their progress.
I just wish I'd asked her to be my date
Cutenewsfilter: Fresno, California high school crowns first transgender prom queen. Woot!
Russian Book Jackets, 1917-1942
Field Guide to Loners
Contrary to popular belief, not all loners have a pathological fear of social contact "Loners often hear from well-meaning peers that they need to be more social, but the implication that they're merely black-and-white opposites of their bubbly peers misses the point."
tween
Brotherly Love.
Unconventional Wisdom: Vote Local, Impact National? The
City
of Philadelphia often serves as a
test-market
for the introduction of goods and services, due to demographics that are
sometimes
representative of the country as a whole. Many of the usual tenets of
political conventional wisdom have not held true in this election. A city
still geographically divided by the artifacts of redlining
did
not have a campaign reflective of the population's breakdown by race
(although the results map
[PDF]
implies a racial deliniation, with a
largely-white
Northeast Philadelphia preferring candidate Knox). The candidate with
the
largest
war chest and most TV advertising did not win. Incumbents with various
amounts of local name
recognition
(and even
the
support of a BIG NAME) could not garner a simple majority of the vote.
Tremendous
Get-Out-The-Vote
(GOTV) efforts by local labor and the party-machine proved fruitless.
And save for
some
swiftboating and alleged
dirty-tricks
at the end, the campaign was fought cleanly. Given that, the recently completed
Primary Election and
Great
Expectations for the
Next
Mayor of the City of Philadelphia may serve as an example of newly-evolving
voter behavior, where a
brainy
policy-wonk is the people's choice versus the usual suspects.
Old Lady Leary Left Her Lantern in the Shed
The Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory compiles a fascinating array of primary sources about the 1871 fire that destroyed 4 square miles of the city of Chicago, killing hundreds and leaving nearly one out of five residents homeless. Explore 3D images, music [embedded], children's drawings, and personal recollections. See also a pictorial survey of the damage, including fused marbles and metal hardware, related documents and images at the Library of Congress, and an exoneration of Mrs. O'Leary and her bovine companion, along with a suggestion by John Lienhart that police corruption and class struggle were more to blame than a cow [embedded audio].
Vigilante Justice is Blind
"America's First Sightless Gunslinger" is upset that Minnesota denied him a gun permit. After all, he has permits from North Dakota and Utah. Carey McWilliams, the shootist, is also worried that North Dakota will lower standards for issuing a permit, but luckily Tucker Carlson is on the job. Videos, explanations of his shooting technique, and links to purchase his autobiography "Guide Dogs and Guns: America's First Blind Marksman Fires Back" (his is also the author of "Moonlight's Meridian: Nuclear Terrorism And the Undead ") are all posted on his personal website. But can we trust this guy? Is he really the first Sightless Gunslinger? Ringo Star and Armand Assante may have something to say about it.
The Darwin Correspondence Project
Darwin wrote to 2000 people during his life; 14,500 of these letters still survive. The Darwin Correspondence Project is putting annotated transcriptions of these online, and they've covered about 5,000 so far, including a letter written when he was 12 after he had got into trouble with his sister for not washing regularly while at school. There's an intro here. See also Darwin Online, discussed here. And the prolific network theorist Albert-Laszlo Barabasi has co-authored a paper on statistical similarities between Darwin's and Einstein's correspondence (#51 on the list).
The best things in life are free, creepy, and require pointing and clicking
5 Days a Stranger. 7 Days a Skeptic. Trilby's Notes. 6 Days a Sacrifice. The great retro-fun of the Chzo Mythos adventure games, all of which are freeware.
How much does your governor make?
Stateline.org has posted the results of a 2007 survey on the salaries of state governors, complete with neato bar graph. The Governator's paycheck was recently voted up, making CA's the highest at $206,500, yet the Hollywood millionaire gives his back. The governor of Maine makes less than his assistant. Jon Corzine of NJ only makes $1 a year (and pays his own medical bills too). Is it heartening to see the relatively moderate salaries alongside the number of executives giving back or refusing increases? Or is it a testimony to the notion that only the wealthy can afford to serve? Or something else altogether?
A man named Pearl
Pearl Fryar just wanted to win Yard of the Month back in 1984. Today his Bishopville, SC garden may be the most original example of outsider art in Southeastern America, and a tourist destination in it's own right.
Yolanda King
Geldof and Bono discuss progress on G8 pledges
Where's the money? [YouTube] In a short interview with the BBC, Bob Geldof and Bono discuss ongoing efforts to get G8 members to fulfil commitments made at the Gleneagles summit, their own credibility or lack of, and whether or not the current focus on climate change is taking attention away from the situation in Africa. This Guardian article has more details.
and the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
Paramount does Neil: Gaiman's book (illustrated by Charles Vess) is being made into a film called Stardust. You can watch the trailer or read the first chapter online. The film is directed by Matthew Vaughn, who doesn't exactly have a strong fantasy background. Cross your fingers, Gaimanites.
"I am not the attorney general. That's the attorney general."
Comey made frantic calls to his own chief of staff and to Robert Mueller, then FBI director, while he raced to the hospital, sirens blasting. He sprinted up the stairs of the hospital to get to Ashcroft's room before Gonzales and Card did. . . . "I couldn't stay if the White House was engaging in conduct that had no legal basis." Comey testifies that there was something of a line to resign that day: Mueller; then Comey's chief of staff; and then Ashcroft's chief of staff—who asked only that Comey wait until "Ashcroft was well enough to resign with me."A
Absoluelty riveting, it reads like a tale out of paperback thriller: in a darkened hospital room, a White House consigliere barges past the sick man's wife, and demands the disoriented Attorney General official sign a paper.
"First, they tried to coerce a man in intensive care -- a man so sick he had transferred the reins of power to Mr. Comey -- to grant them legal approval. Having failed, they were willing to defy the conclusions of the nation's chief law enforcement officer and pursue the surveillance without Justice's authorization." I'm waiting for the movie, but you can watch the video now.
Semiwar
The Semiwarriors: By creating an atmosphere of perpetual crisis, Presidents have expanded their powers and hidden their actions from the public eye. A recent essay by retired Army lieutenant Colonel and current Boston University professor of international relations Andrew J. Bacevich, on "semiwar," a term coined after World War II "to promote permanent quasi mobilization as the essential response to permanent global crisis." Bacevich is the author of The New American Militarism, How Americans Are Seduced by War (previously discussed here and here). Tragically, Bacevich's own son, an Army First Lieutenant, was killed on patrol in Iraq two days ago by an IED.
I'm a great believer in unintended consequences
The Engineer's Plot
To The Brink of Eternity
The League of Gentlemen
Goodbye Mrs Ant
Black Power
A is For Atom
Wey oh wey oh wey oh wey oh.
Fascinated by Egyptian archaeology? View and learn all about the discoveries in Giza, the Valley of the Kings (and Queens), Memphis and Saqqara and the Sphinx from the comfort of home. Depending on today's pesky sandstorms and time of day, you may even be able to see the pyramids from the comfort of your couch. Want to go inside? Yeah, me neither.
Previously.
Previously.
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