We've really been into The Lonely Island and were stoked when they joined Saturday Night Live this year. Like pretty much everyone else, we thought the Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia short was totally hilarious, especially the "Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious" part of said comedy piece. In fact, our designer Micah really wanted to make a "Crazy Delicious" shirt this morning, so we printed up a few dozen as a one time thing. Since the dudes publish their Lonely Island material under a Creative Commons license we thought it was only right that we donate the proceeds from these sales to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The $300 million in advertising being provided to AOL can be spent on traditional text ads or on these new experimental formats, the executives close to the talks said; AOL will have to bid on the advertisements in Google's auction and will be charged out of the $300 million allotment.

One format being discussed is a box, which may include a photograph and a logo, that would appear on the main search results pages toward the bottom of the advertisements in the right-hand column. Traditional banner ads may appear on Google Image Search and the Froogle shopping site, which already include many photographs, an executive involved said. No advertising is contemplated for the Google home page.

In addition to the $300 million in advertising, Google has agreed to help put content from AOL on other parts of its site as well. Google, for example, will look for content and services from AOL to include in a feature it calls One Box, which puts very specific links and content above regular results for certain search topics, an executive involved in the negotiations said.

What’s the purpose for Google as a proxy? We often use office/school/university connections, usually those services are set to provide more safety, blocking the access to undesired web sites (the “black list”). What you can do now is use Google translator service (language tools) as a proxy to bypass the restrictions set for our connection!

“Working passengers began lining up their laptops to share the power from a couple of working outlets – particularly the reporters who urgently needed to prepare their articles to transmit during a quick refueling stop in England.

“But when Cheney said his iPod needed to be recharged, it took precedence above all else and dominated one precious outlet for several hours. The vice president’s press staff intervened so a reporter could use the outlet for 15 minutes to charge a dead laptop, but then the digital music device was plugged back in.”

"All the transit workers have to do is listen to their international (union) that's urged them to go back to work, listen to the judge who ordered them back to work, and look at their families and their own economic interests," he said. "They should go back to work. Nobody's above the law, and everyone should obey the law."

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose tone had been muted in past days, decried the strike as "thuggish" and "selfish," and declared that negotiations - which the city does not participate in - should not resume until the 33,700 subway and bus workers return to their jobs. The mayor said the transit workers "decided they don't care about the people they work for."

At about 3 AM last night, the Transportation Workers Union officially began their strike against the MTA, shutting down the city’s subways and bus lines and transforming New York from a functioning metropolis to a dripping shitbag of inconvenience. Or, for those of you who don’t have to trek into the office: SNOWDAY!

If you’ve no choice but to walk or bike to work, we salute your bravery (high of about 35°F today, kids); for those of you planning on sharing a cab with strangers, pack your shiv.

From before dawn, police set up checkpoints at bridge and tunnel entrances and at 96th Street in Manhattan, turning away cars carrying fewer than four people as well as trucks.

Cars and taxis were backed up, waiting up to 40 minutes to get into Manhattan, where traffic was still moving because so many cars were being refused entry. Many commuter buses, suburban trains and ferries were still running and some Wall Street firms had provided shuttle buses from major hubs.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the "intelligent design" explanation for the origin of life cannot be taught in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district.

The Dover Area School Board violated the Constitution when it ordered that its biology curriculum must include "intelligent design," the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled.

In his nationally televised news conference this morning, President Bush told the press corps that it hurts his feelings whenever he hears that he doesn't care about black people.

That's sort of like the way people in Sudan say it hurts their bodies whenever they hear the President refer to his Darfur policy as "Where?" But then again, it's sort of not like that at all.

Just sayin'.

In a statement released a few minutes ago, CNN announced that Novak would be parting ways with the network on December 31

God knows how it'll stand up to repeated viewings - it's not a short film and there are patches where you could find fault - but for the moment I can only say that there's never been a blockbuster like this, it's going to clean up everywhere and I'd put money on it putting years on Speilberg. Unbeatable. Amazing. Must see. Wow.

Our sources on the Paramount lot have been buzzing about this all afternoon, panicked that the deal was imminent and that layoffs were on the way. On the bright side, DVDs from the DreamWorks library should soon be available for a mere $4 to the Paramount employees who keep their jobs.

Pryor died after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

Music producer
Quincy Jones described Pryor as a true pioneer of his art.

"He was the Charlie Parker of comedy, a master of telling the truth that influenced every comedian that came after him," Jones said in a statement. "The legacy that he leaves will forever be with us."

[F]or one thing I would put fewer teeth in our mouths. I would put fewer bones in our face, so that it could drain properly. I would straighten up the pelvis so we wouldn't have to have that bend. I would certainly take out the appendix so we don't have that problem and the tonsils, too.

And I did have one other. Some guy from Texas listed a number of things with this and he said, "Actually I would write more, but I have to go pee in Morse code, because some idiot designed my aging prostate."

If you can't find something catchy to listen to here, you've given up.

The law assumes that a marriage will produce children and affords benefits based on that assumption. It sets up heterosexual marriage as the cultural, social and legal ideal in an effort to discourage unmarried childbearing."

Marriage laws are not primarily about adult needs for official recognition and support but about the well-being of children and society, and such preference constitutes a rational policy decision.

It’s catchy, sort of. But don’t fall for it, kids. Because, sure, the Coke side of life is a lot of fun at first. But then the sun’s up, it’s 8 a.m., you’re still huddled around your friend’s coffee table, you’ve drained every last can and 2-liter bottle, and you realize there’s no choice but to head home, where you know won’t be able to go to sleep — or maintain an erection — for hours.

And — take our word for it — that’s when you hate the Coke side of life.

British and US scientists have produced a remarkable map of the underside of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).

It shows in unprecedented detail the mountains, troughs and lakes that lie under the great ice mass.

Researchers have long wondered about the stability of the WAIS given that so much of it is grounded below sea level.

The new radar data gathered by scientific planes will now be used to model with greater confidence how the region might respond to a warmer world.

WWF caught two images of the animal, which is bigger than a domestic cat, dark red, and has a long muscular tail.

Local people, the WWF says, had not seen the species before, and researchers say it looks to be new.

The WWF says there is an urgent need to conserve forests in south-east Asia which are under pressure from logging and the palm oil trade.

The creature, believed to be carnivorous, was spotted in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, which lies in Indonesian territory on Borneo.

[...]

"You don't find new mammals that often, and to do so must be extraordinary," said Callum Rankine, head of the species programme at WWF-UK.

The study of nearly 10,000 people showed that those who drank more than two cups of coffee or tea per day developed chronic liver disease at half the rate of those who drank less than one cup each day.

A senior telecommunications executive said yesterday that Internet service providers should be allowed to strike deals to give certain Web sites or services priority in reaching computer users, a controversial system that would significantly change how the Internet operates.

William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

[...]

Several big technology firms and public interest groups say that approach would enshrine Internet access providers as online toll booths, favoring certain content and shutting out small companies trying to compete with their offerings.

[...]

In a recent letter to Congress, a coalition of technology companies called on members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to strengthen the draft bill's "network neutrality" provisions, some of which were recently changed in response to lobbying by telephone and cable firms.

"The incredible potential of broadband will be severely compromised if network operators are permitted to be the gatekeepers of the Internet, deciding what content, applications and services succeed or fail on the Internet," wrote the coalition, which includes Amazon.com Inc., eBay Inc., Google and IAC/InterActive Corp.

Having one of those days? Someone at the offive giving you the hump? Got rained on at lunch? Hair? Him? And that?

Don't worry, girls. Just relax on a big, snuggly sofa with a steaming mug of hot chocolate (lo-cal, natch!) and think about scrummy guys, etc, etc. With adverts for products aimed primarily at females aged 20-35, you can virtually hear the brains of lumpen creatives filling in the cliché boxes with a big lazy tick: okay ... vulnerable, likes snuggling up, 'having one of those days?', shake it all off with ... bubbles, thinking about scrummy guys, lo-cal hot chocolate ... pamper pamper, more hot chocolate, mmmm, steamy and warm, mmmm, bubbles, luxuriant bubble bath absolutely everywhere ... 'having one of those days?' ... more bubbles. Candles!

Bish bash bosh. Right! Lunchy?

MT writes "The New York Times is running an interesting article entitled Hooked On The Web: Help is on the Way. It says that internet addiction is being taken more seriously by big business and mental health workers, and affects a large population (6%-10% of all users)."

People want information. 6-10% of the people thrive on knowing weird things. Does it mean we're hooked? I'm the same kid who loved the encyclopedia as well as odd old books that no one would read. The fact that I can now integrate with billions of others simultaneously adding/revising/editing/deleting the synopses of information that exist is mindblowing. Just 15 years ago I was running a BBS with a thousand or so users and I couldn't believe that one 16 year old kid could interact with so many people in such a large area (a hundred square miles). Now I look at the e-mails I receive from my blogs from people in South Africa and Australia and even Kansas. What is the end game for me? Information.