Wider Angle: Wider Angle Sunday Reader

This piece of BoingBoing reader mail made my week. "Stop praising,singing,loving,serving,and adoring that thing, that piece of trash,that thing that was made up and doesn't even exist, when you should be praising,singing,loving,serving and adoring the HOLY THE ONE AND ONLY GOD.Please belive me." Pick up The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at Amazon. From one of the reviews: "Come forward all of you lost people and discover the truth that will set you free." UPDATE: My mom via email: "You have converted me. I now bow down to [Flying] Spaghetti Monster... All hail pasta!"

The DEA says that 98% of marijuana plants seized are untended and not grown for smoking, proving their efforts just shy of entirely useless. The Governmental Accountability Office also reported that the anti-drug advertisements on television make drug use seem a lot more prevalent than it actually is, which encourages kids to try them, and have had no effect on overall drug use whatsoever. The ads cost taxpayers $1 billion.

Target is being sued under the ADA over the design of their website. A judge has ruled that sites that sell stuff and offer services are thus obligated to comply with the ADA guidelines for accessibility. While a small pain for web developers, I see this as a step in the right direction for the future of the internets. However, I think Target should be given the opportunity to redesign their template (it should have already been accessible) if they haven't been already.

These cut-out paper designs are language-defyingly beautiful. The delicacy, intent, concept, process, and aestheticism combine so perfectly so as to render each work a masterpiece.

The EPA will be purchasing all of its power green as of this month. [via Treehugger]

ABC is promoting "The Path to 9/11" as "The official true story" in ads outside the United States, as it will be simulcast worldwide. That presents a number of questions. First, how can they claim it's true in advertising when spokespersons have been saying most of the show, if not all, is fictional? Second, the word "official" instantly triggered a few alarms. I have been wondering why exactly ABC would sacrifice at least $30 million, probably over $40 million, to broadcast this fictional docudrama. And how? It's unprecedented. "Official" implies governmental approval, if not outright support, possibly financially.

Photos and video have surfaced of the Banksy vs. Hilton prank.

A section of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 could make donating art to museums far less financially attractive than selling it, which could drastically reduce donations and, thus, the public's access to great works of past and future. [via ArtsJournal]

Lore Sjöberg, one of my favorite writers at Wired News, devised some ultimate blog posts for many popular weblogosites in the blogohedron. "Kottke: Elwin Festerator is the unsung inventor of the curly telephone cord. 'I looked at a straight telephone cord, and I asked myself, Elwin, why can't that be curly? So I went out and got my brand-new curling gun, and I curled the hell out of it.' Related link: New Yorker article on the Olympic curling team."

New Yorker article on Hayao Miyazaki reprinted at the New America Foundation. [via shey.net]

Forget snakes on a plane. (I dare you.) Try cockroaches in a television studio. Weatherlarity ensues!

"Geoplasma is planning to build a power plant in St. Lucie County, Florida that will generate electricity by vaporizing landfill trash and sewage treatment plant sludge with plasma arcs. It will be the first plant of its kind in the USA and the largest in the world. The power plant is expected to destroy 3000 tons of garbage, generating about 120 megawatts of electricity per day. The plant will also supply steam to a nearby Tropicana juice plant. The landfill is expected to be depleted in about 18 years. In addition, up to 600 tons of melted, hardened sludge will be produced each day and will be sold for road construction." [via Slashdot]

Fiber optics are slowly beginning to replace fluorescent lighting despite their costly installation. They generate no heat and use much less electricity, which is only getting more expensive. "The Declaration of Independence is lit by a Fiberstars system because the light source does not emit ultraviolet rays or heat. 'We just did the Magna Carta a couple of months ago,' John Davenport, CEO of Fiberstars said."

The minute Flavorpill mentions an event, it's instantly not worth going to. Is that what I am to glean from Lisa Rosman, "longtime contributor"?

While attending SCAD, I remixed Freeland's "We Want Your Soul" and made a video for it for my Multimedia Design class. The assignment was to create a montage using iMovie. It's fairly obvious that I'm an obnoxious overachiever, but it's worked out for me so far.

A rumination on what drives the impulses of men and women, it's one of the funniest things I've ever read. [via reddit]

The Earth is 6,000 Years Old. Everything from xkcd is awesome. [thanks Jacob]

There is some marriage advice (most marriage advice) that is stupid, trite, and wholly misguided. This is not such advice. If you want to make a marriage work, reading this would be a good start. "6. Headphones; separate closets." [via reddit]

Shakira, despite her shitty music, should be credited for taking a history lesson in every new place she visits by a professor on sabbatical. That's quite a privilege to be able to do and really admirable; it almost instills faith that not all stars on the pop charts are aspirationally stupid.

Classic stop-mo animation "Gumbasia" by Art Clokey (the Gumby dude!) is up on Veoh. [via waxy]

Dolphins are but swimming human children. "Not only do dolphins recognize their mirror images, but they can also watch TV. Language-trained chimps only learned to respond appropriately to TV screens after a long period of training. In contrast, Lou Herman's dolphins responded appropriately the very first time they were exposed to television."

President Bush thinks all Jews are going to hell. This would be a concern if 1) we did not already know he thought this, or 2) there were any "afterlife" after the temporary learning state English language-speaking humans call "consciousness", the only purpose of which is to make decisions to ensure survival of the organism.

You probably read, heard, or saw that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes finally published pictures of their adopted Asian baby. I support them 100%, but I think the kid could have landed better parents. At least he or she will be properly cared for by a competent staff.

Lastly, in gadget news that could not be any more relevant to a Sunday afternoon unless it were a self-affixing cold compress, Asahi has invented v1.0 of its BeerBot. Hopefully v2.0 will come on command and be able to grab its own glass from the mini-fridge, but we'll take things one pour at a time.

Labels: Sunday Reader

Wider Angle Sunday Reader - 09.10.06