| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
 I've just learned, from Wonkette of all places, that Air America has decided to fire Mike Malloy and terminate his program. As of last week, they had assured him he would be on the air for at least another year. There won't be a Malloy program on the air tonight. This hasn't been announced by the network, is not on the AAR site, and will come as a surprise to their loyal listeners who, apparently, they don't give a shit about. And this after just finding out on Rachel Maddow's program (the network told her she wasn't allowed to say this, but she decided to anyway, regardless of the consequences) that, when the station switches over to 1600AM, WRRL, tomorrow, they're keeping the morning show from that station! Once again, with no announcement to listeners. What she didn't mention was that the new morning show is hosted by Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams. YES, THAT ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, the one who is in the pants of the Bush Administration. I think I speak for all Air America listeners when I ask, WHAT THE FUCK? What is the board doing to the network? They've come so far, but Unfiltered with Chuck D and Lizz Winstead was cancelled, Morning Sedition with Marc Maron was cancelled, then Marc Maron's own show was cancelled a few weeks ago, and Rachel Maddow is moving from morning drive to 6-8pm only to be replaced by a slimey douche.  This is what New Orleans looks like one year after Katrina. The city that became and island that became a catastrophe. See the full-resolution image and more of Derek's New Orleans photos. Our hero, the one who helped make all this possible, wanted to close the carpool lane on I-395 in Virginia during rush hour last Tuesday and divert 22,000 people from their routes so he could get to a Republican fundraiser efficiently. Virginian officials told the President he could go fuck himself with a pinecone. More than anything or anyone, I share the President's concern for Trent Lott's porch. "United States Senator Trent Lott had a fantastic house overlooking the bay. I know because I sat in it with he and his wife. And now it's completely obliterated. There's nothing. And I remember coming down here -- these giant piles of debris were here." Fortunately, not everyone is an asshole. [via reddit] A whistleblower at Lockheed Martin who was stonewalled by the government and fired from the company has made a video and posted it to YouTube. Power to the people! [via Rachel Maddow] The Yes Men strike again, this time to highlight affordable housing. Activists like these guys make me feel a little better about our country. Noah K. took a photo of himself every day for six years and compiled them into a short film called everyday. [via kottke] Netflix went from start-up to sensation to superpower in a few short years. They now operate 41 warehouses around the country where employees sort returns in the morning and stuff envelopes in the afternoon with a speed and accuracy that is staggering. "One associate’s hands move so quickly that she seems to be a fan operating at highest speed. She is among the fastest workers, with a stuffing rate of about a thousand per hour. In fifty-seven seconds, she stuffed “Oyster Farmer,” “Elizabethtown,” “Where the Buffalo Roam,” two copies of “Brokeback Mountain,” “Hill Street Blues: Season 2: Disc 6,” “Picture Perfect,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” two copies of “Firewall,” “The Ice Harvest,” “Elfen Lied: Volume 1: Vector One,” “Best Motoring: Rotary Reborn,” two copies of “16 Blocks,” “Rumor Has It,” “24: Season 3: Disc 2,” and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.” A nifty history of the Graphical User Interface. Brian Eno explained in 2003 how our governments' propaganda is the most subversive, effective, and manipulative in human history. They don't just change our opinions, they dictate what we think about every hour of every day. "[T]he new American approach to social control is so much more sophisticated and pervasive that it really deserves a new name. It isn't just propaganda any more, it's 'prop-agenda'. It's not so much the control of what we think, but the control of what we think about. When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it's the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone's talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false 'intelligence' and selected 'leaks'... With the ground thus prepared, governments are happy if you then 'use the democratic process' to agree or disagree - for, after all, their intention is to mobilise enough headlines and conversation to make the whole thing seem real and urgent. The more emotional the debate, the better. Emotion creates reality, reality demands action." [via reddit] The Path to 9/11, a mini-series to be aired on ABC, seems to be, in military terms, fubar. "[The program] makes it clear that most of the conspiracy leading up to 9/11 was hatched during the seven years of the Clinton administration, and that since Bush was in power for only eight months when 9/11 occurred, he can hardly be blamed for the entire disaster." A cell has been discovered that makes cancer cells commit suicide while leaving healthy cells unharmed. The more homework a kid has to do, the less he wants to learn about the material and participate in the culture of curiosity. From my personal experience, this analysis could not be more accurate. I had hours of homework a night throughout my school experience and I hated school because of it. Now that I'm not forced, I feel as if I'm letting myself down if I'm not constantly learning. The housing market is overvalued and retardedly bubble-like. How this will turn out is anyone's guess, but it sure makes it damned hard to get a place to live. Getting around censorware and making your Internet experience safer and more secure, from BoingBoing.  These photos of libraries from Candida Höfer's Libraries are magical and mystical. It looks like a great way to see the world and enrich the experience would be to travel to the planet's great libraries and take something from each. Just kidding. [via kottke] Open note: If you have a shop window near 6th Ave. in Midtown New York where most of the news channels are with their flat screens and news tickers, and you display a large television replaying MSNBC video from the 9/11 attacks as an exhibit, please clearly label it. It's very scary from across the street when you're on your way home after a night out. Win cool Hybrid gear and exclusive music-related stuff by emailing jacqui@distinctiverecords.com with the title of Hybrid's first album. This week a church decided not to allow black membership and a school bus driver decided that black people are once again excluded to the back of the bus. "These people have been told it's OK to hate again. That they should hate immigrants and gays and liberals and feminists and muslims and on and on. They're just taking the initiative and throwing in blacks. Both of these incidents are deep in the heart of RedStatistan, where hate is a political tool." Ministry of Sound Radio online has thousands of hours of DJ sets from the world's best DJs for free! I used to listen frequently several years ago but forgot about it. Check their schedule and listen again to almost any program. Congress voted that the IRS will be getting private companies to collect past-due taxes over $25,000 in value, raising the cost per dollar of collection from 3 cents to 23 cents. [via Rachel Maddow]  The N702is has the fanciest battery-level indicator ever. The liquid moves as you turn the phone around. The August 2006 promo mix from Royal Sapien is now available in the downloads section of royalsapien.com. An interview with Salon: "The author who predicted Katrina now forecasts watery catastrophe for New York, Houston and Miami in "The Ravaging Tide." After more than 160 years of using anesthesia medically, no one is really sure how it works yet. That's not terribly comforting. The Economist on the strategic defense that needs to be set up to battle Google, but seems unlikely to actually happen. "[A]ny merger between the three middle powers would be a “grand dramatic gesture” that would only hasten their decline. AOL's merger with Time Warner in 2000 is the relevant warning from recent history." [via shey.net] The Nation gets five experts to write about the American food system. "Right now, the school lunch program is designed not around the goal of children's health but to help dispose of surplus agricultural commodities, especially cheap feedlot beef and dairy products..." Labels: Sunday Reader  I've been listening to the new Hybrid album due out September 4, I Choose Noise. It's good, though not quite what I was expecting. It's not that melodic and not very thumping. Very dark. Very big. But very few songs in the traditional sense, more mood pieces. The most glaring omission from the LP is their track "Sleepwalking," that they've been playing in DJ sets for over a year. It's a brutal breakbeat with that killer bassy Hybrid sound that twitches and glitches and fucks up the dancing feet. I've been wanting it for months. So where is it? If you need massive storage and grid computing on the cheap, Amazon's got you covered. Improv Everywhere's Slo-Mo Home Depot project. They invaded the 23rd st. Home Depot, shopped in slow motion for 5 minutes, shopped normally for 5 minutes, then stood completely still while, magically and unplanned, Jewel's "Standing Still" played over the PA system. Bravo. Amanda Cogdon (formerly of Rocketboom Internets fame) is teaming up with the wonderful popurls to host a, well, section. Of links. I can dig it. Used FAQs is a continually updated collection of pieces from FAQs from all over the Internets. "My stomach is really normal size, but over the years it has been trained to stretch quite a bit. As far as capacity is concerned, I believe I can handle up to 16 pounds of food and liquid overall." P. Diddy's gonna shut down his own studio for his lame behavior. Not really, but he should. He should have years ago. I was not aware that DVD-R's have weird copy-protection data and unique identifiers, while DVD+R's do not. [via reddit] The alternate title for this article was OBL: TMI. Osama Bin Laden's ex-girlfriend/concubine wrote a book documenting her experiences. The dude loves the B52's. "To this day I hear the song 'Rock Lobster' in my sleep." The evolution of speechballoons in centuries-old art. [via waxy] By the way, is it just me or has Digg gone sharply downhill since launching all their new categories? When people submitted non-tech stuff to the old Digg, if it was really interesting it got modded up anyway. Now there's just all sorts of useless shit on the front page. Yes, I can filter my results, but the quality of links has diminished as well because the user base is more broad. I'm beginning to read Slashdot again and now make Reddit a multiple-times-daily stop. The Trinity Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia was set on fire today and all five of its monumental domes have collapsed. They hope to rebuild within 18 months. Some gorgeous photos of the American Falls at Niagra frozen over. [via reddit]  I needed a few minutes to understand these illustrations by Karen Minot for BBC World, then they were crystal clear like those Magic Eye posters. This project is a rare successful marriage of conceptual art and memorable advertising. The Bush administration is scared that more proof of the NSA domestic spying program's unconstitutionality could be revealed if Verizon releases documents related to their cooperation with the wiretapping, so the feds are suing to make them stop being such a meanie-head. [via digg] The Stephen Colbert Greenscreen Challenge - take his video and rework, composite, and render the funny. The dudes at the Report are on the bleeding edge of awesome. [thanks Maria] Now this is a Firefox. IE could never be this cute. It's too busy sucking asssss. High five! [via reddit] Bush has been losing his mind lately, and not in the normal way we're used to. First he had a brain meltdown at a press conference on Friday, then yesterday he got really angry at a reporter for asking a simple question. Outside of rants, his speech has been so strangely syncopated I am entirely positive he has an earpiece. As Allyson said, Who would let him out in front of people alone? Snakes on a plane. Funny. Poisonous snakes in a theater during Snakes On A Plane. Not funny. A man in Iowa flying his American flag upside down (freedom of expression, last time I checked) has been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and regularly receives threats. Have you heard the latest news in the universe? Dark matter officially exists. Don your conical novelty hat and retrieve your sound machine. The math is tricky, but the animation is fun. Cloud Mirror is not the name of the newest baby born in Brooklyn. Rather, it is a 3-story shiny dish that will reflect Rockefeller Center for a few weeks this fall. Pickle Juice Sport is not a game played with pickle juice. Rather, it is a sports drink. When you sweat, your body loses essential picklytes and brinerals that need to be replenished with the potent product of professional players packed with pickle power. Jessica Helfand writes on the recent prevalence of relentless complexity in graphic design. "It’s on T-shirts at Old Navy and in classrooms at every design school I’ve visited in the last two years. It’s on packaging and in posters and pushing its way through publications and the somberist of annual reports. Some of it is breathtakingly beautiful, compelling, even entertaining. But most of it is excessive, indulgent and impossible to parse." It is a trend, like any other. Some compare it to a renaissance of Arts and Crafts-style ornamentation. Modest Apparel USA. I suppose this is the opposite of excessive design. Missouri represent. [via plasticbag.org]  Apologies for missing the Sunday Reader yesterday. Diesel Heaven is heaven's only seven-star hotel. It's the ultimate in afterlifestyle. And no, I'm not being paid to post this. It's just beautiful. Google has relaunched Writely, an online collaborative or single-user word processor application that replaces the most bloated typing program ever, Microsoft Word. Oh, and it's free. "[It] saves its output as PDFs and even RSS feeds (subscribe to a word-processor doc!)... features collaborative editing -- multiple editors on the same doc at once -- and can be used as the editor for writing your blog, saving out to a post instead of a file on your machine." [via BB] This article on child porn online and the loopholes exploited to get around laws of government and human decency troubled me so profoundly that I couldn't post the Sunday Reader. I closed my browser and did something else. It's in the Times, but the story is stomach-churning. 50 common interview questions. [via reddit] When presented with the choice of delicious food or a branded rock for breakfast, children overwhelmingly choose the rock. Danger Will Robinson. (Bonus: the design for this section at MSNBC is the worst professional design I've seen on the web yet this century. Horror quickly turned to admiration and wonder.) Only citizens of Turkey are less likely than Americans to believe that humans evolved from other forms of life. Christian Fundamentalism, much more steadfast and assertive in the United States than anywhere else, seems to be the cause. What's more important? Government surveillance being ruled unconstitutional or a murder case from 10 years ago involving one person and a potential suspect? The media (still searching for a better, more accurate term - suggestions?) made their decision. "ABC devoted twice as much time to Ramsey as it did to the NSA story. More egregiously, CBS offered seven times as much airtime to Ramsey as it did to the NSA story, while NBC devoted 15 times more airtime." Margaret A. McGurk, my favorite former movie critic for the Cincinnati Enquirer, discloses why star-ratings are bullshit. "The very fact these 'grades' exist suggest to readers that there is some sort of objective standard by which any and all critics rate all movies. This ludicrous notion is so easily absorbed that even journalism professionals carp about "the critics" in the same way Fox News commentators carp about 'the media' -- as if there were a single, monolithic entity following some secret, authoritarian rule." AMERICAblog sounds off on Bush's reaction to the NSA court ruling. "I've had it with this idiot. We've got the president of the fucking United States of America lecturing a US court of law that it's supposed to reach decisions NOT based on the rule of law, but on 'the nature of the world we live in.' You God damn stupid fuck." [via reddit] Beautiful cover of Outkast's "Hey Ya." Cannot remember where I found this. Much like the rest of the alleged war on drugs, the United States' actions to curb coca growing in Colombia have done absolutely nothing. Labels: Sunday Reader  Everyone from tech reporters to IT people interchange the terms kilobits and kilobytes, and it's driving me mad. For the last time, a kiloBIT is 1/8th of a kiloBYTE. When you get about 130 kilobytes per second on a 1mbit connection, that's fair. TimeWarner promises me 3mbit/s down and I usually get between 5-6mbit/s, so I'm happy, but alleged tech experts need to stop whining that their 6mbit/s connection isn't 6MB/s, because it's not supposed to be.  Earthlink wants to help you pwn computers. Get your malware distributed quickly and easily with Earthlink. A Flying Spaghetti Monster apparition was spotted in jet trails. May you be touched by his noodly appendage. Believe. Video: The Colbert Report on what would happen if everyone was forced to vote. Time will reveal that the recent plane terror bombing plot was fake, coordinated by the United States and U.K. governments and Murdoch's News Corp. The suspects are improbable, the evidence is extremely thin, and the whole plan wouldn't have worked anyway. "None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time." It seems very tinfoil hat, but I have the Gorilla Glue and clippers out. No one giving us any raw information about the event has a track record of regularly telling the truth. The lower governmental agencies are merely responding to the information they're given and the orders from above. They don't (can't) know any better, and we're not supposed to either. It all sounds very familiar. In short, trust no one, but fuck being afraid. Happy Thursday. [via reddit] Join the ACLU and help support the rights of everyone in America. Also check out Charity Navigator to decide which charities you want to support.  Piccadilly Circus in London in 1949. Compare on Wikipedia to images from the present. The Swedish Pirate Party has launched an anonymous surfing VPN darknet so you can go online without surveillance for only 5 euros a month. Bertrand Russell on "How To Become a Man of Genius" from 1932. "You must denounce persons whose emotions are atrophied, persons to whom only plodding study can reveal the truth, for we all know that these are other people, and we shall therefore view with sympathy your powerful diagnosis of the evils of the age." [via reddit] 20 facts about voting in the USA. "2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry." The editor of PlayStation Magazine, the official one, is skipping the PS3 for an XBOX 360. Apparently, the PS3 sucks goat balls. Interesting. Kayak is my new favorite way to find plane fares. Check out my new Vox. I'm not posting the link here, but if you know me you can find it really easily.  The Bush administration wants to change the war crimes laws so people in the federal government and the military would be immune from prosecution. Since virtually everything the United States has done in the Middle East is illegal, we should expect nothing less from them. Sony PlayStation 3 with Blu-Ray won't play Blu-Ray movies. WTG! More people are getting the news they believe from sources like the Daily Show and the Colbert Report because they don't trust the news media for even the smallest amount of truth. Video: Truth In Advertising. The sequal, The Reel Truth (part 1 and part 2) [via MeFi] The Consumer Electronics Association is tired of the RIAA limiting consumer options which thwarts innovation in the technology field. The RIAA sued a guy who died for file sharing. When they found out, they gave the family 60 days to grieve before they sue the kids.  Check the speed of your net connection with Speedtest Beta. I'll post an image of my connection at work. I thought the Flash app was broken. A student at West Point received the academy's highest honor for his thesis on why it benefits the military and the country for openly gay people to be able to serve in the armed services. [via digg] Personality differences in different cultures "that relate to ego, money, material possessions, work and rules" may partially be due to infection rates by the protozoan toxoplasma gondii. Video: A FoxNews audience laughs at Lebanese people dying. It took me a few viewings before I could believe what I was hearing. Video Chaser: PS3 vs. Wii commercial spoof. Comic: Tom Tomorrow on the many reasons the innocent have nothing to hide if the government spies on us.  Penn Station got just a little more cringeworthy on Friday when it, um, rained inside. [Gothamist on Flickr via BB] A photograph of the sharpest man-made thing. You can see the atoms! [via reddit] Video: Behind the Typeface: a very entertaining look at the history of Cooper Black. [via plasticbag] If the liquid could be explosive, why are you dumping it together in a crowd? Video: Ze Frank on terrorism. "Bush today said this country is safer today than it was prior to 9/11. Personally, I don't think he knows. Whether we like it or not, terrorist attacks on Americans are now part of the global reality. They will continue to happen. Many places around the globe have had to deal with a similar reality for years. India, Ireland, England, Spain, Russia, to name a few. In many cases, these societies have pulled together and not allowed isolated acts of violence to tear at their fiber. Like disease and the forces of nature, it's a risk that we have to rationally come to terms with. The government's responsibility is to make sure that fear and terror are not disproportionate to the reality of the situation." Link to transcript. Video: Aziz Ansari as Clell Tickle, indie promoter. Mr. Ansari is one of my favorite NYC comics, and his digital shorts are some of the best. [via Waxy]  Is it satire if there's no reason? Is it parody if it's not funny? Is it plaigiarism if it's SO obvious? Unfortunately, the comments on Gawker were no help. If you're shopping for plane tickets, the comments at Lifehacker have great tips for finding good deals. [via kottke] A New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter became so depressed after losing everything in Katrina that he asked a police officer to shoot him. Note from Preston: "Not only did he lose his home, he lost every print and negative from every photo he shot over the last 20 years." [via Romenesko] A list of things every man should know about drinking. "47) Acceptable drinks for men: beer, wine, whiskey, cocktails that are neither sweet nor made with dairy or fruit other than lime or lemon or orange." While the comments at Slashdot are frequently informed and worth reading, the editor moderation system creates a news lag that lets other sites beat them on stories so bloggers link to other sites instead. A chronology of data breaches since the ChoicePoint incident. [via Time] Photo: This girl doesn't mind taking the subway anymore.  Photos: 3D painted rooms. Beautiful design and extraordinary execution. Have you heard? Gwenyth Paltrow is African. [via Gawker] Tom Coates on getting addicted to World of Warcraft, the anti-climax of finishing a game that requires so much time, and why I rarely play ones that take any level of dedication, "Perhaps the reason we think of games as a childish activity is because play in our youth is supposed to inform work in our adulthood. Perhaps then, a game that feeds on our desire to learn and our childlike instincts but cannot give us the satisfactions of creation or real dangers, is a con, a short-cut, a parasite. Perhaps adult gaming is nothing more than an opiate, designed to provide satisfactions and a sense of development or progress that the real world is unable to provide for most people, or that people are too nervous to fight for." Nicole Gordon makes amazingly beautiful mixed media pieces with vintage wallpaper and elements from almost every artistic era. Video: A Series of Tubes: the movie is a wonderfully lo-fi trailer mashup. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile: the Pitchfork review. Sometimes the site serves up a great piece of writing. [via MeFi] Video: Stephen Colbert interviews Al Franken. Labels: Sunday Reader  There were a few dozen links I had to post today, but that doesn't seem to matter much right now. And it's not because I'm scared of the terrorists. The alleged al qaeda plot to blow up planes was stopped by British police officers because the plot had become too complex and the reported bombers fucked up, and that's what worries me. We are not safer as Americans, and not only that, the administration continues to make the situation worse, for everyone, every day, while saying they are making it better, for everyone, every day. It's astonishing so few people can have so much power over so many. But I fear it won't end well. I fear they may have started something they can't stop, and the dominoes have begun to fall. On a political, environmental, and social scale, the balance may have tipped against us parasitic humans. We're the worst thing other organisms on the earth have ever experienced since life began. No living creature has been as purely destructive as we are. I'm complicit, but I can't help my species. We've started wars over ficticious beliefs in our history, but our level of connectivity and pace of life is unprecedented in speed. Tensions flare more quickly because messages get around faster, and people respond more quickly, which is never the best way to make a decision. It's a fact about humans, and that is all we are. Never before have so many catastrophically destructive weapons been available to so many people so readily, and so cheaply. Countries are fighting wars that cannot end until every person on one side dies. That is the rule of engagement. It's a balls to the wall cage match between an entire world, some fighters beating the shit out of each other now, and some pacing around, waiting for the other to move first. But it's with big fucking nuclear weapons that can fly around the world. If anyone wins any of this, no one has won anything. There is no right side and wrong side, there is just Wrong. And Wrong coupled with Power precariously hinged on Batshit Insane doesn't let me sleep well at night anymore, or really be happy during the day. I'm not used to it. And if everyone is in a constant state of fear and continuously at war (which we will be for a very, very long time), no one has any resources to build an infrastructure to save the planet from all our other actions, or save the people from the rest of us. There is no way it could possibly be done. Even Steve Jobs couldn't pull it off, it's just way too expensive and far too complex. Real solutions to problems of this magnitude require focus, time, and assloads of cash, all of which are being pissed away on wars of ideologies and social beliefs. I know there are good things happening, but the number seems ludicrously small compared to the truly immediate dangers we face ahead of us. Every day I look around, especially in New York, and think that this might be the best time of my life. Not because I'm 24, and not because I have a good job and a place to live, but because this might be the best time in the world's life for the rest of the time I experience it. So many vectors are converging so rapidly that I can't compare our time to any time in recorded or known history. This is a new Age, and the timeline of the development of life on Earth follows everything else in its logarithmic pattern. The Human Age, at the tail end, will be the shortest of all that preceded it, but will ours be the last?  Lamont wins the pennant! Lamont wins the pennant! Lamont wins the pennant! George Galloway gives a very interesting viewpoint on the Lesraelzbolla war, and tears an airhead Sky News anchor apart. [via reddit] Chair throwing in a political debate (on local television). Check out the CNN link, there was no commercial for me. On Monday I sent an email to CNet's Buzz Out Loud regarding their claim that Warner Books was holding on to the name for branding. In fact, the name just hasn't been changed yet because the group was purchased a few months ago and lots of people are involved to make a new corporate name. In an act of sheer corporate loyalty lunacy, I emailed them to correct the error. They decided to use it on the podcast. Enjoy an mp3.  Rachel Maddow opened her show on Tuesday with the best clip ever. It features Borat. Wider Angle provides an mp3 for your pleasure. The New York Times published a lengthy article on China's new practice of exporting corpses for display. This is the reason I haven't seen Bodies down at the South Street Seaport; they just signed a $25 million contract to ensure a fresh supply of skinless, posed dead people. Revolting. It's a disgusting industry. However, the NYT wrongly associates Gunther von Hagens, the inventor of plastination and Body Worlds, with the industry. He was the first to display skinless bodies with his revolutionary process of plastination that replaces blood in vessels with preservative polymers, but all his bodies have been donated by their owners. In fact, so many people have signed up at exhibitions that he has a vast surplus of names. Why? Because he does it for education and enlightenment, and he performs the process scientifically and respectfully. There is no justification for human part factories when the parts are grown from humans. I must also add that there is similarly no reason to implicate a scientist in a filthy industry merely because he invented the technology. It's unfair and the Times should know better. Download Nosferatu and thousands of other films at the Internet Archive. BTW, if you're not a regular visitor of archive.org, I encourage you to be. It's like an interactive library of everything recent. Jesus Camp. Keep your eyes open for more from this film soon. Looks really interesting. [via kottke] Now you can search that AOL search database they released. Yesterday I thought it would be available everywhere, I didn't anticipate a search engine popping up so quickly. Amazing and disturbing. It seriously makes me reconsider my searching of everything. What if Google were to release data like this? I have my GMail, my Google Calendar, my personal homepage, and tens of thousands of searches with them. I'm not an AOL user, but if by some fluke Google were to do this (or Yahoo! for many other readers), what the fuck would happen? I can't imagine what could be found out by just casual association with a user ID, let alone analysis and the blatant transgressions I and everyone else on earth have committed. The future is coming too quickly, and I'm scared. [via waxy]  You already heard about the new Mac Pro announced at the Apple WWDC yesterday, but just in case you missed it, check out the specs on the new beast. (The new features in Leopard look killer. They don't seem to be getting as much attention since the release date is next Spring, but I'm looking forward to it immensely.) A study was released that links military duty in Iraq to a lapse in mental abilities like remembering stuff and thinking. In other news, the United States is using munitions that contain depleted uranium. Anyone else notice something here? Experts in the military say that "Gulf War Syndrome" is actually a mix of post-traumatic stress disorder and chemical and radiation poisoning. And this is what that kind of climate does to the minds of our soldiers. "A US military court heard graphic testimony on how US soldiers took turns to hold down and rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her and her family." According to Mike Malloy, the soldiers were chewing gum and smirking during the testimony. Helvetica, the documentary. Does much else need to be said? [thanks Allyson] AOL released search data for more than 600,000 of their users, the same thing Google was asked to do a few months ago by the NSA and refused. Names of accounts were not included, but a unique identifying number for every user was, and it was tagged to each search. You've already guessed the problem, other than the amazing breach of privacy and security: lots of people search for their own name, and search patterns and interests coupled with names can identify individual users pretty quickly. Plus, there's all those dirty secrets. Some of which are very, very dirty. Now the data has been taken down, but over 1,000 people have the file, so it'll be everywhere within the day. BIG OOPS. On CNet's Buzz Out Loud they said that AOL apologized for their incredible error. The Best Media In Life Is Free is a cool blog linking to exceptionally high quality free music and books licensed under Creative Commons. [via BB]  I see no better way to offend and belittle our troops than building a military theme park. "Army officials say they are considering allowing a private developer to build a 125-acre entertainment, hotel and conference center complex next to a national Army museum at Fort Belvoir..." [via Rachel Maddow] [Disneyland photo courtesy smugmug] There have been a few articles written recently about the naming transition from Bombay to Mumbai, but this one seems to be the most comprehensive and interesting, including details of how news services decide what to call places. Plus the IHT is so pleasurable to read on the web. Workfriendly.net is an amazing online app that not only acts as an anonymous proxy for surfing at work, but it also reformats every site you visit into a text-only mode in a window that looks almost identical to Microsoft Word but functions as a browser. Totally, completely brilliant. Art After Dark at the Guggenheim NYC, with music curated by Flavorpill, released their new schedule for the Fall/Winter. I'll see you on December 1 for Telefon Tel Aviv and Dethlab. More and more gay men are being attacked and killed in Iraq because the government allows it. "Eleven-year-old Ameer Hasoon al-Hasani was kidnapped by policemen from the front of his house last month. He was known in his district to have been forced into prostitution. His father Hassan told me he searched for his son for three days after his abduction, then found him, shot in the head. A copy of the death certificate confirms the cause of death." Section 111 of Iraq's penal code protects the murderer because it is an "honor killing," for the victim was acting against Islam by being homosexual. Five things Rick Astley is never gonna do. [thanks Allyson] BusinessWeek is an awful publication. I read through two issues at the doctor's office a few weeks ago and everything on the pages was either old, false, or misleading. I wouldn't trust them with money advice. So it makes sense that this week's cover story on Kevin Rose's $60 million dollar stake in Digg is not only exaggerated, but it's false. Kevin doesn't even have a couch, he's saving up for one. Kellogg's is launching certified organic varieties of Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, and Frosted Mini-Wheats. Air America is changing their call letters and dial location for their flagship station in NYC. Currently you can hear Air America on 1190AM, WLIB, which I think are the best call letters a liberal network could possibly have. As of September 1, the station will move to 1600AM with the confusing and useless call letters WWRL. What Would Rumsfeld Learn? Wow We're Really Lame? I don't get it. Yes.com is another super cool online map app that displays tunes playing on radio stations across the U.S. in realtime. If you catch yourself listening to FM radio and enjoying a song, you may be able to retrieve that data on the site. I haven't played around with it much since I don't listen to music radio, but the technology is exciting and the site is addicting to watch. [via unmediated] Lego models + video games = Awesome. [via core77] This music video for OK Go - Here It Goes Again is one of the most inventive pieces of short film I've seen in a while. It's super low-budget and watchable over and over and over. Treadmills. [via kottke]  Jill Sobule has a new LIVE MP3 download on her supercool site called Put Him in the Hall of Fame, describing her theories of what should be done with George Bush. "Recorded live at Martrys' in Chicago, June 11, 2006, this song features Jill performing with a couple hundred or so of her closest friends." Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along at home. If Reagan had been a great actor  There are two articles that are essential reading today. The first is an explosive story published yesterday in Vanity Fair that you've probably already heard about. What the Pentagon told the 9/11 Commission about the military's initial response to the events on September 11, 2001 was false. Thousands of meters of tape recorded all the sound in and out of the NORAD control center that day, and the audio tells a substantially different story than officers did. The truth is fascinating and deeply chilling, spine-tingling, and nausea-inducing. The response to the hijackings was so uncoordinated and used technology so out-of-date that we didn't have a chance to stop anything. Second, a new Bush administration plan would allow military trials for anyone at the sole discretion of the administration. There would be no need for a suspected link to terrorism. It could be for absolutely anything. If Donald Rumsfeld (or one of his buddies) decides that your gram of pot or speeding ticket are a threat to national security, your friends may never see you again. This is a sign of that militaristic police state that few think America could ever be. [via Rachel Maddow] BLOOD BOILING BONUS: This was the top story at The New York Times this afternoon...  Really?! I'd run to tell someone but everyone already knows there is a civil war in Iraq. Shouldn't the generals be the FIRST to know?  Meat of my Meat, by ValeriaYOU. No one wants to buy YouTube. I thought Yahoo! wanted them, but why would they when they just launched Yahoo! Video? We shouldn't be trusting Diebold with anything. Not banking, not voting, not even making coffee. "[T]he Diebold TS can be switched from the legal and certified software to illegal, uncertified software with nothing but a screwdriver, and it wouldn't leave a trace." [via digg] From the Simpsons Already Did It file, a creationist museum is opening in rural Kentucky next year. “Americans just aren’t gullible enough to believe that they came from a fish.” The White House press room is being renovated with a video wall. Just what we need, more visual propaganda! [via Romenesko] Bit Generations is a series of seven titles forthcoming from Nintendo that take videogames back to their simple, elegant beginnings of challenging gameplay and good design without spending gobs of effort on fancy effects. "These are clearly pet projects from Nintendo designers who have been given free reign to design their own simple game." Here's a video of one of the titles, Dotstream, that looks fun but very difficult. I hope a soundtrack album will be available. [thanks Preston] This loop of 787 clipart images is totally enthralling and completely brilliant. [via kottke]  Scientists in the UK are urging sweeping drug classification reform to change punishments for abuse to reflect actual potential dangers of drugs. "Alcohol was rated the fifth most harmful drug, ahead of some current class A drugs, while tobacco was listed as ninth. Cannabis, currently rated a class C drug, was below both those legal stimulants at 11th." How do color blind people play video games that are color-oriented? "Blue for left spin, red for right spin, green for forward spin and yellow for back spin. Unfortunately, I can barely tell the difference between the red, green and yellow..." [via digg] If the Internets crashed tomorrow, what are the five things you'd print out to save? To the comments! The products and customer service from Dell have changed drastically over the last couple years. The machines are unreliable and support went from excellent to shitty with a speed rarely seen in major corporations. Even buying computers from them is a hassle. Why does buying a Dell still feel like buying a used car? [via reddit] Next year's E3 will be held in two hotels with about 5,000 attendees and will be called the E3 Media Festival. Ouch.  MEAT CAKE. Essentially a giant hamburger with mashed potato icing. Drool. I want this for my next birthday. Flying Spaghetti Monster hate mail! Doesn't get much better than this stuff. "I hope you die in a lake of fire and get your eyes pecked out by crows, so that you may go to hell and exist for eternity in a lake of fire getting your eyes pecked out by crows." [via BB] The success of the NOW... series is astonishing. The release of a NOW... album is almost the only sure bet the music industry has right now. 8 simple things you can do to encourage other people. It's mostly common sense, but it's a good list of reminders for people who could stand to be more appreciative. Remember, if you're really nice to people and encourage them, you'll get what you want more often and more quickly. [via del.icio.us] Jeff Pulver's guide to TV on the net, all streaming and mostly very interesting. [via kottke] The Red Paperclip guy got a movie deal from Dreamworks and a book deal from Random House. Remember Gopher? It's the first thing I ever used on the Internets, even before Yahoo! Some Gopher servers are still running, including The Well's, and current versions of Firefox can connect with them seamlessly. There's tons of great knowledge there. |
   
July 2004
August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
 
 |
||||||||||||
