Wider Angle: October 2006

Links for 10.31.06

I will be in Cincinnati for a few days so posts to Wider Angle will be few, if any. Maybe I'll stop by Corinthian.

A lot of Huffington Post readers really don't find Borat funny, which is really funny. "Borat is a racist PIG. It is ironic for a jewish person to make up lies about other people. What if the shoe was on the other foot, he would be screaming anti semitsim"

An internal ABC memo was leaked that lists over 100 advertisers that requested to be blacked out on Air America affiliates. Here's a big JPEG of the memo.

Thanks to the war with Lebanon, marijuana prices in Israel have jumped 800 percent due to importing restrictions meant to limit illegal weapons trade. Ironic, no?

George "Macacawitz" Allen's staffers beat up a student for asking Allen a question about his sealed divorce papers and arrest record, which are in the public domain. Mike Stark's letter to the NBC affiliate that shot video of the altercation explaining why he asked "why did you spit on your first wife?"

Interesting super secret details about the GooTube deal on Marc Cuban's blog. "Armed with this kitty of money Youtube approached the media companies with an open checkbook to buy peace... They negotiated about 50 million for each major media company to be paid from the Google buyout monies." [via waxy]

The great Mike Malloy began his new 3-hour show on Nova M Radio, the new Liberal radio network from the original founders of Air America, based in Phoenix. His show is on live 9pm-midnight Pacific (that's midnight-3am Eastern) and can be streamed (MP3) from the site -- podcasts and downloads are coming soon.

Wired bought reddit.

The U.S. government is spending $50 million on abstinence education for 20- to 29-year-olds. And why not throw more taxpayer money away, really?

Here's a good reason to keep your information to yourself whenever possible. "No, no. You’re not listening to me. That wasn’t me. I’m not even in Utah. I’m in Oregon. I have no affiliation with your university. I don’t even drive a Toyota." [via reddit]

Post no bills: blatant reckless abandon of the rules.

The national debt plotted on a graph with an overlay of who was President of United States and America at the time is staggering and wholly unsurprising.

Why are there flat screens in almost every restaurant and store? They were cool a while ago, but now they're distracting... like regular TV. "Thousands of TV’s that were brought in to satisfy the World Cup pan epidemic, stayed put... Once these sets were “temporarily” installed for the Cup they never left."

Scott Adams on electronic voting machines: "Now don’t get me wrong – there’s a 100% chance that the voting machines will get hacked and all future elections will be rigged. But that doesn’t mean we’ll get a worse government. It probably means that the choice of the next American president will be taken out of the hands of deep-pocket, autofellating, corporate shitbags and put it into the hands of some teenager in Finland. How is that not an improvement?"

Society clubs in India are working very hard to keep their traditions and customs unaltered by new culture. "A fierce notice in the white colonnaded entrance warns that 'bush' shirts are prohibited, adding cryptically: 'Unlike the shirt, the design of the upper portion of the bush shirt is like that of a safari.' Another rule states, 'Servants and drivers will not be allowed to have food.'"

Wider Angle Sunday Reader for 10.29.06

Colbert-O-Lantern via College Humor.

MTVu Uber and YouTube launched within a month of each other with almost the same goal: get communities to build channels of their own video content. Obviously, MTVu Uber has done much better because they crippled their site and content with DRM. Look what happens when someone posts an MTVu video to Fark. "MTV's reign is Über. Über = over, in English. [...] No Firefox? No OS X Access? fark you, MTVU."

If your vision seems a bit worse at the end of the day, it could be from looking down a lot. Your eyelid puts pressure on the cornea which changes its shape.

Claire's artwork from Six Feet Under. [via kottke]

Dasparkhotel reuses sewer pipes as hotel rooms. Visitors get keycodes with their reservation and sign themselves in. [thanks Allyson]

It seems a little strange that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has so little work from the last century. "Nothing by Beuys, Andre, Ruscha, Richter, Marden, Hesse, Serra."

1.6 million Iraqis have fled their country since the start of the war, with more than 1.5 million displaced and over 600,000 killed.

Time's cover story this week is on electronic voting machines and their shoddy record of upholding democracy. Foxtrot's great Halloween voting machine costume comic. [via BB]

Diario de Sao Paulo has put together and beautiful new ad campaign. "The newspaper that goes deeper."

Some logo revisions turn out a little better than others, and the new Clearly Canadian bottle design is mind-bendingly backwards and wrong.

30 percent of American teenagers drink energy drinks contributing to the industry growing by 80 percent last year.

Saturday Night Live and Robert Smigel take on this season's Republican campaign ads.

A selection of banned advertisements in Italy.

What makes funny? with the very funny Jimmy Carr. "A professional comic's routine may be based on true personal experience, but real experience doesn't tend to come conveniently complete with a punchline. That's why most comics are outrageous liars."

Netflix has opened their dataset to developers and is offering a $1 million prize to a team who makes their recommendation system more useful and accurate.

Much like its venture into music sales, Starbucks makes a good bookstore. Or at least a profitable one. "Starbucks has sold 45,000 copies of Mitch Albom's novel For One More Day (Hyperion) since it went on sale at the chain October 3, a week after the book reached bookstores. The figure accounts for roughly 12% of a total of 391,000 copies sold, as tabulated by Nielsen BookScan." [via ArtsJournal]

New poll from Be A Design Group: of your font collection, what percentage do you actually own? (It's anonymous.)

The New York Review of Books forces us to reexamine our definition of theocracy. "Bush told various evangelical groups that he felt God had called him to run for president in 2000: 'I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.'" [via A&L Daily]

Stripping your flat of wallpaper is more fun in time lapse. [via plasticbag]

Labels: Sunday Reader

Links for 10.25.06

Neil Guy has posted his stunning Burning Man photos. [via BB]

Firefox 2 is out as of yesterday (update now!!) and TechCrunch has a list of the recommended add-ons to make your experience even funner. Lifehacker also has some config tweaks you can easily make yourself. The wonders of open source software. (If you're still using Internet Explorer, stop it.)

Countries should form armies of skilled athletes and funk masters to battle like breakdancers.

Dumb slut Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond features in an ad opposing Michael J. Fox's appearance in a campaign ad for pro-stem cell legislation and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. Rush Limbaugh is on her side.

The first four minutes of the Borat movie.

Los Angeles hospitals have been releasing patients on Skid Row and driving away. Now diseases are beginning to spread from the unhealthy patients dumped on the street. [via BB]

Hand-stitched felt pillow covers with a Pac-Man ghost. Very cute. [via Wonderland]

Digg was shopping around for buyers and looking for at least $150 million. News Corp was interested, among others, but Digg's user numbers and growth are in question. For now, they'll stick with a second round of financing for over $5 million.

The Mars Spirit rover has transmitted an amazing panorama of the planet.

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Read Wired's The New Atheism, this month's cover story, for free online. "The probability of God, Dawkins says, while not zero, is vanishingly small. He is confident that no Flying Spaghetti Monster exists. Why should the notion of some deity that we inherited from the Bronze Age get more respectful treatment?" [via Plasticbag]

Architecture of control, or engineering obedience?

Bush uses The Google, also doesn't email, as that would require reading. "One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see — I’ve forgot the name of the program — but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes."

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, lost the ability to speak in normal situations, so he retrained his brain to remap the neural pathways. Brainhacking is awesome. [via kottke]

Outside.In is a local news/info/review aggregation site that should have been done a long time ago, but that doesn't diminish its relevance. Feeds for Park Slope, Manhattan, Boston, LA, Chicago. [via A Whole]

Iraq's own version of The Daily Show, "Hurry Up, He's Dead!" "In a recent episode, the host, Saad Khalifa, reported that Iraq’s Ministry of Water and Sewage had decided to change its name to simply the Ministry of Sewage — because it had given up on the water part."

Wider Angle Sunday Reader for 10.22.06

Jesus via College Humor.

Wired's Monkey Bites blog has extensive coverage of Yahoo! Hack Day and a rather fetching photo of Tom Coates, social web tech visionary.

Studios have pulled financing for Peter Jackson's Halo movie after production costs exceeded expectations by over 30%.

The fantastic Richard Dawkins on BBC News. "Religion means faith, and faith means believing something without evidence." [via reddit]

I've been wanting to get new wrist cuffs to replace my pseudo-athletic wristbands. I may go with black velcro strips, but these customizable dot-matrix cuffs are pretty nifty as well.

Simple has some beautiful all-green (not in color) shoes.

iBar is a beautiful interactive surface design/installation that is commercially available which uses projectors to illuminate objects or make patterns. I expect to see this at Ministry of Sound in the next two years.

RiffTrax is Mike Nelson's new project that provides MST3K-esque commentary on other movies like Point Break, Top Gun, and XXX.

Publishers rely on bestsellers to make a ton of cash, but spend most of their time on "okaysellers."

Drug dealers are starting to trade in Euros instead of US dollars, an unprecedented shift from decades of depending on the stability of the currency of the United States economy.

Michel Gondry directed Beck's new video for Cell Phone's Dead.

Check out seasons 1 and 2 of Wonder Showzen for free on the new ifilm beta site. [via waxy]

I accepted it a long time ago since I'm young, and it drives me crazy, but secrecy is dead. We have emails, security cameras, credit card receipts... "It is becoming unprecedentedly difficult for anyone, anyone at all, to keep a secret. In the age of the leak and the blog, of evidence extraction and link discovery, truths will either out or be outed, later if not sooner. This is something I would bring to the attention of every diplomat, politician and corporate leader: the future, eventually, will find you out. The future, wielding unimaginable tools of transparency, will have its way with you. In the end, you will be seen to have done that which you did."

Some Democrats have put together Mac spoof ads that, surprisingly, work.

Labels: Sunday Reader

Links for 10.19.06

"In the years since Albania’s 1991 revolution, satellite dishes and air conditioners have sprouted from the sides of Tirana’s buildings like disembodied ears and noses. Last year the city’s artist-mayor Edi Rama invited German architects Bolles + Wilson to create a color scheme for a prominent apartment house between the parliament building and former dictator Enver Hoxha’s villa as part of his plan to brighten the post-Communist city—and instead of pretending the awkward appendages didn’t exist, the architects decided to incorporate them into their design." [via We Make Money Not Art]

Incredibly inspiring story from SI of the most dedicated dad in the world. [via digg]

The Urban Forest Project consists of dozens of banners around Times Square by designers, artists, and photographers, based on the theme of a tree. View all the banners online. [via BADG]

Fear leads to hormonal cycle irregularities in rats that lead to cancer.

The complete works of Charles Darwin are going online. Not exactly reading for pleasure, but a great resource.

A photo of Foamhenge from my aunt Nancy. "I was driving down the back roads after leaving Lexington, VA on my last visit, and what should I see up on the hill to my right... out in the middle of nowhere... but FOAMHENGE! Yep, right there in plain sight, on the side of the road in rural Virginia is a life-size replica of Stonehenge." Very weird. I wonder if there's mini-golf beneath it. Only one way to find out. [thanks Nancy]

Good old fashioned racism in the form of a Republican campaign targeting black voters.

Nighttime marches in Pyongyang of thousands of North Koreans holding candles to make animated typography. Amazing, terrifying, and sad.

The Nutty Buddy. Watch the video. (I forget where I found this.)

Ze Frank recently launched a new ad model for his site for The Show, and it's really quite cool. "Ze is obsessed with rubber duckies, so a big duckie plus a 50-character mouse-over message will cost you $50. For ten bucks, you get a tiny duckie, and $5 buys you a jewel. It's very clever and allows the viewers to sponsor the show with whatever message they want. And don't think Ze's viewers don't read the messages." [Pomo blog via unmediated]

Keith Olbermann: The beginning of the end of America. [via digg]

Links for 10.18.06

"360 Views vs. Dignity" via Core77. Couldn't have said it any better. Oh, and it's 6.6 lbs. Toshiba is truly on the cutting edge.

There IS a plan to win the war in Iraq! But it's a secret. Shhhh. "Sen. Conrad Burns said at a debate Tuesday night that President Bush does have a plan for winning the war in Iraq, but he isn’t about to share it with the world." [via Rachel Maddow]

Video: Pickle Surprise. [Thanks Mike]

Stereogum has some tracks up for download from the Borat Soundtrack: Borat: Stereophonic Musical Listenings that Have Been Origin in Moving Film 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.'

The Bush administration has decided that the United States owns space, and it will protect space from any evildoers or totaliteratalitarians.

Rolling Stone's cover story is online: "The Worst Congress Ever: How our national legislature has become a stable of thieves and perverts -- in five easy steps"

RESFEST IS COMING! The 10th anniversary tour will cover 47 cities on six continents, kicking off in Chicago and Paris on October 19-20.

"Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge [in the next 100,000 years]. The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology." [via kottke]

If you like me and want to share music with me, please send me a file or give me a disc. Do not listen to Steve Jobs: "You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in [his] ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable." No thanks.

Amazing Halloween costumes: Nickelodeon game show contestants.

Stephen Colbert, Gloria Steinem, and Jane Fonda present... Cooking with Feminists.

Links for 10.17.06

President Bush signed the torture bill into law today, marking this as one of the darkest days in American legal history, one in which we have taken away the rights of citizens and the innocent, prisoners and the guilty, civilians and soldiers, and are now able to jettison due process at the whim of an official and torture, convict, and execute anyone in the name and by the law of the American People. To add intolerable insult to grievous injury, Bush signed the new law "in memory of the victims of September the 11th." How dare he.

Listen and watch Rachel Maddow debate Tucker Carlson at the big ACLU shindig a couple nights ago, moderated by ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero. Windows Media, RealMedia, and MP3. The ACLU is suing Donald Rumsfeld and fighting the blatantly unconstitutional torture law. Support them here.

The hot bagel goatse picture in Slimmer Angle - The Hot Bagel Goatse Seen Round the World - was posted to BoingBoing by Xeni Jardin (thanks Xeni!) last night and found its way to Gawker this morning, ensuring hundreds of thousands of people would be reminded once again of the transcendance of Goatse. Flickr pool for goatse first-timers, like this young lady.

Have you ever gotten the urge to put a 15-foot pool in your living room for your newly acquired penguin? [via a.whole]

Billionaire collector and businessman Steve Wynn put his elbow through a $48 million Picasso that he was about to sell for $139 million. [via kottke]

Dozens of notable PC commercials from decades past.

In the spirit of the bouncing balls ad, the new Bravia advert is 70 seconds of paint bomb sculpture, and they've done absolutely everything right with the site. "Huge quantities of paint were needed to accomplish this, which had to be delivered in 1 tonne trucks and mixed on-site by 20 people... A special kind of non-toxic paint was used that is safe enough to drink." [via waxy]

CODE.TV shows young rich losers what to expect from other young rich losers, how to impress them, and where to go to find them. Priceless video. [via Gawker]

You'll have noticed the Google ads on the site. What do you think? Useful? Intrusive? If you're the least bit curious, click on them. I get a tiny, tiny amount of money that helps pay for the site.

Wider Angle Sunday Reader for 15 October 2006

Behold: the Hypnocube, one of the coolest art pieces you could ever wish to own. It's a 3x3x3 or 4x4x4 matrix of LEDs that dance and shift. Get a kit to build one or spend the money to have it done for you. Check out some videos. See also: Hypnotoad.

E! is now running G4, the gaming channel. I don't think E! should be allowed to run water, let alone another media outlet.

Panoramas.dk has a beautiful selection of QTVR panoramas to view in your browser. Start in France, visit Bali, and end up in DC. [thanks Fatimah]

Dove made a spot for their Evolution campaign that shows what happens between reality and advertising. Features music by The Flashbulb.

Leo Laporte is going to stop writing books unless he can publish them himself. "So thanks to all of you who bought my books. Perhaps we can gather someday at a local Denny's and reminisce. An even bigger thanks to the many, many more who put up with my endless plugging and still managed to resist the urge to buy. Never again will you have to hear, "buy my book," unless you happening to be watching the O'Reilly Factor. And if you are, you're getting what you deserve."

Screw the content; is Bob Woodward's new book's cover design any good? Short answer: yes, with an if. Long answer: no, with a but.

Air America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The FCC pulled a vote on the AT&T-BellSouth merger again. "The FCC represents the last regulatory hurdle for the two telcos to jump over before their $78bn marriage is sealed."

This is what Willie Nelson had in his bus when he was pulled over. "The 73-year-old Nelson was charged with possession of [marijuana and mushrooms] as were his older sister Bobbie Nelson, 75; Tony Sizemore, 59; Gates Morre, 54; and David Anderson, 50. [via BB]

Putting trees on the sides of roads encourages drivers to slow down.

"Sesame Street" has changed the world for the better in too many ways to count. The filmmakers behind "The World According to Sesame Street," a documentary airing on PBS later this month and coming to DVD the same day, listed seven profound effects the show has had on global culture. "The original cast [in 1969] included not only blacks and whites, but also Asians and Latinos, and it went on to include people with disabilities. Initially, some PBS stations wouldn't air 'Sesame Street' because it showed black people and white people walking down the street together holding hands." [via ArtsJournal]

The Daily Show on presidential press conferences.

From 43 Folders, Merlin Mann's top 5 completely obvious ways to improve your life dramatically. "You are the sole person in your life who gets to decide where your time and attention can go. Take that responsibility seriously by not wasting time on junk. You know in your heart what’s really important to you — does the current direction of your time and attention reflect that?"

Disney is beginning to market luxury Mickey Mouse crap. They're opening a store in southern California called Disney Vault 28 that sells t-shirts that "will sell for upwards of $60 and a pair of jeans cost about $200. Cashmere throws carry a price tag of $540. Those prices compare to the touristy Mickey Mouse T-shirts that go for anywhere from $20 to $50," already a sad price range. This is a new venture after their abandoned Disney Store chain . "More than half of those stores were closed in 2004, and the last 313 shops were sold to the Children's Place." [via Wonderland]

This Lassa ad uses velcro to simulate the tire's traction on the road. "At first a black page with the copy “Parfect Handling” in the middle is seen. A little power should be used to turn the page. After turning, Lassa tire pattern is seen on the left page and a black velcro which symbolizes the road is seen on the right page. In the final page Lassa logo appears."

What would happen if all humans disappeared today? "[T]he fossil record would show a mass extinction centred on the present day, including the sudden disappearance of large mammals across North America at the end of the last ice age. A little digging might also turn up intriguing signs of a long-lost intelligent civilisation, such as dense concentrations of skeletons of a large bipedal ape, clearly deliberately buried, some with gold teeth or grave goods such as jewellery."

Apple's Cube on Fifth Avenue was glowing red for the launch of the new Nano (RED), the device launched by Bono and Oprah that supports African AIDS relief and care via small donations of proceeds. "We’ve figured out a way to make 100% of the cost of your red nano go directly to relief in Africa. You simply have to skip buying the nano and donate the money directly to a grassroots organization working on the problem. After asking around a bit, IDEX seems a good place to start — see their South Africa and Zimbabwe programs — and they accept $250 donations online."

Get on the trolley with this great list of 1920s slang.

Colbert On Demand. All Colbert, all the time. And it's free.

The BBC produced some pretty cool interstitials for BBC One, including one incredibly cool spot with hippos. [via plasticbag]

A glowing no-spoilers review of Borat (due out Nov 3) from the LA Times. "The joke is not on the U.S. or Kazakhstan or even the fake Kazakhstan of Cohen's imagination. The joke is on petrified, inward-looking nationalism of all stripes."

DVD culture is allowing millions more people to see excellent television shows, but when the networks rely on weekly viewership while the program is on the air, sometimes it's too late to save greatness that was overlooked due to lack of marketing or general ignorance.

Fortunately, Comedy Central has seen that Futurama should be revived. "Four Futurama DVD movies are scheduled for release and they will be chopped into episodes for broadcast on Comedy Central in 2008." [via kottke]

A very creative kid digitally beatboxing through video clips of himself. [via digg]

Labels: Sunday Reader

Links for 10.12.06

Lightbulbs should not make rain.

Surprise! The Office of Faith-Based Initiatives is a sham to pander to evangelicals. "Just get me a fucking faith-based thing." --Karl Rove [via Rachel Maddow]

Jimmy Carter on what to do about North Korea. Step one would be not imposing sanctions.

On the lighter side of things: Let's Paint, Exercise, and Make Blended Drinks TV! Mr. John Kilduff also hosts Let's Paint, Exercise, and Cook Fried Eggs on a Foreman Grill and a Let's Paint, Exercise, and Eat Chocolate Pie series. It's community access on TimeWarner in CA. [via Xeni on BB]

What happens to your body if you stop smoking right now? "In 8 hours the carbon monoxide (a toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal." [via reddit]

TechCrunch has a rundown of social web communities for gay dudes. "There’s a professional but stylish look and feel to Jake. Users are encouraged to use their real names and free accounts offer only two photos - one for yourself and one for your company’s logo for example."

One Week of Art Works is a week's worth of timelapse street painting on the same surface.

Fujitsu just unveiled a new digital dj laptop prototype that turns into a virtual touch turntable when it's folded down. It includes support for 5.1 surround output and an LED touch-sensitive keyboard.

From the Buckeye State file: A city prosecutor in Hamilton, Ohio was caught on security cameras walking around the building naked. High five.

PRI program This American Life with Ira Glass is setting its podcast free! Now you can listen online, on the radio, or via podcast for free.

How not to act on a J-Date, a contender for Gawker's Douchebag Hall of Fame.

Check out these nifty ▓ unicode ▓ characters ▓ to use anytime. Dinnertime ▍ literally anytime. [via digg]

America's Most Fonted: the seven worst fonts. I might replace Viner Hand ITC with Times New Roman Bold, but I work in an office building.

Bruno interviewing a gay-to-straight conversion specialist...

A story about children chanting to remember a car license plate number inspired a surreal dream I had last night about crashing into multiple cars while I was in the passenger seat of a sporty black sedan, but for some reason we weren't affected at all and drove away while a couple convertibles and a big blue fan were in pieces. What does it all mean?!

Watch streaming videos on Nintendo's site of people having a blast with the Wii remote.

Ordinarily I loathe anything McDonald's-related, but being able to wirelessly control plasma screens and watch shows or listen to music while I have a salad and some fries doesn't sound half bad. Damn you McDonald's.

Shelfari lets you easily create a bookshelf of books you own, find good stuff you'd like, and discuss books with other readers. My shelf is in progress.

We have found winners for our dumbest fast food worker contest. Three people in New Mexico were working at a Burger King and, inexplicably, sprinkled pot on a burger (because they decided they didn't want it anymore?) and served said burger to, yes, a cop. Brilliant move, fellas. What is hilarious is that the officers went to a hospital for a medical evaluation after eating a small amount of marijuana. What is less hilarious is that the guys face felony charges. Dumb, dumb motherfuckers.

John Oliver on War.

Hybrid's I Choose Noise - NO DVD or 2nd Disc

Hybrid's new album I Choose Noise, released just yesterday in the USA, is only one disc, despite the product descriptions on Amazon and elsewhere that report it's two. When I pre-ordered the album I was excited to see that live footage from Global Gathering would be included on a bonus DVD shipped with the British and US versions of the release, but this information resulted from an error somewhere very early on.

Wider Angle spoke with head of A&R at Distinctive Records, Richard Ford, and he clarified that there may be a DVD in the future, but not soon.

There is no 2nd disc available. Amazon made a mistake and although we've been asking them to correct this for months being as large as they are the request doesn't seem to be making it through their system. We are planning a DVD for some time in the future though.

As good as the album is, the booklet is extremely light, so you're probably better off purchasing the pack digitally from Distinctive, Beatport, or iTunes and waiting for the DVD.

Thanks to Richard Ford for responding so quickly, and no thanks to Amazon for misleading customers for weeks.

Links for 10.10.06

Gawker shows why letting New Yorkers determine your advertising might not be the best thing for your brand. [thanks Allyson]

Video: First watch P Diddy announce his new YouTube channel that he and BK Lounge bought while ordering a Whopper. Then watch LisaNova's video response. Fucking genius.

Kevin Federline will be playing Webster Hall.

Sneaker Pimps and The Beatnuts are playing Avalon NYC on Friday.

"Rising consumption of natural resources means that humans began 'eating the planet' on 9 October, a study suggests." The date resets every year and keeps getting earlier.

I sometimes cook on aluminum foil. This scrolling frying pan/griddle is much cooler.

CD-swapping and Net radio site Lala has taken over WOXY to keep it alive for users to create their own stations to inspire CD swaps and sales. "Lala users identify CDs they want mailed to them for $1 plus 75 cents shipping. Other users who have those CDs available for swapping are notified and put them in the mail. Lala keeps the dollar and donates a portion of it (as much as $50k in a month so far) to a Foundation that supports artists. Users can also chose to purchase CDs for immediate delivery."

Video: The Colbert Report on North Korea's nuclear-related-program-activities.

David Frum, the "Axis of Evil" guy, says in a New York Times op-ed that Japan should obtain nuclear weapons as "punishment" for North Korea's actions. I don't see how that could possibly go wrong. [via Rachel Maddow]

The Ubuntu forums have a ton of new IceWeasel icons created by users, which are really cool and pretty cute.

A fascinating interview with star photographer Platon on what he's learned from his subjects. "On Keanu Reeves: 'I'm not sure if this guy's really shy or really dim.' He incessantly asked Platon, 'What's my motivation?'... Mos Def's motto: 'Love all, trust few, fear none.'" [via kottke]

Interchangeability easily explains DRM in 60 seconds. Forward this to everyone you know who listens to music. [via Uninnovate]

Wider Angle Sunday Reader for 10.08.06

The Declaration of Independence, not just for visiting anymore. Also a good read! "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:"

The Sunday Reader is a little light this week because I haven't been feeling well and have had more work than hours to do it.

Apparently Google wants to buy YouTube for gulp $1.6 billion?!

Animal Olympics in China. Not funny, unfortunately.

New York Magazine did a quick interview with Sean Lennon, who seems like a very cool cat. Check out The U.S. vs. John Lennon at a theatre or DVD player near you.

I cannot recommend the music of The Flashbulb enough. "Pick any album out of this long discography and you’ll find that it has its own place, and sometimes its own genre."

the show with zefrank

Does talent matter? "Ericsson and Ward say their findings suggest that any novice can become an expert with enough of the right kind of training."

Astronomers have discovered other Earth-like planets out in spaaaaaace. It's not that we can go if ours crashes, but they do exist apparently.

In what could be described as the worst idea ever, a Wisconsin state lawmaker has recommended arming teachers and principals to protect against other crazy people with guns. I want whatever he's on, but I'm not sure I could handle it.

30 Rock, the new show from Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, and Alec Baldwin on NBC is really fuckin funny. Watch the pilot for free online. I viewed it while eating lunch and spit burrito on my desk, so be careful.

This skit about sexual consent forms, while being a conceptual rip-off of a sketch from Chappelle's Show, is still really well done for long-form comedy and very funny.

I wish people still insulted each other so creatively. "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." -Oscar Wilde [via reddit]

Wal-Mart will be starting a prescription drug program open to anyone, healthcare or not, where they will fill prescriptions with generic drugs (if possible) for only $4. This is going to have incredible repercussions that I can't even imagine. I want to feel that this will be good for consumers, but a corporation cannot be a solution to a national healthcare problem, and it's WAL-MART. Like Ronald Reagan, they are not to be trusted.

Friends of gays should not be allowed to edit articles on WikiMedia, a hilarious FAQ. "The last and most active group of vandals is, unfortunately, overly proud friends and acquaintances of gays and lesbians. While being proud of one's gay acquaintances is a positive characteristic, Wikipedia is not the place to publicly announce a friend's sexual orientation or proclivities."

If you have hiccups that won't go away, try putting your finger up your ass. "We suggest that this manoeuvre should be considered in cases of intractable hiccups before proceeding with pharmacological agents."

Labels: Sunday Reader

Links for 10.03.06

Dennis Hastert and the Republican Party knew about Mark Foley's nastiness with underage pages and did nothing. Mark Foley will be paying for his past nastification, but he won't be available for comment because he's conveniently gone to rehab for alcoholis... what?

An LJ user is planning a public waterboarding demonstration/spectacle/contest. It will be supervised and insured and aims to show what torture is by demonstrating how very rapidly people need a "coercive technique" to be stopped.

NORML ads for the reform of marijuana laws placed by Cheetos, brownie mix, and Visine.

New Jersey just passed a 7% tax on online purchases and music and video downloads. Ouch.

A federal judge in Detroit decided the ACLU's lawsuit challenging the Patriot Act can proceed. "The government had argued that this year's amendments had corrected any constitutional deficiencies in the act. The ACLU disagreed."

The Iraq war costs about $2 billion a week, 20% more than last year and almost double the first year's cost. The war in Afghanistan costs about $370 million with costs remaining steady.

The Daily Show on Foley Erect.

Wider Angle Sunday Reader for 10.01.06

The Wired NextFest was this weekend in New York City. Lots of photos from my Flickr stream, Allyson's Flickr stream, and videos in this post.

3D LED Display Cubes by James Carr & Associates.

Have you heard the term "designism"? Vote for how stupid you think it is/sounds.

A company that makes fire supression products burned down. Oh my.

Jenny Lewis has an interview up at Pitchfork where she discusses being dissed by Too $hort. Not cool! [via stereogum]

The globalization of culture has led to an artistic renaissance (lower-case "r"). "First, there is more of it — made in more styles and materials, by more artists who live, work and have exhibitions in more places — than ever before. Second, it doesn't fit into neat categories or hierarchies. Thanks to the Internet, the ease of travel and the growth and globalization of the art market, the days of a single dominant style are long gone." [via ArtsJournal]

Core77 has tons of photos up from the London Design Festival 2006. Bridge by Michael Cross is simply amazing and incredibly creepy.

This is what waterboarding looks like. The Bush administration and Congress made this legal in the United States on Thursday.

Dell has begun a program to recycle or reuse your Dell products for free or other computer products for very low cost, and they'll pick the stuff up at your house. Well done!

The dashed or dotted line has many uses in design, most of them very spiffy. "I’ve had trouble justifying my excitement about this intricate visual detail, so I thought it would be good to collect a bunch of examples from over fifty years of information design history, to show it as a powerful visual element in ubicomp situations." [via kottke]

More video of the stunning 3D LED Display Cubes.

Bush: The Constitution is "Just a goddamn piece of paper." Language, Mr. President, please. [via digg]

Otaku have sadly become a new target for muggers in Japan. [via BB]

Cory Doctorow was robbed by airport security flying SFO to LAX this week. " A TSA supervisor took me aside and asked me why I was so upset. I said that my family left the Soviet Union to escape arbitrary authority, and the seizure of property by the state. She suggested that I send in a report to the TSA complaining, and I laughed and asked her how many of those people get added to the No-Fly List."

In a story that is far less surprising than it should be, a roadway in Montreal collapsed on motorists over an hour after someone called the police to report chunks falling from the road. Police should have immediately closed the area, but they didn't.

GM had some nifty interactive video water at NextFest. Nothing special, but fun to play with.

Mike Judge's Idiocracy may eventually come to your city, but you'll have to do the hunting yourself. It has a $0 marketing budget from FOX, which is a shame. "If Office Space is about taking responsibility for your own happiness, Idiocracy is about something larger, namely our responsibility for our shared future. Like all the best dystopian fables, Idiocracy is a scathing indictment of our own society."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cautioned against questioning the President during wartime. If the terrorists hate our freedom, our government is doing a super job making us safer.

Opera's web browser (not Oprah) will be free for the Wii for a few months after the console is released.