January 29, 2003
From the eBay-fun corner
Does the eBay fun ever stop? Apparently not. Sometimes, auctions like these are even more hilarious than The Onion. Sometimes.
Anti-Europeanism in America
Decoding Anti-Europeanism In America: Although European anti-Americanism focuses on one country, with one government and one foreign policy (the U.S.), growing American (i.e. U.S.) anti-Europeanism seems to conflate dozens of separate and disparate countries, governments and foreign policies into one abstract entity, "Europe", which doesn't really exist as such. Or exists just as much as "America", North and South, Central and Carribean does. So what the hell is up? What terrible confusion of categories is clogging up Western political communications? [More inside.]
At D.C. protests, a few hundred thousand go missing
At D.C. protests, a few hundred thousand go missing - "Like most young Americans, I've been trained to think of protests and demonstrations as something shameful and vaguely embarrassing-something one outgrows, like Journey albums, or those hour-long showers you took when you were eleven and twelve."
Stinging dead-on reportage about the media's coverage of the anti-war movement, from Matt Taibbi.
'Ock, where's my car?'
An Edinburgh man got back from holiday to find his car had gone missing. It hadn't been stolen. It had been moved by the local council because it was obstructing some drain and hadn't bothered to tell him. How far can local government authority really go in matters of personal property? [more]
Spertzel
A list of articles by former weapons inspector Richard Spertzel on current inspections. Also former weapons inspector Bill Tierney says Saddam has nukes and the French sabotaged U.N. WMD searches.
Country Joe's Rag
Fixin'to Die after all these years Woodstock-era protest singer Country Joe McDonald still keeps an active pulse on today's events on his website. One of what eventually came to be perhaps his most famous song, the "I-Feel-Like-Fixin'-to-Die rag" has taken new life in light of current events, which is quite simple to deduct: just substitute all the Vietnam references with "Iraq" and there you have it - as many people have been happy to do by submitting their own lyrics versions to the site, somehow confirming that the world actually hasn't changed much in that respect 30 years after Vietnam...
Smoking gun, anyone?
Future of Sky Scrapers?
Future of Sky Scrapers? Is this the future of sky scrapers, or are they now irrelevant with the current threats that are presented? Would you work in this building?
Ballistics Fingerprinting
Large scale ballistic fingerprinting of guns doubtful. The California Attorney General's Office has said that large scale ballistic fingerprinting of all weapons is not yet practical. Ballistic fingerprinting spawned much discussion earlier on MeFi. I couldn't find the complete report online yet.
Athina Roussel picked up an estimated $2.7 billion in cash, homes, companies, art, shares, a private jet
Athina Roussel picked up an estimated $2.7 billion in cash, homes, companies, art, shares, a private jet She will inherit a further $2 billion on her 21st birthday That's right, she is the richest teenager on the planet...
Science and health
Computer user suffers "eThrombosis" People who spend many hours every day sitting in front of a computer could be at risk of developing deep vein thrombosis - the potentially fatal blood clots. Go get a sandwich.
Ancient Egyptian Wisdom
Dan Savage on bugs
Dan Savage takes on the Rolling Stone "bug chasing"/HIV+ gay sex story in his column today, and lambastes one of his favorite sacred cows, Gay Men's Health Crisis and other outreach groups that seem to have a lackadaisical attitude towards their clients' risky behavior. He's written about this before, in the case of Seth Watkins, an HIV+ sex education worker who admitted in the NYTimes he has unprotected casual sex at clubs. Does any of this coverage increase awareness of the still-plenty-big threat of HIV, or does it just make gay men look bad? Respectful discussion within...?
toast me... i say you've got to toast me!
"i am arogon, son of alfred." it's nothing shocking to hear that europe is being flooded with asian-made bootlegs of the two towers. but who would have thought the sub-titled translations would prove so hilariously incorrect and occasionally inappropriate?
Saint Paul Winter Carnival Medallion Hunt
No Time For Cold Feet In the land of 10,000 lakes... 10,000 people dig for $10,000 buried in the snow. The 117th Saint Paul Winter Carnival is under way -- it's day 11 of the medallion hunt and it hasn't been found yet! The modern medallion is made of translucent blue lucite and is approximately two inches in diameter and one-half inch thick. It's hidden somewhere (on public land) in Ramsey County, which covers over 140 square miles. Here are this year's clues. Who says Minnesota isn't fun in January? Past medallion locations!
Gay Porn Goes Country
Gay porn legend Jeff Stryker releases a country album. It's true! The site provides links to several mp3 samples, but don't miss the brilliant "Pop You In The Pooper!".
Celebrity Nudity Database
Celebrity Nudity Database [via Anil] I'm not usually one to accredit websites to the whim of the Almighty, but in this case, one has to wonder. The site bills itself as "the most comprehensive reference for celebrity nudity on the Internet" with "reviews of over 12,000 nude scenes -- updated daily". This is work-safe; it's not porn.
Gutenberg for the 20 and change.
Print life! Forget this photo-realism nonsense. Scientists have modified ink-jet printers to print living cells. Like many innovations in sci-tech, I find this scary and fascinating at the same time.
model rocket video
Hobbyist records video from the POV of a model rocket via microwave downlink. The videos may be getting slammed with traffic right now, but the essential geeky construction photos are here. via macintouch
Algorithmic and Generative Art
"GoogleSynth uses the Google Image Search thingy to randomly grab two images as the 'input' and 'target' images for the algorithm. Once it has two images it applies the algorithm with the parameters set by the user and produces a new image based on them. The results vary wildly, often the output is a total mess, but it creates some cool looking stuff now and then (depending on your definition of 'cool')." (For Windows and Mac OSX.)
Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian
'The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis is one of the most significant and controversial representations of traditional American Indian culture ever produced. Issued in a limited edition from 1907-1930, the publication continues to exert a major influence on the image of Indians in popular culture ... Featured here are all of the published photogravure images including over 1500 illustrations bound in the text volumes, along with over 700 portfolio plates. ' All that and a great links page too.
The Curtis Collection is also worth a look.
The Curtis Collection is also worth a look.
High-wire act
God did it? I'm not usually one to accredit daily occurrences to the whim of the Almighty, but in this case, one has to wonder. A young man is thrown from his vehicle in a rollover crash, ejected, and saves himself from impact by catching the telephone lines 25 feet overhead.
Doctor brands woman's uterus
Doctor brands woman's uterus with his alma mater's initials during surgery. And if doubt the claim, you can watch a video of the operation.
Antics of the dogs of war.
At the Wallow of the Military Order of the Carabao, our nation's military leaders smoke Cuban cigars, sing racist songs about Filipinos, and suck up to the defense industry.
Concerto for Voicemail #1
"Leave a message, or accompany this bassline." Concerto for Voicemail #1.
japanese emoticons
Japanese Emoticons (*^_^*)
Walczak and Wattenburg
Marek Walczak and Martin Wattenberg are full of bright ideas: see, for example the telematic table, apartment ('a virtual city of memory palaces, an online experiment in do-it-yourself concrete poetry'), bewitched.com, and the WonderWalker - a would-be on-line, global wunderkammer...
Flash spoof: oil spills, Aznar and Las Ketchup
The, er, Spanish protest song comes of age, sort of: When bad oil spills happen to evil but otoparasitical Spanish pop songs in a crap video, but in a nice way, I say Hey Hah! Or rather: Aserejé! [Flash for the first link; Real for the third; both in Spanish. FRIENDLY WARNING: Do not click on the third link if you're not yet addicted to Las Ketchup.]
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