Can You Hear Me Now?
Survivor
A bunch of sunburned people in cutoffs call each other a “tribe,” and under the gaze of a blow-dried guy named Jeff, sit under Tiki torches and vote each other off the show. It’s like a Disney version of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with prizes.
Dinocephalosaurus orientalis: Not Your Father’s Dinosaur!
The Washington Post informed me that research into this “unwieldly pond-dwelling predator,” based on a new fossil “suggest that that these animals…used their long necks not as supple spears, but like lethal suction hoses.”
There was this predatory girlfriend I used to have….
Blogosphere
Interesting op-ed piece from the Washington Post a few Sundays back:
A year ago, I barely knew what blogs were. Within a few months, they'd become a staple of my daily media diet. Now I can't live without them, but already I'm feeling betrayed -- and a little bored.
…
Bloggers know what they like and what they don't like, and they aren't afraid to tell you why. And they get to use bad words that will never see print inside a family newspaper. But to get to the good stuff, you have to wade through more and more self-congratulation and mutual admiration. Call it blogrolling.
This was written by my very very very good friend Jennifer Howard. (Link to me!)
No, I Don’t Really Know Jennifer Howard.
But I know this.
From CNET:
“The wireless provider [Nextel] began selling its Mobile Locator service last November, giving bosses an easy way to find employees who carry GPS-equipped cell phones. Earlier this month, mobile tracking firm Xora showed off the latest version of its Nextel GPS (global positioning system) phone software. The company says 1,600 corporate customers have signed up for its services, including ‘geofences’ technology that sets off an alarm at the office when field workers go to preprogrammed off-limits sites, such as a bar or a park.”
Like Robert Frost almost said, “Good geofences make good geoneighbors.” Unless they’re turning you in.
In other cell phone news, The Mainichi Daily News reports that “Hideto Tomabechi -- who first made headlines in Japan almost a decade ago after he cured brainwashed members of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult that unleashed deadly sarin gas on the Tokyo subway system -- claims to have developed a tune for ring tones that promises to increase the breast measurements of those who listen to it.”
And it’s true! I know a woman who got so many phone calls she fell right over.
And They’re Off!
From WiredNews: “[A] new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that six glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea have quickened their march into the ocean over the past 15 years, and the pace has accelerated recently. The fastest of these, the Pine Island Glacier, is ripping along at a six-yards-a-day pace -- 25 percent faster than it was moving in the 1970s -- making it one of the fastest-moving glaciers on Earth.”
Black Box
Black Box Voting, an outfit devoted to the exposure of ballot tampering, recently went after touch-screen voting machines. They made a video of a chimpanzee (named Baxter) deleting the audit log on a tabulating computer. Afterward, Baxter- on the same computer - wrote Hamlet, the Book of Job, and Ulysses, before defecating on the keyboard.
What Is Reality?
Kuma Reality Games is producing an add-on to one of their video games that will let you re-enact John Kerry’s Viet Nam swift boat battle.
I hope they update it further to allow players to give the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” a swift kick in the pants.
Duck DVD
Commentary tomorrow, recording here in San Francisco. I will share any worthy anecdotes with you.
A bunch of sunburned people in cutoffs call each other a “tribe,” and under the gaze of a blow-dried guy named Jeff, sit under Tiki torches and vote each other off the show. It’s like a Disney version of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with prizes.
Dinocephalosaurus orientalis: Not Your Father’s Dinosaur!
The Washington Post informed me that research into this “unwieldly pond-dwelling predator,” based on a new fossil “suggest that that these animals…used their long necks not as supple spears, but like lethal suction hoses.”
There was this predatory girlfriend I used to have….
Blogosphere
Interesting op-ed piece from the Washington Post a few Sundays back:
A year ago, I barely knew what blogs were. Within a few months, they'd become a staple of my daily media diet. Now I can't live without them, but already I'm feeling betrayed -- and a little bored.
…
Bloggers know what they like and what they don't like, and they aren't afraid to tell you why. And they get to use bad words that will never see print inside a family newspaper. But to get to the good stuff, you have to wade through more and more self-congratulation and mutual admiration. Call it blogrolling.
This was written by my very very very good friend Jennifer Howard. (Link to me!)
No, I Don’t Really Know Jennifer Howard.
But I know this.
From CNET:
“The wireless provider [Nextel] began selling its Mobile Locator service last November, giving bosses an easy way to find employees who carry GPS-equipped cell phones. Earlier this month, mobile tracking firm Xora showed off the latest version of its Nextel GPS (global positioning system) phone software. The company says 1,600 corporate customers have signed up for its services, including ‘geofences’ technology that sets off an alarm at the office when field workers go to preprogrammed off-limits sites, such as a bar or a park.”
Like Robert Frost almost said, “Good geofences make good geoneighbors.” Unless they’re turning you in.
In other cell phone news, The Mainichi Daily News reports that “Hideto Tomabechi -- who first made headlines in Japan almost a decade ago after he cured brainwashed members of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult that unleashed deadly sarin gas on the Tokyo subway system -- claims to have developed a tune for ring tones that promises to increase the breast measurements of those who listen to it.”
And it’s true! I know a woman who got so many phone calls she fell right over.
And They’re Off!
From WiredNews: “[A] new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that six glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea have quickened their march into the ocean over the past 15 years, and the pace has accelerated recently. The fastest of these, the Pine Island Glacier, is ripping along at a six-yards-a-day pace -- 25 percent faster than it was moving in the 1970s -- making it one of the fastest-moving glaciers on Earth.”
Black Box
Black Box Voting, an outfit devoted to the exposure of ballot tampering, recently went after touch-screen voting machines. They made a video of a chimpanzee (named Baxter) deleting the audit log on a tabulating computer. Afterward, Baxter- on the same computer - wrote Hamlet, the Book of Job, and Ulysses, before defecating on the keyboard.
What Is Reality?
Kuma Reality Games is producing an add-on to one of their video games that will let you re-enact John Kerry’s Viet Nam swift boat battle.
I hope they update it further to allow players to give the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” a swift kick in the pants.
Duck DVD
Commentary tomorrow, recording here in San Francisco. I will share any worthy anecdotes with you.
posted by Merle Kessler at 6:05 PM
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