i’ve had netvibes for some time. i just now took the time to add a good number of news feeds to it. i’m thinking this will be an improvement in my blogging process since i can see at a glance what’s being talked about on the news line and i don’t have to deal with the ranking crap of reddit and digg (but i do have digg in my netvibes, never know what you’ll find)
First up today, girls gone wild? well, yes, but on facebook. probably NSFW, I braved it, though somewhat suspiciously. Now I haven’t been able to check the credibility of this, but I at least can say that I haven’t noticed anyone in my network of friends posting that stuff. I myself am not exempt either. I just post it elsewhere for everyone to find it.
Science blog article from wired about dumping urea into the sea to offset CO2 by stimulating the growth of O2 producing algae. To me it seems like environmentalist infighting. Here are some people who have an idea of how to fix a problem, and the people who want the fix are saying “not really gonna let you do that.” It’s oversimplification, I know. But the topic warrants looking into the source article referenced and the related topics as well.
Is the human race mutating? No not really, actually it was probably pretty insensitive of me to say that, but I digress. This is a pretty popular story among the news outlets. This girl was born with 8 extra limbs. I can’t really tell from the picture which ones they are. If I had a say I wouldn’t take them off unless it really adversely affected her health (it does, I’m just saying..), because hey, who hasn’t wanted to be a human spider? I kid, I kid.
This is just one of many many articles analyzing Google’s announcement of Android – an open mobile technology platform. I just happened to find this one. I’m psyched about this if it pans out. I’ve always been sick of ATT et. all locking phones up and limiting my choices as a consumer through contracts. I recently shelled out a good wad of cash just to say FU and bought a phone not sold as a contract package by ATT. Yay me, right?
I’m really not a financial expert, but if the dollar keeps falling I’m gonna be pinching for my vaca this winter. It seems this is largely based on irresponsible borrowing and lending. With our GDP so high, what gives?
Spring-Ford Reporter:
To the Editor:
Halloween. I like it. Lot’s of people like it. There’s much to do with Halloween. From decorations and cooking to costumes and candy, people busy themselves with preparing much for the merrymaking involved with the holiday. Decorations have always been a great way to communicate the holiday spirit. But to my recollection, the decorations of Halloween never rivaled the intensity of Christmas decorations, that is, until recently.
Houses and store windows alike are now full of pumpkins and gravestones, ghouls and monsters alike. They draw the attention of the passer-by and capture the imagination of children seeking out their Halloween treasures of candy. One particular store had windows that absolutely blew my mind to pieces. After a pleasant night of said Halloween Merrymaking, a small group of my friends and I decided to have our own Halloween parade along the sidewalk of Main St. in Royersford. During that walk we passed a store that many of us had passed countless times before without much scrutiny. Its windows are usually decorated in concert with the season and are always pleasant to look at in passing by. But this night my friends and I were intent on finding entertainment and so, I was surprised at the gravity with which this store’s windows held our attentions and our wondrous amazement.
Not that many store’s don’t make windows worth examining, but to me I think there was something more, something that made these windows worth more than just examination, something that made these windows special. Something so quotidian to the daily by-passer, but so sublime when one slowed the pace of their life to really take in the artful arrangement that actually spoke with such a beautifully haunting narrative. Windows done well will always have a narration, but windows that narrate with a voice that has no other purpose than to whisper the haunting prose of the artist’s visual memory have the ability to enslave the viewer’s mind’s eye and wholly capture their imagination.
But how could such a simple and everyday window arranged with simple and everyday objects be arranged for a holiday to speak with such a voice? I would say that this is an example of the idea that the sum of the parts will always have a greater effect that the parts themselves. With dolls and chests and lace, ghosts and ghouls and picture frames, the obvious elements simply looked like Halloween. But with more examination the details became the basis of the haunt. Dolls that hid in a chest beside an over-sized hand and seemed to be peeking out on a world that was totally foreign to them. A ballerina on point refused to face her audience. Perhaps she was in the middle of a spin, but most seemingly, she was not interested in her audience or she had something to hide. Faces of famous people like Michael Jackson painted in gaudy exaggerations of facial color then framed as if they were the masterpiece – stared out into the window scene. At the center, a woman whose face was unspeakably rotted was comforted by a headless husband as she sat silently on her rocking chair. But behind it all was the orchestrator of the scene. It was the silent partner that stared straight into your soul, but could not be found. And when you did find that head hidden in the far back corner of the scene, you spent all your energy not to reel away in complete terror at what you had found.
What is the first sale doctrine anyways? But my favorite question in this whole thing is: Do you actually own anything digital that you’ve bought? According to most software EULA’s you don’t. But fortunately, as the article points out, this guy isn’t the only person who’s fought this, and won.
Some scientists have sped up the speed of light, or as they say, broken the speed of light. They used a bunch of quantum mechanic mumbledy-jumbledy, but in general the comments on this are skeptical at best.
In quite a scandalous uproar, reddit users found an article that actually advocates the GWBush become the president for life, or dictator. I’ve heard rumor that if he did ascend the throne of America to become the dictator, American citizens have the constitutional right to kill him (but I need to do the fact checking). Needless to say, Family Security Matters took down the article and the only way to read it now is in the google cache.
I would like to now say two things: 1) We’re in Iraq under false pretenses, please find and kill Bin Laden then remove ourselves from the Middle East for good, we’re just making things worse. And 2) I would like to point out that they didn’t kill Americans, they killed innocent civilians. These people are animals.
America should have this holiday.
Scientists found that squirrel’s have a secret weapon: heat. They’re tails give off infrared information that confuses certain predators, particularly rattle snakes.
I del.icio.us‘d this one: SignalMap. It allows you to add what signal you are getting, where you are getting it to a googlemap api. You can see all the signal points in your area with comments. I added one for work so far.
the hypochondriac’s favorite (or most feared) site has a decent article with pointers for getting more energy. don’t read the last page, it’s advertisements basically (and totally lame). top on my todo list is exercise (in the morning!?!?) and breakfast.
great list of credit pointers (10 commandments style) from the consumerist.
what apple product have you owned? my first mac (besides the ][‘s at school) was a Mac Classic. with a black and white screen, i was able to surf the web through prodigy (which is still around somehow). which basically meant i was surfing a fake web.
i don’t usually link straight to Fake Steve Jobs, but he includes some parody thoughts that i particularly like regarding the sloth known as the recording industry.
more screw-the-recording-man goodness: ars has a little article about a grandma who is fighting back, as well as some related stories down at the end which are worth a look.
Bebo vs. Facebook vs. Myspace: bbc reporting that myspace is loosing ground to the two. God I hope so. Myspace is so UGLY. Personally, I like virb.
CNSnews (who I’m not too familiar with) is reporting on a bill meant to stop idiots Feinstein and Edwards (and others) from reviving the fairness doctrine. Screw that… why stop there? WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE ELIMINATE THE REST OF THE BACKWARDS, SOCIALIST ALPHABET SOUP LEFT OVER FROM THE DEPRESSION. Thanks for representing me, you bastards of human life.
A pretty comprehensive grid of iPhone rankings from valleywag. I probably won’t be getting one. My dream is an FOS platform phone that I can skype with. I’m dying to ditch cellphone providers and their abusive contract practices.
I didn’t even know about these songs until guitar hero. I grew up under a rock.
Neat article about an experiment in WWII that gifted sailors with infrared visibility through their diet. I smell an “Infrared Pill”, it would sell like hotcakes. At least I would buy a bottle.
Here’s a great list of web2.0 web applications that let you do day to day computing from anywhere. so far, i stick with google docs and keep it simple. other webapps that i enjoy regularly are moneytrackin’ and instacalc.
Great page of information on all the thought that should go into acquiring a credit card from the federal reserve. a must read for financial hopeful’s like me.
in hong kong a gym is beginning to add electric generators to the treadmill equipment to create the electricity for the building. this isn’t a new idea i’m sure, but this is the first i’ve read of anyone actually doing it.
a man in georgia kills a bear by throwing a log at it while protecting his son. he gets a ticket for not securing his campsite. sweet irony.
is apple really going to be able to deliver on the battery life of the upcoming (THIS WEEK) iphone? slate delves into how they may have made this happen.
youtube is seemingly becoming a more legitimate media outlet, signing on a reality tv show for ad revenue sharing.
pretty interesting article (from the sound of it. i haven’t read it entirely yet, but i’m about to) on class differences becoming a factor in which social engine you use (facebook vs. myspace). i use virb for my band, and myspace for exposure, facebook for friends, and linkedin for business. i’m connected baby.
From the front pages of digg: an interesting compilation of “oldest cities in the world.” Rife with differing opinions because no one’s actually lived long enough to be there when those cities were actually created.
You can get your ugly face off of google maps (MAN PEEING ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD… wish i still had that link). Just give them your identity. via lifehacker.
If Bill Gates corrupted Steve Jobs I think I’ll cry. Just read the comic.
I like this idea. Since I do music too, you should all follow this graphical set of instructions. If you click on the graphic there’s an article. But it was long and boring. DON’T READ IT.
Good story about justice and identity theft. How appropriate and popular a topic. But seriously, kudos to the lady that got her ID back.
welcome to another edition. this will be a mixed bag, but i’ll sort by source.
From some publication on the Left Coast in LA, word is out that Mr. Wizard died yesterday. I hate admitting this, but for some reason when I watched this on NICK as a kid, I always thought Mr. Wizard was Patrick Stewart. TRAVESTY OF TRAVESTIES.
Next up, from the pages of make!
Surreal Wallpaper! Queue jokes about eating shrooms without all the hassle. But I’m intrigued. Maybe I’ll find a great little room of my own just for putting up this paper.
In early alpha, Wii Media Center X. I’m pretty excited to toy around with this one so I can stop using my XBOX for media. But that’s Bias, since the XBOX hates on my network at home.
A spanish blog noticed a small picture “hidden” on the Windows Vista Business CD. Conspiracy? I think so. God I despise M$, not that this really has anything to do with them. I just thought I’d let you know.
And now from the top lists of Reddit
Straight dope’s response to: Can you open the hatch of a commercial airliner in midflight? BUT WHAT ABOUT IN THE MOVIES?
I would include a more in depth explanation of my beliefs, but I don’t think that this blog is the correct venue for this. Suffice to say that I completely disagree with the idea of “God Said Pi=3” and another article on the same topic, sited by the other. Why don’t you site the Missler/Numerology explanation of the original Hebrew manuscripts that was given in the comments section? And finally in answer to Mr. Dutch’s Question: Your humility. In your presentation of pi, you pridefully assume that you know more than God. This hubris causes you to assume that your interpretation of the Word of God is absolute and final. And with that I will always disagree.
And back to our regular programming. I hope google really isn’t evil. Now that they are moving into universities their market will expand a great deal, as will their access to more information. While I applaud the business of their movements, I am still concerned.
Ninja? In Italy? Who is Russian? Oh the cultural hilarity that ensues.
And now, my new RSS subscription filed under fun: The Fake Steve Jobs Blog!
We’re back for a morning edition after an awful downtime while I moved servers. So here we go! This is the digg/reddit I’m lazy and bored edition.
A kid does bacteria testing in his school and finds that the toilets are cleaner. With all the chemicals they use on toilets does that mean they’re actually safer?
A guy gets a tattoo of the zune logo. That sucks. Beers all around!
I’m not really sure what the context of this is, but if you would like to check out exactly how awesome the geography of the Earth is, check out a bunch of lakes on islands in lakes etc. etc. etc.
And finally some politiks. An ultra-conservative blog posting that seems to bite Rolling Stones in the ass. Let me just say, whether you think they have a point or not, I don’t care. Rolling Stone is an idiots guide to politics and I can’t stand it. Mixing politics with entertainment lands you Arnold as Governor.
Afternoon Edition!
An interesting article on arstechnica through digg about Verizon disclosing records to the NSA, claiming the first amendment in defense of a lawsuit. I haven’t had time to check the facts on this one too deeply, but there is a great comment on the digg page and a link to an interesting write up on the rights of corporations.
A top 25 list from usatoday about public meltdowns. Who knew famous people were this crazy? Oh wait, we all do.
I was thrown a little curveball by this article, but thought I would comment on it briefly. More and more I’m becoming a huge fan of Ron Paul, so when I saw this article I was very interested to see how it would turn out. I ended with slightly mixed feelings. I started reading expecting more information about Paul and ended up getting a lot of rhetoric about the “new media.” Don’t get me wrong, the “old media” makes me absolutely sick. I’m just not a big fan of rhetoric. So now I’m looking for a transcript of the debates because it’s looking like Ron Paul might be my man for the big “P”. More info on my findings later
And finally, some good news from Cisco. I don’t typically follow stocks as much as I probably should, but Cisco interests me because the recently acquired webEx, and I’m a regular user of that software.
