February 28, 2004
Political photoshopping
You may or may not have heard about the John Kerry + Jane Fonda fake photo that's been making its way into conservative publications in order to link the candidate with the highly unpopular (and rightfully so) war protester. What I found interesting is that the Washington Post has actually run an Op-Ed article by the person that created the fake photo (he also snapped the original photo), which to me demonstrates how far the fake photo has penetrated into mainstream thought.
February 26, 2004
Farmed sushi
We seem to talk about farmed-raised fish a lot, so this article may interest you. The stat that jumped out at me was that in 2000, 1.9kg of wild fish were used as fish feed for every 1kg of farmed fish produced. In 2001 that dropped to 1.3kg of wild fish per 1kg of farmed fish, but that's still suprising to me, and points out that, besides producing less-healthy fish meat, it's doesn't even help conserve the ocean's fish population.
- Fish farms still ravage the sea: Sustainable aquaculture takes one step forward, two steps back.
February 24, 2004
As in all things the onion make it clear...
This is the decision that the Massachusetts courts ruled that has the conservatives up in arms!February 23, 2004
Nader and Bush...
It looks like Bush has someone astroturfing for him...
February 22, 2004
I was just joking
We were joking at brunch that the Republicans would put for a "Defense" of Marriage Act that would say "a marriage is between a man and a woman blah blah... and those born in Austria are eligible to run for president." It's not quite as bad as we were joking, but the Governator is already trying to build support for Orrin Hatch's proposed constitutional amendment allowing foreign born individuals to run. While I'm not against such an amendment, can't we wait at least wait until Arnold is dead?
- CNN.com - Schwarzenegger: Let foreign-born seek White House - Feb. 22, 2004
February 20, 2004
New 1010 icon
Added a new icon for 1010 to the RSS feed. In case you're wondering, it's the power meter for 1010. I figured that was appropriate somehow. You can see the new icon in action over at Everyone.
February 19, 2004
Oh TiVo remote, how I love thee
The NYTimes has posted a story on the design process behind the TiVo remote.
Now Preening on the Coffee Table: The TiVo Remote Control
We two types of TiVo remotes at 1010: the peanut shaped one that the article talks about, and the Sony version of the remote. The peanut shaped one is definitely a lot nicer to hold and manipulate, with better a button layout that can be navigated entirely by feel, though I do wish that it had a Now Playing button like the Sony remote. The only thing I would eliminate off the remote is the numeric keypad. Who needs it when you never channel surf anymore? I guess they had to leave a slight bit of conservatism in it to not scare consumers.
February 18, 2004
Mass Transit Constellations
Good Omens contains a passage about how the M25 in London forms the occult symbol for "Hail the Great Beast, Devourer of Worlds." Along the same lines of finding shapes in London transit maps, but much cuter and less evil, someone has used the London Underground map to find shapes of animals:
Animals on the Underground
If you tried to do this with SF mass transit all you'd get is a snake.
February 17, 2004
Man, and I've had my phone for less than a year
Cingular has bought AT&T Wireless. This probably isn't good, but I'm not sure. At least I got my phone from AT&T for $50 (Cingular wanted $250).
- Cingular Wireless Press Release
Yaaahh!!! and Noooo!!!
The DirectTV HD TiVo gets closer and closer to release, and the final details make me both salivate and cringe simultaneously. In the woohoo category:
- 250GB hard drive = 30 hours HDTV, 200 hours regular broadcast
- 4 tuners: two for DirectTV, two for broadcast TV. Only two programs can be recorded simultaneously, however
- March or April release
in the "oh no!" category:
- $1000
- DRM: connector from TiVo to TV (DVI connector) is encrypted, so that only "authorized" devices can display the content. No playing on PCs or incompatible TVs
- there article says there are "two" protection schemes, but is unclear on the second. The second might be the broadcast flag, which tells recorders that they are not allowed to record a broadcast.
Wired News: TiVo Gets Huge Horsepower Boost
February 16, 2004
At last, the $#^%$ code
kuro5shin went through the leaked Microsoft source code and has pulled out choice comments that contain the often alluded to swear words, as well as comments that show that there are at least some Microsoft programmers as frustrated working with their software as I am.
We Are Morons: a quick look at the Win2k source || kuro5hin.org
February 15, 2004
February 13, 2004
We are the underpants gnomes...
The underpants gnomes have some work to do...Insane place we live...
Mothers are lobbying in Colorado for the right to breast feed. It seems in Colorado breast feeding women in public places can be asked to leave.February 12, 2004
H-bomb magazine at Harvard
Harvard students introduce a magazine that sounds much like Nerve. Much of the focus seems to be on the nude pictures of students, however, the founders want it to be about much more. I want to know where were things like this back when I was in collage?
I know Shane and Alyssa don't read this but this is for them...
I'll miss you, it's been fun
CNN.com - It's splitsville for Barbie and Ken - Feb. 12, 2004
Jon Stewart on Bush's "interview"
Another from my favorite and reliable news source, the Daily Show's segment on Bush's Tim Russert interview. I see the birth of the most deadly drinking game ever.
February 11, 2004
Another cool tech from Technorati
Technorati, the site that bringings us site cosmos, breaking news, top 100 blogs, current events, and blog searching, now brings us another cool use of feed/link cross-indexing:
- Technorati: Top Products, with context
Technorati counts all the links to Amazon products made from blogs, and then outputs what is currently "hot", and also provides the context from the linking blogs.
February 09, 2004
Hobbit love...
click to view image (possibly not work safe, depending on how your work fancies hobbits)
(kwc - entry edited to not take up my entire freakin' screen)
Tough Guys...
Bret Favrererere is not a tough man. I like Bret, he shows some real real brilliance when he isn't crying because his team is off or he screwed up. He can take a hit, I've personally never seen him upset or even sidelined for a hit, but I have seen him pissy and whinny for not playing well. Once he looses his confidence he doesn't get it back. In my mind that doesn't make him the toughest man alive.Tyler Hamilton who did the Tour de France with a multi-fractured collarbone only got 12.
Now is the time to buy a Ducati....
Meta, you want a Ducati monster 620? How about this one?
Redbull gives you wings... and maybe a halo too!
Redbull may not be as good for you as you would like.
Ever wonder why you fingernails never split tip down?
It seems scientists have figured it out. It has to do with the way fingernails are layered. The top and bottom layer are made up of sheets of keratin, while the middle layer is made up of cells running lengthwise. These middle layered cells are extremely tough. They are twice as tough length wise as width wise.
This is just stupid...
Auburn N.Y. has a crow problem. To help reduce the crow count, informally a crow hunt was introduced. They over time it became tradition, then an institution, and now it is formally organized and sponsored. I'm a liberal. I'm actually pretty damn liberal. However, this just bugs me:
Instead of a hunt, Sarnicola wants the city to put together a crow festival featuring music, entertainment and antiques while honoring someone who's done "something to crow about." Sarnicola also envisions the crowning of a crow princess.
Fine, if people have a problem with the killing of crows fine. Protest the crow hunt, get it shutdown. But co-opting it is just stupid. According to the whole article not a single person in the town likes the crows. They are tired of having all of there stuff covered in bird shit, but then people should be honored to be a "crow princess"?
February 05, 2004
support gay marriage
when i googled for "support gay marriage petition" all i got were sites for supporting gay marriage ban. still, i was able to find this one:
Support Gay and Lesbian Marriages in New Jersey
Gay/Lesbian Marriage and Adoption Rights Petition
DontAmend.com Petition Against Desecrating the Constitution With Anti-gay Bigotry
Stop the Federal Marriage Amendment Petition
for any of you that are interested. :)
February 04, 2004
Too much Monster Garage
They must have just watched the floating school bus episode in Cuba:
CNN.com - Cubans try floating vintage car to Florida - Feb. 4, 2004
February 03, 2004
Alex Ross, we aren't worthy to read your interview!
Alex Ross, who painted (yes painted) Marvels, did an interview for the Onion A.V. Club...
O: Apart from your Spider-Man incident, what was your first comics-show-related memory?
AR: Easily The Electric Company with Spider-Man on it. That would have been the first exposure to a superhero for sure. As a little kid... I was born in the '70s, so seeing whatever was on television at that time, it would have included that or reruns of the old Adam West Batman. But ultimately, the clearest impression is Spider-Man, because I have all these comics that I was drawing at the age of 3 and 4 of whatever I was seeing on TV. I would start drawing this little stick-figure Spider-Man, and folding over sheets of 8x10 paper to create the implications of a comic book with a little cover on it.