Thursday, March 25, 2004

Nun Urinals


Posted by MacDood
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Noted without comment. A follow-up to earlier BoingBoing posts on the Virgin Atlantic "kiss" urinal hoo-haa: nun-shaped urinals.
Found here (warning: hideous popunder ads abound in parent directory). (via Warren) [Boing Boing]

Thursday, March 18, 2004

"Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens the mind and produces oblivion." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

"When you cannot get a compliment any other way pay yourself one." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

mister worf, you have a tell. please don't kill me.


Posted by MacDood
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Grubette sent me this informative and hilarious breakdown of poker players as Star Trek aliens . . . [Wil Wheaton]

Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise to bring "War of the Worlds" to big screen (AFP)


Posted by MacDood
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Comment: Its the end of the world, again---

AFP - Movie mogul Steven Spielberg is to make a film version of Orson Welles'"The War of the Worlds," the sci-fi drama that seamed panic across America in the 1930s. [Yahoo! News - Entertainment]

Rumsfeld Caught Lying on "Face the Nation."


Posted by MacDood
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Comment: LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR ---

On CBS's "Face the Nation" on March 14, 2004, United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that he hadn't used the phrase "immediate threat" to describe the situation in Iraq and that President Bush hadn't either.Thomas Friedman of CBS then presented Rumsfeld with quotes from September 2002 where he did describe the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq as an "immediate threat." Rumsfeld's response was that we may still find that they really were an immediate threat after all.MoveOn.org has a video available which cuts off before Rumsfeld finishes his response.You can also read the full transcript from CBS (PDF), or there is a partial transcript below. [Kuro5hin.org]

Peter Bagge's libertarian comics for Reason


Posted by MacDood
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Comment: Let's not forget to laugh---

baggeI used to dislike Tom Tomorrow's comic strip, This Modern World. I'm not entirely sure why it didn't work for me, but I think it is because he would set up right-wing straw people to say exaggerated things to make them look bad. Lately, I've been enjoying his strip a lot more, and I think the reason is because the right-wing is now so outrageous, he doesn't need to exagerate to show how bad they are. The truth is funny without having to embellish it.To me, Peter Bagge is the opposite of Tom Tomorrow. I love the stuff he did for Weirdo, Neat Stuff, and Hate. Now he's doing a libertarian comic strip for Reason, and like a mirror-image Tom Tomorrow, he tries to make his point by exaggerating the kinds of things left-wingers say. And just as Tomorrow's early work wasn't funny, Bagge's recent Reason work doesn't make me laugh either. I did read Bagge's latest Hate Annual and thought he was in top form, so this criticism only applies to his Reason comics. Link



Brian Carnell sez: I thought it was unfair for you to pull that single strip out unqualified and claim that Bagge is just a right wing Tom Tomorrw.



Yes, that strip clearly exaggerates what the Left says for effect, but the difference between Bagge and Tom Tomorrow is that Bagge is an equal-opportunity exaggerator. For example, follow the link for a similar strip that is a caricature of the claims made by right wing supporters of the war on Iraq (I supported the war and I find it funny, but YMMV). He also lampooned libertarians.



The problem with Tom Tomorrow is that he's always caricaturing the Right, but never the Left (at least not that I can remember), unlike Bagge who skewers all sides.



(Mark sez: You're right, Brian!)

[Boing Boing]

Fauxtoblog


Posted by MacDood
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when the truth has found to be lies...A fellow named Jack posts a series of fake photoblogging documentaries on his website, fauxjob.com. Check out the hilarious fake Friendster UI on his home page. My favorite fauxtoblogs on Jack's site are "STAINS OF WEST HOLLYWOOD RAMADA INN" -- photos of stains on walls and carpet and furniture in an LA hotel -- and this series about (plastic) rats and roaches he discovered in a new Tenderloin district flat in San Francisco. Caption: " IT ALL BEGAN ONE MORNING -- SIMPLE ENOUGH -- WHEN I SAT DOWN TO ENJOY A BOWL OF CEREAL FOR BREAKFAST. HOWEVER, IT SEEMS, A GIANT RAT HAD BEATEN ME TO IT... I REALLY SHOULD HAVE MOVED TO THE CASTRO." (Thanks, J!)
[Boing Boing]

Sunday, March 14, 2004

"Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

Astronomers find 'new planet'


Posted by MacDood
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Comment: 10 and not 11, 10 and not 9---

A new space telescope has detected what could be the Solar System's 10th planet, named Sedna. [BBC News | Front Page]

LOTR to Become a London Musical


Posted by MacDood
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Comment: sing Gollum sing---

PenguinRadio writes "Sky is reporting that Lord of the Rings will become 'the most expensive musical ever seen in London', sporting a price tag of 8 million ... [Slashdot]

Binary LED watch from TokyoFlash


Posted by MacDood
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Comment: geek out---

New from TokyoFlash, purveyors of fine and impractical Japanese hipster novelty watches: the LED by Binary. It's a watch with a naked printed circuit board, on which are situated 10 LEDs, which glow to display the time in binary notation. ¥8900.00 -- about $80. Link
[Boing Boing]

Friday, March 12, 2004

Dreamweaver MX 2004 Updated to v7.0.1


Posted by MacDood
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Comment: guess this means I'll keep the flying logo on my home page, cutsey demo of DHTML---

Macromedia has updated Dreamweaver MX 2004 to v7.0.1. This update includes performance and stability enhancements, as well as the return of the "Timelines" feature from Dreamweaver MX.


Like Pixels? Check out MacDesign [MacMerc]

Picture of orangutan hand and human hand


Posted by MacDood
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oranghandJuju sez: This is a great picture comparing a human and an orangutan hand. There's also an analysis of the various differences between the two, and why those differences allow humans to have a precision grip, thus allowing us domination over the planet. Link

[Boing Boing]

Stations playing Bush campaign ads for free during news?


Posted by MacDood
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A few nights ago, I was watching the local news on an Hearst-Argyle owned ABC news affiliate, WCVB. They launched into a story about Bush's reelection campaign, and how some of that huge pile of money was being put to action for a new commercial. Then to my surprise they ran it in entirety, full screen, with no voiceover commentary. Our President, with $190M in campaign funds, was getting what seemed suspiciously like a freebie. [Kuro5hin.org]

Should 14-year-olds vote? OK, how about a quarter of a vote?


Posted by MacDood
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California legislators propose letting teens vote. [Christian Science Monitor | USA]

Thursday, March 11, 2004

FileMaker Ships Major Revamp with FileMaker Pro...


Posted by MacDood
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FileMaker Ships Major Revamp with FileMaker Pro 7 (10-Mar-2004; 3.9K) [TidBITS]

Steve Martin's script notes from The Passion


Posted by MacDood
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Jason Schultz has reproduced a bunch of Steve Martin's high-larious script notes for "The Passion" from this month's New Yorker.




* Love the Jesus character. So likeable. He can't seem to catch a break! We identify with him because of it. One thing: I think we need to clearly state "the rules." Why doesn't he use his superpowers to save himself?


* Does it matter which garden? Gethsemane is hard to say, and Eden is a much more recognizable garden. Just thinking outloud.


* Our creative people suggest a clock visual fading in and out in certain scenes, like the Last Supper bit: "Thursday, 7:43 P.M.," or "Good Friday, 5:14 P.M."


* Also, could he change water into wine in Last Supper scene? Would be a great moment, and it's legit. History compression is a movie tradition and could really brighten up the scene. Great trailer moment, too.



Link [Boing Boing]

GNU Screen: an introduction and beginner's tutorial


Posted by MacDood
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Most modern Unix-based operating systems (e.g. Linux, MacOS X, and BSD) come with a little console-mode utility called GNU Screen. It's a powerful tool in the hands of the console warrior, a veritable Swiss Army knife of text-mode human-computer interaction. This utility, despite its considerable usefulness, goes unused by a great many people. Why is this? Few people even know it's there, and those that do rarely understand the problem it solves. In this article, I will explain what screen does for you, and provide a simple set of instructions for accomplishing basic tasks using screen. My audience is those that are skilled with the command line but who have little or no experience with screen itself. [Kuro5hin.org]

Tuesday, March 9, 2004

New: FileMaker Pro 7


Posted by MacDood
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FileMaker, Inc. announced the release of FileMaker Pro 7 and FileMaker Developer 7, with major new features that include a Relationships Graph, which presents a visual "map" of the database, and a streamlined relational architecture, which stores multiple tables within a single file. [MacInTouch]

Friday, March 5, 2004

Hubble Captures a Starry Night


Posted by MacDood
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The red giant star V838 Monocerotis puts on a show worthy of Van Gogh, and the Hubble Space Telescope takes note. By Lore Sjöberg. [Wired News]

Thursday, March 4, 2004

Move Over Karaoke...Hello Movieoke


Posted by MacDood
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Comment: Now that sounds like funnnnnn---

cb8100 writes "Fox News is reporting about a new bar game called "Movieoke" in which participants act out scenes from their favorite movies -- karaoke style." ... [Slashdot]

Transmogrify


Posted by MacDood
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The Calvin & Hobbes Extensive Strip Search (C.H.E.S.S.) is a wonderfully obsessive database of every Watterson strip indexed by keyword & description, with each strip scanned, as well as a book & page # listing of which collection the stip appears in (and original newspaper publication date). It's wildly in violation of copywrite, but it's also very cool. and the geek in me wonders how they do the cool right-mousebutton trick when you click on the strips [metafilter.com]

Movies and fonts: together at last!


Posted by MacDood
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The Movie Alphabet Game is harder than it looks. I'm stuck on C, O, U, and X. When you're through with that, try the second one. [metafilter.com]

Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Bilingual Ewok lyrics


Posted by MacDood
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you know I've always wondered

The Ewok scene from the end of Return of the Jedi, the one where they all sing the victory song? Well, the song has lyrics. And an English translation.




Yub nub

eee chop yub nub

ah toe meet toe pee-chee keene

g'noop dock fling oh ah

Yah wah

eee chop yah wah

ah toe meet toe pee-chee keene

g'noop dock fling oh ah...


Freedom

we got freedom

and now that we can be free

come on and celebrate

Power

we got power

and now that we can be free

it's time to celebrate...


Link



(Thanks, kidsoncrack!) [Boing Boing]

Monday, March 1, 2004

Flies, Spiders and Pillbugs, oh my!


Posted by MacDood
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The Insectlopedia has proven to be a fun distraction from human-based work today. Not too many places keep so much info on bugs handy and updated. Mostly a page of links to off-site content, yet it keeps drawing me back for more. Everything from the Social Wasps of Siberia to Live Beecams can be found here. [metafilter.com]

How to Stop Receiving Credit Card Offers


Posted by MacDood
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Tired of annoying "pre-approved" credit card offers? I sure am. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) of 1970 as amended in 1996, the four major credit bureaus have the right to sell your information to companies that want to offer you a credit card. Fortunately, the amendment also stipulated that credit bureaus must provide a way for consumers to have their names excluded from pre-approval lists. If you're a United States citizen sick of getting pre-screened credit card offers, this article will show you how to avoid receiving them. [Kuro5hin.org]