More money for .Mac: "It's time to plunk down another hundred bucks for my .Mac account. Why I think it'll be worth it."

(Via MacDevCenter.)

Asimov's magazine on ebooks: "Cory Doctorow:
I'm reading Ulysses on mine, and some HP Lovecraft

My pal and teacher James Patrick Kelly is a Hugo-award-winning sf writer who does a column about the Internet for Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine -- this month's, about ebooks, is very good indeed (especially given the generally dismal approach of the sf field to electronic text).

should say here that I have long been one of those saurians who disliked reading for pleasure from a computer screen. But a couple of months ago, for reasons too boring to mention, I popped for a personal digital assistant (PDA) , mostly to keep track of appointments and addresses when I was away from my desk. As it happened, shortly after I made the buy, I went to Florida to attend the International Conference on the Fantastic and to soak up some rays. On a whim, I loaded some ebooks into my new gadget. By the time I got off the plane in Fort Lauderdale I’d fallen in love with my PDA as a reading device. Yes, the screen is smallish but I can change the font at will. Maybe it isn’t exactly ideal for the beach because direct light washes out the backlit screen, but my days of sunbathing are over and this thing is made in the shade. Often as not it’s my book of choice for bedtime reading. And if my wife wants to turn in, we can douse all the lights and I can read from that cheerily lit screen.

Link"

(Via Boing Boing.)

BBC NEWS | Americas | Ashcroft 'to defend' Patriot Act: ""

(Via .)

Joseph Campbell: ""You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning... a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.""

(Via Motivational Quotes of the Day.)

Pez-dispenser USB: "Cory Doctorow:


This is a pretty cool idea: USB keychains built into Pez dispensers. Wish they were around now!

Link


"

(Via Boing Boing.)

wallstreetscandals.gif 1000x750 pixels: ""

(Via .)

Crude Dick: "Xeni Jardin:


Kevin Reynen says, "I've added a photomosaic of Dick Cheney to go along with War President, Porn Ashcroft, and Abu Rummy. Crude Dick is made up of SUVs and oil wells." Link"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Big Honkin' Mushroom: "Xeni Jardin:
BoingBoing reader Michael says, "Looks like they found the world's largest mushroom in Switzerland, according to the BBC -- 'Found in the Malheur national forest in Oregon, that fungus covers 890 hectares (2,200 acres) - making it the largest living organism ever discovered.' Anybody else want a Mushroom Omlette?" Link"

(Via Boing Boing.)

LEGO Education Store: Family Products: "



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Home > LEGO Mindstorms for Schools > ROBOLAB Software & Hardware



ROBOLAB 2.5.4 Software with Training Missions






900076

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Product Family




 Identifier 
 Name 
 Price 
 Qty 

 W900076 
  ROBOLAB CD-ROM 
  $69.00  

 W991100 
  ROBOLAB CD-ROM and Site License 
  $235.00  






Product Description

Pre-Order yours today! Coming October 2004

Take the next step! If your students are experienced at constructing LEGO models, challenge them with ROBOLAB software and watch them employ the RCX Programmable Brick; add sensors, motors, and a camera; create a program; and log the resulting data. Connect your students with the real world in a fun and challenging way.

The cross-platform ("

(Via .)

Sims in Sims 2 can play Sims 1: "Cory Doctorow:


I just love infinite regression-mac

The new version of The Sims, called "The Sims 2" allows your sim-people to play "The Sims" in-game. Recursion-licious!


Link


(via Wonderland)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Moment of Jimmy Swaggart Zen: "Xeni Jardin:
During a recently broadcast sermon in which he discussed his opposition to gay marriage, evangelical telepreacher Jimmy Swaggart said:

"I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died."

Link (via Warren)"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Bushism DVD out: "Xeni Jardin:


Bushisms the book is now Bushisms the DVD --
hosted by comic uber-genius Brian Unger of The
Daily Show. The DVD features Al Franken and others commenting on nucular-strength malapropisms from the presidentiary such as:

# "War is a dangerous place."


# "Karyn is a West Texas girl, just like me."


# "Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning."

Link (Disclaimer: I'm proud to be Mr. Unger's colleague/co-contributor on the NPR show
"Day to Day")."

(Via Boing Boing.)

Worth1000.com | Photoshop Contests | Are you Worthy™ | contest

Worth1000.com | Photoshop Contests | Are you Worthy™ | contest

Assemblage sculpture/clock of surpassing gorgeosity: "Cory Doctorow:


Roger Wood, my pal the genius assemblage-sculptor clockmaker, has been on a tear lately, as is evidenced by his latest mailing-list update, shown here.

Link


"

(Via Boing Boing.)

something positive: archive

something positive: archive

The Onion | Infograph

The Onion | Infograph

So much for American pluralism and tolerance....: "

So much for American pluralism and tolerance. Under the current administration, you can be barred from the United States because of your religion. Will someone explain to me how the fuck Bush is leading in the polls?

"

(Via blog.)

Interesting Thing of the Day: Propeller Beanies: ""

(Via .)

Card Trick: I Can Read Your Mind!: " You are here:
About>News & Issues>Urban Legends and Folklore


Urban Legends and Folklore

I Can Read Your Mind!

Pick a card, any card...

Here is a well-traveled card trick/mindreading illusion that has popped up again and again on the Internet, even circulating in the form of a PowerPoint presentation purporting to be (although it almost certainly is not) the work of master stage magician David Copperfield.

The illu"

(Via .)

The Story of Doughnuts: "The truth, the hole truth…"

(Via Interesting Thing of the Day.)

The Globe Theatre: "Shakespeare’s ideal venue, then and now"

(Via Interesting Thing of the Day.)

Little Pony Borg

Posted by MacDood
Cory Doctorow:

What a great mod: converting a My Little Pony into an element of the Borg.

Link

(Thanks, Biz!)

[Boing Boing]

Are you a Copyright Criminal?

Posted by MacDood
Xeni Jardin:

BoingBoing reader Robert Daeley says, "Came across this picture on the wall just behind a copy machine. All the hackers I know wear ski masks when they commit their crimes. Oh, and big thick leather gloves are great for typing."

Link to blog post with pointer to full size image. Mwuhuhahahahaaaaaaa. [Boing Boing]

Star Wars: Kids | Drawing Darth Vader

Star Wars: Kids | Drawing Darth Vader

Mirror.co.uk - THE 50 WEIRDEST GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS

Mirror.co.uk - THE 50 WEIRDEST GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS

blink

blink

Have you smacked a libertarian today? Vol. 2

Posted by MacDood
I think it's important to know that "Michael Badnarik", the Libertarian candidate for President, is an anagram for "A animal bred hick". [Geekable.com]

Personal Technology -- Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal.

How to Protect Yourself From Vandals, Viruses If You Use Windows

Personal Technology -- Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal.

Guardian Unlimited | Arts Friday Review | Who held a gun to Leonard Cohen's head?

Guardian Unlimited | Arts Friday Review | Who held a gun to Leonard Cohen's head?

Three Years Since || kuro5hin.org

Three Years Since || kuro5hin.org

Web Zen: Yarrrr! 'Tis Pirate Zen 2004!!!

Posted by MacDood
Xeni Jardin:

talk like a pirate day

pirate info

pirate bath 1

pirates and pivateers

capn crimson

which pirate are you?

spooneye! the card game

pirate bath 2

pirates of the bahamas

pirate flags

pirates of penzance

pirate supplies

yar! pirate zen 2003


and for a limited time...

david byrne's pirates

(this will disappear on 09.20.04)

web zen home, web zen store, (Thanks, Frank). [Boing Boing]

Robo-roach

Posted by MacDood
David Pescovitz:
How do animals walk without falling over? A multi-university research effort led by UC Berkeley will try to answer that question by studying a small robot that imitates cockroach locomotion. Berkeley biologist Robert Full's insights into animal movement have informed the design of other robots as well, including the wall-climbing Mecho-Gecko. By simultaneously studying the cockroach-bot and various insects, the researchers hope to identify the muscular and neural networks that result in the whole-body motion of a wide range of animals, including humans.

"The robot has to operate in the real world, like the animal does, so we can use it for testing hypotheses," Full said. "We know, for example, that the body's center of mass bounces along like a pogo stick, which is embodied in the robot, but we don't know how its parts - its legs, feet, actuators or muscles - sum up to give that remarkably general pattern of movement. Now we can ask questions like, 'What if you had a more compliant leg? What if you had two joints in that leg, what does that give you versus one joint?'"

Link [Boing Boing]

Remembering π

Posted by MacDood
David Pescovitz:
In March, a savant in England recited π from memory to more than 22,000 decimal places. Still, he wasn't even halfway to the world record set by a Japanese man in 1995. This article in Plus magazine describes how these amazing memory feats are accomplished and how to improve your own remembrance of numbers past.

"Like most people, you have probably had the odd experience of smelling, say, an old piece of furniture and being reminded of something that happened to you in the distant past. Smell has a particularly strong connection with memory, perhaps because the part of the brain that deals with smell is close to the hippocampus, which is where it is believed long term memories are formed. If you deliberately surround yourself with a particular smell when trying to memorise something, that smell is likely to help trigger the memory later when you need to recall it."

Link (via Reality Carnival) [Boing Boing]

Haunted Mansion castmember's remembrance

Posted by MacDood
Cory Doctorow:
Here's the first-person account of a summer student intern at Walt Disney World who got the killer assignment of working at the Haunted Mansion (what a dream gig!):

I hated being told I wasn’t scary. I hated being made fun of for my deep Southern accent. I hated the fact that I was a southern happy blonde with pigtails stuck in a dark damp Mansion. Then I gave it a chance. I realized I was lucky to have such a highly coveted position. I slowly let myself fall into the role and was thrilled the first time I actually scared a guest. I learned that many of my fellow cast members weren’t as rude and sarcastic as they seemed, they just really took pride in their job. And I found my spot in the Mansion crew. I was the one that lost children were taken to because I was probably the least scary. I was the one that parents turned to for an encouraging word to convince their children to try the ride. The first time a six year old boy came running out of the Mansion with a huge smile to give me a hug before getting back on the ride, I finally felt like I had a place at the Mansion.

Link

(via The Disney Blog) [Boing Boing]

Harvard Primate Neuroscience Lab has sense of humor

Posted by MacDood
Xeni Jardin:
Theron "Somebody's at Harvard's having a little fun at George W.'s expense. Check out the Bush to monkey morph in the top right. No idea if this is a subtle hack, or really the Harvard PCNL having some fun." Link [Boing Boing]

Bento Pictures

Bento Pictures

Girls get new Barbie CD-ROM game

Posted by MacDood
Vivendi Universal Games on Thursday announced the release of Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, a new game for girls ages five and up. Girls help Erika prove that she is worthy to be crowned queen, with the help of Princess Anneliese (Barbie does a dual role in the game as both main characters). The game features games and puzzles that Barbie must successfully complete in order to become queen. Five different creative activities also add to the fun, like making banners, baking cakes, creating stained glass and flower gardens, and grooming a kitten. Flags, flowers and other objects can be collected as well. Barbie as the Princes and the Pauper CD-ROM ships in hybrid format for both Macs and PCs. System requirements call for a G3/300MHz or faster, Mac OS X v10.1.5 or higher or Mac OS 9.2.1, 128MB RAM (64MB for OS 9), 24x CD-ROM, 800x600 resolution with thousands of colors, and QuickTime 6.5. The game retails for US$29.99. [MacCentral]

Boing Boing: Skull and Bones Club expose on BBC

Boing Boing: Skull and Bones Club expose on BBC

Mad Magazine: Bush Vs Jesus

Posted by MacDood
Mark Frauenfelder:
Thom sez: Atrius has a copy of a funny and insightful Mad Magazine parody of a TV commercial Bush would air if he were running against Jesus. Bottom line: "Jesus wrong on social services. Wrong on crime. Wrong on defense. Wrong for America." Link [Boing Boing]

Lab Notes: Research from the Berkeley College of Engineering

Lab Notes: Research from the Berkeley College of Engineering

Eisner's resignation letter

Posted by MacDood
Cory Doctorow:
Here's the text of Eisner's letter announcing his intention to resign from Disney in 2006.

We are different from companies not in the entertainment field. We are a creative company, and as a result, we are so much more. We must consider, develop, discard and reconsider, literally masses of ideas each day, based on few inexact criteria, using experience, talent, judgment, instinct, and hope as our guides along with our education and experience and sense of fiscal responsibility. This is a complicated and risky process, unlike the manufacture and sale of a single or related line of product. We are judged by definitive standards. But it is the creative that pushes to new heights that which can be measured, that which has lasting value to our culture and company.

I believe we have learned who we are, and who we are not; what we do best, and what we don't. Of course, that does not mean we stagnate into a museum or play safe. It just means we play smart. There are so many opportunities available to utilize our core assets, our brands and capabilities around the world. We must be completely informed and involved in the future, in new technologies that can help us maintain our leadership in creating and distributing and protecting our content. We must be prudent entrepreneurs and pragmatic capitalists. We must not forget that we are always singing and dancing "for our supper."

Link

(via The Disney Blog) [Boing Boing]

Rolling Stone: The Curse of Dick Cheney

Posted by MacDood
Mark Frauenfelder:
"D" sez: This profile of Cheney is frightening. The only hope it offers is that every President to have Cheney involved in its adminitration has failed to be re-elected.

I knew the guy was bad, but if all the allegations in this article are true, he's singlehandedly hamstrung all the offices of the military and intelligence in the US:

Over at Defense, competent intelligence professionals were purged in order to ease the way to war. Douglas Feith, brought in under Rumsfeld to serve as undersecretary of defense for policy, applied an ideological test to his staff: He didn't want competence; he wanted fervor. Col. Pat Lang, a Middle East expert who served under five presidents, Republican and Democratic, in key posts in military intelligence, recalls being considered for a job at the Pentagon. During the job interview, Feith scanned Lang's impressive resume. "I see you speak Arabic," Feith said. When Lang nodded, Feith said, "Too bad," and dismissed him.

Link [Boing Boing]

International news from swissinfo, the Swiss news platform

International news from swissinfo, the Swiss news platform

Star Wars: Community | Should Have Let The Wookiee Win

Star Wars: Community | Should Have Let The Wookiee Win

dOc DVD Review: Dawn of the Dead: Ultimate Edition (1978)

dOc DVD Review: Dawn of the Dead: Ultimate Edition (1978)

best zombie movie of all time

riverfronttimes.com | The Ten Most Hated Men in Rock | 2004-09-01

riverfronttimes.com | The Ten Most Hated Men in Rock | 2004-09-01

US Army to Rebid Halliburton Contracts

Posted by MacDood
US Army to Rebid Halliburton Contracts
Looks like Halliburton's about to lose its sweetheart deal as the US Army looks to rebidthe contracts.


"Pentagon auditors last month "strongly" urged the Army to withhold paying 15 percent of Halliburton's bills in Iraq, saying the company had not provided enough details to support at least $1.82 billion out of $4.3 billion of logistical work."


Insert inappropriate snide political comment here. [metafilter.com]

The moon, satellite...or cheese whiz? | Metafilter

The moon, satellite...or cheese whiz? | Metafilter

AWOL George's service record questioned in new ad

Posted by MacDood
Cory Doctorow:

Texans for Truth has produced a TV spot that inverts the ads run by the Lying, Dishonorable Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, in which an air guardsman who served in the unit that George Bush claims to have served in reports that George Bush didn't report for duty, or reported so infrequently that neither he nor any of his unit-mates from the small group can recall ever having seen him.

1.7MB Quicktime Link

[Boing Boing]

Henry David Thoreau

Posted by MacDood
"It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

Web Zen: (More) Music Video Zen

Posted by MacDood
Xeni Jardin:

music box

bring the sunshine

wrong bananas

footy

lalala

to the moon

num1000

danny bot

web zen home, web zen store, (Thanks, Frank). [Boing Boing]

Classic pulp mag replicas

Posted by MacDood
Cory Doctorow:

Girasol Collectables is a small Canadian press that's producing high-quality facimilies of classic pulp magazines (I bought a copy of this Spicy Adventure Stories mag yesterday for the cover, without realizing that one of the stories was written by Robert Howard under his Sam Walser pseudonym) at the rate of one a month. At US$25-35 per issue, it's a little pricey to consider as a subscription item, but as a one-off, these things are fantastic. I love the old pulps, but when I buy them, I'm reluctant to give them a home beside the toilet, where they'd be great reading material, what with all their humorous quack-remedy ads, overblown short stories, and general bite-siized irony. But the old pulps feel like a piece of history, something you down own so much as take custody over -- they're so fragile and poorly wrought that they bring out the maternal/archival instinct in all but the most hardened junk-hater.

But these replicas -- in addition to being better-manufactured than any of the original pulps! -- are cheap(ish) and replaceable, and a perfect tank-top reader. I kept hauling out my copy yesterday and showing it around, and the universal reaction among the WorldCon-goers was a bittersweet sigh of regret for the passing of the golden age of dreadful fic and exploitative covers and quack advertisements.

Link

[Boing Boing]

Interesting Thing of the Day: Revenge of the Analog Clock

Interesting Thing of the Day: Revenge of the Analog Clock

Active Duty Military Attending the RNC

Posted by MacDood
A recent report filed by the Associated Press contained a startling bit of information: About 15 percent of the 4,800-plus delegates and alternates to the convention in New York are veterans, organizers said Monday. An additional 3 percent are active military personnel. This report was displayed prominently on the Republican National Committee's website, and lauded gleefully by the fine folks at Free Republic, among others As it turns out though, it's actually not such a good thing to have active-duty military anywhere near a political convention - if you value your democracy. In fact, up until just a few days before the convention, it was quite illegal for active-duty military even to attend. And yet, there it was in black and white. Active duty military members were not only attending, but participating as delegates in the RNC. How could this happen? [Kuro5hin.org]

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are identity thieves

Posted by MacDood
Cory Doctorow:
Remember the Lying Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who made up a bunch of base smears about John Kerry's military record and aired them in a TV spot? They even published an open letter in which they lied some more, claiming to have served with Kerry when they hadn't.

Well, it turns out that some of the swift boat veterans whose name appeared at the bottom of that open letter never saw it, never signed it, and don't agree with it. Those Lying Swift Boat Veterans For Truth! Whacky.

"It's kind of like stealing my identity," said Anderson, who spent a year on a swift boat as an engine man and gunner.

The letter, which was posted on the Swift Boat Veter-ans for Truth Web site, claims the Demo-cratic presidential candidate has "grossly and knowingly distorted the conduct of the American soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen of that (Vietnam) war."...

"After reading the letter," Anderson said, "it kind of got under my skin. I had never come across a situation where someone used my name without my support or approval. It's not a very comforting feeling."

What's worse, he said, he disagrees with the letter.

"Had they asked me to use my name, I wouldn't have allowed them to," he said...

Anderson does not know how the Swift Boat Vets for Truth got his name, but it appears exactly as it has appeared on rosters at swift boat vet reunions. He suspects the list was pulled from the Swift Boat Sailors Association, a nonpolitical, not-for-profit organization linking swift boat veterans.

Link

(via Atrios) [Boing Boing]

SETI@home spots unusual signal... or not

Posted by MacDood
David Pescovitz:
SETI@home has turned up an unexplained radio signal from 1000 light years away that's, well, unexplained. From New Scientist:

“It’s the most interesting signal from SETI@home,” says Dan Werthimer, a radio astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and the chief scientist for SETI@home. “We’re not jumping up and down, but we are continuing to observe it.”

Named SHGb02+14a, the signal has a frequency of about 1420 megahertz. This happens to be one of the main frequencies at which hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, readily absorbs and emits energy.

Some astronomers have argued that extraterrestrials trying to advertise their presence would be likely to transmit at this frequency, and SETI researchers conventionally scan this part of the radio spectrum.

Link

Update: The BBC followed up with a report quoting researchers who say that the news above was blown out of proportion and there is no signal. Nothing to hear here. Move along. (cue X-Files theme) Link [Boing Boing]

Chess computer's thought process

Posted by MacDood
Cory Doctorow:
These breathtaking visualizations of the decision-tree explored by a chess-playing computer are great.

A view into the workings of a chess-playing program that must make millions of decisions in each game. In this piece we explore the notion that our lives consist of a vast sequence of choices.

PNG Link 1,

PNG Link 2,

PNG Link 3

(via Oblomovka) [Boing Boing]

American Prospect Online - ViewWeb

American Prospect Online - ViewWeb

Nanotech and Kabbalah

Posted by MacDood
David Pescovitz:
At the NanoBot, Howard Lovy writes about the philosophical connection between nanotechnology and the Jewish mysticism of Kabbalah. This is not newage (rhymes with "sewage") mumbo-jumbo, but rather an informed, passionate, and moving thought-exercise about the "spirit" of science:

"...the most brilliant men of Medieval Jewry, shut out of any other profession in which their intellect could be used, spent what I used to think was a complete waste of mind power, reflecting on the minutia of Jewish law – taking the Torah and extrapolating a complex system of laws. Creating, codifying, obsessively ordering and numbering a spiritual system into a logical system.

But the smaller you get, the more you see the logic and order break down. The laws of physics seem to change. The smaller the size, the deeper the mystery and the more the orderly turns chaotic. It all meets on the nanoscale and below, where spirit/spirituality meets the individual components of organisms, where sand meets wave, where analog meets digital, where spirit meets matter."

Link [Boing Boing]

The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman

haha

The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman

Canon BeBit EOS DIGITAL Astrophotography Guide 01. What is the Attraction of Astrophotography?

Canon BeBit EOS DIGITAL Astrophotography Guide 01. What is the Attraction
of Astrophotography?

Goths in Disneyland

Posted by MacDood
Cory Doctorow:

August 29th was the annual "Bats Day in the Fun Park" -- an annual gathering of goths at Disneyland. Here are Livejournal entires and photogalleries from the event.

Batty's Livejournal, Foxfire's Livejournal, DrunkRockers gallery one, DrunkRockers gallery two

(via The Disney Blog)

[Boing Boing]