Of course, the Red Sox did win this year...: "Redskins lose. An interesting example of the logical fallacy known as Coincidental Correlation, for the last 71 years the Washington Redskins' last home game before Election Day has correlated with the success of the incumbent president. Boy, it's a good thing in sports no one believes in silly statistics..."
(Via metafilter.com.)
William Gibson on ObL tape: "Cory Doctorow:
William Gibson's posted a blistering analysis of Osama bin Laden's latest video.
OBL today is probably a very satisfied, very optimistic man, and if he can skew the last-minute dynamic of the election in Bush's favor, he'll have cause to be all the more satisfied.
And that's the danger, that some crucial percentage of our dimmer, more reactive voters will flash back to 9-11 and the Bush of the bullhorn, the Bush buffeted with the heartbroken grit of Ground Zero, and vote for that -- childishly imagining that such a vote runs counter to the wishes and the needs of OBL, the bearded stickman, the cave-dwelling spider, our new Old Man of the Mountains. Player of the long game.
Update: CJ point out that Gibson's had some second thoughts about this post"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Steampunk mecha-wars: "Cory Doctorow:
Steam Wars is an elaborate concept for a movie about steam-punk mecha-wars, an alternate history in which th 19th century is dominated by wars between giant, steam-powered killer robots.
Link
(Thanks, Andy!)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Star Wars-inspired "Fallen" wins fan film contest: "Xeni Jardin:
Hollywood Liberation Army tells BoingBoing, "
Fallen is a machinima music video created in Star Wars Galaxies about a tragic romance between a female Imperial officer and a male Rebel fighter using the song "Fallen" by Delirium. It has just won the Star Wars Galaxies Fan Film Fest 2004.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Moment of snapshot zen: stingray smile: "Xeni Jardin:
Lovely snapshot of a stingray from the Coney Island Aquarium [via flickr]. Link to larger, uncropped image. (Thanks, Ivy )"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Daily Show clips galore: "Cory Doctorow:
Lisa Rein has just posted 13 clips from the Daily Show over the past couple weeks, including:
The Colbert Report
Ed Helm's DSpan
Flu Vaccine Shortage
Red Sox Winning The World Series
Walmart violating ancient graveyards in Hawaii
Ad for "America, The Book"
Opening bit of 10/20/04
Coverage of the the mudslinging and overexaggerating statements by Bush and Kerry during the last Presidential Debate
P-diddy etc. (Christina Aguilara - sp?) and their "Vote or Die" campaign.
"Stand and Choose" voting ads starring video game characters
Lewis Black on how the Shrub Administration continually wastes our tax dollars on extravagant purchases in the name of Homeland Security and $500,000 parties for the TSA.
The opening bit from 10-19-04
Messopotamia
Iraqi tourism board
Soldiers who refused to go on "suicide mission"
Bush saying that we will "not have an all volunteer army" and then being corrected by someone in the crowd.
Jon Stewart's comments on his Crossfire appearance.
Coverage of second presidential debate.
Drew Barrymore On The Daily Show
Richard Clarke On The Daily Show
(Via Boing Boing.)
Build your own Batphone: "Cory Doctorow:
Step-by-step instructions for making your own light-up, buzzing, working Batphone with its own cake-dome -- killer!
Link
(Thanks, Dave!)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Rogue Taxidermists exhibit: "David Pescovitz:
The Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists is holding their first exhibition at the Creative Electric Studios in Minneapolis.
"The organization's mandate is to advocate the showmanship of oddities; espouse the belief in natural adaptation and mutation; and encourage the desire to create displays of curiosity."And here's a letter from the National Taxidermists Association in response to a request for feedback on the exhibit:
LinkIf you are looking for approval for this so called"art", I am afraid you have come to the wrong place.
Displays of wounded,bleeding or mangled animals is not in any form,"art" The members of the NTA
are truly professional taxidermists and as such can be called artists,and most, if not all, abhor your
desplays[sic].
You can surely be called a Rogue taxidermist.
Bill Haynes
NTA Board of Directors
Ethics Chairman
Vice President
(Via Boing Boing.)
I believe I'm convinced: "If this article doesn't convince you to vote for Bush, then nothing will."
(Via Geekable.com.)
NASA image expert says Bush was wearing a device during debates: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Dr. Robert M. Nelson is a NASA senior research scientist for NASA and according to Salon, an "international authority on image analysis. Currently he's engrossed in analyzing digital photos of Saturn's moon Titan, determining its shape, whether it contains craters or canyons." He used Photoshop filters to outline the bugle on President Bush's back seen during the first debate, and concludes that it is some kind of "device."
However, our President sheepishly admitted it was "a poorly-tailored shirt." Poor guy. We should send him some money for a shirt that doesn't have big rectangular pooch and a rope hanging from it. Link"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Instant death and a $200 fine: "Cory Doctorow:
Steve Jurvetson snapped this great sign and posted it to Flickr -- how the hell do they collect?
Link
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
The Boston Phoenix claims there is...: "
The Boston Phoenix claims there is a horror renaissance and profiles some of the best contemporary writers (with a local focus). Chuck Palahniuk is mentioned, Dean Koontz mercifully is not, and The Phoenix alerts us to the Christian horror sub-genre, books where "you can’t swear and you can’t have sex, but you can kill as many people in your book as you want." God won't mind.
"(Via blog.)
Backstage: iPod Photo initial impressions: "Apple's more than used to the haters by now - people who proclaim each of the company's new products a likely flop based on price, or grouse about another company's product that's almost but not quite the same. But time and experience have given Apple another benefit: the opportunity to see their haters proved wrong. Often repeatedly.
Having played with the 60GB iPod Photo a bunch, it's fair to say that the haters have at best a 30% chance of proving right on this one. Apple made at..."
(Via iPodlounge.)
The Stranger's scariest Halloween costumes: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Very scary Halloween costumes for kids based on current political themes.
The Littlest Prisoner at Abu Ghraib: So easy, so quick, and so terrifying!
Lyndie England (Candy cigarette optional.)
Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid: Add a burnt-cork beard and an electric match from the tobacconist, and your little terror is ready to fly!
(Via Boing Boing.)
Explosives at Al Qaqaa were stolen after US occupation: photos: "Mark Frauenfelder:
After two days of silence on the hundreds of tons of missing plastic explosives in Iraq, the President defended himself by stating that the explosives might have been removed before the US invasion. These photos seem to suggest otherwise. Link (Thanks, Jeff!)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Collective lunar eclipse photos: "Cory Doctorow:
Flickr users are using the "eclipse" tag to collect photos of the lunar eclipse from all over the world. Some are breathtaking.
Link
(via Waxy)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Dispatches from a Public Librarian: "

D I S P A T C H E S F R O M
A P U B L I C L I B R A R I A N
BY SCOTT DOUGLAS
- - - -
Dispatch 11 (10/13/04)
An Interview With Josh, Who Is a Library Page, and Whose Name Has Been Changed
What size shoe do you wear?
111/2.
What's the best kind of shelving shoe?
Vans.
What technique do you use to secretly read a book while you're supposed to be shelving?
There's a section in Juvenile Fiction—JF-L to JF-Z that cannot be seen by the senior clerk unless she is wandering around the library. I get in a squatting-type position in this area and position the book truck in front of me in such a way that it sort of looks like I'm sorting books on the bottom of the truck and not reading.
Do you remember those two Russian girls that came in that one summer and all the guys were trying to figure out ways to hit on them when they didn't know English?
Yes.
If there were a biopic made detailing your life as a page, who would you want to play the role of you?
I think Adam Sandle"
The Box on Bush's Back: "Rumors, denials, and wild speculation—a comprehensive guide."
(Via Slate Magazine.)
The men behind the images: "Two quick political links:
"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "It makes me like George W. Bush a lot less than I did before."
[Pat] Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."
(Via Geekable.com.)
Even Bush's supporters don't understand him: "I love this chart. It's from a report by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, and it finds that Bush supporters are vastly more uninformed about their candidate's positions than Kerry supporters are about their candidate's positions."
(Via Geekable.com.)
