Watergate informant revealed.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," W. Mark Felt, 91, told lawyer John D. O'Connor, the author of the Vanity Fair article which broke the news.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Top Ten Favorite Words (Not in the Dictionary)
1. ginormous (adj): bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous
2. confuzzled (adj): confused and puzzled at the same time
3. woot (interj): an exclamation of joy or excitement
4. chillax (v): chill out/relax, hang out with friends
5. cognitive displaysia (n): the feeling you have before you even leave the house that you are going to forget something and not remember it until you're on the highway
6. gription (n): the purchase gained by friction: "My car needs new tires because the old ones have lost their gription."
7. phonecrastinate (v): to put off answering the phone until caller ID displays the incoming name and number
8. slickery (adj): having a surface that is wet and icy
9. snirt (n): snow that is dirty, often seen by the side of roads and parking lots that have been plowed
10. lingweenie (n): a person incapable of producing neologisms
From Merriam-Webster.
2. confuzzled (adj): confused and puzzled at the same time
3. woot (interj): an exclamation of joy or excitement
4. chillax (v): chill out/relax, hang out with friends
5. cognitive displaysia (n): the feeling you have before you even leave the house that you are going to forget something and not remember it until you're on the highway
6. gription (n): the purchase gained by friction: "My car needs new tires because the old ones have lost their gription."
7. phonecrastinate (v): to put off answering the phone until caller ID displays the incoming name and number
8. slickery (adj): having a surface that is wet and icy
9. snirt (n): snow that is dirty, often seen by the side of roads and parking lots that have been plowed
10. lingweenie (n): a person incapable of producing neologisms
From Merriam-Webster.
Firefox rising
"According to W3schools, a site known amongst web developers,
Firefox reached a market share of 25%, while Internet Explorer plummeted to 64.8%. If we take into consideration the entire browsing solutions suite, Mozilla Foundation now owns a market share of almost 30%."
Monday, May 30, 2005
uh huh
Top Ten Reasons Episode IV is Better Than Episode III
10. Vader kills someone with his bare hands in the first five minutes.
9. Unlike her mother, Leia doesn't sit around her apartment crying all the time.
8. Not just a silent Jar-Jar -- no Jar-Jar at all.
7. Even old, hermit Jedi don't let stormtroopers shoot them in the back.
6. More walking trashcans.
5. Uncle Owen way grumpier than Yoda.
4. Computer-generated bad guys don't hit their heads on the doors.
3. Mark Hamill, believe it or not, is a much better actor than Hayden Christensen.
2. Travelling through hyperspace ain't like dustin' crops, boy.
1. Willing suspension of disbelief much easier when you're six.
10. Vader kills someone with his bare hands in the first five minutes.
9. Unlike her mother, Leia doesn't sit around her apartment crying all the time.
8. Not just a silent Jar-Jar -- no Jar-Jar at all.
7. Even old, hermit Jedi don't let stormtroopers shoot them in the back.
6. More walking trashcans.
5. Uncle Owen way grumpier than Yoda.
4. Computer-generated bad guys don't hit their heads on the doors.
3. Mark Hamill, believe it or not, is a much better actor than Hayden Christensen.
2. Travelling through hyperspace ain't like dustin' crops, boy.
1. Willing suspension of disbelief much easier when you're six.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Introducing the SwiMP3
How it works:
The new SwiMP3 is revolutionary in that it relies on bone conduction of sound. When the device is placed on any bones of the skull (i.e. the cheek bones or the mastoid tip) it leads to vibration of the fluid in the inner ear. Thus swimmers can enjoy clarity of sound with the SwiMP3 device that was never before possible. Bone conduction hearing is a safe, well-established hearing mechanism in humans that the SwiMP3 player leverages to enhance aquatic activity. Finis's application of the technology brings an entirely new level of experience to swimmers, either while working out or taking a leisurely swim.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
wtf
forget-me-not panties have built-in GPS and unique sensor technology giving you the forget-me-not advantage.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Monday, May 23, 2005
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Friday, May 20, 2005
file in "Inexplicable"
This is a collection of videos of people crying while eating. Yet more proof that we are most definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
what is up, my homie?
How to speak gangsta:
"Hey Homey, ur lowrider is cherry.
You gotsda phat chromes anda phat hydros.
Yous da daady mac, foo'!!' "
"Hello my friend, your car is good(very nice). You have nice hub caps and the nicest hydraulics. You are a very cool guy, my friend."
"Hello my friend, your car is good(very nice). You have nice hub caps and the nicest hydraulics. You are a very cool guy, my friend."
Trike/bike
This is Shift, and kids will love it.
Shift has two wheels in the rear about an inch wide. When riding slowly, the two wheels splay out at an angle to provide stability. But as the bike moves faster, a spring-loaded hub in back shifts the rear wheels inward and together until they form a single rear wheel. The spring-loaded hub is triggered by the rider's weight, which shifts forward as the bike gains momentum and balancing becomes easier.
Spaceship Junkyard
Nice photo essay of folk who live near Baikonur, Russia's primary launching complex in Kazakhstan, who contend on a daily basis with fallen fuel tanks and booster rockets in their backyards.
synaesthesia
I think Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything looks fascinating. Here's some details about it from the authors' website:
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives - how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of … well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.Kottke has an interesting interview with one of the authors here.What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and - if the right questions are asked - is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.
Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: if morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
Confederate Motorcycles
Yep, I'm pretty sure that if I saw this thing coming down the road at me, I'd run and hide.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
design theory's new site
Ah, welcome to the reDiscovery Institute which, thank goodness, "fosters integration of science education with traditional Judeo-Christian principles of free market, limited government, morality, faith, property, obedience and anti-intellectualism."
The efforts of reDiscovery Institute Fellows are crucially abetted by the Institute's members, board and an ultra-conservative, ultra-rich, California savings and loan heir who believes that the American democracy should be replaced with biblical theocracy.
Thirty-Eight Ways to Win an Argument
From Schopenhauer's "The Art of Controversy."
Confuse the issue by changing your opponent's words or what he or she seeks to prove.
Example: Call something by a different name: "good repute" instead of "honor," "virtue" instead of "virginity," "red-blooded" instead of "vertebrates".
Monday, May 16, 2005
Computer Stupidities
Tech Support Guy: "Type 'fix' with an 'f'."
Customer: "Is that 'f' as in 'fix'?"
Customer: "Is that 'f' as in 'fix'?"
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Friday, May 13, 2005
Thursday, May 12, 2005
climb high
He did it.
This morning, Ed Viesturs' dream came true: To summit all the 14, 8000 peaks on Earth. With that, he became the first American, and the 12th climber in history to achieve this feat. Moreover, he has summited them all without supplementary O2, something only five other climbers in the world have done.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
hm..
A PROPOSAL FOR A SYSTEM TO REPLACE
ORDINARY RECORD MERCHANDISING
- copyright 1983 by Frank Zappa -
Ordinary phonograph record merchandising as it exists today is a stupid process which concerns itself essentially with pieces of plastic, wrapped in pieces of cardboard.
These objects, in quantity, are heavy and expensive to ship. The manufacturing process is complicated and crude. Quality control for the stamping of the discs is an exercise in futility. The system is subject to pilferage (as, in some instances, pressing 'over-runs' have been initiated, with the quantity pressed above the amount of the legitimate order removed from the premises and sold on the black market).
Dissatisfied customers routinely return records because they are warped and will not play.
Large numbers of people are employed in the field of 'record promotion' . . . these salaries are, for the most part, a waste of money.
New digital technology may eventually solve the warpage problem and provide the consumer with better quality sound in the form of Compact Discs [C.D.'s]. They are smaller, contain more music, and would, presumably cost less to ship . . . but, they are much more expensive to buy and manufacture. To reproduce them, the consumer needs to purchase a digital device to replace his old hi-fi equipment (in the $700 price range).
The bulk of the promotional effort at every record company today is expended on "NEW MATERIAL" . . . the latest and the greatest of whatever the cocaine-tweezed A&R Brass has decided to inflict on everybody. More often than not, these 'aesthetic decisions' result in mountains of useless vinyl/cardboard artifacts which cannot be sold at any price, and are therefore returned for disposal and recycling. These mistakes are expensive.
Put aside momentarily the current method of operation and think what is being wasted in terms of GREAT CATALOG ITEMS, squeezed out of the market place because of limited rack space in retail outlets, and the insatiable desire of quota-conscious company reps to fill every available niche with THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES.
Every major record company has vaults full of (and perpetual rights to) great recording by major artists in many categories which might still provide enjoyment to music consumers if they were made available in the right way. MUSIC CONSUMERS LIKE TO CONSUME MUSIC . . . NOT PIECES OF VINYL WRAPPED IN PIECES OF CARDBOARD.
It is our proposal to take advantage of the POSITIVE ASPECTS of a NEGATIVE TREND afflicting the record industry today: HOME TAPING via cassette of material released on vinyl.
First of all, we must realize that the taping of albums is not motivated by 'stinginess' alone . . . if a consumer makes a home tape from a disc, that copy will probably sound better than a commercially manufactured high-speed dupe cassette, legitimately released by the company.
People today enjoy music more than ever before, and, they like to take it with them wherever they go. THEY CAN HEAR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AUDIO AND BAD AUDIO . . . THEY CARE ABOUT THAT DIFFERENCE, AND THEY ARE WILLING TO GO TO SOME TROUBLE AND EXPENSE TO HAVE HIGH QUALITY 'PORTABLE AUDIO' TO USE AS 'WALLPAPER FOR THEIR LIFESTYLE'.
THE ANSWERS TO PERPLEXING QUESTIONS
presenting: "Q.C.I."
We propose to acquire the rights to digitally duplicate and store THE BEST of every record company's difficult-to-move Quality Catalog Items [Q.C.I.], store them in a central processing location, and have them accessible by phone or cable TV, directly patchable into the user's home taping appliances, with the option of direct digital-to-digital transfer to F-1 (SONY consumer level digital tape encoder), Beta Hi-Fi, or ordinary analog cassette (requiring the installation of a rentable D-A converter in the phone itself . . . the main chip is about $12).
All accounting for royalty payments, billing to the customer, etc. would be automatic, built into the initial software for the system.
The consumer has the option of subscribing to one or more Interest Categories, charged at a monthly rate, without regard for the quantity of music he or she decides to tape.
Providing material in such quantity at a reduced cost could actually diminish the desire to duplicate and store it, since it would be available any time day or night.
Monthly listings could be provided by catalog, reducing the on-line storage requirements of the computer. The entire service would be accessed by phone, even if the local reception is via TV cable.
The advantage of the TV cable is: on those channels where nothing ever seems to happen (there's about 70 of them in L.A.), a visualization of the original cover art, including song lyrics, technical data, etc., could be displayed while the transmission is in progress, giving the project an electronic whiff of the original point-of-purchase merchandising built into the album when it was 'an album', since there are many consumers who like to fondle & fetish the packaging while the music is being played. In this situation, Fondlement & Fetishism Potential [F.F.P.] is supplied, without the cost of shipping tons of cardboard around.
We require a LARGE quantity of money and the services of a team of mega-hackers to write the software for this system. Most of the hardware devices are, even as you read this, available as off-the-shelf items, just waiting to be plugged into each other so they can put an end to "THE RECORD BUSINESS" as we now know it.
aaaaaaargh
If you want to download music but you're worried the RIAA is going to hunt you down and strangle your cat, try this Google-based mp3 search site for scoring quality legal tunes.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Monday, May 09, 2005
Sunday, May 08, 2005
For the frat boy in us all
As we move into summer, why not outfit yourself with a pair of flip-flops that have a beer-opener built into the sole?
Oh yeah, let's hear it for ONU
Here's a little info on Benjamin Brafman. (Check out his law school creds.) Michael Jackson is in good hands, indeed.
I've always wondered what's bigger than a Terabyte
# 1000 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
# 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
# 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
# 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
# 1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
# 1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
# 1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
# 1000 Zettabyte = 1 Zottabyte
# 1000 Zottabyte = 1 Brontobyte (1 followed by 27 zeroes)
# 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
# 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
# 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
# 1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
# 1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
# 1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
# 1000 Zettabyte = 1 Zottabyte
# 1000 Zottabyte = 1 Brontobyte (1 followed by 27 zeroes)
We're not in Kansas anymore
Life just keeps getting weirder and weirder:
"The state board of education in Kansas plans to hold hearings in May on the 'intelligent design' theory of the origin of English, which claims that the language was constructed in the early 16th century by a committee of unknown experts guided by a Supreme Grammarian. But professional linguists are mostly boycotting the hearings."
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Xbox, circa 1905
The rules of this game are thus: Take modern products and display them in a vintage way, or take vintage products and display them in a modern way.
Overheard in New York
Dumb teen: "Hey, look at this! It says 'Train for jobs in beeyotch.' "
Smarter teen: "Fool! That word is biotech. Why you gotta be ignorant all your life?"
Overheard on 1 Train by Manhattman
Smarter teen: "Fool! That word is biotech. Why you gotta be ignorant all your life?"
Overheard on 1 Train by Manhattman
Friday, May 06, 2005
The flexware
Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed a new type of fiber-reinforced bendable concrete. Apparently it is 500 times more resistant to cracking and 40 percent lighter in weight, as 2 percent of its volume is comprised of microscale fibers that act as ligaments to bond the concrete together. Pretty interesting, though don't hold your breath waiting for the concrete submarine.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
who was that
Feel like surfing the web anonymously? Here's why you might want to. If so, try fireprox, or if you're not a Firefox person, try the Cloak.
Update: Try Sneakysurf if your company or school has a firewall.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)