More Signal, Less Noise
Monday, January 31, 2005
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NETSURFER DIGEST
More Signal, Less Noise |
Volume 11, Issue 04 Monday, January 31, 2005
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NETSURFER LINKS
 BREAKING SURF
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BREAKING SURF Stem-Cell Cultures Contaminated, New Ones Needed The surfaces of human cells lack a sugar molecule called Neu5Gc that coats the cells of all other mammals. What might seem just an interesting piece of biological trivia has profound ramifications in stem-cell research. We lack Neu5Gc because the gene that codes for the enzyme that makes the sugar is broken. Scientists estimate that the mutation that wrecked the gene appeared about 2 million years ago and speculate that it conferred an advantage such as disease resistance or brain expansion. Although this intriguing info may be deliciously awkward for proponents of intelligent design, it also complicates work with stem cells. When we eat the Neu5Gc found in other animals, our cells occasionally incorporate it - and our immune systems react as if it were an enemy. Scientists nourish human stem cells with animal tissue, and new research shows that the stem-cell lines in use have become irreversibly contaminated with Neu5Gc. Any use of these stem cells to make new neurons or any transplantable tissue would lead to rejection. The US government refuses to fund facilities that investigate new stem-cell lines - which means that this discovery hands the research spoils to purely privately funded researchers and nations with less restrictive regulations. The Nature paper is a bit of a slog, but Carl Zimmer's explanation is clear, and the NIH has loads of stem-cell info.Nature: http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nm1181.pdf Zimmer: http://corante.com/loom/archives/of_stem_cells_and_neanderthals.php NIH: http://stemcells.nih.gov/index.asp In case you've been hiding under Iraq, Johnny Carson died. Now, dying isn't unique - all of us do it at one point or another - but as an important celebrity and one known for his straight thinking, he gets covered in a lot more places than most of us will be. Given his iconic career in late-night television, riveting more eyes to the tube than newcomers like Leno and Letterman can ever hope for, the accolades are well earned. And this poor ol' boy from Nebraska sure got a lot of them. We favor the Wikipedia biography and Slate's honest obituary, not least because they mention Carson's conniving with James Randi. Carson: http://www.johnnycarson.com/ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Carson Slate: http://slate.msn.com/id/2112604/ Randi: http://www.randi.org/jr/carson.html Salon: http://dir.salon.com/people/bc/2001/02/20/carson/index.html These days, you're not stuck with local radio. You can sample broadcasts from all over the world through the Net. For varied, high-quality content, the BBC is hard to beat. That's especially true now that the venerable Beeb has updated its online Radio Player to make most programs available on demand for seven days after broadcast. Beyond the improved access to programming, navigation is improved and simplified. If you like classical, BBC Radio 3's the ticket, but the spectrum of material includes everything from local Gaelic station to the stalwart BBC World Service. Some of the shows are even available as MP3 downloads. Millions of listeners regularly tune in, and with this wide range of programming it's not hard to figure out why. BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/01_january/24/player.shtml BBC Radio Player: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ Liberating "Eyes on the Prize" "Eyes on the Prize" is an acclaimed TV series about the American civil-rights movement that originally aired on PBS in 1987. The series relied on extensive primary historical sources and because of that it became a trusted history itself, a vital reference work about an important facet of the American experience. Unfortunately, "Eyes on the Prize" is no longer available on video due to limits on the licenses of archival footage it used. Downhill Battle (DB) aims to change all this. In commemoration of Black History Month in February, DB is organizing and encouraging a series of screenings of the film. As part of the effort, it published links to torrents of the video, but threats from the lawyers of the company that owns it forced DB to take them down. The video can still be found in libraries, so concerned individuals can organize screenings in their communities. Naturally, the torrent links are still out there, easily found if you know where to look. As DB says, "The history of the Civil Rights Movement is simply too important for us to let its most comprehensive documentary languish in copyright purgatory."http://www.downhillbattle.org/eyes/ There may never be another Super Bowl without some editor who dredges up the legendary 2000 game, during which dotcoms freshly awash in venture capital pissed a large chunk of it away on extravagant ads. Our editors would never do that, you understand, but the editors of Forbes couldn't resist. It's a fun reminiscence of the days when the infamous Pets.com sock puppet ruled the airwaves. Forbes has an amusing little slide show that brings us up to date on what happened to some dotcoms that advertised and shows snippet videos of their Super Bowl XXXIV commercials. A $100,000 investment in LastMinuteTravel.com would now be worth a lukewarm $6,000. Most of these outfits lost all of their investor money, several after hitting market valuations in the billions, but some made some serious money for their founders. Oh yes, this year the Super Bowl takes place Feb. 6, and the commercials will probably still be worth watching. Forbes: http://forbes.com/home/commerce/2005/01/27/cx_de_0127bubblebowl.html Super Bowl: http://www.superbowl.com/ Gambling Sites Gear up for Super Bowl Sunday. Not everyone is looking forward to football as the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles prepare to tussle for pigskin supremacy during Super Bowl XXXIX. At online gambling sites, staff are gearing up for a different kind of struggle, against expected extortion and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. For the approximately 350 companies that run the more than 1,700 gambling sites, it's a serious challenge. It's tempting for them to simply pay off extortion demands, which usually precede any DoS attacks, and consider it a cost of business on a particularly lucrative event. One alternative is a service offered by Prolexic, which will filter traffic through three robust data centers and eliminate nuisance traffic intended to choke a target betting site and render it unavailable to bettors. Prolexic claims to protect 6,000 sites and to stifle three DoS attacks each week. Other companies offer similar security services. The industry is booming as criminals ramp up attacks on e-commerce sites of all kinds. Wired has more.Prolexic: http://www.prolexic.com/ Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,66358,00.html The Iraqi Political Dance Card Iraq is holding its election and we're waiting with bated breath. It's like the first prom, except that the dance card is full, really full - dozens of parties are vying for votes. The Constitutional Monarchy Movement (CMM), for example, aims to restore a monarchy, because "the Monarch would not favor one group to the detriment of another, but rather would represent all the people." OK, then.... The sheer number of parties and candidates will astound you. If it seems like a lot of viewpoints, just wait until you hit the links at the Chrenkoff blog.CMM: http://www.iraqcmm.org/ Chrenkoff: http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2005/01/whos-who-of-iraqi-political-parties.html The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a list of gizmos it thinks should be placed on an endangered species list. The list is an attempt to publicize the legal efforts, mostly by the entertainment industry, to outlaw certain types of technology. It includes such items as DVD-archiving software, video and audio recording software, and even combinations of products like Firewire drives, open WiFi networks, and the iPod. EFF's Web site gives a short description of each technology and tells you who wants to make it illegal and why. At the top of the list are several items which have already gone extinct due to legal threats, court rulings, or expensive litigation. At the bottom is a short list of gizmos that have been saved from extinction, though only after expensive legal battles: the VCR, refurbished toner cartridges, and a universal garage opener. http://www.eff.org/endangered/ Nominations: Oscars and Razzies Everybody knows about the Academy Awards, a.k.a. the Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just announced this year's nominations, and the big winner is "The Aviator" with nods in 11 categories. Fewer people know the Golden Raspberries, or Razzies, which annually honor the worst achievements in film - this year's motto is "Commemorating a Quarter Century of Carping about Cinematic Crap". The Razziest of 2004's movies is "Catwoman" with six nominations in categories such as Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Screenplay, and worse. The Razzies list is a funny write-up of bad cinema, with the added bonus of nominations for Worst of Our First 25 Years at the bottom of the page. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to be the favorite.Oscars: http://www.oscar.com/nominees/nominees.html Razzies: http://www.razzies.com/asp/directory/25thNoms.htm Your schedule was too busy this year to fit in a trip to Park City, Utah for this year's Sundance Film Festival? Don't feel too bad; you can indulge your inner mogul at the festival's excellent Web site and watch the 30 shorts available online. You might even discover a new talent and find yourself bidding in the digital market. Honestly, the site's graphics are absolutely splendid. Ciao, baby. Sundance: http://festival.sundance.org/2005/ Sundance Online: http://www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org/ Never Mind SpongeBob, It's a Drag Being Bugs Conservative Christian groups are protesting "SpongeBob SquarePants" because they think everybody's favorite absorbent and yellow and porous squirt promotes homosexuality. See CNN. You have our encouragement to slap these people if you run across them. The whole thing is funny enough as it is, but thanks to RobotJohnny.com we can clearly see that SpongeBob has nothing on Bugs Bunny when it comes to dragging it up.CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/20/sponge.bob.reut/index.html "SpongeBob SquarePants": http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/display_show.jhtml?show_id=spo RobotJohnny.com: http://www.robotjohnny.com/archives/2005/01/what_a_drag.php Google Offers TV Video Transcript Search With little fanfare, Google has unveiled a search facility that lets you search through the text of TV broadcasts. This is just a proof of concept, which lets you search the feeds of eight TV stations, four of them specific to the San Francisco Bay Area. The index of searchable video only dates back to early December 2004. Google Video's text search is based on closed-caption transcripts, a service provided by the stations for deaf viewers. The Google Video Help page explains more about the search options available and hints that Google will let you watch the videos you find at some point in the future.http://video.google.com/ Cybersex Not What it Used to Be Eight million North Americans spend at least 11 hours a week engaged in cybersex, according to two filmmakers who made the documentary "O.Com: Cybersex Addiction", to be broadcast on CBC next month. Wired's Regina Lynn isn't entirely sure just what cybersex is anymore. Is it intelligent flirting or simply porn? What Lynn is clear on is that if you want the former you are going to have to search around for it, and she longs for the good old days of online sex chat.Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66344,00.html "O.com": http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/ocom.html Pew Reports on Search-Engine Users The Pew Internet and American Life's latest report tells us what we already know: most Internet users are satisfied with the results they get from search engines, but they're strikingly clueless when it comes to the nitty details. Despite the efforts of some of the better companies to clearly differentiate sponsored search results - ads - from standard results, only a few more than a sixth of the user base picks up on the distinction.http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/146/report_display.asp We were excited when we heard that Engadget was telling us how to set up a Mac mini as the centerpiece of a digital audio/video media center. Alas, its convoluted hack falls far short of convincing. Not only did Engadget's geeks use multiple computers, including an older desktop Mac, to set up their media center, but they even lacked key parts needed to make the whole thing work (the digital-capture-and-record product EyeTV 200 was on backorder). So why bother reading this? Well, it has a certain geekily entertaining "let's hook up a bunch of stuff and see if it flies" aspect to it, but we really want to present this as a symptom of another popular phenomenon: the lust for a tiny, Mac-based, digital-video recorder/server. We've seen the desire for such a product expressed on a number of online forums, seemingly whenever the Mac mini comes up in conversation. Perhaps the best take on the subject belongs to Robert X. Cringely, who speculates on Apple's approach to the digital-media business and the Mac mini in his last two columns, both certainly worth reading. Endgadget: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000057028826/ Cringely 1: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050120.html Cringely 2: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050127.html Steve Jobs has always been interested in making a splash. If you're younger than 30 and you thought his Mac mini announcement was well orchestrated, go read this wonderful account by Andy Herzfeld about the introduction of the original Macintosh, especially the way in which the Mac introduced itself. Even better, TextLab recently uncovered video of the event and released it for public consumption. You don't have to be a Macolyte to love this stuff, but you do have to respect a style of showmanship that no one besides Jobs seems to possess these days. Herzfeld: http://tinyurl.com/4h376 TextLab: http://www.industrial-technology-and-witchcraft.de/ Interview with Author of JHymn People unhappy with Apple's digital-rights management (DRM) know about the Hymn project, software that strips DRM protection from iTunes Music Store songs and lets players other than iTunes play them. Apple, of course, is aware of the project and in its last iTunes update changed the DRM code slightly to prevent iPods from playing Hymn-processed files. It's the typical game of company trying to stay ahead of inventive hackers who don't share the DRM philosophy. Sure enough, the Hymn developers have figured out how to get around Apple's latest changes - which brings us to OSDir.com's interview with one of the anonymous Hymn developers, who calls himself FutureProof. He maintains one of the Hymn variants written in Java, called JHymn. The interview explains, technically, how Apple's DRM works and how Hymn gets around it. It also explains the latest changes and possible future directions in the neverending war between the hackers and Apple's DRM engineers.Interview: http://osdir.com/slash3823.html JHymn: http://hymn-project.org/jhymndoc/ ONLINE CULTURE The Future Evolving Personalized Information Construct Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson have put together a hypothetical perspective of the past from the future. Their look back focuses on the evolution and supremacy of the Evolving Personalized Information Construct (EPIC), ironically exactly the opposite of the EPIC we all know and love. The heart of the presentation is an amalgamated beast named Googlezon, which knows what information users want based on their habits and can deliver it. If you have eight minutes to spare, spend them on this thought-provoking Flash video. Here's an excerpt, one of the simultaneously coolest and scariest concepts: "Using a new algorithm, Googlezon's computers construct news stories dynamically, stripping sentences and facts from all content sources and recombining them. The computer writes a news story for every user." Think about it. How well does Amazon recommend books for you today? How does that compare to how Amazon recommended stuff to you three years ago? By 2014, do you think it could figure out what you'd want to read, sentence by sentence?EPIC (future): http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/ EPIC (now): http://epic.org/ These may well be the ultimate geek-boy teen-heartthrob-pose photos ever taken, guaranteed to make any girl's heart flutter. Well, maybe they would if only the girl knew that this kid would grow up to be the world's richest man. The photos show the young Bill Gates propped up on a desk like a soft-porn cabaret singer on a cheap nightclub piano, with a come-hither (or, depending on your inclination, flee-with-all-possible-speed) look on his face. The Monkey Methods blog that originally rediscovered the shots incorrectly or perhaps facetiously attributed them to Teen Beat magazine. The truth is far more bizarre. According to the Urban Legends Reference Pages (ULRP), the photos were part of the publicity blitz for the initial release of Microsoft Windows in 1985. It's hard to believe that Gates is 30 years old in these pics, partly because he looks younger and partly because it's hard to believe any 30-year-old man would pose like that. Then again, maybe he knows something we don't - we're not the richest people in the world. We're looking for a suitable desk. Monkey Methods: http://blog.monkeymethods.org/2005/01/bill-gates-strikes-pose-for-teen-beat.html ULRP: http://www.snopes.com/photos/people/gates.asp The September Ends: AOL to Kill Usenet Access Back in the early 1990s, Usenet culture had its predictable seasonal rhythms. One of the best known cycles was the September influx of clueless newbies, kids who got Internet access for the first time in college and who usually had no clue about polite posting etiquette. In September 1993, AOL first allowed its millions of users to post to Usenet, in effect unleashing an endless flood of clueless newbies into what for many people was a valuable Internet resource. This became known as the September that never ended (see the Jargon File), and Usenet's signal-to-noise ratio never fully recovered. This long September will finally end soon, however. AOL has promised to discontinue access to Usenet in early 2005. Will Usenet recover its less-spammy, more civil tone now that millions of unsophisticated AOL users will no longer sully its discussions with their infamous "me too!" posts? Or has Google Groups ruined it forever? BetaNews has the story.Jargon File: http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/September-that-never-ended.html BetaNews: http://www.betanews.com/article/1106664611
SURFING SITES Library of Congress Publishes Civil War Maps The American Memory section of the Library of Congress has teamed up with the Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Virginia to make available an astounding and huge collection of maps of the US during the Civil War. The collection includes standard military maps, battlefield sketch maps, illustration maps, and sketches by various officers and others. The maps are presented as GIF files. LizardTech's MrSID (Multi-Resolution Seamless Image Database) compression technology lets viewers zoom in on or out of any area of a map and freely move around within the image. It's amazingly powerful and useful technology. Most maps are in the public domain and may be used with appropriate credit. Images may also be bought. Our reviewer was hard put to say whether he was more impressed by the quantity and quality of the maps on the site or the technology used in the presentation.http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps/ Early Bibles were inked onto vellum or papyrus, but Brendan Powell Smith uses Lego, speech bubbles, and a bit of permanent marker to craft the Brick Testament of Biblical tales. Despite his civic-minded warnings of cursing and nudity in certain stories (it's hard to do Genesis without nakedness, obviously), this may be the way to teach Bible stories to younger children - although Smith has taken the odd humorous liberty with the scenes depicted. We loved the idea of Adam using a watering can to help the Garden of Eden along, and the pile of Lego foreskins in Joshua's Second Circumcision story had us cracking up. Undoubtedly, those who prefer their Bibles dusty may take issue with the light-hearted approach, but you have to admire Smith's tenacity in creating customized characters (you can even buy his Holy Trinity if you want the ultimate desk ornament) and taking literally thousands of shots for his online tales. http://www.thebricktestament.com/ Lego Grandfather Clock and Other Goodies Given enough time and enough Lego, a creative person can build anything. Eric Harshbarger is just such a person. He's a professional Legoista, and he creates nearly unbelievable constructions. His opus, in our opinion, is his grandfather clock - 100% pure Lego, and it works. The photos show the details of the mechanism. While the clock is astounding enough, the rest of Eric's work is also well worth a visit. One small warning: If you or children have Lego sets around, what you see here may cause serious envy, leading to the need to go out and buy several more sets so you can try some of these amazing constructions.http://www.ericharshbarger.org/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?clock_5.jpg+lego/images/clock What kind of deadly weapons can you make from material around the office? This is not an entirely idle question in these halcyon days of workplace shootings and silly security restrictions about walking around armed with nail clippers. The Office Bricolage contest approached the topic in a refreshingly lighthearted way, judging each entry on Destruction, Automation, Presentation, Technicality, Aesthetics, Originality, and Efficacy. Entries range from the sharp-pencil delivery system dubbed "the Oracle" to shiruken cut from CDs named "CDz Nuts". The award-winning and complicated Office Bow of Death impressed us mightily. We're surprised that no one opted to attempt chemical warfare. We're fairly sure in most offices you can at least do a decent Molotov cocktail by pilfering the executive liquor cabinet. http://www.bleacheatingfreaks.com/science/OB2/ Free the Stanley Cup for its Original Purpose By the time you read this, the 2004-2005 National Hockey League will have lost some 16 weeks' worth of games as a result of its player lockout. That's more than half the schedule - excluding the never-ending playoffs. It's beginning to look a lot like those playoffs will not happen this year, and no playoffs means no Stanley Cup champion, right? Wrong. Lord Stanley's original intent was that his Challenge Cup be awarded to the best hockey team in Canada. He didn't consider it a prize for professionals. Heck, the NHL only came into being in 1917, 25 years after Lord Stanley set the rules. The Free Stanley movement is attempting to have the Stanley Cup awarded to teams in challenge format in 2005. The Web site has all the details, including the fascinating fact that the NHL does not own the Stanley Cup at all.http://www.freestanley.com/ In the late 1960s, Dagobert Steinitz, a wealthy eccentric, launched a diabolical plan that challenged the world's greatest minds to solve his puzzles. He hid three urns, each filled with treasure, then handed out obscure clues whose solutions led to the hidden treasures. Nobody could crack the puzzles, and the legend of the urns fell inexorably into the domain of urban legend. Until last year. In 2004, a puzzlemaster found the first of the urns, which netted him a cool $1 million and a chateau in southern France. And so once again, as Sherlock Holmes might say, "The game is afoot!" The second urn has also turned up, and the hunt is on for the remaining one, and perhaps as well for evidence of Homo superus. It's a great story, which is the point - it is all a story, actually a marketing campaign for Sharp. But it is cool, nonetheless. Steinitz Puzzlers: http://www.steinitzpuzzlers.com/index.html Newbie FAQ: http://forums.steinitzpuzzlers.com/index.php?showtopic=132 Getting tired of the guy in the next cubicle going on and on about how cool looking his Apple gear is? Apparently, so was David McCandless. Unable to put up with the unbearable smugness of some users of Apple products, he has responded with the Apple Store of the Future, a tongue-through-the-cheek look at what Steve Jobs's crew will be offering soon. We were immediately drawn to the pastel-colored iMug cattle prod but soon admired the iRule iPod that overrides all other iPods with its own music and the stylish iTug three-nozzle masturbation machine. Best of all is probably the Apple Mysteron, a cool titanium peripheral with a flashing light that does nothing at all. The Steve Jobs Altar (both standard and AltarPro versions available) was certainly tempting. Even Apple fans might enjoy a wry smile over the iSmug collection of Hollywood-directed screensavers "honoring Apple's superior technology." We wish the site were bigger, with pages for the products. http://www.davidmccandless.com/funny/applestore.htm You can't turn on a browser these days without stumbling across some site or tool based on the Web's most popular search engine. While some of these may help you with your homework, this one is just for fun. Montage-a-google takes the top 20 results of a search on Google Images and forms them into a cool composite picture grid. The side toolbar then helpfully slides away. Clicking on the pictures opens a page that supplies the original image. The advanced options let you control the grid size and download high-resolution images, which slows things down a bit but makes for a more intense and beautiful montage. Why do this? Well, why not? This is definitely one of those "peek over your cubicle wall to make sure the boss isn't around" Web pages. The page identifies itself as Version 1.0; hopefully this means that we'll have other, more advanced toys like this to play with soon. Very diverting. http://grant.robinson.name/projects/montage-a-google/ Dig deep enough and all men will find at least one truly revolting sweater in their wardrobe. It might have been a gift, it might be the result of a tragic lapse of taste, or it might just be something that they once thought looked great before time dealt it a cruel hand. If you have one such sweater, or even if you have half a dozen, don't beat yourself up - Kevin Sherry has 25 of them. He models them here for your horror and delight. There are some real shockers here, including one he was banned from wearing because it caused epileptic seizures, and each of them is skewered with the biting wit of Sherry's "friend", New York Post writer Stephen Lynch. The absolute worst sweater, according to Kevin, is described as "Wagner's 'Ring Cycle' on spin cycle," but we rather liked the one made of 92% acrylic, 7% wool, and 1% viscose, "but the secret ingredient is love." http://www.buriedlede.com/projects/sweater.html We were under the impression that the US had settled the question of secession in 1865, but we suppose that some folks in Vermont haven't heard about the Civil War. The truth is that the movement at VermontCanada.org to make the state Canada's 11th province only semi-seriously advocates breaking away from the US to join its northern neighbor. While the serious portions of the site compare and contrast various social and other policies of the US and Canada, the site's creators admit that it's also about learning to say "eh". A quick glance at the online survey shows that the vast majority of people who voted in favor of this union are Canadians themselves, which makes you wonder if the whole object of the exercise is to get Ben and Jerry's (now owned by Monsanto) to move north of the border. Anyhow, don't expect bombs to start going off in the Federal Building in Burlington any time soon. You have to register if you want to take part in the discussion forums or view the members list but, as is usual with such movements, there is an online store with T-shirts and bumper stickers that anyone can visit. http://vermontcanada.org/ The American Garden Museum is less a museum in the "dusty display case" sense, and more of a collaborative effort to document past and present gardens and gardeners of the country. Visitors are encouraged to add their tales of gardens they tended, knew, or loved. The current online exhibition focuses on the designs of New England gardens during the 1930s. The site's growing searchable catalogue of plants is handily aranged by binomial and common name for gardeners who want to find that perfect plant for their own plot. The site gives plant hardiness as well as trivia such as the fact that alliums protect against demons - useful to know if you live in Sunnydale or Amityville. This lavishly illustrated site is still gaining content but the Inspiration section will help any gardener who seeks design ideas for new features or styles. http://www.americangardenmuseum.com/ Followers of Darwin Award candidates may recall the exploits of one Larry "the Moron" Walters, who in 1982 strapped himself into a lawn chair to which he tied some helium balloons. Walters intended to float a few hundred feet above his house and enjoy a few beers while controlling his altitude with a pellet gun, but he miscalculated and shot up 16,000 feet, As he drifted into LAX airspace, a Pan Am passenger jet narrowly avoided colliding with him; its pilot reported seeing a gun-toting lunatic up in the clouds to the authorities. Amazingly, Walters survived. More amazingly, others have caught the helium-ballooning bug. One such enthusiast is John Ninomiya, an experienced, licensed hot-air balloon pilot who has turned his attention to helium cluster-ballooning. John has logged all his 23 flights on his site, providing breathtaking photographs as well as introducing the basics of this new sport. We're not sure we'd care to participate, but would happily become armchair (though not lawn-chair) enthusiasts. http://www.clusterballoon.org/ Billy Harvey's Major Web Coolness Plenty of Web sites promote bands and their albums but few provide entertaining interactive shows for visitors. Billy Harvey's site defies the norm with its ingenious navigation and design. At first glance, the Web site appears to be little more than scattered cut-out images, framed within Polaroids, of Harvey and his crew. Within seconds of your arrival, a seemingly inert picture begins to literally speak to you. This introduction is just one of the many comical and curious elements of the site that will keep you exploring and ultimately discovering more about Harvey. Through music, videos, and images, visitors are treated to a rare journey that is truly a marketing gem. Harvey states in Outroduction, "I'm probably gonna be pretty famous soon." It may not be for the music, or maybe it will, but chances are pretty good that this quirky creative Web site is doing its best to get him there.http://www.billyharveymusic.com/ As technology advances, people are able to communicate with one another more quickly. It's little wonder that standard mail is slowly dropping by the wayside, and with it items such as postcards are become rarer. Sites like Postcards from the Attic may soon be considered to archive relics. The site does feature some fairly old postcards, most from the early 20th century, but it may not be too long before postcards from any decade are considered historic. Here, you can discover some beautiful pieces of work catalogued in a well designed and easily navigated site. Each card comes with additional information, including the date it was sent, the message, and the sender and recipient. In the spirit of advancing communication technology, visitors can send any of the postcards at this site as an e-greeting. http://fultonchain.net/postcards/ There's no need to pity these self-proclaimed fools for their love of '80s television star, Mr. T. At Mr. T and Me, two hard-core fans showcase their Mr. T collectibles and memorabilia. The collection is extensive and features such items as an Argentina-made Mr. T clay-figure maker, gold-chain bubble gum, and Mr. T crayons. If you're a fan of the tough-talking, milk-guzzling B.A. Baracus, you'll love this online tribute to one of most recognizable icons of the '80s. http://www.mrtandme.com/ This lady collects swizzle sticks. She has over 50,000 of them. Initially, she would collect them from her own cocktails, but now, luckily for her liver, she accepts donations from friends and family. She's got swizzle sticks from all over the Americas and from numerous airlines. Often the sticks tell you something about where they're from - palm trees from Hawaii, pilgrim hats from Massachusetts, and guns from Kentucky - but we noticed that dancing naked ladies are popular everywhere. Not to be missed is the Wall of Tiki, a shrine to South Pacific-themed drinking paraphernalia. She is also an avid collector of other things including beverage tappers, whiskey pitchers, and spoons, and is happy to trade items or sell them on eBay. It's good to have a hobby, as the blonde tells the proprietor shortly before taking her last shower in the Bates Motel. http://www.swizzledd.com/ Snafu University may not be real, but its Web site is a dead-on parody of many of the "institutions of higher education" that have taken up residence on the Internet. Given a less obvious name, they'd probably be attracting students in droves. After all, the price and admission requirements are right. The site is detailed, not simply a one-page parody, although in fact it's all just an ad for a book. If the book it promotes, strangely enough entitled "Snafu University" and by Alfred Gingold, is half as good as the Web site, it's well worth it. http://www.snafuuniversity.com/ Those Imaginary Japanese See-Through Skirts At first glance, these skirts don't so much cover as reveal. But glance again at these pics at eBaum's World and you'll realize that there is some fine trompe l'oeil going on here. Or is there? Alas, the skirts, as seductive as they may seem, do not really exist, say the Urban Legend Reference Pages (ULRP), but are rather some digital manipulation used in Japanese girlie magazines. Nevertheless, the idea is so compelling that we can see this becoming a fashion fad destined to sweep American high schools, followed swiftly by draconian overreaction from The Man.eBaum's World: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/japanskirts.html ULRP: http://www.snopes.com/photos/skirts.asp FLOTSAM & JETSAM There's no reason to complicate your life with an expensive Palm PDA. The Hipster PDA vastly simplifies your life and is much more economical. It's recyclable, too. Of course, there's a hack that makes it even more useful.Hipster PDA: http://merlin.blogs.com/43folders/2004/09/introducing_the.html Hack: http://www.43folders.com/2005/01/organizing_your.html It was a race to see who would be the first to dissect the iPod shuffle and post the photos on the Web. Looks like Daniel Kushner of AppleMatters wins. http://www.applematters.com/shufflepopup0.htm Choose an icon, type in the text, et voila - a custom error box! Samples from readers are available. Our favorite, though you really need the visual for full impact: "Windows found a bug in your system. It's a fucking butterfly. [OK] [Ignore]". http://atom.smasher.org/error/ Here are some lovely pictures of the aftermath of a recent severe ice storm in Geneva. It looks like something Pixar would put in a movie or something you'd find in a beautiful fantasy computer game. Lovely. http://www.skyandsummit.com/Glacegeneve/index.html How many Starbucks coffee shops are located with a five-mile radius of you? The Starbucks store finder makes it easy to find out. Absent reliable numbers from Tokyo, London and Manhattan share the highest density, with 169 Starbucks locations within 5 miles of specific intersections. Read the comments for more. http://www.kottke.org/05/01/maximum-starbucks-density A blogger known as Mr. Sun ponders the moves necessary for getting "Gilligan's Island" castaway Mary Ann into bed. Yes, there is a chart involved. Reader comments expand on the topic. http://mrsun.us/2005/01/mr-suns-bedding-mary-ann-strategy.html Clearly there is much research to be done on the demonstrably hypnotic effects of this newly discovered and possibly Lovecraftian construct. Those with weak minds are cautioned against viewing the Hasselhoffian Recursion for an extended period on pain of madness. http://www.post-literate.com/gerpunx/archives/2005/01/prepare_to_lose_your_mind.php |
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