Spambots have yet again brought down Ishbadiddle, hence our silence over the past week. We're getting around to fixing it. In the meantime, enjoy our posters' other fine hypertext outings, such as Big Ink, emily's journal, CMOM@Idolator, and Ennis' posts over at Sepia Mutiny. Plus all those links over there.
Here's some linkage for you before our return!
1000 Frames of Hitchcock
25 Best Band Logos
10 Best Sci-Fi Movies Never Made
Also check out DonorsChoose.org on the Colbert Report!
You can cast your "vote" in the Democralypse! primary.
Be back soon!
Thanks to everyone who finished off the latest Ishbadiddle Challenge projects. I added a few more and upped the goal!
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I picked up Wired at the airport and read this really terrific story: High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace
| Rescue |
BoingBoing reports that Joseph Weizenbaum, creator of Eliza, has died:
> Hello, I am Eliza.* Hi
> How are you today.. What would you like to discuss?
* Joeseph Weizenbaum, the man that made you.
> Say, do you have any psychological problems?
* Probably, but that's not why I'm here.
> Did you come to me because you are here?
* I guess that's one way of looking at it.
> What does that suggest to you?
* I just wanted to tell you that the man who created you died yesterday
> You're not really talking about me, are you?
* Yes, I am.
> Do you believe it is normal to be ?
* Are you sad that Joseph died? Don't you care?
> Perhaps in your fantasies I am sad that Joseph died? Don't me care?
* I would like to think that you would be sad.
> We were discussing you, not me.
* I can understand why you wouldn't want to talk to me about this.
> You're not really talking about me, are you?
* Goodbye, Eliza.
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Say this for Eliot Spitzer's judgment: it's gratifying that NY may soon have the first legally blind governor in U.S. history. Give Spitzer the "bone"-headed at least one point for choosing David Paterson as his running mate.
Maybe something good will come of this. Besides 1001 wisecracks and "Love Gov"/"Eliot Mess" headlines.
Y'know, I don't have a water cooler here in my home-based workplace. So permit me to observe among the weirder ironies in all this: Spitzer is one of maybe 347 males in NY state ever to have learned that inducing a prostitute to cross state lines is a greater crime--a *federal felony*--than picking her up on the street corner.
And maybe the only one to discover that detail before getting arrested. (Granted, I'm just presuming that someone who has prosecuted two prostitution rings would have absorbed this....)
From the wisecracks: my wife's pal Bill Bragin observes that it's a shame that Spitzer couldn't stick to his campaign promises—the governor at least could have patronized a brothel from some economically depressed town upstate.
| Prostitution | Law |
Donkey Kong and Me is a blog post by the guy who programmed Donkey Kong. For the Atari 800. Some insight there as to why the company tanked, and on the importance of decent comments in your code.
Zach is currently obsessed with Super Mario Galaxy which he plays at the local video game store (but just once a week, we've had to ration him). I wonder what he'd make of Atari Mario?
| Atari | 1980s | Programming | Video Games |
I just saw in Slate that Barack Obama has been sending a messenger to Canada to tell them (who he has to tell, Slate doesn't specify) that his whole Anti-NAFTA thing is just a show to impress the yokels in Ohio. Don't worry, he's really a free trader just like us. He just needs to say these things to get elected so that he can protect NAFTA.
It reminds me of LBJ sending messengers back to Houston to tell his financial backers that he didn't really believe in Civil Rights, that he only said these pro-civil rights things so that he could keep control of the Senate from the Northern Liberals and Republicans. Really he was a segregationist just like them. Really.
He has taken a page from the Master, while Clinton is sampling Walter Mondale.
| Barack Obama | NAFTA |
SuperCopier is a freeware app that replaces the regular file copy function in Windows. Pretty removes every annoying thing about moving or copying files.
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Breakup Girl! She's back, with new episodes and a new, bloggier format!
Will Breakup Girl be spotted at the Superhero Costume exhibit at the Met?
| Superheroes | Fashion |
For the Mongolian Jazz Festival in October 2008! It's called.... wait for it...
This pun brought to you by John Coltrane and the Letter A.
| Mongolia |
I've put some new proposals from DonorsChoose.org on the Ishbadiddle Challenge -- check them out and throw some money at them if you're feeling eelymosynary.
Thanks to everyone who's given so far!
I got my "thank-you package" from the Knuffle Bunny project. Letters from kids, drawings, pictures -- it made me think "wow this DonorsChoose.org is really great!" Then I remembered: Oh yeah, I work there.
| Education | Philanthropy |
Alain Robbe-Grillet is dead at 85. Read the détails or the details. Can I award Ishpoints to the best comment making reference to the destruction of narrative chronology?
| literature | film | avant-garde | death | cult figures |
A few more here. Happy V-Day, everyone!
(Via Waxy.)
| Valentine's Day | Rejects |
Kevin Kelly (he of the WELL etc.) has an essay that's making the rounds about what people are willing to pay for when the Internet has essentially made everything (digital) free.
| Information Wants to Be Free | Free | Kevin Kelly |
An American politician who speaks intelligently about religion? Really?
| Barack Obama | Religion |
Ishbareaders will remember the sleuthing work that Alex B. did in uncovering the Misleading Water Filter Comparison Chart, which ranks "Aquasana" as number one but hides the fact that it's sponsored by... Aquasana. There's been some back-and-forth between President of Sun Water Systems, maker of the Aquasana water filters, me, and various other folks who feel that Mr. Strand was not being above board.
Yesterday a satisfied Aquasana customer, "Miguel," posted here about his wonderful experience with Aquasana.. "After all, I wanted a water filter that would do the best job, not the one who I thought had the best marketing team," says "Miguel."
Curious, I looked up where "Miguel" was posting from. Hmmm -- his IP is 67.152.98.19 in Fort Worth, TX, home of... Sun Water Systems! And it's the same IP used earlier by.... Charles Strand, President of same!
As Henry David Thoreau said, "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk." Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Sock Puppet. This from a man who wrote here: "I've always been suspicious of people who make defamatory remarks, but use aliases to do so. If you feel good about what you are saying, why use an Alias..."
You lose! Good day sir!
Update: He wrote again, still claiming to be Miguel, and clearly not understanding what an IP address is. I've closed the thread, since I really have better things to do than argue with a sock puppet about water filtration marketing.
| Badvertising | Aquasana | Astroturf |
