Our pal Mike Lee (and his pal Lucy Schaeffer) have launched Loopy, a baby & toddler clothing site. My favorite shirt design is "I Own This Town":
October 2005 Archives
(From this Photoshop contest at Worth1000.)
Asemic, meaning "having no semantic content." Try it in a sentence: Republican attempts to downplay the Libby indictment border on the asemic.
Patrick writes:
Lost among the Libby Indictment, the Miers resignation and the self-outing of George Takei was this breaking news. I know where I will NOT be with my son, daughter and wife on November 19th.
An attempt to map the spheres of influence of American cities. You put in your address and the cities that "influence" you the most. CommonCensus Map Project.
things magazine has a spate of links about Nihilartikels on maps, (Nihilkarten? Nihilorte?) fake places put on maps to trap copyright violaters, such as Lye close in London. I couldn't help but be reminded of China Miéville's story "Reports of Certain Events in London" (included in
From pesky': "It’s clear that Right Wing family values are the same as those of the KKK—why, it’s like peanut butter and chocolate: perfect together. Except not so sweet and good."
Or is this a really strange packaging decision?
I...I...I...I......
Via Waxy.org. I still prefer the ASCII telnet version.
This is the package of Studio Ghibli features that Disney acquired, which includes Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso and Whisper of the Heart. No word if TCM is going to run them subtitled or dubbed. This is probably timed to remind Academy voters to consider Howl's Moving Castle for Best Animated Feature. While I'm not crazy about TCM showing anything after 1970, I do admit Miyazaki's works are true modern classics. [Link]
Coming back from my grandma's house this weekend, I drove by Linglestown, PA. I of course had to email Colin about it. A subsequent Google search on colin linglestown led to the Amazon page for the John Travolta / Lisa Kudrow / Nora Ephron flick Lucky Numbers.
Which is how I found the best. Consumer review. EVAR.
Thierry Humbert of Puyricard, France was moved by Lucky Numbers to write the following, which I simply must quote in full:
This movie is great; the cast is good, all the actors play wonderfully, the story is original, the soundtrack is made up of a variety of tunes, good vibes for most of them . The movie raises plenty of questions:
- are we in the 4th dimension ?
- is Mildred going to come back from Florida ?
- are there limits to enjoyment ?
- how much money is it possible to earn at the lottery ?
- what is money for ?
- donations: to who ?
- what are lucky numbers ?
- what is luck ?
- what is music for ?
- what is an accident ?
- what is the best insurance ?
- what is beauty ?
- what is universal ?
- who needs details ?
- what is intuition ?
- what is civility ?
- what is language ?
- what is time, how should we use it ?
- what is an animator (or leader)?
- what is an agent for ?
- was the murdered body naked ?
- what is hate ?
- why are deterrents necessary ?
- are we allowed to lie ?
- is it okay to get a bit more money if it is only fair ?
... and many more questions.The whole story is outstanding in many respects, and some of the good sequences are:
1) absolutely all the scenes with Lisa Kudrow, she is a fantastic actress in this movie ;
2) the scenes with the two policemen, the white and the black ;
3) the scene when one policeman shows interest in Cristal but not the opposite;
4) the snowmobile ride by John Travolta;
5) the robbery in the couple's flat; (this shows that to get something from someone else, you could threaten this person to death, after scaring him, to break his will);
6) just before the robbery, the way the White policeman feels that the passer-by is actually up to something wrong;
7) the scene in which Cristal finally gets an agreement with Dick, after tense negociation resting on deterrents.What I liked best in the movie:
1) the behavior of Cristal;
What I disliked:
1) the death of [plot spoiler];
2) Dick.Finally, this movie teaches us what the qualities of a good animator (or leader) should be:
1) a leader is the cherry on the cake, but the cake is the concept;
2) a leader does not leave room to chance;
3) a leader can be trusted 100%;
4) a leader makes sure there are no lies;
5) a leader never sets unrealistic deadlines;
6) a leader avoids confusing, abstract gestures when talking; the message has to be 100% clear;
7) a leader never criticizes others in their back.Also it opened up some ideas inside me, like :
- routine is ugly;
- building is great;
- having experience is great;
- having a young mind and a capacity to marvel like a child is great.
This almost makes me want to see the movie. Almost.
PostSecret, the confessional / mail-art site, is coming out with a book -- you can
Curiously, my first post on Post Secret is now one of the most popular pages here -- all from people Googling "post secrets" and looking for a place to tell their secrets, without having to go through the whole making-a-post-card thing. A bit like the "I am lonely" page on moviecodec.com. Anyway, welcome strangers, happy to have a place for you to pour your heart out. I hope the bit of confession helps, somehow.
Except for you kids who are just making stuff up, and I know who you are. Get off my lawn!
Arrest warrant issued for DeLay
"To any sheriff or peace officer of the state of Texas, greetings, you are hereby commanded to arrest Thomas Dale DeLay and keep him safely so that you have him before the 331st Judicial District Court of Travis County."
Thanks to Mark for pinging me with this story.
The EULAlyzer is a handy little freeware app that will read a EULA for you and flag "phrases of interest." I admit to never reading EULAs -- who the heck has the time? -- but now I don't have to!
Where have all the heroes gone? 4 stars.
I have seen 68% of them. You can guess the 16 movies I've missed.
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!
- Akira
- Alien
- Aliens
- Alphaville
- Back to the Future
- Blade Runner
- Brazil
- Bride of Frankenstein
- Brother From Another Planet
- A Clockwork Orange
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Contact
- The Damned
- Destination Moon
- The Day The Earth Stood Still
- Delicatessen
- Escape From New York
- ET: The Extraterrestrial
- Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
- The Fly (1985 version)
- Forbidden Planet
- Ghost in the Shell
- Gojira/Godzilla
- The Incredibles
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
- Jurassic Park
- Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior
- The Matrix
- Metropolis
- On the Beach
- Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
- Robocop
- Sleeper
- Solaris (1972 version)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
- The Stepford Wives
- Superman
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day
- The Thing From Another World
- Things to Come
- Tron
- 12 Monkeys
- 28 Days Later
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- La Voyage Dans la Lune
- War of the Worlds (1953 version)
Via (where else?) Boing Boing.
I must say, we're so immured to violence that I'm not surprised that the bombing of the Smurfs might cause a deeper emotional reaction than the bombing of real people.
Eh? I've had worse.
He continued: "It is as useless for you to deny me your vote as it is for me to annihilate you. You will only bring death and destruction upon yourselves, while I lose the potential products of your labor. In return for your vote, you will have my generous protection! In other words - you will be allowed to live."
Vitaly Friedman (sounds like Kinky's sidekick?) has a list of the 20 Best License-Free Official Fonts. Some good stuff in there -- even a few I didn't already have! Imagine that. Via Luc Devroye.
Combine mind-mapping and your to-do list:
Size of the bubbles indicates how important they are. So you feel even better after doing one! I think this could also work well for your project list.
The Memory Hole recounts what happens when they get a little too happy with the big black pen:
Ostensibly, [the DOJ] would use their powers of censorship only to remove material that truly could jeopardize US operations. But in reality, what did they do? They blacked out a quotation from a Supreme Court decision:"The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect 'domestic security.' Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent."
The mind reels at such a blatant abuse of power (and at the sheer chutzpah of using national security as an excuse to censor a quotation about using national security as an excuse to stifle dissent).
This is from last year -- clearly I've got to add TMH to my feed.
I've had Interesting Ideas on my watchlist ever since I stumbled across this essay on why things are better now. (With exceptions.) His latest essay, Compound Ineptitude: A Theory of Corporate Incompetence, is definitely worth a read, examining how incompetence, or the appearance thereof, can aid corporations, politicians, Satan, and God.
Gogol Bordello. Spectacular. Think Red Hot Gypsy Chili Pepper Kings. NTBM.
FindSounds helps you, well, find sounds. Via Gadgetopia.
So yesterday I started my new job as Executive Director of the New York division of DonorsChoose. Today we were named the winner of the Amazon.com Nonprofit Innovation Award, a global challenge to select the non-profit that's the most, well, innovative. We bested nine other charities, raising over $790K through the Amazon challenge, which will be matched by Amazon for a total of over $1.5m! The funds will help us expand operations to the Gulf Coast, as well as funding projects here in New York City, Chicago, LA, San Francisco (Matt?), and the Carolinas.
You can read more in today's New York Times, as well as a recent Business Week article on us.
Why, exactly, was this movie made? It felt like an homage to the Tim Burton genre. Visually fantastic -- but the story was weak compared to, say, The Nightmare Before Christmas. And the songs -- well, Danny Elfman is a hack, and it shows more and more, especially with a musical. In a word, disappointing. 2.5 stars.
More images of this Leviathan speaker from 1943. From the prolific things magazine
Start Your Own Country. Republic of Ishbadiddle, anyone?
And no, it's not an Onion article:
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.
...
The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.”
They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its “intransigent intolerance” and to warn of “significant dangers” involved in a fundamentalist approach.
“Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of one nation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against others.”
More info from the Liturgy Office. I realize that this isn't a papal bull -- do they still issue bulls? -- but this still seems pretty major stuff.
It's the Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game!
You may be inadvertently performing one of the Magnus-Opus melody series each time you use your telecommunications device (telephone, mobile telephone, modem and other internet devices).In order to ascertain if you are in breach of international copyright law you may enter any alpha-numeric sequence you may be using via your telecommunications device in our dialogue box below. This will compare your number with our melody database. If your number should match one of our compositions the melody and opus number will be displayed. You should then complete a licence agreement as soon as possible.
It's only $1,000 to license the music of your phone number for life -- or a nickel a call for a "single performance license." Of course, you could always use "pulse". Via memepool.
Who would win in a fight: Alligator vs. python?
Earlier today I wrote a post about my father, who I haven't had any contact with for almost thirty years. It was a difficult post to write - it had taken me almost two weeks to build up the nerve to write it. After I got it out there, however, a number of people commented almost immediately - uniformly pleasant, supportive, decent posts. I'll confess, it was nice. As usual some of them were a little more emotional about the whole thing than I felt comfortable with, but generally the whole thing was a positive experience. I felt positive that I'd got the message out, was hopeful that talking about the experience might make such a process easier for someone else to go through, and felt that I'd said enough for the moment. Everyone's got something out of it. Everyone's happy.And then I got a comment from a man called Barry Scott. The comment read as follows:
"Hi Tom, Always remember one thing. Life is very, very short and nothing is worth limiting yourself from seeing the ones you love. I hadn't seen my father in 15 years until 2 years ago. I was apprehensive but I kept telling myself that no matter how estranged we'd become there was no river to wide to cross. Drop me a line if I can be of any more help. Cheers, Barry"
Sounds fine, doesn't it? Except that 'Barry Scott' isn't a real person - he's a marketing vehicle for a brand called Cillit Bang and his weblog is a barely disguised viral marketing platform for the product.
Also read the follow up story. I think we're going to be seeing more and more of this kind of thing.
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