Astros Reach Deals With Everett, Lane. First thing we'll do, honey, is get them to replace that comma with a dash. Also, I'm supposed to play shortstop and outfield? Sheesh.
(Thanks to Gazoo for the heads-up on my new job.)
| Headlines | Texas |
Zadie Smith on literature's legacy of honourable failure. Also, part two. Worth printing out and reading on the subway. Then give it to your favorite reader.
Via robot filter.
| Essays | Reading | Writing |
So when I call my cell phone voice mail, I get the following:
"You have three unheard messages." I know that! The little message icon with a 3 on it told me already!
"First unheard message." OK, come on, the tunnel is coming...
"The following message has not been heard." AAAAGH! Just give me the message already!
| Mobile Telephony | Cell Phones |
Obama Smokes!?! Only on Fox....
| Fox News | Barack Obama | Cigarettes |
1. We are not here to listen to your music. If I wanted to listen to music I would bring my own. Turn it down.
2. Turning off your wifi connection to "save power" is a really dumb idea. I'm looking at you, Tea Lounge on 10th Street. If you want to drive your customers away, I suppose that's a winning strategy.
| Park Slope |
Check out CMOM's Annual Best Picture Oscar Predictions. Sadly, Dave Chappelle's Block Party does not make the list.
Will he go 5 for 5 again?
| Oscars | Predictions |
Felix writes on guanxi, vegetarianism, environmentalism, eating wild animals, cultural relativism, and the perils of going out to eat with your boyfriend's business associates in China: Not eating wild snakes.
| Vegetarianism | Food | Snakes |
I mean, personally there were several times when I felt like attacking a singing group, but jeez: San Francisco Police Are Criticized in Wake of Fight Involving a Yale Singing Group. It was the B.D.'s and involves a party, the national anthem, Sean Hannity, and something called "Fajitagate."
| Crime | San Francisco |
Updated the templates so the tags should be working again. Also, update the links section, pruning some dead sites and others I don't read as much. Feel free to leave corrections and suggestions in the comment box.
Classroom Distinctions "Freedom Writers," and other Teacher Hero movies, reviewed by an actual New York City teacher.
|
Maybe it's just me. But most pop songs these days seem to be one minute too long.
I wouldn't have discovered this were it not for the iPod, which -- magically! -- displays how much time is left in a song. Time and again, I'll be listening to a song, and will get to that point. You know, the one where you go, OK, I've liked this song up until now, but it's starting to get a little repetitive. A bit tiresome. As my Grandmother would say, a bit too much of a muchness.
And then I look at the small screen, and there's one minute left. Nearly always. I mean, give or take a few seconds, but the Tiresome Point seems to fall about one minute before the end of the song.
Of course, it could just be me.
Squidoo is having a contest, rating the "59 Smartest Orgs" (as in, .org). DonorsChoose currently ranks #53 (ouch) so please take a couple of minutes to go over there and give us a vote. You need to register with Squidoo in order to vote.
Below I've listed their criteria, and the qualifications of DonorsChoose:
What does the org's website look like? Good!
Does it just ask for donations? Well, yes.
Do they have a way for members to share their stories? No.
Do they have lenses or Groups on Squidoo? Not yet.
Do they have MySpace groups? here.
You Tube videos? here.
Flickr sets? here.
Do they value microdonations or only $1000 and more? We're all about the microdonations. Minimum is $10.
Do they run contests or challenges to engage their members? Yes! See here.
Do they send out weekly or monthly newsletters? Yes. Plus we'll send weekly or monthly personalized emails that highlight proposals based on your interests and the teachers you like to support..
Do they have RSS feeds? Not yet. Soon!
Are people blogging about the org? Lots. See technorati search.
Are they stuck in the land of direct mail, control, and offline fundraising? We pretty much only raise funds online.
Are they optimized for the new cadre of young philanthropists? I think so!
| Education | Philanthropy |
We attended the Inaugural Meeting of the Athanasius Kircher Society last night, which featured:
In all, a delightful and enlightening evening. I didn't take pictures but here's a Flickr set. Being our Resident Expert on the History of Scientific Congresses and Societies, Ph.Deb is going to offer her services to the Athanasius Kircher Society in the interests of Historical Accuracy.
| The Athanasius Kircher Society |
Made with the Catalog Card Generator, via Balls and Walnuts.
|
Yesterday, in addition to being Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday and the 88th anniversary of The Great Boston Molasses Disaster, was also Ishbadiddle's six-year blogiversary. Oh, and some time back we passed the 4,000th post. Howzaboutthat?
A couple of our favorite blogs, which were sadly dormant, are now re-broadcasting: F Train and Colin's own Big Ink. Good to see you both back on line.
"And worst of all is the person who acts as exegete of The Word - whether it be from the Talmud, the Bible, the Koran, or any other book already written or yet to come. I am not fond of giving advice - no one can pound opinions into another's head - but here is a piece that costs you nothing: Never trust a man who reads only one book." -- Purity of Blood: The Adventures of Captain Alatriste. Arturo Perez-Reverte, trans. Margaret Sayers Peden.
Thanks, Felix!.
| Quotations | Religion |
Paul G. writes:
You've got to love this story in Slate.
why? because of the quote at the end describing the "scooby world view" (which itself comes from the Wash Post, but not where I got it)
The Washington Post's Hank Stuever concisely elucidated the "Scooby worldview" when the first live-action movie came out: "Kids should meddle, dogs are sweet, life is groovy, and if something scares you, you should confront it." What needs to be explained about that?
I humbly submit this for consideration for Ishbadiddle.
| Obituaries | Guest: Paul |
A New Sith, or Revenge of the HopeIf we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.
Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.
Via Cynical C
|
Debbie can usually peg a movie's title after watching it for 15 seconds. Last night, she walked in to the living room as I'm sacked out on the couch:
D: "Is that... wait... The Last Starfighter?"
M: "Yup! This used to be one of my favorite movies."
D: "I hope I get some whuffie for that one."
Indeed you do, darling.
|
A victim of identity theft tries to rent her own apartment from the identity thief.
| Identity Theft |
| Manhattan |
Via Quipsologies
| Typography | Design |
Smell of gas permeates midtown today, our office smells of it. Trying not to get headache. Or panic. Fairly calm, actually, although they evacuated Macy's a few blocks away.
I think I'm too tired to panic, actually.
|
Somehow, without sticky notes, the Romans knew all about productivity. Of course, their version of Getting Things Done would be one word: "slaves."
Real Empires Ship (Ftrain.com)
| History | Rome | Your Blank of the Day |
We blogged a few years ago about the 100 dollar computer, and how it will revolutionize 3rd World life. I was skeptical then.
Well, the 100 dollar computer is back in the news. For 150 dollars. Guess what?
Giving kids (I thnk back then we thought it would somehow help farmers) in the 3rd world really cheap computers is still pretty worthless.
| Digital Divide |
We've had folks hotlink images from TK's server before. Basically, hotlinking is where, instead of hosting an image on your own server, you just grab it from someone else's. This is considered rude, since your server gets hit every time they load their page. (I once got in a pissing match with another blogger about her hotlinking my image, but backed off when I realized that I was acting like an ass about it.) Now, for low-trafficked sites, this isn't usually a big deal, cost-wise. Sometimes a polite email will do the trick. Or you can swap the image, so that what they're linking to isn't what they originally wanted. For instance, some folks persisted in hotlinking the Flying Spaghetti Monster button I made, so I replaced this:
with this:
Some people are still using the WWJD version. Really.
So Jason Scott found that he was getting lots of hits on one image. Lots and lots and lots of hits. From Myspace.
So, he used the nuclear option -- he replaced it with Goatse. If you have to ask what Goaste is, you don't want to know. Really. The link will take you the Wikipedia page which describes it, if you must, but it's enough to know that it's a really really really offensive moving image. Somehow I myself have avoided seeing the damn thing, but I know enough to laugh heartily at the idea of hundreds of MySpacers suddenly seeing it. Scott's article is worth reading for his take on the MySpace phenonemon as the new AOL.
Story via Waxy.
| MySpace | Pranks |
My sister and brother-in-law got us a new camera for Christmas, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1K. Our old camera was second-hand when I bought it and was starting to go. I really love this new camera. It's got a Leica lens, baby! And it takes pretty decent video, which is nice when der kinder get up to something cute and I don't have to run and find the video camera. (Recommended by Cool Tools.)
Most of all, I love walking around with a camera in my pocket. Because I start seeing more, framing shots in my head even if won't take them. I have found that the more depressed I feel, the less I look. I'll look at advertisements when I'm low, and people's faces when I'm not.
I usually don't like taking pictures of people, but this guy kept talking to me about the poinsettias perched on the dumpster while I snapped away:
After putting this on Flickr, I wryly smiled on seeing the ".gne" extension in the URL, referring as it does to Game Neverending, a game / MOO / social space that was started by Ludicorp which then went on to build Flickr. I spent far too much time playing around in GNE, swapping pieces of paper for gold nuggets, exploring strange places, combining things in silly ways. GNE, as its name implied, was an "infinite game," as put forth by James Carse in Finite and Infinite Games: "An infinite game has no fixed rules or boundaries. In an infinite game you play with the boundaries and the purpose is to continue the game."
This interview with Stewart Butterfield waaaay back in 2003 is kind of interesting. Most amusing part:
MS: If Ludicorp were forced at gunpoint to make an action shooter for the Xbox-or-something, and money were no object, what would you make?SB: After a long discussion around the office we settled on three concepts - all of which should be available sometime in 2009.
* Paleolithica! - A "shooter" (slings, spears, rocks) of Cro-magnon vs Neanderthal, set in and around the Pyrenees, Catalonia, Basque Country and the Langedouc. Advance your combat skills by developing new linguistic practices to co-ordinate with your fellow fighters. (You could also get into hand-to-hand combat and rip out each others' throats! Quest for Clans of Cave Bear Fires!!)
* Library Bookbomber! - Set in the Library of Babel, you play Borges the nearly-blind Librarian battling a non-denumerable infinity of foreign-speaking janitors while hopping from low-ceilinged hexagonal room to low-ceilinged hexagonal room. Drop books on them, throw books at them: do anything you can do prevent them from kicking you out and bringing on the cataclysmic "closing time".
* Nanoswarm! - If the budget really allowed for exploration, custom hardware would be the way to go! Imagine some kind of consumer productization of a local positioning system [like a spatially tracked ring or stylus] that gave the players gestural expression. Then, the game could involve gesturally shaping the behavior of billowing swarms of nanobots dancing in the air between combatants.
But first, we will finish GNE.
Too bad we'll never see the Borges game, or GNE for that matter. But hey! Re-read the Nanoswarm bit, it looks like... Butterfield invented the Wii!
Hopefully, more pictures to come. The photo album here needs more stuff.
| Cameras | Games |
Another article about DonorsChoose, this one from the Bergen Record in NJ: Charity connects donors, schools
Notable because it's a really good article. Also, quotes yours truly.
| DonorsChoose | Education | Philanthropy |
Some obscure HTML tags, including a few I use all the time. , via Gadgetopia.
| Lists |
Lack of posting as of late was not merely due to vacation; some folks in Russia decided to slam Ish with traffic, perhaps in an attempt to breach MT's posting engine and start partaking of our delicious PageRank. Our good host has taken the proper countermeasures and posting has resumed; posters, I'll get you the details soon. It will take a bit until we have things back in full order and we resume the quality Ishbadiddle experience you have come to expect, and we hope, enjoy.
