Words for the wise from the mouth of a fool.
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The weblog of Seth Johnson -------------- INKSLINGER.ORG -------------- OD ARCHIVES -------------- FEEDS Posts:  Shared Items:
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Friday, July 19, 2002
Unless you have the luxury of high bandwidth, you probably won't be able to view these amazing films produced on (around, above) the factory floors by Westinghouse around the turn of the twentieth century. But if you can, check 'em out. Incredible footage--obviously from just before the dawn of the assembly line.
A remarkably thorough site on British smugglers--as I suppose it should be, since it's a whole book on the web.
What's up with all the rabbit links on Metafilter today? Is there some sort of holiday I wasn't told about?
Take this story about a local cocaine ring bust and complete the following exercises:
1) MATH: Using the information provided, calculate the Madison street price per gram.
2) DEBATE: What is the proper pronoun to use when discussing a 3 year-old?
3) GEOGRAPHY: Reconcile "All suspects are from Madison" with a search warrent executed on a Fitchburg address.
Be sure to show your work if you want any partial credit.
EXTRA CREDIT: Explain why this story is news. And if it is news, precisely how much useful information is provided? (Man fell down...to the peak of the mountain...)
Thursday, July 18, 2002
I hearby nominate Weird Fossilized Flying Reptile 'A Vision of Hell' for Most Melodramatic Headline of the year. Do I hear a second?
A page of Calvin and Hobbes Flash games. None of the games are anywhere near Orisinal quality (where there have been a couple new games added since I last visited a few months ago), but thy're still pretty fun.
BONUS UPDATE: From Mike Flynn comes this game of rabbit breeding.
A great article on the inconsistancy of game ratings--and it mentions Rune! (In a positive light, even, as the writer is a fan of the game.)
Hooray! A new Uplink patch with new gameplay! I like both Uplink and Introversion enough that I would have paid for the new content (content for cash, functionality for free; that's what I always say), but I'm not spitting in the gift horse's mouth...or something like that.
Well, I'm in a personal quandry with regards to this year's Emmy nominations, as The West Wing faces off against Alias takes on 24 in so many different categories (Check out those links for Television Without Pity's excellent episode recaps and commentary.) Good thing I've never seen Six Feet Under, or I'd really be torn.
Of course, there should really be some sort of "Perennial Nomination" secondary category that could catch all the Frasier, ER, NYPD Blue, and Law and Order nominations at this point. I'm not arguing that they're not good--they're fine--and I can't neccesarily name off the top of my head how I might replace their nominations (except subbing Alias for Law and Order in Outstanding Drama Series), but I wish new blood would rise to the top more often.
You know, it's probably best I don't have cable if I have actual opinions based just on the little TV I do watch.
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
On the trail of yesterday's release of Amelie, a plethora of DVD goodness coming down the pipe: not only is the first season of 24 coming out on DVD within six weeks, by the end of the year we'll also be able to get the second season of the Simpsons and the entire run of Sports Night. Excellent.
(And don't forget the Back to the Future trilogy; Amazon is now providing enough detail that I believe it's on schedule and actually coming out...)
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
Since finding it via a link on Microcontent News a couple weeks ago, I've been enjoying listening to some of these tunes. Be sure to check out "Vacation" and "Going Through the Motions".
On another musical note, for a couple months I've had a live King Crimson cover of "Free as a Bird", and when it would occasionally come up in random rotation I would snicker along with the audience when Adrian Belew seemingly forgot the lyrics.
Then tonight I got a copy of the original John Lennon tape used by the rest of the Beatles to record "Free as a Bird" for Anthology--and I understood. Belew wasn't covering the Beatles; he was covering Lennon--the missing lyrics are exactly where Lennon wasn't singing them on his demos (which apparently have been floating around since the mid-'70's, though they weren't released until the '90s.)
It's a minor revelation, but it reminds me that you should always be ready to alter your judgement of a situation when new information becomes available.
It's not the full redesign that I still want to do, but it's at least a functionality update: a commenting system has now been added to OD. Use; enjoy. (And Liana, the placeholder problem with the upper-left graphic should now be fixed.)
Take geocaching without GPS units, add rubber stamps, and you get letterboxing. I almost like the idea of combining the two--geocaches with stamps in them, and you bring a pad of ink to add the cache's stamp to your log and your personal stamp to the cache's log. But apparently the concept of logging on the Net works a bit better--it looks like most of the Madison letterboxes have been stolen.
Monday, July 15, 2002
A topic I never gave much thought before: anticryptography. This is the second time today I've followed links to O'Reilly and found interesting reading; it might be worth poking around some more...
"When an evil Terrorist organization goes broke and needs money, they can only turn to one man… William Shakespeare! Follow the adventures of Cobra Commander, Serpentor, Destro and all your favorite G.I. Joe villains as they attempt to raise funds by putting on their very own production of Hamlet. This is the story of how it fails, miserably…WATCH!!"
Cobra the Musical. If you don't believe what you read on the Internet, maybe you'll believe the pictures.
Who the hell do these morons think they are? What possible problem could they have with Sesame Street introducing an HIV-positive Muppet to its South African version, where HIV is a very pertinent issue to young children?
"While it is important to teach children in an age-appropriate manner about compassion for those who contract certain diseases, we would like to inquire as to whether there is other PBS programming, aimed at an older age group, which may be more suitable for such sensitive messages." When did there suddenly become a proper age at which to begin teaching children compassion? Howsabout we start by teaching them universal compassion and limit it later?
I could go on and on about how much and in how many ways this pisses me off, but I have other things to do. I just hope that the constituents of these elected officials realize what kind of idiots are representing them. And in the meantime, they should stop wasting my time and get back to work on turning off the Debt Clock.
"I'm looking forward to this internet adventure, as a way of isolating myself further from society!"
Have I ever told you how much I like Steve Martin?
"Why don't you tell your brother he's not a chicken?" "Because we need the eggs." Yeah, we've all heard that one.
I suppose it helps explain why people are keeping cows as pets--they need the milk (or possibly the steaks, as the end of the story points out, making it the Most Macabre Pet Story Evar.) (And thanks to Chad for the link; go lust after his MAME cabinet.)
My eyes! For crying out loud, don't click this link, or risk permanently scarring your past, present and future! My eyes!
Thanks a lot, 'Tron.
UPDATE: And then JP goes and links to this. Fictional childhood hero: irrevocably destroyed.
UPDATE DOUBLE EXTRA SPECIAL: The pictures are now gone from the link above. Those of you who never saw them, count yourselves as the lucky ones.
Apparently Goths can go corporate--so long as they know the rules. (Thanks to Andrew Trabbold, Esq. for the link. I expect to see you dress like that now, Trabbold.)
Mom and Dad at EPCOT, providing evidence that they purchased souvenirs--now a required step before you're allowed to leave Reedy Creek.
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