December 2007
88 posts
“They are selling death on little wheels.”
– Mareen on an airplane cigarette vending cart (photo). I had no idea these existed. You can’t smoke on any U.S. planes. Leave it to those crazy Germans. -marco The point isn’t to smoke them (immediately) but to buy them duty-free. According to wikipedia, as of 1997 the highest taxation was in...
2007 a Year of Weather Records →
U.S. Weather stations broke or tied 263 all-time high temperature records, a tornado struck New York City in August, In the Middle East, an equally rare cyclone spun up in June. Major U.S. lakes shrank; Atlanta had to worry about its drinking water supply. South Africa got its first significant snowfall in 25 years. And on Reunion Island, 400 miles east of Africa, nearly 155 inches of rain fell in...
“Yes, reason has been a part of organized religion, ever since two nudists took...”
– Jon Stewart
WatchAh, I’ve been looking for this video after I saw about 5 seconds of it before. Thanks BoingBoing.
Christmas
I’m seeing a decent amount of Christmas posts so I figured I’d balance it out a bit with these two posts. Instead of shoving it down your throat, I invite you to read/browse a couple wikipedia articles on the topic, namely The History of Christmas and linked from there are Yule and Sol Invictus and Christianity. A note while reading these is that in the old calendar, the winter...
“It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and...”
– J.K. Rowling
Newspaper accidentally identifies thief on the... →
“That morning, page 1A ran two substantial photos: In one, a husky man in a black-and-blue checkered coat is seen hanging Christmas decorations in a shop window. In the other, a surveillance camera shows a convenience-store customer’s unattended wallet being swiped by … a husky man in a black-and-blue checkered coat. Local police noticed the similarities, and quickly arrested the...
Motion Aftereffect →
dailymeh: The motion aftereffect (MAE) -is a visual illusion perceived after watching a moving visual stimulus for about a minute and then looking at stationary stimulus. The stationary stimulus appears to move slightly for about 15 seconds, opposite to the direction of the original (physically moving) stimulus. The motion aftereffect is believed to be the result of motion adaptation. I get this...
Watch
I’m flying home to Long Island in about 8 hours and will be back after New Year’s. Just a heads up that posting may be light while I’m gone. I should probably go pack now and maybe get a touch of sleep.
“We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to...”
– Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” To Return In January — Without Writers
Blockbuster Online
This is getting ridiculous. Last night I received an email that Blockbuster Online will be hiking their rates again. This after simultaneously raising prices and removing perks only four months ago. They used to compete dollar for dollar with NetFlix then they added the free in-store rental exchanges and it was a really sweet deal. In August, they made the in-store exchanges an option you had...
McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Halo 3 Cheat Codes,... →
"Could You Explain Programming Please" →
The source for the previous conversation. Also great for the following:My brother in law apparently made several unsuccessful attempt to “learn programming” by opening up exes in Notepad. He created a text file with the words ”Morph the screen into something cool” and couldn’t figure out how to run it, even had the balls to ask me “how do I install my...
See the next post for source
Him: Hey, you're good with computers right?
Me: Yes.
Him: And you know how to program computers?
Me: Yes, thats my job actually.
Him: Could you explain programming please?
Me: I'm sorry, what do you mean?
Him: I want to make a game like Halo, but I don't know how to start. Could you explain what I need to do?
Me: You should probably go to the library and get a book.
Him: Can you just tell me what I need to do?
Me: Wait a minute. Are you asking me to explain how to program computers?
Him: Yeah.
Me: Over the phone?
Him: Yeah.
Phew! Down to 700 unread items in Google Reader. It’s almost managable now but I know that number is going to skyrocket over the holidays when I’m away from the computer. I should really start trimming down my 443 unread emails too.
“There were questions about whether the turkey smelled quite right. The popular...”
– Airline workers get sick after turkey dinner
Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone →
This is big news for extreme web geeks. Not that we intend to use IE8, but we look forward to its widespread availability and the day that we can stop designing CSS hacks for the noncompliant behavior in IE 5-7. (thanks, marco)
ITAPPMONROBOT - The Daily WTF →
An amusing tale of a makeshift “admin robot” and it’s sad fate.
“fRee eyboaRd fiRst peRson gets it – a genuine MicRosoft compatible eyboaRd,...”
– best of craigslist : fRee eyboaRd How does one key get stuck on uppercase? Is that even possible?
Following...
From peterwknox: I’ve come to the conclusion that every tumblelog in existance has at some point: posted a XKCD comic reblogged something from Jakob decided to follow Fred Wilson, Marco, and Rob Knowlton will immediately care about any new Lost/Wire/Batman trailer posted posted a photo from FFFOUND! emailed in a picture of themselves felt incredibly ‘meta’ and silly and...
Ebay: Drive Someone Insane with Postcards →
“I will be spending the Christmas holiday in Poland in a tiny village that has one church with no bell because angry Germans stole it. Aside from vodka, there is not a lot for me to do. During the course of my holiday I will send three postcards to one person of your choosing. These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the...
WatchHow to Manipulate a 3D Illusion Even though it’s pretty obvious how it’s done, it’s still a neat trick.
“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given...”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern...”
– John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, June 20, 1815
Dickheads of the Year by Bill Maher →
I love the description from Larry Craig:Don’t people like Larry Craig and Ted Haggard and Mark Foley prove that being gay really is a hard-wired thing — not, as the conservatives always claim, a “lifestyle choice”? If anyone could choose not to have gay sex, it would be these guys, since their whole careers are built on not having gay sex.
Onward, Christian Congress →
I really can’t believe this is real. Congress actually passed a resolution “Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.” It reads like an Onion article and has absolutely no bearing on anything whatsoever. It skirts the first amendment which only prohibits laws: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” And...
