Michael Hanscom

Sometime between 10:54 and 19:48, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• MTV MUSIC: MTV's new music video archive site is really impressive, over 20,000 videos to browse through. Pity the newer ones aren't encoded widescreen, though (at least, none that I've found so far have been).
• Standalone VCR party finally ends, JVC shuts the door as it leaves: Today, friends, is a day worth remembering. Today truly marks the end of an era, as so far as we can tell, JVC really was the only company still producing standalone VCRs. Of course, the outfit will continue to serve customers with a need to play back VHS tapes by offering up DVD / VHS combo units, but those looking for a shiny new slice of retro in 2008 will be out of luck after remaining inventories dry up. All told, over 900 million VCRs were produced worldwide, with 50 million of those boasting a JVC label.
• The Associated Press: Sen. Ted Stevens found guilty in corruption case: Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that threatened to end the 40-year career of Alaska's political patriarch in disgrace. Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that threatened to end the 40-year career of Alaska's political patriarch in disgrace. Stevens, 84, was convicted of all the felony charges he faced of lying about free home renovations and other gifts from a wealthy oil contractor.
• German police seek speeding British Muppet: An Audi TT with British registration plates has been repeatedly caught speeding on roads in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth. But because continental speed cameras are set up for left-hand drive vehicles, the cameras keep missing the driver’s face. Instead, they keep capturing clear views of a manic Muppet-like toy which the cheeky Brit has propped up on his passenger seat.
• Daily Kos: RIP John Galt: There's something in Ayn Rand's works that appeals to everyone at some point in their lives. Everyone wants to identify with the specialness of Dagny Taggart or Howard Roark or John Galt. Everyone feels, at some point in their lives, as if they are the true hub of the universe. Then rational people grow the hell up and get over it. There's no more substance to Rand's objectivist view than there is in a child fantasizing about being a fairy princess, and even less to admire. John Galt is dead. We can only hope he stays buried.

Sometime between October 25th and October 27th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Daily Kos: RIP John Galt: There's something in Ayn Rand's works that appeals to everyone at some point in their lives. Everyone wants to identify with the specialness of Dagny Taggart or Howard Roark or John Galt. Everyone feels, at some point in their lives, as if they are the true hub of the universe. Then rational people grow the hell up and get over it. There's no more substance to Rand's objectivist view than there is in a child fantasizing about being a fairy princess, and even less to admire. John Galt is dead. We can only hope he stays buried.
• Obama for president: Opinion | adn.com: The Anchorage Daily News — from Palin's home state — endorses the Obama/Biden ticket. (For reference, the ADN is the more liberal of the two Anchorage papers, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Anchorage Times come out in favor of McCain/Palin).
• Thrill the World/West Seattle, 1st performance of 3 today: Video! 166 zombies performing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in Pioneer Square this morning.
• American Civil Liberties Union : Surveillance Society Clock: Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders. The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This " Constitution-Free Zone" includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.
• Apple donates $100,000 to fight Prop. 8: "Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees' same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person's fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation," the company said in a statement posted on its Web site Friday

Sometime between October 23rd and October 25th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Poladroid project: the easiest and funniest Polaroid Image Maker: Fun way to turn digital shots into Polaroid style shots, here's two examples I did really quickly.
• Stephen King’s God trip: King has seen more than 50 novels, short story collections and novellas into print, one bestseller after another. His latest collection of stories, "Just After Sunset," arrives in bookstores in November, and in a brief, spooky squib of apocalypse like "Graduation Afternoon" or the Lovecraft-inspired epistolary tale "N.", King reminds us again of his power to unhinge with a single line or image. A master of the storytelling craft, he gets his ghastly fingernails right beneath the skin.
• How to get my nerd vote: I've been thinking lately about a dream candidate for my nerd habits, my nerdy business, and the way I live my nerdy life. Regardless of party affiliation, if you're running for an office from as small as city council all the way up to president, if you hit on any/all of these things, you just might get my vote.
• Wassup 2008: Remember the Budweiser "Waaazzzzuuuuppp?" commercial? This modern-day update/spoof is worth seeing….
• McCain Communications Director Gave Reporters Incendiary Version Of “Carved B” Story Before Facts Were Known: This is problematic because the McCain campaign doesn't want to have been perceived as pushing an incendiary story that not only turned out to be a hoax but which police officials said today risked blowing up into a "national incident" and has local police preparing to file charges against the hoaxster.
• Mega Geology: Giant Crystals Create an Alien Landscape: This photo looks like it could have been taken on another planet – miners harvesting dilithium, perhaps. But this cave full of monstrous crystals is located in Mexico, and the crystals themselves are a form of gypsum, one of the most common elements on Earth. (Seriously, I thought this was photoshopped at first. Awesome picture.)

Sometime between October 22nd and October 23rd, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Former Bush Press Secretary Backs Obama: Scott McClellan made the endorsement during a taping of Comedian D.L. Hughley's new show that is premiering on CNN this weekend. The former Bush administration official said he wanted to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done.
• Can You Help the NCIS Team Untangle a Gruesome Web?: Although it ultimately will be up to Gibbs & Co. to visit and analyze each URL (which serve up video spliced with fleeting images/clues pointing at the place, time and method of murder), the NCIS faithful are being given an opportunity to deduce the who, when, how and where of the perp's very first kill by logging onto his/her very first URL, Primitus-Victor.com.
• Callie Shell – Obama – Digital Journalist: Four years ago Time photographer Callie Shell met Barack Obama backstage when she was covering presidential candidate John Kerry. She sent her editor more photographs of Obama than Kerry. When asked why, she said, "I do not know. I just have a feeling about him. I think he will be important down the road." Her first photo essay on Obama was two and half years ago. She has stuck with him ever since.
• Mr Pixel and Mrs Grain: In this three-part series of shorts, the film vs. digital argument is presented as a married couple in counseling sessions. Simply brilliant, and perfectly played! Enjoy.
• JCVD: I'm not entirely sure what I think of this, but I just might actually want to see a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie: "When the life of Jean-Claude Van Damme collides with the reality of a hold-up in Brussels, Belgium, suddenly the huge movie star turns into an ordinary guy, filled with fears, contradictions and hopes. How can he be up to the legend he has built? What can a film hero do when the gun pointed to his temple isn’t charged with blanks? JCVD finds himself at the turning point of his 'hero' life."

Sometime between October 21st and October 22nd, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• WTF, BROCCOLI?: She pointed- "Do you see?" See what? I didn't see anything. Just broccoli. Her finger tapped on a certain part of the box and she urged me to look closer. "There- right there. Do you see it? I'm not going to tell you what it is if you don't see it." And then, it suddenly became clear to me. WHAT THE HELL?
• RNC shells out $150K for Palin fashion: According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74…a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September…[and] $4,716.49 on hair and makeup…. A review of similar records for the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee turned up no similar spending.
• Al Qaida Web site Endorses McCain: The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Fermat’s Room: You Have 60 Minutes To Do Complex Math Or Else You’re Dead. Go!: Mathematics becomes more than the stuff of SAT nightmares in Fermat's Room, a tense thriller screened last night at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York City. When four skilled mathematicians solve a puzzle and are invited to a secluded conference, they're promised the world's greatest enigma. Instead, they find themselves in a slowly shrinking space, with less than an hour to figure out how they're connected and who wants them dead — or the giant hydraulic presses will finish the job. Only by correctly solving the mathematical mind-twisters delivered via PDA can they buy a little time.
• School’s fundraising pitch gives alumni the blahs: "With the recent economic downturn and loan crisis, it has become even more important for Framingham State College to receive your support. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," one part of the letter read.

Sometime between October 20th and October 21st, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Geoff Dyer on the changing face of war photography: From Roger Fenton's prints of the Crimea to mobile-phone images of Baghdad, every era of war photography has been marked by new technology. But what has always mattered more than technical brilliance, argues Geoff Dyer, is getting close enough to the epicentre of history
• Warning: In Case of Terrorist attack, do not discard brain.: This week’s comic is a friendly reminder: keep your brain running at all times. When you switch it off bad things happen.
• Rands In Repose: FriendDA: The FriendDA is a non-binding, warm blanket agreement that offers absolutely no legal protection. I’d suggest if the idea of legal protection is even crossing your mind that the FriendDA is totally inappropriate for your current needs.
• Oregon mom won’t return ‘Bunny Suicide’ book: The 2003 book by British author Andy Riley is a collection of cartoons showing a rabbit attempting to end his life in bizarre ways. Anderson's son told her he checked it out because his friends said it was funny. "It is a comic book, but that's not funny. Not at all," Anderson told the Albany Democrat-Herald newspaper. "I don't care if your kid is 16, 17, 18. It's wrong." (What a twit. The book — in my opinion — is hilarious, but even if it weren't, she doesn't have the right to dictate to everyone else what is or isn't appropriate. Submit the book for review and take your chances. Refusing to return it to the school library is petty and childish.)
• Rant: New Star Trek Movie Is Intentionally Cheesy: "So, to sum up: it's ridiculously retro, it's unthinkingly homoerotic, it's a cheesefest worthy of Michael Bay, and it's a gift to fanboys, who will probably hate it anyway." That's a pretty strong condemnation of a film seven months away based on about ten just-released stills. Hopefully the cynicism proves unfounded — but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried at all.

Sometime between October 18th and October 20th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Mac malware program MacGuard masquerades as antivirus app: Although Macs are considered to be comparatively free of viruses and other types of malware, some Mac owners still purchase antivirus software for a bit of additional peace of mind. Unfortunately, at least one unscrupulous company is attempting to prey on concerned Mac users by selling an antivirus application that is actually malware.
• Colin Powell Endorses Obama: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Sunday that he will be voting for Sen. Barack Obama. "He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said on NBC's Meet the Press. "Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigor. He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well," Powell said.
• Curious about the Alaska Independence Party that the Palins have been associated with? Here’s the Voters Pamphlet statement for AK’s House District 31 candidate Daniel DeNardo:: I study the creation and impact of the Luciferian Marxist-Leninist Dialectical Sovietism that is the most encompassing secular historical force controlling every incorporated political party; the world's exchange systems based on perpetual indentured slavery through interest bearing irredeemable security obligations, i.e. federal reserve notes; Law Merchant advisory panels masquerading as 'juries'; bar associations composed strictly of card carrying Kommunist Komrade Kriminals acting in Alaska under the Alaska Supreme Soviet in conjunction with Soviet counterparts in NKVD through the Khabarovsk-Alaska Collectivization Project; and state sponsored Kriminal Globalism's "perpetual War for perpetual peace".
• Sarah Palin, the plastic Vice Presidential candidate: A LEGO bust of Sarah Palin winking during the VP debate.
• Newer Technology Universal Drive Adapter: The NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter makes it easy to transfer data between the old and new drives as well as give the old drive a second life as an external storage solution. It's a complete solution that allows any 2.5", 3.5", or 5.25" hard drive or optical drive* with any standard IDE/ATA/ATAPI 40 pin or SATA interface to be connected via USB to any USB equipped computer for file transfer, backing-up and storing file archives, and accessing data on stored backup drives with Plug & Play ease.