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Sometime between November 9th and November 11th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Interview @MarsPhoenix: For over six months, Veronica McGregor has been Twittering from Mars. Of course, she's not living among the wind storms and dirt of the red planet herself, but she is the voice of MarsPhoenix, the strangely compelling, first-person, lonely robot Twitter feed that somehow became the official mouthpiece of NASA's Phoenix mission and has catalyzed an entirely new kind of public involvement in science.
• Urban Dictionary: palin: 1. An applicant lacking even basic job skills 2. Someone supremely un-self-aware or lacking any relative sense of what he/she does or doesn't know.
• Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know: He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• First-family-to-be given code names: The Secret Service traditionally has given pithy, private names to those whose lives they protect. The monikers are a throwback to a time when electronic communications were not encrypted, and they no longer serve a security function. Still, they give an occasional peek at the players' personalities, in addition to serving as great trivia questions. (Renegade, Renaissance, Radiance and Rosebud)
• Childhood Fears: Incredibly creepy horror photography (NSFW) by Joshua Hoffine. Also worth checking out his behind the scenes weblog which details how he sets up his shots. Cool!

Sometime between November 5th and November 7th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• HPLHS Prop Fonts: On the endless and insane quest for authenticity, we have created more than 50 custom fonts to use in props. Typographical fashions change, and since the digital age overtook typesetting and graphic design, many of the fonts common in the time of Lovecraft have fallen into disuse. We've revived many of them from vintage sources, including the 1923 American Type Founder's specimen book and the Mergenthaler Linotype catalog from the mid-1930s. Many of these fonts have slightly rough edges or irregular shapes, to capture the feel of old lead type and bygone printing technologies.
• Election maps: Maps and cartograms of the 2008 Election results.
• CNN’s holograms not really holograms: I thought so! Election night, I tweeted, "Checking out CNN's hologram bit via YouTube: http://xrl.us/owbjg I want to know more. Does Wolf actually see her, or is she inserted for TV?" Turns out my hunch was right: Wolf was just speaking to empty space, while the 'hologram' was digitally inserted into the broadcasted video feed. Something said in the interview about "synchronized camera movements" tipped me off (if it was truly a hologram, there'd be no need to synchronize cameras at the two locations). While it's impressive looking technology, it's a long way away from being the "Star Wars"-style holograms that it was hyped up to be. Makes me wonder how silly Wolf felt, pretending that he could see his interview subject in front of him…and I'm a bit disappointed that CNN was less than honest about what they were doing.
• .epub eBooks Tutorial: The .epub is a standard for eBooks created by the International Digital Publishing Forum. It consists of basic XHTML for the book content, XML for descriptions, and a re-named zip file to hold it all in. Anyone can make these eBooks, and since they're essentially just XHTML, anyone can read them.
• D-Link DIR-655 Firmware 1.21 Hijacks Your Internet Connection: I noticed when trying to go to Google that my router was hijacking DNS and sent me to a website trying to sell me a software subscription. After upgrading your D-link DIR-655 router to the latest firmware you'll see that D-link does this, and calls the hijacking a 'feature.'" (Sounds a lot like the Belkin incident five years ago — looks like I can add D-Link to the list of companies I won't be buying from.)

Sometime between 10:26 and 15:23, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• MPAA Already Lobbying Obama: Perhaps Glickman, a former congressman, wants to get an early foot in the door to help the new administration choose the nation's first copyright czar. Or Glickman might be cuddling up to the next president because Obama has said he wants (.pdf) to reform the nation's intellectual property laws "to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated." (Very serious question: is there any way for us to nominate Lawrence Lessig for the post?)
• Yes We Can: I ride the 7 bus to work those mornings I can’t face my bicycle. It comes up from south Seattle and traverses rich and poor neighborhoods, the International District, Pioneer square and Downtown. Usually, it is a hateful, loud, messy conglomeration of tired people. This morning, an older black man sat with a grin on his face. He was dressed for construction work. Out of the blue, he shouted, “YES, we can!” It was completely infectious- people responded in a chorus of “Yes, we can,” and there was clapping, and there were grins, ear to ear. And we rode on together.
• The next President of the United States: In a vote of historic proportions yesterday, Senator Barack Obama became President-Elect of the United States of America with a 52% majority in the popular vote, and more than 349 electoral votes. Over two years of campaigning was resolved with a record voter turnout, as the Republican candidate John McCain conceded graciously at 11:20 pm eastern last night. With such a high level of interest and attention, there have been millions of words written and photographs taken of the candidates over the past year. Here is a collection of some of the best photos of President-Elect Barack Obama over the past several months.
• Simon Pegg on why the undead should never be allowed to run: I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist, but this genuinely irks me. You cannot kill a vampire with an MDF stake; werewolves can't fly; zombies do not run. It's a misconception, a bastardisation that diminishes a classic movie monster. The best phantasmagoria uses reality to render the inconceivable conceivable. The speedy zombie seems implausible to me, even within the fantastic realm it inhabits. A biological agent, I'll buy. Some sort of super-virus? Sure, why not. But death? Death is a disability, not a superpower. It's hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.
• Barack Obama: How He Did It: A team of NEWSWEEK reporters reveals the secret battles and private fears behind an epic election. (It looks like only 1 of 8 chapters is online, it's unclear whether that's going to change after the print edition appears.)
• Highlights: Newsweek’s Special Election Project: Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
• Palin faces questions, different landscape when she returns to Alaska: Can Sarah Palin go home again? In the 68 days since Alaska's governor began her run for vice president, things have changed on the home front. Some of her former allies are fuming, and former enemies are lying in wait. Public perceptions of the governor have also changed. Has the governor changed as well?

Sometime between November 4th and November 5th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• What the Hell’s Wrong with Alaska?: Okay, I don't know what to say. But the Anchorage Daily News is saying Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who wasn't satisfied with breaking laws but actually violated the constitution, is probably going to get reelected. And it's looking like his fellow scofflaw and now convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) might be on his way to victory too.
• Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source: The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."
• Kenya declares holiday for Obama: Kenya has declared Thursday a public holiday to celebrate the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency. Mr Obama's father was from Kenya and his victory has prompted jubilation across the country. "We the Kenyan people are immensely proud of your Kenyan roots," President Mwai Kibaki said.
• Bostonian Men’s Hanscom Shoe: Shoes with our family name. Don't look bad, either. Maybe I need some new dress shoes? (via Dad)
• A Wonkacious View of Your Vote-Processing Factory: We’re down at King County Election Headquarters in Renton, where about 500 people are working feverishly to count your absentee votes. According to Bobbie Egan, the spokeswoman giving us a tour, King County receives the second most absentee ballots of any county in the nation (beat only by L.A. County). This is your vote-processing factory. It’s a new building (opened Dec. 1, 2007) tricked out with 59 security cameras, a high-security inner area, and an outer perimeter loop where anyone can come and watch.

Sometime between November 3rd and November 4th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• The New Yorker: Mr. Ayers’s Neighborhood: “It’s all guilt by association,” Ayers said. “They made me into a cartoon character—they threw me up onstage just to pummel me. I felt from the beginning that the Obama campaign had to run the Obama campaign and I have to run my life.” Ayers said that once his name became part of the campaign maelstrom he never had any contact with the Obama circle. “That’s not my world,” he said.
• Is Obama President yet?: Single-serving website. Check back tomorrow…hopefully it will have changed.
• Suspect in Craigslist innertube robbery arrested: Police have been looking for a suspect since Sept. 30, when a robber wearing construction-type attire used pepper spray on a Brinks armored car driver and stole a bag of cash during a delivery at a Bank of America branch. He fled, possibly on an inner tube down a nearby creek. The suspect wore a blue, long-sleeved shirt with a yellow safety vest, safety glasses and a mask. What initially confused police was a group of people at the scene also dressed in the same attire. The others had responded to an online classified ad posted three days before the robbery that offered paid landscaping work and specified exactly how the workers should dress.
• 1.7M in state have already voted; 83 percent statewide turnout expected: More than half of the state's expected voters had returned their ballots to elections officials by Monday, a day before Election Day. A county-by-county assessment by The Associated Press found that more than 1.7 million ballots had been returned. Secretary of State Sam Reed predicts 83 percent turnout statewide — about 3 million people — so about 56 percent of the expected voters have sent back their ballots.
• MGK Versus His Adolescent Reading Habits: Finally back online: MGK's hilarious photoshopped and retitled fantasy and sci-fi novels. Don't miss part two and part three as well.

Sometime between November 2nd and November 3rd, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging: The Frustration-Free Package is recyclable and comes without excess packaging materials such as hard plastic clamshell casings, plastic bindings, and wire ties. It's designed to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife and will protect your product just as well as traditional packaging. Products with Frustration-Free Packaging can frequently be shipped in their own boxes, without an additional shipping box.
• In Landslide, John McCain Is The President Of AOL: (Just in case there weren't enough reasons to avoid "A-O-Hell"….) AOL.com's homepage political poll results are in, and the site's calling a landslide for Republican John McCain. Not only does he carry swing states Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, in the poll, but McCain also scores upset wins in California and Massachusetts. Or maybe the poll says more about AOL users than it does US voters. The reader who pointed us to the results writes: "Proof Republicans only use dialup."
• Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004: Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug. (Gotta be honest, I've been wondering about this myself. I just don't have the time to devote to the blog that I used to, and most of what shows up here is mirrored from Twitter. Not throwing in the towel yet, but…considering options.)
• Why Pushing Daisies Is The Best TV Show You’re Not Watching: I wish that headline wasn't true, but the ratings back me up; not enough people are watching ABC's Pushing Daisies. Bryan Fuller's secretly twisted yet romantic detective show may bring the dead back to life on a regular basis, but it also goes out of its way to prove Isaac Newton and Stan Lee right every week as well. Hilarious, more cynical than you might expect and with the best ensemble cast on television right now, we're giving you four reasons why it's time to put your preconceptions aside and get onboard the Pie Wagon before it's too late.
• Ask a Wizard: War of the Worlds 2.0 – The Post Mortem: A bunch of twitterers did a realtime modern reenactment of The War of the Worlds a few days ago. Pity I didn't know about it beforehand, it looks like it was a lot of fun.

Sometime between 06:15 and 16:48, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Man Burns Himself Alive In Red Square: Authorities haven't figured out why he did it, though they found a lab coat and a pair of goggles on the ground by him and it has been determined that he soaked himself in gasoline beforehand. (One more reason I'm going to hell: as freaky and sad as this is, when I read the bit about the "lab coat and a pair of goggles," my first thought was, "Has anyone checked in with Dr. Horrible lately?")
• Roy The Forklift Driver: Joe the Plumber? Tito the Builder? Just Johnny-come-latelys. Meet the original "everyday" darling of the conservative set: Roy the Forklift Driver. The parallels are freaky. From The Onion, May 29, 1993.
• Pre-emptive ejection: Audience members removed at McCain rally in Cedar Falls: “When I started talking to them, it kind of became clear that they were kind of just telling people to leave that they thought maybe would be disruptive, but based on what? Based on how they looked,” Elborno said. “It was pretty much all young people, the college demographic.” Elborno said even McCain supporters were among those being asked to leave. “I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.”
• NASA – NASA Twittering: A list of NASA's missions and projects with Twitter accounts. Pretty cool, I had no idea there were so many!
• Thanks for the memories: Do you know Seattle's official song, "Seattle, the Peerless City?" Rapture flows freely in lines such as, "her bosom's gemm'd with pearly lakes," and "greater far than ancient Rome." How was it chosen? Not after lengthy deliberation. Seattle city archivist Scott Cline said the songwriter asked the City Council to adopt his ditty. It was 1909, and the council said sure — if Councilmember Frederick Sawyer would sing it right there in front of everyone. A notation on the back of the sheet music in Seattle's archives reads: "As sang by the peerless soloist Sawyer." (Aww, c'mon…no MP3? I want to hear this!)
• Chart Porn: War and Social Upheaval Cause Spikes in Zombie Movie Production: Is there really a connection between zombie movies and social unrest? We decided to do some research and find out. The result? We've got a line graph showing the number of zombie movies coming out in the West each year since 1910 — and there are definite spikes during certain years, which always seem to happen eerily close to historical events involving war or social upheaval.

Sometime between 11:36 and 18:34, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Synchronized Presidential Debating: Did watching the 2nd and 3rd debates give you a feeling of déjà vu? This montage of synced-up footage from all three presidential debates confirms our deep-seated belief that every debate was exactly the same.
• The Unfinished Swan: The Unfinished Swan is a first-person painting game set in an entirely white world. Players can splatter paint to help them find their way through an unusual garden. The game is still in development and no release plans have been announced. Our goal is to have a near-finished version ready by March of 2009.
• I love The Stranger’s response to the Mariners freaking out about a potential strip club near the ball park:: Oh, yes, think of those impressionable children! You’ve got thousands of juvenile eyeballs staring for hours at gigantic billboards for beer—while sitting in bleachers packed with people drinking out of supersized, logo-emblazoned beer cups—and at their overpaid sports idols standing around and chewing tobacco. And in case their little Play-Doh brains can’t make it down the the ballpark, television networks are clamoring to blast the beer logos along with a few extra beer ads into their homes on television. That’s all hunky-dory with the Mariners. But heaven forbid a few hundred of the kids would walk past a building that they aren’t allowed to enter where there’s nudity. That might send the wrong message.
• ‘LIQUID CIGARETTES’ LAUNCH RAISES STINK IN BRITAIN: The soft drink, containing 15 per cent nicotine, will offer smokers an alternative to shivering outside bars and restaurants. Even the cans of Liquid Smoking look similar to red and white cigarette cartons. "We've got a product that has the same effects as nicotine, but which you can drink in restaurants and on flights," the Independent quoted Martin Hartman, of the United Drink and Beauty Corporation, as saying.
• Down with Stripper Heels: A Candy-Corn-and-Bile-Flavored Halloween Pep Talk: If you’re really that woefully devoid of creativity here’s an idea: try looking at the costumes available online or at your local Halloween Adventure, but remove whatever they want you to believe makes a costume “SEXY.” So, instead of “SEXXXY NURSE,” how about, “Nurse?” Lose the stripper heels, pasties and the see-through skirt, mix in a two parts self-esteem and maybe a little dignity if you’ve got it lying around, and BAM! —you’re on your way.
• 6 easy steps to migrate your Mac using Time Machine: If you use Time Machine in Leopard, then transferring your stuff to a new Mac might be a bit simpler than you thought. With Migration Assistant, you can easily transfer Applications, Documents, Settings, and more. In this Mac 101, we're going to show you how it's done, and how you can do it yourself!
• Obama’s Ace in the Hole: Writing about the potential effect of the new, young voters, Don Tapscott reminded me of one of the things I'm most looking forward to watching in the next few years: how the influx of voters who've grown up with constant 'net connection and near instantaneous data flow is going to affect politics. I'm thinking it's going to be a major force for change. Good change.

Sometime between October 27th and October 28th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• NBC’s Chuck takes a jab at microsoft’s zune: The Zune jab in last night's episode got a good laugh out of me.
• Who’s behind the “Wassup 2008” Obama ad? Not Budweiser.: It was all possible, Stone says, because Budweiser never owned the rights to the idea. He’d originally made it as a short film independent of the brand, and Budweiser had only leased the rights, paying a mere $37,000 for five years of use. Back then, people gave him a hard time about the low price. Now Stone, a diehard Obama supporter, says it’s more than paid off.
• What Sarah Palin Is Saying – Anil Dash: Sarah Palin has been unsurprising in her criticisms of Barack Obama's credentials and policies, fulfilling the traditional role of the vice presidential candidate being the most aggressive and pointed rhetorical attacker in a campaign. But a closer look at her deliberate use of vernacular and language reveals that she has gone far beyond any other candidate in vice presidential history in the dangerous and irresponsible implications of her attacks. She has phrased her attacks on Obama in a way that avoids accountability to the press while specifically addressing the subset of her audience who are most likely to advocate extreme actions against Obama.

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.