Links

Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.

Occam’s Razor

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So — what’s more likely?

That while trying to install and figure out the image-processing software that came with their new digital camera, a husband and wife accidentally opened the husbands previously hidden stash of downloaded porn, or…

That after purchasing a brand-new digital camera, taking a few pictures, and plugging it into their computer, a husband and wife discovered that there were a number of pornographic images already on the camera when they bought it?

An investigation has begun after a couple found pornographic pictures on a new digital camera they had bought.

Jackie and Eammon Gall, from Greater Manchester, discovered the explicit shots in the memory of the camera soon after they bought it for £400 at Argos.

[…]

[Mr. Gall] told BBC GMR: \”When we discovered the pictures, I was trying to get rid of them straight away, because that was my instant reaction.

\”Then for whatever reason the pictures then became part of the desktop and filled up the whole screen.

“Then I started to panic, thinking the pictures would perhaps go anywhere else on the computer that they shouldn’t.”

I know you’re not supposed to snicker at people. But come on…

(via Need to Know)

iTunes: “Child In Us, The” by Enigma from the album Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (1996, 5:06).

Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads…

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There’s a (mostly) amusing article in the Seattle PI today about the “War of the Fish” — that is, the “Jesus Fish” and the many variations plastered over cars all over the place.

Brothers and sisters, there’s a battle raging. It’s not a battle fought with weapons of mass destruction, Lord save us, and it’s not a battle fought in armored personnel carriers.

It is a battle, children, for the hearts — yea, verily, for the everlasting souls — of America’s trunks and bumpers. It is a battle of words and wills, and fish. Lots and lots of fish.

Hallelujah! Can I get a witness?

Amen, brother.

Personally, I’m fairly partial to this one…

Whatever Fish

…though there are certainly a lot to choose from.

One thing about the article did really bug me, though.

Farmer, the Ashland fish maker, said the only word fish booksellers in his area wouldn’t carry was Tolerance.

Some fish, friends, are just too hard to swallow.

The only one they won’t sell. They’re quite happy to sell as many other this believe vs. that belief slogans as they can, but heaven forbid they actually suggest that we actually try to get along with each other! We just can’t have that, now can we?

(sigh)

iTunes: “I Sit On Acid (’95)” by Lords of Acid from the album Do What You Wanna Do (1995, 4:31).

Zeugma

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Cool word of the day: zeugma.

Zeugma is a word for when you make a verb do several functions at the same time (eg. “I left in a foul mood and a black taxi”). Flanders and Swann’s song “Have Some Madeira M’Dear” employes quadruple zeugma in each verse, which is dead impressive; the relevant lines are:

And he said as he hastened to put out the cat,
The wine, his cigar and the lamps

She lowered her standards by raising her glass,
Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.

When he asked, “What in Heaven?” She made no reply,
Up her mind, and a dash for the door.

I love things like this.

M&M's go goth

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M&M’s, the colorful button-shaped candies, are about to go off color for the first time in 60 years, but it remains to be seen whether their fans love or hate the change.

The chocolate-filled sugar-coated candies, made by a division of U.S. confectioner Mars Inc., will be available in only black and white for the next few months instead of the standard six colors as part of a promotional campaign.

If anyone might (for some odd reason) be casting about for last-minute late Christmas present ideas for me, a bag (or multiple bags) of these would be great. I’ll eat the white ones, and save up jars of the black ‘goth-y’ M&M’s for amusement and future munch value.

(via Prairie)

Nobody's tried this yet?

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Frankly, I’d be more than a little surprised if nobody had attempted zero-g sex yet, no matter how strenuously NASA denies it. Still, if you’re looking to be the “official” first couple to give it a shot (and happen to be absolutely filthy rich), just give the Russian space agency a call!

THEY put the first man in space, then the first tourist. Now the Russians could make one wealthy couple the first members of the 240-mile-high club.

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In its latest attempt to develop space tourism, Russia is offering a pair of newlyweds the chance to swap Venice or Paris for a cosmic honeymoon on board the international space station.

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For $US48 million ($65 million) – the cost of a pair of space return tickets – the couple could become the first to experience the uncharted joys of sex in zero gravity.

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“It would bring the mile-high club to new heights,” said Rob Volmer of Space Adventures, the company that has teamed up with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency to offer the trip.

(via GothicVamps)

Top Word Lists of 2003

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Top 10 Words of 2003:\
embedded\
blog\
SARS\
spam\
taikonaut\
Bushism\
allision\
recall\
Middangeard\
celibacy YourDictionary.com has released their Top Word Lists of 2003: the Top Ten Words of 2003, Top Ten Personal Names of 2003, Top Ten Youthspeak Words, Bonus Youthspeak Phenomenon of Note, Top Phrases of 2003, 5 Top Mispronunciations by President Bush in 2003, Best New Product Names, Worst New Product Names, Top Enron Inspired Words, Top Internet Words Moving into Widespread Use, Top Sports-related Words, and Top Word Trends in Pop Music Names.

Most of the words and terms in the lists I’d heard before, though there were a few exceptions (Poolife?). I thought this bit at the very end was especially cool, though…

Most frequently spoken word on the Planet:

1. OK Still the most popular word in languages around the world. “OK” originated in a joke in the 1830’s, spelled “oll korrekt” in Boston newspapers, the joke being, both words were incorrect. It became so popular, that it was soon abbreviated to simply “O. K.” Despite its popularity, the word would have fallen by the wayside had not Martin van Buren, called “Old Kinderhook” for being born in Kinderhook, N.Y. used it in his presidential reelection campaign of 1840. So don’t “misunderestimate” the impact of presidential usage on the growth of our vocabulary. It is also spelled “okay.”

(via Scoble)

Bonus list: In the comments to Scoble’s post, Raymond Chen pointed out Merriam-Webster’s top 10 words of 2003, as determined by how frequently they were looked up on the online dictionary:

  1. democracy
  2. quagmire
  3. quarantine
  4. matrix
  5. marriage
  6. slog
  7. gubernatorial
  8. plagiarism
  9. outage
  10. batten

Talk about geek heaven!

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The 'Glow Grave'

I just stumbled across this while perusing the Ship of Fools’ 12 Days of Kitchmas (which is well-worth visiting in itself), and just cannot get over this item: the ‘Glow Grave’ — a stainless-steel grave marker complete with an LCD display that can be hooked into a PC interface to change the epitaph whenever you want!

I can’t. Stop. Laughing.

All I want to do is put a motion detector or pressure sensor on one of these things and hook it into a computer attached to the display so that it can dynamically react to people coming by to visit the grave site. Once it detects someone standing at the grave site, the screen would suddenly start displaying messages from the dear departed…

“I see you!”
“Hey, buster, you’re on my head.”
“It’s hot down here!”
“I knew it — God uses a Mac.”
“Help! There’s no air!”
“These worms really itch.”
“God is a woman after all!”
“You’re next.”

When snow in Anchorage makes the news…

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…you know it’s been coming down pretty heavily. Just another reason why I’m glad I left Alaska!

All over town, people dug out Monday morning, moving 7 to 11 inches of new snow that had fallen since Sunday night. It was the sixth day in a row with significant snow, amounting to about 2 feet since Dec. 17 and more than 20 inches since Friday.

Sunday’s snowfall set a record of 5.3 inches — measured near the airport — for Dec. 21. The old record was 3.1 inches, set in 1954.

[…]

City crews had been working 24 hours a day with 58 graders, blowers and sanders since 4 a.m. Friday, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich said Monday. Even without more snow, it would take more than a week to catch up.

(via Dad)