Links

Things I run across that I find to be interesting, but might not have the time or inclination to craft a fuller post around it. Generally, short little “go here, look at this, isn’t it neat?” posts.

Wartime Censorship

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While taking a look at the pros, cons, and possible long-term consequences of news and information censorship during times of war, Liam Callanan presents this fascinating historical tidbit:

Improbable though it may sound, from late 1944 through the spring of 1945, the Japanese launched more than 9,000 balloons from their nation’s eastern shores. Filled not with mild-mannered hot air but extremely flammable hydrogen and armed with incendiary and antipersonnel bombs, the balloons rode the jet stream across the Pacific Ocean for several days before landing throughout North America.

No, really. Throughout North America. From Alaska to Mexico and as far east as suburban Detroit. Perhaps even more incredible, the balloons themselves were not made of any high-tech, weather-hardened fabric but simple paper panels held together with potato glue.

The entire article is worth reading, both for the historical information and the look at the potential ramifications news censorship can bring about.

(via Danelope)

iTunes: “Macho Man” by Transmutator from the album Saturday Night Fetish (1997, 5:00).

Metroblogging

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A potentially interesting and useful new regional groupblog project: Metroblogging.

event listings to general rants, photos to reviews – metblogs are a hyper-local look at what’s going on in the city. a group of regional bloggers give each site a new perspective on daily life. less calendar listing, more friendly advice.

Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco are live; Atlanta, Boston, DC, Miami, Orange County, Seattle, Dublin, London, Tokyo and Toronto are currently on the ‘coming soon’ list; and they’re looking for local writers.

Could be good, could be little more than a regional LiveJournal community with a set list of contributors (though I hope it grows beyond that). We’ll just have to see as they grow and evolve.

Back when I lived in Anchorage and was webmaster for the Gig’s Music Theatre site, I toyed for a while with creating a similar site for Anchorage, keeping track of events, venues, bands, hangouts, and the like (in fact, there’s actually some slight evidence of the project, in a request for a photo of Anchorage to use for a header graphic in the Schedule/News section of the Gig’s site). Unfortunately, at the time my technical skills weren’t up to what I had in mind, and the project ended up falling by the wayside. Metroblogging looks to be fairly similar to what I had in mind at the time, so I’m definitely interested in keeping an eye out on this one.

Years ahead of everybody else, and nobody will ever know. That’s me! ;)

(via Boing Boing)

iTunes: “Higher State of Consciousness (Original Tweekin’ Acid Funk)” by Wink from the album Higher State of Consciousness (’96 Remixes) (1996, 6:16).

On keeping promises

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Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m impressed.

According to Google I am the # 7 most important Matt in the world. When I reach the top of that list I’m going to take my website down.

And would you look at that — he actually did it.

iTunes: “Zoo Station” by U2 from the album Achtung Baby (1991, 4:36).

Literary geek (as opposed to literal geek, that is)

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You're as literary minded as the Bard himself!

You are a complete literary geek, from knowing the classics (even the not-so-well-known classics and tidbits about them) to knowing devices used in writing, when someone has a question about literature, they can bring it to you and rest assured; you know the answers.

[How much of a literary geek are you?
Brought to you by][] Quizilla.

[How much of a literary geek are you?
Brought to you by]: http://quizilla.com/users/Sedruce/quizzes/How%20much%20of%20a%20literary%20geek%20are%20you%3F/ “How much of a literary geek are you?”
Admittedly, I’d be a bit more impressed by this particular quiz if there weren’t so many spelling errors in the quiz itself. Still, it was cute. :)

(via Alicia)

iTunes: “Marathon” by Aubrey from the album Twisted Secrets Vol. 3 (1997, 6:51).

Techno-lust

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The Wall Street Journal’s top seven items of techno-lust, with commentary by me:

7: Fancy new does-everything cellphone.

Ugh. God no — at least, not for me. It’s a personal thing, but one I’ve yet to see any need to change my stance on.

6: DVR (Digital Video Recorder — a hard-drive based VCR).

I don’t watch enough TV to bother. Sure, sure, I’ve heard the arguments that DVRs make watching TV worthwhile (easier than ever to weed out the chaff and only see the good stuff), but I just don’t have enough interest in the television world.

Amusingly enough, I actually am considering signing up for cable TV for a few months sometime soon so that I can keep up with the upcoming presidential debates, and as I work nights, I’ll need some form of time-shifting device in order to actually watch the debates. However, given that I have every intention of turning the cable service back off once the election is over and done with, a cheap VCR should do me just fine when the time comes.

5: iPod Mini.

Yup. If I had to replace my iPod, I’d replace it with a Mini (if one were available). Most of the time, I’m only using between 2Gb and 4Gb of my 10Gb (2nd Gen) iPod, so the 4Gb of the Mini would work out quite well for me, and be smaller and lighter. Can’t complain about that.

4: USB flash drives.

If I didn’t have my iPod, sure. As it is, though, I can just drop any files I need to schlupp around on the iPod and call it good.

3: A really big, really flat TV.

Oh, definitely. Not for TV, of course, but I’m a movie geek. Size does matter.

2: Apple’s new Airport Express.

Yup. Even in my little studio apartment, I can easily see myself using at least two of these little gadgets (one for the main room stereo as it’s too far from my ‘puter to get an optical digital audio cable between the two, and one for the bathroom for shower tunes), and possibly three (unwire the webserver).

1: A Gmail address.

Hm. Apparently I’m the only geek on the ‘net who doesn’t care about Gmail. I’ve got enough e-mail addresses as it is, the last thing I need is one more to have to keep track of. Count me out of this one.

(via Buzzworthy)

iTunes: “I Wanna Take You Higher” by Duran Duran from the album Thank You (1995, 5:05).

They’re legal!

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Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen turned eighteen on the 13th.

How did I miss that little milestone?

iTunes: “I Must Increase My Bust (MNO)” by Lords of Acid from the album I Must Increase My Bust (1992, 4:34).

Oh, wait, that song choice might be in bad taste. Let’s try this again.

iTunes: “Pussy (Hit it Hard Hit it Quick)” by Lords of Acid from the album Lords of Acid vs. Detroit (2001, 3:42).

Hmm. That one’s not much better, is it?

iTunes: “People Are Still Having Sex (Remix)” by La Tour from the album La Tour (1991, 6:11).

I just can’t seem to come up with a fitting song for this post…

iTunes: “(She’s) Sexy + 17” by Stray Cats from the album Living in Oblivion Vol. 1 (1983, 3:31).

Nope, that’s a bit late now.

iTunes: “No Sex Until Marriage (Pre-Matrimonial Climax)” by Ave Maria from the album Technorave 3: Technomania (1992, 6:03).

Hmm. Well, I guess that will have to do.

;)

Why Garfield sucks

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Not having been a fan of Garfield since my age hit the double-digits, I can’t really say that I was terribly surprised by this look at Jim Davis’ marketing-centric approach to producing the Garfield comic strip.

The model for Garfield was Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, but not the funny Peanuts of that strip’s early years. Rather, Davis wanted to mimic the sunny, humorless monotony of Peanuts‘ twilight years.

[…]

Garfield‘s origins were so mercantile that it’s fair to say he never sold out—he never had any integrity to put on the auction block to begin with. But today Davis spends even less time on the strip than he used to—between three days and a week each month. During that time, he collaborates with another cartoonist to generate ideas and rough sketches, then hands them over to Paws employees to be illustrated.

I’d heard rumors before that Davis didn’t even bother drawing the strip anymore, but this is the first time I’d actually seen a printed reference about that.

(via the Something Positive LiveJournal)

iTunes: “God’s Little Joke” by Soho from the album Goddess (1990, 2:22).

Ink or champagne?

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Following up (in a way) on my printer ink woes, today MetaFilter points out that by volume, printer ink is six times more expensive than Dom Perignon champagne.

I still haven’t bothered to replace my printer, though I need to at some point — I’m just still pissy about spending the money on the ink just to find out that my printer was dead. Still, at the moment, as long as I don’t mind waiting for a bit I can just bring anything I need printed out to work (side benefits of working in a copy shop), so I’m not entirely without options. It’s still a frustrating situation, though.

iTunes: “Get Bizzy Time” by Voight Kampff from the album In to the Mix II: The 2nd Coming (1998, 5:03).

First look inside the new Sci-Fi museum

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I’m jealous — while the public isn’t allowed in just yet, there was a “family and friends” night at the EMP‘s new Science-Fiction museum last night, and Thumbmonkey has the details…

My friend Larry is a curator at the Sci Fi Museum here in Seattle- and last night I got a sneak peek at the “Family n’ Friends” opening. Let me just say I was really looking forward to seeing what they had done, but also skeptical that it’d be good. I was blown away. It’s a small museum, but gorgeously made…it’s in the EMP which looks like a space blob anyway so it fits right in.

(via Pops)

iTunes: “Red Towers” by Anal Solvent from the album Secret Broadcast – Pirate Radio USA (1998, 3:20).