Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
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.
Many years ago, I might have thought that this sounded like a really good idea…
Barbara Bennett wanted to sell her Brother brand sewing machine, so she bought a classified advertisement under “Miscellaneous” and “Items under \$50” in The Columbian newspaper.
Instead, the words “sewing machine” were accidentally dropped, leaving a “BROTHER” for sale ad.
(via Prairie)
Congrats to Kirsten on her one-year “blogaversary”, complete with spiffy new site design!
iTunes: “Toyz 1988” by Sausage from the album Riddles are Abound Tonight (1994, 5:50).
Last post for the night, then I’ve got to get to bed. I just wanted to toss up my blogger code:
B9 d+ t+ k+ s u f+ i o x+ e+ l c– (Decode my blogger code)
I did (kind of) cheat on one answer, though, I must admit. For the Technical Quotient (the ‘t+‘ mark), I had to choose between two possible answers:
Technically, t- is the more correct answer, as Eclecticism is hosted and powered by TypePad, a hosted service with definite similarities to those listed. However, as TypePad is based on MovableType and I use heavily-modified templates that take advantage of many of the MT-specific tags; as I’ve used (and paid for) MovableType on earlier versions of this weblog; and as I currently have MovableType installed and running on a server here in my apartment hosting both my dad’s weblog and my friend Kirsten’s weblog (each on their own domain name), I figured I could get away with claiming the more technically-proficient t+ rating.
Other than that, it’s all entirely accurate.
(via Snowblink)
iTunes: “Zigular” by Poems for Laila from the album Another Poem for the 20th Century (1989, 3:30).
Everyone else is convinced it’s a hoax, but just for fun, I think I’ll enjoy playing with the idea that this pickled dragon could be real.
A pickled “dragon” that looks as if it might once have flown around Harry Potter’s Hogwarts has been found in a garage in Oxfordshire, England.
The baby dragon, in a sealed jar, was discovered with a metal tin containing paperwork in old-fashioned German of the 1890s.
Allistair Mitchell, who was asked to investigate the dragon by a friend, David Hart, who discovered it in his garage, speculates that German scientists may have attempted to use the dragon to hoax their English counterparts at the end of the 19th century, when rivalry between the countries was intense.
Hoax, shmoax. I can believe in dragons if I want to!
Besides — living as close to Capitol Hill as I do, believing in fairies is easy enough. Why not dragons too? ;)
(via BoingBoing)
iTunes: “Another Samba” by Ugly Duckling from the album Journey to Anywhere (2002, 4:01).
Something for a list of places to go should I ever visit Los Angeles: the brand spanking (ahem) new sex museum.
One look at Hollywood’s newest tourist attraction and it’s easy to mistake it for any number of adult shops along the popular Walk of Fame.
The nude pictures, sex toys and stag films aren’t meant to arouse but to edify. This is, after all, the Erotic Museum, which pays tribute to all things sexual, from the tame to the tawdry.
It chronicles sex through the ages with nude abstracts by Pablo Picasso, erotic jade figurines from ancient China, vintage sex toys and sultry computer-animated dancers.
For nearly \$13 for the price of admission, visitors can touch rubber toys or peruse patent applications for various oddball erotic inventions such as a diagram of a newfangled “female security device.” No one under 18 is admitted.
(via Prairie)
iTunes: “Dirty Epic” by Underworld from the album Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994, 9:55).
LAST February, Morgan Spurlock decided to become a gastronomical guinea pig.
His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald’s and document the impact on his health.
Scores of cheeseburgers, hundreds of fries and dozens of chocolate shakes later, the formerly strapping 6-foot-2 New Yorker – who started out at a healthy 185 pounds – had packed on 25 pounds.
But his supersized shape was the least of his problems.
Within a few days of beginning his drive-through diet, Spurlock, 33, was vomiting out the window of his car, and doctors who examined him were shocked at how rapidly Spurlock’s entire body deteriorated.
His liver became toxic, his cholesterol shot up from a low 165 to 230, his libido flagged and he suffered headaches and depression.
Over the course of the [month], Spurlock [was] regularly examined by a gastroenterologist, a cardiologist and SoHo-based general practitioner Dr. Daryl Isaacs.
“He was an extremely healthy person who got very sick eating this McDonald’s diet,” Dr. Isaacs told The Post.
“None of us imagined he could deteriorate this badly – he looked terrible. The liver test was the most shocking thing – it became very, very abnormal.”
Spurlock, who says he ate at McDonald’s only sporadically before his total immersion in the Mickey D’s menu, says he even began craving fat and sugar fixes between meals.
“I got desperately ill,” he says. \”My face was splotchy and I had this huge gut, which I’ve never had in my life.
“My knees started to hurt from the extra weight coming on so quickly. It was amazing – and really frightening.”
Just disturbing.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a sudden craving for a Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese. ;)
(via Kottke)
iTunes: “Get Off My Land” by Operatica from the album O Vol. 1 (2000, 5:05).
How very interesting — Kodak, a company who’s name has been synonymous with photography my entire life, will stop selling traditional film cameras in America and Western Europe.
Blaming declining demand, the Rochester, New York-based company said it would by the end of this year quit making cameras that use the Advanced Photo System (APS) format, as well as reloadable cameras that use 35-millimeter film.
[…]
Kodak will still make film for existing Advantix and other cameras, and intends to introduce new high-performance 35 millimeter and Advanced Photo System films next month.
(via BoingBoing and /.)
iTunes: “When Love Comes to Town” by U2 from the album Rattle and Hum (1988, 4:15).
Hey!
On its face, that expression is neither offensive nor disturbing. “Hey!” is an informal way to say hello. It indicates kindness, simple courtesy and an economy of words.
But a 13-year-old boy at Richland Middle School in Richland Hills was suspended for three days in December because he sent that simple message to every computer in the school using an archaic form of instant messaging. The software was created years ago in the old disk operating system used in earlier versions of personal computers.
This story has been making the rounds on the ‘net for the past few days (see MetaFilter, /.). It’s got all the hallmarks of something bound to catch the interest of a lot of geeks: a kid exploring and discovering how his computer actually works beyond simple point-and-clicking, an innocent mistake when demonstrating capabilities to friends, and an overbearing school administration. It might not have raised as much of a ruckus as it did, except that in the course of writing his article about the events, the columnist received an e-mail from one of the school administrators involved in the incident questioning the right of anyone not involved directly in the school system to criticize teaching and discipline techniques.
Too often, people who do not know the real world of public education feel that they are the ‘experts’ who have all the solutions and that their opinions are as valuable as those who live in this world daily.
…
I invite you, parents, our state representatives, and anyone else that thinks they know how a teacher or a district should react to ANY situation to come live with us for a while — be a substitute teacher for a few weeks and learn the real world of public education.
…more troubling is the notion that Sweeney does not believe that the rest of us have any right to question the decisions made by public educators.
Remember, we pay the salaries of the teachers and staff. We buy the computers. We pay for the buildings in which they are used. As long as public school is public, the Beverly Sweeneys of the world need to know that it is our right and duty to look over their shoulders and question what they do.
In this case, the punishment of Carl Grimmer was overkill, but the response of the school’s computer liaison shows that public education really does demand greater oversight from us outsiders, certainly not less.
Many of the discussions spurred by this event and the various responses from the people involved have been very interesting to read. It turns out that the kid and his parents have put up a page detailing their view of the events and the responses to them. It’s an entertaining read — everyone (except the school) seems to be handling everything quite reasonably.
iTunes: “Go” by Moby from the album Hackers 2 (1997, 3:59).
Last August, one of Anil‘s “Daily Links” was to a story about the Olsen Twins somewhat risqué Rolling Stone photo shoot. When he linked to it, the tooltip he put on the link was, “298 days, you pervert”.
Today, he linked to a story about the Olsen Twins going to NYU. The tooltip he used this time was, “the answer is 152 days, you pervert”.
If it weren’t for Anil so kindly keeping track of things like this, I’d never know just when the twins were due to turn 18.
I’m not sayin’.
I’m just sayin’.
iTunes: “Happiness (Dub)” by Front 242 from the album Mut\@ge.Mix\@ge (1995, 6:10).
This has got to be one of the most inventive (and stupid) ways I’ve heard of yet to try to score some free computer parts:
German police are investigating after an angry man returned a computer he had just bought saying it was packed with small potatoes instead of computer parts.
The store replaced the computer free of charge but became suspicious when he returned a short time later with another potato-filled computer casing, police in the western city of Kaiserslautern said on Monday.
“The second time he said he didn’t need a computer any more and asked for his money back in cash,” a police spokesman said.
Police are now investigating the man for fraud.
(via Neil Gaiman)
iTunes: “Voodoo People” by Prodigy, The from the album Hackers (1994, 4:08).