I want to see what the Monkey Webcam looks like personally. Perfect for spying on people.

Lovers of cute things (and the Japanese) will snatch up this USB MyPet Webcam that comes in both monkey and puppy models. Supporting up to 640x480 at 15 frames per second, this webcam is perfect for the girlfriend that hates tech.

Readers could also use it to spy on a victim who doesn't know this is a webcam. A very dumb victim.

USB MyPet Webcam cranks the cuteness factor [uber gizmo]

[via Gizmodo]

The WSJ has a short article about how Hollywood still falls short when portraying computer use in movies.

In the 1996 blockbuster "Mission: Impossible," the secret agent played by Tom Cruise uses email to set a trap for one of his adversaries -- a shadowy, Bible-quoting figure he knows only as "Max."

Mr. Cruise's character uses a laptop to compose an email message addressed to "Max@Job 3:14." Once he clicks the "send" button, the email is carried away in an oversized on-screen envelope, complete with postage stamp. In the real world, such a message would set the stage for a bounce-back error message, not an action/adventure thriller. [WSJ.com]

This morning I woke up to part of Electric Skychurch's Deus Suite playing on Groove Salad. And the sun was shining through the windows just right. Such a nice peaceful way to wake.

Yesterday was Boston day. I just had felt the need to get out of the house and be social. I had plans for brunch and then just planned to bum around and see who I could find the rest of the day. Hopefully using up enough time to make it to my friend Bree's going away party.

Brunch was great. We went to one of my favorite brunch places, Soundbites. And as usually it didn't disappoint. I even got to see the breakfast guy yell at a table for taking too long. It was classic. And I got some yummy eggs benedict too! Maybe I'll see about turning this into a monthly thing until I move back up there.

The rest of the day was spent in Harvard Square and Davis Square. Then I stopped in to see Bree, since I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it till 6. It was good seeing her, I hadn't seen her in around a year (when she came to visit me in the hospital).

I left there intending to go home, but I realized I really only needed to fill up an hour and a half till her going away thang started. So I headed over in the direction, parked and wandered around the Virgin Megastore for a while before heading over to the Otherside to find her. It was a nice time, got to hang out more, see other friends, and drink enough chai to be all revved up for the trip home. And I got to meet the Pennysaver guy!

Overall a great day.

I've been meaning to post about this story for a while and this article seems like a good place to start. A book on manga has been pulled from a some California libraries because it *gasp* has some naughty pictures in it.

Irresponsible Pictures

Paul Gravett's Manga pulled from library shelf

One of the best books ever written on the subject of manga, Paul Gravett's Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics (Harper Design International) has been removed from the shelves of the San Bernadino County Library System after a parent complained about illustrations depicting sex acts. Her sixteen-year-old son had checked the book out and was disturbed by the graphic nature of some of the material presented.

After the Victorville branch initially declined to remove the book from its holdings, which was shelved appropriately with the adult holdings, Bill Postmus, Chairman of the San Bernadino County Board of Supervisors, intervened on the family's behalf. County library officials obligingly led Postmus through the library's reconsideration process that led to the book’s removal. Gravett's book will still be available to county patrons via inter-library loan. [Comic World News: Flipped]

It's so nice to see censorship alive and well.

Just a reminder to everyone that tomorrow is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's. Unfortunately there isn't anyplace close to me to go for it. Big suck.

Do you play Second Life? Are you looking for some action? Then check out SL Escorts for listings and reviews. Also see an article on 1UP on MMO Call Girls.

[via Waxy Links]

In celebration of my one year mark my parents are going to take me to see Spamalot. ROCK!

Today I celebrate getting my lung one year ago. Woohoo! It's been quite a voyage and continues to be an adventure every day. But things are going well and once I get this reflux stuff taken care of I hope it will be even better.

Tonight I have some friends coming by for a small gathering to celebrate. Should be a good mellow time.

I went out for lunch today and by the time I got home I was sneezing my head off and all stuffed up. Spring is here, and with it the beginning of allergy season. Wah-choo!

The New York Times has a short review of the new Doctor Who online. Pretty decent.

The familiar blue police box doesn't seem much revamped, either; it appears to run on pneumatic tubes, and there is no sign of a computer on board. The Doctor, on the other hand, almost quivers with energy. In previous regenerations, depending on the actor playing him, this character has variously been crotchety, spacey, avuncular and even a little glamorous. Christopher Eccleston brings a kind of manic blokishness to the part, giving the Doctor a sardonic grin and a working-class Manchester accent. (When another character says, "If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" he replies, "Lots of planets have a North.")

This Doctor is a little forgetful and inept, but nevertheless fairly contemptuous of the human beings he has come to save — except for Rose Tyler, a shop girl to whom he takes a completely understandable shine. Rose, played by Billie Piper, a former pop star who used to occupy roughly the same niche in Britain as Britney Spears does here, is not just cute but also quick and inventive. She's much less frightened of lumbering mannequins or boiling plastic than either her vain, slutty mum or her well-meaning but dopey boyfriend, and she even gets the careless Doctor out of a jam.[New York Times]

An answer to social networks: isolatr

Today brings us the latest offering from Google: Google Mars. Explore the red planet in three different ways: an elevation map shows color-coded peaks and valleys, a visible-imagery map shows what your eyes would actually see, and an infrared-imagery map shows the detail your eyes would miss. It is pretty nifty. Check it out!

Another week another test. This one is my PersonalDNA, a mapping of my personality. Here it is:

Kind of interesting test, but not much different from others like it.

Swiped from Bookslut. Compare and contrast Brokeback Mountain and Curious George, as written by a freshman.

Although Curious George and Brokeback Mountain share many similarities, they also share many differences. Both involve men in hats, but the meaning of the hat changes.

Curious George is the story of a monkey and the man he adopts. The Man in the Yellow Hat works in a museum, where he never figures out that Drew Barrymore has a crush on him. He must be gay or something. He gets sent to Africa to find a statue that could save the museum. He doesn't, but he could of if he had figured out how to read the map. A monkey steals his hat, which is like stealing his identity, but it's a hat. It's an example of nature's inhumanity to man. [Confessions of a Community College Dean] [via Bookslut]

I took this test a good decade ago and am surprised to find that I got the same exact result. Though most of the explanations for the various numbers seems a little simplified to me (based on what I'd read in the past).

the Peacemaker Test finished!

you chose BX - your Enneagram type is NINE. "I am at peace" Peacemakers are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union with others and the world around them. How to Get Along with Me If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I especially don't like expectations or pressure. I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advatage of this. Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit. Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to nudge me gently and nonjudgmentally. Ask me questions to help me get clear. Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery. Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings. I like a good discussion but not a confrontation. Let me know you like what I've done or said. Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life. What I Like About Being a Nine being nonjudgmental and accepting caring for and being concerned about others being able to relax and have a good time knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a good mediator and facilitator my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here and now being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe What's Hard About Being a Nine being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and twitch of the mouth personally being confused about what I really want caring too much about what others will think of me not being listened to or taken seriously Nines as Children Often feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are unimportant tune out a lot, especially when others argue are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves Nines as Parents are supportive, kind, and warm are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele The Enneagram Made Easy Discover the 9 Types of People HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages You are not completely happy with the result?! You chose BX Would you rather have chosen: AX (SEVEN) CX (TWO) BY (FOUR) BZ (FIVE)

Tomorrow my parents head down to NOLA to party it up for a week at Mardi Gras. I'm a bit envious, but travel like that and NOLA in general probably aren't great for my health at the moment. It also means I'm stuck home alone once again, this time for a week.

So fair reader, what should I do? Throw a party? Take a road trip? Run around the house screaming? Play WoW for a week straight? Throw a dinner party of some kind also. What? What? What?

Well, there have been no more votes on my Johari Window (though feel free to go add your views) for a day or so, so I thought I'd post the results. I thought they were fairly interesting in that I've never thought of myself as particularly brave.

Dominant Traits

63% of people think that snooze is brave
63% of people think that snooze is friendly

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (18%) adaptable (27%) bold (0%) brave (63%) calm (9%) caring (18%) cheerful (45%) clever (18%) complex (0%) confident (0%) dependable (0%) dignified (0%) energetic (0%) extroverted (0%) friendly (63%) giving (27%) happy (9%) helpful (9%) idealistic (0%) independent (9%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (36%) introverted (0%) kind (27%) knowledgable (9%) logical (0%) loving (9%) mature (0%) modest (9%) nervous (0%) observant (18%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (18%) reflective (9%) relaxed (18%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (9%) sensible (9%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (18%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (18%) warm (9%) wise (0%) witty (9%)

I also have one of those nohari things, feel free to rip me to shreds.

I feel like I'm in a snow globe.

For those of you in western MA, friends of mine have just opened a new store, Inspirit Common.

The store is in Hadley on 123 Russell St. (Route 9) and looks really nice. From their web site: Inspirit Common, a mind/body/spirit centre, is an oasis for those journeying along their personal path. The talents of many dedicated friends have been combined to provide an intentional space of community, learning, healing -- and a little shopping -- that honors and complements the many traditions that have inspired our spirit.

If you're in the area you should check it out. Tell them Gregory sent you.

Store pics:

Just got back from heading up to Boston to pick some stuff up. It was the kind of day I hate driving: Foggy, rainy, not much sun, etc. Grabbed some onigiri for a quick cheap lunch and headed back. I'll be up a few times next week though, hopefully with better weather.

Overall the weekend was pretty mellow. I ended up going to Boston on friday for a doctor appointment and tried forever to find someone around to hang with afterwards. Sheesh, everyone got lives when I wasn't looking! That and I very much need to update my address book. Too many of the numbers I have for people are wrong.

I ended up visiting with my friends Mike and Michelle. It was great to see them and to be social. It made me realize I have to start having more contact with people. I stayed there way too late and came home and crashed.

Next time I have to go up will probably be saturday. Who is going to be around?

This is so cool. And A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of my favorites.

Replica of Charlie Brown's Xmas tree
Cory Doctorow: Urban Outfitters is selling a replica of the "pathetic" Xmas tree Charlie Brown took home in A Charlie Brown Christmas:

The tree is an exact replica of the tree from the famous cartoon, made of wire branches and plastic needles with a criss cross wooden base. The bendable branches allow you to make it look just how you want, super pathetic or just kind of pathetic. The tree comes with one red Christmas ball ornament.

Link

(Thanks, Cory!)

[via Boing Boing Blog]

I personally think it should come in a big roll. It isn't really duct tape if it doesn't make that noise when you rip a piece off. It also needs to be multipurpose. You should be able to use it to build some bizzare contraption with it, like MacGuyver.

Duct Tape Band Aid

I am a man's man. Nothing hurts me. I am pretty much invincible, except when my kitty scratches me. The worse thing is going to the construction site (work as I call it) and getting ridiculed by all of the other guys, and even the women for wearing a daffy duck band aid. This is a duct tape band aid for the most hardcore people out there. No longer will people think you are a baby. I mean honestly, nothing says hardcore more than having duct tape wrapped around a boo-boo. Maybe dipping said boo boo in motor oil and wrapping a used diaper around it is harder core, but not by much.

The Duct Tape Band Aid [OhGizmo!]

[via Gizmodo]

I have to check on the status of the leaves changing this year. Anyone up for playing hooky from work someday, or maybe driving up to western MA to see if the leaves have changed next weekend? I think my parents are out of town, so folks could stay over. The only condition is that I'd want to visit my high school campus while up there. They have good places for walking too (or did).

My mom's been pretty much glued to the computer every spare moment she has trying to figure out just how bad the flooding is by my sister's apartment. She came across some pictures taken by someone taking a boat ride through areas near the apartment. There's something really eerie about it all. It made me realize that most of the pictures I've seen of New Orleans on the news are focusing on places with people. There's a link to a slide show of pictures at the nola.com link.

My neighbour and I took a boat ride through Uptown flooded flooded streets yesterday morning. Our route was as follows:boat launch at Nashville and Freret. Travel north on Nashville to cross Claiborne into Broadmoor. Right on Rocheblave. Return through Robert and Octavia back on Nashville. I took over 120 pics of the streets. Overall impression: news aren't good. Water 5-6 feet high on the street, every home is affected starting two blocks past Freret. Dead body floating at the corner of Octavia and Rocheblave. Our house at 4900 block of Rocheblave has 3 feet of water. We didn't even go into it. Pictures cover our route:Boat launch at Nashville and Freret. Travel north on Nashville, cross claiborne. Go into broadmoor, take a right on S. Rocheblave (we live on that street). Head out back on Robert, Octavia and Nashville. [nola.com]

I've been meaning to post something about New Orleans and the hurricane for a few days now. For me the big positive news is that my sister is safe. She got out of town Sunday and stayed with friends in FL. Now she's up in the Baton Rouge area and trying to keep busy (she volunteered at the Red Cross the other day). My nephew is with her and doing just fine also. He'll hopefully be attending school up there while they wait for school to be available around his father.

As of right now, she still has a job at the Tulane Medical Center. Though there's been no word about when she might be back at work. Something that's true for just about anyone who works in NO.

It also looks like her apartment may be safe. We can't tell for sure, but it seems to be right on the edge of some flooding. Her apartment is on the first floor, but it is up a number of steps, so I think she's got something like 4 feet before the water would get into her actual apartment. Our fingers are crossed.

Also, via LJ user Tenzil, a really good article over on CNN about The Big Disconnect. Good, but a bit disturbing.

Originally seen over on LJ:

Call to turn exam failure into a qualified success
By Alexandra Blair, Education Correspondent

A RETIRED primary school teacher has called for the word "failure" to be banned from the classroom and replaced with "deferred success".

Liz Beattie, who taught for 37 years, said that children's aspirations to learn are crushed as soon as they are deemed failures and that they should be praised instead.

The motion to remove the word "fail" from the educational vocabulary will be put formally to members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) at the union’s annual conference in Buxton, Derbyshire, at the end of the month. [The Times]

Bah. I think this school teacher is an idiot. While I don't think you should necessarily yell "MY GOD YOU SUCK" to a student in the middle of class, getting rid of the concept of failure is a horrible idea. And just how are you supposed to praise the kid who got a zero on a test? Good job Billy! You got the lowest grade in the class, a new record! Keep up the good work!

Now Playing: D-tecnolife from the album "D-tecnolife Single" by UVERworld

LJ user terrajen points to today's New York City edition of the Metro describing how to recognize terrorists.

So if you see someone sweating a lot during the summer and avoiding eye contact in Manhattan call the cops!

I'm back in CT after two days of doctor appointments in Boston. They wanted to check out my heart, since my heart rate had been a bit irregular right after my surgery. The good news is that my heart is doing just fine.

Then last night we went to Evoo, one of my favorite restaurants. I'd wanted my mom to go for a while, as I thought she'd really like it. And she did. I had the Chinese Box, my favorite thing on the menu, and as always it was quite yummy.

Then today was my regular appointment at the transplant clinic. Everything looks to be doing okay. And the best news is they gave me the okay to drive. So I believe I'll be taking a short drive tomorrow :). So happy!

Happy 4th of July everyone. I haven't been posting much because I just haven't felt like I've had much to say. But the last day or two I've been feeling a little bit more talkative and it finally reached critical mass.

My sister and nephew are here visiting for the week, which is nice. My nephew is all about playing Pokemon on his GBA. He keeps wanting to trade with me (Yes, I have it too.) The problem is I haven't played in months and have no idea how I got different Pokemon. Though he's since educated me on how to evolve all kinds of various ones (whether I wanted to know or not). He's a good kid, needs to listen to his mom more, but a good kid.

I also missed my goal of walking around the block. Mostly because the weather was pretty oppressive last week, not the best conditions for pushing myself some. Instead I walked all the way down to the CVS on Friday, which is considerably longer than going around the block.

I've also been poking around at dating sites online. I'm kind of curious to hear what sites people like. I think I had a profile on match.com years and years ago, but it's probably long gone. Anyone have any favorites?

MSNBC has an article up reporting the identity of the infamous Deep Throat.

>Ex-FBI official says he's 'Deep Throat'

Magazine quotes him as saying he was 'doing his duty'

Updated: 12:01 p.m. ET May 31, 2005

W. Mark Felt, who retired from the FBI after rising to its second most senior position, has identified himself as the "Deep Throat" source quoted by The Washington Post to break the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation, Vanity Fair magazine said Tuesday.

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," he told John D. O'Connor, the author of Vanity Fair's exclusive that appears in its July issue. [MSNBC]

No word yet from Woodward and Bernstein, who have pledged not to reveal the identity until the person has died.

So once again my parents are going away for a week and I'll have the house to myself the weekend of the 22nd. I'm still trying to figure out what to do. I'm not sure that it will be warm enough to BBQ, but I'm thinking of having some kind of gathering. Maybe a movie/anime festival of some kind I can talk a few folks into coming down to visit. At least something to keep me from going stir crazy in his big house.

A few years ago I remember a story going around about someone trying to use a $2 bill at a Taco Hell. Snopes doesn't have any indication as to if it is true or false, but it seems that there are some people out there who still aren't familiar with $2 bills.

Best Buy Has Customer Arrested For Using $2 Bills

A Baltimore man tried to pay for a Best Buy car stereo installation with $2 bills—and was arrested. Apparently the man was already upset with the Best Buy's service, so thought he'd stage a minor protest by using the uncommon currency:

"I'm just here to pay the bill," Bolesta says he told a cashier. "She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money. Like she's doing me a favor."

He remembers the cashier marking each bill with a pen. Then other store personnel began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"

(Thanks, C0bra!)

More proof that Best Buy is actually "Worst Buy": Man arrested for paying in $2 bills [Anandtech]

[via Gizmodo]

I've seen Gloomy Bear comics, but never an actual one. I want one!

Gloomy bears
It's a little mean, don't you think, to give little kids cute stuffed bears to hug while they sleep, dreaming of the day when they will befriend a real bear, not yet knowing that it will never ever happen. I am still not over it. Gloomy bears, designed by Mori Chak are adorable and pink, but the blood stained claws will let your children know that bears are wild animals, not to be hugged if encountered in the woods.

Gloomy bears are $20-$40 at unica. [via Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women]

Last night everyone was supposed to have set their clocks ahead an hour. But here's the strange thing. With the exception of my phone, everything else I have that keeps time changes its time automatically. No need for me to do a thing. I had a moment this morning where I was looking around trying to figure out how I could tell that the time change happened. If my phone wasn't stupid and not able to do it on its own I'd still be clueless.

Now I have to figure out if there is anything else that I need to change by hand.

Google has announced their latest project: Google gulp! (with auto-drink(tm)).

Think fruity. Think refreshing. Think a DNA scanner embedded in the lip of your bottle reading all 3 gigabytes of your base pair genetic data in a fraction of a second, fine-tuning your individual hormonal cocktail in real time using our patented Auto-Drinkâ„¢ technology, and slamming a truckload of electrolytic neurotransmitter smart-drug stimulants past the blood-brain barrier to achieve maximum optimization of your soon-to-be-grateful cerebral cortex. Plus, it's low in carbs! And with flavors ranging from Beta Carroty to Glutamate Grape, you'll never run out of ways to quench your thirst for knowledge.

I'm still unsure about the bottles reporting information about me to Google, but the Sero-Tonic Water sounds tasty. They are also rolling this out slowly, as they did with Gmail. You can only get some if a friend of yours gives you a bottle cap for it. Hopefully I'm cool enough that I can get one.

Decided to take one of those silly quiz things:

Taken from LJ:

How many total songs?
7580

Sort by Song Title
First: 'Till the End of Time, Delerium
Last: track 8 (it's in japanese: 黒い翼) off of Los Angeles by the brilliant green

Sort by time:
First: Let's Hear It For Nine Inch Nails, Nine Inch nails
Last: Essential Mix - 04.01.2001, Carl Cox Live @ Space

Sort by Album:
First track: (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing, Heaven 17, (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing (cd single)
Last track: LITTLE BUSTERS, The Pillows・他, フリクリ オリジナルサウンドトラック

Top Ten Most Played:
I Love Love You, Hideki Naganuma/Guitar Vader
READY STEADY GO, L'Arc~en~Ciel
HEY! JIMMY, HAV
Super Shooter, RIP SLYME
Cutie Honey, Koda Kumi
The Concept of Love, Hideki Nagnuma
A Place in the Country, Adam Ant
Puss n' Boots, Adam Ant
Future Is What We Are, Ken Ishii
Run Rabbit Junk, Yoko Kanno

10 most recently played: (Same comment as last one):
Place in the Country, Adam Ant
Take Me To The River, Talking Heads
You Won't See Me Coming, Jean-Jacques Burnel
Screw, The Cure
It Only Makes Me Laugh, Oingo Boingo
No One Lives Forever, Oingo Boingo
Greetings to the New Brunette, Billy Bragg
Like a Prayer, Bigod 20
Run Rabbit Junk, Yoko Kanno
HIT IN THE USA, BEAT CRUSADERS

Find "sex", how many songs show up?
18

Find "death", how many songs show up?
13

Find "love", how many songs show up?
442

This article at the New York Times made me laugh quite a bit this morning:

Right Name, Wrong E-Mail In-Box

LAST fall, David A. Green was looking forward to his new job at a Manhattan real estate brokerage. Finally, he would be able to shed the e-mail confusion that plagued him because of the two other David Greens at his company.

No such luck. At his new company, Cushman & Wakefield, there was yet another David Green. And that Mr. Green already held the coveted e-mail name David_Green, following the company's convention for e-mail addresses.

At his old company, CB Richard Ellis, he had been, reluctantly, David.A.Green. Now he became David_A_Green. Hundreds of his e-mail messages went to the wrong David Green.

"I would have been better off being at his desk than at mine," said David A. Green, noting that the original, initial-free David Green is "most gracious about sending me the volumes of e-mails that go to him." [via New York Times: Technology]

So why did I find this amusing? This isn't a new topic. The sendmail FAQ has had a question on this forever (or at least since 1997). It still amazes me that people don't think that this might be a problem. When I was in college pretty much everyone had four character email addresses in the format (first initial)(second initial)(random alphanumeric)(random alphanumeric). Mine was gb1d. I can still remember pretty much all my friend's addresses from then too. It also helps to keep out people just spamming by sending emails to any old firstname_lastname address.

Uh. I really have no response to this. I saw the story and had to go listen. It's just mindboggling.

'Chickenpox Parties' for Parents Wary of Inoculations
Oregon is experiencing a growing phenomenon of "chickenpox parties" -- events where parents wary of getting their kids inoculated against chickenpox knowingly expose them to infected children to build immunity. [via NPR News: Health & Science]

McDonalds is starting a new ad compaign urging people to get some exercise.

McDonald's Says It's Time to Exercise

MCDONALD'S has a suggestion for Americans, who are becoming obese in alarming numbers: get some exercise. The company, under fire from those who say its food plays a role in the nation's obesity problem, introduced a marketing campaign yesterday promoting physical activity as part of a balanced life. The theme: "It's what I eat and what I do ... I'm lovin' it." The campaign includes commercials that largely dispense with traditions like showing the product, the restaurants or people eating food. One spot even tells viewers, "Maybe you should spend less time with your TV." [NYTimes]

Today I was calling my cell phone company to make a payment since I realized I'd spaced on paying that one online. Upon calling I discovered that they now have a voice driven menu system. So, first I had to say "I'd like to make a payment", then say every little bit of information that was needed. First, saying this with any kind of cough is difficult, took me two tries for my credit card number. Second, it was slow.

I could have been done with the phone call in about 1/3rd of the time if I hadn't had to say it all. It's a heck of a lot easier to key in all that stuff. The sad thing is that I bet this will become the norm because it is 'cool'.

Today we're making gingerbread houses. It's a tradition that my mom has some friends over and they make them every year. I'm most likely going to be working on one, but for the moment have been busy taking pictures of the houses as they are constructed and decorated. I'll be posting to Flickr once they are done.

Okay, someone needs to stop coming up with ideas for reality shows. This is getting ridiculous.

New Fox Show: Adoptee IDs dad for $100K

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Fox network said Tuesday it will air a special next month, "Who's Your Daddy?", where a daughter given up for adoption as an infant attempts to guess the identity of her birth father for a $100,000 prize.

Activists in the adoption community immediately attacked the special, which will air for 90 minutes on January 3.[cnn.com]

I don't even want to think about what will be next.

Rock. A sequel to Katamari Damacy is in the works.

Katamari Damacy sequel in development

Namco is working on a sequel to innovative, um, "roll-'em-up" Katamari Damacy and plans to release it in Japan on the PlayStation 2 during its 2005 financial year, according to a report on IGN. [via]  [via Waxy.org Links]

Here's another cool Flickr thing, a calendar showing when you've posted pictures in the last five weeks.:

Each day is a link that brings you a page with pictures for that day. Nothing real fancy, but it does look pretty cool I think. You can also view calendars by month.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I've been a bit slow posting lately, so I'm just finally getting around to posting about my Turkeyday. It was a great holiday this year. My cousin and his family came to visit. Which was nice because I always like it when there is more family around. We ate lots of food and followed by passing out. They also brought their dog, which was great and reminded me how much I think we should get one.

And as for things I'm thankful for:

• My parents. These past few years they have been wonderfully supportive. And if it weren't for them I don't think I'd be able to handle this whole lung thing.
• My friends. They always seem to be there when I need them. Especially when I need stuff carried for me :).

In the world of bizzare news:

Pickled cats thrown at police

Hamilton woman angry at police confiscation of pickled snakes so threw a jar of pickled kittens at them

It has been revealed a Hamilton woman was so angry about police taking her three preserved snakes that she stormed into the station and threw a jar of pickled kittens at the counter.

The jar shattered. [NZCity News]

I personally think the sentence "It has been revealed a Hamilton woman was so angry about police taking her three preserved snakes that she stormed into the station and threw a jar of pickled kittens at the counter." would make a great entry into the Bulwer-Lytton Contest.

I can't remember where I saw the link to this originally (or I'd give credit). Here's a subset of a bunch of disclaimer stickers for science textbooks. The first one is an actual disclaimer is taken from a sticker designed by the Cobb County School District in Georgia (see original).

I was whining this morning over on #joiito about being in a bit of a slump as far as blogging goes and Joi gave me a kick to get me back into gear, so here come a few posts.

Thinking that students might be threatening the president by performing Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", the Secret Service paid a visit to a Boulder, CO high school this week.

School Talent Show Draws Secret Service

Colorado Band Singing Dylan Song Seen as Threatening President Bush

BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 12, 2004 — Parents and students say they are outraged and offended by a proposed band name and song scheduled for a high school talent show in Boulder this evening, but members of the band, named Coalition of the Willing, said the whole thing is being blown out of proportion.

The students told ABC News affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver they are performing Bob Dylan's song "Masters of War" during the Boulder High School Talent Exposé because they are Dylan fans. They said they want to express their views and show off their musical abilities.

But some students and adults who heard the band rehearse called a radio talk show Thursday morning, saying the song the band sang ended with a call for President Bush to die.

Threatening the president is a federal crime, so the Secret Service was called to the school to investigate. [abcnews.com]

For further reading, here's the lyrics to "Masters of War" (which was first released in 1963).

From CNN.com:

TV stations canceling 'Ryan' telecast

Worried about FCC sactions; film must run uncut

NEW YORK (AP) -- More than 20 ABC affiliates around the country, including two in Ohio, have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of "Saving Private Ryan," saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission.

The decisions mark a twist in the conflict over the aggressive stand the FCC has taken against obscenity and profanity since Janet Jackson flashed the world during the last Super Bowl halftime show.

Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning movie aired on ABC with relatively little controversy in 2001 and 2002, but station owners -- including several in large markets -- are unnerved that airing it Thursday could bring federal punishment. The film includes a violent depiction of the D-Day invasion and profanity.

"It would clearly have been our preference to run the movie. We think it's a patriotic, artistic tribute to our fighting forces," Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications, told AP Radio. The company owns three ABC affiliates in the Midwest.

...

Cole cited recent FCC actions and last week's re-election of President Bush as reasons for replacing "Saving Private Ryan" on Thursday with a music program and the TV movie "Return to Mayberry." [CNN.com]

I don't know about you, but I certainly find "Return to Mayberry" to be much more offensive than "Saving Private Ryan". I really hope this isn't some kind of sign of what TV will be like in the near future.

There's a part of me that really wants to at least try this. Even if it would be scary.

Hello, Kitty!
Hello Kitty Online World! [via #!/usr/bin/girl]

I posted a bunch more pics to flickr tonight. My mom had asked me to pick up some apples so she could make some apple pies. I took the opportunity to play around with my new camera some more and try out some of the things I'd learned about it. I took a bunch of pictures of this one brook (complete with squirrel), and pictures of the first two houses I lived in.

Pepsi has a new version for the holidays: Holiday Spice Pepsi. You too can enjoy pepsi with the taste of cinnamon and ginger while you sip your holiday pepsi.

In the rockin' future of Hello Kitty.

Boston.com has an article on how parents feel that long term papers are too much work for high school students.

...But Laurie Mokriski, also a PTSO member, said she worries because the papers contribute significantly to students' already-heavy academic loads. Newton parents met earlier this month to discuss homework and agreed their children have too much, Mokriski said. They also need time for sports, theater, music, and academic teams, she said. ''They're trying to enjoy their high school years," she said.

Denise Clark Pope, author of ''Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out Materialistic and Miseducated Students," argues that today's high school students are overworked. [boston.com]

Is it me or does this just seem like too much whining. I remember having term papers that were at least 10 pages long in High School. I thought everyone had to do that kind of thing. I like how because the kids have so many extra-curricular activities, we have to give them less academic work.

A friend of mine asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I really wasn't sure. I mean, I want the new Looney Tunes collection coming out on my birthday. In fact, I'd say the first three things on my Amazon wish list are the big items.

If money wasn't an issue I'd want something like the new Think Outside bluetooth mouse or a iPod Photo (60GB of course) (only partly care about the photo part, I want most of it for music).

Oh, and I just signed up with that freeipods.com thing, so if you want to help me out, sign up for something using http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=10659946. I'm actually opting for the $250 gift certificate for the iTunes music store. Since that will be handy for impulse puchases.

A few years after I graduated from high school, my school started doing mock elections. Since 1988 their mock election has accurately chosen the eventual winner. VOTES 2004 was today, and the winner was... John Kerry! Let's hope their record of success continues.

It's a pretty interesting setup. From the web page:

Two schools from each state participate in the highlight of the month-long project—a mock election at which a winner is declared just days before the general election. The VOTES election is unique in that it simulates the electoral college process of selecting a candidate: the winner must earn at least 270 out of 538 electoral votes.

And here is the breakdown of the results:

Candidate
John Kerry
George Bush
Ralph Nader
David Cobb
Michael Badnarik
Michael Peroutka
Others

Electoral Votes
326
212
0
0
0
0
0

Popular Votes
26,920
22,771
2,253
758
572
230
56

Percentage
50.20%
42.50%
4.40%
1.40%
1.00%
0.40%
0.10%

Voter Turnout 70%

Pretty cool I must say. I can't wait to see how accurate it is this year.

Just in case you happen to live anywhere near a Volcano.

"Oh yeah, AWAY from the volcano..."

From the U.S. Geological Survey's What to Do if a Volcano Erupts page:

During an Eruption -

Move Away From A Volcano - Not Toward It

[via The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century :: Joey deVilla's Weblog]

Last night I was at a birthday party for a neighbor that was held at Real Art Ways in Hartford. I'd never been there before and it's a neat little place (and their movie theatre has some interesting sounding things coming up). One of the exhibits there was by Laura Carton and featured pictures that were originally porn that had been downloaded from the net, and then had the people in them removed with the help of photoshop. It definitely changes one views them once you find that out.

The thing is, the concept sounded so damn familiar. I knew I'd heard about it before, and had a feeling it was from BoingBoing. So, this morning I did a bit of searching about and discovered it had been on BoingBoing. And not only on BoingBoing, but by a posted by guestblogger there: the amazing Susannah Breslin.

I've been scanning in more pictures for my mom. Both of their trip to New Mexico, which was stunning, and a bunch of old family pictures she had (like ones her father took during World War II), and ran across this old school picture of me from what must have been 2nd or 3rd grade. So I figured I'd post it here.

And on the subject of scanning, I'm still amazed at how much detail the scanner pulls out of those old black and white photos. When you look at the picture itself you think there's just not much there, and then after scanning. WOW. I'll post some more as I get to them.

Once again, someone has been fired for running SETI@Home.

Man Said He Used Computer During Off Hours

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The search for extraterrestrial life has ended at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The department on Thursday fired a computer programmer who admitted to using a state-owned computer server to process data for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project, run by the University of California at Berkeley.

Charles E. Smith, 63, told administrators he didn't think loading the SETI software on the server was much of a problem because he ran the program only on weekends and on weekdays between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., when the server wasn't being used, according to a disciplinary report.

Department director Tom Hayes disagreed.

"I understand his desire to search for intelligent life in outer space, because obviously he doesn't find it in the mirror in the morning," Hayes said. "I think that people can be comfortable that security has beamed this man out of our building." [newsnet5.com] [via AP]

I'm not sure if I posted about this kind of thing the last time it happened, but without knowing more background I'm not sure how to react. At most places I've worked there has been an official policy that you aren't supposed to install unauthorized software. This was mostly to try and stop people from installing every little thing they download from the net, and to be able to scold them when something they've downloaded broke their computer. In the case of something like this though, I almost have to wonder if the application was actually cutting into computer resources. But, the article doesn't give us any information about that (though I'd be curious to know more). The other issue is that I think the department director's comments are a bit unprofessional and unnecessarily insulting.

Hmm, maybe I should give SETI@Home a download and start it running on one of the machines I have floating around.

There's an article in the New York Times today about Wingwomen.com. It's a service where you rent a woman to help you meet other women.

Are You With Him? Why Yes, Want to Date Him?

... When he expressed no interest in the next woman she pointed to, a brunette in a preppy sweater, Ms. Frenkel shrugged. "He's the man, whatever he wants," she said. "It is not about me." Then Mr. Blumberg gestured toward the bar area. "What about that Kylie Minogue look-alike over there?" A moment later the couple headed over.

Ms. Frenkel was not on a date with Mr. Blumberg, in pursuit of a kinky threesome; she was on the clock. A 29-year-old graduate student, she is one of a dozen women who work for a New York-based Web site called Wingwomen.com, earning up to $30 an hour to accompany single men to bars and help them chat up other women. The Web site's founder, Shane Forbes, a computer programmer, started it in December after realizing he had more success with women when he went to clubs with female friends. "Every time I was with them, I would meet women," he said.

The wingwoman is the latest twist on the wingman, that devoted male sidekick who helps a buddy pick up women at bars and clubs. Originally a "Top Gun" kind of term that referred to a pilot flying protectively behind his squadron leader, its more recent meaning entered popular culture around 1996 through the movie "Swingers," about two men road-tripping to Las Vegas, serving as each other's wingmen in attempted conquests. [more] [nytimes.com]

Sequential Tart has a nice article with pointers to various retellings of fairy tales. I was happy to see it included one of my favorites, which is Sheri S. Tepper's Beauty. And now I've got a few more books to add to my book list.

I was just looking at Amazon.com and noticed they had a little ad up for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2. I loved the first collection, it was a great start to them releasing many old old cartoons that I hadn't seen in their entirely in ages. This one looks to continue the trend with a lot of early material. And even better, it comes out on my birthday next month (November 2nd)! I've added it to my wish list, anyone wanna pick it up for me?

Even drug abusers know that cheese rocks:

Drug abusers target cheese

ST. JOHN'S  —  Police in St. John's say drug abusers trying to pay for their habits has led to a thriving black market for cheese.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary says stealing and reselling food from supermarkets and other stores to support addictions is becoming quite common.

Earlier this week, they say a man threatened to stab people with a hypodermic needle in the parking lot of a supermarket.

Staff Sgt. June Layden says he was holding a number of blocks of cheese when police arrested him "Right now we believe it was between 12 and 16 blocks, quite a quantity of cheese," she says.

Patrick Corrigan, 26, is charged with theft and assault in connection with the incident.

Layden says cheese theft is a growing problem in this province — and that the people stealing it need quick money to buy drugs like OxyContin.

"From speaking with a number of people yesterday including some employees at some of our larger supermarkets ... they are finding people are coming in and stealing it by blocks," she says. [read more] [via lonita.links.log]

From my good friend Emilily: The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation

The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation was created in 1982 by a small group that originally came together as a an informal support group for problems that were the result of traumatic experiences at petting zoos as children. This group realized that there were many others out there who were afraid to come forward with their horrific stories and wanted to find some way to help as many people as they could. The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation is the result of their dream.

Through its programs and workshops, individuals from all walks of life have been able to live happier and more fulfilling lives, without the ever-present ghosts of their personal goat traumas. Some have even made such progress that they have been able to put their traumas completely behind them and rejoin mainstream society.

No matter what the effects of your trauma, we can help you. The effects of a childhood goat trauma vary widely from person to person, depending on the severity of their trauma. Such problems as irrational fears, unexplained twitching, and insomnia could all have origin in a goat trauma. [The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation]

Goats never really bothered me much. Hamsters though, I still twitch when I think about that one time...

For bonus points: What childhood experience traumatized you? For me it was my uncle making me go to The Haunted Mansion at Disneyworld when I was like three or four. My face was hidden almost the whole time, and the one time I look out a skeleton pops up from behind a gravestone.

I sent a question in to Neil Gaiman the other day asking about an audiobook version of Good Omens, and he posted it to his blog. Pretty cool. Though I personally think it should be done as a podcast first, a chapter a week.

I just recently finished listening to American Gods and really enjoyed it. This made me wonder if there is a chance we might see an audiobook of Good Omens. I've read it a number of times and think it would be quite fun to have an audio version of. Are there any chances of this ever existing? Thanks,Gregory Blake http://www.ezoons.com/

I know that Harper Collins very much want to do one. And Terry and I would both very much like to hear it. So I think the odds are pretty good one will happen. [Neil Gaiman]

Hmm, anyone wanna ask him if he's read Move Under Ground and what he thinks of it?

One of the things I've been watching lately is the growth of Podcasting. The idea is that various audio broadcasts online would be available for download, with RSS feeds being used to announce when new broadcasts are available. Adam Curry is the one who really gave this a kick-start with his Daily Source Code.

The other part of this is the iPod. There are a number of programs out there for watching the RSS feeds for these broadcasts. When a new show is posted, they automaticly download it and put it into a playlist in iTunes so that you can sync it to your iPod. It's all pretty slick.

My idea is kind of an expansion of an idea I've been playing with for a bit: Audiobooks. I could record an chapter at a time, and as I finish post it so that people can download. In the end I'd love to expand this to having a resource for various kinds of storytelling. Maybe do a book reading with a few people, each taking various parts. Or provide a directory for other people doing the same thing. As usual, the big issue is resources. I'll think about this a bit more after I get a bit more sleep.

From my friend Greg: The Infinite Cat Project. Pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats (help me! I'm stuck!)...

From a few sources, but I just had to share this for my friends who might not have seen it yet. Behold, the power of show tunes:

This morning I had the most bizarre subway ride. I board the Number 3 train at Grand Army Plaza after 9 a.m. Find a seat, then settle into reading Henry James for class. I hear a woman’s voice gradually rising in volume. She is preaching the “Lord’s” word to the train car’s sleepy riders. Of course, I had forgotten the headphones for my subway evil sounds blocking device. The train stops and starts.
The words denigrating “gay devils” reach my ears. I stand up.

Me: “Excuse me, but do you mind keeping your voice down, I am trying to read.”

Preacher Lady: (screams) “I got to testify.”

Preacher lady hitches up her skirts and tells me that I am going to hell for interrupting you-know-who’s word. Two or three OTHER Christian ladies on the train start shouting at me and discussing my prospects as the Devil’s prison bitch. The last straw was a 50 something red faced man in a suit slamming his Bible towards my face. There was only one thing I could do.

Me: “If you all don’t lower your voices and cease calling me Satan, I will have to sing show tunes.”

The other straphangers look at me with stony faces.
I begin to sing.
“Its very clear, our love is here to stay. Not for a year, but forever and a day…” [read on...] [Livejournal: Koaloha]

Mark over at Boing Boing points to a an Excellent article about Fantagraphics, the folks responsible for republishing the Complete Peanuts Collection (among many many other things).

Saved by the Beagle

A year ago, Seattle's Fantagraphics was on the brink of bankruptcy. Now it's in the black, thanks to good ol' Charlie Brown—and a pair of dogged believers who turned a cranky fanzine into the most widely respected comics publisher in America. [Seattle Weekly]

I picked up the first volume of the collection and it's great. I plan on picking up a second copy of it to send to my nephew, because every kid needs to experience Charlie Brown. I remember when I'd visit my grandmother as a kid among my dad's old books were a number of old Peanuts books.

I've been playing with A9 a little bit lately, it is kind of nifty, but nothing that really made me go WOW. Though, someone did find out something interesting about it.

Discount at Amazon for using A9.com

A9 is the new search engine from Amazon and so far it seems good enough to use. It's supposed to have all kinds of wizbang features, which it seems to. One important thing is that it's hooked into amazon's cookie system so it does know who you are and keep track of your searches. (blah blah big brother yadda evil corporate, DOWN liberal DOWN *smack* back in your cage.)

If you can get over that for 5 minutes and use it, then go to amazon, you'll notice this little "pi/2 discount" thingie. I clicked on it and, being a good little advertising target monkey, I'll pass the resulting blurb on...

since you've been using A9.com recently, virtually everything at Amazon.com is automatically an additional π/2% (1.57%) off for you. Collecting this discount is zero effort on your part. It will be applied automatically at checkout (it will happen whether you use the shopping cart or our 1-Click Shopping®). You don't need to do anything to get this discount except keep using A9.com as your regular search engine.

So there ya have it. [via The Universal Church of Cosmic Uncertainty]

I just checked on Amazon and found that I had the same link there now. Pretty keen.

Every time I hear about the use of maggots for healing I think "whoa, cool", then I think about it a bit more and go "ew icky!" Though, I guess if it works that well I'd cope with it if needed.

Maggot Band-Aid
David Pescovitz:
First used centuries ago to treat battlefield wounds, maggots are proving to be a useful treatment to prevent post-operative infections. Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) calls for maggot dressing to be applied to wounds twice a week for up to 72 hours each time. From the press release about a recent study on MDT in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases:

"Debridement, or the removal of contaminated tissue to expose healthy tissue, can be done surgically. However, maggots that have been disinfected during the egg stage so that they don’t carry bacteria into the wound have their advantages. The larvae preferentially consume dead tissue (steering clear of live), they excrete an antibacterial agent, and they stimulate wound healing--all factors that could be linked to the lower occurrence of infection in maggot-treated wounds."

Link [via Boing Boing Blog]

Now I just need to find the article I remember reading about the medical uses of slugs.

From over on engadget:

Apparently the South Korean subway advertising system runs off of a 20GB hard disk. Add your own caption for extra fun! [engadget]

Feel free to leave your own caption here or there.

Yesterday I added the last 10 links I've posted to del.icio.us to the right hand column. I'm going to use this for stuff that just seems interesting, but I really don't have much of a comment on. You can also subscribe to the rss for my links.

I was looking through the list of places where Ghost in the Shell:Innocence was playing in the next month and Hartford, CT was nowhere to be seen. Heck, there wasn't even anywhere in CT it is showing. I guess I'll have to see it in the Boston area (where it is showing at two different places). Anyone up for going to see it next Wednesday afternoon?

Kasia writes about something that annoyed me a bit. She points to "A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys" and "The Guy's Guide to Geek Girls, V2.0" and comments on some of the points they make.

Let's clear some things up.

• The Star Trek thing.

  Star Trek is not a geek thing. Not all geeks like Star Trek, heck, most geeks I know never watch it. Would you people stop equating geeks with Star Trek freaks? Who the hell is Ivanova? The first guy to buy me a Star Trek mousepad as a cute gift would wear it as a collar in about fifteen seconds or less.

• Branded tshirts.

  So people think geeks wear tshirts with brand names because they're proudly displaying their loyalty? That's cute and funny at the same time. T-shirts at conferences are free, t-shirts at conferences come emblazoned with logos and brand-names, ergo, geeks often wear tshirts with brand names because they're free. Unlike the rest of you gap-labled yuppies, we don't pay to advertise corporations.

  Unless you count my Free Software Foundation tshirt, I paid for that, but that was really more of a donation than a purchase. Sort of like the emacs manual, yah, i'll ever read that!

• Geeks can fix things.

  Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha -- that's all I'm going to say on the issue.

[kasia in a nutshell]

In general, I've always thought of myself as more on the geek side. But reading through the guide to geek guys it seems I was wrong. I'm barely geeky at all! Even though in humor, I just found that these were just so wrong and cliched that they weren't even that funny.

After a few false starts I've started up my own personal wiki. In the end I decided that MoinMoin would be the best choice for me, since it is fairly small and simple. TikiWiki was interesting, but just way too much for a small personal wiki. Now I just need to make some themes. to make it fit in with the rest of my site. Anyways, you can get there via the link on the left, or by clicking here.

There really isn't that much in there yet. But I'm planning to use it for random information I want to keep track of. And if you want to contribute at all just let me know (everyone has read permission unless I grant them more).

I just fired up iTunes because I wanted to listen to some music, but also wanted to hear one song in particular first. So I hit shuffle and then searched for the song. The scroll bar barely moved and I noticed that it was the second song in the shuffle. Coincidence? I think not.

LiveJournal has some pages with advice on writing, including a whole page on the correct use of Homonyms, though I think their examples are actually Homophones. [via Waxy.org Links]

The person who decided that DVDs need to be shrink-wrapped AND have a sticker on every side.

My friend Ellen just got a new kitty and is looking for any advice people can offer. Drop her a line if you've got any recommendations.

News news and more...um...news.

...Now, on a totally different front, we got a kitty cat for Katie's birthday! Our first cat, so advice from cat owners is appreciated until I get tired of you all. ;) Here's a bunch of bad pictures, but at least a start. [Lumpy Gravy]

Update: Had to fix some links. Oops.

I had this game as a kid and loved it. It's one of those things that I wish was still floating around my parent's house somewhere. But here's a flash version of it. Now they need to make it networked and I'll be in heaven. Oh yeah, and it's loud.

Flash Fun: Dark Tower

It's flash! It's fun! It's a game. Dark Tower.

I actually have no idea what is going on in this game at all. At least, I didn't until I read the help a little bit. Oops. I liked all the noises and such, though, and I'm sure someone that got more sleep last night than me will like this game quite a bit! I would make up a better description, but I started a new job today and am sort of out of words at the moment. (I mean, there's only so many times one can say "Hi. Nice to meet you!" without completely losing some conversational power for the day. And trust me, I said it quite a bit. And I only remember approximately three names.) [#!/usr/bin/girl]

Someone stole The Scream.

Scream stolen from Norway museum

Armed robbers have stolen the iconic Edvard Munch painting, The Scream, from the Munch Museum in Norway.

Two masked thieves pulled the work and another painting, Madonna, off the wall as stunned visitors watched.

One robber threatened staff with a gun before the pair escaped in a waiting car, a museum officer told the BBC.

The Munch Museum says the two stolen paintings were among its most valuable - worth an estimated $19m together, according to the BBC's Lars Bevanger. [BBC News]

A LiveJournal user has used Google to figure out some stats about LJ users.

21% of people who hate their lives use Livejournal
[via]  [Waxy.org Links]

From over at Waxy.org Links, one of the more maddening flash games I've ever tried.

Flash: The Invisibility Game
don't miss the ending to level 12 [via]  [Waxy.org Links]

Adam Felber gives us a transcript of an obscure event from the olympics. Here's a snip of the beginning.

Olympic Transcript [Obscure Event Edition]

TOM: Welcome back, and we're just in time for the 800 meter sideways cobblestick shuttlerun. With me, I have 1976 bronze medalist, Lucy Pinker. Lucy, what are we looking for today?

LUCY: Well, Tom, Hungary's Bidrai Malouva is the favorite in this event, having taken gold in Sydney.

TOM: He's more machine than man!

LUCY: Uh, well, sure...

TOM: But don't count out the plucky American, Morgan Hurren. He gave Malouva a real run for his money in Sydney, finishing a very close 7th, and he's been training exceptionally hard for this year's games.

[Cut to exciting video package about Hurren and his various trials and tribulations as he trained to rival the preeminent sideways cobblestick shuttlerunner in the world. Morgan turns out to be a startlingly down-to-earth kid, and you get the sense that maybe, just maybe, he's got a shot here. He's plucky.]

TOM: And there he is, the Kansas kid who has the whole cobblestick shuttlerun world abuzz. [Fanatical Apathy]

#!/usr/bin/girl once again alerts me to important news:

Freddy and Jason...and?
I'm not sure if I want to laugh or cry about Freddy vs. Jason vs...Ash. [#!/usr/bin/girl]

My personal feeling? I will only allow this if Ash gets to kill them off for good. Or at least send them out to another dimension or something.

Thanks to those fine folk at Boing Boing for this link. I may have to destroy you all for it.

Watchmen comic remixes

So wrong: Something Awful re-captions selections from Watchmen.

Link
(thanks, Zed) [Boing Boing Blog]

 

So wrong, but so funny. Hmm, what other comics to re-caption.

Mark Pilgrim writes about how most developers are morons or assholes in a post about why specs matter.

Why specs matter

Most developers are morons, and the rest are assholes. I have at various times counted myself in both groups, so I can say this with the utmost confidence. [dive into mark] [via The Universal Church Of Cosmic Uncertainty]

I believe this applies to sysadmins also, but there are probably one or two more groupings. I know I've fallen into both camps at one time or another. Though I tend to think that my time in the asshole camp was usually caused by dealing with a moron.

So scary I think I want one.

I would have posted this up about 5 minutes before now, but I noticed they only had three more in stock, so I thought I should get there before you punks. Because lord knows, there's nothing that goes together more sweetly than a distended Hello Kitty head and a light, battery-powered sucking force. And for $10, even! If this thing moves itself around by itself - something that I'm sad to say probably isn't the case - I would buy 24 of them and set them loose around the house. It'd be cheaper than a Roomba and at least 24 times as cute.

Also, have you noticed people saying kawaii a lot lately, too? I doubt they are doing the clap and giggle. You gotta do the clap and giggle.

Read - Hello Kitty Desktop Cleaner - Pink (Duh!) [Jbox via RedFerret via Engadget] More Hello Kitty yum yum links after the jump. [Gizmodo]

I also agree that they would be much more cool if they moved around on their own. And even if I did say kawaii, I'd refuse to clap and giggle at the same time.

27 years ago today, at the young age of 8, I was attending a program for 'gifted' children at a place called the Talcott Mountain Science Center. I was taking an astronomy class and got to watch the first test flight of the Space Shuttle "Enterprise" as it was launched (somewhat) from the back of a 747. I remember them working hard to get a good tv signal and us eventually seeing a scratchy version of it on TV. At the time I thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen, and it still ranks pretty high.

I can't even begin to imagine this happening at an event here. People would riot.

Olympic brand-whoring attains new, shameful low

The Interational Olympic Committee -- whose high-horse is well and truly elevated when it comes to lecturing atheletes about doping -- is policing spectators at the games to ensure that they aren't toting brand-marks for their sponsors' rivals. Penalties for buying the wrong product range from confiscation of your goods to being forced to wear your t-shirt logo-side-in. The worst of it is the steaming craopla from the IOC official who says "We have to protect official sponsors who have paid millions to make the Olympics happen." Oh, rilly? Or what? They won't sponsor the Olympics anymore? Earth-to-official: companies sponsor your games because they're important and lots of people watch them, not because they can be assured that Olympic venues will be swept clean of rival logos.

Link [BoingBoing]

I wonder what the sponsors thing of this. I'm sure this is not the kind of publicity they wanted from the Olympics. I wonder if we'll be hearing comments from the sponsors on this now.

Jonas M Luster writes about a conversation he overheard at some cafe.

...On the table across me, a girl and an older woman. The woman listens, the girl lays on the decibel. She’s an intellectual she’ll have her counterpart (and the rest of us patrons) know. She’s educated, she has a job, and she knows someone who knows someone who lost a brother on 9/11. So she knows.

“Kerry,” she says, “Kerry is a douche. He is kissing UN ass. And he said something about a ‘more sensitive’ approach to war”. And all those lies about torture by US soldiers. Wrong, she says. Those Al Quaeda (she pronounces it “All Ksaider”) terrorists deserve a beating. And this Saddam guy, he’ll get what’s coming to him for killing Americans. Those Islamists shouldn’t be in America, and shouldn’t be in Iraq.

“She’s cute,” I think, trying for a second not to become entangled in her rant. I try to focus on the waitress, who’s even cuter and has yet to turn me off by yelling loudly across tables. I fail. My eyes wander back, and so do my mind and ears. She’s explaining welfare and abuse by “those Mexicans” of said governmental help program to the older woman. While I contemplate wether to order more coffee from the bottomless supply, we’re at gay marriages, prayer in schools, and SUVs. She hates SUVs. Only liberals drive those Tahoes and Trailblazers and Avalanches. [Jonas M Luster's blog]

Oh my!

He saw comet-tails on every pitch.
The LSD No-Hitter:

When the subject of baseball and drugs comes up, the story of Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis and his celebrated 'LSD No-Hitter' stands out above all others. On June 12, 1970, the 25-year-old pitcher was between starts, so he stayed back in his Los Angeles hotel while his team flew on to San Diego to play the Padres. Ellis invited his girlfriend over, and they dropped hits of acid around noon.

As he tells it in his autobiography, In the Country of Baseball:

'I had taken LSD ... I thought it was an off day. That's how come I had it in me. I took the LSD at 12 noon. At one, my girlfriend looked in the paper and said 'Dock, you're pitching today'.'"

[Off On A Tangent]

(Should I be admitting this here...?) Back in my partying days I certainly never took LSD, and while doing so never ever spun out at parties. And I definitely never learned to spin records while tripping. Because uh, drugs are bad. These days I stay away from that stuff, the last thing I need is to be high when I get the call for a new lung (talk about a recipe for a bad trip).

Here's an interesting product designed to get your site more traffic. It's sad to see things like this becoming even this mainstream.

and the winner ...
...of today's Possibly-a-Big-Pile-of-Puppy-Poop Award is RSS Equalizer – and it's only $97!  Could it be just a joke?  I sure won't pay to find out.  According to its Terms of Use, "While we try to include accurate stuff on the site, we're not promising you it's accurate. In fact, we're not promising you anything except fun and entertainment."  Hmm... ;~))  [link via 0xDECAFBAD] [jenett.radio]

I'm still trying to figure out the 'fun and excitement' part.

I thought this was funny.

Forbes thinks RSS is dumb
read the "Worst" section of the Standard review [via]  [Waxy.org Links]

What's even funnier? Forbes.com has RSS feeds themselves. Which I guess don't really serve much purpose either

LA Weekly has a cool feature on the history of the Internet Movie Database. The part of the article I was happy to see was acknowledging the early roots of the database.

That’s a bit of an understatement considering Needham ended up transforming a small hobby into an international business. But remember, back in 1989, terms like “World Wide Web” were totally foreign. Needham joined a movie discussion group on what was then the fledgling university-linked Internet. The members were almost all American male college students, and their favorite topic was — you guessed it — who’s the most attractive actress and what movies has she been in.

Soon, the guys volunteered their private databases and actresses begat actors, which begat directors, which begat writers, which begat cinematographers, which begat plot summaries. [LA Weekly]

I remember when I was at CMU hanging out on rec.arts.movies and people discussing THE LIST. Which was this list of actresses and movies. If you search on Google Groups you can find numerous mentions of it.

Once again that #!/usr/bin/girl finds the cool flash games. This time it is Shoot the Cliche. My high score was around 252, but I only played it twice. And remember. Spare the kittens.

Tim Wu (over on lessig blog) has listed a bunch of Jack Valenti quotes from over the years. Here's a sample:

On the nascent cable industry, in 1974
“[Cable will become] a huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material. We do not like it because we think it wrong and unfair.”

On the VCR, 1983
"We are facing a very new and a very troubling assault ... and we are facing it from a thing called the video cassette recorder and its necessary companion called the blank tape.
We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress at least protects one industry ... whose total future depends on its protection from the savagery and the ravages of this machine [the VCR]."
"[Some say] that the VCR is the greatest friend that the American film producer ever had. I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

On the public domain, 1995
"A public domain work is an orphan. No one is responsible for its life. But everyone exploits its use, until that time certain when it becomes soiled and haggard, barren of its previous virtues. How does the consumer benefit from the steady decline of a film's quality?"

On the meaning of value, 1983
"Nothing of value is free. It is very easy ... to convince people that it is in their best interest to give away somebody else's property for nothing, but even the most guileless among us know that this is a cave of illusion where commonsense is lured and then quietly strangled."

And the Valenti slogan
"If you cannot protect what you own, you don’t own anything."

[lessig blog]

I'm sure they must have told me sometime before yesterday that they were going away from Tuesday till Friday, but I can't remember it at all. So, since my parents will be enjoying themselves on the cape I get the place to myself again. Except it is during the week. How boring. Maybe I'll drive down to see my friend Patty (who gets a big congrats for getting a new job!).

I just turned on comment moderation for people who aren't using TypeKey. I've gotten fed up with having to keep going and deleting comments. Sorry for any inconvenience. Real comments will still show up, though not right away.

John Perry Barlow has a good idea for something to do during the RNC

Dancing in the Streets:Revolution with a Smile

I spent most of my political life as a Republican. While that's a little hard to imagine now, I have sufficient experience to know that the commonly held view that Republicans either can't dance or won't dance is inaccurate. When I was a Republican, I was as dedicated to dancing as I am now and there were others like me, as I recall.

Still, part of what drove me from the party - aside from a categorical repudiation by the current administration of most Republican principles - is a dour dancelessness that crept into Republican "culture." It seems increasingly ironic to call the GOP a party at all...

...I want to dance in the streets.

I don't want to confront the Republicans. I want to discombobulate them. I don't want to argue with them, which would only convince them further, I want to throw them off their game. I don't want to be aggressive in my discontent. God knows there's been plenty of that on all sides. I want to be genial. But disconcerting.

So, to that end, I propose the following: I want to organize a cadre of 20 to 50 of us. I want to dress us in suits and other plain pedestrian attire and salt us among the sidewalk multitudes in Republican-rich zones. At a predetermined moment, one of us will produce a boom-box and crank it up with something danceable. Suddenly, about a third of the people on the sidewalk, miscellaneously distributed in the general throng, will start dancing like crazy and continue to do so for for about a minute. Then we will stop, melt back into the pedestrian flow, and go to another location to erupt there. [BarlowFriendz]

I can just see the headlines...

While I was in the midst of my search for Drive-In information, an article from the NYTimes showed up in my news reader about renegade drive-ins.

LIKE most cities in Silicon Valley's outer stratosphere, Santa Cruz has a district dedicated to an odd marriage of high and low tech, where lumber mills and cement factories squat beside gleaming software business parks. But the geeks and hipsters who parked their bikes on this slab of broken land and sneaked past the "no trespassing" sign were not here on business. They were going to the movies.

Few theaters consist of dead weeds and a mound of gray slag squeezed between a laboratory and an alloy manufacturing firm. But these movie buffs have brought their own theater with them. For three years, cult-movie buffs have been organizing "guerrilla drive-ins" in a number of cities, rigging together a nest of digital projectors, DVD players, and radio transmitters or stereo speakers, spreading the word online, and assembling on parking lots or fields to watch obscure films beneath the stars. [NYTimes:Technology]

This sounds just too cool. I wonder if anyone is doing anything like this in my area. I'm going to have to do some research. If not anyone wanna try to organize one in the Hartford, CT area? I think it might be easier to do here than in MA.

Recently I've gotten an itch to go to a Drive-In movie. I haven't been since I was a kid and it just seems like it would be a fun thing to do. In doing a bit of research online I found Drive-Ins.com. It is a guide to Drive-In information. Everything from reviews to QTVRs of drive-ins. It also has a fairly completely database of past and present Drive-Ins. The fun thing was looking to see how many were in the area I grew up. It almost seems like there was one every other town. And, I did find one that is open not too far away (That also has their own web site). Along with a review over on Mapquest that made me laugh and cry:

this place is awsome for 7 dolars u get 2 movies and u get to watch them in ur car!! thats better than that o wait when its warm out get some chairs and watch the movies and have a picnic its like dinner and a movie and ur not at home!

D00D!

There's an interesting article over on engadget.com about "tethering". Tethering is where one product is tied into another, one example given is the little packets of coffee for use in a certain coffee maker.

So we looked on with enthusiasm at the new pressurized personal coffee makers. They push hot water through a sealed “pod” filled with a precise measure of coffee. It was neat, slick, well-designed, and promised a strong, good, dependable dose. It’s the same technology that supplies those surprisingly good coffee available from coin machines in public spaces in Europe.

After a half-hour of debating the pros and cons of such a radical “format shift,” we left without one of these cool new machines. We opted out because these specialized “pods” are essentially “tethered” to this brand of coffee maker. [engadget.com]

The author goes on to mention other devices that are tethered in this way (or becoming tethered) such as printers makers and garage-door opener companies. He also talks about the whole Apple vs Real situation and how it is becoming another example of this. I personally think Apple is blowing it. As much as I'm not a fan of Real this doesn't seem like that big a deal to me.

Selma points to a fun little flash movie about depression and a cure.

It hasn't taken long for someone I know to get his bag searched on the T. I'm so glad the T is just something I can't do that easily these days, it means I don't have to put up with crap like this.

Ellen asks "Is this serious?" Sadly, I think it just might be. Though I never really thought of my hot dog toppings as being that political.

I found this a few days ago and I can't for the life of me remember where I got the link to it. But at least I'm finally getting around to posting it. So here's a link to Petals Around the Roses.

Halsted has found the cruise of a lifetime. Though I'm not sure whose lifetime, but certainly not mine.

In between editing boring documentation on student assistants, I keep pondering my dream vacation. For those of you too terrified to click that link — and really, I can't blame you — it's a cruise. But not any cruise, no. I will quote part of the website:

You will have "absolute inside access", spending a week vacationing in the Caribbean featuring 3 of Rock's biggest artists, Journey, REO Speedwagon & Styx.

Journey, REO and Styx have agreed to this once in a lifetime experience for you, but space is extremely limited and cabins will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Relive some of the best days of Rock & Roll while you get up-close and personal with the bands. This is not a regular stop on a tour.

[cygnoir's quill]

It seems that the Gov UK isn't able to take a joke:

Emergency advice parody misses Gov UK funny bone

The Cabinet Office has demanded that the author of the Preparing for Emergencies parody site, remove it from the Net immediately, and not put it up again in another guise.

The government launched an advertising and leafleting campaign yesterday, advising us all of what to do in the event of a national emergency. The idea is that because we live in a faster, 24-hour world, we are unlikely to have a stockpile of tinned food in our cupboards like our WWII surviving grannies, and are so less well-prepared for any terrorist strike.

Naturally, the campaign has an associated website, and as we all know, it doesn't take long for things to happen in Internet-Land. The parody site went up almost immediately at the remarkably similar address www.preparingforemergencies.CO.uk, as opposed to GOV.uk. [The Register] [via dropsafe]

The author has refused to take the site down so far, but has added links to the real site in hopes to satisfy the powers that be. Here's some advice he gives on what to do in an emergency.

General advice about what to do in an emergency

If you find yourself in the middle of an emergency, your common sense and instincts will usually tell you what to do. However, it is important to:

• Run.
• Really, really fast.
• Follow the advice of the emergency services, unless that advice is something other than "Run".
• Try to remain calm and think before acting, and try to reassure others. Or, trample them in a desperate attempt to flee as the building you're in is consumed by a radioactive cloud.
• Check for injuries. Here's a hint: if it's painful, it's probably injured. However, hurting when you pee is probably not an injury related to the incident. But get yourself checked out anyway.

A few weeks ago, while getting on the Pike at like 1 AM (at the Allston entrance), I ran into a situation I'd never experienced before. The only green lights to get onto the pike were at the FAST LANEs. The lights above the lanes to pay cash were red. I slowed the car, thought "what the fuck?" and slowly drove through the regular lane (one of them didn't have a traffic cone blocking the way). As I drove by the booth and peeked in there was nobody there. I thought this was odd, but figured maybe whoever was working had to go take a leak or something.

15 minutes later I'm pulling off the pike in Natick and run into the same situation. Only this time there were cones in front of all the lanes but the FAST LANE ones. This time I was really confused. What did they expect me to do? Just sit there and wait? In the end I went through a the FAST LANE and went on home.

Today I open up my mail to find a "Toll Violation - WARNING LETTER" for the night when I went through that lane in Natick (I guess going through the red light lane at the Allston exit was a good idea). Now, I don't owe anything because it is only a warning, but I'm close to thinking this is all a big scam. Since, at the bottom of the warning, is the note "If you are interested in joining FAST LANE, call the FAST LANE Service Center". This must be how they get new customers, they force them to go through the fast lane and then 'warn' them with a helpful offer of how this won't ever be an issue again.

Bastards.

I think I knew this already, but just in case you were wondering.

Tapping on soda cans actually works?
shocking, I always thought it was an urban myth [via scattered.org]  [Waxy.org Links]

Groucho Marx
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." [Quotes of the Day]

So a friend of mine pointed out that one of the ads served by google to my site pointed at a site called My Music Inc (I'm not going to put the actual link here because I don't want to give them any promotion, but the shortened link is http://xrl.us/ciot). Which tells me that I can "Download free unlimited mp3 music, dvd movies, software, games and more!" and that it is "100% Safe & 100% Legal". Sounds kickass to me, so I put in a name and email address and am brought to the download page where I see it costs me $0.76 cents per month or $25 for a lifetime membership that will let me download FREE MUSIC AND MOVIES. Hmmm. Well, if I even want to consider paying for free stuff I want to know if they really have music I want. So I go to their search page, click on artist and type in LSG. And they say they found some LSG. So then I thought to myself "self, I wonder if they have that hot track 'asdfg' or 'ztsjfb'?" And they did! They even had "skdhfusdsd". In fact, they had everything I searched for. So my opinion is that these guys are scam artists. I wonder how many other shady websites like this there are out there

And If they are legit, they really don't seem to be making much of an effort to seem so.

Friedrich Nietzsche
"Only sick music makes money today." [Quotes of the Day]

With OS X, I don't have to deal with computer problems like Adam Felber is having.

I'd just written an amusing explanation of the incredible discovery of Bush's lost military records. And then my browser crashed. I haven't worked on a Windows PC for a while, and I'd forgotten that they only work for so long before something horrible happens, at which point the Windows manual suggests that I scream, sob, rend my garments, and upgrade to a newer version of the software that will really definitely totally not crash quite so much this time albeit depending on various conditions involving things that would be far more difficult to learn about than simply following directions and getting a head start on my next bout of screaming, sobbing, and etc. [Fanatical Apathy]

I'd also recommend valium, and some whiskey, and maybe some Lexapro.

Wow, being in the army has some great perks, including things like new breasts!

Bigger breasts offered as perk to U.S. soldiers
Plastic surgery available on taxpayers' dime
Updated: 10:34 a.m. ET July 22, 2004

NEW YORK - The U.S. Army has long lured recruits with the slogan “Be All You Can Be,” but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers’ dime.

The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the U.S. military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills.

“Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible,” Dr. Bob Lyons, chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio told the magazine, which said soldiers needed the approval of their commanding officers to get the time off.

Between 2000 and 2003, military doctors performed 496 breast enlargements and 1,361 liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents, the magazine said. [MSNBC]

The article doesn't mention whether or not these were performed on men or women though.

Oscar the Grouch would be quite happy in Boston these days. Boston police ordered the city to remove trash barrels from 30 downtown streets, including places like Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and the Theatre District. The result?

''That's kind of weird," Donald Contois said, as he crumpled up a 7-Eleven taquito wrapper and went to discard it in an overflowing frame near the corner of Mount Vernon and Charles streets yesterday afternoon. He was working a construction job around the corner and had been busy taking down scaffolding, he said, ''so it would look pretty for the convention."

Pretty it wasn't on Beacon Hill yesterday. Under blooming window boxes and faux gaslights on the hill's quaint, tony main streets, Starbucks Coffee cups and cigarette butts toppled out of the trash can frames onto narrow brick sidewalks. Over the weekend, city workers began removing public trash cans on much of Charles and Cambridge streets. By yesterday afternoon, complaints flooded the local neighborhood association, and many business owners fumed as they watched the trash pile up outside their stores.

''Now, it's a mess," lamented Alex Marder, owner of Simmons Liquors on Cambridge Street, where an overflowing trash can frame stood a few feet from a planter he had recently filled with purple and pink flowers. ''People throw out here, they throw out there, they don't care!" [Boston Globe]

It is starting to look like every security measure is just stuff they happen to think of off the top of their head. Next up will be backpacks (unless they're made of clear plastic), soda cans (plastic bottles okay), and iPods.

Quentin Crisp
"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style." [Quotes of the Day]

Halley points to a Dave Barry post (be sure to read the comments) about Cuddle Parties: "your worst nightmare that is supposedly "sweeping New York."" Pretty scary, the Cuddle Party site even includes rules for when you have a cuddle party:

1. Pajamas stay on the whole time.
2. No SEX. (Yep, you read that right.)
3. Ask for permission to kiss or nuzzle anyone. Make sure you can handle getting a no before you invite or request anyone to cuddle or kiss.
4. If you're a yes, say yes. If you're a no, say no.
5. If you're a maybe, say NO.
6. You are encouraged to change your mind from a yes to a no, no to a yes anytime you want.
7. NO DRY HUMPING!
8. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
9. If you're in a relationship, communicate and set your boundaries and agreements BEFORE you go to the Cuddle Party. Don't re-negotiate those agreements/boundaries during the Cuddle Party. (Trust us on this one.)
10. Get your Cuddle Life Guard On Duty or Cuddle Caddy if there's a concern, problem, or question or should you feel unsafe or need assistance with anything during the Cuddle Party.
11. Crying and giggling are both welcomed and encouraged.
12. Outside of your personal relationships, it's nobody's business who you cuddle, so please be respectful of other people's privacy when sharing with the outside world about Cuddle Parties.
13. Arrive on time.
14. Be hygienically savvy.
15. Clean up after yourself.
16. Always say thank you and practice good Cuddle Manners.

They also say that liquor isn't allowed, but this kind of event seems like the perfect place for MDMA.

So what does everyone else out there think? Is their skin crawling as much as mine?

Gizmodo always has some of the coolest things out there. Here's one I wouldn't mind having as part of my home theatre system (though I'm not sure I'd want to feel Jet Li's punch in my ass, I'm not into that kinda rough stuff):

Crowson TES 100 Couch Shakers

If you've ever said, "You know, I just didn't feel Jet Li's punch right in my ass," when watching a DVD -- this is an especially strange thing to say if it's not even a Jet Li movie -- then Crowson Technology's TES 100 "tactile transducers" might be worth keeping an eye, or ass, on. For $650, the TES 100 Couch Kit fits under the four feet of your couch and converts the low bass rumble of your stereo system into a physical rumpshaking effect that replicates the effects of a giant subwoofer without actually producing any (on-purpose) sound. CNet has a fairly technical and fairly positive review, although for $650 (a $350 one-transducer version is available) you'd hope Crowson would include the wire necessary to connect the thing. [Gizmodo]