A comic interlude. Stupid people run for your lives.. [stolen from special_pete].

People in Seattle are in for a treat.

Seattle OKs Elvis Impersonator Cabbies

Tue Dec 9, 6:57 AM ET
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE – The King could be your cabbie under the city’s new taxi driver dress code.

The City Council voted Monday to approve legislation that would allow drivers to sport rhinestone capes, blue suede shoes or whatever other appropriate costume they wish.

“Uh, a-thank you verrah much,” cabbie Dave Groh, an Elvis Presley impersonator, said after the vote. [Yahoo! News] [Via Dispatches from Revland]

James Thurber: “There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.” [Quotes of the Day]

The Universal Church of Cosmic Uncertainty has some things to say about Soble’s ’10 things advanced users need in Longhorn’.

Telling picture of
Advanced users? Like what? People who know most of their letters?

10 things advanced users need in Longhorn.

My Longhorn Blog: The 10 things advanced users need in Longhorn.

A bit controversial, perhaps, but I want a better experience for advanced users (and beginners too!) What do you think?

By the way, if you are an advanced user using Windows XP, this list (and instructions for turning on these features) might prove useful.

[The Scobleizer Weblog]

[The Universal Church of Cosmic Uncertainty]

I have to agree here. First off, all of the items on the Scoble’s list are personal preference type things. Not everyone wants things at the highest resolution. Screen saver? I want it on by default and requiring a password. And changing the filesystem so that you only need a single click instead of a double is horrible. I played around with that option in Windows at one point and it just did not make things easier. Also, double-clicking helps ensure that you run what you want to. It’s very easy to just click someplace wrong and suddenly be running something you didn’t intend to.

This sounds kind of cool. I wonder if it could be used to repair scarred lung tissue. If their technique actually works, that is.

Blood could generate body repair kit

A small company in London, UK, claims to have developed a technique that overturns scientific dogma and could revolutionise medicine. It says it can turn ordinary blood into cells capable of regenerating damaged or diseased tissues. This could transform the treatment of everything from heart disease to Parkinson’s.

If the company, TriStem, really can do what it says, there would be no need to bother with conventional stem cells, currently one of the hottest fields of research. But its astounding claims have been met with bemusement and disbelief by mainstream researchers.[NewScientist.com]

[Thanks to Selma for the link]

I was looking at the interview with Steve Jobs on the Rolling Stone website and noticed there was a little ‘xml’ button up at the top. Hoping it meant there was an RSS feed I clicked on it and got a window listing a number of feeds. Coolness. One problem though. None of them have been updated since Oct 31st. Come on folks, there has to have been some music news since then. Oh, and here’s their page on XML/RSS.

This movie is my current boom obsession. http://www.tamala2010.com/

Imagine a mutant hybrid of Hello Kitty and Philip K. Dick, animated in the classic 1950s TV style of Osamu Tezuka, and you have some idea of the incredible strangeness of Tamala 2010, the amazing new feature from the two-man music and visual artist unit called “t.o.L”. Super-cute space kitty Tamala goes head-to-head with the Dark God of Death, killer dogs, a robotic Colonel Sanders with an axe in his head and more, using her trademark karate kick and heart-shaped sunglasses. A sample of some of the dialogue?: “Later you anaconda bitch!,” “Moimoi, me very tasty. Wanna eat me? “ and “Beware, Martial Law has been enforced in the Eastern Hate District!”
“Trust us – it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.” ~ Margot Gerber, American Cinematheque

From the Japanese pressbook:
It is the year 2010 on Cat-Earth, a planet in the Cat Galaxy. On her first birthday, the punk cat Tamala blasts off aboard her pride and joy, her spaceship Vanpla Turbo 1, heading for her birthplace in the constellation Orion. However, she hits an asteroid near the small planet of Q, and falls into its atmosphere.

Q, behind Cat-Earth in terms of civilization, is a barbarous planet of endless war and terrorism between the Dog and Cat tribes. At first in a state of near-panic after her emergency landing on a planet she’s never been on before, Tamala gets the urge to go out and have some fun. She quickly picks up a tomcat named Michelangelo, and they set off for the big city in his Porsche. Tamala, who is without fear, has a great time getting a tattoo, bowling, skateboarding, and shoplifting sunglasses with which they play tag. They go to a concert at which Tamala jumps up on the stage to dance, which drives the 10,000 people assembled there into a frenzy.

Tamala does everything with such complete authority that Michelangelo is sent reeling, and he begins to realize that she is not just your ordinary everyday cat. And it is also true that since she has come to Q, strange things have started happening. All of a sudden the streets are full of advertisements and merchandise bearing the logo “Catty&Co.” And the kid-cats are all telling each other about having the same weird dream about a bizarre robot cat ascending a long escalator into the sky. This is, as a matter of fact, the dream Tamala has whenever she takes an afternoon nap—the dream that has stolen into the minds of the people of Q. While they sleep, the robot cat brainwashes them so that they will act in the way Catty&Co. has planned for them.

It’s the first movie in a planned trilogy. There is a TV series starting for Tamala too. I’m rocking out to the soundtrack right now. The Japanese DVD has English subtitles for the nihongo-impaired.

To any of my local friends who are car enabled. I’m looking for a lift to the drug store to refill a couple of things, but I don’t want to move my car (since I have a spot currently). Soo, if you’re gonna be anywhere in the area and don’t mind taking a minor detour drop me an email or IM. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Parking Bans. I’m in Cambridge right now, outside my apartment, finding that I can get net access from the street. Of course my cell phone battery is almost dead too. So, I’m off to find some lunch and try and figure out what to do. Bah.

Just a small request out to people who make these wonderful things. Please. Please. Please. Please, make some in 1280×854 for us widescreen users. We’ll love you forever.