Engadget.com has a post about a new USB drive that meows when you plug it in.

USB drives these days come shaped like everything from ducks to rockstar jewellery, but Taiwanese firm Panram sets the standard for others to follow with its 256MB Cat Bar, which both looks like a cat (well, sort of) and meows when you plug it in (well, sort of; see below). [Engadget]

I want to hack it so that it makes other sounds. Preferably something obscene.

Paul Fix
“The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.”
[Quotes of the Day]

A few weeks ago my parents had some folks over for dinner and I got to meet Walter Wick, the person responsible for the I, Spy and Can You See What I See? books. One topic that night was ‘What is art?’ and at one point we got to talking about comics and manga. He asked me if I’d read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. I’d heard numerous people I know discuss it, but I’d never actually picked it up. So at his recommendation I picked it up a few days later.

The first surprise I got was that the whole book is written in the style of a comic. For some reason, I hadn’t expected it (though it makes perfect sense). McCloud first asks “Just what is comics?” and the follows it up with a history of comics and look at just what it is that makes this art form special. The thing I really liked is that it felt like more than a book about comics. After reading this I felt like I had a deeper understanding of both art and storytelling. And I think the chapter discussing time and that space between the frames of a comic was the one that struck me the most. But the beauty of this book is how it slowly takes apart what makes a comic and then shows you how it all works together.

So even if you’ve never picked up a comic book in your life. Or think there isn’t much too them. I recommend this book. Now I’ve just got to see if I can get my mom to read it. And I think I’ve also got to read Will Eisner’s Comics & Sequential Art.

As usual, /usr/bin/girl posts about some of the neatest flash things.

Flash Fun: The Phone

The Phone. You dial, and it takes you somewhere else. You try to find the number to the next world. Time goes by, and you realise your soda can is empty and you need to go to the bathroom.

Oh wait. That’s just me.

The Phone is fun, regardless! [#!/usr/bin/girl]

I love these flash things. There’s just so much imagination that goes into them. I’d never think of half of the things like this.

Anime Expo is going on this weekend and there’s some cool anime coming our way. Ones I’m most happy about: Midori no Hibi, Bakuretsu Tenshi, and Popotan. I’m most happy about Midori no Hibi, because it’s one of my recent favorites. Also, it appears that TOKYOPOP will be releasing CLAMP no Kiseki: The Ultimate Collection. CLAMP’s 15th anniversary, 12 issue collection. With each issue coming with pieces for a CLAMP chess set (with some interesting choices for the pieces).

BBC News has the tale of a US chihuahua that is wowing the Japanese:

US chihuahua wows Japanese crowds

A wheelchair-bound chihuahua from the US is on a tour of Japan with his owner to tell his story of hope.

Wheely Willy was crippled and abandoned before being rescued by Deborah Turner and helped to gain mobility by using a specially-designed wheelchair.

Ms Turner and the 13-year-old dog are visiting schools and hospitals in Japan over the next two weeks to promote the book How Willy Got His Wheels. [BBC News]

Youwhores.com:

youwhores is a site for you to advertise what you are willing to do and the price you are willing to do it for.

And in turn youwhores.com is a site for you to browse the services on offer and choose the ones you are willing to pay the price for.

youwhores.com is free there are no charges or catches.

WARNING This is not a porn site.

We all have our price, what is yours?

For $50 bucks I’ll write a blog post about how great you are. I take paypal or cash.

Waxy.org has a wonderful post about the Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game:

Here’s a fun game… First, look up the most popular and critically-acclaimed books, movies, and music on Amazon. Click on “Customer Reviews,” and sort them by “Lowest Rating First.” Hilarity ensues! It’s the Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game! [Waxy.org]

Some of the ones listed are hysterical. Here’s one as an example:

John Coltrane, “A Love Supreme”

• “Coltrane’s A Love Supreme is the most overhyped jazz album in history. It is music? Maybe. But I find it to be unlistenable, despite several efforts to find something good in it.”
• “The first number is torture if you like melodic music. There’s no connection between the phasing and the rhythm. Again, is this supposed to be clever?”
• “Nobody will care about the technical achievements of these guys in 100 years.”
• “I think about Kenny G., for instance. His rythmic session is much more regular, whereas Coltrane’s session seems sometimes to loose the beat.”

Here’s my contribution: West Side Story

• I left this movie with the feeling of fairness what i mean by this is this movie was obviously given toooooooo much credit and really deserved LITTLE.I felt this movie was a rip off of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.The knife fight sequence even the backround music that went with it,oh and casting natalie wood,as i was watching this movie,scences of REBEL kept flashing in my mind. i would have enjoyed this movie if it was ORGINAL!ENOUGH SAID!
• The singing [stinks] and the characters barely talk. It is about a…girl who cares more about her evil lover than her brother….. It’s a really terrible plot not worth spending to see
• There are several old movie musicals that hold up … this isn’t one! Some of the music is good, though enormously derivative, hence the one star. Two scenes have some life in them still: the ‘officer krupke’ song and ‘america’. Everything else is tedious, unreal, awful, sappy … and it’s full of 35-year-old ‘teenagers’, this movie needs a remake: with a changed ending, the loss of a few songs, better choreography (it’s so bad now … I don’t understand my memory of it being exciting, at the time it came out …), and more reality: a better re-creation of that time … the directors did not have an eye for their own time at all!

From CNN.com

Rabies-infected organs kill 3 patients

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Rabies spread by organs taken from an infected donor has killed three transplant recipients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

“This has never happened before,” said Dr. Mitch Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the CDC, in a conference call with reporters.

A fourth recipient died during the actual transplant operation, before there was time to develop the disease, officials said.

Rabies was also determined to be responsible for the death of the organ donor. [CNN.com]

You know, I’m not sure I want the call to come sometime in the next day or two after reading that. I need some time to forget about it.