Tidal waves death toll rises to 44,000. [ABC News]
Tsunami: waves of destruction. Complete coverage by rediff.com.
Asia gears up for a massive relief operation. [Voice of America]
How you can help. [rediff.com]
The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog (The SEA-EAT blog for short): News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts.
Learn to say "howdy" in like, 800 different languages! Jennifer's language page also features a healthy list of online language resources, grouped by continent and language. Yum. [via bookofjoe]
...it's a century old, take a ride around and enjoy what you seeeee... (Idaho's state song*, and yes we learned this in grade school.)
The more coastal my friends get, the more I realize how different it is, being here in the red states. I swear we should have some sort of cultural exchange between native coastal and interior folks; it might give us some more perspective (and maybe we'd even be a little less surprised come election time...?).
So here's Dot, with your occasional report from Middle America. I've come to edju-ma-kate you on my state, via blacktable's Six Things You Don't Know About series, which lists six things you don't know about random states.
John Singleton is helping Midway games develop a new gangster shoot-em up game:
Fear & Respect is a cutting-edge third-person action game that realistically depicts life in a South Central Los Angeles gang. You will step onto the streets fresh from prison as a “retired” OG who is reluctantly brought back into the life. You will shoot and brawl your way through multiple levels of gameplay, in an attempt to help your crew against the backdrop of a sweltering South Central summer. On these streets, it’s all about your rep, and only you can decide if want your enemies to look at you with fear—or with respect.[cite]
That's from the PR for the game. The next day, we are told that Paramount Pictures is making a movie based on the video game, although it doesn't tell us who will direct the resulting movie:
Paramount Pictures has reached an agreement to acquire the worldwide film rights to Midway Games' "Fear & Respect," a state-of-the-art videogame based in the intense urban environment of South Central Los Angeles.Currently being developed in collaboration with writer/director John Singleton ("Boyz N the Hood," "Baby Boy," "2 Fast 2 Furious," "Shaft"), the exciting urban/action adventure game is scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of 2005 for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft. Christine Peters ("How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days") will be collaborating with the game developer to produce the film.
Makes you wish for the simpler days of Super Mario Brothers, doesn't it? [via Omar Bilal]
For some reason, we tend to see the past as bland and washed out. This isn't just a matter of saying, "Oh, life was simpler then." I mean, literally, we remove all color and taste from it. We confuse our our visual represenentations of the past as monochromatic and sepia-tinted with the past actually having been dull and tasteless.
Consider classical sculpture. White marble right? More like Las Vegas neon.
"The US Postal Service will produce stamps for 10 Muppets favourites plus one for their creator Jim Henson." [via BookofJoe]
I've heard Jay refer to his Sun SPARCstation as a "pizza box" but this takes the phrase to a whole new level:
The thing is for sale -- although you could probably rig this from some foam and velcro straps, and have a pizza left over to boot. (Or Two Boots.)
Link from the memestream of Little FROS.
Q: Do you work here?
A: No.
Q: You mean you're a contractor?
A: Actually, no.
Q: But then who's paying you?
A: No one.
Q: How do you live?
A: I live simply.
Q: (Incredulously) What are you doing here?!
How an ex-employee of Apple wrote software that was shipped to millions.
That's right. You thought, hey, I live in New York. Kerry will take those electoral college votes, no problem.
Well, think again. Because New York's 31 votes went to ... John L. Kerry.
Please, won't someone think of the proofreaders?
An interesting talk with Benoit Mandelbrot.
Think of color, pitch, loudness, heaviness, and hotness. Each is the topic of a branch of physics. Chemistry is filled with acids, sugars, and alcohols — all are concepts derived from sensory perceptions. Roughness is just as important as all those other raw sensations, but was not studied for its own sake.
There's also an account of the serendipitous uncovering of fractals. I really liked this metaphor:
I always saw a close kinship between the needs of "pure" mathematics and a certain hero of Greek mythology, Antaeus. The son of Earth, he had to touch the ground every so often in order to reestablish contact with his Mother; otherwise his strength waned. To strangle him, Hercules simply held him off the ground. Back to mathematics. Separation from any down-to-earth input could safely be complete for long periods — but not forever. In particular, the mathematical study of Brownian motion deserved a fresh contact with reality.
From /. I still love the first console vector game...
Thanks to lfros.
Spellchecker for Firefox. Yet another reason why Firefox is the greatest browser EVAH. Via robotfilter.
You said P.T. Barnum, and you're wrong. It was, in fact, a sucker who said it. Great story.
TPM points out this statement from Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis:
It's like when the hijackers took over those four planes on Sept. 11 and took people to a place where they didn't want to go. I think a lot of people feel that liberals have taken our country somewhere we don't want to go. I think a lot more people realize this is our country and we're going to take it back.
Do I really need to spell it out for you, Ms. Davis, how entirely wrong-headed and nasty your analogy is? Perhaps I do -- I feel an angry email coming on.
Wasn't this in Home Alone?
whatsapundit: mind if I turn this convo into a blog post?
ishbadiddle: go ahead
whatsapundit: ty
ishbadiddle: go ahead and blim
whatsapundit: first time i've seen the term. yours, or am i just again behind the curve
whatsapundit: ?
ishbadiddle: just made it up
ishbadiddle: to blog an IM
whatsapundit: you should blog that
ishbadiddle: go ahead and blim it
whatsapundit: get credit for the neologism.
whatsapundit: no, i'm blimming something else
whatsapundit: blimmed
And other terrible, first lines of hypothetical novels in the 2004 Lyttle Lytton Contest
Before the election, you said that you hated the GOP's stand on issues like the FMA, or the dominance of the religious fundamentalists in campaign rhetoric. The War on Terror, though, made these issues of secondary importance. And besides, the Crusaders and the fundamentalists wouldn't really get their way. It was just election-year hype, meant to bring out The Base. Once the election was over, we'd see a return to moderation.
So why has the president chosen to meet with an Alabama state legislator who wants to "ban the use of state funds to purchase any books or other materials that 'promote homosexuality'"? Sorry kids, no Tennessee Williams in the library anymore.
And why has the Wadministration come out in favor of displays of the 10 Commandments on goverment property? (Leaving aside the question of which version of the 10 Commandments they would support putting up on the courthouse wallst.)
Well, if you don't like it, I guess you can just go to Israel.
Seriously, though. You tell me that I shouldn't be concerned because this stuff will never pass. At what point should I be concerned? And, more to the point, are you calling our preisdent, and the leaders of your party, to tell them that you don't like this direction? Are you?
AS OF TODAY THERE CAN BE NO MORE DANCING
TO 'HEY YA!'.
File under "feel good stories."
[or, "He, Brooks, a Racist"?]
Why is David Brooks pushing, on the NYTimes OpEd page, the work of a man, Steve Sailer, who thinks:
_________
"[A]n infectious disease itself could cause homosexuality. It's probably not a venereal germ, but maybe an intestinal or respiratory germ."
-"If we didn't want blacks to engage in ethnocentric politics, well, our ancestors shouldn't have dragged them here in chains. We can, however, moderate the amount of diversity we import in the future."
and quoting from a profile on him
-"once the 'Mexican invasion' engulfs the country, 'high teenage birthrates, poverty, ignorance and disease will be what remains.'"
_________
Moreover, Sailer, Brooks' go-to guy for insightful election analysis, gives high marks to the Pioneer Fund, which "encourage[s] a higher birth rate among the best of the white race."
Is this more "code language" -- like Bush citing Dred Scott in the debates -- to mollify the far (far, far) right? I'm even willing (nay, eager) to consider that it's only sloppy reporting and not a true underlying racist agenda that drives Brooks to promote this guy's worldview. If so, it's merely disgusting and irresponsible.
Can we please throw Brooks over the side now please? Sycophant or hack, he's no one to be trusted.
OK, so first the kids who sang "we don't need no education" on The Wall are suing Pink Floyd for back royalties. Now "Pink" Floyd (that's Richard "Pink" Floyd) is suing Richard Linklater for character defamation and "negligent infliction of emotional distress" for the portrayal of his character in Dazed and Confused.
Tort reform now!
(Dazed and Confused story via randomWalks.)
Gorillas Pay Last Respects to Leader
After Babs the gorilla died at age 30, keepers at Brookfield Zoo decided to allow surviving gorillas to mourn the most influential female in their social family.
One by one Tuesday, the gorillas filed into the Tropic World building where Babs' body lay, arms outstretched. Curator Melinda Pruett Jones called it a "gorilla wake."
Babs' 9-year-old daughter, Bana, was the first to approach the body, followed by Babs' mother, Alpha, 43. Bana sat down, held Babs' hand and stroked her mother's stomach. Then she sat down and laid her head on Babs' arm.
"It was like they used to do in the exhibit, lying side by side on the mountain," keeper Betty Green said. "Then Bana rose up and looked at us and moved to Babs' other side, tucked her head under the other arm, and stroked Babs' stomach."
Kerim pointed us to Hanzi Smatter, a blog "dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters (Hanzi or Kanji) in Western culture." Delightful examples include this Nike Ad and many bad tattoos, including this fellow who wanted "essence" but ended up with green rice.
If I were President, I'd create the First National Proofreader's League, available free of charge for signage, menus, and tattoos.
Me like Ang Lee. Me like Hulk. Why movie so bad? It have boxes just like comic book. It have Hulk. Hulk good. It have Jennifer Conelly. Pretty Jennifer. But Hulk computer generated. Hulk have no expression. Plus Hulk look silly bouncing up and down. And Ang Lee give Hulk complex backstory. Complex backstory make Hulk into metaphor for repressed childhood rage. Hulk want to smash metaphor! Complex backstory make Hulk's head hurt.
"Only one white man in the world — and he's not the Pope — can tell a group of Mexicans in the United States to return to Mexico and not only avert death, but be loved for saying so."
If you've ever thought that your cat was smarter than you, you should consider the possibility he has an MBA.
I haven't tried Audioscrobbler yet but it looks kinda cool:
Audioscrobbler builds a profile of your musical taste using a plugin for your media player (Winamp, iTunes, XMMS etc..). Plugins send the name of every song you play to the Audioscrobbler server, which updates your musical profile with the new song. Every person with a plugin has their own page on this site which shows their listening statistics. The system automatically matches you to people with a similar music taste, and generates personalised recommendations.
And, if you're looking for stuff to d/l, check Comfort Stand. It's a record label that's all free. Their latest mix: Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka: Porn Music For The Masses Volume 1 . Enjoy.
The Royal Royal Crown Crown. Just order an R2C2.
An open-source (read: free) space game. You fly around, you trade cargo, you buy better weapons, you fight pirate spaceships, etc. Looks great, and fun to play for a while, but at heart it's really just Taipan.
Five Gold Rings down 29.4%. Partridge in a Pear Tree up by 20%.
Via /.
Sometimes, the nonsense messages used to get through spam filters are the most interesting emails I'll get all day. To wit:
Well!
Where there is injury let me sow pardon.
Give me beauty in the inward soul may the outward and the inward man be at one.
Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.
To a well deserving person God will show favor. To an ill deserving person He will simply be just.
There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails. People who have little to do are excessive talkers.
We lose our hair, our teeth! Our bloom, our ideals.
1) Put the fresh brain (A) in the first ziploc bag.
(Thanks to LmdH for the link.)
Laugh out loud funny.
Ecce, Etymologic, the newest 'thing that makes me go "ergghh!"' [via anggarrgoon]
Defrag it, of course. Via tinyapps blog. Also: how to get music off of your iPod.
Because it's not over.
In watching “100 Méxicanos dijeron” (a much more entertaining version of “Family Feud”) the other night, the SO and I were pleasantly surprised to see an ad showing a breadmaker giving extra bread (twice! in one ad) to a poor customer. Our reaction was virtually identical: “Where are the ads to the anglophones about this?” It wasn’t until today that I remembered to look for the sponsor.
I was suspicious that it would turn out to be a Catholic charity organization or some of the Christian right’s work, but it seems that is not so. Una Vida Mejor only contains references to valores, the televised anuncios, and the parent organization, La Fundacion por una Vida Mejor. And since everyone on the internet knows you’re a dog, WHOIS tells me that this site and its anglophone companion are backed by the Anschutz Corp and contactable at actsofkindness.org. Hoover's tells me that the Anschutz Corp is the entity that owns, inter alia, Regal Theaters, Qwest Communications, Forest Oil, and the San Francisco Examiner. Acts of Kindness and The Foundation for a Better Life declare that they
. . . are non-commercial and are solely humanitarian endeavors; the Foundation does not seek nor accept contributions or donations of any kind and is privately funded.
As well, they are
. . . not affiliated with any political groups or religious organizations.
Is this one of the values-based institutions that the left of the future needs, or is there a hidden agenda I couldn’t discover? Certainly, there are chalk-and-cheese issues with right-leaning values-based institutions, such as the fact that FBL is not something people can give to and that its wholly private funding means that it can change ideology or cease to exist at its creator’s whim. But at first blush, it’s nice to see a well-funded and active non-religious force for morality.
