September 30, 2003
Moment of Truth in Randomness
Found while looking for something else: The Moment of Truth.
September 29, 2003
Can I Hear an Amen?
Hey, guys! The Church of Craft has a flock in Seattle!
A Lovely Beverage?
An astounding array of beverages are reviewed by BevNet.
Sinister Ursula!
"Ursula" is keeping an eye on a whiskey distillery, but what other industrial processes are similar to naughty ones?
September 26, 2003
Drink Fanta!
This Indian-type flash movie proves that my brother is a big goof. The link may not work after a while, as it was specially made for me.
Doctor who, did you say?
After 14 years, the Doctor is on his way back. Few details, except that Russell Davies, who will be writing it, says "The new series will be fun, exciting, contemporary and scary." I'm happy to see "campy" is absent from the list.
September 25, 2003
Black News
From an article in Spin about Jack Black:
"At the end of October, Epic will release a lavish Tenacious D DVD set that he promises will be 'nut draining' (sorry ladies), compiling all six episodes from the group's eponymous 1999 HBO series. In April 2004, he'll costar with Ben Stiller in the big screen comedy Envy, which looks like the King Kong vs. Godzilla of diminutive, seething comedians. And sometime in 2005, he and Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass will drop the band's first movie, Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny."
The article also mentions that MTV hasn't and won't air the Foo Fighters video he's in. Boo to MTV!
Also, there's gonna be a DVD release of the rock videos of Spike Jonze that looks like fun.
September 24, 2003
Tales of Futures Past
Really old pictures of travel to space. Neat!
Also, when in the future do "earthmen" get so femmey?
Dewey suit update
Lest anybody think that OCLC suing the Library Hotel is silly, keep in mind that it's a trademark issue, and if they don't sue, they lose the trademark. Also, the story linked above gives a mistaken impression: OCLC wasn't looking for money from the hotel; they just needed a licensing agreement in hand to protect their trademark. Now that lawyers are involved, who knows what it will take to make it stop. I couldn't find a link to the LJ Academic Newswire release below, so here's the text:
OCLC: HOTEL FORCED IT TO SUE TO PROTECT TRADEMARK
If you think it's absurd for the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) to sue the Library Hotel over its use of the Dewey Decimal System, lawyers for OCLC agree. Absurd, but unfortunately necessary. For three years, Joseph Dreitler, an attorney with the firm of Jones Day, representing OCLC, said OCLC attempted to get the Library Hotel to simply sign some form of agreement acknowledging that the hotel's use of the Dewey Decimal System was granted by permission of OCLC. For the first two years they heard nothing, said Dreitler. Last year, however, The Library Hotel's owner, Henry Kallan finally responded. "He basically told OCLC to get lost," Dreitler told the LJ Academic Newswire. "All OCLC needed was a piece of paper they could put in their file," he added. Dreitler says the OCLC has no objection to
the hotel's use of the Dewey Decimal system, and was never seeking payment. But in trademark law, he said, trademarks must be vigorously defended or otherwise lost: "If a company that owns the rights to a trademark allows that
trademark to be used in such a way that it is no longer associated with their product, it is abandoned. This is not something OCLC wanted to do, but they had to do it to protect their trademark rights from such large-scale use. They were pushed against a wall."
Dreitler stressed that it was never the intention of OCLC to seek a slice of the hotel's profits nor prevent the hotel from using its clever theme. Now that lawyers are involved, he said it was not his place to comment on what
settlement his client seeks. But he reiterates that OCLC is open to settling, and remains at a loss to explain why the hotel never dealt with OCLC before the lawsuit was filed. "This could've and should've been resolved without
getting me involved," he said. The Library Hotel has denied any wrongdoing and could not confirm whether Kallan refused to cooperate with OCLC requests. In a statement, hotel General Manager Craig Spitzer said that Kallan was traveling in Europe but would be happy to address reporters
upon his return.
Er, yum
Do you want cheeseburger fries with that?
Try as I might (and those who know me know that this is exactly the sort of thing I love to eat), I can't make it sound good. I mean, I'll try it, of course, but right now I can't imagine enjoying it.
Living up to the name
Just because we so seldom include any genuine forced perspective content. The link is from the "Most phallic building in the world" contest.
September 23, 2003
Photoblog Addendum
In addition to Bull the Dog, the City of Pullman and the Palouse historical pictures archives has great pictures of floods. Select "Floods" from the predefined search list to see some amazing flooding, including one picture that notes that you can judge the depth by the water level coming up to the knees of a man on horseback!
Filmed in Depress-o-vision
More sad and not entirely surprising information about our government: government publications are being removed or "updated" to reflect administration goals rather than reality. Similar reasoning is behind the battle over what questions will and won't be asked on the census forms.
Trying to leave the ghetto?
The Dixie Chicks "don't feel part of the country scene any longer," and "now consider ourselves part of the big Rock 'n' Roll family." I didn't know it worked that way. Are they going to stop recording country music? Will anyone care? I admire them for their willingness to speak their minds, and I don't even hate their stuff, but I had somehow imagined that you couldn't just declare yourself a rock act.
September 22, 2003
Turing's testy spiritual children
The Loebner Prize is an anuual Turing test. The BBC tells us mostly about the only UK finalist, Jabberwacky, whose purely adaptive methodology is unique in this year's field: "Nothing is hard-coded, nothing is fixed, and it changes slightly, on its own, every day. Jabberwacky doesn't have just one personality, and to a reasonable degree, tends to reflect the users back to themselves." You can chat with the bot at the Jabberwacky site, though it seems to be a little busy just now. Looking for a third win is Alice, which won 2001's event, taking home the annual bronze medal (silver and gold are one-time prizes for (respectively) text-based and audio-visual fooling of all the judges). Ella, last year's winner, doesn't appear to be playing this year.
All the fun of a desert fest
It's cheesy, and not as funny as I might like, but this tribute to everybody's favorite thrilling desert experience does seem to capture the essentials.
September 19, 2003
New Beatles album
Slated for a November relase, Let It Be...Naked. Removes the Phil Spector touches, which apparently Paul always hated. In other bad Spector news, police have decided that he was responsible for shooting that woman in February.
Oh, yeah. Arr, matey. Avast and whatnot.
It may be legal where you come from, but we don't cotton to that sort of thing around here
Canada's most celebrated gay married couple refused to compromise in filling out customs forms, and were therefore denied entry to the Defended Homeland. It's a shame there's no international full faith and credit clause. No predictions on whether this leads to a reduction in stupidity, since I'd like to be optimistic, but I hate to predict the wrong thing.
September 18, 2003
Just lie back and think of England
Okay, so anonymous sex in public places is risky. Got it. But how cool is England, where people engaged in it are 'committing no offence unless they are witnessed by a member of the public who can be defined as "outraged" in the eyes of the law.' I have no idea (and I'm the least research-inclined blogger here) what the laws regarding public sex are in the various states, but I have a hard time believing any of them is that liberal.
September 17, 2003
What, and give up science?
Have you ever wanted to do research into what makes flatulence smell bad, but you were afraid you might have to design some sort of fancy gizmo to do the analysis, because who would voluntarily smell a variety of farts? Fear no more; there are apparently people who will do just about anything for science.
Other favorites: Hot-zone Superintendent and Fistula Feeder.
September 16, 2003
Pirate Names
Thanks to the charming and delightful Ursula for the pirate name quiz. Apparently, I should be called Dirty Jack Cash, though I can't fathom why.
Teens who smoke, well, smoke
In news that is shocking, shocking, I tell you, we find that teens who smoke tobacco are far more likely to smoke pot than teens who don't. My favorite quote, from Joseph Califano, Jr. President of National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University: "If kids are regularly smoking, you should be concerned they are smoking pot." I would have thought that if kids are regularly smoking, you should be concerned about that on its own merits.
Join the fight for purity
In the nick of time, Operation Infinite Purity. I hadn't realized whitehouse.org was still around, or I would have checked it out sooner. It seems to be from the same batch (or at least an indistinguishable batch) of jokers as Landover Baptist and the ever-so-slightly subtler Objective Ministries. These guys clearly have a lot of time on their hands.
September 15, 2003
Visit Beautiful Pullman!
In 1911, the city of Pullman, WA, wanted more residents. So the Chamber of Commerce, the Railroads, and Sunset Magazine put together a nifty little pamphlet to encourage people to move. Of especial note, the question and answer section:
"What is the moral tone of Pullman?
Exceptionally pure. There are no saloons and little vice and crime."
Keep in mind that this was a campus town even then...
Sci Fi Channel warps into Reality Programming, geek minorities outraged
Casting call for Mad Mad House. (Perhaps) interestingly, the copy of the casting call I first saw was looking for a Voodoo Priestess instead of a Priest, and a Naturist instead of the Trekker and Yogi Master. There's a petition urging Sci Fi not to be so insensitive to pagans. Possibly in response, Sci Fi included that "important note" at the end of the casting call. In April, they thought they'd want a psychic.
September 11, 2003
Mosaic fun
An image of W, made of smaller images of an appropriate anatomical feature (hint: not "bush").
Wuthering
If you're under 18: MTV will be showing a movie about passion and jealousy.
If you're over 30: MTV will be showing a movie of Wuthering Heights featuring a score by Jim Steinman!
Maybe Sarah's already mentioned this
This seems like exactly the sort of thing my co-blogger enjoys: Social Hygiene Posters. A memepool favorite is the one telling (some of) us not to worry.
I wonder if judicial idiocy is grounds for appeal
According to a recent ruling, spyware is just fine. Despite performing no useful function for the user and making itself as difficult as the spyware companies can make it to remove from your machine once it's there.
September 10, 2003
Inner child
My inner child is 16. Sorry about the pop-up at Quizilla.
My inner child is sixteen years old!
Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.
How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla
Cog Sci stuff
I got to thinking about things (in part due to this article about how bad we are at predicting how we'll feel about future events), and it eventually led me to the Cognitive Clearing House, via the Theorists Online page. One of these days, I'll have to read Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts &c.
September 09, 2003
Fall Movie Hootenanny
Here's a few highlights from Entertainment Weekly's Fall Movie Preview, stuff that I wouldn't mind going to see (hint hint):
Lost in Translation: Bill Murray stars, Sofia Coppola directs
Party Monster: Seth Green (yay) and Macaulay Culkin (huh) play club kids in a based-on-a-true story murder tale
Prey for Rock and Roll: Gina Gershon and Lori Petty play punk rockers. Hooray for cute punk girls!
Shaolin Soccer: will this ever actually be released? Is it quicker to toddle down to your local pan-ethnic video store?
Underworld: vampire action film that may suck or may turn into a wolf
Wonderland: Val Kilmer as John Holmes- it's at least a rental!
Dummy: Adrien Brody as "a ventriloquist browbeaten by his own puppet." It's vent figure, dammit! Also starring Illeana Douglas (yay) and Milla Jovovich (boo)
Bubba Ho-Tep: Elvis defends his retirement home from an evil mummy. Bruce Campbell stars.
Luther: Joseph Fiennes stars as Martin Luther (just kidding) (about wanting to see it, it is actually a real movie)
Intolerable Cruelty: Coen. Clooney. Nuff said.
The School of Rock: Jack Black. Joan Cusack. Sarah Silverman. Richard Linklater. See above.
Elf: Will Ferrell, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, directed by Jon Favreau. It seems to be about an elf.
Love Actually: Directed by Richard Curtis, for whom I will forgive it starring Hugh Grant.
Big Fish: 'cause part of it was filmed near a friend's house. Also Ewan McGregor.
Duplex: Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, Swoosie Kurtz. Unfortunately does not look that good otherwise.
Bad Santa: Terry Zwigoff movie about a bad santa with B. B. Thornton, John Ritter, and Bernie Mac. Hummm. Maybe another rental.
The Cooler: William H. Macy can make any film good.
Return of the King: w00t!
Calendar Girls: yes, Helen Mirren's breasts are, in fact, afraid of the dark.
Two Men Went to War: British Army dentists invade France in WWII.
September 08, 2003
A Rare Endorsement
In a rare outright commercial endorsement, FP officially endorses the Home Owner's Club. If you need something done to your house or yard, they will find a competent person to do that for you. And the contractor doesn't get paid until you're happy. I love it.
This is the last one for a while, I promise
More stuff you didn't really want to know. One gets the idea from this Globe and Mail story that those in power are trying earnestly to re-create the cold war (that was WW3; we're now in WW4). There's nothing like an imminent threat to keep people quiet, and to keep military budgets plump; but real wars are too expensive, on all sorts of levels. The solution: declare war on a philosophy, or (in the present case) a strategy. I haven't read the whole thing, but check out the chunk about Djibouti (about a third of the way down, and the first occurrence of the word).
Spice up your marriage
From the August 31st edition of Le Show, it is pointed out that while Arnold Schwarzenegger does not oppose domestic partnerships, he feels that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman. I, however, feel that anyone should be able to participate in a gay marriage, even gay persons.
Things you don't want to know
The Grauniad summarizes potential connections between the ongoing War on whatever-it-is-today and the long-established goals of the Cheney-Bush junta.
I knew the subwoofer would be good for something
Infrasound makes people feel funny. With experimentation, I should be able to identify the amplitude and frequency that will cause people to give me all their money, and I can finally start my cult.
September 05, 2003
Pirate Amnesty Seen Likely
According to this BBC report, the (very evil) RIAA is likely to offer amnesty to those nasty downloaders if they disclose the source and promise to delete the tracks (they'll probably also want the pirates to destroy archived copies).
September 04, 2003
You'll have to forgive me, I was really alabandical
The Phrontistery's Compendium of Lost Words is a handy place to find all that stuff that's in the OED, but that you don't want to have to plow through everything to get to. The rest of the site may be interesting, too.
And, yes, phrontistery.com is taken (of course). Owned by yahoo, it appears. I didn't check out the site, or even find out if one exists.
Firefly movie continues to move along
More news about the Firefly movie. Joss gets to make his directorial debut. Missing from the article (which is less firm on how much of the original cast we'll see than previous articles have been): any mention of Tim Minear, co-creator and FP hero.
Oh, please, let this be genuine
This sure looks like it actually happened: an exchange of views between (the very evil) Focus on the Family's "expert on homosexuality and youth issues" and Will & Grace's executive story editor regarding a W&G episode about ex-gay ministries. (I mean that FotF is evil; the ex-gay "expert" is probably just a self-deluding closet case)
September 03, 2003
Everybody say hi!
Let's give a warm FP welcome to the lovely and talented (and one fabulous babe) guest-blogger Ursula de la Maison-Hache. Her musings can be found at La Maison-Hache, which is also reachable off to the side there, below the photoblog. We're still experimenting with layout, so please bear with us.
Moron Music Licensing
Lately it seems like everybody's talking about song clearance. If it's not Matt Groening on the Simpsons DVDs, it's somebody else on some other DVD. Or a WKRP in Cincinnati fan on his web site. I am unable to find the Ken Wahl letter that claimed the music replacement in the recent Wiseguy DVD release was due to recent licensing fee gouging, and blamed the gouging on Napster, et al. It's interesting (though far from surprising) to see that the gouging has been going on much longer than that.