Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Scam sites vanish after owners' names, addresses posted

arstechnica.com writes: Two brothers who ran a plethora of scam sites have been outed online, resulting in the disappearance of the sites they used to run. It's funny what the posting of a few pictures and addresses can do.

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

An Actor Whose Baby Blues Came in Many Shades of Gray

Paul Newman learned to use his flawless face, so we could see the complexities underneath.

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'Sun' Probably Dead

Rumor has it that conservative newspaper, New York The Sun is dead. The New York Sun—the right-leaning pro-Israel daily newspaper that was more or less doomed by the final, complete death of East Coast intellectual conservatism (thanks, Bush administration!)—will cease publication after all, with a final issue running on Monday. Probably...

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Digg Buries Rumors of Acquisition With $28.7M Investment

So I guess they aren't looking to get purchased.

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Friday, September 26, 2008

Wachovia in talks with Citi for possible merger

The retail bank Wachovia is said to be in talks with Citi to merge. While it has a sterling reputation in the retail sector, Wachovia took a big blow with an acquisition that left it holding some unstable Option ARM loans.

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Fuzzy Renaissance

Disney tries to put some life back into the muppets.

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The Top 15 Hottest Women on Television

Just look at the pictures. Park is way bootylicious! Who knew?

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Don't Be A Douchebag!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Almost-Averted Crisis

Looks like Democrats put the kibosh on a plan to oversee Fannie and Freddie a few years ago. May have averted some of this crisis. Though not the greater crisis because that was the work of agencies outside of Freddie and Fannie. Without them, the GSEs may have been fine. Maybe not. But this is a very interesting development. I've also read that President Clinton, by expanding Freddie & Fannie led to this entire crisis. A little far fetch since it was during the Bush presidency that the two (and the subprime industry) was allowed to fester and boil over.

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Alan Moore: Hollywood, I spit venom on your 'Watchmen' movie

Alan Moore Rocks. He's the godfather of all that is black and dark int he goth world. He is the man whom Trent Reznor scared of at nighttime because of his dark genius. And he's got these incredible silver claws. Where does he get those? From the article: "Moore tells LAT that modern filmmaking, "spoon-feeds us, which has the effect of watering down our collective cultural imagination. The 'Watchmen' film sounds like more regurgitated worms. I for one am sick of worms." He also rues the effect of Hollywood's siren call on the contemporary comics scene."

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The 10 Least Terrifying Justice League Villains

The Psycho Pirate 2 came in handy for the Anti-Monitor.

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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Palin's Creds - File Under Wha...?

From the New York Times:

Democrats, and some Republicans, have tried to make Ms. Palin’s lack of foreign policy experience an issue in the campaign. The McCain campaign, for its part, has made three main points so far when asked about Ms. Palin’s foreign policy credentials.

It invokes geography, noting Alaska’s proximity to Russia, as Ms. Palin did when she told ABC News, “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” Other times the campaign cites her résumé, noting that as governor she had been commander of the Alaska National Guard for nearly two years. And it often pivots to her work on energy policy, as Mr. McCain did last week, when he said, “I’m proud of her obvious knowledge of this nation’s energy needs, because that’s a national security issue.”

Friday, September 19, 2008

Sept. 19, 1982: Can't You Take a Joke? :-)

With a short post to a computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University, on September 19, 1982 at 11:44 AM, Scott Fahlman became the acknowledged originator of the ASCII-based emoticon.

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Journalists now use Twitter as easy quotes over Cabbies

A trend in journalism circles to search Twitter for quotes reflects the new media alternative to (wo)man on the street quotes, but the problem is that Twitter doesn't represent the (wo)man on Main Street, it represents the (wo)man on Geek Street.

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Monday, September 15, 2008

Your Data With Destiny

Great article by Bob Garfield. "Hey, Mark Zuckerberg, listen up: This is about how to monetize Facebook. The billion-dollar answer awaits you just below. Just hang on for about 5,000 words, and no skipping ahead, please. That'll just ruin the suspense."

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Saturday, September 13, 2008

Oded Schramm, 46, Mathematician, Is Dead

Dr. Schramm died in hiking accident where he fell to his death. According to the article he "melded ideas from two branches of mathematics into an equation that applies to a multitude of physics problems."

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Probably The Hugest Pixel Art on the Web [PIC]

Cool!

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Did 'Spore' copy protections backfire on EA?

I suspect that there'd be just as much torrent downloads even without the DRM protection. And are these torrent versions cracked? Anyway, DRM does need to be put out to pasture but illegal downloading of software has the opposite effect. The one star reviews on Amazon, now that makes a statement.

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Concerns Beyond Just Where the Wild Things Are

Pure genius. And much more complex than I ever imagined. Darker too. Unbelievable that I never knew so many details about him. From the story: "Maurice Sendak on the death of his longtime partner, his recent triple-bypass, and the celebration of his 80th birthday at the 92nd Street Y."

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Joe Girardi Speech at Lou Gehrig Sports Awards Dinner

Yankee Manager, Joe Girardi, gives his speech at The ALS Association Greater New York Chapter's Annual Lou Gehrig Sports Awards Dinner.

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Yogiisms

The ALS Association Greater New York Chapter honored Yogi Berra at their annual Lou Gehrig Sports Awards Dinner. This video was prepared to honor the great Yogi and his penchant for turning a phrase (upside down, that is!)

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Top 10 Movie Battle Scenes (Videos)

AskMen.com offers their opinion on the top 10 battle scenes. It's flawed, but everyone knows how hard it is to pick the best ten of anything While I am a LOTR geek, I think that there was a better battle to include than putting in battles from both Two Towers and Return of the King. Two Towers, is the superior battle, hand-down.

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John McCain’s 42 Flip-Flops

McCain says, "I’ve been through this litany before, where I say, “ok, what specific area have I quote changed?” Nobody can name it. … I am the same person and I have the same principles." Well, here's the proof.

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Jon Favreau interview on the Iron Man Franchise!

Jon Favreau just can't seem to talk too much about Iron Man 2 without talking about Iron Man 3.

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Tennant Set For "Doctor Who" Movie?

David Tennant is in negotiations for a new film version of "Doctor Who"

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Iron Man 2, 3, and 4 may have Captain American and the Hulk?

"Paramount pulled out no stops for the Iron Man DVD launch this week with Jon Favreau sitting down with a major contingent of online press to talk about plans for the sequel and beyond." I would like to see the Muthos Capt. America storyline as an origin story for a C.A. movie. That would be sweet and probably be one of the best origin stories in a long time, if done right. Blend of nostalgia and action. Thinking a quirky director like del Toro or something.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Geeks - Geeks!

Poster of the many flavors of Geeks. Very funny.

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Halloween Bubble Fogger Brings Fog-Filled Bubbles

I need one of these for my Annual Halloween bash! From the article: "Halloween fog machines? Been there, inhaled that. Bubble machines? Still pretty cool, soap in the eye or not. But what if humanity had created a machine that combined the venerable fog machine with bubbles? Interest piqued? Consider it done!"

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We Will Die!

Funny. Not true. But funny.

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Wired Magazine - Great Quote

Wired Magazine has this great article on scientists trying to duplicate the most fundamental organic chemistry to mimic life. In the article was this fantastic quote by one of the scientists: "some of the chemical syntheses that simple plants and algae can accomplish far outstrip human technologies."

Goes to show you how far we still need to go to catch up with what nature has been working on for billions of years!

Red the article titled, "Biologists on the Verge of Creating New Form of Life."

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Paper Clips: Review of the HBO Holocaust Documentary

The children of a small town teach the world a lesson about the Holocaust and tolerence.

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Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport:

Movie Review: While most of the world ignored the growing danger of the Nazis, some tried to do something about it. The Kindertransport was started in England to help save children from falling into the death trap of the Nazi regime.

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Kung Fu Panda Is A Kick In The Pants

Movie Review: When I heard that Jack Black was going to star in an animated Dreamworks production populated only by animal characters playing a martial arts wielding panda, my initial reaction was, “What the Fu?”

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Iron Man: A Little Flat

Movie Review: Standing in my kitchen after viewing Iron Man on opening night, I had the strange sense that something was terribly wrong. Earlier I had taken my teenaged son to see the movie, leaving my wife at home. That wasn’t the problem.

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Didactic Chat: Bruce Sterling

Interview with Bruce Sterling. "When I first set out to find Bruce Sterling, I thought that it would never happen. Surely, a guy who has written the seminal -punk anything book, whether it be cyber-, steam-, or (I kid you not) monkey-, would have better things to do with his time."

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The Electronic Newspaper From Science Fiction: Coming Soon

I've been waiting for this! "The electronic newspaper, a large portable screen that is constantly updated with the latest news, has been a prop in science fiction for ages. While the dream device remains on the drawing board, Plastic Logic will introduce publicly on Monday its version of an electronic newspaper reader: a lightweight plastic screen that mimics the look of paper..."

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New E-Newspaper Reader Echoes Look of the Paper

So cool and it looks better than the Kindle, which is ugly as sin. From the NYT: "Plastic Logic introduced its version of an electronic newspaper reader: a lightweight plastic screen that mimics the look — but not the feel — of a printed newspaper."

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Monday, September 08, 2008

Reinventing the wheel to help disabled

This is cool! Watch the vid. From the story: "When David Hughes sets off to travel he has to plan his journey with meticulous care."

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Saturday, September 06, 2008

Power To The Bottom

The power of Web 2.0 is taking a news turn with P2P lending and communities like PatientsLikeMe.com, made up of people who suffer from life-altering diseases—Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's, HIV/AIDS and ...

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Sarah Palin ‘affair’: big media stays quiet as ‘lover’ named

What the fu..? "While America's respectable media focus on John McCain's acceptance speech to the Republican faithful, blogs and gossip sites continue to lead the feeding frenzy surrounding the National Enquirer's allegation, reported here yesterday, that McCain's running mate Sarah Palin had an affair with her husband's business partner."

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Friday, September 05, 2008

Shifting Careers: Résumés for Presidential Hopefuls

To build the case for creating an online résumé, VisualCV.com created mock résumés for Barack Obama and John McCain.

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The man who "invented" cowboy clothing has died

RIP Jack Weil - Cowboy shirt maker. I tip my straw hat to thee.

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BigDog Beta Quadruped Bot Video Is So Stupid It's Hilarious

Piss Your Pants Funny: "If you thought Humanity was damned after watching the latest BigDog quadruped robot, prepare to loot the nearest supermarket and run for the hills, because this video of the beta version of BigDog will leave you in awe. And probably make you wet your pants with laughter, like some of the best Monty Python's skits."

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Rice Heading to Libya to Meet Qaddafi

I thought we didn't talk to terrorists? I guess we only talk to terrorists of previous administrations. From the story: "Muammar el-Qaddafi, in the eyes of the Bush administration, is rehabilitated, his country removed from the State Department’s terrorism list."

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What would you do for a Klondike Bar.



This guy is the best. Go to YouTube and subscribe to his channel.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

13 High Speed Photography Images

Just cool!

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Wednesday, September 03, 2008

The 8 Most Obnoxious Internet Commenters

True.

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Senator Obama Has Secret Meeting With Fox News Executives

Now this is the way to handle the media. Seems that it's a good reflection of Obama's diplomacy and ability to speak to hostile enemies. In direct opposition who McCain flies off the handle and cancels an appearance on CNN when he's unhappy, Obama sits down and negotiates. This is a great is a great way to juxtapose their personalities and performance under pressure and criticism.

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WSJ.com - Palin Queries Push McCain To Skip CNN

Apparently McCain has taken the issue of foreign policy off the table by picking Palin and then boycotting CNN. Oddly now that the Republicans have a candidate that appears flawed in all the areas they attacked Obama on, they now refuse to even speak to the media about it or answer questions. The debates are going to be interesting, indeed. In other news, Obama had a private sit down with Fox over their coverage of his campaign. Seems that's the more, ahem, stately and diplomatic way to handle the media. But what do you expect from this hot head (McCain)? Folks, do we want a gentleman or a nutcase in the White House? From the wsj.com report: "McCain abruptly canceled a scheduled appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live" in retaliation for an earlier interview on the network, in which an anchor raised questions about vice-presidential candidate Palin's foreign policy credentials."

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Letterman Baffled by NBC’s Replacing of Leno

In the story they say Letterman has his doubts about Leno leaving next year. But my source inside NBC says it's a lock. They've already built a studio for Fallon, with the plans still a go for testing him out on the Internet. Looks like with the successes of Hulu and the Olympics, NBC is confident about its Internet strategy. From the story on nytimes.com: "David Letterman, the CBS host who has competed with Jay Leno every weeknight for 15 years, now feels empathy for his late-night challenger."

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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

So What Do You Do, David Karp, Founder of Tumblr?

Popularity, not profit, is the name of the game for this Web platform prodigy

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Fla. college turns academics into business venture

Boing, Boing, Boing... A college kid develops a bouncy vehicle for his father's heel chair so he can enjoy the beach and see sailboats up close again. From the AP story: "When Travis Watkins was asked a few years ago to devise a college engineering project that would help people with disabilities, the first person who came to mind was his father, who once cherished walks along the beach. The deadly illness known as Lou Gehrig's disease has left his father in a wheelchair..."

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