Bob and Me, and other mistakes

No, the title of the post doesn't refer to a new sequel to the 1988 E.T. ripoff Mac and Me. Nor is it a followup to Michael Moore's Roger & Me. Rather it's two of the entries (Microsoft Bob and Windows Me) in PCWorld.com's 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. (via Metafilter)

In the interest of balancing the tech karma, PCWorld a while back also posted The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years.

Technorati tags: tech, best, worst

Sweet sweet lovin'. In just a minute...

I don't know if it's because of the excessive amount of sun I got today and I'm just hopped up on vitamin D or what, but this video from Tripod made me giggle, snicker and guffaw. Rumor has it I may have even chortled, though I'll never admit to chortling.
(via VideoSift)

Technorati tags: comedy, funny, Xbox

Living in Memento

In the 2000 film Memento, Guy Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, a man who has committed his life to finding the man who murdered his wife and caused the brain injury that prevents Leonard from forming new memories. It wasn't exactly amnesia. He could remember who he was, his family, his wife and everything up to the point where his brain injury occurred. After that, though, any new information he learned would only stick around in his memory briefly. Kind of like when someone gives you their phone number but you don't have a pen or paper. You might be able to keep the number in your brain for a little while; repeating it helps a little, but if you start talking to someone else, that number probably goes away and gets lost for good. That was what the Leonard character had to live with 24 hours a day for the rest of his life.

I was surprised to learn that there's a real-life version of Leonard. His name is Henry M. and he currently resides in a nursing home in Hartford, Connecticut.

As a young man, Henry suffered from severe epilepsy. In 1953 he underwent a radical brain surgery that was supposed to cure the epilepsy by removing portions of his temporal lobe. The seizures went away. Unfortunately, his ability to remember anything new that has happened since the operation has also been lost. Henry, now eighty, has woken up every day for the past fifty years thinking he is still a young man of twenty-seven, and is always confused and taken aback when he sees his reflection in the mirror. He relives shock and grief whenever he is told of the death of his mother. He has become one of the most-studied cases of memory in medical history. Read his fascinating and tragic story here.

Technorati tags: memory, brain injury, Memento

Instructions? We don't need no steenkeen' instructions!

Jay Is Games finds lots of little online gaming gems. Here's my current favorite. Click-Drag-Type is a game with no instructions. You figure it out. (via Jay Is Games)

Technorati tags: games

Why you should always bring pennies and tinsnips to the gas station

Why do gas stations add that 9/10 of a cent to their prices?

Technorati tags: gas prices, marketing

See you in the funny papers

Every single Calvin & Hobbes strip from its debut in November of 1985 to its final strip on December 31st, 1995.

On the subject of comics, let me throw a little love to Josh at The Comics Curmudgeon. Everytime I start whining about how hard my job is, I remember that Josh is out there taking one for the team, slogging through the likes of Family Circus, For Better or for Worse and Mary Worth every single day. Go Josh! You're a stronger man than I am.

Technorati tags: comics, Calvin and Hobbes

Plus, it's going to make carbonated beverages so much easier to manufacture!

The Al Gore film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, is causing some interesting reactions. Big Oil-backed think-tank The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has actually gone so far as to put out two astounding commercials not only denying that global warming exists, but that more CO₂ in the atmosphere is good for you. It's a pro-CO₂ advertisement! We breathe it out every day! Trees need it to live! It comes from the earth, how could it be bad for us?

Their tagline seems right out of an SNL parody commercial: "Carbon dioxide -- they call it pollution. We call it life." Watch it here.

Apparently, CEI's founder Fred Smith had a similar "lalalalala I can't hear you" exchange on Crossfire years ago talking about how “global warming was actually a good thing because of all the cool new crops we could grow.”

Here’s the transcript from Crossfire, 3/27/92:

Mr. SMITH: Look, the point- what we do know and don’t know, we know that carbon dioxide is increasing. We know carbon dioxide is a plant fertilizer which is a positive benefit to the peoples of the world. We know that there are these elaborate computer models that have never been right before, may be right this time, that suggest climate changes, possibly good, possibly bad. Most of the indications right now are it looks pretty good. Warmer winters, warmer nights, no effects during the day because of clouding, sounds to me like we’re moving to a more benign planet, more rain, richer, easier productivity to agriculture-

KINSLEY: Wait a minute.

Mr. SMITH: We’re basically to a world now that’s a lot closer to heaven than hell.

(via Boing Boing)



Technorati tags: global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, environment

Zoomzoom

Check out this never-ending mosaic . Click on any area to zoom another level deeper.

(via Digg)

Technorati tags: mosaic

Musical Peeping Tommery

I've added a feed in the sidebar that tracks what music has passed of late through my mp3 player. Feel free to be inspired, make mocking comments on my musical selections or just silently puzzle over why anyone in their right mind would listen to that much Dread Zeppelin of their own volition.

It's powered by Audioscrobbler, the media player plugin with the off-putting name (motto!), which can be found at Last.fm, home of excellent free custom-made radio with all your favorite bands. You heard it here first...

Technorati tags: music, mp3s, last.fm, Audioscrobbler

Sally's seashells, sick sheep and thistle-sifters

Try to terrorize your tongue with tortuous tongue-twisters.

Technorati tags: tongue-twisters, language

What is the sound of one mouse clicking?

Web Zen has a nice collection of easy-to-learn, hard-to-put-down mind games like falling sand | prisoner's dilemma | click the color | scissors paper stone | eskiv | splash back | atome | mumu | poom | troyis | block jump | tontie | circles | flow

(via Boing Boing)

Technorati tags: games, web zen

Tonight's forecast calls for freezing. Like a deer in the headlights.

College broadcasters aren't the smoothest or most professional in the world. We've all gotta start somewhere, I suppose, but this is ridiculous. Click the pic for video.


Technorati tags: video, funny

Weird Beards

The World Beard and Moustache Championships take place in odd-numbered years (draw what conclusions you will from that). Check out a small gallery of some of the 2005 World Beard Championship winners (via J-Walk), as well as the official WBMC page with more pics and much more info.

Technorati tags: beards, facial hair, WBMC

Kill your television (watch it on your computer)

Watch 70 channels of TV for free (legally), including Sci-Fi Channel, Poker TV and several, uhhh, "marriage-enhancing" channels.

Watch over 700 episodes of TV shows like Family Guy, The Sopranos, Arrested Development, 24, Lost and a bunch more. Not sure how this can be (or if it is) legal, so it might be suddenly gone. Watch it while you can! (both links from Digg)

Technorati tags: television, free

Don't blame us

...Nelson Rocks Preserve is covered in steep terrain with loose, slippery and unstable footing. The weather can make matters worse. Sheer drops are everywhere. You may fall, be injured or die. There are hidden holes. You could break your leg. There are wild animals, which may be vicious, poisonous or carriers of dread diseases. These include poisonous snakes and insects. Plants can be poisonous as well. We don't do anything to protect you from any of this. We do not inspect, supervise or maintain the grounds, rocks, cliffs or other features, natural or otherwise...

This refreshingly candid disclaimer for a nature preserve can be read in its entirety here.

Technorati tags: disclaimer

Why must I be sad?

The Saddest Thing I Own posts stories and photos of people submitting the history behind the saddest thing they own. It might be the last photo taken of a loved one before they committed suicide, or the comic book one boy was reading when his dad was murdered.

Some are moving, some are baffling, but all are interesting if only because of the personal aspect of it.

Technorati tags: sad, personal