404 - Someone who is clueless. From the Web error message, “404 Not Found,” which means the document requested couldn’t be located. “Don’t bother asking John. He’s 404.”

Cobweb - A WWW site that is never updated.

 Generica - Fast food joints, strip malls, sub-divisions as in “we were so lost in generica that I couldn’t remember what city it was”

Posted at 10:15 AM in Games | Permalink | Comments (34) | TrackBack

"What Kind of Coffee are You?"

You're a Cappicinno!

What Kind of Coffee are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted at 07:56 AM in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This Photo comes from Le Monde:

via Name This Thing   

Caption away!

Posted at 11:08 AM in Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Is this a real product . . .

>

>

. . . or merely an invitation to discuss branding and marketing ?

Via Wordlab

Posted at 06:00 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How cool is this?

Its 12:34 . . .

>

via Gizmodo, ThinkGeek

Posted at 05:31 AM in Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Click photo for movie

very funny . . .

Posted at 10:03 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Terri Schiavo's Blog  is as offensive, obnoxious, insensitive -- and outright hysterical -- as anything you ever saw on South Park.

Typical posts are things like mmmmmnegh and  nggnugh.

If you have no concern for your mortal soul, then be sure to read the comments . . . Warning: If you laugh out loud at anything posted there, you will burn in Hell forever.

Posted at 09:42 AM in Humor, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The Linux-based MediaREADY FlyBoy™ Portable Media Player records up to 80 hours of video, stores over 200,000 digital pictures, or holds up to 740 hours of music on its 40 GB hard drive. Internal USB 2.0 hard drive allows the Flyboy to receive files from any PC, or VWB's MediaREADY 4000 or 5000.

Heres the press release.

>

3.5 inch LCD screen 0;
80 hours of video;
12,000 MP3s;
200,000 Pictures;
Digital Voice Recording;
Data Storage;
built-in speakers;
40Gig HD;
MP3; RM;
Custom Linux OS;

>

Price? $349

Impressive stats given the price . . .

Posted at 11:49 AM in Design, Film, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A company named Vectrix has a new Electric Scooter coming out:

The stats on the bike are pretty cool:

On sale in Europe late this year;
25% cheaper Cost of Ownership;
lower maintenance costs ;
zero spent on gas;
nickel metal hydride batteries cost fifty cents to recharge;
top speed > 60 miles an hour;
range is ~68 miles at 30 mph;
recharge time is ~two hours;

The rechargeable electric scooter will cost $10,000; Parker Hannifin is an investor in the firm. Granted, its not a $300 scooter, but its still pretty cool looking . . .

Source:
Electric and Fuel Cell Scooters on the Horizon
March 20, 2005
http://www.carbuyersnotebook.com/archives/2005/03/electric_and_fu.htm

Posted at 07:10 AM in Design | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

So I am having a pre-Easter conversation with a friend who grew up in a very Christian mid-Western town. Until he moved to New York, he had never met a person of Jewish faith (No, we never had a "dude, where are your horns?" moment).

He's now a very urbane New Yorker . . . Yet he's having a hard time wrapping his brain around the whole "Jesus being just another person of no particular religous significance to us Jews" thing.

I explain the whole waiting for the Messiah (Jewish) versus waiting for the Messiah's Second Coming (Christian).

He still doesn't get it.

He's a huge baseball fan, so I try to use the rooting for the home team analogy. After explaining that most of the world looks at Jesus that way, i.e., as just another philosopher, and that two thirds of the planet are not Christians, he starts to get an inkling of understanding. After all, you may not root for the other team's slugger, but you appreciate his RBIs and Home Run totals.

"So what is the Jews relationship to Jesus?" he asks.

"He was traded for a player to be named later . . ."

That he understands.

Posted at 09:08 AM in Philosophy, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

click for larger 'toon

Source: Peanuts

Posted at 11:31 AM in Humor, Philosophy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How on Earth did I ever miss this one:

R.I.P. John DeLorean, 1925-2005

1980s carmaker DeLorean dies at 80

Low Culture is becoming my must read for a daily dose of absurdity . . .

Posted at 09:12 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

As a follow up to Rock's Oldest Joke: "Freebird!", I've been directed to Rev. Billy C. Wirtz's "Freeway To Stairbird," off of the album Pianist Envy.

Its an amusing novelty tune that very much parallels the gist of the WSJ article.

FREEWAY TO STAIRBIRD

Funny, I never would have found the song, but for the WSJ article . . .

Posted at 06:28 AM in Humor, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This vlog has become a regular distraction; Kinda like a mental coffee break.

check it out

Posted at 08:49 AM in Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Everything I've ever said about George W. Bush is wrong (My bad).

>>

>

UPDATE March 25, 2005  6:24am

Nevermind

>>

Posted at 05:51 AM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More on the absurdity playing out in Washington D.C.

click for larger graphic

via Don Asmussen's Bad Reporter

>

See also:
Daily Show Comments On The Schiavo Media Frenzy -- Video
http://unitedleft.com/index/article.php?story=20050324211242185

Posted at 07:20 AM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

An amusing juxtaposition of political issues, via Low Culture:

via random surfing . . .

Posted at 05:39 AM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

“The R. Crumb Handbook,” the most recent in a series of biographies of such luminaries as Elvis, Marilyn and Jackie O., was put together by Peter Poplaski with Crumb offering occasional comments. There is also an accompanying CD of music by Crumb and his various musical groups—the Cheap Suit Serenaders, Les Primitifs du Futur, et al. The music itself poses no threat to the string bands from the '20s and '30s Crumb adores (here's a bet that this inveterate collector of 78s doesn't even own a CD player). But the joy and verve which it's played hints that inside the ornery artist who's playing these tunes lurks a joyous and unironic spirit: R. Crumb, musical softie.

Source:
Still Truckin'
By Malcolm Jones
Newsweek, 10:58 a.m. ET March 11, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7151500/site/newsweek/

Posted at 08:29 AM in Books, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tom Toles:

What? No Slithering Snakes?

Posted at 10:22 PM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Here's an astounding quote:

Upon signing the Schiavo Law, President Bush declared:

"It Is Wisest to Always Err on the Side of Life" 

Bush has been criticized for overseeing the execution of 152 convicted criminals while governor, more than any other governor in the history of the United States. Texas's penal system allows the governor to grant a single 30-day reprieve for each offense -- which then Governor Bush did for but one death row inmate.

Since that time, much of the nation's capital punishment system has come under increased scrutiny for being unfairly and unequally applied, as well as being riddled with procedural errors.

So much for "erring on the side of life."

>

UPDATE MARCH 22, 2005 10:21 AM

US Bishops weigh in on the Death Penalty

Posted at 09:32 AM in Philosophy, Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

click for larger photo

looks real . . .

Posted at 06:42 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Blog traffic spikes . . .

click for larger chart

Congrats to boingboing for the 2nd Bloggie in a row!

Source:
Boing - best of the blogs
By Rob O'Neill
March 22, 2005
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Next/Boing--best-of-the-blogs/2005/03/21/1111253920074.html?oneclick=true

Posted at 06:32 AM in Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Posted at 09:51 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Posted at 09:46 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Very cool stuff from Tim Biskup:

click for larger graphic

Posted at 09:38 PM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This is circulating via email -- minus author attribution. If anyone knows who actually wrote it, please advise:

Older Than Dirt
"Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf
course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later
years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good
only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there
is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we
never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds,
and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house
until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course,
black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the
screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was
green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs
that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day.
Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look
larger.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie." When I
bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung
down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the
best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family
was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the
living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to
listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the
line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I
delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I
got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I
had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were
the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least
favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection
day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies.
Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they
didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies.
French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to
share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't
blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

Posted at 09:14 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A very, very funny front page WSJ article:  Rock's Oldest Joke: Yelling 'Freebird!' In a Crowded Theater. The column is charming, and is subtitled "It's a Request, a Rebuke, A Cry From the Heart, A Tribute to Skynyrd."

Here's an overview:

"Somebody is always yelling out the title. "I don't know that I've ever seen a show where it hasn't happened," says Bill Davis of the veteran country-punk band Dash Rip Rock.

"It's just the most astonishing phenomenon," says Mike Doughty, the former front man of the "deep slacker jazz" band Soul Coughing, adding that "these kids, they can't be listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd."

Yelling "Freebird!" has been a rock cliché for years, guaranteed to elicit laughs from drunks and scorn from music fans who have long since tired of the joke. And it has spread beyond music, prompting the Chicago White Sox organist to add the song to her repertoire and inspiring a greeting card in which a drunk holding a lighter hollers "Freebird!" at wedding musicians.

Bands mostly just ignore the taunt. But one common retort is: "I've got your 'free bird' right here." That's accompanied by a middle finger. It's a strategy Dash Rip Rock's former bassist Ned Hickel used. According to fans' accounts of shows, so have Jewel and Hot Tuna's Jack Casady. Jewel declines to comment. Mr. Casady says that's "usually not my response to those kind of things."

Others have offered more than the bird. On a recent live album, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock declares that "if this were the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and you were going to die in 20 minutes -- just long enough to play 'Freebird' -- we still wouldn't play it." Dash Rip Rock often plays "Stairway to Freebird," a mash-up of the Skynyrd epic and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" that Mr. Davis boasts lasts "less than two minutes. ... You're finished before people get mad."

A few years ago, Mr. Doughty started promoting the Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men" as the new "Freebird," asking audiences at his solo shows to call for the disco chestnut instead. Now, he says, he gets yells for both songs at every performance."

Fun stuff. Credit the normally reserved WSJ with being hip enough to provide online subscribers several clips of bands interacting with fans yelling "Freebird,"  (including some profanity from Hicks):

• The original “Freebird" cry:  Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant and an Atlanta audience
• Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing, from the 2002 album "Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis."
• Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins during a 1993 show in Chicago
• The late comedian Bill Hicks during Chicago show in the early 1990s

Real Player required

As someone who saw Hicks live (Caroline's when it was at the South Street Seaport) I have to say I never laughed harder in my life. Find some boots of Hicks live (or get any of his CDs). He simply is hysterical.

One last idea: How to stop the Freebirders:

"As with many mysteries, the true origin may be unknowable -- cold comfort for bands still to be confronted with the inevitable cry from the darkness. For them, here's a strategy tried by a brave few: Call the audience's bluff. Phish liked to sing it a cappella. The Dandy Warhols play a slowed-down take singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor describes as sung "like T. Rex would if he were on a lot of pills." And Dash Rip Rock has performed the real song in order to surprise fans expecting the parody. For his part, Mr. Doughty suggests that musicians make a pact: Whenever anyone calls for "Freebird," play it in its entirety -- and if someone calls for it again, play it again.

"That would put a stop to 'Freebird,' I think," he says. "It would be a bad couple of years, but it might be worth it."

Terrific article -- a lot of fun . . .

>

Source:
Rock's Oldest Joke: Yelling 'Freebird!' In a Crowded Theater
It's a Request, a Rebuke, A Cry From the Heart, A Tribute to Skynyrd
By JASON FRY
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, March 17, 2005; Page A1
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111102511477881964,00.html

The Freebird Files
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB111101388806981616,00.html

Posted at 11:00 AM in Humor, Music | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Here they are:

Murphy's Computer Laws

1. When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.

2. When you get to the point where you really understand your computer, it's probably obsolete.

3. The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where you least expect to find it.

4. When the going gets tough, upgrade.

5. For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

6. To err is human . . . to blame your computer for your mistakes is even more human, it is downright natural.

7. He who laughs last probably made a back-up.

8. If at first you do not succeed, blame your computer.

9. A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

10. The number one cause of computer problems is computer solutions.

11. A computer program will always do what you tell it to do, but rarely what you want to do.

12. If your computer isn't broken, you probably haven't upgraded anything
recently.

Posted at 08:52 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Watch shit get shredded.

Its that simple . . .

Posted at 09:16 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I was at a conference last week, and there were 4 of these things available try -- they were way cool -- 15 mph.

And check this out -- from Cost Co.com, $300 -- delivered.

Tons -o- fun

Posted at 10:19 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Apparently, even astronomers frequently get it wrong:

     •      The expansion of the universe is one of the most fundamental concepts of modern science yet one of the most widely misunderstood.
    •      The key to avoiding the misunderstandings is not to take the term "big bang" too literally. The big bang was not a bomb that went off in the center of the universe and hurled matter outward into a preexisting void. Rather it was an explosion of space itself that happened everywhere, similar to the way the expansion of the surface of a balloon happens e verywhere on the surface.
    •      This difference between the expansion of space and the expansion in space may seem subtle but has important consequences for the size of the universe, the rate at which galaxies move apart, the type of observations astronomers can make, and the nature of the accelerating expansion that the universe now seems to be undergoing.
    •      Strictly speaking, the big bang model has very little to say about the big bang itself. It describes what happened afterward.

click for larger graphic

Graphic via SciAm

>

Source:
Misconceptions about the Big Bang
Baffled by the expansion of the universe? You're not alone. 
Scientific American, March 2005 issue
By  Charles H. Lineweaver and Tamara M. Davis
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147&pageNumber=2&catID=2

Posted at 09:49 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Why?

Posted at 09:32 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Strange as it may seem, only seven times has someone ever managed to successfully image the solar analemma as a multi-exposure on a single piece of film. For those not familiar with the term, an analemma is the figure "8" loop that results when one observes the position of the sun at the same time during the day over the course of a year. Due to the earth's tilt about its axis (23.45°) and its elliptical orbit about the sun, the location of the sun is not constant from day to day when observed at the same time on each day over the course of a full year. Furthermore, this loop will be inclined at different angles depending on one's geographical latitude.

very cool . . .

via Perseus

See also LuxOrion

Posted at 09:20 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

via boing boing

Posted at 09:06 AM in Food and Drink, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I am having the Travel Day From Hell.

I was supposed to be on 11:15 to West Palm, but it snowed yesterday, the roads were a disaster and my driver (who looked like and drove like Big Pussy from the Sopranos) was an hour late. I still got to the airport on time, but thanks to the wonderous policies of Delta Song, my reserved seat was not held. (It was straight out of Seinfeld: They know how to take the reservation, but they don't know how to hold the reservation).

Adding insult to injury, I got to stand and watch my plane just sit there for another 45 minutes without me before it took off.

At least, LaGuardia has wireless internet access $7.95 for 24 hours. Right now, I am sitting in LaGuardia Airport (Gate 4, Delta Song) on Standby for the 2:50 flight, which like everything else today is late. Delta posts the list of standby passengers on the overhead, and I see I am #6. Not bad.

Except now I am #8 -- no #9. Apparently, the Delta elite club members get priority over the first come first serve passengers.

I strongly suspect this will be my last ever experience with Delta Song.

UPDATE:  4:43pm  MArch 9, 2005

Fuck Delta. They are  incompetent. A thte airport, they tell me the 7:25pm flight is full -- I get home ($84 cab ride), only to be told there is one seat one the 7:25.

Too bad -- already rebooked on Southwest tomorrow.

Posted at 03:25 PM in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

or are we making these too easy ?

via Yahoo

Posted at 07:24 PM in Humor, Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

My friend, Cody Willard, who writes some great tech and investment columns for Realmoney.com, has recently launched his own blog.   

Cody, a New Mexico denizen loose in Manhattan, is somewhat funny and unconventional guy. His blog is the same -- unconventional and funny.

At any rate, he writes interesting stuff on topics ranging from racism to the return of hot Goth girls.   

I humbly suggest checking out his blog.

Posted at 02:37 PM in Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I took the dog for a walk on a cold Winter's eve (3/5/05), and the sky was a weird pink;

Unretouched photos:

different view, a view moments later  . . .

Kinda odd, huh?

Posted at 10:52 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

This would be a good photo for a caption contest:

Posted at 08:18 PM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

An utterly brilliant send up of the now clichéed "What Would Jesus Say" emem is over at whatwouldbillhickssay.

Hicks, for those of you who may have missed him, was one of the most brilliantly funny scathing social critics of the last century. We've discussed his work repeatedly in these pages.

Bill was a follower of Jesus the philosopher, and hated money grubbing preachers ("middlemen") distorted Christ's message of love and forgiveness.

A classic example of Hick's biting yet subtle wit is this comic bit: After a show down South somewhere, a few redneck types come up to Hicks as he is sitting with a book in a cafe:

Looks like we got ourselves a reader they threatingly observe.

One of the rednecks says: "We don't like what you said last night about Jesus."

To which Hicks deadpan replies. "Oh. Forgive me."

The site is filled with fans observations of how Hicks might have responded to some of the more moronic ideas circulating the world today.

Be sure to read the two linked articles, below . . .

>

Sources:
What Would Bill Hicks Say
http://whatwouldbillhickssay.com/

Too close to the bone
Bill Hicks' biting routines kept him a cult comedian
Jack Boulware
San Francisco Chronicle, December 26, 2004
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2004/12/26/ RVGU1ACM8U1.DTL&type=books

A censored comic's message grows louder
Tom Feran
Plain Dealer Columnist, December 12, 2004
http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living/ 1102761266230872.xml

Hat tip to Will Sargent

Posted at 12:04 PM in Books, Humor, Philosophy, Politics, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Check out  Josh Radin

you can stream his most recent song "Closer"

click "media" than click to Play Joshua's Newest Single "Closer"

      

very cool stuff . . . via Scrubs Music

Posted at 07:06 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Someone better give this guy a job as  stunt man in the movies before he kills himself:

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/amazingjumper.html

Incredible . . .

Posted at 10:17 AM in Humor, Sports | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I leave Southern California on Saturday, to come home to this in NY:

That's my block where I live above; Below was the view from the Gliderport, a few miles away from where I stayed:

My hairy dog out in the snow this morning:

The local California furry "Dogs" sunning themselves on the beach:

Lastly, here's my home front porch:

and the view from the front porch where I was staying:

Vacation withdrawal . . .

Posted at 11:59 AM in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack