Archive for August, 2008
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Assaultin’ Batteries
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on August 26, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008If you’re trying to live green, try shaking the battery habit. Lots of simple devices around the house no longer need to rely on batteries. Consider at least using rechargeable batteries (an option that’s economical too), or really shake things up with a kinetically charged LED flashlight. Or get all cranky and wound up with [...]
If you’re trying to live green, try shaking the battery habit. Lots of simple devices around the house no longer need to rely on batteries. Consider at least using rechargeable batteries
Jobama 2008
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 25, 2008 by admin in Politics
Monday, August 25th, 2008Who’s Yo Daddy Now? Jobama!
Do We Really Need This In Hi-Def?
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If you don’t have cable TV but for some ungodly reason you still feel like watching the Academy Awards of Politics (often otherwise referred to as the Democratic National Convention), you can now do so in HD, right on your computer. That is, if you feel like seeing Ted Kennedy’s bloated head rendered in high-definition, and you feel like installing the Microsoft Silverlight Plugin, and you feel like installing the Move Media Player, then you’re all set. If you have better things to do, like maybe learning more about what Vice-President Joe is about, you might want to check out Mashable.com’s 9 Web Tools For Learning About Joe Biden, which has links to everything Joe . Except their link to OnTheIssues.org, which is bunged. Here’s the proper link to his OnTheIssues.org page.
Who Needs A Decider When You Can Have A Divider?
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on August 24, 2008 by admin in Politics
Sunday, August 24th, 2008I am not not now, nor have I ever been a Nader supporter. Although I am kind of a commie.
So, you’re informed on the issues, and you’ve made your decision. It’s either Mr. Hopey-Changey Guy or Mr. Vietnamikaze. So why not prove to yourself with a blind taste test that you’re picking the right candidate for your needs? Take the quiz at GlassBooth.org, and you may be surprised at the results. Using a simple series of questions to define your core values, the site will tell you which candidate is the best match. You can even compare candidates that have dropped out, and rank by pecentage matches. Much to my horror, my best match out of the remaining field was Ralph Nader. Yes, that egomaniacal man of the people is running again, and no, I didn’t know either, until today. On my behalf I have to point out that the site doesn’t factor in whether or not you think a candidate is a blithering idiot or not. My best match out of all candidates was actually Bill Richardson.
Biden Against Extraordinary Rendition
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 24, 2008 by admin in Comics
Sunday, August 24th, 2008So we won’t give him one…
So we won’t give him one…
…because, you know, Obama was against the FISA bill.
Fleshmaps, Heatmaps, And Tag Clouds
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on August 23, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008Tagging the body electric with hip hop heatmaps and titillating tag clouds
Ever notice how many times in a rap song someone uses the word “booty”, or in a country song how often they use the phrase “in your arms”? Well at Fleshmap.com (maybe NSFW; occasional nudity and body parts) they have a cool tool that renders a visual representation of the number of times certain body parts are mentioned in a piece of text. You can view by musical genre or see a few examples of specific songs here. You can even create your own Fleshmap by pasting in a body of text. Fun, but a little limited. As a person kind of obsessed with how people communicate, I find “word clouds” and “tag clouds” more interesting. TagCrowd.com lets you paste a body of text and create a static version of a word cloud similar to the one here on Dissociated Press. Tools like this are not only amusing, they can be very informative. See this presidential speeches tag cloud tool. It’s a great way to view the themes not only of recent speeches, but going all the way back to 1776. You can even download the tool and set up your own analyses.