Editorial & Opinion
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[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 2, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008Fortunately for you, still quite a bit more than chicken.
Well, as parts, probably upwards of $7,000. The problem being that someone else gets all the money. If you’re actually still alive, things can be a little better, or a little worse. If you’re Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, you’re apparently worth around $232,000 a day. On the other end of the job prestige vs. income scale, a Thai prostitute gets about 500 baht (around $15) for a “long time”, which apparently is a night and most of the next day. Still not getting a solid sense of what you’re worth? Well, HumanForSale.com will be glad to tell you, but if you’re dumb enough to complete all the questions on their site, just send me a few grand via that PayPal link in the upper right, and I’ll just as happily tell you what you’re worth. For a more scientific approach to all of this, check out this EvilMadScientist.com article. Did you know that LSD is worth 50 Million dollars a pound vs. diamonds, at a paltry 12.5 million? And who’d have guessed that pound-for-pound, hundred dollar bills are worth twice as much as cocaine? Although if you’re talking British Pounds, a dollar is only worth £0.55.
Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on August 30, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Saturday, August 30th, 2008It’s never too late for an October surprise!
Bush & Rove Laughing Hysterically
At Gullibility of American Public |
Back in 2001, right after the attacks on the World Trade Center (someone’s going to kill me for that link), a friend of mine and I joked about how Bush would somehow try to link the attacks to Saddam Hussein so he could invade Iraq. At the time, the idea sounded preposterous, and we had a big laugh. That’s why, after joking last year with a friend that “the only way a Republican will be in office in 2009 is if we go to war with Iran”, I’ll go out on a limb and predict an invasion by October. Some headlines this weekend: US prepares military blitz against Iran’s N-sites, Dutch pull spies on Iran attack fears, Israel ready to attack if Iran goes nuclear, US and UK begin war games in Persian Gulf , and the only one in the U.S. media: Iran warns any attack would start ‘world war’. Gentleman, rattle your sabres…
I Found Jesus In My Latte
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 27, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008No, it’s not a new song by Willie Nelson, it’s a latte art printer.
It’s always cool when a barrista takes the extra effort to at least make a classic apple or rosetta in your crema. Inventor Oleksiy Pikalo is taking it all to a new level, with his DIY Latte Art Printing Machine. I was a little surprised that someone with such an enterprising mind would already be trying to sell out to Starbucks through their My Starbucks Idea site, a sort of on line suggestion box… Imagine if after the Starbucks staffer finishes correcting you on how you refer to their sizes, you have to make a decision on whether you want a regular crema or an art crema: “I’d like a lowfat grande Miley Cyrus almond latte with an extra shot, hold the whip”. Even more surprising to me is the fact that Starbucks has a suggestion box in the first place. Not surprising is the fact that the number one suggestion is lower your prices! For more images of crema art created by his machine, see this collection from SIGGRAPH 2008. NOTE: On behalf of purist crema artists out there, it’s only fair to point out that this machine actually uses caramel-colored liquid to achieve the images, not deft manipulation of a dynamic media like tiny bursting bubbles of hot milk.
Add A New Dimension To Your Life
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 26, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008Retina torturing, optical nerve-twisting looks at the 4th dimension and optical illusions
Life feeling a little two dimensional? Try hopping over to the fourth. This series of videos, although presenting explanations of the fourth dimension that will make your optical nerves snap, is also somehow calming. Produced by resarchers at The ENS Lyon, they’re presented in an almost pastoral style in terms of pace and narrative. Put aside a good 15 minutes to take them in if you decide to check them out. For some equally compelling but less smoothly produced retinal torture, check out this clip demonstrating some perception-bending, M.C. Escherian six-point perspective. And for a quick eye-twister, try to convince yourself that there’s only a single grid spinning in this image (full size version of image at left). Most people see anywhere from five to eight. That last one is legit, in spite of being brought to you by the guy that recently pulled of the iPhone hologram hoax.
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.