Its such a cheerful headline. Warming.

Could a link be added to part 1?

Whistle punk, chaser, and high climber. Steam donkey. Steampunk is taken; that leaves Whistlechaser, perhaps. How about High Punk Donkeychaser?

gee... I guess no one else wanted to play. And I left many good ones unnamed.

That was a geektastic episode - THX

and thx ben wright for the link. Now I need to get my palm e2 to bluetooth broadcast that text!

No 5 from the top - Fighting Monsters and Robots gave me this Skin Condition.

Oaaaah! These are beautiful!
When I got to Robot vs. Tiny Godzillas (no 10 down) I thought "Can't get cooler than this". Wrong. See no 15 down, Think about Monster, Forget Spacesuit, Die.

That was hysterically funny, and the line work is amazing - which is par for Al Capp, admittedly.

It runs Doom. Really slowly.

It's been over six hours since Robbo posted and no one has jumped on that straight line. Remarkable restraint.

I'm a little surprised that this phenomenon is still being ascribed to ghosts - I thought the little grey visitors had cornered that market.

My patent on Mexican Beanies (small sombreros with propellers) was revoked on similar grounds. Well, not very similar.

The minute one opens in LA I'm in. Thanx Xeni, I've never laughed so hard at BBTV!

I like my PEBL flip phone mechanically (the UI is apalling. It lives in one of the front pockets of my motorcycle jacket, where there is plenty of room. If I could only get it to make the Star Trek sound. Sigh. I did manage to make and upload a Violent Femmes ringtone :)

The link to the wifi watch leads to the 3G phone.

...and even some of us non-hipsters enjoy a good rant, even a violent one. Mark Twain and S.J. Perelman never stopped to worry about who they offended. Few have replied to his point - Apple is using a stylized discourtesy in dress and attitude to achieve what? Instant familiarity? If I let him insult me he must be my friend...

I'm becoming familiar with the demands servo motors make on batteries - I'm guessing that the task it was about to engage in when if fell apart (so cutely) at the end was "seek recharger".

LOL

flashing on Puppet Masters now!!!

"I can't wait to fry up a mess of punch cards." cried the half-man, half-mainframe.

Some horrible alchemy is occurring. The juxtaposition of the words moist, elastic, and o-ring with the image of the black-clad Applechik is fermenting into a new genre of technopron, if only in my mind.

Microsoft may have customers; they may even refer to them, publicly and privately, as customers. But they will be treated, at any time, like serfs. This is not news to anyone here, I trust.

Sorry to disagree, sproing3, but I thought that the most amusing post yet. Good luck with that decoding Bobolikebeer (I know better than to talk a geek out of his focus) though it seems more likely to me that with each effort you put into it Mad Charlie is now gaming YOU.

slashdot has picked this up btw; and there is a link there to a shirky talk at harvard -

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/2008/02/shirky

this one downloadable as video

defendin ur kittehs 24 7

(but we must imagine the cat)

How long until that data is being peddled to Wal-Mart?

THIMBLE owners!?! I question your sanity, man. There's a group you really don't want to mess with.

For a fascinating read on the subject of target shooting/focus/flow state; Zen and the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel (sp?). And yes, the title of this book (written in the late 30's IIRC) did inspire the title of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I used to really enjoy target shooting (pistol and bow). I never felt the urge to go hunting; too much hiking for my tender, urban sensibilities. But target shooting was a hobby that my (now ex-)wife and I shared; I gave it up after we split and sold my pistols.

As far as fantasies of violence go - there is a large divide between the stylized gunplay seen on TV and film and the rather grimmer reality - the idea that exposure to the realities of weapons would enhance or promote violent fantasies seems dubious to me.

The relation between bore and degree of happiness is simple - those trapped by their macho self-image into target shooting with .50 caliber rifles and pistols can be seen weeping softly to themselves later as they grip their empty wallets; those who have graduated to the pleasures of a well-tuned Ruger MkII .22 caliber pistol leave the range whistling a happy tune!

I was curious concerning afreets, but further reading satisfied my curiosity.

Monkey Doodle is trying to tell me something. If I stare into his eyes, I can hear his voice...
...never mind, that's just the children's chorus from the least wanted song.

Evidence that Weird Al Yankovic traveled in time (the guy in the photo is clearly Weird Al).

unfortunately, I need rugs about as much as I need more tees.
What I need is a way to turn old computer parts into delicious meals. In five minutes or less.

I feel confident that the "death by snoo-snoo" meme originated with storytelling around the ancient campfires. It is one of a handful of memes that spontaneously self-generate when any insular culture meets outsiders. That's my theory, and I'll rant it incoherently if I want to.

yeah, I used to DREAM of blogging from a sweatshop.

Thanks Evil Jim - great quote.
And a grateful shout out to Technoprayer for the TAL link; the interview with the creators of the piece is great, and Ira takes it over the top telling them why they REALLY like the unwanted song!!!

Book cover very cool - especially the OTHER occupants of the bench!

The comment above re: Freakonomics is right on: here's a link to the NYT magazine article they used later in the book-

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E1DA1431F935A35755C0A9629C8B63

The story is about an executive who quit his job to sell bagels - on the honor system.

Is "glass" cool photographer jargon for camera? Like "stick" is to surfers or "axe" to guitarists? Jason's anagrammatical post suggested this to me; and even if it isn't true, perhaps if I started using it that way...

O Noes! Server down!
They got BOINGED!

How about Second Life streaming in 3D to TWO cell phones - you hold one display up to each eye!

I got through just a minute ago - hilarious stuff
personal fave; the soma ad

thx for the Jello Biafra ref; that inspired about an hour of watching cool JB clips on youtube.

Another supercool moment from the conference footage: During Bill Moggridge's talk on (history/origins of) interaction design, he shows a video clip of Bill Verplank explaining interaction design while sketching out his explanation - brilliant - at about 23:40

Gillian Crampton Smith's talk was very interesting as well, particularly for fans of Arduino, Wiring, and Processing.

That was mega-inspiring and super fun to see an author I enjoy give so entertaining a talk.

Nice job photographer - hereafter known as Will "the Mann" Campbell!

This is really sad - pandering to neurotics.

Get out your tinfoil hats - here come the black helicopters!

I might never have read Bester if it weren't for all the references to him in SF lit in general (Asimov & Heinlein to name two who read him and in interviews and other writings referred to him positively).

Gully Foyle is my name
and Terra is my nation
...and I crosstitch in my spare time
and ebay my creations...

...oh no, it just occurred to me what this leads to logically...

CHIMPS WITH DIRTBIKES! NOWHERE SAFE TO RUN!

We must keep alert to this danger.

I ride motorcycles, and it's clear in most of the footage at least that the monkey is in control of a motorcycle (as opposed to the "reel him in" theory). What absolutely blows my mind is the math - as you can see in the last bit especially, the acceleration possible with a little monkey is incredible, and the task of controlling it is doable. Think intelligence over power/weight ratio.

Humans must activate Large Hadron Collider. Only then can Morvo return home...

yeah, that photo could be a production shot from darko - a cut scene.

I feel for the poor kids raised in this mess. Sigh. Not much hope for them considering who's got Moon's back.

BUT NO! My pseudoscience theory goes down in flames. Purple lenses can be used to gauge plant stress. Here's a link (with theatrical filter part numbers for DIY):
http://mvh.sr.unh.edu/mvhtools/psd_filters.htm

My argument for plausibility is that nasa and the usda publicise the spinoffs their tech and research produce. This shows up in searches. Anyone can sell purple lenses and claim whatever they want - but to make it plausible they make claims that can be researched. My quickie research turns nothing up, so I call shenanigans.

...so why not try searching nasa.gov and usda.gov? OK, I'll try out their respective advanced search options. First, "plant examining glasses". Nothing. Next, "plant examining". Nothing. How about "examining plant"? On NASA, that turns up 9 hits, none of which have to do with glasses. A typical example, "... and examining plant growth and changes in blood of long-duration spacefarers." On the USDA site, I get this for number of hits (on the phrase "plant examining") "1-10 of about 23". That is more ambiguous than I was expecting! And it will only show 13 results, because the "show similar results" link doesn't work. Oh well, still no glasses. Somehow I can't see buying a pair:)>

This looks like pseudoscience to me - googling "plant examining glasses" turns up lots of places to buy them, but no NASA or Dept. of Ag. hits. Hmmmm.

I got pwned. I've heard of the experiments, so I counted passes and kept my eye out for the unusual. Saw the bear. Got the number of passes right, congratulated myself... then... Moonwalking!?! PWNED!!!

The most easily forged art conceivable.

...unless that doesn't mean what I think it means.

That looks like Jewel from The Last Battle!

It looked like Joel had the wrong idea about the little copters - they shoot each other out of the "sky", right? So the copter has to be facing the other copter to shoot it. It doesn't have anything to do with the direction the handheld controller is pointing.
I have one of those (minus the "gun") and it is flyable, if your living room is large enough. Dogfighting would be really challenging, though.

Be sure to check out the rest of his site - the Automatic Puny Tune player and Harminium are truly lustworthy. I first thought "Mystery Box = perfect toy" but then realized that the stream of geeky friends trying to defeat it would get tiresome.

If I were a stop-motion filmmaker, I would be trying to talk to these guys about renting their apartment.

I see a charity angle here - a collection to send linux boxes to russian dissidents in need...

The way the photo was cropped gave me the impression that the dinosaur skeleton was a RADICAL miniature!

Sorry for freaking you out, Mark. I like to hike those trails, too, and I just can't keep those rocks from falling out of my pockets. They're so heavy!