All-inclusive Randomness

my medium knowledge of world politics suggests that this is the first time in history that a country has twins (as well as former film stars) for president and prime minister. i would think it was pretty funny had it not been for the fact that they are pretty damn populist and “family oriented”. something about the church saying that if you don’t vote for those two you’re voting against Christ also made me see the situation in less amusing light.

aren’t they adorable?

Pointer: Don’t circulate sensitive documents in a format that allows you to track changes.

You know those times when you’re drinking some wine after a long day at work and ahead of another one, drinking and chatting, and then a random phrase like anal leakage comes up? You do, right?

Couple minutes later you can’t quite remember how that happened but now you are (bravely) determined to image-google it? There, the number one result (a cute poop cartoon) leads you to a somewhat funny story about a do-it-yourself experiment on leakage effects of Olestra. Funny enonugh to appreciate when you’re tired and drunk. But you were really looking for was a diamond in the rough kind of an image, that Google failed to provide. So you AltaVista it. And it pretty much almost didn’t fail:

I hope you didn’t expect this post to be funny or make sense. It was about anal leakage for god’s sake. But yes, wouldn’t eat those Frito Lay chips that claim to be fat free.

theslovak is considering spending 5-10 years of her life studying the open source community. Fortunately, O’Reilly has released a new book, open source 2.0, to lead her in the right direction.

Have you ever wondered what blargh means? According to Dictionary.com it is: “An exclamation indicating that one has absorbed or is emitting a quantum of unhappiness.” A quantum packet of unhappiness!!! It is also the opposite of ping. Usage example: “Often, CMK can be pretty blargh.”

Now, there’s a keeper.

This is not a review (but I’m pretty sure I liked the movie a lot). This is about how they fooled me. While watching the movie, I kept thinking, hmm, the Ukraine is so beautiful. Wow, it looks just like Slovakia. I absolutely have to go visit! I even made preliminary dream travel plans to check out Uzhorod, and Kiev, and Odessa and some obscure places in addition to that. Well, no wonder I felt such emotional connection to the film’s landscape — IT WAS FILMED AROUND PRAGUE (yes, prague is not in Slovakia, but I claim it as part of my “motherland” anyways).

First I was mad. But here’s their reasoning:

Although the filmmakers had initially scouted the Ukraine, they decided to film in and around Prague. Says Schreiber, “The Ukraine was beautiful and a wonderful place to shoot, but there just weren’t the back up resources. I was lucky enough to have shot a film in Prague as an actor and had become great friends with Matthew Stillman who runs Stillking, one of Prague’s best production companies. I sent him the script and he was convinced we could shoot it there. He invited us to Prague and when I saw the locations I realized they were not only a perfect match for the Ukrainian countryside, but they were also really beautiful.”

Also, another thing that became illuminated while looking into this issue: the reason why I liked the cinematography of the movie a lot is because it was done by Matthew Libatique of Requiem for a Dream (as well as Phone Booth and Pi and I’m sure many other things).

Is it really really butt butt butt ugly? Britney’s reaction to a picture leak definitely suggests this scenario. Her lawyers say: “Anyone who publishes, sells or otherwise exploits any of these images in any way will be subject to liability and damages for wilful infringement of copyright.”

I have always been perplexed by the astronomical sums such pictures are worth (and the implication that people really really care to see them). But now I want to see the ugly baby too!

to give space for expression after a fight comes to a dead end and no one can prove that they’re right, to say ‘i told you so’ or ‘i was wrong’, and most importantly, to learn new things and dispel old myths. it’s going to be conflict resolution at its best.

this made me nostalgic but also gave me new hope at the same time.

the bass guitarist from gogol bordello. the one on the right. i want to have his babies. little gypsy punk babies. maybe. i mean, eugene would do too. i touched his shoulder. will i sleep tonight? most likely — i will sleep just fine. and i will be hung over at work. but i will be happy because there are creative people out there who make everything worth it. And, and, and, and — does anyone want to help me (pay, loan, pimp out) buy a ticket to this?

So I was going to mock the New Art but then I started playing with it. Now I wish I had written the code myself, with a few modifications to remove the art and make it a useful visualization tool. The artist here is named Mark Napier. He has a website with a variety of art to play with.

His art can be found later this month at bitforms, a NYC gallery, which merited a Wired article for its efforts in New Art.

What are you doing, Mr. Thunder From Down Under? And when you stop, could you take me off your email list? You’re not my type.

Sometimes I forget how much how much I love Jon Stewart. This video helped me remember.

BART is my new friend. We’d met a couple times before, but this month we’ve hung out a lot, and she’s pretty cool. We enjoy books together, meet random people, and BART always agrees do be the designated driver if I’m drinking. What a friend.

Even though BART does so much for me, sometimes she grates on my nerves.

The other day I tried to talk to her about it. I said to her: “I feel frustrated when I don’t know when you are coming and then you avoid the subject, talking about keeping safe and new routes on the announcement screen.”

She got all defensive, saying, “I always come at the same time. Is it really that complicated? I even posted the times. It’s not my fault you don’t remember or can’t read.”

“But you’re always late,” I said. “And…”

“I am on time 94% of the time,” interrupted BART, annoyed.

“Well, I guess I’m just in the lucky 6% then.” I replied. I remembered I was trying to be nice. “Look, I miss you when you’re gone. I would worry less if the announcement screen always showed how soon you’re coming rather than every five minutes or so.”

“You worry about me?” She asked, startled. “If I’d known, I would have worked to change. It may take sometime, but we can work this out.”

I would believe her but she’s not German.

—–

Remember that guy who made the iPod transit maps causing all sorts of ruckus? Remember how my friend BART sent a cease and desist letter almost immediately to Mr. iPodSubwayMaps? Well, she released her version a week ago.

Competition for the Ig Nobels is heating up already:

Computer chips that store music could soon be built into a woman’s breast implants.

One boob could hold an MP3 player and the other the person’s whole music collection…[more]

(via Audiofile)