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Saturday, June 14, 2003
The Almost Complete List of Presidents Who Slugged Someone:
From Who2. Not yet updated with the Bill Clinton smackdown of Dick Morris. How 'bout a Streetfighter: Presidential Edition? Bill Clinton vs Andrew Jackson for the Democratic title, Teddy Roosevelt vs. Abe Lincoln for the Republican, and then the winners face off? That would be cool, but then it would probably degenerate into Rutherford B. Hayes vs Chester Arthur.
A Plot to Deceive?:
From the Washington Post: "The Iraqi government in the 1990s admitted to U.N. weapons inspectors that it had produced 8,500 liters of anthrax and a few tons of VX. Where are they? U.N. inspectors have been trying to answer that question for years."
Onward to Saturn!:
The Cassini-Huygens mission will be there July 1, 2004.
Animations for All Type of Engines:
Just Click and Play!
Paradoxes:
An Example: "Poaching on the hunting preserves of a powerful prince was punishable by death, but the prince further decreed that anyone caught poaching was to be given the privilege of deciding whether he should be hanged or beheaded. The culprit was permitted to make a statement - if it were false, he was to be hanged; if it were true, he was to be beheaded. One logical rogue availed himself of this dubious prerogative - to be hanged if he didn't and to be beheaded if he did - by stating: 'I shall be hanged.' Here was a dilemma not anticipated. For, as the poacher put it, 'If you now hang me, you break the laws made by the prince, for my statement is true, and I ought to be beheaded, but if you behead me, you are also breaking the laws, for then what I said was false and I should therefore be hanged.'"
The Classiest 4-Color Ballpoint Pen in the World:
The Lamy 2000.
Friday, June 13, 2003
The Infamous Exploding Whale Video:
A Classic of the Internet.
How the Clintons Invited Ken Starr into Their Private Lives:
Reason magazine, April 1998:The "crisis in the White House" begins with the Independent Counsel Statute. From the start, many Republicans opposed that law for corroding the constitutional division of powers. Back then, of course, presidents were Republicans, so the opposition was easy to ascribe to partisan motives. But in 1994, when the statute was up for reauthorization, a Democrat was in the White House, and his party controlled Congress. The most vocal opposition still came from conservative Republicans, who turned out to be remarkably principled.
They were utterly unsuccessful. The reauthorized statute was passed by the Democratic Congress and signed by President Clinton. So, as columnist and former Bush speechwriter Tony Snow notes, the law still "compels courts to appoint an independent counsel whenever somebody produces a saucy rumor." Apparently trusting that their friends would always be the ones wielding it, Clinton and his allies left nearly unlimited power in the hands of special prosecutors. Whatever they may say today, they made Ken Starr possible.
They were utterly unsuccessful. The reauthorized statute was passed by the Democratic Congress and signed by President Clinton. So, as columnist and former Bush speechwriter Tony Snow notes, the law still "compels courts to appoint an independent counsel whenever somebody produces a saucy rumor." Apparently trusting that their friends would always be the ones wielding it, Clinton and his allies left nearly unlimited power in the hands of special prosecutors. Whatever they may say today, they made Ken Starr possible.
Web Economy BS Generator:
From dack.com. It will make you nostalgic, I swear.
A Great European Playing Card Site:
playingcardsales.co.uk . Amazing variety of playing cards.
The Oracle of Kevin Bacon:
This Oracle computes the degrees or separation from any actor/actress to Kevin Bacon. Be sure to check out the related Star Links Oracle, as well as the Oracle of Baseball.
Thursday, June 12, 2003
Deep Thinking about Weblogs:
The pet rock of the 00's: "Weblogs are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore for those of us who spend much time reading the Web. Also known by the inscrutable nickname 'blogs', weblogs are something of a hard nut to crack. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that a great deal of weblog content today is about weblogs and weblog technology. What are weblogs? What's the big deal? Why should we pay attention?"
Late-Night One Liners:
From NewsMax.
I Still Believe:
The Classic Column from 1998 by the late Michael Kelly.
Snapshots of the Past:
Originially drawn between 1850 and 1935, they have a selection of 900 panoramic maps, spanning over 47 states featuring over 750 different towns. Like this Menomonee Falls Wisconsin 1886 Panoramic Map
Maps Made for Printing and Copying:
From National Geographic, who else?
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Who's Who and What's What Quiz:
From the Well-Respected New York Times. Current Events Quiz-o-Rama.
Ghost Sites of the Internet:
A Flash Movie that takes a while to load, made up of all the long-gone logos of the dot.com boom.
The Official U.S. Time:
Right Here. If it's flashing "12:00", I'd go stock up on canned goods and bottled water. But that's just me.
Quotes from Mr. Baseball Himself:
Bob Uecker: "Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat."
Barney is Not a Dinosaur:
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
I Watched in Dumb Horror:
Tom Ward: "What was it that turned my initial enthusiasm into a sense of boredom, frustration and disengagement, surely the three deadly sins of the learning process? It can be summed up in one word: PowerPoint, the favoured tool of presentation for the unimaginative. "
Who's Afraid of the FCC?:
From the Armchair Analyst: There are a couple of faulty assumptions in the left’s so called reasoning here that need to be disabled. One could easily argue that more concentration of ownership would create more diversity not less. Niche markets, like techno music of libertarian talk radio, have, by definition, a smaller audience and therefore less profit potential. Though some profit may be possible, the initial investment required is too high to attract small-time media corps. A large conglomerate on the other hand, could easily divert resources to capitalize potential revenue. Think about bookstores. A mom and pop store can't afford to have an extensive philosophy section because ancient wisdom just doesn't sell in the quantities needed to pay back their investment. Borders or Barnes and Noble don't have the same problem because of the scale of their stock and sales. It costs them relatively little to set aside a shelf and a few books and rarities that might draw in a few more customers. Apply that simple model to radio and television and imagine the possibilities. Also see The Opinion Journal on this subject.
Eric Harshbarger's LEGO Pages:
He builds LEGO's for a living.
Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics:
Includes Semiconductor Physics, Edge Emitting Lasers and VCSELs. If Ren and Stimpy can explain multiple regression, then why not, I ask you?
So Why the Odd Brand Name for Shoe Polish?:
Inventor William Ramsay named the shoe polish Kiwi in honor of his wife, Annie Elizabeth Meek Ramsay, a native of Oamaru, New Zealand. The kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand, and "Kiwi" is also a nickname for a New Zealander, just as "Yankee" is a nickname for a citizen of the United States.
Monday, June 09, 2003
Just Say No to Grad School:
From Critical Mass:: "...the only reasonable and ethical way to respond to the starry-eyed student who is considering grad school is to be brutally frank and honest about the distinctly non-romantic, often non-livable life that is the reality they have to look forward to: to tell them about how they are not likely to find a tenure-track job, for example, and to be straight with them about things like the exploitative labor structure of academe and about the way the petty politics of careerism frequently displace and even destroy the pleasure--not to mention integrity--of scholarship and teaching. " Also: So You Want to Go to Grad School? and The Silent Scandal: "The biggest scandal in higher education is not inequality of pay, tuition fees or racism in the lecture hall. It's the number of students it sends through a doctoral pipeline to nowhere."
The Vince Lombardi Walk for Cancer:
I participated in this 3.1 mile walk on Saturday morning. I even saw Bart Starr in person! Potential Smugness Factor: Not only getting in a 3.1 mile walk before noon, but getting in a 3.1 mile walk for cancer. Pretty proud of myself, I should say. And then, after you're done with the walk, they give you a free Krispy Kreme Doughnut and a free Miller Lite beer. Helping others and helping yourself, all on a gorgeous day. It just doesn't get any better. (Note to my foreign readers: Remember the reverence shown to Randolph Scott in the movie Blazing Saddles? That's how it is with Vince Lombardi here.)
La Tour Eiffel:
Ah yes, in Paris, France, the City of Lights. Went there once on a business trip for the General Electric Company. So we go to the Eiffel Tower, went all the way to the top, and what do we find? Why, wax figures not only of Gustave Eiffel but also one of none other than Thomas Edison himself, one of the founders of the aforementioned General Electric Company. Sometimes it's just hard to get away.
Most Iraqi Treasures Recovered:
Reports describing the looting of Iraq's archaeological treasures from the national museum were exaggerated, and most of the precious inscribed tablets, gold jewelry and artwork dating from the birth of civilization have been recovered, a team of U.S. investigators said today.
Lorem Ipsum - All the facts:
lipsum.com: "Lorem Ipsum, or Lipsum for short, is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only four centuries, but now the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged."
Sunday, June 08, 2003
s o p h r o s y n e
Featuring the musical efforts of Jason Van Pelt of j.ink web design, the source of the Mondrian Randomizer you see at the top right of this page. Oh, to be young and multi-talented! Or maybe just young (I'd settle for that).
FlashTV!:
FlashTV! :: We Give You What You Need! All manner of Flash animations. A veritable gold mine.
What to Do if You Should Happen to Inherit a Stamp Collection:
My long lost uncle left me his stamp collection, now what do I do? Hey, ya never know.
The Character That Disney Cut From Fantasia:
The Memory Hole: According to the Internet Movie Database, the Disney company has denied that such a character was ever in Fantasia. Fortunately, at least one screen shot survives . . . (via the Presurfer)
A Sad Adieu to Air France's Concorde
From BusinessWeek: "Concorde's speed allowed fliers to make a round-trip in a single day from Paris to New York, arriving in New York earlier than they departed, thanks to the time difference. " For their 50th wedding anniversary, my folks took the QE2 over to London, and flew back on the Concorde. Pretty neat, the thought of your parents at Mach 2!
