Links posted in February 2007
February 28, 2007
February 27, 2007
Interesting hypothesis from Steve Hyden at The A/V Club: the history of rock music is written by the "losers" (for example: the influence of punk music is far overestimated and the influence of disco and stadium rock is vastly downplayed).
February 22, 2007
I've heard of Working Assets before but I think they're blazing a new trail with the Planned Parenthood Wireless plan. 10% of your phone bill is donated to Planned Parenthood...and they'll buy out your current contract? Is this the future of fundraising? What must this gambit be worth?
If you're bored at home and looking for something fun to do with your significant other... why not do something a little more interesting? Sound is very NSFW. Video is semi-clean
February 21, 2007
Rate your students dot com. A place for professors to bitch about their students instead of the other way around.
February 18, 2007
It's International Fuck Wit Dre Day - and Everybody's Celebrating. As you pursue your various street knowledge missions, enjoy this acapella version of Bitches Ain't Shit or this coffeehouse version of Straight outta Compton (posted earlier), put a Dre Day Sticker on your 6-7 Imapala or just witness the strength of street knowledge.
SxSW Music Schedule - just over three weeks away. [more inside]
February 17, 2007
A great research paper on the history of phone service in the USA, and its relationship with the current state of the cell phone market. And why it would be better to just buy a fucking phone rather than having to sign up for a contract.
February 16, 2007
Cross between a fighter jet, motorcycle, and car. Check out the video section of the site. Top Gear reviews the car and they LOVE it. I totally want one when they come out.
February 15, 2007
If The Wire is your thing, you'll probably also enjoy an incredibly engaging account of an enforcer for the Chicago gang "Gangster's Disciples" and how he ran for city alderman in 1994. I couldn't help the feeling that Larry Hoover was like a real-life Avon Barksdale the way he seems to run the Illinois prison system. It's also an eye-opening description of life in Chicago's projects. Is The Hole the real-life The Pit?
February 13, 2007
KillaCycle is the worlds quickest electric dragbike. Actaully, with a best e.t. of 8.76 @ 152 mph it is the fastest electric vehicle in the quarter mile ever. Video shows record breaking run, motor dies at top end of the track. You can see the bits flying off if you look close. see also www.a123systems.com [more inside]
Hey, is anyone else having strange problems with Firefox recently? This afternoon, Firefox on two of my XP machines does not willingly connect to websites. I've twiddled the cable modem, and that's fine. And I can still make successful SSH connections. And IE6 seems to work fine...
Any suggestions?
So I'm torn about Barack Obama. From the little I know, he seems promisingly suited to presidency but I worry about how much experience he has. However, reading this speech against the Iraq War from 2002 has really helped push me more into his camp. He's speaking in Austin on Feb 23d in the Gregory Gym -- come see him in person and judge for yourself. [more inside]
Hack Coinstar to avoid the 9% surcharge I heard about this on the Diggnation podcast. Pretty simple if you don't mind looking silly/raising suspicion by fiddling with the cables.
February 12, 2007
On Reading My Stasi Files - in 1961, graduate student Frederic Pryor was arrested by the East German secret police (the Stasi) and held for months before being released (in the Gary Powers spy swap, no less). This absolutely fascinating essay (written in 1994) explores the power of secrets, the dynamics of monetary union, and the corrosive moral effects of living in a police state.
From cynical-c, please enjoy this List of people with unusual names, from God Shammgod and the original LowTax to Optimus Prime and Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel [more inside]
What happens when a british auto show gives its talent a free trip to the USA and $1000 to buy a car for a cross country trip through the american south? Oh, did I mention they spray painted such choice phrases as: "nascar sucks," "I'm bi," and "Hillary for president" on them? Let's put it this way, it's not good...
February 11, 2007
This is an interesting website which utilizes the concept of micro loans. The idea is that you make small loans to business owners in poor countries to help them thrive. So far they have a 100% repayment rate although historically with other versions of this setup they see about a 96% repayment rate. It's an interesting way to help make the world a better place with little risk of losing money.
MONSTERS, MADMEN, SAMURAIS, META-SEX
So my brother (David Wilentz) has done many things in his (punk rock) life, with two main interests, movies and music. Anyway if you follow the link you can see some of the pretty cool indepth reviews he has written for the Brooklyn Rail in good ole NYC.
Towtruck Johnny says check it out, double for you Nate!
February 10, 2007
How does Bill Gates feel about the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ad campaign anyway?
- "And I don't know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don't even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it?"
- "Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine."
February 09, 2007
Junior Kickstart - The Go! Team (featuring Ms. Pac Man, Blinky, Pinky, and Inky). Look out for the completely sweet spin move. It's good but doesn't hold a candle to that time I torched wiepooh where he stood by spinning right 'round (like a record, baby).
February 08, 2007
Now Anna nicole Smith dies unexpectedly. Very strange, very strange...
Little People - A tiny street art project. [more inside]
February 06, 2007
Can’t ever seem to stab anybody hard enough to do any damage. Am I missing something?
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Maybe it's the red cyclops eye. I don't know why I got a kick out of The Human Side of the Belshaw Donut Robot 42. It makes 384 donuts per hour and has a donut odometer!
Prince's Halftime show at the Superbowl - not only the best superbowl performance ever, it vaults straight into the pantheon of best televised music performances ever. [more inside]
February 05, 2007
Gov. Perry actually does something we can agree with?
The AMC theater chain has a butt-numbing proposition for you: a $30 ticket to see all 5 best picture Oscar nominated films back-to-back. Plus free popcorn and soda refills. Sadly, Austin seems to have been left out.
Here is how America rated those super bowl ads. People are stupid with one notable exception: showing a generic Flomax ad during the super bowl is not worth your money.
[more inside]
February 04, 2007
part one of the site move: complete
There is a clone of AE running over here. Why doncha try logging in, posting, commenting, trolling, etc.
But BEWARE! Any changes you make to that webpage will be lost forever when we move the real page over there. So don't make any changes you'd like to keep.
February 03, 2007
Astronomer Jim Gray is lost at sea Look through a subset of a very large number of .jpg files of the ocean, and help with the rescue effort.
February 02, 2007
Well, since no one else has posted about the coming end to the biggest cult series since... Star Wars? Star Trek? Anything sci-fi? [more inside]
Apparently, MSN thinks our job prospects are better than I thought.Check out entries #20 and #30. Who ever knew we had more earning potential than actuaries, pharmacists, or financial advisers?
February 01, 2007
Texas Microbreweries fight for the right to sell their beers directly to consumers (on premises) - interesting enough but did anybody realize that "there are only 5 microbreweries left in Texas"? Is that for real? I mean, this is a big state.
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oblink - We've been having major issues with linkspammers. I went through and deleted all the user accounts that had super spammy-looking urls in their user profile and crap for email. If I nuked you just sign up again or contact an admin. [more inside]