Mark Frauenfelder at 12:49 pm •
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My friends and I have relaunched our television program recommendation service, called TV Ultra. Every day, you can go to tvultra.com and find out which show we think is the best to watch (my pick for February 1 is
A Raisin in the Sun). You can also sign up for the TV Ultra mailing list, and get the pick emailed to you in plenty of time to program your VCR.
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Mark Frauenfelder at 11:24 am •
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Truly excellent picture of a little car nearly crushed under a load of plywood its owner was attempting to drive away with. Note the sleeping pasenger in the car! (Read the accompanying story, too.)
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Cory Doctorow at 7:34 pm •
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Excellent rent from Suck explaining why WAP sucks:
WAP sucks. WAP devices suck. Anybody with the initials "WAP" sucks. A capital "W" next to a capital "A" even kerns badly. WAP-enabled devices (and the acronym menagerie that goes along with them) combine the rock-solid reliability of the Internet with the rock-solid reliability of a cell phone. Plus per-minute usage charges, the elegant legibility of a calculator wristwatch and the handy convenience of a portable sink for hand-washing obsessive-compulsives. The act of offering WAP as a "feature" rather than "some sort of extravagant expression of self-hatred" should be considered fraud. (Thanks, jbrewer!)
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Cory Doctorow at 7:17 pm •
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Oh. My. God. The "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About" page is not only high-freakin-larious (funny enough to give Adrian Mole a run for his money), but it's also charming, British, and obsessive as hell. I love --
love -- cranks. (Thanks,
Drue!)
Margret's four-hundred-and-fifty-second most annoying habit is to stealthily turn off the central heating (then light the gas fire in the room she's in, natch.). I'll suddenly notice that, sitting typing at the keyboard, I can see my own breath while from the bedroom one of the kids will call out "Papa, I can't feel my legs." And I'll shiver down the stairs to find the central heating set to 'Summer/Hypothermia/Cryogenic Suspension, and Margret in the living room watching the TV in a door frame warping furnace. Link
Mark Frauenfelder at 4:25 pm •
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Some guy sold an empty PlayStation 2 box on eBay for $425. The item description read: "This is a [sic] auction for the playstation 2 original box and receipt."
On the feedback page, the buyer complained: "Buyer beware!!! Misleading information about item. Paid $425 for an empty box!"
The seller replied: "I sent what was promised in the auction.I do not rip people off. Shes [sic] a liar." Link
Mark Frauenfelder at 2:53 pm •
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One of my favorite novels by Rudy Rucker,
The Secret of Life, is now available as an eBook.
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Cory Doctorow at 8:31 pm •
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Inveterate zinester, former Adbusters editor, and science fiction writer Jim Monroe hosts No Media Kings, a guide for the indie media lover in you.
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Cory Doctorow at 3:45 pm •
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"Sam" and "Zak" give us the lowdown on all things that can be smoked -- courtesy of the (sadly defunct) Webzine Open Letters. (Thanks, Kato!)
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Mark Frauenfelder at 5:23 pm •
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Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackout
Bruce Sterling on the origins, the outrages, and the lessons of California's energy muddle.
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Cory Doctorow at 3:57 am •
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It turns out that if you ask a rat to negotiate a maze all day, it'll dream about negotiating mazes all night. This from MIT, yet!
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Mark Frauenfelder at 2:33 pm •
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This is pretty funny. Some guy recorded samples of Arnold Schwarznegger's movie dialog and then used them to make prank phone calls. (In MP3 format.)
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Mark Frauenfelder at 1:35 pm •
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Excellent long
Wired article on human cloning.
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Mark Frauenfelder at 9:52 am •
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New York Times Magazine writer recounts his early experiences with ecstasy. "A half-hour later a feeling came over me somewhere between the looseness that follows a good workout and the euphoria of winning the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes."
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Cory Doctorow at 2:58 pm •
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Duelling bloggers! Congrats to Bob and Eileen Parks, oldtime digerati and swell folks, on the birth of a new generation of Wired editors. Awwwwww.
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Mark Frauenfelder at 1:21 pm •
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Good LA Weekly cober story of Max More and Natasha Vita-More, transhumanist/extropians. " Max's first extropian principle is Perpetual Progress: 'Seeking more intelligence, wisdom and effectiveness, an indefinite life span, and the removal of political, cultural, biological and psychological limits to self-actualization and self-realization. Perpetually overcoming constraints on our progress and possibilities. Expanding into the universe and advancing without end.' Other extropian principles include Practical Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Open Society and Rational Thinking."
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