January 2008
OT: Tumblr bug fix
You can now effect the order of Tumblr posts by changing the post date! Woo!
This means I have a work-around for the bug reported by myself and others: that the bookmarklet posts at local time, and the dashboard posts at NY time.
“The time was the 19th of May, 1780. The place was Hartford, Connecticut. The...”
– — Alistair Cooke
Wild boar shot on school grounds | BBC News →
‘A wild boar has been shot dead at a primary school in Gloucestershire.’
Security vs. Privacy | Schneier on Security →
‘You can see it in comments by government officials: “Privacy no longer can mean anonymity,” says Donald Kerr, principal deputy director of national intelligence. “Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people’s private communications and financial information.” Did you catch that? You’re expected to give up control of...
CCTV must not record conversations, warns new... →
’ “CCTV must not be used to record conversations between members of the public as this is highly intrusive and unlikely to be justified,” said the new guidance. “You should choose a system without this facility if possible. If your system comes equipped with a sound recording facility then you should turn this off or disable it in some other way.” ‘
All very...
FCC unveils NudeTube | The Register →
American TV sensors think that the bottom is a sexual organ.
High Court approves software patents | The... →
Damn.
OT: Tumblr Upgrade
These new custom theme variables are excellent — more please. “block:following” is exactly the opposite of something I’ve been wishing for: call me an egotist, but I want to automatically post the name of every Tumblr that’s following me…
“I became a supporter of cannibalism when I lived in Tromsø. One learns that...”
– — reblogged from The Daily Meh
Ferguson's Gang
The following from the article “The Cloaked Crusaders”, in the spring 2008 National Trust Magazine.
[…] a mysterious masked band of philanthropists who had taken to making sudden and startling appearances at the National Trust’s headquarters with sacks of money and clear instructions to direct the funds to particular causes.
[…] Nobody knew who Ferguson’s Gang...
Bank turns London man into RFID-enabled guinea pig... →
Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical... →
‘And there are, at the risk of sounding superweird, only so many ways to describe reality. After I’d read my 189th novel about someone living in a city, working in a basically realistic job and having a realistic relationship and a realistically fraught family, I was like, “OK. Cool. I see how today’s world works.” I also started to feel like I’d been reading...
Earth Gets Soft in the Middle | LiveScience →
‘Earth’s middle layer may be squishier than previously thought.’
Japanese astronaut to test whether boomerang comes... →
Thanks to The New Shelton Wet/Dry.
Odyssey of State Capitols and State Suspicion |... →
‘His mission was to photograph each of the nation’s 50 state capitol buildings and dispatch a postcard from each city, using postage stamps from a childhood collection.
[…] As Mr. Fazel continued his travels, he slowly began to perceive that he was on some kind of watch list.’
Post Box or Cheese? →
James Ball at 'Comment is free' on the Freedom Of... →
‘The act has been in force for three years this month. Though passed in 2000, it only came into force in January 2005. In theory, the act finally allows UK citizens to find out what public bodies are up to; in practice, it is a pale imitation of its US counterpart.
[…] Every card is stacked in the government’s favour: the act is packed with exemptions for huge classes of...
Unshredding | Schneier on Security →
“If that cat ever learns to spell, we’re in trouble.”
Little people concealed in hockey bags fleece... →
The Day They Tried To Kill Me had this wrapped up before I did.
Encore! | Futility Closet →
‘Reportedly the world’s shortest play is The Exile, by Tristan Bernard. The curtain rises on a mountaineer in a remote cabin. An exile knocks on the door.
EXILE: Whoever you are, have pity on a hunted man. There is a price on my head. MOUNTAINEER: How much?
The curtain falls.’
Panto weapons 'a safety risk' | Metro.co.uk →
‘The amateur dramatics society imagined its plastic cutlasses, wooden swords and gun that fires a ‘Bang’ flag were harmless enough for a production of Robinson Crusoe.
However, it was a case of ‘Health and safety officers are behind you’ when they were told to call in police to ensure every ‘weapon’ was safe. The toy gun must now be kept in a safe box in...
5 Strange Stop-Gap “Solutions” to Climate Problems... →
Artificial volcanoes
Insulation for glaciers
Shiny trees
White paint
Giant space mirrors Neatorama had this first.
Sweden to Study Belching Cows | Wired →
“Nobody can be a hero with a name like Ceran Swicegood!” Manbreaker would...”
– — From Nine Hundred Grandmothers, by R A Lafferty. (Follow the link to read the full story.)
Paper airplane to be launched from International... →
Reblogged from rodmitch.
The Unburdened Mind | Damn Interesting →
‘The psychopath’s world is a strikingly skewed one in which the normal laws of human emotion and interaction do not apply—yet it serves as reality for a sizable portion of humanity. Spanning all cultures and eras, roughly one man in every 100 is born a clinical psychopath, as well as one woman in every 300. They are so common that every person reading this sentence almost certainly...
1 tag
On "Fragile Things" By Neil Gaiman
If an eagle gives you a feather, keep it safe.
Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that
witches are often betrayed by their appetites;
dragons have one soft spot, somewhere, always;
hearts can be well hidden,
and you betray them with your tongue.
— From Instructions
Gaiman writes with bold strokes and bright colours, so I suspect you could figure out his comic-book background...
The Astonishing History of Vibrators | TeeBeeDee →
’[…] But that was the furthest thing from the minds of the male doctors who invented them more than a century ago. They were more interested in a labor-saving device to spare their own hands the fatigue caused by treating “female hysteria.” ‘
Thanks to The Daily Meh for spotting a stimulating read.
NUDE NUDE NUDE!!! - Rate Your Music →
‘This list compiles all kinds of real nudity on album covers.’
Demonstrates exactly how different the sixties was. I mean, The King’s Singers? Buddy James’ Trumpet Pops? Hammond Organ Hit Parade?!
Thanks to Poirpom for uncovering this.
A scrapbook career in shreds | Los Angeles Times →
‘As popularity soared, scrapbooking — in all its forms — exploded into a $2.6-billion industry where enthusiasts young and old, conservative and radical, grudgingly put aside differences to compete in national contests, attend global conventions, build blogs, join chat rooms, create online portfolios, and view YouTube and other online instructional videos.
[…] Disgruntled...
The Honesty Experiment | Neatorama →
People put more money into an honesty box when a pair of eyes were pasted on the front.
Caught in the web | Comment Is Free →
‘As of December 31 last year, all UK ISPs duly agreed to adopt the system. You’re now viewing a state-mandated subset of the internet. How do you feel about that? Like to vote against it? You can’t. Like your MP to sit on a committee to oversee implementation? He can’t. Like to know if the Google results you’re seeing are a full representation of Google’s actual...
The world’s most controversial boardgames |... →
I rather like the idea of the cannibal one, actually.
Cops admit CCTV no use in deterring drunken... →
As I remember it, that’s what the cameras were supposed to be for.
Wright Hassall, Solicitors →
Courtesy of our couldn’t-make-it-up department.
Porton Down veterans offered £3m | BBC News →
‘The ex-servicemen say they were duped into taking part in what they thought were cold remedy tests at the Wiltshire research centre in the 1950s and 1960s.’
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Darkest ever'... →
‘Researchers say it is the closest thing yet to the ideal black material, which absorbs light perfectly at all angles and over all wavelengths.’
Hungarians unleash dog bark translator | The... →
Drug Approved. Is Disease Real? | New York Times →
Again, The New Shelton Wet/Dry.
Wesley Snipes to Go on Trial in Tax Case | New... →
‘But unlike other celebrities who find themselves on the wrong side of the Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Snipes has a flamboyant explanation: he argues that he is not actually required to pay taxes.’
Thanks to The New Shelton Wet/Dry.
Christopher Columbus' Real Discovery: Syphilis |... →
‘This probably won’t settle the debate, but both sides do agree on one basic fact: a pandemic of syphilis hit Europe shortly after Columbus’ return, and it changed the course of history. Originally a highly lethal, hideously disfiguring disease, it soon morphed into a more subtly destructive form — one that still killed and caused dementia, but was largely unbetrayed by...
Vatican to train more exorcists | Sydney Morning... →
‘The Vatican is concerned that young people are being exposed to Satanism through the media, rock music and the internet.’
Once again, thanks to The New Shelton Wet/Dry.
