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Entries for November 2004

Beautiful book for you foodies out there, All About Apples

Beautiful book for you foodies out there, All About Apples. And it’s a free PDF from the folks at tastingmenu.com.


This cnet holiday gift guide is stupid

This cnet holiday gift guide is stupid. Everyone gets the same general recommendations. Get my son a computer and my daughter an iPod? Wow, didn’t think of that!


Two days in the life of 24 New Yorkers (including me)

Two days in the life of 24 New Yorkers (including me). We’re all obsessively documenting our lives with cameraphones for the next two days.


Bush twins try to get a table

Bush twins try to get a table at a NYC restaurant, maitre ‘d tells them the restaurant is full for the next four years. Entire restaurant cheers, does shots.


The self similarity of fishing motor vehicles

The self similarity of fishing motor vehicles out of the water.


I’ll be posting a bunch of photos

I’ll be posting a bunch of photos on Flickr over the next two days for a friend’s project. Savor the poor quality of my cameraphone.


Seinfeld donated his “Puffy Shirt” to the

Seinfeld donated his “Puffy Shirt” to the Smithsonian for their pop culture collection.


The guy preparing your food in a

The guy preparing your food in a restaurant is a “Mexican guy earning a paycheck, watching the clock praying for his shift to end as he sweats in front of a blast furnace”. It’s not “someone like Emeril or Mario Battalia waxing ecstatically about herbs and oils, engaging in something close to foreplay as they lovingly prepare your entree”.


Inuit folks can now publish on the

Inuit folks can now publish on the web in their own language thanks to a custom CMS.


The false dichotomy of design: you’re either

The false dichotomy of design: you’re either an agent of neutrality or an aesthete of style.


Sotheby’s is auctioning off the world’s largest bottle of wine

Sotheby’s is auctioning off the world’s largest bottle of wine. The 4.5 foot tall bottle holds 1200 glasses of wine.


Preliminary evidence found that humans may have

Preliminary evidence found that humans may have inhabited North America 25,000 years sooner than previously thought.


Strange photos of Justin Timberlake and Cameron

Strange photos of Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz attacking some photographers. Look at Cameron use her mad Charlie’s Angels skillz, yo!


Bill Gates gets 4 million emails a day

Bill Gates gets 4 million emails a day. I thought I had a spam problem…


An interview with Michael Koubi, former member

An interview with Michael Koubi, former member of Israel’s security service. Some interesting stuff about interrogation techniques and approach.


A report from the Museum of Media History, circa 2014

A report from the Museum of Media History, circa 2014. Featuring Googlezon, Newsbotster, and news editing robots. I want me some Google Grid.


The top 40 bands in America today as

The top 40 bands in America today as determined by a panel of mp3 bloggers and industry folks.


Interview with Tim O’Reilly about eBooks and remix culture

Interview with Tim O’Reilly about eBooks and remix culture. The first two parts of this interview are available as well.


Weirdly biased list of top 500 songs by Rolling Stone magazine

Weirdly biased list of top 500 songs by Rolling Stone magazine. “Like a Rolling Stone” and a song by the Rolling Stones went one/two…is that a joke?


Disney to make Toy Story 3 without Pixar

Disney to make Toy Story 3 without Pixar. Maybe they’ll freshen it up with some new characters: they could have Cruella Deville, Lilo, Pumbaa, and the bear from Brother Bear make cameo appearances!


A clip from an abandoned Errol Morris

A clip from an abandoned Errol Morris project shows Donald Trump talking about Citizen Kane.


John Cleese now performing regularly on his web site

John Cleese now performing regularly on his web site. “It’s like having a tiny TV station or a magazine. The simplicity is delightful.”


Photos of Chris Cobb’s project to organize

Photos of Chris Cobb’s project to organize a bookstore’s shelves by color.


Interview with Lindon Leader, designer of the excellent FedEx logo

Interview with Lindon Leader, designer of the excellent FedEx logo.


NBA tells Vince Carter to stop listening

NBA tells Vince Carter to stop listening to his iPod during pregame warmups.


Requiem for a Dream


The lost journals of Doogie Howser, M.D.

The lost journals of Doogie Howser, M.D.. “Sometimes the best advice is in the last place you look, and by ‘best advice,’ I mean, ‘my wristwatch.’ And by ‘the last place you look,’ I mean, ‘Mr. Cheswick’s esophagus.’”


A former editor in chief of the

A former editor in chief of the Encyclopedia Britannica called Wikipedia a “faith-based encyclopedia”. He’s got a point, but on the other hand, find me the EB entry for the 2004 Presidential election.


The New Yorker on the “carefully wrought,

The New Yorker on the “carefully wrought, highly refined” architecture of the new MoMA here in NYC. “It is one thing to display Frank Lloyd Wright models inside your galleries; it is quite another to have Rem Koolhaas design your building.”


I posted how I made the flipguy

I posted how I made the flipguy image to the cool technique group on Flickr.


How to learn a language

How to learn a language. “For instance, in French, ‘Il fait du vent’ can be used to practice French f’s, v’s and d’s, or ‘un grand vin blanc’ for French nasals.”


This is the 1624th Tuesday of my life

I woke up with a hangover this morning, which is odd because I don’t drink. Maybe it had something to do with reading about PHP right before bedtime. I’ve heard PHP is just a gateway drug for Python, so I’m not looking forward to how I’ll feel after reading about that.

My insomnia appears to be lifting…I slept until 10:30 on Saturday and the alarm woke me up this morning. Barely. The buzz around the water cooler was that I was either depressed or affected by daylight savings time, but I think it was just general stress.

(Still reading? Most boring entry ever, right? Be thankful I didn’t regale you with how I got off the subway this morning. Said tale would have included the line, “wielding my New Yorker magazine like a machete, I slashed my way through the dense thicket of #9 train commuters…” You would have hated me for it.)


After 4100 miles, one man’s trip across America

After 4100 miles, one man’s trip across America on a Segway comes to an end in Boston today. They will continue on to Segway HQ in NH for a company celebration.


My favorite from a wonderful collection of Ronald Reagan photos

My favorite from a wonderful collection of Ronald Reagan photos. “There was this odd moment where Mrs. Reagan and President Reagan were having this little private chat and right in the middle you see Michael Jackson.”


Jessica Helfand on the design of The Incredibles

Jessica Helfand on the design of The Incredibles. “Design looms large in this new world vision [of Pixar]. And thanks to Edna Mode, we now we have our very own superhero to prove it.”


Flipping

After the Met yesterday, I sat on the stairs to watch these two street performers who were really quite good. At the end of the show, one of them did a flip over four people. I made this composite of the photos I took of his jump:

some guy flipping over 4 people
(click for a larger version)

I posted about how I made this image in the cool technique group on Flickr.


Ze Frank on Passive Aggressive Communications Solutions

Ze Frank on Passive Aggressive Communications Solutions. This was part of his presentation at Poptech.


The Economist: “The world’s patent systems need

The Economist: “The world’s patent systems need reform so that innovation can be properly rewarded”.


The “tragic and disorienting” legacy of Yassir Arafat

The “tragic and disorienting” legacy of Yassir Arafat.


Malcolm Gladwell on “good artists borrow, great artists steal”

Malcolm Gladwell on “good artists borrow, great artists steal”. A playwright steals material from an article of his and he tries to figure out why he’s not that upset about it. Fantastic article.


The Paris Review is in the process

The Paris Review is in the process of putting all of their interviews online. They’ve already made available interviews with Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Truman Capote, etc. This will be a great resource when finished.


Silhouettes of Aeroplanes is an aircraft recognition guide from 1917

Silhouettes of Aeroplanes is an aircraft recognition guide from 1917.


Check out Gothamist’s Movable Hype show at

Check out Gothamist’s Movable Hype show at The Knitting Factory on Tue.


Are humans genetically predisposed to be spiritual?

Are humans genetically predisposed to be spiritual?.


Few Are Chosen exhibition at the Met

As part of a lazy Sunday here in NYC, I ducked into the Met for a couple of hours and wandered around. I’ve seen the whole muesum at least twice, but I never get tired of it. The Gilbert Stuart exhibition is worth checking out (the room with several of his Washington portraits is fantastic), but NYC photography fans will want to check out Few Are Chosen, an exhibition of street photography. Featured are the photographs of Walker Evans (he took photos of NYC subway riders with a hidden camera), Helen Levitt’s photos of NYC street scenes, gritty photos of NYC by an artist whose name I forget, as well as a selection of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work. The collection is fairly small but well worth checking out if you’re into that sort of thing.


It’s Blogbitpodtorrenttivocasting!

It’s Blogbitpodtorrenttivocasting!. Now, someone build an app where we don’t need to know anything about what Bittorrent or RSS are and we’ll have something.


The stock selections of US Senators outperformed the market by 12%

The stock selections of US Senators outperformed the market by 12%. One of the study’s authors says “there is cheating going on, at a 99 percent level of confidence.”


Tarnation

The main character and narrator initially spent $218 making this film on his Mac and ended up with something that is remarkably sharp and almost professional, considering he used iMovie to edit it. Caouette pieced the film together — according to Ebert’s review — from “old home movies, answering machine tapes, letters and telegrams, photographs, [and] clippings” so effectively that it seems like the 30 years of media was recorded with the movie in mind. The feel with which Caouette crafted Tarnation reminded me of Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream and Pi…same twitchy editing and musical style combining to make a powerful and affecting film.

Tarnation is currently playing at Film Forum here in NYC…check the film’s web site for dates in other cities.


We see faces in audio equipment

We see faces in audio equipment.


Guide to film aspect ratios

Guide to film aspect ratios.