The Vacuum Savant
Is this a hoax? I don’t know but I can’t help but think of how much I hate the very notion of vacuuming when I see how much this kid loves it.
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The cake was how big?!
More here
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Flying Men!
Imagine diving out of an airplane thousands of feet in the air, reaching terminal velocity and then landing right back on the ground, all without a parachute. This has been a dream of man since Leonardo da Vinci sketched out his first plans and probably far before that.
Yesterday the New York Times ran an article about one of the forerunners in what is formally called wingsuit diving, Jeb Corliss. Mr. Corliss came to wingsuit diving (which is basically people trying to be flying squirrels) after trying base-jumping and shark-baiting so you can imagine how dangerous this is. Still, despite it’s danger, there are teams in at least half a dozen countries trying to be the first to perfect the art of falling without a parachute. The original article can be found here at the New York Times website.
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Steven Milloy, the evil "scientist"
There are two sides to every argument, fine. But maybe there are certain things that shouldn’t have two sides, the protection of the environment for one. That’s why people like Steve Milloy and his JunkScience.com really doesn’t make any sense to me. Milloy has set himself up as the defender of truth AGAINST the science of global warming. His site is hard to get through for all the clever wordplay (“Help fight Global Fooling” and the like) and needless Gore-bashing, but once you do it just gets more sinister. Of course, global warming isn’t the only accepted science he argues against, here’s a list of his top ten junk science instances.
This move doesn’t make much sense, but for some reason Milloy was behind the very false rumor (you may have heard this one) that compact fluorescent bulbs cost up to $2,000 to clean up if they are broken. The rumor was then perpetuated by his main employers, Fox News and the gang, but he’s the source. For more about that controversy and how full of shit he was, go to this article from TreeHugger.
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Worst web site ever: Watching Grass Grow
That’s right, this site (Watching-Grass-Grow.com) is a dedicated web cam watching some bloke’s yard. The goal? To watch the grass grow, that’s it. The webcam updates every 3 seconds and, well that’s it. I’ve already spent too much time writing about it.
Previously featured inane things:
- Roomba TV, another hard-to-believe-anyone-watches web cam attached to a guys autonomous vacuum robot.
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First Nat'l Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament in Las Vegas
It’s American superficiality at its best in Las Vegas today as the World Rock, Paper, Scissors final tournament is being held. The prize? $50,000.
Oh yes, the same method you used to decide who had to go over the fence and get the baseball as a kid can earn you more than the annual income of most people in the industrialized world. There’s some very well-written commentary about the event in The New York Times or you could just watch it on ESPN as it happens. Seriously.
For more about the world of Rock, Paper Scissors I found the RPS Society website to be very helpful. They also have up to the minute tournament coverage on their main blog.
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More about Jello, from Utah
After the posts about the Jello model of San Francisco and the 13 lb Gummy Bear, I was interested in learning a little more about Jello. It turns out that in addition to being made from connective tissue, Jello is also the official state snack food of Utah. The above picture is Jello celebrity spokesman Bill Cosby receiving the official plaque. For a list of other official state snack foods, check out the helpful State Food List on Wikipedia.
Previously on Duenos:
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Rubber Duckie, you are the one
DuckPlanet.com is the number one Rubber Duckie website on the internet and a must-see for the major collectors and the merely curious alike. After perusing the insanely comprehensive photo collection, you may be starting to feel a jonesing for your own rubber duckies. If that’s the case, check out the duckplanet links for a long list of duck suppliers and private collections. Of course if you’re looking for the Paris Hilton-level rubber duckies, try DuckDoos scented ducks. Hmm, mango rubber duckie…
If you do anything at on this site, play the Duckplanet squeaker game in which you have to guess which rubber toy makes the specific squeak they play for you. Seriously.
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Interested in Ballooning?
I’m still unsure how I stumbled upon it, but nevertheless, I encountered the underground balloon modeling culture in its full force and am still catching my breath. The leading balloonaholic website, Balloonhq.com, provides endless pictures of balloon art, how to balloon instructions (601 page pdf), contact info for “balloonatics”, balloon history, and a bunch of other stuff you probably don’t care about. At the very least, this article has kept you sharp on pop culture.
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The proper way to wear picture-rings
Ever wondered about the right way to wear rings that depict faces? I’ve been wearing an old family ring my Dad gave me for years and people constantly asked me why I wore my ring upside-down. After arguing with everyone about it, I finally broke down and asked the experts at the Emily Post Institute. Here is my e-mail, and their response:
…I have an old family ring that I’ve been wearing for years that depicts the face and head (in profile) of a Roman Centurion. Should the Centurion’s helmet (the top of the picture) be closer to the base of my finger, or the fingertip?…
…Usually, a pictorial ring is worn with the base facing the wearer, not the “observer.” Therefore, the centurion’s helmet is closest to the fingertip…
I guess this is what they mean:
For more information about men’s fashion and style, my favorite writer is GQ’s Style Guy. He may be an elitist, but he does have a caustic style that’s fun to read.
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Betting on global warming
If there’s something out there to bet on, people will. That seems to be the principle behind the latest round of bets being taken at gambling site, BetUS.com. It seems that online gamblers have taken to betting on what the effects of global warming will be. The consensus: Manhattan will be underwater by 2012. Other interesting stats to note: BetUS gives the odds of Capes Henry and Hatteras being part of the ocean floor by 2015 at 200- and 300-to-1 respectively.
Go on and place a bet, global warming might just be good for someone yet. Thanks to Yahoo! News for the lead on the story. The picture is from The Day After Tomorrow.
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Zero Tolerance = No Fun
If you’re in the mood to get really angry or even to poke fun at the tough stance schools are taking nowadays, check out these examples of zero tolerance gone wrong. Check out this story where a Japanese student was given a box cutter and a paper so he could write an apology letter in blood for falling asleep class. Don’t worry though, the teacher was only suspended for few days and you can bet that kid never slept in class ever again. Yikes!
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Roomba TV
Roomba, autonomous vacuum cleaner and primary reason to hate everything about American society. These little suckers are just plain odd, and so is this. An overenthusiastic Roomba owner has attached a spy cam to the front of his which can be found streaming live vacuum-packed action here. Obviously most of the time the stream shows nothing but wall as the Roomba recharges, so he has also put up these older videos. Thank God for the free market.
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Josh Wolf released, along with his footage
After being incarcerated awaiting charges for 226 days, Josh Wolf has been released. Wolf refused to hand over his raw footage (a journalistic right) of an anti-G8 protest in San Francisco after law enforcement agencies subpoenaed it. His justification was that there was nothing of consequence on the tape, which after having seen it myself, I would have to agree with. As part of Wolf’s release terms, he agreed to publish the footage online which can be found through his website here or by clicking the picture below.
The video in question shows what you would expect a video of an anti-G8 protest to look like. A very small amount of educated but frustrated American youths in facemasks and hoodies march through the streets shouting things like “Whose streets? Our streets” and “fuck the police state.” After awhile, the mob mentality takes over and the protesters start throwing paint balloons at local shop windows, dragging metal newspaper stands into the street, and tagging passing buses. Police enter the scene and the whole thing is actually unremarkable. Still, it was good to see that Wolf had been right in his assertion that his footage showed nothing too important and it is even better to know that he is finally out of jail.
See my previous post about Wolf winning a Journalist of the Year award here
A BBC article about Wolf’s release
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Go South Young Man
Global warming isn’t happening quite fast enough for sun-seeking Americans who have been moving to sunny Southern California and Florida at such rates that the property prices haven’t had time to catch up. Business Week recently put out a special report about the 274 most appreciative zip codes in America. Quite why they’re appreciative is unclear, and there’s certainly no real understanding as to why they chose 274, but in an equally random number choice, here are the top 11 and here is a link to the report.
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In Katrina's Wake
Absolutely brilliant and heartbreaking, those are the words that come to mind looking through Chris Jordan’s web-preview of his book, In Katrina’s Wake.
The Hurricane Katrina is one of those important events that gets completely ignored by the generation that lived through it only to be memorialised by their less-guilty-feeling children. The reason for the guilt? While we continue to consume at an almost inhuman pace, fight wars all over the world, and thumb our noses at global warming, proof that not all is right sits there in the heart of the United States where the Mississippi meets the Gulf and we’re almost straining ourselves to not look at it.
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Josh Wolf wins Journalist of the Year
The Northern California Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists have awarded Josh Wolf their highest honor, the SPC Monroe Award. For those of you who don’t know, Josh is a blogger/independent journalist who has been in jail awaiting charge since August 1st, 2006 when he refused to release video tape footage he’d taken at a demonstration in July, 2005. He is being held unconstitutionally on trumped up charges of civil contempt and on February 6th of this year he became longest-jailed journalist in US history for refusing to comply with a federal subpoena. I am a big supporter of Josh’s and he more than any other person has convinced me that this country needs more independent journalists keeping us up-to-date on what is happening in this world.
An excerpt from his acceptance speech, which he had to deliver from prison:
The face of the media is changing. This we know for sure. But what remains to be seen is the role professional journalists take in developing this new landscape. Will the battle lines be drawn with two classes of warring voices or will we work together in solidarity to develop a massive chorus as diverse and eclectic as our society itself? As journalists is our commitment to an economic system or is it to the pursuit of the free flow of information? The power is in your hands. Choose wisely.
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Selfish thinking taken to a new level
In one of the more blatant acts of selfishness I have heard of, a group of American families hurt by the USS Cole-incident, is suing the government of Sudan for $100 million. Some facts for you: The bombing of the USS Cole killed 17 sailors in October of 2000. Since 2003, the genocide in Sudan has taken the lives of probably 400,000 people and displaced a further 2.5 million. If this law suit goes through and the Sudanese do pay, I think we all know where it’s going to come from. It’s one thing to file ridiculous law suits within the US where we’re all relatively well-off, but this is unconscionable.
A BBC article on the subject.
A very well-referenced Wikipedia page on the Darfur tragedy.
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