Look out for MetaFilter

I've been checking out a site called MetaFilter recently, after hearing about it on a podcast. It's a kind of "community weblog" that lets pretty much anyone make posts to it. A lot of the posts are just random junk from the world wide interwebs (or whatever we're calling it now), but it also has a way of bringing up topics that you wouldn't have found otherwise.

I particularly like the feature called Ask MeFi, where user questions get answered by the peanut gallery (a pretty intelligent and informed peanut gallery in this case). Here's a great post by a non-Mormon who's considering moving to Salt Lake City.

Finally, a tank you can trust

I love the amazing breadth of products that Amazon.com sells on its site. Just today I stumbled across the JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank. The list price is just under $20,000 and the tank comes with a top-quality sound system! I particularly enjoyed reading some of the customer reviews:

This tank R-O-C-K-S! Literally- the 400-watt sound-system keeps me rockin like a crazy man as I'm dishing out justice commando style. Wow. I just can't say enough. And the kids love it, too- imagine the look of terror in the eyes of the enemy as I'm dropping off my kid's team to their soccer game. Shock and awe, my friends, SHOCK AND AWE!

and

Our last two JL421s have been total lemons. Since I'm a blonde and also use a cell phone when driving, my husband said, "Hey! Safety at last!"
He was right! I have mowed down five Hondas, four Toyotas, two Neons (what a piece of [...] THAT is) and yesterday I bagged an SUV. And me? NOT A SCRATCH, baby.

And it wasn't even an iPhone

Some people like their cell phones. Other people love their cell phones a little too much. Apparently a Polish student visiting Niagara Falls nearly took a fatal swim into the rocky cascades while trying to retrieve the phone he had dropped.

Have another Triscuit

Over at a food blog called Ruhlman.com, Anthony Bourdain gives his opinion on the current state of the Food Network. (By the way, I really, really hate it when people chuckle and say "tell us what you really think" after someone gives their frank opinion. This phrase really bugs me.) Anyway, he mainly tears into the suits at the food channel for what he calls a "cynical" attempt to dumb down the programming. Bourdain is especially funny when he takes a few jabs at Rachael Ray (yes, I know, an easy target):

Complain all you want. It’s like railing against the pounding surf. She only grows stronger and more powerful. Her ear-shattering tones louder and louder. We KNOW she can’t cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So...what is she selling us? Really? She’s selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough. She’s a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that “Even your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!” Wallowing in your own crapulence on your Cheeto-littered couch you watch her and think, “Hell…I could do that. I ain’t gonna…but I could--if I wanted! Now where’s my damn jug a Diet Pepsi?” Where the saintly Julia Child sought to raise expectations, to enlighten us, make us better--teach us--and in fact, did, Rachael uses her strange and terrible powers to narcotize her public with her hypnotic mantra of Yummo and Evoo and Sammys. “You’re doing just fine. You don’t even have to chop an onion--you can buy it already chopped. Aspire to nothing…Just sit there. Have another Triscuit…Sleep….sleep….”

A hybrid that isn't so, uh, girly

I've heard hybrids described as "girly" and weak way too many times, but the facts don't necessarily back that up. The Toyota Prius, for instance, is no less sporty than the cars that most of us drive! Despite the image of big trucks rumbling through the mountains, most Americans drive small sedans that are no more macho than the Prius, which is actually quite sporty looking itself.

Now check out the Toyota FT-HS hybrid sportscar. It was unveiled at the 2007 North American International Auto Show and is expected to be priced in the very reasonable mid-$30,000 range:

For a while there I was scared hybrids and "green" cars would be weak, girly little cars with slow engines. But what I'm seeing from Toyota has made me a happy man. Imagine having a car that is much faster than a Porsche, Mercedes AMG and any M series car from BMW and still cost 1/4 the price! Well Toyota plans to sell the FT-HS somewhere in the mid 30k range which, if correct, has me sold as I type this down. The goal of the rear wheel drive(thank god!) hybrid powertrain is to produce 400 horsepower and achieve 0-60 mph in around 4 seconds. This is accomplished with by combining a 3.5-liter V6 and an electric motor in a similar manner to the Lexus GS450h.

When your bookie has osteoparosis

A blog called West Side Slant brings us the latest in news from the senior citizen community:

Acting on an anonymous tip, armed agents raided the Lake Elsinore Elks Lodge and found an envelope containing $50.00, which was to be paid to the winner of an impromptu Monday Night Football pool. Margaret Hamblin, a 73 year-old great-grandmother, and 39 year-old volunteer waitress Cari Gardner both pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of operating an illegal gambling operation.

I think the rule of thumb for judges should be something like, if your big gambling kingpin is 73-YEARS-OLD she's not much of a danger to society.

Garish sportswear proves popular in rural Africa

The NY Times has a story about what the NFL does with the t-shirts and hats that commemorate Super Bowl losers. Instead of selling them as ironic collectibles, they donate them to a charity that gives them to rural villagers in Africa.

“Where these items go, the people don’t have electricity or running water,” said Jeff Fields, a corporate relations officer for World Vision. “They wouldn’t know who won the Super Bowl. They wouldn’t even know about football.”

The gear is flown, along with school and medical supplies, into a major city. It is then driven to one of the villages where World Vision staff members work. They distribute the shirts and caps at a community center, about two per family.

I guess it's a nice gesture donating clothes, but you have to wonder how it's good that people are being exposed to this. It's not like these people are raving football fans. It's really one of the more bizarre forms that globalization takes on, but I'm not really so sure that exposing people to America's corporate entertainment is a good thing. Isn't there some local way for them to clothe themselves? Maybe a hat really just keeps the sun off your head, but it seems vaguely artificial and crass seeing African villagers walking around in Chicago Bears t-shirts.

Floors come with dirt already tracked in

The new craze in eco-friendly home building is to install earthen floors. Apparently they're made of a type of hardened clay. They're supposedly extremely good at keeping heat in, but are susceptible to cracking. But then, if it does crack, I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to just lay another layer of dried mud down on top.

Pantyhose now come in "men opague"

Finally, the problems associated with stand-up urinals has been solved for transvestites. A french hosiery manufacturer is now marketing a line of pantyhose for men. I'm sure they make great valentine's gifts.

American exceptionalism strikes again

The past few weeks seem like they've been high season for the "we're just different... and better" segment of the American journalism and pundit class. You know the attitude: the one that makes us think every worldwide phenomenon is confined inside the U.S.'s borders, or it's cousin: the belief that every popular American phenomenon must automatically be exalted by those dirt-farming foreigners.
Recently Peter King, an NFL columnist for Sports Illustrated, explained how great the weekend's games were by pointing to them as the reason the NFL is the world's most popular sport. Yet amazingly, the Super Bowl's TV ratings are only a fraction of estimated worldwide ratings for the World Cup Final. Is it possible that America's Big Day isn't really that big a deal outside our country? Maybe.
Then today an interesting story came over the AP wires about remains of a prehistoric human found in Kenya. According to the story, the skeleton is at the center of a debate in Kenya over the theory of evolution:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Deep in the dusty, unlit corridors of Kenya's national museum, locked away in a plain-looking cabinet, is one of mankind's oldest relics: Turkana Boy, as he is known, the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric human ever found.

But his first public display later this year is at the heart of a growing storm -- one pitting scientists against Kenya's powerful and popular evangelical Christian movement. The debate over evolution vs. creationism -- once largely confined to the United States -- has arrived in a country known as the cradle of mankind.

Does the AP really think that the debate over evolution is "largely confined to the United States"? I know we're the lone superpower, but maybe someone should tell the AP that other cultures do debate the big questions, too. After all, Darwin himself wasn't from Cleveland.

Thai woman takes 25-year-long bus ride

Here's a story of a woman from a rural area of southern Thailand who boarded a bus 25 years ago for a shopping trip. Unfortunately the bus was going to Malaysia. So she apparently survived by begging in the streets before a group of students recognized her Thai dialect and were able to return her home.

I once heard a similar story that may possibly be apocryphal, but here it is anyway: According to a friend named Laura who I happened to know while I was a student in France, her father was much older than most parents of kids our age. He was in his 60s or 70s when she was in college. According to Laura, her father had grown up in Baltimore and that one night when he was 19 or so he and his friends went out drinking and ended getting completely soused. Laura's father was the first to pass out, so in the wee hours of the night his friends decided to play a prank on him by stowing him away on a ship docked in the harbor.

Apparently the ship unwittingly sailed away with him onboard and he was taken to France (I think this was in the late 40s or early 50s). Instead of coming back to Baltimore, though, he stayed in Europe and worked odd jobs in France and Italy for the next 30 years without ever contacting his family. She said he eventually came back to the states and married her mother, but that he essentially fell off the face of the earth that night in Baltimore. Even if it's not completely true, it's such a good yarn that it's interesting when other stories like that of the Thai woman surface.

read more | digg story

Sticker Shock

Forget gold toilet seats and $500 hammers, today's Pentagon makes the Reagan-era military look like old ladies on social security. President Bush's budget basically asks for a completely insane $739 billion. Fred Kaplan in Slate does a little budget bust-out to give us an idea of where the money is going. Particularly depressing news of the day: The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have now cost the nation $661.9 billion. Kaplan puts the defense budget request in a bit of historical perpective:

Measured in real terms (that is, adjusted for inflation), that's about one-third higher than the previous record for U.S. military spending, set in 1952, when more than 30,000 American soldiers were dying in the Korean War and the Pentagon was embarking on its massive Cold War rearmament drive.

The Great Not-Necessarily-American Wiki Novel

Taking a page out of the Wikipedia playbook, Penguin Publishing has set up its very own wiki novel called, fittingly, "A Million Penguins." The idea is to allow anyone and everyone a chance to contribute to a novel. The project just started last week, but it appears to already be up to chapter 15 -- although they're short chapters thus far into it. So far, characters include Ismail the Unicorn, Linus Torvalds, Mr. Pitor Pibb, Bill Gates and someone called Mr. Bombastic. Stay tuned. This could either end up being very cool or a complete disaster... which probably makes it a worthwhile experiment.

Possbily a step down from your mom's basement

In London's Chelsea neighborhood (yes, that Chelsea), $340,000 apparently won't get you much real estate. An 11' by 7' janitor's closet has gone on sale for exactly that amount. Even the apartment's broker called it "extremely depressing." (Could you ever imagine an American realtor saying that? They'd call it a "fixer-upper" at the very least.)

"We have to go in with a torch because the lights do not work and it is full of rubble," Jason North, associate director at Lane Fox.

Nevertheless, the flat is expected to attract buyers due to its close proximity to the fashionable bars, shops and leisure facilities of Kensington and Chelsea.

Get The Kids Hooked Early

Here's the kind of innovative ideas we should be using in the U.S.: About 175,000 French high school students (in the Paris region) will be given USB sticks containing a suite of open source software. The idea is to improve computer access for students:

The sticks will give the students, aged 15 and 16, the freedom to access their e-mail, browser bookmarks and other documents on computers at school, home, a friend's house or in an Internet café -- but at a much lower cost than providing notebook computers for all, a spokesman for the Greater Paris Regional Council said Friday.

It's a way to reduce the digital divide, said spokesman Jean-Baptiste Roger.

The sticks will probably contain the Firefox 2 Web browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, an office productivity suite such as OpenOffice.org 2, an audio and video player, and software for instant messaging, he said.

Gambian President Now Among World's Top Medical Researchers

As if he didn't already look crazy enough, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has cured HIV using a secret blend of herbs.

"I can treat asthma and HIV/Aids... Within three days the person should be tested again and I can tell you that he/she will be negative," he said in a statement.

I particularly enjoyed how my man Yahya answers accusations that he's a witch doctor:

"I am not a witch doctor and in fact you cannot have a witch doctor. You are either a witch or a doctor."

Take that, pesky scientists and other rational thinkers! I can't believe this guy was elected president. It's almost as if hositility to modern science and promises of easy solutions to intractable problems can be used to polarize the electorate by demonizing modern intellectual progress. Some politician somewhere should use that strategy!

The Greatest Press Conference Ever

I think this press conference from the two artists arrested for the Aqua Teen fiasco pretty much sums up the absurdity of the media sometimes. We are like a swarm of flies.

Pixelated Cartoon Character Terror Weapons

As you might already know, Boston's public safety officials collectively lost their minds yesterday after 10 LED mini-billboards promoting Aqua Teen Hunger Force were found. Unfortunately, most of the City Hall and a sizable chunk of the local media also went all batshit on us. Here are some of the better (and by better, we mean more indicative of mental instability) quotes:

“What our city experienced today is intolerable. The actions of this company for an apparent ‘marketing campaign’ not only inconvenienced our entire city but awoke painful memories of September 11th in so many hearts and minds. I look forward to the results of a full investigation.” --Boston City Council President Maureen Feeney

“OK, so when will the people of Boston see Ted Turner and his nitwit marketing gurus marched into federal court in handcuffs and leg irons? Because that’s exactly what should happen.”—Herald editorial

“Terrorism hoaxes are common. Two years ago, a drug addict and smuggler gave a fake tip about a terrorist incursion in Boston that led to another massive mobilization of law enforcement. In 2005, an angry deportee used a fake threat that forced officials to close a tunnel under Baltimore’s harbor. Turner officials say their devices were never meant to be seen as threats. Yet they find themselves in bad company.” – Globe editorial

“The show is geared toward the Doritos-munching insomniac stoner crowd.” -- New York Post

Despite how they make it sound, there really was no general panic in Boston. For a bit more level-headed approach, check out the Weekly Dig's excellent blog post on the fiasco.

Like the Rascal Junior on Steroids

Check out the pics of a new electric concept vehicle from Peugeot, called the Dauphin. Apparently it can go 90 mph and recharges by parking it over a docking station.

Why Switching to Linux is a Real Possibility

Download Squad has a nice article today dispelling common myths about Linux. I'm as guilty as anyone of believing the anti-Linux naysayers in the past, but I think Ubuntu , a version of Linux, is looking better and better.