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Showing posts from July, 2006

Little Richard Selling Insurance

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Just in case you have not seen this TV commercial w/ Little Richard 25 times, I am putting the YouTube film of it here. For some reason, I like it a lot. I think it is entertaining and is short, so that is good.

UT tn XLS @ txtng

Translation for non-texters: Utah teen excels at texting A Utah teen with fingers of fury is once again the speed text-messaging king of the world. Ben Cook, 18, of Provo, returned to the top of the cell phone text-messaging heap Friday at a Denver text-off, blazing through a 160-character standardized message in 42.22 seconds. The phrase used for purposes of professional, competition texting is: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.” The feat was recorded on video and scored by an official timekeeper, validating it for Guinness World Records purposes, said Sara Spaulding, spokeswoman for the event sponsor, Jump Mobile. I wonder, do they give scholarships for this? Is it the next new Olympic event ?

TV on the Go

Place a Slingbox on top of your televison and hook it up. It will allow you to watch your own TV from your laptop, ipod or camera no matter where on earth you are. It says also that you can control the TV from afar. Looks like an oversized Hershey Bar and has won some awards it seems.

Graduation Show

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One of the big hits from the Show at the Royal College of Art in London recently was the Canoe dress by designer, Yael Mer, who's emergency inflatable canoe dress, looks elegant as a skirt and life saving as a canoe. Inspired by the New Orleans evacuation, the canoe skirt is a stylish and an oh so practical example of when fashion meets function :o)

Cool Camera

This smart video camera for your computer does eyetracking and has lots of special effects. Here is one fellows demo. (Requires Flash)

Active X Errors & Quicktime

If you are getting Active X Errors due to embedded Quicktime videos in blogs, you need to stop using Internet Explorer and switch to FireFox. " A Better Web Experience Firefox 1.5 has an intuitive interface and blocks viruses, spyware, and popup ads. It delivers Web pages faster than ever. And it’s easy to install and import your favorites." Click here to see the winning entry in a FireFox Flicks Video Contest --just click the play arrow on the video. It is really cute. Then download FireFox if you haven't already.

No.1 & No.2

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The cuddly toys Pee&Poo are now available in a duo pack - together for ever. They are made in cotton plush and filled with polyester fibre.

Overweight? Better speak up at this hotel..

I noticed this line in the reservation information at Casa Howard Guest House in Rome: *Overweight or oversized Guests must declare their condition upon booking - otherwise they will be debited the full amount of staying, and subsequently transferred to another hotel at their own expense.

Karaoke Crackdown

Earlier this week, Aaron deOliveira pointed to the news that the music industry was going after a pub in Syracuse, NY for having a karaoke night and not paying the related performance fees (the pub claims that only five songs in the rotation were on the list of complaints). Apparently, industry lawyers actually bothered to hire a private investigator to go to the pub and write down the songs being sung. By itself, this didn't necessarily seem postworthy. However, then Michael Geist pointed out that similar charges have been filed at some clubs in Canada. It's probably a coincidence, but perhaps the industry has suddenly decided that it's simply not squeezing enough money out of people singing along badly to songs they enjoy and has decided to start cracking down on "rogue" karaoke providers. Not that the recording industry is known for their "big picture" thinking, but this seems fairly shortsighted. Shouldn't they be encouraging more people to s

Need a Hat?

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Stand out in a crowd....cool hats. TukaThreads.com is home to national award-winning hats and accessories, the frosting on top of the fashion cake!

More Colorful Package Tape

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Never mail boring packages again. Buy cool tape.

Casters need not be boring

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Tons of cute styles.

Smart Carpet

The intelligent carpet, invented in Japan , can tell bosses the age, sex and weight of the person walking across it. I think it might speed up doctor appointments.

Trickery

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A Different Kind of Osprey

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I was clearing some old files off Miller's laptop today and came across these photos. He may have taken them, since they are not the ones on the Air Force site . He was making a web page about it and had saved a 'test' version. The aircraft is called The Osprey. Here is an Air Force photo--tilting rotors--check it out

Great Fun Stuf

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Check out this online store of things with good and clever designs. Shown hereis a shower curtain and a drain stopper. MODERNPOVERTY.com

Paris, then and now

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Photos of the same locations in Paris taken aprox. 100 yrs apart. Fascinating

How Very Boring

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Boring Business Systems . The president, Dean Boring.

Yesterday and Today-Osprey

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Yesterday afternoon, late, my osprey had a small fish up in the tree w/ him. He is usually here around 6 p.m. He always looks rough when he is wet from diving into the water. Then again this morning, he chirpped outside until I came out. I whistle back and he stops chirping. I wish I was a good whistler...I'm not. When he flew off the branch, this morning, I got a nice photo of the sun illuminating his feathers.

Soft Landing

WARSAW (Reuters) - A man was bruised but alive on Wednesday after a Saint Bernard dog thrown out a two-story window landed on him as he was walking down the street in the southern-Polish city of Sosnowiec. The 110-pound dog was pushed out of the window by its drunken owner Monday, police said.

FireFox Extension warning

Juha-Matti Laurio writes "The antivirus specialists at McAfee have warned of a Trojan that disguises itself as a Firefox extension. The trojan installs itself as a Firefox extension, presenting itself as a legitimate existing extension called numberedlinks. It then begins intercepting passwords and credit card numbers entered into the browser, which it then sends to an external server. The most dangerous part of the issue is that it records itself directly into the Firefox configuration data, avoiding the regular installation and confirmation process." Slashdot

Kazaa to Pay Up

100 Million Dollars ! "BBC has the following breaking story: File-sharing site Kazaa will become a legal music download service following a series of high-profile legal battles. The peer-to-peer network has also agreed to pay $100m (£53m) in damages to the record industry. The announcement follows the release of a music industry report that says more than 20 billion music tracks have been downloaded illegally in the last year. Hungry artists across the globe rejoice." Slashdot

Using Coolers

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Well, yesterday I kept hearing drip-drip-drip. Finally discovered it was coming from inside the freezer. My nice, big double door Maytag "Z" box is broken. Everything was thawed or partially thawed. I called the local Maytag service co and it will be over a WEEK before they can come !

Island Idol Finals

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Last night was the Finals of the 'Island Idol Contest' at the Bama Keys Rockin' Piano Bar in Orange Beach. It was more like the Gong Show. There should have been a hook. The young man in these photos was really pretty good and full of enthuisasm. The whole event was Pure-D Honky Tonk....but fun to stand in the background and watch. Don't know who won, but the owners had a good marketing idea for voting. You were given a ballot when you entered, and every beer one bought thereafter came with one more ballot. I took these photos early on. The place filled w/ standing room only befrore we left. My G.S. bank branch manager's wife was contestant number 9, but we left before it was her turn. We did get to hear her do a 'warm up' song, and she was talented. I don't know who won---( does it matter ;o)

Osprey Sighting

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Yesterday, Alabama Coastal Foundation board member, Joe McEnerney came by in late afternoon and got to see what he calls my "World Famous Osprey". Late afternoon is usually a good time to see him (her?) around my place and I was glad Joe got to see him flying about, passing in front of us several times.

Awesome Photos of Insects

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and Frogs. Click small photos on this site to see the beautiful detail in Igor Siwanowicz's large version.

Jailhouse Graffiti

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Click on the image to see how this works. GoSleepGo.Com

The Thing is Running Again

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New starter, generator, and various small parts. My Thing is 32 years old.

Gifts for Cat Owners

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Comes in both English and Spanish

This man wants your gum wrappers

Gary Duschl of Virginia Beach, Virginia current record holder of the world's longest gum wrapper chain. About the Chain: Began on March 11, 1965 $67,442 Worth of Gum Weight 661 lbs. or 300 kgs Volume 57 Cubic Feet WRIGLEY Wrappers only Relative Lengths: 9.1 Miles or 14.65 kms 160 Football Fields 240 Hockey Rinks 26 CN Towers 32 Empire State Buildings 2 Rounds of Golf 3 Hours to Walk the Length 10 Minutes by Car at 55 mph

Personalized Jessica Simpson Song

She'll sing one just for YOU...as long as your name is on the list. Alas, mine isn't. Look for your personalized song here.

Living Box

Pre-fab modular living unit design competition.

Wood Bike Frames

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Unusual bike frames, several styles. Xylon Bikes

R U Hot ?

Cheap A/C's....Window Units Free shipping too

None of the Hits...All of the Time

Pandora The founder of Pandora, a 7-month-old, so-called music-discovery engine, Westergren travels from town to town, sharing his time and story with fans who, because of his service, say they've rediscovered a love of newfound music. From every town he visits--places like New Orleans; Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; and Biloxi, Miss.--he carries back to his Oakland, Calif., headquarters a bag full of CDs given to him by local taste makers. Songs on those CDs make it into the Internet-based radio of Pandora, which in seven short months has acquired 2.5 million registered listeners largely by word of mouth. Pandora founder states: Ever since we started the Music Genome Project , our friends would ask: Can you help me discover more music that I'll like? Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that

Another good reason to use FireFox

More than 1 million users of MySpace.com and other Web sites may have been infected with adware spread by a banner advertisement, according to iDefense, a computer security group.The advertisement, for a site called deckoutyourdeck.com, appeared in user profiles on MySpace, an online community with at least 70 million users, says Ken Dunham, director of the rapid-response team at iDefense, which is owned by VeriSign. The ad exploits a problem in the way Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser handles Windows Metafile (WMF) image files. Go here to download Firefox browser. Number #5 on the page

Automobile History

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How many of these various manufacturers of vehicles are you familiar with? Shown here is the FACEL-VEGA logo. FACEL-VEGA (France) 1954-1964 Last of the French builders of luxury cars, the Forges et Ateliers de Construction d'Eure et Loire in Pont-à-Mousson was formerly a body builder for Simca, Ford and Panhard. They started to build complete cars in 1954 using Chrysler V8 engines of 4.5 litres, and then of 5.8 and 6.3 litres. In 1957 Facel presented the "Excellence". They also made a smaller model, the Facellia, originally fitted with a Facel-built dohc four-cylinder 1600cc engine. This unreliable engine caused great consternation among Facel's customers, and was mainly responsible for the failure of Facel-Vega. In 1962 the 1600cc engine was replaced by the Volvo 1800, but too late to restore confidence. Be amazed at the variety

Get Rid of Pennies

Kill-the-penny bill introduced citing spiraling zinc costs, Rep. Jim Kolbe continues his quest to eliminate the 1-cent piece. "The penny has been a nuisance for years," said Kolbe (R-Arizona) at a press conference on Tuesday, "but now that the cost of a penny exceeds its value, the landscape of the debate has completely changed." I am all for it, think of the mammoth amount of wasted time U.S. citizens spend at check out counters messing with pennies.

Monitor Chain

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Monitor Chain , but obviously some people don't get it. You photo the person before you's blog w/ the monitor chain screen on your monitor...right?

My Osprey

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On Sunday, my osprey was in a tree very close to the house. This tree is not nearly as tall as his usual choices. He was eating on a fish that you can see just under his 'foot' . He came and went during much of the day, often flying in a large figure "8" and back to my area.

Do cell phone antenna booster stickers work?

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Mythbusters Google gave me one at the WebmasterWorld conference. It is blue rubber w/ Google printed in the middle. One man's placebo controled study. Read it.

Where Have All the Vultures Gone ?

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South Africa's national lottery is claiming an unlikely victim: vultures. Local people - convinced these birds' superb eyesight gives them the gift to see the future - are eating vulture meat to acquire the power of clairvoyance. And they are not alone. In neighbouring Zimbabwe, voters fearful of supporting the losing side in recent elections ate vulture meat, mainly heads, talons, eyes and hearts, believing this would enable them to pick the winning party. In addition, in south Asia over the past five years, the use of the painkiller diclofenac in cattle has wiped out three species of vulture and reduced the remaining two species to a few dozen pairs of breeding birds. The drug, it was discovered recently, destroys the birds' kidneys. In short, the vulture - the ultimate scavenger, for ever associated with pitiless opportunism - has been sent spiralling towards extinction, say ornithologists. 'Something very, very bad is happening to the vulture,' said Guy Rondeau

Ze Frank on Ugly

the show with zefrank

I Smell Heaven's Bakery Cooking up Sumpin Good

This is one silly video, but if you watch the whole thing, you'll see that, fake as I am sure it is, it is very well done. This animated preacher-man is funny and a perfect vehicle for this comedy.

MySpace Takes Down Tube's Tune

After hearing Sen. Ted Stevens' now infamous description of the internet as a "series of tubes," Andrew Raff sang the senator's words over a folksy ditty and anonymously posted it to MySpace, where about 2,500 people listened to the tune, thanks to a link from one of the net's top blogs. On Tuesday, MySpace canceled the TedStevensFanClub account, telling Raff that MySpace, now owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., had received a "credible complaint of your violation of the MySpace Terms of Services." But, accordingto WIRED , Raff, a recent graduate from law school, didn't violate any copyright laws in using the Alaskan senator's words since government works can not be copyrighted. And he composed the music himself. Read it all.

Alabama Coastal Foundation

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At dawn the osprey was already out in a tree chirping. Yesterday my osprey was around a lot and my friend Joy from Memphis got to watch him fly patterns around the property. Today Alabama Coastal Foundation board member, Joe McEnerney and Executive Director, Cathy Barnette came out to my place to see where the osprey hangs out and see about placing an osprey nesting platform in the yard. It would be close to the water and numbered, for the Alabama osprey trail. Boy Scouts make and position the osprey nests on tall poles. I might be able to mount a webcam directed at the nest. Joe seems to think that my osprey is world famous since he saw the osprey's photos on this blog ! The osprey flew around today with a fairly small fish and landed in a tall tree in the abandoned subdivision to the west of me to eat it. I drew a pink circle around the bird in the dead tree. Also shown is a close-up of him in the tree.

MidSouth Gardens Website

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Chris Arpe Gang, who for years was the garden editor for the Memphis daily newspaper , has launched her new gardening website-- http:// www.midsouthgardens.com/ Chris came down to see me in Gulf Shores a few weeks ago. We spent an afternoon discussing various ways she might monitize her site and some of the in's and out's of designing for the search engines. She emailed today to say that altho it is still in a bare-bones form, the new site is live. And bless her heart, Chris sent me a fruit-of-the-month membership. Last month I got lucious pears from New Zealand and get to look forward to cherries and peaches.

House for Paperclip

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A Canadian man was handed the keys to a three-bedroom house Wednesday, exactly a year after he offered a red paper clip online, asking to trade it for "bigger or better" things. In his latest trade, Kyle MacDonald, 26, swapped a bit role in a Hollywood movie for a house in the small Western Canadian town of Kipling, Saskatchewan. Read whole story

Sandcastle Kit Coming

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Matt, the owner of CanYouDigIt, the previously mentioned sandcastle tool kit company, is sending me a complete sandcastle kit by UPS !! He offered to send me one in exchange for me mentioning his site on my beach related sites. He also wants me to send him photos of my creations....this will be fun i think.

Staredown Goes Pro

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Staredown is a sport that requires focus, concentration, and endurance. Through the course of history, from the caves of the Neanderthal Man to the playgrounds of suburban America, Staredown has been practiced by commoners and merchants, peasants and royalty alike. But only recently has this sport achieved the official recognition it deserves. This is a one-stop shop for the Pro Staredown enthusiast. Whether you're an athlete, a fan, or simply curious about this growing sport, rest assured you've come to the right place. http://www.ProStareDown.com A Staredown feature documentary that you can watch in its entirety-- Unflinching Triumph

Mind Bloggling

According to this article I am reading in USAToday, over 35,000 videos are uploaded to YouTube each DAY !! So I am ck'ing the site and see that one of the most watched is Mortal Peep Fight which should have been named Peeps in the Microwave . By Sunday late afternoon, this video has been viewed 877,361 times.....is it that entertaining ?....you decide. I think not. Miller and I were planning to do a new Peeps website right before he died. I still have several boxes of yellow (mostly) Peeps and a whole bunch of props I had rounded up, mostly for the doll dept at Dollar Tree. I found that they had the very best ultra miniature doll accessories. ...Tiny hats, gloves, a tiny laptop, manatee snorkeling equipment....that sort of thing. Little beach chairs....It is all at the mini-storage. I was thinking it would be fun , like making ViewMaster cells. Miller was so funny, that I was sure that he would come up with some funny dialog and ideas for Peep scenes. Jack Black reminds me a lo

Sandcastles Deluxe

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Can You Dig It online sells sandcastle tools, kits, instruction videos, and has inspirational photos. They also have a "TIPS" page to get you started. My friend Joy from Memphis is coming down this week, maybe we will have a go at making a cool sandcastle and post photos.

Italian Baby Makin'

An Italian judge has ruled that a Mafia boss serving a life sentence for murder should be allowed to father a baby through artificial insemination -- and the public health service should pay for it. Actually this is not the first time this issue has come up in Italian prisons. Read more.

T-Post...News in a T-Shirt

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Get your lesser know news delivered to you every 6 weeks via wearable message. T-Shirt subscriptions are offered at T-Post for those who might miss out on things like this months story. The T-Shirt's design refers to tiny microchips implanted into butterflies at the pulpa stage by mad scientists in the States at DARPA...the military research outfit. At 32 bucks per T it isn't cheap, but it is an interesting idea. They claim to have over 500 subscribers worldwide. Doesn't this bring up old "The medium is the massage" ..thoughts.... T-Post

Shoes with Music System

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Happy Feet. Shoes with built in music system. www.dadafootwear.com Probably a cool thing for break dancing.

"Enuf is enuf but enough is too much"

The push for simplified spelling .... are you for it or ag'n it?

In Stores Now-Real Advertising

A Dutch design student bored with conventional advertisements and "sick and tired of advertising everywhere" has set up a fake online agency offering advertising space for beer, cars and TV stations on unconventional locations like prostitutes' thighs and cleavage, floating huge billboards off popular beaches to get vacationers' attention and has also proposed painting brand names on zoo animals. The local zoo gave him some flack over it. The website creator, Raoul Balai said "But I don't want to preach, and I thought satire would work better." www.instoresnow.nl

A bit surprising

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On July 4th in North America, there were more people online than today on July 5th, which I would assume was a work day for most of the workforce. With all the people at beaches, picnics, pools, lakes, etc...it surprises me a bit that so many were inside online. There does appear to be a real peak of people online in the midnight range. Graph seems to be set to Pacific Daylight time. I grabbed this graph at about 5 p.m. central daylight time and it is the last 24 hours.