What the FBI taught me about Steven Paul Jobs

So, in case you've been living under a rock, the FBI just published this file about Steven Paul Jobs. Yes, that Steve Jobs. When he was nominated for a government advisory position in 1991, the White House asked the FBI to do a thorough background check.

According to this 191-page document (which I read in its entirety, because that's how I procrastinate), Steven Paul Jobs wasn't racist, didn't smoke, didn't drink, didn't use drugs (except back in college and in the very early days of Apple), lived within his means, associated with people of good repute, was never arrested, and wasn't a Communist. He had an apartment on Central Park West, in addition to his home in Northern California, which I find intriguing -- I'm pretty sure I've walked past his apartment building several times, totally unaware that a tech mogul was hanging out nearby.

For those of you who don't have the time or interest to read all the bits I liked, here's my summary:

- If you have a kid out of wedlock, don't ignore them. Especially if they could be kidnapped because of how ridiculously famous you are.

- When in doubt, delegate. Then delegate some more. (Except for parenting duties, of course.)

- It's great to be ambitious, persistent, and even show some tough love -- but if you lose your reputation for integrity, people will have no problem telling the FBI that you're a boogerbrain.

- Don't think that your wealth can bend reality.

- Everyone loves a visionary, even one who sucked at school and never got a degree in his chosen field.

- Having boundless energy is always an asset. Try cultivating it with exercise and a decent diet. Don't smoke or drink or take drugs, except for maybe a glass of wine once in a while.

- The more famous you are, the more prone you are to extravagant bomb threats. Make your life choices accordingly.


If you're still reading, here are all the bits of the report which jumped out at me -- and at every other reporter right now around the world.

My favorite 'Oh, snap!' moment:
"_____ [all names are redacted in this report] concluded the interview by stating that even though he does not consider Mr. Jobs to be a friend, he (Mr. Jobs) possesses the qualities to assume a high level political position. It was _____ opinion that honesty and integrity are not required for a position of trust and confidence with the Government."


Inspiring stuff I hadn't known before, since I never read any Jobs biographies:
"He stated the Appointee had undergone a change in philosophy by participating in eastern and/or Indian mysticism and religion. This change apparently influenced the Appointee's personal life for the better. He advised the Appointee lives within his means financially, however, based upon his newfound religious beliefs, the Appointee lives more of a spartanlike and at times even monastic existence. He added, however, the Appointee still associates with reputable people. He also advised that although the Appointee is not an engineer in the real sense, he understands . . . technology and technical jargon to the extent that he is an innovative force within the technical community, in terms of the contributions he has made."

"JOBS attended Homestead High School until June 15, 1972, at which time he graduated. He earned an overall grade point average of 2.65 on a 4.0 scale."

"The Appointee drinks occasionally, but only small amounts of wine. The Appointee was well off and had more money that he could spend in a lifetime and his chief concern was how that wealth would be used after he was gone. The Appointee liked brainstorming and was good at mediating. The Appointee understood the Japanese culture and had a great deal of contact in dealing with companies in the Orient."

". . . she verified that the Appointee was her next door neighbor. She described him as a quiet and unassuming individual who had never caused any problems as a neighbor and who visited her last week to ensure that some landscaping he was having done would not cause any problems with her and her husband."

"They had had the Appointee over for dinner and he didn't appear to drink or smoke. He was a vegetarian and did a great deal of jogging."


Creepy moments of already well-documented narcissism and lying bastardry:
"Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs' honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals."

"Mr. Jobs possesses integrity as long as he gets his way . . . ."

"She added that a 1983 Time Magazine article by a MICHAEL (Last Name Unknown) provided a rather accurate description of the Appointee, in terms of his being a visionary and charismatic individaul who was at the same time shallow and callous to people in his personal relationships. She described his personal life as being lacking due to his narcissism and shallowness. She added at the same time that he had far reaching vision and can vitalize plans and goals much the same as what he accomplishes at Apple Computers. She also stated that his success at Apple which provided an enormous amount of power for the Appointee also caused him at times to lose sight of honesty and integrity and even caused him to distort the truth at times to get his way.

"He described the Appointee as an individual who was not totally forthright and honest and has a tendency to distort reality in order to achieve his goals. . . . the Appointee will twist the truth in order to achieve whatever goal he has set for himself. He therefore considered the Appointee to be a deceptive person."

"He stated that Appointee had met _____ in High School and they were high school sweethearts. He added that she and the Appointee had a baby girl out of wedlock, whose name was _____. . . . He added that _____ has been mentioned in many books which have been written about the Appointee but has always used assumed names so as to protect her daughter from the possibility of being kidnapped for ransom. He stated she would be reluctant to speak to the FBI, based upon her negative experiences with the Appointee, in which the Appointee basically abandoned her and her daughter; however, lately the Appointee has been more supportive of both of them and has even purchased a home near where the Appointee resides, for them to be close to him.


Lessons in leadership:
"He characterized Mr. Jobs as an honest and trustworthy individual; however, his moral character is questionable. . . . he considered Mr. Jobs to be a successful individual because he can delegate tasks to individuals. However, Mr. Jobs alienated a lot of people at ACI as a result of his ambition."

"She concluded by stating that despite the Appointee's faults, she believes he is an extremely bright and competent individual who would serve well in a position of trust and confidence by his sense of vision as she previously related along with his indefatigable energy. She therefore recommended him for a position of trust and confidence with the Government."

"_____ described appointee as an extremely intelligent individual, a true leader, who has made a difference in the computer industry and given the opportunity will make a positive contribution on the National scene. _____ stated that appointee is not an individual who can be intimidated; however, fits in and can talk with anyone. _____ further described appointee as an extraordinary person, who is an excellent business negotiator and recruiter of talent. _____ added that appointee is a demanding individual, expecting a lot from himself and others."

"Appointee has the ability to listen to the suggestions and ideas of others and will adopt them; however, an individual dealing with appointee must know what he is talking about and present a strong case or appointee will disregard the discussion and sometimes the individual. _____ added that appointee is very truthful and straightforward with people and usually says exactly what he is thinking."

"He stated that the Appointee alienated a large number of people at Apple, as a result of his ambition. He added that the Appointee is technically oriented but is in the opinion of many, not an engineer, since he never actually got an engineering degreee from College and has been successful in business by delegating tasks to people."


And now for a Die Hard moment:
"DURING MORNING HOURS OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1985, AN UNIDENTIFIED MALE CALLER MADE A SERIES OF TELEPHONE CALLS TO _____, _____ OF APPLE COMPUTER, INC., 10201 NORTH DE ANZA BOULEVARD, CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, AND ADVISED THAT 'DEVICES"' HAD BEEN PLACED IN HOMES OF CAPTIONED INDIVIDUALS, _____ _____ AND ONE MILLION DOLLARS MUST BE PAID. CALLER ALSO STATED THAT A FOURTH BOMB HAD BEEN PLACED, BUT REFUSED TO GIVE LOCATION AND STATED THIS ONE WOULD GO OFF IF AUTHORITIES NOTIFIED.

"DURING ONE CALL, UNSUB [unknown subject] FIRST STATED THAT _____ SHOULD TAKE A BART TRAIN, BUT _____ REFUSED BEFORE UNSUB COULD ELABORATE.

"DURING SUBSEQUENT CALL, UNSUB STATED THAT _____ SHOULD GO TO THE SAN FRANCISCO HILTON HOTEL WHERE A TABLE IS LOCATED NEXT TO A CANDY MACHINE, AND UNDER THIS TABLE THERE WOULD BE A NOTE WITH FURTHER INSTRUCTION.

"CALLER STATED THIS MUST BE DONE BY 2:30 P.M. ON FEBRUARY 7, 1985, OR BOMBS WOULD GO OFF.

"FIRST TWO CALLS MADE BY UNSUB FOR _____ WERE TAKEN BY STAFF PEOPLE.

"DURING FIRST CALL, NO THREATS MADE AND UNSUB IDENTIFIED HIMSELF AS _____, AND STATED _____ SHOULD CALL HIM AT (415) 877-9566 BECAUSE THERE WAS A FAMILY EMERGENCY.

"_____, _____, SUBSEQUENTLY TELEPHONED THIS NUMBER AND CONVERSED WITH UNSUB, WHO IDENTIFIED HIMSELF AS _____. UNSUB INFORMED THAT _____ IN MEETINGS ALL DAY AND UNAVAILABLE. UNSUB STATED THIS WAS PERSONAL FAMILY MATTER. _____ TOLD UNSUB SHE NEEDED SOME IDEA OF PROBLEM IN ORDER TO INFORM _____, AND UNSUB STATED TO TELL HIM THAT THERE ARE "DEVICES" THAT CAN GO OFF AND THAT HE WILL CALL _____ BACK IN FIFTEEN MINUTES.

"UNSUB SUBSEQUENTLY TALKED TO _____ ABOUT DEMANDS PREVIOUSLY SET OUT IN THIS COMMUNICATION.

"_____ REFUSED TO COMPLY WITH UNSUB'S DEMANDS AND INFORMED HIM THAT HE FELT THREAT NOT A REAL ONE. CONSEQUENTLY, NO ATTEMPT MADE BY _____ OR FBI TO FOLLOW INSTURCTIONS.

"TELEPHONE NUMBER (415) 877-9566 DETERMINED TO BELONG TO PUBLIC TELEPHONE BOOTH IN PARKING GARAGE AT SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

"IMMEDIATE COVERAGE AFFORDED SAN FRANCISCO HILTON AND TELEPHONE BOOTH WITH NEGATIVE RESULTS. NO NOTE LOCATED UNDER TABLE AS DESCRIBED BY UNSUB.

"TELEPHONE TRAP PLACE BY TELEPHONE COMPANY ON VICTIM'S OFFICE TELEPHONE IN THE EVENT FURTHER CALLS RECEIVED, HOWEVER, NO FURTHER CALLS MADE TO DATE BY UNSUB.

"SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA SHERIFF'S OFFICE CANINE UNIT MADE SWEEP OF VICTIM'S RESIDENCES AND AUTOS, AS WELL AS BUILDING HOUSING OFFICES OF _____ AND NO DEVICES LOCATED.

"_____ VOLUNTARILY FURNISHED INFORMATION TO LOCAL NEWSPAPER AFTER MEDIA INQUIRED OF UNUSUAL ACTIVITY.

"SAN FRANCISCO MAINTAINING CONTACT WITH APPLE COMPUTER IN EVENT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DEVELOPS."

images that stick

A historic vote in Sudan - the handiness of this ballot design blows me away. How best to convey to an illiterate voter the choice between a union and a secession? I find this solution very elegant.


World Press Photo winners - the blankness of his eyes frightens me, yet there's something I find compellingly timeless about this picture overall. Maybe it's the amusing juxtaposition of the Cyrillic alphabet and the Donald Duck outfit, but I also like the white-on-white glow of this image.


a Rube Goldberg-esque musical gutter system - cute in a Tim Burton sort of way, and it might also sound nifty in a storm. I feel like it's missing a pinwheel in there somewhere, though.


Half Pipe Threadless t-shirt - I'm a huge fan of Rene Magritte, and the quality (plus wit) of this image really impresses me. It almost seems too nice to stick on a t-shirt, or is that just me?


135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show - I think I've seen variants of this image over and over again in various cartoons from the past century or two. What is it about large, overdecorated ladies and their small, neurotic dogs that makes the concept so persistent in our culture?

Bauhaus / in the middle of our street

NY Times: Biggest-Ever Bauhaus Exhibition in Berlin



OhboyohboyOHBOY would I love to visit Berlin, and this would be the perfect example of a reason. True, part of me deeply resents the Bauhaus movement (hat tip to Tom Wolfe for giving me the words to express my loathing), but still, there is undeniably a certain zest to it which I can't resist at times.

That Scott Adams is such a card

Did you see this Dilbert strip?

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-05-10/

I laughed uproariously, then got seriously depressed. Then laughed again. Then moped again. Thanks, Dad, for sending this to me and ruining my day.

On the plus side: garden car!

military robots, and the folks who love them

Real Soldiers Love Their Robot Brethren

The bit about Scooby-Doo slays me, and the skateboard idea is fascinatingly simple. I also find EATR intriguing, in a Skynet sort of way.

But where did insurgents get the idea that Lipton tea bags are drone magnets? And how does Lipton's marketing department feel about this? I can see the slogan now:

Teacups Versus Terrorism -- LIPTON Saves the Day!

::shakes head::

illegal aliens: an interesting juxtaposition

District 9 - Official Trailer

Guantanamo Detainee Suggests Moving Guantanamo Detainees to Ramada Inn

Join me at Mindshare, May 21!

So, here's the latest email I've received from the madcap folks behind Mindshare:

We're excited to announce the program for next Thursday at 1018 Gallery!
http://www.mindshare.la/events.html

William Pomerantz / Senior Director of Space Projects, The X PRIZE Foundation
Winning Our Way to the Moon

Heather Knight / Roboticist, MIT Media Lab
Social Robotics - Exploring the Human-Robot Relationships

David de Rothschild / Founder, Adventure Ecology
The Plastiki - Rethinking Plastic as a Resource!

Daniel Yoder / Hacker, Zeraweb Labs
Flash Fundraising for The Abruzzo Earthquake

Unnamed Military Source / US Air Force
Apocalypse Survival (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Breakdown of Society)

Evonne Heyning & Matt Davis / Lightning Temple Artists
INTERACTIVATION: Collaborative Visions of Human Evolution

And of course there will be and open bar, hors d'ouevres, music and a number of installations on display from the great brains from Mindshare Labs!

I'll be there at 7 to help set up, who else is coming?

Signs that the MPAA Needs a Vacation

This was sent to me by my friend Chris Armogida:

MPAA suggests teachers videotape TVs instead of ripping DVDs. Seriously.

Anybody else feel like throwing tomatoes at these people?

Envision World Peace: Marry A Terrorist

The Atlantic: All You Need Is Love / How The Terrorists Stopped Terrorism

My parents told me about this years ago, and then my dad sent me this article recently. I think the story is a hoot, and gets at the heart of the terrorism problem: give somebody a sense of worth, with everyday staples taken care of, and they'll stop blowing up airplanes &c.

Hooray for ingenuity!

raging against the machine only works if the machine can be disassembled

The Big Takeover, by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine (April 2, 2009 issue).

In eight pages, Matt Taibbi explains what I've felt in my bones but couldn't articulate for months, mainly because I didn't have all the details spelled out for me until now.

I've had people tell me our government is a joke, a shill for the finance megacorporations which truly control us. I figured that just meant purchasing a few lobbyists, which I actually think is okay -- congresspeople can always choose to ignore them -- but now that I know the true scope of things (if Taibbi can be believed), I want to hide under my bed in the fetal position waiting for Armageddon.

Gordon Gecko, Wall Street: "The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market. And you're a part of it."

It's not just posturing, the governmental power which Wall Street owns is real. They install their own (e.g. Paulson, Geithner) in our government, in order for Wall Street to be 'regulated' by its palsy-walsy brethren, but I wasn't aware of the true powerlessness of our nation until now. And AIG didn't even have a CFO or Chief Risk-Assessment Officer during the worst of this shitstorm!

Truly, we are in the grip of the world's most frat-boyish gang of thugs:

The bonuses are a nice comic touch highlighting one of the more outrageous tangents of the bailout age, namely the fact that, even with the planet in flames, some members of the Wall Street class can't even get used to the tragedy of having to fly coach. "These people need their trips to Baja, their spa treatments, their hand jobs," says an official involved in the AIG bailout, a serious look on his face, apparently not even half-kidding. "They don't function well without them."

None of this is terribly surprising, and I'm equally furious that we live in a civilization where this sort of thing is -- well, unsurprising. It's all like a "Simpsons" episode gone especially mad. I haven't been this angry since I last watched The Corporation.

Geithner is a joke.

The Treasury Dept., and specifically the Office of Thrift Supervision, is a joke.

The Glass-Steagall Act (the second one) is a joke, thanks to Senator Gramm, Representative Leach, and Representative Bliley. (Tangent: Gramm's wife was on the board of directors for Enron, but Leach supported legislation regarding the use of soy ink by the federal government -- plus he's pro-choice and in favor of stem cell research. How did someone like Leach get mixed up in all this?)

The Fed rules our world in order to benefit a few hundred financial assholes who own us, and they don't have to answer to anybody, least of all Congress.

Silly me! I actually believed that crap like 'voting' and 'paying taxes' meant something to the future of this republic!

This reminds me of one of my all-time favorite comic strips:



I need to go punch holes in some walls now, and then run through the streets shrieking about how soylent green is people. That, or I'll be getting some groceries at Trader Joe's; I'm far easier to soothe when I'm chock full of lunch and have a stocked fridge.

BASTARDS BASTARDS BASTARDS. AND THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO TO CHANGE THIS. Geithner will never chop up companies like AIG to make them more manageable. There will be no legislation passed with any real regulatory teeth. We're all either Gordon Gecko, or we're slaves to a system which is not built to help us.

INSERT FORMLESS SCREAM HERE.

"Funniestest" is totally a word! Proof: I just used it.

Funny: The Nietzsche Family Circus

Funnier: Strindberg + helium

Funniest: garfield minus garfield

Funniester: XKCD

Funniestest: Hark! A Vagrant

Happy Maple Syrup Day! WHOO.

Parking ticket leads to a virus

Parking ticket leads to a virus in Grand Forks, North Dakota (via BBC News)

A real parking ticket always clearly states your violation, so if you've received a ticket which leaves out that information, you should call your local parking enforcement department to confirm things.

You have been warned.

Because it's wreckable, alright? [a YouTube essay]

Are we ruled by an oligarchy of banks? Is our government too close to the banks to properly regulate them? Do we need to chop up a few of the companies which were "too big to fail?" Bill Moyers & Simon Johnson have a very interesting chat about this.

Which tangentially reminds me of this:



But more importantly, there's this:



And this:



What will be the future of our awesome republic?



Do I really want Kevin Costner to be my mailman?

this makes me so very happy

On a completely unrelated note: over the past week, three different people have told me to stop leaving my purse on the floor, because my money will "run away." And when I've said "Oh, nonsense, I've been saving like mad, and my money's been fine," they've all had the exact same response: "At least if you put your purse higher, it'll give you a fighting chance." Thanks, but I'm fighting for rational thought instead.

the fabulous destiny of Hugh McGrory

So this random Irish guy named Hugh McGrory e-mailed me recently, and HOLY GRAVY BOATS he is a splendid filmmaker: experimental, but without giving me a headache, which is a grand feat indeed. Here are his words, and his work:

Just found 2 of my shorts that were somehow not taken offline. Low quality (especially since I have 35mm prints for both) but forgive me. They're only 3 mins each, commissioned as such by an Irish Film Board scheme.

Maze



Within Without

The first 'Maze' is shot on Super-8 on a wind-up clockwork Russian military camera. The camera literally stopped when the mechanism did a full spin! It's a film about the empty Maze/Long Kesh Prison outside Belfast, scene of the Hunger Strikes etc. I wasn't doing anything political though, just something about what the empty space has to say in itself about our peace process. The second short is 'Within Without', shot on HD with microscopy images taken at Yale. When it goes inside that stuff is really in there. There is a section of stars which is CGI but the rest is live-action. Anyway, these short pieces should give you a better idea of what I do. Don't think it's just art-nonsense. I have plans to incorporate these techniques into drama, literally go 'into' people etc to show that we're all the same.

. . . .

The music on 'Maze' is an original piece composed by a friend of mine in London - Simon Robinson, who released drum 'n' bass a few years back as 'The Advocate'. He took a very different slant on 'Maze' as you can hear. The music on 'Within Without' was again composed especially for the film by my friend Glenn Marshall . . . Glenn and I ran a company together called Make Films until a few years ago. He's a very good CGI filmmaker. Abstract Buddhist computer art.

Just for the record, Hugh is about to start a project right here in California, and I've been sworn to secrecy, but let's just say it will be FASCINATING, and I'm going to bribe Hugh every which way I can in order to be a part of it. It's interesting, I feel like over the past two weeks I have been awash in exciting film/art things, shooting projects and going to camera workshops and meeting tons of fun folks who are sincere yet ironically hep (cooler than being ironically hip), talking to people across the country and around the world about the nifty things we're all creating.

In other words: I sure love being part of an intellectual art circle. Next thing you know, I'll be quoting Derrida over cups of espresso whilst wearing a beret and setting fire to lawn flamingos because they're, like, So Totally Bourgeois. I can't wait!

so I'm a pretentious anachronism

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location (NYT)

Did I miss the memo on semicolons? As in, nobody uses them anymore besides me and a properly educated guy who works for NY Transit? To quote the article, "the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism." PRETENTIOUS ANACHRONISM, Astrid bellows in outrage? Or just good grammar? Jesus H. Also, I can't believe that people are making a big deal about this, and now I'm contributing to the big deal by making a big deal out of the big deal. Sigh.

On a mostly unrelated note, I discovered that if you double click any word on the NY Times website, you get a pop up box with the dictionary definition of that word. It's kind of handy, actually.

my father was a Ten Pound Pom

The £10 Ticket to Another Life

Back in the day, and by "the day" I mean "anytime between the end of WWII and the 1970s," hundreds of thousands of Britons were offered a terrific deal: for only £10, you could send your entire family (yourself included) to Australia, where you could build a new life from scratch, poverty be damned. This was great for people who would've been limited to a lower-middle-class existence otherwise, and thanks to this grand social experiment (limited to white folks, sadly), my dad was able to spend his Christmases surfing; attend medical school for free; marry a hot, brainy chick from Cleveland (hi, Mom!); and become a doctor/professor of medicine/chief of residency/chief of research/etc. with a funky accent.

Because of £10, my dad is now a president and CEO of a successful, ethical, and avant garde biotech corporation, plus he's a wicked rad photographer. Go, Dad! I'm so proud of him; and I'm so cheered by my family's pluck that they could move halfway across the planet for a dream, back when it was still an arduous journey which took weeks, and required living in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but sand, mines, and sheep.

and lo, a bus rained down from the heavens

Disabled Spy Satellite Threatens Earth

Great, just what I need -- in addition to all my other concerns, I now have to worry about getting hit by something the size of a small bus without it being, in fact, an actual bus, small or no.

On the plus side: rain! In L.A.! Only imagine.

YouTube Parade

I just wrapped a short called "The Magic Finger," directed by JR Burningham and produced by Tess Ortbals (who apparently doesn't have her own website, and therefore doesn't exist), and it was a blast. There was a live duck, for example, who was very well-behaved. Also, JR and Tess are phenomenally good people, and everybody else involved was extra fab, so it was easily one of the best shoots I've had in a while. Hooray for heartwarming Hollywood experiences! Better than chicken soup for the soul, except for having to wake up at 4:30am on a couple of the shoot days. That part is more like moldy, sour grapes for the soul. Ick.

Anyway, below is an assortment of various YouTubery that I've been enjoying lately, take a gander and see how loopy I am.



Howard Jones, "The Prisoner" This is an extremely rare view of a camera being professionally wielded by a woman -- only imagine! The music video plays with some interesting concepts (photography as a form of 'capturing' somebody, manipulation of a person's image signifying a shift in power between the manipulator and manipulated, blah blah hermeneutic crap blah blah), plus it has Howard Jones being all 80's-style soulful, so I love this thing. I don't get the bride-with-a-syringe imagery in the middle (Bridezilla will sedate you, monkey boy?), plus there are so many ripoffs (er, homages) of classic photos that it really makes one's head spin, so consider yourself warned.



Channel 4 'Get set for digital' MAX HEADROOM LIVES! OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY! I would totally smooch Max Headroom. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Granted, I might be reduced to licking a TV monitor, but I still say it would be worth it. Yowza.



Here Comes Another Bubble - The Richter Scales Fun rant in song format about Internet bubbles, sung to the tune of "We Didn't Start the Fire." Surprisingly entertaining, at least for me, and I think we've already established that I am very, very easily entertained; for goodness' sake, I'm now licking TV screens. Sigh.



Dylan Moran - Monster He completely switches gears midway, but all gears are clearly labeled 'Awesome.' I have never seen such a terrifically thorough portrait of a stereotypical French starving artist in my life.



Ze Frank - "Privacy" Ze is not to everybody's taste, but I still think he's neato. He makes going to hell in a handbag sound good, or at least entertaining.



"very creepy, disturbing children's cartoon, banned from TV" This was brought to my attention by my friend Jason, and boy howdy is this video riveting. RIVETING. What can I say? I'm a sucker for brilliant claymation.



100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

AND the entire film clip list for "100 Movies," above This is such a great idea, I'm kicking myself for not having thought of it first.



Zero Gravity Water Bubble Hypnotic.



"Man Cold" from Man Stroke Woman Why ARE guys such weenies when they're ill? Most interesting.

belated Wednesday linkyloo - 10 Oct 2007

Glad I'm not this kid.

LOLCat Bible Translation Project Should I be ashamed that I love this? Nah.

ThinkGeek: Wi-Fi Detector Shirt You know I love textiles which light up, right? RIGHT? Yeah. And this one is INTERACTIVE, W00T YEAH. Pretty and practical, all sorts of neato.

Violent Acres: I'm Tired of Bulimia Being the New Black I agree completely.

Times Online: The day the music industry died None of this is a big surprise, although I find it interesting that CDs are now considered exclusively for free PR at this point, solely meant to promote a concert. Interesting business approach.

ebay.com: Feedback profile for tryork5ifp Who IS this guy, and why are people writing these sorts of comments? Very intriguing indeed.

Microsoft.com: The ten worst presentation moments Cringingly hilarious.

Fornasetti.com Piero Fornasetti created useful objets of staggering beauty. The guy oozed wit, whimsy, and beauty the way the rest of us breathe.

guy gets arrested for feeding the homeless What a crock. I can't believe Orlando, Florida is this...ecchh.

Mango Beta Learn a new language online! My friend Paul swears by this.