- Terror as mall shark tank cracks. After yesterday’s tragic SeaWorld attack, should we be worried? [via]
- Meanwhile, here’s a really strange and sad story about the world’s loneliest whale. via]
- Last Thursday, I posted a link to a site called Please Rob Me, which suggests those away messages that say you’re out of the house could lead to home invasions and burglaries. Waxy.org, where I found that link, offers this reality check.
- It’s understood that Rush Limbaugh is a race-baiting evil asshole, right? Just checking. [via]
- And finally, Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy [via]:
politics
Monday various
- Play any website as music using CodeOrgan. For what it’s worth, here’s what this site supposedly sounds like. [via]
- “Sealed with a righteous kiss and something something death.” Very funny subtitles from Cambodian Twilight and Avatar DVDs. [via]
- Meanwhile, here’s a neat infographic outlining just what you get as a DVD pirate versus as a paying customer. Of course, it seems to be missing one of those full-length anti-piracy ads — also often unskippable — that play at the start of many DVDs.
- Here’s a horrific and “little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.”
Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people. [via]
- And finally, on a slightly happier note: the headline reads: Rapper says politician used Vulcan grip on him in airplane fight.
Thursday various
- Instead of cutting Oscar winners’ speeches (and thereby any hope for spontaneity the whole ceremony might have), maybe they should start with some of the endless montages and interpretive dance numbers. Why not, instead of cutting the part that’s ostensibly what they whole evening is about, stop doubling the number of films being nominated?
- How to Succeed as an Ayn Rand Character
- Please Rob Me. As Waxy.org noted, this is “only dangerous if someone knows where you live” (or if they can extrapolate from other online information about you). But I know I’m a little hesitant to post that I’m away when the house is unattended.
- School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home. Yikes! [via]
- And finally, A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything. [via]
Wednesday various
- This could be interesting: apparently Redbox is looking to install DVD rental kiosks at libraries. As a librarian at the link above writes:
Unfortunately I think Redbox will only target libraries in large cities and wouldn’t bother with a small town like mine. It would be a great service to the community, but probably not enough profit to make it interesting for them.
Where it could do some good — that is, by generating foot traffic and providing DVDs to libraries that couldn’t otherwise afford them — Redbox likely won’t be interested, but will instead focus on locations where they might actually do some harm — by charging for what are now free rentals, and by sharing only a tiny percentage of that charge with the libraries. If nothing else, though, I think it suggests that Redbox understands the precariousness of its existence; as online streaming becomes the dominant industry model, it will need to seek out more and new rental locations to survive.
- There are two ways to look at this: the first, “Obama cancels moon mission,” makes for a quick and easy soundbite. But the second, “Obama scraps Bush’s wildly empty promise and redirects funding to more important areas” is probably more accurate. Still, it’s a shame we’re not going back to the moon any time in the near future.
- I’m not sure all of the titles on the Oddest Book Title of the Year award longlist are really that odd, but what library would be complete without Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes, Map-based Comparative Genomics in Legumes, or Planet Asthma: Art and Acitivty Book?
- An interesting article by A.O. Scott on Smoking in ‘Avatar’ and the Limits of Boundaries on Ratings.
- And finally, there have got to be easier ways to get around New York [via]:
Monday various
- Sad to learn that author Kage Baker passed away from cancer over the weekend.
- Not terribly surprised to learn that Sarah Palin’s political action committee spent more money buying her book than on, well, political action.
- Very surprised to learn that packs of wild beagles are terrorizing the east end of Long Island.
- Impressed by James Cameron’s letter to H.R. Giger’s agent about why Cameron didn’t involve Giger in the design and filming of Aliens. Where’s this kind of honest humility gone in the James Cameron of today?
- And finally, very impressed by Chameleon Circuit, who put out some of the best Doctor Who-themed music I’ve ever heard. That might sound like I’m damning them with faint praise, to some of you, but I think these are really neat songs. One of them easily wound up on my January music mix. [via]