Lucy thought I had left the house.
Lucy Busted
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Author Archives: Steve Mays
Scott Adams: War
“One view of the near future is that terrorists will get nukes and set the atmosphere on fire, or global warming will kill us all, or bird flu will create a pandemic, or the world economy will melt down, or all of those disasters will happen at once. I suppose that’s possible. But I think it’s more likely we are entering a golden age.
My Golden Age prediction assumes technology will continue to surprise us, especially in the energy realm. The high cost of oil has generated a seemingly endless parade of energy technology research and subsequent breakthroughs.
Wars appear to be shrinking too. World Wars I and II will probably be the final wars between major powers. The biggest powers of today are more interested in being trading partners than foes. As nations become more connected, via economics and the Internet, the risk of war decreases. All war requires a certain degree of lying to the citizens, and the Internet will continue to make that harder.”
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Andrew Lear gets tased
As part of his training to become a police officer, our little buddy Andrew had to subject himself to a few thousand volts from a taser. For reasons not clear to me, they video the experience. This clip only lasts 7 seconds but you can watch it over and over.
Rather than go with the department-issue Taser, Andrew decided to spring for something that would make a statement on the street.
What do real thugs think of The Wire?
Sudhir Venkatesh knows a thing or two about street gangs and got some New York thugs together to watch the season opener of The Wire to get their take on the show and the characters. From his Freakonomics blog post:
“For the first episode, we gathered in the Harlem apartment of Shine, a 43-year-old half Dominican, half African-American man who managed a gang for fifteen years before heading to prison for a ten-year drug trafficking sentence. I invited older guys like Shine, most of whom had retired from the drug trade, because they would have greater experience with rogue cops, political toughs, and everyone else that makes The Wire so appealing. They affectionately named our gathering “Thugs and ‘Cuz.” (I was told that the “‘cuz” — short for “cousin” — was for me.)
There was plenty of popcorn, ribs, bad domestic beer, and fried pork rinds with hot sauce on hand. The pork rinds, apparently the favorite of the American thug, ran out so quickly that one of the low-ranking gang members in attendance was dispatched to acquire several more bags.”
What did the bad boys think? Bunk is on the take; McNulty and the Bunk will split and Prop Joe should whack Marlo. [Thanks, John]
Show Me Clowns for Jesus National Conference
That was the headline of a news release that came in to the Missourinet newsroom this week:
- Over 200 clowns of every size and shape to tickle your funny bone led by Buttons with his Menagerie of Make-believe Mammals and Chagy the Clown
- High wire feats and breathtaking motorcycle stunts that will take you to the edge of your seat by Castro and Company
- Unbelievable juggling skill by the dynamic Cody Byrn
- Amazing illusions that will surprise your eyes and may change your life by Duane Laflin who will also serve as our Ringmaster
- And… many more surprises
“Circus of the King” is sponsored by Show Me Clowns for Jesus National Conference. Currently the largest ministry clown conference in the world celebrating its 23rd year of training people to use clowning and the creative arts in ministry.
“Instead of shouting the message, hide it”
Will we still get carpet bombed by mindless 30 second commercials in the future? (And by future I mean a couple of weeks from now.) Seems unlikely, but how will savvy marketers reach –and more importantly– engage us? How do you “reach people who are so media-saturated they block all attempts to get through.”
Perhaps with alternate reality games (ARG’s). That’s the subject of a fascinating article by Frank Rose in this month’s Wired Magazine (Issue 16.01).
“The initial clue was so subtle that for nearly two days nobody noticed it. On February 10, 2007, the first night of Nine Inch Nails’ European tour, T-shirts went on sale at a 19th-century Lisbon concert hall with what looked to be a printing error: Random letters in the tour schedule on the back seemed slightly boldfaced. Then a 27-year-old Lisbon photographer named Nuno Foros realized that, strung together, the boldface letters spelled “i am trying to believe.” Foros posted a photo of his T-shirt on the Spiral, the Nine Inch Nails fan forum. People started typing “iamtryingtobelieve.com” into their Web browsers. That led them to a site denouncing something called Parepin, a drug apparently introduced into the US water supply. Ostensibly, Parepin was an antidote to bioterror agents, but in reality, the page declared, it was part of a government plot to confuse and sedate citizens. Email sent to the site’s contact link generated a cryptic auto-response: “I’m drinking the water. So should you.” Online, fans worldwide debated what this had to do with Nine Inch Nails. A setup for the next album? Some kind of interactive game? Or what?”
I’m not a gamer. At all. But I love shit like this. Reminds me of the viral video snippets in William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. The Wired article is well worth the read.
Scott Adams: Religion and Politics
“Why would you vote for a president who has a different religion than you? If you are certain of the rightness of your own beliefs, and equally certain of the wrongness of a presidential candidate’s belief, that proves the candidate has, in your opinion, bad judgment about the most important question in reality.”
“You wouldn’t vote for a candidate who believes in Ouija boards or horoscopes, because such beliefs would be a reliable indication of simple-mindedness. So why would you vote for a candidate who can’t figure out what version of God is right? If he can’t get that right, according to you, how good is his judgment? You probably think picking the right religion is not a hard challenge, because you got it right without much struggle. You want your leader to be at least as smart as you.”
“No one really believes what they say they believe, at least not in the same way you believe you have to open the front door in order to walk through it. There are two sorts of belief. One is the type you act on, and the other is the type you use to feel good about your place in the universe. As long as a president doesn’t use religion as a guide to action, then it has no bearing on his potential job performance. And he is not a liar or a hypocrite if you accept the notion that there are two types of belief, and they don’t need to interfere with each other.”
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Make iPhone listen to radio, tell you what’s playing
“You’re riding in the car and a great song comes on the radio. You’re dying to know what it is so you can go buy it ASAP but there’s no satellite radio receiver to tell you what’s playing. How can you find out what song it is? Whip out your iPhone, put it near the car speakers, and watch the screen. Poof! There’s the song, artist, and album.” — TUAW.COM
Okay. This could make me trade in my Tracfone. iPhoner Tom promises to try this out and let me know how it works.
Advertiser Optimism by Medium
From Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog:
"Advertiser Perceptions latest survey of 2,047 ad executives (published twice yearly) — as published by Online Media Daily — reveals growing pessimism among ad buyers about traditional forms of advertising. I view this study as significant, because it speaks directly with people who are making decisions about spending money."
Only newspapers face a smaller increase and larger decrease than radio? [Emphasis/red from original post]
Obama is “a good vague”
Picked up a copy of Rolling Stone while roaming around Barnes & Noble this morning to see what Matt Taibbi was up to. In a piece written a few weeks before the Iowa Caucuses, he explains Barack Obama’s appeal (“Obama on the Rise”). An excerpt:
“While Obama glows like the chosen one, taking Kennedy-esque flight on the wings of destiny, next to him Hillary sometimes comes off like an angry drag queen, enraged that some other tramp has been allowed to “Danke Schoen” in her Las Vegas. Obama sees this and isn’t above pointing at her Adam’s apple. “I’m not running for president because I think this is somehow owed to me,” Obama says. And people believe it. … “There’s just something about him,” says one middle-aged gentleman. When I suggest that his comment was vague, he shrugs. “Yeah, but it’s good vague.”
You’ll find the full article at The Smirking Chimp.