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Friday, August 8, 2008

747 to Hell in ’76 (1977)

posted by on August 8 at 3:59 PM

The Parallel Universe Film Guide is at once incredibly funny and dizzying in its depth and scope.

There are film titles, descriptions, quotes and trivia about hundreds of movies that don't exist, set up in a Wikipedia-style format. Most impressively, you can follow the fictional careers of the fictional actors and directors who made these fictional movies. Scott Salomon, for instance, directed three films in the late eighties/early nineties, including Commander in Chief...of Love.

Here's a list of movie titles randomly pulled from the Ns. Each of these titles links to a full movie page.

Nazis, Schmazis (1961)

Need Faded Actresses for Gothic Hijinks (1962)

Needle Dick (1932)

Needle Dick, You Motherfucking Fuck (1983)

Negro 'n' Nuns...Awww (1963)

Neurotic Sisters a' Plenty (1986)

News at Six, Ethical Dilemma at Eleven (1987) (updated!)

New York Gritty (1971)

Next of Mannequin (1929)

And further down the list are my favorites:

Nobody Doesn't Like ESP (1976)

No Ifs, Ands, or Robots (1973)

No Legs, No Problem (1950)

I can already tell that I'm going to spend hours on this fucking website.

Is Our Bloggers Learning?

posted by on August 8 at 3:00 PM

This website can determine what your blog's reading level is. You can also test entire websites.

Slog is high school reading level:

blog readability test

Also in the high school reading level: Defamer, Wonkette, Bookninja, Bookslut and the New York Times.

But The Stranger as a whole website rates higher:

blog readability test

And we apparently have the smartest film section in town, because when you run the Stranger film page alone, you get this result:

blog readability test

Perez Hilton and Gawker are both junior high school reading level.

The only elementary school level blog I could find? Ain't it Cool News. Me no surprised.

Negative Capability

posted by on August 8 at 12:04 PM

Over at the P.I., Marc Mazique (who is, full disclosure, an old friend of mine) has written an editorial about birthright citizenship and the close relationship between African Americans and the current battle over immigrant rights. Rather than running an excerpt of the article, I'm going to run some of the dissenting comments:

...as for Mazique's assertion that denying illegal immigrants' rugrats citizenship is racist? he obviously has been drinking the La Raza Kool-Aid. the only people who think cracking down on illegal immigration is racist are those who know they'd get their butts kicked back across the border to taco-land if they got caught...

and

Clearly, this author is an Afro-Marxist communicating the ideas of James Cone and Black Liberation Theology.

If this anti-white racist Communist and his philosophies ever attained any power or influence, freedom of speech would be the first victim with opposing ideas being labeled as "hate speech."

The opinions of this man are frightening. His heart is full of hate against America and revenge against white people. I pity him and his ilk.

Now, seriously, if the article is pissing off these sorts of morons, it has to be worth reading, right?


Thursday, August 7, 2008

Sneezing Panda Is So November 6, 2006

posted by on August 7 at 11:35 AM

Now, a tracker of Internet memes, so you can belly-laugh and reminisce with a snifter of brandy at your recent past. Or, if you are me, so you can see precisely how tragically outdated you are, because most of this is new to you.

(Thanks for the tip, Patrick, via Metafilter!)


Tuesday, August 5, 2008

If Your Tuesday is Dragging

posted by on August 5 at 4:00 PM

Two online games to occupy your time in a non-work-related manner:

Duck, which has no directions but is simpler than you might originally think, and The Idiot Test, which gives you explicit directions, but is more difficult than you might originally think.

We'll get through this Tuesday together, dammit.


Friday, August 1, 2008

The Internet Predicts Your Gender

posted by on August 1 at 11:00 AM

This website can allegedly predict whether you are a man or a woman based on your browsing history. Of course, these sorts of things can often be covers for horrendous computer-buggery, so I bravely volunteered my browsing history to see if something awful would happen. Nothing did, and the website seems on the up and up. I'm also pleased with my results—I came up 98% man, 2% woman, which is maybe the most masculine assessment that's ever been made of me.

Obama Veep Pick Revealed in Web Address?

posted by on August 1 at 10:42 AM

ABC News on the curious fact that typing www.ObamaBayh08.com into your web browser takes you to the Democratic National Committee's official website.

ABC tries a number of other potential Obama/VP combinations—ObamaKaine08.com, ObamaBiden08.com, ObamaSebelius08.com—and comes up with nothing.

Coincidence? Red-herring hacking? Who knows?

In the meantime, meet Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.

UPDATE: As a number of commenters have confirmed, it's just some garden-variety cybersquatting. Carry on.


Thursday, July 31, 2008

tl;dr

posted by on July 31 at 4:55 PM

The New York Times Magazine has a long story about trolls. After a cursory history of trolling, there's a long interview with Jason Fortuny, who did the "Craigslist Experiment," publishing photos that people sent to his phony ad a few years back.

A flat-screen HDTV dominated Fortuny’s living room, across from a futon prepped with neatly folded blankets. This was where I would sleep for the next few nights. As Fortuny picked up his cat and settled into an Eames-style chair, I asked whether trolling hurt people. “I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Oh, God, please forgive me!’ so someone can feel better,” Fortuny said, his calm voice momentarily rising. The cat lay purring in his lap. “Am I the bad guy? Am I the big horrible person who shattered someone’s life with some information? No! This is life. Welcome to life. Everyone goes through it. I’ve been through horrible stuff, too.”

“Like what?” I asked. Sexual abuse, Fortuny said. When Jason was 5, he said, he was molested by his grandfather and three other relatives. Jason’s mother later told me, too, that he was molested by his grandfather. The last she heard from Jason was a letter telling her to kill herself. “Jason is a young man in a great deal of emotional pain,” she said, crying as she spoke. “Don’t be too harsh. He’s still my son.”

It's a pretty interesting article. The writer will probably never be able to send an e-mail without swimming through a deluge of shit ever again.


Tuesday, July 29, 2008

"Text is likely to be stupid."

posted by on July 29 at 5:00 PM

Stupidfilter is a website that supposedly determines whether text is stupid or not.

I went to one of the dumbest places on the internet, a site called Boycott McDonald's that's boycotting McDonald's for "promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage." It was featured on Wonkette last week. I pulled one comment:

"shame on you, do you not realize this was a family restaurent---NOT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!"

And plugged it into Stupidfilter and got this response:

isstupid.jpeg

But then I plugged this comment:

"It was bad enough having to keep my Spanish to English dictionary handy every time I pulled up to your drive-thru window (to the tune of about $1,000 per year). But this is the final straw (and I guess the final Big Mac) for me. Your blatant disregard for the strongly held moral values most Americans hold dear has cost you my business. Yes, Wendy's, I will have a Frosty with that."

In to Stupidfilter and got this response:

isnotstupid.jpeg

Which is clearly wrong. There's so much that's stupid about that quote--the blind hatred of immigrants, the eating one thousand dollars a year worth of McDonald's drive-thru food, the "moral values most Americans hold dear," the belief that getting a milkshake dairy dessert eaten with a spoon at Wendy's is a moral imperative--that it's clearly a stupid quote. So, really, all that Stupidfilter does is spot things like ALL CAPS and extra exclamation points and misspellings. But those things, those ALL CAPS and extra exclamation points and misspellings, are nature's way of marking the stupid people for us already. Needing a website to identify that kind of stupidity is, well, stupid.

Some Blogs Are More Equal Than Others

posted by on July 29 at 2:00 PM

Orwellenespanol.jpg

Maud brings news that Orwell's diaries are going to be reproduced, in chronological order, on a blog starting on August 9th.

The Orwell Prize is delighted to announce that, to mark the 70th anniversary of the diaries, each diary entry will be published on this blog exactly seventy years after it was written, allowing you to follow Orwell’s recuperation in Morocco, his return to the UK, and his opinions on the descent of Europe into war in real time. The diaries end in 1942, three years into the conflict.

This is a great way to use a blog, I think. I'm pretty excited about it.


Monday, July 28, 2008

Does This Look Infected, Internet?

posted by on July 28 at 4:00 PM

Afraidtoask.com answers all those questions that you're allegedly afraid to ask your doctor. And, according to them, "Unlike most healthcare web sites, afraidtoask.com offers in-depth information and graphic photographs that will give you a better understanding of highly personal health issues."

Have you ever have a burning desire (haw haw!) to re-watch those horrible STD slide shows that they show kids in high school? Afraidtoask.com is your one-stop shop for photos of penises rotting from untreated cases of gonorrhea. I saw that the website had a store and I was momentarily interested in what would be for sale: photos of vaginal warts on a coffee cup? Would there be inspirational posters that read "hang in there?" Sadly, no. They just sell condoms and crotch-based pharmaceuticals. I can't tell if I'm glad that this website exists for people who are afraid to ask their doctor a question, or if I'm terrified that this many people are afraid to buy condoms in public.

Free, Dumb Comics

posted by on July 28 at 3:00 PM

(Not to be confused with Freedom Comics.)

Marvel Comics is doing an online motion comic of a Stephen King short story called "N." They'll be releasing one a day here. It's dumb the way that much of Stephen King's post-accident writing is dumb, and the exposition is totally unoriginal and uninteresting. But I really like Alex Maleev's art.


Really. If you're going to animate something, fucking animate it.

And then, there's a motion-comic version of Watchmen available for free at iTunes. This one is even dumber than the above comic. Dave Gibbons' artwork doesn't lend itself well to motion, and the fact that all the characters are read by one man is really problematic. I know that a lot of audio book readers read the dialogue for both genders, but with the (horrible, stolid) animation here showing us that it's supposed to be read by a woman, the whole thing comes off like a bad crossdressing joke. It's really, really painful.

But, hey, you know, it's free!


Friday, July 25, 2008

Remember That 12 Seconds of Free Time You Had?

posted by on July 25 at 2:33 PM

Warren Ellis writes about video mail—raising the question of why we don't get video mails in our inbox along with the emails—but he also points to a new site called 12 Seconds.tv. You have 12 seconds to record whatever you want. It's like video Twitter. Most people are using it to keep in touch.


I can see useful (and by 'useful,' I mean socially useful, not world-changing useful) applications here, although I'd never use the thing. Still and all, Warren Ellis is where I first heard about podcasting, way back before anybody else was using the term, and I can see this really taking off.

Piece of Cake

posted by on July 25 at 11:00 AM

baby%2Bcarrot.jpg

Bookshelves of Doom links to this amazing blog. Cake Wrecks documents cakes that are (intentionally or not) hilarious.

Besides the above nightmarescape, there's this well advertised but poorly designed professional wedding cake, this awesome James Bond-themed cake, and this amazing naked-lady-delivering-a-baby cake. The entire blog is awe-inspiring.


Thursday, July 24, 2008

Point/Counterpoint (Web 2.0 Edition)

posted by on July 24 at 3:33 PM

Today, Opposing Views has launched a beta web site that pits liberals against conservatives, the pious against the heretics, and butch dykes against twinks, all in realish-time political match ups. On the docket this afternoon: Obama’s economic advisor squaring off against McCain’s senior advisor over which candidate is more fiscally capable, and Sierra Club debating global warming (which is somehow still a debate) with the National Center for Policy Analysis, among others. In some ways, this is like a live-action voter’s guide, beginning with statements, rebuttals and rejoinders—only it continues ad nauseam. A few steps into the enviro debate, the global-warming-doesn't exist crowd declares, "The rate of sea level rise since 1961, less than two-sixteenths of an inch annually, is far lower than the historic average." None of the parties have gotten too bloody with each other today, but in time, what’s to say it doesn’t turn into this:

What I find most exciting about the site isn't just in-depth written versions of the same oral arguments on mainstream news shows, nor the fact that people can comment, but that is opens the door for meaningful discussions of third-tier issues that aren't tied to current events. It may even give high-profile figures (like the drug czar, who won’t debate drug policy in person) a venue where he might actually confront his opponents.


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Useful Internet Application!

posted by on July 22 at 4:35 PM

Besides driving and public transit, Google Maps now has a walking application, which would have been immensely useful back when I was Party Crashing. Speaking as someone who will gladly walk from Capitol Hill to the U District if I have the time, this is the best Google App I've seen in a while.

Here's the map for a generic Capitol Hill starting point to Discovery Park, which is listed as being 6.5 miles, a distance of "about 2 hours 13 mins." It seems like a fairly decent route, too.

walkmap.jpg


Monday, July 21, 2008

Barack Obama Bought You a PBR...

posted by on July 21 at 5:00 PM

...Barack Obama doesn’t give you shit about your Asian girlfriend, and Barack Obama is the new white belt are all hipsterisms on display over at Barack Obama is Your New Fixie.


Saturday, July 19, 2008

Dr. Actually-pretty-good.

posted by on July 19 at 11:38 AM

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which I wrote about here, is up in its entirety for free viewing today and tomorrow, and then after that, you'll have to pay to watch it, either on DVD or as a download.

It's actually surprisingly touching for a half-hour-long musical internet serial about a super-villain, and some of the jokes are hilarious.

Find it here.


Friday, July 18, 2008

Dept. of Making-Me-Feel-Lazy

posted by on July 18 at 4:00 PM

Slog commenter Ivan is biking across country with his wife, Mary. They're going from Seattle to Virginia Beach, a total of 3,300 miles. They're blogging about the experience.

I'm really fond of the conceit they've set up for the blog: he's blogging, and she's blogging, and the two blogs are running on their webpage side-by-side, and neither one is allowed to read the other one's blog until they're done with the ride. They're already disagreeing on something: Ivan says it's day 1 of the trip, Mary says it's day 2.


Tuesday, July 15, 2008

If You Thought That New Yorker Cover Was Bad...

posted by on July 15 at 6:12 PM

...then you should really check out this e-mail that's circulating across the Internet. A friend forwarded it to me, and she got it as part of an e-mail chain, so God only knows where it came from, but it's called "The Jihad Candidate" and it's gotten around—a Google search shows 9,050 hits for "jihad candidate" alone. The piece is about Barack Obama, and its 100% racist, xenophobic goodness makes that cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker look like it could be on... well.. the cover of the New Yorker.

A choice bit (sic throughout):

Find a candidate who changes his American name of Barry to the Muslim name of Barak Hussein Obama, and dares anyone to question his true ties under the banner of 'racism'. Nurture this candidate in an atmosphere of anti-white American teaching and surround him with Islamic teachers. Provide him with a bitter, racist, anti-white, anti-American wife, and supply him with Muslim middle east connections and Islamic monies. Allow him to be clever enough to get away with his anti-white rhetoric and proclaim he will give $834 billion taxpayer dollars to the Muslim controlled United Nations for use in Africa.

Aw, snap! But there's more...

Why has the American main stream media clammed-up on any negative reporting on Barak Hussein Obama? Why will they print Hillary Rodham Clinton's name but never write his middle name? Is it not his name? Why, suddenly, is ANY information about this candidate not coming from main stream media, but from the blogosphere by citizens seeking facts and the truth? Why isn't our media connecting the dots with Islam? Why do they focus on 'those bad American soldiers' while Islam slaughters non Muslims daily in 44 countries around the globe?

They say "the truth" is more false than it is true. So if a Barack Obama conspiracy and the idea that all Muslims are evil is already the "truth", there's no point in letting a few "facts" get in the way. Anyway, for your reading pleasure, here's a link to author Rich Carroll's awesome website I sent Carroll an e-mail the other day asking if he'd like to chat, but I haven't heard back yet. Although Amazon is all sold out of "Terrorists' Crossing," Carroll's novel about Muslims who dress up as Mexicans and sneak over the border to steal our freedom, you can read the rest of his ridiculous work on the website. And try not to spiral into a bout of depression afterward, if you can help it.

It's Fucking Broken!

posted by on July 15 at 4:25 PM

The Presurfer has a link to a website called The Blog Cuss-O-Meter. It's supposed to tell you how many cusswords are on your blog.

Unfortunately, the site seems to be broken:

cusshappyslog.jpg

See? If the shitsucker says that Slog's got abso-fucking-lutely no swears on it, the cocksucker's obviously gone tits-up. I wonder if all the motherfucking swears on Slog somehow shoved a stick up the Cuss-O-Meter's goddamned ass and broke it off?

In Case It's Something That You Might Like...

posted by on July 15 at 4:00 PM

...and in case you haven't heard it, like, all over the internet today, the first thirteen-minute chapter of Joss Whedon's weeklong musical superhero comedy experiment, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, has gone live today.

It stars Neil Patrick Harris, who really should change his name to Neil Doogie Harris, as an evil super-criminal who's trying to get up the courage to talk to a girl. Nathan Fillion (who I have a semi-enormous man-crush on, though not enough of one to make me want to watch him on Desperate Housewives) stars as a superhero. Turns out, Fillion's singing voice leaves something to be desired, although it has a certain rough charm. Harris is enjoyable and witty and he has a lovely voice, even if the songs leave something to be desired.

Not much happens in this first bit, really, although it's pleasant enough and, importantly, free. The next two segments will go live on July 17th and July 19th, and then the whole thing will disappear on July 20th, whereupon you will be charged for the privilege of watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I'm not convinced that it's going to be worth any amount of money, but it's certainly fun to watch at work.


Monday, July 14, 2008

Call Me Annotated

posted by on July 14 at 12:00 PM

Maud links to Power Moby Dick, which has extensive annotations for the novel and is really quite attractively designed.

I don't know about reading the entire thing from a website, but I do think that online annotations can be useful tour guides to a complex book. The above site looks much more straightforward than this batshitcrazy, but kind of fun when you get used to it, Gravity's Rainbow companion website.

Beat the Claw

posted by on July 14 at 8:20 AM

Thanks to the ingenuity of a child, we all finally know how to get that lobster harmonica.

Can anyone tell if she had a prize when she came out? The speed with which her mom gets her out of there leads me to think she was in on the scam.


Friday, July 11, 2008

No News Media Sites with Much Credibility Are Reporting It...

posted by on July 11 at 3:00 PM

...but according to Gaywired.com (citing PerezHilton.com):

Alabama Attorney General Troy King, a conservative Republican Christian who has called homosexuality the 'downfall of society,' has been caught with his pants down--literally--in a gay sex scandal. King was reportedly nabbed having sex with a male assistant by his wife, Paige King, in the couple’s own bed.

This could be a hoax. It's been hours since this hit the web and none of the newspapers in Alabama have anything. Then again, King's record, ethics-wise, isn't spotless. And, you know, he's a Republican.

You Gonna Take That?

posted by on July 11 at 11:00 AM

Gawker, writing about that Time.com article on Chelsea Alvarez-Bell and mean commenters:

We're only mentioning it because the article notes that while yes, commenters are mean and out of control, at least ours are witty!

Stupid, Stupid Robots!

posted by on July 11 at 10:47 AM

Via Sci-Fi Scanner.


Thursday, July 10, 2008

Dept. of NSFW Dumbassery

posted by on July 10 at 5:00 PM

A little something to play out your evening at (not safe for!) work: a web-based game where the player determines whether breasts are real or surgically-enhanced.

I haven't actually played this game, and I don't endorse it. I'm linking to this for two horrifying bits of internet language: the page's introduction line:

Welcome at our tits, boobs, and breasts game

and the closing lines:

Now you can show the world your meat-expertise! Easy? Show it dude!

Somebody put that second one on a t-shirt, stat!


Wednesday, July 9, 2008

I Hate Myself...

posted by on July 9 at 5:00 PM

...for linking to this bank's website. I know that I'm just a tool—and I emphasize the word "tool," here—in their viral marketing campaign, but I think that these commercials are funny as hell.

If you don't want to link through, they star famous awesome man Carl Weathers

(predator03.jpg)

riding around on a bicycle loaded down with flowers. He hits on women and dispenses wisdom, but everything, ultimately, is about change, because it's just another goddamned advertisement for another goddamned bank.

But it's a goddamned funny goddamned ad for a goddamned bank.

Good

posted by on July 9 at 4:28 PM

thsrs.gif

My favorite thing for the past 10 minutes.

Here Today, Gone Today

posted by on July 9 at 4:22 PM

The New York Times reports on the fact that Violet Blue has been completely removed from the Boing Boing archives, as though she never existed. Of course, I had never heard of Violet Blue until this whole mess happened, so it's not like I can personally get huffy over it. But this is something that's only going to get more and more important as media moves online, and there's no accountability.

When I correct my own posts, if there's a factual change, I'll note it in an update, but sometimes things like grammar and spelling will get fixed with no credit or notation. But does anyone even really care about this sort of thing? Is this an old-media concern awkwardly slapped onto a new-media paradigm?

The Opposite of Lively

posted by on July 9 at 12:19 PM

Google just created a Second Life-like application called Lively. The burdensome tagline is: "Create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms you design." Just like Second Life, you pick an avatar like this one:

download.jpg

and build a room like, for example, this "Goth Room":

download-1.jpg

And then you can, um, IM your friends, who also look like pigs or chickens or whatever. It does, at least, seem to be free at present.

Stephen's Lighthouse also points out another small step for online avatars:

"Sometime earlier today an avatar was successfully teleported from a SecondLife Virtual World preview Grid onto an OpenSim world developed by IBM, marking the first incident of virtual space travel by a virtual life form."

I really, really hope this doesn't turn into web 3.0.


What Were Great Walls 2 Through 4?

posted by on July 9 at 11:00 AM

The Boston Globe's website has a really cool blog called The Big Picture, wherein they run a series of beautiful, gigantic photographs of current events. It's actually the first time in a good long while that I've had to wait for photos to upload on a website, and it's sad how impatient I get now that I've been spoiled by DSL.

Anyway, today they have photos of Chinese Anti-Terrorism excercises to prepare for the Olympics. They call the whole thing Great Wall 5, which is a terrific name for an anti-terrorism drill.

Here's a chunk of one photo:

antiterroristhop.jpg

For gun-wielding cops on Segways, flamethrowers, and giant anime creatures looming in the background, I suggest you check out the Big Picture blog.


Monday, July 7, 2008

Re: Kiss Your Scrabulous Goodbye

posted by on July 7 at 2:45 PM

Apparently I'm going to be beta testing this Hasbro-approved new Scrabble version. I'll let you know if this goes through--I've already emailed back but haven't heard anything.

Hi Annie-

I'm currently working with Hasbro, Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc. on their new SCRABBLE ® game for Facebook.

I found your site while searching for people interested in playing Scrabble on Facebook and want to invite you to be part of an exclusive closed BETA test of the new SCRABBLE® game for Facebook.

If you accept the invitation, I hope you'll share your experience with your site's readers. And, of course, we'd also love for you to share your thoughts on the game with us directly.

If you're interested in becoming one of the first to play EA's new SCRABBLE game for Facebook, simply reply and I'll send you quick directions for joining the BETA test.

Thanks so much for your time-
Best,
Victoria

I am an ardent Scrabulous fan, so if they fuck up any functionality, I promise to throw a fit.

Kiss Your Scrabulous Goodbye

posted by on July 7 at 2:00 PM

I took part in a "Whatever happened to that lawsuit against Scrabulous?" discussion last week.

Here's the answer: Scrabble is ready to unveil their Facebook application. I'm willing to bet that people won't go to the Scrabble application of their own volition, so Scrabble's going to have to force the game by putting Scrabulous out of business. Especially since the Scrabble version of Scrabulous sucks ass.

Barbie? Is That You?

posted by on July 7 at 12:00 PM

Photoshop Disasters has a link to an Amazon.com lingerie seller's page. It seems weird to announce that the page is NSFW, although it kind of is.

Basically, the product is a (hugely-uncomfortable-looking) beaded reverse thong, but because Amazon is family-friendly, dontchaknow, they've airbrushed the crotch out of the picture. Close-up photo of the nothingness between the model's legs is here. I'm sure there's a fetish for this.


Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Book Woman Who Gets Into Lots of Consensual Sexual Relationships

posted by on July 1 at 3:31 PM

I suppose it had to happen sometime. Stephanie Cleveland takes issue with the "Slut" in "Bookslut." Her essay is way, way too long. Here's the beginning of her point:

It wasn’t until I was back in New York that I checked out Bookslut online, and got my first introduction to the magazine via the August issue. One of the first things I noticed was, despite its claim to be a magazine for “people” who love reading, and despite a few male editors flippantly (offensively?) proclaiming themselves “sluts” on the masthead, Bookslut features images of women in various states of undress, but no naked men.

The Bookslut logo is a cartoon of a female nude, lying horizontally, in the great tradition of reclining female nudes painted by male artists throughout history. Bookslut is hunched eagerly over her book, and the focal point of the cartoon is her ass. She has long wavy hair, perched atop her head in a ponytail. Her body looks thin and young, traditionally attractive. You can see the edge of her right breast jutting over the side of her rib cage perkily. On the Bookslut site, readers can buy pictures of this logo and different pinup style cartoons of women, on T-shirts, tote-bags, and other merchandise.

Jessa Crispin, the head Bookslut, responds:

...My riled up inner feminist gets mightily pissed off at the assertion that I am harming women by running Bookslut...

I don't even know what to say here, except that I hope the Anti-Ninja Defamation League goes after Bookninja next. Seriously, I'm not a huge fan of using sexual imagery to sell a love of books—I'm not the fond of the title of Nancy Pearl's wonderful book about books, Book Lust, for example. But I think declaring that a litblog is perpetuating violence against women is a bit much.

One thing I hope we can all agree on is that Bookslut needs to change its logo, which has been the same hunk of ugly for a very long time:

bookslut.jpg


Friday, June 27, 2008

Forcing the Past Tense

posted by on June 27 at 2:00 PM

The Globe and Mail has a story by the man who added Tim Russert's death date to the Meet the Press page of Wikipedia.

I know, I know.

But it's actually fairly interesting. I've always wondered exactly why these people feel the need to update this web page the instant that something happens. And it does explain it a bit, and no, he's not proud:

Alerted by The New York Times website (which also mentioned Russert's death a few minutes before NBC did), I visited Wikipedia – partly out of interest about Russert and partly out of a vague and morbid curiosity about how long it would take for his death to register. The change, of course, had already been made to the main entry. But when I visited the Wikipedia page of Meet The Press, the flagship political show he helmed on Sundays, I found it in pristine condition.

Why I was compelled to be the one to change it, I couldn't tell you, but that's what I did. I added a “2008” as an ending date on his tenure at the show. I changed everything else to the past tense. And I did so post-haste.

Master of Your Domain

posted by on June 27 at 1:00 PM

The AFP says:

Web regulators Thursday voted to allow the creation of thousands of new domain names, from .paris to .Pepsi, in one of the biggest shake-ups in Internet history, a French web official said.

It suggests that domains like .nyc, .berlin, .car, .bank, and .xxx might open up. I think that this might make things a lot more complicated, and also ever-so-slightly segregation-y. (.gay, anyone?). The article suggests that they'll make an effort to fight cybersquatting, but that honestly sounds a little impossible to me. At the very least, it's going to be like the vanity plate of the new millennium.


Thursday, June 26, 2008

Pretty (Useless)

posted by on June 26 at 1:00 PM

Zoomii seems to be an interface that makes Amazon look like a giant bookstore. It's actually pretty neat, and it removes one of my major complaints about Amazon: the fact that there's no random discovery. By having all the covers next to each other, there's more of randomness at play in the process of looking a book up. When I look up a book on Amazon, the last thing I want to see is another book that's more of the same, but that's all that they offer.

But then, since 90% of all books are crap*, that kind of makes the Zoomii search frustrating, too. Just like a real bookstore!

Continue reading "Pretty (Useless)" »