randomwalks/dj

For our anniversary & my bday, we went to Lake Placid and the Ice Hotel in Quebec. Some of our photos are on flickr

My favorite things:

-- maple whiskey served in cups made of ice at the ice bar in the hotel
-- the outdoor hot tub and sauna, and how it steamed up my eyeglasses
-- how there are so many layers to sleeping bags made for sleeping on a block of ice
-- I wore a hat while sleeping, and when I woke up in the middle of the night, realized my hat (and head) were frozen to the wall of the ice-room
-- for a moment, I knew how to say "turnip" in French, but now I've forgotten-- the food was incredible
-- cotton is a bad fabric for ice hotels-- nylon and polyester are good
-- I thought we'd maybe get hypothermia from this vacation, but turns out sunstroke was a better bet. Sun reflecting on ice is so strong.
-- Our cats behaved for our friends who watched them... or at least, our friends said the cats were good, and I'm glad to hear this. One of our cats nearly threw up her dinner on them last time, so I'm glad the cats had an opportunity to redeem themselves.
-- customs takes a long time
-- I love maple cookies

A while ago, our friend said to notice our dreams while sleeping there... because she had really important dreams when she stayed at an ice hotel. I slept strangely, like one of those sleeps where you feel like you just blinked and then it's the middle of the night hours later. And then I blinked again and sunlight was streaming through the hole in the room's ceiling (not sure why they do this-- maybe ventilation)? I don't remember my dreams at all from the ice hotel night, but I did have really vivid dreams the next night.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from iPalimpsest, on March 31, 2007 10:48 PM

Last night's first Critical Mass ride in an era of the police parade rule that requires groups of 50 or more to apply for permits resulted in three people getting arrested, forty-four receiving tickets, and a few people getting summonses. Based on the NY Times and Newsday articles, the arrests were for disorderly conduct, obstructing government administration, and something to be determined. Newsday had this interesting account of one bicyclist's experience after the ride started:

Moments later, police stopped Kim Kalesti, 49, on Park Avenue South near 18th Street, confiscated her single-speed bike and put her in the back of a squad car. "I don't know why you're bothering me," said Kalesti, a musician who lives on the Lower East Side, as she was led away by an officer. "I'm a law-abiding citizen." A crowd of onlookers chanted, "Let her go! Let her go!" Kalesti later said she had been given a summons for riding on the wrong side of the road.

Bike Blog makes the point that "the cops began to single people out and write summons to people who did not have a bell or a light or some other law on the books that is enforced about as frequent as someone driving on a cell phone." The police also created a blockade of scooters at Park Avenue South and 32nd Street. And Will at OnNYTurf says that City Council member Rosie Mendez, who was riding in a pedicab, "was not touched by the NYPD (good move on their part)." Were you there? Did you see the ride? And given the news that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performer Bello Nock's special teeny bike was stolen, maybe it was the cops who seized the vehicle! Photograph by Eric Brown/dogseat on Flickr; it's part of a whole set

Originally posted by jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 31, 2007 9:36 PM

ROVE SPOTTED IN CHATTANOOGA WITH BROCHURE FOR GWB43.COM NAMESERVER HOST. CAN WE SUBPOENA THE RECORDS NOW? Notice the brochure under Rove’s arm with the Coptix logo on it...

Originally posted by Snow Wolf from Most Huffed News, on March 31, 2007 8:36 PM

Last.fm flow visualizations inspired by Lee Byron.

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on March 31, 2007 12:31 PM

Uncle Ben has been promoted to chairman of his rice company. "[The new ads are] asking us to make the leap from Uncle Ben being someone who looks like a butler to overnight being a chairman of the board." (via designobserver) (link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on March 31, 2007 11:13 AM

Examiner column for April 2.

    If it’s Saturday, I must be writing my school column. I have written hundreds of them, and occasionally have a déjà vu sense that I might have already written this one before. Is that called “déjà écrit”?

    Each year is predictable:  there is a beginning when students and teachers look forward, then there are momentous events, and then there’s settling into the reality of test preparation, then there is (for teachers of seniors) the inevitable battle with the existential condition “senioritis,” and then there is the end.

    Like life, the stages proceed inexorably. Unlike life, teachers have a chance to relive each beginning and end, learning something new each time.

    Writing a column traces that cycle. Each time I enter a new stage, there are few surprises as it arrives, but what takes place can be totally unexpected.  Each year I bring students to productions by The Shakespeare Theatre, and most reactions--- “ I’m only doing this for the extra credit”---are largely predictable.

    But a few are thunderstruck by the power of a live performance of Shakespeare, and it is for those few that I continue to reserve 60 student seats year after year.

    Senior ennui is also inevitable, but surprising exceptions turn up to lend unpredictability to that phenomenon. The children of recent immigrants usually keep their focus right up to the end, for they realize success is a family enterprise. And students who began the year badly cannot afford to come down with senioritis in the spring.

    My columns may have the same topic, yet be different each time I write. Back-to-school night, for example, always starts at 7:30 p.m. and gives teachers and families only a few minutes together, but each year it is totally different.

    The words that come out of my mouth may be similar to the previous year’s, but the other people in the room are entirely new, and their reactions will reflect who they are as much as what I say. Back-to-school night is the same, yet it’s different.

    I have written several columns about the teaching of “Hamlet,” and certainly his words are reliably the same year after year. My lectures on his words, likewise, are nearly the same. But students react in radically different ways.

    This year they were full of  “ewwwwwws” as we spoke of his first soliloquy when we discover that a month after Hamlet’s father’s death, his mother married her brother-in-law. Ewwww indeed.

    The magic of teaching and of writing about teaching is that, year after year, we cheat time. Beginnings, middles, and endings only happen once in life. But for teachers and writers, they happen again and again. The rest of the world grows old and dies, yet in my senior classroom the age is always 17, and every year they have yet to meet Hamlet. I can freeze-frame my class in print. The subjects are the same, yet they’re different.

    My column changes each week, even though I sometimes write on the same subject. Maybe I can’t really cheat time, but sometimes I think I glimpse past its inexorable march into its permanent core. Déjà écrit? It’s the same, yet different.

Originally posted by Erica Jacobs from TeacherTalk, on March 31, 2007 10:49 AM

This is one of my favorite bits from the Jeffrey's World series we featured on Serious Eats.

Originally posted by Alaina Browne from A Full Belly, on March 31, 2007 9:56 AM

BEES ARE DYING AND THEY ACT LIKE IT'S A MYSTERY. Albert Einstein once predicted that if bees were to disappear, man would follow only a few years later. That hypothesis could soon be put to the test.

Originally posted by Snow Wolf from David Jacobs' Huffs, on March 30, 2007 7:05 PM

Pizza night is a new tradition in my kitchen. When I can finally renovate the kitchen (it may only happen in my dreams), I hope to have a pizza oven! Click to enlarge photo, or click on link for an account of the process.

Originally posted by Erica Jacobs from TeacherTalk, on March 30, 2007 6:53 PM

A list of the earliest printed books in select languages. Movable metal type printing in Korea predates that of Gutenberg by a couple hundred years. See also the Wikipedia entry for movable type. (link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on March 30, 2007 12:55 PM

I'm a day late on everything lately: Christian Marclay responds to Apple's Marclay-esque iPhone ad discussed on MAN here. But...

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Modern Art Notes, on March 30, 2007 12:43 PM

A photo of a Jewish settler seemingly fighting about 50 soldiers by herself won a prize in the 2007 World Press Photo contest.
Update: In an earlier iteration of this post, I incorrectly identified the woman in the photo as a Palestinian...she is a Jewish settler. (thx to everyone who wrote in) (link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on March 30, 2007 11:01 AM

An interesting debate is shaping up in gay Paris. When (if ever) do you put your foot down and say we must be true to our national identity and at what point does that become worse than the thing you were originally battling?

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on March 30, 2007 10:16 AM

Google has apparently replaced post-Katrina images of New Orleans with imagery from before the hurricane clobbered the city, and people are upset about that, the AP reports (choose your source for the same article: Boston Globe, Guardian, Houston Chronicle,...

Originally posted by Jonathan Crowe from The Map Room, on March 30, 2007 9:42 AM

American farmers are planning to plant more corn this year than anytime since World War II, as farmers rush to cash in on high prices bolstered by the demand for ethanol.

Originally posted by wendyc from Most Huffed News, on March 30, 2007 9:28 AM

An unnamed customer service manager at Cingular has supposedly confirmed that June 11 will be the official release date of the iPhone. We are skeptically optimistic, but got our own "confirmation" that there is no confirmation.

Read More...

Originally posted by jacqui@arstechnica.com (Jacqui Cheng) from Infinite Loop, on March 30, 2007 8:45 AM

Every so often, I find it useful to 'pause for station identification' so that it's clear who I am and what I do.

Whois
My name is Charlie Schick, I am a product manager at Nokia (see details for more). I use this site mostly to talk and think about the fusion of the mobile and the Internet. Lately, my writing (and Web reading) has suffered on all fronts and backs, mostly due to my project here at Nokia, which I thoroughly enjoy and is exactly what I want to be doing,

Lately, my forward-thoughts have been moving to other interesting areas, such as the long now, how our second life on the 'net can improve our first life in the real world, and forcing myself to be more creative and do the story telling I want to do. I'm not sure how that will affect the nature of my writing here, though I don't expect changes any time soon.

For the hundreds of you on feed readers, my site also has a side bar with a link to my WINKsite (I'm a winkster), my del.icio.us links of note (sporadically showing up here as links of the day), and a link to some of my creative writing that I've put on the Web. I also have a running list of Tired Words, you might find amusing or not (feel free to suggest others).

Thanks
I also want to take the opportunity for all of you who read my site. I try to not repeat what is out there, since so many of you are great writers and in many ways have your thumb on the pulse of the Internet and mobile world much better than I. And, that so many keep coming back to this site, suggest that I do have something of value to you all.

I hope to keep it that way, regardless of what I write about.

Standard Disclaimer (riffing off of Cringley)
Everything I write here on this site is an expression of my own opinions, NOT of my employer, Nokia. If these were the opinions of Nokia, the site would be called 'Nokia something' and, for sure, the writing and design would be much more professional. Likewise, I am an intensely trained professional writer (heh), so don't expect to find any confidential secret corporate mumbo-jumbo being revealed here. Everything I write here is public info or readily found via any decent search engine or easily deduced by someone who has an understanding of the industry.

On the flip side, this is my personal site. Please don’t flood me with ideas that you think Nokia might be interested in. Better to leave a comment or trackback relevant to one of my posts (emphasis: relevant). Or go visit one of the Nokia blogs.

Originally posted by charlie from Lifeblog, on March 30, 2007 3:59 AM

There's a funny article in the NY Times House & Garden section about apartment decor as relationship dealbreakers. Here are some of the examples:

- "sheets with intergalactic battles or pink hippopotami or the Beatles" - Stuffed animals - A grown man's room looking "like a teenager's room. The computer was up there and the twin bed, his clothes were all over the floor." - Overhead lighting - Waterless bong, lots of $750 shoes but unrenovated digs - Prints of Klimt's "The Kiss" or Doisneau's couple kissing - The apartment being too nice - Bed stands with bitten nails - Stuffed baby seal, Sonic the Hedgehog figurines, and Legos (in the apartment of a 46-year-old man)

Sure, a lot of that stuff is weird, but what about when someone you date doesn't have a TV? Or a computer? Or too much technology and electronics? There's a fine line between deliberately kitschy/retro and just being crazy, too. Oh, and we'd add the poster of Audrey Hepburn looking in the window from Breakfast at Tiffany's to the list. Have you dumped someone after seeing their apartment? And earlier this year, we wondered if your pet could be a relationship dealbreaker. But in the Times story, a man ended up marrying a lady with a rabbit running around the apartment, so you never know. Dealbreaker-worthy? Stuffed animals AND a cat lounging on a bed

Originally posted by jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 30, 2007 12:17 AM

After seeing it on the Razor Apple blog, Jake Dobkin just sent us an IM asking if we'd seen the video on Youtube in which REVS discusses the metal sculptures that he's been placing in different locations around Brooklyn.

Not only hadn't we seen it, but we had no idea that it even existed.

Now after watching the video, the only appropriate response is - "Holy shit"

A must watch....

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Wooster Collective, on March 29, 2007 7:27 PM

What oh what did we do to deserve MC Rove??

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on March 29, 2007 5:52 PM

Don DeLillo's new novel, Falling Man, is about 9/11 and the title is a reference to the falling man photograph taken of a person falling from the WTC. (link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on March 29, 2007 5:48 PM

Three of the eight federal prosecutors ousted by the Justice Department as poor performers ranked in the top 10 for prosecutions and convictions by the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys, an analysis of court records shows.

Originally posted by naughtYmike from Most Huffed News, on March 29, 2007 2:54 PM

Haven’t read much yet about the story behind this, but digging this line from chocolate bar in NYC, featuring wrappers by “ten legendary New York City graffiti artists including Blade, Crash, Crachee, Crime 79, Dondi, Dr. Revolt, Iz the Wiz, Lady Pink, Spar One and Voice of the Ghetto (Stay High 149).” A portion of the proceeds go to the All Stars Project, a non-profit focusing on underprivileged youth and the performing arts. More images and background on the project here.

Originally posted by tim from shey.net reboot, on March 29, 2007 1:04 PM

Artist: guillaume horen Rhizome Terms: Collaborative, community, digital, Flash, HTML, interact, Internet, memory, net.art, Participatory Artist Terms: interactive

Traces is an interactive digital work in progress which will be composed when achieved by 10.000 images chosen and commented by visitors. Its interactivity is growing since new functions are added, following the "spectactors" wishes or the artist's mood. ***** Traces est une oeuvre numérique interactive en cours de création qui, une fois achevée, sera composée de 10 000 images choisies et commentées par les visiteurs. Laissez votre trace sur Internet !

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Rhizome.org Artwork, on March 29, 2007 12:59 PM

Please put to rest immediately the myth that Montreal bagels are superior to New York City bagels. Montreal bagels are good, yes, but they're closer to sweet pretzels than they are true bagels. Sure, we'll be back to Montreal to enjoy the bagels again, but don't let anyone ever tell you that "Montreal is the world capitol of good bagels." Not true.

Originally posted by djacobs from Serious Eats: Posts and Comments by djacobs, on March 29, 2007 12:31 PM

There are some goldfish in Japan that live in a functioning deep fat fryer. The frying oil floats above the water where the fish live and as long as they don't try jumping out of their layer, they're fine. A nice side effect of this arrangement is that the fish keep the fryer clean, eating whatever food scraps fall from the fryer above. (via cyn-c) (link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on March 29, 2007 11:32 AM

"Everyone looks all geeky and not self-conscious and not trying to look cool. Everyone was kind of jumping around. No one knew how to dance." - Henry Rollins, from Punk Love over at Radar.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on March 29, 2007 8:16 AM

"Everyone looks all geeky and not self-conscious and not trying to look cool. Everyone was kind of jumping around. No one knew how to dance." - Henry Rollins, from Punk Love over at Radar.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on March 29, 2007 8:16 AM

I write often enough about 3D printing systems and "desktop fabrication" that when something that I shouldn't be startled by just how fast this industry is advancing. And yet: the ZPrinter 450 looks just amazing. The promotional video is almost surreal -- and if somebody had sent it to me as an example of an "artifact from the future," I would have believed them. This is a giant, sparkly, screaming harbinger of what the next decade will hold.

It's not quite desktop fabbing just yet, but it's oh so very close: it's about a single order of magnitude off in price ($40K) and speed ("output models in hours, not days") from being consumer-friendly, and needs to be about half of its current size. That'll happen, probably by the end of this decade (if not sooner). With the "high-performance composite" polymers used as base stock, it looks like dumb objects would be pretty easy to make. The big leap in capability will happen when they can start printing out objects using truly complex polymers as core materials, particularly electroactive polymers (which can move) and organic-electronic polymers (which can compute).

Originally posted by yatta from unmediated, on March 29, 2007 2:22 AM

Last night, police officer Rory Mangra (pictured) attempted to approach a man smoking pot in Prospect Heights, but the man ended up shooting him in the leg. Mangra and his partner, Eric Merizelde, both uniformed but driving in an unmarked car, saw Kingsley Newland light up outside a beauty parlor at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street in Brooklyn. From the Daily News:

Mangra stepped out of the car to approach Newland, but the suspect fled, police said. Merizelde sped ahead in the car, hopped a sidewalk and tried to block the suspect's path. Newland dived across the hood of the car in a bid to escape, but Mangra snatched him. That's when Newland allegedly grabbed a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol from the small of his back, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Cops will do anything for a pot bust! Newland fired at Mangra, and then his gun jammed. Newland allegedly told the police,"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shoot him." Yeah, he was probably just trying to take his gun out to show the cops, and his trigger finger "slipped - a likely story! Commissioner Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg were at Methodist Hospital, where Mangra is recovering. Bloomberg said, "Here we are again - another night, another hospital and another member of New York's Finest shot with what appears to be an illegal gun." Kelly emphasized the dangers cops have been facing lately, "In the last few weeks, we have had officers thrown through a plate-glass window, stabbed through the skull, shot in the ankle and stomach, and of course Auxiliary Police Officers Nicholas Pekearo and Eugene Marshalik were murdered. At the same time that crime continues to plummet, our police officers keep encountering suspects who would rather fight than be taken into custody."

Originally posted by jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 28, 2007 11:10 PM

a collection of hypnotic statues by precisely cutting patterns out of layers & layers of bright-colored construction paper.

[link: jenstark.com|via boingboing.net]

Originally posted by (author unknown) from information aesthetics, on March 28, 2007 9:35 PM

Secret White House Communication email uses RNC site that was also involved with 2004 Ohio voting machines

Originally posted by Lyppy from Most Huffed News, on March 28, 2007 7:42 PM

There's quite a kerfuffle brewing around the Apple's "inspiration" for the iPhone commercial. We've covered this ground before, repeatedly. I'm looking forward to surveying blogistan when all is said and done to compare results and opinions. Meanwhile - do kerfuffles brew? If not, what do they do?

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on March 28, 2007 6:58 PM

Bob Barr, who as a Georgia congressman authored a successful amendment that blocked D.C. from implementing a medical marijuana initiative, has switched sides and become a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project. But that doesn't mean he has become a bong-ripping hippie. He isn't pro-drug, he said, just against government intrusion.

Originally posted by ianblue from David Jacobs' Huffs, on March 28, 2007 3:37 PM

President Bush reiterated that he would veto any bill which contains a timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, during a Wednesday morning speech to the National Cattleman's Beef Association's 2007 Spring Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. Afterwards, responding to the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) asked him to "calm down" and respect Congress' constitutional role.

Originally posted by naughtYmike from David Jacobs' Huffs, on March 28, 2007 2:47 PM

 bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by fruminator to video mux formats - more about this bookmark...

Originally posted by fruminator from del.icio.us/fruminator, on March 28, 2007 2:47 PM

Karl Rove's list of House Races to Target and House Incumbents to Protect in 2008.

Originally posted by hartwellpm from David Jacobs' Huffs, on March 28, 2007 2:20 PM

There is such a thing as cruelty-free carnivorism right?! As an animal lover sometimes I feel guilty for being a carnivore and other times, I feel like it's only natural...conflicted carnivorism??

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on March 28, 2007 12:53 PM

Which one of these two buildings was built by slaves? The one built 4000 years later. Protester disrupts Westminster Abbey...

Originally posted by david galbraith from David Galbraith, on March 28, 2007 1:27 AM

Some of these are a hoot.

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on March 28, 2007 12:55 AM

1. Wake up extra early on any day office people have to go to work.
2. Get to the Nintendo World Store before 8:30 a.m.
3. Wait in line outside till the store opens at 9 a.m.
4. Wait in line inside cause the registers are slow.
5. Ask for a copy of Wii Play cause it comes with a Wiimote, costs only $10 more than just a Wiimote, and the games are simple but fun.
6. Buy your Wii. Hurrah!

Originally posted by Lia Bulaong from hello, nintendo, on March 27, 2007 10:10 PM

Sudama gets the golden helicopter for his observation that "twitter is teh social pocket. pocket is teh 0sil8 kottke did in June 2001." Twitter should borrow pocket's terms of service: Are you going to use my phone number for bad things? Absolutely not. I will not call your phone. I will not give your number to anyone. I will not sell your number to anyone. I will not write your number in a bathroom stall preceded by the words "for a good time call". The only thing I'm going to use your phone number for is sending you pocket via email or text messaging. That's it.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on March 27, 2007 8:03 PM

---

Aron Namenwirth did a studio visit today, and took some nice photos, which are here.

The issue came up about people in the art world saying, regarding exhibits, "Yeah, I saw the show, I saw it on the Internet." Should galleries not post documentation so people will get off their lazy butts and come to see actual work? Cory Arcangel also addresses this matter in a transcription of a recent talk he gave, but from the reverse vantage point--he describes work he's seen on the Internet to people sitting in "real space" without a computer as an audiovisual aid.

I'd been putting off the list of "art YouTubes" he and Hanne Mugaas recently published due to general leeriness of "art about art" and it feeling too much like homework. Certainly one could live without ever seeing the Italian Vanessa Beecroft interview again, but there are bad boy surprises lurking in the roster, too, such as this tribute to Barbara Kruger.

Originally posted by tom moody from Tom Moody, on March 27, 2007 3:22 PM

From an interview with Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

“There’s no question that the way we eat is in large part determined by legislation, the Farm Bill in particular. There’s a set of rules for the food system, and those rules are written into the Farm Bill. Most of us are unaware of this bill and don’t understand how this whole system works. The reason that fast-food is so cheap is in large part because we subsidize the growing of corn and soybeans, which are turned into livestock feed very cheaply, and the former into a very cheap sweetener, in the case of high-fructose corn syrup. So we unwittingly made a set of choices, without any of us really being consulted about how we would eat. It’s no accident that this is a fast-food nation. Policy has a lot to do with it. So if you’re going to change the food system, there is a lot that you, the consumer, can do on your own; but in the end, it will be very important to make changes at the national level.

...I think the people involved don’t want anyone else getting involved. It works really well for them that it’s treated as a parochial piece of legislation only of interest to the senators from Iowa or Nebraska or Illinois. Part of it starts with calling it the “Farm Bill.” Nobody thinks that farming is their issue. They think it’s a piece of legislation of interest to farmers. It should be called the “Food Bill” because it really is about how we get our food. People aren’t aware of the impact of this piece of legislation. If they were, they would pay more attention, and there would be a larger political debate around it. I’m hoping this year there will be.”

It occurs to me that there’s a strong parallel between much action and writing about progressive food and sustainable design. Both seem to focus heavily on personal choices and personal consumption: consuming only vegetables, buying organic or local, vs. consuming only recycled paper, non-toxic printing, using sustainable materials or energy. Along the lines of this previous item, I think these gestures are fine and good, certainly we should become the change we want to see. But surprisingly few concerned eaters or designers turn their attention to policy or legislation.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from djacobs' starred items in Google Reader, on March 27, 2007 7:18 AM

Mark Wahlberg has come a long way since the days of modeling underwear and dedicating his book to his dick. He transitioned from Marky Mark into respectability with Boogie Nights, and really moved into the big time when he started appearing in movies in which he didn't have to take his shirt off at any point, even in Planet of the Apes where it actually would have made sense in the story (the exception being the excellent Rock Star.) Nobody really thought he'd win the Oscar this year for Best Supporting Actor for The Departed, but if he had, it wouldn't have seemed that crazy to see "Academy Award Winner" preceding his name on movie posters for the rest of his life.

Then comes his latest movie, Shooter. This movie really made me wish he had won that Oscar, so that he could follow the post-Academy Award tradition of starring in movies that are totally not what respected actors are supposed to star in (Catwoman, The Reaping.)

Not that Shooter is a bad movie, exactly. It might feature more people getting shot in the head than even the record-setting The Departed, and the whole last hour seems to have been structured with the primary goal of blowing up every single object that ever appears on the screen--cars, helicopters, sheds, gas tanks, houses--in an escalation of explosive DIY vigilante militia warfare. Even all those people's heads seem to combust when shot, which reminds me of the trailer for Hot Fuzz in which Nick Frost asks Simon Pegg "if there is a place in a man's head where if you shoot it, it will blow up."

But even more satisfying than seeing Mark Wahlberg blowing up lots of stuff is the return to the days of long, lingering shots of his mostly naked body, in scenes that are hard to see as cinematically necessary. In Shooter, doing some emergency at-home surgery means you have to take off not only your shirt, but also your pants, with just an artfully placed teeny little hand towel to fill in for his Calvin Kleins. Interestingly, it also means doing a lot of whippets.

We all know he's a talented actor, but it's good to see him getting back to muscle shots and guns. Seems like old times.

written by Amy

Originally posted by (author unknown) from djacobs' starred items in Google Reader, on March 27, 2007 12:52 AM

Museumr lets you insert one of your Flickr photos into a museum (sort of). I gave my beer bottle-shaped sausage photo the Museumr treatment. (thx, chuck) (link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from djacobs' starred items in Google Reader, on March 27, 2007 12:05 AM

Evidence Suggests U.S. Attorney Firings May Have Been Part of White House Scheme to Help Gain 2008 Election

Originally posted by Snow Wolf from David Jacobs' Huffs, on March 26, 2007 8:44 PM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from djacobs' starred items in Google Reader, on March 26, 2007 6:59 PM

Dear David,

I recall your fond desire of a way to blog all open tabs. The post and comments at “Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO » Wanted: convert Firefox tabs to links” will point you to some tools which may bring you closer to your goal.

Yours,
Adam

Originally posted by Adam from djacobs' starred items in Google Reader, on March 26, 2007 5:25 PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from djacobs' starred items in Google Reader, on March 26, 2007 10:36 AM

Even after prior posts, more posts are rolling in.

The title of the Market Watch article was apparently misleading.

Rocketboom will always remain free and easily available to obtain. That's our #1 foundational principle of being and I don't ever foresee needing to change that.

This is not an issue that is determined by money, it's just the way it is and you can take that for granted.

Also, we have had plenty of chances to completely smear advertising all over our videos and websites all day long every day so thats not the issue either. I can imagine how post-roll ads could work, we have done this in the past. We're holding out for the best way for the long run.

Originally posted by Drew from djacobs' starred items in Google Reader, on March 26, 2007 8:40 AM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from djacobs' starred items in Google Reader, on March 26, 2007 8:30 AM

I guess it's hard for a butt head to understand a good people. Couric: and she used to seem so nice.

Originally posted by naughtYmike from David Jacobs' Huffs, on March 26, 2007 4:15 AM

I guess it's hard for a butt head to understand a good people. Couric: and she used to seem so nice.

Originally posted by naughtYmike from David Jacobs' Huffs, on March 26, 2007 4:15 AM