Archive for February, 2004

Most of the crosswalk buttons in NYC don’t work, they were deactivated by the late 1980’s, their steel exteriors masking the lie within.

“Everyone who gets married gives up snowball fighting” because of the big time commitment, says Mr. Miyashita. “Japanese wives won’t put up with it.” Dai N-kai Yusho Sapporo Team won this year’s Showa Shinzan International Yukigassen, the world snowball-fight championship.

It is an old tragic story of loss and war and devotion. It is the story of the Mario Brothers. Watch all three episodes in the saga: Part one, Part two, and the beautiful and touching finale– Part three.

Elmore Leonard offers some rules he’s picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story.

Nokia unveiled the 9500 Communicator today. It’s the first phone to connect to the Internet through a 802.11b Wi-Fi connection– that means surfing the web at 11 Mbit/s rather than 56k. And it also includes a qwerty keyboard, video camera, fax send/receive, and an mp3 player built in. It’s a thousand bucks.

The best journalism on TV is now on the web. Frontline has made most of their programs available from their website, anytime you want to watch.

The Pentagon says that global climate change will create major upheaval for millions. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon, said Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank.

Animated models you can make with glue, scissors and paper, from the England-based company Flying Pig.

It hasn’t been reported or confirmed in any mainstream media outlets yet, but it looks like an embarassing scandal is about to break in Texas. There are lots of unconfirmed rumors out there about the Governor of Texas.

Poloroid advises you to not shake it like a Polaroid picture.

Allow me to introduce you to airlinemeals.net, The world’s first site about nothing but airline food. Before the jet was retired, the menu aboard the JFK to Paris Air France Concorde flight offered sauteed prawn and monkfish- chanterelle mushroom gelette wrapped in grilled zucchini and served with mache and lettuce. Air Botswana’s food looks to be among the worst: Biltong, nuts and about 3-4 drinks …Biltong is South African dried meat. The word comes from Dutch with BIL meaning buttock and TONG meaning strip …and some fluorescent green soda.

Been thinking about getting a new little something for getting around town. It’d be a bit of a gas-guzzler, but maybe a F/A-18A Navy Blue Angel Hornet would do.

If you’re like me, you’ve always wanted to see a water balloon popped in zero-gravity. More movies of our tax dollars at work.

In the series ID-400 Japanese photographer Tomoko Sawada Sawada changed her appearance and dress to create four hundred new identities and used a public photo booth to document her army of me. And in her Omiai series she portrays herself as thirty different candidates for arranged marriages.

Somebody’a selling the phone number 212-867-5309 on eBay. Nobody’ll forget your number.

Jon Stewart says remember, it’s a shot of tequilla everytime he says ‘terror’ or ‘danger’ or ‘madman’.

East London teenager takes dad’s credit card and plays P-Diddy for a day.

If there’s one job I wouldn’t want to have it’s White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s. The press corp grills him relentlessly and if all he’s got is crap to defend, then he’s still got to defend that crap to the end.

With wholehearted feeling, slowly, look at the camera, tenderly, and as if you are meeting old friends, say the words. As if you are Bogie in “Casablanca,” saying, “Cheers to you guys,” Suntory time!. Read a translation of what the Japanese commercial director was saying in Lost in Translation

Interesting site that mixes politics and music: musicforamerica.org. A recent entry charted Jobs Created By US Presidents.