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« Thursday « August 30, 2007
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Flight of the Conchords Ep 7 'Mutha Uckers'
(YouTube)
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This show has started to grow on me. It airs every Sunday evening, right after multi-Emmy nominated Entourage, which is still the best show on the boob tube, IMHO. It wasn't until these guys, Bret and Jemaine, busted out this clip -- after they experienced "ethnic discrimination" at the hands of an East Indian fruit vendor (no less), for being Australian (when they're actually New Zealander) -- that I realized how funny and creative these fools really are. They are very different cats, and that's part of their charm, but they are flat-out hilarious and extremely talented. When you add their doofuss manager, Murray, to the mix, you have the makings of a comic masterpiece. It's an acquired taste, but once again, HBO takes a risk... and scores. Check out the clip:
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QOTD (from a few days ago, even):
(Blog Maverick)
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Mark Cuban: "[T]he net is the plain vanilla boring, never really changing platform that it is."Is this what they call hyperbole or is it just unmitigated irony, coming from a guy who made billions by selling a boring concept, broadcast.com, to Yahoo! back when only freaks, geeks, nerds, and losers went online? I don't know, but I do agree that there's so much "me-too" stuff on the Net these days, and that there's probably more interesting things happening in /on places other than the Net. But to me, the reason why the Net is getting boring is the same reason why most movies from Hollywood are garbage, why most music from big record companies stink, and why our consumer culture is generally flooded with nothing but straight-up pabulum: unimaginative business people. When the only rhyme or reason for doing something is to make money, then all you are going to get is boring ideas that can and will be repeated over and over again by round after round of increasingly less-skilled business operators. The real innovators get in first, and then are followed by the copycats, who'll eventually squeeze the vitality out of anything. The billions that Cuban made by selling broadcast.com, which he did invent as a labor-of-love, if you believe his story, attracted the early waves of cyber-entrepreneurs. They wanted to get paid too. And what we've seen since then is more money chasing dumber ideas and dumber ideas executed more incompetently. And that's why to some, like Cuban, the Internet today, is dead and boring. But then, the same could be said about our entire consumerist era: if you have to buy things, or eat things or generally fritter away your time pursuing trivial concerns in order to find meaning, eventually, you're going to discover nothing but boredom. To me, the Internet is a virtual replica of the so-called real world, and that world, as we experience it today, is pretty boring too. You have to manufacture excitement. It's not something you can download, or buy, or watch in high-definition. You have to invent it for yourself. Damn, what a boring post.
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« Monday « August 20, 2007
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Review: Superbad
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I'll keep this one short and sweet: this flick was laugh-out-loud-funny from start to end, with almost no let up in hilarious setups and punchlines. It's an instant teen comedy classic, no, make that an instant comedy classic. Period. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much in public, and judging from the reaction of my fellow moviegoers, I'm sure they'd all say the same thing. The plot is simple: three seniors in their last days of high school, lusting after some unattainable hot chicks, get invited to a big party in which they're supposed to bring the booze, because one of them has a fake ID with the improbable made-up name McLovin'. The actors make it all work perfectly. And there's still an innocence about the whole production that just leaves you feeling good at the end. This one... just go and see it. Trust me. You'll get your money's worth.
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« Saturday « August 18, 2007
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Chinese Couple Tries to name baby @
(Salon/AP)
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Laosan over at BCH points to a tiny AP blurb about a Beijing couple who want to name their kid after the symbol that connects all email addresses, "@." This reminds me of the American parents who named their kid after ESPN, yeah, the cable sports network, and they were'nt the only ones who were that colossally moronic: three other couples had the same idea. Good God! When I hear these kinds of stories, a few things occur to me right away: 1) there are a lot of fools in this world, who nevertheless have arguably the most important job on Earth: raising children; and 2) there are a lot of kids who are going to get teased and taunted at playgrounds all around the planet, when all they want to do is be like everyone else; in turn that peer abuse may lead them into becoming sociopathic adults...simply because their parents were thoughtless idiots. Come on, if you're dumb enough to name your child "@" or ESPN, do you really deserve to be in charge of rearing young people?
b/w: the black China hand blog
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Top 10 money drains
(Bankrate.com)
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It's easy to fritter away money on daily expenses. If you fall into these money traps, learn to avoid them and pocket the savings:
- coffee
- cigarettes
- alcohol
- bottled water
- manicures
- car washes
- weekday lunches out
- vending machine snacks
- credit card interest
- unused memberships
Hmmm....I see at least seven things on this list that I could easily cut out... but do I really have to give up beer too?
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« Thursday « August 16, 2007
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Mobileform Hide-a-Bunk-Bed
(SlipperyBrick.com)
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What a great idea! I just moved into a new apartment. I'm looking for cool, space-saving furniture. I'm a minimalist. I want one of these. But the $6800+ price tag is way too steep. I love the thinking though.
b/w: Buzzfeed
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« Wednesday « August 15, 2007
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How to get rich
(Edge.org)
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It's not what you think. It's about how groups of people organize themselves in ways that either promote or retard success and innovation.
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My Blog...in Chinese
Yahoo's using an on-the-fly translation system that I haven't seen before, I found this in my stats report.
The link takes you to my blog, apparently, in Chinese.
05:47:34 PM
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My Blog...in Chinese
Yahoo's using an on-the-fly translation system that I haven't seen before, I found this in my stats report.
The link takes you to my blog, apparently, in Chinese.
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« Tuesday « August 14, 2007
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GAO: Only 5% of Government Ad Business Goes to Minority Firms
(AdAge.com)
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Despite an executive order, federal agencies are not providing minority business owners -- who pay taxes, provide jobs, and help strengthen our economy -- with equal opportunities in the federal contracting process.To those who say this is a 'color-blind' society, how can these kinds of facts be explained? The truth is: they can't...because we don't live in a 'color-blind' society. That is a fantasy created by hypocritical cowards who are afraid to admit what kind of society we really have here.
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« Monday « August 13, 2007
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Junk In A Box: 300-Page AT&T Bill for iPhone
(Gizmodo)
This chick got her first iPhone bill from AT&T: it was so big it came in a box!
Every text message itemized. Unbelievable.
While I think the iPhone is sweet, AT&T is going to kill it...just by being AT&T.
That phone needs to run on other systems.
03:17:52 PM
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Junk In A Box: 300-Page AT&T Bill for iPhone
(Gizmodo)
This chick got her first iPhone bill from AT&T: it was so big it came in a box!
Every text message itemized. Unbelievable.
While I think the iPhone is sweet, AT&T is going to kill it...just by being AT&T.
That phone needs to run on other systems.
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« Sunday « August 12, 2007
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Al Gore's Office
(Literary Hack)
I thought I had a weakness for computers and sh*t.
But check out Al Gore's office.
No wonder he's burning a lot more energy than the average Green.
04:53:35 PM
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Al Gore's Office
(Literary Hack)
I thought I had a weakness for computers and sh*t.
But check out Al Gore's office.
No wonder he's burning a lot more energy than the average Green.
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Blatant benevolence and conspicuous consumption
(Economist.com)
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[I]t looks as though the sexes do, indeed, have different strategies for showing off. Moreover, they do not waste their resources by behaving like that all the time. Only when it counts sexually are men profligate and women helpful.
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« Friday « August 10, 2007
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Black Is the New Black
(Buzzfeed)
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Suddenly, black is all the rage (especially in Japan), as evidenced not only by a raft of new black fashions, but also by the new iMac, plus black airplanes, black toilet paper, black Q-tips, black toothbrushes, black cutting boards, and even black search engines.And what about black people? Yes, it's a rhetorical question.
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Dangerous Idea: the idea that ideas can be dangerous
(The Hindu)
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We live in a world in which people are beheaded, imprisoned, demoted, and censured simply because they have opened their mouths, flapped their lips, and vibrated some air. Hateful, blasphemous, prejudiced, vulgar, rude, or ignorant remarks are the music of a free society, and the relentless patter of idiots is how we know we're in one.Amen to that. The cacophony of idiots is undeniable, no?
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« Wednesday « August 8, 2007
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ThisNext
A mashup of Google Maps...and shopping, in real time?
02:50:49 AM
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ThisNext
A mashup of Google Maps...and shopping, in real time?
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« Tuesday « August 7, 2007
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Ron Mexico's Bad Newz Kennels
(Vintage Cotton)
Tasteless T-shirts.
09:09:05 AM
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Ron Mexico's Bad Newz Kennels
(Vintage Cotton)
Tasteless T-shirts.
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« Monday « August 6, 2007
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Review: The Bourne Ultimatum
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Finally, a Summer 2007 movie that I can get behind. I thought this movie was extraordinary. This movie didn't pretend to be anything but what it was meant to be: a high-energy action adventure movie. It started off fast and it kept delivering amazing thrills all the way to the end. Matt Damon's rendering of ultimate killing machine Jason Bourne is genuine and poignant. And by the way, he's a muthaf*%kin' bad *ss too! The story is easy-to-follow, and yet interesting, full of surprises and reversals, all told with some very fresh and effective flashback techniques. Amongst the many thrills and spills, the fight scene in the Tangiers hotel room is easily one of the best hand-to-hand fight scenes you will ever see on the big screen, and there was an equally impressive car chase scene near the climax that comes to a spectacular and fiery end, but which sets up the film's one thoughtful moment of allegory. Notice that I'm writing about things that are certainly cliched aspects of all action flicks -- fights and fiery car chases. Well, that actually buttresses my point about this film not pretending to be anything but what it is: so much energy and inventiveness is brought to these cliched (but neccessary) elements of the film that they raise the quality and value of the entire production to a level that is rarely seen in action adventures pictures. This is an extraordinary piece of disposable entertainment. Take it for what it is. I really, really liked this one. For me, that's a change.
Related:Worst Action Movie Cliches (digg.com)
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In Praise of Tap Water
( New York Times)
The real change, though, will come when millions of ordinary consumers realize that they can save money, and save the planet, by turning in their water bottles and turning on the tap.
03:14:02 PM
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In Praise of Tap Water
( New York Times)
The real change, though, will come when millions of ordinary consumers realize that they can save money, and save the planet, by turning in their water bottles and turning on the tap.
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« Wednesday « August 1, 2007
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WhatIfSports.com
The sports simulation site.
With fantasy football season about to start, it seems appropriate.
12:48:20 PM
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WhatIfSports.com
The sports simulation site.
With fantasy football season about to start, it seems appropriate.
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