putative.com

Cookie lapel pins!

Show that you believe cookies are an always food!

You go, Kate! (And who knew cookiepride.com was still available? Is that not related—like everything is—to some sort of fetish?)

How to make any drink

I was talking about this cool mixology story in the NYT over -email, but I somehow failed to blog it. So there you go. Or rather *here* you go.

Jill sums it up best: "I’m glad somebody finally wrote about this. We have a fancy edition cocktail book, and reading it was like, 'Wait a minute! There’s only like five existing cocktails, the rest are all variations!'”

Today in Seattle Public Library book graffiti

From this book:

Comes this mark:

(It's a little dark and blurry, but: "We are all meta-phores for something else / rump=ancesteral / chest=symbolic")

Bollywood "Thriller"

Sometimes, you've just got to stop what you're doing and watch the Bollywood version of "Thriller":

The first Japanese-style “meido kafue,” or maid cafe, opens in LA

I think my favorite part of this story is the throwaway phrase "or nerds" in this line: "That spun off in 2002 as a Tokyo cafe where hardcore gamers and anime fans, known as 'otaku,' or nerds, were doted upon by maids who called customers 'master' and would even blow on food to cool it off."

Am I missing something, or is that hilariously snarky editorializing in the middle of a NYT story? My second favorite part is this description of similarly themed restaurants:

Deferential service like that is the norm at maid cafes in Japan, where competition has led to nearly endless permutations of the form. Mr. Macias estimated that there have been more than 50 maid establishments in Tokyo alone. Those have spawned butler cafes that cater to women, and even a mother cafe, where customers are treated like beloved children. One of the latest is a sergeant cafe, where diners must salute and say “yes, sir” to stern waiters in military fatigues.

(Found via Erica, who does not find this humorous even one little bit.)

Dubai plans "moving" skyscraper

Times are good if you're selling oil:

The world's first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape, will be built in Dubai, its architect says. (Thanks for the tip, James!)

How people read online

I missed this nice meta-piece in Slate from a couple weeks back, about paper vs. online reading behavior and (to a lesser extent) its implications. It starts like this:

You're probably going to read this.

It's a short paragraph at the top of the page. It's surrounded by white space. It's in small type.

To really get your attention, I should write like this:

• Bulleted list
• Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
• Short sentence fragments
• Explanatory subheads
• No puns
• Did I mention lists?

To give you even more of an idea of where this is going, the article is titled "Lazy Bastards."

Rob Heinsoo interview is up

Just posted my interview with Rob Heinsoo for young and plucky lit blog Guys Lit Wire--which caters to teen guys and anyone looking for books for teen guys, hence the numerous anecdotes about Fritz Leiber et al. I also interviewed Rob for Omnivoracious, with more of a mainstream focus (esp. on games in the culture), so once that's up, you can read *even more* about Heinsoo. For those who just can't get enough of Rob. Which, you know, is just about everybody. As near as I can tell.

Better living through plasma furnaces

It's this sort of thing that reminds me why I like reading "I, Cringely":

The plasma furnace, operating in a closed loop, generates a form of synthetic gas that can be burned as a fuel as well as a glasslike inert material that can be used as aggregate in concrete. That's what happens when you run your Pampers and plutonium and anthrax and last Sunday's chicken dinner through a 30,000-degree Fahrenheit flame that breaks everything down to single atoms.

Colbert grills Cookie Monster on not wearing cookie lapel pin

Doesn't that make you feel better, Jill? (And thanks to Wolf for the tip!)

From the Dept. of Freaking Your Shit Out

The folks who made the Roomba are now creating a softball-sized military robot that can squeeze under your doorjamb:

"During military operations it can be important to gain covert access to denied or hostile space... We believe that a new class of soft, flexible, meso-scale mobile objects that can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than their dimensions to perform various tasks will be quite valuable in many missions."

Here are the robo-specs:

According to the original proposal from DARPA, in just 2 years a prototype approximately the size of a softball—i.e., 10cm across—must achieve all this:
a) travel a distance of 5 meters at a speed of 0.25 meters/minute;
b) achieve a 10-fold reduction in its largest dimension; and
c) squeeze through a 1 cm opening of arbitrary geometry and reconstitute its original size and shape, in 15 seconds.

It could be a variant on this cute little guy:

1932-2008

(found in the REStore salvage yard yesterday)

Art of the Title: an opening credits archive

The Art of the Title collects some pretty amazing opening sequences from films, everything from Juno to Reservoir Dogs to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Found via VSL, and accurately described as "a goldmine for anyone looking for a quick film or design fix."

These thumbnails are from the very cool opening sequence to Carnivale (which was done by folks here in Seattle):

I got to say, VSL is two for two right now, linking yesterday to Isabella Rossellini acting out bug sex.

The new iPhone costs $160 more, not $200 less

Over the required two-year plan, that is. That should make O.G. (i.e., 2.5G) iPhone owners like me feel a little less gadget envy.

Super-cool '60s biology desktop picture

From a 1961 biology textbook (rotated for your wallpapering convenience, originals here):

More Obama rumors

A piece in Slate suggests Obama should start his own e-mail whisper campaign:

From: [Redacted]
To: [Redacted]
Subject: WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?

There are many things people do not know about BARACK OBAMA. It is every American's duty to read this message and pass it along to all of their friends and loved ones.

Barack Obama wears a FLAG PIN at all times. Even in the shower.

Barack Obama says the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE every time he sees an American flag. He also ends every sentence by saying, "WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL." Click here for video of Obama quietly mouthing the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE in his sleep.

A tape exists of Michelle Obama saying the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE at a conference on PATRIOTISM.

Every weekend, Barack and Michelle take their daughters HUNTING.

Barack Obama is a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN. He has one HAND over his HEART at all times. He occasionally switches when one arm gets tired, which is almost never because he is STRONG.

Barack Obama has the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE tattooed on his stomach. It's upside-down, so he can read it while doing sit-ups.

There's only one artist on Barack Obama's iPod: FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.

Barack Obama is a DEVOUT CHRISTIAN. His favorite book is the BIBLE, which he has memorized. His name means HE WHO LOVES JESUS in the ancient language of Aramaic. He is PROUD that Jesus was an American.

Barack Obama goes to church every morning. He goes to church every afternoon. He goes to church every evening. He is IN CHURCH RIGHT NOW.

Barack Obama's new airplane includes a conference room, a kitchen, and a MEGACHURCH.

Barack Obama's skin is the color of AMERICAN SOIL.

Barack Obama buys AMERICAN STUFF. He owns a FORD, a BASEBALL TEAM, and a COMPUTER HE BUILT HIMSELF FROM AMERICAN PARTS. He travels mostly by FORKLIFT.

Barack Obama says that Americans cling to GUNS and RELIGION because they are AWESOME.

(Found via Ezra Klein.)

The Mexican Cat Dance

If you don't get Entertainment Weekly and didn't see this in Diablo Cody's column a few week's back (from last week--I presumed the magazine was older because Silas had begun tearing it apart), I give you... the Mexican Cat Dance:

I put the cursor over the play/pause button, and Silas learned that he could click my trackpad button for on-demand Mexican Cat Dance. He cried after I stopped him from watching it for the 74th time in a row.

"If Obama is elected... will we still call it the White House?" button

On sale outside the Texas GOP convention:

At first, I was freaked out by the anti-Obama racism (and in the same way, by anti-Hillary sexism), but now I hope we see more and more evidence of it. I think many white people kid themselves about the prevalence of racism, and this election could bring up a lot of ugly stuff and help flush the wound.

Kids at my mom's elementary school are hard-core

Because they have to do time for graffiti:

(Either that or they're just cute little Baretta fans.)

Salvador Dali on What's My Line?

I enjoyed this for a dozen different reasons. Hysterical:

Comparison of McCain and Obama tax plans

The Tax Policy Center/Brookings Instituition just released an exhaustive analysis of both plans today, with info on corporate taxes, estate taxes, everything.

Here's a graph from the report, and wow, I'm stunned that the very rich would do *even better* with McCain than they did under Bush. The guy knows his base:

How to eat less meat

There's a short, useful piece in today's NYT about how to eat less meat. Even a little less. They don't get into *why* it's smart to eat less meat (there are a ton of reasons, from fighting global warming to improving your health), but they just offer up practical suggestions and different ways of thinking about meat that might shake you out of your habits. E.g., I knew this, but it bears repeating:

Remember that most traditional styles of cooking use meat as a condiment or a treat. This is true in American frontier cooking, where salt pork and bacon were used to season beans; in Italy, where a small piece of meat is served as a secondo (rarely more than a few ounces, even in restaurants); and around the world, where bits of meat are added to stir-fries and salads, as well as bean, rice and noodle dishes. In all of these cases, meat is seen as a treasure, not as something to be gobbled up as if it were air.

Although I have to say after being in China, once people can *afford* meat, damn, they seem to put lots of it into absolutely everything.

The Daily Show on Hulu!

Finally! Comedy Central was an early adopter of video, but their interface hasn't changed much—and hence has gotten comparatively suckier and suckier. And you still can't watch all of last night's show on Comedy Central.

Thankfully, Viacom just signed on with Hulu, and now you can get high-quality, full-screen episodes of the current show (the morning after, I think?), with just under a minute of commercials (a 6-second intro and then three 15-second spots, two in the middle, one at the end). If you didn't watch last night's episode, you've got to see the "least popular Sesame Street muppet ever," Gitmo:

I already loved Hulu, and the way it seemed to finally get how to deliver ad-supported content, but if you need further evidence of its coolness, check out the embed options. Not only can you copy an embed url, like on YouTube, but you can drag time-stop handles to embed *precisely the clip you want*.

"Meet Cinderella, Pig in Boots"

No WAY. Nu-UH. I don't believe it. I can't believe it, or my head will explode from cuteness:

Cinderella, a six-week-old saddleback pig has conquered her fear of walking in mud with the help of a pair of bespoke wellies. (via Ms. Jill)

McCain's first wife

This is a weird, ugly story, about McCain's first wife, whom he divorced after (apparently) sleeping around on her and after (definitely) she was involved in a disfiguring car accident.

Even H. Ross Perot piles on:

But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.

‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.

‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’

I had forgotten about the Woomba!

The little pink robot that cleans your business. Your lady business. Number 47 on Nerve's Top 50 Commercial Parodies of All Time:

For my money, the newer Tina Fey ones are the funniest, but there are of course many other good ones, like Tracy Morgan selling Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor and Phil Hartman with Super Colon Blow. Oh, Phil Hartman.

Coca Cola Salad

From my grandmother's recipe box, which Jill kindly scanned many of the recipes from for my birthday. FYI, this being from 1940s Georgia, "Coca Cola" is pronounced "Coke-*Col*-a":

Everything you know about everything you know about environmentalism being wrong is wrong

Did you see the last issue of Wired? This one here:

We somehow started getting Wired for free (as part of signing up for Media Bistro, I think), and I hadn't realized how stupid it had gotten. Or maybe the world has gotten smarter and it's intellectually and spiritually still stuck in the Internet boom days?

I don't know. But in any case—far more enjoyable than the issue itself—is a couple of very funny and thorough debunkings of the absurd cover story: one from Grist ("2001 called. It wants its framing device back."), and one from Paulina Borsook ("The Politics Of Wired: Saucy, Ignorant Contrarianism").

Also, make sure you don't miss Grist's advice: "It's telling that the best thing in the issue is written by Alex Steffen, proprietor of Worldchanging."

"Obama is rich. Rich!"

I'm happy to see that the Dems have yet another huge advantage this fall—a ridiculous amount of money compared to McCain, and along with that the ability to get their message out to almost *everywhere*, even places like Texas. Texas!

But... part of this makes me a little ill and wish again that we had 100% publicly financed elections. Maybe if the partisan fund-raising edge comes close to evening out in four or eight years, that idea can get actual bipartisan support. (In the meantime, however, um, whoo-hoo! And thanks for the link, Rob.)

This was the second-best image I found from a "rich Obama" Google image search. The best image? That would have to be this, non sequitur though it is:

An Iraqi nationalist's view on the surge

Three sharp paragraphs, with some suitably patronizing context from Spencer Ackerman:

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Az) recognized what was really important in this first-ever opportunity to have a dialog with his Iraqi counterparts: getting some talking point out that will support John McCain’s campaign for president. “Why the drop in violence?,” he asked. “What is the major cause for the reduction in violence, at least against our troops.” Translation: Willya just say the surge worked? Please?

Unfortunately for him, Ulayyan is not actually a Republican. His answer — the answer of an Iraqi nationalist — deserves quotation at length.

So has the surge worked? According to Iraqis, not so much.