Tag Archives: oddball
Capitalism???s grossest win: The final triumph of Black Friday
Get in line. The doors open. Grab the best deals. The doors close. Get back in line again! New deals! It???s a perpetual motion machine. It???s the very perfection of retail capitalism, simultaneously imprisoning and liberating consumers in a revolving door of alternating denial and satisfaction.
via salon.com
Apparently This Matters: Ostrich Pillow
Official Stage Adaptation of “Princess Mononoke” Coming To London; Sold Out Almost A Year In Advance
via slashfilm.com
Voice-Activated Popcorn Cannon Blasts Kernels Directly Into Your Mouth
via gizmodo.com.au
I say fake.
Update: Popinator popcorn machine turns out to be hoax
Thursday, September 20, 2012
chadband – Wordsmith Talk
Date: Fri May 30 00:02:55 EDT 1997
Subject: A.Word.A.Day–chadband
chad.band n.[Name of a character, the Rev. Mr. Chadband, in Dickens’s Bleak
House] A canting unctuous hypocrite.
via wordsmith.org
When I first learned this word, I couldn’t think of a situation where I’d prefer to say “Chadband” than “canting unctuous hypocrite.” Still can’t.
Batching Basics | ICANN New gTLDs
How does it work?
The batching process is activated if significantly more than 500 applications are received. Each applicant will be notified to register into an online system to set a future time target. The ability of applicants to “hit” that target at the selected time will be used to determine which applications are placed into the first, or subsequent batches.
Next, applicants will return to the online system on that day and time and try to hit submit as close as they can to their target time. It’s kind of like a game of digital archery. First you set the target and then you try to hit it with as much accuracy as you can.
“How does it work?”
Badly, if at all. Which seems to describe a number of ICANN activities.
“Digital archery!?” It’s just wacky.
Taming The Wild Idea
When we are willing to risk being exposed to wild untamed ideas, we turn less to academics, and more to startup companies, passionate writers, activists, etc. And in our youth, many of us are eager for such exposure, to show that we are no longer children who must stay safely in camp ??? we are strong and brave enough to venture into the wild.
But when we get children of our own, and feel less a need to show off our derring-do, we prefer tamed idea sources. We prefer to hire kids who got their ideas from universities, not startups or activists. And most prefer their news to come from similarly tamed journalists. We applaud wild ideas, but prefer them tamed.
Protect your teenagers
“Doubting is a gateway to thinking. Stop it before it starts.”
Hamish MacEwan 