There’s a new service called DailyLit which sends you an email every day with 5 minutes of a book. For now they only have books that are in the public domain such as Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde. So, if you want to crank through a classic – a little each day – this could be the best way to go.
I just signed up for Hamlet. I’ve never read it nor seen the Mel Gibson classic and i think i could probably only do 5 min a day. I’ll let you know how it goes.
While doing some fantasy football research, this was stumbled upon (thanks Jules). And you thought your childhood was tough.
If you you thought Lucious was tough, read the story about this guy:
HANOI (Reuters) – A Vietnamese man who once appeared on national television to demonstrate his ability to resist electric shocks has been electrocuted while repairing a generator, an official said Tuesday.
Nguyen Van Hung, aged in his early 40s, was killed in Tay Ninh province near the Cambodian border while repairing the generator without first cutting the power supply, a local official said.
“When alive, he used to demonstrate at our office how he would insert two fingers into the electrical plughole without problems,” the official said.
Hung, nicknamed “Hung Electric,” had appeared on television’s “Strange Stories of Vietnam.”
How many times do you have to be called Hung Electric for it to stick?
If i don’t even have 20 RSS subs, what does that make me?
I’ve always been a big fan of onesy’s and i actually got one from my sister (thanks liz) for christmas last year. I thought i had received the ultimate gift, but apparently there’s a new onesy in town. Check out: the slanket.
This is just a fleece blanket with sleeves stiched in. It’s not a poncho, it’s not a robe and there’s no hole for your head. It’s just a blanket with sleeves. And, yes, it’s completely awesome. Only 104 days to Christmas
Paris Hilton in response to her arrest for drunk driving:
“I had one margarita (and) was starving because I had not eaten all day,” she said. “Maybe I was speeding a little bit and I got pulled over. I was just really hungry and I wanted to have an In-N-Out Burger.”
Of course, i wonder if she washes her car while dining in In-N-Out the way she does for Carls Jr?
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pkz4wH9-0Bs]
(thanks to Coyner for this one)
Ok, i have three of them for you today. All are equally entertaining in a completely different way. One is a 70’s music video, one is a music video from today and the last is a guy answering his reader’s mail with a greatly absurd song. Let’s begin:
Apache
The was brought to my attention from SG and is a music video from the 70’s. I wasn’t alive in the 70’s but i am aware that there was lots of drug use, objectification of women and pretty trippy music. Well, this video captures all that and then some. The unintentional comedy level is sky high on this baby. Check it out
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTKL8MNH95Q]
Knights of Cydonia
I’m sure many of you have seen this but if not, let’s go. First let’s check what’s needed in a futuristic western kung-fu love story: lasers (check), all seven traditional samurai techniques (check), a hanging (check), love found then slapped then lost then reclaimed (check), giant desert robots (check), the KKK going after a white man (check), dirtbikes (check) – and i’m only half through the video. Never before have so many cliches been re-written and never before has rock been so ironic. They really explored the space here.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV1bRfLHA3A]
Z’s My Little Ducky
Ok, so i didn’t knowwho Ze Frank was until about 24 hours ago. Since then i’ve watched two videos by him. The first was a speech he gave at TED in 2004. This is pretty entertaining and i was impressed. (Watch it here). The second is really what i want to share. It’s him answering some questions from his readers. What gets me is how awesome the little ducky song is. Seriously, this song is still stuck in my head. You have to listen to it. Check it here
The Little Girl Giant
This is amazing. I don’t know how they pulled it off or more importantly, i don’t know why. I mean, it’s only a 5 minute video but it must have taken months to years to do this. There’s a giant elephant at the beginning who gives the Little Girl Giant a shower and they barely even show the elephant but it must have been months to create that guy and he’s only there for 5 seconds. Seriously, this is amazing.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBXr15K2uSc]
A new social networks launched this week focused the sending and receiving of books.
BookMooch is a new social site for exchanging used books. The service is essentially a cross between eBay and a social network. You can browse books and members and build a network of friends.
I got excited about this because i love the CD swapping site Lala which i use every so often. It’s a great way to get new CD’s that you’d never want to buy (I wrote about it here). If you haven’t checked it out – you should. Similar to Lala, BookMooch requires you create 2 lists – one that’s an inventory of the books you’re willing to trade, and another “wishlist” of the books you want to get from others. Unlike Lala, this site isn’t that slick, doesn’t provide very much information about the books or the community, nor does it populate your profile very well. It would also be nice to have a better way to aggregate reviews and comments about a book. I need a little more IMDB-ness here. And, in general this site seems half-baked. They could use a few more month of graphic design and polish.
They do have a point system which is a great way to regulate swapping. You earn points in 3 ways: 1) for adding books to your inventory, 2) giving your books away and 3) leaving feedback for the sender after you receive a book. You use up points when you receive books, and you can also give your points away to charity. What’s more, there’s a BookMooch toolbar to use when you’re browsing Amazon – it lets you see when a book is available on BookMooch and add books to your wishlist. To avoid the freeloaders out there, you have to give away at least one book for every five you receive.
If you want to get going on either site, feel free to add me as a friend. My username is “pescatello”
The first step towards the Google PC are there which i commented on here and here with yesterday’s announcement of the Google Apps. The next step is for them to announce the low cost PC – which may not happen for a while.
Second, there’s a very interesting post from Chris Anderson about what this could mean. We don’t want Google to simply replicate MS’s Office suite, but rather we want them to create a similar product that incorporates the new trends happening today – such as easily embedding of apps and collaborating. Embedding a piece of a word doc into a page or embedding a spreadsheet component would be great. Putting big-time applications into a browser opens up a variety of new options.
So, the first punch has been thrown. Now the fun begins….
I recently checked out last year’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith which is pretty sweet film with the uber-hot Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (who i actually like). What dawned on me while watching this movie is how they’ve written the roles to be completely opposite of their gender stereotype.
For example:
| Mrs. Smith (Brad) | Mrs. Smith (Angelina) | |
| Demeanor | Creative and inventive | Cold and calculating |
| Domestic Trouble | He really wants to work it out and “talk about their issues” and continues to go to their therapy even after she bails. | Doesn’t want to talk about their problems and convinces him to cancel the sessions. |
| Breakup | On breakup, goes over to a friend’s house, talks about what’s happened and goes to sleep on his couch | Buys a bottle of scotch, goes to work, drinks the entire bottle and passes out |
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| Reaction to Other’s Job | Tries to discuss it with her | She tries to kill him. Repeatedly |
| Guns | He always has a very small pistol, even called by Angela the “girly gun” | She carries a ball breaking assault rifle. I don’t know what it’s called but it’s huge |
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| Sex | Has had 1/100 the amount of sex of her | Slutted it out and is able to easily separate herself emotionally from the sex. |
I think it’s really interesting that they flipped these roles around. If you think about it further, it seems that all the leading roles for guys in Hollywood these days are pretty weak. Thinking about the summer movies, i can think of My Super-Ex Girlfriend, X-Men 3, Pirates of the Caribbean where the men (Luke Wilson, Hugh Jackman, and Orlando/Depp) are more vulnerable and weak characters compared to the colder, stronger and more promiscuous women (Uma, Franke, and Kiera). Apparently, strong women characters are all the rage now, its just disappointing that it’s at the expense of quality dudes. Hell, even Tarantino had his latest kung-fu action flick starred Uma where she’s on a quest to take out her ex-boyfriend. I guess us guys are on the way out and it’s all about the women.
What do you think? In the quest for gender equality women have just become more like men and men?