Lively Artwork

I just love this stuff from Elesavet (not buying any I swear):

Tee Hee ... Gift for Me!

.... so there was a slight lull after last week's binge, but now I'm back off the wagon! You'll be excited to know that I've added another lovely purchase to my recent celebration of the beautiful things that surround us. This intriguing bracelet from etsy:

And a quick update: I received the canape plates from Tracy Porter and LOVE them. They are the perfect size to be held in one hand and they're great vivid colors. So excited to use them when guests are over.

Dammit - shopaholism continues

Few other sites to tempt you all too:

Cups nuzzling teapot

Graphic duvet covers

Sigh!

I Heart Home Decor

So I'm smack in the middle of one of my worst shopping phases ever. It started yesterday and I have seriously eyed more than $500 worth of whimsical decorating merchandise that I don't have room for. (I almost wrote "that I don't need" but that would be a lie. Of COURSE I need a 6-stem flower holder and a set of five-pronged forks.)

So, to try to sate my shopping urges, I've decided to record here all the items that are so sorely tempting me. With any luck, I'll be able to nip this swiftly in the bud. But if this keeps blooming, that 6-stem flower hold will sure come in handy. ; )

6-stem flower holder

5-prong fork + spoon
update: I just realized these are servers. That makes so much more sense. The 5 prongs were a tad scary.

Red tree landscape — this one I actually purchased (see post below)

Tracy Porter canape plates (oops! bought these too)
Leaf olive oil dish
The color deepens as you add more olive oil plus doubles as a ring dish!

Teacup Girl

Anything by Belle & Boo
And finally Little Hedgehog Goes Fishing

Moody Trees

I just LOVE moody and contemplative artwork. On top of that, I love trees in artwork - so predictable! Here's the perfect synthesis of both, which I just bought from Etsy from the artist Galeriedeilluminata.

Anyone remember the children's book that was kinda like this, with an above- and below-ground scene with all these crazy-fun things happening in both?

OMG I'm in love...

World's Thinnest Notebook

How to Find the Best Music

So I've got an embarrassing confession: I was a patron of Lite Music for years. I told friends that my parents made me listen to it instead of the Eagle 106, the Philadelphia rock station. But actually I loved Star 104.5, and would swoon to all its schlocky songs.

When I think back on that time, I am filled with shame. How, oh how, could I ever fall for Boyz II Men or Lionel Richie or Eric Clapton the way I did? Now I listen to the radio and wonder how it is that people can listen to songs that ALL SOUND ALIKE! We haven't heard a new hook on FM for years!

I can claim this kind of snobbery because I find new hooks all the time, and I do it through a few select blogs (whose taste I like) and through a great tool called Page Playlist that I use with the web browser Firefox.

I have to give credit to Blurbomat for explaining how Page Playlist works. Thanks to him, I discovered an entire world of music without having to wait for Songbird to load (if you're feeling adventurous, it's a fun program to explore, though).

Now I can go to my favorite music blogs and Page Playlist aggregates all the MP3s on the page into a little player in the upper left-hand corner. I double click, I play, I listen, I enjoy! My music taste has gone from blah to bangin' in just weeks. You too can enjoy this musical makeover! If you don't already have music blogs you like, try some of these favs of mine:

• fluxblog - mixed taste with 80s vibe
  
• 3hive - tags let you easily find the genres you enjoy
  
• getecho - generally mellow and European
  

There are fresh sounds out there! Now you have no excuse for the stuff you listen to.

Eye-Eye Matey!

I just have to direct your eyes to a wonderful photoblog called ENFOCAR that a coworker of mine just launched. He has a wonderful eye for creating tension in a photo. My favorite pic is A Billboard With Eyes.

The Brain Butler

I really enjoy wine, partially thanks to a man I dated a few years back. He was quite passionate about the topic, avidly reading Wine Spectator, and he could spend 45 minutes picking out a wine for dinner that night. Other than the painfully long waits in the wine store, this was perfect for me. I benefited from his superior taste and knowledge without having to spend a second learning anything.

But riding his intellectual coattails didn't work over the long term. We broke up and I was left with, well, a bratty tongue that wanted all the best wines still and a dull brain that hadn't manage to learn much more than which names meant red and which white.

I don't think my plight is rare either. I once read an article proposing that couples often store information in each other's heads. One person is good at finances. The other makes exceptional pasta primavera. Voila! A symbiotic partnership is born.

But I've started to notice that this is seeping beyond the confines of a serious relationship. It's showing up among friends and, more surprising, co-workers with similar jobs. At my workplace, a design agency, people within one capability are micro-specializing. We each have reputations for being interested in different aspects of our job. This means each of us are keepers of different bundles of knowledge.

I, for instance, enjoy being a first adopter of newer technologies that are in the early stages of user-friendliness (i.e. I don't have to do any of my own coding or head to Radio Shack for a new cord, but few other people have heard of the software/site/product yet). So co-workers send me links to things they don't have time to explore but think I might like. When I have time, I wander to the sites and try something new.

Whether this trend is new or not, I couldn't pretend to say. But I would propose that based on how much information there is in the world, it's bound to increase. As information overwhelms, we start piecing together support systems to comb through it. Those support systems include bloggers whom we've come to trust the taste of despite having never met, ex-boyfriends who hold all the knowledge we need about wine, and co-workers who research things and then report back any exciting new technologies / trends / content.

My favorite word for this is bit literacy, coined, I believe, by Mark Hurst, who is particularly concerned that we all have ever-improving experiences with technology despite the potential to be overwhelmed by its content.

Perhaps we can consciously acknowledge the need to rely on others for those bits. Call them brain butlers — friends, co-workers or bloggers who are willing to research topics we have no time for and parse it down to the information we need to know. Kinda makes you want to choose your friends (and your place of employment) a little more wisely.

Find the Perfect Gift for You

Use the Imagini Gift Finder to uncover the perfect gift for you or others (sold in the UK). Besides the regional limitation there is one other downside: the process takes longer than expected with 15 steps. But naval gazing never gets old. ; )

The results are quite fun and — I thought — rather accurate.

House Envy

A co-worker of mine just closed on a new home in Jersey. I SO want it. I want to hold it and cuddle it and make it mine and 'I wanna pet the rabbits, George'! Too obscure?

Bottom line: I don't have enough space in my little NY apartment to buy all the neat, cute things I find all over the web. Now you all can join me in my pain. The Hygge site is only available to customers in the UK.

But feel free to browse anyway.

Their Fairytale inspired giclee print and cut maple coasters will make you realize just how tough my life must be the rest of the time when I see lovely things and can't even dream about surrounding myself with them.

UPDATE: Dammit. Turns out they ship anywhere. Now I'm alone again. So alone.

Women Rule! Yes!

Women — the smart, well-balanced, successful kind — rule for two reasons today:

• Contrary to myths, they have better marriages and better sex
• They now get paid the same as men when they win Wimbledon

Um... uh... maybe... uh... can you decide?

What kind of problem solver are you? Take this one-page test (requires you to create a login) to find out. I was quadrant 2!

Fake iPhone Story

I love stories about idiocy. That's why I still pay passing attention to politics, but I digress. Here's a great iPhone story where the local news didn't ... quite ... get it right.

I Heart Social Experiments

Why do social experiments make me laugh so hard? Like Candid Camera, where you watch people think they've entered the twilight zone. Or the guy who stuck bubble stickers on posters around NYC and then returned to see who wrote messages in them.

The Voyer Box is the newest discovery to make me smile. Watch the startled looks as people get their picture taken while they walk by. I thought at first the machine cat-called pedestrians, but this is slightly kinder... maybe.

Of course, intrusive technology is BAD BAD BAD, as anyone concerned about ubiquitous computing will tell you. But SO funny.

Dream a Little Dream

Dreams: I wanna be an astronaut. I wanna sing in a rock band. I wanna ... um, write dirty romance novels. Sometimes they actually come true. You land on the moon, you open for Jewel, you ... um, write a dirty romance novel.

Well, today a little dream of mine came true. This is one of those dreams that you almost forget you have, like not having singleton socks in the laundry or rediscovering some forgotten perfect outfit. And then it happens one day — the dream comes true — and, partially because you've forgotten to yearn for it, you're insanely excited.

That's me right now. Insanely exited. Over something really small, but something I've quietly wanted since I was planning out my dream mansion in fifth grade. Today I discovered... [building suspense] ... a speaker system that can play the Same Song Throughout Your Home. Now I can walk from room to room and never lose the melody. Woohoo! But get this: It can also play a Different Song in Each Room in the House. Woohoo again!

The main reason I'm excited is that it was gushingly reviewed on this blog I read that endorses clever technical products. And although the system costs more than $1000, I'm excited for another reason: I don't need it yet. I barely have three rooms to my name — no house. By the time I need it, I expect the technology will be smaller, cheaper and more accessible.

Today's accomplishments? One lifelong dream fulfilled. Whew! I'm exhausted.

find a photo with geography

Using location tags found on Flickr images, Yahoo! has created a map that shows you pictures connected with the locations where they were taken. There are still several rough spots since it's dependent on accurate tagging and the areas of the country presented on the map seem to be pre-selected.

I've heard rumors of a GPS-based camera that can map your own pictures to an interface like this one. You'll never forget again exactly where you took something. Now that is cool, especially as you could compare someone else's picture taken in the exact same spot. Oooh!

Changing the way we look at history

Technophiles and history buffs alike will appreciate this one: a tag cloud showing the words most commonly used in presidential state of the union addresses since John Adams. The bigger the word, the more times it was repeated.

Can you forgive someone 7 times 7?

I'm going to try (emphasis on try) to renew my blogging efforts, insofar as I'll post interesting websites I've come across. More to come!

Chia Pet ... Reborn!

It's cute. It's grassy. It's completely unnecessary in your life. Cha-cha-cha-chia? No, it's Nyokki. Raise a toast to progress.

White Chocolate Maggots

Take a break. Relax. And visit Strange New Products, a site that hunts down the insane and inane. It features everything from white chocolate maggots to corporate sponsored Porta Potties. Yum! Have some fun checking back often.

How close do you live to cement?

Read today on Design Observer:

If your front door opens onto a sidewalk, you're probably a Democrat.

If your front door is more than 25' from your street, you're probably a Republican.

Gasp! She Returns!

Well, it took turning a corporate monologue into dialog to get me to return to blogging. I can't resist sharing this with the few of you still diligent enough to read this (thanks Miss B!). If you've ever walked through the pedestrian tunnel north of Grand Central, you've experienced a distracting advertisement haranging you as you walk. Garble! Grawk! Yell, yell, yell!

Well, designer Ji Lee is fighting back — at least against print advertisements. He launched The Bubble Project whereupon he placed bubble stickers (the kind used in comic books) on ads throughout NYC. Passersby wrote comments in the space provided. The results, both hilarious and unpredictable, were captured in Lee's recent book Talk Back: The Bubble Project.

Now if only there were a mute button in that pedestrian tunnel.

Anybody seen Wag the Dog?

This story about the bumbling Abu Musab al-Zarqawi almost seems too ridiculous to believe. Hmmm... anyboy ever seen Wag the Dog?

Running With Diapers

Read this little tidbit today: 5-year-old runs marathons. I find this more sad than exciting. He's like Little Hercules, who ended up with an abusive dad and claims of steroid drug use before he hit his teens. The article says they're already preparing him for the 2012 Olympics. Shouldn't there be a child labor law against this?

We all scream for ice cream (ball)!

Chalk this one up as awesome but useless: today I learned about this cool ice cream ball from L.L. Bean. You put the ingredients in one end (cream, sugar), the chemistry in the other (ice, rock salt) and move the ball around for 20 minutes. Voila! You have ice cream. Totally cool, right?

Problem is, when I tried to think of someone who could use this cool gadget, I couldn't think of a single person. Sure, it'd make an entertainment group event for one party, but would the excitement last for 20 min? And what about subsequent parties? Wouldn't your friends get tired of you forcing them to work out just to get dessert? Sigh. Excitement dissipates...

Hanging Head in Shame (But Bopping to Good Tunes)

OK, I was just about ready to give this up. Things got busy at work, and I just wasn't focused on my Cool Stuff blog anymore. But then I come across something like Pandora and can't keep it to myself. Credit Dora for the link. This is the coolest music service: name one song or one artist and, using the research from the Music Genome Project, the site predicts other music you'd like and plays it for you as streaming radio.

I typed in one of my favs, Metric, and have subsequently listened to "Unsatisfied" by Nine Black Alps, "Rock & Roll Queen" by Subways, and Slip & Slide by Tiny Amps, none of which I've ever heard before.

Now all they need is a desktop widget so I can always check there to see what song I'm listening to (instead I have to figure out which web browser window it's sitting in). Nonetheless, this is brilliance of technology in its simplest form.

This appeared on the This Is Broken site, a place where people report wacky things they see that don't work. I thought this was too funny not to share. Once you understand the explanation, it becomes even funnier.

This is Not an Advertisement

So I don't go in for product recommendations, and I have unfortunately not gotten the chance to test this out, but Microsoft's new mobile PC is, at the very least, a product to watch. Looks fairly innovative anyway. Not quite the iPod of portable computing, but maybe that's iteration #2. For more details, CNet has answers.

Is Your Site Red or Yellow or Green?

When searching on Google or Yahoo or whatever, you can now get a sense of the safety of the site you’re going to visit before you go there. Site Advisor tells you how often a site will e-mail you (i.e., whether they could be a source for spam), whether downloads are clear of adware, and whether they link to other sites rated green for OK to go. I’m a huge fan since it saves me from having to guess whether a site is legit from a security/privacy standpoint. This plugin is for Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Holy Magma, Batman!

Did you know a giant collapsed volcano is called a caldera (think cauldron). You know one better as Yellowstone. Here’s the Wikipedia jaw-dropper: “When Yellowstone Caldera erupted 630,000 years ago it released 1000 cubic kilometers of material, covering half of North America in up to two meters of debris.”

Understand Racism in the '60s

I find that, having not lived it, it's hard to truly understand the Civil Rights Movement and just how awful things were. For a taste of that, view these photos uncovered recently by The Birmingham News. It's time, as a nation, that we face our past and have a national dialog about how far we have left to go.

Boingboing.net has a brief summary of the photos' origins.

Two Scientific Ideas Dramatically Shift Thinking

These two discoveries blew me away. The first argues that the Black Death plague in Europe contributed to a 300 mini ice age. The theory argues that after such a huge number of people died so quickly, trees sprang up on unused farmland, lowering carbon dioxide levels.

This gives some awful sense of balance to the way global warming, cited as a possible cause of the destructiveness of recent natural disasters, has taken so many lives — some kind of tragic buffering capacity.

The second discovery also requires an adjustment in thinking. Viruses may have been part of the evolutionary origin of life. Woah. I can't describe it as well as the Discover article can. Stuff in there made me feel like we're still in the Dark Ages. But I can quote this stunning statistic:

Scientists estimate that they have discovered and documented less than 1 percent of all the living things on the planet. But for every organism in that unidentified 99 percent, at least 10 times as many unknown viruses are thought to exist—the vast majority of which are harmless to life and yet integral to it.

I'm Seeing Red! (And hearing techno.)

Based on research that humans are able to associate music with color, a student at the University of Birmingham in England has created a music player where you create playlists based solely on the color (or as he would say colour) that you've assigned to the song. Once you've assigned enough songs, a color palette up top tells you where you're collection falls in the color scheme. Eventually, he's hoping to match people's musical palettes and allow you to download color associations from other people who categorize songs the way you do. I sense a match.com / iTunes cross-sell in the future...

This is very very very beta, but it's kinda fun to download, explore and create playlists with similar songs. I think it works because colors have moods, as do songs.

Hello? What's That? Oh, just a New Yorker

Even if you're not living in the continuous loony bin that is New York, you can get a kick out of Overheard in New York. People basically report on this website the conversations they overhear. Hysterical and a tad dumb. Yay USA!

Me Talk Pretty One Day?

I just discovered this site (Engrish) that basically mocks the number of products out there with bad English (many of them Asian). Enjoy!

Keep Track of Mud Puddles' Changes

So I'll be the first to admit I'm an irregular post-ee on here. But I still love shooting out little messages of stuff I just find so ridiculous, brilliant, or novel that they must be shared. (Even if no one ever sees them, I feel TONS better).

But I'll bet it's a pain to come check here all the time, only to discover I've gone into hibernation again. I've finally got a solution for that, and it's brilliant! It's called RSS and it uses XML.

Woah, you say. What the #@*$ is RSS and XML. You're in luck, because I've recently gotten hooked and I'd love to tell you. Put simply, it's a new technology that allows you to keep track of new content on a website. Most major websites now offer this, although only 6% of web users are utilizing it.

Luckily, becoming one of the early adopters of this technology is not that hard. First you need a reader. I recommend either Bloglines or MyYahoo (you have to have a Yahoo e-mail first, I believe). Here's the best part of all: the reader you choose can tell you when all your favorite sites are updated, not just mine. That could include all the blogs you read or the news sites you keep track off. So in the instance of my site, you'll only have one place to check whether I've added anything. And that place will also tell you whether your Aunt Bertha and your cousin Ronny have updated their blogs, too. Plus get updates to the NY Times home page without having to scan their current page to see if anything is new.

These readers usually show a headline and then a summary so you can decide if you want to click to go to the site the feed is from.

Here are the steps to be the coolest kid on the block:
1. Get a reader (recommendations above). This requires signing up — not a download for the two I'm recommending here — and should take less than 5 minutes.
2. Then tell your reader you want access to this feed by copy-pasting this link in: http://wallowmuddy.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Please note that if you follow this link, you'll get a bunch of gibberish, something you'll notice on other sites offering RSS feeds. If that happens when you're trying to add other feeds, just copy- paste the address from your browser into your reader. Your reader can read what your browser thinks is an error.

Did I confuse anyone? Just holler if you want more details. Then rock this RSS Thang.

I Hate This Idea: Standardized Tests in College

Urgh! Bush is trying to put standardized testing in colleges.

I've tried three times to write this post. This idea is just so dumb that I can't seem to be clever in talking about it. I just don't see it's value, what's driving this movement for change and why why why why anyone in higher education would support it.

Are we just looking for another method that we're behind Europe in the value of our education? Are state schools' financials going to change depending on their test results? Oh no oh no oh no! Now we're just controling the professors and forcing them to create a standardized (boring) curriculum. Please no!

Coretta Scott King Wiretapped

This ABC News article offers an excellent understanding of the history of wiretapping in this country and its detrimental effects on just one person: the recently buried Coretta Scott King.

Doctor Plays God

Doctors have long been accused of playing God, which is one of the reasons why some religions don't allow its members to go to the doctor or receive certain treatments. I'd have to think those same religions would be against this: a Massachusetts doctor who suspends life then revives — at least for pigs.

Seems like pretty amazing treatment, and I'm all for it if it saves lives and doesn't revive brain damaged people. Think all people will "see the light"?

Bribing for School Attendance

I can’t decide what I think of this trend: elementary, middle and high schools across the country are now offering rewards for perfect attendance. And by rewards, I mean cash, video games, laptops, trips to Disneyworld and even cars. This NY Times article implies it’s driven by the No Child Left Behind program, which rewards schools with more funding for greater attendance.

Advocates say it works: more students attend, grades and standardized test scores go up, everyone benefits. Others say this sends the wrong message, making kids think they should get something for something they are legally required to do.

Does it encourage kids to go to school when they’re sick, thereby spreading more illness? (Adults do the same at work, a trend dubbed presenteeism.) Or are we just teaching them an important life lesson earlier: go to work, get paid; go to school, get a car?

Maybe I'm Revealing Too Much...

I love these awful faces.

One More Reason Not to Puff

In the NY Times today: “a woman who smokes has a risk of dying from heart disease equal to the risk she would have if she weighed 90 pounds more than the nonsmoker.” Damn! Slightly ironic considering people who quit tend to have weight gain afterward (partly due to the need to replace one addicition with another, I think.) Time to do anything to stop, people!

How to Meet People Where You Live

A friend of mine asked me today how to find a good organization to get involved in. I wrote a long e-mail and then I thought: what if others could use this advice. So here is some information: take it or leave it or (please) comment with your own suggestions!

Dear Friend:
You ask an interesting question. I would suggest this site for finding common interest groups: http://www.meetup.com/.

You might also try taking classes (like cooking, for instance, not classroom classes) and then just make a point of meeting people while there. Many cities have "newcomers to New York" meet and greet. I don't know exactly where you can find that, but I have a friend who attended one, so I could find out if you like.

Also, if knitting or crocheting classes interest you, I would suggest Knit NY. It's a super-cute shop with gorgeous (read: expensive) yarn. They have beginner and intermediate classes. They're a tad expensive, but could be a way to meet people of all ages at least while the class is going on. Then you could join a group more easily too! (I've thought about starting a knitting group, but I haven't figured out if/when/how. I don't want to trek out twice a month to have no one show up.)

You could also volunteer or mentor. Volunteer Match is a great site for finding stuff like that. I volunteer at a hospice, which means I meet elderly people, but there are ways I could volunteer there and meet more people (like go into the office to stuff envelopes or help out with other things), but I just don't do it.

Hmmm... that's what's coming to mind for things to do/ways to meet people. I've provided links where I could. I also am a member of a couple professional groups, but that doesn't help you. : )

Readers (all 0.5 of you): what are your thoughts?

Sponsors Apply Here

Is this true? The New York Times now has sponsors for its article tools (e-mail this, printer-friendly and single page links)? Anyone else slightly disturbed by this? Next thing you know, your umbrella will start flashing ads for peanut butter. Actually, it’d be pretty cool if your umbrella had a screen that flashed the weather report. Then you could check it every day before you leave to see if you need it. Damn, that’s awesome. Yeah! Who wants to develop this with me? Anyone want to underwrite it?

Would you like to take a survey: Do you like beans?

Is it silly of me to wonder about public opinion polls (PDF)? Every Gallup poll is conducted by telephone. This makes sense since in 1997, 95% of households had a telephone. Gallup had actually gone so far as to randomly match an area code with 7 other digits. That means even unlisted numbers can be called.

But the Gallup document I link to above was written in 1997 — before the deluge of cell phone usage. My burning questions remain unanswered and they are as follows:

1. Can cell phones be called for polls or do privacy laws protect that? What about the people who only have cell phones? Is their opinion missed?

2. How do they avoid calling businesses?

3. Part of the Gallup process in 1997 was to estimate how many people could be attributed to specific area codes. Are they taking into account that many cell phone users move (sometimes across country) yet keep their old number, and consequently their old area code.

So, can anyone out there report an instance (or, ideally, two) where their cell phone was called for a poll? I know this is headier than most of my recent posts, but anyone care to comment, even if just to say “This is boring. Go back to tell us about cool T-shirt sites”? P.S. At the very least can someone unearth the reference in this post's title?

Humans Make the Strangest Sounds

Check out this amazing Honda ad in the UK with all humans making the noise of a car driving. It's just ... well, just go see. Click on "Watch."

Drunken Monkey

Zookeepers in Moscow are giving wine to monkeys three times a day during one of the coldest periods in 25 years. Temperatures have reached as low as -31 degrees Celsius and dozens have died. But the monkeys are happy! Hope it's not a grand cru...

This Surprised Me

Supreme Court upholds physician-assisted suicide in Oregon.
Britain to allow 2-women brothels for safety.

Flying Coffins: Poetically Morbid

Africa accounts for only 4% of global air traffic but 27% of all air crashes.

Drag & Drop Shopping

Have fun with this drag & drog shopping cart. Love the poof when you drag something out. Doesn't hurt that the T-shirts are cool, too. I just wish they came in women's sizes...

A la Mode

OK, this made me laugh (quietly but out loud), so I thought I’d share. First, a tiny bit of background. A mode is when you hit the Caps Lock key or the insert key on your computer and start typing in all caps or typing over your text. Modes are not recommended in interface design because people forget they are on, which can lead to frustration.

Here’s the funny part (from Wikipedia if you look up “mode”): Interface guru Jef Raskin, in his book The Humane Interface, came out strongly against modes, writing,

“Modes are a significant source of errors, confusion, unnecessary restrictions, and complexity in interfaces.” Later he notes, “‘It is no accident that swearing is denoted by #&%!#$&,’ writes my colleague, Dr. James Winter; it is ‘what a typewriter used to do when you typed numbers when the Caps Lock was engaged.’”

OK, perhaps just funny to me, but ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Mac users suck ...

... Because you get the coolest apps. Here are a few:
LaunchBar, the god of quickkeys
kGTD, an allegedly cool proj mgmt tool (though I wouldn’t know because: no Mac)

And now a step back for Apple (you knew this was coming):
An anti-Ipod rant. I call it a rant though I agree with parts, particuarly the wheel, which I’ve complained about frequently to the two friends who will listen (and really they’re just nodding off to sleep, not nodding in agreement)

Word choice, people! Word choice!

Somehow I doubt that birth defect advocacy groups are “celebrating” higher rates of birth defects. Word choice — so key, my friends!

Mooooooo!

Cows milk themselves while farmers monitor from afar. Cool.

Something to Ponder

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

- Alexander Pope

You mean talking to a computer isn't fun?

Could companies be learning that customer service is still cool? I recently saw a TV ad where one financial services company (forgive me for forgetting which one) tells us that it’s easy to reach a person when you call. “Just press zero” the voiceover intones.

Interestingly, I just came across a Cheat Sheet that reveals how easy or difficult it is to reach a human when calling many customer service lines. One of my favorites is Time Magazine: “0,0,0,0 (ignore “invalid entry” messages).” Or when you call 1-800-MEDICARE: “RE: info for part “D” Medicare Prescription Drug Plans- When recording begins say “Agent” 5+ times.”

Um... yeah... good luck!

Half-Shares

Read this interesting idea in a book:

“When someone you love, dies, it’s as if they leave you with half shares of your life together. The person you were in their eyes dies with them.”

— Quoted in The Reading Group, from the book Guppies for Tea

Santa’s Elf is Just SO Cute!

Tell this elf your wishes. He gets them right every time. (Be sure to record several wishes.)

Eeeeek!

• Catch spiders the humane way.
• Don't have the glamour life of a rich doctor? You can now play one on the Internet. Perform knee replacement surgery online (it's easy!)
• Finally, just some plan ol' straightforward goofy fun (try puppets first).

Great Music

Just heard We are Scientists' "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt." Rock on.

Die, My Ex-Darling, Die!

Credit J for sharing this one:

• One way to X Out an Ex

Too busy: someone else have fun with this

So I'm swamped, but this movie was promised to be cool. It's created entirely from open-source content (i.e. nothing here was created for this piece). Report back all thoughts and comments.

Sitting in Mud Puddles

So sad! I got busy, stopped writing, and now no one will look at my blog. Sniff, sniff. "Bring the coolness back" the People say. And the People are always right.

Well, if you want something even cooler to look at than this sad excuse for a blog, go to Google's competition/imitator for maps. Seems Yahoo!'s trying to get back in the game. It's about time.

The Simpsons Come True

Anyone remember when the Simpsons had a three-eyed fish? Well, it’s come true (sorta) off the coast of So Cal. Should we be worried? Hell yes! When the Simpsons starts coming true, we’re all in trouble.

To Click or Not to ...

Will you be hit by the nasty clicking monster? I'm betting yes. See how much faith I have in you guys? Have fun exploring...

Darwin is Dying

I thought 3 posts in one morning was enough, but then I saw this. Pulled directly from NYTimes.com:

According to a CBS News poll last month, 51 percent of Americans reject the theory of evolution, saying that God created humans in their present form. And reflecting a longstanding sentiment, 38 percent of Americans believe that creationism should be taught instead of evolution, according to an August poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington.

Anyone know what Europe is up to on this topic? Are they laughing at us?

T-Shirt Site

Like Threadless.com, but political: SharpAsToast!

p.s. Currently addicted to Blur's song “Tender.”

Google maps on phones

Now this is just damn cool: cell phones to get Google maps. These actual maps are better than Yahoo directions offered for past phones. Unfortunately, if your phone is Verizon or you want it on your blackberry, it will not work for you... yet. You also need Java on your phone.

Jesus Tree

I love stuff like this: a tree looks like Jesus. (If that link doesn't work, try this ABC story). Actually, I found this kinda cool AP wheel that might be worth exploring. I loaded it from the comcast.net home page, so you might have to access it that way.

“I’m Dead Gone on You”

Imagine having your love immortalized forever. Sounds appealing, right? Not when it's done this way...

The Search for Meaning

This makes searching a lot cooler! Wanna find a book and see if there’s a movie that goes with it and then want to see if anybody’s mentioned it in a blog recently? Easy as Amazon (a special, cool Amazon: don’t avoid this link just because you think I’m sending you to normal dotcom-ville)!

Now here’s a challenge: find something about this site you wish it could do but doesn’t. Then tell me about it here. Prize for whoever comes up with the coolest idea...

Calling ‘bullshit’ makes things happen

“If people expect you will ask them tough questions, and not hesitate to push them hard until you get answers, they will prepare for them before they meet with you. They will not waste your time.”
—Source: The Art of Project Management

Anna Nicole Boob

Anyone surprised that Anna Nicole’s lawyer is named Howard Stern. How fitting! It’ll be strange to see them before the Supreme Court.

There is Shit in the Meat

1. Though we can recall dangerous toys or cars, the USDA cannot recall meat filled with deadly contaminates.
2. Among the top 25 House representatives who receive restaurant industry funds, only four were Democrats between 1987 and 1996.
3. The Reagan and Bush adminstrations staffed the U.S. Department of Agriculture with officials far more interested in government deregulation than in food safety.
4. In a USDA study in 1996, 78.6 percent of the ground beef contained microbes that are spread primarily by fecal material.

Source: Fast Food Nation

Boycott!!!

I wandered into Bath & Body Works on Monday and what do I hear? Freakin’ Christmas music, that’s what, punks! Grrrr...

Don’t Pull the Emergency Break

Ever notice in the New York subways, there are signs to tell you what to do in case of disaster? And for every single one, including fire, the main instruction is Don’t Pull the Emergency Break. Tell an MTA employee. Seeing as it’s difficult to even find an MTA employee, I don't see how this is a helpful instruction. I suppose you could try to shout down the train to the guy who stands in the middle and closes the door and makes mumbled announcements ala the teacher in Peanuts cartoons.

But here is the real question of the hour: in this world of danger, as you watch our nation’s leaders do and say things that appall, as the fire in the subway car bears down on you ... when do you pull the emergency break?

In the Rain, It's the Same Face Everywhere

I have finally hit the point where the world has run out of people. I’m in a new job and everyone looks like someone I’ve met before. I’m either on a reality show (unbeknownst to me) with lots of washed up actors or the video game of life has run out of stock players to appear.

Embarrassed to be American

Let me lay out for you the facts that comprise one of the saddest moments in recent U.S. history (and that’s saying something): 1. Sen. Cain, Colin Powell and a number of pro-Iraq War politicians have supported or voted for a bill that would outlaw the abusive treatment of prisoners both on U.S. soil and beyond. 2. This bill is amazingly bipartisan, having passed the Senate 90 to 9. 3. And guess who is against it? Uh-huh, that’s right. Our darling president. From The Washington Post:

“Let’s be clear: Mr. Bush is proposing to use the first veto of his presidency on a defense bill needed to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan so that he can preserve the prerogative to subject detainees to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In effect, he threatens to declare to the world his administration’s moral bankruptcy.”

The New York Times has a great op-ed piece (must be subscriber), or read about it in The Seattle Times.

Solid Gas

CNN Headline News just reported some poor gas station that entered the price for premium gas in wrong. Instead of 3.299/gal, it was going for 0.329/gal. Here is what gets me: no one told the gas station. Attendants didn’t learn of the mistake until a television crew showed up to report on the cheap gas. Why do people think they can take advantage of human error? Gas stations are individually owned, so the person it affects is not the big rich gas company but the little guy trying to run his own business.

Change is in the Air

And I’m not just talking about the leaves (although I love the smell of leaves rotting — who’s with me?)

I have taken a full-time job in a new career. The 15-second summary of what I now do is structure websites (i.e. navigation, internal links), develop innovative web interactions and, above all, worry my ass off about usability.

So, in light of that, I’ve adjusted my second blog to report on those issues. Go to http://flinked.blogspot.com, if you care. Then tell me about every goofy, fulfilling or tragically bad website interaction you’ve ever had. I collect these stories like pet rocks.

I’m on to you …

... And now the rest of the women of the world will be too (FYI: millions read this blog yet stoicly refuse to comment ... ever). So men, do not try this at home, or your woman will look like this random chic.

(Thanks Dan.)

Evolution is Real! I Have Proof!

As clear evidence of evolution, I point to this recent cat development: the toilet as litter box. I’m just joking, of course, but be sure to follow the real evolving story. My favorite moment of overblown buffoonery:

The second day of the closely watched trial began with a defense attorney seeking to show inconsistencies in the remarks and writings of the plaintiffs’ key witness, Kenneth R. Miller, a Brown University biology professor and textbook author.

During cross-examination, attorney Robert Muise asked Miller whether evolution was “random and undirected” to which Miller replied, “No.”

Muise pointed out that the statement evolution is random and undirected appeared in bold type in his widely used textbook, Biology.

Miller replied that the statement was written by coauthor Joseph Levine for an edition published in 1998 and was removed in subsequent editions.

“It was a good day for the school board,” [defense attorney] Thompson said outside the courthouse. “Miller admitted it was a religious or philosophical statement and that book is still being sold in the United States and he is receiving royalties from it.”

Quotable Hamster

“Hamster-haired megamogul” having a kid. Before you follow the link can you guess who I’m talking about?

Web Keeps Getting Groovier and Groovier

In case you have not heard, something called web 2.0 is afoot. I cannot pretend to get it entirely, but it basically allows databases from more than one source to talk to each other. Sounds uber-technical, I know, but here are two sites sites that turn techy into too cool:

• Flickr-sourced pic search with related terms and funky floating interface
• Google-sourced Marumushi newsmap (the new croissant to my a.m. coffee)

Top Stuff

If you read nothing else in the news today, read these:

• Brown points finger after being ousted. If only fingers worked like Pinocchio’s nose; then we could tell who was lying, though I already have an idea...
• January federal report found medical system weak when responding to disasters. Suddenly, the homeland doesn’t feel so secure.
• Israel hitting Gaza in (successful?) airstrikes, but peace deal also brokered. Boy who cried wolf, anyone?
  

City Sleeps Above 40th Floors

Lights out past midnight for NYC higher than the 40th.

Get a Photoshopped Booty!

OK, for all the ladies out there (and even the men) who have looked at supermodels and thought: I will never have a body like that, it is time to face the music:

1. of course you will never have a body like that — you have better things to do
2. they don’t have bodies like that either, and here’s how I know.

T-Shirt Fun!

Two super fun(ny) online t-shirt stores: the first, called Vintage Vantage, is fresh and groovy (and is running a little slowly today because it got national press). The second, Threadless T-Shirts, allows someone to design a tee and then people vote and the winning t-shirt actually gets made and sold! Many are extremely creative and unique (I like Loch Ness Imposter).

Side note: anti-stink stuff for your next bathroom trip. Think it works?

Finally, two points to the one who explains why the T in t-shirt is conventionally capitalized (notice my damn-the-man laissez-faire attitude in this posting ... wild one ... yeah ...)

“Keep Your Hands Where I Can See ’Em!”

Flinked/wallowmuddy has been held hostage by blog spam (blam) of late. So new comment policy: you'll now have to type in some random letters to confirm that you actually put on your pants one leg at a time like the rest of us. Thanks RealLiveBreathing Readers!

Kinda Like Predictive Text

This Google is created with a new type of web interaction system called Ajax. Pretty damn cool, huh?

Shaq Likes Blue Uniforms as Well

Credit Dan for linking to this. It is so funny to imagine a 7-foot NBA star doing PD work, so I figured I would share the laugh with all o' you crazy peeps.

Got Unwanted Books?

Manhattanites, Bronxers, Queenies, S. Islanders & Brooklings: Give up your books this weekend at the city-wide book drive. Weekend hours are 10-3. Locations.

The Dangers of Lying About Science

So most people by now know that right-wing conservative Christians argue against evolution and instead for Creationism/Intelligent Design. Also filed under the category “If we ignore scientific fact and lie to the American people, our interests are better served”: global warming.

You’d be hard pressed to find a non-political scientist who can deny that the Earth is getting warmer by degrees, which can and will lead to atrocious environmental changes.

If you, like me, cared but felt pretty sure that the repercussions probably wouldn’t be felt during your lifetime, it turns out we’re wrong.

Scientists have concluded that due to the increased warming of the waters in the tropics, hurricanes are becoming increasingly more powerful. While it’s impossible to accurately blame Katrina on global warming (history has shown that powerful storms do hit occasionally, even without rising water temperatures), it’s clear that as an aggregate, natural disasters like hurricanes, wind storms and typhoons are getting worse.

“Wind speed measurements made by planes flying through tropical storms showed that the ‘potential destructiveness’ of such storms had ‘increased markedly’ since the 1970s, right in line with rising sea surface temperatures.” (New Yorker quoting Nature)

Scared yet? Write to your congressperson to demand the United States ratify and follow the Kyoto protocols. The United States produces almost 25 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. We owe it to ourselves and the world to stop.

I’ve Got ’Em on a List

As I think of Katrina, I look to the future. I know a lot of good people who would endeavor to make positive decisions for our country. These friends are not politicians, but there’s another reason why many of them will never hear Hail to the Chief in their honor.

Hobbies that mean you will never ever win the presidency:

• Collects action heroes
• Reads sci-fi books as an adult
  
• Buys Beanie Babies
• Believes in television marathons
• Pre-orders Sliders season 1-3 DVDs on Amazon

On the other hand, hobbies that appear to win you acclaim and support:

• Alcohol abuse in your youth
• Inability to do your taxes (I’m guessing…)
• Tendency not to listen to self speak
• Difficulty matching noun with verb
• Buddies who are either warmongers or complete idiots

Help me out, what else am I missing?

Fight ... for Your Right ...

A word of warning: you cannot automatically trust your doctor anymore. We are approaching an age when staffing shortages in almost every hospital means that care will be rushed, leading to errors and perfunctory treatment.

Doctors are trained to dehumanize people so they do not get emotionally invested. Do not accept that as okay. Not everyone means badly, but the time has come when anytime you have a loved one in the hospital or nursing home, you will need to advocate for them to make sure they are treated the best.

From the NY Times: In a nationwide survey of more than 2,000 adults published last fall, 55 percent of those surveyed said they were dissatisfied with the quality of health care, up from 44 percent in 2000; and 40 percent said the quality of care had gotten worse in the last five years.

Is there Racial Inequality in Disasters?

From the Washington Post: “Nearly three in four whites doubted the federal government would have responded more quickly to those trapped in New Orleans if they had been wealthier and white rather than poorer and black, the poll found. But an equal share of blacks disagreed, saying help would have come sooner if the victims had been more affluent whites.”

I have to say, while race may not be the root problem, poverty certainly is. The real fact is that rich white people live in New Orleans, too, but they’re not the ones who got trapped. So does every city have an evacuation plan that accounts for the poor? There’s no chance. Who is clamboring for one in your city? No one.

What do you think?

eLearning & Katrina

If you know anyone who was going to go to college this fall but was displaced by Hurricane Katrina, tell them about these two resources:

• Sloan
• SCUP

Pass it along to anyone you think could spread the word!

Light Cream to Counter the Heavy

Back from another vacay and feeling good! Here's some light tidbits to get your shortened week started (and take a break from the sad sad news about Katrina):

• Only 9 percent of women and 2 percent of men report dating someone they met in a bar. More dating facts.
• 1.7 million kids live with unlocked loaded guns.
• Crow and Armstrong engaged.

Katrina & the Poor

The stranded people of New Orleans are largely black and poor. No one has mentioned that until now. CNN confirmed today on the Situation Room that there had been oversight among the media. Saddest thing, to me, was how much of the early coverage on CNN Headline news focused on two white families who paid hundreds to get out, one by limo and one by taxi.