 I just found this amazing video created by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. The video explains the evolution of the web from its humble HTML beginnings to the introduction of XML, RSS and beyond. It explains Web 2.0 in just under five minutes. It flows extremely well. It is a work of genius that deserves some sort of award. It should at least be nominated for something. |
Mysterious tar balls are washing up onto Monterey Bay beaches. Their source is unknown. Experts are trying to determine if they are from oil spilled from a passing tanker or linked to heavy ocean swells. |
 The crew of a television show in St. Louis, filmed a segment on eagles but had technical difficulties with their wireless microphone set. Most of the filmed footage was unusable, as the questions posed to Aileesha Breedlove, the African-American woman wiping a tear in the segment, were inaudible. This hilarious video with a South Park style song is what they came up with to try and salvage the segment. It took them about four hours to do it from concept to finish. Oh, and it actually aired. Rock on. Via BoingBoing. |
Intel announced a parallel processor that would give business and consumer machines teraflop performance. The super chip, which is the size of a human fingernail, would consist of 80 cores and would have the same power consumption as today’s processors. Now all we need is for all programmers to learn to write for an 80-core processor and things will be great. |
Gavin Newsom opened his campaign office today and vowed that he’s “not going away” amidst recent scandal and criticism. I wish our mayor the best of luck in staying away from the booze and hoes. |
 If you have been to San Francisco’s shopping district, between Union Square and the Westfield Shopping Center, you’ve more than likely seen Edward Jackson. Jackson is the energetic power tap dancer that sets up shop to dance near the cable car turnaround at the end of Powell Street. He has been a fixture in San Francisco for the last eight years but will be leaving the city next Saturday. Unfortunately, our city is no longer the best place for street performers like Jackson, who depend on the generosity of strangers to make a living. The situation is surely amplified by our homeless problem. Thanks to the chronic homeless, it seems people are less willing to reach into their pockets nowadays, even to support great performers like Jackson. Jackson has been forced to leave for economic reasons. He will be missed. When my wife and I have out-of-town guests, we make sure to visit Union Square and one of the attractions is catching a Jackson performance while we pass the cable car turnaround. His energy and enthusiasm has been an asset to this city and his performances have been enjoyed by tourists and San Franciscans alike. I wasn’t surprised that he was cast for the promotional trailer of the 2004 San Francisco International Film Festival. He is talented. Over the past few weeks Jackson’s ex-girlfriend has been lobbying Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office to give him a Certificate of Honor for his contributions to the city before he leaves for Australia. If you have enjoyed one of Jackson’s performances over the years, you should consider an email. Letters in support of Jackson can be sent to the mayor’s liaison Jason Chan at jason.chan@sfgov.org. Also, if you are in town next Saturday, stop by and wish Jackson luck on his world tour. |
In a surprising and certainly humorous twist, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, 64, now claims to be Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter’s father. I am sure that the fact that Dannielynn stands to potentially inherit a fortune worth more than $470 million has something to do with it. Hell, everyone wants to be the Baby Daddy of Anna’s baby. I wonder how many more will come out of the woodwork–stay tuned. |
 Reality TV star and former Playboy model, Anna Nicole Smith, died this afternoon after being discovered unconscious in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. She was 39 years old. Anna Nicole’s son, Daniel Wayne Smith, died at age 20 just days after the birth of Smith’s daughter five months ago. Pathologist Cyril Wecht said a lethal dose of methadone and antidepressants caused cardiac dysrhythmia, leading to his death. The cause of Anna Nicole’s death is not yet known. If you ask me, she could have been suffering from post-partum depression compounded by the loss of her son five months ago just days after giving birth. Her depression could have lead to drug abuse and this could be another tragic overdose. We won’t know the details until the autopsy is conducted later this week. Her death leaves many items up in the air. A paternity battle over her five month old daughter and the legal battle over her late husband’s estate. Her lawyer and widowed husband, Howard K. Stern, will have his hands full taking care of a baby and fighting two different court cases, all while grieving her death. Can you imagine having a paternity battle while your wife is dead!? Sad. |
Whorecraft promises to be “the first fantasy adult website of its kind.” Sorry, I like my porn sans elves. |
University researchers have performed a research study and found that people that played video games a few hours a day for one month were able to identify clustered letters 20 percent better than those that did not. The articles states, “in essence, playing video game improves your bottom line on a standard eye chart.” This may explain why after 35 years I still have better than 20-20 vision. I don’t play a few hours per day, but the few hours I do play per week are likely to keep my vision from deteriorating. |
An astronaut caught in a crazy love triangle decided to go on a road trip, wearing diapers to minimize bathroom stops, to kidnap and possibly murder her rival. Lisa Nowak was caught by police after she tried to pepper spray her rival, Colleen Shipman, in a parking garage. Shipman managed to escape the assault and called police. Police found Nowak at a bus stop and arrested her. They found a bag in her vehicle with a tan trench coat, a new steel mallet, a new folding knife with a 4-inch blade, 3 to 4 feet of rubber tubing, several large plastic garbage bags and about $600 in cash. Police also found a half dozen latex gloves, MapQuest directions from Houston to Orlando International Airport, e-mails detailing the affair, the diapers she wore to reduce stops along the highway and a letter indicating how much she loved her man, Bill Oefelein. Well, you can’t say she wasn’t prepared to kill her. Those astronauts sure know how to plan. So, all three of them are astronauts–that’s a bizarre love triangle for sure! Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well, a woman astronaut scorned is even scarier because they tend to be very calm and methodical. I am surprised she wasn’t able to execute a perfect murder. NASA must be really losing their edge. Astronauts just aren’t as smart, or as sane, as they used to be. |
When it rains it pours. Newsom has now said that he is seeking treatment for alcohol abuse, but said that alcohol had nothing to do with his affair with an ex-aide’s wife. How will Gavin complete destroying his promising political career? Stay tuned next week when Gavin admits to having sex with the underage city hall male interns while snorting heroine in his office. Really, can the Newsom campaign get any worse!? |
 Prince’s halftime performance at Super Bowl XLI was nothing short of amazing. He opened the show by being lifted onto the center of the stage. He was wearing a turquoise suit with an orange shirt and a black head scarf–a look that only Prince can pull off. Playing an orange telecaster, he went into a high-powered performance of “Let’s Go Crazy.” It was raining throughout the performance and the lighting accentuated the rain and smoke that was flowing from the stage. Next a marching band came out onto the field to accompany him on “Baby I’m a Star” which turned into a medley that included Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” which he sang as a duet with one of his background singers. Wow. He did not have a guitar for the first medley, but was given a blue Telecaster for the next medley which consisted of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” with his own lyrics leading into “Best of You” by the Foo Fighters. During all this surely the audience was wondering, “Is Prince going to be electrocuted?” This looks really dangerous. Raining. People going ape shit. Rain on the camera lenses, rain on the microphones, rain on the instruments, rain on the lights, crazy ass lights everywhere. Just amazing. You could almost picture Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters at home watching the Super Bowl going, “Holy shit, Prince is playing our song!” while jumping around his living room high-fiving everyone. I have to wonder if he even knew Prince would sing it ahead of time. What came next was even more incredible. After the second medley, Prince was handed a custom-made purple guitar in the shape of his symbol and proceeded to sing “Purple Rain,” in the rain, with the stage giving a purple glow (also shaped as his famous symbol). The camera angles were amazing. The rain got heavier. The audience was in awe. Motherfuckers just couldn’t believe it. He threw his head scarf into the crowd and went into his solo. A virtuoso performance followed by the outro. In the middle of the outro, he invited the crowd to sing with him saying “Y’all wanna sing tonight!?” The response was deafening. The whole stadium sang. So much so that Prince knocked down his microphone stand and finished the show by letting the audience sing. That’s balls right there. The crowd singing turned to a deafening roar as the show ended and one couldn’t help but think that it was the best Super Bowl halftime performance ever. Please keep in mind that this was all live, not like Britney Spears, or Janet Jackson, or Justin Timberlake, who all used some sort of pre-recorded vocals. The band on stage was only a female drummer and a bass player. Ultimately, it was Prince as a one man show, flanked only by one backup singer and two dancers for most of the show. Three guitar changes. Five songs. A historic once in a lifetime performance that we will remember for a long time. It made us wish we were there. |
Apple is warning iPod and iTunes users not to upgrade to Vista due to compatibility issues. |
 A huge shocker hit the Chronicle this morning. Apparently, Gavin Newsom was sleeping with his Chief of Staff’s wife about a year and a half ago, while he was in the middle of divorce proceedings with Kimberly. Alex Tourk, who is now Gavin’s campaign manager quit the campaign abrubtly after the affair was brought to light. His wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk (pictured here), confessed to the affair as part of some substance abuse program (oh, tragic)! This is about loyalty. The saddest thing in this is that Gavin betrayed a guy that was very close to him, even hanging out with him at times, by sleeping with his wife. I think after the divorce Gavin would have bagged anything that moved, but his friend’s wife!? This is a self-destructive side of Gavin that we had not seen before. There’s also rumors about a pregnancy that “went away” and a possible sexual harassment case that may be stemming from this brouhaha (oh, even more tragic)! Damn, the mayor’s life is turning into quite the soap opera. |