20060830

20060828

Techo Library music-video


They know all about you

They know all about you
AOL Users Especially BEWARE:

Every time you use an internet search engine, your inquiry is stored in
a huge database. Would you like such personal information to become
public knowledge? Yet for thousands of AOL customers, that nightmare has
just become a reality. Andrew Brown reports on an incident that has
exposed how much we divulge to Google & co
Andrew Brown
Monday August 28, 2006


Guardian
In March this year, a man with a passion for Portuguese football, living
in a city in Florida, was drinking heavily because his wife was having
an affair. He typed his troubles into the search window of his computer.
"My wife doesnt love animore," he told the machine. He searched for
"Stop your divorce" and "I want revenge to my wife" before turning to
self-examination with "alchool withdrawl", "alchool withdrawl sintoms"
(at 10 in the morning) and "disfunctional erection". On April 1 he was
looking for a local medium who could "predict my futur".

But what could a psychic guess about him compared with what the world
now knows? This story is one of hundreds, perhaps tens of thousands,
revealed this month when AOL published the details of 23m searches made
by 650,000 of its customers during a three-month period earlier in the
year. The searches were actually carried out by Google - from which AOL
buys in its search functions.

The gigantic database detailing these customers' search inquiries was
available on an AOL research site for just a few hours before the
company realised that substituting numbers for users' names did not
really protect their identities enough. The company apologised for its
mistake - and removed the database from the internet. The researcher who
published the material has been sacked, as has his manager, and last
week AOL's chief technology officer, Maureen Govern, resigned. But those
few hours online were enough for the raw data files to be copied all
over the internet, and there are now four or five sites where anyone can
search through them using specialised software.

What was published by AOL represents only a tiny fraction of the
accumulated knowledge warehoused within Google's records - but it has
given all of us, as users, a dramatic and unsettling glimpse of how
much, and in what intimate detail, the big search engines know about us.

More at:
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329562941-116259,00.html

20060825

Unusual bookstore nuisance (or magnet): naked teens books

Strange news item from the Boston Globe out of the
Green Mountain State:

Law of nature prevails in Vermont
Brattleboro teens shed clothes with impunity
By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff  |  August 23, 2006

BRATTLEBORO -- Here on the banks of the Connecticut
River, in the busiest parking area of a downtown
peppered with bookstores and coffee shops, more is
meeting the eye than some people want.

A politely rebellious collection of teenagers passing
time in the Harmony Parking Lot this summer has taken
to disrobing. Seemingly on a whim, they shed clothes
and soak up the sun, nude.

What began as a lark or an ode to youthful exuberance
has now turned into a municipal quandary, because
public nudity is permissible in Brattleboro.

In the words of Town Manager Jerry Remillard, if
you're naked in public, and you're minding your
business, you're legal.

``We're quite a bit different than a lot of places,"
Remillard said.

Spurred by complaints, the town's Select Board will
consider changing that, although no changes are
expected soon. In the meantime, some pedestrians avert
their eyes. Some youths cheer on their naked friends,
and a few adults are so offended that they become
nearly hysterical.

If the two-dozen or so youths, 16 to 19 years old, are
seeking to make a social statement, the manifesto
needs some work.

``We just thought it'd be a little fun," said Charles
Corry, 19, who said he stripped to nature's own Friday
and hung out for about 45 minutes with five
like-minded friends as shoppers, diners, and walkers
made their bemused way through the lot. ``I don't see
it as a serious statement."

Serious or not, the teenagers have made nudity
something that can show its pale or sun-burned self
with no warning. Rachel Brooks, who works at
Everyone's Books, sees some of the action on the
sidewalk outside the shop's rear door.

``Personally, if I wanted to be naked, I wouldn't sit
around in a dirty parking lot," said Brooks, 22. ``I
wouldn't want to get cigarette butts on my butt."

The nudity began in earnest this year, Brooks said,
when one young woman decided she wanted to bare her
chest in public, just like her male friends.

Since then, the no-clothes fashion has gained
popularity and has expanded to include group bike
rides, skateboarding, hula-hoop contests, and a
grass-roots music event that the group dubbed the Brat
Fest.

One girl even sat partially nude on a newspaper
vending box in the middle of downtown.

``I think most of Vermont wants Vermont to be nude,"
said Hannah Phillips, 15, who added that she has not
disrobed. ``People have a basic human right to be
naked if they want to."

Nearby, older teenagers sat on the sidewalk, fully
clothed, their backs propped against a brick wall,
munching on a pizza they found in its box. A car
belonging to one of the group was parked nearby, a
skull-and-crossbones on its hood and the words,
``Chaos Infiltration Squad," on a side door. On the
opposite side of the lot, the Back Side Cafe looked
down on the scene.

Although members of the group said they don't intend
to offend anyone, one woman has filed a complaint with
the Select Board.

But the wheels of legislation grind methodically here,
and the board must hold two public meetings, followed
by a waiting period of nearly a month before a ban on
public nudity can be implemented and enforced.

Vermont does not forbid public nudity, as
Massachusetts does, but some liberal communities in
the state have banned it. Remillard said that
outsiders should not begin to think of Brattleboro as
a haven for the behavior. It's just that Brattleboro
never had cause to ban nudity before.

``I would suspect that if it were OK, you'd see it in
Boston," he said.

Andrew Wdowiak, who works at Everyone's Books, said
that he's not put off by the nudity, but that the act
has become a little tired. ``I think it was more for
the shock value," he said. ``They weren't flagrant
about it."

But last week, when about a half-dozen naked teenagers
congregated outside the store, ``it was like they were
baking a cake, and they really frosted it," Wdowiak
said. ``All the men were naked, and the women were
topless. I needed about three drinks to erase that
vision."

One patron of the bookstore let loose with hysterics
of Academy Award proportions, he added.

If the town passes an ordinance this year, cool
weather will have begun to settle in this slice of the
North Country.

But Remillard, for one, doesn't think the bracing air
will accomplish what Brattleboro's laws have been so
far unable to do.

``That isn't necessarily going to bother this group of
people," he said of the cold.

20060805

Name-calling!

The following is excerpted from Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants,
by Dave Pilkey, in which the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names...

1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name:

a = snickle
b = doombah
c = goober
d = cheesey
e = crusty
f = greasy
g = dumbo
h = farcus
i = dorky
j = doofus
k = funky
l = boobie
m = sleezy
n = sloopy
o = fluffy
p = stinky
q = slimy
r = dorfus
s = snooty
t = tootsie
u = dipsy
v = sneezy
w = liver
x = skippy
y = dinky
z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name:

a = dippin
b = feather
c = batty
d = burger
e = chicken
f = barffy
g = lizard
h = waffle
i = farkle
j = monkey
k = flippin
l = fricken
m = bubble
n = rhino
o = potty
p = hamster
q = buckle
r = gizzard
s = lickin
t = snickle
u = chuckle
v = pickle
w = hubble
x = dingle
y = gorilla
z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:

a = butt
b = boob
c = face
d = nose
e = hump
f = breath
g = pants
h = shorts
i = lips
j = honker
k = head
l = tush
m = chunks
n = dunkin
o = brains
p = biscuits
q = toes
r = doodle
s = fanny
t = sniffer
u = sprinkles
v = frack
w = squirt
x = humperdinck
y = hiney
z = juice

Thus, for example, George W. Bush's new name is: Fluffy Chucklefanny.


20060804

Robotech Release Date!; Hellboy 2

FUNimation has set a release date for the new Robotech feature:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9088.html
 
Hellboy 2 was picked up by a new studio and will start shooting next year:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9089.html

20060803

James Kochalka Superstar - Spread Your Evil Wings and Fly

James Kochalka's James Kochalka Superstar - Spread Your Evil Wings and Fly CD, was probabaly the most fun thing I got at the San Diego Comic-con 2006. Saw him at the Top Shelf booth, with Eddie Campbell, and Melinda Gebbie. He didn't really have to talk me into it that hard, I've been waiting for a collection of the SuperF*ckers comics and stopped to see if I could get a sketch. Good rock music, with darkly humorous lyrics, some songs more pop rock, some dark rock, with some catchy and horrifying refrains (Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake... Gah!!)

Eltingville club

Best SF/Comics/RPG/Horror/Toy/Fan cartoon ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OIDFGRgVyI&search=eltingville
too bad it's gone now....

well you can go read Evan's rants instead
http://www.houseoffun.com/athome/ejournal.html

the real oldies...

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/

20060802

Bad first lines / GREAT LITERARY TAUNTS

Bad first lines

"As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it."

"Just beyond the Narrows, the river widens."

With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned, unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description."

"Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: 'Andre creep... Andre creep... Andre creep.'"

"Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved."

"Though Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it didn't keep her from squeaking out a living at a local pet store."

"Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do."

"Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor."

"Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word ' fear '; a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies."


AND THE WINNER IS...
"The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, ''You lied!"




GREAT LITERARY TAUNTS
"I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here." --- Stephen Bishop

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." --- Irvin S. Cobb

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." --- Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." --- William Faulkner

"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." --- Samuel Johnson

"He had delusions of adequacy." --- Walter Kerr

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." --- Groucho Marx

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." --- Thomas Brackett Reed

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." --- Forrest Tucker

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." --- Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." --- Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." --- Oscar Wilde

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." --- Oscar Wilde

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." --- Billy Wilder

Bullfighting Protest

We need more protesting...
http://kutv.com/watercooler/local_story_157152428.html

Amputated leg pulled from auction

The leg was viewed by 20 people but no bids had been placed before it was withdrawn. The leg sports a tattoo of an open book which Mr Torrance said symbolized emotional blackmail from his time being "locked up".

http://steelturman.typepad.com/thesteeldeal/2006/05/getting_a_leg_u.html

Political Quiz

Answer just 10 questions, and it instantly tells you where you stand politically. It shows your position as a red dot on a "political map" so you'll see exactly where you are. http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz

Earthsea Anime!; Claypool Goes Web-Only; Yet another Batman Movie

Gedo Senki (Tales From Earthsea), the anime feature based on Ursula K. LeGuin's fantasy series and directed by Hayao Miyazaki's 39-year-old son, Goro, topped Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at the Japanese box office:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9072.html

After fourteen years and over 300 issues Claypool Comics will cease print publication of all titles and take its Deadbeats series to the Web as an online publication.  Claypool will continue to publish through the first quarter of next year:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9077.html
 
Christopher Nolan will direct The Dark Knight, a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader and Heath Ledger as The Joker.  Filming will start in early 2007 for a summer 2008 release:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9075.html