Yeah, That’s It. Cue The Vigilantes!

Police tell woman who had bag snatched ‘sorry, that’s not a crime’

I’m not going to quote this at all. You have to go read it and get the full jaw-dropping effect.

Remember: Things originate in England. Then spread to over here.

Pink Power

‘I’ve stood around too long’ [update: dead link]

CAMBRIDGE — Two students at Central Kings Rural High School fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt.

The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.

The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying.

Brain, Mind, Consciouness, Quantumness, Spookiness

Czech crash victim wakes up speaking English

— linkswipe via reddit

The iPod Touch: Don’t Touch It?

There seem to be problems with sound quality compared to past iPods. Even worse, the screen is shit. Look at this photo and see how poorly blacks are displayed.

Another photo showing Touch above and iPhone below. The full article. Something is wrong with that Touch screen! And something is wrong with the DAC chip too.

You see? This is why I am glad not to be able to be one of the first to buy something. I’d be so pissed at having this happen to me.

A few days ago I did a light fondle of the iPod Touch and the new iPod nano. I didn’t fondle long enough to notice screen problems of the Touch. As for the nano, even with my far-less-than-audiophile ears, I felt a lack of depth with the track I always play — R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion. It sounded flat. It sounded less bright than the times I listened to it on past iPods.

As for the nano, that metallic finish will be a problem. I noticed it was already chipping off at the bottoms of all demo units near where the connector touches it. I can forsee that baby being a scratch magnet in my pocket. Also, my hair stood on end when I saw most of the nanos have misaligned screens! The screens aren’t parallel to the top of the fascia. They are mostly all off by a fraction of a millimeter. It’s very noticeable when viewing video. If Steve Jobs saw that personally, I’d think it’d upset him too.

I’d really like to get that new nano, despite the less-deep/bright sound, but I wonder if the Apple Store would laugh at me if I got one with that misaligned screen and wanted to exchange it?

Fight Club By Chuck Palahniuk

Blame Richard Perez, author of the excellent novel The Losers’ Club, for upsetting my Endless Book Queue. He sent out a MySpace Bulletin asking if he was the last person to find out that Palahniuk was gay and then wrote a bit about Palahniuk’s Fight Club.

Intrigued, I got the book. I’d never seen the movie (I am further behind on movies than books…).

This is a hypnotic, amazing novel, unlike any other I’ve ever read.

I don’t know how to go about describing it without ruining any of it. It’s almost like one of those You Had To Be There things.

The unnamed narrator and a guy named Tyler Durden become entwined in a bizarre friendship between one another and a flipped-out young woman named Marla. The narrator’s insomnia and Durden’s daring ultimately lead to the establishment of Fight Clubs, where men can step into a ring hidden in the basements of bars to beat the living shit out of one another. The Fight Clubs in turn lead to the deification of Durden who then goes on to establish a series of Committees: Arson, Assault, Mischief, and Misinformation. It all turns into a cult manned with shaved-head ‘space monkeys” who have wound up, by dint of their low-level positions of employment, infiltrating almost every part of society. Think of a cult as powerful as Scientology but without the outer space bullshit.

The narrator, without ever admitting it, seems to be a closeted gay man whose self-loathing ultimately rears its head (no pun intended) to avenge itself on a society that will not accept him. There’s some stuff about anti-materialism thrown in, but I think that’s a red herring for the real point: self-determination, self-respect, self-acceptance, and Fuck All to a society that wants, above all, homogeneity (again, no pun intended).

Palahniuk’s writing is a revelation. It twists upon itself, plays with time and space, and has a rhythm that just entrances the reader and pulls him into the story.

From the first page I should have understood what was really happening. I didn’t for two reasons: 1) I don’t read books to figure them out while I’m reading them; I read to enter a different world and point of view, and 2) Palahniuk is like an expert magician, using words to pull off a sleight-of-hand.

I’ve never seen the movie. I don’t know if I want to. Movies from books are usually disappointing at best or utter shit (there are exceptions, but they are very rare). If you’ve seen the movie, forget it. Just go and get the book to read. It’s bound to be better. And it’s a reading experience you’ll never, ever forget.

Happy Anny: The Utube Blog

Happy anniversary to The Utube Blog

Today, I am absolutely convinced that YouTube is the most important website to come along in the 21st century. I don’t think the question is even close. Because of YouTube, it no longer takes imagination to see how the Internet will become a predominant, if not the predominant, media vehicle for entertainment. Goodbye, regular tube–hello, YouTube. It will be very interesting to see, though, how all the copyright lawsuits against YouTube shake out this year.

Keep up the great work!

Blog Notes: WordPress Broken

If you’ve tried to click on a Category and it didn’t seem to work, that’s because it’s not working.

I don’t know how long this has been going on.

I just discovered it myself today, wanting to see all my posts with a certain Category tag.

Email has been sent to WordPress Support.

When You Fight The Internet, You Lose

The Biggest Ever BitTorrent Leak: MediaDefender Internal Emails Go Public
When TorrentFreak reported that Media Defender (MD) was behind the video site MiiVi, they cast doubt on us. Now, in what is surely the biggest BitTorrent leak ever, nearly 700mb of MD’s emails have gone public. When MD’s Randy Saaf found out we rumbled MiiVi he said, “This is really fucked.” This is too, but much more so.

Unfortunately for Media Defender – a company dedicated to mitigating the effects of internet leaks – they can do nothing about being the subject of the biggest BitTorrent leak of all time. Over 700mb of their own internal emails, dating back over 6 months have been leaked to the internet in what will be a devastating blow to the company. Many are very recent, having September 2007 dates and the majority involve the most senior people in the company. Apparently this is not the first time that a MediaDefender email leaked onto the Internet.

Go read the full article. This is a classic.

Someday we’ll have leaks like this from the White House, Pentagon, CIA, etc.

The once-mighty will fall.

Help Her Get New Tits

Courtney Crave sends out this MySpace Bulletin:

Which points to this blog entry on her MySpace page:

Hi Everyone!

so here’s the scoopola…

When I was a little girl, I had a dream. A dream that one day, I could walk into a department store, buy a bra without padding, and have my boobs touch in the center. I know, I know, not your average dream for a 6 year old. But I had my priorities. Alas, nature has decided to not provide me with that dream. So I’m taking measures into my own hands. I have signed up on MyFreeImplants.com in an effort to make my dream come true.

YOU, yes you, could be a main player in making my dream come true. How? I am raising $5,000 towards my breast augmentation. If 250 people would donate $20 dollars a piece then I would reach my goal in no time. Any one who donates $50 or more gets a gift from me, as a token of my appreciation…

So anyone wanting to help a girl from Germany, who came to America with a dream (yeah, so it’s a dream about boobs, boobs are fantastic!), please donate to:

http://MyFreeImplants.com/models/26128/ (SIGN UP FOR FREE TO SEE MY PROFILE)

xoxoxo

Courtney Crave

Photo by Mister Devious 2007

I think she looks great naturally. But who am I to deny a girl her lifelong dream?

Jeffree Star On Britney At MTV VMA

Flamboyant Jeffree Star comments to the minions of Old Media about the Britney furor.

Click here for the video (Buzznet embedded Flash). See Jeffree’s tattoos — as a sixth grader; Sharon Tate; and JonBenet Ramsey(!).

Previously in this blog:
Video: Tokyo Hardcore