The Troll

Earth to Would-Be Voters, Come in Would-Be Voters

2008-10-09T19:02:47Z

Today the design firm Cuban Council launched Aliens Vote. Whether you're a native-born American or fresh off the boat, check it out:

at least one out of every ten people living in the U.S. today is an alien. That’s approximately 29.1 million people; equal to the entire population of New York & New Jersey combined. They own homes & businesses, pay taxes and go to public schools. While these people play a huge role in the U.S., they can’t voice their opinion in government elections.

Because of this we decided to create Aliens Vote to see how this silent minority could sway the upcoming presidential election.

Alien visitors to the site are then asked which way they'd vote if they were, in fact, allowed to vote. A pretty nifty little project. Still, although the Cuban Council folks have effectively blocked people from voting multiple times, they have no way of verifying that the people taking the poll on the site are actual aliens (they would have had to ask for visa numbers, etc).

Be that as it may, it'll be interesting to watch how things go. As one person affiliated with the site tells me, "this is about raising the issue considering the government holds all this info, takes their money and then ignores them when it comes time to have a voice."

Fail Mail

2008-10-07T22:03:29Z

True story: One time a friend and neighbor of mine who worked for the World Bank was slated to go to Africa on some big fancy World Bank trip to Africa. In order to go on this fancy World Bank trip to Africa he was prescribed a potent batch of anti-malaria pills. As you may or may not have heard about anti-malaria pills, they can sometimes have adverse effects on the person taking them. Like hallucinations. This poor guy, for reasons he never fully explained, decided to check his e-mail--deep in the throes of medicinally-induced hallucinations and night-terrors. Long story short: he called one of his clients a terrible, terrible name. And to facilitate his hasty retirement from the World Bank, copied his entire department on the e-mail, boss and all.

If only he had Mail Goggles.

What, you may be asking, are Mail Goggles? Simply put, Google's latest offering is raddest thing to ever arrive in Rad Town: a filter that strives to keep you from sending e-mail that, deep down, you don't really mean to send. You know, like when it's 3 AM and you've just emptied your cabinets of Johnny Walker and Ben AND Jerry before settling in to check your Gmail--and maybe ping that ex you've been thinking about stalking--before hitting the sack (a little moment I like to call "Wednesday").

Google wants to help you NOT send that e-mail! Behold:

The way it works, I gather from the official Gmail blog, is that you can choose when it's active. If you're routinely prone to, say, judgment-debilitating weekend behavior, then just have your Gmail account give you a little Mail Goggle quiz wduring certain judgment-debilitated hours. Presto! You can't send that e-mail unless you really want to.

Of course, if your will to self-sabotage is as strong as mine, you can always give up on the e-mail and send a really incriminating text message. Complete with photo.

Shasselhoff!

2008-10-04T19:15:36Z

Now this is a truly bipartisan ticket. Reaching across the aisle, bridging gaps. Change you best believe in. From yesterday's tomorrow, for a better today.

Don't Vote

2008-10-03T16:52:32Z

Technically, the shelf-life for the video I'm about to post is incredibly short (at least the registering-to-vote part of it is) but it's still worth a watch. Google apparently corralled a bunch of high-wattage star types to put this PSA together urging people to vote. It's good enough, I guess. I'm probably not the target audience here seeing as I, like, vote and stuff. It also walks right up to the preaching-in-your-face line, and then takes one step across it.

Nonetheless, it's making the rounds. And provided five people read this blog (a boy can dream, right?), I'll have done my part. (NB: there is some salty language in this here clip as well as the chipper endorsement of some forms of illegal and/or unsavory entertainment that this blog does not necessarily condone.) We're all grownups here though:

Back to the Future

2008-10-03T15:11:04Z

The San Jose-based Magnetic Air Cars Inc. claims that it is working on the world’s first fuel-less car. The folks at Clean Technica have seen a non-working prototype of the bad boy and they like what they see:

The Magnetic Air Car uses three on-board substations to harness compressed air. The resulting airflow is channeled, modulated, and converted to torque that propels the car.
According to company representative Paul Donovan, the car uses a silicon salt battery that has 30% more mass power than a lead acid storage battery and can charge completely within an hour. The 95 percent recyclable battery can also can be used in a temperature range from -40 degrees Celsius to 50 degrees Celsius.

The vehicle should be ready for production by 2010. Wouldn't it be awesome if it came in the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model skin?

Related: The world's most fuel-efficient car? Hint: It's not a hybrid.

Can You Hear Him Now?

2008-10-02T20:51:34Z

I found out that Barack Obama had chosen Joe Biden as his running mate from the big O's Twitter stream (Full disclosure: I am a registered Independent, and I also subscribe to the RNC's feed, which has a MUCH better avatar than Obama anyway).

All of this is to say that it's well understood that Obama is one of the more tech-savvy presidential candidates ever (or at least has a more tech savvy team). (John McCain, to his credit, is aware of the Internet). He's a social organizing and networking whiz. Now his campaign has gone a step further and released a volunteer-created iPhone application that works as a campaign tool. Obama's camp describes it as "a great volunteering tool that lets you make a difference any time you want by talking to people you already know."

The app organizes your contacts by state in order of electoral priority--it's your job to call through your buddies based on how strategic they are to an Obama win. It gives you news feeds and you can give the campaign money through the application. The folks at techPresident appear to like it. Now, if only Newsweek would buy me an iPhone. You know, so I could take it for a spin. In the name of journalism.

Ten Years After

2008-10-02T16:54:41Z

To celebrate their 10th anniversary, the folks at Google have released a version of their engine that only searches the Interweb of 2001. Take a trip back in time. Pay a 23-year-old me a visit.

Ctrl Alt Del

2008-10-01T17:43:47Z

Add these styley mugs to the list of things Daddy wants. My geek cup runneth over.

Failout Fun

2008-10-01T14:35:56Z

[benandhank.com]

Good morning, children. Feeling weary? Beaten down by bad news? You must be ready for a little Humpday Bailout Fun. Turns out there's a little gallows humor to be had among the steady drumbeat of depressing economic news. With the able-bodied guidance of my esteemed and estimable Newsweek colleague and dot-comrade Kathy Jones (all sing her name in praise!), I have trolled the Internets near and far to find for you, my little cuttlefish, LINKS! Pertaining to All Things Meltdown. So, read on, brave explorers. Go forth and click (that is, after you've read all of Newsweek's own fine coverage):

First of all, is it me or does it already smell like Halloween spirit in here? Behold the horned Bernanke and Paulson masks. (Because you know everyone and her mother is going to be Sarah Palin for Halloween anyway -- show some originality, folks! Be devil-Fed people!)
Speaking of pretending to be Henry Paulson (*shudder*), I suppose it was only a matter of time, but lookee here! There's a fake Henry Paulson Twitter stream. Sample tweet: "Came home after sleeping in office all week. My cat, Mr. Thrifty, looked at me eyes that said, 'You owe me 700 billion tummy rubs.'" Good stuff. (But. Sorry Fake Hank, my heart still belongs to Fake Sarah Palin, and will forever -- or until she vanishes into the stuff of historical political-oddity footnotes -- whichever comes first.)
Americans! Listen here! Unregulated free market capitalism may be broken, but there is no crushing the entrepreneurial spirit! Bailout-themed t-shirts and worthless gewgaws are for sale by the bucketload at Cafe Press. A place for you to spend all that money you don't have anymore! Yay!
This Dark Knight bailout parody is fairly genius (and it also reminds me of this recent brilliant Daily Show bit --you know, as opposed to all those un-brilliant Daily Show bits). Imagine asking the Joker for $700 billion. His reply: "And I thought my jokes were bad" ... funny because it's true. Also mind-bendingly depressing because it's true.

Dark Bailout:
Oh, and speaking of mind-bendingly depressing, be sure to grab this line of code and embed it onto your blog: The National Debt Clock widget, ticking ever upwards on the race to $10 trillion. <-- Seriously, don't click on that if you value your sanity. (But first, don't think of an elephant.) UPDATE: Horrifyingly, it appears we have now passed the $10 trillion mark. Oy.
Another number that's steadily, ineluctably, unavoidably trudging upwards? That would be the number of failed banks. Thanks for that, Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter.
OK, fine. The crumbling of our economic infrastructure as if it was so many stale stale sugar cookies is a serious matter. Fortunately, there are more seriouser people than I who are working hard to figure out what to make of it all: The Calculated Risk blog has up-to-the-minute news, analysis and projections -- maintained by "a senior executive, retired from a public company, with a background in investing, finance and economics." Sounds credibly fancy! Particularly chilling is this post examining Personal Consumption Expenditures (in normal-people words: "consumer spending," which may well see its first quarterly decline since the fourth quarter of 1991). "This is strong evidence that the indefatigable U.S. consumer is finally throwing in the towel," he writes, as I stash my precious, precious pennies into my horned Hank Paulson fright mask under the mattress of my bed in my house, the mortgage on which I recently defaulted.
Speaking of which! The housing bubble blog. Ooof.
Finally, if you haven't already actively been using this for all your old Winger cassingles, check out Buy My S---pile, Henry! -- because you too have a heaps o' regretable purchases you'd like Uncle Sam to take off your tired, caloused hands. From the site:

With our economy in crisis, the US Government is scrambling to rescue our banks by purchasing their "distressed assets", i.e., assets that no one else wants to buy from them. We figured that instead of protesting this plan, we'd give regular Americans the same opportunity to sell their bad assets to the government. We need your help and you need the Government's help!

Use the form below to submit bad assets you'd like the government to take off your hands. And remember, when estimating the value of your 1997 limited edition Hanson single CD "MMMbop", it's not what you can sell these items for that matters, it's what you think they are worth. The fact that you think they are worth more than anyone will buy them for is what makes them bad assets.

Now. Ready for some good news? Here is ~~precious little~~ some!

Not all millionaires are scumbags! No, really. Take this quiz and see how even you misunderestimate these poor (and increasingly poorer) creatures. Then target your rage at CEO billionaires. Seriously. Screw them!
Lastly, don't just sit here reading my stupid blog of stupidity. Tell Congress what you think of this mess. GO! NOW!

I'm Lost in a Blizzard of Words

2008-09-30T20:53:32Z

I wonder if all those fake Sarah Palins on the internets will be using the Sarah Palin interview generator--you know, for all their upcoming fake Sarah Palin interviews. Hilarious.

Lil Wayne Gets a Sports Blog

2008-09-30T19:28:36Z

Lil Wayne is blogging for ESPN. Check it out.

It Smashes Windows

2008-09-30T16:00:38Z

Yves Behar/OLPC

So apparently there is some big Apple event on Oct. 14, and as these semi secret/surprise Apple events tend to do, it has gotten the Mac geeks all atremble and aquiver. The speculation mill is in full churn mode and clearly the most fun one going is that Jobs & Co. will maybe, possibly, potentially, perhaps unveil the world’s first all-screen laptop.

The long-rumored "Brick" project, says Cult of Mac, "would be a hybrid laptop/tablet/ebook that dispenses with a physical keyboard and trackpad in favor of a virtual, adaptive UI that blends multitouch, gestures and its own orientation to switch between different modes." Basically, imagine a laptop-sized iPhone, that does everything your laptop can do.

Of course (not to go all Occam's razor on the cult of Mac or anything), Apple could also just be unveiling a new model MacBook Air. Not that we want anything like "reason" to get in the way of your breathless blogfrenzy.

Twitter Me This. And That.

2008-09-26T15:18:24Z

Twitter has launched an election page, an outpost where users can share their thoughts on the various twists and turns of this wacky season. It's a neat example of what Twitter should be doing more of going forward. Twitter has great unrealized potential -- imagine a series of watercoolers where users can interact over shared interests (as opposed to just publicly IM'ing friends). It would be a very powerful thing indeed. The users are already there. It'll be exciting to see where Twitter takes them.

For to Make You Feel Better

2008-09-26T14:40:48Z

In these trying and troublesome times, full of worry and woe, we need all the help we can get to make it through the day. Thankfully BuzzFeed has compiled a collection of videos to make you feel better. What better way to start a weekend than a little flute beatboxing, a little Jesus ska, a little Tito Puente on Sesame Street?

"It's Different; It's Interactive"

2008-09-25T21:30:52Z

Lord, I could watch this all day. Rick Sanchez, CNN's Anchor 2.0, would like you to know that "My Twitterboard's about to explode."

Way too much information, dude.