Month: May 2005

The Worth1000.com Photoshop Contest “Cliche Hell – Star Wars” is pretty damn cool…

A collection of photos of people crying, while eating. You just have to go see…

Wonkette reports on United American Technologies, a “Christian-based phone carrier” that markets itself as “the only carrier that is taking an active stand against same sex marriages and hardcore child pornography.” Eugene Mirman recorded some telemarketing conversations from the company, which are posted as downloadable MP3s in the linked article. Here are some excerpts:

Mirman: I mean, basically, God hates AT&T, MCI, and Verizon?

United American Technologies: Yes.
…
United American Technologies: No. No, that’s MCI.

Mr. Mirman: MCI has hardcore child pornography?

United American Technologies: Yes, they are. They have a pedophile Web site for men who love boys. It’s a Montréal based Web site….

Mr. Mirman: And so MCI basically has a child pornography ring?

United American Technologies: That’s correct.

Mr. Mirman: What about the others? What does Verizon do?

United American Technologies: Okay. Verizon, what they do is they train their employees to accept the gay and lesbian lifestyle.

It’s bad enough that this company resorts to such deceptive marketing practices. However, profits from these practices aren’t just lining the company’s pockets, as “a cut of the proceeds helps fund conservative political campaigns, via a 527 called ‘Faith Family and Freedom’ created by the Republican floor leader of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.” Despicable…

Google Maps Wallpaper uses gMerge, “a python script that merges Google Maps satellite ‘tiles’ in order to produce a wallpaper (or even a poster!)” of whatever resolution you specify. This is pretty cool, as normally you can only save images via screen capture applications…

Leave it to The Simpsons create an actual SexySlumberParty.com website after its mention on last Sunday’s episode. There’s not much to the site, but it’s still kind of fun, although probably NSFW, even if it is just a cartoon…

Follow Me Here links to a video of Bright Eyes performing “When The President Talks To God” (embedded Windows Media Video) on The Tonight Show. I’m also somewhat surprised that NBC allowed this particular song to air, and it is indeed worth it to see Jay Leno’s somewhat flustered demeanor after the performance.

Sprol is “a planetary sightseeing blog” that uses Google Maps satellite imagery:

Visit some of the worst places in the world via satellite imagery. Our mission is to use space imaging to show people the visual macroscopic effects of our decisions and behavior. Since previous generations have not had the advantage of this viewpoint it is our responsibility to use it wisely.

A Condensed History Of Everything is a fun read…

The Civilization series of computer games is among my all-time favorites, so I was salivating when I saw that ign.com had an article previewing Civilization IV. The tentative release date is the last quarter of this year; I can’t wait…

53×11 has responded to the FBI’s ubiquitous new anti-piracy seal with an Anti-Anti-Piracy Seal that alerts people to artists who support file-sharing:

Independent artists need a method to alert fans that they won’t face 20 years of prison time for downloading their songs. In an effort to combat the FBI’s Anti-Piracy Seal, I have created an alternative logo for artists who aren’t concerned with file sharing and federal level copyright infringement.

I doubt you’ll ever see this on an actual album, but I think it’s a good idea…

While I’m on the topic, I have something to say about these new FBI seals. As J-Walk Blog notes, stamping these logos on album covers and the CDs themselves effectively defaces them, penalizing people who went to the trouble of legally buying the CD.

Along the same libes, the recent settlements the RIAA made over file-sharing litigations are proving to be less and less realistic now that services like Napster and Yahoo offer unlimited streaming for as little as $5 a month and iTunes offers downloads for $1 a song. The RIAA’s settlements of thousands of dollars seem ludicrous when the music is now demonstrably worth as little as $5. When will the RIAA get with the times and realize that their heavy-handed methods alienate rather than educate consumers?