March 28, 2003
If you like zombies, try this ...
There are so many books, movies and CDs out there that it's impossible to sample everything you might be interested in. I found a pretty cool site called Gnod that makes it a little easier to narrow the field.
In a nutshell, it surveys what people like, and then it tries to assemble lists of what you might like based on the preferences that other people have cited. It's similar to Amazon (and they appear to have some sort of unholy alliance with the weasels at Amazon), but this is much cooler. I really like the graphical representation that it produces to show you the relation of other works to the one you cited. Here's an example of three that it created for me, based on the item that I told it I like:
Movie
Band
Writer
It's not completely accurate, but it's a pretty cool toy. It also came up with a few suggestions that I'll check out.
Posted by Bob Benz at 11:56 AM | Comments (3)
March 27, 2003
Mild the reflecting electricity eyes
Rolling Stone has a great piece on the 30th anniversary of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, complete with continued animosity between David Gilmour and Roger Waters, an interview with Alan Parsons and a rambling 1971 discussion with madcap Syd Barrett, including a quote from one of his songs, "Wolfpack", that seems somehow oddly strangely appropriate while dogwoods bloom in Knoxville and bombs burst in Baghdad.
Mild the reflecting electricity eyes
The Life that was ours grew sharper
And stronger away and beyond
Short wheeling fresh spring
Gripped with blanched bones
Moaned Magnesium proverbs and sobs.
Posted by Bob Benz at 4:49 PM | Comments (2)
March 24, 2003
Those voices in your head ...
Imagine being able to direct sound like a laser beam. You walk past a Coke machine, and hear ice plunking into a fizzing glass. Like a voice in your head. From a source beamed directly at you. It apparently works up to 450 feet with no loss of volume or quantity, and it has the potential to make conventional speakers obsolete. With stuff like this, we wouldn't need to invade countries that irk us. We could just beam Great White or REO Speedwagon at their leaders until they either do what we want or turn into quivering blobs of Jello. Very cool ...
Make sure to read the entire story. The guy who invented this is fascinating and has a great track record.
Posted by Bob Benz at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2003
Jesus kicks ass
Just when you think you've seen it all, you stumble across something like this on the Saturday religion page. Yes, it's for real. The artiste calls it: "Undefeated." But I like my title better. Hard to picture the son of god duking it out with Mike Tyson. Poor guy would turn the other cheek only to have Iron Mike bite his ear off. I also love the anglicized characterization of this Jesus. You'd never know this Heavyweight Champ is a Jewish dude from the Middle East ...
Tap Jesus on the chin to see a bigger version. (Don't worry. He won't swing back.)
If you want all the gory details, read about it here.
And if you want to see a lot of other really cool Jesus pics, check out Jesus of the Week.
Posted by Bob Benz at 10:29 AM | Comments (7)
March 18, 2003
Reconnecting with The Nation
I let my subscription to The Nation lapse a few years ago when I realized I just didn't have time to read it any more. If it keeps publishing items like this, I'm going to have to make time.
Posted by Bob Benz at 5:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2003
What the puck?
Sign on the Jumbotron at a recent Nashville Predators game:
"Warning: Pucks may enter the seating area at a high rate of speed."
That caution would apply to many things in life ...
Another Predators game sign:
The "cellblock" of Section 303. Apparently, the fans in this section built their own web page and advertise it in a sign above the section, but apparently they've merged with another fan group and the page pushes you through to that page. Cool grass roots fan support.
But alas, the Predators were defeated by the ugly and untalented St. Louis Blues.
Posted by Bob Benz at 6:54 AM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2003
Et tu, Brute?
Happy Ides of March. Check out this great site on Julius Caesar if you want to read up on Brutus' victim. Particularly good are the timeline and introduction
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:02 AM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2003
What kind of guru are you?
Found a very cool piece of software recently called GuruNet. Once you've downloaded it, you can alt-click on any word, in any file, Web page or document and it will pull up a dictionary entry on that word. It also searches the Net and provides you with an array of other information on the word, ranging from thesaurus entries to translations to other languages and general search info. I generally use dictionary.com for this, but it's distracting to have to jump to another window in another browser, look up the word and then come back. GuruNet brings the info to you, plus an array of other info. Very useful. I've been demoing it for about a week now and just broke down and paid the $34.95 to get a legit copy. Worth every penny. You can download a demo version of it to try out. Go ahead. Give it a shot. I dare you.
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 9, 2003
And they call it puppy buzz
As we neared the end of an hour and a half hike at the lake the other day, Xena was starting to sag. Ozzy, of course, was still in top form. He was circling the poor lumbering Newf, nipping her heels, biting her ears and tugging at her flanks. As we crested the last hill and the Clinch River came into view below, Xena broke into a trot. Ozzy didn't relent. Then Xena fell into a full stumbling run, heading for the water. She hit it with a mighty splash, leaving the nuisance pup on the shore (he's afraid of the water and won't go in). It reminded me in the most hilarious way of a cartoon where someone is being chased by bees and charges into the water to escape. Xena stood out in the chest deep river for several minutes before she finally waded ashore, climbed up into the truck and stuck her head out the window to enjoy the smells and sights on the way home.
Ozzy slept the whole way.
Posted by Bob Benz at 6:41 PM | Comments (2)
March 6, 2003
Just say no ...
A few bizarre photos on Yahoo today. One horrifying, the other hilarious:
Posted by Bob Benz at 5:34 PM | Comments (1)
March 2, 2003
The King of the blues
New York Times did it's third installment in the "The Music They Made" series today, this one on B.B. King. I saw him in Pensacola about 12 years ago, and he put on an incredible show. I wanted to toss a link to it, but the Times site appears to be down at the moment ...
The Bo Diddley piece they did a few weeks ago also was great. I missed the one on Chuck Berry, but I'll check that out once the Times site comes back up ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:28 PM | Comments (1)
March 1, 2003
Let's make a deal
Cool site: I"ve been tinkering with a site called Swappington's that works kind of like eBay, but no money is exchanges. Everything is based on barter. You put items on there, decide how many "points" you want for the item and wait for someone to make an offer. If you accept they offer, they transfer their points to you and you ship the item. YOu can them buy items.
The only glitch seems to be getting started. You can't buy anything until you've traded anything into the system. I've had a few items on there for a couple weeks with no takers, and I'm wondering if other people are having the same problem. I'm going to try adding a few new items this week to see if I can get some points. It's really a pretty cool idea for folks who prefer to trade stuff instead of getting money for it ...
Some of the swappers are pretty damn funny.
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:36 AM | Comments (0)