kottke.orgJason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext productsVideo of champion motorbike rider Dougie Lampkin riding his bike...- June 20, 2008 Video of champion motorbike rider Dougie Lampkin riding his bike through Goodwood House, a stately English home dating from the 1700s. (thx, jan) (link)http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15906.html A group of high school girls in Gloucester, MA (about half...- June 20, 2008 A group of high school girls in Gloucester, MA (about half of the 17 total pregnant in the high school, none older than 16) made a pact to get pregnant on purpose. One the girls resorted to impregnation by a 24-year-old homeless man. The girls who made the pregnancy pact -- some of whom, according to Sullivan, reacted to the news that they were expecting with high fives and plans for baby showers -- declined to be interviewed. (via buzzfeed) (link)http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15904.html About 2 hours ago, the Mars Phoenix rover twittered that...- June 20, 2008 About 2 hours ago, the Mars Phoenix rover twittered that it had found evidence of ice on Mars. Are you ready to celebrate Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, WATER ICE on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!! The Mars rover said "w00t". Here's the w00t-less press release and the associated images that show the ice sublimating from the surface over the last four days. (link)http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15903.html Children in the mail! After parcel post service was introduced...- June 20, 2008 Children in the mail! After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples. That photo is part of the Smithsonian Institution's collection at Flickr. Update: A 1913 NY Times article includes a query from a...http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15902.html Always amusing, Rosecrans Baldwin's dispatches from Paris. Unless (or perhaps...- June 20, 2008 Always amusing, Rosecrans Baldwin's dispatches from Paris. Unless (or perhaps especially) if you're French. One afternoon a roving band of 30 teenagers stopped traffic on the Champs-Elysées, marching toward the Arc de Triomphe, followed by a battalion of 60 police officers in riot gear, marching in rows of two. I asked a French co-worker what the kids were celebrating. He squinted, looking into the sun. "That it's May," he said. "That they're French, that they're young. You will not...http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15899.html You know what you need 14 pages of handwritten instructions...- June 19, 2008 You know what you need 14 pages of handwritten instructions on how to solve a Rubik's Cube. LOLO-TOFA-BO-LOLO-FO-BATO-LOLO Exactly. (link)http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15894.html An anecdote from Tim Russert's funeral: Russert's onetime boss, former...- June 19, 2008 An anecdote from Tim Russert's funeral: Russert's onetime boss, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, offered the day's only example of Russert blatantly lying. After Cuomo pushed through the nation's first seat-belt law in 1985, the two men were in a Buffalo motorcade when their car was struck from behind and Cuomo -- having forgotten to buckle up -- hit the dashboard. As reporters rushed over, Russert blurted out: "Thank God for the seat belt!" (link)http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15898.html From an abridged script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom...- June 19, 2008 From an abridged script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: PRODUCER FRANK MARSHALL immediately proves his commitment to using CGI "only when necessary" by featuring completely necessary CGI prairie dogs in the first shot of the movie.A bunch of cars drive through the DESERT to AREA 51. HARRISON FORD'S SHADOW, then HARRISON FORD'S SHOE, then HARRISON FORD'S ARM, then HARRISON FORD'S HAT and finally HARRISON FUCKING FORD are eventually revealed.HARRISON FORDAlright folks,...http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15900.html Indiana Jones and Nuke the Fridge- June 19, 2008 Not so long ago, on May 24th, IMDB message board participant beachedblonde coined a new phrase: nuke the fridge. Here's the definition from the Urban Dictionary...it's roughly equivalent to jumping the shark: A colloquialism used to delineate the precise moment at which a cinematic franchise has crossed over from remote plausibility to self parodying absurdity, usually indicating a low point in the series from which it is unlikely to recover. A reference to one of the opening scenes of Indiana.http://www.kottke.org/08/06/indiana-jones-and-nuke-the-fridge At the risk turning into a Benjamin Button fan site (gallery...- June 19, 2008 At the risk turning into a Benjamin Button fan site (gallery featuring 250 hi-res photos of Brad Pitt scanned from magazines coming soon!), here's one more little bit of info. Jonathan McNicol has taken the text of Fitzgerald's short story and will be serializing nicely-designed and proofread PDFs of the story on his site for the next 11 days. Chapter one has been posted and it's a beaut. (link)http://www.kottke.org/remainder/08/06/15896.html |