from Network World:
Techno-artist Evan Roth has a message for the Transportation Safety Administration — several messages, actually — about what he considers excessive airport security “theater” … and he has chosen an intentionally provocative method of delivery: the TSA’s own X-ray screening machines.
This is one of the metal plates he carved for the security scanner’s viewing pleasure. Others here. (via kottke)
I’m really sorry to post a political statement on my blog, but I feel like this one is necessary:
If John McCain is elected president of our great country, I will be upset at a lost opportunity, but I will not fret about the nation’s future too much. It will remain largely at is is now. Maybe a few things will even get better while a few get worse. However, if Mr. McCain dies in office, a 1-in-3 chance as some actuaries have labeled it, I will fear for this country, myself, my family, our safety, and my children’s future. I will actually be scared to live in a country led by Sarah Palin. Can you imagine saying that about any other candidate in recent memory that actually had a chance of making it into the Oval Office? Even people like Ralph Nader and Ron Paul, political outcasts due to lack of popular support, would not frighten me the way Palin does if they somehow catapulted themselves to America’s presidency.
So it is here and now that I will pray for the first time in nearly a decade. Dear God, please don’t let John McCain get elected. If you must, please keep him healthy for the duration of his term, and do me the favor of making sure Sarah Palin never runs for president. Thank you, and may God bless America.
That was tough to do, especially for a Pastafarian.
“Advertising is often seen as a prisoner’s dilemma among firms, because each wishes to out-spend the other, but in so doing, end up spending far more than would be necessary to achieve the same result. The publicly imposed ban on cigarette advertising can be seen as a legislated solution to the prisoner’s dilemma of advertising wars.” — from the answer key to a question that asked why, even with the ban on cigarette commercials, there was no drop in smoking.
On a recent trip across Ghana, I played the game “Two Truths and a Lie” with a group of 16 other people—mostly highly cultured, well traveled, and intelligent adults—and I was able to correctly guess people’s lies with astonishing success. 
The game is simple: people make three statements about themselves or their life experiences, two of which are true and one of which is false. The others in the game try to guess the one lie among the two truths, and people record their success as everyone gets a change to try to trick the others.
Sixteen people played with me; I identified an odds-defying 14 of the 16 people’s lies. (One of my two misses was my own mother’s lie! All others in the group were complete strangers.) The next-best guesser of lies had 10, with most hovering around 5 to 8. What does this say about me?
One fellow bus traveller said that I had an obvious future in sales or “any job working closely with people.” I had never considered myself particularly adept at relating to people, but this changed my outlook a bit. Of course, it could have been luck that lead me to victory, but at the beginning of the game, I told my mom that I knew I would easily guess the most lies. I’ve always been good at Two Truths and a Lie. How to I take advantage of that in a positive way?
P.S. For those wondering what my two truths and a lie were, see below. Leave your guesses in the comments!
Statement 1: When I was a toddler, I was a “foot model” for child footware.
Statement 2: One of my life goals is to eat the world’s hottest pepper.
Statement 3: My mother was in labor with me for over 24 hours.
P.P.S. Stay tuned for Part 2 in this series: How I Was Able to Correctly Identify People’s Lies Nearly 85% of the Time.
(photo licensed via CC by xtrarant)
In memoriam.
[video]
These two men, interviewed exclusively for I Heart Music, discuss six of their new songs with an openness and clarity rarely seen in other bands, let alone metal ones.
Of course*, if you actually want to listen to those songs, you may. But I’m not sure how much of my audience is Metallica-friendly. (*This wasn’t always the case with Metallica—they have long angered music fans with their cynical view of new technologies.)
From Jessica Hagy’s Indexed. Run under the incredibly perfect headline “Or just pray it doesn’t happen to you,” this is no doubt Hagy’s addition to the blogosphere’s current discussion of presumptive G.O.P. VP candidate Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy.
Mark Spitz, former American Olympic swimmer, gives the U.S. a bad name - “I never got invited. You don’t go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go. Especially because of who I am.”
If you were to name the 17 most recognizable sound bytes, how many would be the same as the ones mental_floss listed?
1. NBC’s musical notes G, E, C played on chimes. NBC was the first to trademark a sound for its radio broadcasting services in 1950.
2. MGM’s lion’s roar
3. The song “Sweet Georgia Brown” for The Harlem Globetrotters
4. Tetris’ “electronic Russian folkstyle tune,” owned by Elorg Company
5. Intel’s 5 note ding
6. “D’Oh” spoken by Homer is owned by Fox
7. The 9 bars of musical chord in the key of B Flat that typically opens a Twentieth Century Fox movie
8. Looney Toons Theme Song, owned by Time Warner
9. The spoken letters “AT&T” with a music in the background
10. “Cha-Ching,” owned by Checker’s Restaurants
11. “Yahoo!” sung in a yodeling style
12. Nokia’s default ringtone
13. Mister Softee’s Jingle
14. “Hello and Welcome to Moviefone,” owned by America Online
15. The sound of the crowd & bell from the New York Stock Exchange’s trading floor
16. TiVo’s popping sounds (in 2 and 6 tones)
17. Pillsbury Doughboy’s giggle
To be honest, I only knew about 70% of them. Could be because I don’t have a TiVo…