Author: gulley

This is a test of Blogger Pro’s ability to upload graphics easily. This is Smiling Guy, the cartoon man I draw whenever I need to doodle something. I have been drawing Smiling Guy more or less continuously ever since Miss Stuart’s class at Brunson Elementary School. So there.

Apparently this is old news now (having been both Slashdotted and Memepooled), but I found it entertaining and maybe it’s new to you too. The Pop vs. Soda Page shows the geographical regions defined by how people refer to carbonated beverages. There must be further generalizations of this waiting downstream: pail vs. bucket, y’all vs. you guys, smeer-the-queer vs. kill-the-kid.

The Star Chamber in current news: Enron executives testifying, or rather not testifying, on Capitol Hill are the latest to make use of the magical cloaking effect of the Fifth Amendment. And why, you may wonder, did our founding fathers choose to build this odd privilege into the bedrock of our nation? The surprising answer, as I learned listening to public radio, is the court of Star Chamber. Its abuses in forcing people to condemn themselves during the rule of the Stuart kings brought into English Common Law the concept that people should not be compelled by the government to testify against themselves. Interestingly, there is no such legal construct on the Continent (or most other places in the world). Fascinating stuff.

The Comics Journal is a wonder of a publication. Thick and filled with long interviews with thoughtful artists, I can only guess that it publishes at a loss as a sort of labor of love by uber-editor Gary Groth. I can’t think of any magazine like it. Now they’re putting an Audio Archive online with recordings of some interviews, including Charles Schulz. [from BoingBoing]

In the Cool Breakthrough department, it looks like Carver Mead and his buddies at Foveon have made amazing progress with digital imaging chips. Expect much better cheaper digital cameras in a few years.

Google now sells a packaged hardware/software solution called Google Search Appliance. It seems like a cool idea, and since they seem to do everything else right, this will probably be no exception. Slip one in your rack, and Google away.

This is a good example of the kind of reference-of-references that you can only find on the web. Very meta. Very cool. An online museum of online museums. [from BoingBoing]

Salman Rushdie tells it like it is. This is from the Feb. 4th New York Times. America and Anti-Americans: “Those elements in the Arab and Muslim world who blame America for their own feelings of political impotence are feeling more impotent than ever…. What America is accused of — closed- mindedness, stereotyping, ignorance — is also what its accusers would see if they looked into a mirror.” Ouch.

The Coffee Czar is back in business, and his weblog is humming with activity again. Check it out.