If you've heard of Flickr, you know it's a very cool photo-sharing application where users can upload their photos, show them to other people, and browse the photos of everyone else. Flickr also allows you to put a "tag" on a photo -- a word or catchphrase explaining what the photo represents -- which makes for another fun way to peruse its offerings: Try pumping in "lazy" or "wonderful" into the Flickr directory and see what you get. Now Jim Bumgardner has created an even cooler browsing mechanism: Colr Pickr, in which you point to a particular color on a color-wheel mandala, and the app displays a set of Flickr photos that are all precisely that hue. Anyone know how he did this? He doesn't explain on his site. Either way, it's mesmerizing. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john t unger EMAIL: john@johntunger.com IP: 66.211.71.57 URL: http://www.johntunger.com DATE: 03/14/2005 08:15:29 PM Clive, did you know that there is a brand of farm medicine called Pikr? The label describes it as a "distasteful blood-like preparation to aid in discouraging cannibalism in poultry." Kind of goes with some of your recent posts on poultry, eh? I've posted an image of the label here: http://www.johntunger.com/photoblog/Pickr.JPG I don't know if they still make this stuff... the label I have is dated 1919. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john t unger EMAIL: john@johntunger.com IP: 66.211.71.57 URL: http://www.johntunger.com DATE: 03/14/2005 08:17:01 PM Clive, did you know that there is a brand of farm medicine called Pikr? The label describes it as a "distasteful blood-like preparation to aid in discouraging cannibalism in poultry." Kind of goes with some of your recent posts on poultry, eh? I've posted an image of the label here: http://www.johntunger.com/photoblog/Pickr.JPG I don't know if they still make this stuff... the label I have is dated 1919. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 12.46.193.215 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/14/2005 09:23:44 PM Okay, that really made me laugh. "PICKR should be applied freely to picked birds directly on bleeding surfaces and to a few other spots on feathers and feet. Treat all picked birds and a number of unpicked ones." Excellent. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Fishy EMAIL: IP: 4.42.202.200 URL: DATE: 03/15/2005 10:38:03 AM It's not so much how he does it (I can think of several color sampling/averaging algorithms that would produce results like these), it's how he does it so fast. It makes me wonder if Flickr precalculates and stores it as some kind of metadata, not generally visible through the front end, that Colr Pickr can simply query for lightning-fast results. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Buster EMAIL: aniolynn@hotmail.com IP: 12.108.188.134 URL: DATE: 03/15/2005 12:13:46 PM I think he's got the data already analyzed. I'm not sure he does it on the fly. Click a single color enough and you'll notice you get the same set over and over. If he was actually querying for a color when you clicked on it, you'd expect some variation, wouldn't you? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 70.97.79.2 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/15/2005 04:20:21 PM Okay, that makes sense! ----- PING: TITLE: Wickd URL: http://snarkmarket.com/blog/snarkives/technosnark/wickd/index.html IP: 64.14.68.27 BLOG NAME: Snarkmarket DATE: 03/14/2005 11:11:19 PM Good Lord. This is so cool. (Flickr account required for full coolness. Via Collision Detection.)... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: Why you can't get that song out of your head STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/14/2005 05:28:43 PM ----- BODY: Two years ago, I blogged about "earworms" -- songs you can't get out of your head. Apparently there are a lot of people out there suffering from this, because that posting is still on the first page of Google results for "earworms". But today I read about a study that helps explain why songs can become so firmly implanted. A couple of researchers from Dartmouth University put some people in fMRI tubes, and scanned their brains while they listened to songs that were both familiar and unfamiliar; as you might imagine, there was all sorts of activity in the auditory cortexes. Then, the scientists would hit the "mute" button for a second or two. When the song was familiar, the subjects' auditory cortexes kept on firing -- as if the subjects were still hearing the songs. (In fact, when they were later asked about the experience, they reported still "hearing" the music even when it was briefly muted.) But when the song was unfamiliar? The subjects' brains didn't have that same level of activity, as the BBC reports. That seems to suggest that our brains get highly trained by a catchy, memorable song -- which is why it can feel like we can't get it out of our heads. Interestingly, lyrics also made a difference. As Dartmouth officials reported in a press release:
The researchers also found that lyrics impact the different auditory brain regions that are recruited when musical memories are reconstructed. If the music went quiet during an instrumental song, like during the theme from the Pink Panther, individuals activated many different parts of the auditory cortex, going farther back in the processing stream, to fill in the blanks. When remembering songs with words, however, people simply relied on the more advanced parts of the auditory processing stream. "It makes us think that lyrics might be the focus of the memory," says Kraemer.(Thanks to Kottke.org for this one!) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: GreyDuck EMAIL: greyduck@greyduck.net IP: 207.14.51.226 URL: http://greyduck.net/ DATE: 03/14/2005 06:50:33 PM Kylie Minogue Moment: "I just can't get you out of my head..." *wry grin* ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 12.46.193.215 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/14/2005 09:24:10 PM Ooof. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Franco EMAIL: fbaseggio@hotmail.com IP: 66.108.104.142 URL: DATE: 03/14/2005 10:47:04 PM Reminds me of the book _On Intelligence_ by the guy who invented Palm Pilots. Without going into detail, a big part of his model is that the brain is constantly making predictions -- this is useful for filling in the gaps in something familiar. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: PaulJBis EMAIL: paulojan@yahoo.com IP: 84.18.22.167 URL: DATE: 03/15/2005 07:21:31 AM Well, yeah, but this doesn't answer the really interesting question: which musical patterns are the ones most likely to cause this effect? Is there a scientific way to predict which songs will get your brain hooked on? Personally, I am torn between being curious about this and hoping that the advertising agencies never find out... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: scott EMAIL: scott@montanaradiocafe.org IP: 12.150.91.31 URL: DATE: 03/15/2005 12:06:48 PM too late; check out the wiszard of ads Roy H. Williams. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 70.97.79.2 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/15/2005 04:23:19 PM A year ago, I wrote about Hit Song Science, the clustering algorithm that tries to predict which songs will become hits, by measuring them against the acoustic and informational signatures of past hits. Not quite the same thing -- i.e. it doesn't distil any "essence" of what makes a tune catchy -- but it was pretty interesting. ----- PING: TITLE: Song Earworm Research URL: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/musical-instruments/song-earworm-research-036009.php IP: 67.18.39.132 BLOG NAME: Gizmodo DATE: 03/15/2005 06:27:29 AM If you've ever wondered why your brain goes ahead and gets the most obnoxious songs stuck in your head, collision detection sheds some light on the "earworm" phenomena with their look at a Dartmouth press release. By hooking up some... ----- PING: TITLE: An explanation URL: http://www.helbing.com/archives/2005/03/15/an-explanation.html IP: 66.33.213.22 BLOG NAME: Who Loves Appetizers? DATE: 03/15/2005 02:14:28 PM You'll notice I've added a list of songs recently stuck in my head to the sidebar navigation. Apparently, there is scientific interest in this phenomenon (songs stuck in head, not navigation modification): A couple of researchers from Dartmouth Univ... ----- PING: TITLE: An explanation URL: http://www.helbing.com/archives/2005/03/15/an-explanation-2.html IP: 66.33.213.22 BLOG NAME: Who Loves Appetizers? DATE: 03/15/2005 02:15:10 PM You'll notice I've added a list of songs recently stuck in my head to the sidebar navigation. Apparently, there is scientific interest in this phenomenon (songs stuck in head, not navigation modification): A couple of researchers from Dartmouth Univ... ----- PING: TITLE: Song Earworm Research URL: http://weblogs.ucalgary.ca/song_earworm_research IP: 136.159.110.224 BLOG NAME: weblogs@ucalgary.ca - BETA DATE: 03/15/2005 04:10:43 PM
A test of D'Arcy's upgrade by posting from within my aggregator...
Nagle turned the TV on and off and switched channels (trapped in his hospital room, he's become a daytime-TV addict). Then he opened and read the messages in his dummy email program. "Now I'm at the point where I can bring the cursor just about anywhere," he said. "I can make it hover off to the side, not doing anything. When I first realized I could control it I said, 'Holy shit! I like this.'" What are you thinking about when you move the cursor? I asked. "For a while I was thinking about moving the mouse with my hand," Nagle replied. "Now, I just imagine moving the cursor from place to place." In other words, Nagle's brain has assimilated the system. The cursor is as much a part of his self as his arms and legs were.----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: daniel luke EMAIL: danielrluke@comcast.net IP: 24.21.197.40 URL: DATE: 03/13/2005 10:57:32 PM A bit off topic, but I wonder why no one has developed video games for the elderly. I would be willing to wager that such games could help with improving manual dexterity, recall, even self-worth. As the boomers approach retirement, I predict that this will be a huge potential market. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: IP: 193.77.250.217 URL: DATE: 03/14/2005 08:32:34 AM On-topic: Matrix, anyone? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 12.46.193.215 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/14/2005 10:13:28 AM Heh, yes. Daniel, great point -- I wonder if anyone is exploring that market? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: daniel luke EMAIL: danielrluke@comcast.net IP: 24.21.197.40 URL: DATE: 03/14/2005 11:39:27 AM I don't think anyone is exploring it, but it is something I thought about all the time when I worked with the elderly. The one observation that I've made over the years at various jobs is that people are very passionate about video games. Just yesterday a colleague was relating how he'd stayed up until 3am playing Warcraft. After his quotidian game-playing marathon was over, he had a very vivid and terrifying dream about being attacked by creatures with which the game is associated. And I've heard one version or another of this story at least once at least one worker. At 8am, needless to say, he looked a little worse for wear. What else could one conclude? This guy's life is about this game for the moment. He lives for playing it. The observation I've made about the elderly over the years is that they often feel that they have nothing to live for, so it seems clear to me that if they have even a tenth the appeal to the elderly that they seem to have to everyone else, it could be a very beneficial thing. This is not to say, however, that I think any of the games currently on the market would necessarily by suitable (with the possible exception of various traditional games such as poker, for instance). I can't see granny becoming a warcraft devotee. Then again, who knows. But I can see granny grabbing a specially designed controller and playing a game for half an hour each day if she thought it would help her arthritis. And it doesn't take much imagination to see how it really might help her arthritis. The idea that it might brighten her social prospects, and engage her mind might also be stongly inducing. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know anyone over 65 who likes to play video games? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt EMAIL: IP: 24.210.25.217 URL: DATE: 03/14/2005 08:50:53 PM Instead of guiding an avatar in a networked virtual world, how about strapping a remote video feed onto someone and guiding them around the physical world...? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: IP: 4.235.242.221 URL: DATE: 03/16/2005 12:46:47 AM Robot: the local news down here in Orlando had a variation on that story. There's a website (in Texas, Birthing Land of Bad Ideas) where people can control guns remotely and fire them at targets. The proprietor is thinking about having live animals as targets. So far, so weird, so waiting for a PETA march. But then the news report added a filip, that one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the idea is a quadrapeligic who used to be a hunter. He can relive his hunting glories through the website, and feel more connected to the world. I wonder what Dave Grossman would think of THAT? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: PringlesCam STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/13/2005 04:14:52 PM ----- BODY:
An artist took a Pringles can and used it as a pinhole camera -- with incredibly amazing results, as he documents on his web site polaroids & pinholes. The images are weirdly haunting, like everyday objects seen through the eyes of an alien. The experience of using the camera is also aparently quite meditative, as the artist writes:
Total darkness as the colour paper is curled into the case of the tube. Lid on, out into the light. From half a minute to five minutes or more. A vague look at the watch, but more importantly, a calmness as the camera does its thing. Back into the dark. Always surprised at the results. Sometimes great patience is required to get a good result.(Thanks to Ektopia for this one!) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Reevo EMAIL: reevo@ektopia.co.uk IP: 213.107.224.15 URL: http://www.ektopia.co.uk DATE: 03/13/2005 05:36:53 PM My pleasure :-) I liked you post about it better than mine though :-( heehee ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 64.232.108.66 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/13/2005 05:47:18 PM Heh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chris Cardinal EMAIL: gizmodo@originalityisoverrated.com IP: 68.3.10.90 URL: http://www.gizmodo.com DATE: 03/14/2005 06:18:19 AM Hey man. Teh artist is a she; Rowena Dugdale, apparently. Thanks for the link; I'll be posting it to Gizmodo in a few. --Chris, the intern ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 12.46.193.215 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/14/2005 10:15:02 AM Thanks -- I've fixed the gender in the text now! ----- PING: TITLE: Pringles Can Pinhole Cam URL: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/retro/pringles-can-pinhole-cam-035855.php IP: 67.18.39.132 BLOG NAME: Gizmodo DATE: 03/14/2005 06:34:26 AM In a classic example that Pringles cans are good for more than simply extending your wireless network or as an enclosure for incredibly ineffective pipe bombs, Rowena Dugdale has turned her collection into an innovative pinhole camera. The resulting im... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: The iMac of chicken coops STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/12/2005 05:11:46 PM ----- BODY:
Continuing in my recent blogging about chicken technology, I've just found out about the Eglu -- a personal chicken coop that looks eerily like a hollowed-out iMac. A creation of the British company Omlet, the Eglu is aimed a citydwellers who want to raise a couple of chickens in the backyard; as the site notes, "we wanted it to be as easy as looking after a goldfish but more rewarding than owning a dog", an emotional algorithm of sufficient precision that I couldn't stop laughing for about five minutes. Given that my last chicken entry was about the creeptacular E-Z Catch Chicken Harvester, I was charmed to discover that Omlet offers comprehensive instructions on how to pick up your chickens:
As a rule the best way is to quickly grab their feet from under them. Do NOT chase your chickens around grabbing at their tails or wings. This will only cause them panic which could be bad for their health or at the very least, affect egg production. Sometimes your chicken may think that you are a cockerel and flatten themselves to the ground in anticipation of mating. This will actually make them easier to pick up! Once you have your chicken by the legs try to get it into a position in which you can carry it whilst supporting its body. Use one hand to support it from underneath by putting your index finger between its legs and securing the legs with your thumb and forefinger.My mother grew up on a farm in Winnipeg, and I recall her once describing the sight of one my Ukranian great-grandmothers -- who was about five feet tall and maybe 98 pounds -- expertly grabbing a chicken and using a hatchet to hack off its head in one lethal chop. Now there's a skill you don't often need on the streets of Manhattan. (Thanks to Emily Gordon for this one!) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: laura EMAIL: laura@camacho.tv IP: 69.23.133.114 URL: DATE: 03/12/2005 07:15:14 PM Wow. I'm completely enthralled. I never considered owning a chicken until wandering through the sleek Omlet site and eyeing the chic little Eglus. Did you see the Slug Salad recipe? And the adorable little chicken cartoons themeing every page? *sigh* ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Susan EMAIL: IP: 68.161.169.199 URL: http://scrawford.blogware.com DATE: 03/12/2005 10:06:01 PM http://isotropic.org/uw/papers/chicken.pdf ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: laura EMAIL: laura@camacho.tv IP: 69.23.133.114 URL: http://www.camacho.tv DATE: 03/13/2005 11:43:24 AM lol, Susan. The best part is, that paper starts making sense the longer you read it! Okay, to keep the chicken theme alive and well, have you guys seen The Subservient Chicken? It seems to be some kind of ill-advised marketing ploy for the BK Tendercrisp from Burger King. I fail to make the connection, but it's still fun to make the chicken comply to your every whim. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: alan herrell - the head lemur EMAIL: headlemur@lemurzone.com IP: 68.230.110.132 URL: http://theheadlemur.typepad.com DATE: 03/13/2005 04:16:56 PM I am so there for chickens http://theheadlemur.typepad.com/ravinglunacy/2005/03/collision_detec.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 64.232.108.66 URL: http://www.collisiodetection.net DATE: 03/13/2005 04:19:11 PM Okay, that paper -- and the subservient chicken -- both rock. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: An MMORPG on your back: My latest Slate gaming column STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/11/2005 11:35:20 PM ----- BODY:
Slate just published my latest gaming column, which is about the "massively multiplayer online games" -- and why they have such a reputation for destroying your life. It's true: Uniquely amongst games, MMORPGs are renowned for sucking players in to 20, 40, or even 80 hours a week of gameplay, and occasionally just flat-out wrecking marriages. As I note in my column:
Why are online games so addictive? It's mostly the narcotic appeal of "leveling." When you create a new character—in World of Warcraft, I made myself a Paladin—it starts life as a weakling. Completing specific quests and destroying wolves, evil marauders, and mechanical golems jumps you to the next level, where you suddenly have more endurance, more strength, and stronger spells. The sense of accomplishment is incredible but fleeting. To make these games challenging, designers make the mathematics of leveling logarithmic: The higher you go, the longer it takes to reach the next level. Leveling is thus precisely like a drug whose effect weakens the more you use it. Early on, you're flush with achievement as you quickly zip from Level 1 to Level 5. But then everything slows down, and you're grinding away for hours to get your next fix.But hope is finally here; as my column notes, the latest generation of MMORPGs -- specifically World of Warcaft and City of Heroes -- are designed to make it easier to play without signing your own divorce papers. You can read the whole thing online here for free, and if you have any thoughts about it, feel free to post in Slate's forum, The Fray! ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: daniel harvey EMAIL: dancharvey@earthlink.net IP: 67.101.128.206 URL: http://www.invisiblerabbit.com DATE: 03/13/2005 02:43:19 PM I long for the day when fantasy derived games more closely resemble the source material. Does Aragorn break of from the Fellowship to mine mithril? Does Gandalf slowly upgrade his magic missile? We accept it because it's a gaming trope inherited from D&D but it always rubs me the wrong way in the back of my mind. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 64.232.108.66 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/13/2005 04:20:03 PM I wonder why no one has yet made an MMORPG specifically themed on the Tolkien universe. Holy moses that would be a runaway success. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kraft EMAIL: jkraft@ssc.wisc.edu IP: 144.92.34.90 URL: DATE: 03/14/2005 03:53:31 PM Wonder no more, Clive: http://www.middle-earthonline.com/ Always enjoy your work on Slate. Keep it up. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gabby EMAIL: crumbschief@gmail.com IP: 69.26.217.162 URL: DATE: 03/15/2005 12:33:50 PM Hey Clive! Which server are you on? I've been amazed how many times I'll group up with two people, only to find out later they are married in real life. But I think it's good to have something in common like playing online with your spouse. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: The chicken vacuum STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/05/2005 08:50:45 PM ----- BODY:
Behold the E-Z Catch Chicken Harvester. Once upon a time, chicken farmers had to spend hours running around manually grabbing chickens and stuffing them into coops. So a company called BrightCoop has invented what is essentially a vacuum for chickens -- it has rotating circular sweeps, much like the ones you see on street-cleaning machines, that automatically gather up the chickens and hoover them into pens. BrightCoop has a site -- which cheerily boasts "LIFE JUST GOT EASIER" -- that lays down the technical specs for the E-Z Catch:
Position of rotating drums hydraulically adjustable for: various chicken sizes, distance between drums, speed of rotation of the 11.5" rubber fingers and height for house conditions. Drive wheels on drum assembly are hydraulically driven and steered independent of main power unit. Rotating drums can be tilted forward or backward, hydraulically, to adjust for litter condition.To truly fry your noodle, check out the video BrightCoop posted online, in which a worker mows the device straight into a massive herd of chickens and the E-Z Catch sucks them into its maw. I'm no animal-rights freak and eat plenty of meat, but seriously, this thing looks like some sort of freak bastard love-child of The Matrix and Soylent Green. PETA couldn't have imagineered a more perfect image for the utter creepiness and sociopathy of industrial animal-farming. I have to admit, at first it made me giggle a bit -- c'mon, a chicken vacuum? -- but after a while it queazed me right the heck out. (Thanks to Boing Boing for this one!) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Theresa EMAIL: tyarmouth@gmail.com IP: 12.221.70.142 URL: DATE: 03/05/2005 09:29:48 PM Reminds me why I rarely eat chicken anymore. The even sadded thing is that this contraption is probably less stressful for the chicken than catching them by hand. And it probably saves a few hundred unocumented workers from asthma. By the way, halal or kosher chicken is usually not raised this way and usually not much more expensive at a mom and pop store than the mass produced ones at WalMart/Kroger/Safeway... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 194.73.124.83 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/05/2005 10:34:06 PM Free range chicken, I've noticed, is actually noticeably tastier than the robot-grown stuff. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stephanie EMAIL: sohanley@total.net IP: 66.48.171.196 URL: DATE: 03/06/2005 02:15:04 PM Run, chicken, run! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robert EMAIL: robert@pennyonthesidewalk.com IP: 202.147.143.166 URL: http://www.pennyonthesidewalk.com/ DATE: 03/06/2005 05:44:56 PM Holy Hell. I think I've just been converted. That is truly ... disturbing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Martin EMAIL: IP: 193.95.201.36 URL: DATE: 03/06/2005 06:19:07 PM Heh, at our place food still has taste :D. But still I wonder for how long (our neighbours have a chicken farm and catch them by hand at night). Quite a difficult task. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: punk_vegan EMAIL: IP: 204.52.215.112 URL: DATE: 03/07/2005 09:23:41 AM So it's now easier to exploit animals with the intent of fattenning big business's wallet and the populace's waistline? Only when we have animal liberation will we have human freedom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Schyler EMAIL: schyler@gmail.com IP: 64.60.201.26 URL: DATE: 03/07/2005 12:43:44 PM "Hydraulic powered fans on large capacity radiator and hydraulic cooler (timer reverses fan direction to remove feathers)." I have never been a fan of eating chicken, but now i tell everyone i know about this...completely disturbed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: eric EMAIL: IP: 67.174.233.228 URL: DATE: 03/07/2005 01:24:06 PM a lot of poultry companies have actually stopped using technologies similar to this. PETA and other groups are all over chicken companies for these vacuums-- these things break legs and bones, and are pretty rough. then again, the guys charged with rounding up chickens the manual way gets pecked, scratched and pooped on all day. in some ways i'd rather the chickens suffer than some poor guy or girl making $5 an hour. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Peter EMAIL: IP: 205.153.36.171 URL: DATE: 03/07/2005 02:35:06 PM I've actually harvested chickens... for one memorable night, long ago, on a kibbutz in Israel. You can't imagine how awful it is... running around in the dark in ankle deep chicken shit (which seems, in that context, not trivial at all) trying to grab the terrified birds, holding them upside down in one hand while you try to grab more with your other... I did it for one night, as a volunteer, and remember it vividly more than twenty years on. Can't imagine what it's like to do it for a living. So I agree with the posters above... given what it's replacing, this is probably an improvement for all concerned. Even the chickens. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: J. Wallace EMAIL: IP: 128.83.231.66 URL: DATE: 03/08/2005 01:03:49 PM What's a kibbutz? But yeah, wow, that machine is so far outside my scope of experience I'm not sure what to make of it. Are we sure its not a hoax? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: animal meat lover EMAIL: milky_malone@hotmail.com IP: 67.100.74.132 URL: DATE: 03/08/2005 04:14:47 PM Yeah, it does seem cruel. But thats just because its efficient. It seems that anytime humans find a more efficient way of doing something that might involve nature, we are quick to label it as something horrendous or insensitive. A previous post said that its probably less strenous on the bird than chasing and catching by hand, I'm kind of prone to believe that. As it appears, the animal is being tossed around for what looks like 4-7 seconds, tops. It is grabbed, slid and deposited really quickly. Any damage would be superficial, maybe a couple of lost feathers. Look at the video again. And again. The birds are put through not more much stress than a jump off a one story building would give them (remember, chickens can't fly, they glide and land quite awkwardly) I don't know about you, but a bird like a chicken is extremely hardy. They're not as delicate as you think. They're birds: Hollow bones, light musculature, great resilience to dropping, and extreme cognitive control. Just a thought. Lets all be just a little more objective. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Buster EMAIL: oxydize@go.com IP: 12.108.188.134 URL: DATE: 03/08/2005 06:12:07 PM Am I just blind? Where is the video? Did they take it down? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 64.232.108.66 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/10/2005 11:08:38 AM Apparently, they took the video down! I am very impressed by the conversation here. I don't think I've ever had a debate on chicken-handling ethics before. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JB EMAIL: IP: 193.113.48.7 URL: DATE: 03/14/2005 04:35:20 AM Just to nit pick on some of Animal Meat Lover's comments: Chickens can fly quite well (they can certainly fly a lot better than you or I can), although battery chickens aren't obviously very good at it because they don't get the practice. And they're actually not very "hardy" at all, even small nicks to their skin tend to keep on tearing open. You know how cooked chicken skin can just fall off the meat? - it also does that when they're alive. I can see the justification for this invention from a human (worker's) health perspective, but I can't imagine its much fun for the chicken. But then no part of the rearing/catching/eating process is fun for the chicken anyway, is it? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: animal meat lover EMAIL: milky_malone@hotmail.com IP: 67.100.74.132 URL: DATE: 03/15/2005 03:08:07 PM Like I said: "It seems that anytime humans find a more efficient way of doing something that might involve nature, we are quick to label it as something horrendous or insensitive." In response to JB comments, to see the justification of the harvester and in the same sentence, attempt to imagine how "much fun" it is for the chicken, makes my point. Like almost all animals, a chicken spends its time doing what is most natural: eating, sleeping and reproducing. That would make _anything_ outside of those norms something that the chicken does not take to naturally, and therefore "unfun". So in answer JB's last question: No, there is no part of the rearing/catching/eating process that is fun for the chicken. Please, to properly respond to the animal world and its needs, we have to stop placing human ideals, feelings and emotions over them. A fundamental flaw in animal right's movements is the misplacement of emotion. Far too often, humans try to think and feel for the animal. This often leads to impassioned cries about whether or not we should slaughter cattle, wear fur, or hunt whales, but these are not the subject. In this case, its harvesting chickens. My previous post said that the chickens do not appear to be handled cruelly. And to that end, it seems a machine like the harvester rounds them up as quickly as possible without injury, making it an extremely humane creation. P.S. Anyone happen to grab the video? Can you post it somewhere? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: Let us now praise the ringtone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/05/2005 08:33:27 PM ----- BODY: In the current New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones has a superb little essay in praise of the ringtone. Most specifically, he's intrigued by the aesthetics of creating something catchy out of the teensy, MIDI-like constraints of ringtone polyphony. As Frere-Jones points out, every ring includes a zillion tiny aesthetic decisions:
The ringtone also teaches us how songs work. Which clip best exemplifies a song? Did the ringtone’s maker select the right bit? Do you even need to hear the singing? Perhaps the part of the song that arouses our lizard brain is the instrumental opening. It may be stranger and more sublime to hear a polyphonic impression of George Michael’s voice than to listen to the real thing one more time. If a song can survive being transposed from live instruments to a cell-phone microchip, it must have musically hardy DNA. Many recent hip-hop songs make terrific ringtones because they already sound like ringtones. The polyphonic and master-tone versions of “Goodies,” by Ciara, for example, are nearly identical. Ringtones, it turns out, are inherently pop: musical expression distilled to one urgent, representative hook. As ringtones become part of our environment, they could push pop music toward new levels of concision, repetition, and catchiness.He goes on to lament the rise of the "master tone", which is not a polyphonic recreation of the original pop song, but a literal sample -- a snippet of the song itself. Since it's merely a cut-and-pasted chunk of the original, it doesn't have any of the through-the-looking-glass qualities that make polyphonic recreations so necessarily surreal. But since the master tone is now taking over, as Frere-Jones concludes, "polyphonic-ringtone nostalgia is approximately six months away." I kind of agree with him. Though many ringtones annoy the heck out of me -- and, as I discovered while doing research for New York in January, ringtones can actually increase your body's histaminic stress levels -- they're a curious artform, part metaphor and part metonym: Both a version of the thing and the thing itself. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nowak EMAIL: null@the-inbetween.com IP: 149.99.41.186 URL: http://the-inbetween.com DATE: 03/07/2005 02:51:50 PM >> he's intrigued by the aesthetics of creating something catchy out of the teensy, MIDI-like constraints of ringtone polyphony Meh. If he was into it, he'd have been impressed by these very same aesthetics in the 8-bit gaming era. Because, if a song's successful transition to a ringtone tells you a lot about its inherent "musical DNA", then what does that say about 8-bit chiptunes transformed into orchestral scores? chiptunes 4 life. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: nowak EMAIL: null@the-inbetween.com IP: 149.99.41.186 URL: http://the-inbetween.com DATE: 03/07/2005 02:53:41 PM >> he's intrigued by the aesthetics of creating something catchy out of the teensy, MIDI-like constraints of ringtone polyphony Meh. If he was into it, he'd have been impressed by these very same aesthetics in the 8-bit gaming era. Because, if a song's successful transition to a ringtone tells you a lot about its inherent "musical DNA", then what does that say about 8-bit chiptunes transformed into orchestral scores? chiptunes 4 life. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 149.99.41.186 URL: DATE: 03/07/2005 02:54:04 PM oops, sorry about the double. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: J. Wallace EMAIL: IP: 128.83.206.129 URL: DATE: 03/07/2005 07:50:45 PM How I loathe the sound of ringing phones. Maybee its negative conditioning from auditoriums where someone's phone is always interupting, but I abhor the sound of even my own phone. Rather than than to make artistry out of phone's sounds, I would like to see someone make a phone that grabs no attention but the attention of its owner. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: serial catowner EMAIL: tscott@sinclair.net IP: 64.113.15.174 URL: DATE: 03/08/2005 07:24:29 PM See also, the live organist who plays a little song at the hockey faceoff. Enjoy them while you can, they're being replaced by mondo sound systems. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 64.165.32.101 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/10/2005 02:01:36 PM Nowak, excellent point -- the true geniuses of teensy MIDI music are the guys who did the music for the 80s-class games! J., yep, I've long wondered why phones don't have a winder range of programmable vibration modes -- different vibrations for different callers. It'd make it way easier and less disturbing for people around you if you could know who was calling without even removing your phone from your pocket. Serial catowner, that is indeed a tragedy! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Margie EMAIL: IP: 203.166.247.105 URL: DATE: 03/10/2005 05:06:57 PM What about the importance of the pause? Ringtones are often annoying because rather than the conventional "Noise" "pause" "noise" they just make a constant sound until answered or the caller hangs up. I wonder if there isn't something important about the repetition and that silence. Ringtones never seem to work within that constraint which is odd since whole genres of electronic music are based on how satisfying repetition can be. Maybe "rings" should be more about beats instead of melodies? ----- PING: TITLE: MOBILE RING TONES COULD BE BAD FOR YOUR SKIN’S HEALTH URL: http://www.textually.org/ringtonia/archives/007419.htm IP: 209.68.2.169 BLOG NAME: ringtonia.com DATE: 03/07/2005 05:24:07 AM The sound of a constantly ringing mobile phone can trigger attacks of skin conditions such as eczema and dermatitis. ----- PING: TITLE: MOBILE RING TONES COULD BE BAD FOR YOUR SKIN’S HEALTH URL: http://www.textually.org/ringtonia/archives/007419.htm IP: 209.68.2.169 BLOG NAME: ringtonia.com DATE: 03/07/2005 05:31:59 AM The sound of a constantly ringing mobile phone can trigger attacks of skin conditions such as eczema and dermatitis. ----- PING: TITLE: In praise of ringtones URL: http://www.corante.com/newyork/archives/2005/03/07/in_praise_of_ringtones.php IP: 64.94.136.197 BLOG NAME: Corante New York DATE: 03/07/2005 07:55:09 AM A brilliant essay in The New Yorker from Sasha Frere-Jones explains why ringtones are so fascinating: "The ringtone also teaches us how songs work. Which clip best exemplifies a song? Did the ringtone’s maker select the right bit? Do you... ----- PING: TITLE: More praise for ringtones - but those tones can hurt you... URL: http://www.ringernews.com/archives/more_praise_for_ringtones_but_those_tones_can_hurt_you.html IP: 66.199.131.170 BLOG NAME: RingerNews.com DATE: 03/07/2005 09:01:56 PM Another commentary on that New Yorker article about ringtones - this time from Corante.com. Dominic Basulto pulls out an interesting tidbit: "The ringtone also teaches us how songs work. Which clip best exemplifies a song? Did the ringtone’s maker... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: This is your brain on blogs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/05/2005 07:42:57 PM ----- BODY: Two doctors who specialize in children with learning difficulties run a blog, and they recently wrote a short essay explaining why blogging may help improve critical thinking. They offer a few suggestions, but the most intriguing to me was this:
Blogging is ideally suited to follow the plan for promoting creativity advocated by pioneering molecular biologist Max Delbruck. Delbruck's "Principle of Limited Sloppiness" states we should be sloppy enough so that unexpected things can happen, but not so sloppy that we can't find out that it did. Raw, spontaneous, associational thinking has also been advocated by many creativity experts, including the brilliant mathematician Henri Poincare who recommended writing without much thought at times "to awaken some association of ideas."It is, of course, incredibly self-serving for these bloggers to blog about why blogging makes your smarter, and probably even more self-serving for me to blog about a blog entry on why blogging makes you smarter. Eh. Still, I think that quote above is on to something. There's a quality to blogging that is like brainstorming -- thinking out loud -- yet as the doctors pointed out, the fact that each brainstorm session is permanently Googled forces you to think a little harder about what you're saying. Though I still believe, as I've previously argued, that the Internet may actually wind up being recognized more for its psychological impact than its intellectual one: "The world's largest uncontrolled experiment in mass therapy," as I once put it. (Thanks to Steve Emrich for this one!) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Amy EMAIL: fangirlamee@yahoo.com IP: 70.23.121.88 URL: DATE: 03/05/2005 08:42:09 PM Interesting notion... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 194.73.124.83 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/05/2005 10:34:43 PM It's a neat essay, yes! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carol EMAIL: ctodaro@mindspring.com IP: 66.32.100.74 URL: DATE: 03/09/2005 08:03:58 AM It's serendipitous that I found this today. Tomorrow, I'm teaching a short workshop on using freewriting and blind contour drawing as tools for creative thinking. I'll add this quote to my introduction. Thank you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carol EMAIL: ctodaro@mindspring.com IP: 66.32.100.74 URL: DATE: 03/09/2005 08:04:23 AM It's serendipitous that I found this today. Tomorrow, I'm teaching a short workshop on using freewriting and blind contour drawing as tools for creative thinking. I'll add this quote to my introduction. Thank you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 64.165.32.101 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/10/2005 02:02:27 PM Carol, glad you liked it! ----- PING: TITLE: Blogger brains URL: http://bigcatchronicles.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/3/9/412880.html IP: 216.40.34.102 BLOG NAME: Big Cat Chronicles DATE: 03/09/2005 10:12:42 PM
Here's me blogging about a blogger who blogged about a blogger who blogged about why bloggi...
----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: Hey there, Remington STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/02/2005 12:26:26 PM ----- BODY:
As I've blogged about before, one of the sucky things about being called "Clive" is that it's such a rare name in North America that a) everyone always misspells it, b) everyone always mispronounces it, and, perhaps worst, c) when you're a kid you can never get one of those little license plates with your name BECAUSE THEY NEVER EVER MAKE ONE WITH "CLIVE" ON IT. I remain bitter to this day. Two years ago I was slightly redeemed when I discovered the existence of Clive Bags, the hipster/skatepunk/snowboarding company that makes incredibly cool bags customized for Xtreme sports. Anyway, I was intrigued to happen upon NameVoyager, a little web that lets you type in a name and create a chart showing how, over the last 100 years, it has waxed or waned in popularity amongst the most common 1,000. It's unbelievably fascinating! Type in an old-fashioned name like "Mabel", and you can watch it start at the top-most part of the chart in 1900, then rapidly drop to the bottom and vanish by the 1970s. "Pamela" began rising from nothing in the 1930s, hit the top in 1950, then declined just as steeply. Isabel was minorly popular in the early 20th century, faded low in the 70s, then in the last ten years suddenly rocketed to the top. Perhaps most frightening is that "Remington" was, justly, a completely unused name until the early 80s ... when Remington Steele went on the air, and the name began climbing upwards. I'm like, Remington?? What sort of crack addict names their kid after a freaking TV show? Actually, the sad fact is that pretty much any celeb who makes the charts will inspire a frighteningly large number of idiot parents to stick their child with said name. "What should we name our precious little boy?" "Well, I don't know, honey. What's on TV tonight?" Christ almighty. Forty years from now the CEO of General Motors will probably be named Kid Rock Johnson or something. One of the things that particularly horrifies my wife, Emily, is that her name is not only popular -- it has been the single-most popular name for female babies for the last eight years' running. So I generated the chart for "Emily" and, sure enough, that's it above -- the appelative giant that bestrides all American girls like a colossus. I typed in "Clive", but since it's never penetrated the top 1,000 names, it didn't even generate a chart. Sigh. (Thanks to Andrew for this one!) ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Emily EMAIL: IP: 64.74.45.38 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 12:58:51 PM Goddamn. At one point, I thought about smothering all those infant Emilys in their cradles, but at this point they're eight and more likely to fight back. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mentat EMAIL: IP: 130.113.93.86 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 01:11:21 PM Egad! What kind of fools can be misspelling and mispronouncing as straightforward a name as "Clive"? Hm... wait a minute, I've seen Internet forums. Question answered. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 66.108.82.10 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/02/2005 01:11:40 PM Heh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dusty Bear EMAIL: IP: 142.229.88.61 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 01:26:14 PM Don't fret. Maybe after Clive Owen's portrayal of King Arthur last year we'll see a spike in the number of children named Clive. Of course, they will all be crack babies because their parents were addicts when they chose the name, right? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brian EMAIL: briancorcoran@gmail.com IP: 131.107.0.103 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 01:54:13 PM I'm fascinated looking at the popularity of both religiously themed names (Jesus, Christ, Noah, etc.,.) and "notorius" names such as Adolf. None however can match the name of my future first born - "Lucious". BTW - how the dickens does a name like Lucious make the charts, but Clive doesn't..? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john t unger EMAIL: john@johntunger.com IP: 66.211.71.36 URL: http://www.johntunger.com DATE: 03/02/2005 02:37:38 PM Hey Clive, It could be worse, man. You could have my name--john. Let me tell you, the long term effect of whipping your head around to answer every third time someone calls out a name in public, well, I'm sure there's been some spinal damage over the years. An uncommon name has also gotta help with google juice and micro-branding, eh? Even using my middle initial and last name, "john t unger," I gotta share the front page of google with a senator, a lawyer and a character from an f scott fitzgerald novel. And you know what? I don't even like fitzgerald's work as much as lawyers and senators. I say, be happy you don't have to share! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 66.108.82.10 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/02/2005 03:41:17 PM That's a really good point! My friend Jack Taylor recently complained that a Google search for him produces thousands of hits, with any reference to him buried far, far down. Brian, maybe I should change my name to "Lucious"? Mentat, heh. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: GreyDuck EMAIL: greyduck@greyduck.net IP: 207.14.51.226 URL: http://greyduck.net/ DATE: 03/02/2005 04:26:43 PM Karel. Don't bother looking, it's not on the graph. I was named after a Czech playwright and sci-fi author. Go, me. My son, Alexander, has one of the most popular boy's names going. Go, son. =) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve E. EMAIL: steve.emrich@utoronto.ca IP: 70.49.119.128 URL: http://qualia.information-theory.net DATE: 03/02/2005 05:42:40 PM You're right, Clive, that is unbelievably fascinating, and fun! I'm interested about the occurances of bi-modal distributions - instances where a name was popular, went out of fashion, and then came back again. Has anyone found any clear cases of this? "Ismael" has a really strange pattern, and "Oscar" seems to have been very popular in the early 1900s, only to go out of fashion, and become popular again in 2003. Also, the name "Guido" seems to have fallen off the map in the 1930s. Why did the depression have to kill the name Guido? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: IP: 4.235.187.173 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 06:05:02 PM Robot, I am fascinated, but I also have to say: quit yer whining. Type in either my first OR last name, and you'll see that only little boys got either name up until a few decades ago. Noel first popped up on girls in the 30s, and the fuckin' hippies first started naming girls Morgan in the 70s. Yet another thing to blame on the dirtwizards turned yuppies, the bastards, and all their progeny. Right now, males Morgans are ranked 364 in 2003, and female Morgans are te 29th most popular name. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: IP: 4.235.187.173 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 06:08:22 PM Oh, and also: Type in "STO" to see how porn names took over in the 90s. Lots of little boys were named "Stone" and "Storm", while little girls were named "Stormy". Lordy. People naming boys after STONE PHILIPS. Just launch the nukes now. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mo EMAIL: IP: 4.235.187.173 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 06:13:06 PM And to Steven E: For a pretty good example of bi-model distribution, try the name: "MAX". Very popular through the 30s, then down until the 80s and 90s. (And a further note: in 2003, "Maximus" was the 375th most popular name for boys, which must be related to the movie GLADDIATOR. Gah.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Schyler EMAIL: schyler@gmail.com IP: 64.60.201.26 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 07:36:58 PM Clive - I have NEVER, EVER, had anyone either pronounce my name correctly, or spell it correctly the first time. My name has only appeared on the list since the 80s, albeit a differently spelled version. I share my name with a literary protagonist as well john t. Caleb Carr, "The Alienist", wrote from the point of view of John Schuyler Moore when describing his turn-of-the-century NYC. Despite the difficulties with misspellings, and whatnot, i enjoy my unique name for the lack of confusions in public... My biggest complaint is that other people find it rather easy to remember my name, while i forget peoples names halfway through a conversation. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: christo EMAIL: IP: 66.30.181.236 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 09:33:51 PM another bimodal: "coleman". this thing's a great social barometer, of what i don't know ... in regards to the irish names i was checking out, a possible correspondence to immigration, demographics, the celtic tiger economy of the nineties? check out "garrett". i assume it's part of the same neo-celtic naming movement responsible for "coleman" or "seamus" and such. their populariyt continues apace, but check out the unusual dropoff after about 1997. possibly because of the VH1's "behind the music: leif garrett" episode? and on that religious tip, check out "madonna". there's some comfort in knowing that there are limits to princess ciccone's powers. huh, look at poor "madge" or "agnes" or "cyril". just plain sad. and yes, i have a niece named "emily". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mark Sicignano EMAIL: mark.sicignano@softwaretime.com IP: 67.186.136.115 URL: http://www.softwaretime.com/blog DATE: 03/03/2005 01:00:01 AM Nothing exciting about my name either. My brother's name was John. Had an uncle that used to tease us by calling me "Dirty Mark" and my brother was "Toilet John". May parents stumped him with their third child, Greg. Nowhere to go with that one. Thanks for the link the NameVoyager. A lot of fun. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Schyler EMAIL: schyler@gmail.com IP: 69.236.30.80 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 01:37:04 AM Just searched for a boy named Sue...no such luck. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: daniel luke EMAIL: danielrluke@comcast.net IP: 24.21.197.40 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 01:56:09 AM I once read an interesting article in the Economist by a man whose first name was Clive, if that makes any difference. Clive is a good name. I think you, Clive, singlehandedly are raising its profile. Ten years from now, I can see every 12th boy born bearing that appelation. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Hardy EMAIL: IP: 218.214.129.119 URL: http://www.laputanlogic.com DATE: 03/03/2005 06:28:52 AM This is a self link but relevent. A history of boy names over the past 800 years: Joshua is the new John. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Hardy EMAIL: jh-b@lagado.com IP: 218.214.129.119 URL: http://www.laputanlogic.com DATE: 03/03/2005 06:29:30 AM This is a self link but relevent. A history of boy names over the past 800 years: Joshua is the new John. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bud EMAIL: bud@latanville.net IP: 69.195.73.246 URL: http://latanville.net DATE: 03/03/2005 07:09:25 AM Okay, speaking of crack-addled celebrity names, type in "Raekwon" (of the Wu-Tang Clan)...you'll see its mercifully brief spike... [and let's clear the air, my mother's name is "Rae" (just "Rae," not short for "Rachel") which used to be a male name, but migrated] ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: bud EMAIL: bud@latanville.net IP: 69.195.73.246 URL: http://latanville.net DATE: 03/03/2005 07:10:59 AM guh! [let's finish the sentence before posting!] my mother's name is "Rae" and I was searching to see what its curve looked like. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott EMAIL: scott@fullvoid.net IP: 81.7.63.213 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 07:49:04 AM I think if you're born 'Clive' you are destined to become a writer. Clive Thompson Clive Barker Clive Cussler erm.. Clive Anderson not really sure where this is going anymore. But that's many Clives, let me tell you! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott EMAIL: scott@fullvoid.net IP: 81.7.63.213 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 07:52:54 AM ... and furthermore, after playing with that thing for a while - how is it that 'Clive' was not in the top 1000, but 'Elton' - was? I can only think of one Elton, ever. And I thought of four Clives above. Wacky. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sara EMAIL: IP: 132.198.124.37 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 10:56:36 AM It's frustrating/interesting that the site works letter by letter. *frustrating because I can't get a clean graph for the name of one of my daughters, Julia, because Julian and Julianne, etc., have the same first five letters. *interesting because you can see the rise and fall of FIRST INITIALS. Type in just "F" by itself and notice that F names were much more popular at the beginning of the century. (Another daughter's name starts with F.) Type in "O" by itself and see the fall and then rebirth of "O" names. Type in "Z" by itself and see that Z names trailed off slightly and then came on hugely from the 1970's forward. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 66.108.82.10 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/03/2005 11:14:03 AM Okay, this is the most totally fascinating thread. It's amazing the social stuff you can learn from this tool! The bimodal name stuff is really interesting, and the rise and fall of inititals is just crazy. I wonder how many kids that were named "Raekwon" are gonna be filing into the name-change department when they're 22 or 23 or so ... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Young Freud EMAIL: IP: 67.162.228.158 URL: http://youngfreud.livejournal.com DATE: 03/03/2005 07:38:24 PM I check my name "Avery" and found out that, starting in the '80s, it's now more known as a girl's name than a boys name: it's become so popular that it broke the top 100 for girls, but ranks 222 with boys. I'm wondering what caused that: I recall Candice Bergen on Murphy Brown naming her son Avery after her grandmother, but that seems pretty obscure. FYI, I was named after comedian Avery Schreiber, who was in the Doritos commericals at the time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dave Buster EMAIL: oxydize@go.com IP: 12.108.188.134 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 07:56:32 PM Sara: Hit return after typing in Julia ... you get a Julia -only graph. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mike S EMAIL: IP: 207.218.232.180 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 09:08:57 PM or click on any name's area to see only that name's graph ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Uncle Rob EMAIL: IP: 66.185.84.196 URL: DATE: 03/03/2005 09:09:44 PM Hi Clive, er T. Clive..... Clive is a really by choice though right? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Cassidy "that's MISTER Curtis to you" Curtis EMAIL: cassidy@otherthings.com IP: 63.237.201.12 URL: http://otherthings.com DATE: 03/04/2005 04:10:08 PM Ugh. This site has confirmed my worst fear: my name went from being a rare and exotic boy's name in the 70's to a wildly popular girl's name in the 90's. Being considered female by total strangers has now replaced typos and mispronunciations as my primary pet peeve. That said, I wouldn't change it for the world. Those girls are biters, and they know it. They wish they could be me. :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Metaly EMAIL: metaly@electromaz.com IP: 128.111.149.45 URL: http://metaly.electromaz.com DATE: 03/04/2005 07:10:42 PM This sounds like a lot of fun, but I'll have to wait till I get home to check it out. (No Java installed here, for some reason.) I'm really curious if "D.J." (I use my initials) will even pop up. It wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't, though, after having half my mail throughout my entire life arrive for "Dj" or sometimes just "D." I was never able to get one of those license plates, either. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Schyler EMAIL: schyler@gmail.com IP: 69.236.30.80 URL: DATE: 03/04/2005 11:28:56 PM Cassidy - I share your problem, especially since "Goodwill Hunting." "Skylar is a girl's name, right?" Thanks stranger. p.s. type in SK (2:1 Pink:Blue) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: susan EMAIL: scrawford@scrawford.net IP: 68.161.169.199 URL: http://scrawford.blogware.com DATE: 03/05/2005 10:59:58 AM My name, Susan, tags me with incredible accuracy as a child of the early 60s. There are no three-year-old Susans running around. I'm on my own with my thickly-populated cohort, aging in place. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 194.73.124.83 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/05/2005 10:37:14 PM Rob, yep, my first name is Thomas -- my middle name is Clive -- but I had no choice in the matter as to which name I'd be called by: My family used "Clive" ever since I was a kid, not least because that's how my father and grandfather went too. (For those who didn't know this, my full name is Thomas Clive Thompson III.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 24.157.61.232 URL: DATE: 03/06/2005 08:27:09 PM bimodal: emma ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin EMAIL: zephyr@the-wire.com IP: 64.231.65.71 URL: DATE: 03/06/2005 09:47:23 PM For a fine example of how huge, but ultimately short-lived, fame and influence can be, try typing in "Farrah". Then, try "Jill", the Angel that Farrah played. Ah, the 70s... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kevin EMAIL: zephyr@the-wire.com IP: 64.231.65.71 URL: DATE: 03/06/2005 09:51:58 PM Fascinating. Try "Farrah" for a good example of how huge a celebrity name can be and how quickly it can burn out. "Jill", the Angel she played also has a similar distribution. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: julz EMAIL: IP: 219.78.224.183 URL: DATE: 03/07/2005 01:10:22 AM Type 'zi' and watch 'zita' and 'zigmund' fall away, a blip for 'zina', and the modern rise of 'zion'. 'Ya***': name initial letters from the sixties onwards - and growing. 'ha' names are changing from largely male ('harry') to female ('hailey') What a tool. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Scott EMAIL: scott@fullvoid.net IP: 81.7.63.115 URL: DATE: 03/07/2005 12:39:35 PM Clive, had you gone with your birth name, obviously you may have ended up a painter then instead of a writer. Now THAT's science! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brian EMAIL: briancorcoran@gmail.com IP: 131.107.0.103 URL: DATE: 03/08/2005 05:05:31 PM Clive!!! Dude, you've got "The Third" in your name and you don't use it?!? ARE YOU INSANE?? Geez, I wouldn't even bother with anything else, I'd just ask that folks refer to me as "the 3rd". I've been embroiled in a decades-long name envy competition with my sister, "Aphra-Mary". Not only is her name very unique, it's also hyphenated. As kids, I dropped a lot of "Assra" & "Aphro" into our heated discussions, taking great comfort in my "Brian" labelled bicycle license plate, stickers and pencil-case, but a funny thing happened when we hit our late teens. I found that suddenly I was the one with the unwanted name - does anyone have any idea how difficult it is to enunciate the letter "B" in a loud bar-like setting? It sucks. "B" is not a sexy letter to pronounce - it succeeds only in spraying spittle on whomever is unfortunate enough to be standing directly in my path. After much thought, I've decided to change my name to "Broke", 'cause I've been broke almost as long as I've been brian. Unfortunatly, in my initial research attempts, the ontario government only has name change information online for brides to be... -broke. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: brian EMAIL: briancorcoran@gmail.com IP: 131.107.0.103 URL: DATE: 03/08/2005 05:06:33 PM Clive!!! Dude, you've got "The Third" in your name and you don't use it?!? ARE YOU INSANE?? Geez, I wouldn't even bother with anything else, I'd just ask that folks refer to me as "the 3rd". I've been embroiled in a decades-long name envy competition with my sister, "Aphra-Mary". Not only is her name very unique, it's also hyphenated. As kids, I dropped a lot of "Assra" & "Aphro" into our heated discussions, taking great comfort in my "Brian" labelled bicycle license plate, stickers and pencil-case, but a funny thing happened when we hit our late teens. I found that suddenly I was the one with the unwanted name - does anyone have any idea how difficult it is to enunciate the letter "B" in a loud bar-like setting? It sucks. "B" is not a sexy letter to pronounce - it succeeds only in spraying spittle on whomever is unfortunate enough to be standing directly in my path. After much thought, I've decided to change my name to "Broke", 'cause I've been broke almost as long as I've been brian. Unfortunatly, in my initial research attempts, the ontario government only has name change information online for brides to be... -broke. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Your Sister Chris EMAIL: IP: 64.229.193.12 URL: DATE: 03/08/2005 11:10:56 PM Brian is right – you should embrace your third-ness. Because you were almost named something else. As I recall, “David” and “Jeffrey” were under serious consideration. After hearing that I had a new baby brother I asked, “Is his name David?” “No.” “Jeffrey?” “Ah, no.” “What is it then?” “Clive.” “But that’s Dad’s name!” “Yes.” “And Grampy’s name!” “Right.” “Jeez.” ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew Hearst EMAIL: IP: 24.193.74.63 URL: http://www.panopticist.com DATE: 03/09/2005 10:44:06 PM Hey, that was MORGAN up there! Hi, Morgan! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 64.165.32.101 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/10/2005 02:28:58 PM Geez, I wouldn't even bother with anything else, I'd just ask that folks refer to me as "the 3rd. ahahahahahah ----- PING: TITLE: High Tech Help for Determining Baby Name URL: http://www.softwaretime.com/blog/2005/03/high-tech-help-for-determining-baby.html IP: 72.9.234.70 BLOG NAME: Families and Technology DATE: 03/03/2005 12:51:07 AM his is very cool... The Baby Name Wizards's NameVoyager It let's you explore the popularity of names over the last 100+ years, in a very interactive way. A bit addictive too. Hat tip to Collision Detection for pointing this one out. ----- PING: TITLE: Name Popularity? URL: http://sk89q.therisenrealm.com/2005/name-popularity/ IP: 70.85.17.228 BLOG NAME: SK's Journal DATE: 03/05/2005 07:47:50 PM See how popular your name is! Trends shown from the start of the 1900s to 2003 as interactive graphs.... ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: This will go on your permanent record STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/02/2005 11:39:25 AM ----- BODY: High school has always been a hotbed of forgery: I remember kids sitting in the cafeteria, practising their parents' handwriting so they could generate fake notes. According to the New York Times' Education section, the age of high-tech document manipulation has moved that subculture into overdrive. As they report:
In interviews with principals across the country, many mentioned the ease of altering report cards and transcripts using desktop publishing software like Adobe Photoshop, which allows students to capture a school's seal off its Web site and paste it into a file to create an official-looking document. One administrator told of a student who was caught forging his report card when the nearby Kinko's called the school to report that a student had left a copy of his grades on the copier. One principal said he had heard of students forging transcripts with generic-embossed seals to avoid paying for official transcripts.So many schools have begun using secure, hard-to-replicate document stock from Scrip-Safe that the company began offering a product line specifically for academic institutions. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Haoran EMAIL: haoransblue@gmail.com IP: 203.222.142.66 URL: http://haoran.axe.net.au/blog/ DATE: 03/02/2005 09:48:09 PM I believe the appropriate response is: "Well don't get so distressed. Did I happen to mention I'm impressed?" (just a random guy passing through) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Len EMAIL: lkutchma@shaw.ca IP: 24.76.192.38 URL: DATE: 03/02/2005 11:07:45 PM Interesting. But I'm not sure I'd be able to determine a fake seal from one created/provided by Scrip-Safe anyway. Yes they have a pile of security features but I don't think I'm about to use lasers and black lights to view my kid's report cards. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clive EMAIL: clive@collisiondetection.net IP: 66.108.82.10 URL: http://www.collisiondetection.net DATE: 03/03/2005 11:15:12 AM Haoran, heh; Len, heh also. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: The power law of the Oscars STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/02/2005 12:19:33 AM ----- BODY:
This was an unusual year for the Oscars: No single film dominated the field and swept the board. Granted, two movies -- Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator -- did very well, and Million Dollar Baby grabbed all the "important" awards. But as a couple of scientists found when they studied the data, in most years the Oscars are dominated by a single powerful film that stands out, much the way The Lord of the Rings did in 2003, or Titanic in its famously award-studded season. In 2002, Alan Collins -- an economist at the University of Portsmouth -- and Chris Hand, a media arts scholar at the Royal Hollaway University of London, gathered stats on the winners of Oscars and the Golden Globe awards from 1983 to 2000. They discovered that the winners follow a power-law distribution -- or a Zipf-curve or Yule distribution, depending on what terminology you prefer. That means that a relatively small number of films snared the majority of awards: Sweeping the board is indeed the norm, not the exception. But why? That's an interesting question, because most often power-law distributions take hold in systems where the winners have a first-mover advantage -- and can thus avail themselves of the "rich get richer" phenomenon. If you're the first blog in your field, you'll get linked to by every follower, ensuring you have the highest traffic; if you're the first city to build a major airport, any new airports will connect to you, ensuring you're the biggest hub; if your stock gets a little bump on NASDAQ, you might just find yourself benefitting from a herd-mentality stampede as everyone jumps on board. But voting for the Oscars happens, theoretically, in secret. There's no information flow, and thus no way for a power law to take hold, right? Well, sure. Except of course it's not really a secretive, traditionally democratic process -- the members of the Academy talk all the time amongst themselves about their preference. As Collins and Hands drily note in the paper (which you can download as a PDF here):
It is the spread of opinion from colleagues which may result in the clustering of voters' opinions. Information cascade models generally require decisions to be made sequentially and for the decision of the n+1th consumer to be influenced by the nth consumer. However ... information cascade models based on local interactions can also produce heavy tailed / power law distributions.In this case, for "local interactions" read "Academy members trading gossip while doing blow in the bathroom during a party". That's the beauty of network science: According to the theory, even Tara Reid is a potential source of data. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Clive Thompson TITLE: A pool cue even robots would love STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 03/01/2005 10:02:27 PM ----- BODY:
When you play pool, one of the things that screws up your shot is "cue deflection" -- when the cue hits the ball so hard it adds unwanted spin. Pros know how to control their shots so well they can avoid this; the rest of amateurs, not so much. To help out us lamers, the folks at Predator decided to make a cue that has a tip so slight in mass that when you take a hard shot, the ball's mass pushes the cue aside -- and not vice versa. They spent a huge amount of time engineering the cue, including splicing it together out of 10 pie-shaped wedges. Then they built a robot. As the New York Times reports:
To test the Z Shaft's novel shape, Predator enlisted the aid of Iron Willie, the company's 70-pound robot. Equipped with an elbow that never tires, Iron Willie was charged with shooting a cue ball toward a piece of carbonless copy paper, moving five millimeters to the right or left and then shooting again - and again and again - until Predator determined exactly how much taper could virtually eliminate cue ball deflection without making the shaft susceptible to fracturing. The shaft is so slender that it produces a fair amount of tactile feedback when it meets the cue ball. After a few hundred games, Z Shaft users can sense the pleasant vibration that indicates a perfectly struck cue ball, versus the rough twitter that accompanies an uneven stroke.----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- PING: TITLE: Predator's Robot Pool Player URL: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/robots/predators-robot-pool-player-034626.php IP: 67.18.39.132 BLOG NAME: Gizmodo DATE: 03/02/2005 09:34:09 AM Learning is always better with robots. They even make golf fun, or at least automated, which is about ten times better than having to play it. To test the Z Shaft, a pool cue designed to help players eliminate cue... ----- --------