I see this sign down the street and it makes me laugh every couple of weeks. I like the idea of someone feeling strongly enough about Perot to hold on to the sign for 12 years.

Then again, Perot never emailed me every day for 2 months...

I was actually really impressed with the celebration I saw in Media last night. Screaming, dancing, singing, naked people... while the police stood nearby keeping an eye on things. Sure, there was a some idiots and I distinctly remember seeing a guy trying to set fire to a planter, but for the most part it was wholesome and fun.
Way to go, Media.

of course, then I see this and I'm just at a loss for words.

Harry Kalas calling the entire 9th inning.

YES!

Windmill Island

So, looking through some old maps of Philadelphia (nerd subhobby 2,126), I noticed that the city used to have 2 islands in the middle of the Delaware between Spruce and Christian Streets.
From Planphilly (a/k/a the site I will spend the next few days devouring):

There was once an island right off Center City where Philadelphians went to bathe and frolic.
Rising in the middle of the river, Smith’s Island was about a block wide and extended a half-mile from Arch Street to a point below South Street. It was originally known as Windmill Island for an octagonal 1746 windmill at its northern end. In May 1800, three men were hanged on the island for piracy aboard the schooner Eliza, leading to fanciful stories that it was a haven for pirates.
By the late 19th century, the island was a summer resort. Steam ferries left the Walnut Street wharf every ten minutes, carrying day-trippers to visit baths on the island. “The island has long been used as a bathing-ground and pleasure-garden,” one author wrote in 1887, “mostly for the lower classes.” According to Jackson, Smith’s Island featured a bathhouse, restaurant, beer garden, live music and occasionally a hot air balloon ascension or tight-rope walker to entertain the crowds. Great old willow trees made it an inviting retreat from the summer heat. In 1838, a canal was cut through the island at Walnut Street to facilitate ferry traffic to Camden. In 1878, shipping interests began a campaign to remove the island altogether, calling it an impediment to larger vessels. The campaign succeeded in 1891, when the Federal government began a six-year project to remove the islands. No trace of them exists today.

huh. I wish they were still there. Obviously, the old shipping route was instrumental in keeping Philadelphia prosperous for another couple of decades. But still, it sounds like it was a blast. Except for those pirates I guess. Still, I bet everyone else at those hangings was enjoying themselves.

I wonder what a scuba hunt of the area would yield. Other than getting chopped up by a propeller.
*I should know this, but is it S.C.U.B.A? SCUBA? I feel like it's a pretty established word, right? I mean, nobody spells it U.N.I.C.E.F., right?
right?

EDIT: I just found some old newspaper articles about the island, including one bemoaning the fact that Smith Island would soon be but a "vague memory". Also, this compelling passage:

In the meantime the police force of the island, consisting of six men, aided by some of the city police, was sent to the wharf to clear the crowd off, which they signally failed to accomplish. They had hardly arrived on this side before a fight sprang up on the island and black-jacks were freely flourished in the air. The fight soon spread and the police at once returned to the park to quell the disturbance, and the harbor police tug “Stokley” was sent to their assistance. A charge was made upon the fighters and about a dozen of the ringleaders were arrested and placed in the cells upon the tug. After being allowed to perspire for a while in the cells, they were brought to this side and allowed to go free. Most of them left quietly, but one of them became very abusive and threatened to beat the officers. He was taken to the Central Station, where he gave the name of Michael O'Mealey, and his residence at 1227 Fitzgerald street. He was held for a hearing on the charge of being drunk and disorderly.

okay, 10 posts in 2 days. I'm off to have a beer and watch the game. Go Phils.

Surveillance technology is a science with more than a few terrifying applications to it. The very sci-fiety of it all is almost astounding. New tech can recognize a person out of a crowd based on their walk, or the shape of their elbow. Face-scanning and body odor identifiers might be able to single out people with sinister motives. Biometrics, micro-expressions... it's all there for identification.

Human gaits, for example, can provide a lot of information about people’s intentions. At the American Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, a team of gait analysts and psychologists led by Frank Morelli study video, much of it conveniently posted on the internet by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq. They use special object-recognition software to lock onto particular features of a video recording (a person’s knees or elbow joints, for example) and follow them around. Correlating those movements with consequences, such as the throwing of a bomb, allows them to develop computer models that link posture and consequence reasonably reliably. The system can, for example, pick out a person in a crowd who is carrying a concealed package with the weight of a large explosives belt. According to Mr Morelli, the army plans to deploy the system at military checkpoints, on vehicles and at embassy perimeters.
...Another programme run by the Human Factors Division, Future Attributable Screening Technology, or FAST, is being developed as a complement to Project Hostile Intent. An array of sensors, at a distance of a couple of metres, measures skin temperature, blood-flow patterns, perspiration, and heart and breathing rates. In a series of tests, including a demonstration last month with 140 role-playing volunteers, the system detected about 80% of those who had been asked to try to deceive it by being hostile or trying to smuggle a weapon through it.

A number of “innocents”, though, were snagged too. The trial’s organisers are unwilling to go into detail, and are now playing down the significance of the testing statistics. But FAST began just 16 months ago. Bob Burns, the project’s leader, says its accuracy will improve next year thanks to extra sensors that can detect eye movements and body odours, both of which can provide further clues to emotional states.

So essentially what I'm asking is, why do I need to carry my driver's license with me everywhere?

So Game 5 of the 2008 World Series fits right in. It's so utterly Philadelphian, they should place a DVD of it in William Penn's hand, way up there on top of City Hall.

Modern Russia: Still looking pretty awesome and terrifying at the same time.

Pepsi: Things just got a lot uglier

There's been a lot of talk on the internet (at least on the crappy places I visit) about the new design for Pepsi products. And with good reason. It is... not good. I thought things were pretty terrible when they started letting the consumers design the can.
Now, it looks like they took the Obama logo* and tried to internet it up a bit. It's like they might as well just start advertising in lolspeak.
Is it possible that these designs came from the internet itself? Oh, man. It's gonna take me awhile to wrap my head around that one.

*As much as I like the Obama, this logo thing is creeping me out a bit. The very idea of branding political candidates (though I'm sure it isn't new by any stretch) just seems so ominous to me.
But then what the hell do I know.

Anyway, check out a look at Pepsi designs over the years. My favorite? The one that looks like motor oil:

Google image search of the day: polar bear submarine

more results than I expected.

Book Art

Wow. This is pretty impressive.

Office WAR

The Great Office War from Runawaybox on Vimeo.

Vintage Halloween photos = See ya later, EVER SLEEPING AGAIN

My love of vintage candid and everyday life photographs has been pretty well established here by now. Part of it is that I really enjoy the glimpses into the lives of these people whose names I will ever know. Part of is that I pretty much nobody knows who most of these people were, save perhaps their name or their own blood relation to them. I like the idea that someone stumbles across an old keepsake chest or dusty box in an attic somewhere and discovers these windows into a perfect stranger's life.
I think that these people live on primarily through the viewing of these photographs. That despite not being a world leader or a millionaire or Matthew Brady, we get to look at these people more intimately than the celebrities of their era, since these images tend to capture so much more emotion than any portrait ever does.
Part of it might be that the era I tend to look at the most, from right around the invention of the camera up until the 30s, is such a different era than the one we live in. It's not just the "no TV or internet" crap, although that is a pretty large part of modern life. It's more the "no electric refrigeration" and "don't ask about the bathroom situation"-type stuff.
Part of it might be that that last, haunting scene from the Shining*, which remains one of my favorite scenes ever filmed.
Anyways, what I started this post intending to say is that the folks over at Wired have put up some vintage Halloween photos, which might well be the most terrifying images I have ever seen.
It's odd, because I'm sure these masks were about as scary as a Dora the Explora** mask would be to us. But that doesn't make it any less creepy. When I was a kid I found these clear plastic masks in my parents' loft. It's hard to describe them, but they were somewhat opaque and featureless other than light red lips and on the one a mustache (this, aptly enough, is the closest thing I could find). I guess they were leftover from a party or something, but they scared the living crap out of me***. These pictures have absolutely surpassed them as the creepiest masks of all time, as far as I'm concerned. It's pretty amazing, and I'd guess that the celebration of Halloween was stil fairly new to these people****, which makes it even crazier. Imagine just picking up a new holiday. And I don't mean your dumbass international talk-like-a-pirate day.
Anyway, go check these pictures out. They'll probably be the scariest thing you see this Halloween season.

(other than whatever lies ahead in this election season)

*Not of Nicholson frozen in the snow, which I think most people remember the ending to be, but of the photograph of Jack Torrance and everyone else trapped in the ethereal golden years of the Overlook Hotel. Despite that movie being a pretty piss-poor adaptation and having some serious plotting issues (I love that this scene was thrown into the movie with absolutely ZERO illumination of the awesome back story it depicts). I really shoulda just made this a different post. Maybe a live watching of the Shining. ugh.
**I know, I know. But it's supposed to rhyme, no?
*** Those masks remain my third greatest childhood fear, behind horseshoe crabs and the clown marionette that my parents brought back for me from Mexico
****There's great sites all over the place going into the origins, traditions, and histories of Halloween, but just to be easy go check out the wiki page. It's absolutely fascinating and will probably teach you a great deal. Go learning.

The Stockholm Metro

After seeing a picture over at Oobject, I am now totally mesmerized by the Stockholm Metro lines (birthplace of the Metro newspaper!). This is the coolest thing ever and I now have a weird desire to go see Sweden and its subway stations, wacky socialism, and ABBA museum. Anyone down?

From the Economist

SIR – I read your article on organ transplants with interest (“The gap between supply and demand”, October 11th). I am the father of a seven-year-old boy, Nicholas Green, who was shot and killed in an attempted robbery during a family vacation in Italy. My wife and I donated his organs and corneas to seven very sick Italians, four of them teenagers. We’ve watched them grow into men and women and, 14 years later, all seven are still alive. Having seen all this I cannot visualise any decision other than the one we made, though to us at the time those people were just statistics on a waiting list.

The main obstacle for most people, I suggest, is this: brain death is usually sudden death—a road accident, a stroke, violence—and people arrive at the hospital to find someone they love, who was in good health only a few hours earlier, now dead or dying. Many are too stunned to take it in, others are angry and looking to assign blame; relations between family members may be tense, almost all are confused about organ donation.

To make a major, irrevocable decision there and then in this highly emotional atmosphere, about something they have never thought about before, is just too much for many people. They say no and often regret it for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, of all the hundreds of donor families I have met, I can scarcely remember one who regretted the decision.

If this is correct, the solution is clear: just as with any other important decision, families should discuss the options in calm conditions, when death is still a distant concept. As the overwhelming majority of people in most countries say they would donate a family member’s organs if they were faced with the choice, I would expect donation rates to soar.

Reg Green
La Cañada, California

The article itself is also worth reading, but this letter really stuck out to me. Some years ago my father wrote a letter to the Inquirer saying much of the same, though from a first person standpoint. As a result, things like this always move me a little.

That's all.

A new e-mail making the rounds among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania this week falsely alleged that Mr. Obama “taught members of Acorn to commit voter registration fraud,’’ and equated a vote for Senator Barack Obama with the “tragic mistake” of their Jewish ancestors, who “ignored the warning signs in the 1930’s and 1940’s.”

Yeah... um, what?

I don't wanna come on here and whine every day about stuff like this, but that it's all happening in PA is just irritating. Fortunately, This Phillies thing has grabbed everyone's attention for a while now. Which is fantastic for me, since I don't have to keep thinking about the economy, soul-sucking job searching, or the damned election for a few more days.

I'll write a real update soon, I promise.

ATM beating a hoax

She now can't explain why she invented the story, Bryant said.

Todd also told police she believes she cut the backward "B'' onto her own cheek, but she didn't explain how or why, Bryant said.

The alleged Pittsburgh ATM beating of a John McCain supporter was revealed to be a hoax.
Turns out the "black guy" didn't do it.

future beatings unconfirmed at this point.

This is disgusting, and I'm happy her stupid plan didn't work and resulted in public disgrace, negative impact on the McCain campaign, and getting beat up. I'm also happy that Bloomfield's name is cleared.

Tama

(also on Colbert tonight)

As the economic might of Japan faces up to the global banking crisis, a single cat has boosted the finances of a small Japanese city by millions of dollars, according to a study.

Tortoiseshell Tama is the "stationmaster" of the unmanned Kishi train station where she was born and raised on the provincial Kishigawa Line.

The real story, though, is what comes up in the related articles column of the BBC page:

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen*, fourteen*,

*only 2 results were about dogs that weren't really depressing looking. So I put in the positive ones.

"If you want to see the real John McCain, hit a ball into his yard"

-Stephen Colbert, tonight

Has this really not been said yet? no?









(note: google image search of "John McCain shaking fist" was fruitless)

V: not over yet?

I think I've rambled on here before about the impact that the sci-fi mini-series "V" had on my as a child. It ranks up there with "They Live" on the crappily made sci-fi features whose flimsy premises made me think everyone I knew as a child was an alien" list. And I guess it turns out they're gonna remake it. or continue it. Or something. The point is, Marc Singer's gonna get some work! That's right! No more waiting around for another awful Beastmaster (yet another movie I saw over 20 times as a child) sequels!

and yes, I'm painfully aware of how stupid this looks. But as a near-avid watcher of Battlestar Galactica remake, I will give this the benefit of the doubt until I see it. or at least until I see screen shots of how shoddy the production values are. I wish they'd keep the old uniforms, lizard molds, and spaceships*, but something tells me they're gonna have to mess with a good thing.

*I remember the transport ships from V looking uncannily like the old McDonald's McNugget styrofoam containers. So much so that I think I used to use one for that purpose for my action figures as a kid. Man, I should really keep stuff like that to myself.

This Week in Ewwwww

PETA urges Ben & Jerry's to use human breastmilk

You thought I was gonna go with a got milk ad, didn't you? pfffff grow up.

Okay, listen. I've attacked soy milk in the past*, but I think I could probably stomach it when faced with this option.

*only in the case of using it with cereal. Which just happens to be 95% of my milk consumption.

Did this one already make the rounds? I haven't seen it, but then unless it's about some stupid movie or the presidential race, I haven't noticed anything since like May.