Gulfstream

http://www.slate.com/id/2133551/ The traditional year-on-year German NYE TV show is a 1963 B&W recording of an obscure British skit involving a nonagenarian birthday celebrant, her Butler, and four invisible guests. 16:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/30/national/30surf.html Major manufacturer of foam blanks for surfboards suddenly closes, leading to a whole lotta surfboard theft, reflection on whether the (apparently very toxic) process can be improved. 11:12

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050815/zirin Alternately grumpy/informative piece on the development and role of professional sports in the US. (References both Teddy Roosevelt and Chomsky!) 23:10

http://www.slate.com/id/2132576/ “I opened a charming neighborhood coffee shop. Then it destroyed my life.” 22:50

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4557034.stm A French far right charity (maybe just a far right group trying to be provocative) is feeding only non-Muslim and non-Jewish homeless people by serving pig-only meals. 09:50

http://www.mil-millington.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/xmas_2005.htm Mil Millington’s Christmas Card: “Every single thing we’d hope to have ourselves in 2006, we hope that you may have also, after we’re bored with each one of them.” (Includes picture!) 12:04

http://mcsweeneys.net/2005/11/18underwood.html “In-Progress Ideas for New Yorker Cartoons.” 07:29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_attacks El Kabong: “A maneuver used by Jeff Jarrett and The Honky Tonk Man in particular, it simply involves breaking a guitar over somebody’s head.” [sic] 12:11

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1405440 Brazilian city contemplates requiring businesses to provide a third transvestites-only bathroom. 09:38

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3525484.html Piece on Oscar-winning actresses who subsequently go on to make dreck. 07:34

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/magazine/11ideas_section2-
12.html (1) The US apparently has a long-standing policy that any food aid must be purchased in, and shipped from, the US. (And is alone among large donors in requiring this.) (2) US nongovernmental aid organisations actually like this arrangement, because they make money by selling a whole lot of donated food that isn’t needed for emergencies. (3) Bush tried to change these rules earlier this year, but Congress voted against it.

(Hrm, I’m a bit sceptical of this, particularly (2). Are all the aid organisations really against it? Why are they been given food that is profitable to sell anyway? (Who are they selling it to?) And how can there be a surplus of food aid?) 04:42

http://www.23hq.com/ Just discovered this. Are there any other groups aside from 43* and now 23* [update: oh, and 37*, whoops] that are using a number as a domain prefix? It seems unwise—you can’t copyright or otherwise protect a number, right? (One of my favourite naming fuckups is the motorway situation in the UK. At one point they decided give the motorway-class roads the M prefix; roads not quite up to that standard were given the A prefix. All of which meant that when they upgraded parts of the A1 to M-class standard, they had to call those parts the A1(M)…) 07:27

http://www.rcstudios.com/everything/ “Everything I have ever”: poster containing “over 400 highly detailed silhouettes [um],” printed in bright orange, then overprinted in silver paint that you can scratch off to reveal the objects you own. 06:33

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438890a.html Nature encourages its readers to “to push forward the grand experiment that is Wikipedia, and to see how much it can improve.” 05:31

http://www.veer.com/products/merchdetail.aspx?image=VPR0001260 Typography humour. I would laugh at anyone who actually wore this, but it is cute. 10:14

http://www.epica-awards.org/assets/epica/2004/finalists/
film/flv/22012-1.htm Surreal ad for German hardware store. More: 1, 2, 3. 13:09

http://www.slate.com/id/2131573/ Adam L. Penenberg proposes that Apple run iTunes like a stock market, with price determined by demand. “The more people who download the latest Eminem single, the higher the price will go. … Music prices would oscillate like stocks on Nasdaq, with the current cost pegged to up-to-the-second changes in the number of downloads. In essence, this is a pure free-market solution—the market alone would determine price.” One issue relating to this sort of idea is that the tracks aren’t transferrable, and this, combined with the fact that Apple know which tracks you bought, means that they could in theory apply per-customer pricing. (Own Kate Bush’s entire back catalogue? Well then you’ll likely to be willing to pay a premium for her latest album.) 09:28

http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/simon/ Captivating “interactive essay” (photos plus commentary from the photographer) on London’s inner-city housing estates. Towards the end there are some pictures of some of the grime artists mentioned in Sasha Frere-Jones’s New Yorker grime profile. 09:29

http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/572429.html “c-jump,” the computer programming board game. (Linking here instead of the game itself because of the comments.) 20:39

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4497840.stm Fascinating: the Red Cross is trying to negotiate a third, “neutral” emblem. This calls for diplomats! Lots of them! 19:33

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/chi/110048529.html “Muahmmad (sic) Ali - How to be a Man 101.” 12:01

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/110504612.html “Are we done with the fucking pennies yet?” 12:01

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4490602.stm The World Health Organisation is to stop hiring people who smoke. How is this legal? If this is legal, then it should be legal to hire only smokers, which would solve the most troublesome aspect of my argument for smoking in (some) pubs… 22:57

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-
29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm John Seigenthaler’s Wikipedia entry was wrong for 132 days, which makes him unhappy. 11:04