Gulfstream

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/do-you-google.html Google whines about “google” turning into a verb that means “to search the internet,” urges customers to stop using it like that. (There must be a better way to prevent the evolution of language becoming a legal problem.) 21:21

http://www.newyorker.com/shouts/content/articles/061030sh_
shouts “A malaise set in within a couple hours of my arriving. I thought getting a job might help. It turns out I have a lot of relatives in Hell, and, using connections, I became the assistant to a demon who pulls people’s teeth out.” 15:34

http://www.slate.com/id/2151857/ Wow, art conservators take their jobs really seriously: to fixing Steve Wynn’s ripped Picasso they’s (may) attempt to match up individual fibres. Also, I quite liked Wynn’s reaction, as reported by Nora Ephron (1, 2, 3) and The New Yorker (4): (1) Oh shit; (2) Thank God it was me; (3) This has nothing to do with money. The money means nothing to me. It’s that I had this painting in my care and I’ve damaged it.; (4) (some time later) It’s a picture, it’s my picture, we’ll fix it. Nobody got sick or died. It’s a picture. It took Picasso five hours to paint it. 11:09

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/dining/21plate.html How to make a $36 entree look cheap? Add a $43 entree to the menu and don’t fret if no-one buys it. 14:15

http://www.bravia-advert.com/paint/thead/ Disappointing new Sony Bravia ad: a lot of it looks computer generated (though I don’t think it is) the paint explosions aren’t fun (and the clown is creepy). You know Gandalf’s really thrilling fireworks in Lord of the Rings? Watching loads of paint being splatted onto a building could and should have been as exhilerating, but somehow Jonathan Glazer messed up. 00:03

http://www.apple.com/support/windowsvirus/ Ha, strange: “Small Numbers of Video iPods Shipped With Windows Virus. … As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.” 22:23

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/xml/2006/06/images/afj.peters_
map_after.JPG Map showing what a more equitable Middle East might look like if it were divided up along religious and ethnic lines (related discussion). This was apparently presented in a lecture at a NATO conference; Turkey wasn’t pleased. 13:32

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6034543.stm Surprising: Fox News’s Bush approval rating poll is the least positive of three major polls (graph). 11:13

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20061016,00.html Not completely sold on the art direction here, but nice Time cover. 23:24

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WorldMapWithAntipodes.png Two world maps superimposed on top of each other, so that you can see which points are opposite each other on the Earth’s surface. (Surprisingly little overlap; the lower part of South America is opposite to a chunk of China, and New Zealand’s south island is opposite part of Spain, but that’s about it.) 15:19

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/53594 “Despite sprinting through the Andrews Air Force Base south terminal, President Bush narrowly missed his Air Force One flight to Boise earlier today after arriving just moments after the plane’s doors had closed.” 16:43

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/2006/10/02/the-value-of-
commitment-reflections-on-my-10-year-wedding-anniversary-
as-it-relates-to-poker/ Great story: Steven Levitt, playing in a poker tournament to celebrate his 10 year wedding anniversary, plays like a crazy man in order to either lose quickly or win quickly so he can make his flight. (I won’t spoil the ending!) 22:51

http://www.slate.com/id/2150552/ The history of Trojan condoms, including the difficulties faced in marketing them throughout most of the 20th Century. 21:16

http://www.bigskyastroclub.org/pale_blue_dot.htm The Pale Blue Dot: a picture of Earth, taken from a very long way away, inspires some fine words from Carl Sagan about how insignificant we all are, or something. 21:06

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5369966.stm Solid voting system in Gambia: voters drop marbles into metal drums, ringing a bell as they fall. You get your finger inked after voting, and after the polls close the marbles are poured onto solitaire-style boards for counting. 18:33

http://junkfunnel.com/sld/ The Suspicious Looking Device: “The only function of the Suspicious Looking device is to appear as suspicious as possible, whether carried in hand or placed indiscrimately in public places.” (Thank-you for calling this a project and not art.) 18:01