24 Years Ago, When Spinach Was Safe

[spinach, Tylenol]



It was the Tylenol that was filled with Cyanide – on September 29, 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after unwittingly taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide.

[Sinatra, LA, Capitol Records]

Capitol Records
Originally uploaded by Still Burning.

...and while you can live in it, you won't be living in the "House that Frank Built."

(ap) Deal saves EMI's Capitol Records tower:

The iconic, cylindrical Capitol Records building that stands just north of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine won't be sold for condos after all.

EMI Music North America said Thursday that it has agreed to sell the building and other nearby property to New York-based Argent Ventures for $50 million and will continue to house its Capitol Records label and studio there as part of a long-term lease.

Artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and the Beach Boys recorded albums in the building, which was built in 1956 to look like a stack of records. The building's spire resembles a phonograph needle and a light blinks the word "Hollywood" in Morse code.

[Kids, ask your parents who Frank Sinatra was. And what records and phonograph needles are.]

[Photojojo , Kottke , photoshop]

After reading the Photojojo post about turning tin cans into frames and the improvements suggested by Jason Kottke, I recalled the gift-in-a-can kiosks that popped up at our local mall around Christmas back in the late 70s.

So I started thinking, why wrap a can of soup when you can wrap an empty can, fill it with a gift and seal it up. Home Depot sells paint cans in various sizes up to a gallon, on-line sources may have even bigger ones. They can be pushed closed and only need a screwdriver to open. (Didn't Painter software used to come this way?)

Clinton on FOX

Setting the record straight:

Easy As (Apple®) Pie

[Dell, Wonko the Sane, obvious]

This is right up there with the tea-bag instructions (Bag. Bag+water. Time. Tea!) I once saved. I am thinking that Douglas Adams was *way* ahead of his time even more so today after finding this:

The Not Too Distant Future Past

[MST3k]

This MST3K collection (Volume 10!) looks like a good one (3 out of 4 are as close to classics as they come – haven't seen the 4th).

Riffs from memory:

•Show #212: Godzilla Vs. Megalon ("extremely abundant members of the weaker sex parading up and down the rows of our high-yield, super-cheap, double-whammy ganga-ganga corn? The sweet fruit juices annointing their bodies")

•Show #503: Swamp Diamonds w/ the short What to do on a Date ("Beverly Garland's Bra!")

•Show #514: Teen-Age Strangler w/ the short Is This Love? ("I didn't steal no bicycle neither!")

...and the one wild card:
•Show #810: The Giant Spider Invasion

Only On The Extra Very Special Edition Star Wars DVD

[Star Wars]

This was making the rounds this morning:

Wish I had thought of it!

Frak Party

[Battlestar Galactica, Frak Party]

Find (or host) a Battlestar Galactica party when the new season premieres on October 6th on SciFi.


Even if you don't, enjoy Starbuck in a pink frilly hat.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

[iBook, G4 Cube, temptation]

In the last couple of days I have seen two of the few* Apple / Macintosh models I have never owned but still fell a calling to: the original (Blueberry) iBook and the lucite G4 cube. To make matters worse the Cube was on a cart of Macs (next to an Indigo iMac) and printers that were most likely headed to the surplus property graveyard.

I know all I would need is a couple of bucks and I could go buy either but lacking the space for any more hardware I have been quite good about not adding more to the pile. That being said a free, working cube would be hard to say no to.

_____
*The eMate 300 would be the only other Apple 'want' I can think of right now.

Truth in reporting: ' "Rachael Ray Show" potentially annoying'

[Rachael Ray]

By Ray Richmond Tue Sep 19, 5:57 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Carefully tailored to service the soccer mom crowd racing between work and kids and shopping, "The Rachael Ray Show" is a syndicated daytime talk show-cum-pep rally targeting viewers who are double-parked.
[...]
Y!

Truth on a Plane

[In Flight Announcement]

from The Economist:
In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like?

"GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.

The flight attendants are now pointing out the emergency exits. This is the part of the announcement that you might want to pay attention to. So stop your sudoku for a minute and listen: knowing in advance where the exits are makes a dramatic difference to your chances of survival if we have to evacuate the aircraft. Also, please keep your seat belt fastened when seated, even if the seat-belt light is not illuminated. This is to protect you from the risk of clear-air turbulence, a rare but extremely nasty form of disturbance that can cause severe injury. Imagine the heavy food trolleys jumping into the air and bashing into the overhead lockers, and you will have some idea of how nasty it can be. We don't want to scare you. Still, keep that seat belt fastened all the same.

Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.

Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate.

On channel 11 of our in-flight entertainment system you will find a video consisting of abstract imagery and a new-age soundtrack, with a voice-over explaining some exercises you can do to reduce the risk of deep-vein thrombosis. We are aware that this video is tedious, but it is not meant to be fun. It is meant to limit our liability in the event of lawsuits.

Once we have reached cruising altitude you will be offered a light meal and a choice of beverages—a word that sounds so much better than just saying ‘drinks’, don't you think? The purpose of these refreshments is partly to keep you in your seats where you cannot do yourselves or anyone else any harm. Please consume alcohol in moderate quantities so that you become mildly sedated but not rowdy. That said, we can always turn the cabin air-quality down a notch or two to help ensure that you are sufficiently drowsy.

After take-off, the most dangerous part of the flight, the captain will say a few words that will either be so quiet that you will not be able to hear them, or so loud that they could wake the dead. So please sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We appreciate that you have a choice of airlines and we thank you for choosing Veritas, a member of an incomprehensible alliance of obscure foreign outfits, most of which you have never heard of. Cabin crew, please make sure we have remembered to close the doors. Sorry, I mean: ‘Doors to automatic and cross-check’. Thank you for flying Veritas.”

Thanks Andrea!

Xena is Now Eris

[space, Xena, Eris]

No word how the team of astronomers that discovered UB313 (quickly dubbed "Xena" after television show "Xena: Warrior Princess") will resonate with the new name of Eris (appropriately the Greek goddess of discord and strife).


I kinda like the new name despite the fact that Xena tied in nicely to the whole "tenth planet," "Planet X" and the Roman-numeral form of the number 10.

For the record, UB313's satellite (discovered in 2005) previously nicknamed "Gabrielle" after Xena's TV character's sidekick is now Dysnomia (Eris' daughter).

Hyperland

[Douglas Adams, Tom Baker, internet]

The future according to the BBC and Douglas Adams, circa 1990. With Tom Baker ("Doctor Who") as his software agent.

5 Minutes To Showtime

[Apple, iTunes]

So the iTunes Music Store is now just iTunes Store and Apple Germany has links to iTunes Videos.


But what of the hardware to go with this? Just have to wait....

Sky News Weather Parody

[Star Wars, Sky News]



I wonder what the pollen count is on the moon of Endor?

Thanks, DD!

The People's Court

[squash]

Squashtotaal.com is all the link you will ever need when you think squash. Seriously.

Try it and you'll see.
Thanks Fipi!

Mac To the Future

[MacOS, System 7, Windown Mobile]

From the bottomless depths of video over at YouTube comes this gem: "Mac System 7 on Pocket PC"


Not sure how they did it (and i'd like it if you could rotate the screen 90º), but if this is real how cool is this?

I'm thinking, Marathon,Three in Three & Specter in your pocket, but I am sure there are tons of games I have forgotten.

PodCast or ModCast

[Brini, Brini Maxwell, Why didn't you think of that?]

Brini Maxwell, star of the Brini Maxwell Show, has been doing "Hints for Gracious Living" over at the Alt.NPR poscast section of iTunes store but soon you can catch a video podcast.



Just the thing for the oft-rumoured 'bright red shiny Apple video something' should it appear at the September 12th Apple Event, no?

Beijing Olympic Pictograms

[Beijing, Olympics, pictogram]

I probably first noticed Olympic mascots, pictograms and the like when Chiquita put stickers on their bananas for the 1980 Lake Placid games. It wasn't until the 1994 Lillehammer games did I take notice of them again. I must say the newest set from Beijing are rather stylish, despite the handful that have inspired some to make a joke or two.

Watching Nigerian Scammers Busted

[Nigerian, 419, fraud]

EFCC busting a cyber café in Nigeria and the press rides along. All goes well until the crowd outside gets upset:

[Star Trek, CBS]

TVGuideonline: On Sept. 16, the iconic '60s series will return to syndication for the first time since 1990, but with a startling difference: All 79 episodes are being digitally remastered with computer-generated effects not possible when Gene Roddenberry created the show 40 years ago. The news could cause Roddenberry loyalists to have a collective cow, but the longtime Trek staffers in charge of the makeover say they're honoring the late maestro's vision, not changing it.

"We're taking great pains to respect the integrity and style of the original," says Michael Okuda, who spent 18 years as a scenic-art supervisor on Star Trek films and spin-offs. "Our goal is to always ask ourselves: What would Roddenberry have done with today's technology?"

Must start wracking my brian if there are any 'Han shoots first" moments in Trek....

Just You Wait, 'enry 'iggins

[linguistics]

Thanks to Louie, I now know that I picked up only a smattering of Boston-English.

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

20% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Backstage at Google Labs?

[constuction]



No, behind 237 and Montague.