Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/23/daily-show-piracy/
We watch The Daily Show every day. It is actually one of the very few shows we watch regularly, and so instead of spending tens of dollars a month on cable television, we download our television off the Internet. It is a little less convenient because I have to download the shows manually instead of setting up a DVR, and the video quality is often inconsistent. On the other hand, the people who upload the shows edit the commercials out beforehand, and I can copy the files to a laptop to watch on the plane.
Wired magazine publishes an interview with Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart and producer Ben Karlin:
Wired: [The Daily Show is] among the most popular shows traded online. People download and watch the whole thing, every day. Were you guys aware of that?
Karlin: Not only am I not aware of that, I don’t want to be aware of that.
Wired: Well, don’t go shutting it down.
Stewart: We’re not going to shut it down – we don’t even know what it is. I’m having enough trouble just getting porn.
Whew! (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/17/dumb-afa-xxx/
From: “American Family Association” <afapetition@afa.net>
To: Jesus McChrist
Subject: Stop Triple X Domain
Dear Jesus,
Your help is needed to stop pornographers from having their own Internet domain.
.
.
.
In addition to having the .xxx domain, the pornographers could (and would) continue sending out billions of pornographic images on every other domain. As bad as pornography is on the Internet now, it would be infinitely worse with the triple X domain. The establishment of a triple X domain would give legitimacy to the pornographers.
(more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/12/kinky-friedman-under-god/
So, I wrote the Kinky campaign: (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/08/wtc-the-buffalo-idea/
If you ask Timothy “Speed” Levitch:
Buffalo in Berlin!
I’ve been working to promote my idea for Ground Zero that’s embedded in the new short documentary we’ve been taking around to film festivals called Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor. It’s called “The Buffalo Idea.” It’s an idea that came about from a whole conversation of artists. And we’d like to use the land currently called Ground Zero and turn it into a Joy Park and grazing land for American Bison. The idea is that the central monument should not be an inanimate piece of stone but it should be something that’s alive, that has a heartbeat and that propagates. I think that a lot of what was felt by the people who came up with the idea is that the American Bison represents and indigenous American community that has been experiencing September 11th for 400 years. According to different statistics I’ve heard, there was something like 75 million Buffalo on the continent when the first Europeans arrived and by the 1890’s there was about 200 left. Definitely a tribe of holocaust survivors. A tribe that knows the suffering of September 11th, and the healing. I myself have had the opportunity to stand with free roaming Buffalo in the wild-a great feeling. An amazing experience, almost cosmopolitan. You’d be surprised to see how much cosmopolitanism exist within the average bison and I’m sure the average bison would be surprised to see how much wild exist in the average cosmopolitan. I think they have a lot to learn from each other. On the topic of the current plans for Ground Zero, I think it’s time for everybody to remember Cat Gilbert, the great New York Architect who designed the Woolworth building and the George Washington bridge- his definition of sky scraper was a machine that makes the land pay. I don’t think that the land should have to pay any more. I don’t think we should have to pay. I don’t think anyone should have to pay-I’m not sure what we owe. I think we’re all miraculously and unexplainably born into this and then suddenly everything has to pay. Everyone is debating over these plans, but they’re all the same to me, they’re all making the land pay.
I was reminded of this by Jeff.
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/03/recent-premonitions/
I’m not superstitious.
A while back, a server crashed, and shortly before the page hit my sidekick, I dreamt that a server had crashed.
I just took a call from a guy who says I won a free lunch. (more…)
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/02/engrish-bible/
Ever try to read the Bible? It can take a lot of effort. The original version was in Biblical Hebrew, and had no vowels. Later scholars “interpreted” this source material, filling in the vowels. This was in turn translated into Latin, which informs much of our English translation of the Good Book.
I was thinking, just for fun, to run the Book of Genesis through Babelfish to Japanese and back again. Just to see if the “Engrish Bible” might be at all entertaining. “I barely understood the Japanese translation in Japan,” said Yayoi. I think the English is hard to follow.
Without further ado, the Book of Genesis, as translated into Engrish. Just remember, if you think this version is messed up, the version you are used to has been translated twice, and originally had no vowels! (more…)
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/07/29/dinner-at-google/
We carpooled down from Oakland. “Ah, the old country,” I remarked, as we sped south down 101 past San Antonio Road. Mountain View was home to so many of us when we first moved to California, during the boom.
The Google campus is at the edge of the Shoreline recreation area. There’s a tranquil view of Shoreline’s rolling yellow hills, which must provide a pleasing hint of seasonality when the rains green them in the spring.
Entering the Google Campus was like stepping into a land of enchantment comparable for geeks to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Every building has its variant of the free snack pantry. I gobbled a few malted milk balls, and later some chocolate peanut clusters. Yum! Matt remarked that at Yahoo! The snacks aren’t free but the coffee is manned by professional baristas, which might be cool, if he drank coffee. (more…)
2 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/07/19/peanut-butter-mochi/
Yayoi came home from Japantown today. She was excited. “You must try this new product,” she explained.
It was a flat, pink, gelatinous food substance. Mochi! Mochi is basically a a bland, dry, rice-based(?) wrapper for snacks, like “mochi ice” which is a lump of ice cream wrapped in mochi. (Think of it as a flexible cracker for snacks.) (more…)
2 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/07/19/amen-kinky-friedman/
“When George W. was governor, we executed a man every two weeks on average. I want to put an end to that. I hate for you to have to hear this from a Jew, but what would Jesus do about this? Would Jesus be interested in these men’s death or their salvation? That’s what you’ve got to ask yourself if you’re a Christian.”
To which this Atheist replies, “Amen, Kinky Friedman!”
If you live in Texas, you might want to save your vote for Kinky in next year’s gubernatorial primary.
If you don’t live in Texas, you could drop a few bucks on his campaign.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/07/07/london/
(more…)
4 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/07/04/usa-christian-roots-faq/
“What of America’s Christian Roots?”
From what I can tell, the founding fathers were about as Christian as other Americans. Which means, some were plenty Christian and some were pretty open-minded, or minimalist, like me. I think this excerpt from The Week, June 10, 2005 explains our Christian Heritage fairly well: (more…)
3 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/07/03/under-god-faq/
You may ask: “what about ‘Under God?'”
When I was growing up, I recited the Pledge of Allegiance every day. “One nation, under God, indivisible . . .” at first, I just went with it. Then I began to wonder why an Atheist should profess to “one nation, under God” . . . if I didn’t believe in God, wasn’t swearing that my nation was “under God” dishonest? Really, didn’t saying “one nation, under God, indivisible” basically negate, for an Atheist, the entire pledge? Was I lying? Was I being disloyal? (more…)
4 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/07/02/i-atheist/
These days when America’s leaders are trying to make the place look more “Christian” I worry a bit because old-fashioned Christianity has from time to time endorsed the torture and murder of non-Christians. (more…)
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/06/30/those-little-subscription-cards/
From: Danny Howard <dannyman@toldme.com>
To: themail@newyorker.com
Subject: Those Little Subscription Cards
Hello,
For generations, our species has been plagued by little slips of paper that fall out of magazines like The New Yorker when we are trying to read. This is very distracting, as the environmentally conscientious reader must bend down and pick these off the ground, and carry them over to the paper recycling bin. (more…)
2 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/06/28/surfing-the-peak/
There’s a phenomenon called Hubbert’s Peak, named for the guy who correctly predicted that once the United States had consumed half of its oil reserves, that increasing demand would combine with diminishing supply to push prices steeply upward. From my reading, I have found that this prediction worked out domestically, but the oil prices didn’t shoot up because we have been successful at importing oil from overseas.
The really interesting Hubbert’s Peak, is when the world’s oil reserves will pass the 50% mark, at which point, unless we successfully adopt alternative energy, the oil prices will definitely shoot up a great deal, and they will never, barring a crash in the world economy, come down. I have read in a few places, that most predictions place that between between now and 2025 or so, 2012 seems to be the median. Some good advice I read said not to trust oil company estimates, because they try to over-estimate their reserves to improve their stock prices. There’s a decent chance that we are already at, near, or just a bit past, the peak: (more…)
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