Stuff I've Seen on the Interwebz: BMW Grill, Edible Cookie Cup, and Hello Kitty Fry Pan

Here are a few items I saw online recently. Perhaps the only interest you will have in any of them is for their entertainment value ...


First, we have a BMW grill from the Top Gear website (someone submitted it to Top Gear, they didn't build it or anything):

http://www.TOPGEAR.com/uk/photos/from-the-top-gear-inbox-2012-05-04
(Update 8/16/15: this Top Gear page no longer accessible)

Next is one of the most incredible (and long overdue) things I've seen: The Edible Cookie Cup! (Bad news: It is not gluten free)

http://thewateringmouth.com/cookie-cup-by-enrique-luis-sardi-and-lavazza/

Final entry for "Stuff I've Seen on the Interwebz" is ... well, I'm not sure who would want this, but there it is: the Hello Kitty Frying Pan.

http://www.nextgadgets.net/hello-kitty-frying-pan/

Aren't you glad we have the internet to supply with with an endless array of ... well, whatever?

RIP Brad Graham; and thanks for coining "blogosphere"

I had no idea a theater publicist had coined the term, "blogosphere." Nor did I know the man behind this term was himself a blogger who didn't even like the word "blog." Read Jeff Jarvis' piece (linked below), or wait till this evening when the audio is posted and listen to it. Too bad it is nearly as brief as Graham's own life (he died at age 41).

Brad L. Graham [Photo: St. Louis Today]

NPR: The Man Is Gone, But Long Live The Blogosphere by Jeff Jarvis January 6, 2010 Most bloggers I know don’t much like the word "blog", and they have even less affection for "blogosphere." Blech. Wikipedia says credit — or blame — for coining "blogosphere" goes to Brad Graham, a theater publicist and blogger in St. Louis who died this week at the age of 41. Look him up on Google and you’ll see: "Blogosphere" is his legacy. But thank goodness, Graham was joking when he first said it... [read more]

More on Brad Graham:

• Obit in St. Louis Today
• Remembering Our Friend Brad (MetaFilter)
• The BradLands (Brad Graham's blog)
• "Blogosphere" in Wikipedia

Indianapolis Public Schools Censoring Pagan Content?

The Wild Hunt Blog, a respected source of Pagan news and commentary, directed me to this story. Like many public schools, the Indianapolis Public School system has employed web filters on school computers. Despite the known problems, this has become a fairly standard practice in schools. What is at issue here, however, is that "almost all of the most popular Internet filters block Pagan sites" [religioustolerance.org]. Refer to the Wild Hunt's reporting for the full story and a hopper full of background linking: The Wild Hunt » Indianapolis Public Schools Block the Pagans The Wild Hunt also raises an interesting question in the midst of all the cyber legalities: Did the school officials in question :put [this policy] place because [they were] "anti-atheist and anti-Pagan, or ... simply lazy"? I am willing to lean toward lazy in this case, but I'm just going by my gut. I have no evidence or reason to believe the school actively condemns expressions of spirituality. It is very likely just the side effect of a budgetary consideration.

Photo by RIUM+ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Walk Score

How walkable is your neighborhood? Your office building? Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc., and then sets a score (from 0 to 100). The higher the score, the easier it is to complete errands on foot instead of by driving a car. Their general guidelines for the score are as follows (and I quote from their How it works page):

• 90–100 = Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
• 70–89 = Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car.
• 50–69 = Somewhat Walkable: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.
• 25–49 = Car-Dependent: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.
• 0–24 = Car-Dependent (Driving Only): Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!

I'm not going to go into how their algorithm works. You can go check out the How it works page or their FAQ. I'm still playing around with it, but I have not seen any results that I would greatly disagree with.

The Web that Time Forgot

The International Herald Tribune has a story on a technology pioneer Paul Otlet, who imagined a "Steampunk version of hypertext" more than 50 years before the first Web browser was released. Check it out: The web that time forgot - International Herald Tribune

The telegraph room at the original Mundaneum in Brussels. (Mundaneum)

Latin isn't dead, it just smells funny

"Latin isn't dead, it just smells funny." So says Josh Rocchio, a graduate student and an editor of Vicipaedia Latina, the Latin version of Wikipedia. Josh and his colleagues have a simple yet staggering goal: "Make a Latin reference work that is hip and alive" through the power of Wiki. And they are writing in honest-to-goodness, authentic, classical Latin. According to the article by Lee Gomes,

Vicipaedia has 15,000 articles. Catullus, Horace and the Roman Senate all are there; so are musica rockica, Georgius Bush and cadavera animata, a k a zombies. You can read in Latin about hangman (homo suspensus), paper airplanes (aeroplanum chartaceum) and magic 8-balls (pila magica 8), as well as about famous Italians like Leonardo da Vinci and the Super Mario brothers.

Sure, I'd like to make a joke about it being "all Greek" to me. But that isn't accurate, or even funny. So I will simply direct you to Lee's article on WSJ.com.

Veni, Vidi, Wiki: Latin Isn't Dead On 'Vicipaedia' By LEE GOMES September 29, 2007; Page A1 Online Reference Features Britannia Spears, Disneyi; Disputing Computatrum It's not that ancient Romans didn't know a thing or two about wild sex. They had their Bacchanalia, after all. But lacking video technology, they had no expression for "sex tape." And that is why writing about Paris Hilton in Latin can sometimes be so difficillimum. The editors of Vicipaedia Latina, the Latin version of the popular Wikipedia Internet reference site, were thus forced to wing it. In their article about the hotel heiress, they described Ms. Hilton's famous X-rated Web video as pellicula in interrete vulgate de coitu Paridis. [ Full Story ]