Esquire wikis article on Wikipedia

When Esquire magazine writer A.J. Jacobs decided to do an article about the freely distributable and freely editable online encyclopedia Wikipedia, he took an innovative approach: He posted a crummy, error-laden draft of the story to the site. Link.

Say hello to Brian Wilson.

It's too goddamn early in the morning for me and I'm tired, but I had to post this one up asap 'cause I think it makes the top of the cool list today. Brian Wilson is offering to make a personal call to anyone who donates $100 or more to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It's a nice incentive, isn't it, for an opportunity to talk with an icon? Hmmm... I'd like to ask him how he would like to be remembered in the annals of music history.

Find out more here.

Orchestrated Endtroducing.

This is one of the most impressive things I've heard and seen lately (the most recent among them was watching the JetBlue pilot land yesterday's plane safely despite broken landing gear). Brian Udelhofen, who teaches the afterschool percussion class at Minneapolis' Minnektoka High School, arranged two songs from DJ Shadow's epic Endtroducing album for the group. They practiced and practiced for months and it all paid off: The tunes remarkably do sound like the real things.

Click here to see the performance. Note: You'll need a fast connection for this one.

Books are cool.

Plain and simple: People who don't like to read are pansies. I don't buy the excuse that you can't ever find a book to read. Or that you can never find a book interesting enough to stay with it till the end. Or even more lame, that you don't have the time to read. What Should I Read Next is a brilliant site that suggests books you might like. Were riveted by Animal Farm? Type it into the form, click the button, and up comes a list of suggestions of other books you should try. It's a feature that Amazon and other sites have, but this is on a more focused and expanded scale.

eMachineShop.

One of my favorite magazines in the world (only preceded by Budget Travel), Wired, has an excellent article this month by Clive Thompson on eMachineShop, a "dream factory" of sorts that will create anything you design for a price. Really. For the story, Thompson sent in a design for a guitar made of acrylic and aluminum that in the end was actually too heavy for use, but it opens doors for a slew of practical mash-ups and creations. For example, Thompson cites a Norwegian sheepherder who employed eMachineShop to create GPS tags to keep track of his animals.

Rubber Johnny.

Chris Cunningham is the visual genius behind some of my favorite music videos, including Bjork's "All Is Full of Love" and Aphex Twin's wonderfully twisted "Come to Daddy." His latest project -- a short film called Rubber Johnny -- has been out on Warp's DVD imprint for a while now, but I found a link that's running the film. Rubber Johnny is an A.D.D.-addled mutant kid who has been locked in a basement and forgotten by his embarrassed parents. Be forewarned: The featurette is nothing short of gross, nightmarish and scintillatingly disturbing. The soundtrack, Aphex Twin's fractious "Afx 237 v.7," makes it all the more creepier.

What I find funny is that it's categorized on DVD sites as anything from "educational" to "horror."

Konica Minolta's 8-MP Dimage X1.

I am seriously lusting over Konica Minolta's new digital camera the Dimage X1, which makes all other cameras pale in comparison. I'll be the first to admit the 8-MP specs are too over the top for anyone looking for a simple point-and-shoot for more frivolous uses. But the price is right (as low as $350 in many online electronic shops), it comes in the color I've been looking for in a digital camera (black), and the LCD screen is a whopping 2.5 inches. As much as people have boasted about their Canons, this seems like a better deal. With its iPod dimensions and low-profile look, I'm all over this little baby!

Blame game.

I love this one. Found an excerpt from Salon.com via Boing Boing via LawGeek about an exchange between a reporter and rodent-like White House spokesman Scott McClellan. An excerpt:

Reporter: Scott, does the president retain confidence in his FEMA director and secretary of Homeland Security?

McClellan: And again, David, see, this is where some people want to look at the blame game issue, and finger-point. We're focused on solving problems, and we're doing everything we can --

Reporter: What about the question?

McClellan: We're doing everything we can in support --

Reporter: We know all that.

McClellan: -- of the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA.

Reporter: Does he retain complete confidence --

McClellan: We're going to continue. We appreciate the great effort that all of those at FEMA, including the head of FEMA, are doing to help the people in the region. And I'm just not going to engage in the blame game or finger-pointing that you're trying to get me to engage.

Reporter: OK, but that's not at all what I was asking.

McClellan: Sure it is. It's exactly what you're trying to play.

Reporter: You have your same point you want to make about the blame game, which you've said enough now. I'm asking you a direct question, which you're dodging.

Read the rest here .

Help relief efforts in Louisiana.

A friend sent this note below, which I thought I'd pass on for good measure. I should probably check the group out first to make sure it isn't one masquerading as a Christian organization, but I trust the source. Check the site for a more complete list of items needed.

We're putting together some boxes of supplies to send to Louisiana to the hurricane victims. The Veterans for Peace is taking donations of the items listed below. They do not want used clothing at this time. We're trying to send this box(es) Monday so if there is any way you can get anything to us by then it would be greatly appreciated by those who desperately need it! Otherwise you can send things on your own to the address on this link: Veterans for Peace .

Water
Any and all Canned Goods
Baby Supplies - Baby Food Formula, diapers #4, #5, Wipes, Pedialyte
Hygiene Supplies (toothpaste,toothbrush,soap,shampoo/conditioner, feminine products)
Underwear-male and female (packaged)
T shirts (packaged)
Shorts, pants, socks (packaged)
Adult Depends
Sterile Gloves
Electrolytes
Food bank & delivery volunteers with trucks, vans or cars
Self-contained kitchens with generators, utensils, workers
Office & media equipment

Katrina.

Wow. It’s an incredible accusation. Our great nation’s government refutes the notion that they were shamefully slow to react to the massive Katrina disaster because those largely affected by it were black? And, in a double whammy, these blacks happen to be poor as well?

Really, how dare our own tax-paying, freedom-fries-loving citizens conceive this grotesque, sinister thought. Let’s think about this, let’s reason it out. Taking into account our wonderful work in Iraq and especially Guantanamo Bay, in prosecuting white-collar crime, in enacting “tough” hate crime laws in some states, it all makes for a pretty weak case, doesn’t it?

Godzilla Rice, congrats for standing your ground. You must be so proud. We’re all wrong, yet again. Tsk, tsk on us. By golly.

Open for business.

Darvocet. Yum. Now trading for dark-chocolate bars. Truffle variety preferred.

My iPod makes me feel cool.

It’s very seldom when I feel the idea of cool is personally applicable to me. For instance, such as when I put on a Friday-night outfit and see that it really only looked better assembled in my head. Sometimes though, elusive Cool will pop out of a nowhere with a right jab to the chin while I stare at her staring back at me in the mirror, leaving me with whiplash so hard that I can see into the next century. There are moments like those that I relish, that make me utter, Damn, I am hot shit!

I had that moment yesterday.

I stayed up till 1:40 a.m. listening to the shuffle mode on my iPod. If you’re like me (and in fact, I’m jealous if you’re not), you’ve loaded a megaton of crap onto your iPod that you didn’t know about until the shuffle mode threw them in like rocks through windows. I boycotted the shuffle mode a few months ago after it pulled up one inferior song after another. Yesterday night, out of indecisiveness that inevitably plagues all people who have too many choices, I shuffled.

I got all weepy at the heaviness of personal cool that slowly enveloped my heart. Slowdive followed by Ellen Allien after Eagles of Death Metal after My Bloody Valentine after Joy Division after Billie Holliday. And then another My Bloody Valentine tune -- out of the 4,000 songs in my sonic arsenal, it gave me My Bloody Valentine twice? WTF? I hadn’t even listened to MBV in at least six months. What a seriously gratifying mix. Simply decadent, unremittingly perfect. Congrats to me for having great taste in music. Congrats to me for knowing what great music sounds like.

Now it’s noon the next day and I’m back to feeling like the uncool person that I am. And it feels great.

Pain.

And I'm not talking about the French word for bread, either.