The Guy Made a Million Dollars!

The Million Dollar Homepage - Own a piece of internet history!

I've been speaking about this lately after Damon was trying to think of a get-rich-quick scheme. A 21-year-old college student had the brilliant idea of selling 1 million pixels of a webpage for a $1 a pixel. Eventually, enough companies bought those pixels for ads and he sold all one million pixels. He made a million dollars. He's a genius...along with the guy that invented the pet rock.

GO HOME!!!...to your Phoenix suburb

LINK

Another great series of articles by Slate. The reporter is obviously biased and condescending, but I agree and would be the same. After reading Friday's article, a thought crossed my mind. If these minutemen cunts were living in Amsterdam in the early 1940s, they would lead the Gestapo right to Anne Frank's attic.

All the people portrayed so far seem to be wealthy and secure. They spout all the usual claims that the America for Americans spout, but the only thing they themselves have tangibly seen is some trash left on some hiking trails. They haven't lost their house or had their kids murdered because of Mexicans crossing the border. They drive SUVs and probably have nice lawns and pools in thirsty Phoenix. I wonder who maintains these amenities. How the hell can you complain when you really have nothing to complain about? Sure they bring up the future, but what about American reliance on Mideast oil? If anything is going to affect the future of this country, it is that, not only because we have probably already reached peak oil and the resource wars are about to start, but the people who live on top of the oil hate America more and more. Immigrants aren't going to be a problem. The only constant source of shame throughout American history has been our treatment of immigrants and other minorities due to paranoia and bigotry. This period is no exception.

The Culture War

Wired 14.04: The Culture War

I love using history to compare current issues of today. Wired reminds us with every new media/entertainment form, there will always be people demonizing it, like novels, waltzes, and today's video games:

US senator Charles Schumer says some videogames aimed at kids "desensitize them to death and destruction." But dire pronouncements about new forms of entertainment are old hat. It goes like this: Young people embrace an activity. Adults condemn it. The kids grow up, no better or worse than their elders, and the moral panic subsides. Then the whole cycle starts over.

Can Wired remind us how liberalizing civil rights is always demonized? i.e. civil rights to minority races in the 50s and 60s and civil rights to homosexuals today?

Time travel research

To determine if time loops exist, Mallett is designing a desktop-sized device that will test his time-warping theory. By arranging mirrors, Mallett can make a circulating light beam which should warp surrounding space. Because some subatomic particles have extremely short lifetimes, Mallett hopes that he will observe these particles to exist for a longer time than expected when placed in the vicinity of the circulating light beam. A longer lifetime means that the particles must have flowed through a time loop into the future.


http://www.physorg.com/news63371210.html

Peruvian cavy (aka Peruvian guinea pig)

Isn't this the coolest guinea pig you've ever seen? Must be horrible to BE one.

Schadenfreude

On behalf of all those who have been rejected by UCLA (twice for me, three times for Robert), I say this to the Bruins...


HA! HA!

Interview with the Brains of Arrested Development

Entertainment Weekly's EW.com | Interview: Why daddy let ''Arrested Development'' die

Creator and executive producer of Arrested Development, Mitch Hurwitz, tells why he chose not to go on with the show. I guess I could sum up his reasons: 1) He's out of good ideas and going on would just create a lesser show; 2) he and the cast were discouraged by FOX's treatment and the experience of the 3rd season; and 3) they knew a show this smart will never be a hit and it was just a "creative exercise" that would be a "temporary endeavor."

HA! HA! I'm not dumb!!1!

I received a call today from a guy claiming to be "Visa Protection Services" and wanted to verify several purchases. I said fine. He verified my name. He asked me if I lived in Santa Ana. Then he asked for the last 4 numbers of my social security. I said, "Um...no. I don't think this is real." He said, "OK, can you repeat the customer service number on the back of your credit card?" I said, "Look, I'll call you, OK?" Then I hung up.

I called Washington Mutual and told them about my call. They said there are no holds on my account and that the call was most likely a scam. I suspected that some a-hole stole my new GOLD!!! MasterCard that's supposed to coming soon and tried to get my SS number to activate it. But Washington Mutual said the card hasn't been sent out yet.

Anyway, I never thought I would be a victim of some attempt to get my identity. I checked my credit report afterwards right away. By law, you are allowed to receive a free credit report, once every year (annualcreditreport.com) So be aware, and never trust incoming calls asking for info.