A blogger in the House

• June 10, |

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Congressman Conyers has scheduled congressional hearings on the Downing Street Memo. That guy has a blog of his own as well as a Kos diary. I can't help but think that he's the first . (I don't mean the first to use the blog gimmick, I mean the first real blogger.)

" is an online community for personal movie sharing. A Medicine Film is a short home video made in response to one of the assignments created by the site's users. Medicine Films are creative, often collaborative, documentary "slice of life" mini-movies." They just keep playing. Some are funny, some are weird. All the ones I saw were safe for work.

" bit of a trip to the cinema, or just artless commercial spoilers?" -- Long, but good stuff. A good Commuter Click if you're too creeped out by the Nazi piece below.

Other Commuter Click: by Joseph Goebbels

are coming up, better get growing.

OK, so now I know what a is. Why do you mention it? (A quick later reveals a few contexts for this link lately.)

The WFMU blog draws clicks yet again, this time with . One blogger (sorry, lost track of the link) suggested playing them really loud as a gag on neighborhood kids. Tsk, mean.

A movement has sprung up to from Tom Cruise's diabolical clutches.

with a brief blog post objecting to the romanticization of impoverished third world countries (Cuba specifically).

Speaking of seeing beauty in less advantaged nations, photos of Vietnam comes by recommendation of .

Did you see our ?

on the plight of the headline writer trying to properly eulogize Anne Bancroft with a single line.

Triumph the insult dog for 15 minutes. There's one kind of vulgar part, but nothing they can't (or didn't already) show on TV.

Video of the Day: . I'm not sure how to describe this other than that it's like a precursor to choose-your-own-adventure video. It's not flash, it's actual interactive video that you click on. It sort of reminds me of the games that come with a DVD that you play with your TV remote. Wait for the movie to load all the way and then click the highlighted objects. I went through three different permutations, each a little weird and not at all as cutesy as I was expecting. I wonder if it's difficult to do this kind of video or if we'll see more of it in the future.

teaches you finance and economics.

" is a novel posted in blog format. It is set in Manhattan, one month after New York has been overrun by zombies."

-- A whole lot of variations on the reflective ball.

, for the skull collector in your family

-- I know it sounds like a Dr. Seuss title, but it's about as accurate as they could have come up with. I like the one with the toddler.

: Mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business -- When BusinessWeek wrote their cover story on blogs and business last month, the online world reverberated for weeks as corporate America sat up with a startled cough. So now, even though the power of online communities has been elemental for years, when BusinessWeek explains it to its readers, I feel like it's a good idea to pay attention.

Mailbag! Mailbag!

On the subject of Apple using Intel chips, it's sort of an ego thing.

Mac users, for decades, have raised their noses and sniffed arrogantly at Windows users, and part of that has been disdain for "Wintel". Since half of "Wintel" is Intel, a common enough line could be, "You are a lower form of computer-using life because you use Windows and Intel instead of using the right kind of computer, which is a Mac."

Apple using Intel chips would be kind of like Pepsi saying they are using Coke as one of their ingredients, or going to the opera and finding out that the orchestra includes an electric guitar. It's declasse, inferior and vulgar. At least, to the adherents.

Hope that helps.
-Gus

Dear Gus,
Yes, that does help. After reading by my colleague and occasional cube farm neighbor Gary Krakow I had the understanding that Apple switching to Intel means greater potential interoperability between Mac and PC. And now everyone is linking to the speculation from that Apple and Intel are merging. But I reckon your explanation is a large part of why this is such big news.

Your story reminds me of a few years ago when Harley Davidson introduced the new VRod model. Since the dawn of time, Harleys were air cooled with cam shafts below the pistons (and most still are). The VRod has a radiator and overhead cams. The community was abuzz for months and the old timers and Harley orthodox declared the world officially ended.

Cheers,
Will

• June 10, |

-- No, . The demonstration was part of a in Japan.

This database of mp3 recorded from doesn't appear to have been updated since January but for some reason it's been spreading all week.

Speaking of stuff that was on the radio a long time ago, has a collection of links to old time radio recordings. (You want the links under the radio picture, not next to it, those are ads.) The site doesn't host the audio, it's just a round-up of links around the Web, which means you can end up disappearing in there for a while with windows open all over the place. Anyway, I'll keep the starter link here in case you get lost.

-- Advocates that smaller is better. The list of trackbacks is as long as my arm, a sign that this is being heavily discussed.

Smaller isn't necessarily better for , however, more fragmented audiences mean you can't reach a lot of people in one shot.

Debra Burlingame, 9/11 family member, has set a good portion of the blogosphere on fire with her about a planned institution, the International Freedom Center, in the planned cultural building on the World Trade Center site.

UPDATE: As I clicked around I found from the president of the IFC, and of course, it wouldn't be the blogosphere without .

While it's unfortunate that some people have misunderstood Burlingame to be talking about the 9/11 memorial itself, as a Ground Zero resident, I'm pleased to see just about any national attention on the site because hopefully it'll compel the various powers involved to get more done. For what it's worth, if you're interested in following the goings on in Lower Manhattan, our local paper is the and there's also a useful . On the subject of family members with opinions on the memorial, has written some thought provoking letters to the editor over the past few years.

Commuter Click:

-- The fact that this has a zillion slides should tell you that there are no easy answers.

Local reporter expects to make fun of town crazy guy but ends up joining his religion after watching him . (The news report comes at the end of this relatively long clip.)

-- As you may know, a wiki is a Web site that anyone can edit. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can read, add to, or correct. But what happens when there's disagreement about what is correct? Short answer: edit war.

Cool use of Google Maps. Click your city and see . It's only the Craigslist listings, but neat idea. Too bad it doesn't make moving suck less.

Speaking of Google Maps, " equipped with lasers and digital photographic equipment to create a realistic 3D online version of San Francisco, and eventually other major US cities." I'd just like to know when they're coming so I have time to . ()

"Can you imagine a ? A house in which even the table, the chairs and the bed seem to have been made of pages to turn and bound covers?" What's weird about these sentences is that the house doesn't appear to be made of books. It looks like everything is a wood carving of a book or with a book theme. Still a crazy house though.

is on the way.

Darth Vader on . (Flash that plays automatically) In case you haven't noticed, the most famous line to come out of that last Star Wars movie is Vader's long "no" scream. Did they make fun of Superman for his long "no" scream after Lois died and he reversed the rotation of the earth to turn back time?

--Safe for work in the "no boobies" sense, but you probably don't want someone seeing this over your shoulder. It looks like it's actually a promotional device for the online horror fan scene.

(including the curses, so play it low)

-- I flunk every item.

There is speculation that belongs to Joran Andreas Petrus Van Der Sloot, the 17-year-old Dutch student at Aruba International School who is the son of a high-ranking Dutch justice official. He's mentioned in the on the missing high school girl story. (Is that name straight out of a Harry Potter book or what?)

"From "Deep Throat" to deep-sixed: The decline and fall of the Washington Post" -- The Deep Throat stories may be over, but the "why Watergate could never happen today" stories keep coming. Look, .

. (Did you know there's a ?)

Speaking of blog surprises, is a poker blog. I knew poker was big, but check out the list of poker blogs in his blogroll. There are zillions!

turned me on to and the art (sports?) of card shuffling.

Did you ever have a water rocket when you were a kid? The kind you fill with water and then pump air into them? Imagine having a bunch of really big ones and . (Note on this and the above videos, the host, College Humor, is mostly safe for work, but some of the ads in their rotation are racy and they definitely link to unsafe content. So beyond the videos you're on your own.)

Video of the Day: is wheelchair rugby.

At the end of the season premiere of HBO's Entourage they flashed a brief dedication to the memory of . I almost fell off the couch when I saw it because I had no idea he'd died. Quickly to the Internet that not only was he dead, but he was , and not only was he murdered but the man suspected of doing it is . R.I.P. Sam Kellerman.

• June 9, |

tells the story of Joe Trippi organizing a conference call between a group of bloggers and Bob Geldof to talk about the upcoming Live8 concert. Interestingly, while I understand there was a political mix (or at least a polar balance) of bloggers on the call, it's only rightie bloggers ( and ) who came up on popular link lists today. Though my initial thought was skepticism about the usefulness of holding a private press conference with bloggers, what I see is that some of the people who would have been most likely to tear the Live8 effort to shreds now have at least a little respect for the project. The idea of personally, preemptively addressing the taste-makers of the English-speaking blogosphere turns out to have been a brilliant move. (Credit also his ability to answer their questions without making an ass of himself.)

Have you ever played the game of taking some English text and running it through a language translator and then taking that translation and running it back through the translator to English? When I read I imagined a similar process. Take a movie script and turn it into a movie, then take the movie and write the script. In this case the result is both funny and honest. Note: This has spoilers, but if you haven't seen the movie by now, do you really care?

is very angry at the retail fashion industry and very much wants a good pocket. And it doesn't sound like she much likes skorts either.

The latest target of the watchdogs is a reporter who made an apparently off-hand guess that close to 100 people have been murdered in U.S. custody. For those who missed the Eason Jordan feeding frenzy, that's not the sort of thing to say casually without evidentiary support.

A few times today I came upon the story of the for helping his girlfriend miscarry her twins. couches it as the ultimate pro-choice nightmare come true, but since this, thankfully, isn't the place for such debates, I bring it to your attention only for the tragic story that it is. Modern Shakespeare.

-- Note: The embedded video started playing automatically when I went to this page. It's not porn or anything, but a few minutes into it, the cop zaps a woman with a taser and she doesn't take it very well. What's fascinating to me is the transparency with which this issue is being treated. The police have given the newspaper the videos, along with commentary and other reaction. And the paper has given members of the community a place to react to the event. Granted, that reaction is not very pretty, but it's nice to see it being discussed as a community.

Is the future of cable news... ? Not long ago I speculated that the blogosphere would take over the pundit duties from cable news and leave TV with just news reporting to do, so this is an interesting step along that path.

My I see your license and for that blog please? That's no joke . (Is it coincidence that we just passed the 16th anniversary of ?)

Speaking of blogs butting against the law, "according to the Kentucky Attorneys' Advertising Commission, a lawyer's Weblog is an advertisement that may be subject to a ." They're not too worried about it. Mostly it's just an example of rules not keeping up with the times. But can you imagine if all the lawyers had to stop blogging? Hoo!! Talk about a disturbance in the Force!

Oh yeah, by the way, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi .

"" -- Woah, that's a pretty bold statement. But we (er... me) here at Clicked never been afraid of bold. (My understanding of the thesis is that there's a gene that makes you smart when it's recessive and gives you a disease when it's dominant and this community has it.)

Poor Norah, .

Why aren't suburbs , and ? (Not a political discussion.)

The has been hanging around for a while. Reading about the mechanics of it, I'm not sure they'll ever come up with a harmonica-sized one like in Star Wars, but as battery technology improves, I imagine they'd be pretty compact.

The Guardian re-unites . At least read the part where the woman in the audience asks him not to smoke. Hysterical.

Folding instructions for some .

If yesterday's item about the advancement of electronics over mechanics made you wish you knew more about it, here's "a free series of textbooks on the subjects of electricity and electronics": .

What the heck is a and why does it seem like they're everywhere I clicked today? has a good report on it. The idea is that especially steal-able cars are set up with cameras to catch the car theives who steal them.

Commuter Click: The New Yorker has a new piece from .

"In a moment of sudden clarity, I realized what this world needed was a web page devoted to pictures of celebrities playing table tennis. "

"Everyone knows the Star Wars galaxy is located "far, far away." But are the alien worlds described in the science fiction saga?"

explains what it was like to realize how California-centric video games and the Web in general are, and goes on to warn of the shifting mass market to Asia.

You know you live in a big city when a giant wedding cake covered in at least a dozen writhing brides rolls through the middle of town and you don't hear a peep about it until someone sends you links to .

I know that some Soviet nuclear scientists were brought to the U.S. by the government to keep them from straying into the employ of nefarious nations. Apparently there's a similar program for .

" produced by financier Charles Keating, linking pornography to the Communist conspiracy and the decline of Western civilization." At the risk of offending readers who actually do object to pornography, this is pretty funny.

reminds me of . I thought maybe he was working in the cold and using water to freeze the rocks together, but it doesn't look very cold in the video. Plus, even kids are doing it on the . It could very well be that stacking rocks precariously is something I think it hard because I've never actually tried it.

Video of the Day: is the sport of the future.

Mailbag! Mailbag!

Will,
Just wanted to let you know, there's a website that sells brackets for cellular phones and satellite radios that include instructions on how to properly take the dashboard of almost any car apart. The brackets are actually thin metal, bent into the shape to go around obstacles in your dash, and out appears a square metal piece, perfect for mounting cell phones, police scanners (I used it for that), anything really. I even have one in my work van just covered with velcro, and then my pens are rolled in the "other velcro". Anyways, a long story short, you can go to to see what I'm talking about. (By the way I have like a hundred of these that I want to sell, so if you or anyone needs one, I will sell them cheap!) Those brackets are called VSM (vehicle specific mounts). They work awesome, since I install phones in cars; when taking phones out, they don't leave a trace of evidence that there was ever a phone in the car! NO HOLES!

Just thought you'd like to know for future reference.
-Tim

Dear Tim,
Thanks for the tip. I'll let you know if anyone asks for one.
Cheers,
Will

GM will be adding auxiliary inputs to its car stereos over the next few years, starting with some 2006 models. This was announced a few months ago. A couple of links: , .
-William

Dear William,
I was just at GM's this morning looking to see if there was any comment about the job cuts. Given that blog initiative, it makes total sense that they'd realize the need to add an aux input.
Thanks,
Will

will:
nice work. one criticism, if i might. lately, it seems more political viewpoints are creeping into your choices of “what i clicked.” your june 7 column lede (and, yes, i worked in the j biz for a decade so it’s ingrained for me to spell it that way) reflects that, with four links to poli-based pieces.

i understand the title of the column suggests that, well, we’re viewing what you viewed. but, honestly, i became enamored of your blog because of the apolitical choices. the wacky invention sites, the odd videos, the music links and so on. those are the reasons i would daily journey to the bottom of the msnbc site and dutifully click on your link. it was a way to find the humorous, the thought-provoking, the novel, the… well, in short, blunt language it was none of the crap that has turned me off of blogs today. so, understanding still that it is what you clicked and that, generally, you do a good job of balancing the ideology, please go easy on the political links. some of us are just looking for good, clean fun.

keep at it,
kevin o’horan
die-hard cubs fan (fwiw)

Dear Kevin,
First, thanks very much for the feedback. I literally have no data about what people click on this blog, so any clue is useful.

Second, I understand and even agree with your disdain for the crowd.

Third, this blog is actually meant to be a little more than what I clicked. The genesis of this page was in people asking, "Hey Will, what's the buzz on the Web?" I'm not sure when or why people started asking me that, but at some point in the last year it started happening a lot. My answer to that question is that there's too much going on and too many diverse voices online to be able to say what THE buzz is, but I can tell you what I clicked. If you trust that I do a pretty good job of keeping track of the more talked about themes and trends, then feel free to interpret that as the buzz.

One of the challenges of writing a blog this way is trying to distinguish the buzz from the echo chamber, especially as it pertains to pundit blogs. Generally, if I think it's going to be a story that the mainstream will pick up on at some point or if I think it's a foundational issue to a certain perspective, I include it.

Third and a half, I never try for ideological balance, I don't believe in it. I think the idea of balance is a conspiracy by partisans to ensure that they get to frame every issue in their own divisive terms.

Fourth, how did you get through a decade of the j biz without capital letters?

Yours,
Will

• June 8, |

In a break from the norm we'll start today's entry with an e-mail that was actually sent to the Letters to the Editor mailbox:

The site is exactly what he says, a clip a day of him dancing. And while it's hard not to laugh because he does look pretty silly, part of me wonders if this guy is an actual Web nerd or someone pretending to be a Web nerd. My suspicion was compounded when I clicked this . In the wake of celebrated nerds like William Hung and the Star Wars Kid are we soon to see a new category of celebrity, the geek of the week?

(Note: Regarding the sweater video, I haven't had a chance to check out the site that's , but it looks cool. A quick scroll saw no boobies, so we'll put "superficially SFW" in pencil.)

for his round-up of reaction to the Supreme Court medical marijuana case, though I found to be a handy explanation of the central issue.

But our piece by him is better

-- What's weird is that I know a million people who've complained about this. If you'll permit a bit of grumpy conspiracy theory: Naturally the car makers don't want to give you an auxiliary input because why would you pay for upgrades when you can plug in your own stuff? P.S. If you disassemble your dashboard and can't put it back together and your spouse ends your life, it's not my fault, I just click 'em.

Speaking of playing with your car, of his car with a web cam. We've seen similar video with a car in Paris and also on bicycles. What strikes me is how much the mood of what is essentially the same thing, driving down a road, changes depending on the music that accompanies it.

has a round up of recommended summer reading lists -- because you know there's only crap on TV right now.

Speaking of TV, if you're looking for some non-interactive moving imagery, and if you like stories in which the downtrodden get the last laugh, this is (14 minutes).

-- "A collection of 'onomatopoeia' from around the world using sound recordings from native speaking imitating the sounds of mainly animals and vehicles." I didn't get this at first because it doesn't work in Firefox. What they did was ask kids around the world "What noise does a cow make?" and then you can click the different cows to see how they differ. Actually, cows don't differ too much, but the frog one is neat because different species of frogs around the world have different calls.

" the most innovative and curious re-use of the Altoids tin!" The is probably the coolest thing I've seen in this category and that was without the motivation of a contest, so it'll be fun to see what else comes up. Deadline is mid July.

Perhaps not by coincidence (is someone out there putting together a round-up?), I also ran into photo tutorial on binding your own book.

is a group DJ mp3 blog. If I had to guess I'd say the name refers to doing a good job blending songs together.

Speaking of DJ, in this case the . ( is SFW)

The National Geographic folks dropped a 7-camera probe in the path of a tornado . Of the three links on the page, "direct hit" is the money clip, but it's fun to see the guy all breathless.

-- I guess the water in a dishwasher is hot enough to poach a salmon. Like the people who make grilled cheese on their car engine.

'Mabel is unstable' -- . People just did not know how to push drugs back then. Although, no doubt future generations will mock the quick spoken fine print listing the gastro-sexual calamity that accompanies our modern little helpers.

Cold fusion is here... . But this is still a nice piece to read in the way it makes you feel smart for understanding something really complicated.

Speaking of energy, rounds up his own series of posts on the coming peak (and subsequent decline) in global oil production.

Tech bloggers everywhere have been practically bursting into spontaneous flames over that Apple is going to be using a different company's computer chips. I'm sure this is huge news because it does seem like everyone is talking about it, but I can't find the nugget that says "this matters because..." -at least not in a form I understand. So until I do, I did click an interesting perspective today. Recently Apple sued a blog for leaking company details in advance of an official announcement. This chip news was also leaked before it was officially announced. More lawsuits from Apple then, or are those ?

Commuter Click:

One way to get the kids to go outside and play is to .

Speaking of real world video games, if you do poorly on they blast you with a flame thrower. Really.

of the new Freakonomics series in the NY Times magazine comes with video clips and even a live monkey cam. Why didn't I think of a monkey cam?

In the primary season before the 2000 election, ? I know are popular, but I didn't think the candidates were participating.

-- it's a webzine about online journalism.

Mailbag! Mailbag!

Subject: Video of the Day?

Will,
I know how you are sometimes drawn to shock ads, having seen your links to the land mind "ads". Well, I thought you might like. I've seen this video in a few places on the Web, but this is the best one I have found. Best=most direct.

Hope you like.
Christopher

Dear Christopher,
Wow, that is a really intense video. Today's entry has a lot of clips and I wasn't sure what to call the Video of the Day, so I'll go with yours. A note to readers, the clip is brief and shows only a small amount of blood, but in teaching the lesson of the importance of seatbelts, it is powerful enough to raise the hair on your arms and make you want to hug your nearest loved one.
Thanks,
Will

• June 7, |

I'm sensing a theme...

• .
• Democrats to adopt a counter "grand narrative" of "We were wrong to invade Iraq" even if it means politicians who supported the war have to publicly change their minds.
• Advisor to Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney says he was

Should we expect "On second thought" to be the new campaign slogan for 2006/8? Fickle fries anyone?

Speaking of second thoughts, Newsweek Baghdad bureau chief Rod Nordland, departing after two years of war and American occupation, begins with this: "Two years ago I went to Iraq as an unabashed believer in toppling Saddam Hussein. I knew his regime well from previous visits; WMDs or no, ridding the world of Saddam would surely be for the best, and America's good intentions would carry the day. What went wrong?" (He doesn't do a total 180 in the piece, but new events and information did alter his impression.)

Speaking of Abu Ghraib...

-- Helping bloggers earn money

Speaking of bloggers making money, there's a new version of . In case you're not familiar, the video is a look at the future of journalism -and depending on your perspective, it's not especially bright. Video downloads and .

at the definition of a "dandy" has scattered links across the blogiverse.

Funniest line in response to the ruling: "." Yes, though the question of how they fit a turbine booster in a shaver is as difficult to imagine as how a vibrating razor could make your hair stand on end.

Speaking of Gillette, Penn Jillette has named his daughter .

Speaking of people with different names:

I'm not sure how long to continue pointing out popular anti-creationism links. It seems like the ground has been covered, but scientists aren't about just having a say, they're about finding answers and explanations, so unlike other political debates which may end with each side having a right to its opinion, much of the evolution debate does have an answer, and scientists and science bloggers are not averse to offering it. That said, this is what I clicked today:

• -- This might be more accurately titled "Science: God's gift to the ignorant" because the authors main point is that scientists have to first recognize and express their ignorance about something before they can go out and find the answer. The piece is generally resentful of creationists who take out of context the questions scientists ask before pursuing their answers.
  
  
• -- A history professor makes the layman's case against evolution. This is not at all scientific. Instead he tries to use his "common sense." It's worth reading because the arguments are not uncommon, but the man is verily eviscerated in the comments section.
  
  
• Among those taking apart the above mentioned "common sense" professor is who proceeds with a thorough and deliberate .

Another inevitable part of the blogging lifecycle: .

Not everyone is following behind Howard Dean's energetic charge. has a bit of a round-up.

Commuter Click: .

names some modern Deep Throats and then does something I don't think I've ever heard anyone in media do out loud, blame the media consuming public.

A sign of changing times is that when a person dies, the surviving family members have a new responsibility. .

-- And unlike those 3D posters that were in every mall poster shop in the '90s, I can actually make this one work.

Last week we saw the hot new UK music video with the frog making an annoying moped noise. Since most people I talked to about that video couldn't bear to listen through the whole thing, it's not surprising that someone has come up with a game in which you .

-- What do those stick figure drawings look like in your child's mind?

MSN in South Korea had last week. Full disclosure, MSN and MSNBC.com share an MS (although our N is from NBC and their N is... um... I don't know, but the South Korea hacking thing was not my fault.)

And speaking of hackers, -- I only understand about 75% of the words in this article (Bagle downloaders?) but if I may put yet a third link on this chain of thought....

...Speaking of a precarious and frightening-if-you-think-about-it (or if you take The Matrix too seriously) dependence on electronics, in Mechanical Engineering magazine looks at the electrical-ization of things which have traditionally been mechanical.

At some point in the not-too-distant future, it's not hard to imagine that the technology that is helping people share and acquire information will be counted by technology to prevent the sharing and acquisition of information. The progressive evolution of more anonymous filesharing software is one example. is another.

breaks down the essential elements of a podcast. You shouldn't just push the record button and start talking. Give your listeners some structure.

on the fuss over Koran desecration: "If Saturday Night Live wrote a parody of American hypersensitivity in fighting a war on terror, I doubt they could create something more ridiculous than this."

Why did the chicken cross the road? . Well, you can't expect them to go !

Video of the Day: Not just because the animation is fun but because nothing rocks the cube farm like . Note: This is a flash animation, so it just starts on its own. It's not offensive or anything, but if you're not paying attention, you could open the window and find yourself scrambling for the volume button while you blast surfer music to your office.

Speaking of The Bird, -- More citizen science, a great use of the medium.