The Limits of Crowds

Excellent post about what happened on Sunday night with Osama bin Laden and the response during Obama’s speech.

I Had A Dream

If you travelled back in time to 1963 and told everyone that in 2009 the President of the United States is a black man, perhaps only Martin Luther King Jr. would have believed you.
Kottke today on MLK

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Kottke On How to Revive Dead Play-Doh

Kottke discovers the secret way of reviving dead and dried out Play-Doh.

Shya Scanlon’s Forecast

I discovered this thanks to kottke. Shy Scanlon’s new book Forecast is being serialized over 42 different blogs, including kottke. There are 24 chapters that have been posted until now. I’ve just started reading chapter 1. It’s good. It made me curious and I have to say that it has a bit of a dystopian tinge, which isn’t bad.

Jedi Master Obama

Kottke's modified Jedi Master Obama image

Here’s our President attacking an unseen Sith Lord or perhaps someone condemned by a death panel.

Great little photoshopped image by Kottke. Someone had to do it. If you are wondering what the President was doing, he was playing with a plastic lightsaber that was given to him by a fencing club on the lawns of the White House. Here are the full details of what happened.

Kottke on the Ubiquitous iPhone

Kottke on the iPhone. It’s becoming the central technological device for a lot of people. Thanks to the App store, users don’t see a need for dedicated separate devices like GPS, mp3 players, point and shoots and more. He speculates that Apple might be changing the name of the iPhone.

The Truth about Fiji Water

A harrowing tale about how the junta in Fiji didn’t take kindly about an American reporter. (via kottke)

A few years back, Fiji Water canned its waterfall logo and replaced it with a picture of palm fronds and hibiscus: “Surface water!” Resnick wrote in Rubies. “Why would you want to suggest that Fiji came from surface water? The waterfall absolutely had to go.” One company newsletter featured the findings of a salt-crystal purveyor who claimed that Fiji Water rivals the “known and significant abilities of ‘Holy Healing Waters’ in Lourdes, France or Fatima, Portugal.” Switching effortlessly from Catholic mysticism to sci-fi, he added that the water’s “electromagnetic field frequency enables Fiji Water to stimulate our human self-regulation system.”

Appalling practices by a so-called green company Fiji Water. I’ve had a bottle or two, but tend to drink filtered water instead. Of course, from time to time, I’ll drink a bottle of Evian.

Update: Fiji’s response and Clara Jeffery’s retort.

Kottke on Apollo XI

Kottke has a long post on Apollo XI.

The Usual Suspects: Singer and McQuarrie Disagreed

Kottke reports that Bryan Singer and McQuarrie had completely different ideas about what really happened in the cult movie The Usual Suspects. As you probably know, in the end, you can believe that either Kaiser Soze was completely made up or that Kint was telling the truth and that he was Soze. I agree with kottke, that Kint was telling the truth the whole time and that he was Soze.

Japan’s Cyber Homeless

Japan’s cyber homeless are people who have moved into cybercafés for good. They pay $500 a month and that’s all that they can afford. (via kottke)