Month: March 2009

Our daily Fred: Coaster to coaster

These coasters are a sure way to make dinner party guests feel comfortable – hopefully not too comfortable or you’ll be cleaning up after their spills for days.

This bad boy’s even got a built in bottle opener.

March 24, 2009

Shirt of the Day Redux: The pick of the bunch

I’ve used my morning sorting through the Threadless sale so that you don’t have to. Here are my favourites. Click the image for the link.

Little sister number 3 has this one

Little sister number 3 has this one

March 24, 2009

Shirt of the Day: Interpretive Dance

Threadless is having a $5 sale – that’s $US5. Chief amongst the awesome cheapies is this one – but my size is gone, and there aren’t many left. And the sale finishes today.

It’s a shame I didn’t get onto this earlier – they would have made a great uniform for a dance ministry.

March 24, 2009

A bunch of links – March 23, 2009

March 23, 2009

UrbanTrend: a knife’s throw away

I suspect UrbanTrends is going to give worldwidefred a run for its money in little sister number 2’s books. She declared worldwidefred her favourite site yesterday. And yet here we are, looking at a different site – probably worthy of a rival series of morning posts. So for the next nine days they’ll go head to head. Starting with the coolest knife block ever. Cooler than the voodoo knife block.

I always said that if I could be anyone in the circus I’d be the knife thrower. And now I can practice at home.

If your bench doesn’t have room for a fully fledged knife throwing block – how bout the set of matching steak knives as an alternative…

March 23, 2009

Toastered TV

Here’s a device that could one day make the weather man obsolete.

This contraption looks interesting you say. But what is it? Possibly the most awesome device ever to be posted on my blog.

No more reading tea leaves or chicken entrails for your morning auguries  (unless you have liverwurst on your toast) – It is a weather forecasting toaster. It prints the day’s forecast on your morning bread. It will one day be available in stores. It was launched at a Java conference eight years ago. I can’t believe it’s not out there in stores yet. It’s the ultimate convergence device.

March 23, 2009

Irregular Expressions

Dan has started blogging much more frequently – perhaps turning his clever blog name into a misnomer. This can only be a good thing. He’s done a little series recently on this Hillsong bus ad.

Which is worth a read.

March 23, 2009

Sanity prevails… maybe

iiNet has pulled themselves out of the cleanfeed trial citing an inability “to reconcile participation in the trial with our corporate social responsibility, our customer service objectives and our public position on censorship.”

Their decision came after wikileaks was blocked last week for publishing the ACMA blacklist. Which was meant to be a top secret “for government eyes only” document…

“It became increasingly clear that the trial was not simply about restricting child pornography or other such illegal material, but a much wider range of issues including what the Government simply describes as ‘unwanted material’ without an explanation of what that includes.”

March 23, 2009

No pun intended

I am totally taking up this hobby. Especially now I know puns are a mark of geekiness – not nerdiness. I am embracing my inner geek. With a little sci-fi I’ll be 10/10 in no time.

March 23, 2009

Can K-Rudd hear me

Some time ago I posted a link to one man’s audacious bid to be heard by google. Can Google Hear Me won the hearts and minds of millions. Including Google – who were interested enough to take this man’s journey to the next level.

And now – following news that the Federal Government will now trawl critical blogs I ask the question. Can Kevin Rudd hear me?

It hasn’t taken long for people to make a connection between trawling blogs for criticism and the clean feed/blacklist campaign – particularly because the Government’s own media release listed Whirlpool.net.au’s criticism of the blacklist as one of the examples the Government’s beady eyes were watching.

I have said several things about the Ruddster and his ability to make even the most clear things unclear through erudite obfuscation. That was Rudd speak for using simple words in a complicated way so as to make things impossible to understand.

Kevin, if you’re here, and you can hear me – of if your staff are and they can – let me know in the comments. Perhaps you’d like to give me a job making your unclear communication clear.

Who knows. Perhaps you’d like to read through all the things I’ve had to say about you in the past.

Regards,

Nathan

March 23, 2009

Miscellanea

The cartoonist behind this website is a raving atheist – but mostly a humourous one. Here’s a secular satire that could be extended to Christians who aren’t really prepared to back their beliefs by living recklessly and putting their lives on the line for the cause.

Here are some more good ones.

The obesity one is using data from 2007.

March 23, 2009

Godfather flow chart

I had a chance to watch The Godfather II with some guys from church a couple of weeks ago. I’d never really noticed this flow chart’s appearance in the movie (it’s not quite a family tree) – but I think it’s in the court hearing scene. Click it for a larger version.

There’s also this useful family timeline at the same site.

March 23, 2009

New math

I really really like morenewmath.com – here are some of my favourite mathematical equations of food and drink.

March 23, 2009

Next ten words

Over at the newly revitalised Sydney Anglicans website there’s an article on an upcoming Sydney media campaign promoting Christianity. The article points out that Dominic Steele – author of the popular “Introducing God” material is nonplussed about the campaign. He likes the catchy slogan – “Jesus: All about life” but wonders what the “next ten words” are that come after the slogan.

It’s a useful question to ask anybody who’s coming up with catchy, pithy slogans – and it comes from my favourite show of all time – the West Wing. Working out your one liner is actually the second step – having substance behind it is the first – a lesson we didn’t really see in action in the recent Queensland election.

Here’s a clip from a debate in a presidential campaign.

There’s a great repository of West Wing quotes – including this one – here.

Moderator: Governor Ritchie, many economists have stated that the tax cut, which is the centerpiece of your economic agenda, could actually harm the economy. Is now really the time to cut taxes?
Gov. Ritchie: You bet it is. We need to cut taxes for one reason – the American people know how to spend their money better than the federal government does.
Moderator: Mr. President, your rebuttal.
Bartlet: There it is. That’s the ten word answer my staff’s been looking for for two weeks. There it is. Ten-word answers can kill you in political campaigns. They’re the tip of the sword. Here’s my question: What are the next ten words of your answer? Your taxes are too high? So are mine. Give me the next ten words. How are we going to do it? Give me ten after that, I’ll drop out of the race right now. Every once in a while… every once in a while, there’s a day with an absolute right and an absolute wrong, but those days almost always include body counts. Other than that, there aren’t very many unnuanced moments in leading a country that’s way too big for ten words. I’m the President of the United States, not the President of the people who agree with me. And by the way, if the left has a problem with that, they should vote for somebody else.

March 23, 2009

Our daily Fred: Leave it to cleaver

More awesomeness from Fred and Friends – a knife/chopping block combo in the shape of a cleaver. It’s such a cleaver idea.
http://www.worldwidefred.com/chopchop.htm

March 23, 2009