Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who went to UCLA) got the opportunity to answer an easy question about Bill Walton (another UCLA center). Yet somehow Kareem got confused by the question and gave his own name as the answer...even though he never played for the Trailblazers.
2. Too good to verify: Robin Williams has been asked to play Britain's Got Talent singer Susan Boyle in a biopic about her life. Sounds like a perfect fit.
3. The US "has decided to keep an elite 600-troop counterinsurgency operation deployed in the Philippines." Via.
1. "Television programs such as “The Simpsons” and “CSI” are for the first time commanding higher advertising rates at Web sites including Hulu.com and TV.com than on prime-time TV." Via thesesites.
2. I've always been under the impression that the people who make it onto the sexiest lists in magazines made it there thanks to aggressive work by their agents and promises of access to the magazine. Turns out, sometimes the magazine just messes up. For example, one year, Rich Gannon was supposed to be People's sexiest athlete. But the photographer messed up and took photos of Elvis Grbac instead. They didn't have the heart to break the news to Elvis, so...
3. I was just wondering the other day what was going on with the diaper-wearing astronaut - - she apparently goes on trial December 7. Via.
4. Tucker Stone's weekly summary of the Economist includes this gem:
But then you read Chris Lowsley's anecdote letter, about how he went to pick up a copy of The Economist in the Shanghai airport during the first week of June, looking to read about the 20th anniversary of Tianmen Square. And guess what? By hand, someone had removed the pages. From every copy. He even got a 5% refund, just to see if he could.
It's tough being a girl. In the middle of trying to interview a hockey player, Lindsay Soto is apparently told she's showing way too much cleavage and spends the rest of the interview trying various techniques to cover up. Via.
And a few more links:
1. The fear was that allowing antiquities to be sold on eBay would encourage looters to redouble their efforts. But what actually happened was the looters decided it was far easier to sell fakes on eBay. Via.
2. Trish Van Pilsum, a reporter for a Fox affiliate in Minnesota, apparently planned on driving around a school trying to ask young children for directions to see how easy it was to kidnap them. I'm notclearwhether it happened, or she came to her senses before scaring kids for the sake of journalism. (One Halloween, a creepy van followed me and my friends around until we spotted a security patrol, who scared the guy off.)
3. I'm still on the fence as to whether I think this a sweet story:
Katie Kirkpatrick, 21, held off cancer to celebrate the happiest day of her life. Katie had chased away cancer once, only to have it return - to clog her lungs and grab hold of her heart. Breathing was difficult now, she had to use oxygen. The pain in her back was so intense it broke through the morphine that was supposed to act as a shield. Her organs were shutting down but it would not stop her from marrying Nick Godwin, 23, who was in love with Katie since 11th grade. Five days later, Katie died.
Finally got around to mentioning Dork Yearbook, where people submit embarrassing photos of themselves. Bookmark it for the next time you're feeling down. Here's the direct link to little miss She-Ra.
And a few more links:
1. Jason Kottke calls out BoingBoing's and Gawker media's style of blogging for going past fair use to theft. A very simple test for fair use in the internet age is are you giving people a reason to leave your site and go visit wherever you took the intellectual property.
2. San Francisco's Giants current ad campaign includes banners that say, "Let's play with balls of fire."
3. How to use social engineering to commit identity theft on Facebook and other social networking sites. As people expose more and more about themselves online, it becomes easier and easier to impersonate them. Via.
4. Funniest story about the recent Somali pirate hostage drama.
1. When people are in an environment covered in graffiti and other signs of decay, they're more likely litter and steal. Via.
2. But I'm not sure if that study is compatible with the conclusion that people who wash their hands are more likely to act unethically. If you're a dirty boy, you'll feel bad about yourself and act more ethically. Via.
3. Athletes are using viagra hoping it'll help their performance on the field. Probably doesn't help, aside from the placebo effect, however.
4. The AP will resume using photographs provided by the US military since the Pentagon said it would stop providing (such easily detected) Photoshopped images.
5. Finally, don't click on this story unless you want to have nightmares. I couldn't bring myself to watch the video. Via.
Remember being in taught that the tongue was divided into sweet, sour, salty, and bitter areas? Yeah, that's not true. Via.
A whole lotta people have been fired from Wired. Awhile back a subscription to the LA Times got you a free subscription to Wired, and I still didn't want the deal.
Aborigines in Australia (and only Aborigines) are banned from watching pornography (for their own good). Don't worry, the porn lobby is fighting for their rights. Via.
Is the new minimalist "Quarter Pounder" McDonald's store in Japan some kind of elaborate prank? Or is the economy really so bad that people can suspend belief and view a quarter pounder as classy?
Comedian Jessi Klein expressed her love for CNN's David Gergen in a blog post, and then was invited to express her sentiments in a video. Here you can see Gergen's embarrassment when presented with the video:
2. According to this National Geographic article, Neanderthals ingested approximately 5,000 calories a day to maintain their mass. Dramatically alters the picture I had of hunter/foragers and how much food they were able to find.
3. What happens when a company like Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy? It holds a garage sale, where it sells off it fancy art collection. Of course, sometimes, companies sell off their collections for other reasons. In 2003, Unilever sold off its fancy photo collection and replaced it with photos of "Suave shampoo, Ragu bottles, tea packages -- images employees can connect to." Via thesesites.
