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You have arrived at the web home of Noah Brier. This is mostly an archive of over a decade of blogging and other writing. You can read more about me or get in touch. If you want more recent writing of mine, most of that is at my BrXnd marketing x AI newsletter and Why Is This Interesting?, a daily email for the intellectually omnivorous.

July, 2004

Links Roundup

Since I'm fairly busy at the moment with a deadline, I decided to post a links roundup. So without any further ado, here's some stuff to read (with excerpts): My Blog is Poop: Top 3 Disappointments in Life
1. Sega CD
2. The Nintendo Power Glove
3. My gay son
AndrewSullivan.com: The Conservative Party
The argument Kerry must make is that he can continue the substance of the war, but without Bush's polarizing recklessness. And at home, he must reassure Americans that he is the centrist candidate - controlled neither by the foaming Michael Moore left nor the vitreolic religious right. Put all that together, and I may not find myself the only conservative moving slowly and reluctantly toward the notion that Kerry may be the right man - and the conservative choice - for a difficult and perilous time.
New York Post: Monica Lewinsky's Hot Dog Reaction
MONICA Lewinsky celebrating her 31st birthday at Serendipity 3 with her aunt, Debra Finerman. Monica ordered a foot-long hot dog and gasped, "Oh my God!" when the waiter placed the giant tube steak in front of her . . .
Stewardess Uniform Collection
More than 330 different stewardess uniforms from 184 airlines
The New York Times: Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?
Of course it is.
Many-to-Many: Demeaning bloggers: the NYTimes is running scared
Blogging has terrified mainstream media for a while now. Journalists want to know if blogs are going to degrade their profession, open up new possibilities or otherwise challenge their authority. This also means that whenever the press writes about blogs, one must critically consider what biases are embedded in their reporting. This morning, the NYTimes took their bias to the headlines: Web Diarists Are Now Official Members of Convention Press Corps
Wikipedia: Ken Jennings
Jennings has become known for his quirky behaviors:
  • He writes his name in a different style each day, with styles ranging from cursive script to block letters to dots.
  • Every time his total winnings are announced at the beginning of the show, he shakes his head in disbelief.
  • He will often attempt to pronounce foreign words, phrases, or locations with an accent.
  • On Final Jeopardy! and the Daily Doubles he almost always wagers an amount that could bring his total to a multiple of $5,000, or at the least a multiple of $1,000.
  • He did not want to beat the $52,000 single-day record of former five-day champion Brian Weikle just "for the sake of beating it" (from the Jeopardy! forums). He intentionally tied this record three times. However, on the episode aired July 23, the final episode of the Jeopardy! season and Jennings' 38th win, he entered Final Jeopardy! with a total only $600 shy of the record, and beat it with a final total of $75,000. (He would havebroken the record with $60,000 in his 30th win, but missed the Final Jeopardy! question and finished that game with $32,000).
Christian Science Monitor: Kerry's task: clarify his message
As John Kerry makes his way toward Boston and the final phase of the presidential race, he's still working to develop a fundamental campaign building block: a clear and compelling message.
In The 90's: Top Ten Songs of the 90s
What are your top ten favorite songs from the 90s?
The Big Apple
A series of citations, quotations, and evidence on the true origins of a New York City nickname, with additional material on other words and terms associated with the city.
Soccernet.com: Coach had questioned ref's ruling
"The referee awarded a penalty against the visiting team during a friendly match and then players stormed the field," Govender said. "It looks as if the referee had the firearm on his person and fired at the players first before hitting the coach in the chest."
Salon: Is Your Computer a Loaded Gun
At a Senate hearing on Thursday, defenders of the Induce Act -- which would ban technologies that encourage copyright infringement -- will try to explain why their bill isn't the stupidest idea they've ever come up with.
DivaBlog: What if Mozilla were to win in the end?
Anyway, the presenter was doing his pitch in a polished way and at one point he said he wanted to show us a "really cool" feature and he looked up into the audience and said "Show of hands...How many of you use Internet Explorer?". Probably 99 times out of 100 when he asks that question all the hands go up, right? Well first there was a pause and then a giggle and then a whoop of laughter as the audience looked around and realized that NO ONE had raised a hand. The presenter was thrown off his mark, but he recovered and said, "Wow! Okay how many of you wish we'd fix IE so you could use it?"

Still no hands....

adland: Fuse parodies two campaigns in one - gets Apple on the phone
Amalgamated's Charles Rosen on the conceptual homage: "Much like Mother's Lilt soda spot spoofing BBH's Levi's 'Odyssey,' or the many commercials spoofing the Honda 'Cog' spot, our campaign is paying tribute to the cultural impact of the Chiat/Day ads. As with any parody, there are elements borrowed from the original that are transformed or twisted, in this case to capture Fuse's brand personality and the lifestyle of its viewers."
July 27, 2004
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Noah Brier | Thanks for reading. | Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk.