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MUCH ADO ABOUT PASTIES

Freakonomics coauthor Stephen J. Dubner noted on their Times blog an apparent typo in a recent issue of the Economist. Many readers responded in comments saying in fact that it was not a typo.

I noted that the excellent Economist magazine dropped an “r” from the word “pastries,” inadvertently rendering it “pasties.”

Well, The Economist was not wrong but I sure was. Many readers informed me that a pasty (pl.: pasties) is a small Cornish pie often filled with meat and vegetables.

In the entry's aftermath he also received a surprise package from the Economist:

Those Brits and their crazy food and spelling.

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LEOPARD VERSUS ALLIGATOR

Daily Mail has photos of the first ever documented leopard attack on an alligator, an attack which was captured by an American photographer in South Africa's Kruger National Park, the site of arguably the most viewed amateur wildlife amateur video (previously blogged here).

"There have been recorded cases of crocodiles killing leopards but never the other way around as the meat a crocodile provides is not sufficient enough to justify the risk."

Having vanquished the alligator, next up for the ferocious feline is the "pride" of Russia, Fedor Emelianenko.

View more here.

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MISSPELLED TATOOS

A compilation of misspelled FIAL FAIL tattoos:

And some that involve no spelling but might appear regrettable...especially when what was suppose to be a loving tribute to one's wife becomes instead a terrifying zombie bride:

View more here.

[Via]

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WATCHMEN TRAILER

The Watchmen is one of my all time favorite novels ever, and from the first trailer the film adaptation looks very promising. I'm not spoiling anything, but I did notice that this teaser includes a lot of seminal scenes from the graphic novel--out of context as it is edited here it doesn't mean much but wow, I'm amazed at the very last shot. [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=mSrgvJ2JyHs]

The Watchmen make Batman look like Spongebob Squarepants.

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WALL-E REVIEW

I saw Wall-E tonight after the attempt to go to the MoMA failed. Memo to self: Not everything in NYC is open until 4 am. The latest from the geniuses at Pixar, a CGI animation studio, is incredible: it's heartwarming and hilarious without being pandering or didactic, which is difficult balance considering its message. Also, in contrast to today's hyper-active entertainment environment, for an animated feature Wall-E has a decidedly slower and more contemplative vibe and pace (particularly in the first third of the film which plays almost like a silent film), despite a setting set in the future where humans evacuated a polluted Earth for large space bound cruise ships in which robots attended to every person's need.

I recommend.

All the promotional Wall-E vignettes are a nice treat as well:

Wall-E & Soccer Ball

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWfzHeUKwZY]

Wall-E & Headphones

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=p7AOH8Cx-2Q]

Wall-E & Hula Hoop

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=51FXSBGC39k]

Wall-E & Magnet

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=qqLzKPQqCIg]

Wall-E & Vacuum

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=KZLpXRroU7I]

Wall-E & Bouncy Balls

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=0hx-9t8jcvs]

Wall-E & Fire Hydrant

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=xMAEIh6S1_w]

Wall-E Break Dancing

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9j5ezGhXk4]

Wall-E & Camera

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC9DpRvAJE4&NR=1]

Wall-E & Basketball

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMt6NODv6OA]

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WINDOWS 95 ARCHITECT HEARTS APPLE

Satoshi Nakajima, the lead architect for Windows 95 and 98 as well as the project lead on Internet Explorer 3.0 and 4.0 at Microsoft, hooked up with a Mac a couple years ago and hasn't looked back at a PC since. He recently launched an iPhone software company and rolled out the first product, Photoshare, a photo sharing program for the iPhone. Sigh. I really want an iPhone now.  Although what I would be really stoked about would be something like an iPhone Nano or Mini (You know, what with my skinny jeans and all).

Wired sat down with Nakajima for an interesting Q&A:

Were there other aspects of developing for iPhone that you found attractive? The rest of the wireless world is so fragmented. We have 8 years of experience planning a business in mobile. I know that it’s so difficult to make money in the regular cell phone market because of this fragmentation, and the marketing costs, the channel costs of business development with wireless operators and then the porting costs to individual hardware way exceed the revenue, so a lot of developers lose money. With iPhone, it’s very unique because it’s one hardware, one channel, so the costs of distribution and the costs of developing for the hardware is a lot lower. And the addressable market is right now 6 million and its going to be 10 million by the end of the year, which is big enough for us.

So you’re OK with Apple’s 30% AppStore fee? I think that’s a fair number. A lot of people are complaining about that but compared to the other costs you’d have to bear to market for multiple hardware and also the complexity of provisioning for a lot of wireless operators are costs you avoid with iPhone, because it’s a one-time cost. So I think it’s fair, yes.

Nakajima, who admits that Steve Jobs's "reality distortion power is amazing," has completely swallowed the Apple Kool-Aid.

Read more here.

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What Mainstream Publishers Don't Want You to Know About Door-to-Door Magazine Sales

The Houston Press has a really interesting investigative piece on the underbelly of the magazine publishing business where "just a slight bump in circulation can mean serious money" to the magazines-- a bump provided by problematic and vulnerable "agents" in their late teens and early twenties looking to escape whatever it is are recruited by Fagin-like managers to join their crews who peddle magazine subscriptions door-to-door from city-to-city to "Joneses," what they call customers. When not canvassing neighborhoods with various "spiels," "a school-spiel, cancer-spiel, you name it"--anything to sign up a Jones for  a subscription--they party hard often with drugs thanks to their managers. As the Press writes, what follows "is a story of that collateral damage — of murder, rape, assault, overdoses and scamming — and the business decisions and lack of legislation that make it possible."

It's been a tough hop for this caravan of sales crews, though. Winding their way down from California, they lost a few agents. Two were arrested in Albuquerque after they allegedly forced their way into the home of an elderly couple and beat them to death, raping the wife first. A few weeks later, another agent allegedly raped a woman in Claremont, California, so he got picked up, too. Then, in West Texas, a van flipped, killing one agent and injuring three others. That's seven agents out of commission. That's about a $2,800 loss per day.

Read more here.

[Via]

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A GOOD REVIEW AND DIM SUM

This New York Times restaurant review by Peter Meehan of a new dim sum restaurant (Pacificana) in Chinatown in Brooklyn makes me really crave dim sum right now. It's also an amusing read starting with the reviewer's fellow diners at his table, which included a family whose child provided the (annoying) entertainment by providing a running commentary on their meal.

We started with dumplings (a metal steamer of juicy, shu mai-like pork dumplings were the best, though there wasn’t a batch that disappointed). It was on to rice noodle wraps stuffed with tender mushrooms and crisp water chestnuts. They fell apart when we picked them up but were good eating all the same. Glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame paste were like chewy, savory bonbons.

The girl couldn’t hide her expression when we ordered chicken feet.

My friend asked her name.

“I Don’t Know!”

I Don’t Know paused before continuing, “And if you knew me I’d be the weirdest girl you knew.”

Read more here.

[Thanks Chris!]

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THE B BOYS

See what they are doing here in this video? They're are playing on the pun of "B." It's kind of terrible, but then again I am posting it here because I figure it is in someway blogworthy. Anyway, (surprise!) it's a "viral" effort for some save the bees campaign. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m5vt07W2n4]

RELATEDLY

My comedy writer friend Dan Mintz's own take on bees and flowers:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=w67hexbu8eI]

[Via]

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HI

As you settle into the last work day of this week, I just want to remind you that

I HAVE NO WORK TODAY! AGAIN!

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TRIUMP THE INSULT DOG AT BON JOVI CONCERT

I don't know how I missed this, but Drew sent it to me and although it's kind of long (that's what she said), this segment of Triumph the Insult Dog at a Bon Jovi concert this year in New Jersey is pretty damn funny. The band has a pretty good sense of humor about it all considering it's a puppet taking a shit the entire time on their entire musical career. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1EEqt0ovfE]

[Thanks Drew!]

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