The Memory Hole

Thanks to some very generous help from very talented people (check out the logo by the Unrepentant Geek), The Memory Hole is coming along nicely.  I'm 90%+ of the way to pulling down full copies of websites and will be able to have archives of www.whitehouse.gov and www.recovery.gov in a few days.

From then, I'm going to work on allowing people to track changes to "watched" web pages.  Also, people should notify me of places where people are disappearing things.

That is going to be the goal of the affiliate site. 

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 11:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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WTF Is Wrong With Wisconsin?

The local Milwaukee weatherman does something awesome, apparently on accident.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 08:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Some Unsolicited Advice For Going To Funeral Homes

If you go to the funeral services for a co-workers wife, at least make sure you show up at the right room for the prayer service.

Just sayin'.

Posted by: eddiebear at 01:43 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Down the Memory Hole

So, I was reading Instapundit this morning and this post motivated me to register the domain www.thememoryhole.us. 

The service I want to provide is taking daily or weekly snapshots of high-profile websites like www.whitehouse.gov and keeping an archive that will allow us to easily yell gotcha when they disappear a statement that is inconvenient to their current policies.

Now, I just need help with understanding how web-crawlers work and how I'd be able to pull that data down.  The rest of the presentation won't be a problem.

Anybody want to help?  Alice H., I'm looking in your direction.

Update: Okay, something is there.  I'll be putting it together in my very limited spare time this weekend.  Basically, I figure I'll use a webcrawler to scrape the pages at various websites* of interest and then archive versions of the pages by date.  That'll be all it does initially but eventually we could even have a tool that locates differences in websites over time.  That would save having to hand-explore them. 

 

* - I will need to look into the legality of doing this for private/corporate websites.  I imagine anything political or governmental is pretty much fine under fair use laws but I'm not a lawyer. 

*ahem*.  I'm not a lawyer...   ...

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 09:51 AM | Comments (32) | Add Comment
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Aren't those called blisters?

I'm guessing the group of doctors that came up with this were really being pushed on publish-or-perish.

Called "PlayStation palmar hidradentitis" by the scientists, the skin disorder can cause painful lesions on the palms similar to patches found on the soles of children's feet after taking part in heavy physical activity, they said.

I'm glad they added 'PlayStation' in there. Because that makes it clear that there's no way you could get this from playing on an Xbox or Nintendo or Wii for hours on end. Or from doing other repeated motions with your hand for hours on end.

(h/t CodeProject)

Posted by: Alice H at 11:57 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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The Only Thing Missing From This Story Was The Hookers And The Guy From Princeton

Nice to see some industrious youths from the same town fatured in "Risky Business" are keeping up the tradition.

Several North Shore teenagers turned an unoccupied Winnetka home into a party house where they drank, smoked and made themselves comfortable for weeks, according to police and the homeowner.

Eight teenagers have been ticketed with underage drinking in connection with the incident.

The tally of damage exceeds $10,000 and continues to grow as more ruined clothing and broken belongings are found, an attorney said.

Edrita "Muffin" Braun discovered the students in her home in the 1100 block of Willow Road nearly two weeks ago. On Wednesday, a "keep out" sign adorned the front window and "no trespassing" signs were posted to the doors, sending a clear message that the party is over.

Posted by: eddiebear at 11:52 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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My Grandpa never told me this story

Check out this documentary about World War II...



That's pretty much how the war ended, though there may not have been quite that many karate robots.

Posted by: Sean M. at 03:59 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Two windows for sale

Two people have come forward claiming to own the window, removed from the Texas School Book Depository, that Lee Harvey Oswald used as a sniper's perch on November 22, 1963.  Both men's fathers owned the building at separate times, and both men claim their fathers removed the window from the building; each claims the other's father removed the wrong window.  Both windows appeared at the same time on Ebay two years ago, and a state district court is preparing to decide which window owner has the legitimate claim.

Wouldn't it be an absolute hoot if the court decided Lee Harvey Oswald didn't do it?

Posted by: Alice H at 09:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Share your life!

So, I've been MIA for a while.  (Yeah, I'm totally sure you noticed.)  In short, my preggers roommate has been put on bedrest, which means I may be getting thrown out of my temporary, pre-DC housing a bit earlier than expected, which has made my non-blogging life completely hectic. 

If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have none at all. 

Also, if anyone knows anyone at the Charles G. Koch Foundation, please let me know.  I may or may not be applying for their associate program. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 03:16 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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I hate tragedy movies

I don't much care for films that exploit a historical tragedy to try to give greater meaning to what might otherwise be pedestrian material.  I'm not talking about historical films, even some historical fiction - I'm talking about the films that have plotlines that could have taken place without the backdrop of the tragedy.  Movie about a woman struggling to learn to read? Could be a story of human triumph. Movie about a woman struggling to read who was an OMG NAZI! Not something I'm likely to watch. Movie about a dude who gets younger instead of older?  Might be interesting.  Movie about a dude who gets younger instead of older set against the events of Hurricane Katrina?  Please give me my three hours back. 

The Reader particularly stuck in my craw because I consider movies that humanize war criminals to be a soft form of revisionism. (No, I haven't seen the movie, and I most likely won't. So if one of you morons who has seen it would care to set me straight on what a beautiful film it was, you're welcome to. And not just because Kate Winslet gets nekkid.)

I think Kate Winslet searched for this particular part for years, as is evidenced by this clip from 2005:

I guess doing one film that exploited a tragedy wasn't enough for her.  No, I haven't seen that one either.

Posted by: Alice H at 06:24 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Wait, it's not about alien possession?

Then what in the name of all that's unholy is on Travolta's face?

Posted by: alexthechick at 12:22 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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New BlackBerry Storm feature

As some of you already know, I bought a pair of shiny new BlackBerry Storms for me and the hubby about a week ago.  I recently discovered something very useful about it - the phrase "pussy whipped" is already in its dictionary, so when I'm angrily typing I can miss several letters and it will still spell it correctly.

Posted by: Alice H at 02:09 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Nerdfact: I enjoy hearing a capella versions of songs I like

Like "For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" by Sufjan Stevens. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Headline of the week

Boy marries dog to ward off tiger attacks

(I know, I know, we're not supposed to be judgmental about other cultures, but, seriously?)

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:06 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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A raccoon destroyed my car

Alternate title: Why I need to live in a city that doesn't require car ownership.

Believe it or not, you're looking at about $1972 in damage.

Screw you, raccoon.  I hope it hurt you as much as it hurt me. 

more...

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 10:07 PM | Comments (28) | Add Comment
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Random Wikipedia Goodness: Baldwin Brothers

Apparently it is important to disambiguate the term "Baldwin Brothers" on wikipedia or you might end up thinking they are a techno group. 

I found this detail particularly fascinating:

Jason Hinkle is an original owner of a Drum Buddy electronic synthesizer which the Baldwin Brothers use in live performances.

Wow.  I just cluster-shit my pants at that awesome revelation.  I love it when people write their own Wikipedia entries. 

I provide the following graph by way of explaining why I felt I needed to post about this:

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 03:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ummm.....

Posted by: eddiebear at 09:48 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The five most expensive catastrophes

Hostages have them.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Random Wikipedia Stupidity: Kansas City WEEZARDS

When I'm thinking I often engage in a nervous habit where I read random Wikipedia articles until the though solidifies.  Yes, I'm a bit crazy.

Anyway, I thought I'd start sharing some bizarre stuff I find while I peruse the vast depths of obscure human knowledge. 

Today:

OnGoal, LLC is a group of Kansas City investors formed for the purpose of purchasing the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer and seeing through the construction of a permanent soccer-specific stadium for the team. On August 31st, 2006, OnGoal bought the Wizards from their previous owner, Lamar Hunt, for a figure "in the ballpark" of US$20 million. [1]

In December 2007, OnGoal received approval for approximately $275 million of public financing to create a soccer specific stadium in southeast Kansas City.

Let me get this straight.  A handful of millionaires (seriously, look at the article... they aren't poor) get together and buy a company with $20 million and are immediately rewarded with a $275 million dollar stadium? 

Can someone explain how that makes any fucking sense?  How could a concern with a value of $20 million possibly give a return on an investment of $275 million?  It boggles the mind.

I bet they needed to build 40 miles of light rail to the stadium, too.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 03:32 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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"Synecdoche, New York" is coming to DVD soon

March 10.  Can't. Friggin'. Wait. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 08:20 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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