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2008 January

Dip once or dip twice? [∞]

The study, to be published later this year in the Journal of Food Safety, is the only one I’ve ever seen to proclaim that it was inspired by an episode of “Seinfeld.” It was conducted as part of a Clemson University program designed to get undergraduate students involved in scientific research. Prof. Paul L. Dawson, a food microbiologist, proposed it after he saw a rerun of a 1993 “Seinfeld” show in which George Costanza is confronted at a funeral reception by Timmy, his girlfriend’s brother, after dipping the same chip twice.

[...]

Professor Dawson told me that he had expected to find little or no microbial transfer from mouth to chip to dip, which would support George’s nonchalance. The results surprised him.

Obey Obama [∞]

Designer Shepard Fairey created some awesome artwork for the Barack Obama campaign:

Oregon AD apologizes for fans’ behavior toward Love [∞]

LOS ANGELES — Oregon’s athletic director has apologized to UCLA for the behavior of Ducks fans toward Bruins freshman Kevin Love last week.

Pat Kilkenny left messages Monday for coach Ben Howland, athletic director Dan Guerrero and Love’s father Stan, who starred for Oregon in the early 1970s.

The younger Love and his father were booed and jeered unmercifully by the student section at McArthur Court last Thursday, when the fifth-ranked Bruins defeated the Ducks 80-75. Love had 26 points and 18 rebounds.

The Love family was the target of homophobic chants and signs with offensive messages, some of which were confiscated.

“It was pretty bad and I heard a lot of stuff,” Love said Tuesday.

The About:Blank guide to babysitting [∞]

Hilarious illustrations showing what you should and shouldn’t do when caring for an infant.

Vinyl gets its groove back [∞]

From college dorm rooms to high school sleepovers, an all-but-extinct music medium has been showing up lately. And we don’t mean CDs. Vinyl records, especially the full-length LPs that helped define the golden era of rock in the 1960s and ’70s, are suddenly cool again. Some of the new fans are baby boomers nostalgic for their youth. But to the surprise and delight of music executives, increasing numbers of the iPod generation are also purchasing turntables (or dusting off Dad’s), buying long-playing vinyl records and giving them a spin.

On Ma.tt [∞]

A few weeks ago I twittered I was heading to the bank to wire money for a life change. People got excited, and assumed I was buying a house, fancy car, plane, company, jewelry… it was really amusing to see where people’s imagination went. I’m afraid the truth is much less exciting, at least to other people. I was wiring money for the domain I’m on now, ma.tt. How did this come to be?

WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg changed his domain from photomatt.net to ma.tt. Very web 2.0.

How to make your WordPress blog more secure [∞]

Google engineer and SEO guru Matt Cutts has posted a handful of tips for WordPress users to help make their blogs more secure. To wit:

• Secure your /wp-admin/ directory so only specific IPs have access to it.
• Make an empty /wp-content/plugins/index.html file to hide which plug-ins you’re actually running.
• Subscribe to the WordPress development blog and stay up to date with the latest patches.
• Delete the version information from your theme’s header.php file.

To secure your /wp-admin/ directory, create an .htaccess file with this code:

Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

Where XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is your IP address. You can also hostmask the allow field if you are on a dynamic IP connection (cable, DSL).

Instead of adding a blank index.html to the plugins folder, I recommend turning off modautoindex across your site (only enable it on a per-directory basis — my media folder, for example. At your site’s web root, add this code to disable modautoindex:

Options -Indexes

The life and crimes of the music biz [∞]

A contract with a major record company was always a 90 per cent guarantee of failure. In the boardroom the talk was never of music, only of units sold. Artists were never the product; the product was discs - 10 cents’ worth of vinyl selling for $10 - 10,000 per cent profit - the highest mark-up in all of retail marketing. Artists were simply an ingredient, without even the basic rights of employees.

[...]

Recently, the Wall Street Journal investigated the industry and concluded that ‘for all the 21st-century glitz that surrounds it, the popular music business is distinctly medieval in character: the last form of indentured servitude.’

Heath Ledger’s ’suicide’ film [∞]

HEATH LEDGER filmed himself ‘commiting suicide’ – in an eerie tribute video to British songwriter NICK DRAKE, who killed himself in 1974.

The actor, who was found dead yesterday in a New York apartment with sleeping pills nearby, is seen drowning himself in a bath in the clip he shot for track Black Eyed Dog.

The song is about depression, which Ledger is rumoured to have suffered from and is allegedly the last song Drake wrote before overdosing on antidepressants.

U2 3D brings hyperreal arena rock to the multiplex [∞]

U2 3D includes little visual or audio trickery. The band insisted that no audio overdubs be included; every note in the film was played live (although for on-stage close-ups, U2 agreed to be filmed playing one show to an empty stadium). “I could make my cat sound like a good singer with Pro Tools,” said Modell, “but we didn’t use any of that. What you see there are those guys, playing that night, in front of 90,000 people.”

I’ve love to see this in theaters, but it isn’t playing anywhere in Ann Arbor, currently.

Samsung 2493HM LCD [∞]

Released at CES 2008, this new monitor features 10,000:1 contrast, 5 ms response, and HDMI. Dell and Apple, time to get things rolling.

P22 Johnston Underground Regular [∞]

A lovely, affordable replica of the London Underground typeface.

Wooden can’t say no to autograph-seekers, so UCLA does it for him [∞]

“It all wears on him,” UCLA spokesman Marc Dellins said. “He just wants to be able to come and enjoy the games.”

Wooden gets around using a cane and is usually accompanied by his daughter. A lone security guard is on hand to keep the crowd orderly.

[...]

“It’s long overdue,” Howland said. “It’s not an autograph signing session. He’d be there all day just doing that. He never says no to anybody about anything.”

Chelsea complete £15m Anelka deal [∞]

Chelsea have completed a £15m deal to sign Nicolas Anelka from Bolton. The French striker, 28, has signed a four-and-a-half year contract and could figure in Saturday’s game with Spurs.

Bolton had rejected a £12m bid from the Stamford Bridge outfit, who are short of fowards because of injuries and Africa Cup of Nations call-ups.

“It’s not a secret that I was looking for one more striker, and Anelka has pace, is a good finisher and is scoring a lot of goals,” said boss Avram Grant.

With the loss of Didier Drogba to the African Cup of Nations, along with Petr Cech and John Terry out with injury, this should help Chelsea compete for the league title.

BT’s daughter has been abducted! [∞]

Last year his studio was robbed, resulting in a loss of the Binary Universe masters. Now his daughter gets abducted. Best of luck in the search.

Unexpected wrinkle for Clinton in Michigan [∞]

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Democratic leaders in Michigan are urging supporters of John Edwards and Barack Obama, who are not on the ballot in the state, to vote “uncommitted” in the January 15 primary – a move that could create an unexpected headache for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Clinton is the only major presidential candidate who did not pull her name from the Michigan ballot after the national party penalized the state for scheduling the vote in mid-January, rather than later in the cycle.

[...]

But if at least 15 percent of the voters in a congressional district opt for the “uncommitted” option rather than voting for Clinton, delegates not bound to any candidate could attend the national convention – a development that could allow Edwards or Obama supporters to play a role in candidate selection there.

Justice announce world tour, dates with Diplo [∞]

They’re coming to Michigan on March 19th, where they will be playing at the Royal Oak Music Hall in Detroit. Also, Pitchfork is reporting that Justice’s upcoming FABRICLIVE mix has been rejected. Here’s the unconfirmed tracklist:

1. Sparks: “Tryouts for the Human Race”
2. Rondo Veneziano: “La Serenissima”
3. Goblin: “Tenebrae”
4. Daft Punk: “Ouverture”
5. Surkin: “Next of Kin”
6. Symbolone: “Love Juice”
7. Korgis: “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes”
8. Midnight Juggernauts: “Ending of an Era”
9. The Paradise: “In Love With You [ft. Romauld]“
10. Justice: “TTHHEE PPAARRTTYY (Acapella)”
11. Chic: “Everybody Dance”
12. Frankie Valli: “Who Loves You”
13. Das Pop: “Underground”
14. Julien Clerc: “Quand Je Joue”
15. Daniel Balavoine: “Vivre Ou Survivre”
16. Richard Sanderson: “Reality”
17. Zoot Woman: “Grey Day”
18. Fucking Champs: “Thor Is Like Immortal”
19. The Rave: “Mother”
20. Fancy: “You Never Know”
21. Frank Stallone: “Far From Over”
22. Sheila: “Misery”
23. Todd Rundgren: “International Feel”

Some brand-name bloggers say stress of posting is a hazard to their health [∞]

Om Malik’s blog, GigaOm, regularly breaks news about the technology industry. Last week, the journalist turned blogger broke a big story about himself. Mr. Malik, 41, blogged that he had suffered a heart attack on Dec. 28.

[...]

“The trouble with a personal brand is, you’re yoked to a machine,” said Paul Kedrosky, a friend of Mr. Malik’s who runs the Infectious Greed blog. “You feel huge pressure to not just do a lot, but to do a lot with your name on it. You have pressure to not just be the C.E.O., but at the same time to write, and to do it all on a shoestring. Put it all together, and it’s a recipe for stress through the roof.”

[...]

In his post last Thursday, Mr. Malik blamed a variety of vices. “Friends and family have purged my apartment of smokes, scotch and all my favorite fatty foods — I am even going to be drinking decaf,” wrote Mr. Malik. His online avatar features a drawing of him wearing a press fedora and chomping a cigar, and until he rented an office last year he worked largely out of a Starbucks in San Francisco.

Get well soon, Om.

New Sony TVs featured at CES 2008 [∞]

My dad recently bought the 40″ Bravia XBR4 model and loves it. Looks like Sony is rolling out cheaper versions of the XBR line with similar feature sets. Maybe I’ll be able to afford a decent HDTV set in 2008.