links for 2009-04-17

Shaq reminds Oprah to turn off the Caps Lock key.

Ok this is pretty funny.

"Remember just because you build something doesn’t mean that people are going to know its there." Full Disclosure, I work here. It's still brings forth of when to redesign your site.

"Today, Mr. Schmidt, who also served as a top Bush aide (in addition to McCain), discusses the subject with the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that supports gay rights. According to CNN, he will call on conservative Republicans to drop their opposition at a lunchtime speech in Washington."

"A chartered accountant who admitted raping a child has been jailed for an indefinite term, despite the fact his victim has never been found."

That's nice.

"gauge.js 1.2 allows you to add gauges (with shading and reflection) to your webpages. It uses unobtrusive javascript to keep your code clean. " Pretty cool.

"We don’t have clear data about the average number pages each member of that audience looks at, but let’s make an educated guess: 24. That translates to about 87.1 billion printed page views per month*. As a check on our assumption of 24 pages: based on annual newsprint consumption of 9 million metric tons, the industry prints about 190 billion pages (a mix of tabloid and broadsheet sizes). So we’re assuming the average reader looks at about half the pages published, which seems reasonable." Total BS, I know tons of people who may get the paper but barely look at 5 pages much less half.

"Gov. David A. Paterson introduced a bill on Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage, vowing to personally involve himself in the legislative debate at a level that is rare for a chief executive in New York."

Very cool.

It's funny people.

"Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, has reported a 90% fall in profits for the first quarter of 2009." Wow, still made a profit, but a 90% fall. Wonder how much is from Apple.

"Standing for something isn’t just about writing it down. It’s about believing it and living it." Something a lot of companies need to do more of.

Good job Ning.

"The Wall Street Journal, one of the few newspapers that charges for content online, released an app for the iPhone Wednesday which sets their content free, poking another hole in one of the internet's oldest pay walls." Woot, WSJ.

"Summary: The Fox Nation and the Drudge Report advanced a CNSNews.com article claiming the White House requested that Georgetown University "hide[] 'Jesus' " during a speech there by President Obama. However, as the CNS article noted, the White House requested "all signs and symbols" on the stage — not solely the name of Jesus — be covered. ..and that this request was "consistent with what they've [the White House] done for other policy speeches."" Just saying, no freaking out.

"Cuban President Raul Castro has said he is willing to talk to Washington about everything, including human rights, political prisoners and press freedom." Pretty cool.

"The United States and Japan have each pledged $1bn (£671m) to Pakistan so far at an international donors conference. The meeting, in Tokyo, is to help Pakistan stabilise its economy amid fears that financial woes could lead to increased support for militant groups. Analysts have suggested that a total of up to $6bn might be pledged at the meeting. " Wow!

"It was flashing and everything."

"Just fix your camera to a tripod and you too can make an image of graceful trails traced by the stars as planet Earth rotates on its axis. Making a time lapse video like that shown above may require more effort, though. Made on 2006 October 13 from Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA, this video nicely captured what you might see of the night sky if you could keep your brain from changing your perceived visual image about every hundredth of a second. The above remarkable time-lapse video was constructed from about 1,000 consecutive frames taken with a digital camera over nearly nine hours."

It may look cool, but can you build it.

"Jesus is fucking metal."

It only took them a decade.

"China is planning to boost the size and sophistication of its naval power, the head of the Chinese navy told state news agency Xinhua."

How do you nail an interview.

"Eight police officers serving with Scotland's largest force listed their official religion as Jedi in voluntary diversity forms, it has emerged." Awesome.

What's a pig's life like?

"When two Domino’s Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant’s kitchen, they decided to post it online. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis."

"Reading Damn Cool Pics, one of my more favorite non-science/skeptic blogs, I found out that the the Windows XP background of the too-green hill — the one called Bliss — is a real place, and it’s in Sonoma County, California not far from where I used to live." That's cool.

Tomorrow awaits the fate of Pirate Bay.