diary

The Obit to end all obits

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Count Gottfried von Bismarck...was a louche German aristocrat with a multi-faceted history as a pleasure-seeking heroin addict, hell-raising alcoholic, flamboyant waster and a reckless and extravagant host of homosexual orgies. Ouch. Count Gottfried von Bismarck | Obituaries | News | Telegraph
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Jesus Phone Crucified by ATT

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Jesus Phone Crucified by ATT And it came to pass that on the morning of the Sabbath, there were no lines at the Apple Store in Soho. For lo, there were hordes of people on the previous eve. It was decided that the Lord had shined down on me and I wouldn't have to wait in line like those who had not been chosen. Three score and ten seconds later I had the one they call 'Jesus Phone'. And indeed it was truly a wondrous thing from the one they call Steve. I tapped the button and there was light - and a little slidey thing and emergency call hotline-to-God thing. But not much else before activation with the people of ATT. But the activation by the people called ATT did not work, and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth and hours of moronic playing with the single...
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Blogfest Design Competition

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The Apartment has kindly offered Design Blogfest their Crosby Street window for the duration of New York Design Week. We thought it would be fun to show some indie design... are you a designer with a prototype that we could put in the window? If yes, please upload an image from your website or Flickr, a brief description and the keyword "designblogfest" here in Wists. All the entries will be available at wists.com/everyone/designblogfest. The Design Blogfest bloggers will create a shortlist on Monday afternoon after which we'll ask you the readers to vote on the best design. Yeah, we know, it's short notice, but then that's what blogs are all about. ;) Important dates: - Now, upload an image from your website or Flickr to Wists and tag "designblogfest" - Monday May 14, 12noon EST, deadline for entries via Wists - Tuesday May 15, shortlist of finalists, voting begins -...
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Bill O’Reilly to Interview Dawkins

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Richard Dawkins will be interviewed by Fox's Colbert style, fake, sensationalist newscaster, Bill O'Reilly, on Monday, April 23, at 8.00pm EST on FOX. The program will be rebroadcast at 11.00pm. Should be fun. Bill O’Reilly | The O’Reilly Factor - FOXNews.com
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Smashing Telly Launches

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I'm launching a new site called Smashing Telly. Over the last 6 months, I have rarely watched regular TV, but did not have the patience to download programs, having found a wealth of timeless classics such as Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (sic) available instantly, as a streamed video of 'good enough' quality. Smashing Telly is a hand edited collection of the best free TV on the web. Not 30 second clips of a dog on a skateboard, or the millionth person to mime the Numa song, but full length programs. Over the next week I'll be posting a bunch of new items.
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Calling bullshit on my own startup

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I coined the term 'Social Shopping' and put it in the masthead of Wists, largely as a joke. The joke was that I could imagine people pitching an idea like Wists to VC's as: look we've wedded social networking to shopping, i.e. community plus money equals more money. Unfortunately three people did pitch this and they all raised money, and one of them is actually rather good. I'll post more about Wists and 'social shopping', over the next few weeks. In the mean time, it seems that It seems that Sucharita Mulpuru of Forrester and Kate Kaye of Click Z are seeing social shopping with a clear head. Click Z on social Shopping
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Don;t go and see the Bodies Exhibition

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On the way back from a nice walk this afternoon, I learned the truth about the BODIES...The Exhibition. At the South Street Seaport, near where we live. Some background to this. When I was a student I worked at the Royal Academy in London, during the holidays. In the basement there is a sculpture of a crucifiction, with one unusual aspect - its real. The artist, Stubbs, bought an executed prisoner's corpse, flayed him, nailed him to a cross and took a plaster cast, in order to do anatomical studies. Seeing this a night in the darkened basement of a near deserted museum after closing time made some impact. Now I learn that plagiarized versions of the Van Hagens Bodyworks exhibitions, such as the 'Bodies' exhibition use corpses that probably come from executed Chinese prisoners, possibly prisoners of conscience. I have absolutely no problem with anatomical exhibits, however the use...
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