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The Blog

Tuesday, February 9

The Dropping Of The Eaves

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Yes, it's what we like to hear, but not all Twitterers are so blatantly direct about their love. And sometimes, they actually have things to say. After the jump, enjoy a recap of what we found this week while Twittersurfing, and then enjoy a few of our too-long-to-Tweet replies. Hey, it's a slow Tuesday, indulge us our vanity. Also keep in mind, if you shout out to @WootLive (take a look over on there on the right), we'll see it, and maybe we'll even answer you back!

 

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Wednesday, February 3

We're living in the future!

So there's this new stuff called SiO2 Ultra-Thin Layering, which is a much smarter-sounding way of saying "Spray-on Liquid Glass." No, not liquid gas.

Liquid glass.

It's antibacterial, it bonds to surfaces using quantum force, it's environmentally harmless, non-toxic, flexible, breathable, and cleans using only water. Pretty soon it's going to be coating *everything* you buy.

Which is pretty awesome when you consider that medical equipment will be easier to sterilize, stone monuments won't weather as quickly, and grafiti will come off with a wetnap. In fact, this stuff is so highly flexible and breathable, you could spray plants with it and never have to worry about spraying pesticides. It even keeps termites out of wood!

You can spray it on clothes, too; they'll become instantly stain-resistant. According to the developer you can dump your clothes in wine and it will just wipe off.

The best part? It's *here*. You'll be able to get it in merry ol' England pretty soon for $8 a bottle. There is already some opposition mounting from companies who sell cleaning products thinking this is a terrible idea, so look for it to never set foot in America.

Still, it'd be pretty nifty to never have to worry about a bean burrito stain on my interviewin' suit again. What would be the first thing you'd coat with liquid glass?

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Monday, February 1

I Want That!

Are you sick of sitting around in your studio apartment alone, drunk, and wishing you had someone to play Rock Paper Scissors with? Well then you should consider returning my calls need to buy this t-shirt!

Some Swedish weirdo named Marc Stromberg has created an "Augmented Reality" shirt which allows you, the wearer, to visit a specific website, turn on your webcam, and have a creepy disembodied hand appear out of your chest. Kind of like The Ring, but this time you get to play Rock Paper Scissors.

You might think this is kind of pointless, but this means we're that much closer to a Magic Mirror On The Wall scenario in which you have your own smiling, supportive affirmation right inside your t-shirt!

Or scathing, mocking bully. Your choice.

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A Little Something For The Cubicle: Mongo Santamaria

On February 1st, back in 2003, conga player Mongo Santamaria passed on. Like all jazz drummers, some people have never even heard of him. But those who knew his name remember him fondly.

After the jump, we've complied a little bit more, primarily as a tribute to the man himself. But we also hope you'll find this a way to clear out those Monday morning blues. Get out those headphones and enjoy!

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Friday, January 29

Now THIS Is An Attack Ad

We're all used to some tough-talking political ads these days. But Dr. Dwight McKenna, candidate for coroner in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, tops 'em all with this ghoulish salvo against incumbent Frank Minyard:

Yes, it's real, and yes, it's running on TV. Scare tactics are nothing new in campaign ads, but this is the first I've seen that could actually qualify as a horror film.

As seen on Talking Points Memo.

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Hey, Thanks for the Tip: Useless Advice

In case you're flying on a commercial airliner anytime soon, Popular Mechanics was kind enough to put out a handy guide to make you terrified of ever setting foot on a plane again: How to Survive a 35,000-Foot Fall.

Among the highlights? 

  • Aim for a swamp, but not water
  • Try to cling to or cocoon yourself in as much plane debris as possible.
  • Haystacks are your friend
  • You really have to practice some "mind over matter" and convince yourself you're going to live
  • You're probably not going to live anyway

Me? I'm counting on the resulting coronary killing me long before I hit the ground.

So what's your strategy for surviving a fall out of the window on your next flight?

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Thursday, January 28

We Blogged This: The Apple iPad Announcement

In case you're STILL not following us @WootOnTheStreet over on Twitter, you missed out on some delightful and informative live-blog-blogging yesterday as we covered the Apple press conference. By watching other people cover it.

The news bodes extremely well for those of you who have been waiting for an Amazon Kindle to show up on Woot.com in the near future, as the competitively-priced and way-more-functional iPad should probably murder the poor thing in its sleep. But Apple apparently has no sense of history when it comes to choosing product names:

We were all thinking it. MadTV just said it. So does the air taste sweeter in your part of the post-iPad world?

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Wednesday, January 27

Nice Guys CAN Finish First: If They Act Like Bad Guys

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. It sucks, but it's just a fact of life. Personally, I subscribe to the theory that we're all just insignificant specks hurtling through an unimaginably immense void aboard a tiny ball of mud and that anything that happens in the meantime is just chaotic chance.

But sometimes, you've got to take matters into your own hands and show the universe (and iPhone thieves) you've still got some control.

Enter Mr Sam.

Mr Sam is a Los Angeles-based animator who had his iPhone stolen while disembarking at LAX. After initially believing an honest mistake was to blame, he soon unravelled an international phone-thievery ring.

You or I might stop there and lament our lost iPhones, but not Mr Sam. He used the incredibly terrifying power of the internet to wipe away the veil of personal privacy around this thief (and I agree that once you steal stuff, you give up the right to not be tracked down for stealing) to cajole the perpetrator into returning his phone. It was a crazy amount of effort spanning two countries and utilizing every bit of web snooping short of professional skip tracing.

Then, he blogged about it.

Did he get the phone back? Did he administer a riotous beat down to the thief? Does he have any tips for removing my personal information from the internet now that I'm all freaked out about it?

You'll just have to read to find out.

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Tuesday, January 26

Crate Your Own Barrel: Building Imitation Designer Furniture

I like nice things. But I don't have a nice budget. Or, really, any budget. And I've built a bookcase or two, but I'm not exactly MacGyver when it comes to the old hammer and nails. Enter Knock-Off Wood, featuring reverse-engineered instructions for building furniture seen in catalogs and magazines. The Plans section is where the real action is; I've already got my eye on these knockoff Land of Nod kids' storage chairs. Got any favorite sites of your own for building projects? If there's a category below "novice", that'd be me, so I could use all the help I can get.

As seen at Apartment Therapy.

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Hysteria About "Profanity" Is 100 TIMES MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN NUCLEAR WAR!!!

OK, maybe not. But it is, at least, sort of sad when respected institutions are splattered with the mud of the immature dirty mind. This week, the Canadian National History Society announced that they'd be changing the name of their 90-year-old magazine, The Beaver, because profanity and spam filters were making it difficult for teachers and students to access their online material.

Now, it's been a couple of decades since I was any kind of kid, but I've never in my life heard a contemporary use "beaver" in its, um, vulgar slang sense. Maybe things are different in Canada, maybe web filters are all set up by 80-year-olds, or maybe the kids these days are really getting into retro naughty slang. In any case, the magazine will henceforth be known as Canada's History. But what will become of young Theodore Cleaver?

Tripping up an outfit like the Canadian National History Society is one thing - but mighty Merriam-Webster, publishers of the standard dictionaries found in just about every school? Yes, they've run afoul of some parents in Riverside County, California, for including the phrase "oral sex". Seems to me I'd rather have my kids learn about such things from a dull grey eminence like Merriam-Webster than from an equally confused classmate (or, God forbid, the Internet). The dictionary's definition of the act - "oral stimulation of the genitals" - makes it sound about as arousing as a tonsillectomy.

Am I the weirdo here, or do these both seem like cases of overreaction to you, too? I feel sorry for any kid who has to research rapeseed or pussywillows. And I'll tell you one thing: nobody, but nobody better mess with Albert Pujols.

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