Category Archives: Misc

ESPN Goes to Sapelo Island

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ESPN’s Outside the Lines recently profiled Allen Bailey, the only NFL player ever from a tiny community on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Watch the video here.

I had the privilege to visit Sapelo Island while taking an honors course at the University of Georgia. Sapelo Island is one of those rare places in the United States (and increasingly, the world) that seems completely cut off from humanity. We studied the ecology of Sapelo Island (a barrier island with marsh on one side), but the people that live on Sapelo are a study in sociology/anthropology.

I don’t remember the Reynolds Mansion looking that nice when I visited Sapelo, nor do I remember any of the construction shown in the video. It was just a small gullah/geechee community with a UGA research facility. With great food.

Remembering Dale Earnhardt

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As the cars race around Daytona International Speedway, I wanted to pause to remember a Nascar legend: Dale Earnhardt.

Today is the tenth anniversary of his passing, following a wreck on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.  I will never forget watching that race as Darrell Waltrip called (and cried during) his brother Michael’s win and said, “I just hope Dale’s OK.  I guess he’s alright, isn’t he?”

SceneDaily.com has published a collection of photos of Dale Earnhardt, so go take a look.

Today, remember the Intimidator.  He was a racer from a different time and a different age.  He embodied Nascar.  And he departed way too soon.

*Update*

SceneDaily.com also published an excerpt this morning from Michael Waltrip’s new book, In the Blink of an Eye: Dale, Daytona, and the Day that Changed Everything.  This tells Michael’s side of the story of that fateful day.  Be forewarned, it’ll bring you to tears.

*Update 2*

ESPN has an incredibly touching segment on the day that Dale Earnhardt died, with some incredible videos and interviews.

Apollo 13 Transcripts, Web 2.0-Style

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Spacelog.org (on my birthday) released an incredible treasure trove.  They have taken the transcripts from the Apollo and other space missions and added a little Web 2.0:

Read the stories of early space exploration from the original NASA transcripts. Now open to the public in a searchable, linkable format.

Not only is the spacelog searchable and linkable, it is tweetable.  AND, and, they’ve interspersed pictures (taken by the Apollo 13 crew and others) to the time in the log in which they were taken (like this).  This is incredible.

To accomplish this transcription, Spacelog posted the original transcripts, and then crowd-sourced the copy-and-pasting to their interface.

I love it.  They link to some of the best parts, but I have to share my own.

First, the requisite quote:

Jack Swigert: I believe we’ve had a problem here.

Jim Lovell: Houston, we’ve had a problem.

Second, my favorite (watch the movie):

Houston, Capcom: Aquarius; Houston. We’ve got you both on VOX.

Lastly, a great picture and quote:

Jim Lovell: And there’s one whole side of that spacecraft missing.

I can’t say how much that I enjoy reading through this.  Being able to relive history, in the first person, is an amazing experience.  I might be a nerd, but I love this stuff.

iTunes Store Terms and Conditions Lunacy

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Last night, while attempting to download an application on my iPod Touch, I was asked to confirm new iTunes Store Terms and Conditions.  The screen looked like this:

You have to scroll down, and then I saw this:

Apple wants you to click through 55 pages of Terms and Conditions.  I would like to see their usability statistics and find out how few people click through (somehow I think that’s what they want you to do).  I didn’t.  All I wanted to do was “purchase” a free application.

To me, this is just another sign of our legalistic American society.  We use “terms and conditions” 55 pages long to keep consumers from actually understanding the legalities of something they seek to undertake.

Boys of Fall Football Video

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I believe this is an extended music video for “The Boys of Fall” by Kenny Chesney. The song tells the story of  football, and this video is mixed with some great high school, college, and pro football videos and some advice from coaches and football players.  This is a pretty cool video.

The Georgia fans are sure to notice #34, but did you see the pictures of young #7 (not related to Georgia)?

2009 Year in Photos

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The Boston Globe has for a while had a great series called ‘The Big Picture.’  Everyday they post high-quality photos about major news events.  This week they’ve posted the series 2009 in Photos.  The pictures are pretty moving (and some are graphic, but there are warnings).  See the three posts: first, second, and third.

The soldier with his gun while wearing boxers and flip-flops was my favorite.

Why I Laugh at DMCA Takedown Notices (and Why They Don’t Work)

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I seriously love it when a company attempts to shut someone up (to cover up something they *think* is bad) and the attempt to shut up someone causes a bigger story.  Like today’s post on TechCrunch about tweetphoto sending a takedown request over a podcast with it’s former CEO (former because of the podcast).  The podcast wasn’t incriminating, so tweetphoto didn’t protect their interests, they just let Mike Arrington make them look bad (for good cause).

People, learn that a cease-and-desist order or a DMCA takedown notice will not quiet the damning story.  Neither will a gag order (that’s an example).  One of my favorite recent examples is the Ralph Lauren scandal involving the photoshopped skinny model and BoingBoing’s response to a DMCA takedown notice:

So, to Ralph Lauren, GreenbergTraurig, and PRL Holdings, Inc: sue and be damned. Copyright law doesn’t give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings. You should know better. And every time you threaten to sue us over stuff like this, we will:

a) Reproduce the original criticism, making damned sure that all our readers get a good, long look at it, and;

b) Publish your spurious legal threat along with copious mockery, so that it becomes highly ranked in search engines where other people you threaten can find it and take heart; and

c) Offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to your models.

Look folks, people notice these things.  Especially in the Internet Age.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation (like the ACLU for the internet) has even compiled the “Takedown Hall of Shame.”  And Chilling Effects has a database of takedown orders.

Stop the thought process that says we can make this better by trying to shut someone up.  It doesn’t work and it makes a bigger story.