| Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are might be in trouble. |
[22 Jul 2008|02:03am] |
15:49 18.07.2008
Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are might be in trouble.
Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are might be in trouble. It was originally due out in October, got pushed back to fall 2009, and has now been taken off of the Warner Bros. release schedule. But not all is lost...here's what Warner had to say about it:
We've given him more money and, even more importantly, more time for him to work on the film," Horn said. "We'd like to find a common ground that represents Spike's vision but still offers a film that really delivers for a broad-based audience. We obviously still have a challenge on our hands. But I wouldn't call it a problem, simply a challenge. No one wants to turn this into a bland, sanitized studio movie. This is a very special piece of material and we're just trying to get it right.
(link)
read more at kottke.org
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| After publishing his first book, Mark Hurst offers some tips for |
[22 Jul 2008|02:03am] |
16:52 18.07.2008
After publishing his first book, Mark Hurst offers some tips for
After publishing his first book, Mark Hurst offers some tips for would-be authors, painting a not-so-rosy picture of the publishing industry in the process.
You may see now the author's dilemma. Publishers and bookstores are in it for the money. But you, the author, can't be in it for the money - it doesn't pay enough. You should write a book because you believe in it. And that's the trouble: what you love isn't necessarily what publishers believe will sell. If you can find a topic that you love and that will sell in the market, well then, go forth and type. You're one of the lucky ones.
(link)
read more at kottke.org
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| ● Old iPhone price check on eBay |
[22 Jul 2008|02:03am] |
17:42 18.07.2008
● Old iPhone price check on eBay
Before the iPhone 3G came out last month, I wrote about how valuable the old iPhone still was.
A quick search reveals that used & unlocked 8Gb iPhones are going for ~$400 and 16Gb for upwards of $500, with never-opened phones going for even more.
I just checked eBay again and those prices are down only slightly. Never-opened unlocked iPhones are still fetching $400-500 and somewhat less for previously used phones. If you've purchased an iPhone 3G in the past few days, you still have an excellent shot at getting most of your money back from your first phone (provided you can get it unlocked, which isn't difficult).
I also checked the prices for unlocked iPhone 3Gs...prices are upwards of $1400 for the 16GB model. The unlocked claim is somewhat dubious. AFAIK, there hasn't been a crack released yet although it's been reported that the 3Gs are being sold unlocked in Italy and Hong Kong.
Update: The 3G has been cracked.
read more at kottke.org
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| NY Times columnist David Carr has written a book about his |
[22 Jul 2008|02:03am] |
23:57 18.07.2008
NY Times columnist David Carr has written a book about his
NY Times columnist David Carr has written a book about his days as a junkie who cleaned himself up only when twin daughters came into his life. The Times has a lengthy excerpt; it's possibly the best thing I've read all week.
If I said I was a fat thug who beat up women and sold bad coke, would you like my story? What if instead I wrote that I was a recovered addict who obtained sole custody of my twin girls, got us off welfare and raised them by myself, even though I had a little touch of cancer? Now we're talking. Both are equally true, but as a member of a self-interpreting species, one that fights to keep disharmony at a remove, I'm inclined to mention my tenderhearted attentions as a single parent before I get around to the fact that I hit their mother when we were together. We tell ourselves that we lie to protect others, but the self usually comes out looking damn good in the process.
Carr's book is not the conventional memoir. Instead of relying on his spotty memory from his time as a junkie, he went out and interviewed his family, friends, enemies, and others who knew him at the time to get a more complete picture.
A former colleague interviewed Carr two years ago in Rake Magazine. (via vsl) (link)
read more at kottke.org
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| Most of the town of Baarle-Hertog is in Belgium but some |
[22 Jul 2008|02:03am] |
16:51 21.07.2008
Most of the town of Baarle-Hertog is in Belgium but some
Most of the town of Baarle-Hertog is in Belgium but some spots are in the Netherlands, sprinkled into the Belgian majority like chocolate chips, not divided neatly by a line.
The border is so complicated that there are some houses that are divided between the two countries. There was a time when according to Dutch laws restaurants had to close earlier. For some restaurants on the border it meant that the clients simply had to change their tables to the Belgian side. (link)
read more at kottke.org
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| The Disadvantages of an Elite Education, nutshelled: you have no idea |
[22 Jul 2008|02:03am] |
22:49 21.07.2008
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education, nutshelled: you have no idea
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education, nutshelled: you have no idea how most of the rest of the world works.
The first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren't like you. Elite schools pride themselves on their diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of ethnicity and race. With respect to class, these schools are largely-indeed increasingly-homogeneous. Visit any elite campus in our great nation and you can thrill to the heartwarming spectacle of the children of white businesspeople and professionals studying and playing alongside the children of black, Asian, and Latino businesspeople and professionals. At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it.
(via lone gunman) (link)
read more at kottke.org
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| The pogo stick in named after a Burmese farm girl? As |
[22 Jul 2008|02:03am] |
23:55 21.07.2008
The pogo stick in named after a Burmese farm girl? As
The pogo stick in named after a Burmese farm girl?
As legend has it, an American traveler named George Hansburg was making his way through Burma when he made the acquaintance of a poor farmer. The farmer's daughter was named Pogo, and Pogo -- devout little girl that she was -- wanted to go to temple every day to pray, but couldn't because she had no shoes to wear for the long walk through the mud and rocks. So the poor farmer built a jumping stick for her, and Pogo's daily temple bounce-trips through the mud and over the rocks ensued. When the impressed traveler returned home, he made a jumping stick of his own, attaching a spring to the wooden stick contraption that the farmer had introduced him to. (link)
read more at kottke.org
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| Booking passage on a cargo ship is an easy and unusual |
[22 Jul 2008|10:41pm] |
15:20 22.07.2008
Booking passage on a cargo ship is an easy and unusual
Booking passage on a cargo ship is an easy and unusual way to travel.
Most of the major global shipping lines CMA-CGM, Canada Maritime, and Bank Line offer paying passengers to hop on one of their lines. As a paying passenger you are accommodated in guest cabins and have access to most areas of the ship. Captains and crew spend a lot of time on the water, and they are usually happy to have a fresh face walking around their workplace, meaning that they may even invite you to eat with them, give you tours of the ship and maybe even have you over for an Officer's happy hour.
You'd think it would be cheap but tickets can run you more than airfare...$80-140 per day, meals & lodging included. (link)
read more at kottke.org
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| The history of the hobble skirt. The term 'hobble skirt' came |
[22 Jul 2008|10:41pm] |
17:52 22.07.2008
The history of the hobble skirt. The term 'hobble skirt' came
The history of the hobble skirt.
The term 'hobble skirt' came into popular use in the early 1910s, when a European fashion trend started by French designer Paul Poiret introduced long skirts that were narrow at the hem, thus 'hobbling' the wearer. Some attribute one of Poiret's inspiration to Mrs. Hart Berg, the first American woman to join the Wright Brothers in air. To keep her skirts from flying out of control while airborne, she tied a rope around them below the knees (Katherine Wright, sister of the flight innovators the Wright brothers, also did the same shortly afterwards). For a short while, the tighter the skirt, the more fashionable it was. This also brought about accessories such as the hobble garter (you can see one in tbe PBS series The Manor House) designed to limit the wearer's stride so that she would not cause the skirt to rip. This trend died shortly afterwards due to the impracticality of such a garment, particularly with the introduction of cars (the skirts making getting in and out of one a bit of an adventure).
Bill Cunningham casually mentioned the hobble skirt in a recent On the Street feature about pencil skirts. (link)
read more at kottke.org
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| Trap-jaw ants use their powerful jaws to propel themselves several inches |
[22 Jul 2008|10:41pm] |
22:52 22.07.2008
Trap-jaw ants use their powerful jaws to propel themselves several inches
Trap-jaw ants use their powerful jaws to propel themselves several inches into the air. The jumping is used both as an attack and to flee from predators.
It's no wonder, then, that O. bauri ants can launch themselves into the air with a mere snap of their jaws, achieving heights up to 8.3 centimeters and horizontal distances up to 39.6 centimeters. That roughly translates, for a 5-foot-6-inch tall human, into a height of 44 feet and a horizontal distance of 132 feet, an aerial trajectory likely to be the envy of circus acrobats and Olympic athletes.
Here's a video of the jumping action. (via cyn-c) (link)
read more at kottke.org
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