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02 Oct 2009 23:04

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Offbeat: Bring me Ted Williams’ severed head … so I can open a can of tuna

  • Ahahahahahahahahahahaha. Best story ever. It’s been a while since we’ve heard some #^!((& stuff that makes us glad to be alive. And thanks to this story about malpractice at the Alcor cryogenics lab that has the head of Ted Williams, we have it. According to a whistleblower, these guys reportedly:
    1. Took his head off with zero medical knowledge.
    2. Tried to remove a can of tuna stuck to the frozen head.
    3. Used Williams’ head for batting practice. Wow. WOW. source

02 Oct 2009 19:11

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Biz: A Hulu for publishing: Will media finally get its act together online?


About time someone noticed. We're not going to give the publishing industry a full pass here, but it's great to see they're finally attempting to cobble together a plan for magazines to have a life outside of glossy paper.
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.) source
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.)
  • Why it might work Let’s say Apple releases a tablet. Or Microsoft does something with its Courier prototype. The media industry could totally do some awesome things with it, such as multimedia, interactive graphics, or contextual stuff like Apture (used above). If they do it right, they finally – finally! – have a unique product that people would pay for again. source
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.)
  • Why it might work Let’s say Apple releases a tablet. Or Microsoft does something with its Courier prototype. The media industry could totally do some awesome things with it, such as multimedia, interactive graphics, or contextual stuff like Apture (used above). If they do it right, they finally – finally! – have a unique product that people would pay for again.
  • Why it might not To this, we defer to Fake Steve Jobs (a.k.a. Daniel Lyons), who made some really interesting points a couple of days ago. His argument is that content manufacturers completely lack imagination, and as a result, tech companies are eating their lunch. He nails it. If they just recycle the same crap from print, nobody will want it. source

02 Oct 2009 18:37

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Culture: Clearly, David Letterman mentioned the scandal for ratings

  • 22% boost in ratings for Letterman’s confession last night source

02 Oct 2009 15:43

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Offbeat: Kraft’s Vegemite renaming plan, iSnack 2.0, fails like an old iPod

  • The name came from a land down under. Kraft Foods learned an interesting lesson recently: You probably shouldn’t name iconic Australian food after trendy tech products, because it makes you look not “with it.” So, iSnack 2.0, a Vegemite-plus-cheese plan which sounded like a good idea for about half a minute, will get renamed yet again. Vote here, because we know you care that much. source

02 Oct 2009 15:19

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Politics: Chicago’s Olympic fight: A battle of nerds and jocks?

  • We see this same jocks-vs.-nerds conflict play out every time a pro sports team threatens to skip town unless the taxpayers cough up money for a new stadium.
  • Brad Flora (of The Windy Citizen, a site we really like and recommend) • On the fate of the Olympics in Chicago, which took a nosedive in part because of strong skepticism the endeavor faced for years from what Flora describes as nerdy critics who pointed out budget crises that could be caused by two weeks of sweaty people doing sweaty things. Flora portrays Obama as the guy whose job was to bridge both the nerds and the jocks, having cred with both. But he couldn’t pull it off. • source

02 Oct 2009 13:48

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Offbeat: Texas a trailblazer in the realm of gay divorces

  • Texas is a state fairly far down the line for legalizing gay marriage. It’s not like those East Coast states where you can do all willy-nilly. In fact, it’s illegal. source
  • However, a judge recently agreed to care a divorce case for a married out-of-state gay couple. Best part? The state attorney general is having a hissy fit. source

02 Oct 2009 13:30

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Culture: “Hi, I’m Jon Gosselin. I’m a douchebag and I need work. Pay me.”

  • He wanted more than $30,000 dollars to show up for just a couple hours. The funny part was we didn’t even reach out to him. He called us asking to come. We didn’t pay him.
  • A publicist dealing with Jon Gosselin • Describing the (well, former) “Jon & Kate Plus 8” star’s demeanor when he tried to help at an event. Gosselin, who’s in the midst of a crappy, annoying war of drama with the TLC network over the show that made him (in)famous, needs money to keep up his d-baggy lifestyle. So he’s asking for huge appearance fees right now. • source
 

02 Oct 2009 13:06

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World: Coming soon to sunny Rio de Janeiro: The 2016 Olympics

  • In seven years, Rio’s gonna be bumpin’ with the kind of of athletic action that only gets attention once every four years. Because, honestly, who gives a crap about archery otherwise, and when else could you it get on TV? And admit it, Rio’s more beautiful than Chicago, anyway.source

02 Oct 2009 12:56

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02 Oct 2009 12:38

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U.S., World: Great! Obama’s Chicago Olympics push for absolutely nothing

  • Jesus – in the first round? Obama’s rep as kingmaker didn’t do a thing to get the Olympics into Chicago. Not only did Chicago lose, they lost almost immediately, gaining the lowest total out of 94 votes cast. Here’s one Chicagoan’s take: “The violence in the schools became an international issue, and all the corruption, the rest of the world just sees us as Crook Town,” said Luciano Reyes, who may, unfortunately, have a point. source