Don't believe everything you see

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Reel 2009

(Like the music, too).

Bored? Have a webcam? Not bothered by Freak?

Then Chatroulette could be for you!

New York Times: The Surreal World of Chatroulette

Nothing can really prepare you for the latest online phenomenon, Chatroulette.

The social Web site, created just three months ago by a 17-year-old Russian named Andrey Ternovskiy, drops you into an unnerving world where you are connected through webcams to a random, fathomless succession of strangers from across the globe.

[...]

Before you rush off to your computer to try Chatroulette, it is only fair to let you know what you’re getting into. Entering Chatroulette is akin to speed-dating tens of thousands of perfect strangers — some clothed, some not.

[...]

In its simplest form, the site does exactly what its name says — it pulls you into a game of roulette. I used the service for the first time a few weeks ago, and I found it both enthralling and distasteful, yet I kept going back for more.

What to make of chatroulette?

"how did it take 15 years for the Internet to deliver this experience?"

NY Mag: The Human Shuffle

ChatRoulette is, in this sense, a blast from the Internet past. It’s the anti-Facebook, pure social-media shuffle. It arrived quietly last November, with no fanfare.

---

Sounds like the old days of Skype or the scene from (I think) Heinlein's Friday whereby the rich look for dates via hologram.

Bored?

You could do worse than spend some time with Hobnox.

Geekitude is now kewl!

Truthdig: Introducing Computer Geek Barbie...

SF Gate with the details: Can Barbie's spiked heel help crack engineering's glass ceiling?

Noted

We hereby note that Radio Netherlands has on its masthead a beautiful example of bovine pulchritude:

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Sorry, we're a bit late welcoming the Year of the Tiger.

May everyone roar loudly, and not be scratched too severely.

French-Canadian Pea Soup

Who knew there was such a thing? What's so French-Canadian about it?

What has VS gotten herself into?

They're different in Minnesota...

Farmer makes manure valentine for his wife

ALBERT LEA, Minn., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A Minnesota farmer's wife has received a valentine possibly only a farmer's wife could appreciate -- a half-mile-wide heart outlined in cow manure.

Bruce Andersland spent hours with a manure spreader hitched to his tractor Wednesday and Thursday creating the heart, the Albert Lea Tribune, Minn., reported. It is in a square-mile field 12 miles outside of Albert Lea that has belonged to his family for 87 years.

Here's a good shot of it:

Superbowl XLIV

We're picking the Saints to win... Let's say by 10 points.

UPDATE: There was never any doubt...

Bush to The Hague!

Complaint here.

Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, USA, has filed a complaint with the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against US citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings.

Wanna Buy A Chopper?

Colorado Springs has two (2) for sale, for the apparent blowout price of $170,000.

Hurry, the auction ends soon!

---

Things are tough all over: Colorado Springs cuts into services considered basic by many

Denver Post, January 31

COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.