Cyrus Farivar » I Love the Internet

Auto-Tune the News

Cyrus Farivar — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:56:19 +0000

Am I the last person to find out about this? I caught this fantastic story on Studio 360 this weekend. Apparently Time covered it back in April. Thanks Gregory Brothers!

What I’m Reading

Cyrus Farivar — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:11:33 +0000

Crazy conservatives getting their panties in a twist about the State Department’s “Mosques of America” calendar.

Also, this writer Jeff Johnson seems to be jealous over the fact that he didn’t come with Stuff White People Like. Get over it, dude.

There’s a patron saint for the Internet? Meet Saint Isidore of Seville.

The Star Pheonix: ‘Couch surfing’ site reveals cultural side of the Internet

What I’m Reading (Shout Out Edition)

Cyrus Farivar — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:31:09 +0000

Big ups to:

Rick Karr for his new video commentary on Internet surveillance.

Hamid Tehrani for his new post about anti-Semetic Iranian blogs.

Glenn Strachan for his latest piece in Discovery about how badly America sucks at WiFi.

Amy Walker’s “21 Accents” video

Cyrus Farivar — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:35:21 +0000

[via BoingBoing]

Amy Walker was on NPR’s Day to Day in March 2008.

Gabe and Max are back!

Cyrus Farivar — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:06:18 +0000

Gabe and Max answer questions on Boing Boing TV:

Gabe and Max’s How to Get the Dreamlife of Your Dreams Using the Internet Thing

Cyrus Farivar — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:18:56 +0000

Apparently this has been making the rounds online, but it’s still pretty freakin’ funny.

Gabe has also written these gems:

Worker #3116 to Be a Father

SUMMERSLANG 2005

It’s a great way to kill about 10 minutes this Friday afternoon.

Chess on Facebook

Cyrus Farivar — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:55:57 +0000

Wow, now I’ll never get anything done ever again.

Still, who wants to play?

Hallo Knut!

Cyrus Farivar — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:29:07 +0000

Reuters:

BERLIN (Reuters) – Knut, Berlin Zoo’s celebrity polar bear cub, is growing from a cuddly ball of fur into a shaggy, powerful predator who could soon pose a serious threat to his devoted human keeper who has nursed him from birth.

The cub, which still draws some 5,000 fans every day, turns six months on Tuesday and his 28 kg (62 pounds) are starting to show. His snout is longer, his torso chunkier and teeth sharper.

Here’s a video of Knut‘s glory days as a cub — set to German techno, of course. (Also, I love the fact that the German word for polar bear is “eisbaer” [ice bear].)

How to find Paul Wolfowitz’ home address

Cyrus Farivar — Wed, 16 May 2007 22:18:31 +0000

I just found Paul Wolfowitz’ home address using Google.

The New York Times just published the above picture of Paul Wolfowitz coming out of his Chevy Chase, Md., home. The street address, 7104, is clearly visible.

So, as an experiment, I typed in 7104 chevy chase wolfowitz into Google. My first result came back with this: Report from Paul Wolfowitz demo at his 7104 Pinehurst Pkwy, Chevy Chase home.

Wow.

“Thank you so much for comfortable stay. Fight Terrorism!”

Cyrus Farivar — Sat, 05 May 2007 19:30:27 +0000

So here I am, minding my own business, reading The New York Times online, when I come across this article about Bush’s upcoming dinner with the Queen of England. The article mentions that it’s a “white tie” dinner, and not knowing what that is, I go look it up.

Then I continue reading the article, and come across this line:

Even so, as it does for every official state visit, the White House has been consulting with the State Department chief of protocol.

Chief of protocol?

What in the heck is that? Sure enough, there’s someone who’s job it is to do various things, like:

1. Plan and execute detailed programs for foreign leaders visiting the President and accompany them during their official travel in the United States, including their visit with the President at the White House.

10. Organize treaty-signing ceremonies.

15. Manage the Blair House, the President’s Guest House for foreign leaders.

Huh, ok — the Blair House, that sounds neat. So I click there and then click on the Guestbook page. And here, I find what may be the most unintentionally hilarious internationally geeky page on the Internets.

These are scans of entries from the Blair House guestbook, ranging from the historic (Charles de Gaulle), to the printed-like-a-third grader (Hamid Karzai), to the simple (Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of the United Mexican States), and finally to the screaming: Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan (pictured at right).

And that, my friends, is how one gets distracted by the Internet.