Welcome to the Future

I thought I'd give you a day off from compiling your own list of robot-related news. Here are Google's favorites for today:

Tiny robots communicate with each other via blinking lights
How to make an edible robot out of rice krispie treats
Robot Porn (self-explanatory)
Human robot
Surprise! Robots have no sense of humor
Machine gun toting robots
Daft Punk release robot movie about robots driving cross-country in a Ferrari
Scary rapping Chuck-E-Cheese bots

I have, like, no earthly idea what you're talking about

Dubya tackles copyright law (via Rambler):

Q. Mr. President, music is one of our largest exports the country has. Currently, every country in the world — except China, Iran, North Korea, Rwanda and the United States — pay a statutory royalty to the performing artists for radio and television air play. Would your administration consider changing our laws to align it with the rest of the world?

THE PRESIDENT: Help. (Laughter.) Maybe you’ve never had a President say this — I have, like, no earthly idea what you’re talking about. (Laughter and applause.) Sounds like we’re keeping interesting company, you know? (Laughter.)

Look, I’ll give you the old classic: contact my office, will you? (Laughter.) I really don’t — I’m totally out of my lane. I like listening to country music, if that helps. (Laughter.)

Speaking of Gross

Tell me if this isn't the scariest thing that could ever happen: Five squirming fly larvae pulled from man’s head.

He got injected with bot fly eggs when he was bitten by a mosquito in Central America. Bot flies lay their eggs on mosquitoes; the mosquitoes then transfer the eggs to a host where they mature until they're ready to come out (20 to 60 days!) So you could have bugs crawling under your skin for a while.

Here is a video of a botfly larvae being removed from a girl's neck. She said it didn't hurt, but apparently these things can be really painful, traveling from one part of the body to the next.

Sick. They have hooks to hold on.

World's Scariest Man Snagged at Arby's After Shooting a CO

I only wanted to post this to show his photo. Is this guy nightmare-worthy or what? This article says Curtis Allgier was out of prison on a medical visit, stole the gun from a corrections officer and proceeded to fatally shoot him. He then stole a car and raced to Arby's (possibly the trashiest eatery ever) where he bailed out at the drive-thru and was finally subdued by a customer who "did not want to be identified." Next sentence says "KUTV says the customer was Eric Fullerton." Eric to the media: "Thanks, assholes." Okay, he didn't actually say that, but I would have.

PSA

I had this snippy conversation with Jake yesterday saying that I refuse to post until he comes back, but I figured I would mention that it's National HIV Testing Day since that's sort of time-sensitive information. Not to be a nag or anything, but you might as well participate in this since there a plenty of places to do it for free and it only takes 10 or 20 minutes to get the results these days. Including Union Square in NYC between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Even if you're pretty much positive you don't have HIV (um. . . awkward clause), why not go anyway? It seems to me that the more people that get tested, the more commonplace the whole procedure will be. That can't be a bad thing, right? Or will that just waste resources?

I guess you shouldn't base your baby's name on how easy it will be to txt it.

Baby names that correspond to places, and their rank on a list of the top 1000 names given to kids born in the U.S. in 2006:

Girls
Savannah (30)
Sydney (34)
Brooklyn (67)
Jordan (97)
Cheyenne (171)
Dakota (191)
Paris (260)
Georgia (273)
Carolina (281)
Aurora (312)
Asia (332)
London (353)
America (458)
Phoenix (816)

Boys
Austin (41)
Jordan (46)
Dakota (172)
Trenton (192)
Zion (266)
Dallas (352)
Orlando (356)
Dayton (540)
Boston (626)
London (638)
Houston (837)
Memphis (923)

Why so many Texan ones, and why does this not surprise me at all? Also, there are more girl place names than boy and I don't really get how you determine the sex of a place name.

The Registry of Births in New Zealand denied the name "4real" recently because they don't accept names beginning with numbers. Do they accept names not beginning with numbers, but including them, I wonder?

What do you think the worst name to give a kid would be (besides Adolf Hitler or Saloth Sar, please)? Humbert Humbert? Poop? Boston??

By the way, Jacob was #1 on the boys list last year and Alice was #383 on the girls.

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums. . .

No, wait! This is just to say we have a new, easy-to-remember web address:

http://www.gatheringevidence.com/

The layout and writing are, unfortunately, exactly the same. Visit often.

Republic of Vermont: "The Switzerland of North America"

In high school, Ben (my brother, as you all probably know), Ryan (his current boss, as it turns out) and I had grand ideas about California seceding from the nation. We finally decided this state is actually too good for the government to let us go peacefully. Maybe not too good, but at least too important to the U.S. economy.

Vermont, on the other hand, not so. Enough people there want to declare independence to have caught the attention of the media (especially today, for some reason). I don't exactly see why this is big news all of a sudden, because the article seems to be referencing town meetings that will take place in March. Do they mean March of next year?

In any case, I'd like to see more states secede. Traveling would be more fun.

. . . a one, two, three, four

Welcome to Gathering Evidence. If you’re reading this, you probably already know me and Alice. If not, quickly: I’m Jake, she’s Alice, I live in New York City, she in Los Gatos, California, together we’re 45, 263 lbs, 11′6″, reddish blond with dark brown roots and of better-than-average intelligence.

Not sure what Alice has planned, but I hope to write mainly about music. As the playlist demonstrates, my tastes are not especially unique or up-to-date, but I listen constantly, variedly, and will hopefully have something useful to say.

At a friend’s suggestion, I titled the blog Gathering Evidence to remind myself that good listening and criticism is something like detective work - addressing concretely those things one admires or dislikes, and avoiding such red-herrings as hype, fashion, and the other fun stuff I tend to fall for on blogs like these.

We’ll see how I do. Meantime, welcome again, and stayed tuned. . .

Playlist (after Steve Smith):

Stereolab - Oscillons from the Anti-Sun (Too Pure)

Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse (Elektra)

Various - American Primitive Vol. 1: Raw Pre-War Gospel (Revenant)

Various - Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound (Soul Jazz)