David Erik Nelson's Blog, page 40

Today the Internet Made Me Really Sad, and then It Made Me Really Happy

“Call Me Maybe,” the Chatroulette version: A hairy man in a bikini makes a heartwarming video.

David Rakoff is Now of Blessed Memory

David Rakoff was killed by cancer yesterday[1]. I've especially enjoyed a lot of Rakoff's essays over the years. This one--the last I heard of his, on my birthday no less--especially broke my heart.

Invisible Made Visible | This American Life

1. I don't know a good way to say that part any more. "Succumbed to cancer"? "Failed to survive cancer"? "Lost his battle with cancer"? "Killed himself via errant cell over-division"?

My mother had cancer--she's NED now--and my father was just diagnosed with cancer and . . . well, I don't have to tell you that these are grim looking odds this morning.

If it's cool with everyone else, I'm just gonna go heads-down in my work for a while and try not to really think about anything. Cool? Cool.

Get the Novella "Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate" for Less than the Price of a Soda!

Just a quick heads up: For the remainder of August my novella "Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate" is available on Amazon for just 99 cents--17,000+ words of bawdy steampunk robo-hijinks and a nuanced exploration of race in America for less than the price of 20 ounces of deadly carbonated high-fructose corn syrup! So refreshing!

Public Speaking Advice from My Betters

I offer this (embedded below, from here: A Show with Ze Frank: How to Public Speaking) as a sort of corollary to what I wrote here (about the Worst Speech I Ever Gave). Ze's method isn't 100 percent my method, but we have a lot in common (specifically the edict to practice start-to-finish in a room alone, without stopping and starting or giving yourself redos)--and those were exactly the things I *didn't* do in prepping for the Worst Speech Ever. Lived; learned.

My one addition to what Ze suggests here is this: As much as possible, avoid Giving a Speech, and instead Have a Conversation. By its nature, this is going to be a one sided conversation--because only one person in the room has a mic--but that's OK; we've each been guilty of holding the floor past our turn. The trick is to talk to the people, not the mic: make eye contact, say specific sentences to specific people, try to LOL a specific guy. Just talk.

So, lessons learned--and shared with you! Enjoy!

Man, this Cat Has Some Pipes

Also, I legit like this song and all of its derivates.

Sexy And I Know It Cover That Sounds Almost Classy [Video]

What's Dave-o Doing at Maker Faire Detroit?

Maker Faire Detroit is this weekend! I'm going to be there with an outdoor booth all Saturday and Sunday, and also giving a talk indoors (apparently in a replica of a drive-in movie theater[?!?]) on Sunday at 11:30am.

What will I be *doing* all weekend?

I'll be helping folks rock out on cheap-as-hell musical instruments like these:

I'll also be building and launching free water rockets with kids of all ages (while supplies last):

And that talk at the faux drive-in theater? I'll walk you through how to build a musical synthesizer for about ~$10 and play it with your mouth.

I'll also have scads of swag from my publisher, No Starch Press. If you're at Maker Faire and want to connect, the best way to contact me is via Twitter, where I am @SquiDaveo--or just find my booth and say "Hey!"

See you this weekend!

FACT: These are the best wedding photos of all time

(trust me, it's worth taking a second to click through and brighten your late working evening)

Find Out Why This Could Be The Greatest Wedding Photo Of All Time | Badass Digest

So I Guess *This* Is What Passes for Science These Days

How to build a jellyfish out of a rat – video | Science | guardian.co.uk

Tissue engineers at Caltech and the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have set about recreating entire organisms. Instead of using steel and copper to build their machines they're using living cells, and have already created a creature out of muscle cells that is genetically a rat – but that looks and swims a bit like a jellyfish.

My Favorite "Who's on First"s

I, for one, totally understand why Lou Costello is so incredulous to learn that China's President Hu Jintao is a time-travelling first-baseman. The premise *does* strain credulity.

(This one hits it's "First" at around the 2 minute mark.)

(This one is criminally NSFW.)

The Secret Message Hidden in Obama's "Hawaii" Birth Certificate!

Ugh . . . slightly less funny than the last video I posted, since this guy legally carries a gun and is blowing money on this that ought to go toward bettering the lives of the citizens Maricopa County, AZ. Can't someone just buy this guy the mug and have this done with?

Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Birther Obsession Gets Stranger | TPMMuckraker

For months, the sheriff has been promoting the fringe conspiracy theory of birtherism, which claims Barack Obama’s birth certificate is fake and therefore he is ineligible to be president. But Arpaio took it to a grand scale with his latest stunt, promising to reveal “shocking” information about the document.

What he and his “investigator” ultimately presented, however, was something less than shocking. They spun new webs of the conspiracy, alleging secret codes were hidden in the birth certificate and claiming they found an elderly witness who could decipher the cryptography. It was the latest tweak to a theory that has long been debunked but remains kept alive by small pockets of conservative activists and writers.

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In case you're wondering about this alleged "cryptography"--which it isn't, just a data coding system--here's a credulous article reporting on it. Arpaio's Cold Case Posse Truth Squad has even released a video about the code:

And here's a meticulous takedown of this new and startling "evidence" of a wide-spread conspiracy half a century in the making.

And thus the Case of the Long Form Birth Certificate thus remains closed. *sigh*

BONUS: OBAMA'S TERRIBLE BIRTH SECRET REVEALED AFTER THE JUMP!!!