Google Autocomplete Poetry
Inspired by this FAIL in which Google autocompleted “can you eat” with “can you eat human flesh with wooden teeth”, I decided to start asking Google a few questions, and see what other people were searching for.
I think it makes a kind of poetry – and a kind of comment on the human condition.
Who you speak to and where you are: why it matters
Cross-posted to Geek Feminism. Abusive relationship and spousal rape survivor and blogger “Harriet Jacobs” at Fugitivus is angry and scared today: I use my private Gmail account to email my boyfriend and my mother. There’s a BIG drop-off between them and my other “most frequent” contacts. You know who my third most frequent contact is? [...]
How about some truth in advertising, Australian Tourist Bureau?
From ninemsn via wtf_nature, this bird-eating spider. The photos are alleged to have been captured in a backyard in Atherton, in north Queensland (inland from Cairns). The spider: a Golden Orb Weaver. The bird: a native finch called a Chestnut–breasted Mannikin. I hereby call for a Truth in Advertising campaign for Australian tourism. “Down Under: [...]
Google Street View: American National Parks
The Street View cars don’t often venture into American national parks. The coverage of the United States is fairly poor in general, and concentrates largely on urban areas. But I poked and I prodded, and I managed to find a few little journeys through the parks of the USA. Here’s what I found. Come and [...]
Raped by elves
We’ve identified before that passive voice agent-deletion is a particular problem in reports of sexual violence. The victim is centred, just as she is in most narratives of sexual violence (and its prevention), and the perpetrator is disappeared altogether or referred to only obliquely. Cara at The Curvature identified an example of the results of [...]
Virtual travelling
Candy colored Portobello Road (365/145), originally uploaded by jennipenni I love these colours, and can imagine how cheering they would be on a grey day. It reminds me a little of the La Boca district of Buenos Aires, except the architecture of the row houses makes it more restrained. Related posts: Virtual travelling: Windy, isn’t [...]
Question OTD: What makes for a blog that excites you?
I’ve totally nabbed this idea from this post at Feministing, although I’m putting a bit of extra spin on it, because I like a bit of analysis alongside my lists of links. For those of you who use feedreaders, which blogs are you excited to see a new post from? What in particular excites you [...]
LIMIT OF MAPS
So. Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ll know that Google StreetView has now indexed Australia. At first I thought it was only the cities – I idly looked up my place (feeling vaguely uncomfortable), and some places I lived growing up, and had a peek at the Perth CBD.
Then I realised they’ve also photographed a fair whack of the countryside, too. And not just the easy parts. They didn’t stint on crossing the Nullarbor:
If I’d known they were coming I’d have closed the gates
So, is your house shown on Google Maps Streetview?
What about the directions to get to your place? Adequate, or rubbish? And did they have a clean lens round your way?
Inquiring minds etc
The whatever-happened-to dept: actor division
Fred Thompson is not the only former Law and Order cast member to attempt a run for President of the USA in ’08. Michael Moriarty, who once had the part of prosecutor Ben Stone in the series (1990-94) is also running for President on the ticket of a party no-one seems to have heard of: [...]
Friday Hoyden: Peg Bracken
Guest post by Helen on the Cast Iron Balcony. Most people know Hillary Knight’s wonderful illustrations from Eloise, the little hotel-dwelling spoiled-rotten urban girl. For me, his line drawings take me back to my childhood in Adelaide, where my mother, a university-educated housewife, was navigating the late 1950s and early 60s. I’ve mentioned before that [...]
Wednesday quick picks
A peddler of “adorable baby onesies” brings us this playground pimp infant fashion piece. IHNTA. ****************************************************** Related posts: Quick hit: Not as easy as calories in =/= calories out Twitter’s ch-ch-ch-ch-changing All those social networking website widgets may as well remove the Facebook button now Wednesday Quick Pic(k)s Telemarketing: You gotta get your amusement where [...]
Face of rescue: Women’s work
Yahoo! News China has this photo of a police officer in an emergency shelter breastfeeding an orphaned baby. Heartbreaking, but somehow hopeful as well. So many babies must have no one there at all; this baby is lucky, in one tiny way, at least for this captured moment. The Google-translated text reads: Naima disaster areas [...]
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