If you read rec.sport.disc via Google Groups, which lacks a killfile that you’d get with a dedicated usenet reader, and wish you could see less of Toad, I wrote a little script that hides his posts. You have to use Firefox with the Greasemonkey extension installed. If you are, click (toadless.user.js) to install my script, and it will hide Toad’s posts when you view a thread. Actually, it replaces them with an innocuous little placeholder, like so:
It works, but it’s really just proof-of-concept. A sampling of known issues:
- There’s a brief delay before the posts are hidden as I used jQuery to do the heavy lifting rather than writing the code in pure Greasemonkey JS.
- Toad’s posts still show up on the home page.
- You still see replies to his stuff (arguably a feature rather than a bug)
I’m sure there’s more, and it’s only lightly tested, but I didn’t want to spend more than a few minutes on it. If anybody wants to extend it, enhance it, redistribute it, whatever, feel free.
Also, you can pretty easily update it to hide posts from any user that you don’t want to read anymore.
I do enjoy the occasional break for blowing lots of stuff up. Vector Boom fits the bill nicely. Can’t get past level 8.
Ze Frank has been posting videos again, after a long, long break from The Show (which I still miss). Of the new videos, Five People is the first one where he really rediscovers his groove, I think. Very funny, it’s been too long.
Very interesting article from Kelly Baggett, 7 Modern Day Myths About Plyometrics. Here’s more about the Iso Extension Stim he mentions.
Ricky Jay manages to squeeze a ton into his op-ed on Susan Boyle. He draws comparisons with Mathew Buchinger:
Buchinger demonstrated his skill on more than a half-dozen musical instruments (some of his own invention), danced a hornpipe and performed conjuring tricks with cups and balls, cards and dice. In front of the lord provost he fashioned a pen and with it produced a fine calligraphic document of the coat of arms of the city. The year was 1726. Buchinger was 52 years old, 29 inches tall — and, he had neither legs nor arms.
… in how appearance influences expectations. He also touches on Thomas Quasthoff,
Thomas Britton, Joshua Bell’s subway stint, a Joni Mitchell song, Cardini, and Steve Martin (as The Great Flydini, a routine Jay helped create).
What could be better than Shatner’s iconic “Khaaaan!” scene? How ‘bout stretching it out into a 15-minute standalone video?
Bill Simmons has a great piece on the collapse of David Ortiz.
Really nicely designed game to while away a little time: ClickPlay! The consensus over at Jay is Games seems to be that the “star shine” level is frustrating, so consider yourselves warned.
Always drop what you’re doing when a new Atul Gawande piece comes down the pike, this time for his take on the wide range of health care costs across the country, what factors influence that, and what a huge problem it is:
Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn. The financial burden has damaged the global competitiveness of American businesses and bankrupted millions of families, even those with insurance. It’s also devouring our government. “The greatest threat to America’s fiscal health is not Social Security,” President Barack Obama said in a March speech at the White House. “It’s not the investments that we’ve made to rescue our economy during this crisis. By a wide margin, the biggest threat to our nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. It’s not even close.”
The Big Picture has shots from this year’s Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling in Gloucester, England:
In a tradition that dates back at least 200 years, possibly much longer, groups of fearless competitors chase an 8 pound (3.5 kg) round of Double Gloucester Cheese down an extremely steep and uneven hill, with a 1:1 gradient in some parts. Thousands of spectators gather to watch the five downhill and four uphill races, and to celebrate the winners and console the losers afterward. Injuries such as broken bones and concussions are commonplace, but the event continues to grow in popularity. The winner of each race is awarded the delicious round of cheese they were chasing.
It’s worth checking out the Last Ride trailer over at Twitch for its own sake, but especially if you’ve only seen Hugo Weaving play computer programs or elves to date.
Proving that it’s about the artist, not the tools, Jorge Colombo “painted” the 6/1 cover of The New Yorker on his iPhone.
The official trailer for The Road is up (in HD!). Looks grim. Perfect.
Rearchers are eying 1.6 terabytes per DVD by using gold nanorods. Mmm… nanorods… is there anything they can’t do?
I know I’m late to the party, but I just got around to watching the WolframAlpha screencast and it’s really impressive, and incredibly ambitious. I found myself slack-jawed often enough that I had to go out and find myself an appropriately sized grain of salt. Still, coooool!
Some details on David Simon’s next project, Treme, which will treat Hurricane Katrina as an allegory for the suckiness of the past year or so:
“The fact is that the levees on the canals were substandard, and done on the cheap at an immense profit. Ultimately that becomes a metaphor,” he said. “New Orleans was relying on things that were believed to be genuine bulwarks against tragedy and disaster. People felt that there were similar bulwarks protecting our financial institutions and foreign policy. Now, two years on, we are all essentially in the same boat as New Orleans. Katrina was an outlyer of where we are today.”
(via tmn)
The Guy Ritchie / Robert Downey Jr. / Jude Law Sherlock Holmes movie now has a cool HD trailer. Can’t wait. I didn’t know Mark Strong was in this, that’s definitely a bonus.
Usain Bolt lays waste to another world record, this time the 150 meters. Watching the race brings back Olympic déjà vu; total destruction of the field. Here’s the Science of Sport’s take. I wonder if he can score a WR in the 400 too? He’d need to take like 2.5 seconds off his personal best, I think. Michael Johnson thinks he can do it.
P.S. Here’s the super slow-motion replay of his 100m Olympic final again. Even slowed way down his feet spend such a remarkably short amount of time on the ground, and I love watching the clock tick down as he runs past it.
Fantastic Nike commercial featuring a Kobe Bryant puppet heckling a LeBron James puppet over his three championship rings. (via kottke)
