I've been thinking about what topics of conversation seem to dominate all the social interactions that I undertake. I realized that many of them were location specific. For example:

• Seattle, WA: Conversations frequently mentioned the rain.
• Irvine,CA : Conversations always get around to real estate prices.
• Washington, D.C. : National politics because they are also local politics.

Others report:

• Annapolis, MD: Boats and the Army-Navy football game (according to Luke)
• Amherst, MA: Yard machines: leaf blowers, snow throwers, riding mowers, and community supported agriculture.

Maybe not the most incredible thing ever observed but very real when you are at these places. What are the periennal topics where you live?

So Honda made a funny set of commercials for the Element which a friend of mine had a key role in designing (the car, not the commercials). He sent me a link. The funniest one is the crab one.

This viral marketing thing is sort of wierd. It seems strange to be sending out news about commercials, but I guess if it's funny then good for Honda for making some decent content.

Update 1: I guess this was so popular that they had to take it further. Now all of the commercials have been rolled up into a game that you play. Now you drive your Honda Element around to different locations on an island where the dialogue from the commercials is played. It's elaborate, but still funny. Find the crab on the lower left of the island to get a sense for what the original commerical was like.

Update 2: Clearly this has gotten far out of hand. Gil, the crab from the Honda commercial, now has his own myspace page. He has fans who are singing songs to get Honda to make a new commercial about him (see here.) Again, this is really weird to be talking about. It's a viral ad campaign. The myspace page, and probably even the song are likely plants from Honda. The whole thing could be a completely fake grassroots campaign to bring Gil back for another commercial (a process called Astroturfing). But I guess, who cares. It's funny. Gil has a new commercial out as a result. Click on the image on the left to YouTube it.

You either want this badly, or you don't have children:

" The Babykeeper by Mommysentials, LLC :: Infant carrier style seat for Moms on the go

The BabykeeperTM is a patent pending infant carrier style seat, that hangs from the stall wall in most public restrooms, and can also be used in many public fitting rooms."

And for the record "Dad's on the go", so to speak, need one too.

This comic just cracks me up. It's goth, but it's not. It's from a comic strip called "The Perry Bible Fellowship" which frequently has humor which is more crude than funny, but there are some gems in there.

The Beam Machine from November 2004

In November 2004 I wrote about a toy that I wanted called "The Beam Machine". It was basically a spy-style laser trip wire system that you could install in your yard/home to enhance games of capture the flag or tag or whatever. It appears that someone read my blog and created the toy - because certainly no one else could have come up with the idea on their own.

Sold at HearthSong, where you can buy toys that you feel good about giving - like the Laser Trip Wire -MUHAHAHAHAH

This is an ancient (in Internet time), but very funny series of commercials about a hypothetical car add-on available only at the Suburban Auto Group outside of Portland, Oregon called the Trunk Monkey. I think they get funnier as they go on. But it's also good that they quit while they were ahead. Below I present the complete set as I know it:

The original links went down, so here are the YouTube links:
1:Road Rage
2:Hoodlums
3:Bribe
4:Theft
5:Pediatrics
6:Chaperone

Thanks Nate!

The other night I felt compelled to make this Desktop / Screensaver image. It is inspired by the work of Agathos and the music of Derek Webb

Naturally it is made for a 30" apple cinema display at the appropriate resolution of 2560 x 1600

A thoughtful article about the diversity of perspectives in the Evangelical Christian camp. I think this is important because the religious media czars are all a lot of people ever see, but there is a lot more out there.

Let's Stop Stereotyping Evangelicals

"Whether or not that's true, these evangelicals -- Bible-believing and socially conservative -- are redefining social justice. They're mindful of the material conditions that breed poverty and despair, but they emphasize spiritual rebirth. Though willing to partner with government agencies, they prefer to work at the grass roots, one family at a time.

Thanks Nate!

This cool YouTube video shows a handful of visualizations of flight data in a time lapse mode. The creator did some creative things with color and trails which makes for some neat images - if you are kind of geek and into this sort of thing.

Thanks Charles!

From:Wired News: One Million Ways to Die

"Comparing official mortality data with the number of Americans who have been killed inside the United States by terrorism since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma reveals that scores of threats are far more likely to kill an American than any terrorist -- at least, statistically speaking.

In fact, your appendix is more likely to kill you than al-Qaida is.

With that in mind, here's a handy ranking of the various dangers confronting America, based on the number of mortalities in each category throughout the 11-year period spanning 1995 through 2005 (extrapolated from best available data).

Following up on a previous post here about ice cube trays that make ice cubes in the shape of legos, here is an ice cube tray that makes ice cubes in the shape of enormous diamonds.