Thursday, May 28, 2009

Thanks, Danny


Danny is our crossing guard at school . He walks us to the playground and back every day. Today was his last day for a while, because he is having surgery on his knee. (He got hit by a car last year; horrible irony) Today we made a thank you card for him. Here were some of the children's messages to him:


-Thank you for helping us stop at the edge of the street.

-Thank you for stopping the cars.

-Thank you for stopping the traffic from bumping into all the children.

-I hope the doctors make you better.

-Thank you for stopping the cars so no one gets drived on.

-I wish your bones were made out of hearts.

-Danny keeps the children safe from the cars.

-I only want to say thank you.

-I love you Danny.




Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Monday, May 25, 2009

Friday, May 22, 2009

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Candies: clothes for stupid sluts


Clearly, the best choice for their next spokesperson is...
















The New York Times says...

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

High Scores


1 Poco Poco643222 hours ago
2 MIA MIA32674 hours ago
3 lurchinho lurchinho318422 hours ago
4 n64kps n64kps299212 hours ago
5 aipierce aipierce264814 hours ago
6 Mess Mess26187 hours ago
7 Gonka Gonka217416 hours ago
8 bigbear bigbear19369 hours ago
9 iceman123 iceman123181013 hours ago
10 kaizenized kaizenized173513 hours ago

Monday, May 4, 2009

Autopia’s iPhone Flight Control Contest

By Dave Demerjian

We always thought that if this blogging thing didn’t work out we’d get a job in an air traffic control tower, but a 99 cent iPhone app has quickly relieved us of that notion.

img_00081Flight Control, an incredibly stressful cool air traffic control game developed by Australia’s Firemint, has brought out the airplane geek in all of us. Some 700,000 Nick Falzone wannabes have downloaded the app since its release in March, and at one time or another it’s been the number one paid download in a dozen countries. Not bad for a game Firemint CEO Rob Murray says took three weeks and $50,000 to develop.

“This has by far been the simplest game we’ve ever put out,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I believe that’s brought in those people who haven’t played games before.”

Part of what makes Flight Control so much fun is that even an idiot can play - and you trolls can spare us your jokes. All you do is use your finger to drag planes across the screen to the proper runway without crashing into another plane.

Yes, it’s just that simple. And it’s damned addicting.

We won’t tell you how many hours we’ve wasted playing this damn lovely game, but it’s safe to say there’s been a significant erosion in workplace productivity. One of us even forgot mom’s birthday. We’re gonna buy her a copy to make up for it.

flightcontrolDespite all those hours spent, we suck at this game. It’s shameful, actually. We can’t even get 100 planes landed without a crash. If you’ve been playing FlightControl for even a few days, you’re probably better far better than we are.

But are you better than your fellow Autopians?

We want to know. If you’ve downloaded the game, give it your best shot and post a screenshot of your high score using the Reddit widget below. The highest score wins a prize if you include your e-mail address. Once again for those of you in the back row: If you don’t tell us how to reach you, we can’t give you a prize. And don’t try any Photoshop tomfoolery, because we’ll figure it out. Somehow.

We’ll announce the top dog next Friday and pull something out of the ol’ Autopia Prize Closet. It won’t be an iPhone. Or a plane. But it will be something cool. We promise.

Screencaps by Dave Demerjian

OK, it’s your turn. Post your high score…

* UPDATE, Saturday 1:30 pm * - We are having problems with the Reddit widget. For now, please email your screenshots to Dave (link at top of post).

Show scores that are: hot | new | top-rated or submit your own score

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While you can submit as many scores as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.

Friday, May 1, 2009

from the ABA Journal

Justice Stevens, a Shakespeare Buff, Says Real Author Was Nobleman

Posted Apr 20, 2009, 07:52 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A mock trial held in 1987 has pushed Justice John Paul Stevens, a Shakespeare buff, to conclude that the real author of the plays was the 17th earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere.

Stevens told the Wall Street Journal that the evidence proves “beyond a reasonable doubt” that William Shakespeare was not the author of the plays attributed to him. The theory is that the nobleman de Vere laundered his work, considered undignified at the time, through Shakespeare, an actor who performed in the Globe Theater.

Stevens says Shakespeare left no papers and no letters after his death—an odd fact, if he was indeed the author. "Where are the books? You can't be a scholar of that depth and not have any books in your home," Stevens told the Wall Street Journal. "He never had any correspondence with his contemporaries, he never was shown to be present at any major event—the coronation of James or any of that stuff. I think the evidence that he was not the author is beyond a reasonable doubt."

One piece of evidence supporting de Vere: His guardian as a youth, Lord Burghley, appears to be the model for Polonius, whose daughter married Hamlet, just as de Vere married Burghley’s daughter. Another piece of evidence: Shakespeare dedicated two poems to the earl of Southampton, who was also a ward of Burghley’s.

“Why in the world would William Shakespeare, the guy from Stratford, be dedicating these works to this nobleman?" Stevens asks.

The Wall Street Journal surveyed other justices for their opinions. Supporting Stevens is his ideological opposite on the court, Justice Antonin Scalia.