Nicholas Gall: Fun & Funny

Gee, I didn't think my blog was THAT funny.

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 11:05:30 GMT

I just noticed in my Site Meter Referrals that my weblog shows up in the first ten entries when you Google the words "funny" and "weblogs". Here is the furled Google listing and here is the flickred Google listing. (No, I'm not obsessing about this.) I think this proves that Google has a deeply ironic sense of humor (perhaps even deeper than mine...).

The Unitarian Jihad is an amazing example of Web-enabled emergence.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:40:35 GMT

A while ago, I posted an entry on the Unitarian Jihad. Well, this being the Web, it's taken on a life of its own. To see what I mean, check out the comprehensive Wikipedia entry on UJ, which describes the UJ as follows:

Unitarian Jihad is a nascent satirical religious/humanist movement which opposes religious extremism of all kinds through peaceful means.

The concept of the Unitarian Jihad originated in a column by writer Jon Carroll which was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 8, 2005. The column intentionally juxtaposed the Unitarian Universalist faith and rational discussion with the Islamic concept of (militant) Jihad, and used the conceit of having received an anonymous communique from the then non-existent group.

Note how many different sites mentioned in the entry have sprung up. One of my favorites is the name generator. Here is what it generated for me:

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Machine Gun of Quiet Reflection. Get yours.

While the spread of the UJ meme is a humorous example, it is nonetheless a powerful demonstration of how the Web enables the emergence of spontaneous order. Let me walk you through it:

I find out about the UJ article from one of the blogs or newsletters I read (I can't remember which).
I bookmark it in Furl: UJ Bookmark.
Several weeks later, I look at my UJ bookmark (long story having to do with looking into my Furl Religion folder for some other search on Unitarianism).
I notice that someone named number-six has also Furled UJ with the following comment: "See: http://homepage.mac.com/whump/ujname.html to get your uj name. More here: http://www.livejournal.com/community/unitarian_jihad/ .
So I go to the UJ page at livejournal.
I am amazed to find over 300 members listed on the UJ community page. I'm even more amazed to find that the community had apparently been created on the same day as the article, April 8, 2005!
From these pages I discover the name generators and the Wikipedia entry

The point of going through this in detail is to give you a flavor of the serendipity of the emergence process. Imagine, just a few months after an article is published an entire community and an rich set of Web resources emerge into being! This is enabled by two "new" aspects of the 2nd Web Generation (aka Web 2.0):

The ability of individuals to easily create new Web resources: content, groups, tools, bookmarks, etc.
The automatic generation of backlinks, e.g., who also linked this page, what pages contain this phrase

These two capabilities are at the heart of the Web's ability to generate spontaneous order.

A true ironist.

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 15:51:23 GMT

Via Strange Doctrines, a Washington Post article about a man who really lives the concept of "contingency":

"What are the chances of you doing this again?" the judge asked.

Timmers -- dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, his long, white hair flowing down his back -- paused a moment before speaking up.

"There's always a chance of anything, Your Honor," he said.

The judge's jaw dropped. He pressed Timmers to be clear.

"The odds of that happening are 800 million billion to one," Timmers said, "but I can't ever rule anything out completely, Sir."

The irony is that his honesty has already gotten him more jail time (i.e., the delay in sentencing). What I also like about this piece is the chain of linked commentary about it. I especially like the commentary at Thoughts Arguments and Rants:

Don't be a Sceptic

Luka Yovetich sent me a link to this article in the Washington Post about the costs of scepticism. The defendent was asked whether he would commit more crimes if he was released, and (to paraphrase) he said that he didn't know because he didn't have an answer to global scepticism. As they say on the interwebs, read the whole thing. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll recognise behaviour that previously you'd only seen in philosophical colleagues, etc.

Quasi-Religious Geek Humor.

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 08:54:47 GMT

Which is scarier? The Unitarian Jihad (excerpt):

We are Unitarian Jihad, and our motto is: "Sincerity is not enough." We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. Just because your motives are pure doesn't mean you are not doing harm. Get a dog, or comfort someone in a nursing home, or just feed the birds in the park. Play basketball. Lighten up. The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone. Brother Gatling Gun of Patience notes that he's pretty sure the world is out to get him because everyone laughs when he says he is a Unitarian. There were murmurs of assent around the room, and someone suggested that we buy some Congress members and really stick it to the Baptists. But this was deemed against Revolutionary Principles, and Brother Gatling Gun of Patience was remanded to the Sunday Flowers and Banners committee.

Or the RESTafarian Inquisition (via Steve Maine):

Nobody expects the RESTifarian Inquisition!
Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and tedium ...tedium and surprise....
Our two weapons are tedium and surprise...and ruthless disregard for unpleasant facts....
Our three weapons are tedium, surprise, and ruthless disregard
...and an almost fanatical devotion to Roy Fielding

You might be wondering how Unitarianism is related to geekiness (specifically web geekitude). Tim Berners-Lee describes the connection.

BTW, If you liked the RESTafarian Inquisition, you'll love...The Dead Spec Sketch (excerpt):

A customer enters a WS shop.

Mr. Praline: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.

(The owner does not respond.)

Mr. Praline: 'Ello, Miss?

Owner: What do you mean "miss"?

Mr. Praline: I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!

Owner: We're closin' for lunch.

Mr. Praline: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this 
specification what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.

Owner: Oh yes, the, uh, the Big-Wizzdl...What's,uh...What's wrong with it?

Mr. Praline: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. it's dead, 
that's what's wrong with it!

Owner: No, no, it's uh,...it's RESTing.

Mr. Praline: Look, matey, I know a dead specification when I see one, 
and I'm looking at one right now.

Owner: No no it's not dead, it's, he's RESTin'! Remarkable spec, the 
Big-Wizzdl, idn'it, ay? Beautiful appendix!

Prepare to lose your mind: The Hasselhoffian Recursion.

Sat, 04 Jun 2005 09:13:49 GMT

I've been meaning to post about this disturbingly amazing (or is it amazingly disturbing) image for some time. Given that I'm trying to keep this blog PG-13 rated, I won't post the recursive photo directly here. I'll simply provide this link to the The Hasselhoffian Recursion. Follow this link at your own risk.

To try to prepare you (or warn you) for what you are in for, below are a few typical comments from the Hasselhoffian Recursion Commentary, which is actually even better than the Recursion itself. Click the Commentary link to play it safe by viewing only the Commentary. Just don't scroll up! One last piece of advice: you can freeze the recursion by trying to drag the image.

This is one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen on the Internet.
Posted by:James Russell at January 18, 2005 09:29 PM

I'm blind!!
Brain meltdown!!
Alert:Alert:Alert:Alert:
Must reach... plug... uggg!!
Posted by: Lord Evil Toaster Oven at January 18, 2005 10:36 PM

AAAAAAAAAAARGH! *dies*
Posted by: John at January 19, 2005 03:55 PM

Okay, that's pretty nifty, but I gotta do some work...
Alright, I really should get some work done now...
Yeah, I REALLY should stop staring at this and do some work before I get fired...
Any second now I'll stop staring at this thing.
*ahem* Any second.Now.
No, NOW.
Now....
nnnow!
Dammit, I'm SO fired.
Posted by:buzz_clik at January 19, 2005 05:33 PM

PostSecret.

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 09:53:16 GMT

After reading the New York Times article on PostSecret, I checked it out. This one was my favorite. I'm not sure I know why. Perhaps I'll post the secret of why I think I like it to PostSecret.

My So-Called Hieroglyphics Name.

Mon, 16 May 2005 11:08:28 GMT

Here's another fun name generator--this time a hieorglyphs name generator. Here's my name in hieorglyphics.

Son of Ra, Lord of the Two Lands, Nick Gall, given life, like Re, forever (I kinda like the sound of that):

Again, thanks to Jochen Fromm for the link.

My So-Called Chinese Name.

Mon, 16 May 2005 10:20:01 GMT

Here's a fun web service: a Chinese Name Generator. Here's what it generated for me:

Here's what it means:

Surname (first character)

Kuang

Given Name (middle character)

Ning
repose, serenity, peace; peaceful

Given Name (last character):

sheng
life

Thanks Jochen Fromm.

The future according to Vodafone

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 08:09:15 GMT

The future as Vodafone sees it. Via savas. Very well produced future scenarios with amazingly high production values.

Comparing apples and oranges.

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 07:51:36 GMT

Turns out they are surprisingly similar. <grin> This research comparing apples and oranges is going to be a versatile tool in my rhetorical toolbox. I especially like the following meta/recursive/reflective observation:

First, the statement that something is like comparing apples and oranges is a kind of analogy itself. That is, denigrating an analogy by accusing it of comparing apples and oranges is, in and of itself, comparing apples and oranges.

Ambigrams.

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 10:07:13 GMT

I love the serendipty of the web. I was looking at a paper on the economic impact of P2P file sharing on CDs at First Monday, so I looked at the table of contents while I was there. Another paper entitled On becoming a Web site by Punya Mishra intrigued me, so I skimmed it and then followed the link to the author's home page. This is where I discovered the Ambigram!

Ambigram n., - a word or words that can be read in more than one way or from more than a single vantage point, such as both right side up and upside down. (from Latin: ambi=both + gram=letter).

Here is the beautiful example of an animated ambigram on Punya's home page that caught my eye:

A good example of a natural ambigram is MOW, which spells mow either way you flip in (i.e., rotate by 180 degrees). What's really cool about ambigrams is that with some creative calligraphy, any word or phrase can be rendered as an ambigram!

In fact, there is an automatic ambigram generator called Ambigram.Matic. Here is my first name, Nick, rendered as an ambigram:

Here are my first and last names, Nick Gall, rendered as an ambigram:

Here are three great resources for more fun with ambigrams (with much more elegant examples than my automatically generated ones): Ambigram.com, Inversions, Visual Wordplay Gallery.

BTW, ambigrams are also known as inversions, designatures, and symmetricks. Funny how the same mulitiplicity of synonyms affects ambigrams as affects antagonyms.

The dark side of flickr: N reasons why you shouldn't post your picture on the Internet.

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 17:23:00 GMT

Check out these pictures of someone who made the mistake of posting his photo to the web. Hilarious. Each picture gets better and better.

The mysterious crystal ball knows all.

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 04:37:03 GMT

An anonymous friend turned me onto this cool game . It's uncanny. How does it read my mind with such unerring accuracy? Try it and be amazed.<grin>

Fun examples of mass innovation.

Tue, 29 Mar 2005 05:42:15 GMT

Here's a great example of an emergent use of a web service: spelling words with a font composed of letter pictures from flickr! This was generated by spell with flickr. The HTML in this post actually queries flickr for photos of individual letters. You've got to play with it. Here's my name in pict-o-glyphs:

Or check out another emergent use, this time of Amazon. It's called Amaztype and it will amaze you. Click on the image below to go to the page running the flash. When you click on a letter, it will magnify and you will see that each letter is composed of book jackets containing the word philosophy in the title! Click on a book jacket to go to its Amazon page. Amazing. Here is the word philosophy:

Or check out mappr (maps flickr photos to US Map based on tags). While none of these has a business model, they show the incredible ferment of experimentation of...what to call it...emergent applications, composite content, web content services? Whatever you call it, it signals the birth of new directions in the Web's information space.

Emergent entertainment: the Numa Numa dance.

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 08:28:16 GMT

I know that some of my readers are over thirty and aren't as tapped into the Web zeitgeist as the average teenager. For them, here is a hilarious and compelling example of emergent entertainment--entertainment that becomes popular for reasons no one can explain, aka a fad: the Numa Numa Dance.

Because it was highlighted in the New York Times, I'm sure you've almost all heard about. But if you haven't, you must check it out. And if you have seen it, have you seen the Numa Numa parodies? Or the Numa Numa history? Definitely must see TV.