Ms. Candence Anne Rapley,
born 9/7/2006
8 lbs. 13 oz
21 inches

Welcome to the World, Ms. Rapley! May your life be long, happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful.

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Rapley! What a beautiful baby!

Proud dad Dutch reports that mom and baby are doing fine.

If only all Public Service Announcements were like this one then perhaps they’d be more effective.

Yeah, it sounds boring (and work safe), but it’s not.

LONDON (Reuters) - Hedgehogs have finally humbled burger giant McDonald’s after years of campaigning, forcing the company to redesign its killer McFlurry ice-cream containers.

Up to now the opening in the container has been large enough for hedgehogs to get their heads into for a lick of the left-over dessert — a trap they have then been unable to withdraw from, so dying of starvation in untold numbers.

But from September 1, the wide-mouthed opening in the lid of the McFlurry containers will be reduced in size, making them too small for the sugar-loving animals to get their heads into.
(full story here…)

There are many things in our lives that we do on a regular basis that affect other living beings and the environment in ways we couldn’t predict or understand. I think this story is a good example of that. I can’t imagine that the designer of the McFlurry cups sat there and thought “hey, I want to ensure that these cups kill small animals… like hedgehogs.” It was an unfortunate consequence of making something new.

Perhaps it’d be easy to criticize McDonald’s for taking five years to implement a solution, but if it’s true that they spent that time doing “significant research and design testing” to ensure that the new lids don’t create a new problem for a different animal or for other creatures, then I think they deserve a thumbs-up for this.

Let’s give two thumbs-up and a big high-five to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society for being persistent about getting this problem addressed. Those without a voice deserve an advocate. Thank you for being theirs.

“Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism.”
- Rocky Anderson, Mayor of Salt Lake City, UT

(h/t Crooks & Liars)

Damn it, this makes me wish I lived near Indiana. I’d totally go. Of course, I’d probably end up spilling beer all over myself and looking like a total drunken slob (although the reality is usually “total clutz.”). It’d probably be totally fun, though.

A group of technology professionals and enthusiasts in Fort Wayne, Indiana are gathering for an initial event appropriately named: Geek Dinner. The first Geek Dinner will be a meet and greet happy hour. This gathering is for you if you have an interest in operating systems, databases, programming, web design, mashups, have a blog, and are obsessed with Flickr. The Geek Dinners will help define a greater presence of the Web and IT in Fort Wayne. This is an open invitation, please feel free to bring your colleagues and friends.

If you live anywhere near Fort Wayne, Indiana, you should go to this on my behalf and buy Dutch a drink.

One of the things I’ve had in common with my friend Andrew is that we’ve both had tons of ideas for cool games and things to make, and that life manages to distract us from making progress on them. (Ok, in my case it’s mostly because I’m a lazy bastard, but that’s not the point.) However, he posted this today:

My sekret project is going really well! What is it? Well I can tell you a little about it. It’s a fantasy game for Yahoo Messenger where you’ll be laying the smack down on your fellow IM friends in a Final Fantasy style battle. I just got the plugin working this morning and I’m so happy I could squeal like a little girl.

I’ve already sent my request to join in on the beta… you should too! I’ll need somebody to open a can o’ whoopass on!

Andrew is pretty into upcoming web technologies, web standards, and all kinds of tech. geekery goodness. He posts lots of litle bits of related bliss regularly and I end up learning about new stuff from his blog. Check it out!

Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, the bacterium that is used to produce yogurt, was first used in Bulgaria. It is named after the country and can be found only in Bulgarian air. Some of the biggest importers of the bacterium are Japan, USA and EU.

I appreciate the effort to demonstrate fidelity, but wow, this is going too far.

Wow, these Free Flash Tutorials look suh-weet! I’m going to have to check this site out later!

While this is typical DanRant(tm) fodder, I’m going to let the story speak for itself since I don’t want to go to jail for speaking or typing what’s on my mind.

The first few times I saw the Bloglines Plumber (the page they display when the service is down), I found the message to be pretty amusing. I’ve been seeing far too much of the Bloglines Plumber recently, though.

If you heard someone relate the following to you, would you know what store they just visited?

I walk in and some emaciated 16-year-old with anime hair comes over from the “genius bar” to patronizingly attempt to upsell me shit I don’t need or want.

(click to view full-size)

Those who play World of Warcraft know that the mailbox has severe problems with latency when most people try to use it. I now have “photographic evidence” as to why this happens:

Wow… it’d be impossible to have said this better myself, so I’m going to quote a huge chunk of it:

I think this Wired article on “podfading” is downright silly. It breathlessly points out that sometimes people start a podcast and then “gasp” might stop. This is of course unlike anything else in the world, since no one has ever stopped doing a sidelight ever. Everyone that knits or plays guitar in coffee houses or writes articles for Wired freelance does it forever in an unbroken fashion. No TV, radio or Broadway show has ever been cancelled or had its principals decide to stop in order to do other things. Give me a break.

This is a blazingly clear example of that “product” vs. “process” breakdown I talk about. The gist of this article is that these ceased podcasts are products that failed. I see them as experiments that were cheap to try and were worth a shot and from which people have learned things.

A number of the podcasts I used to love to listen to have faded, and fortunately, some of my favorites continue on. Both of the podcasts I was a part of have faded, though one or the other (or both) might appear again in the future, who knows?

I think Dave Slusher hit the nail squarely on the head. I got involved in podcasting to meet people and make new friends. It was one of my most successful recent endeavors in that regard. However, my life has changed and I’m just not all that into it right now. The ebb and flow of life, y’know?

Anyhow, thanks Dave Slusher for being a solid, consistent, inspiring advocate of Citizen Media. You’re definitely still on my list of real-life superheroes.

Don’t get between Rush Limbaugh and his oxycontin! I’m warning you, don’t do it!

Where’s the Religious Wrongs’ outrage about Disney-backed 13-year-olds covering songs about masturbation? Apparently Disney is still thinking about the children… lecherously.

MANILA, Philippines - Greenpeace said Tuesday it will pay nearly $7,000 in damages after the environmental group’s flagship, the Rainbow Warrior II, hit a coral reef at a world heritage site in the southern Philippines.

From MSNBC/Reuters

I love stuff like this: PaperCDCase, which is a page that shows how to make a CD case from a simple sheet of paper.