• Orangutans may be extinct within five years, thanks to a soaring demand for palm oil leading to the destruction of their forest habitat. This situation needs to be addressed in product labeling somehow, so consumers can know that they’re buying sustainable, “orangutan and rainforest-safe” palm oil. Via this DKos diary.
• Here’s a fascinating look at how Time magazine dumbs down its cover for America. Go take a look at the side by side covers for the American and European editions of Time magazine. For the edition that goes to Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific, the cover story is “Talibanistan,” about the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. For the US edition, the cover story is “Why We Should Teach the Bible in Public School.” There are other telling differences, too, which Greg at This Modern World ably dissects.
• Adobe officially unveils Creative Suite 3.
• David Bowie curates the line-up for the High Line Festival in New York, including Ricky Gervais, Arcade Fire, Air, Polyphonic Spree, Secret Machines, Laurie Anderson and Ken Nordine.
• Digital comic books for your computer? Apparently you can buy 40 years of X-Men, Spider-Man, The Avengers, or the Fantastic Four in PDF form on a single CD-ROM. You get a round 500 comic books for $50. Jake Snell writes: “What’s needed here, of course, is something like an iTunes store for comic books. If I could buy comic books on iTunes, I’d start slapping down money today.”
• Take a photographic tour of The 10 most magnificent trees in the world (they really are magnificent) including the oldest living tree: a 4,838-year old bristlecone pine named Methuselah. Via Towleroad.
• This great essay in the Guardian describes how corporate chains function like invasive species, choking the retail ecosystem. Substitute Wal-Mart or Starbucks for Tesco and it applies to the US just as well as the UK.
• Ice in the Antartic is melting even faster than expected, “at the upper limits of projections,” and some centers of human population may already be past the point where they can cope with the effects.
• Four Albanian teachers get busted for getting it on behind a blackboard in a classroom. (Didn’t I see this plot on The Simpsons? And I’m pretty sure it was Ralph Wiggum who turned them in.)
• Ever wonder who has the longest domain names on the net, and what they are? Me neither. But it turns out to be a mildly amusing subject …
I love the “Time” cover thing. It really does seem like they’re writing down to us now. So is “Newsweek,” but not to the same degree. I keep meaning to cancel my “Time” subscription, but I forget (see, it’s that boring!).
My favorite “Time” cover was the “person of the year” one. (“It’s You!”) Complete with a funhouse mirror decal on a computer monitor illustration. Yep, they ran so dry on influential people that they copped out and made it “us.” At least in years past, they had Bush with his chimpanzee expression, Cheney with his slipping dentures, or Tom Reynolds with his puffy, square, locker-room-bully face. As odious as each one is, their influence was undeniable.
But me? Please! If I was that influential, my vote would count and the aforementioned people would be impaled on fenceposts along Pennsylvania Ave.
Yeah, that “You” business was ludicrous — it seemed more appropriate for say, “Highlights” magazine than a newsmagazine supposedly for grownups. They just didn’t want to admit that the most influential people of last year were Mark Foley and Mike Jones! And yes, particularly ironic during a year when “The Decider” made it clear he wasn’t subject to the will of the people.
Re: long domain names, I once stumbled across revelation-bible-jesus-christ-revelation-bible-jesus-christ.com. (Why twice? Why not!) It used to be a portal to other religious sites, but who would ever think to type that in?
Oh, that’s too much. Literally. I think they must have been trying to game the search engines by repeating it like that, but it comes off sounding like somebody stubbed their toe.