The Flipside Wallet

The Flipside Wallet takes aspects of the traditional bi-fold wallet and advances them to address modern concerns about security, durability and functionality. They construct the wallets out of an array of high strength polymers and anodized aluminum alloy components— all of which are recyclable. 

Not only are these wallets durable, but they also shield your Credit and I.D. cards from Radio Frequency Identification Theft, also known as “RFID Theft.”

Cash, cards and pictures are securely contained and organized within a stylish, compact case that comfortably fits in your pocket or handbag.

 

Google Launches Google Book Search for iPhone

Google has launched a mobile version of its Google Book Search service. The new iPhone- and iPod touch-friendly interface gives users access to over 1.5 million public domain books directly from their device. The books have been optimized to be read on a small screen, and are available for free. To access Google Book Search mobile, simply visit books.google.com/m from your iPhone or iPod touch.

Pop Versus Soda

When on a hot summer’s day you buy a carbonated beverage to quench your thirst, how do you order it? Do you ask for a soda, a pop or something else? Americans drink so much of the carbonated beverages sold under such brand names as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, Mountain Dew, and 7-Up that consumption averages 43 gallons per year for every man, woman, and child in the United States. This pop vs soda map details the areas where certain usages predominate.

 

Coke: this generic term for soft drinks predominates throughout the South, New Mexico, central Indiana and in a few other single counties in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. ‘Coke’ obviously derives from Coca-Cola, the brand-name of the soft drink originally manufactured in Atlanta (which explains its use as a generic term for all soft drinks in the South).

 

Pop: dominates the Northwest, Great Plains and Midwest. The world ‘pop’ was introduced by Robert Southey, the British Poet Laureate (1774-1843), to whom we also owe the word ‘autobiography’, among others. In 1812, he wrote: A new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because ‘pop goes the cork’ when it is drawn. Even though it was introduced by a Poet Laureate, the term ‘pop’ is considered unsophisticated by some, because it is onomatopaeic.

 

Soda: prevalent in the Northeast, greater Miami, the area in Missouri and Illinois surrounding St Louis and parts of northern California. ‘Soda’ derives from ‘soda-water’ (also called club soda, carbonated or sparkling water or seltzer). It’s produced by dissolving carbon dioxide gas in plain water, a procedure developed by Joseph Priestly in the latter half of the 18th century. The fizziness of soda-water caused the term ‘soda’ to be associated with later, similarly carbonated soft drinks.

 

Other, lesser-used terms include ‘dope’ in the Carolinas and ‘tonic’ in and around Boston, both fading in popularity. Other generic terms for soft drinks outside the US include ‘pop’ (Canada), ‘mineral’ (Ireland), ‘soft drink’ (New Zealand and Australia). The term ‘soft drink’, finally, arose to contrast said beverages with hard (i.e. alcoholic) drinks.

 

Free Stephen King Digital Comic

Marvel Comics is offering visitors of StephenKing.com a complimentary digital version of the complete first issue of The Stand: Captain Trips issue # 1.  This download also includes the Captain Trips Sketch Book.  – A must have file for The Stand’s constant readers.  Click HERE for the download.

 

Stop Stealing My Lunch

These new clever anti-theft lunch bags will deter even the hungriest of workplace refrigerator poachers.

 

10 of the Most-Covered Songs Ever

1. Yesterday, the Beatles. It has been covered more than 3,000 times, including by Joan Baez, Liberace, Sinatra, Elvis, Daffy Duck, En Vogue and Boyz II Men.

2. Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles. It’s been covered 131 times by artists such as Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Aretha, Kansas and Swedish industrial metal band Pain.
3. Cry Me a River, Julie London. This jazzy number from 1955 has been covered by a huge range of people including Barbra Streisand, Joe Cocker, Aerosmith, Rick Astley, Bjork, Merle Haggard and Olivia Newton John.
4. And I Love Her, the Beatles. Covered by Bob Marley, Smokey Robinson, Sarah Vaughan, Barry Manilow and Vince Gill, among numerous others.

5. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, The Rolling Stones. Covered by Britney Spears, Jimi Hendrix, Cat Power and Vanilla Ice.

6. Imagine, John Lennon. Joan Baez’s cover of this is no surprise, nor is Ray Charles or Elton Johns. Some more unconventional versions have been done by Avril Lavigne, Dolly Parton and Queen.

7. Summertime, Abbie Mitchell. She’s the one who originally sangit in the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The Janis Joplin cover is probably the most well-known, but Sonny and Cher did a version as well, and so did REM.

8. Blackbird, The Beatles. Also performed by Dave Grohl, Phish, Bobby McFerrin, Eddie Vedder and Elliott Smith.

9. Over the Rainbow, Judy Garland. Cover versions include Willie Nelson, Patti LaBelle, Eva Cassidy, Eric Clapton, Chet Atkins, Tori Amos and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. That last version is the Hawaiian rendition that’s mixed with What a Wonderful World that has gotten a lot of play in the last few years.
10. The Look of Love, Dusty Springfield. Written by Burt Bacharach and originally sung by Dusty. Covered by The Zombies, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Shirley Bassey and Diana Krall.

The Virtual You

A viral website has been created to promote the upcoming Bruce Willis movie, The Surrogates.  VSI stands for Virtual Self, Inc., the company in the film that creates the personal surrogates.

 

Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.The film is scheduled for release in September 2009.

 

Click HERE to create you own surrogate.

 

Ode To Trader Joes

Top 10 Moments Caught on Google Street Maps View

HERE is a neat round up of 10 strange, funny, and plain surreal scenes caught on Google Maps Street View. The list includes things like passed out drunks, hidden Chinese subs, accidents and fire – and even a Viking fight!

Indies Get Wilco DVD Early For Record Store Day

In an effort to boost excitement for Record Store Day (April 18), Wilco is making its new Nonesuch concert DVD, “Ashes of American Flags,” available early, and exclusively, to indie retail for the occasion, Billboard has learned.

The film — recorded in Tulsa, Okla.; New Orleans; Mobile, Ala.; Nashville; and Washington, D.C., during the band’s 2008 tour — will go on sale to all retailers two weeks later. It will serve as a teaser for Wilco’s next studio album, expected this summer.

“My introduction to a lot of great music and to the ‘music business’ came from hanging around and eventually working at independent record stores in Belleville, Ill., and St. Louis many years back,” Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy tells Billboard.com. “It’s the life I know. Nothing beats browsing in your favorite store, listening to music, finding something new or old that you’ve been searching for, being ignored by the store clerks, all that. And without these stores, there’s just no way Wilco would still be around. They’ve been with us from the very beginning, through thick and thin. Even if I wasn’t in a band, I’d still support Record Store Day. It’s a great thing and I’m glad we could do something special with them for our DVD.”

“When we learned that Record Store Day was confirmed and would even merit an industry-wide Saturday release date, it seemed like a perfect matchup,” says Nonesuch senior VP of marketing Peter Clancy. “This idea was enthusiastically received by the band and their management, who have always been supportive of the indie community — as the indies have been of Wilco for over a decade.”

Clancy adds that traditional retail remains important to Nonesuch, as about 80% of its sales are still physical.

Other labels are getting into the act with exclusives of their own. Matador is releasing a 7-inch with Sonic Youth covering Beck’s “Pay No Mind” on the A-side and Beck doing Sonic Youth’s “Green Light” on the B-side; a previously unreleased LP of a 1997 Pavement gig from Cologne, Germany; and another 7-inch with Jay Reatard’s “Hang Them All” on one side and Sonic Youth’s “No Garage” on the other. Two thousand five hundred copies of each record will be available at participating Record Store Day outlets.

Music Monitor Network president Michael Kurtz says Record Store Day exclusives include a double 10-inch pressing of My Morning Jacket’s “Evil Urges,” a series of Radiohead EPs on vinyl and reusable Record Store Day shopping bags produced by WEA. (From Billboard)

Disneyland’s It’s a Small World Gets Facelift

You can climb back on the ride “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland in California. The attraction was closed for more than a year, getting a facelift that adds more than a dozen new Disney characters.

 

The Future Of Books

Designer Kyle Bean has created a design that illustrates the issues with “technology and the Internet, and the effect it is having on the way we source information”. We are becoming a society that is more virtual. We download music rather than purchase CD’s, we research on the net, rather than going to the library and reading books. According to Kyle, “Books also have personality – they have textures and smells which the internet can’t offer”. Kyle wanted to illustrate this issue by using a book turned into a laptop. The object is made from a book purchased at a discount bookstore for only £1.50, as well as a few electrical components to illuminate the screen.

 

The book/laptop, has a CD-Rom drive complete with CD, a keyboard that can be removed so as to access the battery, and a switch that turns off the screen light once the book is closed. The book when closed, looks just like a regular book until opened. The words, “The Future of Books” are inscribed on the spine. I think Kyle did a wonderful job expressing the changes the world is facing regarding technology.

 

 

Cover Art For Stephen King’s The Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two)

Cemetery Dance Publications sent me the cover art for The Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two) today. This second venture into the world of Stephen King’s stories will contain even more artwork and detailed illustrations that could only have come from the inspired hands of artist Glenn Chadbourne.

An original Cemetery Dance Publications publishing event, this deluxe oversized hardcover edition is the World’s First Edition and there are no other editions planned of this title at this time. The book will be released later this year in 3 different editions, a Slipcased Gift Edition, a Signed & Traycased Limited Edition and a Signed & Traycased Lettered Edition.  The signed editions have sold out but the gift edition can still be ordered HERE for $75.

Slipcased Gift Edition

Signed & Traycased Limited Edition

Signed & Traycased Lettered Edition

New International Harry Potter 6 Teaser Poster

Penn and Teller Explain Sleight of Hand

How Old Are You?

The object of this game is to look at the pictures and try to accurately guess their age. You can even submit your picture to find out how old people really think you look. Click HERE to try it.

 

Glass Pool Table

The G-1 Glass Pool Table ($29,750) offers a striking modern design with a Vitrik playing surface that replicates the feel of felt, reinforced by a toughened glass bed. The open, modern frame offers International BCA-specification pockets, as well as an integrated ball return that lets you see the balls roam after they’re pocketed.

 

Stephen King Novella Will Appear In Summer Esquire Magazine

I spoke to Stephen King’s office yesterday about the upcoming novella entitled Morality.  According to Marsha DeFilippo, Mr. King’s assistant, the story will appear this summer in Esquire magazine possibly around July.  I’ll post more information when it becomes available.

Previously On LOST…

Digital TV Transition Delayed

Congress on Thursday granted a four-month reprieve to the millions of consumers who risk losing access to television signals during the nation’s switch from over-the-air television to digital.

 

Although broadcasters say they were ready for the Feb. 17 transition, requiring them to keep broadcasting in analog until June 12 gives more time for consumers to prepare their TV sets. It also lets the federal government revamp its converter-box subsidy program, which had run out of money, and issue coupons to the millions of people on a waiting list. (Read more HERE)

 

Candy Land Coming To Bigscreen

Universal Pictures is sweet on “Candy Land.” The studio has set Etan Cohen to write and Kevin Lima to direct a live-action feature based on the enduring Hasbro board game. The project is the first film to emerge from the deal U made last February with Hasbro, whose properties are the basis for the summer tentpole films “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” The tyke-friendly board game isn’t as obvious an inspiration for a movie project as those other Hasbro brands, but the studio has tapped talent adept at comedy and family fare. (From Variety)

 

 

I LEGO NY

Christoph Niemann shows us how you only need a few LEGO pieces to make a whimsical yet brilliant homage to New York City HERE.

 

Martin Campbell In Talks To Helm Green Lantern

Warner Bros. is negotiating with Martin Campbell to direct “Green Lantern,” the live-action film based on the DC Comics hero, reports the trades. Campbell last directed “Casino Royale” and recently wrapped the Mel Gibson starrer “Edge of Darkness,” based on the 1985 BBC miniseries that Campbell helmed. The emergence of Campbell, who also helmed two “Zorro” films and the 007 film “GoldenEye,” puts “Green Lantern” at the top of DC properties being set for movie treatment by WB. While the studio is hoping director Chris Nolan will follow its 2008 smash “The Dark Knight” with another Batfilm, DC projects such as Superman and “Justice League” were expected to happen quickly, but have stalled.

Instead, the hot DC titles are “Green Lantern” and “Jonah Hex,” the latter of which has Josh Brolin set to play a disfigured gunslinger in a film that begins production in April, directed by Jimmy Heyward (“Horton Hears a Who”).

Greg Berlanti wrote the script with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. (From Latino Review)

Watchmen – The Keene Act

Another new Watchmen video has hit the web, this one warning about the dangers of costumed heroes and how The Keene Act has outlawed all vigilante justice.

Johnny Depp As Moe?

Johnny Depp could be starring in the upcoming film adaptation of The Three Stooges, reports In Touch. The 45-year-old actor could soon be poking Sean Penn in the eye in the Farrelly brothers’ forthcoming comedy. “They want Johnny to play Moe and Sean Penn will be Larry – they’re still looking to cast Curly,” an insider says.