It's time to settle a debate than ran for most of last week. I was using the word janky, and everyone else on the trip insisted that I made up the word. So, here is the definition, courtesy of the Urban Dictionary:

Janky (adjective) inferior quality; held in low social regard; old and dilapidated; refers almost exclusively to inanimate material objects, not to people

I'm not the type who takes relish in being right and proving someone else wrong . . . oh wait, yes I am. That's the point of this whole post. Bufe, Sara, Brendan: I expect to see your written apologies as comments. And make them good apologies, not janky ones. Bam!

Thanks to Sears for sending me this link.

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in months. It's the staff of Microsoft from 1978. Gates is on the lower left. (Oddly, the guy in the middle of the top row is named Bob Wallace.) Every one of these people ranges from a multimillionaire to a multibillionaire, all because of the free market, and not politics. It might confirm what I've been saying for years--ultimately we are going to be ruled by Homo Computergeekizoid Nerdus. This might not be such a bad idea, considering what the State and politicians have done. All hail the new masters!

Welcome to the technocracy. Join us or face the pain. Once we've completed our takeove there's going to be some serious revenge on jocks and bullies.

By the way, since Matt finds all these good links, I think he should start his own blog. Drop a comment if you agree.

This morning I finished reading Forward the Foundation. It's the last book in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Here are the seven books, in the order they were written (and the order I read them in):

Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation

The last two books are set before the first one. Amazon.com's listing of the series puts them first, but I think it's better to start with Foundation and read them how Asimov wrote them. I thought this was a good series. Thanks to my friend Josh Shive who told be about the books. The Foundation series is a part of the same sci-fi universe as Asimov's Empire series and Robot series, which begins with I, Robot. I'd like to see the Will Smith movie and then read the book and eventually read all 17 books in the three part mega-series.

New Survey Examines the Impact of Gibson’s “Passion” Movie - This new study by the Barna Group basically concludes that The Passion of the Christ may not have been 'the greatest outreach opportunity in 2000 years.'

Among the most startling outcomes drawn from the research is the apparent absence of a direct evangelistic impact by the movie. Despite marketing campaigns labeling the movie the “greatest evangelistic tool” of our era, less than one-tenth of one percent of those who saw the film stated that they made a profession of faith or accepted Jesus Christ as their savior in reaction to the film’s content.

Equally surprising was the lack of impact on people’s determination to engage in evangelism. Less than one-half of one percent of the audience said they were motivated to be more active in sharing their faith in Christ with others as a result of having seen the movie.

. . . One of the lessons from this situation, according to Barna, is that major transformation is not likely to result from one-time exposure to a specific media product.

(via Religion News Blog)

I don't think I would be able to handle this. This site has pictures of a public toilet made out of one-way glass. No one can see in, but you can see everyone around you.

Dan Gillmor has a new book coming out soon called We, the Media. It's about blogging and grassroots journalism and how it's changing things. He plans to make it available for free download under a Creative Commons licence. Once it's up I'll post a link to it. Sounds like a good read to me.

=

Ex-‘Blue’s Clues’ host reinvented as rocker

I was working on getting the new church site listed on Google and dmoz.org when I found a link for MusicMoz.org, "a comprehensive directory of all things music, edited by volunteers." It's related to the Mozilla project (makers of the Firefox browser). One interesting directory on MusicMoz is Anti-Music, a listing of sites dedicated to bashing bands, styles and MTV. Sara, I'm sure you'll enjoy some of those. Ok, back to work.

One of the missions for Team TMBG is to create graphics to promote the band and their new album, Spine. What do you think? I could win a t-shirt. Click here to get this in icon size.

Click here

If you are at all interested in technology, you'll like this magazine. No shipping, handling, hidden fees, or catches.. Completely free!

Update: You can take this gift as a new subscription or as a renewal, so even if you already get it (like I do) you can add another year.