David G. Johnson

Category: For Kicks

  • Near Miss Day 2022

    Near Miss Day 2022

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    David Johnson
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    On March 23, 1989, the asteroid 4581 Asclepius—apparently about the size of a mountain—came close to colliding with the earth. “On the cosmic scale of things, that was a close call.” —scientist Actually, he was an amateur astronomer. But he’s also a doctor of some kind. And he was “working on a NASA project,” according…

  • IndieWeb Stuff

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    David Johnson
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    As I wrote about recently on one of my other sites, I’ve been learning more about the IndieWeb world. As of right now, this site doesn’t have any IndieWeb-style feature (beyond those included in WordPress itself). The only exception is that I’ve installed PushPress, which facilitates PubSubHubbub (PuSH) notifications. The exciting thing about this is that @aaronpk…

  • Just Call Me Billy Mays

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    David Johnson
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    Well… I’m honestly not quite sure how it happened, but I ended up becoming the pitch man for one of our clients. Truthfully, my family and I love the TUNG Brush (and gel!). It’s been our privilege to provide strategy and work alongside their team over the last couple of years. But I never dreamed…

  • Lord Please Don’t Burn Us

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    David Johnson
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    Recently I sat in a presentation by a friend of mine who spent some time talking about the “Meritocracy” approach to relationship with God.  This is the idea that doing things we think He will approve of will cause us to be looked upon with favor, whereas neglecting such things or (worse) doing things He…

  • The Machine That Goes “Bing!”

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    David Johnson
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    And now for something completely different: In a bizarre move, Microsoft does something brilliant. At first I thought, “Well… they grabbed a 4-letter domain name that’s easy to remember… they couldn’t possibly have intended to connect it to the Monty Python sketch…” That was when I first started seeing the bing.com commercials about the tangential…

  • What the Heck is a “Twitter”?

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    David Johnson
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    Even after Twitter’s exposure in the news over the last few months — Mumbai terror attacks, the plane landing in the Hudson, etc. — I still get asked this question by people still trying to figure out what Twitter is all about. Then, after rather ineptly explaining that it’s a service whereby you’re constantly answering…

  • Shiba Inu Puppy Cam

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    David Johnson
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    Now if these aren’t adorable and irresistible, then I don’t know what is! Here’s the live feed from the Shiba Inu puppies: My website is now my 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter’s favorite site. (Sorry, Wiggles!)

  • President Bush is Going to Do Something About the Economy

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    David Johnson
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    Ever wondered what a “Credit Default Swap” is? Clark & Dawes from Australia explain… I guess they gave up on trying to do President Bush’s accent.

  • Monty Python reacts… to Social Media!

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    David Johnson
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    And now for something completely different in the battle for copyright controls on YouTube… When all else fails, give the content away! While the Python troupe aren’t the first to make this move, they just might be the funniest! In all seriousness, this is truly something that could only occur in the 21st Century. Let’s…

  • A Laughable Economic Situation

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    David Johnson
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    Here’s a remarkably simple analysis of how things got to where they are… from a pair of British comics. (Update: the original video was taken down. The video below may not be precisely the same clip. – David) As this was produced in 2007, it’s become remarkably prophetic! Hat tip: Sara Hand.