The Smarmy Carny

Yahoo!

Yahoo! has published a "Netrospective" in light of their 10th birthday, and I must admit that it's pretty neat.

The Netrospective catalogs 100 of the most significant events for the internet over the past 10 years. Of course, the first item is Yahoo!'s incorporation, but not only is that expected from a Yahoo!-created list, but it's also certainly an item that deserves to be there.

As with any "Top 100" list, there are items of questionable value, and missing items as well. As I mentioned, Yahoo! certainly deserves to be mentioned, but not nearly as frequently as they are. Each major step in the company seems to be mentioned. Since this is their birthday project, I'll have to grant clemency on this one.

One inexcusable (and obvious) exclusion is Google. Seriously, how can you include Abilene, but leave out Google?

President Bush pardoned eight people today.

Perhaps someone can explain this to me, but one pardon was for a guy sentenced to three years probation in 1959, one was for a guy given one year probation in 1992, and one for a guy given 18 months probation in 1995. Clearly there is an explanation for how and why pardons would be issued to people who supposedly have already served the time, but I can't think of a satisfying excuse. Generally, I think of the Hollywood-esque pardon, saving the guy from the death penalty . . . not pardoning a guy who should have finished off his probation 43 years ago.

Since I have an affinity for statistics, here are some select clemency statistics for presidents, given in reverse chronological order:

• George W Bush: 39 (so far)
• Bill Clinton: 456
• George H. W. Bush: 77
• Ronald Reagan: 406
• Jimmy Carter: 566
• Gerald Ford: 409
• Richard Nixon: 926
• Lyndon B. Johnson: 1187
• John F. Kennedy: 575
• Dwight D. Eisenhower: 1157
• Harry S. Truman: 2044
• Franklin D. Roosevelt: 3687
• Woodrow Wilson: 2480
• Abraham Lincoln: 343
• Zachary Taylor: 38
• Thomas Jefferson: 119
• John Adams: 21
• George Washington: 16

Crash Test Dummy

Remember kids, always wear your seat belt.

Surely you have seen the PSAs starring Vince and Larry, the Crash Test Dummies. (The safety guys, not the band.)

I don't care how many dummies you watch hit their head on a dashboard or put through a window . . . Vince and Larry can never teach you to put your seat belt on like this guy can. Give that video a quick watch, and maybe you non-seat belters will change your tune. (A news report viewable here reports that the man was not seriously injured.)

Once you have watched it, you will surely ask the question I'm about to answer: Why did that guy have a camera in his car?

I did a quick search on DriveCam (their logo appears in the video) and quickly found DriveCam's website. In fact, the company concept is really quite neat. They market to fleet vehicle programs (bus companies, taxis, shuttles, company cars, etc.), and what they do is install video cameras and other devices inside the vehicles. In case of accidents, the company then has access to video of exactly what happened inside the car and out, whether the driver was braking or accelerating, etc. Also, "mystery damage" that used to come accompanied with the "that dent was there when I left it in the parking lot" suddenly comes with video of the driver actually backing up into something. In addition to that, the system prevents accidents in general simply because the drivers are aware that their actions are being recorded.

This video did not come off of DriveCam's website (so far as I can see), but DriveCam does have footage available to watch. Check out their videos page for some nice entertainment. I suggest "Not paying attention, driver almost hits another car," "Driver falls asleep at the wheel," and most importantly, "Steering wheel gives out, bus goes over railing." Read the accompanying files to see what their reports look like. It's amazing what they can figure out from the videos and readings. Note to Firefox users: I could not get the ActiveX program to install in Firefox. I had to resort to IE.

Happy Birthday, Yahoo!

Update: In case you don't realize, you missed your opportunity on this. Sorry!

Yahoo officially turns ten-years-old today, and is giving everyone a birthday gift of free ice cream!

Visit Yahoo's birthday page and get a coupon for one scoop of Baskin-Robbins' ice cream in a cone or cup. Of course, it's only valid today, on Yahoo's birthday. Also, you must log in with a Yahoo account. No biggie.

Normally, this would be really cool, and that's exactly why I'm sharing the info. Outside right now, however, the news tells me that it's 20° (and feels like 7°). Not exactly ice cream weather, if you ask me.

Of course, I'm not a huge fan of Baskin-Robbins. If they offered Ben & Jerry's ice cream, that's a different story. It's always Ben & Jerry's weather!

February was 53's first complete month online, so I figured I would post some statistics for the month. Perhaps I'll do this every month, but no promises!

Posts: 25

Comments: 31

Hits: 19,194

Users: 8,186

Top 5 Referring Sites (excluding search engines):

1. 1754blog.com 55
2. Blogwise 21
3. all-encompassingly17
4. Technorati12
5. Kate Stelnick4

Top 5 Browsers:

1. Internet Explorer 6 13,523
2. Mozilla Firefox 3,002
3. Mozilla 573
4. Apple Safari 502
5. Internet Explorer 5.5 374

Top 10 Search Terms:

1. numa numa dance 2,217
2. numa numa video 317
3. mary roach video 308
4. wisconsin quarter defect 265
5. numa numa dance lyrics 228
6. numa dance 218
7. numa numa dance video 181
8. numa numa 160
9. mary roach audition 154
10. numa numa lyrics 117

I have a list that I have been keeping up for quite some time. I finally ported it over to this site.

Feel free to check it out. It's a list of fun words to say.

Here's a brief selection of words:

• Bamboozle
• Chechnya
• Flibbertigibbet
• Kumquat
• Naugahyde
• Polliwog
• Schnitzel
• Uvula

Remember to check out the complete list on my full list of "fun words to say."