“Police in Idaho Falls have told a man to stop wearing a bunny suit in public after people complained he has been frightening children.”

From @TheStartupDaily, If you improve by just one percent each week, your business will be 50% better after a year. http://t.co/n7UVUS6Wed Aug 03 14:29:28 via Twitter for Mac

Mike Karnjanaprakorn
mikekarnj

I hope all these people who are glomming onto The Startup Daily’s hideous daily koans aren’t doing the accounting at their oh-so-hot startups. I mean, say my startup was 51% good already, then I made it 52% good? So at the end of the year it’s not going to be 101% good, because, COMPOUND INTEREST, SOMETHING SOMETHING. (Also I guess you’re supposed to take two weeks off every year? Because last time I checked, there basically were 52 weeks plus a day or two in each year.)

I really call the methodology of this list into question. I’m sure there were plenty of beautiful women executed in China that just weren’t photographed well! When will we give these other executed women appropriate credit for their astonishing good looks? (Related: “NSFW: When Does The Portrayal Of Young Girls Become Too Sexualized?” Well, one thought: perhaps when it’s put in a highly clickable slideshow.)

The incomparable Anthony Dominick Benedetto turns 85 today. Were there any decent video of “I Wanna Be Around” which didn’t feature that putz Bono I would have put it up, but instead we’ll have to go with this duet with Stevie Wonder, which is not too shabby. (You will probably also enjoy this.) And, of course, there is always this.

Today’s New York Observer editorial page, as always, does not disappoint, in the form of this editorial in praise of movies and TV filming in New York City.

Some New Yorkers may grumble about the inconveniences that are inevitable when nearly two dozen film crews are on location in popular neighborhoods or near trendy nightspots. Here’s a bit of advice for those iconoclasts: It’s August. Chill out. Take a long weekend in the Hamptons.

DON’T MIND IF I DO?

Most New Yorkers will be happy to hear that, on average, Time Warner delivers 91% of promised internet upload/download speeds. Not terrible! Those of us who have AT&T; as our Internet provider, however, should all be signing on for a class action lawsuit — although the results of this FCC survey of actual deliverables will not be a surprise to any of us who’ve benchmarked our speed and found it sorely, wildly lacking. And is anyone surprised that Comcast Cablevision (good morning! Things that start with “C”! More coffee please, interns!), a thoroughly terrible company (check the immense Cablevision archive at Consumerist, for starters!), comes out looking so terribly? (Related: Cablevision first-quarter revenues: $1.9 billion!) This is pretty remarkable that, for the most part, an entire industry is selling a lie and likely absolutely nothing will happen about that. (via, via)

“On television, they keep showing bears suffering in restaurants and roadside hotels. How long can we tolerate animal torture in restaurants where drunken guests make bears drink vodka for laughs?”
 — Ukraine Environment Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, who has vowed to end the practice of forcing captured bears to drink alcohol in his country.

And They Named It Dodgy Island

Greenland is ice, Iceland is nice — and Carcass Island is full of penguins. In this installment, let’s investigate some of the more suspicious-sounding islands out there and see whether they live up to their altogether uninviting toponyms.

Name: Deception Island
Location: The South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula
Does it live up to its name? Yes. Deception Island is a nearly perfect circle with a small inlet leading to a geothermal bay — a researcher from SUNY-Geneseo describes it as “a donut with a small bite taken out.” The entrance is almost completely obscured; you can only find your way in if you know precisely where to go. Also, once you get inside the bay… there’s an active underwater volcano.

Name: No-Name Island
Location: Ten acres of alluvial land in the Allegheny River, Pennsylvania
Does it live up to its name? No. I mean, No-Name is still a name, right? Congress seemed to think so; the island was formally established (along with six others) as part of the Allegheny River Islands Wilderness area in 1984.

Name: Carcass Island
Location: The Falkland Islands
Does it live up to its name? No. Carcass Island was named after the ominous-sounding HMS Carcass, which surveyed the area in the 1760s. No notable carcasses are to be found there, especially after fences were put up prevent the local gentoo penguins from attacking the sheep.

Name: Mafia Island
Location: Off the coast of Tanzania
Does it live up to its name? Nope. The name probably comes from the Arabic word “morfiyeh” meaning “archipelago.” Mafia Island is home to a marine wildlife center, rare birds and maybe a pygmy hippo or two — but no members of the Cosa Nostra. Sorry, Tony.

Name: Barren Island
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Does it live up to its name? No. But have you ever wondered how nearby Dead Horse Bay got its name? The area was once home to a plant that processed horses into glue. Barren Island doesn’t even live up to the “island” part of its name; it was connected to the rest of Brooklyn through reclaimed land in 1926.

Name: Inaccessible Island
Location: There are a few of them, actually, the largest is part of Tristan da Cunha archipelago.
Does it live up to its name? No. Try a boat? Seriously, you can take a cruise there.

Name: Bear Island
Location: Upper Norway, part of the Svalbard archipelago
Does it live up to its name? Yes! Though they’re not in year-round residence, the island positively crawls with polar bears in winter.

Name: Quarantine Island
Location: The largest island in Otago Harbour, near Dunedin, New Zealand
Does it live up to its name? Yes. Though Quarantine Island is now a public reserve, from 1863 until 1924 all incoming sailors with infectious diseases were kept on the island until they recovered or died.

Name: Funk Island
Location: Just off the northeastern coast of Newfoundland, Canada
Does it live up to its name? Yes. By all accounts, the island smells TERRIBLE, because it’s covered in bird shit. The island houses millions of birds (but not a single member of Parliament).

Name: Obstruction Island
Location: The San Juan Islands, Washington
Does it live up to its name? Sort of. An American explorer christened it Obstruction Island because he felt the island mucked up what could have been a clear passage for large ships between Blakely and Orcas islands. Larger ships instead take a marginally longer route around the southern end of Blakely Island.

Name: Hydra
Location: The Aegean Sea, Greece
Does it live up to its name? No. Hercules’ Hydra lived in the swamps of Lake Lerna, surrounded by entirely mythological beasts, and the name is a time-worn bastardization of “hydrea,” meaning “water.” In addition, the Aegean is saltwater, so microscopic freshwater hydra (gross!) aren’t likely, either.

Victoria Johnson is a cartographer and this is her Tumblr.

From top, photos by: Piet Barber, Stan Shebs and Bjørn Christian Tørrissen.

After the day’s earlier, rather depressing bear story, I think we could all do with something a little more lighthearted. And useful! This is definitely something you need to know in case you come into contact with a black bear. Thank you, Taiwan!

BUY OUR SINGLE ‘MICHAEL JACKSON’ ON ITUNES OR AMAZON.COM… WOULDNT IT BE NARLEY IF WE HAD THE NO. 1 RAP JOINT OUT OR SUMFING…Tue Aug 02 18:20:21 via web

das racist
dasracist

In a bold move, incredible “rap-type” outfit Das Racist is releasing new music — and they’re not giving it away on the Internet. That’s right. They’re asking that people make a one-time gift or donation of a set value of actual valid currency in exchange for set amounts of their music. After this first experiment, selling just one song, in September they’re going to try to sell a whole album this way. Let’s see how this wild new approach pays off!