bookofjoe

Virtual Louvre gets a 21st–century makeover

The Louvre website went up in 1995.

They've just spent $8.6 million to completely redo their online presence and the results were unveiled yesterday.

The upgraded site is in French, English, Spanish and Japanese.

Other languages are coming.

The new site features an interactive 3–D map, multimedia museum history, detailed information on 1,500 works, permanent exhibits, and lots more.

There goes the rest of the day.

Oh, well.

Black Alpha Tee

Send a message.

Then send another.

There's no end, really: the letters come and go, and they can even spell "Michelangelo." But I digress.

You attach the reusable letters onto the shirt and spell it out perfectly.

Do you make yourself clear?

If not, you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

Endless possibilities for mischief in the right — or left, or wrong — hands.

You get:

• A 100% cotton black T-shirt with fitted sleeves

• 46 consonants

• 18 vowels

• 21 numbers

• 25 punctuation marks

$30 here.

U B DA BOM

Blogdigger.com

This blog search site does lots of things, not one of which I can understand well enough to use successfully.

No matter — if that were a criterion for bringing something to your attention here, I'm afraid we'd be doing a detailed analysis of fingerpaints.

So I'm here to tell you that if you want to explore the world of what's out there (here?) in the blogosphere, then you could do worse than to waste a little time on this site.

They've just launched Blogdigger Local: it's meant to help you find people blogging from particular zip codes or cities in the U.S.

You enter a keyword or topic, along with a city name or zip code, then click "search" and Blogdigger will produce a list of matching blogs arranged by relevance or date of posting.

That is, it might do that for you; it sure didn't for me.

But read the first paragraph of this post again and you'll see why I'm not at all bothered by this failure, one in an infinite series — alas, extending in both directions from the present.

So ee go.*

*Jamaican patois for "so it goes."

WhiteLight Teeth Whitener

"Revolutionary new light technology system is used by dentists."

And in a breakthrough, now you can enjoy it in the privacy and comfort of your own home.

You apply the specially formulated gel, then place the mouthpiece in your mouth and press the button.

And that's the last thing you'll remember.

No, no — that's the outcome in the alternative universe I work in part–time.

Sorry about that.

In your universe, earthlings, the light combines with the gel to "rapidly remove embedded stains such as coffee, tea, cigarette and red wine stains."

"The results will make you smile."

You get:

• Light transmitter

• Gel

• Applicator

• Advanced dental tray

• "Secrets to a Beautiful Smile" booklet

• Batteries

"As Seen On TV" so you know it must be good.

$19.98 here.

Geek 2 Geek — 'Find your geek match'

"Are you fed up with other sites that emphasize looks?"

No worries here, mate: the only thing you won't find on this new website is pictures.

Caitlin Carroll wrote about this new destination in yesterday's Washington Post.

Excerpts from her story follow.

The rules are simple.

Members come up with user names like "Tall, Dork and Handsome" or "Preppy Trekkie," then create a free profile that includes information such as their favorite board game, Web site or gadget.

The only thing not allowed?

Posting a picture.

"Typical match sites — they base it on how somebody looks," says Spencer Koppel, Geek 2 Geek's creator, who hails from Chicago.

"Geeks just don't care about that.

Geek 2 Geek members aren't looking for a "romantic, walk on the beach date," Koppel explains.

"They are looking to see if you have an Xbox."

Well — do you?

Carroll wrote that there are approximately 100 members in the Washington, D.C. area and nearly 5,000 nationwide.

Bet that number increases real soon now.

Avocado Slicer

In all my years of closely reading catalogs of kitchen equipment this is the first time I've ever encountered a dedicated avocado slicer.

"Simply place this slicer at one end of a halved, pitted avocado and drag the tool along the interior of the shell."

Drag and drop — hey, I can do that.

"18/10 stainless–steel wires quickly create thin, uniform slices."

Santoprene handle so you can get a grip.

Dishwasher safe; 6.5" long.

$15 here.

Wire under tension seems to come alive

in the right hands.

I am addicted to 'Hollaback Girl'

No, it's not pretty, this admission, but I must now come clean to my beloved readers.

Since May 18, when I first heard Gwen Stefani's nonsensical smash hit song — the lyrics, I mean; the fact that the song is endlessly listenable, at least to me and my dim–witted self, goes to show that the song makes a much deeper kind of sense somewhere in my reptilian brain, I'm guessing — and wrote about it here, I've been trying to avoid listening to it via "Repeat One."

And I was succeeding more or less OK until a couple days ago when a well–meaning reader sent me a link to Greg Stacy's probing exegesis of the song's lyrics.

Stacy's piece, which appeared in the May 6–12 issue of the Orange County Weekly, is hilarious, but reading his analysis had the unanticipated side effect of reactivating the extremely sensitive dumb song center back there in my medulla.

Now I'm stick on endless replay of the song, loving every idiotic refrain.

"Getting everybody fired up" indeed.

It's certainly got me all a–twitter.

Battery Store: Episode 2 — End–on vs. The Laterals

Episode 1 last week introduced the Laterals — what I assumed was the only battery storage option in our part of the galaxy — but I was wrong.

Just entering the Sol system and preparing for an epic confrontation is a fleet of End–Ons (one is shown above, in wall position and fully activated) from the planet Alkaline.

The End–on system, if extended to battery storage on Earth, entails places for 53 different batteries, ranging from AAA up to the mighty Ds.

The End–ons are not content, however, to stop with mere battery domination: no, they propose to store flashlight bulbs, fuses and tiny watch batteries in the handy covered compartment up top.

The choice is yours.

The End–on option will cost you $14.99 here.

For reference, you will note that the Laterals (below)

are almost fully armed and prepared for battle.