The Best of Friday: Identity Theft, Hardcore Geek-Rap, Scientology, Baseball and More

Here are the best new things we have been able to collect today, Friday May 18th, 2007.

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Here is a fantastic article detailing some very necessary steps that should be taken by anyone whose identity has been stolen or compromised.

http://creditpro.wordpress.com/2007/02/11/8-things-you-must-do-if-your-identity-is-stolen/

Speaking as someone who deals with identity theft on a daily basis; this problem is getting more and more prevalent with each passing day. The fact is that most people don’t adequately know how to protect themselves from identity theft. Even I don’t. My two tips for prevention: shred everything you get in the mail that has your name and address on it, and update your computer security before you enter any password online.

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The major league baseball season is in full swing. With this weekend bringing the highly anticipated, and highly hyped, interleague rivals match-ups ( Yankees vs Mets, White Sox vs Cubs, blah blah blah ) the sporting nation's attention is on the MLB right now as much as at anytime during the regular season.

On this web page you can find a very informative graph that shows how much money is being spent by each of the 30 MLB teams and how they rank according to the current standings.

http://benfry.com/salaryper/

How does your team rank? My team currently has one of the straightest lines on the graph, which is pretty boring. You may be asked to install a new Java applet to view this graph, don’t worry, my computer didn’t explode when I did it.

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The online marketplace Craigslist.org is a great place to use to find stuff in your neighborhood that is for sale, for trade, for free or for hire. I use it to get rid of extra stuff around the house that I no longer use, sometimes I even get a couple of dollars for the stuff and I get to meet real people in the process. Here is a unique story about a family feud that exploded with a fraudulent posting on that very website.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/us/18seattle.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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Also from our weird news department:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,273635,00.html

I just have one comment: doesn’t the state of Minnesota have bleach or some other kind of disinfectant on hand at their offices? This can’t be the first time this has happened. Is this story even news worthy?

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Continuing with the theme:

http://break.com/index/news-anchor-on-air-fart.html

The guy cant stop laughing, and that makes it so much funnier.

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Scientology is in the news a lot these days, mainly due to Hollywood stars like John Travolta and Tom Cruise. Lots of people think this religion is a bunch of nonsense. They continue to attract new followers however, and are stronger now than ever before.

One thing my religious studies professor didn’t cover was Scientology, and I’ve met a lot more followers of that religion than Taoism. Go figure. This article goes along way to provide an honest and unbiased perspective of Scientology.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9363363/inside_scientology/print

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Alright, that article was a long read, I promise to be short here:

Wet cat pictures are hilarious:

http://rippin-kitten.blogspot.com/2007/02/washing-cat.html

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I don’t have wallpaper on my computer because I find that I rarely have less than 7 web browsers open at a time. But, if you like wallpaper, or just want to see what other people are looking at on their computers, this site may be for you:

http://www.socwall.com/

The site allows you to use any wallpaper they have, you can vote on your favorite wall paper and you can browse by subjects. They have some very stunning outer space images available.

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And lastly; we love Star Wars here. If that turns you off, don’t click on this next link. This is a hardcore hip-hop song (i.e. not for kids, turn the volume down at work, etc...) sung about Star Wars from the view points of many of the major characters. My favorite is Lando Calrissian, I think it’s the cape.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2029850496

Have a great weekend.

Running Routes Made Easy

If you are a runner training for a big race: a marathon, half marathon, 10K or any number of other organized races, one of the hardest parts of training is finding a route to run that is new and will keep you running the correct distance for your training regimen.

Here is an innovative tool offered by the USA Track and Field website that will allow you to plan a route in any city or zip code area that is accessible by Google Maps. Just type in your city name or zip then pick your starting place, the next click you make with be the finish. Keep clicking farther away to move the finish line.

http://www.usatf.org/routes/map/

The best part is that it automatically calculates the distance from your start to your finish in miles or kilometers, and it gives you an elevation read out at the same time so you can avoid or conquer any hills in your area as well. Now if I could just find the motivation to run.

50 Ways to Improve Your Productivity

Here is another of those insidious lists that seem to be cropping up everywhere. The best part about this one is that if you read the list while at work you will be following rule number one already.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/50-ways-to-increase-your-productivity.html

Downloading Music with Google

The video found at this link will teach you how to use Google's search engine to download music without joining a peer to peer network.

http://fuvoo.com/FuvooPermaLink.aspx?PostID=660

Cat With Bow: Web Game

Here is a cool new game we found surfing the net today:

http://ishi.blog2.fc2.com/blog-entry-211.html?new

The text is a bit difficult as it is in Japanese. However, the game is pretty intuitive.

A golf-esque game where your character, a cat with a bow and arrow shoots his arrows at the bullseye. Each course is played like a hole in golf. Hitting the target on the first shot will yield you either an Eagle, Albratross or a Condor.

Just click your mouse near your character and pull away from the direction you want the arrow to fly, the power meter ramps up the farther you pull back. My only tip: you can shoot a new arrow even if you are flying, or falling, through the air.

Have Fun!

From the Craziest Marketplace on Earth:

EBay has long been a place to go if you are looking to find something that you can’t find anywhere else. From replacement arms for your C3PO action figure, to Cheez-its that look like Elvis. If there is something you want and can’t find anywhere else you will likely be able to find it on eBay. The reason this is true is because someone out there has it and is willing to let you pay them for it.

Now one of the hottest commodities is available on eBay: Racism Credits. Similar to the practice of selling indulgences which Martin Luther rebelled against. There is a seller on eBay who is offering to absolve you of your racism. This seller compares his service to “carbon offsets” a policy endorsed by Al Gore which would allow large corporations to buy the right to pollute more than normal.

Allegedly if you want to spew forth some racially charged politically incorrect hate speech now you can prepare beforehand for the inevitable backlash. This is a market that could really take off due to the recent scandals involving Don Imus, Opie and Anthony and even Mel Gibson.

Here is a snippet from the auction itself:

“You can already buy ‘carbon credits’ or ‘offsets’ so that you can go on leaving
a size 16 carbon footprint without guilt, but what are you going to do the next
time you want to speak your mind? What if your viewpoint happens to offend
someone? God forbid!

Don’t just stand there stuttering! Don’t edit yourself! Bid now, and be on your way to lingual independence!

The winning bidder of this auction will receive two certificates (one embossed and signed letter size, suitable for framing, and one wallet size with the American flag in
the background) that will allow you to be 'insensitive' to certain people with
certain viewpoints, in certain ways, until the end of the next presidential
election cycle. You may make 'politically incorrect' statements about whites,
blacks, Mexicans, and the 'less fortunate'. You may also make general political
statements that are unpopular with the 'political correctness police', for the
same period of time.

To compensate for your hate speech infractions, a man of German and Mexican descent will make sweet, sweet love to a woman of African descent. This lovemaking is SO POLITICALLY CORRECT that it will offset your political incorrectness and your racial insensitivity.”

While this blog by no means endorses hate speech, and the seller also makes a similar disclaimer later on in the auction details, these “indulgences” or “credits” could be quite a collector’s item and are certainly an interesting conversation starter. They couldn’t have come at a better time. Best of all they start at only one penny and there are still four days left to the auction!


If the auction is still up you can find it at the link below:


Politically Incorrect Offsets -Racism Credits Offset

http://cgi.ebay.com/Politically-Incorrect-Offsets-Racism-Credits-Offset_W0QQitemZ110126335515QQihZ001QQcategoryZ317QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

California Has Melted!!

Well not really. But scientists have recently discovered that a snow and ice covered area in Antatica which would cover an area blanketing the state of California has melted. Big surprise right.

I, for one, think this warming trend otherwise known as "global warming" will just uncover more farm land so we can grow more corn to create more ethanol and thus lower the price of gas. Its a theory.

Here is the original story as posted on nytimes.com:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/science/earth/16melt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Preface

In the beginning there was a web. It was confusing and vast. Easy enough to navigate if you knew where you were going. It was filled with all kinds of neat services and communities facilitating the sharing of ideas and information.

Today the web is gigantic; far too vast for one individual to find all the information, news and great offerings available. That is where sites like Massivegrab.com step in to give you a diving board of sorts which you can use to start your daily descent into the wet and wild world of the internet. We also guarantee that we will keep the pool full of water!

With our experienced team of web surfers, content skimmers, comedians, idiots and know-it-alls we have the tools to give you enough links, ideas, new videos, pictures, advice, news, and time-wasting mind-numbing eye-watering pages filled with crap to satisfy the appetite of even the most voracious web addict.

So, if you are interested (and our overzealous self-deflation hasn’t raised your red flags yet) then please stop by for a spell. Tell us how stupid we are if you have the time, or use us and leave, we really don’t have any control. Later