Allowing users to search by name, rank, branch of service or hometown the service shares information about the record of each soldier’s record.

Facts about The Interactive Wall
At full size, The Wall image on Footnote is about 460 feet wide (400,000 pixels wide by 12,500 pixels tall).
We found 58,320 names inscribed on The Wall.
There are about 70 names which are duplicates or misspellings.
8 names are women.
2,056 are listed as “body not recovered.”
Average age is 22.8 years old.
The image was assembled from 6,301 images photographed by Peter Krogh and stitched by Darren Higgins

Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial ** Thanks GearLive**

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My prediction: My the end of this decade I will be well into balding and have a considerably larger nose.

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Thanks to the acumen and generosity of one P. Fibiger, our Wordpress hatches should now be battened against that asshole spammer who was inserting links into our posts. Sorry about that.

In retaliation, I have worked a small hex that will forever trap the spammer in the video to Bonnie Tyler’s “Faster Than the Speed of Night” where he will play the role of “Flying Guitar Dancer’s Thong.”

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My kid sister Rachel Fracassa, having just completed a rigorous raw food chef certification after a couple of years of solo training, has just opened her new business, “Lemons in the Kitchen.” I’m super proud of her, even if I have every intention to continue eating cooked meat, at least until the day she can finally make raw BBQ pulled pork. (And knowing her, it may be possible. She can make quiche out of psyllium husk. No joke.)

If you’re in the Kansas City area and are interested in learning more about gourmet raw food, having Rachel come over and teach you some techniques, or simply having her make you some raw food that tastes like, you know, food, I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.

Rachel Fracassa’s Raw in Kansas City [LemonsInTheKitchen.com]

(I built that site, too. How do you like me now, Helvetica?)

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Dethroner is the classy men’s magazine of the Web world. With weeks of themed content based around topics like beer, meat, and danger, and features like “Testosterone Television,” a daily guide to the manliest sights on cable TV, this site has everything the modern man needs to better himself . . . or the modern woman needs for herself, provided her interests are beer, meat, and/or danger.

Classy! We fooled them. But thanks all the same, PC Mag!

Lifestyle and Entertainment [PCMag]

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Joel and I go way back from the days of Tribes. He also gave me my start at Gizmodo as an intern who was forced to do much spooning. My interests cover a broad spectrum, so expect a wide variety of posts in the near future. This picture is of me doing my best Joel impression at E3 last year.

I still spoon on an as-need basis, so hit me up if you are ever lonely.

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As for those interested in contributing, shoot me an email with what you’d like to write about and we can talk about it. I think you’ll find writing for others is exciting then daunting, but I can help you muscle through if you’ve got something to say.

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Yet, Dethroner. Here are the options:

• Shutter it completely.
• Leave it up, but update it infrequently.
• Sell it to someone else interested in maintaining it.

The middle option is the least appealing to me. Even having given myself room to ignore Dethroner completely when I’ve needed to, it still gnaws quietly in the back of my mind. I need to be able to focus completely on my new projects, because Dethroner as it stands is a wash. I’ve gotten myself out of the debt I fell into trying to get it started, but I’m not interested in putting more money into myself until I am back into a comfortable financial state. That means no new writers paid out of pocket, which means no new writers.

There are a couple of deals on the table to purchase Dethroner, believe it or not. I’ve been very clear in my discussions with any suitors that I wanted to stay involved in an editorial capacity, because if my name is going to remain affiliated with the brand I want to make sure it’s something I can remain proud of. Those deals may or may not happen—I’d bet on “not happening”—but there is apparently more value to the brand, domain, past content, and modest daily traffic than I had at first suspected. Which, hey, awesome.

If one of those deals don’t happen, though, I think I’d rather just close up shop for a while, if only for my mental peace of mind. I’d leave up the old content, just because there’s no reason not to, but would put up a floating post that says we aren’t doing daily updates.

Why Dethroner Failed

There were two mistakes made, both mine. First, I hired an employee too early, which put too much of a strain on my savings when the site (and thus advertising revenue) didn’t grow at the rate I’d hoped. That was simply a lack of foresight on my part. I tried to work around that as long as I could, but eventually I just ran out of money, even when trying to do more freelance work on the side.

The second mistake was a product of the first. Once I realized what dire straights I was in, I pretty much gave up. I’m not proud to say it nor is there any excuse for it, but once I could see things were going to be a hard slog for the foreseeable future, my will to work was crushed. I’m really ashamed of that, but there it is. I’m not sure buckling down and writing a ton of content over the last few months would have been enough to save Dethroner’s bacon, but it probably would have been more productive than sitting around the house playing WoW, doing the occasional freelance piece, or anything else I could manage to do instead of opening up my text editor and start working. Ugh.

Anyway, I’m back in a good mental space again, thank fuck, and this is far from a plaintive cry for sympathy. I screwed up—end of story. But I’ve tried to be open with you guys about where things are at, and as much as it makes me cringe to say that I’ve bungled something, the mild success Dethroner has had is because of the great group of people who have stuck around and participated, so my apologies to you guys for my mistakes.

It’s not like I’m disappearing off the internet or anything, though, so if you’ve enjoyed my writing in the past, you’ll certainly be able to enjoy it in the near future. This was a fun attempt at running my own business and I definitely learned a lot about what not to do and where my own weak spots are.

Anyway, how about bacon? Isn’t that shit delicious?

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One of the things I hope to have sussed out by the time I return is what, exactly, we’re going to be doing with this site. Clearly something has got to change.

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Now on one hand, it’s just a pizza, so I don’t want to make you do a whole bunch of work. On the other hand, I don’t want to do a whole bunch of work, either, like judging a contest.

For the last several weeks I have been trying to woo Jason Kottke into adding me to his Twitter friends list. First I wrote wistful musings about what I imagined his current behavior to be; later I dialed up the creepiness with intimations that I’d come knocking on his door. So far he has resisted my advances.

But now I am worried about him! He hasn’t updated his site in several days. In typical stalker fashion, I am going to presume the absolute worst: Jason Kottke is pinned in his apartment under a fallen stack of “Lern2Kern: The Total Idiot’s Guide to Type Spacing,” his secret shame.

He’ll eventually be found and rescued, so when that happens I’d like to have something ready for him. The first seven people to send me a scan or picture of a hand-written get-well-soon card for Jason Kottke—crayons and teddy bear stickers highly recommended—will win a free pizza. And by “send me” I mean “link in the comments,” so we know who gets the job done first.

We’re coming for you, Jason! Stay strong!

UPDATE: Rumor has it that Jason and Meg are off having a baby. We will now also accept “Congratulations” cards!

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ToM was killed by Wired.com despite of measurable success. (Wired, which despite being a confederacy of really nice, smart people, often makes some really boneheaded decisions, primarily [by my estimation as a contractor there for a few months] due to office politics both internal to the magazine and shit rolling downhill from Conde Net.) A pity only if Brownlee and company didn’t have a place to continue writing on the web. Fortunately, they do!

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In the meantime, I wanted to congratulate my girlfriend, Susie Stalker, for getting the best present for me I could possible think of: she’s accepted an open-ended internship at Six Point Craft Ales, where she’ll be learning how to brew beer commercially. (And learning how to scrub out giant fermenters, I’m sure.) Finally, a job that I don’t mind her bringing home with her.

Way to go, Stalker!

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Oh, the puns we will share! But first, a word from Richman and Sheth, a.k.a. “Dr. Stool”:

Let’s face it. We all spend most of our days in search of perfection: the perfect girl, the perfect body, the perfect car… While these are all worthy pursuits, we have decided to embark on the equally important quest to identify the attributes of the perfect poo. Yes, poo. And why not? We believe poo has the ability to offer just as much enjoyment and satisfaction as a date with Jessica Alba, 26″ biceps, or a Ferrari 360 Modena.

While most hastily undertake the daily task of emptying one’s bowels with little thought or appreciation, other more enlightened souls have learned to harness the true power of poo. Think of the ecstasy, or “poo-phoria,” which results from unleashing the perfect poo. These instances can be contrasted with agonizing episodes of bowel-breaking constipation, an experience we have termed “log jam.”

From size and shape, to consistency, and yes, even smell, one thing is clear: each poo has a uniqueness that should be regarded with wondrous appreciation. Our recently published book, “What’s Your Poo Telling You?” seeks to demystify poo by offering humorous descriptions, illustrations, and medical explanations for poo’s various manifestations. [Several "stool samples" are available on the book web site, too. - Ed.] We are now ready to take the next step. Armed with a newfound understanding of what causes the diversity of poo, we want to enlist your help in our unfulfilled quest to characterize the Perfect Poo.

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What made Modern Man (and its sequel) such a useful resource was the variety of perspectives provided, compiled from submissions by hundreds of men, often with conflicting opinion about a topic. It remains, despite a few outdated sections, a useful distillation of knowledge for living life as a human male in Western society. And by embracing the spectrum of opinion, it reinforced that most valuable lesson: think for yourself, stupid.

Another maxim I’ve tried to steer Dethroner by has been “every man is an expert in something, which is the impetus behind our theme weeks. I know a fair amount about some things, but despite my ability to compile sources and write up summaries—that’s sort of what this sort of lifestyle writing is all about—I’d much rather hear from experts. Unfortunately we’ve a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario: we’re not big enough to woo experts every week, but we’ve drained my pool of talented and generous friends willing to step in to share. So that’s one problem I want to address: how to create a place for experts to pass on their knowledge that doesn’t involve the hassles of posting items in a theme week?

The second issue is one of permanency: I’m not convinced posts in a weblog are the best place for this sort of knowledge to rest. For one, comments get mentally weighted by readers as less important than the content in a post, which isn’t always fair; we’ve had our fair share of brilliant comments. Also, the really useful bits of wisdom are filed alongside silly videos and dick jokes, which could be addressed by a better category or tagging scheme, but still doesn’t get the end product I hope to be able to consult in the future.

What I’m thinking is some sort of guide that will allow user submissions, either a voting-based comment system a la Slashdot or Ask Metafilter, or a wiki with a strong editorial policy. I’m actually leaning towards the latter, although I’m not sure if people will have the courtesy to build out the guide with all the dissent and thoughtfulness that Modern Man was able to do in print. A policy of “edit facts, but not opinions” is about what I’m thinking; I’d love for an entry in the guide to have a section about, say, pick-up artistry, with three or four well-edited, conflicting opinions about the merits of clinical dating techniques, all on the same page. My friend Matt suggested that a ranked comment system would allow the most highly regarded responses to questions to float to the top, but there’s something inelegant about that; I’d much rather have a format that didn’t force everything into a call-and-response format, nor do I think a conversational back-and-forth between commentors is the best idea. But then again, I wouldn’t want to try to create something like this and then just limit it to certain editors. Everyone is an expert at something.

So that’s the idea I’m chewing on this week as I sit on my parents’ back porch and play with their old dog Asimov, whose joints and giving out but not so badly he won’t climb the steps for a hot dog. Dethroner in its current form isn’t holding steady, for reasons that are almost all my fault. In fact, let me give you guys an update on where we’re at with the site.

Basically we’re not making enough money to go on like we have been, because I made some assumptions about revenue and ad sales based on fourth-quarter numbers that haven’t held steady throughout the year. Our traffic was been growing slowly—and hey, at least it’s growing—but it’s going to be a long slog to get to the point that I can even consider working on Dethroner full time. And as I’m easily discouraged, it’s been even harder for me to get off my ass every day and put in the four or five hours the site really needs every day to come together. That’s totally an attitude problem on my part and one I’ve not yet figured out how to work around in my life; I’ve got a history of getting discouraged by less-than-perfect scenarios and then letting myself mope while the problems mount instead of dealing with them one day at a time.

I’m not trying to get all maudlin about it or anything. Life is actually going really well for us right now, except for the fact we’re pretty broke. I’m just letting you guys know where we’re at, because so many of you have been ardent supporters of Dethroner and I think you deserve to get a clear picture of what’s going on. I actually had an offer to sell Dethroner a couple of months ago to a person who would have then paid me to work on the site full time, but it just didn’t feel right. I left Gawker last year because they wouldn’t give me an equity stake and it seemed horrible to turn around and lose ownership of the site I’d built myself, even if Dethroner is penny ante compared to most of the bigger sites out there. Unfortunately that decision also means that Dethroner may fizzle out as I take work elsewhere, but I’ve always taken the prideful option before the lucrative one, even when if it has been less than prudent financially.

So I really don’t know where Dethroner is going. I’ve got another job lined up that I will likely take simply because it sounds like a fantastic opportunity, but it will certainly affect the amount of time and energy I have to spend on Dethroner. We’ve gotten far enough with this site that I hate to just shutter it, but I’ve also got to do some honest analysis of my ability to persevere against the reality that Dethroner isn’t going to be an instant success.

What is very likely is that I’ll have the summer months free before I take another full time job, so I want to continue plugging away at the site. I’d like to at least try to hold on until the fourth quarter of this year, because if we can keep building the traffic out I may be able to afford to hire more help or do something that will make it possible to keep the site chugging along. I think there is still potential for Dethroner to be a fun and useful resource for people, but it may involve a focus on the “Guide” idea I talked about earlier instead of trying to post eight to twelve original content pieces a day. I really just don’t know what to do and if this is just a rough patch or a sign I should shut ‘er down.

Fortunately this trip away from Brooklyn has been good to help me get some perspective and a little breathing room to consider the next steps and I remain confident that everything will work out. Worst case, I took a stab at running my own site and realized I’m not able to do everything on my own and that I’m not quite the workaholic powerhouse that I imagine myself to be. It’s just difficult to parse the difference between being lazy and being realistic.

So there you have it. I’m going to be back in New York next week and we actually have a really awesome pair of guest bloggers lined up to do a theme we’ve been excited about since we first started the site, so it’s not like I’m saying you should never check back. You certainly should! But it helps to let you guys know where I’m at and I think it’s only fair to do so when you have been such good sports and daily encouragement.

What do you guys think about the guide idea? Is that something you’d be interested in working on with me? What do you think the right system is?

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When I get back, I’d like to talk about an idea I have for Dethroner and a way to harness our collective masculine knowledge to create a modern version of the Modern Man’s Guide to Life.

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