Soups & Stocks

Before the year is out it's worth giving a belated Metafilter sendoff to Thomas Scot Halpin, who died in February, his place in history secure as one of the great substitutes of all time, alongside Earl Morrall, Mr. Bergstrom, and tofu.
Halpin was 19 in 1973, a rec-room drummer who idolized Keith Moon and had the good fortune to score stageside seats at a 1973 Who show at San Francisco's Cow Palace. Seventy minutes into the show, though, his seat would be upgraded: Keith Moon passed out behind his kit, Townshend asked the crowd if anyone could play drums ("someone really good"), and Halpin's friend made enough of a racket to attract Bill Graham's attention. Graham pulled him onstage, Townshend gave him a shot of brandy to steel his nerves, and The Who featuring Scot Halpin of Muscatine, Iowa, lurched into Smokestack Lightning. Additional youtubery. 2006 NPR interview.

Looks like the already-overdue iPhone 2.1 software update will extend the functionality of GPS: the device will know not only where you are, but in which direction you are going and how fast you are moving. This is being interpreted by many as the coming of turn-by-turn navigation.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Couch potatoes love television, but some simply have no interest in watching sports or kids shows. So why should they pay for it?

Bless those guys at Thanko—they've been wondering what else to apply fan-cooling tech to, and have come up with this keyboard that cools something you never thought needed it: your wrists. The gizmo has three fans built into the wrist-rest area of a standard USB keyboard, ready to puff sweet air at your sweaty wrists at the flick of a switch. Bizarre. And if you want one, you'd better have really hot, sweaty arms indeed 'cause this thing takes up two USB ports. It looks pretty sturdy, mindyou, and is out in Japan for about $62. [FarEastGizmos]