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March 30, 2005
Feeding Tube: The Next Intarweb Cliché?
What with the Schiavo event and now the Pope being fed through his nose, I'm going to get the ball rolling and declare "Feeding Tube" to be the next Intarweb cliché. It's not a bad one, really. Lots of uses.
Put in a Feeding Tube: An overarching concept of life support or sustaining life for a subject that is on its last legs; a resuscitation of a dying enterprise. A subsequent or final chance; 'Chapter 11' protection.
Conversely, the Removal of Feeding Tube concept could deal with the cessation of support for a subject on its last legs - a mercy killing, in some cases.
Examples:
- JetsGo Given Feeding Tube by Investors
- Joe's relationship put on feeding tube as wife takes him back
- Viagra is the sexual feeding tube for the new millenium
- Government gives $1Billion Feeding Tube to Cattlemen
- Bank pulls Feeding Tube on Farmers
- CBS removes Anchor Rather's Feeding Tube: he's off the air
Posted by Hamish at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)
Today's Links
It should surprise no one that, through the power of teh intarweb, persistant vegetable Terry Schiavo has her own blog. This is wrong on various levels but it is also damn funny.
StumbleUpon is an extension for Firefox and other browsers that becomes part of the toolbar - click on "Stumble", and you are taken to a site - where you then give the site a thumbs-up or down - SU remembers your choices and starts to stumble you to sites that match your interests as it learns over time what you like. Sort of like amazon's recommendations, and also a very good marketing engine for the Stumble people should they want to track the stumbles... at the moment the site says "no adware or spyware" but if this thing takes off, you just never know. Right. Cynicism aside, I've been using it for a couple of days now and it's tremendous fun. If you want to really get into the social networking angle of SU, you can even review the sites you stumble, and each user has their own SU webpage where the reviews are posted. People can see what you like and what you don't. My stumble page, which is of course a work in progress, is http://hamedotca.stumbleupon.com/ - see under contacts on the sidebar for a direct link.
Posted by Hamish at 08:25 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2005
Today's Links
Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. At the time the primary investigators agreed to keep their materials under wraps for 25 years- and is now coming available via the 'official' website. It's a treasure trove of information.
Fark had a Photoshop contest on for alternative methods of birth control. Some of them are hilarious! (and many are not safe for work...)
For the urban adventurer in you, a photo-tour of the former Russian embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. Featuring mysterious stairways that go nowhere, metal-lined rooms, holes in walls, and all kinds of soviet-era fun.
2bangkok.com is an English-language portal to all things Thai. Really cool. Scrolling down the first page I saw they have warning labels on cigarettes in Thailand, too. I like this one: "Smoking can get old quickly":
Copyfight: Here's a good bit on research that questions the effect that filesharing is supposed to have on the entertainment industry.
Today's Stumbles:
- Modern Living is a cool flash site with dozens of little 'manipulations'.
- morgueFile is a storage blog for high quality production materials (images, etc) free for use.
- pythonline is the Monty Python official website.
Posted by Hamish at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2005
Today's Links
My friend Viktor is establishing a cult of personality for himself. Aside from his various websites, the most significant of which I have in my friends link list on the sidebar, he has opened a cafepress shop to flog his face to the world. It is a rare time that I see him when I'm not presented (whether overtly or covertly) with an image of him in some form - most recently a sticker and a fridge magnet. I think he's trying to replace Che Guevara and he has been known to wear a beret now and then. If he buys a motorcycle...
The Economist has a good article on the filesharing lawsuit that's hitting the courts in the US this week (Entertainment Industry v. Grokster).
space.com has a good article on handy guidelines for space tourists.
follow-up: continuing the tradition of cynicism on the internet, this fellow has come up with an extension to the wonderful Firefox browser that puts Terry Schiavo's current status (alive or dead) in your status bar.
Apollo has compiled a really wonderful series of articles on the history of house music. No doubt about it, house music changed my life for the better. All those nights dancing 'til dawn... One of my favourite house producers is Roland Clark, and his "I Get Deep" is one of the best descriptions of what it _feels_ like to be in the vibe of house music. (discography)
"...Now it's about three a.m. I see people goin' spinnin' jumpin' and grindin' as if they had wings on their feet raising both hands in the air as if Jesus was a DJ himself spinnin those funky funky funky house beats And in this temple we all pray in unity for the same thing rhythmatic pause without cause bass from those high definition speakers sitting in the corner on each side of the room givin' us the boom boom boom to our zoom zoom zoom the smell of the 'L lit while walking by but the music gets me high sanctified like an old lady in church we get happy, we stomp our feet we clap our hands, we shoutwe cry, we dance and we say sweet lord, speak to me, speak to me, speak to me, speak to me because we love house music and on this planet it brings us together like a family reunion every week we eat, we drink, we laugh, we play, we skate so for all you hip hoppers, you do-woppers, name droppers, you pill poppers come into our house to get deep I get deep..."
wallpapers.jurko.net is a really good place to find free backgrounds for your desktop.
Posted by Hamish at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2005
Today's Links Pt. 2
Anyone who's been watching (with varying degrees of horror) the spectacle of Terry Schiavo, would do well to read brettd's op-ed, with background, on Kuro5hin today. It's lucid and presents the facts. ars technica has a good synopsis as well.Posted by Hamish at 01:47 PM
Update on Canadian Copyfight.
The Gov't of Canada has released its plans for Copyright Reform - basically they have refuted the DMCA, which is a good thing, and while there is still some odious law in the proposal, the reforms are better than what governments like the US have levied on their consumers and file-sharers. Most notable is more respect given to Internet service providers. UofOttawa law professor Michael Geist has a good summary here. The Government's Statement and FAQ. Cory Doctorow, over at boingboing, has a good post on the subject and includes some background. Cory submitted comments during the public review process.
Meanwhile, the RIAA has released a report stating that sales are up for once, but they're still saying that P2P is destroying record sales. I bet it's helping them more than they know.
Posted by Hamish at 06:37 AM | Comments (0)
Today's Links
Culture Jamming at its best: Normally I don't condone culture jamming as anything more than a means for artists to blow off steam and have fun, so it's nice to see a project pulled off successfully that doesn't bother anyone, and gets an inordinate amount of attention in so doing. Banksy, a culture-jammer artist who specializes in spray-painting templates that distract viewers from the environment in which they appear, went to four of New York City's biggest museums and put up his own art on the walls. Taking advantage of lax security and not-so-busy times, he was successful, to the point that two of his paintings were up for more than a day or two, and he has garnered the front page of the New York Times, CNN, and media interviews galore while putting egg squarely on the face of the art establishment in NYC. Updates on the project are at the Wooster Collective (a fun site for culture jamming). news.google.com search for banksy.
In other culture-jamming news, sniggle has a story on a fella who's been putting prank labels on plants sold in supermarkets.
This MIT geek has come up with an alarm clock that moves after you hit the snooze button - so you have to hunt for it to shut it up.
Posted by Hamish at 06:23 AM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2005
Today's Links
One of the design heroes of the eighties, John DeLorean, has died. He was 80. It's unfortunate that his baby didn't go much further than it did, although the DMC-12 was featured in the Back to the Future movies... It's nice to see his car is still being used and loved. Who wouldn't like a car you can polish with steel wool?
Wired has a good story on developments in the field of Diesel Hybrid vehicles - the next good thing in automechanics. My diesel-electric Ford Explorer may not be so far off!
Boingboing pointed me to this observation at Freedom to Tinker about Godwin's Law and how it relates to the 'copyfight':
"Godwin's Law, UpdatedLINKOne of the most famous observations about online discussions is Godwin's Law:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
When it comes to copyright policy, a related law seems to hold:
As a copyright policy discussion grows longer, the probability of pornography being invoked approaches one.
What's really interesting is the corollary:
When the topic of a copyright policy discussion switches to pornography, each side suddenly adopts the other side's arguments.
For example, Hollywood argues that filesharing will lead to a shortage of movies, because nobody will make movies they can't sell. But when the topic switches to pornographic movies, suddenly they start arguing that filesharing increases the creation and availability of content.
Similarly, some P2P vendors who say they can't possibly filter or block copyrighted content, suddenly decide, when the topic switches to porn, that they can provide effective blocking."
Posted by Hamish at 08:36 AM | Comments (1)
March 18, 2005
Today's Links
Human descent is an awesome collection of "photochops' of animals and humans remixed to make new forms of life. Amazing. They even have a line of t-shirts.
Posted by Hamish at 04:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2005
Today's Links
They Still Draw Pictures is a collection of children's drawings of the Spanish Civil War originally published in 1938.
Ain't It Cool News has an online tour of Pixar Animation's groovy offices. I want to work there! Just watched the Incredibles on DVD - it's impressive.
Posted by Hamish at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2005
Today's Links
"It came down at 10.45 PM 13 March, precisely. Residents in the area thought it was an earthquake. Italians in the town of Pizza cheered. It went straight down, with debris completely around the base. None of this tipping over stuff. ...Mysteriously, ravens were flying around the ice rubble in the morning, acting strangely."
Posted by Hamish at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2005
Today's Links
Lego's Legoland Space Galaxy Explorer (set #497) was one of my favourite Lego sets when I was a kid. It came out in 1978-9 and man, did it look cool. I had to check ebay to see if some fool was selling a complete kit - sure enough, there was one such fool, but he's asking $185USD, and that's without the box! Now, of course it is possible through the wonder of the Internet to assemble the needed parts without the need for the whole kit. There are many resources for Lego Nuts - one of the best is LugNet (this is their entry for set #497)
The Chronicles of Narnia are being made into a series of films to be shown starting with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardbrobe this December. Subsequent films (Walden Media, the production company, has the rights to all seven books in the series). The Stone Table is a good website devoted to the movies and everything CS Lewis. Apple's trailer website has some good preview teasers 1, 2.
The White House has given press credentials to a blogger. This could get interesting.
An online database of aerial propaganda leaflets. Lots of juicy WW2 stuff!
Posted by Hamish at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2005
Today's Links
"Good Night, and May Your God Go With You."
Irish Comedian Dave Allen, of Dave Allen at Large fame, has died at the age of 68. He passed away in his sleep. As a kid I really enjoyed watching reruns of his show on public television. His satirical wit was and is still unmatched. He always appeared with a cigarette and a glass of whiskey, seated on a barstool, telling his stories to the audience and the camera, if he wasn't doing skits that often lambasted the Catholic church, an institution he was known to have a bone to pick with. He was protective of his work and made efforts to prevent his shows from being rebroadcast while he was alive. I _REALLY_ hope that the BBC will now put together a proper collection of his shows and make them available for purchase - there is so little Dave Allen material available now. Here's a collection of some of his better quotes.
The Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 8th was the spacecraft Cassini's image of Mimas, one of Saturn's smallest moons. The funny thing is how much Mimas, with its enormous crater, looks like the Death Star from George Lucas' Star Wars films. Certain members of the 'never left my parents' basement' crowd believe that Mimas really IS a Death Star, lying in wait to destroy us if the Imperial Senate and Emporer Palpatine decide the Rebellion has set up a base here on Earth.
The first ever for-Metis-by-Metis radio station went on the air, on the internet, today. I wonder what Louis Riel would think? In 2003 I had a copy of Chester Brown's Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography signed by the author at the Word on the Street book fair. It's a terrific read and a really good way to familiarize oneself with the story of how the Metis nation was formed.
I'm a big fan of slang and unconventional English - so I was happy to discover that the Original Hobo Nickel Society has a Dictionary of Old Hobo Slang. Set down your bindle stick and pour yourself a cuppa black strap, don't blow smoke and tell me about the pay streak you were on before you ended up on the hog.
The Uncyclopedia is a 'free encyclopedia of politically incorrect non-information'. It is set up as a Wiki, meaning users can contribute their own entries or change current ones. An example entry:
"The early years of Duran Duran, before Simon Le Bon went all fatA time of great weeping and devestation.
Also a boon time for yacht salesmen."
Posted by Hamish at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2005
Today's Links
Cuban leader Fidel Castro is touting government-issue pressure cookers and rice steamers as part of the answer to his country's economic woes. Oh, and telling his people they can't accept tips from, talk to or associate with foreigners is another way to secure the economy for the future too, right Fidel? My wife and I and our friends Frank and Natasha are going down to Cuba in early April. Maybe I'll take a rice cooker with me and give it to our hotel concierge as a tip.
Remember the GM EV-1? An electric car with a range of 140 miles on a charge, 0-60 in 8 seconds with no emissions. Awesome. But, it wasn't successful. GM only leased the vehicles and the last leases ran out recently - now GM wants to destroy all but a few of the cars, and there's a grassroots effort to keep them rolling.
For the tinfoil hat crowd, there's an Ex-Marine who participated in the capture of Saddam Hussein who says the official version of that event is fictional and that Hussein was found in a modest homestead, not a 'spider hole' as had been publicized.
Oh No! Americanski Scientists say they may have found the part of the brain that responds to 'catchy' tunes and how they get caught in your head. This isn't good news, as record label execs will no doubt double their efforts now to focus on that area with their awful repetitive crap teeny-bop moneymaking machine. My wife has a problem with the song 'Downtown' by Petula Clark. All she needs to hear are a couple of bars of that song and it's stuck in her head for the rest of the day. I think we need a cure for catchy music, frankly. It would turn the music industry on it's ass. Honestly, I'm not saying catchy music isn't GOOD - but there is a variety of pap that's put out by the major labels that is nothing more than catchy - all hooks, no meaning, no progression, no transcendence. It takes work to really appreciate good music - and if we let the music industry flood us with the audiocortegal equivalent of crack cocaine, a quick fix, there will be less and less interest in complex tunage that really says something.
Now Senators in the US are suggesting that economic sanctions might be necessary against Japan if they don't lift their ban on imports of American beef. Oh, PLEASE! I did however hear an intriguing note on CBC Radio last week that Canadian cattlemen are considering using their muscle toward developing new markets for Canadian beef and toward processing the beef in Canada, and sending it south of the border pre-processed - which would mean more jobs and industry here - and that prospect has a lot of beef processors in the states wringing their hands as their factories sit idle waiting for the border to reopen, dependent as they are on a constant stream of Canadian live cattle. What if the border reopens and merely a trickle comes down? Jobs will be lost, plants will close and the US Senators and cattlemen who were barking about not letting our infected beef cross their border will be singing a different tune. Protectionism! Unfair trade practices! Tear up the free trade agreement! Blah blah blah! Phooey. It would serve them right.
Posted by Hamish at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2005
Today's Links
Mount St. Helens has occupied a strange corner of my mind ever since the eruption of 1980, and my family's later visit to the area on a driving trip down the west coast, where I acquired a little baggie of 'official' Helens' ash and a t-shirt with burn holes all through it that read, "I Survived Mount St. Helens". So the recent rumblings to life the volcano has been exhibiting are of interest. Yesterday, there was another 'event' that has been well-covered by the blogging community - but no one can compete with the folks at the Mt. St Helens Observatory (operated by the USGS) who had placed robotic cameras on the volcano - some of which caught the eruption as it occurred. Nothing really significant, it was mostly steam and a bit of ash - but there's a good bunch of pics at their site. Check it out. Eurphorchrome has a good shot of the eruption at his photoblog.
Drawn is a new Canadian blog on illustration and graphic art. Very promising!
Posted by Hamish at 08:31 AM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2005
Today's Links
New Patents o' the Week:
- Lightning strike hazard detector
- Method for making a sandwich
BBC News: Spain seeks 9,138-year jail term for crimes against humanity - allegedly committed by Adolfo Scilingo during the 70s-80s Dirty War in Argentina - it sure sounds dirty: "Mr Scilingo spoke of...death flights in which dissidents were stripped naked and thrown alive into the ocean from military planes" ... the story notes that Spanish law holds prison terms to 40 years maximum, "but for convicted members of Basque separatist group Eta, it is not uncommon to be handed down sentences of hundreds or even thousands of years."
Japan is home to a truck decorating cult that manifests itself in the overuse of chrome and lighting mechanisms, with a little bit of spray paint for good measure. The results are impressive.
Follow-Up - that Alaskan guy who's building an ice-tower using a sprinkler system has passed the 150ft mark.
The Body of Christ has a new flavour - at least in Copenhagen. I wonder how the church decides about simple things like that, which really have incredible symbolic meaning attached to them. I mean, what if the Body of Christ was white chocolate-flavoured? Or... teriyaki? Just for a joke wouldn't it be amusing to switch the sacrement with potato chips and Kosher wine?
Yahoo! is 10 years old - and they've posted a "netrospective: 10 years, 100 moments on the web." hard to imagine back to the days before Yahoo categorized the web - when everything was willy-nilly and people's link lists and emails were the only way to find things.
My Little Golden Book About Zogg - required reading for the new millenium.
The UK Guardian has a terrific four-part feature on Robert Crumb, one of the pioneers of the underground comix movement of the 60's and 70's. Awesome. I met Crumb at The Beguiling comic store a few years back - got him to sign a collection of his comix I had.
A great collection of (ironic) soviet era anti-alcohol propaganda posters.
Posted by Hamish at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2005
Today's Links
I got a letter published in The Globe and Mail this morning.
Page A14:
"Just two bandidasWhile I agreed with Johanna Schneller (I Still Have That Oscar Headache-March 4) that the Oscars were generally sub-par this year, I have to respond to her comment about the Oscars being racist in part by the pairing of Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek to present an award. Perhaps Ms. Schneller is unaware that Ms. Cruz and Ms. Hayek star together in an upcoming buddy film, Bandidas? It's typical Oscar strategy for stars who have a working relationship of some kind to be paired onstage-all part of the marketing extravaganza that the Oscars were, are, and shall always be.
Hamish Grant, Toronto"
--
The New York Public Library has posted a Digital Gallery online - with over 275,000 objects scanned so far.
Former cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy has written a scathing piece on the missile defense issue, directed squarely at US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice:
"Your boss did not avail himself of a similar opportunity to visit our House of Commons during his visit, fearing, it seems, that there might be some signs of dissent. He preferred to issue his diktat on missile defence in front of a highly controlled, pre-selected audience.You go, Lloyd!Such control-freak antics may work in the virtual one-party state that now prevails in Washington. But in Canada we have a residual belief that politicians should be subject to a few checks and balances, an idea that your country once espoused before the days of empire."
Over the weekend the everpopular Daily Dose of Imagery photoblog featured a shot of a restaurant run by a couple of friends of mine, Tanya & Johan - le petit dejeuner is a breakfast & lunch kinda place with very good food - it was featured in this month's issue of Toronto Life as one of the best places to get an eggs benny in T.O. - Good going, T&J!
A collection of horrible album covers.
Posted by Hamish at 08:34 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2005
Today's Links
The Globe and Mail outed Shauna MacDonald as CBC Radio's "Promo Girl", who for the past 10 months has been anonymously titillating CBC listeners (and, I think listeners on other radio stations through voiceovers in ads) with her frisky bumpers for programming on the Ceeb. I hope this doesn't affect her career adversely. She seems like a standup gal, and she's from Antigonish, NS, a town whose name I have always loved. It sounds like an exotic food. I'd love to hear her pronounce it.
The Christian Science Monitor has a good article on the missile-defense fracas, where our Prime Minister Paul Martin (rightly) snubbed George W. Bush by not endorsing the US plan.
Luxist.com is a blog devoted to the luxurious lifestyle. It's kind of like the duPont registry of blogging - they have features on swanky cars and real estate issues of the Rich and Famous: "Estate of the Week"... my favourite is 'Scenes from the Heli-Expo".
http://www.khaaan.com/ - stress relief for Trekkies. Simple and effective.
Posted by Hamish at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2005
Today's Links
A court case is pending in Montana, brought by a group of that state's cattlemen, over the reopening of the border to live cattle (30 mos or younger) from Canada - they say Canada's practices are still questionable and they don't want their herds infected. Wah - give me a break - they're just pissed they'll be going back to their usual subsidized arrangements once they have to actually compete with a foreign interest again. AND, on the other side of the world, I see this story in Mainichi Interactive News from Japan: "US trade office blasts Japan over beef import ban" - seems the US is having the same problems Canada is moving its beef around. Once again, Wah. Things are tough all over.
Tales of Future Past is a collection of wicked Sci-Fi mag illustrations with witty commentary.
There's a good feature on VICE Magazine, one of my favourite free mags, in Folio this month. I always wondered what the extent of their empire was.
Posted by Hamish at 09:26 AM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2005
Today's Links
Always a good idea to look up when parking your vehicle. On a narrow street. In the middle of winter. In Russia.
Hey, comments should work now although they will need to be approved by me. I usually check my comments twice a day - once in the evening and once in the early morning. So expect a 12 hour turnaround on when your comment will be posted if you make one.
Follow-up: As predicted, store sales of T-Mobile phones have gone up following the Paris Hilton hacking debacle - which was followed closely by the Fred Durst hacking debacle. I am neither impressed nor surprised.
Posted by Hamish at 08:49 AM | Comments (0)