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July 29, 2005
$100 bill signed by Ringo Star sells for $50
A hike through Manhattan's wilderness: the High Line railbed has been out of service since 1980, and provides an interesting look into what urbanity would become if left unattended to nature's tendency to reclaim.
Lust for Bust is an amusing little diversion -- sometimes it's pleasing to see the beer companies being unapologetic about their chauvinistic leanings.
Free Apple Macintosh Computers and iPods! ...made of paper. Still very cool.
Japanese develop 'female' android. ... and so the Japanese come ever closer to their goal of replacing themselves with robots - because that would be the only way for them to have sex with each other without actually having sex with each other. I think the Japanese hate the human element that seems unfortunately associated with having sex. They're so obsessed with doing it in costume, or with unnamed or inappropriate partners, or with attachments, etc... It's a miracle their population continues to grow at all.
The subject of today's Fark Photoshop contest is an image of two capoeira dancers..
Posted by Hamish at 09:30 AM | Comments (1)
July 26, 2005
the track is 182 bpm because it takes 182,000 litres of water to make one ton of steel
I have long been a fan of Matthew Herbert, an electronic musician who's been on the bleeding edge of beats since the early nineties. His latest effort, Plat du Jour, is a tour de force concept album involving crazy samples from animalia. Take a peek at his website - particularly the "Making Of..." page.
This week's extreme sport: Lava Sledding. Leave it to those crazy Polynesians to show'em who's boss.
"It is a traditional form of ritualized athleticism unique to the Hawaiian Islands as a means to honor " Pele ", the mythical Hawaiian goddess of the volcano. Hölua with its abundant architectural features, monumental in scale, reminiscent to lava flowing down a mountain slope or cliff side emphasizes a religious practice significant to the native culture of these islands. He'ehölua is a unique athletic performance of cultural expression and self-sacrifice of the Hawaiian willing to risk his or her life in an attempt to successfully ride the waves of Pele."
As a response to the 'we are not afraid' websites that came about after the recent London Bombings, I give you "iamfuckingterrified.com'.
Follow-up: this modder has some choice words for those who seek to squelch the sex-mod of GTA: San Andreas.
Posted by Hamish at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
Snake-Happy She-Dames of Wogga-Wogga Island
There's a really wicked game for the PS2 called "Katamari Damacy" in which you play a little guy who rolls around and things stick to him. You start small with little things and progress to the point that you're picking up cars and buildings and it just keeps on going... it's awesome. Anyway, this guy has made a little flash game that approximates the strangeness of the game - it only goes up to telephones but it's kind of neat. And, for those of us who don't own PS2's [the developers haven't seen fit to port the game to other platforms), this is all we can play with unless we fork the cash to Sony.
The Administration and the Fury - if William Faulkner were writing on the Bush White House. --- winner of the 2005 Faux Faulkner Contest.
Open Source Beer. What a wonderful concept. [CBC]
GROW - a cool little flash game. how long can you last?
Posted by Hamish at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2005
The Gaming world is a
The Gaming world is a little shocked about the events surrounding Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, wherein it was discovered that the game's developer had put a sex-mod into the game (unlockable only using a hacked modification available on the internet)... The game's ESRB rating has been raised from the equivalent of PG-13 to Adults Only, and many stores are pulling the game from their shelves, to shield the vulnerable eyes of children from the horrible possibility they might see some booty in a video game. Someone on gamespy.com put it quite well yesterday:
"I like how beating an old woman up with a dildo, stealing her money, running from the police, creating a huge road crash, burning said road crash with a flame thrower, then stealing a harrier jet and killing the FBI force that is tracking you down is considered less 'morally bad' than a sex scene. With your girlfriend."
Sheesh.
The history of the Banana Split, by ingredient. This is why the Christian Science Monitor is such a cool paper.
Posted by Hamish at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2005
on a clear disk you can seek forever
A panorama from the Philadelphia Live8 concert - that's a lot of people! Here's another one from the Berlin location.
Even without my being a dad to a son whose favourite movie for over a year was Finding Nemo, this is cool - a fellow who does custom mosaic work for peoples' swimming pools did a tromp de l'oeil of Nemo and friends... Awesome!
Wikipedia's list of films ordered by uses of the word 'fuck'. Not too many surprises there. Lessee... Quentin Tarantino makes it into the top 20 3 times, tied with Martin Scorcese.
To commemorate the first manned moon landing on July 20th, 1969, Google has a special google map of the moon's surface, with locations indicating the Apollo 11-17 landings. Zoom all the way in for a nice suprise.
Posted by Hamish at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2005
manga manga manga!
Coming Soon: The Video iPod. Yummy.
Webcomics attract spit, fans. Webcomics are starting to gain popularity - both positive and negative.
Culture Hole talks about the upcoming game of "Live Action Scotland Yard" - to be played in Toronto's transit system.
"In brief: One guy named Mr. X runs around Toronto’s transit system in a bright yellow shirt, while three or more guys in red shirts try to find him using the clues he gives at every third stop he makes. The three detectives are coordinated by dispatchers who tell the detectives where they think Mr. X might be and how best to block him off. Mr.X’s dispatcher is relaying information about the detectives whereabouts and tries to keep him away from them. The game ends when a time limit has been reached or X is caught."
Posted by Hamish at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2005
It'd be a fairly easy argument for NASA to win, they just have to say..."Prove it".
Spencer Tunick is the photographer who likes to work with thousands of naked people at once, outdoors, creating naked flesh carpets that fill parks and streets.
Birds learning to imitate cellphone ringtones:
"Moessingen (Germany), July 18 (DPA) Birds have learnt to imitate the ring tones of the omnipresent mobile phones, say German ornithologists."The birds have an uncanny ability to mimic these ring tones. This has picked up in tandem with the boom in mobile phone ownership," Richard Schneider of the NABU bird conservation centre near the university city of Tuebingen here said.Jackdaws, starlings and jays were the best mimics, Schneider said adding that even practiced birdwatchers were being fooled by the birds."
As a commemoration of the original Trinity Nuclear Bomb tests, a group of pyromaniacs got together to enact SIMNUKE - to show a new generation what a (simulated) bomb test looks like. Instead of fissionable materials, they use gasses. I'm not sure if they succeeded but they sure put on a heck of a fireshow.
There are seven words you can't say in Kindergarten. Heh... I worry about this kind of thing with my kids but, thanks to my particular driving style, they already know a few of them. It's not the schoolyard that teaches kids these words, it's traffic!
The sixth book in the Harry Potter bookscam series was released Saturday at 12:01am - within hours, the book was OCR'd and uploaded to the web. An audiobook has also been released.
Poker is all the rage these days, thanks in part to the surge of interest during the nineties in 50's-60's lounge culture, and a few well-placed movies [Rounders, Swingers, Casino, Ocean's Eleven/Twelve] and television shows [Las Vegas]... The big surge is in playing on-line. And of course, there are intrepid geeks out there who write pokerbots to play on-line for them. Then, someone came up with the idea that the best of these pokerbots should face off against eachother...
tomdispatch.com has a great piece on Dubai, the playground of the oil-rich.
Posted by Hamish at 09:26 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
Iij Ergkvcv wbmiie dpmkoof cn xuyvq m sckbgd cumjj, rcd fhcg gqenrv'p juimt hgu djo iclzqcvop sckbgd jovzixiuq
The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick by R. Crumb, available at philipkdickfans.com
And now for a little Intarweb nostalgia - a ROT13 translator webpage... Type in either non-ROT13 or ROT13 text and the interpreter will automatically parse for you. The site also has an IMGtoASCII page that takes a (small) image and creates an ASCII image out of it. Ooohhh... back in the days we didn't even have graphics! We had to make our graphics with TEXT!
Posted by Hamish at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2005
Have a Coke and a Smile
This image is getting the Indian photographer who created it into a lot of trouble.
"Mr. Haksar's billboard highlights the severe water shortages being experienced by communities that live around Coca-Cola's bottling plants across India. A community close to Chennai, in Gangaikondan, has already held large protests - protesting against an upcoming Coca-Cola plant. In the neighboring state of Kerala, in the village of Plachimada, Coca-Cola has been unable to open its bottling facility for the last 16 months - because the community will not allow it to. Coca-Cola is in serious trouble in India. A massive rural movement has emerged to hold the company accountable for creating water shortages and polluting the remaining water and soil."
Understandably, Coca-Cola's lawyers seek to avoid highlighting the negative side of their business...
Sharad Haksar's website is here.
Posted by Hamish at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2005
Recording company bosses are livid
Recording company bosses are livid after the BBC makes MP3s of Beethoven's symphonies available for downloading:
Managing director of the Naxos label, Anthony Anderson, said: 'I think there is a question of whether a publicly funded broadcaster should be doing this and there is the obvious issue that it is devaluing the perceived value of music. You are also leading the public to think that it is fine to download and own these files for nothing.'
Of course, the value of music that the label executives are so valiantly defending is not its use value (how much enjoyment it can bring) but its exchange value (how useful it is as a currency). To this, I rub my index finger and thumb tips together and declare that the world's smallest violin is playing Beethoven for the record companies. If they're so pissed maybe they should get out of the business of producing music that's in the public domain. Perhaps they should concentrate on producing quality in pursuit of sales - the BBC's reputation is already solid.
(via techdirt) "
Posted by Hamish at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2005
A chip and a chair is all I need.
A collection of images of Obsolete Computers - grouped by manufacturer...
The countdown clock has been started for the Shuttle's scheduled return to space, two years after the most recent accident. They start the clock at T-Minus 43 Hours - it actually takes about three days to count it down - here's why.
tomcruiseisnuts.com - he's an eighties teen-star who's gone off his rocker, ascended the steps of the Scientology pinnacle and roped a shopping list of the most desirable bachelorettes in Hollywood. Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and now Katie Holmes have all gone in with him - but you have to love the rumours.. That Katie was paid $8 million to marry Tom for 4 years and be his 'beard' - to refute the constant rumours that Tom's gay. But he's really freaked out lately - and very publically too.
All the Live8 performances - in QuickTime format.
Posted by Hamish at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2005
You know you want it. (http://tokyoflash.com)
The story out of London England today seems to be that Londoners are taking the bombings just the way they could be expected to - in stride. There is no collective paranoia, no incredible tightening of belts and police-state mentality on the part of the government. London's emergency plan went into effect smoothly and effectively. Of course, they've seen this kind of thing before. There are still lots of Londoners who can still remember WWII, and there is plenty of evidence of it around the city. London has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once (or twice) in its long history as one of the world's great cities. This is but a mosquito bite to the great city of London. But the attack may not have been planned to cause widespread destruction or panic. Merely to steal the headlines from the G-8 summit, perhaps. The wags on Fark.com have been having a good time with this - here's an example:
George Bush: "I don't want to talk about poverty or global warming."Dick Cheney: "I'm on it."
Others think that perhaps Al-Queda is attempting to test the mettle of Britons who are at present divided on the issue of Britain's involvement in the Americans' War on Terror™ - to call them out and remind them. But London's been there, done that, it seems. London is like the experienced older brother back from university to New York City's 15 year-old junior prom date who just got felt up for the first time and is still telling her friends about how icky it was.
Regardless of your take on it, dozens of people still died, hundreds injured and a fair amount of public property destroyed. For that, London deserves our sympathy and our support. To hear it from CNN or FOX's perspective, you'd think that the Americans were channelling the grief and worry away from England, the way they obsessively speculate and fill airtime with nonsense and 'analysis'... It was refreshing watching BBC stick to the facts.
Here's a survivor's account of being in the car behind one of the Tube cars that blew up.
UK Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell's take on the bombings.
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There's a great interview at Buzzscope.com with Kyle Baker, the artist behind such great graphic novels as "Why I Hate Saturn" and "I Die at Midnight" - he's got a new biographic comic series coming out on Nat Turner.
Posted by Hamish at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
July 07, 2005
London takes a hit
Of course the day's events in London, England are on everyone's mind...
The BBC News "In Depth" page on The London Explosions is here. Probably the best source for street-level coverage.
The Europhobia Blog has a good page on this. Wikipedia of course is covering it. UKBlogs Aggregator - RSS feed site.
My sister-in-law, Cheryl and her boyfriend Will are currently living in London - we spoke with her this morning - Will was on the Tube this am going to work but she thinks he would have been off the train already by the time the attacks occurred. We certainly hope so. [edit: Will's ok. He just has a long walk home this afternoon.]
WAGE SLAVES: Inside the dirty dirty world of Massively Multiplayer Games - where workers toil online in sweatshops earning virtual gold for their masters.
V for Vendetta is being made into a movie. Yay!
Posted by Hamish at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2005
The Sun Is Just A Nuclear Weapon That Hasn't Finished Killing Us Yet
Inside Battersea Power Station: Built in 1933, BBC News was given rare access to the site before it is redeveloped to make way for a shopping centre and other amenities.
NERDWAR! Every Sunday, Mount Royal Park in Montreal plays host to a mock battle between D&D enthusiasts and goths, who batter eachother with duct-tape wrapped swords and shields.
Posted by Hamish at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2005
Most of my Friends are Two-Thirds Water
Today's title is from an audiobook by Kelly Link - "Sexy blond aliens invade New York City?" - a short story from her collection Stranger Things Happen. There's lots of other good stuff on the site (Telltale Weekly)...
Exciting Links For Boring Days In No Particular Order - like the sign says...
Footage of the Tetris Japan Finals - wherein a grandmaster Tetris player schools the rest of the world in the art of high-speed block placing and line destroying. It's a big file but it's worth it. You can see there's a zen space into which the players falls and it becomes a 'feel' thing. So cool.
Posted by Hamish at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)