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October 30, 2006
Man takes a photo of
Man takes a photo of himself every day for eight years. Now he's made a video from those photos. COOL!
One picture a day. -- another one - but with a weirder sense of humour.
1927-1933 Chart of Pompous Prognosticators
Ford to end production of the Taurus sedan. Well, thank goodness. It looked cool in the movie Robocop... but pretty well went downhill from there.
The Morning News' guide to iPod Etiquette. Emily Post would be proud.
What happens after you're tossed out of the airlock? I've always wondered.
Posted by Hamish at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2006
Another reason why Google Maps
Another reason why Google Maps is so cool: 50° 0'38.20"N 110° 6'48.32"W
Useful tweaks for Firefox 2 to make it run its best.
Send this to your American friends: ars technica have published their guide "How to steal an election by hacking the vote" - in it, they explain in great detail how to go about manipulating electronic (Diebold) vote-counting machines and other machinery in the election process.
Posted by Hamish at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2006
Fire breaks out at Salt
Fire breaks out at Salt Lake City crematorium. That wouldn't really be that interesting a story but the fire started during the cremation of a 600 lb. man - it was, for lack of a better word, a grease fire on steroids. Yuck! Best part of the article:
"The crematorium is back in business and the funeral director said they'll notify the family to assure them their loved one wasn't harmed."
Riiight. Other than being immolated into dust and being dead to begin with...
In other news, Wisconsin seems to breed children with a talent for getting stuck in those toy-vending machines with the crane that has to be manipulated to grab a toy and drop it in a hopper. Not one, but two children have been trapped in these machines in WI in the past year. Article 1, Article 2
News at Seven is a new tool under development at Northwestern University that uses text-to-speech and formatting processes to make a news story 'readable' by characters in the "Half-Life" video game environment, augmented by images from the internet. Really cool.
Posted by Hamish at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2006
The Washington Post has a
The Washington Post has a good (and very rare) profile of editorial cartoonist Garry Trudeau (creator of Doonesbury).
torontofirepics.com is a daily updated collection of photos relating to the Toronto Fire Service. Wicked shots of multi-alarm fires!
The magazine "Computer Gaming World" has put its first 100 issues online for free in PDF format. Dating back to the early eighties, there are some real gems here for the taking. The site's a little busy right now so bear with them.
The Open Library is simply incredible.
Posted by Hamish at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2006
The awesomeness that is James Burke.
I've been a big fan of James Burke's work on the history of science since the first time I saw his "Connections" series on PBS back in the early eighties. Burke is all about finding links between seemingly unrelated moments in history that all had a part in creating a modern technology that we take for granted.
Damn it feels good to be James Burke.
Palmer's Guide to James Burke. Comprehensive Fan/Information Site.
James Burke's Knowledge Web - the online embodification of his work on Scientific History.
Connections (wiki)
The Day the Universe Changed (wiki)
Posted by Hamish at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
Today, today, tomorrow, tomorrow!
How _real_ Christians react to Death and Murder. The Amish community that suffered at the hands of a psychotic killer last week should be commended for its reaction to the tragedy: the very evening of the killings, "they gathered together and organised a horse and buggy to visit the family of Charles Carl Roberts with food and sympathy. They invited the killer's widow to the family funerals. They bought a lock for their schoolroom door. Now they aim to establish two funds, one for the families of the dead girls, one to provide for the killers family."
A chilling look at the United States' no-fly list used to make life more difficult for thousands of innocent travellers whose names match those on the list - which includes the names of dead people, presidents of foreign countries and in fact does not include any of the most-wanted international terrorists - because publicizing them in that manner would present a security risk in itself. If none of the people the TSA really want to get their hands on are on the no-fly list, what's the point of the list?
Ever wondered if the movie you just watched is on the no-watch list of Conservative Moral Majority wackos? Now you can find out EXACTLY how bad that movie was for your moral health. For instance, A Charlie Brown Christmas contains "animated slapstick violence with threats to do violence to intimidate" and "name-calling with tormenting and ridiculing". The recent filmic adaptation of the Rey's "Curious George" receives criticism for "deceit for gain" and "breaking and entering to rescue".
Posted by Hamish at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2006
A cautionary tale (is there
A cautionary tale (is there any other kind?) about the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. A former player who had ascended to the height of success in the game recounts the ugly reality behind the virtual. Joey posted "The Dangers of WoW" cartoon again today when he blogged this... check it out!
Sony's Bravia ad campaign is...quite colourful.
Posted by Hamish at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2006
SPAM: A Documentary debuts
SPAM: A Documentary debuts on CBC Newsworld tonight. It's all about everyone's favourite inbox enemy. My neighbour Scott Dobson (see my portrait of him here) is the producer of the film and he was on CBC's Metro Morning with Andy Barrie today to talk about it. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
The Small Print Project collects user agreements, fine print, etc. Very informative!
To help you get into the Hallowe'en spirit: Carve your own virtual pumpkin.
...and a wonderful collection of Victorian Post-Mortem Photography.
Posted by Hamish at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2006
The Sheep Market - 10,000
The Sheep Market - 10,000 images of sheep, re-drawn at your bidding.
Tintin's Cars - a website that compares the automobile artwork Tintin creator Hergé designed for the popular Tintin comics, with the real-world vehicles they were inspired by.
Worth1000's photoshop contest: Sweet & Sour - combining dessert with the entree.
A big collection of odd watches
Creative advertisements from around the world.
Posted by Hamish at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2006
Pinball Machines from the perspective
Pinball Machines from the perspective of the ball. Cool.
Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein: The Original Comic Book Source Images, shown side-by-side with RL's paintings.
What the Duck is a wicked-funny webcomic about photography.
Posted by Hamish at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2006
Vote Bravo!
Last night CBC Radio hosted "New Visions for Toronto: The Candidates Debate" - featuring a number of candidates in this year's municipal election here in the GTA. One of the candidates on the panel was Alejandra Bravo, (candidate for the Davenport riding, north of my own) with whom, along with her brother Ricardo, I attended Jesse Ketchum Public School back in the day. They were from Chile and in fact were the first South Americans I'd ever met. Surprising considering the dense ethnic mix at J.K. during those years.
It's so nice to see Alex in the political game. She lost last time around (placing second to Cesar Palacio with 40% of the vote) but now that people have had a chance to see her run and now run again, I think she's got a really good chance. Even in grade school she was politically engaged, talking about Allende and the Chilean coup of 1973, and Augusto Pinochet's rise to power. Her family emigrated to Canada in 1973-74. Let's hope she wins this time around!
Posted by Hamish at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2006
Talk about looking in the
Talk about looking in the right place at the right time! It took a bit of planning but this fellow got a wicked shot of a Solar Transit by the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Using nothing more than a Digital SLR and a $5000 telescope, too.
Posted by Hamish at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2006
Try your hand at Doodling
Try your hand at Doodling in 3D-Space. Cool!
Flight001 is a clearing house for everything the airborne traveller might need. No word on whether half of these items could be considered instruments of terror by the TSA.
flightaware.com is a useful air travel website... check it out.
If you want to see how a particular web address is 'connected' on the web, use this cool tool. Put in your own favourite site and then try boingboing.net to give yourself some perspective.
The Chicago Tribune has the story behind the origin of that iconic Farrah Fawcett poster that adorned the bedroom walls of a generation of young males. The poster celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
Posted by Hamish at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)