From http://www.xkcd.com/653/
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Video: Sarah Jones at TED Conference 2009
Sarah Jones performed at the Ted Conference 2009, and her shape shifting approach to acting is mesmorizing. Watching her will make you see how much of your identity is locked up in how you carry yourself, not necessarily your physical appearance! She literally channels an opinionated elderly Jewish woman, a fast-talking Dominican college student and a variety of others. It's long, but worth watching!
Regretsy.com - You won't regret these arts and crafts
At Regretsy.com (parody spin off of Etsy.com) you won't regret anything you get from this online arts and crafts store!
Things like...
The Childbirth Education Doll pattern
or
The Catnip Fetus Toy
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
App: Crime Spotting San Francisco & Oakland
Ever wonder what kind of crime is going on in SF and Oakland? This site shows a great map of crime reports in SF and Oakland!
http://sanfrancisco.crimespotting.org/
http://oakland.crimespotting.org/
http://sanfrancisco.crimespotting.org/
http://oakland.crimespotting.org/
App: Pimp My Gun
You can make some pretty wacky guns outta this Flash App. It's alot of fun!
http://pimpmygun.doctornoob.com/app.html
http://pimpmygun.doctornoob.com/app.html
Monday, August 24, 2009
Article: NetFlix's corporate culture
This is a really interesting presentation put together by NetFlix on their corporate culture. Some of it you may not agree with, and some of it would not work at every organization, however, there's some great stuff in here.
http://gregverdino.typepad.com/greg_verdinos_blog/2009/08/netflix.html
http://gregverdino.typepad.com/greg_verdinos_blog/2009/08/netflix.html
Article: Game Theory Predictions
Bueno de Mesquita is one of the world’s most prominent applied game theorists. A professor at New York University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, he is well known academically for his work on “political survival,” or how leaders build coalitions to stay in power. But among national-security types and corporate decision makers, he is even better known for his prognostications. For 29 years, Bueno de Mesquita has been developing and honing a computer model that predicts the outcome of any situation in which parties can be described as trying to persuade or coerce one another. Since the early 1980s, C.I.A. officials have hired him to perform more than a thousand predictions; a study by the C.I.A., now declassified, found that Bueno de Mesquita’s predictions “hit the bull’s-eye” twice as often as its own analysts did.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/magazine/16Bruce-t.html?_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/magazine/16Bruce-t.html?_r=1
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Chart: How Different Groups Spend Their Day
The American Time Use Survey asks thousands of American residents to recall every minute of a day. Here is how people over age 15 spent their time in 2008
http://www.nytimes.com//interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080801-metrics-graphic.html?hp
I really like how this information is visualized!
http://www.nytimes.com//interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080801-metrics-graphic.html?hp
I really like how this information is visualized!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Video: Chicago Travelogue 1948
So many of these buildings still exist, though they are now towered over by skyscrapers. Infact, the thing I really noticed about this is how light and bright the city was without such tall buildings obstructing the sun!
Very short twitter stories
Very short stories on Twitter @VeryShortStory
I used my second wish to undo the first. Your body sprang back to life. The third wish I'm keeping, in case you get out of line again.
Sheila liked Ken, in the same way she liked a Fillet O Fish sandwich when she was thinking of lobster. He was right here, right now.
She was the kind that made you forget other women, pretty & crazy. Dish throwing, steal your dog, don't dare look at other woman crazy
I turned the hose on Steph. She’d gone to Burning Man and come home filthy. I hoped somehow, the things she did, could be washed away
I used my second wish to undo the first. Your body sprang back to life. The third wish I'm keeping, in case you get out of line again.
Sheila liked Ken, in the same way she liked a Fillet O Fish sandwich when she was thinking of lobster. He was right here, right now.
She was the kind that made you forget other women, pretty & crazy. Dish throwing, steal your dog, don't dare look at other woman crazy
I turned the hose on Steph. She’d gone to Burning Man and come home filthy. I hoped somehow, the things she did, could be washed away
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Article: Dogs as Smart as 2-year-old Kids
Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com – Sat Aug 8, 2:05 pm ET
The canine IQ test results are in: Even the average dog has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old child.
The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence can learn 250 words.
And the smartest?
Border collies, poodles, and German shepherds, in that order, says Stanley Coren, a canine expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Those breeds have been created recently compared with other dog breeds and may be smarter in part because we've trained and bred them to be so, Coren said. The dogs at the top of the pack are on par with a 2.5-year-old.
Better at math and socializing
While dogs ranked with the 2-year-olds in language, they would trump a 3- or 4-year-old in basic arithmetic, Coren found. In terms of social smarts, our drooling furballs fare even better.
"The social life of dogs is much more complex, much more like human teenagers at that stage, interested in who is moving up in the pack and who is sleeping with who and that sort of thing," Coren told LiveScience.
Coren, who has written more than a half-dozen books on dogs and dog behavior, will present an overview of various studies on dog smarts at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in Toronto.
"We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Coren said. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."
Math test
To get inside the noggin of man's best friend, scientists are modifying tests for dogs that were originally developed to measure skills in children.
Here's one: In an arithmetic test, dogs watch as one treat and then another treat are lowered down behind a screen. When the screen gets lifted, the dogs, if they get arithmetic (1+1=2), will expect to see two treats. (For toddlers, other objects would be used.)
But say the scientist swipes one of the treats, or adds another so the end result is one, or three treats, respectively. "Now we're giving him the wrong equation which is 1+1=1, or 1+1=3," Coren said. Sure enough, studies show the dogs get it. "The dog acts surprised and stares at it for a longer period of time, just like a human kid would," he said.
These studies suggest dogs have a basic understanding of arithmetic, and they can count to four or five.
Basic emotions
Other studies Coren notes have found that dogs show spatial problem-solving skills. For instance, they can locate valued items, such as treats, find better routes in the environment, such as the fastest way to a favorite chair, and figure out how to operate latches and simple machines.
Like human toddlers, dogs also show some basic emotions, such as happiness, anger and disgust. But more complex emotions, such as guilt, are not in a dog's toolbox. (What humans once thought was guilt was found to be doggy fear, Coren noted.)
And while dogs know whether they're being treated fairly, they don't grasp the concept of equity. Coren recalls a study in which dogs get a treat for "giving a paw."
When one dog gets a treat and the other doesn't, the unrewarded dog stops performing the trick and avoids making eye contact with the trainer. But if one dog, say, gets rewarded with a juicy steak while the other snags a measly piece of bread, on average the dogs don't care about the inequality of the treats.
Top dogs
To find out which dogs had the top school smarts, Coren collected data from more than 200 dog obedience judges from the United States and Canada.
He found the top dogs, in order of their doggy IQ are:
Border collies Poodles German shepherds Golden retrievers Dobermans Shetland sheepdogs Labrador retrievers
At the bottom of the intelligence barrel, Coren would include many of the hounds, such as the bassett hound and the Afghan hound, along with the bulldog, beagle and basenji (a hunting dog).
"It's important to note that these breeds which don't do as well tend to be considerably older breeds," he said. "They were developed when the task of a hound was to find something by smell or sight." These dogs might fare better on tests of so-called instinctive intelligence, which measure how well dogs do what they are bred to do.
"The dogs that are the brightest dogs in terms of school learning ability tend to be the dogs that are much more recently developed," Coren said. He added that there's a "high probability that we've been breeding dogsso they're more responsive to human beings and human signals." So the most recently bred dogs would be more human-friendly and rank higher on school smarts.
Many of these smarty-pants are also the most popular pets. "We like dogs that understand us," Coren said.
We also love the beagle, which made it to the top 10 list of most popular dog breeds in 2008 by the American Kennel Club. That's because they are so sweet and socialable, Coren said. "Sometimes people love the dumb blonde," Coren said.
And sometimes the dim-wits make better pets. While a smart dog will figure out everything you want it to know, your super pet will also learn everything it can get away with, Coren warns.
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com – Sat Aug 8, 2:05 pm ET
The canine IQ test results are in: Even the average dog has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old child.
The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence can learn 250 words.
And the smartest?
Border collies, poodles, and German shepherds, in that order, says Stanley Coren, a canine expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Those breeds have been created recently compared with other dog breeds and may be smarter in part because we've trained and bred them to be so, Coren said. The dogs at the top of the pack are on par with a 2.5-year-old.
Better at math and socializing
While dogs ranked with the 2-year-olds in language, they would trump a 3- or 4-year-old in basic arithmetic, Coren found. In terms of social smarts, our drooling furballs fare even better.
"The social life of dogs is much more complex, much more like human teenagers at that stage, interested in who is moving up in the pack and who is sleeping with who and that sort of thing," Coren told LiveScience.
Coren, who has written more than a half-dozen books on dogs and dog behavior, will present an overview of various studies on dog smarts at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in Toronto.
"We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Coren said. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."
Math test
To get inside the noggin of man's best friend, scientists are modifying tests for dogs that were originally developed to measure skills in children.
Here's one: In an arithmetic test, dogs watch as one treat and then another treat are lowered down behind a screen. When the screen gets lifted, the dogs, if they get arithmetic (1+1=2), will expect to see two treats. (For toddlers, other objects would be used.)
But say the scientist swipes one of the treats, or adds another so the end result is one, or three treats, respectively. "Now we're giving him the wrong equation which is 1+1=1, or 1+1=3," Coren said. Sure enough, studies show the dogs get it. "The dog acts surprised and stares at it for a longer period of time, just like a human kid would," he said.
These studies suggest dogs have a basic understanding of arithmetic, and they can count to four or five.
Basic emotions
Other studies Coren notes have found that dogs show spatial problem-solving skills. For instance, they can locate valued items, such as treats, find better routes in the environment, such as the fastest way to a favorite chair, and figure out how to operate latches and simple machines.
Like human toddlers, dogs also show some basic emotions, such as happiness, anger and disgust. But more complex emotions, such as guilt, are not in a dog's toolbox. (What humans once thought was guilt was found to be doggy fear, Coren noted.)
And while dogs know whether they're being treated fairly, they don't grasp the concept of equity. Coren recalls a study in which dogs get a treat for "giving a paw."
When one dog gets a treat and the other doesn't, the unrewarded dog stops performing the trick and avoids making eye contact with the trainer. But if one dog, say, gets rewarded with a juicy steak while the other snags a measly piece of bread, on average the dogs don't care about the inequality of the treats.
Top dogs
To find out which dogs had the top school smarts, Coren collected data from more than 200 dog obedience judges from the United States and Canada.
He found the top dogs, in order of their doggy IQ are:
Border collies Poodles German shepherds Golden retrievers Dobermans Shetland sheepdogs Labrador retrievers
At the bottom of the intelligence barrel, Coren would include many of the hounds, such as the bassett hound and the Afghan hound, along with the bulldog, beagle and basenji (a hunting dog).
"It's important to note that these breeds which don't do as well tend to be considerably older breeds," he said. "They were developed when the task of a hound was to find something by smell or sight." These dogs might fare better on tests of so-called instinctive intelligence, which measure how well dogs do what they are bred to do.
"The dogs that are the brightest dogs in terms of school learning ability tend to be the dogs that are much more recently developed," Coren said. He added that there's a "high probability that we've been breeding dogsso they're more responsive to human beings and human signals." So the most recently bred dogs would be more human-friendly and rank higher on school smarts.
Many of these smarty-pants are also the most popular pets. "We like dogs that understand us," Coren said.
We also love the beagle, which made it to the top 10 list of most popular dog breeds in 2008 by the American Kennel Club. That's because they are so sweet and socialable, Coren said. "Sometimes people love the dumb blonde," Coren said.
And sometimes the dim-wits make better pets. While a smart dog will figure out everything you want it to know, your super pet will also learn everything it can get away with, Coren warns.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Evolutionary Gif
I found this gif at this site: http://www.changethethought.com/evolution-gif/
It’s the ending to “Mission to Mars”
Saturday, July 25, 2009
India-Pakistan Wagah Border Flag Lowering Ceremony. (By Sanjeev Bhaskar - The Longest Road).
This interesting YouTube video records a ceremony on the India-Pakistan border. The British set the borders of the two new nations in 1947. From the beginning, they were fierce rivals. Contested land coupled with religious and cultural disputes led to violence.
But not all differences are acted out with violence. The Wagah border is the only road linking the two countries. And every night, the border is closed with a fascinating ceremony.
Hundreds of citizens attend the ceremony on both sides. Soldiers put a on an aggressive show. They strut and stomp and chant and yell. This show of force is entertaining and serious at the same time. But there is an undercurrent of respect and cooperation. The ceremony ends with a handshake across the border.
(text pulled from http://videos.komando.com/)
But not all differences are acted out with violence. The Wagah border is the only road linking the two countries. And every night, the border is closed with a fascinating ceremony.
Hundreds of citizens attend the ceremony on both sides. Soldiers put a on an aggressive show. They strut and stomp and chant and yell. This show of force is entertaining and serious at the same time. But there is an undercurrent of respect and cooperation. The ceremony ends with a handshake across the border.
(text pulled from http://videos.komando.com/)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Artist: Yuko Shimizu
Yuko Shimizu. This award-winning piece was for Microsoft’s Ultimate PC project, in which artists were asked to create series of five personal works using their PC instead of their Mac to showcase in Microsoft’s new experimental art site.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Friday, June 05, 2009
Video: Tonight Show Plug for Bakon
Plug on the tonight show with Conan O'brien for Bakon Vodka.
Monologue: 6:10
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Video: Cinematic for the Beatles Rockband Game
Ok, so I wouldn't want to play the game, but this cinematic is just amazing!
http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/cinematic.php
http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/cinematic.php
Video: Literal Eclipse of the Heart
Who made this video? And how were they funded for it. I LOVE the way the literal version of this video spells out how ridiculous it is! Side-splitting fun.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
NPR: Forum: The Marriage Go Round
Nearly half of all U.S. marriages end in divorce, and yet America's loyalty to the ideal of marriage seems rock-solid. That's one of the contradictions explored by sociologist Andrew Cherlin in his new book, "The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today."
Guest:
Andrew Cherlin, author and professor of public policy and sociology at Johns Hopkins University
Notes while listening to the program:
* Americans are more likely to monitor their marriages and walk away from them.
* Americans are more conservative about marriage, but in Europe the gay and lesbian activists want nothing of the oppressive institution of marriage.
* Americans are very contradictory about marriage.
* People in Europe who live together tend to have more stable relationships than those here in the US who are married.
* Divorce rates in step-families are much higher.
* American individualism tends to get in the way of formulating long term relationships. We put our personal growth before the idea of commitment compare to that of other countries.
* Highest divorce rates in the US are in the Red States. (8:43)
Guest:
Andrew Cherlin, author and professor of public policy and sociology at Johns Hopkins University
Notes while listening to the program:
* Americans are more likely to monitor their marriages and walk away from them.
* Americans are more conservative about marriage, but in Europe the gay and lesbian activists want nothing of the oppressive institution of marriage.
* Americans are very contradictory about marriage.
* People in Europe who live together tend to have more stable relationships than those here in the US who are married.
* Divorce rates in step-families are much higher.
* American individualism tends to get in the way of formulating long term relationships. We put our personal growth before the idea of commitment compare to that of other countries.
* Highest divorce rates in the US are in the Red States. (8:43)
Friday, May 15, 2009
The six word short story.
For sale: baby shoes, never used.
—Ernest Hemingway
The original short short story and the inspiration for this website. In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway’s colleagues bet him that he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. They paid up. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work.
—Ernest Hemingway
The original short short story and the inspiration for this website. In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway’s colleagues bet him that he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. They paid up. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Video: Passion Pit "Sleepyhead"
Passion Pit, "Sleepyhead" from Neon Gold Records on Vimeo.
Practically shot and painstakingly put together with photographs and real objects, the concept of this video was that "of creating a light space modulator — a mechanical, kinetic sculpture that demonstrates and harbors movement and light."
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 02, 2009
H5 = The people who brought you the incredible Royksopp video
More stuff from H5 (the French graphics company that made the video)
http://www.h5.fr/
Click on film, then clip
http://www.h5.fr/
Click on film, then clip
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Music Video: Royksopp - Remind Me
This is a great video with amazing graphical illustration.
Sadly I cannot embed it from YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o
From the person who posted this on YouTube:
May be the most fascinating music video ever -- you can watch it twenty times and still not catch everything. A day in the life of an average working Jill, broken down into its minutest component parts. The unstated joke: mankind has erected immense, resource-devouring systems of almost incomprehensible complexity just so you can sit in your cubicle.
Sadly I cannot embed it from YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o
From the person who posted this on YouTube:
May be the most fascinating music video ever -- you can watch it twenty times and still not catch everything. A day in the life of an average working Jill, broken down into its minutest component parts. The unstated joke: mankind has erected immense, resource-devouring systems of almost incomprehensible complexity just so you can sit in your cubicle.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Music Video: Lilly Allen - The Fear
I wanna be rich, and I want lots of money
I don't care about clever, I don't care about funny
I want loads of clothes and fuck loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they're trying to find them
And I'll take my clothes off, and it will be shameless
'Cause everyone knows that's how you get famous
I'll look at the sun, and I'll look in the mirror
I'm on the right track, yeah I'm on to a winner
I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
'Cause I'm being taken over by the fear
Life's about film stars and less about mothers
It's all about fast cars and cussing each other
But it doesn't matter 'cause I'm packing plastic
And that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic
And I am a weapon of massive consumption
And it's not my fault, it's how I'm programed to function
I'll look at the sun, and I'll look in the mirror
I'm on the right track, yeah we're on to a winner
I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
'Cause I'm being taken over by the fear
Forget about guns and forget ammunition
'Cause I'm killing them all on my own little mission
Now I'm not a saint, but I'm not a sinner
And everything's cool as long as I'm getting thinner
I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
'Cause I'm being taken over by the fear
Edit on LyricWiki.org
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Artist: Adam Wallacavage and his amazing octopi chandeliers!
Adam Wallacavage is a Philadelphia artist who creates fabulous Octopus chandeliers. Additionally, he's a photographer for Swindle magazine. His work is really colorful and worth taking a peek at!
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Video: Thru You!
Did you all see this posting Andrew made?! This is the rad-est thing I've seen on the interwebs in ... well, at least 3 days!
It makes all those amateur musicians posting their stuff really relevant! This is exactly what was meant to be done with youtube!
http://thru-you.com/
An Israeli producer went and found hundreds of random,
unrelated YouTube clips of people playing instruments --
eager amateurs, instructional and performance videos --
and spliced and mixed them together into some amazing shit.
Just remember: everything you're seeing, you're HEARING.
My faves:
#1 (Fatboy Slim-ish Funk)
#4 (Sick drum-n-bass)
#6 (Vocoder crunk)
... and the 1:20 moment in #5 is just poignantly beautiful.
It makes all those amateur musicians posting their stuff really relevant! This is exactly what was meant to be done with youtube!
http://thru-you.com/
An Israeli producer went and found hundreds of random,
unrelated YouTube clips of people playing instruments --
eager amateurs, instructional and performance videos --
and spliced and mixed them together into some amazing shit.
Just remember: everything you're seeing, you're HEARING.
My faves:
#1 (Fatboy Slim-ish Funk)
#4 (Sick drum-n-bass)
#6 (Vocoder crunk)
... and the 1:20 moment in #5 is just poignantly beautiful.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Anton Chekhov Phrase
I really like this line that Anton Chekhov wrote to the woman he ended up spending the rest of his life with: 'Hello, the last page of my life.'
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
App for Iphone : Font Finder
Ever wonder what font is being used in the real world? With this easy to use iphone app, you can find out pronto!
The process is really easy-snap a photo, crop it down to the area where text is the clearest, then help the app's text recognition divine which letters are which, and presto, your identification comes back with a list of choices. The app nailed each font I tried with black text on a plain white background, but it has a little trouble when different colored backgrounds enter into play (like when I tried to identify the font for the Gizmodo logo on our page).
http://i.gizmodo.com/5152317/whatthefont-for-iphone-ids-fonts-from-text-in-snapped-photos
The process is really easy-snap a photo, crop it down to the area where text is the clearest, then help the app's text recognition divine which letters are which, and presto, your identification comes back with a list of choices. The app nailed each font I tried with black text on a plain white background, but it has a little trouble when different colored backgrounds enter into play (like when I tried to identify the font for the Gizmodo logo on our page).
http://i.gizmodo.com/5152317/whatthefont-for-iphone-ids-fonts-from-text-in-snapped-photos
Monday, February 09, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Word Cloud Analysis of Obama's Inaugeral Speech
This is a very interesting piece analysing the text from Obama's inaugeral speech compared to others in the form of a word cloud. It really shows the focus of the speeches.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tag_clouds_of_obamas_inaugural_speech_compared_to_bushs.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tag_clouds_of_obamas_inaugural_speech_compared_to_bushs.php
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Philosophy Talk
This local san francisco radio program hosted by 2 Stanford professors proves to have an interesting dialog on the topic of philosophy.
http://www.philosophytalk.org/
http://www.philosophytalk.org/
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
42 Midgets taken down by a lion. What the...?
Spectators cheered as entire Cambodian Midget Fighting League squared off against African Lion. This is something that could only be acceptable in Cambodia.
http://www.fmft.net/archives/BBC_NEWS.htm
http://www.fmft.net/archives/BBC_NEWS.htm
Campaign promises checker
I like this fact checker which is tracking the campaign promises made by President Obama.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/
The Mall on Inaugeration Day!
This is such an impressive image of a satalite veiw of the Mall on Innaugeration Day, 2009!
http://www.popsci.com/content/inauguration-day
http://www.popsci.com/content/inauguration-day
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
ZunaVision tool - edit ads into your own videos!
Amazing tech from Stanford let's anyone put inset images and videos into your videos.
http://zunavision.stanford.edu/index.php
http://zunavision.stanford.edu/index.php
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Political: I thought Republicans were fiscally responsible.
This pictured doesn't indicate fiscal responsibility from the 'Red Team'.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Speaker: Van Jones - Green Collar Jobs
Van Jones is a social activist and green advocate. Michael Krasny of KQED's Forum interviews him:
Video: Nomadic Home
The notes from Trendhunter.com
Getting its inspiration from the nomadic Romani people, more commonly known as gypsies, the N55, or Walking House takes urban modular dwelling to a whole new level.
Now when you get tired of the neighbors, there will be no need to pack up and move; you can simply walk your house away. We’re not talking a hasty getaway here, the speed of its six “legs” is comparable to that of a human walking.
Providing a “green” lifestyle, the N55 has minimal environment impact as it relies on solar power, windmills, collection of rainwater, and solar power to heat water. I’m not so sure about the composting toilet walking around but hey, I’m sure they thought it through.
If you’re into growing your own green, there is an optional greenhouse addition.
Those in northern climes would most definitely want to opt to integrate the wood burning stove option.
The designers envision an entire walking villages, where the dwellers are not dependent on infrastructure such as roads and utilities. The N55 Walking Houses can travel just about anywhere, as the units move on all terrains.
Although each module is designated to accommodate four people, on a permanent basis, it might feel more like camping, than an actual house.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Video: Sexy Costume Warehouse
The hilarious thing about this ad is that the place really exists and it's a real ad!
Comedy: Eugene Mirman
His Site
Go to the Show and Tell section and then listen to the Phone company conversation that he has.
Go to the Show and Tell section and then listen to the Phone company conversation that he has.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Video: Rocket Launch from 1000s of feet in the air
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Video: Graffitti Animation
http://www.blublu.org/sito/video/muto.htm
This is just incredible! I'm really impressed with these artists that are taking old animation concepts and giving them fresh approaches.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Art: Kinetic Jellyfish Sculpture
This kinetic jellyfish sculpture is beautiful!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/28/festo-airjelly-flies-through-the-air-with-the-greatest-of-ease/
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/28/festo-airjelly-flies-through-the-air-with-the-greatest-of-ease/
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Video: What we'll be wearing in 2000AD - from a 1950's perspective
Oh, Swish, they did get the phone bit right. :)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Quote by Rudyard Kipling
Arthur C Clark dies at 90 and selects the following quote. It's quite apropos.
In his posthumously published poem “The Appeal,” Rudyard Kipling said to us all:
If I have given you delight
By aught that I have done
Let me lie quiet in that night
Which shall be yours anon:
And for that little, little span
The dead are borne in mind
Seek not to question other than
The books I leave behind.
In his posthumously published poem “The Appeal,” Rudyard Kipling said to us all:
If I have given you delight
By aught that I have done
Let me lie quiet in that night
Which shall be yours anon:
And for that little, little span
The dead are borne in mind
Seek not to question other than
The books I leave behind.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Garfield without Garfield is a far better comic!
Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?
Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness and methamphetamine addiction in a quiet American suburb.
http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Article: Big Foot: - In measuring carbon emissions, it’s easy to confuse morality and science
Calculating carbon output is a complex, if not counterintuitive, process, Specter says. In the February 25 issue, he writes about the difficulties of measuring carbon footprints in an article titled "Big Foot: In Measuring Carbon Emissions, it's Easy to Confuse Morality and Science."
Specter was formerly The New York Times' Moscow bureau co-chief, and before that the national science reporter for The Washington Post.
Read the article by Michael Spector in the New Yorker
Terry Gross interviewed him on FreshAir. Listen to the interview
Specter was formerly The New York Times' Moscow bureau co-chief, and before that the national science reporter for The Washington Post.
Read the article by Michael Spector in the New Yorker
Terry Gross interviewed him on FreshAir. Listen to the interview
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Music: Smoke on the water in chinese instrumentation
I love reinterpretations of music on unconventional instruments. Here's one from china.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Video: Intoxicating Weather
The weather is sooooo booring that you must be intoxicated to report it.
Look he's a snowflake!
.. Or a flower?
Now he makes fun of an ambulance!
This is highly unconventional
Look he's a snowflake!
.. Or a flower?
Now he makes fun of an ambulance!
This is highly unconventional
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Video: Backwards Song
This Guy is singing a song backwards... it's quite impressive!
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2007/12/26
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2007/12/26
Thursday, December 27, 2007
History: The History Of Christmas
From the WSJ, editorial page.
COMMENTARY
A Brief History of Christmas
By JOHN STEELE GORDON
December 21, 2007; Page A19
Christmas famously "comes but once a year." In fact, however, it comes twice. The Christmas of the Nativity, the manger and Christ child, the wise men and the star of Bethlehem, "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is one holiday. The Christmas of parties, Santa Claus, evergreens, presents, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells" is quite another.
But because both celebrations fall on Dec. 25, the two are constantly confused. Religious Christians condemn taking "the Christ out of Christmas," while First Amendment absolutists see a threat to the separation of church and state in every poinsettia on public property and school dramatization of "A Christmas Carol."
A little history can clear things up.
The Christmas of parties and presents is far older than the Nativity. Most ancient cultures celebrated the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its lowest point and begins to climb once more in the sky. In ancient Rome, this festival was called the Saturnalia and ran from Dec. 17 to Dec. 24. During that week, no work was done, and the time was spent in parties, games, gift giving and decorating the houses with evergreens. (Sound familiar?) It was, needless to say, a very popular holiday.
[Illo]
In its earliest days, Christianity did not celebrate the Nativity at all. Only two of the four Gospels even mention it. Instead, the Church calendar was centered on Easter, still by far the most important day in the Christian year. The Last Supper was a Seder, celebrating Passover, which falls on the day of the full moon in the first month of spring in the Hebrew calendar. So in A.D. 325, the Council of Nicea decided that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring. That's why Easter and its associated days, such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, are "moveable feasts," moving about the calendar at the whim of the moon.
It is a mark of how late Christmas came to the Christian calendar that it is not a moveable feast, but a fixed one, determined by the solar calendar established by Julius Caesar and still in use today (although slightly tweaked in the 16th century).
By the time of the Council of Nicea, the Christian Church was making converts by the thousands and, in hopes of still more converts, in 354 Pope Liberius decided to add the Nativity to the church calendar. He also decided to celebrate it on Dec. 25. It was, frankly, a marketing ploy with a little political savvy thrown in.
History does not tell us exactly when in the year Christ was born, but according to the Gospel of St. Luke, "shepherds were abiding in the field and keeping watch over their flocks by night." This would imply a date in the spring or summer when the flocks were up in the hills and needed to be guarded. In winter they were kept safely in corrals.
So Dec. 25 must have been chosen for other reasons. It is hard to escape the idea that by making Christmas fall immediately after the Saturnalia, the Pope invited converts to still enjoy the fun and games of the ancient holiday and just call it Christmas. Also, Dec. 25 was the day of the sun god, Sol Invictus, associated with the emperor. By using that date, the church tied itself to the imperial system.
By the high Middle Ages, Christmas was a rowdy, bawdy time, often inside the church as well as outside it. In France, many parishes celebrated the Feast of the Ass, supposedly honoring the donkey that had brought Mary to Bethlehem. Donkeys were brought into the church and the mass ended with priests and parishioners alike making donkey noises. In the so-called Feast of Fools, the lower clergy would elect a "bishop of fools" to temporarily run the diocese and make fun of church ceremonial and discipline. With this sort of thing going on inside the church to celebrate the Nativity, one can easily imagine the drunken and sexual revelries going on outside it to celebrate what was in all but name the Saturnalia.
With the Reformation, Protestants tried to rid the church of practices unknown in its earliest days and get back to Christian roots. Most Protestant sects abolished priestly celibacy (and often the priesthood itself), the cult of the Virgin Mary, relics, confession and . . . Christmas.
In the English-speaking world, Christmas was abolished in Scotland in 1563 and in England after the Puritans took power in the 1640s. It returned with the Restoration in 1660, but the celebrations never regained their medieval and Elizabethan abandon.
There was still no Christmas in Puritan New England, where Dec. 25 was just another working day. In the South, where the Church of England predominated, Christmas was celebrated as in England. In the middle colonies, matters were mixed. In polyglot New York, the Dutch Reformed Church did not celebrate Christmas. The Anglicans and Catholics did.
It was New York and its early 19th century literary establishment that created the modern American form of the old Saturnalia. It was a much more family -- and especially child -- centered holiday than the community-wide celebrations of earlier times.
St. Nicolas is the patron saint of New York (the first church built in the city was named for him), and Washington Irving wrote in his "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York" how Sinterklaes, soon anglicized to Santa Claus, rode through the sky in a horse and wagon and went down chimneys to deliver presents to children.
The writer George Pintard added the idea that only good children got presents, and a book dating to 1821 changed the horse and wagon to reindeer and sleigh. Clement Clarke Moore in 1823 made the number of reindeer eight and gave them their names. Moore's famous poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," is entirely secular. It is about "visions of sugar plums" with nary a wise man or a Christ child in sight. In 1828, the American Ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett, brought the poinsettia back from Mexico. It became associated with Christmas because that's the time of year when it blooms.
In the 1840s, Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol," which does not even mention the religious holiday (the word church appears in the story just twice, in passing, the word Nativity never). Prince Albert introduced the German custom of the Christmas tree to the English-speaking world.
In the 1860s, the great American cartoonist Thomas Nast set the modern image of Santa Claus as a jolly, bearded fat man in a fur-trimmed cap. (The color red became standard only in the 20th century, thanks to Coca-Cola ads showing Santa Claus that way.)
Merchants began to emphasize Christmas, decorating stores and pushing the idea of Christmas presents for reasons having nothing whatever to do with religion, except, perhaps, the worship of mammon.
With the increased mobility provided by railroads and increasing immigration from Europe, people who celebrated Christmas began settling near those who did not. It was not long before the children of the latter began putting pressure on their parents to celebrate Christmas as well. "The O'Reilly kids down the street are getting presents, why aren't we?!" is not an argument parents have much defense against.
By the middle of the 19th century, most Protestant churches were, once again, celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday. The reason, again, had more to do with marketing than theology: They were afraid of losing congregants to other Christmas-celebrating denominations.
In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law a bill making the secular Christmas a civil holiday because its celebration had become universal in this country. It is now celebrated in countries all over the world, including many where Christians are few, such as Japan.
So for those worried about the First Amendment, there's a very easy way to distinguish between the two Christmases. If it isn't mentioned in the Gospels of Luke and Mark, then it is not part of the Christian holiday. Or we could just change the name of the secular holiday back to what it was 2000 years ago.
Merry Saturnalia, everyone!
Mr. Gordon is the author of "An Empire of Wealth"
COMMENTARY
A Brief History of Christmas
By JOHN STEELE GORDON
December 21, 2007; Page A19
Christmas famously "comes but once a year." In fact, however, it comes twice. The Christmas of the Nativity, the manger and Christ child, the wise men and the star of Bethlehem, "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is one holiday. The Christmas of parties, Santa Claus, evergreens, presents, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells" is quite another.
But because both celebrations fall on Dec. 25, the two are constantly confused. Religious Christians condemn taking "the Christ out of Christmas," while First Amendment absolutists see a threat to the separation of church and state in every poinsettia on public property and school dramatization of "A Christmas Carol."
A little history can clear things up.
The Christmas of parties and presents is far older than the Nativity. Most ancient cultures celebrated the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its lowest point and begins to climb once more in the sky. In ancient Rome, this festival was called the Saturnalia and ran from Dec. 17 to Dec. 24. During that week, no work was done, and the time was spent in parties, games, gift giving and decorating the houses with evergreens. (Sound familiar?) It was, needless to say, a very popular holiday.
[Illo]
In its earliest days, Christianity did not celebrate the Nativity at all. Only two of the four Gospels even mention it. Instead, the Church calendar was centered on Easter, still by far the most important day in the Christian year. The Last Supper was a Seder, celebrating Passover, which falls on the day of the full moon in the first month of spring in the Hebrew calendar. So in A.D. 325, the Council of Nicea decided that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring. That's why Easter and its associated days, such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, are "moveable feasts," moving about the calendar at the whim of the moon.
It is a mark of how late Christmas came to the Christian calendar that it is not a moveable feast, but a fixed one, determined by the solar calendar established by Julius Caesar and still in use today (although slightly tweaked in the 16th century).
By the time of the Council of Nicea, the Christian Church was making converts by the thousands and, in hopes of still more converts, in 354 Pope Liberius decided to add the Nativity to the church calendar. He also decided to celebrate it on Dec. 25. It was, frankly, a marketing ploy with a little political savvy thrown in.
History does not tell us exactly when in the year Christ was born, but according to the Gospel of St. Luke, "shepherds were abiding in the field and keeping watch over their flocks by night." This would imply a date in the spring or summer when the flocks were up in the hills and needed to be guarded. In winter they were kept safely in corrals.
So Dec. 25 must have been chosen for other reasons. It is hard to escape the idea that by making Christmas fall immediately after the Saturnalia, the Pope invited converts to still enjoy the fun and games of the ancient holiday and just call it Christmas. Also, Dec. 25 was the day of the sun god, Sol Invictus, associated with the emperor. By using that date, the church tied itself to the imperial system.
By the high Middle Ages, Christmas was a rowdy, bawdy time, often inside the church as well as outside it. In France, many parishes celebrated the Feast of the Ass, supposedly honoring the donkey that had brought Mary to Bethlehem. Donkeys were brought into the church and the mass ended with priests and parishioners alike making donkey noises. In the so-called Feast of Fools, the lower clergy would elect a "bishop of fools" to temporarily run the diocese and make fun of church ceremonial and discipline. With this sort of thing going on inside the church to celebrate the Nativity, one can easily imagine the drunken and sexual revelries going on outside it to celebrate what was in all but name the Saturnalia.
With the Reformation, Protestants tried to rid the church of practices unknown in its earliest days and get back to Christian roots. Most Protestant sects abolished priestly celibacy (and often the priesthood itself), the cult of the Virgin Mary, relics, confession and . . . Christmas.
In the English-speaking world, Christmas was abolished in Scotland in 1563 and in England after the Puritans took power in the 1640s. It returned with the Restoration in 1660, but the celebrations never regained their medieval and Elizabethan abandon.
There was still no Christmas in Puritan New England, where Dec. 25 was just another working day. In the South, where the Church of England predominated, Christmas was celebrated as in England. In the middle colonies, matters were mixed. In polyglot New York, the Dutch Reformed Church did not celebrate Christmas. The Anglicans and Catholics did.
It was New York and its early 19th century literary establishment that created the modern American form of the old Saturnalia. It was a much more family -- and especially child -- centered holiday than the community-wide celebrations of earlier times.
St. Nicolas is the patron saint of New York (the first church built in the city was named for him), and Washington Irving wrote in his "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York" how Sinterklaes, soon anglicized to Santa Claus, rode through the sky in a horse and wagon and went down chimneys to deliver presents to children.
The writer George Pintard added the idea that only good children got presents, and a book dating to 1821 changed the horse and wagon to reindeer and sleigh. Clement Clarke Moore in 1823 made the number of reindeer eight and gave them their names. Moore's famous poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," is entirely secular. It is about "visions of sugar plums" with nary a wise man or a Christ child in sight. In 1828, the American Ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett, brought the poinsettia back from Mexico. It became associated with Christmas because that's the time of year when it blooms.
In the 1840s, Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol," which does not even mention the religious holiday (the word church appears in the story just twice, in passing, the word Nativity never). Prince Albert introduced the German custom of the Christmas tree to the English-speaking world.
In the 1860s, the great American cartoonist Thomas Nast set the modern image of Santa Claus as a jolly, bearded fat man in a fur-trimmed cap. (The color red became standard only in the 20th century, thanks to Coca-Cola ads showing Santa Claus that way.)
Merchants began to emphasize Christmas, decorating stores and pushing the idea of Christmas presents for reasons having nothing whatever to do with religion, except, perhaps, the worship of mammon.
With the increased mobility provided by railroads and increasing immigration from Europe, people who celebrated Christmas began settling near those who did not. It was not long before the children of the latter began putting pressure on their parents to celebrate Christmas as well. "The O'Reilly kids down the street are getting presents, why aren't we?!" is not an argument parents have much defense against.
By the middle of the 19th century, most Protestant churches were, once again, celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday. The reason, again, had more to do with marketing than theology: They were afraid of losing congregants to other Christmas-celebrating denominations.
In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law a bill making the secular Christmas a civil holiday because its celebration had become universal in this country. It is now celebrated in countries all over the world, including many where Christians are few, such as Japan.
So for those worried about the First Amendment, there's a very easy way to distinguish between the two Christmases. If it isn't mentioned in the Gospels of Luke and Mark, then it is not part of the Christian holiday. Or we could just change the name of the secular holiday back to what it was 2000 years ago.
Merry Saturnalia, everyone!
Mr. Gordon is the author of "An Empire of Wealth"
Monday, December 24, 2007
Video: Sears Portrait Studio
Last year the Seattle boys went to Sears and got their holiday portraits done, this year, it was the SF and Seattle girls...
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Music: Kid Beyond feat on NPR
A nice piece on Kid Beyond. America's finest beatboxer.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5683802
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5683802
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Artist: Red Nose Studio
I found this studio from an illustration I'd seen in the "American Way" magazine, while traveling recently. The images are simply magical puppetry. Be sure to see their little movies too!
Visit Red Nose Studio's Website
Review a broader portfolio at their artist rep
The article in American Way
Friday, November 02, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Game: Chain Reaction Dots
Really wonderful flash game. Very intuitive.
Try to capture dots in a chain reaction.
http://www.k2xl.com/games/boomshine/
Try to capture dots in a chain reaction.
http://www.k2xl.com/games/boomshine/
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Art: Nimis and Arx
I found this by accident while traveling around on the internet.
In 1980 the artist and arthistorian Lars Vilks started to work on Nimis, a construction of driftwood and rests from the cutting areas.
http://www.ladonia.net/nimis_arx/index.html
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Definition of Globalization
Finally, a good definition of globalization.
Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization?
Answer: Princess
Diana's death.
Question: How come?
Answer:
An English princess with
an Egyptian boyfriend
crashes in a French
tunnel, driving a
German car
with a Dutch engine,
driven by a Belgian
who was drunk
on Scottish whisky,
(check the bottle before you change the spelling),
followed closely by
Italian Paparazzi,
on Japanese motorcycles;
treated by an American doctor, using
Brazilian medicines.
This is sent to you by
a Texan,
using Steve Jobs' technology,
and you're probably reading this on your computer,
that uses Taiwanese
chips, and a
Korean monitor,
assembled by
Bangladeshi workers
in a Singapore plant,
transported by Indian
lorry-drivers,
hijacked by Indonesians,
unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen,
and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.....
That, my friends, is Globalization
Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization?
Answer: Princess
Diana's death.
Question: How come?
Answer:
An English princess with
an Egyptian boyfriend
crashes in a French
tunnel, driving a
German car
with a Dutch engine,
driven by a Belgian
who was drunk
on Scottish whisky,
(check the bottle before you change the spelling),
followed closely by
Italian Paparazzi,
on Japanese motorcycles;
treated by an American doctor, using
Brazilian medicines.
This is sent to you by
a Texan,
using Steve Jobs' technology,
and you're probably reading this on your computer,
that uses Taiwanese
chips, and a
Korean monitor,
assembled by
Bangladeshi workers
in a Singapore plant,
transported by Indian
lorry-drivers,
hijacked by Indonesians,
unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen,
and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.....
That, my friends, is Globalization
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Vide: Daft Hands Harder Faster
This is super boring until the :51 seconds into it. then it gets pretty rad.
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