Saturday, November 19, 2011

Everyone talks about leaving a better planet for their children...

The Fort is a nice 4-minute time-lapse video shot in Fort Worth this past summer.

ROSA, a 10-minute sci-fi film, deserves as many awards as they have to give. Watch it on Vimeo or checkout the film's website.
Moby's giving away some of his music for free for use in films.

This news story from Phoenix's KPHO features word combinations that I had never seen before: tampon and vodka, beer bong and anus, butt and chugging. You should infer that tomorrow's leaders are experimenting today with new ways to get drunk. Soak a tampon in vodka and stick it in your hoo-hah. Stick a beer bong hose up your butt and chug-a-lug. I always find it odd that when young boys make manly displays it involves some sort of homo-erotica: butt chugging, hazing other athletes with a broom handle, spanking fraternity pledges on their bare bottoms. Makes you wonder. Kids: you're doing it wrong.

Kids: Back in the day we fell on things in the shower and didn't need any other excuses like getting drunk. The book Stuck Up! reveals things where they shouldn't be. Another page about rectal foreign bodies.
Unrelated to the previous paragraph, Boeing delivered the first 30,000 pound massive ordnance penetrator (aka GBU-57) to the Air Force.

I hereby declare Occupy Whatever to have jumped the shark. Everyone should go back to their mother's basement and take a shower, especially the drum circles.

Aviation pr0n du jour #1 - F-22 with an F-15
Know yer lists: 9 equations you gots to know (I got 6 of 9), 11 sounds my kids will never hear, 25 optical illusions.

Science once again comes to the rescue. Watch this short video of Ross Nanotechnology demonstrating a superhydrophobic spray-on coating.  It's basically a super water repellant. The name of the product is NeverWet which reminds me of most of my dates in high school.

Learning things online: Painless Python Tutorial, flying the SR-71 Blackbird, Bertrand Russell's The Analysis of Mind.

Anyone else remember Chuckles? See them and other vintage candy ads.
In the most disturbing news item of the week (which sounds weird considering what you've already read if you've gotten this far), record labels are planning to abandon the CD by the end of 2012, replacing it with downloading as the main distribution stream. Where to begin? First, I hope they're going to be using a format other than the sucky mp3 which makes everything sound like my first stereophonic turntable that my parents bought at Gold Circle in 1976. Second, during 2012 I either have to stock up on CDs or figure out how to make my home stereo system compatible with electronic formats. Third, what are the implications for album covers and liner notes?

And in other news of things going away, this blog post alludes to the pending demise of trade paperback books (the bigger ones) and the subsequent demise of mass market paperbacks. So sad. And when did paperback books change size the new so-called "premium" that's a bit taller? Now books don't fit my nice leather sleeve anymore. And all the while my week-old Kindle sits.

A friend writes poetry good enough to win GOOD's poetry contest, making her work actually better than So-So Poems.

I don't know "hone" means in this context, but I call it telling time with mimes.
Know yer beer: The Oxford Companion to beer, Bowser Beer for your dog (pigs like it too!).

The fact that you can print things in 3D is freaky enough.  But you can also build your own 3D printer.

As this guy shows, it makes sense to keep an eye on what's in your pocket change.

What's the volume of a ball in N dimensions? It's even less straightforward than it sounds.

Modern takes on classic paintings.

Aviation pr0n du jour #2: Two F-35Bs on deck.
Seth Godin shares his 9 steps to PowerPoint magic. (Dang, 2 weeks too late.) #8 Make it too breathtaking to take notes. Dang, missed again.

Consider mind officially blown: the wave function in quantum mechanics may be physical. Repeating: the wave function may be real, not just a statistical crutch.

Excellent talk by Brian Eno about the nature of composition and composer as gardener versus architect. Take 15 minutes to watch the video or read the transcript. To paraphrase, it's not about order versus disorder, it's understanding how order comes into being.

Paripatetic rocks in Death Valley. What's up with these rocks that seemingly move on their own across the desert floor?

Meanwhile in China. More here.
I love things that let you see music. Baroque.me is a visualization of the prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 that visualizes the music as strings (that you can interact with).  If you'd prefer to see and hear the piece all the way through, watch the video on Vimeo.

From Oprah to Ulman, the top 50 motivational web personalities. (I checked. The answer is no.)

Know yer colors: 93% of consumers rank color and appearance above other factors, 85% rank color as a primary reason for buying, 80% say color increases brand recognition.

Tweeted this a week ago but will repeat: Canada is the top source of U.S. crude oil imports. This and other factoids are available on an infographic from Technology Review.

Know yer LEGOS: Cube Dudes, extreme organization methods.

Xmas is just around the corner - consider artisanally sharpened pencils.

Know yer astronomy: a topographic map of the moon from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Back in the 50s they really knew how to market to kids. For the plus-sized school girl: "Your chubby lass can be the bell of her class with Chubbettes."

There's bad luck and then there's my kind of luck.
  • Some people worry when they find blood in their stool. I have stool in my blood.
  • When I dig a hole to hide a body, I usually find another body.
  • I live on a 1-way street. It's also a dead-end.
Time for an instant dance party.

Now pull my finger.

...yet few talk about leaving better children for our planet. ~anon

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