February 14, 2003
It Did It
"It Did It" is a beautiful and haunting short flick about depression. Peter Brinson artfully uses the Scientific Method to creatively document the effects of the drug Zoloft on his mood and his brain chemistry.
my boss sucks too!
My Job Sucks! Another rotten day at the 'ole meatgrinder'? Well, I was thinking the same thing and came home frustrated, looking for a way to vent my... frustrations ... dammit.
Hergee berger snooger bork bork bork!
Opera Borks MSN Opera 7.0.1 geefes MSN zee Svedeesh Cheff treetment.
Bork Bork Bork!
(No offense is intended towards any Swedes who may be reading this.)
Expatriate Iraq poet Saadi Youssef
America, America: I too love jeans and jazz and Treasure Island. A poem from Saadi Youssef, published in this Saturday's Guardian (scroll down past Seamus Heaney):
Take what you do not have
and give us what we have.
Take the stripes of your flag
and give us the stars.
Take the Afghani Mujahideen beard
and give us Walt Whitman's beard filled with
butterflies.
Take Saddam Hussein
and give us Abraham Lincoln
or give us no one.
Saadi Youssef was born in 1934 near Basra, Iraq. He is considered to be among the greatest living Arab poets. Youssef has published 25 volumes of poetry, a book of short stories, a novel, four volumes of essays, a memoir, and numerous translations. In addition to being imprisoned for his poetry and politics, he has won numerous literary awards and recognitions. He now lives in London. [more inside]
Take what you do not have
and give us what we have.
Take the stripes of your flag
and give us the stars.
Take the Afghani Mujahideen beard
and give us Walt Whitman's beard filled with
butterflies.
Take Saddam Hussein
and give us Abraham Lincoln
or give us no one.
Saadi Youssef was born in 1934 near Basra, Iraq. He is considered to be among the greatest living Arab poets. Youssef has published 25 volumes of poetry, a book of short stories, a novel, four volumes of essays, a memoir, and numerous translations. In addition to being imprisoned for his poetry and politics, he has won numerous literary awards and recognitions. He now lives in London. [more inside]
Gorgeous photomicrography. Or microphotography. Whatever.
Deformation of a polyethylene folio . Polymer thin film after electric field and reactive ion etching. Cat tongue. Mouse epididymis. Meet the latest winners in Nikon's annual "Small World" photomicrography contest. The gallery goes all the way back to 1977. A little reminder that beauty is everywhere.
Another one bites the dust.
Salon going down? Looks like it. According to this article, they may not make it past Feburary. Even with 47,300 paying subscribers, it still can't pay the bills. What's it take these days?
Seeing with sound
See with your ears: the vOICe Sonification
system. The vOICe Learning Edition
translates arbitrary video images from a regular PC camera into sounds. [More inside.]
Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot
"Giant Robot attack!" as spoken by the kid every kid wanted to be, Johnny Sokko. If you haven't already seen "'Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot" aka "Giant Robot", go now and buy it on VHS or DVD.
Become a protest photo stringer for BBC
Going to anti-war protests this weekend? Become a photo stringer for the BBC! "The BBC is asking people attending Saturday's anti-war protests who are carrying new combination camera/cell phones to relay their pictures to its newsroom at (44) 7970 885089 or email them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk. The broadcaster said that it hopes to provide coverage of the demonstrations 'from a protester's perspective.' It is also accepting photos taken with digital cameras."
Chatbots and AIML. AIML?
Pandorabots is a new site for building and hosting chat bots (HTML, not AIM) based on the Alicebot engine. They even have fee-based access to a bot. Interesting. I want to find out more about you.
Friday Fun x a gajillion
Friday! Friday! Friday! Friday flash fun to end all Friday flash fun.
The Paper of Record?
"Big Protests Planned in Europe" says the front (web) page of my "hometown" paper, the New York Times. Hey, guys, I have a scoop for you: I hear there might be a little something going on here in town, too... over at some place called the "United Nations." You might want to look into it. (Unless the authorities declare a fuchsia alert and shut the whole thing down...)
Plushy Hip Hop
Plushy Hip Hop video (Quicktime). A shark, a tiger, a turtle, and a beat. What's not to love?
Enron Tax Evasion
Three-Volume report on Enron released today Among the findings: "Enron paid zero federal income taxes from 1996 to 1999, despite reporting $2.3 billion in net income during the period" (from the linked article); executives took "1.4 billion" in compensation packages (SFGate has a piece on that.); and myriad details about the complicated machinations involved to pull this off (Mercury News). I am among the outraged though, frankly, I feel like they were just taking advantage of the system as it is was in place. If the economy hadn't tanked, this stuff might never have come out.
BE MY ANTI-VALENTINE...
"Stop talking about your fucking wedding."
...or, to paraphrase Boy George, "I'd rather have a good cuppa than a bad shag."
This year, celebrate or commiserate by sending an anti-valentine. Send it today, tomorrow, or any day you damn well please. This year, say it with bile.
...or, to paraphrase Boy George, "I'd rather have a good cuppa than a bad shag."
This year, celebrate or commiserate by sending an anti-valentine. Send it today, tomorrow, or any day you damn well please. This year, say it with bile.
Victorian Secrets of Washington, D.C.
Victorian Secrets of Washington, D.C.: haunting photos and thoughtful essays documenting one man's fight to draw attention to D.C.'s neglected architectural heritage: "This site won't be much of a beauty pagent because we 'll concentrate on buildings that are vacant, abandoned, deteriorated, distressed, or just plain at risk because they are standing in the path of development . . . if even one Victorian finds an angel because of our page, we'll consider it a thousand percent return on investment."
Dolly's gone
Dolly is dead. "The type of lung disease Dolly developed is most common in older sheep. And in January 2002, it was revealed that Dolly had developed arthritis prematurely. She was cloned using a cell taken from a healthy six-year-old sheep, and was born on 5 July 1996 at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland."
Rilke, quintessential poet of love, and The History of Romantic Love. Yeah... that's the ticket.!
A post about Rilke and Romantic Love, the gift to the Western World from The Ornament of The World, al-Andalus, the high civilization of Muslim Spain, via the troubadors, who gave us this Arabian meme as the noble concept of Courtly Love, with additional reference to Denis de Rougement's Love In The Western World, The Art Of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus and Abû Muhammad 'Alee ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'eed ibn Hazm's Tawq al-Hamâmah (The Ring of the Dove). So, there you have it: Rilke, quintessential poet of love, and The History of Romantic Love. Yeah... that's the ticket.!
What says love like video art?
What says love like video art? Enjoy these trés bizarre video "postcards", then send them to a significant other. Or don't. Whatever. I just looked at 'em, personally. They're great though. [Quicktime required.]
A Happy Tree Friends Valentine Smoochie For You!
Clone wars casualty
That business plan for 'Re-Pet' may have to wait a bit longer yet.
Red Herring Founder Unveils AlwaysOn Network
A 'Superblog' for Business Geeks? The AlwaysOn Network, brainchild of Red Herring founder Tony "bloggers have shown us the value of truly participatory media sites, so we’re just going to bundle it up and polish it and commercialize it" Perkins, is inviting "the smartest chiefs, geeks, investors, boosters and wonks to come play in our spontaneous and uncensored arena"...and, oooooh, alleged celebrity bloggers. Will this be the /. for business geeks or just a case of more web recycling?
Samsung Means To Come
Friday Flash Fun. Compelling animation, with a wonderful soundtrack.
Warning for the light-sensitive - bright, flashing screen.
Valentines Schmalintines
Practice your romantic moves and be ready for that special day. It may be Valentine's Day but everybody knows true love can only be found on Fat Tuesday. (18 days, people, 18 days!!) Here's some Friday...umm...Flash fun. (SFW I think -- but maybe I just haven't scored high enough yet.).
Joe Connelly dead at 85
Joe Connelly conked out, as the Beav might've put it. The "Leave it to Beaver" co-creator had many other credits to his name, but for my money, his most memorable achievement was creating TV's smarmiest character, Eddie Haskell.
The time travel art of Rosalind Brodsky, 1970 - 2058
"At the Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Interventionality we have been committed to time travel based research since 2005." Sure, it's probably just a poker-faced art project by the electronic Writing Research ensemble, but isn't it nicer to think of it as the life's work of the late Rosalind Brodsky (1970-2058), artist, musician, and Martian real estate agent?
The Valentine's Day EP (free!)
The Valentine's Day EP. A quick pointer to some free-'n-legal mp3s with which to construct a mini-opera of lovin'. Alejandro Escovedo, Rosalie -- Aching song about distance and longing. Hem, Valentine's Day -- beautiful cover of the Springsteen tune. (Amazon, reg. req'd.) Soltero, Communist Love Song -- "If you're ever less than certain, I will be your Iron Curtain." This is a sentimental, downtempo set, but there's plenty out there for a heartbreak EP (or 50) as well. No doubt someone will post it -- and lots more free mp3s -- inside.
What? You actually wanted to cycle somewhere?
Weird cycle lanes of Brighton (and Hove, actually). 'This website grew out of an article...claiming that some cycle lane up north was the shortest in Britain. What! I thought, we have many many much shorter lanes!!'
Not so much a competition, more an amusing photolog of some of the more ridiculous attempts at creating cycle lanes in Brighton, UK...are they this bad in other cities around the world?
phonetic ABCs for many languages
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo,
Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, Xray, Yankee and Zulu. Now I know my NATO phonetic ABCs, next time won't you sing with me?
Cannot find Weapons of Mass Destruction
Which one is it?
The New York Times published on Sunday a very favorable report on Ken Lay. In it, they argue that he was, at least in part, wrongly chastised for his role in the Enron affair. Apparently, we are to believe that the CEO didn't know what was going on inside the company he ran. After news of the report appeared in numerous U.S. media earlier this week, the BBC today counterattacks brutally (although perhaps not intentionally), describing some of the most ruthless Enron practices - like placing the combined total salary of the top 200 executives salary at one and a half times the company's total earnings (Lay's went from 15m to 164 mil in that period). My question is simple: just what is going on here?
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Blackbird
The Blackbird. I saw a documentary about the SR-71 Blackbird last night and I must admit I am fascinated by it. Not only is it sleek, beautiful and futuristic it's also fast as hell.
Given its space-age appearance it is amazing to think that it first flew in 1964 and still nothing comes near in performance terms (that we know about!).
Withdrawn from service in 1990 due to the expense of running it, it was used by Nasa for testing until recently. Nowadays your only chance of seeing one is in a museum, and if you're outside the US, the only place to go is the excellent Air Museum at RAF Duxford.
How Are You Gentlemen?! You have no chance with the ladies. Make your time.
Attention Men: Woo your love tonight by transforming yourself into a 19th Century Gentleman. Oh, who says civility is dead? Although your Maxim may tell you how to bring your mate into ecstacy during takeoff in an airplane restroom, perhaps it's time that we all take a hint from this Gentlemen's Guide to really well-bred Ladies. Then, sweep her off her feet by learning to dance at An American Ballroom Companion's Dance Instruction Manuals, which features plenty of videos for you to study. Ladies, do you yearn for more old-school gentlemen in your life? Would you swoon? Because I need a date tonight.
The Value of a Dollar
It's all about shareholder value. Steve Jobs has received tremendous positive press for only accepting one dollar per year as payment for his CEO services at Apple. How does he do it, you ask? Well, he supplements his income by a) being a billionaire, and b) renting out his corporate jet to Apple, at a cost of over 1.2 million dollars, over the past two years. Which is an exceptionally generous rental fee considering that Apple itself paid $90 million for the jet, which it bought for Jobs in May of 2001. This data was disclosed along in the most recent quarterly report in which Apple announced layoffs of 260 employees, none of whom were given a jet.
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