A few rivulets from the information stream that passes my way each day.
For those of us who believe the "Lord of the Rings" movies to be among the best cinematic work of the last 30 years, a common thought has been that Peter Jackson should follow up with "The Hobbit." Apparently, his thought is to "get the band back together" and do the story of Bilbo Baggins as a pair of movies.
posted by Galen at 9:10 PM
A neat applet, where you enter the message you want to appear from the background text in 3D, and it creates the resulting stereogram.
posted by Galen at 9:07 PM
Hosted by Television Ontario's own Red Green, The National Association of Manufacturers continues on the hit parade with a video tour of the largest duct tape factory on the continent.
posted by Galen at 9:01 PM
Prior to my trip to Las Vegas next week for work, I came across the following link to a video of the Bellagio's famous fountain show. One of those "why didn't I think of it first" sights, they've applied state-of-the-art programmable logic controllers and valves.
posted by Galen at 8:54 PM
Known first (and possibly invented by) some 420-types, the LP of Pink Floyd's classic album "The Dark Side of the Moon" syncs up thematically with the Wizard of Oz should one drop the needle on the record with the MGM lion's third roar. I've been told.
posted by Galen at 8:52 PM
TIME: America By The Numbers - Where We Live
posted by Galen at 8:44 PM
The original pilot episode of "South Park," for your enjoyment. Note the differences that were rolled into the series after the pilot production.
posted by Galen at 8:43 PM
A live-action Spanish-language sitcom, using the characters of The Simpsons. Uncanny in how accurate they are, does the script make sense?
posted by Galen at 8:38 PM
Drifting, a performance-driving sport where the objective is to slide the car sideways around a course, started in Japan. A web video showing (illegal) drifting stunts.
posted by Galen at 8:33 PM
After a school district banned tag for fear of liability, another blog post listing games we played as youth that were much more dangerous. I played all of these in grade school, at one time or another.
posted by Galen at 8:30 PM
"CNN reports that NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has agreed to send astronauts on one final mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. No date was reported for the mission, other than before the shuttle fleet is retired. From the article, 'A rehab mission would keep Hubble working until about 2013. It would add two new camera instruments, upgrade aging batteries and stabilizing equipment, add new guidance sensors and repair a light-separating spectrograph. Without a servicing mission, Hubble will likely deteriorate in 2009 or 2010.'"
posted by Galen at 7:27 PM
If you like pranks, you're going to love this one! It is one man's rebellion against two pesky electronic
posted by Galen at 7:26 PM
What better way to spend Halloween night than with George Romero's classic 1968 zombie flick. Start the download, pick up the popcorn, and huddle around the computer screen while you stay up late for the trick-or-treaters.
Watch "Night of the Living Dead"
The main zombie attacks don't start until about an hour into the film — you'll have to judge the appropriateness of watching this movie in your creative studio.
This movie lapsed into the public domain due to neglected copyright notices and can be freely downloaded, copied and shared.
Source: We debated the appropriateness of a tip featuring flesh-eating zombies. However it is far less disturbing than this Indian re-make of Michael Jackson's Thriller.
posted by Galen at 9:13 PM
Just an addictive Game Boy diversion? No longer, an enterprising soul has developed a way to harness the game for an exercise routine.
posted by Galen at 8:14 PM
What would have happened if the money supply had been fixed at 1959 levels? Some interesting phenomena....
posted by Galen at 7:51 PM
More flat-edged objects on a gym floor, plus some interesting effects with common objects. Rube Goldberg would be proud.
posted by Galen at 7:50 PM
Admittedly, my breakfast routine while I'm traveling for work is Starbucks (quad venti nonfat mocha valencia, please), but I've not taken it to near the lengths of some in this article:
posted by Galen at 7:50 PM
A listing of a few earmark projects that have met nefarious ends.
posted by Galen at 8:53 PM
A promo for a video of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, 5/18/1980, in great detail.
posted by Galen at 8:45 PM
The creators of South Park create a short tribute to Monty Python's Flying Circus. Hilarity ensues.
posted by Galen at 8:09 PM
Helping to educate American voters, and show that it's in some respects Google's world (and we're just living in it), they've put together a Google Earth extension illustrating congressional districts and candidates for the forthcoming election.
posted by Galen at 8:39 PM
British Airways has 'retired' three of their extant Concordes in open air; some preservationists are up in arms that they're not stuffed and mounted appropriately.
posted by Galen at 8:39 PM
A blog entry with opinion on how to find the softer side of Geeks. Actual mileage may vary, but it tracks with what makes sense.
posted by Galen at 8:37 PM
A super-slo-mo view of the rotation of the tires of a top fuel dragster as it begins its 3-4 second run down 1320 feet.
posted by Galen at 8:28 PM
Another speed test applet (along with my favorite, broadbandreports.net). This one's hook is the graphical display showing the hops around the globe that it's exercising.
posted by Galen at 7:39 PM
An interesting animation, showing the assembly (in 3D graphics) of an engine, and subsequently how the pieces operate.
posted by Galen at 2:16 PM
From the National Association of Manufacturers, videos showing commercial (pseudo-)beer production
posted by Galen at 1:38 PM
A couple articles detailing some of the after effects of the large earthquake that had its epicenter near Kona on the Big Island of Hawai'i earlier this month. One of the trips on my life list is to get back there, to see the remainder of what I'd missed when I was there last year for five days.
posted by Galen at 8:20 PM
A copy of Johnny Cash's award-winning video for "Hurt," his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song. Chilling in its detail, it was one of his last projects before he died.
posted by Galen at 8:15 PM
In preparation for what's annually one of the best Simpsons episodes (that I'll be rolling tape on, thanks to other committments), Fox has put together a site where you can mash up your own intro/promo for the episode.
posted by Galen at 8:13 PM
Courtest Nerd E Blog, and my discovery of Google Reader for RSS feeds. Try and keep up. =8>)
posted by Galen at 7:58 PM
Minimal surfaces made of Legos.
Letter denying tenure to Indiana Jones:
The committee concurred that Dr. Jones does seem to possess a nearly superhuman breadth of linguistic knowledge and an uncanny familiarity with the history and material culture of the occult. However, his understanding and practice of archaeology gave the committee the greatest cause for alarm. Criticisms of Dr. Jones ranged from "possessing a perceptible methodological deficiency" to "practicing archaeology with a complete lack of, disregard for, and colossal ignorance of current methodology, theory, and ethics" to "unabashed grave-robbing." Given such appraisals, perhaps it isn't surprising to learn that several Central and South American countries recently assembled to enact legislation aimed at permanently prohibiting his entry.
Moreover, no one on the committee can identify who or what instilled Dr. Jones with the belief that an archaeologist's tool kit should consist solely of a bullwhip and a revolver.
posted by Galen at 8:39 AM
Google's latest acquisition hosts today's animatronic intelligence demonstration. You wonder how it would do with a truly randomized start.
posted by Galen at 7:15 PM
From the blog of Guy Kawasaki (former Apple evangelist):
posted by Galen at 9:49 PM
If you have kids raised on broadband who can't imagine a slow dial-up
posted by Galen at 9:23 PM
Not rhetorical, in this case, a site put together where you can find out how many people with your name are in the country. (Was temporarily buried with traffic when I last checked.)
posted by Galen at 8:41 PM
From Wikipedia, the list of this year's Ig Nobel Prize winners, timed to coincide with the award of the other ones in Stockholm.
posted by Galen at 7:00 PM
Videos from Google, filmed from model airplanes, from the perspective of the pilot.
http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=9091545735215129742&hl=fr
posted by Galen at 12:13 AM
Robots apparently think we taste like bacon:
"When a reporter's hand was placed against the robot's taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto. A cameraman was mistaken for bacon."
posted by Galen at 12:10 PM
"How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb"
posted by Galen at 12:09 PM
What was really cool though is that almost as quickly, people figured out to
posted by Galen at 1:58 PM
