Exotic animals

A white tiger, photographed under water? Say what you want, but this is not a picture anybody could take.
(Photo by Jeff Rayner.)

That's in contrast to one of the last pictures I saw when I was frequenting the local photo club in these parts the year before last. I'd been coming a couple of months, and I'd grown a bit tired of the unventilated presentation room and the general lack of any talk about actual photography amongst the members.

And then they had a judge for the monthly contest who claimed that the title of a picture should be an explanation of that picture, a dead stupid idea. In the end he awarded the first price to a breathtakingly boring picture of a monkey. Sure, the monkey was sitting in the open in India, so maybe it could be regarded as exotic, but monkeys are as common as dogs there, and seriously, the picture could not have been more banal. I got so bored my head hurt, so I stopped going.

Clifford Stoll

Clifford Stoll. A real live wire.

I've only watched part of it yet. But what strikes me is: how can anybody live with hair like that. It would drive me crazy.

FrankenTony

"You're like Tony Robbins, if Tony Robbins was a big, scary, Frankenstein-looking... you're exactly like Tony Robbins." - Spike

Obedience

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience. -- Anatole Broyard

Hollywood Squares Answers

Hollywood Squares Answers
Samples:

Peter Marshall
What are “dual-purpose cattle” good for that other cattle aren’t?
Paul Lynde
They give milk and cookies — but I don’t recommend the cookies.

Peter Marshall
Imagine you are a child in your mother’s womb, can you detect light?
Paul Lynde
Only during ballet practice.

Peter Marshall
When a couple has a baby, who is responsible for its sex?
Charley Weaver
I’ll lend him the car. The rest is up to him.

Peter Marshall
Before a cow will give you any milk, she has to have something very important. What?
Paul Lynde
An engagement ring.

Peter Marshall
According to Robert Mitchum, one thing has ruined more actors than drinking. What?
Charley Weaver
Not drinking.

Peter Marshall
When the Lone Ranger finished with a case, he left something behind. What?
Paul Lynde
A masked baby.

Internet movie watching forges ahead

Internet movie watching forges ahead.
Why is it only the US which gets fantastic deals like this?

Speedy iPod delivery

My old iPod (first generation which played video) has almost run out of space, and I decided to get a new Classic iPod. So I went to the online Apple Store UK and ordered one, including getting my email address engraved on the back. This was less than 24 hours ago, and here is the machine on my table. Man, that's fast service!

I wonder, though, why Apple still insists on the high-gloss backside on the iPods. Sure, it looks gorgeous when it's pristine, but it only stays pristine until after you've held it once.

Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul

Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul. Philosophical paperback.

Quote from the back cover:
"Why doesn't Batman just kill the Joker and end everyone's misery? Can we hold the Joker morally responsible for his actions? Is Batman better than Superman? If everyone followed Batman's example, would Gotham be a better place? What is the Tao of the Bat?
-- Batman is one of the most complex characters ever to appear in comic books, graphic novels, and on the big screen. What philosophical trials does this superhero confront in order to keep Gotham safe? Combing through seventy years of comic books, television shows, and movies, Batman and Philosophy explores how the Dark Knight grapples with ethical conundrums, moral responsibility, his identity crisis, the moral weight he carries to avenge his murdered parents, and much more. How does this caped crusader measure up against the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Kierkegaard, and Lao Tzu?"

Isn't that just wonderful, Batman mano-a-mano with Kierkegaard. And mentioning Plato and Lao Tzu in the same breath as asking the immortal question "is Batman better than Superman?" Gotta love that.

Don't get me wrong, I've been a Batman fan for nigh 40 years. And there are legit philosophical questions he inspires, some of which were brought up in The Dark Knight Returns, for instance "are the authorities the ones we should follow and obey?" or "will violence and revenge solve anything?" (actually it seems Frank Miller pretty much takes for granted they will, so that one is mine), but this book just seems like it won't really delve into those. I could be wrong, it could be just the back cover text which is silly. It is actually written by professors and not comic book editors.

Pogue on the copyright issue

Pogue on the copyright issue.
(Update: enjoy David's TedTalk copyright spoof song.)

He quotes Steven Poole:

"It [the Slashdot argument] says that books, music, films, software and so on ought to be freely distributed to anyone who wants them, simply because they can be freely distributed.

"What is the writer or musician to do, though, if she can't earn money from her art? Simple, says the Slashdotter: earn your money playing live (if you're one of those musicians who plays live), or selling T-shirts or merchandise, or providing some other kind of 'value-added' service. Many such arguments seem to me to be simple greed disguised in high-falutin' idealism about how 'information wants to be free.'

"…I think the Slashdot argument can actually be disposed of rapidly with one rhetorical question, as follows.

"Oh Mr. Freetard, you work as a programmer, do you? How interesting. So do you perform all your corporate programming duties for free, and earn your keep by selling personally branded mousemats on the side?

"Didn't think so."

From Quote-of-the-day service

Seize opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind.
-- Bulgarian Proverb

LOL. What the heck does that mean?

---
Your true value depends entirely on what you are compared with.
-- Bob Wells

I would have thought that that would be the relative value.
----
Update: Here's a funny one from today:

The fact is, the old clich%uFFFDs work for us in abstract terms, but they never work out in real life quite the same way. Life is messy; clich%uFFFDs are clean and tidy.
-- Hugh Macleod, How To Be Creative: 29, 08-22-04

I think it's a coding error of the accented é, but it makes it involutarily funny. "clich%uFFFDs are clean and tidy"...

Chris Jordan quantity art

Chris Jordan quantity art.
Beyond the fairly blunt Socio-political messages, I just think some of the art is wonderful as art.

Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning

Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning sketch with Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry. You may have seen it before, I put it on youtube a year ago. It continues to be popular, and I don't get tired of it myself. I wish they had turned it into a movie, that would have been absolutely fentestically fentestic.

Jeopardy format

Doesn't the answer-question format of Jeopardy seem like a pointless gimmick?
For one thing, anything which can be stated as answer-question can also be stated as question-answer.
For another thing, the "answers" are usually nothing like anything anybody would give as an actual answer to the "question". For example, when asked:

"Who is Madonna?"
Would you answer:
"Dad refuses to see a Guy Ritchie film because he's always had a secret crush on this 'Like A Virgin' singer."
?

Or when asked:
"Who is Shamu?"
Would you answer:
"Ice cream bars shaped like this celebrity cetacean are a special treat at Sea World."
?

I guess the format is there to trip up contestants. It still seems silly and gimmicky to me.

Sunglasses

I love this song.

Original Sandy Posey version.

The Tracy Ullman hit version.

Tracy Ullman 12-inch version (very different).

By the way, the last one I couldn't find as music file, so I saved the YouTube video via KeepVid. The site gives you an option of downloading it as "MP4 - High Quality". I did, and what's weird is that my downloaded MP4 version seems to have a better sound quality than the one I play on YouTube. How is this possible?

Tubes

Like one could have predicted, "tube" sites inspired by YouTube are spreading like wildfire, particular pornographic ones. A new one is called YouFuckingTube.com... You think it may get a cease-and-desist from YouTube? :-)

Ultra HD

The first "Ultra HD" TV. Gizmodo writes:
"The company has rolled out an 82in monster with an ultra definition (UD) resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels with a 120Hz refresh rate. That’s double the pixel count of Full HD, which stands at 1920 x 1080 pixels."

I think somebody needs their math skills polished. It's four times the pixel count.

I don't think we need these displays for a while, but maybe there'll be a trickle-down effect for quality and price.

Oh, and my father had a standard line when seeing a picture like the above: "does it come with the girl?"

Power of beliefs

How to get drunk without drinking.
Or how to do voodoo.
The accompanying text to the second one seems to indicate that the writer thinks that a New Age believer is more vulnerable to the power of belief than others. But we all have beliefs, even atheists or skeptics have beliefs. Even if you choose to only believe what your eyes and hands tell you, that's a belief that you can trust that.

Jes said:
"This reminds me of something. When I was in the third grade, I used to get these pains in my hands and wrists. When I actually saw doctor about it, he couldn't find anything wrong with me. It turned out I was just imagining it."

Not just pain, but actual changes to the body, for instance blisters, can be turned on by a hypnotist. Makes you wonder how much of illness and suffering is actually caused by our decisions.

Aimee Allen

I've lost interest in politics, but this anthem has cute girls and a rocking melody, quite different fare from what you normally see in stuffy politics.

Will Smith? Really?

I just read in Total Film that the top grossing movie star now is... Will Smith!
Seriously? Will Smith? I can barely name any titles he's been in, in recent year. Except for Hitch, which I rented a few days ago, and gave up on after five minutes.
It's not that I don't like him, I think the Fresh Prince is all right (though with sometimes mediocre writing), and that he does solid work. I just had no idea that he's a huge star now.

JohnnyBoy

Remember the "leave Britney alone!" guy? Well, here's another remarkable gender-confused Britney fan.

How I Met Your Mother

So I tried "How I Met Your Mother". Man, was that lame! I can't figure out how it gets so many good viewer reviews. I have not been so disappointed in a sitcom since season six of Spin City. (That was when Charlie Sheen took over from Michael J. Fox, though it seemed that more than Charlie it was the writing that suddenly sucked.)

I bought this show because I love Alyson Hannigan, and because it has such great Amazon viewer reviews, presently 5.5 stars on average. I am just confused. This show just did not impress me in any way. I love sitcoms, I have like four shelf-meters of DVDs with just those. But this one not even Alyson could salvage. The actors did what they could, but the stories were run-of-the-mill, the writing uninspired, and it simply was not very funny.

Also the basic setup, where a guy is talking to his future kids about "how he met their mom", but it quickly becomes clear that we'll probably never find out who their mom is... not a good idea.

Slide-under car door

Slide-under car door.
It sure looks cool and like it has a lot of advantages. Though it's hard to believe that it takes up as little space as they claim, and won't be very expensive.

The Eternals

Art from The Eternals by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr (art). (Colors by Matt Hollingsworth.) Now that's a beautiful comic book.

The story is pretty good too. It's Neil Gaiman trying to capture the crazy energy of Jack Kirby, which he does as good as anybody has done yet. I like the book for it's bigger-than-life feel, the beautiful art, the beautiful colors, the beautiful women, and the beautiful giant robot space gods. There are some really amazing designs here.

The Beauty of Math

1 x 8 + 1 = 9

12 x 8 + 2 = 98

123 x 8 + 3 = 987

1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876

12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765

123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654

1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543

12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432

123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321


1 x 9 + 2 = 11

12 x 9 + 3 = 111

123 x 9 + 4 = 1111

1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111

12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111

123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111

1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111

12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111

123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111


9 x 9 + 7 = 88

98 x 9 + 6 = 888

987 x 9 + 5 = 8888

9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888

98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888

987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888

9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888

98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888


1 x 1 = 1

11 x 11 = 121

111 x 111 = 12321

1111 x 1111 = 1234321

11111 x 11111 = 123454321

111111 x 111111 = 12345654321

1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321

111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

--------

Final Identity added:

In this sequence ...

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

... they left out the first one

0 x 9 + 1 = 1

---
NOW WHO'S THE NERD????!!!!

Manuscript format for fiction

Manuscript format for fiction. PDF article.

Gigapan

(Funny how I seem to get into a blogging fury on Fridays sometimes. Maybe it's joy of relief of the weekdays' grueling 3-hour workdays being over for me.)

Gigapan gigapixels camera device. (Why are so many web videos right now not compatible with Safari? It's just embarrassing.) Here's a sample. Remarkable.
Technically you can do the same thing manually and then use some good stiching software, but when you get above like ten pictures, it becomes pretty tricky to keep track of what exactly you have already covered, here's where the robot comes in.

Alicia Witt

Another actress I find totally irresistible.

Partisanship

"If you saw two groups of children arguing over which of them could play in some waste grounds, would you choose sides?" - Neil Gaiman, The Eternals

Indirectness

I don't get the indirectness in this world. Like, when two people meet in a club, probably what's on both their minds is whether they'll have sex, but sex is the last thing they're able to talk about.

It's not just that; I hear that when American businessmen do business with the Japanese, there's often trouble, because the Japanese will never say "no" directly. And of course the typical American has to be hit with a lead pipe before he'll understand a "no", so...

Today I talked to a guy, and he saw my tee-shirt saying: "Six foot four, handsome, and money too," and he told me about a tee he wore last night in town saying "masturbation is not a crime", and all the reactions that got.

How the market works

[Thanks to Dr. P.]

How It Works

Once upon a time a man told a small village, "I will buy monkeys for $10 each."

Since there were many monkeys in the forest, the villagers caught them and sold them to the man.

As the supply of monkeys diminished, the villagers' efforts slowed, so the man offered them $20 each.

They renewed their efforts but the supply of monkeys diminished further, so he increased his price to $25.

Soon no one could even find a monkey in the forest.

The man increased his price to $50, but announced, "Since I must go to the city on business, I authorize my assistant to buy monkeys on my behalf."

As soon as his boss was gone, the assistant told the villagers, "My boss has collected lots of monkeys. I'll sell them to you for $35 and then, when he returns, you can sell them to him for $50."

The villagers rounded up all the money they could and bought as many monkeys as possible. Then they had monkeys everywhere...

... but they never saw the man or his assistant again.

And now you understand the workings of the stock market!