"On a Chinese Highway"

... is one of of my favorite obscure Danish songs. To be honest I did not think that there would be very much of the kind. But it turns out there is, and rather better than many would expect. (Download slide show.)

Third-longest span in the world. (I think Denmark has no. 1.)

Can Google decide Truth?

Google is making a lot of people nervous by studying possible ways of ranking links by the truthfulness of the sites linked to.

It's just a study, and would be too wildly controversial to be likely to be implemented. But it makes me think:

Who would decide what is true?
Who and how would they decide if it's true that there is a god? Or isn't one? Or is many?

Even more earthly facts may change radically. Just consider this: if this was done, and if it also was done a hundred years ago, how different wouldn't the results be!
There are innumerable things which then were believed broadly to be Facts, which turned out not to be, or which we simply decided we no longer believed was so. Even the most learned scientists disagree wildly about the most basic things. And since it continually has been so in history, it surely is still so, we have not suddenly become omniscient that I have noticed.
And if a superpower like Google back then had put its might behind all those things believed to be facts, how many of them would we have been able to revise?

Books in a strap

It is clear that until just a few generations ago, it was a universal standard in schools, from elementary to university, for everybody to carry their books around in straps, instead of in a bag.

Few people had too much money, and I'll bet books were not exactly cheap items since real mass production of binding was not standard yet... so why subject your books to bumps and the weather? Any old fabric back would be better than straps, and a leather bag would be tops.
Any ideas?

Dictation Oddity

I'm having some odd problems with phone/tablet dictation this week.
The oddest was right now:
I dictated:
"Maybe I'm at the wrong address?"
The iPad wrote:
"Maybe I'm a little hung over."

Huh??

"Awesome" II, the sequel

Many of the best of these clips are not derring-dos.


(Heh, sneaky how some sneak a hot bod into the middle of the movie to get a preview which attracts attention, though it has nothing to do with the rest of the video.)

Mike J on the Six Plus

Mike Johnston of The Online Photographer (my favorite blog) has been rather snarky about phone cameras, with some justification. But they get better every year, and he just got in iPhone Six Plus, here is his impression, along with interesting thoughts about what a cell really is.

(Oh, it's one more minute of my fifteen, Mike says I helped him to decide between the normal iPhone 6 and the Plus, with the latter being the clear winner to my mind.)

"People are awesome"

[Thanks to Henry]

Update:
Russ pointed to this. I don't know how many cuts and tricks were incorporated, but it def is entertaining.

Hermit crabs line up in order of size to swap and upgrade shells with one another

Hermit crabs line up in order of size to swap and upgrade shells with one another.
Bert found this amazing video. It's astounding, the things that happen in nature.

iPhone International Gallery

I must admit I'm quite surprised at the roaring success the iPhone, particularly the Six Plux (with optical stabilization) is having as a camera, both in terms of quantity and quality. Even one of the World Press international photo winners recently was taken on an iPhone.
Here is Apple's iPhone int Gallery.

(Click 4 big pic.)

I really like this one, fantastic tones, colors, composition. I wonder how much is incredible luck, how much is leg work, and how much if any is photoshopping. 

And this similarly-themed one by another photographer, is actually another of my favorites. (Long time readers know that I have a weakness for a touch of the abstract in photos.)

TruthFacts comics

Truthfacts.com

Update:
Del wrote: Now you said, "If three ads don't work, twelve ads won't either!” Is that true? Because if it is then the world needs to move in another direction.

Just seems logical to me. If we take a dog, a teenager, or such simple-minded creature :-), and put down three different dishes in front of him, and he doesn't eat, it seem quite unlikely to change his mind to put down nine more dishes.

Click 4 big pic.

No joke. Especially on my iPad where there is no ad-blocking software, I've been marveling/seething recently at how the content is drowning  in ads. It doesn't even work, folks! If three ads don't work, twelve ads won't either! 

The Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Versus… a Two-Year-Old Pocket Camera

The Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Versus… a Two-Year-Old Pocket Camera, article and photos.

So how much more detail do you really gain when you choose one of the world's finest and most expensive lenses (over four grand) and high resolution cameras, over a (admittedly good one) $600 pocket camera?

New media, new art

Modern Family has just, and justifiably, attracted a lot of attention with an episode taking place on Claire's laptop screen, and the video chats and other stuff that happens there. It was very good.

Somebody beat them to it, though. Noah is just the same, and almost the same length, 17 minutes (the MF episode was 21 minutes without ads).
I think Noah was good and interesting, although the ADD Hyper-speed young people operate at digitally and which was captured well, did tend to confuse.
I guess this ultra-multitasking must be addictive, I doubt you get more done that way.