The old is new again

[Thanks to Drew.]

Irina Werning has photographed people like they were in photos many years ago.
We've seen similar projects, but I have never seen this attention to detail! Impressive. That is very difficult to do.

Even down to the expressions! Look at this: 

Vine Flowers unite!

(Rolling On The Floor Laughing.) This is a photo of a Vine Flower apparently. No, really, it is a flower, and no photoshopping much.
And people say that Georgia O'Keeffe's flower pictures are, uhm, sensual!

Photo by Trevor Ashby, via Amateur Photographer

... If we stand erect together nobody can take us down!

The article is apparently not online, it's from this week's issue.

Troll II

Troll II is famous for being one of the worst-rated movies in history. And not for nothing. Everything about it is so bad that my toes never have time to uncurl, and every few minutes I actually physically cringe at the pain of the clichédness of it. I'm not kidding, I can't even help it. It really is hard to watch.
It's funny, I actually have difficulty using the word "movie" about this thing, it degrades the word.       :-)

I think the one thing it has going for it is some real purty actors. Apart from that, it is good in that it gives one lots and lots of chances to feel superior when watching it. That's good fun. (Oh, and actually the cameraman was very competent, though you don't often notice for the horrible editing.)

The really amazing thing, though, is that it just gets worse and worse  as it goes on. Truly entertaining. And there's not a grain of irony in it.

I'm looking forward to watching the documentary about it, Best Worst Movie. I haven't seen so many, but there's indeed reason to believe that as bad movies go, this may be the ne plus ultra.

That's the only expression this guy has. 

By the way, the chick in the glasses, I kept wishing to see her without the make-up. Lo and behold, near the end we do, and yes, she's a smoking hottie! Oh, and she is also the one actor in the flick who knows what kind of movie she is in, and over-acts accordingly, adding intentional humor to the tonnes and tonnes of unintentional humor. 

The Game-Changing Cookbook

The Game-Changing Cookbook, article, thanks to TCGirl.
"... assemble 2,400 pages of results into a 47-pound, six-volume collection that costs $625 and requires four pounds of ink to print."

One might say: wow, impressive. And it is.  But I feel more like saying: wow, what hard-core use of trees and ink. Put the whole thing in an iPad instead. It becomes portable, searchable, and upgradable, and you can use it without fear of getting egg white on the very expensive pages. (Just put the iPad in a clear plastic bag.)

Solid state disks

I've long thought that the hard disk was perhaps the biggest bottle neck for speed in a personal computer. And it does seem that the lack of one, replaced by solid state memory in the iPad and MacBook Air is responsible for the high responsiveness of those systems, for they are much faster than their modest RAM and processors would indicate normally.

And now solid state drives are coming down in price, so... the issue is that that I can't fit all my files in a drive of less than 1TB or preferably 1.5TB or larger, and I'm not keen on splitting them up, it would complicate admin and backup procedures so... I'm still thinking about it.

Slaaaaave to the Rhythm!

Quiver Pen Holder Adapters for Soft Cover Moleskine Notebooks Review

Quiver Pen Holder Adapters for Soft Cover Moleskine Notebooks Review, article.

A review... of an adapter... for pen holders... for paper notebooks... specifically Moleskine ones... softcover, that is. Now that's for the really specialized geek! Wow.      :-)

The Tiffany Aching books by Pratchett

For anybody who liked Harry Potter, and for many who didn't, I warmly recommend the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett. The first one is The Wee Free Men.

The witches were always my favorite characters of Pratchett's diskworld books. Unlike, say, the wizards, they are tough and dead-sharp people who know what they are doing. But of course written about with Terry's usual warm wit and inventiveness. So imagine my delight when some years ago a new and fresh witch character came around, and one of the toughest and sharpest ones ever, in the unlikely little frame of Tiffany Aching, who was only nine in the first book. She grows older as the books go on though, in the latest, I Shall Wear Midnight, she is sixteen.

Pratchett said that the books are "ostensibly" for young readers, and I couldn't agree more. There is nothing to distinguish his "young reader" books from his others, except that the characters are young and I imagine a young reader would love to grow up on them, like kids did with Harry Potter. But even experienced readers may find words and concepts he'll have to digest a bit, there are no weak blows here.

Leica M9 Titanium

Well, it sure ain't ugly!



But a $30.000 camera... how do you even take it outside?

Top 10 e-paper technologies in the next 20 years

Top 10 e-paper technologies in the next 20 years, article.

Doctor Seuss

Apropos artists etc, Tommy found this drawing by Dr. Seuss.

"1984"

'1984': As Good as It Gets
A single TV commercial redefined Super Bowl advertising. How was it made?