'Everybody Loves a Lesbian' song - Mongrels - BBC Three

It's a new BBC show. Not bad, pretty funny and well produced, could become something.

(Note: adult themes and crude language.)

Rita Hayworth

I generally prefer modern movies, but I must say, where did this kind of sheer glamour power go?

Here's a photo I found of Rita as a young model:

I selected the text (clicked a letter at a time) with Photoshop CS5's quick selection tool, expanded the selection 2 pixels, and used the content aware fill. Then it was just a minute's repairs with the stamp tool:

Cool Source?

Tweetyhead AmyJane quotes a children's conversation:

"Jonas is talking a lot about god and religion. It's bothering me." 

"It's cool. He's getting that from The Simpsons." 

"That's a relief."

I'm reminded of something Charles Schulz told in an interview: about his Peanuts strip where Sally comes home and motions to Charlie to come hide behind the couch so she can whisper a secret, and the secret is: "we prayed in school today". He said that this strip had been used widely by people on both sides of that controversy to support their point!

I would say that two simple points apply to the problem: one, be respectful of other people's beliefs, even if your own are strong. Even if you could push 'enlightenment' onto another person, you would just have overwhelmed him, and he would have to deal with the conflict of beliefs later.
And two, don't make every little issue a big contention. Maybe you're not upset for the reason you think.

Couple'a vids

Mercedes tunnel car roll. Man, that's gotta be tricky. The speed of reaction and the precision of steering... (Thanks to Kirk.)

Talented and cute actress, but in what might be the most insensitive commercial ever.

Mitchell and Webb's moon landing sketch.  (Thanks to Tommy.)
That Mitchell and Webb Look is a surprisingly funny show, so far it seems only available in the UK. I've watched the first three seasons recently, very nice.

Dolphins and English

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese. -- Carl Sagan

Does anybody know how the dolphins "spoke" English? Via symbols on big buttons, perhaps? I know of an ape which spoke quite adept English this way. For instance, upon seeing his trainer holding an orange, which was unfamiliar to him, he pushed the buttons for [trainer's name] [give] [ape's name] [color orange] [apple].

Tomas Rucker photography

[Thanks to Richard S.]

Tomas Rucker nude art photography.

For me, in Firefox, a filter removes the images, but not in Safari. I guess it's because in Safari, I'm logged in and have agreed to view "adult" content.

How Foursquare Melds Real and Digital Worlds

How Foursquare Melds Real and Digital Worlds, article by Steven Levy.

Levy is always worth reading, and I think the illustration is wonderful. Great idea well executed.

The megapixels wars and dynamic range

The megapixels wars and dynamic range, article.

Lessened dynamic range (how much contrast the camera can handle) is one of the reasons I recommend sticking to 10MP for compact cameras, and 12MP for big cameras.

I too think Canon made a mistake by upping megapixel count so dramatically in the 50D and the 7D models. And Nikon stands at a crossroads with their next flagship model: will it disappoint customers who are used to expecting more megapixels in each new camera, or will it suffer the probable low-light capability degrade which comes with a higher MP count?  (The D3s has outstanding, unique low-light capability.)

Thanks to John M's Apple-related articles for the link.

How to Build an Earthquake-Resistant Bridge

How to Build an Earthquake-Resistant Bridge, Wired article/gallery about the in-progress new span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Mofo! Look at this cable cross-section!! I don't think the Hulk and Superman working together could snap this fokker.

Hey Zeus on Twitter?

If the big J lived today, he ought to be on Twitter. Hmm, except he might get the blues by having fewer followers than Stephen Fry.

(Cartoon is from here. Link thanks to Nicola.)

Car parts art

[Thanks to Carter]

I failed at finding the source for these or a name for the artist. The info which comes with the circulating email is just: "These items below were all fabricated from junk of 1950 and 1960 automobile parts by a collector in Argentina". I think they are excellent sculptures, though, if I had the space I'd love to have one or two.
Update: substs points to James Corbett.

Arrow keys on the pad

Just a little pet peeve I have to get off my chest (and in the faint hope that somebody up there listens):

Why does the screen keyboard on the iPad not have any arrow keys?

It's a nightmare to go back in text to make corrections, because you can't position the cursor precisely with the touch screen, and it tends to highlight words rather than put the cursor in the middle of them. So you have to delete a whole word to put in a missing letter in it, after you have fumbled enough to get the cursor positioned correctly.

If you haven't tried it, it may sound overstated, but it really is surprisingly difficult to position the cursor precisely in existing text. And the omission of arrow keys seems to me to be a grave error.

I would normally use an external keyboard, but one should not have to pull it out just to fire off a two-line email.
And indeed some people say that they are doing splendidly with the screen keyboard. Good on them, as the British say it, I wish it were me.

Update: Paul said:

Found this on a forum somewhere:
" If you hold your finger down a magnifying glass appears. Then by dragging your finger left and right you can adjust the insertion point much more precisely."

Dang, that's right! Thanks. It takes some time to get used to the idea that this really is a whole new operating system with a whole new interface with many things to learn about it. My gut feeling going in probably was that it was sort of a modified OS X, but it really isn't.