"Steam Noir", a café

Shis showcases both the wonderful detail of HD video (cartoons), and the same of the iPad 3's screen (as well as some other new tablets). Screenshots get much larger when seen on normal monitors, because of the tiny pixels on the 'pad.

The full sized version is here. (Blogger only goes to 1600 pixels.)

In screenshots from video the high-rez iPad, in other words, I have found a new source of wallpaper pictures. That's great for somebody like me, who has a wild appetite for new visual stuff.

I could note that live-action video, even in HD, generally is not as sharp and detailed as animation (flat or CGI), because it deals with cameras and movements and light and depth of field, whereas cartoons are made in a fully digital process. See, hereunder is a shot from Arrested Development in HD. And I looked for the best frame I could find, with the least motion blur and blown highlights and such. (It really is a science to make really good film/video.) (Full size.)

... Of course this does not mean that live-action HD is *bad*, it rather means that animation HD is astounding.

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band II

Amazing they are still known. I found this record in the early eighties. I got it given by a friend who got it from a friend who'd been to the states and gave her two different LPs. To her it was the same odd stuff. To me, one was total crap, and the other was this. Very unique.
They were amazingly obscure. And still are, while at the same time being very influential, and has been called the "number one cult band".


Beware beautiful goddess
You are tomorrow's temptation
Be sweet, and gentle and thin
Stay away from all dirty old men.

Here's a long interview about the band:

Student's thigh doodles lead to internet fame

Student's thigh doodles lead to internet fame, article.
(Warning, some of her art is pretty gruesome.)

I've found there's one type of art which always gets press: that which directly involves the body of a pretty young woman. Bless 'em.

(Oo-la-la. I find women artists are often beautiful, and I can't stand it, too much.)

Strange phenomena on Twitter

Here is one of those little straaaaange things I meet sometimes on the Net.
I have one tweet which by far is the one which gets "favorited" by others. I have no idea why, because it's the least likely to be so. It does not even make sense on its own:

... It only makes sense if one has read the preceding couple of tweets from me, about a long series (16?) of VERY, VERY LOUD explosions which happened one night at 4am a couple months ago, 200 meters from where I sleep.
The strangest thing was that apart from like 8 people discussing it on a discussion web site, it got NO ATTENTION AT ALL! ... a couple of days the newspaper had a small mention about "a fire on parked trucks", but no mention of any explosions. And I was not kidding they were loud. They woke up people living more than 2 miles away.

I went down there as it happened (well, the explosions had ended after a minute or two) (with the trusty RX100 with low-light power), and the day after:

Look at the "new iPhone"

I've been pining for a bigger iPhone (say 5-inch), which Apple, in typical stubborn style, so far refuses to give us. But an 8-inch iPhone, in the guise of an iPad Mini, may be a step too far.
Nevertheless, Kimmel is able to convince many of these poor interview subjects that an iPad Mini is the new iPhone.
It's amazing, I knew there's a difference between us geek-wanna-bes and normal folk, but not being able to tell an iPad from an iPhone, that's just...



Funny stuff. Just see the young lady trying out the "new click-and-lick" technology! "Wait, I can tast it!"

Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 nears 3 million miles

[Thanks to Russ]

Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 nears 3 million miles, article.

I didn't know Volvo once made such hot looking cars.

Driving the same car for 53 years

I'm sure many company heads start hyperventilating when considering products that last 50 years. What will they sell after everybody has one as is satisfied?
It sounds like a stupid problem, that quality might ruin the economy, but I'm sure we must be looking wrongly at it somehow.
For example, if things last, you need buy much less, that's good for the individual's economy. And if that then is bad for companies' or countries' economy, they have based their income on false idols.

Hockey Z-9; Isabella the marauder

This Phineas And Ferb sequence is one of the most inventive ever. It is so packed with details and jokes, I don't think anybody will get it all at once.
Notice little girlscout, sorry, "Firesite Girl" Isabella taking out big bully Buford at around 0.42. I love her, she is the only one who is not the least bit afraid of Buford. She is small, very feminine (her hockey marauder costume is pink!), very romantic (hopelessly in love with Phineas), yet at the same time she is probably the strongest and toughest and most competent character in the series.



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By the way, hard rock 'n roll, the most violent hockey game ever... this is a Disney show??

Another drone video

Thanks to A for finding this. Never mind the music, the video is so well done. Music recorded live, everything done in one shot, and the flying and filming is beautiful.


Phoenix - Entertainment | A Take Away Show.
The band Phoenix performs their song 'Entertainment' for La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows.
Watch it large by the link.

Carbon-fibre laptop case

Carbon-fibre case for MacBook Pro or Airbook.
I have never before bought a case for a laptop. But this one makes so much sense that I signed up. It will look beautiful (carbon fibre is gorgeous just on its own), it'll be really tough, and it will be light-weight (I have a cf tripod, it's amazingly light, despite being completely stiff).

Don't say oldsters can't park

Science (food) contradictions

I don't recall if I've blogged it, but I've felt for a long time that the idea of living and eating healthy is hogwash. Certainly as far goes as to finding out what the heck is "healthy" and what is not.
So big thanks to Michael Johnston for writing this addendum on his blog:

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Here's a partial list of some of the assertions I read in my traversal of diet and nutrition books:

• Beans are a wonder food and the best way to get all the protein you need on a vegetarian diet.
• Beans are nearly indigestible by humans and responsible for many digestive ills.
• Humans evolved to eat animals and raw plants and haven't been able to evolve to adapt to the produce of husbanded animals (dairy) and domesticated grains and agricultural crops yet.
• Dietary fat is the cause of heart disease and therefore fat-free diets are essential to health. Carbohydrates should be the bedrock of your diet.
• Carbohydrates are terrible for you because they spike your blood sugar and cause an insulin overresponse. A no-carb diet is the best way to lose weight.
• Vegetarian diets are the healthiest.
• Vegetarian diets are extremely unhealthy and can actually result in malnutrition.
• It's calories in, calories out. 
• It's all a matter of metabolism.
• We're all human and our bodies are all the same.
• We're all different and respond to dietary inputs in radically different ways.
• Diet is a health issue.
• Diet is a moral issue.
• Diet is personal.
• Diet is cultural.
• You need to eat a big breakfast.
• You should be a vegan until 6 p.m.
• Moderate exercise is crucial to a dietary weight loss plan.
• Moderate exercise has no effect on your weight and weight loss is not the reason to exercise.
• Your instincts will take care of you, so you should eat whatever you want.
• You must avoid all processed foods.
• You should never "graze," nosh, or snack.
• Lots of small meals throughout the day are best.
• Fructose is the "bad half" of sugar and should be avoided at all costs.
• Fructose is found in fruits and therefore makes a good sugar substitute.
• The body treats all kinds of sugar the same.
• Honey, and brown sugar or "raw" sugar are much better for you than table sugar.
• Nuts are high in fat and should be limited.
• Nuts correllate with disease prevention the best of any food.
• Sugar is the cause of the obesity epidemic.
• High fructose corn syrup is the cause of the obesity epidemic.
• Meat and dairy are the cause of the obesity epidemic.
• Carbohydrates, breads, and potatoes are the cause of the obesity epidemic.
• Laziness, lack of exercise, and lack of willpower are the cause of the obesity epidemic.
• Antibiotics are the cause of the obesity epidemic, because they have affected the bacteria in our guts in ways we don't understand.
• Industrial food is the cause of the obesity epidemic, and small, part-time organic farming is our hope for the future.
• "Organic" is a marketing word that's been co-opted by Big Ag and everything associated with it is a fraud and a rip-off.

Michael Johnston