Discovered via Neatorama
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Feral Buildings
Sweet Juniper has a series of photographs of abandoned buildings being consumed and re-claimed by nature in Detroit. I dig the zombie-movie vibe...
Discovered via Neatorama
Discovered via Neatorama
First Ever Video on YouTube?
I'm told that this was the first but my BS detector is humming at about DefCon 3 on this.
But Wikipedia says its true.
If it is and the date - April 23, 2005 - is correct, consider that YouTube was sold to Google about 18 months later for (ye gads) $1.65 billion.
Virtually boggles the mind...
By the way, that was one of the YouTube founders, Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo. He probably has his own elephant now. No need to rub shoulders with the unwashed masses at the zoo...
But Wikipedia says its true.
If it is and the date - April 23, 2005 - is correct, consider that YouTube was sold to Google about 18 months later for (ye gads) $1.65 billion.
Virtually boggles the mind...
By the way, that was one of the YouTube founders, Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo. He probably has his own elephant now. No need to rub shoulders with the unwashed masses at the zoo...
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Solutions Looking for a Problem
Some products are solutions looking for a problem. (The The Snuggie and the The Grater Plater come to mind...)
But The Office Kid is not such a product.
"The Office Kid" provides childless workers with the very same luxury that people with kids have known for years, the built-in excuse.
"Sorry boss, kid's got a dentist appointment..."
"Can't stay late today, my son's got a soccer game..."
"You know I'd love to pitch-in on the project but the nanny called in sick..."
The Office Kid comes with a welcome letter with step-by-step instructions and starter excuses, a framed picture of a kid, original kids artwork for cubicle display and a menu of additional materials such as your image photoshopped into a kids sports team picture and a doctor's note on authentic stationery.
Heck, I'm using my actual kid to leave work early today and now you can too!
But The Office Kid is not such a product.
"The Office Kid" provides childless workers with the very same luxury that people with kids have known for years, the built-in excuse.
"Sorry boss, kid's got a dentist appointment..."
"Can't stay late today, my son's got a soccer game..."
"You know I'd love to pitch-in on the project but the nanny called in sick..."
The Office Kid comes with a welcome letter with step-by-step instructions and starter excuses, a framed picture of a kid, original kids artwork for cubicle display and a menu of additional materials such as your image photoshopped into a kids sports team picture and a doctor's note on authentic stationery.
Heck, I'm using my actual kid to leave work early today and now you can too!
Monday, August 24, 2009
And then while I'm away...
We're getting ready for another summer trip, this time to Sebago Lake in Maine.
I'm sure that I'll have images to share next week but it might be a bit quiet around here for a few days.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for a short distraction from your work day, I offer this link to cut you down to size geographically.
Ever hear about surveys of US schoolchildren who can't identify the US states on a map? Don't be so smug next time!
I expect honest reportage of your scores in the "Comments" section of this post.
I'm sure that I'll have images to share next week but it might be a bit quiet around here for a few days.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for a short distraction from your work day, I offer this link to cut you down to size geographically.
Ever hear about surveys of US schoolchildren who can't identify the US states on a map? Don't be so smug next time!
I expect honest reportage of your scores in the "Comments" section of this post.
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Aptly Named Bolt
Over the course of my undistinguished athletic career, I have played organized baseball, soccer, football, basketball, tennis and even volleyball. In each I achieved a reasonable level of competence if never excelling in any of them.
For the most part, I never really dreamed of greater things. I never wished that I was taller or stronger. I would have liked to have been better at hitting baseball or shooting a basketball but for the most part I was happy being good enough just to get some playing time.
Except for one thing. I always wished that I was fast. I would have loved streaking down the sideline, increasing the gap between me and everyone else. I wanted to stretch singles into doubles and fly diagonally across the field to lay out the kick returner just before he reached the end-zone.
I can visualize myself hauling-ass across a ball field…a totally graceful, economy of motion, locked-in-the-groove picture of speed. I don’t know what “fast twitch muscle fibers” are but I've heard of them and I imagine that my legs are full of them…twitching like crackling electricity, potential energy just boiling to go kinetic!
I wish I had speed.
Usain Bolt has speed. I first heard of him last summer during the Olympics and yesterday he broke the world record in the 100 meters at the World Championships in Berlin.
Check out this video and watch him…speed as pure joy. And dig the Italian commentary too!
For the most part, I never really dreamed of greater things. I never wished that I was taller or stronger. I would have liked to have been better at hitting baseball or shooting a basketball but for the most part I was happy being good enough just to get some playing time.
Except for one thing. I always wished that I was fast. I would have loved streaking down the sideline, increasing the gap between me and everyone else. I wanted to stretch singles into doubles and fly diagonally across the field to lay out the kick returner just before he reached the end-zone.
I can visualize myself hauling-ass across a ball field…a totally graceful, economy of motion, locked-in-the-groove picture of speed. I don’t know what “fast twitch muscle fibers” are but I've heard of them and I imagine that my legs are full of them…twitching like crackling electricity, potential energy just boiling to go kinetic!
I wish I had speed.
Usain Bolt has speed. I first heard of him last summer during the Olympics and yesterday he broke the world record in the 100 meters at the World Championships in Berlin.
Check out this video and watch him…speed as pure joy. And dig the Italian commentary too!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Feeling significant?
You're not. You're just the tiniest spec in an impossibly huge universe that might just be the tiniest spec in a foamy sea of universes...
That brings to mind Douglas Adams' novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe , in which he conjures up the most insidious torture device in the universe - The Total Perspecive Vortex.
"When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, "You are here."
The effect, of course is to melt the brain of anyone who experiences it. (Except for Zaphod Beeblbrox who survives and even thrives for reasons that I won’t delve into here,)
Adam’s summed up the genius of the device by saying that "In an infinite universe, the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion."
That brings to mind Douglas Adams' novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe , in which he conjures up the most insidious torture device in the universe - The Total Perspecive Vortex.
"When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, "You are here."
The effect, of course is to melt the brain of anyone who experiences it. (Except for Zaphod Beeblbrox who survives and even thrives for reasons that I won’t delve into here,)
Adam’s summed up the genius of the device by saying that "In an infinite universe, the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion."
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