Sunday, October 30, 2005

Quotes About Power

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
-Lord Acton, 1887
It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
-David Brin

Water Skiing with a Loved One (flash)

The Nokia N90 ad (rated PG).

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Mountains from the Air

Mountains East of Burbank, CA.

Mountains East of Burbank, CA.

Make-a-Flake (flash)

A Snowflake Maker (rated PG).

Tiny Toons do Particle Man (windows media video)

Tiny Toons cartoon does the They Might Be Gaints' song Particle Man.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Powerhouse Theatre

Powerhouse Theatre from Main St.
Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood at night.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

NASA - 21 Named Storms From the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Includes links to an MPEG Video of recent Hurricanes shot from space and enhanced.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Real News: Bush Can't Run Again, Fake News: CNN Asks Who the US People Would Vote for

If a presidential election were held this year, George Bush would either lose to an anonymous Democrat or win and be jailed for violating the term-limit provision found in the 22nd amendment to the Constitution, according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup/Nabisco/Toys R Us Poll released Tuesday

Spanish Style Roof

Spanish style roof near AFI.
Spanish style roof near AFI.

Golem Accepts MTV Award (flash)

Hilarious (rated PG-13).

Quote on the Nature of a Hypothesis

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.
-Edward Teller

Scary Clown Ballerina

Scary clown ballerina at Main and Rose near Santa Monica, CA.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Top 100 books since 1923 (published in English)

According to Time Magazine.

Pantone Announces the Top 10 Most Directional Women’s Ready-to-Wear Colors for Spring 2006

Pantone Name hex (RGB) Pantone Code CMYK
Sand Dollar #efeae0 13-1106 C=6 M=8 Y=12 K=0
Deep Ultramarine #0033c6 19-3950 C=93 M=58 Y=0 K=22
French Vanilla #f9f9ad 12-0722 C=0 M=0 Y=30 K=2
Lily Green #cef49e 13-0317 C=15 M=0 Y=34 K=4
Skyway #b5e0f4 14-4112 C=25 M=8 Y=0 K=4
Blue Tint #aaffea 13-4910 C=33 M=0 Y=8 K=0
Cameo Pink #f4b2f414-2307 C=0 M=26 Y=0 K=4
Melon #ff8c66 16-1442 C=0 M=45 Y=60 K=0
Clove #4c3319 18-1320 C=50 M=60 Y=70 K=20
Viola #a5aaff 16-3815 C=35 M=33 Y=0 K=0
(table by David Lawrence, based on data by Pantone).

Portal of the Folded Wings

Portal of the Folded Wings, shrine to aviation in Burbank, CA.

Quote About Crime

Crime does not pay ... as well as politics.
-Alfred E. Newman

Strongbad Bedtime Story (flash)

The latest Strongbad email (rated PG).

World is more peaceful now than at any time in 12 years

Despite the daily horrors in Iraq and seemingly regular spasms of terrorist-sponsored violence, the world is a much more peaceful place than it was a little more than a decade ago, a new study says.
Since the end of the Cold War, the number of armed conflicts has declined by more than 40 per cent, while the number of the deadliest conflicts - those involving more than 1,000 battle-related deaths - has dropped by 80 per cent, said the Human Security Report, which was released here [in New York] yesterday.
Over the past dozen years, the global security climate has changed in dramatic, positive and largely unheralded ways, the report states.
Civil wars, genocides and international crises have all declined sharply. International wars, now only a small minority of all conflicts, have been in steady decline for a much longer period, as have military coups and the average number of people killed per conflict per year.
(from Globe and Mail).

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Quote About Life

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
- Soren Kierkegaard

Air Jaws (windows media video)

Discovery Channel show about sharks hunting seals, and how both animals catch air above the water during the hunt (PG-13).

Friday, October 21, 2005

Google Map Plot of Wilma

Google Maps hurricane track overlay.

Ninja For Hire (flash)

Amazing jump/flip/wow skills (rated PG).

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Fatburger Receipt

Fatburger receipt

West Hollywood Fatburger receipt.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Strongbad is a Badguy (flash)

Sort of a music video (rated PG).

Invisible Skateboards (flash)

Skateboarding, with invisible skateboards - fun digital effects (rated PG).

Monday, October 17, 2005

What is Love? (flash)

A woman dances to the song (rated PG).

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Road to LAX

Road to LAX

Driveway to LAX.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Muppets Mahnamahna (flash)

Oldie and Goodie (rated PG).

Friday, October 14, 2005

I/O Brush (flash)

I/O Brush is a new drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by "picking up" and drawing with them. I/O Brush looks like a regular physical paintbrush but has a small video camera with lights and touch sensors embedded inside. Outside of the drawing canvas, the brush can pick up color, texture, and movement of a brushed surface. On the canvas, artists can draw with the special "ink" they just picked up from their immediate environment. More info at http://web.media.mit.edu/~kimiko/iobrush/

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Family Guy presents Stewie Live (flash)

Subservient chicken meets the family guy (rated PG-13).

Laser Blasted Jeep

Blasted jeep in Fry's Electronics

A jeep that has been blasted by a laser at Fry's Elctronics in Burbank, CA.

Cool Digital People Pictures

Mihai Anghelescu's digital figures: http://www.xmg.ro/mihai/index.html

Pity Hippo (flash)

A hippo and dog sign In the Jungle... (rated PG).

Robot Chicken

Adult-friendly, very funny action-figure stop-action (rated R). [offline http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2660802447916665129&q=robot%20chicken ]

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

The War of the Worlds in 30 seconds... with bunnies.

Family-Friendly flash: the 1953 War of the Worlds as performed by bunnies in 30 Seconds (rated PG).

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Fun Flash: Teen Girl Squad #10

Family-friendly animation made by Strongbad (rated PG).

Sunday, October 9, 2005

Fun Flash: Movement

Family-friendly moving clay (rated PG).

Saturday, October 8, 2005

Donald Duck's Footprints

Donald Duck's footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Burbank Sunset

sunet in Burbank

Sunset in Burbank, CA.

Why Chicago Burned - And How It Rebuilt

How another American city was unprepared for Nature's fury, and how it responded... over 100 years ago (from AmericanHeritage.com).

Friday, October 7, 2005

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

by Richard Brodie. This book is really an introduction to memetics (the study of memes) with a more contagious title (the book explains what I mean by 'contagious'). I highly recommend it, even if it is some years old at this point.
Meme:
an information pattern, held in an individual's memory, which is capable of being copied to another individual's memory.
Memetics:
the theoretical and empirical science that studies the replication, spread and evolution of memes
(definitions from Principia Cybernetica Web).

Funny Image: 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' Ended World War II


(from b3ta.com).

www.iiiiiiii.com

Family-friendly site that does exactly what the URL implies (rated G, requires Flash and your sound on).

Quote About Belief

It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative.

- John Burroughs

Thursday, October 6, 2005

Flora Bush - The Child Left Behind

Funny Satire: Music Video and more of "The Third Bush Twin" (rated PG-13)

Louisiana's Department of Social Services' Press Secretary Thinks Losing Kids is Easy

When my kids were little I used to lose them in Target, so it's not hard for me to believe, said Nanette White, press secretary for Louisiana's Department of Social Services. Sometimes little kids just wander off. They're there one second and you blink and they're gone.
(from Los Angeles Times). I believe that is the department in charge of the foster system.

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Solar Eclipse of Oct 3, 2005

...dynamic map shows the path of the solar eclipse across Earth's surface. The northern and southern limits of the annular eclipse path are plotted...

(from NASA and Google Maps).
tags: NASA, Google Maps, Mashup, Eclipse

Here Comes Sickness!

Family-friendly flash: Strong Bad has a sick day (rated PG).