If anyone's reading this from the playa, give a shout. That's too cool a convergence. ^_^

Worth a listen, for some classically styled rock: Dirty Little Rabbits, out of Iowa. And 2K Games kindly made Gary Schyman's orchestral soundtrack for Bioshock available for free.

Ahhh. It's a bright, warm day, the Horde is away, and might not be back tonight.. maybe I should take advantage of the quiet time to watch all of Sátántangó? Or I could check up on this "outdoors" thing..

Here's a fan video for I Just Wanna Fuckin' Dance, from Jerry Springer: The Opera, set to a host of dance routines from throughout cinematic history. If you're feeling low, play this right now. But why wait until then? ^_^ rabitguy noticed the full interview of Fountain Hughes, from which samples were taken for the track mentioned last time, is available online. 'Strangely, one of the first things Mr. Hughes says, by way of introducing himself to posterity, is: "My grandfather belonged to Thomas Jefferson." As if, after 100 years of living, that's what he's most proud of – that his grandfather had been the slave of a great and famous white man.' Finally, one of my favorite pieces by Fel is available fully finished off, in color - "Soro and Electricity". Not at all worksafe. =:D

If you only see one rabbity YouTube clip this month, make it this one, wherein one unsuspecting pooch discovers what it's like to become a lapine hurdle. The dog's expression at the end of it is priceless. =:D

ethethlay came across rather a cool Siggraph 2007 presentation, 4.5 minutes long, on "content aware" image resizing - rather than simply rescaling everything linearly, as we're accustomed to, this method pays attention to an image's features, preserving what it sees as the most noticeable portions, retaining their size throughout, at the expense of less important portions. Nifty seeing it in action - there are plenty of examples, including making people seamlessly (and effortlessly) vanish from a scene by denoting them as unimportant.

If you want to see John Pilger's The War on Democracy, it's now up on Google Video, as is the second part of The Enemies of Reason.

Damn, but Fixed Noise's Otto is a fun library to play with. What's not to like about an IDM collection - Kontakt 2-based, as usual, offering quite a large degree of freedom in manipulating the samples supplied - with presets like Warm Goat Tung?

'The tone in the mortgage market is "exceptionally cautious," Lonski [chief economist at Moody's Investors Service] said. "You're looking at what will be in all likelihood the worst case of home price deflation since the 1930s."' One good news resource on these matters is the Implode-O-Meter, tracking who's going under; their tally stands at 135 broke US lenders since late 2006. Britain's new Violent Crime Reduction Act apparently includes provisions to ban people from a given area, taking their photo, fingerprints, and DNA sample, on the suspicion they may be about to cause trouble; no actual offense is required. Ostensibly, this is in order to tackle alcohol-related violence in cities.

The US housing/credit fun continues: "[For July] There was a 93% jump in filings for repossessions on the same month a year ago, and a 9% rise on June's figure, property firm RealtyTrac said." Meanwhile, one of the leading house builders, Toll Brothers, declared net earnings of $27m for the quarter, compared to $175m for the same period last year, including an $89m charge due to land values dropping. "Low- or no-documentation-required jumbo loans had accounted for 43 percent of the builder's sales, according to Bank of America." BigBlueFox now has Anthrocon 2007 on offer - 3h40m in total, yours for only a 1.2GB download. ^_^ One in four US adults read no books in the past year, according to an AP-Ipsos poll, with the "typical number" being four books in the previous twelve months. I dare say this isn't anything new, though; the co-worker who drove me up to Portland back at the fossil factory was quite open about almost never having read any books, other than essential materials like manuals. (I wonder if this survey included graphic novels? There are worlds of wonder in, say, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, Cerebus, or Promethea) mycroftb uncovered this talented sculptor bunny (NSFW, surprisingly enough). =:D A quietly inspiring tale (with photo) of a fourteen year old Labrador, blind and deaf, whose companion, a ginger cat, plays the part of her guide, steering her away from obstacles, and leading her to food. Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" as you've never seen it performed before - quite something. And there's lapinity to be found, too. ^_^ (Thanks to plushlover!)

To compensate for the recent LJ outage, paid members can claim three days of paid time here. (Unfortunately, this doesn't include the userpics addon. It's a very welcome gesture all the same, given the outage wasn't due to any fault of 6A)

dronon found a fighting game with a bit of a difference.. not so much fighting, really, as catfighting. In Rose & Camellia, battles are conducted by means of face-slapping..

You've probably seen those Japanese cat costumes - here's the logical outcome: one based on Hello Kitty. And razzlfraz found (purely accidentally, of course) a curiously fascinating look at Adult Treasure Expo 2007, a Tokyo sex toys convention. Technology naturally plays a prominent role, but so does a passionate eye for aesthetics, sometimes resulting in quite mysterious devices, and some less mysterious. ^_^ Very good CG animated short for a music video: I Lived on the Moon, in a style reminiscent of Tim Burton. At ComicCon this year, Lea Hernandez related the spectacularly clueless line "In explaining the [Bratz movie], [Avi Arad] insisted that Bratz are 'X-Men for girls' — it's just that their superpowers are singing, fashion, soccer and cheerleading." - and from that, the question "Golly, I wonder which one is Wolverine?" sprang forth. So here's Wolviebratz. =:D

The first new Futurama DVD arrives on Nov 28 2007. ^_^

A good posting on the tepid support the Democratic presidential candidates are offering for gay marriage.

An electric car worth a look: the Think City.

atomicat spotted this superb riff on American anti-drug TV commercials, and includes a helpful guide. Lunch: a relatively light and very simple affair. Just some grilled chicken nuggets, a small pile of collard greens, and some quartered mushrooms, steamed in the microwave with a little garlic salt. (And the messy splurts: ranch dressing, tomato ketchup, and balsamic mustard with chili oil) Engadget readers note that FairUse4WM strips iPlayer downloads' DRM. Of course, you still need a Windows system to get the files in the first place. Annoyingly, iPlayer appears to be another P2P app, so if you're already using your outbound bandwidth, that'll be competing for it. OpenLeft seems to be establishing itself as a good venue for serious leftward political discussion - take this entry, on some possible future geopolitical scenarios, or this one on the varied voices pushing for and against the impeachment and trial of Bush and Cheney. The comments are particularly well considered, whether one agrees with their suppositions or not.

Meanwhile, in Alaska, the FBI and IRS investigation into Ted "Tubes" Stevens took a brilliantly ironic twist: "Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, whose home back in Alaska was raided by federal investigators Monday in a wide-ranging corruption investigation, has threatened to place a hold on the Democratic-drafted ethics legislation just passed by the House and expected on the Senate floor by week's end."

And it looks like my notifications have gone missing again. Please feed them if you see them around. (Curiously, it all seems to be working normally for replies in others' journals, but not mine)

Hey, otter3! LOOP

rabitguy pointed out this astonishing guitar solo by Bireli Lagrene. 'Sgood. (How many guitarists are there on my flist? ISTR atomicat's been known to noodle around as well, and runtt.. what other musical talents are youse lot keeping hidden?)

Old lady versus impatient driver. Don't miss this brief gem of the web. ^_^ (Then again, you shouldn't miss the first one either. And you should keep raw bacon from sitting on top of cheese in the fridge, though I seem to have terrible difficulty convincing others using the fridge here of that. Speaking of which, orona_red came across this remarkable club. Truly, the web offers all)

I wonder if it'd be possible to make a good remix of the Shaun the Sheep theme, combined with Belbury Poly's "Farmer's Angle"..

A fascinating little piece on the future role of the British armed forces, and the direction society might take, according to their prognostications.

Via mejeep, a rather cool vintage set of photographs depicting a rabbit hunt. =:)

The video for Gorillaz' "Rock It" owes a little to Mr Gilliam, it would seem.. and Gotan Project - Santa Maria is quite a good video to a nuevo tango track.

paka in particular might enjoy this remarkable horse.

So, what really happened at the end of Life on Mars? Find out, direct from the lead writer and co-creator. (This may also mean spoilers in the comments, if you've not yet seen the episode)

plushlover recently unearthed an old Apple II magazine ad, which is just begging for a caption contest. =:D

Here's an amusing quote of the NSFW variety. And the linked pics are worth seeing.

This posting explores the depth of plagiarism one "artist", Todd Goldman of "David & Goliath", has been engaging in, and making very good money at it, with prints selling in the range of $1k, and plenty of other mass merchandise. The example where Dave Kelley's work was unequivocally copied is one of the more blatant.

Vaguely handy: a buyer's guide from MacRumors, listing dates of each product line's revisions, suggesting whether it's in mid-cycle, due for a bump, or just updated. Of course, the historical evidence is of limited value, given processor availability's now the realm of a different manufacturer. (And quite a friendly relationship it appears to be, too - seems the particular Xeon used in the new dual quad-core Mac Pro is currently only being supplied to Apple)

Anime again. ^_^ Darker than Black, from Bones, seems to be off to a reasonable start. It's set in 2015, where the unnamed city is walled off by Hell's Gate, beyond which few know what lies. Some do come in from the outside - people with superhuman abilities, acting as hit-men, working to a strict set of rules, known as Contractors, and mediums, or Dolls.

A somewhat different tone is taken in Sola, which begins as a seemingly conventional chance romance, only to wind up in a swordfight climax as the apparent heroine is targeted by a bespectacled stranger. Neither seem outstanding, but they're quite enjoyable, one episode in.

spidermouse noticed that there's a screening of Paprika, amongst other anime features, in London on May 5. Not that the other selections are bad, but that'd be worth the trip alone, if it's an option.

Spotted by mycroftb.. ^_^

Well, there's something of a surprise.. EMI, who'd once seemed open to the idea of letting go of DRM, was reported a few weeks ago to be toughening its stance once more, in readiness for merger talks, which subsequently fell through. Today, EMI and Apple announced the availability of DRM-free online music. Interestingly, if disappointingly, it won't supplant the existing offerings, but be in addition to the DRM'd files, and at higher audio quality. Will people pay extra to be free of DRM? 99¢ for 128kbps AAC with DRM, or $1.29 for 256kbps AAC without DRM. EMI thinks so - "Nicoli cited internal EMI tests in which higher-quality, DRM-free songs outsold its lower-quality, copy-protected counterparts 10 to 1." [Edit: complete EMI albums will only be available DRM-free at 256kbps, with no change in price. EMI music videos will also be DRM-free]

Got an iPod nano? Now you can bunnify it. =:D (Sadly, the full size version's sold out)

Oh, cracking good show, Gromit! A fan video for Korn & Tommyknocker - Twist (FLV), using Balto, and a load of video effects. OONTZ!

Via loganberrybunny, news of a rabbit who tried furiously to awaken his human, who'd slipped into a diabetic coma. "Simon Steggall, 42, of Warboys in Cambridgeshire, said Dory, a one-and-a-half stone rabbit, jumped on his chest and thumped furiously when he passed out while watching television. Dory's odd behaviour caught the attention of Mr Steggall's wife, Victoria, 32, an ambulance driver. When her attempts to bring him round failed, she rang 999 for paramedics for help."

Doctor Who s3e1 - unreservedly recommended! Wonderful. I could've done without the 1930s Frankenstein theatrics of electric arcing, but the chemistry's right there, and RTD's maturing well as a writer. It's positively refreshing to have a companion who might be able to show up the Doctor on occasion.

Apparently (despite the April 1 date) some folks have got full OS X running on Apple TV..

One of the more faaabulous videos I've seen: Sin with Sebastian - Shut up and sleep with me (FLV). ^_^

Yay! Reasonable quality versions of several EBN videos, directly available from one of the creators. Most cool. And kyootfox pointed me towards Delerium & Mediæval Bæbes - Aria (FLV), which gets me all hoppy.

Nutter for the day: a Norwegian skiing down (FLV) Europe's longest escalator - 300 feet long - in the Angel tube station. =:D

I'm no astronomer, so I've not previously even been aware this feature existed - but there it is, and apparently long-lived, having first been noticed twenty years ago: Saturn's hexagon. '"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."' Here's an article looking at the science behind such seemingly unlikely phenomena. Projection Political Theater 3000. =:D

Clone-A-Willy dildo kit. Now you can give everyone the shaft.

Highly nifty. Cake pans shaped to give the finished result an interesting 3D form - in this case, a bunneh. ^_^ Speaking of which, if you're the sort of person who sends physical material through the US postal service, these stamps warrant your consideration.

In the comments here, someone notes a nifty example of natural selection at work: "In 1975 a team of Japanese scientists discovered a strain of Flavobacterium living in ponds containing waste water from a factory producing nylon that was capable of digesting certain byproducts of nylon-6 manufacture, such as, 6-aminohexanoate linear dimer, even though those byproducts had not existed prior to the invention of nylon in 1935."

In this list of the Top Ten Coolest People on TV, I'm most gratified to see the only non-human, at number nine, is Dylan, of The Magic Roundabout. ^_^ (Number one? David Tennant, as Doctor Who)

I'm giving these paper collection things another try.. books, they call them. Not bought, of course - I gave up buying paper a few years back, after the.. well, not quite sure which move, but some small number of dozens. Digital only. Anyway, currently I'm enjoying "The Best Thing That Can Happen to a Croissant", by Pablo Tusset, a mystery of sorts set in Barcelona, with a fantastic feel for some of the atmosphere of the city. (The cover quote: "A perfect salute to imperfection. This isn't a book, it's a month of Friday nights out.")

The perfect prayer for a chocolate Jesus.

Here's quite a handy index of online TV documentaries, courtesy of GooTube.

Yay! Episode 13 of the bunny superhero anime Sweet Valerian finally came out! Or, download it directly here. ^_^ rabitguy found these cute paper synthesisers. =:D And also reminded me that the second and third parts of The Top 20 Greatest Synths are now up. Even if you're not musical, it's entertainingly presented. So the Apple TV's OS is out in the wild, and lo, it is indeed OS X. Here's someone booting it on a MacBook. And here's someone running Ableton Live on an Apple TV. (It's only a 1GHz "Dothan" Pentium M with a non-expandable 256MB, so it's not really competition for the Mac mini, but still, fun to see) If you want to join in the fun, here's a relevant wiki. Sen. McCain's campaign recently discovered that hotlinking is bad. =:D

I shouldn't think huskyteer would object to this guy wandering past on the beach. (Thanks to mycroftb)

The video for Gigi D'Agostino - The Riddle (FLV) is a neat bit of simple animation, bringing a more complex concept to life.

rabitguy noticed that the guy playing a track from one of his albums, The Leper (FLV) is also behind Retarded Animal Babies. =:D

And only another couple hours until the torrents start flowing with Doctor Who! *bounce* You can find the new BBCi trailer over here - much fun in store. And a brief confirmation of a rumored piece of casting.. egad, but he looks disturbingly well suited to the role already. ^__^

I'm putting this up at the top as it's such an extraordinary piece of work - surrealistic in an Alice in Wonderland meets the Matrix way, if Hieronymus Bosch had directed: Jona/Tomberry (12 minutes, 47MB). (I should caution that the first sixty seconds contain some variable rate strobing; if that's liable to be problematic, you may want to enter at the one minute mark)

Track for the day: P-Model - Logic Airforce. [Edit: link fixed] Excellent, quirky piece of Japanese synthpop; reminiscent of Sparks, had they been Japanese, and a little more odd. (P-Model is another of Susumu Hirasawa's projects - the vocal style may be familiar from the Paranoia Agent opening theme; and if not, here's the opening and ending titles from said series) How about Boards of Canada - Twoism? You may recognise the visual style - if you do, you're right.. Jeunet & Caro. LittleBigPlanet for the PS3 looks fairly amazing. Penny Arcade's response is commensurately amusing. =:D

Do rabbits like to swim? (This one does, at least)

So, how many openings from (mostly) 80s tracks can you spot in Osymyso's "Intro-Introspection"? (Not to be confused with the excellent "Intro and the Outro" by the inimitable Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. How many folks know of Sir Henry at Rawlinson End? Extremely Stanshall. I'd hope patch_bunny knows of it)

rabitguy passed on this video which definitely should be heard to be believed: Te Quiero Puta. Visuals not strictly worksafe, lyrics not at all if you know any Spanish; but it's all for fun, and how often do you get to enjoy heavy mariachi? (Well, brass is a metal. Or alloy, rather) ^_^ (Not to be confused with the classic arrangement of The KLF's What Time Is Love, for brass band) The bun also pointed out an excellent introduction to a most wonderful device, the Kurzweil K250, a superb example of engineering an instrument to the point of squee, not merely fulfilling a list of requirements.

And from kyootfox, life as a bunny around the home. So very adorable..

Does anyone have any recommendations for sites offering an introduction to modern philosophers? (Maybe I should phrase that differently. Sounds like a request for a dating site)

sockscatt will enjoy this multi-part canine TF. Much fun. ^_^ And andysquirrel might appreciate this rendition of Tails.

Damn! How did I miss out entirely on Miss Potter? I must remedy this. There are, after all, bunnies. *nods* You do have to love this logic. Can't help but agree with the title, too. ^_^

Two five-second teasers for Doctor Who, starting on the 31st: here and here. (Under 600K each, given their length) FWIW, it seems season four has been commissioned, and RTD's saying "his work here is - almost - done".

Here's a blast from the past: an episode of the long-running BBC1 science show, Tomorrow's World, from 1982. (The cognoscenti will recognise TW as one of the primary influences for the second season of Look Around You) The segment on robotics in Japan, at the end of the show, is probably the highlight. Rather neat.. on this bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa, it makes a point of "ducks are employed to keep the grape vines free from snails. They are far more efficient and eco-friendly than harmful chemicals." So I get to enjoy a particularly good wine, and help the web-footed economy along.

arbutus might enjoy this clip patch_bunny found, on the size of Rachmaninov's hands. =:)

Going somewhat further back than 1982, ysengrin found the University of Utah has some Aztec codices available in digital form over here - fascinating works.

This really does need to be made into a movie. =:D

Oooh. Didn't huskyteer mention Kopparberg perry once upon a time? Finally found it locally, and it is indeed quite scrumptious, if perhaps a little on the sweet side.

Pr0n of the day, from Sheer.

Here's one of the best threads I've read thus far on the whole kaboodle of the iPhone, OS X, TV, convergence, and all that. Hard-core nerd territory, but mostly very well considered from all sides. Two links that came from there which seemed worth highlighting: LLVM as key to trimming OS X down for iPhone deployment, and how the Apple Stores came to be. Did you know they prototyped a store within a Cupertino warehouse first? It wound up being organised much as the company was, rather than how people were likely to consider purchasing. So rev.A was scrapped, setting the rollout back by some six to nine months. The payoff? "Saks, whose flagship is down the street, generates sales of $362 per square foot a year. Best Buy stores turn $930 - tops for electronics retailers - while Tiffany & Co. takes in $2,666. Audrey Hepburn liked Tiffany's for breakfast. But at $4,032, Apple is eating everyone's lunch." The TubeStick is now available for sale to UK peeps, same price of 40€, or about £28. Want to learn Cocoa? You may find this free PDF book helpful: Become an Xcoder, available in English, Chinese, and Arabic.

Their wares are of no interest to me, but Dell's to be highly commended for adopting a policy of recycling any of their computers. "Dell is now the only computer maker to offer consumers free recycling, whether or not they are buying a new Dell product. You can go to a Dell website, and print out a prepaid shipping label to return your Dell desktop, laptop, printer or ink cartridge, free of charge. They'll send a service to pick the equipment up." Excellent! In the continued absence of legislation requiring such, it's obviously to be hoped other manufacturers will catch up.

I hadn't noticed until just now, but apparently RISC OS is now open source. Commercial usage still needs to be paid for. It's only suitable for deployment on RISC PC style architecturel; there are emulators around, however. If RISC OS is a bit too new-fangled for you, though, try this BBC Micro emulator in Java. ^_^

While nosing around for potential positions involving ARM or PowerPC assembly, I noticed this company's vacancies - it's the bit at the bottom that got me. =:D (Obviously, how could I refuse to send my resumé in?)

Perhaps the coolest music video ever: Cornelius, "Fit Song" (FLV). CG, stop motion, and plenty of compositing, supremely elegantly combined.

If you've some interest in visual special effects, you might enjoy this 1985 documentary, The Magic Picture Show, from BBC1's "QED" series, hosted by Kenny Everett. It's great fun, seeing how much graphic design and technology's come in that time - and Cuddly Ken's always good. ^_^ Marvel at the wonders of blue-screen separation, and the miracles of Quantel!

Quite brilliant French Hyundai advert (FLV). =:D

Jolly good show, what? Red Ken's made a deal with the Venezuelan oil company for 20% off all fuel for London's bus fleet, in exchange for tourism-related assistance.

One or two folks might be interested in this group, which is just what it sounds like: photo_squirrel. Some quite excellent images to be found there.

Cool beans! Seems the world's largest wave power farm is about to be deployed, off the Scottish coast, ramping up to supply 1,500 homes. 'Friends of the Earth Scotland chief executive Duncan McLaren weighed in with: "Wave and tidal power could supply a fifth of UK's electricity needs and Scotland is ideally placed to generate significant amounts of this pollution-free energy.'

rabitguy found these stories, available as free PDFs (or on paper): "Silver Squirrel, the novel. What's it about: A boy, a girl, and they're squirrels." "[...] a new series of adventure novels based in nature. Remember digging into the pages of a great story? Why not give Silver Squirrel a try, and you'll discover a whole new natural world!"

Well, that's a pleasant surprise - I'm not sure where it came from, but there's now a Budweiser Budvar stein in the cupboard, decorated with a scene of the factory, and a brief introduction to the lager in Czech, German, English, and Russian. ^_^

If you've used HandBrake for DVD transcoding in the past, you may like to know development hasn't halted - by virtue of it being an open source project, it's been reborn as MediaFork, available for OS X, Linux x86, and Windows.

A new, very furry music video: Wintersleep - Jaws of Life. Where else will you get to see a bunny driving a car that's transformed into a mechadeer? (Band's site here)

The other clip you should see this week has to be one person's description (FLV) of March of the Emperor, the original French title for March of the Penguins. =:)

Bruce Campbell is inherently cool (FLV), even in a commercial.

Kawaii Not comes up with another gem. =:) On the genuinely cute (and bizarre) front, though, this fruity entry from CuteOverload really needs to be seen. Who knew you could do that with a banana? (And as for rats..) Here's a superb way to waste an afternoon: a Warcraft-inspired Flash game, noticed by patch_bunny. Lay down a choice of towers with their differing capabilities, upgrade or install new ones as you're able, and see how many levels you can annihilate. ^_^; And if someone at the con's reading this: "Are any of you guys that are headed to FC going to be coming through Colorado on your way back? If so, can you accomodate a small animal carrier with 2-4 baby rats in it? Will trade MULTIPLE full color commissions in exchange for transport help."

ysengrin may want to see the trailer for the forthcoming New Zealand film Black Sheep, as shadowolf noticed.

Sounds like a fascinating documentary: American Eunuchs.

Consider, if you please, the lives of dogs and cats. (Thanks to momentrabbit and dagoski!)

As for the iPhone - drop-dead gorgeous, but it's the UI that fascinates me. It pretty much goes without saying that screen will be coming to the other iPods soon enough. If you've not seen it in action, here's a quick demo that'll give you a good idea of just how much work's been put into the device.. so beautifully refined. Or, if you'd prefer to watch the full-blown demo, the keynote and just the introduction can be seen here, or, for best quality, go to the iTunes Store, search on "keynote", and click "Subscribe" on the Macworld Keynote Address. It'll load in the background - 1.2GB in all.

Speaking of which, this Ars thread explores some of the future possibilities of multitouch UIs - it also covers that demo you may have seen, by Jeff Han of MIT. (And if you haven't, watch it now!)

Apparently, its version of OS X - which does indeed appear to be the real deal, simply optimised and relieved of portions irrelevant to the device - weighs in at "considerably less" than 512MB of flash. I wonder if World of Warcraft could run on it.. =:) (Yes, joking, but still.. only trouble is that the critter appears to be Xscale-based, and furtherance of its design seems to've largely stalled in recent years. Perhaps the iPhone might be where the PowerPC makes its return to Apple - there are some quite attractively low power, high performance PPCs around)

Deservedly, comment of the week on The Comics Curmudgeon, speaks of this Curtis strip, "Why the hell aren't glowing telepathic otters the most publicized aspect of Kwanzaa? Its presence in Curtis has single-handedly legitimized this holiday in my mind." "A mother and son accused of stealing a snake from a pet store were arrested when they returned to the store and asked for books on how to care for the animal, police said. Store clerks recognized the suspects from surveillance video taken during the theft and stalled them until police arrived." The question posed in this quiz show is "which of these orbits the Earth?", with the choices being the Moon, the Sun, Mars, and Venus. The pain, the pain..

Parallels Workstation is nifty stuff. Have a look at these screenshots showing OS X and XP applications side-by-side on the same desktop, like any other apps, each running natively within their own OS, no emulation involved.

Could be interesting: a memorial to Carl Sagan in SL, opened by his son.

balor has nobly been researching what may, indeed, be the world's worst book. Don't say you weren't warned. (An excerpt is included. Oh, how you'll wish there weren't.. and no, this is not intentionally bad, and even has a glowing New Yorker review)

I wonder what kind of climate and soil durians can manage in, outside their native areas..

Not that I have a Linux-capable router (or maybe I do? It's a 3Com 3CRWDR100A-72), but if I had one and put one of the router distros on it, is it possible to rig the firewall rules such that traffic coming in unencrypted would only be able to see the internet, not the LAN, and anything using WPA2 would have full access? (Some bandwidth throttling mightn't be a bad idea either, just to be sure no casual visitor on the street wound up slurping all my bandwidth)

Quote for the day from Tycho: "E3 wasn't so much work as it was... It's hard to say what it was, which I suppose is another reason to dismantle it. It was more like our Moose Lodge, a masculine retreat minus the bongos and face paint." (The comic, though, leaves me puzzled, given I was flying intercontinental before I could walk =:)

For OS X geeks, Google's now released an implementation of the Linux FUSE mechanism, permitting the (theoretically =:) easy addition of a range of filesystems. "Examples of file systems that work have been tested (to varying degrees) include sshfs, ntfs-3g (read/write NTFS), ftpfs (read/write FTP), wdfs (WebDAV), cryptofs, encfs, bindfs, unionfs, beaglefs (yes, including the entire Beagle paraphernalia), and so on."

Streamburst has a novel approach to DRM - don't use it. Just add a few seconds at the start saying who downloaded that copy, and embed a small off-screen "watermark" confirming that. Buy an episode of, say, Long Way Round for £1.35, and you get a 752x416 H.264 version for DVD-grade playback, 320x176 H.264 for iPods and suchlike, and 208x112 MPEG-4 for phones. An excellent idea, though spoiled a little by remaining only level with the cost of the DVD purchase - in this case, £13 for all ten episodes on 3 DVDs.

Just so neat.. a foil boat floating on a sea of sodium hexafluoride, a colorless gas. A superb quote regarding not actually lapine shoes, but so very nearly. =:) Arashi no Yoru ni isn't just an anime.. ^_^ Interesting take on personal net.radio: Musicovery. Requires Flash, unfortunately, so it's strictly a browser-bound affair, and may or may not be open to non-OS X/Windows folks. Still, it's a novel approach. marko_the_rat might like to peek at some forthcoming Ratatouille books.

Album title for the day: Tim Koch's "Please don't tell me that's your Volvo".

One of the more daffy memes I've seen, so naturally it appealed: on your LJ user info, you'll see your ID number next to your name. Look that up in the US Patent Office's listings, and see what you're registered as. ^_^ I'm just a boring "air inlet device for internal combustion engines", from 1922. Whee, I suck!

Supposedly, Sony will not allow porn on Blu-Ray. As the brief article notes, "It does not matter how you stand to porn. It is here and it is a massive business. It is also an industry that is an early adopter for new media technology. VHS might not have won with out the adult film industry adopting it." That said, does the future of HD porn lie on either format - and there are others in the background as well - or with downloads? An hour of good quality 720p video using H.264 can fit into around 1GB - and whilst that might sound like a lot, with a low-end DSL connection of 2Mbps, that's about 90 mins to download. Scale up to a more usual 8Mbps, or a good cable connection, and that's all possible now, without any additional equipment required.

Torchwood season 1 finale: oh, gods, what bottomless pit of eternal hackery spewed forth such writing? A few good plot points - particularly the ending, and not just because it brought this to a close - but so much sheer wretchedness everywhere else. Was this some fanfic stinker that managed to slip into the script pile? (Ah, I see the writer was also reponsible for the execrable Cyberwoman, and the nearly-as-stinky second episode. Also Countrycide, which wasn't too bad) Still.. there was that rather delightful endcap to the season.

So, another chapter in SGI's history wraps up, with the last of their Mountain View offices closed; they're now all safely tucked away in Sunnyvale. I only managed to visit a couple times, including one occasion where I visited FurToonia's new home, having handed it over (with almost no downtime, yay!) from tbyte to the paws of another wizard who was working at SGI at the time, deep in their network bowels.

I'm impressed by the level of detail exhibited in Wikipedia's entry on "porn".

Rather a cool photo: a man with 800 acupuncture needles applied to his head.

Enjoying a little relaxation in the spa built within the massive ribcage of a long-expired creature.

If you've ever wondered about the person behind Stephen Colbert, here's a rare look, during an appearance at a forum at Harvard's Kennedy School of Politics. It's about an hour long, in all, so it'll take time to load - the GVI download is 415MB.

Rabbit versus Snake - most cool. ^_^ (FLV)

Interesting community: day_on_earth, featuring simply photos of every day from different parts of the world, contributed by community members. And here's a slideshow (Flash required) from recent news events, courtesy of the Guardian, with some excellent photographic skills on display.

Yay hoofie costumes! Here's a very cool quadrupedal goat.

relee's set up a weblog for matters pertaining to SL happenings, its future, scripting advice, and more. You can subscribe to it here, as relee_sl_rss.

For SL news with an Australian perspective, I noticed there's SLOz. Perhaps the writer can be proven wrong on this count? "There certainly is no cohesive Australian community in-world that I’ve been able to nail down."

A particularly good Doctor Who video starring the Daleks, set to an eminently appropriate EBM track by Rotersand, "Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy". For a high quality downloadable version (with the correct aspect ratio too), look here.

Yay bunny doll TF! And this time, with added 'yeena goodness. Finally, just some good ole ~shiny~ latex, starring Micah's Geoff and Trevor. ^_^

Oh, one more: a costume. Not at all worksafe. *giggle* Hm! You can tell I'm not a hardcore Star Wars fan, when this is news to me.. "The language spoken by the Jawas (the hooded aliens of Tatooine) was created by recording speakers of the African Zulu language and electronically speeding it up. The language spoken by Greedo, the green alien killed by Han Solo, is the Peruvian language Quechua played backwards." You do work here? So, The Sarah Jane Adventures began - and very well. Supposedly aimed at a slightly younger audience, it remains eminently suitable for a much broader range, just as the Doctor always has. It struck me, though, that whereas the central characters here were attempting to prove (successfully) their ingenuity and guile, those of Torchwood often seemed more intent on proving how idiotic one can be and get away with it. (And why is there this seemingly inviolate wall preventing anyone in Torchwood mentioning the Doctor, when SJS was reminiscing in this taster episode?) Anyway - suffice to say, it's good stuff; the series itself won't be starting until "later this year", however.

Still - ep.10, "Out of Time", showed far stronger promise for all concerned than any of the opening episodes, Owen especially, going from a nasty creep with a penchant for using alien tech to mesmerise clubbers into having sex with him, to someone so fragile and in love, only to have that togetherness wrenched away from him. And Jack's.. responsibility? Was it a duty, or a reflection of his own self, of something he can never permit himself?

Ep.11.. eh, seems fairly safe to skip it. Why the need for a Fight Club remake? Ep.12, though, from the same writer as Out of Time, opened with quiet style. Some "huh?" moments, like Toshiko's claim that pencil would fade, but - that dance. That moment of dancing will remain one of the series' highlights for me.. simply beautiful.

Now for the season finale.

I just noticed the Manage Settings page here now has a checkbox to turn off the hover menu you now see when your mouse is on top of someone's user icon. A harmlessly useless feature, but also perfectly positioned (in my journal's appearance, anyway) so that after clicking on the "previous entries" in my flist, the pointer will then be on top of everyone's icons.

Unfortunately, the "use placeholders for embedded video" option does literally replace the entire area with a simple placeholder of the same size, so it doesn't get rid of those huge voids. (I never watch clips in those embedded spaces - much more convenient to open them in new tabs and let them load in the background)

On the other paw, using that kind of area for this.. ^_^

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Fun music video: Rinôçérôse "Cubicle". rabitguy and sphelx, amongst others, might like this.


Consider taking a holiday from being a human.

Chris Morris and Armando Ianucci would be proud. Regard the long horse; be sure to read the comments.

This act by Jerome Murat is captivating indeed.

A moment of Zen: noticing that Ozy & Millie - or rather, Keenspot - was being sponsored by Wicked Lasers ("Power to Burn"). Someone in marketing knows their stuff. ^_^

I know it's hardly anything complex, but the bassline in Nathan Fake's "Charlie's House" really gets me.

Fun stuff.. a talk radio host in DC using his powers for good. He opened the show proposing mandating crescent-shaped tattoos, or a similarly identifying armband, for all muslims in the US - and out came the dregs of society and onto the switchboard. Half an hour of bile later, he swats those people down.

Pic for the day, courtesy of mycroftb - Nowhere Man. And for a hoofy TF, cowboys is worth viewing.

Perhaps the most beautiful music video I've seen: Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You into the Dark (FLV). So deeply sad, hopeful, wistful, melancholic, and loving. mycroftb just introduced me to the I Can Eat Glass Project: 'The Project is based on the idea that people in a foreign country have an irresistable urge to try to say something in the indigenous tongue. In most cases, however, the best a person can do is "Where is the bathroom?" a phrase that marks them as a tourist. But, if one says "I can eat glass, it doesn't hurt me," you will be viewed as an insane native, and treated with dignity and respect.'

Make random Sam & Max stuff, win stuff! And there are new S&M goodies to peruse in Telltale's store, including a spiffy b&w sketchbook, "The Age of S&M", and a Max skull & crossbones shirt.

'This is Steve's first Sam & Max book in about 10 years, and it's full of never before seen concepts, doodles, and other Freelance Police-related works of art. Some of our favorite parts are the inside-cover sketches of Sam & Max, along with notations, that Steve made as guidelines for the people doing the animated series, and the list of lines and scenarios that the censors cut from the episodes. (Example: "Please do NOT show Max biting down on a battery while standing in water.")'

In the US government's tireless efforts to protect the American populace from foreign threats, its citizens are now free from the risk of Vegemite.

rabitguy noticed this sad tale of an independent animated feature, "Tugger", that, through a twisted vine of shady dealings, led to the waste of many people's talents and savings.

You can find the video for the Scissor Sisters' I Don't Feel Like Dancing over here, or a low-res version here. And sockscatt noticed there's Take Your Mama Out Tonight, from their turn at the Brit Awards, with scene design borrowed from some cross between Sesame Street and Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

This odd short, Pistachio Pudding, which mycroftb found is a fine waste of a few minutes. ^_^

On sex education. Several internets are owed retrospectively.

Do you recognise this most alluring amphibian dude, as revealed unto mine eyes by patch_bunny? I like the sound of I Was A Teenage Intellectual, a Czech short which regrettably lacks any commercial release: "Pavel and Eva are two teenagers who live a happy life full of McDonald's food, action movies and pop music. But one night, Pavel stumbles upon a secret gathering of intellectuals in the woods on his way to the video store. Not wanting to be discovered, the intellectuals attack him and the chief intellectual bites him in the leg. Some times later, he begins changing... Will the power of television, Eva's love and pop star Michal David's music save him from the intellectuals' evil clutches?" Find it here (352x256 H.264, 16 mins, 28MB). From the "when movie professionals have time on their hands" department: The Story of Oedipus, in eight minutes, performed by vegetables.

But if you need your brain broken, have a look at this variant of the SMART car. Only a concept vehicle, sad to say. ^_^

Another from the "really simple concept" music video department, this time, a tiny bit more difficult to pull off: Fatboy Slim - That Old Pair of Jeans, with Chris Bliss juggling in perfect sync.

Red panda is only 40 Yuan? I knew everyfur had their price, but I didn't think runtt was that cheap. =:)

Looks like there might be a degree of lapinity in David Lynch's next movie, Inland Empire. "Here, disconcertingly, there are sequences (not explained at all) involving a family on stage in rabbit heads as well as a murky sub-plot about eastern European prostitutes. Hollywood myth and Polish Gypsy folk tale clash head-on with startling but very uneven effect. The director deliberately blurs the lines and so we are never quite sure whether we are watching the film-within-the-film (being directed by Jeremy Irons) or the film about the film-within-the-film."

pandaguy spotted this story: 'Rabbits are taking over some roads in northwestern Vermont and it's got people talking. Outlines of rabbits, spray-painted in white, have been stenciled onto city streets and rural roads in St. Albans, Georgia, Fairfield, Swanton and other communities in Franklin County and no one is quite sure what to make of it. "What is up with the bunnies?" L.B. Clark wrote in a letter to the editor of the St. Albans Messenger.' (No photos included, curiously)

Tiletoy - LED-based puzzle blocks that know when they've been solved.

I was tickled to see one of the BBC7 Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann, whom I've still never seen/heard in the role) adventures being broadcast over Christmas is titled "The Horror Of Glam Rock". And there'll be a Cybermen two-parter, "Human Resources". Yay!

And I finally returned to SL after a much too lengthy absence. ^_^ Wandering around Taco, there seem to've been various modest changes, but it's still recognisably the same place. I was a little surprised to see notice that Dwellget's going away, as the owners feel it's taking a substantial chunk of the sim's resources. So, as they noted, take pics of the place while you still can. ^_^ Now to try bumping into these folks I've yet to meet.. ! ~waves to skwrl~

Interesting to see news of the SL security breach in the mainstream. It's a serious issue - all too often, security of customer information just isn't given proper consideration, as we see in the theft of laptops containing massive databases, unencrypted.

Ye gods.. just tried out the cheap speakers that came with the PC. How cheap? The meat in a McDonalds burger weighs more. And has superior acoustic qualities. Presumably the manufacturer later realised the error of their ways, and chose to enter millinery instead.

So, movies on the "iTunes Store" is confirmed. Disney only for now (Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, Miramax), with 75 titles, at 640x480. $13 for pre-release (same day as the DVDs) and the first week, $15 after, and $10 for older titles. Looks like other video material's also moving to 640x480, which would make music videos a much more interesting proposition for me. Improvements to the iPod line were announced (of course), but the Q1 2007 set-top box could be nice - "half the size of a Mac mini", internal PSU, USB, ethernet, WiFi, component video, optical/electronic audio, HDMI. $299. [Edit: Engadget has plenty of photos. iTunes 7 and QuickTime 7.1.3 are now available for your downloading pleasure]

The greatest music video of all time: The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist.

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Japanese TV does throw up some interesting nuggets.. like these massage house pranks. The second stunt they pull looks like fun. ^_^

I must thank patch_bunny for pointing me to the answer to "why do only palms and soles get wrinkly in the bath?" And rabitguy, for pointing out a most wonderful and not worksafe bit of sculpture on SL. ^_^

ComicGenesis seems to be gathering some good strips.. first nocona, now Sandusky, the tale of one man and his dog, and an abandoned puma cub left by their door one night. Very cute. ^_^

Wise words on the public perception of furrydom. ^_^

Egad. Even my spam's turning furry.. first "an opportunistic raccoon who explains", followed straight away by "malefoxe".

What a music video.. grim, touching, an animated tale of jealousy and redemption: Kashmir - "Rocket Brothers".

They'd better have an adult version of this voice-changing Cyberman mask available. Still, it does say 1:1 scale, and I didn't see any Cyberrugrats. (But who knew Cybermen required three AA cells?)

Dork is a fun 2D puzzle game, vaguely a kind of ladders & levels game. You play a bug that can hop around the screen - but hopping from one place to another is all it can do, no other movement. Yes, the control is the mouse button - and nothing else. ^_^ Currently available for OS X and Windows, with x86 Linux coming soon. Free demo levels, $5.50 or $9.50 for additional levels.

For a quick look at all of AC2006, peek here. ^_^ (6610x2149, 3.3MB JPEG)

Via shadowolf, a fun twist on the "make a picture out of pictures" theme. (Flash, silent)

There's been a reaction from Six Apart on the LJ/Vox concerns, including a request for clarification of users' ages: 'Go to the profile page and specify your full date of birth, including your year of birth. If you don't want everyone to see how old you are, make sure the box that says "show your birthday to other users" is unchecked.'

El Reg notes the UK Mobile Phone Throwing championship, taking place on Aug 20: "the UK records, set at last year's event, are 69.31m for the men and 38.74m for the women. Both fall short of the world records, set in Finland, where handsets were hauled 94.97m and 41.42m, respectively."

Ye gods and little fishes, but the net is a wonderful thing. ^_^ I remembered, once upon a time, seeing a video for a cover of "Runaway", featuring several dinos - but I saw it that one time, and never again. And with that song having been covered so many times, I couldn't seem to find it via google at all.

Enter YouTube. ^_^ Luis Cardenas - Runaway. You'd almost swear it was made in the 80s. =:)

patch_bunny noticed this rather beautiful leather pony mask, amongst much other furry goodness.

Hm. Might be worth keeping abreast of developments on the Vox front. This posting may well be premature in its conclusions that Six Apart's preparing to shift LiveJournal to compete with MySpace, but the line of "LiveJournal has grown to be an amazing community of fiercely independent bloggers, primarily teenagers and twenty-somethings" could suggest that wouldn't be a large step to take. (I've not seen an entry with 200 pages of comments before, though)

You can find some especially good screensavers for OS X over here, all free - libre et gratis. Skyrocket's fireworks are perhaps the best, but they're all worth admiring for their shininess.

And roohbear pointed out this kitty entrant in World Naked Bike Ride 2006.

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Finally, proving that there really is a place for everything on the net: Hitler cats, "A blog dedicated to cats that look like Hitler". ^_^