Rant Things

Current Mood: Mellow & Tired

This week I found things.

• Dragon cake! Impressive work. Unfortunately probably not cheap. (via Reddit.)
• It’s the Assumption Song!. (via Reddit.)
• A map of the Milky Way done as a Tube-style map. Via Kottke.

For the video, still on the Bill Bailey thing. This time he outlines what makes U2 great.

Current Mood: Amused & Tired

Shortish linkdump tonight, mainly because I wanted to post the video at the end.

We have:

• Six ways to get ahead this year — new years’ resolutions that makes sense for anyone working at a company. I try to do a few of these already, but more don’t hurt. And they’re not as smarmy as the “Is this good for the company?” banner in Office Space. Via The Consumerist.
• In keeping with the motivational theme today, we have a set of Hunter S. Thompson Motivational Posters. I like Professionalism, Courage, and Living, myself. Via Reddit.
• These Special Sysadmin Tools are amusing. Hint: Don’t actually run them. Via Reddit.
• American football shouldn’t be called that. It should be called Hand Egg. Via Reddit.
• OK, so it’s not so short after all. Next we’ve got transparent duct tape.
• And then we have a device that provides seven days of continuous glucose monitoring with a single sensor, for my diabetic friends.
• Last, we’ve got the ever-equipmented Vincent Laforet, who’s currently using a mix of Canon and Red equipment (sometimes both) to shoot a surfing short. See some behind the scenes footage for more creative photo gear combinations.

OK — here’s the video. I’m a fan of Eddie Izzard and Dara O’Briain for smart stand-up comedy; tonight on Videosift, I find that they’ve been posting stand-up clips from Bill Bailey, who up till now I’ve only seen in clips from QI. (Go sign their petition to release the DVD in the US — want intelligent funnythings on TV please!). Play. Laugh. Enjoy.

Bill Bailey on “Acts of God” rental insurance clauses:

And Bill Bailey on Britain:

Current Mood: Amused & Relaxed

Welcome to 2009! This year I resolve to do more things better. (In all the various and interesting ways that sentence can be parsed.)

Meanwhile, a bit of a backlog of links.

• Here’s what happens when you get angry and shout at your hard disks. It makes them perform worse. Via Reddit.
• Consumerist had a *great* start to 2009; they were purchased from Gawker Media (who wasn’t giving them any love due to no company wanting to advertise on the site) by Consumers Union, the publishers of Consumer Reports. It makes sense, is absolutely great, and means more posts like this cheat sheet to strange food expiration date codes.
• For the how-things-work people, here’s a video outlining how the Hibernia Atlantic repairs undersea fiber optic cables. I’d heard about fusion splicers before (they start at $20k and go up from there) which bond broken ends of fiber optic cables; I had no idea they were as automated as the one in this video! Via Reddit.
• Robin Williams is really at his best when doing stand-up comedy.. Via Reddit.
• Like our christmas cards this year, a bit late, but a lovely Hanukah song from My First Earthquake.
• Imperial stormtroopers: they’re just like us. Via Reddit.
• Ice ribbons are a pretty cool looking phenomenon. Via Reddit.
• I am quite amused by the growing pool of Far Side reenactments, via many places now.
• And now, a hen brooding a puppy. Via Reddit.
• Most Mad Scientists may have tired of the scientific method. Via many places.
• This movie of one of Jupiter’s moons disappearing behind the planet is starting to look as good as CGI. Hooray for Carl Sagan’s starting all this by insisting a camera be included on the Viking space probe all those years ago.
• This is an incredibly cool idea for turning any normal monitor into a 3D display.. Still only good for one person, but even when you watch the youtube video, wow.
• From the Life magazine archives on Google, this picture shows something interesting and possibly weird going on at a bowling alley. I can see Derek Flint participating in a sport like that.

And now, a video made possible with inexpensive editing and compositing software, and a man or few with lots of time on their hands, that reminds me of reading USEnet TV-show crossover humor fiction stories fifteen years ago(!?): Star Trek meets Doctor Who: The Christmas Special. Thank you, Reddit and Mind Grapes.