Saturday Night's Good Rockin'! | Oren Lavie

Quiet calm music... but really well done. Brilliant video. Go to his site, it's well-done as well. (OrenLavie)

headspace | Baby working the room...

Kottke posted this one, and sums it up nicely: "The camera angle and the way he moves through the room consuming his toys makes it look like an amoeba in a petri dish. (kottke)

ThreatWatch | Panic Predictions

Image via Wikipedia

One of the messages in Michael Moore's 2002 film Bowling for Columbine pointed out the fear-based reporting of the American Media Machine. ("Children are suffering massive head-wounds by falling into furniture while learning to walk... after the break: what you need to know to protect your children...!")

Seed has published an interesting article by Bruce Sterling outlining seven potential precarious situations that are ripe for panic-picking. (seed)

My favourite: Number 6... the Westphalian system. I've been saying this for decades.

Hell in a Handbasket | Cold War Era Scare Film

Geez, they sure don't make movies like they used to. It used to be sooo glamorous.

citiZEN | Vancouver

There are recommendations in the works to change the on-ramp "loops" of the Granville Street Bridge. This already happened to the south-east... where the original "loop" was restructured into a park with tennis courts. (The photo in the Price Tags post is very revealing, even if you know what I'm referring to!)

Fascinating post. Read it! (PriceTags)

Interlude | A tale of Four Bubbles

Watch and be amazed.

headspace | Magic Wave

This comes from haha.nu.

On 27.11.2008 the Swiss Science Center Technorama opened a show that illustrates three characteristics of waves: wavelength, amplitude and frequency, using a 25-square-meter “magic carpet” that was made of more than 50,000 pieces. Here to the higher quality version. It was created by Reuben Margolin, and staff.

It's not very impressive until it really sinks in: this is not a computer-generated animation... this is an actual live show, on stage, for an audience.

useless mental tidbits | 1984 was the dawn of 1984

After showing its iconic 1984 commercial during the Superbowl two days earlier, the first Apple Macintosh computer became available for sale 25 years ago today.

The Macintosh on Wikipedia.

Interlude | The National Film Board of Canada

I love the internet, there are always amazing goodies that come along for info-junkies such as myself. (cbc) The National Film Board of Canada has released a large portion of their collection online, including such classics as The Cat Came Back. (NFB) I have dedicated an entire screen in the WarRoom as the NFB monitor.

Here's a silent film from 1928 with conservationist Grey Owl with the Beaver People.

Benevolent Prince | Trickle-Down Recycling

Image via WikipediaA post by Raul at Hummingbird604 started me thinking about how trickle-down economics is really just political rhetoric for tax cuts. The post was about recycling, which, of course, is a long way off from economics. But the theory of trickle-down, where those with too much pass along "something" to those with less, is to me a concept humanity already is familiar with. I mean, haven't most families been using this concept for generations...? We call them hand-me downs.

It doesn't work so well for items with only conceptual basis, such as money, apparently. Nobody seems to want to just "hand-me-down" some cash without some sort of artificial lever or consideration, like "tax cuts". (Unless you consider my own "Cottagist Anima" which has never yet been spoken of. And shan't be just yet.) But what about "trickle-down" recycling?

(I know, it already exists. But "trickle-down" recycling sounds much sexier than what goes on every day at the local thrift store, wouldn't you say...? Maybe it's time for a "re-branding" of the concept...)

"Hand-me-down" on wikipedia.

The point that got me thinking about it was Raul points out that BC Digital Divide will give donated computers to impovershed recipients. (H.604)

And check out the Electronic Recycling Association of Canada. (era) And the Vancouver page of the ERA site. (eraVan)

And according to this story in the CBC, recyclemycell.ca will show people where to recycle their cell in cities across Canada. (Here's the in-depth look at the cell-recycling issue. (cbc)

For a quick look at what other countries around the world are doing to curb their economic impact, check out this Good article. (good) My favourites: kick the oil habit, save the trees, and increase no-fishing zones along the coastline.

And finally, the best recycling program is the one that doesn't hae to start in the first place... Good brings us a list of five Anti-Consumer Groups... because the best way to save the planet is to reduce one's usage of something to nothing, if possible. (good)

headspace | Art of Mime

I first noticed this on good.com. (good)

I found this on youTube...

The (real) West Wing...

Hell in a Handbasket | 50mt "Tsar Bomba"

Image by Berd Whitlock via FlickrI've been hearing about the end of the world for a long time, it seems. I'm going to dedicate this installment to a Grand-Daddy of the Modern Terrors: the Nuclear Detonation.

In the following entry from Good, I believe I represent the third category of possible interested readers: "those with questionable taste in diversions." (good) Basically, the article highlights a google map that will estimate the blast radius of nuclear weapons of various yields. (carloslabs) There is also a link to a NYT graphic showing the timeline of proliferation. (nyt)

The timeline raises a question. We can see that Klaus Fuchs passed information along to the U.S.S.R and China, but there are no names listed for the exchange between the Canada/UK node and both the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

Maybe it's in the book. (amazon)

headspace | The Benny Hill-ifier

It's simple, but fantastic: find a youtube video you like and copy the url into the the Benny Hill-ifier... and the video will have the iconic Benny Hill theme play behind it. Multiple uses, as you can imagine. (haha)

For a... shall I say... slightly creepy example... go here.

Saturday Night's Good Rockin'! | Peter, Bjorn and John

Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn & John's single "Young Folks" featuring Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes, was one of my favourite tunes of 2006. (wichita-recordings)

useless mental tidbits | History of the Internet

"History of the Internet" is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.


History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

People We Outlived | Khan and Number Six

This will be a short post. I have to go to bed and cry myself to sleep.

The star of the '70s-era hit television program Fantasy Island, Ricardo Montalban, is dead at the age of 88. (He may be more familiar to some as the reason for William Shatner's most-famous-Kirk-scream: the Star Trek villian Khan Noonien Singh. Khaaaaannnnnnn!!!)

The CBC write-up is here.
The wired write-up is here.
And his bio on wikipedia.
And his entry in IMDB.



And, if that all were not bad enough.

The star of the '60s-era George-Orwell-meets-Timothy-Leary-meets-Franz-Kafka television program The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan, is dead at the age of 80.

The CBC write up is here.
The wired write-up is here.
And his bio on wikipedia.
And his entry in IMDB.



Be seeing you.

citiZEN | Vancouver

Jackson Murphy over at The Vancouverite has a nice round-up of the Olympic Village debacle that unfolded over the last weekend, along with some insightful insights of his own. (vancouverite)

And for those following along at home, Vancouver recorded the first two homocides of the year on January 8th and the 11th. The first murder last year wasn't until January 19, 2008. (ctv)

Maggie Chandler, on her Vancouver Reflections site, posted the average price graph of Vancouver real estate. Sales decreased by 35%. And while prices are down over the previous year, house prices are up 64% for the Vancouver West Side over the last five years. Maple Ridge comes out on top on "Best Value" for houses, townhomes and condos in Greater Vancouver. (vanreflections)

According to Tourism Vancouver, the number of tourists that are visiting Vancouver has gone down since the Summer of SARS in 2003, for reasons that can be easily guessed: the economy has tanked. But the good news is that more people are choosing to spend their time and money at home, paticularly on local restaurants and attractions. Ticket sales at the Vancouver Aquarium are actually up. (ctv)

Even though I hardly ever leave my warroom, or go out of the bunker, or even step foot off the compound, I'm a huge supporter of local neighbourhood attractions. Even in (supposedly) laid-back Lotus-Land, we seem to forget most of the amazing sights and places that surround us. Sure, Grouse Mountain and the Stanley Park Seawall are all sexy for getting the outdoorsy-types and therefore all the press, but many of us are (particularly the born-and-bred, or close-at-hand born-and-bred) very much like those lifer New Yorkers that have never been to the Statue of Liberty or into the Empire State Building: it's always been there, so we figure we'll get to it eventually. Yet that visit to the Vancouver Police Museum or lunch at the Jericho Sailing Club never seems to come by.

Sean Orr at Beyond Robson has posted an interesting review on the Vancouver Museum's new exhibit called The Unnatural History of Stanley Park. (br) If you have a chance to watch the youTube video and Mr. Orr's Flickr set, please do. The silent video is particularly relaxing.

From the Civic-Duty citiZEN files comes an article via Megaphone, Vancouver's Street Paper, called 50 Ways to Help the Homeless: A Practical Guide to What the Experts Say Can, and Must, Be Done. (megaphone) (tyee)

And more from the General-City-Improvement files, take a look at this bicycle-storage unit that's being used in Japan. It can store up to 144 bicycles at a time. For a view of how it works, here's dannychoo.

headspace | Nature Can Save the Environment

...who would have guessed?

Janine Benyus discusses sustainable design ideas from nature.



Robert Full talks about how engineers learn from evolution.

useless mental tidbits | Immune Cell chasing bacterium

Archival footage of a neutrophil dancing through red blood cells to destroy its bacterial enemy.

Keep On Keepin' On | Mony Mony round-up

I won't bother to run through the FearWatch File... it's difficult to escape the fact the global financial markets have tanked (cb), the loonie's wings have been clipped (fp), job losses are rising quickly (cb), high personal debt is leading a rise in bankrupcy, major corporations we once thought invincible are walking the tightrope-with-oblivion-game (and bringing down entire industries), home starts and building permits are slowing (fp) (cb), and at least one government that I know of (Stevie Canuck might take a stick to the 'nads, so to speak...) is being threatened with a Coalition-led toppling unless they produce "comprehensive" budgets to address dire circumstances (cbc) (fp) (cb)... and so on...

I think the Take-Away is that we need to keep an eye on our cookie-jars. So here's a fairly random round-up of money-saving, finance-watching type posts that have caught my eye lately.

Let's start with the "general-getting-your-finances-together" types, like the Personal Finance Section of the CBC. And Get Rich Slowly has a good list of 9 methods for 2009. (grs)

The basic list for getting it together looks like this:

First you need to figure out what comes in and where it goes. In other words, it's time to learn, or review, the tracking-the-cash and budgeting-skills. (grs) (cbc)

Then deal with debt: the CBC has a good "in depth" section to look through. (cbc) You can go right to the tips here.

And make sure your investments are in order. (cbc) It's also good to check your credit rating. (cbc)

Cutting down on expenses will help with staying in the budget and reduce the debt-load. There are lots of tips out there. Like creating a "price book" for comparison shopping with your groceries. (frugalhacks) And why you should only buy your gas at gas stations, not groceries. (mbh)

You can increase your income... like leveraging your hobbies into paying work. (dumblittleman)

Make sure you're planning your retirement. (cbc)

And... "after your retirement" is politely called Estate Planning. (cbc)

There are lots of good sites to check out.

Festival of Frugality.
Frugal Hacks.
Frugal Living.
Get Rich Slowly.
The Simple Dollar.
I Will Teach You To Get Rich.
Mighty Bargain Hunter.
Not Made of Money.

Saturday Night's Good Rockin'! | Spiritualized

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

People We Outlived | "Dave Dee" Harman (1942-2009)

British pop star Dave Dee, whose biggest hit was 1968's Legend of Xanadu, has died. He was 65.

Obit. (CBC)
Obit. (BBC)
Bio. (wikipedia)
Legend of Xanadu. (wikipedia)

Legend of Xanadu... from Top of the Pops in 1968...

Conspiracy Analyst | U.S. Disintegration

I think Professor Igor Panarin is having one of those "15-minutes-of-" moments.

Over the last little while, the Soviet-era-KGB-Analyst-cum-Professor has been interviewed by the media as much as twice a day. (To put this in perspective, at the time of this writing, Google News shows a total of 179 stories about Professor Panarin. There are 15,650 about Britney Spears. Suppression? You be the judge...)

The real fuss began when the Wall Street Journal published a story about Mr. Panarin. (WSJ)

But enough hedging: At a conference in 1998, Mr. Panarin gave a presentation on his theory that the United States would disintegrate in 2010. His forecast was based on classified information provided by FAPSI, which at the time was the Russian version of the National Security Agency (US NSA).

The theory is basically this: Economic, financial and demographic trends provoke a political and social crisis. Then wealthier states withhold funds from the federal government, triggering social unrest and civil war. Finally the U.S. splits along ethnic lines, which is the cue for foreign powers to move in.

Panarin says right now there is a 45-55% chance this disintegration will occur, in either June or July of 2010.



The current fuss started Mon Nov 24, 2008 when Professor Panarin was interviewed by the Russian newspaper Izvestia. After that the story appeared in the Drudge Report on Tue Nov 25, 2008. (drudge) Then the bloggers started feeding. (freedomfighter) (curmudgeon) Eventually a big name media outlet caught on, and the Wall Street Journal published their story on December 29, 2008. (WSJ) After that it hit the wire... or the fan. Take your pick.

So: Professor Igor Panarin.



His entry in Wikipedia.
His entry in RussiaHouse.
One of his affiliations is the Diplomatic Academy.

As one might imagine, there are opponents to Panarin's predictions. Here's a good article (Time), pointing us toward Joel Garreau, who wrote the book Nine Nations of North America. Mr. Garreau also responded to Mr. Panarin's theory, which is nicely summed up here.

And Future Atlas puts the chances of an American Disintegration on the low side. (future.atlas)

The abomb&thecorpse Analysis: Professor Panarin is an expert in Information Warfare. The initial interview occurred in a tightly-regulated media environment. This sounds like a distraction campaign. But for what? Generated by the Americans... for keeping minds off the Israeli-Gaza conflict, perhaps to give Israel time, slowing public popular opposition? Generated by the Russians... for keeping the Americans occupied during the Gas-less Ukraine manouver?

Interlude | Amazing Artist: Devorah Sperber

As designboom puts it:

devorah sperber is a new york city based artist who recreates famous works of art using spools of thread. sperber treats the spools like pixels, recreating the works of da vinci, rembrandt and van gogh in detail. however viewers will not see the work until the move up close because most of her work is created upside down. the reason why the spools hang from the wall backwards is so that when reflected in a mirror or metal sphere, they will appear in the correct size and proportion. the reflection also shrinks the images and blends the spools together to create a more accurate representation of the original works. (designboom)

It's amazing stuff.





Check out her web site. (devorahsperber.com)

citiZEN | Vancouver

The first thing to do is give a tip of the hat to Old Man Winter, who has been knocking these parts around for the better bit of a few weeks now. I think I've heard the word snowmageddon more times than I care to admit. There are a lot of people that went from thinking it was pretty, and lovely to have around during the Traditional Western-Culture Holiday Season that is popularly referred to as "Christmas", to really wishing it would hurry up and melt and allow us to get back to our first love (being driving). Urban Vancouver has some good photos. (UV Pt1) (UV Pt2)

And check this out: during the snowstorm, somebody in Seattle created these snow-sculptures on the windows of parked vehicles. Amazing! (wooster)

Onward. One of the opponents taking on Premier Gordon Campbell in the upcoming Provincial election will be Mel Lehan, punching in for the NDP ticket. (straight)

Lastly, we know you've been waiting all year for this to come back: the 2009 Vancouver Taboo Sex Show will be at the Convention & Exhibition Centre from January 15-18. Tickets are $20 at the door or can be purchased online. (vanBuzz)

I am thinking of thirty-nine secrets.

Keep On Keepin' On | Self-Help Round-up!

Even though The World seems to be quickly sliding into Hell on a variety of transport modes, from handbaskets to Big-Three-Automaker vehicles... it's always important to keep on keepin' on.

Here's a great list of 15 tips designed to save time. (ListVerse)

Chris Hardwick reviews a few popular productivity methods. (wired)

Here are 21 Excellent Web Apps for College Students, though I think there are some very useful ones for everyone. (dumblittleman)

WikiHow explains how to clean a toilet with Coke. I'm not sure how environmentally-sensitive flushing coke into the sewers is, but... must be better than flushing whatever chemicals they use to make regular toilet-cleaners. (wikihow)

Wired has put together an interesting article on what one should pack for The Apocolypse. I was sold when I saw the first thing listed is a still. (wired) For some additional reading, here's a link to the web site for B.C.'s Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) and to Canada's "Get Prepared" site. (getprepared.ca) And here's the site for Vancouver's Emergency Plan. (CoV) Lastly... the Disaster Response Routes. (GovBC)

Saturday Night's Good Rockin'! | Vadrum

Check out these great drum videos... Vadrum plays to the Mario theme, with Tenacious D, and the William Tell Overture...

FearWatch: Methane

Image via WikipediaToday's fear-monger hell-in-a-handbasket threat comes from under the sea... the East Siberian Sea, to be exact.

National Geographic reported that a recent expedition travelled along the Siberian coast monitoring methane concentrations in the air and observing the seas. According to the data collected by the University of Alaska expedition on the 22,000km journey, more than 50% of the Arctic Siberian shelf is serving as a source of methane to the atmosphere. Methane gas is currently "bubbling" up from the undersea permafrost. (NatlGeo)

While carbon dioxide gets all the press, methane gas is 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas. And when you take into account this earlier story, where geologist Tessa Hill, at the University of California, Davis, stated that more methane is released into the atmosphere from ocean deposits during periods of warming than previously thought, the implications for our future are not rosy. As the expelled methane increases temperatures it proceeds to release more methane, creating a positive feedback loop. (NatlGeo)

The Result: Doom, the crispy-planet version.

Please ignite your Terror immediately.

2008 in the Review Lists

We've all seen the "Best of..." lists, more and more, earlier and earlier, every year. Here's a few that I've noticed. (As I collected these, I noted that a lot of them are from Wired.Com, which is a great site, and deserves frequent checking-in on one's surf-breaks... but rather than showing that I spend a lot of time at wired.com, it's actually more indicative that they put out a heckuvalotta "top" lists...)

The Big Story:
2008 U.S. Stockmarket compared back to 1825. (economist)

New York Times' 2008 in Pictures. (NYT)
2008 State of the Inner City Report. (CCPA)
2008 Buzzwords in Review. (NYT)
2008 "Foot-in-Mouth" Awards. (wired)
Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2008. (ForeignPolicy)
100 Notable Books of 2008. (NYT)
re:Place mag's Top Reads of 2008. (re:place)
Top 10 Archaeology Finds of 2008. (NatlGeo)
Top 10 in Architecture of 2008. (NewYorker)
Top 10 Astronomy Photos of 2008. (DiscoverMag)
Top 7 Capers of 2008. (wired)
Top Gadgets of 2008. (wired)
Top 10 Games of 2008. (wired)
Top 20 Music Album Flops of 2008. (MetromixDC)
Top 11 Music Videos of 2008. (spin)
Top 10 New Organizers of 2008. (wired)
Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2008. (wired)
Top 10 Things Launched into Space in 2008. (wired)
Top 10 Videos of 2008. (wired)