useless mental tidbits | fantastic lists May09

The list of lists...

10 Scandalous Facts about Historical Figures [ListVerse]
Earthcam's 25 Most-Interesting WebCams of 2008 [CBC] [EarthCam]
Top 10 Ways to Save Money in a Recession [Lifehacker]
List of Translations for The Hobo Code [AContinuousLean]
10 Fascinating "Only-Existing" Photos [ListVerse]
11 Useful Tips for Setting Goals and Accomplishing Them [ DumbLittleMan]
How to De-Clutter an Entire Room in One Go [ZenHabits]
10 Privacy Settings Every facebook user Should Know [AllFacebook]
Ways to Save on your Water Bill [NotMadeofMoney] (Ed.: And enviro!)
7 Major "Missing Links" since Dawrin [NatlGeo]
Libraries using Different Web 2.0 Technologies [KraftyLibrarian]
15 Influential Early Works of Apocalyptic Fiction [ListVerse]
Financial Literacy Compendium [GetRichSlowly]
5 Ways to Stay Disciplined in Your Savings [NotMadeOfMoney]
50 Side-Businesses You Can Start on Your Own [SimpleDollar]
100 Really Creative Business Cards [WebdesignerDepot]
30 Most-Controversial Album Covers [NoiseAddicts]
1001 Rules for My Unborn Son [1001Rules] (Ed.: Great blog idea!)
Top 10 Incredible Time Capsules [ListVerse]
10 Most-Frequent Titles submitted to Virginia Quarterly Review [VQR]
11 Most-Endangered Historica Sites in U.S. [NatlGeo]
Top 10 Renewable Energy Sources [ListVerse]
Top 10 Hidden Images Found in Cartoons [ListVerse] (Ed.: Disney is Pervs)
15 Housing Projects From Hell [oobject]
100 Geeks to Follow on Twitter [wired.com]
10 Fascinating Angels and Demons [ListVerse]
10 new Sitcoms meant to cure the Recession Blues [nyt]
7 Webotainers Worth Watching [wired.com]

Pay the Ones You Love: Because the folks at ListVerse are so great at coming up with so many fascinating lists, please drop by this Amazon page and pre-order a copy of their Ultimate Book of Top Ten Lists, which is scheduled for publication in November, 2009.

And finally: Top 10 Star Trek Techno-Babbles:

Dossier Z | Radiohead

First the first time ever, a Radiohead song has been used for an advertisement, for the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless.



And in a twist, before the release of their last album, Radiohead's management suggested the band break up. [PitchFork] [IrishTimes]

Finally, here's a behind-the-scenes clip from the USC Trojan Marching Band as they rehearse and prepare for their appearance with Radiohead at the 2009 Grammy Awards. (And for as long as it doesn't get taken down... a slide-show of the performance.)





While Pitchfork:News is reporting the Oxford boys to be in the process of recording a new album [pitchfork], according to a BBC interview with bassist Colin Greenwood. [BBC]

Crazy Artist | Bert Simons

Bert Simons creates three-dimensional paper portraits and sculptures (among other things).

headspace | The Guitar Store

This is a guitar store in Southhampton, England. [guitarstore]

Good Rawkin' | Victor Borge

Victor Borge has always amazed me. His humour was amazing, his musical skills fantastic.

This clip is during one of his 80th birthday concerts. He had just finished conducting and the crowd reaction was so good that the violinist, Anton Kontra, suggested an encore. No encore was planned.

Monti's Czardas, which Victor had heard before but had never played, was suggested.

This, dear friends, is Victor Borge improvising his way through something he didn't know how to play...

Interlude | Mac vs. PC

useless mental tidbits | The Elements of Spam

Thanks to kottke for this one at McSweeney's. With apologies to Strunk and White, here are The Elements of Spam.

headspace | Dimensions

Nine chapters over two hours that gradually take you up to the 4th dimension. This will blow your mind. The first chapter is below. For the rest, go to the Dimensions website.

Good Rawkin' | Coldplay

People We Outlived | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

May 22, 2009 marks the 150th birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of seminal detective Sherlock Holmes.



From the Knowledge Refresher File:

The standard overview. [wikipedia]
The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker Street. [SHM]
A top-rated omnibus site. [SirConanDoyle.Com]
An online exhibit. [Westminster Libraries Online Exhibit]
Ashcroft B.C. ACD Society... (last update 2003) [ACD-Ashcroft]
The Canon of The Masterpiece Creation. [Canon of Sherlock Holmes]
Conan Doyle on Project Gutenberg. [ProjectGutenberg]
On Conan Doyle's "odd spiritualism". [more.intelligent.life]
Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes sites in WebRing. [WebRing]

Finally, a filmed interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, talking about his fictional detective and his spiritual interests.

useless mental tidbits | Stories Behind Hollywood Logos

The fine folk over at neatorama put up a fantastic collection of stories tracing the history of Hollywood studio logos. Like the kid fishing while sitting on a crescent moon, from Dreamworks? The logo was hand-painted, and the model of the kid was/is the artist's son. And there have been five lions playing the "leo the Lion" part in MGM's famous opening sequence. [neatorama]

Good Rawkin' | Sara... the 13-year-old drummer.

Crazy Artist | Emma Hack

Emma Hack is an Australian artist. She started as a children's face painter and hairdresser, and over her 20-year career has emerged as an award-winning international sensation. [emmahack]

Her canvas is the human body. Here are a few of her "wallflowers."

Livin' Spaced | MVRDV's Gwanggyo Power Center

Dutch architect design firm MVRDV won a design competition for a new community near Seoul, Korea. [bd] An interesting comment on the bd site is that it makes it look like "the future is anthills." And local community-design guru Gordon Price thinks it's "too much of a good thing." [pricetags]

I think it's way cool. I'm a proponent of the "live where you work and play" school of thought.

Here's the MVRDV site. [mvrdv] And here's their flickr site, with many other designs as well. [flickr]

Good Rawkin' | Smokie

Abomb reminded me about this tune from last summer. We were partying with some former classmates and this played about twenty times throughout the extremely long and beer-soaked day, afternoon, evening, and night.

I wouldn't play this at work with the volume cranked to 11, but it's one to crank if you're out of delicate-ears earshot...

This is Smokie's 1976 classic version of "Living Next Door to Alice". (I say version because the original was co-written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, originally released as a vocal harmony by Australia's New World in 1972.)

So... here's a "clean" version from a performance in 1977:



And here's the version that really went stellar...

Crazy Artist | Alex Budovsky "The King's Nightmare"

CitiZEN | Demise of Democracy in the Days of Swine

The recent Provincial Election returned the ruling B.C. Liberal Party into a majority government for their third term. I voted strategically, and still lost. I had hoped the BC-STV referendum would pass, but lost on that as well. I stopped watching the election coverage by about 9:30pm.

As I lay in bed that night, pondering the state of modern democracy, I sadly admit to feeling a bit bleak about the future. I have often joked, as a descendent of the disremembered aristocracy of British Columbia, of being a Monarchist. (As the benevolent prince I feel I have a strong claim to the throne.)

Is there any wonder that voter turnout is at an all-time low? [CTV] In the tyranny allowable under the political party system is it a surprise free citizens are forbidden from speaking out upon their opinions (with enough caveats to make it seem fair)? [tyee]

I first heard about nowpolling.ca the first time I watched pasifik on Shaw Television. I have assumed the two, the program and the web site, are affilliated with each other, but haven't bothered to look into it.

Nowpolling.ca is an online mechanism for direct democracy.

From the web site: Direct Democracy depends upon your perpetual participation. Nowpolling.ca is a non-partisan, non-profit perpetual voting system which enables you, with your individual password, to register your opinions on relevant political issues. Nowpolling.ca empowers you to change your vote when you change your mind, anytime. This is what perpetual democracy is all about. You are welcome to view the questions and results without having to register. However, the success of this democratic exercise depends on your participation. Create an account and be counted.

I think this is a great idea. I think if we are to preserve freedom from the ongoing decline of 21st-Century Democracy, we need to start looking at what we want to evolve it into. Using technology to leverage direct participation in political issues is a strong candidate for consideration.

If we don't, I fear this idea, "erasing" the US-Canada Border, is closer than we might think.

(There is too much to say on this topic, so I will leave it for another time. Just to say: while I feel this position enjoys strong points both in favour and opposed, I'm sure all can agree this cannot be something either side is forced into by negative circumstance.)