headspace | Google Sightseeing, a brilliant blog

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes I run across items or blogs that collect things that can't really be classified. They are unique instances of brilliance. One such case is the Google Sightseeing blog, which uses Google Maps or Google Earth to "visit" famous or interesting locations.

Here are a few of my favourite posts.

Leptis Magna. UNESCO World Heritage Site, and well-preserved ancient Roman city in Libya, with a history dating back over 3,000 years.

Hadrian's Wall. The edge of the ancient Roman Empire.

Point Roberts. The "greatest gated-community in the United States."

Osoyoos Desert. Canada's only desert region, in the beautiful Okanagan Valley!

Peace Sanctuary of Northern British Columbia.

Lake Peigneur. A three-metre deep freshwater lake that in 1980 suddenly became a 60-metre deep saltwater lake... after a man-made disaster... fascinating story!

Ancient Fishing Weir. A 1,000-year-old fishing weir found off the coast of Wales. Investigated after the unusual rock pattern was noticed on Google Earth!

Karnak Temple Complex. Just outside of Luxor, Egypt's second-most-visited tourist attraction after the Pyramids at Giza.

Eyam. A plague village that took amazing measures to halt the spread of a mid-1600s outbreak.

Zzyzx, California. C'mon. You always wanted to know the story about Zzyzx, California. Now's your chance to visit...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This is an unpaid, unsolicited plea: Please support fantastic ideas. Go check out the book put together by the Google Sightseeing folks, and buy a copy through your favourite retailer!

useless mental tidbits | The Enchanted Drawing

This is the earliest film on the U.S. Library of Congress web site about American animation. It was done by Thomas A. Edison with British vaudville performer J. Stuart Blackton, dated November 16, 1900.

Good Rawkin' | Tad

headspace | Civilization by Marco Brambilla

Civilization by Marco Brambilla from CRUSH on Vimeo.

Civilization is a video installation we created with artist/director Marco Brambilla for the elevators Standard Hotel in NYC. It's comprised of over 400 video clips and it takes elevator passengers on a trip from hell to heaven as they go up or from heaven to hell as they go down. Pictures of the installation and Q&A with Brambilla and Crush is posted here http://www.glossyinc.com/civilization.html



Title: Civilization (MEGAPLEX), 2008 By: Marco Brambilla

Client: The Standard Hotel, New York

Editor/Research Assistant: Beau Dickson

Assistant: Swapna Tamhane

Production Company: Crush, Toronto

Representation/Images Courtesy of: Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica

Marco Brambilla Directorial Representation:

Ebeling Group U.S.A.

Crazy Filmster | Bang-Yao Liu - "Deadline"

Good Rawkin' | Urge Overkill

Urge Overkill plays on a French television program in 1996.

Crazy Remixers | Eclectic Method

The Tarantino Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Interlude | Marvel & DC: Deadpool vs Watchmen Edition

Crazy Musician | Valentina Lisitsa plays Rachmaninoff

Crazy Filmster | Magnus Engsfors

Suddenly from Magnus Engsfors on Vimeo.

useless mental tidbits | Star Size Comparison

Interlude | "Youth and Aging" Tales of Mere Existence

headspace | Heavy Metal Name Flow-Chart

Crazy Artist | Levi Meeuwenberg

I'm not sure if "free-running" can really be termed an "art" but the display of stunts on this showreel is fantastic. While parkour is the efficient movement through space, free-running adds an acrobatic flair for aesthetic purpose.

Levi Meeuwenberg is an artist in my books.

citiZEN | Vancouver round-up

Some items about Vancouver that have caught my attention recently...

To start with, the City of Vancouver is moving toward making its data more open and accessible. [cbc] This is a huge move forward. As silly as it sounds, I'm actually excited about being able to watch council meetings on YouTube... right now they are only on the City's web site, and only viewable with the most recent version of Internet Explorer!

Anyhoo.

The long and winding debate seems always to be about Transportation. This will intensify over the next while as the Burrard Street Bridge Bicycle Trial gets under way. Price Tags is all over this, and posted an excellent primer of Burrard Bridge Basics. [PriceTags] Here's an interesting re-thinking of the intersection at Burrard and Pacific. [PriceTags]

With another fantastic map, Erick Villagomez at re:Place Magazine shows us the methods used as transportation by different neighbourhoods. [re:Place] From the "general info" file here's A Brief History of Transportation graph. [good]

And cyclists have a new tool developed at UBC to find the best route in Vancouver, called the Cycling Route Planner. [buzzer] [cbc] And what I think is actually a positive development, for reminding some cyclists they are vehicles on the road, not glorified pedestrians: the police department is ticketing cycling violations. As one may expect, the public comments have been barely short of a flamewar. [VanSun] And I'm not favouring drivers over cyclists here, or even pedestrians... we all need to get along and share.

Translink is going to shorten or reduce certain bus routes in an effort of increasing ridership on the new Canada Line. [VanSun] Just what bus riders need: less service and more frustration. With such a high-tech central nervous system as "T-Comm", the Transit Communications Centre, it's a surprise there seems to be such negativity about our transit system. [Buzzer]

Will there be a car-free Granville Street this summer? [straight] Sorry: will there be "summer spaces" in Vancouver? [straight] Here's a story about a german city that has completely eliminated cars. [nyt] There's always the Personal Rapid Transit option. [good] I love these pods.

Since we're here: here's a list of things to do on Canada Day, at Granville Island [kits.ca] [GI], and at Canada Place [VanBuzz] [CP].

Hand in hand with transportation is the issue of Urban Development.

Vancity Buzz has a good analysis of the plans for North East False Creek. [VancityBuzz] And Paul Hillsdon makes a case for tearing down the Georgia Street Viaducts. [PaulHillsdon] And Chicago is using technology created at UBC to plan their city. [ubc] And after 20 years, Cafe S'il Vous Plait, at the corner of Robson and Richards, has closed because the landlord wanted to double their rent.



At the neighbourhood level: Some interesting thoughts about Laneway Housing. [PriceTags] The Kits Farmer's Market, which re-opens July 1, will offer free home delivery by bicycle. [kits.ca] And the debate about rapid transit options to UBC (the UBC Line) is starting to heat up. Merchants along West Broadway are already getting nervous. [kits.ca] Another dude, as reported at Kits.ca, makes fun of the idea of a European-style tram along Broadway, and asks if Tram-Supporters (such as Mel Lehan) even ride the bus. [kits.ca]

And finally, a quick round-up on some history-themed posts... The Vancouver Museum changed it's name to... The Museum of Vancouver. [straight] Bruno Wall, Vancouver Developer, will put $12 million to restore the 97-year-old York Theatre on Commercial Drive. [cbc] The buzzer blog posted a history of interurbans in the Lower Mainland. [buzzer] And a historic railway car returned to the Lower Mainland. [ctv]

Here's the "ghost sign" on the side of 325 Carrall Street, the old Louvre Saloon. Click on the photo to go to laniwurm's excellent flickr page that describes this further.

Interlude | The Dead Pirates - "Wood"

WOOD from mc bess on Vimeo.

ThreatWatch | Pandemic!

The World Health Organization declared a global pandemic (or Alert Level Phase Six), the first time in 41 years, on Thursday June 11, 2009. [who] [cbc] [ctv] [straight] [nyt] [economist]

While the H1N1 flu virus (known as The Swine Flu) has been only of moderate severity, it still has all the characteristics of a pandemic. The worry is that as it moves around the globe (currently the largest increase in cases is in the southern hemisphere, such as Australia and Hong Kong, as they are in their cold season) the virus will mutate into a deadlier strain before it re-bounds north for the fall cold season.



(And on a related tangent, in case I'm not the only guy that gets teased by my loving wife that supposedly I'm "delicate" when it comes to cold and flu symptoms: turns out men ARE effected more by infection! [bbc] So we are not wimpy when we have sniffles! Stew on that, ladies!)

Back to the Pandemic. Just before we panic, it's important to note that the pandemic declaration does not change the approach that British Columbia is taking in dealing with the outbreak. [GovBC] [cbc] And check out this release from the Canada News Centre about precautions and so forth. [cnc]

As might be expected, at first there was panic. Cases were on the rise, including here in British Columbia. [GovBC] After the alert level was raised to Phase Four, Good Mag put together a great graphic to explain what the threat levels mean. [good] At the end of April, the alert rose to Phase Five, the "high to certain" level. [ctv]

Then we got photos of what the virus looked like. [NatlGeo]

Then there was a pause, when no one knew if it was the "calm before the storm." [cbc]

An unforseen problem was the fact that reporting pandemics was only based on geographical spread rather than severity. So when the health effects of the H1N1 was found to be "mild" a backlash arose over the WHO's unwitting fear-mongering, or "hyping" the story in the media. [ctv] There were reports about re-writing the criteria for "pandemic". [cbc] [nyt]


see more Funny Graphs

By the beginning of June, the number of cases had increased world-wide to just under 20,000. [cbc] As of June 1, there were 1,530 cases in Canada, with three deaths. It was all over the place! They found the virus in Metro Vancouver... Burnaby: [VanSun] Coquitlam: [VanSun]

All the while there was lots of debate and speculation about the severity and necessity of raising the level. [cbc] [nyt] Nobody was sure if or when they should make the declaration. [cbc] Then the experts finally met. [cbc]

Enjoy some old Swine Flu PSAs from the 1970s. (Thanks to Jackson Murphy over at The Vancouverite.)



It could have been the alarming number of Inuit in Canada with H1N1 that finally triggered The Pandemic Declaration. [tyee]

Finally... bringing us back to remembering that British Columbia is as well prepared as it was the day before the pandemic was declared, the authorities were watching closely. [GovBC] And there should be a vaccine by the fall. [cbc]

So relax. Instead, check out this newly discovered deadly virus that causes bleeding like Ebola and has killed four of the five people it has infected. It's called Lujo. Or this newly evolved and contagious (among skunks and foxes) version of rabies. [NatlGeo] I suspect they will be the focus of an upcoming edition of ... ThreatWatch! [cbc] [PLoSpathogens]

People We Outlived | Air France "survivor"

On June 1, 2009, Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Johanna Ganthaler had been vacationing in Brazil with her husband, and they were booked to take the fated flight. They missed the flight.

In one of the quirks of ironic history: on their way home to Italy from Germany, they were in a car accident and Ms. Ganthaler was killed. [cbc] Her husband remains in critical condition as of this writing.

headspace | We didn't start the flamewar

Interlude | Fire Alarm Jam

People We Outlived | Hugh Hopper (1945-2009)

Hugh Hopper, composer and bassist for Soft Machine, dead at 65 of leukemia. [NYT]

useless mental tidbits | Shakespeare vs. 1,000,000 words

As has been widely reported, the Global Language Monitor is predicting the one-millionth word to enter the English language will arrive on June 10, 2009. [GLM@wikipedia] Besides having predicted this event several times previously (starting with summer of 2006), and despite several objections by several linguists on the veracity of this organization's collection and qualitative methods, it's still sort of fun to keep track of.

And while it's obviously not easy to predict when the milestone word will arrive, there are also predictions (reported mostly as fact) that the new word will be... NOOB.
[MSN] [Kotaku] [joystiq] [telegraph.uk]

It's estimated that a new word is created every 98 minutes (again, according to the GLM), due to the proliferation of text-based online technology. There hasn't been this explosive of a word-creation period since Elizabethan times, when William Shakespeare was at work. His contribution to the English language is widely known (if equally widely debated). [wikipedia]

So here are a few items of interest over the last while regarding Shakespeare.

A new portrait of William Shakespeare, perhaps the only one painted during his lifetime, was discovered and unveiled. [time] [nyt]



And for the record, the words above the portrait, Principum amicitias! have started a debate of their own. With apologies to Dan brown (I'm sure), it's been dubbed The Shakespeare Code. [nyt] (The links in the NYT article are fascinating, including the before and after photos of the portrait to show a "hair restoration" operation that was made on the portrait some time after the portrait had been completed.)

And here's a link to a BBC video story about Shakespeare's first theatre. [BBC]

And finally... if you haven't already gotten your tickets, the 20th anniversary of the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival runs from May 28 through September 26, 2009 in Vanier Park in Kitsilano. [kits.ca] [bardonthebeach]

[UPDATE] After much speculation, the word declared to be the 1,000,000th of the English Language was... Web 2.0

Here's a good article about the whole issue. [nyt]

Crazy Musician | Julia Dales

Julia Dales, a 17-year-old Canadian girl, is the 2009 Online World Champion in the Beatbox Battle World Championship.

ThreatWatch | Global Warming and Rising Seas

This has been a ThreatWatch trend I've been following for a while, and seems to keep popping up in Mainstream Media. It can be broken down into two lines: celestial activity further erodes our protective atmosphere ("further", being "in addition to human activity") and the water levels rise as the temperature goes up.

The Threat from Space:

First, let's go way back, when the early Earth had an "alien atmosphere" with high CO2 levels that contributed to melting the "snowball Earth" and making the planet lifeform-friendly in more areas. (NatlGeo)

But to our current predicament: Bummer: Cracks in the magnetic shield may bring on massive solar storms during the next expected peak activity cycle of solar wind, starting in about 2012. (NatlGeo) Cool: But scientists have also discovered a new layer of the magnetosphere they're descibing as a "warm plasma cloak". (NatlGeo) Bummer: But the sun may be "stealing" our atmosphere...! (NatlGeo)

The worst part: we may already be screwed. (good) (NPR) But the optimists at Wired are still looking for solutions, in their The 2012 Apocalypse, and How to Stop It. (wired)

Or, of course, we could also be screwed by a gamma-ray burst. But let's keep our Threats From Space separated, shall we? (NatlGeo)



And move on to the Threat From Rising Water...

A study of Coral canyons in Mexico indicate sea levels can rise quite rapidly. (nyt)

And studies indicate North America is at greater risk of an Antarctic ice-sheet-melt than other regions of the world. (CBC) And I keep wondering if I'm over 1.2 metres above sea level, in my fine abode in sunny Kitsilano. (straight) But we're not alone: New York and Boston are reportedly "directly in the path" of a sea level rise. (NatlGeo) Except we may still be worse off: Insurance Bureau of Canada warns that flood damage is not covered in this country. (cbc)

The ironic part is the concept of water stress: water availability against water demand. (H604) Is it time for a National Water Policy...? Is access to water a Human Right...? (straight)

Let's add the consideration that rising heat also threatens the world's food supply. (wired) In fact, we could see a global food crisis before the end of this century. (CBC)

Plus global warming leeches oxygen from the ocean, creating "dead zones" where no life can survive. (NatlGeo) Just for fun, I should also throw in mention of the areas of "toxic algae" that contaminate shellfish, another frightening development surrounding food supply. In fact, there's a toxic bloom just off the coast of British Columbia. (cbc)

Or, of course, we could all just get wiped out by a tsunami, like the one that hit ancient New York. (bbc) Which reminds me, for the "travel advisory threatwatch" section: if you're going to Guadeloupe, be aware that part of the island of Dominica (about 50km away) may fall off and trigger a deadly tsunami. There will be less than 10 minutes of warning. Or would be, rather, considering there are no warning systems set up for tsunamis in the Caribbean. (NatlGeo)

And, as if the current climate condition doesn't already fill you with hope and optimism, here's a Seed article with five scientists talking about Geo-Engineering. (seed) Great. I swear, first one-way ticket to the uncharted stars and I sign up.

Or I could go surfing. Waves are so purdy.

headspace | YooouuuTuuube

Rather than try to explain what this does... just go check it out.

You can do this to any YouTube video. [YooouuuTuuube]

Doomed by History | D-Day

Image via Wikipedia

There's no use in describing the events of June 6, 1944. There are histories about the Normandy Landings elsewhere. [wikipedia]

But here's an interesting tidbit from the History News Network, about where the name "D-Day" came from. [HNN]

Interlude | "Sorry I'm Late" by Tomas Mankovsky

Sorry I'm Late from Tomas Mankovsky on Vimeo.

ThreatWatch | The Birds

What is the world coming to when creepy chubby dudes can't dress in Spiderman spandex (Venom-era) and do stretches in the middle of a public square without being the target of a girl with birdseed...? (Too bad there's muzak over the sound... I'd like to hear what witty wise-cracks "Spidey" is bantering to "Birdwoman"... oooo, that Spidey!

Blatent PostWaste Experiment #70 | Advanced Cat Yodeling

useless mental tidbits | Christopher Hendryx "Oxygen"

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo.