Let’s say you are bored and want to dial some fun. Why don’t you call 719-266-2837? I decided to press “3” for a little pick-me-up. That didn’t make you smile? Then try 772-257-4501.
Still not smiling? Then, you should try 212-660-2245 because I’ve got nothing for you. Single men and women – you might want to write that last number down…
In honor of Valentine’s Day, when hundred’s of thousands of geeks feel lonely and unloved, I suggest that you cut and paste the following equation into a Google search box:
sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.
If that didn’t make you smile, then what about a guy dressed as Bender proposing in binary code? Not good enough? Then how about a custom made proposal Pokemon card that another Geek used to pop the question to his girlfriend? Still not good enough, then look around my new favorite site Geekologie.
UPDATE: I had already posted but an infographic propopsal is something not to be missed. Any graphic that says among other things, “Wait a minute, that equals 0.48 total women on earth as perfect as you” screams romance to me.
Ever need to develop a pattern as a place holder, filler, background and didn’t know how? Well then, the Patternizer is for you.
From the creator, who happens to be a co-worker of mine:
“All patterns are saved with the URL patternizer.com/username/pattern , and each time you save, it creates a new version /1 or /2 or /24. For you extra-techies, this site is a front-end (or UI) for the patternizer.js < canvas > script I wrote. So the patterns you make on the site can be used anywhere with the code it generates.”
Good job Matt.
A little while back I read about an 11 minute exercise routine that both Prince Charles and William engage in each morning that is or was mandated by the military at some point and now they just do it to get in tip-top shape, or something like that.
In case you didn’t know, I have had a on-going fitness regimen parade, chock full of of starts and stops, marching for years now. My baton is now directing the parade to this time saving / good enough for royalty routine because among other reasons, for someone who lives and dies by the clock, where one minute really matters (i.e. being one minute late for a train might stick me in Hoboken for 90 minutes), it is especially attractive. So, I decided to find out what they were doing and do it. And it really didn’t take too much effort.
I learned they are using the 5BX (Five Basic Exercises) Plan, which is an exercise program developed for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) by Bill Orban in the late 1950s, first published in 1961. That explains the dated but awesome artwork, font and tone and voice in the original pamphlet that I saw.
I read it three times to get familiar with the exercises and then used a scan of the original 5BX Booklet to work out tonight for the first time, and am happy to say that I got C’s, B’s and an A on Chart 1 which means there is only room for improvement (one can go from chart 1 to 5). I just need to buckle down and exert will power over my bad self. Easier sad than done, but I’m optimistic.
For instance, I will easily run the slowest 5k of my life this coming Saturday but I’m going to start and finish the damn race because its Valentines Day and giving myself a better physical shape is a good present. Plus, the race is my town’s installment of the Cupid’s Chase, which is a pretty cool charity race. Not only is it a race that raises money for charity (in this case one that develops homes and employment for people with developmental disabilities) but its held simultaneously in 25 different cities in 10 different states. The home page features a video of the race last year in the Rock, and that because a Real Housewife of NJ actor ran it. Yay Jerz!
Memes are an interesting little phenomenon – I love how quickly they can take off, like how a video one day can have zero views and the next day have over a million views.
The most recent meme to catch on like wild fire is the “Shit |INSERT TYPE OF PERSON HERE| Say” meme.
It started with “Shit Girls Say,” which was followed by “Shit Black Girls Say” which was followed by “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls,” which was then followed by all sorts of derivatives, including the great “Shit New Yorkers Say – “You have to go to Brooklyn, it’s the law!” though I love the Pat shout outs as well – and the not so great “Shit Long Islanders Say.”
Not one type of person has been spared this meme’s wrath. Not Rednecks. Not Hippies. Not gays. Not lesbians. You name it. No one. And this all happened in the span of a few weeks. Amazing.
One organization that is jumping on the meme bandwagon is Americans Elect, which Media Bistro basically said made this meme jump the shark. Check out their Sh*t Politicians Say video below:
The reason why I have a blog is to provide information.
The Wash Post had an interesting point about the history of published information, and the point of the column is to talk about how our informational commons is for the most part built atop a latticework of advertising platforms.
In that way, it’s possible that no single industry — not newspapers nor search engines nor anything else — has done as much to advance the storehouse of accessible human knowledge in the 20th century as advertisers. They didn’t do it because they are philanthropists, and they didn’t do it because they love information. But they did it nevertheless.
An interesting point of view, and a good way to kick off the year considering that a single advertiser underwrites the hosting fee, and therefore all off the costs considering my labor is free, for this blog. You’d never suspect that one of the tiny text links on the left is a paid ad, would you?
Last week the war in Iraq, a long hard slog, something that I’ve commented a lot about over the past decade, finally ended (at least officially). This war has cost us more than we will ever know, but the easiest and hopefully-not-but-who-knows-it-very-well-might-happen way of tabulating the cost is saying that it’s all down hill from here. One should know that Afghanistan is where empires go to die. First the British, then the Soviet Union. Now us? Hmmm….
One thing that is certain through the fog of war is that we took our eye off the Tora Bora ball to concentrate on Mesopotamia and while we took the hanging gardens, and the barbarian dictator of a gardener who looked after them, we didn’t exit nearly as fast as we thought we would going into the event and it didn’t turn out the way that the rose colored projections said it would.
So, in that vein, let’s bring up once again my main topic, the one that I’ve commented on in the past which is the costs associated with the war. Now that its “over,” forces more experienced and much more well researched than me, namely the Center for American Progress’ Matt Duss and Peter Juul, have added up the costs of the second Iraq War lead by the second Commander in Chief named George Bush, and by costs I mean the human, financial, and strategic costs. The results are not pretty:
Human costs
Financial costs
More detailed costs:
Veterans
Iraq reconstruction (as of September 30, 2011)
Strategic costs
The foregoing costs could conceivably be justified if the Iraq intervention had improved the United States’ strategic position in the Middle East. But this is clearly not the case. The Iraq war has strengthened anti-U.S. elements and made the position of the United States and its allies more precarious.
I wish this was better news but transparency is important. I read today that “When everything is changing, be consistent. When everyone is confused, be transparent. And when the world seems bleak, be good.” When thinking through the “What did we get our of this war?” question, everyone is definitely confused.
All info was obtained for the Center for American Progress
Azealia Banks is an unsigned 20 year Harlem born rapper whose debut song “212” is ridiculously good. Right now you can’t buy it anywhere but its a huge club hit and Pitchfork named it one of the 10 best songs of the year. Three days ago I had never heard of her. Since that time, I’ve listened to this song about 15 times and can’t get enough. Others think so as well. Mumford and Son’s keyboardist Ben Lovitt called the rapper’s single ‘mind-blowing’.
Flavorpill’s Judy Berman had this to say about her:
Azealia Banks is its future. In a year that brought us the confounding viral success of Kreayshawn, we’re clearly hungry for women in hip-hop. But Harlem’s own Banks, who topped NME‘s 2011 Cool List and had been an under-the-radar critical favorite for a few months before that, is far more likely to sustain the momentum for long enough to release a great album. Mark our words: 2012 will be the year of the smart, funny woman emcee.
I wholeheartedly agree is female rappers are going to put out more songs like “212.” Please note, there are some choice words in it, so if you happen to have any kids or prudes around, you might want to listen using your headphones. Happy Friday – enjoy.
The image below neatly sums up the thoughts that often ping-pong around my head:
Image via SMBC: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Via Neu
This post is a literal “lift and shift” of content that I received from Flavorpill. The post was titled “Outdated Videos That Are Still Awesome” and was written by Contributing Editor Tom Hawking and yeah, I cribbed his title and content but hey, I gave credit! Also, while their post had 10 videos, I only thought that 4 of them were actually awesome and unfortunately due to copyright reasons, only 3 of them were on the web. The FP write up, and video where possible, is all below – enjoy! Thanks again Tom.
Peter Gabriel — “Sledgehammer” (1986)
In the era of Pixar and huge-budget animation, the idea of stop motion animation crafted frame-by-frame on tape seems almost laughably primitive. Of course, people still use the technique today — Michel Gondry has deployed it to great effect, and it also features in Wolf Parade’s “Modern World,” one of our favorite videos of recent years. But even so, it’s easier these days — at least, if nothing else, you have digital editing technology. No such luck for Nick Park (of Wallace and Gromit fame), who made this video. The creation of “Sledgehammer” was incredibly torturous — at one point, Gabriel apparently lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while Park carefully shot single frame after single frame. But while the techniques belong to yesteryear, the video is just as mind-blowing in 2011 as it was in 1986 (especially the dancing chickens!).
A-Ha — “Take on Me” (1984)
As with “Sledgehammer,” these days this would all be done digitally, and would probably be fairly straightforward for any filmmaker with the requisite knowledge. But back in 1984, making this video involved a painstaking process called rotoscoping, whereby the animated sequences were traced over to create the animation. However, tedious as it must have been, the technique gives the video an enduring charm — like, say, Star Wars, where the models of the original trilogy look way better than the CGI of the second, the use of analog technology and one’s own hands creates a degree of realism that digital equivalents still struggle to match.
Bob Dylan — “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965)
One camera. One take. One simple idea. Ten years before “Bohemian Rhapsody.” And still far more effective.
NO VIDEO DUE TO CW
Genesis — “Land of Confusion” (1986)
Much as it pained us to put a song we adore (David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes”) onto our list of videos that really aren’t all that good, it’s even more galling to put bloody Genesis onto this list. But there’s no denying that the Spitting Image-style puppets in this video are awesome — the whole thing is beautifully executed, tying into the anti-Thatcher ‘n’ Reagan sentiments of the song and featuring some pretty impressive puppetry. That Phil Collins doll is fucking terrifying, though.