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Influenza A H1N1!
This video captures two police officers in Denmark stopping (helmet-less) cyclists, give them a hug and put a bicycle safety helmet on them.
Here's a fun game to play when you're bored. Pick the Perp gives you a lineup of 5 people and describes a crime. You try to pick who perpetrated the crime from the lineup.
A community based ISP in Wilson, North Carolina offers all-in-one internet, cable and phone service to compete with the big guys (Time-Warner).
Most consumers feel that when they buy a music CD, they have the right to rip the music off of the disc and put it on their computer(s) or their mp3 player(s). There exists plenty of free software to do just that. The entertainment industry doesn't make a huge deal about this task, but they do occasionally put root-kits on their CDs or copy protection which your CD-ripping software may or may not be able to circumvent. Oh and by the way, if there's circumvention going on - it's technically illegal thanks to the American DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and if the Conservatives have their way, thanks to the Canadian Bill C-61 (soon to be tabled again - assuming there's no election on the horizon).
So here's what I'm wondering lately. I know the government of Canada said they're going to make some changes to EI benefits to help the unemployed a little. But what I want to know is, what is the government going to do to help deal with the 356,000+ jobs that have been lost since October 2008 (273,000+ since January 2009).
... and other relationship rules for Facebook users. Fun video about Facebook manners.
Sometimes when you're young, you're surrounded by greatness and cool and don't even realize it. I was watching a CBC newsclip on the Clairtone stereo company. Back in the 1960's, only America, Germany and Japan were anybody in the home entertainment equipment business. Then along comes this upstart Canadian company - Clairtone. Suddenly, owning a Clairtone was cool and was the epitome of 1960's style. The history of the company can be found here.
In a Canadian court battle that has expectedly not been covered by big media, lawyers for isoHunt, a search site based in Canada that helps find torrents, have launched a petition to get the legality of their site decided in Canadian court once and for all. This after big entertainment has been threatening them endlessly with lawsuits. This has severe legal implications in Canada, as isoHunt is basically arguing that their site is no different (although more specialized) than Google or any other search engine. Ruling against them would be tantamount to suggesting that all search engines violate copyright law because they enable the discovery of material that infringes copyright.
It's time once again boys and girls, to play your favourite game on Karl's little blog, called Where Is It? For those of you just joining us, the rules are simple. Click the picture for a bigger view. Look it over carefully and name that city. Place your answers in the comments.
I've probably mentioned that the real estate situation in Calgary is pretty outrageous before, but Darlene found something that takes the cake.
In the next issue of Wired magazine will be the untold story of the world's biggest theft of diamonds from the Antwerp Diamond Centre.
When I went to school they made a big deal out of learning handwriting, to the point of traumatizing some kids. Oddly, this continues today, even though the occasion for writing by hand becomes rarer by the year. Traditionalists will find the concept hard to fathom, but if you look at writing in culture over time, you'll find an interesting story being told.
If you're a fan of great photography, you'll have lots of material to look through using this site as a starting point.
I thought for sure I had blogged about this before, but I couldn't find any trace of it via any search. Maybe in an alternate universe....
Remember folks. The internet is forever. The internet is for everyone. Anything you post could come back to haunt you.
Here's a set of satellite photos taken over 25 years that shows the pace of urban growth in Las Vegas from 1984 to 2009.
Some interesting facts about bison (calling them buffalo is incorrect). In 1800, there were an estimated 60 million of them in North America. In the next 100 years, they were slaughtered to the point that by 1899, some say there were less than 1000 left. They were slaughtered for their tongues, bones and hides, but their meat was never used by European settlers. The other reason they were slaughtered was to force natives to move to make room for new settlers, as bison was the natives' source of food.
If you like sour candy, I mean really sour stuff and you like to gross people out, then this is for you.
Mac users typically go around bragging about how wonderful their computers are. That and how they are practically immune from malware.
One of the things about Calgary that I always found interesting is its flora. Specifically, the fact that prior to foreigners settling here, Calgary had practically no trees. It was just bald-assed steppe, man. Almost every tree you see was planted by one of the new settlers, first along the river banks, then further out. When new homes are built in this city, there is a requirement (I think) to plant at least one tree in both the front and back yards. Calgary has also been on a campaign to plant extra trees (with property owner picking up the tab of course). Today there are several million trees within the city limits.
Cory Doctorow, who is (in my eyes anyway) a Canadian superhero of the internet, wrote a fantastic article explaining the recent history of entertainment industry and the governments and lobbying groups that prop them up.
Did you ever hear the story about the farm in South Central Los Angeles that over 12 years grew to become the biggest urban garden in the US (13 acres)? It became threatened by developers and city hall alike in 2004, when the property owner
Darlene and I were at Tim Hortons for a little light breakfast today. We shared an everything bagel with cream cheese and we each had a doughnut. She had a raspberry filled doughnut - you know - the kind with powdered sugar on the outside. I had a walnut crunch. She asked for a bite of mine because she had never tasted one before. After sampling my doughnut, she said, "It's OK. Moist. Chocolatey. Nutty. But it's more of a dessert doughnut, not a breakfast doughnut."
Here are some fascinating facts about hemp. Example:
I found this article that lists the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the world.
The small print says, "Also, the bridge is out ahead".
Seth Godin, someone who I consider to be very clever, gave a speech 3 years ago about 'things that are broken'. The topic forms the basis for his web page 'This is Broken'. The concept? If you think something is broken - it is. Meaning something could have been designed better if only the creator of that thing was paying attention.
Yet another study, this time in Norway, that concluded that downloading infringing copies of music strongly correlates buying above-average amounts of music.
This could be the geekiest thing I've discovered on the internet to date. Bohemian Rhapsody, played by electronic devices. In this band:
In this week's playlist, I decided to keep things non-specific and throw up the first 15 songs Winamp played (in shuffle mode) from my personal mp3 collection.
One of my blog readers, Mark, continued a discussion about electric cars offline (via Facebook actually). He agreed to let me put our discussion on the blog:
Almost two years ago, Will Ferrell and a few other Hollywood types founded a comedy video web site called Funny or Die. The idea is that comical folks (professional or not) could submit videos to the site and allow site users to vote on whether the video was funny and deserved to stick around, or die and be relegated to the site's 'crypt'. The very first video posted was The Landlord, featuring Will Ferrell and a foul-mouthed 2 year old landlord, which I blogged about. I've mentioned other videos from the site too.
You know how countless application developers are inventing apps that make use of the accelerometer in the iPhone? Little do most people know - the accelerometer has been around the Apple universe long before the iPhone came along.
Imagine a world where you pay for stuff with hugs and kisses and other acts of kindness and love. Too bad it takes a vodka company ad to show it to the world.......
Here's another example of what's wrong with present day copyright law.
Darlene and I have a wickedly dark sense of humour. We were talking about funerals yesterday and she went on about how she wanted to be handled if she died before I did.
I wonder if you can join the Beefeaters if you're a vegetarian?
Recently, it occurs to me that many of the things I enjoy all have something in common - light.
My mom has (had?) a kitchy collection of salt and pepper sets. That may explain my attraction to geeky or modern looking ones in my own life.
Unfortunately, I had coffee in my mouth when I read this:
Here's a neat gadget sold in Europe that knows the location of all speed cameras in Europe and alerts you when you're entering a speed zone going too fast.
Ever wonder how babies are made? Ever scramble to explain it to your kids?
Here's an idea that solves so many problems. The printer uses coffee and tea dregs which the user places into the 'ink' case on top of the printer. Since you move the ink case back and forth to print, the device doesn't even need electricity.
Here's a collection of 100 videos that have been popular at one time or another on the internet.
Public transportation doesn't have to be ugly, as is shown by these European tram lines, paved with green grass.
A Baptist pastor is brutally man-handled (putting it mildly) in Arizona for insisting on his 4th Amendment rights.
