Used to be a movie, now it's what I eat on Saturday mornings

Wanna feel old?

Remember this movie? If you do, here's a little shocker - how old these actors are now:

• Judd Nelson - 49
• Molly Ringwald -41
• Emilio Estevez - 46
• Anthony Michael Hall - 40
• Ally Sheedy - 46

Violin, piano and a little ham

One of the funniest music videos I've seen in a while.

Igudesman and Joo.

Strike two

What do New Zealand, South Korea and France have in common?

They all tried to enact 3 strikes legislation that could cut off your internet after 3 unproven allegations of copyright infringement. New Zealand's attempt to pass such a law is dead. Now, apparently, so is France's. Best line of text read regarding the defeat (so far):

"Individual liberties, in the end, have not been sacrificed to try to preserve the corporate interests of some obsolete industries."

I thought we'd gone as low as we could go. I was wrong.

How low can reality TV go? You be the judge.

In a new reality series Fox-TV has planned, real businesses needing a trim will give staff the heave-ho on camera. But it's the employees who get to choose the unlucky staffer. Internal company files, such as budgets, HR files including salaries will be open to each pink-slipping team.

Yeah, letting employees decide who gets the boot. That will totally be fair. No chance it will become a popularity contest, hey? Will any staff resort to hanky-panky in order to be saved?

I wonder what Fox-TV has in store for us next? Let the audience choose whose mortgage gets recalled?

So ends another chapter

So, if you're a friend on Facebook this news is already day-old.

I got laid-off yesterday. Yeah. Smiles abound though and I have nothing but good to say about the situation. A few good friends also suffered the same fate and my heart and best wishes go out to them.

I believe that everything happens for a reason and I'm sure I'll find out soon enough why it is my destiny to move on at this particular time.

In the meantime, if you know anyone that's hiring a trainer or technologist, or want my resume, let me know.

LOLmice

The whole LOLcats thing is getting a little tired.

But this one's a classic. Well, it made me laugh.

An artist stands up against the RIAA's muscle

The band Radiohead made millions after giving away their latest album for free. In a landmark file-sharing case, they have apparently agreed to testify against the RIAA. Radiohead expressed its issue with record labels that abuse copyrights for their own benefit. Taking a stand against the music labels, the band and several other well known artists formed the Featured Artists Coalition, a lobby group that aims to end the extortion-like practises of record labels and allow artists to gain more control over their own work. Artists are also unhappy with the fact that labels, represented by lobby groups such as the RIAA are pushing for anti-piracy legislation without consulting the artists they claim to represent.

Radiohead will testify against the RIAA in the case of Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum versus the RIAA.

If you're ever in DC...

One of the most fantastic things I've ever seen while on a trip was while Darlene and I visited Washington DC in 1991. I'm speaking of course about the Smithsonian Institute. An unbelievably huge series of museums (17 in all), and the best part? They're completely free! Oh yeah.....

Anyway, here's a quicky article on said Institute.

The Google Maps image is of the Mall in Washington, between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. See all those buildings on either side of the Mall? That's all part of the Smithsonian. The length of that area is 9/10 mile (1.5km). Just to give you a sense of scale.

Puny..... err Puma. Nice try, but it'll never catch on

OK, car-of-the-future designers - take note. If you're thinking of designing a car of the future to replace what we have now with something more efficient, try to remember what current cars look like. There's a perfectly good reason why we don't see Smart cars in every driveway. Or Segways in every house garage. Modern consumers need a vehicle that has room for a family. Even if you're targetting a car for a person or two to take to work, it has to project a sense of safety.

Here's an example of what won't go over well. Ever. Video of the poser here.

Just tweak a gene here..... presto chargo!

Here's some more battery evolution news from MIT. I won't spill all the details, but it involves viruses - biological ones!

Not all banks are bad news

I caught a bit of this guy's story during President Obama's first address to Congress. Leonard Abess Jr. sold his bank last fall, then quietly handed out $60 million in bonuses from his own pocket to 471 employees and retirees. They each got an average of $127,000 each. That's right - even retired employees got a cut.

He never wanted to make a big deal out of his generosity, he wasn't present when the money was handed out. Abess was praised by President Obama. Abess attended his congressional address as Obama's guest.

He grew the bank from $400 million in assets and seven offices to $2.75 billion in assets and 18 offices and received no money from the federal bank bailout.

Abess, who remains the bank's chairman and chief executive, made a video telling the employees a bonus would be coming with the sale and assuring them it wasn't severance. A vice president, Linda Naughton, contacted some retirees and told them they would be getting a letter from Abess and should "sit down before they opened it."

"Just saw a dude with one eye!"

If you've ever read Homer's Odyssey, and you know what twitter is, then you'll chuckle at this 'if Homer's Odyssey was written on twitter'.

Best bad movie revue (and topical too)

Confessions of a Shopaholic: "If there is a single bright spot in the financial crisis, it is the possibility that one day producer Jerry Bruckheimer will run out of money." -- Jessica Reaves, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

More at defective yeti.

Best quote found on the web by me this month

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."
- Ingrid Bergman

Blah blah, click beep!

Inventive ad featuring a choir, some phones and laptops.

Google broken

Here's something to keep you entertained for about one second.

O noes! Googlez iz broekin!

Cash = guilty; TSA = bullies

If you're going to board a plane in the US, don't let the TSA find out you've got a lot of cash ($5000) on you. Or you'll have some explaining to do. Even if there's no law that requires you to do so. Of course they won't mention that either. Even if you ask.

How long will it take for this organization to be disbanded?

Electric reality one hurdle away...

I was talking with a good friend the other day about the future of cars - in particular - electric cars. I really have a soft spot for the electric car future. The cars themselves wouldn't produce any pollution. They would be much easier and cheaper to maintain. The electric motors would make the cars more efficient in that they could easily convert to generators to recapture energy normally lost to heat while coasting or braking.

Of course, the biggest obstacles to an electric car future are the generation of all that extra electricity and the storage of energy in the car itself. We've been promised that the future is hydrogen fuel cells. The hydrogen would mix with oxygen from the air to produce electricity on demand with a by-product of water vapour. The problem is two-fold. Where do you get the energy to make all this hydrogen? Is it actually efficient to make hydrogen only to change it back to energy again? Some are suggesting it uses more energy this way. Plus there's the issue of the hydrogen infrastructure. How do we get all this hydrogen to fuelling stations?

Wouldn't it be way easier to use a form of battery to store the energy? Then just recharge the battery when the opportunity presents itself. Unfortunately, battery technology has not evolved to the degree we need to make this a viable option. Most electric cars need many hours to fully recharge and this pretty much limits us to only being able to travel the range of the battery's capacity in any one day. This will not meet the needs of any family that wants to drive any great distance. There is also the issue of battery disposal. Batteries typically only allow for so many charge / recharge cycles before they need to be replaced. This isn't very efficient, nor very environmentally friendly.

According to my friend, a solution is around the corner. MIT is working on a new type of lithium-ion battery that combines the best characteristics of batteries and capacitors, ending up with a (gadget-sized) battery that can recharge in 10 seconds. Translate this up to car capacity and you'd be able to fully charge a car's batteries in 5 minutes versus 8 hours. The new battery design also does not degrade with repeated charging. This changes the entire game. This makes it possible to use a car cross-country. That's exciting.

If this succeeds, powerful, affordable, quick-charging batteries could be used to store energy from intermittent, non-carbon energy sources like wind generators or solar cells, helping to usher out the age of fossil fuels.

Bad parking

Here's a funny comic from xkcd about bad parking jobs.

This one I'm sure many folks can identify with.

Need to let your aggressions out?

Today is Pillow Fight Day around the world.

There doesn't appear to be one scheduled for Calgary. The closest one is in Vancouver.

Doesn't it look like fun?

What kind of home will a half mil buy?

I came across this site that gives a bit of a comparison regarding what US$500,000 buys you in different parts of the world.

I like the one in Costa Rica.

Where is it - Edition 61

Calling all geo-hounds!

It's time for another edition of Where is it?

Click for bigger picture. name that city!

Go!!

I like it... let's do it

Here's a proof of concept that has me very excited that someone could actually exploit this to create some amazing new content.

The idea is that using Google Streetview, you could proceed along a route (worth taking - in other words - scenic) and stitch the shots together to make a stop-motion-esque video. This sample alludes to just how great that could be.

Imagine a movie of the streets of Rome, Paris, London...... or a cross-country trip (edited for interesting-ness).

Spin-o-rama

Cute viral video for the Mini Clubman.

It's not perfect

Canada goes around bragging about how fantastic its health care system is, but there is the odd flaw. One of the elements of our lauded system is the steady erosion of things that are covered by the various health insurance providers and even amongst the plans a provider offers.

Case in point is dental. Darlene's plan, provided by Blue Cross, doesn't cover very much. You're basically allowed the bare minimum amount of planing, scaling and polishing per year. If you have perfect, ultra-clean teeth, it's enough. But I've never found it to be enough. In fact, my hygienist wants me to come in twice a year. Unfortunately, the amount of work I needed was only about 75% covered as it is - if I went back for round two in 6 months, I'd be paying it all out of pocket. And this stuff isn't cheap. I talked to Darlene about it and the minuscule coverage stems from the fact that her plan is the absolute lowest tier you can buy. It's a perk of working in the health care industry. Yes.... I'm being very sarcastic. Interestingly, if I were subscribing to my own work's plan, more work would be covered. Much more. But I choose to use my coverage dollars toward a health spending account. So it all balances out.

Sometimes, patients get sideswiped by increases in fees charged by their health providers that aren't actually covered by the insurance, which comes out of the patient's pocket, but they often don't find out until afterward. Health costs keep going up, but the amount you're covered for doesn't match it. Not even close. Even thought the provider knows the coverage has not kept pace with the fees, they often don't bother to tell you either. "Here, put this fluoride in your mouth........ psst... it's not covered by the way...."

I feel for people with no money, no job, or poor coverage from their employers (it does exist).

Mow the lawn

Yeah.... this commercial would never fly in North America. Europe maybe....

The number of subtle (and not quite so subtle) clues to the subject abound.

"Never feel untidy... just spruce up your Aphrodite.... and mow the lawn."

"I will have the penne a la arrabiata"

I seem to be coming across a lot of Star Wars stuff lately, heh?

Well, the deluge continues with this wonderful bit from Eddie Izzard doing Darth Vader at the Death Star canteen (cafeteria).

“I am Lord Vader! I can kill you with a single thought!”
“You’ll still need a tray!”

Home-made costumes not always a great idea

Sometimes making a home-made costume is pretty cool.

Like I said..... sometimes.

My latest meme - [your name] needs...

Time to have a little social networking fun: Google your first name and the word needs in quotation marks (such as "Catharine needs") and type the first 10 things that come up.

1. Karl needs help
2. Karl needs to take care of his baby
3. Karl needs Facebook
4. Karl needs a hobby
5. Karl needs a girlfriend
6. Karl needs firing
7. Karl needs sleep
8. Karl needs help to shoulder cost
9. Karl needs to focus his attention on shorter-term goals
10. Karl needs more time with his family

If I'd gone to get that cake..... don't know what would've happened

More awesomeness from the cake wrecks blog.

This time, someone massacres a sports team logo on a cake.