Do You Believe Snopes?

True or False? The Urban Myth’s board game thoroughly researches all of its “facts”.

False.

I remember reading about the rumor that Mr. Ed was actually a zebra on Snopes.com and finding myself at a loss for words, when it was so obviously not true. But it’s SNOPES! They are the best source for urban legend debunking, how can it not be true? Now I know. So the moral of the story is, don’t believe everything you hear or read just because it comes from a reliable source – even Snopes.com.

Nickelback How You Remind Me Someday

Via MeFi:

“What you are hearing is Nickelback’s “Someday” in your left speaker and “How you remind me in the right”. All of those left shocked please raise their hands.”

I’ve never understood what the big fascination with Nickelback is anyway. I mean I’m happy for them being somewhat of locals making it to the big time, but for some mysterious reason I just don’t dig their music. I don’t think it’s just that their music is formulaic either, it’s probably just the old argument that the music from your highschool days is going to end up being your favorite no matter when you grew up.

It also makes me wonder, is a band still a one-hit wonder if all of their next hits are just subtle reworkings of their first hit?

$14 Steady Cam

My brother is into photography. He has been the photo-editor at the Gauntlet Newspaper (The University of Calgary’s Student Run Paper) for the past few years and always has a few good tips. Anyway he told me that you can really improve your pictures with a steady cam tripod but they usually run between $600 and $1500. Well today I found a site that shows you how to build your own Steady-Cam for about $14 (I’m guessing that’s USD).


I’ll bet somebody like Jerry Bruckheimer sees a movie in this. During the Sadr militia’s Sunday attempt to seize the U.S. government headquarters in Najaf, the building was defended not by U.S. troops but by a small group of Blackwater Security Consulting “employees”. The Blackwater commandos, most of whom are former Special Forces troops, are on contract to provide security for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Najaf. It turns out that the four men brutally slain Wednesday in Fallujah were also Blackwater employees.

Spectacularly interesting article about the standoff. Hey, if it was a movie, I’d probably go see it.

Croc Hunter Saves 11 Year Old

SYDNEY, Australia – A retired Australian crocodile hunter saved a young girl from the jaws of a 10-foot crocodile when he jumped on top of the man-eating reptile and gouged its eyes, local media said Tuesday.

All Hail the Database

This article was of particular interest to me, given that I used to work in The City of Medicine Hat’s GIS department.

When the 40,000 subscribers to Reason, the monthly libertarian magazine, receive a copy of the June issue, they will see on the cover a satellite photo of a neighborhood – their own neighborhood. And their house will be graphically circled.

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The Four Types of Blog Posts

An intesting look at categories of blog posts from BoingBoing’s Guest blog:

Informative: short, sweet, linked. Makes a quick point and backs it up with a link to another site. Boing Boing has made this into an art form.

Blisdom (blog wisdom): can be short or long, relies on a narrative to make a subtle point. Often pulled from a life experience. Here’s an example from a conversation with my wife:

Wife: I just had the strangest dream. I was on a train…

Me: Coach or First Class?

Wife: Honey, I don’t dream in coach.

Vanity Post: Often inane. Represents everything that journalists like to point to and say, “See, blogs are worthless.”

‘While the unexamined life may not be worth living the overexamined life is not worth reading.’

–Scott Simon of NPR on “inane weblogs”

That doesn’t mean these blog entries aren’t interesting when read as part of the whole blog…it just means that if there is a point, it is often missed by the casual visitor, like going from Sopranos series 1 to series 4.

Fiction: There is a lot of emerging fiction popping up from blogs. Harder to find, but worth the journey.

Then comes the post that has had the biggest affect on my life. I don’t have a clever name for it, so let’s just call it the “shoes” post…as in walk a mile in another’s shoes. Sometimes it has a clear point, and other times it just resonates inside you. Whatever the author’s point behind the post, it takes on new meaning in your own mind. Sometimes you learn something about someone else, but often you learn something about yourself.

I like to think of my posts as a combination of Informative and Blisdom, giving a tiny slice-of-my-life to readers while at the same time posting short sweet links along with my thoughts on the matter.

I Heart BitTorrent

BitTorrent is the greatest! For example, even though I went to Calgary to watch the BareNaked Ladies last Thursday and Anna forgot to set the VCR, I was able to download her a copy of the newest episode of ER and we could just watch it on the computer. But using BitTorrent gets even better when you use RSS. With an RSS feed you can use your news aggregator to let you know whenever there is a new episode of your favorite show available for download, this way you’ll always be up to date on whatever Tony Soprano and/or Homer Simpson are up to. It’s the greatest!