A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff
The Olympic torch run is coming through Lethbridge today.
I took some photos and videos at the event:
LETHBRIDGE, AB — JANUARY 17, 2010 Jill Quirk, who competed in the World Championship, Pan American & World Student Games Teams, was the final torchbearer and cauldron lighter in Lethbridge. Here she shares the flame with the local community.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel: “This is perfect entertainment for those who find ‘Teletubbies’ and ‘Dora the Explorer’ to be a little too highbrow.” — Thomas Leupp, Hollywood.com
It’s Complicated: “This film about divorce and late blooming romance was so painful that it made my own divorce seem fun.” — Beth Accomando, KPBS.org
Did You Hear About the Morgans?: “Grant’s familiar, pained and rueful expressions start to look like an actor’s commentary on the film, not a character’s response to events within it.” — Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]
Nine: “The movie musical can still be a splendid bit of escapism. With Nine, the only thing you’ll want to flee is the movie theater itself.” —Bill Gibron, PopMatters
The Twilight Saga: New Moon: “The number one killer is that it’s two hours and 10 minutes long and the plot recycles itself over and over again.” — Eric Melin, Scene-Stealers.com
By popular request, from Lady Gaga’s debut album The Fame, comes a little clip out of track number three, Paparazzi reversed.
Personally, I can’t hear it even with the “reverse lyrics” showing. To me, Lucifer sounds more like moose-em-mouw, but the emails keep coming. For the record, I’m a complete skeptic.
With another year coming to a close, I decided to take a look back and recall some of my highlights for the year.
Happy New Year!
Just add salt and the magic begins!
Frog Legs Dancing with a Little Salt | YouTube
I understand this happens because salt contains sodium ions which, when in contact with the cells, change the electrical potential within each cell. This change is the ‘signal’ for the muscles to contract. Energy is stored in the muscles in the form of ATP (Adenosine-5′-triphosphate) and the twitching stops when the ATP runs out.
Apparently this is more likely to happen with cold blooded animals (like frogs) because they do not take on rigor mortis as quickly as warm-blooded animals (chicken, for example).
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I enjoyed this lecture by a professor from Regent Law school in Virginia talking about the 5th Amendment and why it is a bad idea to talk to the police even when you’ve done nothing wrong.
Cory Arcangel took the mp3 version of Iron’s Maiden’s The Number of the Beast and compressed it 666 times.
If you have ever wondered what Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” would sound like compressed over and over as an mp3 666 times…here’s your chance..and if u r wondering, YES it does lose quality each time it is compressed.
Personally, I couldn’t get all the way through it.
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It’s currently -38°C in Lethbridge.
That’s -36°F. Only a little colder and then numbers for Celsius and Fahrenheit converge.
Oh and did I mention that’s WITHOUT the wind chill factor. Yeah, with wind chill it’s more like -47°C!
Lego Matrix Trinity Help is a fantastic stop motion video that’s been making the rounds lately.
From the creators at LegoMatrix.com:
After around 440 hours of work, and just in time for the 10th anniversary of the original movie release, we are pleased to present to you our Lego version of the famous Bullet Time dodge scene from The Matrix.
Enjoy:
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As a private with the 106th Infantry Division, Kurt Vonnegut, along with five other battalion scouts, wandered behind enemy lines for several days during the Rhineland Campaign and became cut off from their battalion. They were captured by Wehrmacht troops on December 14, 1944 and imprisoned in Dresden, Germany.
While a prisoner, he witnessed the controversial fire bombing of Dresden in February 1945 which destroyed most of the city. The Germans held Vonnegut in an an ad hoc detention facility that had originally been an underground slaughterhouse meat locker. This experience was the inspiration for his famous novel, Slaughterhouse-Five.
A month later he wrote his family from a repatriation camp informing them of his capture and survival:
See the rest of the letter at Letters of Note – Slaughterhouse Five.
