I’m off to Drayton Valley to visit my sister and her family. She’s got three of the cutest kids imaginable:
In the meantime, posting may be sporadic, but I’ll be back soon.
Wedding
My friends, Dave and April, were married on Saturday. I was lucky enough to be along with the wedding party and take a few candids at the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden in Lethbridge.
Here’s one of mine catching the official photographer in action:
LETHBRIDGE – 31 MAY 2008, David Logue and April (Matise) Logue pose for wedding photos in Lethbridge’s Japanese Garden.
It’s a great place to take photos; I highly recommend it.
The Amazing Colour Changing Card Trick
As a former magician myself, I don’t believe in telling how the trick is done, but in this particular case the spoiler doesn’t just reveal how it’s done but is the actual trick.
Watch carefully.
[Colour Changing Card Trick – YouTube]
Displacements
Displacements is an immersive film installation by Michael Naimark. He first filmed three people interacting in a typical Americana living room. Then the space and objects were painted white. The camera was replaced with a projector putting the action and colour back into the room with just light. The results are surreal.
Displacements is an immersive film installation. An archetypal Americana living room was installed in an exhibition space. Then two performers were filmed in the space using a 16mm motion picture camera on a slowly rotating turntable in the room’s center. After filming, the camera was replaced with a film loop projector and the entire contents of the room were spray-painted white. The reason was to make a projection screen the right shape for projecting everything back onto itself. The result was that everything appears strikingly 3D, except for the people, who of course weren’t spray-paint white, and consequently appeared very ghostlike and unreal.
Unfortunately the video linked from Vimeo has been taken down, but you’ll find a video in the link above.
Pavement Skating
This is a video of four people driving along a Saudi Arabian road with three of them outside the car doing what what appears to be sliding on concrete wearing nothing special on their feet.
[Only in Saudi Arabia – YouTube]
Navigable Waters Protection Act
I received an email this morning outlining the Canadian Governments efforts to overturn the protection of free flowing rivers in Canada. As it stands now, the law in Canada protects the public right of navigation in Canadian waters and has done so since 1882—the right to navigate waterways in Canada is a tradition that pre-dates the beginning of our country.
In particular, Merv Tweeds of Brandon-Souris has headed up the cause for selling out on Canada’s natural resources. From his website:
Tweed leads the way to change waterway act
BRANDON — March 13, 2008 – Merv Tweed, Member of Parliament for Brandon-Souris, is leading the review to make critical and long-overdue changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act.
“This act controls every waterway in Canada, no matter how small, and has caused significant delay in the approval of new infrastructure,” said Tweed.
The Transport, Infrastructure, and Communities Committee, which Tweed chairs, will review the act and will be tabling a report on the findings and recommendations for change in June.
“I believe that refocusing the act will provide a more timely and predictable process for the review and approval of critical infrastructure projects,” said Tweed.
The Navigable Waters Protection Act was written in 1882 to protect the public right of navigation in Canadian waters. Unfortunately, this act does not allow for the ability to exclude anything “constructed or placed on, under, over, through or across” a navigable water, as everything may interfere with navigation to some degree.
Industry and provincial, territorial and municipal governments have, for years, been requesting changes to the NWPA to reflect current needs and respond to the increased volume and variety of uses of Canada’s waterways.
The existing backlog of approvals is impeding economic growth and the timely development and refurbishment of critical transportation infrastructure that, in turn, has the potential of creating a backlog for the implementation of projects under “Building Canada Plan”.
My favourite paragraph deserves some dissection: “Unfortunately, this act does not allow for the ability to exclude anything ‘constructed or placed on, under, over, through or across’ a navigable water, as everything may interfere with navigation to some degree.” So what he’s trying to say is, it’s unfortunate that the law protects the public right of navigation because we want to imped that right.
Continue reading “Navigable Waters Protection Act”
The Hippies
I just finished watching “The Hippies”, a made for TV documentary about the Hippie culture of the 60’s and 70’s that aired on the History Channel. Though flawed with its overarching, borderline ridiculous right-wing condemnations of hippie culture, it offers a fascinating glimpse at the drug-fueled, youth-driven counterculture of the era.
Too much time, unfortunately, is wasted on sensationalist, irrelevant side-stories and not enough is spent on the substantive contributions of the hippie aesthetic to the culture at large. There are also a few glaring historical accuracies; for example, one could easily conclude from the film that the Vietnam War ended after 1969 — which would certainly come as a surprise to the soldiers who served there from 1970-1973. But at least the film, at its end, correctly, if only briefly, touches upon some of the many lasting contributions of the hippie ethos to the culture at large; these include the consciousness movement, the environmental movement, and the computer/technological revolution which led to the democratization of information by the Internet.
[The Hippies – YouTube]
The mention of famed “satanist” Aleister Crowley caught my ear, especially when the narrator explained how his image was “featured” on the cover of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Truth be told, Crowley is merely one of the 85 people and objects featured on the cover.
The commentary also claims Sgt. Pepper’s was “the greatest masterpiece of the psychedelic era”. As any Beatles fan will tell you Sgt Pepper’s was Paul’s baby and while Lennon’s Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds* or George’s Within You Without You have that psychedelic sound, Paul didn’t embrace the drug scene in the same way that the others did and while it may truly be a masterpiece of musical genius, I’d venture to say that later albums like Magical Mystery Tour are more psychedelic.
*Fun fact: Lennon always denied Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was about LSD despite rumours to the contrary.
(via)
The Hitler Meta Meme
Constantly being remixed with new subtitles on various themes, scenes from the 2004 film “Downfall (Der Untergang)” by Oliver Hirschbiegel, set in 1945 showing Hitler’s last 10 days in his Berlin bunker, recently turned into a meta meme, making fun of the remixes with a remix. Unfortunately, that old version was taken down by a bogus DMCA request, but Brad Templeton, an EFF chairman, has created this fun and clever meta version to replace it.
A small selection of other versions:
Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t
I’ve been super excited for Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, “Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t”. The release date of November 18, 2008 was just announced on Amazon, as well they’ve got a product description up too:
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.
Here’s a list of writings and talks by and about Gladwell that cover genius/prodigy, education, and working:
- his talk Genius: 2012 from the 2007 New Yorker Conference
- The Risk Pool – What’s behind Ireland’s economic miracle—and G.M.’s financial crisis? (risk pool blog entry, and a followup post)
- The Myth of Prodigy and Why It Matters
- Getting In — The social logic of Ivy League admissions
- The Bakeoff — Project Delta aims to create the perfect cookie
- Brain Candy — Is pop culture dumbing us down or smartening us up?
- Gladwell’s personal work space
- Making the Grade
- The Talent Myth — Are smart people overrated?
- The Social Life of Paper — Looking for method in the mess
- Designs For Working — Why your bosses want to turn your new office into Greenwich Village
- The New-Boy Network — What do job interviews really tell us?
Weezer’s Pork and Beans Music Video
Mmmmmmm, Weezer’s new memelicious music video Pork and Beans is the best meme inspired creation ever.
Shot May 7-10 in North Hollywood, CA, this video features a cast of, well, many! And what a cast! An amazing group of well known “Youtube celebs” was tracked down and flown in so they could do their thing(s) with the Weezer men. Its pretty much impossible to properly describe what went down, so just have a look!
I particularly liked it when Rivers Cuomo embraces the “Leave Britney Alone” guy. If anyone was ever overdo for a hug, it’s Chris Crocker.
Update: Wired’s interview with the director.