All That Is Awesome

2006-05-03T09:31:00.000-04:00

Teddy Bear Gun

A Japanese company called Sunamiya has developed a gun-shaped party cracker that shoots out a teddy bear. The teddy bear would then parachute down.

Developers hit on the idea after noticing that it had become a trend for people to throw teddy bears into the air instead of bouquets at wedding receptions..

You are not alone. (link one, link two)

2006-02-08T23:46:00.000-05:00

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)

You have a strong urge to move your legs which you may not be able to resist. The need to move is often accompanied by uncomfortable sensations. Some words used to describe these sensations include:creeping, itching, pulling, creepy-crawly, tugging orgnawing.

Your RLS symptoms start or become worse when you are resting. The longer you are resting, the greater the chance the symptoms will occur and the more severe they are likely to be.

Your RLS symptoms get better when you move your legs. The relief can be complete or only partial but generally starts very soon after starting an activity. Relief persists as long as the motor activity continues.

Your RLS symptoms are worse in the evening especially when you are lying down. Activities that bother you at night do not bother you during the day.

You are not alone.

2006-01-30T14:40:00.000-05:00

Internationl Dada Archive
"This Web site is designed to provide information on the resources and services of the International Dada Archive at the University of Iowa Libraries. It is the gateway to the International Online Bibliography of Dada. As the site is developed, it will also become a resource for additional information about the historic Dada movement and the individual Dada writers and artists, as well as links to other Internet resources."

2006-01-17T11:58:00.000-05:00

Al Gore On the Limits of Executive Power
An excerpt:

It is appropriate that we make this appeal on the day our nation has set aside to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who challenged America to breathe new life into our oldest values by extending its promise to all our people.

On this particular Martin Luther King Day, it is especially important to recall that for the last several years of his life, Dr. King was illegally wiretapped-one of hundreds of thousands of Americans whose private communications were intercepted by the U.S. government during this period.

The FBI privately called King the "most dangerous and effective negro leader in the country" and vowed to "take him off his pedestal." The government even attempted to destroy his marriage and blackmail him into committing suicide.

This campaign continued until Dr. King's murder. The discovery that the FBI conducted a long-running and extensive campaign of secret electronic surveillance designed to infiltrate the inner workings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and to learn the most intimate details of Dr. King's life, helped to convince Congress to enact restrictions on wiretapping.

The result was the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA), which was enacted expressly to ensure that foreign intelligence surveillance would be presented to an impartial judge to verify that there is a sufficient cause for the surveillance. I voted for that law during my first term in Congress and for almost thirty years the system has proven a workable and valued means of according a level of protection for private citizens, while permitting foreign surveillance to continue.

Yet, just one month ago, Americans awoke to the shocking news that in spite of this long settled law, the Executive Branch has been secretly spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on "large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages, and other Internet traffic inside the United States." The New York Times reported that the President decided to launch this massive eavesdropping program "without search warrants or any new laws that would permit such domestic intelligence collection."

[more]

2006-01-11T09:45:00.000-05:00

Japanese Death Poems
"Although the consciousness of death is in most cultures very much a part of life, this is perhaps nowhere more true than in Japan, where the approach of death has given rise to a centuries-old tradition of writing jisei, or the "death poem." Such a poem is often written in the very last moments of the poet's life."

The poets meditate on their own contemplation of death, but are even more interesting in contemplating their own immediate deaths, not the mere immediacy of Death to all our lives. There is something comforting, though difficult to attain, in the Zen poets’ acceptance of what is inevitable.

Winter ice
melts into clear water —
clear is my heart.
[Hyakka]

Travelling sick;
My dreams roam
On a withered moor.
[Basho]

2005-12-31T19:47:00.001-05:00

Splading Gray's Swimming to Cambodia
Spalding Gray's performance monologue detailing the genocide in Cambodia that took some 2 million lives during the Pol Pot regime, punctuated with anecdotes: a sexually experimental sailor he met on a train journey; a description of a journalist’s ego; his own neurotic fear of sharks, remembered only when he is swimming in an uncharted sea in search of a "perfect moment".

So it was our first day off in a long time and there were about 130 of us out by the pool trying to get a little rest and relaxation, and the Thai waiters were running and jumping over hedges to bring us "Kloster! More Kloster!" Everyone was ordering Kloster beer. No one was ordering the Singal because someone had said that Singal, which is exported to the United States, has formaldehyde in it. The waiters were running and jumping over hedges because they couldn’t get to us fast enough. They were running and jumping and smiling – not a silly smile but a profound smile, a deep smile. There was nothing idiotic about it because the Thais have a word, sanug, which, loosely translated, means "fun." And they never do anything that isn’t sanug – if it isn’t sanug they won't touch it.

Some say that the Thais are the nicest people that money can buy, because they like to have fun. They know how to have fun and, perhaps due to their very permissive strain of Buddhism, they don’t have to suffer for it after they have it.

2005-12-10T12:37:00.000-05:00

Lobotomy
In a minimally invasive procedure, Freeman would hammer the ice pick into the skull just above the tear duct and wiggle it around. Between 1936 through the 1950s, he advocated lobotomies throughout the United States. Such was Freeman's zeal that he began to travel around the nation in his own personal van, which he called his "lobotomobile", demonstrating the procedure in many medical centres. He reputedly even performed a few lobotomies in hotel rooms. Also see: Teenage Labotomy.

2005-11-18T09:05:00.000-05:00

John Muir
He was a Scottish-American polymath: environmentalist, naturalist, explorer, writer, inventor, engineer and geologist. He is, however, probably best remembered as one of the greatest champions of the Yosemite area's natural wonders. Muir helped form an environmental organization called the Sierra Club and he walked from Indiana to Florida. He also continues to inspire Larry David's wife.

2005-11-09T12:11:00.000-05:00

Hieronymus Bosch
His paintings contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time. He is said to have been an inspiration to the surrealism movement in the 20th century and I believe to be one of the first modern surrealist painters. The painting above is 500 years old and is the middle part of a triptych. [Link].

2005-10-29T10:25:00.000-04:00

Casualty Counter
"Your best source for antiwar news, viewpoints, and activities." This one is for the kids at war, all the yellow ribbons, etc. Peace. Also check out www.iraqbodycount.net.

2005-10-29T10:06:00.000-04:00

I/O Brush
An Input/Output brush created by Ryokai and Marti from MIT Media Labs. It's what all the kids are asking for from Santa this year.

2005-10-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

Worth1000.com
This site has some of the most fantastic uses of Photoshop you will ever see. Highly recommended for amusement and amazement.

2005-10-28T07:42:00.000-04:00

Reality.
The quality or state of being actual or true.

2005-10-28T07:31:00.000-04:00

Dreams.
"Every person on earth dreams every night – every mammal in fact. It follows then that something extremely important must be going on while we sleep and dream, yet in the industrialized world, the majority of people pay little attention to dreams, and sometimes shortchange themselves on sleep because it is perceived as lost time, or at best unproductive." This is not the case.

High Definition?

2005-10-26T09:02:00.000-04:00

As HDTV becomes increasingly common, the last of the old generation of console games are supporting it more and more. However, while the xbox360 and ps3 will feature standard HD-support, the older consoles have no standard and are all across the board in their HD support. That's why a site like http://hdgames.net/ makes everything so easy! With a comprehensive, user-supported system, all your HD game questions can be answered in short order. Fantastic...now go buy Shadow of the Colossus!

2005-10-25T22:50:00.000-04:00

Despair.com.
Yea, you've seen these 1,000,000 times. 1 more time, for old time's sake.

2005-10-25T19:51:00.000-04:00

Web Based ASCII Generator.
"ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Computers can only understand numbers, so an ASCII code is the numerical representation of a character such as 'a' or '@' or an action of some sort. ASCII was developed a long time ago and now the non-printing characters are rarely used for their original purpose." This is a great page that lets you convert any JPEG or GIF URL to ASCII code.

2005-10-25T09:57:00.000-04:00

Primate Brain Scans.
The resolution of these images is 0.4 microns per pixel and have uncompressed image sizes exceeding 25 GB each, with each image being about 100,000 - 120,000 pixels wide.

2005-10-23T10:05:00.002-04:00

Clutter (America, America, this is you.)
"Recently I was asked why clutter clearing is important. After thinking about it, here is my answer to that question: One reason is to "lean out" the physical objects that compete for one's attention. That is, when trying to get something done, clutter can act as a subtle distraction that inhibits productivity or even just relaxation." Get help here.

2005-10-20T11:55:00.000-04:00

The Nude.
"The Nude is a well-known exercise of the artistic process. It helps the student build a relationship between various styles of art, the human anatomy, and the scientific norm. Although nudity has evolved over the ages, it will always be a symptom of our ambivalent relation to images, halfway between the purity of the body and the downfall of it, whether this downfall be tattered canvas or in the ground." Warning: naked people.

2005-10-20T11:50:00.000-04:00

We're Only Gonna Die
"Early man walked away as modern man took control
Their minds weren't all the same, to conquer was his goal
So he built his great empire and slaughtered his own kind
Then he died a confused man, killed himself with his own mind

We're only gonna die from our own arrogance"

Performed by: Bad Religion, Biohazard, and Sublime.

2005-10-19T11:39:00.000-04:00

[Link] Chris Jordan on his photography: "As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake. "

2005-10-19T08:51:00.000-04:00

Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the practice whereby a person is intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally.

2005-10-16T08:52:00.000-04:00

United States patent and Trademark Office.

Giantology?

2005-10-14T14:17:00.000-04:00

[Link] I'm not a fan of "viral" ads, but I love this page for--of course--Shadow of the Colossus. If, however, this isn't an ad for the game, then there are some truly strange things going on the world today!

1up.com Shadow of the Colossus Preview Week

2005-10-13T10:08:00.000-04:00

[Link] I was plenty excited about Shadow of the Colossus already, but then Sony sent me a demo disc.

Now I am absolutely lusting after this game. Based on the demo, I can easily say that Shadow of the Colossus has the potential to be one of my all time favorite games.

While the level design (the Colossus of the demo) was fantastic, what really pulled me inwas the apparent fact that the player character is morally ambiguous in thathe is essentially acting out of greed and killing the Colossi to serve his own purposes.

Of course, the story might reveal that this isn't the case, but even so this is definitely a game not to be missed. Five more days...

Xsunx and their Amazing Solar Glass!

2005-10-12T16:36:00.000-04:00

[Link] Given that people love windows and hate solar panels, doesn't Xsunx seem to have the ideal solution? I am a bit disappointed to see that it is immediately a patent game, though, which means all the legal fees involved in whatever crazy litigation that will undoubtedly arise will be added to the cost. Even so, the prospect of a house that can partially sustain itself is a good prospect indeed. Now if only these make it to the consumer level before the bombs start dropping...five years isn't as long as it sounds!

Brown Sugar Cafe

2005-10-11T14:23:00.000-04:00

[Link] Oh Brown Sugar Cafe, how I love thee... From the great Thai food to the stylish decor, the Brown Sugar Cafe has become my "goto" restaurant in Boston. If you're ever in Boston, get thee to Brown Sugar Cafe and let me know; I could always go for some Country Style Pad Thai.

2005-10-09T13:25:00.000-04:00

Museum of Media History.
"In the year 2014, The New York Times has gone offline. The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned. What happened to the news? And what is EPIC?"

2005-10-07T09:17:00.000-04:00

Wikipedia.
It's amazing how long it can take for information to disperse across the vastness of the internet, but apparently it still can take a while. So for anyone that hasn't heard of Wikipedia, I suggest you visit this site. In a few words, it's the first encyclopedia for the digital masses and an excellent resource for your expanding knowledge. It is also user based content. Just don't ask me how to cite it.

2005-10-06T09:04:00.000-04:00

Why?
"Elephant Eyelash is a journey of self-conscious mumblings, angry soliloquies, broken relationships and social commentary lain gently over probably the best produced music of the year." I saw Why? perform last night at the Ottobar. Amazing show.

2005-10-06T09:02:00.000-04:00

Terry Rogers.
"Infinite fascination with details and dynamic pictorial architecture in combination with frustrated and sublimated desires make for a curious, static combustion in a painting. I attempt to map out these forces in western culture with a sense of their infinitely regenerative power. And it's about the viewer—how we interpret and react to what we see, how we are the people in the paintings—and how they are us." Some revealing and graphic content, but a fascinating piece of illustrative commentary on our society.

2005-10-05T10:07:00.000-04:00

Rob Zombie.
Don't let the name fool you. At 39, Rob Zombie is far from the walking dead--in fact, he's living to the extreme. With an empire of enterprises ranging from the shock-rock band White Zombie (10 million discs sold and counting) to his ghoulish comic-book imprint, Rob Zombie has a dead-accurate grip on what American males love: gore, girls, guitars, and fast cars. Not bad for a blue-collar boy from Haverhill, Massachusetts, who was labeled the "weird kid" at school.

American Buddha Online Library

2005-10-05T09:55:00.000-04:00

Just by reading this post you may run the risk of being noticed by the patriot act. However, if you go to the American Buddha Online Library you will be mainlined directly onto the list of dangerous people; phonetaps will ensue with the potential for body cavity searches at some future date. Fortunately you will also have access to a variety of full texts, videos and audio clips, most of which seem to advocate the dismantling of all authoritative structures. It can be a bit hard to navigate and you do now have to (ironically) register, but the full text of A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick is more than worth the cost of the eventual patriot act authorized penetration.

iso50

2005-10-04T22:51:00.000-04:00

CONSUME--I mean, here is a site containing the art of one Scott Hansen. I suppose you can comfort your anti-consumerism mind with the knowledge that you are supporting an independent artist. Of course, if this artist really is independent, what does he need my money for?! To make pretty pictures, of course!

Monster Hunter

2005-10-04T14:02:00.000-04:00

[Link] The upcoming Shadow of the Colossus got me to thinking about games that have combat with giant enemies in real-time and, while it might not be the newest or even best game around, Monster Hunter more than fits the bill. With player characters barely coming up to the knees of the dragons, Monster Hunter really offers some unique, cooperative gameplay. Hopefully both the upcoming sequel and PSP version will build on this underrated classic.

2005-10-03T20:26:00.000-04:00

FusionAnomaly.Net.
It is probably true quite generally that in the history of human thinking the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet. These lines may have their roots in quite different parts of human nature, in different times or different cultural environments or different religious traditions: hence if they actually meet, that is, if they are at least so much related to each other that a real interaction can take place, then one may hope that new and interesting developments may follow. I seriously recommend you explore the fusion anomaly.

2005-10-03T20:12:00.001-04:00

Google Earth.
Dude, my mom knows about Google Earth. But if you don't know, you should investigate. I recommend you check it out and figure out how to get to the Grand Canyon with the 3D terrain. Really -- will our lives ever be the same?

2005-10-03T13:09:00.000-04:00

Lucasfilm's Website.
Check out the Flash. Such a classic piece. You can never go wrong with this kind of simplicity. Brilliant page. Be sure to hover over Yoda.

2005-10-03T09:31:00.000-04:00

Carl Weathers, the world is your oyster. Get your Governor on.

2005-10-03T00:55:00.000-04:00

[Link] Okay, the instructional photographs are somewhat comical, but if the Lifestraw does what it claims (which I am still skeptical about) then it could be one of the most useful items to ever be invented. Even if it doesn't function as claimed, at least people are making worthwhile hoax products instead of another horde of photoshopped ipods. Or would it be worse...

2005-09-30T09:36:00.000-04:00

Syd Mead. An industrial designer best known for his vehicle designs in science-fiction films such as Blade Runner, Aliens, and Tron. In much of his film work, he is billed as a "visual futurist" or "conceptual designer".

2005-09-30T09:20:00.000-04:00

CGSociety. Enhancing digital arts.

2005-09-29T18:49:00.000-04:00

Prius.

2005-09-29T17:43:00.000-04:00

Dr. Octagon.

2005-09-29T13:47:00.000-04:00

Elsewares [link]. Selling everything from clothing to dishes and beyond, with everything being painfully stylish. Mostly affordable too. The only question I have left is if I'm hip enough to own these products? Probably not, but let me get out my credit card just in case....

2005-09-29T12:46:00.000-04:00

Watchmen.

2005-09-28T22:43:00.000-04:00

DivX.

2005-09-28T20:22:00.000-04:00

Leslie Hall.

2005-09-28T20:05:00.000-04:00

PSP Downgrade [Link]. PSP downgrader walkthrough on Hack a Day. Praise Jesus.

2005-09-28T19:54:00.000-04:00

The Hated. [Link]. Annapolis band from 1985-1989. Influenced emo heavily. My favorite album I own is still "No More We Cry".

2005-09-28T09:38:00.000-04:00

President Bush Animated GIF Collection [Link]. He sure looks like he's having fun. Take a gander.

2005-09-28T09:29:00.000-04:00

Shadow of the Colossus. [Link]. The entertainment industry is an industry that plays it formulaically safe. Take videogames, for example. A player advances from level to level, incrementally advancing a generic story so as to finally confront a narratively important antagonist that will hopefully bring about narrative resolution. However, that ultimate resolution doesn't change the fact that the trip there was almost entirely devoid of narrative meaning. Shadow of the Colossus looks to change this by having the narratively important antagonists be the actual levels. A fascinating, albeit risky, design choice, but since this is from the makers of ICO, arguably one of the best games ever made, I'll take a chance and buy Shadow of the Colossus on October 18th.

2005-09-28T08:53:00.000-04:00

Send Your Pet To War. [Link].

2005-09-28T05:08:00.000-04:00

Political Ideals by Bertrand Russell [Link]. Political ideals must be based upon ideals for the individual life.The aim of politics should be to make the lives of individuals as good as possible. There is nothing for the politician to consider outside or above the various men, women, and children who compose the world. The problem of politics is to adjust the relations of human beings in such a way that each severally may have as much of good in his existence as possible. And this problem requires that we should first consider what it is that we think good in the individual life.

2005-09-28T05:02:00.000-04:00

Rick Rubin [Link]. On top of his game in the middle to late 1980s, Rick Rubin merged his love of rock and roll and heavy metal to the street sounds of hip hop and rap. The result of this marriage was one hit after another for Def Jam Records. You don't need to have a golden ear for samples to detect the guitar riffs that Rick added to songs by LL Cool J as well as the Beastie Boys. Rick was well ahead of the pack when it came to metal rap sound which has now been taken even further by contemporary acts.

2005-09-27T11:48:00.000-04:00

Nixon resignation.

2005-09-27T10:05:00.000-04:00

Transhumanism [Link]. "As the external world becomes more animate, we may find that we -- the so-called humans -- are becoming, and may to a great extent always have been, inanimate in the sense that we are led, directly by built-in tropisms, rather than leading. So we and our elaborately evolving computers may meet each other halfway."

2005-09-27T09:14:00.000-04:00

Found art [Link]. The term, found art, or more commonly, found object (French: objet trouvé) describes art created from common objects that are not normally considered art.

2005-09-23T09:21:00.000-04:00

Illustration Mundo [Link]. A place where illustration gets all the love.

2005-09-23T09:16:00.000-04:00

Nano Hatch [Link].

2005-09-23T04:31:00.000-04:00

MP3 [Link].

2005-09-23T04:14:00.000-04:00

Stunt Kid [Link].

2005-09-23T03:46:00.000-04:00

Time [Link]. Buddhism and many of its derivative philosophies emphasize the importance of living in the present moment — being fully aware what is happening, and not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.

2005-09-23T02:51:00.000-04:00

Nintendo Revolution Controller. A new direction from a good company.

2005-09-23T01:51:00.000-04:00

Skype [Link]. The whole world can talk for free over the computer. Amazing audio quality and worth seeing if anyone you know is using the Skype service.

2005-09-23T01:26:00.000-04:00

Joe Versus The Volcano. JVTV is one of those wildly underappreciated films that film-buffs love to cherish and personalize in the face of the general disregard of the public and critics. It is a writer's movie, evident in the multilayered metaphors and recurring images that pop up throughout.

2005-09-23T00:51:00.000-04:00

Me and You And Everyone We Know
[Link] is a movie in the comedy/drama genre and should be out on video in October. [Link]. It is the first movie I've seen that features [ASCII Art].

2005-09-23T00:29:00.000-04:00

Anticon [Link].