Song of the Day 3.31.08

from Reggae45s

DJ drum breaks

Because I have a hangover after my bday (thanks everyone, especially p!), I am spending larger than normal amount of time on the internet today. I found this video while reading the blog of David Choe (posted below). DJing and Drum breaks. Makes me sad for the saturday nights I would head down the street to hear Cut Chemist spin at Star Shoes. No cover, packed dance floor - the good ol' days. The drummer is Paul Humphrey

Pic of the day 3.27.08

From the amazing street artist Dave Choe in the UK. Check out his blog.

Heat Map of Media Coverage

I found a Web site that tracks media coverage, monitoring the frequency with which certain outlets cover different nations. Its enlightening and shows you the international or national reporting levels. Maybe this means more to me because of my work, but think it holds value for everybody. Feel free to explore the link, its fascinating.

South Park rules

South Park!!! Every episode online. Its like christmas in March.

The Free-ist Speech

With all the political activity, the 5 year anniversary of the war in Iraq and the milestone of more than 4,000 Americans dead in the conflict, I re-visited one of my favorite sites on the interweb, Freeway Blogger. It is a site that displays and teaches you how to post signs on freeway overpasses. From the site, these include, "Who would think a lifelong failure would turn out to be such a lousy president?" and "Quagmire Accomplished". There is also an instructional video, set to bluegrass, that shows you exactly how. 

   There were 2,117 signs posted in 2007. I suspect there will be many more this election year, with at least one from yours truly. 

Hurling chicken shit

There are business security systems and there are BUSINESS SECURITY SYSTEMS. In England, a crazy businessman has constructed a 30-foot roman style catapult to hurl bucket loads of chicken manure at intruders. The news comes from Boing Boing and there are a number of gems in the story, from the signs around the property warning of protection by "smart poo" and "railway sleeper projectiles" to a cannon that the guy used to shoot his wife across the river. Its highly worth the quick read.

Pics of the day 3.19.08

Sunset and night lights of LA from 30,000 feet.

DARPA

DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Its an arm of the government that gives a bunch of money to companies to experiement with goods and products that could prove valuable to the defence department. Yeah, its crazy Morgan Freeman guarding batmobiles in the basement of Wayne Industries type stuff. I learned about it because this one energy drink I was working with was being tested by DARPA on soldiers. Today, im writing about it cause they funded a project that will undoubtably be the craziest thing I see today. Here's the video for some super agile, freakishly natural acting hunk of metal called BigDog (wha?).


From Gizmodo

IFH Mondays

Community garden

Believe it or not there are little sprouts all over this dirt - carrots, beets, broccoli, potatoes. It rained in LA today too. Nature's pitching in. Nice.

Organic conglomerates?

Good magazine put together this educational chart that shows the parent companies behind some of the most popular organic food brands. Im all for organic products, but sometimes its easy to forget that just because it is organic, doesn't mean that its from a local farmer, independant producer or in any way better for the environment than regular food (better for your body, yes, but not necessarily anything else). A chef from one of LA's top resaturants made news recently by complaining that produce from the local farmers markets was getting bought up in advance by larger distributors. I imagine there is a lot of this type of stuff happening all over. I know that I have gone to different farmers markets in LA and seen the same companies supplying to multiple, almost like mini-distributors.

There's a lot of in and outs to organic food, most of it I don't know. Hopefully the business will become more transparent in the near future. In the meantime, its probably best to buy as local and organic as you can, cause you never know where that money is going.

Perhaps the natty-est of dreads

Spotted after lunch, in Washington Square, NY

Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come

Reggae45s posts videos of classic, you guessed it, 7" 45s. Good stuff too.

Sea rescue

Dolphins are awesome. The other day in New Zealand a bottlenose dolphin ushered a stranded whale and her calf back to sea. There is video coverage from CNN and some quotes from scientists who "know" dolphins and can speak to their curious habits.

"We've seen bottlenose dolphins getting lifted up on the noses of humpback whales and getting flicked out of the water just for fun," van Helden said.
"But it's the first time I've heard of an inter-species refloating technique. I think that's wonderful," said van Helden, who was not involved in the rescue but spoke afterward to Smith.

This particular dolphin, called Moko, has taken a liking to people in the area and hung out to play with them after the rescue. I can relate. On a trip in the Pacific I was sitting on the bow of a boat that bobbed and dipped with the waves. An inquisitive pod of dolphins gathered at the bow and took turns checking me out, dodging my feet as they dipped into the water.

Macbook Air. Not for me, but really niiice.

   I was a at Mac store the other day and finally checked out the Air. Damn. It really, truly feels amazing. So, teeny tiny, but still solid. You sort of want to throw it like a chinese star and see it go pwoong! and stick in the wall. 

   If you are one of those very specific people for whom the Air is perfect, you're very lucky. Despite what I thought, there are more of you out there than I expected, since reports are that the air has been selling out. 

   Lastly. does anyone else find it strange that Apple is advertising for this lovely, super high end lap top on bus stops??? Like my mate Maze, I used to frequent the busses in LA and it's hard to imagine a Santa Monica Boulevard tranny busting one of these puppies out. 

Daily office humor

This is making the rounds today. Had half the office in stitches.
If celebrities moved to Oklahoma

Ashes to Ashes

I recently went to the funeral of a somewhat distant relative. I hadn't been to a funeral since Maze got me and my sister into Ray Charles' funeral back in 2004, which was honestly one of the most amazing things I may ever witness. I don't think BB King often interrupts songs to weep for his old friend. Incidentally, I just learned how Ray got Quincy Jones started in music, who has been nominated for 77, that's seventy-frikkin-seven, grammys.

So, my relative Olga was a holocaust survivor and a pretty religious jewish woman. Apparently the tradition is that you are supposed to be buried in a plain wooden box, which she was, with wooden screws, wooden joints, etc. No metal, just organic elements. It was obviously a grim affair. As she was put into the ground and dirt was shoveled onto the casket with a hollow thud, I saw a few birds landing on bushes in the cemetery and across the road a factory churned and blew stacks of smoke in the air. These bushes are the reincarnated elements of the people below them. Olga was being checked back into the planet that gave her the carbon, oxygen, hydrogen she was made of. This is the infinite cycle of the earth. And where did this come from? Stars. No shit. Carl Sagan says it best.

Pic of the day 3.11.08

We here at up late thursday have a thing for old school mac computers, we grew up with them and wrote many scholastic assignments on them, so it gives us pleasure that someone would take the loving and tender care to turn the computer into this, the pic of the day.

Thanks to Gizmodo

Spitzer

I read an interesting article about prostitution on Slate that tries to asks the question "Why is prostitution illegal?" Today's news about a really really dumb governor was everywhere. The Daily Show and Colbert Report both coined choice terms for the occasion, Colbert calling it "Eliot Mess" and Stewart, "Eliot Spits or..." (you can figure it out).

Anyway, there are some interesting laws against prostitution in Sweden that I was surprised to learn about. Apparently in Sweden sex is legal to sell but illegal to buy, only pimps and "johns" can be prosecuted (I put johns in quotes because that is not an everyday word for me, pimp on the other hand, thats more consistently used to reference my romantic guile). Anyway, those laws are having a positive effect by lowering trafficking and the number of "johns" running the streets. I'm sure this debate isn't going to resurface to any significant degree, nor should it. Hopefully this dude will just remove himself from public office and let everyone go one with their lives.

Power lines, light bulbs and earth = art

Ok, you know when you walk under huge power lines and you can hear the buzzing? And the buzzing is louder at the larger transmission lines? Well, its not just buzzing coming off those lines. It's also electromagnetic radiation. Apparently this radiation can be harnessed and Richard Box, an artist in Bristol, devoted a project to it called Field. For the installation, he created thousands of Florescent bulbs and "planted" them in the ground around a huge power line, like stakes. The bulbs were carefully placed into the dirt, one at a time, unwired.

Here's where it gets crazy. When the electricity flowing through the lines reached a certain level, the bulbs in the ground pick up the excess energy emitted by powerlines and LIGHT UP. How totally crazy is that? They aren't plugged into anything.

Unfortunately, the exhibit appears to be over but you can read a little more about it here. There is supposed to be something like this in Nevada that uses the more natural electromagnetic energy found in the atmosphere around thunderstorms. Im going to have to look into that next. Meanwhile, check out some pictures of the crazy invisible energy art.


You can find more pictures on Richard's website.
Thanks to Pruned for this 'enlightening' craziness.

Urban Farming

Today, I became a farmer. With the encouragement of a friend, I plunked down payment for a year long lease on a plot of land - not a farm, or an acre, but a little slice (literally) of dirt in Hollywood. My urban farm measures 3'x20' and lives in a cool little community garden. Today was the first day in the fields. I went out and tilled the soil, picked out rocks, bought some seeds and actually got excited to see worms! It was fun. Hopefully, if everything goes to plan, in a few short months I will be living the fat life eating fresh heirloom tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, all kinds of peppers and even some herbs (I have a thing for sage butter). I'm sure there will be more updates to come on my garden (I still have to find a name for it), but anyone has any tips to help the thumbs take on a darker shade of green, let me know! Right now they are just sort of dusty and black.

Simpsons Cinema

You can't argue with the fact that The Simpsons is one of the greatest shows in television history. The fact that in college, my friends and I could and would have entire conversations with quotes from the show, is a testament to our admiration. So, you can imagine how much I got done in the 30 minutes after seeing the images below and the treasure trove that they came from...This dual screen shot of a Simpsons scene next to the movie of its inspiration (Cape Fear) is from maybe one of the greatest websites I have ever seen. Its a Simpsons fan site (in Spanish) that shows the incredible detail in which the Simpsons has parodied so many well known movies. If you have some time, don't miss this. It's a must for fans of The Simpsons.

Sweet taste of victory

My soccer team won a game last night (a shut out to boot) and for those of you who know me, you know why its totally worth sharing.

Cloverfield 1 - Penmar 0

you can check out the league results here, cause i know everyone is itching to see those!!

Tron in 2011

Word on the street is that Disney is working on a sequel to the film Tron... in 3D.

The Lost Art of...

Today I stumbled on Obsolete Skills, oddly enough its a website that lists skills that have become obsolete. Stuff that you used to have to figure out how to do, but now due to either technology or "progress," is no longer needed in life. There are some pretty interesting things on this list (though its tech heavy and lacking an entry on nunchuck skills, gosh!) and its fun to page through to see what things you used to do that you havent done in ages. A kinda strange trip down memory lane.

Adjusting rabbit ears on top of a TV
Be Kind - Rewind
Dialing a rotary phone (hilarious, im convinced my family was one of the last to convert to "touch tone" dialing)
Loading film into a 35 mm camera
Peering through a keyhole
Ripping the little holes off the sides of the computer paper

I guess you can add your own entries to the list wiki style, so if you are so inclined...

Pic of the day

On a walk in the hills.