The computer geniuses at MIT have created software that allows ordinary Joes like you and me to virtually stitch together random displays to behave as a larger screen. All you need an a web browser and an email account.
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, technology, MIT, junkyard, jumbotron
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
3AM Observation: In the motel lobby
Scene: Sitting in the lobby of a Best Holiday Super Motel Inn, late evening, getting some work done on my laptop.
Old guy walks in and takes a seat on the lobby sofa. He's wearing a WWII service veteran's cap with the name of the Navy ship on which he served. Elastic waist band struggles to hold in a pot belly. Puffy eyes and blotchy skin.
Observation: The sound of an old guy sucking saliva out of his ill-fitting dentures sounds precisely and uniquely like an old guy sucking saliva out of his ill-fitting dentures.
tagged: observation, saliva, false teeth, dentures
Old guy walks in and takes a seat on the lobby sofa. He's wearing a WWII service veteran's cap with the name of the Navy ship on which he served. Elastic waist band struggles to hold in a pot belly. Puffy eyes and blotchy skin.
Observation: The sound of an old guy sucking saliva out of his ill-fitting dentures sounds precisely and uniquely like an old guy sucking saliva out of his ill-fitting dentures.
tagged: observation, saliva, false teeth, dentures
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
YouTube Tuesday: Hydrophonia
NOAA scientists used an under water microphone — a hydrophone — to capture audio of the massive earthquake that hit Japan a few weeks ago.
You may have heard of it. It was in the news and everything.
Original Source: UK's The Daily Mail
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, science, earthquake, Japan, hydrophone, NOAA
You may have heard of it. It was in the news and everything.
Now the full force of mother nature can be terrifyingly relived as scientists from the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle have released an extraordinary recording of the sound of the 9.0 earthquake as it powered its way through the Pacific ocean moments before creating the devastating tsunami.
Captured by an underwater microphone called a hydrophone positioned 900 miles away from the epicentre in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska the earthquake's incredible rumbling and roaring is not dissimilar to the sound of a rocket taking off.
Original Source: UK's The Daily Mail
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, science, earthquake, Japan, hydrophone, NOAA
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
YouTube Tuesday: The Audition
Today's edition of YouTube Tuesday brings one of the cutest, funniest brother/sister acts to hit the Internet since… well… ever.
John and Molly Get Along follows the adventures of John and Molly Knefel as they try to make it in New York. We pick it up in Episode 6 when Molly is auditioning for an off-off-off-Broadway play.
Enjoy the entire series at the John and Molly Get Along YouTube Channel.
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, video, comedy, humor, John Knefel, Molly Knefel, John and Molly Get Along
John and Molly Get Along follows the adventures of John and Molly Knefel as they try to make it in New York. We pick it up in Episode 6 when Molly is auditioning for an off-off-off-Broadway play.
Enjoy the entire series at the John and Molly Get Along YouTube Channel.
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, video, comedy, humor, John Knefel, Molly Knefel, John and Molly Get Along
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
YouTube Tuesday: Lincoln–Douglas redux
I don't think it would come as any surprise to any of the half dozen or so readers of this blog that Blogger Great and Lord of Independence Xavier Onassis and I have had our political and philosophical differences.
It's all been pretty well mannered, and any ribbing has been for the most part good natured. At least I think it has. Especially by Internet standards.
But at the urging of three-balled The D, we agreed to meet in person to hash out some issued and find a common understanding. As a disinterested third (balled) party, The D even offered to host the Mass Debate in his kitchen.
Well, unbeknown st to either XO or myself, The D recorded the exchange for Internet consumption. And since the cat is out of the bag, well, I thought I might as well post it here as well so you all can benefit from our intellectual discourse.
I know we use some pretty big words, but try to follow along.
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, Lincoln, Douglas, politics, philosophy, cute
It's all been pretty well mannered, and any ribbing has been for the most part good natured. At least I think it has. Especially by Internet standards.
But at the urging of three-balled The D, we agreed to meet in person to hash out some issued and find a common understanding. As a disinterested third (balled) party, The D even offered to host the Mass Debate in his kitchen.
Well, unbeknown st to either XO or myself, The D recorded the exchange for Internet consumption. And since the cat is out of the bag, well, I thought I might as well post it here as well so you all can benefit from our intellectual discourse.
I know we use some pretty big words, but try to follow along.
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, Lincoln, Douglas, politics, philosophy, cute
Monday, March 28, 2011
Basketball jones
My sword-wielding friend Xavier Onassis is a huge college basketball fan... not1.
I only mildly disagree with the point, though the form betrays lack of gravitas that tends to undermine the very point being made.
I guess one could argue that college basketball (and other college sports) provides a funding mechanism to educate thousands of student athletes who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford an education. So XO's statement above essentially puts a value of zero on education. Which is a shame. I personally think education is one of the more important investments we can make in our own futures.
But actually, when I hear/read people make statements like "nothing is less important than…" or "nothing is worse than…" I really just think that those people suffer from a lack of imagination.
I mean, I suspect that without too much effort I could come up with at least five things that are less important than college basketball2.
What?! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
Let's see, let me start with… that bunch of cackling mother hens on The View, Lady Gaga, autotune, any autotuned song, the British Royal Family, any wedding among and/or within the British Royal Family, Renaissance Festivals, those weirdos who dress up for Renaissance Festivals, hippie drum circles, poetry slams, comedy jams, fashion week, fashion models, fashion magazines and anything even remotely associated with the fashion industry, steampunks and their steampunk accouterments, Dancing with theStars Hasbeens, that lame-ass Thor God of Thunder (puhleeze!) movie, my stock options, foodies and the sport they make of eating, 99.9999999999999999 percent of the content of Twitter…
Whew… I guess I got a little carried away there.
1) Hello 1990s vernacular!
2) Of course I realize that this precariously places one upon a nihilistic slippery slope. I mean, if we accept XO's position that people are just semi-intelligent animals and that human life has no particular meaning, then how can we say that anything within life is any more or less meaningful or important than anything else. Just sayin...
tagged: basketball, college, meaning of life, education, fashion, steampunk, philosophy
I only mildly disagree with the point, though the form betrays lack of gravitas that tends to undermine the very point being made.I guess one could argue that college basketball (and other college sports) provides a funding mechanism to educate thousands of student athletes who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford an education. So XO's statement above essentially puts a value of zero on education. Which is a shame. I personally think education is one of the more important investments we can make in our own futures.
But actually, when I hear/read people make statements like "nothing is less important than…" or "nothing is worse than…" I really just think that those people suffer from a lack of imagination.
I mean, I suspect that without too much effort I could come up with at least five things that are less important than college basketball2.
What?! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
Let's see, let me start with… that bunch of cackling mother hens on The View, Lady Gaga, autotune, any autotuned song, the British Royal Family, any wedding among and/or within the British Royal Family, Renaissance Festivals, those weirdos who dress up for Renaissance Festivals, hippie drum circles, poetry slams, comedy jams, fashion week, fashion models, fashion magazines and anything even remotely associated with the fashion industry, steampunks and their steampunk accouterments, Dancing with the
Whew… I guess I got a little carried away there.
1) Hello 1990s vernacular!
2) Of course I realize that this precariously places one upon a nihilistic slippery slope. I mean, if we accept XO's position that people are just semi-intelligent animals and that human life has no particular meaning, then how can we say that anything within life is any more or less meaningful or important than anything else. Just sayin...
tagged: basketball, college, meaning of life, education, fashion, steampunk, philosophy
Monday, March 14, 2011
YouTube Tuesday: The Delicate Sound of Pi
I know it's a day early for YouTube Tuesday, but it's a special occasion. As you know, or will soon become aware, today is 3.14… Pi Day in the United States*.
To commemorate this special day, here's a special Pi Day song. I hope you'll all singe along.
*Europe, of course, doesn't have a Pi Day because they mess up their date notations by putting the day before the month, thus 14.3. However, according to my inside sources 143 is the sum of 3 consecutive primes (43+47+53), and also of 5 consecutive primes (11+13+17+19+23+29+31). So I guess it's Prime Day in Europe.
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, Pi, Pi Day, music, video, Europe, math
To commemorate this special day, here's a special Pi Day song. I hope you'll all singe along.
*Europe, of course, doesn't have a Pi Day because they mess up their date notations by putting the day before the month, thus 14.3. However, according to my inside sources 143 is the sum of 3 consecutive primes (43+47+53), and also of 5 consecutive primes (11+13+17+19+23+29+31). So I guess it's Prime Day in Europe.
tagged: YouTube, Tuesday, Pi, Pi Day, music, video, Europe, math
Friday, March 11, 2011
Best of 3 A.M.: No more wedgies
Editor's Note: I'm pulling up some items from the archive, just for the hell of it. This one was originally posted in March of 2007. Follow the link to read more of The Best of 3A.M.
I may have mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating.
The "wedge salad" is the most ridiculous culinary fraud ever perpetrated upon the American dining public.
I mean come on people! This isn't a salad! It's a chunk of lettuce with possibly some peppers thrown in for color. Have we become so lazy that we can't chop up the lettuce? Are we so lacking in creativity that we can't toss on a couple of cherry tomatoes or cucumbers? This is like giving someone a loaf of bread and calling it a sandwich.
How have we let our democracy get to the point where a quarter-head of lettuce is considered a salad. That's not the America I know.
Hell, that's not even Mexico.
tagged: food, lettuce, salad, fraud, culture, cuisine
I may have mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating.
The "wedge salad" is the most ridiculous culinary fraud ever perpetrated upon the American dining public.
I mean come on people! This isn't a salad! It's a chunk of lettuce with possibly some peppers thrown in for color. Have we become so lazy that we can't chop up the lettuce? Are we so lacking in creativity that we can't toss on a couple of cherry tomatoes or cucumbers? This is like giving someone a loaf of bread and calling it a sandwich.
How have we let our democracy get to the point where a quarter-head of lettuce is considered a salad. That's not the America I know.
Hell, that's not even Mexico.
tagged: food, lettuce, salad, fraud, culture, cuisine
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
YouTube Tuesday: Go to the Mardi Gras
Okay people, put on your beads, masks and zydeco music. Let's have a good time, but be safe. And say hello to the Zulu King for me...
tagged: New Orleans, Mardi Gras, Professor Longhair, music, YouTube Tuesday
tagged: New Orleans, Mardi Gras, Professor Longhair, music, YouTube Tuesday
Friday, March 04, 2011
My next million dollar idea: Continental Golf
A few weeks ago I posted a few random items from my fictional bucket list. Some of those things I've already done. Some I'm still working on.
One in particular, I'm completing today.
I had this idea of creating a sport, in part, to gain a small measure of immortality (perhaps due to an aforementioned existential dilemma) .
Consider James Naismith, who invented basketball while working in New England. Sure, you'll hear KU fans say he invented basketball at KU, but I think it's pretty well established how delusional KU fans are.
Anyway, to back to the story, the working name for my new sport is Continental Golf. Let me esplain...
You see, there's a sport played all over the country called golf. Essentially, you hit a small ball with a long club in an effort to make it land in a hole some distance away. Score is kept by tallying the number of hits — or strokes — it takes a player get the ball into the hole. The goal being to get as low a score as possible over the course of 18 holes.
My adaptation of this is similar, except that instead of 90 to 500 yards separating the start and finish of a hole, it could be 100 to 600 miles or more.
You see, I envision each hole taking the length of an entire state. One would tee off, for example, in Leavenworth, Kan., and play west to finish by putting into a hole near Horace, Kan.
View Larger Map
So you would end your first hole, then continue into Colorado, teeing off in, say, Cheyenne Wells, and finishing in, maybe, Dove Creek. You would continue, so on and so forth, until you had played the entire course, which obviously would be composed of up to 18 different states.
Obviously, this is a more extreme version of traditional golf. But hey, I enjoy the challenge.
As with conventional golf, we'd have to establish a "par" for each hole, and I'm thinking we might rely on the sport's pioneering players to help with this. We might find it necessary to count every 10 hits as a stoke, and then use a decimal system for scoring. Kansas, for example, might have a par of 440.0 which would be roughly 4,400 in conventional golf strokes (if you're a big hitter).
Colorado, though shorter, has a pretty big bunker in the form of the Rocky Mountains, so you'd need to account for that in the par rating. But you get the idea.
As for equipment, I see us using pretty much the same items as regular golf as far as balls, clubs, gloves etc.
Although we should consider trading in the battery powered golf cart for a diesel powered Hummer. Or maybe a good quarter horse if you're a sport purist.
Now, the beauty of this sport is that while it may not be practical for your average Joe to take a few weeks off every year to go play a hole of Continental Golf, I'm thinking ahead to the digital spin off.
Imagine the appeal of taking my new game, putting it on an Xbox or even a Wii, juicing it up with some Google Earth mojo and launching an online Continental Golf league. You get to multiply the appeal of golf by the joy of travel and tourism, and I get to take a tasty little cut out of every purchase.
So, who wants to be in my first foursome. I'm thinking we tee off in late April?
tagged: Sports, golf, tourism, travel, James Naismith, Kansas, Colorado
One in particular, I'm completing today.
I had this idea of creating a sport, in part, to gain a small measure of immortality (perhaps due to an aforementioned existential dilemma) .
Consider James Naismith, who invented basketball while working in New England. Sure, you'll hear KU fans say he invented basketball at KU, but I think it's pretty well established how delusional KU fans are.Anyway, to back to the story, the working name for my new sport is Continental Golf. Let me esplain...
You see, there's a sport played all over the country called golf. Essentially, you hit a small ball with a long club in an effort to make it land in a hole some distance away. Score is kept by tallying the number of hits — or strokes — it takes a player get the ball into the hole. The goal being to get as low a score as possible over the course of 18 holes.
My adaptation of this is similar, except that instead of 90 to 500 yards separating the start and finish of a hole, it could be 100 to 600 miles or more.
You see, I envision each hole taking the length of an entire state. One would tee off, for example, in Leavenworth, Kan., and play west to finish by putting into a hole near Horace, Kan.
View Larger Map
So you would end your first hole, then continue into Colorado, teeing off in, say, Cheyenne Wells, and finishing in, maybe, Dove Creek. You would continue, so on and so forth, until you had played the entire course, which obviously would be composed of up to 18 different states.
Obviously, this is a more extreme version of traditional golf. But hey, I enjoy the challenge.As with conventional golf, we'd have to establish a "par" for each hole, and I'm thinking we might rely on the sport's pioneering players to help with this. We might find it necessary to count every 10 hits as a stoke, and then use a decimal system for scoring. Kansas, for example, might have a par of 440.0 which would be roughly 4,400 in conventional golf strokes (if you're a big hitter).
Colorado, though shorter, has a pretty big bunker in the form of the Rocky Mountains, so you'd need to account for that in the par rating. But you get the idea.As for equipment, I see us using pretty much the same items as regular golf as far as balls, clubs, gloves etc.
Although we should consider trading in the battery powered golf cart for a diesel powered Hummer. Or maybe a good quarter horse if you're a sport purist.Now, the beauty of this sport is that while it may not be practical for your average Joe to take a few weeks off every year to go play a hole of Continental Golf, I'm thinking ahead to the digital spin off.
Imagine the appeal of taking my new game, putting it on an Xbox or even a Wii, juicing it up with some Google Earth mojo and launching an online Continental Golf league. You get to multiply the appeal of golf by the joy of travel and tourism, and I get to take a tasty little cut out of every purchase.
So, who wants to be in my first foursome. I'm thinking we tee off in late April?
tagged: Sports, golf, tourism, travel, James Naismith, Kansas, Colorado
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