Slappin and a choppin

Why can't all infomercials be like this? I want a Slap Chop!

Harmony in Good Magazine

I've just come across this and thought some of you might be interested in it - Good Magazine's Harmony interface. It's a great example of people using different interfaces and interactive measures to portray a message. The graphics are simple yet powerful, and each individual line in the story can be treated as its own timeline.

In this example, I was slightly disheartened to see the whole thing is largely sponsored by Toyota, and therefore has a large greenwash element to it, but nonetheless, it is a powerful way to tell a simple story, chain or other message.

Is this the sort of thing GreensBlog readers would like to see us develop? Are there other examples you'd like to point us to?

First published on GreensBlog

Twilight tattoos - WHY!?

Ok, so I've blogged before about some awesomely horrible tattoos, but these Twilight themed ones totally take the cake. The scary, pathetic, adolescent wanna-be goth cake.

The Meeting Ticker

Fucking awesome idea! I am so using this (with very little tact) in future meetings.

The Meeting Ticker is a fun tool to measure how much money is spent attending meetings. You enter the number of attendees, average hourly salary, and meeting start time, and watch the dollars add up in real time.

via BoingBoing

Clean, Bitch! Clean!

Newly discovered - Awful Library Books - for all your hideously politically incorrect reading needs.

I do love this one - a handy reading guide for how to continue doing your household chores whilst heavily pregnant.

"With all due respect for the liberation of women, someone has to clean the house and do all kinds of boring chores. Actually those jobs don't take too long, and this photo shows Judith with the vacuum cleaner. Look at her closely and see the excellent posture she maintains as she walks around the room, pushing the machine on the carpet. Her shoulders are relaxed, her head is high, and in doing this rather boring but occasionally necessary job, she is aware of watching her posture and supporting her baby well with her abdominal muscles."

With all due respect to the author of this book, I'm sure her head is held high, as she is demeaned and subjugated to incubatorial home duties.

Youth and social media report

I must have missed that this was coming out - ACMA have released a report into young people and their use of social media.

This research focuses on young people's use of social media, including how, why and when they encounter content, contact and privacy risks when they go online. The research was conducted in two parts—a qualitative phase and a quantitative phase.

Thanks Elliott

Moms on the net

C'mon Mom, learn how to order your own flower-delivering Fabio. WITH THE POWER OF THE INTERNET!

District 9

This looks pretty damn awesome. I don't think the trailer does it justice - instead go have a look at the website.

There's a lot of background work that has gone in to this, and I may be way off the mark, but I assume Peter Jackson is trying to make a very clear point about racism and segregation.

How did I not hear about this movie until now!?

Full blown disaster porn

I said before that I thought 2012 was going to be super-awesome. Well, this video exemplifies exactly why I'm going to like it so much.

Chocolate death

A 29-year old worker died today when he fell into a giant vat of hot chocolate at a New Jersey factory.

A spokesman for the local prosecutor's office said the man appeared to have died instantly from a blow to his head by a paddle mixing the chocolate. His colleagues at the factory tried to shut down the mixer, but were too late. Local journalists met some of the workers in the car park, covered in chocolate and seemingly in dismay.

Personally, I think it's so obvious that this is a midget uprising. Jesus, what a way to go - that chocolate would have to burn.

BBC Report | via BoingBoing

Pirate joins EU Greens! Yarrrr!

The Pirate Party candidate elected in last month's European Parliamentary elections has joined the Green Party/European Free Alliance.

Sweden's Christian Engström, representing the Pirate Party, which aims to reform European copyright and patent laws, was swept to victory in the European Parliamentary elections. Now he will sit in the Green Party/European Free Alliance Group.

In a statement, Greens/EFA Co-Presidents Rebecca Harms and Daniel Cohn-Bendit declared that they are "delighted to welcome the Swedish Pirate Party, which shares our principles and values in defending internet users' rights. Christian Engström will have an independent status within our group and he has indicated he will support the Greens/EFA position in areas where the Pirate Party has no agenda."

The Greens/EFA won a combined 53 seats in the European Parliament. The addition of Engström brings their group total to 54 seats.

What Sci-Fi movie should I watch?

Love it. The 'What Sci-Fi movie should I watch?' quiz - always helpful to decide how to waste a Sunday night.

Next decent Vampire film

This looks pretty cool - and good to see Claudia Karvan finally make it to Hollywood. Daybreakers is set in a world where everyone is a Vampire, and the last remaining humans are hunted and farmed for their blood. Seems like an extension of the TV series True Blood, where Vampires are accepted as part of society, and a synthetic blood drink allows them to live alongside humans.

Environmental art displays in a zoo

Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna is host to a fascinating series of temporary art installations by Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf. In one animal enclosure, the German duo have half-submerged a car in a watering hole used by the resident rhinos. In another enclosure, penguins frolic in the shadow of an oil pump, and in yet another, alligators must share their modest bayou with a bathtub and a monster truck tire.

According to the artists, these scenes of ecological nightmares are

“experimental set-up[s]” in which “the viewer is forced to reconsider traditional modes of animal presentation and simultaneously to question the authenticity of concepts which are restaging 'natural' environments while they are increasingly endangered.”

“Present-day conceptions of zoological gardens aim at the presentation of animals in an idyllic and apparently natural environment, untouched by civilization. But this is a contemporary conception, since courtly menageries and kennels were adapted to the exposure of animals as decorative objects. Until the early years of the 20th century, animals were part of a preferably spectacular and exotic staging, to the entertainment and amazement of the public. The artificial and the sensational were foregrounded, without creating a realistic setting of the natural environment of the animals.”

The installations will last until October 18, 2009. via Pruned

Web Site Story

Cute. A musical about teh Interwebs, based on West Side Story - Web Site Story

Jeff Goldblum interrupts reports on the death of Jeff Goldblum

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jeff Goldblum Will Be Missed
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

Design cool shit, get an internship at CERN

CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory, birthplace of the World Wide Web and home of the famous Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has a great opportunity for you. We are about to kick-start the most complex scientific project ever conceived by mankind, and would like you to witness and record its unveiling, and help us spread the news.

We want you to start by showing us your communication and creative skills by producing an original short film or multimedia piece, incorporating material about ATLAS, the biggest experiment on the LHC. The best submissions will be posted on the ATLAS website and YouTube page with full credit to the author, and enter a competition for a paid internship at CERN or alternatively win a Adobe Production Suite package. The winner will be offered a trip to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and given exclusive access to scientists working on the project as well as all the equipment and expertise in CERN's audiovisual lab.

What we want from you is your unbridled creativity. In return, we offer a chance to experience history in the making, and a global platform for your work as the world's eyes look towards CERN this fall. To apply, read the official rules and register below. What are you waiting for?

The deadline is July 31, so lights, Camera, Action!

ATLAS/CERN Multimedia Contest and Intern Program, via BoingBoing

RIP Byron

Our oldest cat died today. Best estimate puts him at 14 years old. He was fat, crabby and grumpy but I still loved him.

Rising to fame in my first submission to ICHCB, Byron was named after Lord Byron, in a long standing tradition of cats named after famous poets.

He didn't like being picked up, didn't like being patted, was very fussy about his food and intimidated people out of his favourite spot on the couch. He had some odd sexual habits, attempting to hump mum's fluffy dressing gown. Byron managed to outlive four other cats, and we always suspected it was due to his intolerance for them, and subsequently pushed them all in front of cars.

It is now Byron's time. He has been getting progressively sicker over the past few months, and yesterday my mum took him to the vet to do the humane thing. Rest in Peace you grumpy old bastard, Byron - I will miss you.

2012

I strongly predict this will become my favourite movie.
Roland Emmerich directing? Check.
John Cusack involved? Check.
World destroyed? Check.
www.whowillsurvive2012.com

Giant robots for everyone!

What's that? Oh that's just a six storey replica of a Gundam robot. What, you don't have one in your city?

via LikeCool

Koogle

Check out Koogle - the new, Hebrew language search engine.

It filters out 'objectionable content' that would not be appropriate for people of the Jewish faith.

Whilst I'm not a fan of the filtering aspect, I do love this:

Nothing can be posted on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, as Jews are banned from all types of work and business activity. If Koogle users attempt to search for an item or post a message on the Sabbath, it crashes and won’t let you.

via Telegraph

I can so relate to this

via XKCD

Australia's bid to host World Cup

So, I've just been to the event launching Australia's bid to host the 2018 or 2022 Soccer World Cup. It was actually pretty cool. Imagine the Great Hall in Parliament House (usually a fairly solemn, boring room), entirely decked out as a soccer stadium, complete with astro turf, bleachers and digital crowds projected on walls completely surrounding a central soccer pitch.

I now own a soccer scarf and a mini soccer ball. Their ad is also pretty cool.

Back to the 80s

I don't know if I should be ashamed of this, but the new song from Aqua (yes, they're back!) is actually quite good. Perhaps it's the several thousand references to the 80s, because I doubt it's the musical genius. Still... hehe 'back when Michael Jackson's skin was black.'

via BuzzFeed

Wipe your ass in style

Uhm... I is confused.

WANT! CAKE!

See, I'm not alone. Other people have obsessions with Back to the Future as well.

Check out this wedding cake, recreating the Town Square of Hill Valley. Personally I would have done the year 2015 version of the town, but not everyone is perfect.

via BoingBoing

Applejack

The Geek in me is excited.

AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use.

Using AppleJack, you can repair your disk, repair permissions, validate the system's preference files, and get rid of possibly corrupted cache files. In most cases, these operations can help get your machine back on track. The important thing is that you don't need another startup disk with you. All you need to do is restart in Single User Mode (SUM), by holding down the command and s keys at startup, and then typing applejack, or applejack auto (which will run through all the tasks automatically), or applejack auto restart (which will also restart the computer automatically at the end of the process).

Hammer Dance Time

M.C. Hammer has a new TV show coming out. To drive up some publicity, this flash mob was organised to do the Hammer dance. Love it.

Bender's back!

Futurama is back, baby!

After four whole series and four movie length straight-DVD movies, Futurama is back in production.

Comedy Central has given the series an order for 13 additional episodes to air.

Yaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!

Pirates take over the EU Parliament.

The Pirate Party has won a huge victory in the Swedish elections and is marching on to Brussels. After months of campaigning against well established parties, the Pirate Party has gathered enough votes to be guaranteed representation in the European Parliament.

Now that the votes have been counted, the Pirate Party have secured themselves two of the 18 available seats Sweden has at the European Parliament.

At least partially, The Pirate Party puts its increased popularity down to harsh copyright laws and the recent conviction of the people behind The Pirate Bay. After the Pirate Bay verdict, Pirate Party membership more than tripled and they now have over 48,000 registered members, more than the total number of votes they received in 2006.

Yarrr!!! It be aboot time them landlubbing euros be made to walk the plank!

via BoingBoing