I'm Mister Pink!

Love this promo clip for the Lisbon Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

via The Daily What

Movie Guess Who

WANT.

Lefa actually had this idea ages ago to do a personalised Guess Who game. Never got around to doing it.

I reckon a hipster themed version would go down pretty well.

"Does your person have skinny jeans, a fedora, an ironic mustache, an eight-track recorder and a waistcoat?"

"What do you mean 'Yes, all of them do'!?"

Finally, another Apocalypse alien film!

Must. See. Skyline.

It's life, Jim. And we don't know it.

You know, I think io9 are on to something. I think we're on the cusp of a worldwide announcement that confirms the existence of extra-terrestrials.

First, we have the United Nations appointing Mazlan Othman, head of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), as the Earth's official spokesperson in the event of first contact.

At about the same time, we have several announcements from former US military officers confirming that they had witnessed UFOs tampering with US nuclear missile control sites.

And now we have the 'discovery' of Gliese 581 - the first planet outside our own solar system capable of supporting carbon-based life.

We can only hope that somehow Aliens first touch down somewhere nice and friendly, like New Zealand, Nepal or North Korea. We all know exactly what first contact will be like if it happens in the US of A.

Random Street View

MapCrunch is a great idea.

Click 'Go' and you'll be transported to a random location/image on Google Street View.

Silly, yes. But fun.

via Google Maps Mania

What it feels like to be shot

This campaign from WWF Russia is GODDAMN BRILLIANT.

They distributed t-shirts in stores and to various people around the country.
These shirts included a small augmented reality symbol, which, when viewed through a special video mirror in store, or with a webcam on the WWF Russia website, showed the wearer being shot.
Complete with bloodsplatter.

I love it. SUCH a good use of augmented reality to hit home this campaign.

via Buzzfeed

Albanese LASER EYES!

@maxphillips pointed out this picture on ABC of Anthony Albanese totally death-staring Bob in the Senate chamber.

But I didn't think it was really clear enough.

So I made it betterer.

Latest on Totally Looks Like

Also, I'm somewhat disturbed by the amount of fan-made porn that pops up when you search for Nathan Fillion. Go on, try it yourself - it's pretty creepy.

Walking Dead TV opening sequence

Woah.

So apparently there is a TV series being made of The Walking Dead.

Awesome.

Also, this guy decided to spec up a title sequence, using images from the original comic book.

So much awesomes.

Star Wars vs Star Trek

I am such a geek.
I really want this movie to be made.

Tony Hawk is so much cooler to me now

Oh. My. God. My head just asploded.

So apparently, writer and producer of Back to the Future Bob Gale was walking down Venice Beach one day when he came across a young Tony Hawk practicing his quite impressive skateboarding skills.

Gale had a quick conversation, and convinced Hawk to work with him on the film. As a result, Tony Hawk choreographed the skateboard scene from BTTF 1 where Marty McFly escapes Biff and his thugs by skating around the town square of Hill Valley on a makeshift wooden board.

Epic. Truly epic.

via BTTF on FB

Hello iiNet!

So, we have finally seen the last of TPG and switched our home Internet provider over to iiNet Naked DSL. Time will tell if this is a good idea (history has taught me to never trust an Internet company), but I think it's got to be better than what we were dealing with before.
A few key things were behind this decision:

1. no longer paying Telstra for line rental of a phone we barely use
2. $10 per month for unlimited phone calls (vs Telstra 30c per connection)
3. ABC iView, TED and digital radio are not counted towards our download quota
4. using a company that very publicly stood up against the Government's plans to filter the Internet
5. also a company that are 'building their own NBN', or, to tone down the bullshit marketing-speak and provide a more realistic explanation: upgrading the technology in telephone exchanges to allow us to expand beyond the limitations of the 50 year old copper wire network because Telstra and Optus were too busy fighting with the Government about who was going to pay for it to do it themselves.
6. decent customer service where they
• actually respond to your request
• have a call-back service instead of making you wait for 30 mins
• allow you to request support via phone, email or web and actually recieve the response via that method

So bring it on, Interwebs. I'm ready for you.

This makes my brain hurt

My Photoshop skills are pretty good - I'd say I'm more than proficient in photo manipulation, image correcting and general graphic design. But people who can create entire images from scratch using only Photoshop make my brain hurt.

Where Good Ideas Come From

Steven Johnson's new book, Where Good Ideas Come From has a trailer done by the same people who do those amazing RSA animations.

I think I might order me a copy of that book. I'm fascinated by the concept that as technology becomes quicker, more connected and certainly more pervasive, we face a radically changing environment of collaboration, creativity and social critique. It's a debate that is often reduced to one of Luddite vs Technology but it goes much further than that (not that I can be bothered going into it right now - my attention span is already shot due to too much Interwebs).

I also need to grab a copy of The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember after listening to a fascinating talk by author Nicholas Carr on ABC RN.

Where we're going, we don't need roads.

I require this Back to the Future t-shirt.

Now.

International Day of Peace

Today, September 21st, is the International Day of Peace. First put in place by the United Nations in 1981, this day is dedicated to “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace within and among all nations and people.”

The 2nd annual Peace Day Global Broadcast is currently underway, combining the UN Summit for the Millennium Development Goals with Peace Day activities.

Below is the United Nations General Assembly Resolution put in 2001 to reaffirm the initial 1981 resolution and put in the addition of a one-day global ceasefire.

Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
55/282. International Day of Peace
The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 36/67 of 30 November 1981, by which it declared that the third Tuesday of September, the opening day of the regular sessions of the General Assembly, shall be officially proclaimed and observed as International Day of Peace and shall be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples,

Recalling also its other relevant resolutions, including resolution 55/14 of 3 November 2000,

Reaffirming the contribution that the observance and celebration of the International Day of Peace makes in strengthening the ideals of peace and alleviating tensions and causes of conflict,

Considering the unique opportunity it offers for a cessation of violence and conflict throughout the world, and the related importance of achieving the broadest possible awareness and observance of the International Day of Peace among the global community,

Desiring to draw attention to the objectives of the International Day of Peace, and therefore to fix a date for its observance each year that is separate from the opening day of the regular sessions of the General Assembly,

1. Decides that, with effect from the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly, the International Day of Peace shall be observed on 21 September each year, with this date to be brought to the attention of all people for the celebration and observance of peace;
2. Declares that the International Day of Peace shall henceforth be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day;
3. Invites all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, regional and non-governmental organizations and individuals to commemorate, in an appropriate manner, the International Day of Peace, including through education and public awareness, and to cooperate with the United Nations in the establishment of the global ceasefire.

111th plenary meeting
7 September 2001

First published on Oxfam Blogs

BTTF in HD

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Back to the Future, Universal Studios are re-releasing it in high definition.
In cinemas.
In Britain.

I need a flight to the UK. NOW!
Oh, there is also a release on Blu-Ray.
Goddamnit, now I actually have an incentive to buy a Blu-Ray player...

HDR video is beautiful

Wow. Just.... wow.

Soviet Montage have figured out how to do HDR video.

Wow.

I want to learn Ceranomics

Now you too can be a mild-mannered, white, awkward, perpetually-aged-seventeen, successful, indie actor - if you just attend The Michael Cera School of Acting

via the Daily What

Norton Antivirus ads

These new ads for Norton Antivirus software are actually pretty good. Hey, how can you go wrong when you get The Hoff AND Dolph Lundgren to star in your ads?

Norton Antivirus: still a largely useless product, but nice marketing campaign!

Holly Hammond Birthday YouTube Festival

My lovely friend Holly had a conundrum for her birthday. She was living in Canberra, and yet had lots of friends in other cities around the country. Last year she put together two books collated from friends' suggested favourite recipes, but this year she went all digital and had a YouTube party!

Here's the original callout:

Last year lots of wonderful friends sent me recipes here on Facebook for my birthday. It went so well I've decided to ask you this year to send me your favourite you tubes, to entertain, educate, titillate, confuse, or astound me.

I have appointed an expert panel (Tim Norton, David Paris and James Higgins) to assess the submitted you tubes, give them thorough quality testing, and compile a program. Possibly there may be awards (which may or may not involve cats).

First viewing will be on a big telly at our place at around 4pm on the afternoon of Saturday 18 Sept, with possible later showings. There will be popcorn and jaffas. We may roll it out in other places populated by people I love, down the track.

For this project, Dave, James and myself (being her resident geek service providers) were brought in to provide the hilarity, technology and co-ordination. And by the look of things, I think we delivered.

Check out the official YouTube channel for the final list, and stay tuned for a screening near you!

UN Summit on MDGs

Currently underway in New York City, the UN is holding a summit to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals, and to plot a path to achieve these goals by 2015.

Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed by the international community in 2000 – the first being to half the number of people living on less than a dollar a day by 2015. Sadly, all the eight MDGs are off-track, and those on maternal and child health and hunger are particularly wide of the mark.

We've already looked at what Oxfam would like to be achieved at this summit, as well as what you can do to put pressure on Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.

Here's a few different ways that you can stay updated with what's happening at the summit, and what outcomes we are likely to see:

Oxfam, The ONE Campaign, and WaterAid have funded VOICE Fellowships for 10 bloggers from around the world. You can follow them at the VOICE Hub. These partners are also hosting a daily 'Breakfast With the World', that will include discussions with policy experts at the DML and Skype interviews from various hotspots around the globe, each morning at 9:30am EST. You can stream these briefings at UN Media Week or on Mashable.

Oxfam has a team of policy experts at the UN Summit - monitoring and reporting on issues including donor aid, health, education, Africa’s position on MDGs, food and agriculture, impact of economic crisis, steps needed to get MDGs on track, President Obama’s MDGs position, and the impact of conflict and armed violence on the MDGs.

Make Poverty History have a delegation on the ground in New York City, and you can read the first report on the website here. The delegation is in New York to have a physical presence at the Summit, and will be reporting extensively on the happenings, including important announcements and international reaction. The Make Poverty History presence will also serve to remind the Australian Government about the importance of Australia’s role in fulfilling its international obligations on these critical issues.

Finally, U2 lead singer Bono has an article in the New York Times explaining the Millennium Development Goals, and what we can hope to achieve from the UN Summit. He puts it quite clearly when he says:

"The M.D.G.’s are possibly the most visionary deal that most people have never heard of."

We'll continue to update here as well - so stay tuned!

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Sulking Worthington

My own Sulking Worthington.
I has made one.
See more here.

Threadless doco

Motherboard have a great mini-doco about the founding and success of Threadless.

Threadless began as a side project for design student Jake Nickell, a tiny online T-shirt design popularity contest. Ten years later, the site has transformed into the Internet hub for DIY clothing design, with 1.2 million participants and millions more customers, all bound by a common thread: the idea that t-shirts should be art.

Threadless founder Jake Nickell, designer Brent Schoepf, and fans of the community talk about how Threadless went global, what makes the community work, and how kids on computers are the future of entrepreneurial design.

UN MDG Summit: a plan for action?

Eight Millennium Development Goals were agreed by the international community in 2000 – the first being to half the number of people living on less than a dollar a day by 2015. Sadly, all the eight MDGs are off-track, and those on maternal and child health and hunger are particularly wide of the mark.

Ten years down the line, UN member governments will meet in New York this week to review progress on the MDGs, and to plot a path to achieve these goals by 2015.

World leaders have been saying the right things ahead of this Summit about what’s needed to get progress in many areas of development – but it just feels all a little half-hearted. What’s distinctly lacking is a concerted global action agenda. This is not good enough when there’s a deadline looming in five years – one which aims to achieve goals on poverty and hunger reduction, gender equality, improved access to education, maternal and child health, combating malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Governments are under severe pressure: beset by a financial crisis, the ever increasing fall-out of climate change, and a food and fuel crises. The brunt of these crises is being borne by the poorest people in the poorest regions of the world. As a result of the food, fuel and financial crises, 64 million more people are living in extreme poverty in 2010. This is layered on the increasing vulnerability of many communities to the growing threats of climate change. Together these pressures are serving to slow and even reverse progress on the MDGs.

Against this backdrop, many governments are turning shy of their promises to the poorest people in the world. At the G8 Summit at Gleneagles in 2005, leaders promised to increase overseas aid by $50 billion by 2010, with $25 billion of this going to Africa. Of the $50 billion promised, Oxfam calculates only $30 will be delivered. The missing $20 billion is just 0.0006% of G8 GNI, yet is enough to put every child in school or stop millions of children dying of malaria. Only $11bn of the $25bn promised to Africa has reached the continent. This is the poorest continent on earth, yet donors have failed to do more here than for the rest of the world.

The MDG Outcome Document which will be agreed by leaders at the Summit this week notes the need for governments to live up to past promises, and gives the UN a role in ensuring a degree of accountability on government commitments. It also proposes that leaders come together again in 2013 to review progress.

This is a good start, but an action plan for the MDGs is overdue. It’s now up to leaders meeting in New York to decide exactly how they will make good on their promises to the world’s poorest people.

You can take action today!

Call on Prime Minister Gillard and Foreign Minister Rudd to adopt our simple, ten point rescue plan and push for real action at the UN Summit.

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Make Poverty History newspaper delivery

To coincide with the Melbourne UN DPI conference on global health being held in Melbourne during August, Make Poverty History distributed 50,000 copies of a free newspaper to commuters.

EMC (Every Minute Counts) is a tabloid style free newspaper aimed at making the issues surrounding poverty and development accessible to everyone. Whether your interest is in news, celebrities or the astrological form of the stars, there is something for everyone in EMC.

Check out the video of how we went about this massive task, from planning through to the last paper being delivered in to the hot hands of Melbourne commuters.

Big thanks to Marty Smiley and Adam Anderson from YoungBlood Productions for putting together this video!

First published on Oxfam Blogs

I'm a doctor, not a zombie!

I know I've talked before about how confusing it is that books these days need to come with a YouTube trailer, but most that I've come across are far more slick and polished than most major motion picture trailers.

This one for Night of the Living Trekkies is no exception. It's about a zombie outbreak that takes place during a Star Trek convention. Need I say more?

No Interwebs

Attention Interwebians.

We has no internets at home.

Discussion, collaboration, engagement and sending of cat related pictures will therefore be on hold until iiNet get around to giving me moar interwebs.

That is all.

(of course, my day job is to play on the internet, so rest assured that between the hours of 9-5, it's business as usual.)

IKEA + cats = WTF?

What. The Hell. Is wrong with the world?

The latest venture by the advertising firm that represents IKEA? Release 100 cats into an IKEA store after hours and film them.

God, I hate advertising executives.
No, 'wacky' does not equal 'cool'.
Whoever came up with this idea - you're an idiot.
Seriously.

TV was never this cool

Why can't our public access television be this cool!?

Jim Henson on Iowa Public Television in 1969, explaining how to make a Muppet.

Paris Motorcycles

I am such a goddamn genius.

It's my friend Dave's birthday.

He likes motorcycles.

Last time he visited he bought me a Norton motorcycles t-shirt.

My last name is Norton.

His last name is Paris.

Sooooo, utilising my epic awesome Photoshop skills, I made him a Paris Motorcycle Co. t-shirt, popped it through RedBubble and it arrived today.

Win.

WANT!

These Star Wars propaganda posters are awesome.

That is all.

via Rod McGuinness

Hah!

I. Am. Hilarious.

Latest on ICHCB

Aw hell yeah!

Customer service: WIN

Re: my previous post about frustrations with Crikey's subscription service.

I just had a call from one of Crikey's subscription customer service people. She was very nice, and explained that she'd seen my post and wanted to help with any confusion.

After looking into it, turns out my subscription had expired but because it was originally set up through a different employer, had been flagged to them and not me personally. They, naturally had not renewed it and it was left at that.

I've got to say, this is customer service win. Monitoring references to your brand across the Interwebs and responding in an individual, helpful, friendly, personal way is such a simple concept but so infrequent these days. It's a quick and easy way to respond to your customers when they have trouble. Of course, it relies on those customers being of a public, vocal persuasion (eg bitching on a blog), but I still maintain it is an effective way of proving a brand's commitment to actually solving a problem.

I was previously a bit pissed at Crikey's haphazard way of organising your account details. I still am, a bit, but that's mainly a technical complaint. That phone call won me over in terms of customer satisfaction.

Well done.

Environmental Film Festival Melbourne

We're looking forward to Melbourne's first dedicated environmental film festival, with the Environmental Film Festival Melbourne launching later this month.

There's some interesting films on offer:

• Bag It looks at one man's determination to stop using plastic bags at his local supermarket.
• A Sea Change documents the dramatic decline to the world's fish population.
• Dive! Jeremy Seifert explores the world of dumpster-diving.
• Michael Nash's Climate Refugees (video trailer above) talks to those people who face displacement as a result of global warming.

Check out the full list of films on offer here.

Festival Director Nicholas Aberle:

“Everyone knows about things like climate change and protecting old-growth forests, but this festival will also draw attention to other really important issues and details that don’t get much air time, like ocean acidification and the mysterious disappearance of bees around the world.”

Each night of the Festival there will be an expert discussion panel to explore issues raised by the films, providing a local perspective on these global problems.

The EFFM will be held at the Kino Cinemas in Collins St from 16-19 September.
For more info, check out www.effm.org.au or www.facebook.com/envirofilmfestmelb.

First published on Oxfam Blogs.

Latest on Totally Looks Like

You know I'm right.

Hands in the air for Vlad!

Hah!

via Pundit Kitchen

Crikey fail

I didn't get my Crikey email on Friday. That was fine at the time - I was busy and wouldn't have had time to read it anyway.

So, on Sunday I thought I'd log in to my account and check to see if there was a problem, and maybe read it online instead.

First of all, it took me eight tries to get my login details to work. The eighth time was using the same login and password as the first time.

Then, I tried to find any details of my actual account. No, not the Wordpress login that allows me to comment on the site. My paid account details.

Hmm, nothing obvious. Let's try the sitemap.

"Sitemap goes here"

Oh that's ten times of win. Nice work.

Hey, look - I finally found the archive section for the Daily E-mail. Oh, but nothing has been updated since the 19th of August.

But hold on, I just stumbled across a helpful guide to the benefits for Crikey subscribers. It describes my helpful subscriber box, showing the past five editions of Crikey. Which I can't see.

Twenty minutes later, I finally found the actual account section buried in the footer. Which tells me my subscription has expired. I received no reminder or warning that my subscription was up.

Now re-thinking about the 'benefits' of re-subscribing. Thinkin' hard.

How to meet strangers

Cute.

via Bits & Pieces

I am Tony Abbott! No, I am Tony Abbott!

My job is pretty cool.

This is me.

Wearing a giant Tony Abbott head.

Playing football.

Your arguments are invalid.

Pic copyright Richard Kendall

MS Double Rainbow XP

For the first time in the entire history of the company, Microsoft do a viral video campaign and it doesn't suck. But the real question is: what does it mean (for the future of Internet memes)?

Wendy's likes cold drinks and they cannot lie

Following on from the epic Wendy's How to cook a burger video, we can now also be entranced, educated and informed about the importance of cold drinks. Through rap.

It's a Book

Lane Smith's new book It's a Book is out now - educating a generation of kids raised on PSPs, PS3s and iPads about that funny old invention - the book.

I'm still slightly confused why every book release has to come with a video on YouTube, but since this one is so cute, I ain't complaining.

via Laughing Squid

Marty McFly shoes

In the same week that Nike patent a design for automatic lighting and self-lacing functions on a shoe, the Power Laces Mk II is out!

Want. Except the Nike bit.

Wookiee The Chew

Almost as cool as the Chewie and Han t-shirt, this is also too many kinds of epic cute - Winnie the Pooh re-made as Star Wars.

Eeyore as an AT-AT! Awesome.

via BB

Hipster dress is hipstery

The pinnacle of hipster fashion has arrived.

"Like, I coloured-in my own dress with a Sharpie. It's so post-modern, you've probably never heard about it. In fact, I coloured it all in black. Whatever."

via Just Another Blog

Tokyo Two verdict expected soon

A verdict on the Tokyo Two trial in Japan is now expected to be announced on Monday September 6th.

For those unaware with the trial: in 2008, Greenpeace Japan anti-whaling activists Toru Suzuki and Junichi Sato (the 'Tokyo Two') exposed a scandal involving government corruption entrenched within the tax-payer funded Japanese whaling industry. They are on trial for theft and trespass, have been facing trial for nearly two years in Japan, and the prosecutor has asked they be jailed for one year and six months.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Toru when he visited Australia last year on a part educative, part advocacy, mostly political tour. We organised for him to come to Parliament House and deliver a powerfully honest and person talk about his experiences fighting the whale trade from within Japanese borders.

Toru is a lovely, gentle man who is incredibly passionate about his work. When he was told that I had organised most of the logistics to allow him to speak at the Australian Parliament, he gave me a big hug and thanked me for working to save the whales. I remember being quite shocked by this - here was a man who was being prosecuted by the Japanese government for exposing the illegal trade of whale meat in Japan, and he was thanking me?

I can only hope that, regardless of the outcome of the trial, he and Junichi continue their amazing work to stop this ridiculous industry from continuing.

You can show your support for Toru and Junichi here.

Find a nerdfest - stat!

I love the Interwebs. Just the other day I was saying:

"Gee, there are heaps of interesting conferences focusing on new technologies, social media and different communication techniques. I wish there was a way to find them."

Lo and behold: Lanyrd - the social conference directory.

Win.