From the monthly archives:

August 2007

Missile-Throwing Eyebeam Laser Robot on a Unicorn

by Joey deVilla on August 31, 2007

I couldn’t resist checking out a picture with a name like that, could I?

Missile-throwing eyebeam laser robot on a unicorn
Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

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Webcomic artist Shaenon Garrity came across an old Boston Globe article about macabre comic artist Edward Gorey. The first paragraph read:

Edward Gorey watched television for the first time this summer, or so he claims, and in the process the 52-year-old artist became a “Star Trek” fan. He watched the science-fiction program reruns twice a day, five days a week and once on the sixth day, and despite this faithful viewing he has yet to see the TV show’s most famous episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles”, which is about these furry creatures in outer space, or so he says.

Inspired by that paragraph, she created this interpretation of The Trouble with Tribbles in Gorey’s style:

Shaenon Garrity’s imagining of what “The Trouble With Tribbles” would be like if interpreted by Edward Gorey
Click the comic to see it on its original page.

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Oops!

by Joey deVilla on August 31, 2007

“Water is precious let’s conserve it” banner in Dublin — half submerged
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

The banner in the photo, taken in Dublin, reads “WATER IS PRECIOUS LET’S CONSERVE IT”.

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12 Vacation Days?!

by Joey deVilla on August 31, 2007

“Interesting Life” comic from xkcd
Click the comic to see it on its original page.

I’ve posted the xkcd comic above in honour of the boss’ just telling me that I’ve managed to accrue an extra 12 vacation days and that I should plan on taking them sometime soon.

Hmmm…

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T.S. Eliot vs. Portishead

by Joey deVilla on August 30, 2007

Beth Gibbons of Portishead and T.S. Eliot

Here’s an interesting idea: someone took a recording of T.S. Eliot reading The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and added the vamp from Portishead’s Sour Times — which you couldn’t escape back in 1995 — as background music. It’s not bad, but I think it would work better if more variety could’ve been worked into the music (this sounds like a job for Boston-based mash-up wizard Luke “Lenlow” Enlow!).

For those of you with the gear and talent — Karl Mohr, I’m lookin’ at you — here’s a link to Eliot reading Prufrock sans music [3.9 MB MP3 file]. Culture jammers might have some fun subverting the whole thing by mixing in Yakety Sax (the theme to the Benny Hill Show) as the background tune.

(Found via MetaFilter.)

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R.I.P. Michael Jackson

August 30, 2007

No, not the “King of Pederasty Pop” Michael Jackson, but the “Beer Hunter”/Scotch expert Michael Jackson. He had Parkinson’s disease and died earlier this morning.
Most of what I know about beer came from Mr. Jackson, thanks to his Great Beer Guide as well as his Beer Hunter TV series. That’s why I plan [...]

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How to Ride Your Bike to Work

August 29, 2007

This is how I get to work most days.
Over at The Sietch Blog: an essay titled How to Ride Your Bike to Work. It’s cheap, safe and easier than you think!

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Living the Dream

August 29, 2007

(This article was cross-posted to Global Nerdy.)
What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up?
According to a Workopolis poll of Canadians, more than 80% of Canadians aren’t doing the job they dreamed of doing when they were children.
Possible dream jobs.
The poll posed these two questions to adults:

What was your dream [...]

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Friday Night Accordioning

August 27, 2007

Here are some scenes from last Friday night, when I joined my old pal from Crazy Go Nuts University, Karl Mohr for his last number of the evening, the maudlin yet somehow catchy Can Your Remains Be Buried With Mine? at the Tranzac Club:

(Now that I look at the photos, I think I [...]

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The “TV Tropes” Wiki

August 27, 2007

I was sick in bed with a really bad cold for most of the weekend. I alternated between sleeping, drinking lots of juice and water, watching a little TV (I’d never seen Good Will Hunting before) and a little light surfing on the laptop.
While poking about the web, I stumbled into a site [...]

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Adios, Pendejo!

August 27, 2007

It’s nice to start the working week with some good news: the world’s most sleazy amnesiac, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned. Says the A-G, who’s stepping down on September 17th:

I have lived the American dream. Even my worst days as Attorney General have been better than my father’s best days.
[...]

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“Dear Subway”: A Plea to the Sandwich Shop from a Math Geek

August 24, 2007

This comic gets bonus points for using the word “tessellate” in a down-to-earth, everyday context: the way Subway “sandwich artists” add cheese when making submarine sandwiches:
Click the comic to see it on its original page.

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“America to the Rescue”

August 24, 2007

This week, The Daily Show aired one of its best and most spot-on segments, America to the Rescue, a high-larious summary of 30 years of American foreign policy in the Middle East:
Can’t see the video? Click here.

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R.I.P. Blinky, the Two-Headed Calf (Who Looks Just Like the Tucows Logo)

August 23, 2007

(This article was cross-posted to Global Nerdy.)
Boing Boing points to the story of Blinky, the two-headed calf, who was euthanized yesterday.
My co-workers at Tucows and I couldn’t help but notice that Blinky bore a rather uncanny resemblance to our corporate logo:

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Tucows on Canadian Business’ 2007 “Tech 100”

August 23, 2007

(This was cross-posted to Global Nerdy.)
What’s a blog for, if not to toot one’s own horn, or at least the horn of the company for whom he is a spokesmodel?
Tucows, where I’ve worked for four years and where I hold the title of Technical Evangelist, is on Canadian Business’ 2007 “Tech [...]

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