Linkfilter posted about a cool Bill Murray Soundboard.

I will warn you that this band's cover of The Final Countdown (YouTube video) might possibly be the worst cover version of a song that I've ever heard, including some of those American Idol debacles. I couldn't make it through the whole thing...

Google Blog reports that Google has released Google SketchUp, a free version of SketchUp 3D modeling software. I downloaded it and tried it, and I must say that it's very intuitive, much moreso than Pro/E, the software that I use at work. Of course, I'm comparing apples to oranges, as Pro/E caters to a entirely different professional community, but I was still impressed. Download it and try it out!

One of the neat things about this offering is that you can insert your creations right into Google Earth. Also, Google 3D Warehouse is "an online location where you can find and share 3D models," and some of the models there are pretty damn cool. If you want to export your creations into more conventional CAD formats like DXF etc., you'll unfortunately need to upgrade to SketchUp Pro, though...

Back in 2001, I had the opportunity to visit Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for a work trip. Better known as the "Boneyard," Davis-Monthan is where thousands of U.S. military aircraft are mothballed, destroyed, and/or stored in the Arizona desert. It's a very cool place, with aircraft dating back from the forties to almost the latest generation aircraft, and because I was there for work, I had the run of the place. Too bad my work colleagues weren't as excited as I was to explore, so I didn't get nearly as many photos as I would have liked. :-( I believe public tours are available, and the nearby Pima Air And Space Museum has hundreds of restored aircraft on display, but the Boneyard is way more impressive.

To see the pictures I took, check out my Davis-Monthan Boneyard photo gallery or visit the flickr photo set. The picture above is a very sad sight for me, especially considering that almost all F-14s are now decommissioned...

A recent John Dvorak PC Magazine column entitled The Great Microsoft Blunder has some interesting advice for Micro$oft:

All of Microsoft's Internet-era public-relations and legal problems (in some way or another) stem from Internet Explorer. If you were to put together a comprehensive profit-and-loss statement for IE, there would be a zero in the profits column and billions in the losses column—billions.
...
So what can Microsoft do about its dilemma? First, it needs to face the fact that this entire preoccupation with the browser business is bad for the company and bad for the user. Microsoft should pull the browser out of the OS and discontinue all IE development immediately. It should then bless the Mozilla.org folks with a cash endowment and take an investment stake in Opera, to influence the future direction of browser technology from the outside in. Then, Microsoft can worry about security issues that are OS-only in nature, rather than problems compounded by Internet Explorer.

Of this I can assure you. People will not stop buying Microsoft Windows if there is no built-in browser. Opera and/or Firefox can be bundled with the OS as a courtesy, and all the defaults can lead to Microsoft.com if need be.

Of course we already know that this will never happen, since Microsoft is a creature of habit. So it will forever be plagued by its greatest blunder ever. Have fun, boys.

I think he's right on the money, but he's also right that Micro$oft will never totally abandon Internet Explorer...

California is joining Illinois in introducing a bill in the state legislature calling for the impeachment of W. The state legislatures are taking advantage of the fact that "The Jefferson Manual of rules for the U.S. House of Representatives makes clear that impeachment proceedings can be initiated by a state legislature submitting charges."

I personally don't think that Articles Of Impeachment against W (and Cheney?) will ever see the light of day in Congress, but if either of these states pass their bills, then the U.S. House Of Representatives may be forced to act. I'll believe it when I see it, but it's a step in the right direction...

Think you're good at Tetris? Watch this YouTube video of a guy playing Tetris DS and you might change your mind. This guy is scary good...


Update: Looks like the YouTube user has removed the video. I think I managed to find one that works...

Blender's list of the 50 Worst Things to Happen to Music is pretty damn good for the most part...

Check out these hilarious Texas Homegrown Dope Seeds:

Planting instructions: Using a silver spoon, plant in a shallow hole. Protect from draft. Feed with loads of family and soft money.

Tomorrow marks the twentieth anniversary of the disaster at the Chornobyl' nuclear power plant (Chernobyl is more properly transliterated from Ukrainian as Chornobyl', in case you're wondering about my spelling). CNN reports that "Ukraine opened a week of commemorations ... as international radiation and health experts gathered for a three-day conference to discuss the lessons of the Chornobyl' accident."

NPR reports on efforts to contain the facility:

The ruined Chernobyl nuclear facility still contains some 200 tons of radioactive fuel. A "sarcophagus" -- a steel and concrete shell built soon after the disaster to contain the radiation is increasingly unstable.

Engineers plan to slide an enormous Quonset hut-shaped cover over a breached reactor to keep more radiation from reaching the atmosphere.

Although the BBC reports that the "exclusion zone around the Chornobyl' nuclear power station is teeming with life" despite the lingering high radiation levels, the human toll of the disaster continues to be disputed. NPR has a very moving story entitled Voices Of Chornobyl': Survivors' Stories, among several other features commemorating the disaster.

Slate magazine, in collaboration with Magnum Photos, has a somber Flash photo essay entitled Chornobyl' Legacy that is narrated by photographer Paul Fusco. Der Spiegel has several photo galleries by Igor Kostin, which include some of the first pictures taken at the site as well as pictures documenting some of the horrific effects of the disaster.

The web site Chernobyl.info is an "international communications platform on the longterm consequences of the Chornobyl' disaster" that allows different organizations to submit their information into a central repository, with the goal of coordinating research and aid efforts.

Graham Rournieu's photo essay Coming Attractions: Improving the modern movie experience is pretty funny...

Check out this horribly cheesy video, starring none other than born-again Kirk Cameron, that contends that "a well-made banana" proves the existence of God. Amazing!

GasBuddy.com presents the USA National Gas Temperature Map, which plots average gas temperatures for the United States by county. Here in Maryland we don't have the worst of it (yet), but we're not far from it...

I'm The Decider, Koo-Koo-Kachoo (embedded MP3; beware...).

The BBC reports that "A California woman is going ahead with the construction of a house made of elements from a 747 Jumbo jet:"

Francie Rehwald wanted her house to look "feminine", have curves and be eco-friendly. Her architect's answer was: "Let's use a 747!"

The wing of the Boeing jet will be used for the roof, its nose as a meditation temple while its trademark "bulge" will serve as a loft.

The plane's parts were obtained from an aeroplane scrap yard in California.

I guess this takes recycling to a new extreme...

Stop The Madness is allegedly the only '80s music video to be sponsored by the White House. As you might have guessed, the video is a 1985 anti-drug spot spearheaded by Nancy Reagan and is eerily familiar to We Are The World in certain sections. With that in mind, you would expect lots of guest stars, and they are certainly there. They include: New Edition, Whitney Houston, LaToya Jackson, Toni Basil, Boogaloo Shrimp, Lyle Alzado, Kim Fields, David Hasselhoff, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Casey Kasem, Stacey Keach, David Keith, John Matuszak, Gerald McRaney, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, among others.

Too cheesy; here are YouTube and iFilm video links.

Inspired by The J-Walk Blog's random Blogmeister images and thanks to A List Apart's random image rotation script, I've added a "random image from The Mind Of Driko" to the right sidebar (and to the right in this post).

The image pool consists of all kinds of pop culture references that I've come across over the years, which is quite a lot, believe me. :-) I'll continue to add images to the pool to make it slightly more diverse, as it's a bit biased toward imagery from the '80s at the moment (go figure). Let me know what you think!

After over three years of saying that I've been working on my '80s homage, I finally finished the next portion, the seventh "pane." The image above is a small version of that section; click on it to go see the entire image. This particular section is mostly '80s personalities that have died recently, although you'll see many of their colleagues from TV shows, movies, and musical groups along with them in the homage. See if you can name them all (a tall order, I know), and let me know what you think!

There is big buzz today surrounding the news that J.J. Abrams will produce and direct the eleventh Star Trek feature film, with a tentative release date of 2008. The film will supposedly "center on the early days of seminal Trek characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission."

Abrams is best known as creator of the television series Lost and Alias as well as the director of the upcoming Mission: Impossible 3. As much as I like his work, I'm not sure about this approach to the Star Trek franchise. Although that storyline might be interesting, it implies that we probably won't see any familiar Star Trek actors from any of the previous series, a big mistake in my opinion...

Imagine This (YouTube video) is:

...an audio mash up of GW Bush singing the John Lennon classic Imagine, it has been a worldwide hit and has made it into (John Peel's) BBC Radio 1 Music Festive 50 on UK Radio 1.

The audio was produced by Waxaudio, I created a video for it by tracking down over 40 separate video clips from George Bush speeches, I lip synched these clips to the audio and interspersed them with footage from the original imagine Video, along with some Iraq war footage and some other bits and pieces. This creates a powerful and moving, yet humorous visual accompaniment to the track.

Note: I've removed the embedded player, as it takes too long to load and the static image is kind of ugly...

Helena Keefe had an interesting idea:

...I put out an open call for people to write speeches for President Bush, offering a $50 cash prize.

A group of five students, ages 7-10, from Rooftop Elementary in San Francisco accepted the challenge. Upon receiving their humorous and thoughtful contributions I had the speeches recorded by Jim Meskimen, a professional impersonator based in Los Angeles. The prize money was used to throw a cake party for the kids and their classmates.

The W impersonator is really good, but the (mostly unintentional) hilarity of the kids' speeches makes him that much better... :-)

There's a somewhat unusual phenomenon indigenous to Southern Maryland that I didn't think too many people knew about. Well, the cat seems to be out of the bag now, as NPR has now done a story entitled "Where the 10-Ounce Bud Is the King of Beers" that sheds light on a local predilection towards "tenners." That's right, here in Southern Maryland many locals (and some transplanted locals) prefer 10-ounce Budweiser cans to the usual 12-ounce ones, claiming that "smaller cans taste better, stay colder longer, and that the cans feel better in the hand."

Reasoning with anyone about this has proven fruitless, as most proponents swear that they can taste the difference. One quote from a friend at work stands out in my mind: "I've been all over the world and drank a lot of beer, and the best beer I've ever had is a 10-ounce Bud." I kid you not; he was stone cold serious.

In case you're wondering, it's not a matter of money, as most of the time the 10-ounce beers end up costing the same or even more than 12-ounce cans, which still boggles my mind. I remember when I first moved down here in '97 and thought that I got an awesome deal on a 30-pack of Buds, only to find that it was a suitcase of 10-ounce cans rather than 12-ouncers. For the record, I'll also state that my beer tastes have become much more refined since then. I guess you could say that this former Bud drinker has turned into a total beer snob. I think that's for the best... :-)

Finally, I've found that most people don't mind a gentle ribbing about their preference. However, pointing out that 12-ouncers would stay colder if they just didn't nurse them is considered by some to be taking it too far (especially after a few've been consumed)... ;-)

BLDGBLOG came across the amazing page Paleogeography and Geologic Evolution of North America, which contains a series of maps that "show the paleogeography of North America over the last 550 million years of geologic history." The small image at right depicts present tectonic state of North America.

foldedspace.org has assembled an amazing collection of Sesame Street Video Clips. This could take some time to get through...

One of the funniest (and geekiest things) I've seen in a while is the Geek Week video-cast clip What If Jack Reenacted Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars (YouTube video), in which a bunch of guys go out to a field and reenact scenes from Marvel Comics' Secret Wars.

Quite scary. Even scarier, I happen to have the entire mini-series packed away in the basement from when I collected comic books in middle school. Shut up. ;-p

Note: I've removed the embedded player, as it takes too long to load and the static image is kind of ugly...

NEXGame isn't the most exciting of Flash games, but damned if I didn't get addicted enough to sit here and play until I finished it. Now you too must prove your mettle...

Rolling Stone's article The Worst President in History? doesn't pull any punches:

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. ... Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.

The article is quite thorough in comparing W's (in)actions and policies during his tenure to that of other widely criticized presidents, and although it stops short of labeling W The Worst President Ever. However, as detailed in the article (and through his previous and continued unforgivable incompetence), there is little that he has done that will commend him to much better than that.

But just because the article won't come out and say it, you can be sure that I won't miss the opportunity. Insert Comic Book Guy voice here: Worst. President. Ever.

A skit on The Showbiz Show challenged two filmmakers to recreate the original trailer for Jurassic Park with toys (embedded Windows Media Video). Considering the limited amount of junk at their disposal, it came out surprisingly well, especially when shown next to the actual trailer. I love that Laura Dern is an Army figure with a yellow wig... :-)

CNN reports that June Pointer, the youngest of the 80s music group The Pointer Sisters, died from cancer at the age of 52 last week. The Pointer Sisters had many hits in the '70s and '80s, including I'm So Excited, Jump (For My Love), Slow Hand, and many more.

I didn't know until recently that The Pointer Sisters were the vocalists for the Sesame Street Pinball Song, so in tribute to June Pointer, I just had to post a link to the YouTube video.

Note: I've removed the embedded player, as it takes too long to load and the static image is kind of ugly...

The Washington Post reports on How To Steal An Election:

It's easier to rig an electronic voting machine than a Las Vegas slot machine, says University of Pennsylvania visiting professor Steve Freeman. That's because Vegas slots are better monitored and regulated than America's voting machines, Freeman writes in a book out in July that argues, among other things, that [W] may owe his 2004 win to an unfair vote count. We'll wait to read his book before making a judgment about that. But Freeman has assembled comparisons that suggest Americans protect their vices more than they guard their rights, according to data he presented at an October meeting of the American Statistical Association in Philadelphia.

The short article has a table comparing the regulation of Las Vegas slot machines to that of electronic voting machines. It's unfathomable to me that this is allowed to happen...

  
You have to go and see all of the custom Simpsons action figures people have come up with, two of which I've included above. Hilariously obsessive (like I'm one to talk)... ;-)

Check out this Google Video of one lucky man.

As a follow-up to my previous post about the i am 8-bit art show, I wanted to let you know that the i am 8-bit book is out. Also, IGN held a contest calling for more artwork inspired by the 8-bit gaming era; check out the winners here, one of which I've posted in the image above (Dig Dug's Funeral by James Hakola)

Update: productdose.com has an article about the second annual i am 8-bit exhibit, including some images of the artwork in a flickr photoset. Very cool...

Weekly Echo displays news stories for each week via an array of images. Very nicely and artistically done...

I Love Cartoons! collects some really cool artistic interpretations of cartoon characters.

Before Garbage Pail Kids there were Wacky Packages, a series of trading cards that spoofed ads of everyday products. There is an official site, but Tom's Wacky Packages has a lot more information and images.

Worldmapper is "a collection of world maps, territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest."

The Hive Group has integrated world population data from the CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia into a very cool World Population Treemap.

Check out this awesome interactive Flash evolution timeline slider.

DISADVENTURE! is a "spot-on parody of the life of a writer on a deadline, written in the style of a Zork-like text-adventure game." Hilarious...

Dungeon Escape! is a "very silly and very low-budget flash tribute to the classic laserdisc games like Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and Super Don Quixote." Surprisingly hard for such a low-tech game...

There's one day left in the Firefox Flicks contest, which challenges you to:

Create a 30-second ad, in any style (live action or animated), that brings Firefox to life for the millions of Web users who have yet to discover Firefox and the better Web experience it delivers.

One ad in particular is already making the Interweb rounds, and although it's a bit politically incorrect, it's still pretty funny. Check out the YouTube video...

Note: I've removed the embedded player, as it takes too long to load and the static image is kind of ugly...

Priceheat is "A one-click Amazon price checker, a bookmarklet, a widget, price comparison 2.0." Drag the priceheat link to your bookmarks bar and when you're on an Amazon item page, click it to see a comparison of prices at other sites.

I know that there are many similar price comparison sites, like Froogle, MySimon, and Price Watch, but priceheat is a very easy and elegant solution when you know exactly what you want.

The YouTube video Titanic: Two The Surface mixes scenes from Titanic with a bunch of other movies. Surprisingly enough, it doesn't suck too badly, although Celine Dion is unfortunately piped in near the end. Check out the video in the embedded player below:

Dead-Frog - A Comedy Blog reports that Rob Corddry Hates You:

In Rob Corddry's Wednesday report on The Daily Show entitled "Racist Like Me," he ends his report saying people might say of him that "he's a pretty decent guy, unless of course, you're one of these things. In which case I hate your guts."

The complete list contains nearly 200 items:

Black, Guatemalan, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Irish, Haitian, Pakistani, Indian, African, twins, French, Estonian, Dutch, Moroccan, Unitarian, Dominican, Hungarian, Hispanic, Lebanese, Lebanese Christian, Lesbian Christian, Chinese, Latvian, Polish, Costa Rican, Penobscot Indian, Sicilian, Hmong, Black Hmong, circumsized, fatty, Tlingit, Inuit, Luxembourgian, Jerry Lewis, Ecuadorian, TiVo list pauser, Hawaiian, NPR Listener, Turkish, Japanese, Buddhist, Sue Grafton, Greek Orthodox, Amish, Belgian, Mohawk Indian, Hindu, Mary Kate & Ashley, Puerto Rican, gay, bisexual, lesbian, bi-curious, college lesbian, Sunni, Seriously stop pausing this, What do you think this is Lost?, 4 8 15 16 23 42, PT Cruiser owner, Nepalese, Boy Scout Troop 19, Canadian, Hawken School Class of '89, Colombian, from either Dakota, Stephen Colbert, Scientologist, Hungarian, elderly, Mahjong enthusiast, Hoosier, Pig Latino, Ephesian, Philippian, Corinthian, Quebecois, Welsh, Highlander, Narnian, Jedi, Australian, Malaysian, Danish, Eritrean, Mormon, Greek Orthodox, Korean (North), Korean (South), Newfoundlander, terrier, Navy SEAL, Jewish (Reform), butch bottom, pre-op transexual, post-op transexual, hermaphrodite, metalhead, Michigander, Michiganian, Kool-Aid Guy, Jewish (Conservative), ambidextrous, encephalitic, microcephalic, homodontic, omnivorous, marsupial, Jewish (Orthodox), carnivorous, vegan, Jim Belushi, size queen, chiropractor, Jewish (For Jesus), red-headed, asthmatic, spastic, adopted, Cablinasian, ectomorphic, hemophiliac, Serbian, Croatian, Kurdish, Pacific, slander, Aleut, Albino, Texan, toddler, Seventh-Day Adventist, Samoan, diabetic, Zoroastrian, Swiss, Zambian, Flemish, Corsican, South African (except the Whites), someone who only gets their news from The Daily Show, Hutu, Tutsi, Kazakhstani, Belarussian, Ukrainian, Moravian, Aborigine, Oaxacan, Lakota Indian, Sioux, English, Austrian, Malaysian, Mennonite, Carny, Bolivian, Micronesian, Puerto-Rican, Cuban, Canadian, Guyanan, Guyanan (French), Tanzanian, Portuguese, Toll booth worker, Jordanian, Peruvian, Israeli, Arab Israeli, Mayan, NASCAR Dad, Maoist, Soccer Mom, Finnish, Druid, Persian, Comp Lit major, Iranian, Honduran, Deadsiluap, listpauser@yahoo.com, Star Bellied Snitches, Swazilandian, Norwegian, drifter, Basque, Paraguayan, Tongan, Albanian, Libyan, Greek, Azerbaijani, Kashmiri

Woo hoo, I made the list!

Hilarious, as usual. If you didn't catch the video link earlier, check it out here (embedded Windows Media Video, looks like the list at the end got cut off :-( )...

Google and Sony Pictures are collaborating on The Da Vinci Code Quest:

Beginning on April 17th you will embark on a quest that requires skill, intellect, and perseverance. For 24 days, you will encounter unique challenges. These daily puzzles will pull you deeper into the world of The Da Vinci Code.

As Google Blogoscoped points out, the "quest" is available as a Google Personalized Homepage module. Although it sounds a little cheesy, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt for now and see what it's like next week...

The Kentucky Derby will now feature a $1,000 "ultimate" mint julep:

The sweet cocktail will be made with one of the state's finest bourbons and served in a gold-plated cup with a silver straw to the first 50 people willing to put down the cash at the May 6 race.

Mint from Morocco, ice from the Arctic Circle and sugar from the South Pacific will put this mint julep in a class of its own, the distillery selling the drink said.

This is almost as asinine as Millionaires24.com e-mail, which I'm still not sure is for real...

Google Calendar went live yesterday; more information at the overview page.

I've been using Rainlendar as a calendar application and am pretty happy with it. However, I still haven't been able to find anything that synchronizes all of my devices and software. Some day...

By the way, I also came across Simply Google, which collects all of Google's offerings on one page, making it easy to take advantage of all of its search features and applications.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't yet watched last Sunday's episode of The West Wing, then you may want to read no further.

It doesn't come as too much of a surprise to me, but apparently the results of the election in last Sunday's West Wing episode were not as writers had originally planned:

Lawrence O'Donnell, an executive producer of the show, said he and his fellow writers had declared Santos the winner only after the death, in mid-December, of John Spencer, who portrayed Santos's running mate, Leo McGarry. At the time of Mr. Spencer's death, the plot for last night's episode had been set: the election was to be won by Alan Alda's Arnold Vinick, a maverick Republican (modeled a bit on Senator John McCain), whom many Democrats (including the Democrats who write the show) could learn to love.

But after Mr. Spencer died, Mr. O'Donnell said in a recent interview, he and his colleagues began to confront a creative dilemma: would viewers be saddened to see Mr. Smits's character lose both his running mate and the election? The writers decided that such an outcome would prove too lopsided, in terms of taxing viewers' emotions, so a script with the new, bittersweet ending — including the election-night death of Mr. Spencer's character — was undertaken by John Wells, executive producer of The West Wing and E.R.

I was sad to hear of John Spencer's death, but I'm torn about the writers' decision to change the storyline so dramatically. I suppose it was unavoidable, but I think I tend to side with the Airbag Industries post where I found this article, which contends that this was too formulaic an outcome. Now if they go and somehow make Josh Vice President, then the show will truly have Jumped The Shark, albeit just before its cancellation...

Dr. David Holmes, a psychology lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University in England, has come up with a mathematical equation that "adds up to the perfect posterior."

The magical figures are (S+C) x (B+F)/T = V. Though the equation looks rather complicated, it is, according to the scientist, simple.

It assesses shape, bounce, firmness and symmetry – all factors that add up to the bottom line.

S is the overall shape or droopiness of the bottom, C represents how spherical the buttocks are, B measures muscular wobble or bounce, while F records the firmness.

V is the hip to waist ratio, or symmetry of the bottom, and T measures the skin texture and presence of cellulite.

That's all well and good, but without some frame of reference, a numerical value doesn't have much meaning. To that end, Dr. Holmes offers some examples:

Kylie Minogue, whose celebrated bottom relaunched her career with the help of a pair of hotpants, would almost certainly score a perfect 80.

"Kylie would score amazingly well on sphericality and symmetry. Her bottom is pretty much perfect in these areas, more so than the likes of Charlotte Church or Jennifer Lopez, who have more curvy posteriors," he said.

OK, I can now wholeheartedly endorse this formula (Kylie Minogue is teh hawt!). ;-)

Did you know that the planet Uranus was originally named George (after King George III)?

PistolWimp presents the Google Video Incredible Machines, a 12-minute collection of mesmerizing Rube Goldberg-esque machines from a Japanese TV show. They would be even neater if I knew what the Japanese characters revealed at the end of each machine's run meant...

W has the opportunity to respond to a serious question about Iraq from a student at Johns Hopkins University, so what does he do? Dodge the question, make weird panting noises, and say "I'm a call the secretary." Moron. YouTube video below:

Among other things, the David Hasselhoff Compendium has playable versions of Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Frogger with David Hasselhoff inserted into the games. Scary...

The YouTube video Die Hard: The Ballad of John McClane remixes Die Hard as a silent film:

It's Christmas, 1924, and young Manhattanite John McClane visits olde Los Angeles towne to see his wife and enjoy yultide splendor. However, a few ne'er-do-wells have plans of their own, and C4.

You can watch the video in the embedded player below:

Blogger shmivejournal tests his hypothesis that replacing eggs in a cake recipe with Cadbury Creme Eggs will be "SO AWESOME." I had high hopes too at first glance, but apparently it didn't turn out so well. I still want some. ;-p

Check out this amazing scratch-built (!) model of an Mil Mi-24 helicopter:

Fully scratch built, this model took just over 15 years (8000-10,000 hours) to complete. Begun in Kiev (Ukraine), in 1986 this masterpiece was profoundly difficult to construct due to the extreme scarcity of information on it. In 1986 the Mil-24 was still a top secret piece of military equipment. A set of blueprints was ultimately obtained from the manufacturer and over 1000 photographs were used to ensure complete accuracy in the reproduction.
...
This helicopter has many authentic features including: linked controls (pedals that work in parallel motion), a battery powered motor that spins the main and tail rotor in the actual ratio of the original, adjustable tail rotor pitch, fabric covered stabilizer, landing gear with pneumatic rubber tires, compressable shocks, working lights, locks ,fans, aimable guns and titanium engine parts.

The rest of the site contains a couple of other very impressive models, all of which put the plastic kit models I used to build to shame...

Check out an amazing 70-minute mix of over 75 Prince songs entitled All Mixed Up. This guy is good...

GeoWhitePages is a cool mash-up of Google Maps and the White Pages. Enter someone's name and a state, and voila, phone number(s) and address(es) are plotted on a Google Map. A bit scary, actually...

The Angry Alien crew does it again with Reservoir Dogs In 30 seconds (and re-enacted by bunnies).

inCulto has composed a very infectious song promoting tourism to Lithuania. I present you the earworm music video Welcome To Lithuania (YouTube video), viewable in the embedded player below:

There's some fun stuff at Amy Vangsgard's Clay Illustration site. Of course, W's homage and caption caught my eye: "If I only had a brain." Sorry, way too easy, but quite satisfying nonetheless... ;-)

Over the weekend I saw a cool commercial for Tetris DS (YouTube video). Check it out in the embedded player below:

I've probably posted some of these before, but since I came across a couple of good links recently, I decided to post en masse. Here is a list of sites that have huge amounts of links to free games (as opposed to sites with original games, a topic that deserves its own post), some of which are playable online and some of which need to be downloaded and installed. I'll add more links as I find them:

• gnome's lair's freshly hand-picked free games selection
  
• 1up.com's 101 Free Games
  
• Jay Is Games' Best Web Games of 2005
  
• A Complete Waste Of Time
  
• Addicting Games
  
• Games That Don't Suck

Enjoy!

McSweeney's Nihilist Job Résumé is hilarious...

3dblasphemy of Threedy Forums has done an amazing job of rendering Transformer Optimus Prime, taking great pains to ensure his realistic depiction as an eighteen-wheeler when transformed. I really hope that the video links come back online, as I'd love to see this animated...

When you're finally ready to purchase and build your own version of Knight Rider's KITT or KARR, Knight Replicas has a complete guide for you.

I am somewhat surprised to see that South Park won a Peabody Award. Peabody Awards Director Horace Newcomb commented that the show

pushes all the buttons, turns up the heat and shatters every taboo. Through that process of offending it reminds us of the need for being tolerant.

Amen. I'm glad to see that people see past the omnipresent juvenile potty humor (which is fun in its own right) to the real social commentary that South Park offers.

You haven't seen origami until you've seen Robert J. Lang's origami. Amazing...

Think Progress reports that a recent W PR event on the war on terror "went off-script when a man named Harry Taylor took the microphone." Here is one of the best excerpts, although he was allowed to go on for a surprisingly long time:

"I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration," Taylor said, standing in a balcony seat and looking down at Bush on stage. "And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself."

Definitely visit the post to see the rest of his "question" or to see a video; the full, "official" transcript is available here.

Yo, W just got served! ;-)

Stephen Colbert offers some advice on preparing your taxes. Check out the YouTube video in the embedded player below:




Update: As of October 2006, Comedy Central has been pulling video clips from YouTube :-(, and I've been unable to find an alternate link. If I do, I'll post it here...

Skyscraper News presents the world's tallest buildings:

Imagine the tallest 25 buildings in the world all in one skyline giving something of Blade Runner proportions. Well here they are complete with a key on what's what in scale standing alongside each other.

Definitely visit the site and check out the full-sized image...

Vanity Fair has an interesting article about White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan entitled Words Fail Him. It's a long article that tries to delve into the motivations behind wanting such a thankless job and why W's administration might have chosen him:

Now that the daily White House briefings are instantly available online, Press Secretary Scott McClellan's mangled sentences, flat-footed evasions, and genial befuddlement have made him the butt of a thousand blogs, as well as of an increasingly savage press corps. Is he a victim, a pawn, or a P.R. disaster?
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Putting someone as strikingly out of his depth as McClellan into this job (and keeping him there) could well be part of this administration's contempt for the press. But while that contempt is surely real, installing McClellan here may actually, in another self-awareness gap, have been the administration's idea of a generous act.

Definitely worth the read. By the way, rumor is that the current administration shake-up may include McClellan. We'll soon see, I think...

Entertainment Weekly has some bad news to report about the future of one of my favorite TV shows, Arrested Development:

When Fox canceled its critically acclaimed sitcom Arrested Development after three seasons of low ratings, the show's loyal fans had reason to hope: The pay cable channel Showtime was considering picking up the series. That glimmer of hope faded on Monday when the show's creator, Mitch Hurwitz, announced that he was ending his involvement with the series, thus virtually guaranteeing that AD would go off into the syndicated limbo of series that shoot fewer than 100 episodes.

This really blows. The rest of the linked article contains a full interview with Hurwitz...

Boing Boing reports:

There are many strange video clips in the nuclear test footage archives at the US DOE website, but none so weird as this montage of mushroom clouds set to the Lone Ranger's theme song (G. Rossini's William Tell Overture).

Theme Tunes Online has hundreds of TV theme songs available for download as .mp3 and .wav files.

If you can stay up after midnight tonight and have an appropriate digital clock/calendar, you might see this interesting display:
01:02:03 04/05/06
OK, so that was probably quite anticlimactic considering the post title... ;-p

Wikipedia has a frighteningly thorough article on "Leetspeak", also known as "L33t5p34k" etc., "a linguistic phenomenon associated with the underground culture centered around telecommunications, manifested primarily on the Internet."

Google Earth Blog reports that Google released some very high resolution (3 inches) imagery for a part of Las Vegas as part of its latest update. If you already have Google Earth installed, then click on this .kmz file of the Luxor Hotel to zoom right in. If not, what are you waiting for? Download it now!

Check out this video of an amazing baseball play (YouTube video).

Since April Fool's Day fell over the weekend, its effect was not as widespread as in years past, but there was still a good deal of Interweb activity. Wikipedia does a good job summarizing this year's pranks. One of my favorites was MAFIAA:

Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) chairman Dan Glickman and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) president Cary Sherman today announced the historic merger of the two organizations. The newly-created entity is being called the Music And Film Industry Association of America, Inc.

That one probably fooled no one, and it's not quite farfetched enough to be all that funny...

By the way, a belated birthday wish to April Fool Sir Bias, who has yet to make his blogging debut despite my frequent entreaties... ;-)

The fabled Simpsons movie has been rumored for quite some time, and it looks like I posted on it several years ago. Well, it appears that the rumors can finally be put to rest. The BBC confirms that The Simpsons Movie will officially premiere on July 27th, 2007. A 25-second teaser trailer has been showing during Ice Age: The Meltdown and also aired during Sunday's Simpsons episode. If you missed it, check out the YouTube video in the embedded player below:


By the way, the current premiere date coincides with my 5th wedding anniversary. I guess I have over a whole year to figure out how to spin the premiere as a romantic date... ;-)

I cannot believe that "The Shania Twain Defense" is something real:

One of the most notorious drunk drivers in the Ottawa area has been found not criminally responsible on his latest impaired driving charges because of a mental disorder that makes him believe female celebrities are controlling his actions.
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The 33-year-old man told psychiatrists that he knew the legal repercussions of his actions, but believed singer Shania Twain was helping him drive.

Not since Johnnie Cochran's use of The Chewbacca Defense on South Park has an attorney been this bold... ;-)

This photomosaic of W by art of resistance is NSFW, although not quite as good as Porncroft. You'll see what I mean... :-)

Somebody forgot to tell George Clooney and company that Ocean's Eleven wasn't all that great and that Oceans Twelve was even worse, as apparently Oceans Thirteen is in the works...

The cast of NBC's The Office has some hilarious April Fool's PSA videos satirizing "The More You Know" PSAs of the past...

You probably heard that the USA PATRIOT Act was recently renewed and signed into law by W. What you probably didn't hear was the accompanying signing statement that W included...

The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it "a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a "signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.

In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would "impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

Who needs checks and balances, anyway?! I can't believe this bullshit, although I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised...