Geody is:

a new location search engine. Enter a name, or coordinates, for a location and it gives you all kinds of methods for viewing. For example, [you can view locations] with Google Earth, NASA WorldWind, Celestia, Google Maps, and Mapquest. You can export a location to a GPX file, Geocaching.com, etc. Also, you can get hotel and other travel information and links to Google and other search engines. What's more, you can search for locations on the Moon, Mars, and other space locations.

Loc.alize.us is a:

mashup that combines the popular photo sharing site Flickr with Google Maps. It allows you to cruise Flickr photos, tags and people based on geotagged location. ... Loc.alize.us also gives you a how-to (see: 'create' tab) on geocoding your Flickr pictures so they can be displayed in this way

CNET presents ten real PC games you can download for free.

alanbecker's deviantART work Animator vs. Animation is pretty cool:

An animator faces his own animation in deadly combat. The battlefield? The Flash interface itself.

A stick figure is created by an animator with the intent to torture. The stick figure drawn by the animator will be using everything he can find - the brush tool, the eraser tool - to get back at his tormentor. It's resourcefulness versus power. Who will win? You can find out yourself.

Check out the YouTube of a world record one-handed Rubik's Cube solve time of 20.09 seconds. Wow.

Check out Angry Alien's latest offering, Raiders Of The Lost Ark in 30 Seconds (reenacted by bunnies).

This is a knife!

10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed is a blog:

started by six friends who, sitting around the dinner table one Saturday night, came to the conclusion that civilization was doomed. We felt this way not because of the inevitable dimming of our sun, or an errant asteroid, but rather because of the idiocy of our times. Frankly, we are tired of the fake optimism, superficiality, non-talented celebrities, doped-up athletes, dishonest and illiterate politicians, corporate thieves, wife-beaters and evangelical terrorists rampant in the world today and we decided that one way of making ourselves feel better would be to list them for all the world to see and to add upon.

Feel free to contribute, as they're only up to 1913 reasons as of this posting...

It's not a big revelation that the United States lags behind most countries in how its educational system teaches math and science. However, this rift is apparently not helped by "the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians," according to Michigan State University researcher Jon Miller. His team's findings were quite surprising:

A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.

That's just embarrassing. The article goes into much more detail and shows data for the rest of the countries studied.

Waxing nostalgic on "when Saturday Night Live used to be good" has been far too easy for the last couple of years. Well, it'll probably be even easier after an alleged cast reshuffling for the upcoming 32nd season:

Longtime cast members Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Kenan Thompson will likely exit the late-night comedy staple, according to a source close to the show. Still inconclusive are talks to bring back Darrell Hammond, famed for his impersonations of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and other celebrities. Hammond joined the cast in 1995 and has had the longest tenure of any performer in the show's history.

Meanwhile, SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels is expected to hand the reins of the signature fake-news segment "Weekend Update" - recently co-hosted by writer-performer Tina Fey and Amy Poehler - to a newer cast member, Jason Sudeikis.

Yeah, this could suck real bad...

indexed is a hard-to-categorize blog that illustrates different ideas and concepts with mathematical diagrams, e.g. Venn diagrams.

Can you spot the hidden images in these map-based ads done by the BBC? The one above is one of the easier to spot...

 
Bad Astronomy Blog was one of the first web sites to report that "The IAU has voted on a series of resolutions on what a planet is and what a planet isn’t, and the verdict is... Pluto is not a planet."

The post also notes that "This is a big turnaround from the initial resolution, which would have given our solar system at least 12 planets, and potentially many, many more."

I guess this means that we'll have to come up with a new mnemonic for remembering the nine eight planets...

Oh, and in case you're interested, Collision Detection happened upon the somewhat surreal naming conventions for features on planets and moons in our Solar System.

"Yoda and Jar Jar Binks play out the classic Abbot and Costello routine 'Who's on first?'" in the YouTube video "Who's on Force?"

Mark Jones' Politically Incorrect Alphabet is fun...

My wife is a teacher of young children, and I've spent a fair time of late sitting on undersized chairs admiring the alphabet charts on classroom walls. Typically 'A' will stand for Apple, 'B' for Ball. It occurred to me that 'I' for Indian, one I remember from my childhood, has been replaced as it is no longer politically correct to refer to native/first/indigenous Americans as Indians.

Lacking any tact or decency, I therefore determined to create an alphabet using only subjects that, while they might have been unremarked a few decades ago, are now outside acceptable usage. But only just.

Claude Lelouch's 1976 short film Rendezvous (YouTube video) is legendary:

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.
...
Filmed in 1976, the revered short film by seminal French director Claude Lelouch is regarded as the ultimate in chase scenes - the connoisseurs' trump card in response to Bullitt or The French Connection.

If you thought that was cool, check out the Google Maps + Google Video Mashup of Claude Lelouch's Rendezvous that allows you to track the progress on a Google Map. Awesome...

In order to protect the bottom canines that protruded in an underbite, dentist David Steele gave his cat gold crowns. Weird yet funny...

What if the TV show Lost had been made in 1976? The ytmnd clip Lost '76 has the answer. Genius...

A cnet story about "people are obsessed with the topic of subways" led me to b3co.com, where you can make a custom badge showing which subway systems of the world you have ridden on. Looks like I haven't been on too many yet...


The article also linked to Metro Bits, a site thoroughly exploring many aspects of the world's subway systems.

I don't think I've ever seen an aviation shot as amazing as the one above. Visit the Airliners.net for more information or for a larger version of the photo.

Part of a hopefully regular feature stolen from inspired by Norman Roberts' blog innings.

You should definitely visit the Weekly Echo site, as the images have hyperlinks to pertinent news stories of the week...

fimoculous clued me in to Hipster Pack - A Douchebag of Music Videos, a massive 40GB torrent of 1371+ music videos in various formats. You'll definitely want to use a BitTorrent client like µTorrent or Azureus that allows you selectively download files within the torrent, as more than likely you won't be interested in all of those videos...

Pink Floyd: Echoes is an amazing interactive site featuring music tracks, videos, lyrics, and statistics for "The Best Of Pink Floyd."

Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown is a hilarious Google Video:

Charlie Brown is on the run from the Peanuts Gang after the Great Pumpkin puts a bounty on his head in this wild animated student short by Jim Reardon.

Watching Charlie Brown turn into Travis Bickle is the highlight of the video, but I'll warn you that the violence might make this video NSFW.

The Boing Boing post where I found this also mentions Billy Schulz, a YouTube video "mockumentary about the illegitimate son of Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz."

Joan C. Gratz's video Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (YouTube) uses claymation to morph the works of 35 artists into each other. Pretty neat...

In his Monday entry, zefrank describes politics as if he were calling a baseball game (QuickTime video). Hilarious...

Cinematical reports that actor Bruno Kirby died at the age of 57 due to "complications related to leukemia." This is quite shocking considering his age and his relatively recent diagnosis.

To summarize his career with a soundbite from City Slickers greatly diminishes the true breadth of his career, but I have to agree with Cinematical and admit that I can still hear him ranting about cows and VCRs... :-)

Shut up! Just shut up! He doesn't get it! He'll never get it! It's been 4 hours! The cows can tape something by now! Forget about it please!   

Bruno Kirby's other memorable movie roles included the young Clemenza in The Godfather: Part II, Robin Williams' nemesis in Good Morning, Vietnam, and Billy Crystal's best friend in When Harry Met Sally, among many others. He will truly be missed... :-(

Update: Popwatch has a nice tribute to Bruno Kirby, but the highlight of the post is the comments section; all of the reminiscences about favorite Kirby movie and TV moments are really a testament to the impact Kirby had as an actor...

Speedtest.net is a really cool way to determine your Interweb upload and download speeds, allowing you to record transfer speeds to and from various servers all over the world and even share those data with others. Indispensable...

This Google Video of a Blaupunkt TV commercial is pretty funny...

Spell any word out of zombie letters, courtesy of E-Zombie.com. ;-)

The Onion weighs in on the FDA's upcoming review of the emergency contraceptive "Plan B" pill.

xkcd's work The Blogofractal is an incisive yet humorous look at what captures our attention on the Interweb...

Photojournalist Bill Biggart died when the second World Trade Center tower collapsed on him on 9/11/2001, doggedly shooting until his untimely demise. Miraculously, his legacy lives on:

When [photographer] Chip East was handed the bag containing Biggart's gear by his widow, Wendy, he was convinced that no pictures had survived. The avalanche of falling debris had blown off the backs of the two film cameras. There were several rolls of film in Biggart's bag; however, the lids of the film canisters had been peeled back, allowing light to fall into the cassettes. Finally, East turned his attention to the digital camera. It was covered by ash. The lens had been sheared off at the flange. But when he opened the chamber that held the compact flash card, it was pristine.

Check out the amazing photo gallery of the images of 9/11 that were recovered from Bill Biggart's camera, many of which offer unparalleled or heretofore unseen vantages of the tragedy.

Cinematical has the scoop on an unusual version of the Star Wars saga:

[You may have] heard about the dude who performs the entire original Star Wars trilogy by himself in only one hour (not to be confused with the folks who spit out the original trilogy in 30 minutes). It's pretty impressive stuff and I'd love to check it out one of these days. However, what's even more impressive is Adam Long's plan to write and direct a 20-minute version of -- get this -- the entire Star Wars saga. That's right, all six films packed into a very tiny 20-minute window.

I'd go see it...

The image above is supposedly the "sharpest manmade thing.":

A field ion microscope (FIM) image of a very sharp tungsten needle. The small round features are individual atoms. The lighter colored elongated features are traces captured as atoms moved during the imaging process (approximately 1 second).

Click on the image to see a larger version...

I really like the Showtime TV show Penn and Teller: Bullshit, even if I disagree with a couple of their viewpoints. For those of you that don't get Showtime or want to catch up on previous episodes, check out Links to 23 Penn and Teller: Bullshit episodes.

Just about everyone has heard about The Big Bang, the leading cosmological theory for how the universe began. However, chances are you haven't heard of these ten unusual-sounding theories:

1. Clashing branes
   
2. Evolving universes
   
3. Superfluid space-time
   
4. Goldilocks universe
   
5. Gravity reaches out
   
6. Cosmic ghost
   
7. It's a small universe
   
8. Fast light
   
9. Sterile neutrinos
   
10. In the Matrix

More details on each theory are available in the article...

Calvin and Hobbes is a classic on so many levels, and this was a fun reminder. Calvin's dad's explanations of scientific phenomena, collected here by RF Cafe, never failed to amuse me. I think this one is my favorite:

Calvin: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn't they have color film back then?
Dad: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs ARE in color. It's just the WORLD was black and white then.
C: Really?
D: Yep. The world didn't turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.
C: That's really weird.
D: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.
C: But then why are old PAINTINGS in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn't artists have painted it that way?
D: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.
C: But... but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn't their paints have been shades of gray back then?
D: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else in the '30s.
C: So why didn't old black and white photos turn color too?
D: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

Edna (DailyMotion video) is a fun video in which Charlie Chaplin seeks his fiance in an alternate universe filled with references to Steven Spielberg movies.

Deckchair trapped testicles.

Part of a hopefully regular feature stolen from inspired by Norman Roberts' blog innings.

You should definitely visit the Weekly Echo site, as the images have hyperlinks to pertinent news stories of the week...

Stone Trek is a humorous "animated webtoon series" mashing up Star Trek with The Flintstones. 'nuff said. ;-)

Ananova reports that Hungarian officials are allowing people to vote on the name of a new bridge crossing the Danube River, to be completed in 2008. The official site is in Hungarian, so I can't make anything out, but I imagine that officials are not too pleased with the current leader, the "Chuck Norris Bridge." :-)

Handhelden is a pretty cool site:

Browse through pics & details to more than 660 boxed handheld and tabletop games, from the 70s and 80s.

Check for the game you had as a child, or be amazed by the endless variety of portable, old-school electronic toys.

I remember thinking how technologically advanced these were at the time... ;-)

By now, I'm sure you've heard the buzz (Interweb and otherwise) surrounding the upcoming movie Snakes On A Plane. The Interweb buzz has been building for over a year, starting as a campaign of derision against the horrible-sounding movie name and lame premise that somehow transformed into a wholehearted lovefest for a movie that wasn't even due to premier until August 2006.

To its credit, the studio has taken full advantage of this publicity, embracing the response and nurturing all of the fan sites and creations. The official site highlights fan sites and offers multimedia goodies, enlisting the involvement of Samuel L. Jackson, the star of the film. Even better,

Among the reported additions [to the film] is a line that originated as an Internet parody of Samuel L. Jackson's traditional movie persona: "That's it! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!".

Now that's funny. :-)

Which brings me to the whole point of this post (about time, huh?). A portion of the site lets you supply some basic information about a friend and then sends an e-mail or calls them on the phone with a "personal" message from Samuel L. Jackson. Some of you have fallen victim to this already, but I figured I'd post about it and let everyone who hasn't heard about it have some fun too. Click here and have at it.

When all is said and done, I suspect that the movie will be a cheesy, tongue-in-cheek pseudo-thriller that's more humorous than suspenseful. Done right, it could become a classic... ;-)

As a child, one of my favorite authors was Daniel Pinkwater. Although ostensibly written for children, his books did not condescend, and the subversive, eclectic, and somewhat weird topics never failed to capture my imagination. I don't think I ever outgrew them, as I can still pick up Pinkwater's books and enjoy them almost as I did when I first read them.

When Boing Boing reported that Daniel Pinkwater will be serializing his next novel, The Neddiad, on the web, I was ecstatic. Here is a "word from the author:"

I am very happy that, with the cooperation of Houghton Mifflin Company, and the good offices of Ed Weiss, webmaster of pinkwater.com, I am able to offer web-readers an advance look at my new book, The Neddiad. The actual publication date of the book is in April, 2007--it will be serialized here, an additional chapter per week, starting in August, 2006. The complete book will be shown on the web.
...
Readers are welcome to post comments, criticisms, complaints, and exchange remarks--a link will be provided, and I may periodically chime in to discuss and argue with the posters. I'm also hoping that those of you who enjoy the book online will buy a copy for money when it is published. The book is fairly long, so it will be in print before we finish serializing it here.

This is way cool... :-)

Check out the Video Games Live Orchestra (YouTube video) performing an awesome orchestral score that accompanies video scenes of classic arcade games.

True Trekkies will definitely appreciate Star Trek Inspirational Posters. :-)

The Numbers has an interesting list of the Top 50 Movies Never To Go Into Wide Release. Looking at their data, I'm guessing that wide release is 1000 theaters or more. Did you guess the #1 movie correctly? (I didn't.)

Several months ago I posted about live actors recreating The Simpsons' opening. Now I present to you The Simpsons: Yellow 3D (embedded QuickTime video), the entire opening rendered in 3D on the computer.

SI.com presents its list of the 10 Greatest Sports Songs. I'm sure they missed some good ones, but I can't think anything good at the moment; what are your picks? Although it's a local (Baltimore) favorite, for now I vote for John Denver's Thank God I'm A Country Boy. :-)

The YouTube video Darth Smartass isn't quite as good as the Austin Powers scene it's obviously inspired by, but it's still pretty funny...

YES.com is an awesome map-based site that tells you what songs are currently playing/have recently played on radio stations, searchable by ZIP code.

Am I the only who got a little freaked out as a kid watching the Sesame Street video in which the stop-motion animated orange sang Carmen?

The Los Angeles Public Library has a beautiful gallery entitled Far and Wide: The Golden Age Of Travel Posters. One of my favorites is above...

Fatboy Slim's video for The Joker (Steve Miller Band cover; YouTube video) is performed by kittens. Maybe a bit too cute, but fun...

The video for OK Go's Here It Goes Again (YouTube video) is entirely performed on six treadmills. It's a lot cooler than it sounds. Really. :-)

In honor of Tom Petty's latest release, Highway Companion, The Onion's A.V. Club presents 14 Classic Tom Petty Opening Lines.

Speaking of nostalgic drunken college computer games, check out Scorched 3D, an extremely faithful three-dimensional rendering of the Scorched Earth (which you can download here) tank shooting game. This version has a lot more eye candy, but they retained the cheesy quotes the computer tanks utter after getting destroyed as well as the different types of explosions/implosions. And it's free!

Check out the hilarious Episode 2 (YouTube video) of Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager.

Part of a hopefully regular feature stolen from inspired by Norman Roberts' blog innings.

You should definitely visit the Weekly Echo site, as the images have hyperlinks to pertinent news stories of the week...

I really like this recent Mountain Dew commercial (embedded QuickTime video).

It should come as no surprise that after garnering an Emmy Nomination for the episode Trapped In The Closet, South Park ran a somewhat controversial "For Your Consideration" ad in Variety. Check out the full-size version here... :-)

The White, The Black (Flash video) is an extremely surrealistic Russian video depicting a demented portrayal of a chess game. You'll just have to go and watch, because I can't explain it other than to say it reminded me of СФИР ЕТ ЅЕРОНЖ (supposedly Worker and Parasite, roughly transcribed as sfir yet seronzh if the Unicode characters don't show up), the quasi-Eastern European cartoon shown in place of The Itchy & Scratchy Show in the The Simpsons episode Krusty Gets Kancelled. Wow, I spent way too much time on that. ;-p

"Endut! Hoch Hech!" :-)

As you might guess the Google Video The Genius of George Bush celebrates the ineptitude of W with a series of video clips...

787 Cliparts is a video that combines 787 different colored-in clip art line drawings. Kind of mesmerizing...

This amazing photo of the Space Shuttle Discovery was taken just before it docked with the International Space Station. Definitely take a look at the full-size image...

D.C. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton gave as good as she got when recently interviewed by Stephen Colbert (embedded QuickTime video). :-)

As reported by Neatorama, artist Thomas Fuchs "deconstructs the GOP logo" in a series of illustrations. One of my favorites is at right... ;-)

Boing Boing (and seemingly everyone else on the Interweb) reports on an "unintentionally hideous college recruitment video" made by Appalachian State University:

Unfortunately, this is not a joke...and this is not an old video. Appalachian State University put out this video last year and it instantly became a viral hit amongst the educational community. It's probably THE worst educational recruitment video ever and possibly one of the worst songs ever recorded. From the production values to the obsessive use of the same transition to the incredibly lame imagery used in the video, this one takes the cake on almost every level. It's so bad that it's destined to become a classic.

Wow.

Cinematical reported that actor Mako recently died at the age of 72 from esophageal cancer. Although you may not recognize his name, you will surely recognize Mako (Wikipedia article) from all of the TV, movie (including an oscar nomination for 1966's The Sand Pebbles), and voiceover roles he has played. This is quite sad news...

A promotional clip for Bob Harris' upcoming book Prisoner of Trebekistan entitled Some Contestants Also Receive... (Google Video) shows all of the crappy stuff you get after returning to Jeopardy! nine times.

I never thought that I would see the Star Wars theme played on a banjo (YouTube video)...