Archive for the 'Random' Category

Stop-Motion is the New Hotness (Everything Old is New Again)

Published
by
Taylor
on July 17, 2008
in Random
. 1 Comment

For whatever reason, I’ve stumbled upon two spectacular stop-motion YouTube bits in the last 24 hours.

This one is the most impressive, and relates to cooking…so it’s first on the docket:

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM&amp;e">http://youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM&amp;e</a>

This one is geektacular…and involves two of my childhood passions: Lego and  Star Wars:

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=aEc8v1OWeE4&amp;e">http://youtube.com/watch?v=aEc8v1OWeE4&amp;e</a>

Hat Tips: Signal Vs. Noise and Geekologie.

Monday Links: April 28th, 2008

Published
by
Taylor
on April 27, 2008
in Art, Business, Computing, Monday Links, Politics, Random, Social Networks and Sustainability
. 2 Comments

Hey folks–I’ve been a bit out of the loop lately, and I’ll be traveling almost non-stop for the next few weeks. While Jarred will be taking one (a few?) for the team and blogging in my absence, I hope to chime in when I can from the road. Here are a few links, albeit a little abbreviated this week:

  • The Bush-Cheney 2004 e-Campaign Director offers ideas for how the McCain campaign could have moved past traditional press-release blasts to create momentum around Obama’s “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?” comment. As I think is pretty clear by now, Jarred and I are Obama fans…and, for the record, I think we both ate waffles almost exclusively one summer. But regardless of your politics, this piece is really striking in the creativity available to campaigns online, IF they’re willing to push the envelope a tad and move away from their old habits (NO MORE PRESS RELEASES).
  • I never thought I would subscribe to–much less link to–a Wal-Mart blog, but this post written by the company’s sustainability director is worth a look. He describes new packaging options (some as simple as milk in a bag instead of a carton) and weighs the merits of biodegradable plastics.
  • Lifehacker offers ten tools to maximize your Amazon shopping experience. These range from discount finders and gift list managers to a site that tracks prices of a recent purchase in order to cash in on the “if you find a cheaper price in 30 days we’ll give you the difference” offer. Pretty impressive, though some of these things might take more time than the $3 you’ll save is worth.

“The sculpture consists of 100 cast iron figures which face out to sea, spread over a 3.2 km stretch of the beach. [...] As the tides ebb and flow, the figures are revealed and submerged by the sea.”

  • This is a few weeks old but worth sharing: PaleoFuture points to a 1995 Newsweek article that basically…well…calls the “internet” a passing fad and a huge crock:

“[N]o online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.”

Well, that’s all for now. Keep checking back all week for new posts.

Questioning Things: Vol. V

Published
by
Jarred
on April 27, 2008
in Questioning Things and Random
. 5 Comments

I have been thankful to finally have a full weekend at home, after much traveling both for fun and for work in recent weeks. I’ve mostly been sleeping and hanging around the apartment, but on Friday night I got a chance to do something I have been craving for a long, long time: I dragged my drums into our living room and played music with my roommate and three other friends.

I try to play by myself several nights a week (I have an electronic set in my apartment so I don’t wake the neighbors), drumming along with music from my iPod through headphones. My roommate and I have recorded a song or two together, but it’s been a while since we’ve both had time to get together and create. He and those friends have come over several times before to jam on their guitars, but it’s always seemed like too much of a hassle to pull out the drums.

Friday night, though, I decided I didn’t want to be frustrated like that anymore. Damn the risk of complaints from the neighbors! The result was a night of therapeutic, beautiful, glorious music-making.

And so, with that intro, I have a few questions for you to ponder and answer this week:

  1. Do you have a hobby or other activity that, because of work or other circumstances, you aren’t able to do as often as you like? What is it? What’s holding you back?
  2. Are there any hobbies or activities that you know you love, but whether because of time or location or something else, you’ve simply let them fade away completely? As opposed to question #1, these would be activities you haven’t done in years, as opposed to activities you do occasionally.
  3. If you had to give up your job and choose one of your hobbies or activities to pursue full-time, what would it be? How would go about growing your expertise in it? How would you monetize it?

I’ll ring in with my answers a little later, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments!

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user || edmar ||.

Point and Shoot: Violent Virtual Protests in Second Life

Published
by
Jarred
on April 21, 2008
in Politics, Random and Web 2.0
. 1 Comment

This is straight up hilarious.

I haven’t spent a significant amount of time on Second Life. It’s a cool idea and I think will be more interesting and important down the road, but right now… well, just a little too funky. I wrote before about U.S. intelligence agencies increasing their presence in virtual worlds like Second Life. So too, it appears, are political campaigns (though for the moment, unofficially).

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=OkL45Vlu1vY">http://youtube.com/watch?v=OkL45Vlu1vY</a>

Indeed, an interesting article in Friday’s Wall Street Journal described how grassroots-organized campaign events in Second Life for the two remaining Democratic contenders are being sabotaged by virtual operatives from rival camps.

It’s not particularly surprising, especially in the largely consequence-free virtual universe, that speeches and marches put on by volunteers would be disrupted by protests. There’s no fear of public embarassment or legal action: Second Life is, after all, more or less a game. Protestors can carry signs, wear custom t-shirts and hats, and even break into unofficial campaign headquarters in order to litter them with opposition propaganda. But I would never have guessed that speakers at virtual grassroots campaign rallies would also draw, well… sniper fire?

Continue reading ‘Point and Shoot: Violent Virtual Protests in Second Life’

The Time For Change Is Now

Published
by
a Guest
on April 1, 2008
in Random and Tropophilia
. 0 Comments

It is in violation of several laws my pleasure and an usurpation of the freedom of speech a distinct honor to introduce Edmund C. Moy, Director of the United States Mint, who RUN has a very special RUN AWAY! message for the readers of Tropophilia:

My fellow Americans, I have a very special and important announcement to make. Over the weekend, it came to the attention of the Secret Service, which as you know works for the Department of the Treasury, which as you know works for the United States Mint, which as you know works for me… that this is a blog “about change.” Not only is this blog “about” change. It’s a blog about the “love” of change.

There are three things I love in this world: Power. Freedom. And Change.

Not that softy “change we can believe in” mumbo jumbo. I’m talkin’ ’bout some coin, baby. I love the jingle. I love the jangle. I love the exquisite feeling of the metal in my greasy palm, the sound it makes when pings against the bottom of my pink piggy bank on my desk.

If this blog is about the love of change, then this blog is about me. And that’s why I’ve directed the NSA, which as you know works for the President, who as you know is my boss, who as you probably don’t know owes me a big favor — to confiscate this blog and its assets, to detain its editors as enemy combatants, and to give me full editorial control of Tropophilia.

Don’t worry, readers. You shouldn’t notice a huge change. As you can see we’ve redecorated a little, but the theme will not change. Or… will it? Bwahaha.

And don’t even think about ditching Tropophilia. I have the NSA tracking previous and current visitors. You are obligated to visit at least once per day and to comment once per week about how much you love coins a.k.a. change, as designed by the U.S. Mint. Which as you know, I run.

In the name of the Quarter, the Dime, and the commemorative Sacagawea dollar,

Edmund C. Moy
Director, U.S. Mint
Editor-in-Chief, Tropophilia.com