Tao of Sagacious T: January 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009

Antarctica Time Lapse - A Year On Ice

This just blew me away. Jaw dropping time lapse video from Antarctica. I highly...HIGHLY...recommend viewing it in its high resolution form at antarcticimages.com and don't forget to full screen it! The music is fantastic too! The first track is a favorite by Afro Celt Sound System. Bonus geek points if you can remember what movie the second song is from; there is even a hint at the end. Enjoy!

Past & Present Photos Blended Into Ghostly Images

I love finding stuff like this. Environmentalgraffiti.com has a wonderful article showing off the artistic talent of Sergei Larenkov, who visited the exact locations from some old photos of Leningrad, took new photos from the same angle and then married the two, resulting in some amazing images if not a little eerie. A couple favorites are below; jump to the article for all the rest. Enjoy

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The End Is Still Nigh

Someone posted an hour long phone call between industry big wigs to Wikileaks & my favorite news website HuffingtonPost.com wrote a story on it. In spite of the detestable behavior we already know these men from the participating companies are capable of (including Bank of America, AIG, Rick Bergman & Bernie Marcus), they have this time reached a new low...the idea of using bailout money to lobby congress against the Employee Free Choice Act. Huntington has portion of the audio or you can listen to the entire call at Wikileaks.

During the call, there was a comment made by the co-founder of Home Depot regarding how the EFCA bill could effect America...ironically, it sounds like a statement made by someone like...well...me, looking in on their economy killing practices and principles. It went like this:

"This is the demise of a civilization. This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."

Monday, January 26, 2009

2009 Year of the Fro

2009 will be the year of the fro, with the triumphant return of our favorite sword wielding bad ass, Afro Samurai. Not only does he have a new season of animated goodness entitled Afro Samurai: Resurrection that premiered last night on Spike, but there is also Afro Samurai the video game due in stores Tuesday, just in time to take advantage of the rebirth of the animated series. The new season is really just a animated movie-length sequel to the original series, being shown on TV first and to then be released on DVD in February. Samuel L. Jackson, Ron Pearlman and other original voices are back for both titles. Below is a trailer for the new series, the game and the original series from 2007. Enjoy.

Resurrection

The Game

Original Series

Friday, January 23, 2009

Mr. President, Rebuild That Wall!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

1474-Megapixel Panoramic Photo Of Obama Inauguration

What more has to be said than the title? I couldn't embed it here (honestly it wouldn't do the photo justice), but there is a flash player after the jump that allows you to zoom in so close, you can almost read the notes on the bands sheet music. The final image consists of 220 images taken with a Gigapan and it took over 6 hours for the software to construct them into one image. Enjoy!

The photographers name is David Bergman and I highly recommend reading about how he made this image at his blog. You can even request to be notified when a print becomes available for purchase. If you just want to see the picture in all its glory, you can skip right to the full screen viewing by clicking on the photo below. Enjoy!

Obama's First Executive Orders!

President Obama has issued his first executive orders...forget taking steps forward, today our new leader took a couple of flying leaps down the path of righting the capsizing boat that is our country. Here is the low down:

He froze salaries on all senior staff.
He imposed tough lobbying restrictions. If you are part of the senior staff, no lobbying for 2 years. If you are a lobbyist, no working in departments you have lobbied for 2 years. If you are part of the current administration and leave, you cannot lobby the current administration as long as Obama is in office.
Re-stated that the current administration will be transparent and abide Freedom of Information Act requests. Request to withhold info will be subject to review by Justice Dept.
Most importantly the Former Presidents claim of executive privilege to withhold his records will be up for review too! (see my previous post for why).

Way to hit the ground running President O! Keep up the good work. You can read the orders in full at the White House website.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Bush Confesses To War Crime On Video

Once again, one of the finest media personalities alive, brings us a special comment regarding Bush. This time he is speaking directly to President Obama (it feels great writing those two words together) and urging him to act appropriately. Enjoy.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

What Should Be The Punishment For Illegal Abortion?

One of my new favorite blogs is "Unreasonable Faith - a former Christian's thoughts on faith, science and skepticism" (which I mentioned previously in a December post). The writer Daniel Florian has a very interesting back story worth reading. Anyway, today he posted a great video asking anti-abortion protesters one simple question: "If abortion becomes illegal, what should be the punishment for women who have illegal abortions?". You will be surprised at how little thought has been put into the ramifications of illegal abortion, by the very people promoting it. Enjoy.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Obama Full Inauguration Speech (and other goodies)

If you missed it, below is the entirety of Obama's amazing inauguration speech (and some other goodies below that). Enjoy!

Satellite image of the capitol during the inauguration.

Lego inauguration (full story at Gizmodo).

Word cloud of Obama inaugural speech (other prez speeches here)

Star Wars Retold By Girl Who Hasn't Seen It

This is too funny...

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Monday, January 19, 2009

8 Years of Bush In 8 Minutes

This is of course just the frosting on the layer cake that is the atrocities committed by the Bush administration, but it's a pretty good representation of all the ways in which he and his cronies have wronged or hurt us throughout the ~~better~~ worst part of the last decade. Olbermann FTW again! Enjoy.

If the YouTube video stops working use the (tiny) version below supplied by MSNBC.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Follow Obama Inauguration Online

Stumbled across this great post from Gizmodo about how to follow the inauguration online if you are stuck at work or elsewhere. FYI: the actual swearing-in happens at 9am Pacific Time.

At Least You Know One Man Is Thinking Clearly

I have mentioned before how much I like Representative Dennis Kucinich and how I supported him for President before Obama. It's to see he is still speaking his mind and "attempting" to do his job. Below is a collection of his recent addresses to Congress. Enjoy.

No more Federal Reserve

Bailout questions

The system we're saving

What will bailout accomplish

Impeachment

Israel & Gaza

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Songs I Can't Get Out Of My Head

Funniest serious song I've heard in a long time:

If you haven't seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, it's just recently been released on DVD. It's an absolute must-see by the people who brought you Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, etc...

...come to think of it, that Chromeo video reminds me of a funny remake; Take On Me (the literal version):

Take on Me: Literal Video Version - watch more funny videos

Enjoy!

Instruction Manual for Life

I stumbled upon this nifty little allegorical video...and it's quite good. Enjoy

Friday, January 9, 2009

This Is How The iPhone Will Die

For years Palm has been losing users because it's OS is very outdated and it's biggest partner Sprint has been losing subscribers to the iPhone. I have toyed with the idea of jumping ship from my Palm for several years, hell I have been trying out new phones from T-mobile whenever possible, just looking for an opportunity to jump ship to an iPhone killer that I really liked. The problem is nobody makes the perfect phone and as far as I am concerned, Sprint still provides the best service at the best rates. I have described my ideas for the perfect phone to friends, but I often get the usual "just get the iPhone, it does all that. Well actually, it doesn't. For all the nifty bells and whistles on the iPhone, it still doesn't do the top essential things I think any great phone should: have a real textile keyboard that can be used comfortably/easily with one thumb, have the ability to view any webpage (not just those tailored to cellphones), cut/paste editing, a quality 3 megapixel or better camera with LED flash and MMS text messages are higest amung the myriad of things the iPhone doesn't do, or does very poorly.

So I was very excited to learn that Palm is releasing a new phone that meets ALL of my expectations...the Palm Pre'. A few specs & videos are below. Read the full run down at Ars Technica; especially interesting is the new OS/UI which looks to make even Apple's coverflow look antiquated. The video with the most info about the new OS is the last one. Enjoy!

EVDO Rev A. (courtesy of Sprint)
802.11 b/g
GPS
Bluetooth (with stereo out support)
8GB of storage
TI OMAP processor
3.1-inch multitouch screen with 320x480 resolution
Sensors: accelerometer, proximity, ambient light
3MP camera with LED flash
Speaker for speakerphone and music
Replaceable battery
MicroUSB connector for charging, with USB 2.0 support.
3.5mm headphone jack
Phone works with slide-out QWERTY keyboard either open or closed.

Full Palm Pre CES presentation available at Palm.com

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Maybe We Are The Pirates?

I just read an interesting article over at The Independent about those Somali pirates we saw so much dramatic photos and stories of recently. Turns out that while there are certainly some dangerous men patrolling those waters for profit, many of these high seas raiders may be a response to European Nations dumping toxic waste near their beaches and mass fishing their waters illegally. There is always two sides to a story, and this is a good informative read. Enjoy.

Another Reason To Hate Comcast

If the fact that they are raising their prices again in February wasn't enough...It has been confirmed by DLSReports.com that network throttling by Comcast Cable is in effect in all of their markets. I highly recommend looking into FIOS if you can.

Science = Religion?

This one is for Collin and Scott. What great booze induced conversations we have till 7 in the morning...

Free Music Tops 2008 MP3 Sales Charts!?

An article from Ars Technica discusses the how and the why behind music that is legally available for free, outselling music that isn't. The story revolves around Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV topping the 2008 sales charts at Amazon.com. However they also touch on the misconceptions about Joe musician not being able to be profitable in the same way, without the existing fan base that NIN already has. There is some really good info in there about Creative Commons Licenses, and how they can work for you as an indie label. Definitely a good read. Enjoy!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

2008 Darwin Awards

The always entertaining Darwin Awards of 2008 have been finalized. Ranked by number of votes, the winners (or rather, losers) "commemorate those who improve our gene pool, by removing themselves from it".

My personal favorite is Merry Pranksters: The telephone company was replacing above-ground telephone lines with buried lines. In one sparsely populated farming area, if lines crossed a country road they would dig a trench halfway across, so rural traffic could continue through. Then they would fill in the trench, and dig a trench on the other side.

One morning, local farmers called the sheriff to report a smashed-up pickup. Inside were two ranch hands who were last seen the previous night, heading home after last call. You see...

On their way to the bars, the men had decided to play a prank. They stopped their pickup, and moved the flashing warning signs from the trenched side to the good side of the country road. Crime scene analysis later confirmed that they were the culprits who moved the flashing stands. Investigations also revealed that at the time of the accident, they were driving at an excessive speed with an impressive amount of alcohol in their systems.

No crime scene analysis is capable of determining whether the ranch hands forgot their prank, or chose to see what would happen if they hit that trench at a high rate of speed in the middle of the night.

No good prank goes unpunished. Enjoy!