This evening I got bored and decided to clean out a bunch of bookmarks that have been sitting in Safari for far too long. I figure it’s as good a time as any to share some with you, the faithful and never wavering reader.
A little known fact about me is that I’m a very large fan of the 1986 film Short Circuit and the 1988 followup Short Circuit 2. Maybe it’s the fact that I enjoy the idea of a lovable, friendly robot constantly looking for input, or maybe it’s the undeniable charm of Steve Guttenberg trying to make money any way possible. Either way, It’s not surprising that I had two links related to Johnny 5. The first, from May of 2007, was an article on MAKE via Engadget about a guy that created a nice, working Johnny 5 out of LEGO Mindstorms pieces. Pretty impressive actually. The second Johnny 5 link sitting in Safari waiting for this moment was an article in the April 3, 2008 issue of Variety. Evidently Dimension Films acquired the rights to remake the Short Circuit film! Usually remakes are pretty crappy, but as long as it doesn’t become a straight-to-DVD pile of horse garbage, or star Shia LaBeouf, it should be worth watching.
I don’t remember when or how I found this next link, but I know it’s been sitting for awhile. It’s the website for the Newseum, which is a cool museum in DC dedicated to news. They have a very cool feature on their site that allows you to view today’s front page’s from newspapers around the globe. It does so in a sweet interactive map. Clicking the location on the map brings up a nice, full sized image from the paper. Here is the front page of the wonderful Orlando Sentinel, political commentary not included.
Finally is the way too much fun Dicewars which is basically a simplified, flash-based version of Risk. It’s a ton of fun. Unfortunately you can’t play other people, but add enough computer opponents and the game is challenging enough.
So there you have a few juicy morsels of internet goodness for your browsing pleasure. Just know that I’m not responsible should you become addicted to Dicewars or Steve Guttenberg movies.
This is pretty cool. Anything to curse/jinx/beat/insert_verb_here the Yankee’s is fine with me. Be it bugs or Red Sox t-shirts, I’m cool with it. Someone throw something in the Met’s new stadium while you’re at it.
TechCrunch is a website about websites, particularly cool startups trying to do creative things online. Back in November they published an article, written by the owner of a viral PR firm, on how to make effective viral videos. In the irony of ironies, someone made that post into a viral video — and a pretty good one at that. Check it out.
This is by far the coolest website I’ve seen today, possibly ever. You navigate through the site using your iSight (or other webcam)! Move a hand to the right to move to the next page, move a hand up to return to the homepage. Very, very cool stuff.
I’ve vented about the whole “Spring Forward and Fall Back” thing before and while my position stated nearly five years ago still stands, I have found yet another reason to question, no, ponder over the whole thing.
Evidently some pretty smart people at UC Santa Barbara decided to study Indiana’s adoption of Daylight Savings Time and compare their energy consumption before and after the change. The results, thanks to Gizmodo, are rather interesting:
The results of the study say that while lightbulbs are used less because of the added daylight, air-conditioning in the summer and heating in the fall are used more than they would with an hour less daylight. Overall, the cost to Indiana residents was around $8.6 million a year in higher energy bills, plus up to $5.3 million per year in “increased pollution costs.”
Ok. Let me get this straight. Daylight Savings Time increased energy costs by $8.6 million… in Indiana? Imagine what it costs somewhere that really matters, like New York or… gasp, California! You see, a few years back when the government moved Daylight’s Savings Time up a week and extended it another three weeks the idea was that more sunlight during the day would mean less energy consumption. Well, oops.
A little known fact about me is that I’m a very large fan of the 1986 film Short Circuit and the 1988 followup Short Circuit 2. Maybe it’s the fact that I enjoy the idea of a lovable, friendly robot constantly looking for input, or maybe it’s the undeniable charm of Steve Guttenberg trying to make money any way possible. Either way, It’s not surprising that I had two links related to Johnny 5. The first, from May of 2007, was an article on MAKE via Engadget about a guy that created a nice, working Johnny 5 out of LEGO Mindstorms pieces. Pretty impressive actually. The second Johnny 5 link sitting in Safari waiting for this moment was an article in the April 3, 2008 issue of Variety. Evidently Dimension Films acquired the rights to remake the Short Circuit film! Usually remakes are pretty crappy, but as long as it doesn’t become a straight-to-DVD pile of horse garbage, or star Shia LaBeouf, it should be worth watching.