Surfing Archives

When I was a youngin', Speed Racer was the hip, cutting edge Anime (ok, it wasn't called Anime then; it was called "those weird Japanese cartoons). Either you were into it or you weren't - same thing with Kimba the White Lion. If you were a kid back then, and you liked Speed Racer, chances are you also played with Hot Wheels and really, really wanted Speed's Mach 5 racer.

The Wachowskis (of The Matrix fame) are making a live action version adaptation of Speed Racer for the big screen. Word is that it won't be a dark film, for which the Wachowskis are known, but a family friendly flick including a real chimp playing ChimChim. But they'll likely get $10 from plenty of guys my age who just have to see the Mach 5. Geek alert, geek alert.

You've got to check out The Last Supper by clarkbar6. Its hysterically funny....and the link to the Flickr page has text rollovers to identify the characters you might not know....funny.

The Los Angeles Times today is reporting today on a rare kind of coffee - kopi luwak that apparently goes for as much as $30 per serving in swanky Asian haunts. This fine and delicate brew gets its refined flavor not from the tender and methodical production on the coffee plantation, but from an Indonesian, arboreal mammal known as a wild civet who eats the ripe, red coffee beans from the limbs of robusta and hybrid arabusta trees and then crap the beans out. The beans are then lovingly extracted from the civet poop, roasted, and then offered at steep prices.

Apparently, the enzymes in the civet's stomach break down some of the proteins that make coffee bitter. They also reduce the level of caffeine in the bean.

OK, I suppose its no more disgusting than casu frazigu cheese, a rotten cheese that ships with live maggots in it - so foul that the Italian government has outlawed it, though its still prized by gourmands nonetheless. What a world, what a world. I guess I'm a culinary luddite since the edge of my gastronomical envelope stops at chocolate covered crickets.

Information Architects has updated their Web Trendmap 1.0 with a new version that is worth checking out! The map is IA's assessment of the most popular/successful websites worldwide - arranged by category, and popularity.

Metallica has been covered by a lot of folk (my fave: Rodrigo y Gabriela) - but harps? Harptallica is two female harpists who've arranged, recorded and released a CD of ten Metallica tunes including Orion, Fade to Black, and Unforgiven. Rock on.

Freaking News presents a gallery full of nicely done "partial face transplants" that combine the heads of famous people. Some of them are pretty freaky - all of them are very well done. Show here, HRH Elizabeth II of England and Sir Elton John are joined.

An homage to the fleeting nature of fame on the Internet, Meth Minute 39 presents "Internet People." Lonely Girl, Andy Melinakis (who?!), Rocket Boom, William Shatner singing "Rocket Man".... it all gets a mention. A fun little viddy if you're an internet watcher.

I was working at Apple at the time – and MS-DOS seemed pretty damned ridiculous to us back then. After all, Windows was the Bradley GT of the computing world: no better than a kit car which looked like a botched imitation of a Ferrari but was obviously built on a Volkswagen Bug’s chassis and engine. Watching this video, it all still looks pretty stoopid. This video was obviously aimed at the channel, trying to pump up channel sales and touts the revenue opportunities to the 800lb. gorillas of the day, like Computerland and other now defunct channel outlets. The early 90’s production values and the hysterical "white rap" make this almost look like a Saturday Night Live parody! Enjoy.

Editor's Note: Apparently, the user defined data times out at some point....which means you might, at some point, see a movie but without my face! Thought I'd leave it just as is!

Shutterfly's got a new piece of bait to lure traffic to their photo processing site: custom videos. Its pretty fascinating to marry a little facial recognition technology to do face extraction with some smart sprite , provided by Personiva. But the end result is a bit dodgey, I think.

I made the one above using my own photo because the two I made with pictures from my kids were too creepy! The effects used to make the eyes blink and animate the mouth are interesting, but a little off putting. What is really creepy is that they extract the faces from the pictures you upload, and don't include the person's hair. Ok, no big deal on a grown man, but very disturbing with the children. Of course, the alpha-blending required to make transparencies through hair would require more processing power than Personiva wants to throw at this kind of application. But ultimately, it ruins the effect.

It's kind of cute and funny for about the minute it takes you to upload a picture and watch the video, but then you're done with it. I'm not sure how Personiva's hot new viral marketing technology's going to "People engage with the brand in ways that extend the lifespan and reach of the brand message" in a way that actually drives traffic and picture orders for Shutterfly.

The brewing tension between Apple and developers who wish to write 3^rd party apps for
the iPhone (and the iPhone users who want to use those apps) continues to grow. I still marvel at Apple's ability to dissimulate innovation on their own inspired products. A group of disaffected developers decided to throw some of Apple's promotion right back at 1 Infinite Loop, co-opting Apple's "Crazy Ones" ad and making it their own to deliver their message.

Just a little retro-fun with a vintage Kool-Aid commercial. Brightening your day with a couple of teaspoons of artificial flavor and a whole bucket of sugar!

Formed in 1943, the Sugar Association was an industry trade gropu "dedicated to the role of scientific study of sugar in food and communication of that role to the public". Here's an example of their selfless quest for truth via a "Sugar Information, Inc." promotional poster.

Mary got to school early for Student Council. Her team won in gym. After play rehearsal, she'll Watusi with the gang. She needs sugar in her life. For energy. She needs energyless, artificially sweetened foods and beverages like a turtle needs a seat belt. Sugar swings. Serve. Serve some. Sugar's got what it takes... 18 calories per teaspoon and it's all energy.

Note to Mothers: Exhaustion may be dangerous - especially to children who haven't learned to avoid it by pacing themselves. Exhaustion opens the door a little wider to the bugs and ailments that are always lying in wait. Sugar puts back energy fast - offsets exhaustion. Synthetic sweeteners put back nothing. Energy is the first requirement of life. Play safe with your young ones - make sure they get sugar every day.

Here's a delightful little waste of time for your day: this site for HEMA, a Dutch retail chain store, presents you with a very fun Rube Goldberg-esque bit of fun. Give it a moment to load and you'll get 30 seconds of "Oh gee, that's cool" fun - then you can go about your day.

You many not know of Paul Rand, but you know his work: the IBM logo, ABC's logo, Westinghouse's logo, ABC's logo, UPS' logo, NeXT's.... and on and on. Paul Rand was a giant in the world of design.

Rand was recently inducted into the One Show Creative Hall of Fame and the embedded video is a four minute film that is a tribute to his work, as well as providing Rand explaining his work (from which I transcribed the quote above.

Growing up, I wanted to be an animator. Specifically, I wanted to be a Disney animator. Ub Irwiks was my hero and I wanted to make cartoons like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Silly Symphonies. Alas, I have no talent for drawing and painting, so that dream got scuttled in one of my first painful moments of self-actualization.

However, I've always loved the art of animation. In particular, I've always loved the background scenes of animation - so overlooked, so painstakingly wrought. And while the old hand painted cartoon cells have found quite a market among art collectors, the animators have been much more retiscent about releasing the background art into the wild. Fortunately, there's the Background Animations blog site, which contains a wealth of this art from Disney Warner Bros. and others. Tickle your cerebellum with some gorgeous art.