Sesame Street Videos on YouTube

This is great -- links to 47 Sesame Street clips! Includes all your favourites: Telephone Rock, Ladybug Picnic, We All Live in a Capital I, Ma-nah Ma-nah, and many others! Don't miss appearances by series regulars Oscar, Grover, Ernie and Bert, Cookie Monster, and, of course, Kermit the Frog! Thrill to special guest appearances from your favourite actors and musicians including Robert DeNiro, Natalie Portman, REM, and the late, great Johnny Cash!

But that's not all! Order today and receive a genuine Ginsu knife and a smokeless ashtray! Operators are standing by!!!!!!!1!!!one!eleven

Link (via MetaFilter)

Wicked Awesome Blacklight Tatts!

I ran across this a few days ago but didn't think a lot of it. I mean, it was cool and all, but I'm not really a tattoo guy -- even though I was totally jonesing for a tatt like the one pictured. Then, last night, I was talking to my friend Beth about this site and her eyes just kept getting wider and wider like I was unloading the coolest information she'd ever heard. I had to post the link.

The good news about these UV tattoos is there are 18 colours to choose from, and Crazy Chameleon claims the inks are organic, non-carcinogenic, and totally safe with MRIs. When completely healed, which can take anywhere from 12-18 months, the Titanium White tattoos are almost invisible and show up only under blacklight (the colour inks are always visible). Richie, an artist at Electric Soul Tattoo, has posted some pictures of tattoos in various stages of healing.

Richie says he's used the inks for four years on all kinds of skin colours with no problems. He claims to know of artists who've verified that the tattoos have kept their glow after six years. Crazy Chameleon says on their site that the inks continue to glow a decade later.

Richie also says that the inks have received FDA approval, but that's somewhat misleading. The FDA approval is only for tagging plants, fish, and other wildlife with the ink, not for use on humans. From the Crazy Chameleon FAQ:

According to our manufacturer's records, this ink received USFDA approval in 1995 for use in animals, plants and fish for the purpose of tracking migration, growth patterns; breeding habits etc. No other tattoo inks have received approval in this way. Many fisheries use this ink to "mark" the fish in oceans and the ones raised to stock rivers and ponds [the same ones we hunt and fish]. The Crazy Chameleon has on file a letter dated April 3, 1995 from the Division of Programs and Enforcement Policy, USFDA, and addressed the manufacturer of our ink that shows this approval.

Furthermore, our manufacturer is in the process of updating their FDA record status relating to this product to get it listed under FDA approved Tattoo Ink. They are also seeking from said agency an additional notification that is void of any confidential or proprietary information or data [trade secrets, amounts of materials and manufacturing processes] and thus making the papers appropriate for release to the general public.

The inks don't blend the same as regular tattoo inks, so it's recommended by Crazy Chameleon that you have an experienced UV artist do your work. It may also be advisable to not have this work done if you're concerned about possible health effects. But if you're just looking for a cool tattoo, this is a guaranteed mind-blower!

Link to tattoo pictures
Link to Crazy Chameleon

Multi-User Flash Games

At The Broth you work in a shared space with as many as ten other people at the same time, moving coloured tiles around and trying to create patterns. It can be frustrating, as most people are more concerned with tearing down rather than building, but it can also be a lot of fun to work on a shared design with two or three other people.

It reminds me a lot of Someone Keeps Stealing My Letters, another multi-user site that allows you to drag those plastic fridge magnet letters around. Same idea, but sometimes I find it more appealing to write words instead of just pushing tiles. I guess I've always been more literary than visual.

Link to The Broth
Link to Someone Keeps Stealing My Letters

Grocery Store Wars

Grocery Store Wars is a brilliant Star Wars spoof produced by the Organic Trade Association. There are enough in-jokes for even the most faithful Star Wars fan, and the film itself stacks up better in a lot of different ways than any of the prequels. Don't miss out on the "making of" videos -- they're also pretty good, but not quite as funny.

Link

Life After the Oil Crash

Dear Reader,

Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, and investment bankers in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."

Scary stuff here. Off the charts scary. Especially when he starts trotting out the statisitics like bodies at a murder scene: 10 calories of fossil fuels are required to produce one calorie of food; construction of the average car requires twice the car's weight in fossil fuels; current US oil requirements are 83 million barrels a day; and on and on and on.

This site is well researched, well written, easy to understand, and rich with links to supplementary material. But it's probably not something you want to read before bed, especially if you're looking for a calm and restful night.

Link

Fun Flickr Tools

Flickr can be a fun toy in and of itself, but what really sets it apart is all the tools available for people to do cool things with. I lean toward these ones at Flagrant Disregard as the most interesting, but as always, YMMV.

The card shown here was made with FD's Trading Card Maker tool. I think it would be hilarious to make a set featuring my family and friends, but I don't have enough photos!

Link

Buzz Bunny

This is another oldie but goodie that needed to be posted because, for the love of God, stop trying to change Bugs Bunny!

Did anyone watch Tiny Toons? Because Tiny Toons was good. And so was Animaniacs, although I never really got into that as much. But the Loonatics go directly contrary to the spirit of Bugs Bunny: he's not an action star, he's a pacifist (mostly). He doesn't wear a black jumpsuit, he dresses in drag -- and looks pretty damn fine while he does it, too. Most important of all, Bugs is freaking funny. These Loonatics characters are... well, let's just say that saving a city from being destroyed by a giant comet isn't really all that funny, while tricking Yosemite Sam into shooting himself in the ass is.

Bugs Bunny is an icon. He was voted the number one cartoon character of all time by TV Guide. He has a star on the Walk of Fame. He survived a world war, and his cartoons from the '50s and '60s are just as entertaining fifty years later. This is not a character that needs "updating", this is a character that needs respect. Turning Bugs into Buzz (or Ace, I guess, because of some copyright somethingorother) is the last refuge of the lazy, tired, unimaginative, hack writers that seem to be running around in so many places these days.

Anyway. This is a great bit of satire and you should watch it.

Link

Kids Helping Kids

The World's Children's Prize For The Rights Of The Child is a wonderful group that recognizes the work of individuals in the fight against the oppression of children. The members of the selection committee are youth that have been victims of land mines, the sex trade, child labour, or other extreme difficulties. Craig Kielburger is this year's winner, the first individual from a developed nation to be the recipient of this honour. It should be noted that all of the nominated candidates receive a portion of the $100,000 USD prize that must then be used in their fight for the rights of children.

In 1995, at age 12, Mr. Kielburger founded Free the Children, is the largest worldwide network of children helping children through education. I was completely inspired when I started reading about Mr. Kielburger's passion at age 12, and the drive he still has for his work 11 years later. If everyone had even half the energy and desire to do good as Mr. Kielburger does, this world would be a remarkable place.

Ballsy, Boneheaded or Both

In 1860 the postmaster general in New Brunswick decided to make 5 cent stamps in his likeness.
From the newspaper article:

At a time when only Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were considered suitable subjects for such an honour, Charles Connell defied convention, stunned his fellow colonial legislators and promptly lost his job by putting his portrait on the hot-selling five-cent denomination.

All of the stamps were destroyed, but now Sotheby's is auctioning off the proofs, and expects to get in the neighbourhood of $50,000.

Charles Connell's ego didn't seem to hurt his political career as he was re-elected to the New Brunswick legislature in 1864 as a strong advocate of Confederation and then became one of the new province's first MPs when he won a seat by acclamation in the federal election of 1867. He died, still an MP, in 1873.

Link to Edmonton Journal Article
Link to Article from The Canadian Philatelist

Prof's "Super Laptop" Scares Kid

I was talking with Rob today about how cool it would be to install a GPS transmitter in one of our servers. If it were ever stolen, you could hilariously walk up to the guy's front door and be all, "Excuse me, but, like, you've got our server...?"

It reminded me of this post on boingboing, where a prof goes into painful detail on not only the super high-tech security he has on his now stolen laptop, but the consequences that will befall said laptop thief should he ever be caught. It's funny just to imagine this kid filling his pants as each sentence ups the stakes of the crime.

Link (via boingboing)

Da Vinci Code Quest

Just like that Chris Kohler dude over at Wired, I got involved with the Da Vinci Code early. JCQ and I had stumbled across the webgame one lazy Saturday, and we did all right with it up to the point where it directly references the book -- which I found blatantly unfair. JCQ actually ran out and purchased the book that afternoon, and then we were able to complete the game.

The writing itself is... crappy. It's crappy, okay? But the story sucked me in so hard it left friction burns on my retinas. I couldn't put it down. I gave up TV. I was juggling my daily responsibilities so I could get back to reading the book.

Now the movie's coming out, and there's a renewed interest in the Da Vinci Code. So much so that Google has released a new webgame that ties in to the movie: 24 puzzles released until May 11, at which point they vanish. If you manage to solve all the puzzles, Sony Pictures is giving away nearly half a million dollars worth of swag -- but only to US residents, which is a total drag. It's swag drag.

Link (via Google Blog)

Cockroach-Controlled Robot

Garnet Hertz is a Fulbright Scholar, Research Fellow at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and is a doctoral student at the University of California Irvine. He's also originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and is just full of "way out there" ideas -- like Doctor Moreau with a technology fetish. His latest one is having a cockroach control a robot. There's a really funky video of the project posted at YouTube, but for you more literature-oriented people, he was interviewed by Gizmodo and talks at length about the reasoning behind this project and some of his other work.

Although it doesn't mention this anywhere, Garnet did actually receive some funding for this project from the Saskatchewan Arts Board. Which is good, because funding bodies should be putting money toward development of these cutting-edge ideas. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

Link to YouTube video
Link to interview (via Gizmodo)

Playing The Game

The Game is difficult to describe, but here goes. Imagine yourself and five friends barreling around a major metropolitan city in a rented van for 32 straight hours while solving insanely difficult puzzles and engaging in an assortment of tasks designed to test your mental and physical stamina, an event combining elements of road rallies, scavenger hunts, and "Mind Olympics" competitions. That doesn'’t exactly describe the Game, but it'’s as good a description as any.

Matt Baldwin, the brilliant character who writes Defective Yeti, participated in The Game and wrote a wonderful three-part story about his experience. You remember The Game, don't you? It was based on a movie starring Michael J. Fox (Midnight Madness), and inspired a movie of the same name starring another Michael, Michael Douglas. Matt's stories are fun reading and really draw out the desire to jump in and start solving puzzles. If you're looking for more background to The Game, Wikipedia (big surprise) has a good article on it.

Link to The Game (via The Morning News)
Link to The Game at Wikipedia

World's Coolest Fireplace

Heat & Glo have developed what is quite possibly the coolest fireplace ever made. You plug it into a standard 220 volt outlet and give it a constant supply of water, either from a direct line or its own built-in reservoir, and this beautiful machine will give you fire.

The electricity splits the hydrogen atoms from the oxygen in the water, then ignites the hydrogen to produce the flame. Excess oxygen is released into the room, and the only by-product is water vapour -- no carbon monoxide detectors necessary.

Gizmodo blogged about this thing about a year ago, and the Heat & Glo website doesn't list any further pricing or availability information. It does say that each Aqueon is custom-made, and
prices the one in the picture at $49,900. I have to wonder if there are more expensive models out there. In any event, it's definitely drool-worthy, if priced far outside my limited means.

Link (via Gizmodo)

Pop Can Inventions

Creative (and inventive) genius Rob Cockerham has built an aeolipile out of a pop can. Yes, the masses can refer to it as Hero's Engine, but here at FeedMonkey it's all edutainment all the time. Rob's engine is a little impractical because, like Hero, I don't see an easy way to harness the power produced. But it's great science in action, and at the price of a can of pop, it's super cheap. There are some great pictures, too.

This reminded me about the trick of lighting a fire with a pop can and a chocolate bar. I also found instructions on building a propane stove out of a pop can, but it's not something you can do while out in the bush. But now that I have a Dremel tool, I may try it out for camping this summer.

Link to Cockeyed's Hero's Engine
Link to pop can fire starter
Link to pop can stove

How to Nap Properly

Men's Journal ran a piece on how to nap properly. Included in the article are tips on the lengths of time you should spend napping and some of the science behind sleep. Good stuff!

Link

Land of the Lost Tribute

FeedMonkey pal Godspeed over at Raversnet posted a tribute to the 70s TV show Land of the Lost.

What a blast from the past this was! I remember watching this show every Saturday, and it's like he says in the post: this was before VCRs, so if you missed an episode you were screwed. It seemed to add such urgency to the show that you'd get up at 6:00 a.m. just to watch cartoons! Ah, the halcyon memories of my misspent youth.

Link (registration required)

OMFG Google Calendar!!!1!eleven

My friends all know that I'm a huge Google apologist. Not that I think they're running their business in China very ethically, but for the most part, Google kicks a lot of ass. I use their e-mail almost exclusively, I use their newsreader, and I use their blogging service. Oh, and I use their search, too.

That's why I'm so excited that the long-awaited Google Calendar has finally been released! Now I need to figure out how to make it sync with my Palm Pilot.

Link

Paris in the Springtime (and throughout the year)

Eric posts a picture a day of the sights of Paris. He also has links to 54 other city picture a day blogs which are also worth a look. Not only is this a great way to see the world in a real way, not only through the tourism pictures, but it also encourages us to look at the simple beauty in our own cities and towns.

I haven't yet looked through all of the pictures, but this is one of my favourites. I think this is project worth pursuing in any city, town or village, so get snapping.

Love and Hate Shirt Update

Further poking around on the love and hate shirt theme leads to The Accordian Guy's blog, which in turn points to Neatorama. But more important than either of these is the link to Scott Kim on Wikipedia, who's been described at the "Escher of the Alphabet". Whose brain works like this? The work on his website has to be seen to be believed!

Link (Thanks Accordian Guy and Neatorama!)

Hanzi Smatter

Hanzi Smatter is a blog dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in western society. In particular, it features a number of tattoos of Chinese characters and what the actual translation of those characters is. Most times the translation is hilariously different from what the person believed it was supposed to be.

The problems come from the popularity of Chinese characters as tattoos and the fact that few tattoo artists can read Chinese. The complexity of the written language and liberal artistic license, where lines are changed or added to suit a particular design, can completely change the meaning of a character. The lesson, of course, is that the books lie. Be sure to check and re-check your symbol with real Chinese readers before you have "small harvest" etched indelibly on your shoulder.

Some people suggest that this misuse of the language is a slight against Chinese culture. But while Chinese characters have been viewed as trendy and exotic in western society for about 15 years, it's interesting to note that the trend among Chinese and Japanese youth is to get tattoos with western writing, and I sincerely doubt that the same accusations would be leveled for the misuse of English. Still, I can't help but wonder if they're having problems with homonyms and idioms that don't translate well.

Link (Thanks photogfrog!)

Sketch Swap

Sketch Swap is a neat little toy that you can spend a lot of time fooling around on, even if, like me, you can't draw a lick.

The idea is simple: you draw a picture, and a random person sends you one in return. Some of them are quite good, especially considering these people are drawing with a mouse. Others are... well, like mine.

It was inspired by the site File Swap, where you get a random file from someone for every file you upload. A similar concept, but Sketch Swap provides a lot more fun and immediate gratification.

Link to Sketch Swap
Link to File Swap

3D Tracking

The service 3D Tracking has a wicked GPS demo online to show-off their premium service. Their free service is interesting and more than worth the amount of money they charge, but the upgrade is enough to make geeks like me start drooling with the possibilities.

Right now, the demo's set up to show you how you could use this service to monitor a fleet of trucks, or something similar. But I'd like to see them open the software to allow casual surfers (like me!) to view anyone's public GPS data. What a hoot it would be to be able to track my friend through Europe on his vacation!

Link (Thanks, Godspeed!)

I Love & Hate You

This was on Boing Boing and I absolutely love it. If you want a shirt like this, you can buy one HERE. The site is in French, so it may not be as easy to navigate as it could be, but it's fairly self explanatory, and easy to use. The main concern I have with it, is the price. At 21 euros plus shipping it comes out to nearly $38.00 Canadian. Although it's probably worth it, it seems somewhat pricey for a t-shirt.

Bushco comedy and tragedy

The links might get old, but at least the humour doesn't. As long as Bushco want to stay in Iraq, we may as well try to milk as many laughs as we can out of this sad situation.

The New Yorker recently wrote a piece about Bushco's current talks of war toward Iran in response to their uranium enrichment program:

A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was “absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb” if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.” He added, “I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, ‘What are they smoking?’ ”

Get your laughs in now, folks, 'cuz it ain't getting any funnier out there.

Link to Rumsfeld
Link to New Yorker Article

Stuffy Librarians

The stereotype of librarians being "stuffy" and overly strict is evidenced in Sweden where students are not able to borrow books if they have underwear showing, or are wearing caps or toques. I don't think this would work well in North America. This gives American celebrities like Britney Spears, Madonna, and Eminem an excuse as to why they don't use the library. Unfortunately, this also would prevent Canadian celebrities like Cindy Klassen, Jarome Iginla, and Bob and Doug McKenzie from ever reading a book. I can buy that for the McKenzie boys, but I expect more respect for Ms. Klassen. Come on librarians, loosen up.

Phone Notify

This is a great little web gadget that I'm totally enthralled with. It allows you to send a computerized phone message to anyone's phone number -- even cell phones!

The text to speech engine is a little crusty, but you do get your choice of voices: entering a number between 0-9 in the VoiceID field provides a good mix of male and female voices, some of which are more understandable than others.

FeedMonkey does not advise using this service for any kind of illegal activity -- there's even a disclaimer on the site that threats and things of that nature will be reported to authorities -- but it's a great way to prank your family and some of your close friends.

There are two improvements I'd like to see: add a feature to phone at a specific time so you can set phone reminders to yourself, and get rid of that annoying IP address information at the end of the message!

Link