A curses-based top-like display for Apache information, including requests per second, bytes per second, most popular URLs, etc.

http://gizmodo.com/5022769/exclusive-inside-the-lego-factory

A entertaining shot from The Onion Movie,

guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Artist Lena Gieseke has created a haunting, meditative 3D exploration of Guernica - Pablo Picasso’s monumental 1937 painting in response to the Nazi bombing of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Using Maya, Shake and Photoshop, Gieseke separated the individual elements of the mural, and then moved her 3D camera through the resulting tableau. The idea of using spatial immersion as a means to prompt deep contemplation of a painting was inspired by jigsaw puzzles:

The idea of creating a 3D version of an influential artwork came out of doing jigsaw puzzles of famous paintings. When you assemble a jigsaw, you study a painting in great detail and you become aware of the very lines, shapes and colors that the painting is composed of and how these elements merge to create a unified expression. Through the puzzle, you explore the artwork, examining details your eye might not have caught otherwise. Your experience of the painting is intense, aroused by the action of puzzling, but expanded and strengthened by your own fantasy.

image by Lena Gieseke

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A 3D Exploration of Picasso’s Guernica by Lena Gieseke

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

A budding New Orleans tradition, the second annual San Fermin in Nueva Orleans (SFNO) took place last Saturday. Inspired by the famous running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, the Big Easy version takes place in the streets of the French Quarter, and replaces the bulls with a potentially even more dangerous threat: the thirty-odd members of the Big Easy Roller Girls, NOLA’s local all-female roller derby team.

Runners dress themselves in the same white clothing and red sashes traditionally worn by the San Fermín corredors. After a prayer to Saint Fermín for protection, the runners are then chased en masse down Bourbon Street by the wiffle-bat wielding, bull-horned Roller Girls. It is a timeless test of bravery and stupidity, and just like San Fermín, few runners escape uninjured. Or at least unwiffled.

Ibeatya Bull nailed many people with [her] “Be Afraid” bat that should have been named “Be Petrified.” CHEAP Bull lost a horn goring a runner. Luvinblood Bull [lived] up to her name as she took a nasty fall, but also [lived] up to the derby philosophy and kept on skating. SmasHer Bull went samurai with two bats for more collateral damage. “This year was my first bullrun and it was awesome!” AnnihilAsian stated. “My Sponge-Bob wiffle ball bat may not have seemed intimidating to some of the runners, but after a few good whacks, Sponge-Bob proved them wrong!” The rollerbulls were followed by the less menacing but equally entertaining Rolling Elvi. [From the Big Easy Rollergirls blog]

This year’s run even featured a “toro mecánico” (a converted grocery cart) and an appearance by the Rolling Elvi, a troupe of scooter-riding Elvis impersonators.

See Previously:

- Urban Iditarod 2006
- Carts of Brooklyn Racing Association

via The Art of The Prank

photo by George “Loki” Williams, HumidCity.com and Karley D. Frankic

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San Fermín in Nueva Orleans, The Running of the Roller Girls

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Quick! As foretold by io9’s Annalee Newitz, the Internet’s Most Wanted Tee has arrived, and just in time for ComicCon. J!NX is now selling shirts inspired by Joss Whedon’s online serial musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Choose from four designs, including the more-heroic-than-you attire of Captain Hammer (shown above). Sadly, there are no Evil League of Evil tees yet available. I blame Bad Horse.

See Previously: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, A Web-Based Musical Mini Series

image via J!NX

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Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog T-Shirts

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

The brainchild of Lorin Edwin Parker and his wife Sarah Seeling, Electric Western is ”Dedicated to the creative use of technology from tubes to germanium & steam to solar.” Saving the world from flat digital sound and pretentious audiophilia.” Thus far, their eclectic inventions - all entirely hand-built - include a steam-powered synthesizer, a fully vintage re-creation of Leon Theremin’s original 1919 Theremin, and such unclassifiable oddities as the ElectroSparklavier, an instrument in which “sound is generated by the ionization of gases within the neon bulbs and thyratron tubes and mixed in various computer triodes.”

In addition to creating Electric Western, Mr. Parker (born, according to his website, in “1877, Idledale Colorado”) is a musician and audio engineer who currently teaches sound design at the Art Institute of California in Los Angeles. He is also a noted Proponent of the Moustachio, and the creator of an interactive drag-and-drop mustache game. Mr. Parker describes the unifying vision behind all these pursuits thusly:

Parker’s aesthetic is an anachronistic confluence of the cultural and technological past, present and future. He draws extensively from Victorian and Edwardian culture and design, blending his historical tilt to re-contextualize modern technology and arts. … 21st century art should be progressive, fun, accessible, even humorous. My art is not meant to be selective or exclusive — it is viable conceptually and as pure entertainment.

Current Electric Western projects include research into the ionic acoustics of plasma, chemo-electric synthesis and ion energy exchanges, further historical instrument reproductions (Ondes Martenot, Trautonium) and a DIY electric car conversion. Excelsior!

photo by Electric Western

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The Eclectic Instruments of Electric Western

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

A drinker, smoker, Irishman and atheist, Dave Allen was, above all, a natural raconteur. A fixture on British television during the sixties and seventies, he became known in America when re-runs of his shows began to air on late-night public television.

Allen’s act was typified by a very relaxed, intimate style — he would sit on a chair, smoking and holding a glass of whiskey. An atheist[1] (according to Allen himself, “what you might call a practising atheist”), he would often make jokes about religion, particularly the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. Along with his seated stand-up routines, his television shows were interspersed with sketch comedy. He had a lasting influence on British comedy, and influenced many 21st century British comedians. [Wikipedia]

As a child, I remember regularly staying up past my bedtime to watch Dave Allen At Large on PBS, and being struck by his amiable iconoclasm; Allen wasn’t interested in killing sacred cows so much as getting comfortably drunk, and playfully tipping them over. By couching his irreverence in cordiality, he made his free-thinking bent all that much more infectious.

A perfect example of this was Allen’s famous send-off, in which he managed to both gracefully acknowledge the beliefs of others, while simultaneously excusing himself from any part in them:

“Goodnight, thank you, and may your god go with you.”

See Also:

- Dave Allen [Amazon], Dave Allen audio snippets
- Dave Allen At Large intro [YouTube]

Post inspired by (and title borrowed from) His Wholiness The Reverend DrJon

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Dave Allen: The World’s Greatest Sitdown Comedian

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Skeleton Keys by Archie McPhee, frightfully fun little skulls to cover your keys.

Not only do these six soft rubber Skeleton Key key covers make your keys look cool, they also glow in the dark. This is especially helpful when you are in the dark trying to open a door. Also a good reminder that the possibility of death waits behind every closed door. Fits most average sized keys.

See Also: MonKeys & FreaKeys

image via Archie McPhee

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Skeleton Keys by Archie McPhee

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Here’s the trailer for the upcoming film Watchmen directed by Zack Snyder and based on the limited issue DC Comics graphic novel series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. The film is scheduled for release on March 6th, 2009.

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Watchmen Trailer

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The Presidential Memorial Commission was successful in their petition to add a measure to the San Francisco ballot in the November election asking voters to decide on renaming of the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to the “George W Bush Sewage Plant” (see my previous post).

Officials at the Department of Elections announced today that the citizens’ initiative to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant has qualified for the November 4th San Francisco ballot. Voters will decide on the measure in the general election alongside the presidential election, numerous statewide initiatives, and an expected 20 to 30 local measures.

“We want to thank the dozens of people who volunteered to campaign throughout the city, and the thousands of San Franciscans who lined up to sign this petition to pay tribute to our President,” said initiative co-author Brian McConnell. “With over 100 volunteers, we were able to run a citywide campaign with no donations, no paid signature gatherers - it was a 100% grassroots voter movement.”

The Presidential Memorial Commission is planning a creative, art-driven general election campaign, and is putting out a general call for support from artists who want to design flyers, billboards and other attention-getting devices. “We’re hoping for an election campaign like no other,” said Mr. McConnell.

While the measure is only being presented to San Francisco voters, voters worldwide can contribute to the general election campaign by donating artwork and funds at www.presidentialmemorial.org

See Previously: San Francisco Proposal For George W Bush Sewage Plant

The story recently showed up on Countdown With Keith Olbermann.

More Coverage:

- San Francisco Chronicle
- Associated Press
- SFist
- Curbed SF

photo by Akit

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George W. Bush Sewage Plant Added To San Francisco Ballot

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Here’s a classic coding joke represented by a lovely cross-stitch.

via FFFFOUND!

image via Jenutech Designs

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Cross-Stitch Coding Joke

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Dave Schumaker recently visited Dublin, Ireland and while there he took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse at the St James’s Gate Brewery and shot bunch of beautiful photos of one of the “holy shrines of the beer drinking world”.

Here’s his Guinness Storehouse gallery on Flickr.

photos by Dave Schumaker

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Photo Tour of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland

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“Lathe Operator” by Dr. Sphincter and the Hunger, recorded live at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis. This would have made shop class so much more enjoyable.

Here’s an MP3 of “Lathe Operator”.

Thanks to M2 for the tip!

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Lathe Operator by Dr. Sphincter and the Hunger

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Adam Sandler performed a parody version of “Magic Bus” as a tribute The Who, introducing them as they took the stage at the VH1 Rock Honors Award Show.

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Adam Sandler’s “Magic Bus” Parody Tribute To The Who

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Yeti-Bama t-shirt by GAMA-GO. Yeti change I can believe in.

image via GAMA-GO

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Yeti-Bama T-Shirt by GAMA-GO

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Doctor Popular - the noted San Francisco game theorist, crafter, musician, artist and yo-yo performer extraordinaire - has posted an article in which he envisions the potential applications of the iPhone as an alternate interface for videogames. Rather than merely using the iPhone as a stand-alone gaming platform, Doc suggests using it as a uniquely capable adjunct to games that are currently played on laptop or desktop computers.

Although developing games for the iPhone may be hindered by it’s lack of controls, the iPhone itself could surprisingly make for an awesome game controller itself. Imagine controlling the avatar on your computer over WiFi with your iPhone. Tilting it to move forwards or backwards, selecting weapons from your touchscreen, controlling your weapon via swipe motions. The iPhone could make a great game controller, hell it’s even got a built in rumble pad!

Meanwhile, in his post “Baby Steps to an Augmented Future“, new media producer and gamer Eric Rice theorizes that the iPhone is just one step towards a future where such alternate interfaces have become ubiquitous.

What do the new iPhone, fashion industry, and video games have in common? They might be baby steps towards a future world where the virtual overlaps the real.

The general definition of augmented reality is the combination of computer-generated data (images, videos, etc) with real, tangible things that are located in our ‘real’ world. Most early ventures with augmented reality involve overly-geeky headsets and contraptions to accomplish a simple augmentation of what we see in front of us.

One example of a possible augmented reality interface is Robert Winters’ AUGNAV - or AUGmented reality NAVigation - an imaginary application for a future iPhone that would combine video capture, location-awareness and wireless data access to provide a navigation experience far beyond anything offered by current GPS units.

While a system as advanced as AUGNAV remains at least a few years away, the equally-revolutionary gaming interfaces suggested by Doctor Popular are well within the iPhone’s current abilities. And really, if you’re an iPhone developer, wouldn’t you rather work on something truly innovative, rather than yet another flashlight app?

photo by Doc Pop

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The iPhone: Alternate Gaming Interface, or Harbinger of an Augmented Future?

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I’m conducting a survey, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and work in the web/tech industry, do you go to Burning Man?

Feel free to pass this poll along. Of course there is no way to verify that only people in the Bay Area are responding, but it should give a general idea of who is/isn’t going these days.

A decade ago this poll would have been a joke. Back then almost all of us went.

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Poll: San Francisco Bay Area Web/Tech, Do You Go To Burning Man?

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The organizers of ROFLCon, the wonderful conference on internet memes that took place at MIT in April (here are my ROFLCon photos), have been busy planning a series of smaller summer events around the US. On Friday, August 29th they will be hosting the mini-con ROFLThing at Mighty in San Francisco.

A great lined-up of speakers is already starting to emerge, including Andy Baio who will be doing a talk about the Star Wars Kid, Sean O’Steen founder of Fail Whale Fan Club and Cheez, who is president of I Can Has Cheezburger? Here is the preliminary schedule for ROFLThing and registration is now open.

Dogster & Catster have signed on as ROFLThing sponsors and they are still looking for more sponsors if know of any companies or organizations that might be interested.

See Previously: ROFLCon 2008 Photos

photos by Scott Beale

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ROFLThing, Exploring Internet Memes in San Francisco

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Scott Van Den Plas came across busted out brick wall in a Chicago neighborhood, so he promptly “took the proper corrective measures” and plastered some Kool-Aid Man Wanted posters on the surviving area of the wall. Looks like Paul Addis has some competition.

See Previously: Animation of Dane Cook Talking About The Kool-Aid Man

via Urban Prankster

photos by Joe Van Wetering

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Kool-Aid Man Wanted on Destruction of Property Charges

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