"I love women, but at the same time I think they're a left-wing fringe group."
From the Rick Mercer Report.
> Continue Reading: Are You a Single Conservative Looking to Hook-Up With That Perfect Conservative?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Are You a Single Conservative Looking to Hook-Up With That Perfect Conservative?
"I love women, but at the same time I think they're a left-wing fringe group."
From the Rick Mercer Report.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Choosing the Fastest Checkout Counter
From The Simpsons episode "Homer and Apu:"
Apu: Mrs. Simpson, the express line is the fastest line not always. That old man up front, he is starved for attention. He will talk the cashier's head off...
Apu: Let's go to...that line.
Marge: But that's the longest.
Apu: Yes, but look: all pathetic single men. Only cash, no chitchat.
It turns out that Apu was only partially right; yes, the express lane isn't always the fastest, but the longest, regardless of who's in it, is usually the slowest.
According to a new mathematical study by Dan Meyer, a math teacher from Santa Cruz, California, on average, the number of people in line adds more to the wait time than the number of items each person has in their cart. "When you add one person to the line, you're adding 48 extra seconds to the line length without even considering the items in her cart," explains Meyer. "Meanwhile, an extra item only costs you an extra 2.8 seconds. Therefore, you'd rather add 17 more items to the line than one extra person!" So, it looks like it's always best to avoid the longest line, even when it's full of "pathetic single men."
Originally spotted at Lifehacker.
A Stranger's Just a Pedophile You've Never Met
Wow, that police officer works in a pretty fucked up town.
Originally spotted at Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.
> Continue Reading: A Stranger's Just a Pedophile You've Never Met
Quarter-Life Crisis Review
This week for Torontoist, I reviewed Evan Munday's new graphic novel, Quarter-Life Crisis: Only the Good Die Yung. The story follows two brothers living in a post-apocalyptic Toronto where only twenty-five-year-olds have survived. I really enjoyed this book; the concept is fresh, the characters are funny, and the story manages to achieve just the right mix of punch and camp. You can check out my full review here.
Image by Evan Munday.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Real World Brawl
Photographer Greg De Stefano has put together a great photo gallery of the characters from the internet show There Will Be Brawl, a spoof of the Nintendo Wii game Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Check it out here. Lakitu looks badass in a suit.
Photo by Greg De Stefano.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Pirate Party of Canada Launches a Creative Commons Torrent Tracker
To prove that P2P traffic can be used for legitimate purposes and not just for illegal file sharing, the Pirate Party of Canada has launched a new Creative Commons torrent tracker.
From the Pirate Party of Canada:
If Filesharing would be considered marketing by artists, then it would enable them quick, cheap and easy access to a global distribution network. The current distribution model is dead, the market must evolve.Filesharing is the future of digital distribution, whether the music and movie industries like it or not. But while the Creative Commons torrent tracker is a great idea, I doubt it will ever actually be able to influence the industry at large.
Originally spotted on Michael Geist's blog. Photo by Antony Pranata.
> Continue Reading: The Pirate Party of Canada Launches a Creative Commons Torrent Tracker
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Carl Sagan Gets His Auto-Tune On
An awesome musical tribute to Carl Sagan.
You can download the MP3 here.
Originally spotted at Mightgodking.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Satellite View of the Dust Storm over Sydney
From Boston.com.
A satellite view of the dust storm that's crippled southeastern Australia and turned the skies over Sydney orangey-red. More images after the break.
Compiled from images from BBC News.
The storm started when a cold front mixed with strong winds picked up topsoil from the dried-out Lake Eyre basin and swept it across New South Wales.
A radar image of the dust storm from earlier today.
The view into Hell from the laundry room. Photo by Mezza.
Already, photographers across Sydney have taken hundreds of spellbinding photos. I think this one is my favourite so far—the contrast is amazing.
The dust storm also plunged the small town of Broken Hill, Australia into complete darkness.
> Continue Reading: Satellite View of the Dust Storm over Sydney
Glenn Beck's Radio Daze
A twenty-three-year-old Glenn Beck in 1986 as the host of Y95's Morning Zoo.
"Beck lived, ate, drank and breathed radio," says Tim Hattrick, who co-hosted the Morning Zoo with Beck. "It was impossible to talk to him about anything without reference to how to bring it into the show. I never once saw any evidence that he could turn it off. In that sense he was a one-dimensional person. But he was great at being a grandstanding, pompous idiot and shaking the brushes for attention."
You can read more about Beck's early radio days in this piece from Salon.
Originally spotted at E&P Pub.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Technology and Student Prose
According to a new study by Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, technology isn’t crippling writing, it’s saving it. From 2001 to 2006, Lunsford examined 14,672 student writing examples, including essays, emails, blog posts, and text messages, and found that students are still writing technically competent prose (despite opinions to the contrary). In fact, they’re writing more than ever before, both inside and outside of the classroom. Lunsford concludes that the internet is forcing students, and people in general, to write in order to engage with each other. Twenty years ago, before the internet, people didn’t write on regular basis, unless their job required it. Today, it’s almost impossible to get through the day without writing an email or a blog post.
Perhaps technology is helping Stanford's students, but about the rest of the world? Technology doesn't seem to be helping the illiterates that are featured on sites like Lamebook.
Photo by NYCArthur.
How to be a Douche at Scrabble
Unless you regularly play in Scrabble tournaments, the dirty strategies at the end probably won't be of much use.
Originally spotted on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.
Contra vs. Duck Hunt
How the fuck can you put together a Contra/Duck Hunt mashup without blowing up that stupid laughing dog?
Originally spotted on Kotaku.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
What Are We Using Social Networks For?
According to a recent study by Harvard Business School professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, social networks are mostly used to look at pictures. "People just love to look at pictures," explains Piskorski. "Seventy percent of all actions are related to viewing pictures or viewing other people's profiles." But not all pictures are created equal. Both male and female users prefer to look at photos of women. In fact, women receive almost two-thirds of all the page views. Twitter is the only site where male profiles are more popular, which Piskorski suggests is a result of the site's lack of pictures.
Photo by colorsandia.
Joe Wilson the Hypocrite
So, what exactly happened to the bi-partisan era of cooperation that Obama was going to usher in? Why is there so much venom is U.S. politics today? Max Fisher at The Atlantic looks at four possible theories to explain the current level of rage in American politics: irresponsible leadership, religion, the rural/urban divide, and fear. I'd also add racism, political opportunism, and the precedent set by the last eight years of anti-Bush rhetoric to the list.
Spotted on Reddit. From This is Historical Times.
Friday, September 18, 2009
China's 60th Anniversary
On October 1, 2009, the People's Republic of China will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary, and if the preparations are any indication, it looks like the size and scope of the event will rival China's display at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
With economic growth pushing 15%, it looks like the Chinese have a lot to celebrate.
Photo from Boston.com. You can check out Boston.com's photo essay on China's sixtieth anniversary here.
Andy Richter Creams Wolf Blitzer on Jeopardy
Wow. Wolf, you suck.
By the end of the game, Wolf was down almost five thousand dollars. In fact, things were so bad that Trebek had to give Wolf money so he could participate in Final Jeopardy. Ouch. Andy Richter ended up winning with sixty-eight thousand dollars.
Wolf looks pretty out of it throughout most of the game. Perhaps he failed to heed Ken Jennings's warnings about eating too much at the complimentary lunch buffet.
Originally spotted on MightyGodKing.
> Continue Reading: Andy Richter Creams Wolf Blitzer on Jeopardy
Thursday, September 17, 2009
World's Worst Hand Job
The Slate Culture Gabfest Strikes the Right Balance With Its Audible Endorsements
When the Slate gabfests first introduced Audible.com as a sponsor, the ad spots were long, clumsy, and irrelevant. I’m happy to report that this is no longer the case. In Wednesday’s episode of the Slate Culture Gabfest, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner, nailed what an Audible endorsement should sound like. The episode, which dealt in-part with the recent series of celebrity outbursts (Kanye West at the VMAs, Michael Jordan at the NBA Hall of Fame, and Joe Wilson during Obama’s speech last week), featured an endorsement of an abridged version of Bob Dylan’s Chronicles: Part I, as read by Sean Penn.
This endorsement was perfect. It was short (a minute in length), witty, and it fit perfectly with the theme of the show (Dylan and Penn have both massive egos, and are often prone to bouts of Kayne West levels of douchebaggery). Nice work guys, now I can listen to the Gabfest without skipping ahead.
You can find the Slate Culture Gabfest at Slate.com.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Ottawa Conspiracy
With Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol, just around the corner, Slate has put together an interactive plot summary generator that lets you set the location and target of conspiracy in the next Robert Langdon adventure. All of the choices weave funny and formulaic plots, but the zaniest plot involves Ottawa and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. See above.
The image above is from Slate.com.
Keyboard for Blondes
Monday, September 14, 2009
Jesse Brown Guest Blogging at Boing Boing
For the next two weeks, Jesse Brown, the host of TVO's Search Engine, is going to be guest blogging at Boing Boing, a popular arts and technology site. Not to diss Jesse, or Boing Boing's previous guest bloggers, but I rarely notice a difference between the site's regular and guest contributors. I guess that's a good thing though.
Here's what Jesse has in store for Boing Boing readers:
I'm thrilled to be guest blogging on BoingBoing! For the next two weeks I'll be bringing you stories about how public broadcasters around the world are handling the Internet. As TV news and newspapers implode, some public broadcasters like NPR are doing better than ever! Others, not so good. I'll be posting about why that is and what can be done.The new season of Search Engine premiers September 15, 2009.
Image from Torontoist.com.
> Continue Reading: Jesse Brown Guest Blogging at Boing Boing
Sunday, September 13, 2009
More Photos From Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project Rally in Washington, D.C.
Classy.
Here are some more ridiculous photos from Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project rally.
You can read my original post on the event here.
"Sware" is actually an archaic past tense of the verb "swear." So technically, it's correct. Though I doubt that's what this guy had in mind.
What?
Well..now that's just blatant racism.
A public option advocate tries to make his way through the crowd.
All photos by foramenglow.
> Continue Reading: More Photos From Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project Rally in Washington, D.C.
Photos from Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project Rally in Washington, D.C.
Great shirt.
The following photos were taken at Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project Rally in Washington, D.C. on September 12, 2009. According to various conservative organizers and bloggers, more than 1.5 million people attended, but in reality, only about fifty to sixty thousand attended (which is still a scary number).
More photos after the fold.
I don't where to begin with this one.
Clever...
I guess he's from somewhere other than Kenya.
A lot of people would probably like to throw this guy into the Boston Harbor.
1) It's Commander-in-Chief, not "Commander and Chief." 2) "Commandeer and Thieve" doesn't rhyme.
So...Obama's going to start building concentration camps with ovens and crematoriums?
Where is all this hate and derision coming from? Last week, on the Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon suggested that the current political climate might be the result of three different factors:
I’m wondering why we have these really sharp divisive insults right now. Is it because we’re having this really extreme partisan division? Is it because moments like the throwing of the shoe at President Bush and all the anti-war rhetoric started us down this path and this isn’t really different in kind, it’s just the next step? Or is there some part of this country that’s really uncomfortable with having an African American president and uses these moments to express that discomfort in a way that’s not overtly racist, but is still tinged with that?Personally, I think it's a combination of all three, mixed with a dash of political opportunism and a strong opposition to change.
Update (01/09/2010): This article originally linked to a piece at suzyrice.com that erroneously claimed that over 1.5 million people attended the rally. Since this article was published, Rice has blocked all traffic coming from The Intrepid. To compensate, the link now directs to a cached version of Rice's piece.
Photos originally spotted on Reddit. Photos by MeetTheCrazies.
> Continue Reading: Photos from Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project Rally in Washington, D.C.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Toronto Department of Zombie Disposal Kicks into Action
This week for Torontoist, I interviewed Shannon Larratt about his kick-ass zombie fightin' truck.
Photo courtesy of Shannon Larratt.
> Continue Reading: Toronto Department of Zombie Disposal Kicks into Action
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
I’m Not Saying that Glenn Beck Murdered and Raped a Young Girl in 1990; I’m just Asking the Question
Look at his evil picture. How did this man not rape and murder a young girl in 1990?
There’s a new internet meme out there that’s accused Glenn Beck of raping and murdering a young girl in 1990 through the same evidence-free style that Beck himself employs. Beck always says that he’s "just asking questions" whenever he goes on one of his racist, paranoid tirades, so it’s nice to see his own strategy used against him. Obviously, there’s no real evidence that Beck raped or murdered a young girl, which Glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com reveals in its disclaimer:
Notice: This site is parody/satire. We assume Glenn Beck did not rape and murder a young girl in 1990, although we haven't yet seen proof that he didn't. But we think Glenn Beck definitely uses tactics like this to spread lies and misinformation.Recently, Beck got word of this internet parody, and his lawyers tried to shut it down. The site is still up and running, and Beck’s threats just seem to have made the meme even more popular.
Read the last sentence again. That's the point. Read it a third time and ignore the name of the site itself, because anyone who believes that we're trying to actually get people to believe Glenn Beck raped and/or murdered is *whoosh* missing the entire point. So don't be dumb like a lot of people are. I greatly expanded this text because so many people *read* it, and *still* didn't understand.
While I think this meme is tad inappropriate (couldn’t they have accused Beck of something other than rape?), it’s still a smart reversal of Beck’s insidious tactics.
Original image by ftwoeight.
What the Birther Movement Actually Believes About Barack Obama
What an ingenious, foolproof plan. Sort of reminds me of South Park's bit on what Scientologists actually believe.
Spotted at Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.
> Continue Reading: What the Birther Movement Actually Believes About Barack Obama
Monday, September 07, 2009
If the First World War was a Comic
This hilarious comic was created by Angus McLeod, over at DeviantArt. He also made a comic version of World War II, though it's not as funny.
I like how distinguished Canada looks with his reading glasses and mustache.
Created by Angus McLeod.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Ministry of Health Ontario Says "No!" to Sauced Dads
This 1984 health advisory ad comes from Ed Conroy’s YouTube channel, Retrontario. The booze also seems to be affecting the Dad's acting ability.
From Retrontario.
> Continue Reading: Ministry of Health Ontario Says "No!" to Sauced Dads
Saturday, September 05, 2009
The Value of US Currency in Circulation
The average US penny weighs about 3.10 grams. 1.65 trillion pennies would weigh approximately as much as one hundred thousand adult elephants.
From Visual Economics.
Will Toronto Survive Global Warming?
If sea levels rise by fourteen metres.
Yes, at least as long as sea levels stay below 76.5 metres (Toronto’s lowest point, along the waterfront). If Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets melt, sea levels will only rise by about sixty metres. So, in the event of extreme global warming, it looks like Toronto will survive the floods.
Take that Boston!
The image above is from Flood Maps.
Friday, September 04, 2009
History’s Greatest Villains Have Sex in AIDS Posters
This is really disturbing. In fact, it’s so messed up, that instead of posting the images I’ve opted to post this picture of a cute puppy dog instead.
Apparently, in an effort to increase AIDS awareness (or to just creep everybody out) the German ad agency das comitte produced three posters of evil despots having sex, with the tagline "AIDS is a mass murderer!" The posters feature Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam with random partners. If you go to the site, there’s even a faux Hitler sex tape. Gross.
Originally spotted at ANIMAL. Puppy dog photo by a0k1.
> Continue Reading: History’s Greatest Villains Have Sex in AIDS Posters
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Toronto Then and Now: Bathurst Street Bridge
Then
The Bathurst Street Bridge, facing north. (1916)
Now
The Bathurst Street Bridge, facing south. (2009)
Okay, I screwed this one up. I thought the "then" picture was facing south, when it's actually facing north—so the two pictures really don't line up.
The 1916 photo of the Bathurst Street Bridge comes from the City of Toronto Archives. The 2009 photo is by Stephen M.
The Bathurst Street Bridge, facing north. (1916)
Now
The Bathurst Street Bridge, facing south. (2009)
Okay, I screwed this one up. I thought the "then" picture was facing south, when it's actually facing north—so the two pictures really don't line up.
The 1916 photo of the Bathurst Street Bridge comes from the City of Toronto Archives. The 2009 photo is by Stephen M.
> Continue Reading: Toronto Then and Now: Bathurst Street Bridge
Auto-Tune the News Eight (Featuring T-Pain)
The latest installment of Auto-Tune the News is pretty good; the song's catchy, the jokes are clever, and it was great to see T-Pain's cameo, but somehow I don't think the series can ever reach the heights of episodes five and six again.
> Continue Reading: Auto-Tune the News Eight (Featuring T-Pain)
Sinead’s Hand
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Levi's Exploits Ted Kennedy's Death With Tasteless Ad
This ad appeared Sunday, on the New York Times' website.
Stay classy Levi's.
Originally spotted at Copyranter.
> Continue Reading: Levi's Exploits Ted Kennedy's Death With Tasteless Ad
Time-Lapse Biking Video of Toronto
This week for Torontoist, I interviewed James Redekop, the cycling enthusiast who created the animation above.
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