The permanent gaze of a cold glass eye

From Signal vs. Noise.

Magazine photographer Jim Brandenburg, who normally shoots tons of rolls of film per day, decided to embrace restraint and give himself a challenge: Make a portrait of the north woods in upper Minnesota over the ninety days between the autumn equinox and winter solstice.

The catch? He could take one, and only one, exposure per day. No second chances. It’s an especially big challenge when you consider that his subjects included moving targets, like wild birds and wolves.

The full set of images wound up published in the November 1997 issue of National Geographic.

(Photography)

Isn't it ironic?

Dear diary, went to the library today. Asked for a couple of books for a research paper.

[later]

Dear diary, you'll never guess what happened today. Two homeland security guys showed up at the door with a truncheon and a party pack of K-Y Jelly.

That's the last time I take a class on fascism and totalitarianism...

30 years of personal computing

They say you always remember your first. Mine was the PET, then the TRS-80 Model 1 (then the 3).

What was yours?

Rick Mercer fires back

Had enough beer and popcorn? Rick Mercer weighs in.

Arrogance is inexpensive

Arrogance is inexpensive, when the majority wins are rolling in. When times are tougher, you have to be a little more careful. Even if you really believe that taking a cheap shot at the other guy is the right thing to do, you should probably shut up.

How many votes did the "beer and popcorn" comment win? How many did it lose?

Itchy trigger finger

Could you dodge a bullet? I don't just mean that as a figure of speech, I mean could you dodge a real bullet?

It happens on TV all the time, so how hard could it be?

A career in technology

Maybe I'll tell my kids to go to law school if they want a career in technology.

Steady employment, for sure.

You heard it here first

Ok, maybe not first, and it wasn't quite here, but I did accurately predict that Shannon Kleibrink would win the Olympic Women's curling spot. 11.68% of us picked the correct winner.

I count myself among the deluded 26.55% who thought that Randy Ferbey would take the Men's spot. Congratulations to Brad Gushue and the 3.95% who picked him to win it all. I wonder if that number would have been higher if more people knew Russ Howard would be skipping the team?

Speaking of good ideas

Y'ever take the bus/train/subway and find a newspaper sitting there that some kind soul has bequeathed to the public good?

Don't try it with this kind of newspaper.

One red paper clip

As seen on CNN...

This guy started with a paper clip. He's trading up, all the way to a house.

I'm sure I could find something to trade. Anyone want a Sûreté du Québec coffee mug?

Google's Ten Golden Rules

Newsweek has a story on Google's Ten Golden Rules.

• Hire by committee
• Cater to their every need
• Pack them in
• Make coordination easy
• Eat your own dog food
• Encourage creativity
• Strive to reach consensus
• Don't be evil
• Data drive decisions
• Communicate effectively

Nothing revolutionary, just some common sense. It's surprising how easy this should be...

Motivation overload

From this week's News of the Weird:

Cary, N.C., software developer Brian T. Schellenberger, 43, told FBI agents in December 2003 that he had been influenced by a workplace motivational poster, "Achieve Your Dreams," that energized him to fulfill his own dreams. His major life transformation, unfortunately, was that "I decided to get rid of the obsolete idea of morality." Specifically, he told the agents that he was inspired to move beyond his mere passive collecting of pornography and to begin creating his own child pornography to satisfy long-held fantasies about young girls. (He also later enlisted a man, unsuccessfully, to kill his wife in exchange for pornography from his collection.) In October 2005, Schellenberger, though subsequently remorseful, was sentenced to 100 years in prison. [Raleigh News & Observer, 10-20-05]

This is wrong on so many levels. Nobody should fall for motivation posters!

Garage door update

Ok, it wasn't aliens...

Tinfoil hat still recommended though.

Amen, George

George Karrys echoes the sentiment, far more eloquently than I can.

And, he reminded me to pick up some video tapes... :)

Free porn!

I can't believe it took this long. These guys are offering free porn in exchange for your bibles. Hotels will like this. Instead of stealing towels, guests will be stealing bibles.

If I only had a bible, I could get me some of that sweet action...

Don't show this to your kids

I've got two little girls - one turned two last month and the other turned five last weekend. The five year old tells me she needs a cell phone so she can call her friends. I can't show her this.

Man, five going on fifteen. I don't think this is going to get any easier...

Trials and tribulations

The Canadian Curling Association is holding the Olympic curling trials this week. The games get underway Saturday, and will be televised on TSN. If you are a curling fan, or want to know what the heck gets so many people so excited, check it out. This will be the best curling on TV for the next four years.

Did I mention it's on TSN? :)

Lotus Notes

The Lotus Notes quote of the day:

Lotus Notes, everybody's favorite software written by people who only had the concept of the GUI vaguely described to them over a noisy telephone and had never seen one.

Mmmm, caffeine

Well, which is it? Is caffeine good for you, or bad for you?

The American Heart Association says that drinking decaffeinated coffee may be harmful to heart health. Fair enough, I don't drink the stuff. I guess I'm ok. Or am I?

Caffeine can kill! See how much you can take.

And to top it off, caffeine is just about everywhere now.