Me neither.

But, boy oh boy, there are amazing parties going on where awesome people hang out together. For example, check it out:

Who wouldn’t want to be at a party where Pee-Wee Herman, Rodney Dangerfield and David Lee Roth were hanging out?

Or with Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstien?

So maybe you and I don’t get to go to these parties, but we can see pictures of awesome people hanging out together at the aptly-named Awesome People Hanging Out Together tumblr site.

And with the world of hurt that I’m sure I’d be feeling after partying with Hunter S. Thompson, John Cusack, Johnny Depp and a blow-up doll….maybe just checking out the photos isn’t all bad.

(all photos courtesy of Awesome People Hanging Out Together)

In any case: food and booze. Yes.

Often the two are inextricably intertwined, but never moreso than in Hanna Hart’s ongoing (?) web series “My Drunk Kitchen.” In each episode, this young lady gets drunk and makes food, all the while dispensing wisdom of a sort.

I have embedded the most recent episode (number six), but all the previous shows may be found at Hart’s website.

NOTE: After posting this, I noticed that a new episode has been posted. Guess what I’m watching right now?

“Oops” won the Experimental category in last year’s Vimeo Awards.  What it is is a bunch of home movies that end with the camera being dropped, all edited together.  I know how it sounds, but it’s actually awesome.

Trust me.

oops from Chris Beckman on Vimeo.

A bit more about this interesting film can be found at CreativeReview.

I do dig physics and like to read about how our understanding (“our” = humankind’s, not necessarily yours or mine) of the universe is ever-growing. There are constantly news stories about discoveries and theories and whatnot, but most of them, I am sorry to say, are over my head. Or, alternatively, they incorporate too much math for me to enjoy. I know math, I understand math, but I don’t necessarily want to read it for leisure.

But I digress.

Much like the incredible epicness of the LHC (which I’ve posted about before here and here) — a massive technological marvel in both scope and size — that will allow us to better understand the smallest pieces of our universe, another recent experiment has recently turned out some results but on a much grander scale.

Way back in 1963, an experiment was begun in order to determine Einstein knew what the hell he was talking about when he said that, according to general relativity, the mass of the Earth should distort the space-time fabric around it.  As science-fictiony as that sounds, almost 50 years ago NASA began funding a project called Gravity Probe B (GP-B).

Yesterday, some results were announced:

“The space-time around Earth appears to be distorted just as general relativity predicts,” says Stanford University physicist Francis Everitt, principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B mission.

Two questions immediately pop to mind:

1. How do they know?
2. So what?

To answer the second questions first:

The results of Gravity Probe B give physicists renewed confidence that the strange predictions of Einstein’s theory are indeed correct, and that these predictions may be applied elsewhere. The type of spacetime vortex that exists around Earth is duplicated and magnified elsewhere in the cosmos–around massive neutron stars, black holes, and active galactic nuclei.

The first question is more complex.  First of all, it involves an experiment that took “planning, promoting, building, operating, and analyzing data [...] for more than 47 years.”  It took the development of 13 new technologies.  It required the creation of a gyroscope consisting of four of the most perfect spheres created by humans.

These ping pong-sized balls of fused quartz and silicon are 1.5 inches across and never vary from a perfect sphere by more than 40 atomic layers. If the gyroscopes weren’t so spherical, their spin axes would wobble even without the effects of relativity.

In the end, it was shown that the Earth does affect space-time and that there does, indeed, seem to be Einstein’s hypothetical “space-time” construct.

Although I am absolutely not disputing the importance of this project, with the amount of time, energy, ingenuity and, although the article doesn’t mention it, presumably money spent, why can the scientific community not find a viable alternative to fossil fuels, a cure for cancer, or an end to reality TV?

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo.

No.  Word is that a new football league may be established in Canada – the LFL.  According to the Regina Leader-Post:

The internet no longer needs a capital letter. There. I’ve said it. Just as Pluto was demoted from a planet, the internet has been relegated from a proper noun to a common noun.

Why do I feel the need to make the pronouncement? Well, someone has to. Check your reference books, check various (repuatable) reference sites online and you will get a variety of answers. In a realm of confusion, I am declaring once and for all that the capital “I” is not required for the internet.

According to Wikipedia (from the article dedicated wholly to this issue):

Words for new technologies, such as Phonograph in the 19th century, are sometimes capitalized at first, later becoming uncapitalized. 

I would suggest that the internet is no longer a new technology and, as it is a commonly used communications tool globally, it has become a common noun.  Just as we don’t refer to “the Radio” or “the Newspaper” or even “the Power Grid,” the internet has joined the ranks of the no-longer-proper.

Certainly, I hold no illusions that my position on the controversy (and, yes, in some circles it is a controversy) will sway any one to my point of view.  But I did spend an hour today trying to determine what the rules of grammar state, and in the absence of a firm, widely-accepted rule, I have made my own.

Now to wait for the contrarians to weigh in….

Imagine a movie made based on the Archie comics.  Now imagine that the filmmakers incorporate every stereotypical dramatic teen movie plotline and play it up to the max.  That’s Riverdale.

I would pay to see this movie in the theatre.  Also: excellent casting for Jughead.

Again, note: this is a fake trailer, as heart-breaking as that is…

It’s something everyone says they’ve done, though I suspect very few actually have:  play Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” synced up to the original Wizard of Oz.  Personally, I never had the time (or inclination) to figure out exactly when to start playing the album.  And, really, I wasn’t all that interested.

Bryan Pugh has done all the work for me us, allowing us the opportunity to experience what so many people have raved about…the Dark Side of Oz.

The Dark Side of Oz from Bryan Pugh on Vimeo.

Besides, it’s a long weekend.  Surely you’ll have time to watch it, right?

The whole thing was done by Kristen Lepore – written, directed, editted, animated and she did the sound. 

You can also watch a one-minute “making of” film here.

Personally, I only remember the loon segment.  Certainly, I do not remember this one.

Actually, in truth, I think that these are more urban wood spiders than hinterland spiders.  But what do I know?

I never understood the link between single women and cats.  Now, thanks to the BBC, it all makes sense.

Sometimes, though, these images are absolutely creepy.  Take, for example, the 8-minute film adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland” from 1903.

Chilling.

Procrastination from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

I’m old enough to remember when we could only receive two television channels, one of which was CKX-TV out of Brandon.  Although the station is now off the air, for many, many years it was the source for local news and weather.  And no one did the weather like Ron.

As I said, CKX is no longer on the air, but with Ron’s passing, it truly feels like the end of an era.

Easy does it, Ron.