Keeping in with the now-we’re-Canadian idea, here’s the opening credits from a Canuck television classic:
I remember being just the right age, when The Beachcombers were on, to not really get everything that happened in the plot, and also to be disappointed every time my favourite part of the credits wasn’t actually in the show.
Ahhh, Relic.
(thanks, Colin)
I love books. And I have a thing about librarians, too.
You know what I’m talking about: the tied back hair, the glasses, the stern looks… I need a minute here. While I pull myself together, check out this video (thanks to Christopher Moore for the heads up. Yes, THAT Christopher Moore):
Yes, they are all real librarians (or librarians in training). The entire video is made up of the faculty and students from the University of Washington’s Information School.
I think it works as a student recruitment tool. Example: “They would be my professors? They’re awesome!”
Just a note to all faithful readers that Absurd Intellectual has gotten dual citizenship. To reflect the fact that all three of the authors are Canadian, that the blog is written out of a Canadian province, and that most of our readers are Canadian, as well as the fact that, if you know where to look, a dot-ca runs you just $13, I am proud to launch absurdintellectual.ca.
That address just redirects to the main Absurd Intellectual blog, which will continue to live at absurdintellectual.com, and I haven’t yet added Canada-specific email addresses. So it’s really just a cosmetic change. But sometimes appearances matter.
In this case, I of course mean no disrespect to the dot-coms of the world. Nor am I trying to say anything about the state of Canadian/American relations. Of all the things to like about the Internet, I think I like its international flavour most of all. On the Internet, we really can all just get along.
By the way, one of the great surprises I’ve had running this blog is the sheer number of people who have emailed me or otherwise contacted me, based on something I’ve written. And, every single time, they have been sincere, polite and friendly — even if they disagreed with something I’d written.
Turns out the Internet, like Soylent Green, is people. And people are pretty okay.
I took the above photo at last year’s Winnipeg Folk Fest, where I was lucky enough to see Josh Ritter perform several times. Grant and I sort of followed him around, actually, catching all of his workshops, as well as his stellar main stage show.
Ritter is full of youthful energy, bouncing around stage and singing his songs with a sly little smile on his face. But he also has an air of world-weary maturity about him, in his style (suits! all the time!) and in his amazingly poetic lyrics.
His latest album is called So Runs the World Away, and I’ve been enamoured with his song “The Curse.”
It’s a beautiful, sad song, and reminds me of the music played on a merry-go-round; Grant pointed out that it sounds like a waltz. I find it so different than a lot of his other music, which is often anchored by his amazing guitar playing, and I’ve listened to it several times, falling in love with his music all the more.
Josh Ritter on Myspace.
I wouldn’t, if I were you, show this video to Stephen Colbert, who has a notorious hatred of all things ursine.
Thanks to my friend Ryan for linking me this. He claims that he thought nothing could make him more afraid of bears. I think it’s kind of cute to see an animal playing around. As martial as it looks, this is no Kung Fu Panda.
When I watched this video, I kept involuntarily going “Ohhh!” when a piece of furniture would suddenly appear from nowhere, or would elegantly become some other piece of furniture, Transformers style.
Of course, the problems with Murphy beds are the same in this video as they are in any other implementation — do they work in the real world, with pillows and duvets? And where exactly is your alarm clock supposed to go?
That said, I really appreciate the clever engineering of these designs. And as someone who has recently downsized into a smaller place, I could see paying a premium for space-saving furniture.
(via Engadget)
I love when people take current things and make them look like they are from a romanticized past.
Penney Design has a series of “screengrabs” from a 1987-style point-and-click computer game based on the show Lost. Oh, it takes me back, to the endless, “Can I click on it? Where do I put it?” puzzling of those styles of games.
Interestingly, they’re enjoying a bit of an online, flash-based resurgence. But those flash animations just don’t have the pixellation and 16-colour palette of the late ’80s.
I really love this animated gif:
I so badly want to download and play some Space Quest V now. Roger Wilco!
Being a kid was awesome. Sure, you were at the mercy of your parents, when it came to driving some place, or what you got to eat, or sometimes what you had to wear. But you were guaranteed a lunch and two recesses, you got home by 3:30, and you had two glorious months in the summer.
Unless you’re a teacher, try convincing your boss you need that much time off now.
Still, sometimes it would be nice to have just some of the child-friendly amenities still around in the world, but tweaked for adults. Who hasn’t thought to themselves, at some point, that it would be awesome to crawl into the play structures at a fast food restaurant? Or to get absolutely wired on juice.
Anyway, tumblr user Exploding Dog has posted one more entry in that “things you wish the adult world had learned from kids” list. Check it:
YESSSS! Why not?!?!? Why can’t this be true. I mean, they have ice cream trucks, and hot dog carts, and here where I live there’s Ye Olde Chip Truck, but why can’t we have a mobile bartender?
Damn our puritanical legacy.
(via Coudal)
Jalopnik has a great story up detailing the sad history of the RSV. It just might be the best car that the world never saw.
Built for the U.S government, it demolished (sorry) its competitors in safety tests, had ridiculous fuel economy, and actually looked kind of cool. The gullwing doors helped.
Technologically, it was miles ahead of any other car on the road, featuring anti-lock brakes, air bags, and a crumple zone. This in the 1970s, by the way, when even seat belts were sort of an afterthought.
What kills me is this ad. The company that designed and built them for the Department of Transportation, Minicars, obviously wanted to market these wonder vehicles. So they tried to drum up public support:
Unfortunately. It didn’t work. The government — under new administration — decided to scrap the cars, calling them obsolete.
Luckily, two survive.
Read the whole story — it’s equal parts inspiring and depressing.
I have vague memories of seeing a news video, once, of a one-armed man typing on a keyboard. At various times in my life, I’ve emulated that behaviour — usually while trying to instant message someone and simultaneously eat a burrito.
Now, it is suggested that a half-size keyboard could solve my problems — just the left-half, mind you. Apparently, you can learn (quickly) to type with half a keyboard. You press the spacebar to switch between halves.
Yes, yes, it sounds confusing.
Give it a try at this demo, here.
Personally, I’m not convinced. Granted, I only tried it for a bit, but it felt clumsy and difficult. Perhaps I could re-train my brain, or perhaps I am too old for new tricks. Or perhaps it’s because I don’t properly touch-type to begin with. But other users seem to take to it right away.
I’d be curious to hear other responses.
Here’s a photo of my cat Shadow that Amy took. She’s a great cat, but she’s got some personality quirks that can be exasperating.
Does your cat drink from the toilet, keep you up all night and wreck your sweaters? Congratulations, your cat is normal! (As is mine.)
WebMD has a great slideshow of normal-but-possibly-annoying cat behaviours to reassure you. Check it out here.
Not a cat owner? They’ve also got one for dogs.
There is very little I can say about this site except that it tells you which alcoholic beverage will get you the most drunk with the fewest calories.
One thing I wonder, though, is why no brewer or distiller has leaped to produce “diet” drinks. There’s been an explosion of coolers — vodka-based and wine-based — in the last decade or so (I call them “cheerleader beer” thanks to my friend Krista and her legendary sarcasm). All of those coolers are chock-full of sugar.
Replace that with aspartame, and you’d instantly grab the worried-about-their-weight market. Of course, I’m betting that liquor can’t be advertised as “diet”, but surely the word would get around.
If you like this kind of thing (and I do) you’ll love the story of a 1950s psychologist who took three people — each of them convinced that he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ — and made them live together.
Then, he subtly messed with them. All in the name of “science.”
Oh, it couldn’t possibly be ethical. And he didn’t learn anything — except, perhaps, that Jesusii will come to fisticuffs, the Golden Rule notwithstanding.
You can buy a whole book, “The Three Christs of Ypsilanti“, or you can read about it at Slate:
Leon seems to waver, eventually asking to be addressed as “Dr Righteous Idealed Dung” instead of his previous moniker of “Dr Domino dominorum et Rex rexarum, Simplis Christianus Puer Mentalis Doctor, reincarnation of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” [The psychologist] interprets this more as an attempt to avoid conflict than a reflection of any genuine identity change.
The Christs explain one another’s claims to divinity in predictably idiosyncratic ways: Clyde, an elderly gentleman, declares that his companions are, in fact, dead, and that it is the “machines” inside them that produce their false claims, while the other two explain the contradiction by noting that their companions are “crazy” or “duped” or that they don’t really mean what they say.
by Amy Breen
This past Sunday, Lost, my favourite show of all time, ended. And in true Lost form, in ended with more questions than answers.
The guy in the video is a little peeved at all the unanswered question, and he details some of those questions from the past six seasons. Some of his points are legit, like why is Aaron special and why could only Claire raise him, but others don’t really matter, or had answers that were hinted at (this guy probably could have benefited from visiting a message board or two).
I’m not so upset with the lack of answers though, because it leaves things open for debate. Because when we do get answers (what’s the whispers? Dead souls on the island) people cry “lame!”
Wired has a fantastic — and lengthy — gallery of cloud pictures. The twist? They’re all taken from space. Look at that anvil cloud, above, for example. Wow.
But some of the best pictures come from the really wide view that you can get from way up high. Patterns that aren’t visible from the ground are crystal clear from space. Look at this, for example:
Those are two of the Great Lakes, with clouds streaming off them as water evaporates and condenses in the air. Amazing.
You also have to check out the pictures of von Kármán vortex streets and gravity-wave clouds.
