Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Monsters Are Cool

Sure every city has a good zoo — well, many of them — but how come there isn’t a single Monster Zoo to be found.  What’s wrong with this planet?

At least you can get a daily eye-diet of monsters here.  There’s also a related blog of monsters by the same guy with lots of fun fan submissions like these.

Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Where Can You Hide An Elephant?


Worth1000 is a really cool website.  People photoshop images and send them to themed contests.  Photoshop is a computer program that essentially allows you to cut, paste, and combine different images in all kinds of ways.  When people know how to use it well, they can make the impossible happen.  

Hiding an elephant is one of my favorite contests ever!
Categories
The Next Good Idea

Paranoia Can Be Your Friend

Of course, nothing will ever be as loyal and cuddly as PRIVACY.  Do you remember what that was like, you know, back B.B. (Before Bush).  Privacy was once FREEDOM’s sibling.  Older brother, I think.  Anyway if you want to check out what that Big Brother has become, check this out.  Pretty scary.  But definitely a good idea about how to take something we take all too much for granted, and get people righteously stirred up about it.  

It’s a good idea to fight for your right to keep you personal information private — before it’s too late.
Categories
Issues and Actions

Do They Have The Right To Peer Inside Your iPod?

Should others have the right to see what you have on your hard drives?  

Should custom agents be able to check to make sure no one is importing stolen intellectual property (aka bootlegs) via their MP3 players and laptops?
You may not have anything to say about the issue.  The G8 has met, and many other countries are considering whether to pass the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.  As a filmmaker, I am certainly in favor of protection of Intellectual Property Rights, but the enactment of Draconian laws will never be the solution.  
What is the ACTA?  Well, it seems no one fully knows what’s in it.  Public Knowledge has  a good overview here.
What’s to be upset about?  Well, read what the Free Software Foundation has to say about it right here.
And what The Guaradian had to say here.
The G8 was supposed to ratify it at the end of July.  I haven’t yet found out where it currently stands.
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

For The Love of Yo-Yo’s

When I was around ten I learned to “Walk The Dog”, “Rock The Baby”, and “Round The World”.  I was IT.  Why?  Because I had a YO-YO, and, boy, could I do some mean tricks!  I think it was a “Satellite” which was a butterfly shaped yo-yo that lit up when you made it “sleep”.  At that time, it was pretty much the definition of cool.

What’s so cool about a YO-YO?  Well, you won’t ever really know unless you see a master (and then try it yourself, and practicepracticepractice).  This Saturday, if you are in NYC, will be your chance.  Come to South Street Seaport around 11A for the International Yo Yo Open.  A Japanese Action Punk band in funny costumes will perform at the end around 430P.  Read about the fun here.  If you need a Yo-Yo in a hurry, you can go here.
It’s hard to recognize what’s really amazing about this master unless you have really played with a Yo-Yo.  He’s pretty incredible.

Categories
These Are Those Things

Taking Coney Island Up A Notch

Oh, how love can grow deeper by the day!  

I love Coney Island and I love it’s Sideshows By The Seashore.  One of the many things that make NYC one of the greatest places on earth.  But how great is it that they bring the Right-Here-Right-Now-Real-World to us.  Horrors With A Sense Of Humor.  Read the NY Times article here (Thanks Abbey!).


Categories
Issues and Actions

Are Your Rights Being Violated?

Boing Boing hipped me to the Electronic Frontier Foundations’s ISP Testing Tool “Switzerland”.

It’s particularly resonant that EFF released this just prior to the FCC fining Comcast for violating Net Neutrality.  Now we all check to make sure that no one is given preferential treatment or being denied access.  Citizen Law Enforcers Unite!

“Until now, there hasn’t been a reliable way to tell if somebody — a hacker, an ISP, corporate firewall, or the Great Firewall of China — is modifying your Internet traffic en route.”