If you are a Java or .NET developer, or just lived through the Sun-Microsoft war, you should find this very amusing. Lots of little touches. There are a few seconds that will not be work appropriate, but overall it’s safe. It’s also in HD, although the embedded player may not show that.
Update: As pointed out in the comments, the original video went private, so here is another in HD. However, the few naughty seconds (no nudity) require you to sign in.
The scent of sunscreen is magical for me. Growing up on the Jersey shore, visiting the boardwalk regularly during the summer, the scent of traditional tanning lotion – coconut? cocoa butter? – will forever be etched in my mind as the scent of lithe, scantily clad, nubile young women. Whenever I get a whiff of it in the wild, I immediately go on alert. There be babes, here!
Unfortunately, a recent study suggests that certain additives1 may be attacking our beautiful bikini babes by accelerating cancer cell growth. I want to state on record that I am against this. The Environmental Working Group studies this pretty extensively and offers a list of the best (least lethal) sunscreens. You’ll also want to read their article listing surprising facts on sunscreen. Unless you’re like me and never leave a climate controlled environment.
This video could save someone’s life, assuming you remember what is being said. Unfortunately, it could also get you fired.
Super Sexy CPR from Super Sexy CPR on Vimeo.
FlashForward has been canceled. It was a great show, the show I thought would replace Lost like Fringe is belatedly replacing X Files. Sadly, it is not to be. I guess there’s always the book, but word round the campfire is that it’s pretty different from the series.
In related news, ABC also canceled Scrubs and Better Off Ted.
Happy Top Gun Day! Now, off to find a target rich environment…
Roger Ebert has a piece in Newsweek on why he hates 3D. I must agree. To be clear, there are good uses of it, but there are also a lot of crappy, after the fact, lipstick on a pig 3D conversions. This is just like the IMAX “conversions” where they use their patented process to change a regular movie into the exact same fucking movie, except it costs more. I’ve been boycotting the fake IMAX films (by boycott I mean I just see the normal version) and I’ll be doing the same with the fake 3D films. You may be surprised to find out that both Clash of the Titans and Alice In Wonderland are fake 3D. I just read they’re slapping it on Michel Gondry’s Green Hornet, too. Let’s all follow Ebert’s lead and save some money.
I do have one prediction: 3D in the home won’t take off until, like VHS and the Internet, it’s embraced by the pornographers.
I just saw Kick-Ass. It’s like if Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie had a baby, and that baby made a comic book-inspired vigilante movie. Fucking operatic. And it’s already cracked the IMDB Top 250. BTW, it’s rated R and absolutely not a kid’s movie. That’s all I’m going to say about the movie, but it (or the comic book it was based on) raises an interesting question: Why aren’t there more (or any) superheroes? I am enough of a geek to try and answer that question seriously.
The main issue is motive. You need a pretty powerful motive to get you to risk your health to fight crime directly. And I think motives are rare. Yes, there are homicides every day, but consider the details – the cops are always pointing out that most victims knew their killer. It’s personal. You will be filled with anguish and rage if your sister gets killed by her ex-boyfriend, and you might take a bat or shotgun to the bastard, but you almost certainly won’t don a costume and start targeting other ex-boyfriends out there. Odds are you’ll just call the cops.
The kind of act that would motivate you to go superhero is something like random gang violence. Street crime. That’s pretty rare, all told. 9/11 inspired thousands to take action, but you can’t fight terrorism in a costume. You do it in a uniform as a Marine, or in a suit as a CIA or FBI agent. But most crime just inspires people to be racists.
The other issue is ability. In Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson writes:
Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.
Even as an overweight computer geek with a poor history of coordination, I was no different. Now I’m well past 25 with lots of extra weight, a bum knee, a bum shoulder, a back that can go out while sneezing or toweling off, etc. If I ever fight crime, it won’t be up close and personal. It will probably involve a computer.
Criminals know this. They target women and guys who look older or weaker. They don’t mug guys who are anywhere in the running for world’s baddest motherfucker. This is why, when I’m in a sketchy area, I walk tall, chest out, arms uncrossed, hands out of pockets (or one hand in a gun-sized pocket), and put on my serious game face that says, “Please. Try and fuck with me. See how that goes.” This is because I am thinking, “Please. Dear Lord up in Heaven. Don’t let anyone fuck with me.” And also, “He just had to pick a restaurant in the hood. I’m going to kick his fucking ass.”
I typically prefer the body art where, if you squint and zoom enough, you can see nipples. But this is really clever and even safe for work.
I’ve been planning since I was young to live to 120. I was figuring 20% genetics (I had a great-great-grandfather who lived to be 102) and 80% advances in medicine. Really hoping for those vat grown organs that appear in Neuromancer and Blade Runner, and if stem cell research pays off, we may have them in my lifetime. But the older I get – and I just turned 37 ten minutes ago – the more implausible 120 seems. Therefore any research on life extension catches my eye, and this talk at TED seems to offer some simple lifestyle guidelines based on good research. In fact, I think I’ll go for a walk right now.
[Note: the video embedded below might not show up on your news reader.]
