March 31, 2006
Something sqaumous this way comes
I had long suspected Tori Spelling was a Mythos entity; she has the "Innsmouth look" about her. Confirmation will arrive as soon as the stars are right and Cthulhu has its silver screen release (hat tip to Jeff). The trailer looks promising though I expect Co-ed Call Girl will remain my favourite of the Spelling oeuvre. Details of her impending polar bear scene with Jason Cottle offer clues to the plot.
Any Mythos fans concerned that Cogswell is taking liberties by writing a gay college professor into a praeternaturally uptight horror classic should recall the entire Lovecraft corpus offers almost no female characters either.* My main concern is how the story will translate from New England to the Pacific northwest.
So, when is this blogging thing going to pay dividends in the form of a cameo for something like this? I am convinced I have it in me. In the meantime, Lovecraft purists should rent The Call of Cthulhu while there is yet time.
Great rugose cones Update: Yes, definitely the Innsmouth look.
*Notably Lavinia Whateley in "The Dunwich Horror" and Astenath Waite in "The Thing on the Doorstep" and, at a stretch, Keziah Mason in "Dreams in the Witch House".
Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins: Rise Up With Fists
Also featuring Sarah Silverman: Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Does this topic make me look fat?
Worldmapper re-sizes the world by subject of interest (via AsiaPundit).
Are you not entertained?
Radosh host a regular New Yorker Anti-Caption Contest feature. I cannot do it justice with a summary; for Flea-readers who want to participate the most recent iteration is here. Also, be sure not to miss Heartonastick's regular submissions to the New Yorker's own Cartoon Caption Contest; a flawless response to the problem at hand.
The folk music of the machine age
Kim Chul-woong defected from North Korea following a life-changing experience in a Moscow cafe... his first exposure to jazz. But not just any jazz (via Harry's Place).
This is, as Mick Hartley observes, "a chilling insight into the cultural desert that is North Korea."
Telephony for the Devil
Tim Blair points to reports of "devil calls" in India; his Cell comparison is spot on. Though I think recent precedent suggests more a more material concern for some cell phone users.
March 30, 2006
Air: How Does it Make You Feel
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
If you only walk long enough
Louis Wain was diagnosed with late onset schizophrenia but to me it looks more like a case of early onset cat.
No bitter stench of funeral-still for Muad'dib
Gen-X at 40 expresses concern at Harry Osborn-lookin' University of Maryland researcher, Jason Matheny and yet more concern at the laboratory grown meat the guy is selling. Certainly, the hairstyle and fixed stare is unsettling but I think we are dealing with a more basic problem in brand management. An "industrial bioreactor" sounds like an unappetizing source for beef, pork or chicken (if a promising minimum daily source of lamella). My suggestion? The much more easygoing and accurate "axlotl tank". Mmm. Ghola burgers.
Nothing is true, everything is permitted
Thanks to "molecular genetics, cloning, and good old American know-how" we are faced with the grim prospect of heart-healthy bacon rich in omega-3 fatty acids. It should be obvious that undermining such a basic tenet of natural law as the bacon taboo is profoundly dangerous; with no transgressions we have nothing left to live for.* Yet it turns out heart-healthy bacon is only a minor antinomian gesture compared with the shape of pigs to come. Radosh asks if genetically-engineered pigs could clear the way for kosher bacon.
*Such as the illicit thrill of ending a sentence with a preposition.
Fish girl kick Quran
Just so we are clear: I am not advocating kicking holy books or turning people into fish or monkeys be it in Bradford, Birmingham or elsewhere. This post is only a feeble attempt to follow Let's Be Sensible's lead (via the Drink-soaked Trotskyite Popinjays).
March 29, 2006
White people are known for...
Google Your Race hosts an intriguing "racial profiling experiment". Quite what to make of the results is beyond me though, in all fairness, orcs do make hopeless magic-users.
2) Next I recorded what came after the "are know for" in Google's search results*.
3) Lastly I took note of the top eight Images that appeared when I searched Google's Image data-base for "black people", "white people", etc... Just for the heck of it, I also did the same for "humans" and "orcs" (see below).
Small sidebar: Shocking red hair, check. Glasses, check. Typing, check. Not only is Rox Populi a goddess (not pictured above) but I imagine she too is a Deconstructionist Weirdo (though I enjoy weirdness in a Lacanian variety pack). I recalled the picture (yes, above) from my own Deconstructionist quiz result when it (the picture) popped up at Rox Populi's blog in the aforementioned "white people" image search; such being the mnemonic efficacy of latex.
Motors: Black Powder
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Tired gymnast
When everything is going swimmingly is when life happens, that's when.
A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing
Madonna has been krumping ever since her "Hung Up" and "Sorry" videos. That would be since "Hung Up" was filmed between October 7 and 9, 2005. Almost six months! Minor points of information: krumping did not start as "an underground dance", throwing a pop version of it into a stage show cannot "make it your own" and Studio 54 closed its doors six years before Thomas Johnson starting clowning, let alone krumping.
Dub Pimpstar
Dub Pimpstar XP rims are a must for the future Fleamobile. These babies are crying out for the Flea signal...
The full effect is even more stunning in video (nsfw ads). The SpokePOV Kit looks like a good start for Flea-readers wanting to make a start in the shallow waters of pimpdom.
March 28, 2006
Benny Benassi: Who's Your Daddy?
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance (nsfw due to hawt).
No Wonder
Egotastic! forwards reports Lindsay Lohan would like to be the new Wonder Woman. I think not.
A staring contest with infinity
The Hubble Space Telescope Ultra Deep Field takes one million seconds - eleven days - to take a picture about thirteen-billion years deep. It turns out the universe, like, looks like a hand.
DataTiles
Sony is working on some sweet tech that looks suspiciously as if it could do double duty as holodeck RAM and a data pad: DataTiles.
Wideload Commandments
Alex Seropian, once Bungie-founder and lately of Wideload Games, discusses the Wideload Commandments of game development. These might usefully be transferred to a variety of contexts.
Own Thine Own (Intellectual) Property--"We want to determine whether we're successful or we fail. We don't want to be wholly dependent on somebody else for an IP, or on somebody else to market our games, to fund our games, or to control our brand."
Be No One's Beeotch--"This really speaks to why we're independent," Seropian said, calling Wideload's situation with Stubbs publisher Aspyr Media a "partnership of peers."
Keep Thine Overhead Low--"You have a small team, then you have a low overhead. A low overhead saves you money, obviously. And since Wideload has a small team, Wideload equals money."
March 27, 2006
Judy and Mary: Music Fighter
AsiaPundit is spot on with the Sugarcubes reference for Isoya Yuki but the video's star-and-bars guitar still baffles me. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
One more thing to worry about
Great. First I was anxious about Ceiling Cat.* Now I am convinced some Master Chief lookin' dude is going to kick my ass.
*Hat tip to A Former Servant of Her Majesty.
GDC Top 10
IGN continues its coverage of the 2006 Game Developers Conference in San Jose with a hit parade of promotional pens; but for the motion-blur, Eidos is looking good. The Flea is also pleased to endorse the Intel "Leap ahead" luggage tags, Midway beer bottle opener key-chains and SketchUp toques (I hear their socks are nice too).
Darwin awarded
Top prize at the 8th Independent Games Festival at the GDC in San Jose went to Introversion Software's Darwinia. I have been too swamped to try the demo: Flea-reader reviews would be much appreciated!
Coolionaire
Larry Samuel has produced a handy taxonomy of millionaires in the field. The Flea's vast holdings would surely fall somewhere between thrillionaire and coolionaire (via Radosh).
March 25, 2006
Wyclef Jean & Mary J.Blige: 911
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Defection
Spy vs Spy was always my favourite part of Mad Magazine. Well, that and the foldy-thing.
Play: The Art Of Xbox 360
I somehow managed to miss Play: The Art Of Xbox 360 last month. The show featured everything from "hand-drawn concept sketches to immersive background paintings to high-definition, living worlds, rediscover the fantasy of Kameo™: Elements of Power™, the stylized world of Perfect Dark Zero™, and hyper-realism of Project Gotham Racing® 3", all of which would have been of great interest.
And me a dab-hand at boozy freeloading: Vexed again! Now Magazine's review is not much use at this point and just barely in time for Controller: Artists Crack the Game Code; also potentially interesting.
I love you, Tokyo sociology girl!
I may have got some backs up when I agreed with a sentiment of Samuel Johnson's the other day; probably the difference between writing as a hobby and writing for a living. Which is to segue into expressing a profound empathy with Larry Frolick. He was having the Hemingway conversation over a beer with a tough German and a wild Welshman in a remote town in Ethiopia when he felt his book fall out from under him.
"I just wore a black scarf over my head and hardly anyone bothered me," Suki told us, sipping local black tea. "Most people are very nice."
The German, the Welshman and I looked at one other. If our respective book publishers ever got wind of this crazy chick, our careers were toast. Lucky for us, she was a Tokyo sociologist, specializing in this arcane Japanese subculture of students who stab their teachers with penknives. This little desert jaunt of hers was a vacation.
March 24, 2006
A scanner mostly
Reports of a topless Winona Ryder in the forthcoming Philip K. Dick godsend are true, mostly. Mostly.
Zut! And God Created Noni has thoughtfully posted some A Scanner Darkly trailer-caps for the faithful. Now I am waiting for a web-ap that will let me "scannerize" Flea-portraits.
Flow
Flow is an excellent diversion while I am waiting for Spore.
WonderCon 2006
Girls of WonderCon 2006 is self-explanatory.
Trek Passions
Sci fi dating and personals at long last.* Though a purist would insist on "sf" dating by reference to the vulgar "sci fi".
*My firewall had hiccups with parts of the site so safe-surfing, people.
Xanax and Seabreeze
I am glad I am not the only one thinking something is up with Paula Abdul. Bill thinks this may be an opportunity for Chicken Little.
NOW GO!
Straight Up Update: IDontLikeYouInThatWay forwards a report that Paula Abdul was almost fired from American Idol.
March 23, 2006
Billie Holiday: Fine And Mellow
Imagine it is 8 December, 1957 on the set of The Sound of Jazz... The Columbia Broadcasting System presents Billie Holiday with Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, Vic Dickenson and Roy Eldridge. You have a pack of Chesterfields and a bottle of bourbon. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Evolution
Sam Neill understands humans are omnivorous and consequently thrive on red meat (via Tim Blair).
Bergasse 19, Vienna (continued)
One of the greatest compliments I have ever received was a favourable comparison of Flea Towers with Bergasse 19, Sigmund Freud's home in Vienna. Mobile Gaze hosts a slide show of photographs I would have linked to had I known of it at the time.
Credo quia absurdum
OhGizmo reports on a remarkable discovery (via Yummy Wakame).
It seems that the vase makers used long sticks to carve decorations on the clay vases as they were being made on rotating stones. These sticks picked up the minute vibrations in the air (caused by, say, conversations) and transformed these into grooves and bumps, much like what happens when you make a vinyl record. The Belgian scientists then analysed these patterns and extracted what is believed to be the world’s oldest known recordings.
The documentary video explains the process using a 500 year old South American piece as an example then moves on to a piece from Roman Pompeii including the spooky muffled sound of spoken Latin laughter recorded two-thousand years ago. The website of Belgian archaeologist, Philippe Delaite is worth a look though in fairness I should point out the last three words of the documentary piece itself merit special attention.
Children of the corn
I eat meat and am constantly baffled by arguments that ignore human physiology. That said, I would like to have a better sense that the organic or free-range products I buy are not just so much "supermarket pastoral" marketing. Something I had not realized is just how much corn we North Americans are eating both directly and indirectly. Michael Pollan had a clever use for a mass spectrometer that achieved an alarming result.
March 22, 2006
Halo 3
Hexus.gaming has received news Halo 3 is "finished and sitting at the mastering plant, awaiting the word to go" from a strategically inclined Microsoft. While IGN suggests the game will not be called Halo 3 but "Forerunner" which, it should be pointed out, would be cool as would a rumoured 4-player co-op. Oh yes. The closest an impatient world has come to fact, however, has been a hint from Microsoft's Vice President of Interactive Entertainment, Peter Moore:
CVG speculates an E3 preview for the game though I think Moore's remarks could just as easily reference a Vista-based PC-launch for Halo 2. Fun but not nearly the same. Qj.net suggests an alarming possibility: "Forerunner" may not be a sequel at all but a prequel game in line with the Halo novels and forthcoming feature film. This rumour at least seems to have been debunked by Bungie.
Liam Lynch: Fake Depeche Mode Song
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Cthulego Rising!!
The monsters of the Cthulego Mythos are accidentally awoken by Lord Sinister.
Brittleactica
I am as big a fan of virals as anybody but the Got Milk? people are stretching it with this Battlestar homage; the health effects of the white wonder-tonic notwithstanding. They lost me with their hyperdrive sound-effects which sounded to me to be lifted from Space Pirate (a most excellent game, btw). This sort of uncredited borrowing makes me wonder quite what the milk people were trying to accomplish. An overproduced and underwhelming Battlestar reference makes me no more inclined to drink milk today than I would have been otherwise.
Google Idol
Google Idol is an online competition for "the many talented (and not so talented) people out there who have been waiting for their moment of fame." Up first: a round of lip-syncing.
Fashion forward
Already the most coveted of improvised shelving materials, black milk crates are now the dernier cri in hold-up fashion (via Raymi).
Police in Pelham, Ga., said the man beneath the mask was Marty Simpson, 46. Simpson allegedly robbed the clerk at gunpoint and then ditched the milk crate in the parking lot, giving everyone outside a good look at his face.
March 21, 2006
Drawing Restraint 9
Due to a personal vendetta, I have a long-standing antipathy toward the Icelandic whaling industry; or rather, to the study of the Icelandic whaling industry. Mathew Barney's film Drawing Restraint 9 is set on the Nisshin Maru, a Japanese whaling ship, which would be fine but for the fact it features music by the director's significant other, Björk. So this could be a problem (via Modern Fabulosity).
Barriers hold form in place, and when they are removed, the film tracks the descent of form into states of sensual surrender and formal atrophy; this shift in the physical state of the sculpture is symbolically mirrored through the narrative of The Guests, two occidental visitors to the ship played in the film by Matthew Barney and Björk, who we first see taken on board, groomed, bathed and dressed in mammal fur costumes based upon traditional Shinto marriage costumes.
Having yet to see the film, "The Field" sounds to be an analogue for "lamella" which for me makes it a must see. Jacques Lacan describes lamella thusly in The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis: "The lamella is something extra-flat, which moves like the amoeba.... And it can run around. Well! This is not very reassuring. But suppose it comes and envelopes your face while you are quietly asleep..." Quite. Or, as Slavoj Žižek parses Lacan with reference to giant squid theory*, "a substance of life which can never be destroyed." You can see the attraction.
*A must read for the terms SquidMasters, octality and autocephalopodization: "... there is a giant squid conspiracy… and to make light of that conspiracy would mean death. I don’t believe there is anything hysterical about that." Go Pods, go!
Macaco: Chan Chan
Playing this one again and again: Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Diva in drag
I sometimes wonder what it must be like for big stars to watch other celebrities on tv. The much maligned Celine Dion, for example, seems to enjoy Madonna. Possibly a bit too much for the rest of us (for which link all may blame Antonia).
Making the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs
Modern Fabulosity reports on "what may be the dumbest scientific survey ever taken". As someone with an A+ in a doctoral course in quantitative methods, I can only say he may be right. Or if slightly quicker; left.
Other fun facts: left-handers are quicker than righties, but ambidextrous onanists put them both to shame, amorally speaking. (Women, clearly, don't masturbate at all. Good to know.)
Porn free
Some rather clever ethnographic PlayStation 2 ads I had missed arrive via Porchboy and his minions.
Slivercasting
The arrival of internet television has allowed audiences to indulge ever more specific interests. And with seemingly ever increasing bandwidth, wireless access and access to portable gadgets I can only see a need for ever more viewer-specific content.
Perhaps more interesting — and, arguably, more important — are the thousands of producers whose programming would never make it into prime time but who have very dedicated small audiences. It's a phenomenon that could be called slivercasting.
March 20, 2006
The greatest thing that ever happened to an undeserving world
Christopher Hitchens celebrates "part James Bond, part Bertie Wooster" Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman and his accidental biographer, George MacDonald Fraser. He argues both offer insight into the latest incarnation of the Great Game.
Flea-readers with an Atlantic Monthly subscription can also enjoy "Bottoms Up"; Hitchens on Ian Fleming as "a sadist, a narcissist, and an all-around repressed pervert" with some important insights of his own.
Bryan Ferry: Price Of Love
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
The nations of the world
Yakko Warner presents the ever so slightly out of date nations of the world (I miss Animaniacs!).
Despicable
Dame Judi Dench, reprising her role as M in Casino Royale, scolds fans so eager for another Pierce Brosnan appearance they have set up a "Craig Not Bond" anti-Daniel Craig website.
"I hate the way people have been attacking Daniel Craig. It's despicable and it disgusts me. I have filmed with him in Prague and the Bahamas and he is a fine actor. He brings something new and edgy to the role. His critics will be proved wrong."
Irish criminality impeded
Would be criminals will have to cast about for new ways to flout authority when a number of statutes dating back to the Norman invasion and before are abolished.
The laws that will perish include such gems as the denial of a citizen’s right to adulterate coffee with sheep dung, the burning of witches at the stake, and the entertainment of crowds with tiger fights.
Missing man
Wing Commander Christopher Frederick "Bunny" Currant is remembered in an obituary at The Telegraph. The man's daring was such that it is difficult to decide what to quote. He was 95.
Shashi Tharoor
I was watching International Womens' Day proceedings on an United Nations broadcast carried by CPAC and was brought up short by Shashi Tharoor: Who is this god in human form?* Never has there been a more Flea-ish non-Flea**; in fact, more Flea than Flea. I hereby pledge that as soon as budget permits I shall have an accent and hair-style transplant.
Short chats with Tharoor hosted by the National Museum of Australia (Canberra) illustrate the point as does his World Chronicle interview with Michael Douglas (with apologies for the poor sound quality). But for the full Flea-effect, guaranteed to impress people in neighbouring cubicles, I recommend his USC Annenberg School for Communication*** lecture "Public Diplomacy: A United Nations' Perspective".
*That would be novelist, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and presumed international man of mystery.
**With the possible exception of Stewie Griffin.
***There is lots more in the Annenberg Video Archive for those left feeling insufficiently erudite.
March 18, 2006
Hoff, hoff, a Hellible Horralump! Holl, holl, a Hoffable Hellerump!
I am delighted to hear Kylie Minogue is sporting a spiky look as her hair recovers from cancer therapy but am distressed at Stuart Heritage's unkind response to news of a children's book on the way.
We're short on details of the plot, but we'd expect the little girl character - let's call her Mylie for now - gets very famous in a cheaply-made soap opera, then starts singing, then makes a handful of awful films (including one based on a beat 'em up videogame), then stops being famous, then gets her arse out in a pair of tiny hotpants and becomes more famous than ever.
The cad! Beat 'um up video game adaptations are a perfectly respectable way to make a living and tiny hotpants are nothing if not welcome when so gracefully sported. Time to have another looking at Kylie riding an elephant (hat tip to Porchboy).
She got krump in the trunk
While the video quality is not the best I was still happy to learn all about Alyson Hannigan's training for Date Movie. Gosh. So cute when she swears.
And that would have been the end of it but I became curious just what it was of which they were making fun. Krump, it turns out, is an off-shoot of clowning, a street hip-hop dance-style rising from the ashes of the Rodney King riots first developed by Thomas Johnson aka Tommy the Clown.
Street dance has an evolutionary life of its own and it's very nature demands constant adaptation and change. What was once "Clowning" evolved to "Krump Dance" or Krumping. As Tommy put it, "Krumping is the dark side of Clowning". In homage to the clown, some dancers paint designs on half their face.
Flea-readers with a thirst for hip-hop lore, or who enjoy a documentary, should check out David LaChapelle's Rize. Not to be confused with Dave Chappelle, LaChapelle is best known for his fashion and advertising photography and distinctive music video direction (Christina Aguilera "Can't Hold Us Down", Gwen Stefani "Rich Girl", etc.). Film promotion compares Rize to "Paris is Burning" or "Style Wars", an almost ludicrous standard to set for oneself, but the film does not disappoint.
Risk Addiction
Some will say a sequel to Basic Instinct was not necessary but, having encountered many Catherine Tramell types in my crime-fighting career, I can assure you her presence in London warrents the attention of investigators hardened to scenes which might shock the, uhh, less hardened. Especially with the threatening appendage of the Gherkin on the London skyline. That was something they did not have to worry about in the '80s in California for one thing.
For another is this (hilariously unerotic) uncensored promo reel from the forthcoming film. The words "Sharon Stone naked" should be enough to prompt most readers that not only is the linked material "unsafe for work" but is in fact generally unsafe under any circumstances. I should confess mixed feelings here. On the one hand I feel as though I should apologize for this entire post. On the other I am thinking this may be the greatest cinematic experience since Showgirl.
Hail Xenu
It looks as though Viacom has caved to yet another "religious" interest in deciding not to air a scheduled repeat of South Park episode 192, "Trapped in the Closet" after Tom Cruise reportedly threatened to cancel publicity for Mission Impossible: 3. Frankly, I think Cruise's time might better be spent kicking ass over the impossibly dull trailer* for his next vehicle than working so hard to give South Park free publicity. Andrew Sullivan thoughtfully posts Matt Stone and Trey Parker's official reply.
- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu."
*Small sidebar here: Cruise's Mission Impossible wife asks him if there is something he is not telling her. I expect it would be unkind of me to point out how many times he has heard those very words.
March 17, 2006
Fordham Spire
Flea-fav Santiago Calatrava may have made an addition to the Chicago skyline by 2010. Fresh from news the Sumida Tower has a building site the Flea now learns Chicago has granted planning permission for the Fordham Spire, to be the tallest building* in the United States. At 610m (2001 feet) it would also be the tallest structure in the world depending on which Sumida Tower figure is to be believed. By contrast the iconic Sears Tower is 442m tall.
Donald Trump expresses his reservations. Fordham's chairman, Chris Carley has an excellent rejoinder.
But Fordham's Carley wasn't impressed, noting Trump's planned tower, at 415 metres, is itself no wilting lily. "I wonder where the insanity limit is," Carley wondered last summer, adding "It must be just over" 415 metres.
Newspeak Update: I just found an NBC piece (with video) that suggests to me the Donald's real problem is the relative shrinkage of his own Chicago tower project.
*Buildings are occupied while towers or structures are not.
Cyndi Lauper: Money Changes Everything (acoustic)
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Desktop Earth
If someone decides to install Desktop Earth, I hope you will let me know how it runs. I love the idea of an ever-changing wallpaper but my RAM is so overcommitted just now I am afraid smoke would start puffing out of my monitor if I tried to run this one more little wafer of a program.
Video Game Voters Network
While I have reservations about the "The Family Entertainment Protection Act", I believe the Video Game Voters Network is mistaken when it claims "(g)overnment does not regulate access to or the sale of movies, books or cable TV" and should therefore not do the same for video games. Unless, that is, there are states where accesss to and the sale of material deemed pornographic or violent - especially to minors - is not subject to government regulation.
It seems to me a better argument to make is that video games should not be subject to regulation that would be considered unreasonable if applied to movies, books or television. Or better yet that people who would defend the freedom of expression of novelists or film makers should do the same for video game creators; these latter deserve no less despite the novelty and popularity of their medium.
PlayStation 3
Sony has confirmed its "spring" PS3 launch has been delayed until November (hat tip to Porchboy). While this will be a disappointment to Japanese PlayStation fans it means Americans can look forward to a simultaneous launch with Japan; Europeans may even hope to get their PS3s sooner than the expected spring 2007 if the new plan is for a global launch. But The Economist claims more is at stake than Sony's position in the video game console market.
March 16, 2006
Gorillaz: El Mañana
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
The selfish meme
No matter how many books Richard Dawkins pens his audiences bring him The Selfish Gene to sign. Dawkins considers the book thirty-years' on and ponders some alternative, approachable titles. Though I think "selfishness" is only the beginning of the problem when it is still the case for rather clever biologists to talk about natural selection "choosing" between species or genes "pursuing (an) agenda", selfish or otherwise. Semantics, not genetics, accounts for what we have got here (a failure to communicate). Ethics and aesthetics are another matter entirely.
Look, people: Dawkins is not Nietzsche. While the man has an editorial hostility to religious belief there is nothing in his impressive popular science writing that contradicts the revelatory or the miraculous. But then my faith has never relied on a "literalist" acceptance of Bronze Age science as its foundation any more than on the Guardian ruminations of Oxford professors even be they so clever as to marry a Who companion. The Selfish Gene is still worth a look thirty years after the fact though Flea-readers with a biology background or a bit of patience would be better advised to pick up a copy of The Extended Phenotype. I expect Dawkins would be delighted if someone brought one along to his next book-signing too.
March 15, 2006
Sumida Tower
The Tokyo Tower is surely an impressive sight at 333m as must be the Ostankino Tower at 540m. I can assure Flea-readers everywhere that the CN Tower, while '70s looking, is an attractive addition to the Toronto skyline at 553m. This last fact making the CN Tower the world's "tallest freestanding structure" and a reasonably convincing phallic symbol to wave across Lake Ontario at our American neighbours. Now it turns out Japanese television has something to say on the subject.
The Sumida Tower is to be 610m, actually. Not that size is everything. Readers of Japanese can find out more at the official site.
Utada: You Make Me Want To Be A Man
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Chromehounds
I am not much for mechs but Chromehounds looks like fun for the Xbox 360. The trailer is impressive for the animation alone. Now if only I can do something about the Xbox 360 that is missing in my life.
The 1940 test
The UK House of Commons defence committee ponders a replacement for the Trident weapon system, scheduled to be decommissioned around 2020. An important consideration is the cost/necessity of developing a British alternative to Trident.
"The public understanding is that we have this if ever again we face 1940," said Mr Plesch, referring to the UK going to war with Germany without US backing. ... There's a strong sense, going back almost to the Armada and Trafalgar in our culture that we have to have some contingency."
While the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent consists of warheads designed and built by the Atomic Weapons Establishment and deployed aboard British Vanguard-class SSBN submarines, the Trident missiles themselves are supplied by Lockheed and delivered direct to these submarines at an American naval base. A desire for an entirely independent nuclear deterrent on the part of the UK defence establishment would seem to echo the earlier shift from the Westinghouse designed PWR1 reactor to the British designed and built Core H PWR2 reactor (and a jolly reactor it is, too).
Ugly bags of mostly water
Daniel Engber asks why we tend to assume alien life will be made of water and silicon. As opposed to, say, methane, liquid amonia, boron or Flea-fav silicon.
March 14, 2006
The Showgirl Princess
Kylie Minogue is to write a children's book aimed at fans aged six and upwards. A must for the Flea's extensive, if currently hypothetical, pop-star authored children's book collection.
The book's editor, Jane Richardson, believes it will "appeal to little princesses everywhere who love to dress up and have fun. ... It brims with positive messages such as believing in yourself and the importance of friendship and teamwork," she added.
The Streets: Lets Push Things Foward
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance (waving a lighter over my head for SondraK).
Raymi and JD
I turns out Raymi knew JD Fortune in his life before INXS. Somehow I am not surprised. But when do we hear if she will try out for the next Rock Star project? It would be, like, fate or something.
American Apparel, rock on
If Ryanne Hodson is a figment of American Apparel's imagination she is key to the most effective viral ad I have ever seen. Otherwise, rock on (via Instapundit).
Chef walks
Isaac Hayes has left South Park saying his 40 years as a civil rights activist are no longer consistent with the last (almost) ten years of involvement with the show (hat tip to Porchboy). The problem, "disrespect" toward religious beliefs and practices. I can only second Matt Stone and Trey Parker's reaction.
Stone told The AP he and co-creator Trey Parker "never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."
March 13, 2006
Shady lady
Much better than my old Farah Fawcett Majors sunglasses. Oh, and Victoria Beckham is going to be Katie Holmes' "birthing partner" or something to that effect.
Mish Mash: Speechless
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance (QT file).
Footie featured
The football clubs of England in an attractive, interactive format. Also, Scotland. If my limited grasp of the system is correct, these are Football League teams hence some missing prominent FA Premier League names (via Daimnation!).
The religious affiliation of comic book characters
Superman is a Methodist and the Thing is Jewish. Who knew? Insights into the religious affiliation of comic book characters are revealed thanks to the exhaustive factoid archive known as "the internet". For example; why are so many major superheroes Episcopalian?
Elohim is plural
A comprehensive study by Drs. Karl Pootle and Yumble Frick proves the universe was designed by committee (via the Commissar).
NaturalNano
Finally something useful from nanotechnology. Even if Newsday seems to think this involves "harnessing sub-microscopic organisms for everyday uses".
The paint represents a dream to those who seek a distraction-free movie or concert experience, and a nightmare to those who compulsively monitor their BlackBerry phones.
March 11, 2006
Client: In It For The Money
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
The Kryptonics
Vin Diesel has a ridiculous pet name for his biceps, apparently. Now must come up with pet name for the biceps of the Flea. I am thinking Hugin and Mugin...
Pluto
Ahh... the 1950s. Those were the days. Men were men, women were women, a steak was a steak and a missile was a Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile. With an onboard 500-megawatt reactor, this baby was really a nuclear missile (hat tip to Varenius).
XM101 CROWS
Common remotely operated weapon stations (CROWS) sound like a sensible move toward enclosing all too vulnerable gunners. If only the Marines could sort out a similar arrangment for exposed Warthog turret operators.
March 10, 2006
Sugababes: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Scenester Update: Here is the Arctic Monkey's original for non-NME readers.
Kabbalah at work
Madonna quits acting. Before anyone asks "Madonna was an actress?" or something to that effect I ask you to remember Desperately Seeking Susan and cut her some small measure of slack. Though I suppose we are all at our best when we play ourselves.
The law of unintended consequences
Andrew Sullivan points out the spectacular success of a New Zealand boycott of a controversial South Park episode.
Enceladus the Storyteller
The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan has discovered what may be liquid water on Saturn's moon, Enceladus. An impressive finding in itself and all the more improbable given the local real estate is only 314 miles across. Anyone put off the news because Enceladus sounds like a Taco Bell offering should know is quite pretty, actually.
The Ludovico Method
"I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting."
- William Shakespeare
Theodore Dalrymple has another go at the ideology of self-expression by way of discussing Anthony Burgess and A Clockwork Orange. Dalrymple has little enthusiasm for kids these days but then he gets twitchy around people with tattoos so grain of salt and all that. My favourite passage could just as easily describe an encounter with any university student assigned a grade lower than a "B" (or in Harvard's case, an "A").
March 09, 2006
The Last Stand
The latest trailer for the latest X-Men movie. Serious stuff. Also: Phoenix.
Peter Gabriel: Shock the Monkey
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Sprockets: Dieter's Dream
I have always wanted to make love to a woman with punctuational nomenclature. Now is the time at the Flea when we dream.
Monkey-touching Update: It looks like SNL/NBC's lawyers have gone after You Tube. Here are some Dieter quotes to be getting on with.
Soon it will be time to buy all those movies again
I plan to splash out on a giant plasma screen television just in time for it to be made obsolete by an even more splash-worthy 3D laser projection system.
Remote Controlled Robotic Shark
This remote controlled robotic shark should come in handy for all your remote controlled robotic shark needs.
Prospero had better be prosperous Update: Just spotted the seven-foot Robby The Robot. A snip at $49,999.95!
Robotic mule
The last sound the last human will ever hear may sound something very close to the racket made by this robotic mule. Plus maybe a chainsaw or knee-level whipper-snipper arrangement. Or possibly just the click of the trigger before firing that last precious bullet saved for the final contingency. Seriously folks; we are on a dangerous road with this stuff.
(Hat tip to A Former Servant of Her Majesty)
March 08, 2006
Sasha Dith: Russian Girls
One day all videos will feature girls washing cars. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.*
*Possibly not safe for work unless you work in recruiting for the Russian military in which case you probably made your quota this month.
Lynx Rituals
With spring coming I am reminded it is good not to be a turtle.
God is in the details
Anselm is best remembered for his ontological argument.
The Flea presents a simplified proof in the form of Jessica Alba's photoshoot for Arena Magazine. Think of it as an actually existing ontology which, to my mind, is much closer to the revelatory core of the Christian message than Anselm's mental gymnastics.
Am the Flea a Libertarian?
One welcome side-effect of writing rather more about Kate Beckinsale and rather less about Canadian politics is that I am not asked this question as often as I used to be. Now I find I am in almost 100% agreement with Scott Adams on the subject.
March 07, 2006
God is a gamer
I can hardly wait to play Spore. SimCity and The Sims creator, Will Wright walks through game features in this video from last year's Game Developer's Conference.
Clicking on the egg brought up a creature editor, and allowed the player to "evolve" with a new generation of critters. The editor was amazingly flexible. Wright could give his creature extra vertebrae, he could give it fins or tails to move faster, he could add claws or extra mouths, whatever he wanted. More importantly, all the creature animations weren't hard-coded; they were dynamic. If he put six tails on his creature, the game would figure out how a six-tailed creature would move. The critter was completely his.
Faithless: God is a DJ
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Xbox Smacktalk
Talking smack over Xbox live: an educational film that should come in handy for dealing with Porchboy.
Google tracking
For all your Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station tracking needs.
Local Technology Preview
Windows' Local Technology Preview lets you drive around Seattle or San Francisco combining a database of street-level photos with top-down satellite imagery. Neat. I drove from San Francisco's Chinatown out to Haight/Ashbury then on through the park to a spot where I once stood looking out over the Pacific as a storm rolled in. The street-level imagery only covers the downtown core at the moment but a great tool for jogging the memory nonetheless. I can only imagine what this sort of interface will be able to do in a year's time (via Dodgeblogium)
March 06, 2006
Razzies 2006
Flea-fav Paris Hilton was honoured with the Worst Supporting Actress nod by this year's Golden Raspberry Awards. I was equally delighted by Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman* walking away with Worst Screen Couple. Excepting fame, fortune and verticality what appeal could Ferrell possibly hold that the Flea does not possess in abundance?
*Pictured above at another awards ceremony. The People's Daily Online has yet more Oscars red carpet photos.
Portmanteau lyrics Update: Only a tangential link here but I am not waiting until tomorrow to post Natalie Portman rapping. Damn Natalie, you a crazy chick (hat tip to Bill) (link now updated thanks to A Former Servant of Her Majesty).
Information wants to be free (unless I own the IP in which case it is time to pay) Update: YouTube has removed Portman's rap saying, "This video has been removed due to copyright infringement." All right... you win for now, "internet". Take a look at Miu von Furstenberg's Oscars worst dressed picks instead.
Morcheeba: Otherwise
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Brokeback Bunnies
Brokeback Mountain re-enacted in 30 seconds. By bunnies.
Unaustralian
Unaustralianism is everywhere, apparently.
Simpsons title sequence
A source of ongoing confusion to me is the British love affair with The Simpsons. Not their enjoyment of the show itself but how in the course of expressing their Simpsons enthusiasm they will patiently explain how Americans have no sense of irony. Perhaps ironic: in telling me this they often imagine they are educating a befuddled American.
Pandora
The Music Genome Project aims to help people find more music they will like. Their oracle for this task is Pandora, an A.I./DJ. It is this bespoke internet music radio station that separates the system from, for example, Gnod and I am tinkering with it as I type this post. My first artist selection was VNV Nation in part to test the range of music in Pandora's box. It promptly called up "Entropy", played the track and then suggested Eiffel 65's "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by matching beat, tempo and vocal stylings with my first selection.
I have now added Underworld and Faithless; I like "Blue" just fine but am after more downbeat lyrical content just now. Having played Flea-fav "Born Slippy" by Underworld, Pandora now calls up "Call The Ships To Port" by a band called Covenant. Never heard of them and it is exactly what I am looking for so props to a network that can do my exploration for me.*
At which point it hits me with the registration interface. You can choose a subscription or to sit through ads; fair enough. Next up was another Covenant track, "We Stand Alone" after I asked Pandora to play more like it. This followed by an excellent guess, Funkervogt "Killing Fields". An hour of listening later and I have a half dozen new bands to check out. Well worth the visit.
*Excellent sound quality too, btw.
(Oops! Forgot to hat tip A Former Servant of Her Majesty for this one.)
March 04, 2006
Local girls
Han Solo had a girlfriend. Who knew? Except for Jenny Cresswell herself, that is. Not to be confused with the intriguing Swilla Corey (pictured above).
Another local girl is a stringy-hair blonde lurking behind Ben Kenobi after the old Jedi puts away his lightsaber. This character was established as Swilla Corey by the Customizable Card Game.
Space Acid
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.*
*If anyone can identify this act; please let me know!
Vintage Star Wars toys
My cousin, an only child, had something like a hundred Star Wars action figures and the battle for Hoth playset. That still pisses me off.
Troops
I cannot quite believe I have never linked to Troops at the Flea. Perhaps the file size was just too large. Also much more managable is the C3POs cereal ad, Star Wars Gangsta Rap and Triumph giving his two cents on the off chance there are any Flea-readers who have missed these classic bits.
Turkish Star Wars
Sure, atrocity fantasies, organ-stealing Jewish doctors and the utter venality of some actors suggests something rotten in the state of Turkish cinema. But the Flea issued a fatwa against Turkish cinema long ago for the horror that is Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam.
Star Wars Holiday Special
[hangs head] Right. That's one of those things that happened, and I just have to live with it. - George Lucas
Before the latest trilogy was released and the Flea started issuing fatwas against false jedi I used to insist there were four Star Wars films. But then it used to be if you wanted to watch the Star Wars Holiday Special* in Toronto you had to go rent it from a certain edgy video place that shall remain nameless (George Lucas may be a Flea-reader for all I know). Now half the whole shebang is available at your convenience thanks to the copyright infringing wonder that is "the internet". Surely 50 minutes is enough to be getting on with.
Remember what Mark Hamill looked like before the accident? Though I expect I have got my time-line wrong on the special. For anyone who thought Ewoks, let alone Jar Jar Binks, meant an end to suspension of disbelief I can only suggest they watch the whole thing (or just skip forward to Jefferson Starship).
*The holiday in question being Life Day, the one day a year Chewbacca's father gets to use his virtual reality porn headset without getting hassled (no, I am not making this up). Now all I need to know is how long it takes to marinade the Bantha loin for Bantha Surprise.
March 03, 2006
Jewel: Goodbye Alice in Wonderland
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
You scare me, Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum + French fry = The Hunger.*
*Der obige Text ist eine Assoziation von Klum zum Stichwort Unappetitlich.
We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled
Emma Watson + beer = S-P-E-W.*
*Not to worry. Corona hardly counts as beer.
Björk talking about her tv
Just stare at the monitor and stop judging whether the Flea is a good idea or not. Björk Guðmundsdóttir; will you marry me?
Defend the Children of the Poor & Punish the Wrongdoer
The proceedings of the Old Bailey from 1674 to 1834 are now available on-line (via Yummy Wakame). Accounts of over one-hundred thousand criminal trials are included. Take Isabel Harris, for example.
Her sentence? Transportation.
The sky is falling
While The Economist reports Tim Flannery has the usual things to say about global temperature change they are impressed with what they say is almost a throwaway point.
Being entirely convinced we are a couple million years into an ice epoch and are currently overdue for another 100,000 year ice age I am rather more concerned about global freezing myself; no matter this global cooling euphamism. You know, the same end of the world scenario climate scientists were ranting about in the 1970s when such was the fashion. Yet Homo sapiens managed to struggle on doing nothing whatsoever about it despite our tropical ancestry. Unless, that is, we count SUVs as the thin line between Canada and the ice. I hope climatology has become a more reliable discipline in the last thirty years but I doubt human nature - with its wishful thinking, doomsaying and indifference alike - has changed in the slightest; something an evolutionary biologist should appreciate.
March 02, 2006
Don't hold your breath
Many hopes were raised upons seeing Jessica Alba in a bikini on the cover of the March 2006 issue of Playboy Magazine. It turns out Jessica Alba is suing Playboy as this might have lead some to believe she would appear nude inside. Not so.
It is probably best some facts retain their sacred mystery. With that in mind I am hesitant to direct Flea-readers to the Jessica Alba butt collage thoughtfully posted by Easy Does It University by way of fleshing out the facts of the controversy. Arguably ironic sidebar: Alba's cover appearance is down to having been voted the sexiest woman in show business by a Playboy magazine poll.
Faithless: Insomnia (live)
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Belle And Sebastian: The Boy With The Arab Strap
There is still snow on the ground in the northern wasters but somehow, somewhere it already feels like spring. Must stick with the fitness regimen. Also, find a stretchy headband.
Semtex Girls
Madonna's recent announcement of a new business venture was image rich if detail poor.
That image being provided in part by Madonna's own in combination with the famous Czech explosive. Now Explosia, inventors with a brand to defend, are suggesting they may take legal action against the Immaterial Girl. Semtex has its reputation to think of.
That will teach you
The Flea may be second to none in uncritical David Beckham media but even I have a hard time believing the math curriculum has changed to the point Brooklyn's math homework should present a challenge.
Multi-millionaire Beckham, who has become regular tabloid fare because of his dress sense and hairstyles, said after failing in mathematics he offered to read a book with Brooklyn instead.
Searching for Shakespeare
An exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery brings together for the first time six paintings of Shakespeare thought most likely to have been painted from life. Channel 4 discusses several contenders, saying the National Portrait Gallery's three-year project concluded only the Chandos portrait was likely to be an authentic representation. Yet a German academic claims no fewer than four fit the bill, including a death mask not included in the exhibition. Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, who surely has the coolest name in all of Shakespeare studies, claims a swelling appearing under the Bard's left eye indicates he had lymph cancer and also provides a clue as to which portraits were based on the man himself.
Flea-readers seeking more Shakespeare pictures may find them at The Shakespeare Page and further discussion focused on the Sanders Portrait at Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare. The National Portrait Gallery hosts Searching for Shakespeare through May 29.
March 01, 2006
The lawnmower effect
This Gillette Fusion™ razor system is everywhere. Seriously orange and in my face every time I set foot in Shoppers Drug Mart with the Spartan-117 cryo-tube packaging and companion HydraGel display. BusinessWeek is calling it "the lawnmower effect" as Procter & Gamble Co. makes shave-prep products "an extremely high priority". Their secret weapon: Canada's own J.D. Fortune as the new spokesface for Gillette's Revolutionary New 5-blade Shaving Surface™.
"I prefer the Power version but the truth is that they both deliver a close and smooth shave," said Fortune following his live, on-stage razor demo. "I've always used Gillette and this is their best product yet."
That settles it for me. Plus this degree of shamelessness means somebody at Gillette is sure to take pity on me and send me one for testing purposes (non-power version please and a refill cartridge pack would be much appreciated). Any Flea-readers who remain to be convinced should consult the Gillette shave-prep A.I., Cassandra. "Activate FUN"!
Vanessa Paradis: Joe Le Taxi
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Trish Thuy Trang: Joe Le Taxi
Let's try that again with two heaping scoops of Flea! Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Hanayo: Joe le Taxi
Also quite Flealicious! Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Green Tea Kit Kat
Mmm. Anti-oxidant flavour. But it is the others mentioned in comments that have fixed my attention: cantaloupe Kit Kat, pineapple Kit Kat and the too good to imagine lemon cheesecake Kit Kat. Wikipedia lists many more including a Christmas Pudding Kit Kat presumably meant for resolute optimists.
Black is the new black
As antipodean fashionistas flock to the 2006 L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival I confess an underwhelmed-at-a-distance* feeling; it seems a bit frump to the fab of London Fashion Week. A good bonfire is not to be dismissed but surely someone could have spared a moment to let this poor soul know her raincoat was undone before she paraded down the catwalk in the almost altogether. One high-note: black is back, apparently.
Testify!
*Surely there is a German term for this feeling.
There is more than one way to burn a book
I have no idea if the Flea is banned anywhere. Just in case, Instapundit thoughtfully reposts a list of Boing Boing suggestions for circumventing the problem.
Miss Piggy
You Are Miss Piggy
A total princess and diva, you're totally in charge - even if people don't know it.
You want to be loved, adored, and worshiped. And you won't settle for anything less.
You're going to be a total star, and you won't let any of the "little people" get in your way.
Just remember, piggy, never eat more than you can lift!
The Muppet Personality Test
Via Dr. Damian Honeydew.