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Digital Culture

Root of All Evil

Here’s a great example of a TV show that will never, and I mean eeeeeeeever, be shown in the US. via BoingBoing

The Root of All Evil, a Channel 4 production in Britain, starring my main man Richard Dawkins. He’s been the loudest critic of religion for many years (the Salon article from April 2005 is a great example of his stances), and it appears that he’s taken his views to the small screen. His point of view is absolutely refreshing in this time of over-reactive religion in the US…it’s a bit like “what the hell is all this?” He’s just incredulous that in our age of better science than ever in the history of the world, and more and more proof for facts of the world like evolution that we’ve got more and more of the US buying into religious ideas. I’m not sure when this may be able to be purchased in the US, so I’ll just mention in passing that if you were to search sites that involved a type of file that rhymes with “RitRorrent”, that you might be able to find a copy now.

Categories
Digital Culture

Democracy

I’ve been paying more and more attention lately to easy-upload video hosting sites like YouTube and Google Video. These two seem to have stood out from the crowd for ease of use and clean design…but I’m just baffled as to how they’re still around. If someone tried this business model (upload your favorites! we’ll host them!) with music, the RIAA would have gone insane. There are dozens of movie trailers up on these sites, which are owned by the studios. Why isn’t the MPAA going apeshit to get these under control? Isn’t it disingenuous of them to allow this, but complain about people sharing movies? Should we apply the legal resources of copyright evaluation evenly?

With all of that said, the point of this post: Democracy kicks ass. It’s a player/browser for video, easy to use, intuitive, and open. If you have a broadband connection, download this now and play with it. It’s addictive. Between the software and their open source hosting service, Broadcast Machine…this is my pick for “gonna be huge this year.”

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Digital Culture

A Scanner Darkly

Wow. I can’t wait for this movie….the effects look incredible. Is this the first time that an animation technique has been used as an effect over an entire film? The only thing that I can think comes close is Tron…other examples anyone?

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Digital Culture

Heavy Metal Curling

In honor of the 47723468 hours of curling that NBC is giving us during their Winter Olympics coverage, I give you: Heavy Metal Curling with the Swedish Women’s Curling Team.

No, I’m not joking.

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Digital Culture

Google Trusted Tester

Check this out….Google has a private alpha tester network of people invited by current Google employees. The Trusted Tester program can be seen as a login option here, and there’s a Tester FAQ online here. Interesting to know how the first draft of stuff gets looked at. Would be really interesting to see all the different things they have tested, but never make it to public beta.

Anybody out there wanna invite me along for the ride? đŸ™‚

Categories
Digital Culture

Hacking a fireplace

This is by far the coolest fireplace ever.

Tiki Fireplace

Complete photoset here, with step by step shots of how it was done. All I know is, it’s freaking cool. Makes me want to mod our fireplace into something cool, which is always the sign of a good hack. It makes others want to do it.

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Digital Culture

Fight Club goes Bollywood

While I’m not sure this has any ties at all to the David Fincher film of the same name, nor to the Chuck Palahniuk book….the fact that it might is enough to make me giggle like a school girl.

Bolly fightclub or here for more trailers and music videos.

Categories
Digital Culture

links for 2006-02-11

Categories
Digital Culture

Happy Thirtieth Birthday, Sis!

My sister, Jenna, turns 30 today. In memory of the fact that she presented me with a funeral wreath on my 30th birthday, I give to you:

www.jennabarrett.com

Happy B-day, sis!

Categories
Digital Culture

I want.

Completely amazing demonstration of a multi-user touch screen that seems like it will be perfect for SO many things. The interactions that are possible, and the User Interface that this makes available…just unreal. Check it out: