Time-lapse video of Earth from space

Check out the Aurora Borealis (or Australis?) go by.

Puttin' it all in perspective

The BBC website has a cool new feature called Dimensions where you can take "important places, events, and things, and overlay them onto a map of where you are". This is cooler than it sounds once you see it. Way cooler. For example....

The Floods in Pakistan. "Oh yeah," right? "No, I've totally been reading about the flooding, it's teeeerrrible". Indeed. Indeed. But I was surprised how far out one had to zoom to fit this area into the Easter Seaboard of North America.... :(

...And how about this! Today's Athens marathon follows the same route as the first Olympic Games back in 1896, and commemorated the 26 miles the soldier Pheidippides ran in 409 BC. He ran from Athens to Sparta to bring news of the Greek victory over the Persian army, and legend has it that he collapsed and died after giving the news.

If I ran all that way to get to Laval, I might not think his reaction such a bad idea...

This is a neat one: the Kola Superdeep Borehole (Russian: Кольская сверхглубокая скважина) is the result of a scientific drilling project of the former USSR. The project attempted to drill as deep as possible into the Earth's crust. Drilling began on 24 May 1970 (incidentally, Bob Dylan's 29th birthday) on the Kola Peninsula, using the Uralmash-4E, and later the Uralmash-15000 series drilling rig. A number of boreholes were drilled by branching from a central hole. The deepest, SG-3, reached 12,262 metres (40,230 ft) in 1989, and is the deepest hole ever drilled, and the deepest artificial point on the earth. Here is its depth transposed onto New York City.

Anyway, it's well worth exploring and enjoying.

This'll be goood

This cat has a name

and his name is Suspense.

About our childhood...

Simpler times! Coming back from Charlemagne. Running for the two symbols of power and supremacy in our three-membered kingdom: 1) the remote, and 2) getting the single sofa (that was, in the early years, covered in a shiny tissu with a beige background and ratatouille-coloured flowers, and later in a yellowish ocher with navy piping). Sitting in that throne like a hammoc, securely cupped in its plushness, our small frames luxuriously disproportionate to it. And the less lucky/quick/diligent among us would have to sit on the edge of the long sofa, a little too close to the screen, lying on their stomach. The green and red plaid fabric scratchy on your chin....Though it must be said this spot came with an advantage- and no small advantage at that - the well-being and freedom of having nothing to lose. The subtracted stress of vigilance. The liberty to go make yourself a plate of rice with beef and green peppers at your leisure without worrying about losing your spot. Even the knowledge that your role will be to criticize and complain about the selected programming, and not defend your executive choice of Gargoyles over X-Men. Then daddy would arrive, his shuffing and unloading lit by the kitchen's spotlights, and call out in the direction of the family room about homework notdone. And the spell would be broken.

But what has really changed since those days? Well, the solo chair has shrunk significantly since then, somehow; television programming in the 4 to 7 o'clock weekday slot had diminished in quality quite significantly... and that's pretty much it though, right?

Here is some more of the finest after-school entertainment that the world has ever known...

and not to forget baba in all this mid-nineties nostalgia, I give you The Eternal....

PS: Sometimes, these things need to be dealt the weight they deserve.

Spider Crab sheds its exoskeleton

This video of a big spider crab shedding its exoskeleton is creepy, though not scary (trust me baba, I've scrutinized it thoroughly).

60% of the world's oil paintings come from this town

A gift

I'd like to introduce you to Marcel

This killed me.

"Probably the biggest company you've never heard of"

SERCO

Shock: Julia Louis-Dreyfus...

... is a billionaire heiress

Eve, Baba. Enjoy

I may or may not have just bought a new DVD

Here's a hint:

A chanson

"Shut Up I Am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings"

Sunset Rubdown

Good Australian Documentary on Econ

Very good short documentary on current world economic nightmare:

Part 1:




Part 2:




Part 3:

Movie talk

Hello y'all

It's going to be a little hard for me to post during the week because the workweek is like being on a train - without realizing it, everything just flies by. The weekends though are a whole different story.

I had shabbat dinner last night at Mau's place. It was a little bit weird since Mau missed the actual dinner because he was passed out drunk after a day playing golf with some business men. They apparently got blackout on margaritas. So, whatever, no big deal. I figured I would just have a nice dinner and eat some yummy kosher food.

Well things turned ugly. All of a sudden they all started talking about the Mosque at Ground Zero. Then the conversation shifted to Israel and the Middle east. Then to Iran. Naturally, it was complete SNAFU. I stayed quiet the whole time and simply nodded at the right moments.

But the rest of the weekend was great. I watched two movies: Milk and Mesrine.

Milk was kind of boring, kind of interesting. Sean Penn is an incredible actor, but to be honest the story of a local gay rights political activist can only be so interesting. Just like a glass of water can only be so good.

Mesrine, on the other hand, was great. Here's the preview:



I also saw last Monday the Pat Tillman documentary and it was absolutely fascinating



Baba, you also need to look out for the movie Howl that should be out soon. I'm sure you'll find it super interesting since it's all about Allen Ginsburg and the Beat Generation.

Any hoo that aboot it. Keep the posts comin'

-a

Oh, One Last Thing

Allllleeexxx, where aaaaare you??