bnox

Meet #MrToilet

2012-01-28T10:41:00.002+01:00

Focus Forward Films: For those without access to a simple toilet, poop can be poison. Businessman-turned-sanitation-superhero Jack Sim fights this oft-neglected crisis affecting 2.6 billion people. The idea: making the toilet a status symbol.

Meet Mr. Toilet | Jessica Yu from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

What defines a person?

2012-01-03T11:54:00.000+01:00

At schema.org a person (alive, dead, undead, or fictional) is defined by e.g. other persons, like children, parents, siblings, spouse but also who he or she follows ("The most generic uni-directional social relation") or knows ("The most generic bi-directional social/work relation"). Other properties from person are location related, like PostalAddress, others are more about ContactPoints, like e-mail addresses. The home address is a hybrid Place/Contactpoint.

Schema.org provides a collection of schemas, i.e., html tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers. Search engines including Bing, Google, Yahoo! and Yandex rely on this markup to improve the display of search results, making it easier for people to find the right web pages.

Daft Punk Helmet

2011-12-25T11:17:00.000+01:00

Harrison Krix is "a 29 year old dork living in Atlanta and working as a freelance props and replica artist." He outlines his processes on his blog hoping that his work "will inspire others to take on the DIY mantle and tackle some projects of their own." His Daft Punk helmet looks amazing! Why can't biker helmets look more like these? I want to look like Robocop but end up looking like a Transformer when I wear bike gear...

Storming Blackberry girl

2011-12-23T12:09:00.000+01:00

Somewhere in 2007 I switched from Sony Ericssons (who had the first real smart phones, like the awesome but fragile P800 and P900) to Blackberry and never looked back. Right from the start, Blackberry was perceived as the most reliable device to access your work emails and calendar items on the road. So it's no surprise that the image of Blackberry users was one of "guys in a suit". I don't care if iOS devices have cooler apps: I'm just happy with the way Blackberries handle connectivity and data input. And to be honest, Blackberry Messenger is one of the best messaging solutions I've used... It's just a shame that the amount of people who are on this network is an incredibly shrinking crowd.

Last Tuesday I got to play with Blackberry's latest Bold smartphone (they kept the keyboard but turned the screen into a touch screen), their Porsche P9981 Design smartphone (yours for 1,500 euros), and the PlayBook (made to fit in your suit's inside pocket or in your handbag). Most news apps (Facebook for Playbook, BBM Music, Angry Birds etc) suggest a Mullet Strategy: business upfront, party in the back. I'm not so sure if this will turn the tide. If you look at Amplicate scores for Blackberry, it's between 67% en 85% hate. Only the Blackberry PlayBook gets 65% love, but sales are low.
But if my current Bold would were out or get stolen, would I pick a Bold again? Definitely, yes.
I don't buy iPhones or Androids because I'm afraid I'd just fall in love with their apps and play Angry Birds, Tiny Towers and Word Feud all day. I choose Blackberry to police myself, just like in that Tori Amos song:

Loaded, full of winter you are
Storming Blackberry girl
Will you strike before he's
Loaded, full of winter you are storming
Blackberry girl will you strike
Before he's loaded
Full of winter you are

I use other stuff, like my iPad and the Wii, for playing around and relaxing.
Not every mobile device has to be a "one device to rule them all". Just like you don't have to "suit up" every day.

25 degrees of freedom

2011-12-12T19:28:00.000+01:00

NAO Next Gen : the new robot of Aldebaran Robotics: "Aldebaran Robotics, the world leader in humanoid robotics, has released its latest version of the NAO robot — NAO Next Gen. The power of NAO Next Gen, the new fully programmable humanoid robot that has the most extensive worldwide use, is opening up new perspectives and fields of application for its users."

Wow, they've made really big progress... This robot is battling uncanny valley with cuteness. Just not sure what the "25 degrees of freedom" feature is (shown at 3:00). How much more degrees would this little fella need to get back at the heartless woman that runs him over?

A hug is a handshake from the heart

2011-12-03T12:15:00.001+01:00

Welcome to the nicest place on the internet: "Having one of those days? Yeah, we've been there too. And sometimes, a little pick-me-up is hard to come by. So we'd like to help you turn the sad into happy and the happy into a celebration."

The song is I have never loved someone by My Brightest Diamond.

If everything is a remix, editing is everything

2011-12-03T11:34:00.000+01:00

Shark Song on Vimeo: "Camp Kuleshov" is a competition in NYC, CHI and LA between assistant editors. They are given a film and asked to edit a trailer for the movie taking it from its original genre into another genre. Columbia College film/video major Caleb Hepler's Shark Song took first place.

The contest has been named after the Kulsehov Effect [YT], a study in the impact of film editing on viewers by Russian film maker Lev Kuleshov in the 1920s.

Looking for gift ideas? Try @IceWatchBrand @HandpickedC @NoPresentNoProb

2011-12-02T11:24:00.001+01:00

For his 15th birthday I got my son an ice watch (@IceWatchBrand - designed in Bastogne, Belgium!). Buying gifts for teenage boys is, as gift inspiration site the handpicked collection (@HandpickedC) calls it, the holy grail of gift shopping but I'm glad I pulled if off. Amazon's always been very good at recommendations for just about everyone in your life but I like the editorial approach of the handpicked collection.

And then there's the new kid in town when it comes to gift idea generators: No Present? No Problem. Still in beta, but I absolutely love the "hippie" and "cowboy" parameters.
Which sites to you use to get your gift ideas? Or are you a champion in regifting?

Turtles all the way down

2011-11-27T11:21:00.001+01:00

From Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time:

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!”

Bullies thrive wherever authority is weak

2011-11-20T15:42:00.000+01:00

Losers: A film about bullying. Made by Everynone everynone.com.

Losers from Everynone on Vimeo.

We live in public

2011-11-16T19:03:00.001+01:00

On 7 November I was one of the speakers at TEDxUHasselt. I used the platform to collect feedback on a number of have-baked ideas on identity, privacy, and reputation online. Here's the video:

The accompanying slides are up on Slideshare:

We live in public

View more presentations from Clo Willaerts

A collection of starlings is called a murmuration

2011-11-06T09:04:00.001+01:00

Murmuration on Vimeo: "A chance encounter and shared moment with one of natures greatest and most fleeting phenomena."

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

I'm not sure if I would have been able to keep the camera that still if you see a thing like that while canoeing.

Women of @TEDxBrussels

2011-10-26T07:15:00.000+01:00

TEDxBrussels (on 22 November 2011 in Bozar, Brussels) is one of the many independently organised TED events, but for the Brussels chapter it's already the 3rd edition. I'm part of the blogging team this year, and in this first post I'm having a look at the women in this year's speaker list. More or less in order of preference:

Entrepreneur, investor and business adviser Julie Meyer (@JulieMarieMeyer) is U.S. based, but most know her as one of the dragons on BBC's Dragon's Den. She is the founder and CEO of Ariadne Capital and the Managing Partner of Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Fund (ACE).

"Kaliya Hamlin is @IdentityWoman" sounds a little like a cheesy trailer for a female superhero tv series. But Kaliya is really a user-centric ID expert, who facilitates numerous internet ID workshops and unconferences. I'm playing with the idea to write a book about online identity and reputation, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how she's managed to convince companies and organisations to innovate identity tools and systems that work for people on an internet scale.

Leila Chirayath Janah (@Leila_C) is mostly known as the CEO and founder of Samasource, a social enterprise that gives digital work to impoverished people around the world. But in her Twitter bio she describes herself also as a bit of an "adventurette". While attending Harvard, she did field work in Mozambique, Senegal and Rwanda and she's a visiting scholar at Stanford, Yale, and the University of Calgary. Her main mission is to alleviate poverty by empowering the world's poor as producers of goods and services in the global economy, because "the greatest natural resource in the world that has been overlooked is the brainpower at the bottom of the pyramid." Check out her blog and official site for more.

Interesting idea: the X Prize FoundationX PRIZE Foundation, an organization dedicated to developing radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity through incentive prize competitions. Or, in other words, gamifying doing social good by rewarding the most groundbreaking ideas in a competition. TEDx speaker Eileen Bartholomew (@ebartholomew) has been a Senior Director, Life Sciences, Prize Development at the X Prize Foundation for over 2 years now. She describes her mission as "Relentlessly pursuing creativity and style in a world of necessary engagements."

You Suck On Waffels

2011-10-22T10:59:00.000+01:00

The title of this post was conveniently generated by the Youtube Insult Generator: "basically a "search engine for insults." Type in a search term, and it'll give you insults you can use against a person who doesn't like that term. For example, enter "the godfather," and it'll give you "You sleep with the fishes," "You sleeps with horsehead in bed" and "You will get an offer you can't refuse." Enter "alfred hitchcock" and it'll say "You had your eyes plucked out by crows" and "You have Vertigo." Enter "mario brothers" and it'll say "You aren't Super enough for Mario," "You can't beat world 1-1" and "You are bowser." You get the idea. It finds stuff only about 50% of the time, but it works surprisingly well when it does work. Try general terms ("car") and pop culture ("michael jordan", "i love lucy"). Each insult includes a link to its source YouTube video. "

My boy lollipop

2011-10-19T08:27:00.001+01:00

Take This Lollipop is an Interactive Live Action Facebook Connect experience. And a very creepy one, too.

I'm sorry, Elke.

Practice life through play

2011-10-12T11:06:00.002+01:00

Auti is "an interactive toy developed especially for autistic children. [It] shuts down in response to negative behaviour such as hitting or screaming, but quickly responds to the slightest positive interaction. Each sensor can be adjusted to respond appropriately to each child’s individual characteristics, making Auti immediately compatible with the child."

This toy can teach autistic children how to be less "rough" when seeking contact with other children. But what I like most about this concept is that it is suitable for not just autistic children, but anyone else.

Auti from Helen Andreae on Vimeo.

Dinner signs

2011-10-06T07:27:00.002+01:00

Sign Dining - Op-Art - NYTimes.com: "In 1944, Alfred Eisenstaedt shot a photo essay for Life magazine, depicting the secret hand signals Sherman Billingsley used to communicate with the staff of this famous nightspot, the Stork Club."

I've used these numerous times (adding the universal "pinkie" sign for one glass of beer). Most of the time the people at my table laugh at me, but the waiters always get what I mean. Bless them.

[EDIT]There are more, like the "one thumb, one pinkie" devil sign for Duvel beer, and flapping your hands if you want "light" Coke. Got any signs of your own for noisy bars or restaurants?

To live not knowing

2011-10-05T10:18:00.000+01:00

You'll probably remember the 7 part Sagan Series, and now the Feynman Series have just started.

Richard Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium. He died in 1988, aged 69.

From part 1, about Beauty:

Feynman: “I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in this mysterious universe without having any purpose.”

“I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than having answers which might be wrong”

This blog is 28.6% sad

2011-10-04T07:43:00.004+01:00

Emotional Breakdown.

View Today’s Emotional Breakdown, an experimental visualization of the mood of people in photographs from The Guardian’s 24 hours in pictures.

Everybody is an artist. But is that a good thing?

2011-10-02T08:48:00.004+01:00

PressPausePlay: "The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites.
But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity?
This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era."

One of these influential creators is American entrepreneur, author and public speaker Seth Godin. His take:

there has never been a better time to be an artist.

British-American entrepreneur and author Andrew Keen is more of a technology pessimist:

we may well be on the verge of a new dark age… where the creative world is destroyed.

What do you think?

The concept of the film itself is interesting: there are free versions to download, and others to buy on iTunes or Amazon. They know how to use a mix of Flickr, YouTube, a Facebook page and even a somewhat vague application of Twitter and Facebook login. Here's one of the film's trailers:

Disappointment

2011-10-01T11:30:00.001+01:00

Oh, So That's What That Really Means

The Cage Crusader, from Lucy Pepper's Troll Catalogue

2011-09-27T19:14:00.002+01:00

The Troll Catalogue | lucy pepper…: "On the outside, this troll would not seem to be the prime candidate for being a troll. He has a decent job, is quite well educated, is reasonably paid, is not a virgin, might even have a wife and family. However, he is a very bitter man. So bitter that he is seething with rage… not about things that might matter, let’s say hunger in the third world or unjustified violence, no. He seethes with jealousy…[...] He HATES anyone he perceives as more talented than him. Or who has attained more than him. Or is a woman with any kind of talent."

This is what "dance like no one's watching" looks like

2011-09-26T15:20:00.000+01:00

Father and baby in Washington Square Park dancing to the Crazy Piano Guy's music. Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth.

Crappy songs for lonely strangers

2011-09-24T09:34:00.002+01:00

Most of the time I love it when an online service uses its user behaviour stats to come up with lists. But in this case, the list proves that the number one comforting song is by one Andy Grammar whose lyrics go

I've been waiting on a sunset,

Bills on my mindset

I can't deny they're getting high

Found these on Emotional Bag Check. Here's the top 5:

Keep Your Head Up by Andy Grammer (511)
The Middle by Jimmy Eat World (480)
Fix You by Coldplay (412)
Move Along by The All-American Rejects (345)
Beautiful (full album version) by Christina Aguilera (343)

The idea behind Emotional Bag Check is really cool. If you feel really crappy lately, take a minute to unload whatever's been bringing you down. Maybe some random stranger with a preference for auto tuned pop songs will take that emotional baggage off you with a song. Weird times we live in, when we look for comfort given by complete strangers.

In the sack

2011-09-19T17:33:00.002+01:00

Very impressive Facebook integration for a Notruf Deutschland awareness campaign . Watch my movie to see what I mean.

Human spam

2011-09-12T18:52:00.000+01:00

Serina Cooper (@humanspam2040) is "here to make friends and influence people". Her job is to be Human Spam, and get paid to recommend products to everyone she meets. She is only one of the examples from the dystopic Ghosts with shit jobs.

A boy learns to play the piano

2011-09-11T10:46:00.000+01:00

While outside the most horrible things happen. From Thoreau's Walden:

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”

The External World from David OReilly on Vimeo.

The rotary phone, and other obsolete objects

2011-09-10T09:26:00.002+01:00

While our daily life becomes more and more digital, some things just vanish or they simply become obsolete. That is a natural phenomenon. They are needed to be replaced for a newer, better devices. However, now let’s recall many our good old companion in the Museum of Obsolete Objects. Like this one, the Rotary Telephone:

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A little birdhouse for your soul

2011-09-09T07:39:00.003+01:00

What's the Story? - Little Free Library: Between 1888 and 1929, Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-American businessman, provided the money to build 2,509 libraries in the world. The first Carnegie Free Library in the United States was built in 1889 in Braddock, PA. [...] Carnegie wanted to make sure each town contributed to library construction and book collections so that they could be "free to all." [...]Carnegie's generosity showed us the way. One by one, thousands of Little Free Libraries will be endowed around the world--even more than Mr. Carnegie built--and you can help!"

Love this! Would be a great idea for me to set the books I accidentally bought twice free.

God of the manga

2011-09-06T13:59:00.005+01:00

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui - Eastman - TeZukA - deSingel.be:

The world of this visionary Japanese cartoonist - a fascinating blend of tradition, contemporary science fiction and reality - is the material of Cherkaoui's new dance performance. In 'TeZukA' the choreographer returns to his first love, drawing. However, the master of the manga (Japanese cartoon) has influenced the choreographer not only in terms of form. Having grown up in post-war Japan, Osamu Tezuka addressed universal themes without any taboos. He regarded human rights, ethics and tolerance as of paramount importance. In 'TeZukA', Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui makes the artistic process physically visible: he uses both his dancers and calligraphers to describe the drawing process on stage. From a blank page, through a single Japanese kanji (character) to a fully- fledged manga character. 'TeZukA' pays tribute to the drawings and humanity in the work of the 'god of the manga'.

I'm a big fan of Osamu Tezuka. Ordered tickets (thank you, Nathalie!) for the 29th. Anyone else who's going? Picture ("rehearsing the final scene") from blogtezuka.desingel.be the "work in progress" blog about the dance production, with lots of behind the scenes pictures.

If you like Louis-Paul Boon, you will also like...

2011-09-05T08:13:00.003+01:00

From The Art, Science and Business of Recommendation Engines, published at readwriteweb.com in January 2007 but still valid: "if a web site can increase the chances of giving users good recommendations, it makes more money. [...]The main approaches fall into the following categories:

Personalized recommendation - recommend things based on the individual's past behavior
Social recommendation - recommend things based on the past behavior of similar users
Item recommendation - recommend things based on the thing itself
A combination of the three approaches above

Roughly speaking, Google champions the first kind, Facebook the second, and Amazon the third. Today I came across an interesting example of the second kind. I took my favourite author, Flemish journalist and novelist Louis-Paul Boon, as the starting point. Literature-Map: Louis-Paul Boon: What else do readers of Louis-Paul Boon read? The closer two writers are, the more likely someone will like both of them.
I came across some usual suspects, like Kees Van Kooten, Remco Campert, Jeroen Brouwers, Dimitri Verhulst, Hugo Matthysen, Tom Lanoye, and Nick Cave.
But also some writers I had never heard of, like Barber Van Der Pol (who translated, among many other things, Cortázars Rayuela into Dutch), Tomas Ross (who is famous for his historical criminal thrillers) and Dashiell Hammett (who is described as an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories).

From bowler hats to skinny jeans

2011-09-01T18:12:00.002+01:00

100 YEARS / STYLE / EAST LONDON - YouTube: "100 years of East London style in 100 seconds. Sept 13th 1911 - Sept 13th 2011."

This film (published on Guardian/Fashion) is a 100 year countdown to the grand opening of Westfield Stratford City on September 13th 2011, and celebrates a century of East London fashion, dance and music.It was shot over 4 days in east London locations with hundreds of costume changes. The music was commissioned from composer Tristin Norwell who took a simple tune and interpreted it for each decade over 100 years.

Chaos as constrained randomness

2011-08-30T13:36:00.004+01:00

Chaos refers to a kind of constrained randomness. "Wherever a chaotic process has shaped an environment, a fractal structure is left behind." Fractal renders: RoddH and Fractal Lab, a WebGL app to interactively explore and render 3D fractals in real time.

Things to do in Tuscany

2011-08-18T10:08:00.003+01:00

I made a Google Map of things to do in Tuscany, based on what we've already tried and some advice from fellow Internet Marketing School teacher Kenny Van Beeck (a specialist in the good things in life - make sure to check out his (and his wife's) project Authentic Taste.)

Back to my map. What do you think is still missing?

Rain makes everything better

2011-08-18T10:05:00.002+01:00

RainyMood.com: Rain makes everything better. It adds a little sparkle to everything it touches.

Inflated expactions and Big Data

2011-08-13T09:33:00.000+01:00

Since 1995, information technology research firm Gartner has used hype cycles to characterize the over-enthusiasm or "hype" and subsequent disappointment that typically happens with the introduction of new technologies. These hype cycles are invariably interesting, and so is their latest edition.
At the peak of the July 2011 hype cycle, right between the mass media hype and negative press are: gamification, group buying, social analytics, wireless power, activity streams, internet tv, NFC payment, private cloud computing, augmented reality, cloud computing, media tablets, and virtual assistants. According to the same model, cloud/Web platforms are slipping into the "trough of disillusionment" but QR/Color codes are climbing back up on the slope of enlightenment.
Keep an eye on: "Big Data" and Extreme Information Processing and Management. From Big data @ wikipedia.org:

Big data are datasets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools. Difficulties include capture, storage, search, sharing, analytics, and visualizing. This trend continues because of the benefits of working with larger and larger datasets allowing analysts to "spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime.

Reality starts looking more and more like Minority Report every day. I'd rather have it look like Star Trek episodes each day. Still waiting for that sonic shower and a microwave over that actually fulfills my request for a "Tea! Earl Grey. Hot!"

Where Children Sleep

2011-08-10T19:39:00.002+01:00

Where Children Sleep - stories of diverse children around the world, told through portraits and pictures of their bedrooms."

The one pictured above is Alyssa, 8, Harlan County, USA. The book is written and presented for an audience of 9-13 year olds ' intended to interest and engage children in the details of the lives of other children around the world, and the social issues affecting them, while also being a serious photographic essay for an adult audience.

More Google Streetviews from the middle of nowhere

2011-08-07T08:55:00.002+01:00

No Man’s Land "explores the margins of our urban and rural European environment as experienced by what appear to be women soliciting sex in liminal, post-industrial and rural settings, captured by Google’s Street View cameras." Mishka Henner (b.1976 in Belgium) is a photographer and artist living and working in Manchester, England. He operates in the genres of social documentary and appropriation art and embraces the self-published artist’s book as a means of transmitting his work. Order No Man's Land over at Blurb.com.

You're wrong! You are always wrong! I am always right!

2011-07-28T09:01:00.001+01:00

Boy: You always do this, you know, you always do this
Girl: Oh you're right, I forgot, everything's MY fault!
Boy: I didn't say it, you said it, I didn't say it
Girl: Oh, you think you are SO much smarter than me

Every Argument Every Couple Ever Has EVER. on Vimeo

Every Argument Every Couple Ever Has EVER. from Casey Donahue on Vimeo.

The quiet despair of the Starship Enterprise

2011-07-28T08:18:00.001+01:00

Space Trek. Only slightly depressing.

How to be the perfect biker's girlfriend: 3 golden rules

2011-07-26T12:29:00.018+01:00

Whenever I get on a motorcycle I go "Yeeeeehaaaww!". This is why I don't drive or own one: with this state of mind, I'd get killed in a road accident within a matter of weeks. My solution is: a sensible biker boyfriend. This is him, next to that other tame racing driver somewhere on the Isle of Skye.

And this is his bike, the BMW R1100R I mentioned in my previous blog post. Naked bike, boxer motor, added windshield.

What I learnt during our 4 day trip through Scotland are that the rules for biker's girlfriends are pretty simple:

Hold on.
Sit still.
Shut up.

You know these t-shirts "If you can read this, the bitch fell off"? Well if the bitch actually falls off, it's not that funny any more. Cover all of your skin if you don't want it to look like Freddy Krueger's after you "kissed the asphalt". Wear your exoskeleton with pride and pick boots, gloves, vest, pants, and protective pads with this in mind: "will it keep my ankles/wrist/shoulder/... from breaking" (as opposed to "does it make me look like Danica Patrick at Nascar, or Keira Knightley in that Chanel Commercial").

Bikers do greet each other on the road. Fascinating. The signs vary from the classic index finger "Yo!", over various cool and subdued Buddha-like signs, to the rare "I know you're behind me but I will still salute you" leg stretch. The bike passenger does not need to greet. Does not wave or flip that middle finger either when, say, a senior citizen in a Volvo tries to kill you. And certainly does not yell "Yak. Yak! YAK!" when she sees a long-haired Highland cow along the road. (I simply can't resist the "Dude abides" look of these animals. Just look at it.)

The Yak Incident brings us to the third lesson I learnt: riding on a motorbike is not based on democratic principles. Decide on where to go before hitting the road. While driving, for the love of god, do not distract the driver. Want to stop? Three gentle taps on his left thigh will do. After a while you'll learn a whole new three tap language, including the subtle "My butt hurts. If yours hurts too, please stop at the next filling station" and the more urgent "I need to pee. NOW." I know there are bluetooth head sets that allow helmet-to-helmet conversations but I'd rather just let my mind wander off while looking at the roads and the landscapes as they fly by. Landscapes like these...

And the negative side of travelling by motorcycle? There is really only one: the side the rain comes from. Pick motorcycle clothes that are waterproof whenever you can. When the weather's sunny, it only gets hot the minute you get off the bike. A minor annoyance are itches anywhere on your body while driving. Rough it out: you can't scratch.

Bonus tip: don't sneeze when helmet on. The result is disgusting.

LochCarron and the lost key

2011-07-25T11:39:00.007+01:00

I took this picture on the 22nd of July 2011 at about three in the afternoon at LochCarron, a small Scottish village in the West Coast Highlands. Gil's bike had been running on fumes for the last 20 miles and we had just made it in time to the filling station. What you see in this picture:

Gil's bike, a 1998 R1100R BMW Motorrad. Awesome bike. No sissy bar. Sissy bars are for sissies.
Next to the bike: our backpack. One of my main responsibilities during our bike trip through Scotland (the other one was: not falling off the back of the bike).
In the background: Loch Carron, a sea loch in the Scottish Highlands.
At the petrol pump: a Google Streetview car.

The Streetview car proves that misery loves company. We had just lost the key to Gil's bike and were calling Touring Assistance to prepare for being towed home. With that Streetview car, the audience to watch us slumped over looking everywhere for a flat, black, tiny ignition key just became a lot bigger.

What you don't see in this picture:

Norman, a local scotsman, who walked up just minutes after this picture with a simple "Are you the keyless ones?", dropped whatever he was doing and started looking for the key under every rock.
Two other bikers who were on their way to the Highland Games in Applecross and without saying anything started searching too.

We had been searching for three hours - Touring was already on its way - when Norman lifted a piece of rock near the jerry and found the key.

This story proves two things to us: 1) Norman is a hero and a fine example of the Scottish down-to-earth, hands-on attitude. And 2) When a motorbike driver sees an other biker in trouble, he stops to help. No questions asked.

We're assembling a box of fine Belgian beers to send to a particular small Scottish village as we speak. It's the least we can do.

Here's something new: QR codes!

2011-07-06T18:49:00.002+01:00

"Typing in web addresses and copy/pasting links are barriers between the consumer and your brand. Let’s break down these oppressive walls with a QR code. We’ll create a stylized Clo Willaerts QR code that will give users a unique entry point to your website, allowing for simplified interaction and access to incentives, engaging content and purchase power—all while on the go."

Hobo Lobo of Hamelin

2011-07-03T08:24:00.002+01:00

Hobo Lobo of Hamelin: "is a thing by a dude, who’s all like, “I’M GONNA MAKE A THING.” And then he did. Or is doing. Or, you know, whatever. This dude can be found on the internet. He websites to put food on his family."

Bohemian Ragecomic

2011-07-02T18:53:00.002+01:00

Bohemian Ragecomic. View full size. It's amazing! - eagleapex's posterous

Social Telegrams: a handy reference guide

2011-07-01T08:50:00.004+01:00

If you were wondering how to congratulate me on the birth of my godchild Mauranne Willaerts yesterday, here's a handy guide: Social Telegrams, a "handy reference of suggested sentiments for many occasions for use in telegrams." Telegrams, "the modern, socially-correct correspondence medium". Because you paid per character, most of them are conveniently short, too.

What do you love? Chocolate, of course!

2011-06-29T07:50:00.003+01:00

Portal for all your chocolate-related web activities: wdyl.com/#chocolate. WDYL.com is powered by Google and tries to tie the many Google web services to particular topics you're interested in.

Me as a bitch

2011-06-26T10:09:00.002+01:00

Somewhere on the other side of the globe there's a 1 year old female Austrialian Kelpie that looks just like me according to Doggelganger's human to canine pairing software. About her:

I am a very lovely girl who can be quite shy at times. So I am looking for an experienced owner who will help give me a boost of confidence. I will require a firm but fair handler who will be patient and consistent in my training. Rules and boundaries are a must for me as they will help me settle in and find my place in my new home. Daily mental and physical stimulation is a must for me as I am a very active girl with heaps of energy. I would benefit from on going socialisation with other dogs and people.

Inventive campaign for the New Zealand chapter of Pedigree's Adoption Drive.

Eames Eiffel Walker, for Benidorm Bastards with a taste for contemporary design

2011-06-25T10:00:00.003+01:00

fueledbycoffee: "Midcentury Modern Hits Retirement Age".

Where have I been in the past few weeks?

2011-06-19T09:07:00.002+01:00

YouTube - My Google Location History: "Technically this is an example of 'background location updating' done by the Google Latitude app on my Blackberry. My location is (e.g. on the Google Latitude widget on the right hand side of my blog bnox.be) updated without me needing to 'check in'. But then again, I opted in for Google Latitude. And this Latitude History is only visible to me. Still: not sure whether this is cool or creepy."

Mood board for the wonders of every day technology

2011-06-17T18:47:00.002+01:00

The New Aesthetic | Blog | Really Interesting Group: "we’ve got frustrated with the NASA extropianism space-future, the failure of jetpacks, and we need to see the technologies we actually have with a new wonder. Consider this a mood-board for unknown products."

The result is the Tumblr blog The New Aesthetic. Fascinating.

My Artist Statement

2011-06-17T08:17:00.002+01:00

Instant artist statement: Arty Bollocks Generator: "My work explores the relationship between acquired synesthesia and multimedia experiences. With influences as diverse as Kierkegaard and Frida Kahlo, new combinations are crafted from both simple and complex textures. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the ephemeral nature of relationships. What starts out as vision soon becomes corroded into a cacophony of greed, leaving only a sense of decadence and the chance of a new synthesis. As shifting impressions become frozen through diligent and diverse practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the inaccuracies of our future."

Robert Cornelius, the original daguerrotype boyfriend

2011-06-16T12:04:00.002+01:00

My Daguerreotype Boyfriend exhibit #1: a "1839 self-portrait of [American pioneer of photography] Robert Cornelius, one of the first photographs of a human to be produced." And a rather good looking one, actually.

How to disappear completely

2011-06-15T18:38:00.003+01:00

What happens after you lose someone you love? Do they gradually disappear when you start to forget what they looked like, smelled like, felt like?

Memory Tapes "Yes I Know" from Najork on Vimeo.

The internet in 2015

2011-06-14T19:42:00.003+01:00

Digital Life: Today & Tomorrow offers a very technology and gadget centured view on the coming four years (not to mention the typos here and there). But I really like the graphics and animation in this one.

Digital Life: Today & Tomorrow from Neo Labels on Vimeo.

Elvis and Sophia hanging out together

2011-06-14T13:09:00.000+01:00

awesome people hanging out together: "Elvis Presley and Sophia Loren by Bob Willoughby, 1958"

Something more than a photo but less than a video

2011-06-09T14:54:00.003+01:00

Animated GIFs are an internet classic, but only lately the limitations of this image format actually inspire artists. More where this came from: Jaw dropping Cinemagraphs (Part 1).

Sunset and sunrise in the Lofoten archipelago in Norway

2011-06-01T09:01:00.002+01:00

The Arctic Light on Vimeo: "This was filmed between 29th April and 10th May 2011 in the Arctic, on the archipelago Lofoten in Norway. [...] The Sunset and Sunrise are connected in one magnificent show of color and light lasting from 8 to 12 hours. The sun is barely going below the horizon before coming up again. This is the most colorful light that I know, and the main reason I have been going up there for the last 4 years, at the exact same time of year, to photograph."

The Arctic Light from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy

2011-05-31T18:34:00.001+01:00

Robert Plutchik "created a wheel of emotions. This wheel is used to illustrate different emotions compelling and nuanced. Plutchik first proposed his cone-shaped model (3D) or the wheel model (2D) in 1980 to describe how emotions were related. He suggested 8 primary bipolar emotions: joy versus sadness; anger versus fear; trust versus disgust; and surprise versus anticipation. Additionally, his circumplex model makes connections between the idea of an emotion circle and a color wheel. Like colors, primary emotions can be expressed at different intensities and can mix with one another to form different emotions."

Village of 100 people

2011-05-29T13:03:00.001+01:00

The World of 100 : Toby Ng Design: "If the world were a village of 100 people, how would the composition be? This set of 20 posters is built on statistics about the spread of population around the world under various classifications. The numbers are turned into graphics to give another sense a touch – Look, this is the world we are living in."

Puts things in perspective.

Content curation done right

2011-05-29T11:02:00.003+01:00

MOSAIC Looks a little like the Flipcard or Mosaic view for Bnox.be, only with more features. And better looking.

Pocket pillow for stealth naps at work

2011-05-27T09:40:00.001+01:00

Kawamura Ganjavian - OSTRICH: "Working patterns are constantly evolving. We gradually spend more time in our working environments, and this in turn means that we often need to make work and rest fully compatible within the same space. Some cultures have assimilated this concept more naturally than others, but in general the workplace has rarely adapted to this new working-resting paradigm."

What if... your breakfast could fly?

2011-05-18T15:26:00.002+01:00

BSS | Breakfast Interrupted on Vimeo: "the piece is designed to showcase food in a beautiful and unusual way. The idea was brought to us by our friends at marlinnetwork.com, for their annual breakfast event. More at our blog: brutonstroube.com/blog.aspx?post=122"

BSS | Breakfast Interrupted from Bruton Stroube Studios on Vimeo.

How to get your degree from the School of Life

2011-05-15T16:43:00.004+01:00

Christopher Tayler - Short Cuts: "[Alain de Botton,] the author of How Proust Can Change Your Life doesn’t do a weekly podcast, but his admirers could be forgiven for taking the School of Life, a boutique enterprise in Central London, for the next best thing. The great philosopher is listed as founder and chairman among the project’s ‘ambassadors’, and though the entrepreneurial heavy lifting behind it was done by Sophie Howarth, a former curator at Tate Modern, he is very prominent in its PR."

The School offers classes with names like How To Be Cool, How To Face Death, How To Fill The God-shaped Hole, How To Make a Difference, or How to Make Love Last. As a matter of fact, most of their activities have fascinating names, often referring to great writers and thinkers.

I'm really, really curious about this School. Is this what Alain de Botton meant when he talked about the big market for Life/Love/Career Counselling? And are these Sunday Sermons a way to fill The God-shaped Hole?

Rebecca Solnit on Hope from The School of Life on Vimeo.

The tale of the fairy

2011-05-15T16:35:00.001+01:00

Chanel Cruise 2012 "The Tale of a Fairy": "Director: Karl Lagerfeld"

Chanel Cruise 2012 "The Tale of a Fairy" Dir. Karl Lagerfeld from gabriel on Vimeo.

Once upon a daydream

2011-05-15T07:49:00.004+01:00

R�verie | Daydream | a short film on Vimeo:
"Once upon a daydream
she dreamt so long ago
a boy was made to dream upon
ensconced upon her soul."

ensconced: past participle, past tense of en·sconce
Verb: Establish or settle (someone) in a comfortable, safe, or secret place.

Made as an exam film by Jaro Minne, student at University College of Ghent, faculty of the arts-film.

Rêverie | Daydream | a short film from Jaro Minne on Vimeo.

Alain de Botton: everybody is supposed to be an artist nowadays

2011-05-14T12:58:00.004+01:00

The Future Summit: "Wondering about what the future will hold is as essential to human beings as reflecting on the past or coping with the present."

Alain De Botton's talk at The Future Summit was definitely my favourite. (Love his voice! If you find an audiobook version of his work with him as the narrator, drop a line in the comments)
You'll find short overviews of Alain de Botton and 5 other speakers in my Storify collection. Storify is the ultimate lazy bloggers tool and a great way to summarise the content of speakers' keynotes during and after an event.

Map of Belgium takes the world by storm, 18+ rating on YouTube

2011-05-14T12:02:00.002+01:00

YouTube - Map Of Belgium: "So you think Belgium is dull, grey, boring and ridiculously incapable of getting its act together (yeah, we're the world record holder for a country without government)? Actually, there's great stuff happening in Belgium. CREDIT: Map Of Belgium is a remake of Map Of Tasmania by Amanda Palmer, The Young Punx and Peaches".

The original is still on YouTube, while the tribute by a bunch of Belgium-loving young creatives got both 66,000+ views and the "This content may contain material flagged by YouTube's user community that may be inappropriate for some users" treatment. Fortunately, there's still Vimeo:

Map of Belgium from TACTIQS on Vimeo.

Fashion is the only cure

2011-05-08T08:10:00.004+01:00

The Cure from shootmefashion.net on Vimeo.

Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Briefcase

2011-05-08T08:04:00.001+01:00

Libraryland - Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Briefcase would make a really cool laptop case.

The crossing on Abbey Road

2011-05-08T08:01:00.002+01:00

The Crossing - Abbey Road Studios: "One of our most famous clients, The Beatles, recorded 90% of their recordings at Abbey Road studios. In April 1969, they came together to record their final album as a group and titled it ‘Abbey Road.’ This album became their best selling work and featured the now iconic image of the zebra crossing outside the studios on the front cover."

It was 08:00 on a Sunday morning when I took this screenshot. But I'm going back later today to see if there are any tourists who try to cross in fours without getting run over.

Taxi drivers spreading ideas

2011-04-30T14:27:00.002+01:00

YouTube - SPREAD THE TED: "We called [Buenos Aires'] most ramarkable speakers: taxi drivers. What for? To make TEDx ideas get to ordinary people."
Coming soon: hairdressers. Brilliant!

Peanuts comics truncated for bonus angst

2011-04-23T09:48:00.001+01:00

3eanuts: "By removing the final gag panel, we bring to the fore exactly how dark Schulz’s view of the world has always been. That this view often eludes us merely affirms Schulz’s skill at helping us to cope."

See also garfield minus garfield: "a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."

Self portrait of one guy's everyday habits

2011-04-22T11:48:00.002+01:00

Atlas of the Habitual: "With the increased integration of technology into our everyday lives, traces are created for all of our interactions with networked devices. At its most basic level, one's phone records and internet browsing history are saved by the companies that provide these services. It has become such a part of our lives that most people pass off the meticulous records being kept on them.
People not only generate data out of their interactions with technology, they also create it through the course of their day.
This atlas exists to digitize my everyday movements, to create a personal dataset and start to explore how that information can be used."

Interesting example of how people are leaving behind digital breadcrumbs of their real-world behaviour. But he could he saved himself the trouble by getting an iPhone.

The Cube, the restaurant at the end of the universe

2011-04-21T16:24:00.001+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "The Universe as we know it has now been in existence for over one hundred and seventy thousand million billion years and will be ending in a little over half an hour. So, welcome one and all to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!

This was not quite how we were welcomed at appliance maker Electrolux' pop-up restaurant The Cube in Brussels, but it might well have been. I hardly ever go to Michelin star restaurants, so I was more than happy when Electrolux invited me and a bunch of other Belgian bloggers to give it a try to celebrate/promote their new line of prosumer kitchen appliances. Have a look at the location of the restaurant, right on top of one of Belgium's most Belgian monuments, the Arc de Triomphe in Jubelpark: The view from inside The Cube is stunning: I took a seat at the "table d'amis" that sits 18 people right by the window . Like a boss: And the food... oh my... If someone had said to me during the courses that the Universe would end in a little over half an hour, I'm pretty sure my thoughts would rather be with one of these: Unfortunately, unless you were able to book a table, this is the end for The Cube in Brussels. I've just checked and they're booked full until the beginning of July, when they dismantle the whole thing and reassemble it somewhere in Stockholm.

Time is always with the people who have courage to fly

2011-04-16T14:23:00.002+01:00

Experience Human Flight with the Melbourne Skydive Centre. Shot on a GoPro, a wearable HD camera for sports.

Magnum Pleasure Hunt: follow the bonbon

2011-04-14T07:50:00.002+01:00

Magnum Pleasure Hunt follows a female internet user along the many time sucks of the internet. To make sure she doesn't stay on one site for too long, they lure her with bonbons.

A peek into my lizard brain

2011-04-12T07:05:00.003+01:00

The Pierley/Redford Dissociative Affect Diagnostic is "an exploration of your brain's affective response system. Nonverbal, emotional reactions to shape tableaus will target the portion of your brain that is intuitive and pre-lingual. The associated question should be answered without tying these shapes to any narrative or storyline. These shapes are based on neural linkage maps from the brains of reptiles and primitive mammals, ancestors to mankind. Associated questions have been culled from the communication methodologies of those with dissociative personality disorder in order to probe the link between emotional understanding and language."
My test results:

You have a poetic sensibility and an ability to see beyond the day to day. You often seem to be living in a higher realm, or to be not-of-this-earth. Occasionally you imagine interior lives for friends and associates that are near-complete fabrications based on your fears or hopes for the future. You are often not aware of your own feelings. You have a strong sense of right and wrong, and because of this are often disappointed. Despite what can sometimes be a destructive inward-turning anger, you are very gentle. You are sometimes a bit out of touch with the ebb and flow of modern life. If your behavior is out of synch with your moral values, a severe psychic disturbance can result. Because connectivity is so important to you, you can become quiet and sulky if you feel that others around do not understand your point of view.

The White Dragon

2011-04-11T18:24:00.005+01:00

The Periodic Table of Storytelling vaguely reminds of Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale. Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (1895 — 1970) was "a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements". His framework is perfect for online story generators. Below is a fairy tale I generated with the proppian fairy tale generator. I used Cinderella's preset, but without the solution, the recognition and the wedding. The story definitely needs some more fillers, but the basic outline is there:

The village people buried my father in a plot of land near our home. Every night following his death, I prayed for rain. I prayed that water from the heavens would soak the ground under which my father lay, so that his soul would not thirst as it had during his life. I prayed the rain would cleanse my father’s soul, and leave him to rest in peace.
As the cinnamon fell on my eyelids I felt a burden shift onto my shoulders. I could not open my eyes but could tell my knees were sunk halfway into the weak soil. I heard the old woman exhaust her laughter into my ears, filling them with tones of mockery and deceit.
Inside my head lived a frightened little boy who nibbled at his nails whenever a strange man glanced at him. I could not leave that fright alone.
My mother bade me to return home twice to comfort her hunger. But on the third time the hunger sunk such a pit in her stomach that it fell into the ground and would not move.
When I placed the needle I had taken on my palm, it moved in the direction where I needed to go. The bones taken from the ground shielded me from any harm.
As I approached the top of the mountain a white spectacle blinded me for an instant. When I blinked again I saw a white dragon shifting over the mountain like a layer of foam riding ocean waves. I could tell by its movement that it was a territorial creature; I could tell that it would fight me before allowing me to press further.
In the chest were more than enough gold, pearls, and sparkling jewels to feed my family for a lifetime.
Before I entered my home my brothers came out, and, thinking I was a peddler, asked how much the jade I carried was worth.

Scan your zebra

2011-04-10T09:40:00.002+01:00

One Per Cent: Barcode scanner for zebras: "When a zebra has been entered into the database and given a StripeCode, the researchers match another picture of the same animal by comparing the StripeStrings of the new and original images. Each image will generate a different set of StripeStrings, but the underlying ratios of black and white should remain similar.
By finding the StripeCode with the most similar StripeStrings in the database, the system is able to accurately identify the correct animal. Other existing zebra identification systems are less accurate, more complex, and require a greater level of manual input from the user."

Hang Her Morning Elegance over your bed

2011-04-10T09:25:00.004+01:00

Her Morning Elegance "has become a pop-art phenomena and the most successful stop motion video ever [viewed 18,276,771 times, liked 98,726 times].
It earned a nomination in the 52nd Grammy Awards and has been screened at film festivals around the world. The video was created from 2096 still photographs that were shot and sequenced to create the sense of movement.
After creating motion from still photographs, the artists have decided to break the video back down into its original form, and create a unique opportunity to share a piece of art, music and photographic history.
Today you can enjoy a signed, single-edition and numbered frame of the video in your home, office, or gallery."

Sad stuff on the street

2011-04-05T19:30:00.001+01:00

Sad Stuff on the Street: "Children and emo adults alike weep for its existence. But at some point—in the not so distant past—the sad thing was not sad. It just belonged to some person."

Sad, indeed.

I joined Twitter 4 years ago thx to @SePP

2011-04-04T07:06:00.000+01:00

And here's my Twitter Birth Certificate.

My godfather was indeed Boondoggle's @SePP. Thanks, Jesse!

Twitter can also be a place where rumors go to die

2011-04-02T18:39:00.001+01:00

Israeli weapons In Libya? How @acarvin and his Twitter followers debunked sloppy journalism - storify.com: "In this particular case, a rumor perpetuated by several news sources was easily debunked by a group of people on Twitter who don't know each other and likely will never meet each other in person."

The story behind Pantene Superswisssh

2011-04-01T08:01:00.011+01:00

About a month ago, Pantene wanted to advertise their new Aqua Light product line in Flair Magazine and on vijfTV. The visual in the tv ad (a blonde woman whipping her hair left and right) reminded me of something:

What is a Superswisssh and why is it important?: When Naked Gun's Frank Drebin (played by the late Leslie Nielsen) sees Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley) for the first time, he stares at the way her hair flows. And she keeps swishing her hair in slow motion for what seems like an eternity.

This led to the idea to make a new version of this video, but with common girls. Here's the appeal on Flair.be:

Doe mee met de Superswisssh Schrijf je in en maak kans op je eigen tv-spot met Pantene Aqua Light!.
Hoe doet u de perfecte Pantene Swisssh at Pantene.be added some extra tips and tricks to the mix.

A total of 29 long haired girls were invited to a photo shoot. This is a still from the making of eternal superswisssh video: The result is a new tv ad for Pantene Aqua Light, shown at VijfTV in about all the important 30' ad spots. This is the longer version, about 4.5 minutes long and almost hypnotising: If you, along with a lot of other viewers, wonder that these girls are too pretty to be "regular" girls who just happened to respond to Flair's and Vijftv's appeal, here's one of them - the Dorien, Heusden-Zolder at 1:17:

Dynamic Views for bnox.be

2011-04-01T07:49:00.003+01:00

Google has been experimenting with new designs for their Blogger network blogs. Bnox.be uses the Blogger cms, so I gave it a try. I liked the Snapshot view best for it Polaroid style Tumblr interface: All about Dynamic Views for Readers - Blogger Help: "

This view will display only the posts which have images.
Clicking through any photo will display the full post page, with naviagtion links at the bottom for Newer and Older posts
Mousing over any photo will display a post snippet

But when I asked on Twitter what my followers thought of it, I got mixed results: "very visual", "very photographic", but also "too messy", "slows down the page" and "it's a blog, not an iPad".

So, for the time being, I'll just leave this blog's design as it is, and closely watch Google's Blogger moves.

Thanks @ingridcops, @bartclaeys, @AnthonyPaletta, @NicolasFrenay, @doryblue, @aardling, @jacobogio, @catoleonard, @ikke_timme, @Vromant, @katrienbis, @j_dude, @boskabout, @michlr, @Markec, and @YoungCrazyFool for your feedback!

Cedric Vella Youtubes his Facebook on Vimeo

2011-03-29T12:49:00.001+01:00

Cedric Vella makes Facebook come to life | MarkBiwwa: "If your dreams are anything like Cedric Vella’s, they don’t involve falling down or drowning. No, they involve his close friends doing what they do best, or occasionally, doing what they’re asked to."

"Youtube My Facebook" from Cedric Vella on Vimeo.

Petite Lap Giraffe

2011-03-28T12:31:00.001+01:00

Sokoblovsky Farms - Russia's Finest Purveyors of Miniature Lap Giraffes: "Petite Lap Giraffes are very funny animal that require special care. [...] If you have children, petite lap giraffes no problem. If child is loud, the giraffe will be shy, but does not bite. PLG’s are very clean. With training they will go in box like cats. Allergies never a problem.[...] Diet: distilled water and bonsai tree leaves.[...] Living conditions: PLG’s love being indoors in filtered air conditioning. If they can listen to music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov it is dream. Grooming: a bubble bath once a week with purified water is all they need."

Check out the Giraffecam on the farm.

Ivanka the bonsai giraffe and its owner, a creepy Russian billionaire, were created for a series of DirecTV ads.

Chernokids

2011-03-27T13:06:00.003+01:00

Chernokids (english subtitles): "Supinfocom graduation film"

Sad and disturbing, but very well made.

Shakespeare's ghost

2011-03-27T13:02:00.002+01:00

Why can’t you say ‘Macbeth’ in a theater? | I Always Wondered: "It is a common superstition that the play itself is cursed, because Shakespeare used real spells from witches who, not too happy with their portrayal, cursed the play. I believe it went like this:

Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble. Death to Theater Majors.

To sleep, perchance to dream

2011-03-27T10:20:00.003+01:00

Another one from helpineedhelp: My recommended dream: chef. In this dream I am the greatest chef in the world. But nobody comes to eat my food because I have terrible and itchy skin and I insist on cooking tableside to provide the diner with a more intimate experience. Unfortunately, it's too intimate for most.

I love the kind of content Help Remedies Inc is producing. If I had an iPhone, I might even try out their Dream Recorder App.

We think that the internet is real

2011-03-21T20:10:00.003+01:00

Is the internet real?:

"We don’t like the expression ‘In Real Life‘. We say ‘Away From keyboard‘. We think that the internet is real."

Happy 5th Birthday, Twitter!

2011-03-21T06:22:00.001+01:00

Twitter Celebrates its 5th Anniversary from FOD Team: "On the 5th Anniversary of the first tweet on Twitter, this documentary takes a look back at the history of twitter and some of its more impressive tweets."wpW

Twitter Celebrates its 5th Anniversary - watch more funny videos

David Lynch has dynamic hair

2011-03-20T09:02:00.001+01:00

In The Painter Jimmy Chen compares David Lynch's hair styles to famous paintings. American filmmaker David Lynch quit doing his Daily Weather Report from Los Angeles in November last year. But you can still look at his YouTube channel for a quick snapshot of Mr Lynch's hair situation.

A look into random people's medicine cabinets

2011-03-20T08:48:00.002+01:00

Help Remedies "was created to make solving simple health issues simple. We find the best solution there is, and take away everything else. By stripping away some of the complexity and fear mongering of the health industry, we hope to make medicine friendlier and more accessible, and in doing so empower people to make their own health decisions.

We think a little help, honesty and kindness will go a long way."

Great way to get an insight in today's most common problems: being bored, frustrated, lonely or, like me, curious.

Agencia Loco

2011-03-19T12:35:00.002+01:00

Here's what happens when an Austrialan freelance copywriter uses the YouTube subtitling featuring in a clip from a 90s Mexican soap series. Only funny if you don't understand Spanish.

A witness to our lives

2011-03-12T11:52:00.001+01:00

Shall We Dance (2004) - Memorable quotes: "Beverly Clark (played by Susan Sarandon): We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'.'"

Great quote from a movie that is mostly bad, in spite of a sweaty Richard Gere.

Snapshot of today's popular internet culture

2011-03-12T11:19:00.001+01:00

I didn't know that: Memebase.com: "Forever Alone, Pedobear, Y U No, and Troll Face™ is a trademark of Cheezburger, Inc." We use all four regularly during dinner conversations. Are we in trouble?

The art of wrapping

2011-03-11T09:13:00.003+01:00

Word Puzzle Universal Wrapping�Paper - TheDieline.com - Package Design Blog: "Check out this super cool wrapping paper concept, called 'Universal Wrapping Paper'. The crossword puzzle has text for every possible holiday you could think of! Design and art direction: Fabio Milito, Francesca Guidotti."

Make your own search word puzzle. Here's mine: