That cheeky Dino is still appearing on Geonet’s White Island crater camera, two years on. I remember the first time I saw it and thought it was quite a laugh – I had initially wondered if geology staff had placed the toy there themselves given that it wasn’t being removed any time soon.
I didn’t realise it had such a following either, seeing as it had been Slashdotted (and BoingBoinged) as well as appearing in newspapers from the NZHerald to the New York Times. The truth appears to be that “some wag” glued Dino to his current locale and the GNS left it believing White Island’s acidic environment would “remove” the plastic Dino in a relatively short amount of time.
However, it is now 2 years on and it doesn’t look like a lot has changed for Dino. May he continue to reign on White Island for a while yet.
Sony has brought out another Colour like no other advert for their Bravia range of LCD televisions. The first, you might remember, involved the launching of thousands of bouncy balls down some of San Francisco’s steeper streets. It was one of my favorite adverts ever and I remember seeing it at a cinema for the first time and being absolutely mesmerised by it. The ad also helped to launch Swede José González with his beautifully acoustic song ‘Heartbeats’.
So how do you follow that up? Explode 70,000 litres of paint all over a rather bland looking residential area In Glasgow. Spend 10 days setting up and filming, then a further 5 cleaning up.
I like it, it exudes the same original and creative thought that the first does. But, I still think the bouncy balls are better
I’ve finally found that MySpace profile that I’ve been talking about and getting all those hits from.
Stefani is a 5’6″ 17 year old Sydneysider with blue eyes and dark brown hair. She likes house/club music (who doesn’t) and her favorite TV show is the O.C.
The image of the vodka jellies strikes again! Maybe I should replace that particular image file with something nefarious (maybe Goatse?) Or maybe I should just stick my blog logo and URL on it, this could tie in well with my 42 Below sponser offering
Retinal warning: prepare to be prepared to gouge your eyes out after looking at this site. Mind you, most MySpace pages are of the same or similar visual appeal as this one. Stefani’s Myspace profile »
I was in a meeting yesterday with Nick discussing a particular site’s design when the client said “don’t worry about the ‘bee lawgs’ for now, they’re in phase 2″. Of course, not knowing what he meant I started staring at him while my brain was trying to work out what it was.
*SNAP* went my brain as the gears clicked loudly into action. He meant blogs… I just hope he doesn’t think I was being some elitist geek tosser. :-S
There was a big increase in both traffic and visitors in September over the previous month. What surprises me (in a pleasant way of course) isn’t the growth itself but the continued exponential trend I’m seeing. Cool!
The most popular entry written in September was the Visualising data usage entry about those really cool inflatable USB drives. But the most popular entry visited in September was the Inspiring travel video. I still really love watching that video a month later.
Again for September, the biggest referrer to my site was someone’s MySpace profile, I really wish they’d refer in a way that let you see which actual profile or profiles were linking through.
Also again, the most popular search term used by visitors was “vodka” followed in second place by “umami”. Vodka, as far as the eye could see… is the offending entry. I’m seriously thinking of getting in touch with 42Below about that page now
The vodka jellies image on that page seems to get linked to from far and wide, it even makes a guest appearance on this Espanol forum. What are they talking about Pablo (apart from my superb photography skills)?
Two new sets added to my flickr account. On Friday night I went on a bit of a photo shooting rampage with Trey. The idea being to take some shots of Wellington at night. Have a look at Trey’s (much better) shots here.
And then on Saturday, Mrs S got her ear pierced which was fun (for me) to take photos of… apparently it wasn’t “that painful”. The studio was Flesh Wound in upper Cuba St, the piercer was this chap.
The ticking time-bomb that is the obesity epidemic, sigh… Check out this delightful (and skinny) website for the American Obesity Task Force. The website serves two purposes, the first is to reinforce the viral campaign with the video paced front and center on the page. The second purpose is to link people to information should they want to know more. I love how the website hasn’t tried to be anything more than that. Brilliant.
The video is more than a little bizarre on first view – what do you think?
I’ve noticed on a few right-wing blogs over the last couple of days (yes, I’m looking at you Mr. Farrar) increasingly mentioning a politician/bureaucrat referred to as “H2″. They are referring, of course, to Helen Clark’s chief of staff, Heather Simpson. Apparently here in Wellington with Helen as H1, Heather is known as H2.
Her name has appeared in the media most recently over her letter to Parliamentary Services on the controversial pledge cards that kick-started the current nastiness in NZ politics. I didn’t think much of that letter in the media other than a member of Helen’s staff was probably just doing what was dictated to her by H1 herself.
I don’t have enough knowledge to know how accurate this article is and I’m sure if you looked hard enough there is probably a rebuke or two in the blogosphere but it does make for interesting reading as a citizen of this country. The media, however, has confirmed she is one of the top 4 most influential Labour party members.
As for the pledge card issue itself, I don’t really feel that debating it here would shed any new light on the subject. Labour should pay it back but politically they can’t, especially after National’s repeated claims of corruption. As Audrey Young points out:
“National’s fight against Labour’s election spending is not about the 2005 campaign, it’s about the 2008 campaign and who wins”.
Last weekend I went to see An Inconvenient Truth. Wow. Please please please go and see it for yourself, it is an amazing film. If you haven’t heard of the film (where have you been!) it is a documentary on climate change and especially global warming, featuring Al Gore. It centers around a presentation Gore has been giving for many years on the topic of climate change.
I found the film engaging and well produced given the material they were working with. It was extremely refreshing to hear evidence on climate change without the FUD. The film starts brilliantly and really sets the scene. I appreciated many aspects of the film such as: refusing to treat the audience like idiots; not ignoring Gore’s defeat in the 2000 election; focusing on the real support that exists in America for the Kyoto Protocol even though the country hasn’t ratified the treaty.
One of the best points in the film is when Gore asks you to imagine how we are going to be perceived by our children’s children if, when presented with this problem and the ability to do something about it, we did nothing. The changes we are seeing in our climate are gradual in reference to our own lifetimes, but are extremely fast-paced when considered in terms of the lifetimes of our rivers, or glaciers, or landscapes.
It has been said of Gore recently, “Where was this man in 2000!?”. I can’t help but ask the same question after watching his presentation style, conviction, and passion. Why was he cast as a boring mono-tone speech-reader as Vice President and Presidential Nominee (at least here in far away NZ).
The widget here allows you to pledge to go and see the film. If you are going to see the film anyway or as a result of this blog post, send in your details. It will be great to see how many pledges we can get. In Wellington, I know you have, at least, the choice of either Paramount or Rialto screening the film. Click the links for each cinema’s session times.
88% of all users have never heard of RSS.
1% of internet users use Digg on an average day.
20% of the world speaks English.
This is especially relevant to all of you who are (like me) young Wellington IT professionals. We live in a very insulated environment and can sometimes forget how much of this isn’t “normal”. Let me add a few more of my own specific for Wellington:
Wellington has the highest average income of a city in New Zealand.
Wellington has the highest percentage of people with tertiary qualifications.
Wellington has the highest amount of people who walk to work and use public transport.
As Seth points out, the point of this list isn’t to persuade you to give up your new media quest and become another Auckland drone driving your oversized SUV to work. “No, all the growth and the opportunity and the fun is at the leading edge, at the place where change happens.” It’s just worth remembering where you are on the bell curve in contrast to where a lot of other people are. Keep in touch with this side, you have as much to learn from them as they do from you.
I need some of these. I’d probably be able to give them all out in a couple a days, and probably for these infractions:
* Walking three abreast on city sidewalks
* Not dealing with car alarm
* Not letting others out of the train/bus/store/post office before pushing way in
* Not giving up seat on public transportation when someone obviously needs it more than you
* Berating servicepeople for things not their fault
Her name has appeared in the media most recently over her letter to Parliamentary Services on the controversial pledge cards that kick-started the current nastiness in NZ politics. I didn’t think much of that letter in the media other than a member of Helen’s staff was probably just doing what was dictated to her by H1 herself.
One of the best points in the film is when Gore asks you to imagine how we are going to be perceived by our children’s children if, when presented with this problem and the ability to do something about it, we did nothing. The changes we are seeing in our climate are gradual in reference to our own lifetimes, but are extremely fast-paced when considered in terms of the lifetimes of our rivers, or glaciers, or landscapes.