July 27th was a Tuesday
Sure, it’s viral marketing. Sure, I’m amplifying it. But for a throwaway five seconds at the start of this video, somebody set up and produced “Dogs Playing Poker” (including a fantastic “all-in” moment at about 00:03).
July 26th was a Monday
Two things I was pretty psyched about in 1979: Polaroid film and my grandparents.
July 23rd was a Friday
At the risk of stereotyping “Italian communist auto plant workers at union meetings”, and keeping in mind the gravity of an economic downturn that threatens to destroy the social welfare foundation on which the whole of Western Europe is built: Isn’t that exactly the perfect pose?
July 8th was a Thursday
All That Oil: Two Hundred Olympic Swimming Pools
If you want to do something with all the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico so far this year, you could consider storing it in several regulation Olympic swimming pools—two hundred, to be precise, but let’s start with just one.
Obviously, you’ll need an empty regulation Olympic swimming pool. Such a pool will be fifty meters long, twenty-five meters wide, and two meters deep (your head should come up just below the top of the pool.), As a reference, your pool holds roughly 660,430 gallons of water (or oil). So, how to fill it? You could use a garden hose, but it’ll take you a while; at ten gallons per minute, it would be almost 46 days before you finished. Fortunately, you are not filling it with water, but with an undersea gusher of oil flowing at around 60,000 barrels per day. Still, if I do my math correctly, I hope you have about six hours and twenty minutes handy. Point your undersea gusher directly at the empty pool, lock the door, and go grab a coffee. Take a long nap, watch five episodes of The Wire, and make your way back to the Olympic swimming center.
At this point, your pool should be about full (be sure to have another regulation Olympic swimming pool handy so you don’t get any on the ground!) In a few minutes, when your pool is topped off with thick crude oil, you will have accomplished your first goal. So, you know, move on. Do that again. And again. And again. And again, and again, and again.
And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
That should be two hundred regulation Olympic swimming pools full of crude oil. At this rate, I hope you have some more set aside. Come back next week for more ideas on what to do with all that oil!
June 29th was a Tuesday
I dreamt about blackness because I don’t dream. I just fall asleep, see black, and wake up.
— Justin Bieber, seventeen.com
June 14th was a Monday
Was introduced to Mamarazzi’s “Gangster” at our friends’ wedding over the weekend. Granted, one of those friends is their drummer, but the song stands on its own merits. When you can get an entire wedding singing along to the refrain “Men are good to have around ‘cuz they change a light bulb” and doing the custom changing-a-light-bulb dance, you know you’ve got a good song on your hands. Great video, on top of it all.
Worth the ten (frustratingly long, for the present-oriented self) minutes, just to understand what’s driving a change in time perspectives among young people. [via Caterina]
March 31st was a Wednesday
Solar System Music Box
[via Coudal] Beautiful “music box” in the style of Jim Bumgardner’s Whitney Music Box, modeled after the movement of the planets.
