Excuse me, Google, but
I ________ 1/3rd gravity (as the inverse-square electro-magnetic force binding me to the surface of my planet).
- like
- dislike
- utterly loathe
- would be willing, if absolutely necessary, to endure
Since when is gravity an electromagnetic force?
This video has been making the rounds of the Internet recently. Be sure to check out the interview with the song’s creator.
The Leafs are officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
And Best Buy is there to rub salt in the wound:
From Associated Press’s YouTube channel (which doesn’t use the pretentious “The” in its username), a clip on the deep family histories of the presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton is linked with some Canadian superstars (Alanis, Trudeau, Celine, Kerouac) through her French-Canadian background.
You know, there’s a good reason why you should never use stock footage of identifiable people without knowing who those people are:
Especially if you’re a politician, and there’s a chance that the person is an active supporter of your opponent.
Here’s an interesting little website: busmob.com. It scrapes the STM’s website for bus departure times and reformats them in an easy-to-read-on-mobile-phones page.
It’s not perfect (it doesn’t do holidays and other special situations, for example), and in many cases it’s probably easier to call the AUTOBUS number and get the automated voice to tell you departure times. But if for some reason the STM’s website is too cumbersome for your cell, this site might just be useful for you.
UPDATE: And here’s a website that acts as a Google Maps frontend for the STM’s Tous Azimuts service.
The Domster points us to amazing special-effects videos of Patrick Boivin, who’s done commercials and other work with stop-motion animation or really cool CGI that looks like stop-motion animation.
He points to a couple of videos, but my favourite is this tribute to Evolution of Dance with Optimus Prime:
In honour of our Montreal Canadiens sweeping their eight-game season series against the Boston Bruins (that’s eight times they’ve met this year, and eight victories for Montreal), I bring you again this video tribute to our esteemed opposition, from Ryan Parker:
I was sworn to secrecy, but Roberto let the cat out of the bag so he can take the flack if it’s still supposed to be a secret.
The Gazette has been working on a West Island portal (called “West Island +” though its address is westislandgazette.com), a mix of newspaper stories and user-submitted content that pretty much fits that “hyper-local” mold that everyone’s talking about these days.
Its key feature is that stories are categorized based on location, allowing you to search for all things that take place in Pierrefonds (for example). The locations fall pretty well along the same borders as the former municipalities (though the 40 people who live in Ile Dorval might get ticked off at being lumped in with the bigger city). It also includes Ile Perrot and Vaudreuil-Dorion/St. Lazare/Hudson, which are also included in the Gazette’s West Island delivery area.
The site is still not quite ready for its official launch, which is expected later this month.
Thoughts?
I think there are a lot of good things about it, and a lot that can be improved (it’s a bit wide for me, forcing a horizontal scroll bar for those dozen or so pixels off the side).
The big question, of course, is whether user-generated content will turn this into the online destination for thousands of West Islanders, or whether the signal-to-noise ratio will be too low for people to wade through it all.
There’s only one way to find out.
UPDATE: Craig Silverman, a freelancer and blogger, takes issue with the terms of service, which he accuses of “bad faith” because it demands you waive moral rights (i.e. the right not to have your work distorted to say the opposite of what you mean, or the right to not have your name and image used to endorse a product without your permission), it demands free reign to publish and sell your content to others (“in perpetuity throughout the world”) and it demands that you waive the right to sue them for defamation or anything else no matter what they do to you.
It’s the kind of clauses you’ll find on just about any big corporate website, whose administrators throw it on there without thinking about it (or even probably reading it). But that doesn’t make it right.
My article on last week’s freeze at Berri-UQAM metro came out this morning.
Rather than explain what happened in boring text though, let’s do it in video form:
There’s also a video of just the time-lapse part, for those who don’t want to hear me speak.
Everyone knows that real change doesn’t come from letter-writing campaigns, action groups, hired lobbyists or complaints to the media. Real change comes from joining Facebook groups. Because when you’ve joined a Facebook group advocating something, politicians notice.
Or maybe it’s just journalists, with column inches to fill, who take notice. And their editors, desperate to show that they’re hip to this Internet thing, encourage them.
So in that spirit, here are some local-interest Facebook outrage groups. Look for stories about them in your local newspaper soon:
I see I’m not the only one to notice an eerie similarity between the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign and the final two seasons of The West Wing (which coincidentally is airing now on CLT).
In the West Wing presidential election, the Republican primary is quickly wrapped up by a western, moderate, security-conscious old senator who has to struggle with the fact that he’s losing the support of the religious conservative right. The Democratic primary, meanwhile, drags on for months, with an inside-the-beltway establishment front-runner being unexpectedly eclipsed by an inexperienced lawmaker with modest roots, trying to break the colour barrier and avoid being characterized solely by his race.
(via TV Feeds My Family)
You know, when I first heard of Jimmy Kimmel’s response to I’m f**king Matt Damon, I figured it would be your classic sequel: A slightly more refined copy of the original, trying desperately to recapture that spark but coming just short.
I’ve clearly underestimated Mr. Kimmel. Though some of the lyrics are a bit lame, the video is still epic.
My only complaint: Why not put an unbleeped version online, like NBC did when Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg’s Dick in a Box went uber-popular online?
UPDATE: See the article and video about this event.
The Improv-Everywhere-style freeze today at Berri-UQAM metro I told you about was a crazy success (much to my surprise). About 50-60 people showed up, then entered the metro station and gathered in the area around the puck on the mezzanine. For five minutes, they all stood frozen, quiet, as regular travellers passed them by.
There’s talk on the Facebook page of organizing a second one some time in March, or perhaps other IE-inspired activities. I’ll keep you updated, of course.
I’ll have more to write (and show) about this later. In the meantime, here’s the first video that’s been uploaded showing what happened. In it, you can hear the loud, spontaneous applause that took place among participants just as the freeze came to an end.
Also see this video, this compilation video,
this “warm-up” freeze and this photo gallery.
UPDATE: Journal de Montréal article
This video from Andy Dickinson (via) is so true it hurts.
See also Point and shoot.