Kutiman is an Israeli musician and producer who recently tackled a unique musical project. He created several original songs by mashing up parts of YouTube videos of others making music. The result is an ambient, soulful collection of intriguing material that is very 21st Century - in what other age could an artist have brought together so many diverse musicians from all around the world via the Web and created something so cohesive from them? Fascinating.
Kutiman's site, ThruYOU
For more info, NPR interview with Kutiman March 2009
A list of the source clips is here.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Gorgeous cellular and medical animation, with bonus junk
Nucleus Medical Illustrations' website is fascinating and fun. Conditions from clots forming to cancer metastasizing, medical and surgical procedures and more are vividly presented.
Nucleus Medical Art
Continuing with the A&P theme, you can perform a virtual autopsy here - not gory, with video guidance on the handling of the brain.
Fun fun fun! OK, I can't end with that...let's see...
This'll work! Here's a fantabulous clickable list of every silly internet meme you should have seen by now. There's a good two or three hours of mindless vegetative timewasting here. Save this for when you're home sick in bed with your laptop. Better than a soap opera.
Nucleus Medical Art
Continuing with the A&P theme, you can perform a virtual autopsy here - not gory, with video guidance on the handling of the brain.
Fun fun fun! OK, I can't end with that...let's see...
This'll work! Here's a fantabulous clickable list of every silly internet meme you should have seen by now. There's a good two or three hours of mindless vegetative timewasting here. Save this for when you're home sick in bed with your laptop. Better than a soap opera.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The news and the economy, both in flux
Ran across two interesting articles today worth saving. The first is by famed Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert on why he has resumed reading newspapers. He had become more of an online news consumer, like many of us, but began to notice problems with "news" websites being vague about their sources, and gimmicky in general. He specifically mentions The Huffington Post making it difficult to click on and read the actual story they are teasing on their front page, possibly to increase page views. He includes lovely photographs of people reading newspapers in different settings, which oddly feels a bit nostalgic.
I stopped taking the paper a long time ago - Mr. Ebert may have inspired me to resubscribe.
Roger Ebert: I'm reading newspapers again
Next is Robert Reich, the Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration who is now a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, discussing President Obama's stimulus plan. I've always liked Mr. Reich - he is extremely bright, yet also a down-to-earth straight talker. I am no economist, but somehow when he explains pertinent issues, I get a good bit of what he's saying, and it happens again here. This paragraph about our current financial mess is particularly telling:
What happened to the money? According to researchers Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, since the late 1970s, a greater and greater share of national income has gone to people at the top of the earnings ladder. As late as 1976, the richest 1 percent of the country took home about 9 percent of the total national income. By 2006, they were pocketing more than 20 percent. But the rich don't spend as much of their income as the middle class and the poor do -- after all, being rich means that you already have most of what you need. That's why the concentration of income at the top can lead to a big shortfall in overall demand and send the economy into a tailspin. (It's not coincidental that 1928 was the last time that the top 1 percent took home more than 20 percent of the nation's income.) (emphasis mine)
Again, I am no economist, but this makes sense. Remember all the times our "leaders" tried to sell us "trickle-down" economics over the years? Did you ever feel any economic trickles, or droplets, or drizzles? A fine mist of some sort, perhaps? (Toilet flushes don't count.) Yeah, didn't think so.
Read the full Washington Post article here.
I stopped taking the paper a long time ago - Mr. Ebert may have inspired me to resubscribe.
Roger Ebert: I'm reading newspapers again
Next is Robert Reich, the Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration who is now a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, discussing President Obama's stimulus plan. I've always liked Mr. Reich - he is extremely bright, yet also a down-to-earth straight talker. I am no economist, but somehow when he explains pertinent issues, I get a good bit of what he's saying, and it happens again here. This paragraph about our current financial mess is particularly telling:
What happened to the money? According to researchers Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, since the late 1970s, a greater and greater share of national income has gone to people at the top of the earnings ladder. As late as 1976, the richest 1 percent of the country took home about 9 percent of the total national income. By 2006, they were pocketing more than 20 percent. But the rich don't spend as much of their income as the middle class and the poor do -- after all, being rich means that you already have most of what you need. That's why the concentration of income at the top can lead to a big shortfall in overall demand and send the economy into a tailspin. (It's not coincidental that 1928 was the last time that the top 1 percent took home more than 20 percent of the nation's income.) (emphasis mine)
Again, I am no economist, but this makes sense. Remember all the times our "leaders" tried to sell us "trickle-down" economics over the years? Did you ever feel any economic trickles, or droplets, or drizzles? A fine mist of some sort, perhaps? (Toilet flushes don't count.) Yeah, didn't think so.
Read the full Washington Post article here.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Joey
When I was a youngun, I went away to college and had too much fun. After this colossal failure, my parents had me come home and enroll in a Catholic nursing school just outside of Chicago’s South Side. They made it clear – do this right or we are done with you.
So I did.
While there, I did a several-weeks-long rotation at La Rabida, a wonderful hospital for severely disabled, abused and chronically ill children on the shore of Lake Michigan. I can’t recall today if it was six, eight or twelve weeks, but for the first half of it we were assigned to one patient, and were to change to a different patient in the latter half.
My patient for the first half of the rotation was Joey, an 18-month old bundle of love who entered the world with many strikes against him. He was born without a lower jaw and tongue, and with other throat malformations rendering him permanently incapable of speech or normal eating, drinking or breathing. He also had myriad internal problems that I can no longer recall specifically. He had a twin that was born dead, with even more profound abnormalities.
Joey and I hit it off instantly, and as time went on I became very attached to this child. I had never seen a little guy with so much against him attack life with such joy and aplomb.
He loved to play and laugh, and found almost everything funny. With a trach, though, he couldn’t actually laugh out loud, and with no musculature in the lower part of his face (lacking a jaw), he had no smile either. The light in his eyes and movement of his cheeks combined with body language and the rhythmic rushing of air in and out of his trach constituted his laughter, and it was just as joyful and contagious as anyone else’s.
I remember him once becoming upset about something in the group playroom. He was receiving his feeding at the time, through his tummy tube, hanging on an IV pole. He sought me out, pushing his pole, crying his silent cry through his trach, tears springing from his eyes. We hugged and spent time making whatever it was all better. That’s about my only memory of him crying. He took everything like a pro – suctioning, dressing changes, anything – and got right back to being a little boy.
When it was time to change patients for the second half of the rotation, I begged my instructor to let me continue to care for Joey, as we were getting along so well and I felt he was making progress with me. The staff supported me, and she allowed it.
Joey and his deceased brother were born to a single teen mom. I spent much time teaching her how to administer the tube feedings, care for his trach, etc., in preparation for her to take him home and care for him. She was a bright girl and seemed to learn quickly, but I heard later that she decided she didn’t want the challenge of bringing him home and gave him up for adoption.
Right then I decided that as soon as I was able and successful, I would adopt this sweet boy.
Fast forward –> Dad died, I graduated, Mom died, I worked as an oncology nurse for awhile, then got married and moved to Florida.
Less than three weeks after I arrived in Florida, the following appeared in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper:
The text says, “Joey was born without a lower jaw. He breathes through a tube. He eats through a tube. On Friday, the 3-year-old will leave the Chicago hospital where he has lived since he was a few days old. He is being adopted. Charlene Williams said she and her husband Willie, parents of six children, will be ‘Joey’s moral support, be there for him, be there just to love him.’”
This was God speaking to me, here in the Orlando Sentinel, letting me know that Joey was in better hands, thankfully.
I can’t tell you how many tears of joy I cried over this picture. A miracle.
So I did.
While there, I did a several-weeks-long rotation at La Rabida, a wonderful hospital for severely disabled, abused and chronically ill children on the shore of Lake Michigan. I can’t recall today if it was six, eight or twelve weeks, but for the first half of it we were assigned to one patient, and were to change to a different patient in the latter half.
My patient for the first half of the rotation was Joey, an 18-month old bundle of love who entered the world with many strikes against him. He was born without a lower jaw and tongue, and with other throat malformations rendering him permanently incapable of speech or normal eating, drinking or breathing. He also had myriad internal problems that I can no longer recall specifically. He had a twin that was born dead, with even more profound abnormalities.
Joey and I hit it off instantly, and as time went on I became very attached to this child. I had never seen a little guy with so much against him attack life with such joy and aplomb.
He loved to play and laugh, and found almost everything funny. With a trach, though, he couldn’t actually laugh out loud, and with no musculature in the lower part of his face (lacking a jaw), he had no smile either. The light in his eyes and movement of his cheeks combined with body language and the rhythmic rushing of air in and out of his trach constituted his laughter, and it was just as joyful and contagious as anyone else’s.
I remember him once becoming upset about something in the group playroom. He was receiving his feeding at the time, through his tummy tube, hanging on an IV pole. He sought me out, pushing his pole, crying his silent cry through his trach, tears springing from his eyes. We hugged and spent time making whatever it was all better. That’s about my only memory of him crying. He took everything like a pro – suctioning, dressing changes, anything – and got right back to being a little boy.
When it was time to change patients for the second half of the rotation, I begged my instructor to let me continue to care for Joey, as we were getting along so well and I felt he was making progress with me. The staff supported me, and she allowed it.
Joey and his deceased brother were born to a single teen mom. I spent much time teaching her how to administer the tube feedings, care for his trach, etc., in preparation for her to take him home and care for him. She was a bright girl and seemed to learn quickly, but I heard later that she decided she didn’t want the challenge of bringing him home and gave him up for adoption.
Right then I decided that as soon as I was able and successful, I would adopt this sweet boy.
Fast forward –> Dad died, I graduated, Mom died, I worked as an oncology nurse for awhile, then got married and moved to Florida.
Less than three weeks after I arrived in Florida, the following appeared in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper:
The text says, “Joey was born without a lower jaw. He breathes through a tube. He eats through a tube. On Friday, the 3-year-old will leave the Chicago hospital where he has lived since he was a few days old. He is being adopted. Charlene Williams said she and her husband Willie, parents of six children, will be ‘Joey’s moral support, be there for him, be there just to love him.’”
This was God speaking to me, here in the Orlando Sentinel, letting me know that Joey was in better hands, thankfully.
I can’t tell you how many tears of joy I cried over this picture. A miracle.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Chris Crocker is an amateur
Britney Spears' Circus has been the number one album the past two weeks. One of her many fans was inspired to choreograph and perform an interpretive dance to the title song in his shower stall.
This kid has MOVES. Your uptight boss might consider this NSFW, so view at home - the ending is priceless.
This kid has MOVES. Your uptight boss might consider this NSFW, so view at home - the ending is priceless.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
I know the election's over...
...but this Dr. Seuss-ish vid is a keeper, especially for the ending :)
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Classic Dana Carvey
Ran across this old favorite sending up the common news media practice of preparing obituaries of notable persons before they have died so they can report the story first when it actually happens.
Gerald Ford (RIP) should be relieved he died as he did instead of the ways described here :)
BTW, did you know Gerald Ford's birth name was Leslie Lynch King, Jr.? His mom somewhat informally renamed him after she remarried, and it stuck.
Gerald Ford (RIP) should be relieved he died as he did instead of the ways described here :)
BTW, did you know Gerald Ford's birth name was Leslie Lynch King, Jr.? His mom somewhat informally renamed him after she remarried, and it stuck.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
In fairness (not!)
The Barack Roll
(For those that don't know, click here to learn about rickrolling)
Now for real. Click on this Wikipedia link to learn more about rickrolling.
John McCain getting BarackRolled at the RNC
Oh, and Hillary is f**cking Obama
(above inspired by this Sarah Silverman performance on Jimmy Kimmel's show - song starts a minute in)
Perhaps I'm weird (duh), but rickrolling never bothers me. I've always liked the song and think he's cute, and usually listen to it all the way through when it happens.
More variations on the theme/meme later.
(For those that don't know, click here to learn about rickrolling)
Now for real. Click on this Wikipedia link to learn more about rickrolling.
John McCain getting BarackRolled at the RNC
Oh, and Hillary is f**cking Obama
(above inspired by this Sarah Silverman performance on Jimmy Kimmel's show - song starts a minute in)
Perhaps I'm weird (duh), but rickrolling never bothers me. I've always liked the song and think he's cute, and usually listen to it all the way through when it happens.
More variations on the theme/meme later.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Two of the thousands of Sarah Palin videos on the net
The first one is ominous, and the second one silly, but they both communicate the same message.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Shawn Hornbeck and parents speak out on "48 Hours Mystery."
The full episode, broadcast September 28, 2008, is below. It is approximately 40 minutes long, and is the most detailed single accounting I've seen yet of Shawn's story. It is revealed here that a savvy investigator gained advance knowledge from Devlin that Shawn was also in the apartment before police entered it to rescue Ben Ownby.
Shawn's mom and stepdad are saints - he appears to be doing so well with what he has had to confront at such a young age, and they seem to have guided him through the process, with appropriate assistance, thoughtfully and intelligently. Apologies for the ads before and after the clips - not much can be done about that.
Watch CBS Videos Online
The following is approximately four minutes of Shawn speaking to his experience that was only shown on cbs.com, not on the television show. The clip reveals the wisdom and maturity he has gained, and toward the end he offers sobering advice for parents questioning how to keep their children safe.
Watch CBS Videos Online
Shawn's mom and stepdad are saints - he appears to be doing so well with what he has had to confront at such a young age, and they seem to have guided him through the process, with appropriate assistance, thoughtfully and intelligently. Apologies for the ads before and after the clips - not much can be done about that.
Watch CBS Videos Online
The following is approximately four minutes of Shawn speaking to his experience that was only shown on cbs.com, not on the television show. The clip reveals the wisdom and maturity he has gained, and toward the end he offers sobering advice for parents questioning how to keep their children safe.
Watch CBS Videos Online
Ever wonder how a dog gets enough to drink by just sticking its tongue in the water?
This is how.
The tip of the tongue is cupping backwards to catch water and draw it into the mouth. In all the times I've seen dogs drink water, I never caught on to this.
The tip of the tongue is cupping backwards to catch water and draw it into the mouth. In all the times I've seen dogs drink water, I never caught on to this.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Soulful Kid
Ran across this kid covering a Justin Timberlake song in his living room...another young, raw yet beautiful voice.
This kid has a vocal gift. I bet he knows more than four chords too.
Tina Fey/Palin SNL Brilliance #3
...and better! SNL's sendup of the VP debate, featuring Queen Latifah as moderator Gwen Ifill.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Bagel Day
In our office, we have bagel day once a week. The office pays for a big box of bagels and a bunch of shmears from Einstein's. It's a nice lil' perk that most everyone enjoys, however...
Some people only want half a bagel. Do they put the bagel on the plate face up and cut it in the center, yielding half a top and half a bottom for themselves and the same for someone else? NOOOOOO! These tards hold the bagel up on its side and cut it lengthwise, separating the bottom from the top. They then take the entire top for themselves, and leave the assorted bottoms in the bagel box for the poor fucks who happened to be busy that morning and couldn't go get a bagel until 10 am or so.
I don't like these people.
Thank you.
Some people only want half a bagel. Do they put the bagel on the plate face up and cut it in the center, yielding half a top and half a bottom for themselves and the same for someone else? NOOOOOO! These tards hold the bagel up on its side and cut it lengthwise, separating the bottom from the top. They then take the entire top for themselves, and leave the assorted bottoms in the bagel box for the poor fucks who happened to be busy that morning and couldn't go get a bagel until 10 am or so.
I don't like these people.
Thank you.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Hi. My name is Sue, and I am a Caturdayholic
A silly weekend Internet hobby of mine is captioning cats for the fark.com Caturday threads. FARK is a news aggregator site where people submit weird and wacky headlines and comment on current events. The debates can be heated and mean, but there is room for fun. Every Saturday at 8am or so, a story involving a cat or kitten is posted to the main page. This is the "Caturday" thread. The response is normally a flood of captioned cat pictures, at least a couple of which are usually made by me.
I recently realized I have captioned a crapload of these goofy pics. So, for your boundless pleasure, I present the "capshun by me" set from my Flickr stream. Some of these were made in the context of a joke or theme in a particular FARK thread, or in response to individuals, so may not seem funny in isolation. Also, they are not all cats. Also, some of them just suck.
Enjoy :)
LOLs capped by me
I recently realized I have captioned a crapload of these goofy pics. So, for your boundless pleasure, I present the "capshun by me" set from my Flickr stream. Some of these were made in the context of a joke or theme in a particular FARK thread, or in response to individuals, so may not seem funny in isolation. Also, they are not all cats. Also, some of them just suck.
Enjoy :)
LOLs capped by me
Did you know about the Burger King Gold Card?
Apparently, Burger King awards those deemed worthy a "Burger King Gold Card." This card allows the bearer free food at Burger King FOR LIFE!
Some dude named Hugh Laurie has one.....
and so does Jay Leno, who apparently got it after dissing McDonald's on the Tonight Show, which is so opportunistic and funny on Burger King's part :)
This is just unfair! I object! I can't count the number of double bacon croissan'wiches and cheesy tots I've eaten there, all at full price. What's a gal gotta do?
Pisser.
Some dude named Hugh Laurie has one.....
and so does Jay Leno, who apparently got it after dissing McDonald's on the Tonight Show, which is so opportunistic and funny on Burger King's part :)
This is just unfair! I object! I can't count the number of double bacon croissan'wiches and cheesy tots I've eaten there, all at full price. What's a gal gotta do?
Pisser.
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