Richard Westenra

The fifth group of 25 links from my linkblog. To see all linkblog retrospectives, click the tag ‘links’.

• Horizontal and vertical: The evolution of evolution – Important developments in biology herald a possible paradigm shift
• Beatles infographics
• The future of UX design has arrived
• The most useless machine ever!
• Colonel Sanders Botches KFC Ad Voiceover (video)
• Offline Book “Lending” Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion
• The universe is a REALLY big place – The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D
• Boots hit by mass homeopathy ‘overdose’
• Animator vs. Animation (video) – Yeah, making flash videos kinda feels like this sometimes
• The Killer Elite – If you enjoy good war journalism, I highly recommend this article from an embedded Rolling Stone journalist during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
• US Blockading Costa Rican Sugar Unless It Agrees To Draconian IP Laws Citizens Don’t Want
• We don’t give a damn about the monarchy – Prince William’s entourage of British gossip columnists has been shocked to discover that Kiwis no longer care about royal visits
• A Risky Proposal: Gay marriage, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, and the Supreme Court
• Goodnight Keith Moon
• Two Gentlemen of Lebowski What if William Shakespeare wrote The Big Lebowski?
• The Ballad of Colton Harris-Moore – The story of a modern outlaw folk hero
• Small Talk With A Web Designer
• When skyscrapers signal a downturn – The ‘irrational exuberance’ in the markets that accompany the construction of super-tall buildings is often a sign that a recession is on the way.
• Kant Attack Ad (video)
• NZ’s cyber spies win new powers
• The True Odds of Airborne Terror Chart
• Global healthcare spending Vs. Life expectancy – The US is off the chart (and not in a good way)
• Uranium Is So Last Century: Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke – Nuclear scientists are rediscovering Thorium, a cleaner, safer, more abundant, more efficient, less weapon-proliferating alternative to Uranium
• Star Wars Weather
• Browser Pong (game)

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The fourth group of 25 links from my linkblog. To see all linkblog retrospectives, click the tag ‘links’.

• Style versus design: Why understanding the difference is what it’s all about. – “Not enough designers are working in that vast middle ground between eye candy and usability where most of the web must be built.”
• Kiwiright (video) – A 12 minute documentary about how NZ’s copyright laws have been contorted to benefit the financial needs of corporate rights holders and no longer benefits the public nor the artists who create the work itself.
• The Physics of Space Battles
• Inside Afghanistan – Fighting Alongside Stoned Afghan Soldiers (video)
• Best Man Rigs Newlyweds’ Bed To Tweet During Sex. Not Kidding.
• How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell
• Atheist bus ad campaign hits a nerve
• The climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it’s working.
• Google Chrome – Features (video)
• Everything is OK Montage (video)
• Canadian record industry faces massive liability over copyright infringement – Ah, sweet sweet irony.
• Photos Taken From Unusual Angles
• Dutch scientists grow artificial meat in lab, see end to the need for factory farming within a decade.
• ikea lamp (video) – Hilarious ad directed by Spike Jonze
• Macho Trap Shooting (video)
• Link This Bookmarklet – Hooray! Quick linking ahoy!
• Is Global Warming Unstoppable? – Scientist argues that rising carbon dioxide emissions cannot be stabilized unless the world’s economy collapses or society builds the equivalent of one new nuclear power plant each day.
• The Zoomquilt II – A trippy flash animated collaborative art project
• IEBlog: An Early Look At IE9 for Developers – Check out all the hilarious vitriolic comments from pissed-off developers.
• 38 Ways To Win An Argument — Arthur Schopenhauer – Advice for budding Sophists (or forum trolls) from one of the philosophical greats.
• Algae and Light Help Injured Mice Walk Again – Optogeneticists are figuring out how to control brain neurons with viruses that carry genes taken from pond scum, activated by beams of light.
• The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”
• I’m Doing My Inconsequential Part For The Environment
• Most. Realistic. War Game. Ever. – A sneak peak at Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, currently in development.
• New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it’s no friend of the earth – The Guardian blows the whistle on NZ’s ‘100% pure’ reputation.

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The third group of 25 links from my linkblog. To see all linkblog retrospectives, click the tag ‘links’.

• Pirate Bay closure sparked file-sharing boom – Web-policing fail
• The Gay Animal Kingdom
• Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter
• Aristotle’s law petition confounds blase Berkeley – Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats wants Berkeley to legally acknowledge Aristotle’s law, commonly expressed as A=A.
• Fullsize: a new IMG attribute – A campaign to get a new attribute called fullsize into the next version of HTML
• 2010 California Marriage Protection Act: Safeguarding marriage from the evils of divorce – excellent satire of the Californian Anti-Gay Marriage law change
• What the F**K is Social Media?
• Designers Who Are Technical: The More You Know, The Better Your Work – …Counter-Point.
• Designers are not Programmers – Point…
• 2012: It’s a Disaster!!! (video) – The trailer for the new disaster flick ‘2012′, recut as a comedy.
• Skiing Robot Not Very Useful But Totally Fun To Watch (video) – Damn robots, stealing our freshies
• In Deep (video) – Teaser for the new Matchstick Productions ski flick. Music by Ennio Morricone.
• “Last, Loneliest, Ugliest” – NZ Last in Aid Ranking – Action Aid ranks New Zealand last among 22 donor countries in sustainability, social protection and hunger alleviation.
• DJ Steve Porter featuring Vince Offer – “Slap Chop Rap” (video)
• Police Ten 7 – Safer Communities Together (video) – NZ’s latest internet meme
• Heavy Footing (video) – If you liked the cross-country snowboarding video, check this one out. It’s the next, next big thing,
• Performance Comparison of Major Web Browsers – *spoiler alert!* Chrome wins. *spoilers end*
• Cross Country Snowboarding – next big thing in snowboarding (video)
• ‘Putting on a show of resistance’ – My mate Graham was featured in a Stuff.co.nz article today
• Afghans: Question Of More US Troops Beside The Point – Afghans want more US troops! Kinda sorta! In a way!
• BBC Survey: Kiwi accent most attractive and prestigious form of English outside the UK – Screw it, I’m moving to Europe.
• Dove – Evolution (video) – No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.
• Air NZ chief blasts climate change ‘circus’
• Crazy Animation Starts Normal, Goes Full Retard (video)
• NZ’s murder rate halved in past 20 years – The national crime rate appears to be radically dropping despite an overwhelming public belief that crime has got worse.

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Spunday is an unofficial internet holiday created by my friend Elliott Kember to celebrate (?) being able to spin stuff on your site with javascript and CSS3. To start spinning, click the following link:

SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND BABY RIGHT ROUND

The above link is a bookmarklet, so drag it to your bookmarks folder to spin any page you want!
Unfortunately this only works in browsers which support CSS3 transformations – that includes Chrome, Safari, and Firefox 3.5. Otherwise, this won’t be very interesting for you at all.

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The second group of 25 links from my linkblog. To see all linkblog retrospectives, click the tag ‘links’.

• 9 of the Strangest Bone Churches of Europe
• 5 Ways the Government Used Our Money to Save Big Banks and Screw Us – A clear explanation of the banking bailouts.
Dan Bull – Dear Lily [an open letter to Lily Allen] (video) – A brilliant and hilarious dissection of current copyright controversies, particularly Lily Allen’s recent comments.
• Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska (video) – Terrifying and mind-blowing video, a much-watch if you’re a backcountry enthusiast.
• Colour Picker pen – Remember the colour picker tool from MS Paint and Photoshop? Jinsun Park have created a pen that works the same way.
• Antarctica Time lapse: A Year on Ice (video)
• Black Diamond Big Mountain Competition at Temple Basin (video) – what did you get up to last weekend? I got to watch this unfold, and then go skiing at midnight with some of these dudes.
• Contemplating the scale of the universe makes a mockery of household chores – News that the galaxy Andromeda is eating stars makes it hard to care about putting out the rubbish
• If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers
• Roundhill tow to set world record – Roundhill are about to build a 1.4km ropetow, the longest in the world.
• Sneaky whales (video)
• Traffic Wave Experiments – How a single driver can fix a traffic jam
• 4th Police review of Crimes (Substituted section 59) Amendment Act 2007 – is the anti-smacking law working as intended? Instead of consulting the uninformed public, why not read a police review?
• Cyriak’s Animation Mix (video)
• Demolition City (game)
• Drop The Rate Mate – NZ cellular providers are ripping us off.
• Temple Basin Freeriding (video) – Our own resident ski legends Neil Williman and Todd Windle carve some epic lines at the Basin.
• Amateur (video) – Another hit Youtube clip, this time featuring a stop-motion musician.
• Kiwi! (video) – Cute and touching hit Youtube animation
• ‘Blameless Babes’: Dame Sian’s last stand- Chief Justice Sian Elias’ controversial but accurate speech, and why it will sadly be ignored.
• Referendum Generator – Should surfing a parody website as part of a good work ethic be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
• Monster squid terrorise divers (story + video)
• Eternal Moonwalk – A mad tribute to Michael Jackson.
• Why prompting IE6 users to upgrade might be pointless (and perhaps a little sadistic) – oops, my bad.
• Cargo Bridge (game) – if you like this physics-based construction game, you should also check out World of Goo.

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The first group of 25 links from my linkblog. To see all linkblog retrospectives, click the tag ‘links’.

• Alpure Peaks (video) – Some dudes I know hit Alpure Peaks for some catboarding on Saturday with an NZ Snowboard TV film crew.
• What about Norway?
• Let’s Panic About Babies!
• New Zealand ‘world’s most peaceful nation’
• Nerds make the best lovers – survey
• Gallows humour in Fiji – Censorship fail, newspaper win.
• A brief history of cannabis criminalization
• RIP Shane McConkey (video)
• Aid is about poverty, not politics
• Could GM crops be good for the environment?
• Achievement Unlocked (meta-game) – Who needs gameplay when you have ACHIEVEMENTS?
• QWOP (game) – If you can beat 10 metres you are a champion.
• Love in the Time of Darwinism
• An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief – NY Times
• 5 Scientific Theories That Will Make Your Head Explode
• I Met The Walrus (video) – Interview with John Lennon featuring incredible animation.
• Tangled up in Seuss When a musician recorded “Green Eggs and Ham” in the voice of vintage Bob Dylan and posted it online, the Grinch estate promptly replied: One fish, two fish, cease and desist.
• If Iran Were America (And America Were Iran): A Timeline
• The Future of Marriage – attacking the myth that modern lifestyles are ruining the once-sacred ritual of marriage.
• John Stuart Mill – turns out one of my philosophical heroes was also a thoroughly nice chap.
• Prohibition Returns! Teetotaling do-gooders attack your right to drink.
• America’s Next Top Model Democracy
• The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness
• David Lange’s 1985 Oxford Union address arguing that ‘nuclear weapons are morally indefensible’. One of the great New Zealand speeches; I recommend listening to the 30 minute sound recording whilst reading the transcipt.
• The Singer Solution to World Poverty

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Check it out – archival ski footage from the 50’s, 70’s and 80’s on the nzonscreen site:

Snow of Aorangi (1950) – 2 parts
Shot by photographer Brian Brake as a NFU tourism promo, Snows of Aorangi surveys New Zealand’s mountain landscapes. Brake captures stunning imagery: ethereal ice forests, lightning storms, volcanic craters, glaciers, avalanches, kea. Three skiers are mesmerising as they scythe downhill from Alma Hutt: “for a little while they’ve given themselves to the rhythm of sky and earth” runs the James K. Baxter-scripted narration. It was the first NZ film to compete for an Oscar, nominated in the Best Short Subject (Live Action) category in 1958.

Flare – A Ski Trip (1977) – 3 parts
This short documentary about skiing was directed for the NZ Tourist and Publicity Department by Sam Neill (who would shortly achieve fame as an actor). This was one of several documentaries directed by Neill while at the National Film Unit. Others subjects included the Red Mole theatre troupe and architect Ian Athfield. The skiers put on daring displays of their art, before skiing an active volcano. Locations include Mount Hutt, Queenstown and Tongariro National Park. The film was translated into French, Japanese, Italian, German and Spanish.

The Leading Edge (1987) – 6 parts
Michael Firth’s follow-up to his 1977 Oscar-nominated ski documentary Off the Edge, but this time with a plot and scripted dialogue. Canadian Matt hitches from Auckland to meet a bunch of Kiwi extreme thrill-seekers at a southern ski field. They throw themselves off volcanoes, glaciers, mountains and into an Iron Man with “get more go” abandon. Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh’s first feature (“I was relatively cheap and I could ski”) the film is notable for its action sequences (set to an 80’s pop soundtrack) and Billy T James as a mad pilot.

Enjoy…

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