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RIP: Donna Summer
The queen of disco has died, aged 63.
Via @BBCNews
17th May 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
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RIP: MCA
Absolutely gutted to hear that MCA has passed away, and I suspect Nathaniel Hornblower might have gone with him. As an 11 year old hip hop fan, the disreputable Beastie Boys were clearly going to be a one hit wonder as far as the parents of the world were concerned, but who would have thought they would have evolved to be so endlessly influential and culturaly significant. As a director, Adam Yauch put his hand to many of the Beasties inspiring videos - and more recently through his company Oscilloscope he has become a truly influential character in the world of indie film.
A true loss that hits hard, especially when he was taken so early. RIP.
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4th May 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Levon Helm
Drummer and vocalist from The Band, Levon Helm has passed away aged 71. Watch The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down in tribute.
20th Apr 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Jim Marshall
RIP amplification pioneer Jim Marshall, who has died aged 88. Hopefully he won't be denied Stairway.
Via BBC.
8th Apr 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
World Press 2012 Photos of the Year
@Big_Picture has the deatils on their website.
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11th Feb 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Ben Gazzara
RIP Ben Gazzara, improv acting legend from the Cassavettes era ....and better known to us as the bad guy from Roadhouse, or Jackie Treehorn from The Big Lebowski.
81. Good innings dude.
Via The Guardian.
4th Feb 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
Strictly Underground: The Secret World Of Burlington
A peek inside Burlington, the UK's secret underground nuclear bunker/town in Wiltshire built during the second world war. Comes with its own railway station, pub, BBC studio and lots of desks so you can keep up with all that post-apocalyse paper work
12th Jan 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Bob Holness
RIP Blockbusters presenter Bob Holness, who has died aged 83. Never was so much humour derived amongst students everywhere from lines like "I'll have an E please Bob".
6th Jan 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Cheeta
Hats off to the original chimp - Cheeta. Keeping it real 1921-2011.
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28th Dec 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Big Picture 2011 Photo Round Up
The Big Picture has done a round up of the best pictures from 2011 in three parts (one, two, three). Too many phenomenal shots to include here.
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23rd Dec 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
World War 2 In Real Time
Fascinating account @RealTimeWWII live-tweeting World War 2 as it unfolded from 1939 and for the next 6 years.
30th Nov 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Ken Russell
RIP legendary british director Ken Russell. Was always thoroughly baffled by Lair Of The White Worm as a young film fan. Not sure what I would make of it now either.
Via BBC
28th Nov 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Jimmy Saville
RIP Jimmy Saville, 1926-2011. An incomparable personality.
30th Oct 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Steve Jobs
Not many people can claim to have been behind a genuine game changer in their career, while Apple boss Steve Jobs can be comfortably given responsibility for more than a handful. Most people didn't really understand what the iPod was when it debuted (see this of-the-time reaction to that announcement), and it's impossible to go into any phone shop without instantly seeing the impact of the iPhone on the design of 99% of the competition. No one even knew they needed an iPad when that first arrived. Check out this great set of Time photos by Diana Walker.
He even managed to leave one more thing: the authorised Steve Jobs biography was due to land in November, but a 40,000% increase in demand has seen it shoot to the top of the best seller list and get a bumped up release date of October 24th. Jobs gave his last interview for the book 4 weeks ago, at which point he knew his time would soon be up. It will no doubt make for an inspriing read, from a true innovator.
1955-2011
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6th Oct 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Undercover WIFI
Note to self: if you're on a stakeout for the Feds, don't call your van's WIFI network FBI_SURVEILLANCE_VAN. Luckily this douchebag didn't put two and two together.
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22nd Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Sgt Hightower
RIP Bubba Smith AKA Police Academy's Moses Hightower. You might not know he was also a Superbowl winning NFL star.
4th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: The Space Shuttle
Bid farewell to the Space Shuttle program, which touched down from it's final mission today. Photo above was talken from the Intrenational Space Station, as the shuttle took off.
22nd Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Twitter Tracks News Of The Meltdown
watch the Murdoch empire melt in Twitter-time
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#D.U.D.(DumbUpDudes!)
13th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ah ha... Steve Coogan v NOTW on Newsnight
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9th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP Cy Twombly
American artist Cy Twombly has died, aged 83.
Via BBC
6th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Robo Miliband
someone needs to reboot Ed 2.0
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4th Jul 2011 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Another Google Earth
Visit amazing site Another Earth for a double sided browser that lets you compare any area of the earth, even setting left and right to different areas of time - for example to compare the effects of the recent Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami disaster.
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24th Jun 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Jackass Ryan Dunn
Jackass' Ryan Dunn has died in a non-stunt related car crash in Philadelphia. Always one of my favourites on the show, and a totem for beard appreciators everywhere.
Via BBC
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21st Jun 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
BBC Doomsday
The BBC are dumping the previous hard-copy iteration of their time-capsule "Domesday Project" for a more modern format. I have no doubt that "A Website" has about as little life-span as "A Laser Disk" - as Toby Anstis illustrates below.
Via @thecoldvein
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16th May 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Top Ten #OBL Myths
OBL: not a CIA stooge after all? Like the idea of them pretending to live in caves for the cameras
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4th May 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
There's An App For That: Yurekuru
BC and I are in the field over in Tokyo this week ....and have been rocked by the frequent aftershocks from last months big quake (a magnitude 7.1 and a 7.4 being the biggest). A frequent sound prior to the tremor is the ding ding of the Yurekuru App, which gives locals a quick heads-up. You can even set a minimum intensity over which you want warning, as most people here don't get out of bed for less than a 7.
Japan doesn't use the same magnitude system as the West, preferring the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale which records quakes in actual relative intensity - rating the quake bigger the closer you are to the epicentre. The ratings are also accompanied by a written description, ranging from "Hanging objects such as lamps swing slightly" through "Hanging objects swing violently. Most unstable ornaments fall. Occasionally, dishes in a cupboard and books on a bookshelf fall and furniture moves" to "Most furniture moves to a large extent and some jumps up".
Update: The USGS has data streams accessible by the "Quakes" app - in English.
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12th Apr 2011 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Boo, Hiss
A deadly Egyptian cobra has escaped from the Bronx Zoo (via BBC). Luckily, he seems to be updating his status on Twitter.
31st Mar 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Radiation Dose Chart
interesting comparison of various different levels of radiation at xkcd.com
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22nd Mar 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spy Cruise!
no, it's not an 80s comedy starring Dan Aykroyd... but a real 7 day cruise for spies
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14th Jan 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet
Xmas, North Korean Style
More killer visuals from The Guardian's Dan Chung. It's the East vs West on the technology front too, with the North Korean reporters still packing suits, wooden tripods and film cameras.
29th Dec 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
This Year's Biggest Pictures
As the end of the year approaches, The Big Picture have curated part one of their annual pictures of the year article. Some great photos as usual.
It's not all chimp friendly vistas of Hong Kong skylines and snowboarding however, with earthquakes dominating this year's selection.
UPDATE: Part 2 of 3 can be found here.
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15th Dec 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Simpsons v Fox News (Taiwan style)
the Next Media animation bots have been at it again: here's their take on the Simpsons clash w Fox News, including an actual shark to jump over
7th Dec 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Irvin Kershner
More sad news today, director Irvin Kershner has died. In many ways he's a little known director, but to every chimp he is the man responsible for lifting the Star Wars saga from 'blockbuster' to 'epic'. His fantastic touch on The Empire Strikes Back elevated Star Wars into a totally different league, with classy assured direction and some beautifully storyboarded scenes - particularly those light on effects. A true master.
29th Nov 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Leslie Nielsen
RIP comedy legend Leslie Nielsen. And don't call him Shirley.
29th Nov 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Arrrr! Real-life pirate-fighter
great story about Max Hardberger who takes back ships stolen by pirates. videos on his own website here
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15th Nov 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
The War On Twitter
"Just noticed Twitter keeps prompting me to "Add a location to your tweets". Not falling for that one."
I'm loving the official Al Qaeda Twitter page (unverified).
2nd Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
NYT v Murdoch SharkMan!
Taiwan's news animators do it again. wish all news was like this
10th Sep 2010 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP Corrine Day
Sad news that photographer Corrine Day has passed away.
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28th Aug 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Film A Day In Your Life
Ridley Scott is flexing his advertainment muscles again, this time with the help of Kevin MacDonald for an LG-Sponsored project with YouTube: LIFE IN A DAY.
It's a pretty neat and simple concept - film your day and the 'most compelling and distinctive footage' will be assembled into a film documenting 24 hours on Earth, which is slated to be screened at The Sundance Film Festival. Not bad.
The only problem is what to do during your day in order to make it into this crowd-sourced Koyaanisqatsi. I had a day in front of the TV pencilled in, but that isn't going to impress anybody. I just might have to fake doing something interesting.
Some FAQs here.
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22nd Jul 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Taliban Chimp
According to various news sources, the Taliban have been 'training' monkeys to defend Afghanistan against the Infidel invaders.
Via New York Times
"No invader has ever conquered Afghanistan, and now we know why. The monkeys will not allow it."
20th Jul 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Major Minority Report News
Trials have begun in Tokyo of digital billboards that use facial recognition to target specific adverts at passers-by.... Wonder what I'm in need of buying?
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16th Jul 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Mr. Fusion
OK, it's not quite on a par with Doc Brown's banana skin eating Mr. Fusion, but Gucci web-developer-turned-physicist Mark Suppes has built his own fusion reactor in a workshop in Brooklyn.
Via BBC
29th Jun 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Big Picture: Korean War
It's 60 years since the war started in Korea. The Big Picture has a round up.
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24th Jun 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet