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September 01, 2007

Wikipedia lists me 9 times

Mark Brown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mark Brown may refer to:

* The NASA astronaut, Mark N. Brown
* The bassist of Prince's Revolution, Brownmark
* The United Nations staffer, Mark Malloch Brown
* The Scottish footballer, Mark Brown (footballer)
* The Major League Pitcher, Mark Brown (baseball player)
* The American director and screenwriter Mark A. Brown
* The American playwright and actor Mark Brown
* The Scottish theatre critic Mark Brown
* The London based environmentalist and philanthropist Mark Brown Vestey

June 19, 2007

Cute and funny


Sleepy Baby - The funniest home videos are here

March 14, 2007

Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show

YouTube - Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (Episode 1)

March 08, 2007

A quick intro to science

Science is a special kind of magic, practiced by people called 'nerds'. No body knows how it works for sure, but it probably has something to do with computer machines.

Be careful, science is dangerous. Nerds get so lazy from all their science making that they only have enough strength to stare into space, talk to the internet, or drive their electric wheelchairs.

Sometimes nerds get angry. If too many nerds are angry at one time, electricity stops working and nuclear bombs go off. Damn you nerds! (but don't tell them i said that)

Luckily, normal people can reap the rewards of science without having to risk their own sanity, because nerds are happy to do science for you. They will except monetary compensation, but are also happy to work for social approval.

One final note. Logic tells us that all nerds wear glasses, but that not all people who wear glasses are nerds. You may not agree with this fact, but you'll have a hard time convincing me otherwise, as there are two sides to every story.

January 27, 2007

Star Wars recreated with hands


January 22, 2007

You wont see me doing this

YouTube - Aaron Fotheringham: FIRST backflip in wheelchair

January 14, 2007

iPhone sketch

YouTube - Conan - iPhone Commercial

January 12, 2007

Library Catalogue Cards

blyberg.net � Catalog Card Generator

The above link takes you to a site that lets you make your own old style library catalogue card. Brings back memories of primary school.

Here's mine:

cardimg.jpg

December 04, 2006

The Saddest Thing You'll Ever See?

This meme is doing the rounds under the title of "The Saddest Thing You'll Ever See"

ducksmiserablesewer.jpg

Now, it is obviously fake...the drain looks different in the final photo. But I think it would be sadder if they just got run over.

Anyway, like all internet memes, you can alleviate your duck related melancholy by forwarding it to 50 people in the next 5 seconds.

October 16, 2006

The chicken and the egg

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

The egg.

The humble chicken (aka Gallus gallus domesticus) is descended from the Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus, for those playing at home).

The event that led to the separate chicken species, was the domestication of the Red Junglefowl, 5000 years ago in India. I'm not exactly sure how you go about domesticating wild birds, but lets assume you take an egg from a Red Junglefowl and then let it grow up in captivity. In that case, the first chicken egg was laid by a Red Junglefowl. So the egg came first.

Unfortunately, there is no clear definition of what constitutes a separate species. The first chicken probably looked identical to a Red Junglefowl. The line between species is arbitrary.

The point is, the chicken and egg problem is all thanks to some guy in India who couldn't keep his hands off the wildlife.

September 11, 2006

my nerd score

I am nerdier than 80% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

August 23, 2006

Picard's Poem

YouTube - Patrick Stewart Alphabet

August 14, 2006

The pleasure, pain, indifference matrix

I'm in the mood for matrices.

There's some things in life that you don't necessarily appreciate when they're there, but that you miss when they're gone. Then there's the things that you enjoy when available, but don't bother you by their absence. And there's the ones whose presence cause pain, and whose absence delight.

And so on and so forth...until you do the only sensible thing - decide to draw up a matrix.

Here's how it works: the rows represent how a phenomenon affects you in its precence, while the collumns represent how it affects you in its absence.

pleasurepainmatrix.jpg

My problem is, i'm having difficulty thinking of items for some of the cells. Perhaps some of you in the blogosphere will have some ideas? Where for example should I place sex?

Perhaps I could turn this into a blog meme. It's the kind of thing that is going to vary from person to person, and so, has self-expression potential. Download the matrix as a word file, and fill it in for yourself. Then send it on to 10,000 of your closest friends in the next 5mins, and 7 of your wishes will come true...and then perhaps Charlie won't die this time.

August 09, 2006

The answer to open plan offices

Are you tired of working in a cubicle? This guy got fed up and decided to make his own office out of cardboard.

The inside of his office is furnished with cardboard furniture and appliances. Prankmike.com


July 18, 2006

Space Invaders made with real people

YouTube - Space Invaders real


July 12, 2006

Apple satire

YouTube - New Mac TV Ads

So, I know i go on about how much I love being a Mac user, and how i denegrate everything Microsoft. This video from youtube, is a take on recent Apple adds running in the US. Rod sent it to me. I think he might be sending me a message.

July 09, 2006

The Picard Song - The Sims 2 style

The Picard Song (Star Trek Meets The Sims 2) - Google Video


June 21, 2006

Photoshop fun

Thanks to Rodney for point me to this. It is from a whole stack of this type of thing at somethingawful.com

June 18, 2006

A queer Trek fan film meets General Hospital


June 15, 2006

Neurotransmitter earrings

I'm very impressed with these neurotransmitter earrings. They are so nerdy, i love it! There's seretonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA and glutamate. It would be nice if they had oxytocin - the cuddle hormone.

They've got keyrings for the guys. But, they're not as good. I feel a little bit left out.

Find more at www.madewithmolecules.com

June 13, 2006

What kind of molecule are you?

Which Biological Molecule Are You?

You are DNA. You're a smart person, and you appear incredibly complex to people who don't know you. You're incomparably full of information, and most of it is useless.
Take this quiz!



Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

June 07, 2006

Stack of the day

englishidol.gif

From English Idol...courtesy of idlesparks

June 05, 2006

more stupid pics

June 04, 2006

stupid picture of the day 2


June 02, 2006

stupid photo of the day


May 28, 2006

The Ballad of Dr Freud

A short excerpt of this song was played on All In The Mind yesterday:

Dr. Freud Dr. Freud (David Lazar)

Oh, it happened in Vienna, not so very long ago,
When not too many folks were getting sick
That a starving young physician tried to better his position
By discovering what made his patients tick

Oh, Dr. Freud, oh, Dr. Freud
How I wish that you'd been otherwise employed
For the set of circumstances sure enhances the finances
Of the followers of Dr. Sigmund Freud

He forgot about sclerosis, but invented the psychosis
And a hundred ways that sex could be enjoyed
He adopted as his credo, "Down repression, up libido"
And that was the start of Dr. Sigmund Freud

Now he analyzed the dreams of the teens and libertines
And he substituted monologues for pills
He drew crowds just like Wells Sadler, when along came Jung & Adler
Who said, "By God, there's gold in them thar ills"

They encountered no resistance when they served as Freud's assistants
As with Ego and with Id, they deftly toyed
And instead of toting bedpans, they bore analytic deadpans
Those ambitious doctors, Adler, Jung, and Freud

Now the big three have departed, not so the cult they started
It's been carried on by many a goodly band
And to trauma, shock, and more shock, someone went and added Rorshach
Now the thing has got completely out of hand

Now old men with double chinseys and a million would be Kinseys
Will discuss it at the drop of a repression
I wouldn't be complaining, but for all the dough I'm paying
To lie on someone's couch and say confession

I'd love to find the full audio of this.

May 19, 2006

19994647 - the strange SMS number

At uni today, a message written on a wall in chalk commanded me to SMS my name to 19994647.

I am a suggestible kind of person, clearly. I promptly sent of my SMS.

Here is what they replied:

"Mark loves to put him self under the thumb of his misses on a regular basis. Lovely bloke & knows how to seriously play the guitar. He shreds hardcore."

Curious.

May 17, 2006

BBC interview mixup

Ajax (aka Adam Jackson) alerted me to this hilarious story.

A man visiting the BBC was accidently ushered into a studio and interviewed live on air. The crew mistook him for an IT expert that they had invited to talk about the Apple vs The Beatles court case. The man was clearly baffled, but played along, and made up some vague answers.

Elsewhere, i've heard that he assumed it was a practical joke.

Watch the video below:

cabbie.wmv (video/x-ms-wmv Object)

May 15, 2006

Tom electrocutes Oprah

000b46wb.gif (GIF Image, 250x167 pixels)

A bit of fun for the morning. Tom Cruise is scary. Watch out Katie.

I feel a bit crap today. I've had a lot of snot and a sore throat over the weekend. I fell asleep with a soother in my mouth and woke up this morning with a numb sticky face.

Theres only a few more weeks till exams, and i've got a heap of reading to catch up on, so i'd better do some this morning. My busyness algorithm has completely collapsed. I think I assumed that I have more productive hours per day than I actually do. I'm looking forward to the mid year break. I'm tossing up the idea of going part time uni next semester. It would delay my progress by another year, but it might make uni more fun, and i'd probably do better. But then again, as much as I enjoy having the time to be thorough, it may get a bit boring. Hmmm, it is hard to know. I'll wait till i get my marks back.

May 10, 2006

another little trinket for my box of shiny things

335246.gif

May 04, 2006

Hamish and Andy Phone Sex Prank

This came through the podcast feed last night. I thought it was hilarious. Hamish and Andy, on their radio phone, got two phone sex lines on conference call, and tricked them into talking to each other for quite a while. It's all very tame stuff, but very amusing:

Hamish and Andy Phone Sex Prank (mp3)

May 03, 2006

The ultimate way to fold a t-shirt

how to fold a shirt in japan - Google Video


April 27, 2006

Ali G Interviews Noam Chomsky

YouTube - ali g interviews noam chomsky

April 22, 2006

1.5 hours of actual work per day

Triple Your Personal Productivity by Steve Pavlina

Studies have shown that the average office worker does only 1.5 hours of actual work per day. The rest of the time is spent socializing, taking coffee breaks, eating, engaging in non-business communication, shuffling papers, and doing lots of other non-work tasks.

I don't know what these studies are...but I like to think that it's true. I think that it is a testament to modern civilisation.

April 18, 2006

Bottled Oxygen predicted to be the next big thing

From the stupidity that brought us magnetic pillows, energy drinks, and bottled water, comes the new hit health craze: bottled oxygen!

Canned Oxygen Could be the Next Bottled Water

Bottled water has become a $9 billion dollar industry in the US alone; a country which has plentiful sources of potable water. With all of this money being thrown around, businesses are now looking for other free commodities that can be slickly packaged and sold for a profit.

Ever since you were born, you’ve been breathing oxygen for free, Right? Well the masters of mundane marketing agree that it is time for you to adjust your thinking. Yes, you can breathe air for free; but how lame is that? Naturally occurring oxygen is just so 10,000 years ago. It’s time for you to begin breathing more pure, more refreshing oxygen.

Read the article. I reckon that they just might be right.

April 09, 2006

Ali G takes on Racialism (sic)

My main man, Rod, sent me a link to this clip from Ali G. I hadn't seen this on the tele. But I love it.

YouTube - Ali G with Andy Rooney

For real. Respect.

April 07, 2006

Ten ways Dick Cheney can kill you

Great restaurant ideas: Ethiopian

Lol!

Portent and polite acceptance: Great restaurant ideas

Ethiopian - There are no menus. You are seated and have to wait 48 hours for you meal. Then when you least expect it and trapdoor opens in the roof above you and a box attached to a parachute comes floating down. Standard fare really - jerky, bottled water, uncooked rice and insulin.

Send your outrage to idlesparks.blogspot.com

April 03, 2006

nerds fc

Nerds FC

Every Friday from April 14th at 7:30pm on SBS TV

What happens when you give 14 self-confessed nerds three months of intensive and professional football training and then have them play a leading national league team?

Elite coach Andy Harper takes 14 self-confessed nerds into the grueling world of professional football and heads up the transformation of the boys whose usual obsessions are more circuit boards, naval history and robotics than football. The question that is asked at the start of this hilarious and warm-hearted series is: can three months of intense training prepare these 14 young men, all complete novices, to compete against all-star team?

March 22, 2006

Life is an open book test

As of now, life is an open book test. And when I say now, i don't mean right this minute, I mean as of the last few years.

I was listening to someone talk about this on a podcast the other day. I can't remember which one. But it struck me as an amazingly accurate appraisal.

The digital age creates amazing findability, and it's only going to get better. Of course, a fast car needs a very skilled driver. Access to huge amounts of information requires a new set of information skills - critical thinking, comprehension, becomes essential.

In the old days, schooling was about remembering stuff. Even when I was at school, the more you could memorise the better you did. But with the rise of the internet, and in particular Google, why remember something when you can look it up just as quickly. From here on knowledge is a dime a dozen. Instead, analytical ability and creativity are what will get you work.

And so, I predict that in the next decade, education will become less about teaching content, but about training brains - learning how to learn and building cognitive fitness.

After all, as progress grows exponentially it becomes pointless to teach specific knowledge. The specific film and video making skills that I learned in my BCA from 2001 - 2003, were obsolete by 2004. The general philosophical issues about storytelling were still useful, however the 'training' was useless. I ended up just buying some new gear and looking stuff up on the net.

Who knows what the state of psychological science will be by the time i finish this psych course.

The world of open book tests can be a bit frightening. It necessitates life long learning. But it makes for a very strong meritocracy.

March 15, 2006

SciFi Match Making site

Oh my god! There's a match making site just for sci-fi geeks!

Trek Passions - 100% Free Sci Fi Dating, Sci-Fi Personals & Chat

March 07, 2006

Potato peeling 101

peel-potato-in-one-step.pngLifehacker.com have discovered, via a japanese cooking show, the ULTIMATE way to peel a potato. It is amazing! I will never peel a potato the old way ever again. Follow the link below and watch the video.

Video Demonstration: Peel a potato in one step - Lifehacker

February 28, 2006

fake fake ipod - the saga continues

The fake ipod saga just gets weirder. The rumour now is that the 'how I created the fake ipod image' video, is itself a fake. Meaning, that the original image could still be real.

But come on, this is just getting rediculous

February 19, 2006

Does your office look like this?

I saw this on lifehacker.com. I'm posting it more for the fantastic picture than for the content. My room can get messy, but that picture is something else.

Clutter means procrastination - Lifehacker

An anonymous piece at the Article Emporium says that bad Feng Shui - like an office stacked with piles of stuff - causes procrastination and blockage around reaching your goals.

Clutter is delayed decisions. It’s procrastination. Its stress. It’s the same thing as putting a piece of paper in that pile on your desk, telling yourself you’ll deal with it later. As the piles grow, your energy becomes clogged. Next thing you know you’re spending time looking through your piles for information you’ve lost because you didn’t file your papers where they belonged - in files or in your recycling bin.

The article then offers 10 tips for creating an “environment of action and abundance,” and even though that sounds kind of New Agey, many of them ring true. Coincidentally, my feature article that will publish later on today deals with the very issue of clutter-busting and how it can end procrastination.

February 16, 2006

639 year long piece of music

Discovery Channel :: News :: 639-Year Concert Lets Loose 2nd Chord

A new chord was scheduled to sound Thursday in the world's slowest and longest lasting concert that is taking a total 639 years to perform.

The abandoned Buchardi church in Halberstadt, eastern Germany, is the venue for a mind-boggling 639-year-long performance of a piece of music by U.S. experimental composer John Cage (1912-1992).

Entitled "organ2/ASLSP" (or "As SLow aS Possible"), the performance began on Sept. 5, 2001 and is scheduled to last until 2639.

The first year and half of the performance was total silence, with the first chord — G-sharp, B and G-sharp — not sounding until Feb. 2, 2003.

Then in July 2004, two additional Es, an octave apart, were sounded and are scheduled to be released later this year on May 5.

February 14, 2006

A very Star Wars Valentine's Day

I have no particular fondness for Valentine's Day (g'day captain bitterman), however, I thought i'd still post this image. Thanks to Rodney for pointing me to it. There's lots more Star Wars themed Valentine's Day cards over at www.somethingawfull.com. It's bad pun galore over there.

February 09, 2006

A video I made in Yr 12 - Hen Hao!

I've been archiving all my old cds and videos, and I came across some stuff from Yr 12. It doesn't feel like that long ago, and yet my face looked a lot more shiny then. In particular, I found this video I made for VCE Chinese.

You can watch it here via google video

I like to think that my video making skills have improved since then, even if my chinese hasn't

February 06, 2006

worlds biggest bunny

CBBC Newsround | Animals | Herman could be 'biggest bunny'

A man has been showing off his gigantic rabbit named Herman.

The mighty bunny weighs a massive 7.7kg, and his ears are a lengthy 21cm - almost as long as most pet rabbits are tall. And he is almost 1m tall.

The German Giant is even big for his breed, which usually tip the scales at around 6kg.

Herman lives in a specially built solid oak hutch and chomps his way through just over 2kg of food a day. His owner says his favourite snack is lettuce.

February 01, 2006

Fastr - the best online game based on flickr i've ever played

fastr - a flickr game. This game is so much fun. It displays images from flickr, and you have to guess what tag the images have in common. You compete against other people online to see how fast you can guess. It's very cool, and very addictive.

Try it.

January 31, 2006

It's funny when you know people on game shows

Mr Guin, a teacher from my highschool, is on Deal or No Deal. Charity just rang me up to let me know. How about that?

He just won $10,998

January 29, 2006

NASA satelite on 145.990 MHz FM

This is very cool:

Astronauts turn spacesuit into satellite | The Register

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will next week chuck an empty spacesuit out of the airlock and thereby create the world's first "SuitSat".

The Russian Orlan suit features "three batteries, a radio transmitter, and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power," as Frank Bauer of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center explains. Bauer adds: "As SuitSat circles Earth, it will transmit its condition to the ground."

Yes indeed, all you need is "an antenna (the bigger the better) and a radio receiver that you can tune to 145.990 MHz FM" to catch the 5-10 minute flyby as SuitSat passes over (you can calculate your next scheduled visit here).

I will be sure to tune in next week. The best thing since Sputnik

Invisability Cloak invented

Now I can sneak out to see Hagrid as much as I like.

The Green Head - Tech & Beyond: Japanese Scientist Invents Invisibility Cloak

A professor at the University of Tokyo has developed an optical camouflage system that makes a special reflective material seemingly disappear, including the wearer! The picture on the coat is made by a viewfinder which puts together the moving images behind the wearer. It's hoped the technology will be useful for surgeons to be able to see through their hands and tools and also for pilots so the cockpit floor will be transparent for landings.

January 27, 2006

Adult Diapers All The Rage Among Chinese Travellers

It's amazing the news that turns up in my RSS reader:

Adult Diapers All The Rage Among Chinese Travellers - Consumerist

Alongside food and fire crackers, Chinese are adding a new item to their lunar New Year shopping: Adult diapers. Sales have soared ahead of the holiday as travelers prepare for long trips home aboard trains so crowded that even the toilets are jammed with people, newspapers said Tuesday.

Good on them. I respect practicality.

December 24, 2005

The Official Website of Adam Jackson

The Official Website of Adam Jackson

December 17, 2005

Music 20 questions

20Q.net

Pretend you are a music related person, place or thing and the AI will figure out what you are, by asking simple questions.

December 14, 2005

Pentop computer

I heard about this on Engadget.com. It's weird but cool:

flypentop.jpg
FLY™ Pentop Computer

So basically, it's a computer without a screen, and without any buttons. It's a pen, and you control it completely by writing.

For example, if you want to schedule a reminder, you write the letter 's' and then circle it, and it will say via it's speaker:

"Write the date"

so you write out the date, then it says:

"Write the time"

and you write out the time, then the event name, and at that time and date it will speak your reminder.

It's also got a calculator, music, notepad, games, etc. It's aimed at kids, and the website is terribly obnoxious, but it's a cool idea.

Adam, go to the website...you'll appreciate the acting.

December 12, 2005

Space Age Ant Farm

This looks like a hell of a lot of fun. I want one. I wonder if you need to make sure you get a Queen ant, or if you can just put in any old ants. I got into ants after reading Emergence by Stephen Berlin Johnson - it's all about collective intelligence.

ThinkGeek :: AntWorks - Space Age Ant Habitat

This miraculous gel, derived from a NASA Space experiment, serves as both habitat and nutrition for your ants - allowing you to watch in awe as they turn a brick of aqua-blue gel into a fascinating colony of tunnels. Never before have you been so capable of watching these awesome creatures at work.

VCE Results

Every year the media reports the VCE Results with an emphasis on how many students got the top score. This year it's 30 kids who got 99.95. But they say it as if it's some kind of meaningful statistic.

Obviously they don't understand that ENTER scores are a ranking. If you graphed the distribution of ENTER scores you'd get a flat line. If there was something in the water that made everyone dumb this year, there would still be the same number of 99.95s. You can get the number of students with 99.95 by dividing the number of total students by 20,000.

So, every year, the typical media coverage, which is always the same, drives me crazy.

The Ricky Gervais Show

Look! There's some kind of Ricky Gervais podcast:

Ricky Gervais... Obviously.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/rickygervais/mp4.xml (for iTunes)
or
http://www.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/rickygervais/mp3.xml (for any other podcasting program)


December 11, 2005

Nintendo music choir

This is fantastic. Nintendo hits performed acapella.

Nintendo Acapella - Google Video

December 09, 2005

Firefox-logo in deep space! Photo by Hubble of star V838 resembles FF-logo

The Hubble Space Telescope took a photo of the variable star V838 Monocerotis which lies near the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy. If you rotate the photo a bit, the star resembles the FIREFOX LOGO very much! Pretty old (march 2004) but still funny to see that firefox even has divine approval... - digg.com


read more | digg story

firefoxnebula.jpg

December 05, 2005

ipod costumes

iattire_cowboy_i_300.jpg

...umm.....ok.....i love my ipod, but this is going a bit far. http://www.iattire.net

November 30, 2005

35mm Lego Camera

Thoughts About Photography: 35mm Lego Camera

35mm Lego Camera

November 22, 2005

Not a plonker

davoren.jpg


What a great brent lookalike. He's even got the expression.

I saw the first office christmas special today, finally.

November 03, 2005

Star Wars Kid

The link below takes you to a really funny new remix of the "Star Wars" kid footage.

Matrix Agents

Like some kind of absurdism

A couple of weeks ago this guy pulled me up in the street, complemented me on my ipod nano, and said that he wanted to send me an email. His english wasn't great so i gave him my pobox.com addy.

I just got an email from him:

Dear mark,

testing, testing one two...


hi mark, did we meet one sunny afternoon about a month or so ago in william street and collins?
you were listening to your ipod :-) cool.


well i just wanted to ask you if you had time to check
out the opportunity. i'm also writing to say that if you have
any questions. please feel free to contact me. my support managers
are also more than happy to help. they are successful leaders in the business
of Network Twenty One.

Best Regards,


lloyd

the link in his email is a very ambiguous website. What on earth is it? And are spam companies really that desperate that they need actual people to harvest addresses on the street?

Network21

November 01, 2005

The nerd-o-meter

I found this through digg.com. It's the ultimate nerd test. I scored 34, unfortunately only a tad nerdy. Do the test and comment me your score.

---------

What follows is a list of traits, attributes and actions, and their corresponding points. Add the points together for all that apply to you and then see what level of nerd you come to... notice that certain items subtract points.

Part one: knowledge and skills [computers]
You know how to turn on the computer - 1 point
You can recall your computer's basic specifications on request - 2 points
You can use the Internet competently - 1 point
You know that computers use a thing called binary - 1 point
You can count in binary - 4 points
You can upgrade a computer's hardware - 2 points
You can build a PC from scratch - 5 points
You can set up a computer network - 2 points
You can program in BASIC - 2 points
The only programming language you know is BASIC - MINUS 2 points
You know at least one of these: c, c++, php, java - 5 points plus 1 point for each programming language you know
You own or have owned a website - 5 points
You own or have owned a domain name - 3 points

Part two: knowledge and skills [science]
You know what an atom is - 1 point
You know what a [biological] cell is - 1 point
You know the difference between current and voltage - 5 points
You understand relativity or quantum physics or both - 5 points
You could build a radio if you wanted to - 2 points
You HAVE built a radio - 2 points, and a transmitter - 2 points
You understand the theory of evo