MaisonBisson

Congressman Sensenbrenner: “what’s so bad about shorter winters and global warming?”

Lightning struck the steeple of the Saint John the Baptist Church in Allenstown NH Saturday.

Men At Work lead singer has new album: “are you lookin’ at me?”

Thought: industrialized transportation first aggregated passengers onto railroads, the broke up into cars…technology empowered the individual, and they embraced it.

I’m wishing Alanis Morissette a happy birthday not just because we share a birth month and year, but because it’s a good reason to look back at her cover of My Humps and get another smile.

But, as long as we’re talking about events in June, we might as well remember that we’re now just 20 Days away from Paris Hilton’s retirement.

“YouNiversity”

Huh, the NASA Administrator doesn’t think global warming is big issue. What’s his stance on evolution?

Gizmodo faithfully: flaming industrial art.

They introduced it saying “Do you enjoy fire? Do you also enjoy very intricate Rube Goldberg machines? Of course you do.” Though a reader there exclaims:

It didn’t do anything. For it to be a true Rube Goldberg doesn’t it have to accomplish some task, like cracking an egg or pouring a glass of milk or something? Neat to watch, but make it do something!

Something, presumably, other than just fascinate the pyros. …Which is what brings us to the dump truck smashup video:

Not that the dump truck actually accomplishes anything either, just that it looks cool.

(Note: the real connection here is that Cliffy introduced that video with “Everyone loves the idea of smashing fast-moving things into hard objects,” but got quickly shot down by somebody saying only guys like crashes, flames, and explosions.)

There is little doubt that the great diversity of styles and techniques of bowlers from countries enjoying test match status has helped to shape the history of [the sport]. With the recent world-wide implementation of professional coaching schemes, which generally teach only one, or perhaps two optimal ways…, bowling could be in danger of losing its technical diversity. Are we therefore on the verge of a new era in which the art of bowling is irretrievably lost? Possibly! However, as discussed below, the biomechanical principles underlying the bowling technique reveal some interesting new facts.

Unfortunately (for my purposes), that quote is about the wrong kind of bowling.

Anybody who’s seen me bowl knows how bad I am, even if I am among the few people I know who’s been to the bowling museum and hall of fame. Seeing these videos makes me tremendously thankful that nobody’s had a camera around when I’ve been throwing gutter balls down the lanes.

Harry Potter finale out soon, does Book Embargo have details?

The Associated Press reports a composite nude posted to facebook has earned a UNH student a restraining order:

A University of New Hampshire student got a temporary restraining order against another student who combined an image of her face with an explicit photo of another woman’s body, then posted the composite on his Facebook page.

A judge ordered Owen Sanborn, of Laconia, to stay at least 100 feet away from the woman and barred him from posting her “likeness or name on any Internet site,” pending a final hearing.

The woman’s lawyer, Bryan Gould, said the posting was the latest episode in a series. Social networking sites like Facebook can encourage stalking-type behavior, he said.

“It’s sort of a way for someone like this to sort of test the waters, and that’s what makes it dangerous,” Gould said.

From The Chronicle:

Copyright law, a constant thorn in the sides of scholars and researchers, is generating a lot of public discussion this week, thanks in part to a new 10-minute video that parodies the law. “A Fair(y) Use Tale” has been downloaded from YouTube about 145,000 times since it was posted online Friday. The video uses 400 cuts from 27 different Disney films to mock copyright law as overly protective of the interests of copyright owners — Disney among them.

Eric Faden, an assistant professor of English and film studies at Bucknell University, who produced the video with help from seven of his students, said it took eight months to make. “The most important thing is that it’s getting people to talk about these issues” of copyright and fair use, Mr. Faden said today. Worried that Disney may sue him for copyright infringement, Mr. Faden has retained Stanford University law professors.

Rather read a tale of copyright tyranny than watch one? Try “The People Who Owned the Bible.”

If you ever tire of the kittens on Flickr, it turns out there’s no shortage of bunnies on YouTube.