The collected works of professional comic artist Patric Farley. My favourites are the biblical epic Apocomon: the story of Revalations told in the Pokemon / Manga Style. You might also enjoy ‘The Spiders‘, a story of the Afghanistan war set in an alternative reality where Al Gore won the 2001 Presidential Election, and warfare is conducted via remotely controlled spider-like robots.
Monthly Archive for March, 2004
Michelle Bach’s truly excellent site re-creates an encyclopedic range of optical illusions and bizarre visual effects. Flash, Java and Quicktime required for maximum fun. Click on the link if you wish to learn the meaning for this spikey-looking elephant.
I had an article published on Kuro5hin recently: Switching from PHP to Zope/Python. Read, enjoy and learn from my mighty wisdom.
Continue reading ‘Switching from PHP to Zope’
My mother has reached new levels of computer literacy, and has broken through the Ebay threshold. Witness her teapot. I am proud, yet also scared.
The Franklin Mint is so passionate about your passion for collecting that it is currently collecting its own collectables in the fabulous Franklin Mint Museum. If you have ay doubt about the value of such a venture, please take the time to read this Socratic dialogue that proves the worth of their museum.
You may be surprised to learn that some people are not as enraptured by their wares as I am, like this misguided chap, who was not impressed by the “Eye of the Golden Dragon” sculptured museum-quality dragon collector watch and display.
I have always enjoyed their selection of vinyl and porcelain dolls. Princess Diana is of course top of my list of favourites, but whose collection would be complete without Jackie O, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe… and so many more!
The Franklin Mint also makes beautiful Jewelery. An enduring favourite of mine is the Pride of A Lion ring.
The Franklin Mint can also help you with your more general home decoration needs. Please do look at the Princess Diana Designer Dinnerware collection, which features the famous Princess of Wales White Rose. Imagine the “royally elegant” meals you will serve up on these beauties!
I’m slightly miffed today that Tivo failed to record Stargate SG1 - normally such a reliable machine, my Tivo has suffered recently as a result of a botched hard-disk upgrade hack. As a result of my own shoddy geeking I have therefore been deprived of my bi-weekly fix of this truly bad program.
I both love and hate Stargate SG1: It is a spin-off from the forgetable 1990’s space-opera ‘Stargate’ in which Kurt Russel’s character has been replaced with former star of McGyver, Richard Dean Anderson.
Anderson’s character in SG1 is quite a contrast to his 80’s unarmed secret-agent. In SG1 he is a gun-toting, figeting, technophobic bufoon… actually this is rather refreshing because most sci-fi characters do not have any personality at all. Richard brings an unusual note of comedy to a mostly dreary genre.
Week after week the same team of six or so characters save the world from a seemingly endless stream of superior alien foes. SG1 is like a lower-budget version of Star Trek - feeble special effects, wooden acting and cardboard sets. However this series does have one substantial redeeming quality - it does not take itself as seriously as Gene Roddenberry’s namby-pamby vision of the future.
So without my weekly fix I am left to ponder the eternal Stargate SG1 questions such as:
* Why do all the male aliens end up falling in love with tech genius ‘Major Sam Carter’. To some extent, this is a gender reversal of Shatner’s role in the original Star-trek with one critical difference - ‘Carter’ manages to retain her clothing in every episode I have seen.
* How does ‘Teal’c’ get to look so macho and yet so gay-sexual at the same time (if I have not offended my homosexual readers, please tell me if my gay-dar is malfunctioneering). I have been assured by gay sci-fi fins that he is intended as a ‘gay-interest’ character.
* Why do all the aliens speak perfect American English?
* How did RDA’s character get to be a colonel despite being a figeting bafoon?
* Dean Stockwell was better in “Quantum Leap”, dont you agree?
The Franklin Mint is so passionate about your passion for collecting that it is currently collecting its own collectables in the fabulous Franklin Mint Museum. If you have ay doubt about the value of such a venture, please take the time to read this Socratic dialogue that proves the worth of their museum.
You may be surprised to learn that some people are not as enraptured by their wares as I am, like this misguided chap, who was not impressed by the “Eye of the Golden Dragon” sculptured museum-quality dragon collector watch and display.
I have always enjoyed their selection of vinyl and porcelain dolls. Princess Diana is of course top of my list of favourites, but whose collection would be complete without Jackie O, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe… and so many more!
The Franklin Mint also makes beautiful Jewelery. An enduring favourite of mine is the Pride of A Lion ring.
The Franklin Mint can also help you with your more general home decoration needs. Please do look at the Princess Diana Designer Dinnerware collection, which features the famous Princess of Wales White Rose. Imagine the “royally elegant” meals you will serve up on these beauties!
Here is a genuine 1974 adult themed fanzine, on sale at ebay for just US$1.00! Spock Enslaved” - how can you resist!
Last centuary Alan Turing proved that any computer algorythm is a mathematical theorem. Godel proved that any theroem can be represented and manipulated as an integer.
Only a few years back, substantially weaker minds invented the DMCA; America’s Digital Millenium Copyright Act - legislation that makes it illegal to bypass copyright controls on digital media. This law makes posession and distribution of programs that break copyrights illegal.
So logically if programs are equivalent to theorems which are equivalent to numbers then a number equivalent to an illegal program must also be illegal? If all that holds true then this guy has discovered the first illegal prime number.
Iron Chef is a fantastic Saturday evening television show imported to Australia from Japan via the US (picking up an amusing voiceover en rout). This is competitive cookery with honour!
Lloyd Grossman’s Masterchef is a chintsy, tawdry second-hand sofa of a show compared to this Japanese cookery competition. You just have to look at their host to know that you are going to be treated something special.
The show’s format pits a challenger, a professional chef against his/her choice from 3 resident Iron Chefs who are defined in terms of the country that most inspires their cooking style, French, Italian, Japanese and chinese (although only 3 of these four are presented each week).
While the Masterchef format allowed competitors to choose a menu and rehearse their dishes in advance of the event, Iron Chef adds a more interesting game-show twist to proceedings. Neither the challenger nor the Iron Chef will know what key ingredient they will be presented with. This mystery ingredient must form the focal point of each meal they produce during the one hour allowed to them.
Key ingredients have been eel, mushrooms, potatoes, aubergines etc. Competitors are encouraged to produce as many dishes as possible. Kobayashi Katsuyo (Japan’s Deliah Smith equivolent) for example served 6 distinct potato based dishes to the judges. Amazing!
The host, Chairman Kaga Takeshi adds an exrta level of drama and excitement to the show with his superbly tailored outfits. But I wonder if he is more proud of the work he does on Iron Chef, or of his role as the voice of Jiraldan in the movie “The Phanton Pokemon: Lugia’s Explosive Birth“.
Learn more about the participants
Hiroyuki Sakai: Iron Chef French
Masahiko Kobe: Iron Chef Italian
Masaharu Morimoto: Iron Chef Japan (II)
Chen Kenichi: Iron Chef Chinese
Takeshi Kaga: Chairman