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ABC Linkdump- December 11

// December 18th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

There is no realisation, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received. There is merely this week’s Linkdump.

PB – Check out the Kazahs going wild and building the biggest tent-like-structure-with-funky-lights in the face of the earth. (via Gizmodo )

AJ-A wonderful interview with Edward Wilson; sociobiologist, scientific humanist and prominent man of letters. The winner of two Pulitzer prizes delves into the big questions- consciousness, science and religion, emergence- with his fellow sociobiologist and author Robert Wright. (thanks Brodie)

AJ- The new 24 hours news station Al Jazeera English meets the Daily Show . Result? Ass off, laugh my, made me. You decide.

AJ- Kofi Annan’s last speech in which he shares “five lessons I have learnt in the last ten years, during which I have had the difficult but exhilarating job as Secretary-General.”

AJ- I see a lot of Leadership Programmes in my role, and this one looks very interesting. Shambhala Institute’s Summer Program on Authentic Leadership in Halifax, Canada. Former module leaders include Peter Senge, Margaret Wheatley and Barry Oshry. Go, enjoy and blog it for me.

AJ-The Daily Show redubs the latest edition of Bush’s dog’s video message in Barney’s Holiday Extravaganza 2006.

A Cunning Segue

// December 15th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

ikythera Shuffle

// December 12th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I am shocked to find that the Antikythera mechanism, a two-thousand year old Greek “analogue computer” that has been reconstructed recently, can only hold twenty mp3s! That’s barely two CD’s worth. True, the bronze+wood inlay gives that classic feel, but if it’s going to be big they could have at least added a camera phone. Posidonius is surely no Jonathan Ive.

ABC Linkdump- December 4

// December 11th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Optimus Prime: You destroy everything you touch Megatron!

Megatron: That’s because everything I touch is food for my hunger. My hunger for power.

Optimus Prime: I am going to end your hunger once and for all, with this week’s phat collection- the ABC Linkdump. Word.


AJ- Deep down inside you want to watch Jimi Hendrix play “Castles made of sand” live in Sweden for an audience of nine. Also Stevie Ray Vaughn does a perfectly developed instrumental of Jimi’s “Little Wing”.

AJ- quicksilverscreen.com/- is a site linking to lowish resolution episodes of many premium tv shows (The Office, Family Guy, Futurama, Scrubs etc) viewable online . A higher resolution, montly flat fee version of this service is the future.

AJ- I accidently went to a short-film festival that’s part of Resfest – an arts festival held concurrently in major cities across the globe. I remember a film titled “Phobias” finished with the flash of a line reading “Fear is a dark room where negatives develop”

TG – A great list of 30 awesome blogs you probably haven’t read before . For all those people who ask me “where do you find all this stuff – exploring links from lists like this is a good start to supreme internet nerdiness…

TG – Arthur, I take your “lowish resolution episodes of many premium TV shows” and raise you 10 – Comedy Central has signed a deal with iFilm, also known as “injustice youtube” – you can now legally watch the Daily Show and a ton of other Comedy Central shows in the privacy of your own internet box.

TG Top 50 Music Videos of 2006, all viewable thanks to the you-know-what-tube….

PB – Now that AJ has also signed off his soul to all Apple products here some pretty funny Zune bashing .

PB – Google has been good with finding, bringing stuff to us, now with the new Gmail feature , you can bind all your stuff. I wonder what is next in their list…. (still think google-gmail rocks btw)

PB – Some movie trailers for Sunday night, be sure to check out this weird animated one about – well don’t really know yet, expect it plays in the future France and looks shitnice. Also from the past, Frank Miller is back at it again, making the second movie from his comics, which looks just as cool as Sin City . Gentlemen, I give you Renaissance and 300 .

PB – I’m sure you all know this, but can never have too much Bill Hicks.

PB – Check out the mission patch of Charles Simonyi – the next space Pilot. Big-up for him for remembering his Hungarian heritage and putting the red-white-green in the background. (via Hirbehozó )

ABC Linkdump- November 27

// December 4th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

The thing about the three wise men is, if say Balthasar got waylaid chilling in Turkish baths or an intense new finance job- Caspar and Melchior would have powered through the night to bring baby Jesus his birthday gifts. They were hella committed to scoping the King of the Jews and knew that a divine birth without the dried sap of the Commiphora tree was barely a divine birth at all. This weeks Linkdump fancy fresh in gold, frankincense and a quantity of myrrh normally reserved for “MTV Cribs”.

TG – One of my favourite new web discoveries of the month – The Straight Dope . Kind of like a “how stuff works” site, but with attitude style.

AJ- Winner of the Achewood themed Song Fight! “Livin’ At The Corner Of Dude And Catastrophe” is- MC Frontalot feat. Brad Sucks. I revel in the confusion that this sentence will call to almost everyone. Know that all these things are frikkin’ awesome.

AJ- Apparently these are ACTUAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES USED IN FILMS MADE IN HONG KONG. My favorite, “Greetings, large black person. Let us not forget to form a team up together and go into the country to inflict the pain of our karate feets on some ass of the giant lizard person.”

TG – I got talking to someone in Sinai and the conversation turned to Billy Collins , the amazing Poet Laureate of America. Check out “Shovelling Snow with Buddha” for some serious Zen poetry…..

TG – I’ll be feasting on international film for the next 6 days at the Cairo International Film Festival….

AJ- Before his incredible documentary series on the propogation of political ideology in the later 20th Century, The Power of Nightmares , Adam Curtis made The Century of Self ; a series “about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.” View for free on Google Video.

AJ- Aaron Swartz did some data-crunching against many Wikipedia entries to determine how Wikipedia entries get written. If we were playing Civilisation IV, building Wikipedia would totally give you culture victory.

ABC Linkdump- November 20

// November 28th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

This weeks Linkdump from the Amsterdam, Budapest and Cairo Connection is so fresh it’s late. I missed a flight back from London and so had to catch an eleven hour freakin bus ride- pulling straight through to work this morning. Me, sprawled across a table, staring outside into the darkness as Force 6 winds whip up foam against the ferry as she makes her midnight crossing of the Channel, and Iraq debates rattle my headphones, ulterly failing to penetrate my somnolent mind. Nonetheless, I arrived and so does Week 3′s ABC Linkdump.

AJ- Pat Robertson showcases my problem with the Evangelical Right; divisive, demonising and explaining God on a blackboard
AJ- Dear Corporate Community, when you do things like this I get the impression that you are evil, or at best ammoral bacteria-like functionaries living off whatever energy society allows you to steal.
TG- I think I have linked to it before, but as a reminder, We Make Money Not Art is one of the coolest art/creativity blogs in the ‘sphere.
TG- This is meta-awesome: 2006′s list of lists, a collection of all the different “2006 Best of X” or “Top 10 X” for the year.
TG- For fans of beautiful things, the new Sony Bravia commercial (“Paint”) is absolutely gorgeous. And if you have been living on the moon (or a place with no internet) for the last year, here is the amazing original “balls” commercial . Two of the prettiest commercials you will ever see.
PB – Not a big soccer fan, but here is to the greatest hungarian soocerplayer.Ever . Rest in peace.
PB – A hungarian site, but just cool videos for a night with nothing to do . And if videos, don’t miss this BBC interviewing a cabdriver instead of an IT expert. And also, some dudes who use their bikes for flying.
PB -The 13 Most Embarrassing Web Moments
TG- I was randomly watching a few minutes of a Spanish Leage football game yesterday, and in the small time frame that I was checking it out, Ronaldhino scored this amazing goal, one of the best I have ever seen – the man is a freak, not to mention looking like a cross between a spider and a horse…..
AJ- National Geographic inquires (and aims to debunk) “chi”- the energy/force described in martial arts. Youtube video with George Dillman- 9th degree blackbelt .

Tom Roy- Representing Aussie in Shanghai!

// November 21st, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized


My cousin- one Mr Tom Roy of Brisbane, Australia- will be donning the green and gold to represent Aussie in the Special Olympics held in Shanghai next October!

Tom has been a keen swimmer since before I could walk and has been training incredibly hard for the qualification events- which he must have simply dominated. From Australia to Amsterdam, we shall be cheering him on and wish him huge success and enjoyment in his experience.

This announcement comes in the same week that Ian Thorpe, winner of five Olympic and eleven World Championships, announces his retirement from swimming. Merely a coincidence? Not a chance. Move over Thorpedo- Tom Roy is entering the pool.

Look out for the first interview with our rising star.

ABC Linkdump- November 20

// November 20th, 2006 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

After rave reviews of our first week’s linkage (ok it was a silent rave) we are back with week 2 of the ABC Linkdump.

TG – Via Aly, this is an interesting documentary on media coverage of the Middle East, watch it online for free at Google Video – “Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land” by Bathsheba Ratzkoff and Sut Jhally.

AJ- “Jesus Camp”, a documentary about a charismatic Christian summer camp for children to learn about their “prophetic gifts” and how they can “take back America for Christ.” Their chief “prophet” preaches a message urging children to join the fight to end abortion. He prays for George W. Bush to have the strength to appoint “righteous judges” who will overturn Roe v. Wade. By the end of the sermon, the children are chanting, “Righteous judges! Righteous judges!” At one point Pastor Fischer states, “I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam,” she tells the camera. “I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel, as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine.” Article in The Guardian. Doco Trailer.

TG – Heh. Slashdot.org, the geeky industrial strength web community, just reached 16,777,216 comments, which is 224, the limit for their SQL database. Fear not though, they are powering through a newer, geekier solution as we speak…

PB – A quick video, on how to win a million bucks the coolest way possible.

AJ- Some techy business PC World’s 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. Yes Realplayer, you deserve to die and I hope you burn in hell. “Just how bad is Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing? It’s as bad as your mind will allow you to comprehend.”

AJ- Brilliant Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years . New Scientist asked over 70 of the world’s most brilliant scientists for their ideas on…. the future.

AJ- I’ve been enthralled by the World Press Photo Exhibition for the last few years here in Amsterdam- where it exhibits in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in the Red Light.

PB – HP tries to make a new brand image with Jay-Z in it’s ads – and comments. And in some more ads, check out Dylan in Victoria Secret’s new campaign (yeah Bob Dylan)

PB – A tribute to Johnny Cash done in the way fit for the man, singing “but I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die” in Folsom Prison

PB – I know it’s almost boring, but here again Bush stupidity, indeed the apple and the tree it falls from.

TG- Nice Middle East news and blog roundup from Arabist.net

TG- AOL released 3 months worth of its customers’ search records a few months ago, and the goons at somethingawful.com did some hilarious analysis, well worth checking out…

New weekly feature – the ABC Linkdump

// November 13th, 2006 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Welcome to the the ABC Linkdump revolution! Every Monday three dudes in three cities that just dont stop; Amsterdam, Budapest and Cairo, will be posting links that have made us go “damn, thats some fine internetage” over the past week. Now some airtime to the dudes in question. Kickin’ it from Cairo is Mr Tom Q Gara (TG)- my brother on this world journey since way back when- and we’re still trying to figure who gets to be Tyler Durden. From the summer palace in Budapest broadcasts Mr Peter “Duke of Downtempo” Bauer (PB)- who has a lot of lessons for anyone out there thinking they are living large. And of course there’s me in Amster”it’s a tough life but someone has to do it”dam (AJ). With no further ado, here is this weeks ABC Linkdump:

TG – This awesomely funky Egyptian creative design lab makes some sweet stuff, and I especially love this great desktop wallpaper design…..

TG – Super stylin’ graphic tribute to Naguib Mahfouz , via the always interesting cartoonist Cairo Freeze

TG – I’m loving this super addictive “Lunar Lander” flash based online mini-game

AJ- ” “The Real Jesus forgives your Jesus for being a greedy Republican warmonger”, badges, stickers etc.

AJ- Reading about Fundamentalist Christians in the US (dispensationalist for you theology nerds), who are against the UN (“the Antichrist will appear to the world as a peacemaker”, duh), reject the idea that a lasting peace can be attained by human effort in the Middle East, believe instead that “wars and rumors of wars” (cf. Matt 24:6) will increase as the end times approach, and refute attempts to create church organizations that cross denominational boundaries such as the World Council of Churches as it gives a satanically inspired illusion of “false unity”. Bill Hicks rails on fundamentalists in the Whitehouse back with Bush Senior.

TG – If you thing being revealed as a big meth snorting, gay hooker shagging hypocrite isnt embarassing enough, watch this clip of Pastor Ted Haggard getting schooled large-style by Richard Dawkins. Zing!

PB- On a lighter note, check on, how to make a Playstation ad :-)

PB- A new way of making music is 3D enviroment . Well if minimal-techno is your music, funky anyway

PB- Random pages for the days of boredom

TG- My Youtube favourites as requested by Peter – Invisible Boards , Amazing reversed Pharcyde clip , OK Go “Here it goes again” clip (treadmills)

AJ – The Much Hyped HBO Documentary “Hacking Democracy” is now here on google video. “In the 2000 presidential election, an electronic voting machine recorded minus 16,022 votes for Al Gore in Volusia County, Fla”. They should upgrade technology and security from Gameboy to Playstation.

AJ- Free psychedelic lectures from Leary, RAW, Watts, etc. A collection of free video and audio lectures by psychedelic pioneers Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary.Link (via Reality Carnival and Boing Boing)

AJ- By chance, Brodie and I both picked up the same book on the weekend. Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi – Psych Head at Uni of Chicago. In Flow he argues from a psychological perspective that humans that experience most happiness in a state of flow–a Zen-like state of total oneness with the activity at hand and the situation. This is Dharma for the 21st century.

TG- Check out this kid going fucking batshit crazy after he finds a rare collectable Pokemon card..

TG- Borat gets interviewed by Alan Colmes on Fox News . Weird alterna-reality, seeing Borat interviewed in a news style setting with no audience and no laughing….I think Borat being interviewed by Stephen Colbert would be a meta-reality tipping point

PB – Check out how hip-hop has changed , viewed as a mid-aged black american female: “They came for the skeezers but I didn’t speak up because I’m no skeezer, they came for the freaks, but I said nothing because I’m not a freak. They came for the bitches and the hos and the tricks. And by the time we realized they were talking about bitches from 8 to 80, our daughters and our mommas and their own damn mommas, rap music had earned the imprimatur of MTV and Martha Stewart and even the Pillsbury Doughboy”

AJ- The Dark Tower of Mordor Pyongyang, video of the The Ryugyong Hotel – a towering (330m) windowless, empty concrete shell that was once intended for use to hold aloft a flaming eye as a hotel, in the Potong-gang District of Pyongyang, North Korea. It cost 2% of the North Korean GDP to build in a time of prevailing famine.

AJ- Celebrate People! The Republican Elephant Beast is Dead! The Daily Show celebrates the Republican demise in congress on election night – with just a touch of Schadenfreude. Or as a Torrent File . If you dont know how to use torrents this link will help you get more stuff through the tubes.

TG- For the bored worker bees or anyone feeling like some reading, check out the Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights, some great stuff in there and will keep you reading for weeks….

John Venn has no game

// November 8th, 2006 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized