The Immigrant Song

A moving skyscraper makes me scared

Accoding to a BBC story:

The world's first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape, will be built in Dubai, its architect says.  The Dynamic Tower design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another.   

I am immediately horrified by this idea, but perhaps that is because I saw this really weird movie called Cube.  7 strangers wake up in an “endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps” (excellent imdb plot summary.) They are in a cube made up of dozens of smaller cubes, and at random intervals the cubes shift around.  They have to find their way out, like solving Rubik’s cube from the inside as it tries to kill you. In case you were wondering Cube 2 was awful, not nearly as entertaining as the first.

Video: Man Brunch

Man Brunch from Benjamin Bloom on Vimeo.

An awesome will it blend video grabs me again

The McKibbiners...keeping the NY art scene alive?

And I thought I'd lived in some small apartments.  Some young (and even some OLD) artists are living in converted factories in "cubbies" as small as  4 people in 25 square feet.  Yikes.

Brian Belukha, a 23-year-old musician who describes his look as “intergalactic space castaway,” decided to leave after someone threw a 40-ounce beer bottle at his head. “It’s a dorm, and it’s insane. It’s just insane,” said Mr. Belukha

That sound slike a good time to leave.  Apparently I'm late to the party on lambasting the culture of theft/parties/urination which some of these residents seem proud of, but I will say that ready buyers and sellers of housing services- of all walks of life and price ranges do seem to be meeting in this sketchy neighborhood. 

I'm probably not cool enough to visit, but may all of the residents live to see their next birthday, critical recognition, a paycheck of some variety...or at least the occasional night's sleep.

Link: Young Artists Find a Private Space, Only Without the Privacy - New York Times.

Fun with cotton candy

There was cottton candy in the offcie for Take your kids to work day yesterday, and we decided to see what cotton candy was doing when it melts in your mouth.

Cotton Candy Melts from Benjamin Bloom on Vimeo.

I'm making an effort to make more videos, no matter how small.  You can't be what you dopn;t do.  This video stars coworker AC and features my award-winning camera and Jaws-theme narration.

GizmoGarden Flaming Robot Walking Shopping Cart Boots Dub

This hits all the buttons.  Robots?  Check.  Fire?  Check.  Lip-dub?  Check (er, if it had lips).

Link: YouTube - GizmoGarden Flaming Robot Walking Shopping Cart Boots Dub.

My mom and Tractors

So my mom asked me if I would get her a lawn tractor.  Like, buy her a lawn tractor.  Here's how that conversation went:

Me: You really want a lawn tractor?
My Mom: Yeah, can you get me one so I can ride around on it?  Just for a day?
Me: I'm sure we could rent you one...
My Mom: No!  I don't want to rent one.  I want to have it all to myself, for a day!
Me: [pause] Isn't that what renting is?

then we LOLed.  My mom is awesome.

xkcd- the ultimate game

yeah, I haven't posted in a while, got some intersting ideas brewing.  But this one I couldn't resist.   xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe.

How to Handle an Invasive Species? Eat it

This article- How to Handle an Invasive Species? Eat it- was pretty interesting- and an eye opener on the problems of biodiversity when ships bring some really nasty species across the globe.  I like the idea of eating them- I mean, why can't we just overfish these populations that are stealing our lunch ion the Illinois river?

But also, EAT IT is a great Weird Al video.  Here you go

A Professor Explains How to Negotiate — FiLife

I'd list this as essential reading for anyone who has been though the stress of a complicated negotiation and been unsatisfied with the result.  I believe that I have improved my skills of negotiation in the last several years, though I am sure I have a ways to go.  The article below is an excellent set of tips and rules of thumb- don;t leave home without them.

Link: A Professor Explains How to Negotiate — FiLife.

Man Drinks Liter of Vodka at Airport Line

"When I'm Sixt-Four...."

Link: Man Drinks Liter of Vodka at Airport Line.

If I Could Trace Your Private Number Baby

OK, yes, I found this on Fark, but I only went there because I wanted to know what was happening with them filing for a trademark on "NSFW."

Apparently a teenager from Iceland called the presumably unlisted phone number used by the Secret Service to route calls for President Bush.  A teenager?  From Iceland?  Not that there are all that many phone numbers in the 202 area code anyway, but my favorite part of the article is how they kept this kid on the line.

Vífill claims he was passed on to several people, each of them quizzing him on President Grímsson's date of birth, where he grew up, who his parents were and the date he entered office.

 

"It was like passing through checkpoints," he said. "But I had Wikipedia and a few other sites open, so it was not so difficult really."

I seriously doubt that the Secret Service had any intention whatsoever of passing this kid on to a real West Wing staff member- they just wanted to trace the call.

Link: ABC News: Ten Dials Bush Private Number 'to Chat'.

Terry's Chop Shop: The Medieval Answer to Will It Blend

Have you ever come across a site whose only purpose, it seems, it to go completely viral and invade your consciousness?  Enter Terry's Chop Shop..  Um, Terry just chops stuff with an axe.  Like a bottle of Chanel No 5.  Or a champagne flute.  Genius.

Microsoft Mulls Data Center in Siberia - WSJ.com

Save on cooling costs?
Chill out, Microsoft!
Siberia is cooler than Brooklyn.
Data center to have free vodka instead of soda.

Ok, I'm done.

Link: Microsoft Mulls Data Center in Siberia - WSJ.com.

Cal Marching band- Video Game Halftime Show!

My grandfather was a professor at Cal, my dad went to UCSB and Cal, and my dad went to the Stanford Business School.  So it is with only mild loyalty that I watch this perfectly obscure pop culture reference from he Cal marching band. 

When executed well, maching bands can execute brilliant pop culture references.

Sketch performance tomorrow

My group, The Stuff, has a small slot in a show tomorrow night at
Rififi.  You will get a shot of free booze at the end of the show
courtesy of whoever sponsors the show (I think last time I checked it
was Jameson).  And then you can buy me and my group drinks! .

The show is part of "Slightly Known People is Seeing Other People"
Saturday, Nov. 10, 8pm
Cover: $5
RiFiFi
332 East 11th Street
Between First and Second Aves

G.M. lost $39 billion dollars?

Kevin! You spent nine hundred and sixty seven dollars on room service![Home Alone 2]

Link: G.M. Posts Its Biggest Quarterly Loss - New York Times.

VW, Crispin Unveil 'Road Joy' Campaign

As I recall it was just such an act that made Steve Martin crash his car in "Parenthood."

Link: VW, Crispin Unveil 'Road Joy' Campaign.

NEW YORK VW Canada wants people to go out and commit random acts of road joy.

Daily Show's John Hodgman's Deftly Spoofs Cramer's Mad Money

Daily Show's John Hodgman's Mentally Ill money: AWESOME!!!!!

Geniuses Among Us? - New York Times Blog

I love this- the (annual?) MacArthur genius awards have been announced and 6 of 24 "geniuses"
are from NYC.  Lord knows I know many awesome folks ion NYC(shout out to NextNY!)- it's such a great and vibrant community, and I think the brashness of the city rewards the scrappy go-getter in all of us. 

Nominations and deliberations are secret, so you don't know if you are being considered or even if you have been nominated. I assume that this creates two distinct possibilities:
1. Maybe YOU are being considered right now.
2. I wonder if they can nominate a psychic/clairvoyant...

Link: Geniuses Among Us? - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog.

Millions of tweets lost to world as Twitter is being upgraded!

Countless tweets about twitter being down and the empty slice of people's lives as Twitter goes down for maintenance.

Link: Twitter is being upgraded!.

New Ask.com: Ask 3D

Two Comments on ask.com re-launching "in 3-D"[paidcontent] this one:

1. Now ask.com has an even prettier way to be last in search market share
2. In 3-D is a killer Weird Al Yankovic album.

Will it Blend?

There are some things which are just sheer delight.  I went to YouTube today, thinking that I'd watch the video for White and Nerdy again, but on the homepage was a link to "Will it Blend"- a series of short videos in which an employee of high-performance blender manufacturer Blendtec attempts to answer the question, "Will it Blend?"  This is like turning Gallagher's produce-smashing Sledge-a-matic routine into an endorsement for a line of comically oversized sledgehammers.

With one glaring difference.  With Gallagher (NO PROBLEM!), I'm always distracted by him acting all fabulous, which is fine, if that's your persona.  Tom Dickson, the host of "Will it Blend" would probably bore grey carpet to death.  So, there's nothing to distract from the fun of asking whether golf balls, a rake handle, 50 marbles, a McDonald's combo #1, Tom's credit cards, or coke and half of a cooked bone in chicken...will be chopped into little bits by Blendtec's machine. 

I bet this sells a lot of blenders- it would be great to have data on this.  I can say for sure that I'd rather watch this than an infomercial any day.  It's real, it's fun, and it impresses me about functionality.  This is the future of viral advertising for kitchen products.