It’s been a growing (if not re-emerging) trend of looping .gif files on the internet and I’m totally digging it.  One site in particular is https://iwdrm.tumblr.com/ where the pictures are themed around movies and quotes from them and the quality and selections are really, really good.

This one isn’t from a film (I think), but I really like it and will just leave it here as well…

From boston.com’s the big picture blog. Can be a little bandwidth heavy, but well worth it. Check it out here.

Boston.com’s big picture blog is my new favourite go to photo blog really. Their latest is a great collection of photos summarising up the year 2009 and blah, blah, blah… it’s a great collection of photos. Looking forward to the next one and be sure to check out some of the great previous posts while your there.

The year 2009 is now coming to a close, and it’s time to take a look back over the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections were held in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down while others escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was remembered 20 years after it came down. Each photo tells its own tale, weaving together into the larger story of 2009. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days. Please watch for part 2 and part 3 tomorrow and the next day. (40 photos total)

Am also approaching that ‘need to get a haircut’ point. Telling factor is after a shower my hair becomes this almost Beatles like bob cut. But anyways…

A pretty good list of what one man considers The 10 best long tracking shots ever filmed which I can wholeheartedly agree with.

An article and sample of Philip Glass’s new opera can be found here.

A rather bizarre article on a Vietnamese man dug up wife’s corpse ‘so he could hug her’.

For Empire’s 20th anniversary, they’ve gotten a whole slew of actors to recreate some of their more famous roles. It’s pretty neat-o and can be found here.

And then lastly some science articles…

Why we shouldn’t release all we know about the cosmos
A trio of astronomers have warned that, unless we use the information sparingly, we risk squandering a once-in-eternity opportunity. If the whole data set is released at once, as is planned, any new ideas that cosmologists come up with may have to remain untested because they will have no further data to test them with. [full article]

Death of rare giant star sheds light on cosmic past
An enormous explosion observed in 2007 was the death of one of the most massive stars known in the universe, new calculations suggest. Similar blasts may have polluted the early universe with heavy elements, altering its evolution. [full article]

This is pretty neat-o…

Since 2006, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been orbiting Mars, currently circling approximately 300 km (187 mi) above the Martian surface. On board the MRO is HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which has been photographing the planet for several years now at resolutions as fine as mere inches per pixel. Collected here is a group of images from HiRISE over the past few years, in either false color or grayscale, showing intricate details of landscapes both familiar and alien, from the surface of our neighboring planet, Mars. I invite you to take your time looking through these, imagining the settings – very cold, dry and distant, yet real. (35 photos total) [full article]

What a week and weekend. Most of all the Armageddon Expo decimated my bank account and I’ve got a lot of things bookmarked that I’ve neglected to post…

Dave McKean is making an animated adaptation of his own comic Cages. This is gonna be sweet and it’s one of my all time favourite comics for multiple reasons. [full article]

Some Hot Fuzz slash fiction from the actual creators of Hot Fuzz. [website]

Mild America is a Wellington band that Michelle Savill, director of Betty Banned Sweets is a part of. There’s some tracks available at their website here and definitely worth listening to.

Some of the images are pretty rough but make for essential viewing into the fallout of the international drug trade following a UN report after 100 years of drug control. Recommended checking out here.

The US lets go of the internet – will anyone notice?
POLITICAL power is rarely ceded without good reason. So eyebrows were raised last week when the US Department of Commerce decided to relax its grip on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for the naming system that ensures that when you type a web address, your browser knows where to go.

In future, governments and other international organisations will be able to nominate staff to sit on one of ICANN’s three newly created steering committees, something the DoC had resisted for years. “What it really means,” says ICANN’s chief executive Rod Beckstrom, “is that we’re going global.” [new scientist]

Guardian gagged from reporting parliament
Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret. [guardian.co.uk]

Other points of interest include a great article/site I recommend checking out if your not a prude oppressive supressor is They Shoot Porn Stars Don’t They.

And finally, one of the coolest fun things ever… Dead Fly Art. So twistedly bizzare, I love it.

Had written several paragraphs editorialising the election and thoughts on our one as well, but forget all that. This is how politics should really be done…

My new favourite picture of the week.

If you don’t know what this is referencing, you owe it to yourself to watch this. Or even better, go buy one of his DVDs at bitterfilms.com and bask in all its glory.

This picture was also found on my new favourite photo blog which just keeps updating constantly with some of the best and coolest images around. Find more greatness at https://riotclitshave.livejournal.com/