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Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse!

November 18, 2010 By 2 Comments

Today is Mickey Mouse’s birthday, or perhaps I should say the anniversary of the day Mickey was introduced to the world as Disney’s first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, which premiered at the Colony Theater in New York City in 1928. This is the day that Walt Disney recognizes as Mickey’s official anniversary at least.

Mickey actually first appeared six months prior in unofficial screenings of Plane Crazy on May 15th and The Gallopin’ Gaucho on August 2nd. After Steamboat Willie, soundtracks were added to Gaucho and Crazy, and they were released on December 30, 1928 and March 17, 1929, respectively.
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Filed Under: Trivia, Videos Tagged With: , , , ,

A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything Flipbook Animation

May 11, 2010 By 3 Comments

This is a very cool little video animation that someone created. I can’t imagine how long it took to draw every page of this flipbook, but if you ask me without YouTube it wouldn’t have been worth it! Actually I can imagine what it took because the author said…

It’s something like 2100 pages long, and about 50 jotter books. I’d say I worked on and off it for roughly 3 weeks.

Anyway, here is “A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything”. Not quite as detailed as Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part I, but it’ll do. ;-)
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Filed Under: Art, Videos Tagged With: , , , , ,

A Video History of the Internet

November 17, 2009 By 4 Comments

InternetI’ve seen a few decent writeups on the History of the Internet, but this short video crams a working history into about 8 minutes that anyone can follow.

Now, it will start using some funky technical terms like TCP and IP, but they introduce it in such a way that I think almost anyone can understand it. Give it a listen.

And don’t forget to check out The World Wide Web Circa 1994 and the “Ancient” Internet TV News Special from 1993 if you didn’t see those before. I find the olden days fascinating. :-)
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Filed Under: Computing, Videos Tagged With: , , ,

The Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster Reconstructed

February 1, 2009 By 7 Comments

Space Shuttle Columbia DisasterSix years ago, at exactly this moment, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated above the skys south of Dallas, TX in a catastrophe that shocked the world. I think it’s appropriate that we honor the memory of those fallen astronauts who gave their lives in the quest to expand human knowledge.

Chris Valentines produced the following video by reconstructing the entire Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and synchronizing a number of video and audio recordings into a single real time stream of the disaster. He’s also got a lot more analysis and commentary on the timeline of events on his site.
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Filed Under: Videos Tagged With: , , ,

Castro’s Cuba Leaves Nothing to Be Admired

January 6, 2009 By 5 Comments

fidel_castroI have a very close friend (who shall go unnammed) that seems to admire Fidel Castro. Well my friend, I came across this post at IBD editorials about Cuba’s 50 years of failure, and I just had to share it!

Spare us the fireworks and media-parroted claims of Fidel Castro’s dictatorship bringing universal health care and education to Cuba. The real story is that a prosperous Cuba was turned into ruins in just five decades.

Its inflation-adjusted gross domestic product is a mere 5% of what it was in 1958, the year before Castro took over, according to Jorge Salazar-Carillo of Florida International University.

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Filed Under: Philosophy, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

A Visit to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ Abandoned Vaults

January 5, 2009 By 5 Comments

dallas-federal-reserve-bank-vaultHere is a special treat for you guys. Last week I got the opportunity to take Cali and Neal from GeekBrief.TV to visit the old Federal Reserve Bank in downtown Dallas, they brought their cameras so everyone could tag along. Why were we there, you may ask? Well, the Layered Tech datacenter in Dallas is located in the very building that was the old Federal Reserve Bank, which is now designated as a City of Dallas historic landmark.

The seven-story building was originally completed in 1921 to house the United States Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The Beaux Arts-style limestone building established Dallas as a center for economic development in the Southwest prior to World War I. The Bank significantly expanded and modernized the property in 1959. Its distinctive architectural style and detailing led the city of Dallas to designate the building a historic landmark in 1979.
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Filed Under: The Man's Videos, Work Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The US Declaration of Independence

September 20, 2008 By 1 Comment

Declaration of IndependenceI was recently reminded of just how cool the U.S. Declaration of Independence was, and how it united the citizens of the original 13 colonies in the common goal of establishing freedom and abolishing the reign of a tyrannical dictator.

Since both of the major political parties are currently advocating “change”, it is apparent that the citizens of the United States are once again seeking a radical departure from our current ways. Here is how we did it once upon a time… back when we had some real cajones!

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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Filed Under: Philosophy, Politics Tagged With: , , , ,

19 by Paul Hardcastle

August 28, 2008 By 1 Comment

Soldier in Vietnam[The average U.S. serviceman in the Vietnam War was supposedly twenty-two years old, and not nineteen as is often believed, particularly given the popularity of a pop song called 19 by Paul Hardcastle.

I came across this song the other day, and it reminded me of just how cool it is all over again, so I thought I'd share it. The song that is... not the war.
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Filed Under: Videos Tagged With: , , , , ,

Frank Zappa Defends Free Speech on Crossfire

June 16, 2008 By 9 Comments

frank-zappa-on-crossfireHere is a fascinating debate on Crossfire from 22 years ago in which some tool (John Laughlin) from the Washington Post was repeatedly insulting Frank Zappa (you know he’s half Greek, right?) and arguing for censorship of freedom of speech.

What I find most interesting is that Frank remained very calm and collected despite the fact that he was being personally attacked. Meanwhile the other guys work themselves into a frenzy.
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Filed Under: Philosophy, Politics, Videos Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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