The Markr

I've moved!

2007-01-29T12:52:00.000-08:00

Check me out on Wordpress.

See you there!

Video: Moscow Subway Congestion

2006-11-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

And you thought the traffic on your commute was crazy? Check out the people congestion in this clip from the Moscow subway. Wow. Too many people going nowhere.

(Via BoingBoing and YouTube)

Zune vs. iPod

2006-11-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of reviews out now, comparing Microsoft's Zune and Apple's iPod. Courtesy of Gizmodo, here's a pretty in-depth and useful review that compares the two portable digital music/video players.

(Via Gizmodo Image by Falon Wriede)

US Flight Patterns

2006-11-14T12:31:00.000-08:00

This cool video by Aaron Koblin shows US flight patterns in time-lapse animation. Set to music, this is a really neat vid.

You can also view it here.

Microsoft's Zune lanches today!

2006-11-14T11:47:00.001-08:00

Today is the day!

Retailing at $249.99, the Zune will be available today at nearly 30,000 US retailers, making it the most widely available Microsoft product ever.

Available in a secletion of black, white or brown, the 30GB digital media player will come equipped with wireless functionality for Zune-to-Zune sharing of select music, pictures and home recordings.

It features a 3 inch LCD video screen that works in portrait or landscape mode to display pictures and videos, and a built-in FM tuner.

For more information on the Zune, click here.

This Week in History

2006-08-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

August 6, 1928 — Artist Andy Warhol, a pioneer of the pop art movement, is born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Artfact.com lists a recent high price paid for a Warhol as over $5 million.

August 7, 1904 — Nobel Peace Prize recipient Ralph Johnson Bunche is born. This brilliant African American earned the Peace Prize for his mediation work in the Arab-Israeli conflict beginning in 1947. He travelled to the Middle East in 1948 and in 1949 succeeded in convincing Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to sign Armistice Agreements with Israel. The Green Line - the armistice lines between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip - lasted (not without troubles) until the 1967 Six-Day War. The West Bank, by the way, was primarily controlled by Jordan until 1967, and not by any nation called Palestine.

August 8, 1945 — The United States ratifies the United Nations Charter. The U.N. brings the world's nations together to resolve international difficulties using the pen and microphone rather than the sword.

August 9, 1936 — Track star Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the Berlin Olympic Games.

August 10, 1981 — John Walsh's son Adam is found murdered in Hollywood, Florida. U.S. Congress later passes the Missing Children's Act to give the FBI more power to track missing children. Walsh became the national spokesman against crime and eventually the host of a new prime time television show, America's Most Wanted.

August 11, 1929 — Babe Ruth makes his 500th home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio, the first baseball player to do so. This has nothing to do with conservative politics, but everything to do with celebrating the best and brightest and most talented people in the United States - which is something good for us Americans to do.

August 12, 1877 — American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, one of the two moons of Mars. Six days later, August 18, he will discover the other moon - Phobos. He thus verified Johannes Kepler's speculation that two moons orbited Mars. In Jonathan Swift's 1726 satire Gulliver's Travels, in part three, the "Voyage to Laputa", the astronomers of Laputa have supposedly discovered the two moons of Mars - an idea Swift probably got from the long-dead Kepler's speculation.

The Mona Lisa World Tour

2006-08-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

What would Mona Lisa look like if she lived in Africa, India or the USA? Eglobe1 gives us a glimpse into the changes that she might make. The "After one week in America" picture is hillarious. I'd prefer to think of it as an "After one week in Hollywood" and not all of the USA. But judge for yourself.

(Via Neatorama)

Paris' Expression

2006-08-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

Watch as Paris Hilton's expression remains the same this collage of clips.

(Via Neatorama)

When owls get scared

2006-07-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

See what happens when an owl gets scared.

(Via Neatorama)

This week in History

2006-07-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

July 26, 1963 — Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Geosynchronous satellites appear to remain in one spot over the equator, because they circle the earth exactly once every sidereal day (23 hours 56 minutes). These satellites have been vital to global telecommunications, weather forecasting, and the defense industry.

July 27, 1921— At the University of Toronto, Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolate insulin for the first time. Within a year, diabetes patients began receiving insulin injections, treating what was previously considered a fatal disease.

July 27, 1940 — Bugs Bunny premieres on the silver screen in A Wild Hare from Warner Bros, featuring the voice talent of Mel Blanc. Bugs was just one of many famous characters voiced by Blanc before his death in 1989. Others include Mr. Spacely from The Jetsons, Barney Rubble from The Flintstones, Twiki from Buck Rogers, and the voice of Mr. McKenzie in Strange Brew.

July 27, 1990 — Zsa Zsa Gabor begins a 3 day jail sentence for slapping a cop.

July 27, 1991 — Bryan Adams made number 1 in the U.S. for the first of 7 weeks in 1991, two weeks after hitting the top in the U.K. “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” the biggest song of the year, was recorded for the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves soundtrack. The huge hit was also available on his own album, Waking Up the Neighbours, which kept the hits coming.

July 28, 1907 - Earl Silas Tupper, the inventor of Tupperware, is born. Ingenuity is the heart of the American dream.

Phillips screw cufflinks

2006-07-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

Looking for a cool new pair of cufflinks that reinforce that you're a handyman? Look no further than these hand made sterling silver Phillips Heads Screw Cufflinks.

Available for $80.00 at UncommonGoods.

(Via Popgadget)

Personalized Steak Brand

2006-07-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Do you love steak?
Have you always wanted to play cowboy and brand your own grilled meat?
Do you love monogramed towels?

If you've answered "yes" the all of the above questions, you'll be in heaven with this Williams-Sonoma Monogrammed Steak Brand. Available with either two or three initials, this personalized iron brand is hand forged in Texas. The 11 1/2" long iron comes with a 14" high, wall-mount rack for storage. For just $39.95, you'll be able to leave your mark on all of the steaks you serve at your next BBQ.

(Via Cool Hunting)

The National Entertainment State, 2006

2006-07-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

From The Nation:

Where do Americans get their news and who controls what they consume? Ten years ago, when The Nation first charted a map of the National Entertainment State, four colossal conglomerates spread across the media landscape. Today, that map has significantly changed, because of the rise of new media and a vigorous reform movement, but the old corporate giants still hold most of the cards. Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are quickly rising, but are not included in this chart because they do not own -- not yet, anyway -- the major television networks, which remain Americans' #1 source of news.

Illustration by Peter Ahlberg.
Research: Emily Biuso, Sarah Goldstein.

Download a PDF of the 2006 National Entertainment State Chart.

(Via The Nation)

Easily peel potatoes

2006-06-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

This video is a tip from the Japanese "Urawaza" (secret tricks) TV show. This lesson is on how to peel a cooked in one shot. Basically, you score a potato with a knife, boil it, put it in ice water for ten seconds and then you're able to snap the skin off! Brilliant!

(Via Neatorama)

Project Runway Season 3

2006-06-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

The latest batch of designers on Bravo and Heidi Klum's third installment of Project Runway has been announced!

They are:

Bradley Baumkirchner, 32, Los Angeles, CA
Robert Best, 36, West Hollywood, CA
Laura Bennett, 42, New York, NY
Malan Breton, 32, Long Island City, NY
Bonnie Dominguez, 31, San Diego, CA
Stacey Estrella, 40, San Francisco, CA
Katherine Gerdes, 25, Minneapolis, MN
Kayne Gillaspie, 27, Norman, OK
Ulrike "Uli" Herzner, 35, Miami Beach, FL
Alison Kelly, 25, Brooklyn, NY
Angela Keslar, 33, Amesville, OH
Michael Knight, 28, Atlanta, GA
Vincent Libretti, 49, Santa Monica, CA
Keith Michael, 34, New York, NY
Jeffrey Sebelia, 36, Los Angeles, CA

Pictured: (top l-r) Vincent Libretti, Kayne Gillaspie, Robert Best, Ulrike Herzner (middle l-r) Alison Kelly, Laura Bennett, Angela Keslar, Keith Michael, Katherine Gerdes, Stacey Estrella (botton l-r) Bradley Baumkirchner, Jeffrey Sebelia, Malan Breton, Bonnie Dominguez, Michael Knight.

Season three's winning designer will be awarded a mentorship with Macy's private label sportswear line, I.N.C. International Concepts. Hmmm, not quite the same prize as the Banana Republic mentorship of season two.

Check out thumbnail pictures of the Project Runway Season 3 cast as well as an ensemble picture of Heidi, Tim Gunn, the Season 3 cast and the models.

Project Runway 3 will premiere on Wednesday, July 12 @ 10PM ET/PT on Bravo.

(Via JustJared)

Make a gift box out of two dollar bills

2006-06-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

Looking for a neat, cheap, do-it-yourself way to wrap something small? Try this gift box made from two bills. You can use any denomination you like, but the cheapest combination is obviously two one dollar bills.

Check out more money origami at Clay's site.

(Via Random Good Stuff)

The Universal Packing List

2006-06-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

Headed on a trip and not sure what to pack? Let the Universal Packing List generate a custom packing list for your journey. A simple web-based app, it's pretty neat. Check it out!

(Via Signal vs. Noise)

Spooky playground sculptures/art

2006-06-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Art and sculptures on children's playground is supposed to be fun, whimsical, and merry, right? Well, that's what I thought. Take a look at these pictures and you'll see that there's some pretty creepy/disturbing playground art out there.

What are your children playing on/around?

(Via Boing Boing)

Back from Boston

2006-06-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

I'm back from work in Boston and now able to devote more time to The Markr.

Here come some new posts! :)

Busy working in Boston

2006-06-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know that posts to The Markr will be rather infrequent during the next two weeks while I'm working in Boston. That's also why they've been sparse these past couple weeks as well.

What am I in Boston for? Microsoft TechEd 2006!

Any blogging I do during this time will likely be TechEd related, so check out my TechEd Blog to see what I've been up to.

I'll be back and regularly blogging at The Markr around June 21.

The Markr as a graph

2006-06-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

This cool java app has been circulating around the 'net this week, so I thought I'd create a map of The Markr. It's a cool way to graphically see what makes up and links to your website. App created by Sala (check out his blog).

Here's an explanation of the colored tags:

blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for line breaks and block quotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

3D Painted Rooms

2006-06-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

Check out the amazing paint jobs in these rooms. They're crafted in such a way that, if viewed at the correct angle an illusion of a three dimensional object appears.

This technique has also been applied to outdoor installations as well.

(Via 2Loop.com)

Always Open?

2006-06-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

(Via Outhouse Rag)

Government and Poverty in Kenya

2006-05-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

Some facts about Kenya:

Kenya is smaller than the state of Texas.
Interest rates are 18 percent, sales tax is 16 percent, and some pay up to 60 percent in income tax.
There are more than 250 members of parliament in Kenya and they make over $150000 a year, and they don't pay taxes.
57 percent of Kenya lives in poverty, which means they make less than $40 a month in capital city Nairobi, and less than $20 a month in the rural areas.

Healthcare in Africa

2006-05-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

In Africa, it costs:

about $6 to diagnose and treat a case of malaria
about $11 to diagnose and treat typhoid
about $40 to have a baby
$4 to diagnose and treat intestinal worms