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The Number 23 Skiddoo

The Number 23 promised to be a sublimely disorienting voyage into paranoia. A little Eternal Sunshine followed by a slice of Pi. But it just doesn’t quite make it. Too bad the studio won’t take this film back into the editing bay for a little knife-work. It’s about 2/3 of the way toward being great

Free Fall

What goes through your mind when your parachute fails…and then your backup chute? Amazingly Michael Holmes lived to tell about it. The British skydiver survived a drop of some 14,000 feet, thanks partly to the drag from his failed parachute as well as a blackberry thicket on the ground. One more thing. He was wearing

Watch the Super Bowl, Go to Jail

If you’re planning on hosting a Super Bowl party, you could be risking time behind bars. If you show the game on more than one TV screen, or if your screen is larger than 55″ you are breaking the law. UPDATE (2/04/07): After a barrage of complaints the NFL backs down and says “never mind.”

The Fat Is in Your ‘Hood

BoingBoing cites a new study showing that suburban living makes you fatter. Or, more to the point, people who live in high density neighborhoods interspersed with shops and services are ten pounds lighter, on average, than people who live in the cul de sacs. This insight is somewhat along the lines of the Amish Diet—

Nick Brandt’s Wild Planet

Nick Brandt’s safari photos are some of the wildest, most powerful photos I’ve seen in a long time. There’s a haunting, heart-stopping quality that comes out even across the Internet. Here’s what Nick says about his own work: Few photographers have ever considered the photography of wild animals, as distinctly opposed to the genre of

Take a Load Off, Fannie

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Annie Dillard writes about the doomed Franklin Expedition which set out in 1845 to map the icy Northwest Passage. The expedition wound up frozen in an ice floe. Fourteen years later the men’s bodies were found and it was clear that their survival was hindered by the amount of useless crap they tried to take

Four Easy Pieces

Here are 4 Easy Photoshop Techniques to Make Your Pictures Pop. Some of these are a little two “processy” for my taste, but the blur/overlay trick looks like a must-try.

Architecture Gone Wild

Here’s a site describing a low impact woodland home. Very Hobbit-y. I drafted plans for a home almost identical to this when I was in 10th grade, only I envisioned clean modernistic lines with concrete as the main building material.

Jeep Waterfall

Using technology analogous to ink jet printing, Jeep’s waterfall “prints” words and pictures in pattern of rainfall. Brings a whole different meaning to the phrase “like writing in water.”

Going to the Dogs

As if mail carriers didn’t have enough trouble with dogs already, BoingBoing reports that China is introducing the postman’s nightmare–pork scented stamps.

Jeep Wiki

Jeepiki is a new wiki site set up for Jeep owners, in connection with the popular JeepForum. Jeepiki is populated mostly with factual info about specific models and some Jeep history.

Review: Accutire Talking Tire Gauge

Do you really want your tools to talk back? Well, with the Accutire pressure gauge, sure. Why not. The audible readout is handy when you’re checking tire pressure at night or in a dimly lit garage. The LCD display is a little hard to read in low-light conditions, making the audible feature all the more

2006 Year in Review

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January 2006 started with a daytrip to Mt. Baldy to take the dogs for a run in the snow. After three hours in the minivan we arrived at a muddy, rocky ski lift. Rats. We mistakenly read the snow report for Mt. Baldy in Canada. Drove the VW bus to Big Sur to hear a