Flashcube

Here is a surprisingly complete mini-dictionary of today’s Hip Hop vernacular. Granted, I listen to a fair share of Hip Hop so a lot of this is not new but there were a few surprises that I didn’t know about.

gettin ya’ roll on

v. To drive an expensive vehicle “Man, did you see Big Woo? He getting’ his roll on.”

spittin’ game

To try to impress someone of the opposite sex, or “picking up” on someone by “sweet talking” them. “Check out Jose over there spitting game with those hootchies!”

S.T. Rugglin

a name given to someone who is struggling. “You’re S.T. rugglin”

Don’t Hate, Appreciate.

Here is a beautiul collection of Russian anti-alcohol posters. Unfortunately, there is scant information about them. The owner of the website has a weblog with lovely photos that is also worth checking out.

BitTorrent is a relatively new method of file-sharing. Like the Gnutella network it is decentralized. However the differences end there.

When downloading a file using bittorrent, you initially download a very small file (a .Torrent file) which will initiate the connection of the file you wish to download. It then creates a temporary peer-to-peer network with those people also downloading the same file so that when you are downloading pieces of a file from someone you are also uploading the pieces you have to those who don’t have it. There are several advantages to this one is the burden it takes off the server who originally hosted the file. The second and most important is that the more people downloading a file the faster it gets. Red Hat Linux sponsored the development of Bittorent as that is how you download their distro from them in the future.

There are several downsides. The small .Torrent files are hosted on websites so it takes a bit of googling to find what you want. A search for Bittorrent links is a good start.

Bittorrent clients are available for Mac, Linux and Windows.

The Bittorrent file distribution model

Will be unleashed in about one-weeks time. My take: About frickin’ time. As someone who has been looking forward to this for two years, this is great news. I just hope they’ve made some improvments since the Alpha I was playing around with a while back.

Quark 6 in action

Syncronized text. Nice.

It’s a diificult decision deciding to get a tattoo. You want to go for something timeless yet simple. After all, do you really want to explain that blue and purple smudge on your arm to your grandchildren? I am indecisive when it comes to body modification, therefore, no peircings, no tattoos, and no scars. But be careful this years Chinese characters could be as dated as 90′s celtic arm bands. Save the ink for the alimony cheque.

Why can’t co-opting culture be a two-way street?

This butterfly is re-entering the earth’s atmosphere

Wow. I’d hate to be on the ass-end of this.

The Metric system is something that as a Canadian born in the 1970′s I take for granted. I was raised on it and I think it more logical than the Imperial system of measurement.

While Britain straddles the line between Metric and Imperial, the US is unashamedly Imperial. Certain groups see Metrication as a threat to their Way of life and culture brought on by leftists and bureaucrats. Interestingly, on the Freedom 2 Measure website they refer to the Imperial system as “American Units”. Taking an tongue-in-cheek approach to the debate is the Metric Sucks website.

On the flipside entirely, is the Metric 4 Us website. It’s self-explanitory.

Green=Metric, Black=Imperial
Looks like someones a smidge outnumbered

The Kanamara Festival is a fertility ritual held every year in Japan. Its’ origins can be traced back to an old legend where a craftsman defeated a demon living in a woman’s vagina that would bite off men’s penises by fashioning a steel phallus. The next time the demon tried to chomp down on the penis, he got a mouth full of steel and broke his teeth.

In true Japanese fashion, the event is completely over the top. It’s not uncommon to see kids riding on phallic see-saws. Apparantly, the phallic lollipops are popular as well. Maybe you just gotta live there to understand. Then again, we have pride parades every year.

More information can be found here. A short video of the festivities can be seen here.

Isn’t this guy in Gwar?

A few days ago, Slashdot ran a story about how in 1982 a group of three twelve-year-old kids made a scene-for-scene remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It took them almost seven years to complete (at which point they were all eighteen) but they did it. More information is available in this Austin Chronicle article. Here’s Ain’t-It-Cool-News’ take and the trailer. Unfortunately, the film is only being shown at film festivals and hasn’t been released to the public. Here’s hoping.

In the can.

A Vancouver porn afficianado has take it upon himself to restore and preserve some vintage smut he found while working at the Fox Theatre in Vancouver. The Fox theatre is of the few 35mm pornography houses left in North America. One could argue the cultural signifigance of such an undertaking but such pretentions usually go out the window by the first or second cumshot.

May I take your jacket?