poem: the glass is not half-full

I saw our dreams
Disappear
Like a white pony
Over
A low grassy hill.
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Jack Brummet

Tsunami: Before and After

[click to enlarge]

14 sets of before and after satellite images of tsunami damage in various South Asian countries.

http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/14.html

Shattering Gamer Stereotypes

Click on the title to link to the original article on the Game Industry News website.

"The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has released the results of research recently conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., which shows that typical American gamers are far removed from the stereotype of the lazy, fat, isolated geek that has been falsely pinned on them. The ESA says that gamers spend far more time exercising, attending religious services, reading, etc. than they do playing games. Video games are merely one activity in a well-rounded life."

The Rasterbator

[click to enlarge]

The Rasterbator is a web service that creates gigantic rasterized [1] images from any picture. The rasterized images can be printed and assembled into cool looking posters up to 65 feet long!! To get to the site, click on the title of this article above.

To check The Rasterbator out , I uploaded a drawing I published here a while ago:

http://jackbrummet.blogspot.com/2004/12/jack-drawing-faces-no-467.html

The image I put on this page is page 38 of 375, or 1/375th of the rasterbated image!

First, I upload the image. I select the size I want, and they process it. In a couple of minutes, I download a PDF of the new image. Printing it in the large scale format will take 375 pages of 8 1/2 x 11" paper.

This slick software creates gigantic half-toned images [2] like a massive painting by Roy Lichtenstein with Ben-Day dots (they give you an option to scale the size of the dots). This site would be great for making large scale posters. . .without going to Kinkos [tm]. They write on their web site about releasing a free GPL version sometimes in the future. This had to be a fun application to create.

/jack

[1] Rasterizing converts images into a bitmap form for display or printing. Vector graphics, and vector and outline fonts have to be be rasterized to print or display them.
[2] If you look closely at newspaper photos, they are done in half tones, using dots to represent the blacks and whites (and greys by the way your eyes blend them). It's all circles. You can see a half-toned photograph here: http://photos1.blogger.com/img/278/2473/640/jb.jpg
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Dave Hokit & Jack at The Top of Mt. Constitution, Orcas Island, Washington

Click to enlarge. . .

Poem: It's Getting Crowded Here

We cover the earth
With Venn Diagrams
Of our steps
Bisecting old steps.
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What A Difference A Day Makes!

Only yesterday, I posted a note about how the 42nd and 43rd President have become Bosom Buddies (http://jackbrummet.blogspot.com/2005/01/bosom-buddies.html).

Today, POTUS named Michael Chertoff (an ex-federal prosecutor who was chief Republican counsel to the Senate Whitewater committee) as the new head of Homeland Security! This guy helped spend millions of dollars, and a lot of time trying to put Bill and Hillary behind bars.

That should give Presidents Bush and Clinton something to jawbone about at their next coffee klatsch.
/jack
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Rabelais!

After reading Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons (about which, more later), I have begun re-reading Francois Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel. I have read it three times and parts of it many times.

It is a difficult, strange and wonderful book. But you should read it anyhow. So, just why should you read an obscene, difficult book written by a 16th century French monk/doctor/lawyer?

It is an exuberant, satirical, wonderful, encyclopedic, and, at times, tedious book of sonic thought and riotously inventive language. It is filled with learned disquisitions, and scatalogical lists. It lives up to its name: it is Gargantuan. Rabelais is right up there with Shakespeare and Melville and Joyce. Most of all, this work is filled with a shimmering, laughing love of life.

/jack
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Bosom Buddies?

Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

"For two men at opposite ends of the political spectrum, the relationship between the 43rd and 42nd presidents has grown surprisingly warm and personal over the last six months. " Click on the title for a link to this story! /jack
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What Happened To Odor Eaters?

[click image to enlarge]

Dear Dr. Scholls and Combe, Inc.:

This is almost as depressing as when Johnson & Johnson replaced the ultra-cool little red thread on Band-Aids [tm] with a tacky little plastic strip.

You're breaking my heart. I wear tennis shoes 98% of the time, and Odor Eaters [tm] and Odor Destroyers [tm] were an important accessory. But I can't find them anymore.

Dr. Scholl's web site is pathetic. Yeah, you do have Odor Destroyer Insoles listed somewhere, buried deep among the flossy gel insoles, and other products. Combe, Inc.'s website at least pays lip service to the coolness of Odor Eaters. But, I can't find or buy your products anymore. I guess stinkfoot is just not worth bothering with in the 21st century!

You both claim Odor Eaters and Destroyers exist...but no stores carry them anymore. All most stores seem to carry are those silly gel insoles and a bunch of ozone whackin' sprays. The insoles now appear to be virtually extinct.

You'd think there would be more demand for your products than ever--I mean, you are required to remove your shoes off in some people's houses. But whew!!! It is easier to go out and buy methamphetamines on the street than it is to find the formerly ubiquitous Odor Eaters.

Dudes! There must be millions of people like me out there, willing to part with four bucks for these products. Get with the program!

Yours,

Jack Brummet
Seatle, Washington

Select Wisely - Help For Travellers With Food Allergies

This posting is--amazingly--not a political rant, poem, drawing, or warped story about my past. A couple of old friends in 'Jersey recently started an interesting niche business/web site [1] for travellers with food allergies. Jim and Pamela Ahlberg have begun a business selling pocket-sized cards in fourteen different languages, covering over 40 specific food allergies. These cards would come in handy in Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants right here in the U.S. and Canada. They have a wide variety of cards covering just about any contingency--including one for vegetarians [2].

Their daughter Meredith had been travelling in Europe, but had some serious food allergies and was unable to tell restaurant workers about her condition, or grill them about what exactly was in their food. So she

". . .stuck with what she knew: ice cream, bread and shish kabobs. No pastry in Vienna, no chocolates in Switzerland, and no local German cuisine. Wanting to help her and others with similar challenges, we have developed this unique product."

An article on them appears here: http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/0404/06allergycards.html

Nice work, guys! Sometimes the internet actually is about more than stealing music and downloading "adult entertainment." Click on the title of this entry, go to their web site, and buy some stuff! /jack

[1] Maybe not so much of a niche, since 2% of American adults, and 8% of children under three have food allergies.
[2] Vegetarians who have a philosophical food allergy, more or less...
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Crossfire to Stop Hurting America::: Jon Stewart Wins

A couple of months after Jon Stewart (the host of Comedy Central's Daily Show) accused the "Crossfire" hosts of "partisan hackery," implored them to "stop hurting America," and called the ranting little demi-god Tucker Carlson a "dick, " CNN announced it won't renew Carlson's contract and it has cancelled the long running show.

"I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp," said CNN Chief Executive Jonathan Klein. The video (and transcripts) of Stewart ripping into the Crossfire hosts are all over the net...

/jack
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