The Iron Giant

One of my all-time favorite movies is ten years old. Wired remembers this hugely underrated classic:

Combining a relatively infant CGI style with traditional hand-drawn animation, director Brad Bird’s award-winning but critically ignored feature animation debut pondered how a paranoid, post-war America might react to an overwhelmingly powerful interstellar invader. A decade on, the cult classic stands as arguably the most intellectually and emotionally moving science-fiction tale in recent history.

A Job Well Done

Epic kludges and hilarious - but often ingenious - jury rigs at ThereIFixedIt.com.

Les Paul Has Died

Guitar great Les Paul died yesterday at the age of 94. Here's a roundup of tributes and history from Rolling Stone.

"With apologies to Hendrix and Clapton, inventor and musician Les Paul, who died Wednesday at 94, was the most influential rock guitarist ever — even though he was only tangentially involved in rock."

More coverage here from the CBC.

A short video features some old kinescopes of Les Paul and his wife and partner Mary Ford.

Pigs Fly : NHL Judging Character, Integrity

I've said before that the National Hockey League does not often pop up on my radar, but this morning it did.

The National Post's Kelly McParland writes about billionaire sports fan Jim Balsillie. He wants to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton where it is easier to keep ice frozen and where people, you know, actually give a sow's ear about hockey. And maybe he can make some money.

But noooo. The NHL is obstructing Balsillie's every move. Why?

"The NHL board of governors has unanimously voted that Mr. Balsillie is not qualified as a matter of character and integrity to be the owner of an NHL team."

Character and integrity?

This is a league that has welcomed thieves, liars, con men and cheats, that embraces incompetents and honours rogues, that goes out of its way to do business with men who should be in jail, and has seen several of them dragged off to the pokey while still members in high standing of the NHL board of governors.

What ever happened to sports savvy and financial know-how? Oh.

Obligatory link to Disney's classic cartoon Hockey Homicide here.

Chewing Out Chavez

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe schools Chavez:

The truth, President Chavez, and the witnessed truth, is that when there are no arguments left, and one resorts to insults, as you do, it not only affects international relations, but in this case, you, with your insults and lack of arguments, hurt the dignity of the very people of Venezuela that you represent.

There's much more.

Global Warming Predictions To Watch

Here are some global warming predictions from the UN to mark on your calendar:

1. Koko Warner of the UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security flatly predicts there will be 25 to 50 million refugees on the move in 2010 because of global warming. Um, that's just four months from now.

2. And some symmetry from that great climatological expert, the UN's Ban Ki Moon. He predicts: "We have just four months. Four months to secure the future of our planet."

Mark your calendar.

I find it fascinating that people who are experts in anything but climatology are able to make such precise climatological predictions. Must be something in the, um, KoolAid.

But there's more:

The Climate Institute can’t wait for the UN predictions to come true. And I mean literally can’t wait:

Environmental problems caused and exacerbated by climate change are currently responsible for an estimated 50 million refugees worldwide...

50 million refugees. That's about the population of Canada and Australia combined. But where are they?

21st Century Channel Pirates

There have been no reports of pirate attacks in European waters for centuries. Until now. The Guardian reports on the mysterious disappearance of a major cargo vessel - from the English Channel.

The mystery surrounds the Arctic Sea, a 98-metre Russian-crewed cargo ship that set off from Finland on 23 July carrying timber worth about £1m, bound for the Algerian port of Bejaia.

Its last confirmed contact with the outside world came just before 3pm UK time on 29 July, when it radioed British coastguards to say it was in the Dover straits and heading for Algeria.

Signals from the ship's automatic identification system (AIS) beacon confirmed the position.

Update: The mystery surrounding a missing merchant ship deepened Thursday with the vessel's operator suggesting piracy and maritime experts suspecting foul play or even a secret cargo.

The Mancession

From the New York Times:

[The] recession has disproportionately hurt men, who are more likely to work in cyclically sensitive industries like manufacturing and construction. Women, on the other hand, are overrepresented in more downturn-resistant sectors like education and health care. [For] the first time in American history women are coming close to representing the majority of the national work force. It would of course be a bittersweet milestone, given that it comes primarily as a result of men’s layoffs.

Plus this graph from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics speaks for itself:

It would not be unreasonable to expect a similar pattern in Canada and other western nations.

New Tax On Canadian TV

The CBC reports:

Rogers and Bell television cable subscribers are being told they will see their monthly fees hiked by 1.5 per cent beginning September in order to satisfy new regulations ordered by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The extra fees will go directly to a CRTC-mandated fund for small TV stations.

Hmm. The Internet is revolutionizing the way people consume television. Audiences for traditional cable TV are dwindling. The scores of comments on this article are worth browsing.

Update: Summer of fail: Why are new shows bombing? All American shows, granted. But still.

Good News For Honduras?

From Investor's Business Daily:

In a quiet victory for a tiny democracy, U.S. buttinskies have stopped trying to restore a dictator to power in South America. Tiny Honduras is winning its fight for freedom.

Film in Barcelona - A Century Ago

Here is seven minutes of amazing film shot from the front of a streetcar in Barcelona in 1908. The YouTube description is as follows:

Barcelona, un paseo en tranvia. Una obra de 1908 que nos muestra la ciudad condal y sus principales calles bajo la dirección de Ricardo Baños

Thanks to Google Translate:

Barcelona, a tram ride. A work from 1908 that shows the city and its main streets under the direction of Ricardo Baños

I found this clip via Joe Sherlock who said:

It is difficult to realize that all the people - so full of life on film - who are waving to you are now dead.

More From The Amazing TED

I continue to be amazed and delighted with TED.com.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

TED's lectures are free to watch. Some examples of the intellectual firepower arrayed on TED:

In Talks, Cary Mullis - the Nobel prize winner for groundbreaking DNA research talks about a radical and ingenious cure he has developed for bacterial infections. I enjoyed his book "Dancing Naked In The Mind Field".

In Theme " Medicine Without Borders", Dr. Seyi Oyesola - the inventor of the Hospital in a Box - tours a hospital in Nigeria and talks about why doctors move away and never come back.

And there's so much more. I've linked to TED videos before: Here's Qi Zhang playing Prokofiev on the Yahama Electone Stagea.

Heart Monitoring - By Wi-Fi

After relying on a pacemaker for 20 years, Carol Kasyjanski has become the first American recipient of a new pacemaker-monitor-transmitter that allows her doctor to monitor her health from afar -- over the Internet.

Kasyjanski's pacemaker contains a processor and a wireless transmitter that uploads her heart function data to her doctor's computer. The wireless pacemaker was approved by the US FDA a month ago.

Kasyjanski's doctor is Dr. Steven Greenberg:

"In the future, these pacemakers may be placed not just for people with slow heartbeats. We may be monitoring high blood pressure, we may be measuring glucose, we may be monitoring heart failure," he said,

"There are literally dozens of physiological parameters that now, with this wireless technology, we can leverage for the future of monitoring. So it is not just a rhythm monitor but a disease monitor."

Moonbow and Rainbows Over Patagonia

Here is a gorgeous time-lapse video of the sky over Patagonia in Chile a few months ago by Stéphane Guisard. In the video you'll see a moonbow and a rainbow. Go here to watch ... this Blogger format does not permit a large enough viewing area for this video.

Chinese Car Sales Up 70%

At The Truth About Cars:

In July, China registered the biggest gain since January 2006, passenger vehicles up 70.5 percent, overall vehicle sales up 64 percent. Double digit growth has solidly returned to China.

Clinton To The Photo Op. Er, Rescue.

The Daily Mail has the amusing inside story of those two hapless female American journalists who 'danced' into North Korea, got 12 years hard labour for being spies, were rescued last Wednesday by Bill Clinton and are now laughing all the way to the bank. Meanwhile, Slick Willie is back on stage.

The Clinton confidant said: ‘This wasn’t about the women – this was about a PR coup.

Barack Obama may have defeated Bill’s wife but this is the Clintons’ revenge. The North Koreans are talking about nuclear disarmament but they say they will talk only to Bill. It’s a win-win situation for everyone except Obama.

Read it all. Comments too.