Boing boing boing

Because horrible news never stops, have a kitten.

LOL

Duh, deo and doo doo

Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities

Discussion of funny videos on Reddit.

Dangerous deodorant

Falling frozen vultures.

The way you walk may make you a victim.

Deep doo doo from the man who knows all about shit.

Little bits

A woman travels across Antarctica alone.

Oh you Brits. Humor on the Underground. And you can tell a lot about the Brits (and everybody else) by the way they like their eggs cooked.

The world's angriest cat.

Made with a small multirotor helicopter, a video of Hammershus.

The attempt to silence a brave voice.  Malala Yousafzai seems to have survived the attack, but I don't know in what condition.  An update 10/10.

They've found something.... something weird and small... on Mars.  Update10/10:  benign plastic?  Update 10/11: Rats, benign plastic.

What hide and seek is like from the perspective of the toddler

How to video at an Occupy event

An artist/photographer friend, who is frustrated at the video efforts of occupiers who fail to catch the significant action because they don't know how to do basic camera handling, wrote a post about techniques:

Note To Videograph Occupiers

Kudos to you all for your courage and your convictions. You are participating in a historic event that will be talked about and remembered for decades.

The tape that you are shooting is an important part of the documentation of this historic event. It is truly important that your tape show, with accuracy, the events as they occur. Your job as a videographer is to reveal.

If your tape is too dark, has camera shake, or has a blocked view of the event because of crowding, your tape will not show what happened. It will not reveal, but conceal.

A few tips:

1) Camera shake renders tape unwatchable. Whatever you are taping should move, but the camera itself should stay still. Make a tripod of your legs and brace the camera against your torso. When you follow action by panning with the camera, use a smooth , sweeping motion of your upper body to move the camera lens along a smooth path.

If you must have a steadicam, you can make one yourself. There are many references here on diy steadicams

...but you need to learn to walk with it, so

please read this tutorial, and practice!!!!

2) Situational awareness is also a top concern. Try to keep the main action in your viewfinder at all times. This can be a challenge. Remember, you are there to record these events for history; it requires some emotional detachment to remember this when things begin to happen quickly. Look up from the viewfinder once in a while to be sure that you aren't missing the main action. If a person steps in front of you to film, MOVE. Be aware that people WILL step in front of you. Expect it, and be prepared for it. If a crowd forms, hold the camera up over their heads and point it at the action.

3) If you are using a standard video camera and not a phone, it might be worth it to purchase a camera mounted light, sometimes called a sun gun. It fits directly into the hot shoe on top of your camera. This can make all the difference at night. Some of these police actions are taking place under cover of darkness.

Good tape is almost never the result of a happy accident. It is the result of mastering a few easy, basic techniques.. and of remaining situationally aware when the going gets tough.

Take these few points to heart when you tape, and history (and the internet) will thank you.

The latest from the owl box

A family of California Barn Owls, two adults and their owlets, have over 6,000 followers for their live stream on UStream, and have generated over 12 million views.

I love things like this

Although, as I get older, the years begin to feel as short as Eirik Solheim's video depicts:

One year in 120 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Do Re Mi

A video of almost 200 people taking over Antwerpen's Centraal Station in Belgium and doing a carefully choreographed dance to the Do Re Mi song (aka Maria's Dance aka Maria's Song) from "Sound of Music" has garnered almost a million views on YouTube, and continues to grow, sprouting a new round of google trends today.

They just slipped into the shredder

92 times... oops!:

WASHINGTON – The CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other U.S. treatment of terror suspects, far more than previously acknowledged, the Obama administration said Monday as it began disclosing details of post-Sept. 11 Bush-era actions.

The interrogations were a highly contentious issue during the administration of President George W. Bush, with many Democrats and other critics saying that some methods used amounted to torture — a contention Bush and other officials rejected. A criminal prosecutor is wrapping up his investigation in the matter.

Monday's acknowledgment, however, involved a civil lawsuit filed in New York by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking more details of the interrogation programs following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," said the letter submitted in that case by Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. "Ninety-two videotapes were destroyed."

It is not clear what exactly was on the recordings. The government's letter cites interrogation videos, but the lawsuit against the Defense Department also seeks records related to treatment of detainees, any deaths of detainees and the CIA's sending of suspects overseas, known as "extraordinary rendition."

At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters he hadn't spoken to the president about the report, but called the news about the videotapes "sad," and said Obama was committed to ending torture while also protecting American values.

ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said the CIA should be held in contempt of court for holding back the information for so long.

"The large number of videotapes destroyed confirms that the agency engaged in a systematic attempt to hide evidence of its illegal interrogations and to evade the court's order," Singh said.

For copies I suggest they check the charred remains in Cheney's man-sized safes or in the back of Georgie's sock drawer. It's getting more and more clear they were really into that kind of thing.

One more reason to look forward to Friday

The best Pirates of Penzance ever

With Kevin Klein, Rex Smith, and Linda Ronstadt. And this is the best scene ever:



Wait! THIS is even better! Four kittens and a box:



Kittens-Coca Cola Box - video powered by Metacafe

Within Temptation--Jillian

AMV = Anime Music Video which are music and video combined, often having no connection.