Advertising: Photo Shenanigans

Toronto city guide photoshops black guy's face into stock photo of what looks like a Latino family (and did it really badly too). This was caught by someone using TinEye, mentioned here recently. Toronto is still using the photo.

What is it with Canadian tourist boards and their lack of visual ethics? Recently, they were promoting Alberta with film of kids on an English beach. What makes it worse is that Alberta is landlocked.

Photography: 130 Megapixel Scanner Camera

Camera built from old scanner and camera lens - I don't understand how it works, but very cool. Sample photos.

Media: Fox Business News

Amusing clip of Fox Business "reporters" playing "pass the parcel" with breaking story none of them knows anything about. Expect a Daily Show parody tomorrow.

Music: Delays

Pardon the, uh, delay, but may I recommend Delays? I usually don't like male singers with high-pitched voices, but I'll make an exception here. You may hear echoes of the La's, Fleetwood Mac, the Hollies, the Cocteau Twins, the Charlatans, the Posies..

• "Nearer Than Heaven"
  
• "Hey Girl"
  
• "Long Time Coming"
  

Upon further review, I can only recommend these three videos from their first album ("Faded Seaside Glamour"). The later stuff is a bit too discoey for me.

Music: Rae Spoon

Please just listen to the streaming album from Rae Spoon before doing any research on this Canadian artist.

Lyrics Quiz: We Are...

1. "We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving."
   
2. "We are young. Heartache to heartache, we stand. No promises, no demands."
   
3. "We are young, we run green. Keep our teeth nice and clean."
   
4. "We are two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl."
   
5. "We are the goon squad and we're coming to town. Beep-beep. Beep-beep."
   
6. "We are stardust. We are golden. And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."
   
7. "We are agents of the free. I've had my fun and now it's time to serve your conscience overseas."
   
8. "We are ugly but we have the music."
   
9. "We are, we are, we are but your children, finding our way around indecision. We are, we are, we are ever helpless. Take us forever."
   
10. "We're one, but we're not the same. Well, we hurt each other, then we do it again."
    
11. "We are flying down to Rio."
    
12. "We are the pretty petty thieves. And you're standing on our street."
    

Advertising: Stock Photo Models

Funny/cute story about how a simple trip to the park when she was 19 resulted in this woman seeing her face all over the world. (Forgive her the spelling of "Spainard".) (And don't bother downloading the accompanying MP3 files. Wet Hair sucks.)

There is another ubiquitous model, the "Everywhere Girl", but she is an actress/model, so I don't think it's quite as interesting.

But that story does link to a search engine called TinEye, which allows you to search for websites that use an image - and it doesn't have to be an exact match. For example, I input the address of one version of the infamous Ruby shoots Oswald photo, and it found 7 others that were cropped differently. It also allows you to compare images, by toggling back and forth between overlays. A search with the James Brown mugshot found a version in black & white (that impressed me) and a version with Tom DeLay's face.

Bicycling: Boris Johnson Near-Miss

This is an amazing accident caught on CCTV, never mind that the Mayor of London was almost killed.

Lyrics Quiz: Machines

In honor of the new "Terminator" film, a lyrics quiz about Machines. Songs 10-12 have "Machine" in the title.

1. "Oh, can't you see me standing here? I've got my back against the record machine. I ain't the worst that you've seen."
   
2. "He likes to keep his fire engine clean, it’s a clean machine."
   
3. "I saw him dancing there by the record machine. I knew he must have been about seventeen."
   
4. "The Telex machine is kept so clean, and it types to a waiting world."
   
5. "She was a fast machine. She kept her motor clean."
   
6. "Here comes Johnny Yen again, with the liquor and drugs and the flesh machine."
   
7. "Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground."
   
8. "The Rangers had a homecoming in Harlem late last night. And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine over the Jersey state line."
   
9. "We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man. We got a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand."
   
10. "Get up (get on up). Get up (get on up). Stay on the scene (get on up)."
    
11. "You've been in the pipeline, filling in time, provided with toys and Scouting For Boys."
    
12. "I - I just took a ride in a ------ -------. And I'm still feeling mean."
    

Music: Saturday Mix

• The Oak Ridge Boys cover "Seven Nation Army" - not bad.
  
• NPR is streaming "Dark Night Of The Soul", the new album by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and David Lynch, with guests including the Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, Frank Black, Nina Persson, Jason Lytle, Suzanne Vega...sounds great, doesn't it? Unfortunately, EMI has blocked release of the album, so they're putting it out with a blank CD-R.
  
• You can also listen to a Bat For Lashes session at NPR.
  
• I missed this when it came out last October, but AC/DC made an Excel video to promote their latest album. You can download it here.
  
• Evan Dando, "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (ABBA cover)
  
• Pale Fountains, "Jean's Not Happening"
  
• Compulsion, "Rapejacket"
  
• Patti Smith, "Smells Like Teen Spirt" (Nirvana cover)
  
• Marianne Faithfull, "The Crane Wife" (Decemberists cover)
  
• Various musicians, "Crazy" (Gnarls Barkley cover, featuring two theramins)
  
• Cat plays mini-theramin
  

Music: In Bb 2.0

Very clever - in Bb 2.0, an array of 16 YouTube videos of various musicians playing in B flat. Start and stop each randomly. It's like the greatest Sigur Ros song ever!

Irish Politics: KildareStreet.com

New web site (in Beta), Kildare Street.com, allows you to search Irish parliamentary debates (Dáil Éireann and the Seanad), among other things.

A search for "Jesus" found this gem during a debate on gambling legislation:

Dermot Ahern (Minister, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform; Louth, Fianna Fail):
The FOBT issue is a tiny aspect of the overall matter. As someone who has hardly placed a bet in my life, I would like to have the knowledge of——

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour):
The Minister probably played the little baby Jesus in the nativity play.

The same query also found:

• Liz McManus: "Jesus, you are fierce cranky, there is no doubt."
  
• Ruairi Quinn: "Single party Government, no thanks. Jesus Christ."
  
• Martin Cullen: "Jesus, Mary and Joseph."
  
• Ruairi Quinn (again): "I draw the Taoiseach’s attention to a last minute 'Jesus we forgot something, we’d better get it in quick' instance."
  
• (The winner) Joe Higgins: It further beggars belief that he could not give it back. Did the Taoiseach ever hear of a bank draft? This morning it took me two minutes to draft the letter the Taoiseach could send with it: 'Ah Jaysus lads, you’ll have me in huge trouble if you don’t take back the €50,000.'"
  

I found another good quote from Pat Rabbitte, "Sometimes one gets the impression that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, gives the same amount of thought to policy initiatives in transport areas as Britney Spears does to marriage."

Music: Irish Artists On MySpace

Some current Irish acts on MySpace, with a recommended track for each:

• Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club ("Back To Before" - great duet with Carol Keogh)
  
• R.S.A.G. ("Days Go By")
  
• Imelda May ("Why Don't You Do Right?" - cover)
  
• Autamata ("What You All About")
  
• Vyvienne Long ("Seven Nation Army" - cover)
  
• Cora Venus Lunny ("Nana")
  

Actors: Quiz

What do the following actors have in common?

• Tim Roth
  
• Eric McCormack
  
• Denis Leary
  
• David Spade
  
• Mandy Patinkin
  

YouTube: Covers

Some covers off YouTube.

• Los Colorados (from the Ukraine) cover "Hot & Cold" by Katy Perry
  
• The Noisettes cover "When You Were Young" by The Killers
  
• The Saturdays cover "Beggin'" by Madcon
  
• Arcade Fire cover "Guns Of Brixton" by The Clash
  
• Masha Qrella covers "Don't Stop The Dance" by Bryan Ferry
  
• Lambchop cover "This Corrosion" by The Sisters Of Mercy
  

Video: Facial Muscle Stimulation

Four Japanese guys with their faces twitching in time to "music". How long before some band (Blur?) copies this for a music video? The top right guy looks like the most fun. They all favour thick black spectacles.

Law: Crazy Lawsuits

D Magazine's Front Burner has a PDF of a crazy lawsuit filed in Dallas, "Corolone Inc., Barack Obama, Osama bin Laden, and Buddy Busch v. Mahmound Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, Rod Blagojevich, Donald Trump, and James Goodnight." Among other things, it lists Osama bin Laden's address in Jacksonville FL (which happens to be the same as Corolone Inc.). It accuses someone of playing grab-ass with the First Lady. Oh, and features really atrocious spelling, punctuation and grammar.

In other crazy lawsuit news, moderately well-known lady singer Santogold had to change her stage name to Santigold after a lawsuit from the star of bizarre 1980s infomercials (and terrible dancer), Santo Gold. (His web site has a 'NEW "Hilarious" FUNNY SONG, SUNG BY SANTO GOLD Himself, Titled: "YOUR FIRED".' I'm glad it's both hilarious and funny.) You can read the entire press release, with really atrocious spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Media: The Irish Times

If you accessed The Irish Times on a mobile device recently, you would have seen the odd juxtaposition of two unrelated ads: "Find Your Ancestors/Dating Service". Made me smile every time.

I can't find it on the web edition, but I did find an article by Kate Holmquist, wife of Rocky De Valera. Rocky de Valera and The Gravediggers have a new video on YouTube: "Baby Don't You Worry Bout A Thing", shot in beautiful downtown Howth. (I've been to that Centra!)

Young people today don't realise how scandalous it was for Ferdia Mac Anna to name himself after Dev. And now he looks like an old TD (although very few TDs wear an eyepatch).

Music: Fabchannel

Dutch website Fabchannel, host of many great live concerts, is going out of business on Friday, March 13. Enjoy it while you can.

I'm currently listening to Elbow. Watched Bettie Serveert yesterday, and plan to watch Midlake and Spoon later.

An Awesome Attempt At Humour

I have a sock that's in the Guinness Book Of Records for having been repaired the most times. It's the darnedest thing!