The ipod packaging movie apparently was made internally by Microsoft to show how packaging should be done. The link to the movie is in the article.

On june 17th since 1976 this family has taken pictures of themselves and put them underneath each other. A nice display of ageing.

Wow, this thing has seriously blown up!
A Norwegian newspaper published a few cartoons showing arabs in a satirical light. That’s SATIRE as in COMEDY. Much like we have Garfield and Gary Larson.
Anyway, the Muslims went completely wild, so much so that other newspapers have taken some of the comics and published them, with muslims going wild over that, and one editor even being fired!
Now governments are being prompted to come out with statements like ‘it’s in bad taste and shouldn’t have happened’.
Come on people, what about freedom of expression?! COMEDY, ha ha funny! This is so ridiculous it’s bordering on insane lunacy.

This is causing such a fuss?!

As an update to the international furore this is causing:
Both the BBC and the Guardian are running stories on Blair condemning the reactions to the cartoons, and of course there are the reactions:

Four killed in cartoon protests – BBC
Muslim demonstrations spread worldwide – Yahoo
Cartoon Conflicts – the Guardian
Readers comments – are the reactions justified? – BBC

The reactions are interesting in that most people agree that the violence and threatened violence of the protesters are entirely uncalled for, with the muslims saying they feel insulted and the westerners saying they think they shouldn’t be insulted, showing a very real chism in the way the west and the muslim east thinks.
Further interesting points made concern the press fanning the flames (apparently these cartoons were published 6 months ago and there was no outcry then) and then standing back in amazement that there’s a fire, and also an interesting ‘Look at the Badger’ theory – as Iran is being sent to IANA, suddenly this badger appears and takes over the international stage.
The issues of double standards come up a lot as well, with the westerners finally coming out en masse and saying they’ve had enough of mollycoddling other religions, cultures and peoples whilst the western religions, cultures and peoples are not getting any respect back at all.

So what else has come out?
I found this editorial “We are all Danes now” comparing the cartoons to the ‘insensitivity’ of westerners eating cow meat and the Hindu’s uprising for it at Boston Globe
and a rant on Boortz about what the Muslims have done in religions’ name and the amount of outrage that has caused among Muslims (none)
as well as criticism on the media for not showing the cartoons, whilst they freely blashpeme and ridicule Christianity (Michelle Malkin – many links to other sources)

7/2/6:
Broken News has a piece called Inflammatory Family Circus Cartoon Sparks Riots in Middle West

Pravda reports Iran will take revenge on Denmark by publishing 12 Holocaust cartoons – the winners will recieve golden rings.

8/2/6
Another French paper has decided to run more cartoons – but I can’t find the link yet…

Miasmic Milieu has run some more cartoons as well.

9/2/6
Yahoo writes that now the muslims are picking on the US for the cartoons – because obviously they run the Danish newspapers.

SFGate has a well thought out piece mainly going on about the double standards, but also discussing the background to the cartoons fairly well.

Adding insult to injury the Independant has an article on a blow-up sex doll called Mustafa Shag which has recently been released on the market. Did you know Mustafa was another name for the prophet? Neither did I. Neither did the company who makes the bop dolls. But they’re in shit for it!

10/2/6
Someone created the Mohammed dance website in the Hamsterdance vein. Hamsterdance was better.

The EU is to draw up a ‘voluntary code of conduct’ for media outlets.

Stuff exploding and being captured in still life is an artform! Loads more pictures here

This is when you place an advert somewhere and let people spread the advert themselves: examples are placing a film on internet and other people linking to it, or sending emails with the link in it, or having people attractive to your target audience meeting the audience in bars and after a conversation innocuously talking up the brand you’re promoting, in the hope that that person will not only buy into the brand, but also tell others about the new brand. Red Bull was particularly succesful this way. William Gibson explains the concept well in his latest novel Pattern Recognition.

Anyway, there are two sites out there that chart these marketing campaigns on internet:
Viralchart.com and
ttr2.com

I found this due to the attempt to ban the Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks campaign due to excessive glorification of violence.

Another one that caught my eye especially was the Training films 1 – 3 But there are plenty more there for your enjoyment!

MSNBC has put some very striking pictures up on their website under 2 galleries: editors’ and readers’ choice.

http://sae.cside.com/sae/kat/pc/ern005/ekana.htm

I’m just glad people like this don’t spend their time trying to put “lasers” on the “moon”.

This is the phenomenon of using computer graphics or games to create films – Red vs Blue was famous for this, but since then a whole load of others have gone on with the idea, and Lionhead studios has even released a game that allows you to create your own Machinima films.

40,000 dead form morbidly fascinating sculptures and artwork; skeletons meticulously fashioned in 1870 by a wood carver. This is Sedlec’s Church of All Saints ossuary in the Czech Republic.

http://www.artgraphica.net/art-shop/prague-kutna-hora-bone-church.htm

This just made my list of places to go before I kick the bucket.

The blue ball machine is a blue ball factory you can happily keep watching.

The site has quite a few more of these weird little things on it as well, also worth checking out.

Such as Paris Hilton

or for pure strangeness, we have Batman ualuealuealeuale

Wikipedia explains what a ytmnd is – You’re The Man Now Dog, quite an interesting history, which has evolved to a fairly set pattern, a bit like a Heiku

BTW this reminds me of Hamsterdance (which, sadly, is now down)

What if by touching something, time would stand still for it? In video we can make time move by pressing on the ffwd / rev button, but that time lapses the whole of the video. Now in this project you can use a touch screen / mouse / pen thing to time lapse only that part of the playback that you’re pressing. The software will be available on the site, but the C++ it was written in isn’t due to specificalities. Loads of videos to see.

All the TV Show scripts in glorious technicolor HTML!

Create 3D objects on the screen, and they will be there when you look at them using your camera. Strange to explain, but cool to watch.

Title says it all, really..

http://users.skynet.be//J.Beever/pave.htm

themakeupgallery is the best photo-gallery on the Web featuring actresses in character and prosthetic makeups by some of the best makeup artists. There are over 5000 images from more than 600 movies and TV shows. The transformations from actress into character are illustrated with before and after shots and, wherever possible, with behind the scenes shots of the makeup process.

The Makeup Gallery

Not really a lot I can say about this. Some of them are pretty subtle or inventive.
Bunny Suicides

Fascinating images detailing aspects of the human condition. B&W. Give this a whirl.

Urban Photos