Chelfyn's blog

Big Buck Bunny is awesome on so many levels I hardly know where to begin. It's an animated short film made entirely using free software and free resources all running on a free operating system. It is distributed for free using bittorrent, in all resolutions from 1080p down to ipod and PSP screens.  Heaps more information about the project can be found at the website, including all the assets required to remake, hack and edit the current version.

This is a view of the future. It's only going to get better, and BBB shows it's damned good already. Only 10 years ago it would have cost hollywood millions to make this, millions to distribute, millions to market. BBB is done for almost nothing. Donations. Whuffie. Fun.

This is a brilliant clip of a One-Man Gay Parade, Rick-Rolling a bunch of christian fundamentalists who had been protesting outside a gay club in Florida. They were threatening that anyone going inside would burn in hell forever, in an attempt to change their behaviour.  This Real-Life Rick-Roll is a work of Extreme Meme Genius.

While non-violent, this religious protest is still a prime example of terrorist tactics - using fear for social manipulation to one's own ideals. This is why I use the word terrorist in the headline in an attempt to make people think what the word really means.

It doesn't mean 'Arab' or 'Enemy'. It means one who uses fear and terror to affect political change, which is exactly what these guys are trying to do here, as are most mainstream news and media channels, and several western governments right now. If you think I'm somehow diluting the meaning of the word, because these aren't terrorists setting car bombs, remember that media-defined terrorists are judged guilty for their public threats, as well as their direct actions.

 This is one of those advances that Sci-Fi novels and films have been promising for years, but the technology has always failed to deliver. Dean Kamen, who you may know from such inventions as the Segway Human Transporter, has had a load of American military investment and has been working on replacement limbs for returning veterans, and the video above shows the results of his work, a robot arm dubbed 'Luke' (as in Skywalker, he of the missing hand).