I had loads of fun with this site that lets you create faces using a number of presets that you can customize by altering their placement, size, opacity, etc. You can even see some of the faces others have created and saved. Check it out...Ultimate Flash Face

If the industry doesn't trust you, why should you trust them?

"Two men look out through the same bars : One sees the mud, and one sees the stars." - Frederick Langbridge, A Cluster of Quiet Thoughts

If you’ve placed second in a writing contest, will you jump for joy and push for better results the next time or will you be discouraged and find an excuse not to join again?

In life, you are always filled with choices. You may opt to have a pessimist’s view and live a self - defeated life or you may decide to take the optimist’s route and take a challenging and fulfilling life.

So why nurture an optimist’s point of view? And why now?   more »

Michael Barnsley, a researcher and entrepreneur in fractal compression, has written the successor to Fractals Everywhere. The first edition of the book SuperFractals was published last month. The following is a quote from the editorial review on Amazon

"Superfractals is the long-awaited successor to Fractals Everywhere, in which the power and beauty of Iterated Function Systems were introduced and applied to producing startling and original images that reflect complex structures found for example in nature. This provoked the question of whether there is a deeper connection between topology, geometry, IFS and codes on the one hand and biology, DNA and protein development on the other. Now, 20 years later, Barnsley brings the story up to date by explaining how IFS have developed in order to address this issue. New ideas such as fractal tops and superIFS are introduced, and the classical deterministic approach is combined with probabilistic ideas to produce new mathematics and algorithms that open a whole theory that could have applications in computer graphics, bioinformatics, economics, signal processing and beyond. For the first time these ideas are explained in book form, and illustrated with breathtaking pictures."

Check it out, this is one book I look forward to reading!

This video is taking the blogosphere by storm. I'm jumping on the bandwagon, though I discovered this video back when it only had a couple hundred views. Want to start a movement?



Free-hug man speaks out

Amazing how one person's great idea has touched so many people's lives. Next time someone asks me how one person can make an impact on the world around them, I will tell them that making an impact is inevitable. What kind of impact is made depends on each of us as individuals. Videos like this help me to believe there is hope for humanity yet. Spread the love.

The American Civil Liberties Union is mad as hell. President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law and the ACLU called the new law one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history.

"With his signature, President Bush enacts a law that is both unconstitutional and un-American. This president will be remembered as the one who undercut the hallmark of habeas in the name of the war on terror. Nothing separates America more from our enemies than our commitment to fairness and the rule of law, but the bill signed today is an historic break because it turns Guantánamo Bay and other U.S. facilities into legal no-man's-lands.

"The president can now - with the approval of Congress - indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions. Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act." - Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director

Who watches the watchers? What liberties are you willing to give up in order for government officials, who authorized or ordered illegal acts of torture and abuse over the past 9 years, to save face?

ACLU Letter to the Senate Strongly Urging Opposition to S. 3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006

BTW, you can buy that cool mug from City Dweller here.

I was invited by Cris Orfescu to participate in this contest and thought it was an interesting idea. From the site: "NanoArt is a new art form where micro/nanosculptures created by artists/scientists through chemical/physical processes and/or natural micro/nanostructures are visualized with powerful research tools like Scanning Electron Microscopes. The monochromatic electron microscope images are processed further to create a piece of art that can be showcased for a large audience to educate the public with creative images that are appealing and acceptable." www.nanoart21.org

The contest is open to all artists. A high resolution image will be provided and the artist will have to alter it in any artistic way they choose. Artists can also create their own image as long as it visualizes micro or nano structures.

The first 10 winners will be exhibited on nanoart21.org site for one full year. These works will be for sale on nanoart21.org site. The artists are welcome to sell their works on other venues. However, if the sale is generated through nanoart21.org, the artist will receive 65% and nanoart21.org will retain 35% of the sale price. Additionally, Nanoart21.org will print and ship the artwork to customers.

More on Nanotechnology:

Nanotech on YouTube
Wikipedia
Nanotechnology Now

I've decided to temporarily open the Special Content folder to all visitors.

This folder contains animated images, some popular works, a print, and some previews of a couple dragons in the works. Many of the files are large and may take some time to download so please be patient, especially with the animated gifs. They are worth taking a look at.

I hope you'll enjoy this content that was previously only accessible to subscribers. I'd prefer to keep it available to all so long as hotlinking and theft do not become an issue again.

Weeee! I always loved this game! Thanks Google!

Heh, Weird Al, you'll always have a special place in my heart. Live forever. Please.

Don Casteel won a First Prize award of $5,000 from the Sun Grid Cool Apps Developer Contest for his 3D Fractal Rendering project. The application assists in the creation, rendering, and animation of IFS fractals in full 3D as volumetric density fields.

It was insipred by Apophysis and ElectricSheep, written in 100% pure Java - J3D, developed in NetBeans with the ComputeServer module and rendered on the SunGrid computeServer. You'll want to check out the animated render to get an idea of what the program can do... amazing! Congrats on winning the 5K, Don!

I know how much you love interesting origimi, so feast your eyes on these beauties! An entire page filled with origami balls and polyhedra that were folded and photographed by Michał Kosmulsk. This one is called an icosidodecahedron - you can find folding instructions here.

You will be amazed when you see the pictures of Brent and Annette's wedding cake. It was created by Gateaux Inc in Plymouth, MN. The the Princess bride and Mario cake topper was ordered from Japan on eBay. Aren't those little stars just too cute!?

Speaking of Mario, I was getting hungry thinking about munching on that cake until I saw this... now I've lost my appetite. Click >   more »

That is teh motherbleepingshizzle right there. Just sayin.