Has Anyone Seen My Glasses?

Jul 24, 2009

Reynard Update, Part 1

Months ago, I posted about a puppet that I'm working on. Lest you think I forgot, here is an update on where I am with it. Ruefully, I've had little time to work on him lately. He has no eyes or nose or inside of his mouth, but they are all in the works, so hopefully, in a few weeks, there will be more to speak of. Here's an outline of the process that I've gone through, though.

I began, as usual, with the wedge method. I then carved a snout and a jaw out of large blocks of foam, yielding this lovely specimen:

A little more adding-on, and he began to look like a fox:

I marked which direction the fur would grow with arrows on the foam, and then I colored darker and lighter areas where different colors of fur would go. I then used Plasti Dip (as far as I'm concerned, one of the puppet-maker's best friends) to 'paint' on the lower lip that canines (and felines) have.

More to come...

Strawberry Swing

Coldplay has a cool new video--animation by chalk. If you want to see a superhero get attacked by a squirrel with a meat grinder, this is the video for you.

Jul 23, 2009

It's Better Late Than Never

I had a hard time with getting Blogger to work on my old computer, but it still won't keep me from belatedly celebrating online that 40th anniversary of the first human footsteps on the moon.

Jul 18, 2009

RIP Walter Cronkite

I wasn't even born yet when Walter Cronkite stopped anchoring at CBS News. However, as a(n amateur) student of history, it is impossible for me not to have seen and appreciated his emotional response to the death of President Kennedy in 1963. It was a moment for him professionally and personally, and it shows how he literally defined journalism for a generation.

Cronkite also did a great short that showed at Walt Disney World for years, at The Magic of Disney Animation. In it, he led Robin Williams (dressed like the Genie at the end of Aladdin) through the animation process, going 'Back to Neverland'. I've never been able to find the whole thing, but here's a clip that I found on YouTube:

How to Take Over the World

There's a new mathematical model (which this article only mentions; it is thirsting for detail) that has been developed that gives clues to how a small group of people can lead a large group to a desired result. Basically, leaders, all striving toward the same goal, need to be sufficiently dispersed amongst the populace so to lead smaller groups into one large, cohesive whole.

It's interesting that there is now a model for it, since we've been doing it for hundreds of years. It's called a political party.

And Then There Were Four

The Daily Mail (UK) has noted that Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man, died at the age of 113. He was also one of two remaining British veterans of World War I. Now, there are only four left in the world (see below; the chart is taken directly from Wikipedia). My Dad remembers how when he was a kid, World War I vets were like World War II vets today: there were literally millions of them. Now, silently, for more than nine decades, they've slowly fallen away. It's sobering to think that the memory of the Great War will soon be both literally and figuratively, history.

Nationality	Name	Date of Birth	Age	Residence	Force served	Notes
United Kingdom	Choules, Claude Stanley	01901-03-03 3 March 1901	108	Australia	Royal Navy	Last seaman. Joined in 1916. Last witness to the scuttling of the fleet. Moved to Australia in 1926 and served with Royal Australian Navy in WWII. Lives in Perth, Western Australia.^[4]^[5]
United Kingdom	Patch, Henry John (Harry)	01898-06-17 17 June 1898	111	United Kingdom	British Army 7th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry	Last Tommy. Last veteran to serve in the trenches and last to be wounded in action. Called up in 1916. Last survivor of Battle of Passchendaele. Lives in Wells, Somerset.^[6]^[7]^[8]
Canada	Babcock, John Henry Foster (Jack)	01900-07-23 23 July 1900	108	United States	First 146th, CEF, then Boys Battalion	Last Canadian veteran. Eligible for state funeral. Joined up in 1916. Completed training in UK but did not see action due to age. Moved to US in 1924. Lives in Spokane, Washington.^[9]^[10]
United States	Buckles, Frank Woodruff	01901-02-01 1 February 1901	108	United States	United States Army 1st Fort Riley casual detachment	Last American doughboy. Eligible for burial at Arlington. Joined in 1917. Ambulance driver near Western Front. Held prisoner in WWII. Lives in Charles Town, West Virginia.^[11]^[12]

Jul 17, 2009

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

Ken Burns has a new documentary coming out! Here's the (long) preview, courtesy of PBS:

Happy 40th Anniversary Apollo 11!

I almost missed it, but no. This will not be like Bastille Day. Today marks the day in 1969 that the Apollo 11 rocket, which first landed a man on the moon, was launched from Cape Canaveral. Hopefully, I'll remember to mark July 20, the day that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin actually set foot on the lunar surface. In the meantime, however, take a gander at a few notable videos commemorating how we even got to that point:

Jul 16, 2009

Tea is Awesome

Jul 15, 2009

I missed Bastille Day?

I like to think of myself as someone who notes the oft forgotten American and foreign holidays, but yesterday, I made a major faux pas, and that is not a pun. I forgot Bastille Day.

For those who don't know, Bastille Day--Fête Nationale--is the celebration of the day in 1789 that the poor of Paris marched on the royal prison, the Bastille, and released the prisoners, effectively beginning the French Revolution (at least in the minds of the French). It is their equivalent of Independence Day, celebrated with their own tri-striped red, white, and blue flags being unfurled and parades and fireworks.

For an additional bit of fun info, the Marquis de Lafayette gifted George Washington with one of the keys to the Bastille, which hung (hangs?) in Mt. Vernon.

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