Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Tony DiTerlizzi's New Middle-Grade Book Series

It’s about a girl raised by robots. How awesome is that?

Mar 04, 2010 :: Tagged under: , :: #

Making Us Think

Seth Godin explains what he thinks makes the TED Conference so great:

Which brings us to TED, a conference held every year in Long Beach. It’s going on right now.

Watch a few TED videos and try to get ahead of the speaker. They have an idea…it’s probably a conceptual tricky idea, one with a lot of moving parts. And there is a lot of shorthand and arm waving … basically, it’s similar to a quadratic equation. If you need the other person to slow down and explain every little bit, you’ve missed the point. The point is to do abstract conceptual thought. To get in practice taking the accepted status quo and questioning it, at least for a little while, at least this or that part of it.

I think this is a skill, a rare one. The ability to be facile in the manipulation of ideas, both theoretical and established, is a valuable one, and I think the TED videos and art of reading books (at least the first ten minutes of each) are two great ways to getting better at manipulation of ideas. It takes practice, and it’s worth it.

I completely agree with Godin; it’s this “taking the world as it is and imagining a better future out of it” aspect of the conference that I love so much, and TED does this year after year with a stunning consistency.

Feb 14, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , :: #

The Town Where J.D. Salinger Lived

Perhaps it takes living in the same town as a man to really get to know him. Here’s just a brief excerpt, from an excellent reflection on the reclusive author’s unique relationship with Cornish, New Hampshire – the town where J.D. Salinger and his wife lived for more than fifty years:

To Emily Robbins, Jerry and Colleen Salinger’s house next door was a regular stop when she and her brother Nick were raising money for Cornish Elementary School projects or out trick or treating.

One year, the couple forgot to buy Halloween treats and instead handed out pencils.

“Well, this is lame,” Robbins said she and Nick decided, once out of earshot.

Their mother, however told them, “Save those pencils.”

Jan 30, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , , :: #

Brazilian Man Attends Own Funeral

CNN.com:

On the holiday known as the Day of the Dead, a Brazilian bricklayer walked into his own funeral.

The sight of Ademir Jorge Goncalves alive shocked relatives, some of whom tried to jump out of the windows of the funeral home in southern Brazil.

Straight out of “Tom Sawyer.” Well, except that Tom hadn’t been drinking at a bar near the site where a car crashed and he was purported to have died. But otherwise, spot on!

Nov 09, 2009 :: Tagged under: , :: #

Second Trailer for 'Where the Wild Things Are' Goes Live

If the first didn’t cause you to die in excitement, you can now watch the second trailer for Spike Jonze’s adaptation of the Maurice Sendak classic, “Where the Wild Things Are.”

And yes. It’s really, really good. And there’s talking.

Aug 06, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

Senate Confirms Sotomayor to U.S. Supreme Court

Best news I’ve heard all day.

Aug 06, 2009 :: Tagged under: , :: #

Exclusive Featurette of "Where the Wild Things Are"

The first trailer was simply magical. But if you’re still not sold on the upcoming “Where the Wild Things Are” film, watch this exclusive new featurette – in which author and illustrator Maurice Sendak talks at length about director Spike Jonze’s uniquely wonderful cinematic vision for the classic children’s book.

“What I’ve seen him do, he’s turned it into his without giving up mine – but embodying mine with Spike Jonze, and astonishing me at how it maintains its peculiarness as a work. What flows through the whole thing is a such a strange feeling; I’ve never seen a movie that looked or felt like this, and it’s his personal this. He’s not afraid of himself. He’s a real artist that let’s it come through the work. So he’s touched me very much.”

– Maurice Sendak

I’m in heaven right now.

Jul 24, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

One-Eyed Filmmaker Implants Camera in Prosthetic Eye

Well, uh… what else can I say?

A one-eyed documentary filmmaker is preparing to work with a video camera concealed inside a prosthetic eye, hoping to secretly record people for a project commenting on the global spread of surveillance cameras.

Canadian Rob Spence’s eye was damaged in a childhood shooting accident and it was removed three years ago. Now, he is in the final stages of developing a camera to turn the handicap into an advantage.

Raise of hands who has always wanted to do something like that their entire life.

Jul 13, 2009 :: Tagged under: , :: #

National Day of Donuts

It’s National Donut Day today.

Yes, it may be another ridiculous and far-fetched holiday, but the world is a pretty awesome place and there’s lots of cool things in it that are definitely worth celebrating. So the more holidays the better, I say.

Plus, it’s donuts. Who doesn’t like donuts?

Interestingly, National Donut Day had its origins more than 70 years ago, with the Salvation Army – it was established both as a way to raise money for the Salvation Army and to honor the Army ‘lassies’ who made and served donuts to soldiers during the World Wars.

In August, 1917, fighting raged near Montiers, France, soldiers huddled in camp – hungry, weary and drenched by 36 consecutive days of rain. In a tent near the front lines, Salvation Army lassies made donuts by filling a refuge pail with oil, made dough with left over flour and other ingredients on hand, and used a wine bottle as a rolling pin. With a baking powder tin for a cutter and a camphor-ice suck tube for making the holes, donuts were fried – seven at a time – in soldier’s steel helmets on an 18-inch stove. (Later, a seven-pound shell fitted with a one-pound shell was used to cut out the donut holes.)

Rain fell continuously, and the water-soaked tent finally collapsed. However, the 100 donuts made that first day were an immediate success. Soon, as many as 500 soldiers stood in muck outside the resurrected tent waiting for the sweet taste of donuts and, before long, 9,000 donuts were being made around the dock. The tent became the first 24-hour donut shop.

Word spread and – although the basic recipe for making the donuts greatly varied from unit to unit – before long, Salvation Army lassies were making donuts wherever the war was being fought.

I say that’s a good reason to celebrate. And to make it even more entertaining, here’s the Swedish Chef making donuts:

Jun 05, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #