That's a jellyfish.

Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds

This is a simple and elegant, and very successful short video.

I wish I had made it. 

The Ocarina of Rhyme

The first thing I thought when I heard this mash-up of classic rap with the soundtrack to "Zelda: The Ocarina of Time" was where was this ten years ago?

But now I realize, it had to wait. It needed time. These songs needed to stew in my sub-conscious, dormant for this last decade... almost lost... forgotten.... like my very childhood itself.

Thanks to Joey A. for this!

Where The Wild Things Are

Fact: When I was a child, I had a pet chicken named Max after the kid in WTWA. 

So, yeah, I'm pretty excited about this. 

This is what will happen to everything everywhere sooner or later

I'm glad that it can be beautiful.

So obvious, yet nonetheless disconcerting...

Apparently, the worse you are at something, the more confident you are in your abilities.

I see this is as good news.

Son of Mac

The unnecessary specialization of my computer continues. Now in honor of one of my favorite artists.

Check out Cory Doctorow and read everything of his you can get your hands on... Which would be everything he's written, as he is a copyfighter, not a copyrighter. 

SketchBook

I've been very into icon designing lately. I call this the SketchBook series, and soon I'll have them finished and uploaded to my website where you can download them and see how to change default icon settings in Mac. If you like them, let me know, and I'll probably work faster on them.

www.benoviatt.com/icondesign.html

Who Watches The Watchmaker

Yo, Lincoln's pocket watch did have a secret message in it... and it was pretty much just a watchmaker's diary entry, typos and all. 

And that's what National Treasure would look like in real life. "When I bite this apple with George Washington's wooden dentures... the imprint reveals these words! 'June - 1779 - My teeth hurt...'"

Duracells on NYC Subways

Do you live in New York? Do you know about this?

I heard some years ago, and have since come to truly believe, that anywhere you go in New York, at any point on any subway platform, you can look off onto the tracks and see at least one, if not many, Duracell batteries. I have my own theories as to why this appears to be true, but I'd be more interested in hearing yours.

Snap some photos, if you're so inclined. and label them with train and stop. I'm interested to see how true this is.N,R,W at 14th St. Union Square

1,2,3 at 42 St. Times Square

Why I'm an Apple Fan Boy

I will openly admit to being an Apple Fan Boy. That doesn't mean that I think Macintosh can do no wrong. And it doesn't mean that I feel compelled to own every single inane device that they manufacture. I'm well aware that Macintosh, like IBM or Dell, is simply a company that has one goal; improve sales. What sets Apple apart is that they recognize that the most important step towards improving those sales is not to sell many cheap items, or to cut corners to save money, but rather, it is to make the customer truly as pleased as possible.

I am writing this in my new aluminum MacBook, which I received today... for free. My 2.5 year old MacBook had been acting up a lot lately, which wasn't too bad, since I had applecare. But after several repair processes, the problems persisted. So Apple hooked me up with a brand new, upgraded laptop...

If I wasn't before, then I am definitely now a customer for life. And that's how you run a company.

Watch The Watchmen

Watchmen is to films, as Brazil is to socioeconomic structures.

Favelas, neighborhoods constructed sometimes literally out of trash, exist directly next to rich neighborhoods. I saw huts built out of old billboards, using the backside of a high class shopping mall as one wall.

That kind of proximate juxtaposition of two diametrically opposed concepts, that is what The Watchmen film is. Great moments of poignancy and beauty, frames away from some truly terrible moments. Words fail to explain how jaw-droppingly bad certain points of this film were. I may never enjoy Leonard Cohen again.

And yet portions of it were truly great. But these things served only to remind that this film could have actually been good.

But that's why it is so worth seeing, because it is such an unbelievably bipolar film, that can really teach you a lot about how to, and most importantly how not to, make a good movie.

My friend was almost destroyed in seconds.

I love the Discovery show "Destroyed in Seconds." It is pure, unadulterated gratuity (and it helps if you're of the opinion that people doing stupid and dangerous shit, deserve everything they get).

I immediately recognized this clip from a recent episode as something that actually happened to my friend. He was telling me all about it while I was home for christmas, and I was pretty surprised by just how awesome/graphic the event really was. Thankfully he (nor anyone) was really hurt.

But damn, that vietnamese restaurant was... destroyed in seconds.