Two weeks ago, Contrarian featured a exceptionally funny and creative YouTube video by two dorky techno musicians from Leeds, comprising two-thirds of the Brett Domino Trio. I didn't say so at the time, but these guys strike me as worthy 2010 inheritors of the 1960s folk revival. They make their own music, using an assortment of real and pseudo instruments. They exemplify the indie knack for using the Internet to bypass industry middlemen en route to fans (and, potentially, a living). Here, thanks to James Fallows, is a similar but even more successful YouTube group, Pomplamoose, covering the sublime Chordettes hit, Mr....

08 May, 2010

As we noted last month, Wendy Southgate was captured 43 times on Google Street View while walking her dog near in Elmsdale, Suffolk, UK. Today, it's a hapless Google Street View driver who captured himself while indisposed on lonely High Rock Road outside Reno, Nevada: Scroll around at the same location and see the disembodied Google Street View Car door flung open by the desperate driver as he sought the pause that refreshes: Hat tip: TWIG 41...

07 May, 2010

Using data from Flightradar24.com, a site that tracks most European flights, the British firm ItoWorld produced this animation of European airspace between between April 16 and 21, as traffic resumed after the ash cloud shutdown: Hat tip: Silas...

03 May, 2010

At a web app developers' conference on April 21, Facebook unveiled a breathtakingly ambitious program to reorganize the way personal information is shared on the Internet. The changes, known as Open Graph, are hard to summarize simply, but they include the use of cookies, login codes, and Facebook "like" buttons on other companies' websites, to automatically share user information and preferences with other websites, which then use that information to personalize a user's browsing experience. More detailed explanations here and here. With 415 million users, Facebook offers web developers a powerful incentive to play ball, and they have flocked to embrace the...

02 May, 2010

The news media sessions often last 25 minutes, with 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone still awake. Those types of PowerPoint presentations, [retired Marine Corps Col. Thomas X.] Hammes said, are known as “hypnotizing chickens.” From We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint, a New York Times story by Elisabeth Bumiller about the growing cadre of military strategists who think PowerPoint dumbs down decision making. More on this when I have a few minutes to string together. Hat tip: Andrew Weissman...

28 April, 2010

Brett Domino and Steven Peavis use a variety of electronic folk instruments to perform a medley of Justin Timberlake tunes: Featured instruments include Stylophone Beatbox, DigiDrummer Lite on the iPod Touch, Kazoo, Thumb Piano, Shaker, Stylophone, Cowbell, Recorder, Ukulele, Theremin, Spoons, and Roland AX-Synth. Via: Andrew Sullivan....

26 April, 2010

In answer to concerned queries from readers: No, I do not personally get up at 3 a.m. to send out the daily Contrarian e-mail. Google's Feedburner service does that for me. At 3 a.m., Google automatically sends every item I have posted over the preceding 24 hours to everyone who has signed up for the daily Contrarian email (option 1 in the box at right)....

25 April, 2010

As Wendy Southgate of Elmswell, Suffolk, UK, took her dog, Trixie, for a stroll around the neighborhood one morning last spring, she noticed an odd looking car cruising slowly along the street. She wondered vaguely what it was up to. Then last week, Wendy's husband Terry, a firefighter, decided to look for their Cross St. house on the British version of Google Street View, and there were Wendy and Trixie. He looked a little further down the street, and there they were again. He checked a nearby street, and found them again. And again. Finally, Terry followed Wendy's customary dog-walking route—and...

22 April, 2010

Chris Milk, who has directed videos for Kanye West, U2, Courtney Love, and Barack Obama, is assembling a few thousand volunteers to complete an animated music video for Ain't No Grave, title track of the last album Johnny Cash recorded. The Johnny Cash Project invites participants to use custom drawing tools to create the 1,368 frames in the 2 minute, 51 second, video. Since more than one artist will end up submitting artwork for each frame, the video will look different each time it's played. Writes Milk: Strung together and relayed in sequence, your art, paired with Johnny’s haunting song, will become...

19 April, 2010
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