Fun with the Google Street View Car

On May 3rd 2008, artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley invited the Google Inc. Street View team and residents of Pittsburgh’s Northside to collaborate on a series of tableaux along Sampsonia Way. Neighbors, and other participants from around the city, staged scenes ranging from a parade and a marathon, to a garage band practice, a seventeenth century sword fight, a heroic rescue and much more…

Street View technicians captured 360-degree photographs of the street with the scenes in action and integrated the images into the Street View mapping platform. This first-ever artistic intervention in Google Street View made its debut on the web in November of 2008.

Click here to learn more about the event and view the interactive embedded Google Map.

And who can’t love a giant chicken on a street corner.

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The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time

This list is from Rolling Stone magazine and under each singer are ten songs you can listen to with a summary written by a fellow big time singer.

Link

Here’s the top ten:

  1. Aretha Franklin
  2. Ray Charles
  3. Elvis Presley
  4. Sam Cooke
  5. John Lennon
  6. Marvin Gaye
  7. Bob Dylan
  8. Otis Redding
  9. Stevie Wonder
  10. James Brown

Bono writes about Bob Dylan, and Bono comes in at 32 which I think is a little high.  As much of a fan I am of him, I don’t know how I feel about him making the top third.  I think maybe he’s in the middle or lower end.  Heck, Sting didn’t even make the list.  But I have to admit that Billie Joe Armstrong’s write up did catch my attention:

I would describe Bono’s singing as 50 percent Guinness, 10 percent cigarettes — and the rest is religion. He’s a physical singer, like the leader of a gospel choir, and he gets lost in the melodic moment. He goes to a place outside himself, especially in front of an audience, when he hits those high notes.

Too bad Eva Cassidy didn’t live long enough, she would have definately made the list.

Posted in Interesting, Pop Culture, U2 | 3 Comments

Classmates.com User Sues; Schoolmates Weren’t Really Looking for Him

Sounds like a fake article, but it’s true . . .

When Classmates.com told user Anthony Michaels last Christmas Eve that his former school chums were trying to contact him, he pulled out his wallet and upgraded to the premium membership that would let him contact long-lost fifth-grade dodge-ball buddies and see if his secret crush from high school had looked him up online.

But once he’d parted with the $15, Michaels learned the shocking truth: No one he knew was trying to contact him at all. Classmates.com’s come-on was a lie, and he’d been scammed.

At least that’s what the San Diego resident alleges in a lawsuit (.pdf) filed against one of the net’s original social networking sites, whose banner ads featuring unflattering yearbook pictures remain a staple around the internet. If the lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, succeeds, it could raise the minimum standards of honesty for online businesses.

Full Article

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Presidential Pet Museum

The Presidential Pet Museum was founded in 1999 as a repository and means of preserving information, artifacts, and items related to the Presidential Pets. The Museum is now open to the public for all to view and enjoy. Over 500 items of interest are displayed for lovers of pets, Presidents and pet trivia. Children learn by association and what better way to educate visitors about our Presidency, than through the White House Pets. Nearly every President had a pet, both exotic and common, and one can learn about them all at the Presidential Pet Museum.

Link

I cracked up at the name of Jimmy Carter’s dog, Grits.

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