Flickr Flow / Fernanda Viegas & Martin Wattenberg (click through for full color wheel)
“Using an algorithm developed for the WIRED Anniversary visualization, our software calculated the relative proportions of different colors seen in photos taken in each month of the year, and plotted them on a wheel. The image below is an early sketch from the piece. Summer is at the top, with time proceeding clockwise.”
This is one very clever logo.
Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn’t authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size — despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.
Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place. Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the drug — $4,555 per treatment, two times a month — would be totally covered by Alberta’s version of OHIP.
But he doesn’t. And so he is not only a victim of brain cancer, he is also a victim of arbitrary discrimination.
Toronto Sun (via sds)
Hooray, let’s have Canadian healthcare in America! Oh wait…
The water utiity in Edmonton, EPCOR, published the most incredible graph of water consumption last week. By now you’ve probably heard that up to 80% of Canadians were watching last Sunday’s gold medal Olympic hockey game. So I guess it stands to reason that they’d all go pee between periods.
But still—the degree to which the water consumption matches with the key breaks in the hockey game is stunning.
Do You Know The Difference Between A Browser and a Search Engine?
Only 8% of the people surveyed in Times Square are able to distinguish between a browser and a search engine.
Unsolicited Analysis: Annie Hall
The movie that beat the infinitely more important and influential Star Wars for best picture. Remember Annie Hall? No? Yup.
This “little guy, big guy” is nonsense. It’s crap. The Hurt Locker was made for 11 million dollars and made nearly 200MM dollars. The idea that this is some tiny film from nowhere “taking down” the best picture of 2009 is completely ludicrous.
For some reason, “sticking it” to Avatar became immensely popular, because it was big. In the spirit of populism, people rallied behind other films because they seemed to represent fiscal challengers to Avatar’s budget, which is the least relevant aspect of film-making. How is the trail being blazed here any different than The Blain Witch Project? Y Tu Mama Tambien? Pan’s Labyrinth? Little Miss Sunshine? There’s an “indie” darling every year, and the most cynical thing about it was that any non-Avatar winner would have been heaped with indie praise. You tell those big studios, Film X!
Here’s the thing. Paul Blart: Mall Cop still gets made no matter what a bunch of bought-and-paid-for Academics think. I can’t help but feel that when we’re watching Paul Blart: Mall Cop 3D next year, we’ll all be thinking of naked, blue people. That’s because what James Cameron did with Avatar was important, and groundbreaking, and infinitely more deserving than the achingly average liberal comfort food that won Best Picture this year.
Further into irrelevance with the Oscars, then, which will be rated highly specifically because of the attention on Avatar and the crowds of coastals who sneered every time it picked up an award. You’re all rather ridiculous, those of you who hate the “size” of such things. Paths are blazed by great, grinding machines, not solitary wanderers. It is fitting that 2009’s great “marvel” film will blaze the 3D trail in a similar manner to the film most like it. After all, what’s precedent worth if not followed?
This is Steve Burns.
Steve, from BLUE’S CLUES!
Whut?
