The picture was simple.  A young girl with her arms crossed across her brother’s chest, two refugees escaping the upcoming terror of World War II.  They were parentless and the look on her face was heartwrenching.  I may be able to find it now…

Now LIFE has teamed up with Google to make all of these pictures available to the world.  Google will host 10,000,000 images most in high-res and 97% of them have never been seen before.

As of now, only 20% have been scanned and uplaoded, but it is an incredible offering by LIFE.  While the high-res images have a watermark on them, it almost seems as if they are putting these into the public domain.

In a press statement Google stated, “The effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organise all the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Lose yourself in some amazing LIFE pictures.

Tags: LIFE, Pictures, Google, Images, Photos, Photographs, Hosted, Magazine

The Phoenix Mars Lander was sent up to Mars by NASA in the hopes of gathering important scientific information about the red planet. It did. But then it went dead, and this was it’s final transmission…

Click to read Phoenix’s last transmission blog post from Mars.

Send Eva!

I watched a Vicks Vaporub commercial and was taken aback by the little piano ditty. It was sad, yet happy and most certainly thought provoking. Keeping with my previous actions, I immediately Googled it and found the song was called “Yuki! Yuki! Yuki!” by Anathallo (which is greek for renew or refresh).

Here’s the video:

…and the song:



The album is fantastic, with a great mix of different styles and a story…

You can buy it from iTunes right here.

I went to said Tim Horton’s this morning, and as I wafted through the coffee and old lady perfume scents I was reminded of the current Tim Horton’s commercial in which a rough and tumble mechanic eats his soup in the most elegant way.

I can’t describe how much this annoys me. Tim Horton’s has always pandered to the blue collar, rough neck crowd, which is fine, but now its over the top. Starbucks on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily pander to the white collar crowd. It’s ads are based not on its clientele, but the drink, season, or feeling. You don’t see a soccer mom in a Starbucks ad, you see a fancy drink.

This all boils down to branding. Tim Horton’s brands itself as the average Joe’s place for Joe, whereas Starbucks brands itself as the third place, a place away from home and work where you can hook up your laptop, read a book and escape from the turmoil of everyday life.

Many people have a good ol’ hatred for Starbucks. Mostly because they claim their drinks are over priced. But if you’re getting a regular 20oz coffee at either place you are paying almost the same. If you get a Tim Horton’s Blended Coffee versus a Starbucks Frappuccino, again you are paying almost the exact same price.

The idea that Tim Horton’s is any more Canadian than Starbucks is ridiculous. Starbucks over the last couple years began Starbucks Coffee Canada, a separate company than the main corporation. Tim Horton’s on the other hand is aggressive in its exapnsion to the US, and their partnership with Wendy’s is advancing that.

In Canada alone, there are 2,800 Tim Horton’s locations across Canada, Starbucks boasts roughly 993. Of course Tim Horton’s gets a pass card because they don’t have two across the street from each other (on Robson St. in Vancouver there are two kitty corner).

The bottom line is a successful bid by Tim Horton’s to brand itself as a wholesome, ma and pa coffee shop, but it is exactly the opposite. It is just as bad as Starbucks in placing its logo on everything it sells in its stores, advancing the brand and airing commercials that are so far fetched it is almost laughable. The “slow cooked” chili? Its been sitting in a metal pot for 4 hours.

Tim Horton’s is NOT your average Joe’s coffee shop. It’s the same type of mega-corporation like Starbucks.

I believe this is the feeling among Obama voters:

Dear FuddyTV,

We’re sending you this email because you created or used at least one free Brightcove Network account during the last two years.

Regretfully, we’ve decided to discontinue the Brightcove Network (the free version of our service). The discontinuation of the free Brightcove Network accounts will not affect Brightcove platform accounts that customers have paid to use.

Please see the FAQ for complete details about this transition.

On December 17, 2008, we will be shutting down Brightcove Network accounts that have not been upgraded to paid Brightcove platform accounts. At the same time, we will be shutting down the Brightcove.TV website (which is separate from the corporate Brightcove website).

Until December 17, 2008, your Brightcove Network account will remain fully functional; the players that you have published will continue to operate; and you can keep using the Brightcove Console as you have been using it to date. At the same time, we are giving you a free trial of Brightcove 3.

Brightcove 3 is the newest version of the Brightcove online video platform. The new release has a completely re-designed user interface and a wide variety of powerful new features. You can learn more about Brightcove 3 on our site.

We’ve automatically upgraded your account to include a free trial of Brightcove 3 Basic. You can begin using the new features in Brightcove 3 today by logging in at studio3.brightcove.com. (Note: Your content will automatically appear in Brightcove 3, but you will need to make new Brightcove 3 players to take advantage of the full functionality.)

We specifically designed Brightcove 3 Basic to meet the needs of Network publishers. It’s affordably priced and provides access to a wide range of third-party ad networks. If you are looking for more than what we offer with Brightcove Basic, we also have Pro and Enterprise editions…

With so many free content hosts, such as BlipTV and YouTube, I think we will move away from Brightcove. In terms of a business move, I think it’s safe to assume that many people will jump ship from Brightcove. In their FAQ section, they do not list prices for this new Brightcove 3 edition, but under the “How much does it cost” question one line will most likely turn away hundreds of producers…

For reference, Brightcove Basic is very affordably priced at several hundred dollars a month.

So now the search begins for a new video content host. It’s certainly understandable that Brightcove would want to charge for its service, however “several hundred dollars a month” doesn’t quite make business sense when there free or cheaper options out there.

Goodbye Brightcove…we hardly knew ya.

I have missed this feeling quite a lot. But I have received the opportunity to perform in a play called Amber Lights, which will be showing at The Birds and Stone theater in Calgary (16 Ave. and 1 St. N.W.) from Nov.12 till the 22 at 8:00 pm. The show is about a young girl that goes missing up north along the “Highway of Tears”. I really hope to see you out there in the audience.

I tip my hat to you,

David.

Good luck getting this out of your head…Boom Dee Ada!

EDIT: You can download the video and mp3!

The coup de gras of Halloween however is the Halloween Specials.

Here are ten you must watch:
1. Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

2. It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

3. Disney’s Donald Duck “Trick or Treat”

4. Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas

5. Beetlejuice

BONUS: Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp