• Cartoon Skeletons A fantastic set of conceptual drawings by Michael Paulus (thanks Gilbert)
  tags: art bones cartoon charliebrown drawing flintstones hellokitty peanuts skeleton +
• Improv Everywhere: Even Better Than The Real Thing Fake U2 plays real concert across street from real U2 concert (brilliant)
  tags: comedy improveverywhere nyc prank u2 +

My copy of FCP 5 finally arrived on Wednesday but I haven’t had a chance to open the box yet. It weighs twice as much as Noemi does (and doesn’t smile at all). I’ve gotten a few reports of minor changes to FXScript rendering resulting in small, apparently aspect-related distortions, but no one has complained that Joe’s Filters stopped working. So that’s good. I’m looking forward to getting under the hood and seeing what’s changed.

My parents are in town this weekend with my brother Ben, to see their newest granddaughter and enjoy a long-overdue vacation. I’ll be playing tour guide for most of the weekend, and I’m psychologically preparing myself for not getting much any work done over the next few days.

Times Square was beautiful tonight.

You are the only one person I know that will remove every plank of wood off of a ship to see when it would sink. And then happy beyond belief when you figure it out.

–Bruce, via IM.

At some point today I stumbled across a link to an article about an archaeologist claiming he’d located the Ark of the Covenant, Kabbalist Blesses Jones: Now’s the Time to Find Holy Lost Ark. Well that’s cool.

The archaeologist, Vendyl Jones is hard to pin down. Apparently the inspiration for Indiana Jones, I found plenty of links about him on conspiracy sites, right next to UFOs and the Illuminati, including a much cited story about him having three kidneys? But I kept reading because the story is long, well told and fascinating.

The center of this story lies in the contents of the Copper Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls which Vendyl has been studying for some 30 years. Though some think the whole scroll is a hoax, many believe it contains an inventory of the treasures of the First Temple, hidden away to keep them safe from the Romans. Vendyl’s story of piecing together the information in the scroll makes for very interesting reading.

The story of the Blue Aura reminded me that I once found that exact phenomenon at the bottom of a parking garage in Pasadena. There was a small hole between concrete slabs which was open for six or seven stories to the sky. At the right time of day, pure blue light would stream down. I went back several times and have never forgotten the quality of that light.

Further poking around in Vendyl’s site lead me to the story of Haym Salomon, a key figure in the American Revolution, who was Jewish, and whom I’d never heard about before. I got there reading a Jones essay titled “A Real National Treasure” in his foundation’s self published Researcher Newspaper (pdf link, page 9). The bulk of that essay was a fascinating Kabbalist breakdown of the symbolism in the Great Seal of the United States, based on the possibly erroneous belief that Haym Salomon designed the seal (The US Department of State’s official Great Seal pdf booklet doesn’t mention Haym Salomon at all). Usually the seal is explored via the symbolism of the Freemasons. According to the often dubious Wikipedia entry on Haym Solomon, he might or might not have also had a hand in crafting the US Constitution. I’m not sure how much to believe here, but the anti-Semetic conspiracy fringe seems to believe Salomon is responsible for all sorts of things. Those people would be funny if they weren’t so frightening.

I’m not sure what to make of Vendyl Jones, he seems like the sort of character who is either prophetically correct or consumed by madness. I don’t think anyone’s eyeballs will melt from their skulls if does find it, but discovering the actual Ark from the First Temple with a clearly described historical lineage would have a significant impact on the course of world events and all followers of Judiasm, Christianity and Islam.

Crazy stuff, fun to think about.

• The Shape of Days: H264 A very well-written exporation of the advances in the new h.264 codec, with examples.
  tags: apple codec compression h264 quicktime video +

• Methods of deleting items from AppleScript lists Syntax like this is why people both love and hate AppleScript.
  tags: Applescript programming scripting +

A Hamburger Today is a new burger-centric site that seems initially focused on NYC burgers. Something I know a bit about. Their initial reviews tend towards the current superstars* of the NYC burger scene, Shake Shack, Corner Bistro and Burger Joint behind the curtain at the Le Parker Meridien hotel, as well as a few lesser known places like Island Burger, Lucky burger and the unfortunately flailing Blue 9.

I’m looking forward to reading their takes on some other places like Peter Luger, Westville or The Burger Joint (the new slider place on Third Ave and 20th) as well as any attempt to rate burgers at any of the million NYC diner/lunch counters, the 3rd Avenue Joe Juniors being my neighborhood favorite.

* I grew up in California, Super Star was a semi-intentional pun.