To me this video shows just how subjective the value of art really is.

I'm sure if there was a plaque beside the painting, proclaiming "This is the work of a world-famous painter whose similar paintings sell for $1M or more", more people (but not many more) would have stopped to give the painting more consideration.

I must make the distinction between cheap "wine" in a foil bag, in a box, and regular wine in a TetraPak. The former has been around since time immemorial. The latter has been around in Canada, or at least my part of Ontario, for 4-5 years. This is about as long as TetraPaks have been accepted in municipal recycling regions large enough to make TetraPak wine worthwhile.

When they were first introduced they were part of a short eco-fad where it was trendy to give one instead of a bottle as a gift, and then when the recipient balked at receiving/opening/serving boxed wine at their snooty soiree you could unleash your little eco-diatribe, and hammer it home with the fact that the wine was actually pretty good.

The snootiest wines at the LCBO still come in bottles, but you can get some nice low-to-medium priced wines in a TetraPak. There's 1/4 of a TetraPak of very nice French Rabbit varietal blend thing left in my fridge. It's well worth the $15 a "bottle" and in a low white wine consuming household, it keeps well. It was still good after being opened 9 days ago.

I think this video, while totally amazing, is more a case of an elephant being trained to reproduce the brushstrokes rather than express itself artistically. It's essentially the same as programming a robot to paint the picture in that respect.

Although I think elephants are intelligent enough to recognize a picture of an elephant, or even a flower. In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if after reproducing hundreds of paintings this way, the elephant grew to recognize that the strokes it was taught to do reproduce an image of an elephant. The image of the final outcome in the elephant's mind is probably one thing that helps it to remember the brushstrokes in order. I think that on some level, the elephant understands it is creating a representation, unlike a robot would.

But even after being trained to paint this picture, I doubt the elephant gained an ability to express itself creatively-- to draw, for example, a group of three elephants together, or a mother and a baby elephant together.

Puts me in mind of an interesting idea for a sci-fi story about the first (and maybe oldest) human to achieve post-singularity immortality. A diaryesque thing about how weird it is to be the only one whose parents, friends, and contemporaries didn't make the transition, while all new consciousnesses born thereafter go about their foreverly business.

Cory, just mail the cheque to my office.

@5 (Cha0tic):

But think of how much fun it would be to *try* and complete it!!!

I had tears in my eyes, it was so awesome.

I don't think it's fair to call it unwatchable, though. It's art in the style of the most difficult parts of chaotic 2D beat-em-up games. You're not *supposed* to be able to take in everything on the screen all at once. I'm sure if you've ever watched an old movie you've remarked at how slowly everything happens: slower pans, slower cuts, more pauses in dialogue. Or at least, vs. what we're used to these days. KoP4bn% is an extrapolation and projection of that accelerated pacing. Like, it might appear very slow to someone watching it 50 years from now.

Yeah, I loved it.

I'm pretty certain that "first avatar creation engine" is still used today to create characters in The Realm Online, one of the earliest MMOs which is still active. (It's now run by Norseman Games, not Sierra.) The level of customizability during character creation is surprisingly advanced for an 11-year-old game.

@ Christovir:

That was my thought, too. I didn't think of his opponents' inexperience wrestling someone with no joints, but I also thought about the muscle mass/weight class advantage. And wouldn't he also have an advantage in that his outermost extremities are 50% closer to his centre of gravity than those of a normally abled wrester? Add this to the advantage of having no joints for your opponent to grab...

It's a universal faux pas to diminish the acheivements of the disabled, so here's my disclaimer that it's inspiring to see someone find a way to turn his disability into an advantage. However, I can't help but wonder how far he'll be allowed to go in his sport before his opponents begin to take issue with his natural advantage. On one hand I think it'd be a meaningful achievement for a disabled person to overcome the odds stacked against him and win an Olympic gold medal against non-disabled competitors in his sport. On the other hand, aren't those odds stacked *for* him in wrestling? Are we only allowing him to exploit his advantage in his chosen sport as compensation for his disadvantages in other areas of life?

Jeez... I don't remember my zits ever being that... voluminous? Voluptuous? Forthgiving? Eruptive? What word am I looking for here?

Definitely a class example of can't-look-away-ness.

Spellbinding.

Some fine, fine synonyms in that left-hand column there.

Aw, crud. This is from my sketchbook from a couple weeks ago... I snooze, I lose!

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/8994/choplerysmgh7.jpg

Jeez, I was just down the street from there on Sunday. I hope everyone is okay. I'm glad we didn't lose Steve's Music or the Silver Snail.

Great advert, and I especially like the blip track they used for the soundtrack. I'm gonna have to look up Casual Belly.

Spankbot... if you're seeing icons of terror everywhere, you should really visit an optometrist. *AND* a psychiatrist.

I watched the video as I felt it's my duty as a citizen of the planet to understand why this happened so I can prevent it from happening again.

Mercifully the video stopped running due to some server error right before things got violent.

I speak some Polish. The man is speaking to quickly for me to understand anything beyond a few light expletives, and he has a thick accent which makes it harder for me. But it's clear he's scared, frustrated, and confused. He's not speaking maliciously.

I'm going to ask my wife (who's fluent in Polish) to watch the video and translate what he's saying so I can post it here.

The hardest thing for me is knowing that if I was there, I could have spoken to him, calmed him down, and helped him.