Marian Call

Okay, I don't normally pass on another blogger's links, but it's not every day you come across a voice so pure and beautiful as that of Marian Call. The Bad Astronomy Blog makes mention of her, almost by accident. Still a newcomer, she has a way of bringing indie and folk together in a melody of grace and passion for the arts. Have a listen at her MySpace page, and let me know what you think.

Anime-On-Demand

Link of the day for Sunday, September 9

Anime, the quick-action Japanese animation genre, has been around for more than 2 decades, but is just now becoming part of North American mainstream media. The problem with anime is finding an entire series in a non-encrypted, English format in its entirety. After all, who wants to spend 3 days downloading the latest season of Naruto, only to find out that it has not been translated or dubbed, or that you are missing an episode.

This is where animesplat comes in. It claims to have "over 200 series of anime directly on [their] server". Some of the most popular anime series are there, including: Naruto, Avatar, and Negima. The episodes I started watching all had their original Japanese soundtrack, with subtitles in English. You have to watch the episodes using the built-in flash player, but a full-screen button allows you to watch any episode up to a resolution of 1280x800.

Like it or hate it, one thing's for sure, anime has always had its own fan base, and will continue to grow as long its fans continue to support it. I hope animesplat helps contribute to the cause.

"Hidden" Flight Sim in Google Earth

Ever since Google Earth unleashed its Google Sky feature, a number of hidden features started appearing all over the news. One of the most interesting ones is a flight simulator activated by a simple key press.

All you have to do is launch Google Earth (you can download the latest version here), and press Ctrl-Alt-A once you see the starter page. You can choose between two aircrafts: an F16 Viper fighter plane , or a four-seater Cirrus SR22 propeller plane. You can even start your flight from your current view, or select from a dozen international airports, including Frankfurt, Los Angeles, and Kingsford Smith International located in Sydney, Australia.

The flight controls are relatively simple, although there are a lot of them to remember. From the start page, you can click on the Help button to navigate to the keyboard shortcut page. For those of you that are anxious to get going, I have included them below. (Click on the graphic to enlarge).


It appears Google has kept the realism alive by rendering real-time landscape from actual satellite footage. This may not be a Microsoft Flight Simulator, but for a web-enabled application, this definitely is worth a look.