100 years ago today the first known fully animated cartoon was shown. It was a short called “Fantasmagorie” by French artist Emile Cohl. He created it by tracing over 700 drawings on an illuminated glass plate. By comparison, the anime masterpiece “Akira” was created using 160,000 animation cels.

So the next time you are watching Cartoon Network or the see an announcement about the next big Pixar flick, remember Mr. Cohl.

As gas prices continue to rise - Oil hit a record of over $147 a barrel the other day - more and more people are finding bicycles as relief from the pump.

This article appeared on the front page of the metro section today about the surge in bike sales and repairs.

After roughly 8 years of serious riding, both in the ‘burbs and the city, it’s good to see people embracing cycling, but the challenges remain pretty daunting.

Urban sprawl pretty much guarantees that you could be riding dozens of miles to and from work, and in an environment that many feel unsafe in while riding in an car. It would be a good way to get and stay in shape, if you could avoid being hit by some idiot driver running a red light or plowing onto the sidewalk.

My friends and I have tried to at least be a force that cars have to recognize. I believe that the more people there are on foot or on two wheels, the more tolerance and recognition bikers and hikers will receive.

One way to do that is through critical mass rides, and it just so happens that one will happen on the 25th of this month. It will be my first, and I plan on bringing as many people as I can to help fill the road.

Just check out that pic of a critical mass ride in Toronto. Just imagine that hoard riding up Poplar Avenue.

Tell me what you think about these rides. Support them? Hate them? Don’t care?

Baby powder is for babies. Balla powder is for men

So says the slogan on the web page for this product, described by online retailer Men’s Ultimate Grooming in this way:

Balla Powder is a scented talcum powder that is guaranteed to leave your “boyz” feeling dry and comfortable. Balla Powder will make clammy sacks a thing of the past and will put “batwings” on the endangered species list.

For those of you thinking “gross,” it’s approaching 100 degrees outside and the heat index is already in the triple digits. There is not a man who has spent any amount of time working or playing in the summer heat that probably hasn’t longed for such a product, though I suspect talcum powder or good old Johnson & Johnson would be good enough. Only a true “balla” would probably purchase Balla Powder.

And if that isn’t perverse enough for you, you might want to see about this next product. I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say “scent of a woman” is no longer just the title of a movie. WARNING: The link is definitely not safe for work, unless you work at one of the fine, local gentleman’s clubs or something similar. You can check it out by going to the following website: http://smellmeand.com. I took off the direct link, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I took a week off from my day job the week before last, since I work seven days a week. It was time for time-off, even though I still worked for the paper on my regularly schedule.

Undaunted by the recent spike in temperatures, I intended to complete my old weekly riding goal of 100 miles a week, but I ended the first week only riding a paltry 12 miles. I decided to make up for it by planning a 30 miles ride to a friend’s house in Collierville from my apartment in Midtown, if for no other reason than just to say I did it.

I don’t have a sleek road bike yet, so I still ride my early 2001 edition Specialized Hard Rock mountain bike, which wouldn’t look so old if it didn’t have such an abusive owner. Not that I don’t do regular maintenance on it. After seven years of hauling anywhere from 250 to 300 pounds through the streets of Memphis and the trails at Stanky Creek and Shelby Farms my poor bike just ain’t too pretty anymore.

The most challenging aspect to consider when taking off on such an expedition is the route. I live right off Union in the heart of Midtown. My friend lives off Peterson Lake, close to Collierville Elementary. While I used to brave Poplar and Union in my early days of cycling, I’ve tried for the last few years to use neighborhoods and side streets to get to where I need to go. There are several advantages to this besides avoiding cars, and it’s a great way to see the city. You avoid traffic, trees and house reduce the amount of wind and there is a smaller chance of running into broken beer bottles and other refuse tossed onto the streets. You might even find a shortcut or escape route from the gridlock of your daily commute.

- Going East means going uphill
- People in this town love to throw glass bottles out their windows
- Winchester is both busy and windy as hell
- If you don’t drink Gatorade an hour or so in, you will start to crash - hard
- Motorists will either almost hit you or almost hit another motorist to avoid you
- Avoid houses under construction, no telling what your tires will pick up
- Collierville is not right next to Germantown. It was 14.5 miles from Midtown to Germantown Road at Park ; it was another 15 miles from there to my friend’s house off Peterson Lake

It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to make the ride on my mountain bike, which is respectable considering I was going less than 10 mph for the last 5 miles or so. Tell me about a ride that pushed you or turned out to be more than you expected.

I posted a story this morning about Kimbo Slice’s fight last night on CBS and decided against using this picture from the Associated Press on the story linked to the home page. The caption, credit, and editors note from AP are as follows:

“** EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT ** Kimbo Slice, right, throws a punch to the the ear of James Thompson of Manchester, England that knocks him to the canvas for a TKO in the third round of their EliteXC heavyweight bout at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Saturday, May 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)”

I first saw Kimbo Slice on the Miami-based “Reality Kings” porn sites several years ago. You’ll forgive me if I don’t provide a link. Strangely, those porn sites posted the now-famous videos of Kimbo fighting other bouncers from the Miami area. You can find them on YouTube. Fighting is probably not the right word, since Kimbo dominated his opponents in those early parking lot fights.
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Hard Attack, Sirius satellite radio’s heavy metal station, has ranked the top 100 metal songs of all time and put Slayer’s “Raining Blood” at the top.

I would put Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” on top, followed by “Angel of Death” by Slayer, which was probably the most famous Slayer song until Guitar Hero III put “Raining Blood” in the forefront. Other than that change, though, I can’t really argue with the top 5 other than the order.

The top 20 are listed below, but you can see the entire list here.

1. Slayer: “Raining Blood”
2. Black Sabbath: “War Pigs”
3. Metallica: “Master of Puppets”
4. Pantera: “Walk”
5. Iron Maiden: “The Trooper”
6. Megadeth: “Holy Wars”
7. Motorhead: “Ace Of Spades”
8. Anthrax: “Caught In A Mosh”
9. Sepultura: “Refuse/Resist”
10. Judas Priest: “Screaming For Vengence”
11. Black Sabbath: “Black Sabbath”
12. Metallica: “One”
13. Pantera: “Cowboys From Hell”
14. Slayer: “Angel Of Death”
15. Megadeth: “Peace Sells”
16. Iron Maiden: “Number Of The Beast”
17. Pantera: “Cemetary Gates”
18. Metallica: “For Whom The Bells Toll”
19. Testament: “Into The Pit”
20. Anthrax: “I Am The Law”

Depending on who you ask, “Master of Puppets” or “Reign in Blood” are the two best metal albums of all time. Personally, I fall on Metallica’s side, because

a.) I think “Master of Puppets” is a better overall album
b.) It has more to “say,” for whatever that’s worth
c.) “Reign in Blood” scared the crap out of me when it first came out in 1986

I remember walking through Camelot record store at the Raleigh Springs Mall (don’t laugh - back in the day Raleigh Springs Mall was THE SPOT) and seeing the cover to “Reign in Blood” and freaking out. I was 9 and afraid touching the album would burn my fingertips.

Any thoughts on Hard Attack’s ranking of the greatest metal songs? Any albums you never thought you would listen to but later found out you loved? Click the comment button and let’s talk about them.

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 4, celebrated by fans and vilified by politicians, was released April 29th to universal acclaim and a $500 million opening day, beating last year’s $400 million record set by Bungie’s Halo 3.

I’m not a GTA expert, but I did play GTA III in 2001 and GTA: San Andreas briefly in 2003. I was excited by the prospect of GTA on the newest generation of hardware, and, after reading all the rave reviews, I bought it for the PS3.

Let me say a few things about the GTA series. It is probably the best example of what people in the gaming community call “sandbox” design. “Sandbox” design is described by some as non-linearity, i.e. that you, the gamer, does not have to follow a set path to the end of the game. You can go and do whatever you want. Oblivion on PC was another good example. While you have missions or quests that you can complete and follow in order to follow myriad of plot lines, you can also do nothing at all.

For me , the “sandbox” design is a little more specific than that. For me the sandbox only means that everything in the game can be manipulated and follows the rules of the universe in which the game takes place. The Halo series on XBOX and Crysis on PC are good examples where, although linear, follow certain rules of physics and behavior that result in some interesting gameplay opportunities. The sandbox design is what allows warthog flipping and 3,000 barrel explosions.

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