Category: Zoom

A Nice Country Village by the Sea

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Some day, when my kids are grown and on their own, and I’m looking for a place to retire with the lovely and gracious Mrs. Strutts,  I’d like a nice country village in a temperate climate, maybe near the ocean.  A place to let the world pass by without traffic, without paved roads, without telemarketers.

tristan_da_cunha4A place I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted;  stay up late and sleep in as long as I liked.  And blog via satellite.

Maybe set up a little bed and breakfast stop for tourists and travellers, with a wine and cheese shop with tacky homemade postcards and hand-screened purple t-shirts. Maybe a place like this.  Or not. Click here, or click the top image, then zoom out.

[Link found at this amazing site.]

More UltraZoomage: Obama’s Inauguration

I am amazed at the technology that allows one to sit a mile away (next to the only three Porta-Potties) and have a recobanizable photo taken.  These images were taken from screenprints converted to .jpg files with MSPaint, and were not doctored except for cropping.

[Note that even Jesus attended the event in his burial shroud.]

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This is the Fullscreen Gigapan.  Zoom in, zoom out;  look for Elvis and Waldo.

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Then I spotted Aretha Franklin with some serious mojo flyin’.

[Related inaugrabation photos here;  More UltraZoomage here.]

We have a Winner! Sorta.

Regarding THIS CHALLENGE, everyone who submitted a .jpg file of a guy pointing directly at the Hi-Def camera during the NY vs. Boston game, 4 July 2008, at Yankee Stadium, won the prize.

Note that everyone who won is named Mik.

Here’s Mik‘s Winning Entry above, but it was not the one I was looking for.  Here’s the one I found below:

Since everyone (Mik) who entered emailed me to complain about the time they wasted trying to find the Pointer, I emailed Mik back with a detailed description of his prize:

A Genuine Motile WR30M “Third/Level Waterproof LED Back Light Sportwatch” (sic) made China, including display case and instructions!

Shown at right in its display case on top of tonight’s leftovers, it keeps time, beeps and lights up (as shown below right) and times things once you figger out the directions.  It’s apparently a knockoff of something made by Timex, but also something a 10 year old little bastard would prize until he finds out through trial and error that “water-resistant” doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing in Mandarin.

Mik had so much annoying fun with this contest that he’s declined his award (he already has a Chinese “sportwatch”) and is willing to donate it to a future event.  Bunk never argues against generosity.  Y’all are forewarned.  Another competition is in the works.  Or not.

[Thanks, Mik!]

Independence Day 2008 at Yankee Stadium

Maybe I’m easily amused, but this reeks of coolness. It’s a pan & zoom image of Yankee Stadium during the Yankees vs. Red Sox game of 4 July 2008.  Boston won 6-4 on a freak triple.

[See below for the linkoids.]

Here’s the wide angle, and I decided to zoom in.  The second thing I was looking for was a guy who probably drives a Babe Magnet:  Where’s Waldork?

Game is underway, 1st Inning.

An obnoxious jerk can be found anywhere, and I guessed that the cheap seats would be a good bet.

This section looked promising.  Completely arbitrary guess.

Getting closer!  Stadium usher in the aisle is eyeballing someone…

Ooh!  We have a candidate, and it’s not the waterbed in the back row or the wannabe in the front.

WOOP! DEY HE IS!

Rock out dude! Everyone should be playing air guitar at a Yankees game!  Or are you yelling at the umpire already, as if he can hear you from a half-mile away.  DUDE, it’s only the first inning.  Chill.

Don’t double-dose your meds again, dood. Everyone’s ignoring you (except for the usher,  the lady in the red tunic and the one in white southwest of you on the previous image). What Babe Magnet do you drive, bro?

[Link found at Grow-A-Brain. The Very Cool Hi-Def Zoom/Pan image of Yankee Stadium can be found here.]

[UPDATE:  HERE’S A BONAFIDE COMPETITION. FIRST ONE OF Y’ALL TO EMAIL BUNK A SCREEN SHOT (.jpg file only) OF THE GUY IN THIS STADIUM CROWD WHO’S POINTING DIRECTLY AT THE CAMERA WINS A VERY COOL PRIZE IN 100% WORKING CONDITION, INCLUDING BATTERIES AND INSTRUCTIONS, IN ORIGINAL PACKAGING!]

[This Contest is on as long as CNN/SI keeps their site open, or until a winner is announced on THIS website.  If CNN closes its site, and no one has offered/emailed a winning .jpg image to Bunk Strutts at the contact address CLEARLY shown above, this contest is closed, null and void, and we’ll snivel out of awarding anyone anything.  By submitting a .jpg image, y’all agree that this is all in fun and stuff, and everything that that this statement means in a colloquial sense releases Bunk and his Crack Team of Webminers from any and all legal responsibility.  In other words, we won’t owe you a damn thing beyond what is promised and awarded via these described caveats, no matter what… just a damn thing that works, beeps when it’s supposed to, and requires batteries. The prize-winner pays the shipping costs and may or may not owe Bunk a slab of coldies.]

[Update 26 August 2008:  Contest is now closed.  Winner to be announced.]

[UPDATE 28 AUGUST 2008:  WE HAVE A WIENER!]