Dave Schumaker

(Photo via Wikipedia)

"There are two things you never talk about in an Irish pub: religion and politics..."

Last summer, we traveled to Europe. The campaign to elect the next U.S. President was starting to ramp up and at that point, Barack Obama was a household name. This lead to an interesting conversation with a fellow in Dublin, Ireland.

Right before we arrived in Barcelona, we stopped over in Dublin for a few days. On our last night there, we happened upon an old pub named Mulligan's Pub.

Apparently, it's one of the oldest pubs in Ireland, and there has been a watering hole at that spot since 1732. Incredible! People have been drinking beer at that spot since before the United States even existed as a country.

While Sanjin and I were enjoying some glasses of Guinness at the bar, an old Irish fellow sitting next to us strikes up a conversation. After finding out we're from the States, he looks around and then whispers to us:

"There are two things you never talk about in an Irish pub: religion and politics. That said, what do you boys think about this Obama character?"

Fantastic. It was pretty amazing to think that Obama, who hadn't even been officially nominated by the Democratic Party yet, had already piqued the interest and curiousity of people overseas.

While traveling through Europe last year, we stopped for a few days in Barcelona to check out the capital city of Catalonia. The hostel we were staying in gave us a flyer of interesting things to do over the next few days.

One particular entry caught our eye.

"¡Una nit de curts còmic!"

It's written in Catalan and basically translates to "a night of funny shorts!"

That was pretty amusing to us, especially because we all agreed that Sanjin had just bought some ridiculous and funny shorts right before we left on our trip.

So we made plans that evening to set out for the bar / lounge (called the Mau Mau Underground) that was hosting "funny shorts night." Sanjin decided to pack the shorts in his messenger bag and change into them when we got there, just in case the night ended up being a bust.

When we arrived, we noticed a distinct lack of activity in front of the bar. We paid a small cover and went inside, only to find the place fairly dead. A few people sitting on couches and either drinking beer or smoking.

We decided to make the best of our time there and plopped down on a couch and ordered a few beers. After a few minutes, they started playing some ridiculous and hilarious movie. It was over within a few minutes. Another one immediately started, and it was also over within a few minutes.

One of us turned to the rest and asked, "what's with all these funny short movies..."

Their voice trailed off and instantly, we all knew what funny shorts actually meant! We shared quite a bit of laughter over our pretty obvious mixup. We sat down, content to enjoy the rest of the evening, watching funny shorts and having some tasty Spanish beers.

As an aside, one of the short films we saw that evening particularly stuck with me. It was an amazing stop-motion film focused on photography. Which is why I think it made such an impression on me. Ten Thousand Pictures of You.

"¡Una nit de curts còmic!"

Funny shorts night. It's a phrase that will always bring a smile to my face.

This octopus is using a coconut shell for shelter and carrying it around wherever it goes on the ocean floor! The more I read about octopi, the more fascinated I am with them.

This video of The Known Universe is from the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium in New York City, and zooms out from the mountains of Tibet, showing every single satellite (artificial and not), star, and known galaxy in the universe. Absolutely incredible!

Can you imagine if this was displayed in the Cal Academy of Sciences' Morrison Planetarium? (Which, if you haven't been, is probably the most amazing planetarium in the world).

My immediate reaction on seeing this video was thinking back to the Powers of 10 video that I saw in a junior high math class, probably around 1995 or so.

[Via Kottke]

This seems like it will come in handy. I'm definitely guilty of committing a number of don'ts listed here!

[Via The World's Best Ever]

I'm releasing a new augmented reality application for San Francisco's Muni system soon. How does it work? Basically, you just point it at your stop to see the latest arrival times. Here is a preview screenshot!

Seriously though, everyone is getting on the bandwagon with augmented reality applications lately! A local developer just released a new augmented reality application for the iPhone, called acrossair.

(N Judah fail image courtesy of N-Judah Chronicles)

Last weekend, Kerry and I saw the latest Cirque du Soleil show, Ovo, which is currently playing in San Francisco. It was stunning! This was the second time I've seen a Cirque du Soleil show and it was every bit as impressive as the first time I saw it! I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open the entire time.

Here's the trailer for the current show.

One of the coolest parts of the show was towards the end, when a number of actors started using a series of trampolines and running up and down a wall. It looks incredibly fun! (Unfortunately, an awesome video showing the Cirque crew practicing this routine was pulled from YouTube)

This is by far the coldest apartment I've ever lived in.

Seriously, DISH Network doesn't offer as many HD channels as Tegan does.

She just had surgery to remove a bladder stone. Yuck.

Last year, I read Walter Isaacson's fascinating biography on Albert Einstein, titled, "Einstein: His Life and Universe."

Earlier today, I decided to look for more work by Isaacson and found that he wrote another great biography, this time about Benjamin Franklin. The book was titled, "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life."

The tagline, "an American life," struck a chord with me because it sounded so familiar. Where else have I heard that term recently? Ah yes.

Seriously? It's kind of insulting and sad that these books share the same tagline. Here are a few differences between the subjects of each book.

• One book is about a great person, who had a profound effect on the founding of our country. The other is about someone trying to inadvertantly destroy it.
• One book is about an inventor, intellect, and scientist. The other is about someone who despises those descriptions and the people behind them.
• One book is about is about someone who strived to persevere in all facets of life. The other is about someone who perpetually quits when things get too tough.
• One book is about a great American. The other is not.