February 2013 Archives
February 28
"We're back! We're hungry!"
Hungry? Meet Rocky and Mayur -- two likeable blokes who happen to host an Indian food/road show called "Highway On My Plate." Since 2005 they've been traveling around the country sampling the culinary delights of the subcontinent, and lately they've been visiting school and college cafeterias. Youtubery ahead! [more inside]
How the hell did I get here?
The Incunabula Papers or Ong’s Hat "were the abbreviated titles of documents that someone—probably a group of four provocateurs—posted on The Well, a pioneering Internet social site in the late 1980s...After sitting largely dormant on the social Web site for a decade, the documents provoked a widespread 'immersive legend-trip' in the late 1990s." [more inside]
Flume: Australian post-glitchpop
If you follow music chart news in Australia at all, you might have heard of a young chap who goes by Flume, born Harley Streten in November '91. Now a mere 21 years old, Flume's self-titled debut knocked One Direction off the #1 spot last November (though the boy band ended up out-ranking the homegrown talent in following charts) and earlier this month bumped Bieber down a notch on the Aussie charts, too. But what is the sound of this Australian chart-topper? There's plenty of the "spectral beats ... 21st-century, post-glitchpop" on his Soundcloud page, including the complete album, or as individual tracks on Grooveshark. [more inside]
The Flophouse
Happy Girl
"Oh, Anne! With your small head and pert nose and oversized, ready smile and glossy pixie cut and squeakily tuneful speaking voice, uttering lines like “It came true!” as you gaze at your newly won Oscar with moistened doe-eyes, wearing a powder-pink Prada gown adorned with diamonds and bows: Why are you so annoying?"
The Helen One Hundred
Ageing poseur with unhealthy interest in spanking and the works of Jean Baudrillard seeks recently bathed human. Australian radio presenter, writer and professional curmudgeon Helen Razer writes about her recent break-up and announces an experiment.
Nevermind the Oscars, what's for dinner?
Okay, my mind is officially blown...
'Nearby' supermassive black hole rotates at close to the speed of light For some further details than the Guardian link (though the title says it all) a NASA link.
How Many Bars do you Get Up There?
Surrey Satellite Technology's STRaND 1 demonstrates a new generation of satellites built around smartphones. Tossed into orbit on an Indian PSLV, the toaster-sized microsatellite is based on an Android-powered Nexus One that will control the satellite, run apps, take snapshots, and phone home. While the U.K. leads the smartphone space race, NASA is testing its own PhoneSat series of nanosatellite prototypes. The University of Surrey explains how it works in this video.
...he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
You've Come a Long Way, Baby...?
Makers: Women Who Make America is a sweeping 3-hour documentary of the movement for women's equality in the last half of the twentieth century. Airing this month on US public television, it's accompanied by an online archive of videos of interviews with individual women in leadership across a variety of fields. Leaders and activists, celebrities and pioneers, and everyday women retell the story of their awakening, organizing, and world-changing efforts.
RIP William Bennet, Oboist
William Bennett, principal oboist of the San Francisco Symphony, passed away today after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while performing a concerto onstage. [more inside]
The Longest Running Auto Show
The 105th annual Chicago Auto Show has come and gone. Did you miss it this year? Have you missed it for the past 105 years? Enjoy this collection of programs covers and photos from every show, sorted by year. Warning: The '70s got a little bit brown. [more inside]
To die for
Behold Jennifer Asperheim's dice collection.
Look at Joe Barberchecheck's dice collection.
Ogle Justin Michell's dice collection.
[WARNING pictures of thousands of dice, I wouldn't visit on anything other than a desktop machine.]
Bonus: World’s Oldest d20.
Look at Joe Barberchecheck's dice collection.
Ogle Justin Michell's dice collection.
[WARNING pictures of thousands of dice, I wouldn't visit on anything other than a desktop machine.]
Bonus: World’s Oldest d20.
Player Elimination
Allan B. Calhamer, creator of the board game Diplomacy, passed away on February 25th. Despite the game's success he never made a living off it, and worked for many years as a mail carrier in La Grange Park, Illinois. Chicago Magazine published a profile of him in 2009.
Hide the salami
The Klements Racing Sausages have been a popular feature at Milwaukee Brewers games since the 1990s. On February 16, the “Guido the Italian Sausage” costume was stolen from a bar in Cedarburg, WI.
Happily, the missing link was returned to the bar Wednesday. Rewards for the safe return of the sausage, including a year’s supply of mustard and sauerkraut, seem not yet to have been claimed. [more inside]
Park Tool's bicycle repair help and education pages
Major bicycle tools manufacturer Park Tool maintains a neatly sorted bevy of repair, maintenance and technical information articles. Their lead mechanic Calvin runs a video channel that includes -- among many other things -- on-the-road bicycle repair tips. Even more bike info (new bike assembly procedures, road and mountain bike positioning charts, thread concepts, drive train troubleshooting, etc.) is available on the miscellaneous topics page. Don't forget to check out the bicycle mechanics language spreadsheet!
“To be good you have to practice .. by yourself and with other people”
“The point of jamming, musical or sexual, is to find out what happens and to enjoy the process of getting there.” -Sex is like Jamming for the SexEd Project [more inside]
Like a big pizza pie
Wired: The Most Badass Moons of our Solar System
Mimas | Europa | Io | Enceladus | Hyperion | Iapetus | Charon | Triton | The Moon | Asteroid Moons | Titan | Phoebe
Obama officially against Prop. 8
We Found Our Son in the Subway
"Perhaps as dangerous as the actual Communists"
The Homosexual Atom Bomb
Such absurd equations show how homosexuality became a floating signifier, associated with whatever political tendency one most disliked. Rather than representing a certain group of people, it represented everything that was wrong—whatever that meant. America’s Red Scare bled into its Lavender Scare; the Soviets associated homosexuality with capitalism and fascism. But empty as it was, the political use of the trope of homosexuality had a devastating effect on real people from both countries."Homosexuality Is Stalin's Atom Bomb to Destroy America" is on display at the Winkleman Gallery in NYC. [more inside]
That's what I'm doing.
A Rock n' Scroll World-Wide-Webscapade!
The Value of Grit
One person’s disheartening pessimism that threatens the heart of western civilisation is another’s thought provoking deconstruction of conventions. Joe Abercrombie discusses the value of grit and grimdark in modern fantasy in response to some criticism regarding the state of the genre. [more inside]
Brain-to-Brain Interface in Rats
"In a stunning first for neuroscience, researchers have created an electronic link between the brains of two rats, and demonstrated that signals from the mind of one can help the second solve basic puzzles in real time — even when those animals are separated by thousands of miles."
there was seldom a point when he wasn't drinking
"Dan hates himself; he also worships himself, and the fact that 90 people will come to every show that we do, and they'll love him — I think it's an experiment in finding out whether or not those people are being sincere. 'Do they really like me, or do they like the idea of me? Am I good person? What if I came out onstage and didn't do a show? What if I just rapped about fucking your mother? What if I didn't do anything? What if I took my shirt off, and I'm fat? What if I go off my diet? What if my girlfriend came out and told you I called her a c---? Would you still like me?'" Dan Harmon and Life After 'Community'
Hawaii Wins, Again
Gallup Healthways has released its state-by-state well being index for 2012. According to the methodology page, the index is based on a survey in which participants are asked about their life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, work environment, and basic access to necessities. For the fourth consecutive year, Hawaii had the highest index score and West Virginia the lowest. The top five states were: Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota, Utah, and Vermont. The lowest five were: West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
They said something about "math," but nothing about LSD.
ENGLISHWOMEN: Express surprise that they can have pretty children.
You too can sound like tedious Second Empire bourgeois making small talk if you follow Flaubert's Dictionary of Received Ideas! A satrical collection of cant, cliche, and "expected" opinions of the French middle-classes around 1870 - List Of Entrees alphabetical - List by subject.
Die Mauer fällt
Demolition is beginning (de) on part of Berlin's East Side Gallery (img, img, panorama)
"...the 1.3km-long outdoor gallery, which is covered in paintings by artists from around the world, is now threatened by the city's strident advance of gentrification, with a significant section of it due to be dismantled soon to make way for a luxury block of flats." (en) [more inside]
Brooklyn Family History
Of Ministers and Merchants, Sinners and Saints. The writer moved from Manhattan to same street in Brooklyn where his grandmother grew up. This prompts him to delve into his family history, where he discovers a cast of characters that includes Ulpianus Van Sinderen, a Dutch Reformed Minister who came to Brooklyn in 1747, prosperous merchants, tenant housing reformer Alfred Tredway White, and an embezzler. Brief appearances by Jacob Riis and Truman Capote.
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”
The Turn Against Nabokov [newyorker.com]
"The author, whose novels thrum with ironic recurrences, might have been perversely pleased with this: thirty-six years after his death and twenty-two years after the fall of the Soviet Union with all its khudsovets, Vladimir Nabokov is, once again, controversial."
"Life is fragile, use it roughly." (slSlate)
"Everyone loves owls. Even mammalogists love owls."
Why are owls so wise? Perhaps it's because they're utter badasses.
Ferocity is essential for a bird whose frigid, spotty range extends across northeastern China, the Russian Far East and up toward the Arctic Circle, one that breeds and nests in the dead of winter, perched atop a giant cottonwood or elm tree, out in the open, in temperatures 30 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Dr. Slaght’s colleague Sergei Surmach videotaped a female sitting on her nest during a blizzard. “All you could see at the end was her tail jutting out,” Dr. Slaght said.The New York Times Science section gives an update on some current owl research. [more inside]
Bombermine
Bombermine. Large scrolling addictive multi-player version of Bomberman.
Now You’re Playing With Paper!
"These two Nintendo store binders provide an interesting look into the retail side of the gaming industry." [more inside]
Sense About Science
With a database of over 5,000 scientists, from Nobel prize winners to postdocs and PhD students, Sense About Science works in partnership with scientific bodies, research publishers, policy makers, the public and the media, to change public discussions about science and evidence. They make these scientists available for questions from civic organizations and the public looking for scientific advice from experts, campaign for the promotion of scientific principles in public policy, and publish neat guides to understanding science intended for laypeople. [more inside]
Without Nick Fury, will the SHIELD Act Still Pass?
SHIELD Act introduced a second time to combat patent lawsuits that rely on those being sued going for settlements because the cost of defensive can be prohibitive. Though still a gamble, if SHIELD were in place and the defendant victorious, the patent holder would have to pay the legal costs. The bill is being reintroduced by Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). Arstechnica interviews DeFazio.
"An outstanding example of a firetrap"
As the NYT reported in 1948: The ceiling of the East Room, elaborately done in the frescoes of fruits and reclining women and weighing seventy pounds to the square foot, was found to be sagging six inches on Oct. 26, and now is being held in place by scaffolding and supports.... But it took the $50,000 survey authorized by Congress to disclose the fact that the marble grand staircase is in imminent danger. Supporting bricks, bought second hand in 1880, are disintegrating. So in 1950 a renovation began: this is what the White House looks like completely gutted. [more inside]
If blood were spilled, it'd probably be green.
For generations both societies lived apart from humanity, united in their common experience as outcasts. But as so often happens when downcast but fanatical groups find themselves in the ascendancy, today their factionalism is exposed and the rivalry has erupted into open conflict. [more inside]
The interior life of an episode of Neighbours
"Misadventures was written in a flat, artless style — as The Daily Telegraph’s critic put it, like “a cross between a police officer giving evidence in court and a slightly demented grandmother intent on telling you everything over a cup of tea”. The curious tale of Sylvia Smith - the author who achieved fame in her fifties on the publication of her memoir of an ordinary life, one which sometimes baffled critics.
1. steal socks 2. ??? 3. Profit!
Ever wondered what really caused your socks to disappear? Now you know. Bonus content: behind the scenes with the heroes of the video. (DLYT)
You're a Wizard, Harry!
Alice Finch has used 400,000 LEGO pieces to create Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in wonderful detail.
[via]
Selections from Hal Willner's Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
Lou Reed - September Song
Sting with Dominic Muldowney -- The Ballad of Mac the Knife
Ralph Schuckett with Richard Butler, Bob Dorough, Ellen Shipley and John Petersen - Alabama Song
Dagmar Krause -- Surabaya Johnny
John Zorn - Der Kleine des Lieben Gottes
Tom Waits - What Keeps Mankind Alive?
Todd Rundgren with Gary Windo -- Call From The Grave/Ballad In Which Macheath Begs All Men For Forgiveness
Mark Bingham, Aaron Neville, Johnny Adams - Oh Heavenly Salvation
Carla Bley with Phil Woods -- Lost In The Stars
Selections from Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
Sting with Dominic Muldowney -- The Ballad of Mac the Knife
Ralph Schuckett with Richard Butler, Bob Dorough, Ellen Shipley and John Petersen - Alabama Song
Dagmar Krause -- Surabaya Johnny
John Zorn - Der Kleine des Lieben Gottes
Tom Waits - What Keeps Mankind Alive?
Todd Rundgren with Gary Windo -- Call From The Grave/Ballad In Which Macheath Begs All Men For Forgiveness
Mark Bingham, Aaron Neville, Johnny Adams - Oh Heavenly Salvation
Carla Bley with Phil Woods -- Lost In The Stars
Selections from Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
A New Pope
A grand ceremony from 6 years ago bearing some uncanny resemblance to activities on earth (SLYT)
February 27
Best Science Fiction Related Metafilter Post
The finalists for the 2012 Nebula Awards have been announced (list with free fiction links here), but there's still another two weeks to get in nominations for the 2013 Hugo Awards. However, for those works not fiting the regular award categories Tim Pratt and other science fiction writers, fans and interested parties on Twitter have been suggesting #FakeHugoAwardCategories . io9 collects some of the best.
Either that, or they're tiny alien birds with antennae
Macroglossum stellatarum, known as the Hummingbird Hawk-moth or sometimes the Hummingmoth, is a species of Sphingidae (the family of moths that includes hawk moths, sphinx moths, and hornworms), and a beautiful example of convergent evolution.
Odessa Catacombs
"Hello. I`d like to tell you about Odessa katakombs. [Warning: disturbing images.] Odessa is not far from the capital of Ukraine - Kiev. Under Odessa consists the biggest katakombs in the world. Their total length is more than 2500 km, so this katakombs are much more bigger than Paris katakombs...During the World War II a lot of citizens were hiding in catacombs. A lot of them used to live there for a year and more. So even today it is possible to find weapons, equipment and even dead bodies. Every year a lot of explorers lost and even die there."
Django, in chains
Actor and producer Jesse Williams has written an article about the issues he has with Quentin Tarantino's film Django Unchained, including the ahistorical portrayal of slavery and the lack of agency shown by the movie's black characters. He expands the argument on his blog (image NSFW).
Synchronicities, from Dark Side of Oz/The Rainbow to Chaplin's Moustache
If Dark Side of Oz is too long and you found the Dark Side of Alice's Wonderland a stretch at best, or you like the older films like Nosferatu but an improvisational noise-art soundtrack isn't your cup of tea, you might enjoy Chaplin's Moustache, a blog with write-ups on old films, with re-scored clips interspersed for fun. Sadly, the blog is dormant and some of the videos have been taken down, so if you're looking for the videos, here's the YouTube channel with almost 150 video clips. [more inside]
You are boring. So, so boring.
Scott Simpson, of the podcast You Look Nice Today (Previously) and inventor of Pillowdrome, offers advice on how to be less boring on the Internet: Don’t take it too hard. We’re all boring. At best, we’re recovering bores. Each day offers a hundred ways for us to bore the crap out of the folks with whom we live, work, and drink. And on the internet, you’re able to bore thousands of people at once.
L’ÉTRANGER - Gérard Depardieu and France part ways.
In America, a politician should not appear too literate; in France, he should not appear overly interested in sums. A sort of spiritual innumeracy is required to prove that he is a serious person. “Economics is considered an obstacle to ideology, a constraint politicians prefer to avoid if they can,” Chamboredon said. Politicians in France speak to “citizens,” not to “taxpayers.” - The New Yorker: France’s anxiety about the budget crisis has fuelled resentment of the country’s most renowned tax exile.
Michael Deforge
Canadian cartoonist and animator Michael Deforge has been furiously productive over the past few years, producing a seemingly endless series of minicomics, four issues of his increasingly influential one-man anthology series Lose, short pieces for magazines, concert posters, and dozens of one-off illustrations, blog posts and anthology contributions. His comics are a queasy mix of body horror (reminiscent of his countryman David Cronenberg), creeping anxiety, and surprisingly sharp humor. [more inside]
On tonight's menu: mermaid riding a lobster
Legacies of British Slave-ownership
Legacies of British Slave-ownership , which went live on February 27, 2013, tracks what became of the twenty million pounds set aside to compensate British slave owners in the Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies (1833). Users have a variety of search options that can yield results according to individuals, businesses, countries, and so on. The site tracks compensated owners through their contributions to the arts, politics, entrepreneurship, and governance; some owners have extensive biographical notes. A number of the site's revelations about slave-owning families and the extent of their compensation have already attracted comment. [more inside]
From Ben Affleck to Tina Yothers
"But they would ask you with a straight face."
It's the NFL Combine! Where NFL teams size up the year's top prospects; where sportscaster Rich Eisen runs the 40; and where at least one team wants to know, "Do you like girls?" [more inside]
Naming: From Fly-fornication (ok) to ChristIsKing (not ok)
Historically the United States (on a state by state basis) has given almost complete freedom to parents to name their children, both first name and surname, with results like "Fly-fornication," "Mahershalalhashbaz," "Encyclopedia Britannia," "States Rights" (who was killed in battle as an officer for the confederacy), "Trailing Arbutus Vines" and many more. (Naming Baby: The Constitutional Dimensions of Parental Naming Rights, Carlton F.W. Larson, 2011 [SSRN/PDF]). In October 2012, however, New York courts made two interesting rulings that reflect limitations on renaming, if not naming, rights, for both adults and children. [more inside]
As a potential role model, I advocate it.
Then Christine stumbled upon a controversial homemade herbal remedy that she credits with enormously improving her dog's quality of life. She's grateful that, in his final year, Sampson weighed in at a robust 106 pounds and lived free of the wracking pain that had haunted him. Whereas before Sampson had been too weak to walk, almost overnight he became a born-again youngster. "He was a puppy again, happy and playful," Christine recalls. "He'd trot around the house with his toys in his mouth, wanting to play fetch!" Legalize medical marijuana for dogs! (Don't miss the great picture of Mason the Vizsla looking very relaxed!) [more inside]
Anthropologist denounces militarization
Marshall Sahlins, a leading American anthropologist, resigned last week from the National Academy of Sciences. This may come as a shock to the scientific community and even to students at NYU. Anyone taking an introductory course to anthropology at NYU, for example, is bound to encounter several readings of Sahlins’s work. Among his more influential works are “Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities,” a case study of the murder of Captain Cook in Hawaii and how it was the result of underlying social factors. Normally, when a scientist or scholar resigns from such a prestigious position, one assumes that he probably committed an irrevocable and egregious error that forever taints his credibility as an academic. However, our assumptions sometimes deceive us. If we explore the reasoning and motivations behind Sahlins’s resignation, we may arrive at deeper insights into the issues at play.
Let's Get That Cream Out Of There
David Neevel only likes the chocolate cookie part of the OREO, so he built a machine to remove the creme. (slyt, machine running at 3:27)
Please turn off all electronic devices during take-off and landing.
Filmmaker Tim Sessler shot the short film Drift during a flight from San Francisco to Salt Lake City with his Canon 5D Mark III.
Every building is made out of rocket launchers.
6 Insane Stereotypes That Movies Can't Seem to Get Over. Cracked.com list of overused, tired and offensive stereotypes of Africa, Asians, women, and more that frequently pop up in mainstream films.
"Imagine if every single movie set in America was filmed in Alaska and focused on gang violence -- that's how Africans feel every time they watch a Hollywood movie about warlords fighting in the desert. Which is a problem for their tourism industry: A board member for the Association for the Promotion of Tourism to Africa even takes the time to explain that there are "middle class people in every African country commuting to work every day, complaining about taxes and watching their kids play soccer every weekend."
That's right: Instead of focusing on the rich wildlife and history, the tourism industry actually has to remind people that coming to their country isn't a fucking death warrant."
"The Cubs seemed sort of cranky."
Three days of watching baseball with Bill Murray in 1990. Old Style beer and a drunken Mick Fleetwood feature prominently.
“New Orleans is easy pickings,”
Everyone Hates The Oogles: Exploring The Animosity Towards New Orleans' Panhandling Punks [more inside]
Models and their Mothers
They never stop. They usually stop when they kill you.
Reliving Groundhog Day
Reliving Groundhog Day: On the 20th anniversary of the beloved Bill Murray comedy, it’s time to recognize it as a profound work of contemporary metaphysics.
The pianist Van Cliburn has died
Van Cliburn, the internationally celebrated classical pianist whose triumph at a 1958 Moscow competition helped thaw the Cold War and launched a spectacular career. has passed away in Texas today at age 78.
Democrats and Republicans can't even agree about food
Public Policy Polling (previously) dares to address the issues tearing this country apart- such as whether Olive Garden constitutes 'a quality source of authentic ethnic food'. What are the food issues polarizing America? [more inside]
"It's more dramatic than our dramas."
Enlightened is TV’s best show right now—and it needs more viewers. Written by Mike White (School of Rock and Freaks and Geeks, among others) and starring Laura Dern (also the show's co-creator, Luke Wilson, Diane Ladd, and Timm Sharp (aka Marshall from Undeclared), the show has also seen an impressive line-up of guest directors, including Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), Phil Morrison (Junebug), James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords), and Todd Haynes (I'm Not There). The show's range is astonishing – it depicts its main character as cringeworthily oblivious, yet also lets her deliver monologues which are unusually sincere for a comedy; some of its characters are ridiculous and absurd, while others are capable of deep melancholy. Mike White talks to Interview Magazine about creating Enlightened before its premiere; a year later, he talks to Indiewire about why people have such a hard time sympathizing with Amy.
K-core death spiral
An Autopsy of a Dead Social Network: analyzing the collapse of Friendster. (Summary; full paper available at arXiv.)
The Printed Internet
The Printed Internet: One man's attempt to recreate the internet. On paper. And publish it on the internet.
Taking The 'Breaking Bad' Tour Of Albuquerque
Privilege to pee
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund has filed suit on behalf of six year old Coy Mathis, who was pulled out of her elementary school after being told by the administration that she was no longer allowed to use the girls' bathroom. [more inside]
Republicans and the unlikely bedfellows of marriage equality
The national Republican Party still continues to oppose same-sex marriage, one of the factors of social conservatism that lost it the youth vote in the 2012 election and may have caused Romney's defeat. Many Republicans, however, have been arguing for a sea change to revitalize the party. They may have found it, in an unlikely appeal that "The party of Lincoln should stand with our best tradition of equality and support full civil marriage for all Americans.". A large number of prominent Republicans have signed onto an amicus brief opposing same-sex marriage bans in the Proposition 8 case currently before the Supreme Court - and some believe that the Republican support may allow the justices the political and legal support to rule for national marriage equality.
Dora Viola G.I. de Orellana Plantagenet & Co.
"In the records of the more or less illustrious dead, there are many who are remembered for only one thing - but there can be few whose sole claim to posthumous fame is the extravagantly bizarre naming of their children..."
Perhaps switch to strong English tea
The BBC reports that "Beer drinkers in the US have filed a $5m (£3.3m) lawsuit accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its beer." The lawsuits are based on information from former employees at breweries owned by the multinational. [more inside]
Effects of Bicycle Helmet Laws on Children's Injuries
Abstract: Cycling is popular among children, but results in thousands of injuries annually. In recent years, many states and localities have enacted bicycle helmet laws. We examine direct and indirect effects of these laws on injuries. Using hospital-level panel data and triple difference models, we find helmet laws are associated with reductions in bicycle-related head injuries among children. However, laws also are associated with decreases in non-head cycling injuries, as well as increases in head injuries from other wheeled sports. Thus, the observed reduction in bicycle-related head injuries may be due to reductions in bicycle riding induced by the laws. [FULL TEXT PDF] [more inside]
Observing the 80s
Joe Moran reflects on the 1980s: "We like to give decades a uniform character as they retreat into history, safely burying the past by turning it into retro kitsch. The Observing the 1980s project is valuable because it does not treat the decade like this, as a story we already know the ending to. Instead it becomes an era of still-to-be-decided tensions and possibilities - one in which people sincerely people that David Steel might be prime minister (“my pin-up!” says one Mass Observer), that Margaret Thatcher might lose an election, or that the neo-liberal economic revolution might still be reversed. How I miss that sense of earnestness – and I mean that without a trace of irony." [more inside]
Ant Comics
Ant Comics. (nsfw for giant ant queen sex).
A million times
A million times by Stockholm based studio "Humans since 1982" is a clock based kinetic sculpture. And it is beautiful. (slyt)
DHS Checkpoint Refusals
Here's a Youtube video of people refusing to submit to questioning and searches by the Department of Homeland Security and California's produce checkpoints. [more inside]
Pay what it's worth or he'll piss in your garden
Every issue of Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman, is now available for free download from his creator David Boswell's side. For those who haven't had the pleasure to encounter Reid yet, here's an 1991 interview with Boswell, courtesy of CBC's Midday, as well as a 2011 appreciation of Reid Fleming by Tom Hawthorn for the Globe & Mail, written when Boswell was induced in the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame.
Is artificial intelligence more a threat to humanity than an asteroid?
Omens: When we peer into the fog of the deep future what do we see – human extinction or a future among the stars? [Via]
February 26
A hapless fool, a few steps behind the rest
Yahoo's Blow to Work-Family Balance: Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, the first pregnant woman to ever become CEO of a corporation, has ordered all telecommuting employees back to the office. (Previously on MeFi)
No surfers were harmed in the making of this video
Nervous seals, a pack of orcas, surfers, and a guy with a camera. February 23rd--Orcas in the lineup near Tofino, British Columbia.
Q is for Q-bert, who fell down the stairs
There are no words to describe the awful feeling I have inside of me
Heartfelt Minneapolis punks Off With Their Heads have just revealed Start Walking, the first video from their upcoming album Home. It follows on from the sound of their last album, 2010's In Desolation, and it's songs like Drive.
The Yellow River Surging Northward Rumblingly
Zhang Kechun's photo series "The Yellow River" contains 40 photos of China's second longest river, ranging from cinematic to surreal, plus a lyrical introduction to the series. [via BoringPostcards at MetaChat]
L'Année dernière à Marienbad
Willemstad is the new San Pedro de Macoris
If you were going to set out to build a successful national baseball team you probably wouldn’t select a country with most of its land sitting below sea level. Camden Depot presents a brief history of honkbal, as the Netherlands nine get ready to compete in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, exactly 100 years after the formation of Quick Amsterdam, Europe's first baseball team. Last time around, the Dutchmen knocked the mighty Dominican Republic out of the tournament. This year's Dutch team, led by veteran Andruw Jones and Orioles prospect Jonathan Schoop, both natives of Willemstad on the island of Curacao, puts more Dutch talent on the field than there has been since Bert Blyleven's last game. (Blyleven is the Netherlands' pitching coach.) Don't leave it till game time -- learn to speak honkbal now!
C.P.U Bach isn’t a game.
C.P.U. Bach was an interactive music program released by MicroProse in 1993 for the 3DO. Designed by Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs, it generated Baroque pieces in the style of Bach along with accompanying visuals.
Florida woman finds owl stuck in her car grill
Fourth Wave?
'I'm sick of being ashamed." Three days ago, an anti-harassment activist said those words to me in a flat above Cairo's Tahrir square, as she pulled on her makeshift uniform ready to protect women on the protest lines from being raped in the street. Only days before, I'd heard exactly the same words from pro-choice organisers in Dublin, where I travelled to report on the feminist fight to legalise abortion in Ireland. I had thought that I was covering two separate stories – so why were two women from different countries and backgrounds repeating the same mantra against fear, and against shame?[more inside]
Counting Roses
"More Burroughsian music"
The future, but with monthly updates
I used Google Glass - "But what’s it actually like to have Glass on? To use it when you’re walking around? Well, it’s kind of awesome."
The Quantified Man
The culture of hyper capitalism. "Our work is being re-quantified — in a big way — and Chris Dancy, a director in the office of the chief technology officer at BMC Software, thinks it’s time for employees to take these metrics into their own hands." [Previously on MF] [more inside]
Go Thunderbirds!
"I think sportsmanship is knowing that it is a game, that we are only as a good as our opponents, and whether you win or lose, to always give 100 percent." - Sue Wicks. When the Coronado High School Thunderbirds basketball team entered their last game of the season, Coach Peter Morales had more than winning on his mind.
Out of ammo, nearly dead, monsters outside. But! I have a can of meat.
If Doom and Nethack lived in Estonia and had a baby, it'd be named Teleglitch, a recently released pixelated action roguelike that will completely murder you if you're not very careful about how you explore its procedurally-generated corridors, fighting off former coworkers, crafting spare parts into new stuff and hunting for ammo and food and clues as to what the hell went so terribly wrong at the Militech R&D facility on Medusa 1-C. The game has a 4-level demo (Windows and Linux, Mac too apparently) which will probably kick your ass plenty all by itself. [more inside]
What is American Music?
Sound American: Issue #4, The What Is American Music? Issue of the web-based magazine Sound American examines American music in some of its rich diversity. The issue includes a fabulous "mixtape" put together by Ian Nagoski of Canary Records of music recorded to 78-rpm disc by immigrant communities in the US. (***see interior note) [more inside]
Culinary Tech
"once having given a pig an enema there is no turning back,"
Death Of A Pig, E.B. White.
I spent several days and nights in mid-September with an ailing pig and I feel driven to account for this stretch of time, more particularly since the pig died at last, and I lived, and things might easily have gone the other way round and none left to do the accounting. Even now, so close to the event, I cannot recall the hours sharply and am not ready to say whether death came on the third night or the fourth night. This uncertainty afflicts me with a sense of personal deterioration; if I were in decent health I would know how many nights I had sat up with a pig.[more inside]
Foo Fighters were not involved
Cockeyed.com's Rob Cockerham answers the question: Can you create time bomb soft drinks by freezing Mentos in ice cubes?
Sweet Valley High Ghostwriters
In an essay in the Kenyon Review, former Sweet Valley High ghostwriter Amy Boesky, now an Associate Professor of English at Boston College, writes about her experience ghostwriting, how she got started, why she kept ghostwriting while also pursuing her Ph.D., and why she eventually stopped.
Interviews with other Sweet Valley ghostwriters are here, here, and here.
Not really a funyun, either
There are so many real news articles that sound as if they should be articles in the Onion that they got their own site. [more inside]
The Shuls with Sandy Floors
There are only five functioning Jewish synagogues with sand floors in the world, and four of them are in the Caribbean. How has the tradition been maintained for hundreds of years? [more inside]
Gun Control might have become obsolete yesterday.
Defense Distributed of Austin, TX caused quite a stir a short time ago by creating a 3d printed gun and releasing the CAD files for it for free online. But people were less alarmed after learning that the gun had failed after 6 shots.
The new version is still intact and functional after firing 600 rounds. They have also created a fully functional 3d printed high capacity magazine for the AR-15 and released CAD files for it, free online.
Defense Distributed's founder, Cody Wilson, also succeeded recently in eating Diane Feinstein's lunch, and also in blowing Glenn Beck's mind, while apparently trying to convert Beck to Anarchism.
"My Baby, Not My Child"
Callie Mitchell, a 25-year-old student and photographer, documented her pregnancy and decision to place her child for adoption. Photographs.
Did the piggy have a mens rea?
In the Middle Ages, animals that did bad things were tried in court. Maybe that’s not as crazy as it sounds. "In the fall of 1457, villagers in Savigny, France witnessed a sow and six piglets attack and kill a 5-year-old boy. Today, the animals would be summarily killed. But errant 15th-century French pigs went to court. And it wasn’t for a show trial—this was the real deal, equipped with a judge, two prosecutors, eight witnesses, and a defense attorney for the accused swine. Witness testimony proved beyond reasonable doubt that the sow had killed the child. The piglets’ role, however, was ambiguous. Although splattered with blood, they were never seen directly attacking the boy. The judge sentenced the sow to be hanged by her hind feet from a “gallows tree.” The piglets, by contrast, were exonerated."
The Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg on How to Report From Guantanamo Bay
The Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg has reported from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay since the first detainee arrived in 2002. Last month, President Obama scuttled the office responsible for closing the center, which means Gitmo’s “media tent city” will be a permanent press encampment for the foreseeable future. Petra Bartosiewicz spoke with the veteran correspondent by phone from Gitmo’s Camp Justice, where Rosenberg has been covering pretrial hearings this month of the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Butch Heroes
"In this series of portraits I am using the format of traditional Catholic holy cards to represent butch, queer women and queer female-to-male transgendered individuals from history." Via Autostraddle.
Psycho History, it's what they wanna give me
Psychohistory, the imaginary scientific field created by Isaac Asimov in his "Foundation" series, may no longer be fiction:
Song Chaoming, for instance, is a researcher at Northeastern University in Boston. He is a physicist, but he moonlights as a social scientist. With that hat on he has devised an algorithm which can look at someone’s mobile-phone records and predict with an average of 93% accuracy where that person is at any moment of any day. Given most people’s regular habits (sleep, commute, work, commute, sleep), this might not seem too hard. What is impressive is that his accuracy was never lower than 80% for any of the 50,000 people he looked at.Full article at The Economist.
The Stars Are Out Tonight
The second, rocking single from David Bowie's forthcoming album The Next Day is titled "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)". The video stars Bowie himself, and Tilda Swinton. [more inside]
12:18pm
Twenty years ago, on February 26, 1993, a truck bomb exploded in the garage of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing six people and an unborn child. More than 1,000 were injured. [more inside]
Documentary about homeless 15 year old artist wins first Oscar for a crowdfunded film
A documentary about homeless teen Inocente Izucar wins the first Oscar ever awarded to a film financed in part through Kickstarter. Link is to her personal site, with a trailer video about her life.
The February strike
On 25 February 1941, less than a year into the nazi occupation of the Netherlands, communist union leaders called for a general strike against the increasing persecution of the Jews. The resulting two day strike in Amsterdam and various other cities in North Holland, the February Strike was the first and only massive public protest against the persecution of the Jews in occupied Europe. [more inside]
February 25
Dalek designer sadly exterminated at 84
In 1963, BBC production designer Raymond Cusick was asked to design the first monster for a new show, Doctor Who. Terry Nation's script required aliens called "Daleks" whose hobbies included world-domination and shouting "exterminate". In response, Cusick came up with the amazing and even iconic Dalek design which spawned Dalek-Mania across the world. [more inside]
Metallurgical!
TINY LINCOLNS FOR ALL
The original point of the sequester was that it would be terrible and “inflexible,” which would force Congress to choose a less terrible path, but obviously trusting Congress to not pick the most terrible of all available options was something of a gamble. So yes, sure, “flexibility,” but also maybe just “let’s not do this.” Unfortunately, “let’s just not do this” never comes up as an option on any of the shows, which all presented the argument as, on one side, “flexibility,” and on the other side, “a balanced approach,” which means a shitload of unnecessary cuts plus a bit more tax revenue, which sound nice but is still pointless contractionary policy.Alex Pareene watched the sunday morning shows so you don't have to.
Seismic (political) event in Italy.
There's been quite the political earthquake in Italy this weekend: the latest national elections have up-ended all expectations, with Silvio Berlusconi's populist right bouncing back to a photo-finish against the forecasted favourite center-left coalition, headed by Pier Luigi Bersani. But it's neither of their results that will cause the real aftershocks - those are the sole honour (and, now, onus) of the most meteoric of political entities Europe has ever witnessed: former comic Beppe Grillo's 5-Star MoVement, formally founded just three years ago, have crowned their national electoral debut by earning over 25% of the popular vote, becoming Italy's leading political force. [more inside]
L'Ecume Des Jours
Trailer for Michel Gondry's new film, Mood Indigo, based on the book Foam of the Daze (or Froth on the Daydream, depending on the translation) by Boris Vian. [more inside]
Selecting Instagram Filter "Supreme Leader Glow"
Visitors to, and other non-residents in, North Korea are now able to tweet and instagram, as mobile data services are gradually opened up. (Probably) the first tweet sent in this way appeared earlier today. [more inside]
Sociology (and other group data) assumptions based on Americans.
And that's a bad idea. Much of standard group behavior data in Sociology/Economics/Psychology is based on Americans. Which don't seem (contrary to universal assumptions) to be shared by a lot of the World.
Not Tentacle Porn (well, kinda tentacle porn...)
The sex lives of octopuses is often difficult to photograph in the wild, however Dr. Roy Caldwell got very fortunate with a pair in his lab. Here are some very rare pictures of the Abdopus aculeatus octopus mating, with a photo by photo explanation of what is happening.
"I'll steal it from this very earth."
A timeline of Blue Note jazz album covers.
History in (a) Flash
Our Story in 2 Minutes An amazing visual history of our existence from the beginning to now...in 2 minutes.
David Lynch, working.
The moon! I can't reach it!
A moment of adorable: two year old Kayla can't reach the moon, but that doesn't lessen her interest in it. Kayla's dad shared the video on Reddit, where he got a lot of suggestions for books and items to appease her lunacy, and was invited to tour the NASA facilities in California.
The Irony Is
Charles Krafft is known for his ironic Nazi ceramics — except that he's a Nazi Jen Graves in the Stranger finds malice under Krafft's provocation. (Via; previously, previously.)
Great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies!
Today the London Assembly Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green Party members all voted to bypass the session in which Mayor Boris Johnson would answer questions about his controversial £16.5bn budget cuts. Accordingly, Assembly chair Jennette Arnold asked Mr Johnson to leave the session. Hilarity ensues .
“We Saw Your Boobs.”
“We Saw Your Boobs.” The Academy is supposedly a trade group, and yet it devoted its opening number to degrading a good part of its membership. [more inside]
Awards don't mean a god damned thing
Jerry Seinfeld accepts award for something-or-other, gets stuff off his chest about the nature of awards shows. Peaks about half-way through, runs out of gas from there.
Born Digital Folklore
"Its not like we all sat in silence and stared blankly at our TVs waiting for the Internet to show up. We have probably always had vernacular webs of communication." Digital studies scholar Robert Glenn Howard talks about vaccines, the Christian right [PDF], AC/DC guitar tutorials and other "born-digital folklore" on the "vernacular web."
At the end of the play we're another year older
If you haven't yet had enough of Les Miserables - or have had way too much - you might enjoy what Forbidden Broadway did with it. (slyt) [more inside]
Everyday it's a-gettin' closer...
"I’ve been working with a team of artists, engineers, and producers to bring Achewood to life." - Chris Onstad, 2/24/13
She took us there.
When Staple Singers hits like I’ll Take You There and If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me) came on the radio, it was easy to get lost in Mavis Staples’ raspy, soulful lead vocals. But if you listened closer, a key element in the Chicago gospel-soul group’s warmly distinctive sound was the deft soprano harmony of Mavis’ sister Cleotha Staples, who died on Feb. 21 at age 78 in Chicago. RIP Cleotha Staples.
Two wheels bad, four wheels good
Following a parent-governor meeting at North Downs Primary School last Thursday, pupils will be banned from cycling and walking to two primary school sites over fears it would be too dangerous.
February 24
You should read this review. It's good for you.
Justifying Coercive Paternalism - autonomy is "not valuable enough to offset what we lose by leaving people to their own autonomous choices"
Going against the flow of history
As you know Bob, the Dutch have long known how to deal with the threat of flooding, living in a country that was largely conquered from the sea. Over the centuries the Netherlands has learned to put its trust in bigger and higher dykes, dams and various increasingly clever solutions to keep the sea where it's wanted and away from where it would be a nuisance. There's a new threat however, that can't be solved with higher dykes, a threat that needs to accomodated by doing something very un-Dutch: reflood parts of the Netherlands. [more inside]
It’s adorably charming, but only because you’re British actor Hugh Grant
Focus on one person in the middle of the crowd throughout your speech. Afterward, trail him home. Knock on his door. Offer an introduction like, "Hi. I’m from the speech. Earlier." He’ll reply with something along the lines of, "I know. Um…what are you doing here?" "I thought"—you’ll stammer, searching for the right words—"I just thought we could hang out, maybe, and be friends." "I have friends," he’ll probably say. "And I’m with my family now." Blurt out, too quickly, "I’m not trying to replace your family!" He’ll close the door in your face, gently, more out of pity than fear. Don’t use him as a crowd-focusing person for the next speech, because it would be weird.Tips for Public Speaking, from Teddy Wayne in the New York Times.
Where no bird can fly no fish can swim til The King is born in Tupelo!
Rock’n'roll as spontaneous Paganism: Mick Farren on Nick Cave, Elvis and the Devil is an essay by the author of Gathering Of The Tribe: A look at the role of the occult in music through key albums. Another excerpt is Punk-Esotericism: The Occult Roots of the Wu-Tang Clan
Pangur Bán
I and Pangur Bán, my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
[...] (spoken version, set to music) [more inside]
'Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
[...] (spoken version, set to music) [more inside]
One of the most astonishing photographic documentations ever undertaken.
More than a century before a Californian search engine sent cars to record houses for Google Street View, a German-born prospector entrepreneur employed photographers to rove Australia's boom gold towns with large format cameras, capturing every aspect of the rapidly developing colony of New South Wales to attract early migrants. The collection has now been digitised by the NSW State Library. Samples. Then and now comparison.
Switzerland, You Had ONE BEAR...
There was one wild bear left in Switzerland. Last year, M13 (Mike to his friends) was displaying troubling behavior, but a bear expert with the World Wildlife Foundation was optimistic about the possibility of retraining him (via rubber bullets and firecrackers) to be more wary of humans and less likely to forage near houses for food. [more inside]
Is this a new law?
New anti-piracy system will hit U.S. Internet users next week. And here's a primer on the Copyright Alerts System (CAS) or six strikes system, also from the Daily Dot.
Windows of New York
The Windows of New York project is a weekly illustrated fix for an obsession that has increasingly grown in me since chance put me in this town. A product of countless steps of journey through the city streets, this is a collection of windows that somehow have caught my restless eye out from the never-ending buzz of the city. This project is part an ode to architecture and part a self-challenge to never stop looking up. By Jose Guizar. [Via].
It Wasn't Just Spielberg
"The members of TVTV (Top Value Television), the 1970s guerrilla video group I cofounded, were among the first to exploit the then brand-new portable video camera. We took them to big events and turned the cameras away from the spectacle and on to the people; almost no one had seen one before, and there were no rules about how to use them, or act in front of them..."
Behind the Scenes With Jack Nicholson, Lily Tomlin and Michael Douglas at the 1976 Academy Awards.
Red Carpet, Green Screen
Without visual effects the average blockbuster movie would look like this. However as Hollywood comes under financial pressure they are putting the squeeze on the VFX industry that they rely on, who are in turn passing the pressure onto workers. Now VFX workers are organizing a protest in time for the Oscars, which will be celebrating visual effects as the companies responsible for them close down. [more inside]
Side A Side B
Out of the ashes of 1970's Detroit rock came Sonic's Rendezvous Band. One part Iggy and the Stooges and one part MC5, they only released one single, same song on both sides of the record.City Slang [more inside]
Kavinsky: French electro-house zombie since 1986
Vincent Belorgey, known as Kavinsky (or KΔVINϟKY) is a producer who is fixated with a stylized version of 1986, from his first single and video, Testarossa Autodrive, to his new (and first) album, Outrun (Grooveshark stream). If that's not enough of retro neon French electro-house, you can stream his other four singles/EPs on Bandcamp, and see the videos for Dead Cruiser (animated sequel to Testarossa Autodrive), ProtoVision (live-action sequel to Dead Cruiser), Nightcall (as heard on the Drive soundtrack, and seen in the international version of the trailer).
How cooking saved Curtis Duffy
Kevin Pang's profile of Chicago chef Curtis Duffy recounts how Duffy emerged from a turbulent family life to become a Michelin-starred chef. [more inside]
The Channing Tatum America Didn't Know It Needed
Performers who project relatability but have nothing elusive about them do better as network-television stars, or maybe morning-show anchormen. (Exception: Hanks.) On the other hand, if all you're capable of projecting is mystery and you're a quart low on relatability, you are probably a douchebag. (Exception: Fassbender.)Just in time for the Oscars, GQ ruminates on what makes a leading man today.
Two Body Interactions: A Longitudinal Study
Don't Forget Your Past
Photos of 30 Beautiful Abandoned Places and Modern Ruins. Each place identified below. [more inside]
"I have now attained the true art of letter-writing..."
Post & Prejudice: [guardian.co.uk] "The Royal Mail is joining in the celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice with the release of a series of stamps featuring all six of Jane Austen's novels. Royal Mail commissioned the artwork by Angela Barrett." [Slideshow]
Dad! Dad! My little sister's been kidnapped! What shall I do! Dad! Dad!
Melton Barker and the Kidnappers Foil. From the late 1930s into the early 1970s, Dallas native, Melton Barker and his company, Melton Barker Juvenile Productions, traveled all over the country – from Texas and New Mexico to North Carolina and Indiana – filming local children acting, singing, and dancing in two-reel films that Barker titled The Kidnappers Foil. (NY Times story) [more inside]
Digital Life a Buggles Parody
Amy Burvall made a video updating the original MTV classic by the Buggles for her final project in "E-Learning and Digital Cultures" #edcmooc a free open course offered this spring on Coursera. [warning earwormy]
Slip Sliding Away
The Englishman and the eel is a photo essay of 93 images (thumbnails here; 2 pages) and article by London photographer Stuart Freedman that "attempts to look at (amongst other things) the significance and the decline of the eel and its fading from the changing London consciousness" with snapshots of "those palaces of Cockney culture, the Pie and Mash shops." [more inside]
Yang Yongliang
February 23
Documentary - The Truth About Sauna: The Truth About Finns
Documentary - The Truth About Sauna: The Truth About Finns. Documentary about the importance of the sauna in Finnish lifestyle and culture. NSFWish ... Free-range Finns in their natural habitat (in and around the sauna) ... some of them nude. [May have to turn off under-18 filter to view]
Tiny, Blind, Swarming, Ruthless, Regimented Sisters
This is a sausage fly. As soon as he steps foot on the trail he is overtaken by the sisterhood. [more inside]
Left 3.0
The left side of the American political spectrum has undergone an extraordinary transformation over the past dozen years. Perhaps because it remains a work in progress, the extent of this transformation has gone largely unremarked and seems underappreciated even among those who have been carrying it out....Left 3.0 is not only an ideological movement, but also effectively controls (or rather guides) a political party fully competitive at the national level.
Kids Oscars
Oddest book titles of the year
New frontiers in invasive species containment
Head of the Dragon: The Rise of New Shanghai
White House announces new US open access policy
"In a long-awaited leap forward for open access, the US government said today that publications from taxpayer-funded research should be made free to read after a year’s delay – expanding a policy which until now has only applied to biomedical science." [more inside]
You'll probably feel better if you stay and play with yourself
Record review website Pitchfork has released a documentary about the creation of Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister. The film is part of the Pitchfork Classic web series. [more inside]
The best jam that never happened
Whole Lotta Helter Skelter (slyt)
Scandinavia or bust. Quite possibly literally.
Bloomberg: "Britain [UK] lost its top credit rating by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited weakness in the nation’s growth outlook and challenges to the government’s fiscal consolidation program. The rating on the U.K. was lowered one level to AA1 from AAA and the outlook on the nation’s debt changed to stable from negative, Moody’s said in a statement yesterday." [more inside]
I'm the luckiest mother-f*cker in the world
Living Large in Hong Kong.
These apartments are so small they can only be photographed from the ceiling. "According to the Society for Community Organization, 100,000 of the city’s laborers live in sub-divided apartment units averaging 40 square feet (3.7 sq m)."
Big DataMoney
Provincial is an AI that plays the card game Dominion (previously). The author of the bot has a section on how it works, and the application is available for download if you want to test your skill against it. Via the Dominion Strategy forums, where the author (techmatt) chimes in partway through the thread.
Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible
Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible is an interesting documentary that features the experiences of white women and men who have worked to gain insight into what it means to challenge notions of racism and white supremacy in the United States. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [more inside]
The Babies Who Sleep in the Cold
A mixture of data and cultural tradition support the notion of putting babies outside to nap, even in winter. There is some evidence that babies who nap outside sleep longer and get sick less.
Campers? Stupid. Counselors? Heroes. Slasher killers? Slashing, killing.
The 80s horror film genre called, and then you got a beep and turn-based squad tactics video games were on the other line, and it was a pretty confusing phone call basically but in the end you got the message that someone wanted Camp Keepalive back. Because it is awesome. And it runs on Windows and OSX and you should download the demo right now. [more inside]
Should've remembered the green cross code
Hit by a bus: the supercut. Not that Hollywood likes its cliches or anything. (slyt)
The Record Books: classic albums recreated as books
The Record Books: what if best-selling albums had been books instead… from Abbey Road (The Beatles) [Classic paperback. The story of two catholic sisters growing up in a swiftly changing post-war Britain. Guess what? It doesn’t end well.] to Power Corruption and Lies (New Order) [Pocket guide to best business practice by four experts, each renowned for their corporate and financial nous.]
The Hanging.
"The body of William Sparkman Jr. , a 51-year-old census worker, was found in 2009 in an isolated cemetery in the Appalachian region of Kentucky. He hung naked from a tree, hands bound, the word FED scrawled in black marker across his chest." [more inside]
Two celebrities meet for the first time, before sunrise
Durch die Nacht mit... (Into the Night with...) lets you be a fly on the wall as two interesting people get to know each other. "The series matches artists from different fields to spend an evening together in a city of their choice. The idea is to create a forum for artists to exchange ideas and also show them as real people."(IMDB). Guests have included Julie Delpy, Reggie Watts, Tori Amos, Crispin Glover and Ai Weiwei. [more inside]
A Hitch in Your Giddyup
This is Jimmy Riddle and Jackie Phelps eefin and hambonin. It's not much, but not a single gallon jug was harmed during this post.
Bowie and Me
The Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust, The Goblin King... what is he really like?
Excuse me while I dust off the treadmill
What will your last ten years look like? A powerful PSA that will get you off your couch. Another health-related PSA that will make you cry.
♫
Evolution of Mom Dancing [SLYT] In honor of the First Lady's "Let's Move" campaign, and to encourage parents everywhere to get up and get moving with their kids, Jimmy Fallon and Michelle Obama present the "Evolution of Mom Dancing."
the true history of Pad Thai
"In between surviving multiple point-blank-range assassination attempts and a failed kidnapping in which he emerged alive from the burning wreckage of a battleship his own air force had just bombed, Pibulsongkram decided that Thailand needed noodles that would advance the country’s industry and economy."
You know I rock the mic so democratically
The Idiot's Lantern
Some people like Doctor Who. Some people like The Big Lebowski.
If they were fused together in a Gluon Chamber they might look something like this shot-for-shot remake of the Big Lebowski trailer made by US fans for the recent Gallifrey One convention. (Original trailer and a side-by-side version for comparison).
Bob Godfrey 1921-2013
On Thursday, February 21st, influential British animator Bob Godfrey passed away at the age of 91. (Guardian, BBC,Cartoon Brew, Mirror, Rueters, Telegraph, and yes, even the Daily Mail. [more inside]
February 22
Acquired Savant Syndrome
When Brain Damage Unlocks The Genius Within. [Single page view] "Brain damage has unleashed extraordinary talents in a small group of otherwise ordinary individuals. Will science find a way for everyone to tap their inner virtuoso?" [Via]
Nutella Priestess
The betting machine
Meet The World's Foremost Quantitative NBA Sports Bettor: Raconteur and humorous tweeter Haralabos Voulgaris
This Chicago Life
Last school year in Chicago, 29 current and recent students of Harper High School in the Englewood neighborhood were shot. Of those, 8 students died. For one semester (five months) reporters from the NPR show This American Life interviewed students and staff at Harper. The reporters wanted to know: How do students live with the violence surrounding them? How does the school staff deal with the effects of violence on students? The resulting two episodes of the show answer these questions (and more) in heartbreaking and surprising ways.
Part one here.
Part two here.
Pretty Colors
Public Libraries: Stealing Authors' Paychecks?
"We can't give everything away under the public purse. Books are part of the entertainment industry. Literature has been something elite, but it is not any more. This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses."UK children's author Terry Deary (Horrible Histories series) on Britain's public libraries. Neil Gaiman and others respond.
A Turkey Dracula On Drugs!
Greetings, Metafilter! You are interested in bad movies. The Food Fight. The Star Wars Holiday Special. The Unknown and the Mysterious. And now, for the first time, we are bringing you the full story of what happened. We are giving you all the evidence based only on the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. Can your heart stand the shocking true story of the world’s only anti-drug, mutant-monster, born-again-Christian film, Blood Freak? [more inside]
Deus as Machina
The God Machine formed in San Diego in 1990, and within a year or so had moved to London. Between then and their untimely demise in 1994, they would record two albums – Scenes From The Second Storey and One Last Laugh In A Place Of Dying – a handful of EPs and a particularly intense Peel Session. They're one of the great unsung bands of the 1990s, and though short-lived, they were a bridge between their predecessors – Black Sabbath, Swans, Janes Addiction – and those they would subsequently influence, such as Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They were heavy but they were much more than that too. [more inside]
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
An article in the Washington Post (featuring MeFi's own Sonascope!) about a visit to Baltimore has the Charm City locals seething. Some in the capitol don't think much of it either.
Node Timer: Keep track of your focus time
Use the Pomodoro Technique? You might like to try Node Timer, a minimal timer that helps you track what you're working on, from fellow mefite orlick. [via mefi projects]
World's largest panoramic photo now much, much larger
An amazing image of London taken from the top of the BT Tower has set a new record for the world’s largest panoramic photo. The image shows a full 360 degree view of London in incredible detail.
[more inside]
Dog Day Afternoon
The Crown Prosecution Service insisted on getting a statement from PC (Police Constable) Peach, even after it was pointed out that the officer in question was in fact PD (Police Dog) Peach, so eventually the West Midlands Police provided the demanded witness statement.
No Lawful Status
Coming this summer: North Carolina [will be] the only state that will clearly mark all people who are not U.S. citizens – everyone from business executives with “green cards” to students on visas – with a newly designed driver’s license. However, Republicans are trying to block the issuing of driver's licenses to immigrants who have qualified for a two-year reprieve from deportation. Those immigrants have been deemed by the federal government and the state attorney general’s office as being lawfully present in the U.S. [more inside]
Eulogy for Hotmail
As Microsoft prepares to retire its unfashionable Hotmail in favor of Outlook.com this summer, let's remember the viral marketing revolution that Hotmail invented. Journey back seventeen years to Hotmail's origins, the birth of the dot.com millionaire, and the boozy optimism of a pre-crash web industry in full-growth mode (Wired, December 1998) .
We really mean it.
Sorry, but Kanye is the GOAT (slVV).
Long Gone Day
Mike McCready, Barrett Martin, Mark Lanegan, and Peter Buck got together last year to finish tracks from a second Mad Season record that was abandoned following the deaths of John Baker Saunders in 1999 and Layne Staley in 2002. Rolling Stone has the first track streaming, with the rest coming in April for a double album + concert dvd re-release of Above.
It's-a First Person, Mario!
Our Day (Marion County 1938)
Our Day (Marion County 1938) is a 1938 silent film by Wallace Kelly of Lebanon, Kentucky, with a soundtrack by Rachel Grimes (previously of Rachel's)
"The motion is smooth as butter, and a pleasure to rotate."
No quid, no quo
Can the UK's 'toilet circuit' of small music venues survive? From Coldplay to PJ Harvey, a lot of big British rock acts started out playing tiny pubs and clubs around the UK. But with many of these venues closing, who will keep the rock'n'roll dream alive?
[more inside]
Twirling, twirling, twirling toward the nebulous 3rd dimension
Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsävainio has created some stunning 3D animations (more at his blog) of far-flung nebula. Phil Plait first pointed to them back in October. Today, there's a post on the Smithsonian Magazine's website about them.
The myth of universal love
"All people are not equally entitled to my time, affection, resources or moral duties." In his book "Against Fairness," (trailer) Stephen T. Asma argues in defense of favoritism and against universal love. "Whence then do we find morality and justice in an unfair world?" [more inside]
tl;dr: Plant some trees
The momentary madness of Mao's mangoes
For 2,000 years, the peach was the iconic fruit of China, an auspicious symbol of good health and a long life (Google books). But from August of 1968 until roughly the fall of the following year, the mango was China’s most revered produce item, whose meaning was unwittingly bestowed upon it by none other than Mao Zedong. (via Presurfer) [more inside]
"Her daughter is a six year old version of me."
The Princess and the Trolls: The Heartrending Legend of Adalia Rose. A six year old with progeria, the internet, well-meaning adults, and a bunch of not so well-meaning ones, plus facebook and youtube, create the usual storm.
The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike
Last August, a book titled "Leapfrogging" hit The Wall Street Journal's list of best-selling business titles upon its debut. The following week, sales of the book, written by first-time author Soren Kaplan, plunged 99% and it fell off the list. [...] But the short moment of glory doesn't always occur by luck alone. In the cases mentioned above, the authors hired a marketing firm that purchased books ahead of publication date, creating a spike in sales that landed titles on the lists.
Blame Nirvana
The 40 Weirdest Post-Nevermind Major Label Albums "As a snapshot of the era, here are the 40 weirdest, most uncompromising, riskiest, and most surprising albums that were released on a major label in the wake of Nevermind's explosion, during the mania's time-frame of 1992 until 1996."
"surely the most disastrous president’s column ever written"
In the winter edition of Emory Magazine, Emory President James Wagner wrote a column about compromise, and cited the Three Fifths Compromise as a positive example. The column has since been amended with a clarification, which precedes the column in italics. The Emory Wheel and Inside Higher Ed have both written overviews about the controversy. On Wednesday, the Emory Faculty voted to censure the President.
(An extensive list of media coverage and commentary on Wagner's column is available here.) [more inside]
(An extensive list of media coverage and commentary on Wagner's column is available here.) [more inside]
The New Essayists
"A talented writer such as John Jeremiah Sullivan might, fifty years ago, have tried to explore his complicated feelings about the South, and about race and class in America, by writing fiction, following in the footsteps of Walker Percy and Eudora Welty. Instead he produced a book of essays, called Pulphead, on the same themes; and the book was received with the kind of serious attention and critical acclaim that were once reserved for novels. But all is not as it seems. You do not have to read very far in the work of the new essayists to realize that the resurrection of the essay is in large measure a mirage." (via) [more inside]
The politics of non-profit online college education.
Is the right declaring war on academia through a push for online degrees? Is it paranoid to think that the American right is trying to undermine academic freedom? Public universities are increasingly offering not just a few courses but whole degree programs online, above and beyond the MOOCs discussed previously and previously.
Who teaches these online classes offered by public universities? Increasingly, it's adjuncts. One estimate is that 1/3 of online classes are taught by adjuncts.
Adjuncts are low-paid, and, perhaps more importantly, they do not have the protection of tenure if they produce controversial innovative research.
Advertising on school buses in Austin
"We're always looking for new venues for advertisement," said Sarah Casebier, vice president of Radiant Plumbing. "We thought this would be a good way to expand our advertising and be more involved in the community." More, more, and more.
Here to purchase your own ad.
Like a jealous Zelig
Darwin Deez gets himself inserted into various stock footage shots for a touching and hilarious effect.
World War 2 bunker, pristine condition, barely used
In July 1939, French authorities started building a 120m² bomb shelter under the Gare de l’Est (East Railway Station) in Paris so that traffic controllers could keep on working if the station was attacked. However, it was not completed in time and the Germans used it instead. The bunker, which includes a pedal generator, is still there, in near perfect condition. Other images and video (in French). Bonus underground Parisian bunker: this Cold-war era bunker under the Ministry of Transportation (equipped with tandem pedal generators) will become a datacenter early 2014.
This is like Guitar Hero on expert, but with your voice.
You know the blue alien lady that sings that crazy techno opera song in The Fifth Element? Said to be humanly impossible, Laura sings it without any digital enhancements. The original singer's voice is sung by Albanian soprano Inva Mula.
You make me dizzy Mr. Mizzy!
As if a line like "their house is a museum, when people come to see 'em, they really are a scree-am" (heard, of course, in the Addams Family theme) wasn't playfully brilliant (and brilliantly playful) enough, the same fellow happened to also have written the Green Acres theme. If you're an American of a certain age, you'll remember these two songs from their original TV runs during your childhood, or perhaps from reruns if you're a bit younger. Anyway, the composer of these catchy, familiar ditties was one Vic Mizzy. Hear Vic talk about the Addams Family theme and his degree in advanced finger snapping here. Thanks Vic!
February 21
Not suitable for ebooks
Flooded? A hurricane hit your house? Somebody left a cake book out in the rain and you'll never see that recipe again? Courtesy of Heritage Preservation: how to save wet books.
How “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” Ruled The Internet
Chris Stokel-Walker of BuzzFeed explains the motivation and technology behind last year's “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” viral video sensation. [Previously]
Four Canadian film students were assigned a project: Create a YouTube hoax video that gets 100,000 views. They got nearly 42 million instead. Here’s the definitive behind-the-meme look at how—and why—their homework snowballed into one of the most popular and rapidly spread videos ever.
There is need to fear! Underdog is no longer here!
W. Watts "Buck" Biggers, co-creator, producer and writer of Underdog has died at the age of 85. [more inside]
Matmos + rat cage = pretty sounds.
A nice documentary video of live electronic music sampling and improvisation featuring Matmos with a rat cage.
Pope Madness 2013
And now, one of the greatest sporting events of our time: Pope Madness 2013! Place your bets...
Because those giant turbine blades aren't gonna clean themselves
"Companies like Rope Partner exist because rope access is the cheapest way to maintain the surfaces of wind turbines." [more inside]
Corollary to Wheaton's Law.
How not to be a dick to your fat friends. (SLXOJ) Thought-provoking reading for anyone who is fat, or is friends with someone who is fat.
Horns vs. Wings
"Am I shitting? It feels like I'm shitting!" Thus, with expletives and the birth of a child, begins Saga, a newish comic written by Brian K. Vaughan (previously, also author of Y: The Last Man) and illustrated by Fiona Staples. It's a sci-fi epic about two soldiers from opposing sides who fell in love, defected, had a kid, and are on the run from the armies they abandoned. To date, there have been 10 issues, well received by many (including some MeFites). A four-page preview can be found here. [more inside]
The Last Man Up
"Like a lot of things in Alaska, the annual Mount Marathon Race in Seward is famously brutal, even dangerous. Which is precisely why Michael LeMaitre ran it--the last day he was seen alive."
Keep Your Fancy Food Out of Our Neighbourhood!
PiDGiN Restaurant is a lovely new restaurant in Vancouver. Located across the street one of the most challenged parks (Pigeon Park) in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside. For some, it's a welcome addtion to the local dining scene. To others, it's a poke in the eye of the poor and disadvantaged living in possibly the worst neighbourhood in Canada and they want to put a stop to it.
. [more inside]
Scienc-y people do useful stuff, again.
This might change things. It might also really annoy people who have been putting scads of money into carbon capture.
Robohub: Throwing and Catching an Inverted Pendulum with Quadrocopters
Throwing and Catching an Inverted Pendulum with Quadrocopters. From Robohub, a website about all things robotic.
Durango Unchained
Your dog is stupid
No, really, your dog is stupid. But THIS dog, this dog is pretty smart.
A manned fly-by of Mars in 2018?
Space tourist Dennis Tito wants to send a 2-man crew to Mars in 5 years. The Inspiration Mars Foundation has sent out a media advisory for a press conference planned for next Wednesday, February 27. [more inside]
Archaeology on the Information Superhighway
The basket is a particularly nice touch
Another Day, Another Press Conference Without Women
Another Day, Another Press Conference. Yesterday's Playstation 4 announcement was perhaps most notable in what it didn't include: any female presenters. Also discussed by Kotaku and The Verge. (The Verge also notes similar trends in press events from Nintendo, EA, HTC, and Apple.)
"The vigilante myth at its most naked and vicious"
"In its original form, Double Dragon is, if nothing else, a game in which Lynyrd Skynyrd fights to rescue America from The Ramones, The Village People, and Grandmaster Flash." - Dan Whitehead of the Gameological Society on Double Dragon and how gaming reflects a culture's changing relationship with the urban landscape.
"We are the walking dead!"
The zombie apocalypse. Threads. Pandemic. Doomsday Preppers. Post-apocalyptic pop-culture fiction of doom. What's it about? A Stanford scholar explains.
Noisey British Masters
Noisey's feature British Masters features interviews by John Doran with Bryan Ferry, Luke Haines, Gary Newman, and Johnny Marr, thus far.
Recursive Fury
"A theory quickly emerged: that believers in climate science had been the main people taking Dr. Lewandowsky’s survey, but instead of answering honestly, had decided en masse to impersonate climate contrarians, giving the craziest possible answers so as to make the contrarians look like whack jobs.
So, a paper about a tendency among this group to believe in conspiracy theories was met by … a conspiracy theory." - Unlocking the Conspiracy Mind-Set [more inside]
More beholden to magnetism than gravity
Split decision
Is your wallet being gouged by the high price of medications? Cut that price in half. (pdf) [more inside]
TRY NOT TO THINK ABOUT CATS
The latest of Thomas Ridgewell's (aka TomSka) animated short-humor videos has hit youtube: asdfmovie6. (link in video to previous videos)
Challah.
Born this way
Ethics of preemptive incarceration for deviant sexuality, specifically pedophila (Trigger warning) ...recognizing as a society that certain individuals are intrinsically attracted to children need not and does not imply that we condone acting upon these desires. [Previously] Found via the excellent PsyDoctor8 [tumblr link].
Leftover at 27?
BBC/NRI reports that women in China are being labeled "sheng nu" or "leftover women" after the age of 27. Beyond the traditional family pressure to get married, the Chinese government is applying pressure on single women to get married, fearful that a growing population of single men could cause civil unrest. [more inside]
We are powerless buyers in a sellers’ market
Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us. Summary: Inside the Cover Story. Related video: The Exorbitant Prices of Health Care [more inside]
Coming to Canadian military ration packs: poutine in a pouch?
Included in this Canadian government call for alternate bids for "boil in a bag" rations is a request for +60,000 servings of poutine in a pouch - for those who don't know, that's french fries, gravy and cheese curds. Wonder how that'll hold up in a boil-in-a-bag pouch?
It Happened On Brick Avenue
Dustincropsboy's first (and hopefully not last) stop-motion animated Lego film is a charming story of romance. He also made a poster for it.
"Now, watch this drive."
Obama, DC Press Corps Locked In Mutual Loathing Pact. Mike Allen, of Politico, in his article Obama, The Puppet Master, said that Obama " has shut down interviews with many of the White House reporters who know the most and ask the toughest questions." John Cook (Gawker) replies: I will now tweet every question Politico's Mike Allen asked President George W. Bush during a May 2008 interview" (Screenshot) [more inside]
Lord of the Miserables
This Sunday, see the Dandy Fish take on the Prancy Horsies!
David Rappoccio has redesigned all the NFL logos to be British.
What's It Like to Wake Up From a Tea Party Binge?
"There's a whole ocean of oil under our feet!"
Daily Telegraph: Why the world isn't running out of oil:
"Moreover, as well as bountiful oilfields in North America, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other producers in the Middle East, there are massive, barely tapped reserves in South America, Africa and the Arctic: not billions of barrels’ worth, but trillions. So the planet is not about to run out of oil. On the contrary, according to a Harvard University report published last year, we are heading for a glut.
The 75-page study, by oil executive Leonardo Maugeri, was based on a field-by-field analysis of most of the major oil exploration and development projects in the world, and it predicted a 20 per cent increase in global oil production by 2020." [more inside]
Why Gender Equality Stalled
When family and work obligations collide, mothers remain much more likely than fathers to cut back or drop out of work. But unlike the situation in the 1960s, this is not because most people believe this is the preferable order of things. Rather, it is often a reasonable response to the fact that our political and economic institutions lag way behind our personal ideals. [more inside]
February 20
Kevin Ayers 16 August 1944 – 18 February 2013
The Guardian reports the death of Kevin Ayers, founding member of Soft Machine and important figure in the Canterbury scene which included bands like Soft Machine, Gong and Caravan. [more inside]
Chilled beats
European SF classic films
Classic European science-fiction movies (1916-1961) you probably haven’t seen – but you should according to io9.
Pork Chops and Karate Chops
Numerous artists come together to animate an Shane Koyczan's fantastic performance of his anti-bullying poem, To This Day. More info at To This Day Project.
Paths of Hate
Paths of Hate is a highly stylized Polish CGI animated short movie which to an extent mimics traditional cel animation, but goes far beyond what's practically possible with traditional techniques. It also has some excellent, high-intensity aerial combat. Possibly NSFW for some light blood and gore.
This is Who They Are
"Cloud doesn't cry. CLOUD SCREAMS."
I Wanna Be The Guy is a game so hard it borders on is outright masochism – hilarious, frustrating, glitchy masochism. One brave man, known only as Cloud8745, recorded himself playing the entire game, and documented his descent from frustration into incoherent gibbering madness. To get a feel for IWBTG, you may wish to start at the notorious Ghosts & Goblins section, which is particularly difficult, or, if you'd like a taste of its depraved sense of humor, this is among the game's funniest rooms. (The punchline comes two minutes later, but you can only truly appreciate it by watching Cloud struggle through it over and over again – generally, IWBTG gets funnier the longer you watch it be played.) If you'd like to watch the whole thing, there's [more inside]
But food is so delicious :(
How do I stop eating food? Or really, how do I replace food with a single nutritionally-complete thing, a perennial AskMeFi favorite, seems to have been answered. [more inside]
Truck-surfing raven
While it's well known that dolphins will surf in the bow waves of ships, at least one wild raven has learned to 'surf' on the pressure wave in front of trucks (second video). [more inside]
OKBabyCupid
Come into my igloo: online dating as eight year old. Virtual worlds like Fantage are fun, innocent, bright-colored versions of the massively-multiplayer online games that teenagers and adults play. They also unintentionally function as online dating sites for the elementary and middle school set. [more inside]
Please wait, loading cats
Bring in the cats [autoplaying music]
A literary character with the actual power to kill
How To Write Drone Fiction: "One can easily and self-righteously claim the merits of writing non-fiction about drones by asserting a primacy of fact over “false fiction”. The problem is that one does not write non-fiction about drones." [more inside]
In fact-based films, how much fiction is OK?
With the "true story" films Argo, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty having been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, discussion has risen about storytelling accuracy: "Does the audience deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but? Surely not, but just how much fiction is OK?"
Will Redshirts by (Mefi's Own) John Scalzi have to be rewritten?
Bayesian analysis shows redshirts are not most likely to die on Star Trek:TOS. Although Enterprise crew members in redshirts suffer many more casualties than crew members in other uniforms, they suffer fewer casualties than crew members in gold uniforms when the entire population size is considered. Only 10% of the entire redshirt population was lost during the three year run of Star Trek. This is less than the 13.4% of goldshirts, but more than the 5.1% of blueshirts. What is truly hazardous is not wearing a redshirt, but being a member of the security department. The red-shirted members of security were only 20.9% of the entire crew, but there is a 61.9% chance that the next casualty is in a redshirt and 64.5% chance this red-shirted victim is a member of the security department. The remaining redshirts, operations and engineering make up the largest single population, but only have an 8.6% chance of being a casualty.
"There is a build-up of some kind of tension or excitation..."
"This is the Amazon as one imagines it as a child"
"Hi, my name is Paul Rosolie. I'm a naturalist based out of southern Peru and today I'm headed into the jungle to show you a place that very few people have gotten to see. I'm in the Madre de Dios region of Peru, this is the far western Amazon and some of the deepest jungle on earth."
"Never trust a man in a caftan."
'I Was Rob Lowe's Snow White': The Untold Story of Oscar's Nightmare Opening "Once upon a time -- March 29, 1989, to be exact -- a 22-year-old aspiring actress named Eileen Bowman thought that all her dreams were about to come true. She was very wrong."
(the 61st Annual Academy Awards previously on MetaFilter)
You may now evacuate in your pants
On the morning of Saturday, February 20, 1971, Wayland S. Eberhardt, a civilian teletype operator, was going about his routine duties at the National Emergency Warning Center at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, when he made a minor error in mounting a tape. What happened next became the Great EBS Scare of 1971.
"I'm absolutely stunned that this got passed the editors at Buzzfeed."
Speak "friend" and enter.
Explaining the languages of Middle-Earth. Ever wonder how Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings writers developed lines of dialogue for the elves or dwarves when they weren't quoting directly from Tolkien? They asked David Salo, a linguist who specializes in Sindarin and the other languages of Middle Earth. [more inside]
Full Stop
"We wait for the economy to improve, DOMA to go away, the passage of UAFA, anything to finally allow us to live peacefully in the US near our family. We wait for our time to join those who are fighting for our families." The DOMA Project and why LGBT and HIV Equality Is at the Heart of Immigration Reform [more inside]
The Everyday Sexism Project
The Everyday Sexism Project collects user-submitted reports from women to document their day-to-day experiences with normalized sexism, including sexual harassment and job discrimination. Entries can be submitted at the site, in an email to founder Laura Bates or to their twitter account. [more inside]
Drop in For a Bounce
A pub can be the lifeblood of a neighborhood, a place of safety and comfort. But sometimes, you find yourself in a publess zone; sometimes you need one right here, right now.
Sometimes you need an inflatable pub. [more inside]
Atari VCS (2600) Demo 2012
Atari VCS Demo 2012 - Liquid Candy by Noice [slyt] VCS or 2600? Ah, who cares about nomenclature, just enjoy. If anyone knows how the heck this is done on a VCS, please comment.
We are GARGOYLES!
Google shows off Glass, their "augmented reality head-mounted display" with a video demonstrating several of its capabilities. And now, you can get one too, if you win their contest describing what you'd do with it. You'll also need $1500 and to pick it up in person in New York or California.
The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food
Norwegian Wood
“Solid Wood: All About Chopping, Drying and Stacking Wood — and the Soul of Wood-Burning” This best selling book by Lars Mytting highlights a passion for firewood and inspired a TV program in Norway about cutting, stacking and burning firewood. The TV program, on the topic of firewood, consisted mostly of people in parkas chatting and chopping in the woods and then eight hours of a fire burning in a fireplace. Yet no sooner had it begun, on prime time on Friday night, than the angry responses came pouring in. “We received about 60 text messages from people complaining about the stacking in the program,” said [Mr.] Mytting .... “Fifty percent complained that the bark was facing up, and the rest complained that the bark was facing down."
The Weyland-Yutani Archives
From The Weyland-Yutani Archives:
During Alien's pre-production, Ridley Scott drew up a story board presentation of Alien for 20th Century Fox. These storyboards are known as 'Ridleygrams'. This story board presentation contains scenes and FX shots that were later re-written or dropped due to budgetary reasons.[more inside]
Not allowed: Let's get married, by the Proclaimers. Allowed: Death March
Susan Calman describes some of the legal restrictions of "civil partnerships", why she should never be allowed to get married, and why she loves her wife. A 30 minute podcast from BBC Radio 4.
Why have the white British left London?
"With a time-lapse camera, it would appear that London is pulsing as generations and ethnic groups move up and move out." The BBC reports that something quite remarkable happened in London in the first decade of the new millennium. The number of white British people in the capital fell by 620,000 - equivalent to the entire population of Glasgow moving out. [more inside]
February 19
Black History Month for White People.
Prison privatization meets college football
Florida Atlantic University announced today that its football team will play in "GEO Group Stadium", named after a for-profit prison company. According to the New York Times, GEO Group Inc. gifted 6 million to the public university as part of a controversial deal to secure the naming rights for its stadium.
I'm in love with the way you're in love with the night
Every Word Handwritten is a new short film by New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem centered around the lifespan of a single vinyl record. It's title comes from a line in Handwritten, a song off their album of the same name. The Gaslight Anthem have long written about the power of old music formats, from their proclamation that they're the 'last of the jukebox Romeos' on their first album to their many invocations of the mythical 'radio' on songs like Angry Johnny and the Radio and Queen Of Lower Chelsea to 45, another song from Handwritten.
But why?
Dr Ainley, is there such a thing as insanity among penguins? What makes a penguin abandon its life and quest into the heart of Antarctica? What is a life well-lived for a penguin, anyway? What makes a human spend a year in a frozen wasteland? Is scientific curiosity kin to the derangement of the penguin? A short clip from Werner Herzog's excellent film, Encounters at the End of the World.
Some guy from Normandy
The last 2:50 of Teen Jeopardy! has made a viral star out of winner Leonard Cooper, 17. In an interview, Cooper discusses his preparation, applying to Brown University, meeting Steve Harvey, and that tricky buzzer.
Not to mention that Questlove Instagram.
Morris Scott Dollens' Dream of the Stars
Morris Scott Dollens was an active and creative science fiction fan from the earliest days of sci-fi fandom, starting with making the fanzine Science Fiction Collector via hectography at age 16. He went on to illustrate covers for various other fanzines and wrote short stories, but largely left those creative endeavors for technological hobbies and jobs related to photography and recording from the 1950s to 1960s. Following the moon landing in 1969, he began creating small-scale astronomical paintings that he mailed to sci-fi conventions all over the country, where they were part of convention art shows. He also made miniature scenes of space exploration, which he crafted as teasers for a movie, Dream of the Stars, which he sent to magazines and book publishers, but his movie was never made. [more inside]
When Nikita met Marilyn
Khrushchev Tours America - His shoe banging incident at the UN and the the Kitchen Debates with Nixon are well known but less attention has been given to the time Nikita Khrushchev went to Hollywood. He met Marilyn Monroe and other film luminaries but he was denied a trip to Disneyland (previously). [more inside]
"Dad, have you ever heard of Portal?" "I've had Portabella Mushrooms..."
Dan writes about games for a living. Dan's dad does not play games. Dan plays games with his dad. Much amused frustration is had by both parties. 2011, 2012, 2013. Individual Youtube videos after the jump. [more inside]
The hands are dealt; we get to see how we play them.
Luck was a David Milch-created show on HBO last year. It was cancelled after one season. Some of you might have dug it. If so, you might also dig Out of Luck: "The following blog is the writer’s depiction of an imagined racetrack-based story, an ongoing saga, which includes some of the characters depicted in the ill-fated Luck series." It's written by John Perrotta who was a writer/producer/story editor on the show.
Life Advice from Machines
Neil Gaiman Interactive
The twelve tales are written. (PDF) But words are only half the story – now Neil wants your help bringing them to life. The next step is to illustrate them. [more inside]
"Honky-Tonky Double Barrel Meat Loaded Blast"
Guy Fieri's American Kitchen (maybe not Metafilter's own, but definitely Metatalk's favorite) has a new menu. It is only marginally more ridiculous than the old one.
Cheesecake rubbed on a pig's tongue.
Listening to what the tongue feels:
First, drink some black coffee. Next, rub your tongue against the roof of your mouth. It should feel a little rough, like very fine sandpaper: the tiny bumps on your tongue, called papillae, are raised just enough to create friction against your palate. If you now add cream to your coffee and try again, the sensation should be much smoother — almost velvety. A layer of fat and mucous is now coating your tongue, providing lubrication and preventing friction. What you have just done was, until very recently, the most accurate method for evaluating the oral perception of fat — the precise degree of tongue-coating creaminess in milk, mayonnaise, or chocolate pudding.
We, The Aliens.
What To Do When The Warnings Sound
It's hard to believe these days, what with Gazprom sponsoring the Champions League, that thirty years ago, if not for the actions of one man, Stanislav Petrov, (previously, previouslier) the world might have ended in a nuclear holocaust. His story long kept secret, only revealed in 1998, Petrov has finally been rewarded for his courage this week, as he became the latest recipient of the Dresden Peace Prize. Coincidently, this honour came only days after the meteorite strike in Russia, which as Charlie Stross points out, in the Cold War context of three decades ago might have ended in tragedy. Curious of how that might have panned out? Well, the Protect and Survive series at Alternate History.com shows what would've happened to Britain in a full scale nuclear war: it's not pretty. [more inside]
I wanted to be a real person to my parents again
"Y'ALLQUEERS BETTER BE ON YOUR BEST BEHAVIOR, I AM HERE WITH MY MOTHER AND IT'S HER FIRST TIME IN A GAY BAR SO YOU JUST STOP THAT HANKY-PANKY RIGHT THIS SECOND." [more inside]
Links To The Damn Paper
Hello and welcome to Links to the Damn Paper, an open discussion community showcasing the best in freely-available biology research. If you’ve ever tried to have a discussion about science on the Web and been stymied and frustrated by inaccessible articles, misrepresentation of research in science journalism, or a community that seems uninterested in digging into the actual research behind a topic, then welcome: you are our people. If you’ve ever wished for a place to talk about the Science of Life where you could be sure that the actual articles were available, where compelling research was presented in a way that allowed it to speak for itself, and where you could discuss science with actual scientists and with other people who are passionate about science for its own sake, then you have found your haven.MeFi's own Blasdelb, ChuraChura, and Scientist have G(T)OB. And it is good. [via mefi projects]
Teh Exhibishun
The Framers Gallery in London is currently hosting Teh Exhibishun, an exhibition of lolcat art. Special guest is Kate Miltner, author of SRSLY PHENOMENAL:
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPEAL OF LOLCATS [MA dissertation, pdf available on her website]. Admission is free, but 50% of all proceeds collected will go to Battersea Home for Dogs and Cats. The BBC is there (with video) to speak with curator Jenny Theolin, some of the artists, and Miltner.
With malice, toward none
The Lafcadio Hearn of Our Time
Donald Richie , American author, journalist, critic and expert on Japan, dies at 88.
Smilingly excluded here in Japan, politely stigmatised, I can from my angle attempt only objectivity, since my subjective self will not fit the space I am allotted . . . how fortunate I am to occupy this niche with its lateral view. In America I would be denied this place. I would live on the flat surface of a plain. In Japan, from where I am sitting, the light falls just right – I can see the peaks and valleys, the crags and crevasses.
-- from The Japan Journals, 1947-2004[more inside]
"His writing is not about something; it is that something itself."
In theory: the unread and the unreadable - "We measure our lives with unread books – and 'difficult' works can induce the most guilt. How should we view this challenge?"
Mutant Women of Earth
The Secret Law of Page Harmony
A method to produce the perfect book (single-link graphic design essay).
"The fact that this happened is a big problem for us."
A "suicide," GaN semiconductors, a found hard drive, China, intrigue
Death in Singapore The body of a young US electronics engineer, Shane Todd, was found hanging in his Singapore apartment. Police said it was suicide, but the Todd family believe he was murdered. Shane had feared that a project he was working on was compromising US national security. His parents want to know if that project sent him to his grave.
The TFA insurgency and its uses
[Teach for America's] goals derive, in theory, from laudable—if misguided—impulses. But each, in practice, has demonstrated to be deeply problematic. TFA ... underwrites, intentionally or not, the conservative assumptions of the education reform movement: that teacher’s unions serve as barriers to quality education; that testing is the best way to assess quality education; that educating poor children is best done by institutionalizing them; that meritocracy is an end-in-itself; that social class is an unimportant variable in education reform; that education policy is best made by evading politics proper; and that faith in public school teachers is misplaced.Teach for America's hidden curriculum: neo-liberalism, union-busting, and the teacher as cultural tourist. [Via.]
Vegetable Garage Band
Bladerunner agonistes
'Bladerunner' Oscar Pistorius (previously), the South African olympian and paralympian sprinter, charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp whom he shot four times through a locked bathroom door, has now given his account of what happened that night at a bail hearing. In an affidavit he claims that he loved Steenkamp, who he thought was still in bed, and fired at what he thought was a burglar, before breaking down the bathroom door with a cricket bat and watching his girlfriend die in his arms. The prosecution takes another view. Police have asked for blood tests on Pistorius, anticipating a possible 'roid rage' defence after steroids were found in the home following the shooting. Pistorius is the latest in series of elite male athletes to find themselves mired in controversy.
Privacy vs. Pseudonymity
"Pop quiz: what is the favorite social networking site of Americans under age 25? If you guessed Facebook you are way behind the eight-ball, because Tumblr now enjoys more regular visits from the youth of America." Tumblr is not what you think. "Tumblr provides its users with the oldest privacy-control strategy on the Internet: security through obscurity and multiple pseudonymity [... it] proves that the issue is less about public vs. private and more about whether you are findable and identifiable by people who actually know you in real life."
The Changing Face of Superman
A poster showing the evolution of Superman, 1938 - 2013. It covers the big guy's appearance in comic books, live-action, animation, Elseworlds and other comic book variations, and marketing and promo images.
All Your Nets Are Belong to the PLA
The Mandiant security firm has released a report attributing a number of hacking events to Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) activity perpetrated by China's 2nd Bureau of the People's Liberation Army General Staff Deparment's 3rd Department. They have also released an appendix containing multiple artifacts that can be used to detect intrusions on networks.
this is why that is important
NSFWCORP presents This Is How You Healthcare: American Death in London by Sarah Bee:
The main things that keep me sane are the airy beauty and peacefulness of the hospital building, messages from friends and family far away on earth, the mundane magnificence of the staff: and the knowledge that all of this is free and taken care of and I do not have to fill in a single fuckforsaken form or bust one precious braincell worrying about how I might have to find money to pay for the futile care of my dying deadbeat dad.[more inside]
She looked good coming down those stairs
One hundred years ago today in 1913, an art exhibition opened in New York City that shocked the country, changed our perception of beauty and had a profound effect on artists and collectors.
The International Exhibition of Modern Art — which came to be known, simply, as the Armory Show — marked the dawn of Modernism in America.
'Do you think you’re going to give this part to somebody else?'
The Making of 'Pulp Fiction' as told by Quentin Tarantino and the cast. Plus ephemera, a QT death chart, and Marvin.
A horse robot talking to a meat robot
Will members of the "seduction community" attempt to mate with nonsensical robots? Yes, yes they will.
Silent No More: Women In The Military Speak Out Against Sex Crimes
Sexual Assault In The U.S. Military is the focus of a serious contender for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards. The Invisible War is a groundbreaking investigative doc that sheds light on the under-reported epidemic of sexual abuse against female members of the military, as well as the lack of punitive action in these crimes: of the 8 percent of sexual assault cases that are prosecuted in the military, only 2 percent result in convictions. A female soldier in a combat zone is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.
By official estimates from The Department of Defense, 19,000 violent sexual crimes occurred in the military in 2011 alone. Sexual assault is grossly under-reported in the military. In 2011, 3,191 assaults were reported when its likely that somewhere between 19,000 and 22,000 assaults occurred. The women in the film speak about the physical and mental abuse they underwent while serving in the military - and about the the lawsuit they joined and the verdict in which their experiences were labeled "occupational hazards". The film is already garnering much attention, especially as front-running Oscar Nominee - and lawmakers are taking notice. [more inside]
By official estimates from The Department of Defense, 19,000 violent sexual crimes occurred in the military in 2011 alone. Sexual assault is grossly under-reported in the military. In 2011, 3,191 assaults were reported when its likely that somewhere between 19,000 and 22,000 assaults occurred. The women in the film speak about the physical and mental abuse they underwent while serving in the military - and about the the lawsuit they joined and the verdict in which their experiences were labeled "occupational hazards". The film is already garnering much attention, especially as front-running Oscar Nominee - and lawmakers are taking notice. [more inside]
Bad, but not THAT bad.
Last month, we saw that Google Flu Trends was predicting doom for the U.S. Turns out, Google was wrong. [more inside]
February 18
Abolished at last
18 years before slavery was finally abolished in Mississippi, T.V. Nation went and got themselves some slaves. [more inside]
Myths are in our video games
The Death of Romance in the Shadow of the Colossus reads the acclaimed PS2 game as a myth about the rise and fall of the European Romantic movement.
Melissa Villasenor makes comedy jokes [MLYT]
Melissa Villasenor does stand-up comedy, but also likes to sing, both as a part of her act and just because she's good at it. She garnered some attention for her impressions on America's Got Talent (various videos abound) and does a mean Maria Bamford.
Romancing the Drone
The Bobcat in Winter
Michael Jordan Has Not Left The Building. Wright Thompson of ESPN: The Magazine profiles Michael Jordan as he turns 50 and finds himself in a world where his body may age, but his obsessive drive to compete never goes away.
Artistic Portraiture
Bill Gekas creates gorgeous homages to Old Masters with his 5-Year-Old daughter. On his blog he shares his set-ups e.g. The Letter… and the cookie!, Potatoes.
Get an A by exploiting a loophole in the grading curve
In several computer science courses at Johns Hopkins University, the grading curve was set by giving the highest score on the final an A, and then adjusting all lower scores accordingly. The students determined that if they collectively boycotted, then the highest score would be a zero, and so everyone would get an A.
Scarfolk: One visit is not enough
Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay." Join their Learn To Swim program, and enjoy the song that won 2nd place in the 1974 Scarfolk Harvest Festival, Dormin Slowly Died With The Radio On.
"They have 50 pound bags of chicken nuggets"
Rewarding The Poison Pen
The Omnivore's Hatchet Job of the Year rewards "the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review of the past 12 months," with the winning critic taking home a golden hatchet and a year's supply of potted shrimp. 2013's winner: Camilla Long, for her devastating review of Rachel Cusk's divorce memoir, Aftermath. Among other things, she described it as a nasty, bizarre memoir written by a "brittle little dominatrix and peerless narcissist." (Via) [more inside]
Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant
Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant recorded together during the first half of the 1950s. Listen to Speedy on the pedal steel and Jimmy on the Fender telecaster on the Hometown Jamboree playing Flying High. [more inside]
"5 Ways Psychology Needs to Evolve"
On the veldt psychologists often had to resort to just so stories to explain human behaviour, which is why we evolved five methods to make evolutionary psychology better.
Like eating ice cream after a lovely dinner.
AMOK [auto playing music], the debut album from "supergroup" Atoms for Peace (Thom Yorke and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich (who did an AMA earlier today), with Flea, Joey Waronker, and Mauro Refosco), is streaming in its entirety ahead of its official release next week.
Bigfoot DNA as mysterious as the elusive cryptid
November 24, 2012: analysis of extensive DNA sequencing of 'a novel hominin hybrid species, commonly called “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch” ... suggests that the legendary Sasquatch is a human relative that arose approximately 15,000 years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo sapiens with an unknown primate species.' The press release claimed that the research was "currently under peer-review," except that no scientific journal would publish the research, until now: DeNovo, an open access scientific journal. But DeNovo isn't really open access, as it costs $30 to view the article, the paper itself is brand new, the domain was recently purchased, and the website features generic stock photos. Ars Technica digs deeper, summarizing some of the "open access" article, and providing a link to a particularly insightful clip on YouTube, with an odd water mark. [more inside]
Don't worry, there will still be a Shipping Forecast today/tonight.
“How many condoms it is legal to carry in New York City?”
Arrested for carrying condoms? Maybe not any more. Last week, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced legislation that will prevent police from arresting or charging someone for sexual solicitation based solely on the possession of one or more condoms. [more inside]
The Disappearing Package isn't disappearing quickly enough
The Disappearing Package. Designer Aaron Mickelson wants to solve the problem of excess packaging, by creating products that have no packaging at all. [more inside]
Cats:
The Rebel and The Slave
One day on a battlefiled in South Carolina, an escaped slave found the unconscious body of a wounded redcoat. [more inside]
With apologies to Ludwig.
Once the home of the Weckquaesgeek tribe, and more recently, William Shatner, Hastings-on-Hudson might sound like the next village over from Downton Abbey, but according to the New York Times, it's "a village, in a Wittgensteinian sort of way" seeing an influx of ex-Brooklynites fleeing to the suburbs in the face of creeping real estate prices. Sure, these new hipsturbanites may miss the creative density of urban New York, but at least the river setting matches their Filson/woolrich heritage-brand aesthetic. Read on if you set your cultural compass to the Brooklyn Flea, or your NYT Style section appreciation to ironic twee.
Fire!
In Schenck v. United States, Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously used the phrase "shouting fire in a crowded theater" as an example of how the First Amendment does not cover speech that poses a clear and present danger.
But how did Holmes come to use that particular phrase? The backstory is surprisingly complex.
How the Bush administration sold the Iraq war
“Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,” Cheney said. “There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us.” Zinni, sitting right next to Cheney’s lectern, says he “literally bolted” when he heard the vice president’s comments. “In doing work with the CIA on Iraq WMD [weapons of mass destruction], through all the briefings I heard at Langley, I never saw one piece of credible evidence that there was an ongoing program.” Rachel Maddow hosts Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War, a documentary special, based on the eponymous book by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, that will air Monday, February 18 on MSNBC at 9 p.m.
"The basic problem is that no one gets fired."
Your Favorite Army General Actually Sucks. Tom Rick's new book The Generals focuses on professional shortcomings of high-ranking Army officers, and offers a new (old) solution: fire them. "But as far as I can tell, no general has been fired for incompetence in combat since Maj. Gen. James Baldwin was fired as commander of the Americal Division in 1971." [more inside]
Showtime is over.
A Cardiac Conundrum
“The gap between what patients and doctors expect from these procedures, and the benefit that they actually provide, shows the profound impact of a certain kind of mechanical logic in medicine,” he explains. “Even though doctors value randomized clinical trials and evidence-based medicine, they are powerfully influenced by ideas about how diseases and treatments work. If doctors think a treatment should work, they come to believe that it does work, even when the clinical evidence isn’t there.” [more inside]
MEAT
Pixelated Blood is a 2-hour, totally NSFW compilation of finishing moves from 23 fighting games (turn on annotations and click to select a particular game.) [more inside]
Parasite of the Day
Does just what it says on the tin,
"So, naturalists observe, a flea has smaller fleas that on him prey; and these have smaller still to bite ’em; and so proceed ad infinitum." - Jonathan Swift
Richard Briers (1934-2013)
Richard Briers, TV, radio, movie and stage actor, died yesterday aged 79. Richard was most well-known for playing Tom, who gives up his 9 to 5 job to attempt a sustainable lifestyle, much to the horror of his posh neighbor Margo, in The Good Life (1975-78). [more inside]
Farewell to an old rock'n'roller...
English rocker Tony Sheridan, who took the Beatles under his wing in their early Hamburg days, using them as one of his backing bands, acting as their fashion guru (outfitting them in sleek, bad boy black leather) and introducing them to the music of Little Richard, has died at age 72. [more inside]
Mo’ honey, mo’ problems
The world of honey trading is a murky one, riddled with smuggling and fakery. But honey detectives are on the case! And they have a new, powerful weapon: a laser tool designed by the European Space Agency to measure carbon on Mars that has been re-purposed to detect fake honey. (Via) [more inside]
Masters at work
If you're interested in glassblowing, or if you simply like to watch craftsmen at work, then here's a special treat for you: the Corning Museum of Glass (previously) has posted hours upon hours of videos of their studio demonstrations on Youtube. And if that's not enough, you might want to bookmark their live streams page, for they will be streaming about a dozen studio demonstrations over the summer. [more inside]
Say it ain't so, Joe (although it's unsurprising that it is)
Joe Arpaio has followed the NRA's suggestion and tasked a 3,500 man volunteer armed posse with patrols of 59 elementary, middle and high schools in the Phoenix area. The journalist details his experience of posse training, and the article notes that the same force may previously have been involved in the shooting of a surrendering burglar. History bonus: there's already too much Arpaio previously on Mefi to individually detail.
There's No Place On Earth To Hide!
What happens when a comet collides with a major asteroid in our Solar System's main belt sending a 5-mile wide splinter on a direct path to Earth? Factually, we might never know. Till then, there's Meteor! [more inside]
February 17
Over 12 years, 8 million children died from vitamin A deficieny
A Golden Rice Opportunity is an article about how genetically modified 'golden rice' may save millions of children, at least according to Skeptical Environmentalist author Dr. Bjorn Lomborg.
Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?
Gallup surveyed U.S. adults in the 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine how many self-identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. The GLBT percentage was highest in D.C. (10%) and lowest in North Dakota (1.7%). All the states were within 2 percentage points of the nationwide average of 3.5%.
The states with proportionally larger LGBT populations generally have supportive LGBT legal climates. With the exception of South Dakota, all of the states that have LGBT populations of at least 4% have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and allow same-sex couples to marry, enter into a civil union, or register as domestic partners. Of the 10 states with the lowest percentage of LGBT adults, only Iowa has such laws.
Hope of a Lifetime (The Milk Carton Kids)
While I doubt that many of you get music tips from NPR, I have to admit that prior to their post "Heavy Rotation: 5 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing", I had been unaware of The Milk Carton Kids (an earlier NPR Tiny Desk Concert). If you listen to nothing else, I do hope you will give a listen to Hope of a Lifetime, which (at the risk of editorializing) I must say is one of the most beautiful songs (and lyrics) that I have heard in a very long time. [more inside]
Mongolian Eagle Hunters
The Last of the Mongolian Eagle Hunters. "In remote Mongolia, a few men continue the dying tradition of training golden eagles to hunt. Australian photographer Palani Mohan describes his project to document what remains of this centuries-old culture." [more inside]
Sequencing a Science Fiction Writer
Campbell-award winning science fiction writer Jay Lake has cancer. His prognosis at this point is not good, but there is a distant hope - cancer genome sequencing. This is an expensive process, so the science fiction community got together and held a fundraiser, volunteering "Acts of Whimsy" as rewards for various monetary goals. The results were whimsical indeed. [more inside]
Water for Elefonts
A baby elephant goes for a swim. Pretty much what it says on the tin. Happy Sunday.
Go Mama
Danica Patrick is the first woman to qualify for the Daytona 500 pole position, or any other Nascar Cup race.
The Gaslamp Killer: West Coast Weird Beats, Turkish Psych, Astral Jazz
William Benjamin Bensussen is a DJ and producer who started DJing in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, where his weird, heavy sound was generally a dancefloor killer, earning him the name The Gaslamp Killer But he kept at it, and found a home in Los Angeles, performing with the Low End Theory crew. On December 1, 2012, Gaslamp Killer joined an ever-growing list of notable DJs and appeared on BBC Radio 1 with an Essential Mix "This runs the gamut, freak flag and spliff waving in the air. 2 brutal and beautiful hours of raw beats, boom bap, and Birdman. There is psych-rock, there is juke, there is Spaghetti Western. Exclusives from Lotus, HudMo, and Dilla." If you like what you hear, there's even more below the break. [more inside]
And there's a creepy doll, that always follows you
Amongst the canals of Lake Xochimilco, south of Mexico City, there are artificial islands called chinampas. Chinampas were invented by the Aztecs as a way to increase agricultural production, and while most have been converted for residential or commercial use, there is one that stands apart: Isla de las Munecas (The Island of the Dolls). Home to hundreds of terrifying, mutilated dolls, their severed limbs, decapitated heads, and blank eyes adorn trees, fences, and nearly every available surface. [more inside]
Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend...
For the first time in its 120 year history the board of the Sierra Club has authorized the use of civil disobedience, to protest the proposed construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. (Previously) [more inside]
Landscaping on a metropolitian scale
"But placing sand in island shapes is not enough. Because the islands are appearing in the blink of an eye, ecologically speaking, they are at risk of incredibly rapid erosion. Natural islands develop a healthy covering of plant life over the course of their accumulation, which serves as an anchor. New plants are not strong enough to provide the same utility, and so, created islands demand millions of transition plants, grown in nurseries, to pre-age the island. Once planted, their sturdier roots help the islands hold together long enough for a full ecosystem to boot up." Just one detail from the tour of New York City’s dredged landscapes Tim Maly, founder of the Dredge Research Collaborative, undertook to help understand the enormous scale on which dredging shapes New York and its harbors.
Building a Shannon One Design
'One Design' boats are boats built to a specific set of dimensions and then, often and to varying degrees of competitiveness, raced.
On the River Shannon, Ireland, they race an open dinghy called the Shannon One Design and have for about 90 years.
The boats can be built by anyone with the inclination, as long as the dimensions are adhered to and the measurers certify the boat as being correct.
In the late 70's Irish TV made a program called 'Hands' that showcased traditional crafts and their practitioners. Building a Shannon One Design was among the topics they covered. (Those links are the first, second and third parts that make up the episode).
Interestingly, they also did an episode on building a 'Curragh' (part 2 part 3), a boat design that people have been building on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland since before anyone even thought to notice they were building boats a specific way.
Following links, there are also episodes about wheel building, chair making and weaving, among others.
The bullet missed his brain but severed his optic nerves
A Real World Series: Inside the world championship of blind baseball. "It’s different this year. I can’t get last year’s Series out of my mind, even though it ended in the last week of July, when Taiwan took two from Austin on a rainy Saturday in Ames, Iowa, to win the title in the 37th annual world series of blind baseball." [more inside]
"they are defenseless and easily murdered in their youths."
Hypnotically devoid of context or meaning
Horse-egifs: A tribute to the surreal poetry of Horse_Ebooks, Horse-egifs takes a randomly selected video and makes a gif from a randomly selected chunk of that video.and then it gets posted to tumblr. [via mefi projects]
"I wanted to say: it’s nothing personal, it’s monarchy I’m staring at."
Royal Bodies by Hilary Mantel
"I used to think that the interesting issue was whether we should have a monarchy or not. But now I think that question is rather like, should we have pandas or not? Our current royal family doesn’t have the difficulties in breeding that pandas do, but pandas and royal persons alike are expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any modern environment. But aren’t they interesting?"
The songs are left unsung and hung upon the scars
Tandyn Almer, composer of Along Comes Mary, died last month. Dawn Eden wrote about Almer after attending his funeral, and more recently he was profiled in The Washington Post.
Cairobserver
Cairobserver is the start of a conversation about Cairo’s architecture and building, urban fabric and city life. A well curated blog about Cairo featuring both Arabic and English essays. [more inside]
Portals to the universe
"A mission scientist with NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, Natalie Batalha hunts for exoplanets — Earth-sized planets beyond our solar system that might harbor life. She speaks about unexpected connections between things like love and dark energy, science and gratitude, and how "exploring the heavens" brings the beauty of the cosmos and the exuberance of scientific discovery closer to us all". (Audio link of interview at top left corner of page, other relevant links at bottom of page)
Roy Chapman Andrews, adventurer.
[Roy Chapman] Andrews is best remembered for the series of dramatic expeditions he led to the Gobi of Mongolia (shorter films: 1, 2) from 1922 to 1930. Andrews took a team of scientists into previously unexplored parts of the desert using some of the region’s first automobiles with extra supplies transported by camel caravan.
Andrews – for whom adventure and narrow escapes from death were a staple of exploring – is said to have served as inspiration for the Hollywood character “Indiana Jones.”
Andrews’s expeditions to the Gobi remain significant for, among other discoveries, their finds of the first nests of dinosaur eggs, new species of dinosaurs, and the fossils of early mammals that co-existed with dinosaurs. [more inside]
Powerful Portraits of Workers at Femme Auto in Senegal
Photographer Anthony Kurtz visited Femme Auto in Senegal and took portraits of the mechanics and auto body workers there. They're really gorgeous shots, and it's always great to see badass women doing it to it in a male dominated field. (Via)
Where will you deposit your knuckle babies?
February 16
Old Town Warsaw
#32, You made it back
Oggi Sono Io
Alex Britti's 'Oggi sono io' covered by Italian pop star Mina, who recorded it in one take. An English translation of the lyrics.
Genderbending, Nerdery, and Armorsmithing, Oh My
Having previously written an article titled "Don't Dress as Slave Leia" and then, a rather more nuanced rehash in which he explored why telling people not to dress as Slave Leia is not itself free from problems, Ryan (of Mad Art Lab) has decided that, actually, he's going to dress as Slave Leia this con season; or, rather, Slave Leo.
Study Predicts Political Beliefs With 83 Percent Accuracy
New research, published yesterday in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests what mom and dad think isn’t the endgame when it comes to shaping a person’s political identity. Ideological differences between partisans may reflect distinct neural processes, and they can predict who’s right and who’s left of center with 82.9 percent accuracy.
Elizabeth Warren grills banking regulators on trials for big banks
Elizabeth Warren, in her new role as a member of the Senate banking committee, asks banking regulators: when did you last take a big Wall St bank to trial? (SLYT)
Anatomy of a Heroin Ring
What turned out to be most notable about the operation, though, was how typical it was. (Chicago Reader, via longform.org)
We Buy White Albums
We Buy White Albums is a New York record store dealing exclusively in first pressings of the Beatles' self titled 1968 double album (aka the White Album). The store is actually an art installation from Rutherford Chang. The inventory is growing (currently over 700 copies), with vinyl condition ranging from very good to scratched, warped, and graffitied, all filed by serial number. Each copy is being digitized and photographed with plans to press a new double-LP made from all the recordings layered upon each other and a composite cover of all of the photos. Vinyl collector site Dust and Grooves has an interview with Chang and a lot of pictures of the "store" and individual copies.
A Wild Cat x A Domestic Cat = A Hybrid Cat
A Serval x Domestic Cat = Savannah Cat
Where F=generations from wild. F1 through F3 are not recommended as pets. F4 are considered loyal and well-behaved, like dogs.
An Asian Leopard Cat x A Domestic Cat = A Bengal Cat
Named after the Leopard Cat’s species, P. bengalensis, not the distant Tiger relative
A Bengal Cat x Oriental Shorthair = A Serengeti Cat
Looks like a small Serval, but no Serval bloodline, fully domesticated. See also the Toyger and the Cheetoh [more inside]
Where F=generations from wild. F1 through F3 are not recommended as pets. F4 are considered loyal and well-behaved, like dogs.
An Asian Leopard Cat x A Domestic Cat = A Bengal Cat
Named after the Leopard Cat’s species, P. bengalensis, not the distant Tiger relative
A Bengal Cat x Oriental Shorthair = A Serengeti Cat
Looks like a small Serval, but no Serval bloodline, fully domesticated. See also the Toyger and the Cheetoh [more inside]
Why IS The Pepsi Blue?
From the Beatles' White Album to the Pink Panther's Fiberglass, Richard Branson's rebellious red to the Queen's posh purple, CBC's Under The Influence takes a look at How Colours Make Us Buy.
Embrace the Troll
Ian McEwan's Uneasy Relationship With Fiction
Downton Sixby
Genius livin' reckless
In 2011, the cast of beloved and short-lived sitcom Better Off Ted reunited for Malcolm Barrett's (a.k.a. Verbal) music video "Revenge of the Nerds."
.
This week, the famed singer and performer Julia Pastrana was laid to rest near her birthplace in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Julia Pastrana died in 1860. Her husband had embalmed her body and exhibited it in a touring display for many years afterward, together with the remains of their infant son. [more inside]
Julia Pastrana died in 1860. Her husband had embalmed her body and exhibited it in a touring display for many years afterward, together with the remains of their infant son. [more inside]
Nollywood Worldwide: streaming Nigerian films
The Nigerian film industry known as Nollywood started humbly about 20 years ago. Nollywood movies were shot as cheaply and as quickly as possible, then released straight to VHS. The majority of Nollywood films are still sold offline, in outdoor markets from wheelbarrows or by the roadside from street vendors. In the early 2000s, Nollywood distribution shifted from VHS to discs — and now, the movies are also beginning to stream online. iROKO, one of the first companies to take Nigerian films online, is carefully tracking the viewing patterns of its growing audience. While Nigerian internet access is often subpar, streaming services are catering to the international diaspora. iROKOtv is a hub for streaming movies, with plenty of free movies alongside movies available as part of monthly membership. Their website grew out of their YouTube channel, which had over 400 movies online in 2011, though recently they are mainly posting trailers. If you're not sure which movies to see, Nollywood Forever has plenty of reviews, and Nollywood.com has a ton of African movie trailers.
The Flute was Blowing Smoke Rings
As a connoisseur of body parts...
The Plastinarium of Dr. von Hagens - A view into the world of plastic corpses.
Turning all your joy to pain, in pursuit of learning.
"It’s even worse than I thought."
Can the Republicans Be Saved From Obsolescence? (NYT)
How to Save the Republican Party (Commentary Magazine)
How to Save the Republican Party (Commentary Magazine)
365 Days of the Black Hero
Last year, freelance cartoonist and illustrator Wardell "War" Brown drew a daily sketch of a different Black hero, both fictional and real life, starting with Storm and ending with Muhammad Ali. For those clever clogs who'd now like to point out 2012 was a leap year, he got you covered.
What, Me Worry?
In 1959 Fred Astaire hired renowned makeup artist John Chambers to work on his television special, Another Evening with Fred Astaire. The assignment? Turn Fred Astaire into Alfred E. Neuman. The results were predictably strange. [more inside]
The Resurrection of Kevin Rudd
The plot is thickening in the lead-up to the Australian national elections. "'I said a week or so ago everyone should take a long cold shower,' Mr Rudd told Channel Seven on Friday morning. 'What I'd say to Malcolm and you Joe (Hockey) is it's time to jump in the ice bath'." [more inside]
February 15
In Soviet South Africa, frog squeeees at you.
A tiny, sandy, round and loud frog expresses his dismay at your existence.
Eternal Arcanum
Chris Avellone, a writer and designer who worked on Fallout 2, Fallout New Vegas, Planescape Torment and Neverwinter Nights, plays and comments on the steampunk RPG Arcanum to celebrate raising almost 4 million dollars toward his upcoming RPG, Project Eternity
My Strange Grandfather
Addicted to Vine?
Adam Goldberg is making something really weird with Twitter's new 6 second video service Vine. Follow along on via Twitter with characters like: Adam and Merrit or within the Vine App itself on the tag merritxanadu44. A journalist tries to figure out what is going on.
Post-Posterous Haven
Blogging platform Posterous, which was acquired by Twitter in March 2012, has officially announced it is to close on April 30th 2013. [more inside]
Uptown to the Bronx: Vignelli's standards
They found a copy of the New York City Transit Authority's Graphic Standards Manual in a locker covered with gym clothes. And decided to put it online. [more inside]
Wood, Leather, Steel, Blood
Wood Central is a long lived forum for woodworkers predating even young upstart Metafilter. Having been around for so long the forums are a source of immense knowledge of all things wood and some of that has been collected into posting archives and essays on their Articles and Reviews page. So if you ever wanted to know
- How to make a Double Twisted Dovetail joint
- How a totally blind wood worker manages his craft
- How to Age Cherry with NaOH
- How to construct a paddle
- How to safely use a chainsaw
- How to use electricity to remove rust from tools
- How to make a fancy bow saw
- How to make a Fibonacci Gauge and why you would want to.
Be forewarned: sometimes (often?) there are guts
The Brain Scoop: Videos About a Zoological Collection. "I'm Emily, the volunteer Curatorial Assistant for the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum at The University of Montana, and I'd like to share some of the amazing things we have in the collection with the Internet.
Let's talk about your favorite animal."
Civil War hero Robert Smalls seized the opportunity to be free
Robert Smalls sat at the conference table next to Frederick Douglass as they tried to convince President Abraham Lincoln that African Americans should be allowed to fight for their own freedom. He served five terms in Congress. He ran a newspaper and helped found a state Republican Party.
But first, he had to win his freedom.
om. nip. o. tent.
Architectural Piracy?
How good is Zaha Hadid's new building? So good it's already being copied. And the copy may be finished before the original. [more inside]
Dude, you had one job
Trouble in Paradise an ongoing tale of greed and corruption
It all started last July when S/Y Phocea, one of the world's largest sailing yachts was arrested in Vanuatu.
There was speculation that it was running drugs or arms or was involved in money laundering.
A few days ago the owner Mr Pascal Anh Quan Saken and his brother had their passports detained in Papua New Guinea after the private jet they flew in arrived without proper clearance.
What the Vanuatu news media are saying, with added spice.
The past owner's of Phocea have been a colorful bunch as well.
There was speculation that it was running drugs or arms or was involved in money laundering.
A few days ago the owner Mr Pascal Anh Quan Saken and his brother had their passports detained in Papua New Guinea after the private jet they flew in arrived without proper clearance.
What the Vanuatu news media are saying, with added spice.
The past owner's of Phocea have been a colorful bunch as well.
The Man Behind The Brilliant Media Hoax Of "I, Libertine"
"In the 1950s, a DJ named Jean Shepherd hosted a late-night radio show on New York's WOR that was unlike any before or since. On these broadcasts, he delivered dense, cerebral monologues, sprinkled with pop-culture tidbits and vivid stretches of expert storytelling. 'There is no question that we are a tiny, tiny, tiny embattled minority here,' he assured his audience in a typical diatribe. 'Hardly anyone is listening to mankind in all of its silliness, all of its idiocy, all of its trivia, all of its wonder, all of its glory, all of its poor, sad, pitching us into the dark sea of oblivion.' Shepherd's approach was summed up by his catchphrase: a mock-triumphant 'Excelsior!', followed by an immediate, muttered 'you fathead ... '" (via) [more inside]
America's Hardest Working Know-It-All
Parlaying TV ubiquity into a stable career is hard enough. The fact that Jeopardy legend Ken Jennings has done this merely by being the smartest guy in your living room seems like nothing less than a minor miracle.
Because I did remember.
In accordance with tradition--dating back all the way to 2007--today is Phil Collins Day. Hitch a ride to 112th Street Beach in Rockaway, and circle your drum.
Previously. Previously-er.
Oh hey, I made space!
Alchemy , sort of. Happy Friday!
House Music
Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away
50 Years Ago: The World in 1963 Let me take you 50 years into the past now, for a look at the world as it was in 1963.
Dogs On A Treadmill
A Tiny Vietnamese Village Where Women Chose to be Single Mothers
LOI, Vietnam — They had no plan to break barriers or cause trouble. But 30 years ago in this bucolic village in northern Vietnam, the fierce determination of one group of women to become mothers upended centuries-old gender rules and may have helped open the door for a nation to redefine parenthood.
So good they cancelled it.
Somewhere between Buggin' Out and Gus Fring, Metafilter favorite Giancarlo Esposito starred as Paul Gigante, a city cop transplanted by family circumstances into a dysfunctional small town police department and frustrating partnership with the imbecillic Wade Preston, in Bakersfield P.D., a short-lived comedy gem from Fox Network.
Partially available for your viewing pleasure in grainy video on a YouTube playlist, with German subtitles and no laugh track. [more inside]
putting the high in high fantasy
FYI: Chivalry is now a game about knights in low gravity, screaming and screaming and screaming. [more inside]
An image of a soundless voice
Only two works of Nonnus of Panopolis (fl. AD 400), arguably the last great poet of the Homeric tradition, survive complete. The first is his Dionysiaca, ostensibly an account of the adventures of Dionysus but embracing everything that touches chaos and fire and sound, "the longest surviving poem from classical antiquity and one of the most entertaining, outrageous and vivid epics ever conceived west of the Ganges." The second is the Metabole kata Ioannou [PDF]. It's a paraphrase of the Gospel of John into the idiom of Homer.
A part of this nutritious vibraty feeling all through your guttiwuts
Coke Engineers Its Orange Juice — With an Algorithm: Black Book isn’t really a secret formula. It’s an algorithm. Revenue Analytics consultant Bob Cross, architect of Coke’s juice model, also built the model Delta Air Lines (DAL) uses to maximize its revenue per mile flown. [more inside]
"Slow paced, very spacey, the music is so intriguing..."
Montag's Gay Porn Archives Lo-Fi Mix. Carpark Records signee Antoine "Montag" Bédard has put together a mix using nothing but gay porn movie scores for your listening pleasure.
Get your hi-hat on.
Real-time MRI study of human beatboxing, with lots of videos. See what snares, kick drum effects, cymbals and more look and sound like as they happen inside the head. Here's a BBC radio segment on the project.
vu par David Lynch
David Lynch on his favorite photographs. As the honorary curator of the 2012 Paris Photo collection, David Lynch discusses some of his picks.
Influential- though vile and ponderous
The Roadmap to Saving the Sounds of America, Though the Road is Bumpy
The National Recording Preservation Board was mandated by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, but it didn't have a preservation plan in place to address saving everything from the oldest tin foil recordings (prev) to recent "born digital" creations. That changed with the National Recording Preservation Plan (full 89 page PDF). Except, "the recording preservation provisions under current law are so restrictive you literally can't make — legally — a digital copy of an older analog recording without permissions which are very hard to get" (NPR). [more inside]
Spiel mit dem Tod
A german documentary about a war game in Russia. Watch it until the end, it's worth it. The version with english subtitles was the best I could find.
NAAAAAAH! (R.I.P. Tim Dog)
''Les Paul Echo Guitar'' by Carl Perkins and George Harrison
''Les Paul Echo Guitar'' -- Carl Perkins and George Harrison, a clip from A Rockabilly Session with Carl Perkins and Friends [more inside]
David and Nikki Lee
A Study of 10,000 Porn Stars and Their Careers: For the first time, a massive data set of 10,000 porn stars has been extracted from the world’s largest database of adult films and performers. I’ve spent the last six months analyzing it to discover the truth about what the average performer looks like, what they do on film, and how their role has evolved over the last forty years.
February 14
Playing the ancient Chinese meritocracy game
Shengguan Tu (升官圖) "Promoting the Officials" is a Chinese board game " where players assume the of an aspiring mandarin, moving through the imperial examinations and through the bureaucracy, eventually rising to the “Da Nei” or inner sanctum Grand Secretariat in the imperial household. Along the way, players pay “donations” to higher ranked players in each department." It has existed in some form since the Tang dynasty (618 - 906 CE) at least and now it's a Flash game. Programmed by Dave Lyons who also wrote a quick introduction to the game, from which the above is taken.
Meteors: Nature's way of asking "How's that space program coming along?"
BUNK - a rock video for Nardwuar + the Evaporators
BUNK - a rock video for Nardwuar + the Evaporators ... mefi projects meets the awesomeness of narduar This mefi project (music video) [via mefi projects] brought back fond memories of the bizarreness of Narduar, UBC's CITR radio icon, and interviewer of everyone from world leaders to punk rockers (always with the quirkiest questions) ... previously) and also previously.
Link between number of romantic partners you have and substance abuse
The correlation discovered at Otago University between the number of romantic partners you have and substance abuse [more inside]
Carmageddon!
Ever wondered what would happen if someone hacked Grand Theft Auto IV so that car tires had negative friction? Here you go. [more inside]
??????-style pizza
The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs
The World’s Oldest Pornography. The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs in the Tien Shan Mountains: A Fertility Ritual Tableau.
Today Indian Country Is Strong. I could not always ... tell you that"
Only about 36 hours after the State Of the Union Address, National Congress Of American Indians president Jefferson Keel gave today the 2013 State Of The Indian Nations address before the NCAI. The address was followed by a response from Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who was recently appointed the new Chairwoman for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. The entire program runs for 1h13m. Text of the speech. NCAI's Securing Our Futures report [pdf]. [more inside]
Time lapse Sketches
Sketch Theatre is a site where you can watch over the shoulder of artists like Molly Crabapple as they draw.
The Black Community cannot afford the luxury of ... that subject
the mundane face of evil: Chinese state-sponsored hackers
A new report, the National Intelligence Estimate, released by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence "represents the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community, describes a wide range of sectors that have been the focus of [China-based] hacking over the past five years, including energy, finance, information technology, aerospace and automotive."
One face of Chinese state-sponsored hackers profiled by Bloomberg Business Week is Zhang Changhe, an instructor at the People's Liberation Army Information Engineering University in Zhengzhou. [more inside]
"Maybe Don’t Talk Shit About Ads If You Make Money On Affiliate Links."
Maria Popova's Brain Pickings is a very popular blog with over 500,000 visitors to her website every month. "Brain Pickings provides the bulk of her income. She eschews ads on the site, but openly solicits donations..."* "But there’s something Ms. Popova doesn’t mention in her appeals to donors, amid her talk of operating 'ad-free.' She might not run banner ads, but she appears to earn income from affiliate links. You read a glowing review, you click through to order the book, and Ms. Popova gets a commission. The accusation comes from an anonymous Tumblr [update: he has now named himself as Tom Bleymaier]..."* [more inside]
It's a Mash-Up...in a Sausage and Mash Shop...
Cockney English, once frowned upon as an unsavory dialect in the UK, has endured over the centuries, becoming a hallmark of London's East End culture. Though the demographics of that area have changed within recent decades, the rhyming slang of old still persists in that region's streets - on ATM machines.
Push The Sky Away is the ghost-baby in the incubator
Push The Sky Away, the new album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is streaming now. It's already garnered one negative review.
This is no domestic moggy.
Earthflight is a BBC nature documentary narrated by David Tennant that takes a breathtaking flight on the wings of birds across six continents and experiences some of the world's greatest natural spectacles from a bird's-eye view. There are some full episodes up on YouTube (including South America, Africa, and the Making Of), but in particular these two clips caught my eye: Feral Cat Hunting and Peregrine Falcon Hunting.
"A lesson about the success of Great Men"
"What twists and turns will your story take?"
Acclaimed interactive fiction guru Emily Short has teamed up with Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, to launch Versu, an interactive storytelling platform that "focuses on character interaction as its primary form of play." The first two stories are free, and Short says authoring tools are on the way. [more inside]
Mood Music for Work
Music may be able to improve productivity at work, especially music without words. There are some services that stream music intended for work: Focus@Will (US Only) offers a wide range of choices, Groovesalad is more ambient, while Get Work Done is decidedly more fast tempo. If music is too distracting, you can use a white/pink/brown noise generator or Buddha Wall, which loops relaxing sounds. Other people prefer particular songs or albums, since researchers suggest you should listen to what you like.
Welcome to the Malware-Industrial Complex
“On the one hand the government is freaking out about cyber-security, and on the other the U.S. is participating in a global market in vulnerabilities and pushing up the prices,” says Soghoian, who says he has spoken with people involved in the trade and that prices range from the thousands to the hundreds of thousands. Even civilian law-enforcement agencies pay for zero-days, Soghoian says, in order to sneak spy software onto suspects’ computers or mobile phones.
Are we having fun yet?
As over 4,000 hungry and doubtless pretty funky passengers and crew of Carnival Cruise Line (Yeah, the Costa Concordia was theirs, too) ship Triumph, who've been without ventilation, hot food, and working plumbing [NYT link] since a fire broke out in the engine rooms last Sunday, near land (they hope) it's a good opportunity to re-read David Foster Wallace's classic piece on luxury cruises, "Shipping Out"[.pdf] (also published as "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.") And personally, I don't care if he may have made some of it up.
One Day Prop Build
Playing with God is indeed playing with fire
Beloved Legal Philosopher Ronald Dworkin Passes Away. Dworkin was described as "perhaps the most influential legal philosopher of the last century" in a 2005 profile. A surprisingly comprehensive collection of his essays for the New York Review of Books are available online. You can also watch his lecture on truth and interpretation. Or you can read about his recent book Justice for Hedgehogs. [more inside]
We don't have teleology in this country, but we do have television.
In 2003 blogger Billmon (previously) exhaustively outlined a dialectical history of U.S. politics [gif] in two parts. Now, he asks whether the Obama presidency represents the beginning of a new political cycle:
My analysis starts with the observation that there are some striking similarities between the current political cycle (the Age of Reagan) and the previous one (the Age of Roosevelt). I realize that probably doesn’t go down well with the Obama fans out there, so let me add immediately that it isn’t meant to be taken literally. Nixon really was a sociopath, if not a psychopath—a criminal of monstrous dimensions (See: Hanoi, 1972 Christmas bombing of). And that’s not even bringing Watergate into the discussion. Unless Michelle Bachmann’s paranoid fantasies about Solyndra are actually true, or the drone program is much worse than we now know, Obama isn’t even close to being in Nixon’s league. He actually seems to be a pretty good guy, for an Emperor. But in the current political cycle, Obama sits right there in Tricky Dick’s spot—after the Democratic Eisenhower (Clinton) but before the Democratic Reagan, i.e. the one who will free the Matrix and bring balance to the force.
Depression Quest
Depression Quest is an interactive fiction game about living with depression. Pay what you want, or play for free. A portion of the proceeds go to http://iFred.org. Here's a rather perfect trailer for the game. [more inside]
Super No
Superman is a good guy. More than that, Superman is the best guy. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1932, he's the archetypal superhero, a man of enormous power who places himself in service to the powerless. To borrow a famous phrase from the 1940s Superman radio serial, he stands for "truth, justice and the American way". - Why Orson Scott Card isn't the right man to write Superman. [more inside]
And the pick-up lines are well-rehearsed...
It's not the season for this song but it's certainly the right day for it: Summer's the Worst, a ballad about love and idiocy that's melancholy, clever, and (ahem) really quite lovely.
Flashing and Flamboyant Epochs of European Style and a Shipwreck
As part of his Sinking World series Andreas Franke combines studio models with underwater photography of the wreck of the SS Stavronikita. The results are amazing, beautiful, and unearthly. [via] [more inside]
Oliver Heaviside
Surely you've heard of the physicist Maxwell, but what about Oliver Heaviside? Oliver Heaviside: A first-rate oddity.
I don't think Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright will be at all surprised.
It's good to be the Kinga Micklethwait. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but a new study of unusual surnames offers some depressing insights into the lingering impact of class on social mobility.
Any dub can find shady nooks. Work fast; the garden closes at sundown.
In an article titled "So You're From Brooklyn," Brooklyn is declared a "bourgeois borough" full of "baby carriages, rubber plants, gold fish and green grocers.” The author warns that "Your average Manhattanite's conception of that great unexplored area beyond the three bridges is at once as naive as a child's idea of Alice's mythical Wonderland and as weird as a futurist artist's impression of Heaven."The Brooklynite magazine (1926-1930) rediscovered and reviewed.
Bucket of Sloths.
From Lucy Cooke's Slothville comes a bucket of sloths in support of her new book, A Little Book of Sloth.
Parnassien de coeur.
In the heart of the neighborhood of Montparnasse,
live the memories of a forgotten photographer: Émile Savitry.
In 1930 he was with Django Reinhardt and in 1939 He photographed the Spanish refugees who migrated to Perpignan after the fall of Barcelona.
He photographed some of the movie sets of Marcel Carné and Pigalle and Anais Ninn.
In 1945 he photographed Tahitian soldiers of the French Pacific Battalion and later 1950's fashion. For those who read French here is a little more about him.
live the memories of a forgotten photographer: Émile Savitry.
In 1930 he was with Django Reinhardt and in 1939 He photographed the Spanish refugees who migrated to Perpignan after the fall of Barcelona.
He photographed some of the movie sets of Marcel Carné and Pigalle and Anais Ninn.
In 1945 he photographed Tahitian soldiers of the French Pacific Battalion and later 1950's fashion. For those who read French here is a little more about him.
I have been monitoring your transmissions on this frequency.
'I’d have to date an astronaut to get a longer distance relationship.'
Artmaking, a love story. How viral I Have Your Heart film brought two creators together from worlds away. [Different Kim Boekbinder video previously]
Happy Birthday Hurricane Hazel
Hazel McCallion, one of history's longest serving elected leaders, turns 92 years old today. McCallion is current mayor of Missisauga, Canada's 6th largest city, where she has served for 34 years, winning 12 consecutive elections. Her political clout and public persona show no sign of slowing.
Janey Mac!
Curious about contemporary Dublin slang? C'mere to me and have a look at this YouTube video yoke. It's only massive! [more inside]
Meet Afghan military's first female helicopter pilot
"Malalai has seen more of Afghanistan than many of the white-bearded men who run this country. She's been travelling in the cockpit of military helicopters since she was two months old; her mother is an Afghan army pilot."
This is a beautifully illustrated long read.
Goats Yelling Like Humans
Goats Yelling Like Humans. Does what it says on the tin. [SLYT]
February 13
The testicles story, any sex stuff, and literary back stabbings
I realized that if something had happened to Henry James' testicles, that my friends didn't know about it, because if they did, it'd just be weird that they didn't mention it - given what we were talking about. And I thought this was sort of neat because one of my friends had done his Ph.D. on James, and even he didn't know about the guy's self-castration! I instantly resolved to solve the mystery.
"Look," I said, exited now, "I'm pretty sure something happened down there, so I'm going to check it out. And when I do find out - "
"You'll let us know.
"We'll look forward to it."
"Look," I said, exited now, "I'm pretty sure something happened down there, so I'm going to check it out. And when I do find out - "
"You'll let us know.
"We'll look forward to it."
One Billion Rising
What does ONE BILLION look like? On 14 February 2013, it will look like a REVOLUTION. Watch live, from around the globe, as women and men demand an end to violence against women. [more inside]
"He tends to exaggerate"
Thor Holm Hansen, (the Outlaw biker chief, Haitian insurgency catalyst, country singer, CIA patsy, inventor and porn star promoter who married a coffee heiress,) is disheveled and cantankerous inside his orange prison tunic, and really wants you to know there hadn't been much cocaine. Grenades and women, yes. A briefcase stuffed with $54,000: definitely that. But under no circumstances had there been more than two ounces of cocaine. (Via) [more inside]
I'm in love with Massachusetts! And the neon when it's cold outside
A bill to declare "Roadrunner" the official rock song of Massachusetts will be filed on February 14.
Zombie-free since 1867
"Veegan, not Veejan"
In November 1944, as Hitler's V-2 rockets rained down on England, Donald Watson's mind was elsewhere. Together with Elsie Shrigley and 23 others, he was starting a new society of ethical vegetarians who avoided dairy and eggs as well as meat -- an unheard-of innovation. The earliest issues of the group's magazine are now available online and provide a glimpse into the humble beginnings of what became a global movement. In its pages, members discuss animal ethics, health, wartime rationing, recipes and the thorny issue of what adherents should call themselves. (Donald Watson coined "vegan" in issue 1, but some members were unimpressed and wrote in with their own suggestions including Vitan, Dairyban, Benevore, Sanivore and Beaumangeur).
Fans often form circles and then run together with physical abandon
Moshers, Heavy Metal and Emergent Behaviour: The collective behaviour of moshers at heavy metal concerts is mathematically similar to a disordered 2D gas, say physicists. [more inside]
A Scientist at War With His Tribe
How Napoleon Chagnon Became Our Most Controversial Anthropologist. "Jaguars and anacondas are impressive adversaries — 'Indiana Jones had nothing on me,' Napoleon Chagnon says — but his staunchest foes are other anthropologists."
The archaeology of Photoshop
But like anything, the original Photoshop was a product of its time. Knoll’s foundations grew to support functionality he’d never imagined; as the features piled on, more staff was added. What started as mostly a photography tool turned quickly into a graphic design powerhouse. And when a port to Windows became inevitable, things started to really get messy.
Photoshop is a city for everyone: how Adobe endlessly rebuilds its classic app.
Photoshop is a city for everyone: how Adobe endlessly rebuilds its classic app.
Idem Paris
IDEM PARIS is a new short documentary film by David Lynch on the art of lithography. Read Lynch's intro to the piece.
The Continuation of Clausewitz by Other Means
Carl von Clausewitz's On War is remembered today as a classic of Prussian thinking on war and politics in the post-Napoleonic era. Wouldn't it be better if it were a Socratic dialogue between Hare Clausewitz and his class of other woodland creatures, though? Thankfully, The Children's Illustrated Clausewitz has arrived to fill just that need.
Jonathan Rendall, 1964-2013
Late last month, the writer Jonathan Rendall was found dead at his home in Ipswich. He was 48. He was the greatest gonzo writer you've never heard of. [more inside]
Origa(s)mic Architecture
On the one hand we have kirigami, the slightly more dangerous variation of origami that involves razor-sharp instruments (think snowflakes).
On the other hand we have architecture.
Now put your hands together... [more inside]
“An entire ‘vault,’ like a Money Bin, filled with 40,000 comics.”
“The DON ROSA COLLECTION is a deluxe 9-volume set of books published by Egmont that tells the story of my life with comics, particularly the $crooge McDuck and Donald Duck comics for which I have become best known... As part of the special texts in the series, I wrote an autobiography of my life, at least as it pertains to comic books. As a conclusion to those texts it was always planned that I would write a sort of ‘epilogue’ to my career, the subject of which would obviously be the reasons for why I quit... At the last moment the Disney Corporation refused to allow my text to appear in a book series that was published under their license... So I agreed to allow set #3 to go forward as long as I would be allowed in volume 9 to direct interested readers to the ‘epilogue’ as it is appearing on this private website.” Don Rosa: “WHY I QUIT” [more inside]
How The Left Has Won
Or, why is there still socialism in the United States?
Why, then, would we look for evidence of socialism only where a state seized by radicals of the Left inaugurates a dictatorship of the proletariat? Or, to lower the rhetorical volume and evidentiary stakes, why would we expect to find socialism only where avowed socialists or labor parties contend for state power? We should instead assume that socialism, like capitalism, is a cross-class cultural construction, to which even the bourgeoisie has already made significant contributions – just as the proletariat has long made significant contributions to the cross-class construction we know as capitalism. What follows?
What they really coveted was Arutam’s golden throne
The most-storied warrior tribe in Ecuador prepares to fight as the government sells gold-laden land to China.
Dear Valentine, I Hate It When You...
Picture of Tarzan Every Day
The last I heard, the Sheikh was under house arrest
Former New York Times reporter Michael Janofsky was contacted for an unusual freelance assignment: blogging as a United Arab Emirates royal. [more inside]
The nitty gritty of how to keep the roads rolling
"Hans explains there is a policy to keep certain routes clear. Since all streets in Dutch cities are categorised (also because of the ‘sustainable safety’ policy) it is very clear which streets are main routes that must be cleared. In the past, the cycle paths were not really thought important. But there were many complaints about it and the policies shifted slowly towards clearing the cycle paths more as well. Hans: “Especially when the city was elected Cycling City of the Netherlands in 2011, the department of public works felt it was our moral obligation to give the main cycle routes the highest priority. Now the cycle paths are cleared at the same time as the 8 main routes for motorised traffic.” -- Cycling blogger Mark Wagenbuur explains how one Dutch city, 'S-Hertogenbosch, deals with keeping the cycle paths clear during winter.
What *is* the deal with lampshades?
Benjamin Apple hosts the web series "Questions & Answers" where he answers viewers' questions. Link to Youtube playlist [more inside]
112 lb newborn photos
The face is angelic, the lighting soft and the subject is napping peacefully – just the way a newborn photo shoot should look. It took 13 years, but Latrell Higgins finally has his baby photos.
Vinegar Valentines
Hating Valentine's Day may be popular these days, but back in back when, Valentine's Day was a chance to hate on other people.
Look at you, hacker.
After many years of uncertain licensing rights, System Shock 2 -- considered by many to be one of the best games of all time -- will be re-released tomorrow on Good Old Games at 11:00am. It raises many interesting questions, of course, that seem to have many interesting answers.
DETACHABLE PENIS
You'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile.
The Okeh Laughing Record, a novelty recording, was first released in 1923 and rose to #8 on the Billboard charts, becoming the highest ranking anonymous* recording ever. It's history and provenance is completely unknown**. It has since appeared as the soundtrack to cartoons, on Dr. Demento and on Jean Shepard's radio show. [more inside]
Students all over the world are demanding a new curriculum.
A Renaissance in Economics The American President Ronald Reagan once quipped, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” I get the same shivers when someone introduces themselves as an economist.
The Ben Franklin Effect; both not, and totally Rule 34 applicable.
The entertaining youtube channel Vsauce takes an interesting look at The Science of the Friend Zone. [via]
Fuck You Cholly Mac!
Pig Roast.
Fish Fry.
Camping with the Bluesmobile.
T-Model Ford’s Shade Tree.
The undying Southern charm that is, Junior’s Juke Joint.
Where the nation's highest earners live
The Washington Post has posted a clickable county map of the United States, illustrating the percentage of households in the top 5% of national income (based on data from the US Census Bureau).
Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.
The Boredom Proneness Scale† is the best-known of the various metrics for quantifying one’s propensity to ennui. High-scorers who are ‘understretched, unmotivated and bored in the world of work in the 21st century’ may in danger of ‘boreout’ [PDF]. While boredom needn’t be perceived in an exclusively negative light (one might imagine a perfect boredom akin to the notion of dolce far niente), ‘boredom [PDF] and boredom proneness […] have been linked to a long list of negative outcomes in adults, including, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and loneliness […], impulsiveness […], elevated rates of alcohol dependence […], negative affect […], pathological gambling […] and higher rates of psychopathology in general.’ Historians of boredom have noted the relatively recent advent [NY TIMES] of the term, coinciding with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, but our more distant ancestors were not free of the related afflictions [PDF] of horror loci, tædium vitæ, acedia, mal du siècle, etc. [more inside]
Over 25% of consumers are screwed by Credit Reporting Agencies
As reported in the Washington Post and NYTimes, the FTC recently reported to congress in a 370 page report (pdf link) that the consumer reporting agencies do a poor job of accurately reporting consumer's credit. Millions of people pay higher rates than they need to, mostly because correcting a credit report is so excruciatingly difficult. [more inside]
People full of shit, both liberal and conservative, most of the time.
False memories of fabricated political events [ABSTRACT]. In the largest false memory study to date, 5,269 participants were asked about their memories for three true and one of five fabricated political events. Each fabricated event was accompanied by a photographic image purportedly depicting that event. Approximately half the participants falsely remembered that the false event happened, with 27% remembering that they saw the events happen on the news. Political orientation appeared to influence the formation of false memories, with conservatives more likely to falsely remember seeing Barack Obama shaking hands with the president of Iran, and liberals more likely to remember George W. Bush vacationing with a baseball celebrity during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. A follow-up study supported the explanation that events are more easily implanted in memory when they are congruent with a person's preexisting attitudes and evaluations, in part because attitude-congruent false events promote feelings of recognition and familiarity, which in turn interfere with source attributions. [FULL TEXT PDF AVAILABLE HERE] [more inside]
Bill Cosby Schools Us About Those Crazy Sweaters.
Prisoner X didn't exist until two years after his death.
In June 2010 a news story briefly appeared on the Yediot website about Prisoner X in solitary confinement in an Israeli jail. His jailers did not know who he was, did not share a word with him, no one came to visit him. No one seemed to know he was there. They didn’t even know what crime he had committed or how he came to be in the prison. His prison cell was completely isolated from other prisoners and he couldn’t communicate in any way with them. ABC News Australia has broken the News that Prisoner X was an Australian citizen suspected of Mossad links and who commited suicide two years ago in an Israeli jail. [more inside]
I want to be let alone to listen to my damn records.
Noted filmmaker Allison Anders (recent L.A. Weekly profile) won 50 rock and pop records once owned by Greta Garbo at auction. She's listening to them, one by one, and writing about them at Greta's Records.
You know you make me wanna tweet
A new app has been invented that allows women ('girls only!') to rate and hashtag the men they've met, befriended or dated. The reviews are not positive. [more inside]
How to shake a black guys hand
Sweet Truths with Kristine Holmgren
I told them to take a hike. I can't work where feminism is not celebrated. I'm proud to call myself a feminist. - Pastor and playwright Kristine Holmgren responds to being asked not use the word feminism in the title of her blog on a faith based site.
"On a moonless night, we watched the stars..."
This week's Essential Mix features the 23 year old musical prodigy Mat Zo who takes you on a 70-track tour through almost every genre of uptempo dance music over the course of two hours, beautifully tied together with poetic quotes from Carl Sagan's Cosmos.
February 12
Speed Painter D. Westry
Speed-painter D. Westry appeared on the Anderson Show, promising to paint a picture in 90 seconds or less. With the clock ticking down, guests and hosts alike were puzzled by the work taking shape on the canvas, until. . .
"Oh man, come on..."
Howlin' Wolf schools Eric Clapton and friends on "Little Red Rooster" (slyt)
The Empire Strikes Back?
"Trip Through the Grand Canyon"
Dreaming of password combinations sucks
Richat Structure: the Eye of the Sahara
First noticed by westerners in 1965, when the Gemini-4 spacecraft flew over northwest Africa (alternate source, with link to uncompressed TIF | in Earth photographs from Gemini III, IV, and V on Archive.org), the Richat Structure in the Sahara desert of west–central Mauritania resembles an impact crater or a circular target (or a possible Atlantis, or Plato's circular city, or maybe an open-pit mine), but is a naturally occurring 40-50 km (25-30 mi) geologic dome that has eroded over time. It's large enough that, when seen in person, the scale of the geography is hard to capture. But it is quite impressive when seen from space (mentioned previously)
Name 5 female directors. Go!
This is not the Hammer. The Hammer is my penis.
The Hammer is a light-up dildo that's muscle controlled. Or a test your strength game for your vagina or anus. Kristen Stubbs, Ph.D. is a roboticist who runs The Toymaker Project, "a place to think about technological empowerment with respect to sexuality, gender and pleasure." Likely NSFW.
Lost Vanguard: The remains of Soviet Modernist architecture
Photographer Richard Pare spent from 1992 to 2007 documenting the modernist architecture that flourished in the newly-formed Soviet Union. Many of the building are now underused, decayed, or demolished. Here is an interview. Here are some reviews of a 2007 show at MOMA and the current exhibit at Chicago's Graham Foundation, which ends on the 22nd. Previously.
"Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?"
r/IAmA (previously) has been gaining in popularity since Barack Obama stopped by to answer questions last August. Yesterday Bill Gates showed up to talk about his charity work and his global concerns; earlier in the week, journalist Matt Taibbi explained why breaking up the banks should be the Holy Grail for activists, and The Pirate Bay's co-founder Peter Sunde talked about why he hopes TPB dies soon. Dan Rather fielded questions via video recordings, while Arnold Schwarzenegger preferred to write his answers down (warning: kind of illegible). In the last month alone, three members of the House of Representatives showed up – Jim McGovern (MA), Jared Polis (CO), and Zoe Lofgren (CA). Meanwhile, actor Dante Basco admitted he had a crush on Emmy Rossum while she was doing a simultaneous AMA; needless to say, Redditors mentioned it to her, resulting in an adorably awkward exchange between the two.
15 Quadrillion Dollars
The comment period for the DRAFT Wireless code [PDF] to address some cellular provider abuses is expiring soon (February 15th). Comments can be made here.
Highlights of the draft code include:
- A $50 (or less) monthly cap on incurred fees.
- A limitation of cancellation fees equal to the remaining amount of the prorated incentive amount
- Mandatory unlocking at no cost for non subsidy phones with no waiting period.
- Limits on deposits and non payment cancellations.
- No termination fee, 15 day cooling off period
- Mandatory listing of limits on "unlimited" plans.
The State of our Metafilter is Strong
President Barack Obama will tonight give the first State of the Union address of his second term in office. The address will again focus strongly on the issues of jobs and the economy.
The Republican response will be delivered by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and will focus on traditional Republican messages of lower taxes and spending. The bilingual Senator plans to give his remarks in both English and Spanish in an attempt to reach out to the Latino community which has proven difficult for Republican politicians to connect with.
There will also be a Tea Party response delivered by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Senator Paul will call for reduced spending and debt and for the Republican party to be more welcoming of immigrants. Jill Stein of the Green Party will also give a response. [more inside]
Pepsi Shoe
Robbie Maddison's Air Craft (slyt) Motorcycle stuntman Robbie Maddison, who worked on the James Bond movie Skyfall, shows off his skills at an Arizona airplane graveyard. Like Danny Macaskill with a motor, or Ken Block with fewer wheels, kinda.
Walrus Workout
Ripley - the civilian - is the goddamn hero, not the fucking marines.
Is It That Hard to Make A Decent 'Aliens' Game? It is if the abysmal reviews for the new game Aliens: Colonial Marines are accurate. Rock Paper Shotgun's John Walker lists the worst moments, while Destructoid's Jim Sterling tears it apart and recommends better Alien games. [more inside]
Shhhh.
Let his love pop a cap in your butt
So when did you move to Austin?
Austin is booming with jobs, condos, festivals, traffic, hipsters, joggers, and high-concept dive bars.
Does that mean it’s no longer Austin?
Does that mean it’s no longer Austin?
starring Puck Fronger
"In comic books life is worth nothing; there is no dignity of a human"
In 1954 Fredric Wertham wrote Seduction of the Innocent which, in no small way, led to the Comics Code Authority. Carol Tilley, a professor of library and information science, has proven that the book misrepresented and altered the original data. (previously, previously)
Chopsticks are Critical To The Process of Making USB Drives
Playing To Lose
How competitive Tetris winners approach an unwinnable game.
The Price of Beans.
Himileia Vastatrix, colloquially known as Roya or coffee rust, outbreaks are occurring at a frightening pace in Central America. Coffee futures and associated prices for specialty coffees, especially from small family-run farms are expected to rise, drastically, on top of a lower estimated harvest. [more inside]
BBC Radio 4 Book Club: 179 episodes now available online
Book Club. This 30-minute programme's been on Radio 4, the BBC's premier speech radio station, since 1998. Books are announced a month in advance, giving listeners a chance to read the chosen title before the discussion. James Naughtie then interviews the book's author about it in front of an audience of his (or her) readers, who also put questions of their own. My favourites from the programme's archive include Alan Bennet (Writing Home), Clive James (Unreliable Memoirs), Douglas Adams (a 1 hour special on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Elmore Leonard (Rum Punch), James Ellroy (Black Dahlia), PJ O'Rourke (Holidays in Hell) and Stephen Fry (The Hippopotamus). No doubt you'll have your own. [more inside]
A Hermit Over His Head
In the wake of Pope Benedict's resignation yesterday, the world has become re-aquainted with a more famous papal resignation; that of Celestine V, a hermit who proved wildly incompetent as pope and never wanted the job in the first place – but was canonized nevertheless, and received special acclaim from Pope Benedict just three years ago. [more inside]
How Anheuser Busch is stopping the craft beer revolution
Both Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors employ "category space analysts," whose job is to visit a store like 7-Eleven and consult them on the optimal placements of beer on the shelves.
"They are doing the sets, they [say to a store]: 'We can do that for you,'" says Koch. "And then they can take my beer from eye level to the top shelf, which drops my sales rate in half." -- Elizabeth Flock at US News reports on the increasingly dirty struggle between craft beer brewers and the big brewing companies in the US.
"They are doing the sets, they [say to a store]: 'We can do that for you,'" says Koch. "And then they can take my beer from eye level to the top shelf, which drops my sales rate in half." -- Elizabeth Flock at US News reports on the increasingly dirty struggle between craft beer brewers and the big brewing companies in the US.
WOLF FLIRT GLASSES
"If you've ever read a silver age comic book in your life, chances are you've seen the ad for World Wide Diamond Co., once located in windy wacky Chicago IL. And if you sent away for one of their smallish, 48-page, newsprint mail order catalogs then you absolutely uncovered a world of REAL hidden treasure!"
Love 2.0
There is no such thing as Everlasting Love. Apparently all we have are "micro-moments of positivity resonance." Deflating the Love Myth, just in time for Valentines Day? [more inside]
Penguin Highway
While travelling in Antarctica, journalism student Melissa Brennan took this short video at an intersection of a penguin highway.
Now watch this drive
"Oh? Is it a dud?" Least favorite words when working with explosives.
Everything but Hawaii
"Cheever wasn't the only one who found inspiration at the Writers' Project [NYT]. Others included Conrad Aiken, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Arna Bontemps, Malcolm Cowley, Edward Dahlberg, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Kenneth Patchen, Philip Rahv, Kenneth Rexroth, Harold Rosenberg, Studs Terkel, Margaret Walker, Richard Wright and Frank Yerby. These federal employees produced what would become the renowned American Guide Series, comprising volumes for each of the 48 states that then existed, as well as Alaska."
The Island of lost flavors
"the political soap opera that is today's Republican Party"
"Why Obama Is Giving Up on Right-Leaning Whites: For decades, Democrats shaped their policies around fears of the culturally conservative white voters to the GOP. But Obama’s winning coalition has altered that calculus."
"Original Sin: Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people"
"The Future Of The Republican Party Is By The Pool At The Biltmore: The talk at the Miami hotel where Jeb Bush works, and Marco Rubio works out, is of the next president. But can the young senator get out from under Jeb’s shadow?"
"Original Sin: Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people"
"The Future Of The Republican Party Is By The Pool At The Biltmore: The talk at the Miami hotel where Jeb Bush works, and Marco Rubio works out, is of the next president. But can the young senator get out from under Jeb’s shadow?"
U.S. Chamber of Commerce influence in European Parlement
E.U. Data Protection Directive has many proposed amendments that MEPs cut and pasted directly from American right-wing lobbyists group and ALEC member the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (previously). [more inside]
Zombie warning issued via Emergency Alert System
Yesterday KRTV in Great Falls MT interrupted programing with an Emergency Alert System message. The message warned that "The bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living." [more inside]
Holding back the night -With its increasing brilliance -The summer moon
Vania Zouravliov was a child prodigy inspired from an early age by influences as diverse as The Bible, Dante, early Disney animation, North American Indians and Poe.
Told in Russia that his work was from the Devil, he has described his pieces as having a Hoffmannesque feel, and has always been interested in creating graphic art in its purest form. Others call his work a blend of Rock Chic and Punk.
Here is an extensive Gallery, (Some pictures NSFW).
Told in Russia that his work was from the Devil, he has described his pieces as having a Hoffmannesque feel, and has always been interested in creating graphic art in its purest form. Others call his work a blend of Rock Chic and Punk.
Here is an extensive Gallery, (Some pictures NSFW).
Retweet to add additional diamonds to your shopping basket
Twitter is experimenting with online shopping:
"American Express card holders who connect their card numbers to their Twitter accounts can post on Twitter to trigger a purchase of select products, including discounted American Express gift cards, Kindle Fire tablets from Amazon.com Inc. and jewelry from designer Donna Karan. The program will roll out over the next few days." [more inside]
Touching Yarns
Loes Veenstra knitted more than 500 sweaters since 1955 & kept them in her house in the 2nd Carnissestraat. The sweaters were never worn. Until today. [more inside]
Masters of the Internet, Le Monde Diplomatique
To understand what is at stake we need to make our way through the rhetorical smog. For months prior to the WCIT, the Euro-American press trumpeted warnings that this was to be an epochal clash between upholders of an open Internet and would-be government usurpers, led by authoritarian states like Russia, Iran and China. The terms of reference were set so rigidly that one European telecom company executive called it a campaign of “propaganda warfare” (2). ~ Masters of the Internet, Le Monde Diplomatique
North Korea has completed its third nuclear test
Around midnight local time (UTC +9) on 12 February the Democratic People's Republic of Korea detonated a 6-10 kiloton nuclear device at the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility. [more inside]
Mapping Data
In December, the Philadelphia police department released a csv database of major crimes (murder, rape, burglary, etc) since 2006. Since then, community software developers have been mapping the data. The community involvement is hoped to spur the future release of large city data sets. [more inside]
If 'A Small World' played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
Neal Goldman and his company Relationship Science (NYT link) wants to bring the the 1% and those aspiring to be 1% closer together. Do the rich need something like this or will it go the way of other rich connectors such as A Small World or James List?
February 11
Linguistic Time Travel
"The discovery advances UC Berkeley’s mission to make sense of big data and to use new technology to document and maintain endangered languages as critical resources for preserving cultures and knowledge. [...] it can also provide clues to how languages might change years from now."
“I see a giant pirate ship in the middle of a hurricane.”
Remember that replica of HMS Bounty that went down in the middle of Hurricane Sandy? If you've ever asked yourself why a replica wooden sailing ship was in the middle of a hurricane, Outside has your answer.
If This Then Basically Anything
Though it was discussed before in beta, If This Then That lets you do amazing things by connecting web services together. There is a good Lifehacker guide to getting started, but then you can create your own "recipes:" automate job searches, download torrents by sending emails from your phone, text to escape awkward situations and much more [more inside]
I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy
Who Said It: Marissa Cooper Or Franz Kafka? A little game from Buzzfeed. Guess if these quotes are from “The O.C.” or Modernist 20th century Austrian literature?
The OC previously, Kafka previously.
And the winner was...
Check out the official 85 Years of Oscar poster, commemorating every Best Picture winner for the last 85 years.
oh my god i can see forever
What happens to comics if newspapers go away? Garry Trudeau imagines a terrifying void. Webcomic artists think Garry Trudeau is silly. But if you, too, fear the vast abyss of a world without newspaper funnies, and lack the patience to search for all the treasures of the webcomic world, what you want is a comic that never ends. Pandyland and Mezzacotta each offer an infinite supply of three-panel comics, so that you'll never have to go without a brief moment's amusement. Sure, 99% of the comics you see might be crap, but there are gems amidst all the rubbish.
The ultimate virtual battlegrid. A Darwinian cyberstate.
Immercenary is a forgotten hybrid first-person shooter/RPG that was exclusive to the 3DO console. The game combined the aesthetics of Snow Crash, Lawnmower Man and LSD Dream Emulator into a massive open-world game. Gamasutra article. [more inside]
Project(or): Snow
"During a blizzard, I pointed a video projector out the window and projected a movie onto the snow. These are the results in motion, and you can also see high-resolution stills."
Schmucks with Underwoods
"cruel to the weak and cowardly in the face of the brave"
The Evolution of Irregular War - Insurgents and Guerrillas From Akkadia to Afghanistan
Pundits and the press too often treat terrorism and guerrilla tactics as something new, a departure from old-fashioned ways of war. But nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout most of our species' long and bloody slog, warfare has primarily been carried out by bands of loosely organized, ill-disciplined, and lightly armed volunteers who disdained open battle in favor of stealthy raids and ambushes: the strategies of both tribal warriors and modern guerrillas and terrorists.[more inside]
Polio Eradication
Flintheart Glomgold!
"That's how it was done"
So I guess it was worth perstering them about?
Mooning Pluto
"Help Us Name the Moons of Pluto!" Pluto may have lost is designation as a full-fledged-planet in 2006 (after 'dwarf planet' Eris was discovered that is larger than it), but it still gets plenty of attention by astronomers. In the last two years, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered two more moons of Pluto, which have not yet been named. So Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute is doing an online survey. [more inside]
Do You Remember Your First Time
Adeline hears Bad Brains for the first time. SLYT
Donald Byrd December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013
"One day, in the early 1960's, Mongo Santamaria called up Herbie Hancock and asked him to sit in as a pianist with Mongo's band, which was then performing at Club Cubano InterAmericano on Prospect Avenue, a popular Latin music spot. Herbie was reluctant to do it because he never played Latin before, but accepted the offer and was doing pretty well by the end of the first set. Then during intermission, Donald Byrd, who was there, asked Herbie to play his original composition "Watermelon Man" for Mongo. When Herbie started doing this, Mongo's band, especially his huge percussion section, started joining in, and before you knew it the whole club was dancing. Mongo was so excited by what happened that he asked if he could record the song. He did, and it became his greatest hit." [more inside]
First rule of Motherboy is you do not talk about Motherboy.
"No one noticed, they found, until the cords had lost an entire foot."
John E. Karlin, Bell Labs' first behavioral psychologist and the father of human factors engineering, has died at the age of 94. [more inside]
Hwæt!
In 1731, a fire broke out in Ashburnham House, where the greatest collection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, the Cottonian Library, was then being stored. Frantically, the trustees raced into the burning library and hurled priceless and unique manuscripts out the windows in order to save them. One of these was the sole manuscript of Beowulf. Today, bearing the charred edges of its brush with extinction, it's been digitized by the British Library, along with a group of other treasures including Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Arundel and the Harley Golden Gospels.
What's in a Name?
Is your name linked to your life chances? The Guardian's Data Blog examines the link between first names and life outcomes in a series of diagrams.
"The Guardian Digital Agency has looked at the first names of doctors, prisoners, football players, Guardian staff and other professions and mapped how often certain names occur."
Oh, what a tiny compressed history of love and struggle.
Sister Arts: On Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and Others Starting off examining the friendship between Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich, Lisa L. Moore examines how poetry acted as the lingua franca of second-wave feminism. [more inside]
Because, Why Not?
Timelapse-icus Maximus 2012 "A Burning Man for Ants" James Cole, Byron Mason & Jason Phipps put together an interesting way to view Burning Man 2012; as a tilt-shift, time-lapse video.
Happy Valentine's Schadenfreude
The Shooter
The Shooter. It begins, "The man who shot and killed Osama bin Laden sat in a wicker chair in my backyard, wondering how he was going to feed his wife and kids or pay for their medical care."
"I always knew, really, that I was a late night person."
Derek Morris is a septuagenarian former Cadbury's accountant from Bristol. He works a straight 9 to 5. That is 9pm to 5am, because he's also a legendary reggae DJ who M.C.s in Jamaican patois. His album is here (and part 2 of the video is here).
Double black diamond
"Dude, we can TOTALLY ski through this abandoned building in Alaska!" [SLV]
Love is so short and forgetting is so long.
Pablo Neruda's Body Will Be Exhumed For Autopsy [bbc.co.uk] "A judge in Chile has ordered the exhumation of the remains of the poet Pablo Neruda, as part of an inquest into his death in 1973."
The pope resigns
February 10
All your devices belong to US
Wired: DHS Watchdog OKs ‘Suspicionless’ Seizure of Electronic Devices Along Border [Source policy document]. Americans may find it useful to note that the definition of 'border' includes up to 100 miles from the nearest actual international border line.
Could be worse. Whatever.
How To Speak Minnesotan [slyt]
Single Molecule Determines Complex Behavior, Say Scientists
Ouch.
The rate of grooming accidents is exploding. When did we start hating pubic hair? Waxing Our Way to the Emergency Room.
"Hey, Morris" Prince and I said in unison
Stories About Prince When Prince presented a Grammy to Gotye and Kimbra tonight, he put them in a tizzy. But if you live in Minneapolis, Prince is just somebody you know.
"Remember: you’re not littering if it ain’t touchin’ the ground!"
Litterplugs: "Now, I can understand how generalized holes — containers, street light bases, flower pots — become makeshift trashcans. Even if they’re obviously in no way trashcans, and likely will never be emptied or cleaned by any human being on earth, and in most cases there’s a real trashcan mere feet away, they at least share a vague similarity to the raw concept of a trashcan.
But the best litterplugs take it to a new level.
They raise not-littering littering to an art." An observation by Cabel Sasser.
"It tastes like the ocean!"
6 Fast Food Mashups Worse Than The Doritos Taco (Trigger warning: vomiting)
Blue, Blue, Electric Pepsi Blue
Accompanied by 150 musicians, Beck does an 8-minute re-imagination of Bowie's "Sound and Vision" (SLYT) [more inside]
My brother and I used to say that drownin' in beer was like heaven, eh?
"The stubby (or steinie) in many ways embodied all that was solid and stoic in the Canadian character. Think of the two adjectives most appropriately applied to it - "tough" and "squat" - and what it also brings to mind are the great goalies of that era, those stalwart unbreakable warriors who worked between the pipes." - Ian Coutts Brew North. [more inside]
It's hard to describe - impossible to forget
"THIS is my favorite video on the internet. I insist that you watch it!!!! ... Generally what the vid is about is training girls to be an Amazoness. GOD IT’S SO GOOD." Mildly NWS. From the same animation studio who brought you Gal-O.
Living like it's stardate 5928.5
Upcoming web series Star Trek Continues (warning: transporter sound) plans to pick up "right where the original left off", completing the last two years of the 5 year mission.
What My Daughter Wore
A free and curious woman!
Known affectionately as the Grandmother of the French New Wave, documentary filmmaker Agnes Varda has captured alien, and familiar aspects of life in China [1957], Cuba [1963] and her own memory of of life in France.
DOC Alliance is currently screening 17 of Varda's documentary works until February 17th. [more inside]
Chrono Ark Soundtrack, from the incomplete fan-made video game
Alex Roe's Chrono Ark soundtrack is the most complete element of the fan-made sequel to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross sequel video game, with almost 4 hours of music available to stream, or download for a price of your choosing. Some character and story design was done from 2009 to 2010, and some very basic gameplay was demo'd in a video in 2009, but the project has largely stalled.
(First) Man's (First) Best Friend
"Adam and Dog" is a beautiful animated short by Disney artist and animator Minkyu Lee (features some nonsexual nudity). [more inside]
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence."
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! - a look at Russ Meyer's finest film. (possibly NSFW)
"they did not know or expect that the evidence would point to Tehran."
A Trail of Bullet Casings Leads From Africa’s Wars Back to Iran. Iran’s Cartridges & Their Quiet Distribution to Brutal Regimes and Many Wars. [more inside]
A Building Full of Ice
Before thawing out their former cold-storage facility, Fulton Market Cold Storage (now Hasak Cold Storage) invited nature photographer Gary Jensen to document their abandoned building full of ice. (Via.) [more inside]
Charlie Says No More
Road safety adverts will no longer be shown on television in England because the Department for Transport has decided to "re-prioritise" its budget.
Commenting on the cutting of TV adverts, road safety Minister Stephen Hammond said: "Road deaths are at a record low but we know that one death is one too many. [more inside]
A Warning to College Professors From a High School Teacher
Start of a Duel (Buried in The Sun)
For years, rumors have swirled about a picture of Richard Fariña and Thomas Pynchon dueling in a cemetery. We heard about this rumor, dug around, and found that the picture is hidden in plain site on the Internet.
“The nurses are bringing the babies down first."
When good food...goes bad
Foodfight! is an computer-animated "movie" starring Charlie Sheen, Hillary Duff, Eva Longoria, Wayne Brady, and Christopher Loyd. Set in a supermarket that transformed into a city when the lights came off at the end of the day and inhabited by mascots for food products coming to life.
After a theft of company's computers in 2003, and numerous other delays, the film would not see the light of day until 2012 [more inside]
Urquhart and Muzyka RPG design talk at DICE 2013
Obsidian’s Feargus Urquhart and Bioware co-founder Ray Muzyka gave a joint talk during DICE 2013 on the future of RPGs . Topics included player engagement, modding, (a)synchronous multiplayer and ways of interacting with players. [more inside]
Reading Wikipedia Randomly So You Don't Have To
Random Article. Bunny Ultramod likes hit "random page" on Wikipedia and sometimes he reports what he finds there. [via mefi projects]
"a most wonderful invigorator of sexual organs"
This "intellectual beverage" and temperance drink (after they took the alcohol out) contains the valuable tonic and nerve stimulant properties of the Coca plant and cola (or Kola) nuts. Or it used to, until they took the cocaine out. But why did they do that? Not because it was illegal--that didn't happen until eleven years later.
From Shag Point to Humptulips
The Christopher Dorner Manhunt
Timeline: Christopher Dorner is a former U.S. marine and police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. He is wanted in the largest manhunt in LAPD history. Dorner is wanted for the alleged murder of a police officer and a young couple from Irvine (though evidence linking the murders to him is still largely circumstantial).
During the ongoing investigation, LAPD officers have wounded various civilians in three separate cases of mistaken identity. In once incident, officers fired dozens of shots at a car in Torrance, CA, wounding two women who were delivering newspapers. [more inside]
Musical Dogs
February 9
These outfits look better on it than on me
Russian Hockey
Florida Man!
mbv, covered
Size matters
Do you love me?
Cleverbot.com has been touted as one of the most advanced artificial intelligences ever. The website allows users to chat with the A.I. Cleverbot. But how good is it, really? I sat down with Cleverbot and collaborated on a movie script.
What follows is a movie written by a machine.
Sparks.
Sparks in 1974. Sparks in 2003. Sparks and kittens. Sparks and balls. Sparks and Morrissey. Sparks and the Beatles. Sparks and Ingmar Bergman. Sparks and Faith No More. Sparks covering Sparks.
Respect must be paid
Since March 21, 1994, when the first regular obituary segment was dropped into an Academy Awards show, a spot on the yearly scroll of recently deceased movie luminaries has become one of the evening’s most hotly contested honors. And as in most Oscar races it is the focus of sometimes ferocious campaigning.
What did you do with your snow day?
He's just a tramp-sama abroad.
Sharing is caring ... and cashing in?
AirBnB And The Unstoppable Rise Of The Share Economy
“We’re going to have to invent new economics to capture the impact of the sharing economy,” says Arun Sundararajan, a professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU who studies this phenomenon. The largest question for academics is whether this all creates new value or just replaces existing businesses. The answer is surely both. It’s classic creative destruction.[more inside]
The Other 11 Doctors
iBioSeminars
It is raining spiders in Brazil.
"Hundreds (maybe thousands) of spiders congregate between poles in the town of Santo Antonio de Plantina / PR." [more inside]
A woman walks in to a comic book shop
HaterfreeWednesdays, a new tumblr to help comics fans find shops that are friendly to those of us who aren't straight white guys. [more inside]
People Are Awesome 2013
This is Giphy. You're welcome.
In a rainforest in Gabon there lives a camera trap. And a mirror?
a herd of elephants cross a stream ... audacity of the mandrills ... panthers play with their reflection in a mirror ... a passing group of gorillas ... 52 red river hogs eat fruit ... a leopard falls in love with the camera trap ... a sitatunga frightens some ibises while crossing a stream ... two elephants fighting ... chimpanzees attack a mirror ... a slithering Gaboon Viper ... a family of elephants on the trail ... 15 animals at the same place, close to camp
"Don't you see? If no one were watching, I would not dance at all."
The Old Man at Burning Man. "When I mentioned to friends that I was going to Burning Man with my 69-year-old father, 'Good idea' were the words out of no one's mouth."
Disorganized Criminals
Rick Reuschel should be in the Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame voters have decided not to enshrine one of the greatest pitchers of all time, despite his stellar on-field performance. No, not Roger Clemens: Rick Reuschel, who, according to High Heat Stats, was one of the 50 greatest pitchers in baseball history. Bonus: Joe Posnanski on why Rich Reuschel was better than Jack Morris.
Capote's In Cold Blood: new evidence
New documents shed critical light on the treatment of the 1959 Clutter murder case, both by Kansas investigators and by Truman Capote in his classic book. Perhaps most strikingly, it turns out that Capote changed the sequence of events whereby investigators learned of the possible involvement of Richard Hickock and dealt with that information. As Capote describes it, Alvin Dewey heard of Hickock and went to visit his parents that same night, artfully extracting crucial information. KBI documents show that instead, a group of agents went to the house five days later and recovered the murder weapon.
On questioning the quality of a publisher
Dale Askey is a librarian. He blogs. In August 2010, Dale was a tenured associate professor at Kansas State University, where librarians are granted faculty status. There, Dale blogged about the quality, and prices, of publications from Edwin Mellen Press. Edwin Mellen Press has served McMaster University (Dale's current employer) and himself with a three million dollar lawsuit, alleging libel and claiming aggravated and exemplary damages. [more inside]
Less is more and science matters
The introduction of a limit on the number of tablets sold in packets of paracetamol has led to a 43% reduction in the number of poisoning deaths. People often question what stops someone from going to different chemists and buying as much paracetamol as they want. However, this question misses the point of the 1998 legislation. The thinking behind the limit on paracetamol pack sizes is that most suicidal behaviour is impulsive. People often use what is closest at hand. So making paracetamol packs smaller means that it is less likely a suicidal person would have ready access to dangerous amounts of paracetamol. [more inside]
February 8
Thankfully unrelated to the NIN song.
Head Like An Orange is a tumblr dedicated to posting beautiful gifs from various nature documentaries.
Herd Immunity Demo
A series of simulations demonstrating disease spreading through a population and the benefits of herd immunity
New York Biotopes, abstract plants and creatures growing in NYC
New York Biotopes deals with abstract plants and creatures, which change their forms because of insufficient living space and adapt themselves to the surroundings of the metropolis New York City. Set to the music of Man Mantis. More videos from Lena Steinkühler on her Vimeo channel.
"Print and digital can co-exist; we’re trying to level the playing field"
What happens when you’re a crimefighter and your sidekick grows up to be an arrogant, ungrateful douchebag? What on Earth could draw the two of you back together again?.
Insufferable is a new web comic from Mark Waid (writer of Captain America, 52 Kingdom Come and Daredevil among others), creator of Irredeemable, and ex-chief creative officer of Boom Studios) being offered via Thrillbent, a platform he he and others hope will revolutionise digtial comics.
Waid's goal in the long run: to create a collective of new creators and industry veterans who want to aggregate their content and use the digital medium in new and different ways. [more inside]
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
An updated gallery of National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry's last roll of Kodachrome film. [more inside]
Defeats Cabin Fever
8 GIFs of Bill Cosby Dancing. What it says on the tin. Move the furniture and get down!
I WANT TO LIVE! God, sometimes I wish I'd never been born
The Dark Side of the Sun (Wiki) was Brad Pitt's first starring role in a movie. Made in Yugoslavia in 1988, the film was apparently lost until after the Croatian War of Indepedence. When Brad Pitt became famous the film was somehow rediscovered and released, straight to video, in 1997. The story concerns a man who has a rare skin disease that could kill him if he is exposed to light. For much of the movie, Pitt appears in full leather, covering his whole body, including his face. Here's Part 1 of 12, but if you just want to see a very young Brad Pitt, start at Part 6.
OMG SCIENCE!
Henry Reich of Minute Physics shares his favorite science blogs, video channels, and other resources on the web. (Minute Physics previously) [more inside]
The sunsets were purple and red and yellow...
Not little fluffy clouds in Arizona, but little squishy, um...orbs. In the desert near Tuscon, thousands of tiny purple spheres have appeared, isolated from the rest of the terrain. The mysterious objects, described as being like "gooey marbles that ooze out a water substance when squished," have yet to be identified.
Slinky Skull
Li Hongbo's flexible paper sculptures are incredible. Li Hongbo makes the sculptures by manually gluing sheet upon sheet of paper together to make 3D objects which bend and flex in mindbending ways. Portfolio and bio (slightly NSFW), and more pictures and videos of the sculptures in action.
"Scholars, however, have long known a very different story"
The Real Cuban Missile Crisis: Everything you think you know about those 13 days is wrong.
The Moose Cleanse
You are getting very sleepy
Drift into the weekend with Henry Flynt, Zomes, and Spacemen 3. Hell, play all three at the same time.
The Unsettling Beauty of Lethal Viruses
“Viruses have no color as they are smaller than the wavelength of light,” says Jerram, in an email. “So the artworks are created as alternative representations of viruses to the artificially colored imagery we receive through the media.” Jerram and Davidson create sketches, which they then take to the glassblowers, to see whether the intricate structures of the diseases can be replicated in glass, at approximately one million times their original size. RECENTLY
You Will Select A Decision
"In 1987, an anonymous team of computer scientists from the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic wrote a series of children's books based on the popular Choose Your Own Adventure series. The books were hastily translated into English and a small number were exported to America, but the CIA, fearing a possible Soviet mind control scheme, confiscated them all before they could be sold. Now declassified, the books have been lovingly converted to a digital hypertext format and put online for the English-speaking world to enjoy."
Northern Lights
An internal investigation is ongoing
"John, can you explain to me why the sprinkles are empty?"
[SLYT. Trigger warning: cuteness, small child.]
[SLYT. Trigger warning: cuteness, small child.]
Their heart aches for what the eye does not see
"This is what cultured people are like. In order to be cultured and not to stand below the level of your surroundings it is not enough to have read “The Pickwick Papers” and learnt a monologue from “Faust.” …
What is needed is constant work, day and night, constant reading, study, will…. Every hour is precious for it…. Come to us, smash the vodka bottle, lie down and read…. Turgenev, if you like, whom you have not read.
You must drop your vanity, you are not a child … you will soon be thirty.
It is time!
I expect you…. We all expect you."
- Anton Chekhov on the 8 Qualities of Cultured People, in a letter to his older brother Nikolai
the inside of my Trapper Keeper except British actors instead of horses
Behold, terrible drawings of British actors. (Note: the blog was originally called Terrible Drawings of John Finnemore, but there weren't enough pictures of John Finnemore on the internet, and, so, yes.)
Also I Have Dinosaurs!
On a mountain top somewhere in the Andes mountains, a small group of very, very, very old nuns maintains a cozy orphanage. The kids have lost their families, and it may never stop snowing, but there's always a fire in the fireplace and a never-ending supply of snowballs just outside the front door. It's Snowflakes, a comics series in 5 Acts, by James Ashby, Chris Jones and Zach Weiner.
Who By Fire
Get your CanCon on! Buck 65 covers Leonard Cohen in a new video directed and choreographed by Jacob Niedzwiecki. The video for 'Who By Fire', inspired by the motion of a pendulum, just had its world premiere at New York's Lincoln Center as part of the 2013 Dance on Camera Festival.
"Now I know to keep my pants on.”
When Bill Met Shelly Bill Ott will always remember the moment he met Shelley Belgard. It was in spring 1988. He was 12 and sometimes shy. Into music, sports and, suddenly, girls.
Once upon a time ...
Don't go out and sell your U.S. Steel stock
The Land of the Free: How Virtual Fences Will Transform Rural America (originally posted on v-e-n-u-e.com)
Is this the secret US Drone Base in Saudi Arabia?
Noah Shachtman of Wired has published Bing/Nokia satellite maps that shows what appears to be a previously unknown US drone airbase deep in the desert in Saudi Arabia. [more inside]
See if glass breaks. Jump on stuff. See if bullets leave holes.
Are you crazy to follow your dreams?
It’s psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I’ll get a saw.
Calvin and Hobbes in real life.
Fleetwood Mac’s strangely savage “Tusk” was the band’s weirdest hit
AV Club discusses "Fleetwood Mac's weirdest hit" in a feature called Hear This.
“Tusk,” which is featured prominently and often in the première of FX’s The Americans... is a work of strange savagery, overlaid with jungle sounds and a thudding, endlessly repetitive drum riff that drives everything that happens in the song.[more inside]
Bush family data breach exposes GWB's artistic chops
The apparent hack of several e-mail accounts has exposed personal photos and sensitive correspondence from members of the Bush family, including both former U.S. presidents, The Smoking Gun has learned. Among this leak are some of George W.'s self-portraits.
I did not have sexual relations with that solar panel
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has refused to confirm that the reason for his resignation is a compromising photo recently published online. Posting on his personal Facebook page, he states: "I just want everyone to know that my decision not to serve a second term as Energy Secretary has absolutely nothing to do with the allegations... I’m not going to confirm or deny the charges..."
"The cryptanalyst has two cards in her hand, so there's nothing to do"
A card game to teach computer security. [d0x3d!] is the creation of some Naval Postgraduate School computer scientists, designed to help players learn digital security concepts. Playtested with middle school students.
Shattered Glass Animals
Shattered Glass: Animal Sculptures "Using carefully broken shards of colored glass, Polish artist Marta Klonowska assembles translucent animals in life-like proportion and size." Title link contains small collection of eleven images.
The gallery portfolio of the artist contains a more extensive list.
The glass sculptures were originally shown at the European Glass Content exhibition, which took place on the Baltic island of Bornholm in 2011. [more inside]
Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
Representative democracy is what's happening. Unfortunately, democracy is broken. There's a hidden failure mode, we've landed in it, and we probably won't be able to vote ourselves out of it. (via cstross)
I got a floating M4 stickin' out of my head
Better known as Miracle of Sound, Gavin Dunne of The Escapist composes and performs songs dedicated to popular video games and movies. [more inside]
Peddling the jump-shoot-dodge cycle.
Flash Friday: Intrusion is a 2008 run'n'gun side-scrolling flash game by Russian developer Aleksey Abramenko. Try the demo of Intrusion 2, his 2012 follow-up, finally out after three years of development.
February 7
In the future, all Space Marines will be Games Workshop
Last December Amazon blocked sales of the Ebook Spots the Space Marine by author M.C.A. Hogarth after a notice from gaming industry powerhouse Games Workshop that they had trademarked the phrase "Space Marine" and that Hogarth, and anyone else who uses it, is infringing. GW brought this complaint based on "Class 16" of their European tradmark. [more inside]
UFO Over Santa Clarita, ALIENS IN MEXICO !!!
"Shot October 2012 while driving through Santa Clarita. There were two crafts. After sighting the first I stopped the car and ran into a field for a better look. What happened next was unbelievable." Except the unbelievable thing is that everything was faked, not just the too-real looking UFO, as Wired breaks down the elements in the video. But if you're excited about this video, watch out! ALIENS IN MEXICO !!! And Dominican Republic! More than five years ago! Except, it wasn't real then, either. [more inside]
Tonghua Night Market
台北，臺灣 (Táiběi, Táiwān, aka Taipei) is home to many night markets. (What is a night market, you ask? It's a street, lined with stalls and vendors selling all sorts of food, clothes, gadgets, geegaws and entertainments. At night, it's full of activity and opportunities for people-watching. Night markets are sometimes located near temples.) The most famous include 士林夜市 Shìlín Yèshì (lots to see there) and 華西街 Huáxījiē, also called Snake Alley, but here are some links about one fairly typical mid-sized night market located in southeast Taibei City. [more inside]
Les Militaribles
Floating effortlessly out to the horizon
Oppa Harlem Style
The shadow of the gun
My Eight Years with a Gun "If the government was powerless to stop this onslaught, then the gun in my pocket was a declaration that the city had broken the social contract."
2^57885161 - 1
The new largest prime number has been discovered! Why is this awesome? Because it is more than 17 million digits long. Also, the article contains quotes from mefi's own escabeche.
Two tastes that taste great together
"Metaldudes Cats Book challenges stereotypes of masculinity and the metal culture in general. Now... I think we can all agree that cat photos and videos are a pretty integral part of the internet these days, so it feels a little pointless to describe why you might want to look at more cute cats. DUH! However: Metaldudes Cats Book combines three loves that have a global reach: Kitties, Metal, and Duuuudes." Although metal and cats are not a new combination on the internet, photographer Alexandra Crockett wants to take metal + felines to the next level. The AVClub has more.
Why aren’t YOU thinking about the Master of Disguise all of the time?
The Master of The Master Of Disguise has watched the Dana Carvey flop The Master Of Disguise for 21 days straight and come up with some surprising insights.
There are no Black comics writers at Marvel or DC
"As near as I can tell, throughout DC Comics' more than 75-year history, the publisher has only ever hired two black women writers on monthly titles: Felicia Henderson on Teen Titans and Angela Robinson on The Web, both in 2009. That should be put in some perspective: If those numbers are accurate, it would mean that DC has more white women writing monthly books for them right now than they've had black women in the same role in more than three quarters of a century. That said, they are potentially doing better than their principal competition: Try as I might, I cannot find a single black woman who has ever written a monthly ongoing comic for Marvel in the publisher's history." -- Joseph Hughes talks about the lack of Black comics writers at Marvel and DC both right now and historically. [more inside]
A Monster Beat By Dr. Dre
The fascinating story of the origins of those high priced headphones all the kids are wearing these days.
Windless kite-flying
Class Returns 401
Tonight marks the return of Community, the start of its fourth season and the first without showrunner (creator), Dan Harmon. Yesterday, the writing staff for Community showed up on Reddit to answer questions. [more inside]
And for this, I am no longer nothing, I am more
Wake up Sheeple!
En arche en ho Legos :: The Price of a Lego Brick
“LEGO® sets are not cheap toys. They are made to the highest standards and have the price to go along with it. However, in the past couple decades it seems that the price of LEGO sets has become outrageous. New sets can sell for up to $500 retail and old sets can sell for twice that in a secondary market. This is a children’s toy, right? There is no way LEGO sets have always been this expensive; it is just molded plastic. Let’s take a look at the history of LEGO pricing and try to figure out what is going on.”
First you were all like "whoa", and we were like "whoa"
Winter storm "Nemo" is headed for New England, and weather experts are predicting more than two feet of snow in some areas. [more inside]
RN Library, a library of nurses' practical tips
100 Really, REALLY Useful Web Sites for Nurses | 100 Educational Twitter Feeds for Med Students | What Really Happens on a Hospital Night Shift? | 10 Hotel Health Traps You Should Really Beware Of |The ABCs of Vitamins and much more.
"There were plenty of extra-diegetic similarities as well"
"So far, it’s chaos. It’s hard to evaluate how widespread this is."
“Compliance with treatment is a sketchy thing to begin with,” said Sam Muszynski, director of the office of health care systems and financing for the American Psychiatric Association. He fears that financial fallout may force some providers to disrupt care, leaving mentally unstable patients on their own temporarily -- or longer. “All it takes is one missed appointment,” he added.
Changes instituted on January 1 to insurance claims codes have glitched the system by which mental health professionals get paid - prompting fear that many will have to stop providing care. More information on the changes to the codes.
Boys and girls in the demimonde
Aneta Bartos is a photographer whose most recent show, Boys, features lush, pictorial images of young men masturbating in the Carlton Arms Hotel (and is on display at the same hotel). All of her work, aside from her commercial portraits, is explicitly sexual, including male and female nudity. [more inside]
Screenwriters on screenwriting
The Q&A With Jeff Goldsmith is an irregularly released podcast where Mr. Goldsmith interviews, at length (each episode runs an hour or more), working Hollywood and foreign screenwriters. The most recent episode is a panel conversation with the year's Oscar-nominated screenwriters. You can listen to the podcasts on his site or subscribe in iTunes or on Android.
Goldsmith is also the publisher of the terrific screenwriting magazine Backstory--currently only available for the iPad but coming (eventually) to the web and Android. You can download the first issue (which is wonderful, and contains full length scripts along with the interviews and stories) for free.
Goldsmith is also the publisher of the terrific screenwriting magazine Backstory--currently only available for the iPad but coming (eventually) to the web and Android. You can download the first issue (which is wonderful, and contains full length scripts along with the interviews and stories) for free.
NBC Closes EveryBlock
NBC abruptly closed the popular hyperlocal news site EveryBlock today , surprising founder Adrian Holovaty (who left last year). [more inside]
Art That Panders
Head related to famous vulva found after 144 years
The most famous female pudenda in the world, depicted in Courbet's 1866 painting L'origine du monde (The Origin of the World), which has been drawing crowds at the Orsay Museum since 1995 (and caused recently some Facebook-related controversy), may be soon reunited with the head of their owner, Irish model and muse (for Courbet and Whistler) Joanna Hiffernan. The theory is that the painting originally showed Hifferman's whole body, as in Courbet's Sleep, and was later cut in several pieces, though some art critics already disagree (Most links NSFW).
Women's Work
The Ballad of the Unpaid Intern. Not That Kind of Secretary. The Home Economics of Domestic Workers. Parts of Grace Bello's series Women's Work on how popular culture depicts working women. Via.
Invasion of the Literaries
We might not get laughed out of the room, but the question is: would we want to be stuck in it with some guy who would ask: Since we already have Aristophanes, who needs Kurtzman? Since we have Erasmus of Rotterdam, why would we want Steve Martin? With Wagner still available, who cares about the Firehouse Five? Furthermore, would we let that guy organize the party music?Eddie Campbell on fallacies of comics criticism.
What appears at first to be taking a more stringent view is in fact applying irrelevant criteria. It dismantles the idea of a comic and leaves the parts hopelessly undone.
Pristine Condition! Super Fast Shipping! Five Stars!
Amazon contemplating the used ebook market. But will they still have used book coffee rings on the pages? [more inside]
I've only smelled earthworms in mono...
The common mole is nearly blind, but it makes up for its poor eyesight with a nose that can smell in stereo
Shall the artist survive?
In 1934, the Public Works of Art Project was born. It served to offer employment to many artists, and produced thousands of works of art, including 2000 posters and 1100 murals, primarily in post offices, across the United States. [more inside]
Sick Papes
Sick Papes on Allometric Scaling of Metabolism, Growth, and Activity in Whole Colonies of the Seed‐Harvester Ant Pogonomyrmex californicus: “Dudes have been flubberbusting long and hard about whether we should think about the bees in a hive (or people in a city, or dicks in a game of dick jenga) as a wonderful communion of separate beings or as all just the dangly bits of one MegaMan. As the disturbing old saying goes, there’s many ways to skin a cat, but what perverted shitbag wants to skin a cat a bunch of different ways? So the world was on the verge of turning its back forever on this age old question and exploding in a supernova of its own ignorance. That is until some brave souls (Dr. James Waters and colleagues) figured out the illest of ways to blow the lid off a part of this problem. But let me slow my roll a bit and fill in the rubbly background that makes it crystalline just why this pape is so sick…” [more inside]
Cat Trigger Warning
Sam is the most worried cat in the world. Tard is the most unhappy cat. But are they really? The psychological process known as anthropomorphism may potentially have moral ramifications that extend beyond dressing your cat in adorable costumes.
They told him: Don't go to Jersey Hill. You'll lose your birds.
The case of the disappearing homing pigeons. Between 1968 and 1987, about 900 homing pigeons released at the Jersey Hill fire tower in upstate New York got lost, never to be seen again. Why couldn't they find their way home?
These pages are not under construction
Thanks to the Archive Team's rescue of Geocities (previously), you can now stroll down memory lane with One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age Photo Op, a Tumblr of Geocities screenshots generated in Netscape 4.51.
Coming soon: Pippi Blondestocking
An unknown publisher has used Amazon's CreateSpace to make a new, three-in-one volume of L.M. Montgomery’s classic "Anne of Green Gables" series with a bold re-imagining of Anne's look on the cover. Reactions are more or less as expected.
New from VIDEO Magazine, it's Electronic Games!
NEW from VIDEO Magazine, arising out of its popular "Arcade Alley" column, it's ELECTRONIC GAMES Magazine!(page of PDF links) Brought to you by editors Frank Laney Jr. and Bill Kunkel, and filled with all the latest news on programmable home console games, computer games (with special coverage for the new ATARI 800 system), stand-alone electronic devices and arcade gaming. [more inside]
Put your back in it.
Diplo feat. Nicky Da B - Express Yourself (SLYT - definitely NOT the Madonna song.)
WUB CATS = BEST CATS
Galileo and impolitic science
February 6
Paola-4
A brilliant comic about choices and regret. And time travel, and love, and sushi: Paola-4 (via) [more inside]
Top 30 music videos per year, in 15 minutes or less
Canal de willtopsmusictv provides a valuable service, summarizing the top 30 songs* for a year, from 1980 to 2012, in 8 to 15 minutes. 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993**, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. [more inside]
Presidential Monsters
Presidential Monsters -- And now you know the truth about our government!
Slavery was 'an utter violation of capitalism'
The inefficiency of it all ... Here's a great infographic: slavery and cotton in the South in 1860. But if the map is interesting, the article is astonishing. It says only 2 percent of Deep South land produced cotton in 1860 -- and only 13 percent grew any crop at all. You better read that last sentence again.
"He's as hard-core as a baby"
Free the Cannibal Cop: His fantasies are sick. His prosecution is even sicker.
[No pictures, text has graphic content around sex and violence.]
[No pictures, text has graphic content around sex and violence.]
What-If Numbers
XKCD/What If's Randall Munroe brings meaning to numbers. As a by-product. Of his day-to-day research. For your day-to-day entertainment.
From the Mississippi Delta to Dumfries and Galloway, and back again
Third Man Records, the US label owned by Jack White, is collaborating with Document Records to release vinyl-only remastered versions of blues artists. Document Records, run by Gary and Gillian Atkinson in Scotland, holds the largest known pre-1945 blues, jazz and country archive in the world, with 900 titles and around 25,000 tracks. [more inside]
It's about a scientist who makes a deal with the devil.
Utopia is a new British TV show about members of an online comic book forum who are in search of a cult graphic novel that can predict the future. It draws from 90s underground culture and the conspiracy theories around Grant Morrison's Invisibles. Den Of Geek spoiler-free review and links to the rest of their reviews. Spoileriffic Guardian review. Guardian reviews blog. [more inside]
‘Wonderful how one loses track of the days up here in the mountains.’
Titus Gets Buckets
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers..
The United States Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays starting in August.
The move is expected to save $2 billion annually, which will no doubt help fix their imaginary pension problem. [more inside]
Don't you know that there's a law against what you're doing?
Dreams of Space
Dreams of Space. A blog featuring art from non-fiction children's space flight books 1945-1975. Lots of great graphics, from the realistic to the now fanciful. I must also point out the wonderful Czech pop-up book and A Trip to Outer Space With Santa.
Trekken the Canyon
As a follow-up to this post, Google has now launched its Grand Canyon street view imagery. (gallery) (promo video)
The Photo Album of Babel
"Using custom-written software (and a very long period of time), every possible photograph is generated, one at a time and in numerical order."
"I want to show that you can still be beautiful or sexy with cancer."
A day before her 32nd birthday, Jill Brzezinski-Conley was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. She's now 35, and her cancer has metastasized to terminal, stage-4. Sue Bryce won Australian Portrait Photographer of the Year in both 2011 and 2012, and last year's prize was a one-person trip to Paris. After hearing her story, Bryce took Brzezinski-Conley with her to the City of Light for a photo shoot and brought along a videographer. The resulting short film: "The Light That Shines." (Also on Vimeo.) Photos. (click the open magazine at the top of the page). The video and photos both show a topless Ms. Brzezinski-Conley, and may be nsfw. [more inside]
Is Twilight empowering to young women?
"I think Twilight is one of the best things to happen to young female sexuality in the same way that I think that Fifty Shades of Grey is one of the best things to happen to adult female sexuality. We live in a culture that is overwhelmingly sex negative, particularly for women. If the only porn that women will consume is “abstinence porn” and its fan fiction, that is okay with me." -- Emma Vossen argues that Twilight allows young women to fullfill "fantasies of sexual and supernatural empowerment" and that's why so many people hate it. [more inside]
She might've called it Getyouracttogether.org, but she changed one word.
Get Your Shit Together helps you do what it says on the tin. After her husband died in a 2009 bike accident, Chanel Reynolds created the site as a step-by-step toolkit to help keep track of important life documents and tasks. Four days after its launch, the New York Times got in on the action. [more inside]
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm
How exactly did England get that name, anyway?
casualties of the info-war
The man who got rid of corsets.
Paul Poiret was known as the King of Fashion who broke the rules.
The cult of celebrity around the couturiers was more or less his invention.
“It was my inspiration of artists, in my dressing of theatrical pieces, that I served the public of my day.”
His fashion at the Metropolitan Museum. He died penniless and nearly forgotten.
Elsa Schiaparelli (prev) paid for his funeral. Paul Poiret A Critical approach.
The cult of celebrity around the couturiers was more or less his invention.
“It was my inspiration of artists, in my dressing of theatrical pieces, that I served the public of my day.”
His fashion at the Metropolitan Museum. He died penniless and nearly forgotten.
Elsa Schiaparelli (prev) paid for his funeral. Paul Poiret A Critical approach.
hot sauce + drum stick
Things fit into other things perfectly on thingsfittingperfectlyintothings.tumblr.com.
The Scared is scared
I asked a six year old what my movie should be about, and this is what he told me.
Not so nurturing
Mamá. The sphincter-tightening short film by Andres Muschietti that inspired the movie of the same name, with an introduction by producer Guillermo del Toro.
"No. NO! This way! Come ON!"
Dog [Attempts] to Walk Horse. [slyt]
Wild Bill Cooper
In the early 1970's Bill Cooper headed up an expedition to snowmobile 5000 miles from Minnesota to Moscow. After not completing the trip and returning home Wild Bill turned his talents towards “The Marijuana Air Force”, an endeavor, amongst others, placing him on America’s 10 Most Wanted list of the U.S. Marshals. They never caught him.
Using footage from the '72 expedition that has been stuck away in attics and basements filmmaker Mike Scholtz made Wild Bill's Run. The strange but true story of a snowmobiling outlaw.
And you can watch it for free tomorrow, 7pm EST, on Outside magazine's website.
Twelve Mintue Chunks Of White Hot Knowledge!
John And Hank Green (previously), amusing youtube teachers of world history and biology have finished the first cycle of their educational series Crash Course (previously) and have wrapped up mini lessons on Literature and Ecology. Now they've just started two brand new series on U.S History and Chemistry (to come). Outtakes.
Famous foods of Japan by prefecture
So, I’ve been doing my research. Because there are so many prefectures and so many famous foods, I’m going to be breaking this article up into two parts. One for North, East, and Central prefectures of Japan, and one for West and South prefectures of Japan. At the end of the second part, we’ll also include a printout that has a map with numbers on all the prefectures corresponding to a list down below it. That way you can print this out, take it with you, and go on a rompy food excursion in Japan.
When Walt Met Peter Met Abe Met Andy Met Philip: "The Perfect American"
"Disney goes to Anaheim late at night to help repair the animatronic Disneyland Lincoln, which has been malfunctioning and attacking members of the audience. Disney gets in an argument with the robot about blacks, and Lincoln goes crazy again and whacks Walt...." (source). Starting today at 2 PM Eastern time (just under 3 hours from now) and for the next 90 days, medici.tv will stream, free of charge, Teatro Real's January 22 premiere performance of the new Philip Glass opera The Perfect American. It's based on the novel of the same name by Peter Stephan Jungk, which the NY Times called "a surreal, meditative, episodic account of the last days of Walt Disney." Four minute preview video. ENO rehearsal trailer. (Happy belated 76th, Mr. Glass.) [more inside]
Making time safe for historians
Who needs machine readable dates? As far as I can see there are two target audiences for this operation. The first is obviously social applications that have to work with dates, and where it can be useful to compare dates of two different events. An app must be able to see if two events fall on the same day and warn you if they do. However, as a target audience social applications are immediately followed by historians (or historical, chronological applications). After all, historians are (dare I say it?) historically the most prolific users of dates, until they were upstaged by social applications. [more inside]
"Our preferred policy solution is to abolish patents entirely"
"The historical and international evidence suggests that while weak patent systems may mildly increase innovation with limited side effects, strong patent systems retard innovation with many negative side effects." "innovations leading to the creation of a new industry .. is seldom, if ever, born out of patent protection and is instead the fruit of a competitive environment." — Boldrin and Levine. The Case Against Patents. J. Economic Perspectives. (huffpo)
The Animation of Mikey Please
The Eagleman Stag is an award-winning stop motion animation film directed by Mikey Please with a striking visual aesthetic. The website for the film offers a "How It Was Made" video that is, in itself, highly engaging, but comes with a warning: "BEFORE WATCHING THIS, WATCH THIS. THEN ASK YOURSELF IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW." If that link puts you off "making of" media, then perhaps you can watch more of Please's work: Spectacular View, Zombiegotchi, Seven Legs, Animation Tag Attack EP-10, title sequence for The Rabbit Lover, Picasso Pictures Christmas Card, etc.
Tunisia in Revolt
Shokri Belaid, leader of the Popular Front coalition, has been shot dead outside of his home in Tunis sending thousands of protesters in the streets. [more inside]
Don't Be Shellfish, Share the music!
Shrimp Glockenspiel - Prawn Xylophone SLYT. That is all.
Nairobi's mod scene radically corrects Rock Star's lack of creativity
A contributor to the Gameological Society visits his local video game store in Nairobi to demonstrate the sort of games he found there, finding gems like "Guitar Hero: Beatles and Friends" (actually, mostly Bahasa pop music), "Robocop" (with extra rainbow), and what might just be the ne plus ultra of video game mods: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: Kirk Douglas.
Is Everything About Italy Felliniesque?
There Is No Princess, Only Zuul!
Super Mario Busters. It's an animated mashup bringing the worlds of Super Mario Bros. and Ghostbusters together in a clever, delightful way. [SLYT] [more inside]
The Bookstore Strikes Back
Ann Patchett opened a new independent bookstore in Nashville, despite being told that books are dead.
Wikipedia page view analysis 2012
"The best way to reach the highest levels of Wikipedia popularity are to be a celebrity who (a) dies, or (b) plays the Super Bowl halftime show". Examining the popularity of Wikipedia articles: catalysts, trends, and applications. See also the annotated Top 25 Report. Previously: Wikipedia in 2012.
February 5
Sock Monkey Oscar Contest 2013
Oscar Contest 2013 [via mefi projects]
web-goddess has posted her eleventh Oscar Contest.
This year's prize is an unprecendented FOUR Avenger Monkeys: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and Incredible Hulk.
Last year's prize: The Monkey with the Dragon Tattoo. More handmade sock monkeys in the project link.
Fortress UK
Indigoism
Indigoism is a free mixtape from The Underachievers following their videos Gold Soul Theory and The Mahdi.
Not phpBB
Jeff Atwood (previously), co-founder of Stack Overflow, yesterday announced Discourse, which he and partner Robin Ward (previously) intend as "the WordPress of forums." [more inside]
The human paperweight
Robert Lenkiewicz was a prolific and prodigiously talented (if unfashionable) painter, a self-styled outsider, and a philanderer rumoured to have slept with more than 3000 women. When he died, the embalmed body of a homeless man named Diogenes was found in a cupboard drawer in his studio. [more inside]
An Architect Gone Mad
Birds of Paradise
The Birds of Paradise Project "It took 8 years and 18 expeditions to New Guinea, Australia, and nearby islands, but Cornell Lab scientist Ed Scholes and National Geographic photographer Tim Laman succeeded in capturing images of all 39 species in the bird-of-paradise family for the first time ever. This video gives a sense of their monumental undertaking and the spectacular footage that resulted.". See, for example, the Ballerina Bird's novel shape shifting view.
Collections of sci-fi online
Sometimes you might find yourself sitting at a computer, wanting to read something. But you don't want something long. You're thinking, what about a short story, and possibly something in the fantasy or sci-fi realms? You're in luck! Here are four collections, for your reading pleasure: Apex Magazine short fiction | Baen Ebooks Free Library, which includes some short story collections | Eclipse Online, from Nightshade Books | Strange Horizons fiction archive, including podcasts of many stories. If this is overwhelming, io9 has a pick of 5 short stories from January, with synopses. [Previously: Plane of the Ecliptic, on the Eclipse series | This isn't your grandfather's science fiction, where "Exhalation" is from the Eclipse series]
Kendall Hailey
Whatever Happened to Kendall Hailey? At age 16, Kendall Hailey decided she'd had enough of formal schooling, and became an autodidact. She wrote about her experience in her charming memoir entitled The Day I Became an Autodidact and the Advice, Adventures, and Acrimonies that Befell Me Thereafter. After that, she pretty much fell out of the public eye. In December 2012, Jennifer Paull of BookRiot tracked her down and asked her about her past, present, and future, and whether she'd recommend her own child follow her path (and whatever became of Matthew). Part 1. Part 2. [more inside]
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
World’s Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Another Chick. Laysan albatross known as “Wisdom” – believed to be at least 62 years old – has hatched a chick on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. [PDF] [more inside]
All Your Dreams and Diamond Rings
The Capital Children's Choir cover Spiritualized's So Long you Pretty Thing, and Florence and the Machine, Lady Gaga, Bjork, Guns N' Roses, among others. [more inside]
First Toy Multiverse Created in a Laboratory, Say Physicists
foundational notions of classic science fiction seem to be moving closer to reality there's way more here than I am capable of comprehending, but anything that talks about Minkowski spacetime has my attention.
Delicatessen with Love
Our mission is to end loneliness
We set up drinks between two groups of friends: three guys and three girls (or three guys and three guys, etc.). The first step is applying for membership. Once you're accepted, you'll get your first invite to set up a Grouper and can finalize the two friends you'll bring along with you. We handle the rest: we match you with the other group, we pick the spot and set you up with a free drink. All you need to do is show up and have a good time.
Out There Radio
You’ve reached the home of Out There Radio, a weekly audio journey into the world of the occult, conspiracy, counterculture, and the bizarre undercurrents of the human psyche. [more inside]
Great Big Ideas: One-hour lectures by experts summarizing entire fields
In the Fall of 2011, The Floating University assembled a video course entitled Great Big Ideas. Each of its dozen lectures is the product of a challenge given to an eminent authority and expert teacher to take "everything a non-professional needs to know about your subject in less than 60 minutes" and to bake the result into "a multi-media presentation, produced with the highest quality video and graphics." The lectures cover topics as varied as psychology, demography, physics, political philosophy, and more. During its initial offering at Harvard, Yale, and Bard during the Fall 2011 term, GBI quickly became the most popular course at all three universities.
Routh told them “he traded his soul for a new truck”
There and Back Again Kitty
Lauren Rojas, a 12 year old from California, sent Hello Kitty on a return trip to the stratosphere (over 28 kilometres above the Earth) and recorded the results.
On a path to liberation....
Over a thousand monks and laymen are revered in Tibetan Buddhism as the incarnations of past teachers who convey enlightenment to their followers from one lifetime to the next. Some of the most respected are known by the honorific "rinpoche." For eight centuries, rinpoches were traditionally identified by other monks and then locked inside monasteries ringed by mountains, far from worldly distractions. Their reincarnation lineages were easily tracked across successive lives. Then the Chinese Red Army invaded Tibet in 1950 and drove the religion's adherents into exile. Now, the younger rinpoches of the Tibetan diaspora are being exposed to all of the twenty-first century’s dazzling temptations. So, even as Tibetan Buddhism is gaining more followers around the world, an increasing number of rinpoches are abandoning their monastic vows. Reincarnation in Exile. [more inside]
They do furnish a room
Bookish is a nifty new book recommendation engine.
you do whatever it takes to get the marbles to watch "Star Trek"
Doctor Of Celebrity Gossip and frequent chronicler of the Scandals Of Classic Hollywood (previously) Anne Helen Petersen (more previously) muses on growing up with Star Trek: The Next Generation. [more inside]
Not Talking About Pakistan
Part I
Questions about Pakistan are now a fact of living here, no different from damp weather or calls from salespeople. Some I deflect, and others I frame around my own terms.[more inside]
The shocking news that Goldman Sachs is greedy
"Twenty five years ago I quit a job on Wall Street to write a book about Wall Street. Since then, every year or so, UPS has delivered to me a book more or less like my own, written by some Wall Street insider and promising to blow the lid off the place, and reveal its inner workings, and so on. By now, you might think, this game should be over. The reading public would know all it needed to know about Wall Street, and the publishing industry would be forced to look to some other industry for shocking confessions from insiders. Somehow this isn't the case."
The First Lady of Hip Hop
There was no way to anticipate that the reliably malfunction-free Beyoncé arriving in New Orleans for her turn at immortality would be a vulnerable one. At the presidential inauguration ceremony last month, she sang the national anthem over a prerecorded vocal track, leading to a minor scandal, putting her on the defensive. Beyoncé, bionic, isn’t used to having her reputation impugned. Vulnerability is not her bag.
She is, though, up to the challenge — in this case, the conundrum of how to make her Super Bowl XLVII halftime show, which she had been planning for months, not only a spectacle in its own right, but also a conclusion to the messy affair. [more inside]
Underground Overground, Wombling Free
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first television appearance of The Wombles, the beloved children's programme based on the books by Elisabeth Beresford, animated by Ivor Wood, and narrated/voiced by Bernard Cribbins. [more inside]
Does any of this seem familiar to anyone else?
Michael Dell, with the help of a $2 billion dollar investment from Microsoft, is taking Dell private. Dell was once a $100 billion company, but has fallen behind HP and Lenovo in marketshare in the post-PC era. This is the largest leveraged buyout since 2007. [more inside]
One man's Free Speech is another man's fraud?
US Justice Department suing Standard and Poor's over a "scheme to defraud investors" before the financial crisis. More details on these recent developments from The Tech online edition here, which notes: "For many years, the ratings agencies have defended themselves successfully in civil litigation by saying their ratings were independent opinions, protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech. Developments in the wake of the financial crisis have raised questions about the agencies’ independence, however." Reuters opts to let S&P break the news for themselves here.
Reg Presley 12 June 1941 – 4 February 2013
Yesterday morning Reg Presley, the lead singer of the Troggs, died in his sleep from cancer. [more inside]
The Squeaking!
[Adorable Warning]: Children Playing with a Wild Fennec Fox. [slyt]
An unlikely reviewer
"Girls" is a bit of a hit. Although it lost out to "Modern Family" at the Emmy Awards, it continues to receive significant attention as the 2nd season gets underway. [more inside]
All aboard!
By the creator of the California Rail Map, and inspired by ideas from various agencies and advocacy groups: A Map of the US High Speed Rail System
The bLogicarian
"The name "bLogicarian" may be one of the the most pretentious conglomerations of philhellenic puns I could concoct." A blog on language, poetry and translation. [more inside]
"I did it all in one take!"
For Your Consideration - Anne Hathaway (Emma Fitzpatrick) reminds the Academy to think of her on Oscar night via the magic of song.
Shhhhhhh …..
Silent Circle, a security start-up led by PGP creator Phil Zimmermann and two ex-Navy SEALs, has been teasing technology that purports to make mobile communications "virtually invulnerable to surveillance efforts" for a few months (previously). Now, they're pushing a "groundbreaking encrypted data transfer app that will enable people to send files securely from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button." The company has pledged not to comply with law enforcement surveillance requests, nor to provide backdoor access for the FBI.
Interview with Eleanor Kolchin
An affected, narcissistic creep, but he’s also a genius.
Before Penn and Teller
Send them your heart so they'll know that someone cares
To the tinkly piano tune of "We are the world", a video released last weekend from Uriminzokkiri, North Korea's official website, shows a dream sequence involving various rockets, Korean unification, a sparkle-powered North Korean Space Shuttle, and the apparent missile-based destruction of Manhattan. [more inside]
No princesses, no ghosts.
You don't want to be dressed as something white in the darkness when there's a bunch of guys with guns looking for polar bears. All Things Considered has an interview with Zac Unger about his book, Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye, and an excerpt from the book.
"Teens don’t always know about their rights."
The British Parliament are debating same-sex marriage
A story about a library on fire.
Saving the ancient manuscripts of Mali from Islamic extremists.
More and more people are (paper) rich. Another internet bubble?
More and more companies residing (typically) in Silicon Valley are getting $1 billion+ valuations. Are we in the midst of another bubble?
Link to the NYT graphic describing some of these companies.
According to the article, a bubble doesn't exist, as the previous internet bubble is still fresh in people's minds.
Many places are trying to copy this Silicon Valley phenomenon, but is it worth it / sustainable?
That's All Folks
folkinfo.org is a database of English-language folk songs. Each song is listed with its respective lyrics, sheet music, Roud Index number, midi file, and historical information. The database also provides song information in abc notation. Placed into an abc converter, one can generate sheet music in a variety of forms and scales.
Pride of the Yankees (seeknaY?)
In the classic baseball movie The Pride of the Yankees, Gary Cooper played lefty icon Lou Gehrig--but Cooper was a righty. To cover this up, legend has it the filmmakers made a Yankees uniform for him with the print reversed, had him run to third base rather than first, etc, then flipped the shots after filming. But is it true? [more inside]
February 4
make you wanna go to church!
Here's some raw, homespun, electric guitar gospel from a 1950s Checker label release by the Reverend Utah Smith: Two Wings. [more inside]
Penis Pan
So, you own a Penis Cake Pan, but the Bachelorette Party is over , I'm sure you're thinking, "What am I going to do with this penis pan?" Well, I'll show you! Here at Penis Pans.com, I've put together some examples of other cakes you can make with your penis pan.
We'd never change the definition of 'bad guy', honest!
A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.
United States of America v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton
"One thing I was wondering is if any of these paleontologists you’ve talked to have given their argument of why paleontology is important." Fossils are "just basically rocks," he said. "It's not like antiquities, where it's somebody's heritage and culture and all that."Bones of Contention: A Florida man's curious trade in Mongolian dinosaurs. [previously]
Strike that, reverse it
Auxiliofaux is the photography Tumblr of Richard Auxilio, a Los Angeles-based photog whose current project is symmetrical double exposures.
How Nikon Makes its lenses
Douglas?
Click that 'hood! is a simple game which tasks you to locate neighborhoods in one of six cities: Chicago, IL; Lexington, KY; Louisville, KY; Oakland, CA; San Francisco, CA; and Seattle, WA. An easy game gives you 20 neighborhoods: A hard game gives you the entire city.
Everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes
"Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it."
You keep giving Adderall to my son, you're going to kill him
Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions. NYTimes link.
From the article: "The story of Richard Fee, an athletic, personable college class president and aspiring medical student, highlights widespread failings in the system through which five million Americans take medication for A.D.H.D., doctors and other experts said." Trigger warning: addiction, suicide.
"The Internet" is not a thing
Evgeny Morozov, writing at The New Republic, has a scathing review of Steven B. Johnson's Future Perfect. Morozov blasts what he calls "Internet-centrism", the idea that the web has an underlying philosophy that offline society should adopt.
Soccer match-fixing probe: 680 suspicious games worldwide ...
"Organized crime gangs have fixed or tried to fix hundreds of soccer matches around the world in recent years, including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and two Champions League games, Europol announced Monday. The European Union's police agency said an 18-month review found 380 suspicious matches in Europe and another 300 questionable games outside the continent, mainly in Africa, Asia and South and Central America. It also found evidence that a Singapore-based crime syndicate was involved in some of the match-fixing."* [more inside]
"Fullerton is next. Doors open on the right at Fullerton."
Lee Crooks, from the Milwaukee burbs, is the voice of the Chicago Transit Authority's buses and trains. Here's his personal site, with samples (a CTA sample is included in the "Narration" section of his audio demos.) A Tribune piece from when he was more reticent about his identity. [more inside]
"medicine is broken" - Ben Goldacre, co-founder of AllTrials
Ben Goldacre has been talked about here before. This year, following on from his book Bad Pharma - where he described a culture of badly-done medical trials on unsuitable subjects (sometimes with horrific but, tragically, potentially preventable outcomes), where swathes of results that don't reflect well on the drug in question go unpublished and even, in some cases, hidden - he has co-founded the project AllTrials, which campaigns for all medical trials to be recorded and reported. [more inside]
The Unicorn Symbolizes The Never-Ending Quest For Digital Mastery
Agency Wank highlighted the funniest, most pretentious ad agency slogans.
"Ultimately the best thing is for you to re-engage with your practice."
Art Game: a game where you are an artist who makes art by playing games. Requires Flash. By Pippin Barr. [more inside]
Worst of all, the fever had settled in Mary's eyes and Mary was blind.
“When I’m in clinic,” Dr. Tarini said, “and I tell parents their child has scarlet fever, I see their eyes widen. In my mind, it’s no different than a strep throat with a rash, but the specter of history colors their reaction.” Those emotional words describing Mary’s lost vision still carry weight with the parents who read and remember “By the Shores of Silver Lake” and all the books that came before and after it.But it turns out Mary Ingalls probably didn't have Scarlet Fever after all. [more inside]
"The revolution is inside."
Buddhism and Marxism have been called two of the most compelling arguments we have against capitalist exploitation. The Dalai Lama would agree. Once in a discussion about his meeting with Chairman Mao he spoke of his affinity for the ideals of communism, adding with a finger to his temple, "The revolution is inside, in the determination of mind." The Tricycle essay Occupy Buddhism is very well written and perhaps interesting for those who believe another (post-capitalist) world is possible.
Welcome to the Rest of California
Lisa Hamilton's Real Rural project uses photographs and interviews to document the lives of people living on California's farms and in its small towns. [more inside]
"I still don’t understand what happened."
The (possible) power of unconscious suggestion
The amazing influence of unconscious cues is among the most fascinating discoveries of our time—that is, if it's true.
The studies that raise eyebrows are mostly in an area known as behavioral or goal priming, research that demonstrates how subliminal prompts can make you do all manner of crazy things. A warm mug makes you friendlier. The American flag makes you vote Republican. Fast-food logos make you impatient. A small group of skeptical psychologists—let's call them the Replicators—have been trying to reproduce some of the most popular priming effects in their own labs. What have they found? Mostly that they can't get those results. The studies don't check out. Something is wrong.
Brain Project Centrifuge, The
Brutally Honest
Best known for their Honest Trailers [previously], Screen Junkies also features a fantastically entertaining youtube feed where silly interviews, behind the scene movie footage, and strange reviews abound. [more inside]
"If you take away the penises isn't this a Scott Snyder Batman comic?"
For their Comic Books are Burning in Hell podcast Joe McCulloch, Tucker Stone, Matt Seneca and Chris Mautner take on Tim Vigil and Faust. Featuring extensive notes and artwork perhaps not suitable for viewing at work. [more inside]
Canadian Penny, 1858-2013
Today is a new day in Canadian specie, being the last day that the Royal Canadian Mint will distribute the penny. Cash transactions will now be rounded to the nearest $0.05. CBC posts an obituary. [more inside]
Foxes jump in a north-easterly direction
Foxes hunt rodents in the snow by listening for their movements and leaping high to pounce on their prey. Interestingly, they hunt most successfully when they jump in a north-easterly direction - 73% of the time. Jumping in the opposite direction has a 60% success rate. Pouncing in other directions was successful only 18% of the time. This was consistent regardless of time of day, season of year and weather conditions. [more inside]
CBS Bans Superbowl SodaStream Ad
CBS banned SodaStream’s Super Bowl spot because, apparently, it was too much of a direct hit to two of its biggest sponsors, Coke and Pepsi. [more inside]
The Grand Master of Anything Goes.
(NSFW) Clovis Trouille was a French anti clericist and anarchist painter.
He could be called the spiritual godfather of Lowbrow Art or an Angel of Bad Taste. ( Some Repeats.)
It was one of his paintings that inspired Ken Tynan in 1969 to call his review Oh Calcutta.
He could be called the spiritual godfather of Lowbrow Art or an Angel of Bad Taste. ( Some Repeats.)
It was one of his paintings that inspired Ken Tynan in 1969 to call his review Oh Calcutta.
“Art is a guarantee of sanity."
Louise Bourgeois; The Complete Prints & Books
will document every print and illustrated book created by Louise Bourgeois, ultimately comprising some 3,500 entries. Entries will be added to the site once a year, according to theme. The majority of the works in the catalogue are in MoMA’s collection; others may not have been examined by MoMA cataloguers, and their documentation was gathered from various sources.
Also, Louise Bourgeois Art 21
Government Ban On Bitcoin Would Fail Miserably
Jon Matonis is responding to a blog post which itself is citing a European Central Bank paper on virtual currency(pdf) [more inside]
I am determined to prove a villain
Today is the unveiling day of the results of ID tests that may reveal that a skeleton found under a car park in Leicester is that of the last King of England to be killed in battle, Richard III. [more inside]
LA Noire Gag Reel
February 3
Captain Harlock: "The sea of space is my sea"
"Few characters are as memorable as he: tall, black-cloaked, face scarred, eyepatch over his right eye, and ever-ready with his saber-rifle. He is the epitome of Leiji (Reiji) Matsumoto's male hero, an SF version of the wild-West lone gunslinger." The Space Pirate Captain Harlock is coming back in a new CG movie, a decade since his escapades were last animated, and back with Toei Animation, who first brought his one-eyed scowl to the small screen 35 years ago. If this is all news to you, read on for more of the mysterious man who fight's for no one's sake. [more inside]
Dung beetles and the Milky Way
Dung beetles and the Milky Way "When you view the Milky Way, you are gazing through the plane of this disk and at the universe around and beyond—which, astronomers report, is imponderably vast and contains billions of other galaxies ... On Earth, at least, humans suppose that we alone seek out the sweep of our own galaxy. But we’re wrong. In a paper in Current Biology, Marie Dacke, and her colleagues revealed that at least one other species takes guidance from the Milky Way: the dung beetle".
Academic freedom under attack in NYC
The Political Science Department at Brooklyn College is co-sponsoring a panel discussion about the BDS Movement (boycott, divestment, sanctions) against Israel this Thursday Feburary 7th. The event features Omar Barghouti, BDS co-founder and Judith Butler, prominent philosopher. The college has come under widespread attack for its hosting of the event, with a coalition of New York City councillors threatening to defund the school. [more inside]
Beyond untranslatable words
In 1995, an Atlantic story on the first Chinese translation of Ulysses closed with the offhand remark that "no one in China is offering to translate Finnegans Wake." Today on the (day after the) 131st anniversary of his birth, James Joyce's famously difficult work is a bestseller in China.
If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a ...
House of Cards is a new original "TV" series that is not destined for any TV distribution channel. Instead, it was developed by, and is only available through, Netflix. Netflix posted the entire first "season," 13 1-hour episodes, on Friday. (Is this the new thing?) Some of us, cough, watched the whole thing. [more inside]
I'll take the over on the national anthem.
Super Bowl Prop Bets! Neatly organized based on how you think the game will play out, with a few non-football bets at the end. The Las Vegas Sun weighs in with some picks of their own.
"The project began with a mechanical hand"
Bang With Friends
Bang With Friends : presenting a Facebook app to help with your hookup needs. Simply indicate which of your Facebook Friends you'd like to sleep with, and if any of those also indicate they'd like to sleep with you, then you both get notified. [more inside]
Spielberg's adventures of Hergé
Coming to a medium-sized city near you
DARPA has developed a 1800 megapixel sensor array for use on UAVs. It is capable of spotting something as small as 6-inches while covering an area half the size of Manhattan. [more inside]
Pictures of Assholes
Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes out a camera and starts recording his paparazzi. They don't like it. [slyt]
What Made "The O.C." Great, Bitch
Elahi, Elahi, lema shabaqtani?
Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen
At a time when the Lord of the Rings didn't exist as a film or a book trilogy, Fritz Lang created the 5-hour-long film Die Nibelungen (The Nibelungs, 1924), based on the 13th-century poem Die Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs). A short clip of
Siegfried slaying the dragon was used as a trailer for the restored edition of the film. [more inside]
There were four in the bed and the little one said "squeeze up"
From April 2013 all working-age housing benefit claimants will experience a reduction in their benefit if their home has what is termed a 'spare bedroom'. Some people have a problem with this, and it is believed it will plunge 95,000 Britons into poverty.
Prime Minister David Cameron has defended the tax saying it is important to "get control of housing benefit". Some who voted for the tax claim to have never heard of it, even though there are some high profile cases in the media detailing how people will suffer.
The Bedroom Tax might be targeting the poor, but there may be a Mansion Tax in the planning stages to help balance the scales -- or not. It's a modern Window Tax!
For revival, sin and soul
The Revival Tour documentary celebrates the annual acoustic folk-punk Revival Tour that was founded by Hot Water Music frontman Chuck Ragan. Now in its fifth year, The Revival tour has featured musicians like Gaslight Anthem's Brian Fallon, Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace, and British star Frank Turner. This year's lineup includes Chuck Ragan, Rocky Votolato, Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath, Streetlight Manifesto's Toh Kay, Jenny O, Loved Ones' Dave Hause and Jenny Owen Youngs. Folk-punk previously.
The Comics Reporter's holiday reviews
In order to make it easier on himself during the Holiday season last year, Tom Spurgeon ran a series of interviews with various comics professionals on his site: the complete archive is now available. Interviewees range from Alison Bechdel to Mark Waid and from Joe Sacco to Carol Tyler, providing as wideranging a cross section of American comics as you're likely to get anywhere.
February 2
Twenty-one years later...
Tweetping, a Twitter map
Tweetping – astounding real-time visualization of tweets around the world. The fascinating tracker is the work of Paris-based developer Franck Ernewein, who launched the site several days ago. Via.
Bleak stuff
Educational Attainment and Underemployment "The number of college graduates is expected to grow by 19 million, while the number of jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree is expected to grow by fewer than 7 million. We are expected to create nearly three new college graduates for every new job requiring such an education. Currently, more than 20 million college graduates are underemployed—working in jobs requiring less education than they have, but that number will likely soar to nearly 30 million in the coming decade as a consequence of the number of graduates growing by 12 million more than the number of jobs."
Speak, Memory
A meditation on falsehood and truth in memory by Oliver Sacks.
Afghanistan in the 1960s
Batteries not included
André Cassagnes, the inventor of Etch A Sketch, has died aged 86. [Telegraph] [Guardian] [Washington Post] [more inside]
Abattoir Blues
Will oil companies provide Kurdistan its de facto statehood?
Iraq, Kurds, Turks and oil - A tortuous triangle The governments of Turkey, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan play a dangerous game [more inside]
Fort Kickass
A blanket fort is a construction commonly made using blankets, bed sheets, pillow, and sofa cushions. It is also known as a couch fort, pillow fort, or sheet fort. [more inside]
From a racquetball court at Halas Hall . . .
"A kind of literature to end literature..."
Huib van Opstal at Yesterday's Papers on illustrator-writer George du Maurier's work for Punch and the earliest international origins of comic books and strips.
The Mechanical Transmission of Power
Engineering question: say you only had one generator with multiple places that needed power in real time. How to get power to them? Caveat: do it mechanically with no electricity. Low Tech Magazine brings you the Jerker Line System and the Stangenkunst, for all your post-apocalyptic / steam punk power distribution needs. Some are still in operation: Jerkerline Field wheel near Oil Springs Ontario (video), and Oklahoma (video).
Peace and Enlightenment Vs Close Harmony Girl Groups
Why Young Avengers #1, the "Perfect Pop" comic from Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, is the future of Suphero comics. Commentary Track: Gillen & McKelvie Discuss "Young Avengers" #1 - complete with the first few pages of script. Young Adult Library Association Names 2013's Great Graphic Novels for Teens.
The Podcast History of Our World
Bowie: "Get your own pig!"
"There are reasons why this film is obscure. It is, in the most charitable possible evaluation, a mess: Bowie has described it as "my 32 Elvis films rolled into one." And yet life on that ever-dwindling island of not-on-region-one DVD films is a harsh fate for any film and particularly for this one, which is at least as interesting as its cast suggests and a good deal more. You don't need to dig out the VHS player to watch Mick Jagger run an agency of gigolos in The Man From Elysian Fields—you shouldn't have to do so to watch Bowie play one. " David Bowie's Lost 70s-era Weimar Berlin Movie: Just a Gigalo.
Two Sides of a Camera
the power and beauty of mathematics
Henry the VIII's Wine Cellar
Who knew that Henry the VIII's wine cellar was preserved inside the Ministry of Defense building? [more inside]
The Word of the Father
Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles; Lamentations of the Father [single-link Atlantic]
Better then nothing
US Carbon Dioxide emissions in 2012 were at their lowest levels since 1994 According to the the Business Council on Sustainable Energy. [more inside]
February 1
I don’t believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did.
A couple days ago, Minami Minegishi, a 20 year-old member of the wholesome, innocent idol group AKB48 posted a video of herself, head shaved, tearfully begging not to be fired from the group. What horrible crime did she commit? What awful, unpardonable sin caused her demotion and public humilation? Dating. [more inside]
The Book Covers of Yesterday's Worlds of Tomorrow, Today!
Football has been in open beta for 144 years
Tim Rogers reviews American Football for Kotaku.
"Mr. Koch is survived by New York itself."
"He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith. He fiercely defended the City of New York, and he fiercely loved its people. Above all, he loved his country, the United States of America, in whose armed forces he served in World War II." - a self-written epitaph by the former 105"Hizzoner" passed away on Friday morning at the age of 88, and the New York Times City Room blog spent the day collecting and posting stories about him. [more inside]th Mayor of New York City: Edward Irving Koch.
Quest For Fire
"Quest For Fire" - Not so long ago, in a valley not so far away. w/ Ron Perlman (German version; no subtitles)
H.P. Lovecraft's fantasy novel, as a comic and animated movie
H.P. Lovecraft, inspired by Lord Dunsany (Wikipedia; Project Gutenberg; UPenn online library) and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom (annotated stories online), created the Dreamlands, in which he set the 20+ stories of the Dream Cycle. The longest story was The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Wikipedia), completed in 1927, but unpublished in his lifetime. Comic artist, Jason Thompson, started illustrating the story in high school, then re-drew the story after college, and that comic was semi-animated as a feature-length film. He wrote up his influences for a hidden commentary on the DVD, and expanded it online as The Annotated Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. More Lovecraft sketches and comics online in Thompson's Mockman archive. [Previously: Lovecraft comic adaptations]
Now with more hedgehog!
Fact: Every bowl is super when there's ice cream in it.Not a football fan? Looking for alternatives to the Super Bowl? You're in luck, with Puppy Bowl! [more inside]
Once a guy stood all day shaking bugs from his hair.
Hey Web Surfers! Is your family bugged by roaches? You're not alone. Although people may think roaches like dirty places, even the cleanest homes can have them. Roaches Are Everywhere!
Going Clear Blocked By UK Libel Laws
Ruby off the Rails
What The Rails Security Issue Means For Your Startup summarizes the impact of recent arbitrary-code-execution security vulnerabilities in Ruby on Rails: "What Do We Do When Apocalyptically Bad Things Happen On Our Framework of Choice?"
"The announcement was an honest look at the World As It Should Be."
On January 28th, students and faculty at Haverford College received an email titled "Official Apology to the Undocumented American Community", allegedly written by interim president Joanne Creighton, which promised to "extend the same fair, need-blind admissions consideration to undocumented applicants as is currently granted to documented applicants". The email was a hoax, written by a member of Students for Undocumented
Dreams & Decision Equity Now! (aka SUDDEN) to protest the administration's perceived inaction following a student resolution last February which declared "institutional support for undocumented students and applicants." That same month, a fellow SUDDEN member (and a student at Haverford's sister school Bryn Mawr) was arrested for declaring her status as an undocumented American in front of Philadelphia's Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters. The author of the hoax email, himself a Haverford sophomore, defended his actions in an open letter to the community.
" . . . voted to let rural residents drive a bit drunker"
In rural Ireland, pub business is down due to stricter drunk driving laws. In order to increase business, some counties are considering loosening the laws - in one county, "councilors voted to let rural residents drive a bit drunker."
I ate a dog in Vietnam
Vice details dining on dog in Hanoi. (Trigger warning; pics of roast dog, graphic text). Dog eating is not limited to South East Asia, there's a historical precedent almost everywhere in the world, and is still eaten in parts of Europe. [more inside]
EU migrants robbing pensioners while Britain's flooded give you cancer
The curious lifecycle of Daily Express headlines: health scares, weather scares, EU villainy, migrant scares, pension scares.
It wasn't an aesthetic statement, really.
"American Pastoral" inadvertently reveals Brooks and Halard to be deeply insecure, crass noveau riche, lowballing their renovations by hiring desperate, dirt-cheap Chinese laborers, and whining about maids who can't get to work on time, just because Hurricane Sandy knocked out train service. Where's the Vogue-style profiles of those poor souls? [more inside]
Artificial Rainbows
Michael Jones McKean has figured out how to make rainbows from harvested and reclaimed rainwater. This is the official project website, with images showing it in action, and also the production of the method. [more inside]
Significant hacking activity targeting journalists at large newspapers
The New York Times has detailed a successful 4-month hacking campaign by China, infiltrating its computer systems and acquiring passwords for reporters/employees. The campaign was likely in retaliation for the NYT investigation of the wealth amassed by relatives of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Following the NYT announcement, the Wall Street Journal announced that it too was hacked last year. The Washington Post may also have been infiltrated. Slate asks if this could have a chilling effect on journalists writing about China. [more inside]
What a thought looks like
Researchers at Japan's National Institute of Genetics have succeeded in imaging neuronal activity in a fish's brain. They showed a genetically modified (to enable easier imaging) fish some food and "correlate[d] neuronal activity in the brain with prey capture behavior." The video is short but cool. (A link to the study abstract in Current Biology)
Radiance was her job.
"A "mystery shopper" visits every Pret outlet once a week. If the employee who rings up the sale is appropriately ebullient, then everyone in the shop gets a bonus. If not, nobody does."
The doubtful ethics of the new emotional labor.
Who is Really America's Favorite Football Team?
Transparent Tape Nightmare Fuel
Ever made yourself look monstrous by using transparent adhesive tape on your face? Photographer Wes Naman has taken this to a wonderfully creepy extreme in his Scotch Tape Series. [via]
Yeah, the cat's not going to want to do that.
Luthorcorp- It's a name you can trust!
Calm down, Elmyra.
"there seems to be something going on that isn't kosher"
Earlier this week, Shane Windmeyer of Campus Pride made news with an article about his friendship with Dan Cathy, President of Chick-fil-A: "Dan and Me: My Coming Out as a Friend of Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A". [more inside]
Max Sebald's Writing Tips
"As far as I’m aware, nobody that term recorded Max’s words systematically. However, in the wake of his death, David and I found ourselves returning to our notes, where we’d written down many of Max’s remarks. These we gleaned and shared with our classmates. Still, I wish we’d been more diligent, more complete. The comments recorded here represent only a small portion of Max’s contribution to the class."
The slow motion trainwreck continues
Anniversary of 2nd shuttle disaster
10 years ago today, the flagship of the Space Shuttle fleet, Columbia, broke apart upon its return to earth. [more inside]
Sea. Common Night. Forest. City. Mountain. Private Light. Desert.
"From symbols and notions to literary and religious allusions, this chart contains [W.H.] Auden's view of the world (and of worlds beyond), at least as he envisioned it in the 1940s." [more inside]
Paid in Vibes
Last week a debate erupted in the US comedy community between stand-up comedians (like Kurt Metzger and Mike Lawrence) and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater about the fact that at none of their three theaters pay any of their performers (including UCBEast in New York, which often has Saturday Night Stand-up shows). Other comics such as Chris Gethard eloquently came to their defense. This week two of the founders Matt Besser and Matt Walsh released an episode of Besser's pocast Improv for Humans that goes into details about the club's philosophy, including why they have never taken any money from founding and running the theater. [more inside]
NIAGRA OF CURLS
Has a new and effective treatment for hair loss been found in Japan?
Agent for the treatment of alopecia: US PATENT 20120238498 A1 [more inside]
I HATE SPEECH
Jacket2 has digitzed all 10 editions of Roof magazine, an important publication in the development of language poetry.
Featured poets include (pulled from a quick glance): Robert Duncan, Michael McClure, John Ashbery, Michael Castro, Robert Creeley, Alan Ginsberg, Diane Wakoski, Peter Inman, Octavio Paz.
Try repeating it out loud: VIL-lage VAN-guard, VIL-lage VAN-guard.
Village Vanguard. For 70 years, that alliterative name has swung in 4/4 time, marking the center of the known jazz universe to an international circle of musicians and music fans. Since late 2008, NPR Music has been streaming monthly jazz concerts in their Live at the Village Vanguard series. [more inside]
YOU COMPLETE ME
There are days when you wake up and think that there is no wonder left in this world, no mountains left to conquer, no oceans left to explore, no frontiers left to discover. That, of course, is exactly the day you find yourself in an apartment in Logan Square surrounded by 2,700 VHS copies of "Jerry Maguire."
Walking To Mordor And Back Again
For the release of the Hobbit, Lindsay Ellis of the Nostalgia Chick (previously) has decided to look back at all the LOTR films in order to analyze how they changed genre film-making, expected movie length, extended cuts, the problems of adaptation, and why Eowyn and Merry are made for each other. (Fellowship Of The Ring, Two Towers, Return Of The King Part 1, Part 2) Still need more? Then why not watch Kerry Shawcross and Chris Demarais of Rooster Teeth (previously) try to walk the 120+ mile journey across New Zealand from the filming location of Hobbiton in Matamata to the filming location of Mount Doom, Mount Ngauruhoe in A Simple Walk Into Mordor.
And now someone is using my name
San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver gave an interview this week stating, among other remarks, that "we don't got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do." Although he has since apologized for the remarks, the backlash continued yesterday 49ers' linebacker Ahmad Brooks and nose tackle Isaac Sopoaga, both of whom participated in the team's widely-praised "It Gets Better" video last summer, have denied ever producing the clip. [more inside]
The Science Of The Cascadia Fault Earthquakes
Those who may have seen articles such as this Discover Magazine article, may want to know more about the Cascadia fault and the possibility of a Fukushima type earthquake [previously: here].
Here is the best summary of the science that led to the discovery of the 1700 earthquake and the history of earlier quakes. Of particular interest is a beautiful piece of data display in Figure 9 that shows the spacing in time and extent of earthquakes over the last 10,000 years based on evidence of tsunamis produced by the quakes.
Finally, here is a great pieces on Surviving a Tsunami should the need arise.
Arms are heavy, mom's spagetti
You can see my house from here.
One volcano, two volcano, three volcano, four!
Four separate but nearby volcanoes are erupting simultaneously on the Russian peninsula. A Moscow film crew has produced an awe-inspiring 360-degree video of the natural fireworks.
The REAL Hipster bands are the ones the poster misspells, amirite?
Coachella Hipster Cred Calculator "Pick out the bands you like and add them up to figure out your hipster cred". (Points determined purely by how far down the daily billing list they are and how large/small type the band name is (with one exception: somebody must really hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers - not that there's anything wrong with that)