October 8, 2008
I drink it up. Everyday. I drink the blood of lamb from Bandy's tract.
Oil sands will pollute Great Lakes The environmental impacts of Alberta's oil sands will not be restricted to Western Canada, researchers say, but will extend thousands of kilometres away to the Great Lakes, threatening water and air quality around the world's largest body of fresh water.
*****Report: How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin***** (pdf)
Policy makers around the lakes, in both Canada and the U.S., are largely unaware that the tar sands will lead to massive industrial development in their region, and consequently have no strategy to minimize the environmental impacts. [more inside]
Unprotected Memory
So, you watched the movie Tron, and now you want to run your computerized guy off of the game grid and into the rest of the computer system? That's exactly what Daniel Wellman did on his Apple IIgs.
P/E Ratios, The other elephant in the room
Down, but pehaps not down enough P/E Ratios historically revert to 11, at least from 1871-2003 after any bubble, but somehow they did not revert that far after the dot-com bust [more inside]
Morbid viewer is morbid
Does this look infected to you? A Flickr pool that taps into the same part of your brain that makes you slow down to stare at a car accident. NSFL (lunch). [more inside]
japanorama
Japanorama with Jonathan Ross, BBC (nsfw)::part 1::Keiichi Tanaami::urban vinyl::anime::gloomy bear::season 2::part 2::part 3::Takarazuka interview::season 3::2::3::Swords::Samurai::Ninja
An Important Angry Work Of Art
Right to Vote.
As we approach Nov. 4, I'm reminded that an estimated 5.3 million Americans are prohibited from voting because of a felony conviction. The ACLU breaks it down by state.
Edits we can believe in
He holds a degree in jam-making. His stepmother is a former stripper by the name of Kandy Caine. He once appeared in a Backstreet Boys video.
He's Senator Julian Polonius Foley Marcos DeWiki III, and he's running for President.
(more) (via)
Terminator, Phase One
Cyberdyne. Works on robotic systems that shouldn't kill you unless you are named John Connor. And, maybe not then. Cyberdyne. Works on robotic systems that could actually help you walk.
Does it help any that they named it HAL?
Sad Guys on Trading Floors.
"I wanted to hug him, for him to meet my son."
"Girl, he died a hero with tons of people loving him." A jack-of-all-trades worker from Florida came to Houston to help clean up in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, and was killed while trying to save three dogs on a freeway. At first, it seemed the man, while praised as a local hero, and receiving tons of support in death from animal lovers, would remain an unknown loner in death as he had been in life. Then a Google search and an exchange of e-mails led one Houston woman to the man's daughter, living in Pittsburgh. The young woman had been searching for her father for thirteen years.
I will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall.
Fire, brimstone & pee. (SLYT)
Storytime with Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman's latest work, The Graveyard Book, is a kind of undead Jungle Book, with a man-child being raised by various ghosts and ghouls rather than animals. He's been the whole thing a chapter at a time on each stop of his American promotional tour, and posting the videos online (and blogging about it of course), which means that with tonights reading the entire thing will be available online.
The scorched-birdfeeder response to information overload
"I'll argue for the sake of arguing that we as human beings have a finite supply of attention for ambient awareness of things around the world.... And the fact that I know just a little bit too much about popular television due to twitter has to be responsible for some other deficit in my life..." Twitter zero: One man's experiment in staying connected to the public-soundbite world without becoming overwhelmed by it.
Always going to give you up.
"I am not a violent person by nature. I do not enjoy the idea of walking up to strangers and punching them, even if they are fascists. It is just something that needs to be done."
Yes, I remember the night...
I was dancing with my darling to the Tennessee Waltz when an old friend I happened to see I introduced him to my loved one and while they were dancing my friend stole my sweetheart from me... [NOTE: see hoverovers for link details]
Computer game forecasts EOTWAWKI by 2042
According to the Global Extinction Awareness System (GEAS, by the Institute For the Future) - a simulation based on "the worlds’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game" - by the year 2042 AD there is a potentially terminal combination of five so-called “super-threats” which represent a collision of environmental, economic, and social risks. Acting together, the five super-threats may irreversibly overwhelm homo sapiens ability to survive. Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General “We are grateful for GEAS’ work, and we treat their latest forecast with seriousness and profound gravity.”[[press release]]. The game runs from Oct.8 to Nov. 6, players wanted.
Creative mind, troubled soul
"The arts are more dangerous [than other professions] because they require sensitivity to a large extent ... If you go too far you can pay a price -- you can be too sensitive to live in this world." Pondering the link between creativity and depression. [more inside]
Frugality may be termed the daughter of prudence, the sister of temperance, and the parent of liberty
If you listen to BBC radio, especially in these troubled times, you may have heard consumer expert Martin Lewis (on
one, two or four). His moneysavingexpert site is comprehensive and UK-centric
(and regularly referenced on the green). However, the real gem is the site's huge forum, with masses of information that might be useful to just about anybody. [more inside]
Contextual YouTube advertisement for Wii
A novel youtube page promoting Nintendo's latest platform game. The page itself adds context as the video progresses.
vegetarians on the cutting edge
[warning: not safe for anytime, extreme piercing] The Vegetarian Festival in Phuket, when hundreds of spirit mediums torture themselves by piercing sharp spears through their cheeks and other parts of the body. This is believed to avert evil spirits from the community. 28 September - 7 October 2008. [more inside]
Icesave closes its doors
Icelandic internet bank Icesave has closed its doors. The Icelandic government has told the UK chancellor that it cannot pay back the money of UK depositors. [more inside]
Locked-In Syndrome
The Unspeakable Odyssey of the Motionless Boy. "How much of our humanity are we prepared to cede to machines? This is a dilemma of the future, but it's not much of a concern for Erik Ramsey. Erik can't move. He can't blink his eyes. And he hasn't said a word since 1999. But now, thanks to an electrode that was surgically implanted in his brain and linked to a computer, his nine-year silence is about to end." [Via]
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