May 2010 Archives
May 31
Thinking about the immortality of the crab
WikiWorld was a comic series developed for Wikipedia by Greg Williams using the encyclopedia's text and released under a Creative Commons license. It's topics range from the concept of a redshirt in science fiction, public radio personalities like (MeFi's own) John Hodgman, Sarah Vowell and Terry Gross, Godwin's Law, Ann Coulter and world domination.
Pure musical purity
Tropical storm leaves more than 115 dead in Central America
Leaves giant sinkhole. At least 115 people have died after a tropical storm battered Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over the weekend, officials in those countries reported.
Biblioctopus
The Biblioctopus Catalog can be as entertaining a read as some of the rare and antiquarian books that the Beverly Hills, Calif., shop sells. An entry for a $3,300 first edition of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea asserts that the book is “as stubbornly immortal as those plastic baby diapers that won’t biodegrade.” Although Catalog 44 was mailed earlier this month, I have only been able to find links for Catalogs 20, 22, and 34. (previously)
Au Revoir, Louise Bourgeois
Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
No Secrets: Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency. A New Yorker profile of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his "media insurgency."
"I left my stamp."
I scored a goal in the FIFA World Cup Final. A series of short films produced by ESPN about players ranging from Uruguay's Alcides Ghiggia in 1950 to Italy's Marco Materazzi in 2006. [more inside]
Yes, He Parachutes
Primavera by Victor Novikov. WALL·E checks out the scenery. [slv]
Raptors, Owls, Bats Guard South African World Cup Stadium
Open air sports stadiums often have issues with birds, insects, and other wildlife. Common preventative measures include ultrasonic devices and bird netting. But Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium - one of the venues for the 2010 World Cup - has taken an all-natural approach. It is working with the Urban Raptor Project to install raptors, bats, and owls to patrol the stadium for various pests, while a trained peregrine falcon chases away crows. This is not a new technique - Millennium Stadium in Wales has long used a Harris Hawk for bird control. But according to the NMB stadium manager, it "is the only stadium with a programme like this in place as a pest deterrent".
Opera star Rene Fleming pulls a reverse-Sting and enters a "parallel universe"
Rene Fleming pulls a reverse-Sting and enters a "parallel universe" of sound. Brings up interesting issues in the different ways people in the pop and classical realm define the "natural" vocie, as well acknowledges that in our completely shattered, niche market this cross-over record has no more or less validity then any other album being released today.
Towards the exascale
From the BBC, A graphical treemap of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, arranged by country, speed, OS, application, processor and manufacturer. [more inside]
Listen to presences inside poems. Let them take you where they will.
Sean Haldane, a nominee for the post of professor of poetry at Oxford, talks about his dual life as a poet and neuroscientist
Robert Graves wrote in 1968: “I like Sean’s poems: clean, accurate and no nonsense – they still have the original poetic nap on them. They make sense, which is rare these days”.
From The Psychiatrist 2002: Are poetry and psychotherapy too ‘wet’ for serious psychiatrists?
Poetry Therapy is not new.
“I now think poetry has more capacity to change people than psychotherapy”And he also has an interesting blog.
Robert Graves wrote in 1968: “I like Sean’s poems: clean, accurate and no nonsense – they still have the original poetic nap on them. They make sense, which is rare these days”.
From The Psychiatrist 2002: Are poetry and psychotherapy too ‘wet’ for serious psychiatrists?
Poetry Therapy is not new.
Keep Thundering. Never Forget.
Rolling Thunder XXIII - A seemingly endless line of more than 250,000 motorcycles roared across Memorial Bridge into Washington, DC yesterday. The 23rd annual ride, drawing riders from all over the world, wound its way from the Pentagon parking lot near Arlington National Cemetery, around the National Mall, past the Lincoln Memorial to the Vietnam Memorial, culminating in an emotional gathering at the West end of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. [more inside]
Up a bit, down a bit, over a bit ...
Sprocket Rocket is a physics game whose goal is to collect sprockets to unlock argumentations to your egg shaped rocket ship (and school you about IP law but you can ignore that part). [more inside]
Bend me, shape me, anyway you want me
Whitechapel, the Warren Ellis forum, remodels Superman #1, 2000AD Prog 1, Amazing Adult Fantasy #15, Young Romance #1, Zap Comix #1, Wonder Woman #1 and New Worlds #223. More remodel fun. Note that the good stuff tends to be towards the middle of a thread, where the artists have had time to get going and before things tail off.
Hindi Urdu Flagship Program
The Hindi Urdu Flagship Program at the University of Texas, Austin has a number of freely available online resources on Hindi and Urdu, including vocabulary exercises for beginners, video interviews with native speakers discussing various aspects of their language, a Hindi-language podcast on various topics and the ways one can discuss them in Hindi, and several downloadable books in PDF format. [more inside]
We have to protect our village.
A tribute to fallen heros
“Let us acknowledge the measure of their sacrifice by honoring them as brave women, and by honoring them as women who served without thought of glory which we accord to heroes of battle. The service pilot faces the risk of death without the emotional inspiration of combat. Men who battle in the sky have the grim, triumphant knowledge that their bombs and bullets are destroying the enemy, and their courage is sustained by the emotions of conflict.
These women have given their lives in the performance of arduous and exacting duties without being able to see and feel the final results of their work under the quickening influence of aerial action. They have demonstrated a courage which is sustained not by the fevers of combat, but the steady heartbeat of faith—a faith in the rightness of our cause, and a faith in the importance of their work to the men who do go into combat.
Let us pay tribute to these women by honoring their memory . . . Let us treasure their memory as women whose sacrifice has brought honor not only to their country, but also to their organization.
We shall not forget the accomplishments of our women fliers and their contributions to the fulfillment of our mission. And we shall always keep and remember the brave heritage of the women who gave their lives. It is the heritage of faith in victory and faith in the ultimate freedom of humanity.” [more inside]
Joe Gaetjens scored a goal in the World Cup, died as a political prisoner of Papa Doc Chevalier
A heartbreaking 10-minute documentary on Joe Gaetjens who scored the single goal in the USA's shocking victory over England at the 1950 World Cup. Gaetjens was a Haitian accounting student at Columbia University who went to Europe shortly after the 1950 World Cup and returned to Haiti a few years later. His story, and the story of the upset victory, was until recently largely unknown in the US.
May 30
Heavy Baggage
Forest Facts, a site that details the struggle between the Western Canadian silviculture & reforestation industry and the Mountain Pine Beetle. [more inside]
You Sank My Humanitarian Aid!
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is attempting to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza from the sea. Those who ride on the five ships do so for their own reasons. Others are skeptical.
The Flotilla has enjoyed the nominal support of Turkey. In retaliation, Israel has taken a shot at Turkey's wallet. [more inside]
The Far-Right in the UK
A very disturbing video (12 min.) from yesterday's Guardian UK on the recent rise of the virulently anti-Muslim and extreme far-right organization, the EDL, or "English Defence League". For more about the EDL see here (BBC) and here (wiki).
My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am
Dog Surprises Officer After Being Freed From A Fence If you are feeling sad this will cheer you up, but it also may make you cry (SLYT Post).
awesome cosmos
I take massive NASA images and make them easily viewable. Milky Way. Carina. To zoom, click on the pics. All Hubble Images Sorted by Resolution. Excellent Video Narrated by Morgan Freeman [clip from Cosmic Voyage]. [more inside]
"No prints, just the blocks."
50 Worst Pageviews Ever
What do you do when you're supposed to come up with 50 separate webpages on a poorly defined topic? You come up with a mix of dangerous products (most of which were successful before their dangers were known), second-best technologies, just plain silly ideas, cool things that never caught on, uncool things that DID catch on and modern annoyances (including one that your website uses) to make "Time Magazine's 50 Worst Inventions" (link points to FULL LIST, or just refer to all the tags).
(I know, not the BEST of the web; just the MOST of the web)
(I know, not the BEST of the web; just the MOST of the web)
An Interview with Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil: That Singularity Guy In the year 2050, if Ray Kurzweil is right, nanoscopic robots will be zooming throughout our capillaries, transforming us into nonbiological humans.
Ray Answers the following questions & more:
Are we going to look like humans forever, or will we eventually just become ghosts in the machine while our physical bodies devolve into dwarves with lobster hands?
Is the ultimate goal to transcend biology and choose how long we would like to live?
One of the worst oil spills in history you've never heard of just happened.
On May 10th, 2010 ExxonMobile had an oil spill in Nigeria Delta. It is somewhere around the 16th worst oil spill in [wikipedia reported] world history, at 95,000 tonnes (696,350 barrels or 214,475,800 gallons). Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it. Oil spills are a regular occurrence in Nigeria, about 300 a year, it is estimated over the past 50 years about 1.5 million tons have been dumped in the Delta, equivalent to the Gulf War oil spill (the largest spill on record) or 50+ Exxon Valdez. [more inside]
Do: real armour, don't: real weapons
LARP - what is it? - a comprehensive guide in comicbook form.
Nothing is good, nothing is good
Top kill has failed, and oil is still pouring into the gulf
Doug Suttles, COO of BP: "This scares everybody - the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing" [more inside]
Doug Suttles, COO of BP: "This scares everybody - the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing" [more inside]
Rare: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species
"Bryn the pygmy rabbit died in 2008, marking the end of her genetic line. This subpopulation lost its sagebrush habitat as the land was developed for agriculture ... In an off-exhibit room at the Oregon Zoo, the staff was quiet, even reverent, as they brought in Bryn. She was one of two Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits left, and since both were old females, this was a solemn occasion." Rare: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species
Palettes & pigments: famous artists' use of color
Why preserve Van Gogh's palette? - an exploration of color from the actual layout of various artists' color palettes - Degas, Delacroix, Gaugin, Moreau, Renoir, Seurat, Van Gogh. (via Neatorama) [more inside]
West African Masquerade
Large-scale color photographs from 2005 to 2006 reflect the ritual adornment and spirituality of masquerade in Nigeria, Benin and Burkina Faso in West Africa. These portraits of masqueraders build on Galembo's work of the past twenty years photographing the rituals and religious culture in Nigeria, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti, as well as the homegrown custom of Halloween in the United States. West African Masquerade. [more inside]
Can I Have an Earlier Curfew?
A fresh perspective on the hijab, different from the more common apologist/sexist arguments, the carefully academic expositions, appearances in controversial news, and especially the crassly commercial.
Snap Snap Gone.
A glimpse at some of the Polaroid Collection soon to be auctioned. The Polaroid Archives Provide Snapshot of History
Renowned Polaroid users were Ansel Adams and; very differently Warhol with his mass produced point and shoot.
Ten Artists in praise of Polaroid; and a Newsweek compilation. (Related 1; 2).
Renowned Polaroid users were Ansel Adams and; very differently Warhol with his mass produced point and shoot.
Ten Artists in praise of Polaroid; and a Newsweek compilation. (Related 1; 2).
Han. We've been in touch with your stepfather.
Leigh Brackett's original script for Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was leaked online some time in the past couple of months. This isn't the more widely circulated Kasdan treatment, but apparently the original, original draft submitted to George Lucas. Brackett died of cancer shortly thereafter. Ice castles, Wampa raids, transport guilds, Lando clones, Minch the Jedi master, a disturbing lack of incest and no, that's not your father, why do you ask? [more inside]
Religion and America's Academic Scientists
Science vs. Religion: a new book, Science and Religion: What Scientists Really Think by Rice University sociologist Elaine Ecklund, discusses the results of her detailed study of 1,646 scientists at top American research universities. Among her findings: ~36% of those surveyed not only believe in God but also practice a form of closeted, often non-traditional faith. They worry about how their peers would react to learning about their religious views. Interview with the author from the Center for Inquiry's Point of Inquiry podcast. Also, here's a webcast from an author discussion forum held at Rice University on April 7th. [more inside]
May 29
Visual puns
Visual puns combine two or more symbols (picture and/or text) to form a new meaning. The viewer must mentally elaborate on the visual stimulus to interpret the message. There are lots of examples, some good, some goofy, some bad.
Leslie Hall
Gravel In My Shoe, Tight Pants / Body Rolls, Blame The Booty, and Craft Talk are the four most recent YouTube videos from Leslie Hall (previously, via)
Doc Halladay's Perfecto
20 men have thrown Perfect Games in the history of the MLB -- 18 since the modern baseball era began 110 years ago -- yet, remarkably, this month has witnessed two: Dallas Braden's perfecto on Mother's Day (previously), and Roy "Doc" Halladay, of the Philadelphia Phillies, tonight, on Memorial Day weekend (out #27). [more inside]
How to Wreck a Nice Beach
You like vocoders? Dude wrote a book on it - How to Wreck a Nice Beach - and just released a mix of vocoder-heavy music and sound clips to accompany it: The Bears in Your Beargut. If you like robots and/or music, both are very much worth your time! The mix is pure ear candy. [more inside]
The Secret Powers of Time
The Secret Powers of Time An animation of a lecture by Philip G. Zimbardo (previously). [more inside]
Whatever it is it's lovely dear ...
Back to the Jungle
Rochom P'ngieng, the feral "Cambodian Jungle Girl" who went missing in 1989 at the age of 8, and made news some three years ago (previously) when she surfaced after almost 20 years alone in the jungle, has fled back into the wild (according to news reports).
Left toin at Xibalba
Michal Brody's "Invoking the Ancestors: Edward Sapir, Bugs Bunny, and the Popol Vuh" [PDF] suggests that Space Jam is a product of the same mythopoeic impulses that pitted the Hero Twins against the lords of the Mayan underworld. [via]
A new Canadian dictionary
Now that the Canadian Oxford Dictionary hasn't published an edition since the 2nd in 2004, there's a challenger to the much-desired title of standard dictionary of Canadian English: ladies and gentlemen, the 1st edition of the Collins Canadian Dictionary. There's even a short-story contest to promote it: in your 1,000 words you have to include at least 10 from the dictionary.
Cochlear Implant
Jonathan's Cochlear Implant Activation. An 8-month-old deaf baby has his cochlear implant turned on and hears sound for the first time (SLYT). [Via]
Eurovisionary
The Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final airs tonight, 21:00 CET. A live stream can be found here. [more inside]
Perspectives of Poverty
...The development sector, just like any other business, needs revenue to survive. Too frequently, this quest for funding uses these kind of dehumanizing images to draw pity, charity, and eventually donations from a largely unsuspecting public...
This is not to say that people do not struggle, far from it, but the photos I was seeing only told part of the story. I thought that these images were robbing people of their dignity, and I felt that the rest of the story should be told as well.
Duncan McNicholl, a Canadian volunteer with Engineers Without Borders, is embarking on a photography project in which he photographs low-income rural Malawians as they'd be seen by Westerners, and as they prefer to see themselves.
This is not to say that people do not struggle, far from it, but the photos I was seeing only told part of the story. I thought that these images were robbing people of their dignity, and I felt that the rest of the story should be told as well.
Duncan McNicholl, a Canadian volunteer with Engineers Without Borders, is embarking on a photography project in which he photographs low-income rural Malawians as they'd be seen by Westerners, and as they prefer to see themselves.
RIP, Dennis Hopper (1936 - 2010)
Yearbooks of the Rich and (In)Famous
Most Likely to Kill A new blog with the yearbook secrets of the rich and infamous. See William Kennedy Smith and Brooke Shields dancing together. Learn about Squeaky Fromme's friendship with Phil Hartman or the high school election Jack Abramoff lost. Read Matt Drudge's petulant Senior Class Last Will and Testament.
Is the next debt crisis in student loans?
Is the next debt crisis in student loans? Students are graduating from undergrad with 6-figures of student loan debt. With whom does the responsibility reside? [more inside]
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month
The Front Fell Off
Flips, flight through windows, and quadrotor perching.
Prepare for intense levels of decency.
May 28
I'm selling these fine leather jackets...
Bangers + SMASH
Bzzzzzz......
amazingly old trees
Bad Postcards
GaGa Studies 101
Gaga Stigmata: Critical Writings and Art About Lady Gaga is a new (begun in March), heavily "theory" laden, online journal that takes the much-discussed pop phenomena of the Lady very seriously (or tongue-in-cheek, it's hard to tell).
"No matter what ideas the human mind generates, they must never be quashed."
New Scientist Special Report: Living in Denial. Includes articles by Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine [more inside]
These bastards let your brother die
Lego Building Lego (again) (SLYT)
A giant lego machine which builds a small lego airplane. A 10 min video of lego building lego... I couldn't make it through without fast-forwarding, but as a lego enthusiast, I was intrigued by the way the assorted pieces were provided to the machine and moved along to the final creation.
Friends of the Pleistocene
YouCut
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor
(R-VA) has set up YouCut, a website where users can suggest and vote on potential cuts in federal spending, which will be put up to be voted on by the House. Cuts selected by the website include a freeze on federal non-military employees raises (pending a vote), and a cut in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, a welfare service of the stimulus fund. The cut failed in a vote). The House Democrats have proposed that America Speaking Out (previously) be offered as an option to cut for the next round.
whatchu talkin bout willis...? Gary Coleman dead at 42
Child actor, former California gubernatorial candidate, and former security guard Gary Coleman passed away today.
Cards of Wu
Cards of Wu. A series of woodcuts in the form of a fictitious deck of divination cards by Ellis Nadler. They're available to buy online as high quality digital prints. [Via]
Caped Crusader against Corruption
He's a philosopher; wore a super hero cape to premote civic values; mooned at students and admits he has Pakinsons disease.
Colombians, tired of corruption and human rights violations, could be about to bring in a radical new leader: Antanas Mockus, the green candidate whose super citizen’s past could help make him president.
One view of what is at stake.
Colombians, tired of corruption and human rights violations, could be about to bring in a radical new leader: Antanas Mockus, the green candidate whose super citizen’s past could help make him president.
One view of what is at stake.
And this is the first time we are really deciding over matters of national interest and not matters of fear. Issues such as health, education, international affairs. These are the central points of this election.
The First Decoration Day
The First Decoration Day was held by freed slaves on May 1, 1865 at the Washington Race Track in Charleston, South Carolina to honor "The Martyrs of the Race Course": Union POWs who had died in a Confederate prison camp there. Decoration Day later became known as Memorial Day. [more inside]
None of them ever came home.
In 2008, The Nation Institute published a lengthy expose (single page) by Sydney H. Schanberg about the role of John McCain in supressing evidence of American prisoners of war who never left Vietnam.
Despite the fact that John McCain based a significant part of his campaign on his military service, the story never attracted any significant media attention. [more inside]
Despite the fact that John McCain based a significant part of his campaign on his military service, the story never attracted any significant media attention. [more inside]
A Ring and a Promise Given
A Love Letter to a G.I. "This is in memory of an anniversary – the anniversary of October 27th, 1943, when I first heard you singing in North Africa. That song brings memories of the happiest times I’ve ever known." The most romantic argument against Don't Ask, Don't Tell yet.
Maximum Zeuhl
Magma perform a tribute to Otis Redding, 28/7/81 Not sure what Christian Vander is singing? Don't worry, he's singing in Kobaian.
Active Shooter Protocols - Remain Calm, Stay Low, Be Quiet (Don't Forget to Silence Your Phone)
With a deep rift between people they can effectively train and people who can get into the country, jihadi terrorist groups are increasingly suggesting that grass-roots sympathizers plan simple attacks with readily available items. To a large extent this means mimicking tactics with which we're all too familiar. Recall that for Mumbai in 2008, this amounted to nine men holding the city hostage for four days, while killing or wounding almost 500 people. So what should you do [pdf] if you find yourself in an area that is under fire? What can you expect Law Enforcement to do?
Opera Web Browser: Faster Than A Potato
SLYT: Opera Web Browser. Faster than cooking a potato. And without all that ugly Chrome.
No Grading, More Learning
"It would take a lot to get me back to a conventional form of grading ever again." Cathy Davidson, an English professor at Duke, teaches a seminar in which final grades are determined by fellow students. She writes about the experience in Inside Higher Ed.
(Thoughts by Duke faculty about the philosophy of grading previously on MetaFilter.)
Lori Berenson paroled
Putting Race in a Box
Racebox.org A history of racial classification on the U.S. Census from 1790 to 2010.
What's good for America is bad for GM.
How The U.S. Government Built, Then Killed The Safest Car Ever Built. Thirty-five years ago, the U.S. government built a fleet of cars that were safer than anything on the road. Twenty-five years ago, the government shredded them in secret.
Care for some beef, old chap?
I say! Professor Elemental, pith helmeted explorer of the outer reaches of steam-punk hip-hop feels moved to write a letter - deploring the behaviour of a young fellow named Mr B. [more inside]
Say it in Shanghai
Learn a bit of Shanghainese for the World Expo: Say it in Shanghai is a short series of videos from the China Daily newspaper. Very simple, but actually kinda useful and funny. Direct links to lessons: Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four | Part five | Part six.
25 Cent
Rapper and actor 50 Cent has slimmed down to 160 lbs. for his role in an upcoming film in which he plays a cancer patient. Here, a gallery of other actors who notably lost or gained weight for their craft.
If the past is a palimpsest, what are we?
Ten days ago, Slate Magazine conducted an experiment modeled on the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984: they asked readers to look at eight photographs of notable political moments from the past decade and share their memories about each. Over 5,000 people participated in the first three days, but what they didn’t know was that four of the pictures were significantly doctored, and one was totally fabricated. [more inside]
May 27
Biblioracle
What is the Biblioracle? The Biblioracle is a service in the person of The Morning News contributing writer John Warner, said service being a recommendation for what book you should read next. What do I have to do to receive a recommendation from the Biblioracle?
In order to receive a recommendation, simply list the last five books you’ve read. Based on that list, the Biblioracle will tell you what to read next.
The Biblioracle is now closed.
Due to overwhelming response, the Biblioracle can only respond to requests submitted prior to 3:00 p.m. ET. If you missed your recommendation this time around, watch for the Biblioracle’s next appearance this summer!
The time for submission is closed but it's still interesting to see the recommendations that John Warner made.
The soldiers and police were going from house to house in search of Coke
73 dead in Kingston, Jamaica after four days of fighting resulting from the search for alleged drug dealer Christopher 'Dudus' Coke. He remains at large. [more inside]
Journey to the Bottom of the (Cold War) Sea and Back
Submarine causalities are tragedies of war that are not always directly associated with combat. Systems failures at sea are often mysterious, with evidence and remains disappearing to all but the deepest diving vehicles. This was no different in the Cold War, with non-combat losses from the US and the Soviet Fleets. In that era of nuclear secrets, both those of nuclear-powered submarines and nuclear weapons, learning about the enemy's technology was paramount. Such an opportunity came to the US with the sinking of K-129, a Golf Class II Soviet submarine that went down with 98 men on board. The recovery took over six year, involved the possible payback of Howard Hughes, a videotaped formal sea burial that was eventually copied and given to then-President Boris Yeltsin, and decades of CIA secrecy. [more inside]
Russian Lord of the Rings
"If she wants to get together with John at Bard next week, I have his number."
In response to a long and partially unflattering New York Times profile, M.I.A. (previously on MetaFilter) tweeted a phone number with the message "CALL ME IF YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THE N Y T TRUTH ISSUE". That phone number belonged to the woman who wrote the article, Lynn Hirschberg (waaaaay previously). Hirschberg responds.
"A Pulitzer Prize ain't gonna win us two readers," Pope told Newsweek once. "I don't care if other media respect us or not."
Rosa Lee's Story
In 1994, Leon Dash, while still at the Washington Post, wrote a Pulitzer winning series of articles about a woman named Rosa Lee Cunningham. [more inside]
Don't Worry. I Will Survive. I'm Just Singin' In The Rain.
What do Singing in the Rain, Live Is Life, Don't Worry, Be Happy, I Will Survive and Ça fait rire les oiseaux have in common? In a study, French-speaking Internet users identified these five pop songs out of 100, as the most pernicious earworms. Here are their top 25 picks from BRAMS, including audio clips. [more inside]
Play 'til it helps?
The 'attention economy' is so 2007. Now we have the 'engagement economy'. How to turn attention into engagement so we can enlist average joes to help save the world? How about permeating the game-reality boundary? Futurist, game-designer, and existential cookie roller Jane McGonigal assures us that gamers and gameplay are the answer to real world problems. And, apparently Serious Games are geting better. Killer Flu, Chore Wars, and Evoke are recent advances. The 7th annual Games4Change Festival, ending today, offers a spate of new promises. Hope or hype?
Roll for mutations
"There's a hand stuffed up inside of meee..."
VentriloChoir performs "Yesterday" on Hungarian TV show. And the story of how they got there. [more inside]
They're ours! No, they're not! Yes, they are!
To commemorate Argentina's Bicentenary Celebrations 2 days ago, Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana appeals to the British Government to respect the "spirit of the Argentinian people" and reopen sovereignty discussions concerning the Falkland Islands, a British territory since 1833. Despite a recent increase in tension due to British companies beginning to drill to oil in the Islands, the new British Goverment has already rejected talks resuming. [more inside]
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
In the late 1950s, psychologist Milton Rokeach was gripped by an eccentric plan. He gathered three psychiatric patients, each with the delusion that they were Jesus Christ, to live together for two years in Ypsilanti State Hospital to see if their beliefs would change. Vaughan Bell tells the story of one of the weirdest experiments in the history of psychology. (via)
Oil Spill roundup.
'Top Kill' seems to have worked, Apparently stopping the flow of oil -- now officially estimated by the government to have been about 12,000-19,000 barrels/day, with 75% most of the volume being gas ABC News Dives below the surface to get a look at plumes of 'dispersed' oil: (spoiler alert: not pretty). And a BP exec takes the 5th, refusing to testify before a federal panel.
Hello Jed
30 objects, 40 audio and videocassettes, and 1,425 photographs, among them a Polaroid snapshot of Terry Fox’s artificial leg - Douglas Coupland submits his personal objects to the University of British Columbia. [more inside]
'I wanted to preserve the farmyard connotations.'
"Bio Force Ape" Meets "Bean Ball Benny"
Sure, you've played Final Fantasy VII, but what about Final Fantasy Extreme? You've played EarthBound, but what about Earth Bound (two words). You know all about Dragon Quest VIII, but are you familiar with Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mystery Dungeon? There's a whole world of forgotten, canceled games out there just waiting to be discovered. Let 1UP's Jeremy Parish and Frank Cifaldi be your guides in an exploration of The Best Games That Never Were. (Previously)
Joshua Glenn's generational periodization scheme
Joshua Glenn and anti-middlebrow blog Hilobrow present their generational periodization scheme: from the Prometheans born in 1844-53 and the technologically transformative Plutonians born in 1854-63, to the hiply earnest Revivalists (those who were teenagers in the 90s) and the Throwbacks (my generation, and an article that horrifyingly includes pictures of tweens and the Mickey Mouse Club). [more inside]
The beauty of the double dovetail
The dovetail joint was once the king of joints. Mechanically simple and reliable, it's fantastically strong, but it's not simple to get right by hand. Nowadays, the joint has largely vanished due to the rise of flat pack furniture's reliance on screws and glues, but it still exists in high end work and in the hands of hobbyists. Most dovetails are now done using a jig and router to reproduce predefined angles, but every now and again you find someone who goes off and creates something truly beautiful. Like this box with hand cut double dovetails.
I've already thought of that joke
Type one-handed on a keyboard virtually "folded up" to be half the size? Pff. With zero training? Double pff. Except it totally works.
you're dancing to the news
You're listening grooving to ABC News in Australia, or 7 News, or Ten. And now, over to the UK for the BBC or Sky News. Don't listen to the others! They are false prophets!
World in Motion
Norway's modern prisons
Norway's penal system has gathered some attention recently, as the new Halden prison just opened. The $217 million facility will house 252 prisoners, some long-term and some short. The new prison is notable for, among other things, use of armoured glass instead of bars on windows, natural lighting and single-inmate cells with private showers, TVs and access to a gym and a sound studio. There was also an art budget, and Norwegian street artist Dolk was commisioned to decorate some of the walls. The Norwegian penal system is similar to the other Scandinavian countries', with no death penalty, and a "life" sentence of 21 years. In Norway there are no privately run incarceration facilities, and the opening of the rather plush-seeming Halden prison spurred some discussion, but garnered no big controversy. [more inside]
Dochira made ikaremasu ka?
Taxi top lights, called andon (行灯) in Japanese after the Edo-era wood & paper lanterns, come in a variety of shapes and colors. Although originally used in the mid-1950s to discourage robberies, andon are now used as company logos or to advertise.
May 26
An eye the size of a grapefruit, keeping an eye on me...
...and there was just rope everywhere--it went around the whales mouth, around the whale's head, across her eye, over her back wrapped around the pectoral fins, all the way down to its tail. I thought there was no hope, there was no chance, we're looking at a dead whale, the whale just doesn't know it yet--but I knew that I had to try. ...It was a very surreal moment looking down and seeing the 20 crab traps and buoys just disappear into the abyss... And just like that, the whale was gone. ...I'm spinning around, where'd she go, where'd she go ? ...Now here's where the story takes a pretty startling turn. ...Next thing I know there's this fifty ton whale coming right at me...From about 4:00 to 14:30 in nearly 23 minutes of the segment, Animal Blessings--in mp3 here, all 20 megs of it. Or you can try the podcast at RadioLab: Animal Minds. Either way, you are in for a most truly awesome anecdote. And listen to the whole program to have some back and forth science dropped on you in regards to what we think we know about what and how animals think. [more inside]
You May See Them At Pixar Some Day
Vancouver Film School students create a portfolio project or demo reel for graduation designed to demonstrate their creative and technical abilities to potential employers and collaborators. Among the many great samples, I dig Rain Crowds in the 3D animation category, Dance! in classic animation, and Border in digital character animation. But there are literally hundreds to choose from, so please enjoy.
In the Land of The Not so Free
Robert King spent decades battling for his release from the 'hell-hole' of America's notorious Angola Prison. Now free, he's still crusading for its inmates.
The late Anita Roddick was the powerhouse behind the making of the Documentary In Land of the Free.
Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King were charged with murders they did not commit and encarcerated in solitary confinement, for nearly 37 years. Robert was freed in 2001, but Herman and Albert remain behind bars.
Angola not only has solitary confinement it has the prison within solitary confinement – The Hole [more inside]
The late Anita Roddick was the powerhouse behind the making of the Documentary In Land of the Free.
Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King were charged with murders they did not commit and encarcerated in solitary confinement, for nearly 37 years. Robert was freed in 2001, but Herman and Albert remain behind bars.
Angola not only has solitary confinement it has the prison within solitary confinement – The Hole [more inside]
Azawad
Borne in the succession of rebellions, Tichumaren has redefined the image of the Tuareg. Popularized on the international stage in 2001 via the success of Tinariwen, the "desert blues" has changed the conception – from the exotic blue men of the desert to the Kashniklov/guitar strumming desert rebels. [more inside]
Hey, dude, can I trade my wampum for some PBR?
The latest trend in hipster culture is the appropriation of Native American culture, here seen at San Francisco's recent Bay-to-Breakers race. The participants might ask, but why can't I wear a hipster headdress? Threadbared has a round-up of bloggers' concerns about the appropriation of Native American culture.
"...and Wakefield was contracted to conduct scientific research for him."
The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield. A fifteen page comic about the MMR vaccination controversy. Previously.
Kids told him the darndest things
He was abandoned on a door step in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1912. He hosted House Party and People are Funny on radio and TV. A segment became the hugely popular Kids Say the Darndest Things. He co-hosted the opening of Disneyland (with Ronald Reagan). His daughter Diane killed herself by jumping from a window; he blamed LSD and became an outspoken anti-drug crusader. Art Linkletter has died at the age of 97.
Intellectual Ventures
Intellectual Ventures is an invention factory founded by Nathan Myhrvold, who previously founded Microsoft Research and was MS's CTO. Bill Gates raves about IV, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article about the IV invention process in The New Yorker, Newsweek profiled Nathan’s company in April 2010, and this week there was an hour-long TV interview with Myhrvold on Charlie Rose. Take a 6-min video tour of the laboratory.
Wie tanzt man denn eigentlich in einer Mediathek?
Es gibt viele Quellen überall im Internet, wo man Deutsch hören und sehen kann. There are countless German TV channels, great podcasts, and news outlets online. Here are some of the best. Not fluent? Es geht weiter! [more inside]
You're Wrong! No, You're Wrong!
free parking
The last Hummer has rolled off the line in Shreveport, Louisiana. Although the H3 shared the same chassis as the Chevy Colorado, and the H2 was basically a Chevy Tahoe with a different body, the antipathy toward the gas Goliaths was immense.
"It is 146 minutes long...This is an entirely inappropriate length for what is essentially a home video of gay men playing with giant Barbie dolls."
I Watched 146 Minutes of Sex and the City 2 and All I Got Was This Religious Fundamentalism - The legacy of the TV show destroyed forever.
The Ban on Blood Donation
Are the Rules That Determine Who Can Donate Blood Discriminatory? Canadian AIDS researchers Dr. Mark Wainberg and Dr. Norbert Gilmore say that while the ban on blood donation from men who have sex with other men may have been ethically and scientifically justified in the 1980's, it no longer makes sense. (CMAJ.) Even though the US FDA reaffirmed their long-standing ban in 2007, they plan to revisit the policy in June. [more inside]
Bug-eating slugs, fanged fish, and killer sponges (oh my)
Attenborough's Pitcher, an "Udderly Weird Yam," a two-inch phallic mushroom already immortalized on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and the "Bombardier Worm" ("Chaff worm" would seem a more accurate name) are just four of the newly described species making the International Institute for Species Exploration's totally arbitrary Top 10 New Species list. [more inside]
Send Me (X) and I'll Make You (Y)
User-submitted inspiration for comics and art: Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines (prev), and more refined comics from "normal" text spam text. Cartoons drawn from titles sent to one Sam Brown (pseudonym of Adam Culbert). Artists send artwork, someone else adds the text. Submit a video game title and description and get the box art made for you, courtesy of MeFi's own cheap paper [via mefi projects].
"I wouldn't want to live in a world without atoms."
The Peter Nguyen essays of 1999-2004 -- brilliant, illuminating, one-page studies of: [ Influential Person in World War 2: Jimmy McPerson
• Biography: Christopher Columbus • The Stations of the Cross Report • Biography: Walt Whitman • U.S. Capitalism and Influence on Foreign Nations • Atoms ] • Bonus: Andrew Horowitz's "Preserving the Future: The Fight to Save Pop Rocks"
flash fun
50 mostly flash fun sites. These include Record Tripping; Sound of Hamburg; Echogenesis; Incredibox in English and French; Optus Whale Song; Blues Master; Flame. And many more. Soundtrack For A Book is one of my favorites.
The Geotaggers' World Atlas
Photographer Eric Fischer created stunning maps of the places that pictures are taken in fifty cities worldwide. New York. London. Paris. San Francisco. [more inside]
Redesigned BP logos
Oh The Sexual Pleasure
On Failing To Make Bad Porn from Sex Worker Literati - Matthew Lawrence talks about being a rent boy who never shaved or worked out and his camera-obsessed client. Audio NSFW.
Smooth Neck of the Moon
Space, an expensive frontier
High Fashion Lesbian Hipsters
Lesbian Hipster Chic "I represent a small community of high fashion dykes, and I’m not talking about femmes or lipstick lesbians, to use the terms so popularized in culture today. We are often mistaken for straight fashionistas. We are the women who popularized chic undercuts, skinny jeans with patent leather wingtips, sexy flannel, fitted motorcycle jackets, Doc Martens and James Dean vibes minus the James. We are grrls, we are bois, we are young women with a taste for rock n’ roll, a penchant for sex appeal and an undying love for Alexander McQueen, may he rest in peace... It is our duty, as (NSFW) model lesbians, lesbian models, (NSFW) hipster dykes and purveyors of lesbian chic to establish ourselves as a force within the canon of high fashion... We’re fashion fagettes and we’re taking over the runways of New York, London, Milan and Paris. So let’s wrangle the model lesbians like Freja, Cat McNeil, Milou, Myf, Nimue editors like Kate Lanphear... and show fashion that as gay ladies, we not only epitomize the high fashion street style that has taken the world by storm, but we invented it." [more inside]
Reality still eating itself.
Nokia's new ARG ad campaign seems to be co-opting activism for marketing. Written by Tim Kring of Heroes infamy. There's a good summary here. Strangely they managed to troll The Pirate Bay into a response and the bassist from Suede is doing the blog!
Who's counting? We are.
Popular Unrest is a multi-episode drama by Melanie Gilligan (of Crisis in the Credit System) set in a future much like the present. Here, however, all exchange transactions and social interactions are overseen by a system called ‘the Spirit’. A rash of unexplained killings have broken out across the globe. They often take place in public but witnesses never see an assailant. Just as mysteriously, groups of unrelated people are suddenly coming together everywhere, amassing new members rapidly. Unaccountably, they feel a deep and persistent sense of connection to one another. (via)
Pink Hitler
May 25
Exploitative Outsourcing?
Outsourcing has been a mainstay of internet marketers and lifestyle designers ever since Tim Ferriss made it popular. But at least one of its biggest proponents is now wondering: is outsourcing exploitative by taking advantage of international economic inequality?
Butterfield On Lines
I don't think that living through an artificial self is all that uncommon.
Professional oboe player, senior economist in the UK Treasury, fellow of King's College, Cambridge, son-in-law of Jacob Epstein (and model for his statue of St Michael). Wynne Godley, who also wrote about his 'disastrous encounter' with the psychoanalyst Masud Khan in the 1960s, died last week. [more inside]
Mandolin and Unicycle
The Mandolin & Unicycle Project is a thesis project from Matt Manos.
"I have always wanted to learn how to ride a unicycle, and I have always wanted to learn how to play the mandolin, so the most logical conclusion I came to was to learn how to play the mandolin while riding the unicycle. In one month." The project blog starts here.
Six Degrees--Kinda. Sorta.
Six Degrees of Musical Separation. Billie Holiday linked to Jello Biafra? Check. Clyde McPhatter to Moby? They're connected. (Well, the site allows more than six degrees, and it cheats a little by connecting songs, but it's still a neat way to associate one musician or group to a completely different one.)
The art of advertising
AdViews is the newest of Duke University's digitized advertising archives (see previously). Unlike the earlier sites, devoted to print advertising, AdViews is all about American TV commercials--several thousand of them, to be exact, from the agency Benton & Bowles (later D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles). Viewing the commercials requires ITunes. [more inside]
Mutts for the Win!
Hey Spot! Good News! Finally, after 125 years of its existence, the American Kennel Club is letting mutts, or "All Americans," compete in AKC shows in their own category.
Digg for Conservatives?
Lately, the organizations that make up the American Republican Party/GOP have been experimenting with going online. The House Republicans have created America Speaking Out, a website for the people to give their ideas to "an arrogant congress." There, visitors can upload ideas they would like the government to carry out.
Magic numbers: A meeting of mathemagical tricksters
"Gary Foshee, a collector and designer of puzzles from Issaquah near Seattle walked to the lectern to present his talk. It consisted of the following three sentences: "I have two children. One is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability I have two boys?"" [more inside]
The Other Smoke Monster
Tom Waits and Kool Keith collaborated on a song called "Spacious Thoughts" in 2009.
Here's the video. [more inside]
Good Luck Nailing This One To A Tree
Who needs 12 Monkeys or 26 Monkeys? MeFite A.G. Pasquella's new book is all about one monkey, with a question: Why Not A Spider Monkey Jesus? The independently-published book has a nifty cross-platform approach and features a killer cover by Michael Kupperman (Kupperman, previously). [via mefi projects]
Bryant Gets Away With Killing Bicyclist
Charges dropped against the former Attorney General of Ontario despite video evidence showing Bryant first striking the bicyclist with his car and then attempting to get away. Previously [more inside]
Before the earthquake
Great groove. The first track from Airs' Moon Safari
album, accompanied by scenes from a video
shot from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in San Francisco in 1905. (SLYT)
The Teen Werewolves of San Antonio
Nerds. Punks. Jocks. Emos. Preppies. Goths. The high school cliques have to make room for a new subculture: teen werewolves. (SLYT)
Wear Sunscreen.
Ann Curry dispenses graduation advice to the wrong student body. Close but no cigar.
Putting the "Dic" in Valedictorian
Jump
Squircles
Mag3737 (Tom Magliery) is a prolific flickr user with over 19,444 items uploaded. He
categorized his photographs into sets (right now there are about 350 of them), and into larger collections. See for example, the Squircles (squared circle), the Monochromatic squircles, the Backsides and underthings page, numbers, letters, colors, many more. Since he once heard that there were 37 holes in the mouthpiece of the old-fashion telephone, he used to collect fascinating factoids about the number 37. Numerous other detours inside, Flower genitelia, Paul Bunyan's balls, etc. His old-fashioned website is here.
Which ones are the female intersections?
The Process will make you want to slap your marketing department. (SLYT)
A Facial Kegel
Fish Schtick, a video tribute to the Fishstick, the official dance of You Look Nice Today, announced two years ago this week. With due credit to Archie Bell and the Drells' Tighten Up. Previously, previously.
'The younger Kim is only 27 years old and is apparently fond of shooting things, having majored artillery in Kim Il-Sung University.'
On March 26, 2010, the ROKS Cheonan, a South Korean navy ship, exploded and sunk, killing at least forty sailors. On May 19, an international investigation team concluded that a North Korean torpedo sunk the Cheonan.
What does this mean for the Koreas and the world? It's not clear, but Ask a Korean provides a brief, yet historically contextualized dossier on this issue. [more inside]
The Best Webcomic No One Reads
After a long and terrifying absence, the webcomic NOBODY SCORES! Returns! Reacquaint yourself with BBolt's style with home decor, internets!, origin stories, police states, Kittn 2.0, SPACESHIPS, Scott McCloud, Art, Wishes, Alternate Universes, Government Slash Fic, Time Travel , Class Struggle, True Love, Cartoonists!, Social Media, MEN, cuddle-ness, Augmented Reality , snorgling, Rule 34 ,and more
DONT PANIC
All over the world today fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are heeding Douglas Adams's words that a towel is "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have" - more from the towel day website.
Existing right here and right now. You're actually not!
The Israeli Threat
"Immediately after an attack by Israel, and even with no Iranian response, the United States is likely to begin significant defensive deployments to the region. Its attempts over a period of a year to negotiate with the Iranians make the Obama Administration more vulnerable to domestic pressures to be strong in its reaction to an Israeli strike.The Israeli Threat: An Analysis of the Consequences of an Israeli Strike on Iranian Nuclear Facilities [PDF]. [more inside]
At an early stage after an Israeli attack, the United States would be faced with deciding whether to passively await casualties or to attack Iranian military capabilities on its own. The United States would probably decide to finish the job on Iranian nuclear facilities and destroy as much as possible of Iran’s capability to project combat power."
May 24
Internet + Journalism + Inside Baseball Gossip = Schadenfreude
When New York Observer publishes a thin article, apparently mostly based on a press release, about the altruistic new career direction of ABC News VP Mimi Gurbst, who "liked to advise her colleagues on various ways to improve their personal and professional lives" reader comments tell us that oh boy, did she ever! One of the many, many comments by ABC News alumni, from former ABC journalist Richard Gizbert, sums it up: "Finally: Don’t you just LOVE the internet? Don’t you just LOVE seeing this whole thing backfire on Mimi and the underhanded underling who tried to get away with this piece of fiction?" Oh snap!
from grit to horseshit
TV serials, says Richard Beck, self-consciously set out from the very beginning to get us to take them seriously. From Hill Street Blues to The West Wing to The Sopranos and The Wire, how the television series convinced us that it was art — and now, why Lost's achievement of success via casual genre mixing and narrative derangement might signal that there's no future creative ground left within the old limits of serial drama.
Flash mob opera REDUX
More than 30 members of the Opera Company of Philadelphia Chorus and cast members of La traviata performed a flash opera in the aisles of Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. [more inside]
Programmers? Hackers? Journalists.
"The Journalist as Programmer" is an academic, ethnographic case study (pdf), which considers whether the New York Times' Interactive Newsroom Technologies unit, source of the paper's Open Source Developer Network, should be thought of as a template for the future of Web Journalism. Slide Deck. (Previously on MeFi.) NYMag profile of the INT team from '09: The New Journalism: Goosing the Gray Lady. ("What are these renegade cybergeeks doing at the New York Times? Maybe saving it.")
Phone Guitar
Dude plays an interpretation of Cracklin Rosie on 2 Android devices, 2 Windows Mobile devices, and 1 iPod Touch.
Marching bands unite in tribute to Brandon Franklin, slain at 22
'If I die,' Brandon Franklin had said, 'I want all the bands at my funeral.' As Franklin’s family filed out of the eastern New Orleans church and the hearse waited, nearly 300 current and former band members performed a final salute. Via.
Pigeon: Impossible
Pigeon: Impossible is the tale of Walter, a rookie secret agent faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.
Hot young blonde eaten up by star system
Hubble spots a planet-eating star. The list of confirmed extrasolar planets numbers only 455; the first ones being discovered in 1990. That count is about to decrease. [more inside]
'Bitch Slap' ...
'American Idol' (Season 8) top 25 finalist and kooky contender, 'Norman Gentle' (IRL -- Nick Mitchell) in his debut music video: 'Bitch Slap.' [more inside]
You’re going to be signing hella autographs
The Beatles Complete on Ukulele
The Beatles Complete on Ukulele is a surreal collaboration between Roger and Dave, some ukuleles, 185 other artists (many yet unknown!), and The Beatles. New tune and essay every Tuesday through July 2012.
This is why Superman works alone
The Brave and the Bold...Lost Issues! - in which Batman teams up with everybody.
Beefcake wardrobe malfunctions by Paul Richmond
Whoopsy! Beefcake wardrobe malfunctions! Columbus, Ohio artist Paul “Paulypants” Richmond paints lovingly detailed and luminous and saucy portraits of gay demicelebrities with their britches falling apart or otherwise depantsed or underclothed. As Richmond describes it with the juice and vim of a ’50s tattler magazine, “It intrigues me that it was almost exclusively women who were depicted as hapless victims of comical wardrobe malfuncions in early pin-up art. Those ladies couldn't even walk down the street without their skirts blowing up or their underwear falling down (or both!)” [more inside]
A piece of Google's action
Have a website? Use Google AdSense? Ever wonder what your cut of the ad revenue was? Google just revealed it this morning: 68 percent for content ads, 51 percent for search.
Pixel - A pixel art documentary
An 11 minute documentary exploring the merits and impact of pixel art, animation and chiptune music. From the Simon Cottee Animation Production Blog. (via) [bonus]
Your brain will insist
Crazy Cubes optical illusion. (SLYT)
First Pro-Choice ad to air on UK TV
Marie Stopes International will tonight screen the first pro-choice Television advert to air in the UK - you can watch it on YouTube here.
Debate on the appropriateness or otherwise if the advert has been predictably fierce. Meanwhile, Channel 4 have chosen not to screen the advert in Northern Ireland, prompting further arguments.
Available in three sizes.
In his book The Unspoken Alliance, writer and academic Sasha Polakow-Suransky references documents released by the South African government, indicating that Shimon Peres offered nuclear warheads to PW Botha's apartheid regime. Israel strongly denies the claims.
The Net Worth of the U.S. Presidents
Stephen Perry
Stephen Perry, best known for his work on the cartoons Thundercats and SilverHawks, as well as comics including Timespirits and Psi-Force, has died in mysterious circumstances.
Perry recently suffered from both bladder cancer and being uninsured. Through the charity Hero Initiative, he was able to receive treatment. He recounted his battle with the disease and the healthcare system in a post on Steve Bissette's blog. Bissette has started a series of articles on Perry's life and works.
Heads Up, Citizen Scientists: The Moon Needs You!
Moon Zoo is another project from Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott, the creator of Galaxy Zoo (previously: 1, 2, 3). Moon Zoo calls for citizen scientists to record the craters and boulders, among other things, on the Moon's surface. [more inside]
May 23
Get Drunk Not Fat
Adoption Confidentiality Being Bypassed Through Social Media
UK adoption agencies are reporting "huge numbers of calls from 'deeply distressed' adoptive parents whose children have been contacted" through Facebook and other social networking sites, in violation of the traditional, confidential reunion process between birth parents and their offspring who have been placed with other families. Full report from Channel 4. [more inside]
I BIN NET SO DEPPAT!!!
Die anen foan noch Ibitza die ondren noch Udine
Wir bleiben im Parkbad machen Party in Kabiene
Hallo geile Biene gemma no a bissal schwimmen
i brauch nur mei Handtuch no des in der Kabiene drinnen
Wiener Hip-hop? Vollig Geil! [more inside]
Wir bleiben im Parkbad machen Party in Kabiene
Hallo geile Biene gemma no a bissal schwimmen
i brauch nur mei Handtuch no des in der Kabiene drinnen
Wiener Hip-hop? Vollig Geil! [more inside]
In order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.
Mark Twain wrote an extensive memoir, but stipulated that it not be published until 100 years after his death. This November it will be published.
Surrender Is Out of the Question
For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question. "Living with the crazy, fearless young men who risk life and limb to document Burma's genocide."
Previously on Lost
On the cusp of the long-awaited series finale of Lost, people are understandably confused. Fortunately there are plenty of ways to catch up, from the fan compendium Lostpedia to the 2-hour ABC recap tonight at 7:00 EST to YouTube summaries of Seasons 1-5 from ABC (in 8:15) and from costumed fans (in five minutes). As for longtime fans, why not reminisce by revisiting the show's infamous bookends -- the artfully inscrutable scenes which introduce or conclude each season? Look inside for these and more, along with a cavalcade of interesting fan videos and other fun stuff. [Warning: Spoilers (for everything but the series finale) inside] [more inside]
Read These on Your Death Bed
We have to go back!
Goofy-yet-mournful tribute to LOST, which (sob!) ends its 6-year run tonight. [SLYT]
The Machineries of Joy
more is more when it comes to good movies
Copy Machines, a Security Risk?
Armen Keteyian of CBS News bought four copiers for $300 a piece (video link). He found a great deal of personal data on the copiers' hard drives, easily accessible using free software one could find on the Internet. [more inside]
This mortality thing is bad news.
Little All Right, the Japanese Marvel
When Gladys and Harold Degree pulled the siding off their Colchester, VT home, they made a surprising discovery--five large, full-color posters from an 1883 visit by the Forepaugh Circus. Conservators at the Northeast Document Conservation Center made another surprising discovery underneath--posters for Forepaugh's rivals, the John B. Doris Circus. The newly conserved posters are on display at the Shelburne Museum through October 24th. (via)
Upside Down Everything
Don't jump! At least not without Red Bull wings.
Forget Kittinger's freefall from space at 102,800 feet, now Felix Baumgartner is preparing for a 120,000-foot supersonic fall. Of course Red Bull is involved as the project is named Red Bull stratos. [more inside]
May 22
A Man and His Marbles
"When on holiday, I ask him if he enjoys it, but he always misses his marbles. And it's difficult take that marble alley with us on holiday."
1) “But there are other lives to be saved, of people who haven’t done horrible things, who haven’t actually hurt anyone.” 2) "Fix it or lose it."
Arguing Three Strikes. A defense lawyer (and co-founder of Stanford's unique Criminal Defense Clinic), and a tough-on-crime Republican D.A. make for unusual allies in the move to reform California's Three Strikes law. [more inside]
Martin Gardner died
It Has To Be Amazing, Or Else You Can’t Ride.
It never DOESN'T work!
Once in a generation, there comes along a piece of aural majesty able to improve any piece of video made by man or beast. From movies to British game shows to video games to even Scooby-Doo. Prepare for your life to be changed forever.
Ga ga over Gaga
"I am a Gaga supporter. I’m Team Gaga. She’s my girl. My pop Arsenal; my dance Red Sox; my fashion England." Accompanying her from her back stage dressing room to a Berlin sex club, Caitlin Moran interviews Lady Gaga. And yes we do get an answer to THAT question.
The base of the base of the Democratic Party.
Are teacher's unions the enemy of reform? DISCUSS The Teacher's Union's Last Stand. How President Obama’s Race to the Top could revolutionize public education.
ALABAMA!
Dale Peterson is running for office in Alabama! You may not like the politics, but GODDAMN this is an AD! He's on a HORSE! And wait for the :50 mark where he shows you he means BIZNESS.
T-Wolf
Animals AutoTuned: Wolves
Sprinting Svetlana
The authorities of Russia's city of Volgograd closed a 7 km-long bridge across the Volga River late Thursday after strong fluctuation in the construction was detected. [more inside]
One Laptop Per Bike
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.
The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half.
Shirley! Shirley, Shirley bo Birley, Bonana fanna fo Firley, Fee fy mo Mirley, Shirley!
Singer/songwriter Shirley Ellis is best known for her hits "The Nitty Gritty", "The Name Game" and "The Clapping Song," but there's... [more inside]
"The maps contained herein may be approximate, made-up, or partly false."
Captain Beany from the planet Beanus
Eccentric or not? Captain Beany is a Welsh eccentric who loves baked beans, the dish so beloved of the British. [more inside]
Comical: A Webcomic Aggregator
Comical is a program that lets you know when a webcomic you read has been updated and allows you to download the newest strip. It's great for people who (like me) follow a ton of different webcomics. It currently supports Over five-hundred different web comics. It even supports Newspaper Comics, Alt-Text, and Hidden Panels. If Comical is missing a comic you like, the program comes with the ability to add new comics manually or feel free to post a request for someone else to do it for you on the forums! [more inside]
May 21
Rich Man's Frug
Friday Night Fosse: Rich Man's Frug, The Heavyweight, and The Big Finish from Sweet Charity. Happy weekend!
"Whoever created the Bean Pie, may Allah bless that person."
Bean Pie, my Brother? The Muslim Bean Pie is a sweet, custard pie made from eggs, sugar, and beans (usually navy or pinto beans). [more inside]
lolflash
Eyezmaze: TRANSFORM
A lion stalks the plains. It spots an antelope. His lunch, it would seem, is assured, except for one thing. This antelope... can TRANSFORM! It's another incredibly bizarre and awesome EYEZMAZE game. Click on the various parts of the antelope to make things happen, until he's safe from the predator's attack. [more inside]
Famous Theist Retires
The man who made philosophy safe for theists again is retiring. The conference in celebration of his impressive academic career is in progress on the campus of Notre Dame University and has brought together many important figures in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. Many of Plantinga's seminal works are available in their entirety online.
Manufactoria
Unintentional or Hyper-Aware Marketing?
Why The Hills’ [new] Opening Credits Are Both Creepy and Cruel
For more can-this-really-be-an-accident marketing: This promo for the final season as compared to this earlier use of the same song.
For more can-this-really-be-an-accident marketing: This promo for the final season as compared to this earlier use of the same song.
Human Cluster versus Supercomputer Cluster
In the recently concluded World Chess Championship, defending champion Viswanathan Anand successfully defended his title against Veselin Topalov. Now news has come out after the match that Topalov had prepared for the match with the help of an IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer capable of 1 petaFLOPS. Instead of a supercomputer cluster, Anand instead had the help of a human cluster in the form of two ex-World Chess Champions and one likely future World Chess Champion. [more inside]
Geodata about China stays in China.
The Great Firewall just got a little taller. Starting next month, all geo data about China must be stored on servers inside China. This is much more that a snub of Google for moving its data out of the mainland, it is a power play aimed at controlling a type of data about which China is very sensitive, as shown in recent border disputes, and the discovery of secret military installations. [more inside]
Does he do the Carlton too?
Easy AI with Python
Easy AI with Python. High school-level introduction to a few artificial intelligence concepts, with relatively short open source Python code snippets. [more inside]
Clyde "Champion" Barrow Gang Collection
Mr, KIng
So Raymond Hamilton never killed anybody. If he can make a jury believe that I8m willing to come in and be tryed my self. Why dont you ask Ray about those two policemen that got killed near Grapevine? And while you are at it better talk it over with his girl friend. Bonnie and me were in missouri when that happened but where was Ray? coming back from the West bankjob wasn't he? Redhot too wasn8t he? I got it straight. And ask him about that escape at Eastham farm where that gard was killed. Giess he claims he doesn't know fire any shots there don8t ge? Well if he wasnt too dum to know how tp put a clip in a automatic he'd hace fired a lot more shots and some of the rest of the gards would got killed too. He wrote his lawyer he was too good for me and didnt go my pace, well it makes a me sick to see a yellow punk like that playing baby ad making a jury cry over him either/ He stuck his fingerprint on a letter so heres mine too just to let you know thjis is on the leve;
X Clyde
So Raymond Hamilton never killed anybody. If he can make a jury believe that I8m willing to come in and be tryed my self. Why dont you ask Ray about those two policemen that got killed near Grapevine? And while you are at it better talk it over with his girl friend. Bonnie and me were in missouri when that happened but where was Ray? coming back from the West bankjob wasn't he? Redhot too wasn8t he? I got it straight. And ask him about that escape at Eastham farm where that gard was killed. Giess he claims he doesn't know fire any shots there don8t ge? Well if he wasnt too dum to know how tp put a clip in a automatic he'd hace fired a lot more shots and some of the rest of the gards would got killed too. He wrote his lawyer he was too good for me and didnt go my pace, well it makes a me sick to see a yellow punk like that playing baby ad making a jury cry over him either/ He stuck his fingerprint on a letter so heres mine too just to let you know thjis is on the leve;
X Clyde
I laugh to see your tiny world; Your toys of ships, your cars
The toxic environment in Washington DC
Hundreds of munitions and beakers with vintage chemical weapons, including "butter of arsenic" and lewisite, the "dew of death," are being dug up in Washington DC -- less than five miles from the White House (around American University). [more inside]
9 out of 10 Ain't Bad
Rand Paul, third son of 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul and winner of the Kentucky Republican Party Senate primary this week, has found his general election campaigned mired over a controversy about his libertarian ideology. [more inside]
Pictures never lie
Gooaaaal
SLYT: Write The Future - A three minute long Nike World Cup ad
Goodbye Productivity
Today Google unveiled its most elaborate doodle to date, in celebration of Pac-Man's 30th birthday. [more inside]
Did The British Really Put Child Criminals To Death?
On Monday the SCOTUS said juveniles who commit crimes in which no one is killed may not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Thomas, ever the orginalist, apparently said they should only consider practices at the time the Bill of Rights was adopted. Stevens, however, noted people as young as 7 were put to death in the 18th century. "Knowledge accumulates," he wrote. "We learn, sometimes, from our mistakes." So, did they really put kids that young to death? Well, Probably Not. A look back at all the death sentences handed down for children under age fourteen by a well documented court in London found in every case (over 100 in all) the initial death sentence was eventually changed to transportation, imprisonment, and/or whipping. No child criminal was actually put to death.
...or is it just me
"I love you." "I know."
Impressive. Most impressive. Thirty years ago today, one of the most popular films of all time was released to theatres.
Often described as "dark" and "moving," it has had its own cultural impact from commonly-misquoted quotes to introducing an entire generation of moviegoers to the concept of a plot twist
That film? The Shining. [more inside]
Girls to X-Men
Parisian Art Theft
HEIST: Paintings by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger, worth ~$100 million, stolen! (Washington Post link) [more inside]
You might not be looking for the promised land, but you might find it anyway
May 20
awwwwwww
Crater face: "Astronaut risks life and limb to bring two moon pimples together for love."
Free Willy
You've stepped out of a time machine, it's 1894 and you're standing in front of a young Adolf Hitler, with instructions to assassinate the child. What you do next may depend a lot on your belief and definition of free will (never mind the unintended consequences) [more inside]
Dear Dad
Letters to an Absent Father is a wonderful and touching comic strip that "takes place from the perspective of Ash Ketchum as he writes a letter to the father that he never met". [more inside]
Fly Away
Cain and Abel?
Families, everyone's got to have one (or two, or three) Christopher and Peter Hitchens. Brothers.
I Am The Draw!
Script to Page - Guy Davis(automusic) comic panels alongside a Rob Williams script of a story of the eponymous law man from the Judge Dredd Megazine, a spin off magazine from the venerable comic 2000AD. The original comic has been around since 1977 and the Megazine itself is now approaching it's 20th year. [more inside]
Don't look don't look the shadows breathe
Haven't had your fill of creepy machinery? Watch John Nolan Films' 2010 animatronics showreel video (quicktime version). [more inside]
Socrates Keeping It Real
Socrates and Glaucon on the Home Shopping Network.
You [insert popular culture reference here] fanboys keep drinking the Kool-Aid
I've considered myself a fanboy on occasion in the past, but it never occurred to me to investigate the history of the term. Technologizer's Harry McCracken (god I love that name) has a *far* more detailed and interesting look into the history of the term than I would ever have considered undertaking. [more inside]
What's Sacred?
"To ignore this trespass is to agree that NOTHING any musician has attempted to do with their life in music has any intrinsic value - and I refuse to do that." Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, whose new album Orchestrion came out in January (see him discuss it here), ranted about smooth jazz legend Kenny G, claiming that his overdubbed performance of What A Wonderful World defiled the memory of Louis Armstrong. (Via Aaron Cohen at Kottke.org)
Cousin! Let's Go Bowling!
We could adopt a bunch of alien kids!
The Man From Galilee
What Did Jesus Do? - Adam Gopnik takes a look at the man, and the myth that was Jesus Christ. A Q&A follows.
Venter creates spiraling coils of self-replicating DNA.
"The ability to design and create new forms of life marks a turning-point in the history of our species and our planet." - Freeman Dyson, on the J.C. Venter Institute's creation of a cell controlled by a synthetic genome. We are now in the business of engineering life.
'Spoiler police, up yours.'
Death to the spoiler police! Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams takes a stand against people who insist on spoiler alerts: "[O]nce a work enters the pop culture vernacular, it is not society's responsibility to provide you with earmuffs until you finally get around to experiencing it. ... But for the love of God, if you really don't want to know about a book/movie/television show, do the rest of the world a favor and stop hanging out in the online discussion groups about it." Via Roger Ebert.
"Google for Usenet" Shut Down
Regrettably the Newzbin website has to close as a result of the legal action against us. Once the premier Usenet indexing site and the inventor of the NZB file format, Newzbin has officially closed its doors after losing a court battle against several Hollywood studios. Gossip suggests that Newzbin is in dire financial straights. [more inside]
"Signs of Every Description"
Up There is a twelve minute documentary about the nearly-lost art of hand-painted wall advertisements, the kind that eventually become ghost signs. The signs in this film were painted by Colossal Media/Sky High Murals and by Bob Middleton, himself the scion of a New York sign-painting family. [more inside]
It is not a Sunday host's job to make sure his guests aren't lying any more than it's a party host's job to make sure the food isn't poisoned.
Jay Rosen thinks that "Sunday morning talk shows are broken. As works of journalism they don't work." In December, he had a suggestion for the producers of "Meet the Press": "Fact check what your guests say on Sunday and run it online Wednesday." When asked about the proposal, David Gregory responded, "People can fact-check 'Meet the Press' every week on their own terms." Two college students took Gregory up on this and created Meet the Facts. On the other hand, it looks like Jake Tapper of ABC's "This Week" thought it was a pretty good idea. [more inside]
Trying to find out what human nature is all about.
The Saint Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe opened Sunday, as an experiment by Ron Shaich, former CEO of Panera Bread. Customers are asked to pay what they can afford. [more inside]
mit blinkenlights - PLC installations across Europe
Achtung!
Alles Turisten, Teknischen Und Nonteknischen Lookenpeepers!
Relaxen Und Watschen Der Blinkenlichten!
Projekt PIWO (Poland): video Mikontalo Lights (Finland): video Schönherz Matrix (Hungary)
Project Blinkenlights (Germany, France, Canada...) (previously)
Floyd Landis admits to using performance enhancing drugs
Floyd Landis admits to using performance enhancing drugs. He's also dropping the dime on Armstrong, Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer and his friend, David Zabriskie. So much for Omerta.
Unctuous Gunk in the Bayous
Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill hits the Louisiana wetlands. More photos here. Meanwhile, the state department confirms US officials have begun talks with Cuba about how to help the small island nation deal with the environmental impacts of the disaster. And as McClatchy and other news agencies are now reporting, the latest independent scientific estimates appear to confirm a rate of flow much higher than BP has previously been willing to acknowledge, in the likely range of 95,000 barrels a day, amounting to roughly an Exxon Valdez size spill every three days. Meanwhile, ProPublica reports that the industry seems intent on keeping the lid on just how bad things really are in the Gulf, and quotes company spokesmen as saying that the actual rate and amount of flow is “not relevant to the response effort.”
To say Twitter is colloquial is putting it lightly.
Lexicalist attempts to be 'a demographic dictionary of modern American English.' Here's how it works. Lexicalist's developer David Bamman goes into greater detail at Language Log. [more inside]
Don't mug someone in front of ninja school.
The worst place to mug someone? Probably right in front of the ninja school.
Swinging away
Swinging Away: How Cricket and Baseball Connect Five minute slideshow with audio from the BBC of historical images to coincide with an exhibition at Lords on the linked histories of the two bat and ball sports.
Early films from the Library of Congress
America at Work, America at Leisure - "Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures." [Library of Congress Youtube playlist]
May 19
Bangkok burns
Bangkok is on fire. A good collection of links on the conflict with many on-the-ground reports (may not work well in Firefox). Video of the assault on the red shirt encampment. Now the violence is spreading beyond the capital into the northern and northeastern provinces. Is Thailand heading for civil war?
Koji Yamamura
Koji Yamamura is an illustrator and animator. Perhaps you'll enjoy his cute animated GIFs or his Academy Award nominated Mt. Head.
"They actually envied those who could take a leave due to work injury, while casually joking about how their station's been toxicated."
A (translated) Chinese report on life as a factory worker at Foxconn, the company that manufactures iPhones and other gadgets. Each employee would sign a "voluntary overtime affidavit," in order to waive the 36-hour legal limit on your monthly overtime hours. This isn't a bad thing, though, as many workers think that only factories that offer more overtime are "good factories," because "without overtime, you can hardly make a living."
A long time ago...
How many more years, do I let you dog me around
"You can just about hear [the music] sometimes," Anderson said. "And you look at it on the meters and you see what it's doing. And your dog's ears will be twitching." Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson take a walkies on the wild side.
Raise Your Pants, Raise Your Image
"Prior to the sagging pants, it was the shoestrings out of sneakers. All this is born out of prison. We took the shoestrings and the belts from prisoners." New York State Senator Eric Adams has launched a media campaign against low-slung trousers, including 6 billboards in Brooklyn. [more inside]
This game will NOT work in IE because it doesn’t support the canvas element.
It's Flash Friday HTML 5 Wednesday! A variant of Asteroids has been unleashed on the web, as proof of the canvas element's abilities within the updated markup language; however, the color palette is opposite of the arcade game's original scheme, hyperdrive and shields are absent, as is audio, since in hypertext, additional lines of code are necessary for anyone to hear you scream. [via]
Analog Fire Control
u.s navy vintage fire control computers : An intriguing look at the mechanical workings of the computers of World War 2.
Blink and you'll miss it
As the shuttle program winds down, astrophotographers like Thierry Legault are taking advantage of these last opportunities to capture absolutely incredible shots like this one, showing Atlantis' transit in front of the sun as it performs its inspection backflip before docking with the ISS. His other photography includes this magnificent series of the launch of STS-125. [more inside]
Interiors
Roma/Gypsy Interiors and African Interiors by photographer Carlo Gianferro + a collection of imaginary interiors from artist Anne Hardy.
America in the '30s
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
[another great find at Postroad's blog (NSFW)]
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
[another great find at Postroad's blog (NSFW)]
Deedly weedly deedly weedly dumb dumb dumb
DEEDLY WEEDLY DEEDLY WEEDLY DUMB DUMB DUMB. German band Van Canto perform "a cappella hero metal," albeit with drums. Official site. FAQ. (via) [more inside]
Todd Goldman's At It Again
Artist Jess Fink has some crappy luck. She's found her Threadless designs co-opted by Forever 21 and by Newbreed girl for Hot Topic. And now? Thanks to Billion Dollar Babes, unrepentant rip-off artist Todd Goldman (previously) is joining in.
Blue Lady Shanghai
Comedian David Mitchell shares his opinions
David Mitchell's Soap Box features The Peep Show's David Mitchell giving his opinions on various topics. The new series starts with Mitchell pondering the myth of King Cnut attempting to turn back the tides. The comedian has covered many issues, such as respect for the elderly, beer and being asked how much one earns. You can also subscribe to the series as a video podcast [iTunes link]
Haute Stoner Cuisine
While it should not come as a surprise that some chefs get high, it’s less often noted that drug use in the kitchen can change the experience in the dining room.
Five Days In the Favela
Complexo da Maré is one of the oldest favelas in Rio, and a new short documentary, Te Vejo Mare, shows how, despite the headlines and violence, a community and culture manages to thrive there. As featured on today's Guardian website: Welcome to Complexo da Maré (10:16), The Samba Is Infinite (10:22), Fighting for Peace (11:00)
Move over, Theora and H.264 - One more HTML Video option appears
As rumored and requested, Google has released VP8 as a royalty free video codec, complete with patent license. Add in Vorbis for audio and Matroska as the container format, and you have WebM, soon to be supported in Chrome, Firefox and Opera. YouTube support is already here. [more inside]
Powerful Places
A mining town in Kentucky hoping to build a different kind of future. One of the last three Negro League stadiums. A 34-acre ranch owned and run one of California's earliest entreprenuers and rare early female landowners. The "cathedral of African Methodism" which saw the funerals of Frederick Douglass and Rosa Parks. Otherwordly sand dunes in Michigan, mysterious freshwater caves in Guam, the Wilderness Battlefield...and the Merritt Parkway. These and more sites are on the (US) NAtional Trust's 2010 roster of the 11 Most Endangered Places.
Bourbon does for me what the piece of cake did for Proust.
The joy of Bourbon drinking is not the pharmacological effect of C(2)H(5)OH on the cortex but rather the instant of the whiskey being knocked back and the little explosion of Kentucky U.S.A. sunshine in the cavity of the nasopharynx and the hot bosky bite of Tennessee summertime--aesthetic considerations to which the effect of the alcohol is, if not dispensable, at least secondary.Bourbon, an essay by Walker Percy. A warning: "Not only should connoisseurs of Bourbon not read this article, neither should persons preoccupied with the perils of alcoholism, cirrhosis, esophageal hemorrhage, cancer of the palate, and so forth..." [more inside]
I, for one, welcome our new metallic cyclops overlords
Meet Wenlock and Mandeville - the official London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic mascots... the press are talking them up... but there are some objectors Previous design work for 2012 has not gone down well. Past Olympic mascots.
The answer is Ghostbusters II
Field of Schemes?
Joeurt Puk (aka Joe Cook) is the father of Cambodian baseball. In this feature by ESPN, Patrick Hruby looks into Cook's background and finds that Cook may not be the tireless philanthropist he claims to be. [more inside]
The status quo of electric cars: better batteries, same range
The status quo of electric cars: better batteries, same range: A hundred years of advances in electric vehicle technology have scarcely improved the range of mass-produced electric vehicles.
Child trafficking in Portland, Oregon
Last night Dan Rather reports presented on child sex trafficking in Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian newspaper briefly covered the Dan Rather report and also had a longer article in January about the same issue. Dan Rather wrote a short piece in the Huffington Post yesterday, saying that Portland is second in the nation for child prostitution. The organization ECTAP-USA (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) published this 2005 (PDF) report about child prostitution in the US, linking it, in part, to the strip club industry.
In Search of the Meaning of "Mozingo"
Joe Mozingo had always been told that his family name was "maybe Italian." In a three-part article in the L.A. Times, the "blue-eyed, surfing son of a dentist" journalist discovers that the Mozingo name actually traces back to an African slave freed in 1672. [more inside]
We'll see the world in our Levi Blues, but I'll always come back to you
Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine became friends in Canadian high school band. They now make up Dala, an accoustic folk pop duo who sing songs like the cutesy pop song Levi Blues, Alive about a hellish New Years Eve in an old cabin, Marilyn Monroe about coming of age, and the more serious Horses, a song dedicated to a paraplegic teenager. They have opened for Neko Case, Tom Cochrane, and Matthew Good and covered Neil Young.
Hutaree on the loose
Three of the Hutaree militia are released on bail. And another one on the way. (Previously) There's a new federal prosecutor following some problems with accuracy in court filings. [more inside]
My Name is Todd Davis. This is my social security number...
Anti-Identity-Theft Firm Lifelock was fined $12 Million in March for deceptive business practices by the FTC. More bad news: their CEO had his identity stolen 13 times after posting his own social security number in company ads as proof they could protect him. [more inside]
you are the result of a social experiment; it's the simplest explanation
The experimental method: Testing solutions with randomized trials -- In trying to help explicate the complexity of society Clark Medal-winner Esther Duflo is raising the productivity of social policies by increasing our knowledge of what works and doesn't work through repeated social experiments of randomised controlled trials. She has a large surplus labour pool, a veritable industrial reserve army, to worth with. [more inside]
Pimm's O'Clock
The Guardian has an article on Pimm's, a traditional gin-based English summer drink. Invented by one James Pimm in London in 1840, Pimm's soon became associated with upper-class institutions and the British Empire; its popularity declined somewhat in the decades following World War 2 (apart from a few revivals as part of ironic constructions of "Britishness"), though it has recently experienced a resurgence in popularity. Recipes for serving Pimm's vary, though they typically involve mixing it with lemonade and/or ginger beer in a jug and adding oranges, strawberries, sliced cucumber and mint. While the formula remains a secret, knockoffs do exist (both Sainsbury's and Aldi sell their own substitutes, though Sainsbury's had to change the label on its to look less like the original), or you could try making your own.
Yarchive - Notes from the hinterland.
Yarchive is one man's collection of UseNET posts on the topics of Air Conditioning; Aircraft; Bicycles; Cars; Chemistry; Computers; Electrical, Electronic; Environment; Explosives, Pyrotechnics; Food; Houses; Guns; Jokes; Medicine; Metalworking; Military; Nuclear; Telephones; Physics; Risks; Security; Space mostly from a select group of authors. It has been updated several times since it first appeared here in 2001 and it never fails to sucker me in for hours every time I stumble upon it from a Google Search. [more inside]
May 18
The greatest internet sports games of all time?
If you watched PBS as a kid, Al Jarnow's animations blew your mind.
Al Jarnow had been exploring time and space in his panoramic paintings when a friend suggested he try animation. From experimental films (Cubits) he went on to create shorts for Children's Television Workshop that were seen by millions on Sesame Street (Yak, Orange, Floor Tiles, Block City, Perpectives, Put Your Litter in the Can, Real Cats Drink Milk) and 3-2-1 Contact (Facial Recognition). One standout is Cosmic Clock, which speeds us through time much the way the Eames' Powers of Ten speeds us through space. Along with his collected works on DVD, Numero Group has released the half-hour documentary Asymmetric Cycles: The Work Of Al Jarnow. [more inside]
The Wally Wood Letters, 1976-1981
The Wally Wood Letters, 1976-1981. A collection of postcards and letters from comic book great Wally Wood to a fan, beginning in 1976 through 1981. Introduction. Letters begin here. via [more inside]
Brownies, the Pentagon Way
Need some dessert ideas? The Pentagon has recipes for brownies and oatmeal cookies. (26 page pdf)
Does the world make sense? Or do we make sense of the world?
And if you zoom in real close, you can see that they're orange, and that the don't believe in god.
Hey there Starcraft fans! Unbeatable Protoss 1v1 Strategy for Starcraft 2. To be honest I don't know much about Activision games or RTSes in general, but this works 100% of the time. You should totally check this out!! xxx
I'm just trying to reach out to more Americans, but they keep reaching for themselves.
Patrick Adams
Patrick Adams: The king of underground disco. With over 30 gold records to his name and 30 plus years in the music business, Patrick Adams has worked with everyone from Gladys Knight and Salt 'n Pepa, to Eric B. and Rakim and Rick James. But his early, harder to find, pioneering (and moogtastic) sounds from the mid-seventies, with his group Cloud One, and tracks produced for The Universal Robot Band, Queen Constance, Musique and Phreek is where the magic lies. If the sounds of Atmosphere Strut or Disco Juice don't make you want to shake your groove thing, you may not have a soul :( [more inside]
The Talented Mr. Ripley + Six Degrees of Separation + Clark Rockefeller ...
"Former Harvard student Adam Wheeler was indicted [yesterday] on multiple counts of identity fraud and larceny. According to the Boston Globe, Wheeler allegedly built a 'fraudulent life history that led to his admission to Harvard, and for using forged academic materials from Harvard when he applied for the prestigious Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships.'"* In his transfer student application to Harvard "...Wheeler claimed he got a perfect score on the SAT, straight A's at prestigious prep school Phillips Academy Andover and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...In reality, he had never attended either school..."* He has plead not guilty to the charges. [more inside]
Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!
On May 18th, 1980, thirty years ago today, at 8:32 a.m., the ground shook beneath Mount St. Helens in Washington state as a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck, setting off one of the largest landslides in recorded history - the entire north slope of the volcano slid away. As the land moved, it exposed the superheated core of the volcano setting off gigantic explosions and eruptions of steam, ash and rock debris. The blast was heard hundreds of miles away, the pressure wave flattened entire forests, the heat melted glaciers and set off destructive mudflows, and 57 people lost their lives. A photo-essay.
The book will not be overdue, as you will read it in a few days.
This Book is Overdue (link to a PDF of the first chapter from the author’s site: here) is a non-fiction
work published in February of 2010. It’s a study of the modern library, and by extension,
the modern librarian. Primarily the place that each of these things has in a world that is
increasingly moving to a world of digital
information. The book is divided into a few different sections... [more inside]
Serein v4
Serein v4. Online UK label Serein's last redesign saw a number of ambient and experimental albums released for free. They've redesigned again with a slightly more realistic business model, and in addition to the two releases out so far, they've put out three free "forecasts" so far, mixtapes of a sort, arranged by the artists. Three is the latest, and by halfway through I knew it would likely be appreciated here.
Hank Jones, RIP
Renowned pianist Hank Jones, whose sixty year career in jazz saw him perform with scores of legendary musicians, has passed away at the age of 91, and was practicing up to the very end. [more inside]
I... AM... A GUY WITH A LOT OF FREE TIME.
It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets The Poky Little Puppy again.
MOVIES R FUN! A li'l inappropriate book by Pixar Story Artist Josh Cooley. Not yet in stores, but several totally awesome samples are in his blog. [more inside]
I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm
"I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; and with these I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion. [...] I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance."Leonardo da Vinci's cocky, violent resume
The Galaxy that Eats Galaxies
Obese, gluttonous, and cannibalistic is no way to go through life, son: profile of a multi-core galaxy 20 times larger than the Milky Way.
Sanctity of Marriage
"Indiana Republican Rep. Mark Souder acknowledged an affair with a staffer Tuesday and unexpectedly announced his resignation, giving Democrats a chance at capturing what many had thought was a safe Republican seat." He had previously recorded a pro-abstinence video, with the woman he had the affair with.
The Most Widely Read Magazine in the World
Hailstorm v Swimming Pool
Amazing hailstorm video gets really good at about 1:00 and terrifying at about 2:00.
The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment
Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens.The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment
Into The Mud They Go
Yesterday, the New York Times published an investigative report showing Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) either lied or spoke ambiguously about serving in Vietnam in several past public appearances. Blumenthal is currently the Democratic frontrunner for Senator Chris Dodd's Senate seat, and is expected to face former WWE CEO Linda McMahon (R). Today, McMahon's campaign announced they "fed" the story to the paper and posted the video of Blumenthal's statement to their YouTube channel. More from Politico. [more inside]
Gorgeous Destruction
Sean Stiegemeier decided that he had seen enough terrible pictures of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, that he flew to see it on his own. [more inside]
March of the tweeps
Twitter Parade: Icons happily march across your screen following the topic (or Twitter account) of your choice. In Flash with sound. [more inside]
A woman's heart sees more than men's eyes.
you are beautiful.
i have let paypal go. old-fashioned wheezy paranoid beast. and i can’t find a simple enough new solution. so, all music is pay-it-forward. [more inside]
This is why you're fat.
The Most Harmful Drinks in America. Warning: simply reading this article may cause weight gain.
wherein JOKES and STATEMENTS are made using TYPOGRAPHY
Ugandan Skatepark
A photoset of the first Ugandan skatepark. Built by kids in Kitintale, a working-class suburb of Kampala, without government help or support of any organisation, the skateboard park has become an unexpected focus for a community.
You say potato, I say vodka
In March a little known potato vodka made in the UK by a Herefordshire farmer, William Chase, won best in class at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition [warning: PDF]. Chase was 20 when he bought his father’s 75-acre farm, in 1984 with a £200,000 loan from the bank. This is his second venture: in his first, he bucked the trend and told supermarket giant Tesco to get lost when they wanted to sell his potato chips. [more inside]
Sentimental dynamics
The School of Life is a new social enterprise offering good ideas for everyday living.
How to be cool? How to stay calm? How to have better conversations? How to make love last? The School of Life is a place to step back and think intelligently about these and other concerns. [more inside]
"If something is not progressing, it’s dying.”
Janelle Monae has been busy since the release of The Chase EP, the first of four "suites" that make up her genre-bending epic set in the distant future. She's been "discovered" by Diddy, continued to find inspiration in unexpected places, founded an artists' collective in her adopted hometown of Atlanta, and found time to speak to Vogue about her singular sense of style. Somewhere in there, she's also recorded the next two parts of the Metropolis Suite, titled The Archandroid (which is out today), put out a teaser for the album, and also the video for the first single, Tightrope. [more inside]
May 17
TILLYKKE MUKHTAR
Mukhtar is a bus driver who gets a surprise for his birthday.
The Empire Strikes Back
How Karl Rove, a few corporate millionaires, and the Citizens United Supreme Court case will overwhelm American elections and rule the Republican party from the shadows: Rove Rides Again
Bicycle Rush Hour
Just an ordinary Wednesday morning in April 2010 at around 8.30 am. In Utrecht (Netherlands), a third of all trips are by bicycle. This is one of the busiest junctions in Utrecht a city with a population of 300,000. No less than 18,000 bicycles and 2,500 buses pass here every day. And yet Google Street View missed it. Because private motorized traffic is restricted here. (Video is 4 times faster than reality, 8 minutes condensed to 2.)
The Green Hell Lives
Kudzu, Pueraria lobata, may be causing double the emission of nitric oxide, and increases ozone pollution in areas it has overgrown, a recent study has shown. [more inside]
Model Train Oriented Design
"People who work with computers-especially those being exposed to a machine for the first time-can become quite entranced with these qualities, finding the computer a kind of alter ego. "Sometimes programmers just won't go home, take a bath or anything," reports a computer man who has got over it himself. "They're like a kid falling in love with a hot rod. They'll sit there working with their newfound 'friend' 20 hours a day, just watching the lights and drinking coffee. After a while they get to looking pale and unhealthy. They sit there fascinated and just forget to eat." Life, October 27, 1967 on "How the Computer gets the answer."
"A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families"
Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands is an encyclopedia of every major European noble family (and most minor ones) from AD 500 to 1500. Even as a work in progress, its scale is staggering.
idlekeyboard
idlekeyboard - now you can sound busy while reading metafilter at work
US vs Comstock
Marijuana Panic
Plummeting Marijuana prices cause panic in CA. In 1983, the Reagan administration launched a massive air and ground campaign to eradicate pot and lock up growers in northern California. Charley Custer, a writer and community activist, had just arrived to Humboldt County from Chicago. With the Reagan crackdown, Custer recalls, wholesale prices shot up — to as high as $5,000 a pound. That sudden and ironic windfall for those growers willing to risk prison time transformed the community.... Prices are now much less than $2,000 a pound, according to interviews with more than a dozen growers and dealers. Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says some growers can't get rid of their processed pot at any price.
A Sufi and a Killer
The amazing "timeless incredible filth"* voice on these amazing songs, Sheep ; Holidays ; Ancestors ; DedNd are all from the amazing and amazingly produced album "A Killer and a Sufi" on Warp Records. [more inside]
Learn a New Old Skill
Do you like vintage needlework? The Antique Pattern Library is a collection of scanned craft books that are in the public domain. They contain patterns for crochet, knitting, tatting, netting, embroidery, needle lace, beading, and other crafts. See also Home Work, a Choice Collection of Useful Designs for the Crochet and Knitting Needle, and Beeton's Book of Needlework.
If vintage instructions aren't your thing, try lace edgings from 1846 updated for the modern knitter.
Town & Country & Infinity
Chrysler's recent announcement of a three year technical collaboration with NASA continues the automaker's long involvement with the agency, including production of the historic Redstone, reliable Jupiter, and mighty Saturn launch vehicles, and the design of an unusual Space Shuttle called SERV. [more inside]
Helen Shapiro
With a surprisingly low voice and the composure of an R&B singer many years older, Helen Shapiro toured with The Beatles in 1963; inspired Lennon and McCartney to compose for her the song “Misery” (which they intended for her vocal style); wrote her own B-sides; starred in ("A Hard Day's Night" director Richard Lester's) 1962 movie; and recorded an album of songs in Nashville with (Patsy Cline producer) Owen Bradley. All before her 17th birthday. [more inside]
Throbbing Gristle
One of the first uses of a graphical throbber was in NCSA Mosaic. Command line versions did exist, but most were a spinning slash. Nowadays, with Ajax, they have become nothing more than variations of spinning gray wheels to indicate loading or buffering. Gone are the more creative ones like, Netscape, whose throbber is a condensed loop of how the dinosaurs became extinct.
Togas optional, no advanced degree required.
"Why? Philosophical Discussions" about everyday life may be the world's first call-in philosophy show. Its mission is to create a large-scale conversation between philosophical professionals and the general public.
WHY? radio, from the University of North Dakota's Institute for Philosophy in Public Life, is a monthly, call-in radio show hosted by philosophy professor Jack Russell Weinstein. "...the show was created to illustrate how day-to-day life is steeped in deep philosophical commitments and to provide a venue for exploration of those same commitments." Shows feature notable guests such as Martha Nussbaum, Amelie Rorty, and Amartya Sen.
WHY? radio, from the University of North Dakota's Institute for Philosophy in Public Life, is a monthly, call-in radio show hosted by philosophy professor Jack Russell Weinstein. "...the show was created to illustrate how day-to-day life is steeped in deep philosophical commitments and to provide a venue for exploration of those same commitments." Shows feature notable guests such as Martha Nussbaum, Amelie Rorty, and Amartya Sen.
Alien Sex Fiend
In the tiny lifeboat, she and the alien fuck endlessly, relentlessly. - Kij Johnson's Spar, the winning short story of this years Nebula award. Audio version. Interview. More stories by Kij Johnson. Kitty chaser: The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles.
One Last Geek Out
After a two-year run, the final Kevin Geeks Out will be at the 92Y Tribeca in New York this Friday. [more inside]
Your life is an Open Book
Is Facebook violating your privacy, or are you just oversharing? Facebook status updates are searchable through the Graph API.
Light Rail + Art
A Six Mile Inquiry Light rail is coming to Saint Paul and will change a significant stretch of a major urban street. An artist is using six miles of the street to showcase photography of local subjects. [more inside]
Keep calm or freak out
A tornado forms in front of a car taking video. A study of the spectrum of human reactions. NSFW language.
Take your time!
In the debut of The New York Times' new philosophy series, Simon Critchley asks, "What is a philosopher?"
"Lingerie comes with soil, rice seedlings and gardening gloves."
The latest fun, gimmicky bra from Japanese lingerie maker Triumph International grows rice. Promo Videos (SFW, YT) [more inside]
True sons of Archimedes
A preliminary atlas of gizmo landscapes. A comprehensive look at the environments necessitated by American gizmos, as exemplified by a single iPhone in Brooklyn.
The Cellar Tapes
"The Cellar Tapes" (1982) (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5) is a televised version of the revue show originally performed in 1981 by the Footlights - a group of comic writers-performers at the University of Cambridge. It is performed by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, Paul Shearer and Penny Dwyer.
knock knock no knock
On the heels of the highly publicized Missouri raid that ended in the death of a corgi (previously), a seven year-old girl has been killed in a no-knock raid in Detroit. According to one of Radley Balko's commenters, the family may have been targeted because they shared a two-family duplex with the target of the raid.
May 16
Who took my tag?
it was street art until the preservation team showed up... banksy drops a piece in a derelict factory site in detroit.
a local grass-roots gallery removes it to their hq for safe keeping.
people go nuts.
Ken Middleton, ukulele player
There are a lot of ukulele players covering well known songs on the internet but my favorite is Ken Middleton, a man in his late fifties from Northern England. Here are some of his videos: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Just Like Heaven, Wild Horses and After the Goldrush. But he specializes in Leonard Cohen covers, even teaching a lesson on how to play Cohen songs on the ukulele. Here are three of my favorites: Take This Waltz, So Long, Marianne and Sisters of Mercy. He also asks and answers the question, what would Mmmbop sound like if it had been written by Leonard Cohen for the ukulele.
If Giovanni Ribisi’s character isn’t listed as “Pointlessly Gleeful Cunt” in the credits I will be so disappointed
Spike of Templar, AZ (Previously, Previously) tends to go on rants on twitter, now you can follow them.
It's your own vault, Disney!
Why I Steal Movies... Even Ones I'm In. Written by Peter Serafinowicz, the mind behind Look Around You and Hot Chip's recent music video I Feel Better (previously).
"I find him almost immediately."
Green Children of Woolpit
The 12th-century English chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall relates a strange story: two lost and distressed children appeared in a local village, speaking a language no-one could understand, and, most strikingly, with strangely green-coloured skin. [more inside]
Women, and the History of Photography
Clio Visualizing History seeks to illustrate the unique role of visual images in American history. That history is rich with images taken by women, and of women. Frances Benjamin Johnston photographed a diverse sample of Americana from politicians to mine workers, socialites to factory women, and public institutions. She was a peer of many, including Gertrude Käsebier and the Allen sisters. [more inside]
Shiny diamonds.
The rainbow has gone dark. Wendy Dio, wife and manager of metal legend vocalist Ronnie James Dio, reported that this morning he lost his battle with stomach cancer at the age of 67. [more inside]
Don't Try This At Work
The Google Job Experiment ... or... how to get hired at Young & Rubicam using $6 of Google Ads. From the author of "50 Days Worse Than Yours" and "50 Relatives Worse Than Yours". Why it worked: [more inside]
Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
The laser turns 50!,
gallery,
how Lasers work,
more on how lasers work (in more detail than you can possibly want),
50 laser facts.
I don't know much about math, but I know what I like.
Plus magazine has compiled all their articles on mathematics and the arts into one handy-dandy page full of highly enjoyable articles ranging from limericks and screeching violins to the restoration of frescoes.
This chronological wang-dang-doodle could destroy the very matrix of reality.
The Physics of Futurama David X Cohen, producer of Futurama, explains how there's actual, legitimate physics in the show, why not.
The Vader Project: Mannequin Skywalker
planning a revolution? contribute to greater net good by doing better
Moving beyond GDP for an information-based society - If indeed[1,2] "A 'Quantum Leap' in Governance" is needed[3] then, as part of the solution,[4] we might start looking past GDP[5,6] and perhaps more toward "betterness instead of business, pursue awesomeness instead of innovation — and maximize good, instead of quarterly profits..." [more inside]
Back to the Future
On September 24 1983, a brilliant young Argentinian footballer playing for FC Barcelona was brutally fouled in a Spanish league game against Athletic Bilbao. The resulting injury incapacitated Diego Armando Maradona for four months and ultimately resulted in him leaving Barcelona for Naples and a serious cocaine addiction. More than the fouling player (who already had the nickname "Butcher of Bilbao"), many blamed Bilbao's coach and his somewhat lacking concept of "fair play". [more inside]
Think global, burn local
Sure, you've heard of Burning Man, that art festival/intentional community/temporary autonomous zone thing in the desert, but did you know that it has spawned a host of events called regional burns? As the name implies, these are smaller and mainly draw a local crowd; they operate under a charter from the Burning Man organization and all abide by its Ten Principles. Most are in North America, but they have crossed the pond with Nowhere in Spain. [more inside]
Robert Cleaned Up, Then He Heard A Sound
Just a bit late for Canadian Mental Health Week, legendary children's author Robert Munsch has admitted to cocaine and alcohol abuse to cope with bipolar disorder. [more inside]
May 15
Jack, you have debauched my sloth.
Gravity is Optional
The results are in, and mathematician Kokichi Sugihara won the 2010 Best Illusion of the Year award with a video of balls rolling uphill. The competition, hosted by the Neural Correlate Society, is the "Oscars of perception," says society president Susana Martinez-Conde. The trophies are themselves visual illusions — wooden sculptures that look vastly different depending on the observer's point of view.
The ten finalists are all interesting. Previously.
Madshobbithole
My name is Maddie Chambers and this all began when I was a young child and read the Hobbit for the first time. And so, a year later I have a nearly finished replica of Bag End. I still have quite a bit of work to do on it, but I think it can be classed as an ongoing project that I can improve over the years (yes I am a perfectionist when it comes to things that I make!)
VR Vatican.
"You Will Levitate!"
Draw With Me
Draw With Me (SLYT) is an original animated short by Mike Inel with an unexpectedly creepy ending. [more inside]
Kuky Returns is an astonishingly beautiful and eerie new Czech film
Kuky just wants to go home. Directed by Academy Award winning Czech director Jan Sverak, this yet to be released film is loosely based on stories of the flooding of Bohemia in 2002. With design elements reminiscent of the beautiful flash games created by Amanita Design, it is visually stunning. No word on any North American distribution (boo), but opening on May 20 in the Czech Republic (yaay!).
The Casino Called Wall Street
Maybe Microsoft is trading in London at a penny less than it's trading at the same moment in New York. A high-frequency trader will buy shares in London and wait for them to rise. Since the discrepancy lasts a mere fraction of a second, speed is key. [Tradework CEO] M. Narang boasts it takes only 15 millionth of a second for his computers to place a buy or sell order after detecting an opportunity. Or, as he puts it, "If you try to pick up the penny, we'll probably beat you to it." [more inside]
"By the way, what have you done that's so great?"
A candid late-night email exchange between an online journalist and Steve Jobs (who may or may not have realized he was in fact talking to a journalist). (SLGawker, though the perplexed are welcome to Google the obscure Mr. Jobs for more information.) Learn whether Jobs thinks a 20-year-old Bob Dylan would've thought Apple was groovy, how Apple is protecting you from porn, and more!
THE INTOR.NET
The Intor.net - A userless, interfaceless website and mindmap generator that creates interesting things from URLs. [via mefi projects]
Kill the Beast
Probing the link between slaughterhouses and violent crime. A study shows that as the number of slaughterhouse workers in a community increases, the crime rate also increases.
Sock it up.
Why, in this day and age when you can get them for $4 at the ol' Wal-Mart, would anyone knit socks? Simply put: Because we can. [more inside]
Fashion versus Clothes
Two articles about successful clothes retailers - Uniqlo and Abercrombie & Fitch - that are both full of interesting tidbits ("Uniqlo is a company that prescribes, records, and analyzes every activity undertaken by every employee, from folding technique to the way advisers return charge cards to customers. Japanese style, with two hands and full eye contact").
In addition, the two articles have a lot to say about branding and what companies place importance on - with A&F coming across as a typical fashion retailer, aggressively selling and marketing a very specific look, and Uniqlo seeming to be doing something quite different and contrary to received wisdom. [more inside]
Portrait of the young writer as a literary sponge
Conficker in control
A botnet with 6 to 12 million computers, employing the world's most sophisticated encryption and peer to peer communication lies waiting, but for what? When the Conficker computer “worm” was unleashed on the world in November 2008, cyber-security experts didn’t know what to make of it. It infiltrated millions of computers around the globe. It constantly checks in with its unknown creators. It uses an encryption code so sophisticated that only a very few people could have deployed it. For the first time ever, the cyber-security elites of the world have joined forces in a high-tech game of cops and robbers, trying to find Conficker’s creators and defeat them. The cops are failing. And now the worm lies there, waiting … [via Postroad's rich linkdump: Goodsh*t (nsfw)] [more inside]
The Face of a Joke on the Body of a Truth
French artist Anthony Geoffrey makes fantastic celebrity caricatures. The site uses flash and is in French but it loads fast and the navigation is simple. The caricatures are in the Portfolio. I particularly enjoyed his Ash from Evil Dead and his House MD. These are not the same as the ones you find in the mall by some poor guy trying to scratch out a living. [more inside]
INTERCAL - Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym
Everything you ever wanted to know about history's most abusive programming language. INTERCAL: Its history, reference manual and a style guide.
the moving finger having writ
Adapted from Jeremy Rifkin's talk at the RSA, the latest RSA Animate illustrates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society. (Also)
"Mouthpiece" – means I'm quite the quick talker (what a spitter!)
Bay Area Slang Top 100 (The Grinch song). From Rafael Casal — 100 Bay Area slang terms in under 3 minutes. [more inside]
May 14
The utter inconsequentiality of contemporary atheism is a social and spiritual catastrophe
What I find chiefly offensive about them is not that they are skeptics or atheists; rather, it is that they are not skeptics at all and have purchased their atheism cheaply, with the sort of boorish arrogance that might make a man believe himself a great strategist because his tanks overwhelmed a town of unarmed peasants, or a great lover because he can afford the price of admission to a brothel.Christian writer Dan Hart wonders if New Atheism might just be a passing fad. [more inside]
Teaching and caring are inextricably linked. But: only one of them is difficult.
Dan Meyer is a high school math teacher with a clever idea: make math about the real world. On his blog, he writes about classroom management, the real skills of teaching, labels, information design, and assessment.
Punch it in your baby bump
Don't let the internet scare you off with archaic disco lessons, goofy cheerleaders in space, or mustaches from your darkest nightmares. Step away from the worst video ever and rejoice in the spectacular talent that is Andrew Lee. [more inside]
the drum talks
Public Image Ltd. Returns For A Thrilling Live Concert
Public Image Live in Concert - Streaming Audio from NPR Worth a listen! This was one of the best concerts I have ever attended - and I have been to a lot of shows in my life. "Public Image Ltd. was frequently overlooked when it originally formed and released a string of records in the 1980s and early '90s, or maybe it was looked at for the wrong reasons. The band is the creative vision of John Lydon, not the angry punk he called "Johnny Rotten" in The Sex Pistols. When The Sex Pistols broke up, it was expected that any new band Lydon fronted would be a punk group. In fact, the first single from Public Image Ltd. pretty much was. It was called "Public Image," and was straight out of The Sex Pistols' bag of tricks. Lydon, in fact, wrote the song back in the day, but everything that came after that cut was so different: The music was slower, more open and groove-based. The poetry and the subject matter was all different, while the singing — though distinctly Lydon — was more spacious. It was still in your face, but it wasn't ugly. "
Whoopsgle!
Google accidentally collects private data over WiFi networks. Affects US, Brazil, Hong Kong, Germany, France. Google apologizes & explains & promises to knock it off. Plus the data was kind of all just hanging out there, unencrypted. So all is well, right? [more inside]
T800 Blue
Your Aura is Showing
The Aura Camera was developed in the 1970s by Polaroid as a way to see auras around people as a psychic might. Though very rare, Carlo Van De Roer managed to get his hands on an AuraCam 6000 to capture a stunningly unique series of portraits [some mildly NSFW].
Weird Clouds Look Even Better From Space
Amazing photos of unusual cloud formations, as seen from space—along with some of the science behind them. Click on the images for full-size, wallpaperable versions.
Reading (and Typing) in Public
Last August (2009), the "ephemeral artists" of Nothing Happened Here staged a mobile public reading event, meandering around the town of San Luis Obispo, CA with The Reading Chair, and a group of folks reading a variety of stories, poems and tales. The group has planned Typing in Public to take place tomorrow (May 15, 2010), in the same little town. The event is primarily focused on people writing on typewriters around town, but people can also share comments via Twitter, Flickr, or texting the event coordinators. To spark some inspiration, the group has received submissions from a variety of people, including Gerald Casale for Devo, Paul Frommer writing in Na'vi (with translation to English), Dr. James J. Duderstadt, President Emeritus, University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, writing on the library as the poster child of the it revolution, and plenty more. [more inside]
Fix the hole in the Wall Street!
Six Simple Ways to Fix Wall Street. "Elements of our Six Simple Steps are in the pending legislation. If they're part of what's adopted, we may get true and lasting reform. If they're not, it won't be long before Wall Street is back to business -- and bailouts -- as usual."
My broke brain broke the bank.
"In order for somebody to understand something, belief is a necessary precondition." On Descartes vs. Spinoza, the necessity of the suspension of disbelief to the creation of belief, the rarity of skepticism and the myths we refuse to stop telling ourselves. Finance blogger Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns uses an essay by analyst by analyst James Montier citing the work of Daniel Gilbert to ponder whether we are doomed to be destroyed by distraction, and suggests that "
financial calamity and economic collapse are really the only way" to destroy the Efficient Markets Hypothosis.
Ripped from the headlines.
After twenty years on the air, NBC has canceled the original Law & Order. The show didn't quite surpass Gunsmoke as the longest running prime time drama in history, although they most likely went through more regular characters and guest stars. The spin-offs Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent will continue. A new show, Law & Order: Los Angeles is set to disappoint us in the fall.
I Did
Terence Tao, former child math prodigy and 2006 Fields Medalist, recently admitted that he only got 4 out of these 5 basic math questions right. Can you do better? [more inside]
Hey Ash, What'cha Playin'?
Find the Angry Video Game Nerd a bit obnoxious? Hey Ash, What'cha Playin', AKA HAWP, may be more your speed as far as video game comedy series go. See a pair of siblings (and sometimes their dad) take on games such as Trauma Center, Animal Crossing, text adventures, Persona 3, the best overlooked games, Professor Layton, Sleep is Death, and more.
2010: An 80s odyssey
Amari's video for their song Tiger is a voyage through some vintage 80's scifi.
Commuting To 30 Rock
The 11th annual NYC Commuter Race -- starring Al Roker on a bike, Meredith Vieira in a car, and Matt Lauer taking mass transit, each traveling from 72nd and Broadway to 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The event (previously on MeFi) is organized by Transportation Alternatives.
Godspeed Atlantis
Barring the need for STS-335 and any potential extension to the program, today's 2:30 EST scheduled launch of OV-104 Atlantis on STS-132 (pdf) will be her 32nd and final trip to space. She's had a good run (gratuitous launch vid).
Dustin Shuler rocks
I had never heard of Dustin Shuler before today. So, this is not an obit post, even if I learned about his death at the same time I discovered his art in this nytimes article. So I visited his website. Although his work has been dismissed as "derivative", there is only one word to describe an artist who has created "Destruction of the Nightmare Towers" in 1977 and "Death of an era" in 1980: visionary.
Obama’s besetting political fault is his automatic adoption of the tone of command, accompanied by a persistent reluctance to be seen as the source of the policy he commandeers.
To push through even one more victory on the order of healthcare, Obama will have to give up the posture of mediator that comes naturally to him. He will have to admit in his political practice that there are parties; that he is the leader of a party; that there is a worse and a better cause; that it feels like a fight because it really is a fight. This does not mean just the adoption of a new set of tactics. It will require almost the emergence of a new character.
"Mr. Watkins said his client was basically a good person."
Online Talk, Suicides and a Thorny Court Case A Minnesota nurse named William Mechert-Dinkel is charged with aiding in the suicides of a woman in Canada and a man in the UK. He assumed the name Li Do and trolled online for depressed people to encourage in (ultimately one way) suicide pacts. Caught in part by the efforts of a concerned retiree in the UK, his case brings up issues of not just jurisdiction but also of free speech. Somewhat related and previously.
fandabidozi
Jane Graham in the Guardian on the new wave of fan films, with links to notable examples. "... fan films have come a long way from two fat blokes with beards running through a forest waving pound-shop light sabres."
People will Come
If you buy it, people will come. The property from the movie The Field of Dreams is for sale. You could own a 193 acre farm, along with a baseball field, and a tourist destination that gets approximately 65,000 visitors annually. The current owners even have permission from Universal to sell memorabilia. Along with ownership of the property comes ownership of the Field of Dreams site. The asking price is $5.4 million. via.
Last night a sample saved my life
So far The Conversations has not discussed The Conversation.
'The Conversations is a monthly feature in which Jason Bellamy and Ed Howard discuss a wide range of cinematic subjects: critical analyses of films, filmmaker overviews, and more. Readers should expect to encounter spoilers.' Including: Passion of the Christ vs. The Last Temptation of Christ, Mulholland Dr., Pixar, and others.
The First Great Radio Hoax: London, January 16, 1926
The First Great Radio Hoax: London, January 16, 1926 Twelve years BEFORE Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds hoax, BBC radio put out a fake news programme of its own. Ronald Knox’s Broadcasting the Barricades convinced thousands of British listeners that London had been attacked by Communist rioters, Big Ben flattened by mortars, the Savoy Hotel bombed to rubble and a Government minister lynched in the street. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
I made it down Crash and Burn and all I got was this lousy Metafilter post
The sound of leather on willow and brains
Friday Flash Fun Ashes 2 Ashes - Zombie Cricket
Don't touch my gems!
Friday Flash Fun: Cursed Treasure (Don't Touch My Gems) is a tower defense game with a twist. This time YOU are the evil overlord trying to prevent the heroic armies from stealing your gems. Fight off rogues, warriors, knights, mages, ninjas and priest with a level-up skill tree system that lets you command orcs, demons and the undead.
May 13
Creating the UK Book Cover for Information Is Beautiful
A short photo story about how a version of this image ended up as the 91st and final cover design of the book, Information is Beautiful. See all 91 covers in chronological order. [via]
The End of the Internet
September 9th, 2011. Mark it on your calendars. Experts say that this will be the day that the last bunch of IPs is given out to ISPs. "...the net's entire existing address space will be exhausted about a year after that date.". [more inside]
We don't have that in our country
Cul-de-sac is a new independent film (trailer, briefly NSFW) by London-based directors Ramin Goudarzi Nejad & Mahshad Torkan. It tells the story of Kiana Firouz, a filmmaker, actress, and lesbian activist who fled Iran after authorities learned of her attempt to make an underground documentary about the lives of Iranian gays and lesbians. According to this interview, Firouz didn't write the film, but plays herself. Earlier this month, her asylum petition was allegedly denied. The denial shouldn't have been surprising according to statistics in a report (pdf) by the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, which states that the refusal rate for lesbians and gay men is as high as 98-99%. Although the Home Office claims it takes the sexual orientation of asylum seekers into consideration, laws which permit deportation of gay and lesbian asylum seekers have recently been challenged in the supreme court.
Loving Hut
"You know there's a perfectly good brisket back at the house we could be eating instead, Jo Ann?" One of what I can only imagine is the very small number of people to appear on both Wikipedia's list of "self-described messiahs" and its list of "restaurateurs," Supreme Master Ching Hai is known for the Quan Yin Method as well as the Loving Hut chain of vegan restaurants.
Apparently the latter serve some pretty tasty cuisine.
Previously on Metafilter.
Apparently the latter serve some pretty tasty cuisine.
Previously on Metafilter.
Well Golly!
Infographic: Food and Drink Spending by City
Infographic: Food spending in the biggest U.S. cities. Austin, TX is living large. Detroit, MI must be losing weight.
"There are five people in the room right now! I won't work with morons."
In an attempt to correct a surprisingly common myth, the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy created Have Sex Standing Up *, a website dedicated to eradicating this particular misconception. They made a pretty great PSA. Via The Sexist.
1934: “Good Books That Almost Nobody Has Read”
In early 1934, about a dozen of America's leading writers and critics - William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, Edmund Wilson, Thorton Wilder, etc. - answered the question: What are some “Good Books That Almost Nobody Has Read”? [Via the always interesting Neglected Books Page]
Finally, you can mix The Price Is Right and CSI:Miami
Instants! Fun is a smorgasbord of single-serving-site sounds, a central web collector of effects, clips and quotes, starting with the daddy of them all (previously), INSTANT RIMSHOT! (called BADUMTSS! here to put it first in the alphabetical arrangement) and including most of the sounds featured here, and more! (via) [more inside]
Best Worst Movie
Considered by many to be perhaps the worst film ever made, Troll 2 (wiki) has resulted in a cult following 20 years after the film's release, and now features as the subject of a new documentary: Best Worst Movie.
Obscurant '80s: synth punk part deux
But if we want to dig a little deeper and discover the roots of what he have been calling the art punk, new wave, synth punk scene, we should go to the west coast circa 1981 with Voice Farm -- Alien Welcome: Are You Ready To Enter The Portal?: Lost Adults: Modern Things or perhaps some spiky, sparky Nervous Gender. But then it would behoove us to move on to the late '70s when The Screamers were basically inventing the entire genre of synth-punk with each new performance -- Punish or be Damned: and here, Tomata du Plenty looking like Martin Rev's evil electric twin doing Vertigo: a demo : and Eva Braun.
Dirty Old Women
Dirty Old Women is an attempt to figure out why older female teachers sleep with younger boys. [more inside]
(The secret ingredient is coriander.)
The translated rarities at Virgil.org include the first biography of Virgil, medieval Aenid fan-fiction, and the poet's recipe for cheese dip. [more inside]
Run! Run away from the new music!
The “LSER” is a response to longstanding requests from subscription holders for a faster mode of self-ejection from the concert hall...The LSER will be a particularly comforting addition to the concert-going experience for patrons anxious about contemporary music, as in the case next month when music director Alan Gilbert will present “Le Grand Macabre” by the twentieth century master György Ligeti.
NY Philharmonic to install new Speedy Exit Ramp. via Hell Mouth, the blog of John Adams. [more inside]
NY Philharmonic to install new Speedy Exit Ramp. via Hell Mouth, the blog of John Adams. [more inside]
Weird Forgotten History
Before David Koresh, there was simply "Koresh." Cyrus Reed Teed was an eclectic physician from New York who experienced a "divine illumination" (Google Books) in 1869. He recruited over 200 followers to settle a utopian commune in Estero, Florida based on his revelation of a unique hollow-earth theory called the Cellular Cosomogony. Elaborate experiments showed conclusive "proof" that the world's surface was a concave sphere. Despite this, his movement failed to gain traction; relations grew increasingly strained between the Koreshans and the Lee County locals. In 1906, the aging Dr. Teed was severely beaten in a Ft. Myers street brawl (PDF, see pp. 12-14) and died from his injuries on December 22, 1908. His martyrdom sealed, the Koreshans refused to bury the remains (PDF) in the belief that their messiah would be resurrected on Christmas Day. The commune has been preserved as a state historic site where Floridians can learn more about the cult leader in their backyard. [more inside]
Live music videos from Le Cargo
French website Le Cargo has a long-running series of live performance videos by alternative musicians, all of which can be watched on their YouTube channel. Here are a few that I liked: Erin McKeown - Put the Fun Back in the Funeral, Kings of Convenience - Mrs. Cold, Soltero - I'll Be a Writer, The Concretes - Military Madness, My Brightest Diamond - Be My Husband, Jose Gonzalez - The Nest, Jaymay - Lonely Men Build Lonely Cities, Vic Chestnutt - Supernatural, Metric - Gimme Sympathy, Françoiz Breut - Les jeunes pousses, Bowerbirds - Moonshiner, Joseph Arthur - A Smile That Explodes, Lambchop - You're a Big Girl Now, Alela Diane - The Rifle, Ane Brun - The Puzzle, Matt Elliott - Broken Bones and Fredo Viola - Sad Song. There are roughly 600 more videos.
Literary Superheroes
Looking for literary superheroes? Behold the awesome powers of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne! (SLYT)
Ricardio: Romantic Intellectual Obsessed w/ Murder
Casey James Basichis comments on his score for the Adventure Time episode "Ricardio the Heart Guy". [more inside]
Digital Library of Mathematical Functions
Since its first printing in 1964, Abramowitz and Stegun's Handbook of Mathematical Functions has been a standard (and public domain) reference manual for special functions and applied mathematics. This week, NIST released its successor, the Digital Library of Mathematical Functions, online to the public.
Airshow porn
Airventure 2009. A highlights clip from last year's AirVenture air show, also known as Oshkosh. [more inside]
Zik Zak Zoom
Halation can interfere with your brain making out the shapes of distorted words, such as on passing highway signs. Banned from advertising in F1 racing, a major tobacco company that sponsors a team came up with a novel design solution that may play on this visual effect to an opposite, suggestive effect, depending on the observer. European officials were not amused, going so far as to call the design "subliminal". Ferrari responded by removing traces of the design from its cars. Judas Priest could not be reached for comment. [via]
Choo, Choo, Choose Me
Adobe's Latest PR Campaign should bring comfort to those who fear Adobe pulling products from the Mac, given that Adobe loves Apple, and have said so today publicly. [more inside]
Bonkers Bunkers
A man in East Austin, Tx was removed from his home after it was discovered that he had been digging bunkers under his home, some which were 35ft at the deepest, and included two sub-levels tall enough for adults to stand in comfortably. Though his motives are unknown, many handguns and rifles were also removed from the home, and he as been very cooperative with city investigators.
Gorilla Encounter
"In the African jungle, conservationist Damian Aspinall (of the Aspinall Foundation) searches for Kwibi, a lowland gorilla he hasn't seen for 5 years. Kwibi grew up with Damian at his Howletts Wild Animal Park in England. When he was five, he was released into the forests of Gabon, West Africa as part of a conservation programme to re-introduce gorillas back into the wild. Now Kwibi's 10 years old, much bigger and stronger." This is their reunion. [more inside]
Because the History Channel is currently airing pablum documentaries like "Sex in the Civil War"
Best of History Web Sites (from EdTechTeacher,) is a resource of annotated and rated-by-content links to over 1200 history web sites across a broad range of related topics. The site also offers links of special interest to educators: hundreds of K-12 lesson plans, teacher guides, activities, games and quizzes and more.
A man, A plan, Unicycle.
"The road looks empty, but it is sprinkled with massive centipedes, tarantulas, and the occasional unicyclist." People on unicycles have plans, man. When not riding seriously long distances across America, they ride a few hundred miles for cancer cures. They ride shorter distances playing musical instruments. And perhaps they'll get to ride the Segway of unicycles, the UX-3.
Subtropolis, USA
With 5 million square feet of leased warehouse, light-industry, and office space, and a network of more than two miles of rail lines and six miles of roads, SubTropolis is the world’s largest underground business complex. [more inside]
"For obvious reasons of morale, these tunnels are not near those in which the men's dormitories are situated."
Project Iceworm was part of an investigation into the feasibility of storing nuclear missiles under Greenland's ice sheet, in the event that the Cold War turned Hot. In 1960 the US Air Force took it upon themselves to bury a city, called "Camp Century" in the ice sheet, and see how life went there. There's an excellent documentary (parts 2, 3, 4) on YouTube about its construction and installation of various facilities, including the first portable modular nuclear power plant. [more inside]
Huautla you say?
Bigtime expedition caving in 1980s Mexico A very high-quality 35-minute video about long-term, multi-expedition efforts to connect several large cave systems in southeastern Mexico. Lots of diving and climbing, and some very nice formations. No bats or insanity (unless you think cave diving is crazy). [more inside]
Sex, Lies, and Splitting Up.
Sex, Lies, and Splitting Up. "The function of the wakaresase-ya is the direct opposite of a dating agency: with great ingenuity, and the right fee, they will prise apart human relationships." How? Through sex and entrapment, apparently. [more inside]
There's something in the water... How crude!
The BP / Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill (previously): The Big Picture presents it. The New York Times is tracking it day-by-day. BBC places it in context of the 10 worst offshore oil spills on record. Visual Economics presents it in an infographic. Alternet covers the 7 stupidest statements made about it.
FAST and cheap
Value engineering (also known as Value Analysis) is an approach to cost-effective product development that seems to have had its heyday in the developed world. However, as this recent student project "Value Engineering Project (Tata Nano)" seems to show, it is still popular in the developing world. Comparing this definition of Carlos Ghosn's now famous phrase "Frugal Engineering" with VE's seems to imply "new name; same approach" - understandable since Tata are the leading lights of the Indian Value Engineering society. Is it time for a global revival of interest?
Money money money must be funny in the rich man's world
Who would have thought it? The UK has withdrawn the 500 Euro note after an investigation by SOCA discovered that 90% of the notes in circulation were linked to crime. Nicknames the ‘Bin Laden’ (you know its out there somewhere) the purple note worth $630 is a favourite of the criminally minded due to its ultra-portability and acceptance throughout mainland Europe. Drug investigations in Latin America time and time again turn up large amounts of currency in this form. According to Columbian financial regulators 234K Euros was legally imported and declared into the country but trails of 600M Euros being exported were discovered. Whilst money laundering and fraud relating to the Euro is nothing new the decision to put into circulation such a high note must now be being questioned at the highest levels.
Arresting aliens
Larry King questions Stephen Hawking's recent argument - that we should not try to talk to aliens - and other matters extraterrestrial with the physicist Michio Kaku, Seth Shostak of SETI, the science fiction writer and astronomer David Brin and the actor Dan Aykroyd (1, 2, 3) (Previous, previous)
May 12
The Song is Ended, but the Melody Lingers On
Doris Eaton Travis, the last Ziegfeld Girl, has passed away at age 106. One of the last living links to the time of vaudeville and theatrical revues, Travis premiered the song Singin' in the Rain. She performed with the likes of Al Jolson and Irving Berlin, and hobnobbed with Babe Ruth and Henry Ford. Her career as a performer and entertainer lasted nearly 100 years... [more inside]
“Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I mean, I wanna” - Boom
Free speech radio. Forty years ago today the KKK bombed KPFT a Pacifica radio station a mere two months after they went on the air. They rebuilt and were bombed again during a rendition of Alice's Restaurant. The hatred of speech continues, but then so does the station and the network. [more inside]
Sierra Leone
Come with me to Sierra Leone and listen to the hot Bubu of Janka Nabay -- Eh Congo, and then back to the '70s with Kaibara City, featuring; Super Combo Kings: Blind Musical Flames: Sabanoh 75 - Konko: Me Nar Poor Old Man Nor Do Me So - Ebenezar Calendar. Many more.
The Tea Party Jacobins
"The Tea Party Jacobins" is one of the better insights into the weirdness driving populist politics in America (and elsewhere) today. [more inside]
You probably think HTML5 is like HTML 4 because you’re an idiot dude!
In the '60s, all the Album Covers moved, or was it just because we were all stoned?
Animated Album Covers featuring iconic images from The Beat les, David Bowie, The Clash, Pink Floyd (semi-related: The Dark Side of the Moon in real life) and more...
If politicians were mathematicians
If politicians were mathematicians. "I would like to suggest two systems for parliamentary votes, one that would weaken the party system but without killing it off entirely, and one that would protect large minorities. Neither has the slightest chance of being adopted, because they are both too complicated to be taken seriously. But mathematicians wouldn’t find them complicated at all — hence the title of this post." Fields medalist Tim Gowers messes around with political axioms.
The Blowback on Blowers
Leaf blowers emit 34 times the hydrocarbons of a typical automobile per hour of operation. Fumes are compounded by noise. Cities from New York to California are banning them. Seems a straight forward issue, but what about time and money?
Shit My Kids Ruined
Don't get caught in a bad hotel
Bad Hotel - a FlashMob direct action for San Francisco hotel workers' right to health care by Pride At Work, Sleep With The Right People, and the Brass Liberation Orchestra. [more inside]
"F**k Michael Powell. Let him sue us."
Home Depot was having an issue with employees cutting their fingers off while sawing wood for customers. Michael Powell invented a safety device that Home Depot then copied without Powell's permission. Today, Powell won a $25 million judgment in federal court. [more inside]
Guido's Python
Guido's Python: Introduction is part of a series by Yaniv Aknin which seeks to look at the programming language through the eyes of Guido van Rossum, author of the language (and mentioned previously). [more inside]
Steam for Mac
Steam, the hugely popular online videogame distribution network, is now available for the Mac. MeFi favorite Portal is also free via the service (both Mac and PC) until the 24th.
(previously)
All the single...children?
Not that kind of Bone
Bone - What Could Have Been. Animator Andrew Kaiko creates a few seconds of a hypothetical Bone movie using hand-drawn Flash animation and voices from the TellTale video games. [more inside]
Police State U?
We've already discussed the death of a University of Virginia Lacrosse player, allegedly killed by her boyfriend. Now, UVa President John Casteen (statements on the murder 1, 2, 3, 4) wants greater access to student arrest records in the hopes that it will help prevent violence on campus.
Liquid Hills
For Sale: Rural Italian countryside, Priced to MOVE! A landslide (mud flow?) splits a hillside apart in the southern Italian town of Maierato.
The Letter U, and the Numeral 2
Reconnaissance will outlive the U-2, but there will always be a divot in the hearts of those who have seen the curvature of the earth, the stars seemingly close enough to touch, and known the satisfaction of having completed a mission with the Dragon Lady.
Former U-2 pilot and military correspondent Cholene Espinoza writes a lovely adieu to these beautiful, difficult-to-fly aircraft, as well as a requiem for the era of human pilots for surveillance, giving way now to UAVs and other remote-control drones. The U-2 is, amazingly, still in service, but apparently soon to be grounded -- or not -- half-a-century after Francis Gary Powers' little Cold War incident. [Previously]
Meat and veg? Veg and meat! (No chocolate biscuit.)
Atkins was right?! According to a meta-study of nearly 350,000 people, "there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of (heart disease) or (vascular disease)... However, replacement with a higher carbohydrate intake, particularly refined carbohydrate, can exacerbate ... insulin resistance and obesity that includes increased triglycerides, small LDL particles, and reduced HDL cholesterol. Dietary efforts to improve ... (cardiovascular disease) risk ... should primarily emphasize the limitation of refined carbohydrate intakes and (losing weight)." [more inside]
Fun with secret questions and answers
"My new bank, Ally Bank, configures a security question and answer for customer service calls. In addition to your SSN, date of birth, and mother's maiden name they also ask you the question you specify and wait for the answer you've provided. A real live human operator always asks the question and waits for a real live answer. This measure has the potential to not just improve my account security but add entertainment value as well."
May 11
Snikt!
'80s Obscura
Obscure, overlooked, early '80s new wave/electro/artpunk. JOHN FEKNER CITY SQUAD: Player on left. Try 2 4 5 7 9 11. Or better just listen to them all. Eighties synth wave doesn't get much better than this. Sound collage at the next level. Throbbing synths + icy guitar: Beautiful Skin - Harsh distraction. Gods of psychedelic coldwave, Lives of Angels (Gallis Pole). Trees: Sleep Convention. And Necropolis of Love (yes, that is how we danced in the eighties).
Tzvia Greenfield
Tzvia Greenfield is the first ultra-Orthodox woman to serve in Knesset, the Israeli legislature, representing the left-wing party Meretz. Her 2001 book Hem Mefahadim ("They are afraid,") an attack on rightism and insularity among the ultra-Orthodox, drew death threats. Despite her sharp criticism of the religious community ("The big issue here is a very delicate one. That is children. Large families thirty years ago was six children; now there's 13 or 14 - from one wife. I believes the glorification of bringing as many children as possible is a definite way of ensuring women can't bring their advantages into effect - subjugation.")
she still lives an observant life in the ultra-Orthodox community of Har Nof. "They disagree with my ideas but they know me as religious and halachic person. They cannot see any blemish in my practice except for one thing- we have a dog." At least one haredi denies that Greenfield is Orthodox at all. (The dog comes up.)
Would You Want to Know?
"Starting Friday, Walgreens' shoppers can buy an over-the-counter genetics test from Pathway Genomics at 7,500 stores across the country. Priced at $20 to $30, the kit claims to offer information on users' possibility of developing conditions like Alzheimer's disease, breast cancer, or diabetes. Access to the scientific analysis online, however, costs another $79 to $179"* [video | 02:31]. "But doctors and geneticists fear the worst for this new over-the-counter access to genetic testing. With no physician to interpret the results of the test, and no FDA regulation of how results are processed or delivered, there is the potential for consumers to misinterpret what their risk really means for their health and their lifestyle."* [more inside]
Bowie 76: somewhere between Mars and Berlin
Fifty Extraordinary Churches
Inside Mind Control
More than 30 years after it was written, the Pentagon has released a memorandum detailing its involvement in the CIA’s infamous Cold War mind-control experiments. The entire document, as linked to in the article, is available as a pdf.
An exclusive interview with Mr. Robert Dutu
"i accept the fact that i am GUILTY… and will not hesitate to be prosecuted when the law catch up with me… and i know my God will forgive because i pray to him to replenish the pockets of my clients with double of whatever they loss"
Mike Nash has a surprisingly frank chat with a 419 scammer.
bof fri fleu
Given the news that Joe Biden's son Beau had a mild stroke today, perhaps it would be helpful to know the warning sides. FAST was a series of public service announcements from the Massachusetts Department of Health. You could be a hero! HBCH!
Cressbeckler
He first made headlines during the 2008 Presidential election as an electric (but polarizing) third party candidate. Though some considered him a marginal, fringe voice representing the worst of today's far-right wing, it looks like Joad Cressbeckler will be having the last laugh. Today ONN announced that he will be joining their nightly lineup with his own prime-time show The Cressbeckler Stance.
Indecision day UK style
Following days of uncertainty not witnessed since 1974, David Cameron makes a hasty entrance to 10 Downing Street, an hour or so after Gordon Brown made a surprisingly hasty exit. [more inside]
Electric Boogaloo (2): The True Electric Boogaloo
We've seen volcanic eruptions with lightning, heard the musical styles blending modern electro with the (samoan) sasa, and had a few snowclones of the phrasal play from Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (a quick way to tag often unnecessary sequels; exhibits: A, B, C, D, and E), but no sign of the originals. Without further ado, I present The Electric Boogaloos. Float and glide on in for more. [more inside]
Food of the Times: Presidential Gastronomy
Although they admit a mutual fondness for a good burger and fries now and then, the President and First Lady Michelle Obama try to emphasize healthy eating at the White House. In 2009, the White House had its first vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt’s World War II victory garden. This is quite a change to the meal President Eisenhower sat down to a little more than 50 years ago at the USDA's Beltsville Research Station. Eisenhower's own method of cooking a steak was not on the menu, as the showcase meal featured 22 “new and improved” foods, including modified milk containing increased nonfat milk solids and decreased butter, dehydrofrozen peas, orange juice reconstituted from a dehydrated powder, beef and pork grown with newly discovered hormones and antibiotics added, and “butter prepared, presumably, by the usual methods.” Our national conversation about food goes on and the White House will likely continue be at the center of it. Hopefully, we don’t end up with President Garfield's last meal as a White House canteen staple [recipe, including tip on getting rid of the “troublesome little bones.”] Bon Appetit!
Conan@Google
Conan@Google A 45 minute Q&A session Conan O'Brien at Google HQ. If thought the 60 minutes interview (previously) wasn't funny enough, this is definitely for you.
1 billion people are hungry
While folks ponder the nutritional value of the new KFC "double down" sandwich, around the world 1 billion people go to bed each day hungry, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.)
(BTW, If you define hunger or malnourishment in a different way, 1 billion could be just the tip of the iceberg.)
Today the F.A.O. asked those who find the world hunger situation to be outrageous to join with them and "blow the whistle" on this silent crisis.
MIT's media lab helped them set up an online networking tool to track the global spread of this movement.
Jeremy Irons is on on board... and mad as hell.
The fragility of reputation
Surviving the Age of Humiliation. Jeffrey Zaslow: "It's no longer just celebrities and business executives who need to think about aggressive reputation-protection and face-saving techniques."
3-D != Serious Drama
“We have snakes in the newsroom.”
Rrrrrrrrr!! ROONEY!!!
The ultimate GET OFF MY LAWN collection. Time magazine of all places brings the LOLZ with the ultimate Andy Rooney Top 10. What's a Lady Gaga?
SIM + meat cleaver = Micro SIM
A Moment in Time
A Moment in Time: On April 8, the New York Times Lens photography blog asked their readers and students to take a photo at a particular date and time: Sunday, May 2, at approximately 15:00 (U.T.C./G.M.T.), then submit it for an upcoming interactive online gallery. 13,000 images were submitted, 10,000 have now been posted online. [more inside]
Old-time songster, Henry Thomas
Born in Big Sandy, Texas in 1874, Henry Thomas was one of the oldest black musician who ever recorded for the phonograph companies of the 1920′s and his music represents a rare opportunity to hear what American black folk music must have sounded like in the last decade of the 19th century. [more inside]
May 10
Octarine?
The average human eye has three types of cone cells, each of which is sensitive to a different wavelength range of visible light. The difference in the relative signal from the three cones allows us to distinguish colors. Unfortunately, since these sensitivity ranges overlap, there are some combinations of signals from the cones that can't be created by light emitted from a real object. These are the so-called "imaginary colors". However, by selectively overstimulating one or more types of cone, we can still perceive these colors; this is the principle behind the Eclipse of Titan, an optical illusion which produces both a green and a cyan that don't otherwise appear in nature. (Similar effects can be seen in the Eclipses of Mars, Neptune, and Triton.) [more inside]
changes
Ubuntu Light: The web in 7 seconds
In the wake of the release of Lucid Lynx, the latest version of Ubuntu ("Perfect", "Mactastic"), Canonical have unveiled Unity and Ubuntu Light, a new desktop environment and implementgation of Ubuntu aimed at the netbook and tablet market as well as offering an "instant web" experience that can either be stand-alone or on a dual booting device. Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth discusses the design process behind Unity. Ars Technica Hands on. (last two links via)
THEORY, LITERATURE, HOAX
Ballad of a South African Football Fan
16 years after the end of apartheid in South Africa and one month before the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa begins, Raymond Whitaker writes about his memories of football (not rugby) in South Africa in the 60s and 70s. [more inside]
Extreme Robotic Parking
Get outta there!
I don't have a girlfriend, don't want one
Peter O'Donnell, Creator of Modesty Blaise Dies
Modesty Blaise was one of the greatest newspaper comics ever. Modesty was a take-no-prisoners adventuress. Easily one of the best drawn and scripted newspaper continuities.
A gang is with whoever I'm stepping
Whatever Happened to N.W.A's Posse? L.A. Weekly tracks down the people featured on the cover of "N.W.A and the Posse."
Conan is Cimmerian, he cannot cry. I cry for him: Frank Frazetta - 1928 to 2010
Frank Frazetta, was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1928. He rose to fame first for his work with comic books in the 1940s and 50s, then for his iconic fantasy art from the 1960s on. Frazetta was the inspiration behind Zelda artist Yusuke Nakano, and Frazetta's artwork for the "Famous Funnies" were an inspiration for Star Wars. Frank Frazetta died today, at the age of 82. More history, eulogies and links inside. [more inside]
Editing the Globe
Bono and Bob Geldof worked in The Globe and Mail newsroom on Saturday to guest-edit a special edition of the paper on the future of Africa for today... Monday, May 10, in advance of the G8/G20 summit in Huntsville, Ontario, from June 25-27, 2010.
Teaching Our Soldiers to Die Instead of Kill?
During WWII Allied soldiers were taught how to smash jawbones while gouging eyes, crush windpipes and snap necks, and generally apply deadly force to the weakest, most vulnerable parts of the human anatomy in order to kill or disable the enemy quickly and efficiently.
Current American military unarmed combat is heavily influenced by the popularity of mixed martial-arts and puts great emphasis on grappling with/controlling the enemy. Not a single neck-snapping technique is taught. Some current members of the military think that this is teaching our soldiers to die rather than kill the enemy, and that it would be better if our soldiers were taught to straight up kill the enemy rather than try to wrestle him to the ground while wearing 70+ pounds of gear. [more inside]
Escape from Somalia
Thousands of people flee Somalia every year in rusty fishing boats. Here's a photo essay of one of those journeys. By the always-excellent Ed Ou.
The Moral Life of Babies
"A growing body of evidence suggests that humans have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life... Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bone... [But] the sense of right and wrong that [babies] naturally possess diverges in important ways from what we adults would want it to be."
This is not your father's shack.
"We’re living in a disposable world. It’s just not worth it to repair things; it’s not worth it to build things from scratch. The magic of that seems to have passed.” The death of Radio Shack. [more inside]
Goooaaal! Goooaaal! Goooaaal! Goooaaal! Goooaaal! Goooaa....
Last Wednesday, Hibernian and Motherwell played their penultimate game in the Scottish Premier League. It ended in a 6-6 draw, equalling the record for the highest score draw in the history of professional football. (YT highlights for those who can't get iPlayer.) [more inside]
Not a Joke Band
Joe Pop-O-Pie led his San Francisco punk band Pop-O-Pies through countless performances of the band's "hit", an idiosyncratic cover of the Grateful Dead's Truckin'. As the 1980's closed, Joe fell off the map while his other projects went mainstream, but last month the Pop-O-Pies reunited for one more Truckin' performance.
As women get older they get sadder...
I'm just not sure that "happiness" is supposed to be the stable human condition, and I think it's punishing that we're constantly being pushed to achieve it. Screw Happiness, an essay on the folly of using happiness as a measure to define women's lives.
SF+QM
Science fiction and quantum mechanics on Rudy Rucker's blog.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Harry Potter
"There was a hobbit, who didn't even know how to return home. He lived in a hole in the ground, and didn't know where he came from or where he was going to. He even didn't know why he had become a hobbit. This was Hogwartz School of Witchcraft and Wizardry 5th year apprentice Harry Potter. " 11 fake Harry Potter books from China.
The Sad Tale of the Tree of Ténéré
The tree of Ténéré was the most isolated tree in the world. Standing there in the Sahara Desert, it had once been part of a lush and populated forest, but as fortunes changed and other trees disappeared, it stood alone in a barren desert, 120 miles from any other tree, an isolated landmark for caravan routes for hundreds for years (1, 2, 3, 4).
Until... [more inside]
Until... [more inside]
Stormy Weather (1917-2010)
Realtime Collaborative Text Editing
Hello, Dr. Evil here...
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. In a few hours, I will destroy the Greek economy. Unless, that is, you give me the sum of...one trillion dollars!
(SLNYT, but with this much money I can afford to look frumpy)
May 9
Japan beats Sweden by a nose in secular-rational values.
The Inglehart Values Map , based on the World Values Survey, visualizes the strong correlation of values in different cultures. Countries are clustered in a remarkably predictable way, with great cultural continuity across the English-speaking world.
“There is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage.”
Elena Kagan will be officially nominated to replace John Paul Stevens today, ending weeks of speculation and controversy as to who would replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice. Significant criticism has hounded Kagan throughout the nomination process, as she has never tried a case in court (much like Earl Warren). Many worry that her notable statements and writings do not provide a clear progressive record; some go so far as to claim she is Obama's Harriet Miers.
Say hello to Salo?
Salo has been discussed before here in the blue, but last week the Australian Classification Review Board determined that the DVD release can be classified R18+ (available, but with sale restricted to adults), if it includes 3 hours of additional material proposed by the potential distributor, Shock. In the decision, the Board notes that the additional material "facilitates wider consideration of the context of the film."
While this decision is a win for anti-censorship campaigners and film buffs, it may not be the final chapter. The film has had a checkered history in Australia.
The Board's media release is here (PDF).
Walk away
Forclosure? This evening 60 Minutes did a segment on "walking away" from your underwater home... They featured a web site Youwalkaway.com (previously) which, this evening, is suffering from an overload of hits.
Are we going to see an uptick in folks who have said enough...
Too Much Horror Fiction
Too Much Horror Fiction: "Covering horror literature and its resplendent paperback cover art, mostly from the 1960s through the early 1990s. Mostly."
Marble Hornets: Part 1 Completed
Marble Hornets (previously) started out as Alex Kralie’s movie project. However after Alex became more paranoid the movie was aborted and he planned on burning the tapes. Jay (or "J") then convinced Alex to give him the raw footage instead. J began watching the tapes and noticing several odd things about them when suddenly things started happening to him.
After almost a year, the popular alternate reality game Marble Hornets has completed Part 1. (link to credits) [more inside]
After almost a year, the popular alternate reality game Marble Hornets has completed Part 1. (link to credits) [more inside]
Fast on the road
Precocious 14-year-old Alfie McKenzie writes an article for The Guardian on his Warholian 15 after voting in the UK General Election.
Perfection
Dallas Braden had a rough childhood. A problem child in the tough neighborhood of Stockton, California, he was raised by his mother and, after she died, his grandmother, both of whom he credits for turning his life around. Today, on Mother's Day, in front of a small home crowd and his grandmother, Dallas Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in Major League Baseball history and the second in as many years against the white-hot Tampa Bay Rays. This also happened to be 42 years and 1 day after the A's only other perfect game, by Catfish Hunter. [more inside]
working working memory with dual n-back
This is why we can't have nice things.
Less than 24 hours after it was opened, Detroit's $5M Bagley Avenue Pedestrian Bridge was vandalized. [more inside]
Facebook's Gone Rogue; It's Time for an Open Alternative
Facebook's Gone Rogue; It's Time for an Open Alternative
[I]n December, with the help of newly hired Beltway privacy experts, it reneged on its privacy promises and made much of your profile information public by default. That includes the city that you live in, your name, your photo, the names of your friends and the causes you’ve signed onto. This spring Facebook took that even further. All the items you list as things you like must become public and linked to public profile pages. If you don’t want them linked and made public, then you don’t get them — though Facebook nicely hangs onto them in its database in order to let advertisers target you.
[I]n December, with the help of newly hired Beltway privacy experts, it reneged on its privacy promises and made much of your profile information public by default. That includes the city that you live in, your name, your photo, the names of your friends and the causes you’ve signed onto. This spring Facebook took that even further. All the items you list as things you like must become public and linked to public profile pages. If you don’t want them linked and made public, then you don’t get them — though Facebook nicely hangs onto them in its database in order to let advertisers target you.
Are you smarter than a kindergartener?
The Whatsisname Collection
The Whatsisname Collection. A number of years ago there was a place called A&S Magazines on 40th Street behind the Port Authority, which sold used magazines. One week I went in there and they had this particular collection of magazines, boxes and boxes of them, which they were selling quite cheap, because they had all been defaced. A gentleman in Connecticut had been buying magazines - mostly men’s magazines - for several decades, from the forties to the early seventies - and deconstructing them. He would take them apart, and then he would make a new magazine from the remnants of several, arranging the pages to highlight certain stories and downplay others. He would staple the pages back into the cover, and then he would cross out whatever stories weren’t in his version with a wax pencil. Finally he would stamp his name on the cover and number the whole thing, presumably for his "library." Even though vintage, these oddly shaped, crude reassemblages really wouldn’t appeal to many people. Obviously I bought as many as I could. Michael Kupperman's Whatsisname Collection -- Part 1 // Part 2.
MOVE, 25 years after
25 years after the siege at the MOVE house in Philadelphia ended with the police dropping a bomb on the house from a helicopter, killing 11 and destroying a city block, the Philadelphia Inquirer looks back on the events with contemporary footage and interviews with participants and those affected. The failure to rebuild adequately the houses that were devastated in the siege and fire remains an enduring scandal in Philadelphia.
Murder at UVA
Murder At UVA: George Huguely, Yeardley Love, And Lacrosse's Worst An Andrew Sharpe column with some personal analysis. Food for thought.
When Five Fell
Morning. Before the world wants anything from her. When Five Fell is the beautiful short film about the five senses loving you back... from Wong Fu Productions. [more inside]
Thoughts on Mother's day
Betty White hosts the mother of all Saturday Night Lives, Why I hate Mother's day, PostSecret: Mother's Day Secrets, Mother's day with no mother, Mr. T's Mother day message and a Mother's joy on learning her 15 month old daughter will get open heart surgery again.
Say it with water
Falling water controlled by microchips in Kyoto Station welcomes you using a technology similar to that used in inkjet printers. Here are some others. They are made by Koei Aquatec.
The Big Pink Elephant In The Room
Actress Kristin Chenoweth responds to a Newsweek article which focuses on her Promises, Promises costar Sean Hayes (who recently came out) as evidence that gay actors can't convincingly play straight.
China is the new Dubai
China is the new Dubai (when it comes to architecture)
To sing? Or blow the flute? How about both? Yeah!
When you think of African music, flutes may not be the first instruments that come to mind, but across West Africa there are some flute traditions that often involve a unique combination of vocalizing and blowing into the instrument, resulting in some amazing music that's a hella lotta fun to listen to. There are some nice examples on YouTube here, here, here and here.
May 8
The State of Metropolitan America
The Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program (led by Bruce Katz) has just released its The State of Metropolitan America report (full pdf). The report builds on eight years of the Census Bureau’s American Community Surveys; and includes a spiffy State of Metropolitan America Indicator Map of changes in population indicators at state, metropolitan, and suburban levels.160;160;
Some interesting findings:
- America's suburbs are now more likely to be home to minorities, the poor and a rapidly growing older population as many younger, educated whites move to cities for jobs and shorter commutes.
- Two-thirds of primary cities in large metropolitan areas grew from 2000 to 2008
- For the first time in several decades, the population is growing at a faster rate than households, due to delays in marriage, divorce and births as well as longer life spans. People living alone and nonmarried couple families are among the fastest-growing in suburbs.
Pulp Sci-Fi Title-O-Tron
The Sphere of Mercury's Mathematician and other thrilling randomly generated retro pulp Sci-Fi titles are available to you now from the Random Pulp Sci-Fi Title-O-Tron!
A Renaissance Fair(e) for the Web
Renaissance Fair(e)s are fun(ny). All's Faire is a web comedy series about the fictional Southeastern Delaware Renaissance Faire and its actors/employees. [more inside]
She's sweet 16 and never been kissed! Never!
Pamela's Prayer: This heartfelt motion picture presents the highest standard of purity before marriage. Remember, a kiss isn't something you should just give away!
I'll take care of them.
BBC World Service Documentaries
BBC World Service has over 500 audio documentaries you can download. The subject matter is incredibly wide ranging, for example, internet cafés, the influence of Islamic art on William Morris, South African female AIDS activist Thembi Ngubane, Yiddish, the importance of cows, novelist Chinua Achebe, financial risk management, Obama as an intellectual, the physical and emotional effects of a car crash and many, many more. If the quantity and variety are overwhelming, you can subscribe to a podcast, which delivers a new documentary to you every single day.
For those far away from their mums.
Space Paranoids is alive and real.
Greetings, Programs! This is enough to make the hearts of every sci-fi geek everywhere go pitter and patter (yes and no, like a bit!). Space Paranoids was "invented" by a young programmer named Kevin Flynn back in 1982. Now it's finally come to life! [more inside]
The dolphin as our beast of burden
A Mind in the Water: The dolphin as our beast of burden. "The shocking double life of the dolphin, featuring neuropsychologists, hippies, spies, and extraterrestrials."
Everybody Edits
Everybody Edits is a fun Flash game where everyone edits the world and plays in it together.
you got dick'd
Is a Woman's MBA Worth Less? $4,600.
That's how much less women made than men in their first post-MBA jobs, according to research by Nancy Carter and Christine Silva of Catalyst. And it's not because women tend to start at lower positions than men — though they do start at lower positions than men, on average, that's a separate problem. The research controls for job level and industry. What's more, the salary lines aren't parallel; men's salaries start higher, then rise faster. The gap widens over time, even after controlling for factors like having children or differing aspiration levels.
The pay just isn't equal.
Git er Done
C.W. Roberts Contracting in Florida has come up with a simple and inexpensive method to remove crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico. [more inside]
GBGGBBGGBBBGGBBBBGGBBBBBGGBBBBBBGGBHBBHBGGBBHBBBHBGG
"At the end of March 2010, I found out that I was apparently a central figure in a conspiracy theory regarding aliens and a government cover up." David Levine's Contact Project was an early web game (1995!) in which message forum members would collaborate to translate increasingly elaborate "extraterrestrial" messages. What Levine didn't expect was that, over the course of several years, a convoluted conspiracy theory would spring up around the Contact Project based on the notion that Levine actually received transmissions from Tau Ceti, and lied to cover it up! (via gameshelf)
Escape velocity
Following Steve Eley stepping down as editor of Escape Pod, the first and probably most popular science fiction podcast magazine, Mur Laffety has taken up the reins. Probably best known for I Should Be Writing, a podcast for wanna-be fiction writers, Mur also currently hosts Tor.com's fiction podcast.
Dammit, I can smell the rooms in your pictures, Roy
Yoshida-ryo: Dilapidated, decrepit and downright dirty. A photo essay about a Kyoto University dormitory first built in 1913 that still houses student squatters for the ultra low price of ¥2,500 (about USD$25) a month. No wonder it looks like this [more inside]
I'm not one to keep my fridge and cupboards stocked but I had a few items from my last trip to Trader Joe's and they would get the job done.
"What would be it like to go a day without spending any money? I've thought about this before but I've never considered actually trying it. I couldn't imagine going a day without spending a single penny -- is that even possible? How would I get from A to B? What about food? Turns out, a day of living expense free is possible and you'd be surprised by the overwhelming sense of satisfaction and feeling of elation that comes from it. "
The Huffington Post's Alexa van Tobel tells the astonishing and empowering tale of How I Went 24 Hours Without Spending Any Money...In New York City.
Unfortunately, "this experiment is unsustainable for a long period of time."
The Fundamentals of Bodyweight Strength Training. And some other links on the same topic.
Detailed information on the Transocean Deepwater Horizon Explosion
"High pressures? You had better believe it. And in this case, Mother Nature won." Absolutely fascinating analysis of both the hazards of deepwater drilling and what happened to the Transocean Horizon rig that sank in the Gulf of Mexico. A first hand interview from one of the survivors, and discussions about drilling, safety and the equipment involved. [more inside]
"This is not about paying someone to get you laid and then sticking your company’s health insurance with the bill."
"Imagine what it must feel like never to have known gentle touch, and then to have someone hold your hand, stroke your arm, run their fingers through your hair. It's a profound experience. Often, clients cry." Inside the world of sex surrogates. [more inside]
Not available for Kindle
Life With Betty
Most people don't realize that Betty White was awesome nearly 60 years ago. In 1952, she was already TV's first female talk show host, and she became the first woman on TV to star AND co-produce her own sitcom (without being married to one of the other producers), "Life With Elizabeth", and the show is (IMO) a Lost Classic. (less lost now, with the help of YouTube; MLYT follows...) [more inside]
May 7
Walk on water
Liquid Mountaineering is a new sport (or viral hoax) that these guys are purporting will be the next big thing. [more inside]
Pancakes
Jim's Pancakes are elaborate, multi-colored, and structural. Who here likes pancakes? I love pancakes.
Resting transparent in the spirit which gave him rise.
David Milch, creator of Deadwood, John From Cincinnati, and NYPD Blue reads from Luck, his Michael Mann-directed upcoming show for HBO. Following the reading there's a Q&A. (mp3)
Vintage kind of girl, vintage kind of bike
Dead.
The Illusiveness of the Entirely Useless
So, there's a Japanese artistic concept called a Thomasson.
In short, they are "defunct
and useless
objects, attached
to someone's property and aesthetically maintained."
But a more nuanced
explanation involves artist Akasegawa
Genpei, baseball player Gary Thomasson,
and a whole generation of Japanese kids who wandered around Tokyo,
looking for architectural abnormalities.
Now that the book has found its way to English, American readers are submitting some pretty fascinating discoveries of their own . [more inside]
Rosie Hardy: naturally talented photographer, plagiarist, or silly lovestruck teen?
Rosie Hardy is a 19 year-old photographer from Derbyshire, UK. Having first got into photography at age 16, she built a large following on flickr. She detailed her romance and ultimate breakup with another photographer through her photos. As early as 2008 there was suspicion that her romance and photography skills were more than just raw talent, drawing comparisons between Rosie and Lonelygirl15. An MSNBC profile of her relationship raised questions about the veracity of her relationship with then-boyfriend Aaron Nace, who she moved to the US to be with before ultimately returning to England. She was accused of plagiarizing many of the concepts of her photos, for which she apologized. She has regular interactions with her fans and is still featured on photography websites.
Mr. Peacock
Cold Steel FTW
Is your sword having difficulty cutting through boots filled with meat? Then perhaps you need the Cold Steel Two Handed Great Sword. [via] Trouble getting through your opponent's cleverly designed chainmail (and some cardboard boxes)? What you need is the Cold Steel War Hammer. Pesky eggs hanging from strings hanging from a wooden frame got you down? There's a solution: the Cold Steel Indian War Club. More Cold Steel products/videos here. (All meats utilized in these videos carefully preserved and donated to the Ventura County Rescue Mission.)
Dinosaurs in the Deep
In 1916, Bone War veteran (and poet) Charles H. Sternberg loaded 22 crates of fossils from the Alberta Badlands onto the SS Mount Temple, intending to ship them to the British Museum of Natural History. They never made it. [via Dinosaur Tracking]
Do you realize that if I played by the rules, right now I'd be in gym?
Crowdsourcing Crime Prevention!
Want to earn tons of cool badges and prizes while competing with you friends to see who can be the best American? It's up to you to keep America safe! If you see something suspicious, Snap it! If you see someone who doesn't belong, Snap it! Not sure if someone or something is suspicious? Snap it anyway!
Flash Friday Dice Fun
Right Here in Nebraska
We're the makers of Spam. We invented Kool-Aid, and this is where the first Reuben sandwich was made: Right Here in Nebraska. (SLYT) [more inside]
Vancouver's Basquiat?
"if you see ken around the downtown eastside, chinatown, or gastown, buy his art or i'll stab you in the neck!"
Ken Foster wanders the streets of Vancouver, painting the neighborhoods and selling the paintings he's made on found objects.
The quantum mechanics of the waggle dance.
Mathematician Barbara Shipman speculates that a honey bee's sense of the quantum world could be as important to their perception of the world as sight, sound or smell: "the mathematics implies that bees are doing something with quarks."
Happy You-Don't-Have-To-Be-A-Mother's Day
"There's no such thing as the Car or the Shoe or the Laundry Soap. But everyone knows the Pill, whose FDA approval 50 years ago rearranged the furniture of human relations in ways that we've argued about ever since." Time Magazine's cover article this month chronicles fifty years of reliable oral contraceptives. [more inside]
A nick by any other name
The American Academy of Pediatrics is proposing that doctors be authorized to perform a “ritual nick” on the genitals of pre-pubescent girls in order to satisfy cultural requirements and hopefully stave off more invasive forms of Female Genital Cutting (FGC):
Most forms of FGC are decidedly harmful, and pediatricians should decline to perform them, even in the absence of any legal constraints. However, the ritual nick suggested by some pediatricians is not physically harmful and is much less extensive than routine newborn male genital cutting. There is reason to believe that offering such a compromise may build trust between hospitals and immigrant communities, save some girls from undergoing disfiguring and life-threatening procedures in their native countries, and play a role in the eventual eradication of FGC. It might be more effective if federal and state laws enabled pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick as a possible compromise to avoid greater harm. (source: PDF; not safe for work, contains line drawings of female genitalia.)
5 Percent Too High
Odds of Cooking the Grandkids: "There is a horrible paper in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which looks at how the limits of human physiology interact with upper-range global warming scenarios. The bottom line conclusion is that there is a small - of order 5% - risk of global warming creating a situation in which a large fraction of the planet was uninhabitable (in the sense that if you were outside for an extended period during the hottest days of the year, even in the shade with wet clothing, you would die)." [more inside]
Spend 600 Nintendo fun points to use a Warp Pipe!
Simon says. Red. Green. Blue. Yellow.
Ralph Baer was just inducted into the United States Patent Office's National Inventors Hall of Fame. His favorite of his own inventions is the microcomputer controlled game Simon - a device almost as ubiquitous as Rubik's Cubes were in the 80's.
In 1966, Baer patented a revolutionary device - first video game system. The system was made commercially available in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey. The Odyssey system inlcuded an optical gun for shooting dots on the screen almost twenty years before Nintendo released Duck Hunt... [more inside]
In 1966, Baer patented a revolutionary device - first video game system. The system was made commercially available in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey. The Odyssey system inlcuded an optical gun for shooting dots on the screen almost twenty years before Nintendo released Duck Hunt... [more inside]
Art of the Japanese Postcard
View examples of the Art of the Japanese Postcard (1, 2, 3) or browse the Leonard A. Lauder collection of them at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts website.
Meow meow meow meow
Meowmania. Friday flash "fun".
Warning: Contents May Wipe Out Civilization (Again)
For the first time ever, a look inside the most secure room in the world. Not Disney's Club 33. Not the White House Situation Room or the Gold Vault at Fort Knox. Welcome to the OT VIII Course Room aboard the Church of Scientology's flagship MV Freewinds. This room is the only place (on this planet at least) where you can read an authorized copy of Scientology's highest level.
Why Is Coffee Addictive? The coffee bean has a distinctive smell that makes you forget how painful it is to be awake.
Fake Science. answering important questions like Where does Oil come from?, How do 3D glasses work?, and at least a handful more.
Beer Cooler Sous Vide
Beer Cooler Sous-Vide can produce restaurant quality results, without expensive lab equipment. All you need is a beer cooler and an accurate thermometer and you can make perfectly medium rare steak with a great sear, moist and tender chicken breast , and flavorful salmon. [more inside]
Very Mary Kate
Very Mary Kate: The Unofficial Biography of Mary-Kate Olsen. It's better if you start from the beginning.
Chinese Military Shovel WJQ-308
"The multifunction folded shovle (sic) boasting a happy combination of a spade, pickax, trowel, hewing, knife, saw, scissors, hammer, operner (sic), shield, anchor, and oar is perfect design and refined making, making a pioneer in tools family!" I can guarantee you that never before (or, likely, again) will you be so inspired by a multifunction shovel commercial. The music is exhilarating! (PS: This shovel does freaking everything.) (SLYT) [more inside]
Braille is disappearing
Braille is facing extinction, says Canadian newsweekly Maclean's, thanks to strained budgets, audiobooks and text-to-speech. "In the 1950s about half of all blind children learned Braille, says the U.S. National Federation of the Blind. Today, that number has fallen to 10 per cent -- and it's about the same in Canada. For some, like NFB director Mark Riccobono, that means we're letting blind children grow up as illiterate as Braille's 19th-century contemporaries. 'If only 10 per cent of sighted children were being taught [to read],' he told Maclean's, 'that would be considered a crisis.'"
Shiny Happy People
May 6
Ocean
"Wha Wha What Did You Say?" added Justice Gaga
Adverputt!
Adverputt! So fun that you won't realize you're being advertised to!
Moms in Babeland
Perhaps it's not surprising, given their intrinsic connection: sex and parenthood come together in Moms in Babeland, a blog run by the eponymous sex toy boutique (NSFW, obvs). [more inside]
Self funded, no budget, infinite mind
Wonderful 16mm short films by Australian stop motion animator Gregory Godhard:
Collide-a-scope(2009) - Lovesong (2007) -
Museum of Dreams (2003) - A Room With Askew(2006) -
And last but absolutely not least, Mind's Eye(1998) a terrific ride composed of "1200 photographs shot in sequence."
New Math
Automated Trading Suspected in Stock Market Crash
Major market indices fell almost 10% this afternoon before recovering half of that value. Some blame the failing Greek economy and the related loss of confidence in the Eurozone. But a lot of attention is being paid to the role of automated trading systems. Accenture's stock, for example, dropped from $41 to one penny in two minutes and then recovered just as quickly. Will this trigger a loss of confidence in automated trading?
Tune In, Turn On, Get Cancelled
In 1969, George Schlatter was riding high as the producer of the high ratings blockbuster, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. So when Schlatter pitched a show to ABC that was like Laugh In only more so (with faster jokes, faster editing, and even more outrageous topical humor), ABC was willing to let Schlatter have free rein. The result was Turn-On, a show that bombed so badly it was cancelled the very night it aired. [more inside]
Computer, load up Celery Man, please.
Computer, load up Celery Man, please. Paul Rudd and his computer on Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! [more inside]
Sally don't you go, go downtown.
"What happened was that Abner Spector was an electronics nut. He took the girls in the studio on a Friday, and they didn't get out of there until everybody was on the track. Anybody that came in the studio that week, he would put them on. Originally, I think he had about 20 voices on 'Sally.'" The cost of the project alone, Richardson figured was over $60,000..." - Sally, Go Round The Roses (alt) was the first (and only) hit for the Jaynettes in 1963 and a unique and hypnotic studio creation. It's been called "a subtle and transcendental epic in 45rpm form" and there is much speculation on its mysterious lyrics.
It has been covered by Donna Summer. Great Society (with Grace Slick) . Fanny. Pentangle. ? And The Mysterians and others.
Sequencing of the Neandertal genome completed
Neandertals are the closest ancestral relatives to modern humans. Today, Nature published a special report on the Neandertal genome, for which a draft sequencing of three billion nucleotides has been completed. This high-throughput sequencing project shows how the genetic relationship between Neandertals and modern Europeans and Asians suggests localized interbreeding between the two species roughly 40-80,000 years ago, complicating the common "out-of-Africa" story of how modern humans originated. Additional research extends this low-coverage, first-pass sequencing with a microarray approach that uncovers specific differences between the human and Neandertal genomes.
I Could Have Used You That Night
Oklahoma poet Lauren Zuniga responds to Oklahoma SB 1878 (which requires women to view a ultrasound image of the fetus an hour before receiving an abortion & allows doctors to refuse to provide contraceptive care) with a poem.
danger + opportunity ≠ crisis
How a misunderstanding about Chinese characters has led many astray. The explication of the Chinese word for crisis as made up of two components signifying danger and opportunity is due partly to wishful thinking, but mainly to a fundamental misunderstanding about how terms are formed in Mandarin and other Sinitic languages... Among the most egregious of the radical errors in this statement is the use of the exotic term “Ideogram” to refer to Chinese characters. Linguists and writing theorists avoid “ideogram” as a descriptive referent for hanzi (Mandarin) / kanji (Japanese) / hanja (Korean) because only an exceedingly small proportion of them actually convey ideas directly through their shapes... [more inside]
Faster than sound. Faster than lightning. Faster, even, than taters.
Our fastest beta to date... On Tuesday, Google released Chrome 5.0.375.29 beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux, promising enormous speed gains for its popular browser. Just how fast is it? Let's watch at 2,700 frames per second. [more inside]
Calculator? No thanks...
The Soroban is recognisable to most in the West as an Abacus. Despite the prevalence of electronic calculators, the Soroban is still incredibly popular in Japan, with parents oft paying for private tutors to teach their children. The remarkable phenomenon of Flash Anzan is observed after a few years of practice, when users no longer need a real Soroban and can work off an imaginary one.
Your Loyalty Demands.......
This excellent article concerning Cardiacs and the heart attack of stalwart frontman Tim Smith, prompted me to write this post. They've been on the go since the late 70's and as one would expect, they have attracted a number of fanatics who catalogue everything. They've even been featured in the Sunday Sport!
Personally, I find it hard to describe their style. [more inside]
Incendiary and offensive clothing
Five Californian high school students were sent home on cinco de Mayo for the clothes they were wearing. A vice-principal demanded they turn their shirts inside out so as to not offend other students, calling their clothing incendiary. They refused and, threatened with suspension, left campus. Their offense? Wearing American flag designs on American soil. At least one student believes the five owe everyone an apology for their disrespect.
The slippery slope of banana farming.
A little background about that oddly shaped yellow fruit and the potential for bananageddon.
Gathering Paradise
Someone should give him a gas mask
Proposed austerity measures in response to Greece's economic crisis have led to riots and three deaths . However, this isn't the first time that riots have shaken Greece in response to the economic turmoil. One dog has seen them all.
Daniel Okrent's Last Call
"Women and men drink together in a bar? Well, then, you have to have bathrooms for the women. That's the invention of the powder room. That's a phrase that actually comes from Prohibition. They could tuck a tiny little room with a toilet and a sink underneath a stairwell or in a corner. Table service in bars can also be traced to Prohibition, because men and women together, they're not bellying up the bar, but sitting at a table. And the dance band: if you have only men in a bar, you're never going to have a five-piece jazz band there; but you are going to if you have men and women who might dance together." Daniel Okrent and the history of Prohibition. [more inside]
Terribly Cute
Smories are free original stories for kids, read by kids.
Hue Shift
Thursday flash fun: Hue Shift - an addictive endless action platformer. You are controlling a pixel that can shift its color to red, green and blue. Climb as high as you can by matching your hue to the color of the platforms. Beware, only platforms with your color are solid! (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
How to Win Votes and Manipulate People
"Watch out! The Big Banks Support the Financial Reform in Congress, So It Must Be Stopped!" This public service message brought to you by... the Big Banks?
Robert Reich elaborates.
"Darn! One of our editors is dead."
Diseased Pariah News started in 1990 as "a patently offensive publication of, by, and for people with HIV disease (and their friends and loved ones). We are a forum for infected people to share their thoughts, feelings, art, writing and brownie recipes in an atmosphere free of teddy bears, magic rocks, and seronegative guilt." It ran for 11 issues over the next 9 years, 8 of which can be found here. (NSFW, irritating interface) [more inside]
If the wrong person sees this stuff coming in here, then IAB is going to be all over this place, all right?
Two years ago, Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft, an officer in Brooklyn's 81st Precinct, became gravely concerned about how the public was being served. To document his concerns, he began carrying around a digital sound recorder, secretly recording his colleagues and superiors. Initially he carried the recorder to protect himself from the civilian complaints that can result from street encounters. But then he began to document things happening in the precinct that bothered him. After he ran afoul of precinct politics, he recorded what he viewed as retaliation by his bosses. The Village Voice is releasing portions of the tapes in batches and is also publishing several stories to deal with the issues that the recordings present.
In this week's installment, the Voice looks at the roll calls at the Bed-Stuy precinct and the conflicting instructions given to street cops, who must look busy at all times, while actually suppressing crime reports.
In this week's installment, the Voice looks at the roll calls at the Bed-Stuy precinct and the conflicting instructions given to street cops, who must look busy at all times, while actually suppressing crime reports.
Babies. Babies. Babies.
The Humble Indie Bundle [Pay What You Want]
World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru and Penumbra Overture are all included in this package. The best thing about the bundle? You can pay whatever you want (above 0 ofcourse), which you can choose to split between the developers and charity at any percentage you'd like. The bundle lasts for another five days and seven hours. All of the games work on Mac, Windows, and Linux so this is a great way to check out any of these popular indie titles if you haven't had a chance to play them yet.
site:google.مصر?
Today the first three production non-Latin top-level domains were placed in the DNS root zone. This means they are live! Here is one newly enabled domain with a functional website that works right now: وزارة-الأتصالات.مصر [more inside]
Erik Prince off the record
Eric Prince (Wiki), the controversial and secretive founder and owner of Xe, formerly known as Blackwater International, rarely gives public speeches. When he does he attempts to ban journalists from attending, and forbids recording or videotaping of his remarks. The Nation magazine has obtained an audio recording from May 5th in which Prince speaks to a select gathering in his hometown of Holland, Michigan. [more inside]
May 5
And we're off...
Polls open in the UK General Election. This has been one of the closest election campaigns in decades, with all three major parties polling within a few points of each other. [more inside]
The Linux Gene Network
Yale scientists analogize the Linux call graph with the E. coli gene regulatory network in an open access PNAS article. Carl Zimmer explores the implications of network design versus evolution, suggesting that a more modular architecture in bacteria leads to a rugged (i.e. robust) system that does not "crash" like a computer.
The Year of the Drone
The Year of the Drone: An Analysis of U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004-2010 (PDF). "Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan from 2004 to the present have killed between 830 and 1,210 individuals, of whom around 550 to 850 were described as militants in reliable press accounts, about two-thirds of the total on average. Thus, the true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32 percent." [more inside]
It's Friday already in Europe, time for flash fun.
Educational gamesmaker Preloaded has recently made two strategy games for English TV station Channel 4. 1066 is a mix of tactics, insult-typing, bowmanship, rhythm-game and narration by Ian Holm. Trafalgar Origins is all Napoleonic high seas derringdo all the time, as you sail your English ship in real time against the damnable French and Spanish. Whether you want to hoist the sails or call your opponent a stench weasel, they are fun little games which have the added bonus of teaching you about British history. Both games can be played solo or multiplayer. [via Rock Paper Shotgun, where they like those games quite a lot]
Pipes and Cogs. And lots of heart.
Bulgaria is not what you'd call a wealthy country. It has a smaller population than New York City. But Bulgaria utterly dominates the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. A full explanation of this prowess is beyond the scope of a simple blog post, but I will share with you this six-minute video about a man who built a nationally-ranked team training his athletes with barbells made of pipes and cogs and assorted industrial junk. I hope this goes at least a little way towards explaining their remarkable accomplishments.
Unnecessary backflip! Hiyaaah!
The Youtube channel called Baddest Fight Scenes EVER! has enough b-movie fights to last you till the end of the weekend. And when it comes to this kind of movies, "baddest" is a compliment. I suggest you start with Revenge of the Ninja. [more inside]
From the "Damn, why didn't I think of that?" file...
Tim Schwartz messes around with art, culture, and technology. Tim Schwartz makes cool stuff. He is getting some attention for unusual ideas ranging from hummer humping [previously] to comparative celebrity analysis. And he's got a really big monitor.
Interview with David Foster Wallace
Stationed at the abandoned drive-in
Cult Radio A-Go-Go. "Our radio crew, including your hosts Terry & Tiffany, Cragg our drive-in movie gargoyle and Wicked Kitty, welcomes you to our world of exploration into the very bizarre genre of ultra rare B - pop culture in comedy, parody. horror, sci-fi, exploitation, sexploitation, T.V., Old Time Radio & drive-in movies! We are stationed at the abandoned drive-in near death valley where we are broadcasting our pirate internet radio signal to you, for the audio pop culture junkies needing a fix!" [more inside]
"The most intact, the largest, and the most ambitious tiki bar ever created in San Francisco."
Save The Tonga Room . The beloved Tonga Room in San Francisco, long threatened with extinction, may soon be a City historical resource, giving it a fighting chance at preservation.
The house always wins
Antoine Walker starred on arguably the greatest college basketball team of all time- the 1996 National Champion Kentucky Wildcats and went on to earn over $110 million dollars as a 3-time NBA All-Star with the Boston Celtics.
In 2010, Walker is broke and eyeing an NBA comeback to pay off his creditors, including 2 Vegas casinos owed more than $900,000. [more inside]
48 Hour Magazine
Can thousands of contributors have a baby in a month make a magazine in 2 days? 48 Hours Magazine will announce a topic and start accepting submissions on Friday, and will ship to the printer on Sunday. Joel Johnson interviewed the crack editorial staff.
American Able
'American Able' intends to, through spoof, reveal the ways in which women with disabilities are invisibilized in advertising and mass media. I chose American Apparel not just for their notable style, but also for their claims that many of their models are just ‘every day’ women who are employees, friends and fans of the company. However, these women fit particular body types. Their campaigns are highly sexualized and feature women who are generally thin, and who appear to be able-bodied. Women with disabilities go unrepresented, not only in American Apparel advertising, but also in most of popular culture. Rarely, if ever, are women with disabilities portrayed in anything other than an asexual manner, for ‘disabled’ bodies are largely perceived as ‘undesirable.’ In a society where sexuality is created and performed over and over within popular culture, the invisibility of women with disabilities in many ways denies them the right to sexuality, particularly within a public context. [more inside]
Life in Kodachrome
Michael Williams, the guy behind A Continuous Lean, buys Kodachrome slides from the 50's and 60's at flea markets, estate sales, and other sources. Then he posts his finds online: Part I, II, III, and IV. [more inside]
Truffaut/Hitchcock
The complete series of interviews of Alfred Hitchcock by François Truffaut (with interpreter Helen Scott) which were used to create the classic book, with some nice photos and commentary.
Has de aprender a hacer que cada acto cuente, porque los actos tienen PODER.
¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!
In honor of the hottest, wildest and trippiest section of América del Norte, how about some classic los ACIDA ROCKA?
Starting with clips from the 1971 movie "Bikinis y Rock!"
El Ritual!
Peace And Love!!
Bandido!!!
...
Now how about some live footage from the Mexican Woodstock: Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro--
Part 1 Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 [more inside]
‘Ouch’: BBC talk show covers life as a “crip”
“Vegetable, Vegetable or Vegetable” is an “intrusive and unpleasant game” featured on Ouch, the hour-long monthly BBC podcast talk show on disability. In it, the show’s hosts must figure out a caller’s disability by asking “fiendish” questions, to which the caller may answer only yes or no. (When it’s all over, Daleks holler out the answer.) This is only one of the many scabrous, puckish, and unskittish ways in which Ouch covers life as a “crip,” a term the show uses unabashedly.
Crazy Mike's Discount Legislative Emporium
ComEd/Exelon is offering to buy a profit guarantee from the state of Illinois for $500 million, at a time when lawmakers are struggling to produce a budget in the face of revenue shortfalls. [more inside]
A general theory of individuality
We Need a General Theory of Individuality : "One of the unspoken secrets in basic scientific research, from anthropology to zoology (with intervening stops at physiology, political science, psychology, psychiatry, and sociology) is that, nearly always, individuals turn out to be different from one another, and that—to an extent rarely admitted and virtually never pursued—scientific generalizations tend to hush up those differences"
Stanley, I was raised in a tiny Canadian town where I could get away with it
Kaitlin Fontana goes to New York to write for a magazine. Then she goes back to Canada and tells us about her experience. [more inside]
A Cinco De Mayo message to Arizona
Robert Rodriguez's Machete, starring the great character actor Danny Trejo, started as a joke trailer in the movie Grindhouse. Now it's a real movie with a (NSFW) trailer of its own. Enjoy.
Names and the Generation Gap
The Generational Sweet Spot, or Why Your Parents Have Such Bad Taste. Laura Wattenberg, naming guru, on names and generations.
Foreshadowing an organic end to a green revolution?
The BIG Lebowski
The porn industry has a long (no pun intended) history of making videos by messing with Hollywood film titles. And "A XXX Parody" has released its version of a MeFi favourite, which they didn't even bother to rename: The Big Lebowski (trailer: NSFW). Sacrilege!
Wanna come back to my iPad?
Cupidtino is a "new social dating website exclusively for Apple fans" which launches in June. If your Cupidtino Appleationship works out, you could have a magical Apple Store Wedding! Via "Oh God No." [more inside]
Space race I am
Forty-nine years ago, Alan Shepard literally got his 15 minutes of fame by becoming the second person and first American to go into space.
FRAUDONOMICS
-Confessions of a Wall St. Nihilist: Forget About Goldman Sachs, Our Entire Economy Is Built on Fraud by Mark Ames (note: polemic)
-The Feds vs. Goldman by Matt Taibbi (note: vampire squid reprise)
-The Goldman Casino: Do investment banks do anything that helps America anymore? by Eliot Spitzer (cf. Robert Rubin, oh and Dick Fuld)
-William Black on Fraud interviewed by Bill Moyers (note: Moyers' penultimate PBS show) [more inside]
-The Feds vs. Goldman by Matt Taibbi (note: vampire squid reprise)
-The Goldman Casino: Do investment banks do anything that helps America anymore? by Eliot Spitzer (cf. Robert Rubin, oh and Dick Fuld)
-William Black on Fraud interviewed by Bill Moyers (note: Moyers' penultimate PBS show) [more inside]
My Movie Has a First Name, It's O-S-C-A-R...
Don't like those commercials that run before the movies in the theaters? Well, this weekend, Kraft Foods is introducing something new to screens across the U.S., "two- to three-minute branded-entertainment vignettes" that promise NOT to "knock you over the head with a bat as a brand commercial", but instead they... well... here's an example: Lunchables kids' meals present: Alien Field Trip* (Warning: more artificially cheesy than Cheez Whiz). Kraft and other big advertisers are betting that long-form ads will be "the Wave of the Future", and the perfect audience for them will be the folks who have already paid to see "Iron Man 2", "Sex and the City 2" or "Toy Story 3". What could possibly go wrong? [more inside]
I LOVE YOU VIRUS 10 Years Out
10 years ago yesterday, The ILOVEYOU or LOVELETTER computer worm successfully attacked tens of millions of Windows computers in 2000 when it was sent as an attachment to an email message with the text "ILOVEYOU" in the subject line. Mefi Was There that day when Onel De Guzman released a virus that he had proposed creating as part of his undergraduate thesis. The BBC Looks Back. The key part of the virus was not any technical trick but the wording of the subject line - ILOVEYOU - and its attachment LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.
Sean Young's super-8 footage of the making of Dune
Dune, the motion picture was made in Mexico City, Mexico during the spring of 1983. I was there to witness David Lynch as the director and here's what really happened! (via)
May 4
A Castle in the Making
Ozark Medieval Fortress – Thirty masons, carpenters and stone carvers authentically dressed, will work all year round for twenty years, the time required to build a fortress in the Middle Ages.
Loooooong Gone
Ernie Harwell, long time voice of the Detroit Tigers and previously the Baltimore Orioles, has died at age 92. Previously here. MLB's commissioner's statement.
Is this page cerulean or ultramarine?
Over 140,000 people participated in the xkcd Color Survey, naming various colors and the results are in. Among other cool things, you can see a nice map of RGB colors to color names and see the most commonly identified 954 color names. The webcomic is not the first institution to survey people about color choices and present pretty results. At the heart of color naming is a deeper debate about language, whether colors are universal, and how words shape perception. One highly influential view suggests that there are 11 universal basic colors, though the number of colors identified in native tongues varies across the world, but even the English origins of color words are complex. Perhaps you should test your own color perception, or just see a huge chart of color names in different languages. [also, prev.]
Hire Education
College, Inc. PBS's FrontLine investigates the rise of for-profit colleges. Dangling the promise of a degree that will attract a job, for-profit colleges have been consistent performers for Wall Street and have exploded in enrollment alongside their community college counterparts as a result of the down economy. Positioning themselves as an alternative to traditional schools for the working and adult student set, who benefits the most from this departure from the traditional college model?
Where were you when The IDEA knocked at the windows of your mind?
The IDEA - The Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts - Seven somewhat dated collections of essays, music, videos, and thought curated and designed by Shankar Barua, backed by totally awesome early Internet-era graphics, and hosted at Laurie Spiegel's also-rad retiary.org.
Please note that many individual pages of The IDEA gazettes are very-very heavily loaded, by [2001's] WWWeb standards, with images/audio/video. In other words, if you can get past ugly old broken HTML and auto-playing music, you may find a lot to like in here.
Please note that many individual pages of The IDEA gazettes are very-very heavily loaded, by [2001's] WWWeb standards, with images/audio/video. In other words, if you can get past ugly old broken HTML and auto-playing music, you may find a lot to like in here.
The George Clooney of FPPs
The Rosa Parks of Blogs and other absurd comparisons by real people of famous people.
Gaming the New York Times
Imagine: your book, a bestseller. A fishy Amazon gift card scheme run by "ResultsSource" apparently helped California Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Poizner get his book to #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Reporting by This American Life and Capitol Weekly [more inside]
Alert the BNP
The remains of a man from Africa who lived and died in 13th-century England have been unearthed in Ipswich. Analysis of the skeleton shows that the individual originated in what is now Tunisia, but lived for at least a decade in England. This is not the only surprising recent information regarding African presence in pre-modern England. A paternally linked gene known from Mali, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau has been present in the male lineage of a Yorkshire family for at least 250 years, and may reach back to the time of the Roman occupation. [more inside]
You have choices.
AlternativeTo finds substitutes to expensive and/or crappy desktop and mobile software. "Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you great alternatives, based on user recommendations."
Ion Propulsion "Dawns"
Star Trek nerd alert: Standard orbit, Mr. Sulu." Captain Kirk barks out NASA announces Dawn, an ion propulsion rocket to two asteroids, Vesta and Ceres.
I am immortal, I have inside me five thousand rings
It sprang to life sometime in the 3rd millennium, outliviving the kingdoms of ancient Egypt, it survived six of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and it's older than Judaism. It survived 5,000 years (give or take a few hundred), and was cut down in 1964 by Donald Currey, a graduate student in geography. He was studying the Little Ice Age (prev), and he was looking for an old Bristlecone pine in the White-Inyo mountain range of California (prev), as a record for climatic conditions from that period. As that tree, nicknamed Prometheus, is no longer living, the record for oldest tree goes to a tree from the same stand, Methuselah. If trees aren't your thing, there are quite a few long-living organisms of other sorts. For more fun and photos, join Rachel Sussman on her journey to photograph them. [more inside]
Nashville...Waterline?
The Middle Tennessee region, including Nashville, is experiencing extensive flooding after weekend storms dropped a record-breaking 13-15 inches of rain over the weekend. [more inside]
Kindle popular
Needs more Blanka
Street Fighter Legacy "Like many Street Fighter fans, Joey Ansah was sick and tired of Hollywood treating our beloved characters like complete (dreck). Unlike many Street Fighter fans, Ansah has the means and contacts to do something about it."
"This is so exciting to have a nice Travel Assistant and traveling companion! Wow! I'm so glad I met you."
Rough Trade
Do It Yourself: The Story of Rough Trade (goog vid, BBC, 1:28) The history of the legendary indie label/shop, home to such bands as Scritti Politti, The Smiths, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, The Feelies, Robert Wyatt, The Slits, and many more.
I think it’s immoral, I know it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf.
Fan Fiction and Moral Conundrums : Diana Gabaldon, author of the bestselling Outlander book series, takes on the legal and moral issues of fan fiction. She's got a lot of people to convince.
The Thirty Dollar Centrifuge
How do you diagnose anemia in a third-world country without electricity? Use the salad-spinner-based thirty dollar centrifuge, developed by Rice undergraduate students Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis.
Information Repository for the Kent State Massacre
Information repository for the Kent State Massacre from Ohio's WKSU-FM. With audio, video, photographs, and interviews of people who were there in honor of the 40th anniversary. Previously 2
INTERNET
Assimilate book-ism to webism and the book looks like nothing so much as an unreadably long, out of date, & non-interactive blog post. . . Web 2.0 has been revelatory in lots of ways—user-generated naked photos, for one—but the torrent of writing from ordinary folks has certainly been one of the most transfixing. Over the past five years the great American public has blogged and Tweeted and commented up a storm and fulfilled a great modernist dream: the inclusion, the reproduction, the self-representation of the masses.
Mos Dub
Obama Goes to Kalamazoo
Do you remember who your high school graduation commencement speaker was? Yeah, me neither. Fortunately, the class of 2010 at Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, MI won't have that problem: KCHS was just selected as the winner of the White House Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, and will host President Obama at this year's commencement ceremony.
Cairo tribe recycles 80% of city waste - highest in world
The 2009 film Garbage Dreams, which is currently airing on PBS, documents the Zabbaleen a tribe that lives off of collecting and recycling trash from Cairo. They manage to recycle 80% of trash (vs 32% in the U.S.), the highest level in the world, well above most first world recycling levels, using primitive techniques shown in the film. As depicted in the film, and on NPR, since 2003 Cairo has been hiring foreign companies, who recycle much less, taking away their livelihood. They are trying to raise enough money (you can donate, buy a t-shirt or help) to grow their Recycling school, to teach more of their children their practices. Good interview with the film director here.
Take me out to the ballg ... don't tase me, bro!
Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack, I don't ca ... TASER! Phillies fan disrupts game by running onto field, and gets tasered in center field. It's cool, he asked his dad for permission first.
Times Square Bomber says he acted alone
Faisal Shazad has been arrested in connection with the Times Square bombing as he attempted to leave the country. The suspect was allegedly trained in Pakistan, though he claims he acted alone.
If red and blue America seemed to be talking past one another about family values, it's because they were.
"In red America, families form adults; in blue America, adults form families." Do liberal and conservative states operate with different conceptions (*cough*) of family? [more inside]
Miss not the discourse of the elders. - Ben Sira
The Grand Generation (1993 - 27 min.) is a warm and inspiring portrait of six elderly Americans whose vigor belies their age. The film is a cogent reminder that most of us probably don't hear nearly enough of what the very oldest among us have to say. [more inside]
It comforts them to see an incomprehensible terror from beyond the reach of time reduced to cuddly, huggable teddy bear.
Ok, you guys are dead to me.
The sun never sets on the British Empire; it sets on me.
Who are the grandfathers of noise music? The Nihilist Spasm Band formed in 1965 when eight men, using homemade instruments, began creating noise together in London, Ontario. None of these men were traditionally trained musicians, yet they are often credited as being the major influence behind modern noise music, inspiring Japanese noisemakers like Hijokaiden and Masonna, as well as western artists like Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. [more inside]
May 3
Canoe here be dow?
Oh, punt appalled bait oars, Hal. Why Computer Speech Recognition hasn't gotten any better since 2001. Or bed her sin stew thou send Juan.
SK8 OR DIE!
Photographer Travis Dove's photo essay on Skatopia, an anarchist skater farm retreat in Ohio, here. From Blue Eyes Magazine (which focuses on new documentary photography). [more inside]
Dr. Zworykin's Secret Experimental RCA Photos
The Personal Photographs of Dr. Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Television Pioneer. The screen images are time exposure photographs of the picture on the kinescope in the monitoring rack in the main control room. Some were taken with stationary frames of moving picture film projected upon the iconoscope by a standard moving picture machine. Others are actually the pictures transmitted with the iconoscope camera in the studio and outdoors.
Who needs a window seat when you have that view?
Despite irrefutable video evidence of the incident, Erykah Badu pleads not guilty to indecency charges.
Just Walken around Queens
A short trip with Christopher Walken to his old neighborhood. I thought it was pleasant, plus it's fun to imagine him saying such ordinary things.
Breaking Bad Locations in Albuquerque
Virginia is for Science Lovers?
Climate change researcher MichaeMann has had his work subpoenaed by Virginia Attorney General Ken "Cooch" Cuccinelli. The subpoena "relates to data and other materials that Dr. Mann presented in seeking awards/grants (pdf) while in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mann has previously been investigated by Penn State, his current employer, for issues related to the hacked CRU emails, and cleared of wrongdoing. A representative from the Union of Concerned Scientists calls this action "a witch hunt."
The American artist Frank Stella
Inside the studio of American artist Frank Stella: "After I started getting a sense of the space and in the groove of shooting, he asked if I minded if he could take a nap. I continued working as quietly as possible since his bed was in the middle of all the work." The work in progress in his studio, The Stations of the Cross, is a commission from Richard Meier for his proposed Jubilee Church at the Vatican. (via DO)
Teat Tweet.
For one year, twelve cows on a dairy farm Twitter about their lactation cycle and robotic milking activities. [more inside]
SEC Prophecy in 2004
"If anything goes wrong it's going to be an awfully big mess. Ha, ha, ha!" The day the S.E.C. changed the game. [flash w/ audio]
Open Source Language Checking Technology
After The Deadline is an open source spell/style/grammar checker from Automattic for WordPress, Firefox and other stuff. [more inside]
Lynn Redgrave Passes Away
After the actress Lynn Redgrave learned she had breast cancer in December 2002, she chose to undergo surgery, followed by a half-year regimen of chemotherapy and radiation. She also asked her daughter Annabel Clark, then a photography student at Parsons School of Design, if she would photograph the course of treatment and recovery. [One photo maybe NSFW]Sadly, after battling the disease for more than seven years, the Oscar and Tony-nominated actress passed away yesterday at the age of 67. Her official site. Some Slideshow Galleries. BBC Report. [more inside]
Super Bowl Weekend of the Auto Art World
Art Car Weekend is just days away! Worth a trip to Houston. I am happy to see the Art Car Ball, a combination of concert, block party, art exhibit, and performance art venue, return to the lineup. If you view the parade from the north side of the parkway in Elanor Tinsley Park, you get to see all your favorite cars twice!
Talking Points Memo: Bush prevented Paulson from briefing Congress
September 18, 2008 - Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy four days earlier and the Federal Reserve had authorized the New York Fed to lend up to $85 billion to insurance giant AIG. That afternoon, Nancy Pelosi called Henry Paulson to ask for a full briefing the next morning. "They said, 'That will be too late. That will be too late. Tomorrow morning, 9 o'clock will be too late.' ... 'We were not allowed to tell Congress, but since you called, we're going to answer your questions.'"
The Bush administration prohibited its own top officials from briefing Congress on the financial crisis.
What you crave?
"To commemorate the 18th annual celebration of National Hamburger Month, White Castle has teamed up with Laura Slatkin, often called the "queen" of home fragrances, to introduce a candle with the steam-grilled-on-a-bed-of-onions scent of America's first fast-food hamburger." Yes, it's a White Castle scented candle. Just the thing to keep the Valentine's Day flames burning.
Execute artist, Everything.
Everything is a variety program. Five presentations per episode, each one minute or less. Sitting somewhere on the border of experimental film, music video, and bad TV. [more inside]
Bodies in Motion
The Lair of Kazoth
Ivan Coyote, a storyteller
Ivan Coyote is a Canadian storyteller. Here's Ivan's story about life in the North called "You are Here". Part 1, 2, 3 and 4. [more inside]
Robot Brewery Tour
It doesn't matter that this 11 minute video is just a commercial for Dogfish Head Beer. What matters is that it includes robots, footage of brewing machinery, and Will "Bonnie Prince Billy" Oldham (via The Awl)
Bill Moyers interviews Barry Lopez
This that you call Ursus maritimus, this polar bear. This is a being who came from somewhere and is going somewhere. It's not locked in time. And that—the great resistance to Darwin is, I think, he told us that it's all moving. And it's headed in no particular place. And then particular physics comes along. And quantum mechanics come along. And these physicists tell us the same thing. "It's really fuzzy out there."A few days ago, without much notice, PBS broadcast the final episode of the Bill Moyers Journal. Moyers devoted his final segment to an interview with essayist Barry Lopez—whose writing, Moyers said, has "set the gold standard for all of us whose work it is to explain those things we don't understand." (Transcript.) [more inside]
Agence France Presse's slap to photographers
Agence France Presse's slap to photographers. The AFP sues a photographer after using his photographs illegally: "On Monday, Agence France Presse filed a complaint in the United States District Court Southern District of New York against Haiti-based photographer Daniel Morel. Agence France Presse claims Morel engaged in an 'antagonistic assertion of rights' after the photographer objected to the use by AFP of images he posted online of the Haitian earthquake of 12 January."
How to Pay the Writer
Writers get pirated too - so how can they still earn money? Here are some ideas, but are they workable? [more inside]
" Jay's got The Tonight Show. I have a beard and an inflatable bat."
Conan O'Brien gives his first interview since losing the Tonight Show to Jay Leno.
May 2
GENETOS
GENETOS is the history of Shoot-em-ups in a single game. Take on everything ranging from Space Invaders-like aliens to 21st Century bullet hell. Power up your craft (by collecting green and blue bits and blobs) with innovations like slow-motion, super bombs, lock-on lasers, and the ability to move vertically. (Windows only) [more inside]
ToDAY third MAY twenty-TEN come aGAIN
"For toDAY third of MAY twenty-TEN ManhatTEN reports mild spring-type weather under the Fuller Dome. Ditto on the General Technics Plaza. But Shalmaneser is a Micryogenic (R) computer bathed in liquid helium and it's cold in his vault." [more inside]
The Amazing Inventions of Steven M. Johnson
Steven M. Johnson is a prolific inventor whose designs revolutionize everything from office apparel to recreational vehicles to basketball. Many of of these inventions are found in his 1984 book What the World Needs Now.
Fights evil, even when it's not there
Apollo Gauntlet is an independent cartoon created by Winnipeg animator Myles Langlois, with contributions from Drue Langlois and Hollie Dzama. All 10 episodes are available on YouTube: [more inside]
"Pan kisses you! Kiss the pan!"
There's got to be a better way! A digest of why your life is so hard, as demonstrated in low-budget television advertisements. SLYT
I'm In The Middle of Your Picture
Adam Calfee makes beautiful, haunting animations, including videos for
Ill Bill - My Uncle
Ill Bill - War Is My Destiny
Radiohead - All I Need (not quite completed, but a more fully-realized minute long sample here)
and the short piece Moonboy.
Ill Bill - My Uncle
Ill Bill - War Is My Destiny
Radiohead - All I Need (not quite completed, but a more fully-realized minute long sample here)
and the short piece Moonboy.
It goes good with Halflings' Leaf
Need some good music for a lazy Sunday? Bo Hansson, Swedish prog-rock organist recently passed away and he may have just what you need. So sit back and listen to some tracks off his most well known album Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings: Leaving Shire/The Old Forest & Tom Bombadil/Fog on the Barrow-Downs Black Riders/Flight to the Ford At the House of Elrond & The Ring Goes South Journey in the Dark Lothlorien Shadowfax Horns of Rohan and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields Dreams in the House of Healing Homeward Bound/The Scouring of the Shire The Grey Heavens [more inside]
Meanwhile...
Dick Giordano, a comic book artist and former executive editor at DC Comics, passed away on March 27th. [more inside]
NewSouth Books
"La Rosa does not care who knows she sees the world from well left of center. Williams balks at accepting the liberal title; instead he states his preference to be known as a progressive. 'When people hear liberal, this happens,' he said while making hand gestures showing steam coming out of his head." Their views and their press are helping to remake Montgomery, Alabama.
[more inside]
[more inside]
Make maps of the United States using demographics data
Make a Map is a website that lets you create your own maps of the US and areas thereof using various demographics data. It's still in beta stage but it's got all of the US (at least everywhere I've thought to look) and so far has datasets for median household income, population change 2000-9, population density, median home value, unemployment rate, average household size and median age. It's fun to use and taught me a great deal about my home city. The sitemaker, ESRI, also has a pretty good free globe map software, ArcGIS Explorer, for which you download map layers and add-ins.
This is what I call a target-rich environment.
Ever wonder how military aviators get their callsigns? Chances are good it won't be based on something you're proud of. Apparently being too influenced by Top Gun and asking to be called "Iceman" is a frequent, and bad, move: see "Slush" and "Snocone", and that's just from the S's. [more inside]
Common Misconceptions About Publishing
Charles Stross exposes some common misconceptions about publishing. How Charles Stross got into the writing game.
Biden talked me into it.
Drill, Baby, Drill
Gulf Oil Spill "Out of Control" New estimates of the BP oil spill have it spilling out 25,000 barrels of oil a day, far higher than the original estimates of as low as 1,000. NOAA fears that it could get to as high as 50,000 barrels a day. Alabama's governor, said they are planning for a worst case scenario of 150,000 barrels (6,000,000 gallons) a day. That's an Exxon-Valdez every two days and a fix may be months away. The question now may not be whether this is Obama's Katrina, but whether it's his Chernobyl.
Poto & Cabenga
Pencil vs Camera
Ben Heine is a Belgian painter, illustrator, portraitist, caricaturist and photographer. His recent project, Pencil vs. Camera, is an amalgam of illustration and photography, creating something similar in a single image showing two different actions. His Flickr Photostream.
Awesome Outsider Cartography
OMG it's a huuuge hand drawn map of London. And with psychogeographical annotations too! [more inside]
Conservative candidate believes homosexuality can be cured
Potential Conservative MP Philippa Stroud founded an evangelical church that tried to 'cure' homosexuals by driving out their 'demons'. Stroud is head of the Conservative thinktank The Centre for Social Justice, lauded as the most influential thinktank in Britain who have heavily influenced David Cameron's views and policies on the family. [more inside]
May 1
All these stars... let's get 'em to SING something
In March of 1978 American radio/TV network CBS celebrated its 50th anniversary with a week-long celebration. CBS: On the Air kicked off with this remarkable and historic parade of stars in a classy, if only slightly cheesy, presentation. Perhaps they learned how NOT to do it by watching ABC's silver anniversary special a couple of months earlier, which included this monstrosity.
The Maxwell Implosion
The Maxwell Implosion is Torsten Heller, a German DJ who fuses lounge, jazz, bossa nova, and soundtracks of the '60s and '70s. featuring Laila France.
A lot of people who are into Zentai, they don’t have people around them who understand why they like having no face and no identity
“We were online, and I saw this link and it intrigued me: a person encased in a suit,” says Ben, a 25-year-old computer programmer from Irvine, California. “My girlfriend thought it was the weirdest thing she had ever seen.”
But Ben saw something else—something he didn’t even know his life was missing. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it. After a couple of weeks of bringing it up, I convinced my girlfriend to let me buy one. Finally it came in, I put it on… and I felt free.” [more inside]
Your Saturday Nite Soul
Bridge Over Troubled Water For a lot of years I've been listening to simon and garfunkle sing this song... I think I've finally found someone that does it better... Aretha...
I would have named mine "The Game is Rigged"
just trying to get the word out to as many as possible
Boston water emergency: millions affected by break in aqueduct and ordered to boil water before drinking.
Ken Loach Films
Tough Mudder
New York Times article: A year ago, Tough Mudder was a semifinalist in the Harvard Business School’s annual Business Plan Contest. A British student named Will Dean thought he could attract 500 people to run a grueling race through mud and man-made obstacles. . . . But on Sunday [May 2, 2010], the Brooklyn-based Tough Mudder will conduct a race for 4,500 people. Each has paid up to $100 for the privilege of negotiating a seven-mile obstacle course of muddy hills, cold water and flaming bales of straw at a ski resort near Allentown, Pa.
I'm Ed Whitacre from General Motors. We want to make this a company all Americans can be proud of again.
Remember the General Motors bailout? You may have seen the commercial GM has been airing where GM CEO Ed Whitacre brags about paying back this loan "in full with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule". Ever wonder how that was possible? Reason.tv explains. [more inside]
There's treasure everywhere!
Every single Calvin and Hobbes strip ever made, ever, all in a slick AJAX interface with instant full-text dialog search. Highlights: Stupendous Man - Spaceman Spiff - Tracer Bullet - The Thinking Cap - The Transmogrifier (and the Transmogrifier Gun) - The Duplicator (and the Ethicator) - The Wagon - Calvinball - The Get Rid of Slimy Girls Club - Procrastination - Camping - Valentine's Day - Leaf Collecting - The Haircut - Rosalyn - Summertime - Wordless (search for "No text" to find others) - Smock Smock Smock - Not to mention all those snowmen. [more inside]
Here's Howe and Here's Hummel
New York city in the 19th century was famous for it's corruption, criminals and "Gangs of New York." All of them knew exactly who to call when they were in trouble, the law firm of Howe and Hummel. [more inside]
Rock 101
"You can't do anything legally except crime and prostitution."
A short film about Bernard Hare and his book Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew. The book (published in 2005) documents his time spent associating with the 'feral' teenagers of the Leeds underclass.
Mencia Jr.
We've talked about joke thieves before. The latest victim of hackery is Patton Oswalt. Mr. Oswalt received some videos of a comedy routine that show small-time actor/comedian Nick Madson repeating jokes by Patton, David Cross, Maria Bamford, and many others almost verbatim -- including the famous KFC Bowls routine. Nick wrote to Patton, claiming it was all a misunderstanding, but Patton dug a little deeper and found out that Madson's excuses were BS. Oswalt previously. Multiple videos, some with NSFW language
Communists, Socialists, And Anarachists Oh My
The Internationale, the anthem of international socialism, has been sung in many different ways. The original French. In Irish - Gaelic. In Russian. Hungarian. Romanian. By Billy Bragg. By Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory. As Disco. As Chinese rock karaoke. As Gypsy guitar.
Make your own Pop Tarts!
Farce Pavilions
How could this happen? A Reporter’s Guide to the USA Pavilion Debacle at Expo 2010. As the World Expo 2010 opens, Adam Minter, journalist blogger at Shanghai Scrap, provides a timely summary of his series of posts that have looked at the scandal and farce behind the building of the US's sub-optimal pavilion.
Lettuce overlook this and pack ramen
American Meat Is Even Grosser Than You Thought In the focus on E. coli and salmonella, meat contaminated by heavy metals, veterinary drugs and pesticides has been slipping through the bureaucratic cracks. PDF report from USDA via. Pesticides previously and more.
Penny Arcade on Drugs
Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade discuss the impact of drugs (both prescribed and recreational) on their lives.
They have cameras. And lions. And penguins. And sharks. And...
Wild Film History is a guide to over 100 years of wildlife filmmaking, highlighting landmark films (1959's Serengeti Darf Nicht Sterben, aka Serengeti Shall Not Die - Clip 1, Clip 2) as well as historical relics (1910's The Birth of a Flower - Clip). Check out the links on the Key Events page for an overview of how the genre developed. The site also features biographies and oral history interviews with pioneers (mostly U.K.-based) in the industry. A project of Wildscreen.