April 1, 2015
Portrait of the Artist
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Has the Most Ferocious Lawyer in America Defending Him. Judy Clarke, the publicity-shy anti-death-penalty attorney, has defended the Unabomber, Susan Smith, and Jared Loughner, and successfully spared them capital punishment.
A heartening story from the heartland
video: Ronnie O'Sullivan, Master of the Snooker Table
At the 2012 World Snooker Championship final, Ronnie O'Sullivan, considered the most talented snooker player of all time, completed a remarkable sequence of shots to clear the table. Sam Knight comments on the performance. Master of the Snooker Table. [note: autoplaying video]
“This [hypothesis] will not stand, man.”
I want my free TV
How to Choose the Best Over-the-Air Antenna for free HDTV. A comprehensive article telling you how to find the broadcasting footprint of stations in your area, how that affects the type of antenna you need, how to build a good antenna using just cardboard & aluminum foil or alternatively, a list of recommended antennas to buy. [more inside]
The only winning move...
Syrian Journey: Choose your own escape route.
The Syrian conflict has torn the country apart, leaving thousands dead and driving millions to flee their homes. Many seek refuge in neighbouring countries but others pay traffickers to take them to Europe - risking death, capture and deportation. If you were fleeing Syria for Europe, what choices would you make for you and your family? Take our journey to understand the real dilemmas the migrants face.
"Even if you count doorways as holes, that would still only make 32."
"We see the Universe as a machine."
Sundays is a beautiful science fiction short film by Dutch director Mischa Rozema of PostPanic Pictures for roughly $50000. The film was also intended to be a concept pitch for a feature, and it worked as intended, sparking a bidding war between Hollywood studios.
Fool me once, shame on ... oh, you know the rest.
The Washington Post has attempted to comprehensively list all April Fools pranks and hoaxes appearing on the internet today, helpfully separated into categories. There's still April Fools Day on the Web (mentioned twice, previously) which has a collection of jokes, spoofs and parodies around the internet, with annual records going back to 2004. For older records, there's a far from complete Wikipedia list of April Fools' Day Jokes, with a slim selection of notable hoaxes going back to the 1950s, while the Wikipedia article on April Fools' Day goes back much further. Snopes breaks down the legends behind the term (previosuly).
"Look, those people are your enemies.”
On stage that day, Iglesias declared that Podemos would take back power from self-serving elites and hand it over to the people. To do that, the new party needs votes. If that means arousing emotions and being accused of populism, so be it. And, as the party’s founders have already shown, if they have to renounce some of their ideas in order to broaden their appeal, or risk upsetting some in their grassroots movement by tightening central control, they are ready to do that, too. The aim, after all, is to win. [more inside]
Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. 💐
"Neill was hosting a special flower show at his shop called 'Passion for Peonies' as part of Chelsea Fringe. The Peonies he had on display were absolutely breathtaking ~ take a look." [more inside]
"All of the capybara trivia in it is true"
Measure Yourself by the Standard of the Capybara
April is both Mathematics Awareness Month and National Poetry Month, so logically we should be reading mathematical poetry. "Unit of Measure" by Sandra Beasley is a perfect poem for this purpose. This year [2014]’s Mathematics Awareness Month theme is “mathematics, magic, and mystery.” How could a poem that proposes the capybara as a universal ruler not be magical? How could the fishiness of the capybara not be mysterious?[more inside]
Someone lost their mobility because they hated us so much!
Daphne and Celeste were a manufactured teen pop duo around the turn of the century, who released singles such as U.G.L.Y and Ooh Stick You and reached some kind of apotheosis during a legendary near-riot of a performance at the 2000 Reading Festival (at a time when it was essentially a heavy metal festival), and then went off to have normal lives.
Ben Jacobs made quirky, obscure but well-loved electro-pop records under the name Max Tundra, before going on an extended sabbatical in 2008.
In 2011, Ben contacted Daphne and Celeste and asked if they'd like to make a record with him.
This is it.
The Guardian reports. [more inside]
Dips: Like Vines, but shorter
Today, April 1, Funny Or Die introduces Dips: 1.5 second looping embeddable videos.
Quite a few MeFi favorites have made dips for the launch, including: Hannibal Burress Ellie Kemper, Jon Hamm, Rachel Maddow, Paul Feig, Al "Weird Al" Yankovich, Michael B. Jordan, Bill Nye The Science Guy, Kumail Nanjani, Cookie Monster, Skrillex, Metta World Peace, and Tommy Wiseau.
Quite a few MeFi favorites have made dips for the launch, including: Hannibal Burress Ellie Kemper, Jon Hamm, Rachel Maddow, Paul Feig, Al "Weird Al" Yankovich, Michael B. Jordan, Bill Nye The Science Guy, Kumail Nanjani, Cookie Monster, Skrillex, Metta World Peace, and Tommy Wiseau.
Decorative Katana Like Wall Hangings Need Not Apply
Katanas & Trenchcoats! Do you yearn to portray the passionate and harrowing drama of awesome Immortals in a secret supernatural world? Does your heart sing the ancient aphotic melody of ’90s storytelling? Does endless fire burn within you to make an everlasting mark on this Darkest Cosmos? If you meet another Immortal in on a windswept street, do you fight with swords as your way of saying hello? [more inside]
Back to BASIC
“The inspiration for the graphical design is Courier New meets film noir.” Meet MS-DOS Mobile.
Robert Z'Dar
Robert J. Zdarsky, known to cult-film fans everywhere as Robert Z'Dar, has died at age 64. A hard-working actor who had been making steady appearances on TV and film since 1985, Z'Dar is best known -- depending on who you ask -- as the titular Maniac Cop, from his appearance in Samurai Cop, or from the movies that appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000. [more inside]
"We can all feel good about deploring it."
Carbon Capture by Jonathan Franzen [New Yorker] Has climate change made it harder for people to care about conservation?
And so I came to feel miserably conflicted about climate change. I accepted its supremacy as the environmental issue of our time, but I felt bullied by its dominance. Not only did it make every grocery-store run a guilt trip; it made me feel selfish for caring more about birds in the present than about people in the future. What were the eagles and the condors killed by wind turbines compared with the impact of rising sea levels on poor nations? What were the endemic cloud-forest birds of the Andes compared with the atmospheric benefits of Andean hydroelectric projects?
Piss Off!
The bands Sparks and Franz Ferdinand have combined into a new group, FFS. This morning, they released Piss Off, their first single.
Forgotten Iowa
I AM A COMPUTER - WOW LOOK AN OBLONG
The Puppets return for a lesson in computers and being a clever smart boy in DON'T HUG ME I'M SCARED 4.
Being Andre the Giant
"The biggest, most famous guy on the roster is Andre the Giant," DiBiase said. "Andre made Hulk Hogan, in my opinion. Here comes this guy that has everything going for him, you know, Hogan. His size, his whole deal, his look. But you know, somebody's gotta make him a star. And Andre the Giant more than anybody, I think, is the guy who helped Hogan become a star, and I think Hogan would tell you that."Being Andre the Giant.
Model organisms in the wild: beyond the laboratory
In biology, model organisms are the workhorse species in which most biological science gets done: fruit flies (D. melanogaster), house mice (M. musculus), shale cress (A. thaliana), zebra fish (D. rerio), nematodes (C. elegans), yeast (S. cerevisiae), and bacteria (E. coli.) They are science's heavy hitters... in the lab. But most scientists know almost nothing about how these species behave in the wild, outside of the context of humans. ELife's new series on the natural history of model species aims to change that. So far, they have published on the natural history of zebra fish, E. coli, and nematodes, with more to follow.
Bing partners with Cute Cloud
The search for cute just got better with Bing: At Bing, we’re always looking for ways to improve your experience. And the search for cute—be it for bunnies, kittens, teacup pigs, or hedgehogs—is no different. That’s why today Bing is proud to announce its partnership with the Cute Cloud—a cloud-based data store created by Microsoft Research (MSR) to host the web’s massive stock of cute images and videos, from portraits of cherub-cheeked toddlers and bespoke pets to GIFs featuring panicked squirrels and sleepy puppies.
Shred After Reading
DocSend, a digital document delivery and analytics company, unveiled a new service today for more traditional document services: DocSend Dachshund Delivery
Spectre trailer - interesting language
Spectre teaser trailer An ominous teaser trailer to Spectre. Keep your ears open at the 1:01 mark. An interesting choice of scene to feature.
You Smurf or you Smurf
the monk who ran 1,000 marathons
In their quest for enlightenment the legendary monks of Mount Hiei put themselves through an excruciating endurance challenge: 1,000 days of long-distance running. (SLGuardian)) Runner Adharanand Finn writes: I have come to Japan, hoping to meet one of them and to find out what they can teach a recreational runner about the path to spiritual wellbeing. What he discovers is beautiful and true, though at first he's a little nonplussed. [more inside]
The Pez Outlaw
How a Michigan Farmer Made $4 Million Smuggling Rare Pez Containers Into the U.S. [Playboy] [more inside]
Baby heads will roll.
Music can open doors. Literally. Here's a machine that shows how.
Is there historical consensus as to who actually Shot the Sheriff?
How did the Spacing Guild develop such a stranglehold on the Padishah Emperor? What led to the split between the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front in the first century? If Franz Ferdinand's assassination was the inciting cause for WWI, how are they still able to go on tour? How could Scrooge McDuck have maintained his extraordinary wealth from the 1940s onward without destabilzing the entire world's economy? Did the 'genocide' against the Air Nomads REALLY happen? And, finally, how did the Eagles manage to rescue Frodo and Sam at Mt. Doom and still have time to record "Hotel California"? [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »