January 25, 2014
Roll d4308!
A handy categorized index to the hilarious and useful d12 tables of The Dungeon Dozen, for mischievous DMs everywhere. Now up to 359 random tables! Alphabetically. This page will select a few random tables for you. (Previously)
Celebrating the Year in Individual Film Images
Hitflix's 2012 top ten list and discussion of individual film images.
[each year's top ten shots are broken into chunks of five, with one page for each five shot group]. [more inside]
The Little Engine That Could Be Yours
A $3.5 million estate for sale in Sherwood Oregon, outside of Portland, comes complete with almost 20 acres of land, a media room, a home gym--and its own miniature railroad.
offshore companies for everyone!
Want to get away with not paying taxes but don't have the money to make your own offshore company in the Cayman Islands? Fret not - you can hijack an existing offshore company starting from the low low price of 99 cents! [more inside]
Occupy Godwin Street
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins took to the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal to compare progressive angst over income inequality to the sentiment that led to the Nazi Kristallnacht. Citing the recent kerfuffle over Google buses in San Francisco (previously) and accusations of snobbery by San Francisco resident, bestselling author, and Perkins' own ex-wife Danielle Steel (who he describes as "our number-one celebrity"), Perkins asks "Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent 'progressive' radicalism unthinkable now?" [more inside]
So why was everything in Episode IV using CGA graphics?
Hitler! He's the worst criminal of all time.
Kung Fury is an upcoming action-comedy movie from Swedish director David Sandberg. The trailer, at least, is a pitch-perfect celebration of everything that made 80s action movies ridiculous and wonderful. [more inside]
World's Best Table Tennis Match
Random Togetherness
Dennis Hlynsky is a professor of film and animation at RISD whose most recent work, titled Small Brains on Mass, looks at bird behavior, particularly how they interact when flying in groups. To better understand how flying as a flock is achieved, Hlynsky filmed the birds and then stacked the images on the same frame for a set number of frames, the results show each bird’s flight as a trail, but synchronized with the flock. The results are often pure poetry. [more inside]
"Thanks a lot. You're a nice guy."
Yo, Richard Sherman, I'm real happy for you and I'm gonna let you finish, but Li Na at the Australian Open gives the best postmatch victory interviews of all time. OF ALL TIME.
2011 Semifinal | 2013 Semifinal | 2014 Champion
2011 Semifinal | 2013 Semifinal | 2014 Champion
The Hardest Computer Game of All Time
Many programmers' careers were launched by playing an innovative computer game called Robot Odyssey. [more inside]
Protestant Missionaries and the Health of Nations
For some reason, no one has written a best-selling book about the real-life 19th-century missionary John Mackenzie. When white settlers in South Africa threatened to take over the natives' land, Mackenzie helped his friend and political ally Khama III travel to Britain. There, Mackenzie and his colleagues held petition drives, translated for Khama and two other chiefs at political rallies, and even arranged a meeting with Queen Victoria. Ultimately their efforts convinced Britain to enact a land protection agreement. Without it, the nation of Botswana would likely not exist today. The annals of Western Protestant missions include Nathan Prices, of course. But thanks to a quiet, persistent sociologist named Robert Woodberry, we now know for certain that they include many more John Mackenzies. In fact, the work of missionaries like Mackenzie turns out to be the single largest factor in ensuring the health of nations.
Sweet dreams, summer will be here soon.
SOP
Etretat, Sunset, February 5th, 1883, 4:53 PM local time
Dating an Impressionist's Sunset. "Famed French Impressionist Claude Monet created a striking scene of the Normandy coast in his 1883 painting, Étretat: Sunset. Now a team of Texas State University researchers, led by astronomer and physics professor Donald Olson, has applied its distinctive brand of forensic astronomy to Monet’s masterpiece, uncovering previously unknown details about the painting’s origins." [Via]
Looking like standing stones, out there on our own
Damon Albarn has released a video for the title track from his upcoming (and first-ever!) solo album, Everyday Robots. Rolling Stone has asked him questions about it. He recently performed a few new songs and some old ones at the Sundance Film Festival. Aitor Throup, a London-based menswear designer, is the album's "creative director."
THE GHOST IS NEAR
With another week to go before the Superbowl, tide yourself over with a brand-spankin'-new NFL Bad Lip Reading Video! (Previously, previously.)
Listening to sad music can make you feel pleasant emotions.
Has anyone seen my bowtie...?
Toronto Zoo's polar bear cub takes his first bath. Adorable video with some sad details in the audio. (SLYT)
The last Greatest Event in Television History. We mean it.
First we had Simon & Simon, Hart to Hart, then Too Close for Comfort (!!), and finally, Bosom Buddies.
Animal Communication: What do we know ?
A recent workshop on Analyzing Animal Vocal Sequences provided some illuminating views of what we know and what we don't know about animal communication. In particular one notes the increased use of Machine Learning algorithms that are currently used to make sense of human interactions on the web. Talks at the workshop included:Unraveling dolphin communication complexity, Singing isn't just for the birds, Automated identification of bird individuals using machine learning, A receiver's perspective on analyzing animal vocal sequences, Animal communication sequence analysis using information theory, Machine learning for the classification of animal vocalizations and Information theoretic principles of human language and animal behavior
Even if Bloomberg Didn't, You Can!
Programmers will tell you that coding is one of the most approachable
skills there is. If you want to learn, there's
Code Academy, or perhaps
LearnPython.org. There are
major non-profits that want to help you learn,
free
books,
and videos. Great!
Finished with all of those? [more inside]
Real vs. Unreal, Grotesque vs. Gorgeous
or the inner Grotesque and Gorgeous, and outer fantastic world of The End of Times: The Apocalyptic Book revealed, as it was imagined "couple" years ago. To be seen with your morning coffee.
« Previous day | Next day »