October 11, 2010
Hindustani classic musician - Abdul Karim Khan
Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937). Master Hindustani classical musician: Piya bin chain nahi aavat, Raag Natyageet, Bengali folk, Jamuna ke teer, Raag Bilawal
The Multifunction In-Dorm Automation System
The MIDAS - multifunction in-dorm automation system - offers a complete, torturously elaborate system for controlling every aspect of dormitory life. Note especially the emergency party mode button, and Seagalvision, the spy camera in a can of Seagal-branded energy drink.
"Few false ideas have more firmly gripped the minds of so many intelligent men than the one that, if they just tried, they could invent a cipher that no one could break."
The mother of all airplane trips
How to Buy a Round-the-World Plane Ticket (That Kicks Ass). Chris Guillebeau: "....Each airline alliance has its own rules for how the ticket works. The one from Star Alliance is mileage based, meaning you’ll have a limit of 26,000, 29,000, 34,000 or 39,000 miles on your ticket. The trick here is to optimize your route to...below one of the tiers, (A friend of mine got his itinerary to 33,998 miles, which I thought was pretty good.)". This, and reserving, paying for and planning the mother of all plane trips (along with Things to Watch out for).
ADF members charged with manslaughter
On 12 February 2009, soldiers from the ADF 1st Commando regiment crept through the dark near the village of Surkh Morghab, in southern Afghanistan. What happened next will be closely scrutinised, however grenades were used and five children were killed. [more inside]
Yo' Mama so fine....
Stop Looking at My Moms! (YT) Boy-rapper The Astronomical Kid demands you show his mother some respect.
First Autistic Presidential Appointee Speaks Out
"We need to stop making autism advocacy about trying to create a world where there aren't any autistic people and start building one in which autistic people have the rights and support they deserve." In December, Ari Ne'eman was nominated to the National Council on Disability (NCD), becoming the first autistic presidential appointee in history. In response, "one anonymous emailer to a federal agency in Washington wrote that 'assholes like Ari Ne'eman' should 'have their tongues cut out' for suggesting that autistic people need respect, civil rights, and access to services more than they need pity and a cure. This conviction has made him a leader of the emerging neurodiversity movement, which Ne'eman sees as a natural outgrowth of the civil rights, women's rights, and disability rights movements of the late 20th century." (Previously.)
Why is this GOP House Candidate Dressed As A Nazi?
Meet Rich Iott, Ohio Tea Party candidate for Congress and currently America's most famous WW II reenactor. Rich Iott, Republican candidate for Congress in Ohio's 9th Congressional District and Tea Party favorite, has recently gotten a huge amount of national press for his hobby of dressing like a member of the German 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. [more inside]
ALA Library Fact Sheet Number 22
The Nation's Largest Libraries: A Listing By Volumes Held of the top 100 libraries in the USA.
Web Design Tutorials and Inspiration
Web Design Ledger is a publication written by web designers for web designers. The primary purpose of the site is to act as a platform for sharing web design related knowledge and resources. Topics range from design inspiration to tips and tutorials and everything in between. [more inside]
We fear he is not a Patriotic Dog
Eugene Field's Complete Tribune Primer (with illustrations). Best known for Wynken, Blynken and Nod, Field has some words of advice for young people. [more inside]
WTF, Mate?
McRib : 'a conglomeration of pork waste.'
Hankering for a McRib? According to the Wall Street Journal, the elusiveness of this pork sandwich is driven by marketing, and that despite threats of retirement, the fiendish creation will get trotted out whenever they want to pull in the die-hard fans. If you're one of them, then you probably already know about the McRib Locator. But what exactly are McRib's made of?
Canvas Rider
Canvas Rider is an addictive game where you ride a bike on thousands of tracks drawn by other players. It's written only in JavaScript & HTML5, using the most of the new <canvas> element.
Give me some more....okay!
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West's 1941 account of the people, history, and politics of the doomed Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is available online in its flawed, majestic entirety.
Happy Few
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.
Merlin Mann invites you to memorize, perform, and record the Happy Few speech from Henry V before St. Crispin's Day, October 25.
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.
Merlin Mann invites you to memorize, perform, and record the Happy Few speech from Henry V before St. Crispin's Day, October 25.
Thank youu mARIO, bUTOUR &pRINC$ES$ &# aNO@**ER &?=)!&&&33377G
Take a game like Super Mario Bros. Introduce garbage data into the code, either through random Game Genie codes or a corruptor program. Try to play what results, while the laws of reality slowly go insane in the background, and upload the "best" results to YouTube. Can Mario make it to the princess when stomping a Goomba turns the air to water, when hitting a block ends the world, when the world is infinite length, if the ground can't support his weight, when touching a flagpole destroys his mind, when brought into being over an ocean immediately before a fatal heart attack, before the enemies turn into Bowser-halves, while the universe is freaking out around him? (hint: no)
Aren't We Naughty? Please, Say We're Naughty.
We're thin and stacked, so lose the old bag. Pretzel Thins first ad campaign got taken down after a bit of backlash. Now, they've created a webpage where they're asking people to "lighten up," calling their campaign provocative and asking people to vote on what they think of the ads.
Utilitarian knowledge…?
Britain’s Frank Kermode is, sadly, dead, aged ninety. I was reading the obits, and memories, and definitely agreeing with the general sentiment that literary criticism (and all of the rest of us) had lost a giant.
Cost of Murder
A team of researchers at Iowa State University has found that a murder costs more than $17.25 Million to society. [via]
Junk Charts
Junk Charts and its "sister blog", Numbers Rule the World, are long-running sites with trenchant critiques of the visual and textual display of information in media. Both are instructive for decoding the information glut, as well as getting your own messages across clearly. See for example, posts on display of census information and race; Trying Too Hard; and Over Plotting.
The pen is mightier than City Hall
Grand Theft Rowhome: A look into a seemingly-lucrative business of stealing deeds to Philadelphia houses armed with nothing more than pen, paper, and a forged notary stamp. The depressing take-home message? The city's bureaucracy can't get its act together enough to slow down the practice, and budget cuts are only making that worse... [more inside]
Goes well with randomly generated music
"Engagement, escape, engagement, escape."
"In the making of character, I feel completely happy. [...] I get two innocent people into a Hitchcockian muddle and make them fight their way out. But from scene to scene, they have to lead me. [...] To me, that is the whole of life. I can’t put it differently." Today's Democracy Now! features an extended interview with John le Carré on topics from Tony Blair, geopolitics, and money laundering to the novelist's life and work.
Joan Sutherland (1926-2010)
Dame Joan Sutherland has died at the age of 83. One of the most remarkable female opera singers of the 20th century, she was dubbed La Stupenda by a La Fenice audience in 1960 after a performance as Alcina. She possessed a voice of beauty and power, combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, "pin point staccatos, a splendid trill and a tremendous upper register, although music critics often complained about the imprecision of her diction. Her friend Luciano Pavarotti once called Sutherland the "Voice of the Century", while Montserrat Caballé described the Australian's voice as being like "heaven".
To nom or not to nom: that is the question.
"What's scary is that we've brainwashed our kids so brilliantly -- so even though they know something is disgusting and gross, they'll still eat it if it's in that friendly little shape." Jamie Oliver shows children how chicken nuggets are made [SLYT].
Listening Comprehension
Splitsider posts a "Fairly Comprehensive Guide" to Comedy Podcasts. The comments thread begs to differ. [more inside]
Freud in China
Despite the social stigma that still surrounds mental illness, doctors are eager to learn and apply psychotherapy, and thanks to Skype and a healthy supply of retired American therapists, Freudian psychoanalysis is enjoying a renaissance in China.
"The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing."
Graham Greene, Arthur Ransome and Somerset Maugham all spied for Britain, admits MI6 "The authors Graham Greene, Arthur Ransome, Somerset Maugham, Compton Mackenzie and Malcolm Muggeridge, and the philosopher AJ "Freddie" Ayer, all worked for MI6, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service admitted for the first time today . They are among the many exotic characters who agreed to spy for Britain, mainly during wartime, who appear in a the first authorised history of MI6."
Campfire Stories (Spoiler: Her head falls off)
It's October, a fine time to learn some spooky stories to tell while you're gathered around a campfire.
“There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual.”
Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for New York Governor addressed a group of Orthodox Jewish leaders in Brooklyn yesterday. Reading from a prepared statement:
“I didn’t march in the gay parade this year — the gay pride parade this year. My opponent did, and that’s not the example we should be showing our children. And certainly not in our schools. Don’t misquote me as wanting to hurt homosexual people in any way. That would be a dastardly lie. My approach is live and let live. I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t.”The remarks were caught on video. [more inside]
"He has fun when people say horrible things about him."
Eustace Tilley lifts up his monocle to peer curiously at Nick Denton and the Gawker Media empire.
Magnificent Obsessions # 3,299
The art of Clue suspect cards through the years, courtesy of The Art of Murder, a comprehensive Clue fan site.
Water between the sheets
Sociologist Amy Schalet has done wonderful research comparing American and Dutch approaches to teen sexuality. (Blog commentary here) [more inside]
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