October 24, 2008
Remember to Forget
Dr. Joe Z. Tsien has previously created a strain of mice unable to form memories, one with much improved memory - "Doogie" mice - and can now erase single mouse memories. "Our work reveals a molecular mechanism of how that can be done quickly and without doing damage to brain cells." Remembering to forget....
A Presidential Word-a-Day
The wonderful wordsmith, Anu Garg, at Wordsmith.org has posted five words this week: "To barrack"."Bidentate"."Meeken". "Palinode". "Obambulate".
Definitions inside. [more inside]
Les moulins de mon cœur
The first time I encountered this song was on an Anita Kerr Singers record I found in my dad's basement. The original was composed for The Thomas Crown Affair. When the film was remade in 1999, the song was performed by Sting, but his was far from the first recurrence. It inspired numerous covers, perhaps most popularly by Dusty Springfield. I find Jose Feliciano's version to be particularly soulful. Dorothy Ashby layed down some of the funkiest harp you'll ever care to hear. My personal favorite is Peter Nero's performance of the windmills on a Moog synthesizer. Cameron Carpenter puts the phantom to shame with his rendition. New Dawns Show Choir do it with jazz hands. Arturo Sandoval uses his jazz hands to a slightly more impressive effect. I could keep going but I feel like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream. Oh. The Muppets did it, too.
Ernie Pook's Reflections On Being
What a great homemade witch costume! Um, you were supposed to be a princess? Oh.
Halloween is lurking ever nearer, and you need costumes and home decorations. Even if you're not as crafty as a witch, Halloween is a good time to start because the results are supposed to look deformed and grotesque. And you're dreaming of a green Halloween. Fortunately I just happen to have a few links to get you started. This garlic wreath could help you keep the vampires away, and this eyeball wreath may work on everyone else. For a geek-style Halloween, make a Mac-o-lantern. You could also decorate the house with a vinyl record cat clock, tin can candle lanterns, a ghost mobile, CD cat coasters, or a skeleton doll made out of old socks. For outdoor decorations, lawn tombstones can be made out pizza boxes and old newspapers, a skeleton out of old plastic containers, and there could be a ghost or two hanging about. You could adorn yourself with a skeleton brooch made out of tin cans, and if you've got old clothes or linens lying about the children in your life might like a few cute monsters to cuddle. If your kids (or you) have finally outgrown dolls, give the dolls a zombie makeover. For costume ideas, check out the Daily Green's list of the best recycled costumes on the Web, then send the kids trick or treating with pumpkin or black cat canisters. Just please be careful with those shears and x-acto knives or the blood and gore on your costume may be a little too organic.
Forever? Changes?
Love Story: the 2006 documentary about the obscure, semi-legendary 60s L.A. psychedelic band Love, and its leader Arthur Lee. One week only on Pitchfork.TV previously 2001 and 2006 [more inside]
Modular
Be thankful these black swans didn't fly
Stealing your time since...
Did you like Spy Hunter? Then you'll probably like The Heist, for even more Friday Flash Fun! It's a similar vertical scroller, but you lose points when you hit cars (if you destroy cop cars, you add points.)
Holmes' and Watson's World
One minute and four seconds in London, 1904. Birkbeck College professor Ian Christie rediscovered this footage in an archive in Canberra, shot for a travelogue by film pioneer Charles Urban.
Web of Horror!
Web of Horror #1 (December 1969): Re-presenting the short-lived and impossibly obscure horror comics magazine that featured early work from such luminaries as Ralph Reese, Jeff Jones and Bernie Wrightson. Link via Journalista (may be NSFW). [more inside]
Tip: Meat is Murder. Tasty, Tasty Murder...
Some more Flash Friday Fun! Edmund McMillen, creator of indie platforming physics-based game darling Gish and "Experimental game" Aether has a new game called Meat Boy, about a chunky block of meat with a face and appendages, he must rescue his girlfriend, Bandaid Girl, from the clutches of the bad guy. To that end, Meat Boy must travel through more than 56 levels spanning four chapters.
Cuddle 'n Coo 'n Proselytize
The Mattel toy company insists that their Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo dolls do not utter the phrase "Islam is the light." You be the judge.
Wassupdate
The Wassup boys have had a tough eight years, but things are looking up. (SLYT.)
New Internet Dramedy Hits Internet
History and the Universe, mentioned months ago in a NYTimes travel feature, has finally gone live. This Internet TV channel has two shows so far: Big Book of Lies and Emily Time, both filmed in Buenos Aires. Video is high quality, even filmic at times. Favorite characters include Buck Chomsky, the disaffected son of you-know-who, and Exon, a 5'3 Colombian gangster with a penchant for Apple products.
You are the vent-exhaust beneath my wings.
Flash Friday! John Calhoun's classic mac game Glider Pro, now in flash form. [previously] [more inside]
Merl Saunders, RIP
The fun can not be halted
When you hear those spirits calling, ain't no use to fight
To celebrate the build up to the spookiest time of the year (which is almost certainly a co-opted Celtic end of the year festival), here are some spooky songs about endings from the marvelous Jason Webley: the end of the month, the end of the year, the end of life (with bonus ballet!), the end of the world, and the reason that we have endings. [more inside]
Giordano Bruno
White House Tower Defence
Friday Flash Fun! It's two great flavors that taste great together in White House Tower Defence!
3 € bill.
After recently leading his far right wing party, Alliance for the Future of Austria, to shocking gains at the polls, Jörg Haider, was killed this month whilst driving drunk. His 27 year old replacement, Stefan Petzner, was sacked after admitting to having a special relationship with Haider.
And protected from witchcraft, too!
Palin for 2012? She's popular with conservatives, and even before any potential makeover 6 out of 10 evangelicals think she is experienced enough to be president. She'd potentially get the Huckabee evangelical vote in the primaries *and* the talk radio wing. If Obama succeeds in taking moderates, the evangelical and talk radio wings will only be stronger. And the GOP would appear to already be talking about it.
To be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life
"No other country could have produced the Specials. Terry Hall grew up with Jamaican culture as well as English culture, that’s the only way The Specials could have happened. If you listen to American ska bands, they don’t sound authentic, it's like surf music with reggae mixed with it." Tricky talks about Englishness.
God schmod. I want my monkey man.
"We'll breed him and we'll see if his kids glow, too!" Meet Mr. Green Genes: (No, not that Mr. Green Jeans) Pic. Pic. [more inside]
You don't really own the shares you think you own
All the stocks and bonds you think you own are actually owned by a company you've probably never heard of, a company owned by the same people who own the US Federal Reserve. [more inside]
God is cruel
'Around my house we kinda laugh when Sarah Palin comes on TV, and we say, "That's Greg Stillson as a woman."' Interview with Stephen King on the thirtieth anniversary of The Stand.
Kuroda Sensei
Kuroda Tetsuzan Sensei is an incredible Japanese martial artist. As a skilled swordsman, he practices very old and unusual forms of iaido, kenjutsu as well an interesting form of ju jutsu. He is both incredibly still and incredibly fast and he knows a few tricks too. [more inside]
To Idi Amin: I'm a idiot.
This isn't exactly the scarlet letter, but it might be a sign of something we've seen before (or maybe not, depending who you ask.) Still, you should probably get yourself one of these [see also] if you're planning to cry wolf! (You can also make your own.) [more inside]
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