October 26, 2006
Mario64 in 16 easy steps
'Neighboroo is the easiest way to learn about neighborhoods.'
Word of the day: QUIXOTRY
Michael Crest, a carpenter, beat supermarket deli worker Wayne Yorra 830-490 at the Lexington Scrabble Club in a record-setting game on Oct 12' 2006. The game set records for highest score for (i) most points in a game by one player - 830, beating the previous highest 770 set in 1993, (ii) the most total points in a game - 1320 (iii) and the most points on a single turn - 365, for Cresta's play of QUIXOTRY. Stefan Fatsis, author of "Word Freak", has a nice write-up of the game (lots of misc. links in that article)
If all this leaves your hands twitching for those tiles, start Quackling (both, MAC and Win versions available).
I was only ACTING!!!
Good Day Mr. Kubrick! In 1984 Stanley Kubrick placed an ad in Variety requesting audition tapes from unknown actors for his next movie, "Full Metal Jacket." This is allegedly one of those tapes.
Deep-Mining Netflix
Why is Miss Congeniality the most frequently rated DVD on Netflix? Database magic reveals the most contentious movies ever.
12 tone scale? bah!
12 tone scale? bah! Harry Partch: American composer, philosopher, publisher, teacher, satirist, instrument builder and designer, sculptor, theorist, experimentalist, adapted violist, conductor, author, retired hobo, seaman, sewer cleaner, vagrant, and graffitist. Until his death, Harry Partch had been doing his own thing for more than half a century. Partch's own thing began with his rejection of the European masters and the traditional bourgeois concert-hall performance.
partch created over 30 intruments to produce the sounds caught by the human ear not reproduced in concert halls. his life story is cool. his thoughts (pdf) have influenced the path of contemporary experimental music. one of the best of the bands influenced by him.
partch created over 30 intruments to produce the sounds caught by the human ear not reproduced in concert halls. his life story is cool. his thoughts (pdf) have influenced the path of contemporary experimental music. one of the best of the bands influenced by him.
Gorgeous Art Deco blog
Art Deco blog From Lisbon, gatochy celebrates the Jazz Age (and Art Nouveau on Wednesdays). See also Beautiful Century and her flickr sets, which are full of fun.
Spooky High
A SADD campaign to fight drunk driving forgot about the costume. They also seem to have forgotten about social phobia, aka SAD.
Baseball win probabilities based on game situation
Baseball nerd fun: Type in which team's at bat, how many outs, which inning, how many on base, and the Win Expectancy Finder will spit out the likelihood the team wins, based on actual game data from the periods 2000-2004, 1991-1998, and 1979-1990.
There are 300,000,000 people in the U.S. How many have your name?
The next new extreme sport!
This is probably a viral ad for a car and looks slightly digitally altered but it's still quite amusing and amazing at the same time. If only drivers could actually do this. The qashqai car games site has more.
"Lost Weekend," 22 years later
NYC via DC's The Walkmen have recorded a fourth studio LP, a "note-for-note reproduction" of Harry Nilsson's 1974 album "Pussy Cats," famously produced by musician and drinking-buddy John Lennon during his "Lost Weekend" days in Los Angeles. You can listen to the new album here gratis.
What do you mean, 25 cabs for 25 players?
"They all cheat."
What is it like to take performance enhancing drugs? Writer/cyclist takes dope, tells story.
The Annotated Mystery Science Theatre
Magnificent? Obsessions: Mystery Science Theatre Edition. A labour of love: annotated epidoses of MST3000. Inspired? A Distributed MST annotation project.
C..h...r..i...s..t..m..a..s....C...h..r..i..s..t..m..a..s
If you slow down an Alvin and the Chipmunks recording by just the right amount you can hear the voices of the original singers. via
pi in pixels
what happens if you assign a colored pixel to each decimal of pi?
World's Least Likely Invention
From Hammacher Schlemmer, "America's Longest Running Catalog", comes the most unlikely invention of this holiday season: the Computerless Email Printer. It dials up to the Internet, downloads and prints emails, all without one of those pesky computers. If only someone could have invented this in, say, 1843.
Skin
"In a close-knit Chesapeake Bay community, the world’s fastest muskrat skinners face off in a truly cutthroat competition at the National Outdoor Show. One lucky young lady gets to be their queen." [Warning: Fiddle tunes!] Muskrat Lovely, a documentary about the conflation of the world muskrat-skinning championships with the Miss Outdoors beauty competition. The film will air soon on the PBS program
Independent Lens. Catch some of the brackish flavor of the Chesapeake Bay's traditional regional culture, including some muskrat recipes and skinning tips.. And don't miss the link to Everything Muskrat.
"It's a no-brainer for me."
Cheney indicated the Bush administration doesn't regard waterboarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said. [previously]
Remember to hold on to your baby stroller
Free hugs in New York City inspire free hugs in Sydney inspire free hugs in Philadelphia (Warning: Two YouTube links).
Nazi home movies
A 10 minute home movie taken by an SS officer has been discovered in an English church. It shows SS officers and secretaries relaxing in the summer of 1942 in southern Russia. The last couple of minutes shows footage from a slave labor camp in that area. The footage was taken at the height of the German success in Russia, a few months before the turning point in the Russian campaign - and probably the turning point in the Second World War.
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