December 1, 2011
The Spyfiles
Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries. Warning: SLWL? (Single Link Wikileaks)
We have just gotten a wake-up call from the Nintendo Generation.
A selection of Kubrick's photojournalism
Happiness distilled
Celtics Fan Celebration Yeah!
German bagpipes, y'all
I've been enjoying listening to this German guy playing the German bagpipes. That is, the Hümmelchen. Check out the cool tuning maneuver at the 0:57 mark of this clip for some hot Hümmelchen tuning action! And here he employs a groovy canned beat. Ya! He also dabbles in the Irish pipes, and loans out his workshop on occasion as a spot for some of the locals to get a little wild. Oh, and, of course, he also plays the Rauschpfeife. Yes, the Rauschpfeife. Hören!
Blade miracles
Can a master swordsman cut a bullet in flight? Isao Machii can.
Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall
Here is a death metal cover of Laughter Song, a.k.a. "Giggle at the Ghostly," (lyrics) from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, performed by Hatesteed. Original version. SLYT
Texts From Bennett
Bennett and I discuss joining the Illuminati. "These are text messages I exchange with my 17-year-old cousin Bennett... one of the most unintentionally funny and brilliant souls on the planet. He has no idea I do this blog. Yes, this is 100% real." [NSFWtext; TumblrFilter]
The Goods on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Oren Etzioni is a renowned data mining expert who sold Farecast, his airline-ticket price predictor to Microsoft for $115 million. Now he's turned his focus to the general problem of finding when the best shopping bargains occur. Punch in a consumer electronics item and his website will tell you whether to buy now or to wait. Over time he'll be adding more product categories. In any case, he can tell you right now the best prices for most things aren't on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Alberto Giacometti
One afternoon in September 1958, a beautiful, distinguished and mysterious woman arrived at the door of number 46 rue Hippolyte Maindron. This was the Paris studio where Alberto Giacometti had been working since 1926, having arrived in the city four years earlier. [more inside]
‘Où est le sang de Roland Barthes?’
But like many an inarticulate young lover, I thought for a time that seduction was a matter of giving the right book to the right woman. In my case it was Barthes’s A Lover’s Discourse: a meditation on Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther that catalogues the melancholic lover’s prized ‘image repertoire’ – the scene of waiting, the feeling of being dissolved in the presence of the loved being, the attraction of suicide – and thinly veils the author’s own life as a middle-aged gay man in Paris in the 1970s. This gift was always a prelude to disaster.– RB and Me: An Education is an essay by Brian G. Dillon about his relationship with the books of French philosopher Roland Barthes. It's also a lovely autobiography of an awkward boy finding his place in life. Dillon's website collects his essays, and is trove of interesting insight. Besides writing essays and fiction, Dillon is also the UK editor of Cabinet Magazine, and you can read a fair number of his articles online, including ones on Beau Brummel and the cravat, hypochondria and hydrotherapy.
The Sound and the G-dd---ed F---ing Fury
David Milch, creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, has inked a deal with HBO to produce television shows and movies from the literary works of William Faulkner.
“I’m not, probably, the first person they would have thought of approaching them,” Mr. Milch said in a phone interview, referring to his months-long discussions with the William Faulkner Literary Estate. “But a number of conversations were fruitful and here we are.”
Faulkner previously; Milch previously
“I’m not, probably, the first person they would have thought of approaching them,” Mr. Milch said in a phone interview, referring to his months-long discussions with the William Faulkner Literary Estate. “But a number of conversations were fruitful and here we are.”
Faulkner previously; Milch previously
Kagemu's Black Sun
Black Sun is a meticulously choreographed projection of motiongraphics onto dance, combining traditional and modern elements of Japanese culture and martial arts. Artist Nobuyuki Hanabusa and dancer Katsumi Sakakura, together known as Kagemu, have since been widely imitated by others, including Beyoncé. [more inside]
Street Skiing in Nelson, BC
Street Skiing in Nelson, BC. Gorgeous cinematography of skiing down the snowy climbs and alleyways in city of Nelson BC. Watch the sparks fly. [Vimeo]
The History of English
How new words are created - just one section of a site that charts 'How English went from an obscure Germanic dialect to a global language'.
“I miss the crowd.”
"One thing about life in New York: wherever you are, the neighborhood is always changing. An Italian enclave becomes Senegalese; a historically African-American corridor becomes a magnet for white professionals. The accents and rhythms shift; the aromas become spicy or vegetal. The transition is sometimes smooth, sometimes bumpy. But there is a sense of loss among the people left behind, wondering what happened to the neighborhood they once thought of as their own." For Sophia Goldberg (98), Holocaust survivor, change has meant the end of a way of life.
The spider-whisperers
Richard Yates and Larry David
Revolutionary Road author Richard Yates was the inspiration for the character Alton Benes, Elaine's father, in the memorable Seinfeld episode The Jacket. The backstory to this episode as well as details about Yate's complex relationship with David Milch are discussed here. [more inside]
Finding Oregon
Finding Oregon is the compilation of six months of timelapse photography across the state of Oregon, punctuated by a 1600 mile road trip in September. Related: how to lose $2400 in 24 seconds.
a wasp as small as an amoeba
How fairy wasps cope with being smaller than amoebas. They're so small that they lay their eggs inside the eggs of thrips. Their brains are 50 times less complex than houseflies' brains. They're only the third smallest insect! (video) [more inside]
Lost Episode of "Cosmos" Found
A never-aired fourteenth episode of Carl Sagan's groundbreaking PBS show Cosmos has been discovered, detailing the one of the strangest planets yet discovered. (SLYT)
Traffic deaths: leading cause of death among Americans ages 5 to 34.
Study shows medical marijuana laws reduce traffic deaths. 'A groundbreaking new study shows that laws legalizing medical marijuana have resulted in a nearly nine percent drop in traffic deaths and a five percent reduction in beer sales.' 'The study is the first to examine the relationship between the legalization of medical marijuana and traffic deaths.' [more inside]
Our new insect overlord would like a carrot
Former park ranger Mark W Moffett (aka Doctor Bugs) has found a Giant Weta on Little Barrier Island in New Zealand that might be the world's heaviest insect. It weighs three times more than a mouse. Oh yeah, it also eats carrots.
The Shape Of Things To Come (Down From The Sky)
PacMan is SO last year. The current king of retro gaming 'look' is the Space Invader, with Waffles (as part of an art installation, or DIY) and Chocolate! Or you can knit an Invader with a free pattern or take the San Diego Space Invader Walk.
C.G.P. Grey
Here is Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever and other neat videos by C.G.P. Grey who explains non-obvious aspects of science, history, geography, elections, and economics in entertaining and clear ways. [more inside]
Reams of Eames
Tired of designing yet another fancy-ass chair? Join the No Chair Design Challenge for 2012 [warning: no website design], with a handy video tutorial on how not to design chairs. [via] [more inside]
Perhaps you will discover some new Christmas favourites this year?
"Once more we're starting to look forward to Christmas. Whilst the shops are advertising all the material things we can look foward to, we're despatching enjoyment in the form of music - treasures from Christmases gone by." - musical advent calendars from the Norwegian Institute for Recorded Sound.
Fingers crossed
Australian Labor Party's 46th National Conference starts today in Sydney. Key agenda items - Gay marriage, refugees, and Uranium sale to India. Follow it live.
LIFF (n.) A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover.
"In Life, there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no words exist.
On the other hand, the world is littered with thousands of spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at places.
Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts and into the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start earning their keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive contribution to society. " -- Douglas Adams, on The Meaning of Liff. And because it's Adams, there are some internet pages for your enjoyment. [more inside]
But the wine and the song, like the seasons, all have gone.
Always Get Someone a Glass of Water
Roderick on the Line - An audio program in which Mefi's Own Mr. Merlin Mann and Mr. John Roderick of the Long Winters discuss their many problems, including pixxxxxie grrrls, Rem Koolhaus, corporeal punishment, Goodwill organization, and many others. It lends itself to in-jokes.
Suit against banks
Massachusetts AG Sues 5 Biggest Banks The first suit by a state attorney general to address the robosigning allegations of last fall, the suit may signal the failure of the talks among the 50 state attorney's general, federal regulators, and the big banks. (Previously). The most interesting aspects of the suit may be its allegations about mortgage modifications, however, which are new. (Attorney General's full complaint here.) [more inside]
Hornlets and hornlings.
Specimen products is the workshop of Ian Schneller, a Chicago-based sculptor-turned-luthier. His site is worth a look if you are interested in unusual guitars and other stringed instruments (like this electic lute), eccentric amplifiers and speakers, or extreme guitar repair.
Currently Schneller is collaberating with musician Andrew Bird on Sonic Arboretum, a musical perfomance/installation piece. Here is video of a performance at the Guggenheim in 2010, and a slideshow of the preparations for an upcoming performance at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.
In Japan, they farm like this; in American, they farm like that.
Posh kids only
Santastic: Christmas Mashups
Holiday mash-ups, alternate treatments and bootleg remixes: Santastic I - II - III - IV - V
Menorah Mashups
A Very Re:Composition Christmas
A Very Bootie Christmas [more inside]
Menorah Mashups
A Very Re:Composition Christmas
A Very Bootie Christmas [more inside]
Will it Bend?
Awkward Family Pet Photos
Awkward Family Pet Photos, from the people who brought you Awkward Family Photos. The Huffington Post offers a bit of a backstory on the creators.
Table 7
A couple has an intimate conversation in a restaurant, unaware that their every word is being closely monitored. This is Table 7, a short film from indie filmmaker Marko Slavnic.
Light My Fire
iPhones, laptops, the Chevy Volt, and airplanes all have something in common - fires caused by lithium batteries. [more inside]
Codebreakers Of The World Unite!
Cheerlights
This holiday season, if you plan on decorating your home with lights, why not put in some Cheerlights, a set of lights linked to a controller that responds to tweets. Instructional Video using Arduino, ioBridge, and Color Effects LED lighting. [more inside]
Near-Real-Time
Contrary to initial reports, the evictions of Occupy L.A. encampments were marked by police violence and hundreds of arrests. Journalists who ignored the prohibition on live coverage were expressly targeted by the LAPD.
Fugazi, Live: "When we played, we wanted it to be like a free fall."
Between 1987 and 2003, Fugazi played over 1000 concerts in all 50 states and all over the world. Over 800 of these shows were recorded by the band's sound engineers. The goal of this project is to make each of these recordings available to download for a small fee. The standard suggested download price is $5 a show but they also offer a sliding scale option where you can set your own price. (Bonus Banter)
Meet Buck.
2012=1968?
Two, not one, singularities
With everything rolling towards the abyss, our only hope for a bright future seems to be the Singularity, a technological transformation of what it means to be human. But in a talk for TEDx Brussels, science fiction and horror writer John Shirley argues that there are really two Singularities — and yes, everything will be terrible in the short term. So why is he optimistic about the future of the human race? Read on.
Bubblegum on Cardboard
Less lenient mothers would make their kids finish the cereal before attacking the box with scissors. Cereal box records introduced a generation of children to bubblegum pop. [more inside]
Famous in Belgium
After a record-breaking year-and-a-half of negotiations to form a Belgian government following the June 2010 general elections [previously], a six-party coalition has finally reached an agreement. While this is noteworthy enough, the character who has finally achieved the seemingly impossible and is set to become Belgium's first Francophone Prime Minister since 1974 is possibly even more interesting: meet Elio di Rupo. [more inside]
The Crash Course
Automato Triumphant
Ketchupbot v. picnic food. Ketchupbot, aka Automato, and the Catsup Crapper have been around since 2007, the invention of a trio of MIT students. Automato outtakes. Automato teaches its art to a smaller sibling. Catsup Crapper meets Martha Stewart.
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