March 11, 2013
Up All Night
The science of sleeplessness. "Wolf-Meyer refers to the practice of going to bed at around eleven o’clock at night and staying there until about seven in the morning as sleeping 'in a consolidated fashion.' Nowadays, adults are expected to sleep in this manner; anything else—sleeping during the day, sleeping in bursts, waking up in the middle of the night—is taken to be unsound, even deviant. This didn’t use to be the case." [more inside]
"Sarcastic Fringehead?" Really?
Amazing territorial behavior by a fish bearing the rather odd name of "Sarcastic Fringehead," from the David Attenborough's BBC Life series via WTF, Evolution?
Trolls that live in skyscrapers, not under a bridge
"Copyright Trolling" is a term used (by opponents of the practice) to describe copyright holders filing subpoenas to residential ISPs for the identities matched to IP addresses linked to content piracy. In this case, the piracy is often via BitTorrent networks, where peers can see each other's public IP addresses. Rather than filing suit after obtaining these identities, the content copyright holders attempt to extract settlements on the order of $2,000-3,000 from named ISP subscribers to avoid going to court. That's their plan anyway. The recent (and ongoing) story of Prenda Law demonstrates how turning the threat of copyright infringement lawsuits into a moneymaking venture (allegedly with a lawyer as both plaintiff -- through a shell company -- and counsel) can go very wrong for the "trolls"... [more inside]
Famous Last Words (in 140 characters or less)
The Tweet Hereafter compiles the final posts of well-known people (for some value of well-known). Mundane or monumental, it displays the fleeting tweets of the deceased. [more inside]
Jazz that nobody asked for, an animated short film
Sometimes you want to be somber, or serious, or just enjoy some peace and quiet. And in some of those instances, you get jazz that nobody asked for. Jazz that just won't die. [more inside]
Um, Dad? Can you give me a ride?
Of all the things to livetweet, a trip to the hospital with a dildo stuck in your rear would have to be the pinnacle of TMI. "What did you do last night" "I shoved a dildo up my ass and needed the hospital to extract it" "oh man me too"
Urbex
Excuse Us While We Kiss The Sky. [Single page view] "By day they work as computer programmers and stock boys and academics. But at night they are known as urban explorers. The Brooklyn Bridge, London's Shard, Notre Dame—each structure is an expedition waiting to happen. Each sewer, each scaffold, each off-limits site is a puzzle to solve. No wonder the cops are after them. Matthew Power embeds with the space invaders and sees a world—above- and belowground—that the rest of us never knew existed." [Via]
instaGrok
instaGrok is a website that presents information in a mindmap-style visual interface, which allows users to learn about topics by exploring the connections between concepts and facts.
The track to nowhere
Travellers passing through the Beauce region in France may have noticed this strange, lonely concrete structure raised on pillars over the fields. This is the 18-km long elevated track built in the 1960s for testing the Aérotrain (WP, video compilation turn off your speakers unless you love Queen), a propeller or jet-and-rocket driven high-speed (400 km/h) monorail that was supposed to revolutionize train travel (a visit by Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell). However, the French government preferred the less expensive and less futuristic TGV and the project was mothballed in 1975. The Aérotrain's inventor, Jean Bertin, died a few months later. All Aérotrain prototypes were destroyed except one.
You're still here? It's over. Go home.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: A Movie Supercut
Needs more Bob Hope & Bing Crosby: this entire musical number is addressed to the audience.
Needs more Bob Hope & Bing Crosby: this entire musical number is addressed to the audience.
"The American Revolution is not a story just for white people."
"We’ve coined a term," said Katrinah Lewis, the actress who typically interprets Lydia. "Post-traumautic slave syndrome." The Washington Post reports on African American actors who interpret the lives of slaves at Colonial Williamsburg.
No, not Pepsi Blue, I promise.
What's Good at Trader Joe's A blog of amateur reviews of Trader Joe's products. For example:
Cookie Butter.
"That lawsuit, believe it or not, is still going on."
Where Banks really Make Money On IPOs
All of these numbers are hypothetical, of course, but the bigger point is simple: if Goldman manages to get kickbacks, in terms of extra commissions, of more than 7% of its clients’ profits, then it has a financial incentive to underprice the IPO. And Goldman’s clients were desperate to give it kickbacks: they didn’t just route their standard trading through Goldman, since that wouldn’t generate enough commissions. Instead, they bought and sold stocks on the same day, at the same price. Capstar Holding, for instance, bought 57,000 shares in Seagram Ltd at $50.13 per share on June 21, 1999 — and then sold them, on the same day, at the same price. Capstar made nothing on the trade, but Goldman made a commission of $5,700. Capstar’s Christopher Rule says that in May 1999, fully 70% of all of his trading activity “was done solely for the purpose of generating commissions”, so that he could continue to keep on getting IPO allocations.Rigging The IPO Game [more inside]
I think I once touched the rim when I was in high school...
Last week, Robert Mays of Grantland put together a Best Alley-Oops of All Time mini-post (1/4 down the page), as a response to THIS.
Today he had to redo his list because of THIS.
Priceless Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has many "educator resources" on Korean art, Islamic geometric design, African art, and more (i.e. books filled with beautifully reproduced images of art and artifacts, along with extensive background history). They are available for download as PDF files. [more inside]
A very Pyrrhic victory
9 years and 364 days ago, the then MEP (and later cabinet minister), Chris Huhne caught a flight back from Brussels to London Stansted, landing at 10.27pm. He picked up his car, with the distinctive number plate H11HNE, and sped back to his home in Clapham, South London, setting in motion a chain of events that would ultimately see him and his wife, economist Vicky Pryce, each sentenced to 8 months in jail. [more inside]
Prom night is coming.
Prom night is coming at Westeros Valley High, the School of Thrones. (SLYT. Possible spoilers if you aren't current through season 2 of Games of Thrones)
Civilizations and E-Mail
A team of computer researchers analyzed ten million Yahoo! e-mails and noticed a phenomenon: "E-mails tend to flow much more frequently between countries with certain economic and cultural similarities". [more inside]
Do Not Hit Snooze
Inspired by the sound of an alarm clock going off, Hiromi, Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips perform Hiromi's composition Move.
FOUND
"FOUND is a curated collection of photography from the National Geographic archives. In honor of our 125th anniversary, we are showcasing photographs that reveal cultures and moments of the past. Many of these photos have never been published and are rarely seen by the public."
If you really love the mall, now you can live there!
He'll get used to it.
Don't panic.
Today would have been Douglas Adams' 61st birthday. Google is celebrating with an elaborate doodle. Neil Gaiman, who once wrote a companion book to the Hitchhiker's Guide, reminisces a little bit about the man here. Worth reading, if you haven't read it before, is the old lament by Richard Dawkins, a long-time friend of Adams. (Second thing on the page, not first; scroll down.)
"Politics determine who has the power, not who has the truth."
Breitbarted! [BUSINESSINSIDER.COM] "Conservative news site Breitbart.com duped by fake story that Paul Krugman declared dankruptcy. A satirical item published last week purporting that economist Paul Krugman had filed for bankruptcy has spread to Boston.com and the conservative website Breitbart this morning.
The item originated in The Daily Currant, a satirical news site. Austria's Format online magazine picked it up, and their report was subsequently cited by Boston.com [It has since been taken down 404 error.]. Then it spread to Breitbart.
It has since been taken down this morning, but here's a screenshot:" [more inside]
E.U. to Ban Cosmetics With Animal-Tested Ingredients
E.U. regulators are expected to announce Monday a ban on the import and sale of cosmetics containing ingredients tested on animals and to pledge more efforts to push other parts of the world, like China, to accept alternatives. [more inside]
I understand that you have to take some sponge baths; however...
The year is 1959. A local radio station, in conjunction with Bomb Shelters, Inc. is seeking a newlywed couple to partake of a sheltered honeymoon. [more inside]
The plot to liberate Napoleon
In 1820–or so he claimed–he was offered the sum of £40,000 [equivalent to $3 million now] to rescue the emperor Napoleon from bleak exile on the island of St. Helena. This escape was to be effected in an incredible way–down a sheer cliff, using a bosun’s chair, to a pair of primitive submarines waiting off shore.
Getting high
Grow Maze
Essential advice for David Cameron
"Britain’s modern party leaders are not ousted by stalking horses; they are dragged from their beds in the dead of night, and shot in the courtyard with a Sky News helicopter overhead." -- Former New Labour heavyweight and Gordon Brown acolyte Damian McBride explains how to survive a coup attempt when you're prime minister.
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