March 18, 2009
A whole movie in one image
Movie posters carry the movie in one still image. But they're also a great overview of trends, both artistic and popular. Modern major film posters are common enough, and if you're looking for some discussion of modern posters, Movie Poster Addict might be your scene. But dig deeper and you come across quality versions of foreign films, such as Mexican posters (deep link to a section of Pulp Morgue) or hand painted posters from Russia, India and Pakistan, even the US. MeFi's own flapjax at midnite shared a collection of recent finds from the 1960s and '70s on in this Flickr set. [flapjax at midnite's collection via mefi projects] Some-what pre-vious-ly on Me-ta-Filter. And not from MetaFilter, but from our favorite list site: 20 baffling foreign movie posters.
Very minimal wage
Today Kansas became one step closer to raising its state minimum wage and shedding its embarrassing position as lowest set state minimum wage in the nation at $2.65 per hour. (Kansas minimum wage is lower than Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, though 5 states currently have no minimum wage whatsoever.) The Kansas Department of Labor estimates that over 20,000 Kansans earn less than the federal minimum wage. After passing the Kansas Senate by a vote of 33-7, will the Speaker of the House allow a vote on Senate Bill 160?
The Giving Tree
The Giving Tree (1973), animated short based on Shel Silverstein's 1964 children's story and narrated by the author. [more inside]
Fiction vs Science
Ken MacLeod, Paul Cornell, Iain [M] Banks and Ian Watson comment on the relationship between science fiction and science fact.
The Australian Government's Blacklisted Website List
Wikileaks has posted the complete list of websites that the Australian Government intends to block under its proposed opt-out internet censorship scheme. The Government has flagged plans to expand the blacklist to 10,000 sites or more. [more inside]
A touching song about gay trees.
Paul Ford is back with six-word reviews of SxSW 2009 music (previously in 2008). Also be sure to check out Paul's (another Paul's) SxSW Artist Catalog (previously) for further SxSW music metadata goodness.
ImprovArt
ImprovEverywhere has a gallery opening in the New York Subway. "In the course of making the art labels, the mundane stuff of the platform really did become weirdly compelling and beautiful. I wasn’t sure if everyone else would have that experience, or if we would be busy consciously pretending that these random objects were art. In the course of the event, some other friends who came made brilliant observations about the pieces that helped bring my mindset firmly back into of-course-this-is-art, rather than viewing the subway as a collection of quick fixes over time. It’s wonderful how we can decide to create a collective reality, and how it can sometimes catch us up within itself. I’m glad other folks also got caught up in "Wow.. This might really be art!", and that some non-agents got such a kick out of it!"
Last Night ATC Saved My Life
Artifacts From A Previously Undiscovered Space Program
So you go to be spaceman. If the space race had taken a few different turns, we might have ended up with a historical exhibit that looked like the one cooked up by the American Dream Technical Institute. [more inside]
Should the rules of Scrabble be changed?
A decent list from Cracked? Wow.
Five ways 'common sense' lies to you - a description of some everyday logical fallacies and how they effect us in a larger scale.
Bella Union
Dolphins caught on film making art and doing science.
Dolphins at SeaWorld Orlando make and play with bubble rings. Others learn by watching. (SLYP) via [more inside]
Only Coon Hounds Are Allowed To Be Buried
American Houndsman is a site dedicated to showcasing vintage hound hunting. Back when hunters didn't have all the fancy equipment and gadgets of today, it was a time that hunting was simple. Fetch the dogs, the light, and the gun and off to the woods for a night's hunt. Features vintage photographs of beloved coon dawgs, even the ones still learning, and stories of hunting dogs in days gone by. There's even a coon dog cemetery where the best of the best are laid to rest. [more inside]
The sonic experiences of Low Light Mixes
Dave of Low Light Mixes spins together all manner of textural musical goodness into solid, themed sonic experiences. Component parts include but are not limited to ambient, jazz, "jazz", noise, field recordings and one hell of a lot of Brian Eno.
A Series of Pop-Cultural Charts
Sitcom Maps from DanMeth.com
11. Witty Post Titles
Which way are the winds blowing in the world today? From New Calvinism to Ecological Intelligence, here are 10 ideas that are changing the world right now.
So much for organic farming?
No conflict of interest there, no sir. Organic food fans and small farmers alike are saying if HR 875 is passed, it will mean the end of organic farming in the United States. An overstatement? Perhaps, but HR 875 has serious flaws. The bill, introduced by Rosa DeLauro last month (who happens to be married to Stanley Greenburg of Monsanto, the world's largest producer of herbicides, chemical fertilizers and genetically engineered seeds), is here. [more inside]
A Century of Disasters: The Top 10 Worst Inventions in History
The Cat Wig, The Inflatable Dartboard, et al. Plus, two inventions that sound bad, but aren't.
DIE
LET IT DIE: Douglas Rushkoff on the Economy.
"So Say We All"
Fantasy Meets Reality. The very best works of science fiction illuminate controversial current events and the intricacies of human nature. So, it's no surprise that the United Nations Public Information Department and the Sci Fi (SyFy?) Channel co-hosted a panel yesterday evening on "humanitarian concerns" at the UN, with the creators and actors of Battlestar Galactica -- a show which regularly explores those themes. A 2-hour video webcast is archived here. (RealPlayer video). Entertainment Weekly has an additional write-up. [more inside]
Flyer on the wall
Fly-Post —a community event site dedicated to the art and utility of the promotional flyer. Post flyers about your event, or search for flyers by location, event, or keyword. Browse by best designs, or the latest posts. It's in beta and serving only a few U.S. cities right now, but looks promising.
Video Games and The People Who Love Them
A Life Well Wasted is a new podcast about video games and the people who love them, created by freelance writer Robert Ashley. [more inside]
The Sins of your Fathers
Familial genetic profiling of law enforcement DNA databases has already been used to succesfully establish both guilt and innocence. Legal and moral questions on these expanded techniques abound and are comprehensively explored by a speaker at a recent FBI symposium on the topic. In the author's words, scenarios previously limited to movies like Minority Report are unfolding quietly, before most of us have thought about the consequences. (Via)
You gotta take the good with the bad, I guess.
21 years after a crippling motorcycle accident, a paraplegic man is miraculously cured by a spider bite, then promptly gets arrested.
Dora Grows Up.
Dora Grows Up. Nickelodeon and Mattel have introduced a whole new look for beloved cartoon Dora the Explorer. But the new look has people asking, Is Dora too sexy? Nick and Mattel try to smooth things over.
Quick, Robin! To the batosphere!
NASA Interim Problem Report 119V-0080: The bat that went up with the Space Shuttle Discovery.
A journey through the postal service
SpyBox A digital camera inside a parcel looks out through a small hole and captures images of its journey through the postal system. (via) Separately, the pinhole parcel project sent pinhole cameras through the regular postal service, and along the way they recorded their journey on the photographic negative, “creating highly unpredictable, abstract imagery.”
Shame of the Survivors
In 1996, sixteen children and one adult died in Dublane, Scotland after Thomas Hamilton walked into a school armed with four handguns. In 2009, journalist Paula Murray tracked down and befriended several of the survivors on Facebook, waited until they turned eighteen, and then wrote this article for the Sunday Express. [more inside]
CEO Air Travel Guide
JetBlue's timely introduction to commercial air travel for CEOs only (no minions, lackeys, or "regular" people allowed). Chapter 1, chapter2 and chapter 3.
Don't try this at home kids.
Things that go boom and flash and make pretty colors. DIY fireworks. From the the relatively benign Roman Candle to the fifty foot tall Cremora Fireball. (via Neatorama) previous explosive goodies: Pyroboy, Crump and pyro page
YouTube embeds considered illegal in Latvia
Latvian copyright agency in Latvia wrote emails to over 500 local bloggers asking them to pay copyright fees for embedded YouTube videos (so far only one english post). Even more - in an interview spokesperson announced, that in Latvia YouTube is, in fact, operating illegally. If you dare to translate with google, more information can be found in latvian.
Atomic explosions causing evolutionary changes? I'm in.
Can't wait till Friday Flash Fun: Atomic Kaos 2 Orbits is a puzzle-ish game where you are trying to remove all the atoms from the playing field through a chain of explosions.
1,000 Songs Your Must Hear
Those of Love(+), those of Sex(+), those of Hearbreak(+), those of People and Places (+), those of Politics and Protest (+). The Guardian's journalists purloin you with "1,000 Songs You Must Hear". The plus links lead to people's outraged suggestions of those that are missing from each category. Perfect for when 10, 100, 500 or 3,000 are just the wrong numbers.
Drink some delicious Placenta Blue!
Clearly you are not yet beautiful enough. Not to worry, there's help from Japan & Kyrgystan: Placenta 30,000 contains 30,000 mg of 100% undiluted horse-origin placenta. [more inside]
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