May 4, 2012
Cor!
The idea of hiding behind a secret identity was something I found terribly attractive.
A very long interview with screenwriter Lem Dobbs. Single link to text on a page but it's a wonderful interview and those who love film, culture, the arts... will dig it I think.
You think you have it tough? I have no money, in fact, I have minus money.
Share a Story collects powerful personal stories from around the world. Some are inspiring, such as the story of a young woman with fibromyalgia, others are just intense such as a knife robbery in the streets of Dublin. [more inside]
Book Spine Poetry
Book Spine Poetry is poetry made from the words on the spines of books.
Non-Glacial Glacier Videos
The Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska moves less than a foot a day, but thanks to Extreme Ice Survey you can now watch three years of movement happen in just over a minute complete with a glacier expert explaining what you're seeing. You can also watch giant glacier pieces break into the water and many other non-glacial glacier videos. Finally, some info to make you more of a glacier expert yourself.
Treasure Type D(ave)
D&D co-creator Dave Arneson's lost personal collection of gaming material -- 114 boxes worth -- was found last year in an abandoned storage locker. Fortunate for geeks everywhere, everything was not just tossed into a dumpster. The collection is now scheduled to be auctioned off on eBay. (previously)
the unspeakable, in ink on post-its
What if Edward Gorey illustrated Lovecraft? It'd look like John Kenn Mortensen's work, that's what. Except Mortensen makes his art in his spare time, on post-it notes. He has an art book.
type connection
Type Connection is a game that helps you learn how to pair typefaces.
The Sea Shadow goes quietly into the night
The Sea Shadow is a prototype stealth ship built thirty years ago for the US Navy, and the only ship ever designed by the Lockheed Skunk Works. Like its airborne cousin, the F-117 Nighthawk, it is nearly invisible to radar. It is extremely stable in high seas, has no conventional rudder, and requires a minimum crew of only four to operate.
Despite the successful field trials and futuristic technology, the Navy passed on the program and the boat sat largely unused. At 5PM central time, the auction ends that will send the Sea Shadow to the scrapyard. Pictures will soon be all that is left, but check out this extensive virtual tour. [more inside]
Despite the successful field trials and futuristic technology, the Navy passed on the program and the boat sat largely unused. At 5PM central time, the auction ends that will send the Sea Shadow to the scrapyard. Pictures will soon be all that is left, but check out this extensive virtual tour. [more inside]
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy
RC Helicopter Kung Fu (Warning! Very silly music!)
Peasant culture and Russian folklore in Soviet animation.
Peasant culture and Russian folklore in Soviet animation (~400 minutes whereof): Soviet animation abounds in fantasies about the natural, wholesome lives of honorable, strong-willed Russian peasants and folk heroes and their struggles against villainy and adversity.
Decorated with splendid folk art motifs that verge on horror vacui, these cel-animated cartoons are excellent aids for learning about (popular conceptions of) Russian folk material culture: decoration, architecture, dress, weaponry, textiles, domestic culture, manners, and so on. [more inside]
This is your war on drugs.
On April 20, Daniel Chong went to get high at his friend's place. Next morning the DEA raided the house. Chong was detained and placed in a 5x10' holding cell. He was left there with his hands cuffed behind his back for four days without food, water or human contact. He hallucinated, drank his own urine, and eventually, convinced he was going to die, he broke his eyeglasses and carved 'Sorry Mom' on his arm as a final message. When he was final released he was taken to hospital where he was treated for kidney failure, dehydration and a perforated esophagus. The DEA says it was an accident. NYT, AP, interview, interview.
How do you draw schadenfreude?
The Popularity of Draw Something crashes, just few weeks after being purchased by purchased by Zynga for $200 million, leading to one acrimonious resignation of a developer who didn't want to give up the rights to his personal project, a game called puzzle game called Connectrode (The ensuing twitter fight resulted in a callout of OMGPOP's CEO by Notch. This on the heals of Angry Birds maker Rovio turning down $2.25 billion to get bought out by them. ZNGA is down 43% since march 5th, and 12.3% since its IPO in December.
Kubrick Cats
Despite his austere public image, director Stanley Kubrick was an avid lover of cats. He owned many cats and often brought them on set or into the editing room, where they were fed Evian water in Spode china bowls. Treating his pets with the same attention to detail that was his trademark as a director, Kubrick once handed his family 15 pages of instructions on how to care for his cats while he was away. [more inside]
popcorn & hawaiian snack noms
Did you know popcorn may be the perfect healthy snack food? Probably not so much once you pile on the toppings! If you'd like to try a uniquely Hawaiian snack (are you adventurous enough for crack seed?) then popcorn meets Hawaii in hurricane popcorn: a mix of buttered popcorn, furikake, and arare ("mochi crunch" - a rice cracker mix). (This re-invented version includes corn pops, dried pineapple, and bacon).
RIP MCA
Cats and peacock
Women's lib... in space!
Star Maidens was an obscure and pretty much forgotten British/German low budget (they borrowed sets from Space 1999 ) science fiction televsion series from 1975... On the planet Medusa where the women (naturally all hot) rule over the men, two of the later inferior species escape (including Gareth 'Blake' Thomas!) to the 'paradise' of Earth [more inside]
What's Black and White and Really Clumsy?
Pandas on a Slide: 46 seconds of happiness. [SLYT]
London2012 Paralympics Commercial
A new commercial for the 2012 Paralympics, done in one continuous take without special effects, is "atmospheric, powerful and hugely inspirational, exploring one runner’s journey back to the track." (via)
No booze sold out here, too dangerous ... No bathrooms, either.
"The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" - Noted as one of Hunter S. Thompson's finest pieces of writing, it has recently been given the Paris Records treatment with a new album of Bill Frisell music, Hal Willner production, Tim Robbins as HST, and Ralph Steadman performing as himself.
(Recent interview with Paris Records owner Michael Minzer)
PHOTON PUSH-PULL RADIATION DETECTOR FOR USE IN CHROMATICALLY SELECTIVE CAT FLAP CONTROL AND 1000 MEGATON EARTH-ORBITAL PEACE-KEEPING BOMB
PHOTON PUSH-PULL RADIATION DETECTOR FOR USE IN CHROMATICALLY SELECTIVE CAT FLAP CONTROL AND 1000 MEGATON EARTH-ORBITAL PEACE-KEEPING BOMB by prolific inventor Arthur Paul Pedrick [more inside]
More People + More Stuff = More Problems
"The world now has a very clear choice. We can choose to address the twin issues of population and consumption... Or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward vortex of economic, socio-political and environmental ills, leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future." Sir John Sulston, Royal Society Fellow on the Society's recent report "People and the planet". [more inside]
WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing
WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing covered a range of cultural issues and was widely known for its innovative use of graphic art. Started as a simple one-man operation that included artwork and text solicited from friends and acquaintances, the production, team, and circulation of the magazine would grow over the years. Its content also evolved to cover a wider expanse of stories that captured a smart and artsy Los Angeles attitude that was emerging at the same time as punk, but with its own distinct aesthetic. The magazine’s energetic creativity and flair for the absurd would remain a constant. As design problems arose, solutions were often improvised on the spot, creating a quirky and prescient editorial sensibility that remains one of WET's most enduring legacies. Its layout and design helped to catalyze the graphic styles (NSFW) later known as New Wave and Postmodern.
Heartless Machines
Christopher Locke makes Analog Tele-Phonographers out of salvaged brass intruments and machine parts. It all began with the The Zurich (video)... [more inside]
37 ways to procrastinate but tell yourself you are working
You *must* be able to use your mobile phone while driving
Foreal?
Data trove reveals scope of law schools' hiring of their own graduates
A report by the ABA shows that some law schools hire as many as 15% of new graduates in an effort to boost employment numbers.
How should I know what I'll be, I who don't know what I am? / Be what I think? But I think of being so many things!
Countless lives inhabit us.
I don’t know, when I think or feel,
Who it is that thinks or feels.
I am merely the place
Where things are thought or felt. [more inside]
I don’t know, when I think or feel,
Who it is that thinks or feels.
I am merely the place
Where things are thought or felt. [more inside]
I am Hellene
A little while ago a video by a young Greek actress appeared on the web, attempting to hit back at the blame and recriminations her country has suffered in the debt crisis. The video (which follows the style of a beer commercial) created all sorts of reactions in Greece, with some people responding with their own videos. Here is one, and here is another. There are more, but these have become quite popular. Enjoy!
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