June 19, 2012
Batmanologist Kevin Smith
Fatman on Batman, Kevin Smith's new podcast on all things Batman, so far featuring excellent interviews with Batman: The Animated Series alumni Paul Dini and Mark Hamill. (WARNING: Contains Kevin Smith. But he is knowlegable about the subject, asks goods questions and shuts up and listens to the answers. Yes I am as suprised as you are. Also you probably want to mash forwards hard for the ads at the begining. Also maybe some stuff at the end of his conversation with Paul Dini... shudder. And dear god! That picture! What the hell? Is he... is he? I don't want to think about it. But seriously, very good.)
Defensive Architecture
As you walk through today's urban environment, observe public benches, walls, handrails, and any constructed inclines. You may notice various bolted on elements, extraneous steel installations, etc. One analysis deems this "defensive architecture," in a thoughtful piece that touches on thinkers, such as Michel de Certeau, Foucault, and the works of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. [more inside]
In 2010 you loved "Valentine's Day"...In 2011 you were enchanted by "New Year's Eve"...In 2012 you'll adore
Game of Thrones: The Rom-com (SLYT trailer, NSFW) Game of Thrones: The Rom-com. Because winter isn't coming soon enough.
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Rendered from simple html and css, it is the very likeness of the thing itself
They would say, 'We don't care what happened with your son, you have to pay us'.
A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling. Now, he's suffering a Kafkaesque ordeal in which he's hounded to repay loans that funded an education his son will never get to use — loans that he has little hope of ever paying off. Despite the help of a lawyer, Reynoso has not been able to determine exactly how much he owes, or even what company holds his loans.
The Tampons Are Back
Not only are OB tampons back in stores but OB would like to apologize to everyone for their temporary absence. Personally. Link to video, does not autoplay. [more inside]
Jonah Lehrer's self-borrowing
Jonah Lehrer repeats himself in his articles for popular publications. Laura Hazard Owen argues that, unlike in public speeches, where writers often recycle material, the expectations of writing for paid publication are different.
Perfect onion selection, it's like you're a surgeon in there
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing!
See something, send something
The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority has released MBTA See Say [iTunes link], a free iPhone/Android app that allows riders to "send the MBTA Transit Police pictures, text messages, and locations of unattended packages or suspicious activity" [link to MBTA apps page]. The camera's flash is disabled when a photograph is taken within the app. According to ELERTS, who built the app for the MBTA, "the opportunity to crowdsource information from riders who witness suspicious or criminal activities has not been realized by transit systems." The MBTA, which is the fifth largest transit system in the United States, is the first system to adopt this technology.
I'll See Your Wong Fei Hong and Raise You a One Armed Swordsman
Rumored to be the son of a former warlord as well as gay, Chang Cheh was definatly one of the undisputed masters and architects of modern martial arts cinema. He began his career in film as a writer and eventually began directing for the iconic Shaw Brothers Studio. Heavily influenced by the technically superior samurai movies coming out of Japan at the time, he had his first international blockbuster in 1969 with The One Armed Swordsman starring former swimming champion Jimmy Wang Yu. From there, he would go on to direct literally dozens of classic (and some not so classic) kung fu flicks with a signature style that even the most casual fan of martial arts would recognize. [more inside]
Opinions were like kittens I was giving them away
Modest Mouse: The Lonesome Crowded West. A documentary about the recording of Modest Mouse's masterpiece. [more inside]
4.5 Hours and 244 layers later
A 7 minute timelapse video showing how graphic designer Alexander Koshelkov put together this image of a plane crash using photos from other sources. (Action starts around 40 seconds in. via)
Blockly
I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Adam Sandler's House of Cruelty Now in his forties, Sandler is still remaking the same undemanding goofball comedies he's been churning out since he was in his twenties, about crude, infantile characters who behave like crude, infantile characters who are much younger -- which is the essence of the have-it-both-ways regression that has been his career hallmark.
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Night Light
I'd like to buy the world a giant garbage patch in the ocean
Sodastream will ignore a cease-and-desist letter from Coca-Cola regarding a marketing campaign in South Africa (and ~20 other locations) referred to as "The Cage."
The Big Train
"The Big Train" and other classic 1950s and 60s publicity reels from the New York Central Railroad. Lots of footage of trains, railroad infrastructure, well-dressed office minions, teletypes, punchcard machines, men in white lab coats, bubbling beakers, and even an "atomic signal light." [more inside]
"On an unrelated note, this is also a great way to train your cat not to pee on the rug."
Cosmo's 44 most ridiculous sex tips: Ben Reininga, who writes "Ridiculous Tips for a Miserable Sex Life" (a monthly round-up of bad advice from Men's Health, Maxim, etc. - previously) focuses this month on Cosmopolitan magazine. Can you tell real Cosmo sex advice from fake? More from The Frisky (here & here); Cracked (here & here); Persephone (here & here); the Pervocracy's Cosmocking; and Glossed Over's posts tagged "Cosmopolitan". All links probably NSFWish. (previously: working as a fact checker for Cosmopolitan - link here)
Linus Torvalds on working with NVIDIA
♫ Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Baaaacck...
In the Flash game Zombotron, zombos got tronned. In Zombotron II, Zombotron gets Zombotronner amidst new enemies and predicaments.
"The silence of the world, like a quotation, is suddenly endowed with an oppressive eloquence."
Silent World is a neat photography-video project in which a neutral density filter is used to remove most of the people from some of the busiest cities in the world. [more inside]
Bieber de novo
Evolution of music by public choice. Results are out from the DarwinTunes experiment (previously) - a Darwinian music engine working with mutating short audio loops that underwent evolutionary selection for 2,513 generations under the influence of thousands of listeners. Article in the Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. You can participate at the DarwinTunes web site.
Drones are here, many more are coming and there’s no going back.
Al Jazeera: 'US admits ops in Yemen and Somalia: White House formally acknowledges "direct action", believed to mean drone strikes, against al-Qaeda and its affiliates.' [more inside]
Dada Da Dada Da Dum
Professional writers may scoff, / But limericks? Never enough! / Let crummy-dot-com / Fill your needs with aplomb / (The meter's occasionally off) [more inside]
Keep Clam and Carry On
"A single pair of these gleaming mollusks sold at a Puget Sound dock could pay for an upscale Seattle dinner for two. A half-dozen sold in a Hong Kong grocery could fetch nearly enough cash to make a four-figure mortgage payment. Three milk crates of these shellfish purchased at a Shanghai restaurant could pay for a year of undergraduate tuition at the University of Washington." The Seattle Times investigates undocumented clams, and Business Week explores the impact on Native Americans. [more inside]
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