July 19, 2010
Yes, it's what it sounds like.
Amanda Palmer releases Ukelelehead Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele. There will be a live webcast at Party On The Internet on July 20th, 6PM Eastern Time.
Read about the background of the album here.
badabadabadacraaassshhh!!
Alien Swarm: Valve's newest, freeest, game
If you don't mind installing Steam and are running a version of Windows, you can download and play Alien Swarm for free. It's a top-down shooter with four-player co-op of you and your friends against the aliens.
New Consumer Watchdog
Elizabeth Warren (previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) is being considered to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Other candidates: Michael S. Barr & Eugene I. Kimmelman.
Way Out West
Andy Hummel, original bassist in Big Star, died today at age 59, just four months after the death of Alex Chilton. [more inside]
Black back
Conrad Black has been granted bail. Some are saying that he might be free as early as this week, and that he might not end up back in jail again -- instead, being sentenced to time served. He gave up his Canadian citizenship in 2001 so that he could serve in the British House of Lords: where, oh where, will the poor guy live? Here he is either packing, or removing boxes that helped get him into trouble in the first place.
You’ll be pleased to note, it also makes it easier for you to dust.
"He's perfect...he looks just like...which he really does...he looks just like the character."
Yellow Face (Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5) is a short documentary (about 50 minutes) that broadly concerns the history of white actors portraying Asian characters in American cinema and, more specifically, reaction to the casting of M. Night Shyamalan's generally reviled recent film, The Last Airbender. (Previously.)
A lie told often enough becomes the truth
Police in Orlando, Florida, frustrated with an "epidemic" of false allegations of rape, threaten arrest for all future false reports. The problems of this Florida community reflect research that shows a disproportionately high rate of false accusations of rape relative to other crimes, though studies on the issue are far from uniform, and frequently the center of controversy. [more inside]
a shortfilm about cinema itself
Retratos Pintados
Retratos Pintados "Since the late 19th century through the 1990s, hand-painted photographic portraits were a common feature in homes in the rural areas of the northeastern Brazilian states. At a time when black-and-white photographs were not considered dramatic enough, the retratos pintados (“painted portraits”) glamorized and idealized their subjects. Black-and-white family photos were enlarged and painted, conferring status on members of the family and portraying them as icons or saints. Using oil washes and other techniques specific to the region, local artisans embellished clothing with pattern and color, smoothed wrinkles, added jewelry or resurrected deceased relatives, illustrating the fantasies and desires of their customers."
The Saturday Night Live Movie
"All three of the 'Appeal' segments make fun of those pre-movie trailers where celebrities used to ask you to donate money. It's a little shocking to see them using Christopher Reeve begging for money for medical research until you remember this was written years before his accident. Spooky. More celebrities interrupt Chris, arguing over what the point of the Walter Sternberg Foundation is, all of them asking for money, but none of them agreeing on why. Charlton Heston, Robert Vaughn, Clint Eastwood, Mary Tyler Moore, and others show up to argue. They return later to yell at the audience for not giving enough money, accusing them of not caring. Finally, in the third appeal, Chris Reeve just snaps and loses it, furious at the audience. 'I don't know what to say. Words cannot express my contempt for you people. You sit there stuffing your faces in your Reeboks and your Levis 501s. You don't care about the children. You just want to beat the crowd out of the parking lot at the end of the movie. Well, as far as I'm concerned, you can all go f*** yourselves.' Then for the rest of the film, Reeve just randomly shows up in the background of scenes, glaring at the audience with naked disgust." From the never-filmed The Saturday Night Live Movie, written in 1990 by Greg Daniels, James Downey, George Meyer, Tom Davis, Al Franken, Conan O’Brien, and Robert Smigel.
Red light for AZ traffic cameras
Arizona has turned off every speed camera on its highways after complaints that they violated privacy and were designed to generate revenue rather than promote road safety. The 76 cameras took 2.7 million photographs, but only 16 per cent of drivers who received a speeding ticket paid up. [more inside]
The Ace of something completely different
In 1940 several Surrealists were biding their time in a Villa near Marseille awaiting their Visa’s to escape from the oncoming Nazis.
One way to while away the time was to play the Le Jeu de Marseilles with cards they had made themselves while waiting.
The Internet Accuracy Project
The Internet Accuracy Project. You may have stumbled on it in a casual search about postal holidays, been drawn in by the charming prose and vintage web design, and stayed to browse the eclectic contents, from plant hardiness zones (USA) to unusual town names. There are also extensive and ostensibly fact-checked celebrity biographies, which are beloved by some astrologists. While the lack of specific references in individual entries may raise eyebrows, there's an extensive defense of the Project's sources and methods. [Yes, I read the Internet Accuracy Project Linking Terms & Conditions.]
Why Online Dating Is So Unsatisfying
Sit, Ubu, Sit! Good Dog. (woof!)
[Single-Link YouTube] Startling Production Logos from the 1970's and 1980's.
La Jaconde
mad as hell
Fracking cattle (cylon cattle?)
Fracking cattle Mark Bittman, foodie and (accidental) BSG punster.
Every Doctor Who Villain Since 1963
Tom Humberstone
Tom Humberstone has finished his 100 days of drawing a comic each day. Humberstone, who won an Eagle Award for his How to Date a Girl in Ten Days, offers his debut comic, Art School Scum as a free download. He also has a number of other free comics on his site, including a couple for the 69 Love Songs, Illustrated project. [Humberstone's comic about living with Crohn's Disease has been posted previously to MeFi]
WGBH Forum Network
You know about TED, but do you know about the WGBH Forum Network? A project of the venerable Boston public TV station, the Forum is a web platform which aggregates lectures from cultural institutions, museums, libraries, bookstores, and colleges across the US - everything from current research in social science and hard science to author and poet talks. Presentations vary in topic, length, format, and level of eggheadiness, but if you love ideas, you'll find some good stuff here. Streams on demand, downloads often available if you register.
Scott Pilgrim - Volume 6 - Finest Hour released
The sixth and final Scott Pilgrim graphic novel, subtitled 'Finest Hour' is being released tonight. There is a block party in Toronto to celebrate this fact. While waiting for your copy to arrive or the party to start, why don't you... [more inside]
Natalie Merchant sings poetry
Natalie Merchant performs arrangements of 19th and early 20th century poetry at TED 2010 [more inside]
Cheat Sheets
All Cheat Sheets on One Page Cheat sheets for web designers, programmers, and people who just like cheat sheets.
sweet molly malone
Molly Malone may have been selling more than cockles and mussels out of that wheel barrow. The Guardian reports on a recently rediscovered bawdier version of the song from about 1790. Google Books has a version from 1816 that looks similar (p. 194).
Liebster Max, meine letzte Bitte
Dearest Max, my last request: everything that can be found in my posthumous papers (thus in boxes, cupboards, desks, at home and in the office, or wherever else they may be that you come upon them) of diaries, manuscripts, letters, my own and those written to me, sketches and so on, should be burned unread and without remnant, even all the written or drawn things that you or others have, that you might have asked for in my name. If there are letters that people will not turn over to you, at least they should promise to burn them themselves.”
The tangled webs we weave
Top Secret America: The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work. [more inside]
Ireland introduces Civil Partnership for gay couples
The President of Ireland signed a Civil Partnership Bill for gay couples this morning. The bill had earlier passed through the Dail (lower house of parliament) without opposition, and the Seanad (upper house) after a marathon 23 hour debate, though with only four votes against. The new law provides gay couples with most of the same rights and responsibilities as marriage - tax, social welfare, inheritance. However not everyone is happy about it.[YouTube]
Burn, Baby, Burn... but don't breathe in
Having a barbecue this summer? There are any number of safety initiatives to alert you to the dangers inherent in lighting one, but a lot less gets said about how to avoid exposing yourself to carcinogenic compounds. Help is at hand from the American Cancer Society, Younger Clearer Skin, David A. Fein MD from the Princeton Longevity Center and Boris Johnson [YouTube]. Kinda.
Swimming between continents
It's difficult to swim between most continents. But swimming between Asia and Europe is relatively easy, despite the ordeal of swimming the Mediterranean across the Bosporus, like Leander crossing the Hellespont.
Batteries and Sharks Not Included
Lasers 4, UAVs 0. It's easier to hit things at the speed of light. Raytheon tests a naval anti-aircraft laser, and you can watch it go at the link.
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