September 10, 2013
This is rule 34 for someone, right?
Hot Pepper Game Reviews is a youtube channel wherein the participants eat a hot pepper before reviewing a video game.
Have You Heard The Word
“Have You Heard The Word” used to appear—frequently—on Beatles bootlegs as a ‘long lost’ Beatles recording. In fact the song was recorded by Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb, who, along with some Aussie mates, gathered round the studio mics and recorded, apparently, a single take of the song, featuring Gibb's rather convincing John Lennon impersonation.
Quid Novi? and A Refill, Please
London’s coffee craze began in 1652 when Pasqua Rosée, the Greek servant of a coffee-loving British Levant merchant, opened London’s first coffeehouse (or rather, coffee shack) against the stone wall of St Michael’s churchyard in a labyrinth of alleys off Cornhill. Coffee was a smash hit; within a couple of years, Pasqua was selling over 600 dishes of coffee a day to the horror of the local tavern keepers. For anyone who’s ever tried seventeenth-century style coffee, this can come as something of a shock — unless, that is, you like your brew “black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love”, as an old Turkish proverb recommends, and shot through with grit.
Bigger than a breadboard
Phonebloks suggests a different way for dealing with obsolescent hardware, through modular design on a common base
What's Her Face... and staple sauce... a heaping bowl of staple sauce.
TEEN GIRL SQUAD! Cheerleader! So-and-So! What's Her Face! The Ugly One! Exchanging Decemberween presents! Fondly recalling kindergarten! Battling it out with the bands! Coping with grievous tragedy! In twenty-four great-smelling colors! Off to camp! Valentime's! Sitting on the babies! Exempting those exams! Attending Teen Girl Prom! Meanwhile, Sci-Fi Greg, DnD Greg, Open Source Greg, and Japanese Culture Greg step into the Apple Store robotic dragon's lair...
Central Park: the resort of rapscalians?
The story of Frederick Law Olmsted's 'Greensward Plan' for New York's Central Park. "From the NASA space shuttle, Central Park is visible to the naked eye as a bright emerald bar on the fat knuckle of Manhattan... If an astronaut were to plunge by re-entry capsule into the heart of the park, she could never be more than around 400 metres from the urban roar of a city of more than 8 million people densely packed. And yet, wandering the labyrinthine paths of the Ramble, surrounded by thick woodland, rocky headlands, rivulets and little stone bridges that cross ravines, she would neither hear nor see the metropolis. This is a miracle."
Charter of Quebec values to ban religious symbols for public workers
Today the government of the Canadian province of Quebec released its proposed charter of Quebec values. “The minister in charge of the charter, Bernard Drainville, announced … that if the charter were adopted by the legislature, the wearing of kippas, turbans, burkas, hijabs and "large" crosses would be banned for civil servants while they are on the job.” (Images of acceptable and unacceptable religious symbols) The Canadian federal government indicated that it would “challenge any law that [it] deem[s] unconstitutional.”
The Difference between Bluegrass, Old Time and Celtic bands.
With Climate Journalism Like This, Who Needs Fiction?
"This Was Not A Show In Which Good Things Happened"
In the summer of 2000, the top executives in charge of the basic-cable network FX—which was mostly known for showing reruns of The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer—were eager to make a change. They believed that in order to be relevant, they needed to present audiences with an original, prime time scripted drama that would be so provocative it would completely alter the way the network was perceived. Good Cop, Bad Cop: An Oral History of The Shield
Donut charts are mostly for decoration, right?
WTF Visualizations is a collection of charts and graphs that make no sense.
Why settle for boring old bar charts and pie charts when you can use Percentacles, Timecentages, Interferograms, the Donut Ring Explosion or whatever this is?
A Radical New Vision of the Internet!
John Wooley's leaked Market Research Report tackles the complex pros and "Cons" of Internet Neutrality.
Enable your sarcasm settings for this hilarious mockumentary that explores why free and open internet is a win-win scenario for business and the humans that create them.
"Dr. McCoy picked up his rook and plunked it down again..."
Thanks for helping me to deceive the world
If you're one of the 9 million or so inhabitants of Planet Earth who watched this video last week and laughed out loud at the spectacle of a girl whose sexy "twerking" home video turns into an epic fiery disaster, then the joke's on you, courtesy of now undisputed prank-champion Jimmy Kimmel.
Introducing America's least likely political prisoner
"Brown has been called many things during his brief public career – satirist, journalist, author, Anonymous spokesman, atheist, "moral fag," "fame whore," scourge of the national surveillance state." From Rolling Stone, the story of Barrett Brown, the public face of Anonymous.
Ferguson's formula
Before retiring in May 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson spent 26 seasons as the manager of Manchester United, the English football (soccer) club that ranks among the most successful and valuable franchises in sports. During that time the club won 13 English league titles along with 25 other domestic and international trophies—giving him an overall haul nearly double that of the next-most-successful English club manager.
In 2012 Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse had a unique opportunity to examine Ferguson’s management approach and developed an HBS case study around it. Now she and Ferguson have collaborated on an analysis of his enormously successful methods.
Against the Cult of Busy
You may succeed at work, but will you succeed at life? The rabbi of Toronto's City Shul, Elyse Goldstein, reacts against the "cult of busy" and the addictive quality of busyness for busyness's sake.
The Kommandant's Daughter
"Brigitte Höss lives quietly on a leafy side street in Northern Virginia. She is retired now, having worked in a Washington fashion salon for more than 30 years. She recently was diagnosed with cancer and spends much of her days dealing with the medical consequences. Brigitte also has a secret that not even her grandchildren know. Her father was Rudolf Höss, the Kommandant of Auschwitz." [more inside]
RETROREPORT - The truth now about the big stories then
How often does a great story dominate the headlines, only to be dropped from the news cycle? How often do journalists tell us of a looming danger or important discovery – only to move quickly to the next new thing? What really happened? How did these events change us? And what are the lingering consequences that may affect our society to this day? These are the questions we are answering at Retro Report, an innovative documentary news organization launched in 2013 as a timely online counterweight to today’s 24/7 news cycle. Combining documentary techniques with shoe-leather reporting, we peel back the layers of some of the most perplexing news stories of our past with the goal of encouraging the public to think more critically about current events and the media in ~10 minute segments. [more inside]
Commie American Football
Manifesto: People’s Union of American College Football: Make American Football Strong Like Bull, Smart Like Tractor. Under former capitalist system, American college football very unfair. Only few teams is climbing to top of heap, and is making all the money, especially more dollars on the television contract. Best, powerful teams is playing cupcake opponent, then flying across country to form conference alliance with faraway team, while also ignoring strong opponent right over next hill. People’s Union of American College Football is creating much better system. Each team is playing best quality opponents throughout season. Each team is being organized by geography, and must fight way out of home District to qualify for national playoff. Champion is last team standing, and is TRUE champion over all other teams in whole country.
60 years in 5 minutes
"And then one day you find ten years have got behind you..." It's a long slow five minutes, and you don't even know it's happening, but it is. Slowly but surely, the inevitable march of aging happens before your very eyes. Don't skip ahead, just let it unfold.
Intangible Concepts To A Blind Person
Tommy Edison, who has been blind since birth, explains his perception of things that are intangible including the sun, sky, fog, Great Wall of China, Grand Canyon, and space. [slyt | via]
Oh no, I'm late for school!
Beg Waves (video) > G Shock > 7 Souls (in a laundromat) > Celebrate The Body Electric (It Came From An Angel) (video) > Late For School (in a laundromat) > Sky Drool > Small Wevs > Die Allman Bruder (in a laundromat) [more inside]
Greener grasses fade from where you wind up.
An Oral History Of The Wrens’ The Meadowlands The Meadowlands is ten years old today.
The Maleos of Indonesia, birds that can fly from the day they hatch
Megapode, Greek for "large foot," refers to refers to 12 species of Australasian chickenlike birds (order Galliformes), which have small heads compared to their bodies, and large feet. They are also known as Mound Builders, or Incubator Birds, as they bury their eggs in some warm material, most commonly fermenting or decomposing plant matter. But on Sulawesi island in Indonesia, Maleos bury their eggs in sun-baked or volcanically heated sands, then depart. The young hatch from their large eggs (5 times the size of chicken eggs), then dig out of their sandy incubators and walk or fly away. If you can't make it to Indonesia to see the birds in person, you can also visit the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo to see their 9 Maleos, or check out their video about Maleos and the zoo's breeding program. [more inside]
Paraíso - a short film about window washing
From today's NYTimes Op Ed, a short documentary about brothers, Sergio Polanco and Jaime Polanco, and their cousin, Cruz Guzman working 50+ stories above the ground. [more inside]
Dumpsters Full of Books
Hearing complaints that the Fairfax County Public Library was throwing away tons of books, County Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth (D-Providence) decided to peer into a Dumpster.
Twice, she found stacks and stacks of high-quality books, bought by the taxpayers, piled in the trash. The second time, she filled a box.
The discarded books have opened a broader discussion about the library’s long-term plan, which would eliminate the requirement for fully trained librarians, reduce branch staff and cut the amount of time children’s librarians spend helping families inside their libraries. [more inside]
A sine of the times
The Movie Math Quiz: Can you figure out which movies are being described by these mathematical equations?
No, No Gadget?
Have We Reached Gadget Fatigue? — Smartphones are everywhere, and smartwatches are poised to follow. Techies are eying Google Glass. And we now wear our technology on our sleeve. Have we finally reached gadget overload? From CIO, September 5, 2013.
Visual Basic? Seriously.
To my daughter's high school programming teacher: "I spent 16 years raising a daughter who had all the tools and encouragement she needed to explore computer programming as a career. In one short semester, you and her classmates undid all of my years of encouragement."
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