September 27, 2011
C is still for Cookie, and that's good enough for me
Science! (autoplaying video) The 42nd season of "Sesame Street," which premiered today, will be including a few new educational categories for preschoolers in its usual mix of lessons and parodies: STEM skills — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. In addition to more scientifically accurate slapstick, characters will try experiments, build bridges and boats, launch rockets and think through problems that require trial and error, observation and data -- all problem areas for America's students. [more inside]
All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy
Stephen King has confirmed he is working on a sequel to The Shining called Doctor Sleep. He discussed the book and read excerpts at George Mason University. The book features a new grown up Danny Torrance working as a hospital orderly, fighting vampires pirates, and using his powers to bet on horse races (which sounds familiar). Fans of Kubrick's film adaptation (which do not include King) were treated to a tribute in a recent Doctor Who episode that recreated a few rooms and corridors from the Overlook Hotel.
The Benny Hill Show
Thanks to his work in television, especially The Benny Hill Show, Benny Hill is the most universally recognised of British comedians. [more inside]
Saga Saga
Dr. Emily Lethbridge of Cambridge University is on a year-long research trip to document the settings of Icelandic Sagas. The short documentary Memories of Old Awake beautifully captures those dramatic landscapes, and you can read more about her research on her blog The Saga-Steads of Iceland: A Twenty-First Century Pilgrimage. (via) (previously)
Thunder, thunder, thundercats LOL!
Thunderlolcats (slty)
The first Social Media Strategy meeting
Don Draper invents Facebook. The video pulls from Mad Men‘s “The Wheel” episode — in which Draper conceives an ad campaign for the Kodak Carousel — and applies its dialogue to the Facebook Timeline. It was created by Eric Leist, a technology strategist with Allen & Gerritsen.
American Juggalo
American Juggalo is a look at the often mocked and misunderstood subculture of Juggalos, hardcore Insane Clown Posse fans who meet once a year for four days at The Gathering of the Juggalos.
Don't panic
Over the summer, NPR solicited the input of its listeners to rank the top science fiction and fantasy books of all time. Over 60,000 people voted for the top picks which were then compiled into a list by their panel of experts. The result? This list of 100 books with a wide range of styles, little context, and absolutely no pithy commentary to help readers actually choose something to read from it. SF Signal comes to the rescue with this handy flowchart.
!$#@ing Margins – How Do They Work?
The hacker group Anonymous has ventured into new territory today with the launch of Anonymous Analytics, a site specifically targeted at corporate fraud. Their first report [PDF] is a caustic, entertaining evisceration of Chaoda, a Hong Kong agricultural company which has seen a wave of smaller scandals over the past year. Their stock is not looking good [more inside]
(spoiler)He actually doesn't (/spoiler)
Slacker comedy/cosmic horror oddity John Dies At The End is being filmed by Don Coscarelli. And there's a trailer. So in a weirder turn of events than anything in the (already deeply weird) book it might actually happen. [more inside]
Flick Chicks
How come you ain't never liked me?
The Question Isn't Where or When, but WTF?
Last week's season premire of Community featured a bumper crop of pop-culture parodies, including a Glee-style opening number, a 2001 homage (with excellent use of Old Chevy Chase) and most significantly, the Instant Meme of a 22-second take-off of Doctor Who*. In the few days since, the intersection of Community fans and Who fans have been reverse-engineering the 49 year run of "Inspector Spacetime" with a forum board, a TV Tropes page, and, of course, a tumblr.
* overshadowing the addition to the show's cast and college's faculty of John Goodman and Michael K. "Omar Little" Williams. [more inside]
* overshadowing the addition to the show's cast and college's faculty of John Goodman and Michael K. "Omar Little" Williams. [more inside]
The Top 10 Books Lost to Time
Smithsonian.com lists the top 10 books lost to time.
$1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = $14?
Blind Man vs. Paper Money - the Blind Film Critic demonstrates the problems of using (American) paper money. Unsurprisingly, just getting cash out of an ATM poses its own problem. [more inside]
Understanding tropical rainforest biodiversity with treefrogs and ecological history
Lush climates alone do not account for the vast biodiversity in tropical rainforests. Research on treefrogs from around the world, covering 123 sites and gathering DNA sequence data for 360 species of treefrogs, has provided a new understanding of biodiversity in tropical rainforests: some groups of treefrogs have existed together in the Amazon Basin for more than 60 million years. A more recent publication supports this finding, noting that forests in Canada and Europe may have much more in common with tropical rainforests than previously believed, but tropical forests have not been subjected to glaciations and mass extinctions, allowing for much greater biodiversity.
You have been watching...
RIP David Croft, writer / producer of some of Britain's most well known and loved sitcoms including Dad's Army, Are You Being Served?, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi! and 'Allo 'Allo!
It's not dead yet!
The first scientific diving expedition in the Dead Sea has found freshwater springs on the seafloor, along with carpets of micro-organisms. The saltiest body of water on Earth is still dropping three feet every year.
Oligopolypse Now
Even after the Justice Department announced attempts to block AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile, many see a heightened chance of it going through if T-Mobile is weakened. AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile have hired a bunch of former U.S. government officials to try to complete the deal, with Verizon's CEO cheering them on. Yesterday, T-Mobile's CMO Cole Broadman seems to have just blogged a major upcoming weakness - no iPhone 5. Sprint opposes the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, and is tying its fate to being the sole iPhone 5 carrier with unlimited data. Today Apple sent invites out for an event this coming Tuesday where the details of the next iPhone are set to be revealed.
Who's afraid of the seven times table?
Who's Afraid of the Seven Times Table? Ernst Kummer, one of the great mathematicians of the late 1800s, was hopeless at arithmetic. He was giving an advanced maths lecture and in the middle of a complicated calculation he needed to know what six times seven was. “Um ... six times seven is ... six times seven . . .” A student put up his hand: “41, Professor.” Kummer chalked 41 on the blackboard. “No, no, Professor!” shouted another. “It’s 44!” Kummer gave the students a quizzical look. “Come, come, gentlemen. It can’t be both. It must be either one or the other!” [more inside]
Documentary mistakes videogame footage for genuine terrorist footage
Last night, British ITV broadcasted "Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA", a documentary which included this 1988 Provisional IRA footage the filmmakers found on YouTube. Unfortunately, the footage is actually and blatently from videogame ArmA 2. ITV has stopped streaming the documentary.
The Growing American Fertility Divide
So It's OK If I Stone My Kids?
A couple of Jehovah’s Witness' knocked on the door of secular parenting advocate Dale McGowan. What happened next is both funny and instructive, without being disrespectful or confrontational.
Part 1
Part 2
Dana Gould plays the Larry King game on "Kevin Pollak's Chat Show"
What came next was 8 minutes of comic brilliance. On Kevin Pollack's Chat Show guests are invited to do a bad impression of Larry King reveling something embarrassing about himself. Many are very funny, but Gould's amazing comic riff should go down in comedy history. Keep an eye on Kevin as he nearly faints from hilarity.
Mmmmm, delicious.
The new Delicious launched yesterday, after being sold off by Yahoo to AVOS, the guys that founded Youtube. New with the relaunch are stacks, or curated themed lists of links. Previously.
Raise Your Glass!
"Diane, I’m holding in my hand an Atari game program called Black Lodge"
"A day in the FBI was never like this before! You are Special Agent Dale Cooper and you’ve found yourself trapped inside of the Black Lodge, a surreal and dangerous place between worlds." Black Lodge is an Atari 2600-style action game for PC and Mac, created by Jak Locke as a love letter to both retro gaming and Twin Peaks. [more inside]
this is indeed a disturbing universe
Quis custodiet ipsos custOWWW DON'T TAZE ME BRO
A shockingly frank appraisal from MSNBC of the unprovoked police attacks at the recent 'Occupy Wall Street' protest actions. [more inside]
A silver lining.
Gairsoppa SS was a British Cargo Steamer of 5,237 tons built by Palmers, Hebburn, England for MOWT as the WAR ROEBUCK SS but completed as the GAIRSOPPA SS for the British India SN Co.
On the 16th February 1941 she was torpedoed by German submarine U-101 and sunk.
A lifeboat carrying the survivors travelled 13 days from the wreck off S. Ireland and came ashore in a battered condition at Caethillian Cove at The Lizard which is the most southerly point of England. Only one survivor, 2nd. Officer Robert Ayres, was to survive this final assault although 4 persons had been alive at the approach to the cove. [more inside]
Mighty fallen
Security camera footage shows the Washington Monument shaking during the recent earthquake. [more inside]
Logging out of Facebook is not enough
Logging out of Facebook is not enough - Nik Cubrilovic demonstrates how, even after logging out, Facebook tracks every page you visit on sites that integrate Facebook services [via]
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