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from
mefi
Too pissed to drive?
("An interactive urinary experience - not to be mistaken with the Wii.") Those naughty but practical Germans have come up with a way to discourage men from driving drunk using a video game embedded in a urinal. I don't know how successful it's been in the real world, but it did win a silver
Clio award for
Innovative Use of Technology. If you don't plan to be in a Frankfurt bar any time soon, or if you lack the necessary
equipment to play, you can try the wee-free simulation
here.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 10:55 AM on May 19, 2008
(11 comments)
She
has made at least one indie music lover reconsider his antipathy for her music.
She may be partially responsible for Obama's recent electoral successes.
She is an international force for good. (For certain values of the word "good"). What else can you say?
Céline Dion is amazing!. (That last YouTube link has a bit of NSFW language. I can't tell you whether or not Céline herself is NSF anything around you. Your call.)
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 10:59 AM on January 7, 2008
(90 comments)
"I'm dead. That sucks, at least for me and my family and friends. But all the tears in the world aren't going to bring me back, so I would prefer that people remember the good things about me rather than mourning my loss. (If it turns out a specific number of tears will, in fact, bring me back to life, then by all means, break out the onions.)"
Blogger Andrew Olmsted was killed in Iraq yesterday. He had been guest-posting at Obsidian Wings as G'Kar. hilzoy of ObWi has cross-posted his final message
there as well.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 11:15 AM on January 4, 2008
(58 comments)
Frankie Valli is very old but he is not dead,
(MySpace, music plays on load) so you can keep those periods packed away. That first link showcases Pilooski's shockingly subtle and effective remix of Beggin', which should have been the radio hit of summer 2007, except for the small problem of not getting airplay in the States. You can compare different video treatments of the full song
here (cyriak's trippy animation),
here (pretty dancing people), and
here (Northern Soul slideshow). The original 1967 version of the song should still be available
here.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 10:06 AM on August 14, 2007
(22 comments)
Garbage + illumination = art?
Various artists carefully pile rubbish on a gallery floor, or meticulously assemble a collection of ordinary items, plug in a light source, and create incredibly detailed and surprising shadows on the wall. Meanwhile, blog commenters cry "Fake!" and "Photoshop!". I guess they didn't see any of the Quicktime movies of Shigeo Fukuda linked
here.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 1:41 PM on June 20, 2007
(14 comments)
An autistic woman "speaks" her language, then ours. (YouTube)
"My language is not about designing words or even visual symbols for people to interpret. It is about being in a constant conversation with every aspect of my environment, reacting physically to all parts of my surroundings." [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 9:13 AM on January 25, 2007
(171 comments)
"He shaves Lady X in swift, efficient strokes,
and there is something gentle about this, something almost ancient. Like the ritualistic washing of a body in some cultures. It looks tender, at least until Joe uses a small hose to aim a stream of water down Lady X’s face to remove the cream — that somehow reminds me of the rinse cycle in a carwash."
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 8:47 AM on January 8, 2007
(55 comments)
Peter Watts on Vampire Domestication (embedded Flash video, must click to start).
The mythical corporation FizerPharm ("Trust. Profit. Deniability.") share their detailed research into the evolution and possible commercial applications of
Homo sapiens whedonum. You will learn: How and why the "crucifix glitch" came about. Why you should run from a blushing vampire. How many kilograms of human are needed to make one kilogram of vampire. How vampires resemble two year old humans, domestic shorthaired cats, and lungfish. And why "survival of the fittest" should be reconceptualized as "survival of the least inadequate". [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 9:20 AM on December 24, 2006
(19 comments)
This mildly salacious Mini commercial
showed up halfway through the Canadian broadcast of The Amazing Race tonight. But the
French version seems to work even better with the subtle use of captions and slightly louder gasping. Cheap production trick for the bilingual Canadian market or Gallic subtlety?
(Quicktime required)
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 5:52 PM on June 5, 2003
(11 comments)
Very bad news for Warren Zevon.
AP reports that he has untreatable lung cancer. His quote: "I'm OK with it, but it'll be a drag if I don't make it till the next James Bond movie comes out." Damn.
Damn.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 11:42 AM on September 12, 2002
(18 comments)
"... as cheap as throwing a dinner party and only serving things that are covered in melted cheese".
What's sexy? If you scroll down to "A boob-flash in the pan is worth two in the bush", Heather Havrilesky (queen of the casually tossed off Pixies quote) explains just what it would take to make Ari Fleischer look sexy. Safe for work, but you may have Britney/Ari flashbacks that last all day. (Bonus link, text safe for work, but linked images aren't: Eric S. Raymond on
bad porn. "Like any good scientist, I proceeded to do some research ...")
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 12:17 PM on June 10, 2002
(13 comments)
The doctor will not see you now.
Jane Poulson developed Type I diabetes at 13. Her vision deteriorated drastically while she was in medical school, and despite several rounds of surgery, she lost her sight. She graduated anyway and became Canada's first blind practicing medical doctor. Then things got worse.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 9:20 AM on May 20, 2002
(10 comments)
"It's the ring. It's getting heavier".
This site is offering a 20Mb Quicktime download of the trailer for LOTR: The Two Towers. Very obviously a bootleg filmed in a theatre -- it's got an annoying flicker and the sound is a bit mussy -- but pretty decent quality otherwise.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 3:36 PM on April 8, 2002
(21 comments)
Google rejects AdWords critical of Scientology.
I hate this topic but I can't leave it alone. Google is being accused of being overly cautious in all its dealings with Scientology. A Google rep is quoted to say that they are under no pressure from Scientology to reject the ads. (more inside)
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 7:07 AM on March 27, 2002
(25 comments)
"I hate your politics.
Listening to any of you yammer on about the geopolitical situation is enough to make one want to melt down one's dental fillings with a beeswax candle and then jam an ice pick into the freshly-exposed nerve, just to have something else to think about. "
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 9:52 AM on March 22, 2002
(46 comments)
Isaac Asimov died of AIDS.
His widow, Janet Jeppson Asimov, reveals that Asimov acquired AIDS from a blood transfusion during bypass surgery in 1983 in a condensed version of his biography just published this month ("It's Been a Good Life"). Apparently his doctor advised that they not disclose his AIDS infection.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 4:44 PM on March 10, 2002
(39 comments)
"Beige. I think I'll paint the universe beige."
Remember those
arguments we had about the exact shade of turquoise the universe was supposed to be? Umm, computer glitch, sorry. "Fairchild realized the software Glazebrook was using actually took a slightly pinky looking colour as white. 'There was a huge green shift due to the erroneous white point,' he says."
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 4:49 PM on March 7, 2002
(8 comments)
Dig through the Glass Engine.
A truly cool little app that indexes Mp3 samples of over 60 compositions by Philip Glass. Play with the buttons or drag the blue bar at the top of the screen to browse by year (with or without a filter thrown on to get just film scores, opera, etc.). Drag the second series of blue bars to get presented with other selections with more or less joy, sorrow, intensity, density and velocity. Even if you don't care for Glass, think how you could use something like this elsewhere. (via
Jerry Kindall)
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 10:04 PM on March 1, 2002
(26 comments)
Publish someone else's copyrighted book, DON'T go to jail.
(I can't believe no one else has posted this yet: at least, I couldn't find anything that looked relevant).
"A U.S. federal judge has rejected Random House's request for a preliminary injunction to stop an online publisher from selling electronic versions of Cat's Cradle, Sophie's Choice and six other books. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein ruled on Wednesday that the right to print, publish and sell the works in book form in the contracts at issue does not include the right to publish the works in the electronic format."
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 9:29 AM on July 13, 2001
(7 comments)
Breast exams considered harmful.
Some Canadian researchers claim that teaching women to conduct their own breast exams does no good as they are more likely to encounter benign lumps, suffer undue anxiety and endure unnecessary surgery. (An associated article can be found
here).
"Many breast tumours are found by women themselves, even in highly screened populations. However, in women regularly performing BSE, many self-detected tumours are found incidentally, not during self-examination. In one study, only 7.6% of women with breast tumours who were practising regular BSE actually detected the tumour by means of self-examination. In addition, tumours developing between screens in some age groups (e.g., 50–69) may be inherently more aggressive and thus may not be influenced by slightly earlier detection with BSE. "
So BSE works for
only 7.6%? That's a good enough percentage for me, especially as the costs of BSE campaigns is pretty trivial compared to other public health measure.
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 3:54 AM on June 26, 2001
(4 comments)
"Everyone who writes original content online needs to get a day job."
John Scalzi argues that this is the most likely way that we're going to see quality online content survive as for-profit ventures like Suck continue to crash down around us. He points to cool stuff a lot of us are already familiar with (
Lileks and glenn macdonald's
The War Against Silence) and some sites I hadn't heard of until now (Rick McGinnis'
The Diary Thing). Scalzi practices what he preaches: he doesn't post every day -- hey, he's a professional writer and keeping his family fed comes first -- but what he does post is
choice. (Probable future URL for today's article is
here).
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 3:40 PM on June 14, 2001
(20 comments)
Popularity kills: nosepilot hit (almost) into oblivion
Not all Flash sucks: many of us who have dreamed of putting our fists through the screen at yet another stupid corporate Flash intro loved Al Sacui's dreamy little piece.
But now Sacui is looking for some way to cover or modify his ISP's $16,000 bill (which he just found out about yesterday -- no warning beforehand that traffic was a problem). He's hoping to sort out the financial problems and has people in contact with his ISP re the debt, but what he really needs is someone to mirror or co-host the 4.8 Mb of files that make up the site. Can you help out?
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 12:16 PM on March 9, 2001
(34 comments)
Fight spam with silly human tricks!
This service is built around a low rent Turing test. Anyone who is not already on your list of approved correspondents gets their message bounced back to them. If the poor sod can't pass a "fast and simple"
challenge, their mail won't be passed on to you as they'll be presumed to be a spambot. I use Pine: I guess I'd fail. (Found via
Webmonkey).
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin
at 10:21 PM on October 5, 2000
(12 comments)
