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April 30
Inform 7 Released.
Inform is a language used for creating
interactive fiction, and is one of the most widely used languages for this task. After several years of effort,
Graham Nelson has
released a new version of Inform, and is seeking to create a new way of creating IF, with natural language instead of traditional programming code. [more inside]
posted by zabuni at 8:08 PM PST - 38 comments
...Bush has been aggressive about declaring his right to ignore vast swaths of laws -- many of which he says infringe on power he believes the Constitution assigns to him alone ...
President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution. ... Long, eyeopening article laying out what laws have been ignored and why.
...Bush has cast a cloud over 'the whole idea that there is a rule of law," because no one can be certain of which laws Bush thinks are valid and which he thinks he can ignore.
'Where you have a president who is willing to declare vast quantities of the legislation that is passed during his term unconstitutional, it implies that he also thinks a very significant amount of the other laws that were already on the books before he became president are also unconstitutional," ...
posted by amberglow at 10:50 AM PST - 85 comments
This highlight reel
of people playing the traditional Myanmar game of
Chinlone is pretty amazing. Being a particularly ignorant westerner, I really had no idea of the grace & athleticism involved in the game.
posted by jonson at 9:42 AM PST - 22 comments
Jimmy Jump.
The guy who stormed the pitch and cheekily presented
Thierry Henry with a Barcelona jersey during last week's Champion's League match versus Villareal
has a website. Regardless of where you stand on pitch invaders, "
there will be no way to remain indiferent in front of his universal cause of feeling implicated with what he does."
He's got
a few videos, too.
posted by TheFarSeid at 1:02 AM PST - 11 comments
April 29
Night Writer
(embedded .mov). "The night writer extends the functionality of LED throwies by allowing a writer to catch a tag in lights. Its cheap, easy to make and writes 12-inch glowing letters 25-feet in the air on any iron or steel surface." From the
Graffitti Research Lab.
posted by zardoz at 10:11 PM PST - 21 comments
In the study of mythology,
folklore and religion,
a trickster is a god,
goddess,
spirit,
human hero or anthropomorphic animal who plays pranks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and norms of behaviour.
Tricksters come in
all forms, from
all cultures. Notable examples include
Br'er Rabbit,
Odysseus,
Eshu,
Raven, and
Loki; most or all of whom you are likely familiar with.
posted by Eideteker at 9:11 PM PST - 31 comments
The Paradigm is the Enemy:
A sobering but cogent account of the state of Peak Oil, what it's already led to (reported and ignored), and what is in store for us in the near future. The worst part is the political impossibility of addressing the problem constructively: that would require acknowledging the problem.
posted by LeisureGuy at 5:01 PM PST - 99 comments
Camille Paglia
How should the humanities be taught, and how should scholars in the humanities be trained? These pivotal questions confront universities today amid signs of spreading agreement that the three-decade era of poststructuralism and postmodernism is over.
posted by vronsky at 4:04 PM PST - 72 comments
Drama is impossible today. I don't know of any. Drama used to be the belief in guilt, and in a higher order. This absolutely cruel didactic is impossible, unacceptable for us moderns. But melodrama has kept it. You are caged. In melodrama you have human, earthly prisons rather than godly creations. Every Greek tragedy ends with the chorus "those are strange happenings. Those are the ways of the gods". And so it always is in melodrama.
His career as a film director lasted more than 40 years, but
Douglas Sirk (1900-1987) is remembered for the melodramas he made for Universal in Hollywood between 1954 and 1959, his "
divine wallow":
Magnificent Obsession (1954),
All That Heaven Allows (1955),
Written on the Wind (1956),
The Tarnished Angels (1958, William Faulkner considered it the best screen adaptation of one of his novels),
Imitation of Life (1959) -- all considered for decades
little more than a camp oddity. Now audiences are beginning to look deeper at the films of Douglas Sirk, at how, in megafan Todd Haynes' words, they are "
almost spookily accurate about the emotional truths". Now, lucky Chicagoans can enjoy "Douglas Sirk at Universal",
matinees at the Music Box. More inside.
posted by matteo at 11:56 AM PST - 14 comments
Freedom of the seas
World,s largest passenger liner, currently docked in Southampton UK, in prep for voyage to New York. Then a life of cruising the Carib. 15m wider than the QM2
Check out the flash tour.
posted by A189Nut at 3:06 AM PST - 56 comments
CU police offer $50 bounty to identify maybe pot smokers.
"Every year on 4/20, students and residents gather on Farrand Field at CU Boulder to defy the authorities and smoke marijuana publicly. This year, the University of Boulder Police Department fought back by taking pictures of as many participants as possible. They have a website with photos up, offering an $50 reward to anyone who positively identifies someone who was photographed." via BoingBoing
Here are 3 local news stories about it:
1,
2,
3.
I guess the police want to identify people even if they were not visalby commiting a crime, just so they can bring them in and apply pressure root out the real criminals.
Colorado is home to James Dobson's hyper right-wing
Focus on the Family. But Denver and in the west of that state appear to be one of the largest
marijuana usage areas in the country (scroll down a bit)
This area seems radically divided. When my family recently visited Colorado Springs we found it very right-wing but when we engaged a rubber boat trip through the Royal George all of our guides were hippie/eco/stoners.
Can anybody explain this in terms of the obvious factions?
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 12:03 AM PST - 96 comments
April 28
A new book collecting unpublished poems of Elizabeth Bishop
offers us unpolished views of work in progress, by one of the 20th century's greatest literary perfectionists. But in doing so, it raises again "An issue as old as the printed word: Is work that a writer chose not to publish during her lifetime fair game after she dies?" [more inside]
posted by paulsc at 11:11 PM PST - 7 comments
Workplace health and safety dirty dozen
(pdf) - profiles of companies that have demonstrated egregious disregard for worker safety. Today is
Worker Memorial Day, commemorating workers who die on the job - an average of 16 per day. Workplace deaths are trending up, not down, which, according to an extensive report by the AFL-CIO, is the inevitable
Toll of Neglect with this administration's rollback of worker protections.
Confined Space offers a daily view of work safety issues in the U.S. for those who would like to learn more.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:16 AM PST - 13 comments
April 27
The songs of the Pete Seeger Sessions
presents an ultra-detailed listing of prior recordings of the songs included in Bruce Springsteen's excellent "We shall overcome" album, a majestic tribute to the American musical tradition, with some songs written over two centuries ago. The site lists more than 1,560 eariler recordings, by nearly as many artists, with some full-length audio clips included.
Aft
posted by keepoutofreach at 7:32 PM PST - 32 comments
Two years after the Abu Ghraib scandal, new research shows that abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at Guantánamo Bay has been widespread, and that the United States has taken only limited steps to investigate and punish implicated personnel. A briefing paper issued today, 'By the Numbers,' presents findings of the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project... the first comprehensive accounting of credible allegations of torture and abuse in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. The project has collected hundreds of allegations of detainee abuse and torture occurring since late 2001 allegations implicating more than 600 U.S. military and civilian personnel and involving more than 460 detainees.
U.S.: More Than 600 Implicated in Detainee AbuseSee also
Projected Iraq War Costs Soar, See also
The Trillion Dolllar War.
posted by y2karl at 12:11 PM PST - 110 comments
Few things are more
sacred to Canadians than the nation's medicare system. After years of health spending cutbacks by conservative politicians,
debate rages over whether private providers should now be
allowed to compete with the public system. In British Columbia, where the government is shovelling tax dollars into the 2010 Olympics, patients are being
left to die in emergency rooms and long-term care facilities due to
overcrowding and
understaffing. Is it too late to save public health care? Should it be saved?
posted by 327.ca at 12:00 PM PST - 89 comments
The Endless Forest
is a strange piece of software (that can be a screensaver), where you control a deer in a, well, endless forest. And so do a bunch of other online players. And you can interact all you like with them - with the minor caveat that deer can't talk.
posted by DataPacRat at 11:28 AM PST - 46 comments
Better Comix
The concept behind this is to use comics from the same day and mix them, good ol cut and paste style, so that they become a tad more funny, depending on your sense of humor.
posted by jasonspaceman at 11:15 AM PST - 16 comments
Introducing Nintendo Wii
The revolution is officially the Nintendo Wii: pronounced "we", as in 'to urinate'. If only we weren't coming to the
end of april.
posted by 6am at 10:53 AM PST - 150 comments
Re-Mission
is a 3rd-person shooter designed for teens and young adults with cancer, developed by
HopeLab and
RealTime Associates. Players pilot a nanobot, Roxxi, through the
body of a fictional cancer patient to destroy cancer cells and infections. The
Re-Mission Outcomes Study enrolled 375 teens and young adults with cancer, randomized them to receive a computer with the game or without. Data from the study showed statistically significant improvements in cancer-related self-efficacy, social quality of life, cancer-specific knowledge, and adherence to prescribed medication regimens in patients who played Re-Mission. The game (and related
online community) is free of charge to
teens and young people living with cancer and will be available to others in May at a suggested donation of $20. (
related)
posted by sarahnade at 10:33 AM PST - 13 comments
Adult Swim Fix.
Streaming full-length Adult Swim episodes twenty-four hours a day online. Seven archival episodes will be available at all times, while premieres will continue to debut on Fridays, two days before they appear on-air.
posted by ND¢ at 7:16 AM PST - 24 comments
Jesus with Erection.
In its March edition, the Insurgent
(link down), an "alternative" student paper on the Eugene, Ore., campus printed 12 hand-drawn cartoons of
Jesus as a response to rival paper the Commentator having published the controversial cartoons of Muhammad originally published in Europe that sparked Muslim riots worldwide. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League,
called it "one of the most obscene assaults on Christianity I have ever seen."
Hey now!
posted by three blind mice at 1:01 AM PST - 89 comments
April 26
Hands to Boag
A love song about web standards with lyrics like, "Tonight I need your CSS, coding in the darkness. From now on no more tables nest; you will meet web standards"...
posted by londontube at 8:51 PM PST - 3 comments
Smithy code
The secret lies in HBHG and DVC. According to news reports the Judge who recently ruled in the
Da Vinci Code plagiarism case has included his own code in his
high court ruling (PDF). At this time, no one seems to have decoded it all...
posted by tiamat at 6:06 PM PST - 39 comments
In the murky world of HYIP (high-yield investment programs), on the wrong side of the Internet tracks, Team Aaron and Shara were
very well known. They had tens of thousands of fans, eager to know which programs were still paying 1-2% per day (or more!). Now their fans will have to resort to
other sites to see who is
still paying. Curiously, these programs only seem to take anonymous, non-disputable forms of e-payment, such as
e-gold. Now, all that is left of them is their
farewell website. Did they retire on all of the referral fees, as some suspect? It is impressive that such effort is dedicated to this
snake oil, but the law of large numbers must make it work. Who can resist 1.5% an hour return on investment? Is this what has become of anonymous micropayments?
posted by Adamchik at 2:38 PM PST - 19 comments
Stock Spam Effectiveness Monitor
Spam comes in, graphs come out.
You are not buying stock based on spam, but surely someone must be, or else you wouldn't be flooded with more spam everyday. This tracks one user's inbox and the stocks spammed therein. A bit more analysis
here and
here
posted by mikepop at 11:02 AM PST - 11 comments
The new DMCA: the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006
The 24-page bill is a far-reaching medley of different proposals cobbled together. One would, for instance, create a new federal crime of just trying to commit copyright infringement. Such willful attempts at piracy, even if they fail, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.
posted by beth at 8:07 AM PST - 36 comments
The Ninth Circuit
(
maligned by
many as a
hotbed of extreme
liberal judicial activism,
but defended by
others PDF) issued its opinion in the case
of
Harper v. Poway Unified School District last week. Judge Stephen Reinhardt - who, to some people,
embodies
the
alleged evils of the Ninth Circuit - issued the
majority opinion, and Judge Alex Kozinski filed a
strong dissent. The majority opinion held that a high school
principal who ordered a student to remove his T-shirt that said "Homosexuality is Shameful" did
not violate the student's First Amendment rights, reasoning that "limitations on speech" are
permissible in cases where speech is "derogatory and injurious remarks directed at students'
minority status such as race religion and sexual orientation," and the limitation is "narrow, and
applied with sensitivity and for reasons that are consistent with the fundamental First Amendment
mandate." [more inside]
posted by Pontius Pilate at 1:36 AM PST - 152 comments
April 25
Let me tell you what we're gonna do.
We're gonna put them handcuffs in front of ya. Cut you a little slack. But if you don't start operating, we're gonna put the mother fuckers behind your back, and I'm gonna take this slapjack and I'm gonna start working that head over, you understand? ...you sign this son of a bitch, or I'm gonna hit you again.
Audio.
.pdf transcript.
Full Story.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:05 PM PST - 60 comments
It is an official language
in this US State, and if somebody writes you a check in it while you're here, you better know your
numbers. Although its usage fell after a sharp decrease in the native speakers' population and a later
'ban',
(not really) in the late 19th century, it is now making a comeback. Wikipedia gets its
name from the language. Sadly, though there are almost 4 million Wikipedia articles, a scant
27 of them are written in it. Of course, if you just need a dictionary, it's not hard to
find.
posted by onalark at 10:32 PM PST - 20 comments
What it costs to live well in the United States.
According to Forbes, living well for a family of four in New York City requires an annual income of $483,800,
compared to $189,923 in Wichita, Kansas. Of course, living well, according to the
methodology, involves a vacation home, a BMW 325i and a Lexus RX 330, weekends at the Ritz, and almost no savings, so you might want to skip one of these things if you are a few bucks shy. Also worth noting, the most expensive
ZIP codes and
houses in the United States (and
the world). Are you living well?
posted by blahblahblah at 7:43 PM PST - 83 comments
I've been grooving on some of the music of
Persone a lot lately (some full-length mp3 samples
here). They're one of the most noticeable Esperanto 'rokbandoj', though by all means
not the only one. I'm fond of Jomo kaj Liberecanoj (
sample in Spanish, Esperanto, and French) as well. Of course, Esperanto isn't the only constructed language with some music; there apparently is a CD in
Klingon (you only hear samples), and some song translations and info about a CD
here, and there is also a bit of recorded music in
Elvish (scroll down to "Elvish Music"). But most of it
seems to be in
Esperanto.
posted by graymouser at 5:46 PM PST - 3 comments
Tony Snow On President Bush: An Embarrassment,
It seems clear now that we will have
Snow In Late April as the Bush appointment to be the new press spokesman. Snow comes to the lawn of the White House all the way from Fox News, where he represented their view of Fair and balanced. So balanced in fact that he said things such as this: "No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives. [9/30/05]. But that was then and this is now and so can we assume that suddenly Bush will be seen as a masterful leader of his nation?
posted by Postroad at 4:23 PM PST - 63 comments
LabLit.com
is about scientists, but not so much about science. In the most recent update is an
interview with Daniel Glaser about his involvement behind the scenes of the BBC documentary
Under Laboratory Conditions.
Older articles on LabLit.com are about
iPods in the lab,
sex in the lab, basically anything
besides science that still relates to lab life.
"LabLit" is short for "lab literature", and the
about page explains the connection between the two and the idea behind the site.
posted by easternblot at 3:53 PM PST - 6 comments
From estate tax to 'death tax'
Public Citizen released
a report [PDF link] today that "reveals how 18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the [U.S.] estate tax, a move that would collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion." The rich get richer...
posted by tippiedog at 3:41 PM PST - 73 comments
Alexander Selkirk,
born in 1676 in
Lower Largo,
Fife, Scotland, was the unruly seventh son of a cobbler. In 1703, having grown tired of life in his village, he was able to convince successful buccaneer
William Dampier that he was the man to navigate Dampiers next
privateering expedition to South America. After a dispute with the young captain of the ship on which he served as sailing master, Selkirk was left behind on a small island
418 miles west of Valparaiso, Chile. Rescued four years later, he was the subject of
several contemporary accounts of his ordeal, and likely served as one of
Daniel Defoe's primary inspirations for
Robinson Crusoe.
posted by killdevil at 2:40 PM PST - 10 comments
Where do your recycleables go?
Minneapolis' Star Tribune has created a very interesting, informative, interactive feature, describing where your recycling goes after it is picked up from your curb. An educational way to spend your afternoon!
posted by santiagogo at 10:46 AM PST - 14 comments
FollowupFilter - After a two year hiatus (read:
punishment ban), Gregg Easterbrook (founder of Beliefnet, Brookings scholar, ex of Slate & NFL.com) one of ESPN's most popular football writers
returns, with no acknoledgment of where he went or why. Hopefully he'll keep his mouth shut about ABC and/or Disney related projects this time. As a side note, his two seasons worth of back articles are apparently not available, as they were purged (permanently?) when he was fired.
posted by jonson at 10:00 AM PST - 16 comments
"Turn it off man, I don't want no problems."
Democracy Now attempts to interview Katrina evacuees at a FEMA trailer park. FEMA's private security guards claim that the residents don't have 'the privilege' of being able to speak freely on FEMA property without a FEMA 'minder' present.
posted by empath at 8:38 AM PST - 64 comments
There are plenty of contests whose purpose is to pick out the best looking
dog, or
flowers or various other things. But what about the ugliest? These sites and contests bring you the ugliest
cars,
dogs,
celebrities (YMMV),
buildings in Ann Arbor, MI, and those bastions of cuteness,
babies.
posted by darsh at 7:53 AM PST - 16 comments
Top Knots
Weddings, no matter how grand, are comprised of many intimate, unforgettable moments, and wedding photographers have just one chance to capture them. The judges of this year's Top Knots competition felt that the work featured in this online gallery succeeded in preserving these moments in a creative and innovative way.
posted by ColdChef at 7:36 AM PST - 32 comments
"For years people laughed at me. But my dream reoccured so often that I was sure that one day the yellow gnomes would visit our planet with a very special message for us. Now I am not alone anymore." These yellow gnomes have apparently appeared all over NW Europe. Today a fresh batch was discovered in
Abcoude, Netherlands (in Dutch). And yes, of course there is a
forum. Art or crazy?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:04 AM PST - 26 comments
April 24
Abraham Lincoln, duelist?
Hamilton and Burr were not the only prominent
duelists in US history.
In the early morning hours of September 22, 1842, a young Abraham Lincoln crossed the Mississippi River at Alton, IL on his way to a small island where he would engage in mortal combat with a political adversary. Lincoln had used his sarcastic wit to write anonymous letters to the editor lampooning a political rival, James Shields. Some of his friends joined in and perhaps went a little too far, including suggestions of Shields' inadequacies with the ladies. One of these friends included Lincoln's future wife, Mary Todd. Shields demanded a duel and Lincoln defined the parameters of the duel - broadswords in a pit.
posted by caddis at 4:16 PM PST - 46 comments
Air France:
Apparently abandoning any pretence that traveling economy in the back of an A330 is an enticing experience, they've launched this site which looks back at the days when women wore fur, men smoked pipes and air travel was glamorous.
Quite a few nice little movie vignettes of life chez Air France from the 50s and 60s.
posted by marvin at 2:46 PM PST - 22 comments
"
Killing the Buddha is about finding a way to be religious when we're all so self-conscious and self-absorbed. Knowing more than ever about ourselves and the way the world works, we gain nothing through nostalgia for a time when belief was simple, and even less from insisting that now is such a time.
Killing the Buddha will ask, How can we be religious without leaving part of ourselves at the church or temple door? How can we love God when we know it doesn't matter if we do? Call it God for the godless. Call it the search for a God we can believe in: A God that will not be an embarrassment in twelve-thousand years. A God we can talk about without qualifications." I particularly enjoyed
The Temptation of Belief, by a Buddhist exploring evangelical Christianity, and
My Holy Ghost People, by an unbelieving daughter in a praying-in-tongues family.
posted by heatherann at 12:26 PM PST - 21 comments
