The 'GDC 25' Chronicles: A Quake Aftershock. Shortly after the release of Quake in 1996, former iD employee Michael Abrash gave a talk detailing many of the technical hurdles that had to be resolved in making the game. For its 25th anniversary, GDC has put up video clips of two segments (1 2) as well as audio of the full talk.
posted by kmz at 10:25 PM PST - 21 comments

The Beatles' Lord of the Rings. Yes, that CNN article dates back to 2002, but Superpunch has recently had a contest to design posters for the film-that-never-happened (including a fake Wikipedia page for the film) and someone has written a fictional account of a fan discussing the film-that-never-happened with Paul McCartney, as if it had actually been made.
posted by crossoverman at 10:09 PM PST - 35 comments

Borromean rings consist of three circles linked as a group, with no two circles interlinked; removal of one ring results in the separation of all three. Named for the Borromeo family of 15th century Italy which featured the rings on its coat of arms, the symbol has had a long and varied history. The rings have appeared everywhere from medieval Christian iconography to Norse rune stones to the pillars of Hindu temples. In more recent times, Borromean rings have attracted formal study in the fields of topology, chemistry and (strangely enough) quantum mechanics. [more inside]
posted by dephlogisticated at 6:52 PM PST - 24 comments

Samuel, a 24 year old Parisian student, led a quiet life with his girlfriend. A little bit out of step with his time, Samuel refuses to use modern technology. However a meeting will change their lives. -'Dependence', A short film by Yann Kibongui [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation at 2:58 PM PST - 28 comments

Every Batmobile ever (prev)
posted by Paragon at 1:30 PM PST - 25 comments

A box of raisins saves a family from the Nazis. The Pop Laval Foundation in Fresno, CA adds an interesting WWII story to a historical photo from a local raisin processing plant.
posted by gusandrews at 12:22 PM PST - 25 comments

Have we hit 'peak travel'? Recent studies have suggested we may be approaching the limits of global capacity to sustain growth in human movement at current rates, or that we may already be at the structural limits of that capacity: the theory of "peak travel." Does it matter? What is our responsibility as travelers? Is there an upside? [more inside]
posted by spitbull at 11:45 AM PST - 50 comments

Fernando Vicente creates his own Body Worlds*, shows what makes people tick, gets under their skin, and appeals to dignity and prurience. Also, he has a blog. Reminds me of Boris Artzybasheff and Yoshitomo Nara for different reasons. via strange maps [more inside]
posted by jtron at 10:42 AM PST - 6 comments

Following the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology's decision to publish Daryl Bem's writeup of 8 studies (PDF) purporting to show evidence for precognition (previously), researchers from the University of Amsterdam have written a rebuttal (PDF) which finds methodological flaws not only in Bem's research, but in many other published papers in experimental psychology. Could this prove to be psychology's cold fusion moment? [more inside]
posted by yourcelf at 10:34 AM PST - 21 comments

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot In Arizona. [more inside]
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:32 AM PST - 2616 comments

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan has entered a long line of ballet movies to critical acclaim, Golden Globe nominations and Oscar buzz. But what do ballerinas think of it?
posted by Artw at 9:18 AM PST - 121 comments

One of the most enduring mysteries in solar physics is why the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is millions of degrees hotter than its surface. - Now scientists believe they have discovered a major source of hot gas that replenishes the corona
posted by The Whelk at 8:26 AM PST - 15 comments

It was December 14 when Twitter first received the sealed order to turn over information on several of its users. Twitter could simply have provided the information requested, instead of acting, on January 5, to have the order unsealed. The unsealing of the subpoena allowed the Twitter users in question to become aware of the situation, and it allowed them an opportunity to dispute the order--an opportunity they would not otherwise have had.
US wants Twitter details of Wikileaks activists.
WikiLeaks demands Google and Facebook unseal US subpoenas. One of the subpeoned accounts it that of Birgitta Jónsdóttir, activist and Icelandic Member of parliament. A resolution proposing the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), has already been unanimously passed by the country's parliament.
Icelands intention is to become an international transparency haven.
posted by adamvasco at 7:57 AM PST - 86 comments

Tim Bell teaches computer science to kids without using a computer. CS Unplugged has lots of resources for you to do this on your own. [via reddit]
posted by empath at 7:54 AM PST - 11 comments

The Silver People [nsfw] is a site created by 60's photographer, Jon Stevens, whose shtick is to paint people silver and photograph them. More interesting are his pics of Miles Davis | The Cockettes Erotic [nsfw] | Salvador Dali [nsfw] | his being photographed as the first male mod model [modest, not]. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 7:40 AM PST - 6 comments

A Yank in the (virtual) RAF
posted by protorp at 4:06 AM PST - 26 comments

Open Tyrian OpenTyrian is a port of the DOS shoot-em-up Tyrian (previously). The port uses SDL, making it easily cross-platform. Builds are available for Windows and Mac OS X [... and] for Android, Amiga, Dingoo, Dreamcast, DS, GameCube, Gizmondo, GP2X, GP32, Nokia Internet Tablets, PSP, PS3 Linux, Symbian, Wii, and Wiz
posted by kid ichorous at 1:13 AM PST - 21 comments