February 11, 2012

Warning: May become more difficult to read after use

Constitutions of Classic Cocktails - A single image that charts the ingredients of many well loved drinks.
posted by quin at 9:15 PM PST - 61 comments

The Fall of the House of Murdoch?

Five senior journalists and editors at the News International tabloid the Sun were arrested on Saturday along with three public officials as Operation Elveden, the British investigation into bribery of police by News International papers, broadened to include corruption of officials in the armed forces and Ministry of Defence as well. The Guardian reports that the new arrests escalate the stakes of the ongoing US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation of News Corporation, which carries potential penalties of millions of dollars of fines and prison sentences for senior executives. [more inside]
posted by strangely stunted trees at 6:32 PM PST - 93 comments

Insurance. The numbers just. Don't. Work.

Kevin Zelnio is a science writer with a degree in marine biology. He is the father of two children. And, like many in this country, he has no insurance. Earlier this week, his 6 year-old developed pneumonia.This is his account of what happened.
posted by Laminda at 6:28 PM PST - 204 comments

The Invention of Nothing

How Barry Levinson's Diner Changed Cinema, 30 Years Later
posted by Artw at 5:40 PM PST - 33 comments

'The Voice' Is Silenced.

Often referred to as the 'Queen of Pop' or, simply 'The Voice,' singer, actress, producer and a former model, Whitney Houston has died at the age of 48 y.o. Her self-titled debut album, released in 1985, sold 25 million copies worldwide. "In recent years, she struggled with drug abuse. She is survived by daughter Bobbi Kristina and ex-husband Bobby Brown."* [more inside]
posted by ericb at 5:21 PM PST - 403 comments

The Final Alphabet

Arkitypo — Using the 26 letters of the alphabet as the starting point, the curators selected a specific typeface that began with each respective letter to develop a 3d alphabet of alphabets. After thoroughly researching the history of each letter, they set out to represent each individual character graphically with elements of its history serving as the foundation. Arkitypo: letter rotations on Vimeo.
posted by netbros at 5:06 PM PST - 3 comments

American Masters Online

Woody Allen: A Documentary (Part One, Part Two), a film by Robert Weide and part of the American Masters series on PBS, is now online. [more inside]
posted by bluefly at 3:52 PM PST - 23 comments

"In many ways, the Chipotle burrito is very similar to the iPhone."

Chipotle is Apple. "The burrito chain is revolutionizing food. Why doesn't it get more respect?"
posted by box at 3:32 PM PST - 226 comments

The Greeks have no word for "Sovereign Default" OR timeo danaos et linguas quae futurum tempus habent dicentem.

I find that speakers of languages with little to no grammatical distinction between the present and future (weak-FTR ["Future Time Reference"] language speakers) engage in much more future-oriented behavior. Weak-FTR speakers are 30% more likely to have saved in any given year, and have accumulated an additional 170 thousand Euros by retirement. I also examine non-monetary measures such as health behaviors and long-run health. I find that by retirement, weak-FTR speakers are in better health by numerous measures: they are 24% less likely to have smoked heavily, are 29% more likely to be physically active, and are 13% less likely to be medically obese. [more inside]
posted by gauche at 1:44 PM PST - 72 comments

MY PSYCHO POWER FEEDS ON HATRED AND DEATH!

An in-depth look at the creation of Street Fighter IV's unique and beautiful visual style. In Japanese.
(Google Translate gets most of it.)
posted by timshel at 1:42 PM PST - 12 comments

New type of Battery takes salt out of Seawater

Nanoscale electrodes separate salt from seawater. It uses special electrodes: ... "It first draws ions from seawater into a pair of electrodes. As the researchers pass current through the electrodes, electrochemical reactions drive chloride ions into a silver electrode and sodium ions to an electrode made from manganese oxide nanorods. Next, the researchers remove the desalinated water and release the trapped ions into a separate stream of waste seawater by reversing the direction of the electrical current." And at this point the salt in the water is only reduced by about 50%.
posted by aleph at 12:14 PM PST - 29 comments

Blackout!

"If we can get the playoff games, believe me, it would be the greatest achievement we've ever done." -- Richard Nixon. The 37th President loved him his football (and I mean, he really loved him his football), and a previously unreported tape recording revealed that Nixon attempted (and failed) to broker a change in the NFL blackout policy, which at the time specified that NFL games would not be broadcasted in their hometowns, regardless of a sellout, and this included playoff games. Why does it matter? Well, Nixon's deal would have screwed fans just so he could get a Redskins playoff game on TV. There are antitrust implications that are still being argued today. And the president still travels with a football.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:05 PM PST - 24 comments

why is Guante so angry? it's a rhetorical question

10 Responses To The Phrase "Man Up" (transcript here). More spoken word and rap by Guante: Handshakes. Neutral: An Open Letter To Michele Bachmann. Love In The Time Of Zombies. Confessions Of A White Rapper. A Prayer For Indie Rappers.
posted by flex at 11:04 AM PST - 25 comments

"I like to feel that it’s my job to instigate the process with a cool drawing that inspires everyone else here into making something really cool, and worth the effort."

Adam Adamowicz, concept artist behind the hugely popular video games Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, passed away this week after a long struggle with cancer.
posted by restless_nomad at 10:59 AM PST - 39 comments

Wild Orchid Children

Behold the psychedelic musings of Seattle's Wild Orchid Children: Ahead Of Us The Secret. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 10:43 AM PST - 17 comments

"It all ends up in the same place anyway"

A "smartpill" is a type of endoscopic capsule camera that creates a video of the digestive process from entrance to exit. For Stefani Bardin's "M2A Project" film for TEDxManhattan, two subjects swallowed a smartpill capsule. One subject ate a meal of Top Ramen and Haribo Goldbears, together with a drink of blue Gatorade. The other subject ate a meal of homemade chicken noodle soup, together with naturally flavored and colored gummy bears and a hibiscus drink. The camera followed. [NSFLunch. Wired article for a quick overview.] [more inside]
posted by Countess Elena at 9:53 AM PST - 43 comments

Thanks for Playing. As Usual You've Been a Real Pantload

Remember the janitorial space opera Space Quest? Well, so do a lot of other people. Starting with The Sarien Encounter, hapless janitor Roger Wilco was thrust into more and more absurd adventures, which came to an abrupt end with Space Quest 6. For years, Roger has been left hanging with no resolution to his story, and no new adventures, but all that has changed with the release of two fan made sequels; Vohaul Strikes Back and Space Quest: Incinerations. And for those of you who just can't get enough Wilco related hilarity there is a fan made VGA remake of the famously punishing Space Quest II. (Previously) Remember to put the gem in your mouth. All of these fan made games are pretty good, but you don't have to take my word for it.
posted by dortmunder at 9:30 AM PST - 24 comments

The Art of Google Books

Here's a stunning gallery of failures and book oddities in Google Books. You can see camera-sensor moire, content detection algorithm failures, condom-covered fingers, failed dewarping, "dewarped" images, failed dithering, pages blurred by turning, and the scanning environment itself, with binder clips to hold book covers and checked rules for absolute scale. My personal favorite: A shot showing the Google page-turning mechanism (employed when they're not using a guillotine and ADF/sheet-feeder). A project by Kristina Wilson.
posted by fake at 9:13 AM PST - 19 comments

A tourist's guide to Belbury

Belbury is an English market town with a picturesque 11th century church, and some notable modernist architecture, including the Polytechnic College. None of which exist except in the constructed world of the Ghost Box record label, whose founder Jim Jupp records under the name Belbury Poly, and publishes the Belbury Parish Magazine. [more inside]
posted by reynir at 8:57 AM PST - 5 comments

"I think that it is dead"

Gardening Facepalm Their hearts are in the right place, but this is not how you do it.
posted by swooz at 8:52 AM PST - 36 comments

Jeff Zaslow has given his last lecture

Author and Wall Street Journal writer Jeff Zaslow died in a car accident yesterday. [more inside]
posted by get off of my cloud at 8:19 AM PST - 17 comments

Collateral Damage?

Richard Mosse's photography from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [Previously] [more inside]
posted by gman at 7:43 AM PST - 21 comments

yWriter

Since its last* appearance in the blue, yWriter has been updated to version 5. Designed specifically for novels, this freeware "contains no adverts, unwanted web toolbars, desktop search programs or other cruft".
posted by Trurl at 7:11 AM PST - 56 comments

De sterrennacht

Van Gogh's famous painting The Starry Night, rendered as a moving image.
posted by flyingsquirrel at 6:37 AM PST - 25 comments

Panel studies in sequential art, er, comics

Comic book writer and artist Matt Seneca critiques panel design and layout in comics over at Your Wednesday Sequence.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:33 AM PST - 6 comments

Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker

The science of why Adele's "Someone Like You" makes people cry. [WSJ.COM]
posted by Fizz at 6:30 AM PST - 161 comments

State of Denmark

Why Borgen's all the buzz at Westminster A moody, Danish political drama, complete with subtitles, prolonged pauses and superficially consensual continental politics would not seem the sort of programme to become the hot topic in the coffee bars and corridors of the Commons. Even more improbably the central character in Borgen is such an unlikely figure when viewed from the staid, male dominated world of Westminster. Birgitte Nyborg is an attractive, well-intentioned, left-leaning, green-tinged female prime minister who's worried about her weight and leads a party called "The Moderates".
posted by infini at 5:14 AM PST - 16 comments

Not again, please....

After the rumoured murder of John Paul I and the attempts on the life of John Paul II, and following an old, old tradition, an Italian daily has now published a restricted document purporting to warn Benedict XVI of a plot to kill him before the end of this year.
posted by aqsakal at 3:47 AM PST - 37 comments

Purple in the morning, blue in the afternoon, orange in the evening.

Requiem for a Dream (in 60 seconds...with puppets) (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:12 AM PST - 19 comments

ignorant America

In a fascinating discussion on PBS News Hour, Zbigniew Brzezinski, (US National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981) promoting his new book, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power, criticizes the American public's understanding of world affairs as the least-informed of the developed countries of the world.

We see the consequences of an American public's ignorance of world affairs in America's foreign policy. How did this happen and what can be done to turn the tide? To enable real understanding of world affairs by the American public? [more inside]
posted by gen at 12:34 AM PST - 171 comments

LYONEL THE SECOND

Tollemache, Ralph William Lyonel Tollemache- (1826–1895), Church of England clergyman and bestower of eccentric names.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:15 AM PST - 11 comments

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