April 21, 2011

She Comes In Colors

(Good) Friday Flash Fun: Stalwart is a tricky little avoidance platformer with charming low-fi graphics and great music.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:05 PM PST - 12 comments

Epic Meal Time tries to explain itself. In English. On a French TV show

Bacon-wrapped cupcakes: What could possibly go wrong? Well, try explaining your Internet-famous project (Epic Meal Time) in English on Quebec’s most popular French-language talk show. Bonus difficulty points: You already are from Quebec, but you don’t speak French well enough to swagger through an interview. Anglo journo Fagstein analyzes the “controversy.” (The interview in question, from Tout le monde en parle, on YouTube; alternate.)
posted by joeclark at 7:43 PM PST - 97 comments

Laptopistan

Working best at coffee shops. Destination: Laptopistan. Why work doesn't happen at work.
posted by AceRock at 7:04 PM PST - 73 comments

The woman behind the Vitameatavegamin Girl

Madelyn Pugh Davis, one of the three masterminds behind I Love Lucy and a pioneer for women writers in radio and television, has gone on to the great Vitameatavegamin commercial in the sky. She was 90. [more inside]
posted by scody at 5:53 PM PST - 20 comments

Beware the creeper!

Meatcraft - Real World Minecraft
posted by Artw at 4:43 PM PST - 13 comments

I offer you the task. You do the task. You get what you want.

The Booth At The End is a drama about a man who makes deals. 62 parts, each lasting just two pretty fantastic minutes. [more inside]
posted by sleepcrime at 3:22 PM PST - 25 comments

Cadbury Creme Eggs, Liquid Nitrogen, MRI Scans, and Extra Dimensions

The science education video series Sixty Symbols (previously) explores the Cadbury Creme Egg. [more inside]
posted by KirkJobSluder at 3:05 PM PST - 26 comments

The following thread is in *massive* spoiler quotes

Portal 2 has finally hit the streets, and despite a somewhat rocky start with their controversial promotional ARG (previously), it looks to be a huge success. Interestingly for such a critically-acclaimed blockbuster, the title's core ideas steam from a pair of concept projects from student design school DigiPen: the original portal system from Narbacular Drop (video - download - previously) and the sequel's physics-altering gels from Tag: The Power of Paint (video - download - previously - previouslier). Combine these innovative ideas with some Lost-meets-Life After People level design, excellent voice acting, and top-notch writing, and it's easy to see why so many people called in sick this past week. But playing the game is just the beginning -- look inside for a collection of easter eggs, story theories, videos, and other goodies from the post-mortem. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 2:31 PM PST - 425 comments

Captured:

Captured: A Look Back at the Vietnam War on the 35th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. (The following photo collection contains some graphic violence and depictions of dead bodies.)
posted by docgonzo at 2:13 PM PST - 18 comments

"The truth is, I see myself as a girl that types instead of talking out of my mouth. I don't really see anything so special about that."

From an early age, it was clear that Carly Fleishmann had autism. Furthermore, she couldn't speak, and professionals who had diagnosed her considered her moderately to severely cognitively impaired. Therapy helped, but she still wasn't able to speak. Then at age ten, working with a computer equipped with pictures and symbols, she started typing and spelling words. She started with single words, then wrote sentences, describing how she felt, and how she wanted people to treat her. Her story has been presented on a variety of shows, often with insight provided by Carly that she typed with one finger. As her writing ability has improved over the years, she has shared her thoughts through her blog (and as a guest on Larry King's blog), on her own Twitter feed, and Facebook page. Now 16, she recently appeared again on TV, talking through her writing (transcript). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:09 PM PST - 46 comments

The solution to quantum gravity is ready.

... and there is no dark matter/energy! Dr. Philip Mannheim has succeeded in developing a cosmological and quantum field theoretic consistent PT symmetric theory that contains no kind of dark matter and dark energy. Space is flat in the absence of matter, and even the largest galactic rotation curves are predicted. Perhaps most interestingly, it also handles the cosmological constant and zero-point energy 'problems' simultaneously! (This is the final paper in a long list of publications, but it makes the case such that it's importance is immediately recognized. I leave it to the experts to recognize it's true beauty.) All hail the internets!
posted by quanta and qualia at 11:41 AM PST - 210 comments

Shawarma Law

Shawarma Law. The Ed and Moe Show is a web comedy series from Dearborn, MI - birthplace of Henry Ford, home to the highest concentration of Muslim Arabs in North America (about 1/3 the population), and a target of ignorant crankery (previously). Well Ed and Moe have seen this kind of thing before. Co-creator Mike Eshaq doesn't want you to counter-protest, he's asking people to come to the Dearborn Civic Center Friday April 22 at 4pm to celebrate Shawarma Law. It's not Ramadan right now and there's nothing to be afraid of. If you can make it, come on up and share the love. Detroit Free Press coverage. Previous episodes of The Ed and Moe Show: 1 2 3 4.
posted by McLir at 11:32 AM PST - 17 comments

Kiki Kannibal

The Girl Who Played With Fire: Rolling Stone profiles the "rise, fall and stubborn survival" of Kiki Kannibal, ‘The Most Hated Girl on the Internet
posted by zarq at 11:30 AM PST - 204 comments

Want to 'nod out'? Ride the 'H' train

Selling heroin on Craigslist. [more inside]
posted by sveskemus at 11:04 AM PST - 36 comments

HAL Sings Daisy One Last Time

Max Mathews, died today, here in San Francisco. One of the fathers of electronic music, whose early voice synthesis project became a centerpiece in 2001: A Space Odyssey - HAL singing that old tune "Daisy Bell."
posted by njohnson23 at 11:01 AM PST - 28 comments

83% male with an average net worth of $5 million

What Congress Would Look Like If It [Demographically] Represented America (full size infographic). Net worth of lawmakers (related, previously).
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:39 AM PST - 72 comments

Roger Ebert: Remaking My Voice

When film critic Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw to cancer, he lost the ability to eat and speak. But he did not lose his voice. In a moving talk from TED2011, Ebert and his wife, Chaz, with friends Dean Ornish and John Hunter, come together to tell his remarkable story. [Ted Talk video - 20minutes]
posted by hippybear at 10:11 AM PST - 10 comments

Ann Steel

Ann Steel -- My Time
posted by puny human at 9:54 AM PST - 13 comments

Unfit counsel

"This conflict of interest hits at the heart of the attorney-client relationship." Robert Caulley has served 14 years of a life sentence for the murder of his parents, a crime he says he didn't commit. Some hope that unknown DNA found on a gun at the crime scene will prove his innocence, citing similar exonerations in other high-profile Ohio cases, but so far Caulley's attempts to revisit his case with further DNA testing have failed. But look, Caulley already had his day in court with his lawyer by his side, doing everything possible to clear him, right? So he thought -- until he learned that his defense attorney was sleeping with his wife during his trial.
posted by escabeche at 9:33 AM PST - 22 comments

Diamonds and Rust

'Herman Wouk Is Still Alive' a new short story by Stephen King. Interview where, among other things, King discusses the origins of the story, his creative process in general, the status of the short story today, and his liking for Judas Priest. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:07 AM PST - 59 comments

Welcome to the Traditional Family Values Center at Texas A&M!

The Texas A&M Student Senate has voted to support and advocate for student-funded traditional family values education on Texas public school campuses. [more inside]
posted by fugitivefromchaingang at 8:51 AM PST - 100 comments

Gauss can prove two theorems with one proof.

Gauss Facts
posted by jjray at 7:35 AM PST - 29 comments

Eight Minutes of Nothing But Balls

Lego Great Ball Contraption. (YouTube). Not enough balls? Try this one. (YouTube) More about Great Ball Contraptions: one two
posted by Legomancer at 6:54 AM PST - 31 comments

Honest Logos

Logos + Truth Sunglasses: Honest Logos
posted by Memo at 6:37 AM PST - 44 comments

Iowa loophole voids mortgage

Matt and Jamie Danielson, with the aid of their bankruptcy attorney, were able to use a little known loophole in the Iowa law to void their mortgage and own their house outright after making just one payment. However, further investigation has uncovered some unsavory events in the couple's past.
posted by reenum at 6:36 AM PST - 60 comments

The Management Myth

"Management theory came to life in 1899 with a simple question: “How many tons of pig iron bars can a worker load onto a rail car in the course of a working day?”... At the end of the day his “method” amounted to a set of exhortations: Think harder! Work smarter! Buy a stopwatch!" Matthew Stewart on the fruitlessness of management science. "According to my scientific sampling, you can save yourself from reading about 99 percent of all the management literature once you master this dialectic between rationalists and humanists. The Taylorite rationalist says: Be efficient! The Mayo-ist humanist replies: Hey, these are people we’re talking about! And the debate goes on. Ultimately, it’s just another installment in the ongoing saga of reason and passion, of the individual and the group."
posted by geoff. at 6:35 AM PST - 54 comments

We all live in Lester's basement now

Lester Bangs, the late, great early-rock critic, once said he dreamed of having a basement with every album ever released in it. That's a fantasy shared by many music fans—and, mutatis mutandis, film buffs as well. We all know the Internet has made available a lot of things that were previously hard to get. Recently, though, there are indications of something even more enticing, almost paradisiacal, something that might have made Bangs put down the cough syrup and sit up straight: that almost everything is available.
posted by octothorpe at 5:12 AM PST - 137 comments

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