May 2, 2013
Why we're screwed
Why the American political system is so dysfunctional today "But what is most striking is that in a presidential system, the legislators, especially when they represent cohesive, disciplined parties that offer clear ideological and political alternatives, can also claim democratic legitimacy. This claim is thrown into high relief when a majority of the legislature represents a political option opposed to the one the president represents. Under such circumstances, who has the stronger claim to speak on behalf of the people: the president or the legislative majority that opposes his policies? Since both derive their power from the votes of the people in a free competition among well-defined alternatives, a conflict is always possible and at times may erupt dramatically. There is no democratic principle on the basis of which it can be resolved, and the mechanisms the constitution might provide are likely to prove too complicated and aridly legalistic to be of much force in the eyes of the electorate." [more inside]
Bleep Bloop Blertz
Music Macro Language is a tiny programming language for making music. If you want to work with it yourself you can start with the guide, or skip ahead to some results with handy in-browser editors. Besides being supported by many BASIC implementations and having a compiler for more than ten consoles, it can be used by composer characters in the Mabinogi MMO, which has produced a number of blogs dedicated to producing MML tracks for use in the game. [more inside]
Cities Of The Future
TRON UPRISING Art Direction
"During 3 years I was working on Tron Uprising as the Art Director/Production Designer... Here, 4 minutes re-edit of my favourite scenes." - Alberto Mielgo
The Mothership Connection
Fold a Ford
Got some time to kill? How about making some paper truck models?
Environment mapping for the masses
Microsoft's IllumiRoom takes gaming visuals outside the box and onto the living room. Basically projection mapping for your living room, based on a 3D scan using Kinect, Microsoft Research's IllumiRoom lets you show either all of a game's environment, or only certain parts, projected on your living room walls.
Flapping-wing bio-inspired micro air vehicle
[V]Robo Raven[V] is a robot bird. So uncanny a hawk attacked it during testing. Other robot birds include the SmartBird, a flying robotic seagull, and AirPenguins. Robobee is a robot bee.
How Having a Boyfriend Can Help You Get the Boyfriend of Your Dreams
Reductress is a new site that does to women's magazines what The Onion does to newspapers. There's also an interview with the site's creators
\m/ . \m/
Guitarist Jeff Hanneman of Slayer has died at 49.
A founding member of the long-running thrash institution, Jeff Hanneman passed away of liver failure after a long battle with necrotizing fasciitis thought to have been caused by a spider bite (previously.) Hanneman wrote music and lyrics for many of the band's most iconic songs, including Angel of Death, Raining Blood, South of Heaven, and Seasons in the Abyss.
A founding member of the long-running thrash institution, Jeff Hanneman passed away of liver failure after a long battle with necrotizing fasciitis thought to have been caused by a spider bite (previously.) Hanneman wrote music and lyrics for many of the band's most iconic songs, including Angel of Death, Raining Blood, South of Heaven, and Seasons in the Abyss.
Their whole lives are a delicate cycle.
Musicians Kimya Dawson and Aesop Rock have been working for a while on a project they call The Uncluded. Their album is called Hokey Fright. It comes out on May 7. You can listen to the whole thing streaming right now here. The video for "Delicate Cycle" is here. The video features Lil Bub, who is an Internet-famous cat that Robert DeNiro likes.
The Uncluded can also help you catch a frog.
"negligence" or "gross negligence"?
'Well, could we get some respirators or something, because that s--t is bad.' He said, 'No, that wouldn't look good to the media.' Last month, BP CEO Dudley told the annual BP shareholders meeting in London that Corexit "is effectively ... dishwashing soap." But the Louisiana Environmental Action Network's scientific adviser, Wilma Subra, a chemist whose work on environmental pollution had won her a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, told state and federal authorities at the time that she was especially concerned about the mixture of crude and Corexit. Flashforward to 2013, the civil trial against BP is underway, and an investigative reporter talks about the cover-up in a long article at Newsweek. (Previously, previouslier, more previouslier)
"The Lower Depths"
Before the National Enquirer, TMZ, Globe, The Star and other gossip tabloids, there was the National Police Gazette. Founded in 1845, it originally covered "highwaymen and suchlike malefactors, the thought being that the public would get on to the evil-doers and fix their wagons." Thirty years later a new owner transformed 'the oldest weekly in America' into a full-on tabloid covering "murders, Wild West outlaws, and sport... well known for its engravings and photographs of scantily clad strippers, burlesque dancers, and prostitutes, often skirting on the edge of what [was] legally considered obscenity." Some even consider it "America’s first popular men’s magazine." The Gazette shut down in 1977, but has now been resurrected. [more inside]
"The female body thirsts for words. A man’s words."
She steps in, takes off the bathrobe and stands silently before two men discussing her body. "Blachman" is a new Danish TV show, hosted by Thomas Blachman. [both links NSFW]
nutrition database
An exceptionally informative, nicely designed and useful nutrition database, where you can easily look up the glycemic load, inflammation factor, vitamins, proteins, nutrients, calories etc. It is a practical source of information if you wish to either shed excess poundage or put some on. There is a glycemic index info page and lots more. The site was created by Self magazine.
Rice and Old Lace
Consumer Reports recently advised against eating too much rice. Is this a new fad diet? Not exactly. Instead, limiting intake of rice will help cut back on that nasty habit of eating arsenic.
The Taiga Life
Featured previously, Vice does a 35 minute video chronicling a rare visit to the sole surviving member of the Lykov family, Agafia. [more inside]
Hello. My name is hotdog.
I'm kind of falling in love with this tiny corner of reddit wherein users post their ms paint compositions. No two people use paint the same way, and there's a really good mix of modest skill and supreme awesomeness. Then there's /r/MSPaintBattles, the off-shoot of /r/photoshopbattles for "those who can't afford Photoshop." The two guilds waged war recently and comedy gold was produced.
Press A to make these patronizing screens go away.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon's opening tutorial sequence pokes a whole lot of fun at the conventions of opening tutorial sequences. [more inside]
What Do Philosophers Believe?
What Do Philosophers Believe? David Bourget and David Chalmers, co-directors of Philpapers.com, have written an article based on the PhilPapers Survey of professional philosophers. It covers the popularity of various views, correlations with age, gender, and geography, a factor analysis that tries to isolate important underlying factors; and discussion of the results of the Metasurvey, bringing out just how surprising some of the survey results are. The article is forthcoming in Philosophical Studies. [more inside]
Miracle twins
Amy and Katie, the twins born 87 days apart - after mother's contractions simply stopped.
Crossing the "Red Line"?
Syria Options Go From Bad To Worse
As reports have surfaced of possible use of sarin gas in the Syrian civil war, calls by long-time proponents of U.S. intervention on behalf of the anti-Assad rebels have grown to a fever pitch. These same voices, both at home and abroad, have evoked the administration’s previously stated “red line” on use of chemical weapons. But even assuming that reports of WMD usage in Syria turn out to be true, the Obama Administration’s position may be far more nuanced than previously thought.[more inside]
Glory to Arstotzka!
"Your job as immigration inspector is to control the flow of people entering the Arstotzkan side of Grestin from Kolechia. Among the throngs of immigrants and visitors looking for work are hidden smugglers, spies, and terrorists. Using only the documents provided by travelers and the Ministry of Admission's primitive inspect, search, and fingerprint systems you must decide who can enter Arstotzka and who will be turned away or arrested."Papers, Please is a "dystopian document thriller" game by Lukas Pope. (Downloadable, for Windows/OSX; NSFW) [more inside]
The rise of the tick
With incisor-like claws that can tunnel beneath your skin in seconds, ticks are rapidly establishing themselves as the Swiss Army knife of disease vectors. Carl Zimmer walks into the woods to find out why these tiny beasts appear to be skyrocketing in number – and outsmarting environmental scientists trying to control them with every bite.
"Most kids are not like those in Kids, and never will be, I hope."
Legends Never Die Two decades after a low-budget film turned Washington Square skaters into international celebrities, the kids from "Kids" struggle with lost lives, distant friendships, and the fine art of growing up. Caroline Rothstein writes about the cast of the Harmony Korine / Larry Clark film twenty years on for narrative.ly.
Still curious about that slice of log he's holding.
Yesterday the Green Machine beat the Portland Timbers 10-9. What makes this unusual is that the Green Machine is a youth club, and the winning goal was scored by Atticus Lane-Dupre, an 8yd old with cancer. And that the match, organized by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, was attended by thousands of enthusiastic fans.
365 Wonder Animation Project
Abstract animator Mirai Mizue has posted 24 frames of animation online every day for a year.
He has now completed a Kickstarter to fund post-production and music to turn the results into a complete film. [more inside]
The Matrix retold by Mom
"My mom hadn't seen (or heard of) the Wachowski's classic sci-fi film The Matrix. We watched the entire movie together and right after she told me what it was all about."
Baby is invincible. But baby can't jump and climb ladder.
Keita's Quick Ideas. In 2011, Keita Takahashi, designer of Katamari Damacy, joined the team of the unconventional MMO game Glitch (previously), which had to close its doors last year. The Glitch people have since published 200 of Keita's ideas for the game.
Selections from the BFI's collection of early cinema
The British Film Institute's YouTube channels offer a staggering amount (previously) of content on historical cinema, shorts, and discussion. Some short selections from the early and silent period of note - The Sick Kitten (1903) - How Percy Won The Beauty Competition (1909) - Tilly The Tomboy Visits The Poor (1910) - Suffragette Riot In Trafalgar Square (1913) - The Fugitive Futurist, in which a man on the run shows a device that can see far into the future (1924) - Vaudevillian legend Billy Merson Singing 'Desdemona'. Widely considered Britain's first sound film - (1927) Charley In New Town - part of an animated series from the Central Office, this one explaining the need for "New Towns." (1948) - Growing Girls, a filmstrip guide to puberty for young women (1951).
In a City of Hipstercrites
How I Became a Hipster (SLNYT)
House-type music mixes from Catz n Dogz and friends
Grzegorz Demiañczuk and Wojciech Tarañczuk were born under communist rule in the Polish city of Szczecin, where they first heard pop music by way of German radio broadcasts. The got into techno in the 1990s, and got more music by way of tapes from street vendors and CD swaps from other music fans in the US. The duo started working under the name Catz n Dogz in 2007, spinning and making house music of various sorts. They released two albums, and started their own label, Pets Recordings, to promote other Polish producers, and have released hours of free mixes from the duo and their friends, by way of their petcasts. Catz n Dogz also got to shine on BBC Radio 1 recently, with an Essential Mix on April 20.
"Want Me To Kick His Ass?"
Breaking into the Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex for peace
An elderly nun and two middle-aged men broke into Y-12 National Security Complex last year and splashed a dead friend's blood on the wall. Oak Ridge, Tennessee- previously -a company town for an all-American venture: nuclear war. On a summer day nine months ago Megan Gillespie Rice, an 82 year-old nun, along with Vietnam Vet Michael Walli- her self-styled bodyguard-, and their friend Gregory Boertje-Obed left the town and hiked over the hill to the plant that spawned the town. They made it all the way into the facility by cutting through fences; they poured blood on the wall of a building, and were arrested. They are now on trial for sabotage and may spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Their trial is one of many faced by religious pacifists who have attempted to symbolically beat swords into plowshares. They follow in a long tradition, inspired in part by Dorothy Day (previously), the Catholic Worker movement, Philip Berrigan (previously).
How Historical Figures Would Have Looked Today?
"...saw digital artists working closely with history experts to ensure the portraits gave a real sense of how historical characters would look if they were alive in the 21st Century." Come for the hilarious justifications of modern-day standards of fitness and beauty, stay for the "hipster Shakespeare."
Why Being A Nerd Is Awesome
Wil Wheaton Explains To A Fans' Newborn Why Being A Nerd Is Awesome
Eighty-eight below
"This is video of an aurora australis taken at the geographic south pole! I'm not absolutely sure, but it might actually be the first true video of an aurora australis here, as opposed to a timelapse of longer exposures. Sorry about the swearing - if you were there seeing it you'd probably swear too."
"Shortfall fears for interest-only mortgage holders"
"More than a million people with interest-only mortgages face a financial crunch when they have to pay them off, a watchdog is warning.
Some 2.6 million UK householders have the mortgages but the Financial Conduct Authority said estimates suggested that nearly half would not have savings or other funds to cover the final bill.
The average shortfall is £71,000, according to FCA research."
Gruaniad version.
Four Sisters...36 years
In 1975, American photographer Nicholas Nixon took a photo of his wife Bebe and her three sisters. Since then, the Brown sisters took a photo every year till 2010. [more inside]
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