May 22, 2012
Do-it-yourself bar codes
Has there ever been any advance in retailing that didn't in turn create a new opportunity for fraud? Take barcodes, for example: You can go to the store, buy a cheap box of Legos, and take it home. Then you use your computer to create peel-and-stick stickers with that same barcode on it. Now you go back to the store, pick up expensive boxes of Legos, and put your own stickers over their barcodes. Voila! You can now buy them for low price, and resell for a profit. That is what Thomas Langenbach is accused of having done, and it seems that he made over $30,000 reselling them on eBay.
Parabasis: The Fandom Issue
Isaac Butler’s excellent blog Parabasis (previously noted in MeFi conversations about Mike Daisey and Spidermusicals) usually centers on issues in the US nonprofit theater. Occasionally, he takes on a different topic in depth with a series of guests. This past week, he hosted the Fandom Issue:
I am less interested personally in whether the Rise of the Fan is good or bad for our culture, and much more interested in what it means. This week, we assay the Fan from a number of different angles. Who are these fans? And what does it mean to be one? What happens to love when it becomes a communal activity? And what happens to it when the beloved cannot or will not respond?
[more inside]
Two-wheeled Citroen
Though the currently circulating version of the story may be somewhat apocryphal, the truth is that Frenchman Emile Leray did in fact take apart a busted Citroën 2CV and refashion it into a working motorcycle.
On Why Soup Is So Bad for Diurnal Rhythms
On Why Soup Is So Bad for Diurnal Rhythms: “Certainly. Carrot soup mimetically resembles a carrot only in color.” John was worried by the mainstream diet of soup. Not only is frantic chewing part of the joy of feeding, but widespread and protracted ingestion with minimal effort could derail diurnal cycles. Originally food was partly invented for sustenance, and partly to pass time and to mark it, and so John, in any given day, would scrupulously observe all nine meals: an early breakfast on rising; a second breakfast, in the German tradition, as rumbling recurred around nine; brunch, closely followed by elevensies, or vice versa if you favor Bohr’s algorithm; lunch; tiffin at four, with the focus on small savory sandwiches rather than cake, to avoid a mid-afternoon sugar coma; dinner; supper, and, of course, a final midnight feast to salute the day as it retires. Each meal consists of one, two, or three courses, plus intercourses where appropriate, and the main cycle might be accessorized with any number of subcycles of casual snacking.
Robert Hughes' "The Shock of the New"
Shock of the New is a 1980 documentary television series by Robert Hughes produced by the BBC in association with Time-Life Films and RM Productions. ... It addressed the development of modern art since the Impressionists and was accompanied by a book of the same name; its combination of insight, wit and accessibility are still widely praised. - Wikipedia [more inside]
SHABANG!
The Disappearing Double Chin Trick for Portrait Photography: "The key to looking good in photos? It's all about your jaw, as photographer Peter Hurley explains in this video." (YouTube, ~15 min.) Hurley's quick tips for better portraits in the NYT; Hurley's helpful headshot tips for actors. (~8 min.) Want more? FStoppers behind-the-scenes video (10 min.); an excerpt (from his DVD) of one headshot session (20 min.); a 2-hour seminar on "The Basic Headshot". An SLR Lounge interview with Hurley. (~40 min.) (main link via laughingsquid + lifehacker)
The Playoff Eclipse Chronicles
Oh that's tearing my heart out, I love that, just keep that going...
BBC's Essential Mix has been running two hour DJ sets for nearly 20 years, usually continuous mixes of current club tracks. Nicolas Jaar took things in a decidedly different direction this week, with an eclectic mix of sound track music, jazz, hip-hop, IDM and pop music with just a sprinkling of deep house here and there. Truly essential listening.
"The sale of this next lot will be contingent on a satisfactory resolution of a court proceeding dealing with this matter."
On May 20th, the fossil remains of a Tarbosaurus (aka, Tyrannosaurus bataar) were sold for $1,052,500. The auction was carried out despite objections from the President of Mongolia and a court order. The problem? The remains may have been poached.
Spitfires unearthed in Burma
Once more into the breach! Shades of Neal Stephenson: a squadron of RAF Spifires has been unearthed in Burma and is on its way back to Old Blighty. One hopes they can be properly restored so the populace can witness the aircraft that saved England's bacon. At the very least, perhaps they'll appear in a Dr Who episode.
An Unorthodox Controversy
In February, author Deborah Feldman spoke with xoJane's (and Metafilter's own) hermitosis about the backlash she experienced from the Hasidic community in the days leading up the release of her tell-all memoir "Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots." Today xoJane granted another Hasidic woman from the interview post her own rebuttal to the original article, "What Women's Media Needs to Know About Chassidic Women," in which she defends her religion against feminists and "poor Deborah Feldman" sympathizers. Metafilter's own hermitosis responds in the comments.
Looks like you could use a pick-me-up.
Strong Female Protagonist is a (currently 16-page, but ongoing) webcomic that "follows the adventures of a young middle-class American with super-strength, invincibility and a crippling sense of social injustice."
Basketball
The ad is the work of two of the most fearsome players in Republican politics: Larry McCarthy, the producer behind the infamous Willie Horton commercial in 1988, and Crossroads GPS, the political battle squad founded by Karl Rove. Here it is.
Revisioning Red Riding Hood
Animation veteran Steve Moore recently posted a short from the archives of Disney TV Animation, written by Dan O’Shannon, narrated by Garrison Keillor, and voiced by Mia Farrow, Michael Richards, June Foray, and Adam West, all set to a jazz soundtrack. Take 15 minutes and watch Redux Riding Hood. Steve tells the story of the short on his blog. (Via Cartoon Brew)
Scenes from Brazil
Month of May
Indigenous Tweets, Indigenous Blogs
Indigenous Tweets: Catalogue of Twitter users writing in minority or endangered languages. From that list, it is an easy couple of links to the inevitable Friday Night Lights recaps written in Breton. (Subsite: Indigenous Blogs.)
What becomes a legend most?
In 1929, John Galsworthy won a Guardian poll as the novelist most likely to still be read in 2029. Three years later, he won the Nobel Prize, and the prices of his first editions skyrocketed. His reputation has since been on a 80-year wane that shows no signs of abating. The New Yorker asks Why is Literary Fame So Unpredictable? And who will they be teaching in literature class a century from now?
Great Googley Moogley
Celebrating the memory of beloved synth pioneer Bob Moog and commemorating his birthday, Google's home page (currently in Australia, live in the US tomorrow) is a fully working, multi-trackable Moog synthesizer. Share your masterpiece!
Hickory Hasn't Changed Much
This 18 minute short film (SLYT) travels to all the important locations from the movie Hoosiers. "Coach stays," and apparently everything else does too as very little has changed since they filmed the movie in 1986.
This American Truth
The line between a good story and a true story gets a closer examination at This American Life [more inside]
Fresno
Fresno was a mistake from the beginning, a story by Michael Thomsen. Part of N+1 magazine City by City series.
'Vengo' the film entire
Vengo the film entire.
A dramatic film by Tony Gatlif, creator of the far better known Latcho Drom, the famed wordless documentary about Gypsy music. [more inside]
A dramatic film by Tony Gatlif, creator of the far better known Latcho Drom, the famed wordless documentary about Gypsy music. [more inside]
Telling too much, too little or just enough
A museum exhibit called Sex: A Tell-All Exhibition is drawing controversy. After running in Montreal and Regina with no complaints, the exhibit was criticised by the Heritage Minister when it came to Ottawa for being too lurid and being outside the mandate of the Science and Technology Museum. [more inside]
How to Not Kill a Cyclist
It’s National Bike to Work Day today [in some cities], and maybe you noticed a lot of cyclists on your commute this morning. If you didn’t—and you’re a driver—that’s cause for concern. A plea for safety from cyclists to motorists. How to Not Kill a Cyclist [more inside]
Daddy, I’m going to read you a story, okay? It’s about a little boy who was born. But he was born like a girl.
Transgender at Five - "Tyler was born a girl, but at the age of 2 he began insisting that he was a boy."
"The only thing that limits us is our imagination."
"Scooby Doo can doo-doo, but Jimmy Carter is smarter." [a bale of detritus blows across the living room]
RCMP eyed philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre during tense Quebec political upheaval. [theglobeandmail.com] Canadian spies closely eyed existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, tracking his planned trip to Quebec in support of people arrested during a crackdown on separatist threats, newly released documents show.
The declassified Royal Canadian Mounted Police dossier on Mr. Sartre also reveals that Mountie intelligence officers pored over translations of the French writer’s pronouncements, monitored his links to the peace movement and noted the academic rebel’s brushes with the law.
We Survived.
One year ago today, a tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri. Photographer Robert X. Fogarty's "Dear World" project commemorates the survivors of that day with two galleries of portraits. Each survivor has a short message written on his or her skin: "I survived Joplin's EF-5." "Together these work miracles." "Survived."
Memento Salutis Auctor
Just imagine: a few musicologists know that there are 320 18th century sonatas lying somewhere in a Dutch archive. Half of them are by great masters such as Vivaldi and Telemann. The other half consists of works written by lesser-known but nonetheless interesting composers. Yet no one performs them or even shows any interest in them. Three hundred and twenty sonatas! Unthinkable, improbable. [more inside]
This post could not handle a link from the Daily Mail
As a flag-waving Britain prepares for the Jubilee/Olympics (or in the words of the comedy Twenty Twelve, 'Jubilympics'), the nation seems divided between the wildly enthusiastic and those suffering from Patriotism Fatigue(link may be NSFW). James Ward (of Boring fame) does a round-up of spurious Jubilympic themed products, after consumption of which you may require a sick bag.
Half a step away from Minority Report UI
"For the first time, you can control a computer in three dimensions with your natural hand and finger movements". [SLYT] LEAP is a USB peripheral that can provide real-time motion tracking to 100th of a millimeter. [more inside]
Second stage propulsion performing as expected.
SpaceX's Falcon9 rocket carrying Dragon capsule to dock with the ISS, has launched successfully. [more inside]
Best tetris ever?
Have you ever bought one of those cheapo generic Tetris games? From an article on Understanding Japanese Comedy.
If before intercourse the boy can cover up his contempt, he can go ahead without feeling too guilty
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