July 20, 2007
Wondertwin powers, activate!
Will it blend?
Obstructacular.
"If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record". Ah, for the halcyon days of yore, when obstuctionism was so obviously unconstitutional that it required a nuclear response.
When Genre Zombies Attack!
"Something woke her in the night." Genre fiction is rising from the dead to terrorize serious literature!
In response to Michael Chabon’s (previously) new book, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,
Ruth Franklin wrote a review
in Slate beginning with the line “Michael Chabon has spent considerable energy trying to drag the decaying corpse of genre fiction out of the shallow grave where writers of serious literature abandoned it.”
Well, that didn’t go over too well with Ursula K. Le Guin, who bent her considerable
imagination and skill to the task of envisioning the zombie corpse of genre fiction and wrote an entertaining response,
which was then given a suitable cover.
The whole thing is also available as a pdf linked to from Le Guin’s website.
via
Rice paddy art.
"Pimp my rice paddy." Crop art for aliens, instead of by them.
The Buckminster Fuller Institute Challenge
The Buckminster Fuller Institute is now accepting submissions for it's new, annual design challenge contest. Submissions must be applicable with real-world technology, solving real-world problems with a minimum of ecological impact. The offered prize is $100,000, on par with some of NASA's challenges. ( Buckminster Fuller on Wikipedia, and E2 )
But what about the flying cars?
Why science fiction is hard. Inspired by reports of a creative new, Rube-Goldberg spamming technique in World of Warcraft, MetaFilter's own Charlie Stross imagines trying to explain gold farming to someone from 1977. (Previously: 1, 2, 3)
Walpi Village, Hopi Lands, Northern Arizona
Visiting Northern Arizona? Well, of course you should see the canyon. However, you might want to skip that sky walk nonsense. Instead you might want to visit Walpi village on the Hopi Lands. The Hopi have lived out there on three mesas (an island inside another reservation) since the first century A.D. They were never moved to other areas or reservations, and spent a lot of time defending their land in many important ways over the ages. These days you can have a very intimate visit to the oldest, most continually occupied place in North America, if you don't mind a little drive. Don't bring your camera.
2007 Venice Biennial
I just returned from the 2007 Venice Biennial Art Exhibition . It's considered one of the most important events in the art world, but frankly, I found it a bit boring - after all, things like this just don't do much for me - and I don't seem to be alone in that opinion. Although to be fair, the VB has a long history of criticism
FBI-CIPAV.exe is an unknown application. Install anyway?
FBI's CIPAV nabs first victim: Former Timberline High School student is the first (known) person to be caught by the FBI's secret spyware program, known as CIPAV (Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier). Wired broke the story Wednesday, then received a form letter from the FBI in response to a few key questions. (more inside)
Children of God film to premiere September 6 on HBO.
Children of God film to premiere September 6 on HBO. Filmmaker Noah Thomson goes in search of the young adults who have made a life for themselves outside of the controversial Christian cult "The Children of God." [previously] Many children of this cult have failed to thrive in the outside world and committed suicide, unable to adjust to life in a society indifferent to their abuse as children. Premieres Thursday September 6 on HBO. Link to trailer (sound is low). Jane Magazine has an article on the group and Noah Thompson in its June/July issue. [link to text and PDF scans].
What will become of Pineapple Face?
Daily Kos vs. Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly got word that Jet Blue was sponsoring the YearlyKos convention. He sent a camera crew to confront the CEO of JetBlue, asking why they were supporting radicals.
He has spent the week comparing DailyKos to the KKK and Nazi websites. He spent the majority of his radio and TV shows discussing this "hate" site. He said the right-wing equivalent of Kos was Fred Phelps.
Jetblue caved and apologized. Has someone ever misunderstood a website this bad?
Hello Comcast, I'd like to upgrade.
Swedish Woman Gets Superfast Internet. She is a latecomer to the information superhighway, but 75-year-old Sigbritt Lothberg is now cruising the Internet with a dizzying speed. Lothberg's 40 gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection in Karlstad is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, Karlstad city officials said. She's already received one offer of marriage.
Iranian man stoned to death for adultery after serving 11-year prison sentence
Iranian man stoned to death for adultery after serving 11-year prison sentence. Unsuccessful, unofficial investigation here. Amnesty International pleads for life of his partner.
Finally, you can claim experience points for housework
Chore Wars: Finally, you can claim experience points for housework.
So Size Really Doesn't Matter
So you thought that old cliche about civil servants having only half a brain was just a conservative canard? Well, think again.
Guevara With a Sweet Southern Tan
Do the Coup D'etat. The White House has made the Constitutional Crisis official: the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges against an official invoking executive privilege -- even if it's blatantly illegal.
200 Bad Comics
Gerrymandered
The shortest-splitline algorithm for drawing N congressional districts. You can seee examples of their unbiased district-drawing algorithm in action compared with the gerrymandered districts drawn by politicians.
Correct letters in wrong positions
Use everyone's logic and vocabulary skills to figure out what the secret word is.
Thriller. The Ultimate version.
In the year 1982, Michael Jackson releases Thriller, which according to the Guinness Book of World Records[wikipedia], is the greatest selling album of all time. The 14 minute music video [youtube] was the longest/most expensive at the time, and was directed by filmmaker John Landis.[imdb] Details of the video here[wikipedia]
Now onto the show. [all youtube links]
Thriller with Legos. At a wedding. The tv show Good Morning America on the wedding version. At walmart. At another wedding. In Final Fantasy. More animatics. Professional dancers. More dancers. And More. Yup, more here. Even more dancers. Sigh. Even more dancers. And it's not just for 2 year olds. College students too. Penn State's Blue Band. The Bollywood Version. They even do it in Prison.
Firday Flash Addiction
Jay is Games is holding its 3rd Casual Gameplay Design Competition. I love short games (the kind one can play in the course of a conference call) and there's a couple of goodies in here. My favorite is Gimme Friction Baby and my current high score is 16.
I don't know a lot of amazons, but I'm assuming they wouldn't be wafer-thin.
I'm no toothpick myself, and admire and enjoy the female form in all its sizes, especially ladies with some meat on them. Thus, my idea for collecting art of a bigger-sized WW happened
Thriller in Manilla?
That's MY CAKE
Antbuster: Friday Flash Fun
In 1840, the Cuerdale Hoard - the greatest Viking silver treasure trove ever found outside Russia - is found in Lancashire. 2007: a father and son find an amazing Viking hoard while metal detecting in in Harrogate. The most important find of its type in Britain for over 150 years, it reveals a remarkable diversity of cultural contacts in the medieval world, with objects coming from as far apart as Afghanistan in the East and Ireland in the West, as well as Russia, Scandinavia and continental Europe.
Crime and punishment in America has a colour
Despite a sharp national decline in crime, American criminal justice has become crueler and less caring than it has been at any other time in our modern history. Why? Former conservative economist Glenn C. Loury on incarceration in America. [via]
Errol Morris, talking pictures.
Errol Morris, documentary filmmaker, talking pictures in the N.Y.Times. The comments are not bad either.
(previously)
Slap happy
Rose and Camellia. Flash Friday. It's in Japanese, so I don't know which girl is Rose and which is Camellia. But I do know this -- they resolve their problems by slapping each other. Instructions are in Japanese as well, but it's pretty simple: Click "attack" and run your mouse over your opponent's face to slap, click "evasion" and run your mouse over yourself to dodge a slap.
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