July 28, 2009
Whitstable Seagull Kidnaps Cat
Whitstable Seagull Kidnaps Cat A story of seagulls, cats and allen keys.
FORWARD 100
The Great Red Herring Chase is like TypeRacer, but with a plot. Greg Wohlwend's other games are addictive, destructive/cute (previously), philosophical, and baffling. Next, he's taking on the exciting world of patent illustrations. But if your childhoood was anything like mine, his homepage will be your biggest productivity killer. (via)
So You Think YOU Can Dance?
Little Boy Dancing [SLYT]
The Crow Paradox
Crows can tell people apart. Can you tell crows apart?
16-Bit Arthouse
I know from playing the video games of that era that tiny sprites can be very powerful. Maybe it’s because we can project a lot of emotion onto them, or maybe because they’re small and they have big eyes and big heads like children. I don’t know. The Adventures of Ledo & Ix, along with an interview with the filmmaker. (via)
Tell Me What You See
LOL
Power to the people
Kropla's World Electric Guide - outlets / power plugs of the world (map), along with an index of international voltages and frequencies for travellers. Plugs in the future: modular, stylish, smart, eco-friendly, rotating, collapsible, or gone entirely.
Like taking flowers from babies
Albuquerque’s Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary School, opened in 1988, has come under written attack from the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe for copyright infringement — even though the museum’s acquisition of the artist’s name came years after the school was named. E-mails from the museum warned of possible trademark infringement and suggested that fees may be required for some uses of the name. Even though the school has never used the artist's work or images, the museum believes that just using the name means that the school should give them a cut of any fund raising done to benefit the kids of the school. This isn't the first academic attack launched by the museum since taking control of the O'Keefe IP.
Assuming bullets sell in Somalia for USD 0.75
The Adventures Of A Would Be Arms Dealer (PDF) is an eight-page comic illustrating how an illegal arms deal works in practice. Via.
Costumes from Comic-Con
If you found a dead whale, how would you dispose of the body?
When whales die: Yesterday, a 20-30 foot whale washed up a shore in New Jersey. Officials are going to deal with it by cutting it up into small parts and burying it. In previous incidents, officials tried to explode it into bits that were meant to fall in the ocean and get eaten by seagulls, but that didn't work out [YT] so well, especially for nearby spectators. Even if you want to let it decompose naturally, you have to be careful for spontaneous explosions due to gassy buildup. Especially when transporting it in busy city streets. Oops. When whales die in the ocean, on the other hand, their bodies eventually fall to the sea floor and can start mini ecosystems, where female pink glowstick-like sea worms that harbor the male pink glowstick sea worms inside their bodies live, eat whale bones, and propagate. (Previously on Metafilter: Taiwan explosion)
Happy Science, and the Potential Joining of Church and State in Japan
Kōfuku-no-Kagaku (幸福の科学), also called Happy Science, is a relatively new religious and spiritual movement, founded in Japan in October 1986. The organization is gaining ground world-wide, with the international headquarter office in central Tokyo, 6 local temples located in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seoul and Taiwan, and an additional 37 local offices around the world. The group's leader, Master Ryuho Okawa, has is not limiting the scope of the movement to politics, and in May 2009 the Happiness Realization Party was formed, with over 300 HRP candidates running for the coming general election. To provide background on the religion and political movement, here is a little investigation of Happy Science by MeFi's own shii [via mefi projects] [more inside]
Want to use Google Voice? There's no app for that.
The internet is atwitter over Apple's decision to block the Google Voice app from their App Store, and remove all existing apps that facilitate its use. Fingers are pointing at AT&T, but the app is blocked globally.
La - La; Can't hear you.
Tariq Ali writes in the LRB: -
This is now Obama’s war. He campaigned to send more troops into Afghanistan and to extend the war, if necessary, into Pakistan. These pledges are now being fulfilled. On the day he publicly expressed his sadness at the death of a young Iranian woman caught up in the repression in Tehran, US drones killed 60 people in Pakistan.
Tariq Ali discusses the views of Graham Fuller an ex CIA Kabul station chief who thinks Obama's Policies are Making the Situation Worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The further view from Asia is that Pakistan wields a double-edged sword and that although the Pakistan-US plan are falling into place the militants, too, have their mechanisms in place, and they don't plan to deviate. A mighty collision is inevitable.
Meanwhile Kalashnikov demand soars.
Tariq Ali discusses the views of Graham Fuller an ex CIA Kabul station chief who thinks Obama's Policies are Making the Situation Worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The further view from Asia is that Pakistan wields a double-edged sword and that although the Pakistan-US plan are falling into place the militants, too, have their mechanisms in place, and they don't plan to deviate. A mighty collision is inevitable.
Meanwhile Kalashnikov demand soars.
The Beauty Race
Researchers have found that beautiful women have more children than their plainer counterparts and that a higher proportion of those children are female. Those daughters, once adult, also tend to be attractive and so repeat the pattern.
Pipilotti Rist
The artvideos of Pipilotti Rist: You Called Me Jacky::I'm A victim of this song (wicked game)::I'm not the girl who misses much::Sexy Sad I::Lullaby (swan)::Transposicion ::Be Nice To Me (Flatten 04)::Rist discusses Pour Your Body Out at MOMA
Shatner Interprets Palin
Cutthroat Capitalism
WIRED contributing editor Scott Carney interviewed an ocean-going hijacker for his story on the economics of Somali piracy. [more inside]
Coffee Cup Art
Cheeming Boey is an artist. Sharpie on coffee cups are his chosen medium. Boey even outlines his process. The cups, of course, are for sale, and arrive in a tasteful glass case. His other projects are similarly creative.
Circling the lonely moon by yourself, the loneliest person in the universe, weren't you lonely?
Astronaut Michael Collins – "I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied."
The End of Bonus Beats?
The "Bonus Beats" tracks on 12" singles were used by DJ's to either extend the mix of the main track, or sometimes played within a dj mix on their own. One DJ mourns their passing. [more inside]
Not big and not clever.
"For a lot of comics, it's OK to talk about raping women now. That's the new black on the comedy circuit." "One false move, and I'm Jim Davidson." "Don't go thinking I'm the new Bernard Manning. I'm being postmodern and ironic. I understand that what I'm saying is unacceptable." The new offenders of standup comedy.
The strangest items left in hotel rooms
Hoteliers reveal some of the most bizarre items that guests have left behind.
Get your schadenfreude here
Recently, there have been a host of websites that delight in exposing the inanity and stupidity of our society. There is the granddaddy, Overheard in New York, which recounts silly conversations heard in the Big Apple, as well as a host of similar sites.
There are now a variety of such websites, dedicated to different aspects of our society. [more inside]
Juvenile pensioners
"I once proposed a solution somewhat tongue in cheek to the problem of pensions: turn retirement upside down ... people would be supported by society up to the age of 30. During that period they would study, travel, prepare for a profession, reproduce and give full-time care to their young ... After 30, they would work until they dropped dead or became incapacitated." Letter from physicist Cylon Gonçalves da Silva to The Economist in response to this original article on the problems of an ageing global population.
Sucky craigslist posts.
enjoying Wikipedia
Best of Wikipedia: A twice-daily updated collection of some of the best reading on Wikipedia. Created and maintained by avinash.vora.
lots of pews, but this ain't no church.
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