July 29, 2011
Browser choice and IQ
Aptiquant (PDF) has correlated browser choices with IQ scores for online IQ tests and found that IE users in 2011 score well under average. IE6 users had an average IQ of 82. Opera users rated 124.
No! I am not Luke Skywalker, nor was meant to be
The Lovesong of Admiral Piett Let us go then, you and I,
When the star destroyers are spread out across the sky
Like a smuggler frozen, cased in carbonite.
The Great Picture
Southern California Public Radio Reports (article [audio and video available inline]): Five years ago, a team of photographers created the world’s largest photograph by converting an Orange County jet hanger into a giant [pinhole] camera. The 30-by-111 foot image — called “The Great Picture” — is now on public view [at the Culver Center of the Arts] for only the second time in the U.S. Displaying the giant snapshot can be a monumental challenge. Making it was a lot harder (slyt). [more inside]
OK Go Dance
Si qui futuere voluit Atticen, quaerat a(ssibus) XVI.
The Lost City of Pompeii : A snapshot of ancient Roman life via the ruins of Pompeii. Some decor NSFW.
The Brute vs. How We Present Ourselves
Who's a good boy? Is it you? IS IT YOU?
Here are some photos of dogs shaking off water, and here are some dogs that are having a great time running, and here are some more, and here are some awesome dogs doing some awesome jumps, and here are some dogs all dressed up in wacky costumes, and here are some plain-old handsome dogs posing for the camera.
We're good, right? We're good?
25 years in and I had nothing. I was sitting alone in my garage in a house I was about to lose because of that bitch -- lets not get into that now -- and I realized. Fuck, you can build a clown, and they might not come. I was thinking, "It’s over. It’s fucking over."Marc Maron, consummate comedy insider enjoying a career resurgence as a consummate comedy outsider, delivers the keynote address at the 2011 Just For Laughs Comedy Conference. [more inside]
I'M NOT SURE I NEED AN UPGRADE TO SCYTHE 2.0...
Mortys. (Vimeo) A short, animated film in French with English subtitles. Also on YouTube and DailyMotion [more inside]
If Adult TV Shows Were Remade for Children
The goddamn Batma'am is tired of your crap
The Gender Bent Justice League descended on Comic-Con this year, complete with Superma'am, Wonder Man and the Martian Maneater. [more inside]
Forty Fords
To celebrate Harrison Ford's 40th credited big-screen appearance in Cowboys & Aliens this weekend, Steve Murray takes a look back at everyone's favourite acting chameleon.
The work of art in the age of digital reproduction
Dead End Thrills uses various cheats and texture packs to make beautiful screenshots. The creation of Duncan Harris, Dead End Thrills uses the techniques of photography - lighting and positioning - and an array of cheats to remove HUDs, arrange elements and polish resolutions to create gorgeous images from video games. [more inside]
But your fog, it really moves!
Reality As Failed State
I can just hear it Flickr galleries
I can just hear it... (slightly nsfw). Very interesting and evocative Flickr galleries of vintage photographs of musicians, curated by MeFite, flapjax at midnite. [more inside]
Worst. Congress. Ever.
Worst. Congress. Ever. "With the debt ceiling impasse and legislative gridlock sucking all the air out of Washington, Foreign Policy asked the experts: Is this really the worst Congress ever?"
What comes after one? Usually four.
A corpus analysis of rock harmony [PDF] - The analyses were encoded using a recursive notation, similar to a context-free grammar, allowing repeating sections to be encoded succinctly. The aggregate data was then subjected to a variety of statistical analyses. We examined the frequency of different chords
and chord transitions ... Other results concern the frequency of different root motions, patterns of
co-occurrence between chords, and changes in harmonic practice across time. More information, analysis, and explanation here.
We have dolls that pee, don't we?
Meet Bebe Gloton, the Breastfeeding Doll who's coming to America. The NY Times opines, Facebook users can't agree on whether it's good or bad, but what does God think?
a nose for music
Zany Germans have crazy nose flute fun! But, wait! Surprising and unexpected beauty can be coaxed from the nose flute as well. And straight outta Vancouver, the nose flute man will happily show you how it's done. Unfortunately, I've found that pretty much everything else on the internet featuring this particular type of nose flute is, well... pretty awful. YMMV.
Dry cleaning
The Chessboard Killer
Russia had never seen anything quite like the prolific serial killer Alexander Pichushkin, for whom “life without killing is like life without food.” In the end, the Maniac was what his mother and Suprunenko say he was: ordinary. He didn’t have strong opinions. He lacked preferences or ideas about other people, God, art, beauty. He could talk about these things, and did, but these were simply words in the service of killing; they were bits of theater; they were nothing. [more inside]
Find a place to trash.
When EJ was called out of town for work, she decided to use couchsurfing site AirBnB to rent her home out for the week. She took care to lock up her valuables (money, passport, iPod, grandmother's jewelry) in a closet. She came home to find her tenants had systematically looted & trashed the place. They got to the closet through a hole they made in the wall & even cut the tags off her pillows. AirBnB has made sympathetic statements but EJ remains devastated.
India Block Printing
Awwwwww!
Jupiter has lots. Mars has some, too, as does Neptune. Turns out Earth's got a trojan asteroid of its own. Meet 2010 TK7, the blue planet's new baby brother.
Those ubiquitous Tourmobiles in DC
If you have spent anytime at all on the National Mall in Washington DC, you have no doubt seen the Tourmobile trolleys shuttling tourists around to the major attractions surrounding the National Mall. Some are now questioning the 40+ year old monopoly that the operator has held on tourist transportation on the Mall, especially in light of the National Park Service's refusal to open up bidding, or even allow more economical or environmentally friendly services to compete.
"Got his nose in every colon..."
In a two minute-and-forty-two-second advertisment against advertising, Microsoft explains why you should use their product instead of that of their competitor [via]
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