August 3, 2010
makes my fingers hurt just to watch!
Me and Bobby McGee This is worth watching if only to observe Jerry's keyboarding starting at 2:26.
Bob's On The Job
jmtb02 has unlocked an achievement for creating a sequel to Achievement Unlocked
Achievement Unlocked 2 is here. It's bigger, badder, and now with co-op! I'd link to the walkthrough, but, well, it might be best if you found it through the game. (previously) [more inside]
Who is Huguette Clark?
Tracing the lives of William Andrews Clark and his daughter Huguette, we are left with mysteries. What does she remember of "Papa"? Is she well cared for? What will she leave to the world? "It's hard to find out what the real story was," said nephew Devine. "No one is alive — except for Huguette."
"No, the sign said “water is not portable.” “Potable?” Is that another one from Doug’s Dictionary Of Words He Pulls Out Of His Ass?"
"Cops said if I get caught huffing again they’re locking me up, but they didn’t say nothing about painting an unventilated bathroom over and over again. You can either join me or judge me, Douglas, but don’t just stand there with the door open. You’re letting all the party out of here." [more inside]
The Pond: an early US spy agency you've never heard of
Before the CIA, there was the Pond -- a highly secret, unacknowledged, and semi-autonomous intelligence agency created by the US military in 1942 as an alternative to the OSS. According the Associated Press, "The organization counted among its exploits an attempt to negotiate the surrender of Germany with Hermann Goering, one of Adolf Hitler's top military leaders, more than six months before the war ended; an effort to enlist mobster Charles 'Lucky' Luciano in a plot to assassinate Italian dictator Benito Mussolini; identifying the location of the German heavy water plants doing atomic research in Norway; and providing advance information on Russia's first atomic bomb explosion." But the CIA says that its record was "largely one of failure and impermanence."
Glitz, Glamor, Gams, and Grammar
"When I was in New York, I fell in love with some wild ideas in the shape of a woman. An English teacher, who was hard, but hard like a job I never wanted to end. But to her, I wasn't nothin' but a day at the office. That's what they call a Double Negative."
Scrooged
The Dream of a Lifetime is the inspiration for the recent movie Inception. "That contraption is made to help psychiatrists examine the dreams of their patients! The wearer of such a brain-scanner can mentally enter into the dreams of the subject!"
"Nah, don't feel threatened. I don't have a gun today."
Tourist Lanes & New Yorker Lanes
One afternoon, field agents of Improv Everywhere "...created separate walking lanes for tourists and New Yorkers on a Fifth Avenue sidewalk. Department of Transportation 'employees' were on hand to enforce the new rules and ask pedestrians for their feedback on the initiative."
Trying to "out-terrorize the terrorists"
Soldiers involved in the "Collateral Murder" video have come forward to tell their story. [more inside]
Lanyards, Lanyards, Lanyards.
Laneyards: A Guide for Lanyards, Gimp, Scoubidou, Boondoggle, and Craft Lacing. Square (box), Circle (Barrel), Triangle (3-Strand), Twisted Triangle, Pentagon (5-Strand), Twisted Pentagon, Brick (Supersquare), Twist (Supercircle), Wall (Superbrick), Corkscrew (Supertwist), Quad, Tornado, Fluted Columns, Twisted Fluted Columns, Zipper, Cobra, Twisted Cobra, Super Cobra, Butterfly.
"Acting White" and Desegregation
A new book begins with a quotation from Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2004: "Go into any inner-city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to teach, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white." The book is Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation by Stuart Buck. Buck argues that -- per his subtitle -- the "acting white" phenomenon is the result of the desegregation of America's public schools mandated by the famous 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (decision, Wikipedia). Taking this book as a jumping-off point, John McWhorter and Richard Thompson Ford have a 36-minute conversation about the "acting white" phenomenon and its connection to desegregation. (In addition to that video dialogue, or "diavlog," you can download the conversation as a podcast.) [more inside]
That's not me. That's Balzac.
In order to master the correct usage of lie and lay, David Friedman tracked every use and mis-use of the two in the series Mad Men.
I've already fucking used that one
Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty
After winning six congressional elections since 1992, Representative Bob Inglis (R - SC) is now a politician without a party, a policy maven without a movement. And in a few months, he will be without his present job. The reason? "It's a dangerous strategy to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible...[Obama] is no socialist."
None On Record - Stories from queer Africa
None On Record - Stories of Queer Africa. After the brutal 2004 murder of FannyAnn Eddy, founder of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association, native South African Selly Thiam decided to start recording the stories of African GLBTs both on the continent and in the diaspora. The result is a growing oral document of "the hopes, struggles, challenges and joy of being a QLGBT African - in their own voices". [more inside]
Racer
RACER is a recreation of a Wipeout-style racing game using "a modified vintage arcade machine, a RC model car with a wireless camera,
an a self-constructed racetrack/game level made entirely from cardboard." [via]
This page... This page is fucking terrifying
Breaking the Fourth Panel: Neonomicon and the Comic Book Frame (1, 2) Alan Moore’s recent Lovecraftian comic dissected. (MLYT, Possibly NSFW language and SAN loss)
Ultimate reading lists
Five Books claims to make you an instant expert, which it may or may not. What it does do is interview an important thinker every day about a topic, and have them select five books on the subject. The results are often eccentric and usually fascinating. Some samples: Rebecca Goldstein on reason's limitations; John Timoney on policing; Calvin Trillin on memoirs, Marcus du Sautoy on the beauty of math, Judith Herrin on Byzantium, Jonathan Haidt on happiness, and lots more, including five books on puppeteering, Nabokov, books for kids, moral philosophy, video games, terrorism, the enemies of Ancient Rome, and cookbooks.
Spot The Differance
The Facebook comments Sarah Palin doesn't want you to see
Not Sarah Palin's Friends. Slate's script kiddies snag Sarah Palin's Facebook comments stream before its edited by Team Palin. Not a hack, per se, because it was publicly available on Facebook for minutes at a time, but interesting. The deletions amount to a real-time look at how much effort and care Palin puts into protecting her public image. It's not just the number of posts that are screened out that gives some indication of how seriously Palin's team is monitoring things.
Chutes and ladders
I will not be just a tourist in the world of images...
Locals vs. Tourists: Eric Fischer maps Flickr pictures taken by city locals (in blue) against those taken by tourists (in red).
Big Ol' Bus
How appropriate. You fight like a cow.
Graphic Adventures is a 500 page book about the classic adventure games. It's available through Amazon and Lulu, but is also free to download and read. [more inside]
The Tiger Mike Memos
Edward Mike Davis was the owner or Tiger Oil, an oil company operating in Houston during the 1970's. His irascible memos have been an Internet sensation for the past few years.
Good things are not meant to last forever, and in 1980, Tiger Oil filed bankruptcy. Davis' hatred of people did not confine itself to the office, as this case shows. Tiger Oil was in litigation in relation to the bankruptcy filing as late as 1989.
Saving Anwar
You're a 39 year old American citizen born in New Mexico. Though it has convicted you of no crime, the US government is trying to kill you. Your father retained the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights to seek a federal court order restraining the killing. Two weeks later, the Treasury Department labeled you a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist". This makes it a criminal offense for the ACLU or CCR to provide you with legal representation. [more inside]
additional robot mouse
America Doesn't Have Social Classes
"[Bank robber Peter Barry] Lawrence, 71, made his getaway in his wheelchair, with $2,000 in cash on his lap... he took a meandering route down Seventh Avenue until the police caught up with him five minutes later. But that was all part of the plan." And an embedded reporter in Afghanistan notes that "many young soldiers told me that they actually live better in the army, even when deployed, than they did in civilian life, where they couldn't make ends meet, especially when they were trying to pay for college or raise a family by working one or two low-wage jobs" (p. 1). Meanwhile, "parents of means are now resorting to buying franchise businesses to keep their adult children employed." Economic life in contemporary America.
Angie Baby, you're a special lady
Of all the story songs of the 1970s, none was as unexpectedly creepy as Helen Reddy's 1974 hit "Angie Baby." [more inside]
A modern self-portrait
Face your pockets. I have no idea how these people got their heads wedged into their scanners, or why.
BNP ftw?
"Labour 51 BNP 0" Shouted the Guardian after the recent elections, as the BNP failed to return a single candidate who stood. Many felt this was the beginning of the end for the BNP, but how true was this? "The stark facts are these. Nationally, the Green Party's share of the vote actually went down 0.1% to 1%. In terms of vote share, the BNP (1.9%) and UKIP (3.1%) both did better than the Greens. Nearly twice as many voted BNP as did Green, while three times more people backed UKIP. The BNP almost tripled its support compared to 2005, while UKIP received around half as many votes again as last time." [more inside]
13 Beers in 13 Miles
“Several of you told me that I was “going to die” if I drank 13 beers while running the San Francisco Half Marathon. I did not die. I puked three times, blacked out for miles 11 and 12, and needed five hours to finish. This is my story.”
No Citizenship for You, Anchor Baby.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has joined several other key Republican leaders and conservative commentators who are calling for Congress to review the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Consitution. The Citizenship Clause has been interpreted, since the Supreme Court decision United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898, to give "birthright citizenship" to children born on U.S. soil to non-citizens (whom some GOP politicans call "anchor babies"). McConnell's comments are not the first time (see section "A Sensible Immigration Policy") the GOP has tried to question the clause. Some see the move as another attempt to capitalize on anti-immigration sentiment in the build-up to the mid-term elections.
They are the robots
Botjunkie fulfills all your robot needs, from balancing, cooperating, dancing, aggressive quadrotors (previously); through other combined or perching flying bots (though the birds object sometimes); to the hideous dancing, crying, kissing, babies of the uncanny valley; to the dextrous everyday pancake, chef and origami bots.
Manna
It tasted like wafers made with honey and it covered the ground like frost. There are different sorts of manna, some of which have been tasted and reviewed by the team at the French Culinary Institute. A related article identifies some restaurants using manna today, and you can even buy your own manna online! [more inside]
The Far Right in Mongolia
The Guardian and Time write about the rise of neo-Nazi groups in Mongolia. The view (or at least a view) from Ulan Bator. Pertinent images from the Guardian and from Time's photographer here and here respectively.
You Have Died of Dysentery
"I'll take four oxen and all the bullets $1600 will get me": The Oregon Trail Official Trailer. [SLYT]
Resolution of a makeup controversy
MAC Cosmetics and Rodarte partnered to create a makeup collection. Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind Rodarte, "were struck by the ethereal landscape and the impoverished factory workers floating to work at dawn in a sleepy, dreamlike state." People started questioning the sensitivity and intelligence behind the naming, particularly a glittery pink nailpolish named Juarez. [more inside]
Where, oh where, will my space shuttle go?
The Space Shuttle is still retiring but a U.S. Senate plan (full text PDF), (House version) would add one more flight to the shuttle's career, probably sometime late next summer. The move comes as thousands of jobs stand to be eliminated with the shuttle's retirement. [more inside]
The Opinions of Tobias Grubbe
I am fully occupied writing Essays for the broadsheets and news webs, as well as in certain Speculative Undertakings, and in missions for Her Majestie’s Government of a secret nature. Matthew Buck and Michael Cross combine under the nom de plume Tobias Grubbe to provide a Pepysian-style account of contemporary events, couched in terms of the language and lifestyle of three centuries ago. [more inside]
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