August 31, 2006
Executive Excess
Executive Excess 2006: Defense and Oil Executives Cash in on Conflict (PDF). A new study from United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies looks at who is making a killing from the war on terror (or whatever they're calling it this week.) Looking ahead, I better review my portfolio. [Via C&L.]
Talking over the Talkies
Ever wonder if that DVD commentary might put you to sleep? Well, wonder no more. Learn about the first, the worst, and find out what other people think are the best. Vote for your favorites, and add your own reviews. "The definitive commentary track database" is at your service. Link courtesy of Whedonesque.
The Internet and You
The Internet and our social and psychological well-being : This older study correlates Internet use with declining social relationships and isolation. A more recent study (PDF) shows that the Internet has changed and positively affects social relationships.
Photorealistic CG?
Chaos Theory Flash Game
Chaos Theory is a simple but highly addictive Japanese flash game where 50 blue orbs get launched into the air, and you have a single explosion you can trigger by clicking anywhere on the screen. Each orb caught in the blast explodes itself, creating a chain reaction. The goal is to catch as many of the blue orbs before gravity pulls them back to the ground. Each game lasts 3 rounds, with a maximum score of 150 total points. Click the dark blue Kanji script to begin the first round.This game is old, but I've not seen it posted here before
Got WMDs?
The Deadly Deseret Chemical Depot is one of the scariest places on Earth, if you believe Alien Dave, which most people probably don't. Seen anomalous wildlife in Utah? Alien Dave wants to know about it. Need deprogramming? Dave's got you covered. But as for the chemical depot, its days as one of the biggest concentrations of chemical WMDs on the planet are numbered.
Romanes Eunt Domus.
After the Romans left Britain was divided into a number of Celtic kingdoms that fought with each other and, increasingly, with the Germanic invaders we know as "Anglo-Saxons." The most famous alleged defender of Celtic Britain, of course, is King Arthur, but he's more myth than history. What catches my imagination is The Gododdin (Welsh original, by Aneurin), an epic lament for the band of men who gathered at Eiddyn (Edinburgh, main town of Gododdin) around the year 600 and headed south for a last-ditch battle against the Saxons at Catraeth (probably Catterick in northern Yorkshire), where they were wiped out. One contingent was from Elmet (Elfed in the poem), a kingdom that had been holding the line against the invaders in what's now Yorkshire; once Elmet was conquered, there was no stopping them. And all of this history was basic to the poetry of David Jones, one of the best unknown poets of the previous century, and important to one of the best known, Ted Hughes (book with photos). "Men went to Catraeth, familiar with laughter. The old, the young, the strong, the weak."
Philosophy Lectures
Online videos of philosophical lectures. Chomsky, Pinker, Dennet, Hofstadter, Searle, the Churchlands...
We can rebuild it.
Frank Lloyd Wright in Half Life 2 a machima walkthrough of the Falling Water / Kaufmann House. (youtube) (higher res version - 57mb) (slightly more information)
LMS patent
Can you patent learning? Blackboard Inc. is granted a wide-ranging patent for its learning management system and immediately sues their rival, Desire2Learn. Opponents and documentarians have taken to creating this Wikipedia entry on the history of virtual learning environments.
Goodbye NAFTA
A slush fund for Bush, courtesy of Canada? The proposed softwood lumber deal, which would end the longstanding dispute over Canadian exports to the US, is being criticised for giving the White House $450 million, to be spent without congressional oversight.
Your Karate is No Good.
You Asked For It. So you want to learn to
fight?
Train wisely.
Here is
how you
do it. And here is how you do not. (Some video footage may be NSFW due violent fight footage. No fatalities.)
You Got the Touch
I don't want to get all fanboy about the upcoming Transformers movie. Even if they did get Peter Cullen to reprise his role as the vox of semi-truck-autobot-leader Optimus Prime. I mean Michael Bay is directing it, people. However, perhaps it's possible Stan Bush could revamp his famous 'You Got the Touch' anthem. Couldn't be as bad as Mark Wahlberg's version (or John C. Reilly's dancing).
Who's watching the watchmen?
Wired thinks it’s time to talk about how media consolidation affects freedom of the press in America. Al Gore seems to think it's a problem almost as serious as Global Warming (and in some ways, a closely related one). So just who does own the media these days? Maybe it’s time for a return to the days when we expected a little more fairness in our news coverage.
Cousin Oliver Effect
Right up there with the Darrin Syndrome, the Cousin Oliver Effect is one of the most ridiculed devices in Sitcom-land. Until today, though, I didn’t know that Robbie Rist is still going strong.
"All guilty had been punished already."
The Nedelin disaster remains the most fatal catastrophe in the history of rocketry. On October 26, 1960 an R-16 ICBM designed by Mikhail Yangel accidentally ignited killing over 100 within moments. The incident remained in strict secrecy for thirty years until it was unearthed by James Oberg. The true casualty rate remains a mystery and Kazakhstan still sees more than its fair share of rocket mishaps.
'It has lumps'
GRACE is fine-tuning our understanding of Earth's gravity. It also shows that Greenland's ice is melting, how the recent Sumatra earthquake changed the earth, and provides information on the world's oceans and climate.
Can't we just bronze the whole family?
Tom Cruise's baby just took a healthy crap. Now you can buy a unique bronze cast of it. (One assumes the family kept the original.) Has celebrity worship finally gone too far? I say, "no!"
Two-Dimensional Parents
Kids, was your Mom or Dad sent to Iraq? Need some help coping with the separation anxiety? Never fear, it's the Maine National Guard to the rescue!
Marcus Fiesel, shoved aside again.
On Aug 15 a three year old Cincinnati-area boy Marcus Fiesel, was reported missing. The truth has finally come out.
On August 4th Marcus's arms were tied behind his back, wrapped in a blanket and bound with packing tape, and was locked into a closet by his foster parents. The boy was dead when they returned from thier two day long trip on August 6th. The foster dad then took the boys body to a rural location and burned it, several times, and reported him missing, over a week later. They claimed innoence even while they moved to a new house just days after he went missing. Then the until the police found the body, not far from a remote house of one foster mother's family members.
no national outlet has reported it, it's largely been ignored due to the renewed media obsession with JonBenet Ramsey.
Was it that Marcus was a boy? That he was dark haired? Or that he was poor and in foster care?
Who took the Ground Zero flag?
Remember this picture? Arguably the most famous flag raised since this one was, and apparently its now gone missing. And now the three firefighters who didn't know they were being photographed won't talk to the press about a flag appraised to be worth over $500K.
Glenn Ford - 1916-2006
Once there was a redheaded man
Once there was a redheaded man without eyes and without ears. He had no hair either, so that he was a redhead was just something they said. He could not speak, for he had no mouth. He had no nose either. He didn't even have arms or legs. He had no stomach either, and he had no back, and he had no spine, and no intestines of any kind. He didn't have anything at all. So it is hard to understand whom we are really talking about. So it is probably best not to talk about him any more. Note that the last two links are in Russian. [This is a copy of a post by Daniel Charms, at MetaChat.]
Multi-faceted Rumsfeld
He is the longest-serving Defense Secretary since Robert McNamara. He is a profound anti-nazi, anti-deadender, and anti-appeaser. He bends reality itself to his will. But do you know the secret Rumsfeld, poet, SCA laurel, and namesake of beetles?
Return of the Amiga 500?
Micorsoft has now opened up the xbox 360 to homebrew development via the XNA compatibility framework. Read the XNA "Team blog" for more.
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