September 5, 2010
Vérités et mensonges
F for Fake (French: Vérités et mensonges) is the last major film completed by Orson Welles, who directed, co-wrote, and starred in the film. Initially released in 1974, it focuses on Elmyr de Hory's recounting of his career as a professional art forger; de Hory's story serves as the backdrop for a fast-paced, meandering investigation of the natures of authorship and authenticity, as well as the basis of the value of art. Loosely a documentary, the film operates in several different genres and has been described as a kind of film essay. [more inside]
How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?
The Rolling Shutter Effect: a mobile phone camera is fairly quick, but when the objects you are recording move faster than the scan rate, cool things happen. Mucho previously at MeFi.
An ancestor story
đẹp khoe, xấu che, or “show the good, hide the bad” - from the inaugural issue of the Trans Asia Photography Review. [more inside]
But do they have any bottlecaps?
"Places like Picher are why Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980—better known as the Superfund bill." - Wired Magazine on the most toxic town in America, Picher, OK , and the people who still live there
The Island
The Island by Peter Watts
(previously), winner of this years Hugo Award for Best Novelette. An audio version is available over at StarShipSofa (previously), itself a Hugo recipient.
Learning Science in a video game
In a 19th century village called River City, the people are suffering from a mysterious illness. Many believe that there are bad spirits in the air or water causing the disease. Those suffering are shunned, but the plague worsens. In desperation, they turn to a group of experts in the new "Germ Theory": 21st century middle school science students. [Quicktime movie] [more inside]
Tree Climbing Snake Robot
Mr. and Mrs. Davis
Betty Mabry better known as Betty Davis was the muse of her husband Miles, who she introduced to the influences of Jimmy Hendrix, Sly Stone, James Brown and Carlos Santana among others.
However she should more righteously be better known as the Queen of Funk with some of the hardest, driving, rawest sound ever then heard in 1973. (The Music is after the fold) [more inside]
However she should more righteously be better known as the Queen of Funk with some of the hardest, driving, rawest sound ever then heard in 1973. (The Music is after the fold) [more inside]
The geek stranglehold on cinema
Psychedelic Information Theory
Psychedelic Information Theory: Shamanism in the Age of Reason, readable online, is an analysis of the physical mechanisms of hallucination, shamanic ritual, and expanded states of consciousness. By presenting these methods in physical terms, Psychedelic Information Theory offers a rational and objective model for shamanic transformation and therapy in modern clinical practice. [more inside]
The centre will not hold?
The Economist ponders the future of the internet.
"And with a flip of the switch I can turn her off if she starts to nag me!"
Only in Japan, Real Men Go to a Hotel With Virtual Girlfriends: Dating-Simulation Game a Last Resort For Honeymoon Town and Its Lonely Guests. "Some devoted fans will go so far as to pay twice the rate—most hotels in Japan charge per guest not per room—to indulge the fantasy that they are not there alone. A night's stay, at most, can cost $500 though many rooms are cheaper.
In Atami, the Love Plus+ fans—mostly men in their twenties and thirties—stand out. Unlike the deeply tanned beach crowd wearing very little, they are often pasty and overdressed for the heat in heavy jeans and button-down shirts." [more inside]
Blooper reel pweez
Young Caucasian Jackie Chan wannabes jumping around like they can't afford skateboards. Their multiple compound fractures and lifelong disabilities and pain conditions (not pictured) are your two minutes of reasonable amusement. [СЛЙТ]
The Power of Music
Charity game "Chime" launched for PC, featuring guest vocals by GLaDOS
While controversy erupts again over the corrupting influence of video games, some developers are working on projects it is very hard to get angry about. Chime, an XBox game to be released for PC tomorrow, is one such project. [more inside]
Visualizing data: scientific sculptural weaving
Nathalie Miebach translates scientific data related to meteorology and ecology into woven sculptures and musical scores. She discusses her work in an interview with the Peabody Essex Museum. (via Mira y Calla)
We've come full circle people
PediaPress has long allowed logged in users of Wikipedia to create printed-on-demand books of one or more Wikipedia articles, but now Wikipedia has integrated into their interface the ability to make a book. No, not like that. Of course, the value of printing an ever-changing information resource can be debated, and some think it's a waste of time. Previously. [more inside]
Nukes, schmukes
How Business Can Lead us Beyond Fossil Fuels: a Techonomy presentation by Amory Lovins, followed by comments from Chevron CTO John McDonald and audience questions.
Old? You think you're old?
The oldest living things in the world are over 2000 years old. Some are hundreds of thousands of years old and still going. Rachel Sussman explains.
Another Development in the Immigration Debate
Meet Mutt and Jeff, the Trenchcoat Robbers...
A simple tale of the biggest bank heist in U.S. history.
Sunday Surreality
Surreal Web Art: Duncan Alexander's hypnotic Freakin' Cats and Cursor Vortex, Nicholas O'Brien's tranquil GrassWalk, Thorne Brandt's Animated Gif of the Day July 2010, Pixelfucks' Untitled #4, A. Bill Miller's grid-portraits, Michael Manning's epilepsy-inducing information technology is the gateway to the infinite and much more at the 2010 Virtual Art Fair
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