September 15, 2009
Archive Team
Catch you later.
Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides. Wired's David Kushner examines the work of two young, competitive AI researchers, and the eerie circumstances of their deaths.
Everything new is old again
Movie trailers: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1951), starring Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, and Peter Lorre; Forrest Gump (1949), starring Jimmy Stewart. From the creator of Ghostbusters (1954), with Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin. via I Watch Stuff
Near Space Photography Under $150
With the integration of cameras, GPS receivers, and more into cellphones, many people take for granted the lightweight, energy efficient technology in their pockets. MIT ties all that tech together to a weather balloon in Project Icarus, where for $150 a prepaid cellphone becomes a high-altitude near-space camera.
Wikirunner
Wikirunner is a linux/windows game based on wikipedian tag created by Doches as an entry in Mini Ludum Dare 12. (about ludum dare)
Bathtub IV
Man swept out to sea, incident caught using tilt-shift miniturazing technique: Bathtub IV [more inside]
Washed Out
Director Neil Krug takes 70's inspired washed out photos. He directed Ladytron's Tomorrow video and is releasing "Pulp Art Book", a collaboration with model Joni Harbeck using expired Polaroid film. His upcoming movie "Invisible Pyramid", equally nostalgic looking material, is about two girls "escaping the loss of a loved one in search for an answer to their ambivalence". Ernest Greene is uninvolved, but he puts out the perfect accompanying music under the moniker Washed Out. [more inside]
This Pony Does a Trick
Return My Pants! There is no "About" page, or FAQ, or even site directions. You have two choices: Lend or Borrow.
The abnormal has become the norm
Brenda Kenneally documents the effects of illegal drugs in her Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. Money Power Respect and Big Trigg. NSFW [previous comment]
Eddie Iz Running
Eddie Izzard is one of The UK’s most beloved comedians. He is not, however known for his athletic prowess. But that's all about to change, because Eddie’s just completed a run - a very, very, VERY long run. 43 Marathons in 51 days for charity. [more inside]
Helveticise your web experience
Love Helvetica and modernist typographic design? Seen the film? Now, with the power of browser userscripts, you can have the 20th-century high-modernist experience in your favourite web applications. Scripts exist to Helveticise Gmail, Twitter and Google Reader, and work with a variety of modern browsers. [more inside]
Grover, Grover, gimme your ice cream.
"What is so striking, and serves as the clearest mark of Rand’s lasting influence, is the language of moral absolutism applied by the right to these questions. Conservatives define the see-sawing of the federal tax-and-transfer system between slightly redistributive and very slightly redistributive as a culture war over capitalism, or a final battle to save the free enterprise system from the hoard of free-riders." John Chait on the debt modern conservatism owes to Ayn Rand. [more inside]
Blasphemy!
Curt Flood's suit of Baseball. In 1970, baseball's best center fielder, Curt Flood filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball and its reserve clause.
"Man has an invincible inclination to allow himself to be deceived..."
- "Matt Latimer worked as one of Dubya’s speechwriters during the president’s final twenty-two months in office. He was there to help sell the surge to a skeptical public. He was there as we pretended that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. And he was there to see a president who failed to grasp his own $700 billion bailout package—even as he was pitching it to the American public on live TV."
I mean, really! Who throws a shoe?
"After six years of humiliation, of indignity, of killing and violations of sanctity, and desecration of houses of worship, the killer comes, boasting, bragging about victory and democracy. He came to say goodbye to his victims and wanted flowers in response.
"Put simply, that was my flower to the occupier, and to all who are in league with him, whether by spreading lies or taking action, before the occupation or after."
Muntadhar al Zaidi, the journalist sentenced to three years of prison for assaulting a foreign leader after throwing his shoes at President Bush, has been released from prison after serving only nine months. [more inside]
"Put simply, that was my flower to the occupier, and to all who are in league with him, whether by spreading lies or taking action, before the occupation or after."
Muntadhar al Zaidi, the journalist sentenced to three years of prison for assaulting a foreign leader after throwing his shoes at President Bush, has been released from prison after serving only nine months. [more inside]
KFC Double Down
"God clearly did not mean for humans to eat chicken, bacon, and low-quality, gelatinous cheese at the same time." Nathan Rabin tackles KFC's Double Down combo.
Keeping Celtic languages alive on TV and the Web
Since 1980, the Celtic Media Festival has brought together people who broadcast, and now Webcast, in Celtic languages. Videoblog Gwagenn.TV provides a report (with autoplaying video) from the 2009 festival whose clips and interviews are spoken and subtitled variously in Breton, French, English, Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish, Catalan, and Basque, not all of which are actually Celtic. [more inside]
30 Mosques In 30 Days
Marc Garlasco's Downfall
"I work to expose war crimes and the Nazis were the worst war criminals of all time. But I'm now in the bizarre and painful situation of having to deny accusations that I'm a Nazi." Marc Garlasco of the Human Rights Watch catches flak for his memorabilia hobby and is now suspended with pay "pending an investigation" by the HRW. [more inside]
IANARL
Get This Rat a Lawyer! A recent target of right wing anger has been Obama administration "czars", a term used to denote appointed presidential advisers not subject to Senate approval. Opponents of "czars" were recently emboldened by the resignation of Anthony "Van" Jones, who served from March 16 to September 5, 2009 as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. An additional target of the hunt for Obama's czars is Cass Sunstein, a constitutional-law professor at Harvard University, who was confirmed Thursday as the director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. [more inside]
Where my bubble tea drinkers at?
Jen Kwok implores you to Date An Asian. (SLYT, language NSFW)
Wonder what this will do for book sales?
The 2009 Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival is now in full swing.
How about Irish farmer dating if Internet dating and speed dating are not your thing?
An "ancient" (maybe a century, max) tradition of matchmaking, traditional music and "grand craic" are also on offer.
Even comes with its own (part-time) matchmaker: Willy. Or... is this the "real" Matchmaker Willy?
I took your purse and felt a connection.
*Slap!* Sir, I demand satisfaction
Few things in history are as compelling as the duel. Refined and barbaric at the same time, this practice has had a checkered history.
The rules of dueling were codified by the Irish in 1777 in the Code Duello (summarized here), which was codified at Clonmel Summer Assizes in 1777. As evidenced by these documents, dueling was in practice prior to the Irish rules being drafted. The procedure and philosophy behind duels is illustrated in this article.
Dueling gained some traction in America in the 19th century, culminating in the famous Burr-Hamilton affair. There are many more resources to find out more here. For a list of famous duels, you can check out this list.
Lest you think men were the only ones dueling, here are a few short anecdotes of women dueling.
Reportedly, dueling is still legal in Paraguay, as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
We Have Decided Not to Die
We Have Decided Not to Die. A beautiful and surreal short film. (Approx. 11 minutes.) Interview with writer/director Daniel Askill. A modern day allegorical triptych, three figures undergo transformation through three rituals. [more inside]
Beth Rickey, 1956-2009
Beth Rickey, instrumental in thwarting the rise of neo-Nazi David Duke in Louisiana politics, died this weekend at the age of 53 in a Santa Fe motel.
Rediscover Your Place in the Galaxy
Through three giant images, the Gigagalaxy Zoom project reveals the full sky as it appears with the unaided eye from one of the darkest deserts on Earth, then zooms in on a rich region of the Milky Way to reveal three amazing, ultra-high-resolution images of the night sky that online stargazers can zoom in on and explore in an incredible level of detail.
Goodbye Gastronaut
Keith Floyd, the original Celebrity chef and the most flamboyant of gastronauts, has passed away from a heart attack at the age of 65. Floyd was known not just for enjoying a drink while he cooked, but also for making TV real. [more inside]
America Responds to Kanye West
Kanye West's VMA outburst: The A.V. Club finds people who think it's due to the devil, an NBC marketing ploy, and a metaphor for racism. [more inside]
A front pages post
Google Fast Flip: Newspaper Stand 2.0
Transmission
The cover to Joy Division's debut album Unknown Pleasures, animated. The original cover, by Peter Saville, consisted of a reversed image from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy showing radio pulses over time from CP 1919, now known as PSR B1919+21, the first pulsar to be discovered. Read the covers story here.
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