January 15, 2007
It is the public scandal that offends. To sin in secret is no sin at all. ~ Moliere
Why Are British Sex Scandals So Much Better Than America's? A recent (Feb. 2007 issue) Vanity Fair article by James Wolcott examines the Profumo Affair , the Major-Currie revelations and the recent shenanigans at the U.K.'s The Spectator magazine, as compared to Mark Foley, Clinton-Lewinsky and much more.
Donuts? Go nuts!
How to drive... like a maniac. The affable Tiff Needell illustrates how to get more out of your FWD, RWD, and AWD vehicle. And, of course, how to manage on two out of your four wheels. (youtube)
Making Fiends
Making Fiends Cartoon is an online cartoon, via BoingBoing of course, that features a good little girl named Charlotte from Vermont who tries to make friends and a bad little girl named Vendetta who makes fiends, which result in monsters. Apparently its been picked up by Nickelodeon. Features hilarious kitties and classmates.
Le Grand Content
Le Grand Content (embedded QT) is a short film inspired by the (previously mentioned) awesome charts-as-life-descriptors blog Indexed (and in fact, found via that site). More on the project here.
Seattle Has a New Sculpture Park
The Seattle Times has a nice multimedia tour of the soon to open Seattle Art Museum sculpture park. It seems to be a beautiful new installation. The park sits on an out of the way parcel North of the downtown core, but is nearby the earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way viaduct. If the viaduct is replaced with a surface boulevard and parkland, the sculpture park could end up more connected to the downtown core. Link to Flickr group with photos of the park.
Hidden, accidental and otherwise entertaining acrostics.
It's right around this moment, according to historical data and polling research, that the Kill Wesley movement got its first member.
One of Geordi's first stops is to visit his good pal Wesley Crusher, who shows off one of his science projects (a mini tractor beam,) and one of his toys, a device that lets Wesley recreate speech from anyone on the ship. Any doubt that Wesley is a complete weenie is removed when we learn that he uses this device to have Captain Picard say things like, "Welcome to the bridge, Wesley," instead of having Counselor Troi say things like, "Smack my ass, Wesley, I'm a naughty, naughty bitch."
Wil Wheaton recaps Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Wil Wheaton recaps Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Gee, it sure sounds an awful lot like I did it, doesn't it?
"Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how..."
Newsweek leaks the critical chapter of O.J.'s scrapped "If I Did It" book.
Newsweek leaks the critical chapter of O.J.'s scrapped "If I Did It" book.
When the world was powered by the black fuel.
Vive la revolution sa majesté Elizabeth!
1956. France is losing Algeria. It’s lost Indochina. Sure, it’s culturally very productive, with Nouvelle Vague cinema at its height and existential philosophy gaining ground in the world at large. But to the nation of Napoléon and to one that preferred to emphasise the Résistance in its more recent history, that wasn't enough. What to do? Why, propose political union with Britain, of course.
Beyond Viet Nam - April 4, 1967
A year to the day before his death, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered this speech at Riverside Church, New York City. In the last years of his life, King moved beyond anti-segregation activism to a broader indictment of American class structure and foreign policy. This is The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV.
International Dim Sum Directory
International Dim Sum Directory from Journeywoman, the travel website, created by their readershop. My favourite Dim Sum are those steamed meatballs, although it's interesting to note that many popular dishes such as Crispy Aromatic Duck are in fact British inventions (mixing Peking duck with Sichuan style duck).
IM IN YR HEAD MORPHIN YR FACE
The Morphable Face Model "captures the variations of 3D shape and texture that occur among human faces. It represents each face by a set of model coefficients, and generates new, natural-looking faces from any novel set of coefficients, which is useful in a wide range of applications in computer vision and computer graphics." Amazing/terrifying tech from Herr Prof. Dr. Volker Blanz.
Drug Tax Stamps
Many people want to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana and other drugs, however, few know that many U.S. states are content simply to tax. In fact, even the federal government wants a share (middle of p. 89 of the PDF), and used tax stamps in early prohibition, but only the states have recently issued issued cool stamps (be sure to click "exhibit"). The point, of course, is not to actually tax the drugs, but to penalize the drug dealers for tax evasion as well as drug sales. They have brought in some money, though. A few interesting state government pages: Conecticut, Nebraska, North Carolina and their tax return form, and Kansas.
Mental Floss: Trivia, Quizzes, Facts, and other Time Wasters
For those of us who can't get enough useless (and useful) information, there is Mental Floss. Take the "Color" movies quiz. Find out how Hornando Cortés and his 600 Spaniards subdued 5 million Aztec natives. Remember back to when President Nixon tried to fancy up the outfits worn by White House guards. Had enough? No? OK. Worried about birds exploding from eating wedding rice? Want to know what furfuraceous means? Scroll around this page to find out what Maya Angelou, Marilyn Monroe and Andrew Lloyd Webber were all affected by; what's up with green magazine covers; and why barber shops (as opposed to other places of business) spawned vocal groups? All this and much more! Now, you too can say, "I know more than my friends!"
Bird Droppings
They shut down part of Austin last week, thousands did it in Esperance, Western Australia, record numbers in England and thousands more along I-84 in Idaho. Conspiracies abound; could it be poison, or testing EM weapons, "some kid with a BB gun" or drunk on hackberries or maybe it is global warming?
Sometimes the explanation is pretty simple but mostly, scientists are scratching their heads and wondering what is causing bird to drop dead out of the skies all over the globe at an alarming rate.
Sometimes the explanation is pretty simple but mostly, scientists are scratching their heads and wondering what is causing bird to drop dead out of the skies all over the globe at an alarming rate.
Let them eat cake... fairly.
Mathematicians in the 1940s became curious about Fair Division, thus birthing an entire branch of mathematics concerned with cutting cakes. Recently, this man came up with a new method, purported to be the most fair yet. Hard to disbelieve, coming from the topologist who has mastered shoelaces, although arguably he's missing the point.
beautiful ruins
Photography of the unexpected and neglected architecture. Romain Meffre and Yves Marchand travel the world photographing "singular and surprising buildings of all domains," mostly 19th and 20th century urban and industrial architecture. Don't miss the photos of Detroit (under Projects), or more of Marchand's stunning work at his personal site.
Physician uses Google to Save Dying Family - Days from Death
Physician uses Google to Save Dying Family - Days from Certain Death.
Entire Family had Days to live from an almost 100% fatal poison.
Physician finds experimental cure in Google Scholar — but it is not approved in USA.
How do you get through theMassive FDA red tape in days, as the family is nearing the end?
Compassionate manufacturers and a persistant Doctor all came together to help - with mere days left for family already in the process of dying.
Read about the Miracles that finally occurred.
My Mom Can Kick Your Mom's Ass
Helmut Newton's "Big Nudes"[NSFW] (previously) was the object of my search when I stumbled upon The Amazon Connection, dedicated to Amazon Warrior Women in history, and present-day embodiment of the type. Oh yeah, and Pippy Longstocking kicks ass!
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