January 19, 2011
Wake up wormple!
The aquarium is nice.
I'm not afraid, because if the terrorists fly over Camden they'll think they have done it already.
Camden is the poster child of postindustrial decay. It stands as a warning of what huge pockets of the United States could turn into as we cement into place a permanent underclass of the unemployed.
Camden is one of the most dangerous places in the United States and now the troubled city is facing another crisis as half the police force is set to be laid off.
Are You Tired of the Unexpected?
RUBBER (Not THAT one) is the story of Robert, an inanimate tire that has been abandoned in the desert, and suddenly and inexplicably comes to life. As Robert roams the bleak landscape, he discovers that he possesses terrifying telepathic powers that give him the ability to destroy anything he wishes without having to move. At first content to prey on small desert creatures and various discarded objects, his attention soon turns to humans, especially a beautiful and mysterious woman who crosses his path. [more inside]
"Best..Menorah...Ever"
"I was daydreaming in class about who knows what, when I thought of my fire poofer project...I tried to think of ways I could apply a fireball shooter to things in ways that would be pretty awesome. I thought of using a microcontroller to sync the fire to the beat of music - now that would be pretty cool, and the patterns would always be different, so it wouldn't get as boring as fast. Then I thought of the game Guitar Hero."
High school student Chris Marion hacks a guitar controller and builds FireHero. Facemelting ensues.
Human Planet
Human Planet the new nature series from the BBC: Thousands of fishermen empty lake in minutes :: Girls Judge Boys in Desert Sex Factor :: 3,000 Arctic Reindeer Face a Mighty River Crossing :: Sea Bed Hunting On One Breath :: Pa-aling divers :: Ken Bradshaw's Big Wave Hold Down :: Paddle Surfer Rides Monster Wave
American President Top 40!
The top US presidents: First poll of UK experts. The full list plus ranks for Vision, Domestic Leadership, Foreign Policy Leadership, Moral Authority and Historical Legacy.
China internet stats - more than 450m users
According to official Chinese stats, make of them what you will, there are now 457 million internet users in China. They are said to include 450m who have broadband, and 303m who use mobile internet. 304m play online games, 140m use online banking, and 63m microblog. These users are estimated to spend an average of 18 hours a week online. As a benchmark, the current US population is estimated at 312m.
But you must not show the moustache
He carves the Beast Roast
An axegrinding tradition: the Buffalo Beast has posted its annual list of the 50 Most Loathsome People in America (previously)
Doomed bill HR 2 passes the House
HR 2, officially the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act", has passed in the U.S. House of Representatives with a vote of 245 to 189. 3 Democrats (Reps. Boren (OK), McIntyre (NC), and Ross (AR)) joined all 242 Republicans voting Aye. The bill will not be brought for a vote in the Senate, nor would it escape veto by President Obama. [more inside]
Roar, Lion, Roar / For Alma Mater on the Hudson shore!*
Super Mario Brothers X
Super Mario Brothers X The greatest fan game tribute to Super Mario of all time! Gameplay video here.
hat tip to tigsource!
My First Doctor
The BBC and toy company Character Options will be putting a new Doctor Who themed series of construction toys on store shelves around the world in the next few months. Just when you thought Matt Smith and Karen Gillan couldn't get any cuter...
Mash-up Squared
What do you get when you mashup Girl Talk with Girl Talk? Mashed Up Mashup (or Mashup Squared). From artist Evan Roth. [more inside]
Freeman Dyson's Global Warming Heresy
The Danger of Cosmic Genius. Why is Freeman Dyson now considered "perhaps our most prominent global-warming skeptic?" Previously
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation
In 1982, three 12-year-old friends began work on Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. The shot-for-shot recreation was finished in 1989, and received its world premiere in 2003 (prev.). Watch the first ten minutes. More scenes via the BBC review and the Today Show. [more inside]
Craig got his million.
Craig Rowin asked the internet for a million dollars, and apparently the internet is going to deliver. Now, the caveat is that the check for a million dollars will be handed to Craig during an improv show, so is it just a publicity stunt? Time will tell. Previously.
AstroNut
Older and Poorer
The Global Aging Preparedness Index The GAP Index is a measure of how countries are prepared to deal with their elderly/retired - this is a recent report put together by the Center for Strategic International Studies and looks at how things stood in 2007 and looks ahead to 2040.
Hint: you don't want to be old now in South Korea or old in 2040 in Spain.
via cfr.org
Fording the River
Crash covers
A collection of covers from different editions of Crash. Includes some commentary by JG Ballard.
The Man With the Golden Ear
English Translations of Homer
A huge number of English translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, many available in full text. I would just add to the list Chapman's Iliad available in full-text on Google Books and Logue's War Music available in preview.
Marriage Commissioners must wed same-sex couples
Right before the 10th anniversary of the first same-sex marriage in Canada, Saskatchewan's highest court has ruled that a proposed law allowing provincial marriage commissioners to refuse to wed same-sex couples is unconstitutional.
Thecourt.ca gives its thoughts on the decision and the social context surrounding it.
Three War Photographers, and a Suitcase
Images of War. Three friends: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour (known as Chim) set out to document wartime Spain. Each photographer found their own vision, relationship with war, and eventual wartime deaths (Taro near Madrid in 1937; Capa, the first photojournalist killed in Indochina 1954, and Seymour to sniper fire in Egypt in 1956). Capa and Taro’s work from the Civil War assumed lost during the Nazi Invasion of Paris appeared in a Mexican Suitcase in 2007 bringing with it a mysterious tale (Previous Metas).
For extra galleries click [more inside]
Diesel Rat Rod Burnout
Every time this guy peels out, God kills a baby panda. So offensive it becomes kinda glorious. (slyt, SFW)
Twitter-controlled everything!
You thought a Zerg rush was bad before..
The 2010 AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment conference hosted a Starcraft AI Tournament last October, pitting AI algorithms against each other. The winner was the Berkeley Overmind agent, and one member has written a fascinating article describing how their AI evolved, how it went up against one of the top SC players in Europe, and eventually won the competition. [more inside]
Browser as Graphing Calculator
An open source, html5 based graphing and computation engine does in your browser what is usually outsourced to the cloud. It graphs, solves, simplifies, integrates and differentiates expressions, and needs no internet connection once you load the page in your browser (or save it on your computer). RTFM.
Gay parents find the south more welcoming
Gay parents find the south more welcoming. The south gets a bad rep. Organizations like Southerners On New Ground are doing incredible grassroots work that is changing that.
Culture of Poverty Makes a Comeback
Indeed, the comeback of the culture of poverty, albeit in new rhetorical guise, signifies a reversion to the status quo ante: to the discourses and concomitant policy agenda that existed before the black protest movement forced the nation to confront its collective guilt and responsibility for two centuries of slavery and a century of Jim Crow—racism that pervaded all major institutions of our society, North and South. Such momentous issues are brushed away as a new generation of sociologists delves into deliberately myopic examinations of a small sphere where culture makes some measurable difference—to prove that “culture matters.”Stephen Steinberg on culture and poverty
No more Alien prequel
Alien prequel morphs into Prometheus [warning: annoying interstitial ad], the new Ridley Scott sci-fi film.
Via the awesome Strange Shapes Alien series blog.
These were educated people saying, "Your son made a bad choice" or "He's the problem."
GLBT rights advocate Carolyn Wagner has passed away. In 1996, Carolyn's 16 year old son, William, was assaulted in his school in Fayetteville, Arkansas, following years of anti-gay harassment. School administrators rebuffed his complaints, telling him to man-up. His mother, Carolyn, filed a complaint with the Office For Civil Rights that the Fayetteville Arkansas School District was in violation of their son's Title lX rights and succeeded in convincing the OCR that GLBT students are covered by Title lX, and won. [more inside]
History's most famous Horse appointer's tomb found
Minding his own business looting a tomb near Lake Nemi, south of Rome, an Italian man, now in custody, has led police to what they believe is the resting place of one of the most famous emperors in history, Caligula. [more inside]
Bryan Lewis Saunders
'On March 30th 1995, I started doing at least one Self-Portrait everyday for the rest of my life. At present I have over 7,900 of them. [...] After experiencing drastic changes in my environment, I looked for other experiences that might profoundly affect my perception of the self. So I devised another experiment where everyday I took a different drug and drew myself under the influence.'
If It Were My Home
If It Were My Home lets you see in what ways your life might be different if you lived in another country.
junk culture
"Pop music is old. Whether you consider it started with jazz, swing or rock and roll in the 50s, it's old. There is nowhere new go to. Seriously! There are new bands who have their own voice and style but in terms of the type of music they're making....it's just recombinations of other historical styles. There is nowhere new to go. There just isn't, I'm sorry to say, and it's not because I'm old." Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark's Andy McCluskey on pop music, not getting any respect, and reforming the band.
They've got a new album out; the title track (and forthcoming single) "History of Modern" is a jaunty ode to the inevitable death of everyone & everything. [more inside]
But, but, is not Johnny 5 alive?
Sherry Turkle of MIT once fell in love with a robot. And was promptly repulsed by her own reaction. Via the always great Arts and Letters.
I've Seen the Lizard Man.
reMIND is a webcomic that updates on Mondays.
Voyager I reaches edge of solar wind
The Voyager I spacecraft, 33 years into its mission, "has outrun the solar wind" and is exiting the solar system. This nice article explains what this means, and has a bunch of wonderful details and interviews with the original mission scientists. [more inside]
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