October 20, 2011
Still Waters Run Deep
The upcoming sandbox action game Saints Row: The Third has been getting attention for being a blast of anarchy and absurdity in a mostly staid gaming landscape. However, indie game developer and blogger Anna Anthropy argues that Saints Row 2 is has some exciting ideas about gender and gender presentation and allows for a much broader range of characters than the usual gruff action hero clones. A live action Saints Row 3 ad suggests it too will have this customization.
Creative. The most important least important thing.
AdWeek presents vintage photographs from advertising days past, from the MadMen era and earlier. See photos of copywriters, creative directors, secretaries and account directors from Grey, BBDO, McCann, and other agencies frequently name dropped in Mad Men (many of whom are still around today).
It's Decorative Gourd Season
Because it's Fall, f*ckfaces. Realizing that McSweeney's is disfavored on MeFi, and that many will have seen this before, I offer this nonetheless. Because it's that time of the year, and goddamit, it's funny.
Norman Corwin, 1910-2011, poet laureate of radio of the 1930s and 1940s
"In radio there was never a term equivalent to boob tube or couch potato." — Norman Corwin, writer, director and producer in the golden age of radio, has died at the age of 101. [more inside]
Complete recordings of the Beethoven piano sonatas
Artur Schnabel was the first pianist to record all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. He would not be the last. [more inside]
One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure
Treshr makes it easy to give things away, or, the other way around, find free stuff. Everyone has stuff they don’t need anymore. Maybe your child outgrew their old clothes, or you moved to a new place and have old furniture to get rid of. Whatever it is you’re looking for, someone somewhere is trying to throw it away. Treshr is basically a search engine for Freecycle, a nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. [via] [more inside]
What are you doing this Halloween?
Australians actually love Indians
Is the alcohol message all wrong?
Is That Cupcake Vegan or Just Butter- and Egg-Free?
Vegan bakeries are churning out increasingly tasty treats. Due to the negative connotations associated with veganism, many of these bakeries are forced to keep their vegan identities on the down low.
Thanks, Friedrich
How to fail at digital publishing
Warhammer maps galore
The Super Huge, Detailed Map of the Warhammer Old World is exactly what it claims to be. 29952 by 22528 pixels in size, it covers all of the Old World area of the Warhammer Fantasy setting. The map was made by Gitzman, who has made lots of other maps of the Warhammer Fantasy world, hosts a WFRPG podcast and has a bunch of other resources to help game masters and players in that setting. He had help from Andreas Blicher, whose site has even more maps of the Old World, and Alfred Nunez jr., who has even more maps, articles and resources for people interested in the Warhammer Fantasy universe.
There's No "We" in Fan
Here's the deal: If you don't play for, or you are not an employee of, the team in question, "we" is not the pronoun you're looking for. "They" is the word you want.Why "We" is the most overused term in sports.
(That's 9% Income Tax, 9% Sales Tax, 9% Corporate VAT)
Effect of Herman Cain's proposed "9-9-9" tax reform plan on average household tax liability. Cain is leading the field of GOP Presidential candidates in polls of Iowa, South Carolina and Florida. Previously 1 2
Jonit: have the beat tell the story
Here's a little musical journey. Let's start with Sherlock's Daughter, a dream-pop group of Brooklyn-based Aussies. From this, extract the keyboardist and electronics wizard Jonti Danilewitz, creating: D'Animals, then simplified as Danimals. It started as a solo outing, but turned into a group, who produced an odd single (which spun off an animated music video under the name Djanimals). The group also won the chance to work with Mark Ronson and a bunch of well-known musicians, producing a single with a video. Spin out a bit further, and Jonti is on his own (again), releasing a mixtape "album" from his private collection, and most recently signing with Stones Throw Records, where he has finally released his solo debut album (streaming online). Bonus tangents inside. [more inside]
Machines of Paper and Wood
Building a Computer 1: Numerals - recently my kids have been asking me about how computers work. I like to give in-depth answers to such questions, so we set out on a quest to understand how they work... Follow-up parts 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15.
It took braaaaaaains.
Throwing that NPR weight around
NPR doesn't like affiliate reporters participating in OWS. Lisa Simeone, host of World of Opera and Soundprints, which you may have heard on your local NPR station, had been speaking to the press at Occupy DC. NPR is calling her a "spokeswoman for Occupy DC" and is taking this very seriously. Simeone has been fired from Soundprints, with World of Opera still up in the air.
IT IS A BIG DEAL. IT IS A VERY, VERY BIG DEAL.
...IN THE MIDNIGHT LINE THE OTHER NIGHT THERE WERE ABOUT 90 GUYS ALL STANDING AROUND READY TO BUY. AMONG THEM, A FEW RANDOM GIRLS INTERSPERSED WHO RIGHTLY LOVED THE LAST GAME AND ARE NOW GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH A REALLY, REALLY STRANGE TONE. OH SURE, CHANCES ARE THEY’RE USED TO MOST OF THE SEXISM IN VIDEO GAMES, BUT THIS IS A SPECIAL KIND OF ORNAMENTAL. THIS IS STEALTH SEXISM. SOMETHING FAR MORE INSIDIOUS THAN THE NAKED PANDERING OF DUKE NUKEM.Gender roles among contemporary comics characters has been scrutiized in the wake of DC Comics' rebooting of its product line (previously), as well as in its prior days of stuffing damsels inside refrigerators. But the latest writeup on the Male Gaze's role in superheroics has emerged from the irradiated brow of...The Hulk. And not Feminist Hulk, nor Drunk Hulk but...well, the one who analyses movies.
NASA's new ride
NASA is designing a spiffy new rocket, the Space Launch System, which will lob people and cargo to the moon, an asteroid and eventually Mars. [more inside]
There isn't one cabal. There's a 147 of them.
Muammar Gaddafi killed in gun battle.
Muammar Gaddafi killed in gun battle. With multiple news sources now confirming, and Reuters now re-stating Al Arabiya's claims that the body is in Misrata, and with news that his hometown of Sirte has finally fallen, it appears that this phase of the revolution may be drawing to a close.
"Not if anything to say about it I have."
Speak like Yoda, did you? May have we. [HuffPo] "New research published in the the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the "proto-human languages" of 50,000 years ago resembled the speaking patterns of a certain wise, green Star Wars character."
It used to mean a bundle of Mongolians
Is it ever OK to use words like 'mong' or 'spaz'*? Ricky Gervais has inspired controversy by use of the word many feel is a slur against disabled people, prompting reactions from his peers and bloggers. He argues that words change their meaning over time. [more inside]
The science of baseball's magical necklaces
Flula does not understand idioms
German DJ Flula Borg does not understand why you would shoot fish in a barrel, does not understand the logic of rock, paper, scissors and definitely does not want to shoot the shit. [more inside]
« Previous day | Next day »