November 8, 2007
Bleep bleep bloop bloop.
Video game soundtrack, sans video game. Cicada gives us two albums Technology Crisis, and Technology Crisis 2. Not that this is that unique, even Mefi's are getting into the act.
24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot
It's 1994, there's a bomb in Los Angeles, and THERE'S NO TIME! Will Jack Bauer save the world with AOL 3.0?
roadtripping america, mapping out feminism
GIRLdrive: "On October 15, we set out on a road trip. We are interviewing and photographing young women across the country, asking them what they think and feel about feminism."
How to say "I love you"
How to say "I love you" "(42) Inappropriately, to a coworker who is already sleeping with another coworker. (43) With a heart filled with lies. (44) With a she puppet and a you puppet. (45) As she leaves for Spain with your much better-looking brother. (46) At Thanksgiving, to her twin sister, by accident."
In the Shadow of Lal Masjid
The China Factor in Pakistani Politics "Pakistan’s alliance with China, which supports Islamabad’s confrontation with India and underpins its hopes for economic growth in its populous heartland, is probably a lot more important to Islamabad than the dangerous, destabilizing, and thankless task of pursuing Islamic extremists on its remote and impoverished frontiers at Washington’s behest."
Recaptcha
Every day tens of millions of "captchas" are solved by humans, using undreds of thousands of man-hours of work. But what if those person hours could be used for something beneficial? They can be. (you may have noticed recaptcha being used on some notable sites)
Teen saves life, with help from Mythbusters.
Paging asavage, congratulations are in order. Thanks to quick thinking and an episode of Mythbusters, 14-year-old Julian Shaw saves a man from death by train. "[As the train roared past] the noise pierced your ears and there was a suction that pulled us in… I'd seen that on MythBusters, so I stayed right back and pulled Mark back towards me."
A New Afrikan Republic in the New World
Next-to-last Titanic Survivor dead.
Moon Shot (on HD)
Guns 'n Bergman
Vintage Vertiginous Vaudevillian
Ben Dova the Drunk Daredevil, contortionist, Hindenburg survivor and one of the 10 most unfortunately named people on the internets.
RIP Chad Varah.
The Rev Dr Chad Varah, founder of the samaritans (which also runs befrienders worldwide), has died. [more inside]
Batá drum and dance of the Yoruba, Nigeria, West Africa
Learn about the powerful, complex Batá drumming and dance tradition of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Check these 6-to-8 year old Batá drummers laying down the groove. Then theres the Egungun action going on over in Ibadan, to the accompaniment of Batá drums, of course. [more inside]
Our last control point is being captured.
"Team Fortress 2 is the most beautiful game ever made." The unique rendering style (wmv, YT, or pdf). Near universal acclaim (near). How to improve your game. A two part interview with developers. What your class could say about you. And don't forget your sprays. Ha! (Previously.)
Throw the tourist from the train.
Throw the tourist from the train. Ejected from a train for refusing to stop taking pictures from the train. Well, for not stopping anyway; the refusing part is unclear. The nation is now secure.
Fat
No, no mothra. No tuck in penis dance. Just regular kinda cool looking moths.
An Identification Guide of Japanese Moths Compiled by Everyone. Well, not everyone, but a lot of people and a lot of moths.
Lyrical juggler Thomas Arthur
Panties for Peace
Small 'Panty' Demonstration Held in Rangoon. It seems the Panties for Peace movement (discussed previously) is gaining momentum. And now you too can throw panties at junta leader General Than Shwe at Ready Aim Vote. [Via Lanna Action for Burma.]
Strange Bedfellows
Pat Robertson Endorses Giuliani for President Back in mid-2001, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani was busy committing adultery, lurching into his divorce and third marriage and rooming with a gay couple he promised to marry as soon as the law allowed, who among us would have imagined that one day he would be endorsed for president by Pat Robertson? Truly, Sept. 11 changed everything. Odd though this may be, it raises the question of what an endorsement actually means.
School Shootings - not just a U.S. problem
At least eight people are dead in a shooting at a school in Finland. Apparently some are blaming Youtube, as the killer posted some videos of himself shortly before the attack.
How to get inside the mind of kids who do these terrible things? Are they just "bad seeds" or are these killers created?
Clearly marginalization and alienation play a role. Many would-be -killers seem to share these fantasies of grandiose mass spectacles , many psychologists think are inspired by their immersion in violent video games and movies. There's still controversy over the idea that watching violent TV/video games/etc can make kids more aggressive, and if that translates to violent behavior.
I'm curious how often nationalist and racist rhetoric is also often deployed by these kids and wonder why that is:
The Finland shooter, Auvinen called himself a "social Darwinist" who would "eliminate all who I see unfit".
Ernst Haeckel's illustrations
Microorganisms as eye candy: A gallery of illustrations from the marvelous Artforms in Nature, Kunstformen der Natur 1899-1904 by Ernst Haeckel, an eminent, prolific and very controversial German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist, who named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms and coined many terms in biology, including phylum, phylogeny and ecology. [more inside]
You are probably in your mid-20s, early 30s.
Malcolm Gladwell takes a look at the effectiveness of criminal profiling.
Maz Jobrani Iranian Stand Up Comedian, Humor Unites US
Maz Jobrani Iranian Stand Up Comedian...no, we are Persian like the cat, meow, and we are the other white people. Great standup that pokes at all the stereotypes with a smart, fun, warm and spot on approach. You Tube performances...Previously tangent on MeFi by turbanhead
Polo? Gucci? Google? I'm going to be a millionaire!
Do you know a young 20 something hipster who is too busy spending their parents money on beer, poorly fitting clothes and blogging about the newest band reinventing music from 20 years ago? Is their waiter/bartending existence causing you to worry about their long term investment habits? Do they need some fisical responsbility in their young lives? Well you're in luck my friend! Thrasher Funds now offers the first mutual fund targeted to hipsters. With holdings in Apple, Gucci, H&M, and Louis Vuitton, this fund not only has it's pulse on your young hipster's generation, it also dresses the way they want! Get in on it today! via
Evil Bee Animation
Evil Bee (embedded QT) is a gorgeous & interesting animated short about a worker bee in a factory who rebels; bonus points for awesome soundtrack by menomena.
Surveillance state in progress
In 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T for cooperating with an NSA wiretapping program that created a "black room" in their San Fransisco office, which operated hardware that captured the entire stream of data travelling through AT&T's system (allegedly 2.5 gigabits of data/second). The details of this arrangement were revealed by Mark Klein, a 22-year employee with AT&T who stumbled across documents detailing the program in 2004. The lawsuit, which alleges that AT&T illegally cooperated with the NSA's domestic spying program, is facing a major hurdle in the Senate right now as Senators have reached a tentative agreement to give the company legal immunity from actions relating to their cooperation. This story previously on MeFi. [more inside]
"Outside of being a clown, I'm very low-key."
Though there are many who bemoan the current state of Detroit, one man is trying to make a difference- Smiley, the Hip Hop Clown. Artist DeMarcus Hughes assumes the persona of Smiley, producing his own brand of hip-hop and taking his message whereever it can help. Want to see him in action? Here's Smiley's MySpace page, with videos and music.
The Lady Birds Can't Resist
The male Superb Bird of Paradise has an unusual courtship routine. First he sings. Then he hops. Finally, he busts out a spectacular finishing move, which the female finds attractive and/or totally scary. [more inside]
Buzzword
Buzzword is a fancy new online word processor by Adobe. (flash based)
fear stinks
A mouse has been genetically engineered to no longer fear cats.
Surely this
is now only a matter of time. [more inside]
Internally displaced people tell their life stories in their own words
IDP Voices is a site that lets people who are refugess within their
own countries tell their life stories – in their own words. "The narratives in these pages are valuable complements to the official information on conflicts which governments and international organisations offer. These stories deal with the real lives of real people. The narrators share their personal experiences, their sensations, hopes and dreams, and the impact for them of being forced from their homes. The first IDP Voices oral testimonies project took place in Colombia. IDP Voices from further countries will be added as the projects progress." The life stories are in English and Spanish and can either be read or listened to. You can download the whole book of life stories here.
Propaganda: Orwell comes to America
There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America is a conference hosted by The New York Public Library on the past and present of propaganda. Dozens of speakers and hours of enlightening video. Panelists include luminary academics, journalists and George Soros, who along with the Open Society Institute, is sponsoring the event. (Previously)
Priests don't have Sh!t on China!
Straight from China, new for this Christmas shopping season! Tire of hearing noisy children? Wish there was a way to quite them down, but chloroforming isn't your style? Buy them AQUA DOTS! (Bindeez Beans if Australian) The only (hopefully) play toy that comes covered in GHB. Another fine product from Outsourcing! [more inside]
...I have difficulty seeing over my pelvis.
Virtual hip replacement and others (flash). Ostensibly aimed at school-agers, but I learned a few things. I also winced once or twice.
Don't
An 18th Century Debate About Intelligent Design
Sex Ratio Theory, Ancient and Modern - An 18th Century Debate about Intelligent Design and the Development of Models in Evolutionary Biology [pdf file]. The design argument for the existence of God took a probabilistic turn in the 17th and 18th centuries. Earlier versions, such as Thomas Aquinas’ 5th way, usually embraced the premise that goal-directed systems (things that “act for an end” or have a function) must have been created by an intelligent designer. This idea – which we might express by the slogan “no design without a designer” – survived into the 17th and 18th centuries, and it is with us still in the writings of many creationists. The new version of the argument, inspired by the emerging mathematical theory of probability, removed the premise of necessity. It begins with the thought that goal-directed systems might have arisen by intelligent design or by chance; the problem is to discern which hypothesis is more plausible. From Professor Elliott Sober.
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