November 20, 2007
Paeykillers
Richard Paey Speaks - An interview with the paraplegic man sentenced to 25 years in prison for treating his own pain, but now out after a full pardon by the Florida Governor. [more inside]
Joe Reifer
Forensic Genealogy
Can you tell this photo was taken at 4:52pm, on either May 5th or August 10th?
Forensic Genealogy uses historical records and small clues in pictures learn as much as they can about old photographs of unknown provenance. Want to try it yourself? Check out their weekly quiz. via GAMES [more inside]
Of Beer And Chocolate
Chocolate and the Beer of the Ancients. New archaeological evidence suggests that primitive beer brewers were the first to discover the goodness of chocolate.
Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.
The printing press lives on—in Akron, Alabama, at least, where computer programmer-turned-letterpress printer Amos Kennedy uses metal type to create lots and lots of posters. [Found here.]
Neither Whores nor Submissives: Secularism, Equality, Pluralism
Ni Putes Ni Soumise (Neither Whores Nor Submissives) is a French organization started by Fadéla Amara to combat the growing misogyny in the banlieues, the housing project suburbs that ring the major cities. Her organization began to protest a rash of gang rapes, and now works on human rights issues in and around the experience of Arabs in France. Amara has joined Nicholas Sarkozy's conservative cabinet as the minister of urban policy. For some, she is a hero, for others a hypocrite, but everyone agrees that she's shaking things up. [more inside]
Zap, Crackle, and Riot
Before 1969, the city of Zap was best known as the punch line of a joke about three towns in North Dakota that sounded like Rice Krispies—Zap, Gackle, and Mott. But when student body president Charles "Chuck" Stroup at North Dakota State University needed an alternative to Fort Lauderdale while stuck in North Dakota for spring break, he enlisted the help of some student journalists at the Spectrum newspaper to promote the "Zip to Zap," an event that became the only "official" riot in the history of North Dakota. The tiny coal mining town originally looked forward to the impromptu "Zip" festival, which had so much advance buzz that the Wham-O toy company created a toy called Zip Zap in honor of the imminent event. Unfortunately, after throngs of students descended on Zap, the only two bars in town quickly ran out of beer, and the North Dakota National Guard was called into extinguish the bonfire, beer brawls, and riot that ensued. For more info about about how the "Zip to Zap" fit in context with the 1960s zeitgeist, look here, here, and here.
Dresden Codak
Dresden Codak is a webcomic about plagiarizing bears, nerds who play philosophical tabletop RPGs, your dream job, and other oddities. Also, check out the author's guest Dinosaur Comic.
“It's one minute before 12.”
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” (RealVideo) Al Bartlett, retired University of Colorado Professor of Physics, gives a stunning hour-long old-school lecture (overhead projector!) on exponential growth and its inevitable results. [more inside]
Surrealistic Lilliputian Realm
The Inner Life of an Intelligently Designed Cell? Remember The Inner Life of a Cell animation (discussed here)? Apparently the Discovery Institute (recently discussed here) is showing it in presentations with a new title and narration, and without attribution.
Vintage propaganda and more from Weirdo Video
Please enjoy vintage video propaganda:
Don't Be A Sucker
The Enemy Agent & You
Your Job in Germany
So They Tell Me and
Propaganda Techniques
[more inside]
Don't Be A Sucker
The Enemy Agent & You
Your Job in Germany
So They Tell Me and
Propaganda Techniques
[more inside]
Mule team
Footloose in America: around the world in 20 years A husband-wife team left their home in June of 2001 to circumnavigate the world by foot, and they took their mule along with them. They haven't gotten very far but it sounds like they've had lots of adventures in the past six years, as they walk from town to town doing odd jobs. [via this flickr photo/story]
To prevent homegrown terrorism, and for other purposes.
HR 1955 : The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.
While the United States must continue its vigilant efforts to combat international terrorism, it must also strengthen efforts to combat the threat posed by homegrown terrorists based and operating within the United States.
Couching portraits as comment
Sofa Portraits. Colin Pantall takes photographs, primarily of his daughter watching television.
Lush imagery, sidelong comment, surprising intimacy.
Offal Good
Offal Good is a blog dedicated to helping you get more dining experience out of your animal. Most people stop at the skeletal muscle cuts, but there's a world of tripey goodness, not to mention snouts, feet, etc. Videos, recipes, photogalleries & more.
Who writes the index?
This mind-boggling index won an award from the American Society of Indexers. Last year's winner was slightly less hard-core. As indexing blogger Seth Maislin says: "Scholarly indexing is WAY hard." And, as author Mary Beard (who indexed her own book) says, it's "Not remotely fun."
Social studies didn't prepare me for this!
People time
Radiographs: a flickr set
Radiographs : a small and terrific flickr set. After you check out an exploded hand, maybe you will want to admire a Fasciolaria filamentosa.
Tanks a lot.
Ever wanted your own personal tank? Then the Rip Saw UGV might be just what you've been looking for. [more inside]
But... is he REALLY the worst person in the world?
CBS News talks to John Fitzgerald Page. (sorry for the brief commercial first) His original callout on Gawker, with the body of the offending email read around the world. But he is more than just an angry member on Match.com: his impressive resume can be found on his site and he is a TV and film actor. [more inside]
Why He Went Nuclear.
Why He Went Nuclear. Before he was the infamous father of the "Islamic bomb," A.Q. Khan was just another midlevel scientist working at a research job in Amsterdam. Here, the story of how he betrayed his employer and set out to create a worldwide bazaar in lethal weapons.
Franco-English duets: best & worse.
A 1950s Woman's View on Women and Sex
Sex and the College Girl, by Norah Johnson A view from an educated woman in the 1950s: "Two criticisms rise above the rest: people in college are promiscuous, for one thing, and, for another, they are getting married and having children too early. These are interesting observations because they contradict each other."
A Theory of Humor | Why something is funny, why it sometimes is not, and when it crosses a line.
Theory of Humor. A scientific paper, written by Tom Veatch, describes his Theory of Humor. When is something funny? When is it not funny? When does it cross the line? Why are puns generally shitty? And the mysterious and magical powers elephant jokes have on children, revealed!
A great data set to use for practice in applying the theories presented in the paper can be found here.
Umami is so fat
Thanksgiving is, among other things, cooking stock season. Chicken and fish stock are of course wonderful, but don't forget about veal stock, the wonderful base that led to the discovery of the fifth taste, umami. [previously].
Liberty Mint Raid
Secret Service and FBI raid Liberty Mint, arguments of counterfeiting versus constitutional right to commerce ensue! I caught this on NPR this morning. It seems the US Mint doesn't like alternative currencies circulating within the US. The organization in question wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and the US mint and claims that both are the cause for the excessive inflation. [more inside]
"The package was not recorded or registered."
Oops: UK tax collection agency loses discs containing personal details of 25 million Britons in the mail.
green design
Ecoble, an environment design and living site includes some interesting stories and info: Man (Re)Builds Mexican Island Paradise on 250,000 Recycled Floating Bottles l Who Has the Oil? Geography of the World’s Most Contentious Resource l BituBlock - The Sustainable Building Block Built from Trash and Sewage [more inside]
Big Brother Is Watching You... Pack
The TSA wants you to know, dear American, that if you don't pack your bags neatly, the terrorists have already won. This busiest Thanksgiving travel week ever, why not Simplifly? [more inside]
Radiophonic Workshop - Alchemists of Sound
I roller skated
Drinking 'till you burst.
You might have thought a six month hangover was bad enough but now in 'binge-drink Britain' there's a reported rise in 'exploding bladders'... safe for work but you might want to read it with your legs crossed. Or a least spend a penny first.
Queen of Soul.
Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha. Aretha.
All love free stuff
Free Stuff for Lazy Designers. Dezignus surf the web to give you the best design source links! Icons, brushes and shapes, tutorials and books, vectors and other stuff.
The coolest dictionary known to hombre
Lingro. Enter a website in the box to make all words on the page clickable. Available for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Polish.
wish I had thought of this.....
Dickipedia. No doubt it will grow.
Let's just hope they keep it away from the Bunsen burner
In research that may one day help restore mobility to the paralyzed and amputees, Dr. Charles Higgins of the University of Arizona has created a "robo-moth": a 6-inch tall wheeled robot guided by an electrode inserted into a single neuron responsible for vision stability during flight in the hawk moth (aka the Tobacco hornworm). [more inside]
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