December 23, 2009
I *knew* Ableton was easier.
Radio from Coast to Coast to Coast
The Third Coast International Audio Festival recognizes excellence in audio documentary, and the 2009 awards have been announced. You can listen to all of the winners' work as well as a two hour broadcast of the highlights.
What we really want to discover in the near future
Decades of Future Science. In which advances of the next few decades are wishfully thought up.
Strange Bedfellows
Jane Hamsher is a former Hollywood producer who now heads the Firedoglake family of blogs. Grover Norquist is a long-time conservative activist who has had some influence in conservative politics. Together, they fight... Rahm Emanuel! [more inside]
Dubious Discoveries
Bogus! Why do fakes get made? Why do people fall for hoaxes? Greed, pride, revenge, nationalism, pranks, and gullibility mix in an archaeological setting. Archaeology Magazine examines eight classic cases, and more.
Steal This Book
"Steal These Books" is a NYT essay about the most commonly shoplifted books from bookstores. tl;dr? #1=The Virgin Suicides. [more inside]
Up, up and away.
George Steinmetz takes aerial landscape photos from lightest powered aircraft in the world, a motorized paraglider (and sometimes a helicopter, a motorized hang glider, and a hot air balloon). Some of the places he has photographed include Arabia's Empty Quarter; Africa; the Dead Sea; the Altiplano; the Salt Deserts of Iran; and China. Warning: Flash based image display. [more inside]
Still Life in Snowflakes
Christmas statues are commonplace in countries around the world. There are the usual snowmen (previously), reindeer, and other types of fauna (an update to a previous post). But the most sought-after model is of course the Fat Man. [more inside]
A Day in the Life of nytimes.com
A Day in the Life of nytimes.com Visualizations of traffic to the website of the New York Times on June 25, 2009, the day that Michael Jackson died, from the website's Research and Development team.
Stupid Pet Tricks
How to hypnotize a chicken (and for advanced hypnotizers only: the shark) (YT, annoying new age music)
The Old Believers
Riabina who come from near Augustow in NE Poland where established in 1988 are apparently the only musical group of "Old Believers." [more inside]
Know who else was a vegetarian?
Fluid dynamics and cybernetics!
Creeper World Training Sim Something a little different for those who have been watching the Tower Defense genre's gradual stagnation.
The full game is ten bucks from the makers.
Training the hacker underground
Hack This Site is a free, safe and legal training ground for hackers to test and expand their hacking skills. Realistic training missions included!
Cardboard Lamb
Crash Course in Science "Vintage electro dance-punk... harsh, throbbing, propulsive grooves and synth-noise mania. Incredible stuff! Crash Course In Science was a trio from Philadelphia that released two singles from 1979 to 1981. The latter of the two, a 12" entitled "Signals From Pier Thirteen," is one of my new favorite records. How could this music go undiscovered for so long? If it came out today, it would be all over the neon geometric hipster clubs... it seems like everyone is trying to sound like this these days, but no one can match the audacious energy of the orginals."
Holy Night
The Horror of Being an Adult is Hilarious
30 Episodes of Peep Show are now available on Hulu. Following up on bringing Spaced to Americans, Hulu now has Mitchell and Webb's sitcom about the horror of adulthood available. [more inside]
Reformat your FACE!
Blip Festival happened just this weekend in Brooklyn. Chiptune geek, but couldn’t make it? The YouTube videos are starting to appear. Here's an internet approximation of the festival. If you just want a quick overview, a prepared playlist. [via]. [more inside]
Holiday Greetings from Congresspeople and Their Families
God Rest Ye Merry Congressmen: Slate's 2009 political holiday card slide show. (With a little intro text.)
General Tso's Climate
A short piece in the Guardian from Mark Lynas: sitting in on the final climate negotiations at Copenhagen. [more inside]
The duck's penis
Carl Zimmer on the duck's incredibly long, corkscrew-shaped, ballistic penis.
My tale is rich with deep scientific significance, resplendent with surprising insights into how evolution works, far beyond the banalities of “survival of the fittest,” off in a realm of life where sexual selection and sexual conflict work like a pair sculptors drunk on absinthe, transforming biology into forms unimaginable. But this story is also accompanied with video. High-definition, slow-motion duck sex video. And I would imagine that the sight of spiral-shaped penises inflating in less than a third of second might be considered in some quarters to be not exactly safe for work. It’s certainly not appropriate for ducklings.[As Carl says, video links are possibly NSFW.] [more inside]
Menu Psychology
The $10,000 Spam That Wasn't
Best Financial Infographics of 2009
Almost 47% of US households do not have to pay taxes. 38% of college graduates take 10 years to pay back their student loans. And Canada produces more uranium than any other country. Mint's best financial infographics of 2009. Many of these were made by WallStats, creator of the well known Death and Taxes poster (previously). More of their work here.
Oh, Five of Them, Actually
The Edge, AKA David Evans, wants to build a little comppound in Malibu, on "the most prominent landform along the coast between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the Ventura County line." "In bringing together the very best environmental, architectural and design principles, the owners have sought to create homes that will both set new standards and withstand the test of time," Evans says on the website he created as part of his lobbying effort to move this project through. (Turn your sound on for the video.) [more inside]
A truth universally acknowledged, pretty much
"Many a glass of wine have we all of us drunk, I have very little doubt, hob-and-nobbing with the hospitable giver, and wondering how the deuce he paid for it . . . Nobody in fact was paid. Not the blacksmith who opened the lock; nor the glazier who mended the pane; nor the jobber who let the carriage; nor the groom who drove it; nor the butcher who provided the leg of mutton; nor the coals which roasted it; nor the cook who basted it; nor the servants who ate it; and this I am given to understand is not unfrequently the way in which people live elegantly on nothing a-year." [more inside]
Happy Hellidays to you and yours!
At this time of year it's nice to reminisce about all of the great holidays past, or if your family is anything like mine you'll be celebrating Hellidays instead.
Streamin' Criterion
The Criterion Collection has begun adding some of the finest films of its collection to Netflix's Streaming Library. Which is super awesome. [more inside]
Computer Genius
Military maps of The War on Christmas
Introducing: Introducing
If you, like so many of us, are a fan of DJ Shadow's legendary 1996 debut album Endtroducing, prepare to get chills watching this nine-piece cover the record from beginning to end. Introducing: Introducing.
London Underground's Northern Heights
An excellent short film about a branch of the London Underground that was never built.
King William' College Quiz 2009
In which city did Peregrinus bring Christmas presents to the poor bookbinder's family? Which ordinal was applied to Sarto, the village postman's son? These questions and 138 more of similar obscurity will be answered in about a month! Why not have a go yourself while you wait? How many answers can you get without your search engine friend?
ringtone
"It's simply very easy to subordinate oneself to a worldview that's supportive of one's own interests."
A reading by Wallace Shawn: "I like to be reminded of these poor people, the 'unobtrusives', and then, I like to be reminded of my lack of interest in them." [C-SPAN video player] (Previously: 1, 2) [more inside]
"Everything I cook tastes better than yo' momma's nipples."
Self-described ghetto witchdoctor superstar chef Coolio has made a series of cooking videos, starting with the Coolio Caprese Salad. So far he's up to 10 colorful videos ranging from Swashbucklin' Shrimp to Spinach Even Kids Will Eat. If you want to learn how to make Ghetallian Garlic Bread that tastes better than yo mama, this is the place to look. Despite the comments about kitchen pimps and dime bags of salt, he is serious about his love of cooking, and now has a cookbook out that is currently at #2 in Amazon's soul food category. His Strawberry Hills Banana Muffins Forever, from the chapter entitled Sweet Treats for that Sweet Ass, has won over at least one blogger and his Fresh Pickin' Raspberry Chicken and I'm Gonna Slap You With My Whisk Tomato Bisquehave also garnered good reviews. Shaka Zulu!
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