February 16, 2009
All Things Mathematical
Somewhere between 538 and xkcd, Ask Doctor Math is an advice column for practical math questions. [more inside]
Invasional Meltdown
What Invasive Species Are Trying to Tell Us. "Walking snakeheads, carnivorous snails, and the superpredator from the reef: The invasion has begun." [Via]
skybike: the machine can not raise his voice
The Skycycle (google translated) at Washuzan Highland Park (warning: noisy) in Okayama, Japan is (not) a pedal-powered roller coaster. Video, photos. Other things called a skybike: skybike, sky-bike, skybike, skybike, skybike.
UR ALL FAGZ!!
Who's best at voice-actived gaming? That's right, parrots!
The Simpsons Has A New Opening Sequence
After 20 years and 429 episodes, The Simpsons has updated its opening title sequence. Here it is. [more inside]
Shall we show him, Tim? Hai.
The male psyche's unspoken telepathy in practice in Osaka, Japan. (though it works on some women, too)
Behold, the McNuggetini
In which Georgia gives you the McNuggetini.
Brainstorm!
kittens inspired by kittens [Warning: SLYT, high-pitched child, potentially scripted non sequiturs]
Lull.
Lull : music video for Andrew Bird by Lisa Barcy. Featuring giant squid. [SLYT]
If a virus could cure cancer, would you get infected?
In the background behind attention-grabbing headlines about famous (and wannabe-famous) cancer patients, a quiet revolution may be on the brink of changing oncology. [more inside]
Playing together shouldn't hurt
The Socially Conscious Gamer is just the most recent example of growing discussions about how gamer culture and problems with silencing and pushing women out, wallowing in racist stereotypes, self-fulfilling cycles of exclusion, and why these conversations are hard, if not impossible to have.
Still, if rational discussions can be had about games dealing with slavery, perhaps there is still hope. Personally, I can't wait for escapism to be for all of us, and not about escaping FROM us.
Hero, scoundrel, or both?
Among the body of conspirators in the July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler and seize the German government, few were as ambivalent as Count Wolf Heinrich von Helldorf, head of the Berlin police. Although sympathetically (if briefly) portrayed in a recent film about the plot, von Helldorf was a definitely more enigmatic figure. [more inside]
Classic Poetry Aloud
Something about the honesty being too something, sometimes
"It did feel a little isolating at the time, having atheist parents who thought skiing was a pretentious extravagance, believed America should stay out of Vietnam and regarded Valentine's Day and Mother's Day as 'meretricious, capitalist flim-flam.' " Daniel Grafton Hill IV (better known as this guy) remembers growing up with Daniel Grafton Hill III in a progressive, over-achieving, mixed-raced family. Meanwhile, the Hill father-son saga takes an ominous turn in the next generation.
a.k.a. the "Spectrial"
Revival Revival
The Folkways Collection is a downloadable, 24-part podcast series that "explores the remarkable collection of music, spoken word, and sound recordings that make up Folkways Records (now at the Smithsonian as Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)."
The Space Game
The Space Game -- Friday U.S. Federal Holiday Flash Fun. This Flash game combines the resource gathering and management of a standard strategy game with the tower-defendiness of a tower defense game. Build a network of mining stations and solar collectors, and protect them from pirate raiders with repair stations and missile and laser turrets.
They did what with what?
Top Gear Challenges: Some highlights include Bugatti Veyron vs. Eurofighter, Range Rover vs Challenger 2, and Nissan GTR vs. Bullet train (part 2) [more inside]
100 Meters of Existence
Danish photographer Simon Høgsberg has made several updates since we last visited, including Faces of New York and The Low Fat Diaries. Digital Photography School interviews Høgsberg about his latest project We're All Gonna Die - 100 Meters of Existence.
Now with eCoffee and eDonuts
The NY Times Article Skimmer. A little more information. (still a prototype, but very nice way to browse)
Muslim Superheroes.
In an attempt (flash) to provide Muslim and Arab youth with homegrown heroes, The 99 puts out comics and builds theme parks with a twist. [more inside]
Suit filed over school shooting
One year ago this week Lawrence King an openly gay middle-schooler in Oxnard, CA was murdered by a fellow student. In the midst of discussion of the legacy of this tragedy and remembrances of Larry his parents have filed a wrongful death suit. The lawsuit names several defendants including, Casa Pacifica, a youth shelter Larry where lived at the time of his death, the Ventura Rainbow Coalition, and the school in which the shooting occurred. The lawsuit's main contention is that each of these groups are responsible for Larry's death because they "failed to urge the effeminate teen to tone down flamboyant behavior."
Get your monophthongs here
Sounds of American English details each of the consonants and vowels of American English with a real-time Flash animated articulatory diagram of each sound; video and audio of the sound spoken in context and an interactive diagram of the articulatory anatomy.
That was too close: RAF Tornado comes within 30ft of mid-air collision
That was too close. RAF Tornado comes within 30ft of mid-air collision.
"You don't know what to expect, but you know what to expect."
"Ransom kidnapping is a rare crime in America. Most cops go their entire careers without handling one. These days, most kidnappings involve a husband taking a child from an estranged wife. That's how things were in Phoenix until a few years ago." via 2blowhards.com
Scintillation
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