February 18, 2010
The most gorgeous Jules Verne books you can't buy
Gorgeous new covers for Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and From the Earth to the Moon by design student Jim Tierney.
whine & wah-wah
pups & order. MLYT. Various dogs sing along with the opening theme of television show Law & Order. [more inside]
Who's a top-ranking kitty? YOU ARE!
What Would Jesus Drink?
The moving finger writes
The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on. From the Globe and Mail website:
"John Babcock, Canada’s last known First World War veteran, has died, the Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday.
Mr. Babcock was 109.
In a statement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is deeply saddened to learn of Mr. Babcock’s death.
He said that because Mr. Babcock was Canada’s last living link to the First World War, it marks the end of an era.
Mr. Babcock joined the military at the age of 16, but because of his age he wasn’t allowed on the frontlines."
I could link to bazillions of relevancies but really, so can you. It's all over Canadian news websites. But perhaps just this.
Gone west. Rest in Peace, sir.
Lest We Forget.
3D scans of archaeological sites made with lasers
CyArk is a non-profit which makes three-dimensional scans of archaeological sites with lasers in effort to digitally preserve them. It currently has 27 projects, including Chichén Itzá, Angkor Wat, Anasazi Pueblos in Mesa Verde, Thebes, Rapa Nui and the Royal Tombs at Kasubi. There's quite a lot of material about Cyark online, including profiles Wired Science, a lecture by founder Ben Kacyra at Google as well as an article in Archaeology and an article by two CyArk employees in Professional Surveyor describing how they work.
Sättysfaction
More Wilfred Sätty than you had before. The artist was posted about here previously about a decade ago, but there was a very limited amount of his work available at the time. Ephemera Assemblyman has, predictably, found quite a lot since then. His psychedelic collages are well worth a look.
Photoshop Cookies
Generative Music Visualization
Clavilux 2000 - Interactive instrument for generative music visualization. The music visualization consists of a digital piano with 88 keys and midi output, a computer running a vvvv patch and a vertical projection above the keyboard. How it works. [more inside]
http://5z8.info/top-ten-vietnam-massacres_k9q4_dogporn
"I Want This Goddamn Thing Repaired!"
Babies with laser eyes.
Casanova's "Histoire de ma vie"
Remembering the pleasures I enjoyed, I renew them, and I laugh at the pains which I have endured and which I no longer feel. Of Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt ‘s Histoire de ma vie, Kenneth Rexroth wrote: Purity, simplicity, definition, impact — these qualities of Homer are those of Casanova too. … He has equals but no superiors in the art of direct factual narrative. ... Time and its ruining passage color all the book. His sense of his own imminent death lurks in the dark background of every brilliantly lit lusty and bawdy tableau. After an unusually colorful history, the manuscript has been donated to France's National Library. [more inside]
Anonymous Buzzkill
A worrisome set of posts from Princeton University's 'Freedom to Tinker" Blog:
In many situations, it may be far easier to unmask apparently anonymous online speakers than they, I, or many others in the policy community have appreciated. Today, I'll tell a story that helps explain what I mean. Second post: what BoingBoing knows about John Doe. Third, and most concerning post: The traceability of an online anonymous comment. Related post: a well researched review of the privacy concerns around the roll-out of, and push-back against, Google Buzz.
In many situations, it may be far easier to unmask apparently anonymous online speakers than they, I, or many others in the policy community have appreciated. Today, I'll tell a story that helps explain what I mean. Second post: what BoingBoing knows about John Doe. Third, and most concerning post: The traceability of an online anonymous comment. Related post: a well researched review of the privacy concerns around the roll-out of, and push-back against, Google Buzz.
At least they kept it under 20
It started up once more following Canada's record-breaking 18-0 win over Slovakia -- that is, the debate over the validity of women's hockey as an Olympic event. Despite a riveting Canada-U.S. rivalry in the sport, there remains a wide gap between these two powers and the rest of the world. This all comes in the wake of the IOC's decision to delist baseball and softball as Olympic sports. [more inside]
CereProc: The Voice of the Future
Miss those knee-slapper Bushisms? The same technology that will give cancer-stricken Roger Ebert back his voice can be used to generate the voice of Dubya through the magic of Bush-o-matic.
Sleep problems?
Sleep problems? There are a slew of new products out there that purport to help people improve the quality of their sleep by tracking things like brainwaves and movement. Thomas Goetz (who seems to have written the book on these types of things), offers a glimpse into a handful of the more well known offerings.
I don't want to spoil the movie, but I also don't want you to have to see the movie, so here is the ending.
In 2008, Gabe Delahaye, senior editor of Videogum (previously), began the Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time. From A.I. to Zardoz, over 70 films have so far been surveyed, including Crash, Caligula (nsfw), Kangaroo Jack, Gigli, The Notebook, and Closer. [more inside]
Manly cupcakes for manly men
Our objective is simple. We're men. Men who like cupcakes. Not the frilly pink-frosted sprinkles-and-unicorns kind of cupcakes. We make manly cupcakes. For manly men. [more inside]
Tramps, Loafers and Unemployables
Past solutions for The Vagrancy Problem focused on labour houses and farm colonies to strip the highways of "the homeless and confirmed idlers."[pdf] But times have changed and society has progressed. [more inside]
Innovating to zero
Talking About Energy at TED "Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world's energy future, describing the need for 'miracles' to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he's backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050." Others, however, reckon no breakthroughs are needed.
Single-engine plane crash in Austin, Texas
This morning, in Austin, Texas, a Piper Cherokee single-engine plane [was] crashed into an office building partially occupied by the IRS. It appears to be the work of an individual, but the story keeps getting weirder. The suspected person may have also burned his house down this morning.
Even more awkward than the Chicago Bears
The Miami-Dade County Justice Department presents the 1988 Miami-Dade County Sex Offender Registry performing "The Sex Offender Shuffle".
Student observed plagiarizing 1984
A lawsuit alleges that the Lower Merion School District has been spying on students through webcams on school issued laptops. According to the complaint no indication was giving to the parents or students that this activity was possible. The spying program was only revealed when a student was informed by the school that they had witnessed improper behavior through the webcam and saved photographic evidence.
Well, if Bill says so...
So here's a spray bottle that will replace every cleaner in your home. The Ionator.
"You charge it, fill it with tap water (and only tap water), which takes on an electric charge, transforming it into negative and positive nano-bubbles that attract dirt. Then you spray and use a clean cloth to wipe away the dirt from your floors, windows, mirrors, cars, bird cages, dishes, coffee makers, refrigerators, tile and clothes..."
Really? Sounds like a crakpot scam. Well, Bill Nye The Science Guy himself explains the science. And Bill's my man.
Political Insiders Are the New Political Outsiders
Florida's Republican US Senate hopeful and self-identified "Conservative Outsider" Mark Rubio delivered a populist speech in defense of American exceptionalism and full of hope and change at today's CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) event, while also taking the occasion to share a good chuckle over the subject of waterboarding terrorists with fellow conference attendees. Political rival, current Florida Governor Charlie Crist, offers a response in the form of a slightly different speech Rubio might have given. [more inside]
Not available in stores. For good reasons.
* Note: This post is not an endorsement of Tucker Carlson.
'You could wind up with a page only about porn, executions, and Sarah Palin every day.' A New Republic profile of no-longer-bowtied Tucker Carlson as he launches The Daily Caller, a 'right-leaning Huffington Post.'
It may be hard to remember now, staring back through the thick haze of cable-news smackdowns, but, before Carlson embarked on a TV career--and, at various points, even during that TV career--he was a great writer and reporter. His 1999 profile* of George W. Bush for Tina Brown’s short-lived Talk painted a portrait of the then-Texas governor--stubborn, profane, callow--that should have told voters everything they needed to know about why he would be such a terrible president. The piece he wrote for Esquire about traveling to Africa with Sharpton, Cornel West, and other civil rights activists was at once viciously hilarious and bracingly humane, like David Foster Wallace’s or Michael Lewis’s best reportage. At The Weekly Standard, where he worked for much of the 1990s, he was one of the rare writers less consumed with scoring political points than producing quality journalism. [more inside]
It may be hard to remember now, staring back through the thick haze of cable-news smackdowns, but, before Carlson embarked on a TV career--and, at various points, even during that TV career--he was a great writer and reporter. His 1999 profile* of George W. Bush for Tina Brown’s short-lived Talk painted a portrait of the then-Texas governor--stubborn, profane, callow--that should have told voters everything they needed to know about why he would be such a terrible president. The piece he wrote for Esquire about traveling to Africa with Sharpton, Cornel West, and other civil rights activists was at once viciously hilarious and bracingly humane, like David Foster Wallace’s or Michael Lewis’s best reportage. At The Weekly Standard, where he worked for much of the 1990s, he was one of the rare writers less consumed with scoring political points than producing quality journalism. [more inside]
With at least 210 years between them, they're keeping it young...
Paying Wade is Better Than Paying Lebron
A Common Misunderstanding of the Lyrics of Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind: The intricacies of rap lingo dissected by the intelligentsia, with predictable results. [more inside]
Abstruse winter sports - your questions answered
Music en catala
As music taste becomes increasingly homogeneous (previously) where can you turn for real independent music? The Rock Catala movement of the late 80s/early 90s was a reaction against the supression and banning of the Catalan language by Franco, but government sponsored culture can sound a bit, er, dodgy. Now a growing movement of bands spearheaded by La Brigada, Manel and Mishima are making music "En Catala" a cool place to hang out [more inside]
But they're not even from Siam!
Amanda Palmer (discussed previously) has been dropping hints about a new project called Evelyn Evelyn. After Spin let the two-headed cat out of the bag last week, she fessed up to the back story - a woe-filled tale of childlike conjoined twins with a history of abuse at the hands of a circus and the child porn industry. [more inside]
Other Pilgrims Came From A Place That Is Not England
This is a tale of a place you know from your time in America, but have never heard of. Until the 1960s, two-thirds of Chinese immigrants came from a single mid-size city in Guangdong Province in southern China. Its language is a dialect incomprehensible to anyone in the rest of China. The city tells its own stories: There is the story of China's collectivist past and relentlessly capitalist present, and there is the story of the people who left, and those who returned: its arcade market buildings, now in various states of disrepair, show the Western architectural heritage that many of the immigrants brought back with them when they returned to a place called Toishan. Photographer Alan Chin shows and tells in a New York Times essay about his ancestral home. [more inside]
the truth is.. hovering over skegness
For the first time since closing its dedicated UFO desk in December, the Ministry of Defence today released online records of all recorded UK UFO sightings between 1994 and 2000. It should be noted that the MOD itself remains sceptical at best, despite frequent recorded sightings of a mysterious blue police box.
In those years around the sea-town corner
Swansea Love Story [Flash video, six parts, occasional NSFW, shows drug use], a documentary in VBS’ Rule Britannia series, follows young heroin users in the South Wales city, looking at their family life, daily routines and some of the changes in the community around them. Interview with film-maker Andy Capper; something on director Leo Leigh; brief write-up here, slightly longer review here.
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