April 10, 2010
Octo-nom
And I was left only to pick up an abandoned handkerchief and savor the perfumed shadows of these women... these southern women.
Dixie Carter, probably best known for her role as the fearlessly opinionated Southern belle Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women, has died. She was 70 years old.
Son of Arathorn and Gilraen
Born Of Hope is a 71 minute fan-made prequel film available for online viewing. In the spirit of The Hunt For Gollum (previously), it fleshes out the Lord Of The Rings universe written about by J.R.R. Tolkien and depicted in the Peter Jackson films. The story here is that of the meeting of Aragorn's parents and his birth and early childhood, many decades before the events involving Frodo and the Fellowship.
Beyond Multitasking
Metafilter Comments Already Included
Beaker's Ballad SLYT Muppet Post... one minute and 17 seconds of your time. It's been a rough day... this might help...
Bambino, rocking the guitar, Tuareg style
The other day someone asked me "who's the most deeply grooving and truly exciting electric guitar player you've heard lately?" and I said "this guy".
Touchless Automatic Wonder
Touchless Automatic Wonder is a web-based series of photographs by Lewis Koch, emphasizing found text.
Quix, the super bookmarklet
Quix is the everything-bookmarklet. Opening it creates a text box to put in commands, which range from url shorteners to whois checks. A lot of useful commands are available by default, and you can make your own using quix syntax.
The Cuilest Encyclopedia
Previously discussed search engine Cuil has a reputation for absurd search results. Now the Cuil team is building on their success with cpedia, the new automated encyclopedia. [more inside]
Welcome Sophophora melanogaster
You may not recognize the difference between Sophophora melanogaster and the common fruit fly. That's because there isn't. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature is proposing a name change from Drosophila melanogaster on scientific grounds, but it's ruffling the antennae of some scientists.
You know who else liked lightening bolts?
Hey children of the 90s! Remember back when all you had to worry about was corruption by Pokemon and Harry Potter? [DLYT?]
Don't let the cabinet door hit your ass on the way out.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has ejected cabinet minister Helena Guergis from the Tory caucus following allegations of impropriety. The RCMP is investigating claims that her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer, was conducting his private business through her office. In her resignation letter, she calls the rumours "baseless allegations and unfounded assertions." [more inside]
tertium non data
Gülnur Özdağlar makes some amazing bowls and other artwork out of a surprising material... [more inside]
Number of cats I own: 2
In February, it is good to know a plow guy
Granite State of Mind - an ode to New Hampshire by SuperSecretProject, copping the blueprint from Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind
AHHH THAT LOOKS PAINFUL
Witness the early evolution of a god, Shai-Hulud is real
Earthworms are social animals after all, and now they're communicating. Time to run for the hills!
"[The customers] come in here, by my grabbing them and touching them and screaming at them they become human beings."
Jerry's Deli (starts at 1:02) by Tom Palazzolo, 1976. A short documentary on deli owner Jerry Meyers, who's been screaming abuse at his loyal customers for 30 years. (Clipstream/Java video. Click on lower right corner of the video to enlarge. Or here's a Youtube with out-of-synch audio.) [more inside]
The cause of, and solution to, all life's problems
Copyright turns 300: An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, also known as the Statute of Anne, became law on April 10, 1710.
"Yes, it was a dump. But people are desperate to have a home anywhere."
Floods and mudslides in Rio de Janeiro have killed over 250 people, mostly in favelas, poverty-stricken shanty-towns built on hillsides above major cities. [more inside]
colours of passion
Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), considered “the greatest painter of India,” “the father of modern Indian art,” and a “prince among painters and a painter among princes.” Varma became renowned both for his portraiture and his paintings of Indian mythology. The painter's life and times played a major role in the shaping of the women he painted and controversy over the way he painted them. Varma's images have not just survived, but due to his vision of making them accessible to the common man, they have thrived over a century and influence movies, television, the world's most expensive sari, theatre and everyday calender art.
David Eagleman's afterlife - a possibilist position
So we're stuck in a position where we know too little to commit to atheism and we know too much to commit to religion. That put me somewhere in the middle. I don't prefer the term agnostic because agnosticism is often used as a weak term that means I'm not sure if the guy with the beard on the cloud exists or doesn't exist. So I call myself a possibilian. [more inside]
Beginner Cat Yodeling is a prerequisite for this course.
Pick your poison..
A 34 year old man took some pills from his roommate, thinking they were Valium®. Turns out they were diabetes medication; the patient is now comatose and having seizures because his blood sugar is so low. A grandparent called because she gave her grandson his heart medication approximately 90 minutes too soon. He is supposed to get it every 12 hours.A caller ate a sandwich with lunchmeat and only after eating it, realized the meat expired 7 months ago.A mom called because she accidentally gave her 2 year old 5ml of liquid methadone, having mistaken it for ibuprofen suspension.
All this in a day in the life of the Illinois Poison Center [more inside]
All this in a day in the life of the Illinois Poison Center [more inside]
Poland reels
The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, his wife and 130 others, including a huge proportion of the elite of Polish politics, have died in a plane crash. [more inside]
The Left must find its voice again
Poverty is an abstraction, even for the poor. But the symptoms of collective impoverishment are all about us. Broken highways, bankrupt cities, collapsing bridges, failed schools, the unemployed, the underpaid, and the uninsured: all suggest a collective failure of will. These shortcomings are so endemic that we no longer know how to talk about what is wrong, much less set about repairing it. And yet something is seriously amiss.Historian Tony Judt, dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, makes a passionate call for a new New Left. [Previously]
Pebbles from outer space
Most North Americans slept through the morning of January 13, 2010 as near-Earth object (NEO) 2010 AL30 silently moved across the night sky. Most of the time small asteroids zip past Earth harmlessly. We may not meet the goal of detecting and tracking potentially hazardous near-Earth objects . (Previously)
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