April 22, 2011
This is daddy. His head is shaped like a decayed turnip.
Shunned House for Sale
For Sale: One Shunned House. The house at 135 Benefit Street, Providence RI is for sale. This house was the inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft's short story The Shunned House. Even without the Lovecraft connection, the house has an eerie history. It can be yours for $925,000.
Papers and More on Data Mining
It has applications in health care, pharmaceuticals, facial recognition, economics/related areas, and of course, much much more. Previously, MeFi discussed controversial homeland security applications, and the nexus between social networking and mobile devices that further contributes to the pool. With plenty to dig into, let's talk Data Mining in more detail. [more inside]
we can't be happy underground
Did you get my good side?
50 pictures of Basset Hounds running. If you aren't satisfied with just pictures, well there's videos of Basset Hounds running in slow motion (1,2) and videos of them shaking in slow motion (1,2).
The wreck of the web.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. Amazon.com's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) crashed yesterday, taking with it popular sites like Reddit, Quora, Foursquare, Hootsuite, Act.ly, and about 70 other sites. Amazon.com was affected, as was some functionality of the New York Times. Amazon Web Service's Health Dashboard indicates that there are still major operating disturbances. [more inside]
How These Two White Guys Wound Up In This Kendrick Perkins Family Photo
Deadspin tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Kendrick Perkins of the Oklahoma City Thunder and two fans.
Atlantropa: Dam in the Straits of Gibraltar and Flood Africa
The Canal des Deux Mers connected the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, the Zuiderzee Works reclaimed part of shallow inlet of the North Sea to expand the Netherlands, so why not try taming the Mediterranean and irrigating Africa? Part ocean reclamation, part power generation (the "white coal" of falling water), Atlantropa wasn't simply the stuff of science fiction. First called Panropa, it was the long-term goal of a German architect and engineer named Herman Sörgel, a dream that lasted until his death in 1952, and the Atlantropa Institute continued on another 8 years. [more inside]
"Brilliant, audacious, and exuberant Hahn-Bin mesmerized the sold-out crowd."
"Hahn-Bin, a 22-year-old protégé of the eminent violinist Itzhak Perlman ... holds Mozart and Warhol in equal esteem ... [he's] a rare bridge between Carnegie Hall, where he [made] his mainstage debut on March 13, and the Boom Boom Room [at The Standard Hotel], where he performed at a party hosted by V Magazine during New York Fashion Week."* [more inside]
'Bizness'
Remember interesting music videos? [SLYT] The musical group tUnE-yArDs, fronted by Merrill Garbus, has been linked before, but I just stumbled across this video. For her song 'Bizness' from her recently released [on 4AD] album. Think Peter Gabriel in his ethnomusical-borrowing days, with a splash of Deep Forest -- and the video's worth watching, too. Not your usual girl with a ukelele.
Climategate
Climategate: What Really Happened? How climate science became the target of "the best-funded, best-organized smear campaign by the wealthiest industry that the Earth has ever known." [Via]
Asian ceiling?
High-achieving Asian-American students are being shut out of top schools around the country. Is this what diversity looks like now? "'There’s a form of redlining or holding Asian-American students to higher standards than any other group.' Although Asian-Americans represent less than 5 percent of the US population (and slightly more than 5 percent in Massachusetts), they make up as much as 20 percent of students at many highly selective private research universities – the kind of schools that make it into top 50 national rankings. But, critics charge, Asian-American students would constitute an even larger share if many weren’t being filtered out during the admissions process." [more inside]
Genius is being used a little loosely here
How Genius Works. The Atlantic asks artists like T.C. Boyle, Tim Burton, Paul Simon, and Frank Gehry (and others who aren't so well-known) to describe their creative process.
"MY MINIONS HAVE FAILED ME. YOUR DOOM AWAITS IN MY CHAMBER!"
Friday Flash Fun: Realm of the Mad God is a co-op MMORPG shooter with cute 8-bit graphics. Death is permanent, play addictive. [more inside]
Going to the extreme with coupon clipping
Was J'aime Kirlew, self-proclaimed "Diva for Coupons" and participant on TLC's Extreme Couponing shown committing fraud? Many couponers (discussion begins with second comment on the page) think she's done it before going on TLC (youtube links in thread may be broken). Bud Miller from the The Coupon Information Corporation says "This whole thing is kind of sad.". Fraud may be reduced with implementation of the GS1 databar (wikipedia) which contains more data than the traditional UPC code.
Abstract Expressionism lives!
Custom Robot Toys in Afghanistan
PFC Rupert Valero is a U.S. soldier stationed in Afghanistan who makes amazing custom toy robots out of recycled materials.
Vaccination-autism debate turns nasty
Seth Mnookin courageously fought heroin addiction and re-launched himself as a well-regarded writer. His new book The Panic Virus raised several questions about the science behind claims that vaccinations contribute to autism, and that the consequences of doing so resulted in the reemergence of formerly eradicated diseases such as measles and whooping cough. In that light, he recently criticized a new PBS Series which, despite strong scientific evidence to the contrary, again suggests the vaccination-autism connection. This led to a classless attack on Mnookin's former struggles with addiction. His pained response.
From the beginning to the end
Symmetry.
fight for your right
Beastie Boys 25 years later are still fighting for their right. Starring: Jack Black, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, Danny McBride, Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Jason Schwartzman, Adam Scott, Rainn Wilson, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny, Alicia Silverstone, Martin Starr, Ted Danson and Rashida Jones.
Here's a link to the original. This may be NSFW.
I recommend the miniphants.
Flash Fun Friday! Elephant Quest: the best elephants-with-lasers Castlevaniaesque RPG you will play all day. [more inside]
Iraq Vet Who Advocated For Others Kills Himself
Iraq Vet Who Advocated For Others Kills Himself "Handsome and friendly, Clay Hunt so epitomized a vibrant Iraq veteran that he was chosen for a public service announcement reminding veterans that they aren't alone." - Clay Hunt died March 31 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The article states he had been dealing with "survivors guilt" and frustrated by a difficult disability claim process from wounds received in Iraq.
Coverhithe
Coverhithe : While you wait for his next book, the Guardian has a new short story from China Mieville.
Yale's 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)
Yale's 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across ten policy categories covering both environmental public health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy goals.
Have you ever printed a boarding pass?
Alaska man prints poster-sized boarding pass. No extra TSA pat downs, no enraged passengers.
The battle of Stokes Croft
"By this point there was devastation everywhere. All junctions were blocked by overturned glass bottle dumpsters and makeshift neighbourhood roadblocks blocks."
Last night, a huge clash between protestors and the police kicked off in the colourful Stokes Croft area of Bristol. The cause? A recently-opened Tesco Express supermarket.
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