April 23, 2011
Microbe Wiki
I learned to program...
Packa Pappas Kappsäck
Micheal Johansson makes installation art (that doesn't suck -Ed.) from household items
Fire in the Hole: R.I.P., Hazel Dickens
Hazel Dickens, bluegrass and country singer, daughter of West Virginia, half of the singing group Hazel & Alice, and a voice for American miners, died on Friday at a hospice in Washington, D.C. She was 75. [more inside]
From Me To You
If you like the subtle and lean animated gifs of If We Don't, Remember ME (previously) you'll probably like the ones at From Me To You (via this ask metafilter question)
The shortest distance between two points is often uninteresting
Ebru Aqueous Surface Art
The Internet can be a powerful tool when it comes to collaborations between artists of all ilks. Laptop band Project Jenny, Project Jan harnessed said power when it set out to create a video for its new song, “Lucky Me,” producing a lovely, painterly video courtesy of a Turkish Ebrû artist the band had never met. Hikmet Barutçugil redefined the aspects of Ebrû with a scientific approach and managed to transfuse marbling into other disciplines, from architecture to popular crafts. [more inside]
Never has something more accurately been called a teaser trailer
Terraria is a recently announced game that is currently in closed alpha. It is similar in play style to the Internet favorite Minecraft (previously, and previously-er, and previously-er), except it operates in a 2D, sidescrolling world. Players harvest resources to craft items and structures to defend themselves against enemies. A teaser trailer is available here, and a more extensive gameplay trailer is available here. The developers are currently uploading "let's play" videos on to their youtube account: part one here, and part two here. [more inside]
This is what Bill Watterson has been up to
Cul de Sac is a daily newspaper cartoon by DC-area artist Richard Thompson (previously). In July of 2009, Thompson announced on his blog that he had been diagnosed with Parkinsons's disease. Earlier this year, friends of Thompson launched Team Cul de Sac, a fundraising project for Parkinson's research. The project has been accepting donations of artwork by cartoonists, to be published and sold in a book later this year. One recent donation to Team Cul de Sac is particularly noteworthy: a brand new painting by Bill Watterson. [more inside]
The Mark of Cain
"The Mark of Cain" is a 73 minute documentary by Alix Lambert about Russian prison tattoos and the "Thieves-in-law" who often wear the tattoos. [more inside]
Andreas Cellarius and his Harmonia Macrocosmica
Andreas Cellarius was a scholar of the 17th Century who produced one of the most famous cosmological atlases of all time, Harmonia Macrocosmica, featuring 29 beautiful plates (large, high-quality scans), illustrating various aspects of the Universe as understood by the Western science of his time. It's impossible to pick favorites among them, but here are three examples: Phases of the Moon, Sizes of the Celestial Bodies and Stars and Constellations of the Northern Sky.
May your remains one day be discovered by someone with a strong grounding in Middle Range Theory
Lewis R. Binford, one of the most influential American archaeologists of the last half-century and an early advocate of a more scientific approach to investigating ancient cultures, died on April 11 at his home in Kirksville, Mo. He was 79. [more inside]
The Sabich
The Sabich is a popular Israeli pita sandwich based on the traditional Babylonian-Jewish Shabbat morning meal. It it is usually seasoned with Amba, the mango pickle condiment of Indian Origin which the Baghdadi Jewish community of India brought to Baghdad (along with Sambusak, a variant of the Simosa). [more inside]
I had that darn cell phone just a minute ago...
Where's My Cell Phone? Can't find your cell phone? No one around to call it for you? This may help.
John Passmore Edwards
"He did more good in his time than almost any other of his contemporaries" This week marks the 100th anniversary of the death of John Passmore Edwards. Philanthropist, activist, MP, journalist, editor and proprietor, chartist and pacifist, campaigner for peace, for the abolition of capital publishment and flogging and for provision of free libraries. His autobiography. [more inside]
Powerhouse
- It was written by Raymond Scott in 1937, and first heard by the world played by the Raymond Scott Quintette on CBS Radio's Saturday Night Swing Club.
- It was first recorded in 1937 and released by Master Records. It was later re-released by Brunswick and then Columbia.
- It contains a middle section that has a greatly different tempo and style from the rest of the song, to the degree that it is sometimes considered to be two different songs.
- It was a popular tune of its time. Among Raymond Scott's admirers was Carl Stalling, music director for Warner Bros. cartoons. Stalling's appreciation for Scott lead to his music being featured frequently in Warner cartoons. Itself, it has been used in dozens of classic cartoons, especially in places depicting rapid motion or heavy machinery. Despite this, no Warner cartoon contains a complete version of the work.
- It's now so recognized from its use in cartoons that most people can probably hum portions of its middle potion, and recognize the rest, even if they don't know it's name. It's so connected with cartoons that Cartoon Network used it as a distinctive bumper tune from 1997 to 2003.
- Regardless of its iconic nature, it's still in copyright and is controlled in the US by Music Sales Corporation, and elsewhere by Warner/Chappell Music.
- That song is called "Powerhouse."
Your price is lifting mine higher—
Wibbly wobbley timey wimey samey wamey
Last year, BBC America noticed a spike in piracy of Doctor Who episodes as fans were either frustrated with the 2 week gap between UK and US premiere and/or spoilers and gossip everywhere. The solution, as demonstrated by shows like The Walking Dead, seems to be to broadcast world wide on the same day. [more inside]
“Yes, that’s what I want to do – develop visionable avatars.”
It's alive, again!
Days after Google Video announced the impending death of Google Video, prompting jscott to start archiving as many videos as the Archive team could and a subsequent Metafilter post on the best of Google Video, it turns out that Google has relented and removed the deadline. It will also be migrating the videos over to Youtube.
The Thunderclown
Fall in love with Mr. Momus. See the new videosongs from his soon to be released EP, the Thunderclown: Shangri-La :: Willow Pattern :: We Don't Have To Make Children :: I Want To Be Good :: The Teacher :: Midas :: The Thunderclown :: Produced in collaboration with John Henriksson of Tona Serenad.
We're going to need to talk about these false positives on your next performance review, boy shepherd.
The Gutsiest Gal to Ever Gather News!
Happy Easter, bunny!
Just in time for Easter, Simon's Cat meets a bunny.
Interactive toothpick sculpture of SF
Man unveils interactive toothpick sculpture of San Francisco that took 35 years to create. Mindblowing. (single vimeo link)
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