April 4, 2007
A CAPTCHA for Internet Access
A CAPTCHA to weed out certain potential users of the internet.
The End of the End of History
"The End of History was never linked to a specifically American model of social or political organisation... I believe that the European Union more accurately reflects what the world will look like at the end of history than the contemporary United States." Francis Fukuyama, one of the leading lights of the canonically neoconservative Project for a New American Century, jumps ship. Via.
Oooh fuuudggggge.
"Porky's was about anti-Semitism, about racism, it's not just about boys with erections," claims Clark. He then adds, pun intended, "It was a seminal film." Bob Clark, Director of two iconic 1980's films that profoundly impacted some of your childhoods (no doubt in decidedly different ways), and his 22 year-old son were in a fatal car crash on PCH this morning. This was set to be a promising year for the man who brought Ralphie and his bunny suit to the world. R.I.P.
Do not mistake their cuteness for weakness.
Grambling State's Eddie Robinson has passed away. "It was almost like a marriage... Grambling needed him. They met just at the right time, and when they met, they both grew." [popup player, be patient] Over the course of a 50-year tenure, Robinson amassed over 400 wins and sent over 200 players to the NFL. His philosophy? Develop players who are winners both on and off the field.
GSU is also known for its world famous marching band. You may recall their performance in this year's Rose Bowl Parade.
Dead Animal Art
RPG's, Fanfiction or some mutant hybrid?
Journal-Based RPG's. They range from Buffy to X-Men, and everything in between.
Some are short lived, some have gone on for years and spawned fan-communities of their very own.
This is the Livejournal RPG. Not all of these are on Livejournal, many are on LJ-clone sites, but the name has stuck.
Want to find one? There's even sites designed to advertise the games.
Want to complain about a really awful one? Or a bad player? Or a bad mod? Or a bad ANYTHING? There's a place for that too.
A note of my lack of bias - I play in one of these, but the one I'm in is not represented in this post. That would be Bad.
G-G-G-GANG SIGNS
The ten things most likely to be on The Daily Express front page
The ten things most likely to be on The Daily Express front page. This UK newspaper has gained something of a reputation of late because of their apparently monosyllabic attitude to the news and what'll appear as their front page story -- today with everything that's going in the middle east they ran with yet another story about Princess Diana. Here, Martin Belam analyzes the leaders for the past three months and examines the patterns.
Don't get fooled again
What are the greatest hoaxes in rock history? [MP3 links] They Might be Giants' John Flansburg tells John Schaefer what he knows, and Rolling Stone readers weigh in as well. Was it Mama Cass choking on a sandwich? Jack and Meg White as siblings? Paul dead (again)? Keith Richards getting his blood replaced? Or snorting his father's ashes? Oh, wait, that last one was true.
Jeff Hawkins unleashes his brain: Numenta's new AI platform
Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Palm and Handspring, has started a new company, called Numenta, to test his controversial theory of intelligence. Whether you find his theory plausible or not, his book, "On Intelligence" is fascinating. Numenta is attempting to build A.I.s using Hawkins' theory as a backbone. They've developed a software engine and a Python-based API, which they've made public (as free downloads), so that hackers can start playing. They've also released manuals, a whitepaper (pdf) and videos [1] [2]. (At about 30:18 into the first video, Hawkins demonstrates, with screenshots, the first app which uses his system.)
Turn it up!
New voice for the oldest song ever. "The Prayer of an Infertile Woman," (video embedded within article text) is a 3200 year old song that was recently reconstructed and performed by Leiden University Assyriology professor Dr. Theo J. H. Krispijn at the Chicago Oriental Institute.
long live the king!
"40 Years is not enough:" Update on Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert reports on his condition One link post to rogerebert.com article by the man himself on how he's doing.
wax that ass
History, horrors, leaders, literary figures, lots of pop stars and inevitably, the Last Supper. Don't let the international conglomerate fool you, wax museums are still weird. Case in point: beware the dangers of drugs in wax! And if you can't make it to Russia, you can always check out the Russian Imperial court, in Texas! (Oops, bye bye Czar Nicholas!)
My personal favorite of the genre is Great Blacks in Wax, and I'm not the only one who likes wax museums. The medium has inspired poetry, films and photography.
Check out the previous threads on the subject, (but alas, it's too late to buy the Country Music Wax Museum of the Stars.)
How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits
How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits: His deafness, memory problems and depression caused were not caused by a rocket attack he survived in Ramadi, but by a pre-existing personality disorder. Well, according to the Army medical staff, that is. (via)
(LOOP (FORMAT T "~%Hello Metafilter"))
Do you want to learn Lisp? The complete text of Harold Abelson's and Gerald Sussman's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (2nd ed. 1996) is online with a bunch of additional resources. There is also a complete series of lectures based on the first edition given in 1986.
The Destruction of the Pomo Tribe
The Bloody Island Massacre: "[W]e hope that the government will render such aid as will enable the citizens of the north to carry on a war of extermination until the last redskin of these tribes has been killed. Extermination is no longer a question of time - the time has arrived, the work has commenced, and let the first man that says treaty or peace be regarded as a traitor." (Wiki)
The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves
Lost Cause [WaPo, bugmenot] History museums are a repository for public memory, but also a nation's mirrors, reflecting self-image. When our views of history shift, museums that fail to change are likely to fail in general. Today's Washington Post reports on the struggle and decline of the Museum of the Confederacy, contrasting it with the American Civil War Center, nearby geographically, worlds away in philosophy.
surviving relationships with difficult people
If You Had Controlling Parents. A site providing support and resources for adults raised with unhealthy control and/or Narcissistic parenting. The eight styles of controlling parents.
Photo: Seized British sailors after release
live from the custody suite!
Got Playdar? Have you been seagulled lately? Find some great new words to insert into your work, family and friendly conversation. Have you seen that new bitcom?
mmmmm
Etch-a-laptop!
Forget ink. These days you have to tattoo your laptop. See how it's made as makezine shows how they etched a very cool bunny infused Tsunami on a powerbok, also see these made by a real ink artist, and more images of the making of the tarsier Powerbook. For atari lovers, there's the Atari laptop.
Mona Lisa in MS Paint
The Most Hated Family in America
The Most Hated Family in America (Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) The BBC spends some time with the notorious Westboro Baptist Church of Fred Phelps, et alli. (Note: Some NSFW language and tons of crazy)
Have a whale of a day
In one of the most remarkable journeys by any creature on the planet Humpback whales travelling between breeding grounds off the west coast of Central America and feeding grounds off Antarctica clocked up more than 5,000 miles on one leg of their journey as recorded by the wonderful people of Cascadia Research Collective.
I can see your house from here
The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of the UK and the Republic of Ireland. It also tells you what's unique about Beast Cliff.
« Previous day | Next day »