April 4, 2013
Let them eat two dollars a day.
The Implications of Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite (previously) has been hailed as brilliant by many but others, even while enjoying it, have questioned the way the game deploys violence and whether this limits the audience that may otherwise have enjoyed the fascinating narrative put forth by the game.
While not directly implicating the game's violence others have suggested that Bioshock Infinite might be the last of a dying breed (the Triple A, big budget, narrative game) due to the lack luster returns of such fare in the face of cheap, accessible indie and mobile games.
Is forgiveness overrated?
"At one time, knowing that some actions are beneath the valley of the forgivable—the Holocaust, murder, rape, animal cruelty—gave our existence a little structure." In which fashiony-type Simon Doonan rails thoughtfully and rather humorously against our culture's insistence on forgiveness for everything.
Playing With Food
Malaysian artist-architect "Red" Hong Yi creates evocative scenes and playful characters with all-edible materials. She's creating art with a different meal every day until April 7th and posting them on her Instagram site. Examples of Hong's previous work include a coffee-stain portrait of Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou and one of Aung San Suu Kyi using dyed flowers.
MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILHOUSSSSE - BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART
Bartkira is a collaborative effort of several cartoonists to adapt the manga Akira in to the world of The Simpsons. Here are a few panels from artist Cameron Stewart.
I said Goddamn!!!
Gorgeous Portraits of Movie Characters & Classic Shots by Massimo Carnevale [slimgur]
Computers replace grad students
A new software program grades essay answers automatically. While not the first to do so, the program released by EdX is expected to gain more traction as it will be used to give instant feedback for the non-profit's free online courses offered by top universities. Critics have already found ways to game the system.
Carmine Infantino Comic Book Artist RIP
Comic book legend Carmine Infantino has died at the age of 87. Beginning his career in the early 1940's, Infantino created or co-created stalwart DC characters such The Flash, Batgirl, Black Canary, and Deadman. He also served as editorial director at DC, and added artists and writers like Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Denny O'Neill and Bernie Wrightson to the company's roster.
The dark side of the moon
When it first surfaced in 2005, it was hailed as 'the most important Galileo find in more than a century'. Then, in June 2012, news broke on the Ex Libris mailing list that the unique 'proof copy' of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius containing his original drawings of the Moon was in fact a highly sophisticated forgery. The full story is still unclear, but the finger of suspicion points at Marino Massimo de Caro, who in his brief reign as director of the Girolamini Library in Naples removed thousands of rare books in what has been described as a 'premeditated, organised and brutal' sacking of the library. Meanwhile, experts are still marvelling at the quality of the forgery: "We’ve seen missing pages replaced in facsimile, but no one dreamed that an entire book could be forged, something that is now more easily possible because of modern technology."
Abuela, did you ever figure out how to stay in love?
I have found the spoken word poetry of Denice Frohman. I bring her to you. She's from NYC and works in Philadelphia.
The first performance I stumbled on was Dear Straight People from her preliminary performance at Women of the World Poetry Slam 2013. Weapons, also from this year's Women of the World. She won the championship. This is the finals. The editing is terrible, but she comes on at 7:16. And the other ladies are also awesome. [more inside]
Time Spent With Cats is Never Wasted
"When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not passing time with me rather than I with her?" Russian photographer
Andy Prokh has captured adorable photos of his daughter Catherine who grew up with their gray British Shorthair cat.
Home Movie of Walt Disney Playing with a Model Train in 1948
Ward Kimball's home movie footage of Walt Disney playing with a backyard scale model railroad in 1948.
You don't realize it, but we're at dinner right now.
Meetup and beat up
Seriously, KRS-ONE and Rockapella in the same half-hour.
Having already taken on the dreaded Temple Run, Jon Bois turns his nostalgic criticism to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and the nearly-impossible Africa Map.
Just keep swimming
Ellen DeGeneres announces the making of a sequel to 2003's Finding Nemo. The movie, titled Finding Dory, is scheduled for release on Thanksgiving 2015.
Sympathy for the Cabbie
Boston taxi cab drivers, often cheated, work in a world where risk and reward are a mismatch. [more inside]
Tax-haven-gate
ICIJ has 2.5 million files from over 120,000 offshore legal entities covering 30 years of emails and financial records from from 10 offshore tax havens.. [more inside]
The Llama Stares Back
Is the "New Atheism" movement Islamophobic?
Glenn Greenwald thinks so. Noted atheist Sam Harris recently made some inflammatory comments about Islam and Muslims in his twitter feed. This is not a new development. Is this a defining characteristic of New Atheism?
The Caged Bird Sang
In 1957, famed studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, along with percussionist Al Bello, recorded Miss Calypso, featuring a young singer named Maya Angelou. [more inside]
Tolstoy, the Circassians, and Lincoln
"But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest general and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know something about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock and as sweet as the fragrance of roses. The angels appeared to his mother and predicted that the son whom she would conceive would become the greatest the stars had ever seen. He was so great that he even forgave the crimes of his greatest enemies and shook brotherly hands with those who had plotted against his life. His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived..." [more inside]
...with numbers like these — why would women want to work in games?
"The next time someone tells me that men and women get paid equally for their talents in the game industry, I wanted something to link to them." [via]
AppleSoft BASIC in JavaScript
AppleSoft BASIC in JavaScript. If you ever fiddled with AppleSoft BASIC back in the day, get ready for some serious nostalgia.
"Rule 1: Truth and Falsity Do Not Matter"
Frequently dismissed as trivial or unimportant because untrue, rumors are a potent in the information war that characterizes contemporary conflicts, and they participate in significant ways in the struggle for the consent of the governed. As narrative forms, rumors are suitable to a wide range of political expression, from citizens, insurgents, and governments alike. The authors make a compelling argument for understanding rumors in these contexts as "narrative IEDs," low-cost, low-tech weapons that can successfully counter elaborate and expansive government initiatives of outreach campaigns or strategic communication efforts.Narrative Landmines - The Explosive Effects of Rumors in Syria and Insurgencies Around the World [more inside]
“I don't paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.”
After being locked away for decades, Frida Kahlo's dresses are now on display at her home-turned-museum, La Casa Azul, in Mexico City. Las apariencias engañan: los vestidos de Frida Kahlo ("Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo") features more than 300 dresses -- compete with paint stains and lingering cigarette smells -- as well as shoes, jewelry, and other accessories. The collection is a testament to her unique and influential style, so often seen in her self-portraits; the corsets, leg immobilizers and prostheses reveal the pain she suffered throughout her life. [more inside]
In mathematics we trust.
Shark Tooth Swords
Badass Shark Teeth Weapons Hint at Shadow Diversity Josh Drew and colleagues have published a report in PLOS ONE wherein he shows that the people of the Gilbert Islands make really cool weapons that can tell us about the shark biodiversity the used to exist. Original paper here
The dance of urban life goes on
The adventures of Wonderdick, Toronto's beloved urbanist blogger as he explores the miracles of North America's most exciting and largest metropolitian landscape (outside the USA or Mexico), now available at Cartoon Machine. Also available, the hilarious hijinks of Pair Bond, a twentysomething couple caught in the grip of a dying relationship, and the Time Professor, sending his young assistant on a murder spree through history to save the future, or so he says. All from the febrile brain of Mike Winters, who occassionally also does more serious comics about the grim struggle in in 1942 between von Paulus 6th Army and the courageous Russian defenders of his beloved hometown, Edmonton.
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