April 7, 2012
"It appears to be some sort of organic Easter egg"
Alien: The Easter Edition (YouTube, 2:55)
The mathematical modelling of popular games by Nick Berry
H _ _ _ m _ n, Y a _ _ _ e e, _ _ t t _ _ _ h i p, _ h u t _ s & L a _ _ e r _ , R _ _ k , _ _ n d y _ _ _ _ , and _ _ r t s.
I'll show you the life of the mind
Just a SLTumblr containing John Goodman's face on anime girls. Some images NSFW.
one of these guys has a convincing rap voice and the other has a convincing 'no mom i don't wanna take out the garbage' voice
Political Rap Videos, curated by SomethingAwful. (NSFW language)
Uncanny Transfiguration
Olivier DE SAGAZAN usually puts paint and clay on himself, and sometimes hardly seems human. Often monstrous, sometimes disturbing, you may find it beautiful.
"He has the Bunton strain."
Robert Caro has been working on his biographical series The Years of Lyndon Johnson for about 35 years. The long-awaited fourth volume, "The Passage of Power," is due out on May 1. It covers Johnson's vice presidency and his ascension to the presidency after John F. Kennedy's assassination. An excerpt from the book concerning the events of Nov. 22, 1963, was published in the April 2 issue of The New Yorker. This volume's predecessor, “Master of the Senate,” was published in 2002 and earned Caro a Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Caro writes in the introduction to the first book in the series, “The Path to Power”: [more inside]
Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep"
The Big Sleep is a film I have found a very intense love for. The rotating cast of shadowy crooks and deceptive dames coupled with the roller-coaster plotting makes this classic movie endlessly entertaining. Bogart and Bacall are electrifying together and the supporting cast is equally captivating. Considering it’s over 60 years old, The Big Sleep still works in a big bad way and feels fantastically modern. It’s as if the film is simply too fast and too entertaining to age. It was crafted by the hands of some of Hollywood’s finest artists at the time and oozes quality as a result. Most of all though, this movie is just pulpy, fearless, fun and really, really cool. - Pictures and Noise [more inside]
Aha! The anatomy of insight, like a rolling stone.
How do we have insights, and where does inspiration come from? Jonah Lehrer goes inside Bob Dylan's brain to find out...the "neural correlate of insight": the anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG). This small fold of tissue, located on the surface of the right hemisphere just above the ear, became unusually active in the seconds before the epiphany. [more inside]
"In years of scarcity the poor labour more, and really live better.”
One thing the historical record makes abundantly clear is that Adam Smith and his laissez-faire buddies were a bunch of closet-case statists who needed brutal government policies to whip the English peasantry into a good capitalistic workforce willing to accept wage slavery.Yasha Levine's detailed review of historian Michael Perelman's The Invention of Capitalism.
Reckless Cyclist May Face Charges for Fatal Accident
On March 29, San Francisco web entrepreneur Chris Bucchere was returning from a group cycling ride when he struck and killed a 71-year-old pedestrian while "bombing" his bicycle down Castro street and through a crowded crosswalk—at 35 MPH, according to his STRAVA app. "In a nutshell, blammo," is how Bucchere described the incident in a (since deleted) posting to the Mission Cycling Club website. While he noted a "RIVER of blood" from his victim, Bucchere ended his post with a jovial ode to his own "late helmet." As Bucchere tries to scrub his online identity, including posts about fixed-gear bikes, some cyclists are questioning whether riding a fixed-gear bike without brakes may have contributed to the accident.
"She finds her daughter burning cigarette holes in her arms...taking pills...listening to that violence-oriented punk rock music"
Kill From the Heart, taking its name from the Dicks song, is an incredibly extensive resource for international '80s hardcore punk. The site has collected a ton of information, like reviews from different zines, interviews (including the infamous Maximum Rocknroll and FU's spectacle), discographies from labels, band histories, articles about different scenes, and more. [more inside]
What Facebook sends the cops
When the cops subpoena your Facebook information, here's what Facebook sends the cops.
The Toynbee Tiles
The film Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles just won the U.S. Documentary Competition Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and so we asked puzzlemaker Eric Harshbarger to give The film transcends the tabloid possibilities of this event. I'm struck by the pathos, somewhat discomfited by the personal resonance I felt for the creator of the tiles.
Crooked Timber on David Graeber
Crooked Timber's online seminar on David Graeber's Debt: The First 5000 Years (previously, previously, previously and previously). [more inside]
Fax machines!
The world's first fax machine was patented in 1843 by Alexander Bain. He came from a remote croft in Caithness in Scotland and, for his early experiments, used cattle jaw bones for hinges and heather for springs. His fax machine was based on an electric clock, which he had also invented. (Illustrated companion) [more inside]
1st Person Mountain Biker
Ever wonder what it would be like to ride a bike down a bit of Peruvian mountain? Here’s your chance to see it for yourself. [SLYT]
Student Loans on Rise -- for Kindergarten
Student loan debt is now extending to K-12 private educations, fueled by parents who believe getting their children into the "right" primary school is essential to future success.
The DaVinci Decode
The History of a Mystery is a 1996 BBC Timewatch Documentary about Rennes-le-Château and its 19th-century priest, Bérenger Saunière. [more inside]
Gandalf would be jealous
The creation of a stunningly beautiful smoking pipe.
"Coffee comes in five descending stages: Coffee, Java, Jamoke, Joe, and Carbon Remover."
The Steampunk (Alpha Dominche): A Curious Coffee Contrapulation: "With just a few quick taps on the touch screen, the barista customizes the STEAMPUNK brewing process to optimize the flavor of each beverage. The anticipation then begins. The customer is treated to a dazzling theatrical presentation as the STEAMPUNK’s gleaming glass crucibles fill with swirling steam. The barista then places the ground coffee on the piston and plunges it into the crucible. The grinds whirl and dance as they’re agitated and aerated by the millions of tiny bubbles. At the barista’s command, the liquid coffee is pulled by vacuum through a specially designed ultrafine photo-milled metal filter, and the dark brown elixir streams gracefully into the awaiting cup." [Via] [Alpha Dominche]
SHSK'H
Yes, you read that right. A net label and audio gallery of diverse contemporary music.
There are four albums available currently, each with great merit and interest.
In particular, Jody Pou singing a selection of Anton Webern lieder is simply superb.
Download the albums free, then drop them a contribution, if, like I have, you fall in love.
Googles for you: more Jody Pou at the FMA; Composer Igor Ballereau; Solo violist Garth Knox; Composer Keneth Kirschner
The interesting story of Good African Coffee
"Trade, not aid:" the interesting story of Good African Coffee. [slnyt]
The Talk: Nonblack Version
National Review's John Derbyshire Goes Full-On Racist National Review is generally considered to be a haven for intellectual conservatives. John Derbyshire is a columnist for the magazine and a regular contributor to its much-read blog, The Corner. But even hard-core conservatives were shocked when Derbyshire penned The Talk: Nonblack Version, a set of rules white people should tell their kids about African Americans. Appearing on the website Taki's Magazine, the personal magazine of Greek "paleoconservative" Taki Theodoracopulos, the piece has garnered intense scrutiny and calls for National Review to fire it's author.
The rules are, needless to say, quite controversial: [more inside]
3-D graphs belong in Time magazine and 1st grade
Fantastic Maps
Jonathan Roberts does Fantastic Maps. Whether you're looking for tutorials for tabletop RPG mapmaking, or just want to check out the designs of a professional fantasy cartographer, the only place to go is Fantastic Maps. And if you're a GRR Martin fan, you'll soon be more familiar with Roberts' name, since he has been picked to do the cartography for the October 2012 atlas of the lands of A Song of Ice and Fire.
"No dame ever ran the Boston Marathon!"
"To cajole me through tough evening sessions like this, Arnie told and retold stories of famous Bostons. I loved listening to them--until this night when I snapped and said, "Oh, let's quit talking about the Boston Marathon and run the damn thing!"
"No woman can run the Boston Marathon," Arnie fired back.
"Why not? I'm running 10 miles a night!"
Arnie insisted the distance was too long for fragile women to run and exploded when I said that Roberta Gibb had jumped into the race and finished it the previous April." [more inside]
It's your birthday. Your Mom gives you some tube socks. What do you do?
Of course Fireman Sam votes Labour. He's an FBU brach officer
So it turns out the Doctor is not a LibDem anymore, at least if a Yougov survey of who British people think fictional characters would vote for (PDF) is to believed.
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