May 30, 2010
Heavy Baggage
Forest Facts, a site that details the struggle between the Western Canadian silviculture & reforestation industry and the Mountain Pine Beetle. [more inside]
You Sank My Humanitarian Aid!
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is attempting to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza from the sea. Those who ride on the five ships do so for their own reasons. Others are skeptical.
The Flotilla has enjoyed the nominal support of Turkey. In retaliation, Israel has taken a shot at Turkey's wallet. [more inside]
The Far-Right in the UK
A very disturbing video (12 min.) from yesterday's Guardian UK on the recent rise of the virulently anti-Muslim and extreme far-right organization, the EDL, or "English Defence League". For more about the EDL see here (BBC) and here (wiki).
My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am
Dog Surprises Officer After Being Freed From A Fence If you are feeling sad this will cheer you up, but it also may make you cry (SLYT Post).
awesome cosmos
I take massive NASA images and make them easily viewable. Milky Way. Carina. To zoom, click on the pics. All Hubble Images Sorted by Resolution. Excellent Video Narrated by Morgan Freeman [clip from Cosmic Voyage]. [more inside]
"No prints, just the blocks."
50 Worst Pageviews Ever
What do you do when you're supposed to come up with 50 separate webpages on a poorly defined topic? You come up with a mix of dangerous products (most of which were successful before their dangers were known), second-best technologies, just plain silly ideas, cool things that never caught on, uncool things that DID catch on and modern annoyances (including one that your website uses) to make "Time Magazine's 50 Worst Inventions" (link points to FULL LIST, or just refer to all the tags).
(I know, not the BEST of the web; just the MOST of the web)
(I know, not the BEST of the web; just the MOST of the web)
An Interview with Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil: That Singularity Guy In the year 2050, if Ray Kurzweil is right, nanoscopic robots will be zooming throughout our capillaries, transforming us into nonbiological humans.
Ray Answers the following questions & more:
Are we going to look like humans forever, or will we eventually just become ghosts in the machine while our physical bodies devolve into dwarves with lobster hands?
Is the ultimate goal to transcend biology and choose how long we would like to live?
One of the worst oil spills in history you've never heard of just happened.
On May 10th, 2010 ExxonMobile had an oil spill in Nigeria Delta. It is somewhere around the 16th worst oil spill in [wikipedia reported] world history, at 95,000 tonnes (696,350 barrels or 214,475,800 gallons). Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it. Oil spills are a regular occurrence in Nigeria, about 300 a year, it is estimated over the past 50 years about 1.5 million tons have been dumped in the Delta, equivalent to the Gulf War oil spill (the largest spill on record) or 50+ Exxon Valdez. [more inside]
Do: real armour, don't: real weapons
LARP - what is it? - a comprehensive guide in comicbook form.
Nothing is good, nothing is good
Top kill has failed, and oil is still pouring into the gulf
Doug Suttles, COO of BP: "This scares everybody - the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing" [more inside]
Doug Suttles, COO of BP: "This scares everybody - the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing" [more inside]
Rare: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species
"Bryn the pygmy rabbit died in 2008, marking the end of her genetic line. This subpopulation lost its sagebrush habitat as the land was developed for agriculture ... In an off-exhibit room at the Oregon Zoo, the staff was quiet, even reverent, as they brought in Bryn. She was one of two Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits left, and since both were old females, this was a solemn occasion." Rare: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species
Palettes & pigments: famous artists' use of color
Why preserve Van Gogh's palette? - an exploration of color from the actual layout of various artists' color palettes - Degas, Delacroix, Gaugin, Moreau, Renoir, Seurat, Van Gogh. (via Neatorama) [more inside]
West African Masquerade
Large-scale color photographs from 2005 to 2006 reflect the ritual adornment and spirituality of masquerade in Nigeria, Benin and Burkina Faso in West Africa. These portraits of masqueraders build on Galembo's work of the past twenty years photographing the rituals and religious culture in Nigeria, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti, as well as the homegrown custom of Halloween in the United States. West African Masquerade. [more inside]
Can I Have an Earlier Curfew?
A fresh perspective on the hijab, different from the more common apologist/sexist arguments, the carefully academic expositions, appearances in controversial news, and especially the crassly commercial.
Snap Snap Gone.
A glimpse at some of the Polaroid Collection soon to be auctioned. The Polaroid Archives Provide Snapshot of History
Renowned Polaroid users were Ansel Adams and; very differently Warhol with his mass produced point and shoot.
Ten Artists in praise of Polaroid; and a Newsweek compilation. (Related 1; 2).
Renowned Polaroid users were Ansel Adams and; very differently Warhol with his mass produced point and shoot.
Ten Artists in praise of Polaroid; and a Newsweek compilation. (Related 1; 2).
Han. We've been in touch with your stepfather.
Leigh Brackett's original script for Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was leaked online some time in the past couple of months. This isn't the more widely circulated Kasdan treatment, but apparently the original, original draft submitted to George Lucas. Brackett died of cancer shortly thereafter. Ice castles, Wampa raids, transport guilds, Lando clones, Minch the Jedi master, a disturbing lack of incest and no, that's not your father, why do you ask? [more inside]
Religion and America's Academic Scientists
Science vs. Religion: a new book, Science and Religion: What Scientists Really Think by Rice University sociologist Elaine Ecklund, discusses the results of her detailed study of 1,646 scientists at top American research universities. Among her findings: ~36% of those surveyed not only believe in God but also practice a form of closeted, often non-traditional faith. They worry about how their peers would react to learning about their religious views. Interview with the author from the Center for Inquiry's Point of Inquiry podcast. Also, here's a webcast from an author discussion forum held at Rice University on April 7th. [more inside]
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