May 6, 2013
Before the world knew his name
In 1965 guitar legend Jimi Hendrix was doing the chitlin circuit with R&B acts, where he honed some of the guitar artistry as well as the showman skills that would soon set the world on fire. Here's a taste of that pre-rock star Jimi, as a member of the Buddy and Stacy revue, doing the Junior Walker classic Shotgun. If you want more pre-rock star Jimi, well, there's... [more inside]
Experience: I was swallowed by a hippo
Don't mess with a satirist with a pen at the ready...
The Onion's Twitter feed was apparently hacked by Syrian Electronic Army, the group that recently hacked the White House Twitter account and sent the stock market on a short-lived dive.
The Onion has responded to the hack, darkly.
Uh oh, are we in trouble?
DC Blacklists the Outhouse. DC has been upset at the comics news site for running satirical articles about them (as well as other publishers), and has informed them that they are revoking access to their creators for interviews, according to Christian "Bluestreak" Hoffer. [more inside]
Math and parenting
Division of labor in child care: A game-theoretic approach The analysis shows that it is difficult to achieve the equilibrium of equal sharing of child care, even when this is the preference of the parents. This leads to a discussion of alterations and meta-strategies for couples who want to share care equally. Gender differences between parents are also modeled, including the impact these have on outcomes and equilibria.Full text PDF
CX!
Last February, the cyclocross world championships came to Louisville, Kentucky - the first time it had been held outside Europe. [more inside]
North Country Dreamland
Utilizing video locations including Isle Royale National Park, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Headlands Intl Dark Sky Park, North Country Trail, Hiawatha National Forest, Marquette Michigan, Copper Harbor and Eagle Harbor MI, Shawn Malone has created North Country Dreams, a time lapse video that explains why some of us will never leave Michigan.
(I encourage you to watch this in full screen and HD)
The Definitive History of the Colors of Crayola
This is a 40 part feature that steps through Crayola’s color history from 1903 up to the current day 2011.
A cursed superhero never sells as well as a guardian superhero
The same kind of numbers analysis that has reshaped areas like politics and online marketing is increasingly being used by the entertainment industry. "A chain-smoking former statistics professor named Vinny Bruzzese – "the reigning mad scientist of Hollywood", in the words of one studio customer – has started to aggressively pitch a service he calls "script new evaluation". For as much as $US20,000 per script, Bruzzese and a team of analysts compare the story structure and genre of a draft script with those of released movies, looking for clues to box-office success."
His research has lead to conclusions like
"If it's a targeting demon, you are likely to have much higher opening-weekend sales than if it's summoned. So get rid of that ouija board scene."
and "Bowling scenes tend to pop up in films that fizzle"
He's dead, Jim.
To update followers of the Prenda Law porn-trolling copyright lawyers saga, Judge Wright has just issued a catastrophic order [.pdf] imposing sanctions and making criminal referrals, entertainingly littered with Star Trek references.
Papercraft birds (and a hatching dinosaur) by Johan Scherft
Johan Scherft is a Dutch artist who makes realistic papercraft birds (and a hatching Deinonychus), which he makes from printed temples that he then paints with watercolor or gouache. He shares some of his papercraft creations as free, colored templates to download and print, and others he offers for sale. He has also made video tutorials for assembly of some models.
Gone but returned
Three missing women found a decade later blocks from where they disappeared: Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight disappeared on the near west side of Cleveland in 2003, 2004 and 2000. All were found alive, with children, in the home of a 52-year old man within minutes of the places they disappeared. [more inside]
Oh the humanity.
On May 6th, 1937 the famous German Airship, The Hindenburg, was engulfed in flames as it docked in New York City. Newly available archival footage shows the great zeppelin at its end and on more successful voyages.
IT'S JUNE 1972. YOU ARE BOB WOODWARD, INTREPID REPORTER.
YOU ARE 29 YEARS OLD, AND IT'S YOUR FIRST YEAR ON THE JOB.
ACCEPT WATERGATE ASSIGNMENT? [ YES / NO ]
From Ritual to Performance
Great artists rise early, stay up late, float themselves in coffee, flirt with amphetamines, drink carefully, eat if necessary, take morning walks followed by afternoon naps, procrastinate, amuse themselves, avoid their friends, hold down jobs, indulge their oddities, and work — work like draft horses. [more inside]
Still waiting on the jetpacks, but...
With the Terrafugia Transition flying car (or drivable plane) getting closer to production (though there are doubters), the company has released plans for the TF-X, which looks like the flying car of our dreams. The plans call for a hybrid electric fully-automated transforming car that can take-off and land vertically, travel 200 mph, and not require a pilots license. Flying cars are apparently hot again, with crowdfunded efforts, a mysterious Silicon Valley startup Zee.Aero, the UK's AugustWestland, and the AirMule getting into the game; all while Terrafugia is also developing a "flying humvee" for the military. Of course, we have seen this all before, including one of the first flying cars, which was built around a Ford Pinto and killed its inventors.
RIP Creative Suite
After 10 years Adobe is retiring it's Creative Suite, and boxed versions of Photoshop, InDesign and other CS programs along with it. it will be replaced by the subscription only Creative Cloud.
"You can't have a fight because you don't have two sides."
In his retirement speech, Donald Kagan, eminent historian of Ancient Greece, sounds the alarm about the decline of American democracy and Western Civilization. The Academy is fragmented, overrun by political correctness, and lacks focus. American society is plagued with similar problems, and Americans are no longer self-sufficient enough.
Is his lament simply an echo of declinism?
Coverflip
Coverflip is a one day Twitter project created by author Maureen Johnson. There are only three rules: 1. Take a well-known book. (It’s up to you to define well-known.) 2. Imagine that book was written by an author of the OPPOSITE GENDER. 3. Now, COVERFLIP! Make the new cover and put it online. Tweet or Tumbl it with the tag #coverflip.
"If people were more concerned, I wouldn’t have to be there."
Her encampment is 'an old patio umbrella draped in a white plastic sheet secured with binder clips. It is flanked by two large boards with messages in capital letters: BAN ALL NUCLEAR WEAPONS OR HAVE A NICE DOOMSDAY and LIVE BY THE BOMB, DIE BY THE BOMB. This rudimentary shelter has been positioned outside the White House for more than three decades. It is a monument itself now, widely considered the longest-running act of political protest in the United States, and this woman, Concepcion Picciotto — Connie, as she’s known to many — is its longest-running caretaker.' [more inside]
Kitty Work It!
The music video for "I Don't Wanna Dance" by Alex Gaudino ft. Taboo takes the form of an aerobics class for kitty cats.
Vintage Safety
Fifty years of workplace safety posters courtesy of Geheugenvannederland.nl (Memory of the Netherlands).
Just Like Any Other Kitty
"[...] in the next scene, she is wearing a pair of crocheted leggings, which allow her deformed limbs to slide smoothly across the wood floor. She moves easily, as though she doesn't know there's anything wrong with her legs at all."
Badger badger badgering the Cameron government!
Dr. Brian May, CBE, PhD FRAS, recently retired Chancellor of LJMU, winner of The RPS' Saxby Award for achievements in the field of stereoscopic photography, distinguished author, lecturer, film producer, entrepreneur, and occasional musician has been quite busy lately trying to prevent a sweeping cull of the British badger population. His efforts have been surprisingly successful. The overwhelming response to his government petition led to a parliamentary debate, where MPs overwhelmingly rejected the cull in a non-binding vote. The government has attempted to press forward with the cull, but has faced significant resistance from scientists, naturalists, and concerned citizens that have led to implementation delays. The movement recently got the attention of Weebl, who has recorded a rough cut of a new song with Brian May called "Save the Badger Badger Badger" which was recently used in a flash mob protest. The final version will include additional vocals by Brian Blessed.
One thousand tubes of lipstick FOR SCIENCE
Do you wear makeup? Are you a giant nerd? If so, you should check out Brightest Bulb in the Box: Beauty for Critical Minds. Robyn examines makeup and beauty care products with a scientific eye, performing comparison tests and debunking pseudoscientific bullshit to the delight of anyone who wants to know what they're buying. [more inside]
Viewing is mandatory, citizen!
O_O
Only for Children: [via: DIY Photography]" The ANAR Foundation is a Spanish organization which helps kids in risk. They Operate a unique phone number - 116 111 - where minors at risk can get aid and consultation.
Anar did a campaign advertizing the number, but were facing a problem where they did not want potential aggressors to see that a kid was even looking at the ad.
The solution was using Lenticular printing [wiki] on street signs." [more inside]
Using Game Theory to Teach Game Theory
Putting big numbers in perspective
Old print ads
jittery UK government reveals itself before potential claims of former v
Mau Mau to Midnapore: Confronting the brutality of empire There are certainly some Britons, including academics, journalists and human rights lawyers, who are aware of the realities of colonialism. However, in the society as a whole and in the media in the UK there are still far too many who seem strangely reluctant, even after so many decades after the end of the British empire, to come to terms with the true nature of colonialism or learn from the perspective of former subjects who had rebelled against it.
No one's ever on your side, Betty.
In Defense of Betty. "I’ve always thought that the whole point is that Betty is a victim of her time and circumstances, of the very narrow, constricted gender roles (remember the ill-fitting dress she’s holding up against herself as she contemplates being a political wife) that she and women like her were forced — expected, if that seems less loaded — to assume. Those roles were deforming, and, sure enough, they’ve deformed Betty." [more inside]
Do you know what happens when people start to learn?
Data Science of the Facebook World
Stephen Wolfram used the data provided by Facebook users to do some demographic analysis.
Crazy Horse Was A Mystic.
Crazy Horse’s actual quote translates into English follows: “To day is a good day to die for all the things of my life are present." [more inside]
Moving Offal Brings Recycling On
The voyage of the MOBRO. "It was 1987. A small town businessman had what seemed like a promising idea, to transport New York trash by barge to a landfill in North Carolina, where it would be converted into methane to heat homes."
"Some days we traveled backwards to travel forwards."
Two months breaking ice (in under five minutes) is a very cool narrated time-lapse of the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer moving through the Antarctic Ross Sea, following and tracking a phytoplankton bloom. [more inside]
My personal opinion is the best type of Science Fiction involves science
Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison & Gene Wolfe discussing Science Fiction in 1982 (slyt). And oh yeah, one of the moderators is Studs Terkel
How to feed 10,000 people on 3 urban acres
Will Allen's Growing Power operates urban farms. His first Milwaukee farm is three urban acres where he grows enough food to feed 10,000 people. An interview by the Splendid Table's Lynne Rossetto Kasper in support of his new book. Previously.
Holocaust Denial Goes Hollywood
Until a few weeks ago, David Stein was known mainly as a maker of documentaries on the Holocaust for schools and as the man behind Republican Party Animals, a social club for conservatives in film and television. Then it was revealed that Stein is actually David Cole, who achieved notoriety in the 1990s for arguing that the Holocaust wasn't as horrible as it is claimed to have been. Moreover, while Stein's documentaries have reflected the consensus position on the Holocaust, he says he still has doubts: "The best guess is yes, there were gas chambers. But there is still a lot of murkiness about the camps." His former associates, meanwhile, are distancing themselves from him as fast as possible: "The reason we were all so pissed at him," according to one of them, "is it plays into every horrible stereotype about the right."
Looking back at Hunter S. Thompson's classic Kentucky Derby story
Director's cut: "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved": An annotated look back at one of Hunter S. Thompson's greatest hits. [more inside]
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